Thursday, October 31, 2019

Your Friday Briefing

Friday, Nov 1, 2019 | View in browser
Good morning.
We have the results of a Times/Siena College poll for the Iowa caucuses, a new home for President Trump and a new leader for the Islamic State. And it’s Friday, so there’s a new news quiz.
We’re also interested in knowing your thoughts about the Morning Briefing. Taking this short survey makes your voice heard.
By Chris Stanford
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing the results of the 232-196 vote in the House on Thursday.  Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Impeachment vote underscores polarization

The stark division in the House’s vote to endorse the impeachment investigation into President Trump made clear that the inquiry will remain highly partisan as it moves into a more public phase.
No Republicans supported the measure, and just two Democrats broke ranks to oppose it. See how every representative voted.
Our chief Washington correspondent, Carl Hulse, writes in a news analysis: “Democrats are now faced with the challenge of mounting a compelling case to the public that can cut through the political noise and generate even the barest of bipartisan consensus, knowing that the greater likelihood is that Mr. Trump will be acquitted in the Republican-led Senate.”
The Daily: Today’s episode is about the vote.
Related: A senior National Security Council aide testified on Thursday that a top diplomat had told him that U.S. military aid for Ukraine wouldn’t be released until the country committed to investigations sought by Mr. Trump.
Another angle: In the Democratic primary contest, Senator Elizabeth Warren holds a slight lead in a new Times/Siena College poll. The survey of 439 Iowa Democratic caucusgoers has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.
President Trump has changed his primary residence from New York to Florida. 

President Trump declares Florida home

The president, a lifelong New Yorker, has changed his primary residence from Manhattan to Palm Beach, Fla., according to paperwork filed in September. The first lady, Melania Trump, submitted similar documents.
In confirming the news on Thursday, Mr. Trump said that he cherished New York and its people but that, “I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state. Few have been treated worse.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s response: “Good riddance.”
White House officials declined to explain the decision, but a person close to the president said taxes were the primary reason. Florida has no state income tax or inheritance tax.
The details: The Mar-a-Lago Club, the president’s resort in Palm Beach, will be the Trumps’ permanent residence, according to court documents.

ISIS names an unknown as its leader

Days after its “caliph,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and his heir apparent were killed in Syria, the Islamic State on Thursday confirmed their deaths, announced a new leader and warned the U.S.: “Do not be happy.”
In an audio recording, the group said it was now led by Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi. That’s not a name experts knew before — but ISIS leaders often take new ones when they’re appointed or promoted.
Go deeper: After the horror of ISIS captivity, tens of thousands of Iraqis, many of them children, are caught up in a mental-health crisis unlike any in the world. Times journalists visited a program that aims to integrate licensed psychotherapy into Iraq’s health system and eventually the broader Middle East.

If you have 12 minutes, this is worth it

The lessons of ‘Little Women’

Jody Rogac for The New York Times
Louisa May Alcott’s novel has been retold and adapted for more than a century. In a new film version, the director Greta Gerwig, above, didn’t so much adapt the story as excavate it to make a larger point about the stories society tells about women and girls.
She spoke to The Times about how reading the book again in her 30s had opened a window to her younger self.
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Here’s what else is happening

Help for coal plants: The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to roll back a regulation meant to limit the leaching of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury into water supplies from coal-fired power plants.
New threat to firefighters: America’s suburban expansion into the wilderness is exposing the crews fighting wildfires to more chemicals.
Chicago teacher strike: More than 300,000 public school students will be back in class today after the end of an 11-day walkout.
Measles and “immune amnesia”: The virus is far more dangerous than most people realize, research has shown, with potentially long-lasting effects on the immune system.
Unrest in Bolivia: Allegations that the governing party rigged last month’s presidential election set off protests in which two people died and prompted calls for a new vote.
Perspective: In an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Aaron Sorkin criticizes Facebook’s practice of posting false ads from political candidates. Mr. Sorkin, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of “The Social Network,” says, “If I’d known you felt that way, I’d have had the Winklevoss twins invent Facebook.”
The New York Times
Snapshot: Above, our Opinion section spoke to a group of young Europeans about how they view the U.S., its health care system, college education costs and American optimism. Watch their responses here.
News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself.
Modern Love: To celebrate the column’s 15th anniversary, we’re revisiting essays from years gone by. Today’s is the first we ever published, a self-deprecating account of clinging to hope that an ex-girlfriend might change her mind.
Late-night comedy: “Minutes after the House voted to start the investigation, the White House denounced the process as ‘a blatantly partisan attempt to destroy the president.’ And then Democrats were like, ‘Yeah, pretty much,’” James Corden said.
What we’re reading: ProPublica’s deep dive into a case in which a mistaken identity confounded a family’s end-of-life choices. Andrew Ross Sorkin calls it “a beautifully reported and written story by my former colleague Joe Sexton and Nate Schweber, who also writes for The Times.”
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Now, a break from the news

Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Amy Elise Wilson
Cook: Pasta with cannellini beans in a buttery sauce is a satisfying way to end the week.
Watch: A mini-season of “Queer Eye” is set in Japan and features what our reviewer says is one of the most moving moments of TV this year. It’s one of our weekend picks.
Listen: The third album by Michael Kiwanuka, the London-born son of Ugandan immigrants, is a declaration of self-worth and reliance from an artist open about his insecurities.
Read: Two poetry collections are among the 10 books we recommend this week.
Smarter Living: Inspired by the 20th anniversary of the National Novel Writing Month project (NaNoWriMo), we collected digital tools that can help you write 50,000 words in November. They include the project’s writing guides, which help with mapping out a plot and developing characters, and composition-management apps like Novelist, Bear and Writer’s Shed, or Scrivener’s software (some come with a fee).
And our Climate Fwd: newsletter has advice on slaying energy vampires — that is, household items that use electricity even when switched off.

And now for the Back Story on …

Changing times

Yes, U.S. clocks fall back an hour this weekend, going to “standard time” from “daylight saving time.”
And there’s the usual grumbling on social media (along with “If I could turn back time” Cher memes).
A clock built in Massachusetts for a new train station in Bangkok. Thailand keeps its clocks steady year-round.    Charles Krupa/Associated Press
There has never been global agreement on the twice-yearly clock changes. Mexico and most of Europe switched last weekend, while Australia moved to daylight saving last month. Some 40 countries in the Middle East and Asia never change their clocks.
At least seven U.S. states now stay on daylight saving time year-round (as does the Canadian province of British Columbia). Arizona and Hawaii stay on standard time year-round, and some New England states want to move their time zone to avoid the clock-changing.
At least no one is suggesting returning to the approach of some of our ancient forebears. They took the amount of daylight in each season and divided it by 12, making each hour longer in the spring and shorter in the fall.
That’s it for this briefing. I’ll be away next week, but my colleagues Mike Ives and Claire Moses will be here for you.
See you next time.
— Chris
Thank you
Melina Delkic helped compile today’s briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. Victoria Shannon, on the briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach us at briefing@nytimes.com.
P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the next phase of the impeachment investigation.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Pockets of the Middle East (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times has named Julie Turkewitz as its next Andes bureau chief. She is currently a national correspondent based in Colorado.
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