Friday, Oct 11, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering today’s Nobel Peace Prize announcement, a reported attack on an Iranian oil tanker, and a W.N.B.A. title for the Washington Mystics.

By Chris Stanford

Developing

Explosions rocked an Iranian oil tanker in the Red Sea, and the state news media reported that the ship had been struck by missiles.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, left, with President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea in July 2018, when the two countries signed a peace accord. Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

Ethiopian leader wins Nobel Peace Prize

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the prize today for his work in restarting peace talks with neighboring Eritrea.

The two countries share deep ethnic and cultural ties, but until July of last year they had been locked in a two-decade conflict that included the deaths of more than 80,000 people during two years of border violence.

The two countries have been slowly reconnecting since a peace deal was signed by Mr. Abiy, 43, and President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea in 2018, an effort that has been held up as an example of change even in a longstanding and intractable conflict.

Related: A year after a scandal that postponed the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the selection of one of the two winners on Thursday prompted a backlash. Peter Handke, a writer from Austria, has espoused nationalist views and spoke at the funeral of Slobodan Milosevic, the former leader of Yugoslavia who was tried for war crimes.

Rudy Giuliani, left, and Lev Parnas at the Trump International Hotel in Washington last month. Mr. Parnas was arrested this week. Aram Roston/Reuters

Arrests add twists to Ukraine affair

Federal prosecutors on Thursday indicted two business associates of Rudy Giuliani who had worked with him to seek information in Ukraine against President Trump’s political rivals. That effort is the focus of the impeachment inquiry by House Democrats.

The two men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, are accused of violating campaign finance laws, the first criminal implications of Mr. Giuliani’s work in Ukraine. (Read the indictment.)

The indictment also connected the two men to an effort to remove the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. She was seen by Mr. Trump’s allies as insufficiently loyal to the administration and was recalled in May, months ahead of schedule. Ms. Yovanovitch was set to testify today in the House impeachment inquiry, but it is unclear whether the State Department will let her.

The details: Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman were arrested at Dulles International Airport near Washington with one-way tickets to Europe. They’re part of a growing list of people related to the U.S. influence campaign in Ukraine.

In Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky conducted a daylong news conference on Thursday at a food court in Kiev. He again denied having felt any pressure from Mr. Trump during their phone call in July.

Perspectives: ‘Debatable’ provides a range of opinions about the most talked-about disagreements. Today’s topic: The next steps in the impeachment inquiry.

Last night: Mr. Trump said at a rally that Democrats were investigating him only to “erase your vote.” He singled out Joe Biden: “He was only a good vice president because he knew how to kiss Barack Obama’s ass.”

Another angle: During a 2017 meeting with Mr. Trump and Rex Tillerson, then secretary of state, Mr. Giuliani pressed for help in securing the release of a jailed client as part of a potential prisoner swap with Turkey. The request is another example of Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to interject himself into the administration’s foreign policy.

The rise of populist Democrats

Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent, notes several trends that have converged in the presidential race over the past several weeks:

■ Elizabeth Warren’s rise in the polls has accelerated

■ Both she and Senator Bernie Sanders, a fellow progressive, have raised large sums from small donors

■ And Joe Biden’s numbers have gradually slipped.

Mr. Biden vowed on Thursday to come out fighting in next week’s debate: “I’ve got to be more aggressive,” he said.

What’s next: Twelve candidates will be onstage Tuesday in the largest presidential primary debate in history. Here’s what to watch for.

If you have 6 minutes, this is worth it

Children’s photos power surveillance technology

Photo Illustration by The New York Times

Millions of images from Flickr, the photo-sharing site, are now part of a database called MegaFace, which contains the likenesses of almost 700,000 people. Their average age is 16, according to the database’s creators.

Dozens of companies have used MegaFace to train face-identification algorithms. By law, most Americans in the database don’t need to be asked for their permission, but the situation has led to privacy concerns and, potentially, financial penalties for the companies that have used it.

Here’s what else is happening

Turkey escalates campaign: At least 23 Kurdish fighters were killed as Turkish forces stepped up their attack on the militia in Syria.

737 Max review: A multiagency report faulted both Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration in the certification process for the plane, which has been involved in two deadly crashes. The Times obtained a draft copy of the report, which is expected to be released today.

Power cuts in California: The high winds that prompted the state’s largest utility to turn off electricity for hundreds of thousands of customers are expected to die down today. The outages, part of a wildfire safety program, were increasingly dangerous for sick and elderly residents.

Typhoon menaces Japan: The country’s meteorological agency warned today that Typhoon Hagibis could be as strong as a storm in 1958 that killed more than 1,200 people. Hagibis is expected to make landfall this weekend.

From The Times: As many as 15 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, amounting to hundreds of thousands in the U.S. every year. Our Opinion section invited readers to talk about one of the loneliest experiences that millions of women have faced.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Snapshot: Above, the American gymnast Simone Biles on Thursday in Stuttgart, Germany, where she won her fifth all-around world championship. She is expected to break the overall record for medals (23) this weekend.

W.N.B.A. title for Washington: The Mystics defeated the Connecticut Sun, 89-78, to win the team’s first championship.

Baseball playoffs: The Astros ousted the Rays to advance to the American League Championship Series. Game 1 against the Yankees is Saturday. The National League series begins tonight.

News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself.

Modern Love: This week’s column, from 2006, is one of the most emailed Times articles ever. In it, a wife tries to improve her husband by using animal training techniques.

Late-night comedy: “Who could have ever guessed Rudy Giuliani would have two henchmen named Lev and Igor?” Jimmy Kimmel said.

What we’re reading: This Wired article: “Why the PG&E Blackouts Spared California’s Big Tech HQs.” “The reasons are fascinating,” writes Adam Pasick, on the briefings team.

Now, a break from the news

Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich.

Cook: For weekend comfort cooking, try gooey macaroni and cheese.

Watch: “El Camino,” a feature-length sequel to “Breaking Bad,” arrives today on Netflix. Catch up on the major characters.

Read: A biography of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, is among 10 new books we recommend this week.

Listen: The online lives of Teejayx6, DaBaby, Megan Thee Stallion and other breakout rappers are as important to their success as their music.

Smarter Living: Our Climate Fwd: newsletter collected advice for helping children deal with anxiety over climate change. Dr. Lise Van Susteren, a founder of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, suggests listening to their fears and then pivoting to solutions, such as steps you’ve taken to reduce your carbon footprint.

And a new review suggests that people who own dogs live longer.

And now for the Back Story on …

‘Wag the Dog’

Since the White House announced that it would allow Turkish forces to enter northeastern Syria, that phrase has gained traction.

Meghan McCain, co-host of the ABC talk show “The View” and daughter of John McCain, characterized the disruption in U.S. policy as a “wag-the-dog situation.”

The phrase comes from a longer saying — “the tail wagging the dog” — which dates to the 1870s, according to Dictionary.com, and “indicates a backwards situation where a small or unimportant entity (the tail) controls a bigger, more important one (the dog).”

Dustin Hoffman in the 1997 film "Wag the Dog." Getty Images

“Wag the dog” has also come to mean deflecting attention from one problem by creating a new one. That was the sense of Ms. McCain’s accusation: that the decision on Turkey was meant to shift focus from the impeachment investigation.

Fiction got there long ago. In the 1997 movie “Wag the Dog,” a spin doctor working for a scandal-plagued U.S. president fakes a war with Albania.

If you value the Morning Briefing, please consider supporting our work: Subscribe to The New York Times today.

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. Claire Moses, a London-based home page editor, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about China’s dispute with the N.B.A.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Bonnie’s partner in crime (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• J. Kenji López-Alt, who writes a monthly food column for The Times, explained how he uses the scientific method to write recipes.