Thursday, 28 Mar 2024

North Korea, Hong Kong, N.B.A.: Your Monday Briefing

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Good morning.

We’re covering rebooted nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea, a fresh round of demonstrations in Hong Kong, and big changes in the N.B.A.

Breaking

Iran has exceeded a key limit on how much nuclear fuel it can possess under the 2015 accord curbing its nuclear program, the country’s state news media reported today.

A historic meeting on North Korean soil

Donald Trump on Sunday became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea as he met Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. The two agreed to restart negotiations on a nuclear agreement.

The made-for-TV meeting came after Mr. Trump extended an invitation on Twitter barely 24 hours earlier. Afterward, the president said that he and Mr. Kim had agreed that negotiators would resume talks in the next few weeks — four months after their nuclear summit collapsed in Vietnam.

News analysis: The Trump administration has been debating what would amount to a nuclear freeze, essentially enshrining the status quo and tacitly accepting the North as a nuclear power, our national security correspondents write.

Protests in Hong Kong on handover anniversary

Hundreds of riot police officers clashed with demonstrators who were marching to the site of an annual ceremony today commemorating the 22nd anniversary of the territory’s return to China from Britain. Here are the latest updates.

Closer look: “One country, two systems” was Beijing’s pledge when it took back the former British colony in 1997, but concerns about the erosion of civil liberties are mounting. The agreement that grants Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy is set to expire in 2047.

Another angle: Many people in China oppose the protests, seeing only the news that Beijing’s censors allow them to see. Yet even many Western-educated Chinese professionals who travel and can see the global internet say the protesters foolishly value individuals’ rights over economic prosperity.

Related: As the U.S. eased trade restrictions on China, President Trump faced questions over what he got in return.

Colorado’s marijuana experiment, five years later

The state’s first-in-the-nation legalization of the drug is a case study as more and more states adopt or debate full legalization.

Legalization has reshaped health, politics, rural culture and criminal justice in ways that defy both the worst warnings and the most optimistic predictions.

The details: Hospitals in Colorado have reported higher rates of mental-health cases tied to marijuana. Nearly twice as many Coloradans smoke pot compared with other Americans, and while the number of adults who use has edged up, state surveys do not show a similar increase among young people.

Quotable: “You don’t see drug-addled people roaming the streets, but we haven’t created a utopia,” said Jonathan Singer, a state legislator who endorsed the ballot measure that made it legal for adults 21 and over to buy, consume and grow recreational marijuana.

The busing that shaped Kamala Harris

As a first grader, the Democratic presidential candidate rode a bus to school for 40 minutes each way as part of the integration effort in Berkeley, Calif., an experience that changed her, the city and America’s conversation about racial politics.

After she referred to the episode during last week’s debate, The Times spoke to fellow Berkeley public school students about that period of American history, in a country that is still grappling with racial integration in the classroom.

Quotable: “We were all just kids trying to figure it out on our own,” said Ned Garrett, 60, who is white and was bused to a black school in West Berkeley. “It stuck with me. I try to tell my kids now: ‘Don’t make assumptions. Always give people a chance to show who they are.’”

Related: Last week’s debates demonstrated that many of the leading candidates are embracing sweeping liberal policy changes, even at the risk of political backlash.

Another angle: Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., a candidate who was little known only months ago, raised $24.8 million in the second quarter, his campaign said today. It’s likely to be among the largest quarterly totals disclosed by any of the Democratic hopefuls.

If you have 7 minutes, this is worth it

A breakthrough in genetic sleuthing

Genetic genealogy — in which DNA samples are used to find relatives of suspects, and eventually the suspects themselves — has redefined forensic science, and raised alarm among privacy advocates and users of family history databases.

The technique had never been tested in court until Friday, when a jury returned a guilty verdict in the 1987 deaths of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook, the Canadian couple pictured above.

Here’s what else is happening

Unmoved by indictment: An Alabama woman was charged with manslaughter after the police said she started a fight in which she was shot, ending her pregnancy. Many residents consider the charges just.

Protests in Sudan: Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators filled the streets of major cities in a rebuke of the crackdown in June that left scores dead.

The Weekly: At $107 million, President Trump’s inauguration raised the most money of any in history. The latest episode of The Times’s TV show examines where the money came from, where it went and why this matters now. Read behind-the-scenes notes on the episode, which is available on FX and Hulu.

Snapshot: Above, the annual Pride March in New York City on Sunday, part of a global celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identity. Fifty years after the Stonewall uprising, L.G.B.T.Q. issues remain a battleground in the nation’s culture wars.

Brooklyn bound: The Nets made waves at the start of N.B.A. free agency, agreeing to deals with the All-Stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

Wimbledon begins: Cori Gauff, 15, is the youngest qualifier in the tennis tournament’s history. She’ll play her opening match against Venus Williams today. Here are the results for the women and the men.

Baseball in London: In the first Major League Baseball games to be played in Europe, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox scored a total of 50 runs. The Yankees claimed two victories, including a 12-8 win on Sunday.

What we’re listening to: “This Is Uncomfortable,” a new podcast by the producers of Marketplace. Lance Booth, a photo editor, writes: “The host, Reema Khrais, looks at the personal impact of money issues — such as how to balance a relationship when one person has debt and the other doesn’t — and highlights how weirdly uncomfortable it is to talk to loved ones about money.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Celebrate Canada Day with butter tarts.

Watch: The director Danny Boyle discusses a comic sequence featuring Himesh Patel from “Yesterday,” his new film.

Listen: “History Repeats” is from the debut solo album of Brittany Howard, the lead singer for Alabama Shakes. It’s a deep funk workout.

Read: The Times invited 10 Asian-American authors to choose photographs from our archives and write short young-adult fiction inspired by them.

Smarter Living: Learning to recover from failure is a skill. When you’ve fallen down, try a little self-compassion — everybody fails from time to time. And imagine what you’d say to a friend in the same situation. Rachel Simmons, the author of “Enough as She Is: How to Help Girls Move Beyond Impossible Standards of Success to Live Healthy, Happy, and Fulfilling Lives,” offers more ideas in our Working Woman’s Handbook.

And we have tips on how to find the best deals on hotel rates.

And now for the Back Story on …

Portable music

Masaru Ibuka wanted to listen to his favorite opera music on business trips. In 1979, he didn’t have many options — there was no stereo audio device small enough to take on a plane.

But as a co-founder of Sony, Mr. Ibuka could get what he wanted. So a slimmer version of the company’s Pressman cassette-tape player was produced.

The result was introduced in Japan on this day 40 years ago as the Sony Walkman, weighing in at less than a pound (the Pressman weighed 3.8 pounds).

The device came to the U.S. in 1980 as the Soundabout. In Australia and Sweden, it was called the Freestyle, and in Britain it became the Stowaway.

But it was Walkman that stuck, and sales skyrocketed. In 1986, “Walkman” even entered the Oxford English Dictionary.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Melina Delkic helped compile this briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news, and Victoria Shannon, on the briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach us at [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the conditions at a border patrol station in Clint, Tex., that houses young migrants.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Fencer’s weapon (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times began publishing announcements of same-sex unions in September 2002, 13 years before gay marriage was legally recognized in the U.S.

Chris Stanford writes the U.S. edition of the Morning Briefing. He also compiles a weekly news quiz. He joined The Times as a home page producer in 2013, before which he worked at The Washington Post and other news outlets. He is now based in London. @stanfordc

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