Monday, 25 Nov 2024

President Trump, Academy Awards, Labour Party: Your Monday Evening Briefing

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. President Trump departed for Hanoi, Vietnam, for his second summit meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. Mr. Kim should be arriving, after a long, winding train journey, within hours. Above, a banner for the meeting.

Mr. Trump said he expected a “very tremendous summit,” amid indications that the administration may be preparing to deliver something that Mr. Kim desperately wants: a joint political statement declaring a formal end to the Korean War.

Senator Lindsey Graham said in a tweet that the summit meeting was “our last, best chance to end the nuclear conflict with North Korea on peaceful terms.” We took a detailed look at how Mr. Graham, once a Trump skeptic, became the president’s unlikely sidekick.

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2. Two major domestic events will be playing out in Washington while President Trump is traveling.

On Tuesday, the House is to vote on a resolution to end Mr. Trump’s national emergency, which he declared in order to use expanded powers to funnel money to his promised border wall. More than 25 former Republican lawmakers and nearly 60 former senior national security officials are urging Republicans to sign on, and there could be enough defections to give the measure momentum in the Senate. Above, construction this month on a border fence seen from Tijuana, Mexico.

And on Wednesday, when Mr. Trump sits down with Kim Jong-un, Michael Cohen is to to testify in Congress about his 10 years of service to the Trump family.

Mr. Cohen is expected to address Mr. Trump’s finances, compliance with campaign finance laws and business matters.

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3. The trade war deadline has been delayed, but it’s not clear for how long.

Over the weekend, President Trump halted plans to sharply escalate tariffs on Chinese imports on his March 1 deadline, saying that negotiators were making “substantial progress” and that President Xi Jinping of China would soon join him at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida resort, for a “signing summit.” Above, a U.S. trade delegation meeting with Chinese counterparts last week.

But the decision came amid growing concern among his advisers that the “biggest” trade deal in history could end up being modest, if one happens at all, and that Democrats could pounce on the issue in 2020.

In China, the trade war and economic troubles have intensified the Communist Party’s chronic fears of social unrest.

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4. The stock market has had its best start since 1987.

And that is strange, because whole categories of investors have been selling: pension funds and mutual funds, as well as nonprofit groups, endowments, private equity firms, personal trusts and armchair investors.

So who is pushing prices higher? In part, the companies themselves.

Flush with cash from last year’s tax cuts and a growing economy, they have already bought back more than $190 billion of their own shares — a practice that before the early 1980s was considered a legal gray area.

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5. The 91st Academy Awards went off in Los Angeles without a host and largely without a hitch. Oh, except for that controversy over best picture.

The Academy is getting intense blowback for giving the honor to “Green Book,” a segregation-era buddy film. What some experienced as a feel-good depiction of people bonding against the odds struck others as retrograde and even bigoted. Our critics Manohla Dargis, A. O. Scott and Wesley Morris discussed the aftermath. Above, the principals of “Green Book” celebrating.

Here are the full list of winners and the fashion from the red carpet, a place that has become more welcoming and political.

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6. Vice President Mike Pence announced additional sanctions against Venezuela, targeting four officials allied with President Nicolás Maduro. He promised an additional $56 million in aid and urged regional leaders to freeze assets of the state oil company.

The sanctions came after efforts to get aid into the country foundered amid scattered deadly violence. Just one truck made it across the border.

Meeting in the Colombian capital, Bogotá, with the Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, above left, Mr. Pence said that “the tragic events” had “only steeled” America’s resolve.

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7. Britain’s opposition Labour Party said that it was prepared to support a second referendum on withdrawal from the E.U.

After the resignations of nine Labour Party members last week, and with more looming, the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, above center, dropped his longstanding resistance to a second vote on leaving the bloc. But getting an amendment for a new vote through Parliament any time soon is unlikely.

Mr. Corbyn, a lifelong critic of the E.U. and a socialist, has drawn much of his support from disaffected young people in Britain who grew up under austerity and are now turning to trade unionism and socialism.

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8. As Democrats seek a path back to the White House in 2020, they are debating whether to redouble efforts in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that went for President Trump in 2016. Above, Senator Kamala Harris, a presidential contender, campaigning in Iowa on Saturday.

The other option is to reach more for Sun Belt states, like Georgia, Florida and even Texas, that have shown flashes of blue.

The question goes to the heart of a conflict over the party’s ideology — whether Democrats will become more progressive or more centrist. Candidates who have joined the race so far appear to be trying to do both.

Meanwhile, upping the populist theme of her run, Senator Elizabeth Warren said she would no longer hold private fund-raisers and one-on-one meetings with big donors.

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9. Now, a matter of universal concern.

Scientists have been grappling with a discrepancy in their models of the universe. It appears to be expanding 9 percent faster than previously thought, changing the forecast for the ultimate fate of everything.

In the short term, scientists are rewriting cosmic history. They have invoked a new particle and a theoretical force that could have emerged about 100,000 years after the Big Bang, sped up the expansion and then vanished.

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10. Finally, are you reading this on your cellphone?

Cellphones are so present for many of us that they’re practically limbs — with deficits.

Studies have shown that people who don’t charge their phones in their bedrooms are significantly happier than those who do. “Phubbing,” or snubbing a person in favor of your phone, is hurtful.

Our columnist Kevin Roose, above on a Skype call with his digital detox coach, tried a phone fast. He capped weeks of diminished use with a 48-hour total break. He felt just great.

Have a distraction-free evening.

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