Friday, June 28, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering the G-20 summit in Japan, a modest yet astonishing school in Afghanistan and expensive email.

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

President Trump descending from Air Force One in Osaka, Japan, on Thursday. Erin Schaff/The New York Times

G-20 Day 1: Trump dismisses allies. Already.

President Trump, who landed in Japan on Thursday for the Group of 20 economic summit, assailed three American allies — Japan, Germany and India.

He complained that, if the U.S. were attacked, Japan would do nothing but “watch it on a Sony television”; called Germany a security freeloader; and said India’s tariffs on American goods were “unacceptable.” All before the meetings have even started.

Looking ahead: Mr. Trump is scheduled to sit down with the leaders of Germany, Japan, Russia and India separately today.

He will meet with President Xi Jinping tomorrow to discuss trade tensions that have been simmering for a year.

Explainer: The G-20 summit is intended to foster global economic cooperation. This year, the official agenda includes trade, artificial intelligence, women’s empowerment and climate change.

Democratic Debate Night 2: Next 10 face off

Ten more Democratic candidates square off tonight. Among them are the two men who have run for president before — former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders — and the youngest candidate in the field, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is 37. Here are some other dynamics to watch.

The details: It starts at 9 p.m. Eastern on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo (in Spanish) and on their streaming platforms. The Times will also have live coverage.

Recap: Ten other presidential candidates criticized President Trump’s immigration policies and conditions for the working class in the first debate in Miami on Wednesday. But they disagreed over how aggressively to transform the country along liberal lines.

Analysis: The debate on Wednesday showed how far to the left Democrats have moved since 2016. Here are seven other takeaways, as well as video highlights. We also fact-checked some of the candidates’ claims.

Europe scrambles to defuse Iran crisis

European signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are working to set up by Friday a barter-trade agreement with Tehran, backed by a multimillion-euro line of credit, that would sidestep American sanctions against the country.

The effort is aimed at persuading Iran not to exceed limits set on uranium enrichment in exchange for some economic relief.

Analysis: Even though many experts believe that finding ways to keep trading with Iran is unlikely to yield much economic benefit for the country, Europeans regard it as a gesture of good faith and an important tool to ease the tensions.

Reminder: Iran threatened to break past its uranium stockpile limits on Thursday but is likely to hold off on any announcements until Friday, after meeting with the other signatories of the 2015 agreement.

Protestors outside of the Supreme Court waiting for the court's rulings on major cases on Thursday. Samuel Corum for The New York Times

Two momentous Supreme Court rulings

The highest American court made two rulings on Thursday that will have profound implications for American politics.

It effectively barred the addition of a question about citizenship to the census, at least for now, potentially giving Democrats a win. But the court also handed Republicans a key victory, ruling that the Constitution doesn’t prohibit partisan gerrymandering, a practice in which a governing party can redraw election districts to help its candidates win.

Analysis: The two bitterly contested cases get at some fundamental questions — how the political system allocates power and, ultimately, how much of a voice the American people have in selecting their leaders, writes our national correspondent.

Response: President Trump asked if he could delay the census so that his legal team could offer additional justifications for a citizenship question.

The Trump administration argues that including that question will help protect the voting rights of the nation’s minority residents. But opponents say that the question would deter many immigrants and their families, both legal and undocumented, from filling it out.

If you have 20 minutes, this is worth it

A family of strangers

Photographs by Eli Baden-Lasar

Eli Baden-Lasar always knew he was conceived with the help of an anonymous sperm donor.

When he was 19, he learned that he had half siblings — 32 of them. Over 10 months, he traveled to 16 states to meet and photograph them, a journey that he describes in a moving essay for The Times Magazine.

Here’s what else is happening

North Korea: The family of Alek Sigley, an Australian student at a university in the capital city of Pyongyang, said they had lost contact with him in recent days. News reports in South Korea, citing anonymous sources, said that he had been detained by the authorities. Australian officials said they were “urgently seeking clarification” on the matter

President Trump: The writer, E. Jean Carroll, who has accused the president of sexual assault, and her two friends spoke publicly for the first time about the allegations in an exclusive interview with The Times.

Boeing: The Federal Aviation Administration said that it had discovered a new problem with the 737 Max jet that the company must correct before the plane can return to service.

Nissan: In two new blows to the automaker, the company announced a recall of 490,000 vehicles in Japan and disclosed that its shareholders remained split over its chief executive.

Germany: For the second time in 10 days, Chancellor Angela Merkel was seen shaking and struggling to maintain control of her body. Her spokesman insisted she was well.

The Holocaust: A Dutch railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, that helped deport Jews and other minorities to Nazi death camps said that it would set aside tens of millions of euros in compensation for victims and their families as a “moral gesture.”

Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, first graders attending class at Rustam school in Yakawlang, Afghanistan. The school has no electricity, heat, working computers or enough books and yet almost all of its students are accepted into college, most of them girls.

Kimono: Kim Kardashian West has been accused of cultural appropriation for naming her line of bras, briefs and bodysuits after the traditional Japanese garment.

Expensive email: One of Silicon Valley’s buzziest new start-ups is an invitation-only, $30-a-month email app called Superhuman. Our skeptical tech columnist tried it out for a few weeks and discovered that “the hype is mostly justified.”

What we’re reading: This piece in The New York Review of Books. Michael Cooper, a culture reporter for The Times, writes: “Amid the recent debate over whether the United States border detention facilities should be referred to as ‘concentration camps,’ it was useful to read Andrea Pitzer’s chilling exploration of the history of mass detention without trial, particularly before the Holocaust.”

Now, a break from the news

Evan Sung for The New York Times

Cook: Roll into the weekend with plans to make a classic recipe: Julia Child’s berry clafoutis.

Watch: In his Netflix series “Mr. Iglesias,” Gabriel Iglesias pays tribute to his alma mater, and to a classic comedy about underdog students.

Listen: Miley Cyrus sings a synth-pop remake of a Nine Inch Nails song in her role as a pop star in a recent “Black Mirror” episode. It’s the most effective Miley song of the past five years, our critic writes.

Read: The Times’s book critics select the most outstanding memoirs published since 1969.

Smarter Living: A trip to a carwash might seem like a water-wasting extravagance, but it’s actually better than the driveway alternative. Carwashes use less water and help prevent pollution: At home, oil, engine fluids, phosphates and chlorides from the soap can run into storm drains and onto rivers and lakes. Many carwashes recycle their water, and they’re supposed to send it to a wastewater treatment plant when the water can no longer be used.

And readers have offered their best tips for managing the family money.

And now for the Back Story on …

The Negroni

Never mind the Aperol spritz. This is Negroni Week.

Or so says Campari, the company behind marketing blitzes for both cocktails.

Negroni gets its place in the sun now because it is said to have been invented 100 years ago when Count Camillo Negroni in Florence, Italy, asked his bartender at the Cassoni Cafe to replace the soda in his Americano drink with gin.

An array of Negronis. Leah Nash for The New York Times

(Another version puts its origins in Senegal in 1870, with Gen. Pascal Olivier Comte de Negroni.)

Equal parts of Campari and sweet vermouth make up the rest of the classic recipe, though there are infinite variations, many with bitters and an orange slice.

The company is mixing a little charity into its promotion. By drinking a Negroni at a participating bar or restaurant (10,000 around the world have signed up), you can designate contributions to any of nearly 50 nonprofits. Negroni Week ends on Sunday.

That’s it for this briefing. Cheers to the weekend!

— Alisha

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Victoria Shannon, on the briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about E. Jean Carroll, the woman who has accused President Trump of sexual assault.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Terrain at the Italy/Switzerland border (4 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Drink, a monthly column on the pleasures of bar culture and good drink, appeared in The Times for six years beginning in 2011.