Monday, July 15, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering Hong Kong’s growing agitation, immigration raids in the U.S. and Novak Djokovic’s historic win.

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

China detains another Canadian

A Canadian citizen, who hasn’t been identified, is the latest to be arrested in China since December, adding to months of heightened diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

The detention was made last week in the eastern city of Yantai, according to Canadian authorities. The reason is unclear — it could be a drug-related case, or retaliation for the arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, a top Huawei executive, at the behest of the Trump administration.

Other cases: In December, a Canadian former diplomat and a businessman were arrested and later charged with espionage. Chinese courts have also sentenced two other Canadians to death on drug-related charges.

Increasing concerns: The arrests of Western citizens have alarmed U.S. executives who travel in China and could be used as leverage in worsening trade relations between Beijing and Washington.

Last month, a Chinese-American executive at Koch Industries was told he couldn’t leave his hotel in southern China, and was interrogated for days.

Related: Beijing said it would impose sanctions on American companies involved in a recently proposed sale of arms to Taiwan, a move that could further strain relations with Washington

Police officers using pepper spray to disperse protesters at the weekend rallies. Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

More protests sweep parts of Hong Kong

Protests in the city’s Sha Tin area, which sits near the border with mainland China, descended into clashes inside a shopping mall. Police officers wielding shields and batons deployed pepper spray to disperse a small group of protesters.

Sunday’s scuffles came a day after clashes had broken out in another part of the city, as thousands of demonstrators had protested against mainland Chinese traders.

Media: Hong Kong’s top broadcaster, TVB, has been singled out for scorn by demonstrators, who see its coverage as biased in favor of Beijing.

Takeaway: The wave of recent protests in Hong Kong has shifted from expressing anger over a proposed extradition bill into a wide outcry against China’s growing influence in the semiautonomous city, becoming the former British colony’s biggest political crisis.

U.S. begins raids targeting recent migrants

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began coordinated federal raids over the weekend, as part of President Trump’s effort to enforce deportation orders against undocumented migrants in the country.

As of this writing, only a handful of arrests have emerged, a far cry from the anticipated large-scale raids. ICE agents had been expected to target migrant families who have been ordered deported — at least 2,000 people in 10 major cities.

Officials said they will do a slower rollout throughout the week instead, because immigrant communities had been advised of their rights to refuse to open their doors to agents, and some immigrants had gone into hiding.

Border detention centers: Vice President Mike Pence played down reports of dire conditions at the two migrant detention centers in Texas he toured on Friday, where overcrowding was obvious. Watch the video.

Related: Mr. Trump told four freshman congresswomen of color to “go back” to the countries they came from in a post on Twitter that many criticized as being racist. Only one of the four women was born outside the U.S.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientists working on the Chandrayaan-2 last month. /EPA, via Shutterstock

India lunar ambitions are delayed

The country’s attempt to become the fourth in the world to land an unmanned spacecraft — Chandrayaan-2 — on the moon’s surface have been put on hold for now.

Less than an hour before the scheduled liftoff, the Indian Space Research Organization, the country’s equivalent of NASA, called off the launch because of an unexplained technical problem. A new launch date has not been announced.

Context: For many in India, this moon mission was seen as a potential turning point, enabling the vast country to establish itself as a technological leader, at a fraction of the costs at bigger space agencies.

Lunar race: There is renewed global interest in the moon. China is working on its own mission to send astronauts up there, and the U.S. is also aiming to return astronauts to the lunar surface on its way to Mars.

If you have 8 minutes, this is worth it

Fueling facial recognition: your face

Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication (PDDL), via Megapixels

Companies around the world are racing to build cutting-edge facial recognition systems, and they’re scooping up images of people’s faces from social networks, dating services and even surveillance cameras in restaurants and on college campuses.

And there is no oversight of these vast databases.

Here’s what else is happening

Monsoon: At least 47 people in Nepal and 25 in India have died in heavy rains and severe flooding, and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced. Levels of inundation in Nepal in this year’s monsoon have been higher than usual.

New Zealand: The country held the first of 258 weapons buyback events over the weekend, retrieving hundreds of semiautomatic weapons and parts that had been banned in the wake of the Christchurch attack.

Facebook: American regulators are ready to hit the social media giant with a $5 billion fine for privacy violations. Some say the move is too lenient, but the company still faces investigations and potentially new regulations in the U.S., Europe and Canada.

Jeffrey Epstein: In 2010, a year after the wealthy financier was released from prison for sexually abusing minors, he set into motion a social strategy to preserve his reputation and image that quickly helped him get welcomed back into New York City’s elite circles.

R. Kelly: The singer has been accused of bribing the family of a teenage girl who had appeared in a sex tape that purported to show him having sex with and urinating on her.

Toby Melville/Reuters

Snapshot: Above, Novak Djokovic celebrating his win over Roger Federer in the longest final in Wimbledon history and the first to be won by tiebreaker. It is his 16th Grand Slam title.

Cricket World Cup: England, the inventor of the game, beat New Zealand to win the title for the first time, in an extraordinary game that ended with an unprecedented tie, forcing the match into the tournament’s first ever Super Over.

Urinary tract infections: There is growing evidence that one of the world’s most common infections is increasingly resistant to antibiotics, leading to more hospitalizations, graver illnesses and prolonged symptoms.

What we’re reading: This article in Topic Magazine. Kim Severson, a national food correspondent, recommends it, writing: “Madeline Leung Coleman traces the rise of the $3 billion energy bar business, from its birthplace on the battlefield to the great bar wars of the 1990s to its current ubiquity as a totem of both wellness and life too busy for lunch.”

Now, a break from the news

Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

Cook: Keep dinner speedy with an arugula salad topped with peaches and goat cheese.

Watch: Casts of Broadway plays that were closed by Saturday’s blackout in New York performed for their audiences on the sidewalk.

Listen: “Personal Hell,” a track on the debut album from the German-born pop singer Kim Petras, sounds simultaneously like a kiddie nursery rhyme and a tragic faux opera.

Go: New places for glamping — high end camping — are opening in Australia, Rwanda and other countries.

Smarter Living: Deciding when — and whether — to disclose a disability to a potential employer isn’t easy. In the U.S., employers are prohibited from directly asking about a disability or discriminating on the basis of it, but it happens anyway. So be your own best advocate. Before you tell, prepare ideas for workarounds for any tasks you might not feel comfortable taking on.

We also have a guide to eclipses, supermoons and other lunar events in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon launch tomorrow.

And now for the Back Story on …

To buy or not to buy

Monday marks the start of Amazon Prime Day, the e-commerce giant’s annual discount bonanza.

It’s ever more international. Besides the U.S., Prime Day is held in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the U.K. and the United Arab Emirates.

An Amazon fulfillment center in New York. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Amazon expects to take in billions of dollars and sign up more Prime members over the 48-hour event. Wirecutter, a Times Company site, will be sorting through the deals for you.

For recovering shopaholics, the Amazon sale is something else entirely.

“It’s like the Super Bowl if you’re an alcoholic,” said Terrence Shulman, who runs a support group for shopaholics. “This is going to be a challenge for people.”

Last Prime Day, one member of his network, a 63-year-old from Georgia, spent around $400, shelling out for discounted gardening shears and satin pillowcases. “I could’ve done without those,” she acknowledged.

This year, she has a plan: no browsing, just checking for discounts on items already on her Amazon shopping list.

The only problem? It’s 478 items long.

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

— Alisha

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. David Yaffe-Bellany, a business reporter, 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 on the Sandy Hook parents taking on the gun Industry.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: British bloke (4 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• We collected a sample of the range of responses from black readers in the arts to a recent article in The New York Times about the frustrations of African-American filmmakers.