Tuesday, July 30, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering an attempt to cool tensions in Hong Kong, a romance scam on Facebook and the growing population of tigers in India.

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

Riot police clash with protesters on Sunday. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Can China quell the Hong Kong protests?

Beijing tried to douse the wave of opposition in Hong Kong with an unprecedented media offensive, but it is unlikely to satisfy protesters.

The escalating political crisis prompted Beijing’s top policy office in Hong Kong to hold its first news conference there since the city returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Chinese officials strongly supported the local Hong Kong authorities and said the city’s government should address underlying economic issues, but declined to address demonstrators’ demands for more police accountability and a path to democracy.

Activists and experts said the comments only highlighted the obliviousness of Beijing and the city’s leadership. “There was no sign of tackling the crux of the issue,” said a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “No new solutions were provided.”

What’s next? Organizers have planned more demonstrations for the coming weeks, including a simultaneous rally in seven different districts next week.

Related: Huang Qi, a Chinese activist who was once praised by the Communist Party for using the internet to expose social ills, was sentenced on Monday to 12 years in prison for “deliberately disclosing state secrets.”

U.S.-China trade talks resumed

But don’t get your hopes up: Prospects are dimming for a transformative deal, as Beijing and Washington both appear more focused on avoiding a breakdown that could rattle stock markets — and hurt President Trump’s chances of re-election.

There are few signs of progress on the most difficult issues: new protections for American intellectual property, which U.S. products China would agree to buy, and how many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods would persist.

Détente: Since his meeting with President Xi Jinping last month, Mr. Trump has followed through on promises to back off a new round of tariffs and consider granting waivers for American companies to do business with Huawei.

The Fed eyes a rate cut

The U.S. central bank on Wednesday will most likely cut interest rates for the first time since the 2008 recession in an attempt to keep a record economic expansion chugging along.

Analysts expect the central bank will make a small quarter-point cut to its benchmark rate, to 2.25 percent. President Trump, who has pressured the Fed to trim rates, warned in a tweet that “a small rate cut is not enough.”

Context: Though the U.S. economy has been healthy, cracks are beginning to show. Business investment and confidence have suffered under Mr. Trump’s trade spats. And the sugar high from the president’s tax cuts is waning.

Warning signs: Leading indicators for the economy are slumping, and interest rates have signaled that investors are pessimistic about the future. Here are some other recession warning signs.

Sgt. Daniel Anonsen, who left the Marine Corps last year, reported about 200 imposter accounts to Facebook. Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times

Romance frauds flourish on Facebook

Scammers on Facebook and Instagram are posing as U.S. service members to cheat vulnerable and lonely women.

How it works: Scammers steal photos from service members’ social media accounts and create impostor accounts that target vulnerable users — often single women or widows. Here are some other things to know about the fraud.

Impact: There are no exact figures on how many service members and civilians have been affected. The F.B.I. said it received nearly 18,500 complaints from victims of romance or similar internet scams last year, with reported losses exceeding $362 million, up 71 percent from 2017.

Perspective: The U.S. government may have opened investigations into the market power of big tech, but as our columnist Kara Swisher notes: “No one in Silicon Valley is holding her breath.”

If you have 6 minutes, this is worth it

Picasso shines in a censored art scene

Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

A vast exhibition of works by the Spanish painter has become Beijing’s hottest art show, drawing everyone from fashion peacocks to students from Beijing’s cutting-edge art schools.

But shrouding all this creative fervor is the meddling hand of government censors. The implicit theme of the show: Would genius like Picasso’s thrive within the confinements of contemporary China?

Here’s what else is happening

U.S.: A gunman killed at least three people, including a six-year-old boy, and wounded 12 with an AK-47-type assault weapon at a garlic festival in Gilroy, Calif. The suspect was fatally shot by the police.

Iran: The country said that the British seizure of one of its oil tankers this month was a violation of the global 2015 nuclear agreement. Iran appeared to be trying to press European signatories of the ailing deal to make good on its promised financial benefits.

Russia: The hospital that was treating Aleksei Navalny, the country’s leading opposition figure, sent him back to prison on Monday, despite a claim that Mr. Navalny had been poisoned with a “toxic agent” there.

President Trump: Extending his attacks on critics of color, the president denounced Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime civil rights leader, as a “con man” who “Hates Whites & Cops!” Mr. Trump and Mr. Sharpton have a history of using each other for their own purposes, whether as foes or friends.

Climate change: Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, plans to travel to New York in an eco-friendly sail boat to attend a U.N. meeting on global warming, in a journey that would take two weeks but would have a lower carbon footprint than a flight.

Bryan Denton for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, tigers at a reserve in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Officials said on Monday that there are now nearly 3,000 Bengal tigers in the wild in India, a 33 percent increase since 2014.

A royal editor: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will be the first-ever guest editor of British Vogue’s September issue, which will include a Q&A between her and Michelle Obama.

‘Old Town Road’: Lil Nas X’s country-hip hop mash-up song has become the longest-running no. 1 single in the 61-year history of the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. One secret to its success? Kids are obsessed.

Fish that fish: Recent videos have illuminated a range of surprising behaviors by anglerfish, the ghoulish-looking deep sea creatures that dangle bioluminescent orbs to lure prey.

What we’re reading: This essay in the Paris Review. The author, who broke up with her fiancé and headed to Texas to study the whooping crane, paints a poetic yet relatable picture of her ordeal — one that could prompt us all to examine our own relationships.

Now, a break from the news

Romulo Yanes for The New York Times. Food styling: Vivian Lui.

Cook: Try chicken schnitzel with smashed, spiced cucumbers. (Our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has more recommendations.)

Watch: “Lights Out With David Spade,” the comedian’s new late-night talk show, premieres today on Comedy Central. In our profile, Mr. Spade was candid about his career and personal tragedies.

Read: In “Our Women on the Ground,” 19 Arab and Middle Eastern female journalists chronicle their experiences reporting from some of the most repressive countries in the world. “It’s a book that banishes all manner of silences,” writes our critic.

Go: “Whiteley,” an new opera at the Sydney Opera House about the life and travels of the superstar Australian painter Brett Whiteley, is designed to draw a younger audience.

Smarter Living: It was once common practice for drivers to flash their headlights at oncoming vehicles that had their high beams on. But experts now say it could have unintended consequences, especially for drivers impaired by alcohol. Here are some tips.

And the experts at Wirecutter, a Times site, have compiled a list of the best back-to-school essentials.

And now for the Back Story on …

The Glass Ceiling

Six female candidates are vying for the Democratic presidential nomination, but almost no one is talking about the “glass ceiling.”

The Democratic candidates running for president in 2020. Travis Dove for The New York Times

The term dates back to 1978, when female employees at Hewlett-Packard and the New York Telephone Co. used it to describe their inability to rise beyond the ranks of middle management. Betty Friedan, a founder of the National Organization for Women, told the Times in 1986 that it describes women who “get to a middle level and then there’s a glass ceiling — not overt discrimination, just a feeling that you can go this high and no higher.”

Hillary Clinton made the phrase a staple of her presidential campaigns and noted, upon her 2016 loss, that the United States still had not shattered that “highest and hardest glass ceiling.”

But the 2020 candidates are using other language: Senator Kamala Harris prefers to talk about her willingness to “break things,” while her colleague Elizabeth Warren has vowed to “persist.”

“Words have their moments, especially colloquialisms,” the linguist Robin Lakoff told The Times last week, noting that glass ceiling “seems tired.”

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. Jessica Bennett, gender editor for the Times, 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 an idea to end partisan gerrymandering in the U.S.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: A lot of internet humor (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Amazon dropped the first trailer for “Modern Love,” a rom-com anthology series based on the Times column, with a cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, and Dev Patel. The show premieres on October 18.