Monday, Sep 16, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering at the latest threat in Kashmir, the toxic fallout from the Notre-Dame fire and mass weddings in the Middle East.

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

Fallout from the attacks on Saudi oil plants

Eyes are on oil as markets open for the week, but this much is clear: Drone attacks on two Saudi Aramco facilities could raise prices. Rapid Saudi repairs could minimize global disruptions.

The Trump administration used the attacks, which were claimed by Houthi rebels in Yemen, to lash out against Iran. Iran forcefully rejected that charge.

The finger-pointing adds to rising tensions between Tehran and Washington.

Reminder: The Houthis are part of a complex regional dynamic in the Middle East. The rebel force receives support from Iran in its fight against a Saudi-backed coalition that is aligned with the U.S. Here’s how the conflict turned into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

A Kashmiri man shot by militants. The New York Times

Kashmiri residents: Attacked from two sides

The Indian government has started to lift some of the restrictions that it imposed in Kashmir last month, as it wiped out the region’s autonomy.

But now a small band of militant separatists have started enforcing their own restrictions, ordering people not to go to work or even leave their homes in an effort to keep Kashmir paralyzed and tense. Some threaten or attack civilians — in one case shooting a 5-year-old girl.

Takeaway: The separatists’ campaign exposes Kashmiri residents, who have already complained about torture and abuse at the hands of Indian security forces, to yet another violent force.

Context: The restive region has seen similar cycles in the past, with insurgents repeatedly rising up against Indian rule and trapping residents in a constant state of fear.

Perspective: One writer, Priyanka Mattoo, lost her home in Kashmir in a separatist uprising in 1989, and has never gone back. “It is now a pile of rubble, I think,” she writes in an Op-Ed. “The roof was burned off by militants, and snow seeped in to dissolve the rest.”

Lee Jin-hui, 20, right, with another North Korean woman who fled to Laos to escape captivity in Chinese cybersex operations. Adam Dean for The New York Times

China’s cybersex slaves

An estimated 60 percent of the thousands of North Korean women smuggled into China end up trapped in the sex trade. Promised job opportunities, they are instead sold to pimps who increasingly force them to work in cybersex dens.

If they try to escape, they are sent back to North Korea, where they face torture and incarceration in labor camps.

Case study: Lee Jin-hui, 20, said she had left North Korea in 2017 for what she thought was a waitressing job in China. But for more than two years, she was forced to perform sex acts before a webcam, all day, every day, bringing in $820 a week for her pimp.

She said she was never allowed to leave her apartment and was beaten and denied food if she failed to make enough money. She and a fellow captive fled to Laos in August with the help of a Christian pastor from South Korea.

Workers in protective suits during decontamination operations at Notre-Dame this month. Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

Notre-Dame’s toxic fallout

The fire in April that engulfed the roof and spire of Paris’s 850-year-old cathedral set off a public health crisis: Lead that burned to dust settled in city schools, parks and other public places.

More than 6,000 children, who are most vulnerable to damage from lead, may have been exposed.

A Times investigation found that though authorities knew about lead contamination, their response has been halting. It took city officials a month to conduct the first lead tests at a school close to Notre-Dame and, even today, not every school near the cathedral has been tested.

How we know: Our reporters looked at confidential documents, including warnings by labor inspectors, a police report and previously undisclosed lead measurements by the Culture Ministry, and conducted scores of interviews.

Traveling to Paris? Most experts recommend staying away from the immediate vicinity of the cathedral, particularly if you have children. We have more tips here.

If you have 6 minutes, this is worth it

Mass weddings bloom in the Middle East

Dalia Khamissy for The New York Times

In Lebanon and across the Mideast, marriage remains highly valued but economic pressures have turned weddings into costly burdens.

So powerful brokers have stepped in from militant groups, political parties and even among government officials to bankroll large-scale ceremonies in which dozens — sometimes even hundreds — of couples tie the knot.

Here’s what else is happening

General Motors: With little progress in contract talks, the United Automobile Workers union called for nearly 50,000 workers to walk off the job within hours, the first such strike since 2007.

Brett Kavanaugh: An essay in the Opinion section of The New York Times revealed new information about allegations of youthful sexual misconduct against the Supreme Court justice, reviving the partisan battle over his confirmation.

Iraq: Surging addiction to illegal drugs, mostly crystal meth, is concentrated in Basra and Baghdad, where community leaders and government officials seem unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with the issue.

Hong Kong: Protesters hurled gasoline bombs at government offices on Sunday, turning yet another peaceful pro-democracy march violent and highlighting the raw anger that has fueled 15 weeks of demonstrations.

China’s U.S. business: The state-owned company CRRC Corporation, the world’s largest train maker, built a $100 million factory in Chicago in hopes of meeting U.S. demand for subway cars and passenger trains. But Congress is expected to pass legislation soon that would effectively bar the company from competing for U.S. contracts on national security and economic grounds.

Boeing: A committee of the company’s board is expected to recommend a slew of reforms, according to three people briefed on the matter. It’s Boeing’s most direct effort to make aircraft design and production safer since two deadly crashes of its 737 Max jets.

Tom Lindboe, via Blenheim Art Foundation

Snapshot: Above, an 18-karat gold toilet titled “America” that was stolen over the weekend from an art exhibit at Blenheim Palace, the Oxfordshire birthplace and family home of Winston Churchill. “I want to be positive and think the robbery is a kind of Robin Hood-inspired action,” said the artist, Maurizio Cattelan.

What we’re reading: This ESPN piece on “the grandmaster diet.” Aisha Khan, a News Desk editor, says she was surprised to learn of the physical toll elite chess players face. Who knew you could “burn 6,000 calories a day in a tournament”?

Now, a break from the news

Colu Henry's broccoli toast with melty provolone. Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Sylist: Barrett Washburne.

Cook: Yes, toast can be dinner, so top it with broccoli and melted provolone.

Read: “Permanent Record” is a memoir by Edward Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who leaked government secrets. It’s riveting and personal, our critic writes.

Listen: In fiction podcasts, screen and stage actors get to play parts Hollywood is too risk-averse to offer, with the added perk of no need to sit for makeup.

Watch: In case you missed it, here’s the trailer for the Amazon series “Modern Love,” inspired by the Times column, which has run reader-submitted personal essays about relationships since 2004.

Smarter Living: We can help you secure your digital life, with seven easy steps over seven days. (We’ll remind you by email.) Step 1: Set up a password manager. Testers at Wirecutter, a Times Company product review site, recommend LastPass, which is free but a bit more complicated, and 1Password, which is more intuitive but costs $36 a year.

Are you keeping up with health news? Take our Well team’s weekly quiz.

And now for the Back Story on …

The oldest air race in the world

Twenty teams lifted off in gas balloons from Montbéliard in eastern France on Friday night to see which could go the farthest without stopping.

Some of these adventurers are still flying. In fact, the competition in the Gordon Bennett Cup could go on for another day or so.

Competitors preparing their balloons before the 63rd Gordon Bennet balloon race in France on Friday. Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The race is named for James Gordon Bennett Jr., playboy and heir to The New York Herald, who started the race in 1906 while he ran the newspaper’s Paris edition.

The event can be perilous. In 2010, the U.S. team disappeared during a storm over the Adriatic Sea. In 1995, a U.S. balloon crossed into Belarus air space and was shot down by the military.

This year’s race is going well. Australia’s team — Dariusz Brzozowski and Christopher Saunders — has the lead as of this writing. They caught a wind that took them nearly due west for 640.48 kilometers (about 398 miles), landing near Nantes just after noon local time on Sunday.

Last year’s winner, a team from Poland, traveled almost twice that. The distance record is 2,100 miles, set in 2005.

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. Victoria Shannon wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.

•We’re listening to Episode 4 of “The 1619 Project” podcast, on how race shaped the U.S. health system, and “The Daily,” about the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate in Houston.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Like snakes and crocodiles (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Marc Lacey, the National editor at The New York Times, will be a moderator for the next Democratic debate (Oct. 15), along with the CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett.