Friday, Nov 1, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering the disappointing economic figures out of Hong Kong, the alarming mental health crisis in Iraq and the popularity of the “Joker” staircase.

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta and Andrea Kannapell

Protesters in Hong Kong on Thursday night. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Hong Kong slides into recession

After nearly five months of protests and a persistent trade war, the territory’s economy dropped by 3.2 percent in the three months ending in September — its worst performance since the global financial crisis a decade ago.

The news came on Halloween, a day often marked with booze-soaked parties in Hong Kong. But the mood in the city’s rowdy night life district was noticeable muted — there were fewer decorations, a bigger security presence and more journalists.

Chanting protesters, defying the city’s ban on masks, turned out wearing the faces of government leaders like Xi Jinping and Carrie Lam or the symbolic freedom fighter Guy Fawkes. The night included multiple clashes between protesters and the police around the city. Major protests are expected on Saturday.

China’s plans: The Communist Party announced it would roll out steps to “safeguard national security” in Hong Kong. The vague language leaves plenty of guesswork about what may be coming.

See for yourself: A photographer captured jarring diptychs of the city, pairing his shots of the weekly marches with images of the normalcy on the same streets.

A milestone in U.S. Congress

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to endorse the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The vote — just the third of its kind in U.S. history — officially put the investigation on the record, a signal that the Democrats leading the proceedings are confident that, after five weeks of fact-finding behind closed doors, they have enough evidence to make their case to the public.

Just how fierce the clash over the presidency will be seems clear. Every member of Mr. Trump’s Republican Party voted against the measure, and all but two Democrats voted for it.

The latest witness: Timothy Morrison, the former top Russia expert for the National Security Council, testified that he, too, saw signs of a quid pro quo, validating a key episode at the center of the impeachment inquiry. He is the second current White House official to testify this week.

Mehak Javid Bhat, 18, in pink headscarf, was preparing for medical school when her high school in Kashmir shut. Atul Loke for The New York Times

An unwelcome school break in Kashmir

Education is one of the biggest casualties of the crisis in Kashmir, which has now officially been shorn of autonomy.

After 13 weeks of occupation by Indian forces, almost all private schools are closed, as are most government schools. At least 1.5 million students are affected.

The Indian government wants students to return, but parents say they are terrified of sending their children out with soldiers and militants on the streets.

Quotable: “What if the school or a bus carrying children is attacked?” a worried father asked. “What if there are protests and their faces get shot by pellets?”

If you have some time, this is worth it

How does the human soul survive atrocity?

Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

After the horror of ISIS captivity, tens of thousands of Iraqis, many of them children, are caught up in a mental-health crisis unlike any in the world. Sumaya Ahmad, above, was about 16 when ISIS arrived in her village. She was sold and sold again. “I thought it would never end,” she said. “I thought about killing myself.”

Now, a program founded by a Kurdish psychologist from Germany aims to train the first generation of psychotherapists in Iraq and eventually the broader Middle East. Two journalists visited the program.

Here’s what else is happening

Pakistan: More than 70 people were killed when a cooking stove exploded inside a train, officials said, with the resulting fire engulfing three cars full of passengers. Witnesses said some passengers jumped from the burning train while it was still moving.

Japan: A fire destroyed most of Shuri Castle, a World Heritage site on Okinawa that was once the seat of a kingdom that spanned 450 years. No one was injured, officials said, but seven buildings burned to the ground, including the austere main hall.

North Korea: The country fired two short-range projectiles that landed in the sea near Japan in its first test since renewed efforts at talks with the U.S. stalled this month. Japan’s Ministry of Defense said the projectiles appeared to be ballistic missiles.

Philippines: A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck the southern island of Mindanao on Thursday, killing at least five people, just two days after another quake in the area killed several people and caused wide destruction of schools and other buildings.

WeWork: The company’s ousted chief, Adam Neumann, derided and marginalized an employee after she became pregnant, according to a discrimination complaint.

Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, the outdoor stairs in the Bronx, N.Y., that had a starring role in “Joker” and have now become an Instagram sensation.

Netflix: As the streaming giant expands into India, Turkey and other countries, it must navigate new political and moral landscapes, as well as calls for government oversight.

What we’re reading: ProPublica’s deep dive into a case where a mistaken identity confounded a family’s end-of-life choices. “A beautifully reported and written story by my former colleague Joe Sexton and Nate Schweber, who also writes for The Times.”

Now, a break from the news

Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Amy Elise Wilson

Cook: A pasta dinner with cannellini beans in a buttery sauce is a satisfying way to end the week.

Watch: In its final season, the HBO satire “Silicon Valley” asks big questions: Can good and greed coexist? Does money ruin everything? What if we’re talking billions?

Read: “A Warning” by the anonymous White House staffer who published an essay in The Times last year is on our list of books to watch for this month.

Go: November marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. You can still get a sense of what Berlin’s life was like during the Cold War via its museums, restaurants and shops.

Smarter Living: Inspired by the 20th anniversary of the National Novel Writing Month project (NaNoWriMo), we collected digital tools that can help you write a 50,000-word novel in November. They include the project’s own writing guides, which help you map out a plot and develop characters, and composition-management apps like Novelist, Bear and Writer’s Shed, or Scrivener’s software (some cost a little bit).

And our Climate Fwd: newsletter has advice on slaying energy vampires — that is, the items in your house that use up electricity even when they’re not turned on.

And now for the Back Story on …

Changing times

Yes, it’s time for U.S. clocks to fall back an hour this weekend, going to “standard time” from “daylight saving time.”

And there’s the usual grumbling on social media (along with “If I could turn back time” Cher memes).

A clock built in Massachusetts for a new train station in Bangkok. Thailand keeps its clocks steady year-round, on Indochina time. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

There has never been global agreement on the twice-yearly clock changes. Mexico and most of Europe switched last weekend, while Australia moved to D.S.T. last month. Some 40 countries in the Middle East and Asia never change clocks.

At least seven U.S. states have moved to stay on D.S.T. year round (as has our Canadian neighbor British Columbia). Arizona and Hawaii stay on standard time year-round, and some New England states want to move their time zone to avoid the clock-changing.

And the European Union wants to scrap the biannual time shifts by 2021.

At least no one is suggesting we go back to the approach of our ancient forebears.

They took the amount of daylight in each season and just divided it by 12, making each hour longer in spring and shorter in the fall.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time (give or take an hour).

— Alisha and Andrea

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 how Boeing handled safety concerns about the 737 Max.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Chocolate substitute (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Michael Barbaro and Taffy Brodesser-Akner of The Times have been named to Variety’s New Power of New York list.