Your Friday Evening Briefing

View in browser|nytimes.com

OCTOBER 4, 2019

Your Friday Evening Briefing

By remy tumin and marcus payadue

Good evening. Here's the latest.

Pete Marovich for The New York Times

1. House leaders have requested documents for the impeachment inquiry from Vice President Mike Pence related to "any role you may have played" in the Ukraine matter.

In a letter, the chairmen of three House committees asked Mr. Pence to turn over a wide-ranging batch of material that could shed light on President Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine. The letter came as lawmakers were readying a subpoena for the White House for a vast trove of documents related to the issue.

Mr. Trump denied again on Friday that there was any quid pro quo in his dealings with Ukraine, but a new batch of text messages suggested that his own representatives saw things differently.

"I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," read one message sent by the top American diplomat in Ukraine. Read the texts and our reporters' explanations.

Jason Redmond/Reuters

2. Hackers backed by Iran targeted the email accounts of President Trump's re-election campaign, journalists covering political campaigns and U.S. officials, Microsoft said.

The revelation comes as the Trump administration is weighing a possible cyberstrike against Iran, and is an indication that cyberattacks may play a major role in the 2020 presidential campaign.

In other election news, Elizabeth Warren raised $24.6 million in the past three months, exceeding the total raised by Joe Biden and narrowly trailing that of Bernie Sanders. Here's the latest poll data on how the 19 Democratic candidates are doing.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

3. The Supreme Court will hear its first abortion case since President Trump picked two justices. A big ruling could come late in the 2020 campaign.

The court agreed to hear a challenge to a Louisiana law that requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Opponents say the law would leave the state with only one doctor in a single clinic authorized to provide abortions.

Adam Dean for The New York Times

4. Tensions are simmering in Hong Kong after the city's leader invoked emergency powers to ban masks amid increasingly violent protests.

The decision by the city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, reflected the growing intensity of the movement and the mounting pressure the government faces to take action.

Thousands protested, many wearing masks, as the clock ticked toward the ban taking effect at midnight. Protests have largely died down since then, but more are expected over the weekend.

Michele Spatari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

5. Prince Harry started legal proceedings against the owners of two British tabloids over phone hacking accusations, opening a new front against the media's treatment of him and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Above, the couple in Johannesburg this week.

It was the second time in recent days that the prince took aim at British tabloids. British news outlets reported that the new claims most likely stemmed from incidents of phone hacking in the early 2000s.

In other news out of Britain: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than delay Brexit, but the British government said in court papers that Mr. Johnson would ask for an extension if he did not secure a new deal by mid-October.

John G Mabanglo/EPA, via Shutterstock

6. Australia just had a bad flu season, which may foretell a bad one is on its way to the U.S., public health experts said.

This year's Australian outbreak began two months early, and led to more flu-related deaths than usual. Its terrible 2017 season presaged an American season in which 79,000 died.

The flu is unpredictable, and experts advise getting the shot soon (your Briefing writer got hers today). "We know it isn't perfect," one doctor said, "but we need to emphasize the importance of partial protection."

Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times

7. We have another story in our series on the broken taxi medallion system.

Our reporters previously uncovered reckless loan practices that had allowed a small group of bankers and brokers to turn New York City's medallions, which permit people to operate cabs, into their own moneymaking machine, devastating a generation of drivers.

Apparently, it didn't stop there: They expanded their tactics to other cities, most notably Chicago, home of the nation's second-largest cab industry. At its peak, New Yorkers had bought almost half the city's medallions, records show.

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

8. The New York Yankees are eyeing title No. 28.

They open their 2019 postseason tonight against the A.L. Central champion Minnesota Twins, with a real shot to reach their first World Series in a decade. And the balls should be flying: The Twins may have hit more homers, but in 2019, no team hit the ball harder than the Yankees — not even close.

Here's what to watch for, as well as live updates of the game. Above, Aaron Judge followed through on a two-run home run last month.

On the football field this weekend, red-hot backup quarterbacks will meet when Jacksonville's Gardner Minshew and Carolina's Kyle Allen face off. Here are the games to keep an eye on.

Arik McArthur/WireImage

9. Lil Tecca was 16 and living with his parents on Long Island when an out-of-the-blue tweet brought him to Los Angeles. Now he's a star.

In the latest Diary of a Song, our music critic breaks down how the internet stars aligned to turn a teenage rapper with braces into a new king of streaming.

In memoriam: Diahann Carroll, who transcended racial barriers on "Julia," the first U.S. TV series about a black professional woman, has died at 84.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

10. And finally, a dinosaur walks into a veterinarian's office. Well, sort of.

Seeking evidence of chronic pain in other species, researchers recently collected hundreds of tales of dinosaur injuries trapped in the fossil record, from a tyrannosaur with a rival's tooth embedded in its skull to an ornithopod whose toe injury made it leave unusually spaced tracks.

So how would these prehistoric reptiles be treated today? We asked a pet doctor to examine the research. For Sue the T. rex with several broken arm bones, above, he recommended temporarily immobilizing the injury and maybe even putting it in a dino-size e-collar or "cone of shame."

Have a colossal weekend.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

And don't miss Your Morning Briefing. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European, African or American morning.

Want to catch up on past briefings? You can browse them here.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.