Monday, Oct 7, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering a second whistle-blower in the impeachment inquiry, protests in Hong Kong over the ban on masks and a new #MeToo accusation against Harvey Weinstein.

By Tom Wright-Piersanti

Another whistle-blower emerges

A second whistle-blower in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump has firsthand knowledge of his dealings with Ukraine, according to the legal team now representing both whistle-blowers.

The lawyers said their new client, whose identity is not known, is an intelligence official who had grown alarmed by the president’s behavior and was among those interviewed to corroborate the allegations of the original whistle-blower.

The Trump administration’s investigation: Mr. Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, is looking into the veracity of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. He traveled to Rome last month with a top federal prosecutor to look into one of Mr. Trump’s pet conspiracy theories: that some of America’s closest allies plotted with his “deep state” enemies to try to foil his election.

Despite criticism that he was doing the president’s bidding, the attorney general has signaled that the investigation is a priority and that he is personally overseeing it.

Background: Mr. Barr was in Italy to interview officials about Joseph Mifsud, a professor whose actions figured prominently in the F.B.I.’s rationale for opening the Russia inquiry. Here’s how Mr. Mifsud fits into the story.

Protesters tried to spot riot police near a subway station in Kowloon on Sunday. Adam Dean for The New York Times

Protests over Hong Kong’s mask ban

Hong Kong was again engulfed by clashes between protesters and the police on Sunday, the first significant public gathering since the city’s chief executive banned face masks.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in pouring rain. Many wore gas masks and respirators to protect themselves from tear gas and shield their identities.

The demonstrations began peacefully but quickly morphed into pitched battles, as protesters blocked roads, threw bricks, set fires and vandalized police stations.

Why the ban? The government intended to show that it was taking action to keep Beijing from intervening, while also trying to appease protesters by avoiding more drastic measures like a curfew. The protests underscore how irreconcilable the differences between the two sides have become.

A basketball angle: The general manager of the N.B.A.’s Houston Rockets shared an image on Twitter that read, “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong,” upsetting the Chinese Basketball Association days before the Los Angeles Lakers are to play two exhibition games in mainland China.

More troubles for Nissan

An outside firm looking into the automaker’s recent problems discovered that a powerful insider who was behind the ouster of the company’s chairman, Carlos Ghosn, over compensation issues, had been improperly overpaid himself. A second insider involved in the coup was said to be responsible for the payments.

The company’s board of directors was never told the details of the findings, according to people who attended the board’s last meeting. Moments after that meeting ended, Nissan issued a statement that cleared an unnamed group of executives of misconduct.

Background: Mr. Ghosn, one of the auto industry’s most celebrated executives, was arrested in Japan last year and accused of underreporting his compensation from Nissan to the tune of $80 million. The company said in July that it had begun cutting more than 12,500 jobs around the world.

Members of the Bolshoi Ballet at a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington in October 2016 that was sponsored by VTB, a Russian bank under sanctions. The New York Times

Philanthropy burnishes Russia’s image

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, rich Russians have emerged as influential patrons of the arts. Western cultural organizations — including the Kennedy Center in Washington and the Guggenheim Museum in New York — have often been the beneficiaries.

Their giving in support of Russian art exhibits and Russian ballet performances, and to promote Russian history, creates a counternarrative to the country’s aggression in Ukraine and election meddling. It also fits seamlessly with President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to use “soft power” as a tool of foreign policy.

Quotable: “When Western publics think about Russia, Putin wants them to think about Pushkin, Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky. What he does not want Western publics to think about is the actions of his regime that goes to war with its near neighbors.” — Andrew Foxall, a Russia expert in London

What about sanctions? Some of the oligarchs’ companies were under U.S. sanctions that restricted only their access to financial markets, leaving them free to legally make donations.

If you have 25 minutes, this is worth it

The Afghan war: An oral history

Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Living in a place where violence and death are as routine as commuting to work can erode the spirit. For decades, that has been the daily reality for the people of Afghanistan.

Two of the Times’s Afghan reporters, Fahim Abed and Fatima Faizi, traveled to 10 provinces around the country and interviewed dozens of people, collecting an oral history on a war that has endured 18 years by those whose lives have been defined by it.

Here’s what else is happening

North Korea: After talks broke down in Stockholm over the weekend, the country said that it had no desire to engage in “sickening negotiations” with the U.S. until Washington reversed “hostile” policies, including sanctions and joint military exercises with South Korea.

Philippines: President Rodrigo Duterte announced that he has myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease that has led to a slew of medical problems. The revelation came amid continued public speculation about his health, and even rumors of his death.

Thailand: Six wild elephants plunged to their deaths over a treacherous waterfall while trying to save a young member of the herd that had been swept away by the rain-swollen river, according to officials at Khao Yai National Park.

Brent McDonald/The New York Times

The Amazon’s ‘Day of Fire’: This year, in the fires that caught the world’s attention, one federally protected Brazilian rainforest lost 45 square miles of cover. This video dispatch examines whether the fires, most set on a single day in August, were a coordinated criminal effort among local landowners and cattle ranchers.

Harvey Weinstein: In an Op-Ed, Rowena Chiu, a former assistant to the powerful movie producer, writes that he told her he “liked Chinese girls.” Hours later, she writes, he attempted to rape her.

‘The Joker’: Despite anxiety around the R-rated comic-book film’s opening, the movie was a box-office success for Warner Bros., taking in $93.5 million in the U.S. and $140.5 million overseas.

Obituary: Su Beng, a revolutionary widely known as the father of Taiwan independence for his efforts to liberate the island from colonial rule, has died. He was 100.

What we’re listening to: Lin-Manuel Miranda on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs radio show, where he names the eight songs he’d take if he were a castaway. “There’s rap,” writes Alex Marshall, a culture reporter in Europe. “There’s Puerto Rican songs. And charmingly, one by a former student.”

Now, a break from the news

David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui.

Cook: You can have challah French toast with cinnamon-sugar glaze on a weekday morning if you prep the night before.

Watch: The director Pedro Almodóvar, who surprised even friends with his confessional new drama, “Pain and Glory,” has turned inward, in life and on the screen.

Read: A new novel by Ann Patchett is among nine books our critics recommend this week.

Smarter Living: If you’re concerned about digital privacy, David Pogue, our Crowdwise columnist, collected some less-than-obvious ideas from readers. For instance, be wary of public Wi-Fi networks — in hotels, airports, coffee shops and so on. Even if they require a password, nearby patrons can see everything you’re sending or receiving using free “sniffer” programs on their phones or laptops.

And in this week’s Social Q’s, a reader asks for help getting her widowed mother to stop sharing so much about dating.

And now for the Back Story on …

Anti-Mask Laws

A provision banning masks at demonstrations is rattling Hong Kong. But its government is not the first to impose such a rule: Banning face coverings is quite common, though controversial, in Western democracies.

Laws barring people from covering their faces at demonstrations have existed for decades in Europe (Germany enacted its law in 1985, and Norway in 1995). More recently, bans in France, Austria, Denmark and other countries have focused on Islamic garments like the burqa and niqab.

A protest in Copenhagen on Aug. 1, 2018, the day Denmark's ban on Islamic face veils went into effect. Mads Claus Rasmussen/EPA, via Shutterstock

Those bans have raised concerns over civil liberties and religious freedom, though France’s law was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in 2014.

In the U.S., mask laws vary by state. Bans in Alabama, Ohio and elsewhere were enacted in response to the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist group known for its face-concealing white hoods.

The case that most closely resembles the one in Hong Kong might be from California, where a ban was struck down when Iranian-Americans sued after the 1979 Iranian revolution. Their argument: They needed to shield their identities in protests against Iran’s new leadership.

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

— Tom

Thank you
Andrea Kannapell helped compile today’s briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford wrote the break from the news. Tom wrote the Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to the fifth episode of the audio series for “The 1619 Project,” on black land ownership and dispossession in the U.S.
• The latest episode of “The Daily” looks back at the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Of the 1% (4 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.