Tuesday, Oct 22, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering Turkey’s broader ambition for nuclear weapons, another make-or-break day for Brexit and royal intrigue in Thailand.

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

Anti-Brexit protesters outside Parliament on Monday. Isabel Infantes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Britain braces for another Brexit showdown

Parliament is expected to vote again today on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement and — surprise — it may or may not be a turning point in the Brexit saga.

The vote was initially planned for Monday, but John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons and perennial thorn in Mr. Johnson’s side, blocked the vote because Parliament rules forbid the reintroduction of the same bill multiple times.

Next steps: If Mr. Johnson’s plan wins, the government will put forward an accelerated timetable for the legislation, designed to receive approval from Parliament in three days and clear the path for an Oct. 31 divorce.

Rejecting Mr. Johnson’s timetable would enable his opponents to introduce amendments to his plan — such as a referendum or keeping Britain in the E.U. customs union — that could effectively kill it.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey addressed legislators last week. Burhan Ozbilici/Associated Press

Emboldened, Turkey eyes nuclear weapons

In the weeks before Turkey’s incursion into Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced his larger ambition: pursuing a nuclear weapon.

The country already has the makings of a bomb program — uranium deposits, research reactors and a long-delayed power reactor now under construction — though experts said it would take years to produce a weapon.

But its efforts could provoke a new crisis: Turkey would be the first NATO member to break out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

A warning: “There will be ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish people from Syria, and the American administration will be responsible for it,” said the Kurdish commander of the Syrian force that once helped the U.S. fight the Islamic State.

On the ground: The U.S. pullback in Syria has left tens of thousands of women and children in Kurdish-run detainee camps for relatives of Islamic State fighters. On the Turkish side of the border, the fighting has led to at least 20 deaths.

Facebook takes down more disinformation campaigns

The company said Monday that it had removed four state-backed campaigns — three from Iran and one from Russia — in addition to dozens of similar campaigns it has already removed this year.

The accounts targeted people in North Africa, Latin America and the U.S. — an indication that the spread of false information is still a big problem as America heads into the 2020 election.

Separately: Facebook executives have been on a charm offensive, courting lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. for its cryptocurrency, called Libra. Tomorrow, Mark Zuckerberg. the chief executive, is expected to testify about the digital currency before the House Financial Services Committee.

If you have some time, this is worth it

A dead teenager, a detective and Chinese drug labs

Photo illustration by Najeebah Al-Ghadban

After a teenager in North Dakota overdosed on the deadly drug fentanyl, a young Drug Enforcement Administration agent sprang into action.

Through his investigation, he uncovered a global supply chain that begins in China, where a rapidly expanding drug industry remains largely unchecked by understaffed and overwhelmed regulators.

Here’s what else is happening

WeWork: SoftBank is in advanced talks to take over the work space company, according to CNBC, and a decision could be announced as soon as today.

Canada: Within hours, the election results should start trickling in. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been locked in a tight race, fighting for his political life after it was revealed that as a young man he had dressed in blackface and brownface.

Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is giving up his attempt at forming a government, clearing the way for his rival, Benny Gantz, who narrowly defeated him in elections last month, to try to become the country’s next leader.

South Korea: Students angered over accusations of favoritism toward “gold spoon” elite children set off large protests, forcing President Moon Jae-in to apologize and his justice minister to resign.

Afghanistan: The U.S. has quietly drawn down troop levels by about 2,000 over the past year, despite the absence of a peace deal with the Taliban. Roughly 12,000 U.S. troops remain.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex: Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, spoke of their struggles in the spotlight for a new documentary. “I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my mum,” Prince Harry said.

Thailand: The king dismissed his royal consort just months after appointing her to the post, citing Sineenat Bilaskalayani’s disloyalty and ambition “to be equal to the Queen.” Until this year, the royal consort title hadn’t been used in nearly a century.

Shreya Yadav/J. Madin Lab/Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology/University of Hawaii

Snapshot: Above, coral reefs around Hawaii, where a new “super unusual” marine heat wave is leading to mass bleaching. The white parts of the coral are bleached and the patchy brown bits have recently died.

Indian hip-hop: Ranveer Singh, the Bollywood actor who recently starred in a movie about India’s underground rap scene, is a co-founder of a record label called IncInk dedicated to spotlighting young stars.

What we’re reading: This account of how the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations unit welcomes home America’s war dead, by The Record of North Jersey. Will Lamb, a Times editor, called it “an extraordinary and moving look at a sensitive mission that few of us get to see.”

Now, a break from the news

Craig Lee for The New York Times

Cook: This exquisitely simple recipe for penne with roasted cherry tomatoes requires only five ingredients. (Our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has more recommendations.)

Go: To mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, the Louvre in Paris is staging an ambitious retrospective featuring some 160 works by the Renaissance artist, running from this week until February 2020.

Read: “Celestial Bodies” by Jokha Alharthi is the first Arabic novel to win the Man Booker International prize. The book “is itself a treasure house,” writes our critic.

Smarter Living: Taking a vacation can be a great way for adult siblings to reconnect and strengthen their relationship. If you’re traveling with a sibling, experts say it’s helpful to split up the planning, which encourages communication before the trip. And don’t be afraid to embrace solo side trips — we all need a few hours to ourselves.

Our Social Q’s column also tackles the tricky subject of dealing with an ex who interferes with family visits.

And now for the Back Story on …

Esperanto

Long before appearing in an errant presidential tweet about Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Esperanto was the name given to a language invented by a Jewish doctor in the late 1800s.

Its creator, L.L. Zamenhof, was from what is now Poland. He hoped that Esperanto would be adopted universally as a way to bridge international differences. If everyone spoke the same language, he reasoned, “education, ideals, convictions, aims, would be the same too, and all nations would be united in a common brotherhood.”

L.L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. Ullstein Bild, via Getty Images

Zamenhof was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910, and Esperanto was later proposed unsuccessfully as the official language of the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations.

Esperanto has a Latin-based alphabet of 28 letters and relatively simple grammar rules.

While no country recognizes it as an official language, Esperanto has recently experienced a surge of interest online, including on Duolingo, the language-learning app, and as an option on Google Translate.

As an Esperantist would say, “Bonan matenon!” (“Good morning!”)

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. Chris Stanford 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 the effort to extract detainees from camps in northern Syria.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Poem with a 5/7/5 structure (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times has 21 reporters covering next year’s presidential election. Get to know them here.