Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

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October 15, 2019

Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

By victoria shannon and hiroko masuike

Good evening. Here's the latest.

Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

1. The biggest U.S. presidential debate ever.

Twelve Democratic candidates take the stage in Ohio tonight for a three-hour matchup under far different circumstances than the last debate.

For one, the impeachment inquiry into President Trump is advancing. Voters will be eyeing how the candidates balance attacks on Mr. Trump with questions about Joe Biden's role in the overseas business interests of his son Hunter.

For another, Mr. Trump's decisions on Syria have thrown U.S. foreign policy a curveball. And interest will be high in Bernie Sanders's performance after his heart attack two weeks ago.

Here's our live briefing, where you can also watch the debate live-streamed beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. (Ahead of that, enjoy our deconstruction of the architecture of memorable zingers.)

Omar Sanadiki/Reuters

2. Russia is flexing its military in Syria.

Russian forces moved into territory in northern Syria vacated by the Americans, above, underscoring the sudden loss of U.S. influence in the eight-year-old Syria war.

Debatable, from The Times Opinion section, examines the public discussion on what's to be done now.

To follow President Trump's abrupt order last week to withdraw, the Pentagon is faced with hastily disassembling combat bases built to last, and protecting troops departing amid a chaotic battlefield.

Mr. Trump is sending a delegation including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Turkey, to push for a halt on the country's advance into Syria. And the Justice Department escalated the pressure by filing fraud and money laundering charges against Turkey's second largest state-owned bank.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

3. Congress is back from recess.

Democratic leaders plan to huddle with their caucus this evening to give updates on the state of the impeachment inquiry and discuss the possibility of holding a floor vote to authorize it.

During the day, House investigators questioned a State Department Ukraine expert, George Kent, above in the bow tie.

He — like some others who've testified so far — had deep concerns about the issue at the heart of the inquiry: the pressure being exerted on Ukraine by President Trump and his private lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, to investigate Mr. Trump's political rivals.

Vice President Mike Pence and Mr. Giuliani are refusing to hand over documents to the panel.

Isabel Infantes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

4. How close is a Brexit deal?

Hopes for a breakthrough are surging, lifting the pound. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still frantically trying to bridge a gap over the thorny issue of how to handle Northern Ireland's border with Ireland in time for an E.U. summit this week. Above, Mr. Johnson today.

If he manages it, he'll still need to win over Parliament. "There is a robust trade-off here," one person briefed said. "Technically, the deal can be done, but can the politics deliver?"

The appetite for a new referendum revisiting Brexit is growing. Labour members of Parliament say they will push to attach a new vote to whatever agreement the prime minister brings back from Brussels.

5. "I was basically on the verge of death."

Gregory Rodriguez, a college student, is one of the nearly 1,300 people in the U.S. who have become victims of vaping.

Like him, about 70 percent are young men. And like him, many vaped THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana — but most have not told their stories. Mr. Rodriguez says he slipped into doing it constantly, inhaling enormous amounts of THC and craving more.

And then he woke up in a hospital, with machines doing the job of his lungs, which had stopped working. His mother shared the cellphone photo above.

Tarrant County Jail

6. This is an undated photo of Aaron Dean, the police officer charged with murder after shooting 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson through her bedroom window.

He is out of jail after posting $200,000 bond. Officials say he has not answered questions from investigators. Here's what we know about the case, yet another example of a white officer killing a black person. It has raised questions about policing practices nationwide and in Fort Worth, where officers have fatally shot six people since June.

"Fort Worth has a culture that has allowed this to happen," said S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer representing Ms. Jefferson's family. "There still needs to be a reckoning."

Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

7. Hong Kong protesters are targeting Starbucks. Apple could be next.

They are hitting businesses they see, rightly or wrongly, as sympathetic to the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party with boycotts and sometimes vandalism.

"All corporations here are walking on eggshells when it comes to what they say, whether it's about Hong Kong or about the mainland," said David Webb, a shareholder activist in the territory.

Also, LeBron James is getting some backlash via social media for suggesting that an N.B.A. team official's pro-Hong Kong tweet could have imperiled American basketball players in China. Like many of the league's star players, he has business interests in China through sponsors like Nike.

Emissive

8. The "Mona Lisa" is going virtual.

With a blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci exhibition opening next week, the Louvre Museum in Paris will offer a virtual reality tour of the famous portrait meant in part to address the crowds jostling and peering to see its subject's mystic smile.

The seven-minute VR headset tour will be an intimate encounter, including a virtual flight aboard a wing-flapping glider da Vinci sketched.

It will be housed in a small gallery room near the main da Vinci exhibition, apart from the painting itself, which is only 30 inches tall and shielded by glass.

Jack Thompson for The New York Times

9. Our national obsession with shrimp.

Lower prices and increased supply are boosting the U.S. consumption of shrimp, now up to about 4.4 pounds per person annually.

But consumers looking for both the best taste and the most responsible supply chain have their work cut out for them, our food writer Melissa Clark explains. Despite their reputations, not all wild shrimp is good, and not all farmed shrimp is bad.

Whether farmed or wild, the cheaper the shrimp, the more likely it is to have been treated with sodium tripolyphosphate and sodium bisulfite. Here's our guide to shrimp and chemicals.

Matt Edge for The New York Times

10. And finally, a Rubik's robot.

This hand, created by the artificial intelligence lab OpenAI, solved a Rubik's Cube in four minutes.

Even though a computer can do it in a second, the demonstration showed advances in both robotic dexterity and the potential of machine learning, which could eventually lead to machines performing far more complex tasks, like driving a car or sorting packages in a warehouse.

"Solving a Rubik's Cube is not very useful, but it shows how far we can push these techniques," one of the researchers said.

Have a futuristic evening.

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