Wednesday, Oct 30, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

British Parliament has approved holding a general election in December. We’re also covering an alarming new study about rising seas and a new mountaineering record.

By Andrea Kannapell and Alisha Haridasani Gupta

Britain heads into a general election

Prime Minister Boris Johnson won approval to hold a general election on Dec. 12 that could potentially break the political impasse around Brexit.

The vote in Parliament on Tuesday came after the opposition Labour Party dropped its resistance to an early election, setting off a six-week campaign. Mr. Johnson will likely make a case for a swift Brexit, while the opposition is likely to propose holding a second referendum about whether to leave at all.

Calculations: Mr. Johnson is hoping that his party can convert its current polling lead into a parliamentary majority that could smooth the Brexit process in the months ahead.

But it’s also possible that the divided opposition could end up banding together to pull off an upset victory.

What’s next? The motion for an early election must clear the House of Lords, which seems likely.

Go deeper: There are many theories about how Mr. Johnson rose to power. Some suggest it might have had something to do with a decades-old BBC quiz show.

Members of a European lawmakers delegation being transported on Tuesday to a hotel in Srinagar, which has been in lockdown since August. Tauseef Mustafa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

India opens Kashmir to outsiders

After months of denying access to the locked-down Kashmir region, the Indian government on Tuesday allowed a visit by mostly far-right members of the European Parliament, representing anti-immigration parties with histories of anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Since stripping Kashmir of its autonomy in early August, India has stopped international journalists from traveling there, locked up local politicians, and severed phone lines and the internet.

The Indian government insisted that the Europeans had not officially been invited by New Delhi, although they met on Monday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Quotable: “It’s an insult to India’s Parliament when democratically elected parliamentarians from India are forbidden from traveling within their own country and must seek permission to travel to Jammu and Kashmir,” said Gaurav Gogoi, a lawmaker with the opposition Indian National Congress party.

The New York Times

A darker vision of global flooding

Rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought, threatening to inundate Bangkok, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City and other major coastal cities, according to new calculations by the U.S.-based science organization Climate Central.

The findings show that some 150 million people are now living on land that will be below the high-tide line by midcentury.

What changed: The standard way of calculating land elevation is based on satellite readings, but they often don’t differentiate true ground level from the tops of trees or buildings. The researchers used artificial intelligence to determine the error rate and correct for it.

Hope: The new data shows that 110 million people already live in places that are below the high-tide line, demonstrating the effectiveness of protective measures like sea walls and other barriers.

Impeachment inquiry hears from first current White House official

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, on Tuesday told House impeachment investigators that he heard President Trump appeal to Ukraine’s president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden during their July 25 phone call.

He is the only witness so far who listened in on the phone call, which is central to the inquiry, and he told officials that he had reported his concerns about the exchange to a White House lawyer.

Mr. Trump attempted to undercut Colonel Vindman’s credibility, accusing him on Twitter of being a political opponent.

Background: Colonel Vindman’s family fled Ukraine and the Soviet Union when he was 3 years old. He eventually enlisted in the Army, and received a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq by a roadside bomb.

Related: House Democrats unveiled new rules that they’ll vote on later this week directing the Intelligence Committee to hold open hearings and produce a written report to share findings, taking public what has so far been a confidential fact-finding process.

If you have five minutes, this is worth it

The color of protest

Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, already officially barred from wearing face masks, are apparently the targets of another ban. The South China Morning Post reports that a block on importing black clothes — the de facto uniform of the demonstrators — first issued in July has recently became more all encompassing.

Our chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, says that the ban misses the point. Color doesn’t define protest clothing, but unity. “It’s the joint identity that stands out,” she writes, “the visual expression of a voluminous force.”

Here’s what else is happening

Hong Kong: The democracy activist Joshua Wong, 23, will not be allowed to run in district council elections next month, a blow to the protest movement’s efforts to convert deep anger toward the authorities into electoral gains.

ISIS: A Kurdish-led force that President Trump abandoned this month had been persuaded to put U.S. priorities ahead of its own, including in finding the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Syria, according to American officials. “We asked them to surrender everything they worked for,” said one.

Philippines: A magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck the southern island of Mindanao, killing at least two people and causing structural damage.

Australia: Regulators accused Google of misleading consumers about its collection of their personal location information through its Android mobile operating system, even as the Department of Home Affairs proposed using facial scans to verify that people who seek to watch pornography online are of legal age.

Grenfell Tower: A 1,000-page government report about Britain’s deadliest fire was harshly critical of the London Fire Brigade, asserting that some of 72 victims who died in 2017 would have survived if firefighters and emergency operators hadn’t told them to stay in their apartments.

Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, Boeing’s chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, on Capitol Hill surrounded by family members of 737 Max crash victims. He admitted to U.S. lawmakers that he learned of a test pilot’s warnings about a new system in the aircraft before a second crash that is tied to the system.

Lebanon: Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he would resign following enormous antigovernment protests demanding his ouster that have suspended daily life in the country for nearly two weeks.

Tuberculosis vaccine: An experimental treatment for the world’s most lethal infectious disease has protected about half the people who received it, scientists reported.

Mountaineering record: Nirmal Purja of Nepal, a former member of the British military, successfully reached the top of all 14 of the world’s highest mountains in just over six months, a feat it has taken other climbers years to manage.

The “Star Wars” wars: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the executive producers of “Game of Thrones,” have walked away from their deal with Lucasfilms to launch a feature-film “Star Wars” trilogy. The pair cited their recent $200 million deal with Netflix as the reason.

52 Places traveler: In his latest dispatch, our columnist visits Tunis, the Tunisian capital where the Arab Spring began, and finds artists, entrepreneurs and activists creating the future.

What we’re reading: This Boston Globe article. “Charles Ogletree is a giant of the legal world and has been a brilliant presence at Harvard for decades,” writes Carolyn Ryan, our assistant managing editor and a Boston native. “This story captures the tender journey he and his wife are on now, as he recedes from public life with Alzheimer’s, and she lovingly cares for him.”

Now, a break from the news

Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.

Cook: Apple cider whoopie pies, cakelike cookie sandwiches dusted in cinnamon sugar, are inspired by classic apple cider doughnuts.

Listen: On “Jesus Is King,” Kanye West’s ninth album, the rapper turns to gospel music, suggesting a shift in his public image that’s actually not much of a change.

Read: “Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister,” by Jung Chang, reconstructs the lives of the three Soong sisters, who helped shape modern China.

Smarter Living: Solitude gets a pretty bad rap. But experts say taking time for yourself can help you better handle negative emotions and experiences, like stress and burnout. If you’re having trouble following through, start with something simple, like spending 30 minutes a week reading at a cafe.

And in our Ethicist column, a writer asks whether she should tell her adult children the story of the affair that ended her marriage years ago.

And now for the Back Story on …

Remaking ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’

John Legend and Kelly Clarkson are releasing a reworked version of the holiday classic, whose original lyrics have not aged well in the #MeToo era.

Kelly Clarkson and John Legend at the Billboard Music Awards last year. Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

The song, written in 1944, has a surprising history — including a small role in the history of Islamic fundamentalism. Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian scholar whose writings influenced Osama bin Laden, was radicalized during a stay in 1950s Colorado, where “Baby It’s Cold Outside” was played during a church dance.

Critics say the song depicts a man refusing to take “no” for an answer. Complicating matters, there have been versions with women playing the aggressor — including one where Miss Piggy pursues a towel-clad Rudolf Nureyev. In the reimagined version, Clarkson sings “I’ve got to go away,” to which Legend responds, “I can call you a ride.”

“What will my friends think?”

“I think they should rejoice.”

“If I have one more drink?”

“It’s your body, and your choice.”

That’s it for this briefing. (Baby it’s woke outside.)

— Andrea and Alisha

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Adam Pasick, 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 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Staple food for nearly half of the world (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Our Book Review is now including excerpts from the opening chapters of books with selected reviews.