Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

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November 5, 2019

Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

By remy tumin and hiroko masuike

Good evening. Here's the latest.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

1. A key impeachment inquiry witness acknowledged delivering a quid pro quo message to Ukraine, in a major revision to his testimony.

In four new pages of sworn testimony, Gordon Sondland, the envoy to the E.U., said he had told the Ukrainians that they needed to comply with investigative requests by Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer. The testimony offered major new details beyond the account he gave the inquiry in a 10-hour interview last month, above.

Mr. Trump and his Republican allies have offered varying explanations over the Ukraine pressure campaign. But their use of the phrase "quid pro quo" has been a constant.

House impeachment investigators have also summoned Mick Mulvaney, the president's acting chief of staff, to testify, but like Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the former National Security Adviser John Bolton, he's unlikely to comply.

Carlos Bernate for The New York Times

2. Election Day: Results in Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi will help measure Republican support for President Trump and Democratic strength in the suburbs. Here's what to watch for.

Kentucky and Mississippi are electing governors, and Democrats are hoping for upset victories in those two solidly Republican states. In Virginia, the issue is control of the state legislature, where Republicans have slim majorities in each chamber. If the G.O.P. loses, Virginia state government will be under full Democratic control. Above, Midlothian, Va.

We'll have updates at nytimes.com later tonight.

And when it comes to next year's presidential election, most voters in the battleground states have already made up their minds about whom they're voting for. But the voters who haven't might decide the election.

Tannen Maury/EPA, via Shutterstock

3. The overall trade deficit continued to widen in the first nine months of 2019, suggesting that President Trump's global trade wars have not had the desired effect of closing the trade gap.

The trade deficit for both goods and services grew to $481.3 billion in the first three quarters of the year, up 5.4 percent from the same period last year, according to new Commerce Department data. Above, farming in Millard, Wis.

The numbers came as President Xi Jinping endorsed free trade in a speech in Shanghai, though his government's attempts to end the punishing trade war with the U.S. and to open up new markets seemed to be faltering.

Dion MBD

4. If you've given your DNA to a consumer genetic database, you may want to read this story.

A court order allowed a detective to access an entire consumer DNA database, including users who had opted out of searches by law enforcement. Privacy experts said it could set a precedent, opening up all consumer DNA sites to law enforcement agencies across the country.

"That's a huge game-changer," one expert said. "The company made a decision to keep law enforcement out, and that's been overridden by a court. It's a signal that no genetic information can be safe."

Secretary of Health of State of Sonora, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

5. We're still learning more about the lethal ambush of a prominent Mormon family in northern Mexico. Above, the Mexican Air Force airlifted the victims.

At least three women and six children died when their vehicles were fired on by gunmen believed to be members of organized crime, family members said. Other children survived, some by hiding along the roadside. Here's what we know so far.

The LeBarón family, a group of dual Mexican and American citizens, have lived in a fundamentalist Mormon community in the border region for decades. The killings highlight the long history of polygamous settlers there.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

6. The celebrated Popeyes fried chicken sandwich is back.

It returned to the menu on Sunday after a hiatus, and some lines were long. Our reporter looked at the roots of the sandwich's popularity.

But there was at least one fight. On Monday night, the police in Maryland said a fatal stabbing occurred during a fight between two men who were waiting in line for the chicken sandwich. A suspect is still at large.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

7. The countdown to March Madness begins.

As the 2019-20 college basketball season kicks off, with one realistic permutation of the Final Four playing a doubleheader, No. 1 Michigan State faces No. 2 Kentucky, while No. 3 Kansas plays No. 4 Duke in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York. (7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN)

Here's what to watch for in the coming season.

And in case you missed it, one fluffy black kitty paused the Giants-Cowboys game on Monday night, apparently one of the feral cats that live in Giants Stadium. The interlude included a boisterous play-by-play and a little superstition.

Victor Llorente for The New York Times

8. Yayoi Kusama is a global phenomenon.

The 90-year-old Japanese artist's "Infinity" rooms are Instagram candy. The New York Botanical Garden will host a large-scale exploration of the artist's work in the spring.

Next year, three European institutions will jointly present a Kusama retrospective. And Macy's will feature its first Kusama balloon in the Thanksgiving Day Parade: a tentacled, polka-dot face of a sun, above. Our culture reporter considers whether it's all too much.

In need of some advice or comfort? Our new T Magazine Culture therapists will solve your problems using art.

Marcus Nilsson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.

9. "This is not survival fare. These are bright, bold, contemporary flavors for today's palate."

We asked Sean Sherman, the founder of The Sioux Chef, a company devoted to Indigenous foods, to create 10 essential Native American recipes that showcase tribal diversity across the lower 48 states.

"I am not interested in recreating foods from 1491 — rather, I hope to celebrate the diversity that defines our communities now," he writes.

We also looked at how an exodus of grocery stores is turning rural towns into food deserts. Some are fighting back by opening their own local markets.

Harry Langdon/Getty Images

10. And finally, reading the stars.

Walter Mercado, a beloved Puerto Rican astrologer, defied categorization. A director of a forthcoming documentary about Mr. Mercado described him as "our Oprah, Mr. Rogers, Liberace and spiritual adviser all rolled into one."

So when he died this past weekend (somewhere in his late 80s), one of our Opinion editors was transported back to her childhood in Florida, waiting for him to make his daily prediction and urge listeners to "saturate yourself in love."

"It feels like now more than ever we need his optimism," she writes. "We need his voice urging us to keep our heads up, despite how grim things seem."

Have an inspirational night.

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