Wednesday, Jan 8, 2020 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering a stampede during the funeral procession for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani that killed more than 50 people, Australians banding together to protect koalas, kangaroos and more and the woman who has come to be known as India’s “pickle queen.”

By Melina Delkic

Mourners during funeral processions for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani on Tuesday in Kerman, Iran. Atta Kenare/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Stampede at Suleimani’s procession kills more than 50

The burial for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani of Iran was delayed after a funeral procession turned to chaos on Tuesday, leaving 56 dead and 213 injured, according to the state broadcaster.

Millions had flooded narrow streets, and, with side streets closed off, they had nowhere to escape, witnesses said.

Footage posted on social media showed emergency workers and bystanders trying to resuscitate people lying on the ground, as bodies of other victims, jackets covering their faces, lay nearby.

In Washington: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo maintained there was an imminent threat to Americans and U.S. interests in the days before the general’s death, but did not provide any evidence of it.

Related: President Trump walked back his threat to target cultural sites in military attacks, after the defense secretary said it would be a war crime.

What’s next: Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said any retaliation for the killing of General Suleimani must be a proportional attack on American interests, according to three Iranians familiar with his instructions. In a departure for Tehran, which has often used proxies in its attacks, the ayatollah also said a response should be carried out openly by Iranian forces.

“The Daily”: Our latest episode is about what General Suleimani meant to Iranians.

Wendy Hendrickson and Susan Pulis feeding five kangaroos in a bedroom-turned-shelter on Raymond Island in Victoria on Monday. Christina Simons for The New York Times

Fires take a toll on Australia’s diverse wildlife

Hundreds of millions of animals on the continent, including many that are found nowhere else, may have perished over the months of devastating fires, according to some estimates.

Even the animals that have survived, scampering away or hunkering down, may yet die from dehydration or starvation.

Residents are banding together to help feed, find and rehabilitate survivors, with some even keeping the animals in their homes.

Quotable: “We will have taken many species that weren’t threatened close to extinction, if not to extinction,” said Kingsley Dixon, an ecologist and botanist at Curtin University in Perth.

Beyond Australia: People in the Netherlands are making mittens for koalas with burned paws, and New Zealanders are stitching joey pouches and bat wraps. (Our guide to aid organizations includes wildlife groups.)

The latest: Smoke from the wildfires has drifted across the Pacific and affected cities in South America, and may have reached the Antarctic, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said.

Arrest warrant is issued for Ghosn’s wife

The Japanese authorities turned their attention to Carole Ghosn, the wife of Carlos Ghosn, the fallen auto magnate who skipped bail while awaiting trial in Japan.

Prosecutors said they obtained the warrant on suspicion of giving false testimony. But Mrs. Ghosn, a Lebanese citizen, is believed to be with her husband in Beirut, and Lebanon does not extradite its citizens.

The Japanese ambassador met with Lebanon’s president on Tuesday, but there was no sign they had resolved the issue. Mrs. Ghosn is also a citizen of the U.S., which has an extradition treaty with Japan, but both countries have broad discretion over how they act on such warrants.

Details: Prosecutors said Mrs. Ghosn testified in April that she did not know a person involved in her husband’s case, even though she was in fact in communication with the person, who at the time was wiring money between companies at Mr. Ghosn’s request.

The latest: Japanese airports stepped up security in the wake of Mr. Ghosn’s daring escape, and the authorities said they confiscated the 1.5 billion yen, or nearly $14 million, in bail that Mr. Ghosn forfeited when he fled the country.

If you have 6 minutes, this is worth it

Will China buy fake meat?

Yan Cong for The New York Times

Over the past few years, Impossible Foods and its main rival, Beyond Meat, have become major U.S. food companies, striking deals with fast-food chains and attracting millennials to their plant-based meat substitutes.

Now they’re seeking entry into China, the world’s largest consumer of meat. We looked at the cultural and governmental hurdles. Above, a plant-based beef patty.

Here’s what else is happening

Puerto Rico earthquake: Power was knocked out, homes and buildings were damaged and at least one person died after a 6.4-magnitude quake hit the island on Tuesday, its strongest tremor yet in a week of heavy seismic activity.

Facebook: The company said it would remove “deepfakes,” videos that are heavily manipulated by artificial intelligence in ways meant to mislead viewers. The policy will not extend to parody or satire.

Harvey Weinstein: A judge threatened the fallen film producer with jail time when he used his phone in court after being warned not to.

Sonos: The maker of home speakers sued Google, saying the internet giant stole its technology. It made the same accusations against Amazon, but executives said they couldn’t risk battling two tech giants in court at once.

France: The country is experiencing a reckoning over child abuse, after the publication last week of a book by one of the victims of an author who made his career on what is now understood to be predatory behavior. Prosecutors who read the new book, which sold out in many stores, announced an investigation into the case and said they were looking for other victims in and out of France.

Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, India’s “pickle queen,” as Usha Prabakaran is known. Her 20-year-old self-published cookbook with 1,000 recipes to pickle an array of foods, like plums and green walnuts, became a cult classic. A second book, with recipes for rasam, an everyday soup, is on its way.

What we’re reading: This 2018 essay by Elizabeth Wurtzel, who changed the concepts of both mental illness and the memoir with her 1994 book “Prozac Nation.” After she died on Tuesday of breast cancer at age 52, her admirers shared it repeatedly on Twitter as representative of her unsparing style.

Now, a break from the news

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

Cook: Get over a midweek cooking slump with black bean tacos with avocado and spicy onions.

Read: Sean Adams’s dystopian debut novel, “The Heap,” is a cutting satire about demolished ambition and communal life.

Watch: Jeroboam Bozeman of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dances part of Jamar Roberts’s “Ode,” about the effects of gun violence.

Smarter Living: Griping isn’t always a good thing. But it can be a useful tool in helping us process emotions.

And now for the Back Story on …

Fort Bragg

Some 3,500 soldiers in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division were ordered onto planes at Fort Bragg a few days ago for a rapid deployment to the Middle East amid peaking tensions with Iran. Dave Philipps, who covers veterans and the military for The Times, gave us this about the history of the base.

Fort Bragg is one of the largest U.S. bases. It covers parts of four North Carolina counties and is home to about 50,000 active-duty soldiers — one-tenth of the force. Some call it “the nation’s 911” because some of its troops can deploy in as little as 18 hours.

It has another distinction. Along with nine other installations in the southeastern U.S., Fort Bragg is named for a Confederate official in the Civil War. Maj. Gen. Braxton Bragg commanded the Army of Mississippi until he was removed after being routed by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

General Bragg photographed between 1861 and 1865. Library of Congress

Many of these bases were created in the first part of the 20th century, when world wars pushed the Army to expand. It looked the other way when local officials named them after men who took up arms against the country.

Though monuments to the Confederacy have been toppled all over the South in recent years, the Army has made no moves to change base names, despite congressional efforts to force it.

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

— Melina

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode explores the background of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Saudi Arabia’s neighbor to the south (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Ten articles from The Times were among the 100 that best captured the world’s attention last year, according to Chartbeat, a technology company that tracks online audiences.