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| (Want to get this briefing by email? Here's the sign-up.) |
| Good morning. Because of technical problems, we look a little different today than usual — including not having pictures. We should be back to normal tomorrow. |
| The most powerful Arab leader: M.B.Z., not M.B.S. |
| Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, is arguably the most powerful leader in the Arab world. He controls sovereign wealth funds worth $1.3 trillion and props up reliable allies around the region, including Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. |
| The prince has long been considered a crucial friend to the U.S. as well, influencing Washington's foreign policy in the region. |
| Now, U.S. prosecutors are investigating his ties to President Trump. The special counsel has unearthed evidence that the prince tried to help the Russians open back channels to the Trump campaign. |
| Takeaway: Under the Trump administration, the prince's influence in Washington seems greater than ever, with the president adopting his views and moving against the prince's two enemies — Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood — even over the advice of his own cabinet officials and senior national security staff. |
| _____ |
| Trump visits London amid Brexit chaos |
| President Trump arrives in London today for a long-delayed state visit. |
| His visit comes as Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to step down on Friday, and his penchant for headline-grabbing statements could further shake up a divided, Brexit-battered country. |
| On the agenda: Much of the activity on Monday will be at Buckingham Palace, including a formal welcome and a banquet with Queen Elizabeth. He will have afternoon tea with Prince Charles. He meets with Mrs. May on Tuesday. And he is expected to take part in solemn ceremonies commemorating the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. |
| He won't, however, address Parliament. |
| Reminder: Mrs. May invited Mr. Trump for a state visit when he first took office two years ago. But as the relationship between Britain and the U.S. turned awkward, the trip was sidelined. Mr. Trump visited Britain last year on a working trip — a downgrade from a full-blown state visit. |
| _____ |
| China takes a defiant stand in the trade war |
| Chinese officials showed little signs of backing down in the trade standoff with the U.S., blaming Washington for a breakdown in negotiations. |
| In a white paper released on Sunday, Beijing didn't specify how it would respond to the latest round of U.S. tariffs and the Trump administration's ban on Huawei. But commentaries in state-run news media have suggested the government could target American companies that source key components, like the minerals used to power batteries and smartphones, in China. |
| Quotable: "China isn't willing to fight a trade war, but it isn't afraid to fight and will fight if necessary. That attitude has not changed," the white paper said. |
| _____ |
| Trump widens trade war to Mexico and India |
| President Trump threatened to impose gradually increasing tariffs on imports from Mexico on June 10 unless the country acts to curb the flow of migrants to the U.S. border. |
| In doing so, he is said to have ignored the objections of several senior advisers, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to multiple administration officials. |
| The announcement, which the president made on Twitter, could greatly rattle the U.S. economy — including by disrupting plans some U.S. companies had to shift their China-focused business dealings to Mexico. |
| By the numbers: Mexico displaced China as the top U.S. trading partner this year. The U.S. imported $345 billion in goods from Mexico last year, and about 30 percent of the content of Mexican exports originated in the U.S., according to a recent study. |
| Related: Mr. Trump also targeted India in his sprawling trade war, terminating its special trade status on the same day the Indian government reported that the country's economy was growing at its slowest rate in five years. |
| _____ |
| If you have 10 minutes, this is worth it |
| Greed and death in Vancouver |
| The lurid trial of Zhao Li, an immigrant accused of murdering his wealthier cousin, has riveted Canadians and made headlines in China, exposing a real-life drama of souring family ties, revenge and violence. |
| But his case also illuminates the recent changes that an influx of wealthy Chinese immigrants have brought to Vancouver. |
| Here's what else is happening |
| Tiananmen anniversary: Days before the most politically sensitive date on China's calendar, Twitter suspended the accounts of Chinese human rights lawyers, activists, college students and nationalists, who use workarounds to access the banned social media platform. The company apologized and said the accounts were suspended by overactive filters, but doubt over the explanation ran rampant online. |
| YouTube: Kanghua Ren, a YouTube prankster known as ReSet to his followers, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined about $22,300 for one of his pranks in which he replaced an Oreo cookie's cream with toothpaste and handed it to a homeless man in Barcelona. |
| Boeing: As the aircraft manufacturer rushed to build a 737 Max, employees and the Federal Aviation Administration were left in the dark about a fundamental overhaul to an automated system that would ultimately play a role in two fatal crashes. |
| Big Tech: The two U.S. agencies focused on antitrust, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, have split up oversight of Google and Amazon, according to three people familiar with the matter, signaling greater scrutiny, if not yet investigations. |
| North Korea: Kim Yong-chol, the leader of negotiations for two summit meetings with President Trump, has largely disappeared from view. Some analysts in South Korea believe he may have been sidelined, even banished to forced labor, and members of his team possibly executed, after the diplomacy failed to achieve the aims of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. |
| U.S. mass shooting: A Virginia Beach public utilities employee who killed 12 people and injured several others before dying himself in a shootout with the police on Friday had just submitted his resignation. |
| India: Rescuers have been looking for eight climbers — two Americans, four Britons, an Australian and an Indian — on the country's second-highest mountain, the Nanda Devi East , after they failed to report back to base camp on May 26. |
| Top Shop: Sir Philip Green, the British owner of the major fashion retailer Arcadia Group, has been charged with assault in the U.S. by a fitness instructor in Arizona. He denies the allegations and doesn't plan to attend a hearing in the case, scheduled for June 19. |
| Elizabeth Gilbert: The author of "Eat Pray Love" has evolved greatly since that personal journey around the world and has now published a new book, "City of Girls," set during World War II. |
| "The Weekly": A new half-hour TV show from The New York Times brings you one big story every week. The premiere is about the T.M. Landry school scandal in Louisiana. |
| What we're reading: This exploration of the word "intersectionality"from Vox. Amanda Taub, our Interpreter columnist, appreciates how Jane Coaston "unpacks the obscure academic term, which has become one of the biggest flashpoints in today's culture war." |
| Now, a break from the news |
| Cook: Don't doubt the power of a pasta and zucchini salad. Chef Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe is delicious. |
| Watch: Asian-American couples don't get to have sex in Hollywood movies. Randall Park and Ali Wong wrote "Always Be My Maybe" anyway, now streaming on Netflix. |
| Listen: Steve Lacy is largely a one-man studio band on his debut album. Its grand statement is the nine-minute "Like Me," one of 12 new tracks on our weekly playlist. |
| Read: The first volume of a planned trilogy about the American Revolution is one of nine books we recommend this week. |
| _____ |
| Smarter Living: You can tame Facebook's aggressive attempts to engage you. In the feed of notifications — which you can see when you click or tap the bell icon in any version of the Facebook app, whether desktop or mobile — there's a three-dot button which allows you to adjust future notifications. You can also turn off some notifications in the app settings. Or simply use the mobile web version of Facebook to avoid notifications altogether. |
| And our writer offers a whimsical, effective solution to the challenging social condition of forgetting someone's name. |
| Back Story: The End of Ramadan |
| Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. It's a time of celebration, with rich desserts, gifts and gatherings. |
| This year, it may come Tuesday. But there's no guarantee. |
| Islam operates on a lunar calendar, and the official marking of Eid is the sighting of the first crescent of the full moon. Cloudy weather could prevent the sighting in a given location. Since there is no central Islamic authority, Eid can arrive on different days in different places. |
| In the U.S., according to calculations by Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the new moon will be visible on Tuesday. |
| The United Arab Emirates formed a committee tasked with spotting the new moon cycle on Monday night. If the panel doesn't see signs of a new moon, Ramadan will last another day, and Eid will take place on Wednesday there. |
| In any case, this week you can wish "Eid Mubarak" ("Have a blessed holiday") to your Muslim friends. |
| _____ |
| That's it for this briefing. See you next time. |
| — Alisha |
| Thank you |
| 'To Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and Kenneth R. Rosen for the break from the news. Melina Delkic, 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 a Times investigation at North Carolina Children's Hospital. |
| • Here's our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Misbehave (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here. |
| • The New York Times won two News and Documentary Emmy Awards in 2018, one for a visual investigation video of the Las Vegas shooting and the other for an Op-Doc on a man's friendship with a capuchin monkey. |
