| Wednesday, July 3, 2019 | | | | We’re covering vanishing ships in the Persian Gulf, China’s new surveillance tools and the great journey of a speedy arctic fox. | |  By Alisha Haridasani Gupta | | | The scene at Hong Kong's damaged legislature building on Tuesday. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times | | | China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday that the demonstrators who stormed the city’s legislature this week had committed “serious and illegal acts” that were a “blatant challenge” to the “one country, two systems” framework that ties the semiautonomous city to Beijing. | | | Although the unrest in Hong Kong has become an embarrassment for China’s ruling Communist Party, experts say it’s unlikely that President Xi Jinping will take drastic action, such as deploying troops. Here are more takeaways from the protests. | | | In China: While the demonstrations in Hong Kong have been largely absent from Chinese news media, state media outlets blamed the unrest on western forces seeking to spark a revolution, while leaving out details of the protesters’ wider political demands. | | | An oil tanker carrying crude oil arriving in Zhoushan, China. | | | Buying Iranian oil isn’t illegal under international law, but many foreign companies fear being punished by the sanctions imposed by the U.S. last year when the country withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord. | | | Some shipping fleets, particularly those from China, have defied the restrictions by “going dark” — disabling automated tracking systems — to pick up cargo in Iranian ports, according to commercial analysts and intelligence from the authorities in Israel, a foe of Iran. | | | Impact: American and Israeli intelligence agencies say Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is deeply entwined with the country’s petrochemical industry. Undercutting the sanctions keeps funds flowing to the group and reduces pressure on Iran to return to talks about its nuclear program. | | | The Daily: In our latest episode, a national security reporter for The Times discusses what Iran can learn from North Korea about relations with the U.S. | | | Until recently, China had used a muscular combination of high-tech surveillance and manpower to monitor and subdue Muslim minorities in the western Xinjiang region. | | | Border authorities routinely install a secret app — called Fengcai — on phones belonging to tourists and visitors that gathers personal data, including text messages and contacts. It also checks whether the devices have photos, videos, audio files or documents that match a list of 73,000 items. They include everything from ISIS publications to a photo of the Dalai Lama. | | | How we know: A team of journalists from The New York Times and other publications examined the policing app used in the region and interviewed several people who crossed the Xinjiang border recently. We also asked researchers in Germany and the U.S. to analyze the app’s code. | | | Princess Haya, the most visible and glamorous of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s six wives, fled to London with their two children. She is seeking a divorce, a member of Dubai’s royal family said, and political asylum in Britain. | | | Complications: While it is easy for men to divorce their wives under Islamic law, which governs marriage in the United Arab Emirates, it is harder for women, and custody of children is generally given to the man. | | | A market in Rakhine State. Minzayar for The New York Times | | | Rakhine State is an isolated ribbon of land in western Myanmar where the country’s military carried out a brutal mass expulsion of the Muslim Rohingya group and, for decades, suppressed the ethnic Rakhine community. | | | PAID POST: A MESSAGE FROM CAMPAIGN MONITOR | | Email Marketing 101: Never Sacrifice Beauty for Simplicity | | A drag-and-drop email builder, a gallery of templates and turnkey designs, personalized customer journeys, and engagement segments. It's everything you need to create stunning, results-driven email campaigns in minutes. And with Campaign Monitor, you have access to it all, along with award-winning support around the clock. It's beautiful email marketing done simply. | | | Learn More | | | | The E.U.: The bloc nominated Ursula von der Leyen, Germany’s multilingual defense minister, to become the president of the European Commission, and Christine Lagarde, the director of the International Monetary Fund, to head the European Central Bank. | | | July 4: Tanks, a military flyover and a speech from President Trump at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial will all be part of the Independence Day festivities in Washington on Thursday. The pomp and circumstance marks a change from decades in which the events included no public displays of America’s military prowess and almost no participation by previous presidents. | | | Women’s World Cup: The U.S. is facing England in the semifinals in Lyon. Follow live updates here. | | | No Kimono: After objections from Japan, Kim Kardashian West announced she would change the name of her shapewear line from Kimono. Still, Japan’s trade minister said he planned to send someone to speak to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. | | | Cold brew or iced? Which one is better? What’s even the difference? We’ve got answers. | | | What we’re reading: This article in Jezebel. Jessica Grose, the editor of NYT Parenting, writes, “We recently wrote about how celebrities became influential in the world of vaccines, but Anna Merlan has been covering the subject for years. Her most recent piece is about getting kicked out of America’s biggest anti-vaccine conference.” | | | Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. | | | Listen: Hear a selection of Hootie & the Blowfish deep cuts and a conversation with Tim Sommer, who signed the group, on the latest Popcast. | | | Read: “Whisper Network,” by Chandler Baker, is part #MeToo shocker and part legal thriller. The feminist novel is set in Dallas, Tex. | | | Smarter Living: If you’re the “only” in a group setting — whether you’re a woman, a person of color or another minority — don’t underestimate the importance of your presence. Study after study shows that companies with greater diversity have better performance and are more productive. Here are some more tips about how to navigate your outsider status, including advice about how to advocate for yourself. | | | Cori Gauff’s upset victory over Venus Williams on Monday was a study in chronological contrasts — Gauff, the youngest player in the women’s singles draw at Wimbledon, is just 15, while Williams, the oldest, is 39. But teenage tennis prodigies are an age-old story. | | | Cori Gauff upset Venus Williams in straight sets on Monday, 6-4, 6-4. Toby Melville/Reuters | | | Young stars like Martina Hingis and Monica Seles have frequently found fame on the global stage, though the high-profile flameout of players like Jennifer Capriati — along with the prospect of stress injuries and the frequent involvement of aggressive tennis parents — spurred officials to set limits on players younger than 18 in 1994. | | | (The restrictions are only for women; male prodigies like Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who tend to be just a few years older, can do as they please.) | | | Gauff will be allowed to compete at only five more W.T.A. tournaments before her 16th birthday next March, under what has become known as the Capriati Rule. One of the few young players who were grandfathered into professional tennis without such restrictions was Venus Williams. | | | That’s it for this briefing. We’ll be off for the long July 4 holiday weekend in the U.S., and will return on Monday. | | 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. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
