| We’re covering the latest dramatic twist in Brexit, the lukewarm reaction to the Hong Kong government’s concession, and Brad Pitt’s stoicism. | |  By Alisha Haridasani Gupta | | | Prime Minister Boris Johnson facing a confrontational House of Commons on Wednesday. Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament, via Reuters | | | The bill now goes to the House of Lords, which must give its assent. | | | Hours later, Parliament also rejected Mr. Johnson’s request for a snap election, at least until the no-deal Brexit measure becomes the law of the land, leaving the prime minister bruised by three consecutive rebukes in two days. | | | A broadcast in Hong Kong of Chief Executive Carrie Lam's announcement on Wednesday. Anthony Kwan/Getty Images | | | Wednesday’s announcement by the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, that the government would formally withdraw a contentious extradition bill was too little, too late for many in the territory’s protest movement. | | | Some experts suggest that Beijing had a hand in Ms. Lam’s concession, and that withdrawing the bill is a tactical gamble to “calm down the movement’s moderates” and isolate its radicals, particularly in the approach to next month’s celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. | | | Context: Ms. Lam had already suspended the extradition bill, but the government could have brought it back with just 12 days’ notice. Formally withdrawing it is far more consequential, as the bill’s sponsors would have to start all over again to reintroduce it. | | | Related: Cathay Pacific’s chairman, John Slosar, said he would resign, becoming the second high-level executive at the flagship carrier to step down, amid Beijing’s growing pressure against Hong Kong companies grows. The company characterized his departure as retirement. | | | A 16-year-old boy died on Tuesday, weeks after witnesses said security officers aiming at protesters hit him in the face with buckshot. It was the first such death to be officially confirmed in the restive region since the Indian government abruptly revoked its limited autonomy a month ago. | | | The teenager, Asrar Ahmed Khan, had just finished playing cricket on the evening of Aug. 6 when security forces opened fire on a crowd. Security forces have now barricaded his neighborhood, bracing for another outbreak of protests. | | | On the ground: The region remains locked down. Most phones still do not work. Shops are shuttered, soldiers wearing metal face masks stand on nearly every corner and along every lane, and few children attend school. Thousands of people have been detained without charges, including teachers, rights activists and political and business leaders. | | | Now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is flexing military muscle, including by launching raids into Syria against Iranian and Hezbollah troops and arms stores. With Israeli elections on Sept. 17, Mr. Netanyahu could be bluffing, but some worry that Mr. Trump could give him a green light to attack Iran itself. | | | Brad Pitt at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Micaiah Carter for The New York Times | | | With two major performances this year — in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and “Ad Astra” — the 55-year-old actor and producer is beginning to turn to his father for inspiration not only onscreen but also off, where he has weathered relationship issues and gotten sober. | | | 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 | | | | Facial recognition: A British court ruled that police use of systems that scan and identify people’s faces in real time doesn’t violate privacy and human rights. The closely watched case is one of the first to address the technology. | | | Yan Cong for The New York Times | | | Snapshot: Above, Garlic, China’s first cloned cat. The feat, by a Beijing-based commercial pet-cloning company called Sinogene, marks the country’s emergence as a global power in genetics and in the lucrative and unregulated pet-cloning market. | | | What we’re reading: This Financial Times article. Our senior economics correspondent Neil Irwin had his tongue in his cheek when he tweeted: “Apropos of nothing in particular, here is a story about Oxford in the era of Boris Johnson and the Brexiteers, a place “shot through with dilettantism, sexual harassment and sherry.” | | | David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews | | | Watch: Normani and her choreographer, Sean Bankhead, talk about “Motivation,” inspirations and showing the world her dance chops at the V.M.A.s. | | | Read: “The Testaments,” the highly anticipated sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale” that is shortlisted for a Booker Prize, is fast, immersive and melodramatic, writes our reviewer. (You won’t believe what went on behind closed doors to maintain the immense secrecy around the new novel.) | | | Smarter Living: Raising children can be hard — and physically dangerous. Our Parenting editor’s toddler stabbed her eye with a pointy toy, and doctors say broken ankles from tripping over playthings are common. The best defense is awareness of kids’ unpredictability. Keep babies’ razor-sharp nails trimmed, be wary when your face is near theirs, and — men especially — watch out when older kids learn to swing a racket or bat. | | | When Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, released a major announcement on Wednesday, she made the video statement in Cantonese and English. At news conferences, she responds to reporters’ questions in whichever of the two languages they ask. | | | That’s the norm in the territory — at least for now. | | | Multilingual protest signs in Hong Kong. Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images | | | Dozens of languages are spoken by Hong Kong’s richly mixed population, but most are not official. For most of the 156 years of British colonial rule, English was the only sanctioned language. In 1974, Chinese was added. But which? | | | There are many Chinese languages and dialects. Most Hong Kongers had come from the neighboring province of Guangdong, once known as Canton, so Cantonese is what Hong Kong officials most often pair with English. | | | But Mandarin, China’s national language, is growing. Migration from the mainland surged following Britain handover in 1997, and Mandarin is now a language of instruction in many schools and all but mandatory in many jobs. | | | Ciao for now. See you next time. | | Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Andrea Kannapell, the briefings editor, 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. | | |
