Trade, Russia, Turtles: Your Friday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/briefing/trade-russia-turtles.html

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Good morning.

A trade deal shocker, more talk of a Syria strike and a really, really weird reptile. Here’s the latest:

• A stunning U-turn.

President Trump asked his advisers to look into rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the multicountry trade deal that Mr. Trump withdrew from days after assuming office.

Mr. Trump long (and loudly) denounced the trade pact, but now he’s trying to find ways to protect export-focused American farmers and ranchers, the direct targets of China’s aggressive response to his new tariffs.

Economists across the political spectrum say President Trump is right to highlight concerns about trade with China. But many say he would do better to enlist international allies to help pressure Beijing.

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• Talk of a Syria strike intensified.

France said it had proof that the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons in the rebel-held town of Douma, and Britain’s cabinet is scheduled to discuss a military response with the U.S. (Germany and Canada say they will not take part.)

We interviewed survivors of the Douma attack and reviewed videos and flight records to verify what occurred. “It was a scene that you don’t want anyone to have to see,” said one man, who heard people run into the street yelling, “Chemicals! Chemicals!” At least 43 people were killed, above, and many more were left struggling to breathe. (Here’s what it’s like to experience the shock of an airstrike.)

The U.S. defense secretary, Jim Mattis, tried to walk back President Trump’s threats of an imminent strike, reflecting concerns at the Pentagon about stumbling into a wider conflict involving Russia, Iran and the West.

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• “They’re not playing to the same rules.”

That’s what a top British intelligence official said about the Kremlin, just before an international chemical weapons monitoring group confirmed that a military-grade nerve agent had been used in the attack on the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, above.

The group’s report bolstered Britain’s claim that the poisoning in Salisbury, England, was ordered by Moscow. The Kremlin dismissed the confirmation as part of a continuing plot against Russia, the latest in a series of Russian denials and conspiracy theories about the attack.

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• When a whale washed ashore in Spain two months ago, above, scientists wondered what had killed it.

Now they think they know. It had 64 pounds of trash — plastic bags, ropes, netting and even a plastic drum — clogging its intestines and stomach.

The grim discovery underscores the disastrous impact of pollution on the ocean’s wildlife.

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• “I’m going nuts.”

In a case of civic innovation gone wrong, Dutch officials made a road “sing” a regional anthem to warn drivers away from the shoulder.

But the raised musical strips, above, were removed just two days later, following an uproar from residents of a nearby village, who complained the incessant jingle was akin to psychological torture.

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• “Told you so.” That’s the general response from privacy experts to recent revelations about Facebook’s collection of user data. Here are the big takeaways from two days of U.S. congressional testimony by the company’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, above.

• Victims of Bernie Madoff, the architect of one of Wall Street’s largest frauds, will receive an additional $504 million. With this second payout, about 21,000 people will have received more than $1.2 billion.

• Volkswagen’s new chief executive, Herbert Diess, is untarnished by the German carmaker’s recent scandal. But his outsider status will be a liability, our Frankfurt correspondent writes, as he seeks to restructure the notoriously insular company.

• No Netflix (or chill). The streaming service will boycott the Cannes Film Festival this year, protesting a rule requiring that all movies in competition be shown in French theaters. The rule was implemented to protect France’s film industry.

• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

• “Never forget.” The Holocaust is fading from memory in the U.S. Many Americans do not know basic details, like the number of people killed or what Auschwitz, above, was. [The New York Times]

• The first woman to lead the Swedish body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature was forced out, the latest twist in a sexual misconduct scandal that has reached the highest levels of government. [The New York Times]

• The Swedish authorities arrested a Tibetan man on charges of spying for China. Suspected of gathering information on Tibetan refugees, he faces up to four years in jail. [The New York Times]

• A Greek fighter jet crashed, killing the pilot, after an encounter with Turkish aircraft that violated the country’s airspace, Greek officials said. Ankara denied that any of its jets had been in the area. [The New York Times]

• The British scientist who created Dolly, the first clone of a sheep and a key to new research into Parkinson’s, revealed that he has the disease himself. [The New York Times]

• Italian charities accused the French border police of falsifying migrant children’s birth dates in order to send them back to Italy. [The Guardian]

• New Zealand banned new offshore oil drilling. The move won’t halt exploration already underway. [The New York Times]

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

• Recipe of the day: Tonight, enjoy time on the couch with homemade sour cream and onion dip.

• 5 cheap(ish) things you need in your bedroom.

• Can an online dating coach help you?

• Protect the weird: We mentioned this briefly yesterday, but you deserve to know more. Not only does the Mary River turtle in Australia, above, have a green mohawk, it can breathe through its genitals. It’s just been added to a new list of endangered reptiles issued by the Zoological Society of London, which measures “how alone you are on the tree of life.”

• Mystery unmasked: A twisted tale of stolen artworks, Bulgarian organized crime and a repentant, aging criminal is ending after three decades with the return of a Chagall painting hidden in the man’s attic.

• A 1,000-year-old shirt has a $700,000 story to tell. Why would a shirt be worth so much money? Find out.

Today in 1976, the U.S. reintroduced a denomination that can still seem more curiosity than legal tender: the $2 bill.

It was first used in 1862 and briefly featured the likeness of Alexander Hamilton before being redesigned with a portrait of Thomas Jefferson.

Never very popular with the public, the bill was discontinued in 1966. A decade later, President Gerald Ford ceremonially traded a couple of singles for a two and expressed hope that it would finally catch on.

The bill’s many devotees love it for winning over bartenders, starting conversations and lending a little spark and humanity to cash transactions, one fan told The Times in 2014.

Companies have dispensed bonuses in twos so that the circulating bills show off their clout in local economies. A website records cashiers’ reactions, and there’s a documentary about “the deuce,” too.

But the bill remains so rare that the Treasury Department’s website has a reminder that it “is still a circulating denomination of United States paper currency.”

There are about a billion $2 bills out there, 3 percent of the total volume of notes. More are occasionally printed.

For his part, your Back Story writer recently received one in change at a newsstand and opted to pay it forward by spending it.

Penn Bullock contributed reporting.

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