Migrants, World Cup, Apple: Your Monday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/briefing/migrants-world-cup-apple.html

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. The Trump administration is being battered by a wave of bipartisan criticism and an international outcry over its immigration practices.

In just one six-week period, some 2,000 children were separated from their families, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Thousands are being held in makeshift shelters. The U.N. human rights chief called the policy “government-sanctioned child abuse.”

The investigative website ProPublica posted this audio clip of some of the separations. (News photographers have not been allowed inside the shelters, and The New York Times is declining to publish government handout photos.)

President Trump doubled down on his defense of the policy, repeating the false claim that Democrats are to blame and saying that criminals, not parents, were transporting the children. “They could be murderers and thieves and so much else,” he said.

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2. Under attack, President Trump countered with a Twitter assault on Germany’s refugee policy, saying the U.S. must avoid its failings.

He falsely claimed that Germany’s crime rate is on the rise and railed against European immigration policies. (Here’s a look at what he got wrong.)

The comments came at a difficult time for Germany. The country is embroiled in a battle over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy.

Mr. Trump also announced that he would direct the Pentagon to establish a sixth branch of the armed forces dedicated to protecting American interests in outer space.

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3. The authorities in New Jersey said a mass shooting at an all-night arts festival early Sunday was likely gang-related.

One person, identified as one of multiple suspected gunmen, was killed, and 22 people were injured.

Trenton — which has a history of problems with crime, poverty and drugs — has been trying to reinvigorate itself as an arts hub.

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4. Belgium triumphed over Panama, above, at the World Cup, winning 3-0. It was Panama’s first time playing in the World Cup.

And England overtook Tunisia, winning 2-1. If you missed the game, here’s a play-by-play.

Check out our full World Cup coverage.

Not exactly a soccer fiend? Our guide to rookie questions can help.

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5. A Senate vote to reinstate tough penalties on ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company accused of violating American sanctions, has ratcheted up the likelihood of a showdown between the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers.

Domestically, President Trump is doing more and more to assist declining industries that figure prominently in a nostalgic view of the American economy — often at the expense of supporting some of the country’s fastest-growing sectors.

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6. The tech world is working hard to stay on China’s good side.

Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has emerged as a vital envoy between Washington and Beijing, while Google is investing half a billion dollars in one of China’s top online retailers.

And our analysis of President Trump’s new tariffs suggests that they aren’t going to hurt China much, at least in the near term.

The $50 billion worth of Chinese exports targeted represent less than half a percent of China’s nearly $13 trillion economy.

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7. In politics, we looked at Lupe Valdez, above, the former sheriff hoping to displace Texas’ Republican governor in November.

She is the first Latina and the first open lesbian to claim the Democratic nomination, but her past cooperation with immigration agents could cost her crucial support.

And Stephanie Miner, the former mayor of Syracuse, announced an independent campaign to replace Andrew Cuomo as governor of New York. (His more immediate concern is a Democratic challenge from the actress Cynthia Nixon.)

The Supreme Court “kicked the can down the road” on partisan gerrymandering, by declining to engage the central question in two cases, our judicial correspondent writes.

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8. Archiving history as it happens: That’s the goal of “rapid response collecting,” which is being practiced by museums in Europe and America.

A curator at the National Museum of Ireland woke up early the day after her country’s abortion referendum, grabbing campaign posters and putting out a call for flags, banners and signs — anything that could be preserved.

The older ways of collecting are still around. A black felt bicorn hat believed to have been worn by Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo sold at auction for over $400,000 in France.

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9. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” reconsidered.

Two writers offer appraisals of Harper Lee’s work in reviews of books that center on her biography and the cultural role of her best-known novel.

It is “a book for which a great many people harbor reverence and nostalgia,” Roxane Gay writes. “I am not one of those people.”

And Howell Raines considers the novel’s importance in the Southern imagination, saying it gave Alabama a “civic mythology.”

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10. Finally, 500 of the “noblest of God’s trees” are once again available for Yosemite National Park visitors to gawk at, sit beneath, or walk through. (Go ahead, hug!)

It took three years, but more than an acre of pavement has been ripped up and replaced with walking paths made of packed dirt — less asphalt is better for the health of giant sequoias revered by the naturalist John Muir.

“Society has evolved,” said the head of the Yosemite Conservancy. “It’s a lighter-on-the-land approach.”

Have a great evening.

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