General Motors, Migrants, ICE: Your Friday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/briefing/general-motors-migrants-ice.html

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. “We are putting out a damn newspaper.”

As The Capital Gazette came under siege Thursday, with a gunman opening fire in the newsroom and killing five people, the journalists never stopped working.

A suspect, Jarrod Ramos, was charged with five counts of murder. He barricaded the door to prevent people from fleeing the attack, the police said, and had a history of making general threats against the newspaper. Here’s what else we know about him.

The victims included four journalists and a sales assistant.

President Trump, who has railed against the news media, condemned the attack. “Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their jobs.”

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2. Through strategic praise and Trump family connections, the White House had quietly been encouraging Justice Anthony Kennedy to retire.

President Trump, with Justice Kennedy, center, now has a second opportunity in 18 months to drastically reshape the Supreme Court. Mr. Trump has said he’d like to appoint a justice who would overrule Roe v. Wade, and has begun reaching out to senators who will vote on his nominee.

Republicans are bracing for a bitter fight. With Democrats largely powerless to block a Trump appointee, eyes are on two female Republican senators who could cast deciding votes.

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3. General Motors warned that new tariffs could force job cuts in the U.S. and drive up the price of its vehicles.

“Increased import tariffs could lead to a smaller G.M.,” the company told the Commerce Department.

Automakers have been caught in President Trump’s trade fight, as they rely on imported materials and parts from overseas.

G.M., one of the country’s largest employers, currently has 110,000 workers in the U.S.

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4. The stakes are high for President Trump’s meeting with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, next month.

Foreign policy experts, including some in his own administration, fear Mr. Trump will offer the same type of concessions to Mr. Putin that he did to Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.

Mr. Trump declared success after that meeting, even though North Korea conceded virtually nothing on its military or missiles programs.

“Trump sees a good meeting as a positive diplomatic achievement,” a former American ambassador to Moscow said. “That’s wrong. Good meetings are a means to an end.”

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5. Calls to abolish ICE used to be a rallying cry of the far left, but now they’re gaining traction in the midterm campaigns.

Progressive candidates from New York to Hawaii have embraced the calls. And the movement even has some support in the agency’s own ranks: At least 19 agents are seeking to dissolve the agency, fearing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has limited their ability to pursue national security threats, child pornography and transnational crime.

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6. In marathon overnight talks, E.U. leaders reached a deal on migration, but the details remain sketchy.

The agreement would shore up Europe’s borders and create screening centers to help determine whether migrants are legitimate refugees.

“We still have a lot of work to do to bridge the different views,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, above, said.

The issue has rankled the E.U. for months and threatened the bloc’s unity. We compare Europe’s immigration conflicts with the debate in the U.S.

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7. This is when surprises at the World Cup end — usually.

For the first two weeks, the tournament is a carnival, our soccer columnist writes. But now the sport is more democratic than ever.

On Saturday, Argentina and France will face off, and Portugal will take on Uruguay. Follow along with our live World Cup coverage.

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8. The internet turned on him, his book sales are down and the TV adaptation of his last novel has stalled.

This week in the Magazine, our writer sat down with Jonathan Franzen, above, who wants you to know one thing: He’s fine with it all.

“I’m pretty much the opposite of fragile,” he said. “I don’t need internet engagement to make me vulnerable. Real writing makes me — makes anyone doing it — vulnerable.”

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9. The week in gender news: U.N. cases that “read like a manual in how not to investigate” sexual assault, and a look at the ripple effects of the #MeToo movement. Sign up for our Gender Letter here.

Stories on how we communicate about sex and intimacy are rare. That’s where you come in.

The Times is seeking your stories of miscommunication around sex for multiple projects, including an episode of “The Daily.” If you’re interested, get in touch with us here.

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10. Finally, this is your periodic reminder that it’s not all bad news out there.

In our latest Week in Good News: a crop of young bird watchers, a victory for a coral reef in Belize and photographs, like the one above, of queer people of color in love.

With that, have a great weekend.

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