Thailand, Supreme Court, Brexit: Your Monday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/09/briefing/thailand-supreme-court-brexit.html

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Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Four more people have been evacuated from the cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped for more than two weeks, local officials said. Here are the latest updates.

The operation comes a day after the first four members of the team were successfully evacuated. They are reported to be in stable condition.

• Ninety divers assisted on Sunday. Some of them hugged the boys, who were wearing full face masks, as they navigated the narrow underwater passageway for hours. Using maps and illustrations, we outlined the challenges involved in the rescue.

• President Trump on Sunday described all four of his finalists to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court as “excellent,” adding that he was very close to a decision.

He is scheduled to announce his choice in a nationally televised address at 9 p.m. Eastern. Here’s what to watch for.

• Senator Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, has cautioned Mr. Trump that Judges Thomas Hardiman and Raymond Kethledge presented the fewest obvious obstacles to Senate confirmation. Judges Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh are thought to be the other finalists.

• There’s uncertainty at the top for both Democrats and Republicans as the House returns from its Fourth of July recess this week.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, 78, has made clear that she wants to keep leading the Democrats next year, but there are calls for someone younger to lead the party.

And Republicans face their own fight, with the retirement of Speaker Paul Ryan at the end of this year.

• “It’s hard to recall when there’s been a moment where both parties have done so much head-scratching and soul-searching about what their respective futures should be,” one former congressional aide said.

• At a gathering of the decision-making body for the World Health Organization this spring, American officials tried to water down a resolution saying that mother’s milk is healthiest for children. The seemingly uncontroversial measure also said that countries should strive to limit inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast-milk substitutes.

Embracing the interests of infant-formula manufacturers, the U.S. delegation also threatened the measure’s planned sponsor, Ecuador, with trade sanctions and the withdrawal of military aid, according to diplomats and government officials.

• In the end, the American efforts were mostly unsuccessful, but the confrontation adds to examples of Washington siding with corporate interests on public health and environmental issues.

• Boris Johnson resigned as Britain’s foreign secretary today, becoming the second minister to quit in less than 24 hours over Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to soften the economic impact of the country’s withdrawal from the European Union.

Mr. Johnson’s departure followed that of David Davis, who quit as Brexit secretary late Sunday, and deepens the mood of crisis gripping Mrs. May’s government three days after she thought she had won agreement on a Brexit plan.

• The resignations revealed the intensity of the split in the prime minister’s cabinet, renewing a debate about whether her leadership would be challenged.

• Beijing is embracing facial recognition and artificial intelligence to identify and track 1.4 billion people, assembling an unprecedented national surveillance system.

Billboard-size displays show the faces of jaywalkers and list the names of people who can’t pay their debts, and face scanners guard housing complexes. China has an estimated 200 million surveillance cameras — four times as many as the U.S.

• “This is potentially a totally new way for the government to manage the economy and society,” one scholar said. “The goal is algorithmic governance.”

• Change is coming to HBO, now part of the AT&T corporate family. John Stankey, who oversees the cable network, has warned employees that the months ahead won’t be easy.

• Everything can be a co-working space now — including upscale restaurants before they open for dinner. Spacious, a start-up, is working with restaurants in New York and San Francisco.

• Some of the biggest names in technology and media will be in Sun Valley, Idaho, for an annual conference expected to focus on consolidation in the media sector. It’s one of the headlines to watch this week.

• U.S. stocks were up on Friday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets today.

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

• Engaged? Congrats! Here’s when to consider a prenuptial agreement.

• Clean those pesky summer stains.

• Recipe of the day: Set up breakfast for the week by making yogurt and a batch of granola.

• Record rainfall battered Japan, and millions of people have been urged to leave their homes because of the risk of flooding and landslides that have already killed dozens.

• Triple-digit temperatures hit Southern California, setting records and knocking out power to tens of thousands of Los Angeles homes.

• The 44-year-old British woman who was exposed to the same nerve agent as a Russian former spy has died. The authorities have opened a murder investigation.

• The World Cup semifinals begin Tuesday. Belgium will face France, and Croatia will take on England.

• After a week of upsets at Wimbledon, nearly half of the remaining singles players are unseeded.

• “Ant-Man and the Wasp” became the 20th consecutive No. 1 hit for Marvel, earning $76 million at the domestic box office.

• A painful pilgrimage

During World War II, as many as 120,000 American citizens and residents of Japanese ancestry were evicted from their homes and held in camps on the West Coast.

Mas Okui, now 86, was one of them. He returns every year to the Manzanar camp where he and his family were imprisoned, to remember — and to educate.

• Importing belly dancers

The arrest of a Russian woman has exposed simmering tensions in Cairo’s belly-dancing scene. Critics say foreigners are sullying an ancient art form. Many Egyptians love them.

• A cooking pioneer

Fannie Farmer, who died in 1915, brought a scientific approach to cooking, taught countless women marketable skills and wrote a cookbook that defined American food for the 20th century. She’s the latest in our series of obituaries that The Times originally overlooked.

• Quotation of the day

“What happened was tantamount to blackmail, with the U.S. holding the world hostage and trying to overturn nearly 40 years of consensus on the best way to protect infant and young-child health.”

— Patti Rundall, the policy director of the British advocacy group Baby Milk Action, on U.S. efforts to derail a resolution to encourage breast-feeding.

• The Times, in other words

Here’s an image of today’s front page, and links to our Opinion content and crossword puzzles.

• What we’re reading

Max Fisher, one of our Interpreter columnists, recommends this piece from The Washington Post: “Annie Gowen reports on a wave of lynchings across India that are thought to be driven by rumors spreading on social media. It’s a disturbing manifestation of the phenomena we wrote about from Sri Lanka, and which is becoming a global trend.”

President Trump is scheduled to announce his Supreme Court nominee today.

There are nine seats on the court, but that wasn’t always the case.

The Constitution doesn’t specify the number of justices, leaving it to Congress to determine.

In 1789, the Judiciary Act established the number of justices at six, with a chief justice and five associate justices.

Through legislation, the number fluctuated, with as many as 10 justices. In 1869, the number was set at nine, where it has remained.

Although Congress determines the number of justices, that hasn’t prevented presidents from trying to wield influence.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt often clashed with the conservative court in the 1930s over his New Deal programs.

In 1937, he pushed a plan that would add a justice, up to a total of 15, for each Supreme Court justice over 70 who didn’t retire. (At the time, six of the justices were above that age.)

Roosevelt’s effort to pack the court ultimately failed, and the Senate Judiciary Committee said, “It is a measure which should be so emphatically rejected that its parallel will never again be presented to the free representatives of the free people of America.”

Adriana Lacy wrote today’s Back Story.

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