Jeff Sessions, Trade War, Denmark: Your Thursday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/briefing/jeff-sessions-trade-war-denmark.html

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Good morning. An extraordinary request in Washington, a ban on veils in Denmark and the decade that almost stopped climate change.

Here’s the latest:

• “Stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now.”

On Twitter, President Trump took the extraordinary step of asking Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, to end the special counsel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible Russian links to his campaign.

The tweet immediately raised questions about whether Mr. Trump was trying to obstruct justice. But his lawyers said he was expressing an opinion, not issuing an order.

Mr. Trump is also ratcheting up his trade war with China. The administration is considering raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products to 25 percent — not the 10 percent previously indicated — in a bid to bring Beijing back to the bargaining table.

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• “My clothes, my choice.”

Protesters took to the streets in Copenhagen on Wednesday as Denmark’s ban on wearing face veils in public went into effect. Carrying signs with phrases like “Fingers away from my niqab,” women wearing the traditional Muslim veil were joined by dozens of supporters wearing makeshift coverings across their faces.

The law, passed in May, does not specifically mention Muslim dress, but protesters say Muslim women are the intended target.

Denmark follows Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and parts of Switzerland, which have all moved to either ban or restrict the veil.

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• There’s been an impressive amount of non-Brexit news from Britain.

A company called Beyond, which offers funeral price comparisons, says it wanted to start a national conversation about death by creating edgy ads, like the one above. But regulators rejected them, saying they were likely to cause offense.

Over at the U.S. Embassy in London, items of little historical value are on the auction block: 1,200 rolls of toilet paper, plastic chairs and a Sony camera (but please don’t ask where the charger is). The embassy, which in January moved from Grosvenor Square in central London to a high-tech glass building near the River Thames, is getting rid of surplus property.

And the Freemasons of England are welcoming transgender members for the first time. Male members who have transitioned to female can stay, and transgender men can join the traditionally all-male group.

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• Losing Earth.

The Times Magazine this week is devoted to the period from 1979 to 1989, “the decade we almost stopped climate change.”

The writer Nathaniel Rich traces how humankind first came to a broad understanding of the causes and dangers of climate change. Mauritania, above, is one of the regions in Africa most vulnerable to recurrent drought.

The expansive narrative covers the efforts of a small group of American scientists, activists and politicians, and explains how thoroughly they grasped the problem and how agonizingly close they came to solving it.

• Condé Nast, the company behind Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, plans to put three of its 14 magazines up for sale. The aforementioned marquee titles are safe. Vogue’s editor in chief, Anna Wintour, above, will remain with the company “indefinitely.”

• The chairman and chief executive of ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel maker, is the rare business leader who applauds President Trump’s protectionist approach to trade. The company’s profit rose to $1.9 billion in the second quarter.

• Big tech: strong as ever. Don’t let Facebook’s stock crash fool you, our tech columnist writes: The “frightful five” — Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft — are still on their way to dominating the future.

• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

• The decades-old Kashmir war, a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan, has become a bitterly personal, and mostly local, insurgency. [The New York Times]

• Video of a young woman in Paris being struck on the head after chastising a man she said harassed her has drawn new attention to the #MeToo movement in France. [The New York Times]

• The White House is considering a second sharp reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the United States. One proposal cuts more than 40 percent from this year’s limit. [The New York Times]

• At least three people were killed during protests in Zimbabwe’s capital, as demonstrators called the country’s elections a sham and armed soldiers swept the streets. [The New York Times]

• Relatives of two people who died in wildfires outside Athens last month are suing Greek officials, alleging negligence in their response to Greece’s deadliest blaze in a decade. [Associated Press]

• Three national treasures of Sweden — two royal crowns and an orb from the 17th century — were stolen in an audacious midday theft from a cathedral near Stockholm. The thieves escaped by speedboat. [The New York Times]

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

• A smarter way to think about financial decisions.

• That buyout offer sounds tempting. But it’s risky.

• Recipe of the day: Chicken salad can get boring, so add miso and sesame into the mix.

• Clara Lemlich Shavelson inspired what became known as the Uprising of the 20,000 to improve working conditions for female garment workers, above. She galvanized working-class women to fight for suffrage and battled for tenants’ rights. But she never received a proper obituary in the Times, until now.

• We sat down with the French film star Vincent Cassel, who sped-talk his way through a conversation about sex, Gallic masculinity and his latest film, “Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti.” The interview lasted 24 minutes.

• Between April and September, tiny green worms emerge along the coasts of England, Wales, France and the Channel Islands, and they form swirling masses. But nobody is sure why.

President Trump has so far made two Supreme Court nominations, which is about average. But some presidents didn’t get to name anyone to the court.

No vacancies came up while Jimmy Carter was president from 1977 to 1981 (although he reportedly pressured Justice Thurgood Marshall to resign after losing the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan). Critics of the Supreme Court have pointed to Mr. Carter’s lack of nominees as a reason to impose term limits on the nine justices.

But Mr. Carter put his own stamp on the federal bench, appointing more minority (57) and female (41) judges than all presidents before him combined. Others have followed his example.

Mr. Carter also holds the record for most federal judges appointed in a single term (262).

The three other presidents with no Supreme Court appointments did not serve full terms. They were William Henry Harrison, who died of pneumonia in 1841, a month after giving a two-hour inaugural address without a coat; Zachary Taylor, who died under disputed circumstances in 1850 after 16 months in office; and Andrew Johnson, who became president in 1865 after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

Johnson was so thoroughly disliked by members of Congress that they passed a bill reducing the size of the Supreme Court rather than confirm his sole nominee.

Jennifer Jett wrote today’s Back Story.

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