President Trump, Brexit, Syria: Your Friday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/briefing/president-trump-brexit-syria-your-friday-briefing.html

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President Trump plans to declare a national emergency, Amazon nixes a New York headquarters and Britain’s Parliament delivered more Brexit chaos. Here’s the latest:

A two-month war of attrition between the president and Congress has effectively ended, but at the possible cost of a new battle.

The White House announced that President Trump would sign a border deal passed by the Senate that averts a partial government shutdown, but also that he would declare a national emergency in order to circumvent Congress and unilaterally allocate billions of dollars for his promised border wall.

Here’s how a national emergency declaration would work. It could provoke a constitutional clash between the president and Congress over control of the federal purse. Lawmakers would have two avenues of opposition: legislation, which Mr. Trump could veto, and the courts.

Legal specialists warned of high long-term costs to American democracy.

Other news from Washington: Andrew McCabe, the former deputy F.B.I. director, said the agency was so alarmed by Mr. Trump’s decision to fire the bureau’s director, James Comey, in 2017 that Justice Department officials considered encouraging cabinet members to invoke a constitutional amendment to remove him from office.

And the Senate confirmed William Barr as attorney general, despite concerns from Democrats that he might not make public the findings of his department’s Russia investigation.

The technology giant announced that it would not “move forward” with plans to build a sprawling corporate campus in Long Island City, Queens, after stiff opposition from some local lawmakers and unions empowered by the rise of Democratic political strength.

Amazon had forecast that the campus would have created more than 25,000 jobs.

The opposition: A point of contention was the $3 billion package of incentives and subsidies the city and state agreed to — their largest ever, dedicated to one of the world’s richest companies. City officials had also agreed to remake plans for the Queens waterfront and give the company’s chief, Jeff Bezos, access to a helicopter pad.

There was also concern over the company’s anti-union practices and the changes its huge presence would bring to Queens. Before Amazon’s announcement, we looked at the resistance.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s efforts to salvage her Brexit plan suffered a significant parliamentary defeat.

Details: Parliament rejected a motion in support of Mrs. May’s tattered Brexit strategy, which hinges on reopening negotiations with the E.U. The motion was intended to reassure the E.U. that Parliament would back Mrs. May in any negotiations. Instead, lawmakers show that they aren’t rallying around her or any plan.

The debate: The motion was defeated because of a widening divide within the Conservative Party over whether Britain should take a “no-deal” Brexit off the table. Hard-line Brexit supporters want to lord the possibility over the E.U. as leverage, and sunk the motion to assert that prerogative. But the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, warned Britain that the balance of power was not in its favor and that it was becoming a “middling economy.”

Looking ahead: Several ministers are threatening to resign if Mrs. May hasn’t secured a revised deal with the E.U. by Feb. 27. Some analysts believe the outcome of Brexit will remain unclear until a few days before the March 29 deadline.

As the U.S. works with the Taliban on a peace deal to end nearly two decades of war, many young Afghans worry that the basic liberties they have become used to under a civilian government could be at risk.

This year, Valentine’s Day turned into a day of protest, with poetry expressing not love but fear. One verse in particular — “I kiss you amid the Taliban” — has become a rallying cry.

Background: Last month, the Taliban and U.S. negotiators agreed in principle to a framework for the phased withdrawal of American troops, but the Afghan government has been left out of the process. Women in particular have voiced concerns about their rights.

E.U. economy: The German economy did not grow in the year’s final quarter, the government said. The news is partly an effect of President Trump’s trade policies and is a bad sign for Europe, where the middle-class has shrunk in most places since the late-2000s recession.

Iran: Vice President Mike Pence lashed out at Britain, France and Germany at a conference on Middle East security, accusing them of trying to “break American sanctions” against Iran and demanding that they abandon the Iranian nuclear accord. His attempts to wrangle an anti-Iran alliance led to awkward moments.

Switzerland: A warmer climate is rapidly melting away most of the glaciers in the Alps, and engineers are adjusting their approach to the country’s biggest energy source — water.

Climate change: Thousands of young people in Britain are expected to take to the streets on Friday to join a growing youth-led movement across Europe protesting insufficient action on climate change.

India: Prompting comparisons to censorship in China, India’s government proposed giving itself enormous new powers to suppress internet content. Critics say the regulations would be unconstitutional.

Egypt: The country’s Parliament approved a sweeping measure that clears the way for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to stay in power until 2034, further entrenching his authoritarian rule and the military’s dominance.

Chad: French airstrikes against Chadian rebels this month in support of Chad’s longtime autocratic ruler, Idriss Déby, unsettled members of the opposition and resurfaced questions about whether France operates as a neocolonial power in parts of Africa.

Sweden: The country placed its ambassador to China under investigation after she was accused of arranging unauthorized, secret talks to free a detained Swedish bookseller.

Britain: A 19-year-old woman who left Britain in 2015 to join ISIS and recently fled its last speck of territory in Syria told a newspaper that she was nine months pregnant and wanted to come home. But her future is deeply uncertain.

Ryan Adams: Seven women and over a dozen associates came forward with accounts of how the prolific singer-songwriter dangled career opportunities while pursuing female artists for sex. He has denied the accusations.

London: The Japanese architect Junya Ishigami will design this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, a temporary structure put up each summer in Hyde Park.

Overlooked no more: Mabel Grammer’s self-run adoption agency made it possible for marginalized mixed-race children in Germany to find homes after World War II. She didn’t get a Times obituary, until now.

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

Recipe of the day: Looking for a light meal? Serve simmered kabocha squash over rice with a fried egg.

The environmental impact of growing flowers commercially is higher than you might think. Here’s how a romantic can stay green.

Considering a trip to one of our “52 Places to Go in 2019”? We’ve collected 52 books to help you explore them.

Our Back Story on Wednesday on the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales included a fact surprising to us: The temperature scale devised by Anders Celsius in the early 18th century set the boiling point at zero degrees and the freezing point at 100, the opposite of current use.

It was also a surprise to some readers, who wrote in to ask whether we had our facts straight.

Fortunately, we did. Celsius, from Sweden, wanted to be able to measure frigid temperatures without using negative numbers, because the minus sign could be overlooked, resulting in errors.

Many attribute the reversal to Carl Linnaeus, known as the father of taxonomy. Also a Swede, he ordered a thermometer in the 1740s using Celsius gradations, but with calibration shifted to move in the same direction as Fahrenheit’s.

Know of any other facts that are so counter to conventional understanding that they sound wrong? Email us, with “Odd fact” in the subject line.

Andrea Kannapell, the briefings editor, wrote today’s Back Story.

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