Impeachment, Trade, Witches: Your Friday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/briefing/impeachment-trade-witches.html

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine delivered a scathing takedown of the Trump administration’s conduct of foreign policy to House impeachment investigators.

In a closed-door interview, Marie Yovanovitch said she was “incredulous” that she was removed as ambassador in May “based, as far as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”

Ms. Yovanovitch, a 33-year veteran of the foreign service, went on to warn that private interests have usurped diplomats’ judgment, and threaten to undermine the nation’s interests. Here’s the latest on the impeachment inquiry.

Earlier, a federal appeals court said President Trump’s accountants must give his tax returns to Congress. (The president is virtually certain to appeal the ruling.) Tonight, the Justice Department lent support for Mr. Trump’s attempt to shield his returns in a separate challenge.

2. President Trump said the U.S. had reached a “phase one” deal with China, providing a temporary détente in a yearlong trade war.

The agreement, which came during the 13th round of negotiations, will forestall a planned tariff increase on Tuesday and provide welcome relief to businesses, farmers, investors and others who have suffered financially from the bitter trade dispute. Above, Mr. Trump with Vice Premier Liu He.

Separately, a judge temporarily blocked a Trump administration plan to deny immigrants green cards if they are likely to depend on public welfare. It had been set to go into effect on Tuesday.

3. Tens of thousands of residents in northern Syria fled in advance of Turkey’s forces, with a mounting sense of turmoil spreading across the Kurdish-held territory.

Hospitals have been abandoned, displacement camps relocated and major roads blocked. There were also warnings of an imminent revival of the Islamic State militant group amid the chaos. At least 23 Kurdish fighters have been killed.

The White House threatened Turkey with new sanctions that could cripple the country’s economy in response to its military offensive.

4. A fire tore through 4,000 acres of northwestern Los Angeles overnight. It came as hundreds of thousands of residents in Northern California remained without power.

The Saddleridge fire put more than 100,000 people under a mandatory evacuation order. Strong winds were pushing the fire north toward Santa Clarita, and the Los Angeles fire chief said the blaze was growing by 800 acres an hour. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

In other extreme weather, an unusually early snowstorm is crippling parts of the Northern Plains, bringing heavy gusts of wet snow and plummeting temperatures. The storm could deliver as much as three feet of snow in parts of North Dakota.

5. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in restarting peace talks with neighboring Eritrea after two decades of frozen conflict. Above, Mr. Ahmed and Eritrea’s president, Isaias Afwerki.

The two nations share deep ethnic and cultural ties, but until July last year, the conflict had separated families, complicated geopolitics and cost the lives of more than 80,000 people during two years of border violence.

While concrete change has been slow to translate, the peace accord signed a year ago by the two countries has been held up as an example of how change can come about in even the oldest of conflicts.

6. Remember those photos you put on Flickr a decade ago? They may have been used without your knowledge in a huge facial-recognition database.

MegaFace contains the likenesses of nearly 700,000 individuals and is used to test and train some of the most sophisticated artificial intelligence systems in the world. The average age of the people in the database, its creators have said, is 16.

By law, most Americans in the database don’t need to be asked for their permission, but the situation has led to privacy concerns and, potentially, financial penalties for the companies that have used it.

7. “I wish with all my heart that I could have been there at that very moment to protect all of you guys.”

Hakki Akdeniz, a 39-year-old immigrant, was homeless before he created a small pizza chain in New York City. He returned to the streets this week after four homeless men were brutally killed while they slept in Chinatown. He brought with him fresh boxes of pizza to memorials around the neighborhood, and with them, a note.

Also out of New York: Our reporter had a magical bus ride after the city largely banned cars from 14th Street, a major thoroughfare. On another critical artery, they still crawl (looking at you, 42nd Street).

8. The Washington Mystics and Elena Delle Donne, the W.N.B.A.’s most valuable player, have a league title at last. They beat the Connecticut Sun in the finals.

The hard-fought series showcased some of the league’s brightest rising stars. Game 5 was “befitting a pair of championship-level teams with only one trophy to go around,” our basketball reporter writes.

From basketball to baseball, tonight is Game 1 in the National League Championship Series, in which the seemingly inevitable St. Louis Cardinals meet the suddenly clutch Washington Nationals. First pitch is just after 8 p.m. Here’s what to watch for.

9. Witches are having their hour.

Pam Grossman has been called “the Terry Gross of witches” for her popular podcast after turning an interest in witchcraft into a career. We spoke to her about her coven, spells and how “witchcraft is one means for women to be able to step into their power.”

For the record, Ms. Grossman said she was not offended by movies like “Hocus Pocus,” which depict a less-flattering image of witches in popular culture. And in that vein: Have you dressed up as a pop culture icon for Halloween? We want to see.

10. And finally, falling down a TikTok rabbit hole.

The video app offers an endless scroll of creativity and goofing off, told in 15-second snippets. Begun in 2017, it is now a cultural force of its own (and home to many future teen stars of America).

Last week, over 48 hours, five Times critics took a look at what it has to offer. They found art, idiocy and lots of dancing. As our TV critic wrote about a spiraling pine cone in someone’s backyard: “The clip is like the climax to an inspirational movie no one will ever make.”

Have a delightful weekend.

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