Deutsche Bank, Syria, Britain: Your Tuesday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/briefing/deutsche-bank-syria-britain.html

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Good morning.

We’re covering Deutsche Bank’s rule-bending growth strategy in China, and infrastructure projects that threaten to reshape the Mekong River. We’re also taking a detailed look at the ceremonial bells and whistles of Queen Elizabeth II’s speech on Monday.

Starting in the early 2000s, Deutsche Bank unleashed a brazen campaign of charming and enriching China’s political elite in order to become a major player in the country.

It worked. By 2011, the German company was ranked as the top bank for managing initial public offerings in China.

How we know: Confidential documents prepared by the company and its outside lawyers covering a 15-year period were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with The New York Times, which conducted a joint investigation.

Details: The bank showered officials and their families with lavish gifts, including crystal tigers, cashmere coats, luxury golfing trips and in one case, a $4,254 bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild. The bank also hired more than 100 relatives of the Communist Party’s ruling elite, even though many were deemed unqualified. One family deeply enmeshed in the campaign was that of Wen Jiabao, China’s premier from 2003 to 2013.

Hours after the government of President Bashar al-Assad forged an alliance with Kurdish leaders, Syrian troops entered Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Syria for the first time in years.

The shift came in the face of a Turkish invasion and President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces, leaving vulnerable the Kurds who had long been the ground troops in the American fight against the Islamic State.

Faced with a fast-unraveling situation, Mr. Trump’s policy toward the region continued to fishtail. A week after essentially greenlighting Turkey’s assault, he announced that he would sanction Turkey for what he called “destabilizing actions,” raising tariffs on steel and suspending negotiations on a $100 billion trade deal with Ankara.

On the ground: The American pullback effectively cedes control of the entire country to Mr. Assad and empowers his allies Iran and Russia. It also jeopardizes hard-won gains against ISIS; when forces moved in to the town of Ain Issa on Monday, about 500 ISIS sympathizers took advantage of the mayhem and escaped detention, local officials said.

Reaction: A Saudi ambassador called the U.S. withdrawal “a disaster for the region.” Foreign ministers from all 28 E.U. member states agreed to stop selling arms to Turkey, the first time the bloc had reached such a decision about a NATO ally.

A homemade explosive was detonated on Sunday via mobile phone in the Mong Kok district amid violent protests. It was the first time such a device had been used in nearly five months of demonstrations, the police said on Monday.

The bomb, which the police said caused no damage or injuries, intensified the street-level arms race between officers and protesters. One demonstrator stabbed a police officer in the neck in Sunday’s melees.

“We believe such explosives were intended to injure our officers,” a deputy police commissioner said at a news conference.

What’s next? Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s leader, is expected to kick off a new session of the government on Wednesday with her annual policy address, as pressure mounts to address protesters’ concerns.

Researchers from five Chinese universities have found a significant link between air pollution and the risk of miscarriage, adding greater urgency to Beijing’s antipollution efforts.

Details: In a new study, the researchers examined the clinical records of 255,668 pregnant women from 2009 to 2017 and their exposure to air pollution. They found an association for the 6.8 percent who experienced so-called silent miscarriages — fetal death without physical signs the mother could notice — in the first trimester.

From The Times: As many as 15 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. Our Opinion section invited readers to talk about one of the loneliest experiences so many women have faced.

For Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, the Mekong is a lifeblood. The river houses two capitals, Vientiane of Laos and Phnom Penh of Cambodia, on its banks, nourishes the world’s most productive rice paddies and sustains an astonishingly diverse ecosystem.

But recently erected hydropower dams and plans to build more — half associated with Chinese companies — threaten its delicate balance, potentially dislocating up to a million people and upending agriculture. “Our river was like a god to us,” a Cambodia resident said. “It makes me sad that we killed it.”

Nobel in economics: Monday’s prize was awarded to three professors — Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both of M.I.T., and Michael Kremer of Harvard — for their research and experimental approach toward alleviating poverty. Thanks to one of their studies, more than five million Indian children have benefited from effective remedial tutoring.

Kashmir: Easing the complete communications blackout imposed two months ago, the Indian government on Monday partially restored cellphone service in the restive region. But many of the eight million residents remained cut off, as service wasn’t restored for those using prepaid phones.

K-pop: Sulli, a 25-year-old actress, singer and former member of the girl group f(x), was found dead in her home on Monday, the police said, but the cause of death was unclear.

South Korea: Cho Kuk, a critical ally of President Moon Jae-in who has faced allegations of ethical lapses and financial wrongdoing in his family, stepped down as justice minister.

Snapshot: Above, Queen Elizabeth II and her son, Prince Charles, at the reopening of Britain’s Parliament on Monday, which included a speech by the queen. The ceremony is steeped in ancient traditions that include searching for explosives, holding a member of Parliament hostage and wearing the bejeweled Imperial State Crown.

Amelia Earhart: An expedition to a remote island in the South Pacific found no evidence of the vanished aviator’s plane, but the explorer and his crew haven’t given up.

Fortnite: The video game, one of the world’s most popular, went dark after everything in its virtual world was consumed by a black hole on Sunday, prompting speculation that its undergoing a major transition.

What we’re reading: This Grist article about the signs of climate change experience by Alaskans. Dodai Stewart, a deputy editor on the Metro Desk, says it’s “a mix of data, experts and anecdotes, nicely woven into a story that is as alarming as it is informative.”

Cook: One pan is all you need for roasted chicken thighs with shallots and grapes. (Our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has more recommendations.)

Watch: Our critics spent 48 hours in the world of TikTok, a platform for short and often funny videos. Here’s what they saw.

Read: In his new novel, “Agent Running in the Field,” John le Carré takes aim at Brexit.

Smarter Living: Having a hobby lowers stress, increases life satisfaction and usually broadens social networks. (Browsing social media and tapping screens don’t qualify.) Think you’re just too busy? In our guide to finding a hobby, an expert in work-life balance recommends thinking about your free time in weeks, rather than days, to find room.

And our Social Q’s column takes on the etiquette of public kissing.

On Tuesday night in the U.S., 12 Democratic candidates will appear in Columbus, Ohio, in the first presidential campaign debate that The New York Times has planned and hosted in more than a decade. CNN is co-hosting.

Our National editor, Marc Lacey, is a former White House, international and national correspondent who will be one of the debate’s four moderators. Here are a few highlights from his interview with our Reader Center.

How did you find out you would help moderate?

My phone rang one recent night. I ignored it. It rang again. I ignored it again. The same call and no response continued a few more times right in the middle of the last presidential debate, which I was watching from home.

It turned out that it was Patrick Healy, our political editor. … Apparently there had been a meeting among the top Times brass in which various people were proposed for the Times moderator role.

When Pat asked me, I chuckled. It turns out he wasn’t joking.

How do you spend your time when you’re off duty?

I have a dog named Sandy who greets me at the end of each workday with so much enthusiasm that I forget all the hostile tweets I might have received that day. The debate’s going to be great, I have no doubt, especially to my labradoodle. To her, no matter what happens onstage, I will have won.

You can find more photos and stories about Marc on The New York Times’s Instagram account.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Alisha

Thank youTo Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the Kurdish forces in Syria.• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Sea, to the French (three letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • The New York Times Company has been named a top company for women who work in technology, by AnitaB.org, a nonprofit dedicated to improving opportunities for women in the field.