Your Thursday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/briefing/trump-charges-macron-beijing.html

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A day after the arraignment of Donald Trump on 34 felony counts, the U.S. political landscape is more uncertain than ever as the former president’s legal peril grows.

To some Republican and Democratic leaders, the charges appeared to be flimsy, a hodgepodge of bookkeeping accusations that felt far less consequential than many had hoped. To others in both parties, the charges and the attendant spectacle were troubling and had the potential to reverberate and hurt the former president politically.

At the very least, the charges will have to be answered in a court of law, extending a tawdry tale of extramarital affairs into a courtroom for a party that once considered itself the home of family values. Trump is the first former president to face criminal charges — during his third run for the White House, no less.

But the moment did not yield a rush to abandon him by many voters or party leaders. In a focus group, voters who had cast ballots for Trump in 2016 and 2020 said they would vote for him again. Even conservative evangelical leaders who might be expected to look askance at the extramarital dalliances contained in the allegations were supportive.

Quotable: “It feeds into Donald Trump’s whole theme that the Democrats are out to get him at any cost and will stretch any law and come up with any novel legal theory to do so,” said Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican pollster. He added, “It plays right into his hands.”

For more: The indictment of the former president has unlocked a rush of fund-raising and has frozen the 2024 Republican primary.

President Emmanuel Macron of France, speaking in Beijing, said that China could play a “major role” in bringing peace to Ukraine and made it clear that he would urge Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, to assist in the effort. He hoped to “relaunch” a partnership with China, he said, and thus engage that country in a “shared responsibility for peace and international stability.”

Macron is clearly determined to carve out an independent position, one more conciliatory toward China than the American one, at a moment when relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest point in decades. Europe’s hard-hit economy needs the Chinese market, and European “strategic autonomy” is a long-sought goal for Macron.

Beijing has never condemned the Russian invasion or used the word “war” to describe it, and it has, under Xi, pursued an ever more aggressive anti-Western policy. Still, China’s 12-point plan to resolve the Ukraine conflict, presented in February, had some problematic elements but indicated Xi’s readiness to be involved in peace efforts, Macron suggested.

Taiwan: Kevin McCarthy, the U.S. House speaker, hosted a carefully choreographed series of meetings with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, underscoring the juggling act facing the U.S. as it tries to confront an increasingly aggressive China without precipitating a military crisis around the island.

In other news from the war:

A Ukrainian commander said that fighting was still raging in the center of Bakhmut amid increasing signs that Russia was advancing in the ruined city.

Many of the 26,500 African students who were in Ukraine before the war started have been left to fend for themselves.

Russia turned a U.N. Security Council meeting yesterday into what a coalition of more than 50 countries said was an upside-down show of misinformation. In a statement, Russia accused the West of abducting Ukrainian children — the very accusation the International Criminal Court has leveled at the Russian government.

Russia called for the meeting as it took over the rotating presidency of the Council for April, billing it as an informal forum on the fate of thousands of Ukrainian children. Ukraine and its allies say the children were deported to Russia by force and placed with Russian families for adoption, and the International Criminal Court of Justice has labeled the forced relocations a war crime.

The court issued arrest warrants last month for President Vladimir Putin and the head of Russia’s child protection agency, Maria Lvova-Belova, for their roles in relocating the children to Russia. But Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., Vasily Nebenzya, claimed yesterday that they were being forcibly separated from their parents and sent to European countries such as Spain and Portugal and Germany for placement in shelters or with families.

Details: Russia’s program included testimony from several officials in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and videotaped messages from women claiming to be Ukrainian mothers saying they were very pleased to have had their children whisked away to Russia.

The Israeli police raided the most sensitive holy site in Jerusalem yesterday after Palestinians barricaded themselves inside a mosque. At least 37 Palestinians and two Israeli officers were injured, and hundreds of Palestinians were arrested.

Clergy members across the Archdiocese of Baltimore abused hundreds of children and teenagers over the course of six decades, abetted by the church hierarchy, according to a new report.

Poland’s right-wing governing party is trying to harness outrage over criticism of Pope John Paul II, a national hero, to help it win elections this year.

The former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was admitted to an intensive care unit at a hospital in Milan and is expected to remain there for a few days.

Jacinda Ardern, who resigned as prime minister of New Zealand in January, gave a final address in Parliament.

The U.S. Justice Department reached a $144.5 million settlement with the families of 26 people killed in a 2017 mass shooting at a church in Texas.

Weeks after Nicola Sturgeon resigned as Scotland’s first minister, her husband was arrested, and later released without charge, in connection with an investigation into the finances of the Scottish National Party.

Bob Lee, who helped create Cash App, was stabbed to death on a street in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Driven by climate change, in-air turbulence — when unstable air movement jostles an aircraft — is becoming more common.

Once available for just one or two weeks of the year in Australia, hot cross buns have breached the confines of liturgical tradition to become an obsession that grips the nation as early as Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.

Meet soccer’s first female superagent: Rafaela Pimenta talks about the move for Erling Haaland, taking on FIFA and how a 15-year-old Brazilian secured the same Nike deal as Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s.

How Ted Lasso creators fell for a stadium in South London: Selhurst Park is a dilapidated “heritage” stadium, which is why the creators of the Apple TV show wanted to make it the home of the fictional club AFC Richmond.

Why the odds of a LIV golfer winning The Masters are set so low: There are many factors behind bookmakers placing low odds on an LIV player winning in Augusta.

She’s in Paris. She’s a criminal. She’s the titular star of a new biopic. She’s being apologized to by Phoebe Bridgers, and she has recently made headlines for smooching Harry Styles. Turn a corner lately, or turn on a TV, and there she is: Emily.

The name, an evolution of the Latin name Aemilia, was among the most popular girls’ names in the U.S. in the 1990s. From 1996 to 2007, when 48 million people were born in the U.S., Emily held the No. 1 spot. The eldest Emilys among those tens of millions of people are now 27.

The name’s popularity around the turn of the 21st century was an organic phenomenon, said Laura Wattenberg, an expert on baby names. New parents wanted alternatives to names like Jennifer, Michelle or others that were popular in the 1960s and the 1970s. Emily was classic and familiar. “Everyone could spell and pronounce it, but it wasn’t terribly common,” she said.

Since 2007, the name has become less popular, as others that end with a soft A — like Emma, Sophia, Olivia and Isabella — have risen. “I think that’s only because it’s become so popular that people are starting to avoid it,” said Jennifer Moss, who founded the website BabyNames.com.

Braise chicken thighs with artichoke hearts.

Five minutes of music to make you love the jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams.

A new book traces the roots, rise and influence of spoken word poetry.

Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: “How to Save a Life” band, with “The” (four letters).

And here are today’s Wordle and the Spelling Bee.

You can find all our puzzles here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. Thanks for joining me. — Natasha

P.S. Washington State University gave Dean Baquet, The Times’s former executive editor, its Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award.

“The Daily” is on the scene at Donald Trump’s arraignment.

You can reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.