Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
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Good morning. Air disaster in Algeria, tough questions for Mark Zuckerberg and a love letter for Chairman Mao. Here’s what you need to know:
• President Trump, using Twitter posts as geopolitical broadsides, promised that missiles would be fired at Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack and said relations between the U. S. and Russia were worse than ever.
Mr. Trump also warned that the Kremlin should not partner with Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, calling him a “Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!”
Mr. Trump’s early morning tweets were a remarkable instance of telegraphing American strategy. He’s being taken seriously: There were signs that Syria was moving crucial aircraft to a Russian base for protection, and Iran said it would support Mr. Assad in case of foreign aggression.
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• “I think everybody will start jockeying for position immediately.”
That was one conservative leader on the surprise news that Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House and a star Republican, will not seek re-election.
The decision hints at the danger that the Republican majority faces in the midterm elections, with many predicting a Democratic wave.
Mr. Ryan, who rose up the ranks to become the youngest speaker in more than 100 years, had endured a stream of slights and provocations from President Trump.
Speculation that Mr. Ryan would run for president ran rampant on Twitter (#Ryan2020).
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• Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, faced a much tougher crowd on the House side of Capitol Hill in his second day of congressional testimony .
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle grilled Mr. Zuckerberg over the company’s handling of user data, with a focus on privacy settings.
Privacy advocates say Facebook continues to test the boundaries of what data-mining techniques are permissible. The company tracks users even after they leave Facebook, and collects biometric facial data without the explicit consent of users.
On our podcast “The Daily,” we discuss a difficult question hanging over the hearings: What is Facebook, exactly?
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• Algeria is coping with its worst-ever air disaster.
Investigators are trying to learn why a Russian-built Algerian military plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Algiers, the capital, killing at least 257 people .
Witnesses told local news outlets that they had seen flames coming from one engine. The plane lurched in the sky and crashed on one wing, one bystander said.
A defense official said at least two people had survived. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika declared three days of mourning.
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• President Xi Jinping took center stage at China’s annual Boao Forum for Asia this week to the welcoming arms of global elites.
Mr. Xi portrayed himself as a champion of free trade and the global world order, but elsewhere China’s increasing power and forceful tactics raised alarms.
Australia warned China against building a military base in the South Pacific after a report that the Chinese had approached the tiny island nation of Vanuatu about establishing an outpost there. (Beijing dismissed the report as “fake news” and Vanuatu’s government also said that there was no such proposal.)
And a human rights organization has detailed how the Chinese authorities coerce videotaped confessions that are then circulated widely by news organizations.
• Trade war considerations. The European Union is trying its own answer to frustrations with China’s closed markets: negotiation. And our economics columnist looks at a U. S. manufacturer that relies on Chinese steel pipe — and just got hit with the first bill for the new 25 percent tariff.
• Beijing cracked down on Bytedance, a start-up that earned a $30 billion valuation on GIFs, buzzy news and humor. It’s been ordered to close its app for sharing jokes and silly videos.
• Bank of America will no longer lend money to manufacturers of military-style firearms like the AR-15, which have been used in multiple mass shootings.
• U. S. stocks were lower. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.
• The U. S. and North Korea are in active, detailed discussions about the date, venue and agenda for discussions between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, according to South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in. [ The New York Times]
• In India, Hindu nationalists are rallying to the defense of men accused of drugging, repeatedly raping and killing an 8-year-old Muslim girl. [ The New York Times]
• A young Melbourne woman who lied about having terminal cancer to get tens of thousands of dollars from her parents and their friends and neighbors was jailed for three months. She’d used the money to party and vacation overseas. [ ABC]
• A Myanmar judge ruled that two Reuters reporters who documented a massacre of Rohingya Muslims would to trial for violating the Official Secrets Act. [ The New York Times]
• Indonesia’s largest sulfur mine is inside an active volcano. The miners who risk their lives to work there are now a tourist draw. [ South China Morning Post]
• A Chinese sperm bank’s ad for donors was precise: No bald men. No hereditary diseases. And only men with an abiding love for the “socialist motherland.” [ The New York Times]
Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.
• Do face masks keep you healthy ?
• Travel light, but still dress well .
• Recipe of the day: If you like baklava, you may love this sweet pastry from the American cookbook author Dorie Greenspan.
• #BringBackOurGirls: Dozens of the Nigerian schoolgirls finally released after being abducted by Boko Haram in 2014 spoke with The Times and agreed to be photographed. Now at a university, they say they’re the lucky ones. But their celebrity has a price.
• Australia Diary: A Sydneysider revels in a New Yorker’s awe of her native land and its cockatoos, lorikeets and kookaburras — “like an aviary opened its doors.”
• And Chairman Mao as smoldering hunk? A television program featured a love letter to Mao Zedong to emphasize the Great Helmsman’s human side. (Reactions were … mixed.)
Today is the 102nd birthday of Beverly Cleary, the prolific and celebrated American author.
Her children’s books have been translated into many languages and have sold tens of millions of copies around the world. She was declared a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress in 2000.
Her birthday is honored in the U. S. as National D. E. A. R. Day (Drop Everything and Read).
But she struggled with reading as a child, according to her official biography.
