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North Korea, Southwest Airlines, Barbara Bush: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

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Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up .)
Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. Mike Pompeo’s secret visit to North Korea underscores President Trump’s unorthodox approach to one of the riskiest gambits of his presidency.
Mr. Trump confirmed that he sent Mr. Pompeo, the C. I. A. director, above, to meet Kim Jong-un over Easter weekend. (Mr. Pompeo is still awaiting confirmation to his new post, secretary of state.)
Mr. Pompeo went to lay the groundwork for a meeting between his boss and Mr. Kim. No date has been set, though Mr. Trump has said late May or early June. And officials are still discussing the location. The Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, has emerged as a top choice.
No sitting president has ever met — or even spoken on the phone — with a North Korean leader. Here’s a look at previous attempts at dialogue — and how the possible summit meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim came about.
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2. A Southwest Airlines pilot is being hailed for her “nerves of steel” after she safely landed a 737 jet that had lost one of its engines in a midair explosion.
Capt. Tammie Jo Shults, above, was one of the first female fighter pilots in the Navy three decades ago. Passengers aboard Flight 1380, headed from New York to Dallas, praised her in online posts and in interviews on Wednesday.
One passenger, Jennifer Riordan, an executive from Albuquerque, later died of her injuries. Passengers described the traumatic flight, how they put on oxygen masks and sent goodbye messages to loved ones. To their relief, they made a smooth landing in Philadelphia.
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3. In Houston, Barbara Bush was remembered as a beloved matriarch who never bit her tongue.
And our fashion critic noted how Mrs. Bush projected soft power with her trademark fake pearls.
Melania Trump will be among the attendees at Mrs. Bush’s funeral in Houston on Saturday. While the White House did not rule out President Trump attending, it did not seem likely. He is no favorite of the Bush family, and Mrs. Bush was sharply critical of him during the campaign.
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4. President Raúl Castro of Cuba, who took over from his brother Fidel 12 years ago — and led the country through some of its biggest changes in decades — is expected to resign on Thursday.
His handpicked successor is Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, 57, above right, a Communist Party loyalist who is an enigma both on and off the island. Even the most seasoned Cuba experts have only faint clues as to how he will lead, and how much latitude he will have to chart his own course.
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5. A former nanny who killed two children in her care was found guilty of murder, after a Manhattan jury rejected her insanity defense that she was too mentally ill to understand her actions — or know they were wrong.
The case, a slice of could-happen-to-anyone horror, sent shock waves through the city in 2012. The children were 2 and 6 years old.
The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, 55, faces life in prison when she is sentenced.
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6. A downed transmission line knocked out the electricity in Puerto Rico, leaving the entire island without power. Above, repairs in San Juan.
It could take up to 36 hours to restore. Officials attributed the blackout to a failure in a line that begins in the island’s largest power plant.
It was the second big failure in less than a week, underscoring just how fragile Puerto Rico’s electricity remains since Hurricane Maria destroyed the electrical grid on Sept. 20.
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7. “There’s our mayor in a black T-shirt with his fist in the air, and he’s just another Albuquerque metalhead.”
Tim Keller, a 40-year-old Democrat who became mayor of Albuquerque in December, is making his enthusiastic embrace of heavy metal a signature feature of his administration.
He’s introduced bands onstage at gritty downtown venues, extolled the music of Sepultura of Brazil, and even fondly reminisced about how he once got booted from an Ozzy Osbourne concert after jumping off a wall — and into the audience.
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8. We sat down with Antonio Banderas to discuss his latest role: His boyhood hero, Pablo Picasso.
He plays an aging Picasso in National Geographic’s “Genius,” an anthology series that has its premiere on April 24.
Mr. Banderas did painstaking research and preparation for the part, and wears elaborate prosthetics to transform his face into Picasso’s.
“I’ve been with him now for months every day and I can just actually say, ‘O. K., come over here,’” he explained. “The ghost comes and just gets in your body.”
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9. A news report that Queen Elizabeth II’s last corgi, Willow, had died, sent the British news media into a tizzy. The small, yapping dogs are a beloved symbol of the British monarchy.
While the palace declined to comment, we decided it was a good time to explain the enduring appeal of the queen’s pets, seen above in 1973.
In other canine news, think you can identify the breeds in a mutt? Now you can test your knowledge with a new survey by the Darwin’s Dogs program at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., a center for genome studies, and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. Good luck.
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10. Finally, James Comey sat down with Stephen Colbert to discuss his new book, “A Higher Loyalty.” (Read our review here .)
Mr. Comey said he was surprised when President Trump fired him: “Why would you fire the F. B. I. director who is leading the Russia investigation?”
“I don’t know if you’ve dealt with mob bosses before, but they don’t like to be investigated,” Mr. Colbert replied.
On our list for tonight: NASA and SpaceX are scheduled to send TESS, a planet-hunting satellite, into orbit at 6:51 p.m. Eastern. Here’s how to watch.
Have a great night.
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