Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
Advertisement
Supported by
By Karen Zraick, Joumana Khatib and David Scull
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)
Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. It’s the busiest Primary Day of the year so far.
Voters went to the polls in eight states: Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.
Most of the attention this week has focused on California, which has an unusual open primary system. Democrats are vying for Republican-held congressional seats, the governorship is up for grabs, and the veteran senator Dianne Feinstein is running for re-election. We have live updates from our reporters throughout the state. Above, voting in San Diego.
And here’s what you need to know about the other seven states in play. We’ll have results here as they come in.
____
2. The news from Washington:
The White House celebrated America instead of the Philadelphia Eagles in a battle of wills over racial protests and dignity.
The president’s chief economic adviser said Mr. Trump wanted to negotiate individual deals with Canada and Mexico, rather than rewrite Nafta. Meanwhile, Mexico hit back at the U. S. over tariffs, saying it would impose levies on cheese, whiskey and other goods.
And the administration released new projections that show the finances of the Medicare and Social Security programs have worsened in the last year.
____
3. David Koch, 78, the billionaire industrialist and conservative donor, is stepping down from his political and business interests because of declining health.
He has been a generous donor to the arts in New York, including giving $100 million in 2008 to New York City Ballet’s Lincoln Center theater, which now bears his name.
But he is better known for decades of partnering with his older brother, Charles, to champion conservative causes and candidates. The powerful political group they founded in 2004, Americans for Prosperity, has played a pivotal role in U. S. politics.
____
4. A very different cultural moment: The Miss America Organization is scrapping the swimsuit portion of the competition as it tries to find a foothold in the #MeToo era.
“We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance,” Gretchen Carlson, the chairwoman of the organization’s board and the 1989 Miss America, said on “Good Morning America.” “We want more women to know that they are welcome in this organization.”
Miss America recently appointed an all-female team after emails emerged showing its previous leadership mocking past winners.
Have you participated in Miss America or other pageants? We’d like to hear from you .
____
5. Vladimir Putin arrived in Austria, looking to strengthen ties with European Union officials who are upset with the U. S. over its withdrawal from the Iran deal, as well as for imposing tariffs on their countries.
And Iran announced the completion of a new centrifuge assembly center, a first step to increasing its nuclear enrichment capacity.
Iranian officials said enrichment would remain within limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal. The U. S. withdrew from that agreement last month, and the opening seemed to signal that Iran could abandon those limits if the arrangement unraveled further.
____
6. The venue is booked for the June 12 meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea. The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, wrote on Twitter that it would be held at Singapore’s Capella Hotel — a five-star establishment on a resort island.
Our Beijing bureau chief visited the China-North Korea border, above, and found excitement growing over the prospect of a deal between the U. S. and the North. The lifting of sanctions could hand China a new realm of dominance.
And back in the U. S., an American veteran who once worked as an intelligence analyst for the Pentagon was charged with spying for China. Ron Rockwell Hansen of Syracuse, Utah, was arrested in an F. B. I. sting operation at the airport in Seattle, after a yearslong investigation.
____
7. Kate Spade, the acclaimed fashion designer whose cheery, practical handbags became a status symbol in the 1990s, was found dead in her Manhattan apartment. She was 55.
The police said she had hanged herself in her bedroom and left a note. They did not reveal its contents.
The news prompted a flood of expressions of admiration for Ms. Spade, whose success in the business she founded with her husband, Andy, paved the way for other female lifestyle designers.
____
8. “The sixties came to an end in a Los Angeles hospital.”
That was one of Robert F. Kennedy’s confidants reflecting on his assassination there 50 years ago. His death, on the heels of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s killing and at a time of deep racial divides, shook the nation and the world, and changed American politics .
Friends and aides who were there during Kennedy’s last days told us of his buoyancy and optimism, and what he meant to voters.
____
9. LeBron James scored 80 points for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first two games of the N. B. A. finals, but it’s a one-man show. His team is still losing to the Golden State Warriors.
Watching him is like “listening to Pavarotti forced not only to sing but to play the violins, harps and flutes, too,” our columnist writes. Game 3 is tomorrow at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Asked about President Trump’s decision to rescind the White House invitation to the Philadelphia Eagles, James said, “I know no matter who wins this series, no one wants the invite anyway .” Stephen Curry, the Warriors star, concurred.
____
10. Finally, Tuesday’s “Late Show” should be interesting.
Former President Bill Clinton, who’s making a publicity round for the thriller he wrote with James Patterson, sits down with Stephen Colbert at 11:30 p.m. Eastern on CBS. He’s been in hot water since telling another interviewer he thought he “did the right thing” during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
(And if you can’t wait that long, the authors will speak at a TimesTalk at 7 p.m. Eastern. Watch here.)
Elsewhere in The Times, our food writer talked to Anissa Helou, above, a chef and author whose new book, “Feast: Food of the Islamic World,” features recipes from Xinjiang to Zanzibar.
