Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Harvey Weinstein, Los Angeles Dodgers, the Orionids: Your Friday Briefing

Forestry workers in Iceland measuring trees planted in 2004. The lack of trees on the island, coupled with the ash and volcanic rock spewed by eruptions, has led to severe soil erosion.Credit...Josh Haner/The New York Times

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Republicans could be on track to approve a tax package by early 2018, with the Senate passing a budget blueprint that would protect a $1.5 trillion tax cut from a Democratic filibuster.

The resolution now goes to the House, which could take it up as soon as next week.

One of our congressional reporters, Thomas Kaplan, says the Senate plan “calls for trillions of dollars in spending cuts over the coming decade. But the cuts exist only on paper, without legislation to achieve them.”

Drafted behind closed doors, it’s a bill few have seen.

• John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, delivered a somber but impassioned defense of President Trump on Thursday after criticism of the president’s condolences to a soldier’s widow.

Mr. Kelly, whose son died in Afghanistan, criticized the Democratic lawmaker who had publicized the call, and lamented a lack of appreciation for military sacrifice.

“Most of you, as Americans, don’t know them,” he said. But “they volunteer to protect our country when there’s nothing in our country anymore that seems to suggest that selfless service to the nation is not only appropriate, but required.”

Here’s a video and a full transcript of Mr. Kelly’s statement.

Video
Video player loading
The White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, talked about his son’s death and defended President Trump during a news briefing on Thursday.CreditCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York Times

• Four weeks after Hurricane Maria, 80 percent of Puerto Rico still doesn’t have electricity.

Poor planning, a slow response by utility officials and Puerto Rico’s dire financial straits contributed to a situation that would be unfathomable in the continental U.S., experts say.

On Thursday, President Trump said his administration deserved a 10 for its handling of the crisis.

Image
Downed power lines in Dorado, P.R., this week.Credit...Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press

• Without mentioning President Trump by name, two of his predecessors delivered what sounded like pointed criticisms of him on Thursday.

In separate appearances, former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama warned that the U.S. was being torn apart by old hatreds, and called for addressing economic anxiety through common purpose.

Asked whether his message would be heard in the White House, Mr. Bush smiled and said, “I think it will.” Watch highlights of his speech here.

Image
“We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America,” former President George W. Bush said in a speech in New York on Thursday.Credit...Seth Wenig/Associated Press

• The Hollywood director closely tied to Harvey Weinstein knew for decades about the producer’s misconduct toward women and feels ashamed, he said in an interview with our reporter Jodi Kantor.

“I knew enough to do more than I did,” Mr. Tarantino said. “I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard.”

• Separately, the actress Lupita Nyong’o shared her own experience with Mr. Weinstein in a column for The Times. “Now that we are speaking, let us never shut up about this kind of thing.”

• The country lost most of its trees more than 1,000 years ago, when Viking settlers took their axes to woodland that covered a quarter of the countryside.

“They did what Iron Age culture did,” one soil researcher said.

Now Icelanders would like some of those forests back, to improve harsh soils and to fight climate change.

• In today’s show, we discuss the State Department under Rex Tillerson, who has fired or driven out many experienced diplomats.

Listen on a computer, an iOS device or an Android device.

• Americans’ credit card debt is again on the rise. Great news for banks, less so for consumers.

• Thirty years ago, the stock market fell more than 20 percent. Could it happen again? An economics professor at Yale explains.

• U.S. stocks were mixed on Thursday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

• Here’s everything you need to know about having a microwedding.

• Recipe of the day: Lemon spice cake is perfect for guests.

• Dining out in Venezuela.

In today’s 360 video — the final in a series about the country — a chef explains how his restaurant stays in business despite rising inflation.

Video
Video player loading
Venezuela's economic crisis has left more than 80 percent of its citizens in poverty. But some upper class pockets can still afford to eat out. Inside Casa Bistro, the chef explains how business continues despite the rising inflation.CreditCredit...The New York Times. Technology by Samsung.

• Partisan writing you shouldn’t miss.

Writers from across the political spectrum discuss President Trump’s condolence call to the family of a fallen soldier.

• Dodgers win the pennant.

Los Angeles is returning to the World Series for the first time in nearly 30 years after beating the Chicago Cubs to win the National League.

• Celebrating the Greats.

T Magazine released its annual Greats issue this week, highlighting masters in artistic fields.

We spoke with the theater innovator Stephen Sondheim, the artist Claes Oldenburg, the director Park Chan-wook, the actress Amy Adams, the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the fashion designer Dries Van Noten and the rapper Nicki Minaj.

Image
Amy Adams has appeared in almost 40 movies over the past two decades and has been nominated for an Academy Award five times.Credit...Christopher Polk/Getty Images

• Ready for the weekend.

Our writers and critics on “Wonderstruck,” directed by Todd Haynes; these 10 new books; the return of “The Walking Dead”; and the Orionids meteor shower.

• Best of late-night TV.

Offensive words from the president? Not surprising, said Trevor Noah. “We’re offended every day.”

• Quotation of the day.

“A few weeks into training, Lulu began to show signs that she wasn’t interested in detecting explosive odors.”

The Central Intelligence Agency, in a statement explaining why a Labrador retriever failed to make the cut in its explosives detection “puppy class.”

Image
A career spent sniffing for bombs was clearly not the life Lulu envisioned for herself. This is fine.Credit...Samantha Dubois/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“When something outrages you,” Stéphane Hessel wrote, “as Nazism did me, that is when you become a militant, strong and engaged.”

Born on this day in 1917, Mr. Hessel, a French Resistance hero and Holocaust survivor, became an unlikely publishing phenomenon in 2011 at the age of 93, topping best-seller lists with “Indignez-Vous!”

Image
Stéphane Hessel in 2011, the year his best seller was published.Credit...Boris Horvat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

At about 4,000 words, “Indignez-Vous!” (“Time for Outrage!”) was more pamphlet than book. But it resonated with French readers gearing up for a presidential election, and with those elsewhere who were protesting the eurozone crisis, participating in the Arab Spring uprisings or occupying Wall Street.

Mr. Hessel urged young people to revive the spirit of the resistance by peacefully protesting the financial markets, France’s treatment of illegal immigrants, the influence of the rich on the news media and Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

“Indignez-Vous!” sold more than three million copies in Europe in less than a year and was translated into more than a dozen languages. (The Nation magazine published the full text in English.)

Mr. Hessel died in 2013, but his call to outrage endures: “You join the movement of history,” he wrote, “and the great current of history continues to flow only thanks to each and every one of us.”

Inyoung Kang contributed reporting.

_____

Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated all morning. Browse past briefings here.

If photographs appear out of order, please download the updated New York Times app from iTunes or Google Play.

What would you like to see here? Contact us at briefing@nytimes.com.

You can get the briefing delivered to your inbox Sunday through Friday. We have four global editions, timed for the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Check out our full range of free newsletters here.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT