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India, Facebook, Kentucky Derby: Your Friday Briefing

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Good morning,

We’re covering the escalating dispute between Congress and the attorney general and the arrival of Cyclone Fani in India. It’s also Friday, so there’s a new news quiz.


House lawmakers are considering their next moves after the Justice Department ignored a deadline to provide an unredacted version of the special counsel’s report and Attorney General William Barr failed to appear at a committee hearing on Thursday.

The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler, threatened to hold Mr. Barr in contempt if he didn’t turn over the complete version of the report by Robert Mueller’s team. The Justice Department said that sharing the information would put the integrity of its investigations at risk.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi also accused Mr. Barr of committing a crime by lying to Congress at a hearing in April, when he said he was unaware of objections from the special counsel to a summary of the report. Mr. Mueller wrote to him about the summary in March. A Justice Department spokeswoman called Ms. Pelosi’s comments “reckless, irresponsible and false.”

What’s next: Democrats could begin contempt proceedings as soon as next week, although the process would probably take months to play out. They also want Mr. Mueller to appear for a hearing.

Partisan picks: Writers from across the political spectrum discuss Mr. Barr’s Senate testimony.

Another angle: The F.B.I. sent an undercover investigator to meet with a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, in 2016. It was part of a counterintelligence inquiry that has become a political flash point, as President Trump and his allies have accused American law enforcement and intelligence officials of spying on his campaign.


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On the outskirts of Puri, India, today.Credit...Associated Press

One of the biggest storms to hit the subcontinent in decades arrived today, with wind gusts of more than 120 miles per hour. Here are the latest updates.

Tens of millions of people are potentially in the path of Cyclone Fani, which made landfall near the eastern city of Puri. Large sections of coastal India and Bangladesh are threatened by storm surges and flooding.

Map: Trace the path of the storm.


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Alex Jones in December. He has been kicked off YouTube and, as of Thursday, Facebook and Instagram.Credit...Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The social media giant barred seven prominent users on Thursday, including Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars, and Louis Farrakhan, the outspoken black nationalist minister who has a record of anti-Semitic remarks. The company said they had violated policies against “dangerous individuals and organizations.”

One of the tech industry’s broadest actions yet to punish extremists, the move comes as social media companies have been under fire for allowing the spread of hateful content and misinformation. Critics said the decision had been a long time coming.

Response: Paul Joseph Watson, an Infowars contributor, was one of those barred. “I broke none of their rules,” he said. “In an authoritarian society controlled by a handful of Silicon Valley giants, all dissent must be purged.”


Conventional wisdom has long held that when unemployment falls, wages tend to rise, as companies try to attract scarce workers with higher pay. But for years after the end of the 2009 recession, wages grew only slowly, puzzling many economists.

Some say the recent uptick suggests a simpler explanation: The job market wasn’t as good as the unemployment rate made it look. Others see evidence that the economy has shifted in ways that hold down wages. One of our economics reporters explains.

The details: Average hourly earnings in March were 3.2 percent higher than a year earlier, the eighth straight month in which growth topped 3 percent.

Related: The U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department said today, far more than the 190,000 that economists were expecting. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, the lowest level of the 10-year recovery.

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Credit...YouTube screenshot

Yusi Zhao, a student from China, is pictured above in a screenshot from a video in which she offers advice about getting into prestigious American universities. “I tested into Stanford through my own hard work,” she says.

But the news that her family of pharmaceutical billionaires paid millions to help secure her place has illuminated the global reach of the college admissions scandal. (She has since been expelled.)

Fed candidate is dropped: President Trump said on Thursday that he would not nominate Stephen Moore for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. Lawmakers had criticized Mr. Moore’s past comments denigrating women.

Drilling rules are eased: The Trump administration has made public its rollback of a major offshore-drilling safety regulation imposed after the worst oil spill in American history, in 2010.

Baltimore mayor resigns: Catherine Pugh has stepped down in a widening scandal involving hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of children’s books that she wrote.

From The Times: In honor of World Press Freedom Day, we’re taking down our paywall for three days. Our international editor explains why.

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Credit...Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, dolphins in the Bay of Biscay. A record number have washed up on the Atlantic coast of France since January. Scientists have blamed fishermen, who respond that they are being targeted unfairly.

In memoriam: Peter Mayhew, an actor, was best known for portraying Chewbacca in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. He died on Tuesday at 74.

News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself.

Modern Love: This week’s column, which explores the comforts and limits of online connection, is the winner of our college essay contest. It’s by Kyleigh Leddy, a senior at Boston College.

Late-night comedy: The hosts noted that William Barr wasn’t in the House on Thursday. “Barr said he would not attend because of a dispute about the questioning format,” James Corden said. “Specifically, he didn’t like the part where they asked questions and he had to answer them.”

What we’re reading: This piece in BBC Travel. Lynda Richardson, a Travel editor, writes: “Former President Barack Obama recently gave an erudite meditation on why travel is important, in this wide-ranging Q. and A.”

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Credit...Romulo Yanes for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui.

Cook: A loaf made from cinnamon rolls? Don’t mind if we do.

Watch: A study of athletes named Bob is one of the our TV critic’s weekend suggestions.

Read: Poetry and the environment are celebrated in some of the 10 new books we recommend. We’ve also compiled 14 titles to watch for this month.

Go: Melbourne is Australia’s capital for all things cultural. Here’s how to spend 36 hours there.


Smarter Living: Time management regret does not have to define your future. Own and admit mistakes, and then forgive yourself. Don’t dwell on self-criticism. And set boundaries to make wiser choices.

And even one workout may make the brain’s memory centers more fit.

The word “derby” is synonymous with major horse races. The Kentucky Derby, whose 145th running is Saturday, was inspired in part by the Derby at Epsom Downs in Surrey, England (where it’s pronounced “DAR-bee”).

But the word originates with a city that long predates the United Kingdom.

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Justify won the 2018 Kentucky Derby.Credit...Morry Gash/Associated Press

In the first century A.D., Romans began conquering the territory they called Britannia. They established Derventio, a small settlement on the east bank of the Derwent River.

According to “Secret Derby,” by the British historian Maxwell Craven, the name “Derwent” is old Celtic, coming “from deru meaning oak and wen meaning white/pale, thus ‘place/river of the white oaks.’”

Some 850 years later, Mr. Craven writes, Saxons established a fortified settlement across the river as a stronghold against Viking attacks. They named it by combining the first syllable of Derventio with the Norse suffix “-by,” meaning town or settlement.

Roughly 850 years after that, a coin toss is reputed to have won the 12th Earl of Derby the honor of having a horse race named for him.

As for Saturday’s race at Churchill Downs, here are our picks.


That’s it for this briefing. (Sad Wookiee roar.) See you next time.

— Chris


Thank you
To Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and Kenneth R. Rosen for the break from the news. Jake Lucas wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the leadership crisis in Venezuela.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Sound from a smoke alarm in need of new batteries (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times Magazine documented how it came up with its covers for a year.

Chris Stanford is the writer of the U.S. edition of the Morning Briefing. He also compiles a weekly news quiz. He was previously a home page producer at The Times. Before 2013, he worked at The Washington Post and other news outlets. More about Chris Stanford

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