Israel, Kim Jong-un, Andrew Puzder: Your Evening Briefing

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/briefing/israel-kim-jong-un-andrew-puzder.html

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. President Trump said he could “live with” a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, backing away from a half-century of American policy in the Middle East.

The remarks, delivered at a news conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, spurred anger and bafflement among Palestinians, some of whom said the policy change would undercut the already slim chances of progress toward reconciliation.

“This is going to give Israel a free hand to do what it wants,” said one man in Gaza City.

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2. Russia denied a New York Times report that senior Russian intelligence officials had repeated contact with Trump campaign staff members in the year before the U.S. election.

But the resignation of Michael T. Flynn as national security adviser underscores lingering uncertainty about the relationship between the Trump administration and Russia.

Seeking to shift the narrative, Mr. Trump focused on the leaks from American intelligence agencies to the news media. “Very un-American!” he wrote on Twitter.

Today’s episode of The Daily podcast reviews what is known about Mr. Flynn’s contacts with Russia. Listen from a computer, an iOS device or an Android device.

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3. Andrew Puzder, Mr. Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, withdrew from consideration after growing Republican doubts that he could be confirmed.

It was a rare moment of cheer for Democrats, who had hammered Mr. Puzder — the chief executive of the CKE Restaurants fast-food chain, which owns Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. — for his treatment of workers and opposition to the minimum wage.

His personal life had also been scrutinized. Senators had been shown a tape of his ex-wife, incognito on Oprah Winfrey’s television show in 1990, detailing her claims of abuse against him, which she later recanted.

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4. Our reporters are tracking the case of Jeanette Vizguerra, a mother of three who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years.

She had to make a harrowing choice: check in with the immigration authorities, risking deportation and separation from her children, or bunker down inside a church for what could be months or years.

U.S. citizens are also feeling pressures, as activists report an increase in requests by border agents to examine travelers’ digital devices. Here’s a guide to your rights if an agent asks you to unlock your phone.

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5. Throughout the country, independent bookstores have taken on a new life as centers of resistance to the Trump administration. Besides hawking George Orwell’s “1984,” they are handing out lawmakers’ contact information and hosting events to gather protesters.

There are also some defections from the opposing camp. The @Trump_Regrets Twitter account has amplified the second thoughts of people who once supported the Republican president.

“I voted for you but you’re still acting like a baby,” one wrote.

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6. The police in Malaysia detained a woman holding Vietnamese travel documents and were looking for other suspects in what appears to have been a lethal poison attack on the half brother of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, at the Kuala Lumpur airport.

The brother, Kim Jong-nam, had pleaded for his life in a letter to the leader in 2012, but a South Korean official said there had been “a standing order” for his assassination since Kim Jong-un took power in 2011. Researchers say Mr. Kim has ordered more than 300 executions.

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7. For the second straight year, traffic deaths were up in the United States.

Fatalities increased 6 percent to 40,200 in 2016, according to preliminary estimates from the nonprofit National Safety Council. If the estimates are confirmed, it would be the deadliest year since 2007.

There’s no single cause for the increase, but activists have pointed to more lenient enforcement of traffic safety laws and increasing numbers of distracted drivers.

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8. “When all eyes were on her, she didn’t decide to make herself more palatable to white viewers. Instead, she let her imagination serve her goals, her child and her community.”

That’s from one of our most popular pieces today, an essay on what Beyoncé won at the Grammys, even as she lost out on Best Album to Adele.

“Black people who do transgressive or radical work must redefine and reimagine what winning is in a white supremacist capitalist culture,” the author, the Atlanta-based writer Myles E. Johnson, argues.

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9. It’s never been more appropriate to say “Bon appétit.”

Our food editors bring you a next-generation cookbook by Melissa Clark on the new essentials of French cooking, filled with step-by-step video instructions, historical background and practical tips and techniques.

She’ll help you master 10 classic dishes, from a morning omelet to an evening soufflé.

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10. Finally, in the category of strange world history: As Europe teetered on the brink of World War II, Winston Churchill was preoccupied with the question of whether we are alone in the universe.

In a newly discovered 1939 essay, he argued that humans aren’t all that special: “I, for one, am not so immensely impressed by the success we are making of our civilization here that I am prepared to think we are the only spot in this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures.”

Have an excellent night, and as “The X-Files” would say: The truth is out there.

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