Immigration, Stephanie Grisham, Michael Jackson: Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/briefing/immigration-stephanie-grisham-michael-jackson.html

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. The Trump administration is transferring more than 100 children back to a shelter in Clint, Tex., where hundreds of children had been held in filthy, overcrowded conditions.

Border officials said the children were sent back after overcrowding there was alleviated, and they disputed lawyers’ accounts of poor conditions without access to showers, clean clothes or sufficient food. Above, migrants crossing the Rio Grande earlier this month.

The move came as the acting head of Customs and Border Protection announced his resignation amid public outcry. His replacement is Mark Morgan, an immigration hard-liner who has called for mass deportations.

Meanwhile, House Democrats pressed toward a vote on $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid to address the plight of migrants at the southwestern border. Some Democrats, however, worry that the money would be used to further enable President Trump’s crackdown at the border.

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2. In other administration news:

Stephanie Grisham, a top aide to Melania Trump, was appointed White House press secretary and communications director, Mrs. Trump announced. Ms. Grisham, who is replacing Sarah Huckabee Sanders, pictured together above, will also keep her role with the first lady.

Separately, the Trump administration has embraced a disputed mining project in Minnesota, highlighting an unusual tie between a Chilean billionaire and the Trump family. Just before Donald Trump took office, Andrónico Luksic bought a $5.5 million house in Washington with the intention of renting it. His tenants: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

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3. The Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, underlined the central bank’s insulation from politics and kept the door open for interest rate cuts as economic uncertainties loom.

“The Fed is insulated from short-term political pressures — what is often referred to as our ‘independence,’” Mr. Powell said in prepared remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

History provides some precedent for the frayed relationship between the Fed and President Trump, who continues to criticize its policy. Here’s a look back at that history.

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4. Cory Booker is looking for his breakout moment. The first Democratic debate may offer him that chance.

The New Jersey senator, pictured above in Columbia, S.C., over the weekend, is a gifted orator with a glittering résumé, but he often pulls back from political infighting. That strategy has led to stagnation in the polls.

We also analyzed plans from Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to cancel student debt and found they could have unintended consequences. And here’s Ms. Warren’s latest plan on expanding voting access.

Separately, Joe Biden now plays down his role overhauling crime laws with segregationist senators in the 1980s and ’90s. That portrayal today is at odds with his actions and rhetoric back then.

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5. “I literally stumbled out of there.”

Five years ago, Fatou Jallow won Gambia’s top beauty pageant. Just 18, she was then summoned to the statehouse, where she claims the president, Yahya Jammeh, raped her.

Ms. Jallow is the first person to accuse the president of sexual assault at a time when Gambia is trying to reckon with Mr. Jammeh’s brutal 22-year rule. Mr. Jammeh has been accused of gross violations of human rights. People he deemed enemies were killed, journalists were jailed and tortured, and migrants fleeing the country were gunned down.

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6. Last year, Representative Duncan Hunter was indicted on charges of using nearly $250,000 of campaign funds for personal expenses. This week, prosecutors went further.

Mr. Hunter, pictured above in December, used campaign cash to fund five extramarital affairs between 2010 and 2016, prosecutors said. Expenses included a ski trip near Lake Tahoe, Uber rides and a $905 bar tab.

In a court filing on Monday, prosecutors said Mr. Hunter, Republican of California, was offered a deal in which he would stipulate to the affairs in exchange for the details being excluded from public view, but he refused. Prosecutors said that detailing the affairs was necessary to establish the personal nature of the expenses, given that he also had professional relationships with some of the women.

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7. There were single white gloves, sequined military jackets and moonwalking.

Five dozen Michael Jackson superfans gathered on Hollywood Boulevard to observe the 10th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death. Despite accusations of child molestation in this year’s “Leaving Neverland,” Mr. Jackson’s commercial legacy remains intact.

HBO said the first of the two parts of “Leaving Neverland” had been watched by 9.2 million viewers, making it the most-seen HBO documentary ever. Radio play is down slightly, but the King of Pop’s Las Vegas show goes on, and plans for Broadway are still in the air.

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8. Alyssa Naeher faced her toughest test of the World Cup against Spain on Monday.

The U.S. goalkeeper didn’t have much to do in the first three games of the tournament, but Spain offered a stern test, and a blunder has taught her a valuable lesson ahead of the team’s quarterfinal match against France on Friday.

FIFA recognizes a France-Netherlands encounter in 1971 as the first women’s international match. It was no such thing (England and Scotland had played in the late 1800s), but the match serves as a revealing origin story for the current Women’s World Cup.

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9. “The high point in my life, my happiest and most carefree year.”

The year Jacqueline Bouvier, pictured third from the left, spent in Paris became one of the greatest influences in her life. One writer retraced her steps.

From Paris to the French Riviera: Mirazur, a restaurant in Menton, took the No. 1 spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

And on to Antarctica, where a polar biologist recalls a visit from Anthony Bourdain in our Opinion section. The chef was much more interested in talking to scientists there than the local cuisine.

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10. And finally, 10 essential Nigerian dishes.

We asked the recipe writer Yewande Komolafe, who grew up in Lagos and found herself searching for the heat and flavor of Nigerian food in New York, to choose the dishes that define the cuisine for her.

“My approach in selecting these 10 recipes is to reveal two complementary qualities of Nigerian cuisine: its singularity and its accessibility,” she writes. Jollof rice, fish pepper stew and braised goat in obe ata, above, top the list.

Have a flavorful night.

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