Trump pushes steep steel and aluminum tariffs back by a month; Mueller’s questions for the president go public.

Trump turns back the clock on tariffs

• Mere minutes before steep steel and aluminum tariffs were set to go into effect for key US allies, Trump announced he would push the effective date back from May 1 to June 1. [WSJ / Michael C. Bender and William Mauldin]
• The White House says the extension to the 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum for the European Union, Canada, and Mexico will allow for more time to strike a deal with the countries. But the EU, in particular, is not impressed. [Vox / Jen Kirby] 
• European leaders see the move as giving them another 30 days of instability, which could harm economic growth. [NYT / Jack Ewing] 
• European leaders are irritated that they aren’t exempted from the tariffs altogether. Threatening $3.5 billion in retaliatory tariffs on jeans, motorcycles, and orange juice if Trump doesn’t back down, the European Trade Commission said in a statement that “The EU should be fully and permanently exempted from these measures, as they cannot be justified on the grounds of national security.” [The Hill / Vicki Needham]
• Europe’s response has many analysts worried about the conflict escalating into a full-blown trade war. In March, Trump had threatened that if the EU retaliated, he would retaliate to their retaliation by imposing tariffs on European cars. If the EU then retaliated to that, well, it’d be bad news for the economy. [Vox / Zeeshan Aleem]
• Meanwhile, in the same announcement, Trump said that agreements had already been reached with Argentina, Australia, and Brazil, which also would have been affected by the metals tariffs. The White House also said it had struck a final and permanent agreement with South Korea. [Washington Post / Tory Newmyer]
• Things are a little different for Canada and Mexico, which are already in talks with the US to renegotiate NAFTA. Although the countries aren’t happy that Trump is likely using the steel and aluminum tariffs as a bargaining chip in the negotiations, they will likely continue to receive exemptions until the countries strike a final deal on NAFTA. [Reuters / David Lawder]
• Aluminum and steel producers, who were obviously expecting the tariffs to go into effect today, saw their stock prices fall in response. [WSJ / Bob Tita and  Andrew Tangel]

Mueller’s questions for Trump go public

• The New York Times got its hands on a copy of the questions special counsel Robert Mueller plans to ask President Trump as part of his investigation into Russian election interference, and they’re a doozy. [NYT / Michael S. Schmidt]
• Mueller’s questions cover four major topics: two firings — James Comey’s and Michael Flynn’s — as well as the president’s business interests and the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. [ABC News / Katherine Faulders and John Santucci]
• In response to the Monday night publication of the questions, Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that the leak was “disgraceful” and claimed there were no questions about collusion on the list. (In reality, there are many.) [Washington Post / John Wagner]
• While the existence of the questions might suggest otherwise, Trump still hasn’t agreed to be interviewed, and it’s possible the publication of the list will end up affecting his decision. [Politico / Louis Nelson and Darren Samuelsohn]

Miscellaneous

• If you’re feeling lonely, you’re not alone. A new study finds there’s a loneliness epidemic in America. [NPR / Rhitu Chatterjee]
• How a tiny protest at the University of Nebraska revealed a lot about campus politics in 2018. [Chronicle of Higher Education / Steve Kolowich]
• Is it better to have one or two spaces after a period? Thoughts on a convention left over from the age of typewriters. [The Verge / Angela Chen]
• A pop-up Jell-O exhibit blurs the lines between art and food. [Atlas Obscura / Anna Kusmer]

Verbatim

“The hardest part about teaching before I retired was seeing the disintegration of support for public schools. … What I’ve seen over time, especially in the last 10 years, [is that] there are so many new, unfunded demands and programs.” [Rebecca Palacios, a teacher, to the Atlantic / Kristina Rizga]

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Sprint and T-Mobile try to join forces yet again; another deadly spate of attacks in Afghanistan targets journalists and schoolchildren.  

It’s merger time

• Mobile phone carriers Sprint and T-Mobile plan to merge, if US regulators under the Trump administration sign off on the $26 billion deal. [The Verge / Colin Lecher]
• This isn’t the first Sprint–T-Mobile merger attempt; the two companies also tried to merge in 2014 but ended up canceling the deal because the FCC under the Obama administration signaled it wouldn’t approve the deal. [NYT / Michael de la Merced]
• There’s another reason Sprint and T-Mobile are trying again, besides hoping for a friendlier regulatory environment: Mobile companies are working on speedy 5G data network technology, which is expected to start rolling out soon. [NBC News / Martha White]
• CEOs John Legere of T-Mobile and Marcelo Claure of Sprint have also promised the deal would create “thousands” of jobs, including in customer service, retail, and engineering. (This is a direct appeal to Trump.) [Vox / Emily Stewart] 
• While a giant merger may be concerning for regulators who want to preserve competition, consumers are more concerned about what might happen to their phone bill. [Washington Post / Brian Fung] 
• T-Mobile and Sprint are known for their cheaper phone plans, especially compared to AT&T and Verizon. The companies have promised their prices won’t go up, but it’s tough to tell if they’ll be able to follow through, especially if they want to get in on the faster 5G network. [CNN Money / Paul La Monica]
• Whether the deal goes through is a test on a number of fronts. As Vox’s Matt Yglesias writes, one key test is whether FCC regulators will approve a deal that will mean less competition for American consumers … at the same time that the Trump administration is suing to block AT&T’s proposed takeover of Time Warner. [Vox / Matt Yglesias] 

The deadly attacks in Afghanistan show no signs of stopping

• Monday was another day of deadly attacks in Afghanistan, with the latest spate of bombings seemingly targeting journalists. One journalist who was killed was Shah Marai, a well-known photographer for Agence France-Presse. [NPR / Diaa Hadid and Scott Neuman] 
• Two bombings and another shooting in the capital of Kabul killed at least 31, 10 of whom were journalists. It’s the most lethal day for Afghan journalists since 2002, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. [Guardian / Saeed Kamali Dehghan, Akhtar Mohammad Makoii, and Haroon Janjua]
• The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks; it appears the perpetrators used a two-bomb strategy, deliberately drawing journalists and emergency responders to the scene of a first blast, then attacking again. [NYT / Mujib Mashal and Fahim Abed] 
• Bombers also struck in the southern city of Kandahar, killing 11 schoolchildren and injuring 16 more (no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack). The past few months have been particularly bloody for Afghanistan, with multiple suicide bombings. [CNN / Euan McKirdy and Ehsan Popalzai]

Miscellaneous

• Avengers: Infinity War has officially had the biggest box office opening weekend of all time. The movie topped Star Wars for the title. [Time via the AP / Jake Coyle]
• The intersection of international security and gender is the subject of a new series of research, arguing you can’t properly understand international relations without understanding the role of gender. [Pacific Standard / Elizabeth Weingarten]  
• Flat-earthers are circulating a wild new theory: “Real” trees no longer exist. [Atlantic / Sam Kriss]
• The habits of pregnant people are the subject of much public scrutiny. But there isn’t great research to back it up. [PopSci / Sara Chodosh]

Verbatim

“I skate with a group of women. We call ourselves Mujeres Skateando. A lot of our mothers have bought into machista culture; they say we shouldn’t spend so much time with boys, that it’s dangerous for a girl. That women are delicate. … But we know how to take care of ourselves.” [Danna Valencia, a skateboarder in La Paz, Bolivia, to California Sunday / Annie Avilés]

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Audio engineers are the unsung heroes of the live sports broadcast. [YouTube / Joss Fong and Dion Lee]

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North and South Korea meet for historic talks; on Capitol Hill, the House chaplain is mysteriously fired. 

North and South Korean leaders sure do love photo ops

• North and South Korean leaders met for a historic peace summit on Friday, but there are still a lot of questions about what exactly this means. [Vox / Alex Ward]
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in signed a declaration that has the goal of denuclearizing and formally ending the Korean War, which technically is ongoing. [CNN / James Griffiths]
• The meeting between Kim and Moon marked the first time a North Korean leader had entered the South, and included a 30-minute private conversation between the two. [NYT / Choe Sang-Hun]
• The meeting was heavy on photo ops, but with a regime as volatile and unpredictable as North Korea, it’s tough to tell exactly how much was accomplished. [CNBC / Harry J. Kazianis] 
• A lot of what happens next depends on a country that wasn’t at the summit: the United States. For his party, President Donald Trump has sounded much more optimistic about the country of late, saying he has a “good working relationship of late” with Kim. [WSJ / Jonathan Cheng and Andrew Jeong]
• Trump is expected to meet with the North Korean leader at some point in either May or June. Trump will try to pressure the North to denuclearize very quickly or face stiff penalties. That could be a much trickier meeting to pull off. [Vox / Alex Ward]

“Padre, you just got to stay out of politics”

• What happened to the US House of Representatives chaplain, Father Patrick Conroy (who is no longer the House chaplain after Speaker Paul Ryan asked him to resign)? Well, it depends whom you ask. [Washington Post / Mike DeBonis, John Wagner, and Paul Kane]
• There’s been an uproar on Capitol Hill in the wake of Conroy’s departure, with some lawmakers of both parties questioning whether it was politically motivated. [Politico / Heather Caygle and Rachael Bade] 
• Conroy has said he doesn’t know if his firing was politically motivated, although he did point to a prayer he recently gave that contained a reference to the GOP’s tax bill, and asked lawmakers to remember the poor. [NYT / Elizabeth Dias]
• Ryan, on the other hand, has said Conroy was asked to leave because some members had complained about the chaplain not meeting their religious needs. Some outraged lawmakers are calling for an investigation into the firing. [Vox / Tara Isabella Burton]

Miscellaneous

• Bars across America are legally allowed to refuse service to people wearing Make America Great Again hats, according to a Wednesday court ruling. [Eater / Chris Fuhrmeister]
• When it comes to prehistoric animals that aren’t dinosaurs, there’s a lot more ambiguity around what they used to look like. [Atlas Obscura / Natasha Frost]
• If you’ve ever wondered what the gene editing tool known as CRISPR is, this guide is for you. [Wired / Megan Molteni]
• In the era of Instagram, looking at the Mona Lisa takes on a new meaning. [NYT / Scott Reyburn]

Verbatim

“If a virus like the 1918 flu struck again, we wouldn’t be able to create a vaccine fast enough to make a big difference.” [Sarah Gilbert, a virologist at Oxford University, to NPR on why humanity probably isn’t prepared for the next global flu epidemic / Michaeleen Doucleff]

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Bill Cosby is found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand; relations get worse between Kuwait and the Philippines.

#MeToo wins one of its first criminal convictions

• Ten months after a pre-#MeToo trial ended with a hung jury, Bill Cosby was found guilty Thursday on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. [Vox / Jen Kirby]
• At this point, more than 50 women have come forward with sexual assault allegations against Cosby. But today’s ruling was only about charges brought by Andrea Constand, 45, who said that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home in January 2004. [NBC News / Meredith Mandell, Adam Reiss, and Daniella Silva] 
• Constand is the only accuser for whom the statute of limitations on a sexual assault case had not yet run out. But her story of visiting Cosby’s home under the guise of mentorship, only to be given pills for “relaxation” and be “jolted awake” by the feeling of his fingers penetrating her as she lay on a couch, was remarkably similar to the allegations leveled by the other women. [NYT / Graham Bowley and Jon Hurdle]
• Five of the other accusers testified during Constand’s trial in order to establish whether Cosby exhibited a pattern of behavior. This tactic succeeded in painting a damning portrait of the man once known as “America’s dad,” and put the five women under the microscope as attorneys for Cosby asked pointed questions about their history of drug abuse, criminal backgrounds, personal relationships, and sex lives. [USA Today / Maria Puente, Gene Sloan, and Jayme Deerwester]
• Prosecutors never brought up #MeToo to the jury during the trial. But one of Cosby’s lawyers, Kathleen Bliss, made a clear attack on the movement when she told the panel, “When you join a movement based mostly on emotion and anger, you don’t change a damn thing.” She went on to compare the dozens of accusations against Cosby to a “witch hunt,” echoing rhetoric used by President Trump. [NPR / Laura Benshoff and Bobby Allyn]
• In a particularly dramatic moment, one prosecutor sought (unsuccessfully) to revoke Cosby’s bail, pointing to Cosby’s private plane as evidence that he could be a flight risk. At that point, Cosby, who didn’t testify in his own defense, stood up and yelled: “He doesn’t have a private plane, you asshole.” [CNN / Darran Simon] 
• A sentencing date for Cosby hasn’t been set yet, but the three counts — penetration with lack of consent, penetration while unconscious, and penetration after administering an intoxicant — are felonies, each punishable by up to 10 years in state prison. Although the sentences could be served concurrently, it’s also possible that Cosby will be let off with as little as five years behind bars. [Washington Post / Manuel Roig-Franzia]
• After the trial, Gloria Allred, who represented 33 of  the accusers, spoke to reporters about what the Cosby conviction means for the future of the movement to hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable, saying, “We are so happy that finally we can say women are believed, and not only on #MeToo, but in a court of law where they were under oath, where they testified truthfully, where they were attacked, where they were smeared.” [Atlantic / Megan Garber]

Tension between the Philippines and Kuwait

• The relationship between the Philippines and Kuwait has been rocky since February, when the body of a Filipina maid was discovered in her employer’s freezer in Kuwait. The gruesome discovery prompted Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to bar his citizens from taking new jobs in the country, and has led to an ongoing dispute over how the roughly 175,000 Filipinos who are still employed as domestic workers in Kuwait are treated. [NYT / Felipe Villamor]
• On Wednesday, tensions between the two countries went from bad to worse when Philippine Ambassador Renato Villa was declared persona non grata and given one week to leave the oil-rich Arab state. In the meantime, Kuwait recalled its own envoy in Manila. [Philippine Star / Pia Lee-Brago]
• The orders followed a dramatic “rescue operation” of domestic workers who said they had been abused by their Kuwaiti employers. The effort, which critics say was merely a stunt, was carried out by staff of the Philippine Embassy and later posted on social media in the hope of embarrassing Kuwait. [BBC]
• Despite all this, the Philippines has apparently expressed a desire to reconcile. “We hope that this is Kuwait’s way of just expressing its anger … and we believe and hope that the passage of time will heal all wounds and will lead to the normalization of ties,” said Duterte’s spokesperson, Harry Roque. [Arab News]
• The desire for improved relations between the countries goes both ways: Kuwait depends on Filipino workers, especially during the upcoming observation of Ramadan, and the Philippine economy depends on the earnings sent home by the 10 million Filipinos working abroad. [Time via the AP / Hussain al-Qatari]

Miscellaneous

• Yes, the romaine lettuce fiasco really is that bad. It’s now officially the largest multi-state E. coli outbreak since 2006. [NYT / Niraj Chokshi]
• Japan’s rent-a-family industry blurs lines between the personal and the professional. [New Yorker / Elif Batuman]
• The closing of an indie beauty brand and its subsequent lawsuit against Sephora shows how complicated (and expensive) it is to sell beauty products. [Racked / Cheryl Wischhover] 
• In strange and concerning historical facts: The US once accidentally dropped two nuclear bombs on North Carolina. (Thankfully, neither of them detonated.) [Atlas Obscura / Sarah Laskow]

Verbatim

“Women are so used to carrying that burden, and are socialized to think it’s our responsibility. … But I think women would be willing to have more protection.” [Adrienne Ton, whose boyfriend has been part of clinical trials for three different male contraceptive methods, to Time / Alexandra Sifferlin]

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Hearings for President Trump’s travel ban begin in the Supreme Court; Finland’s universal basic income experiment comes to an end. 

Trump’s travel ban goes to court

• President Trump’s ever-evolving “travel ban” of citizens from seven countries (five of them majority Muslim) is one of the most controversial policies of his presidency. The ban had its day before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, and the justices’ questions during oral argument suggested the administration could win. [Vox / Dara Lind]
• The Court will likely rule by late June on the third iteration of the notorious policy. The first was struck down by lower courts, and the second expired in September. The current version, which has been in effect since early December, bars almost all travelers from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. [Reuters / Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung]
• Challengers say the ban is just a way for Trump to follow through on his campaign promise of a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the US. Its defenders argue that the courts should defer to the administration on matters of national security. [NYT / Adam Liptak and Michael Shear]
• Critics had hoped to sway at least one conservative justice to join the Court’s four-member liberal wing. But with swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy’s skeptical questioning of the ban’s challengers, that possibility seems more remote. [CNN / Ariane de Vogue and Saba Hamedy]
• While many of the bill’s challengers are advocating for immigrants’ rights, others see it as negative in a different way. A wide array of former national security experts argued in legal briefs that the ban makes the country less, not more, safe. They say the ban makes it harder to get information into the targeted countries, which makes it more difficult to fight ISIS and radical Islamists. [NPR / Nina Totenberg]
• This bill is about the future of immigration to the country. But it’s also about what the Supreme Court can and can’t weigh in on when it comes to national security, a domain that is usually left up to the president and Congress. [Washington Post / Amanda Frost]
• The extent to which this is a question of national security versus human rights is up to the courts. Justice Elena Kagan offered a hypothetical situation in which a future president who is “a vehement anti-Semite and says all kinds of denigrating comments about Jews” comes into office and bans entry to the United States from Israel. “This is an out-of-the-box kind of president in my hypothetical,” she said, to audible laughter in the courtroom. [Bloomberg / Greg Stohr]
• Hanging in the balance now are the fates of nearly 150 million residents of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. (Chad, also majority Muslim, was removed from the list of banned countries earlier this month. North Korea and Venezuela are not part of the legal battle.) Unless the Supreme Court stops the ban, it will remain in effect indefinitely. [USA Today / Richard Wolf]

Is universal basic income finished for the Finnish?

• Finland became the first European country to test a universal basic income back in January 2017, when the country randomly chose 2,000 unemployed citizens to give $685 a month. But the program won’t be extended after this year; the government has decided instead to find other ways to reform the Finnish social security system. [BBC / Laurence Peter]
• The data from the pilot program hasn’t been released yet. But in general, Finland appears to be moving away from no-strings-attached social insurance, threatening to cut benefits for unemployed people who aren’t looking for work or engaging in job training. [NYT / Peter S. Goodman]
• Basic income has been touted as a way to end poverty. But in Finland, which has one of the world’s lowest poverty rates and where health care and education are already paid for by the government, some argued the program is a little redundant — and paying for it would require an income tax hike of 30 percent. [OECD Economic Surveys]
• Basic income, a fringe idea a decade ago, now has pilot programs around the world. Vox’s Dylan Matthews wrote earlier this year about why he believes in the idea — and how its proponents can still oversell it. [Vox / Dylan Matthews]

Miscellaneous

• More evidence that Amazon is subtly pervading every aspect of the human experience: The company will soon start offering in-car deliveries. [WSJ / Laura Stevens and Mike Colias]
• Not everyone working in the Trump administration is living large. Attorney General Jeff Sessions eats a turkey sandwich from the cafeteria for lunch every day. [NYT / Elizabeth Williamson]
• In Egypt, where being queer is still a crime, dating apps have become both a refuge and a way for police and blackmailers to find targets. [The Verge / Russell Brandom]
• After years of requests from users and activists, Facebook has finally published a guide to why the company removes certain pieces of content and not others. [Atlantic / Alexis Madrigal]

Verbatim

“We all care about the same thing: food on the table, a roof over our head. … We have to be examples and folks have to demand that in their elected officials.” [Texas Republican Rep. Will Hurd reflects on his impromptu 25-hour road trip with his Democratic colleague Rep. Beto O’Rourke, to the Dallas Morning News / Todd Gillman]

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Incel, the misogynist ideology that inspired the deadly Toronto attack, explained

Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what’s happening in the world, curated by Ella Nilsen. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions.

Troubling allegations come out against Trump’s pick for VA secretary; demonstrators in Nicaragua protest violent police intervention.  

Trump nominated his own doctor to the Cabinet. You’ll never believe what happened next.

• It isn’t new for drama to surround a Trump-endorsed agency nominee (like last week’s narrow confirmation of the new head of NASA). But the controversy over White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, the president’s pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, is more dramatic than most. [Vox / Jen Kirby] 
• On Monday night, the Senate postponed Jackson’s confirmation hearing amid swirling allegations over his management of the White House medical office. The hearing had been set to take place on Wednesday after Trump ousted VA Secretary David Shulkin in March. [Politico / Andrew Restuccia, Matthew Nussbaum, and Burgess Everett] 
• Jackson allegedly drank on the job, oversaw the overprescription of drugs, and allowed for a “toxic” work environment. Allegations came from whistleblowers who directly approached the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and a workplace survey. [CNN / Juana Summers, Phil Mattingly, Manu Raju, and Jeff Zeleny]
• Even before the allegations surfaced, some senators on both sides of the aisle questioned Jackson’s nomination. Pointing to a general lack of management experience in his role of White House doctor, senators questioned whether Jackson has the ability to lead a department with 360,000 employees responsible for the care of approximately 9 million veterans. [NPR / Kelsey Snell, Susan Davis, and Scott Neuman]
• The physician had previously received attention for his appraisal of Trump’s health following the president’s annual physical in January. Jackson had said, memorably, that the president might live to the age of 200 with a healthier diet. [Washington Post / Seung Min Kim, Lisa Rein, and Josh Dawsey]
• Trump has maintained a strong relationship with Jackson, leading to speculation that the physician’s nomination came out of the president’s own personal affinity rather than any qualification he possesses. [Newsweek / Nicole Goodkind]
• But Tuesday, Trump appeared to hint during a news conference that Jackson might withdraw from consideration altogether. Blaming Democrats for what he sees as an unfair attack, Trump said, “I don’t want to put a man through a process like this.” [NYT / Nicholas Fandos and Michael D. Shear]
• Trump also said that if he were Jackson, he’d withdraw. ”If I were him … I wouldn’t do it.” [NBC News / Vivian Salama]

Protests beget protests in Nicaragua

• On Monday, thousands of protesters in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua took to the streets. Protestors were demonstrating against the government’s response to the previous week of protests, in which a violent police crackdown left 10 dead and 433 injured. [Reuters / Oswaldo Rivas]
• The original protests began peacefully Wednesday, two days after the government approved part of President Daniel Ortega’s controversial plan to overhaul the country’s welfare system. The resolution would have increased contributions by workers and employers into the Nicaraguan Institute for Social Security while reducing payouts by 5 percent. But yesterday, Ortega scrapped the reforms altogether. [Al Jazeera] 
• That wasn’t enough for protesters, who called for the former leftist guerrilla leader, whom critics accuse of trying to build a family dictatorship, to resign. As protesters moved through the city, they waved pictures of those killed by security forces in recent days and chanted, “President out!”  [Vice News / Toby Hill] 
• As a result of the unpredictability of the protests, the US State Department on Monday ordered relatives of government employees based in the country to leave. [BBC] 

Miscellaneous

• Fewer Republican senators are women than those who are men named John. Here are the other top jobs in which that (disturbing) statistic is true. [NYT / Claire Cain Miller, Kevin Quealy, and Margot Sanger-Katz]
• Women often buy clothes made for men — so why don’t most men casually wear dresses? [Racked / Marlen Komar]
• The food we see in movies, commercials, and TV shows goes on an interesting journey to get there. [Eater / Alexandra Ilyashov]
• The Bajau, a people of the Malay Archipelago, spend 60 percent of their working day underwater, and they’ve evolved traits to match. [Economist]

Verbatim

“Cities are places where hundreds of thousands and millions of people reside and where thousands and thousands of vehicles operate, and often only inches apart.” [Brian Michael Jenkins, a terrorism expert and a senior adviser to the president of the RAND Corporation, to the Atlantic / Yasmeen Serhan]

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Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what’s happening in the world, curated by Ella Nilsen. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions.

The suspect in a fatal Waffle House shooting in Tennessee is captured; French President Emmanuel Macron heads to the White House for President Trump’s first state visit.

Police apprehend Waffle House shooting suspect

• A one-day manhunt in Nashville, Tennessee, is over, as police say they’ve captured the suspected shooter who killed four people and wounded two more at a Waffle House on Sunday. [NYT / Alan Blinder]
• Travis Reinking, a 29-year-old from Illinois, was arrested Monday afternoon as police found him in a wooded area near his apartment complex. Authorities said they were able to capture the suspect after a tip from the public. [Vox / Emily Stewart] 
• The suspect is the same man who made national headlines last year for being in a “restricted area” near the White House because he wanted to speak with President Trump, according to the Secret Service. [Talking Points Memo / Matt Shuham]
• Reinking’s co-workers told reporters he was “paranoid,” and the suspect also had a history of being involved in strange incidents. He had accused singer Taylor Swift of stalking him and was involved in an incident where he exposed himself to people at a public pool and had threatened another man with an AR-15 in Illinois. [Tennessean / Dave Boucher] 
• Reinking allegedly used a semiautomatic AR-15 to carry out the deadly shooting on Sunday. After his arrest for the incident at the White House, police had taken away Reinking’s guns, but eventually gave them back to the suspect’s father … whom police now suspect of giving the guns back to his son. [Tennessean / Dave Boucher] 
• The suspect was wrestled to the ground by Waffle House patron James Shaw Jr., who rushed the suspected gunman after the first shots went off. Shaw suffered a gunshot wound and a burn, but neither injury was life-threatening. He went on to raise thousands for the victims’ families through a GoFundMe page. [Washington Post / Allison Klein]  

Trump rolls out the red carpet for Macron

• French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington, DC, for a state visit with President Donald Trump. It’s the first of Trump’s presidency, and it will come with all the fancy trappings, including a helicopter ride, French flags flying in DC, and a big state dinner. [Washington Post / James Hohmann]
• Of course, it’s not all glitz and glam. Trump and Macron are there to talk state business, and at the top of Macron’s agenda is the Iran nuclear deal, which he will try to pressure Trump to continue to support. Trump has continued to uphold the US portion of the denuclearization deal but has shown signs of wavering in the past. [NYT / Peter Baker and Julie Hirschfeld Davis] 
• The two men are known for a closer working relationship than Trump enjoys with other European leaders, but there have been some tensions lately over Syria and the US’s limited involvement after recent airstrikes. Macron has said he successfully pushed Trump to keep American troops on the ground there, which was quickly refuted by the White House. [NPR / Ayesha Rascoe] 
• Almost no Democratic members of Congress or members of the press have been invited to the state dinner on Tuesday, which is a noticeable break from precedent. [Associated Press / Darlene Superville]

Miscellaneous

• Princess Charlotte just made history as the first female royal not to have her position in line for the throne usurped by a younger-born brother. [The Cut / Lisa Ryan]
• A former National Security Council staffer says that to communicate a point to the president, its’ best not to surpass the syntactical complexity of “See Jane Run.” [New Yorker / Patrick Radden Keefe]
• A genetics researcher’s work gets personal when she finds out her daughter’s rare illness stems from the exact gene she studies. [NYT / Pam Belluck]
• Watch out for snakes and fire ants: Rising temperatures are opening up new ground to venomous creatures. Including your own backyard. [Pop Sci / Kate Baggaley]

Verbatim

“Whatever’s your darkest question that you can’t ask your husband and you can barely ask yourself, you can ask me.” [An anonymous home abortion provider talks to California Sunday Magazine / Lizzie Presser]

Watch this: How IBM quietly pushed out 20,000 older workers

Age discrimination can be very hard to prove. [YouTube / Ranjani Chakraborty and Lucas Waldron]

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The Comey memos go public; the DNC files a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the Russian government, the Trump campaign, and WikiLeaks; violence continues along the Gaza border.

Releasing the memos (the Comey memos this time)

• The infamous memos that former FBI Director James Comey wrote after his meetings with President Trump became public on Thursday, shedding light both on the Trump presidency and on Comey himself. [NYT / Nicholas Fandos]
• Republicans in the House requested the memos last week, threatening to subpoena the Justice Department if they weren’t released. Thursday, the DOJ complied, and the memos leaked soon afterward. You can read them for yourself here: [Vox / Jen Kirby]
• House Republicans were hoping to find evidence for Trump’s repeated, but unverified, claims that Comey has leaked classified information. The memos themselves don’t seem to support that assertion. They also aren’t especially flattering for the president, who comes across as rambling and often inappropriate. [The Atlantic / David Graham]
• The memos also provide a more detailed picture on National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s firing after only 24 days in office. Comey noted that Trump said he had “serious reservations” about Flynn — partly because he didn’t tell Trump about a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. [Vox / Alex Ward] 
• The memos, which hew closely to Comey’s testimony before Congress, also describe the former FBI director feeling pressured to pull back from the investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia.  [Politico / Kyle Cheney]
• That wasn’t the only news in the past 24 hours on the Trump-Russia investigation: On Friday, the DNC filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks alleging a conspiracy to disrupt the 2016 election. The lawsuit reveals details that weren’t previously known about Russian election interference, like the exact date on which Russia hacked the DNC computer system. [The Washington Post / Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman, and Ellen Nakashima]
• This move isn’t unprecedented, but it is rare. The last time the DNC used a similar legal tactic was 36 years ago during the Watergate scandal, when they sued Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign for breaking into DNC headquarters. [Axios / Alexi McCammond]

Friday protests at the Gaza border are escalating

• It’s the fourth Friday in a row of protests along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Friday, four people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by the Israeli army. 445 Palestinians were injured in the day’s protests, including 96 who were wounded by Israeli army fire. [The AP via CBS News] 
• The protests are calling for the “right of return” for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and their descendants displaced by the creation of the state of Israel and the blockade that has crippled life in the Gaza Strip since 2008. [The Guardian / Hazem Balousha and Oliver Holmes]
• In preparation for the protest on Friday morning, the Israel Defense Forces dropped leaflets in Gaza warning residents against trying to use violence against Israeli civilians and soldiers or attempting to damage, cross, or even come near the border fence. [Ynetnews / Yoav Zitun and Elior Levy]
• According to the IDF, some of the protesters on Friday burned tires and tried to fly kites with firebombs attached to them into Israeli territory. At least one kite was marked with a swastika, and several succeeded in reaching Israeli territory and were taken down. [The Times of Israel / Toi Staff & Judah Ari Gross]
• The protests, in which Israeli troops have so far killed 35 Palestinians, have drawn widespread condemnation, and likely influenced actress Natalie Portman’s decision not to accept a prize in Israel due to “recent events.” [Reuters]

Miscellaneous

• In 4/20 news, the (legal) cannabis industry is expected to reach $75 billion in sales by 2030. For comparison, that’s almost as large as the US soda market was last year. [Bloomberg / Jennifer Kaplan]
• A Washington Post investigation has found that more than 208,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine. [The Washington Post / John Woodrow Cox, Steven Rich, Allyson Chiu, John Muyskens and Monica Ulmanu]
• Housing is getting so expensive in Seattle that even the homes are moving away. (Which is to say, people are picking up their homes from their foundations and moving them somewhere cheaper.) [California Sunday / Brooke Jarvis]
• The box office success of “A Quiet Place” calls attention to a history of humans’ search for quiet places. But it turns out, the more time people spend searching for quiet, the more sensitive they become to noise. [Smithsonian / Matthew Jordan]

Verbatim

“If your child got abducted in Albuquerque, you got all the resources of the Amber [Alert] program. … But if your child was abducted on the Navajo reservation, there was basically nothing there.” [Detective Jim Walters, a child abduction specialist, to Esquire / Rachel Monroe]

Watch this: How IBM quietly pushed out 20,000 older workers

Age discrimination can be very hard to prove. [YouTube / Ranjani Chakraborty & Lucas Waldron]

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NASA gets a new administrator; North Korea says it will go forward with talks on denuclearization even if US troops stay in the South.

“I care about space”

• NASA has a new administrator — one whose nomination to lead the agency was controversial, even among Republicans. [Vox / Brian Resnick]
• The Senate narrowly confirmed Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine on Thursday by a 50-49 vote. His confirmation after a vacancy of three months ends the longest period of time that NASA has operated without a permanent leader. [NYT / Kenneth Chang]
• Bridenstine, a former Navy pilot who once ran the Air and Space Museum in Tulsa, was nominated by President Donald Trump last fall. But his confirmation stalled over objections from members in both parties about Bridenstine’s lack of experience and what it could mean for the agency to put a politician in charge for the first time. [WSJ / Natalie Andrews and Andy Pasztor]
• Bridenstine has refused to acknowledge that human activity is the primary cause of climate change, a particularly concerning issue for NASA because it provides some of the most comprehensive data on climate change in the world. [Huffington Post / Chris D’Angelo]
• Democrats also criticized him for his past statements on LGBTQ rights. He once described legislation protecting the right of transgender people to use the bathroom matching their gender identity as “lawless federal bullying.” [Politico / Jacqueline Klimas]
• The Senate vote faced unanimous opposition from Democrats, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who brought her newborn daughter with her to cast her opposing vote, becoming the first senator to bring a child onto the chamber’s floor while the Senate was in session. [The Hill / Timothy Cama]
• On Wednesday, the Senate had voted to allow the babies of its members into the chamber. The vote came at Duckworth’s urging after she became the first sitting senator to give birth. (Senate rules stipulate that members must be present in order to vote.) [Chicago Tribune via AP / Laurie Kellman]

North Korea makes a major concession on nuclear weapons

• South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that North Korea appears to have conceded on a major point ahead of planned talks with the US: Kim Jong Un will no longer demand that US troops leave South Korea in exchange for giving up North Korea’s nuclear program. [NYT / Choe Sang-Hun]
• North Korea is demanding only security guarantees and an end to the United States’ “hostile policy,” Moon said. [Associated Press / Foster Klug]
• Korean experts caution that this touted shift might be essentially meaningless because “hostile policy” could mean anything — and in the past, North Korea has claimed it comprises the presence of US troops on the Korean Peninsula. [WSJ / Jonathan Cheng]
• Meanwhile, Trump said he would scrap the event altogether, or even walk out of the session while it was underway, if it looked like it wasn’t heading toward success, saying to reporters, “If I think that it’s a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we’re not going to go. … If the meeting when I’m there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting.” [Axios / Jonathan Swan]

Miscellaneous

• There aren’t many people in the world who can unilaterally rename a country. The King of Swaziland is one of them. And yes, he just did. [BBC]
• The United Kingdon is getting serious about ocean pollution. On Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May announced a likely ban on all plastic straws, stirrers, and cotton swabs. [NPR / Laurel Wamsley]
• What’s one bitcoin actually worth? Somewhere between $20 and $800,000, depending on which economist you ask. [Bloomberg / Lionel Laurent] 
• The future is here. And it’s arrived in the form of robots capable of assembling your Ikea furniture for you. [Science Mag / Matt Warren]

Verbatim

“It may not be so dangerous for someone to be without clothes on the bridge, but drivers can get too much of a surprise and completely forget that they are driving.” [Norway’s former traffic minister implores teens to stop running naked across bridges and having sex on roundabouts in a statement titled “No to sex on roundabouts” / Reuters]

Watch this: How Parkland student David Hogg beats his critics

Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg has some strategies for dealing with smears and conspiracy theories. [YouTube / Carlos Maza and Coleman Lowndes]

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