| We’re covering Republican concerns over the “Send her back!” chant by President Trump’s supporters and the aftereffects of the earthquakes this month in California. And our news quiz has returned. | |  By Chris Stanford | | | Republican leaders tried to distance the party from the message embraced by the crowd in Greenville, N.C., this week. Tom Brenner for The New York Times | | | Republicans agree that branding Democrats such as Representative Ilhan Omar as radicals could be a powerful campaign strategy, but the event in North Carolina veered into territory that some fear could hurt the party next year. | | | “Those chants have no place in our party or our country,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader in the House. | | | Watch: Asked by a reporter why he didn’t attempt to stop the chant, Mr. Trump said, “I think I did — I started speaking very quickly,” a claim contradicted by video. | | | President Trump said on Thursday that he would nominate Eugene Scalia, a longtime labor lawyer and son of the former Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, as his next labor secretary. | | | Mr. Scalia, a partner at a Washington law firm, has a long record of representing Walmart and other companies that have pushed back against unions and tougher labor laws. | | | If confirmed, he would replace Alexander Acosta, whose resignation becomes effective today after scrutiny over his handling of a sex crimes case involving the financier Jeffrey Epstein when Mr. Acosta was a federal prosecutor. | | | A memorial today for the victims of the fire at the Kyoto Animation building, in the background. Jae C. Hong/Associated Press | | | Twenty of the 33 people who died were women. Japan’s anime industry is led by men, but Kyoto Animation — known as KyoAni to its fans — was known to employ more women, particularly younger ones. | | | The details: The 41-year-old suspect is believed to have bought about 10 gallons of petroleum at a gas station near the studio half an hour before the fire. | | | A 6.4-magnitude earthquake in Southern California on July 4 was followed by a 7.1-magnitude quake the next day — and thousands of smaller ones since, many too weak to be felt. | | | Why it matters: The earthquakes this month could help researchers understand how multiple strong quakes can happen. The pattern of aftershocks and other data revealed that short faults are more connected than is shown on maps of the area, which were last updated in the mid-1990s. | | | To help her fall asleep, a writer for The Times, Amanda Hess, uses an app on her phone that features a woman’s gentle voice, “which sounds like she is smiling as she speaks.” | | | PAID POST: A MESSAGE FROM CAMPAIGN MONITOR | | Email Marketing 102: Work smarter, not harder. | | Working smarter means running beautiful, results-driven email marketing campaigns – without sacrificing any bandwidth along the way. And with Campaign Monitor, you'll have access to a drag-and-drop email builder, a gallery of templates, and personalized customer journeys – all the tools you need to replace ‘harder’ with ‘smarter.' | | | Learn More | | | | Stormy Daniels case: In an apparent legal victory for President Trump, prosecutors signaled they were unlikely to file additional charges in the investigation into payments made to buy the silence of two women, including Ms. Daniels, who said they had had affairs with him. | | | Pesticide won’t be banned: The Environmental Protection Agency said it would not ban chlorpyrifos, a widely used chemical that the agency’s experts have linked to serious health problems in children. | | | Democratic debates, round two: Kamala Harris and Joe Biden will face off again, and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will headline the other half of a two-night debate, on July 30-31. Here are the lineups. | | | Doug Mills/The New York Times | | | Snapshot: Above, a prisoner flipping a sign to signify prayer time in the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. A Times reporter and photographer went inside the secretive prison, with tight restrictions. | | | News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself. | | | Modern Love: In this week’s column, a woman thought that, by freezing her eggs, she could have children on her own timeline. She was wrong. | | | Late-night comedy: President Trump said at his rally in North Carolina that he had “nothing to do.” Trevor Noah asked, “Nothing to do? The guy is president of the United States and he sounds like your buddy who just got laid off.” | | | What we’re reading: This essay in Vox. Jenna Wortham, a writer for the The Times Magazine, says it’s “a beautiful and meditative piece on the economy of ‘living your best life’ on Instagram, as told through the destruction of an indigenous landmark.” | | | Julia Gartland for The New York Times | | | Watch: In the remake of “The Lion King,” our critic found “a lot of professionalism but not much heart.” | | | Listen: The Israeli duo Lola Marsh makes sweeping, cinematic music dripping in retro charm and reverb. “Echoes” is a lush beach-blanket bop, wiggling with energy, our critic writes. | | | Read: “The Nickel Boys,” Colson Whitehead’s first novel since “The Underground Railroad,” is one of 11 new books we recommend. | | | Smarter Living: Planting one tree to suck up carbon won’t solve climate change, but every tree helps. To have a meaningful effect, a tree must live at least 10 to 20 years, according to one expert. Site and species are important, too. | | | Edmund Percival Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper who with Tenzing Norgay of Nepal made the first summit of Mount Everest, was born 100 years ago on Saturday. | | | Events in New Zealand will honor him, including the premiere of an orchestral work and the release of a special Land Rover. Nepal celebrates Everest Day on May 29, the anniversary of the climb in 1953. | | | The statues of Edmund Hillary, left, and Tenzing Norgay, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Niranjan Shrestha/Associated Press | | | Hillary and Norgay were the sole climbers from a Royal Geographic Expedition to reach the top of the world’s tallest peak, succeeding where 30 years of attempts had failed. A report in The Times centered on the fact that Queen Elizabeth II heard the news on the eve of her coronation. | | | The feat made the two men global celebrities. In the 1960s, Hillary founded the Himalayan Trust, which continues to work with communities in Nepal. | | | Known back home as “Sir Ed,” Hillary became synonymous with qualities that New Zealanders prized: humility and steely determination. In 2008, he received a rare state funeral, and in 1992, his face replaced Queen Elizabeth’s on the country’s five-dollar note. | | Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Charlotte Graham-McLay wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
