Monday, Aug 12, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering the aftermath of Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide, what caused a mysterious explosion in Russia, and another gymnastics title for Simone Biles.

By Chris Stanford

Developing

More than 100 flights were canceled at Hong Kong International Airport today after thousands of protesters occupied the transportation hub.

Many questions follow financier’s death

Officials said there had been numerous lapses at the federal jail in Lower Manhattan where Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell over the weekend. After being removed from suicide watch less than two weeks before, he was supposed to have been housed with another inmate, with guards checking in every 30 minutes. Apparently neither procedure was followed, officials said.

What’s next: The authorities will turn their attention to people whom Mr. Epstein’s accusers have said participated in a longtime scheme that involved the sexual exploitation of dozens of underage girls. Here’s what to expect in the criminal investigation.

Go deeper: One focus for investigators is likely to be the tens of millions of dollars that flowed through Mr. Epstein’s offshore companies and foundations in sometimes unusual ways.

Immigration along the Mexican border has been discussed dozens of times on Fox News in terms of an invasion. The New York Times

How the El Paso manifesto echoed right-wing pundits

There is a striking degree of overlap between the words of conservative media personalities like Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh and the language used by the man who has confessed to killing 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso this month.

A Times review of popular right-wing media platforms found hundreds of examples of language, ideas and ideologies that overlapped with the 2,300-word screed in which the suspect said he was “simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.”

Related: Jordan and Andre Anchondo, who were killed in El Paso while shielding their baby, became symbols of a national tragedy. Their families have struggled with the spotlight, which was intensified by a visit from President Trump.

Perspective: In an Op-Ed, former Vice President Joe Biden writes that assault weapons are a threat to national security and must be banned.

New nuclear missile is suspected in Russian blast

American intelligence officials are investigating a mysterious explosion off Russia’s northern coast last week that apparently involved a prototype nuclear-propelled missile that President Vladimir Putin has hailed as the centerpiece of Moscow’s arms race with the U.S.

At least seven people were killed in a blast near the Nenoksa Missile Test Site on Thursday. Local officials initially reported a spike in radiation in the atmosphere, but Russian accounts of the explosion have shifted over the past four days.

Background: At his state of the union address last year, Mr. Putin played animated video of the missile, which has been designed to evade American defenses. Mr. Putin has said that it could reach anywhere on Earth, because it was partly powered by a small nuclear reactor, eliminating the limits of conventionally fueled missiles.

A Royal Dutch Shell construction project in Pennsylvania employs more than 5,000 people. Ross Mantle for The New York Times

Deluged by plastics, but bustling to make more

A plant that Royal Dutch Shell is building near Pittsburgh is one of the largest construction projects in the U.S. When completed, it will produce more than a million tons each year of something that many people say the world needs less of: plastic.

The facility is one of more than a dozen proposed or being built around the world by petrochemical companies, which are looking for new ways to generate profits as they struggle with low oil prices.

Another angle: Since China stopped accepting much of the world’s recyclable waste last year, many countries have been grappling with how to deal with their trash. A new initiative in Australia involves shifting approaches to recycling.

If you have 7 minutes, this is worth it

How Facebook is fending off antitrust regulators

Jessica Chou for The New York Times

As it faces growing scrutiny of its business practices, the social network has started to modify its behavior.

One change involves combining the systems behind Facebook Messenger and the company’s other services, Instagram and WhatsApp. The company’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has said the reorganization will help build a more “private” Facebook, but critics note that it may also make the company harder to break up.

Here’s what else is happening

Newark’s water: After denying a lead problem for a year, officials promised to distribute bottled water, a measure used during the crisis in Flint, Mich.

Inside Kashmir: Times correspondents got one of the first looks at life under lockdown in the region whose autonomy India revoked last week. They found a population that felt besieged, confused and furious.

Election in Guatemala: Alejandro Giammattei, a conservative former prisons director, won the presidency against the backdrop of a migration crisis in which thousands leave the country each month.

The Weekly: The latest episode of The Times’s TV show is about how YouTube’s algorithm helped catapult far-right candidates into the political mainstream. Read behind-the-scenes notes on the episode, which is available on FX and Hulu.

Monday’s Must-Reads: Here are five articles you may have missed, including our Travel section’s beach guide.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Snapshot: Above, Simone Biles during her floor routine at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City, Mo., on Sunday. She won her sixth U.S. title, in part by performing a triple-double (three twists and two flips).

J.D. Salinger goes digital: “The Catcher in the Rye” and three other Salinger books are being released this week in digital formats for the first time. The famously reclusive author, who died in 2010, disliked computers and technology.

New York’s trash: New Yorkers throw away 12,000 tons of garbage and recycling every day. We asked readers to document the piles of garbage bags and overflowing trash cans on the city’s streets. Here’s what they sent .

What we’re looking at: These 19th-century “song sheets” in the Library of Congress. “I found this collection by accident, and it’s been a delightful detour,” says Gina Lamb, a Special Sections editor. “Americans used these illustrated, one-page documents to learn the words to popular songs, reflecting the themes of their times in love, war, money and politics.”

Now, a break from the news

Jenny Huang for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne

Cook: You don’t need a colander for one-pot zucchini-basil pasta.

Go: Galleries abound due north of New York City in the Hudson Valley, showing Warhol, Basquiat and the talents of Arte Povera.

See: In the Broadway double bill “Sea Wall/A Life,” Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal portray young fathers shaken out of complacency. It’s at the Hudson Theater in Manhattan.

Watch: The trailer for “This Changes Everything.” The star-studded documentary about gender inequality in film and TV is equal parts history lesson and constructive criticism, our critic writes.

Smarter Living: One of the great things about yoga is that even beginners can feel the benefits. And it can be done almost anywhere. We have a guide to some of the basics, including a five-minute session and breathing exercises.

We also asked experts how to test, prevent or diagnose food allergies in children.

And now for the Back Story on …

Sargassum seaweed

You may have heard of the Sargasso Sea, the world’s only sea without a land boundary.

It’s formed by mats of free-floating sargassum seaweed in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Eels, turtles and fish thrive in its fronds.

But there’s another proliferation of sargassum farther south that is disrupting marine life, smothering fields of sea grass and decomposing stinkily on Caribbean beaches.

Residents removing sargassum in Mexico in May. Rodrigo Arangua/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

It’s being called the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, a vast bloom that has recurred almost every year since 2011.

Researchers are looking into possible causes. It could be that nutrient-rich water from two sources — deep water off West Africa and runoff from the Amazon River — is feeding the blooms.

Combating the problem is crucial for tourism-driven economies in the Caribbean. Barbados deployed its armed forces to clear seaweed last year, and Mexico is putting its Navy on the case this year.

Some people are trying to find uses for the bounty. One Barbadian entrepreneur is turning it into fertilizer, and foragers suggest — you guessed it — trying it for dinner.

A correction: Friday’s Morning Briefing misstated the given name of an Air Force colonel who was killed during the Vietnam War and whose remains were returned to Dallas last week. He was Col. Roy Knight Jr., not Ray.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Melina Delkic helped compile today’s briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news, and Nadav Gavrielov 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 moderate Democrats who have a different vision of their party from its outspoken progressive wing.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Most of the earth’s surface (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times’s Crossword puzzles increase in difficulty as the week progresses, with Mondays consisting of familiar vocabulary and a straightforward theme.