Wednesday, Feb 12, 2020 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering the results of the New Hampshire primary, a name for the illness caused by the coronavirus, and the Westminster Dog Show.

By Chris Stanford

Breaking

Pope Francis has rejected a proposal to allow the ordination of married men in remote areas, avoiding, for now, a potentially momentous change.

"This victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump," Senator Bernie Sanders told supporters in Manchester, N.H., on Tuesday. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Bernie Sanders edges out Pete Buttigieg

Mr. Sanders established himself on Tuesday as a formidable contender for the Democratic nomination, recording his second strong showing in a week and narrowly defeating Mr. Buttigieg in the New Hampshire primary.

With most ballots counted, Mr. Sanders had about 26 percent of the vote, fending off Mr. Buttigieg and another moderate rival, Amy Klobuchar. Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden finished well behind.

The details: Here are five takeaways from Tuesday, as well as full results from the Democratic race and the Republican primary, which President Trump won easily.

News analysis: “Mr. Sanders’s early hold on a fractured primary field has laid bare a distressing truth for some Democrats: The man who has long resisted the party’s label might just become the standard-bearer.” Read more from our reporters in New Hampshire.

Related: Andrew Yang, the tech entrepreneur whose campaign was one of the Democratic primary’s most surprising story lines, dropped out. So did Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Perspective: Opinion writers from The Times and elsewhere considered the prospect of Mr. Sanders as the Democratic nominee.

“The Daily”: Today’s episode is about what Tuesday’s results mean for the race.

Prosecutors are overruled in Roger Stone case

Hours after President Trump tweeted that a sentencing recommendation for his longtime friend was “horrible and very unfair,” senior Justice Department officials intervened on Tuesday and called for more leniency.

Three of the four government lawyers who made the initial request — of seven to nine years in prison — then withdrew from the case. The fourth quit the Justice Department entirely. Here’s what we know about them all.

Mr. Trump later denied that he had tried to influence the case, and the Justice Department rejected any link to the president’s tweets.

Background: Mr. Stone was convicted last year of charges including perjury and witness-tampering in one of the most high-profile criminal prosecutions arising from Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Another angle: The president suggested that the Pentagon should consider punishing Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the former White House aide who was fired last week after he testified in the impeachment hearings. Our chief White House correspondent writes: “More axes are sure to fall.”

A subway station in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

New name for coronavirus illness: COVID-19

The World Health Organization proposed the label on Tuesday; it’s short for coronavirus disease 2019, because the illness was first detected toward the end of last year.

The organization’s leader said the name did not refer to any people, places or animals associated with the virus in an effort to avoid stigma.

Chinese officials said today that even as the death toll from the illness continued to climb, the infection rate showed signs of slowing. Here are the latest updates and maps of where the virus has spread.

Related: Public health experts are skeptical that China’s isolation of thousands of patients will contain the virus and worried that the makeshift shelters where they’re being housed pose other risks.

Another angle: Japan’s government has offered mixed messages about its capacity to test the 3,600 people aboard a cruise ship who have been quarantined for more than a week. At least 174 are known to be infected, the largest number of cases outside China.

Victor Skaar, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs. Whitney Curtis for The New York Times

A win too late after nuclear cleanup

In 1966, an American B-52 bomber carrying hydrogen bombs exploded over Spain. The Air Force kept the disaster classified, but sent 1,600 troops to clean up.

Many later learned they had cancer and other ailments, and they were unsuccessful in their efforts to get the federal government to pay for their medical care.

More than 50 years later, the veterans won the right to sue collectively for health benefits, but many of them have already died from their illnesses.

Background: The bomber exploded during midair refueling on Jan. 17, 1966, dropping its four hydrogen bombs to the ground. They weren’t armed, but the conventional explosives in two of them blew up on impact, scattering plutonium over the town of Palomares.

Response: In a statement this month, the Air Force maintained its assessment that the Palomares troops had not suffered harmful exposure to radiation.

If you have 15 minutes, this is worth it

Drowning in brands

Illustration by The New York Times

With names like BSTOEM and ZGGCD, so-called pseudo-brands represent a large and growing part of Amazon’s business.

Thousands of product lines — many of which evaporate as quickly as they appear — stock the site with disparate categories of goods, and are challenging the idea of what it means to be a brand.

Here’s what else is happening

Climate-friendly tax break: In 2018, Congress approved a tax break for companies that use carbon capture technology to reduce their emissions. But the policy has hit an unexpected hurdle: the tax man.

Jussie Smollett indictment: A grand jury revived the criminal case against the former “Empire” actor, indicting him on charges that he lied to the police in his claim a year ago to have suffered a hate crime attack. Prosecutors had dropped similar charges.

Rashed AlShashai and Desert X AlUla; Photograph by Lance Gerber

Snapshot: Above, “A Concise Passage,” an installation at Desert X AlUla, a new art festival in Saudi Arabia that is attracting the Coachella crowd. Some locals are worried about damaging the Saudi desert’s archaeological jewels, and outsiders have called the collaboration with the Saudi authorities “morally corrupt.”

Late-night comedy: “Today, Joe Biden said that Mickey Mouse could run against President Trump and have a shot,” Conan O’Brien said. “Then Biden found out that he was polling third behind Mickey Mouse.”

What we’re reading: This article in The Bitter Southerner, about the busboy in a 1960 photo of four young black men defiantly sitting at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. Dan Saltzstein, our senior editor for Special Projects, calls it a “lovely piece about a supporting character in the history of civil rights.”

Now, a break from the news

Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.

Cook: Few dips are as satisfying as a classic queso.

Watch: Margaret Lyons, our television critic, offers guidance on when to stick with a show in the latest edition of “Ask a TV Critic.” (Email questions to watching@nytimes.com.)

Eat: Nari, in San Francisco’s Japantown, refuses to flatten Thai cuisine into a Eurocentric model, our California restaurant critic, Tejal Rao, writes.

Smarter Living: Automating savings is one of three simple steps to improve your finances.

And now for the Back Story on …

The Westminster Dog Show

Every year, dog fanciers and fancy dogs get together at Madison Square Garden for a few days of mutual admiration. The competitors have been working toward the Westminster Dog Show for months.

Siba, a black standard poodle pictured below, won best in show on Tuesday. We spoke with Sarah Blesener, one of several photographers who has helped us cover the show.

Have you covered anything like this before?

Oh my, no. This is my first time, and there’s nothing like it. It feels like there’s too much to photograph. It’s visually overwhelming — that’s a better way to put it. The activities are quite redundant, the grooming and the competition, but the people and the dogs are unique. You turn a corner and there’s hair spray in the air and a dog in a new outfit, or people are dressed in ’40s sequins.

Siba is the fifth standard poodle to win the show's top prize. Calla Kessler/The New York Times

How do you work with the other photographers?

We cover different shifts. Somebody will be there in the morning, somebody in the afternoon, somebody in the evening. Somebody is doing video. It feels nice, you have more confidence to have your own vision.

What are you looking to capture?

The people are so quirky and interesting, and their relationships with the dogs are remarkable. That’s what I was drawn to. But it’s hard, because you have to make it not look too kitschy, to get something that’s more than just another cute dog. And you don’t want to disturb or overwhelm anyone. People are really emotional, they’re really stressed. It was more challenging than I realized.

That’s it for this briefing.

Thanks to all the readers who provided restaurant recommendations in Manchester, N.H., after hearing that one of our politics reporters had eaten — twice — at the Olive Garden next to his hotel.

See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Mark Josephson and Kathleen Massara provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the New Hampshire primary.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Word appearing in nearly every U.S. state constitution, but not the U.S. Constitution (three letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Manny Fernandez has been named The Times’s Los Angeles bureau chief. Since 2011, he has led our Houston bureau.