Good morning.
We’re covering the business impact of the Wuhan coronavirus, growing ire around President Trump’s Middle East peace deal and a detailed account of a Uighur family pulled apart by detention camps.
Coronavirus tests world’s dependence on China
Businesses like Starbucks, Ikea, Ford and Toyota are shutting down locations in China, and Apple is rerouting supply chains as the number of people infected by a mysterious flulike virus passes 6,000.
It’s not clear how quickly these businesses will bounce back.
Tourism is also suffering. British Airways suspended all flights to the mainland, and United Airlines and Air Canada joined a growing number of carriers reducing service. Governments around the world are issuing travel warnings.
China has been the world’s largest source of tourism dollars, but it appears unlikely that Chinese tourists will spend what they typically do — $258 billion annually, nearly twice the tally of Americans.
The toll: China said that 132 people had died from the virus, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan. There have been no reported deaths outside of China, but cases overseas have been rising.
Mahmoud Abbas, the 84-year-old leader of the Palestinian Authority, called the attempt to resolve generations of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians a “conspiracy” not worthy of serious consideration. “We say a thousand times over: no, no, no,” he said, speaking from Ramallah in the West Bank on Tuesday night. Protests broke out on the streets of Gaza and the West Bank.
Reaction from other Arab governments has been mixed, with no U.S. allies in the region formally endorsing the plan or committing to it. Ambassadors from Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates did attend the announcement.
The latest: Israel postponed a move to annex large parts of the West Bank to explore the legal ramifications, a government minister said, a day after Mr. Netanyahu vowed to quickly act on the plan.
Recap: Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu, both facing turmoil at home and in need of a win, announced a path to peace that heavily favors Israel. Here’s a map that outlines the agreement, which proposes a Palestinian state with limited sovereignty and Israeli control of a unified Jerusalem.
Impeachment could soon come to a close
Republican leaders signaled that they were growing more confident they would be able to block new witnesses and documents in President Trump’s impeachment trial — and that they could call a vote for acquittal as soon as Friday.
The party’s 53 senators appeared to be falling into line, despite recent revelations from John Bolton, the former national security adviser, that undercut the president’s defense.
But the trial isn’t over yet: On Wednesday, after a week of silently hearing the case, senators began to cross-examine the legal teams representing the president and the House. Both sides used the opportunity to poke holes in their opponents’ cases. Follow along at nytimes.com.
What’s next: Should four Republicans join Democrats to summon witnesses for the trial, it could open a new phase that could continue well into February.
The argument: One of Mr. Trump’s lawyers pushed, among other things, an extraordinarily expansive view of executive power, arguing that any action taken by the president to help his own re-election is, by definition, in the public interest.
If you have some time, this is worth it
For Uighurs, playing by the rules doesn’t help
Zulhumar Isaac, above, a young Uighur woman from Xinjiang Province, grew up in a family of model citizens — her mother was even a midlevel Communist Party member. But when the party started cracking down on Uighurs, her parents were detained.
Our writer spent nearly a year documenting her story of loss, frustration and dissent as she played a perilous game with the state to get them back.
Here’s what else is happening
Huawei: In a second victory for the Chinese tech giant this week, the European Union advised its members only to limit so-called high-risk 5G vendors, a category that includes Huawei, stopping short of recommending a ban urged by the U.S. on security grounds.
Brexit: The last step in the yearslong lead-up to Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union is complete, as European legislators passed the bill on Wednesday. Our correspondent explains what it means for the bloc.
Kobe Bryant: A blurry selfie taken by a 13-year-old at the former N.B.A. star’s basketball academy on Saturday is perhaps the last picture of him before he died.
Snapshot: Above, the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica, where scientists for the first time recorded unusually warm water beneath the ice. The Florida-size glacier is part of a group that act as a brake on part of the much larger West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which, if melted, would raise the world’s oceans by more than a meter over centuries.
Australian Open: Ashleigh Barty, Australia’s best hope to win the tournament’s single’s title in a decade, plays in a semifinal today. She has avoided the hype around her in Melbourne, and says she could do without all the attention. On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer face off. Here’s what else to watch.
What we’re reading: This account of an attempt to do the Silicon Valley dopamine fast in The Cut, which is hilarious and weird.
Now, a break from the news
Cook: Take comfort in this recipe for cheesy cornbread muffins with hot honey butter.
Watch: Nicolas Cage and Joely Richardson confront an evil shade of lilac in the sci-fi horror film “Color Out of Space,” directed by Richard Stanley.
Go: After causing a stir on social media, the unveiling of a restored panel of the “Mystic Lamb” kicks off a year celebrating the late-medieval master Jan van Eyck in Ghent, Belgium.
Smarter Living: If you’re traveling to Japan, remember these etiquette tips.
And now for the Back Story on …
Gandhi’s mantle
Today is the 72nd anniversary of the death of Mohandas Gandhi, who helped win India’s independence from Britain with a campaign of nonviolence and enshrined protections for all religions. Protesters challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist agenda have been evoking Gandhi’s legacy — but so is Mr. Modi, to promote nationalism. Maria Abi-Habib, a South Asia correspondent for The Times, spoke with Mike Ives, on the Briefings team, about the clash.
How have the protests changed since they started a few months ago?
They’re a lot broader. It’s not just Muslims or a bunch of liberal students, it’s people who see the India that Gandhi built, one of secularism and religious coexistence, giving way to a government that is bent on a sectarian narrative at a time when the economy is sputtering.
Do any scenes spring to mind?
Some protesters held a placard that read: “Dear Hindus, We rejected an Islamic state in 1947. Now it’s your turn to reject a Hindu state. Sincerely, Secular India.” That really spoke to me because 1947 was the partition, when Hindus in Pakistan decided to stay or flee to India, and Muslims in India had a similar choice.
India chose secularism in 1947. It was majority Hindu and said its strength was its diversity, and that it would embrace Christians and Muslims and Sikhs just as much as its Hindu citizens.
Why is one protest in particular — a highway sit-in by Muslim women in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh neighborhood — seen as so significant?
Over all, India’s Muslim community has not been well organized in recent decades, but these protests have mobilized it. Shaheen Bagh has become a symbol of that. And women’s place in Indian Muslim homes has tended to be a conservative stereotype: They don’t come onto the streets, they don’t protest, they don’t mobilize. So Shaheen Bagh has really changed the game.
That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.
— Melina
Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode includes an interview with Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: It leaves in the spring (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times has named Ben Smith, the editor in chief of BuzzFeed, as its next media columnist.