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Good Morning.
We cover the takeaways by more than two decades of President Trump’s tax return, the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus and the death of a man who ate one or two large bags of black liquorice a day for three weeks.
Trump’s tax returns show years of tax avoidance
In 2016, the year Donald Trump won the presidency, he paid $ 750 in federal income taxes. The following year he paid another $ 750. And for 10 of the last 15 years he paid no income tax at all – mostly because he claimed to have lost a lot more money than he made.
The Times has received tax returns from President Trump for more than two decades. The documents paint a picture of a man who will make hundreds of millions of dollars in a few years and yet cause chronic losses.
Answer: Mr. Trump denied wrongdoing and attacked the IRS in response to questions about the investigation, which he dismissed as “false news”.
Timeline: Our interactive timeline shows the ups and downs of Mr. Trump’s finances, including huge losses, impending financial threats, and a large, controversial refund from the IRS that could cost him more than $ 100 million.
In the letter: Key findings of the research include the $ 70,000 spent on hairstyling, the 20 percent of income earmarked for unexplained “consultancy fees” on almost all of his projects, and how his unprofitable businesses are helping to increase his tax burden reduce.
Publisher’s Note: “We are publishing this report because we believe that citizens should understand as much as possible about their leaders and representatives,” writes Dean Baquet, the Times editor-in-chief. “Every president since the mid-1970s has published his tax information.”
A million people have died from the coronavirus
The world is likely to hit a painful milestone in the next 24 hours: more than a million deaths from Covid-19. India, the second largest nation in the world, results in virus-related deaths every day. The US ranks second, Brazil and Mexico third and fourth. These four countries are responsible for more than half of the world’s deaths from the virus.
At the time of this writing, at least 994,457 people have died, nearly 32 million people have fallen ill, and the virus has been found in almost every country, according to a Times database. The World Health Organization said Friday that the death toll could double if countries didn’t work together to suppress the spread of the virus.
As the seasons change, some countries that were badly affected by the virus in spring and summer are beginning to abandon their lockdown policies, raising fears of future fluctuations. In Europe, second waves of infection have already hit Great Britain, Spain and France.
Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.
In other developments:
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With positive virus tests hitting new highs, Israeli officials asked the public to heed the lockdown measures in the direction of Yom Kippur.
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For those facing disheartening seasonal cold weather, The Times has sought some advice from experts on how to keep the virus at bay indoors.
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The French Open tennis tournament kicked off in Paris despite a recent surge in coronavirus cases, which limited spectators on the grounds to 1,000 a day.
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In Madrid, Around 1,000 protesters took to the streets on Sunday to demand an end to a partial lockdown imposed by the regional government.
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Without further restrictions, Britain could “get caught in a cycle of epidemic waves,” warned a member of the government’s scientific advisory board.
Heartbreaking testimony from survivors in Paris
In a Paris courthouse last week, survivors and families of the four victims of an attack on a kosher supermarket in January 2015 shared their memories of the horrific attack and how it left their personal lives in tatters. More than a dozen people are on trial, many accused of helping the attacker, Islamic extremist Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed after security forces stormed the grocery store.
Because of the attacks, “no Jew in France can go to the synagogue or take his children to school without believing that they are a target,” Francis Kaliphat, president of the Council of Representatives of French Jewish Institutions, told the court. “This process must also be the process against anti-Semitism that kills.”
Charlie Hebdo: The 2015 attacks came just days after the massacre of cartoonists and journalists in the offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. On Friday, two other people were stabbed to death outside the newspaper’s former Paris office. A knife stab suspect has confessed that his attack was aimed at publication for reprinting cartoons that mocked the Prophet Muhammad.
If you have some time, it’s worth it
How Amazon won Italy – finally
Amazon has long struggled to gain a foothold in Italy due to the lack of widespread broadband, an elderly population unaccustomed to online shopping, and poor parcel delivery infrastructure. But the country’s early, biting lockdown at the start of the pandemic changed the equation for many Italians – possibly permanently.
The company’s success has again been scrutinized. Unions have criticized Amazon’s labor practices, including a multi-day strike over virus-related security policies. Italian regulators are also investigating the company for price cuts during the pandemic.
The following also happens
Child labor: With schools closed because of the pandemic, children in India and other developing countries are taking illegal and often dangerous jobs, potentially reversing years of advances in social mobility and public health.
Nagorno-Karabakh: On Sunday, fighting broke out on the long-disputed border of the breakaway province between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which quickly escalated into the biggest clash since 2016. The neighboring countries called the events “war”.
Uighurs: Chinese President Xi Jinping described his policy in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region as a “completely correct” success and promised to do more to shape the Chinese national identity “deep in the soul” of the Uyghurs and other largely Muslim minorities.
Paternity leave: Switzerland is the last country in Western Europe to pass a law mandating paternity leave and pushing back strong conservative opposition to the proposal.
Snapshot: Upstairs in the White House Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s election to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If this is confirmed, the 48-year-old judge’s almost uniformly conservative voting record suggests she would move the court to the right and potentially change the right to abortion in the US
Lived life: Pioneering French chef Pierre Troisgros, whose unpretentious approach to seasonal cuisine earned him fans, praise and Michelin stars, died on Wednesday at his home in Le Coteau, France, aged 92.
Liquorice: A new article in a scientific journal examines the death of a 54-year-old Massachusetts man who died after eating one or two large bags of black liquorice a day for three weeks, which eventually led to cardiac arrest.
What we read: “In this powerful piece,” writes Marc Lacey, our national editor, “Los Angeles Times reporter Greg Braxton confronts a former editor with a remark that has preoccupied him for nearly 30 years.”
Now a break from the news
Cook: This one-pan orzo with spinach, feta and dill is as appealing as risotto, but without much stirring.
Read: Daniel Kraus’ “They Threw Us Away” and “Saucy” by Cynthia Kadohata are part of a new crop of children’s books that are helping to revive the genre of richly illustrated novels.
Listen: The latest playlist from our pop critics includes Sass and Swing by Jennifer Lopez and Maluma and Wizkid, an Afrobeats lamp from Nigeria.
It’s the beginning of a new week. Take some time to discover new ideas from our At Home collection on what to read, cook, see and do while staying home safe.
And now for the background story about …
Picture by picture: In our video investigations
Since the assassination of George Floyd in May, the Times Visual Investigation Department has investigated multiple cases of police violence or protest scenes in the United States. The team of reporters, editors and producers try to give a more complete picture of an event. Our Times Insider series took a look at how they do it.
“Often there is a video of these incidents that goes extremely viral for a number of reasons: It’s intense, graphic, and for many people, emotional. But very often, those individual videos that go viral don’t tell the full story, ”said Haley Willis, a video producer for the team who worked on the report of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The visual investigation team uses original recordings, investigates open sources such as social media, analyzes and authenticates audio components of a recording, reviewing event reports, and using traditional methods of finding sources and assigning schedules.
Achieving accuracy is always a must for the team. At a time when these viral events can quickly become politicized, another priority is to present the information in a way that is sonically sensitive and responsible.
“We never want to just do something graphic just to show it,” said Whitney Hurst, a senior producer. “We always want to be able to bring the analysis to the table that can really advance the story.”
The greatest responsibility for any investigation, said Ms. Hurst, is to uncover and convey the facts – whether that is the case It takes a few hours, a few days, or even a few months – and presenting the results in a visual way that provides insight into those news.
Mostly, said Mrs. Willis, the answers to her work I have a common thread: “I thought I knew what happened. But I didn’t do it. “
Here’s the team’s video investigation into the murder of Mr. Floyd.
That’s it for the briefing this morning. Until tomorrow.
– Natasha
Thank you very much
To Melissa Clark for the recipe, and Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at [email protected].
PS
• We listen to “The Daily”. Our final episode looks at policing reform in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed.
• Here is our mini crossword puzzle and a clue: “bar of soap” (three letters). You can find all of our puzzles here.
• The word “porn mime” – a neologism that means a mime who plays out sexual scenarios – first appeared in the Times on Sunday, according to the Twitter bot @NYT_first_said.
• The Times has compiled useful information for Americans who voted from abroad in the November 3rd election.
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