Your Thursday Briefing – The New York Times

Markets stabilize after a day of turmoil

Stocks in Asia and Europe were mixed today, and futures markets suggested Wall Street would open higher after one of its worst days of the year.

The financial jitters were driven by grim economic data from China and Germany, two manufacturing powerhouses that have been hit hard by U.S. tariffs.

What’s next: A strong U.S. economy has been one of President Trump’s greatest assets in his trade war with China. But domestic growth is slowing and is predicted to slow further.

Closer look: The trade war is only part of the concern, our senior economics correspondent writes. A warning from the bond market suggests something bigger is going on.

Suspect surrenders in Philadelphia standoff

A man with an extensive criminal history was taken into custody after a standoff that lasted over seven hours, the police said early today.

Six officers who were shot were treated at the hospital and released.

The details: The standoff started when police officers tried to serve a narcotics warrant in the Nicetown-Tioga section of the city, near Temple University, the authorities said. Watch footage from the scene.

A cure for the deadliest tuberculosis

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday effectively endorsed a three-drug regimen that has shown a 90 percent success rate against the most lethal strain of the disease.

Tuberculosis has surpassed AIDS as the leading infectious cause of death globally, and the so-called XDR strain is resistant to typical antibiotics. Only a tiny fraction of the 10 million people infected by TB each year get this type, but very few survive it.

What’s next: The World Health Organization usually adopts approvals made by the F.D.A. or its European counterpart, meaning the treatment could soon come into use worldwide.

An heiress intent on closing America’s doors

During her life, Cordelia Scaife May, an heiress to the Mellon banking and industrial fortune, evolved from an environmental-minded socialite to an ardent nativist. She also helped create what would become the modern anti-immigration movement, and her money is still funding it, 14 years after her death.

In his pitch to potential buyers, Larry Hall highlights his condominium’s high ceiling, its swimming pool and its movie theater. But what really sets the development apart, in his view, is its ability to survive the apocalypse. He has converted a former military nuclear missile vault in Kansas, pictured above, into high-end residences.

Personalized disaster prep has grown into a multimillion-dollar business in the U.S., fueled by a seemingly endless stream of new and revamped threats.

Here’s what else is happening

Lead crisis in Newark: Thousands in New Jersey’s largest city were told to drink only bottled water after urgent warnings about aging lead pipes.

Snapshot: Above, Mevan Babakar, right, and Egbert, who worked at a refugee center in the Netherlands in the 1990s where Ms. Babakar, then 5, and her mother were staying after fleeing from Iraq. He gave her a bicycle, a gift that she never forgot. They were reunited this week.

Extra time in soccer fight: Mediation talks between the U.S. women’s soccer team and U.S. Soccer collapsed, which means a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by the players is probably headed for federal court.

52 Places traveler: In his latest dispatch, our columnist visits the Golfo Paradiso, a stretch of Italian coastline with few American tourists.

Late-night comedy: The hosts noted that John Hickenlooper was considering dropping his presidential bid. “When he broke the news to all his supporters, they were like, ‘Cool, Dad, thanks for telling us,’” Jimmy Fallon said.

What we’re reading: This article in The Texas Tribune about plastic bags killing livestock. Mark Getzfred, a News Desk editor, says that “on a very practical level, it shows the difficulty we have as a country understanding and dealing with how problematic stray plastic bags can be.”

Now, a break from the news

Smarter Living: Our Parenting site lists six things parents do that drive day care workers crazy. For starters, don’t dawdle over drop-off. And if there are major disruptions at home, let the staff know; it will help them understand if your child is acting out.

On another subject: If your device is seized by ransomware, Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, has free tools that might rescue your data (even if you’re not in Europe).

And now for the Back Story on …

The Queen of Jhansi

Seventy-two years ago today, India was freed from British rule.

Most people know that Mohandas Gandhi played a major role in the country’s struggle for independence. But so did Queen Laxmibai of Jhansi in the 19th century.

The queen, or rani, was an unconventional leader. She could read and write — very rare for a woman in that era — and she refused to abide by the norms of purdah, which concealed women behind curtains or veils, when speaking with her advisers and British officials.

She was widowed without a natural-born heir, and the East India Company used that as pretext to annex her kingdom. So she fled to the nearby state of Gwalior, trained an army and led it into battle against the British. She was killed in action in 1858.

In India, she is immortalized in history books, movies, songs and even nursery rhymes.

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

— Chris

Thank you
Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and Chris Harcum provided the break from the news. Alisha Haridasani Gupta, on the briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach us at [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the detention camps in Western China.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Granter of three wishes (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Jeffrey Gettleman, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for international reporting, is The Times’s South Asia bureau chief, based in New Delhi.