Donald Trump, Under Armour, ‘Star Wars’: Your Monday Briefing

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Good morning.

We’re covering President Trump’s Twitter habits, India’s toxic air pollution and an antique violin that was left on a train.

With more than 11,000 tweets since taking office, Mr. Trump has used Twitter as a springboard to change policy, a cudgel against critics and an outlet for self affirmation. He has also elevated people whose words he finds pleasing and lent credibility to caustic views of conspiracy theorists, white nationalists and anti-Muslim bigots.

Quotable: “He needs to tweet like we need to eat,” Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor, said of the president.

How we know: Times reporters analyzed Mr. Trump’s posts, studied the accounts he follows and interviewed administration officials, lawmakers, Twitter executives and ordinary Americans caught up in his tweets. Read nine takeaways from the investigation.

Corruption fuels Europe’s new feudalism

The European Union spends $65 billion a year on farm subsidies, about three times as much as the United States. It is by far the largest line item in the bloc’s central budget, and one of the biggest subsidy programs in the world.

But some lawmakers in Brussels who write and vote on farm policy admit that they often have no idea where the money goes. Governments of member countries have wide latitude in distributing those subsidies, and in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, most of the money goes to a connected and powerful few, a Times investigation found.

In the Czech Republic, for example, the highest-profile subsidy recipient is Prime Minister Andrej Babis.

Why this matters: Farm policy in the E.U. — widely seen as an essential component of public welfare — is being exploited by the same antidemocratic forces that threaten the bloc from within.

What’s next: The E.U. farm bill is up for renewal this year. But confronting its flaws would require changing a program that helps hold the bloc together.

Climate crisis weighs on an oil giant

Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s giant state-owned oil producer announced plans on Sunday for what could be the largest stock offering ever. Its shares are expected to begin trading next month on the Saudi stock exchange, and investors may value the company at $1.5 trillion.

The company appears to worry that new supplies from Brazil, Canada, Guyana and Norway will push oil prices down. But as climate change drives interest in renewable energy, doubts about the future of fossil fuels may hinder the company’s ability to attract investors.

At the same time, lower gasoline prices could slow the adoption of electric vehicles and other low-carbon technologies.

Related: The actress Jane Fonda has been staging protests in Washington, and getting arrested, to highlight the urgency of the climate crisis. “Why be a celebrity,” she said, “if you can’t leverage it for something that is this important?”

Paying dearly for a flawed breath test

Millions of Americans have blown into a breath-testing device after being stopped on suspicion of drunken driving. If the level is 0.08 or higher, they are all but certain to be convicted of a crime.

Alcohol breath tests have long been a linchpin of the U.S. criminal justice system. But they’re often unreliable and improperly calibrated, a Times investigation found. Some drivers have been wrongfully convicted.

The Weekly: The latest episode of The Times’s TV show is about the reliability of breath tests. Read behind-the-scenes notes about the episode, which is available on FX and Hulu.

Snapshot: Above, runners at the New York Marathon on Sunday. Joyciline Jepkosgei upset fellow Kenyan Mary Keitany in her marathon debut. Geoffrey Kamworor, also of Kenya, won the men’s race for the second time.

N.F.L. results: Baltimore shocked New England, Kansas City beat Minnesota and kickers are having a bad year. Here’s what happened in Week 9.

Antique violin’s return: Last month, a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London left his 310-year-old instrument on a train. He got it back in a supermarket parking lot.

Metropolitan Diary: In this week’s column, a rush to pay for a soda, mysterious cake boxes and more reader tales of New York City.

What we’re reading: This deep dive into Condé Nast, in New York magazine. “It’s a fly-on-the-wall look at the company and its iconic magazines — including Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker — that are struggling to adjust to new leadership and the rapidly shifting media landscape,” writes Alisha Haridasani Gupta of the briefings team.

Now, a break from the news

The wall is a focus of Iran’s annual commemorations of the takeover, which came after President Jimmy Carter allowed the ousted monarch, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, to enter the U.S. for cancer treatment.

Iranians were angry at the support for the shah, who had been empowered by a 1953 coup engineered by the U.S. and Britain. The coup became a blueprint for other regime change efforts during the Cold War.

In 2000, The Times obtained a copy of the C.I.A.’s classified history of the coup, which noted Western interest in retaining control of Iranian oil.

The embassy building is now home to a museum called the U.S. Den of Espionage. Trip Advisor reviews say it’s worth a visit.

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

— Mike

Thank you
Victoria Shannon helped compile today’s briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. Andrea Kannapell, the Briefings editor, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is on the Democratic presidential race in Iowa.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: App hiree (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Tom Workman, a key source for the report on alcohol breath tests, died of bone cancer in September. Our reporter recalls that his mind “worked a lot like the computer systems into which he delved.”