Fwd: NYT Now: Your Wednesday Briefing

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• Four Afghan men sentenced to death.

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Date: Wed, May 6, 2015 at 12:16 PM
Subject: NYT Now: Your Wednesday Briefing
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View in Browser | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. Wednesday, May 6, 2015 Wednesday, May 6, 2015 nytnow.com » Enjoy this newsletter? Get continuous updates on today's most important stories with the NYT Now app for iPhone. Download now. Defendants in the mob killing of a woman in Kabul. A judge today sentenced four to death. Wakil Kohsar/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Your Wednesday Briefing By ADEEL HASSAN Good morning. Here's what you need to know: • On Capitol Hill. A Senate vote expected today on amendments to the bill giving Congress a say over the Iran nuclear deal is now off, after a procedural move cut off debate on Tuesday. Republicans and Democrats alike are upset with Senator Tom Cotton, a first-term Republican from Arkansas, and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who used the arcane maneuver. A full vote may now take place on Thursday. But the Senate did pass, 51 to 48, its first joint budget resolution since 2009. It outlines deep cuts over the next 10 years to eliminate deficits. • Four Afghan men sentenced to death. An Afghan judge today convicted four men for their role in the mob killing of a woman in Kabul in March. She was falsely accused of burning the Quran. The judge sentenced eight other defendants to 16 years in prison and dropped charges against 18. Violence against women in Afghanistan often goes unpunished. • Israeli leader's deadline. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must put together a governing coalition today or face the prospect of being forced out of office by day's end. His party won elections in March, but he needs to secure a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat Parliament to avoid having the president give someone else the job. • Reparations for police victims. The Chicago City Council is expected today to pass a reparations package for scores of victims — most of them black — of police torture in the 1970s and 1980s. • Germanwings crash report. French investigators concluded that a Germanwings co-pilot tried a controlled descent on a previous flight in their preliminary report on March 24 plane crash in the French Alps that killed 150 people. • The quiet ally. Djibouti, about the size of New Jersey and with a population of less than one million, gets a personal thank you today from Secretary of State John Kerry. The strategically important country on the Horn of Africa is the launching pad for U.S. drone attacks on regional militant groups. MARKETS • Wall Street stock futures are ahead. European shares are mixed, and Asia closed mostly lower. • The European Commission today unveiled its single-market strategy today for the digital world. • A British trader who worked from his home in London is spending the fifth anniversary of the "flash crash" today in custody on U.S. charges that he was largely responsible for it. On May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 999 points — about 9 percent — within minutes, starting at 2:36 p.m. Eastern, before recovering a large part of the loss. NOTEWORTHY • The lives of musicians. Mariah Carey begins a residency tonight at Caesars Palace, performing her 18 No. 1 hits in each concert. She joins Celine Dion, Britney Spears and Rod Stewart, among others, who are taking advantage this year of Las Vegas's traditionally lengthy gigs. • Where the grass is greenest. Barcelona plays Bayern Munich today in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal, after Real Madrid lost, 2-1, to Juventus on Tuesday night. Which goes to show that money isn't everything. The two Spanish teams, Real Madrid ($3.4 billion) and Barcelona ($3.2 billion), led Forbes's 2014 list of the world's most valuable soccer teams. (The 2015 list comes out today.) By comparison, the Dallas Cowboys, the most valuable team in the U.S., is worth $3.2 billion. • Our feathered friend. "I Am Big Bird," a documentary out today, is about Caroll Spinney, who has played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on "Sesame Street" since 1969. • Film star is convicted in hit and run. A court in India today found the Bollywood star Salman Khan guilty of culpable homicide. He had been accused of running his Land Rover, while drunk, over a group of people sleeping on the pavement in Mumbai in 2002, killing one and injuring four. • Way, way out there. Astronomers have discovered a galaxy that is farther away in distance and time than ever before seen. It's 30 billion light-years away. (A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.) And it dates to about 670 million years after the Big Bang. BACK STORY Orson Welles was born 100 years ago today. A movie, radio and stage wunderkind, he was all of 26 years old when he presented his masterpiece. That was "Citizen Kane," No. 1 on the American Film Institute's 100 best American movies list. Welles helped write, directed, and starred in the picture, which is based very loosely — and not very kindly — on the life of the newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. In a sometimes self-destructive career, Welles ranged from Shakespearean actor to magician and talk-show guest. His true love was radio, though, and he's still famous for his 1938 CBS Radio adaptation of "The War of the Worlds" (written by that other Wells, H. G.). Reports of widespread panic by listeners who believed Martians had really landed, however, seem to have been greatly exaggerated. Orson Welles worked until he died in 1985, leaving many projects unfinished. One of them, the film "The Other Side of the Wind," is the subject of a new book by Josh Karp. The story is about a has-been film director, but Welles said it wasn't autobiographical. We may yet see it. Peter Bogdanovich, another film polymath, has promised to complete it. Victoria Shannon contributed reporting. Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated on the web all morning. What would you like to see here? Contact us at briefing@nytimes.com. Want to get the briefing by email? Here's the sign-up. ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW NYTNOW @NYTNOW NYT Now app for iPhone Now the news keeps up with you Available on the App Store Get more NYTimes.com newsletters » | Sign Up for the Morning Briefing newsletter » ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's NYT Now newsletter. As a member of the TRUSTe privacy program, we are committed to protecting your privacy. (....) | Privacy Policy | Contact | Advertise Copyright 2015 The New York Times Company | 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018