Good morning. We’re covering the emotional turmoil of victims at the sentencing for the Christchurch mosques massacre, the return of normal life in China and a smear campaign using Facebook in Cambodia. | | | The Christchurch High Court will begin sentencing hearings for Brenton Tarrant on Monday. Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images | | | The sentencing hearing for Brenton Tarrant, the Australian former fitness instructor who killed 51 people and wounded 40 last year at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, will begin on Monday. | | | The Christchurch courtroom where the proceedings will take place over four days will be filled with people whose lives he sought to destroy in an act of hate and terrorism unlike anything the country had ever seen. | | | At least 66 survivors plan to deliver victim’s statements, either read aloud or submitted in writing. Mr. Tarrant, who has pleaded guilty to murder, attempted murder and terrorism, may have the opportunity to address the families of the victims. | | | A message: Wasseim Alsati, 36, a barber who was shot along with his daughter Alen, 6, at the Al Noor mosque, said he wanted to give Mr. Tarrant a message: “You didn’t break us.” | | | “I want to feel the law, to feel my rights,” he added. “It will be so much rehab for myself, mentally and emotionally, to be able to see what the sentencing decision will be.” | | | Enjoying the beach in Qingdao, Shandong Province, on Saturday. Andrea Verdelli for The New York Times | | | While the U.S. and much of the world are still struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, life in many parts of China has in recent weeks become strikingly normal. | | | Cities have relaxed rules on social distancing and mask wearing. Crowds are again filling tourist sites, movie theaters and gyms. “It no longer feels like there is something too frightful or too life-threatening out there,” said Xiong Xiaoyan, who works at a paint manufacturer in the southern province of Guangdong. | | | But experts warn that China could still face a Covid-19 resurgence, especially as the weather cools and people spend more time indoors. Some people in China are worried that the public is becoming too dismissive of the virus. | | | Details: On Sunday, China reported no new locally transmitted cases for the seventh consecutive day. The 12 new infections it reported were all imported, bringing China’s total number of reported cases to 84,951, with at least 4,634 deaths from the virus in a population of 1.4 billion people. The Central American nation of Panama, with just over four million people, has reported similar numbers of cases and deaths. | | | Afghan officials inspecting a car in Kabul from which insurgents fired rockets last Tuesday. Mohammad Ismail/Reuters | | | With peace talks to end Afghanistan’s long war stalled, the Taliban are sparing Kabul, the capital, from major attacks. Instead, they appear to be carrying out frequent, smaller assaults there that the country’s security forces seem unable to control. | | | Shifting strength: The Taliban have long had a quiet presence in the districts to the south and southeast of Kabul, but in recent months they have become more open. They have also raised their profile in districts north of the capital, forcing many government employees to move their families. | | | Sticking point:President Ashraf Ghani said in early August that the government would free its last 400 Taliban prisoners, but only 80 have so far been released. Afghan officials said France and Australia had opposed the release of prisoners accused of involvement in attacks that killed their citizens. | | | Adam Dean for The New York Times | | | Luon Sovath, above, a Buddhist monk who spent decades fighting for human rights in Cambodia was forced to leave the country after videos appeared on a fake Facebook page claiming that he had slept with three sisters and their mother. A New York Times investigation found evidence that government employees were involved in creating and posting the videos. | | | The smear campaign shows how repressive governments can use social media and technology to sabotage opponents with stunning speed. | | | PAID POST: A MESSAGE FROM CAMPAIGN MONITOR | | TEST: Email Marketing 101: Never Sacrifice Beauty for Simplicity | | A drag-and-drop email builder, a gallery of templates and turnkey designs, personalized customer journeys, and engagement segments. It's everything you need to create stunning, results-driven email campaigns in minutes. And with Campaign Monitor, you have access to it all, along with award-winning support around the clock. It's beautiful email marketing done simply. | | | Learn More | | | | U.S. presidential campaign: After the Democrats’ convention, it’s the Republicans’ turn in the spotlight. Preparations are underway for their national convention to renominate President Trump as their candidate in the November election. The convention begins on Monday night Eastern time. | | | TikTok: The app’s owner, the Chinese internet company ByteDance, said it would sue the U.S. government, arguing that President Trump’s moves to block the app had deprived it of due process and claiming it had been incorrectly treated as a security threat. | | | Ian C. Bates for The New York Times | | | Snapshot: Above, a completely burned mobile home park in Spanish Flat, Calif., on Sunday. California wildfires have forced the evacuation of at least 119,000 people from their homes. Fire officials are worried they will get worse if lightning storms roll through the area in the coming days. The state governor has asked for help from Australia. | | | What we’re reading: This piece on coronavirus “long-haulers” in The Atlantic. Hilary Stout, a science editor, explains: “Long-haulers are patients who have suffered continuing debilitative effects from the virus for months. Many of them are previously healthy, younger women. It’s sobering.” | | | Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. | | | Cook: Our food columnist Melissa Clark decided that this pandemic was the ideal time to come up with a poundcake recipe of her own. This crème fraîche poundcake is the result. | | | We’re here to help you cope. At Home has many more ideas for keeping yourself and your loved ones entertained, fed and sane during the pandemic. | | | At the end of August, Anthony Tommasini, our chief classical music critic, usually takes a two-week vacation to refresh his ears before the fall season of concerts. But this year, everything stopped in mid-March. Here’s a taste of what he wrote about his time off. | | | Rather than enjoying the quiet, I’m yearning for music. | | | The shutdowns have been devastating for American classical music, given its dependence on patronage, which has been eroding of late, and the lack of meaningful government support, which still props up institutions in Europe. | | | This year’s cancellations have prodded institutions and artists to release a flood of online programming, intensifying our dependence on these audio and video resources. | | | Yet I worry that people will grow digitally distant from what is, for me and for many, a defining element of classical music: the sheer, sensual pleasure of being immersed in natural (that is, not electronically enhanced) sound, when a piece is performed by gifted artists in an acoustically vibrant space. | | | My feelings about the difference between live and online music were captured in a blunt tweet this month from the young, adventurous pianist and composer Conrad Tao. “I’m referring,” he wrote, “to two upcoming prerecorded video performances as ‘shows,’ slightly facetiously, but also they definitely aren’t ‘concerts’ as I see it (‘concert’ as in agreement to be ‘in concert with’), ‘shows’ in the television sense. We’re production companies now.” | | That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. — Carole | | Thank you
To Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
