Good morning. We’re covering arrests for a subway attack in Hong Kong, the inside story on Microsoft’s conversations with TikTok and the aftermath of a police shooting in Kenosha, Wis. | |  By Melina Delkic | | | Ted Hui, center, a pro-democracy lawmaker, was arrested by the Hong Kong police on Wednesday. Kin Cheung/Associated Press | | | As Beijing has tightened its grip to end dissent in the territory, law enforcement has faced criticism. | | | “We have to restore the truth,” Chan Tin-chu, a senior police official, said at a news conference in which he announced 16 arrests, including that of a lawmaker, Lam Cheuk-ting, who filmed the attack and was beaten in it. | | | Mr. Chan also said the episode was a “clash” and that video footage had given the wrong impression. And he said the police had responded within 18 minutes — not the 39 minutes initially reported. | | | Watch: Video of the episode was widely seen and used by The New York Times in a video analysis of the attack. And on Wednesday, a video emerged of what appear to be police officers at Mr. Lam’s door. He is told he is being arrested for the crime of rioting in connection to the Yuen Long attack. “Me, taking part in a riot? The July 21 riot?” Mr. Lam says in apparent disbelief. “It’s now utter absurdity in Hong Kong.” | | | TikTok has sued the U.S., saying an executive order against it had deprived it of due process. Tony Luong for The New York Times | | | As TikTok scrambles to sell itself to a U.S. company, Microsoft is still seen as the likeliest buyer — in part, because it was already in talks with the app and its owner, the Chinese company ByteDance, about a smaller deal when President Trump ordered TikTok’s U.S. operations to be sold or to cease operations by Sept. 15. | | | The dynamics: Microsoft was originally drafted in July as a potential minority investor to mollify the Trump administration’s concerns. For Microsoft, TikTok’s 100 million users could help fill a gap in its data on social media behavior, and the app could be a huge client for its Azure cloud computing service. | | | The U.S.-Canada border in Lansdowne, Ontario, in March. Lars Hagberg/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images | | | In the latest example, a Kentucky man accused of breaking Canadian quarantine rules faces six months in prison, a $569,000 fine or perhaps both. Staff members at his Alberta hotel were suspicious that he was breaking quarantine rules, and the police charged him after finding him at a tourist attraction. | | | And a 28-year-old woman in Australia was sentenced to six months in jail on Tuesday after she hid in the back of a truck on a cross-country journey of more than 1,800 miles from the state of Victoria, a coronavirus hot spot, to Western Australia. The police have issued citations to travelers from hot spots like Sydney for lying on border declaration forms. | | ■ The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was instructed by administration officials to modify its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude from tests even recently exposed people without symptoms. Experts call the revisions alarming and dangerous. | | ■ North Korea’s leader urged his government to eliminate “shortcomings” and “defects” in its battle against Covid-19, and to brace for a typhoon that is approaching the Korean Peninsula, state media reported on Wednesday. ■ Madrid’s mayor asked residents of the city’s southern neighborhoods to stay at home in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Spain is facing one of the most severe surges in coronavirus infections in Europe in recent days. ■ Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, extended a nationwide nightly curfew for another 30 days to curb the spread of the virus. | | | Carlos Ortiz for The New York Times | | | Demonstrations over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, have reverberated across the U.S. this week, in cities like Madison, Wis.; Portland, Ore.; Minneapolis; and New York. Kenosha, the Wisconsin town where Mr. Blake was shot, is under curfew, armed citizens have turned out as self-declared protectors of property, and two people have been shot and killed. | | | 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 | | | | Afghan floods: Nearly 80 people were killed in Charikar, a city north of Kabul, and the death toll was expected to rise as rescuers sifted through wreckage of destroyed buildings. Heavy rains set off flash floods late at night, catching many residents off guard. | | | In memoriam: Hee Sook Lee spent long nights developing her secret recipe for Korean soondubu, a steaming bowl of soft tofu in a spicy broth. It helped her restaurant, BCD Tofu House in Los Angeles, become a chain with 13 restaurants in 12 cities. She died at 61, of ovarian cancer, her son said. | | | Lena Mucha for The New York Times | | | What we’re reading: This BBC report about a rock musician in the late Soviet era, Viktor Tsoi, and how one of his songs has become an anthem for change in Belarus. Steven Erlanger, our chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe, says it’s “a good reminder of the close relationship between Moscow and Minsk.” | | | Christopher Simpson for The New York Times | | | Cook: Gado gado, an Indonesian dish, is a big, cool, juicy mix of vegetables from the market with perfectly soft, yellow-centered hard-boiled eggs, crispy brown fried shallots and a deeply savory peanut sauce. | | | Garden: In a hot dry year, succulents are perfect. Here’s how to get them started or try out more complicated ones. | | | Our At Home collection can help you through these strange times with more ideas on what to read, cook, watch and do while staying safe at home. | | | The debate around TikTok’s safety is a reminder that we must be on guard about the data we share with any apps. Our tech columnist Brian X. Chen compiled tips for cybersecurity: | | | Minimize data sharing. When you open a newly installed app on your phone, notifications may pop up asking for permission for access to sensors and data such as your camera, photo album, location and address book. | | | When that happens, ask yourself these questions: | | ■ Does this app need access to my data or sensor for it to work properly? ■ Does the app need access to this sensor or data all the time or just temporarily? ■ Do I trust this company with my data? | | | Sometimes it makes sense to grant access. An app like Google Maps, for example, needs to know your location so it can figure out where you are and give directions. In other instances, the need is less clear, and a ZIP code or less precise location information would be sufficient. | | | Block app tracking. Many apps are constantly pulling information from our devices, such as the model of our phone and what version of mobile operating system it is using, and are sharing that data with third parties. | | | Marketers who gain access to that information can then stitch together a profile about you and target you with ads. To limit this invisible data harvesting, I recommend using so-called tracker blockers. | | | Apps like Fyde and Disconnect can help. Apple also said that in iOS 14, apps would be required to ask people for permission to perform tracking. | | | Be curious. This last step is less technical: Stay informed. If you wonder how a company manages to offer its app, do some research on the business. Read its website and send the company questions to gain a basic understanding of what’s happening with your data and what steps you should take to minimize sharing. | | That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. — Melina | | 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. | | |
