Good morning. We’re covering Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s secret trial in Myanmar, the Fox News playbook heading to Britain and semifinal matchups at the Australian Open. | |  By Melina Delkic and Amelia Nierenberg | | | Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar, on Tuesday called for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the ousted civilian leader. The New York Times | | | The closed-door trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s civilian leader who was ousted in a military coup two weeks ago, began in secret Tuesday. The defense lawyer was notified at the last minute about the court hearing. By the time he rushed to the court, it had ended. | | | Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi faces obscure charges that could land her in prison for six years: violating import restrictions after walkie-talkies and other foreign equipment were found in her villa compound along with a previously undisclosed charge of interacting with a crowd during the pandemic. | | | U Win Myint, the deposed president who also went on trial over charges of interacting with a crowd on Tuesday, could spend three years in prison if convicted. | | | From Opinion: Democracy advocates “must use the current protests as leverage to obtain, via international negotiators, that the Tatmadaw won’t disband or otherwise sideline the N.L.D.,” Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, writes Min Zin, a political scientist in Yangon who was part of a 1988 democracy uprising. | | | Fox News on 6th Avenue in Manhattan. Celeste Sloman for The New York Times | | | The right-wing outlets will borrow heavily from the U.S. Fox strategy, and Mr. Murdoch’s venture, News UK TV, hopes to fill what he sees as a gap in the British market for edgy commentary and big personalities. The rollout begins in April. | | | Executives said News UK TV would stay within regulatory “guardrails.” But critics say Mr. Murdoch entered other markets, including Australia, with similar reassurances, only to make the channels more politically extreme over time. | | | A second, rival venture, GB News, has different backers but is stocked with veterans of the Murdoch empire. GB News is calculating that there is an audience for a channel that rejects what it views as the left-leaning politics of the BBC. | | | North Korea claims officially to be free of Covid-19. It sealed its borders early last year. James Estrin/The New York Times | | | North Korea, which has a decrepit public health system, claims officially to be free of Covid-19. It sealed its borders early last year. The lawmaker, Ha Tae-keung, who is affiliated with a South Korean opposition party, spoke to reporters after a closed-door briefing by intelligence officials. | | | Context: Western officials have long accused North Korea of stealing technology and cash from the outside world through hacking. | | | Emile Ducke for The New York Times | | | The House of Soviets, an office building in Kaliningrad designed as a symbol of Soviet control over land captured during World War II, has instead become emblematic of the flaws of the Soviet system. Because of shoddy construction and structural defects, it has never been occupied. | | | China’s box office: Hundreds of millions of people around China who would normally be celebrating the Lunar New Year holiday are instead going to the movies — powering a resurgence at the box office. “Detective Chinatown 3” raked in an estimated $397 million over three days — a world record for the largest opening weekend in a single market. | | | Ivor Prickett for The New York Times | | | Snapshot: Above, refugees in a tented city in Afrin, Syria. Our journalist visited Turkey’s safe zone in northern Syria, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent troops across the border three years ago. Kurdish families fled the invasion but the Syrians who moved there say they are grateful for the Turkish presence, despite their hardship. | | | Julia Gartland for The New York Times (Photography and Styling) | | | Watch: In “Minari,” a Korean-American family adjusts to rural life in Arkansas. The Times’s film critic A.O. Scott calls it “moving and downright revelatory.” | | | We can help you stay engaged and active with our At Home collection of ideas on what to read, cook, watch and do while staying safe at home. | | | For Wes and Zoe, the shot itself was anticlimactic; even needle-averse Wes said it hardly hurt. Still, since most allergic reactions can occur within 30 minutes of a shot, we had to wait around for an hour afterward. | | | Like all kids in the current trial, Wes and Zoe got the same dose as adults, which is typical for Phase 3 clinical trials, said Dr. Jill Weatherhead, an assistant professor of infectious disease at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. | | | The author’s children, Wes and Zoe, are volunteering for the Moderna vaccine trial. Tim Gruber for The New York Times | | | For the next seven days, Wes and Zoe answered questions in their online diaries about any pain, achiness, swelling, fevers or fatigue they experienced. Unlike most adult Covid vaccine trials, which favor participants who regularly come into contact with people outside their households, Moderna had no instructions for us on changing our lifestyle. So life returned to distance learning and socially-distant ski practice. | | | Then, on Day 7, my phone buzzed with a text from a friend whose son had participated in the trial the same day we had: “So, Zach has a rash around his injection site.” | | | I pushed aside my instinctive jealousy (we had promised to remain friends even if one of our families got stuck with the placebo). The next evening, I heard some excitement upstairs that made me set aside my book: Wes had discovered a similar red splotch on his arm. We measured the rash to report to our coordinator. | | | Even if it turns out that one or both of my kids got the saltwater placebo, which is given to one third of the participants in the teen trial, none of us will regret signing up. | | That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. — Melina and Amelia | | Thank you
Carole Landry helped write this briefing. Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh provided 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. | | |
