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      Is This Black Hole the Hungriest and the Brightest?

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      Scientists debate whether this object is the brightest in the visible universe, as a new study suggests.Astronomers claimed on Monday that they had discovered what might be the hungriest, most luminous object in the visible universe — a supermassive black hole that was swallowing a star a day. That would be the mass equivalent of 370 suns a year disappearing down a cosmic gullet 11 billion years ago at the dawn of time.Burp indeed.In a paper published in Nature Astronomy, Christian Wolf of the Australian National University and his colleagues from Australia and Europe, called the object at the center of a newly discovered quasar known as J0529-4351 “the fastest growing black hole in the universe.”According to their estimates, this black hole tipped the scales as one of the most massive black holes ever found: 17 billion times as massive as the sun.But other astrophysicists cast doubt on the result, questioning the methods by which the mass and luminosity of the new quasar had been estimated. They said the calculations were too uncertain to be conclusive. “They may have the right value, but I don’t think other observers would be shocked if it turned out the true mass was somewhat less,” said Daniel Holz, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Chicago.“It does seem like an extreme object,” he said. But, he added, “I would be shocked if this turned out to be the most luminous quasar on the sky.”Jenny Greene, a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, called the result “cute.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Warns Allies Russia Could Put a Nuclear Weapon Into Orbit This Year

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      The American assessments are divided, however, and President Vladimir Putin denied having such an intention, saying that Russia was “categorically against” it.American intelligence agencies have told their closest European allies that if Russia is going to launch a nuclear weapon into orbit, it will probably do so this year — but that it might instead launch a harmless “dummy” warhead into orbit to leave the West guessing about its capabilities.The assessment came as American intelligence officials conducted a series of rushed, classified briefings for their NATO and Asian allies, as details of the American assessment of Russia’s intentions began to leak out.The American intelligence agencies are sharply divided in their opinion about what President Vladimir V. Putin is planning, and on Tuesday Mr. Putin rejected the accusation that he intended to place a nuclear weapon in orbit and his defense minister said the intelligence warning was manufactured in an effort to get Congress to authorize more aid for Ukraine.During a meeting with the defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, Mr. Putin said Russia had always been “categorically against” placing nuclear weapons in space, and had respected the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits weaponizing space, including the placement of nuclear weapons in orbit.“We not only call for the observance of the existing agreements that we have in this area,” he was quoted as saying by the Russian state media, “but we have proposed many times to strengthen these joint efforts.”On Wednesday, Mr. Putin reinforced the central role he believes Russia’s nuclear arsenal plays in the country’s defenses: Visiting an aviation factory, he climbed into the bomb bay of a Tu-160M strategic bomber, the most modern in the Russian fleet.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Fears Russia Might Put a Nuclear Weapon in Space

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      American spy agencies are divided on whether Moscow would go so far, but the concern is urgent enough that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has asked China and India to try to talk Russia down.When Russia conducted a series of secret military satellite launches around the time of its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, American intelligence officials began delving into the mystery of what, exactly, the Russians were doing.Later, spy agencies discovered Russia was working on a new kind of space-based weapon that could threaten the thousands of satellites that keep the world connected.In recent weeks, a new warning has circulated from America’s spy agencies: Another launch may be in the works, and the question is whether Russia plans to use it to put a real nuclear weapon into space — a violation of a half-century-old treaty. The agencies are divided on the likelihood that President Vladimir V. Putin would go so far, but nonetheless the intelligence is an urgent concern to the Biden administration.Even if Russia does place a nuclear weapon in orbit, U.S. officials are in agreement in their assessment that the weapon would not be detonated. Instead, it would lurk as a time bomb in low orbit, a reminder from Mr. Putin that if he was pressed too hard with sanctions, or military opposition to his ambitions in Ukraine or beyond, he could destroy economies without targeting humans on earth.Despite the uncertainties, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken raised the possibility of the Russian nuclear move with his Chinese and Indian counterparts on Friday and Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.Mr. Blinken’s message was blunt: Any nuclear detonation in space would take out not only American satellites but also those in Beijing and New Delhi.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      SpaceX to Launch Intuitive Machines Nova-C Moon Lander: How to Watch

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      A day after SpaceX called off the flight of a spacecraft from Intuitive Machines of Houston, the company is ready to begin its lunar journey.Another month, another day, another try at the moon.A robotic lunar lander is scheduled to launch in the early morning hours of Thursday, one day after a technical glitch postponed the first launch attempt. If all goes well, it will become the first American spacecraft to set down softly on the moon’s surface since the Apollo 17 moon landing in 1972.It is also the latest private effort to send spacecraft to the moon. Earlier attempts have all ended in failure. But the company in charge of the latest effort, Intuitive Machines of Houston, is optimistic.“I feel fairly confident that we’re going to be successful softly touching down on the moon,” said Stephen Altemus, the president and chief executive of Intuitive Machines. “We’ve done the testing. We’ve tested and tested and tested. As much testing as we could do.”The Nova-C moon lander is about the size of a British phone booth according to Intuitive Machines. This particular lander is named Odysseus.Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York TimesExecutives at Intuitive Machines said they have tested their spacecraft extensively, but all other private lunar landers so far have failed to make the journey successfully.Intuitive MachinesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Doomsday Clock Keeps Ticking

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      Year
      Minutes to Midnight

      2023
      1.5

      2020
      1.67

      2018
      2

      2017
      2.5

      2015
      3

      2012
      5

      2010
      6

      2007
      5

      2002
      7

      1998
      9

      1995
      14

      1991
      17

      1990
      10

      1988
      6

      1984
      3

      1981
      4

      1980
      7

      1974
      9

      1972
      12

      1969
      10

      1968
      7

      1963
      12

      1960
      7

      1953
      2

      1949
      3

      1947
      7

      The Bomb and I go way back. In Seattle, where I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, it was common wisdom that in the event of nuclear war, we were No. 2 on the target list because Seattle was the home of Boeing, maker of B-52 bombers and Minuteman missiles.In school we had various drills for various catastrophes, and we had to remember which was which. Earthquake? Run outside. The Bomb? Run inside, to an inner corridor that had no windows. In the summer, my high-school friends and I would disappear for a couple of weeks into the backcountry of the Cascades or the Olympic Mountains. I always wondered whether we would emerge to find the world in ashes.Once, in Santa Monica in 1971, I thought it was finally happening. I woke up on the floor, having been bounced out of my bed early one February morning. There was a huge roar. Everything was shaking. I crept to my one window and pulled aside the curtain, expecting to see a mushroom cloud rising over the Los Angeles basin. I saw nothing. When the radio came back, I learned there had been a deadly earthquake in the San Fernando Valley.I was sent on this trip down memory lane by the announcement on Jan. 23 from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that it had decided not to change the setting of the Doomsday Clock, a metaphorical timepiece invented in 1947 as a way to dramatize the threat of nuclear Armageddon. The clock was originally designed with a 15-minute range, counting down to midnight — the stroke of doom — and the Bulletin’s members move it from time to time in response to current events, which now include threats like climate change and pandemics.In a burst of optimism in 1991, after the Soviet Union broke up and the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed, the clock was turned way back to 17 minutes to midnight. “The Cold War is over,” the Bulletin’s editors wrote. “The 40-year-long East-West nuclear arms race has ended.”A year ago, after Russia invaded Ukraine and brandished the threat of using nuclear weapons, the clock was set to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has yet come to The End. The threat of nuclear weapons in Ukraine has diminished since then, but the clock remains poised at 90 seconds before zero.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump’s Deportation Plans for Immigrants

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      More from our inbox:Shocked by Trump’s Vow to Root Out ‘Vermin’Women in China, Loath to Turn Back the ClockBillionaires, Invest in EarthDonald Trump quiere reimponer una política de la era de la COVID-19 de rechazar las solicitudes de asilo: esta vez basando ese rechazo en afirmaciones de que los migrantes son portadores de otras enfermedades infecciosas, como la tuberculosis.Doug Mills/The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Trump’s ’25 Immigration Plan: Giant Camps, Mass Deportation” (front page, Nov. 12):After choking on my coffee reading this excellent in-depth piece, I contemplated the America we will live in if these ambitious and aggressive ideas bear fruit.Do the architects of this plan really believe we will have a stronger, safer and more prosperous country by setting up giant immigrant camps and carrying out mass deportations?I am descended from “white” privilege and members of the Daughters of the American Revolution. My family has grown stronger in recent years by the blending of ethnic, cultural and religious origins through marriage and adoption — with Indonesian, Malaysian, Algerian, Romanian, Iranian and Danish heritages combined with Scot Irish and English ones.We have family members who are Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, atheist and agnostic as well as Episcopalian, Quaker and Catholic.The reality is that our economy and society thrive because of our diversity. For that reason, my license plate is framed with the slogan “Make America Great, Welcome Immigrants.”Cynthia MackieSilver Spring, Md.To the Editor:Stating that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” Donald Trump has offered a vision for another term that includes immediate mass deportations, ending DACA, an even more restrictive Muslim ban, relegating migrants to huge tent cities in Texas and more.I read this with the same dread I felt when articles were written about the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade. Many people thought, “Oh, that won’t happen here.” But it did. It did happen.Donald Trump and Stephen Miller will wreak havoc on everything our country stands for. It will be a daily dose of outrage and horror. Those who aren’t tuned in to this potential for disaster will realize what they were ignoring only when it is too late.The next election may be the most important in our history as a country. Sitting it out or voting third party is not an option. Our country’s future and our quality of life depend on showing up to vote.People need to understand that these are not offhand remarks. Mr. Trump does what he says he’s going to do. He has clearly shown us what he is and who he is: a wannabe dictator.Kathryn JanusChicagoTo the Editor:Donald Trump’s immigration restriction plans contain much that will be to the liking of the American people. As a lifelong Democrat and the son of immigrants who had to wait years for citizenship, I like it myself because 1) huge amounts of taxpayer dollars are going to the support of undocumented immigrants and 2) America faces a crisis of overpopulation, which is already straining our natural resources.I categorically reject the demonization of immigrants, and I also note that Mr. Trump’s policies generally favor the top 2 percent, not the average American. But if President Biden ignores this issue, or keeps doing what he is doing, it will cost him the election.Alan SalyBrooklynTo the Editor:It is worse than hypocritical that the man behind the dark menace of deportation — Stephen Miller — descends from a family of immigrants who escaped the pogroms in Eastern Europe and found refuge in America.As a Jew and the son of Holocaust survivors, I am frankly appalled by Mr. Miller’s harsh and seemingly uncompromising position.America is nothing if not a nation of immigrants. For Mr. Miller to foment an unrestrained assault against immigrants is, if I may use the term, “beyond the Pale.”Edwin S. RothschildMcLean, Va.Shocked by Trump’s Vow to Root Out ‘Vermin’Former President Donald Trump said his political opposition was the most pressing and pernicious threat facing America during a campaign event in New Hampshire on Saturday.Sophie Park for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “After Calling Foes ‘Vermin,’ Trump Campaign Warns Its Critics Will Be ‘Crushed’” (nytimes.com, Nov. 13):At a campaign event Saturday in New Hampshire, Donald Trump vowed to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”So often I have heard variations on the poem that begins, “First they came for the Communists …”Did the people attending a Veterans Day event not hear the echo from less than 100 years ago when they or their parents or grandparents went to war to protect democracy against fascists from Germany and Italy who voiced these same goals?It is shocking that a vast support network is prepared to put these plans into effect here if the former president is re-elected in 2024.Bob AdlerNew YorkTo the Editor:People are not vermin. Even the person who compares his political opponents to “vermin” is not vermin; he is a human being.Donald Trump’s despicable speech, however, should make every American recoil in horror that he would use such a dehumanizing tactic toward people who disagree with him. The Republican Party should immediately distance itself from Mr. Trump and his dangerous rhetoric.Anyone who believes that people are vermin should not be elected to any office, from local P.T.A. president on up. Certainly, the highest office in the land should never be in the hands of such a person.Justin Stormo GipsonNewman Lake, Wash.Women in China, Loath to Turn Back the Clock Gilles Sabrié for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “China’s Male Leaders Signal to Women That Their Place Is in the Home” (news article, Nov. 3):Although Mao Zedong proclaimed that “women hold up half the sky,” the weight of thousands of years of Chinese culture held back — and continues to hold back — many from attaining their full potential.My mother, born before the 1949 Communist takeover of the government, was prohibited from going to school by her father, but even decades later suffered limited choices, gender discrimination and the societal stigma of having only daughters.Now that Chinese women have tasted power, freedom and independence, they are not going to go back to being merely wives, mothers and caretakers any more than American women, as evidenced by the recent U.S. elections, are going to give up their hard-won reproductive rights to satisfy the wishes of right-wing conservatives.Men on both sides of the globe are going to find that turning back the clock is a lot harder than they thought.Qin Sun StubisBethesda, Md.The writer is a newspaper columnist and author of “Once Our Lives,” a historical saga about four generations of Chinese women.Billionaires, Invest in Earth George WylesolTo the Editor:Re “Space Billionaires Should Spend More Time Thinking About Sex,” by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Nov. 5):Doesn’t it make more sense to address challenges to our future on Earth, a very appealing home for humans, than to try to adapt to hostile, inhospitable planets? We’d likely be better off if Elon Musk and his fellow billionaires would invest their vast sums in things like wind turbines and infrastructure. They might also help advance the human race by promoting development of qualities like compassion, reconciliation and cooperation.Beyond that, the authors make great points about the difficulties of sex and procreation in space. Let’s not forget Earth’s sex appeal!Marjorie LeeWayland, Mass. More

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      Your Tuesday Briefing: Uganda Enacts an Anti-Gay Law

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      Also, a rare daytime assault on Kyiv.Gay rights groups say hundreds of gay Ugandans have reached out to them in recent weeks seeking help.Abubaker Lubowa/ReutersUganda’s harsh new anti-gay lawThe president of Uganda signed a punitive anti-gay bill yesterday that includes the death penalty as a punishment, enshrining into law an intensifying crackdown on L.G.B.T.Q. people in the conservative East African nation.It calls for life imprisonment for anyone who engages in gay sex. Anyone who tries to have same-sex relations could be liable for up to a decade in prison. The law also decrees the death penalty for anyone convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” which is partially defined as acts of same-sex relations with children or disabled people.Context: Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda. But the new law — one of the world’s most restrictive anti-gay measures — calls for far stricter punishment and broadens the list of offenses.Reaction: Many L.G.B.T.Q. people have fled Uganda since the law was introduced in Parliament in March. “There’s fear that this law will embolden many Ugandans to take the law into their hands,” said Frank Mugisha, the most prominent gay rights activist in Uganda.Politics: President Yoweri Museveni has dismissed widespread calls — from the U.N., Western governments and civil society groups — not to impose the measure.Region: A growing number of African countries, including Kenya and Ghana, are considering passing similar or even stricter legislation.Patients and medical staff, including injured soldiers, sheltered in the basement of a hospital in Kyiv.Nicole Tung for The New York TimesA rare morning assault on KyivPowerful explosions ripped through Ukraine’s capital yesterday morning, just hours after Russia launched an overnight barrage. Frightened pedestrians hurried to get off the streets, and children wearing backpacks started to run and scream when booms resounded, a video showed.Ukraine said it shot down all 11 of the missiles that Russia fired. Falling debris caused some damage, and information about possible casualties was still being clarified.Russia has launched 16 attacks on Kyiv this month, but this was the first daytime strike there in many weeks. Ukrainian officials say that Moscow is adjusting its tactics to try to inflict maximum damage. So far, Ukrainian air defenses, reinforced by Western weapons, have largely thwarted the aerial attacks on Kyiv, limiting casualties and damage in the highly populated area.Details: More than 41,000 people took shelter in subway stations when air raid sirens sounded around 11 a.m., officials said. Parents raced to protect their children, and hospital workers huddled in shelters. A billboard that shows the pictures of Chinese astronauts.Mark Schiefelbein/Associated PressChina’s expanding space ambitionsChina plans to land a person on the moon by 2030, a government official said yesterday. The announcement came as three astronauts were preparing to launch today from Earth to China’s new space station, completed late last year.A lunar landing would be a significant achievement for China in its competition with the U.S. in space. No human has been on the moon since the U.S. Apollo missions in the 1960s and ’70s. NASA wants to put people on the moon again, with a target of 2025, but that plan, known as the Artemis program, has faced delays. A U.S. report last year warned that China could overtake the U.S.’s abilities in space by 2045.China in space: It is the only country to have successfully landed on the moon in the 21st century, and in 2019 it became the first to land a probe on the moon’s far side.THE LATEST NEWSAsia PacificFishermen maneuvered on a breakwater dike in Manila.Francis R Malasig/EPA, via ShutterstockTyphoon Mawar will most likely stay north of the Philippines, though it could cause heavy rains in some parts of the country. The impact on Taiwan, China and South Korea could be minimal.The police in New Delhi arrested a man for fatally stabbing a teenage girl, the BBC reports. A video that shows people watching the assault, which occurred in public, has provoked outrage.The Indian state of Sikkim is offering cash to encourage people to have babies, a sign of India’s uneven population growth.Around the WorldPrime Minister Pedro Sánchez leads a fragile coalition government.Pierre-Philippe Marcou/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPrime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain called for a snap election in July after his party suffered defeats in regional elections over the weekend.Analysts think the U.S. economy is well positioned to withstand the debt deal’s proposed budget cuts. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may approve Sweden’s NATO membership bid now that he has been re-elected as Turkey’s leader.A Morning ReadIseto’s sake masters check and control the temperature of the alcohol with their hands, not thermometers.James Whitlow Delano for The New York TimesA travel writer used a 22-year-old guidebook to lead him through Tokyo on his search for bars and restaurants that express the city’s traditional eating and drinking culture. It took him to old stalwarts like Iseto, a sake den that’s operated out of the same wooden house since 1948.“The long-term survival of old-school places like Iseto is an accurate barometer of how much a city has been able to stay true to itself and resist the onslaught of the hot and new, often bywords for globalized sameness,” he writes.ARTS AND IDEASLessons from ‘Succession’Matthew Macfadyen and Sarah Snook in the “Succession” series finale.HBOWith the show’s finale on Sunday, viewers of HBO’s satire of the ultrawealthy learned the fate of the media empire of Logan Roy, the late tyrant. (Here’s a recap.)The final episodes were set against the backdrop of a country in crisis. But the Roys fanned those dark political forces for ratings — and then they backed a far-right presidential candidate. Indeed, our chief television critic writes that “Succession” has showed how the problems of the ultrawealthy affect all of us: “They have so much influence and so little sense of responsibility.”Are you a “Succession” superfan? Take our quiz. And if you already miss the show, here’s what to watch next.PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookRyan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.The secret to great salmon: Add salt and wait.What to ReadIn “Yellowface” a white writer takes credit for her dead Asian American friend’s manuscript.HealthWhy does day drinking feel different?Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Reverberating sound (four letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — AmeliaP.S. Yesterday was Memorial Day in the U.S., which honors those who have died in war.Write to us at briefing@nytimes.com with any questions or suggestions. Thanks! More

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      Your Monday Briefing: The World Cup Semifinals Loom

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      Plus, China’s sluggish economy and the arrest of the Lockerbie bombing suspect.Argentina’s players celebrated after beating the Netherlands in a penalty shootout.Matthias Hangst/Getty ImagesGet ready for the semifinalsFour countries will compete in the World Cup semifinals this week, after a weekend of surprises sent two favorites and two underdogs to the next round. Argentina will play Croatia tomorrow, and France will play Morocco on Wednesday.Argentina is driven by the belief that winning this World Cup is Lionel Messi’s undeniable destiny. But Croatia has its own undeniable sense of purpose after beating Brazil, a top contender.France knocked England out to advance. Morocco upset Portugal to become the first country in Africa and the Arab world to reach the semifinals. Its stout defense will be challenged by the tournament’s leading scorer, Kylian Mbappé, the most gifted player on the planet.Qatar: The country is poised to become a critical energy source for Europe as the continent pivots from Russia. Play our game: Where’s the ball?Other updates:Belgian authorities detained five people, including current and former members of the European Parliament, in an inquiry into possible bribes by Qatar.The soccer journalist Grant Wahl died after collapsing at the Argentina match.China is making a high-risk bet that its vaccination rates will prevent a severe outbreak.Ng Han Guan/Associated PressChina braces for a Covid surgeChina is rolling back its Covid-19 restrictions. Now, Beijing is bracing for a surge in cases.In near-freezing weather last week, residents of China’s capital lined up at hospitals and pharmacies. They sought help for fevers or waited to buy up dwindling stocks of at-home tests. The reported number of cases is unreliable and probably a significant undercount now that the government has moved away from mass testing.The pivot has left many confused and anxious. The government is suddenly playing down the threat of the coronavirus, after three years of relentless propaganda. But to conserve resources, it is also urging residents not to seek help unless necessary.Part of the challenge for the Communist Party: Less than 1 percent of China’s population have been infected through November, so many are vulnerable. After pushing shots last year, China has not yet moved on to administering fourth doses. And China’s vaccines are less effective than mRNA shots.Unrest: Many young people are still unemployed and have few job prospects. And the protesters who forced the pivot say their fight is bigger than Covid controls.Understand What Is Happening in ChinaA Victory for Protesters: Beijing’s costly policy of lockdowns pummeled China’s economy and set off mass public protests that were a rare challenge to its leader, Xi Jinping.A Messy Pivot: The Communist Party cast aside many Covid rules after the protests, while playing down the threat of the virus. The move could prove dangerous.A ‘Tipping Point’: For the protesters, public dissent was unimaginable until recently. We asked young Chinese about what led them to take the risk.Tracking Protesters: The authorities in China used the country’s all-seeing surveillance apparatus to track, intimidate and detain those who marched in the protests.From Opinion: The Chinese government’s response to protests against Covid measures doesn’t address the larger yearning for an end to autocracy, Nicholas Kristof writes.In other news: China plans to cooperate with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries in the fields of nuclear energy, nuclear security and space exploration, President Xi Jinping said on Friday.Martin Cleaver/Associated PressLockerbie suspect arrestedA Libyan intelligence operative charged in the 1988 bombing of an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, was arrested by the F.B.I. He is being extradited to the U.S. to face prosecution for one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in U.S. history.The arrest of the operative, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud, was the culmination of a decades-long effort by the Justice Department to prosecute him. It is unclear how the U.S. government negotiated the extradition of Mas’ud.He was being held at a Libyan prison for unrelated crimes when the Justice Department unsealed the charges against him two years ago. He is accused of building the explosive device used in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 passengers, including 190 Americans.Background: Mas’ud confessed to the bombing in 2012 to a Libyan law enforcement official. His suspected role in the bombing received new scrutiny in a three-part documentary on “Frontline” on PBS in 2015.What’s next: Extradition would allow Mas’ud to stand trial. But legal experts have expressed doubts about whether his confession, obtained in prison in war-torn Libya, would be admissible as evidence.THE LATEST NEWSAsia PacificHuman rights activists denounced Jimmy Lai’s punishment as the latest blow to freedom of expression in Hong Kong.Kin Cheung/Associated PressJimmy Lai, the pro-democracy media tycoon in Hong Kong, was sentenced to more than five years in prison.Bangladeshi authorities arrested two senior opposition leaders last week, capping off a week of political tensions.Vanuatu wants the world’s highest judicial body to weigh in on whether nations are legally bound to protect against climate risks.The War in UkraineAs of yesterday afternoon, some 300,000 of the Odesa region’s residents were still without electricity, an official said.ReutersRussian strikes knocked out power to more than 1.5 million people in Odesa on Saturday. Moscow used Iranian-made drones in the attack on infrastructure.Russian strikes have damaged all of Ukraine’s thermal and hydroelectric power plants, Ukraine’s prime minister said yesterday.Ukraine struck the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol on Saturday as part of its campaign to recapture the south.Nobel Peace Prize winners from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine decried Russian aggression at the award ceremony.Around the WorldDeepening poverty and hopelessness in Cuba have set off the largest exodus since Fidel Castro rose to power.Confidential records show that Saudi Arabia’s golf tour, LIV, is far off-track from success.Highbrow movies aimed at winning Oscars are falling flat at the box office.SpaceSpaceX launched a lunar lander made by a Japanese company. Its cargo, which includes a rover from the United Arab Emirates and a robot for the Japanese space agency, could be the first successfully carried to the moon’s surface by a private company.NASA’s uncrewed test flight of its Artemis I moon mission was successful. The capsule splashed down in the Pacific yesterday.A Morning ReadThe Walshes bought their house for $180,000 in 2005.Tony Cenicola/The New York TimesOctagonal houses became a 19th-century fad after an amateur architect claimed they had better ventilation and more windows. They’re certainly quirky, but devotees gush about their panoramic views and all-day sunshine.Lives lived: Hamish Kilgour, a founding member of the New Zealand band the Clean, died at 65.ARTS AND IDEASWhy North Korea wants dollarsNorth Korea is scrambling for American dollars and other hard currency, not just to feed its people, but also to finance the military and economic ambitions of Kim Jong-un, its leader.The country is also trying to squeeze every bit of cash from the public. State-run stores sell smartphones and other imported goods to the moneyed class, especially to North Koreans who have accumulated savings in foreign currency by smuggling goods from China.The Times obtained a video of such a store in the capital, Pyongyang, where customers can use U.S. dollars to pay for international brands of instant noodles, deodorant, diapers and shampoo. Change is returned in North Korean won.Kim has positioned Pyongyang as a model of urban development, while other cities remain far behind. Pyongyang has become brighter. New apartment towers dot the skyline. And to attract spenders with foreign savings, department stores are filled with Rolex and Tissot wristwatches and Dior and Lancôme cosmetics — all luxury items banned under U.N. sanctions.But Kim’s economic reforms have done little to improve economic prospects. North Korea crawled out of the catastrophic impact of the famine of the 1990s, growing an average 1.2 percent annually between 2012 and 2016. But the economy began contracting again in 2017. And Kim seems to have reached the conclusion that delivering on his promise of military strength is his best hope for economic gains.PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookLinda Xiao for The New York Times. Food stylist: Brett Regot. Prop stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.Make fancy popcorn at home.What to ReadBooks to take you through Kingston, Jamaica.What to Listen toEvery Friday, our pop critics weigh in on that week’s most notable new songs and videos. Here’s the playlist.The News QuizHow well did you keep up with last week’s headlines?Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: A shirt or a sport (four letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. Have a great week! — Amelia and WhetP.S. Reading aloud is essential for these Times reporters.Start your week with this narrated long read about Ukraine’s rail system. And here’s Friday’s edition of “The Daily,” on gerrymandering in the U.S.I’m back from vacation. Questions? Concerns? Email us at briefing@nytimes.com. More