Trade War, Oklahoma, March Madness: Your Evening Briefing

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Photo

Credit Richard Drew/Associated Press

1. The stock market tumbled.

The cause: tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by China, and tech’s dark hour of the soul.

Facebook is trying to contain the loss of about $100 billion in value. Amazon is under presidential attack.

And Tesla shares fell amid concerns about the electric car maker’s quarterly production numbers for its Model 3 sedan, which are expected in the next day or so. Elon Musk, the chief executive, joked for April Fool’s that the company had gone “completely and totally bankrupt.”

Market Snapshot View Full Overview

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2. “DACA is dead.”

Thus tweeted President Trump, venting about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and blaming Democrats for failing to salvage it. But if history is a guide, his position on shielding young, undocumented immigrants may remain a moving target.

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The Trump administration also moved to weaken Obama-era car pollution standards. And the Environmental Protection Agency said it was re-examining a federal waiver that has allowed California and 12 other states to follow more stringent air pollution rules.

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Last month, when Mr. Trump called Vladimir Putin, he suggested that the Russian leader visit the White House, according to a Kremlin official.

As Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry intensifies, many have wondered: If he were fired, what are the chances the president would be impeached?

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Credit Alex Flynn for The New York Times

3. Thousands of teachers in Oklahoma, above, and Kentucky walked off the job, shutting down school districts in protest of cuts in pay, benefits and school funding.

The walkouts add to a wave of strikes in red states that began in West Virginia.

Mainly organized on Facebook by teachers fed up with years of funding cuts, the protests have caught lawmakers and sometimes the educators’ own unions flat-footed.

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4. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a leader of the bloody struggle against South Africa’s white rulers under apartheid, has died at 81.

“Charming, intelligent, complex, fiery and eloquent,” our obituary says, Ms. Mandela saw her heroic status “eroded by scandal over corruption, kidnapping, murder and the adulterous implosion of her fabled marriage to Nelson Mandela.”

She came to resent her husband’s global celebrity. “I am not Mandela’s product,” she once said. “I am the product of the masses of my country and the product of my enemy.”

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5. Afghan military helicopters bombed a religious ceremony in the country’s north, killing at least 70 people and wounding 30 others at a mosque. Witnesses said that many children were among the victims. Above, a young victim at a hospital.

The military said it was targeting Taliban militants.

The group’s fighters have increasingly gone high-tech, carrying out attacks using night-vision goggles and lasers that American military officials say were stolen or bought on the black market.

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Credit David Maurice Smith for The New York Times

6. The Final Four of student debt: In the spirit of March Madness, we devised a bracket-style tournament to compare the systems in Australia, Britain, Sweden and the U.S. Above, Sydney University.

We won’t spoil the results, but here’s one (unsurprising) conclusion from our panelists: The best student loan repayment system — which would be based on students’ incomes and be able to collect automatically through the tax system — is a far cry from what’s in place in the United States.

The real March Madness ends tonight with the men’s title game between Villanova and Michigan at 9:20 p.m. Eastern. Follow ou r live updates.

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7. No sweatpants in public, an “ideal weight,” instructions on tampon use: These are just some of the extensive controls that N.F.L. teams place on their cheerleaders, according to seven team handbooks that our reporter reviewed. Above, Carolina Panthers cheerleaders.

And the philanthropic world is feeling the effects of the #MeToo movement. A number of organizations have lost donors or relinquished gifts because of their ties to powerful men accused of sexual misconduct.

One celebrity chef felled by #MeToo is plotting a comeback: Mario Batali. He retreated to near invisibility after reports of abusive behavior in his empire and at restaurants owned by friends, but is said to be exploring ways to jump back into his career.

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8. The videos on social media were alarming, showing dozens of local news anchors eerily echoing the same warnings about “biased and false news” and journalists who “push their own personal bias.”

These scripted speeches were recited to millions of viewers across the country last month at the behest of Sinclair Broadcast Group, the country’s largest broadcaster. The company has been criticized for advancing a right-leaning agenda and renewed a debate over media ownership.

The “must-reads” went a step beyond the “must-run” video segments Sinclair regularly sends stations, which have included terrorism news updates or commentators speaking in support of President Trump. (He came to Sinclair’s defense on Monday.)

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Credit Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review, via Associated Press

9. “Fear is the factor no one wants to address,” a lifelong gun owner writes in The Times Magazine, wrestling with the changes to gun laws that he says must come.

There’s no simple solution, he writes, to the fear of “criminals, fear of terrorists, fear of the government’s turning tyrannical and, perhaps more than anything else, fear of one another.”

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Credit Virginia Sherwood/NBC, via Associated Press

10. Finally, what better way to commemorate Easter than a showing of “Jesus Christ Superstar”?

That was NBC’s thinking behind a live telecast starring John Legend as Jesus Christ and Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene, above. Our reviewer’s takeaway: “From the multicultural cast to its deconstruction of religious iconography, this ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ was as thoughtful and challenging as the show has ever been.”

And with Passover in swing, read this Op-Ed essay by David Wolpe from Spain. While the country is a land of Jewish ghosts, he writes, “there will be Seders for those who seek one.”

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Have a great evening.

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