Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

Jackson, Macron, Golden State Killer | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Tuesday, April 24, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Wednesday Evening Briefing]( By KAREN ZRAICK AND SANDRA STEVENSON Good evening. Here’s the latest. Michael Reynolds/EPA, via Shutterstock 1. New allegations emerged against [Dr. Ronny Jackson, the president’s physician]( and nominee to lead the Veteran Affairs Department. Dr. Jackson is said to have given large amounts of Percocet to a colleague, and to have gotten drunk at a Secret Service party and “wrecked” a car. The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee has heard testimony from 23 current and former colleagues of Dr. Jackson. Democrats circulated a summary that paints a picture of prescription drug misuse, a hostile work environment and drunkenness. But White House officials have ratcheted up their public defense of Dr. Jackson. We discussed his prospects [on our podcast “The Daily.”]( On Thursday, [Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency]( is set to testify before Congress amid a series of ethics investigations. We obtained an internal document that appears to lay out his talking points. It suggests he may blame his staff for many of the decisions that have put a cloud over his tenure. _____ Lawrence Jackson for The New York Times 2. The Supreme Court appears poised to allow President Trump’s travel ban to stand. [The court heard Trump v. Hawaii]( on the latest version of the ban, which was issued as a presidential proclamation in September. It initially restricted travel from eight nations — Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad, Venezuela and North Korea — six of which are predominantly Muslim. Chad was recently removed from the list. Challengers to the ban say Mr. Trump’s campaign speeches and tweets about Muslims were a clear indication that the ban was aimed at a religious group and not justified by security concerns. But the five-member conservative majority seemed ready to defer to Mr. Trump’s national security judgments. Our reporter [annotated excerpts of the arguments](. A decision is expected by late June. _____ Eric Thayer for The New York Times 3. What a difference a day makes. President Emmanuel Macron was sharply critical of President Trump’s policies in a speech before Congress, just a day after the two leaders [showered each other with praise](. Mr. Macron received a three-minute standing ovation for the speech, [an implicit rebuke of Mr. Trump’s “America First” approach](. He called on the U.S. not to abandon the Iran nuclear deal, to resolve trade disputes through the World Trade Organization and to rejoin the Paris climate agreement. _____ Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters 4. The leaders of North and South Korea will meet on Friday in a rare moment of face-to-face diplomacy after 70 years of bitter rivalry. Above, schoolchildren released butterflies near the Demilitarized Zone. They’re set to discuss issues that have bedeviled the Korean Peninsula for much of the 20th century — including an official end to the Korean War — and others that are shaping the 21st, namely the North’s nuclear weapons. [Here’s a quick rundown of what they’ll cover]( and what comes next. _____ Ted S. Warren/Associated Press 5. We obtained an [audio recording of a confidential meeting at N.F.L. headquarters]( in October, as owners panicked about President Trump’s attacks on players for protesting during the national anthem. There were 30 people around the table: owners, players and executives. The players wanted to talk about why Colin Kaepernick, above, the quarterback who started the protests to highlight injustice and police brutality, was out of a job. They believed he was being blackballed by the owners. The owners, confronting a level of public hostility that the N.F.L. had never experienced, wanted to focus on damage control. Here are some of [the owners’ most biting comments about Mr. Trump.]( The league released an anodyne public statement after the meeting. Kaepernick, who remains unsigned, is pursuing a labor grievance. _____ Audra Melton for The New York Times 6. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice opens Thursday on a six-acre site in Montgomery, Alabama. It’s dedicated to the victims of American white supremacy, and it demands [a reckoning with one of the nation’s least recognized atrocities]( the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades-long campaign of racist terror. Our reporter notes that there’s nothing like it in the country. That’s the point. _____ Dita Alangkara/Associated Press 7. The world governing body of track and field will publish new regulations on Thursday that would leave some [female athletes with naturally elevated testosterone levels]( three choices. They could lower the hormone with medication, compete against men in certain Olympic events or in effect give up their international careers. The rules are certain to cause further controversy, and perhaps bring another legal challenge. Track and field has gone through contortions on this issue for years, most visibly regarding Caster Semenya, above, a two-time Olympic champion from South Africa. _____ Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, via Reuters 8. California police believe they have finally caught [the Golden State Killer, the serial murderer and rapist who terrorized]( the state in the 1970s and 1980s. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested on a warrant from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and booked on two counts of murder. The Golden State Killer is thought to be responsible for 12 deaths, 45 rapes and 120 robberies. An exhaustive investigation into the killer’s identity was documented in a book called “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” by Michelle McNamara, who died in 2016. The book was [completed after her death]( by a journalist and researcher recruited by her husband, the comedian Patton Oswalt, and published in February. _____ Jada Yuan/The New York Times 9. Our travel columnist, Jada Yuan, is visiting each destination on our[52 Places to Go in 2018 list](. For her latest dispatch, she explored the East Cape of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, which grabbed the No. 11 spot. She likened the trip to[a choose-your-own adventure novel]( set in a friendly beach town. One highlight: snorkeling with sea lions in Gulf of California waters containing the oldest of three coral reefs on the west coast of North America. Jada’s next stop is Chile. Stay tuned. _____ Doug Mills/The New York Times 10. Finally, the French president’s visit to Washington left the late-night hosts with plenty of fodder. They zeroed in on [the Trump-Macron “bromance,”]( symbolized by the moment when Mr. Trump brushed what he said was dandruff from Mr. Macron’s shoulder. “Mr. President, Macron is still standing next to you, smiling, after hanging out with you for two days. That’s not dandruff — that’s cocaine,” [Stephen Colbert joked](. Have a great night. _____ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing. [Sign up here]( to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning. Want to catch up on past briefings? [You can browse them here](. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at [briefing@nytimes.com](mailto:briefing@nytimes.com?subject=Evening%20Briefing%20Feedback). LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. 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