Wednesday: A U.S. inquiry into the Boeing 737 Max 8

Boeing, New Zealand, Utrecht View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Wednesday, March 20, 2019 [NYTimes.com »]( Europe Edition [Your Wednesday Briefing]( By PENN BULLOCK Good morning. A U.S. inquiry into the Boeing 737 Max 8, the lives stolen in New Zealand, and a clue in the deadly shooting in Utrecht. Here’s the latest: [Boeing 737 Max planes at a Boeing factory in Renton, Wash. The Max 8 has been virtually grounded worldwide.] Boeing 737 Max planes at a Boeing factory in Renton, Wash. The Max 8 has been virtually grounded worldwide. Jason Redmond/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images U.S. transport chief requests inquiry into Boeing jet approval The U.S. transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, asked her agency’s internal watchdog to conduct [an audit of how the Federal Aviation Administration cleared the Boeing 737 Max 8]( bringing official scrutiny to the rollout of Boeing’s high-selling jet. The inquiry is set to start soon, and a Boeing spokesman said the company would cooperate with it. In the past five months, two Max 8s have crashed — last week in Ethiopia, killing 157 people, and in October in Indonesia, killing 189 people — under similar circumstances. The F.A.A. was slow to join the rest of the world in grounding the model. And it may face the coming scrutiny under a new leader: [a former airline executive]( whom President Trump on Tuesday nominated to head the agency. Controversy: The F.A.A. certified the Max 8 as safe to fly in 2017. One concern is the role Boeing employees played in the process. And there are doubts about the F.A.A.’s decision that pilots who had flown the plane’s previous version would not need training on the automated flight-control system, which in both crashes may have forced the jetliners into dives. Another angle: Boeing is so revered in Ethiopia that planes themselves are often referred to as “Boeings.” [The Max 8 crash may change all that.]( ______ [A memorial to victims of last week’s mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.] A memorial to victims of last week’s mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand. Adam Dean for The New York Times What we know about the New Zealand victims As victims’ families prepare for funeral services in Christchurch, [we take a look at their stories](. Among the 50 people killed at the two mosques were students, engineers, a dairy farmer, a new father, an aspiring pilot and a 3-year-old boy who his family said “was full of energy, love and happiness.” Developments: Today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is returning to Christchurch to offer solace. In an impassioned speech to Parliament on Tuesday, she demanded that internet platforms like Facebook do a better job controlling hateful content. And she said [she would do everything she could to deny the gunman attention](. “He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist,” she said. “But he will, when I speak, be nameless.” Related: The suspect cited a racist conspiracy theory in his online manifesto. [We explain what “the replacement theory” is]( and how it caught on among white supremacists and fascists. ______ [A memorial in Utrecht, the Netherlands, to a shooting on a tram on Monday in which three people were killed. The suspect’s motive is still under investigation.] A memorial in Utrecht, the Netherlands, to a shooting on a tram on Monday in which three people were killed. The suspect’s motive is still under investigation. Peter Dejong/Associated Press Dutch tram attack may be terrorism, police say Though uncertainty remains, the Dutch police said they [were “strongly” considering terrorism]( as a motive for a deadly shooting on a tram that locked down the city of Utrecht on Monday. Without giving details, they said they had discovered a note that lent itself to that motive. Three people were killed and five injured, several seriously, and an ensuing manhunt rattled a nation where gun violence is rare. Gokmen Tanis, a 37-year-old immigrant from Turkey, was arrested, and although a domestic dispute was one possible theory, the police said they had found no links between the suspect and those killed on the tram. The suspect: Mr. Tanis had been arrested several times before and was facing a rape charge. He was erratic, troubled and aggressive, people who knew him said. Two other men have been arrested, but little has been made public about them. ______ [Iraqi Shiite forces this month during a graduation ceremony in southern Iraq.] Iraqi Shiite forces this month during a graduation ceremony in southern Iraq. Furqan Al-Aaraji/EPA, via Shutterstock U.S. ramps up pressure on Iraq to isolate Iran Washington has been pushing Iraq to confront and sideline its neighbor, a move that has increased tensions not just with Baghdad but also within the Trump administration. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been leading the effort. Under his proposed plans, the State Department [would designate Iran’s military Islamic Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization]( — a first for a unit of another government’s military. The plan would also expose Iraqi Shiite militias — some of which were trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and several of which are legitimate players in Iraqi politics — to economic sanctions and travel restrictions. Pushback: American officials said the plan would put U.S. troops and intelligence officers at risk of similar actions from foreign governments. ISIS: The spokesman of the terrorist group broke his monthslong silence to [mock America’s assertion it had defeated the group]( and to call for retaliation over the mosque attacks in New Zealand. Separately, [Iraqi truffle hunters]( have become the latest victims of Islamic State kidnappings and killings. ______ Here’s what else is happening Cyclone Idai: The [widespread destruction]( from the huge storm was being called [the worst disaster in southern Africa in two decades]( as rescuers and aid agencies tried to reach countless people marooned. A U.N. official described some of the flooding as an inland ocean, and President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique said the death toll there could exceed 1,000. Kazakhstan: The oil-rich former Soviet republic was jolted — and some saw hope for a new era — as its aging and autocratic president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, 78, said [he was resigning after 30 years in power](. Vatican: Pope Francis [rejected the offered resignation]( of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, a French cardinal convicted this month of covering up decades-old allegations of sexual abuse by a priest in his diocese. Cardinal Barbarin is appealing his conviction. [A plume of ash and steam from the Popocatépetl volcano at sunrise over Mexico City earlier this month. It erupted again Monday night. ] A plume of ash and steam from the Popocatépetl volcano at sunrise over Mexico City earlier this month. It erupted again Monday night. Marco Ugarte/Associated Press Mexico: An eruption late Monday at Popocatépetl, a volcano some 50 miles from the Mexican capital, sent a plume of ash and gas more than two miles into the night sky and rained glowing rocks onto its slopes — [a show of force admired across social media](. Gene editing: An influential committee of the World Health Organization said it would be [“irresponsible” to try to create babies from gene-edited human embryos]( and called for an international registry to track all research into editing the human genome. Germany: The country will [fail to reach its target for increased defense spending]( risking deeper tensions with the Trump administration. Britain: Without mitigating measures, [in less than three decades Britain might run out of water,]( the head of the Environment Agency, which is responsible for conservation in England, said at a conference. Space: Scientists representing NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposed a relatively cheap flyby mission to Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, to investigate [whether it may contain an ocean fit for life](. ______ Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life. Johnny Miller for The New York Times Recipe of the day: A buttery [yellow sheet cake with chocolate frosting and colorful sprinkles]( helps beat the midweek blues. If you’re thinking of asking a star in your field out for coffee so you can learn what makes her or him tick, [here’s how to do it right](. The explosively popular ketogenic diet is the latest low-carb fad to promise a beach body with a side order of bacon. [Here’s the skinny on keto](. Back Story We recently asked readers to send us their favorite odd facts. Mark Stewart, from Maryland, mentioned that the distinctive shape of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City could be seen in an earlier design for a Maryland tourist attraction. When the museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in 1959, it was both praised (“[Mr. Wright’s greatest building. New York’s greatest building]( and scorned (an “[inverted oatmeal dish](. The museum took its cues from a design Wright had experimented with before, initially for a project that was never built. [Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs for a project in Maryland that was never built.] Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs for a project in Maryland that was never built. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation In 1924, at the dawn of America’s love affair with automobiles, a businessman named Gordon Strong [worked with Wright on an attraction]( at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland that would “serve as an objective for short motor trips” from nearby Washington and Baltimore. Wright designed a circular building with drivable ramps that wound around the outside like a ribbon. Strong hated it, likening the design to the Tower of Babel, and the project was later abandoned. But Wright believed in his vision enough to return to it decades later, in an inverted form, when the Guggenheim asked him to design a “[temple of the spirit, a monument]( Karen Thorne, a content strategist, wrote today’s Back Story. ______ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. [Check out this page]( to find a Morning Briefing for your region. (In addition to our European edition, we have Australian, Asian and U.S. editions.) [Sign up here]( to receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights, and [here’s our full range of free newsletters](. What would you like to see here? Contact us at [europebriefing@nytimes.com](mailto:europebriefing@nytimes.com?subject=Briefing%20Feedback%20(Europe)). LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. FOLLOW NYT [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytimes]( Prefer a different send time? 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