Your Friday Evening Briefing

Robert Mueller, Cyclone Fani, Kentucky Derby View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, May 3, 2019 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Friday Evening Briefing]( By REMY TUMIN AND SARAH ECKINGER Good evening. Today is World Press Freedom Day, and we’ve decided to take down our paywall for three days. ([Our international editor explains why]( Now, here’s the latest. Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times 1. President Trump had a “very productive talk” with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. They spoke on the phone for an hour. [In a pair of midday tweets]( Mr. Trump, pictured above at the White House today, said that he and Mr. Putin discussed the “Russian Hoax” among other topics. The conversation was their first since the release of Robert Mueller’s report, which found that “the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” The phone call appeared to be an effort to turn the page on the entire affair. Meanwhile, House Democrats are [trying to revive talks]( with the Justice Department over a subpoena for the special counsel’s full, unredacted report. Representative Jerrold Nadler, the Judiciary Committee chairman, gave the department until Monday to respond and said his committee would proceed with a contempt of Congress vote if the two sides could not agree. _____ Joe Raedle/Getty Images 2. The U.S. economy got another boost. The country added 263,000 jobs in April, another month of robust growth and a fresh sign that recent fears of a slowdown were overblown. The unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, the lowest it has been in half a century. [Here’s what it all means](. Above, a job fair last month in Miami. Booming jobs and low inflation — this wasn’t supposed to happen. Our senior economics reporter writes that using data from a few decades in the middle of the 20th century to set policy in the 21st [might not be such a good idea](. _____ Dibyangshu Sarkar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 3. One of the strongest storms to batter the Indian subcontinent in decades has made landfall. Cyclone Fani lashed the coast with wind gusts of more than 120 miles per hour, the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane. India and Bangladesh evacuated more than a million people each from coastal areas. [Here’s how they did it](. The storm is expected to weaken and move toward Bangladesh tonight. But there were already reports of destruction, like above in Puri, India, and possibly deaths. [We’ll continue to have live updates here](. In other international news, new details in the Sri Lanka Easter Sunday attacks point to a [more active ISIS role]( than previously thought. Some Sri Lankans are furious that multiple warnings went unheeded. _____ Scott McIntyre for The New York Times 4. Floridians gave ex-felons the right to vote. Lawmakers just put a big obstacle in their way. In November, voters approved a groundbreaking ballot measure that would restore voting rights for up to 1.5 million people with felony convictions. But the Republican-led state Legislature has approved [a series of sharp restrictions]( that critics say are meant to undermine the voters’ will. Above, former felons registering to vote in January. Under the new proposals, which now head to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk, thousands of people with serious criminal histories would be required to fully pay back fines and fees to the courts before they could vote, effectively pricing some people out of the ballot box. _____ Callaghan O’Hare for The New York Times 5. Federal authorities have rarely invited outsiders into their secure facilities on the border — until now. Our reporter and video journalists [went inside the Border Patrol’s latest attempt]( to handle the migrant influx: a 40,000-square-foot tent encampment, built over the past 13 days just east of McAllen, Tex., to house newly arriving migrants in the Rio Grande Valley. The tent camp is opening along with a similar temporary structure in El Paso, built at a combined cost of $37 million. Separately, it can be difficult to come of age in the borderlands.[Seven young women told us their stories](. _____ Christinne Muschi for The New York Times 6. Weekend pancakes may never be the same: The future of maple syrup is at risk. A growing body of research suggests that warming temperatures linked to climate change may significantly shrink the range where it is [possible to make maple syrup](. Warm weather can hurt syrup production because the process depends on specific temperature conditions. And it is already having an impact. In 2012, maple production fell by 12.5 percent in Canada because of an unusually warm spring. Above, syrup being bottled in Ontario, where the decrease was even more drastic: 54 percent. How does your diet contribute to climate change? [Take our quiz to find out](. _____ Talori et al. 7. Yes, that’s an ostrich running with an extra set of wings. How avian flight first evolved is one of the biggest controversies in paleontology. So scientists in China strapped artificial wings to a young ostrich and took it out for a run. The ostrich did not fly. But as it ran, flapping was evident, and sensors measured a small amount of lift. Eventually, the researchers proposed, the dinosaur’s descendants would have harnessed this trait and taken [off from the ground for the first time](. In other esoteric animal news, [shrimp from five U.K. rivers]( have one thing in common, according to a new study: cocaine. The drug’s source remained a mystery. _____ Michael Reaves/Getty Images 8. Top off your mint julep and place your bets: Will it be Tacitus, Roadster, Improbable or Game Winner (above)? The 145th running of the Kentucky Derby is set to go off around 6:50 p.m. on Saturday. [Here’s who our reporters think will win at Churchill Downs](. The past months have been fraught for horse racing. [Fears of a breakdown at the Derby have never been higher](. _____ Philippe Bossé/Lionsgate, via Associated Press 9. And now for your viewing pleasure. She’s the secretary of state and he’s a struggling journalist. The improbable, yet perfectly paired, Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen play old friends who find love in “Long Shot,” [a charming (and a bit vulgar) romantic comedy](. “It’s an adrenaline shot of pure pleasure to the genre’s failing heart,” our film critic says. For some weekend binge-watching, our TV critic reviews [“Tuca & Bertie,”]( a buddy/birdy comedy from a producer of “BoJack Horseman.” The feminist friendship comedy is funny, haunting and visually surreal, our critic writes. In need of a new book? [Here are 14 books to watch for in May](. _____ Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times 10. Finally, April showers bring May flowers (or something like that). It has been a very wet spring in New York, and when a hard rain descends, the whole city feels it. Traffic comes to a standstill, strangers huddle under a shared awning, and inside-out umbrellas litter trash cans. We rounded up some of the most arresting images and had a sound artist who has worked on “Roma” and “Stranger Things” match them with short soundtracks from across the city. [Take a look and a listen here](. Have a cozy weekend. _____ 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](. NEED HELP? Review our [newsletter help page]( or [contact us]( for assistance. 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