Your Tuesday Briefing

H.R. McMaster, Mike Pence, Vitaly Churkin View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Tuesday, February 21, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Tuesday Briefing]( By SEAN ALFANO [“He’s a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience,” President Trump said of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, left, his new national security adviser.]( “He’s a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience,” President Trump said of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, left, his new national security adviser. Al Drago/The New York Times Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • Trump appoints new national security adviser. President Trump announced on Monday that [Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster]( would be his new national security adviser, replacing Michael T. Flynn, who was asked to resign after he misled officials about contacts with Russia’s ambassador. General McMaster is widely respected and is credited with helping to turn around the Iraq war. His selection followed [a report in The Times]( about two of Mr. Trump’s associates working on a peace plan for Ukraine and Russia. They have no experience in foreign policy, and their “diplomatic freelancing” infuriated Ukrainian officials. • Taking on a foe of political unity. If East Stratcom sounds like a group tasked with devising plans to win wars, that’s not far-off. The 11-member team is serving as Europe’s front line [against fake news](. Separately, [Mr. Trump]( that Sweden was experiencing a crisis because of immigration. During a rally over the weekend, he suggested that a terrorist attack had occurred there the night before. Swedish officials were baffled. • Bumpy recess for Congress. Some lawmakers are holding town hall-style meetings with their constituents over the break, providing a testing ground of political divisions. The events, which have been [contentious at times]( during discussions of the Affordable Care Act, may signal how much latitude voters will give to defenders of the president. Our reporters will be covering [four town hall meetings today]( including one by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. • Breeding ground for ISIS. [Trinidad and Tobago is scrambling]( to stop young Muslims from going to Syria to take up arms for the Islamic State. Per capita, the Caribbean island nation has the largest number of foreign fighters from the Western Hemisphere who have joined the militant group, the former U.S. ambassador there said. • The Daily, your audio news report. The source of recent government leaks could define this new presidency as much as the president himself. Listen from [a computer]( on an [iOS device]( or on an [Android device](. Business • There were 2,473 billionaires in 2015, 6.4 percent more than a year earlier, [by a new count](. The top 10 — nine from the U.S., one from Spain — have a combined net worth of $582 billion. • Elitism is alive in Britain, and it’s not just over accents: A new report points to [pay disparities]( to](. • “The Lego Batman Movie” again topped the North American box office, while “[The Great Wall]( had a disappointing showing. • U.S. markets were closed for Presidents’ Day. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. Over the holiday weekend • Millions of people in South Sudan are in urgent need of food, the U.N. warned, citing the country’s war and collapsing economy as [reasons for the famine](. “Our worst fears have been realized,” an official said. • Vice President Mike Pence was in Brussels on Monday, [and he tried to reassure]( the European Union of American support. • Norma McCorvey, the [anonymous plaintiff in Roe v. Wade]( died in Texas at age 69. The landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S. also reshaped the nation’s social and political landscapes. • Vitaly I. Churkin, [the Russian ambassador to the United Nations]( known for his caustic, dry wit, died at work on Monday. He was 64. Smarter Living • We’re in Week 4 of our New Year’s resolutions month, helping you stick to your goals. There’s still time to [join](. Whether you recommitted to a resolution or started a new one, you may be wavering — and that’s O.K.! What’s most important is forgiving yourself for slip-ups and getting back to it. So we’re giving you permission to move on. [Research suggests]( that “giving ourselves a break and accepting our imperfections may be the first step toward better health.” If you’ve gotten off track, [tell us](mailto:smarterliving@nytimes.com) what happened. • Recipe of the day: Like bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches? You’ll love [breakfast carbonara](. Noteworthy • The death of Malcolm X. The civil rights leader was killed on this day in 1965 at a rally in New York City. Hear from a witness and visit the site of the assassination in [our latest 360 video](. • Rise of Alex Jones. Mr. Jones “is the conspiracy-theorizing, flame-throwing nationalistic radio and internet star,” and an occasional source and validator for the president, [our media columnist writes](. But in his early years as a broadcaster, he is said to have worked out of a spare bedroom “with choo-choo wallpaper.” • How well do we know the cosmos? A crisis may be brewing: The universe seems to be expanding too fast, [some astronomers say](. • Best of late-night TV. Most hosts took a break for the holiday, but [Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers]( spent it roasting the president. Back Story Today the U.N. is celebrating [International Mother Language Day](. Started in 2000, it is a day to celebrate linguistic diversity and draw attention to endangered and defunct languages. An event 65 years ago this week was the inspiration. Students in Dhaka — then the capital of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh — demanded that the government designate Bengali as an official language. Violence broke out, and the police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing at least six, [according to an article in The Times in 1952](. [A rally for International Mother Language Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Monday.] A rally for International Mother Language Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Monday. Abir Abdullah/European Pressphoto Agency There are around 3,000 endangered languages, some of them dialects, according to an estimate by the U.N.’s cultural body, [Unesco](. Extinction occurs when the last known speaker dies. That was the case when Alban Michael, a speaker of a [dialect of Nuu-chah-nulth]( in British Columbia, Canada, died last year. Vancouver Island, where Mr. Michael lived, is particularly rich in dialects. Multilingual education is the focus of International Mother Language Day this year. “Education and information in the mother language is absolutely essential to improving learning and developing confidence and self-esteem,” the director-general of Unesco said. A [Twitter post]( last week by Unesco was even more emphatic: “#Languages are who we are. Protecting this identity is a matter of human rights!” Palko Karasz and Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting. _____ Corrections: [Friday’s briefing]( referred incorrectly to the Washington State florist who refused to sell flowers for a same-sex wedding. The florist is a woman. Also, because of an editing error, a caption misstated the date of a photograph of Michael Jordan. It was 1988, not 1998. Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and [updated on the web all morning](. What would you like to see here? Contact us at [briefing@nytimes.com](mailto:briefing@nytimes.com?subject=Morning%20Briefing%20Feedback). 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