Your Friday Briefing

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Friday, Nov 1, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering the naming of an ISIS leader whose identity confounds even the experts, the end of John Bercow’s flamboyant tenure as speaker and what’s different about Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women.”

By Melina Delkic

The site where Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, who had been considered a potential successor to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in an American airstrike on Sunday. Aref Tammawi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

ISIS names a leader no one has heard of

The group broke its silence on Thursday to confirm the deaths of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, its leader, and his heir apparent; to announce a new leader; and to warn America that the Islamic State “is now on the threshold of Europe and Central Africa.”

In addition to confirming the deaths for the first time, the Islamic State announced in an audio message, released on the Telegram app, that Mr. al-Baghdadi had been succeeded as leader by Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, whom it identified as the “emir of the believers” and “caliph.”

But almost nothing is publicly known about Mr. al-Qurayshi, including his real name, and counterterrorism analysts were scrambling Thursday to try to figure out who he is.

Quotable: “Nobody — and I mean nobody outside a likely very small circle within ISIS — have any idea who their new leader ‘Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi’ is,” Paul Cruickshank, editor of the CTC Sentinel at the Combating Terrorism Center, said.

Possibilities: One analyst told us ISIS leaders often acquire a new nom de guerre with the appointment to a new position, meaning Mr. al-Qurayshi may have had a completely different name last week.

John Bercow, Britain's speaker of the House of Commons, proceeding to the Queen's Speech on Oct. 14 in London. Pool photo by Daniel Leal-Oliva

Bercow bows out

John Bercow made good on his promise to resign from his post as speaker of the House of Commons on Oct. 31 — and with him went his memorable, antiquated vocabulary and 10 years of made-for-TV calls to order. (Remember “Be a good boy!”?)

There are nine lawmakers who hope to succeed him. An election is scheduled for Monday.

The son of a cabdriver, Mr. Bercow is an outsider who made his way to the top of the British establishment. He was lauded on Thursday for his efforts to make Parliament more open, and for his support of L.G.B.T.Q. rights. But he was critiqued for his perceived partisan bias in a job that requires strict neutrality, his love of the limelight and his sympathy to the opposition, including during the Brexit proceedings.

Context: The speaker does not just preside over debates, but is the ultimate arbiter of parliamentary rules. That gave Mr. Bercow huge influence at a time when the government had no majority in the House of Commons.

Related: President Trump called in to a British radio show hosted by Nigel Farage for a free-wheeling conversation about the general election, the queen and his praise for Boris Johnson. But he did voice concern that the latest Brexit plan did not open the door for a trade deal with the U.S.

The House floor on Thursday as lawmakers voted for rules outlining the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Erin Schaff/The New York Times

House endorses Trump impeachment push

The bitterly divided House voted on nearly exact partisan lines to advance the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The vote, endorsing rules laid out by Democrats governing the impeachment proceedings, set up a critical public phase of the process.

The vote — just the third of its kind in U.S. history — officially put the investigation on the record, a signal that the Democrats leading the proceedings are confident that they have enough evidence to make their case to the public.

Just two Democrats voted against the measure (and another didn’t vote). Republicans unanimously opposed it (though three didn’t vote).

Related: A White House aide testified that he, too, saw signs of a quid pro quo on Ukraine, corroborating an episode at the center of the impeachment inquiry. Here’s the latest.

The police near the Paris police headquarters on Oct. 3 after four officers were killed in a knife attack. Bertrand Guay/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images

France intensifies push against radicalization

Seven French police officers have been ordered to hand over their weapons, and at least one employee has been suspended, after security forces were encouraged to report signs of radicalization in their ranks in the wake of a fatal attack at police headquarters in Paris.

There has been a particular new focus on radicalization within the security forces. Agents have raised more concerns about colleagues’ behavior in the past three weeks than in the previous seven years combined, Paris’s police chief told lawmakers.

But the authorities also warned that vigilance shouldn’t translate into discrimination against Muslims.

Reminder: Mickaël Harpon, the veteran police employee who killed four colleagues at the police headquarters, had shown signs of radicalization. After attacks at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015, he said, “Serves them right.” But colleagues did not file a formal complaint.

If you have 12 minutes, this is worth it

Greta Gerwig on talking to our younger selves

Jody Rogac for The New York Times

“Little Women” has been retold and adapted, generation after generation, for over a century. In the new film adaptation of “Little Women,” the filmmaker Greta Gerwig didn’t so much adapt the Louisa May Alcott story as excavate it to make a larger point about the stories we tell about women and girls.

When she reread the novel as an adult, Gerwig was struck by how modern its dialogue felt. She also found herself measuring her adult life against the expectations of her girlhood. “I’m always answering to her,” she said of her younger self, “about whether I’m being as brave as I could be, or as big as I could be.”

Here’s what else is happening

Climate summit: Madrid has offered to host the next United Nations climate talks, after Chile pulled out because of intensifying protests and turmoil there.

Iraq and Lebanon protests: Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is revered by some Lebanese and Iraqi Shiites as a spiritual leader, strongly condemned the protests — a signal of the danger he sees lurking in them.

Spain: Public outrage resulted after a court sentenced five men to prison on sexual abuse, instead of rape, charges in the assault of a 14-year-old.

Greek refugee camps: Life in the overcrowded migrant camps on Greek islands “has dramatically worsened” in the past year, Europe’s top human rights official warned on Thursday. “It is an explosive situation,” the official, Dunja Mijatovic, said.

North Korea: The country fired two short-range projectiles that landed in the sea between the North and Japan in its first test since renewed efforts at talks with the U.S. stalled this month. Japan’s Ministry of Defense said the projectiles appeared to be ballistic missiles.

Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, the outdoor stairs in the Bronx, N.Y., that had a starring role in the movie “Joker” and have now become an Instagram sensation.

Netflix: As the streaming giant expands into India, Turkey and other countries, it must navigate new political and moral landscapes, as well as calls for government oversight.

What we’re reading: ProPublica’s deep dive into a case where a mistaken identity confounded a family’s end-of-life choices. Andrew Ross Sorkin calls it “a beautifully reported and written story by my former colleague Joe Sexton and Nate Schweber, who also writes for The Times.”

Now, a break from the news

Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Amy Elise Wilson

Cook: A pasta dinner with cannellini beans in a buttery sauce is a satisfying way to end the week.

Go: November marks the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall. You can still get a sense of the Cold War era in some of the city’s neighborhoods.

Listen: Michael Kiwanuka’s third album is a muscular, multilayered declaration of self-worth and reliance from an artist who has been open about his insecurities.

Smarter Living: Inspired by the 20th anniversary of the National Novel Writing Month project (NaNoWriMo), we collected digital tools that can help you write a 50,000-word novel in November. They include the project’s own writing guides, which help you map out a plot and develop characters, and composition-management apps like Novelist, Bear and Writer’s Shed, or Scrivener’s software (some cost a little bit).

And our Climate Fwd: newsletter has advice on slaying energy vampires — that is, the items in your house that use up electricity even when they’re not turned on.

And now for the Back Story on …

Changing times

Yes, it’s time for U.S. clocks to fall back an hour this weekend, going to “standard time” from “daylight saving time.”

And there’s the usual grumbling on social media (along with “If I could turn back time” Cher memes).

A clock built in Massachusetts for a new train station in Bangkok. Thailand keeps its clocks steady year-round, on Indochina time. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

There has never been global agreement on the twice-yearly clock changes. Mexico and most of Europe switched last weekend, while Australia moved to D.S.T. last month. Some 40 countries in the Middle East and Asia never change clocks.

At least seven U.S. states have moved to stay on D.S.T. year round (as has our Canadian neighbor British Columbia). Arizona and Hawaii stay on standard time year round, and some New England states want to move their time zone to avoid the clock-changing.

And the European Union wants to scrap the biannual time shifts by 2021.

At least no one is suggesting we go back to the approach of our ancient forebears.

They took the amount of daylight in each season and just divided it by 12, making each hour longer in spring and shorter in the fall.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Melina

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Victoria Shannon, on the Briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story.You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about how Boeing handled safety concerns about the 737 Max.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Pockets of the Middle East (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Michael Barbaro and Taffy Brodesser-Akner of The Times have been named to Variety’s New Power of New York list.