Fwd: NYT Now: Your Friday Briefing

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• The end of the N.S.A.'s data grab?

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From: NYTimes.com <nytdirect@nytimes.com>
Date: Fri, May 22, 2015 at 12:17 PM
Subject: NYT Now: Your Friday Briefing
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View in Browser | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. Friday, May 22, 2015 Friday, May 22, 2015 nytnow.com » Memorial Day Sale: Get 50% off the subscription of your choice for 26 weeks. Voters in Ireland decide today whether to amend the Constitution to allow gay marriage. Peter Morrison/Associated Press Your Friday Briefing By ADEEL HASSAN Good morning. Here's what you need to know: • Ireland votes on same-sex marriage. The country today could become the first to approve same-sex marriage by a referendum. The Roman Catholic Church — which remains a force there — is officially opposed, although some priests are supporting a yes vote. • The end of the N.S.A.'s data grab? The National Security Agency might need to begin shutting down bulk collection of phone records, a program that expires on June 1, if the Senate doesn't act today. It's not clear if the Senate will vote on a temporary extension after completing work on a major trade bill. A weekend session is possible. Congress is heading into a recess and won't return until June 1. The N.S.A. program was declared illegal this month by a federal appeals court. • What Britain wants. Prime Minister David Cameron unveils his plans for overhauling the European Union at a summit meeting today in Riga, Latvia. He said today he would stick to his promise to hold a referendum before the end of 2017 on whether Britain should stay in the E.U. • China's warning to the U.S. China said today that U.S. actions in the South China Sea were "irresponsible and dangerous," and called on Washington to stop them. An American military plane flew over part of the sea on Wednesday near where China is building artificial islands. • The administration's day. President Obama speaks today about anti-Semitism at a Washington-area congregation. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delivers the commencement address at the United States Naval Academy. • Manhunt in Washington ends. The police arrested a suspect this morning in the gruesome killing of a wealthy family in Washington, D.C. MARKETS • Janet L. Yellen, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, describes the state of the economy at a speech in Rhode Island today. • High-level talks over Greece's bailout funds broke up this morning in Latvia without a resolution ahead of the meeting of E.U. leaders. • After $35 billion in market value was erased from three Hong Kong-listed companies over two days, investors are asking if regulators should have done more to prevent the sudden sell-off. • Wall Street stock futures are edging higher on a day expected to be light on trading before the three-day weekend. European shares are little changed, and Asian indexes ended higher. NOTEWORTHY • Hatred on Twitter. President Obama's first tweet from his new @POTUS account immediately attracted racist, vitriolic posts and replies, including a doctored image of his iconic campaign poster that showed him in a noose. • On the big screen. George Clooney stars as a disillusioned former boy genius and Britt Robertson ("Under the Dome") is the teenage science nut who teams up with him in the sci-fi film "Tomorrowland," opening in theaters today. For something more adult, the remake of "Poltergeist" sounds just as frightening as the one from 1982. Here's what else is coming to theaters today. • Top of the charts. "Pitch Perfect 2," which already rules the movie box office, is No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, with a soundtrack that beat out Mumford & Sons and David Guetta. • New in books. Kate Atkinson's "God in Ruins," about postwar Britain, debuts on our hardcover fiction best-seller list at No. 6., while David McCullough's "The Wright Brothers" leads the nonfiction best sellers in its first week on the list. And we have a dozen or so recommendations for your summer reading. • Scoreboard. N.B.A. playoffs: Cleveland Cavaliers at Atlanta Hawks (8:30 p.m. Eastern, TNT). The Golden State Warriors held off the Houston Rockets, 99-98, to take a two-games-to-none lead on Thursday in their series. Stanley Cup playoffs: New York Rangers at Tampa Bay Lightning (8 p.m. Eastern, NBCSN). The Lightning lead the series, two games to one. On Thursday, the Anaheim Ducks beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1. • Cuba's celebration of the arts. Local and international artists are featured in the monthlong Havana Biennial, which opens today in the Cuban capital. Tania Bruguera, whose passport was revoked by the Cuban government after she planned a political artwork for a public square, won't be there. BACK STORY The beeping yellow circle with a chomping, wedge-shaped mouth that was once popular in places like bars and laundromats was born 35 years ago. A birthday bash for Pac-Man is held tonight at an entertainment center near Chicago called Level 257, whose name goes one step beyond the highest level a player can reach on the game. One of its most famous players, Billy Mitchell, will take on all comers in a competition. In 1999, he became the first person to record a perfect score: 3,333,360. Pac-Man is the American version of the original Japanese game, Pakkuman (which loosely translates as Gobbleman). In the end, what the voracious Pac-Man consumed was billions and billions of quarters. The craze drew a number of parents and school officials to press local governments, sometimes successfully, to pass laws restricting young people from playing video games in commercial establishments. In business and legal circles, a "Pac-Man" defense is now known as a strategy in which companies targeted for hostile takeovers try to gobble up their opponents before they are eaten themselves. Victoria Shannon contributed reporting. 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. Want to get the briefing by email? Here's the sign-up. ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW NYTNOW @NYTNOW NYT Now app for iPhone Now the news keeps up with you Available on the App Store Get more NYTimes.com newsletters » | Sign Up for the Morning Briefing newsletter » ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's NYT Now newsletter. 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