 | | President Obama and Speaker Paul D. Ryan commemorating the anniversary of the 13th Amendment on Wednesday. Mr. Obama called for Americans to reject bigotry. Doug Mills/The New York Times | Your Thursday Briefing By ADEEL HASSAN |
| Good morning. |
| Here's what you need to know: |
| • New step in fight against militants. |
| The Pentagon is proposing a plan to build up a string of military bases in Africa, Southwest Asia and the Middle East to help carry out strikes against Islamic State affiliates. |
| • Honoring California's victims. |
| The funerals for the 14 people killed last week in the San Bernardino mass shooting begin today. |
| Hate crimes inquiries are opening around the U.S., amid suggestions that harassment of Muslims and people misidentified as Muslims may be on the rise. |
| The Seattle police are investigating the death of a Muslim teenager who fell from a balcony, and vandalism has been reported at mosques and a Sikh temple. |
| • Reacting to Trump. |
| President Obama called for Americans to reject bigotry, an implicit rebuke of Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate who has called for keeping Muslims out of the country. One of the best-known American Muslims, Muhammad Ali, also weighed in. |
| Mr. Trump's proposal has provoked outrage in the Mideast that could threaten his brand there. |
| • Police scandals. |
| Chicago's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, is demanding sweeping police reform as protesters increase their calls for his resignation after videos of police shootings were made public. |
| In Baltimore, Officer William G. Porter, charged with manslaughter in the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered a spinal cord injury in police custody, told jurors that he thought Mr. Gray was faking his injury. More defense witnesses will be called today. |
| • Focus on Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. |
| House Republicans will make public a report about last year's White House deal to swap five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for Sergeant Bergdahl, a captive American soldier. |
| In the premiere episode of the second season of the podcast "Serial," released today, the soldier explains why he left his base in June 2009, an action that led to a manhunt involving thousands of troops, and to his nearly five years in captivity. |
| • An ominous sign for affirmative action. |
| Most of the Supreme Court justices appeared unpersuaded on Wednesday that a plan at the University of Texas that uses race as a factor in accepting students is constitutional. |
| A ruling against the university could imperil affirmative action at schools across the U.S. |
| • Health insurance deadline nears. |
| One million new customers have signed up for health insurance during the Affordable Care Act's third open-enrollment season. The deadline for coverage beginning Jan. 1 is Tuesday. |
| At the same time, a little-noticed provision that Senator Marco Rubio slipped into a giant spending law is quietly undermining the health care law. |
| • Climate talks' homestretch. |
| Secretary of State John Kerry, in a familiar role, is at the Paris convention trying to coax a deal to slow global warming. It's a tough task, with China and India driving hard bargains. |
| A climate agreement could also lead to a sweeping effort to save the world's forests. Here's the latest from Paris. |
| BUSINESS |
| • Fiat Chrysler is expected to pay the U.S. government as much as $70 million for underreporting the number of death and injury claims tied to potential defects in its cars. |
| And although G.M. successfully fought for immunity from litigation for accidents involving defective ignition switches that occurred before its 2009 bankruptcy, a new report shows that reparations were paid for crashes before that date. |
| • Toyota, Honda and Subaru — all Japanese carmakers — had the most winners in the insurance industry's rankings of the safest vehicles for the 2016 model year. |
| • Walmart Pay will be introduced in the retailer's home market around Bentonville, Ark., today before rolling out nationwide after the holiday season. |
| Walmart is the first U.S. retailer to offer its own payment feature, which will be part of its smartphone app. |
| • Facebook at Work, a professional version of the social network, is expected to be introduced in the coming months. |
| • Wall Street stock futures are positive, after three negative days of trading. European markets are mixed, and Asian indexes finished mostly lower. |
| NOTEWORTHY |
| • Good news for grinches. |
| A new study finds that happiness doesn't improve health and longevity. |
| • "Happy Birthday" battle nears end. |
| After more than two years of litigation, "Happy Birthday to You" — often called the most popular song in the world — may be one step closer to entering the royalty-free public domain, as a settlement has been reached. |
| And a lawsuit claims that The Weeknd's song "The Hills," one of the biggest hits of the year, infringes on the copyright of a little-noticed science-fiction thriller. |
| • Sports roundup. |
| ESPN and College Football Playoff officials have agreed that there will be no advertising for daily fantasy games during telecasts of the national semifinals or the national championship game. |
| And Stephen Curry, the star of the undefeated Golden State Warriors (23-0), says that his training routine includes sensory deprivation tanks and flashing goggles. |
| • In memoriam. |
| Fatema Mernissi, a Moroccan sociologist who was one of the founders of Islamic feminism, died at 75. |
| John Trudell, an outspoken advocate of Native American rights, died at 69. |
| • Test-tube puppies. |
| A surrogate hound gave birth to seven half-pound puppies, the first dogs conceived in a test tube. |
| BACK STORY |
| Three minutes is the average time it takes to get served at the drive-through of an American fast-food restaurant. |
| A backlash against that kind of instant gratification led to the birth of the "slow food" movement, which brings attention to its cause each year on today's date, calling it Terra Madre Day (Mother Earth Day). |
| The Slow Food organization began in Bra, Italy, in response to the 1986 opening of the first McDonald's in Italy, on the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. |
| Though it started as a protest against fast food, the main aim of Slow Food is to preserve small-scale agriculture and artisanal food products. |
| The international group — members live in more than 160 countries — wants you to relish local products, like heirloom fruits and vegetables, herbs, homemade bread and handmade cheese. |
| Your home-cooked meals — using time-honored methods — should be accompanied by wines from regional vintners, microbrews or water, the thinking goes. |
| Also, eating — done slowly and carefully — should be a social event. |
| The movement's symbol? The snail, of course. |
| 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. |
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