Migrants, Iran, E. Jean Carroll: Your Tuesday Briefing

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Good morning.

We’re covering the transfer of migrant children from a squalid facility in Texas, President Trump’s denial of a sexual assault accusation, and the U.S. victory at the Women’s World Cup.

Migrant children are moved from border station

Hundreds of children have been transferred from a Border Patrol station in Texas, the authorities said on Monday, after reports that they had been detained for weeks without access to soap, clean clothes or adequate food.

Accounts from lawyers who visited the facility near El Paso this month offered a look at the squalid conditions and a system that has largely been hidden from public view. Federal officials say the number of migrants on the border with Mexico has escalated beyond what they can safely handle.

Related: A House vote is scheduled for today on a $4.5 billion package of emergency humanitarian aid for the southwestern border. Some Democrats are opposed to the measure, fearing that the money will be used to carry out the immigration crackdown.

Another angle: As part of a deal with the U.S., Mexico has mobilized security forces at its historically porous border with Guatemala. The deployment has disrupted the flow of goods and people.

Iran disparages U.S. over sanctions

President Hassan Rouhani today called the White House “mentally retarded,” dismissing the Trump administration’s latest round of economic sanctions as pointless and declaring that Iran would not be intimidated.

Mr. Rouhani’s remarks, made in a televised address, made it more clear than ever that Washington and Tehran remain in a standoff despite President Trump’s decision last week to call off a missile strike against Iran in retaliation for its shooting down of an American surveillance drone.

Yesterday: Mr. Trump announced measures to block some top Iranian officials from using the international banking system, but the action is largely symbolic.

Response: Iranians across the political spectrum dismissed the latest embargoes as little more than insults. “The only people left to sanction are me, my dad and our neighbor’s kid,” one Iranian wrote in a widely circulated tweet. “The foreign ministry should share Trump’s phone number so we can call him and give him our names.”

Voters in Florida look to Democrats’ climate plans

Activists had wanted this week’s presidential debates in Miami to focus solely on the environment. That’s not happening, but in a city where climate change has long been a daily reality, the issue will be inescapable.

A new statewide poll found that more than 70 percent of Florida voters support government action to address the problem.

Quotable: “I don’t think the base is going to be satisfied with candidates simply saying, ‘I think climate change is happening; I think it’s because of humans,’” said an official of a group involved in the poll. “People increasingly want to know, ‘What is your actual plan?’”

Closer look: In 1960s Oklahoma, she was Betsy to her mother and Liz to her fellow high school debaters. Now she’s Elizabeth Warren, and childhood lessons have taken center stage in her presidential run. Read the latest in our series about the lives of the 2020 candidates.

Should torture count as prison time?

Majid Khan, a confessed Qaeda agent who is being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is seeking time off his sentence as compensation for being tortured in secret C.I.A. prisons.

Mr. Khan pleaded guilty in 2012 to delivering $50,000 that helped finance a hotel bombing in Indonesia in 2003. He hasn’t been sentenced because he agreed to become a government witness in return for a chance at leniency.

His lawyers argue that the treatment Mr. Khan endured in custody should be taken into account.

Why it matters: The government has signaled that it will fight the request, which is the first overt effort to hold the C.I.A. responsible for the secret detentions from 2002 to 2006.

The president said that E. Jean Carroll was “totally lying” when she said that he forced himself on her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. He said that he did not know her.

In an interview earlier in the day, Ms. Carroll did not use the word “rape” to describe the episode but said, “It was against my will 100 percent.”

Background: More than a dozen women have accused Mr. Trump of sexual misconduct that they said took place before he was elected. He has rejected some of the accusations by asserting that the women were not attractive enough to engage in such behavior.

From The Times: Dean Baquet, the executive editor, agreed with critics that The Times had underplayed the original report of Ms. Carroll’s accusation. “We were overly cautious,” he said.

If you have 4 minutes, this is worth it

Tricky clicks

The report comes as lawmakers discuss regulating technology companies, but cracking down on the practice could be difficult.

Here’s what else is happening

Subway improvements: A measure of how much time New York City subway riders spend onboard the train finds that most commutes are getting shorter. The E line saw the most improvement.

What we’re reading: This BuzzFeed News article. “Zheng Churan was detained for 37 days for protesting sexual harassment on public transit in China,” writes Jennifer Jett, an editor in Hong Kong. “Now she is running around her city, Guangzhou, every day to call attention to the case of her husband, a journalist and activist who disappeared into police custody in March.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Green goddess dressing comes together quickly in a food processor. (Our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has more recommendations.)

Watch: The writer and director Jim Jarmusch discusses a scene from “The Dead Don’t Die,” featuring Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny and Carol Kane.

Go: Daniel Glenn’s play “King Philip’s Head,” an astutely goofy portrait of legislative gridlock in the Plymouth Colony, casts women as some seriously conflicted founding fathers. It’s playing at the Wild Project in the East Village.

Read: Reviewing Julie Satow’s “The Plaza,” Tina Brown dishes on those who made and lost fortunes and reputations at the storied hotel.

Smarter Living: Do you use your turn signal when driving? There’s evidence that the act of signaling provides a cognitive benefit to the driver. “When you turn on the turn signal, you’re turning on your brain,” said Chris Kaufmann, a driving school instructor. That level of mindfulness can reduce the possibility of an accident.

And, no, your coffee habit is not the reason you aren’t a millionaire.

And now for the Back Story on …

The rainbow flag

As Pride Month winds down, we’re looking at one of the most enduring L.G.B.T.Q. symbols.

The artist Gilbert Baker, who described himself as the “gay Betsy Ross,” popularized the design as a celebration of the diversity of the gay community. The flag appeared at a gay pride march in San Francisco on this day in 1978.

The flag originally consisted of eight colored stripes, each with its own significance: pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for peace and purple for spirit. The flag was later streamlined into the current six-color version.

“Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible,” said Mr. Baker, who died in 2017 at the age of 65. “A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility, or saying, ‘This is who I am!’”

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

— Chris

Thank you
Melina Delkic helped compile today’s briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news, and Chris wrote the Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the fading likelihood that Democrats will pursue impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Renewable energy type (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• A scholarship in memory of Robert Pear, who covered health care for The Times for 40 years, is being set up at Columbia University, where he received a master’s degree.