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Jerusalem, Harvey Weinstein, Christine Keeler: Your Wednesday Briefing

A blaze in Shadow Hills in Los Angeles. Four wildfires roared through Southern California on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in the latest chapter of what has been one of the state’s worst fire seasons.Credit...Mario Tama/Getty Images

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Good morning. We’ve had some technical difficulties this week that have resulted in some readers not receiving the Morning Briefing by email. We believe those problems have been fixed, and apologize for the inconvenience.

Here’s what you need to know:

• President Trump is to announce today that the U.S. will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a decision that Arab and European leaders warned could disrupt the Mideast peace process and unleash violence across the region.

The president wants to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to one of the world’s most fiercely contested areas: West Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s government, but the Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The president’s decision, likely to be welcomed by evangelicals and ardently pro-Israel American Jews, would upend nearly seven decades of U.S. foreign policy. The White House is preparing for possible unrest and is making plans to protect Americans abroad.

We spoke to experts about the modern history of Jerusalem, and why it’s important to Christians, Jews and Muslims.

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President Trump declared recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Here’s why that’s so fraught.CreditCredit...Oded Balilty/Associated Press

• Lawmakers in the House and Senate are working to resolve the differences between their bills so they can send a final version to President Trump this month. Here are some of the main hurdles.

Both proposals reduce corporate tax rates, but perhaps the biggest winner is the industry in which the president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, made their millions: commercial real estate.

Conservative groups say the tax plan will put “more money in the pockets of American families,” as one group put it. The problem, they are finding, is that most Americans don’t believe that.

• The network that the Hollywood producer used to smother accusations of sexual misconduct was built out of the witting, the unwitting and those in between. We explain how it worked.

Now, a debate is emerging about collective failure and the apportioning of blame.

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Credit...Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

At a TimesTalks event on Tuesday, the actress Ashley Judd spoke with Times journalists whose reporting on Mr. Weinstein and Bill O’Reilly prompted a national conversation about sexual harassment. Watch their conversation here, and read more about it in our new newsletter, The #MeToo Moment.

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At a TimesTalks event in Los Angeles, actor Ashley Judd speaks with the New York Times journalists whose stories about Harvey Weinstein and Bill O'Reilly sparked a national conversation about sexual harassment.

• The sports world is waiting to see how Russia responds to being banned from next year’s Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Our sports columnists had different takes on Tuesday’s punishment for Russia’s systemic doping program. Juliet Macur writes that the International Olympic Committee, after years of not confronting countries that break rules, took a much-needed stand.

But by allowing Russian athletes still to compete wearing neutral uniforms, the punishment wasn’t as harsh as it could have been, Jeré Longman argues.

We looked at the Olympic events that will be most affected by Russia’s absence, the country’s biggest sports crisis since the Soviet era.

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A sight you won’t see next year: The Russian Olympic team. President Vladimir Putin, front and center, joined athletes after the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.Credit...Mikhail Klimentyev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Listen on a computer, an iOS device or an Android device.

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The former West Wing adviser Stephen Bannon, left, joined Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, at a campaign event on Tuesday. “They want to destroy Judge Moore,” Mr. Bannon said. “And you know why? They want to take away your voice.”Credit...Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

A watchdog defanged: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new acting director has suspended or softened several investigations and lawsuits. Some employees are quietly resisting.

Disney is said to be nearing a deal to buy significant parts of 21st Century Fox.

After Toblerone reconfigured its Swiss mountain-shaped chocolate bar, a British discount chain released a rival, Twin Peaks. (Lawyers were called.)

U.S. stocks were down on Tuesday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

How to train your mind to read.

Get the most out of farmers’ markets when you travel.

Keep dinner simple: Try sautéed chicken with Meyer lemons.

Seven new wonders: Christ the Redeemer.

In today’s 360 video, visit the colossal statue of Jesus Christ atop Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro.

It’s part of our series about the sites selected in 2007 as additions to the original Seven Wonders of the World.

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A colossal statue of Jesus Christ on top of Mount Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro.CreditCredit...Andy Caulfield/Getty Images

The year in climate news.

We’ve collected some of the best Times articles from 2017 about the world’s changing climate. To start, here are answers to some common questions.

In memoriam.

Christine Keeler was at the center of a political scandal in Britain in the 1960s, known as the Profumo affair, that contributed to the downfall of a Conservative government. She was 75.

Johnny Hallyday, the French answer to Elvis Presley, kept audiences enthralled for nearly 60 years with his interpretations of American rock ’n’ roll. He was 74.

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Johnny Hallyday, pictured in 2006, was little known outside the French-speaking world. But he sold more than 100 million records and appeared in more than 30 films.Credit...Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

King Michael of Romania was credited with pre-emptively saving thousands of lives in World War II when, at 22, he arrested the country’s dictator, a puppet of Hitler. He was 96.

Best of late-night TV.

Russia won’t be awarded any medals at the Winter Games: “Yeah, Olympic events that don’t matter — or as most people call it, curling,” Jimmy Fallon said.

Quotation of the day.

“It crushes me to think we’re in an environment where kids’ health is up for debate — that this somehow got tossed into the wrangling.”

Dr. Todd Wolynn, a pediatrician in Pittsburgh, on Congress’s inability to agree how to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which ran out of money on Sept. 30.

Many Americans awoke last week to news that most Britons, several time zones ahead, had heard first: Prince Harry and his American girlfriend, Meghan Markle, were engaged.

But when King Edward VIII gave up the throne in December 1936 to marry an American, England was seemingly the last to know.

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The former King Edward VIII, then the Duke of Windsor, and Wallis Simpson on their wedding day in France in June 1937.Credit...Associated Press

The British news media largely blacked out coverage of Edward’s yearslong affair with the American socialite Wallis Simpson, who by that time was divorcing her second husband. Pages were reportedly even torn from foreign magazines, which were writing freely about the couple.

The average Briton was unprepared for the looming constitutional crisis when the affair was publicly revealed and Parliament refused to allow the marriage.

As The Times wrote, “Public in London Is Bewildered.”

In a changed world, the royal family has struggled against the intrusive media attention, particularly in the marriage and divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and in Diana’s death. But Harry and his brother, William, have tried to establish a respectful relationship with the news media (despite the occasional warning).

Ultimately, the news of Harry and Ms. Markle’s engagement received a far warmer reception than that of Edward, the brother of Harry’s great-grandfather.

Lori Moore contributed reporting.

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Follow Chris Stanford on Twitter: @stanfordc.

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