| 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. |
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