Donald Trump, Federal Reserve, Dutch Elections: Your Thursday Briefing

Dutch PM scores election victory against anti-EU Wilders

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Business

The Federal Reserve is moving toward the end of its nine-year-old economic stimulus campaign. The central bank raised interest rates on Wednesday for the second time in three months.

The U.S. charged two Russian intelligence officers with directing a criminal conspiracy that stole data on 500 million Yahoo accounts in 2014.

Vowing to expand the number of jobs in the auto industry, Mr. Trump halted a move to tighten fuel standards.

U.S. stocks were up on Wednesday. Heres a snapshot of global markets.

Smarter Living

Last week, we asked readers to share their morning routines, and 331 were gracious enough to respond. Among the most mentioned: Coffee (126 mentions), prayer or meditation (84), running/walking (95) or exercise (94), and breakfast (97).

Here are some of the tips, and a few quick links about warm-ups and cool-downs, ways to be mindful and the power of to-do lists.

Recipe of the day: Have pie for dinner with this torta pasqualina filled with leafy greens and cheese.

Noteworthy

The desert is blooming.

In todays 360 video, watch as colorful flowers blossom in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California.

Video The Desert Is Blooming

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is experiencing a rare super bloom. See it up close in 360 video.

By MELISSA LYTTLE, LOGAN JAFFE and SAMANTHA QUICK on Publish Date March 16, 2017. Photo by Melissa Lyttle for The New York Times. Technology by Samsung. . Watch in Times Video

A grim fate for a natural wonder.

Scientists say large sections of the Great Barrier Reef, a coral ecosystem off the coast of Australia so large that it can be seen from space, are dead or dying because of rising sea temperatures.

The level of destruction wasnt expected for another 30 years, the author of a new study said.

Photo Bleached coral off the Australian coast. Climate change is not a future threat, one scientist said. On the Great Barrier Reef, its been happening for 18 years. Credit Reuters

March Madness begins.

The first round of the N.C.A.A. mens basketball tournament starts today. Well have live updates, scores and analysis of the first round.

A spoiler becomes a savior.

In the past few decades, the internet has threatened just about every cultural medium, from movies to music to something close to this writers heart, journalism. But people are starting to pay for online content, a big deal that our tech columnist says is difficult to overstate.

Press freedom in Egypt.

Declan Walsh, our Cairo bureau chief, joined a group of journalists to discuss the difficulties of reporting from the Middle East.

Best of late-night TV.

The hosts were not impressed by Rachel Maddows anticlimactic revelation of Mr. Trumps tax forms the day before. Is this news or a reality show? asked Stephen Colbert.

Stephen Pulls A "Rachel Maddow" Video by The Late Show with Stephen ColbertBack Story

A new space race is underway, fueled by billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who are eager to capitalize on booming technology and the allure of space tourism.

Such audacious plans werent always embraced. In 1920, when Robert H. Goddard outlined how a rocket might reach the moon, The Times wrote that he seemed to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools and argued, incorrectly, that thrust was not possible in a vacuum.

Photo Robert H. Goddard, pictured in Roswell, N.M., in 1938, was a pioneer of the space age. Credit Associated Press

History has been kinder to Dr. Goddard since his death in 1945, and hes now viewed as a pioneer of the space age.

A crucial step in his career came on this day in 1926, when he tested the first liquid-fueled rocket, from his aunts farm in Massachusetts. It reached only 41 feet, but, according to NASA, the experiment was as significant to history as that of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.

After Apollo 11 launched in 1969, even The Times came around, noting in a correction that it was now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere.

But Dr. Goddard deserves the last word. About perseverance, he wrote: When old dreams die, new ones come to take their place. G*d pity a one-dream man.

Charles McDermid contributed reporting.

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