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ISIS, Brazil, Facebook: Your Thursday Briefing

More than 15,000 pages of Islamic State documents retrieved by Times journalists from Iraq help explain how the group stayed in power for so long.Credit...Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

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Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

• During five trips to Iraq, Times journalists scoured former offices of the Islamic State, gathering more than 15,000 pages of documents abandoned by the militants as their “caliphate” crumbled.

We’ve just published the results of our yearlong investigation. It shows that ISIS, known for its brutality, was also effective at wielding power through paperwork. Here’s a closer look at some of the documents we collected, including tax collection forms, religious edicts and the will of a suicide bomber.

We also have a new audio series, “Caliphate,” which follows our reporter Rukmini Callimachi as she covers the Islamic State and the fall of Mosul, Iraq. Listen to a preview here.

Separately, President Trump wants to bring home the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria. He dropped plans for an immediate withdrawal, but instructed military commanders to wrap up the mission within a few months.

• The latest dispute between the U.S. and China has been defined by reciprocity, with each side announcing matching tariffs.

But if things continue to escalate, Beijing will have less room to maneuver and could resort to more unconventional measures, our senior economics correspondent writes.

For now, the White House is trying to calm fears of a possible trade war. Administration officials hinted on Wednesday that tariffs outlined earlier in the week might never go into effect, but reiterated that China must stop what President Trump calls unfair trading practices.

Here’s how the showdown could affect U.S. manufacturers.

• Our correspondent in Mexico spoke with some of the Central American migrants cited by President Trump to justify sending troops to the southern border. (The caravans have also excited the conservative news media.)

The group of more than 1,000 people, mostly women and children, is fleeing violence and poverty, but its members face an uncertain future. “Who wants to leave their country, the comfort of their home, their families?” one asked.

White House officials confirmed plans on Wednesday to mobilize the National Guard to the border with Mexico, but gave few details about timing, the number of troops or their mission there.

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Migrants rested on Wednesday at a temporary camp in the southern Mexican town of Matías Romero.Credit...Brett Gundlock for The New York Times

The country’s top court ruled today that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva can be sent to prison while he appeals his conviction on corruption and money laundering charges.

Mr. da Silva, 72, who was president from 2003 to 2011, was sentenced last year to almost 10 years in prison. His chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff, was removed from office in 2016.

Mr. da Silva is the front-runner in the presidential election in October, and the court’s decision raises questions about the legitimacy of the vote.

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“No prison for Lula” read one poster in Rio de Janeiro with a picture of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.Credit...Pilar Olivares/Reuters
The Daily Poster

Listen to ‘The Daily’: Pro-Trump, but Fearing His Tariffs

Farmers worry that the president’s plans to penalize Chinese trade practices will result in retaliation against U.S. agriculture. Beijing has proposed just that.

Facebook said that the data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with a political consulting firm, far more than an earlier estimate of 50 million.

The company’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, is scheduled to testify to Congress next week. Here’s a guide to our coverage of the Cambridge Analytica story.

Thousands of Google employees are urging their chief executive to end the company’s involvement in a Pentagon program to improve the targeting of drone strikes.

“You can’t be serious!” That was the response of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s chairman to criticism of a script about media bias that dozens of TV anchors at its stations were instructed to read out.

The former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and his lawyers worked hard to silence the women who accused him of sexual harassment. Now a judge has made the settlements public.

U.S. stocks were up on Wednesday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets today.

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

Flying somewhere? Take advantage of the changes at airports.

How to respond when a colleague is harassing women.

Recipe of the day: Take a break from the usual stir fry, with braised eggplant, pork and mushrooms.

Our journalists recommend these great pieces:

Cambridge Analytica’s parent company apparently helped Rodrigo Duterte win the Philippine presidential election, our former Europe Morning Briefing writer, Patrick Boehler, noted on Twitter. [South China Morning Post]

“As a onetime employee of Blockbuster Video, I was tickled to learn that a video store in Bend, Ore., is still operating under the name of the chain.

“It’s the last one in the lower 48 states (there are six others in Alaska), and how they continue to do business is fascinating.” [GeekWire]

Michael Roston, senior staff editor, Science

Putting out a yearbook after a school shooting

After the deadly attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in February, the staff of the Aerie, the school’s yearbook, had to decide how to honor the 17 people who died.

“This has to be remembered for the rest of our lives,” one of the yearbook’s editors told our reporter.

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Students on the staff of the Aerie, the yearbook of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Credit...Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

Best sellers, via the Oval Office

Presidents past, present and future are represented on the latest hardcover nonfiction best-seller list.

It includes a collection of Obama-era photographs, an inside account of the Trump White House, a book about the meaning of faith by former President Jimmy Carter, and an open letter to whoever becomes the first female president.

Are you a teacher?

We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think about the protests over pay and benefits, and what conditions are like at your school.

Best of late-night TV

Mike Myers — in the form of his “Austin Powers” character Dr. Evil — told Jimmy Fallon that the wall between the U.S. and Mexico was actually his idea. Except, “I wanted it to be a moat, filled with spiky blowfish.”

Quotation of the day

“Tariffs are seen as a direct slap in the face, and it will be very difficult for the Chinese government to sit back and take those blows without retaliating.”

Eswar Prasad, a professor of international trade at Cornell University, on the risk of a full-blown trade war between the U.S. and China.

The Times, in other words

Here’s an image of today’s front page, and links to our Opinion content and crossword puzzles.

We begin today with a shimmy, or maybe the turkey trot. Perhaps the bunny hug is more your style.

Arthur Murray, an immigrant baker’s son who brought ballroom dancing into people’s living rooms, was born this week in 1895. His mission, he said, was to use dance to “bring ease for universal heartache, loneliness and desolation.”

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Doing the Charleston: Arthur Murray, pictured with Ann Pennington in 1938, taught the world to dance.Credit...Associated Press

As a tall, gangly boy from the Bronx, he discovered in high school that he had a flair for dancing and threw himself into the ballroom dance craze of the early 20th century.

He worked in an architecture firm by day and taught lessons by night. He eventually turned the lessons into a lucrative mail order magazine business and dance studio franchises around the world.

Mr. Murray’s unique method was influenced by his time in design — clearly drawn diagrams of footprints instructed students how and where to move their feet.

He also took advantage of regular radio programming, and he had a weekly variety TV program, “The Arthur Murray Party.” That way, anyone could dance with Mr. Murray, anywhere.

For Mr. Murray, who died in 1991, a bad dancer never blames his partner.

“To find fault with your partner’s dancing,” he once said, “is the best way of advertising the fact that you are just learning to dance.”

Remy Tumin contributed reporting.

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