Vicente Zambada Niebla was groomed from an early age to take control of the Sinaloa drug cartel. But his lawyers said that he secretly worked for years as a spy for the Drug Enforcement Administration, providing information about his rivals in exchange for running his business freely.

On Thursday, he described in detail to a New York courtroom the workings of the drug-trafficking empire of his father’s former partner, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo.

Here’s what else is happening

Travel advisory for China: The State Department warned U.S. citizens on Thursday that they could face arbitrary detention if they travel to China. The advisory comes after the recent arrest of a Chinese executive in Canada at the request of the U.S.

Subway reprieve: Plans for a 15-month shutdown of the L train tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn were abruptly halted on Thursday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The new project would keep full train service during weekdays and close just one of the tunnel’s two tubes on nights and weekends.

Hotel hacking: Marriott International said this morning that the number of people affected by a recent security breach was 383 million, not 500 million as previously thought. But for the first time it conceded that its Starwood hotel unit didn’t encrypt the passport numbers of roughly five million guests.