We’re covering President Trump’s challenges in Europe and the U.S., a general strike that threatens to paralyze France and a climate report on the hottest decade.
Squabbling and uncertainty cloud NATO’s focus
President Trump left NATO’s anniversary celebrations in London early and on the defensive after lashing out over a video that caught Canada’s prime minister and other world leaders apparently venting about him at a reception.
But the North Atlantic alliance faces more serious dilemmas than gossip and name calling, among them new technologies, new rivals, new weapons and a changing America, our correspondents write.
Mr. Trump’s withdrawal helped reinforce the fear that the alliance has lost focus, leaving NATO uncertain about whether its primary mission is defending against Russia, Iran, China or an array of new cyber and disinformation threats.
And then there’s Mr. Trump himself. “The single biggest challenge is absence of U.S. presidential leadership,” said Douglas Lute, the U.S. ambassador to NATO until 2017.
In Washington: Three scholars of the U.S. Constitution testified at impeachment hearings that Mr. Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine for political gain clearly met the historical definition of impeachable offenses.
But a scholar invited by Republicans offered a dissent, calling the Democrats’ case “slipshod.”
In Budapest and Kyiv: Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, traveled to meet with former Ukrainian prosecutors who have become key figures in the impeachment inquiry, according to people familiar with the effort.
A ‘wall’ is set to shut down France
A general strike by a broad range of workers threatens to paralyze the country for several days, calling into question Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron’s apparent triumph over the “Yellow Vest” movement.
The walkout, which has become known as “the Dec. 5 wall,” was called to protest Mr. Macron’s proposed overhaul of the French pension system, one of the world’s most complicated and generous, which is headed for a deficit of about $19 billion.
The strikers: The grass-roots Yellow Vest movement will join in, as will Mr. Macron’s opponents from both the right and the left. Teachers, students, hospital staff, police officers, garbage collectors, truck drivers and airline workers were also expected to participate.
Already last night, workers at the national railway were off the job, parts of the Paris subway system had come to a halt and buses were returning to their depots.
Pensions: The system of 42 different retirement plans that Mr. Macron wants to streamline has given France one of the world’s lowest old-age poverty rates. Average incomes of those over 65 are slightly higher than incomes under that age.
‘A decade of exceptional global heat’
The period of 2010-2019 will almost certainly be the warmest decade on record, driven by greenhouse gases from human activities, the World Meteorological Organization said in its annual report on global climate.
And the second half of the decade is proving to have been much warmer than the first.
“All the time we’re breaking records in temperatures,” said Petteri Taalas, the agency’s secretary general. “Things are getting worse.”
The report, released at the United Nations’ annual climate conference in Madrid, says seas are warming and rising faster, and glaciers are melting at a pace that many researchers didn’t expect for decades.
What to do: Cutting greenhouse gas emissions will require drastic measures, Dr. Taalas said. “The only solution is to get rid of fossil fuels in power production, industry and transportation,” he said.
For you: Our Climate Fwd: email newsletter offers weekly recommendations for a greener life.
If you have nine minutes, this is worth it
The end of the beginning for Google
For some time, Larry Page and Sergei Brin have left the often messy business of running Google to others. The co-founders ceded managerial tasks to deputies so they could focus on a variety of projects, including self-driving cars, robotics and life-extension technology.
Yesterday was the capstone of that pullback, as they officially stepped down from their executive roles. Their early work on the Google search engine 21 years ago helped corral an unruly cloud of information on the World Wide Web — and made them billionaires in the process.
Here’s what else is happening
Iran: The country is secretly moving missiles into Iraq, U.S. officials say. The buildup of a hidden arsenal of short-range missiles is the latest sign that the Trump administration’s efforts to deter Tehran by increasing the American military presence in the Middle East have largely failed.
Germany: Two Russian diplomats were expelled after the German authorities declared that they suspected Russia of being behind the daylight assassination in Berlin of a Chechen separatist. Moscow promised countermeasures.
Aramco: The Saudi oil giant is set to announce the price of its shares in its much-anticipated I.P.O. today, as a Saudi delegation faces what could be a difficult OPEC meeting in Vienna.
China: Scientists are raising questions about the ethics of the country’s efforts to study the DNA of ethnic minorities like the Uighurs after The Times published articles about a tool that could be used to intensify racial profiling.
Alsace: A cemetery that dates to the 16th century is the third Jewish cemetery in the French region to be desecrated with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti in the last year. It houses the graves of the families of Karl Marx and the French prime ministers Leon Blum and Michel Debré.
Snapshot: Above, the great auk, which is gone for good. New research finds that the extinction of this flightless bird was completely our fault.
In memoriam: Allan Gerson, a lawyer and the son of Jewish refugees from Poland, died at age 74 in Washington. He helped families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 hold Libya accountable, prosecuted Nazi war collaborators and represented victims of terrorism.
The sun: NASA released the first batch of findings and images from its Parker Solar Probe, which has made three dives toward the sun as it reached the fastest speed ever clocked by a human-built vehicle.
Jazz winner: The Russian guitarist Evgeny Pobozhiy, 30, took home first place in the newly named Herbie Hancock International Jazz Competition (formerly named after Thelonious Monk).
Miss Ukraine: Veronika Didusenko is suing the Miss World organization, accusing it of discrimination for forcing her to give up her crown after discovering that she was a divorced mother.
What we’re reading: The Daily Suffragist on Twitter. Our reporter Jennifer Schuessler says: “Love this account, which gives a concise daily snapshot from the history of the women’s suffrage movement.” And of notable women, too, like a 21-year-old who publicly dressed down Abraham Lincoln in 1864 for inadequately protecting former slaves.
Now, a break from the news
Cook: Thai-inspired chicken meatball soup is reviving and cozy.
Watch: The rise of streaming platforms has disrupted the cinematic medium, but our critics still found a lot to like at the movies. They named their top 10 films of the year.
Read: “The Rise of Magicks,” the third book in the Chronicles of the One series by Nora Roberts, debuts at No. 1 on our hardcover fiction and combined print and e-book fiction best-seller lists.
Smarter Living: Round? Square? An odd shape? Let us show you how to beautifully wrap any gift.
And now for the Back Story on …
Getting inside the U.S. opioid crisis
This week, The Times published a different kind of story about the U.S. opioid crisis, drawing from the pages of a high school yearbook to describe the human toll.
We asked Dan Levin, the National reporter who wrote the story, about the months he spent tracking down members of the Class of 2000 and conducting sometimes heartbreaking interviews.
“I was honored that people were willing to talk with me about these very intimate details of their lives, in incredibly nuanced ways,” Dan said.
“It’s almost something out of a Stephen King story,” he said. “You have this small town and a dark force that clandestinely creeps in. It’s not vampires, it’s not supernatural, but it’s just as horrific.”
For many of the former students, he said, “There was a feeling that, had they only been a few years older, they would have been spared. One had a brother, four or five years older. He’d grown up before opioids hit — he was lucky enough to escape.”
And he noticed a way the reporting has changed him: “Since working on this, when I see people who are struggling with drugs, on the street, I think to myself, there’s probably a yearbook with them smiling.”
That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.
— Victoria
Thank you To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Andrea Kannapell, the Briefings editor, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].
P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the impeachment investigation into President Trump. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Violinist’s stroke (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • Apple Podcasts included “The Daily” and “1619” on its list of favorite podcasts of 2019.
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Home » Analysis & Comment » Your Thursday Briefing
Your Thursday Briefing
Good morning.
We’re covering President Trump’s challenges in Europe and the U.S., a general strike that threatens to paralyze France and a climate report on the hottest decade.
Squabbling and uncertainty cloud NATO’s focus
President Trump left NATO’s anniversary celebrations in London early and on the defensive after lashing out over a video that caught Canada’s prime minister and other world leaders apparently venting about him at a reception.
But the North Atlantic alliance faces more serious dilemmas than gossip and name calling, among them new technologies, new rivals, new weapons and a changing America, our correspondents write.
Mr. Trump’s withdrawal helped reinforce the fear that the alliance has lost focus, leaving NATO uncertain about whether its primary mission is defending against Russia, Iran, China or an array of new cyber and disinformation threats.
And then there’s Mr. Trump himself. “The single biggest challenge is absence of U.S. presidential leadership,” said Douglas Lute, the U.S. ambassador to NATO until 2017.
In Washington: Three scholars of the U.S. Constitution testified at impeachment hearings that Mr. Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine for political gain clearly met the historical definition of impeachable offenses.
But a scholar invited by Republicans offered a dissent, calling the Democrats’ case “slipshod.”
In Budapest and Kyiv: Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, traveled to meet with former Ukrainian prosecutors who have become key figures in the impeachment inquiry, according to people familiar with the effort.
A ‘wall’ is set to shut down France
A general strike by a broad range of workers threatens to paralyze the country for several days, calling into question Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron’s apparent triumph over the “Yellow Vest” movement.
The walkout, which has become known as “the Dec. 5 wall,” was called to protest Mr. Macron’s proposed overhaul of the French pension system, one of the world’s most complicated and generous, which is headed for a deficit of about $19 billion.
The strikers: The grass-roots Yellow Vest movement will join in, as will Mr. Macron’s opponents from both the right and the left. Teachers, students, hospital staff, police officers, garbage collectors, truck drivers and airline workers were also expected to participate.
Already last night, workers at the national railway were off the job, parts of the Paris subway system had come to a halt and buses were returning to their depots.
Pensions: The system of 42 different retirement plans that Mr. Macron wants to streamline has given France one of the world’s lowest old-age poverty rates. Average incomes of those over 65 are slightly higher than incomes under that age.
‘A decade of exceptional global heat’
The period of 2010-2019 will almost certainly be the warmest decade on record, driven by greenhouse gases from human activities, the World Meteorological Organization said in its annual report on global climate.
And the second half of the decade is proving to have been much warmer than the first.
“All the time we’re breaking records in temperatures,” said Petteri Taalas, the agency’s secretary general. “Things are getting worse.”
The report, released at the United Nations’ annual climate conference in Madrid, says seas are warming and rising faster, and glaciers are melting at a pace that many researchers didn’t expect for decades.
What to do: Cutting greenhouse gas emissions will require drastic measures, Dr. Taalas said. “The only solution is to get rid of fossil fuels in power production, industry and transportation,” he said.
For you: Our Climate Fwd: email newsletter offers weekly recommendations for a greener life.
If you have nine minutes, this is worth it
The end of the beginning for Google
For some time, Larry Page and Sergei Brin have left the often messy business of running Google to others. The co-founders ceded managerial tasks to deputies so they could focus on a variety of projects, including self-driving cars, robotics and life-extension technology.
Yesterday was the capstone of that pullback, as they officially stepped down from their executive roles. Their early work on the Google search engine 21 years ago helped corral an unruly cloud of information on the World Wide Web — and made them billionaires in the process.
Here’s what else is happening
Iran: The country is secretly moving missiles into Iraq, U.S. officials say. The buildup of a hidden arsenal of short-range missiles is the latest sign that the Trump administration’s efforts to deter Tehran by increasing the American military presence in the Middle East have largely failed.
Germany: Two Russian diplomats were expelled after the German authorities declared that they suspected Russia of being behind the daylight assassination in Berlin of a Chechen separatist. Moscow promised countermeasures.
Aramco: The Saudi oil giant is set to announce the price of its shares in its much-anticipated I.P.O. today, as a Saudi delegation faces what could be a difficult OPEC meeting in Vienna.
China: Scientists are raising questions about the ethics of the country’s efforts to study the DNA of ethnic minorities like the Uighurs after The Times published articles about a tool that could be used to intensify racial profiling.
Alsace: A cemetery that dates to the 16th century is the third Jewish cemetery in the French region to be desecrated with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti in the last year. It houses the graves of the families of Karl Marx and the French prime ministers Leon Blum and Michel Debré.
Snapshot: Above, the great auk, which is gone for good. New research finds that the extinction of this flightless bird was completely our fault.
In memoriam: Allan Gerson, a lawyer and the son of Jewish refugees from Poland, died at age 74 in Washington. He helped families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 hold Libya accountable, prosecuted Nazi war collaborators and represented victims of terrorism.
The sun: NASA released the first batch of findings and images from its Parker Solar Probe, which has made three dives toward the sun as it reached the fastest speed ever clocked by a human-built vehicle.
Jazz winner: The Russian guitarist Evgeny Pobozhiy, 30, took home first place in the newly named Herbie Hancock International Jazz Competition (formerly named after Thelonious Monk).
Miss Ukraine: Veronika Didusenko is suing the Miss World organization, accusing it of discrimination for forcing her to give up her crown after discovering that she was a divorced mother.
What we’re reading: The Daily Suffragist on Twitter. Our reporter Jennifer Schuessler says: “Love this account, which gives a concise daily snapshot from the history of the women’s suffrage movement.” And of notable women, too, like a 21-year-old who publicly dressed down Abraham Lincoln in 1864 for inadequately protecting former slaves.
Now, a break from the news
Cook: Thai-inspired chicken meatball soup is reviving and cozy.
Watch: The rise of streaming platforms has disrupted the cinematic medium, but our critics still found a lot to like at the movies. They named their top 10 films of the year.
Read: “The Rise of Magicks,” the third book in the Chronicles of the One series by Nora Roberts, debuts at No. 1 on our hardcover fiction and combined print and e-book fiction best-seller lists.
Smarter Living: Round? Square? An odd shape? Let us show you how to beautifully wrap any gift.
And now for the Back Story on …
Getting inside the U.S. opioid crisis
This week, The Times published a different kind of story about the U.S. opioid crisis, drawing from the pages of a high school yearbook to describe the human toll.
We asked Dan Levin, the National reporter who wrote the story, about the months he spent tracking down members of the Class of 2000 and conducting sometimes heartbreaking interviews.
“I was honored that people were willing to talk with me about these very intimate details of their lives, in incredibly nuanced ways,” Dan said.
“It’s almost something out of a Stephen King story,” he said. “You have this small town and a dark force that clandestinely creeps in. It’s not vampires, it’s not supernatural, but it’s just as horrific.”
For many of the former students, he said, “There was a feeling that, had they only been a few years older, they would have been spared. One had a brother, four or five years older. He’d grown up before opioids hit — he was lucky enough to escape.”
And he noticed a way the reporting has changed him: “Since working on this, when I see people who are struggling with drugs, on the street, I think to myself, there’s probably a yearbook with them smiling.”
That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.
— Victoria
Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Andrea Kannapell, the Briefings editor, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].
P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the impeachment investigation into President Trump.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Violinist’s stroke (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Apple Podcasts included “The Daily” and “1619” on its list of favorite podcasts of 2019.
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