Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Europe Edition

World War I, California, Gaza Strip: Your Monday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning. Europe marks a century since World War I, wildfires engulf California and a start-up sends satellites into space.

Here’s the latest:

Image
Credit...Tom Brenner for The New York Times

• A rebuke of nationalism on Armistice Day.

Dozens of leaders from around the world gathered in Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the armistice ending World War I. But a ceremony meant to celebrate the ties that bind the world today instead showcased the divisions that are pulling it apart. Above, President Trump at Suresnes American Cemetery in France.

President Emmanuel Macron of France, whose relationship with Mr. Trump has soured, used the occasion to denounce the resurgence of nationalism, which has been embraced by Mr. Trump and other European leaders, but also contributed to igniting the Great War.

With memories of the world wars — which many believe helped unite Europe — fading and being replaced by those of financial crises, an influx of migrants and a sense that the promise of a united Europe is not delivering, many see the old demons of chauvinism and ethnic division again spreading across the Continent.

Here’s how world leaders commemorated the centenary.

_____

Image
Credit...Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• Top Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed hiring companies last year to kill Iranian enemies of the kingdom, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Their discussions, more than a year before the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, indicate that top Saudi officials have considered assassinations since the beginning of Prince Mohammed’s ascent. Mr. Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said audio recordings of Mr. Khashoggi’s killing had been given to the United States and other Western countries. His disclosure intensifies the pressure on President Trump, who has refused to assign blame for the crime, to take stronger punitive measures against his allies in Saudi Arabia. Above, a person wearing a mask of the dead journalist.

_____

Image
Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times

• California is burning.

At least 29 people have died as the Camp Fire engulfs large swaths in the north, matching the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history. Above, burned cars in Paradise, Calif.

In Southern California, two more died in fires near Los Angeles that forced evacuations in Malibu and Thousand Oaks, a city that was still reeling from a mass shooting last week. International readers said they didn’t understand why Americans let gun violence persist.

Once a seasonal worry, fires have recently become a near-constant terror in California.

President Trump blamed “gross mismanagement of the forests” for the infernos, drawing outrage from local leaders.

Thousands of firefighters are working to contain the blazes, but their efforts are being complicated by a forecast of strong winds.

_____

Image
Credit...Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

“This territory is not yours.”

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president-elect, wants to do away with indigenous territories in the Amazon rain forest, which are protected by law. But descendants of the original inhabitants of the Amazon were growing more vulnerable long before Mr. Bolsonaro’s victory.

Bands of miners, loggers and farmers have been clearing the forest at a rate environmentalists call unsustainable, radically reshaping the land and harming indigenous communities. The Times traveled hundreds of miles into the Brazilian Amazon, staying with a tribe in the Munduruku Indigenous Territory, above, as it struggled with the shrinking rain forest and confronted illegal gold miners.

“We don’t depend on gold, but rather the fruits and animals you are driving away,” one tribe member said to a mining camp leader.

Video
Video player loading
A rural resident in China is 30 percent more likely to die after a cancer diagnosis than an urban resident. Three rural families trying to beat these odds — “cancer refugees” — share their stories of battling the disease far from home and the financial ruin it causes.

Treatment for conditions like cancer remains inaccessible for much of China’s population despite the country’s socialized health care system, so “cancer refugees” like the one above are hunting around the world and on the internet for ways to stay alive.

Facebook said it would drop forced arbitration in sexual harassment cases, a day after Google announced similar plans amid pressure from its employees.

Groups around the world highlighted the gender pay gap by noting the day of the year when women would start working without pay, relative to men’s annual earnings.

Coming this week: The U.S. International Trade Commission will submit a report to President Trump on the economic impact of the new Nafta deal, and a painting by the English artist David Hockney is estimated to fetch $80 million at auction.

Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

Image
Credit...Pierre Terdjman for The New York Times

France’s rural mayors are resigning in droves, saying they feel abandoned by President Emmanuel Macron’s overhauls. Above, Louis Gentilhomme, the former mayor of Saint-Seine-Sur-Vingeanne. [The New York Times]

In the Gaza Strip, a covert Israeli operation gone wrong left at least seven Palestinians and one Israeli dead, in addition to breaking a nascent cease-fire. [The New York Times]

A recently retired Austrian colonel is being investigated on suspicion of spying for Russia since the 1990s. [BBC]

In Britain, the resignation of another minister demonstrates how hard it will be for Prime Minister Theresa May to reach a deal with the E.U. on Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc. [The New York Times]

Virginia Raggi, the mayor of Rome, has been acquitted of charges of lying about a city hall appointment, a case that threatened the credibility of her anti-establishment party, the Five Star Movement. [The New York Times]

Top Polish officials marched with far-right activists in a celebration of the nation’s 100th anniversary of regaining independence. [The New York Times]

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

Image
Credit...James Clapham

Relax. Being patient is as easy as realizing everything will be O.K.

Recipe of the day: Start the week with savory-sweet pasta aglio olio with butternut squash.

Embrace your funk. There’s an upside to feeling down.

Image
Credit...Tara Walton for The New York Times

Jyoti and Kiran Matharoo, above, sometimes called the Canadian Kardashians, rose to Instagram fame by flaunting Hermès bags, private jets and fancy cars, all courtesy of the billionaire boyfriends they cycled through. But that lifestyle took a dark turn after the sisters ended up in a jail in Nigeria and on Interpol’s red-notice list.

Life’s a beach: Shoyna, a Russian fishing village on the frigid shores of the White Sea, is slowly vanishing under sand dunes that engulf entire houses, while extreme surfers are flocking to Nazaré, Portugal, to ride 10-story waves.

In its first commercial launch, a U.S.-New Zealand start-up called Rocket Lab sent a batch of tiny satellites into space on Sunday, a harbinger of a major transformation in the space business.

Image
Credit...Vincent Yu/Associated Press

Today, representatives of major Pacific nations will gather in Papua New Guinea for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting.

To prepare, the tiny nation has not only imported a fleet of gleaming Maseratis, but also unveiled a six-lane boulevard near the Parliament House built via Chinese loans.

It is just one of China’s many efforts to compete for global influence.

Some are white elephants, like the little-used $1 billion Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka.

Then there’s the world’s longest sea bridge, pictured above — 34 miles linking Hong Kong with Macau and the mainland city of Zhuhai.

Perhaps China’s best-known construction oddities are within China: ghost cities — see the desert city of Ordos — and empty airports. The Changhai Airport at one point serviced one route.

“Call in two to three days to check if there’s a flight,” an airport official told Reuters in 2015. “The plane’s under maintenance.”

Amy Qin wrote today’s Back Story.

_____

Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online.

Check out this page to find a Morning Briefing for your region. (In addition to our European edition, we have Australian, Asian and U.S. editions.)

Sign up here to receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights, and here’s our full range of free newsletters.

What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes.com.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT