Robert Mugabe, Angela Merkel, Syria: Your Wednesday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/briefing/robert-mugabe-angela-merkel-syria.html

Version 0 of 1.

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

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Robert Mugabe — who once proclaimed that “Only God will remove me!” — resigned as president of Zimbabwe shortly after lawmakers started impeachment proceedings.

Jubilant residents poured into the streets at what seemed to be an abrupt capitulation from the world’s longest-serving head of state. Mr. Mugabe, 93, said he was stepping down for “the welfare of the people.”

A new leader could be sworn in as early as today, the state broadcaster said.

_____

• For the European Union, the only thing worse than a strong Germany may be a weak one.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s failure to form a coalition government has further delayed serious decisions the bloc faces on the eurozone, migration, asylum and defense, as well as Britain’s exit.

German support is especially important for President Emmanuel Macron of France, who has laid out a striking agenda of European reform. “Macron can’t do it on his own,” one analyst said.

For more on German politics, here are six of our favorite recent stories.

_____

• President Bashar al-Assad made a rare trip out of war-ravaged Syria, visiting Russia and thanking President Vladimir Putin for military intervention he credited with “saving” the country.

Both are taking part in a summit meeting today for the leaders of Iran, Turkey and Russia that is aimed at ending Syria’s six-year civil war.

Our reporter recently traveled to Damascus, the Syrian capital, where residents sometimes wonder why they’re still there. “We feel like strangers,” one woman said. “We are living in the same place but we have lost the people who lived here.”

_____

• Sexual harassment charges continue to roil Capitol Hill, Hollywood and the news media.

John Conyers Jr., above, a Democratic congressman from Michigan, confirmed that he had settled a wrongful termination complaint in 2015 from a staff member who accused him of sexual harassment. An ethics inquiry has been opened.

President Trump broke with leading Republicans by defending Roy Moore, a Senate candidate from Alabama who has been accused of sexual misconduct with teenagers. “He says it didn’t happen,” Mr. Trump said.

John Lasseter, a co-founder of Pixar, said he would step away from the company for six months after unspecified “missteps” that made some staffers feel “disrespected or uncomfortable.”

And news organizations cut ties with the longtime television journalist Charlie Rose, citing allegations by multiple women of “extremely disturbing and intolerable behavior.”

_____

• Britain’s treasured health care system was used as a rallying cry by anti-E.U. campaigners. But it suffers from chronic staffing shortages, and the country’s withdrawal from the European Union could make them worse.

Brexit is likely to make it harder to recruit nurses and other health care professionals from the Continent, and the legal status of E.U. citizens already living in Britain remains unclear. As a result, the number of Europeans leaving the system is rising, while the number joining it is falling.

_____

• Uber disclosed that it was the victim of a data breach last October that affected 57 million drivers and riders around the world. Its chief security officer has been fired for keeping the breach secret for more than a year.

• Philip Hammond, chancellor of the Exchequer, is expected to share an optimistic view of Britain’s future in his budget presentation today.

• The Greek government unveiled an ambitious draft budget for next year, in a sign of confidence as it looks to wean itself off international assistance.

• In the U.S., regulators plan to dismantle internet regulations that ensure equal access, allowing telecom giants to charge more and block access to some websites.

• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

• A crowded mosque in Nigeria was attacked by a suicide bomber. A police official said at least 50 people had been killed. [The New York Times]

• Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon has returned home. He did not answer questions about his mysterious two-week absence from Lebanon or whether he will make official the resignation he announced in Saudi Arabia. [The New York Times]

• A U.S. airstrike in Somalia killed more than 100 people identified by the Pentagon as Shabab militants. [The New York Times]

• Russia confirmed that it had detected a radiation spike in the Ural Mountains, close to a sprawling Soviet-era nuclear plant. But it rejected suggestions that it was the source of a radioactive cloud that had hovered over Europe recently. [The New York Times]

• Ratko Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb general, is expected to be found guilty of genocide today by a U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. [The Guardian]

• Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy, is contesting his ban on holding public office today at the European Court of Human Rights. [Reuters]

• A same-sex marriage case in Romania being heard by the European Court of Justice could have major implications across Europe. [The New York Times]

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

• Tips to shop smart and avoid bad bargains.

• Five lessons from a diplomat on bridging the parent-teacher divide.

• Recipe of the day: Tonight, offer the family a big batch of fish tacos.

• Experience a coal mine protester’s life in a treehouse in Germany in this 360-degree video.

• Dermatology has become increasingly lucrative as baby boomers hit old age. But some are questioning the necessity of aggressive skin cancer screening and treatment, especially in frail, older patients.

• In memoriam: Pat Hutchins, 75, the British children’s book writer and illustrator known for “Rosie’s Walk”; and David Cassidy, 67, star of the 1970s television sitcom “The Partridge Family.”

Last week, President Trump reversed the government’s decision to start allowing hunters to import trophies of elephants that were killed in two African countries.

More than a century ago, another president took the opposite approach.

Shortly after leaving office in 1909, Theodore Roosevelt led a safari to Africa, organized by the Smithsonian Institution and partly financed by Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist and philanthropist. The group gathered specimens for what is now the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

Then, as now, hunting was not without controversy.

When Roosevelt wrote to the Smithsonian in 1908, outlining his safari plans, he insisted he was “not in the least a game butcher” but rather “a faunal naturalist.”

The expedition lasted nearly a year — stretching from what is now Kenya to Sudan — and included Roosevelt’s son Kermit and several naturalists from the Smithsonian.

The group ultimately collected more than 11,000 specimens, many of them bugs, plants and small mammals. But about 500 were big game animals shot by Roosevelt or his son.

The former president later wrote about the trip in a book, “African Game Trails.” He was highly sensitive to charges of cruelty but noted “to protest against all hunting of game is a sign of softness of head, not of soundness of heart.”

Chris Stanford contributed reporting.

_____

Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online.

This briefing was prepared for the European morning. Browse past briefings here.

We also have briefings timed for the Australian, Asian and American mornings. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters here.

If photographs appear out of order, please download the updated New York Times app from iTunes or Google Play.

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