North Korea, Emmanuel Macron, Malta: Your Wednesday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/briefing/north-korea-emmanuel-macron-malta.html

Version 0 of 1.

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

Good morning.

High hopes on North Korea, a battle over values in Europe and an apology in Britain. Here’s the latest:

• The C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, above, met secretly with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, recently to lay the groundwork for a summit meeting between Mr. Kim and President Trump, according to two people briefed on the trip.

The revelation follows fresh evidence of a diplomatic thaw underway on the Korean Peninsula, showing that a once-unthinkable encounter between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim has become far more likely.

Meanwhile, in Syria, inspectors were seeking to enter Douma, a suburb of Damascus, where the U.S. and Western allies say President Bashar al-Assad’s forces dropped chemical weapons. Here’s a look at the group that sent the inspectors, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Syrian refugees in Turkey who are following the crackdown are reliving the trauma from a distance.

And the White House erupted into open conflict over new sanctions against Russia. After one of Mr. Trump’s advisers said Nikki Haley, the ambassador to the U.N., had gotten “ahead of the curve” in announcing the new penalties amid “momentary confusion,” Ms. Haley then fired back. The rift reinforced questions about Mr. Trump’s foreign policy — and who speaks for his administration.

_____

• “A European civil war.”

That was how President Emmanuel Macron of France, above, described divisions within the European Union, saying the bloc was locked in a battle between the liberal democracy that shaped its postwar vision and a new populist authoritarianism that stifles dissent and cares little about the rule of law.

Mr. Macron’s defense of the liberal order at the European Parliament came as he faces unrest over labor reforms at home, and amid growing challenges to the E.U. from nationalist leaders in Hungary, Poland and beyond.

But, our correspondent writes, the jury is out on whether his ambitious plans for the Continent will succeed at a time when Britain is preparing to leave the bloc and the United States is disengaging.

_____

• Seeking to defuse an embarrassing controversy, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, above, apologized to Caribbean immigrants who have lived in Britain legally for decades but faced mistreatment and deportation because they couldn’t document their status.

The government’s new vow to assist members of the so-called Windrush generation, who migrated legally before 1973, reversed a policy that critics say had helped fuel anti-immigrant sentiment since the Brexit referendum in 2016.

Separately, British environmental scientists are preparing a monthslong decontamination process in Salisbury, England, where a Russian former spy and his daughter were poisoned. The crime scenes have already become popular tourist stops.

_____

• Daphne Caruana Galizia was the most famous — and most controversial — journalist in Malta when she was killed by a car bomb in October. Above, a memorial.

Her murder shined a spotlight on Malta’s role as a haven for corruption and international money laundering.

Now, the search for her killers is posing a test for the E.U. as fears of a cover-up grow because of the powerful interests involved.

_____

• Who will get the first look at materials seized last week from President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen? No one, it seems.

A federal judge didn’t agree to let Mr. Trump’s team review the 10 boxes of documents and roughly a dozen electronic devices before prosecutors can. But she didn’t say prosecutors would get the first look either. Discussions will continue. Above, Mr. Cohen leaving court on Monday.

_____

• Tesla’s stock price tumbled on news that the electric carmaker would halt production of its Model 3 compact car for several days to “improve automation.” Tesla shares have dropped 20 percent since March 12.

• Cambridge Analytica, the embattled political data firm behind the Trump and Brexit campaigns, sought to develop its own virtual currency, a move that pushed it into murky ethical and legal waters.

• Starbucks said it would close more than 8,000 of its stores in the U.S. on May 29 to conduct racial-bias training for nearly 175,000 employees.

• Beijing sought to ease its trade dispute with Washington, offering to make it easier for foreign automakers and aerospace companies to own factories in China.

• It’s called micromerch. Not-quite celebrities and social media stars are churning out namesake products — T-shirts, coloring books, tissue boxes — made for a dedicated few.

• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

• Iraq is increasing prosecutions of thousands of people accused of supporting the Islamic State, handing death sentences to workers, wives and fighters. But rights groups say the process is more concerned with retribution than justice. Above, suspected Islamic State fighters detained in Qaraqosh, Iraq, in June. [The New York Times]

• In the U.S., the parents of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School sued Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist, for defamation, for calling the mass shooting a “giant hoax.” [The New York Times]

• Barbara Bush, the wife of the 41st U.S. president and the mother of the 43rd, has died at the age of 92. [The New York Times]

• “Wrong then and wrong now.” Prime Minister Theresa May said she deeply regretted Britain’s role in criminalizing same-sex relations in its former colonies. The laws are still used in 37 of the 53 nations once under British rule. [BBC]

• Scientists accidentally created a mutant enzyme that breaks down plastic drinks bottles, a breakthrough that could help rid the earth of plastic pollution. [The Guardian]

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

• Here’s how to survive the crowded, medieval-style Palio di Siena horse race in Siena, Italy.

• Reading aloud to children may help them deal with emotions.

• Recipe of the day: This lemon-ginger tart is a dessert you can easily bake on a weeknight.

• “Power to the People.” An exhibit in Frankfurt’s Schirn Kunsthalle explores protest in art at a moment of turbulence. “Its achievement is that it takes a step back and shows how art can reflect our political world,” our reporter writes.

• In memoriam: Karen Dawisha, 68, an American scholar who traced the roots of modern Russian corruption to Vladimir Putin’s circle of friends in the 1990s and found the blueprint for “kleptocracy” in the state they plotted out.

• And our team explains San Francisco’s giant seismic gamble. The city knows the Big One will come, but we found that its building code doesn’t protect against earthquakes as much as you might think.

Some days, you wish the news would just stop.

That was the case for the BBC on this day in 1930, when its 8:45 evening bulletin was surprisingly brief: “Good evening. Today is Good Friday. There is no news,” the radio announcer said. That update was followed by 15 minutes of piano music.

There was some major world news that day, including a typhoon in the Philippines and an attempted raid on an armory by Indian revolutionaries demanding independence from Britain, but it happened too late for the BBC.

And what made the front page of The Times on April 18? In addition to stories about Prohibition violations, there was one about gas masks for horses that were doing well in military testing.

The next day’s front page reported on a plane crash in Jersey City, a deadly church fire in Romania, the weather forecast for Easter Sunday and a study that found that only 700 words were needed for the vast majority of telephone conversations.

These days, it can seem as if the amount of news is limited only by the time you have available to consume it. But if you need a break, here’s some classical piano.

Jennifer Jett contributed reporting.

_____

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.)

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