F.B.I., Stormy Daniels, Rex Tillerson: Your Thursday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/briefing/fbi-stormy-daniels-rex-tillerson.html

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Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

• It was known as Crossfire Hurricane, a code name for what, a year ago today, became the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling: In the summer of 2016, two agents interviewed the Australian ambassador to Britain, who had evidence that one of Donald Trump’s advisers knew about interference from Moscow.

We traced the origins of the F.B.I. inquiry (and explain how they come up with these code names). If you haven’t been following the twists in the Russia investigation, here’s a quick catch-up.

• On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee released thousands of pages of documents about the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 at which the campaign was expecting incriminating information about Hillary Clinton. The documents produced few revelations, but here are five things they do tell us.

• President Trump’s latest financial disclosure includes for the first time a repayment of more than $100,000 to his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in 2017.

Mr. Cohen has said he paid $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to the pornographic film actress known as Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Mr. Trump. The president, who denies any such relationship with the actress, initially said he was unaware of the payment, but acknowledged its existence in a series of Twitter posts this month.

• Critics of Mr. Trump seized on the transfer as proof that the president should have included it in last year’s financial statement.

• North Korea has threatened to cancel the summit meeting next month between its leader, Kim Jong-un, and President Trump.

But Mr. Trump brushed aside the threat on Wednesday, telling reporters, “We’ll have to see” and adding that he still planned to demand that Pyongyang surrender its nuclear program.

• We looked at why Libya’s denuclearization 15 years ago is playing a key role in North Korea’s hesitations.

• Michigan State University has agreed to pay the largest known settlement in a sexual abuse case involving an American university to the hundreds of young women who were abused by Lawrence Nassar, a university physician.

Many women said the university had enabled Dr. Nassar’s abuse and ignored complaints. Top leaders at Michigan State, including the president, have left their jobs over the matter.

• “I think the number being so large sends a message that is undeniable, that something really terrible happened here,” said a lawyer for many of the 332 women who sued the university.

• The prestigious film festival is underway for the first time since the revelations of widespread sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein.

A new attitude toward gender equality and the abuse of power has been conspicuous at the festival, but inequalities are still on display: Of the 21 films vying for the Palme d’Or this year, for example, only three are directed by women.

• We also spoke with the Danish director Lars von Trier, who has a new movie — and a new scandal — at the festival.

• A judge effectively called a cease-fire between CBS and the Redstone family, which controls the network.

No matter who wins the fight over the proposed merger of CBS and Viacom, the media landscape will be transformed, our columnist says.

• Google collects far more information about us than Facebook does. But the personal data that our tech columnist downloaded from Google contained fewer surprises, and it was easier to delete.

• Our correspondent who covers autos and economics from Germany discussed the impact of technology on the vehicle industry and the prospect of, yes, flying cars.

• U.S. stocks were up on Wednesday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets today.

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

• How to shop for a quality bunk bed.

• Protect yourself from mosquitoes and ticks.

• Recipe of the day: Frying can be messy, so make baked fish and chips instead.

• The value of a doctor-patient relationship

In its push for profit, the U.S. health care system has made it difficult for patients to get personal attention from doctors. But what if hands-on medicine saves money — and lives?

Make time for this piece from The Times Magazine’s special Health Issue.

• “Liberté, égalité, Camembert!”

More than 40 chefs, winemakers, and cheese ripeners have called on President Emmanuel Macron of France to roll back new rules that would allow Camembert produced in factories from pasteurized milk to be labeled the same way as cheese that is handmade from raw milk.

• Why am I crying all the time?

Soldier homecoming videos, GoFundMe campaigns, “This Is Us” tweets — the internet wants not just your eyeballs but also your tears.

Here’s more from this week’s Styles section.

• Published for the first time

Zora Neale Hurston’s “Barracoon” makes its first appearance on our hardcover nonfiction best-seller list. In 1927, Ms. Hurston, the writer of “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” visited a man who was enslaved 50 years after the slave trade ended. She recounts his story in this previously unpublished work.

Find all of our best-seller lists here.

• Best of late-night TV

The comedy hosts were delighted by the simplicity of the “yanny” versus “laurel” debate. “Nothing has ever mattered less than this,” Jimmy Kimmel said. “It’s right at the bottom of the things.”

(Nevertheless, we created a tool that lets you hear both words.)

• Quotation of the day

“When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth even on what may seem the most trivial matters, we go wobbly on America.”

— Rex Tillerson, former secretary of state, in a speech at the Virginia Military Institute. His warning of a “growing crisis in ethics and integrity” was seen as a rebuke of President Trump.

• The Times, in other words

Here’s an image of today’s front page, and links to our Opinion content and crossword puzzles.

• What we’re reading

Jonathan Martin, a national political correspondent, recommends this BuzzFeed piece: “A riveting reconstruction of last year’s shooting at a congressional baseball practice, which was very nearly a ‘deadly, mass political assassination.’ Detailed and haunting, it will remind readers of an awful day that, if not for a group of brave people, could have been worse. But it also underscores how our hyper-charged news cycle has already pushed even this mass shooting to the edges of memory.”

This week in 1998, two lines of show-business history crossed in a sad way.

At 9 p.m. on May 14 that year, more than 76 million Americans settled down to watch the finale of “Seinfeld,” the NBC sitcom that was ending after a nine-season run.

Among them was Frank Sinatra’s daughter Nancy, who lived just five blocks away from her father. She later said that she’d planned on visiting her father that day, but had gotten engrossed in the farewell to Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer.

Sadly, about 14 minutes into the show, a 911 call was placed from Mr. Sinatra’s home in Beverly Hills. The singer had suffered a heart attack.

The ambulance, which arrived just four minutes after the emergency call, raced through Los Angeles — the streets were deserted because most people were glued to the television. But Mr. Sinatra, 82, never recovered.

“My greatest sadness is that I wasn’t there when he died,” Ms. Sinatra would later reveal. (Our obituary, citing his agent, had said that the singer’s family had been by his bedside.)

Ms. Sinatra’s stepmother, Barbara, was at the hospital but, Nancy Sinatra said, nobody called her until after he died, causing a rift in the family.

“I know that in order to live a happy life you’re supposed to let go of your anger and move on, but I was five minutes down the road watching TV while my dad was dying,” she said. “That’s something I will never forget, let alone forgive.”

Robb Todd wrote today’s Back Story.

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