North Korea, Brexit, Bataclan: Your Tuesday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/briefing/north-korea-brexit-bataclan.html

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Good morning.

The Trump-Kim summit meeting, a Brexit endgame and a French uproar. Here’s the latest:

• President Trump and Kim Jong-un met in Singapore this morning, opening a new chapter between the United States and North Korea.

Our team of reporters is following every angle in real time. Follow our live briefing for the latest.

Mr. Trump has been telegraphing confidence, but he has never faced an adversary like Mr. Kim. American and North Korean diplomats went to the wire to set the stage for their meeting. Here’s a breakdown of the basics.

And one thing to keep in mind: The vast scope of North Korea’s nuclear program means that ending it would be the most challenging disarmament in history. The two sides may not even have the same definition of denuclearization.

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• An endgame of sorts is looming in the debate over Brexit as British lawmakers prepare for a series of votes this week. A few of them could conceivably topple the government of Prime Minister Theresa May, our London correspondent writes.

Foremost on the agenda: whether to give Parliament more control over the process of withdrawing from the European Union. And then there are the questions about links between the Russian government and a businessman who financed one of the pro-Brexit campaigns.

Overshadowing all else, though, is the unsettled Irish border problem.

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• A French Muslim rapper’s plans to perform at the Bataclan music venue in Paris, the site of a deadly terrorist attack in 2015, has prompted an uproar.

An online petition to cancel the concerts has gained over 15,000 signatures, claiming that lyrics by the rapper, Médine, above, and a shirt he wore emblazoned with the word “jihad” should prevent him from performing there, despite his repeated criticism of Islamic fundamentalism.

The campaign has galvanized the country’s far right, while bringing attention to the larger debate over secularism in France.

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• Italy’s new populist government turned away a rescue boat carrying more than 600 migrants and said it would do the same to others, following through on campaign promises to crack down on immigration. That set off a diplomatic confrontation (Spain finally said it would accept the ship).

Rescued migrants have long been brought to Italy, where more than 13,000 have arrived by sea so far this year. But the move appears to signal that the country’s shores will no longer be so welcoming.

“Rescuing lives is a duty, transforming Italy into an enormous refugee camp is not,” said Matteo Salvini, the interior minister.

• The German authorities ordered Daimler to recall more than 700,000 diesel vehicles and said a Volkswagen manager was a suspect in an inquiry into emissions cheating.

• A solar highway: Western countries have been looking into putting solar panels on roads for years. The Chinese have done it, installing panels on a downhill section of a mountain road.

• Amazon’s new TV and movie division chief is reshaping the company’s strategy for attracting entertainment consumers. Step one: Lure new talent.

• Lasik eye surgery to improve vision is widely perceived to be a foolproof procedure. But a growing body of evidence suggests otherwise.

• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

• The United States Treasury imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia, escalating its response to the country’s cyberwarfare as worries grow over the Kremlin’s potential to meddle in America’s midterm elections. [The New York Times]

• The American attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said that fear of domestic violence was not legal grounds for asylum, in an immigration case that could have broad ramifications. [The New York Times]

• Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a Chilean bishop who has been accused of abetting sexual abuse and protecting a notorious pedophile priest. [The New York Times]

• Advice to World Cup fans: Savor this one, because it may be the last with a format — groups of four teams — that has provided a fair and exciting opening phase. [The New York Times]

• The German police detained a Turkish man suspected of killing a teenage girl, a crime seized upon by the country’s far right. [Deutsche Welle]

• The U.N. Security Council voted to authorize the E.U.’s maritime force to stop vessels off Libya suspected of smuggling weapons. [Associated Press]

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

• Here are five summer ski vacations in the southern hemisphere.

• Simple tips for increasing your self-control.

• Recipe of the day: Paired with a bright salad, chicken Milanese is cooling and rich.

• World Cup: The vast sprawl of suburbs and satellite towns around Paris, disdained by some as a breeding ground for crime and terrorism, is home to the greatest pool of soccer talent in Europe. Above, a team in the Parisian suburb of Bondy in May.

• Thirty billion gallons of lava. That’s roughly what has poured over Hawaii’s biggest island since the Kilauea volcano erupted on May 3. Here’s what the lava looks like from space and up close.

• In memoriam: Eunice Gayson, 90, the British stage and film actress who earned a place in cinema history as the first Bond girl.

Real friends visit you at home sometimes.

North Korean state media reported this month that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria could be the first head of state to visit Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.

The two pariah states have a long history, as do the Assad and Kim families.

During the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, North Korea sent pilots to back Syrian forces. The North helped build a museum about that war in Damascus that includes a portrait of the two countries’ leaders clasping hands: Kim Il-sung and Hafez al-Assad, grandfather and father to the current leaders.

A mural of Hafez al-Assad surrounded by adoring crowds is copied from one of Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang.

North Korea helped Syria build a nuclear reactor — a replica of its own — which Israel destroyed in 2007.

This year, the United Nations said North Korea had sent Syria materials that could be used to create chemical weapons. There is speculation that North Korean soldiers are backing government forces in Syria’s long civil war.

In 2015, the Syrian government opened a park in Damascus dedicated to Kim Il-sung, with an adjacent street named after him as well. This “show of friendship” was derided by rights activists. “Repression doesn’t grow flowers,” one wrote.

Jennifer Jett wrote today’s Back Story.

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