Migration, France, World Cup: Your Friday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/briefing/migration-france-world-cup.html

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Good morning.

European leaders compromise on migration, France arrests far-right vigilantes and Britain’s intelligence agents face scrutiny.

Here’s the latest:

• European leaders said they had reached a compromise migration deal after all-night talks, agreeing — in principle, at least — on how to buttress their borders and create screening centers to streamline vetting for migrants. The agreement could solve a political crisis that threatens to undermine the bloc and the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, above.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” she said.

Meanwhile, another headache for the bloc looms: A meeting between President Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia is set for July 16 in Helsinki, Finland. (The timing is politically delicate, coming amid the special counsel’s investigation of possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. It emerged that a former aide to a top Trump adviser, Roger Stone, has been subpoenaed.)

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• The French authorities charged 10 people with terrorist conspiracy — but this time they were members of a right-wing vigilante group from all over France that prosecutors say had planned to kill Muslims. Its targets included veiled women, imams, halal grocery stores and mosques.

Led by a former police officer, the group, known as the Operational Forces Action, claimed it was “fighting the Islamic peril.” (A website that says it is associated with the group also mentioned Jews as “targets if the War of France breaks out.”) Above, a police car outside the home of the organization’s alleged leader.

Separately, the French cement giant Lafarge SA is under formal investigation over allegations that it financed terrorist groups, including the Islamic State, in Syria and violated an E.U. embargo on oil purchases.

A French anticorruption organization called the decision to hold a multinational company responsible for possible criminal activity by one of its foreign operations “a major breakthrough.”

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• “Inexcusable.”

In Britain, an investigation by a parliamentary committee found that the country’s intelligence services tolerated and abetted abuse of terrorism suspects by American intelligence agencies in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Above, the London headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6.

The release of the report exposed a rift between Prime Minister Theresa May and the committee, which said she had obstructed its inquiry. Mrs. May accepted the findings but sought to frame the intelligence services’ actions as a result of bad preparation, rather than of malice.

Meanwhile, the police in London said they had failed to identify a mysterious jogger who pushed a woman into the path of a bus last year and are closing their investigation.

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• A political battle is brewing in Washington.

The departure of Justice Anthony Kennedy from the Supreme Court could imperil Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established the constitutional right to have an abortion. Americans are largely split on the news of Justice Kennedy’s retirement. Above, demonstrators in front of the court in January.

Liberal activists could face a steep uphill battle to prevent President Trump from nominating a conservative justice. He and Republican leaders have vowed to act quickly to fill the seat.

Separately, five people were killed and others injured in a shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper office in Maryland. A suspect was in custody; he had a long history of conflict with the newspaper.

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• Apple and Samsung settled a closely watched, seven-year legal battle over smartphone patents. “And if I had to characterize it,” one observer said, “it didn’t really accomplish anything.” Above, a Samsung advertisement in Seoul, South Korea.

• The U.S. Federal Reserve gave clean bills of health to top American banks, but told Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to freeze shareholder payouts at last year’s levels.

• Snapped up: Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. It’s now valued at 100 times that price.

• Amazon said it would buy PillPack, an online pharmacy, sending anxiety through the U.S. drug business. Shares of Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS Health dropped.

• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

• World Cup: Belgium beat England and will advance to what some consider the tougher side of the knockout-round bracket, which includes Argentina, Brazil, France, Mexico, Portugal and Uruguay. We’ll have live coverage of all the weekend games.

Above, fans in Belgium watching the match. [The New York Times]

• The U.S. secretary of defense, James Mattis, visited Asia to shore up alliances and reaffirm Washington’s commitment to thwarting North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. [The New York Times]

• House Republicans in Washington accused Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein of obfuscation in the Russia inquiry. [The New York Times]

• The British Museum accepted a donation of hundreds of rare Chinese ivory carvings despite a growing backlash and a coming ban. [The New York Times]

• In Greece, opponents of a deal on Macedonia’s changing its name in exchange for Greece’s dropping objections to Macedonia’s joining NATO have filed a lawsuit to declare the agreement unconstitutional. [Associated Press]

• Malta said it would no longer allow humanitarian migrant rescue boats to enter its ports after letting a stranded ship with migrants onboard dock on Wednesday. [Reuters]

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

• How to plan the perfect trip with your significant other.

• How airline stopover programs can work for you.

• Recipe of the day: Want to tackle a project this weekend? A strawberry Pavlova is a worthy and delicious challenge.

• “A Very English Scandal,” which features Hugh Grant, above, as a closeted British politician who conspires to murder his former lover, “puts ‘The Crown’ to shame” in pace and potency, our critic writes. It debuts on Amazon today.

• They said #MeToo and shared their stories. But as the movement grew, what became of those who stepped forward? Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow and 18 others reveal what happened afterward.

• Mao 101: This dispatch from Beijing goes inside a Chinese classroom that is training future Communist leaders. “We’ve learned democracy just can’t last long here,” one student said.

The rest of the world calls him Pelé, but Edson Arantes do Nascimento’s family calls him Dico. The soccer legend, above center, helped Brazil win its first World Cup on this day in 1958.

He once explained that his nickname was probably born when a classmate teased him after he mispronounced the name of a goalie who played with his father: Bilé.

His name became one of the most well known on the planet after his stellar World Cup play: He helped Brazil capture three titles.

“There are parts of the world,” Pelé said about his fame, “where Jesus Christ is not so well known.”

Still, he hasn’t always cared for the moniker.

“Pelé? Who is Pelé?” he wrote in The Players’ Tribune in 2016. “Your name is Edson, and your parents named you after Thomas Edison, the American inventor.” They did so because electricity was brought to their town just before he was born, according to his autobiography.

He also described the anger he felt toward the classmate who coined the name, which he said sounds like baby talk in Portuguese:

“First I glared at him, then I hit him.” Then he was suspended from school — but “Pelé” stuck.

“Over the years,” he said, “I’ve learnt to live with two persons in my heart.”

Robb Todd wrote today’s Back Story.

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