Brexit, NATO, Serena Williams: Your Friday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/briefing/brexit-nato-serena-williams.html

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Good morning. President Trump criticizes Theresa May, an inside look at the Thai cave rescue and Serena Williams heads for another Grand Slam.

Here’s the latest:

• In a startling break with diplomatic tradition, President Trump publicly criticized Prime Minister Theresa May for her handling of Brexit, just hours after arriving in Britain.

“I would have done it much differently,” Mr. Trump told The Sun in an interview. “I actually told Theresa May how to do it, but she didn’t listen to me.” Instead she went “the opposite way,” he said, and the results have been “very unfortunate.”

Mr. Trump also suggested that Boris Johnson, a Brexit hard-liner who resigned from Mrs. May’s government this week, would make “a great prime minister.”

The article was published as Mr. Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, left Blenheim Palace, above, where Mrs. May hosted them for a black-tie dinner. The couple was also met with a chorus of protesters, more of whom are expected to appear today in droves in London.

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• President Trump left NATO allies rattled after a blustering performance in Brussels, unilaterally declaring victory.

In his final hours at the two-day summit meeting, Mr. Trump demanded an emergency meeting to address his grievances and then called a news conference to claim “total credit” for having pressed NATO members into increasing their military budgets “like they never have before.”

European leaders quickly refuted the assertion.

Mr. Trump affirmed his commitment to the alliance, however, despite his previous skepticism and criticism.

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• Plastic cocoons and floating stretchers. Long stretches underwater in bone-chilling temperatures. A little luck, and a lot of bravery.

These were some of the key details in the improbable, daring rescue from a Thai cave, above, of 12 young soccer players and their coach. We break down how the divers pulled it off with a step-by-step graphic and newly released video.

“The whole world was watching, so we had to succeed,” said Kaew, a Thai Navy SEAL member who assisted in the rescue. “I don’t think we had any other choice.”

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• “This is not inevitable for me.”

Serena Williams, above, could have thrown in the towel when she found out she was pregnant at 35. Instead, she’s heading to the Wimbledon final, where she’ll face No. 11 Angelique Kerber in a rematch of the 2016 final. Williams will be up for her 24th Grand Slam title.

After Saturday’s match, viewers will turn their attention back to the World Cup, which brought fans together across France, Belgium, England and Croatia over the course of the semifinals.

And not to get too ahead of ourselves, but Qatar is already planting grass and trees in the desert as it preps for the 2022 World Cup.

• Comcast’s bid to acquire the bulk of 21st Century Fox appears over. Instead, the cable giant seems focused on fighting Fox for control of Sky, one of Europe’s most highly prized media companies.

• The U.S. Justice Department said it would appeal a federal judge’s approval of AT&T’s merger with Time Warner, extending the government’s legal challenge of the huge deal.

• Talk of Brexit and trade wars is dampening investors’ enthusiasm. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

• Scars of ISIS: One of our Middle East correspondents traveled with a photographer to Raqqa, above, the Syrian city that was liberated from the Islamic State last year, to see how residents are trying to recover. [The New York Times]

• Ireland is on its way to becoming the first country to pledge formally to divest from fossil fuels after a bill was passed in Parliament. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is expected to sign the legislation. [The New York Times]

• A German court ruled that the former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont could be returned to Spain for trial, but on a fraud accusation rather than on rebellion charges. The charges arose from Catalonia’s botched declaration of independence last year. [The New York Times]

• North Korean officials did not show up for talks on returning the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War. American officials have suggested trying again on Sunday. [The New York Times]

• The parents of a teenager killed by a train have the right to access her Facebook account under inheritance law, Germany’s highest court ruled. [BBC]

• For the first time, scientists have the beginning of an answer to a vexing question: Where does the rain of high-energy particles from space known as cosmic rays come from? [The New York Times]

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

• Here are some of the best beaches worldwide.

• Nine toys that keep kids learning.

• Recipe of the day: Swing by the farmers’ market after work in preparation for pasta with eggplant and zucchini.

• Why is there a life-size replica of Harlem, above, in a Swedish forest, far from the streets of New York? Gregor Sailer traveled the world photographing so-called Potemkin villages, architectural landscapes that are clones, impostors or frauds.

• A 1755 tomato sauce recipe. A poundcake recipe dating to 1906. A Moorish eggplant dish from the 16th century. Spain’s National Library enlisted chefs to adapt traditional recipes like these for a series of videos that link its modern cuisine with the past.

• Sandra Oh, the star of BBC America’s “Killing Eve,” is the first woman of Asian descent to receive an Emmy nomination for best lead actress in a drama series. We spoke with Ms. Oh about her groundbreaking nomination and her feelings about a more diverse Hollywood.

Last week we mentioned an article about Wimbledon’s tradition of using “Mrs.” and “Miss” — but not the marital-status-neutral “Ms.” — to refer to female players. (The tennis tournament also uses courtesy titles only for women, not for men.) Above, Garbiñe Muguruza hugged Venus Williams after winning the 2017 women’s final at Wimbledon.

Some non-English-speaking countries have chosen to establish a single honorific for women, regardless of their age or marital status.

Just as Ms. became popular in the U.S. in the 1970s, there was a reckoning in Germany over honorifics, too. In 1972, West Germany’s interior minister banned legislators from using “Fräulein” (the German equivalent of “Miss”) in government documents. The term has largely become taboo among German speakers because of its derogatory connotations; as a diminutive, it implies that an unmarried woman isn’t a full adult.

More recently, the European Parliament issued guidelines in 2009 that frowned on the use of “Miss,” “Mrs.” and their equivalents in other languages in the body’s official documents, and that recommended using gender-neutral terms in place of words like sportsmen and statesmen. (“Political correctness gone mad,” one lawmaker said.)

In 2012, Prime Minister François Fillon of France ordered “mademoiselle” banished from government forms and registries after a public campaign highlighting that the term suggested female subjugation.

Matthew Sedacca wrote today’s Back Story.

For more gender-related news, we offer a weekly newsletter, Gender Letter. Sign up here or follow us on Instagram.

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