Trump-Putin Meeting, European Union, World Cup: Your Monday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/briefing/helsinki-summit-european-union-world-cup.html

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Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

• After holding their first summit meeting today in Helsinki, President Trump and President Vladimir Putin held out the prospect of a new era of cooperation between their two countries, throwing into doubt longstanding assumptions about the West’s political, military and trade alliances.

Mr. Trump refused to say at a news conference if he believed his own intelligence agencies or Mr. Putin on the question of Russian interference in the 2016 American election. Here’s the latest.

Mr. Putin reiterated his denial of Russian involvement, rejecting the findings of American intelligence services and prosecutors. On Friday, the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian intelligence agents on charges of trying to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Trump has denounced that investigation as a “rigged witch hunt.”

The talks capped a weeklong trip to Europe for Mr. Trump, who made a tumultuous appearance at a NATO summit meeting and criticized Prime Minister Theresa May during a visit to Britain, advising her to sue the European Union over the Brexit negotiations. On Sunday, he called the E.U. a trade “foe” of the U.S.

• By sitting down with Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin is already ahead, our reporters write in a news analysis: “Anything that stokes divisions inside the United States, or between America and its allies, is viewed by Moscow as a victory.”

• The indictment of the Russian officers on Friday offers never-before-seen detail about how the hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 disseminated documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee before the 2016 vote.

The group is believed to have been set up by the Russian military intelligence service, called the G.R.U.

• British investigators believe that the same Russian agency is responsible for the poisoning of a Russian former spy in Britain in March, current and former officials say.

• In January, Israeli spies infiltrated a warehouse in Tehran and seized roughly 50,000 pages of documents and other records related to Iran’s nuclear program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later cited the findings as a reason President Trump should abandon the 2015 nuclear deal, which he did days later.

Last week, a reporter from The Times was one of three who were shown key documents taken during the raid.

• They make one thing clear: “Despite Iranian insistence that its program was for peaceful purposes, the country had worked in the past to systematically assemble everything it needed to produce atomic weapons.” Read our report here.

• “Once in a while, we are united, we are one country, one people,” one Frenchwoman said.

Sunday was one of those times, as the French won their second World Cup title, beating Croatia, 4-2, in the final. Our soccer correspondent describes the breathless game in Moscow.

And our reporters in France captured how the moment played out there, including in the low-income suburbs of Paris that many of the players call home. “These are young men whose parents were from northern Africa,” one man said. “We feel more French with them.”

• And if you need firing up this morning, listen to all 169 “Goooooool” calls by the announcers of Telemundo, which we combined into one lung-bursting shout.

• Goldman Sachs is expected to name its president, David Solomon, as chief executive this week.

• Investors and banks are beginning to file foreclosure cases again in Puerto Rico, as several moratoriums end a year after Hurricane Maria.

• A paperback for $2,630.52? In some cases, booksellers on Amazon are charging thousands for books that normally sell for a few dollars. Authors are perplexed — and annoyed.

• Netflix is expected to report a growing subscriber base today, one of the headlines to watch this week.

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

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

• Amazon Prime Day begins today. Here’s how to get the best deals (expensive paperbacks notwithstanding).

• Does the prospect of retirement worry you? These are the financial planning moves to make in your late 50s or early 60s.

• Recipe of the day: A delightful summer ratatouille with farro and feta will ease the Monday blues.

• Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., unveiled designs for a monument to the nine victims and five survivors of a racially inspired mass shooting there in 2015.

• Paramilitary forces backed by Nicaragua’s government killed two people in the capital, Managua, during a 12-hour siege on a church where student protesters had sought refuge.

• President Trump has raised more than $88 million for his re-election campaign over the last 18 months.

• The executive committee of California’s Democratic Party endorsed Senator Dianne Feinstein’s opponent in last month’s primary, Kevin de León, whom she beat decisively.

• At Wimbledon, Angelique Kerber won her first singles title at the All England Club, defeating Serena Williams. On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic beat Kevin Anderson in straight sets to capture his fourth Wimbledon crown.

• The animated “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” earned $44.1 million and the top spot at the domestic box office.

• A new tack on the Taliban

In a significant shift in American policy in Afghanistan, the Trump administration has told its top diplomats to seek direct talks with the militant group, in the hopes of ending the 17-year war.

• In memoriam

Nancy Barbato Sinatra, Frank Sinatra’s first wife, remained a cherished friend and quiet confidante of the singer for nearly 50 years. She was 101.

William McBride was among the first doctors to sound an alarm about thalidomide, the sedative found to cause birth defects, but his later career was marred by accusations of falsified research results and other misconduct. He was 91.

• A new era for Sacha Baron Cohen

The comedian behind “Borat” and “Da Ali G Show” has a new series on Showtime. One of our TV critics assessed whether the prankster’s gotcha techniques still work at a time when people don’t need to be tricked to say embarrassing things. Read the Times review.

• Waiting on the White House

Who won the national arts and humanities medals for 2016? President Trump has yet to decide.

• Quotation of the day

“He has to handle it right or else his Helsinki love fest could just blow up.”

— Stephen Sestanovich, who served in the State Department under President Bill Clinton, warning of the fallout if President Trump was seen as too friendly to President Vladimir Putin.

• 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

Michael Roston, an editor on our Science desk, recommends Ian Webster’s interactive globe of Ancient Earth: “You can see where your home would fall on our changing planet over the course of 750 million years, and scroll through the ages, contemplating the span of geologic time.”

President Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia are meeting today in Finland, a country with its own complicated relationship to Russia.

Finland was taken over by the Russian Empire in 1809 after being part of Sweden for almost 700 years. It gained independence in 1917 (the country celebrated its 100th anniversary last December with a national coffee break and patriotic karaoke).

Peace with the newly established Soviet Union did not last, and the countries fought two conflicts in World War II. The first was a Soviet invasion called the Winter War, which was fought in temperatures as low as minus 40. (That conflict inspired The Times to write about the Finnish cultural trait of sisu, calling it a “special kind of strong will.”)

Finland battled the Soviet Union again from 1941 to 1944.

As a neutral party in the Cold War, Finland hosted numerous meetings between U.S. and Soviet leaders. But it was careful not to risk its sovereignty by antagonizing its powerful neighbor, a policy Western scholars called “Finlandization.”

Today, Finland and Russia are major trade partners and share a 24/7 military hotline. But Finland still has mandatory military service for men, partly to defend its 833-mile border with Russia. Last year, it increased the size of its military, citing Russian aggression.

Jennifer Jett wrote today’s Back Story.

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