Your Friday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/briefing/berlin-wall-iran-gay-byrne.html

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Good morning.

Before we get started, I want to say a quick thank you for following the European news cycle with me this year. Next week, I will move to the briefing focused on Asian news. I’ve loved your thoughtful questions, comments and corrections, and I greatly appreciate you inviting us into your inboxes. Now, back to the news.

We’re covering efforts to get European leaders to join a pressure campaign against Iran, German identity 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the legacy of Gay Byrne.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of the U.S. are both ramping up pressure on European allies to drop their commitments to the abandoned Iran nuclear deal of 2015.

Mr. Netanyahu said on Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency had confirmed his allegation that Iran had maintained a secret nuclear site, in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. And Mr. Pompeo, visiting Germany hours earlier, accused Iran of “nuclear extortion” by having accelerated its ability to develop a nuclear weapon in a shortened time frame.

Recap: Iran said this week that it had increased its supply of advanced centrifuges and had reactivated a much larger number of old centrifuges that had been idle, stepping up its ability to produce nuclear material to make a bomb.

Reality: Experts say that Iran has not yet come near the level of uranium enrichment needed for a weapon, but some Western analysts say that if it attempted a rush to develop a nuclear bomb, the country could accomplish it in less than a year.

The top U.S. diplomat in northern Syria criticized the Trump administration for not trying harder to avert Turkey’s military offensive there last month.

In an internal memo, the diplomat, William Roebuck, questioned whether diplomacy, economic sanctions or increased military patrols might have deterred Turkey from taking over a region once controlled by America’s Syrian Kurdish allies. “We won’t know,” he wrote, “because we didn’t try.”

His memo appears to be the first formal dissent on Syria from a Trump administration official to be made public. (Pentagon officials were alarmed by the sudden shift in Syria policy, but top officials kept their views private.)

How we know: The Times obtained a copy of the unclassified memo from someone who said it was important to make Mr. Roebuck’s assessment public.

Quotable: “One day when the diplomatic history is written,” Mr. Roebuck wrote, “people will wonder what happened here and why officials didn’t do more to stop it.”

On the ground: Our reporters traveled along the only major road that runs the length of northeastern Syria to make sense of the new power dynamic taking shape there. It wasn’t easy.

The Labour Party’s campaign was thrown into disarray only two days into the season, and just a day after the Conservative Party stumbled.

Two former Labour members of Parliament declared that they planned to vote for the Conservative Party because they said Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was unfit to be prime minister. One of the lawmakers, Ian Austin, accused Mr. Corbyn of allowing a culture of anti-Semitism (a claim he has denied).

Their rebellion coincided with a front-page article in an influential London-based Jewish newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle, which urged non-Jews to vote against Labour.

Quotable: “I can’t really believe it’s come to this, but I think I need to tell people that Jeremy Corbyn isn’t fit to lead the Labour Party,” Mr. Austin, who had been an adviser to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, said in an emotional interview broadcast on Sky News.

Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, our Berlin bureau chief looked at Germany’s changing identity and the tensions that left many feeling like strangers in their own land.

Although the reunification made the country into an economic powerhouse, it did little to heal deeply entrenched divisions. Ethnic hatred and violence are on the rise, and some have begun distinguishing between “passport Germans” and “bio-Germans,” depending on ancestry.

We asked German readers in mixed-race families about the struggle to belong, and 500 answered. They talked about subtle and overt racism, with one family considering moving out of the country.

Britain: The police identified the 39 people who were discovered in a refrigerated trailer near London last month, confirming that all the victims — eight women and 31 men — were from Vietnam.

U.S.-China trade deal: The two countries said that any initial trade deal would roll back a portion of tariffs placed on each other’s products — suggesting the two sides were getting closer to a “phase one” agreement.

Hong Kong: A student died on Friday after falling earlier this week from a parking garage near where police officers clashed with protesters, a development likely to escalate public fury after months of demonstrations.

Anonymous book: In a new book, the Trump administration official who wrote an anonymous Op-Ed for The Times last year claims that White House staff had once considered quitting en masse.

France: President Emmanuel Macron said that NATO was experiencing a “brain death” and wondered if it was still committed to collective defense. He said the U.S. under President Trump appeared to be “turning its back on us.”

Soccer player murder: A police officer has been charged with the murder of a former Premier League player who died in 2016 after being shot by a Taser during a confrontation outside his father’s home in western England.

Snapshot: Above, Gay Byrne, a revered Irish radio and television personality who broke codes of silence over sexuality and abuse. He is being remembered this week around the world. On a special edition of “The Late Late Show,” which Mr. Byrne hosted for 37 years, President Michael Higgins of Ireland, U2’s Bono and others paid tribute.

What we’re reading: This article on Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Vogue. Our Magazine writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner writes, “I loved Lauren Collins’s sharp, large-hearted profile of the creator of ‘Fleabag’ — even though it is hard for me to understand why two such glamorous women agreed to meet for any part of it at my least favorite sports bar in Midtown Manhattan (and that is saying something).”

Cook: Crème brûlée pie is an easy crowd-pleaser.

Watch: Here are seven films that reflect the influence of “The Shining,” whether in the form of narrative similarities or appreciative Easter eggs.

Listen: On “74,” the breathless ramble of an opening track from his immersive new album, “Feet of Clay,” Earl Sweatshirt digs deeper into his free-associative, muddy style.

Smarter living: Burnout? A time management coach has some simple strategies to use your time outside of work to feel refreshed and prevent burnout before it happens.

You may have already noticed signs of holiday spirit. Or at least merchandising.

Here in New York this week, your Back Story writer walks past (rather, goes out of her way to walk past) the Bryant Park Christmas market on her way to work. Vendors sell ornaments, dog-themed socks and calendars, and thick, soothing hot chocolate — even if the temperature hasn’t dropped all that far.

It’s not just New York. Christmas markets, an Austrian and German tradition dating to the 1200s, have expanded. They take in billions of dollars yearly in Germany. In Britain, the number tripled from 2007 to 2017. They’ve also popped up in Japan, Singapore and China, where Christmas is not a public holiday; and in the Middle East, as in Dubai.

They fit seamlessly into the era of experiential retail, where temporary experiences can be more profitable than brick-and-mortar stores.

And lest you dismiss the markets as mere holiday profiteering, keep this in mind: At a time of chains and mass production, the markets make room for small production and artisanal craft.

That’s it for this briefing; it’s been a pleasure. You’ll be in good hands next week.

— Melina

Thank youTo Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Melina wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about a Supreme Court case on job discrimination against gay and transgender workers. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Chutzpah (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt, two of our Washington reporters, recently answered reader questions on Reddit. Here are a few highlights.