George Soros, Meghan Markle, Baguettes: Your Wednesday Briefing

George Soros, Meghan Markle, Baguettes: Your Wednesday Briefing

George Soros, Meghan Markle, Baguettes: Your Wednesday Briefing

Damage control for Europe, a loss for democracy in Hungary and an unexpected baguette champion in France. Here’s the latest:

• The United States’ European allies once worked overtime to please President Trump and preserve the trans-Atlantic alliance. On Tuesday, they met with Iran’s foreign minister to try to preserve the nuclear deal, above, while criticizing the bloodshed surrounding the U.S. Embassy’s move to Jerusalem.

But even as European officials scramble to protect their own interests and contain the geopolitical damage from Mr. Trump’s policies, our chief correspondent in Europe writes, American power leaves them with few viable options.

Meanwhile, in a new strain on trans-Atlantic trade relations, the World Trade Organization ruled that Europe had improperly subsidized Airbus to the detriment of Boeing, opening the door for the Trump administration to impose billions of dollars in retaliatory sanctions on European imports.

• “We don’t want peaceful protests, we want rockets fired.”

That was the chant in Gaza, the scene of funerals for protesters killed along the fence bordering Israel, and frenzied work treating the thousands of wounded. The protests resumed, above, but on a smaller scale, and were met with tear gas.

Our video journalists rode with paramedics rescuing protesters shot by Israeli troops. They saw “a constant stream of stretchers.” Israelis responded to the death toll in different ways: defiance, shame, and with a healthy dose of served-them-right in some corners.

A Hamas commander, Muhammad Haniya, said the protests would continue. And he warned that the group could return to violence if Israel did not ease its 11-year blockade of the territory.

On “The Daily,” our Jerusalem and Cairo bureau chiefs discuss the Israeli and Palestinian views of the U.S. embassy’s relocation.

• The philanthropist George Soros is moving his Open Society Foundations to Berlin from Budapest after months of intimidation and pressure from the Hungarian government.

The group promotes democracy, free expression and civil rights, but said on Tuesday that its work had become untenable in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has stifled dissent and demonized Mr. Soros, a frequent target of far-right groups. Above, an anti-Soros campaign poster in Budapest in April.

Meanwhile, a Russian court sentenced the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny to 30 days in jail for organizing an unsanctioned rally before President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration for a fourth term in office. And Mr. Putin opened a new bridge to Crimea, tightening Moscow’s claim to the disputed territory seized from Ukraine in 2014.

From NYT Briefing  https://ift.tt/2L0znrn