Berlin, Russia, Petra Kvitova: Your Wednesday Briefing
• German investigators are searching for the attacker who the Islamic State claimed had acted on its behalf in driving a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin. An earlier suspect was released.
Far-right politicians across Europe chastised Chancellor Angela Merkel, as leaders are watching her political fortunes closely. The site of the attack in Berlin, our cultural critic notes, is symbolic: In a 1928 essay, Joseph Goebbels denounced the area for being too cosmopolitan.
The wars of the Middle East appear to be metastasizing across the Continent.
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• Russia and Turkey vowed not to let the ambassador’s killing derail their newfound cooperation on Syria, ravaged by six years of brutal strife.
Along with Iran — like Russia, a longtime backer of the Syrian government — they pledged to expand a fragile cease-fire at talks on Syria’s future in Moscow, leaving the United States, Europe and the United Nations on the sidelines.
The United Nations General Assembly will vote today on a proposal that could lead to the systematic collection of evidence for the future prosecution of war crimes in Syria.
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The Cramped Quarters of a Migrant Boat
Abandoned boats, once used by migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe, lie in a junkyard on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
By DAN RUETENIK, KAITLYN MULLIN and VEDA SHASTRI on December 20, 2016. Photo by Gregorio Borgia/AP Photo. Technology by Samsung. . Watch in Times Video »
• Much of Europe was ill-prepared for the surge of migrants. In Denmark, we visited refugee shelters that have had to confront arson, fights, rape, and large numbers of unaccompanied minors.
Our latest 360 video, above, takes you to a junkyard on an Italian island packed with boats that carried refugees across the Mediterranean.
And we met a man who fled to Britain from Hungary 60 years ago and is struggling to understand his native country’s decision to close its borders to refugees.
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• President Obama announced a permanent ban on new offshore drilling in areas off the Atlantic coast and in the Arctic Ocean.
He invoked a provision of a 1953 law that will make the ban far more difficult to reverse than an executive action.
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• Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
In Ireland, the sun will mysteriously align with Newgrange, a Neolithic site that predates Stonehenge by a thousand years, flooding its interior with sunlight.
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Business
• The pesticide paraquat, which has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, is prohibited in Europe, but it is still being exported from Britain.
• European officials filed charges against Facebook, accusing the company of making misleading statements to receive regulatory approval for its $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp, the internet messaging service.
• Volkswagen agreed to buy back or fix the remaining diesel cars involved in its emissions cheating scandal in the U.S., at an expected cost of about $1 billion.
• A paper discrediting global calls to cut dietary sugar drew sharp criticism over the authors’ ties to the food industry. The review was paid for by a group funded by industry giants including Coca-Cola and Monsanto.
• Free-trade deals, online surveillance in Britain and tax breaks will be on the agenda at the European Court of Justice today.
• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.
MARKET SNAPSHOT View Full Overview
- FTSE 100+0.12%
- NIKKEI–0.26%CLOSED
- SHANGHAI+1.15%CLOSED
In the News
• We look at how Rex W. Tillerson, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for next secretary of state, courted Russia’s rulers. [The New York Times]
• President Obama blacklisted 15 Russian individuals and companies for their dealings in Crimea and Ukraine. [The New York Times]
• In the Democratic Republic of Congo, security forces killed at least 20 in a crackdown on protests demanding that President Joseph Kabila step down after his term expired overnight. [Reuters]
Explosion at Mexican Fireworks Market
A passer-by in a car captured the flames, smoke and loud explosions of the blast at an open-air market in Tultepec.
By THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 20, 2016. Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. Watch in Times Video »
• An explosion ripped through Mexico City’s best-known fireworks market, killing at least 26 people. [The New York Times]
• Pope Francis ordered the release of a Spanish priest, who was jailed by the Vatican in July for leaking files to journalists. [The Guardian]
• Leaked phone recordings shed light on the activities of the Zetas, a Mexican criminal group notorious for its brutal murders, in Spain. [El País]
• Petra Kvitova, a Czech two-time Wimbledon singles champion, suffered injuries to her left hand in a knife attack at her home, which could affect her future in tennis. [The New York Times]
• “Be rich, be rich, be rich!” That’s the chant at Thailand’s largest Buddhist temple, where unabashed affection for earthly wealth has unsettled the Buddhist hierarchy. [The New York Times]
Noteworthy
• Alec Baldwin reveals what it takes to play Mr. Trump on “Saturday Night Live.”
• The rapper Tupac Shakur will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, along with Pearl Jam, Journey, Joan Baez, Yes and the Electric Light Orchestra.
• Here’s an app that combats bullying, one anonymous compliment at a time.
• A study of Stradivari and Guarneri violins found a possible answer to why the instruments have a reputation for a superior sound: mineral treatments and centuries of aging.
Back Story
Christmas’s musical roots go back centuries. And so does the history of the holiday’s songs being viewed as a nuisance.
In the Middle Ages, caroling became popular with attendees of Nativity plays. In England, the tradition was fused with singing songs for alcohol, specifically the drink wassail. But by the 17th century, the authorities there had had enough of the raucous practice and they banned Christmas carols.
It stayed that way for almost two centuries until Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. He imported traditions he learned in Germany as a boy, and the songs flourished.
Some of the best-known carols were written during this period, like “We Three Kings,” and “Jingle Bells,” which was actually first played at a Thanksgiving concert in America.
Many of the modern songs were created in the 1940s and ’50s. The music became more secular, and the genre became big business. The king of them all, though, is “White Christmas,” sung by Bing Crosby.
It stands as the best-selling holiday standard of all time, something its famous American composer, Irving Berlin, who was a Jewish immigrant, had a hunch would happen.
It wasn’t just the best song he’d ever written, he once said, but “the best song anybody ever wrote.”
Charles McDermidd contributed reporting.
P.C: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/briefing/europe-briefing.html?_r=0
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