Your Thursday Briefing

View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Thursday, October 12, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( Europe Edition [Your Thursday Briefing]( By PATRICK BOEHLER Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images • The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, above, had a question for Catalonia’s separatists: [Did you declare independence or not?]( Mr. Rajoy said the Catalan leader, Carles Puigdemont, had sown “deliberate confusion” in his latest speech and gave him until Monday morning to respond. Pending that reply, Mr. Rajoy said he was initiating a request to invoke Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which would allow Madrid to suspend Catalan lawmakers and take charge of the region’s administration. _____ Jonathan Ernst/Reuters • In Washington, President Trump said it was “possible” that the U.S. would pull out of Nafta, [despite urgings]( from the visiting Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau. Even some of Mr. Trump’s skeptics [are starting to believe him](. Separately, Mr. Trump is [expected to undermine a part of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law]( with an executive order today. And he [threatened NBC, the American broadcaster]( over a report that he called for a huge buildup of the country’s nuclear arsenal. Meanwhile, leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said that they [planned to make public]( the thousands of Facebook ads linked to Russia’s campaign to influence American politics. _____ Clemens Bilan/European Pressphoto Agency • “America is more than Trump, there will be America after Trump.” That was a German foreign policy expert, who is among the signatories of an open letter urging the next government in Berlin [to preserve ties with Washington](. They call on Berlin to avoid contentious issues like trade and migration but to work with the Trump administration on security and energy policy. [Here’s a full draft version of the text](. Above, the Reichstag, the seat of the lower house of Parliament, in Berlin. _____ Jim Wilson/The New York Times • In California, rising winds [risk further fanning the wildfires]( that have left at least 21 people dead. Many more remain missing. Firefighters said that the fires were burning faster than they could run. Here are [updated maps and before-and-after photographs]( and [drone footage]( showing entire neighborhoods reduced to ash. Some scientists think global warming [may have contributed to increased dryness](. _____ Emily Berl for The New York Times • “The perverse, insistent, matter-of-factness of male sexual predation and assault — of men’s power over women.” Our film critic [reflected on the pileup of allegations against Harvey Weinstein](. Interviews and internal records of his company [suggest that it may have been aware]( of Mr. Weinstein’s settlements since 2015. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts [suspended his membership, and the Cannes Film Festival denounced him](. [In our podcast “The Daily,”]( the actress Katherine Kendall, above, talks about what happened to her in Mr. Weinstein’s apartment in 1993. And readers [shared their own experiences with workplace harassment](. Business Doug Chayka • Apple, Google and other tech giants are pushing deeper into cultural industries, but “they do not quite understand, and haven’t yet begun to master, how to translate their technological power into wider cultural power,” [our tech columnist writes](. • “Europe’s got too many airlines.” That was one analyst’s take on [why weaker carriers have succumbed to intense competition]( leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded in recent months. • Some East Africans say they’re being [punished by the U.S. for imposing tariffs]( on foreign, secondhand clothing they no longer want. • Coach, the American fashion group, [is rebranding itself as Tapestry Inc](. • Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times • “They threw my baby into a fire — they just flung him,” a Rohingya refugee told our correspondents documenting a horrific campaign of slaughter and rape being carried out by Myanmar’s military. [[The New York Times]( • In Belfast, a new housing project was meant to become a foundation stone for a post-sectarian society in Northern Ireland. But at least three Catholic families have fled it after a threat. [[The New York Times]( • President Trump is coming under mounting pressure from European allies, fellow Republicans and [even the hawkish former Israeli leader Ehud Barak]( to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. [[The New York Times]( • José Sócrates, the former prime minister of Portugal, has been indicted on corruption charges. [[Reuters]( • In an Op-Ed, one of our editors looks at why Eminem’s anti-Trump rap has had such an impact: Many of the artist’s fans had voted for the president. [[The New York Times]( • Anxiety has overtaken depression as the most common reason American college students seek counseling. Parents and schools are struggling to figure out how to help. [[The New York Times]( • A court in South Africa is expected to rule today on whether the death of the anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, who fell [from the 10th floor of a notorious police station]( in 1971, was a regime killing. [[Independent Online]( Smarter Living Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life. Jane Beiles for The New York Times • Good taste [doesn’t require formal training]( or growing up in a refined environment. • Grab a sponge. Here are [five things around your home that rarely get cleaned](. • Recipe of the day: This lasagna uses [spicy roasted cauliflower]( instead of meat. Noteworthy Matan Rochlitz • A Holocaust survivor tells her story in an Op-Ed video: To save her life, she jumped off a train bound for Auschwitz. Decades later, [she got a message from the father she left behind]( on that train. • In memoriam: Michel Jouvet, the neurophysiologist who helped define REM sleep as a unique state of consciousness, [died at 91](. • Here’s our guide to Matera, [the ancient city]( once dubbed “the shame of Italy.” It has reinvented itself and will be 2019’s European Capital of Culture. • In fashion, “resist the mantra of speed” could well become a new mantra. [These four labels]( are trying to slow down their industry’s relentless pace. • At the Shanghai Masters, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are [competing again for the year-end No. 1 ranking]( in men’s tennis. [Here is today’s schedule](. Back Story Fenno Jacobs/Office of War Information The U.S. controversy over football players who kneel during the national anthem [is raging on](. But an older patriotic ritual ran aground on geopolitical tensions. That’s the [Pledge of Allegiance]( which was [first recited in public schools on this day in 1892](. [The pledge was written by Francis Bellamy]( a Baptist minister and socialist, to be rolled out with a nationwide push to celebrate Columbus Day in schools. It was soon widely recognized. Mr. Bellamy instructed that a salute be performed with the pledge: right arm extended upward, [with the palm twisting up at the first mention of the flag](. When fascist regimes emerged in Italy and Germany using the extended-arm salute, Bellamy’s began to fall from favor. As [one author wrote]( the “similarities in the salute had begun to attract comment as early as the mid-1930s.” On Dec. 22, 1942, Congress [amended the U.S. Flag Code]( to instruct that the pledge “be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart” — the stance still in use today. Charles McDermid contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. This briefing was prepared for the European morning. [Browse past briefings here](. 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