Your Friday Briefing

Iran, Theresa May, Bats View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, May 11, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Europe Edition [Your Friday Briefing]( By DAN LEVIN Good morning. Israel and Iran clash, Britain apologizes, and Russia remembers war. Here’s the latest: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters • The shadow war between Israel and Iran in Syria [has burst into the open](. Israel’s foreign minister declared that his country’s forces had destroyed “nearly all” of Iran’s military infrastructure in Syria, in dozens of airstrikes. The strikes came after [Israel reported an Iranian rocket attack]( on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights — and amid drastically ramped up tensions in the region after the American withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. [Here’s a quick synopsis]( of how the clash between the longtime foes suddenly escalated. Above, Israeli tanks in the Golan Heights on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Palestinian militant group [Hamas is preparing for a climactic confrontation]( after weeks of protests at the fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel. _____ Doug Mills/The New York Times • President Trump announced that his [meeting with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea]( is scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. Above, Mr. Trump [welcomed back three American prisoners released by the North](. They landed at a Washington-area air base in the middle of the night. Mr. Trump was asked if he thought he [deserved the Nobel Peace Prize](. “Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it,” he said with a laugh. _____ Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press • The British government apologized to a Libyan couple who were tortured by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s security forces [after the C.I.A. abducted them on a tip from British spies](. The apology to Abdel Hakim Belhaj, above, and his wife, represented a rare public rebuke by the British government of its own intelligence services. “We are profoundly sorry for the ordeal that you both suffered and our role in it,” Prime Minister Theresa May told the couple. _____ James Hill for The New York Times • In Russia, [10 million people marched this week]( in Immortal Regiment parades, carrying portraits of relatives who died in World War II, a conflict that touched nearly every family in the country. The marches began as a grass-roots movement seven years ago to revive a familial tradition stifled by President Vladimir Putin’s patriotic propaganda. Above, a march in Moscow on Wednesday. But they have since been co-opted by the government, with the Kremlin recasting the military victory as a cornerstone of its argument that Russia deserves to be a world power. _____ Claudio Peri/ANSA, via Associated Press • “Rome Burns.” Romans are used to the buses running late. But recently, [they have been accidentally catching fire](. So far this year, 10 buses have burst into flames (though no one has been killed or seriously injured). Locals blame mechanical problems and the city’s notoriously unreliable public transport company for failing to fix them. But from a safe distance, our reporter writes that the fires appear to be a symptom of Italy’s economic and bureaucratic dysfunction. Business Jessie Wardarski/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, via Associated Press • Alexa, Siri and Google’s Assistant can [hear secret audio commands]( that are undetectable to the human ear, researchers in China and the U.S. have demonstrated. They warn that the capability could be used to command smart devices to unlock doors, wire money or make online purchases — simply with music playing over the radio. • Goldman Sachs is [teaming up with Apple to develop a new credit card]( that would bear the Apple Pay brand. The partnership could help the Wall Street bank gain access to iPhone users, who represent a far broader swath of consumers than the company now serves. • It’s not just hybrids: pickup trucks and sedans have gotten more efficient, too. Here’s how automakers, pushed by U.S. regulations, [have improved their vehicles’ fuel economy](. • The Bank of England [held off on raising interest rates]( amid a weakening economy and concerns about the impact of Brexit. • Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Sebastien Nogier/EPA, via Shutterstock • Our film critic, Manohla Dargis, is at the Cannes Film Festival, where [controversy over Netflix, schedule changes, new security measures]( and banned filmmakers have made for a busy three days. • A U.S. Defense Department investigation of a fatal Special Forces mission in Niger found lots of problems in the operation but concluded that “no single failure or deficiency” led to the deaths of four American soldiers. [[The New York Times]( • Rudolph Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, abruptly resigned from his law firm. Firm partners had chafed over his statements about hush-money payments like the ones made on behalf of Mr. Trump. [[The New York Times]( • The Italian police dismantled what they called a terrorism-financing ring that they suspected had smuggled migrants across Europe and then funneled the proceeds to Islamist militants in Syria. [[Reuters]( • Italy’s leading populist political parties announced that they had moved closer to forming a government, more than two months after a general election. [[BBC]( Smarter Living Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life. Craig Lee for The New York Times • Recipe of the day: [Chewy chocolate chip cookies]( perfect for dunking in milk. • Need more space at home? [Fix up or trade up](. • 3 cheap(ish) gadgets [worth buying](. Noteworthy Dailos Hernández-Brito • Green-feathered terror: The largest bat in Europe, a vulnerable species, found shelter in a Spanish city’s park. [Then they started to turn up dead](. Researchers have now identified their killers: an invasive band of parakeets. • “Maybe we all have different reasons for saying yes when our bodies or hearts say no.” That’s from one of the hundreds of answers we got from university students, male and female, after our global call requesting their stories of navigating sexual consent. We collected [45 of them here](. (We’d love to hear from even more of our international readers. Tell us your story [here](mailto:nytgender@nytimes.com).) • Confused about the shadowy trail of money surrounding President Trump? In our Opinion section, The Times’s editorial board summarizes this week’s revelations, saying [they underline concerns about his secretive finances](. Back Story Library of Congress Harriet Quimby, the first American woman to [become a licensed pilot]( was born on this day in 1875 on a Michigan farm. She was also the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel, in 1912. (The French aviator Louis Blériot was the first man to [accomplish that feat, three years earlier]( Quimby received her pilot’s license — the second woman anywhere to do so — when she was 36, in August 1911. The next month she flew by moonlight at the Staten Island Fair, [circling the fairgrounds four times](. “It was a great temptation not to keep right on flying until I got to New York,” she told reporters afterward. Before becoming a pilot, Quimby was [a writer, critic and photographer for Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly](. She became interested in aviation after working on the magazine’s issue devoted to the topic; she later attended the international air meet at New York’s Belmont Park and [started classes](. Less than a year after earning her license, Quimby [was killed during an air show in Massachusetts](. Before the fatal flight, Quimby had discussed the possibility of a water landing, saying with a smile: “But I am a cat and I do not like cold water.” Claire Moses wrote today’s Back Story. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. [Check out this page]( to find a Morning Briefing for your region. (In addition to our European edition, we have Australian, Asian and U.S. editions.) [Sign up here]( to receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights, and [here’s our full range of free newsletters](. What would you like to see here? Contact us at [europebriefing@nytimes.com](mailto:europebriefing@nytimes.com?subject=Briefing%20Feedback%20(Europe)). ADVERTISEMENT LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. FOLLOW NYT [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytimes]( Prefer a different send time? 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