Your Wednesday Briefing

Facebook, Greece, Extreme Heat View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Wednesday, August 1, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Europe Edition [Your Wednesday Briefing]( By REMY TUMIN Good morning. Facebook fends off trolls, Greece fights an uphill economic battle and a U.S. judge blocks blueprints for “ghost guns.” Here’s the latest: Tom Brenner/The New York Times • Facebook announced that it had identified a [coordinated political influence campaign]( with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity ahead of U.S. midterm elections in November. The company has been working with the F.B.I. to investigate the activity, which some officials suspect is tied to Russia. Like the Russian interference campaign in 2016, the recently detected campaign deals with divisive social issues. Above, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, testifying before Congress this spring. Also in Washington, [President Trump reiterated his threat]( to shut down the federal government this fall if Congress does not agree to build his border wall, and the [bank and tax fraud trial of Paul Manafort]( Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, got off to a quick start. _____ Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press • Greece has received financial bailouts for nearly a decade, but that’s about to end. This month, Greece will become the last country to exit financial bailouts extended by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Many are painting the country’s economic rebound as a comeback story. But the I.M.F. [issued a sobering message]( on Tuesday: Not so fast. Despite some economic “successes,” including falling unemployment and a slowly growing economy, the I.M.F. warned that Greece faces an uphill battle against its mountain of debt and rising poverty after years of austerity. _____ Roman Pilipey/EPA, via Shutterstock • The professor versus Xi Jinping. A legal scholar in Beijing, Xu Zhangrun, has [delivered the fiercest denunciation yet]( of President Xi Jinping, above, from a Chinese academic. It comes as a vaccine scandal and trade battles with Washington have emboldened critics to question Mr. Xi’s sweeping control and hard-line policies. Professor Xu’s rare rebuke of Mr. Xi challenged political taboos, urging the government to overturn its condemnation of the pro-democracy protests that ended after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, and calling on lawmakers to reverse the vote that abolished a two-term limit on Mr. Xi’s presidency. The future treatment of the professor, who is listed as being a visiting scholar in Japan, may indicate whether Mr. Xi will tolerate such criticism. _____ Stephanie Davidson for The New York Times • The hottest month of May in the U.S. Triple-digit temperatures in Japan. Record highs on the edge of the Sahara and parts of the Arctic Circle. It is shaping up to be a record-hot year across the globe. Is climate change to blame? Scientists with the World Weather Attribution project said in a study released last week that the likelihood of the heat wave scorching Northern Europe is “more than two times higher today than if human activities had not altered climate.” “This is not a future scenario,” the deputy head of the World Meteorological Organization said. “It is happening now.” Here’s [what record heat felt like]( in four really different places around the world. Business Robert Macpherson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • A U.S. judge has blocked, for now, [the online publication of blueprints]( for firearms made from 3-D printers. The largely plastic weapons, known as “ghost guns,” would be invisible to background checks and untraceable by law enforcement. • Apple’s profits rose by nearly a third in the latest quarter, news that could soon help make the tech giant the first [public company worth more than $1 trillion](. • What were you thinking? Our columnist says that’s the [key question to ask Les Moonves]( the chief executive of CBS, who sued the network’s controlling shareholder while knowing that multiple news outlets were investigating sexual harassment allegations against him. • Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Henri Weimerskirch • A giant colony of king penguins in the Indian Ocean has lost 90 percent of its population over the past three decades, a new study shows. From 500,000 breeding pairs in 1982, satellite images now indicate as few as 60,000 pairs. [[The New York Times]( • A remarkable survival story: An Aeromexico plane carrying 103 people crashed shortly after takeoff in the Mexican state of Durango, but officials said none of the occupants had been killed. [[The New York Times]( • Three Russian journalists investigating a private security company with murky Kremlin connections have been killed in the Central African Republic, the Russian authorities said. [[The New York Times]( • The Catholic Church is facing a reckoning in Chile: Special prosecutors are examining sexual abuse cases involving 104 potential victims. Nearly 70 clergy and lay people are under investigation, including three bishops. [[The New York Times]( • Please return your empties: A heat wave sweeping across Germany has led to surging beer sales — and a bottle shortage. Breweries are asking customers to return empty bottles. [[BBC]( Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life. Heidi Younger • Got debt? [Accept that generous offer]( if it comes your way. • Stop your smart TV from [tracking what you watch](. • Recipe of the day: Embrace cheesy, earthy flavors with a [spinach risotto](. Noteworthy Jada Yuan/The New York Times • Our 52 Places to Go columnist [sends a dispatch from]( French cities]( — Megève and Arles. “While the experiences were vastly different, they had one thing in common,” she writes. “They’re both part of a country that has begun to feel like home.” Above, the Alpine resort town of Megève. • Maxim Dondyuk was born three years before the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Now, he’s [preserving]( of people’s lives]( in the exclusion zone, before the explosion turned their communities into ghost towns. • If an N.B.A. workout isn’t on Instagram, does it even count? Led by LeBron James, a generation of young players is getting shredded, and [making sure the cameras are always rolling](. Back Story Paul Hawthorne/Associated Press This week’s news that Alex Trebek, the host of “Jeopardy!” since 1984, [may retire when his contract expires in 2020]( led us to revisit the game show and its unusual answer-and-question format. The show was created by [Merv Griffin]( a TV innovator and former game show host, after the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, in which contestants on “Twenty-One” and “The $64,000 Question” were given the answers beforehand. That led to a federal investigation, and quiz shows soon fell out of favor. But Mr. Griffin felt they still had potential. His wife at the time, Julann, suggested a way to alleviate concerns about the quiz show format: [Give contestants the answers from the start](. Originally titled “What’s the Question?,” the show’s name was changed after a TV executive complained that the game [didn’t have enough “jeopardies.”]( The show debuted in 1964, with Art Fleming as host, and aired until 1975. It returned briefly in the late ’70s, and then came back in syndication in 1984, with Mr. Trebek guiding proceedings. “Jeopardy!” has since become a cultural touchstone, and regional versions appear in dozens of countries. If you think you have what it takes to be a contestant, you can [take a practice quiz here](. Chris Stanford 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](. 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