Wednesday: An agreement on Brexit

Trump's harsh tweets, questions for Boeing, wildfire aftermath View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Wednesday, November 14, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Europe Edition [Your Wednesday Briefing]( By PENN BULLOCK Good morning. A preliminary agreement on Brexit, calls for a European army and grave questions for Boeing. Here’s the latest: Tolga Akmen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • A plan for Brexit. After months of deadlock, Britain and the E.U. [have reached a draft agreement]( over the terms of their divorce. But that’s only the end of the beginning. The plan now needs approval from Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet, where hard-line Brexiteers could rebel and threaten the deal. Then it needs an O.K. from a fractious British Parliament that will be hard to please. [Here are the sticking points]( that could scupper the deal and lead to a vertiginous “no deal” Brexit. Above, an anti-Brexit protest in London. Details of the outline agreement aren’t available yet, but Mrs. May’s cabinet is scheduled to meet today, and we’ll have live updates. If the cabinet gives the plan a green light, European leaders will need to give it their own blessing at the end of the month. Britain is scheduled to leave the bloc in March, come what may. One business that could suffer major disruption: [the shipping of flowers]( _____ Patrick Seeger/EPA, via Shutterstock • Visions of an E.U. army. In a speech televised around the Continent, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, above, called for the creation “one day” of [“a real European army.”]( While she stressed that the army should supplement NATO, she also said, “The days where we can unconditionally rely on others are gone.” As if to underline her point, President Trump on the same day assailed President Emmanuel Macron of France for his own comments in an interview last week in favor of a European army, which were apparently misconstrued to suggest Mr. Macron wanted the army for defense against, among others, the U.S. On Twitter, Mr. Trump defended “nationalism” and [ridiculed France’s performance in the world wars](. “They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!” he tweeted. Mr. Trump’s barbs were seen as especially indelicate coming on [the third anniversary of terrorist attacks]( in Paris that killed 130 people. _____ Beawiharta Beawiharta/Reuters • New questions for Boeing in the wake of a crash. Airlines, pilots and regulators are trying to determine [whether the aircraft maker did enough]( to emphasize changes to the emergency system on its new 737 Max 8 jet, the model in the Lion Air 610 disaster in Indonesia that killed 189 people last month. Investigators are focused on whether the system caused the accident. It’s designed to correct a plane’s angle if the plane appears to be stalling, but if activated incorrectly it could initiate a steep dive. The pilots’ union for American Airlines said that the emergency system had not been included in the Max 8’s standard operating manual. The 737 Max 8 is in a competitive battle with an update of the Airbus A320, and Boeing has been promoting the model as requiring little additional training for airlines that already use the previous version. The cause of the crash remains unknown. Above, an Indonesian official examining wreckage. _____  • Russian disinformation, from the Cold War to Pizzagate. Moscow’s psychological warfare in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections was the culmination of a decades-long strategy for fomenting divisions in the West and undermining democracies, often in places ill equipped to combat the threat. Our Opinion team paired up with the BBC to produce a three-part documentary, “Operation InfeKtion,” that exposes [the KGB spies]( who invented fake news, [Russia’s disinformation playbook]( and the [global spread]( of the war on truth. Business Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • The taste of cheese [cannot be copyrighted]( because it is “an idea” rather than an “original intellectual creation,” the E.U.’s highest court ruled, after a Dutch cheese company sued a competitor for selling similar products. Above, a supermarket outside Paris. • The fugitive financier Jho Low is accused of masterminding the disappearance of more than $2.7 billion in Malaysia. In the U.S., law firms representing him [are being careful]( amid scrutiny by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, of foreign influence-peddling in Washington. • Juul Labs said it would stop selling most of its [flavored e-cigarettes]( in retail stores and halt its social media promotions, as it faces government pressure in the U.S. and backlash over teenage vaping. • Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News José Sarmento Matos for The New York Times • The U.N.’s extreme poverty expert is touring food banks, charities and government ministries in Britain, the world’s fifth-richest country, where more than $39 billion in austerity cuts have pushed many people into desperate straits. Above, a food bank in Newcastle. [[The New York Times]( • Cadaver dogs and forensic dental experts are heading to Paradise, California, to look for the remains of the many people reported missing in the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in state history. There have been at least 48 confirmed deaths. [[The New York Times]( • A week after the U.S. midterm elections, as more votes have been tallied, Democrats have gained House seats and lost fewer in the Senate than they earlier feared. [[The New York Times]( • A man who resembles Ross from “Friends” is under arrest in Britain on suspicion of theft. An appeal to help find the man, who bears an uncanny likeness to the actor David Schwimmer, went viral last month. [[The New York Times]( Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life. Romulo Yanes for The New York Times • Recipe of the day: Get dinner done in under a half-hour with [rice noodles with seared pork, carrots and herbs](. • Keep from getting cold feet [at a wedding](. • Advice for the quiet, [introverted traveler](. Noteworthy Gerald Bloncourt/Bridgeman Images • Gérald Bloncourt, a Haitian photographer and activist who [chronicled the everyday dignity of exploited peoples]( has died at 91. Above, a 1955 photograph by him of lovers in Paris. • Andy Warhol created movies, paintings and psychosexual dramas in three successive spaces he called [the Factory](. His friends and colleagues describe what it was like inside his “creative playpen.” • In Fiji, [our 52 Places traveler]( a “reluctant swimmer,” tried scuba diving on the coral reefs and even surfed. Back Story Ina Fassbender/DPA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Would you order books, clothes and appliances from a company whose name accidentally evoked a mortuary? Or, deliberately, ruthless persistence? In 1994, Jeff Bezos considered many potential names before choosing Amazon, evoking the world’s largest river. Now, 24 years later, his bookseller has expanded into one of the world’s largest retailers, and it’s splitting its second headquarters between a Washington suburb and a New York neighborhood. Would it have been as successful had Mr. Bezos stuck with [Cadabra]( He liked the echo of magic — but people tended to hear it as “cadaver.” He hasn’t ever fully given up on Relentless.com, which still forwards to Amazon. (The company’s naming is recounted in [“The Everything Store,” by Brad Stone]( and was confirmed by Allison Flicker, an Amazon spokeswoman.) Worth noting: Amazon’s corporate arrival in New York City, [confirmed this week]( is something of a homecoming for Mr. Bezos, who was working at a New York hedge fund when the idea for Amazon was born. Andrea Kannapell 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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