Mahmoud Abbas, Donald Trump, Tunisia: Your Monday Briefing
January 15, 2018 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Comments Off
_____
Credit
Martin Divisek/European Pressphoto Agency
• In the Czech Republic, President Milos Zeman came first in the first round of presidential elections but failed to pass the 50-percent threshold that would have saved him from having to compete in a runoff.
That vote, in two weeks, will decide whether the country continues to be drawn toward Russia and China under Mr. Zeman’s leadership or moves back more fully into the embrace of the E.U. under Jiri Drahos, above left, Mr. Zeman’s challenger.
Analysts predict a tight race.
_____
Credit
Armend Nimani/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• The United States and the E.U. have warned Kosovo against attempts by former guerrillas turned politicians to halt a special war crimes court before it has even begun work.
The court is viewed by many as a vital prerequisite for reconciliation in the aftermath of the bloody Balkan wars of the 1990s.
But critics expect that when Parliament reconvenes this week, some lawmakers will try to undermine it to protect prominent war veterans.
_____
Credit
Ryan Young for The New York Times; Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times; Amanda Lucier for The New York Times
• Male models and assistants are accusing the fashion photographers Bruce Weber and Mario Testino of sexual misconduct. Condé Nast said it would stop working with the two men, at least for now.
The three men above are among those who told us that they had endured sexual harassment on the job.
After fierce criticism from French feminists, Catherine Deneuve, the French actress, apologized to victims of sexual assault for the letter she and other women recently signed denouncing the #metoo movement.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
_____
Credit
Julian Calder/Royal Collection Trust, via Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018
• “There are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise they’re quite important things.”
Queen Elizabeth II, who has never granted an interview, relaxed her longstanding reticence to reminisce on camera about her 1953 coronation in a new documentary.
Business
Credit
Kyle Johnson for The New York Times
• At 54, Jeff Bezos of Amazon is the world’s richest person, with a net worth of more than $100 billion. He had stayed out of the limelight for years, but he has recently started to build a public persona.
• Uber’s $100,000 payment to a hacker has cast a chill over how companies deal with security threats.
• We went inside the newly megarich cryptocurrency community and found a tightknit group of friends debating changing the world order.
• Automakers have reason to celebrate as they gather this week at the Detroit auto show, but less rosy times may lie ahead.
• Here’s a snapshot of global markets and a look at what could move them this week.
In the News
Credit
European Pressphoto Agency
• A passenger plane trying to land in Turkey this weekend made a heart-stopping skid off a runway, ending up stuck on a steep slope facing the Black Sea. No one was injured. [The New York Times]
• Security experts called a false alarm in Hawaii this weekend a warning of how a technical error could set off an unintended conflict between the United States and North Korea. [The New York Times]
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
• On the seventh anniversary of Tunisia’s revolution, thousands of demonstrators rallied against austerity measures and economic malaise. Officials are beginning to address the growing discontent. [The New York Times]
• Syria’s civil war: The Turkish government condemned reported plans for a new Kurdish-dominated border force allied with the U.S.-led coalition. [Reuters]
• Facebook’s recent fiddling with its algorithms has magnified fake news in some countries, including Slovakia. [The New York Times]
• In the U.S., Chelsea Manning, the former Army private convicted of disclosing classified information to WikiLeaks in 2013, has filed to run for the Senate. [The New York Times]
• Officials in Ireland are facing agonizing choices about what to do with the remains of young children found buried at a former home for unwed mothers and their babies in the town of Tuam. [The New York Times]
Smarter Living
Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.
Credit
Minh Uong/The New York Times
• Protect your technology this year.
• Where to get healthier in 2018.
• Recipe of the day: Begin the week with a big bowl of Thai red curry noodles.
Noteworthy
Credit
NASA/JPL/Cornell
• If we ever get to Mars, the beer might not be bad. Hops grows well in Martial soil, an experiment by college students suggests.
• We look at the science behind the Swiss government’s recent decision to ban tossing lobsters and other crustaceans into boiling water.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
• A new novel by the Austrian author Robert Menasse lays bare the oddities of the E.U. bureaucracy in Brussels with satire and sympathy.
• The discovery of a secret tunnel under the Berlin Wall that was intended to help reunite a family in the 1960s has fueled memories of a dark chapter in Berlin’s history.
• Toronto has welcomed thousands of Syrians and their cooking, supporting a small boom in food businesses.
• In soccer news, Liverpool ensured that Manchester City would not go unbeaten through its Premier League schedule, but its 4-3 victory barely dented City’s invincible aura.
• Three American tennis stars did not make it out of the first day of the Australian Open. (Here’s a look at some players to watch.)
Back Story
Credit
Associated Press
The headquarters for the U.S. military has always stood out.
The Pentagon building was already in use when it was dedicated 75 years ago today, at the height of World War II.
Built just across the Potomac River from Washington in less than two years, the Pentagon was home to 22,000 workers by the end of 1942.
It remains one of the world’s largest office buildings, with more than six million square feet of floor space.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
The distinctive design came from the shape of the first proposed site, which was hemmed in by streets on five sides. When President Franklin Roosevelt decided on a different location, the shape stayed, but the sides were made even.
The first architectural reviews were not glowing, but they improved over time.
“Called too big, too barren and too expensive when it was completed for $83 million in 1943, the Pentagon is a thriving, functional success in 1968,” The Times wrote in a report for the 25th anniversary of the building, which it extolled as a place of community:
“Everyman, or Littleman, triumphed over all. Thousands of secretaries and office workers have turned the Pentagon into a cluttered, cosy, home-away-from-home.”
Sarah Anderson contributed reporting.
_____
This briefing was prepared for the European morning and is updated online. Browse past briefings here.
You can get the briefing delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday. We have four global editions, timed for the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, and an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights. Check out our full range of free newsletters here.
If photographs appear out of order, please download the updated New York Times app from iTunes or Google Play.
What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes.com.
Continue reading the main story
Share and Enjoy
Eagles safeties: We knew what was coming on Falcons’ 4th-and-goal
January 14, 2018 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Comments Off
PHILADELPHIA — Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones made no excuses for not coming up with what would have been the game-winning catch in the final moments of Saturday’s 15-10 divisional playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
With the ball on the Eagles’ 2-yard line, Jones, covered by cornerback Jalen Mills on the play, slipped to the ground and appeared to take a push from Mills. He still was able to get to his feet and almost make a play on Matt Ryan‘s floating pass on fourth-and-goal.
Falcons’ red-zone woes finally catch up to them as season ends
Matt Ryan and the Falcons sputtered on the road and were shut out in the second half of Saturday’s 15-10 loss to the Eagles in the divisional round.
‘Underdog’ Eagles celebrate win in dog masks
The Eagles were fueled all week by their underdog status for their home playoff game against the Falcons, and veterans Chris Long and Lane Johnson decided to buy, and then wear, German Shepherd masks after Philadelphia’s victory to hammer the point home.
RB Freeman played through PCL, MCL sprains
Falcons RB Devonta Freeman told ESPN he played the end of the season with sprained posterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee but refused to use the injuries as an excuse for his ineffectiveness in Saturday’s loss to the Eagles.
“It was just a sprintout, a rollout to me,” Jones said. “Trying to take advantage of one-on-one [coverage] down there.
“I don’t know, but at the end of the day, I can make those plays. I ended up on the ground when I came out of my route. And that’s a tough call [for the official] to make during that situation in the game. That was it.”
Jones, the Falcons’ leading receiver this season, had four touchdown receptions in 16 regular-season games and two playoff contests. According to ESPN Stats Information, Ryan went 1-of-18 (6 percent) on passes to Jones in the end zone this season, after going 3-of-8 on those passes last season.
Ryan explained Saturday’s final play from his vantage point.
“That’s a play we practice all the time, and certainly in those situations you go to your best player,” Ryan said. “Obviously, roll to the right and have an opportunity to Julio. It just didn’t work out and that’s disappointing. That’s the life you live as a competitor — when you get in those situations, you want the ball in your hand. I think it was a right call. I think we had the right players in mind at the right time — and we just fell a little bit short.”
Eagles safeties Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod said they identified the play before the snap based on formation. They alerted the rest of defenders, including Mills, who said he knew Jones was coming his way.
“They communicated all the way from [Ronald] Darby’s side to my side,” Mills said. “You can’t do nothing but be thankful for having those veteran safeties that are able to ID formations.”
Said McLeod: “It was right hash. That’s kind of a lot of teams’ tendency, is to sprint out, and as soon as I saw the tight end come over I was like, ‘There it is.’ This is everything you dream of as a player. You do your study, you do your preparing, and they come out and run the identical play, and the guys did a good job of stopping it, man.”
Falcons coach Dan Quinn didn’t appear to have a problem with the fourth-down playcall by offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian. Quinn was asked if he was confident Ryan and Jones could execute the play.
“Damn right. Absolutely,” he said. “We’re giving our shots to Matt and Julio to go for it and win the game. We didn’t get the job done, but 100 out of 100 we’re gonna put the ball in those two guys’ hands to try to win.”
The Falcons were 1-of-3 in the red zone against the Eagles. They finished the season 0-7 in games in which they failed to score 20 points. After leading the league at 33.8 points per game a year ago en route to the Super Bowl, the Falcons finished the 2017 season at just 22.1 points per game.
Despite the obvious problems, Quinn expressed support for Sarkisian, who took over for Kyle Shanahan in February 2017.
“I recognize that goes with the job, and so does Sark,” Quinn said of the criticism. “Like all things, we assess it all the way through. How can we do things better? There are a lot of things that Sark has brought to our team that we really like.
“I can take a long time to go through different spots, so it’s easy to place blame all onto one person, and that’s a shared responsibility when we don’t achieve at the level that we would like to. There are a lot of really good things that we’ve done, and it was highlighted certainly [Saturday night] where we didn’t get the job done at the end of the game.”
Jones, who backed Sarkisian all season, said he had no problem with the late-game playcalling.
“I feel like everything went well,” Jones said. “It’s up to us to make them come to life. We’re all in this together — whatever is called down, it’s up to us to execute and make it come to life.”
ESPN’s Tim McManus contributed to this report.