In an Op-Ed, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote that “there cannot be business as usual with Russia” unless there’s peace in Ukraine.
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• Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, abandoned a softened approach toward President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, calling Mr. Assad a “terrorist” with no place in Syria’s postwar future.
Mr. Erdogan may have intended his remarks as a message to Russia, Mr. Assad’s ally, that it cannot dictate Syria’s postwar future, most notably on issues involving Syria’s Kurdish groups.
But even as Mr. Erdogan spoke, his government was finalizing a $2.5 billion deal to purchase Russian missile systems.
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• American farmers, who grapple with migrant labor laws and many other rules, exemplify what businesses describe as regulatory fatigue. President Trump has tapped into their discontent over regulations.
Meanwhile, companies outside the U.S. worry that the Republican tax bill discriminates against them. Other countries may need to cut corporate taxes to stay competitive.
And a look at Obamacare after years of attacks: What remains of the Affordable Care Act appears relatively stable and looks more and more like government-run health care.
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• In an interview with Prince Harry of Britain for the BBC, Barack Obama, the former U.S. president, said that he worried that, through social media, “people can be cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases.”
“The question has to do with how do we harness this technology in a way that allows a multiplicity of voices, allows a diversity of views, but doesn’t lead to a Balkanization of society and allows ways of finding common ground,” he said.
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Business
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• As streaming continues to remake the music industry, artists and record labels successfully cooperated this year to get their songs into fans’ ears.
(Taylor Swift, above, took a risk few artists can now afford: holding her new album back from streaming services.)
• Geely, the Chinese carmaker which bought Volvo cars in 2010, is now set to also become its largest shareholder of AB Volvo, the truck maker.
• Meet the marketing wizards and urine-testing millionaires who have profited from America’s opioid crisis crisis, and a psychologist crusading against counseling services that prey on addicts.
• A few righteous tech innovators actually brought positive change this year: Think wearable computers to help the blind see and using cryptocurrencies for good.
• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.
In the News
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• A bomb exploded at a supermarket in St Petersburg, Russia, injuring at least 10 people. [Reuters]
• Vitaly Mutko, barred for life from the Olympics for his role in Russia’s doping program, is stepping down as head of the organizing committee for the 2018 soccer World Cup. [Associated Press]
• Venezuela’s regional isolation in Latin America has deepened its dependence on China and Russia. [The New York Times]
• A suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, killed dozens of people, officials and witnesses said. [Reuters]
• Prosecutors in Montenegro and Serbia are poring over Facebook posts to investigate citizens fighting for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. [Balkan Insight]
• Bosnia’s war crimes court sentenced Azra Basic, a former fighter who became a U.S. citizen, to 14 years in prison for war crimes. [Associated Press]
• An Israeli cabinet minister wants to thank President Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by naming a train station in the Old City after him. [The New York Times]
• In an Op-Ed, an American journalist writes about how he built a bot to expose racist bigotry on Twitter. Twitter suspended the bot, but kept the bigots. [The New York Times]
Smarter Living
Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.
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• Barcelona and Bergen, Norway, (above) are trending among budget fare hunters. Here is why you might want to visit in 2018.
• Should you shower in the morning, or at night? Yes and yes.
• Recipe of the day: Provide comfort by cooking a lemony carrot and cauliflower soup.
Noteworthy
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• From President Trump versus Hollywood to #MeToo and the ghosts of the Confederacy, here’s a not-so-nostalgic look back at the year’s fiercest cultural fights in the U.S.
• The city of Tel Aviv attempted to build the tallest Lego tower using half a million toy bricks. The effort was in memory of an 8-year-old who died of cancer.
• The success of the hit Broadway play “Hamilton” in London suggests that new productions can have a huge impact in a city that usually favors the classics.
• Many of the young soccer players who won two youth World Cups for England in 2017 are seeing their age-group success collide with Premier League reality.
• In Milan’s Porto Nuova neighborhood shiny new high-rises are redefining the cityscape.
• Among the great pleasures of winter in Paris: mulled wine, roasted chestnuts and galette des rois, a pastry that is an invitation to gather and celebrate. (Here’s a recipe.)
Back Story
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“The young writer touches us with a pungent melancholy, a kind of dark brilliance.”
That was a description of Heinrich Böll, the German writer born 100 years ago this month, in the first review of his work in The Times in 1955.
Mr. Böll’s writing was informed by his experiences as a soldier in World War II, which ended with his capture by American troops.
“I will never forget those very young boys coming up the hill, who had to take me a prisoner to liberate me,” he once recalled in a Times Op-Ed.
This experience turned him, in a correspondent’s words, into “an enemy of tyrannies large and small, an anti-militarist and a doubter.” One of Germany’s most widely read authors, Mr. Böll won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1972.
Months later, a Times reporter asked him how he felt about the United States.
His response: “You have Watergate and you have press freedom. You have desert and you have New York, terrible provincialism and terrible up-to-dateness. Being American means the chance to be what you want.”
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