Michael Cohen, Missouri, Trump: Your Friday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/briefing/michael-cohen-missouri-trump.html

Version 0 of 1.

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. President Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, secretly recorded Mr. Trump before the 2016 election discussing payments to a former Playboy model who claimed she had an affair with him.

The Justice Department is investigating Mr. Cohen’s involvement in paying women — including the model, Karen McDougal — to tamp down embarrassing news stories about Mr. Trump ahead of the election.

Prosecutors want to know whether the payment violated federal campaign finance laws.

The Trump campaign previously denied knowledge of any payments to Ms. McDougal. But Rudolph Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, called the tape “powerful exculpatory evidence.”

_____

2. Seventeen people were killed in Missouri after a tourist boat capsized, one of the deadliest such accidents in U.S. history. Seven others were hospitalized, officials said.

The amphibious boat, or duck boat, overturned in Table Rock Lake near Branson, Mo., around 7 p.m. on Thursday as winds exceeded 60 miles per hour.

When the boat sank to the bottom of the lake, 31 people were onboard, all of whom are now accounted for, the authorities said. Above, a memorial for the victims.

_____

3. So, what does the interpreter know?

After news of President Trump’s plan to invite the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, to the White House, calls are mounting for the interpreter at their first meeting to testify.

Marina Gross, left, was the only other American in the room during the meeting on Monday. Lawmakers have already called for her notes, wary of what assurances were exchanged between a Russian leader known for blatant denials and an American president known for frequent falsehoods.

“This is an absolutely nightmarish situation for anyone to be in,” said the former head of the State Department’s interpreting division.

_____

4. President Trump doubled down on his criticism of the Fed for raising interest rates, and accused China and the E.U. of manipulating their currencies.

“The United States should not be penalized because we are doing so well,” he tweeted.

He also said the Fed’s plan to raise rates — known as tightening because it makes borrowing more expensive — “hurts all that we have done.”

And in Congress, Republican lawmakers backed away from a plan to reinstate stiff penalties on the Chinese telecom firm ZTE, handing a win to Mr. Trump, who had personally intervened to save the Beijing company.

_____

5. As Britain prepares its exit from the E.U., countries across the bloc are making contingency plans.

The E.U.’s executive arm urged countries to accelerate preparations “at all levels and for all outcomes.”

The Netherlands is boosting its ranks of customs officials. Above, a port in Rotterdam.

Belgium is weighing the need for scanners, sniffer dogs, weapons and drones to beef up post-Brexit customs surveillance.

As one British politician put it, “Nobody is suggesting that this is a desirable situation.”

_____

6. “I’m doing it for the babies.”

With a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court, many anti-abortion activists see a new opening to achieve their goal. They’re mobilizing ahead of the midterm elections

While a majority of Americans have long believed abortion should be legal in most or all cases, the vocal anti-abortion movement is working at the local level.

Separately, our reporters illustrated the difficulty of getting an abortion in Mississippi, which has some of the nation’s most restrictive laws.

_____

7. Bayer said it would stop selling Essure, a problematic birth control implant, by the end of the year.

The device, above, has prompted lawsuits from thousands of women who claim it caused severe injuries, including perforation of the uterus and the fallopian tubes.

And Merck is the latest U.S. pharmaceutical company to lower some drug prices under pressure from the Trump administration. But there’s a catch.

_____

8. Over 100 former Ohio State students have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against a team doctor and professor.

The university said in April that it would hire independent investigators to look into whether the doctor, Richard H. Strauss, committed acts of sexual misconduct against athletes and students while employed there from the mid-1970s to the 1990s.

Dr. Strauss, above, killed himself in 2005.

_____

9. Each year for the last 22 years, 10 underrecognized female artists over age 40 have received an anonymous gift of $25,000. Now the benefactor is coming forward.

Susan Unterberg, 77, above, knows firsthand the hurdles that female artists face. She’s stepping out to more openly argue on behalf of women who are artists, demonstrate the importance of women supporting women and try to inspire other philanthropists.

One recipient called the grant an “extraordinary gift,” saying, “I needed the money, but more than anything, I needed the encouragement and the support to keep making, to keep pushing.”

_____

10. Finally, this is your periodic reminder that it’s not all bad news out there. Here is the Week in Good News, including opera camps for kids; winning the battle against an infection that causes blindness; and a women’s soccer team in Zanzibar, above.

Have a great weekend.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning.

Want to catch up on past briefings? You can browse them here.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.