Newsletter: Today: Russian Interference, European Edition

European leaders are increasingly concerned about meddling from Moscow — and whether President Trump will help push back.

TOP STORIES

Russian Interference, European Edition

Hacked emails. Disinformation campaigns. Allegations of money from foreign entities. It’s happened in Europe too. Officials there and in the U.S. say Russia is trying to spread political chaos across the continent in efforts reminiscent of Moscow’s interference in America’s 2016 election. European officials are worried it will keep happening, and they see little reason to hope President Trump will get tough with Russian President Vladimir Putin at their meeting this month.

More Politics

-- Some American business leaders think a trade war with China may have already started.

-- A U.S. official says Trump kept asking about invading Venezuela last year, a suggestion that stunned his aides and other leaders.

Off-Limits but Not Forgotten

The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor is one of the most-visited tourist sites in Hawaii, a place to reflect solemnly on a day that would live in infamy. But the memorial has been closed since May 6, because a connecting dock is suffering from a partial failure of its anchoring system. Figuring out a way to fix it has taken longer than anticipated, but that didn’t stop visitors from seeing the memorial from afar on Independence Day.

Visitors photograph the USS Arizona Memorial at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument in Honolulu.

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times )

Showdown at Mono Lake

For more than a century, Los Angeles has turned to the Eastern Sierra for the most precious resource that has fueled its growth: water. For just as long, the two regions have been at odds. Now, a new battle is brewing over Mono Lake, where dust storms have been on the rise. Officials there say climate change has meant less snowmelt is flowing into the lake and argue L.A. needs to take less water from the region. The city’s Department of Water and Power doesn’t see it that way.

‘You Took 32 Years of My Life’

Andrew Wilson spent 32 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit. Last year, a judge threw out his conviction and freed him. Now he’s filed a civil rights lawsuit accusing an L.A. police detective of leading the key witness in the case to falsely identify him. Though the now-retired detective defends his actions, the case has also shed light on the flaws of the age-old practice of asking witnesses to pick a suspect from a lineup.

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MUST-WATCH VIDEO

-- Students in a movie-studio-backed program at an L.A. school describe the superheroes they created. The program aims to help fix Hollywood’s inclusion problem.

CALIFORNIA

-- U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and state Sen. Kevin de León, two Democrats, are getting ready for a fight in the general election for Feinstein’s seat.

-- Gov. Jerry Brown said he would consider additional forensic testing to determine whether Kevin Cooper, sentenced to death for a quadruple murder in Chino Hills, should have a chance at clemency.

-- Service members and a few of their spouses took oaths to become U.S. citizens aboard the USS Midway Museum in San Diego as part of the Citizenship and Immigration Service’s celebration of Independence Day.

-- As dockless bicycles pop up on the streets, the city of Coronado has been impounding them and is getting ready to send some to the scrap heap.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Movie critic Justin Chang argues that “Incredibles 2” holds up a cracked mirror to present-day reality.

-- Chang also takes a look at “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and says that if you’re looking for something bright and cheery at the movies, this is it.

-- An oral history of “The Purge” film franchise: From micro-horror breakout to Trump-era cautionary tale.

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

Director Ernst Lubitsch brought a sophistication to his films that was so distinctive, it earned the nickname “the Lubitsch touch.” On Saturday, two of his most revered movies — 1939’s “Ninotchka” and 1940’s “The Shop Around the Corner” — are coming to Westwood as part of a UCLA retrospective.

NATION-WORLD

-- The 12 boys trapped in a cave in northern Thailand have been practicing wearing scuba masks, but officials said it was still too soon to attempt to extract them from more than one mile inside the cave.

-- In Britain, police say two people who fell critically ill were exposed to the nerve agent Novichok, the same material used to poison a former Russian spy in a nearby area last spring.

-- Police arrested an anti-Trump protester who climbed to the base of the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July.

-- A nonprofit group in Baltimore aims to hound young, potentially dangerous criminals into changing their ways.

BUSINESS

-- Columnist Michael Hiltzik looks at how Trump’s own Department of Health and Human Services released statistics showing Obamacare is working well for the vast majority of enrollees.

-- Pension funds are taking aim at private equity firms for exploiting a financial sleight of hand that can make even mediocre investments look brilliant.

SPORTS

-- On the Fourth of July, the Dodgers didn’t need home run fireworks to complete a sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

-- Brian Ortega is one victory away from becoming the newest UFC champion. Surfing has helped him get there.

OPINION

-- At least one industry figured out a way to use California’s ballot system for blackmail. The message to voters: Beware.

-- Don’t let Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s primary victory in New York fool you, writes columnist Doyle McManus. Democrats should keep calm and cater to the center.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- Tim Berners-Lee, the academic who came up with the idea for the World Wide Web, has watched with dismay as his creation has been used for fake news and mass surveillance. Now he has a plan to fix it. (Vanity Fair)

-- Hot enough for you? All-time heat records have been set in numerous locations around the Northern Hemisphere in the last week. (Washington Post)

-- Inside Moscow’s subway system: how the architecture of its various stops has changed over the years. (CityLab)

ONLY IN L.A.

How do you make ice out of thin air in July? At Staples Center, where the Los Angeles Kings have won two Stanley Cups this decade, they don’t use magic; they’re starting to use machines from an El Segundo company that can pull large amounts of water from indoor air to make some sweet ice for hockey, to cut the arena’s utility bills and to make fans more comfortable. Now that’s a hat trick.

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