The news, but shorter. Your daily wrap-up for the day in news. Subscribe to get Vox Sentences delivered straight to your inbox.

This story is part of a group of stories called

Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what's happening in the world, curated by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions.

Merkel doesn’t mince words; a racially motivated attack in Portland; the Kushner plot thickens.

Trans-Nahtlanticism

German Chancellor Angela Merkel doesn’t usually make sweeping declarations about policy. So when she declared during a speech on Sunday in Munich that “The times in which we could completely depend on others are, to a certain extent, over. [...] We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands,” observers sat up and took notice. [The Guardian / Jon Henley]

Merkel didn’t mention Donald Trump by name. But her speech was clearly a reaction to having dealt with Trump at the NATO and G7 summits last week, as well as dealing with British Prime Minister Theresa May (as Britain prepares for Brexit negotiations). [Politico.eu / Paul Taylor]

Merkel’s foreign minister was even more pointed on Monday: “The short-sighted policies of the American government stand against the interests of the European Union.” [CNN / James Masters]

It’s worth noting that these are statements being made by politicians during a campaign season (Germany has parliamentary elections in September). In particular, Merkel’s call for Europe to start standing up for its own defense is a jab at her rivals on the left, who object to her belief that Germany should move toward the NATO guideline of spending 2 percent of its GDP on defense. [The Economist / J.C.]

But Merkel is also bolstering her pro-European cred — she and newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron (who’s facing parliamentary elections of his own this summer) are leaning into a Franco-German alliance to bolster both Europe and their own political viability. [Politico / Paul Taylor]

The Trump administration appears entirely pleased with these developments. The president tweeted some angry things about Germany after returning to the US over the weekend, but press secretary Sean Spicer spent Tuesday making it sound like Germany was now doing exactly what the US wanted. [NYT / Alison Smale and Steven Erlanger]

And while after previous Trump contretemps with allies, the State Department has stepped in to smooth things over, Rex Tillerson appears to be contentedly silent on the matter. [Washington Post / Dan Drezner]

To be sure, you don’t have to be a Trump supporter to believe it would be a good thing for the US to spend less money defending some of the world’s richest countries. [Reason / Matt Welch]

But the political message here is arguably more important — and worrisome for Trump. As Seth Masket points out, Merkel appears to believe that maintaining a close alliance with the US is a political liability for her. If other allies start to conclude the same, that’s an extremely bad sign. [Pacific Standard / Seth Masket​]

vox-mark Sign up for the newsletter Vox Sentences Get our newsletter in your inbox Monday through Friday. Email (required) By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. For more newsletters, check out our newsletters page Subscribe

American heroes

When the Kushner’s dank and the leaks are grim

Miscellaneous

Verbatim

“Child actors portray children as adults imagine children to be.” [Elena Ferrante to NYT / Jason Horowitz]

“Women in this world were treated much like those in The Handmaid’s Tale — most, like my mom, didn’t have their own bank accounts, didn’t have their own email addresses, and couldn’t leave the home without permission from their husbands. They were called helpmeets, a word taken from the King James Version of the Bible, which refers to wives as created to meet the needs of their husbands and be helpers to them.” [The Establishment / Hannah Ettinger]

“In Napoleon’s time, when they had won some victory, it was some celebratory thing where they take a fucking saber and chop off the goddamn head of these champagne bottles. Because all they drank was champagne. The whole thing is insane. You can just pop the cork. You’re really making alcohol violent.” [T.J. Miller to A.V. Club / Marah Eakin]

“Don’t date someone from work. What if you break up? … Don’t date someone who lives in your building. What are you thinking? What if you break up? … So you’re thinking of dating your local bartender, barista, or the person who once served you waffles. My question to you is: Have you lost your goddamn mind? What if you break up?" [McSweeney’s / Chas Gillespie]

“Since Karl Marx, we have made a habit of seeking material causes for human progress. But the modern world came from treating more and more people with respect.” [NYT / Deirdre McCloskey]

Watch this: How obsessive artists colorize old photos

Photo colorization artists use a combination of research, physics, and technology to digitally reconstruct history's black-and-white record. [Vox / Coleman Lowndes]

Read more

The Bullshitter-in-Chief

Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and the fight to find the antidote to Trumpism

Russia and Ukraine got in a Twitter fight. There’s a Simpsons GIF.

How Wonder Woman’s Gal Gadot pronounces “Gal Gadot”

What happens if you replace every social program with a universal basic income