Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Asia and Australia Edition

Your Tuesday News Briefing: South Korea, Taiwan, the Emmys

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

Good morning. South Korea seeks to end the war with the North, China accuses Taiwan of espionage and the Emmys honor the best of American TV. Here’s what you need to know:

Image
Credit...Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

An end to the Korean War?

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea begins a three-day trip to Pyongyang today. Above, posters in Seoul promoting the meeting.

He shares a goal with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, for their third summit meeting: taking steps toward declaring an end to the Korean War.

Though a 1953 truce ended the fighting between the American-led U.N. forces defending the South and the Communist forces of North Korea and China, a peace treaty was never signed.

The North has long sought such an agreement, which could strengthen its campaign for a withdrawal of American troops from South Korea. The U.S. has strong reservations as North Korea continues to build up its nuclear arsenal.

_____

Image
Credit...Sam Yeh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Fresh cross-strait tensions.

China accused Taiwan’s intelligence agencies of targeting mainland university students for information, further straining relations.

Taiwan responded by accusing Beijing of expanding its own “espionage activities beyond its borders.”

China has long sought to bring Taiwan under its control and has taken an increasingly aggressive approach in recent years, particularly toward President Tsai Ing-wen, above, and her party. China has ramped up military exercises near Taiwan’s borders and poached many of its foreign allies.

China is also confronting Sweden over reports of a hostile welcome for three of its citizens.

_____

Image
Credit...Jes Aznar for The New York Times

Typhoon Mangkhut and its aftermath.

Emergency workers, above, in the Philippines pulled 40 bodies from the muddied wreckage of a landslide. The country’s unofficial death toll stands at 66, though that number is expected to rise.

In China, the storm killed at least four people. In Hong Kong, debris disrupted workers’ commutes.

In the U.S., Hurricane Florence brought record rain to the Carolinas, damaging tens of thousands of homes and leaving at least 23 people dead.

_____

Image
Credit...Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

•Stepping up the U.S.-China trade war.

President Trump is expected to announce a 10 percent tariff on another $200 billion in Chinese goods, a significant escalation in an already tense standoff.

Together with the previously imposed tariffs, nearly half of Chinese goods entering the U.S. would now be taxed.

While previous tariffs were aimed at industrial products, this round could raise prices for food, tools, housewares and electronics, including Apple products.

_____

_____

Image
Credit...SpaceX, via Reuters

• Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, will name the first passenger signed up for a round-the-moon trip on a yet-to-be-built rocket, rendering above. You can watch the live announcement here this morning. And two investors betting against Tesla spoke with The Times to explain why they believe Mr. Musk’s other company is headed for trouble.

• Amazon is investigating claims that sellers on its platform bribed employees to share confidential sales data and delete negative product reviews, after reportedly being tipped off about the practice in China.

• Time magazine is about to have new owners: Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce, and his wife will buy it for $190 million in cash. “I didn’t realize two weeks ago I was going to buy Time,” he told The Times in a text message.

• U.S. stocks were down. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

Image
Credit...Erin Schaff for The New York Times

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, above, said he was willing to testify about sexual assault allegations against him — and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, also said she was willing to testify. [The New York Times]

Footage of a South Korean pastor physically abusing her followers has emerged amid an investigation into claims that she was running a cult in Fiji. [The Guardian]

• • The administration announced that it will cap the number of refugees that can be resettled in the U.S. next year at 30,000, the lowest ceiling since 1980. [The New York Times]

• Hillary Clinton, in a scathing critique of President Trump, said American democracy is in crisis. “I hoped that my fears for our future were overblown,” she wrote. “They were not.” [The Atlantic]

India will unveil the world’s largest statue next month, of the independence leader Sardar Patel, measuring 182 meters tall. [The Guardian]

Saltmarsh sparrows that breed in marshes along the U.S. Atlantic coast are teetering on the brink of extinction because of rising sea levels caused by climate change. [The New York Times]

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

Image
Credit...George Wylesol

Here are some tips for cooking in your first kitchen.

Try giving a wedding gift that will help newlyweds relax.

Recipe of the day: This recipe for classic plum torte has been delighting readers since 1983.

Today’s word is apotheosis: Used in 45 articles on our website in the past year, the noun refers to a person or thing that is so excellent, it has no match.

Image
Credit...Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards kick off in a few hours. In drama, it’ll likely be a showdown between two former champions: HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Two relatively new shows — FX’s “Atlanta” and Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” — may upend the comedy category. Follow our live coverage here. Above, the presenters Colin Jost and Michael Che.

Kashmir’s Gurez Valley is a peaceful nook in a contentious region straddling one of the world’s most militarized borders, between India and Pakistan. One writer who visited the isolated Shangri-La a decade ago found that its picturesque mountainscape and tumbling waterfalls are now slowly opening up to tourism.

In memoriam: Shan Tianfang, who revived the pingshu storytelling tradition after China’s Cultural Revolution with renditions of classical Chinese novels and historical events. He was 83.

Image
Credit...The New York Times

Please indulge us today as we tell a Back Story that’s close to home: our own.

On this day in 1851, the first edition of The New York Times was printed. (See the front page here.)

Then called the New-York Daily Times, the paper was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones.

The first edition cost one penny and lacked any imagery or color.

The founders declared that the newspaper would be issued every morning but Sunday, “for an indefinite number of years to come.” (Ten years later, The Times was among several papers that started Sunday editions to accommodate demand for news of the Civil War.)

During a time when sensationalist journalism was commonplace in media, The Times vowed to avoid such tactics in favor of neutral, fact-based reporting.

“We do not believe that everything in Society is either exactly right or exactly wrong,” Mr. Raymond said in the introductory article of the paper’s first edition. “What is good we desire to preserve and improve; what is evil, to exterminate, or reform.”

Throughout the years, the paper would shorten its name to The New-York Times and eventually drop the hyphen in favor of its current style. Read more about the history of The Times here.

Adriana Lacy wrote today’s Back Story.

_____

Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning. You can also receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights.

And our Australia bureau chief offers a weekly letter adding analysis and conversations with readers.

Browse our full range of Times newsletters here.

What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes.com.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT