Your Friday Briefing

Russia, Malala, North Korea | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, March 30, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Asia Edition [Your Friday Briefing]( By CHARLES MCDERMID AND INYOUNG KANG Good morning. The Koreas set a meeting date, a homecoming in Pakistan, and lives adrift on Cambodia’s waterways. Here’s what you need to know: Yulia Skripal, via Facebook, via Associated Press • Russia hits back. The Kremlin announced that it would [expel 150 Western diplomats and close the American]( in St. Petersburg]( as tit-for-tat retaliation continues over a nerve-agent attack on British soil that London and its allies have blamed on Moscow. Britain said it would [review the cases of 700 wealthy Russians]( who were granted visas largely because they could invest millions of dollars. It also signaled an openness to blocking the Russian government from British financial markets. The moves came on a day of good news in the poisoning attack. [Yulia Skripal, above, who was attacked with her father]( Sergei Skripal, “is no longer in a critical condition.” _____ Pool photo • It’s a date. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea [agreed to meet for the first time on April 27](. They’ll get together at the truce village of Panmunjom at Peace House, meaning that Mr. Kim would become the first leader from the North to set foot in the South since the Korean War. Mr. Kim has signaled that he would meet with President Trump, though no date has been set. _____ Press Information Department, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • “I never wanted to leave my country.” Malala Yousafzai, the world’s youngest Nobel laureate, [returned to Pakistan for the first time since she was gravely wounded]( there by a Taliban attack in 2012. Ms. Yousafzai, now studying at Oxford, is expected to stay mostly in Islamabad, the capital, during her four-day visit. She met Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday. “I am just 20 years old, but I have seen a lot in life,” said Ms. Yousafzai, speaking in a choked voice about how she watched the Swat region slide into extremism and terrorism. _____  • “My only remorse is not being able to do more than dedicating my life to my country.” Our [Overlooked series]( remembers the life of [Yu Gwan-sun, a Korean independence activist]( who organized peaceful protests against Japan’s colonial rule. “Even if my fingernails are torn out, my nose and ears are ripped apart, and my legs and arms are crushed,” she wrote in prison, “this physical pain does not compare to the pain of losing my nation.” Ms. Yu was tortured to death at 17 but is remembered as the face of Korea’s 35-year fight for independence. _____ Adrea Frazzetta/Institute for The New York Times • In Cambodia, hundreds of floating villages, comprising tens of thousands of families, thrive on the Tonle Sap River and the lake of the same name. Some of the villages, [a reporter for the Times wrote]( “are labyrinthine extensions of shore towns, with broad Venetian canals and twisting alleyways, floating temples, churches, schoolrooms and oil-black ice factories.” The villages are home almost exclusively to ethnic Vietnamese, a minority whose status in Cambodian society is also perpetually adrift. Business Glenn Harvey • The Facebook scandal was a reminder: You’ve entrusted your digital life to a surveillance machine. Can social media be saved? [Our columnist offers some solutions](. • An astonishing $100 billion: That’s how much [Facebook]( lost in market capitalization]( since Feb. 2. The plunge has investors wary of other social media and internet stocks. • Detailed negotiations no more. President Trump wants to remake global trade in a matter of months. Here’s [how he’s trying to do it](. • The U.S. plans to invoke an [emergency law to limit Chinese investment]( in sensitive technological sectors, ranging from microchips to 5G wireless. • Weeks after it was seized by the Chinese government, [Anbang Insurance is still offering “you snooze, you lose” investments]( that sound conservative — they are anything but. • U.S. stocks [were up](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Ashwini Bhatia/Associated Press • Indian officials were ordered to stay away from next weekend’s “Thank You India” events hosted by the Dalai Lama, ahead of tense meetings with Beijing. [[The New York Times]( • Amal Clooney, the prominent human rights lawyer, joined the legal team representing two Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar. [[Reuters]( • Ecuador again cut off internet access for Julian Assange, who lives in its embassy in London, amid concerns that he’s harming the country’s international relationships. [[The New York Times]( • “I know I’ll regret this for the rest of my life.” Steve Smith, the disgraced former captain of the Australia cricket team, broke down in tears as he apologized on live television for a cheating scandal that has shocked the sport. [[The New York Times]( • In Venezuela, at least 68 people died after a fire broke out during a riot at a jail in the northern city of Valencia. [[The New York Times]( • “I’m really happy now.” Eiko Kadono, 83, the Japanese children’s author known for “Majo no Takkyubin” (“Kiki’s Delivery Service”), won the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award, considered the Nobel Prize of children’s literature. [[The Asahi Shimbun]( Smarter Living Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life. • Improve public health through [proper sneezing etiquette](. • Use these tips to throw a healthy and relaxed [dinner party](. • Recipe of the day: End the week with a quick, delicious dinner of [pan-roasted salmon with jalapeño](. Noteworthy Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The New York Times • A farewell wave: Mick Fanning, [a three-time world champion surfer and Australian hero]( who gained fame for punching a shark, is leaving the sport this week after his final competition. Above, Mr. Fanning in a smoke ritual on Wednesday. • License to thrill: With spies in the news, a [new $50 million espionage museum]( has opened in New York. It’s “part museum, part ride,” our reporter writes. • Last week we told you about Ata, a tiny mummy once rumored to be an alien. Now, [Chile wants to know how the skeleton was exhumed]( and smuggled abroad, and researchers have called the medical study unethical. Back Story Andy Lyons/Getty Images College basketball’s signature tournament has reached its peak: The Final Four is on Saturday, setting up the championship game on Monday. [Here’s our full coverage](. The N.C.A.A. tournament, also known as the Big Dance, is among the most cherished rites of American sports. About 350 colleges and universities field a team in the top division, compared with 65 in football. At the end of the regular season, 68 teams move on to a knockout tournament. The first [men’s tournament was held in 1939]( and for more than a decade only eight teams were invited. The women’s tourney started in 1982. The moniker “March Madness” became part of pop vernacular in the mid-1980s, stemming from the David-versus-Goliath upsets that always shock players, coaches, fans and bookmakers. The odds of picking a [perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion](. Even so, it’s almost a duty of U.S. citizenship to fill out a tournament bracket. (Last year, ESPN.com reported that [some 70 million brackets were filled out]( and a total of $10.4 billion was wagered.) The survivors this year are Michigan, Kansas, Villanova and Loyola-Chicago, a team that entered as a 300-to-1 underdog and wasn’t even supposed to win its first game. March Madness indeed. Matt Futterman contributed reporting. _____ This briefing was prepared for the Asian morning. You can also [sign up]( to get the briefing in the Australian, European or American morning. [Sign up here]( to receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights. Browse our full range of Times newsletters [here](. What would you like to see here? Contact us at [asiabriefing@nytimes.com](mailto:asiabriefing@nytimes.com?subject=Briefing%20Feedback%20(Asia)). LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW NYTimes [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytimes]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Morning Briefing: Asia Edition newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018