Your Monday Briefing

Singapore, G-7, Anthony Bourdain | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Monday, June 11, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Asia Edition [Your Monday Briefing]( By CHARLES MCDERMID Good morning. All eyes on Singapore, towers of Indian trash and tributes for Anthony Bourdain. Here’s what you need to know: Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images • President Trump and Kim Jong-un are in Singapore, with their on-again, off-again meeting — set to be the first encounter between a U.S. president and a North Korean leader — planned for tomorrow. Some fear [mismatched expectations](. Few analysts believe that Mr. Kim is ready to give up his nuclear arsenal for the economic help Mr. Trump could offer. They may not even define issues like “denuclearization” the same way. [Here is a look]( at the issues behind the basic terminology in question. And our Beijing bureau chief heard from analysts who say that [Chinese leaders are suddenly jittery]( that Mr. Kim might try to counterbalance their own influence by embracing Washington. _____ Doug Mills/The New York Times • The meeting in Singapore comes directly after a [contentious Group of 7 meeting](. Mr. Trump — apparently incensed by a news conference in which his host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, defended Canada’s trade policies — abandoned the G-7’s joint statement and derided Mr. Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak.” While supporters [rushed to defend the president]( (his top economic adviser said he was “not going to permit any show of weakness on a trip to negotiate with North Korea”), many others were dismayed. “This wasn’t just with Trudeau. This is with our best allies,” a Democratic senator said. “Not to sign a statement of solidarity, which stands for everything that we stand for, is a big mistake.” _____ Vincent Thian/Associated Press • Malaysia’s new leader, the 92-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, above, is aggressively ramping up an investigation into the apparent [theft of billions of dollars from the state investment fund]( established and overseen by his predecessor, Najib Razak. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that $4.5 billion went missing from the fund, known as 1MDB — including $731 million that it says was deposited into Mr. Najib’s own bank accounts. Mr. Mahathir has made investigating the scandal and recovering the money a top priority. Mr. Najib denies any wrongdoing. _____ Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times • “If this continues to happen, the city will drown in its waste.” That was an environmental official speaking about [New Delhi’s towering trash heaps](. About 80 billion pounds of garbage have accumulated at four dumpsites on the fringes of a capital already struggling with dangerously polluted air and water. The dumps in Delhi, and in cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, are some of the largest, least regulated and most hazardous in the world, a waste management expert said. Dislodged cascades can be lethal. Politicians have been slow to react, but the government has now vowed to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022. _____ Pete Souza/The White House • And tributes from around the world are pouring in for Anthony Bourdain, the celebrity chef and television host who took his life on Friday. (Read his [obituary]( and an [appraisal]( by our restaurant critic.) His death sent shock waves through the culinary industry — and through [the small French village where he died](. In Vietnam, the owner of a noodle shop in Hanoi where [Mr. Bourdain shared a $6 meal with]( Barack Obama]( in 2016, said she was shocked. “He praised our bun cha dish and its fish-sauce broth,” Nguyen Thi Nga told the Agence France-Presse. “He loved Vietnamese food.” Business Justin Wood • Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have [disagreed over the risks of artificial intelligence]( for years, including at a previously unreported dinner in 2014. Meanwhile, the fight over the future of A.I. has spread across the tech industry. • China had the world’s fastest computer for five years. As of last week, [Summit, a machine built in Tennessee]( is taking the lead. (Cooling it requires 4,000 gallons of water a minute.) • A judge is expected to rule Tuesday on the U.S. government’s effort to [block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner]( — an antitrust case that has enthralled Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Madison Avenue. Other [headlines to watch]( for this week: U.S. net neutrality rules are set to expire, and the White House will release its final list of Chinese products subject to tariffs. • “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” opened in 48 international markets, topping all of them for a tidy [$151 million]( over the weekend. • Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Reuters • Vietnamese police detained more than a dozen protesters in Hanoi carrying anti-China banners and broke up demonstrations in other cities against plans for special economic zones. Many fear that Chinese investors will snap up the zones’ beneficial, long-term leases. [[Reuters]( • The Taliban followed the Afghan government’s announcement of an eight-day cease-fire with their own three-day suspension of operations for the Muslim celebration Eid al-Fitr. [[The New York Times]( • In Japan, a man wielding a knife on a bullet train killed a male passenger and seriously injured two women in Kanagawa Prefecture. “I was in a foul mood,” the police quoted the 22-year-old suspect as saying. [[The Asahi Shimbun]( • The actress Priyanka Chopra apologized to irate fellow Indians for a recent episode of her U.S. television series “Quantico,” a spy thriller in which her character discovers a terrorist plot ahead of a summit meeting on Kashmir was planned by Hindu nationalists to frame Pakistanis. [[BBC]( • The middle path? A giant shopping mall in the western Chinese city of Xi’an is trying a novel strategy to deal with “the heads-down tribe”: pedestrian lanes specifically for people glued to their cellphones. [[The New York Times]( • Mass skinny dip: In Ireland, 2,505 women swam naked, setting a new world record to raise funds for a children’s cancer charity. “We are all different shapes and sizes and ages and it was just super,” one participant said. [[The New York Times]( Smarter Living Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life. Glenn Harvey • On learning to stop worrying and [love electric scooters](. • Our Midlife Tuneup will help you [feel young at heart](. • Recipe of the day: [Spicy Sichuan noodles]( are ready in half an hour. Noteworthy Kemal Jufri for The New York Times • Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia’s fisheries minister, isn’t backing down to China. She has seized illegal fishing boats and sometimes blown them up, [saving fish but aggravating her bosses](. (“My family thinks I am a little bit of a nut case,” she told our correspondent.) • “Glamping” at 1,320,000 feet. A new company, Axiom Space, is giving those with piles of money and an adventuresome spirit something new to lust after: [an eight-day trip to space](. Price per person: $55 million. (“It’s a bargain,” the C.E.O. said.) • And do bees know nothing? Researchers say bees have shown that they [understand the absence of things]( as a numerical quantity: none or zero. The only nonhuman animals so far to show the same understanding are primates and a single African gray parrot. Back Story Roslan Rahman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The upscale resort island in Singapore where President Trump [plans to meet Kim Jong-un tomorrow]( is named Sentosa. In Malay, the word means “tranquillity.” But the island has a troubled past. Until 1970, [it was known as Pulau Blakang Mati]( a reference to a hill there whose name means “Behind Death.” One theory holds that the island was long a sanctuary for the spirits of warriors who had been buried on an adjacent island ([which was itself associated with piracy](. Pulau Blakang Mati was also the site of a then-mysterious epidemic (probably malaria) during Singapore’s British colonial era, and one of the places where Japanese soldiers [killed thousands of Chinese male civilians]( after invading Singapore in 1942. In 1969, four years after Singapore gained independence, the government attempted to rebrand Pulau Blakang Mati by [soliciting ideas for a new name](. It later awarded $500 each to the five people who proposed “Sentosa.” A cable car was also built from Sentosa to Singapore’s main island in 1974. A local newspaper said in 1969 that the project would be the city-state’s [“trump card in its campaign to lure tourists]( Mike Ives wrote today’s Back Story. _____ This briefing was prepared for the Asian morning. You can [sign up]( to get it by email in the Australian, European or American morning. You can also 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. 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