Your Thursday Briefing

Border Children, North Korea, Global Trade | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Thursday, June 21, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Asia Edition [Your Thursday Briefing]( By CHARLES MCDERMID Good morning. President Trump’s U-turn, Fox’s bidding war, and a Bithumb heist. Here’s what you need to know: Al Drago for The New York Times • “We’ve got to be keeping families together.” In an abrupt reversal, President Trump signed an executive order to [end the separation of families at the U.S. border](. Instead, parents and children are to be detained together, indefinitely. Mr. Trump is seeking to contain a full-blown political crisis over the separations. The backlash is fierce: His policy’s most vocal defender, Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of Homeland Security, [was confronted at dinner]( by chanting protesters. All over the world, migration has grown sharply over the past 25 years. India’s diaspora has risen from fewer than seven million in 1990 to nearly 17 million, and China’s from 4.2 million to 10 million. Here’s our look at the patterns, perceptions and [global realities of immigration](. _____ Eric Piermont/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Shifting fears, shifting alliances. Britain appears to have joined the U.S. and Australia in concerns about China taking over companies that play a role in national security. [The British government is holding up]( the sale of Northern Aerospace, an airplane parts maker, to Gardner Aerospace, a bigger supplier bought last year by a Chinese industrial conglomerate. At the same time, Europe is forging alliances to counter President Trump’s trade policies. The European Union this week opened [free-trade negotiations with Australia](. _____ Ju Peng/XinHua, via Associated Press • Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, concluded a two-day trip to China that had propaganda departments in Beijing and Pyongyang working overtime. The Chinese state media [celebrated his surprise visit]( to Beijing — [his third since March]( — as a sign of a repaired relationship that would benefit the world. Not every report was positive: A conservative South Korean newspaper lamented that the process that is supposed to lead to North Korea’s denuclearization seemed to be following a “Chinese road map.” _____ Nick Perry/Associated Press • Parental leave begins. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, above, traveled to an Auckland hospital [to give birth to her first child](. Ms. Ardern, 37, is about to become the first world leader in almost three decades to give birth while in office. The last was Benazir Bhutto, who had her second child in 1990 while serving as prime minister of Pakistan. _____ Denis Sinyakov for The New York Times • An “exquisite lack of industriousness.” That’s our soccer writer on Ronaldo’s style of play in the World Cup. “It is not that he cannot run, or doesn’t want to; he is just in no hurry until he has to be.” One [Ronaldo goal was enough for a 1-0 victory]( that put Portugal on the verge of the knockout stage. It also made Morocco, now last in Group B, the first team eliminated from the World Cup. And one of the more odd World Cup moments: The infamous antidoping [lab that corrupted the Sochi Olympics]( is now a gastro pub, above. Here’s our full [World Cup coverage](. Business Drew Angerer/Getty Images • Bidding war for 21st Century Fox: [Disney upped its offer 35 percent]( to $71.3 billion, about $6 billion more than Comcast’s, for Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment conglomerate. Stock in all [three companies rose](. Above, Bob Iger, chief executive officer of Disney. • Instagram is launching [IGTV, a new feature for vertically shot video]( that be up to an hour long, a move that opens direct competition with Google’s YouTube and Instagram’s own parent company, Facebook. • Volkswagen and Ford are [exploring]( strategic partnership]( the latest example of rivals joining forces in the face of bigger threats, like those from electric cars, and other new technology. • Bithumb, the world’s sixth-largest cryptocurrency exchange, reported that [cybercriminals stole $31.5 million in digital currency]( from users’ accounts. Another South Korean exchange, Coinrail, was robbed of an even larger amount less than two weeks earlier. • Do you know where your L.G.B.T. pride T-shirt comes from? Some are [manufactured in countries where it is illegal to be gay]( or persecution is common, like China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia. • General Electric, the last original member of the Dow Jones industrial average, was [replaced by the Walgreens Boots Alliance]( drugstore chain. • U.S. stocks [were up](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • “Pervasive war crimes” in Syria. U.N. investigators issued a damning report on the brutal siege of rebel-held eastern Ghouta, citing the starvation of civilians and indiscriminate bombardment by Syrian government forces and their allies but omitting damning details about chemical attacks. [[The New York Times]( • In Afghanistan, the Taliban killed at least 30 Afghan soldiers and overran two military outposts, indicating the start of a bloody new phase after the end of cease-fires by both sides. [[The New York Times]]( • Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, plans to pour at least $80 million into the 2018 election in an effort to expel Republicans from power. [[The New York Times]( • Hungary passed a law criminalizing aid to migrants, with penalties of up to a year in jail. [[The New York Times]( • In Cambodia, former security guards protested their firing from the U.S. Embassy, saying they had been falsely accused of sharing child pornography. Thirty-two workers were dismissed in April. [[The Phnom Penh Post]( Smarter Living Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life. • Five places to visit that also host [great food festivals](. • Putting together a reading list? Here’s [a wide selection of books to choose from](. • Recipe of the day: Keep things simple, and make a [loaded baked potato](. Noteworthy Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press • The aftermath of a volcano. The Fuego volcano buried one Guatemalan village in sand, ash, rocks and tree trunks. Using augmented reality, [we captured what was left](. • In memoriam. [Kazuo Kashio]( 89, a founder of Casio Computer, which popularized the pocket calculator, the shock-resistant wristwatch and the preview screen on digital cameras. And [P]( Thomson]( 88, an Australian golfer who won five British Opens and encouraged the development of golf in Asia. • And a deadly taboo: In Nepal, women and girls are considered polluted and banished from their homes when they get their periods. [Many die as a result](. Back Story Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press Female athletes gained a prominent new stage in the U.S. on this day in 1997, when the Women’s National Basketball Association began play. With backing from the N.B.A., the women’s league initially featured eight teams and a distinctive orange-and-oatmeal-colored ball. The inaugural game brought together teams from two of the nation’s biggest markets, the New York Liberty and the Los Angeles Sparks. But before the game was even set to tip, a frenzy ensued. The musician who was supposed to sing the national anthem before the game, Jeffrey Osborne, was late. “He was stuck in traffic,” Val Ackerman, the league’s first president, told ESPN for [a story about the 20th anniversary of the game](. “So that created some chaos at the beginning. They had to use a recording of the anthem.” That did nothing to ease the doubts about the league’s potential success, but Rebecca Lobo, who played for New York in that first game, [urged naysayers to give it a chance](. “People can say whatever they want at this point, but they should turn on the game and make their judgments,” she said. The league’s attendance [eclipsed 1 million]( in its first year and [finished last season above 1.5 million](. Adriana Lacy wrote today’s Back Story. _____ This briefing was prepared for the Asian morning.  [Sign up here]( 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. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018