Your Friday Briefing

Imran Khan, Robert Mueller, Beijing Blast | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, July 27, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Friday Briefing]( By CHARLES MCDERMID Good morning. A new era in Pakistan, questions in Laos and the billionaire yogi behind India’s leader. Here’s what you need to know: Shakil Adil/Associated Press • “We’re going to run Pakistan in a way it’s never been run before.” Imran Khan, a former cricket star and fierce critic of the U.S., [addressed the nation]( after early election results [showed his party decisively ahead]( and put him on the cusp of becoming prime minister of the nuclear-armed nation. Mr. Khan vowed to fight corruption, improve relations with China and seek “mutually beneficial” ties with the U.S. He said he would create a just welfare state, as the Prophet Muhammad did centuries ago. Above, an election rally in Karachi this week. The extent of Pakistan’s poverty, he said, would keep him from ever living in the prime minister’s mansion. “I would be embarrassed,” he said. Friends and foes alike describe Mr. Khan as relentless, charming and highly unpredictable. Yet his links to the powerful Pakistani military have drawn concern: Rights groups said the army and intelligence officers [pressured, threatened and blackmailed rival politicians](. _____ Ben C. Solomon/The New York Times • Search, rescue and accountability in Laos. Times correspondents have learned that in the [days before the dam collapse in Laos]( this week, construction companies knew it was in trouble. The builders said they had warned Laotian officials, and some villages were evacuated. Even so, the dam’s failure left at least 27 people dead and displaced at least 6,600 others in Laos. In Cambodia, as many as 25,000 more people were being evacuated as the flood surge made its way south. Now, as rescue workers scramble to find the many villagers still missing, questions are mounting about whether more could have been done to prevent the disaster. _____ Doug Mills/The New York Times • President Trump may have tweeted himself into legal trouble. The special counsel, Robert Mueller, is [scrutinizing tweets and]( from the president attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, our Washington team reports. Mr. Mueller is examining whether the actions add up to attempts to obstruct the investigation by both intimidating witnesses and pressuring senior law enforcement officials to tamp down the inquiry. Mr. Trump’s lawyers said that none of the evidence Mr. Mueller is looking at constitutes obstruction. _____ Adam Ferguson for The New York Times • Striving in the South Pacific. This dispatch [explores life on the Solomon Islands]( a stunning but poor country of around 900 islands and 570,000 people facing new challenges from climate change and rising oceans. Scientists call it a global hot spot. The surrounding seas have risen about 1 cm a year since 1993, roughly three times today’s global average. Life here, our correspondent writes, is lovely, tropical and calm, but also akin to living in a bathtub with warm water pouring in and no drain to let it out. Ever. But the islands’ seaweed farmers are determined to stay as long as they can. _____ Bharat Sikka for The New York Times • The billionaire yogi behind India’s prime minister. Baba Ramdev built a business empire out of mass yoga camps and ayurvedic products. He’s been compared to Billy Graham, the Southern Baptist firebrand who advised American presidents and energized the Christian right. [The parallel makes some sense]( Ramdev has been a prominent voice on the Hindu right, and his tacit endorsement during the landmark 2014 campaign helped bring Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power. But his blend of patriotic fervor, physical health and religious piety feeds seamlessly into the harder versions of Hindu nationalism, which are often openly hostile to India’s Muslim minority. Business Rick Rycroft/Associated Press • Australia’s media mega-merger: [Nine Entertainment took over Fairfax Media]( owner of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and other publications, in a $3 billion deal. Critics said the merger exacerbated an already concentrated media market. • Facebook stock fell more than 18 percent, [erasing over $110 billion]( value]( in minutes. The plunge came a day after a poor second-quarter earnings report. • Finger pointing: The chief executive of NXP Semiconductors had harsh words for China after a[ $44 billion deal with Qualcomm collapsed](. The acquisition was terminated after it failed to secure approval from Chinese regulators before a deadline set by the companies. • Signing off: Lee Lin Chin, a fixture on the Australian public television network SBS, [resigned after 30 years as a news anchor](. Born in Jakarta, Ms. Chin was raised in Singapore and started at SBS as a translator. • U.S. stocks [were mixed](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • An explosion outside the U.S. Embassy rattled a diplomatic enclave in Beijing. A suspect was arrested. “Other than the bomber, no other people were injured and there was no damage to Embassy property,” the embassy said. [[The New York Times]( • President Trump threatened Turkey with “large sanctions” unless it freed an American pastor accused of aiding a coup attempt. [[The New York Times]( • Japan executed all six former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult. The execution came nearly three weeks after the group’s leader, Shoko Asahara, was put to death along with six other followers. [[The New York Times]( • Myanmar floods: More than 16,000 people have reportedly been displaced after heavy monsoon rains, and large areas near the Thai border have been evacuated. [[BBC]( • In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte signed a law expanding autonomy for Muslims in the country’s south. The legislation aims to bring peace to a region choked by four decades of separatist violence. [[The New York Times]( • New Zealand’s lawmakers voted to grant victims of domestic violence paid leave from work, joining the Philippines, the only other country with such legislation. Victims will get 10 days off. [[The New York Times]]( Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life. Meredith Heuer for The New York Times • Recipe of the day: Looking for a weekend project? Make [lemon gelato]( at home. • An aspirin a day may help your heart. But it [depends on your weight](. Noteworthy Ella Kelly • Australia’s endangered quolls, a type of marsupial, have quite an appetite and they’re eating themselves to death on poisonous cane toads. Now, [scientists are stepping in with a genetic boost]( “It’s just matchmaking,” said the author of a study to produce quolls that don’t like the taste of the deadly toads. • A case study in hope and trauma. [The latest Australia Letter]( catches up with Imran Mohammad, a Rohingya refugee recently resettled in the U.S. from one of Australia’s offshore detention camps. “I’ve been wanting to be a free man my whole life,” he said. • And the “amazing dragon of Lingwu.” The [discovery of fossilized dinosaur remains]( from 174 million years ago shows that big herbivores with long necks reached East Asia and evolved earlier than scientists had thought. Back Story Associated Press Last week’s Back Story about [the anniversary of the 1848 women’s convention]( in Seneca Falls, N.Y., mentioned that women won the national right to vote in the U.S. in 1920. Not all women, several readers pointed out. Voting rights have been broadened throughout U.S. history; in 1870, [the Constitution’s 15th Amendment]( granted all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race, but left out women. For this reason, some suffragists [opposed its passage](. In 1920, the 19th Amendment extended suffrage to women, but a variety of tactics were used at the state level to limit nonwhite citizens’ right to vote, including poll taxes, literacy tests, violence and whites-only primaries. ([Our video examines that history]( Native Americans were not [granted citizenship until 1924]( and were [denied the right to vote by some states]( well into the 20th century. It wasn’t until President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, above, that many of these barriers were dismantled. The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that part of the act, which has been updated several times by Congress, [was unconstitutional](. Emma McAleavy wrote today’s Back Story. _____ 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. 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