Your Thursday Briefing

South Korea, John Brennan, Genoa | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Thursday, August 16, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Asia Edition [Your Thursday Briefing]( By CHARLES MCDERMID Good morning. Milestones in U.S. politics, outrage over an Australian senator’s remark and increasing violence in Afghanistan. Here’s what you need to know: Hilary Swift for The New York Times • A night of upsets and breakthroughs. In the U.S., Democrats [delivered groundbreaking victories]( in Tuesday’s primaries for a transgender woman in Vermont, a Muslim woman in Minnesota and an African-American woman in Connecticut. Christine Hallquist, the Vermont Democrat, above, could [become America’s first transgender governor]( a remarkable milestone, even in an election year already dominated by an influx of women and a record number of candidates who identify as lesbian, gay, transgender or queer. Here are [four]( takeaways]( and [the full primary results](. Separately, newspapers across the U.S. are publishing editorials [rejecting President Trump’s repeated verbal attacks]( on the news media. [Here is The Times’ essay](. _____ Ercin Top/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Panic in Turkey. Prices are soaring, sales are off and everyone is quoting the exchange rate. A standoff between Turkey and the U.S. has [accelerated a long decline in the Turkish lira]( — which has lost 25 percent of its value since last week — over fears of an economic meltdown. The crisis is [a heavy blow to]( Recep Tayyip Erdogan]( above, who appears to be going down the same ill-fated path that was taken by the failed authoritarian leaders of Venezuela and Zimbabwe. And though joint operations between U.S. and Turkish troops are still being planned against the Islamic State, some officials worry about [Turkey’s reliability as a battlefield partner](. _____ Mick Tsikas/Epa, via Shutterstock • A “shocking insult.” Australian leaders across the political spectrum [condemned Senator Fraser Anning]( above, who invoked a Nazi euphemism for genocide by calling for a “final solution to the immigration problem.” The remarks came during a speech in Parliament in which Mr. Anning proposed a national plebiscite on banning all Muslims from entering the country. He later said he had not meant to invoke Nazi language. Anne Aly, the first Muslim woman elected to Parliament, broke into tears as she spoke about the speech: “I’m tired of fighting. I’m tired of having to stand up against hate, against vilification, time and time and time again.” _____ Italian Firefighters Corps, via Associated Press • Morandi Bridge: a horror, but no surprise. As deaths from a catastrophic bridge collapse in Genoa, Italy, rose to 39, [demands mounted to hold someone accountable](. For years the bridge had required constant repairs, and experts in government, industry and academia had raised alarms that it was deteriorating and possibly dangerous. The trouble was so widely understood that one of Italy’s leading newspapers declared in a headline: “Alibis are useless because everyone knew.” Here’s a look at [seven of the deadliest infrastructure collapses]( since the early 20th century. _____ Adam Amengual for The New York Times • Turning out for “Crazy Rich Asians.” From New York City to Los Angeles, Houston to Honolulu, prominent Asian-Americans and others have [rented out dozens of theaters]( for special screenings of the newly released movie. [Here’s our review]( and, above, a screening in Southern California last week. The campaign — armed with the hashtag [#GoldOpen]( — aims to fuel interest in a film that could be a pathway for greater Asian-American representation in Hollywood, which organizers as well as the film’s creators and stars [say is long overdue](. Business Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, offered a [bold plan for economic cooperation with North Korea]( including joint economic zones and a linked rail network — provided that the North takes steps toward giving up its nuclear weapons. • Tencent, the Chinese internet giant, [missed earnings targets]( and posted a slowdown in profit growth for the first time in more than a decade. • New Zealand banned most [foreigners from buying homes]( honoring a campaign pledge of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Australians are exempt from the ban. • And in China, new regulations will allow rainbow trout to be labeled and sold [in the country as salmon](. (Social media reaction was swift: “Let’s label the crayfish a lobster instead,” one Weibo user suggested.) • U.S. stocks [were weaker](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Reuters • Attacks in Afghanistan: Taliban insurgents overran an Afghan Army base and a police checkpoint, killing at least 39 soldiers and police officers, and a suicide bomber in the capital, Kabul, killed at least 48 people in a classroom. [[The New York Times]( • President Trump revoked the security clearance of John Brennan, the former C.I.A. director under President Barack Obama, citing what he called Mr. Brennan’s “erratic” behavior. [[The New York Times]( • More pressure on Pyongyang: The U.S. government announced new sanctions that target one individual and three shipping companies in China, Russia and Singapore for violating restrictions on trade with North Korea. [[The New York Times]( • A court in Malaysia will make its first ruling in the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korea’s leader. The two Southeast Asian women accused in the killing could be acquitted or called to enter their defense. [[A.P.]( • The police in London identified a Sudanese-born Briton as the driver who plowed a car into three people and crashed outside Parliament, but were still searching for a motive. [[The New York Times]( • Mass arson in Sweden: The authorities were investigating the burning of more than 100 vehicles, in what they say was a coordinated attack by groups of young men. [[The New York Times]( • “I’m here.” In Japan, a 2-year-old boy missing on a mountain for three days was found safe and “sitting on a moss-covered rock in the middle of a mountain stream, with his feet dangling in the water.” [[The Asahi Shimbun]( Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life. Carol Sachs for The New York Times • Recipe of the day: A [tomato and pomegranate salad]( harnesses great flavors. • How to be an [ace salary negotiator](. • Your workplace isn’t your family and [that’s O.K](. Noteworthy Bryan Anselm for The New York Times • When Sikh immigrants began arriving in New Jersey in large numbers in the 1980s, the only temple they had was a tent. Now the [ascent of three Sikh Americans in the state]( — a mayor, attorney general and an activist, above — underscores the group’s rise to prominence nationwide. • “Let us have a childhood.” Our reporter spent three days with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who have [traveled the country in pursuit of stricter gun laws]( after a gunman massacred 17 of their classmates and staff in Parkland, Fla., six months ago. • The China Sudoku Championship took place this past weekend, and the first day was devoted to children. Will Shortz, our crossword editor and the chairman of the World Puzzle Federation, [reports from Beijing](. Back Story Associated Press Charles Bukowski, [the prolific poet and novelist]( whose work has been called [“aggressively vulgar and clandestinely sensitive,”]( offered plenty of musings on [drinking]( [love and cats](. But the best advice from the “[King of the Underground]( who was born in Germany on this day in 1920, might be “Don’t try.” Those words appear on [Mr. Bukowski’s tombstone]( and some fans feel they align with advice from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “The world is won by those who let it go! But when you try and try, the world is then beyond the winning.” With that philosophy, however, it would be difficult to produce as much as Mr. Bukowski did. Abel Debritto, who has written extensively about him, said Mr. Bukowski wrote about 5,000 poems. He also left his publisher a trove of unpublished work after he died in 1994, and it has been steadily released posthumously. Mr. Debritto said the poet’s earliest written reference to the motto is in a letter from 1963: “You don’t try. That’s very important,” he said in explaining the creative process. “It’s like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it.” Robb Todd 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. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018