Your Friday Briefing

China Trade, Hawaii, Malcolm Turnbull | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, August 24, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Asia Edition [Your Friday Briefing]( By CHARLES MCDERMID Good morning. A showdown in Canberra, profits and protections in China and images of an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon. Here’s what you need to know: Reuters • China’s difficult game. Trade talks in Washington were not expected to yield much. American tariffs on another $16 billion worth of Chinese imports have gone into effect, and President Trump is helping shape a new law that will beef up blocks to foreign investment. As the trade war intensifies, China’s economy is slowing. So [Beijing is pushing banks to lend more]( allowing indebted local governments to spend money on big projects again, and shoring up the value of the country’s currency. But [Alibaba hasn’t missed a beat]( China’s e-commerce leviathan reported a rise in sales of more than 60 percent in the latest quarter compared with a year earlier — even as many [Chinese consumers are cutting back](. And trade wars aside, there’s a futuristic tilt to a chunk of the Chinese economy that redefines the role of the human. An art critic and The Times’s former Shanghai bureau chief discuss exactly that [as they share thoughts on “Asia One,”]( a video installation by the Guangzhou-born artist Cao Fei, on view in New York. _____ Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times • Washington turmoil. Senior Republican leaders, fearing more scandals, started urging their most imperiled incumbents to [speak out about the wrongdoing surrounding President Trump]( — even as Mr. Trump seemed to be digging in. Attorney General Jeff Sessions [pushed back against Mr. Trump’s recent attack]( on him over the Russia investigation. “While I am attorney general,” Mr. Sessions said in a rare public statement, “the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Mr. Trump waded into new territory. He said on Twitter that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study “the large scale killing of farmers” in South Africa, which is disputed by official figures and one farmers’ group. [Here is an explanation of the issues](. And the arrest of an undocumented immigrant in the killing of an Iowa college student, [Mollie Tibbetts]( has inflamed the country’s immigration debate. _____ Mick Tsikas/EPA, via Shutterstock • Canberra’s revolving door. [Three rivals are expected to challenge Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull]( in a party ballot today: his return foe Peter Dutton; the treasurer, Scott Morrison; and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. “The public hate what is going on,” Mr. Turnbull said of the focus on party strife rather than governance. No Australian prime minister has completed a full term in more than a decade. He said he would resign from Parliament if deposed. And [Australia banned two Chinese companies, Huawei and ZTE,]( from helping supply the country’s new 5G telecommunications networks. Two Australian ministers, including Mr. Morrison, made clear their concern over security risks from foreign companies. _____ Dar Yasin/Associated Press • At least 581 years. That’s how long it would take for the world’s [1.8 billion Muslims to all make the pilgrimage to Mecca]( a once-in-a-lifetime obligation. We analyzed the available data. At least a quarter of pilgrims every year come from Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government sets quotas for other countries based on their Muslim populations. But even majority-Muslim countries can send only a fraction of their citizens. In Indonesia — with the world’s largest Muslim population, more than 200 million — the wait time can range from seven to 37 years. _____ FUNAI, via Associated Press • A glimpse of a world apart. Drone video footage has revealed the first images of an [isolated Amazon tribe that had no known contact]( with the outside world. The National Indian Foundation, a Brazilian government agency commonly known as Funai, captured the images, including of tools and the thatched hut above. Funai said its team had traveled more than 110 miles in “boats, trucks, motorcycles” and about 75 miles “on foot through dense forest” to reach the location. Business Beck Diefenbach/Reuters • Detect and delete: Facebook and other tech companies, for all of their wealth and security teams, often rely on outside firms and researchers. Here’s how FireEye, a cybersecurity firm, [helped]( remove more than 650 fake accounts]( and pages intended to influence global politics. • “Small Fry”: Lisa Brennan-Jobs has [written a memoir about her famous father]( Steve Jobs. The details are damning, but she doesn’t want them to be. • What’s behind the record U.S. bull market? [Here are three stealth drivers]( a tame Wall Street, the Fed and lack of competition. • U.S. stocks [were down](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Reuters • Hurricane Lane: The rare Category 4 storm lashed Hawaii’s Big Island on Thursday morning. Check our live briefing. [[The New York Times]( • The U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, announced that he would travel to North Korea next week and take with him Stephen Biegun, a Ford Motor executive and former White House aide, to help lead the negotiations. [[The New York Times]( • China forced an American reporter for Buzzfeed to leave the country. Megha Rajagopalan has written extensively about the surveillance and mass incarceration of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. [[The New York Times]( • Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, resurfaced in the first audio recording of him to be released in nearly a year. He called on followers to attack Westerners with knives, guns, cars and bombs. [[The New York Times]( • Hong Kong’s murder trial: An Indonesian maid revealed details in court about the complicated life of a Malaysian doctor accused of killing his wife and daughter using a gas-filled yoga ball. [[South China Morning Post]( • Breakthrough game: As the U.S. Open begins this week, Naomi Osaka, 20, is poised to burst into the top tier of women’s tennis. Can she also burst Japan’s expectations of what it means to be Japanese? [[The New York Times]( Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life. Melina Hammer for The New York Times • Recipe of the day: The best (and easiest) [vanilla ice cream](. • In skin care products: [What is an essence?]( • We’ve got answers to your [questions about running](. Noteworthy Vincent Tullo for The New York Times • “Calm down, it says; come closer.” Holland Cotter, the co-chief art critic of The Times, [shows us why this statue of the Buddha]( probably cast in northern India in the early seventh century, has captured his heart. • New Indian design: [Ruchika Sachdeva]( 31, has been called “a bellwether for a new kind of generational change.” This year, she won the Woolmark Prize (past winners: Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent) with her label, Bodice Studio. • And a “blended family”: Her mother was Neanderthal, her father something else entirely. Genetic analysis of bones discovered in a Siberian cave hint that the prehistoric world may have [been filled with “hybrid” humans](. Back Story Sam Hodgson for The New York Times Get out the cast iron skillets, your best-looking livestock and indulge in fried Snickers. It’s the height of state fair season across the U.S., when competitors young and old vie for blue ribbons and a ride on the midway. The oldest continuously run agricultural fair in North America is the [Hants County Exhibition]( in Nova Scotia, dating to 1765. But America’s state fair tradition dates to 1807, when Elkanah Watson, a businessman in Pittsfield, Mass., showcased his merino sheep under an elm tree on the public square. The sheep [drew such a crowd]( that Mr. Watson formed the Berkshire Agricultural Society. The society’s [first livestock competition in 1811]( had 383 sheep, seven bulls, 109 oxen, nine cows, three heifers, two calves and one boar. Today, there are about [2,000 fairs]( across the country. (Your Back Story writer recently competed in her own [local fair]( last week.) In recent years, state fairs have become a test ground for presidential ambitions, most notably the [Iowa State Fair](. “Be one of the crowd,” one fairgoer suggested for budding presidential candidates. “Be one of the people that can actually relate.” See you at the fair! Remy Tumin 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](. 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