Your Tuesday Briefing

Poland, SpaceX, Syria | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Tuesday, September 18, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Europe Edition [Your Tuesday Briefing]( By ANDREA KANNAPELL AND NANCY WARTIK Good morning. A big moment for the Polish president, an escalation in the U.S.-China trade war and history written in Europe’s glaciers. Here’s the latest: Andrew Taylor/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Poland’s president arrives in Washington. Andrzej Duda, the far-right Polish leader, [makes his first official White House visit]( today, as concerns deepen over his country’s anti-democratic drift. He’s returning a visit President Trump paid to Warsaw in July 2017, which critics said emboldened Mr. Duda and his party, Law and Justice, to purge Poland’s Supreme Court in pursuit of their nationalist agenda. Above, Mr. Duda in Australia last month. Brussels has become so concerned about Poland’s direction that it has moved to invoke Article 7 of the E.U. treaty for a potential breach of obligations. And on Monday, Poland was suspended from the body representing E.U. judiciaries. _____ Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • The Trump agenda. The administration in Washington made significant moves on two fronts: escalating the trade war with China and limiting refugees. New [tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods]( are to begin next Monday, on top of the $50 billion imposed earlier this year. That means nearly half of China’s exports to the U.S. will be under levy. Above, a textile factory in China’s central province of Henan. [U.S. markets had fallen]( ahead of President Trump’s expected announcement, which included the threat to tax all of China’s products. We’re watching global markets. The cap for refugees that can be resettled in the U.S. will be cut by a third next year, to 30,000, the [lowest ceiling a president has placed on the refugee program]( since its creation in 1980. _____ Jes Aznar for The New York Times • Disaster tolls in Asia, the U.S. and Africa. [The damage from Typhoon Mangkhut]( is emerging, even as the storm weakens. Worst hit was the Philippines, where more than 100 people are believed to have been killed. Our reporter reached the Cordillera Mountains, above, where [the bodies of more than 40 gold miners]( were pulled from a landslide’s muddied wreckage. In China, at least four people died; in Hong Kong, commutes and air travel were disrupted. See [our Hong Kong storm photos]( here. Seasonal flooding in Nigeria [has killed more than 100 people](. In the U.S., [Hurricane Florence]( killed at least 31, with the Carolinas struggling in the aftermath of record rainfall. Rivers are still rising. _____ STR/EPA-EFE/REX • A pause in Syria. The presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed to establish [a “demilitarized zone” in Idlib Province]( the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. Above, people in Idlib demonstrated in support of revolution last week. If Syria abides by the plan, it would at least delay a bloody assault by the forces and allies of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, which include Russia and Iran. _____ V. Giannella/De Agostini Library, via Getty Images • History in ice. The Great European Famine, the waves of Black Death, agricultural crises from the 14th century — all are [recorded in the pollen and dust that settled and froze]( in layers of glacial ice near the Swiss-Italian border, above. Sandra Brügger, a climate scientist in Bern, developed a technique to wring details of history from the particles. But the effort is a race against time. “The object for our research is melting away,” another researcher said. Business Chris Carlson/Associated Press • Elon Musk introduced [Yusaku Maezawa]( founder of the online Japanese clothing company Zozo, as his first customer for a voyage around the moon aboard a SpaceX rocket. • Time magazine’s new owner: We spoke with [Marc Benioff]( the San Francisco tech mogul who surprised himself with the $190 million purchase of a fabled slice of New York media. • Remote baggage check-in is an [increasingly popular service]( that attests to what air travel has become — navigating a series of bottlenecks. • Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters • President Moon Jae-in of South Korea is in North Korea for his third summit meeting with its leader, Kim Jong-un. Their shared goal: taking steps toward declaring an end to the Korean War. [[The New York Times]( • The U.S. defense secretary, Jim Mattis, met with Macedonian leaders in Skopje and accused Russia of a disinformation campaign to derail a coming referendum. [[Reuters]( • Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, and the woman accusing him of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford, are to testify Monday at a special Senate hearing. [[The New York Times]( • Relations between China and Sweden are increasingly strained, most recently by reports of a hostile welcome for three Chinese tourists. [[The New York Times]( • The International Criminal Court fined former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Democratic Republic of Congo 300,000 euros for witness tampering, three months after he was acquitted of war crimes. [[Reuters]( • France and Britain agreed to a new deal meant to end a struggle over scallops in the Baie de Seine. [[The Guardian]( Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life.  • Try giving a wedding gift that [will help newlyweds relax](. • Here are some tips [for cooking in your first kitchen](. • Recipe of the day: This recipe for [classic plum torte]( has been delighting readers since 1983. • Today’s word: [apotheosis](. Used in 45 articles on our website in the past year, the noun refers to a person or thing that is so excellent, it has no match. Noteworthy Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Emmy highlights: [Here is the list of winners]( for the best in American TV. As for the ceremony, we pronounced it “ho-hum,” but [one real-life drama made jaws drop](. • He’s not yesterday anymore: Paul McCartney [has a No. 1 solo album for the first time in 36 years]( “Egypt Station.” • The “Me” in “My Struggle”: The long-awaited sixth and final volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s epic novel is being published in English. [In this excerpt]( he explores narcissism and the mystery of autobiographical fiction. Caution: [Our reviewer]( found the 1,200-page tome “so dense and so dull that time and light seem to bend around it.” • The doctor is a woman: The iconic British TV series [“Dr. Who” will feature its first-ever female lead](. “If the fact that I’m a woman is an issue, that’s their issue,” said the new star, Jodie Whittaker. “I can’t even begin to debate that.” Back Story The New York Times Please indulge us today as we tell a Back Story that’s close to home: our own. On this day in 1851, the first edition of The New York Times was printed. ([See the front page here]( Then called The New-York Daily Times, the paper was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones. The first edition cost one penny and lacked any imagery or color. The founders declared that the newspaper would be issued every morning but Sunday, “for an indefinite number of years to come.” (Ten years later, The Times was among several papers that started Sunday editions to accommodate demand for news of the Civil War.) During a time when sensationalist journalism was commonplace in media, The Times vowed to avoid such tactics in favor of neutral, fact-based reporting. “We do not believe that everything in Society is either exactly right or exactly wrong,” Mr. Raymond said in the introductory article of the paper’s first edition. “What is good we desire to preserve and improve; what is evil, to exterminate, or reform.” Throughout the years, the paper would shorten its name to The New-York Times and eventually drop the hyphen in favor of its current style. [Read more about the history of The Times here](. Adriana Lacy wrote today’s Back Story. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. 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