Thursday: Huawei faces increasing global resistance

Chess, Gene-Edited Babies, a Giant Steer View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Thursday, November 29, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( ADVERTISEMENT Asia Edition [Your Thursday Briefing]( By ALISHA HARIDASANI GUPTA Good morning. Growing international resistance to Huawei, concerns around gene-edited babies and a steer that’s as tall as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Here’s the latest: Aly Song/Reuters • Huawei faces another setback. New Zealand’s intelligence agency [blocked the Chinese telecom giant]( from supplying a local carrier, Spark, with technology to create a 5G mobile network — on national security grounds. The move follows a similar decision in [Australia](. And the U.S. has warned that the company’s government ties [could open the door to espionage]( — an accusation Huawei strongly denies. New Zealand’s decision also further divides the world into places that accept Chinese investments and places that don’t. → Go deeper: In our special China Rules series, we take a look at [Beijing’s new breed of diplomacy]( that uses money and military muscle to redraw the world order. _____ Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • “I feel proud, actually.” The Chinese scientist He Jiankui, above, who claims to have created the world’s first genetically edited babies, [defended his work]( at a conference in Hong Kong, saying it was both safe and ethical. But many other scientists were worried. Dr. He revealed his research only after the babies were born this month. And it appears he didn’t seek approval from Chinese regulators. A moderator at the conference asked him, “Why so much secrecy around this?” The birth of gene-edited children is alarming for both practical and theoretical reasons. First and foremost are safety concerns. Then there is the concern that editing could be used to create babies with superior skills or desired physical features. → Background: China has set its sights on becoming a world leader in scientific research but, in its rush to dominance, the industry has been [mired in a string of scandals](. _____ The New York Times • A business with no end. A student told our writer that his parents in California were receiving mysterious packages at their house. Each was addressed to “Returns Department, Valley Fountain LLC.” That led the writer on a journey through bizarre Amazon storefronts selling everything from hemorrhoid creams to a book on industrial electricity. All the LLCs had something in common: Their registered agent was the same man. When our writer kept digging, she found connections to Newsweek, a department store in New York and a church. And the story kept getting stranger. [Follow her down the rabbit hole.]( _____ Tolga Akmen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Norway retains chess supremacy. After a flurry of fast-paced tiebreakers, the Norwegian player Magnus Carlsen [held onto his world chess championship]( beating Fabiano Caruana, who has been gunning to become the first American to win the title since 1972. The first twelve games in the tournament, some of which lasted up to seven hours, all ended in draws — a first for the championship, which dates back to the 1800s. Mr. Carlsen, above, the world’s top-ranked chess player for the past eight years, has [become a mainstream celebrity]( in Norway, where fans now play the game in bars, clubs and even on trams. PS: Before Carlsen began his streak in 2013, an Indian player [Viswanathan Anand]( held the title from 2007. _____ Business Doug Mills/The New York Times • President Trump, despite his tough talk, [could seek a truce in the U.S.-China trade war]( at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, where he has a dinner meeting with President Xi Jinping on Saturday. • Chinese-made metal products have been granted [thousands of tariff exemptions]( in the U.S., surprising even some companies asking for them. • Brexit will make Britain poorer than it would have been if it stayed in the E.U., regardless of what trade deal is struck, [according to a British government report](. • Our personal tech columnist has written his final column. He reflects on the industry’s changes and presents a new guide for [navigating the future of technology](. (And don’t worry: He’s moving to our Opinion section in January.) • U.S. stocks [were up]( after remarks from [Fed Chief Jerome Powell](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • An explosion near a Chinese chemical plant in the northern Hebei province killed at least 23 people and left 22 others injured, officials said, adding to a string of fatal industrial accidents. Above, officials inspecting the affected area. [[The New York Times]( • The South Sudanese Australian National Basketball Association, which runs tournaments for teenagers, has been forced to cancel its December games after exaggerated and xenophobic news coverage of gang violence made it difficult to find a place to play. [[The New York Times]( • A lawyer who represented Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, in Hong Kong said that he has had to leave the city, because pressure from the local authorities and legal community made it difficult for him to keep working there. [[The New York Times]( • Indian forces killed one of the most-wanted militants in Kashmir, a territory that both India and Pakistan claim. The man took part in a dramatic jailbreak and was later accused of assassinating a prominent newspaper editor. [[The New York Times]( • Democrats are meeting to elect their leaders for when they assume control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January. [[The New York Times]( • Knickers, a 6-foot-4-inch steer in Australia, captured the world’s attention after a photo of the enormous animal circulated online. [[The New York Times]( • And today’s word of the day is “cow”: That’s specifically [a female]( that has had at least one calf. A steer, like Knickers, is a neutered male. Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life. The New York Times • Ask us your questions [about climate change](. • Recipe of the day: Make dinner speedy with a [beef and basil stir-fry](. • Keep yourself sane, snug and distracted [on long-haul flights](. Noteworthy The New York Times • We’ve begun a new special project at The Times, [called Past Tense]( to bring online millions of archived photographs stored three floors underneath our headquarters, digitizing a visual record of the entire 20th century starting from 1896. • Margaret Atwood will write a sequel to her feminist dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The new book, [“The Testaments,”]( will be released next fall — and was inspired by “the world we’ve been living in,” Ms. Atwood said. • A 69-year-old Japanese man has dedicated his life to keeping alive the [art of katazome]( traditional stencil-printed, indigo-dyed kimonos. Even though there’s virtually no market for them. Back Story Associated Press “Mary Poppins Returns” will glide into Los Angeles tonight for its red carpet premiere. Emily Blunt, portraying the title character, hopes to fill the large shoes left by Julie Andrews in the 1964 film. But Mary Poppins existed before either of those two British actresses was even born. She flew into the world in 1934 on the pen of the author P.L. Travers, above. Travers was born Helen Lyndon Goff in Queensland, Australia, in 1899. As a teenager, she was a Shakespearean actress, a dancer, a journalist and a poet. She moved to England in 1924 and soon dreamed up a governess who slid up banisters and imparted cheeky life lessons. A decade later, “Mary Poppins” was published in London to critical acclaim. Travers would continue to write stories about Poppins over the next half century. She died in 1996. “I think the idea of Mary Poppins has been blowing in and out of me, like a curtain at a window, all my life,” she [told The Times in 1964](. Andrew Chow 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. 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