Your TuesdayBriefing

Saudi Arabia, Israel, North Korea | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Tuesday, May 23, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( Asia Edition [Your Tuesday Briefing]( By CHARLES MCDERMID Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times • President Trump, on the Israeli leg of his nine-day foreign tour, presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with what our reporting team describes as an unexpectedly blunt message: Solve the decades-old [standoff with the Palestinians]( if you want peace with Arab nations. Mr. Trump is expected to meet today with Mahmoud Abbas, the [Palestinian]( leader, before leaving for Rome. [Here’s his full travel schedule]( which we’re covering with traveling White House correspondents and foreign bureau chiefs. _____ Saudi Press Agency, via European Pressphoto Agency • Our analysts see President Trump’s [declaration of commitment to Arab countries]( on his earlier stop, in Saudi Arabia, as a return to an American policy built on alliances with Arab autocrats — at the expense of Iran, whose president [dismissed Mr. Trump’s visit as meaningless theatrics](. Social media users were obsessed with [the mysterious glowing orb]( above, that Mr. Trump, King Salman of Saudi Arabia and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt gathered around. (Spoiler: It’s just an illuminated globe.) Back in the U.S., a letter from a top Democrat revealed that Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, [Michael Flynn, lied to Pentagon investigators]( about his income from Russian companies and contacts with Russian officials when he applied for a top-secret security clearance last year. _____ Kim Won-Jin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • South Korea said [North Korea’s most recent missile test]( using a solid-fuel rocket, may have provided data that could advance the North’s weapons program. Our science reporter looked to the history of the U.S. nuclear program for insights into [North Korea’s]( — and the possibility that it is seeking to build a hydrogen bomb. “I can’t imagine they’re not working on true thermonuclear weapons,” one expert told him. _____ Fernando/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • The police in Indonesia didn’t just [arrest]( men for a “sex party” in a sauna in Jakarta]( — they also outed many of them with photographs released to news organizations. Analysts said a recent spate of crackdowns appeared to be in preparation for the holy month of Ramadan, which begins this weekend. _____ Atul Loke for The New York Times • And in India, our correspondent is tracking [one of the country’s most hopeful narratives]( — the spread of the internet to vast multitudes of rural people. She followed Babulal Singh Neti, above center, a convert to the wonders of the smartphone who is trying to convince his reluctant neighbors that “the whole world rests inside the mobile.” Business Adam Dean for The New York Times • “I hope I have the chance to be a big boss.” But work is tough in [Myanmar’s unregulated oil fields]( where thousands of wildcat prospectors cluster, some lucky to collect even a barrel a day. • Ford Motor replaced its [chief executive with the head of its self-driving effort]( after shares dropped 40 percent over three years. • A Chinese wind-turbine maker is expanding into [Wyoming and seeking the state’s ex-coal miners]( for permanent jobs. • Defense stocks [hit a]( on news of the $110 billion U.S.-Saudi Arabia weapons deal, and Wall Street was [higher](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Pool photo by Ahn Young-Joon • The corruption trial of the former South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, begins today. A judge is expected to decide whether to try Ms. Park and her confidante, Choi Soon-sil, separately. [[Associated Press]( • China defended its right to protect its national security and interests in the first official response to a New York Times report on the dismantling of C.I.A. espionage operations in the country. A spokeswoman did not confirm or deny The Times’s report that more than a dozen C.I.A. sources were killed or imprisoned. [[The New York Times]( • Monica Lewinsky wrote what she called “an obituary for the culture” that Roger Ailes created at Fox News. Many Americans first found the network because of its blanket coverage of her relationship with former President Bill Clinton. [[The New York Times]( • AlphaGo, Google’s artificial intelligence player, begins a three-game series of Go with Ke Jie, the world’s 19-year-old top-ranked player, in Wuzhen, China. [[Phys.org](  A Thai general lashed out at unknown perpetrators over the bombing of a military-owned hospital in Bangkok that wounded 24 people, saying that even insurgents don’t “choose a hospital as a target.” [[The New York Times]( • U.S. hospitals are grappling with a critical shortage of sodium bicarbonate solution — baking soda — the latest example of an inexpensive hospital staple’s supply dwindling to a critical level. [[The New York Times]( • A U.N. special rapporteur raised questions about whether counterterror legislation Japan’s lower house is likely to pass today would encourage the police to ignore civil liberties. [[Reuters]( • “Madama Butterfly” redux. A radically revised version of Puccini’s classic opera seeks to address the Asian stereotypes the work helped perpetuate. [[The New York Times]( • Melbourne’s “avolatte.” A cafe that serves lattes in the hollowed-out skin of an avocado is suffering the slings and arrows of social media. One post: “We have to stop these fads for the sake of humanity.” [[Evening Standard]( Smarter Living Yuyang Liu for The New York Times • Don’t despair. You can find [reliable, affordable child care]( the road](. • Embrace change [in your marriage]( it’s unrealistic to expect your spouse to remain the same person. • Recipe of the day: Give [New York strip steak]( a kick with a horseradish-mint glaze. Noteworthy Anthony Cotsifas • In India’s Chettinad region, once-grand palaces disrupt the country’s rambling, rural charm. Our writer found [mansion after mansion in various states of opulence]( and elegant decay. • In memoriam. [Stanley Greene]( was a leading war photographer who captured brutally honest images of conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya. One of few African-American photojournalist in the field, he was 68. • A team of scientists identified [52 genes linked to human intelligence]( — an “enormous success” in a field that remains mostly a mystery. • From China with love? The Communist Party’s propaganda wing is sending Germany a [superhero-size statue of Karl Marx](. Our Beijing correspondent follows the debate over why: an attempt to reignite Marxism? A symbolic returning of defective goods? A joke? Back Story via History Channel If you’re reading this with bifocals, you can thank Benjamin Franklin. He announced the creation of multifocal lenses on this day in 1785. Like [more than 200 million]( of the world’s current population, he had to squint to see clearly. Later in life, he carried two pairs of eyeglasses: one for distance, another for reading. The American overachiever solved his vision problem by piecing together two lenses, cut in half, into a single frame. “By this means, as I wear my spectacles constantly, I have only to move my eyes up or down,” he wrote [to a friend](. Franklin, who is long credited (although debated) as the inventor of the split-lens spectacles, also sketched his D.I.Y. fix. It can be found in the [Library of Congress](. [Bifocal contacts]( came into clinical use in the 1950s, but it was decades before they were widely prescribed. In 1986, bifocal lenses cost upward of [$400]( — almost [$900]( in today’s dollars. Now, they can run $50 for a six-week supply. Other advances to help those suffering presbyopia, or age-related farsightedness, include the ring-like corneal inlay, which is implanted under the eye’s outer surface. And the tech-obsessed can look forward to the developing [bionic eye](. Danielle Belopotosky contributed reporting. _____ This briefing was prepared for the Asian morning. We also have briefings timed for the [Australian]( [European]( and [American]( mornings. Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. What would you like to see here? Contact us at [asiabriefing@nytimes.com](mailto:asiabriefing@nytimes.com?subject=Briefing%20Feedback%20(Asia)). 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