Your Thursday Briefing

Qatar, Iran, Theresa May | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Thursday, June 8, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( Asia Edition [Your Thursday Briefing]( By CHARLES MCDERMID Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: Tasnim News Agency, via Reuters • The Islamic State for the first time [claimed responsibility for a terror strike in Iran]( saying its fighters carried out attacks on symbolic targets in Tehran that killed 12 people and wounded dozens of others. Assailants with assault rifles, grenades and women’s disguises stormed Parliament and the tomb of Iran’s revolutionary founder. Here’s [how the attacks unfolded](. Tensions in the Middle East were already high; after a visit to Saudi Arabia by President Trump, the Saudis and several Sunni allies led a [regional effort to isolate Qatar]( the only Persian Gulf country that has relations with Iran. _____ Lawrence Jackson/Associated Press • James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, plans to testify that [President Trump repeatedly pressured him]( to publicly announce that he was not under investigation in the Justice Department inquiry into Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election. Mr. Trump also asked Mr. Comey what could be done to “lift the cloud” over Mr. Trump from the investigation, according to [remarks written by Mr. Comey](. Separately, Mr. Trump revealed in a tweet that [he had selected Christopher Wray]( a former federal prosecutor, above, to be his new F.B.I. director. _____ Kim Jun-Beom/YONHAP, via Associated Press • South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, suspended the deployment of the [American missile defense system known as Thaad]( — a move that our Shanghai bureau chief called “[a victory for Beijing]( Mr. Moon’s decision, citing an environmental assessment, could strain relations with the White House, and raise concerns about efforts by the United States to present a tough, unified stance against North Korea. _____ Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Britain votes in its first [national election since the so-called “Brexit”]( — a race that has unfolded in the glare of two terrorist attacks that killed 29 people in the last three weeks. Prime Minister Theresa May, who called the snap vote, has tried to make the campaign about the shortcomings of her opponent, Jeremy Corbyn, but the race is now as much about her own. As more details emerge about the weekend terror attack in London, a [second Australian was confirmed killed]( during the assault. _____ The New York Times • Follow the path of a fake news story. Researchers retraced the steps of a false report — one claiming that a Russian warplane took out the communications systems of an American warship — showing that even with all the [global attention]( fake news can still circulate with alarming speed and ease. _____ Jean-Jacques Hublin/Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology • Scientists found the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens in Morocco — opening a new window on our origins. [The bones date back roughly 300,000 years,]( indicating that mankind evolved earlier than had been known — and age wasn’t the only interesting finding: “The face is that of somebody you could come across in the Metro,” one of the experts said. Business Illustrations by Koren Shadmi • Silicon Valley billionaires, like [Mark Zuckerberg, are remaking America’s schools]( on a vast scale, and with little public scrutiny. • Twenty years ago, Hong Kong’s economy was dominated by local tycoons and colonial-era conglomerates. Now, [cash-rich mainland Chinese companies are taking over](. • The president of Uber’s Asia business was fired after he obtained the medical records of a woman who had been [raped by her Uber driver in India](. • Beware the cyber-Ponzi scheme. Online attackers are finding increasingly creative ways to wreak havoc [using ransomware and now pyramid schemes](. • U.S. stocks [were higher](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Ye Aung Thu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • The search continues for a Myanmar military plane that vanished after taking off from an air base in the southern part of the country with 104 people on board. Above, a cargo plane like the one that went missing. [[The New York Times]( • The Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military identified Pakistan as a potential location for a Chinese military base. [[Reuters]( • In central India, five people were killed in a clash between police and farmers demanding debt relief. [[The New York Times]( • Mongolia’s presidential election, scheduled for June 26, looks like a three-way race between a horse breeder, a judo expert and a practitioner of feng shui. The winner will manage a $5.5 billion bailout package. [[The Diplomat]( • Fears for Al Jazeera: The current diplomatic crisis in Qatar brought concern about the future of the country’s influential, state-funded media network. [[BBC]( • A Muslim teenager in Indonesia shot to celebrity for her Facebook posts extolling religious tolerance. But her feel-good story soon turned defensive amid claims of plagiarism and death threats. [[The New York Times]( Smarter Living Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times • Recipe of the day: Try black pepper [chicken thighs with mango]( cashew and a little rum. • The most effective long-term strategy for happiness is to [actively cultivate well-being](. • Conflicts at work? [Try forgiveness](. Noteworthy Evan Sung for The New York Times • Our food writer traveled [with Asha Gomez]( a chef from Atlanta, on her emotional return to India. “Indian food is 5,000 years of tradition and history,” Ms. Gomez said, “and it belongs right up there with French cuisine.” • Our Vietnam ’67 series continues with the memories of [Vietnamese women who fought against the U.S.]( • And the Canadian Women’s Hockey League will include a team from China — Beijing’s Kunlun Red Star hockey club — becoming the first [North American professional sports league to field a team in Asia](. Back Story Jim Wilson/The New York Times Forget, for a moment, questions about Russian meddling in current American affairs, and look back with us to Russia’s history on the North American continent. Tsarist colonization began in Alaska in the 1740s, driven by the trade in sea otter fur, and was often brutal. But this month in 1788, Russia’s claim of a toehold in southern Alaska came peacefully. In a scene framed by soaring mountains, the native Tlingit tribe warmly greeted a hardy Russian mariner, Gerasim Izmailov, who made it ashore. His entourage claimed the immense surroundings for Catherine the Great and traded iron and beads for a native boy to serve as an interpreter. Russian Alaska eventually consolidated under a vast [trading corporation]( reaching to Hawaii and California before receding. It was sold to the U.S. in 1867, for $7.2 million (about $125 million today). But it enjoys an afterlife: in the Russian dialect [spoken]( in the village of Ninilchik; in the name (“Alaska” is a Russian adaptation of an Aleut word meaning “the object toward which the action of the sea is directed”); in the thousands of adherents to the Russian Orthodox faith and an onion-domed church in Unalaska, above; and in the expansionist imaginations of some Russians who still [grumble about the sale](. Penn Bullock contributed reporting. _____ Correction: Because of an editing error, [Wednesday’s briefing]( misattributed a distinction to Roland Garros, the French war hero. While his plane was fitted with a device that allowed a machine gun to be fired through the arc of the propeller, he did not invent the device. This briefing was prepared for the Asian morning. We also have briefings timed for the [Australian]( [European]( and [American]( mornings. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters [here](. 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)). 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. 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