Your Thursday Evening Briefing

Your nightly rundown of the day's top stories delivered straight to your inbox. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Thursday, August 10, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Thursday Evening Briefing]( By KAREN ZRAICK AND SANDRA STEVENSON Good evening. Here’s the latest. Al Drago for The New York Times 1. President Trump refused to back down from his [threat to rain down “fire and fury” on North Korea]( despite his own advisers’ efforts to modulate his message. “Frankly the people that were questioning that statement, was it too tough, maybe it wasn’t tough enough,” he said after a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence at his golf club in New Jersey. Our Seoul correspondent wrote a rich [profile of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un]( a moody young man with a nuclear arsenal. And we put together a simple [guide to this week’s developments]( in the crisis. Today [on our podcast “The Daily,”]( a former U.S. defense secretary discusses how close a North Korean nuclear deal once was. _____ Doug Mills/The New York Times 2. A public rift has opened between President Trump and the top Republican in Congress. For days, he has trained his fire [on Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky]( for failing to execute his legislative priorities. Asked today if Mr. McConnell should consider stepping down, Mr. Trump said: “If he doesn’t get repeal and replace done and if he doesn’t get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, and if he doesn’t get a very easy one to get done, infrastructure, if he doesn’t get them done, then you can ask me that question.” _____ Mladen Antonov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 3. The president’s wide-ranging comments to reporters at his New Jersey property didn’t end there. He also praised Vladimir Putin’s [expulsion of U.S. diplomatic staff]( from Russia, explaining that “We’re trying to cut down on payroll.” Above, the embassy in Moscow. And Mr. Trump said that he was drafting paperwork to declare the country’s [opioid epidemic a national emergency](. _____ eGenesis 4. In a major breakthrough, researchers have [created gene-edited piglets free of viruses]( that might cause disease in humans. That could make it possible to transplant livers, hearts and other organs from pigs into humans who are waiting for transplants — a hope that experts had all but given up. But the prospect also raises thorny questions about animal exploitation and welfare. _____ International Organization for Migration, via European Pressphoto Agency 5. Drought has led to acute shortages of food and water in the Horn of Africa, and thousands have fled. Some have found only new horror. At least 50 migrants fleeing Ethiopia and Somalia drowned this week after a human smuggler [threw them into the Arabian Sea]( en route to Yemen — itself one of the world’s most dangerous war zones. Survivors, above, said the smuggler pushed them out to sea when he saw some “authority types” near the coast. “This is shocking and inhumane,” said a U.N. aid worker. _____ Michael Short/Bloomberg 6. Google will stream [a private, all-hands meeting]( from its California headquarters, above, to its 60,000 workers around the world this evening. Company officials will discuss the firing of an engineer over a memo in which he argued that biological differences explained the tech industry’s gender gap. Our tech writer says an outcry in defense of the engineer is low-hanging fruit for far-right activists, who are [mounting an aggressive political campaign]( against some of Silicon Valley’s biggest players. _____ Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, via Associated Press 7. Remember the much-heralded deal to open [a Foxconn factory in Wisconsin]( There are big questions about the taxpayer-funded incentives being offered to the company, and the environmental rules the state has agreed to let it bypass. A budget review completed this week found that taxpayers would not recoup their investment until at least 2043. Also notable: The subsidies would equal $15,000 to $19,000 for each job created, per year. The state Senate, controlled by Republicans, does not have the votes to approve the deal in its current form. Above, a public meeting in Madison. _____ Dina Litovsky for The New York Times 8. People across the political spectrum could be excused for feeling a bit … overstimulated. [We checked out “wreck rooms,”]( those smash-it-up outlets that are, dare we say, all the rage. At businesses in New York, Toronto and a handful of other cities, people are shelling out cash for the chance to smash electronics devices and dish sets. Apparently it’s a popular date night activity. _____ Irina Rozovsky for The New York Times 9. In the market for some late summertime reading? Here are two authors to look out for. [Claire Messud, the subject of a profile]( in this week’s magazine, has a new novel called “The Burning Girl,” out on Aug. 29. Her work “quietly seethes at the idea that a woman needs to be ‘likable’ — or that a man should be the judge of her likability.” And we reviewed [“Home Fire,” a new novel from Kamila Shamsie](. It tells the story of three British siblings of Pakistani descent as they grapple with immigration, radicalism and family love. Our critic says it builds to “one of the most memorable final scenes I’ve read in a novel this century.” _____ Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 10. Finally, why was there a [giant inflatable chicken near the White House]( this week? It was part art, part protest against President Trump. A California man spent months obtaining permits to erect the 30-foot chicken with an unmistakable golden coif. Taran Singh Brar, who criticized Mr. Trump for not releasing his tax returns, said he wanted the image to go viral. And [Stephen Colbert announced]( that he scored a prime scoop: This Monday he’ll be the first TV personality to interview Anthony Scaramucci, the short-lived White House communications director, since his ouster. The New York Times’s Late-Night Comedy Committee reports that it is “pretty thrilled about this one.” Have a great night. _____ If photographs appear out of order, please [download the updated New York Times app]( from iTunes. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a.m. Sundays. Want to catch up on past briefings? [You can browse them here](. What did you like? What do you want to see here? 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