Your Thursday Briefing

Myanmar, Florida, Vladimir Putin | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Thursday, September 7, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( Asia Edition [Your Thursday Briefing]( By CHARLES MCDERMID Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: Michael Klimentyev/Sputnik, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan is scheduled to meet Vladimir Putin today on the second day of an economic summit meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, and North Korea is likely to be the top issue. On Wednesday, the Russian leader, above, [rejected South Korea’s call for an oil embargo on North Korea]( warning, “We should not act out of emotions and push North Korea into a dead end.” Satellite images [show landslides at the North Korean mountain]( that was the site of last weekend’s powerful nuclear test. In phone calls with other world leaders, President Trump has [rejected the idea of negotiating with the North](. The U.S. military is expected to put the finishing touches today on the Thaad missile-defense system it deployed near Seoul. Mr. Trump and President Xi Jinping spoke by phone, too, but the idea that China can rein in Pyongyang is based on flawed assumptions, according to [our Interpreter column](. _____ Alvin Baez/Reuters • Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms ever recorded, is [bearing down on Puerto Rico]( with winds of up to 185 m.p.h. Here’s [a map of the storm’s projected path]( to Florida. At least four deaths have been reported. Follow our [live briefing for updates](. “This is the peak” of the season, [a weather expert explains](. _____ Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters • Our Southeast Asia correspondent is in Bangladesh, where the government is protesting violence in neighboring Myanmar that is driving a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims. It has also raised official concerns over reports that [Myanmar’s military is placing land mines along the border](. [Prime Minister Narendra ModiÂ]( India met with the Myanmar leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, above, but there were no reports that he raised the issue of the Rohingya. More than 146,000 people, nearly all Rohingya, have crossed into Bangladesh since late last month. A U.N. spokeswoman said that refugee camps that were already packed are now “at the breaking point.” _____ Tsering Topgyal/Associated Press • In India, journalists, activists and students poured into the streets of Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, New Delhi and other cities on Wednesday in outrage over the killing of an outspoken journalist. [Gauri Lankesh was shot dead this week]( in what opposition officials say appears to be yet another assassination of an intellectual who publicly criticized India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party. _____ David Gray/Reuters • Nearly 2,000 asylum seekers are due payouts in what appears to be [Australia’s largest human rights settlement]( a $56 million deal for harm suffered at the Manus Island detention center in Papua New Guinea. In a few hours, [Australia’s High Court will deliver its decision]( on the challenge to the government’s plans for a voluntary postal survey on same-sex marriage. _____ Want your phone to tell you when the briefing is ready? iOS users can now sign up for a daily notification. In The Times’s app, tap the bell on the upper right and turn on “Morning Briefing.” On Android, tap the three dots.  Business Doug Chayka for The New York Times • Silicon Valley is a growing political force, and its preferred policies are starting to emerge. A new study found [America’s tech elite to be extremely liberal]( — except when it comes to regulation. • Stock in Intel rose more than 2 percent after the European Union ordered that a [$1.3 billion antitrust fine]( revisited]( a ruling that could embolden U.S. tech giants to challenge other tough European rulings. • Huawei, the Chinese smartphone maker, [moved ahead of Apple for the first time]( in global phone sales, just behind Samsung. The iPhone 8 launches next week. • Facebook, despite being blocked in China, may be [hunting for office space in Shanghai](. • Boeing raised its 20-year forecast for aircraft demand in China: [7,240 new planes valued at $1.1 trillion](. • U.S. stocks [were up](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. In the News Luis Eduardo Noriega A./European Pressphoto Agency • Pope Francis has begun a six-day visit to Colombia aimed at nudging a country racked by 52 years of war toward an enduring peace with former guerrillas. [[The New York Times]( • In the Philippines, a 14-year-old whose body was found with dozens of stab wounds is the third teenager to die in a month in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war. [[Agence France-Presse]( • China’s crackdown on rights activists has been the “most severe since the Tiananmen Square democracy movement,” said Human Rights Watch. [[The New York Times]( • “We laugh, we sing karaoke.” Dennis Rodman, the former N.B.A. star, spoke of his friendship with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and said he would like to “straighten things out for everyone to get along together.” [[Reuters]( • A funeral home operator in Japan will offer a drive-through service that allows the bereaved to honor lost loved ones without getting out of the car. [[Japan Today]( • Three Tasmanian men released footage of what they are convinced is a Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, long believed to be extinct. As it happens, the last known thylacine died at the Hobart Zoo on this day in 1936. [[ABC]( Smarter Living Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life. Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times • Making your bed can [improve your whole day](. • Can you (or should you) [test the health]( of your gut microbiota? • Recipe of the Day: If you haven’t tried to make homemade ice cream, [our guide]( is an excellent place to start. Noteworthy Brooke Palmer/Warner Bros. Pictures, via Associated Press • Stephen King’s “It”: A movie version of the 1980s horror tale, which pits a group of young people [against an evil clown called Pennywise]( opens in many theaters around the world today. • Three chiffon dresses, two robes lined with white tiger fur, one sword. Those are some of the more than 80 opulent gifts [Saudi Arabia gave President Trump]( when he visited in May. • And can you trust a machine to tell you what’s exciting? The U.S. Open has turned to [artificial intelligence to compile its most thrilling moments](. Back Story Tara Engberg for The New York Times It’s an important day in the origin of Uncle Sam, that red-white-and-blue personification of the United States. Today in 1813, a newspaper in Troy, N.Y., [made an early reference]( to the name and to the “U.S.” stamp on government supplies that supposedly gave rise to it. Some of those supplies included beef from Samuel Wilson, a butcher in Troy who has been [widely credited as the source of the name](. American soldiers in the War of 1812 referred to the food as being from “Uncle Sam.” (The city of Troy still proudly refers to itself as [the “Home of Uncle Sam,”]( although some historians have [traced the name’s origins back even earlier]( In the 1860s, the political cartoonist Thomas Nast gave form to the name, drawing [a tall, bearded man in a top hat](. The character’s appearance became cemented in the American mind during World War I, when [a version by the artist James Montgomery Flagg]( pointed from a military recruitment poster with the words “I want you for U.S. Army.” It was an indelible image with a slogan that was unforgettable ([at least by headline writers at The Times]( Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. 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](. If photographs appear out of order, please download the updated New York Times app [from iTunes]( or [Google Play](. 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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