Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Asia and Australia Edition

Barcelona, Pauline Hanson, Malala Yousafzai: Your Friday Briefing

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

Image
Credit...Oriol Duran/Associated Press

• A van crashed into pedestrians in a popular tourist area in Barcelona, killing at least 13 people in an attack for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility. At least 80 others have been injured in the worst terrorist attack in Spain since 2004. Two people have been taken into custody.

Early Friday, the police reported killing four people in Cambrils, a seaside town south of Barcelona, in what Spanish news media said may have been an attempted second attack.

Here’s the latest news on this developing story.

_____

Image
Credit...Pool photo by Jung Yeon-Je

• Conflicting messages by the Trump administration have deepened confusion over the United States’ strategy for North Korea.

Stephen Bannon, President Trump’s chief strategist, said there was “no military solution” to the nuclear standoff with the North — a remark that appeared to undercut the United States’ top military official, who recently dismissed the possibility of American troop withdrawal from the Korean Peninsula.

In South Korea, President Moon Jae-in, above, is trying to dispel fears at home that the U.S. might carry out a unilateral military strike against the North. We looked at how the previous three U.S. administrations dealt with North Korea.

But as Pyongyang talks tough, our correspondent writes, South Koreans remain largely unmoved.

_____

Image
Credit...Al Drago for The New York Times

President Trump took to Twitter to call the removal of Confederate monuments “foolish” and “sad.”

The president, who has been criticized for his response to the violence in Virginia over the weekend, has found himself increasingly isolated. His embrace of the country’s racially charged past has thrown the Republican Party into its gravest political crisis since Mr. Trump took office.

Confederate statues are being taken down across the United States. World history is also littered with toppled monuments; here is a visual guide.

_____

Image
Credit...Tse Wing Yiu/Apple Daily

• Three leaders of Hong Kong’s democracy movement were sentenced to prison for their role in the huge 2014 street demonstrations.

The ruling was a setback for the city in its struggle for greater political freedom under Chinese Communist Party rule — and risks casting the young men as Hong Kong’s first prisoners of conscience.

Joshua Wong, 20, above, the face of the Umbrella Movement calling for freer elections, was sentenced to six months in prison. Nathan Law was given eight months and Alex Chow, seven. They all intend to appeal their sentences.

_____

Image
Credit...Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press

More than 60 children died in a government hospital in India last week after their oxygen supply was cut off. Unbeknown to the patients and their parents, the hospital’s supplier had halted shipments of liquid oxygen for lack of payment.

The deaths have become a national outrage, casting a glare on the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and symbolizing India’s swamped, mismanaged and often corrupt public health care system.

_____

Image
Credit...Lukas Coch/European Pressphoto Agency

Pauline Hanson, the leader of Australia’s anti-immigrant One Nation Party, walked into the Senate chamber wearing a burqa.

She said that she wanted to draw attention to her party’s push to ban full-face coverings in public.

Her actions elicited strong criticism, with one lawmaker denouncing them as “appalling.”

Image
Credit...Wang He/Getty Images

• Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant, said its profit for the quarter rose 94 percent to $2.2 billion, while its revenue rose more than half.

• Wisconsin lawmakers are considering a $3 billion incentive package for a proposed factory for Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, in the state.

• Japanese exports grew for an eighth straight month in July, suggesting that the country’s economy is strengthening.

• Hyundai, the South Korean automaker, is venturing further into the electric car market with plans for 31 environmentally friendly models by 2020.

• U.S. stocks were down. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

Image
Credit...Andy Wong/Associated Press

• The success of China’s top-grossing movie, “Wolf Warrior 2,” is seen as an indicator of the national mood after almost five years under President Xi Jinping. It features a Chinese action hero who takes on a sneering, swaggering American soldier of fortune. [The New York Times]

• A 10-year-old girl in India who was raped by an uncle, then lost a legal battle to have an abortion, gave birth to a girl. [The New York Times]

• A settlement was reached in the lawsuit against two psychologists who helped devise the C.I.A.’s brutal interrogation program after the Sept. 11 attacks. [The New York Times]

• Saudi Arabia will reopen its border with Qatar for the annual hajj pilgrimage, signaling that one of the worst diplomatic crises in the region might be softening. [The Guardian]

• A video produced by China’s state-run news agency is being criticized for its racist depiction of Indians. [The New York Times]

• The Chinese author Liu Yongbiao, known for a 2010 novel about a writer who evades arrest despite committing multiple murders, was arrested in connection with four murders in the 1990s. [The New York Times]

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

Image
Credit...Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

• Tonight, cook a simple pasta dinner with our cacio e pepe recipe.

• The best running stride is the one that comes naturally.

• Want to take a road trip? Don’t leave home without these things.

Image
Credit...Jossy Ola/Associated Press

• Malala Yousafzai, above center, the Pakistani-born activist who is the world’s youngest Nobel laureate, is going to Oxford.

• Stephen Bannon, President Trump’s chief strategist who used to run Breitbart News, once described it as “a platform for the alt-right.” Its current editors disagree.

• A total solar eclipse is not just the momentary theft of day — it is a profound interruption of the world as we know it. Here’s an illustrated guide.

Image
Credit...Jeff Miller/UW-Madison University Communication, via Associated Press

Itching to celebrate World Mosquito Day? Sunday is the day.

It commemorates the 1897 discovery of the role that the insects play in transmitting malaria, a disease that has long bedeviled humanity, killing an estimated 429,000 people in 2015, according to the World Health Organization.

A Nobel Prize was later awarded to Sir Ronald Ross for the discovery.

Once mosquitoes were identified as the carrier of malaria, strides were taken to prevent the spread of the disease.

One of the most effective tools for preventing its spread are nets treated with insecticide that are placed around beds. Between 2008 and 2010, 294 million nets were distributed in the sub-Saharan region of Africa, a high-risk area, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Immunizations and indoor spraying have also proved effective.

Do mosquitoes prefer some people over others? Science suggests they do, as the insects are drawn to higher metabolism rates, higher body temperatures and more sweat, among other factors.

The best bet to fend them off may be spray, as those citronella candles don’t really work. Here are some more tips.

Lauren Hard contributed reporting.

_____

We have briefings timed for the Australian, Asian, 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.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT