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Asia and Australia Edition

North Korea, Sergei Skripal, Rohingya: Your Wednesday Briefing

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Good morning. Here’s what you need to know.

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Credit...Yonhap, via European Pressphoto Agency

• A Korean breakthrough or more of the same?

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said that his country is willing to begin talks with the U.S. on giving up its nuclear weapons — at least according to South Korean officials.

Above, President Moon Jae-in, center, was briefed by envoys who returned Tuesday from North Korea.

If the South’s statement is corroborated, it would be the first time that Mr. Kim has indicated a willingness to negotiate away his nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees from the U.S.

President Trump welcomed the “possible progress,” but others were cautious. As our White House correspondent explains, the U.S. and North Korea have gone through similar cycles of brief hope and then disappointment.

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Credit...Andrea Bruce for The New York Times

• “There is no Chaos, only great Energy!”

That was President Trump dismissing reports of turmoil in his White House after a flurry of top-level resignations and as the investigation into Russian election meddling inches closer to his inner circle.

We learned that Gary Cohn, Mr. Trump’s top economic adviser, plans to resign. His free-trade views clashed with Mr. Trump’s threatened metal tariffs.

The president has insisted that he won’t back down from his plan to impose the tariffs — a move clearly aimed at China, which makes roughly as much steel as the rest of the world combined.

Here’s an explainer on the complex and longstanding steel dispute between the U.S. and China.

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Credit...Gregory Bull/Associated Press

• Broadcom’s takeover of rival chip-maker Qualcomm — a deal worth about $117 billion — appears doomed after a U.S. government panel said the Singapore firm’s bid could pose a risk to national security.

The panel, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or Cfius, said that the deal could weaken “Qualcomm’s technological leadership,” giving an edge to Chinese companies like Huawei.

What is Cfius? One mergers and acquisitions expert called it the “ultimate regulatory bazooka.” Another said it has been “turbocharged” by the Trump administration. Here’s a look at the panel and its powerful role in major deals.

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Credit...Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

• Britain’s foreign secretary called Russia “a malign force around the world,” and vowed to retaliate if investigators find that Moscow is behind the apparent poisoning of a former Russian intelligence officer and his daughter in southern England.

The former spy, Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter were reported to be critically ill after being exposed to “an unknown substance.” Once jailed in Russia for selling secrets, Mr. Skripal was resettled in Britain in a 2010 spy exchange.

The “major incident” has drawn comparisons to the case of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who was fatally poisoned in London in 2006.

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Credit...Stony Brook University and Louisiana State University

“It’s always good when you find new penguins.”

Satellite images and a drone discovered about 1.5 million Adélie penguins living in the Danger Islands off Antarctica.

The discovery of the new colony substantially increases the known populations of the knee-high creatures and has raised questions about how they’re finding enough food.

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• Artificial intelligence makes it relatively easy to create deceptive videos, putting one person’s face on another person’s body with few traces of manipulation. Our reporter tried it on himself and concluded that we would soon have to “trust our eyes a little less every day.”

• Kobe Steel said its chief executive would resign after a falsified data scandal that has tarnished Japan’s reputation for quality.

• Porsche has already shown off an all-electric sedan, the Mission E, which is expected to compete with Tesla’s Model S. Now it’s ramping up its answer to Tesla’s charging stations.

• In Japan, “Super Monster Wolf,” a robot with fur, fangs and flashing eyes designed to scare wild boars away from crops, has been such a hit that it’s going into mass production.

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

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Credit...Pradeep Pathiran/Associated Press

• Sri Lanka imposed a nationwide state of emergency after mobs of Sinhalese, the majority ethnic group, attacked dozens of Muslim businesses and houses, and at least one mosque. [The New York Times]

• Australia and East Timor will sign a treaty that establishes the first-ever maritime border between the countries, resolving years of bitter wrangling in a deal that divides billions of dollars’ worth of oil and gas beneath the Timor Sea. [A.P.]

• Myanmar is continuing its ethnic cleansing of Rohingya, making it “inconceivable” that any would be able to return in the near future, a U.N. human rights envoy said. [Al Jazeera]

• A Russian military plane crashed at an air base in Syria, killing all 26 passengers and six crew members, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. [The New York Times]

• A South Korean presidential hopeful, Ahn Hee Jung, is the first major politician to be disgraced in a growing #MeToo movement in the country. [The New York Times]

• Australian experts confirmed that a family from Perth found the world’s oldest known message in a bottle, dated June 12, 1886. [BBC]

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

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Credit...Paul Rogers

• Our columnist, who has been writing about science and health for The Times for 52 years, offers her personal secrets to lasting weight loss.

• Learn the best way to talk to teenagers about vaping. (Some countries have banned e-cigarettes.)

• Recipe of the day: Cumin-roasted salmon with a vinegary herb sauce will cure the midweek blues.

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Shooting photographs in Death Valley National Park in California last month were, from left, David Moore, Ken Lyons, SuDonna Cilliers and Angie Wilson. As a traveler, Mr. Lyons seeks out environments that are disappearing. “You never know how things are going to change,” he said.Credit...Roger Kisby for The New York Times

• “Last chance travel”: Tourist operators are catering to the growing number of travelers who want to experience disappearing cultures and natural habitats before they are irrevocably altered or vanish.

• “I will not marry, sir. I want to study.” In India, awareness about underage marriages, and stronger responses from the authorities, has caused a decrease in the practice.

• And soccer, it turns out, has a power to help people with dementia. Our correspondent visited an inspiring English community health program that helps a team’s fans remember its highs and lows.

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Credit...Associated Press

This week is the anniversary of the birth of Gabriel García Márquez, the Colombian novelist who was affectionately known as Gabo in Latin America.

Born on March 6, 1927, García Márquez defined the writing style known as magical realism, but his escapades in real life were just as noteworthy.

He started his career as a journalist, at one point enraging the Colombian dictator Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla so much that García Márquez fled to Europe for two years.

He became such close friends with Fidel Castro that he would show the Cuban leader drafts of his unpublished books.

At one point, he vowed never to write as long as the Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet remained in power (a promise that was broken long before Pinochet’s 17-year reign ended).

And after being denied a U.S. visa for more than three decades, García Márquez arrived in America for the first time in 1995, at the invitation of President Bill Clinton.

Before García Márquez died, in 2014, a friend said the title of Gabo’s memoir summed up his life: “All his motivation is contained in that title, ‘To Live to Tell It’ — it is the pleasure of telling the story,” Jaime Abello said.

Anna Schaverien contributed reporting.

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