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Asia and Australia Edition

Mogadishu, Iran, North Korea: Your Monday Briefing

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

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Credit...Yonhap/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• The U.S. and South Korea start 10 days of joint naval exercises today, under the shadow of North Korean threats to lash out with missiles aimed near Guam over what it sees as rehearsal for an invasion. Above, the U.S.S. Michigan, a nuclear-powered submarine, will take part.

Meanwhile, North Korea has quietly developed another dangerous capability. With a cyber army of more than 6,000 hackers, it is stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and proving capable of unleashing global havoc.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that President Trump told him to continue diplomatic efforts with North Korea, and that those efforts would continue “until the first bomb drops.”

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Credit...Josh Haner/The New York Times

“We had to run for our lives.”

Heartbreaking stories are flooding in from Northern California residents who fled moments before their homes and neighborhoods were consumed by some 17 fires that have killed at least 40 people.

A Times analysis using satellite images and our own ground surveys found that one fire incinerated at least 5,100 structures, which would make it the most destructive in the state’s history.

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Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

• President Trump’s disavowal of the Iran nuclear deal is the latest case in which his denunciations are stronger than his actions, raising the question of whether he takes maximalist positions as a negotiating stance.

A number of his decisions leave Congress in the awkward position of deciding on unpopular or divisive next steps. In the case of Iran, lawmakers have 60 days to to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions. Here’s where things stand on Iran, immigration and health care, as well as the Nafta trade deal.

Dean Baquet, The Times’s executive editor, held a public discussion of the challenges of covering the Trump administration with two White House correspondents and our media columnist. Here are seven takeaways.

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Credit...David Maurice Smith for The New York Times

Does a warming planet really need more coal?

One of the most fervent environmental campaigns in Australia’s history could also be a tipping point in the global campaign against coal.

The issue: an Indian conglomerate’s proposal to create one of the largest coal mines in the world, carrying the promise of thousands of new jobs — in a country that already produces more coal than any other nation except China, the U.S. and India. Above, the Abbot Point coal terminal in Queensland.

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Credit...Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• Ahead of the Chinese Communist Party congress beginning in Beijing on Wednesday, we’ve been tracking the ways President Xi Jinping has been tightening his grip on power.

Today, we look at how he has reshaped political education in more than 283,000 primary and secondary schools — patriotic hymns and ancient poems included.

Critics say his measures do little to create a skilled work force that can compete globally.

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Credit...Yann Coatsaliou/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• Harvey Weinstein’s downward spiral accelerated.

The British police are investigating three sexual assault accusations involving the American movie mogul, and the police in New York are also looking into claims. The Motion Picture Academy expelled him.

The director Woody Allen, who himself has been accused of sexual abuse, called the case “tragic for the poor women” but warned against a “witch hunt atmosphere.”

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Credit...Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

• Japan’s finance minister, Taro Aso, meets today with Vice President Mike Pence in Washington for a second round of trade talks amid tensions over beef tariffs and the U.S. trade deficit.

• Indonesia plans to work with Japan to see whether its islands could be powered by ships that generate electricity using liquefied natural gas.

• Japanese companies are becoming more gay-friendly, thanks to evolving social attitudes and competition for talent.

Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...Mohamed Abdiwahab/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• Twin truck bombs killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds more on Saturday, in one of the deadliest attacks to strike Mogadishu, Somalia. []

• Iraqi troops are assaulting Kurdish-held Kirkuk, as political tension over a Kurdish independence vote has become a military standoff. [The New York Times]

• China’s goal of becoming a global leader in scientific research has been dealt a humiliating setback by a recent string of fraudulent research and faked peer reviews. [The New York Times]

• In Vietnam, at least 68 people were killed by flooding and landslides over the weekend. Local news outlets cited poor forecasting, deforestation and mining as factors. [VNExpress]

• Ophelia, the easternmost Category 3 Atlantic hurricane on record, softened but is bearing down on Ireland and Britain. [The New York Times]

• The leader of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, faces a deadline today to clarify whether he has declared independence from Spain. [Reuters]

• A Canadian freed with his family in Afghanistan said his captors raped his wife and killed one of their children during their five years as hostages. The Taliban said he had been fed “fabricated claims.” [The New York Times]

• Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal to win the Shanghai Masters. [Associated Press]

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

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Credit...Michael Kraus for The New York Times

• Recipe of the day: Honor meatless Mondays with a spicy peanut stew.

• Stuck in a rut? Here are five tips to help you figure out what to do with your life.

• Get moving. Your brain will thank you.

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Credit...Yuyang Liu for The New York Times

• Asia’s stand-up comedy scene is young, and comedians in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia are still learning to joke about sex and politics without offending audiences, or the government. In China, comedians must still submit scripts of their shows to censors for approval.

• A photography exhibit in China juxtaposed images of wild animals and black Africans. WeChat translated “black foreigner” as a racist slur. There is no shortage of evidence of China’s casual racism.

• Finally, for a lighter moment, take a look at the unexpected turns that emerge on our recipe site, NYT Cooking. Lightning-rod recipes can provoke fierce reactions. Even Barack Obama has weighed in.

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Credit...Social Press Association, via Library of Congress, via Associated Press

This month, the Trump administration expanded health insurance exemptions for employers, allowing them to deny women coverage for contraception.

Margaret Sanger, who opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. on this day in 1916, might have had something to say about that.

Sanger’s work was driven largely by her experience as a maternity nurse. Abortion was illegal in the U.S. at the time, and she frequently saw young women die after attempting abortions themselves.

In 1914, Sanger fled to Europe to avoid a potential 45-year prison term for distributing information on birth control. The charges were later dropped.

After her return to the U.S., she and one of her sisters opened the birth control clinic in Brooklyn, above, for which she served a month in jail.

In the 1920s, she established the American Birth Control League, which later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Later in life, she was also instrumental in the development of the birth control pill.

Sanger has been criticized over her embrace of some principles of eugenics. But she is also remembered as an advocate for low-income women, arguing that access to contraceptive services through federal programs was especially crucial for them in retaining control over their reproductive lives.

She died in 1966.

Jennifer Jett contributed reporting.

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Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. Browse past briefings here.

We have briefings timed for the Australian, Asian, 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.

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