North Korea, Tariffs, Afghanistan: Your Friday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/briefing/north-korea-tariffs-afghanistan.html

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Good morning. A chilly G7, a $1 billion ZTE resolution and an Australian connection to the Triple Crown contender.

Here’s what you need to know.

• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan visited the White House, in what amounted to a last-ditch effort to stiffen President Trump’s spine before his talks with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, on Tuesday.

For his part, Mr. Trump said his willingness to walk away from the Iran deal had set him up for success with Mr. Kim. He also appeared dismissive of the kind of full-bore preparation common to summit meetings.

“This isn’t a question of preparation,” he said. “It’s a question of whether people want it to happen.”

North Korea appears to be getting ready: Satellite imagery reported this week indicates that the country is demolishing some facilities used for testing one of its most dangerous missiles.

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• China pledged to investigate a mysterious illness that has sickened Americans working at the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou and led to the evacuation of a number of diplomats this week.

The State Department said that diplomats at the consulate had complained of symptoms similar to those “following concussion or minor traumatic brain injury,” and may have been targets of attacks involving strange sounds at their apartment complexes, one of which is pictured above.

The evacuated personnel are being examined at a brain injury unit at the University of Pennsylvania, the same facility that treated 24 Americans similarly stricken in Cuba in 2016

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• The dispute over ZTE reached a $1 billion resolution.

A deal announced by the U.S. commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, ends crippling sanctions imposed on the Chinese telecom giant for violating American rules on dealings with Iran and North Korea.

On top of the $1 billion fine, Mr. Ross said ZTE would pay $400 million in escrow to cover “any future violations” and change its top leadership.

“We still retain the power to shut them down again,” he said.

Here’s what you need to know about ZTE and its role in the U.S.-China trade conflict.

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• The G6+1?

President Trump can expect a subzero reception when he arrives today in Quebec for the Group of 7 meeting with the leaders of America’s closest allies.

His decision to impose tariffs even on them, citing “national security,” has made Mr. Trump, in the words of our correspondent, “the black sheep of this family, the estranged sibling who decided to pick fights with his relatives just before arriving to dinner.”

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• If Justify wins the Belmont Stakes this weekend to claim horse racing’s Triple Crown, there will be some very happy stakeholders.

One is China Horse Club, which owns 25 percent of Justify’s breeding rights. A far more secretive one is the billionaire investor George Soros, whose company controls 15 percent.

Mr. Soros’s investment firm is behind SF Bloodstock and SF Racing Group, which has breeding stock in the U.S., Australia, England, Ireland and France.

• Sales of luxury goods in China are forecast to grow by more than 20 percent this year, according to the closely watched Bain report. The study predicted that the rebound would drive growth across the global luxury market by as much as 8 percent.

• Amazon won the rights to broadcast Premier League games in Britain for the first time — as the fierce battle between digital outlets and historically dominant broadcasters extends to live sports.

• Taiwan hit back at Qantas, urging the Australian airline to reverse its “deeply hurtful” decision to categorize it as a part of China, as a bow to Beijing.

• Apple could soon be worth $1 trillion — and counting.

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

• In Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani declared a unilateral cease-fire and called on the Taliban to use the time to “introspect that their violent campaign is not winning them hearts.” [The New York Times]

• U.N. rights experts condemned the punishment of Tashi Wangchuk, 33, a Tibetan education advocate who was sentenced to five years in prison after giving interviews to The Times. [The New York Times]

• A Swedish court found a rejected Uzbek asylum seeker guilty of terrorism and murder, and sentenced him to life in prison for a deadly attack with a beer truck that killed five people and injured nearly a dozen others in Stockholm last year. [The New York Times]

• Emergency crews located a Korean woman who survived for six days in the wilderness after falling into a deep ravine while climbing Mount Tyson in Queensland. [BBC]

• Tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, have grown more sluggish since the mid-20th century, researchers say. That may mean bad news for people residing in their path. [The New York Times]

• The Natural Resources Defense Council, an American environmental group with 2.4 million members, has irked Republicans by praising China’s cleanup efforts and criticizing U.S. shortcomings. This week, two congressmen asked the group whether it should register as a foreign agent. [The New York Times]

• LeBron’s exit? Down in the N.B.A. finals three games to none, LeBron James appears set to leave Cleveland — again. And some of his Ohio fans are O.K. with that. [The New York Times]

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

• Recipe of the day: End the day with Chez Panisse’s delightful blueberry cobbler.

• In the Wirecutter: the best cold-brew coffee maker.

• How to pose for a photograph.

• A collective love story: For The Times Magazine’s annual New York issue, a group of photographers captured love, lust and heartache all over New York City on a single day in May.

• On Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover found organic molecules in rocks (but don’t jump to any conclusions).

• And huge news in the jazz world: A lost album by John Coltrane’s classic quartet has been unearthed and will be released this month. “Both Directions at Once” was recorded in 1963, near the peak of Coltrane’s career.

This week, the team behind “The Daily” is featuring a special audio series about Baltimore after the 2015 killing of Freddie Gray.

The title, “Charm City,” is a nickname for Baltimore that might seem at odds with its gritty portrayal in TV shows like “The Wire” and “Homicide: Life on the Street.”

Although Baltimore was founded in 1729, the term “Charm City” originated more than 240 years later, as part of an advertising campaign.

The fading industrial city was the site of riots after the assassination in 1968 of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In the early 1970s, it faced a series of municipal strikes, including by garbage workers.

Baltimore’s mayor at the time, William Schaefer, was a tireless promoter, and he turned to advertising executives to try to attract tourists.

Their idea: Charm City.

“It gave Baltimore a sense of pride in being characterized as something as simple (and powerful) as being ‘nice,’ ” one of the admen later told The Baltimore Sun.

The campaign didn’t last long, but the nickname did.

After spending a weekend in Baltimore last year, one of our travel writers declared, “Charm City has raised the charm quotient considerably.”

Chris Stanford wrote today’s Back Story.

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