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Asia and Australia Edition

North Korea, Rohingya, Narendra Modi: Your Tuesday Briefing

Good morning.

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And as for this morning, here’s what you need to know:

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Credit...Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

North Korea “is begging for war.”

That’s what Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council a day after the North’s most powerful nuclear test, and hours after South Korea said that Pyongyang might be preparing another ballistic missile launch this weekend.

Ms. Haley said that “the time has come for us to exhaust all of our diplomatic means before it’s too late.”

As Washington considers its options, it must tread carefully if it wants to pressure Beijing to take a tougher line on Pyongyang: There’s about $650 billion in U.S.-China trade on the line.

Analysts are confounded by what North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, really wants. One thing is for certain, the North’s provocations are straining the seven-decade U.S.-South Korea alliance.

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Credit...Pool photo by Tyrone Siu

• At the BRICS summit, the member nations — Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa — denounced the North’s latest test, but added that problems over its nuclear program should only be settled through peaceful means and dialogue, according to a draft communiqué.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, who met earlier with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping of China on the sidelines of the summit today. Above, the leaders on Monday.

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Credit...Bikas Das/Associated Press

Pressure is intensifying on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar and a Nobel Peace laureate, to speak out against a military operation that has caused tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

A fellow peace prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, took to Twitter to confront Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, and some wondered whether the Nobel Committee would publicly criticize her or could even revoke the prize.

Pro-Rohingya demonstrations took place in Australia, Indonesia and India, above, where protesters burned photos of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi.

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Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

In Washington, President Trump is considering a plan to end a popular program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation — but only after giving Congress six months to come up with a replacement.

Separately, lawmakers shaken by Harvey are returning from summer recess with glimmers of cooperation emerging around a basic congressional function: aiding those whose lives have been wrecked by a natural disaster. The question is whether it will last.

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Credit...The Yomiuri Shimbun via Associated Press

This year’s Unesco class of new World Heritage Sites includes Okinoshima, a sacred, males-only island in Japan, above; Dauria, a wild landscape shared by Mongolia and Russia; and the forest temples of Sambor Prei Kuk in Cambodia.

The 15th-century walled city of Ahmedabad, the capital of the Gujarat state of India, also made the list.

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Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

• A new generation of wealthy mainland Chinese men is forcing some luxury brands in Hong Kong to adopt a new “product logic” — advertising through social media and emphasizing uniqueness, authenticity and craftsmanship.

• China’s central bank declared initial coin offerings illegal. The value of bitcoin fell as much as 11.4 percent on the news.

• Novartis tapped Vasant Narasimhan to succeed Joseph Jimenez as C.E.O. of Europe’s largest drugmaker, starting Feb. 1.

• Hollywood is closing in on its worst domestic summer box office totals since 1995 — but overseas audiences continue to devour American blockbusters. The No. 1 movie of the summer on a global scale was “Despicable Me 3” with ticket sales of $976 million.

• U.S. markets were closed for Labor Day. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...The Telegraph, via YouTube

• In Australia, 14 people were injured, including one listed in critical condition, after a car sprayed burning fuel into a crowd at a racing event in Alice Springs. [ABC]

• Hong Kong’s public broadcaster dropped the BBC’s 24-hour World Service radio channel, replacing it with a Chinese state radio that broadcasts mostly in Mandarin, not Cantonese, the city’s main dialect. [BBC]

• Millions in farm subsidies that go to Britain’s rich and famous — including Queen Elizabeth II — could be excised after the country leaves the European Union. [The New York Times]

• A top U.N. official said Saudi Arabia should fund all humanitarian aid to confront the crisis in Yemen, where the kingdom has led a military campaign since 2015. [Reuters]

• Tennis officials are deciding the fate of Fabio Fognini, the Italian player expelled from the U.S. Open after an X-rated rant. He could face up to $250,000 in fines and be permanently barred from Grand Slam tournaments. [The New York Times]

• Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting a third child, who would be fifth in line to the British throne. [The New York Times]

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

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Credit...Christopher Lee for The New York Times

• Wondering how to help those affected by Harvey? Here’s how to donate, and avoid scams.

• Worth it if you’re traveling by air: a cadre of entertaining flight safety films.

• Recipe of the day: If you can’t decide between mashed potatoes and potato salad, Melissa Clark’s recipe will give you the best of both worlds.

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Credit...Anita Kunz

• In almost every mammal species, an infant’s cry has a primal impact on nearby adults. New studies reveal that a baby’s bawl is intertwined with breathing, and central to survival.

• India’s most popular movie this summer is about a toilet. “Toilet, a Love Story” speaks to a serious public health concern and comes amid the government’s biggest toilet-building campaign.

• Finally, our op-ed writer discusses the possible constitutional crisis in Australia: whether dual citizens can sit in Parliament.

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Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

On this day in 1960, Senegal — one of more than a dozen of France’s African colonies to gain independence that year — elected its first president.

Senegal didn’t choose a military strongman, or a populist. It chose a poet, Léopold Sédar Senghor, above right.

He had already put his stamp on the nascent republic. He wrote its anthem and, according to “talk around town” cited in our dispatch from Dakar, the capital, much of its Constitution.

Mr. Senghor was in many ways exceptional. A soldier for France in World War II, he survived two years of Nazi captivity. He was a Roman Catholic who led a largely Muslim nation, and a French-educated scholar of distinction with powerful support from the largely illiterate rural population.

When he died at 95 in 2001, our obituary included an excerpt from one of his best-known poems, “To New York,” that faults the city for materialism (“Hard cash buys artificial hearts”).

Another passage, which was not cited, revels in the vitality of Harlem, a singular neighborhood that is “teeming with sounds and ritual colors / And outrageous smells.”

There, he found “Life immemorial in the streets, / All the amphibious elements shining like suns.”

Patrick Boehler contributed reporting.

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