Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
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Good morning. Typhoon Jebi hits Japan, pollution is outsourced and Amazon lands in the trillion-dollar club.
• The strongest typhoon in 25 years.
At least nine deaths were reported as Typhoon Jebi made landfall in southern Japan early Tuesday afternoon. The typhoon, with winds up to 130 miles (209 kilometers) per hour, prompted officials to urge the evacuation of more than a million people.
The typhoon comes during a summer plagued with weather issues, including lethal floods and landslides and deadly heat waves.
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• Outsourced jobs, sure. But outsourced pollution?
Wealthy countries have been “outsourcing” a big chunk of their carbon emissions abroad. They’ve done this by importing more steel, cement and goods from factories in China and other countries, rather than producing them domestically.
A new report on the global carbon trade estimates that 25 percent of the world’s total emissions are now being outsourced this way. About 13 percent of China’s emissions in 2015, for example, came from making products for other countries.
But there’s a growing push to close this loophole, and policymakers are looking for a solution.
Want to see how your hometown has warmed over the years? Plug your birthday in here to find out .
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• Facebook as a weapon.
When fighting between rival militias broke out in the Libyan capital in recent days, some combatants picked up rocket launchers. Others headed to Facebook.
“Keyboard warriors,” as Facebook partisan are known in Libya, issued boasts, taunts and chilling threats online as their counterparts attacked from the ground. Some Facebook users even provided direct coordinates for targeted attacks.
Facebook insists it is policing its Libyan platform, but illegal activity is rife.
“So many times over the past seven years,” one researcher said, “I heard people say that if we could just shut down Facebook for a day, half of the country’s problems would be solved.”
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• The newest $1,000,000,000,000 company.
Amazon followed in the footsteps of Apple to become the second American company to cross the trillion dollar value. We take a look at how the company’s relentless ambition landed it in this once-unimaginable club.
On the same day of its valuation announcement, Amazon said it would offer a Hindi-language option in India, hoping to tap into a vast market of half a billion Hindi speakers. Amazon offers a similar Spanish option in the U. S.
Amazon’s expansion into Hindi is vital to the company’s plan to make India its next big market.
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• Abortion, guns and presidential power.
The U. S. Senate began confirmation hearings for Judge Brett. M. Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing began with a bang, as Democrats moved angrily to adjourn to consider newly released documents the night before the hearing.
Opening statements from Republicans and Democrats set up some of the key issues in the nomination fight — guns, abortion and executive privilege.
One takeway: Two portraits of Judge Kavanaugh, now a Washington federal appeals court judge, are beginning to emerge, one is a champion for women; the other a threat to women’s rights.
The hearings continue through the week.
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• Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback who protested during the national anthem, is a new face of Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign. Nike, one of the league’s most valued partners, begins a campaign with an athlete who is seen as a hero to some, a pariah to others.
• Facebook, Twitter and Google executives testify before Congress in Washington today about foreign influence campaigns and disinformation. Can you spot the deceptive Facebook post? Take our quiz.
• Argentina took emergency measures to shore up the peso amid concerns about the country’s solvency. The move came days after the central bank intervened with a drastic increase in interest rates.
• Steve Bannon was disinvited from The New Yorker Festival after celebrities dropped out in protest. President Trump’s former chief strategist called The New Yorker’s editor “gutless.” [ The New York Times]
• Global shares mostly fell Tuesday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.
• The Nepalese government and trekking insurance companies say a wave of false claims and unneeded evacuations from Mount Everest are part of an elaborate fraud that has cost insurance companies millions of dollars. [ The New York Times]
• President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the arrest of a Philippine senator who is one of his top critics. [ The New York Times]
• Syria and Russia carried out dozens of airstrikes on Syria’s last rebel-held province, Idlib, raising concerns about a large offensive against the densely populated area. [ The New York Times]
• He was late to the forehand; shaky on his serve; brittle under pressure. Roger Federer, it turns out, is only human. He found himself in an unfamiliar position — out of the U. S. Open in the fourth round. [ The New York Times]
• A half-billion dollar grant awarded to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation may be rescinded under a new Labor government, Labor’s environment spokesman said. [ ABC]
• 182 meters. The world’s tallest statue is nearing completion in India. The bronze-clad statue is a tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first deputy prime minister of independent India. [ BBC]
• Australia’s broadcasting regulator found that the Seven network had “provoked contempt” with an error-ridden broadcast on its Sunrise program. [ Crikey, paywall free for Times readers]
• From Opinion: A new bill will help Australia’s intelligence agencies circumvent encryption. “We should all be worried, because it’s not just criminals or terrorists who use encryption, but everyone of us,” a human rights lawyer writes. [ The New York Times]
• (Almost) just a click of the heels: Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” were stolen 13 years ago from a Minnesota museum. Now, the F. B. I. has found them. [ The New York Times]
Tips for a more fulfilling life.
• How to be a millionaire before you’re 30. Then retire.
• Scared to be a parent? There are books and consultants who can help.
• Recipe of the day: Miso provides caramelization in this recipe for baked cod in buttery bread crumbs .
• They’ve done it again: For the second time in six months, BTS, the first K-pop act to lead the Billboard 200, is atop the charts. The boy band’s “Love Yourself: Answer” is the No. 1 album in the United States.
• 20 minutes. That’s how long it took for one rapper to make the first defining song of his career. From an upload to SoundCloud to performing alongside Drake, this is how a rap anthem can catch fire in 2018.
• What are the biggest problems facing us in the 21st century? The historian Yuval Noah Harari takes on the question in what the reviewer Bill Gates calls “a fascinating new book.
