Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
Good morning.
Here’s what you need to know:
• The nuclear threat from North Korea is spurring Japan and South Korea to consider their own nuclear arsenals.
The U. S. defense secretary, Jim Mattis, visited the demilitarized zone over the weekend, above, saying Washington “does not accept a nuclear North Korea.” He was preparing for President Trump, who leaves Friday for a 12-day tour of Asia and meetings with leaders in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The U. S., meanwhile, has a nuclear stockpile large enough to decimate entire populations. Our Editorial Board translated that data visually. And an Op-Ed contributor warned that the North’s chemical weapons also pose a staggering risk.
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• President Trump, facing reports that the first indictments are near in the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, raged on Twitter .
He criticized investigators’ scrutiny as and attempted to shift the focus with a list of accusations against his former rival, Hillary Clinton.
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• Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Barcelona for a peaceful rally against independence from Spain, but tensions appeared on pause, if not ebbing.
Many pledged to be heard in Dec. 21 elections for a new Parliament, which were announced by Spain’s president on Friday when he s tripped the Catalan government of its power.
Photographs from Barcelona and from Madrid underscored the intensity of feeling on both sides .
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• Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of heads to Israel on Tuesday, the highest-level visit by an Australian leader in 17 years.
He delayed his departure to help contain the fallout from the High Court’s ruling on Friday that five federal lawmakers with dual nationality, including Mr. Turnbull’s deputy, Barnaby Joyce, pictured above left last week, should be expelled from Parliament.
Many are asking why Mr. Turnbull, had not insulated the party earlier. Mr. Joyce, who has renounced his second citizenship, will run in the Dec. 2 election to fill his seat.
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• “I don’t want your money, that would make me feel disgusting.”
That was Rose McGowan, above, one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, opening up to our reporters. She revealed that someone close to the movie mogul offered her $1 million in hush money.
When she went public, the dam burst, with The Times and other news outlets reporting on decades of Mr. Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment.
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• And in climate news: Two of the world’s most critical glaciers, in Antarctica, are shedding more and more ice.
The Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers are holding back ice that, if melted, would raise the world’s oceans by nearly four feet over centuries, an amount that would put many coastal cities underwater.
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• A deal by Joseph Tsai, the Taiwan-born co-founder of Alibaba, to buy a 49 percent stake in the Brooklyn Nets offers the latest evidence of entrepreneurial interest in meeting the emerging Chinese appetite for sports.
