Here\u2019s what you need to know to start your day.<\/b>
\nGood morning.
Here\u2019s what you need to know:
\u2022 The Chinese authorities are searching for the cause of a huge explosion outside a kindergarten in eastern China that killed at least seven people and injured nearly 70 others.
Images of dazed and injured people outside the school on the outskirts of Xuzhou, a city in Jiangsu Province, circulated on social media. One video showed what appeared to be doctors trying to revive a toddler covered in blood.
It remains uncertain whether any of the dead or injured were students or teachers. \u201cAccording to an initial check, the kindergarten was in class, \u201d the authorities said.
_____
\u2022 The father of Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old American university student who was released from North Korea in a coma, said at a news conference that his son was \u201cbrutalized and terrorized\u201d during 18 months of captivity.
The statement comes hours after the North said it had freed him on \u201chumanitarian grounds .\u201d
Dennis Rodman, the ex-N. B. A. star who is presently in North Korea, presented a copy of President Trump\u2019s book \u201cThe Art of the Deal\u201d as a gift for the country\u2019s leader, Kim Jong-un, The Associated Press reported.
_____
\u2022 I n Washington, President Trump taunted federal investigators for making up a \u201cphony collusion with the Russians story\u201d amid new reports that Robert Mueller, the special counsel, is looking into whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct justice in the case.
And new details emerged about James Hodgkinson, the man who police say opened fire on a crowd of congressional Republicans at a baseball practice.
President Trump called for unity after the shooting, the latest example in a grim trend .
_____
\u2022 In this dispatch from Tehran, a New York Times reporter passed commandos armed with Kalashnikovs as he entered the gold-domed mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini .
The shrine was attacked last week by Islamic State fighters \u2014 the first successful assault in Iran by the terror group. Nobody wanted to admit it, he found, but things had changed.
_____
\u2022 In the waterlogged Netherlands, the Dutch don\u2019 t see climate change as a hypothetical or even as a drag on the economy. Instead, it\u2019s an opportunity, and they have advice for those coping with rising seas around the world.
Above, Dutch children practicing to swim with clothes on.
_____
\u2022 Australia\u2019s prime minister was caught impersonating President Trump in a leaked recording \u2014 and he seemed to be enjoying it. \u201cWe are winning so much. We are winning like we have never won before, \u201d he said in a parody of Mr. Trump\u2019s bluster.
In this week\u2019s newsletter, our bureau chief ponders Australia\u2019s relationship with culture \u2014 suggesting that demand is greater than the supply.
\u2022 The oil conundrum. What to make of the current volatility and the future of an industry experiencing its deepest downturn since at least the 1990s.
\u2022 The Fed undershot its target for inflation yet again, a move that our senior economics correspondent suggests could define the tenure of its chief, Janet Yellen .
\u2022 \u201cFair and Balanced\u201d no more. Fox News has replaced its longtime motto with \u201cMost Watched, Most Trusted.\u201d
\u2022 No more soy \u201cmilk.\u201d The European Court of Justice ruled that the term could be used only for dairy products sold in the E. U.
\u2022 And our technology columnist makes the case that only customers can hold Uber accountable as it tries to repair its image.
\u2022 U. S. stocks were weak. Here\u2019s a snapshot of global markets.
\u2022 Prime Minister Theresa May ordered an inquiry into the fire at a London apartment tower as the death toll rose to 17 and concerns intensified over fire safety and construction materials in high-rise buildings. [The New York Times]
\u2022 U. S.-led airstrikes have killed hundreds of civilians in the Islamic State\u2019s stronghold in Syria, a U. N. panel said. [The New York Times]
\u2022 Nearly 86 percent of the plastic debris running through rivers to the world\u2019s oceans comes from Asia, according to a new study. [Quartz]
\u2022 A Texas woman who was raped in India by her Uber driver is suing the company and three current and former executives. [The New York Times]
\u2022 \u201cI had to stand up to a bully.\u201d Rebel Wilson, the Australian actress, has won her defamation case over a series of articles that had depicted her as a serial liar. [ABC]
\u2022 \u201cImagine, \u201d John Lennon\u2019s 1971 ballad for a utopian future is getting a co-writer: Lennon\u2019s widow and collaborator, Yoko Ono. [The New York Times]
\u2022 Recipe of the day: Take advantage of the outdoors and grill up some chicken for a Caesar salad .
\u2022 The offhand comment (good and bad) has a remarkable shelf life. Use them wisely.
\u2022 Want more Smarter Living? Sign up for the weekly newsletter here .
\u2022 Women, interrupted. An Uber board member\u2019s claim that female directors talk too much and the cutting short of a congresswoman at a Senate hearing illustrate an experience that academic studies confirm.
\u2022 For sale: a $7 million Wild West town. In today\u2019s 360 video, step inside an amusement park, as the family that has owned it for 43 years ponders its future.
\u2022 And a migrant crisis Catch-22. Our review of Mediterranean rescues since 2014 shows that migrants have been saved ever closer to the Libyan coast. Critics say this introduced a deadly incentive for more boats to depart.
Today is Bloomsday, a special day on the literary calendar.
James Joyce, the groundbreaking Irish novelist, above, chose to immortalize June 16,1904, in his novel \u201cUlysses\u201d because it was the date of his first outing with his future wife, Nora Barnacle.
The day is named after Leopold Bloom, the book\u2019s unlucky main character who embarks on a daylong picaresque voyage through Dublin, Joyce\u2019s hometown. More than a century later, Bloom\u2019s \u201codyssey\u201d is celebrated around the world with readings, re-enactments and, in some cases, heavy drinking.
\u201cUlysses, \u201d for all its artistic accolades, is no easy summer read. A review when it was published in 1922 compared the prose to the \u201cproductions of the Ouija board.\u201d
But help is a tap away.
There are now apps, including one that uses a touch screen to untangle the book\u2019s tough sentences, and a podcast with hundreds of episodes breaking down its arcane composition. A group of Boston College students is developing a \u201cUlysses\u201d virtual reality game \u2014 Joycestick.
\u201cIf it\u2019s so hard to read, \u201d Robert Berry, the illustrator, once said, \u201cwhy are people having so much fun with it?\u201d
Today is the day to find out. Have a great Bloomsday.
_____
This briefing was prepared for the Australian morning. We also have briefings timed for the Asian, European and American mornings. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters here.
Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online.
What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes.com .<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 1<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: -2.3<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

TW posts: 20<\/div>\n

TW reposts: 0<\/div>\n

TW likes: 0<\/div>\n

TW sentiment: 0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n