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Asia and Australia Edition

Hurricane Maria, Mexico City, Iran: Your Thursday Briefing

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

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Credit...Pedro Pardo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Rescuers in Mexico searched desperately for a second day for survivors of a powerful earthquake that toppled dozens of buildings in the capital alone. The death toll of more than 200 is expected to rise. An army of volunteers is helping in the relief effort.

At least 30 children were crushed in one school. “I can’t bear this, I can’t,” wept a man at the site.

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Credit...Jose Romero/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico with high winds and driving rain, sending thousands of people scrambling to shelters and knocking out electricity on the entire island. Check here for live updates.

Fears are now shifting to flash flooding and mudslides. Track the storm’s path and position with this real-time map.

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Credit...Jason Decrow/Associated Press..

President Trump meets today with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Mr. Moon, who has repeatedly ruled out military action against North Korea, may find himself the odd man out. Mr. Abe reiterated his hard line on Wednesday, above.

And our analyst looks at the contradictions in Mr. Trump’s two nuclear confrontations: If he pulls out of the agreement with Iran, how will he convince Kim Jong-un that North Korea can trust a deal to disarm?

Here’s our live briefing from the U.N. General Assembly.

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Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• A rights activist from Taiwan is awaiting sentencing for subversion — by a court in central China.

Critics point to the case of Lee Ming-cheh, above, along with the seizure of a billionaire from a Hong Kong hotel and other extraterritorial maneuvers, as evidence that China is growing increasingly brazen in responding to what it sees as threats from abroad.

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Credit...David Gray/Reuters

• A U.S. State Department official confirmed that 54 refugees would travel to the U.S., after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia released a video thanking President Trump for honoring a deal made by the Obama administration.

The arrangement, which Mr. Trump has disparaged, calls for the U.S. to take hundreds of refugees from Australia’s offshore detention centers. Mr. Turnbull said decisions on “others are expected in due course.”

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Credit...David Maurice Smith for The New York Times

• A dying patch of the Great Barrier Reef has yielded hope, in the form of “super corals” that managed to survive.

Around the world, a vanguard of reef experts are hunting for ways to rebuild reefs devastated by heat stress and pollution. But they face questions of funding, as well as ethics: What are the ramifications of introducing selectively bred coral into the wild?

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Credit...Friedemann Vogel/European Pressphoto Agency

• Tata Steel, a unit of the Indian conglomerate, and ThyssenKrupp of Germany agreed to combine their European steel operations to better defend against weak growth in demand and Chinese rivals.

• Britain announced a $720 million plan to build a solar park in Iran backed by investors in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

• Foxconn has pledged to create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin. But it raised even bigger hopes in Brazil six years ago, and the results aren’t encouraging.

• Here’s a look at how Apple’s new iOS 11 will change your iPhone.

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

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Credit...Made Nagi/European Pressphoto Agency

• The Indonesian authorities raised alert levels for Mount Agung, on the resort island of Bali, after hundreds of tremors stoked fears it could erupt for the first time since 1963, when it killed more than 1,000 people. [NDTV]

• Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, surprised observers by meeting with Beijing’s anti-graft chief, Wang Qishan, during his visit to China. [South China Morning Post]

• A request for documents from the White House revealed telling details to date about the breadth of the special counsel’s investigation, including that some lines of inquiry focus squarely on Mr. Trump’s behavior as president. [The New York Times]

• Amazon is reviewing its website after a British report said the online retail giant’s algorithms were suggesting bomb-making ingredients that were “Frequently bought together.” [The New York Times]

• Shanghai police are using facial recognition software to crack down on errant cyclists. [Shanghai Daily]

• Video of a recent dam overflow in Laos shows workers running for their lives. [9News]

• The Philippines’ lower house of Congress agreed to restore the $13 million budget of the human rights commission, which had been slashed to $20 by lawmakers allied with President Rodrigo Duterte. [Reuters]

• From the Op-Ed desk: A Filipino professor argues that President Duterte’s “enablers” — the cogs in his political machinery — are also to blame for the thousands of deaths in the country’s brutal antidrug war. [The New York Times]

• “KPOP,” a new show opening on Broadway, aims to get beyond Americans’ “Gangnam Style” stereotype. [The New York Times]

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

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Credit...Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

• Recipe of the day: Trust us and bake this chocolate cake. It may be the last cake recipe you ever need.

• Working from home can be beneficial to you and your employer.

• There are nondrug, noninvasive treatments to help you manage your pain.

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Credit...Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times

• China as a universe unto itself, forever evolving and changing into a new order. That’s how our Beijing bureau chief expressed the theme of “Art and China After 1989,” a show coming to New York’s Guggenheim featuring works by Kan Xuan, Yu Hong, Sun Yuan, Peng Yu and Qiu Zhijie, above left to right, and dozens of other artists.

• The Shiite Bohra sect in Karachi, Pakistan, is hosting its spiritual leader from India for the first time in 20 years. Tens of thousands of Bohras will come to be near him during their holy month of Muharram, which starts today.

Here’s a place to start understanding global warming: an interactive with 17 often-asked questions and some straightforward answers.

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Credit...Getty Images

Its first moniker — Valley of the Heart’s Delight — referred to the California region’s natural beauty and fruit orchards.

By the second half of the 20th century, as its predominant industry shifted to silicon-based semiconductors, it became known by a new name: Silicon Valley.

Though there remains some debate over who exactly coined the term, it was popularized when Don C. Hoefler adopted it in 1971 as the title of his column in an electronics trade publication.

The Santa Clara Valley has since become synonymous with the tech giants who have their headquarters there (including three of the world’s largest: Apple, Facebook and Alphabet, Google’s parent).

In fact, it’s become tantamount to the U.S. tech industry at large — just as Manhattan’s Tin Pan Alley came to mean the U.S. popular music industry of the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

As the industry grew, so did the number of places vying for similar high-tech status: Silicon Alley in New York, Silicon Beach in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, Calif., and the Silicon Beltway in Washington, to name a few.

And among those farther afield: Silicon Wadi in Israel, Silicon Mountain in Cameroon, Chilecon Valley in Santiago, the Silicon Roundabout in London and Silicon Sentier in Paris.

Inyoung Kang contributed reporting.

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Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. Browse past briefings here.

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What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes.com.

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