Your Wednesday Briefing: South Korea skirts a typhoon

By Amelia Nierenberg

Writer, Briefings

Good morning. We’re covering the aftermath of a typhoon in South Korea and Russia’s plan to buy weapons from North Korea.

Major typhoon spares South Korea

South Korea dodged heavy destruction from Typhoon Hinnamnor. Experts credited the government’s extensive preparations.

The storm, the eighth-strongest typhoon in South Korea’s history, passed over the country and headed out to sea faster than forecasters had expected. The storm caused at least three deaths along with isolated but severe flooding, especially in the city of Pohang, near Busan. Tens of thousands of people were without power. Here are scenes from the storm’s aftermath.

Hinnamnor was the second major storm to batter the country in recent weeks, after the heaviest downpour in decades killed at least nine people in and around Seoul last month. Cheong Tae Sung, a government expert in flooding, said those deadly floods had made both the public and the authorities more alert to the dangers of a big storm.

Context: President Yoon Suk-yeol was criticized for his response to the floods in Seoul. Before the second storm, he promised measures to prevent a recurrence.

Russia buys North Korea’s weapons

Russia is buying millions of shells and rockets from North Korea, according to newly declassified U.S. intelligence. The purchase is a sign that Western sanctions have forced the Kremlin to turn to pariah states for military supplies.

North Korea, which is strapped for currency, appears to be a willing partner, though any deal to buy its weaponry would be a violation of U.N. resolutions. The disclosure also comes days after Russia received initial shipments of Iranian-made drones, some of which U.S. officials said had mechanical problems.

And it may not be just weapons: North Korea may send workers in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine to assist with rebuilding war-torn areas.

Context: North Korea has been one of the few countries to vocally back Russia’s invasion, blaming the conflict on Washington. In July, it recognized the independence of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

China: Moscow had hoped that Beijing would be willing to buck export controls and continue to supply its military. But even though China has bought Russian oil at a discount, it has not yet tried to sell military equipment or components.

Other updates:

• U.N. inspectors said that shelling around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant should be “stopped immediately.” Here are live updates.
• Germany has extended the operations of two nuclear reactors and put caps on heating to stave off an energy crisis. But it won’t put speed limits on the autobahns.

How China shapes the iPhone

Apple is set to introduce the new iPhone 14 today. This fall, for the first time, it will make some of the devices outside of China, although the Taiwanese supplier Foxconn, with help from Chinese suppliers in India, will still play an important role.

Despite the look outside its borders, China’s influence over Apple is only growing. More than ever, thanks in part to pandemic border restrictions, the technology company empowered and hired more Chinese engineers in Shenzhen and Shanghai to lead critical design elements. Chinese employees and suppliers contributed complex work and sophisticated components, including aspects of manufacturing design, speakers and batteries.

As a result, the iPhone has gone from being a product that is designed in California and made in China to being a creation of both countries. The development of the most recent generation of phones shows how complicated it would be for Apple to truly untangle itself from China, and reflects the country’s advancements over the past decade.

Background: China lured Apple and other companies to its factories with legions of low-wage workers and unrivaled production capacity. Its engineers and suppliers have since moved up the supply chain to claim a bigger slice of the money that U.S. companies spend to create high-tech gadgets.

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THE LATEST NEWS

• The death toll after an earthquake in southwestern China has risen to at least 65, state media reports.
• Floods in Bengaluru, India’s Silicon Valley, have forced tech workers to ride boats and tractors to work.
• As gender abuse cases make headlines in China, Beijing is trying to squash dissent and control the narrative.
• The Solomon Islands accused Australia of “interference” for offering to finance its next election, Reuters reports.
• Thousands of Indonesians protested an increase in fuel prices, Al Jazeera reports.

• Liz Truss is now Britain’s prime minister.
• The Canadian police say that one man suspected in a fatal stabbing spree is dead. The other was reportedly sighted near where most of the attacks took place.
• A bomb killed at least 35 civilians in Burkina Faso, which has seen growing extremist violence.
• Israel has recalled its envoy to Morocco amid allegations of misconduct.
• The U.N. said that “famine is at the door” in Somalia.
• Satirical novels dominated the Booker Prize shortlist.

• Juul settled a multistate investigation into its role in the teen vaping crisis for $438.5 million.
• During the Biden administration, the U.S. has admitted one million undocumented immigrants to await hearings.
• Deadly wildfires have swept through California during a heat wave.

Last month, a French politician from the Green Party declared, “We have to change our mentality so that eating a barbecued entrecôte is no longer a symbol of virility.” (She was making a point about climate change, she said.)

The country erupted in fury.

Lives lived: Cyrus Mistry once led India’s biggest conglomerate. He died in a car accident at 54.

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ARTS AND IDEAS

Celebrating African contemporary art

After a three-year hiatus, Art Joburg returned as an in-person art fair last weekend. It was a chance to reignite optimism in African contemporary art and, for 113 artists from 34 galleries, to remind the art world of their presence.

African artists had been basking in a global spotlight, but the pandemic slowed their momentum. Art Joburg tried to host a virtual fair, but seeing the pieces in person, especially those from new artists, was “very good, psychologically,” said Mandla Sibeko, the director of Art Joburg.

Clutching champagne flutes, Johannesburgers scrutinized sculptures and canvases. “It’s acrylic, ugh,” one visitor said, with her nose to a canvas. “This looks like it could work in an office or man cave, right?” another said about a minimalist work.

Pride of place was a large bottle-cap tapestry by the record-breaking Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui and an interactive installation by the South African artist William Kentridge. To stand out at the convention center in Sandton, one of the wealthiest blocks of real estate in Africa, some booths opted for neon signs. Others went for shock, like a disturbingly accurate forearm emerging from a wall with a rude gesture.

For 15 years, Art Joburg has been an important platform for emerging artists. Georgina Maxim, a co-founder of Zimbabwe’s Village Unhu, brought her canvases in ski bags to Johannesburg. Returning to the fair, she said, was about reminding collectors that artists hadn’t disappeared during lockdown.

“You then end up being forgotten,” she said. —Lynsey Chutel, a Briefings writer in Johannesburg.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

Start your meal with a bright bell pepper salad.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back with “Cool It Down,” an expansive album that dares to imagine a bold, fresh future.

In “The Betrayed,” the Filipina-born daughters of a dead political dissident both fall for the enemy.

Play today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: “Soft rock cover” (four letters).

Here are today’s Wordle and today’s Spelling Bee.

You can find all our puzzles here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — Amelia

P.S. Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, boarded a small fishing boat, held rocks from the ocean floor and hunted down sources at a Jamaican jerk chicken spot to report a story about seabed mining.

The latest episode of “The Daily” is on the U.S. midterm elections.

Lynsey Chutel wrote today’s Arts and Ideas section. You can reach Amelia and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

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