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Asia and Australia Edition

Hawaii, North Korea, Iran: Your Monday Briefing

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

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Credit...Social Media, via Reuters

• For 38 minutes, many Hawaiians thought they were under attack.

The state’s emergency management office sent an alert to cellphones on Saturday urging people to take shelter from a ballistic missile. Thankfully, it was a false alarm.

Not surprisingly, the alert caused widespread panic, coming at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea. Security experts called it a frightening warning of how a technical error could set off an unintended conflict.

Since the dawn of the nuclear age, there have been no shortage of erroneous alarms. We revisited a few.

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Credit...Transport Ministry of China, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• Iranian officials rejected President Trump’s call to revise the 2015 nuclear agreement, saying the deal was “not renegotiable.”

Mr. Trump on Friday reluctantly signed waivers to keep the agreement in place, but he demanded that European allies agree to rewrite the nuclear deal within 120 days or else he would kill it.

Separately, the Iranian oil tanker that burned off the coast of China for more than a week sank on Sunday. “There is no hope of finding survivors,” an Iranian official said.

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Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

• “You have children watching. You have nations watching.”

That was just one of the many shocked reactions after President Trump said he did not want immigrants from “shithole” countries. It came from Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin.

But another senator who attended the meeting forcefully denied that Mr. Trump had used that phrase, saying a Democratic colleague’s account of the session was “a gross misrepresentation.”

The president’s vulgar comments, our national immigration correspondent writes, were a sad reminder of racist attitudes that once shaped American policy.

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• South Korea proposed that North Korea join it in fielding a joint women’s hockey team at the Pyeongchang Games next month.

It would be a first for the Games and a dramatic emblem of the recent warming of relations on the Korean Peninsula. The North’s Olympic representative said it was “under discussion.”

And in South Korea, there’s a growing push to overturn an abortion ban. Activists say it puts women at risk and creates a culture of shame.

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From left, Ryan Locke, Robyn Sinclair and Terron Wood. Each said he had experienced sexual harassment during his time modeling.Credit...Ryan Young for The New York Times; Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times; Amanda Lucier for The New York Times

Male models and assistants are accusing the fashion photographers Bruce Weber and Mario Testino of sexual misconduct.

Both are huge names: Mr. Weber is best known for his racy advertisements for Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch, while Mr. Testino is a favorite of the British royal family and Vogue.

Above from left, Ryan Locke, Robyn Sinclair and Terron Wood. Each said he had experienced sexual harassment during his time modeling.

Mark Wahlberg and his talent agency, meanwhile, will donate $2 million to a fund dedicated to fighting pay inequity and harassment of women in Hollywood. The donation comes after an outcry about pay discrepancy in his recent film.

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Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times

• A frenzy over cryptocurrencies has sent their value soaring and investors scrambling.

But the leading player, Bitcoin, was rattled last week by word that South Korea is preparing a ban on trading in virtual currencies. But it isn’t clear whether, or how quickly, it will follow through.

And we went inside the newly megarich cryptocurrency community and found a tightknit group of friends — developers, libertarians, Redditors and cypherpunks — who talk about decentralizing power and wealth, and changing the world order. (They also remember who laughed at them.)

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• Uber once paid a hacker $100,000 over a security breach that exposed the data of 57 million riders and drivers. Our team took a close look at its continuing fallout.

• A big year for stocks in China and India has bargain hunters turning to emerging markets.

• One analyst estimates that same-sex marriage in Australia could help the economy grow by $500 million in a year.

• Meet Mr. Amazon. Jeff Bezos, 54, is the world’s richest person. Now he’s shedding some of his mystery.

Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...DHA-Depo Photos, via Associated Press

• A passenger plane skidded off a runway in Turkey, ending up stuck on a steep slope feet from the Black Sea. No one was hurt. [The New York Times]

• In Chile, firebombs exploded outside three churches, apparently to highlight the plight of an indigenous group and the issue of sex abuse before Pope Francis’ visit. [The New York Times]

• President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines rejected calls from his allies to extend his six-year term and to cancel elections next year. [VOA]

• A volcano eruption forced the evacuation of 1,500 people from an island off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. [Reuters]

• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan could miss the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics as tensions with South Korea flared over World War II-era sex slaves. [The New York Times]

• A 7.1-magnitude earthquake off Peru’s coast early Sunday killed at least one person and injured dozens. [AP]

• The police in China used explosives and heavy machinery to destroy a Christian megachurch in part of what critics called a national effort to control the country’s spiritual life. [The New York Times]

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New Delhi for the first visit by an Israeli leader to India in 15 years. [Indian Express]

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

• Protect your technology this year.

• Recipe of the day: Begin the week with a big bowl of Thai red curry noodles.

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Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• “Frost boy” is what China’s state media calls him. The image of an 8-year-old with icicles in his hair trekking miles to school has underscored the plight of poor rural children.

• From the Queen’s vault. Among the private details Elizabeth II revealed about her 1953 coronation in a BBC documentary: The crown was too big.

• And the Australian Open begins today in Melbourne. Some tennis stars will not be on hand, so who can take advantage?

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Credit...Associated Press

The headquarters for the U.S. military has always stood out.

The Pentagon building was already in use when it was dedicated 75 years ago today, at the height of World War II.

Built just across the Potomac River from Washington in less than two years, the Pentagon was home to 22,000 workers by the end of 1942.

It remains one of the world’s largest office buildings, with more than 6 million square feet of floor space.

The distinctive design came from the shape of the first proposed site, which was hemmed in by streets on five sides. When President Franklin Roosevelt decided on a different location, the shape stayed, but the sides were made even.

The first architectural reviews were not glowing, but they improved over time.

“Called too big, too barren and too expensive when it was completed for $83-million in 1943, the Pentagon is a thriving, functional success in 1968,” The Times wrote in a report for the 25th anniversary of the building, which it extolled as a place of community:

“Everyman, or Littleman, triumphed over all. Thousands of secretaries and office workers have turned the Pentagon into a cluttered, cosy, home-away-from-home.”

Sarah Anderson contributed reporting.

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

We have briefings timed for the Australian, Asian, European and American mornings. And our Australia bureau chief offers a weekly letter adding analysis and conversations with readers. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters here.

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

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