Wednesday, July 17, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering Kim Jong-un’s luxurious limousine collection, China’s growing gender inequality and possibly the worst way to smuggle drugs.

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

Kim Jong-un riding in his Mercedes-Benz limousine in Vietnam in February. Linh Pham/Getty Images

How does Kim Jong-un get his luxury cars?

The North Korean leader has frequently been seen using expensive Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce limousines, in open defiance of U.N. sanctions intended to keep his country from importing luxury goods.

Using shipping data, corporate records, satellite imagery and interviews, a Times investigation tracked the circuitous routes that North Korea uses to import high-end items.

Why it matters: American officials say tough sanctions are the only real leverage to pressure North Korea into ending its nuclear weapons program, but Mr. Kim’s brazen and evasive tactics illustrate their limits.

Related: North Korea is pressuring the U.S. to cancel military drills with South Korea scheduled for next month, warning that it would otherwise restart nuclear and missile tests.

China elbows women out of their gains

In a stark turnaround from the early decades of Communist rule, workplace discrimination, government policies and recent court rulings have all set women in China back.

Companies openly — and illegally — seek out male candidates for jobs. The Communist Party, which once proclaimed that women held up “half the sky,” now encourages women to embrace domestic life. Women’s claims to property in divorce proceedings have been further weakened.

One factor in the regression is an aging population, a looming crisis that the government wants to counter by stimulating a baby boom. But instead of encouraging women to both work and have children, President Xi Jinping has led a return to traditional gender roles that push women back into the home.

The numbers: China once had one of the world’s highest rates of female labor force participation, with nearly three in four women working as recently as 1990. Now the figure is down to 61 percent, according to the International Labor Organization.

In 2018, China’s ranking in the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap index was 103rd out of 139 countries, down from 57th in 2008.

Quotable: “When the state policymakers needed women’s hands, they sent them to do labor,” one expert said. “Now they want to push women into marriage and have a bunch of babies.”

Rescuers searching for survivors at the site of a collapsed building in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday. Prashant Waydande/Reuters

Building collapse in Mumbai kills 10

A four-story residential building in India’s financial capital caved in on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and trapping dozens more under debris, officials said.

Members of 15 families were buried in the rubble, according to officials. Rescuers used sniffer dogs, machinery and their bare hands to look for survivors, but narrow and crowded lanes near the building made it difficult for rescue equipment to reach the site.

Context: Building collapses, fires and unregulated development are common in Mumbai, where many structures are old.

The collapsed building, said to be nearly 100 years old, was undergoing redevelopment, according to a state official, but the work wasn’t completed on time. “All of this is a matter of investigation,” he said.

The cost of Trump’s trade war

Recent U.S. government figures show that the revenue Washington has collected from tariffs on imported Chinese goods is not nearly enough to provide financial support for the agriculture industry or other sectors that have been hurt by the trade tensions.

Though the tariffs have dented China’s economy, there’s little statistical evidence that they have been to America’s gain, contradicting the president’s portrayal of the trade standoff as an economic victory for the U.S.

The numbers: Mr. Trump’s tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports have raised $20.8 billion, according to government data. He has already committed to paying $28 billion to American farmers hurt by the trade war.

What’s next: Trade talks have faltered in recent months, and it appears that there will be no quick resolution, with Mr. Trump projecting confidence that China is suffering most — if not all — of the harm from the trade war.

If you have 10 minutes, this is worth it

In Canada, a disaster and empty promises

Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press

Six years ago, a runaway cargo train carrying more than a million gallons of fuel hurtled into the center of downtown Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, derailed and exploded, killing 47 people. The disaster, pictured above, outraged Canadians and shined a light on the growing number of freight trains that rumble through the country’s urban centers while carrying dangerous goods.

The government vowed to fix the problem. We found that little has changed.

Here’s what else is happening

“Racism” vote: President Trump rallied Republicans to reject a House resolution set for a vote on Tuesday that condemns his recent statements suggesting that four minority congresswomen leave the country. A smattering of Republicans have denounced the president’s performance.

Polio: A total of 42 new cases have been reported in Pakistan and Afghanistan this year, a surge that could get worse this summer because hot conditions favor the spread of the virus. Vaccination drives in the country have been thrown off track by last year’s national elections and by false rumors on social media about side effects of the vaccines.

The Philippines: President Rodrigo Duterte, known for a history of crude remarks about women, signed a law that criminalizes wolf-whistling, catcalling and other forms of sexual harassment in public spaces and workplaces in a move that some critics found “ironic.” The law also covers online harassment.

U.S.: The Justice Department said it wouldn’t charge a New York City police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner in 2014. The decision ends the federal inquiry into a case that sharply divided officials and prompted national protests over excessive force by the police.

Italy: The police seized a large arsenal of weapons, including an air-to-air missile, from neo-Nazi sympathizers in the northern part of the country and arrested three men, after an investigation into Italians who had fought alongside Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine.

Frederick Florin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Snapshot: Above, Ursula von der Leyen of Germany, who on Tuesday was approved to become the first female president of the European Commission, takes on the role at a time when the bloc is grappling with strategic, trade and ideological struggles.

Emmys: “Game of Thrones” received 32 nominations, setting a record for a TV show in a single year and helping HBO dominate the selections.

Meat-based vegetables? Amid a growing trend to find plant-based meat alternatives, one American fast-food chain has decided to take the opposite (and perhaps funnier) approach by unveiling a carrot made from turkey.

Spain: The police announced the arrest of a Colombian man who they say tried to smuggle half a kilogram of cocaine into the Barcelona airport last month by hiding the package on top of his head and covering it with an oversized hairpiece.

What we’re reading: This collaboration from ProPublica and The New Yorker. Lauretta Charlton, our Race/Related editor, writes: “Black poverty in America is intimately related to the loss of land. Here, one black family fights to keep theirs.”

Now, a break from the news

Linda Xiao for The New York Times

Cook: Try this tomato-less take on pasta puttanesca with linguine, tuna and capers.

Listen: On the new version of Billie Eilish’s swinging “Bad Guy,” Justin Bieber is a Sinatra for the SoundCloud era, our critic writes.

Watch: Done with “Stranger Things”? We’ve got your next Netflix binge covered.

Go: A glorious but tattered beauty, Naples is now humming with visitors. Here’s a 36-hour itinerary for the Italian seaside city.

Smarter Living: Women are sometimes worried about being “everything” to everyone: family, friends and work colleagues. But it’s possible to ditch the unrealistic expectations, do less and achieve more. First, decide what matters most, then ask, “What should I be doing to focus on it?” Find more tips in our Working Woman’s Handbook.

We also have advice for building a wedding website.

And now for the Back Story on …

Swan Upping

All this week, scarlet-clad teams in small boats are rowing on the River Thames in southern England. They’re counting swans.

Since the 12th century, British monarchs have asserted exclusive rights to most of the country’s mute swans. But two groups descended from London’s medieval craft guilds own swans on the Thames, and mark them to show as much.

The Queen's Swan Marker examining a young swan in London on Tuesday. Toby Melville/Reuters

It’s called “Swan Upping,” perhaps because the searchers “take up” the swans they find for examination and enumeration.

Swans were a medieval delicacy, prized at banquets. But these days, they are protected in Britain, and eating them is forbidden.

In 2005, the composer and conductor Peter Maxwell Davies made a terrine from a swan he said had died after flying into a power line. The police questioned him, and he pondered whether he might have to serve time “with a ball and chain in the Tower of London.”

He got off, and maintained that “making a delicious terrine” was within his rights.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Alisha

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Andrea Kannapell, the briefings editor, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the dispute between President Trump and four Democratic lawmakers.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Software testing stage (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The weekend editor of The New York Times’s Express Desk, which covers fast-breaking news, collected real-time digital newsroom communications during New York City’s blackout last weekend.