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| Good morning. Flooding in Southeast Asia, stifling drought in Australia, and still no answers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Here’s what you need to know: |
 Ye Aung Thu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
| • Crippling floods in Southeast Asia. |
| This year’s monsoon season has inundated many areas, endangering lives and forcing evacuations. In some cases, poor dam construction, deforestation and a lack of emergency preparations have worsened the effects. Some government officials blamed climate change. |
| In Myanmar, heavy flooding in eight states has killed at least 10 people since Friday and prompted the evacuation of more than 50,000. Above, the Bago region on Sunday. |
| Meanwhile, a record heat wave has wreaked havoc on four continents. Our correspondents around the world spoke with people in Hong Kong, Pakistan and beyond to find out how they’re coping. |
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 Brook Mitchell/Getty Images |
| • Australia’s suffocating drought “just keeps tightening its grip,” our correspondent reports. |
| State officials in New South Wales announced a new aid package worth 500 million Australian dollars, or about $370 million, but farmers across the affected region — an area larger than Texas that has not seen substantial rain in two years — said the measure isn’t even close to what they need. |
| “Farmers are past the point of subsidies and loans,” one rancher said. Above, feeding cattle on one desiccated ranch. |
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 Doug Mills/The New York Times |
| • President Trump said that he would meet with Iran’s leaders with “no preconditions.” |
| “They want to meet, I’ll meet,” Mr. Trump said. “Whenever they want.” |
| Mr. Trump, speaking at a joint news conference, above, with Italy’s prime minister, went even further. He said that he would “meet with anybody” and argued that his session with President Vladimir Putin was a success — despite fierce bipartisan criticism to the contrary. |
| Hours before Mr. Trump spoke, Iran said that talks with the U.S. would be impossible under what it called the Trump administration’s hostile policies. |
| The trial of Paul Manafort starts today. The veteran Republican political operative who helped run Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign is facing financial fraud charges — but questions about Russian involvement in the campaign hang heavily over the proceedings. Here’s what’s at stake. |
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 Biju Boro/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
| • “What will happen to me?” |
| Fear and uncertainty were unleashed in India’s northeastern Assam State after the government published a draft list of citizens that excluded about four million people. |
| Many felt that the registry disproportionately left off Muslim migrants and would pave the way for discrimination against minorities. Officials in Assam have justified the move partly by citing unchecked immigration from Bangladesh. Above, officials in Assam inspecting the list on Monday. |
| Security in the state was tightened before the draft was released, in an effort to curb protests. |
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 Yam G-Jun/Associated Press |
| • Unsolved as ever. |
| An official Malaysian investigation into the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared four years ago, was unable to determine what happened to the plane. |
| The chief investigator said the evidence, including the plane’s change of course and the switching off of a transponder, “irresistibly point” to unlawful interference. But he said that there was no indication of who might have interfered or why. |
| Family members, above, still have no closure, and the investigators are disbanding. But the chief investigator left open the possibility of more inquiries: “No wreckage has been found. The victims have not been found. How could this be final?” |
| Business |
 Tyler Comrie |
| • Bermuda, Malta and Gibraltar are among the small countries and territories jockeying for a big role in what could be the next business frontier: welcoming cryptocurrency companies that are looking for shelter from regulatory uncertainty in the U.S. and Asia. |
| • China’s former top internet censor, Lu Wei, was charged with corruption and accused of illegally accepting “a huge amount of assets.” |
| • California’s $100 billion train. In the face of sharp opposition and funding concerns, construction of the state’s high-speed rail line is underway. Our Los Angeles bureau chief examines the most ambitious public transportation project in the U.S. today. |
| • U.S. stocks were lower. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. |
| In the News |
 Justin Sullivan/Getty Images |
| • In Northern California, the death toll from the Carr Fire rose to six, and seven people are missing. The wildfire is among the largest and most vicious of the blazes currently ravaging the state. [The New York Times] |
| • Chinese parents, shouting phrases like “Justice for the victims,” gathered outside a government building in Beijing to protest a vaccine scandal. [The New York Times] |
| • Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Philip Edward Wilson, the archbishop of Adelaide. Mr. Wilson had resisted intense pressure in Australia to resign, despite his criminal conviction for covering up for sexual abuse by a priest. [The New York Times] |
| • A Hanoi court sentenced a fugitive Vietnamese tycoon to nine years in prison for disclosing state secrets. It’s the latest case in an anti-corruption camapaign that has led to the arrest of dozens of officials and business figures. [Reuters] |
| • In Malaysia, an 11-year-old girl’s marriage to a 41-year-old man — the father of her best friend — has reignited debate in the multiethnic democracy about the persistence of an age-old Islamic practice. [The New York Times] |
| • “That’s a terrible mistake to make.” Jeremy Hunt, the new British foreign secretary, called his Chinese-born wife Japanese during a discussion with his counterpart in Beijing. [The New York Times] |
| Smarter Living |
| Tips for a more fulfilling life. |
 Heidi Younger |
| • Got debt? Accept that generous offer if it comes your way. |
| • Recipe of the day: Embrace cheesy, earthy flavors with a spinach risotto. |
| Noteworthy |
 Andy Davis/University of Chicago |
| • The sun was a terrible toddler. Blue crystals inside a meteorite that predates the planets offer the first physical clues of the “terrible twos” phase of our star early in the life of the solar system. |
| • Helmets, hockey sticks and hijabs. Six young Muslim sisters are forcing Canadian sports fans to expand their view of who athletes can be and what they can wear. |
| • And the secrets to getting into Harvard.A lawsuit accusing the university of discriminating against Asian-Americans has shed light on little-known aspects of its selection process. |
| Back Story |
 United Feature Syndicate Inc., via Reuters |
| Fifty years ago today, Charles M. Schulz introduced the first black character in his long-running comic strip, “Peanuts.” |
| The character, named Franklin, was created after a teacher in Los Angeles, Harriet Glickman, wrote to Mr. Schulz after the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a few months before. |
| “I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, hate, fear and violence,” she wrote. |
| She proposed that Mr. Schulz add a black character to his popular comic. |
| Mr. Schulz was initially hesitant, worried that black parents might think he was condescending. But he eventually wrote back to Ms. Glickman, “I have drawn an episode which I think will please you.” |
| Franklin was met by praise from many, but a few newspapers in the South refused to run the strip. |
| Mr. Schulz later recalled: “I did get one letter from one Southern editor who said something about ‘I don’t mind you having a black character, but please don’t show them in school together.’ But I didn’t even answer him.” |
| Adriana Lacy wrote today’s Back Story. |
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