 | | Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today Japan had inflicted "damage and suffering" during World War II. Toru Hanai/Reuters | Your Friday Briefing By ADEEL HASSAN |
| Good morning. |
| Here's what you need to know: |
| • The stars and stripes rise again. |
| Secretary of State John Kerry leads a flag-raising ceremony today at the U.S. Embassy in Havana now that diplomatic relations have been restored between the U.S. and Cuba. |
| Mr. Kerry, who will also meet senior Cuban officials, is the first secretary of state to travel there in 60 years. |
| • Field trip. |
| Nearly every U.S. presidential candidate from both parties has speaking time at the Iowa State Fair, which is expected to draw one million visitors over 10 days. |
| Jeb Bush takes the soapbox today. Vice President Joseph R. Biden may come, too, as his supporters explore a possible campaign. |
| • Anniversary of Japan's surrender. |
| On the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today that Japan had inflicted "immeasurable damage and suffering" on innocent people in the war. |
| The remarks by Mr. Abe, who backs a bolder military policy, were being closely watched abroad. |
| • What Supreme Court ruling? |
| Nearly two months after the U.S. justices declared a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, a county clerk's office in Kentucky turned away several gay couples seeking marriage licenses. |
| And a state appeals court in Colorado ruled that a baker could not cite religious beliefs in refusing to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples. |
| • Where more officers are killed. |
| The higher the rate of gun ownership in a state, the higher the likelihood of a law enforcement officer being killed, a new U.S. study concludes. |
| • The long road back. |
| Britain's main opposition party, Labour, which suffered a crushing defeat during a general election in May, begins voting for a new leader today. Results will be announced Sept. 12. |
| • Record heat? |
| This year's El Niño weather pattern could be the most powerful on record and could bring enormous amounts of rain to drought-stricken California, U.S. forecasters say. |
| El Niño, whose effects are never certain, begins with warmer-than-usual water temperatures in the eastern Pacific. It can affect weather around the world. |
| MARKETS |
| • Volatility in global stocks eased today after China's currency stabilized, and even rose slightly, after its biggest devaluation in two decades. |
| Wall Street stock futures are edging higher, European shares are up, and Asia ended mixed. |
| • Eurozone finance ministers in Brussels take up Greece's third bailout deal today, after an all-night session of lawmakers in Athens finally approved the tough conditions in the plan. |
| To take effect, the $95 billion deal still requires the approval of legislatures in several other countries. |
| • The weak 19-nation eurozone economy is showing signs of life. It grew 0.3 percent in the second quarter, for a 1.2 percent annual rate, the European Union said today. |
| NOTEWORTHY |
| • Rap-to-riches story. |
| "Straight Outta Compton," opening in theaters today, is the story of the rise of the hip-hop group N.W.A. — including Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E — from the dangerous 1980s streets of Compton, Calif. |
| Here's what else is coming to theaters today. |
| • Tom Brady returns. |
| The quarterback Tom Brady unexpectedly started in the New England Patriots' preseason opener on Thursday, a day after he appeared in federal court over his suspension in connection with the deflation of footballs last season. |
| Brady is allowed preseason play, but if his suspension is not overturned or reduced, he will sit out the first four regular-season games. The Patriots lost to the Green Bay Packers. |
| • Popular reads. |
| Paula McLain's new novel, "Circling the Sun," enters The New York Times hardcover best-seller fiction list at No. 4. Her previous best seller was "The Paris Wife," about Ernest Hemingway's marriage to Hadley Richardson. |
| This time, Ms. McLain imagines the life of the aviator Beryl Markham, who flew solo across the Atlantic in 1936. |
| • A vote for Fallon. |
| NBC extended Jimmy Fallon's contract as host of the "Tonight" show for three and a half years. |
| The move was an endorsement a few weeks before he faces strong competition with Stephen Colbert taking over "The Late Show" on CBS. |
| • Biographies come to life. |
| The New York International Fringe Festival — billed as the largest theater and dance festival in North America — begins today. |
| Biographical plays and musicals about Eleanor Roosevelt, Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Parker, Jackson Pollock, Elaine Stritch and Abraham Lincoln are on the schedule. |
| • When welfare started. |
| Today is the 80th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signing the Social Security Act into law. |
| BACK STORY |
| Imagine it's 1942 and you're a Japanese cryptographer, breaking coded messages from the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force in the fight for supremacy in the Pacific theater. |
| One day, you hear unfamiliar language on intercepted Marine radio broadcasts, with sounds that don't exist in German, Italian, Japanese or English. You're baffled. |
| Those sounds came from a corps of radio operators who developed a secret code in their native Navajo, an Indian language with no written form at that time. |
| Today, Navajo Code Talkers Day, honors their crucial role in Japan's surrender in World War II 70 years ago. |
| The 400 code talkers took part in every Marine assault in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, sending thousands of messages from U.S. commanders on Japanese troop movements and battlefield tactics. Thirteen Navajos were killed in action. |
| The plan was the idea of Philip Johnston, a World War I veteran and engineer who grew up as the son of missionaries on a Navajo reservation and who learned the language as a child. |
| He correctly thought the linguistic and phonetic complexity would make it almost impossible to reproduce. The Japanese were flummoxed. |
| Ut-zah-ha-dez-bin. Translation: Well done. |
| Victoria Shannon contributed reporting. |
| Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated on the web all morning. |
| What would you like to see here? Contact us at briefing@nytimes.com. |
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