 | | South Koreans watched news reports today of an exchange of rocket and artillery fire with the North. Yonhap, via Agence France-Presse - Getty Images | Your Thursday Briefing By ADEEL HASSAN |
| Good morning. |
| Here's what you need to know: |
| • Border fire in Korea. |
| North and South Korea exchanged rocket and artillery fire across their border today, their first armed clash in five years, the South Korean Defense Ministry said. |
| No casualties were immediately reported on either side. |
| • Dueling Republicans. |
| Two town-hall-style meetings in New Hampshire, a crucial primary state, showed the contrasting styles of Donald J. Trump and Jeb Bush, who are leading in Republican polls. |
| In a sign of the public's enthusiasm for Mr. Trump, Fox News at one point cut away from Mr. Bush, midsentence, to focus on an empty lectern awaiting the billionaire candidate. |
| • Deadly bomb attack in Cairo. |
| A car bomb detonated this morning in Cairo, destroying a state security building and injuring two dozen people, including six police officers. |
| Egypt's president, who has effectively ruled the country by decree for two years, had just approved new counterterrorism laws intended to fight the growing militant insurgency against his government. |
| • Protests in St. Louis. |
| Officers arrested at least nine people and used tear gas in St. Louis during protests, which may continue today, over the death of an 18-year-old black man. |
| He was shot on Wednesday by two white police officers, who said he had pointed a gun at them. |
| • Graphic testimony. |
| The cross-examination of the 16-year-old girl at the center of the rape trial of a former student at the elite St. Paul's School in New Hampshire begins today. |
| The case explores what some say is a culture of sex, gender and entitlement at St. Paul's, which counts ambassadors, senators and prominent authors among its alumni. |
| • President Carter's update. |
| In an unusual step, Jimmy Carter is expected to discuss his health at a news conference today in Atlanta, eight days after he said that he learned he had cancer. |
| • Wildfires kill three firefighters. |
| Three firefighters were killed and four others were injured in Washington State as blazes forced thousands to evacuate. |
MARKETS |
| • For the first time since the recession, the benchmark U.S. oil price is approaching the $40-a-barrel level. Last summer, it was above $100. |
| In a measure of their concern that the price collapse could last through 2016, oil companies gave an auction of drilling leases scant interest this week. |
| • Greece made a $3.56 billion payment to the European Central Bank today, using cash from its new international bailout, a senior government official told Reuters. |
| • The district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles say background checks used by Uber failed to uncover criminal records of 25 drivers, despite the company's assurances that it employs "industry-leading" screening. |
| • Union leaders and McDonald's workers from around the world are converging in the capital of Brazil to testify before the Senate about global working conditions at McDonald's. |
| • Wall Street stock futures are lower after the Shanghai index closed down more than 3 percent. European shares are also off. |
NOTEWORTHY |
| • Overtime kills. |
| People who work 55 hours or more per week have a 33 percent greater risk of stroke and a 13 percent greater risk of coronary heart disease than those working standard hours, researchers reported. |
| • Silent celebrity. |
| While you can find Beyoncé on the cover of Vogue's 832-page September issue, she doesn't say a word inside. |
| She last tweeted two years ago, and hasn't given an interview in over a year. |
| • Play ball! |
| The 16-team Little League World Series begins today in Williamsport, Pa. (1 p.m. Eastern, ESPN). |
| There won't be another star like Mo'ne Davis this year, however, as there are no girls on any of the qualifying teams. |
| • Two-timers. |
| Two online search tools claim to show whether a particular email address was part of the data breach of Ashley Madison, a dating website marketed at would-be adulterers. |
| Of the site's 37 million users, more than 15,000 submitted email addresses that were hosted on U.S. government and military servers, The Hill reported. |
| • Second plague case in California. |
| Health officials are investigating a case of plague that a camper most likely contracted while visiting Yosemite National Park. |
| The disease, fatal if not treated quickly, is found among squirrels, chipmunks and other rodents, but is rare among humans. |
| • Meet the new Rangers. |
| Captain Kristen Griest, who has served as a military police platoon leader, and First Lt. Shaye Haver, who was a pilot on an Apache helicopter in an aviation brigade, are the first women set to graduate from the Army's Ranger School. |
BACK STORY |
| Edinburgh, Scotland's capital, is once again the center of the world's art scene this month. |
| The Edinburgh International Festival, which includes performances in the city's major theaters and concert halls, began in 1947. Sir Rudolf Bing, who later led the Metropolitan Opera, was the main force behind creating an event to bring global culture to an austere, postwar Britain. |
| Highlights this year include Juliette Binoche in the lead role of "Antigone," and a new trilogy of plays by Rona Munro about Scottish kings. |
| As if that gathering were not enough to swell the city of roughly 500,000 people, there is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a theatrical sideshow that began when a small group of artists was closed out of the main festival in 1947 and decided to perform anyway. |
| The Fringe now features more than 450 companies putting on 3,314 shows across 313 venues, including pubs and windowless rooms. The shows are typically not prescreened by organizers. |
| The Edinburgh International Book Festival, which began in 1983 and calls itself the world's "largest public celebration of the written word," adds 700 or so events to the city this month. |
| It all adds up to a dizzying kaleidoscope of arts. |
| 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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