Photo

President Obama announced before his visit to Alaska today that he would rename Mount McKinley as Denali.Credit Andy Newman/Holland America Line, via Associated Press

Stories from Our Advertisers

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Urgent action on climate.

President Obama travels today to Alaska, on the first presidential visit above the Arctic Circle, to call for aggressive action to tackle climate change.

On Sunday, he used his executive power to rename Mount McKinley as Denali, restoring an Alaska Native name to the tallest mountain in North America.

Also today, diplomats from more than 190 countries are in Bonn, Germany, for a U.N. conference on global warming, the last before a crucial U.N. summit meeting in December.

• More Clinton emails.

The State Department is expected today to release under court order another set of emails that Hillary Rodham Clinton sent or received on a private server while she was secretary of state.

One of Iowa’s most respected pollsters says that Mrs. Clinton’s lead over Bernie Sanders in the state shrank to 7 percentage points last week.

• Meeting on migration crisis.

Austrian authorities discovered 200 migrants and made five arrests overnight after they instituted spot checks of traffic over the Hungarian border, which is normally open to passport-free travel.

Last week’s gruesome deaths of 71 migrants in a truck in Austria intensified pressure on the European Union, which set an urgent conference of interior and justice ministers on Sept. 14 to find measures to cope with the rising tide of migrants.

• Behind China’s deadly blasts.

The chemical company whose exploding warehouses killed 145 people and injured more than 700 this month has become a symbol for many Chinese of the high cost of rapid industrialization.

A special report from The Times takes a deep look at how the company exploited weak governance and used political connections to shield its operations from scrutiny.

• Affirmative action under fire.

Resentment of India’s system of quotas, which reserves nearly half of government jobs and public university slots for those from disadvantaged castes or tribes, has turned into an opposition movement.

MARKETS

• Global stock markets are about to close out their worst month in more than three years, but on a fairly calm note.

Wall Street stocks are down about 1 percent. European shares are mostly lower, and Asia ended mixed.

• Toshiba, rocked by an accounting scandal that inflated profits for years, again put off reporting its annual results today, citing new discoveries.

• When will the Fed raise rates? Sometime soon is all we know — possibly as early as mid-September and probably no later than the end of the year.

But as the central bank’s policy makers weigh the latest economic evidence, they are also being pressured politically ahead of their Sept. 16-17 meeting.

• The Italian energy company Eni said it discovered a “supergiant” natural gas field off the coast of Egypt, describing it as the “largest ever” found in the Mediterranean Sea.

OVER THE WEEKEND

• A 30-year-old Houston man was arrested in the fatal shooting of a sheriff’s deputy who was filling the gas tank of his patrol car.

• Tropical Storm Erikakilled 20 people on the Caribbean island of Dominica and at least one person in Haiti. A windstorm in Seattle killed two people and caused extensive power outages.

And the tropical storm Fred strengthened today into a hurricane as it neared the Cape Verde islands.

• Three Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced in Cairo to three years in prison for broadcasting “false news” about Egypt.

• Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign is facing fund-raising woes, and Gov. Chris Christie said that he would combat illegal immigration by creating a system to track foreign visitors the way FedEx tracks packages.

• Thailand arrested a “foreign man” in connection with this month’s bombing of a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people. Today, officials also issued arrest warrants for two more suspects.

• Keen Ice defeated American Pharoah, winner of horse racing’s Triple Crown, in the Travers Stakes; Jason Day won the Barclays golf tournament; and Tokyo won the Little League World Series in dramatic fashion.

• A baseball fan died after falling from the upper deck at Turner Field during the Yankees’ 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves.

• “Straight Outta Compton” was again the No. 1 draw at the North American box office over the weekend.

• Catching up on TV: Episode recaps for “Fear the Walking Dead” and for the season finale of “Hannibal.”

NOTEWORTHY

• It’s all about Serena.

The U.S. Open begins today, and for the first time in its history, officials believe, the women’s tennis final sold out before the men’s (1 to 6 p.m., ESPN, and 6 to 11 p.m., ESPN2).

That’s because the 33-year-old Serena Williams, who plays tonight, is one title away from being the first woman to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf’s in 1988, at the age of 19. (Complete Times coverage.)

• In memoriam.

Oliver Sacks, an author and neurologist who explored the connections between science, art, physiology and psychology, died on Sunday at the age of 82.

Wes Craven, 76, a master of horror cinema best known for creating the Freddy Krueger and “Scream” franchises, died in Los Angeles.

• The voice of baseball.

Vin Scully, 87, who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers’ broadcast team in 1950, announced that he’ll be back for a record 67th and final season in 2016.

The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles 57 years ago.

• Free music.

The pop singer Miley Cyrus announced her newest album, now streaming free online, as she hosted the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday.

• That’s why it felt so realistic.

Frederick Forsyth, a pre-eminent writer of spy thrillers, admits in his new autobiography that he worked for a British intelligence agency for more than 20 years.

BACK STORY

In the heat of summer, it’s easy to grab some ice cubes from the fridge and pour yourself a cold one.

But in the early 1800s, summertime ice was a luxury for only the rich, and it was nonexistent in tropical climates.

One man from Boston changed that, and he made a fortune in the process.

Frederic Tudor began in 1806 by harvesting ice from New England’s winter ponds (Walden Pond was one), packing it in sawdust and hay, and sending it south.

His first shipment — about 130 tons that took a three-week journey to the Caribbean island of Martinique — melted fast when it got there.

Instead of giving up, Mr. Tudor decided to build insulated storage centers at the ports of his destinations.

He primed the market by giving bartenders free ice. Once customers took a liking to it, he started to charge, and a luxury product for southern climates was born.

Later, he began selling ice to butchers, dairymen and fishmongers. So a side effect of the ice market was the start of the age of refrigeration.

But Mr. Tudor’s biggest triumph may have been the 16,000-mile, 130-day voyage in 1833 that first brought ice to steamy India.

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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..