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Asia and Australia Edition

O.J. Simpson, John McCain, Ram Nath Kovind: Your Friday Briefing

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

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Credit...Stephen Maturen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

More details emerged in the fatal police shooting of an Australian woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault near her home. The episode has drawn international outrage about American police practices.

Mohamed Noor, who shot Ms. Damond, was the first Somali police officer to be stationed in his precinct, which has a large refugee community that has at times felt victimized by the police.

The mayor said that the shooting had happened “under circumstances we don’t yet comprehend.”

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Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

The death last week of Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate, has dealt a blow to the pro-democracy movement in China. Some say it is now at its weakest point since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

The dearth of foreign leaders willing to publicly criticize Beijing — particularly from the U.S. — has added to a sense of despair among activists.

Friends and family of Lee Ming-cheh, a rights advocate from Taiwan who disappeared into mainland custody in March, see parallels between him and Mr. Liu.

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Credit...Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• In Syria, thousands of war-wounded and sick have received help from an unexpected source: Israel.

The Israeli military revealed the scope of a yearslong humanitarian aid project that is providing medical aid and truckloads of supplies to Syrians along the Golan Heights.

President Trump, meanwhile, ended the clandestine U.S. program to arm and supply Syrian rebel groups — a sign that Washington has lost hope of helping to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

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Credit...Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

• The U.S. attorney general, Jeff Sessions, pledged to stay in his job “as long as it is appropriate,” a day after President Trump lashed into Mr. Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

The president made those comments in an exclusive interview with The Times. Read excerpts here. We have audio clips of the interview and commentary from our reporters in today’s episode of our podcast “The Daily.”

Senator John McCain has a brain tumor, and the prognosis is grim. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have united in support of their colleague.

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Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York Times

The world’s largest online black market, known as AlphaBay, was shut down this month after the authorities arrested a Canadian man living in Thailand who was running the site.

The website had been a marketplace for synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, which play a central role in the U.S. overdose epidemic.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, above, called the episode “one of the most important criminal investigations this year.”

Dispatches left on a now-banned forum on Reddit tell a surprisingly intimate story about the tenacity of the opioid crisis.

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Credit...Michele Sibiloni/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• From climate news:

An experiment showed a simple way to save endangered chimpanzees in Uganda and slow the rate of global warming and carbon dioxide emissions: Pay people not to chop down trees.

And Y2K, the turn-of-the-21st-century computer scare, could offer lessons for fighting climate change, our tech columnist writes.

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Credit...Tim Franco for The New York Times

• Beijing laid out a plan to become the world leader in A.I. by 2030, aiming to surpass its rivals technologically and build an industry worth almost $150 billion.

• Bank of America won’t do business with HNA, the Chinese conglomerate, citing concern over the company’s opaque structure among other issues, according to an internal email reviewed by The Times.

• Lenovo’s chief executive, Yang Yuanqing, said he would lead the stalled Chinese computer maker to $12 billion in annual online sales or resign.

• The head of Korea Aerospace Industries, South Korea’s only aircraft maker and a key military supplier, quit over corruption accusations.

• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...European Pressphoto Agency

• India elected Ram Nath Kovind, a 71-year-old Dalit, as president — a move seen by some as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort to expand his coalition. [The New York Times]

• O. J. Simpson will be released on parole as soon as Oct. 1. The American football legend and actor will go free after serving nine years in prison for armed robbery. [The New York Times]

• Malaysia banned the global hit, “Despacito,” from state broadcasters, but one private radio station admitted it is a phenomenon that is “hard to stop.” [The Star]

• Rising anti-Indian sentiment in China, fanned by border disputes, has not dimmed China’s wild enthusiasm for the Bollywood movie “Dangal.” [South China Morning Post]

• Clark Air Base in the Philippines, once the biggest American military base overseas, is now being redeveloped by China. [Quartz]

• The lead singer of Linkin Park, Chester Bennington, died at 41. His death is being investigated as a possible suicide. [The New York Times]

• A sea cave in Indonesia offers a 5,000-year history of tsunamis. [Atlas Obscura]

• Watch a solar eclipse from space. Time lapse images from a Japanese satellite show the shadow the moon casts on the Earth when it blocks out the sun. [The New York Times]

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

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Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times

• If you like “deviled” foods, with just enough acidity and bite, make this chicken thigh recipe.

• Dare yourself to find out where all your time goes.

• Doctors say they are seeing more of a rare but dangerous condition among newcomers to spin classes.

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Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

• Usain Bolt is the fastest sprinter in history, but why? Biomechanics experts discovered that his right leg hits the track harder than his left, and that may be his secret.

• Giant squids are the stuff of legend, and among the creature’s awe-inspiring attributes are its basketball-size eyes — the largest orbs in the animal kingdom. The size of its brain? Not so impressive.

• “L’Inconnue de la Seine,” an anonymous woman who drowned in the Seine in the late 19th century, ended up becoming a muse for Picasso and other artists.

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Credit...Associated Press

More than 70 countries have elected women as their leaders, not counting figureheads or royalty. Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, broke the leadership barrier on this date in 1960 when Sirimavo Bandaranaike became prime minister.

In 1966, Indira Gandhi, above, was the first woman elected to lead India, the world’s largest democracy. Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan became the first female leader of a Muslim-majority country in 1988.

As of March, there were 15 women serving as heads of state or government around the world, more than twice the number in 2000, representing less than 8 percent of the 193 members of the United Nations. Eight of the 15 were their country’s first female leader.

In Europe, Margaret Thatcher of Britain became the first elected female leader in 1979. Today, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, after 11 years in power, is often called the world’s most powerful woman.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa’s first elected female head of state after she won the Liberian presidency in 2005. Before she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, The Times once asked her if female leaders would “acquire the negative traits that power breeds.”

“It would take a very long term of women absolutely in power to get to the place where they became men,” she said.

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We have briefings timed for the Australian, European and American mornings. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters here.

Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online.

What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes.com.

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