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Asia and Australia Edition
Australia, Apple, Minnesota: Your Thursday Briefing
Good morning.
Here’s what you need to know:
• The U.S. Supreme Court issued a mixed ruling on President Trump’s travel ban.
It temporarily allowed the White House to enforce restrictions on the nation’s refugee program. But it let stand a court order from Hawaii that grandparents and other relatives of U.S. citizens must be admitted while the case proceeds on appeal.
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• Thailand convicted dozens of people for organizing a multimillion-dollar human-trafficking ring that enslaved hundreds of victims from Bangladesh or Myanmar — many of them Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority.
The defendants, including a high-ranking officer, a former politician, police officers and smugglers, were arrested in 2015 after 36 bodies were found in shallow graves, above, near Malaysia.
“This may be the end of an important and unprecedented trial, but it’s been a rocky road, and it’s not ‘case closed’ for survivors of human trafficking here,” a human-rights activist said.
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• “It would have never happened here.”
That was the sentiment across Australia this week after Justine Damond, a meditation coach, was fatally shot by a police officer in Minnesota.
In Sydney, dozens of Ms. Damond’s friends and relatives gathered at sunrise, above, on Wednesday to commemorate the life of a woman they described as a ray of light.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, appearing on television, asked: “How can a woman out in the street in her pajamas seeking assistance from police be shot like that?”
Others are asking: why wasn’t the officer’s body camera turned on?
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• When Myanmar began to adopt democratic reforms in 2011, Washington quickly rewarded it by lifting sanctions and visits by President Barack Obama.
But the U.S. did little to build on the new relationship, our correspondent writes.
Myanmar is now depending on China to help solve its problems — especially as a mediator in Myanmar’s ethnic civil wars, the mission Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s de facto leader, says is dearest to her heart.
Above, members of the United Wa State Army in June.
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• In South Korea, activists are using interviews with defectors and other data to pinpoint the places where North Korea is thought to have executed and buried prisoners.
More than 300 sites where executions are thought to have occurred and 47 sites believed to have been used for cremations and burials have been identified.
Above, North Koreans crossing the Yalu River at the Chinese border in May.
Business
• HNA Group evolved from a small airline into a global Chinese conglomerate. For nearly 25 years, The Times found, its executives have funneled business to a small group of relatives and associates. Above, Chen Feng, chairman of HNA, in 2011.
• Apple appointed Isabel Ge Mahe, a Mandarin speaker with an engineering background, as head of its operations in China. She has a tough task: fend off competition and navigate a new cybersecurity law there.
• Dalian Wanda tore up a $9.3 billion deal to sell a portfolio of hotels and theme parks, highlighting uncertainty over the financial health China’s biggest companies.
• Shares in Suning, the Chinese appliance giant that bought Italy’s Inter Milan last year, dropped after state-run media questioned whether Chinese tycoons had taken over indebted European soccer clubs to launder money.
• The Nasdaq and S.&P. traded at record levels, boosted by technology stocks. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.
In the News
• Intrigue in Saudi Arabia: The heir to the throne was held in a palace in Mecca and forced to yield to Mohammed bin Salman, 31, above, who became the new crown prince. [The New York Times]
• Our writer reflects on what he witnessed while embedded with the Iraqi forces during the fight to wrest Mosul from the Islamic State. One father said of his children: “They’ve only known war and destruction.” [The New York Times]
• Indonesia banned Hizbut Tahrir, a hard-line Islamist group that organized protests that rocked the country last year. [The New York Times]
• In Japan, a set of “waka” poems with notes from an emperor who abdicated in 1817 were found at a used bookstore in Kyoto. [The Ashahi Shimbun]
• Audi, the German carmaker, apologized for an ad in China that shows a bride being inspected by her mother-in-law. [South China Morning Post]
• In 1942, a Swiss couple set out across a glacier to milk their cows, and were never seen again. The mystery may have now been solved. [The New York Times]
Smarter Living
Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.
• Enter the wilderness for increased exercise benefits.
• Going somewhere? Learn to properly pack your suitcase.
• Grilled steak marinated in a teriyaki sauce is a foolproof dinner you’ll make again and again.
Noteworthy
• On a final reporting trip, The Times’s Beijing bureau chief returned to Kashgar, a Silk Road oasis town in China’s far west, for the fifth time since 1999. This time, he was detained.
• In memoriam: Robert Wu, the founder of Eslite Corp., one of Taiwan’s largest bookstore chains, died at 66.
• Prompted by the Netflix film “To the Bone,” more than 1,200 readers shared with us their experiences of eating disorders. We collected some of the comments.
• “Game of Thrones” is back. We’ve started an email newsletter with exclusive interviews and explainers, and published the first installment. You can sign up here. Meanwhile, we’re asking readers: Is it O.K. to talk during the show?
Back Story
If you feel sports-deprived while you wait another three years for the Olympics, an international competition that is just as important for some athletes starts today.
Over the next 10 days, more than 3,000 athletes from 111 countries will compete at the 10th World Games in Wrocklaw, Poland.
Like the Olympics, the competition occurs every four years and is under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee. Some of the 31 sports at the World Games might be described as niche: tug of war, lifesaving, boules and casting (akin to fishing but without water).
The World Games are billed as a steppingstone for lesser-known sports to admission at the Olympic Games, and many representatives of those sports have put their hopes into showing that they, too, can attract a crowd.
John Liljelund, the world’s top floorball official, said, “We have a clear possibility to showcase the value and interest of our sport.”
There are precedents, although it is unclear how much of a role the World Games played.
Rugby, a World Games sport, was elevated to Olympic glory during last year’s Games in Rio de Janeiro. Surfing, karate and baseball will become Olympic sports in Tokyo in 2020.
Above, Team Japan during the women’s tug of war competition in 2005.
Patrick Boehler contributed reporting.
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