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Asia and Australia Edition

North Korea, Kabul, Gaza Strip: Your Monday Briefing

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

Good morning. North Korean maneuvering, a dragon boat accident and the first video ever posted to YouTube. Here’s what you need to know:

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Credit...KCNA via KNS/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

With Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, set to meet his counterpart in the South this week, China is finding itself in an unfamiliar position: on the sidelines, with plenty to lose.

If the North reaches a deal with either South Korea or the U.S., China could see its influence in the region begin to wither. President Trump, who is expected to meet with Mr. Kim, above center, in the weeks ahead, rejected suggestions that he had given North Korea a huge gift simply by agreeing to meet.

In a series of tweets, the president inaccurately stated that Mr. Kim had “agreed to denuclearization.” In fact, North Korea said it would consider relinquishing its nuclear weapons and was ending testing. But experts are unsure, at a basic level, about what Mr. Kim wants.

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Credit...Adam Dean for The New York Times

When Facebook expands into developing countries, it is often welcomed as a force for good. But as Times journalists saw in Sri Lanka, the social media platform has been used to spread false rumors that ultimately led to violent mob attacks against the minority Muslim population there.

In Mexico, India, Indonesia and elsewhere, religious and ethnic tensions have found new life online, where misinformation and hate speech are able to proliferate wildly — often to deadly effect. (Above, worshipers at a burned-out mosque in Digana, Sri Lanka.)

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Credit...Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

The newest front line in America’s global shadow war is a half-finished drone base in a barren stretch of Niger.

It will be used to target extremists in West and North Africa, regions where most Americans have no idea the country is fighting.

The mission in Niger is expected to come under scrutiny in a long-awaited Pentagon investigation into the deadly Oct. 4 ambush there of four American soldiers.

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Credit...Nick Oxford for The New York Times

• Fancy homes, lobbyists and a shell company.

Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is under investigation for allegations of unchecked spending and ethics lapses, including his interactions with lobbyists. But his troubles in Washington have echoes in his past. His stake in a showplace home in Oklahoma City was bought from a lobbyist and hidden in a shell company and not disclosed to ethics officials.

And new documents reveal the efforts of a Republican fund-raiser, Elliott Broidy, to exploit his White House ties on behalf of Malaysian contacts.

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Credit...Rahmat Gul/Associated Press

A suicide bomber killed at least 57 people in Kabul, at a voter registration office. The attack underscored the potential for Afghanistan’s long-delayed parliamentary vote to be undermined by violence.

A steady spate of ever-worsening suicide bombings has taken a toll on the Afghan capital. Chicken Street, Kabul’s must-visit market, is one of many struggling. The shabby lane lined with shops selling jewelry, antiques, knickknacks, artworks and, especially, rugs has been a magnet for generations of foreign visitors looking for Afghan exotica. But nowadays customers are rare.

“It wasn’t even the bombs so much,” said one merchant who is moving to Istanbul. “Worse than that was the fear of kidnapping.”

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Credit...Bryan Denton for The New York Times

• Chinese brokers that help companies evade export duties may find business booming if the U.S. goes ahead with its plan to impose tariffs on China.

• Here’s what to look for this week: Twitter and Microsoft are among the big tech firms reporting earnings, and the European Central Bank has stimulus on its mind.

• Wells Fargo will pay $1 billion to U.S. regulators, who accused it of deceiving customers with certain products. It’s the most significant penalty applied to a bank under the Trump administration.

• India is facing cash shortages again, with A.T.M.s running dry. Economists say government policies are to blame this time, too.

• Korean Air’s chairman fired two executives best known for public tantrums and mistreating employees. They’re his daughters.

• U.S. stocks were down Friday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets today.

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Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Seventeen people drowned in southern China while preparing for the Dragon Boat Festival when two boats capsized. [The New York Times]

• Weekly protests in Gaza along the security fence with Israel have dwindled in size to 3,000, but the latest was deadly nonetheless: Four were killed, including a 15-year-old boy. [The New York Times]

• In Syria, inspectors were finally able to visit the site of a suspected chemical attack and collect samples for analysis. [The New York Times]

• The oldest person in the world, a 117-year-old woman from Japan, died on Saturday. She was the last known person born in the 19th century. [The Associated Press]

“Pollution Pods” at an art installation in London are five geodesic domes that simulate the air quality in five cities, from cleanest (Tautra, Norway) through varying levels of pollution (London, New Delhi, Beijing and São Paulo). [The New York Times]

• A kangaroo died in a zoo in southeast China after being pelted with rocks by visitors, apparently to get it to hop. Another kangaroo was injured days later, setting off outrage. [The New York Times]

• The Armenian police detained three opposition leaders and dispersed protesters demonstrating against the appointment of a new prime minister. [Reuters]

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

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Credit...Heidi Younger

• What to do when your partner ruins his or her credit — and credibility.

• These apps let you enjoy Paris despite the language barrier.

• Recipe of the day: Try pappardelle with pancetta and fresh peas.

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Credit...The New York Times

• Our pop music team pulls back the curtain on how music is made today. First in the series is “The Middle,” a song written by a shy Australian that took producers more than a year to mold into a hit.

• Even by Aussie standards, Patrick Brammall is one busy actor. And his recent work is all over American streaming video.

• Fed of up being told to smile, one woman decides she won’t, and reflects on what it is about American culture that demands grins.

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Credit...Jawed, via YouTube

“Here we are in front of the elephants.”

It’s a phrase that you probably don’t recognize, but it helped launch a platform that you probably do: YouTube.

Thirteen years ago today, one of the video-sharing site’s co-founders, Jawed Karim, published its first clip: a brief video of himself at the San Diego Zoo.

YouTube now has over a billion users who consume a billion hours of video each day. With five billion views, the music video for “Despacito” is the most-watched video on YouTube. (Here's a full list.)

People can watch Tom Cruise jump off Oprah Winfrey’s couch on repeat; laugh at a baby biting his brother’s finger; and relive the world’s introduction to the singer Susan Boyle.

YouTube, now owned by Google, was dreamed up by Mr. Karim and two other former PayPal employees. They were initially depressed by YouTube’s content: “There’s not that many videos I’d want to watch,” one lamented.

The trip to the zoo was one of those videos.

“The cool thing about these guys is they have really, really, really long trunks and that’s cool,” Mr. Karim says in the 19-second video, which has more than 48 million views. “And that’s pretty much all there is to say.”

Remy Tumin wrote today’s Back Story.

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