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Asia and Australia Edition

North Korea, Manus Island, Ratko Mladic: Your Thursday Briefing

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

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Credit...United Nations Command

The U.N. Command is demanding to meet with officials of the North Korean People’s Army, accusing its troops of violating the truce that halted the Korean War when they fired on and chased a defecting comrade across the border last week. South Korean cameras recorded the escape.

And North Korea called the Trump administration’s imposition of new punishments — restoring the North to the U.S. list of terrorism sponsors and yet more sanctions — a “serious provocation.”

In the U.S., the death of an American who had been held in harsh conditions by the North in 2010 raised concerns that he had committed suicide.

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• Security forces in Papua New Guinea stormed a controversial detention center on Manus Island, in an attempt to end a standoff that has drawn international scrutiny to Australia’s refugee policy.

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Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The authorities destroyed belongings in the men’s shelters and announced on a loudspeaker that the men had to leave for alternative facilities on the island. The camp was officially closed on Oct. 31, with electricity, food and water being cut off as hundreds of asylum seekers refused to leave.

Left, a photo taken by a refugee on Manus Island and released by an Australian activist group.

The Times recently sent journalists to visit the Manus Island camp as well as the new facilities the men are supposed to move to. Damien Cave, our Australia bureau chief, shared more photos and stories from that trip.

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Credit...Associated Press

• The Trump administration formally declared that Myanmar’s brutal crackdown on its Rohingya Muslim minority constituted “ethnic cleansing.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the long-anticipated designation was made “after careful and thorough analysis of the facts.” The move opens the door to sanctions against the country’s military and intensifies pressure on Aung San Suu Kyi, its embattled civilian leader.

The Rohingya crisis will come under additional scrutiny next week, when Pope Francis visits Myanmar and Bangladesh.

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• U.S. and Japanese naval forces were searching for three people still missing after a U.S. Navy aircraft carrying 11 people crashed southeast of Okinawa, Japan. Eight were rescued and said to be in good condition.

It was the fifth accident this year for the Seventh Fleet, the Navy’s largest overseas fleet, and the weight of repeated tragedy was reflected on its Facebook page. “This year needs to be over already,” a post said. “7th fleet can’t handle any more curse.”

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Credit...Pool photo by Peter Dejong

• Europe closed what may be its most shameful chapter of bloodletting since World War II.

After a trial that lasted years, the Bosnian Serb warlord Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life in prison by a U.N. tribunal. He was convicted of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in the slaughter of Bosnian Muslims during the breakup of Yugoslavia, including the mass executions of 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica.

Our reporters note that European nationalist passions are once again on the rise.

• From Washington, a tangled message: U.S. regulators’ plan to end net neutrality expands the powers of major internet providers, while a suit to block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner reins one in.

• In a high-profile auction on Alibaba’s Taobao auction site, the Chinese carrier SF Airlines bought two Boeing 747s for $48 million.

• China’s biggest pork companies are racing to build vast hog farms in the northeastern cornbelt, reshaping the country’s $1 trillion pork market.

• Uber’s revelation that hackers stole 57 million accounts, that it paid a ransom, and that the breach and deal were kept secret for a year raises new questions about Travis Kalanick, the former chief executive who remains on the board.

• Unregulated exchanges for digital currencies have popped up in South Korea and other spots. Bitfinex, registered in the British Virgin Islands, is one of the largest, and its opaque operations and vulnerability to hacking offer a cautionary tale.

• U.S. markets are closed. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...Quinn Ryan Mattingly for The New York Times

• Public health officials are tracking the spread of a drug-resistant and deadly strain of malaria from western Cambodia to Thailand and Laos, and most recently into Vietnam, above.

• A Pakistani court has ordered the release from house arrest of Hafiz Saeed, who is believed to have planned the 2008 attacks in Mumbai in which almost 170 people were killed. [The New York Times]

• In Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, a.k.a. Crocodile, whose military allies ended Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule, will be sworn in as president on Friday. [The New York Times]

• Saad Hariri, back in Lebanon, delayed his resignation as prime minister, the latest surprise in three weeks of drama in the Mideast that had raised fears of armed conflict. [The New York Times]

• The German police arrested a man in the 2006 theft of John Lennon’s diaries and other personal effects, some of which turned up last year at a bankrupt Berlin auction house. [The New York Times]

• Tokyo is holding a ticket lottery to avoid unmanageable crowds yearning to see Xiang Xiang, the giant panda cub making her public debut on Dec. 19. [The Asahi Shimbun]

• Online criticism forced a Catholic school in Adelaide, Australia, to cover a recently unveiled statue of a saint offering a suggestively placed loaf of bread to a boy. “This is wrong on so many levels,” one person wrote. [SBS]

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

• Experts offer advice on how to help your child not be an assault victim.

• Business travelers, beware cyberspies.

• Recipe of the day: Parsnips, pasta and bacon make for a delicious weeknight meal.

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Credit...Olimpia Zagnoli

• 100 notable books: From the extraordinary novel “Pachinko,” by Min Jin Lee, to the nonfiction “Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London,” by Lauren Elkin, here are this year’s top choices from our Book Review editors.

• Our Vietnam ’67 series takes a look at the women who covered the conflict, like Kate Webb, the fearless Australian. This piece was written by Elizabeth Becker, who got there in 1972 on a one-way ticket.

• A century ago, you could buy a living lizard lapel pin, but now the multimillion-dollar pet industry for reptiles and amphibians is gripped by ethical and ecological concerns.

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Credit...Yuri Kochetkov/European Pressphoto Agency

“I love a parade” goes a tune from 1932. Today, one of the biggest in the world — the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — makes its way through New York City, as it has for more than 90 years.

Last year, more than 3.5 million spectators lined the route, and another 22 million watched on TV. This year, there will be more than 8,000 participants, including many performers and clowns.

But the act of parading, a ceremony that dates to the earliest human civilizations, isn’t always about fun.

The Romans celebrated their military triumphs with parades — all chariots, plundered loot and captured slaves.

As an expression of raw imperial power, it’s tough to beat the Prussians, who introduced the goose step to parades in the 17th century. That same martial precision can be found in modern military parades in Russia, China and North Korea.

These days, parades around the world inspire exuberance, pride — and often eccentricity. Aside from the wild parades of Mardi Gras and Carnival, there’s the annual Pikachu parade in Yokohama, Japan, and the Vienna Love Parade in Austria.

One of the oddest events of recent years: a parade in the Netherlands in which enthusiasts recreate the phantasmagorical paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, the 15th-century Dutch artist.

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Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. Browse past briefings here.

We have briefings timed for the Australian, Asian, European and American mornings. And our Australia bureau chief offers a weekly letter adding analysis and conversations with readers. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters here.

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

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