Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up .)
Good morning. An extraordinary request in Washington, trouble with dams in Southeast Asia and the decade that almost stopped climate change. Here’s what you need to know:
• “Stop this rigged witch hunt right now.”
President Trump called on his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to end the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to Trump associates.
Some lawyers immediately questioned whether the extraordinary request, made on Twitter, was an attempt to obstruct justice. Mr. Trump’s lawyers suggested that he was giving his opinion, not an order. Above, Mr. Trump in a public appearance with Mr. Sessions, second from left, in May.
Mr. Trump also tweeted about his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, suggesting that he was being treated worse than the notorious mobster Al Capone.
On the second day of Mr. Manafort’s trial, the first stemming from the special counsel’s investigation, prosecutors began building the case that he sought to hide and evade taxes on a portion of $60 million he earned as a political consultant in Ukraine.
_____
• Raising the stakes.
The Trump administration is considering raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products to 25 percent — not the 10 percent it had previously indicated — in a bid to bring Beijing back to the bargaining table.
The proposal is being fueled by deep frustration in the White House over its failure to force China to change its trade practices, as well as by a sharp decline in the value of China’s currency. Above, American flags being manufactured in China last month.
And here’s a look at the public feud between President Trump and Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist who has denounced Mr. Trump’s trade policies.
_____
• Downstream from danger.
The deadly deluge caused by the failure of a dam in Laos drew global media attention. But few noticed when the floodwaters rushed some 50 miles south into Cambodia, above.
The flooding upended life for thousands of impoverished farmers in the 3S Basin, where the Sekong, Sesan and Srepok rivers flow into the Mekong in a watershed described as “a bread basket for over three million people.”
But it is increasingly dotted with dams, and accidents like the Laos collapse may become more common.
_____
• Losing Earth.
The Times Magazine this week is devoted to the period from 1979 to 1989, “the decade we almost stopped climate change.”
The writer Nathaniel Rich traces how humankind first came to a broad understanding of the causes and dangers of climate change. Above, Santa Rosa, Calif., after last year’s fires.
The expansive narrative covers the efforts of a small group of American scientists, activists and politicians, and explains how thoroughly they grasped the problem and how agonizingly close they came to solving it.
_____
• “I’m calling this out because it is wrong.”
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, above, of Australia’s Greens Party explained her reasons for filing a defamation suit against a fellow lawmaker who told her to “stop shagging men” during a debate about violence against women.
The suit claims the offending senator defamed her in follow-up news interviews, citing his description of her as a “hypocrite” and “misandrist” because she attacked men in public but had sex with them in private.
The acrimony raised yet more questions about a culture of sexual harassment and scandal in Canberra.
• Big tech: strong as ever. Don’t let Facebook’s stock crash fool you, our tech columnist writes, the “frightful five” — Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft — are still on their way to dominating the future.
• Backlash: Coles, a major Australian supermarket chain, reversed its ban on single-use plastic bags after customers complained. But bucking the global trend to reduce plastic waste has drawn outrage.
• Beijing pledged trillions of dollars toward the construction of roads, power plants and ports through its Belt and Road initiative. There are more frivolous projects, too, like an indoor ski slope in Australia.
• Apple’s report of strong profits for the second quarter could soon help make it the first public company worth more than $1 trillion.
• Google is working on a censored search engine that will filter websites and search terms blacklisted by the Chinese government, two people told our reporters.
• U. S. stocks were down. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.
• In Afghanistan, the Taliban won a decisive victory against the Islamic State after a two-day battle. More than 200 Islamic State fighters, like the one above, and two top commanders surrendered to the Afghan government to avoid capture by the Taliban. [ The New York Times]
• Tommy Robinson, the British far-right activist known for his anti-Islam and anti-immigration stance, was freed on bail in the U. K. [ The New York Times]
• The White House is considering another sharp reduction in refugee admissions. Under one proposal, no more than 25,000 refugees could be resettled in the U. S. next year, a cut of more than 40 percent. [ The New York Times]
• China’s secret weapon in its race to dominate the Pacific: sand. [ The New York Times Opinion]
• “He has given everything that he’s got to give.” Jarrod Lyle, the 36-year-old Australian golfer, stopped leukemia treatment and will spend his final days in palliative care. Mr. Lyle beat cancer as a teenager and again in 2012. [ The Age]
Tips for a more fulfilling life.
• Recipe of the day: If you’re a fan of spicy, bold recipes, try this cumin lamb stir-fry .
• You should send that thank you note .
• Stand up for yourself .
• Don’t everybody talk at once. Did the 525 ventriloquists who gathered in Kentucky last month find a convention rewarding? You’ll have to ask their dummies.
• Cody Wilson, the Texan behind the push to distribute 3-D blueprints for weapons, calls his effort “a pretty mainline American idea.” Our podcast “ The Daily ” looks at the fight over the so-called ghost guns, which are largely undetectable by security systems and untraceable by the authorities.
• Netflix Australia added a new batch of movies and TV shows to its library. Here are the titles we think are most interesting for August, broken down by release date.
President Trump has so far made two Supreme Court nominations, which is about average. But some presidents didn’t get to name anyone to the court.
No vacancies came up while Jimmy Carter was president from 1977 to 1981 (although he reportedly pressured Justice Thurgood Marshall to resign after losing the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan).
