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Europe Edition

Italy, ‘Shape of Water,’ Angela Merkel: Your Monday Briefing

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Good morning.

Italy’s political impasse, the trans-Atlantic standoff on tariffs and the Oscars. Here’s the news:

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Credit...Miguel Medina/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• In Italy, national elections showed how far populists and the far-right have advanced into mainstream politics.

Their strength at the polls was a strong indicator of voter anger after years of economic stagnation and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants from Africa and elsewhere.

The Five Star Movement, a populist party, surged to become the largest party. Within the rightist coalition that leads overall, the far-right League appeared ahead of the nominally moderate party of Silvio Berlusconi. (Above, Matteo Salvini, the League’s leader.)

The governing Democratic Party suffered its poorest showing ever in national elections, continuing a Europe-wide collapse of the left. No party or coalition passed the threshold to form a government. Expect weeks of haggling.

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• Jad Allah Jumaa, above, was 1½ years old when he was killed in Syria as government forces steadily advanced on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus amid constant shelling and airstrikes.

Stories like his have been told so often that compassion fatigue has made much of the world numb toward the unspeakable inhumanity that defines Syria’s civil war, our critic writes.

We compiled the stories of some of the children who have so far cheated death in the siege by hiding in cramped basement shelters.

Separately, dozens of fighters loyal to the Syrian government were killed in a Turkish aerial assault as fighting intensified in the northwestern Kurdish stronghold of Afrin.

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Credit...Fabian Bimmer/Reuters

• “We also have to be this stupid.”

That was Jean-Claude Juncker, above, the president of the European Commission, warning of retaliation against U.S. threats to impose tariffs on steel, aluminum and European cars. (President Trump’s advisers left room for him to change his mind.)

Since the early days of the Trump presidency, many in Europe had looked to China as a defender of the global order. But our veteran correspondent in Brussels warns that such hopes may be misplaced.

Meanwhile, Chinese analysts lauded Mr. Trump’s recent private praise of President Xi Jinping’s strongman rule. (There was also a tongue-in-cheek comment that the U.S. might want to emulate the abolition of presidential term limits.)

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Credit...Patrick T. Fallon for The New York Times

• At the Oscars, “The Shape of Water” won best picture, and Guillermo del Toro won best director for the film.

Jimmy Kimmel, the host, addressed the sexual harassment scandals that have rocked Hollywood in his opening monologue.

See photos from the red carpet. (Rita Moreno recycled the gown she wore for the 1962 awards.) And here’s the full list of winners.

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Credit...Giulia Marchi for The New York Times

• Debt is a key risk that China’s economy faces, the country’s premier said in his annual state-of-the-nation report. We looked at HNA Group as it’s rushing to sell assets overseas to help pay back $90 billion. The conglomerate’s fate could affect tens of thousands of workers, including many in Europe.

• Four months is all it could take for the messaging app Telegram to raise $1 billion from investors through its initial coin offering. (For perspective: It took Facebook seven years to raise that much.)

• S.U.V.s made up more than one in three cars sold globally as drivers in China, Australia and Europe increasingly ditched sedans. That’s bad news for the climate.

Here’s a snapshot of global markets and a look at what could move them this week.

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Credit...Felipe Trueba/European Pressphoto Agency

• In Germany, rank-and-file Social Democrats averted a crisis for Chancellor Angela Merkel by voting in favor of another coalition government, despite grass-roots discontent. (Above, the announcement of voting results was closely watched on Sunday.) [The New York Times]

• In Washington, investigators probing Russian election meddling have questioned an adviser to the government of the United Arab Emirates, indicating that the inquiry has broadened. [The New York Times]

• The Turkish government is introducing new internet restrictions to stifle a final refuge for information and dissent. [The New York Times]

• Slovakia’s president called for a government shake-up or early elections to renew public trust after the murder of an investigative journalist. [Reuters]

• The world’s longest-imprisoned journalist was freed in Uzbekistan. Yusuf Ruzimuradov, accused of sedition, was released after 19 years. [The New York Times]

• Surplus weapons left over from Yugoslavia’s civil war, including hand grenades, are being sold to gangs in Sweden. [The New York Times]

• Poland’s governing party has used selective nostalgia and generous social programs to build broad support in neglected rural hinterlands. [The New York Times]

• A former president of the Vatican bank has been ordered to stand trial on charges of embezzlement and money laundering. [Reuters]

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

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Credit...Jing Wei

• Social disconnection is a serious matter. But let’s not whip up a panic.

• Decide when to mention at work that you have young children.

• Recipe of the day: Roasted cauliflower and blue cheese make for a satisfying, meatless pasta dinner.

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Credit...Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

• Our own Adam Ferguson was named photographer of the year in the 75th Pictures of the Year International competition. His work included images of Nigerian girls recruited by Boko Haram as suicide bombers, above, and of a road trip through the Australian outback, where he was born.

• In memoriam: Davide Astori, an Italian soccer star, died at 31. Roger Bannister, the first athlete to break the four-minute mile, in 1954, died at 88.

• A museum in Germany said that four paintings by Piet Mondrian were likely to have been gifts from the Dutch abstractionist, but the heirs say they were just loans.

• Norway has turned to drones to help clean up Oslo’s fjord. (Human divers still have to scour garbage off the seabed.)

• For decades, antique Persian rugs were the gold standard of floor coverings for the swank. No more.

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Credit...National Portrait Gallery, London

You might expect to find advice about how to reject a marriage proposal in the Smarter Living section of the Morning Briefing.

But it’s relevant for today’s Back Story. On this day in 1839, Charlotte Brontë wrote what might be considered a classic rejection letter (eight years before the publication of her best-known work, “Jane Eyre”).

Her suitor was the Rev. Henry Nussey, the brother of her close friend Ellen. He proposed by letter, shortly before Brontë’s 23rd birthday. She responded a few days later, kindly but firmly:

“Before answering your letter, I might have spent a long time in consideration of its subject; but as from the first moment of its reception and perusal I determined on which course to pursue, it seemed to me that delay was wholly unnecessary.”

She offered a face-saving explanation: “I have no personal repugnance to the idea of a union with you — but I feel convinced that mine is not the sort of disposition calculated to form the happiness of a man like you.”

Brontë went on to publish a collection of poetry with her sisters Emily and Anne in 1846. Her novel “Jane Eyre” was published the next year under the pseudonym Currer Bell, which was based partly on the name of the man whose marriage proposal she did accept (after two tries): Arthur Bell Nicholls.

Chris Stanford contributed reporting.

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Follow Patrick Boehler on Twitter: @mrbaopanrui.

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