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Europe Edition

Italy’s Election Fallout, American Tariffs, Sergei Skripal: Your Tuesday Briefing

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Good morning.

Italy’s tangled political system, an ex-Russian spy’s illness and dormitories for the middle class. Here’s the news:

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Credit...Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

• Italy’s tangled political system will require long negotiations before a new government is formed. That haggling, our Rome bureau chief writes, risks further stoking anti-establishment sentiment.

The vote on Sunday highlighted a disconnect between the country’s mainstream politicians and the majority of voters, who are enraged and disappointed over migration, stagnant economic growth and a lack of opportunity.

“Voters see in the offers of populist parties like the League and the Five Star the chance to regain a central role,” a political historian in Rome said. An Op-Ed writer compares the election to Britain’s Brexit vote and the election of President Trump.

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Credit...Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press

• Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and a woman in her 30s are reported to be critically ill at a British hospital after being exposed to “an unknown substance.” Once jailed in Russia for selling secrets, Mr. Skripal was resettled in Britain in a 2010 spy exchange.

Separately, a Belarusian woman jailed in Bangkok, Anastasia Vashukevich, above, said that she was willing to provide audio recordings that could help shed light on Russian meddling in U.S. elections if she was granted U.S. asylum.

The offer would have been easily disregarded were it not for a recent investigation by Aleksei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, that gives some credence to her association with an influential oligarch.

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Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York Times

• Two veteran Times reporters assessed America’s strategic lack of a policy on Russia. What worries veterans of the Cold War, they write, is less the Kremlin’s latest technology than the old rhetoric.

Separately in Washington, President Trump reaffirmed his commitment to tariffs on steel and aluminum, but the White House offered to devise ways to potentially soften the measures’ impact on trading partners.

Unusually defiant, some Republican leaders said they feared a trade war. Few experts see tariffs as an effective tool to narrow the so-called trade gap.

And Mr. Trump told Israel’s visiting prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that he might visit in May for the move of the American Embassy to Jerusalem. “If I can, I will,” he said.

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• Artificial intelligence makes it relatively easy to create deceptive videos, putting one person’s face on another person’s body with few traces of manipulation.

Our reporter tried it on himself and concluded that we would soon have to “trust our eyes a little less every day.”

It’s not hard to imagine the technology being used to smear politicians, create counterfeit revenge porn or frame people for crimes.

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Credit...José Sarmento Matos for The New York Times

Soccer, it turns out, has a power to help people with dementia. Our correspondent visited an inspiring English community health program that helps a club’s fans remember its highs and lows.

Separately, he explored how Chelsea had helped to define the sport’s zeitgeist of short-termism. (It may still beat Barcelona next week, and go on to win the Champions League.)

And remember the heydays of the French club Matra Racing? Its rise and fall may hold lessons for Paris Saint-Germain.

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Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times

• In pricey San Francisco, some middle-class residents are trying to save on rent by moving into dormitories. (For $2,200 a month, you get a queen-size bed, a bedside table and a chair.)

In a surprise move, U.S. regulators asked Qualcomm, the giant California chip maker, to give them more time to investigate whether a takeover bid by Broadcom, a Singapore-based rival, would threaten national security.

• “Last chance travel”: Tourist operators are catering to the growing number of travelers who want to experience disappearing cultures and natural habitats before they are irrevocably altered or vanish.

Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...Amer Almohibany/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• In Syria, the first aid convoy in over three months reached a besieged Damascus suburb. But fighting forced it to leave before some trucks could unload. [The New York Times]

• The French government plans to make 15 the age threshold of consent to sexual relations after a public outcry over two cases involving 11-year-old girls. [Agence France-Presse]

• Nigeria’s presidential election is next year but there are already calls for President Muhammadu Buhari to stand down from a second term. [The New York Times]

• “You better wake up because mosquitoes never sleep!” That’s the call from loudspeakers in Brazil for yellow fever vaccinations. The country is rushing to contain what could become its first epidemic since 1942. [The New York Times]

• A cyberwar in the Persian Gulf reverberated in the U.S. as a top Republican fund-raiser with business in the United Arab Emirates accused agents for Qatar of hacking into his email. [The New York Times]

• In Jidda, a small group of Saudi women got a chance to do something long banned for women in their country: drive. (It was a course of cones in a parking lot.) [The New York Times]

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

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Credit...Suzy Allman for The New York Times

• Recipe of the day: Tired of the usual chicken dinner? Try a stir-fry with ketchup.

• Here’s how to tell people you’ve stopped drinking.

• Do that thing you keep putting off.

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

• Men won a vast majority of Oscars this year (one even briefly stole an award), but the ceremony will go down as one in which women made it clear they would be doing and saying what they wanted.

• Celia Paul, the partner of Lucian Freud and the subject of several of his paintings, is drawing attention for her own work. “I’m not a portrait painter: I’m an autobiographer,” she explained, contrasting her art and Mr. Freud’s.

• Satellite images and a drone discovered about 1.5 million Adélie penguins living in the Danger Islands near Antarctica. The discovery of so many new animals has raised questions about how they’re finding enough food.

• Iceland’s geothermal heat is often used to bake bread, but our writer wondered if it could fire a whole meal — then set out to do that.

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Credit...Craig Lee for The New York Times

For today’s back story, we’re introducing what we hope will become a regular feature, courtesy of our friends at The New York Times’s crossword column, Wordplay.

Each week, the column’s editor, Deb Amlen, will highlight the answer to one of the most difficult clues from the previous week’s puzzles. Please let us know how you like it.

This week’s word: sazerac.

It has appeared in the Times Crossword only three times over the past few years, most recently in last Friday’s puzzle.

The sazerac is a 180-year-old cocktail based on rye and bitters. Even if you don’t imbibe, it’s certainly a fun name to say.

The story of the drink begins in mid-19th century New Orleans, where an apothecary owner, Antoine Amedie Peychaud, treated his friends to brandy toddies containing a French brandy called Sazerac and a dash of the bitters made from a secret family recipe.

By 1850, the sazerac became the first “branded” cocktail, and in 1873, the brandy was replaced by American rye whiskey, with a dash of absinthe.

Over the years, Herbsaint, another anise-flavored pastis, has been used in place of absinthe and the “official” sazerac recipe was modified to use Sazerac Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey.

Our Cooking section also features a version made with absinthe.

Chris Stanford contributed reporting.

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Follow Patrick Boehler on Twitter: @mrbaopanrui.

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