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Europe Edition

Vladimir Putin, Eastern Ghouta, Unilever: Your Friday Briefing

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Good morning.

Western unity in repudiating the Kremlin, an exodus from eastern Ghouta and subversive knitting. Here’s the news:

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Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times

• A growing backlash against Russia:

The White House imposed new sanctions over its election meddling and malicious cyberattacks, presumably including those the administration revealed Thursday against nuclear facilities and water plants.

The U.S., Britain, France and Germany jointly condemned the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England, blaming Moscow and calling it the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War II.

Britain’s top diplomat hinted that associates of President Vladimir Putin might be targeted in a British anti-corruption drive. (The opposition Labour Party appeared divided in its response.)

Meanwhile in Washington, the special counsel, Robert Mueller, subpoenaed business records from the Trump Organization — including some related to Russia.

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Credit...Louai Beshara/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• Thousands of exhausted civilians streamed out of eastern Ghouta, the largest single-day exodus from the besieged rebel-held enclave since the start of a Syrian government offensive last month.

The rebels, who once controlled large parts of Syria, now hold very few areas, and emboldened government troops are advancing on the remaining redoubts.

We spoke to a Syrian-American architect from Aleppo about how she felt watching her city turn to rubble. Amid the pain, she said that she now tried to focus on reconstruction. Watch the video here.

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Credit...Ksenia Kuleshova for The New York Times

• In the western German city of Essen, a charity food bank’s recent decision to start turning migrants away reflects how much of the burden of integrating refugees has fallen on the country’s poorest.

They have to compete with migrants for subsidized apartments, school placements and, in the case of food banks, a free meal.

Some cities are now taking steps to prevent refugees from settling there.

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Credit...Saudi Press Agency, via Associated Press

• Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia said the kingdom would acquire a nuclear bomb “as soon as possible” if Iran developed such weapons. Tehran dismissed him as delusional.

Separately, we learned that an error in a computer code was the only thing that prevented a potentially deadly explosion in a Saudi petrochemical facility during a cyberattack in August.

Investigators are tight-lipped about who may have been behind the attack. There are fears that it could be replicated elsewhere.

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Credit...Associated Press

• Next in Overlooked, our obituary series: In 1995, the British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves became the first woman in history to scale Mount Everest alone and without bottled oxygen.

After she died three months later climbing another peak, K2, she was called a selfish mother. Fathers who died on the mountain alongside her were not similarly criticized.

(Over the 167-year history of The New York Times, only 15 to 20 percent of our obituary subjects have been women. We’re fixing that.)

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Credit...Ryan Pyle for The New York Times

Europe is joining the U.S. in pushing for more stringent vetting of foreign investments, with an eye on Beijing. (Li Shufu, above, caused alarm after he quietly amassed a $9 billion stake in Daimler.)

• Unilever’s decision to make the Dutch city of Rotterdam its sole headquarters is a symbolic blow to Britain as it negotiates its exit from the E.U.

• The predictions of President Trump’s new chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, have not always been on the mark. Here’s a look at when he was wrong.

• Ford is scrambling to keep up with consumer demand for S.U.V.s.

Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...Josh Haner/The New York Times

• Easter Island is critically vulnerable to rising sea levels. Waves are beginning to reach its famous ancient statues. [The New York Times]

• As the threat to animal species grows more profound, conservationists may soon be faced with an impossible decision: which ones to try to protect. [The New York Times Magazine]

• At least four people were killed when a newly installed pedestrian bridge collapsed onto a busy road in Miami, Florida. [The New York Times]

• More protests are planned today in Slovakia over a journalist’s murder. The deputy prime minister has been tasked with forming a new government in the wake of the prime minister’s resignation. [The New York Times]

• Unions in France threatened rolling strikes for three months after the country’s debt-ridden state-run rail operator cut employee benefits. [Reuters]

• A French judge issued an arrest warrant for a Saudi princess in connection with suspicions that she ordered her bodyguard to assault a plumber in Paris. [The New York Times]

• North Korea’s foreign minister flew to Sweden amid speculation that the country could be a venue for talks between President Trump and Kim Jong-un. [The New York Times]

• A new Banksy mural in New York protests the imprisonment of Zehra Dogan, the Turkish artist and journalist. [The New York Times]

• FIFA is proposing a new international women’s league to grow soccer globally. [The New York Times]

• A documentary in Russia suggested that Vladimir Putin once considered driving taxis after a 1990s election setback. He is almost certain to be re-elected as president on Sunday. [The Moscow Times]

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

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Credit...Glenn Harvey

• What to do when a good friend becomes a terrible colleague.

• Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with these recipes.

• How to enjoy fine dining on a fast food budget.


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Credit...Francois Lenoir/Reuters

• One of the world’s best beers can usually be bought only at a Trappist monastery in Belgium. When a Dutch supermarket sold it at a premium, the monks denounced the capitalist endeavor.

• In the world of American basketball, March Madness is underway. The best offense? Villanova. The best defense? Cincinnati. Here’s a look at the N.C.A.A. tournament teams by the numbers.

• What motivates guerrilla yarn-bombers? Some of the most provocative political art these days is knitted.

Daring new architecture is subverting tradition on Gotland, Sweden’s largest island, with a cool blast of modernity.

“Bonkers” is how a British official described a contentious plan to remove 6,000 trees in Sheffield. A local activist was accused of trying to sabotage the project — by slipping laxatives into some tree surgeons’ tea.

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Credit...Charles Mcquillan/Getty Images

St. Patrick’s Day, which is Saturday, is all the more enjoyable for a number of intriguing myths and misconceptions — and not just about leprechauns.

Scientists say there were never any snakes in Ireland, for one thing, which contradicts the tale of St. Patrick driving them into the sea. There is also reason to doubt that the snake story is an allegory for St. Patrick’s eradication of pagan religions. (Christianity may have already arrived.)

The real Patrick, who became a patron saint of Ireland, wasn’t even Irish: He is believed to have been a Roman born in England who was enslaved by Irish marauders. He escaped after six years and returned to Ireland to spread Christianity.

Corned beef, a mainstay of St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S., was introduced to Irish immigrants by Jewish neighbors in New York City. And there’s the color: It was once St. Patrick’s blue. (Green dates to 18th-century Irish independence movements.)

For a celebration of Irish culture, St. Patrick’s Day is remarkably global. In Sydney, where the Opera House is tinted green each year, the celebrations date to 1810. In Singapore, as The Irish Times writes, “the Singapore River transforms into a sea of green as part of its own two-day street festival.”

Charles McDermid contributed reporting.

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Follow Patrick Boehler on Twitter: @mrbaopanrui.

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