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Europe Edition

Florida, Kosovo, South Africa: Your Friday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning.

The latest on the Florida school shooting, stock market predictions and a Wes Anderson premiere at the Berlinale. Here’s the news:

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Credit...Saul Martinez for The New York Times

• An assistant football coach who tried to protect students. A freshman trombonist in the marching band. A strong-willed senior with college plans.

We’re gathering the stories of the 17 people killed in Wednesday’s massacre in Florida. It was, by one count, the 239th school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012.

In a televised speech, President Trump pledged to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health.” He did not mention gun control.

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Credit...Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press

• Russia blocked the website of Aleksei Navalny, an opposition leader, after it featured an anticorruption video. Instagram has complied with a Russian court order to remove the video from its platform, but YouTube has not.

The U.S. joined Britain in blaming Moscow for a huge cyberattack last June that was aimed at Ukraine but crippled computers worldwide.

In other diplomatic news, Turkey is trying to improve strained ties with the West. Turkey’s president met Rex Tillerson, the U.S. secretary of state, and its prime minister visited Germany.

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Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times

• Winter Olympics update:

Two Swiss skiers are the first confirmed cases of athletes to have contracted norovirus at the Games. (They are still hoping to recover in time to compete.)

Norway is leading the overall medal count. One of our reporters described the Norwegian ski team’s recipe for success as “a contrarian mix of humility, egalitarianism and basic respect.”

A Jamaican actor and a vacuum salesman from Ghana, above, are competing in a sport called skeleton. Despite their odds, like everyone else at the Games, they are testing their limits.

Here’s the full schedule, and our complete coverage.

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Credit...Mark Wessels/European Pressphoto Agency

• Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in as president of South Africa, a day after Jacob Zuma was ousted by his party.

Here’s our profile of Mr. Ramaphosa, one of South Africa’s richest men. Mr. Ramaphosa, a former union leader, has vowed to address growing inequality ahead of 2019 elections. That will prove challenging, our correspondent writes.

Are you South African? We would like to know how the new leadership affects your life.

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Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times

• Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia.

Andrew Testa, who covered the war as a photographer nearly 20 years ago, returned to find that Kosovo’s people have little to celebrate.

“If it wasn’t for all those who have laid down their lives for this, I would say let’s go back to the way it was before,” one man told him.

(Also, Lithuania celebrates the centenary of its independence. Su gimtadieniu!)

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Credit...20th Century Fox

• Not spies.

Before our national security reporter Scott Shane went into journalism, the C.I.A. tried to recruit him. But he chose “the better-lit side of democracy.”

His essay on the parallels of journalism and espionage makes for a great weekend read.

You can also watch his chat with a real former spy and the actress Jennifer Lawrence, who plays a Russian spy in the new film “Red Sparrow,” above.

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Credit...Seth Wenig/Associated Press

• Analysts disagree on how the markets will react to a return of inflation. (Ray Dalio, the man behind the world’s largest hedge fund, appears to be betting against major European stocks.)

• Renault extended the mandate of Carlos Ghosn at its helm, ending weeks of speculation.

• A U.S. securities regulator blocked the proposed acquisition of the Chicago Stock Exchange by a Chinese-owned company.

Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

• The prime minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, resigned after deadly unrest pushed his government to release several high-profile political prisoners. [The New York Times]

Israel is as polarized as it has been in generations. Expect zero-sum politics to reach new levels as the attorney general considers indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on bribery charges. [The New York Times]

• The Munich Security Conference, the world’s pre-eminent foreign policy gathering, begins today with a focus on threats stemming from the great powers’ rivalry. [RFE/RL] [Deutsche Welle]

• In Washington, senators from both parties rejected President Trump’s immigration proposal. It would have instituted stricter limits but helped the so-called Dreamers. [The New York Times]

President Trump’s inaugural committee paid nearly $26 million to an event planning firm started by an adviser to the first lady, while donating $5 million — less than expected — to charity. [The New York Times]

About half of all orangutans living on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo — nearly 150,000 in all — vanished over 16 years, according to a new study that also suggests that hunting was a surprisingly significant factor. [The New York Times]

• A scientific breakthrough: A transgender woman breast-fed a baby for six weeks, in what may be the first such documented case of induced lactation. [The New York Times]

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

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Credit...Steven Mark Needham

• Celebrate the Lunar New Year with longevity noodles.

• Apps can help you earn extra cash.

• Your hormones could be fueling your binge eating.

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Credit...Marvel/Disney

• “Black Panther,” the Marvel movie, is poised to disprove the notion that movies rooted in black culture cannot be global blockbusters.

Our critic’s take: “In its emphasis on black imagination, creation and liberation, the movie becomes an emblem of a past that was denied and a future that feels very present. And in doing so opens up its world, and yours, beautifully.”

• The Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale, opened with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s new stop-motion film, “Isle of Dogs.” (Critics say the festival overstretched itself and now lags behind Cannes and Venice.)

• In Austria, a former museum worker detailed in her will the location of a long-lost drawing by Gustav Klimt. “It’s like a thriller,” an official said.

• In Bordeaux, an ambitious museum aims to tell the stories of local French winemakers and their influence on global wine culture.

• For Lent, many Christians give up small pleasures like tobacco, alcohol and sweets. This year, the Church of England suggested forsaking another indulgence: plastics.

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Credit...Manan Vatsyayana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Today marks the start of the Year of the Dog, the latest turn in the 12-year lunar zodiac cycle.

The phrase “Lunar New Year” is sometimes used interchangeably with “Chinese New Year,” but there are variations in how the holiday is celebrated around Asia.

In Vietnam, a type of rice cake called banh chung is made specially for the holiday and is deeply intertwined with nationalist myths and ancestor-worship customs.

Vietnam’s lunar zodiac cycle also differs slightly from China’s: It has a cat and a water buffalo instead of a rabbit and an ox. Some historians say that’s a linguistic quirk tied to China’s 1,000-year imperial occupation of Vietnam, its southern neighbor.

Vietnam’s next Year of the Cat falls in 2023.

The last time the cat came around, in 2011, the owner of a “pet hotel” in the capital, Hanoi, told Reuters that the cat was an appropriate cosmic choice because it helps offset the dog, its natural enemy.

“This expresses a balance of yin and yang in the cosmos that is more complete, that better unifies the contradictions, and so it is richer and better to have the cat,” he said.

Mike Ives contributed reporting.

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Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online.

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Follow Patrick Boehler on Twitter: @mrbaopanrui.

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