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Europe Edition

Britain, Kosovo, Sweater Guy: Your Wednesday Briefing

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Good morning. A shooting at YouTube, hope in Kosovo and an itinerant celebrity knitter. Here’s the latest:

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Credit...Simon Dawson/Reuters

• Britain’s opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, reignited a fading crisis over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party by celebrating Passover with a self-described radical leftist Jewish group that has called Israel a “steaming pile of sewage.”

A Labour lawmaker accused Mr. Corbyn, above, of “deliberately baiting” mainstream Jewish groups by attending the ritual meal organized by Jewdas, a provocative organization opposed to Zionism and capitalism.

Separately, Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince said that Israelis “have the right to have their own land,” reflecting his view of Israel as an economic and strategic partner amid growing tensions with Iran, the kingdom’s main rival.

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Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

• “Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military.”

President Trump made the pledge on his third day of railing about America’s “weak” border laws, stirred by Fox News’s alarmist coverage of a caravan of migrants slowly heading north through Mexico.

Our reporters note that the U.S. military is generally barred by law from carrying out domestic law enforcement functions like apprehending people at the border. Above, Mr. Trump viewing border wall prototypes in San Diego last month.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration outlined more than 1,000 Chinese electronics, aerospace and other products that will face tariffs. But Mr. Trump’s trade actions against China are now drawing fierce opposition from some of America’s biggest companies.

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Credit...Akos Stiller for The New York Times

• “The fridge is full now.”

Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orban, is claiming to have conjured an economic miracle as he seeks to be re-elected on Sunday.

But things aren’t quite as rosy as his allies would like voters to believe.

Rising corruption and questionable employment programs have tainted the glow of “Orbanomics,” while democracy advocates have condemned his relentless reshaping of Hungary’s political system, institutions and society.

Above, public workers in Siklosnagyfalu, Hungary, last month.

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Credit...Laura Boushnak for The New York Times

• “The last chance to finally make our people free.” That’s how a victim of long-past violence, shown above in February, sees a new war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Almost two decades after Kosovo broke free from Serbia, ethnic Albanians there are hoping the tribunal will provide justice for attacks committed by their political rivals in the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian guerrilla force whose former commanders now run the country.

But some of those very leaders, including the president, are less than thrilled about past atrocities coming to light. And then there’s the question of whether anyone will dare testify.

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• The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 50 years ago.

Today, we remember him and the battles that outlived him: workers’ rights, a sprawling protest movement, persistent segregation and poverty.

The Times obituary celebrated him as a prophet in the crusade for racial equality and a voice for millions of African-Americans.

“He was their voice of anguish,” it reads, “their eloquence in humiliation, their battle cry for human dignity.”

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Credit...David Moir/Reuters

The Walt Disney Company offered to buy Sky News — an effort to help Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox buy full control of Sky News’s parent company, the broadcaster Sky. Above, Mr. Murdoch last month.

Welcome to the Big Board: Spotify shares began trading at $165.90, initially giving the Swedish company a valuation of more than $33 billion. (There was some botched hospitality: The New York Stock Exchange flew the Swiss flag.)

Tesla says it is “rapidly addressing” bottlenecks in the production of Model 3 electric cars, and is making 2,000 a week — a nice jump from last year but still short of investors’ hopes. Tesla’s shares, which have been battered recently, rose on the news.

Grindr, the gay-dating app, has prompted an uproar for sharing users’ H.I.V. status, sexual tastes and other intimate personal information with outside companies.

• U.S. stocks were up across the board. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times

A shooting at YouTube’s headquarters in California, above, has left three people injured. The attacker, who the police said was a woman, died from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. President Trump tweeted “thoughts and prayers.” [The New York Times]

The son-in-law of a Russian billionaire, a Dutch lawyer, was the first person to be sentenced in the U.S. special investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He got 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine for lying to investigators. [The New York Times]

Britain’s military laboratory says it has not confirmed whether the nerve agent that poisoned a Russian former double agent and his daughter came from Russia. The government of Prime Minister Theresa May said the laboratory’s work was “only one part of the intelligence picture.” [The New York Times]

A wave of strikes in France is disrupting the country’s railways, the biggest challenge yet to President Emmanuel Macron as he tries to reform Europe’s second largest economy. [France24]

No politicians, no corruption: Mexico’s coming elections — and the vote-buying they fuel — won’t happen in a tiny indigenous town. That’s because residents expelled all political parties years ago, and they don’t want them back. [The Guardian]

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

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Credit...Ludovic Marin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Make a luxury trip to Paris affordable with these tips.

Save your relationship outsource the chores (if you can!).

Recipe of the day: Tonight, an ideal dinner would be Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and a little lingonberry jam.

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Credit...Sam Barsky

Stitch and snap. Samuel Barsky, above, has gained fame online for knitting sweaters of famous landmarks — and then posing in front of them.

India’s jeweler to the stars rubbed elbows with British royalty and Donald Trump Jr. Now he’s on the run, accused of building his global empire with nearly $3 billion obtained illegally from government-run banks.

• No sweatpants in public and “ideal body weight” requirements: A Times reporter found stringent rules in place for N.F.L. cheerleaders, like shaving techniques and the proper use of tampons — even as the sport grapples with accusations of domestic violence and sexual harassment.

From our At War blog: Alissa J. Rubin, our former Baghdad bureau chief, made a return trip to northern Iraq — and found herself navigating checkpoints as endless as the rival armed fighters manning them.

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Credit...Getty Images

Each week, The Times’s crossword column, Wordplay, highlights the answer to one of the most difficult clues from the previous week’s puzzles.

This week’s word: Niobe.

The Greek mythological character Niobe was the subject of a tough clue from last Wednesday’s crossword puzzle: “ ‘Like ___, all tears’: Hamlet.” The word has appeared in Times crosswords 139 times.

Niobe is most closely associated with tears, as noted in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”:

“A little month, or ere those shoes were old

With which she followed my poor father’s body,

Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she —

O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason

Would have mourned longer! — married with my uncle …”

It was arrogance that was Niobe’s undoing, and the cause of her tears.

The story of Niobe’s tears began at a ceremony held to honor the Titan Leto, mother of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis. In a fit of arrogance, Niobe bragged that she was superior to Leto because she had more children (either 12 or 14, depending on the version of the myth).

When the twins heard this, they came to earth and killed all of Niobe’s children. In deep anguish, she ran to Mount Sipylus to beg the gods to end her pain. Zeus felt sorry for her and turned her into a rock, so she would not feel anymore.

However, even as a rock, Niobe’s tears continued to flow, and the stream that pours from the real Weeping Rock in Manisa, Turkey, symbolizes a mother’s eternal mourning.

Deb Amlen contributed reporting.

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