Your Monday Briefing

What you need to know today. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Monday, February 19, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( Europe Edition [Your Monday Briefing]( By PATRICK BOEHLER Good morning. Russian trolls, the Munich Security Conference and the latest from the Winter Olympics. Here's the news: Pool photo by Misha Japaridze • In Washington, the charges against 13 Russians left no doubt that the Kremlin backed Donald Trump in the 2016 election. The question now has shifted to whether the [Russian trolls made a difference](. Regardless, the indictments have [put the president on the defensive](. Mr. Trump [unleashed a two-day Twitter tirade]( that was unusually defiant even by his standards. A [secretive oligarch known as “Putin’s cook”]( is among those indicted. The executive, above left, is accused of financing [a troll factory](. (Some of its former employees [described to us]( what work there was like, and some Americans [recounted encounters with trolls]( _____ Thomas Kienzle/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Theresa May, the British prime minister, wants to [negotiate a treaty with the European Union]( to govern security cooperation after Brexit, even if that meant respecting the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Mrs. May spoke at an annual security conference in Munich, where our diplomatic correspondent tracked [the rise of U.S. doubts]( about deepened European commitment to self-defense. Also, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, brandished what he said was part of an Iranian drone and [warned that he was ready to go to war]( if Tehran continued to entrench itself in Syria. _____ Yasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Turkey’s efforts to repair relations with Europe and the U.S. — undertaken after the threat of losing investment — [have been undercut by Ankara’s crackdown on critics](. Germany celebrated the return of Deniz Yucel, above, a journalist who had spent a year in detention in Turkey. But a Turkish court also sentenced six Turkish journalists to life in prison, saying they had undermined the country’s constitutional order. _____ Saul Martinez for The New York Times • In the U.S., the children of the “mass shooting generation” are speaking out. They were born into a world reshaped by the 1999 attack at Columbine High School. They grew up practicing active shooter drills — and wondering whether it could happen at their schools. After last week’s school shooting in Florida, students there and across the country responded [with loud calls for gun control measures](. _____ Doug Mills/The New York Times • Snowboard or ski? That’s the question for Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic, the snowboarder whose upset victory in the super-G at the Winter Olympics surprised even herself. [She has to decide on her next race this week]( and expects her ski coach to be “a little pushy” now. Marcel Hirscher of Austria [solidified his claim to being the world’s best skier](. And with a biathlon gold, Martin Fourcade became [France’s greatest Winter Olympian](. A Russian curler who won a bronze medal [failed a preliminary doping test](. Here’s the full [medals table, results and schedule](. Business Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • Big holders of Bitcoin and its brethren have become alluring marks for criminals, with abductions for [virtual-currency]( from Thailand to Ukraine](. (Above, a cryptocurrency hardware wallet.) • The Trump administration’s proposed punitive tariffs on steel and aluminum imports could prompt [swift retaliation from China and the European Union](. (Many U.S. economists, including [an adviser to President George W. Bush]( are skeptical.) • WeWork has an [audacious, possibly delusional plan]( to transform not just the way we work and live, but the very world we live in. So far, it seems to be working. • Here’s a snapshot of [global markets]( and a [look at what could move]( them this week. (U.S. markets are closed for Presidents’ Day today.) In the News Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times • We reconstructed how four U.S. soldiers, four soldiers from Niger and an interpreter were killed in a conflict in Africa that few Americans knew about last year. Their deaths have reignited a debate in the U.S. over the sprawling wars American troops fight around the world. [[The New York Times]( • Iran is investigating the crash of a commercial plane that went down about 780 kilometers south of Tehran, killing all 66 people on board. [[The New York Times]( • With help from Russia and Serbia, the Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik wants to carve up Bosnia-Herzegovina. “People here don’t want to be in Bosnia anymore,” he said. [[The New York Times]( • A leading Catalan separatist, Anna Gabriel, has traveled to Switzerland, raising doubts over whether she will appear in court in Madrid this week to face possible sedition charges. [[The New York Times]( • The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a man’s attack on a church in the Russian region of Dagestan, in which he killed at least five people. [[The New York Times]( • The Belgian government is determined to avoid large-scale migrant camps in Brussels but at a loss over how to deal with the growing number of Sudanese migrants. [[The New York Times]( • Pope Francis reactivated an abuse commission after his defense of a Chilean bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse prompted the greatest crisis of his pontificate. [[The New York Times]( • Airbnb vows to tackle sex trafficking amid concerns that its short-term rentals can be used as “pop-up brothels.” [[Reuters Foundation]( Smarter Living Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life. Miguel Porlan • Here’s how to [break up with your phone](. • Our best travel tips to make the most of [a getaway to China](. • Embrace meatless Monday with a [vegetable stir-fry](. Noteworthy Katy Grannan for The New York Times • A group of American activists called the Valve Turners [decided to fight global warming]( by doing whatever it takes. • At the Baftas, the British equivalent of the Oscars, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” [won big](. (Our critic [was less enthusiastic]( • The artist Günter Brus’s “actions” galvanized Austria in the 1960s. [As an exhibition marks the artist’s 80th birthday]( a far-right resurgence has given his work new relevance. • In the late 19th century, sanatoriums opened in remote locations across Europe, promising fresh air and a temporary withdrawal from life. Those that remain [feel more relevant than ever.]( • The chef Yotam Ottolenghi begins a new series of columns on how to take favorite ingredients in both sophisticated and simple directions, [with salmon](. Back Story Sam Falk/The New York Times When “The Feminine Mystique” started flying off the shelves, Betty Friedan’s publisher assumed that her husband had bought all the copies. The assumption encapsulated why she wrote the book, published on this day in 1963. It went on to sell more than three million copies worldwide by 2000. Helping to ignite the women’s liberation movement in the U.S. in the ’60s, the book tackled what Friedan, above, called “the problem that has no name,” a dissatisfaction among women, like herself, who were defined only by their roles as wives and mothers. The book’s premise was a “damning indictment,” [a Times review said in 1963](. Friedan used her success to advocate feminist causes and helped found the National Organization for Women and other groups. She [died in 2006, on her 85th birthday](. Though the book is held up as essential feminist reading, it has come under fire for its lack of diversity and inclusivity. But 20 years after “The Feminine Mystique” was published, [Friedan wrote in The Times]( “I am still awed by the revolution that book helped spark. That I was able to put it together at the time it was needed is something of a mystery to me.” Anna Schaverien contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. 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