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Asia and Australia Edition

Tariffs, Italy, Syria: Your Tuesday Briefing

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

Good morning. A stolen Oscar, a Belarusian escort and a meeting in Pyongyang. Here’s what you need to know.

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Credit...Bryan Denton for The New York Times

• Promises of more blues skies and less economic risk were among the highlights of the opening day of China’s annual state-of-the-nation report to lawmakers, the National People’s Congress.

Premier Li Keqiang also announced an increase about $175 billion for the People’s Liberation Army.

Still to come: the expected abolishment of presidential term limits, enabling Xi Jinping to solidify his rule. Our Beijing correspondent writes: “Hagiography aside, what is striking is how little is known about Mr. Xi’s biography as a leader.”

Bad news for China’s antipollution push: S.U.V.s now make up more than one in three cars sold globally, because drivers in China (along with Australia and Europe) are ditching sedans.

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Credit...Stefan Simonsen/European Pressphoto Agency

• Tariff confusion.

Among the many unanswered questions about the measures on steel and aluminum President Trump plans to sign this week, the first is: Who will be hit?

The White House had insisted there would be no exceptions, but in a confounding tweet, Mr. Trump said the tariffs would “come off” of Canada and Mexico if a new and “fair” multilateral trade pact were signed.

A top Republican congressman broke ranks with Mr. Trump over the tariffs, saying: “We are extremely worried about the consequences of a trade war.”

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Credit...Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press

“If America gives me protection, I will tell everything I know.”

That’s the deal on offer from a Belarusian escort jailed in Bangkok, above. She told our reporter that she has recordings that contain evidence of Russian meddling in U.S. elections.

Her assertion would be easy to disregard, were it not for a 25-minute video investigation posted last month by a Russian opposition figure that relies heavily on her footage and photographs.

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Credit...South Korea Presidential Blue House, via Associated Press

• Top aides of South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, met with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, in Pyongyang in a bid to improve inter-Korean relations and help start a dialogue between the North and the U.S.

Mr. Moon’s spokesman said the envoys were the first South Korean officials to visit the North in 11 years, and that they carried a personal letter from Mr. Moon to Mr. Kim.

After returning home, the South Korean envoys will fly to Washington for follow-up discussions with the Trump administration.

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Credit...Noel West for The New York Times

• And we went all out for the Oscars. Here are the highs and lows of the 90th Academy Awards.

“The Shape of Water” and its director, Guillermo del Toro, were the big winners. Jordan Peele, above with his mother Lucinda Williams, became the first African-American to win the best original screenplay for “Get Out.” Here’s the full list.

The #MeToo movement also had a starring role, but someone (briefly) stole Frances McDormand’s Oscar.

Read our wrap-up of the night, and here are photos from the red carpet.

Our TV critic said the show was “mainly notable for acknowledging troubles that are harder to fix” than last year’s envelope mixup.

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

• China listed a $400 million theme park on Australia’s Gold Coast, built by the Chinese developer Songcheng, as a “key project” linked to its Belt and Road initiative.

• Thanks to an initial coin offering, or I.C.O., the messaging company Telegram is on track to raise $1 billion in four months. (It took Facebook seven years to get there.)

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

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Credit...Linh Pham/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• The Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with 6,000 crew members, anchored off the coast of Danang, Vietnam, marking the first time such a U.S. Navy ship has docked in the country since the Vietnam War. Above, touring Vietnamese officers bought souvenirs aboard. [The New York Times]

Papua New Guinea’s highlands are being rocked by strong aftershocks after last week’s magnitude 7.5 earthquake. The death toll has risen to 55, and is expected go higher. [Reuters]

• Aid trucks reached Syria’s besieged Ghouta region for the first time since one of the war’s deadliest assaults began two weeks ago. The U.N. says 400,000 people are trapped there. [Reuters]

• In Italy, the Five Star Movement surged in national elections, a sign of the inroads populists are making into Europe’s mainstream. [The New York Times]

• Brazil is suffering its worst outbreak of yellow fever in decades, and health officials are struggling to vaccinate 23 million people. [The New York Times]

• Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, met with President Trump, who said he would visit in May “if I can” for the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. [A.P.]

• A Japanese ski area created optical-illusion slopes that appear to send sledders sliding upward. [The Asahi Shimbun]

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...Giulia Marchi for The New York Times

• Guangzhou, one of China’s biggest cities, made a bold move to curb sexual harassment on the subway by reserving seats for female passengers. But men are claiming them.

• For decades, antique Persian rugs — hand-knotted from silk and often taking years or even decades to produce — were the gold standard of floor coverings for the swank. No more.

• And Stoya, a famous pornographer, spent years shaping the adult film industry. Did she inadvertently endanger society? Or, as she asks in our Op-Ed section: Can there be good porn?

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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 only appeared in the Times Crossword 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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Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning. You can also receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights.

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