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Europe Edition

Jean-Claude Juncker, Rohingya, Russia: Your Thursday Briefing

Good morning.

The New York Times is providing full free digital access to European readers through Sunday.

Here’s what you need to know:

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Credit...Mathieu Cugnot/European Parliament

Jean-Claude Juncker, above, the president of the European Commission, laid out plans to simplify how the European Union is run.

In perhaps the boldest proposal in his annual address to the European Parliament, Mr. Juncker suggested streamlining the bloc’s leadership — an idea that could in theory eliminate his own job.

European leaders were largely lukewarm or silent on Mr. Juncker’s idea of combining the presidencies of the European Commission and the European Council, which would require their unanimous support.

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Credit...Vayar Military Agency, via Associated Press

Russia and Belarus are about to attack Veishnoriya. Luckily, that’s a fictional state. It’s the focus of a six-day joint military exercise starting today, most likely the biggest display of Russian military power since the end of the Cold War. NATO members are wary.

In the real world, Russian towns and cities have received a wave of mysterious bomb threats, all of which have turned out to be hoaxes.

Above, Belarusian military vehicles.

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Credit...James Hill for The New York Times

• Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election is now undisputed. What’s less clear is the role played by the country’s media.

Our media columnist, Jim Rutenberg, spoke with “The Daily” podcast about the information war that the Kremlin is waging against the West, in part through its RT news outlet. Read his full story in the Times Magazine in English or Russian. Above, RT’s newsroom in Moscow.

And U.S. agencies are dropping antivirus software made by a Russian technology company, Kaspersky Lab, whose executives are suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence.

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Credit...Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

Germany, which has been led by the most powerful woman in the world for 12 years, has a woman problem.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, above, who is running for a fourth term, embodies what feminists the world over have hoped to accomplish. But she shuns the word “feminist” and has rarely if ever publicly promoted women’s advancement — and women in Germany have not advanced much.

“Just as Obama did not end structural racism in America, Merkel has not ended structural sexism in Germany,” said Anne Wizorek, a prominent feminist writer.

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Credit...Arne Dedert/European Pressphoto Agency

• As the German election nears, voters increasingly see the government as complicit with carmakers in a widening diesel crisis that threatens the German economy.

While Ms. Merkel is still heavily favored to win, the chancellor and her political rivals consider the automakers toxic and have begun to distance themselves from them. Above, Joschka Fischer, a former foreign minister who now works as a consultant to BMW.

Catch up on the election with this guide to our coverage.

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Credit...Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press

• Top Democrats announced a deal with President Trump to extend protections for young undocumented immigrants.

The White House was more muted, mentioning the program — which shields from deportation undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children — as merely one of several things that Mr. Trump discussed over dinner with Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, above.

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Credit...Pool photo by Chris J Ratcliffe

• A new 10-pound note bearing the likeness of the novelist Jane Austen goes into circulation in England and Wales today.

• Barclays won the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. by investors who accused the British bank of misrepresenting its exposure to risky debt before the 2008 global financial crisis.

The Bank of England is expected to leave interest rates at a record low in its policy statement today.

• “It was a frat house.” Our tech reporters went inside the events that led to a chief executive’s exit from SoFi, a prominent San Francisco start-up.

• Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical executive who is awaiting sentencing for a fraud conviction, had his bail revoked after he offered $5,000 on Facebook for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair.

Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...Hein Htet/European Pressphoto Agency

Myanmar’s de facto leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, above, canceled her planned visit to the U.N. General Assembly amid global criticism over deadly attacks by security forces on Rohingya Muslims. [The New York Times]

• An Egyptian human rights lawyer for the family of an Italian student who was found dead in Cairo last year disappeared this week before turning up in Egyptian custody. [The New York Times]

• More than 80 disarmament experts urged President Trump to reconsider any thought of unraveling the international nuclear agreement with Iran. [The New York Times]

• Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the U.S. Senate, gave the president a pointed lecture on why his response to the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., last month was so upsetting. [The New York Times]

• Eight people died at a Florida nursing home where the air-conditioning was knocked out by Hurricane Irma. [The New York Times]

• A large windstorm swept across Germany, killing at least three people and causing power outages. [Deutsche Welle]

• The European Court of Justice ruled in favor of an Italian farmer who was prosecuted for planting genetically modified corn. [Associated Press]

• There’s a monster in London’s sewers. It’s a mass of fat, wipes, diapers and tampons that weighs more than 140 tons. [The New York Times]

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

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Credit...Getty Images

• The science behind why stinky socks bug women more than men.

• Traveling with a partner? Use these apps to split and pay the bill.

• Recipe of the day: A sundae of hot fudge and salted chocolate bits will cure the weeknight blues.

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Credit...Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times

• Angelina Jolie, above, suggests her new film, set against the backdrop of Cambodian genocide, affected her view of her family and relationship with Brad Pitt. Read our review of the film.

• Novels by three American and three British authors made the shortlist of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction, reviving anxieties about the 2013 decision to consider writers beyond Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and the Commonwealth.

A woman who served 20 years for murder was chosen for Harvard’s Ph.D. program in history. Then she was unchosen.

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Credit...Associated Press

This week in 1974, The Times took notice of a new trend: video games. At a lunch spot in Manhattan, a reporter found two women skeptically trying out a tennis game on “a cross between an oscilloscope and a black-and-white television.”

They seemed less than impressed, but The Times reported that “thousands” of other Americans were already hooked on “the space age pinball machine.”

Two years earlier, the first home video game console was released: the Magnavox Odyssey, created by Ralph Baer, above. The impetus? His frustration at having nothing good to watch on TV.

Mr. Baer is considered by many to be the father of video games, but, as with many origin stories, the title has long been in dispute. As Mr. Baer began selling the Odyssey and his game Table Tennis, Nolan Bushnell and his company, Atari, created the first arcade machine. Atari’s game, Pong, was similar to Table Tennis but quickly dwarfed the Odyssey in sales.

Mr. Bushnell admitted to knowledge of Mr. Baer’s Table Tennis but later said he “didn’t think it was very clever.” A patent battle ensued, which Atari lost. But Pong is the game we remember.

Tim Williams contributed reporting.

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Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online.

This briefing was prepared for the European morning. You can browse through past briefings here.

We also have briefings timed for the Australian, Asian and American mornings. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters here.

If photographs appear out of order, please download the updated New York Times app from iTunes or Google Play.

What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes.com.

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