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Europe Edition

Trump, Skripal, India: Your Thursday News Briefing

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Good morning. Britain brings charges in the Skripal poisoning case, an insider speaks out against President Trump and India strikes down a law on gay sex.

Here’s the latest:

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Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

“The root of the problem is the president’s amorality.”

In an anonymous Op-Ed essay in The New York Times, a senior official under President Trump says some in the administration are working to “frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”

“Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the official wrote. “We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”

Mr. Trump called the essay “gutless” and said, as he often does, that The Times was “failing.” He also lashed out at Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear,” which depicts similar acts of resistance within the White House.

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Credit...Metropolitan Police, via Getty Images

Where? Salisbury, England. Who? Two Russian military intelligence officers. The weapon? A counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle, containing a lethal nerve agent.

The British authorities accused Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, above, of attempted murder in the March poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter. The criminal charges are the first in a case that has been unfolding like an espionage novel.

Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Theresa May blamed the operation on Russia’s military intelligence unit, known as the G.R.U. Russia denied it, and British officials acknowledged that arrests are unlikely.

The authorities released detailed findings from their investigation, which involved poring over a vast amount of CCTV footage that captured the suspects’ movements through England. The charges do not address the poisoning of two Britons who found the perfume bottle, one of whom died, but Mrs. May said the Russian men were now “prime suspects” in that case.

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Credit...Arun Sankar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• A landmark ruling.

India’s Supreme Court struck down one of the world’s oldest laws against consensual gay sex.

The law, known as Section 377, was introduced in the 1860s by British colonizers who made it a part of India’s Penal Code.

Petitioners challenged Section 377 earlier this year, noting that it has long been used as a cover for blackmail, harassment and sexual assault against gay and transgender Indians. The ruling was a significant step for a country that has been slow to embrace gay rights. Above, members of India’s L.G.B.T. community.

The decision came after weeks of deliberation in the Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Dipak Misra saying Thursday that the law was “irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary.”

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Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Please don’t speak medicalese.

Doctors in England are being asked to communicate with patients in plain English — not medical jargon — to help reduce confusion and anxiety.

Examples include avoiding the word “chronic,” which means a longstanding condition but is often interpreted as “really bad.”

Speaking of “really bad,” scientists in England and Finland found that airport security trays — the ones used to carry shoes, laptops and other items through the X-ray scanner — harbor more cold germs than toilet surfaces do. Separately, there was a serious outbreak of coughs, headaches, sore throats and fevers on a recent Emirates flight to New York.

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Credit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

Not everyone in France hates the Golden Arches. Workers and their union leaders in Marseille, above, are fighting tooth-and-nail to keep a McDonald’s open.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand, Goop, agreed to pay $145,000 in civil penalties after a California investigation found it made misleading claims about products, including jade and quartz “eggs” said to promote vaginal wellness.

About 90 percent of all searches on the web run through Google. But do you know how it works? The search giant keeps it a secret, but we tried to break it down.

Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

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Credit...Rahmat Gul/Associated Press

A double bombing at a wrestling match in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more, including journalists and emergency medical workers. [The New York Times]

British and French fishermen have reached a tentative deal to end the so-called scallop wars in the English Channel that boiled over last week. [France24]

The fire that engulfed Brazil’s National Museum destroyed irreplaceable scientific and historic treasures. Here’s a look at what was lost. [The New York Times]

The so-called Five Eyes nations that share intelligence — the U.S., Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada — have warned tech firms they will demand “lawful access” to encrypted data and threatened to force compliance if requests are refused. [The New York Times]

Israel’s Supreme Court approved the demolition of a Bedouin village, home to about 180 people, in the occupied West Bank, despite international calls to keep it intact. [BBC]

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

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Credit...Michael Kraus for The New York Times

Recipe of the day: Keep dinner light and flavorful with a spicy shrimp salad.

Make your iPhone photos beautiful.

We’re all afraid to talk about money. Here’s how to break the taboo.

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Credit...Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times

Fashion Week kicks off in New York today before sashaying through London, Milan and Paris. But if you’re looking for an unfiltered version of the runway walk, check out our augmented reality video of the model Ashley Graham, above. “You see my lower belly fat,” she said. “You’re seeing all of it.”

Vermillion red, ecclesiastical purple, ivory black. Those are some of the colors used in 17th- and 18th-century paintings that have since faded into obscurity. One artist in London is on a mission to recreate those lost shades.

In Belgrade, the night never has to end. The scars of war are omnipresent in the Serbian capital, but the city knows how to “sing and dance through the best, and worst, of times,” our 52 Places Traveler finds.

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Credit...Suzanne Vlamis/Associated Press

Hours after losing to Chris Evert in the semifinals of the U.S. Open, Martina Navratilova sat in a secret meeting with F.B.I. agents, where she declared her intention to defect from Czechoslovakia.

“I wanted my freedom,” Ms. Navratilova, above, told reporters at a news conference on this day in 1975. She was 18.

The Czech tennis federation, under the Communist government’s rule, had exerted control over its young star’s schedule, finances and even her playing style. They had threatened to keep her from that year’s U.S. Open, saying she had become too “Americanized.

Ms. Navratilova had not yet won any of her 18 Grand Slam singles titles. “I just felt that if I want to become No. 1, which I want to, that I couldn’t do it under the circumstances at home,” she told reporters.

She became the world No. 1 in 1978 and an American citizen in 1981. Ms. Navratilova was among the first openly gay professional athletes, but she said she waited until after she became a citizen to come out, fearing it might disqualify her.

Ms. Navratilova now carries dual citizenship, after regaining her Czech citizenship in 2008. By then, she had earned 59 Grand Slam doubles and singles titles.

Aodhan Beirne wrote today’s Back Story.

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