They are back at the usual squabbles as the clock ticks toward a Catalan independence referendum on Oct. 1. Our correspondent notes that these divisions also have practical security implications that the attack plotters perhaps managed to exploit.
A march in Barcelona planned for tomorrow could show how much these divisions are reflected in the broader public.
(Above, King Felipe VI stood between the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, and the Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, at a vigil last week.)
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In Washington, our reporters look at the efforts by the new White House chief of staff, John Kelly, to impose an order on the information flow to Mr. Trump.
The changes Mr. Kelly, a retired general, have put in place have resulted in a more functional government, administration officials said.
Separately, heres a profile of Mr. Trumps top soldier in Afghanistan: Gen. John Nicholson, above, is a combat veteran described by peers as a thinker warrior. He has not yet met Mr. Trump.
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Roger Federer, the Swiss tennis star, discussed his late-career resurgence, a rarity for any sport, with our magazine writer. Im long past the thing that you have to end your career in a fairy tale, he said of his expectations.
Mr. Federer could win his third major of the year at the U.S. Open, and fans are hoping for a face-off with his archrival, Rafael Nadal. Meanwhile, with Serena Williamss absence, womens tennis for once lacks its traditional rivalries.
In soccer news, the draw for the group stage of this seasons UEFA Champions League put Real Madrid, Tottenham and Dortmund in the same group. Barcelona gets a chance for an early revenge against Juventus. (Heres the full list.)
And the four-time British Olympic champion Mo Farahs track career ended with a thrilling win in Zurich.
President Trump must soon decide whether to renominate Janet Yellen, above, as the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve. She is speaking today at the Jackson Hole gathering of central bankers, as is the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi.
In Croatia, Uber is taking to the sea, offering an (expensive) new boat service. It could soon be available in Greece and Spain.
There are new questions about the corporate structure of HNA, the Chinese conglomerate that is Deutsche Banks largest shareholder. We uncovered undisclosed deals and relationships that could heighten regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe.
Networking is overrated, a business school professor writes in this much-read Op-Ed. Its better to focus on achieving great things.
Heres a snapshot of global markets.
At least eight people remain missing after a landslide swept through a small village in the Swiss Alps on Wednesday. [The New York Times]
Prosecutors in Denmark seek murder charges against Peter Madsen, the Danish inventor arrested in the death of a Swedish journalist onboard his submarine. [The New York Times]
The police in Rome clashed with hundreds of migrants, scattering them from a square they had camped on for days after they had been evicted from a building they had occupied for years. [Los Angeles Times]
When the French interior minister tied terrorism to mental illness, he started a debate about whether such a link existed. [France 24]
The Dutch police said there was no longer an imminent terrorist threat after they arrested a 22-year-old man in Rotterdam in an investigation into plans for an attack on a concert site. A Spanish man, detained earlier, has been released. [The New York Times]
The Czech authorities extradited a Vietnamese man to Germany over the abduction of an asylum-seeking Vietnamese executive in Berlin last month. [The New York Times]
In Thailand, the lawyer of Yingluck Shinawatra, the former prime minister ousted in a coup, said he was unaware whether she was still in the country. A court said it would issue an arrest warrant after she failed to appear before it. [The NewYork Times]
Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.
Recipe of the day: Make your own blueberry jam.
Protect your digital accounts by text or app.
In what should you invest? Ask yourself these tough questions.
We have plenty of European travel advice today: Theres our latest 36 Hours guide that finds daring cuisine and avant-garde art and design in Brussels. And heres an ode to family holidays in Romania.
In Marrakesh, Yves Saint Laurent discovered light and color, draping and caftans. A new museum in Morocco will soon celebrate his work.
In Britain, an 800-year-old coffin was damaged after a family put a child in it for a photo and knocked off a small piece. It happens.
Finally, a geobiologist in Norway reflects on how Scandinavian summers taught her as a young woman to savor time.
It all began with a question about L. Frank Baums off-the-cuff story about a faraway magical land. What, a child asked, was the name of this extraordinary place? Baum looked at a filing cabinet label, rejected A-G and went with O-Z.
Thats one origin story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the childrens book that became a celebrated movie, which opened in wide release in the U.S. on this day in 1939.
It took more than a few screenwriters (11 by one count) to adapt Baums vision into a girls dream of a land over the rainbow from Depression-era Kansas.
Theories about the story abound. Is the yellow brick road a metaphor for the gold standard in the late 1800s? Does the movie sync up with Pink Floyds album The Dark Side of the Moon?
Some scholars are skeptical that Baum set out to write a populist allegory. (Youre on your own testing the Pink Floyd claim.)
But the charms of Baums tale endure. As a Times film critic wrote after the films debut, It is all so well-intentioned, so genial, and so gay that any reviewer who would look down his nose at the fun-making should be spanked and sent off, supperless, to bed.
Tim Williams contributed reporting.
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Ukraine, Catalonia, Champions League: Your Friday Briefing - New York Times