Good morning.

We’re covering an attempt to break through Brexit roadblocks, a growing crackdown in Russia and the most influential editor in Britain.

A general election to push Brexit forward

Prime Minister Boris Johnson challenged British lawmakers to approve a general election on Dec. 12 in a bid to break through the political paralysis and throw Brexit back to voters. He is expected to bring it before Parliament on Monday.

The proposal would require the backing of two-thirds of lawmakers, meaning he needs the support of the opposition Labour Party, which has reacted coolly to the prospect of a general election without first taking the option of a no-deal Brexit off the table. But that could happen as soon as today, if the E.U. agrees to Mr. Johnson’s request to extend the Brexit deadline to Jan. 31.

Strategy: Mr. Johnson is offering the opposition a quid pro quo: more time to debate, in exchange for the general election. He’s also framing the idea as a moral one — saying that it is what the people of Britain long ago voted for.

What’s next: Elections take five weeks, so campaigning needs to start almost immediately to avoid a run-in with the Christmas season (which poses challenges for venue-booking, weather and voter turnout).

Polls show Mr. Johnson’s Conservative Party with a comfortable lead, but it is difficult to predict how votes will translate into seats in Britain’s winner-take-all electoral system.

Russia cracks down as unrest grows

There has been a wave of arrests — of journalists, opposition activists, doctors and religious people — in a growing Russian crackdown. With the end of the Putin era perhaps now within sight, law enforcement bodies are clamping down to prove their mettle as they jockey for influence in the Russia of the future.

Details: In the aftermath of mass protests, which were broken up with often brutal force, law enforcement agencies last week conducted nationwide raids on news outlets critical of the Kremlin and on the homes and offices of people affiliated with the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. And the Kremlin purged the more outspoken members of its Human Rights Council this week.

But amid growing unrest, often exacerbated by the crackdowns, it is unclear how morale will improve.

Quotable: “They can’t act like a normal European government. All they can do is frighten people,” said one newspaper editor. But, he added, “they have created a new generation that is no longer scared of them.”

The cost of withholding aid in Ukraine

The freeze on nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine was felt on the front lines. President Trump has been accused of withholding the funding as part of a politically motivated pressure campaign against the Ukrainian government, a central piece of the impeachment investigation.

But in the trenches of Ukraine’s war with Russian-backed separatists, which has left some 13,000 people dead, soldiers said the freeze took a more immediate toll, striking at their confidence that their backers in Washington stood solidly behind their fight and potentially signaling weakness to Russians in negotiations.

European perspective: American allies are increasingly worried about their dependency on an undependable president. There’s a sense Mr. Trump’s recent actions in Ukraine and Syria could accelerate a process of peeling away from the United States, and a growing concern that he has destabilized the Continent’s near neighborhood in a fundamental way.

39 found dead in Britain likely to be Chinese

The people found in a refrigerated truck trailer near London on Wednesday are now believed to be Chinese citizens.

Eight of the dead are women and 31 are men, the police said. Each body will undergo a full coroner’s examination to identify the victim and establish the cause of death. The driver of the truck, identified as Morris Robinson, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Context: The case increasingly appears to be linked to human trafficking and bears resemblance to another case in 2000, when 58 Chinese migrants were found dead.

Takeaway: “The world’s 2nd biggest economy, all the bridges, railways, skyscrapers, the carefully manicured parks, the military parade, one of the biggest markets for many luxury brands,” Li Yuan, a Times columnist, noted on Twitter. “Yet for some Chinese it’s still worth the risks to be smuggled to a foreign land.”

If you have some time, this is worth it

Britain’s most influential editor

Under the leadership of Mary-Kay Wilmers, above, The London Review of Books has flourished, even as other newspapers and magazines struggle.

Its circulation has risen consistently since 1985, and its strategy involves offering what readers are said not to be interested in anymore — like articles with word counts in the tens of thousands and ideas too quirky for other publications. “She has that archeditor’s ability to remind her writers that the world is slightly funny,” said one contributor to the review.

Here’s what else is happening

Syria: Turkish forces appeared to have clashed with the Syrian Army and the Kurdish-led militia in northeastern Syria, apparently violating a cease-fire.

Trump administration: The Justice Department has opened a criminal inquiry into its own Russia investigation, a move that is likely to raise alarms over political payback against President Trump’s adversaries.

Franco’s remains: The Spanish government on Thursday exhumed the remains of the former dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from an underground basilica, which he built after winning his country’s civil war, and reburied them near Madrid. Critics said the move would reopen old rifts.

Dutch earthquakes: Gas drilling in the Netherlands once helped wean the country from coal. But now, after decades of extraction, residents are fed up with earthquakes and damage to their properties. More than a thousand tremors have been recorded since the mid-1980s.

Snapshot: Above, sailboats in the Gulf of Trieste preparing at the start line ahead of the Barcolana regatta — one of the most crowded races of its kind in the world. This year, however, there has been no wind.

What we’re reading: This story in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the “Hamilton” bathroom line . Choire Sicha, our Styles editor, writes: “Tanya Heath is a multi-instrumentalist, soprano and actor whose greatest role — just for now! — is running the 20-minute panic for 200 women to pee during the intermission at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia. Has any story about a bathroom ever made you want to stand up and cheer before?”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: When you’re in a cooking funk, fall back on a simple pasta dish like spaghetti carbonara.

Watch: Few figures in American history have been as shrouded in myth and misperceptions as Harriet Tubman. To make “Harriet,” a new biopic, filmmakers drew on a whole mosaic of sources.

Go: Mumbai has the world’s second-largest collection of Art Deco buildings, second only to Miami. But even as they gain attention, they are threatened.

Smarter Living: Is your next vacation going to destroy the environment? Probably not, if you’re an average traveler. But for frequent fliers — those who make more than six round trips by air a year — there are ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Find routes that use more efficient planes, like the Airbus A320neo. And ask yourself: Could this meeting be digital?

Our Climate Fwd: newsletter has advice on shopping for more environmentally friendly appliances.

And now for the Back Story on …

Movie trailers

The release of the trailer for the new Star Wars movie, “The Rise of Skywalker,” was met with predictable fanfare: a frenzy on social media, blog posts cataloging the hidden secrets, and deep dives poring over every detail.

Movie trailers have come a long way since their introduction in the 1910s. Back then, according to a history by FilmmakerIQ.com, the trailer would generally be shown after a film, as its name suggests, often promoting the next entry in a series.

For decades after, most trailers were produced by the same company — the National Screen Service — giving them a fairly uniform style. But in the 1960s, auteurs like Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick began to produce their own trailers, applying their unique artistic sensibilities to the promotional clips.

In the modern era, trailers have become known for the deep-voiced narration made popular by Don LaFontaine. By the time he died in 2008, Mr. LaFontaine had recorded more than 5,000 trailer voice-overs. He was perhaps best known for the phrase that often started them: “In a world …”

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Melina

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Tom Wright-Piersanti, on the Briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” In today’s episode, David Shulkin, President Trump’s former secretary of veterans affairs, discusses how he was pushed out.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Podcaster’s booking (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times photographer Tyler Hicks and photo staff members from The Times Magazine were honored with Lucie Awards this week.

An earlier version of this briefing misspelled the name of a sailing race in Trieste, Italy. It is the Barcolana, not the Barcelona.

Melina Delkic writes the Europe edition of the Morning Briefing. @MelinaDelkic

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