Las Vegas, Gerrymandering, Baseball: Your Wednesday Briefing – New York Times

We also profile the gunman’s father, a bank robber and jail-breaker who spent years on the F.B.I.’s most-wanted list.

President Trump, who is visiting Las Vegas today, said, “We will be talking about gun laws as time goes by,” but the shooting appears to have done little to change the gun debate in Washington.

• “We need more water. We need more food.”

That’s how a Puerto Rican mayor summed up the challenges in distributing aid two weeks after Hurricane Maria.

President Trump visited the U.S. territory on Tuesday. He told officials they should be “proud” the death toll — currently 34 — was far lower than that of the “real catastrophe” of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

To assist in the island’s recovery, the president said his administration would help Puerto Rico “wipe out” $73 billion in debt. We look at what that would mean.

Photo

• Uncertain future for gerrymandering.

At the Supreme Court on Tuesday, there was something like a consensus that voting maps drawn to give one party an advantage are an unattractive feature of American democracy.

But the justices appeared split about a standard to determine when the practice is unconstitutional.

We looked at how the math of gerrymandering works.

• Nobel in chemistry.

Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry today for developing cryo-electron microscopy, a method for generating three-dimensional images of the molecules of life.

Dr. Dubochet works at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland; Dr. Frank at Columbia University in New York; and Dr. Henderson at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in Cambridge, England.

• “The Daily,” your audio news report.

In today’s show, we look at how the National Rifle Association became a powerful lobbying group.

Listen on a computer, an iOS device or an Android device.

Business

• All three billion Yahoo accounts were affected by a previously disclosed attack in 2013, rather than the one billion reported last year.

• Equifax’s former chief executive told members of Congress that an error by a single employee had led to the data breach that exposed the personal information of almost 146 million people.

• Sensing a trend? Protect your data.

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

Smarter Living

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

• Disasters remind us to prepare our homes for the worst.

• Environmentally friendly travel doesn’t have to break your budget.

• Recipe of the day: Make chicken shawarma in the oven.

Photo

Noteworthy

• Take a ride in a self-driving vehicle.

In today’s 360 video, a driverless car service runs tests with older residents in San Jose, Calif.

Video

• Partisan writing you shouldn’t miss.

Writers from across the political spectrum discuss the aftermath of the attack in Las Vegas and the debate over gun control in the U.S.

• Lincoln Center scraps $500 million renovation.

The home of the New York Philharmonic will no longer pursue a gut renovation of its concert hall, but will seek simpler improvements for the venue.

• Appraising Tom Petty.

“His songs were concise and thoughtfully distilled, modest in bearing but often a gutpunch in content and sly in delivery.”

Our music critic examines the legacy of the rock star, who died on Monday.

• Yankees advance.

New York will face the Cleveland Indians starting Thursday after beating the Minnesota Twins, 8-4, in the American League wild-card game.

Photo

The National League playoffs begin tonight, when the Colorado Rockies play the Arizona Diamondbacks. Like it or not, the win-or-go-home format of the wild-card games seems here to stay, our baseball columnist writes.

• Best of late-night TV.

The comedy hosts paid close attention to President Trump’s trip to Puerto Rico.

• Quotation of the day.

“I think people are going to have to take steps in their own lives to take precautions. To protect themselves. And in situations like that, you know, try to stay safe. As somebody said — get small.”

— Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, suggesting that legislation could do little to prevent gun deaths.

Back Story

Sixty years ago, we entered the space age when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite.

Weighing almost 200 pounds, the Sputnik spacecraft was “one of the world’s greatest propaganda — as well as scientific — feats,” The Times wrote.

Photo

It orbited Earth for three months, sending out a series of beeps that were audible to amateur radio operators. (Here’s what that sounded like.)

“Earthbound man, peering into the sky for a glimpse of the man-made moon, pondered its impact on his affairs,” The Times wrote in 1957.

Soviet propagandists said the breakthrough proved that their communist social model was superior to the capitalism of the West. They also said that it had opened the way to interplanetary travel.

Without question, it captured the attention of the U.S. and its leaders. “No event since Pearl Harbor set off such repercussions in public life,” one historian wrote.

Sputnik burned up in Earth’s atmosphere in January 1958, but test models and replicas continued to circulate. One American collector said he got an original spare Sputnik out of Russia by declaring its two halves as salad bowls.

Patrick Boehler contributed reporting.

_____

Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated all morning. Browse past briefings 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 briefing@nytimes.com.

You can sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox. Check out our full range of free newsletters here.

Continue reading the main story