Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

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OCTOBER 2, 2019

Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

By remy tumin and marcus payadue

Good evening. Here's the latest.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

1. House leaders threatened to subpoena the White House if it did not hand over a broad range of records related to the impeachment inquiry by Friday.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Adam Schiff warned that any attempt to stonewall the House's request or intimidate witnesses would be construed as obstruction worthy of impeachment itself.

President Trump responded with a series of angry outbursts. In an uncomfortable Oval Office meeting with the president of Finland, Mr. Trump declared that Democrats were "guilty as hell" of corrupting the 2016 election, that former Vice President Joe Biden was "corrupt" and "less smart now than he ever was," and that a C.I.A. whistle-blower was "a spy in my opinion."

The State Department's inspector general briefed lawmakers about a packet of documents he gave no credence to — assorted news clippings and conspiratorial memos about Democratic malfeasance in Ukraine — that had been delivered to the secretary of state by someone purporting to be in the White House. Here's a roundup.

Hilary Swift for The New York Times

2. Bernie Sanders had two stents inserted to treat an artery blockage and is canceling campaign events in the coming days.

The Vermont senator, 78, experienced chest discomfort at a campaign event in Las Vegas, where he is currently recovering. His campaign said he was "conversing and in good spirits."

Mr. Sanders had traveled to Las Vegas for a forum, held two years after the deadliest mass shooting in American history, that aimed to bring gun policy back to the forefront of the Democratic primary.

And it's official: The Oct. 15 debate will be the biggest ever, with 12 candidates onstage at once. The Times's National editor will be moderating it, and he's open to your question suggestions.

Photographs by Chad Batka and Celeste Sloman

3. What happens when 526 voters from across the country spend a weekend together?

Put a diverse group of people in a room, the political scientists James Fishkin and Larry Diamond argue, and they're likely to mute their harshest views and wrestle more deeply with rebuttals.

That was the idea behind a four-day experiment at a resort outside of Dallas, ahead of the 2020 election. Here's what they learned.

Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

4. Global stocks slid again as investors fretted over slowing global growth.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.8 percent, its worst day since late August. Stocks in Europe tumbled.

Adding to concerns, the W.T.O. granted the U.S. permission to impose tariffs on as much as $7.5 billion on European products as part of a long-running complaint over European subsidies for the planemaker Airbus.

Separately, a Boeing engineer on the 737 Max filed an ethics complaint this year saying a system that might have reduced crash risks was rejected over its cost.

Luis Antonio Rojas for The New York Times

5. The Trump administration is moving to collect DNA samples from detained migrants for entry into a national criminal database.

A new federal regulation would give immigration officers the authority to collect DNA in detention facilities anywhere in the country that are holding more than 40,000 people. It would also allow the government to collect DNA from children, as well as those who seek asylum. Above, a Customs and Border Protection boat traveling the Rio Grande near Laredo, Tex.

Meanwhile, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been using data from places like state D.M.V. databases and social networks to help make its deportations more efficient, a Times Magazine investigation found.

And in case you missed it, our reporters provided an inside look at President Trump's border war, including his request for a snake-filled moat and his suggestion that soldiers could shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down.

Pool photo by Tom Fox

6. Two stories broke late this afternoon:

Amber Guyger, a white former Dallas police officer who fatally shot her unarmed black neighbor last year, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Sentencing guidelines ranged up to 99 years. Above, Ms. Guyger in court today.

And lung damage from vaping-related illnesses resembles chemical burns, the Mayo Clinic reported. Doctors there examined samples of lung tissue from 17 patients, all of which looked as if the people had been exposed to toxic chemicals, researchers said.

Rob Carr/Getty Images

7. It was a season of extraordinary numbers for baseball. Now it's October, and the postseason is anyone's game.

The Washington Nationals will play the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night after defeating the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League wild-card game. Juan Soto, above, drove in the winning runs just in the nick of time.

Tonight, the Oakland A's and Tampa Bay Rays will meet for the American League wild-card game. Win or lose, the A's are moving forward with plans to leave the Oakland Coliseum for a new stadium. Our tech reporter, who lives in Oakland, writes about the beauty in America's ugliest ballpark.

Ludovic Marin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

8. Sibeth Ndiaye stands out. And that's the point.

Ms. Ndiaye is the first black spokeswoman to represent a French president. Unlike many of her colleagues, she didn't attend elite French universities. And she wears a bright mix of colors to work, in jarring contrast to the sea of somber suits that surrounds her.

In a country where clothing is deeply embedded in the national identity, Ms. Ndiaye's relaxed fashion choices have become a lightning rod for discussions around race, gender and body shape in France. "The way I dress is almost a political statement," she told The Times.

Paris Fashion Week just ended and our chief fashion critic sounded off on next season's looks. In sum: "2020 is coming. Time to get dressed."

9. "We're all going back to that initial nerdy impulse of what made us fall in love with musical theater"

You might know him from "Spring Awakening," "Hamilton" or "Mindhunter." But Jonathan Groff feels most like himself as the nebbishy hero of "Little Shop of Horrors," and he's returning off Broadway to prove it.

In other arts news, the opera superstar Plácido Domingo resigned from his position as general director of Los Angeles Opera amid allegations that he had sexually harassed multiple women over several decades.

Travis Rector/Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA

10. And finally, a comet in time for the holidays.

A few weeks ago we told you about a possible comet found by a Crimean astronomer. That maybe-comet is now definitely a comet from another star — only the second of its kind ever seen — and will make its closest approach to the sun on Dec. 7.

Known as 2I/Borisov, the comet will be visible in the southern sky to astronomers, and perhaps even to civilians, for several months. The interstellar comet arrives wrapped in a cloud of toxic cyanogen gas. But don't worry — it won't come close enough to Earth to cause trouble.

Have a stellar night.

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