Your Weekend Briefing

Las Vegas, Hurricane Nate, Harvey Weinstein | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Sunday, October 8, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Weekend Briefing]( By MAYA SALAM AND DAVID SCULL Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead. Drew Angerer/Getty Images 1. Many mass murderers say why they did it, leaving a manifesto or a telling trail. Not Stephen Paddock, the gunman who slaughtered 58 concertgoers and wounded hundreds in Las Vegas. [Our reporters were able to reconstruct]( many of the contours of his life, including his real estate deals and high-stakes video poker gambling. His girlfriend told investigators that Mr. Paddock had been deteriorating, mentally and physically. But he had no criminal record and no known extremist views. The F.B.I. has resorted to seeking tips on his motive, [setting up billboards]( around the city begging, “If you know something, say something.” The Austin City Limits music festival, which started on Friday, [appears to be proceeding without incident]( though outdoor concert venues are suddenly faced with [new security concerns](. Here’s [how the events in Las Vegas unfolded]( and [the stories of all 58 lives lost](. Above, a memorial. ____ George Frey/Reuters 2. Twelve of the rifles in Mr. Paddock’s Mandalay Bay hotel suite were equipped with “bump stock” devices, above left, which convert semiautomatic weapons into rapid-firing ones. In a rare, small shift, [the N.R.A. and Republican leaders voiced support]( for tighter restrictions on the previously obscure gun conversion kits. Demand surged in the wake of the shooting, but some large retailers like Walmart [stopped selling them](. [Some critics say]( that banning the device won’t change much — there are other ways to make semiautomatic weapons more lethal. Here’s how the Las Vegas massacre compares with [gun deaths in other U.S. cities](. ____ Mario Tama/Getty Images 3. Aside from visiting with victims in Las Vegas, President Trump traveled to hurricane-stricken Puerto Rico. His pledge to [wipe out the island’s vast debts]( to help it recover from Hurricane Maria sent its bond prices plunging. [He told local officials]( that they should be “proud” of the storm’s relatively minimal death toll, and tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd. Many of the island’s residents are still without electricity or proper food and water. A number have left for Florida, potentially [reshaping the state’s politics](. ____ Bryan Tarnowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 4. Another big storm has arrived. [Hurricane Nate]( the fourth to hit the U.S. in just over six weeks, made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Saturday night and again early Sunday before being downgraded to a tropical storm. The governors of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi have declared states of emergency. Above, people filling sandbags in New Orleans. You can [track the storm here](. The White House has asked lawmakers to approve more relief areas battered by hurricanes and to [shore up the federal flood insurance program](. ____ David Walter Banks for The New York Times 5. The entertainment powerhouse [Harvey Weinstein, above, began an indefinite leave of absence]( and a third of his company’s all-male board resigned in the wake of sexual harassment allegations that a [New York Times investigation revealed]( had stretched back decades. The scandal echoes those surrounding Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly and Bill Cosby, as women face down fears of retribution to tell their stories. Mr. Weinstein apologized and [said he was committed to “do better.”]( But he rapidly [lost at least two members of his extensive legal team, including]( Bloom]( who had been advising him on gender and power dynamics. And without Mr. Weinstein, his company [is in serious trouble](. Our media columnist looked at [Mr. Weinstein’s industry enablers]( those loath to bring the open secret to light lest they ruin their careers. ____ Stephen Crowley/The New York Times 6. The Trump White House has been working overtime to unravel President Barack Obama’s legacy, including [rolling back the federal mandate]( requiring employers to include birth control coverage in their health insurance plans. Hundreds of thousands of women could lose the benefit. New rules, which will certainly spur a number of lawsuits, vastly expand moral or religious exemptions, fulfilling one of the president’s campaign promises. And Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a reversal of a 2014 directive by Eric Holder Jr., said a civil rights law [doesn’t prohibit discrimination against transgender people](. ____ Carlos Barria/Reuters 7. The administration also [moved to undo]( Clean Power Plan]( the centerpiece of the Obama-era effort to fight global warming. But [courts have been pushing back]( on some of the administration’s environmental rollbacks. And the president is expected to announce this week that he will [decline to certify the Iran nuclear agreement]( which would force Congress to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions. That’s something even Republicans aren’t enthusiastic about doing, so the deal may remain in place. [European signatories]( argue that ending it would only help Russia. ____ Andrew Harnik/Associated Press 8. The [trial of Ahmed Abu Khattala]( a Libyan accused of helping orchestrate the September 2012 attacks in Benghazi, is underway in Washington. Survivors gave harrowing testimony about their night of terror and escape. David Ubben, a State Department security agent who was gravely wounded, recalled reluctantly calling off [the search for the body of the American ambassador, Christopher Stevens](. [Mr. Ubben acknowledged]( that he had no personal knowledge of whether Mr. Khattala masterminded the attacks that night. The trial resumes Tuesday. ____ Denis Balibouse/Reuters 9. The Nobel Peace Prize was [pointedly]( to the coalition of disarmament activists behind the first treaty to prohibit nuclear arms]( which was reached in July at the United Nations. More than 50 countries signed — though not one of the world’s nine nuclear powers. Above, Beatrice Fihn, left, and Grethe Ostern, both part of the group, celebrating their win. In a cryptic comment to reporters that confused even his staff, President Trump suggested that his dinner on Thursday with military commanders was the “[calm before the storm]( “I wouldn’t say that he’s messing with the press,” the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told reporters. “I think that North Korea, Iran both continue to be bad actors.” ____ Edmund D. Fountain for The New York Times 10. The United States [lost 33,000 jobs in September]( yielding the first monthly decline in employment in seven years. Economists say that’s just a blip, caused largely by the hurricanes that struck Texas and the Southeast. [Here’s how the storms skewed the numbers](. ____ Sam Hodgson for The New York Times 11. It’s back to the drawing board for Geffen Hall, above, home of the New York Philharmonic. Lincoln Center announced it was [scrapping the $500,000 plan]( to overhaul the lackluster hall. The media mogul David Geffen [was sharply critical of New York’s wealthy]( criticizing as “shameful” their failure to donate to “the most important cultural institution in New York.” Meanwhile, he pledged [$150 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art]( the largest single cash gift from an individual in the museum’s history. ____ NBC 12. “Saturday Night Live” opened with a [surprise appearance by Jason Aldean]( who was onstage at the country music festival in Las Vegas when the massacre began. “Like everyone, I’m struggling to understand what happened that night and how to pick up the pieces and start to heal,” he said before performing “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty, who [died last week](. On “Weekend Update,” the co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che took on the gun rights debate. “This shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Mr. Jost said, referring to the shooter. “The guy had 47 guns. No one should own 47 of anything.” ____ Charlie Shoemaker for The New York Times 13. Finally, two major pharmaceutical companies intend to bring lifesaving treatment to tens of thousands of Africans, [promising to charge rock-bottom prices for 16 common chemotherapy drugs](. The initiative, modeled on the campaign against AIDS, will begin in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a top U.S. health official, said the arrangement gave him “goose bumps.” “I think this is a phenomenal idea, and I think it has a good chance of working.” Have a great week. _____ Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern. And don’t miss [Your Morning Briefing]( weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern, and [Your Evening Briefing]( weeknights at 6 p.m. Eastern. Want to look back? You can browse [past Morning]( and [Evening Briefings](. If photographs appear out of order, please download the updated New York Times app [from iTunes]( or [Google Play](. What did you like? What do you want to see here? 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