Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

Your nightly rundown of the day's top stories delivered straight to your inbox. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Tuesday, July 18, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Tuesday Evening Briefing]( By REMY TUMIN AND SANDRA STEVENSON Good evening. Here’s the latest. Doug Mills/The New York Times 1. G.O.P. Senate leaders are out of options in their efforts to repeal and replace the health care law, at least for now. Republicans, who previously failed to gain enough votes to replace President Obama’s health law, attempted a third measure to repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. That [plan has collapsed](. “I did not come to Washington to hurt people,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito, above, a Republican from West Virginia. “I cannot vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians.” Having failed to agree on a health care overhaul, Congress moved on to its next hurdle: [passing the 2018 budget.]( _____ Stephen Crowley/The New York Times 2. President Trump’s mission to dismantle his [predecessor’s legacy]( is unlike any president’s before him. In the space of a few hours, Mr. Trump reluctantly agreed to preserve [President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran]( and failed in his effort to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care program. But Mr. Trump hasn’t given up. He announced [new sanctions on Iran]( and he called on Congress [to simply repeal]( Mr. Obama’s health care program without passing a replacement. “We’ll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us,” the president said at the White House. _____ Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency 3. Russia said its [patience is wearing thin]( over two waterfront compounds that the Obama administration seized from Russian diplomats as punishment for Moscow’s meddling in last year’s presidential election. [This video]( explains it. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, had called the seizure “robbery in broad daylight,” and the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said that Russia “reserved the right to retaliate against the United States.” Meanwhile, the eighth person who attended a June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. was identified as [an emissary of a Russian oligarch](. _____ Patrick Sison/Associated Press.. 4. China partly blocked WhatsApp in its ever-tightening grip over internet content. The messaging app was the last of [Facebook’s major products that still worked in China](. It appears to have fallen victim to an online crackdown fed by a perfect storm of politically sensitive news, important events and a new cybersecurity law that went into effect last month. _____ Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press 5. It took global outcry, two rejections and President Trump’s intervention for six teenage girls on an Afghan robotics team [to get the U.S. visas]( to take part in a competition in Washington. “They’re like superheroes,” a competitor from Myanmar said. _____ Eric Gay/Associated Press 6. Texas lawmakers are gearing up for a [special legislative session]( where they are likely to decide the fate of a bill regulating the access of transgender people in public restrooms. But there’s more on the line — the political future of Joe Straus, above, the speaker of the Texas House, who has put himself at odds with his fellow Republicans over his resistance to the bill. Mr. Straus is one of the state’s last moderate Republicans. _____ Scott mcintyre for The New York Times 7. “My will to survive kicked in.” James Church was fishing off a jetty when he was struck by lightning in Florida, a state that has more lightning strikes and fatalities than any other state. Here are [four tales of survivors]( with disparate stories that all began with a bolt from the blue. _____ Pete Kiehart for The New York Times 8. Mountain roads provide an optimal vantage point to see a bicycle race in person, but they’re difficult to reach. The Tour de France has a [longtime tradition of cycling fans]( camping out in the mountains for days, or even weeks, to claim a coveted place along the course. The New York Times went up the mountainside of Mont du Chat to join them. On the soccer field, the [second-highest-ranking soccer official with FIFA]( was arrested and charged with corruption and embezzlement. _____ Sanrio 9. Hello Kitty once represented the height of consumer culture, with everything from lunchboxes to hand-held mirrors adorned with the little girl character. But the Japanese consumer goods brand Sanrio, which debuted the catlike cartoon with a hair bow in 1974, has [introduced new characters]( that have a much more anticapitalist vibe. One character, Aggretsuko (pronounced ah-GRET-su-KO), chugs beers and performs death metal karaoke as flames spark around her face. _____ David B. Torch for The New York Times 10. We wrap up the day in Norway with a new food movement: [neo-Fjordic cuisine](. Why would an ambitious chef open a restaurant in western Norway, where only 3 percent of the land is arable and the growing season is a blip? “The fjords are what make Norway different,” the chef, Christopher Haatuft, said. “That’s what I want my food to be.” Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing [this version]( of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a.m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s [last night’s]( briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at [briefing@nytimes.com](mailto:briefing@nytimes.com?subject=Evening%20Briefing%20Feedback). ADVERTISEMENT Looking for Something to Watch? Three times a week, receive recommendations on the best TV shows and films to stream and watch. Sign up for our Watching newsletter [here](. 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