Your Monday 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]( Monday, August 7, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Monday Evening Briefing]( By KAREN ZRAICK AND SANDRA STEVENSON Good evening. Here’s the latest. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times 1. Congress is in recess for August, and the president is taking a break from Washington. We in the newsroom are experiencing a rare return to the “slow news cycle” — something that used to be the rule for August. It’s clear that many readers are welcoming the break, as some of our most popular stories today focus on entertainment. For instance: [our musical mapping of the country]( using the 50 most-watched artists on YouTube. Above, Future, the single most-watched. _____ Ty Wright/Bloomberg 2. President Trump [isn’t taking a break from Twitter](. He was up early in New Jersey to criticize “fake news” and the Russia investigation and to say he’d be in New York for meetings next week. Mr. Trump’s [stalled trade agenda]( is frustrating the industries he promised to protect, like steelworkers. Above, welding railroad parts in Ohio. But his team is making progress in assembling teams to dismantle government regulations. [We and Pro Publica are trying to penetrate the largely secretive process]( — and have found that political appointees with deep ties to industry may be reviewing rules their former employers fought. _____ David Joles/Star Tribune, via Associated Press 3. The governor of Minnesota denounced [a weekend attack on a mosque]( as a “terrible, dastardly, cowardly” act of terrorism. The mosque was hit by an improvised explosive device, apparently thrown from a truck, on Saturday morning as congregants began to gather for prayers. No one was injured. The F.B.I. is investigating. A [GoFundMe page]( had received nearly $50,000 to help fix the building from more than 1,000 donors as of Monday afternoon. _____ Joshua Lott/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 4. Chicago sued the Justice Department over its new policy of denying federal grants to cities [that don’t give the immigration authorities access]( to police stations and detainees. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, above, said his city received $2.3 million in law enforcement grants last year that are now at risk. _____ Nic Bothma/European Pressphoto Agency 5. Leadership challenges are a particular focus in Africa this week. [President Jacob Zuma of South Africa]( faces a parliamentary no-confidence motion tomorrow — his fifth in eight years — and this time lawmakers will vote by secret ballot. [Kenya also votes tomorrow]( in a tightly contested presidential race that’s been marred by violence and reports of plans to rig the vote. The country’s most famous son, [Former President Barack Obama, weighed in today]( urging Kenyans to “work for an election — and aftermath — that is peaceful and credible.” _____ Benjamin Norman for The New York Times 6. New York City’s subways are jammed with record numbers of riders. So we were astounded to discover that [the M.T.A. is running fewer trains than its schedules call for]( — even during rush hour. On the Lexington Avenue line, the system’s most-crowded, just 77 of 90 scheduled trains routinely run through Grand Central from 8 to 9 a.m., and only 76 of 88 from 5 to 6 p.m. Each could have carried roughly 1,000 passengers. M.T.A. officials blamed overcrowding for the shortfall. _____ Brook Mitchell for The New York Times 7. We have two stories about other kinds of journeys today. The first, from Australia: [An Aboriginal activist is walking across the country]( — from Perth to Canberra — to protest the treatment of indigenous people. “We’re doing this for the grass-roots people,” Clinton Pryor, above right, told our bureau chief. “A lot of people are not being heard.” And in Germany, our reporting team tagged along with a group of young journeymen, or “Wandergesellen.” [Following customs that date to medieval times]( they spend years traveling and working as bricklayers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons and roofers in exchange for room and board. _____ Macall B. Polay/HBO 8. Finally, Sunday’s “Game of Thrones” brought awkward reunions and another skirmish in the war. [Here’s our recap](. If you’d like exclusive interviews, explainers and our curated selection of the internet’s best articles on the show, [sign up for our G.O.T. newsletter here](. Have a great night. _____ If photographs appear out of order, please [download the updated New York Times app]( from iTunes. You can also view [this version](. 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 catch up on past briefings? [You can browse them here](. 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](. Sponsor a Subscription Inspire the future generation of readers by contributing to The Times’s [sponsor-a-subscription program](. For questions, email sponsor@nytimes.com or call [1-844-698-2677](. FOLLOW NYTimes [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytimes]( Get more NYTimes.com newsletters » | Sign Up for the [Morning Briefing newsletter »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Evening Briefing newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2017 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018