(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. The National Rifle Association still wields vast influence, even after a brutal feud that nearly unseated Wayne LaPierre, the group’s longtime leader.

Previously undisclosed documents reveal a sweeping effort by top officials and lawyers to oust Mr. LaPierre, pictured above in April. Not only has he remained, but he continues to exert considerable influence with President Trump, appearing to personally persuade him this week to resist significant gun control measures backed by Democrats.

Here’s how Mr. LaPierre survived an internal revolt.

_____

2. Top global economists are meeting in Wyoming this week at the Fed’s annual monetary policy conference. But politicians a continent away hold the real keys to the economic future.

Attendees at the central banking meeting are desperately hoping that the presidents and prime ministers who will gather in Biarritz, France, for the Group of 7 meeting this weekend will keep prosperity going.

We also looked at President Trump’s assessment that the “country is full.” U.S. restaurants, farms and other employers say they need more foreign workers, and economic growth may depend on it.

_____

3. Joe Biden is coasting in national polls. What’s lacking is enthusiasm on the ground.

Many underwhelmed Democrats in the early-voting state of Iowa described a case for Mr. Biden much like the one described by his wife, Jill Biden, on Monday. “You may like another candidate better, but you have to look at who is going to win,” she said, citing Mr. Biden’s consistent lead in early surveys.

In other 2020 news, Senator Bernie Sanders released a $16 trillion “Green New Deal” climate change plan that calls for the U.S. to eliminate fossil fuel use by 2050. And John Hickenlooper, who ended his presidential campaign last week, will run for Senate in the battleground state of Colorado.

_____

4. More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar for Bangladesh two years ago, and governments from both countries have made politically expedient vows to return them home. But it was a promise that was never kept.

A Times investigation found that only a few dozen Rohingya have been repatriated, and the vast majority are still crammed into squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh, fearing what might await them back home. Above, refugees at the Kutupalong camp in 2017.

Much of their land in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which was emptied by ethnic cleansing, now holds power stations, government buildings and, most of all, military and border guard bases.

_____

5. Ransomware attacks are testing the resolve of cities across America.

As hackers hold hostage the networks that power police forces and utilities, municipalities must operate with hobbled computer systems, and decide whether to pay ransoms. More than 40 U.S. municipalities have been the victims of cyberattacks this year, including 22 cities in Texas alone. Above, a library in Wilmer, Tex., was affected this week.

The majority of attacks have targeted small-town America, figuring that sleepy, cash-strapped local governments are the least likely to have updated their cyberdefenses or backed up their data.

_____

6. DoorDash, the nation’s biggest food-delivery app, is rolling out a new pay model that will let 700,000 workers keep their tips, after a Times article last month spurred widespread outrage.

The new system is being rolled out gradually and will be in place nationwide by the end of September.

_____

7. One of tennis’s top rivalries will be revived on the very first day of the U.S. Open: Serena Williams will play Maria Sharapova in the first round on Monday.

Here’s the rest of the draw. Her sister Venus faces Zheng Saisai of China in the first round.But has Venus ever had her due? The Times Magazine looks at how the first Williams sister changed the course of women’s tennis and continues to compete, 11 years after she last won a Grand Slam tournament. Above, Venus after defeating Serena at the U.S. Open in 2001.

The Times’s Elizabeth Weil reports that the Williams sisters “were always a two-stage rocket: Venus igniting first, blasting herself up through the worst of the gravity and the grittiest friction, then separating and falling away as Serena lit up and shot into orbit alone.”

_____

8. Many people are abandoning Facebook, but users kicked off the platform for reasons they can’t fathom have the opposite problem.

Some of them are trying — really, really hard — to find a human employee to restore their accounts. They’re turning for help to Twitter, Reddit, Quora, message boards, and even our reporter.

In other tech news, humans help train artificial intelligence voice assistants, so someone may be listening to what you tell Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa. Here’s what to do if you have a problem with that.

_____

9. Our hearts will go on, but the wreckage of the R.M.S. Titanic is rapidly falling apart.

This month, a team from Triton Submarines captured video of the world’s most famous shipwreck. Their mission was to assess its status and anticipate the trajectory of its deterioration. The company called it the first such visit in nearly 14 years.

The grand ocean liner, which sank in 1912, is now “being consumed by the ocean and returned to its elemental state,” one researcher said, as it succumbs to rust, corrosive salts, microbes and colonies of deep-sea creatures.

_____

10. And finally, can you tell me how to sing on “Sesame Street”?

For 50 years, famous musicians and pop stars have been hanging out with the people and Muppets in the neighborhood. Above, Pete Seeger in the show’s first year. In the process, “Sesame Street” has “redefined what it means to teach children through TV, with music as its resounding voice,” writes our culture reporter.

“I learned from ‘Sesame Street’ that music is not only incredibly fun, but also an extremely effective narrative and teaching tool,” Lin-Manuel Miranda said. “On top of that, their songs are the closest thing we have to a shared childhood songbook.”

Hope you’re on your way to where the air is sweet.

_____

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning.

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 [email protected].

Source: Read Full Article