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Good morning.

Today is the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. We’re also covering California’s potentially influential vote on the gig economy, the results of a special election in North Carolina and a rape accusation against the N.F.L. star Antonio Brown.

A vote to remake the gig economy

California lawmakers approved a landmark bill on Tuesday that requires companies like Uber and Lyft to treat contract workers as employees.

Uber and Lyft, which have hundreds of thousands of drivers in California, have said that contract work provides flexibility, but critics say the work is insecure and lacks protections like a minimum wage or unemployment insurance.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the measure.

Related: Uber laid off 435 workers on Tuesday, the company’s second round of cuts in recent months. The jobs lost represent about 8 percent of its global product and engineering group.

Another angle: Margrethe Vestager, the European Union competition commissioner whose billion-dollar fines have made her loathed by Silicon Valley, has new powers that give her unrivaled regulatory reach.

Who will replace John Bolton?

The abrupt ouster of the national security adviser on Tuesday was immediately followed by speculation over his successor, whom President Trump said he would name next week.

The number of potential replacements is expanding, but the short list includes Charles Kupperman, Mr. Bolton’s deputy; Stephen Biegun, the special representative to North Korea; and Brian Hook, the special representative to Iran.

Yesterday: The president said he fired Mr. Bolton; Mr. Bolton insisted that he had resigned. Regardless, they had a fundamental disagreement over foreign policy, most recently Afghanistan. Mr. Bolton successfully pushed to stop a peace agreement with the Taliban, but the president had long complained that Mr. Bolton was too hawkish.

News analysis: Mr. Bolton had discouraged talks with North Korea and advised against cooperation with Russia. His exit “removes one of the last constraints on Mr. Trump’s sense of the possible in world affairs,” our correspondents write.

The Daily: Today’s episode is about Mr. Bolton’s departure.

Republican victory in North Carolina

Dan Bishop, a state senator, narrowly won a special House election on Tuesday that highlighted both President Trump’s appeal with his base as well as his party’s deepening unpopularity with suburban voters.

The president had endorsed Mr. Bishop, who defeated Dan McCready, a moderate Democrat, by about two percentage points. Here are the full results.

Background: Last November, Mr. McCready narrowly lost to a different Republican, but the result was thrown out after evidence of election fraud.

Go deeper: The results give Democrats some hope for 2020. Mr. McCready performed better in the Charlotte suburbs than he did last year.

Another angle: Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren present starkly different options for Democratic voters. They’ll share the debate stage on Thursday for the first time in the presidential race.

Israeli leader’s campaign bombshell

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he would move to annex nearly a third of the occupied West Bank if he wins an election next week.

Mr. Netanyahu cited President Trump’s support in announcing the move, which would reshape the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reduce any future Palestinian state to an enclave encircled by Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu’s re-election effort has been clouded by accusations of corruption, and his rivals denounced the plan as a political ploy.

Background: Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan during the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. Most of the world considers it occupied territory and Israeli settlements or annexations there illegal.

Closer look: In the West Bank village of Fasayil, residents said Israel should fix the electricity before talking about annexation.

If you have 6 minutes, this is worth it

Confronting 9/11 trauma

Almost 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks 18 years ago, but there were also thousands of survivors, some of whom have developed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kayla Bergeron, above, was working in the north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. She had a foreclosure and two drunken-driving convictions before she was diagnosed last year with PTSD.

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan will be closed to the public this morning for a ceremony in which the names of the victims are read aloud. We’ll have live coverage.

Here’s what else is happening

Olive branch from China: Beijing said today that it would exempt some American-made goods from retaliatory tariffs, but the move is probably not enough to rescue a trade deal.

Fewer Americans are insured: Despite a strong economy, the number of people with health insurance fell last year for the first time since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010.

N.F.L. rape accusation: Antonio Brown of the New England Patriots, the league’s most prominent wide receiver, has been accused of raping a woman who worked as his trainer.

Apple offerings: The company introduced several products, including an iPhone that’s cheaper than its predecessor and a TV streaming service, which starts Nov. 1.

From The Times: Our Opinion section has started an email newsletter, Debatable, that provides a range of perspectives about the most talked-about disagreements. Today’s topic: active-shooter drills at schools.

Snapshot: Above, a parade in Hoboken, N.J., in 1955 photographed for Robert Frank’s groundbreaking book, “The Americans.” Mr. Frank used a raw style that helped change the course of documentary photography. He died on Monday at 94.

52 Places traveler: In his latest dispatch, our columnist visits the Azores, the beautiful, remote islands that have become increasingly popular with tourists.

Late-night comedy: The hosts addressed the disagreement in the West Wing: “Bolton thought we should continue the war in Afghanistan, and Trump thought we should continue the war with Chrissy Teigen,” Jimmy Fallon said.

What we’re watching: This viral video (in case you missed it). “Because,” writes the briefings editor, Andrea Kannapell, “sometimes you just need a good hug — or to see one.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: This steak salad has soba noodles, bok choy and a ginger-lime dressing.

Listen: It took five years and 28 people to create the Bon Iver track “iMi.” It’s the subject of our latest Diary of a Song episode.

Go: The New York Philharmonic is performing live soundtracks to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Psycho” at David Geffen Hall.

Eat: Mission Ceviche, which began as a counter in a food hall, has grown into a full restaurant on the Upper East Side. Read our critic’s review.

Smarter Living: The costs of preschool and day care are a significant financial strain for most parents. But studies have found that many keep child-related debt a secret. Why do the difficulties feel so unspeakable?

Readers shared their own stories about the costs of raising children.

And now for the Back Story on …

Storm ‘seasons’

With the Bahamas struggling after a devastating hurricane and Tokyo recovering from a record-setting typhoon, we wondered why dangerous storms were likelier to erupt at predictable times of the year.

The answer emerges from global phenomena. Radiation from the sun falls unequally on our tilted planet, hitting with most impact at the Equator. There, the hot air rises into the atmosphere and powers tropical cyclones through evaporation and the Coriolis effect, the different rates of rotation created by the spinning Earth.

Different terms are used for a storm depending on where it forms. In the Atlantic, tropical cyclones are called hurricanes, which are most likely to occur after surface temperatures peak and large amounts of moisture are already in the atmosphere. That season lasts from June to November, with the most perilous period from mid-August to mid-October.

Tropical cyclones in the northwestern Pacific, called typhoons, can form year-round because of warmer waters, but they most commonly occur from May to October.

And global warming has increased the amount of energy absorbed by oceans, which scientists believe has resulted in stronger storms.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. Will Dudding, an assistant in the Standards Department, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the departure of John Bolton.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Around 3.5% of ocean water (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• On Thursday, our columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin will interview the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The interviews will be streamed on DealBook’s Twitter page.

Chris Stanford writes the U.S. edition of the Morning Briefing. He also compiles a weekly news quiz. He joined The Times as a home page producer in 2013, before which he worked at The Washington Post and other news outlets. He is now based in London. @stanfordc

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