| We’re covering the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, elections in three states and a plot to blow up a synagogue. |
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 By Claire Moses |
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| The action, which came on the first possible day under the accord’s rules, set off a yearlong process that would allow the U.S. to pull out a day after the 2020 election. Analysts cautioned that even if a Democrat is elected president, re-entry would not necessarily go smoothly. |
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| Background: Nearly 200 nations pledged to cut greenhouse emissions and to help poor countries cope with a warming planet. Making the arrangement work without the U.S. would require other major polluters, such as China and India, to step up. |
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| Related: The Paris Agreement is the second global climate pact that the U.S. joined under a Democrat and abandoned under a Republican: George W. Bush withdrew the country from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. |
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| A Trump rally in Mississippi last week. Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
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| President Trump is not on the ballot today in Kentucky, Mississippi or Virginia, but he has loomed large in almost every conversation with voters in recent days. The elections in those states can be seen as a final report card for the president before the 2020 election. |
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| Mr. Trump went to Kentucky on Monday to try to bolster a Republican in a tight governor’s race, as he did in Mississippi on Friday, but he has pointedly skipped Virginia, where Republicans in contested districts are distancing themselves from him and from the party. |
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| Closer look: With all 140 seats in the Virginia legislature up for grabs, the normally low-interest races are expected to send a national message. Demographic changes in the state threaten narrow Republican majorities in the State Senate and the House of Delegates. |
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| The House Intelligence Committee posted on its website a 317-page transcript of the testimony by Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, and a 156-page transcript of the questioning of Michael McKinley, a former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. |
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| What’s next? Two more transcripts are expected to be released today, including the interview of Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union. |
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| The Jumhuriya Bridge, which leads to the Green Zone, has become a focal point of the protests in Baghdad. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse ? Getty Images |
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| “Free, free Iraq,” they shout, “Iran get out, get out.” |
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| The protests also represent a struggle between younger Iraqis and an older, more cautious generation, between a political elite and a rising cohort that rejects their leadership. But mostly it’s a struggle between those who have profited since the U.S. invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, and those who are scraping to get by. |
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| Fighters in Ain Zara, Libya, in April, defending the country?s internationally recognized government. Fadel Senna/Agence France-Presse ? Getty Images |
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| After years of behind-the-scenes support for a would-be Libyan strongman, Moscow is now pushing much more directly to shape the country’s civil war. It’s bringing in advanced Sukhoi jets, coordinated missile strikes and precision-guided artillery along with snipers and fighters — the same playbook that made Russia the biggest foreign influence in Syria’s war. |
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| Ambush in Mexico: At least nine members of a Mormon family, including six children, were killed by gunmen believed to be tied to organized crime, relatives said. |
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| Trump taxes: The president’s accounting firm must turn over eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors, a federal appeals panel ruled. |
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| 462 prisoners freed: Across Oklahoma, inmates doing time for minor crimes had their sentences commuted as part of an effort to reduce the state’s incarceration rates. |
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| Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via Reuters |
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| Snapshot: Above, a black cat interrupted a Monday Night Football game, to the delight of the crowd. One announcer made the ruling: “The cat runs into the end zone! That is a touchdown!” |
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| Martin Scorsese: In an Op-Ed, the director explained why he told a British film magazine that Marvel superhero movies are “not cinema.” |
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| Late-night comedy: “Thanks to the end of daylight savings time, Americans picked up one more hour of sleep,” Jimmy Kimmel said, “and one more hour to boo Trump at a sporting event.” |
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| What we’re reading: This excerpt on Grub Street from a new book by the restaurant critic Adam Platt. Steven Erlanger, our chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe, calls it “a lovely, funny memoir of his family and their relationship with food (and drink).” |
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| David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. |
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| Read: In some ways, Edith Wharton’s classic novel “The Age of Innocence” feels more current than ever. Elif Batuman explains. |
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| Smarter Living: Make a plan to ensure you get the best possible experience at a museum. |
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| It was also a special section in our Sunday newspaper. Together, the three articles come to about 9,800 words. |
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| Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
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| The project has drawn hundreds of reader comments. We’re particularly grateful to Neil from the Boston metro area, who posted that he had been inspired to pay for “a recurring monthly subscription donation to provide NYT’s real news to schools.” |
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| The idea for the investigation came in July, when Mr. Trump tweeted that four Democratic congresswomen critical of him hated the U.S. and added that they should “go back” to where they came from. |
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| Our executive editor, Dean Baquet — who has also been a national correspondent, Washington bureau chief and managing editor at The Times — wondered what else could be found on Mr. Trump’s Twitter account. |
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| That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. |
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Thank you
Andrea Kannapell helped compile today’s briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. Melina Delkic of the Briefings team wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. |
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