U.S. Presidential Race, Colin Powell, Carla Hayden: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/briefing/us-presidential-race-colin-powell-carla-hayden.html

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. The presidential candidates focused on reassuring the public that they are in good health.

Donald Trump taped an appearance on the “Dr. Oz Show” to be broadcast Thursday, giving a quick run-through of results from a recent medical exam. He revealed that he weighs 267 pounds, which is considered obese for a man of his height, about 6 foot 2.

Hillary Clinton’s doctor said she was recovering well from pneumonia and remained “healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States.”

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2. Hackers added another prominent victim: former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

His blunt emails fractured the restraint of his public persona, revealing complaints about Mr. Trump (“a national disgrace”) and aides of Mrs. Clinton (for trying to “drag” him into her own email troubles).

There was also antagonism toward other members of the Bush cabinet. Mr. Powell referred to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as “the idiot Rummy” and former Vice President Dick Cheney as “a spent force.”

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3. Our analysts took a deep breath after Tuesday’s heady economic news, notably the fastest rate of U.S. income growth in decades.

Sorting through the Census Bureau’s numbers uncovers cautionary notes: The gains for the poorest haven’t offset a decade of lost ground.

And households outside of urban areas saw their incomes fall 2 percent — one source of the pain driving the anti-establishment tenor of this elections cycle.

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4. President Obama welcomed Myanmar’s leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to the White House and pledged to lift all remaining sanctions against the country as its reward “for a new way of doing business.”

His administration considers her rise from outlawed opposition leader as a triumph of democracy and a validation of the strategy of engagement with former U.S. adversaries.

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5. Pittsburgh logged Day 1 of Uber’s self-driving car experiment.

A few of the ride-share service’s most loyal users are taking part in the pilot program, operating in a few square miles of the city’s downtown.

During our own reporter’s test ride, a safety engineer in the driver’s seat took control of the car several times — to avoid speeders or when a truck suddenly backed out in front of them. “Pittsburgh,” an Uber officer said, “is the double-black diamond of driving.”

Meanwhile, Tesla Motors was faced with a fatal crash in China that may be the second involving its automated driver-assist system.

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6. A much-anticipated study on prostate cancer is finally out.

Researchers followed men with prostate cancer for 10 years and found no difference in death rates among those who had surgery, those who had radiation and those who chose to have the cancer monitored regularly and treated only if it progressed.

One doctor said the findings helped confirm that monitoring — if regular and careful — is a valuable approach.

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7. Carla Hayden, a veteran of Baltimore’s library system, was sworn in as the 14th librarian of Congress, the nation’s leading repository of knowledge and culture.

She is the first woman and the first African-American to serve in the role.

“To be the head of an institution that’s associated with knowledge and reading and scholarship when slaves were forbidden to learn how to read on punishment of losing limbs, that’s kind of something,” she said.

Our Race/Related reporting project wants to hear your stories about race and education. We want to hear from parents, teachers and students of pre-k – 12, about how race and diversity are being discussed in schools and at home.

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8. Acrimony between Turkey and Europe over the Turkish government’s purges and repressions is fraying their deal to curb the flow of refugees.

More than a thousand refugees, including Syrians, Afghans, Pakistanis and Iraqis, fled from Turkey to Greece last week.

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9. One of our best-read stories today — accompanied by one of our most beautiful photos — examines how Russia’s expression of power abroad includes the cross as well as the sword.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which is closely allied with the Kremlin, is pushing into Western Europe with Vladimir Putin’s gospel of cultural conservatism.

Above, a service for Russians killed in the July 14 terrorist attack at St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Nice, France.

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10. Finally, this is not a jungle gym.

It’s a rendering of a 15-story-tall climbing sculpture under construction on the Far West Side of Manhattan, created by Thomas Heatherwick, a polymathic British designer of sculpture, furniture and Shanghai’s 2010 World Expo.

The darling of wealthy philanthropists and businessmen, he is aiming here to galvanize a development project, the Hudson Yards.

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