| We’re covering the latest reaction to the weekend’s mass shootings and a worrying report about water supplies worldwide, and taking a look back at Woodstock. | |  By Chris Stanford | | | Mourners gathered on Monday outside the Walmart in El Paso where at least 22 people were killed. Jim Wilson/The New York Times | | | The massacre in Texas was the largest domestic terrorist attack against Hispanics in modern history, and President Trump promised on Monday to give the authorities “whatever they need.” The motive for the weekend’s second attack, in Dayton, Ohio, remains unknown. | | | The challenges include a federal statute that defines domestic terrorism but carries no penalties, and that the First Amendment makes stopping terrorist acts before they happen more difficult. Focusing on white-supremacist violence would also test whether Americans are as accepting of aggressive law enforcement tactics when the suspects aren’t Muslims. | | | Related: Chris Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University, said the evidence was clear that violent video games are not a risk factor for serious acts of aggression. “The data on bananas causing suicide is about as conclusive,” he said. | | | News analysis: Mr. Trump and his allies are adamant that he bears no blame for extremist violence, but the echoes of his rhetoric in the El Paso gunman’s anti-immigrant manifesto are clear, our correspondent writes. | | | A vigil outside the headquarters of the National Rifle Association in Fairfax, Va., on Monday. Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times | | | The death toll in the shooting at an El Paso Walmart rose to 22 on Monday, after two victims died at a hospital. Among those killed were Jordan and Andre Anchondo, who were shopping with their 2-month-old. The baby was grazed by a bullet. | | | In Dayton, the police were trying to determine a motive after nine people were killed. Those who knew the 24-year-old gunman said that as a high school student he had compiled a list of names annotated with threats of violence, mostly against girls. | | | Futures markets indicated that Wall Street would open modestly lower, a day after China let its currency weaken and the S&P 500 fell nearly 3 percent. | | | The Treasury Department responded to that fall by labeling China a currency manipulator. It’s mostly a symbolic action, but the Trump administration will work with the International Monetary Fund to neutralize the effects of the currency drop. | | | Collecting water in Cape Town last year, when the city was forced to take extraordinary measures to ration what little it had left in its reservoirs. João Silva/The New York Times | | | Many are arid, while some squander supplies. Climate change makes the risks increasingly urgent. Although a drought in Southern California ended this year, the water supply in Los Angeles isn’t keeping pace with demand. | | | What’s next: The report by the World Resources Institute noted that a lot can be done to improve water management, including plugging leaks in distribution systems. Wastewater can be recycled, and farmers can switch to less thirsty crops — from rice to millet, for instance. | | | Another angle: European researchers said on Monday that July was the hottest month ever recorded. The global average temperature was about 0.07 degrees Fahrenheit (0.04 Celsius) hotter than the previous record-holder, July 2016. | | | Illustration by Ben Giles; Photograph by Elliott Landy/Magnum Photos | | | The music festival in 1969 was an epiphany and an indulgence, and, with five decades of hindsight, it still poses questions about utopian ideals and our relationship to them today. | | | A Times music critic, Jon Pareles, was there and writes, “I have been to dozens of festivals since then, and none have been so makeshift, so precarious or so revelatory.” | | | PAID POST: A MESSAGE FROM CAMPAIGN MONITOR | | Email Marketing 102: Work smarter, not harder. | | Working smarter means running beautiful, results-driven email marketing campaigns – without sacrificing any bandwidth along the way. And with Campaign Monitor, you'll have access to a drag-and-drop email builder, a gallery of templates, and personalized customer journeys – all the tools you need to replace ‘harder’ with ‘smarter.' | | | Learn More | | | | Sentence in pipe bomb case: Cesar Sayoc Jr., who pleaded guilty to mailing 16 bombs last fall to people he considered enemies of President Trump, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. | | | Laura Boushnak for The New York Times | | | Snapshot: Above, Tzuchi Lin and Yingtung Huang during their pre-wedding photo shoot. Such pictures have become a multi-billion-dollar business in the Instagram age — particularly for Asian couples — and the Greek island of Santorini is a favored setting. | | | Late-night comedy: The hosts all addressed the weekend’s shootings and criticized the lack of action in Washington. “We’re not going to solve America’s gun problems in half an hour, but we’ll probably do more than Congress,” Trevor Noah said. | | | What we’re reading: This article in The Christian Science Monitor. “This colorful story challenges the stereotype of rural America as a place of exodus,” says our Colorado-based national correspondent, Jack Healy, “by portraying young farmers moving back to start small farms and small businesses.” | | | Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. | | | Listen: Haim’s new track, “Summer Girl,” has a cascading saxophone line and gentle vocal lines that linger like an ocean breeze, our critic writes. | | | Read: Sarah Elaine Smith’s debut novel, “Marilou Is Everywhere,” is a coming-of-age mystery about what it’s like to be an outsider. | | | Smarter Living: People have lots of questions about Social Security, which is expected to pay $1.1 trillion to 69 million recipients of retirement and disability benefits this year. The Times answered some of those questions, including the big one: Can it last? (Yes, but …) | | | Using a pan to hunt for nuggets isn’t especially efficient, and it’s rarely done commercially. But it has become an inexpensive outdoor hobby around the world. | | | Panning for gold in California in 1885. Underwood Archives/Getty Images | | | The incentive? Gold prices are surging. On Monday, trade-war fears pushed the per-ounce price to as much as $1,468.31, not terribly far from the all-time high of $1,917.90. | | | Panning works just like it does in old Westerns: You scoop alluvial deposits into an angled pan and gently agitate it in the water. The gold sinks. | | | Pros say that because of its density, gold is usually found behind a rock where water eddies in a stream. | | | Before you jump in, find out where panning is legal or get the landowner’s permission. And keep in mind that you’re most likely to turn up flakes, not nuggets. | | | That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. | | Thank you
Melina Delkic helped compile this briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. Victoria Shannon, on the briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach us at briefing@nytimes.com. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
