How Rudy Giuliani Turned Into Trump's Clown  —  The former mayor's theatrical, combative style of politics anticipated—and perfectly aligns with—the President's.  —  Although it has been almost a generation since Rudolph Giuliani was the mayor of New York, there is one place in the city …

Steve Bannon Headlines New Yorker Festival  —  Readers of The New Yorker prize the magazine for its wide-ranging collection of perspectives.  From Oct. 5 to 7, The New Yorker Festival, now in its 19th year, will bring some of these voices to venues around New York City.

Trump's ‘majority’ is fake  —  likes to complain about “Fake News.”  —  So, here's some very real news for him:  —  Republican control of Capitol Hill and the White House is based on a “fake majority.”  —  “A majority of the Senate now represents just 18 percent of the nation's population …

Trump's pollution rules rollback to hit coal country hard  —  GRANT TOWN, W.Va. (AP) — It's coal people like miner Steve Knotts, 62, who make West Virginia Trump Country.  —  So it was no surprise that President Donald Trump picked the state to announce his plan to roll back Obama-era pollution controls on coal-fired power plants.

Brazil museum fire: ‘incalculable’ loss as 200-year-old Rio institution gutted  —  The Museu Nacional houses artefacts from Egypt, Greco-Roman art and some of the first fossils found in Brazil  —  Play Video  —  Brazil's oldest and most important historical and scientific museum has been consumed by fire …

Media Obituaries Didn't Give Us ‘The Full McCain’  —  The sugary praise, often from former critics, does his memory no favors.  —  The past week has featured so much extravagant praise of John McCain that Jill Abramson, the former editor of the New York Times, had to admit …

Trump attacks union leader on Labor Day  —  President Donald Trump started his Labor Day with an attack on a top union leader, lashing out after criticism from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.  —  Trump tweeted Monday that Trumka “represented his union poorly on television this weekend.”

Scandal-hit Danske branch handled $30bn of Russian money  —  An independent investigation into the money-laundering scandal at Danske Bank found that as much as $30bn of Russian and ex-Soviet money flowed through its Estonian branch in a single year.  —  The findings, contained …

8 questions for the midterm elections: A blue wave or not?  —  Campaign 2018 begins the final stretch this week.  All but a few states have finished their primaries, and the general election ballots are set almost everywhere.  The stakes are difficult to overstate.

The ‘Trump effect’  —  How a norm-scrambling presidency and a viral video are changing the way black and white residents in Summerville, S.C., talk about race  —  Before he heard from neighbors about the confrontation at his subdivision swimming pool, Jovan Hyman saw a shaky video of it online, where it was quickly going viral.

Inside Twitter's Long, Slow Struggle to Police Bad Actors  —  Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has personally weighed in on high-profile decisions, frustrating some employees  —  When Twitter Inc. TWTR -1.29% Chief Executive Jack Dorsey testifies before Congress this week, he'll likely be asked …

Will Joe run?  Biden feels the push to take on Trump in 2020  —  DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Shortly after Joe Biden boarded a recent flight from Washington to New York, a string of passengers began stopping at his seat in coach to deliver some version of the same message: Run, Joe, run.

Axios Sneak Peek  —  Subscribe  —  Hope you're savoring this holiday weekend — thanks for pausing to catch up with us.  Jonathan Swan is taking some well-deserved time (mostly) off the grid.  — Appreciate any tips, leaks or rants: mike@axios.com, or just reply to this email.

Parents at Chinese kindergarten horrified by pole-dancing act  —  BEIJING (Reuters) - Parents attending a ceremony at a kindergarten in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Monday were horrified when a scantily clad pole dancer took to the stage and proceeded with a well-oiled number in plain view of their children.

Putin Gets Love From New State TV Show as Poll Ratings Slide  —  Russian state television started a new weekly show devoted to Vladimir Putin, lauding the president's leadership qualities, physical energy and attentiveness to public needs.  —  The first hour-long episode of “Moscow.  Kremlin.

Companies Say Trump Is Hurting Business by Limiting Legal Immigration  —  The Trump administration is using the country's vast and nearly opaque immigration bureaucracy to constrict the flow of foreign workers into the United States by throwing up new roadblocks to limit legal arrivals.

Scoop: Confident Dems plan detailed 2019 agenda  —  Like the quiet planning by presidential candidates for their hoped-for transition to office, House Democrats are already choreographing their opening moves if — as looks likely — they get the gavel back in the midterm elections.

Cardinal Wuerl Celebrates Mass at Annunciation to Install New Pastor Offers Remarks About Recent Events Involving the Church  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. - Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, celebrated Mass today at the Church of the Annunciation in Washington to install Monsignor Michael Mellone as the parish's new pastor.

Trump has visited his golf courses on 25 percent of his 590 days in office  — President Donald Trump is being criticized for golfing during the late Sen. John McCain's funeral on Saturday.  — Trump was reportedly asked not to attend the service.  He spent the day at one of his golf courses in Sterling, Virginia, instead.

Immigrants, fearing Trump crackdown, drop out of nutrition programs  —  Both documented and undocumented immigrants fear that accepting federal aid could make them ineligible for a green card if rules are changed.  —  Immigrants are turning down government help to buy infant formula …

Pope touts virtue of silence after sex abuse cover-up claims  —  VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis recommends silence and prayer to react to those seeking scandal and division.  Francis offered the advice Monday in his homily at Mass in the Vatican hotel where he lives.

Myanmar Court Sentences Reuters Reporters to Seven Years in Prison  —  Kyaw Soe Oo: ‘We were sent to prison to close the eyes and ears of people in Myanmar’  —  A court sentenced two Reuters reporters who exposed human-rights abuses by Myanmar's military to seven years in prison on Monday …