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Tax Plan, Robert Mugabe, Rancho Tehama Reserve: Your Wednesday Briefing

Celebrating the results of a national vote on same-sex marriage in Melbourne, Australia, today. More than 61 percent supported legalization, though the decision is still up to Parliament.Credit...David Crosling/European Pressphoto Agency

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Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

• In their effort to rewrite the U.S. tax code, Republican senators announced changes to their proposals on Tuesday to address two problems: math and politics.

The alterations would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s so-called insurance mandate, which would save hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade. (Our health care correspondent explains the reason for the mandate, one of the most unpopular parts of Obamacare.)

The Senate bill’s tax cuts for individuals would expire at the end of 2025, a provision that could secure the votes of the most conservative senators. The plan’s deep cut in the corporate tax rate would be permanent.

Separately, we examined every cut and increase in the House tax plan, and what they would cost. A vote on that proposal is expected on Thursday.

TimesTalk today: Senators Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, will talk with The Times about the withering of bipartisanship. You can watch and ask questions live, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

• During congressional testimony on Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions pushed back against Republicans asking that a special counsel investigate Hillary Clinton.

Our chief White House correspondent points out that a new investigation of Mrs. Clinton “would shatter post-Watergate norms intended to prevent presidents from using law enforcement agencies against political rivals.”

Mr. Sessions again denied lying to Congress about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions denied that he lied when he testified about Russian contacts in October. He also said he was aware of African-American groups that have transformed themselves into “violent activists.”CreditCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York Times

“It’s been very epic.” That’s President Trump, who’s back in Washington, describing his 12-day trip to Asia. Our reporter had her own assessment.

• President Robert Mugabe, who has ruthlessly ruled the southern African nation for nearly four decades, is under house arrest today, hours after the military announced it had taken him into custody. Here’s what we know and don’t know.

Mr. Mugabe, 93, is the only leader Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980.

He dismissed Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week, a move widely seen as a way to elevate his wife, Grace Mugabe.

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President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and his wife, Grace, in the capital, Harare, last week.Credit...Jekesai Njikizana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• A gunman went on a rampage in at least seven locations, including an elementary school, around Rancho Tehama Reserve in Northern California on Tuesday, killing at least four people.

The assailant, who was killed by the police, entered the school but was unable to get into classrooms because officials had heard gunshots and locked the doors.

“This incident, as tragic and as bad as it is, could have been so much worse if it wasn’t for the quick thinking and staff at our elementary school,” a law enforcement official said.

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Investigators examined a pickup truck involved in a shooting rampage in California on Tuesday.
Credit...Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

• Our reporters visited Gadsden, Roy Moore’s hometown, to talk to residents about the accusations of sexual misconduct against the Republican Senate candidate.

“Even in a place that has long been polarized over Mr. Moore, there are hints of nagging doubt among his supporters, and admissions by critics that they still want more clarity about the allegations,” they write.

What can Republicans do about Mr. Moore? Here are their options. What can Democratic leaders do? “Stay home, this is our race and we’ll decide it here,” a strategist for Doug Jones, Mr. Moore’s opponent, said.

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Roy S. Moore, the Senate candidate from Alabama, and his supporters are trying to discredit and diminish the mounting sexual misconduct allegations against him.CreditCredit...Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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U.S. companies like Toys “R” Us that file for bankruptcy love to do so in Richmond, Va. Here’s why.

The American aversion to taxes is singular among wealthy nations and may have produced a government unequal to today’s challenges, our economics columnist writes.

U.S. stocks were down on Tuesday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

A link between alcohol and cancer is not nearly as scary as it sounds.

Can ketone supplements rev up your workout?

Start planning your Thanksgiving menu, including spicy sweet potatoes.

Where pianos are made.

In today’s 360 video, step inside the Steinway & Sons factory in Hamburg, Germany, where grand pianos have been handmade since 1904.

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Step inside one of the Steinway & Sons factories where grand pianos have been handmade for over 100 years. Follow the process from the lumber yard to the selection room.CreditCredit...Marcus Brandt/picture-alliance/dpa, via Associated Press. Technology by Samsung.

A would-be climate leader clings to coal.

President Xi Jinping has promised that China will take a “driving seat” in responding to climate change. We look at how, despite rising emissions, the coal-burning country is on track to meet its commitments under the Paris climate accord.

We’re also covering this week’s climate conference in Bonn, Germany. Sign up for our climate email newsletter, which brings you the latest news from a warming planet every week.

Welcome to Walmart.

The retailer’s practice of letting people stay overnight in its parking lots has led to the emergence of an informal culture.

This summer, two photographers spent several nights in Walmart parking lots in the South. Here are some of the people they met.

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Spending the night at a Walmart in Pooler, Ga. Watch out for windblown shopping carts!Credit...George Etheredge for The New York Times

Best of late-night TV.

Stephen Colbert was outraged by reports that Roy Moore had been known to spend time in his 30s at Alabama shopping malls, chatting with teenagers.

Quotation of the day.

“You’re accusing me of lying about that? I would say that’s not fair, colleagues.”

Jeff Sessions, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, on Russian contact during the 2016 campaign.

“The time has come when man can no longer continue using the land, sea and air as his ‘trash basket,’ ” a Times article said in 1966. “He must find ways to cycle his wastes, both solid and liquid, back into the economy.”

It was one of our first front-page articles to address the urgent need to deal with household waste.

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Recycling efforts in Oregon about 50 years ago. A third of U.S. household trash still ends up in landfills.Credit...Mark Jay Goebel/Getty Images

The report was based on a National Academy of Sciences study sent to Lyndon Johnson’s White House. It came as more cheap, plastic goods were entering the daily lives of Americans — and leaving as garbage.

We’ve come a long way. Today is the 20th America Recycles Day, a nonprofit initiative.

Last year, 1.9 million Americans participated, organizers said, and 63 million pounds of recyclables were collected.

But there’s much work to be done. More than half of U.S. household waste still ends up in landfills.

Sweden could show the way. In 1975, its recycling rate was about on a par with America’s today, and it stood at 51 percent last year. Only 0.7 percent of Sweden’s waste ended up in landfills last year, and the country even imports waste — to use as a source of energy.

Here are 10 tips to improve your recycling.

Patrick Boehler contributed reporting.

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A correction was made on 
Nov. 15, 2017

An earlier version of this briefing misstated the quantity of U.S. household waste that ends up in landfills. It is more than half, not a third.

How we handle corrections

Follow Chris Stanford on Twitter: @stanfordc.

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