Your Monday Evening Briefing

(Want to get this newsletter in your inbox? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.

1. Images of apparent atrocities in a Kyiv suburb prompted outrage and calls for tougher penalties against Moscow.

While the Kremlin denied carrying out the violence, satellite imagery analyzed by The Times showed that at least 11 bodies had been lying on the street in Bucha since March 11, when Russia, by its own account, occupied the town.

Globally, China has signaled that it is not picking sides. But at home the Chinese Communist Party is pushing a campaign that paints Russia as a long-suffering victim rather than as an aggressor and that defends China’s strong ties with Moscow as vital to deter Western dominance.

Universities have organized classes to give students a “correct understanding” of the war, often highlighting Russia’s grievances with the West. Party newspapers have run columns blaming the U.S. for the conflict.

---

3. Democrats pushed to advance the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson against near-unanimous Republican opposition.

During a contentious Judiciary Committee meeting, Republican senators vehemently reiterated their opposition to Jackson, calling her a progressive activist and soft on crime.

The committee’s Republicans opposed Jackson’s nomination unanimously, deadlocking the evenly divided committee. Democrats were expected to use a special maneuver to discharge the nomination from the committee by a vote of the full Senate, where Susan Collins of Maine has been the only Republican to promise her support. That move could take place tonight, setting up a confirmation vote for later this week.

4. Falling clean energy costs have contributed to recent progress on climate change, a U.N. panel said. But there’s still far more to do, and time is short.

The body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that unless countries drastically accelerate their clean energy production, the goal of limiting global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit will most likely be out of reach by the end of this decade.

Nations would have to collectively reduce emissions by about 43 percent by 2030, far more than now expected, and stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere altogether by the early 2050s.

But the panel also offered strategies, and some optimism. More ambitious policies and price reductions in technology have given humanity a much better shot at avoiding some of the worst-case scenarios.

5. Pakistan’s Supreme Court will soon rule on the prime minister’s move to dissolve Parliament before it can vote him out of office.

The court adjourned for the day after hearing a challenge to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s efforts to stay in power. Khan blocked a no-confidence vote on Sunday that would most likely have removed him from office, plunging Pakistan into a constitutional crisis.

Many experts expect the court to overturn Khan’s actions, but the court could allow early elections to go ahead — giving Khan more time to rally support.

Khan, a former cricket star who came to power on a nationalist platform, has seen his popularity drop as inflation has surged. He has repeatedly asserted that the opposition is working with the U.S. to remove him from power.

6. For Americans with diabetes, the pandemic has been especially deadly.

After older people and nursing home residents, perhaps no group has been harder hit by the coronavirus. Recent studies suggest that 30 to 40 percent of all Covid deaths in the U.S. have occurred among people with diabetes.

Those with the disease — 34 million Americans, or 13 percent of all adults — are especially at risk of severe Covid because diabetes impairs the immune system, and many have other underlying conditions. Experts are hoping for renewed attention to the disease, which annually claims 100,000 lives and soaks up one in four health care dollars spent.

In other pandemic news, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said that she would not seek a second term, after a devastating outbreak capped a tenure marked by protests and a national security law that silenced a once-vibrant civil society.

7. A once-famous Georgia restaurant has a racist history. Its community is divided over how, and whether, to preserve its legacy.

Aunt Fanny’s Cabin in Smyrna, Ga., closed 30 years ago and was known as much for its Southern menu as for its depiction of plantation life and racist imagery. White patrons were served by young Black waiters with yoke-like wooden menu boards hung around their necks.

Now, the little white cabin has become the center of an unlikely debate about how a Southern community can move on without forgetting its history.

City officials recently proposed tearing the building down. But some locals, including several Black residents, argued it should be preserved as a way to remember its shameful past or, at least, commemorate the eponymous Fanny Williams, a Black cook who worked for the white family that owned the business.

---

8. At the Grammys, the young succeed most when they seem old.

Last night in Las Vegas, at the 64th annual Grammy Awards — an event largely celebrating the youth-chasing pop music industry — history-minded performers were featured prominently, the Times critic Jon Caramanica writes. Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, performing as Silk Sonic, nailed the yesteryear aesthetic despite being only 36. And Jon Batiste, the 35-year-old who won album of the year, brought his New Orleans heritage to a performance that channeled second-line funk, classic soul and just the faintest touch of hip-hop.

However, if the event continues to alienate its young titans, its attempts to honor the music will consistently fall flat. Among the no-shows: Tyler, the Creator, who won best rap album, as well as Drake, Cardi B and Taylor Swift.

For more highlights, here are the show’s best and worst moments, a complete list of winners and photographs of the night’s fashion choices.

---

Tonight, North Carolina will play Kansas at the Superdome in New Orleans for the men’s championship title. Here’s what to expect.

---

10. And finally, a photographer captures the transfixing beauty of starling murmurations.

Each spring and autumn, the skies in southern Denmark come to life with swirling displays of hundreds of thousands of European starlings, an event known locally as “sort sol,” or “black sun.” As the birds pass through on their seasonal migrations, they cast shadows across the skies.

There is no definitive explanation for why starlings murmurate, though most scientists theorize that the behavior helps protect the birds from predators. The patterns captured the eye of Søren Solkær, a photographer who grew up in Denmark and spent years following the birds around Europe and capturing images of their movements.

Have a breathtaking night.

---

Sarah Hughes compiled photos for this briefing.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Want to catch up on past briefings? You can browse them here.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at [email protected].

Here are today’s Mini Crossword, Spelling Bee and Wordle. If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here.