Your Tuesday Evening Briefing
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Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Tuesday.
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1. Congress looks set to intervene and pass legislation to avert a rail strike.
After a meeting at the White House, Republican and Democratic leaders said they agreed with President Biden that a work stoppage just days before Christmas would deal a blow to the nation’s economy.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would vote on legislation tomorrow. Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, said he was optimistic the Senate would also soon hold a vote. Perhaps as important, Senator Mitch McConnell told reporters that “we’re going to need to pass a bill,” suggesting that Republicans would not block its passage.
A rail strike could have a devastating effect on the fragile economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic. Stalled train lines would snap supply chains for commodities, and delay deliveries of consumer goods, further driving up prices.
Rail workers have said they plan to strike in early December if a deal isn’t reached. Here’s where the negotiations stand.
In other news from Washington, a jury convicted the leader of the Oath Keepers of seditious conspiracy for plotting to keep Donald Trump in power.
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2. The U.S. advanced in the World Cup after a win over Iran.
The Americans narrowly pulled out a 1-0 victory in the must-win match with a goal from their star Christian Pulisic, who was injured while making the play. The win elevated them to second place in Group B, advancing them to the round of 16 — the knockout round — a major redemption after missing the World Cup altogether in 2018. On Saturday, the U.S. will take on the Netherlands.
In other news from the World Cup, England and Senegal also advanced to the knockout round after winning their final group stage matches.
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3. China is moving to snuff out protests against Covid restrictions using intimidation and surveillance.
Chinese security officials are reacting to the country’s most widespread protests in decades by blanketing potential demonstration sites, visiting would-be protesters’ homes, and censoring social media. The government efforts appear to be working: Demonstrations this evening appeared to be smaller and more scattered.
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4. New York City will remove mentally ill people from the streets.
Mayor Eric Adams directed the police and emergency medical workers to involuntarily hospitalize people with severe, untreated mental illness who are a danger to themselves, even if they posed no risk to others, arguing the city had a “moral obligation” to help them.
The mayor’s announcement comes at a heated moment in the national debate about the role of the police, especially in dealing with people who are already in fragile mental health. Republicans and tough-on-crime Democrats like Adams, a former police captain, have argued that growing disorder calls for more aggressive measures, while left-leaning officials say that deploying the police as auxiliary social workers may do more harm than good.
In other health news, scientists are testing a new vaccine that is designed to fight every known strain of influenza.
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5. Russia’s retreat from the Kherson region is revealing evidence of possible war crimes.
Just weeks after Russia abruptly pulled its forces out of the area, Ukrainians exhumed a common grave in the village of Pravdyne. It contained the bodies of six men who had been killed, execution-style, and then buried. The revelation continues a pattern seen in other areas of Ukraine: The withdrawal of Russian forces is yielding evidence of atrocities.
Even though the Russians are gone, nearly every morning they fire shells at the city from miles away, across the Dnipro River. More than a dozen civilians have been killed in the past week.
Separately, the U.S. announced an emergency aid package of $53 million to shore up Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
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7. As Haiti descends into chaos, the Biden administration is urging allies to send in armed forces.
Since the president of Haiti was assassinated last year, conditions in the country have plunged to new and horrifying lows. Gangs regularly carry out such extreme violence that the carnage has been compared to civil war.
Fearing that the crisis could spur mass migration to the U.S. and elsewhere, some top Biden administration officials are pushing to send a multinational force to the country after the Haitian government appealed for an intervention last month. But the administration faces resistance, including from American military leaders who do not want to be drawn into a mission that would require significant time and resources.
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8. Three astronauts are en route to China’s newly completed space station.
A rocket as tall as a 20-story building roared into the night sky of the Gobi Desert, carrying the astronauts to the Tiangong space station. It is the first time a team of three astronauts already aboard the Tiangong outpost will be met by a crew arriving from Earth.
The Shenzhou 15 mission is a milestone for China’s rapidly advancing space program. The Chinese space station will now be continuously occupied, like the International Space Station, another marker laid down by China in its race to catch up with the U.S. and surpass it as the dominant power in space.
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9. “The Phantom of the Opera” delays its closing after a surge in ticket sales.
After the musical — the longest running show in Broadway history — announced in September that it would soon close, box office sales spiked: Last week was its highest-grossing week ever, bringing in $2.2 million. So, to take advantage of the elevated attention, the show is planning an eight-week extension, to April 16.
But there almost certainly won’t be another extension. “Phantom,” which had been struggling to sell enough tickets to cover its rising operating costs, occupies a theater that is set to be renovated.
In other theater news, the Museum of Broadway opened this month in Times Square, featuring objects like Patti LuPone’s “Evita” wig and a Jets jacket from “West Side Story.”
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10. And finally, 10 books you don’t want to skip.
Each year, the staff members of The New York Times Book Review narrow down the hundreds of books they read to 10 that stand out the most. This year’s list features five works of fiction and five of nonfiction.
Among the fiction picks: “Checkout 19,” by Claire-Louise Bennett, which tells the story of a young woman falling in love with language. In the nonfiction category: Fintan O’Toole provides a personal history of modern Ireland in “We Don’t Know Ourselves.”
Have a bookish evening.
Harrison Hill and James Gregg compiled photos for this briefing.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/29/briefing/rail-strike-biden-us-world-cup.html
