Amazon, Prince Philip, DMX: Your Friday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/briefing/amazon-prince-philip-dmx.html

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. Amazon beat back the biggest union drive in its history, dealing a crushing blow to organized labor.

Workers at a giant warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., cast 1,798 votes against forming a union while 738 were in favor, according to federal officials. In an aggressive campaign, Amazon, which has repeatedly quashed labor activism, argued that its workers had access to rewarding jobs without needing to involve a union.

Labor organizers said they would now try to resist Amazon’s practices with walkouts, protests and public relations campaigns. The strategy reflects a paradox of the labor movement: While Americans’ approval of unions is at the highest point in years, it has rarely been more difficult to unionize a large company.

2. President Biden proposed a vast expansion of federal spending, calling for a 16 percent increase on domestic programs to reverse what officials called a decade of underinvestment.

The proposed $1.52 trillion in spending, part of the federal budget, would bolster education, health research and fighting climate change. It is Mr. Biden’s first spending request to Congress and showcases his belief that expanding the federal government, not shrinking it, is crucial to economic growth and prosperity.

Mr. Biden also plans to create a commission to study whether to expand the Supreme Court, a goal of progressive Democrats.

3. “We are a kingdom united in grief and gratitude.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson led tributes to Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died at Windsor Castle outside of London. Crowds gathered at Buckingham Palace and at Windsor Castle, leaving flowers and paying their respects to a member of an institution that — despite periods of deep turmoil — still commands respect and fascination.

Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, father of Prince Charles and a staunch defender of the monarchy, was 99. Read his full obituary and have a look at his life in pictures, like the one above in 2017.

Philip will lie in rest at Windsor Castle before a funeral in St. George’s Chapel, but because of the pandemic, the ceremony will not be a state funeral and there will be no lying in state.

Our reporters are taking a close look at his life and legacy, including his long marriage to the queen, how “The Crown” changed his image, his royal upbringing and his sense of style.

4. Supplies of Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine will be extremely limited until a troubled Baltimore plant, above, gets federal approval, the White House said.

Allocations of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are set to plunge by 86 percent next week as the other two approved vaccines, made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, continue to flow out to states at high volume. California will bear the brunt of the reduction: After receiving 572,700 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week, it will get only 67,600 next week.

Meanwhile in Mississippi, tens of thousands of vaccination slots are available. Health experts say the glut of appointments exposes the large number of people who are reluctant to get inoculated and may be a harbinger for the coming weeks.

In another development, Pfizer and BioNTech requested that the Food and Drug Administration expand authorization to use their vaccine in 12- to 15-year-olds.

5. The coronavirus variant first seen in Britain is now spreading in at least 114 countries. Europe is experiencing its most devastating effects.

Despite watching the B.1.1.7 variant wallop Britain, lawmakers in continental Europe were slow to react to the more contagious and deadlier strain. That resulted in mass death and deluged hospitals in the U.K. this winter on a scale not seen earlier in the pandemic, and a third national lockdown in France. Poland’s rate of new cases has quintupled since mid-February.

India reported a daily record of 131,968 new infections in the last 24 hours as Covid-19 races out of control. The country has turned from a seeming success story to one of the world’s worst-hit places.

6. The medical examiner who performed George Floyd’s autopsy testified that drugs and heart disease were not direct causes of his death.

On the 10th day of testimony in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial, Dr. Andrew Baker, the medical examiner, said that Mr. Floyd had severe underlying heart disease, including hypertensive heart disease, but that ultimately, “the law enforcement subdual, restraint and the neck compression was just more than Mr. Floyd could take” and he ruled Mr. Floyd’s death a homicide. Here are key takeaways.

Mr. Chauvin’s lawyer emphasized the basic argument he has been advancing in the trial — that Mr. Floyd was in bad health and that it was drugs and his own resistance that killed him.

7. A volcano in the Caribbean that had been dormant for decades erupted, spewing clouds of ash. The country’s prime minister ordered a full evacuation.

La Soufrière, on the main island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, last erupted in 1979, but had started showing signs of renewed activity in late December. It moved into an “explosive state” on Friday morning, the National Emergency Management Organization said.

The pandemic could complicate evacuation efforts. Evacuees must be vaccinated before boarding the cruise ships sent to take them to safety. The nearby island nations that are planning to accept them will also require vaccinations.

8. DMX, the full-throated yet soulful rapper whose string of No. 1 albums electrified audiences and reflected his gritty past, died at 50.

He had been on life support at a New York hospital after suffering what his family called a “catastrophic cardiac arrest” a week earlier. He was born Earl Simmons, and his long struggle with drugs, the bleak circumstances of his childhood and their impact on his life consistently informed his music. Here are 10 of his essential songs.

“Even at his rowdiest and most celebrated, he was a vessel for profound pain,” our music critic writes in a remembrance. “He was a genre of one: a gruff, motivational, agitated and poignant fire-starter. Pure vigor and pure heart. A drill sergeant and a healer.”

9. You really don’t need much to enjoy wine. But a few choice items will heighten your enjoyment.

Eric Asimov, our wine critic, created this guide for aspiring wine lovers. Fair warning: It has the potential to become a money pit. But the initial investment will be small. Here’s what you’ll need: a waiter’s friend corkscrew (the one you’ve seen at restaurants); clear, stemmed glassware; a decanter; and of course, wine.

For your meal, consider Melissa Clark’s one-pan salmon with roasted sugar snap peas or one of these light and bright spring baking recipes (cue rhubarb).

10. And finally, where wild things roam.

In Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, the wild pigs might not fly, but they seem to do almost everything else: snooze in people’s pools, snuffle across the lawns, kick residents’ soccer balls and play with their dogs. Some eat from the hands of humans; they all eat from the trash.

No one quite agrees how the boars, which can top 300 pounds, entered Haifa in such high numbers (in 2019 there were 1,328 sightings). And no one can quite agree on what to do about them — some human residents are annoyed or frightened and have pressured the city’s mayor to curb the population. Still, others are charmed.

“They’re a part of our city,” one resident said, adding that bumping into one is “like seeing a squirrel.”

Have a wild weekend.

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