Omicron, Desmond Tutu, Hot Dog Vendors: Your Monday Evening Briefing
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Version 0 of 1. (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. Virus caseloads have surpassed the winter peak of early 2021 in some parts of the U.S. The highly contagious Omicron variant has sent cases skyrocketing. To minimize disruptions, the C.D.C. halved the recommended isolation period for infected Americans: It’s now five days, down from 10. The guidance comes as new infections worsen a labor shortage and force airlines to cancel thousands of flights. After widespread disruptions over the Christmas weekend, at least 2,600 more flights were canceled Monday, including about 1,000 U.S. flights. Here’s what you need to know if yours has been canceled. Some nursing homes are struggling to give residents booster shots, which show strong protection against reinfection or severe symptoms. About 50 percent of residents nationwide have received them. In international virus news, Israel has begun studying the effectiveness of a fourth dose. And France announced upcoming restrictions, as the variant sweeps Europe. 2. A 14-year-old girl was fatally shot last week in Los Angeles. Her name was Valentina Orellana-Peralta. A police officer appears to have fired the bullet that pierced the wall of a dressing room, killing her. The police had responded to multiple radio calls about an assault with a deadly weapon at a clothing store. Police also fatally shot a man, Daniel Elena Lopez, whom they said they found assaulting a woman when they arrived. The Police Department is expected to release audio from 911 calls and body camera footage, and it pledged to conduct an investigation. Separately, a Times investigation found that paid experts often exonerate police officers when people die in their custody. Many have accused the experts of slanting the science and dangerously emboldening officers to act aggressively. 3. An influential Shiite cleric is poised to lead Iraq after a court certified the results of October’s parliamentary vote. The U.S. regards the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, as a possible ally. An Iraqi nationalist, his forces once battled the Americans, who ordered him killed before deciding not to kill him. Now he is viewed as more hostile to Iran and more amenable to negotiations. The court decision upset the traditional balance of the entrenched Shiite powers that have long dominated national politics. Iran-backed Shiite Muslim militias, which lost seats and called the election fraudulent, had challenged his victory. Separately, Somalia’s president suspended the country’s prime minister amid corruption investigations, a sharp escalation in a political dispute that threatens to further destabilize the region. 4. South Africa is mourning Desmond Tutu, the cleric and anti-apartheid activist who died on Sunday at 90. Tutu remained a voice of moral conscience on social justice, gay rights and environmentalism in the decades after the system of institutionalized segregation crumbled in South Africa. His death was met with an outpouring of tributes in South Africa and from around the world. South Africa began a week of mourning today. His funeral will be held on Jan. 1 at the cathedral where Tutu, a Nobel laureate, served as the country’s first Black archbishop. 5. Is a new type of Republican rising? Winsome Sears, the incoming lieutenant governor of Virginia, is a deeply conservative Black woman and a Jamaican immigrant who supports Donald Trump. She won despite a long-shot, underfunded campaign, and she embodies a central question: Is she an outlier? Or is she the vanguard of a major political realignment, one that dissolves longtime realities of race and partisan identification? “The only way to change things is to win elections,” she told The Times. “And who better to help make that change but me? I look like the strategy.” Separately, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a candidate in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for Senate, has long dispensed dubious medical advice on his daytime show and on Fox News. 6. Global internet privacy rules are confusing. A new industry helps companies navigate them. Many of the new firms in this booming market owe their start to the European Union’s digital privacy law, passed in 2016, which pushes websites to catalog personal data and ask users to agree to being tracked online. In 2018, California passed its own law. Other states soon followed suit. The complex, fragmented regulations created a gold rush. OneTrust, a leader in the field — it helps companies add the banners asking for tracking consent — has been valued by investors at $5.3 billion. “If a business can show that they’re trustworthy and respectful and transparent in how they collect that data, guess what,” said Kabir Barday, the chief executive, “consumers provide them the data.” 7. Beef prices are soaring, and Americans are eating more meat than ever. But smaller cattle ranchers aren’t seeing profits. Instead, after years of consolidation, four meatpackers dominate the $66 billion beef cattle industry. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, their market share has increased to 85 percent today from 36 percent in the 1980s. Consumers have been suffering. This year, meat prices have climbed by one-fifth — a primary driver for the alarm over inflation — and the packers are confronting a push from the Biden administration to revive antitrust enforcement. “You’re feeding America and going broke doing it,” said Coy Young, a fifth-generation rancher who plans to sell off his herd early next year. Separately, mining the minerals needed for a green energy revolution could devastate tribal lands. As conflicts brew across the American West, the Biden administration will be forced to choose. 8. Saudi Arabia is becoming a hub for film, bankrolling new movies and hosting festivals. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is hoping to use the new entertainment industry to shake off the kingdom’s staid image. As other Arab states with richer artistic histories falter, Saudi Arabia, flush with oil money, sees an opening. But it is decades behind in building a creative class. Saudi cinemas only reopened in 2018, after a 35-year ban. The socially conservative monarchy, where alcohol is banned and the government jails dissenters, also keeps professionals at bay. Other traditions that were once banned are coming to the fore. This year, Christmas burst out of the shadows. 9. “I’ve got to be funny, and funny’s hard,” said Nicole Kidman, describing her preparations to play Lucille Ball, the star of “I Love Lucy.” But “Being the Ricardos,” a comedy-drama written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, is hardly slapstick. Kidman worked with a movement coach to capture Lucy Ricardo’s character, but she also spent months finding common ground with Ball. Like Ball, Kidman has been pigeonholed and underestimated. Like Ball, her husband has suffered from substance dependence. Like Ball, she’s wound her way through Hollywood, trying to make her mark. “Lucy’s a character — that’s not Lucille,” Kidman told The Times. “Lucille is extraordinary because she was knocked down, got back up and just doggedly kept at things.” 10. And this year’s best Metropolitan Diary. In 1976, The Times invited readers to share stories of New York: observations, anecdotes, maybe an overheard snippet. Today, the diaries live in the New York Today newsletter. (Here’s where to subscribe.) This year, five competed for the top slot. The winner: two hot dog vendors, helping each other stay warm. Have a serendipitous night. Laurence Tan 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 briefing@nytimes.com. Here are today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here. |