Your Monday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/13/briefing/stocks-hearings-crop-circle.html

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

1. U.S. stocks plummeted into bear territory.

The S&P 500 fell 3.9 percent, a drop that put it firmly into a bear market. The index is now down 21.8 percent from its Jan. 3 peak. Bear markets — when stocks fall at least 20 percent from their peaks — are rare and frequently presage recession.

Investors are nervously eyeing the Federal Reserve, which has signaled that it will probably raise interest rates by half a percentage point this week and by another half a point in July. Markets also tumbled worldwide, as high inflation and low economic growth upend the outlook for interest rates and corporate profits.

In related news, Bitcoin dropped 18 percent in the last 24 hours, reaching its lowest value since December 2020.

2. Donald Trump was “detached from reality” after the election, William Barr said in a videotaped interview to the Jan. 6 hearings.

Barr, the former attorney general, said that he had told the president repeatedly that his election fraud claims were baseless but that there was “never an indication of interest” in actual facts.

Among other takeaways from Day 2 of the hearings: Aides said Rudy Giuliani was drunk on election night and had urged Trump to claim victory and call the election stolen.

The House panel investigating the Capitol riot also said that Trump supporters donated $100 million in the week after the election to overturn results but that donors were misled. Some of the funds went to a super PAC, which gave $1 million to a foundation run by Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. In a reversal, Fox News broadcast the hearings after not doing so last week.

3. The Senate reached a rare bipartisan agreement on gun safety measures.

The proposal, which still has a long way to go before becoming law, would enhance background checks on those under 21 before they could take possession of a gun — perhaps the most significant element of the emerging measure.

The deal would make it harder for those accused of domestic violence to obtain guns and also includes federal incentives for states to enact laws to seize guns temporarily from people deemed dangerous.

In a related development, Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio signed a law that will allow teachers and other school employees in the state to carry guns with a fraction of the previously required training.

4. Russia draws closer to capturing Sievierodonetsk, a strategically important eastern city.

Russian forces have pushed Ukrainian troops from the city’s center, the Ukrainian military said. President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the battle decisive for the fate of the eastern Donbas region, and allies have warned that Sievierodonetsk could soon fall.

Pressure is mounting on the West to speed up weapons deliveries. A presidential adviser to Zelensky laid out the number of weapons that Ukraine needs to win the war.

The leaders of France, Germany and Italy are planning their first visit to Kyiv since the war began. Each supports Ukraine but has raised questions about how to bring the warring sides to serious negotiations about ending the conflict.

Russia’s oil revenues soared in spite of sanctions, reflecting windfall oil sales and surging gas prices.

5. Frightened by the war in Ukraine, Taiwan is rethinking its military strategy.

Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has jolted Taiwan into confronting the specter of a sudden attack from the island’s far larger and more powerful neighbor: China.

China’s defense minister warned yesterday that Beijing would “fight to the very end” to oppose any move toward independence for Taiwan.

Taiwan’s defenses are, by many accounts, ill-equipped and understaffed, and the country is working quickly to develop strategies that have helped Ukraine endure its invasion.

In other international news, authorities found the belongings of two men who disappeared more than a week ago in the Amazon rainforest. In Iran, officials suspect that Israel poisoned two Iranian scientists who recently died under mysterious circumstances.

6. A new study on stroke victims may help clarify the roots of addiction.

Researchers have taken a close look at the brain scans of cigarette smokers whose strokes or other injuries spontaneously helped them quit. Their findings support a recent idea that addiction lives not in one specific brain region, but in a circuit of regions linked by nerve fibers.

The research may provide a clearer target for new addiction treatments that deliver electrical pulses to the brain. Still, some experts caution that the focus shouldn’t shift entirely to the brain’s role in addiction; environmental and social factors should also be considered.

In other health news, the F.D.A. approved baricitinib, a drug that can help combat alopecia areata, or hair loss. Almost 40 percent of those taking the drug had complete or near-complete hair regrowth after 36 weeks.

7. Climate change is bad for your health.

In the past, scientists studied how intense heat affects people in extreme circumstances, like distance runners in the Sahara. Now researchers are examining how life on a broiling planet could sicken and kill ordinary people, and what can be done.

Apart from heatstroke, extreme heat can cause cardiovascular collapse and kidney failure. It damages our organs and cells, even our DNA. Its harms are multiplied in both older and younger people, and in people with conditions like high blood pressure and asthma.

In other environmental news, “vegan leather” has helped give synthetic materials an environmentalist veneer.

8. The Tony Awards celebrated Broadway’s return.

“A Strange Loop,” a scalding story about a gay, Black theater artist confronting self-doubt and societal disapproval, won best new musical.

Our theater writers and critics looked at the best and worst moments of the ceremony, which celebrated all the people who made sure the show went on again, including understudies, stage managers and Covid safety officers. The Tonys were held last night in Radio City Music Hall in New York City for the first time since June 2019.

“The Lehman Trilogy” won best new drama; here’s the complete list of winners. And here is news on the last night’s ratings.

Related: Tom Hanks plays Col. Tom Parker, a hateful manager, in Baz Luhrmann’s new biopic, “Elvis.” True to form, Hanks tried to find the “nice” in Parker, he said during an interview with The Times magazine.

9. Stephen Curry is emblematic of the Golden State Warriors’ journey from triumph to defeat and, maybe, back again.

The Warriors made it to five consecutive N.B.A. finals, winning three championships with Curry leading the charge. But in 2019, Curry broke his hand and missed all but five games, and the Warriors finished with the worst record in the league.

Now, at age 34, Curry has been busy staging a renaissance, and the Warriors are back in the finals. He scored 43 points and 10 rebounds on a sore left foot in Friday’s game against the Boston Celtics, leaving the teams tied at 2-2. Game 5 takes place tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern time in San Francisco.

And for a taste of a different game, here’s a primer on how to play chess.

10. And, finally, the work of aliens? Or just inspired by Doug and Dave?

Crop circles have fascinated people in England and across the globe since the ’80s. They’ve prompted speculation about aliens, mystic spiritual forces and secret weapons tests. Several books have explored arcane theories about the circles.

But in 1991, two British friends, David Chorley and Doug Bower, confessed they’d made over 200 of the patterns. Some believers continue to insist the circles weren’t made by humans. A new one appeared in May in Conholt, England, drawing visitors.

Have a mischievous evening.

Hannah Yoon compiled photos for this briefing.

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