Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/briefing/opec-oil-biden-florida-alec-baldwin.html

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

1. Saudi Arabia, Russia and the rest of the OPEC Plus energy cartel said they will cut oil production.

The move to reduce output by two million barrels a day was a rebuke of Western efforts to ease gas prices and punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Crude oil and gasoline prices rose after the meeting.

“This is completely not what the White House wants, and it is exactly what Russia wants,” said Bill Farren-Price, a director of macro oil and gas analysis at Enverus, a research firm. The move also puts Saudi Arabia on a diplomatic “collision course” with the United States, he said.

The production cuts could complicate plans by the E.U. to impose a price cap on Russian oil. But Saudi Arabia and Russia’s pricing power may also be weakened by falling demand in China, where the economy is slowing, and by increased production from non-OPEC nations.

In other economic news, the strength of the U.S. dollar is wreaking havoc on the markets of developing countries, including Ghana and Pakistan.

2. President Biden struck a truce as he visited hurricane-battered southwest Florida.

Hurricane Ian seemed to have briefly paused the unrelenting bluster of politics, as President Biden and Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican and a frequent critic of the president, appeared together at a news conference in the Fort Myers area.

DeSantis, who is said to be eyeing a presidential bid, has sparred with the Biden administration on a number of policy issues, including immigration. But ahead of Biden’s visit, DeSantis praised the federal response. The administration said it would fulfill Florida’s request to extend federal aid to 60 days, from 30.

“We have very different political philosophies, but we’ve worked hand in glove,” Biden said. “In dealing with this crisis, we’ve been in complete lock step.”

3. U.S. officials believe Ukrainians were behind the assassination of the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist.

American officials privately admonished Ukraine after concluding that people within the Ukrainian government authorized the car bomb attack that killed Daria Dugina in August.

U.S. officials said they took no part in the attack and would have opposed the killing had they been consulted. They also said they have been frustrated with Ukraine’s lack of transparency about its military and covert plans, especially on Russian soil, which they fear could widen the conflict.

In Ukraine, the Russian military flew a dozen self-destructing Iranian-supplied drones at a town near Kyiv. And the Kremlin said it was nationalizing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.

In other military news, American officials are planning to build a giant stockpile of weapons in Taiwan in case China blockades the island.

4. The F.B.I.’s search of Mar-a-Lago led to talk of civil war on social media.

Tweets that mentioned “civil war” soared nearly 3,000 percent in just a few hours after the search was announced, as Donald Trump’s supporters blasted the government’s raid of his Florida home as a provocation. Use of the phrase also rose sharply across other social media networks, radio and podcasts.

Experts say the bellicose talk has helped normalize the expectation of political violence, which is especially worrying as the midterms approach. A growing number of Americans are anticipating, or even welcoming, the possibility of sustained political violence, according to researchers studying extremism.

In other politics news, the relationship between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Kevin McCarthy — who would most likely succeed her if Republicans win the House — is increasingly hostile.

5. Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter is back on. Now what?

The deal could still fall apart, but our colleague Kevin Roose writes that the most likely outcome is that Musk will in fact be Twitter’s new owner, possibly as soon as this week.

But what happens next could be chaotic. Here are Kevin’s six predictions, which include a mass exodus by employees and Donald Trump’s return to the platform.

In other Musk-related news, a SpaceX rocket sent a crew of four, including a Russian astronaut, to the International Space Station.

6. South Asia’s monsoon is becoming more extreme.

For millenniums, the winds over the subcontinent have reversed every year, bringing life-giving water to nearly a quarter of humanity. But climate change is making the rainy season much harder to predict.

Monsoons have become more erratic, less dependable and more dangerous, with violent rainfall as well as worsening dry spells. If the trends continue, the consequences could be dire: Pakistan and India have been hit with devastating floods this year, potentially previewing a challenging future, particularly for farmers.

In other climate news, Uruguay is leading the way in reducing emissions without backsliding into poverty.

7. Alec Baldwin and the other producers and crew of “Rust” reached a settlement with the family of the cinematographer killed on set.

The settlement in the wrongful-death lawsuit means production of the film will continue in January, but with the widower of Halyna Hutchins as executive producer.

Hutchins was fatally shot last year as Baldwin practiced drawing an old-fashioned revolver from a shoulder holster. He had incorrectly been told the gun did not contain live ammunition.

The family had accused Baldwin and other defendants of reckless conduct and cost-cutting measures that endangered the crew. Lawyers did not disclose further details of the settlement.

8. Aaron Judge’s 62nd homer rekindles a debate over drug-assisted records.

The Yankees star broke the American League single-season home run record with a 391-foot blast against the Texas Rangers last night, passing Roger Maris’s 1961 tally in the team’s penultimate regular-season game.

But Judge remains far behind the musclebound sluggers of the so-called steroid era: Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa — complicating the discussion around the one of the sport’s most coveted records.

Either way, Judge’s season has been among the best offensive performances the M.L.B. has ever seen: Just four other players have ever held the A.L. record. The Times tracked every home run Judge hit this year and mapped his season against the sport’s greats.

9. On Yom Kippur, the streets of Israel turn into a playground for the nonobservant.

Millions of Israelis who observe the holiest day of the Jewish calendar switched off their phones, ate their last pre-fast meals and went to synagogues for the opening prayers of the fast. But for those less religiously inclined, with everything at a standstill, it’s a great time to play.

For more than a decade, Enav Levy, a veterinary nurse, and her partner and friends have taken advantage of the empty roads to bike between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. They went to the beach, where they mentally cast their misdeeds of the past year into the sea.

“You’re in the middle of civilization — but without that civilization,” Levy said. “It’s like the end of the world.”

From Cooking: Melissa Clark has suggestions for how to break your fast, involving smoked salmon and whitefish salad and homemade challah.

10. And finally, we’ve got bebop for you.

Forged in the fires of Black urban life during the postwar era, bebop has never truly gone out of fashion. It’s the foundation of jazz theory that music students around the world are taught when they learn to improvise.

We asked 10 experts to share 30-second clips of their favorite bebop tracks. Listen to them and you will get a sense of why the innovations of musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie still resonate.

Have an expressive evening.

Brent Lewis compiled photos for this briefing.

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