Your Thursday Evening Briefing
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/briefing/donald-trump-subpoena-inflation.html 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 Thursday. 1. The Jan. 6 committee voted to subpoena Donald Trump, setting up a court fight. The House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol voted unanimously to issue a subpoena to the former president to question him about his role in events that led to the violence that consumed Congress. It is unlikely, however, that lawmakers will have the chance to question Trump, who will all but certainly fight any demands in court. The committee’s hearing today, which is expected to be its final one, revealed new footage showing for the first time how Congress’s top leaders scrambled to secure support from the Trump administration or National Guard as the Capitol came under attack. The panel also showed how Trump repeatedly sought to join the crowd at the Capitol, even after his supporters had turned violent. “I think that was enough grounds for us to be alarmed,” a national security official told investigators. Separately, the Supreme Court rejected a request from Trump to intervene in the litigation over documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. And an aide to Trump was seen on video moving boxes at Mar-a-Lago after the Justice Department issued a subpoena for documents. 2. As prices continue their ascent, Social Security checks will receive a significant bump. Consumer prices climbed 8.2 percent in the year through September, far more quickly than expected. Particularly concerning, core inflation — which strips out volatile fuel and food prices — increased at its fastest pace since 1982. Federal Reserve officials are likely to sharply raise interest rates next month. Prices of food and rent remained stubbornly high, weighing on household budgets. Because of rapid inflation, the government announced that about 70 million Americans collecting Social Security will receive an 8.7 percent increase in their benefits next year, the largest raise since 1981. 3. A jury decided that the gunman in the Parkland, Fla., school shooting should be sentenced to life in prison. The jury of seven men and five women recommended that Nikolas Cruz, who carried out a massacre at his former high school four years ago, should not be condemned to death, as prosecutors requested. They said he should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole for 17 counts of first-degree murder. The jury foreman said that he and eight other jurors favored the death penalty for Cruz. But a jury must be unanimous in order to sentence someone to death in Florida. Relatives of the victims appeared horrified and baffled as they learned that Cruz would be spared. “The monster that killed them gets to live another day,” said Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter, Gina, was among the victims. 4. Two Connecticut police officers were shot dead in an apparent ambush. The officers, Dustin Demonte, 35, and Alex Hamzy, 34, were killed last night in Bristol, Conn., after what State Police said might have been a fake emergency call. When they arrived to investigate a possible domestic dispute, they were shot dead by a gunman waiting outside. A third officer, Alec Iurato, was severely wounded, and the gunman was shot dead by police. As flags across Connecticut were lowered to half-staff today, the State Police were investigating what might have led the gunman, Nicholas Brutcher, to open fire on the three officers. The authorities said that the initial 911 call might have been a “deliberate act to lure” officers to the home but did not explain what led them to that conclusion or say who fired first. 5. Russian missiles continue to pummel civilian targets in Ukraine. More than three dozen Ukrainians have died during a four-day Russian barrage, adding urgency to Ukraine’s demands for more air defense aid. Russia’s attacks have targeted civilian infrastructure, including electrical lines. One strike today left people buried under the rubble of an apartment building in Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea. In other news from the war, the E.U. is planning to bring Ukrainian soldiers to Europe for training, a significant move that highlights the bloc’s increased security cooperation. 6. President Biden is waging a global campaign against Chinese technology. The Biden administration is using its influence over global supply chains to try to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductor technologies. The effort came after intelligence revealed that China was using supercomputing to develop weapons systems and to try to crack the U.S. government’s most encrypted messaging. The administration’s concerns culminated last week in the unveiling of the most stringent controls by the U.S. government on technology exports to China in decades. But negotiations to get allies on board have been difficult. In other Chinese tech news, the U.S. is poised to block the sale of new telecommunications equipment from the Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, citing national security threats. 7. The White House believes “kinship care” can help fix the child welfare system. When children enter the foster care system, family members often step in to take care of them. But relatives are frequently given little to no guidance for the transition to child rearing. And the bureaucracy has failed to keep up with the reality that foster children do best with relatives. The Biden administration hopes to alleviate both of those problems by spending $20 billion over a decade on those families and by reimbursing states at a higher rate if they place children with family members instead of in group homes or institutions. Versions of the proposals have been included in draft legislation. In related news, child-care workers are flocking to better-paying jobs, making it harder for parents to find help. 8. When are doctors referred to by their first names? Dr. Yul Yang, a dermatologist in Arizona, noticed that many of his patients simply called him Yul, rather than Dr. Yang. He found it “kind of awkward” but wondered how widespread it was. So he and other researchers teamed up to collect data on how often patients call physicians by their first names. Some clear trends appeared. Female doctors were more than twice as likely as male doctors to be addressed by their first names; men were more likely than women to address doctors by their first names; and patients were more likely to address general practitioners by their first names than specialists. In other health news, the F.D.A. declared a nationwide shortage of Adderall, a medication used to treat A.D.H.D. 9. Young activists are climbing up walls to conserve energy. A group of parkour practitioners have made it their mission to turn off the lights left on above Paris’s shops overnight. Videos of their feats have become popular on social media, showing Spider-Man-like aerialists clinging to stone facades and balcony edges before plunging streets into darkness with the flick of an elevated switch. These so-called Lights Off operations are functional, too, as France has begun energy conservation efforts to cope with Russia’s chokehold on Europe’s gas. In other climate news, lawmakers and entrepreneurs around the world are seeking to limit food waste, which produces planet-warming gases. Also, damage from Hurricane Ian threatens to destabilize Florida’s insurance and real estate markets. 10. And finally, the nap bishop. While studying theology, Tricia Hersey realized there was only one way she could keep up with graduate school, a job, an internship and a child: napping whenever and wherever she could. Since then she created the Nap Ministry and anointed herself its Nap Bishop. Hersey urges her hundreds of thousands of followers to use time they might otherwise devote to extra work on sleeping instead. Some people who took her advice have decided to quit a job or take a sabbatical in service of their own well-being. Have a restful night. Lara Signorelli and Veronica Sanchis 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. 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