Your Monday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/07/briefing/midterm-elections-climate-change-egypt.html

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

1. Hours before Election Day, fears and suspicion hang over the vote.

After a campaign season filled with conspiracy theories and lies, election officials around the country are increasingly worried that they will overshadow the results. And while early voting has been largely uneventful, the signs of strain are everywhere.

A court ordered armed activists to stop patrolling drop boxes in Arizona. Tens of thousands of voter registrations are being challenged in Georgia. And voting rights groups have trained volunteers in de-escalation methods. (Follow our live coverage.)

This year’s campaigns will also be the most expensive for federal and state elections in a nonpresidential year — surpassing $16.7 billion in combined spending. Polls suggest that Republicans are favored to win the House, while the Senate remains a tossup. Our chief political analyst, Nate Cohn, outlined four possible outcomes and what each of them would signify.

2. Earth is losing “the fight of our lives,” the U.N. leader warned.

World leaders gathered today at a climate summit in Egypt to discuss the global fight against climate change. The talks, which opened with new data suggesting that the past eight years have been the warmest on record, included a speech from the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, who described the world as “on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

The biggest fault line of this year’s talks is the question of what rich, industrialized countries that account for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions owe to those bearing the brunt of climate hazards.

In other climate news, developing nations like Belize are reducing their debt by pledging to protect their natural resources.

Also, the world’s most-famous and most-visited glaciers are expected to disappear by 2050.

3. Ukraine says the Russians have made living in Kherson unbearable.

Russian forces, bearing down for a battle over the only Ukrainian regional capital they control, have cut off power to the southern region and placed mines around critical infrastructure, according to Ukrainian military officials.

The escalating tensions in Kherson have fueled speculation that a battle for the city is looming. Losing the region, which President Vladimir Putin said he had annexed for Russia, would be a deep symbolic blow for the Kremlin, and its ambition to conquer all of southern Ukraine.

In other news from the war, European governments across the ideological spectrum are maintaining support for Ukraine and tough sanctions on Russia, despite inflation and anxiety over nuclear weapons shrinking popular support.

4. A rift between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis grows ahead of midterms.

The former president and the current governor of Florida have long been seen as the two most likely candidates for the party’s presidential nomination in 2024 — competitors who shared many of the same fans. But in the final days before the midterm elections, in which Republicans are aiming to assume control of Congress, ire between Trump and DeSantis threatens to distract from their party’s successes.

The split between Trump acolytes and the more traditional elements of the Republican Party has grown evident in Greenwich, the affluent Connecticut suburb that was once home to George Bush and has historically been a moderate conservative stronghold.

In other politics news, Los Angeles is set to elect its first new mayor in nearly a decade tomorrow. Whoever wins will have an unenviable task of handling the rising frustrations over homelessness, crime and inflation.

5. China’s business class wonders if it still belongs in a system dominated by Xi Jinping.

For decades, China’s business class had an unspoken contract with the Communist Party: Let us make money and we’ll turn a blind eye to how you use your power.

Now, that tacit agreement is dissolving in front of their eyes, writes my colleague Li Yuan. Xi, China’s leader, used last month’s party congress to establish near-absolute power and make it clear that security will overtake the economy as the nation’s priority. His words jolted the Chinese business world, leaving many entrepreneurs worried that there was no longer room for them to operate freely in the country.

In other business news, chief executives are increasingly discussing the possibility of an economic slowdown. And just days after Twitter cut half of its work force, Meta is reportedly planning significant job cuts.

6. A Supreme Court case asks whether Native American tribes are racial groups or political entities.

The case, Brackeen v. Haaland, centers on a 4-year-old Navajo child who is currently living with a white couple in Texas. The couple is fighting with the Navajo Nation to adopt her and is pushing to overturn a law that says when a child who is eligible for tribal membership winds up in state foster care, the child should, whenever possible, be adopted by a tribal family.

The case could depend on whether the Supreme Court finds that tribes are racial classifications rather than political ones — a prospect that the tribes find deeply threatening. “It would put at risk every treaty, every property and political right and every power that Indian nations possess today,” said a professor of federal Indian law.

In other news from the court, the justices will soon hear arguments on a legal theory that could transform how federal elections are conducted.

7. A new college basketball season tips off tonight.

In women’s college basketball, much of the attention is on the perennial powerhouses. No. 1 South Carolina and No. 2 Stanford return with most of their top players from last year. Expect South Carolina forward Aliyah Boston, the projected No. 1 W.N.B.A. pick, and Iowa star Caitlin Clark to dominate headlines this year.

On the men’s side, several high performing 7-foot-tall players returned to campus after learning they weren’t drafted to the N.B.A. (The league currently prioritizes mobile, athletic frontcourt players over big men.) North Carolina is again No. 1 in the preseason Top 25 poll — for a record 10th time — and questions remain about the strength of several of the top-ranked teams.

8. The National Park Service has a request for visitors: Please stop licking the toads.

Officials made the plea to help protect the Sonoran desert toad, which secretes a toxin that some call the “God molecule,” a hallucinogenic so potent it is often compared to a religious experience.

It was not clear how often people have tried to lick the toads, which are found primarily in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico, but the rising interest in the experience has brought new dangers to the animal.

In other animal news, new videos show how springtails — small, flea-like invertebrates — move by launching themselves into the air, rotating up to 500 times per second and landing on their feet nearly every time.

9. Baking beautiful pies is easier than you think.

If you ever need a good centerpiece for a holiday meal, a pie is a good option. As we approach Thanksgiving, now is the perfect time to find a tasty recipe to serve to your guests — or to just eat yourself.

Luckily, my colleague Genevieve Ko has put together a collection of simple-yet-delightful pie recipes. One option: a pecan sandie pie that’s like a giant cookie in its shortbread-like crust.

10. And finally, a captivating sight for the earliest of risers.

For those who wake up especially early tomorrow, a glance at the sky could reveal an unusual sight: a deep blood red moon.

It’s not an Election Day omen, but the result of a total lunar eclipse, the last one until 2025. The phenomenon happens when the Earth and the moon line up with the sun, causing the moon to pass through Earth’s shadow. “The romantic way to look at it is that it’s kind of like seeing all the sunsets and sunrises on the Earth at one time,” said the chief scientist of the Planetary Society.

Have a cosmic night.

Bryan Denton compiled photos for this briefing.

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