Emissions, Impeachment, Butterball Turkey
Your Tuesday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here’s the latest. |
 | | Chet Strange for The New York Times |
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1. Thanksgiving travel might be a little complicated this year. |
More than 55 million people are expected to be heading to holiday gatherings by car or plane, and the weather isn’t going to make it easy. |
A powerful storm is cutting across the country from Colorado, above, to the Great Lakes, dropping heavy snow. And a “bomb cyclone” is blowing in from the Pacific. Hurricane-force winds are expected in some coastal areas in Northern California and Oregon. |
We’ll be following the weather developments tomorrow live on our home page. |
 | | Andrew Burton/Getty Images |
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“Deeper and faster cuts are now required” to avoid climate catastrophes by midcentury, including more intense droughts, stronger storms and widespread food insecurity. Above, a gas and oil refinery in Bismarck, N.D. |
The emissions have grown by 1.5 percent a year over the last decade, and must now decline by 7.6 percent each year until 2030, the report warned. China and the U.S., the world’s biggest polluters, were among those expanding their carbon footprints last year. |
 | | Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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The announcement came despite a judge’s ruling that another former White House aide must comply with a subpoena to appear. |
The House Judiciary Committee will hold its own public impeachment hearings next week. And the White House legal team has been invited. |
The White House hasn’t yet said whether it would participate in the hearing, set for Dec. 4, in which a panel of constitutional scholars is expected to inform the debate over whether Mr. Trump’s actions on Ukraine amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors.” |
 | | Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times |
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Democrats have largely backed public charter schools as part of a compromise to deliver black and Latino families a way out of failing district schools. But now the front-runners for the presidential nomination are siding with the teachers’ unions that oppose their expansion. |
“Why shouldn’t I have a choice?” one parent said. |
In other 2020 news, two-thirds of battleground state voters who chose Trump in 2016 but selected Democrats in the midterms say they will return to the president next year, according to recent polling by The New York Times Upshot/Siena College. |
 | | Rick Friedman/Corbis, via Getty Images |
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5. Our reporters took a deep look into the charity operation run by Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in August. Things were not as they seemed. |
A review of records provided by federal officials shows that the foundation lost its tax-exempt status in 2008, the same year Mr. Epstein, above in 2004, pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor. |
That allowed him to avoid the rigorous financial disclosures charities are supposed to file every year, and to wildly exaggerate his philanthropy. A Wikipedia entry put his foundation’s annual outlay at $200 million a year — more than 10 times its real giving over its entire existence. |
 | | Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images |
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In a study published last week in Nature Ecology and Evolution, researchers suggest that same-sex behavior is bound up in the very origins of animal sex. It hasn’t had to continually re-evolve: It’s always been there. Among macaque monkeys, above, females are known to pair off into temporary but exclusive sexual partnerships. |
“The expectation has been that same-sex sexual behavior evolved in different species independently, against this default background of heterosexual sex,” one of the study’s co-authors said. “And what we’re saying is that baseline isn’t necessarily the right baseline.” |
 | | Yael Malka for The New York Times |
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7. There are 4.5 million mom influencers in the U.S. Brands, beware. |
What began as a creative outlet or a way to build community has morphed over the years into big business as moms with influence, like Caitlin Houston, above, promote seemingly every detail of their lives on websites or social media. Their followers spend money on the items they endorse and boycott the ones they pan. |
But some have raised questions about when and how mom influencers should use their power — and how much research they should do before discussing a brand. |
 | | Cari Vander Yacht |
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8. For your reading pleasure: |
Photography books to please the eye. Travel and nature writing to transport you to faraway places. Sports tales for the superfan and the cynic. Our holiday book guide has a trove of wonderful titles to browse through and get lost with. |
 | | Universal Pictures |
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9. And for your viewing pleasure: |
In “Queen & Slim,” a lethal encounter with an aggressive white police officer changes everything for a young black man and black woman on a first date. “This movie feels like something new, and also as if it’s been around forever, waiting for its moment,” A.O. Scott writes in his review. |
Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins star in “The Two Popes,” which observes the transition from Pope Benedict to Pope Francis “with an attention to detail that produces a surprising degree of suspense,” our critic notes. |
 | | James Hosking for The New York Times |
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10. Finally, can you thaw a turkey in the dishwasher, under an electric blanket, or, um, in the pool? |
Each year from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve, 50 Butterball Turkey experts ease more than 100,000 nervous cooks through their Thanksgiving meal. They respond by phone and even through text, email or live chat to help you avoid cooking disasters. What started as a marketing gimmick 38 years ago has turned into a cornerstone of Americana. |
“People can be just paralyzed with fear,” said one turkey expert. “All they usually need is someone who takes the time to be personal and sympathetic.” |
Have a calm, cool and collected night. |
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