Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

December 11, 2019

Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

By remy tumin and marcus payadue

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Pete Marovich for The New York Times

1. The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, above, testified on Capitol Hill about his report on the F.B.I.’s Russia investigation, the most searching look ever at the government’s secretive system for carrying out national-security surveillance on American soil.

Democrats focused on Mr. Horowitz’s finding that there was no evidence that mistakes in the Russia investigation were intentional or the result of political bias.

Republicans focused on his withering portrait of F.B.I. dysfunction: serious errors, omissions, and misleading statements he found in court wiretap filings.

And as one hearing concluded, another was just getting started: A House panel will debate two articles of impeachment tonight to finalize charges against President Trump. The rare evening session will give each of the 41 members of the committee a chance to argue for or against Mr. Trump’s impeachment.

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Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

2. We’re learning more details about the violent rampage in Jersey City, N.J., that left six people dead on Tuesday.

The suspects were a man and a woman who may have been involved in a killing in neighboring Bayonne, N.J. The man was linked to the Black Hebrew Israelites, which has been labeled a hate group, and had published anti-Semitic posts online.

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The two killed a police officer, officials say, then specifically targeted the kosher grocery store above, where they engaged in a long firefight with dozens of law-enforcement officers. A co-owner of the market, a rabbinical student and a store clerk were killed there, as were the attackers. Here’s the latest.

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, cited the attack in an Op-Ed defending an executive order Mr. Trump signed today that essentially defines Judaism as a race or national origin, not just a religion, under the Civil Rights Act.

Mr. Kushner stressed the need to battle bias at colleges. But the order will also expand the definition of anti-Semitism to include some anti-Israel sentiments, which critics say could be used to stifle free speech.

David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

3. Harvey Weinstein and his former studio have a tentative $25 million deal with his accusers. He won’t have to admit wrongdoing, and the money won’t come from his pocket.

He appeared at a bail hearing today, above, where his bail was doubled after concerns that he’d tampered with his ankle monitor.

More than 30 actresses and former employees whose lawsuits accuse him of offenses ranging from sexual harassment to rape would share in the payout — from insurance companies representing his former studio, the Weinstein Company.

The proposed settlement still requires court approval and a final signoff by all parties, and it won’t halt his criminal trial in early January on charges of sexual assault involving two women.

Dan Balilty for The New York Times

4. Election upheaval in two countries.

Israeli voters will head to the polls for a third time in a year because neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his chief rival, Benny Gantz, garnered enough support to form a government. The vote is tentatively set for March 2.

This time, however, Mr. Netanyahu will have to campaign as a defendant in three criminal cases.

And Brexit-weary British voters will choose their next government on Thursday. But the country’s parliamentary system has a way of throwing up surprises. Here’s what to watch for.

Yves Herman/Reuters

5. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi defended Myanmar at the International Criminal Court’s trial over the horrors against the Rohingya Muslims.

A day after the Nobel laureate and de facto civilian leader listened to testimony of atrocities — veils ripped off Rohingya girls before they were raped, babies thrown to their deaths, hundreds of villages burned — she chided outsiders for not understanding the country’s complexities and cited the problems of “cycles of intercommunal violence.”

Human rights experts have called the violence ethnic cleansing or genocide, and U.N. officials have said that Myanmar’s military leaders should be tried for the gravest crimes against humanity.

Taylor Glascock for The New York Times

6. For the first time in over a half century, more Americans are dying at home than in hospitals.

In 2017, 29.8 percent of deaths by natural causes occurred in hospitals, and 30.7 percent at home, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The gap may be small, but it had been narrowing for years, and the researchers believe dying at home will continue to become more common.

Contributing factors: a growing hospice movement and hospitals seeking to maximize revenue with quick discharges. Margaret Peterson, above, cared for her husband, who insisted on dying at home, for four years.

The shift comes with “a tremendous burden on families in the type of care they have to provide and the type they have to pay for,” one geriatric and palliative care doctor said.

Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

7. The next generation is on it.

Time named the climate activist Greta Thunberg as its person of the year, the youngest ever in the magazine’s history. The 16-year-old from Stockholm has risen to global prominence with her impassioned pleas for governments to take far-reaching action to avert climate catastrophe.

And we spent time with the next wave of American leaders: Young women who have already resolved, before some of then can vote, that one day people will vote for them.

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

8. The championship-or-bust Yankees are back.

Late Tuesday night, they jolted the off-season with the richest contract ever for a pitcher: $324 million over nine years for Gerrit Cole. He’s the overpowering ace who helped the Houston Astros eliminate them in the American League Championship Series.

Love it or hate it, baseball is better when the Yankees behave this way — as bullies of the Bronx who stop at nothing to get the best of the best, our columnist writes.

Hilary B Gayle/Lionsgate, via Associated Press

9. If the Screen Actors Guild nominations are any indication, “Parasite” and “Bombshell” (above) may do very well this awards season.

The picks are typically a bellwether for the Oscars. Here are the nominees.

And now that the Golden Globes and top critics’ groups have weighed in, our columnist assesses the top contenders. Among them are “Parasite,” Renée Zellweger for her portrayal of Judy Garland, “Marriage Story” and Netflix.

Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

10. And finally, capturing a year of decisive moments.

Times photo editors sifted through roughly 5.6 million images this year to find the perfect photographs to represent the news for our readers, whether it played out in Hong Kong, the halls of Congress, along the U.S.-Mexico border or elsewhere.

And happily, our year in pictures also captured more than violence and drama.

Have a picture-perfect night.

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