Your Monday Evening Briefing

February 24, 2020

Your Monday Evening Briefing

By victoria shannon and hiroko masuike

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock

1. Stocks plummeted around the world as the coronavirus began to expand more rapidly outside of China.

Outbreaks in Europe and in South Korea forced investors to reconsider the threat the virus poses to global economies. The S&P 500 fell more than 3.3 percent, its biggest daily decline since February 2018.

Italy locked down 50,000 people in 10 northern towns to contain Europe’s first major coronavirus outbreak, as fears grew that it could spread across the continent. The World Health Organization warned that the world was not ready for a pandemic, even as it praised China’s aggressive efforts to wrest the virus under control.

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Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

2. A jury convicted Harvey Weinstein of felony sex crime and rape.

Dozens of women had come forward with allegations against Mr. Weinstein, igniting the #MeToo movement and ending his reign as one of the most influential producers in Hollywood. For many, the trial was a crucial test in the effort to hold powerful men accountable.

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But the New York jury acquitted Mr. Weinstein of the most serious charges against him, predatory sexual assault. Mr. Weinstein appeared unmoved as the verdict was read, and he now faces five to 29 years in jail.

Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

3. The road to Super Tuesday.

The Democratic race is entering a critical nine-day stretch that could effectively determine the nomination, with the future of multiple candidates riding on the next televised debate on Tuesday, the South Carolina primary on Saturday and next week’s Super Tuesday contests.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who emerged from the first three votes as a front-runner, enters this phase with two assets: the aura of success and an opposition that remains split among numerous other candidates.

None of Mr. Sanders’s rivals has shown an ability to build a diverse coalition of voters, which would be crucial to beating him, though none appeared intent on quitting anytime soon, either.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

4. “America loves India,” President Trump said at a rally in a 110,000-seat cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, India.

The event kicked off a two-day visit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that also included a stop at the Taj Mahal, above, and a state banquet in New Delhi. It illustrated the populist bond between the two men, even as critics have accused both of undermining democratic traditions by demonizing immigrants and trying to suppress media freedoms.

In many countries, Mr. Trump is more apt to draw protesters than admirers. But he is popular in India, one of only a half-dozen nations where the Pew Research Center found a majority expressed confidence in him to handle world affairs.

Kamil Krzaczynski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

5. Legal immigration in the U.S. has fallen more than 11 percent, and a steeper drop is looming.

Mr. Trump’s immigration policies are delivering on his longstanding goal: The number of people who obtained lawful permanent residence declined to 940,877 in the 2018 fiscal year from 1,063,289 two years earlier, according to an analysis of government data.

An expansion of Mr. Trump’s travel ban and public-assistance tests on green card applicants took effect Monday. Around two-thirds of those who obtained permanent legal status from 2012 to 2016 could be blocked under the tests, a study showed. Above, members of Myanmar’s Rohingya community studied English in Chicago earlier this month.

Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times

6. “I’m here because I love Kobe.”

That was Beyoncé, speaking at a public memorial for the Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna at the Staples Center on Monday. They were killed, along with seven others, in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, Calif., a month ago.

Some 20,000 fans, athletes and celebrities attended, including Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan. In a tearful speech, Jordan, above, said he took “great pride” in the relationship they had built. “When Kobe Bryant died,” he said, “a piece of me died.”

NASA

7. In memoriam, a long-unsung hero of the space race.

With little more than a pencil and a slide rule, Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectories that in 1969 let Apollo 11 land on the moon and return to Earth. She died at 101 on Monday at a retirement home in Newport News, Va.

Throughout her NASA career, almost no one knew her name, nor her life of segregation, both as an African-American and as a woman. The story of Mrs. Johnson and the agency’s other black female mathematicians was told in the 2016 film “Hidden Figures.”

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

8. Got milk? You don’t need it.

Our columnist, the pediatrics professor Aaron Carroll, argues that there’s not a good health reason to drink any beverage other than water after the age of 2. That goes for milk, juice and more.

Dr. Carroll begs to differ with an advisory committee’s recommendation that for kids, dairy milk is “recommended” and juice should be limited instead of avoided. After the first two years, he says, milk doesn’t offer anything your child can’t get from other foods, and juice is almost always loaded with sugar.

Elliot Ross for The New York Times

9. Kanye, out West.

The snowcapped forests and mountains near Cody, Wyo., attract plenty of people with money: Bill Gates and the financier Herbert Allen have ranches in those parts, and Warren Buffett is a frequent visitor.

But these men often slip in and out of the area unseen. Not so Cody’s latest celeb: Kanye West. Since buying a nearby ranch, above, he’s become an everyday presence in the tightly connected town of about 10,000 people. You can find him at the McDonald’s, the Best Western, the Boot Barn and the Cody Steakhouse.

Now, he’s got big plans for expanding his business in Cody. The townsfolk are waiting to see what develops.

Irene Rinaldi

10. Call it the “L.A. hug.”

Our reporter, a New Yorker, has discovered that in the land of sunshine, heart chakras and alternative milks, a hug is the new handshake.

One transplant said embraces have become such a common part of his interactions in Los Angeles that “at a certain point you just go with it.” And it’s not always a quick squeeze. “Some people you hug and you end up having a conversation in there,” another transplant said.

Have a groovy evening.

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