Impeachment, Iowa, Oscars
Your Thursday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here’s the latest. |
 | | Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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1. President Trump had a lot to say. |
In his first public comments after his acquittal by the Senate, Mr. Trump turned a prayer breakfast speech and a national address into political attacks. He denounced “evil” and “corrupt” lawmakers and the “top scum” at the F.B.I. for trying to remove him from office. |
“It was leakers and liars and this should never ever happen to another president, ever,” he said. “I don’t know that other presidents would have been able to take it.” His language turned profane at points. |
House Democrats indicated they would subpoena John Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser, while Senate Republicans moved to investigate Hunter Biden for his business dealings in Ukraine. |
 | | Jordan Gale for The New York Times |
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2. The state of the Iowa mess. |
This morning, a Times analysis found that the Iowa vote counts were riddled with inconsistencies that appear unintentional, but may raise doubts about the final results |
“Enough is enough,” Tom Perez, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said on Twitter, calling on the state party to examine and “recanvass” the caucus results. The party said it would conduct an audit should a presidential campaign request it. Here’s what that might look like. |
Bernie Sanders — who is still neck and neck with Pete Buttigieg — declared victory. |
 | | Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times |
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3. The Trump administration temporarily barred New Yorkers from enrolling in Global Entry and other expedited traveler programs, escalating tensions between President Trump and his former home state. |
Federal officials said the change, effective immediately, came in response to New York’s so-called Green Light Law. The law allows undocumented residents to obtain driver’s licenses and bars immigration officials from accessing those records without a court order. Here’s what we know so far. |
A top Department of Homeland Security official warned that other state governments considering similar legislation would lose access to the travel programs. |
 | | Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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4. With the death toll from the coronavirus climbing, the authorities in Wuhan will begin rounding up infected residents and placing them in quarantine. |
Many residents, unwell and desperate for care, have been forced to go from hospital to hospital on foot, only to be turned away without being tested for the virus, let alone treated. Above, medical staff members left lunch for patients inside the quarantine zone. |
Meanwhile, the crisis is reverberating a world away in Pittsburgh, Wuhan’s “sister city” of 40 years. And a 34-year-old doctor who first raised the alarm about a dangerous virus — and was punished by the police — has died after becoming infected. |
 | | Sean Gallup/Getty Images |
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5. A buzzkill for bumblebees. Quite literally. |
According to a new study in the journal Science, hot temperatures linked to global warming are contributing to the decline of these portly pollinators, which are considered critical to the health of wild landscapes and agriculture. |
Researchers found that bumblebee populations had recently dropped by 46 percent in North America and by 17 percent across Europe, compared to a base period of 1901 to 1974. |
The biggest declines were in areas with extreme temperature spikes. |
 | | Jose Romero/National Transportation Safety Board |
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A former F.A.A. inspector who oversaw Island Express Helicopters pushed for more stringent safety practices, according to federal records. Island Express, then under a previous owner, asked the F.A.A.to have him reassigned; the agency complied. |
He told The Times that he believed the company was “trying to cut corners.” Tensions over the company’s safety culture simmered even after the company came under new management, according to people involved in the discussions. |
The cause of the crash that killed the former N.B.A. star and eight others is still unknown. |
 | | Pool photo by Sergei Ilnitsky |
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7. The astronaut Christina Koch returned to Earth today after setting records for women in space. But you should remember her for much more. |
In addition to completing the longest stay by a female astronaut in space (328 days) and participating in the first all-female spacewalk, she looked at how growing plants affects human community, the behavior of fire in space and kidney health, among a number of other accomplishments. |
 | | Seth Wenig/Assocoated Press |
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8. A deal for the Mets to sell control of the team to a hedge fund billionaire is effectively off, the M.L.B. commissioner said. |
The billionaire, Steve Cohen, had been negotiating since the middle of last year with the Wilpon family, which controls the Mets, to purchase the New York baseball team. The talks reached an impasse over an unusual provision that would allow Jeff Wilpon, above left, and his father, Fred Wilpon, above right, to remain in their roles. |
In other New York sports news, Leon Rose, an N.B.A. agent at Creative Artists Agency, will take over as the Knicks’ team president, the latest restart for the troubled franchise. |
 | | Celeste Sloman for The New York Times |
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9. “Because of the voice, they think I’m the seasoning in the show. That’s wrong. I’m a main course.” |
That’s how the actress Fran Drescher pitched herself as a sitcom star to the president of CBS in 1992. She indeed went on to be the main course, becoming American’s eccentric TV caretaker in “The Nanny.” |
Now she’s back with a new NBC sitcom, “Indebted,” about a couple who crash their kid’s married life with the news that they’re in debt. She’s also matured into a cool-aunt persona for her legions of millennial fans. “I’m kind of an influencer,” she told Amanda Hess. |
 | | François Duhamel/Universal Pictures |
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10. And finally, the Oscar winners may be … |
Do you remember the first superhero nominated for best picture or the first Hollywood couple to be nominated for Oscars in the same year? Take our quiz. |
Have a star-studded night. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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