2020 Debate, Coronavirus, Ben Affleck
Your Wednesday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here’s the latest. |
 | | The New York Times |
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1. The anti-billionaire and the billionaire. The Midwestern moderates. The frenemies. All in Las Vegas. |
Tonight’s Democratic presidential debate will play host to a range of dynamics as Michael Bloomberg makes his first appearance. He is bound to face an avalanche of attacks from his rivals. The former New York City mayor’s rise in the polls has coincided with the decline of Joe Biden and the surge of Bernie Sanders. |
Elizabeth Warren has declined to swing at most of her rivals, but Mr. Bloomberg has been the exception. And this is her best opportunity to reassert herself in the primary race. |
We’re three days out from the Nevada caucuses. Is there a right way to pronounce a state’s name? Take our quiz. |
 | | Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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2. President Trump had a lot to say about his Justice Department. Again. |
Mr. Trump renewed his attacks on federal law enforcement agencies, despite pleas to stop from Attorney General William Barr. With a series of retweets, Mr. Trump appeared to embrace the suggestion that Mr. Barr “clean shop” at the department, and demanded “JUSTICE” for himself and all future presidents. |
And there were more internal shifts within the administration. Mr. Trump was expected to name Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, to be the acting director of national intelligence. |
Rod Blagojevich gave a news conference in Chicago, a day after having his sentence for corruption commuted by Mr. Trump. The former Illinois governor described himself as a “freed political prisoner.” |
 | | Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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The Japanese government said that the passengers coming ashore had tested negative for the coronavirus and were safe to ride public transit and go home to their families. But experts expressed alarm, and one specialist described the infection control measures on board as “completely chaotic.” |
The U.S., Australia, Canada and South Korea have said that the passengers they are flying home on chartered planes will face an additional two-week quarantine. Here’s the latest. |
 | | Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times |
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4. Oil and gas production may be responsible for a far larger share of the soaring levels of methane than previously known. |
Fossil-fuel emissions from human activity have been underestimated by 25 to 40 percent, researchers reported in the journal Nature. The findings add urgency to the need to rein in emissions from the fossil fuel industry, which routinely leaks or releases methane into the air intentionally. |
A Times investigation into “super emitter” sites last year revealed vast quantities of methane being released from oil wells and other energy facilities instead of being captured across the country. |
 | | Alfredo Estrella/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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There have been near-daily street protests and growing demands for incisive government action against gender-based violence over the extraordinarily brutal killings of Ingrid Escamilla, 25, and Fátima Aldrighett, 7. |
The protests present a major test for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who campaigned as a transformative figure. Critics say his response is falling short. |
“He was supposed to represent a change and it turns out that he is not,” a member of a feminist collective said. |
 | | Bobby Doherty for The New York Times |
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6. From its earliest days, Google urged employees to “act like owners” and pipe up in all manner of forums. Now it appears to be clamping down. |
Over the past year, Google scaled back opportunities for employees to grill their bosses; tried to prevent workers from discussing their labor rights with outsiders; and then, in November, fired at least four activists who had stepped forward to denounce Google’s treatment of workers and its relationships with certain customers. |
If the nation’s most sought-after workers can’t stop their employer from behaving in ways that they deplore, where does that leave the rest of us? We spoke to some of the fired activists, like Rebecca Rivers, above, for The Times Magazine’s annual Future of Work issue. |
 | | Jonathan Dyer/USA Today Sports, via Reuters |
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7. One word is hanging over baseball spring training this season: cheating. |
Echoing fellow stars like Cody Bellinger and Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, the Yankees’ cornerstone player, didn’t hold back on the Astros’ cheating-stained 2017 World Series title: “You didn’t earn it.” |
LeBron James also weighed in. “I know if someone cheated me out of winning the title and I found out about it I would be irate,” he wrote on Twitter, including an expletive. |
The anger has been building against the team and against Commissioner Rob Manfred after he decided over the weekend not to vacate the title. The illegal electronic sign-stealing came to light in a November report in The Athletic. |
 | | Magdalena Wosinska for The New York Times |
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8. “I’ve never been very risk-averse — for better or worse, obviously.” |
Ben Affleck gave a raw and vulnerable interview to our Hollywood reporter, speaking frankly about everything from addiction to his divorce from Jennifer Garner (“the biggest regret of my life”) to why he lied about that back tattoo. |
In his first all-on-him movie in four years, he plays an alcoholic high school basketball coach who blows up his marriage and lands in rehab. “Regarding ‘The Way Back,’ the benefits, to me, far outweighed the risks,” he said. “I found it very therapeutic.” |
 | | David Giral for The New York Times |
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9. Our Travel writer went to Montreal’s Nordic spas to fall in love with winter again. |
The spas she visited put the emphasis squarely on rejuvenation through intensive immersion in nature. All rely on a ritual of three main components: heat, cold and a prolonged embrace of public napping (seriously). |
 | | Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times |
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10. And finally, New Jersey proud. |
New Jersey’s official state Twitter account is like no other: With brassy quips and state-centric memes, two women behind @NJGov are trying to burnish the state’s much-maligned reputation as “the armpit of America.” That’s them above, Megan Coyne on the left, and Pearl Gabel on the right. |
“Armpit what,” read one of their tweets from last month, with a stunning video from the Jersey Shore. “Hi haters,” said another. The jabs feel authentic to both the internet and to the Garden State, while delivering information about state policies and news alerts. |
As Ms. Gabel, the digital director for the governor’s office, said: “We’re a little state with big state energy.” |
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