Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

July 14, 2020

Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Hiroko Masuike

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Tony Luong for The New York Times

1. The Trump administration has dropped a plan that would strip international college students of their visas if their courses were entirely online.

The new regulation had prompted an immediate lawsuit from Harvard University, above, and M.I.T., and on Tuesday, the government and the universities reached a settlement, according to the judge overseeing the case.

The agreement reinstates a policy that gives students flexibility to take all their classes online and remain legally in the country with student visas.

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Zack Wittman for The New York Times

2. The Department of Health and Human Services has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send key virus information to a Washington database, alarming health experts.

From now on, the health department, and not the C.D.C., will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, how many beds and ventilators are available, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic. Above, St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla.

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Officials say the change will streamline data gathering and help allocate scarce supplies. But public health experts fear the data will be distorted for political gain.

White House officials have denied trying to undermine Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. One of the president’s closest advisers has posted a cartoon mocking Dr. Fauci.

The coronavirus has been surging through the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas border, where the festive gatherings that are so key to family life have been blamed for some of the spread. For one of our reporters, that hit very close to home.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

3. For years, historians have dismissed the idea of a Cold War between the U.S. and China. But the relationship between the superpowers is increasingly imbued with deep distrust and animosity.

The disagreements span cyberspace and outer space, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, and even the Persian Gulf. Beijing and Washington are pushing other countries to take sides. On Tuesday, Britain said it would ban the Chinese telecom giant Huawei from its 5G network.

The coronavirus pandemic has turned existing fissures into chasms that could be difficult to overcome, no matter the outcome of this year’s presidential election, our correspondents write.

Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

4. Corporate America is revealing how the pandemic has hit its bottom line.

Sales at Delta Air Lines plunged 88 percent; Wells Fargo lost $2.4 billion, its first quarterly loss in more than a decade; Citigroup reported a 73 percent drop in quarterly profit; and preparations for a potential economic shock cost JPMorgan Chase just under half of what it earned during the same period a year ago. Here’s the latest from our business desk.

There was a bit of good news overseas: Consumers in Europe are going on a shopping spree as their economies reopen, offering hope that a recovery may be taking hold.

And a gentle reminder: Tomorrow is the deadline to file your taxes. Here’s what you need to know.

September Dawn Bottoms/The New York Times

5. Our politics team is watching elections in Alabama, Maine and Texas.

The marquee contests include a Republican primary runoff for Senate in Alabama, in which President Trump is pursuing a personal vendetta. Jeff Sessions, his former attorney general, above, is facing off against Tommy Tuberville, a former college football coach and political newcomer, who has the president’s endorsement.

The results will be seen as a test of how tightly Mr. Trump retains a grip on his core supporters. Most of the polls in all three states will close at 8 p.m. Eastern. Here’s what to watch for.

Separately, Republican officials are planning to move the three nights of their Florida convention outdoors as virus cases soar in the state.

Anna Watts for The New York Times

6. A judge upended Harvey Weinstein’s $25 million civil settlement with dozens of women who had accused him of sexual misconduct, questioning its fairness and how the money would be allocated.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein refused to grant preliminary approval of the settlement and suggested the deal was misconceived. He called the $12 million in legal fees that was allotted for Mr. Weinstein and his former film company directors “obnoxious.”

The proposed deal, reached in January, doesn’t require Mr. Weinstein, pictured in February, to admit wrongdoing or make any payments to his alleged victims, instead relying on insurance coverage.

Also out of New York: Ghislaine Maxwell was denied bail by a judge who called her a flight risk. The longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein was arrested this month.

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

7. Global methane emissions reached a record high in 2017, the most recent year for which worldwide data is available, researchers said.

The surge in the potent greenhouse gas is driven by fossil fuels and agriculture, and scientists expect the increase to continue, despite the economic slowdown from the coronavirus crisis. That’s bad news for efforts to limit global warming and its grave effects. Above, a Seneca Resources shale gas well in St. Mary’s, Pa.

Separately, Joe Biden announced an ambitious $2 trillion climate plan that links clean energy with economic recovery from the pandemic and addressing racism. The plan drew praise from onetime critics.

The Autry Museum of the American West

8. Museum curators and archivists are staring down one of the most daunting challenges of their careers: chronicling 2020.

With the coronavirus pandemic, followed by economic collapse and nationwide protests demanding social justice, museums are working overtime to collect artifacts and ephemera for posterity — and they need your help. Above, a journal submitted to the Autry Museum of the American West.

Perhaps artwork from Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York could make the cut. Mr. Cuomo translated the nightmare of the pandemic into a retro political poster showing an island mountain. Our critic offered his take: “Even if your pride is as big as the Adirondack Mountains, you don’t need to exult with kitsch like this.”

9. These aerial images from Vermont are sure to put your mind at ease.

From an early morning on the Sugar Hill Reservoir in Goshen, above, to the shadow of a maple tree at the University of Vermont, Caleb Kenna shared a series of drone photographs — abstract and ethereal — in the latest installment of The World Through a Lens.

And in France, immersive art experiences are pushing the boundaries between art and entertainment. One digital exhibition company is blowing up Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” on the walls of a former submarine base and projecting artwork by Van Gogh onto the walls of a foundry, bringing fine art to a mass audience.

Natalie Sideserf

10. And finally, a feast for the eyes.

Videos of ultrarealistic cakes have made their way around social media this week, showing knives slicing into shallots, pickles, above, hands, shoes, cans and more, only to reveal that they are, in fact, actually made of cake.

The riff went even further: “You try to call for help but the phone is a cake,” one Twitter user replied. “Help arrives, but they are also cake,” replied another.

“Viral cake videos sit at the perfect nexus of ‘satisfying’ and ‘gotcha’ content,” writes Taylor Lorenz, our internet culture reporter. “Watching a sharp knife slice cleanly through what appears to be an everyday object is surprising and somehow deeply gratifying.”

Have a surprisingly delicious evening.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

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