Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

July 28, 2020

Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Hiroko Masuike

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Pool photo by Matt McClain

1. Attorney General William Barr forcefully defended the federal response to long-running protests in Portland, Ore., telling lawmakers that city streets were under attack by violent groups.

The federal intervention has been condemned by state and city officials, but in a combative congressional hearing, Mr. Barr told the House Judiciary Committee it was necessary to prevent violence from spreading to other American cities. We fact-checked his claims.

Democrats immediately accused Mr. Barr of making political decisions to help President Trump. “You have aided and abetted the worst failings of the president,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler, the committee chairman.

Mr. Barr accused Democrats of demonizing him because he believed the Trump-Russia investigation was misguided.

From the start, federal agents demanded a role in suppressing anti-racist protests, resulting in an aggressive response that continues to escalate. The Times obtained a memo from the F.B.I., dated June 2, that called for immediate mobilization to confront protests gathering in the wake of George Floyd’s killing a week earlier.

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Eve Edelheit for The New York Times

2. President Trump called on states to reopen even as a federal report urged 21 “red zone” states to impose more restrictions.

The 21 states now in the “red zone” — from Alabama to Florida to Wisconsin — were placed there because they had more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people in the past week. Above, a testing site in Orlando, Fla. The findings in the report, dated July 26 and containing profiles of each state, were sent to state officials by the White House coronavirus task force. Read the entire report.

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Meanwhile, the second-largest teachers’ union in the U.S. said it would support strikes by its 1.7 million members to ensure their schools reopen safely. The union, the American Federation of Teachers, said strikes should be a “last resort.”

And in sports, the Miami Marlins now have 17 confirmed coronavirus cases on the team. The infections have upended the M.L.B. schedule.

Michael Dalder/Reuters

3. Germany, an early model for containing the virus, is confronting a surge.

Its top health experts urged Germans for the first time to wear masks outdoors if a distance of 1.5 meters, or about 5 feet, cannot be maintained. There have been more than 3,000 new cases reported over the past week. Above, relaxing on the embankment of the river Isar in Munich.

Researchers have long known that masks can prevent people from spreading airway germs to others, but now, experts are pointing to an array of evidence that suggests masks also protect the people wearing them. A face covering, they say, can lessen the severity of symptoms, or in some instances prevent infection entirely.

From lockdowns to testing, our Opinion team showed people from around the world the facts and figures on how America handled the virus. They were stunned.

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

4. Joe Biden unveiled the capstone to his comprehensive economic recovery plan with a focus on racial equity.

The final piece of his four-part economic agenda outlines his vision to fight systemic racism, from housing to infrastructure to supporting small businesses.

The moment offered Mr. Biden a chance to cut a sharp contrast with President Trump, who has repeatedly taken incendiary actions at a moment of national reckoning over racism and police violence. “Every instinct Trump has is to add fuel to the fire,” the former vice president said.

Mr. Biden also said he would “have a choice” on his running mate by next week.

Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

5. The Trump administration and Senate Republicans appear to be signaling that they want the census finished well ahead of schedule — as early as the end of September — pandemic or not.

Almost 40 percent of the nation’s households are still uncounted. In a surprise move, the administration last week asked the Senate Appropriations Committee to set aside $448 million in the next coronavirus relief package for a “timely” completion of the census. Experts fear political meddling.

U.S. lawmakers will have to bridge a significant policy gap to reach an agreement on a pandemic relief bill. We took a look at the differences between the House and Senate bills.

Clockwise from top left: Erik Tanner for The New York Times; Kyle Johnson for The New York Times; Jim Wilson/The New York Times; Jessica Chou for The New York Times

6. Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google will face their “big tobacco moment.”

The captains of the New Gilded Age — Sundar Pichai of Google, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook — will testify before Congress on Wednesday that their companies do not stifle competition. The four men run companies worth a total of around $4.85 trillion.

The hearing, which will be held virtually, has been compared to the 1994 congressional appearance of top executives of the seven largest American tobacco companies, who said they did not believe that cigarettes were addictive.

Our DealBook team is expecting lawmakers to hammer the four C.E.O.s. But some observers think the tech moguls already have the upper hand.

Zephyr/Science Source

7. A long-awaited blood test for Alzheimer’s may be within reach.

Scientists say such tests could be available in a few years, speeding research for treatments and providing a diagnosis for dementia patients who want to know if they have Alzheimer’s disease. The tests identified signs of the degenerative disease 20 years before memory and thinking problems were expected in people with a genetic mutation that causes Alzheimer’s.

Scientists said the blood tests were as accurate as methods that are far more expensive and invasive, like PET scans of the brain, above.

“It’s not a cure, it’s not a treatment, but you can’t treat the disease without being able to diagnose it,” one expert said. “And accurate, low-cost diagnosis is really exciting, so it’s a breakthrough.”

Mark Hill/HBO

8. And the Emmy nominees are.

HBO’s “Watchmen,” above, received 26 nominations, the most of any show. Netflix smashed the record for most nominations ever, and the Television Academy gave newcomers Disney+ and Apple TV+ their first nods. Of all the acting categories, best actress in a drama was the most star-studded.

Here’s a full list of the nominees and a roundup of snubs and surprises. The winners will be announced on Sept. 20.

Given the current crisis, should TV be celebrating itself? Our critics discuss the pandemic, the puzzling picks and oversights, and the rise of the limited series.

Van Gogh Museum

9. Vincent van Gogh died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound 130 years ago. A discovery in France could shed light on how the artist spent his final days.

Wouter van der Veen, a researcher, may have uncovered the precise location where van Gogh painted “Tree Roots,” above, thought to be the last piece he worked on. Scholars have long struggled to understand the events surrounding the gunshot wound in July 1890 that led to the artist’s death two days later.

“Tree Roots” was painted on a main road in Auvers-sur-Oise, a village north of Paris, Mr. van der Veen found, below. The tangled, gnarled tree roots and stumps can still be seen in the slope of a hill there today. The painting, he said, “is a farewell note in colors.”

Arthénon

IODP/JRSO

10. And finally, after 100 million years — it’s alive!

Scientists have revived a small population of microbes that may have spent the past 101.5 million years in a slumber under sediment — only to be roused awake in the lab. If confirmed, these microbes could be among the oldest living organisms ever found.

The microbes were discovered 20,000 feet under the South Pacific Gyre, an area known as “the deadest spot in the ocean.” To avoid disrupting the fragile cells too much, researchers replicated their home environment as best they could. That meant spending up to 10 hours a day working in a room chilled to below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Above, core samples.

“No theoretical microbiology can explain it,” one researcher said. “But we found it.”

Have an enlivening evening.

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