Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

August 19, 2020

Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Merrill D. Oliver

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

1. Local Chinese officials hid the coronavirus’s dangers from Beijing in January, U.S. agencies found, adding to evidence that secrecy fueled the spread.

For months, Trump administration officials have been blaming Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party for letting the virus spread out of control from its start in Wuhan, above. But a new U.S. intelligence report concludes that top officials in Beijing were in the dark in early January and that it was local officials in Wuhan and in Hubei Province who tried to hide information from central leadership.

The internal report, a consensus of the C.I.A. and other agencies, could lead to a shift in U.S. policy on China and the virus’s timeline.

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Erin Schaff/The New York Times

2. Emergency approval to use blood plasma on virus patients is on hold after federal officials intervened, saying the data on treatment was too weak.

Donated by people who have survived Covid-19, antibody-rich plasma is considered safe and is in large clinical trials. President Trump has hailed it as a “beautiful ingredient” in the veins of people who have survived the disease. But so far, proof of its efficacy isn’t there. Above, Javier Alvarez donating his plasma at Houston Methodist Hospital in July.

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Separately, a fishing vessel that left Seattle in May returned with an unexpected catch: the first direct evidence in humans that antibodies to the coronavirus can thwart infection.

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

3. Former President Barack Obama returns to the national stage tonight with almost as much at stake as his party’s presidential nominee.

A win for Joe Biden would be a chance to redeem a legacy that President Trump has methodically dismantled and “prove to history that Mr. Trump’s election was an anomaly, not a permanent repudiation,” our chief White House correspondent writes.

Mr. Obama will speak in the final hour of the Democratic National Convention, after Kamala Harris accepts her nomination as the vice-presidential candidate. The night kicks off at 9 p.m. Eastern time with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Hillary Clinton, who will be making a bittersweet return.

At the convention’s midpoint, our reporters see a liberal and diverse party that’s led by older moderates. The official Democratic platform approved last night reinforces the divisions among the two factions.

Here’s a recap of last night, including the official roll call — a travelogue of American diversity and comeback squid.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

4. Wildfires are tearing through Northern California.

More than 367 new fires were caused by an extraordinary number of lightening strikes, about 10,849 over the past 72 hours, a fire official said. More than 300,000 acres are ablaze.

Firefighters are battling three groups of fires that have forced thousands of people to flee. The LNU Lightening Complex, above, covers 46,225 acres in Napa, Sonoma and Solano Counties — an area larger than Washington, D.C. See what photographers are capturing on the ground.

Separately, thousands of people in Cedar Rapids are unable to return to their homes after devastating winds tore through Iowa.

Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

5. President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has tackled the coronavirus much as he has other internal threats to his rule: by deploying his repressive security apparatus against it.

His government is corralling thousands of Venezuelans in makeshift containment centers out of fear that they may be infected; officials are labeling people who may have come into contact with the virus as “bioterrorists.” Doctors and experts have been detained and intimidated for questioning the president’s policies on the virus.

And in South Africa, government efforts at delivering relief have floundered amid widespread allegations of fraud and mismanagement. The country now has the fifth-highest infection rate in the world and the highest official caseload on the continent.

Octavio Jones for The New York Times

6. Florida’s governor likens reopening schools to a military operation.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered all schools to offer in-person instruction by the end of the month, arguing that the benefits of opening outweigh the health risks in most of the state. Faced with reluctance by local school officials last week, he compared bringing back in-person learning to the campaign to get Osama bin Laden. Above, MacFarlane Park Elementary in Tampa, Fla., this week.

Just one in seven parents said their children would be returning to school full time this fall, according to a new survey. For most children, remote school requires hands-on help from an adult at home. Yet only one in five families will have any sort of in-person help, the survey finds. Parents are feeling stressed and stranded.

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7. Where are Americans opening their wallets? The answer raises questions about the economic recovery.

Despite eased restrictions, people are still avoiding malls, restaurants and other businesses. Through the end of last week, daily visits to businesses were down 20 percent from last year, according to a Times analysis of foot traffic data from more than 15 million smartphones. These charts explain the national trend, which could reshape American commerce.

Big box stores, though, are way up. Target, Walmart, Home Depot and Wayfair — all of them offering one-stop shopping, both in person and online — are seeing giant leaps in sales.

And big tech is just getting bigger. The dominance of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook on the stock market is propelled by their unprecedented encroachment into our lives, which has only deepened. Apple became the first U.S. company to reach $2 trillion in value, capping a staggering ascent.

Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times

8. Italy wants its tourists back — but only if they behave.

The pandemic has left Italy starving for tourists this year, but after incidents like an unauthorized dip in the Grand Canal in Venice and an unfortunate toe mishap involving a plaster statue at a museum in northern Italy, Italians say visitors should not feel free to behave badly. Above, a relatively calm Piazza San Marco in Venice in June.

Speaking of traveling, do you have dreams of being a digital nomad? Several countries with fragile tourist economies have started to offer visas that allow foreign nationals to live and work for a period of at least six months.

Pool photo by Ashley Landis

9. Damian Lillard, a point guard for the Portland Trailblazers, has made the N.B.A.’s bubble at Walt Disney World into his personal stage.

Lillard’s theatrics — including a 30-foot jumper and a 3-pointer from 36 feet over the top of the Lakers’ Anthony Davis — combined for 34 points and 5 assists in the Trailblazers’ 100-93 victory over Los Angeles in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series.

It was a wild day for the league: For the first time since 2003, both No. 1 seeds lost their opening playoff games. The Milwaukee Bucks, the top in the East, lost to the Orlando Magic.

The eight teams that did not qualify to compete in the bubble can create similar campuses and host voluntary workouts, the league and its players’ union said.

Ali Slagle

10. And finally, dinner is served.

“Pasta is anytime food,” writes Ali Slagle, a Food contributor. “Any mood, any season, it’s usually a good idea.” We couldn’t agree more.

But babysitting a pot of bubbling sauce is hardly ideal in the summer heat, so Ali came up with 10 no-cook pasta sauces.

Sun-ripened produce, whether tomato, peas, corn or zucchini, lends itself to this treatment. Tossed with hot noodles and pasta water, the vegetables stay crisp, while the cheese melts.

Bon appétit!

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

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What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.

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