Evening Briefing: House vote looms on stimulus bill

February 26, 2021

Your Friday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Jeremiah M. Bogert, Jr.

Good evening. Here's the latest.

Oliver Contreras for The New York Times

1. Democrats are scrambling to salvage a minimum wage proposal ahead of a House vote on President Biden's stimulus plan.

A day after a key Senate official ruled that a provision to increase the federal minimum wage would need to be removed from the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, Democrats were exploring how to codify their push to gradually raise the wage to $15 by 2025 without violating Senate rules.

Two new provisions under consideration: penalizing corporations that don't pay workers at least a $15 minimum wage, and imposing tax penalties on companies if any workers earn less than a certain amount.

A vote on the relief bill is expected late tonight. Unemployment benefits will begin to lapse in mid-March.

Personal income was up a remarkable 10 percent in January, but the increase was almost entirely attributable to $600 government relief checks and unemployment insurance payments. That was the biggest jump in personal income since April, which was lifted by nearly $3 trillion in government payments.

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Saudi Royal Court, via Reuters

2. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia approved the 2018 assassination of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a newly released U.S. intelligence report said.

Much of the evidence the C.I.A. used to draw its conclusion remains classified. But the report, made public by the Biden administration on Friday, details who carried out the killing and dismemberment, what Prince Mohammed knew about the operation, and how the C.I.A. concluded that he ordered it and bears responsibility for Mr. Khashoggi's death.

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While the conclusion was already widely known because of leaks last year, the document amounts to a powerful diplomatic rebuke of Prince Mohammed, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. But President Biden stopped short of penalizing the crown prince, fearing a breach with a crucial ally, officials said.

Lyndon French for The New York Times

3. Is the end of the pandemic in sight?

Scientists are optimistic, but fear one last surge of the coronavirus if Americans relax too soon. Many researchers expect a rise in infections as new variants spread. This time, however, the surge could be blunted by vaccines, and, hopefully, widespread caution.

But a warning from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that a return to normalcy may not be near. Rochelle Walensky warned impatient governors against relaxing pandemic control measures, saying that a recent steep drop in U.S. virus cases and deaths "may be stalling" and "potentially leveling off at still a very high number."

In vaccine news, Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was greenlit by F.D.A. advisers. Formal authorization could come as early as Saturday, followed by distribution within days. And Canada authorized the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not yet been authorized in the U.S. but has played a key role in Britain's rapid rollout.

New York City Office of the Mayor, via Associated Press

4. The chancellor of New York City's public school system, the nation's largest, is resigning after three years on the job.

Richard Carranza's exit follows years of tension with Mayor Bill de Blasio, and repeated clashes over desegregating schools, which reached a fever pitch in the past few weeks. He will be replaced by Meisha Porter, the Bronx superintendent, who will become the first Black woman to lead a sprawling system that educates more than a million children.

And in Albany, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo confronts one of the most perilous moments in his decade as governor, names are beginning to circulate about who may mount a viable challenge against him next year. Even Mr. de Blasio has not ruled out a run.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

5. Donald Trump will make the debut appearance of his post-presidency this weekend.

After a month of uncharacteristically operating behind the scenes from Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump will deliver the keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday. He will be part of a parade of potential 2024 candidates to address the activist crowd in Florida. Here's what to watch for.

Among the possible candidates are Senator Ted Cruz, who tried to make light of his recent trip to Cancún, Mexico, in the middle of a deadly snowstorm in Texas. "I gotta say, Orlando is awesome," he said while opening his speech on Friday. "It's not as nice as Cancún — but it's nice!"

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Celeste Sloman for The New York Times

6. Arora Akanksha, a 34-year-old auditor at the United Nations with no diplomatic experience, is making an audacious bid to shake up the organization that she says is badly in need of reform.

Ms. Arora (she uses her family name first) has declared her candidacy to be the next leader of the U.N. If she prevails, Ms. Arora, a native of India and citizen of Canada, would be the first woman to lead the organization.

"We have lost course on why we exist, what we're supposed to do," she said.

As a grandchild of people who were once refugees, she said she was acutely aware of difficult odds. But if nothing else, Ms. Arora has touched a nerve at the organization and thrown attention on the historically opaque way that its leader is picked.

She's not the only woman trying to shake up a male-dominated culture. By rising up to help oust the Tokyo Olympics chief after his sexist remarks, young women have put Japan's "old men's club" on notice.

Leigh Wells

7. As the Times Book Review celebrates its 125th anniversary, one of its critics is reviewing the review itself.

Patterns emerged as Parul Seghal delved into the archives. Books by nonwhite writers, women writers and especially L.G.B.T.Q. writers "are not written, they are not crafted — they are expelled, they are excreted, almost involuntarily," she said. "Reviewers might impute cultural importance to the work of Black writers, but aesthetic significance only rarely."

Eventually, the section became more self-reflective, critiquing a literary culture it had a powerful hand in creating. Still, the pages of the past haunted her, "the long legacies of the language in the reviews, and how they creep into the present."

Next month brings a slew of new books, including long-awaited novels from Kazuo Ishiguro and Viet Thanh Nguyen. These are the 16 new titles we're watching for.

Justin J Wee for The New York Times

8. After making movies in Rwanda, North Carolina and New York City, Lee Isaac Chung returned to the single-wide mobile home of his youth in Arkansas.

He achieved his biggest success to date. The result was the awards-season contender "Minari," a semi-autobiographical tale of growing up Korean-American in the heartland.

"I tried to put everything I could into that script," he said.

"Minari" couldn't be more American, but an outdated rule by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association means it is up for best foreign language film at the Golden Globes on Sunday. Here are our awards season columnist's projections for this year's film races at the Globes.

The New York Times

9. "Drivers License" is a runaway hit. This is how Olivia Rodrigo, a Disney star, made her No. 1 song.

The singer-songwriter and actress wrote her chart-topping first single after a good cry driving around her suburban neighborhood, not long after she got her actual license. She then got home and sat down at her piano.

In the latest installment of Diary of a Song, Rodrigo reveals how it all came together, including the tidbit that she wrote a piano transition with future fan-made TikTok videos specifically in mind.

Hasbro, via Associated Press

10. And finally, meet the new Potato Head.

Hasbro is giving its venerable toy a more gender-inclusive identity by dropping the "Mr." from its brand name and packaging, part of a growing list of toymakers who are updating or reinventing classic brands to make them more inclusive and diverse.

The Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters will retain their individual courtesy titles, but come fall, the company will introduce its new "Potato Family Pack" that will encourage children to create their own Potato Head family. The pack will come with two large potato bodies, one small potato body and 42 accessories.

Mr. Potato Head has been a signature toy for Hasbro since it was introduced in 1952.

Have a transformative weekend.

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