Your Wednesday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here's the latest. |
 | | Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times |
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1. A voting rights bill moved to the Senate for what promises to be Congress's most consequential battle over ballot access since the 1960s. |
The legislation passed the House along party lines this month but faces solid opposition from Republicans who are working to tighten access to ballot boxes and who argue that the bill is a power grab by Democrats. |
Senator Chuck Schumer, above, a Democrat and the majority leader, called voting rollbacks in the states an "existential threat to our democracy" reminiscent of Jim Crow segregationist laws and chanted, "Shame! Shame! Shame!" at the Republicans promoting them. |
Republicans shot back. "This bill is the single most dangerous bill this committee has ever considered," said Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who is a member of the Senate Rules Committee. |
 | | Rory Doyle for The New York Times |
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2. More than 40 states will offer Covid-19 vaccines to all adults by May 1, meeting or beating President Biden's deadline. About 2.5 million doses are administered across the country each day. |
One out of four Americans has received at least one vaccine dose, and about 14 percent have been fully vaccinated. Above, a drive-through vaccination site in Cleveland, Miss. |
 | | Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times |
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3. Italian authorities found about 29 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine languishing in a factory near Rome, raising suspicious about unauthorized exports and escalating tensions over Europe's sluggish rollout. |
In an effort to step up vaccinations, the European Union will soon unveil stringent export restrictions primarily meant to stop drugmakers from sending doses abroad. Above, a vaccination site in Milan. |
Separately, Chancellor Angela Merkel scrapped an unpopular plan to shut the German economy for two extra days over Easter, apologizing for what she called "a mistake." |
 | | Stephen Speranza for The New York Times |
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4. The authorities are looking for a motive, two days after the mass shooting in Boulder, Colo. The man accused of killing 10 people is set to appear in court tomorrow. |
As details emerge about the victims, the country reckons with the second mass shooting in a week. Colorado, too, squares with its own history of gun violence: Columbine and Aurora are both only about an hour's drive from the Boulder grocery store. Above, Rikki Olds, who died in the shooting. |
In Boulder this evening, people will gather for a candlelight vigil following a procession to honor the police officer who charged into the line of fire. |
 | | Jeenah Moon for The New York Times |
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5. The owners and the employees at the Atlanta spas that were attacked last week had immigrated from Asia. But their lives in the U.S. could not have been more different. |
Many of the workers scraped by on odd jobs, trying to care for children with small salaries. The owners, one a Republican donor ensconced in an exclusive country club, live in homes that cost around $1 million. Above, a memorial in front of the Gold Spa, where three people died. |
 | | Ronen Zvulun/Reuters |
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6. The results of the election in Israel point to another possible stalemate. |
With 90 percent of the votes counted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing alliance had 52 seats, while his opponents had 56 — both sides several seats short of the 61 needed to form a coalition government with a majority. Above, Mr. Netanyahu addressing supporters today. |
If those counts stand, they could prolong by months the political deadlock that has paralyzed Israel over two years (and four elections). Final results are expected on Friday. |
In other Middle East news: An enormous container ship has blocked the Suez Canal after running aground during a sandstorm. More than 100 ships were stuck at each end of the canal, which carries roughly 10 percent of worldwide shipping traffic. |
 | | The New York Times |
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7. Myanmar's protesters are mobilizing for guerrilla warfare. |
After nearly two months of a brutal crackdown by the military, students, office workers and activists have taken to the jungle to train in basic fighting techniques. Some say there is no choice but to fight the army on its own terms. Above, protesters last week threw Molotov cocktails to block the military. |
The boldness and desperation of the new front are a response to the military's ruthless tactics, with at least 275 people killed since the Feb. 1 coup. Security forces have fired at bystanders and ambulances, and tortured detainees. Dozens of young protesters have been killed by single gunshots to the head. |
"We have to attack them back," one woman said. "This sounds aggressive, but I believe we have to defend ourselves." |
 | | Andrey Armyagov/Alamy |
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8. Farmed fish are better now than ever, thanks to a vegetarian diet. (For the fish, not for the people who eat them.) |
Twenty years ago, farmed fish were fed mostly wild fish. A recent study found that a shift to plant-based feed has significantly lowered the industry's environmental footprint. Better practices have also reduced disease and pollution, though they remain an issue. Above, a salmon farm in Norway. |
The dietary change appears to have had little impact on the growth of global aquaculture production, which has tripled in the last 20 years, even as the catch of wild fish used to make fish feed and fish oil declined. That's good news for millions of small-scale fishers worldwide, and for countries that export fish. It's good news for fish eaters worldwide, too. |
 | | Alvaro Dominguez; Getty Images |
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9. You can buy this NFT about NFTs. To explain the digital craze, our colleague Kevin Roose is putting his column up for auction. (All proceeds will go to charity.). |
The market for nonfungible tokens is exploding. NFTs are digital collectibles stamped with a unique bit of code. Think baseball cards for Silicon Valley types. They could be a passing fad. Or, Kevin writes, they "could transform the way digital goods are created, consumed and traded online." Above, a lowly JPEG illustration. |
That's because an NFT is a singular digital item — it can't be deleted or counterfeited. The scarcity may give creators a way to claim authorship and represent a new way for them to eke out a living on the internet. |
In other technology news: Citigroup, one of the word's largest banks, is planning to make casual Fridays also Zoom-less Fridays in the work-from-home era. |
 | | Viktor Lyagushkin |
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10. And finally, a free diver reaches new depths. |
On a sunny Siberian day a week ago, Alexey Molchanov dived through a hole in the meter-thick ice of Lake Baikal and didn't come back until he had reached 80 meters, approximately 262 feet, the deepest ice dive yet. Above, Molchanov beneath the ice surface. |
For the past four years, Molchanov has been the undisputed best all-around free diver in the world. He came of age traveling the world, from competition to competition, with his mother, who set 41 world records and won 23 world championship titles, before she disappeared while free diving in 2015. |
"The water, free diving was the way for me to cleanse and recover," he said. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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