Evening Briefing: Biden criticizes relaxed virus rules

March 3, 2021

Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Sandra Stevenson

Good evening. Here's the latest.

Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

1. "Neanderthal thinking."

That's how President Biden criticized the governor of Texas and others who have relaxed Covid-19 restrictions. He insisted that it was a "big mistake" for people to stop wearing masks, and that they should continue with social distancing and hand washing. Above, outside an Austin bakery.

"It's critical, critical, critical, critical that they follow the science," Mr. Biden said.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, echoed Mr. Biden's remarks, her third such warning in less than a week. "So much can turn on the next few weeks," she said.

Planning to ditch your mask after you get vaccinated? Not so fast. Scientists are urging caution until we know more about whether vaccinated people can still spread the virus and about emerging virus variants.

The Biden administration also began a campaign to shore up support for the president's pledge to vaccinate the nation's teachers by the end of the month.

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Pool photo by Brendan Smialowski

2. President Biden agreed to further limit $1,400 stimulus checks, a concession to moderates whose votes he needs to push through his $1.9 trillion aid package.

Now people earning $80,000 or more — and households exceeding $160,000 — would not receive the aid.

The bill includes $350 billion to states and cities, which could help offset the sharp decline in tax revenues that many cities expect when commercial properties that have been emptied by the pandemic are assessed in the coming months.

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When will we go back to the office? Many employers are not making a decision until many workers are vaccinated. And some are making plans for "hybrid work."

Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

3. The Capitol Police are preparing for a possible plot by a militia group to assault the Capitol Building on Thursday.

The intelligence on the threat suggests that the unnamed militia appears to be inspired by the pro-Trump conspiracy theory known as QAnon, according to a senior administration official. QAnon supporters were among the mob of Trump loyalists and extremists who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Yogananda Pittman, the acting chief of the force, told lawmakers on Wednesday that in the first two months of 2021 there had been a nearly 94 percent increase in threats to members of Congress compared to the first two months of 2020.

Dado Galdieri for The New York Times

4. A coronavirus variant spreading in hard-hit Brazil may reinfect the recovered. Scientists say it's a warning for the world.

The variant has trampled one major city, Manaus, and is spreading to others, even as Brazilians toss away precautionary measures. Testing is limited; vaccinations are slow. On Tuesday, more than 1,700 Covid-19 deaths were recorded, Brazil's highest single-day toll of the pandemic.

In Germany, officials are considering extending the national 11-week lockdown set to expire next week. Regional leaders have called for loosening restrictions, despite scientists' concerns over variants.

Stephanie Keith for The New York Times

5. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York apologized but said he would not resign, in his first public appearance since three women accused him of harassment.

"It was unintentional and I truly and deeply apologize for it," he said. "I feel awful about it and frankly embarrassed by it and that's not easy to say but that's the truth."

Mr. Cuomo has had few defenders, leaving him in a moment of unparalleled weakness in his decade-long tenure in Albany.

A prominent Republican is also fending off accusations of improper behavior. A Pentagon watchdog said Ronny Jackson, who is now a Texas congressman, harassed staff and recklessly drank while serving as White House physician under both the Obama and Trump administrations.

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Sascha Steinbach/EPA, via Shutterstock

6. For the first time in Germany's postwar history, the government has placed a party represented in Parliament under observation as a potential threat to the country's democracy: the far-right Alternative for Germany.

It is among the most sweeping efforts yet to deal with the rise of far-right and neo-Nazi political movements within Western democracies. The AfD, as the party is known, has become entrenched at all levels of politics.

AfD leaders routinely accuse Muslim immigrants of being criminals, attack the press and question democratic principles. AfD officials have taken part in protests against pandemic restrictions that have at times turned violent. Some members have expressed sympathy for the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Jeremy White/The New York Times

7. A "cold blob" in the North Atlantic — possibly caused by the melting of Greenland's ice sheet — might be disrupting the Gulf Stream. The impact could be dramatic.

One arm of the powerful current functions like a giant heat pump, channeling Caribbean heat toward Canada before turning east toward the British Isles. But the cold blob seems to be weakening it, potentially tipping the delicate balance of hot and cold that has shaped climate and history on four continents. We visualized the changing Atlantic.

The consequences of this paradox — that a warming atmosphere has cooled one part of the world — could include faster sea level rise along parts of the Eastern U.S. and parts of Europe, stronger hurricanes and reduced rainfall across the Sahel, a semi-arid swath of land running the width of Africa that is already ripe for conflict.

"We're all wishing it's not true," one expert said. "Because if that happens, it's just a monstrous change."

Kevin Miyazaki for The New York Times

8. Bianca Smith used to watch entire nine-inning baseball games — as a toddler. Now she's the first Black woman to coach in professional baseball.

Her journey has been anything but easy. Her mother, who taught Smith the language of the game, died from a rare cancer in 2013, and after earning dual law and business degrees, Smith once worked eight part-time jobs at the same time. A Red Sox recruiter charged with finding diverse candidates was awed at her passion for baseball and her work ethic, saying: "We have to hire her in some capacity."

Smith is heading to Fort Myers, Fla., to start coaching minor league players at the Red Sox's spring training facility.

Some baseball players won't be making it to spring training. Because of travel restrictions, American players are stuck waiting to join their new teams in Japan.

George Kendall Warren/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

9. Five minutes to make you love tenors.

Our Culture Desk has previously collected the five minutes or so they would play to make friends fall in love with classical music, the piano, Beethoven and more. Now they've asked Rufus Wainwright, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli and others to choose opera's most passionate, golden voices.

For Bocelli, Franco Corelli's wide, vibrant voice, imbued with sentiment, "went straight to the heart."

We also took a closer look at the life and work of Thomas Wiggins, who was born into slavery and became a touring phenomenon as "Blind Tom," playing his own compositions and improvising on the piano. He reportedly made the equivalent of over $1 million a year, though most of his enormous earnings went to the man who had bought him and his mother, even after Emancipation. Wiggins is pictured around 1882.

Sally Naser/CR Wildlife Cams

10. And finally, why you might need a wildlife camera.

Wildlife cameras are essential scientific tools, used to study animal behavior and assess populations. In your garden or backyard, they might be able to answer simpler questions: Who's tunneling under the porch or eating those beans? And what's going on at the bird feeder when you're not looking?

Our garden expert talked to Sally Nasser, who oversees the wildlife cameras for The Trustees of Reservations in Massachusetts, about the best way find out what's going on outside without ever setting foot outdoors. Ms. Nasser even has a name for the nose close-ups that you get when some curious animal gets close to the camera: "Smelfies."

Have a wild night.

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

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