Evening Briefing: Putin’s election meddling

March 16, 2021

Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Jeremiah M. Bogert, Jr.

Good evening. Here's the latest.

Evan Vucci/Associated Press

1. President Vladimir Putin of Russia authorized extensive efforts to interfere in the U.S. election to hurt Joe Biden's chances, according to a newly declassified intelligence report.

The report determined that Russia mounted operations to influence people close to Donald Trump, pictured with Mr. Putin in 2017. It did not name the targets but seemed to refer to Rudolph Giuliani, Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, who relentlessly pushed allegations of corruption about Mr. Biden and his family. Unlike in 2016, there were no efforts by Russia or other countries to change actual ballots, the report found.

China considered similar efforts, but concluded that such an operation would fail, the report found. The U.S. intelligence community also determined that Iran attempted to aid Mr. Biden in the final days of the election by spreading emails that falsely claimed to be from the far-right group the Proud Boys.

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Adrees Latif/Reuters

2. The U.S. expects more migrants at its southern border this year than at any time in the last two decades. Above, asylum seeking migrants in Penitas, Texas, this month.

Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, cited poverty, high levels of violence, and corruption in Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. The same factors have propelled migration to the U.S.-Mexico border for years, he said, but "the adverse conditions have continued to deteriorate."

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More than 9,400 minors arrived along the border without parents in February — a nearly threefold increase from a year ago — and President Biden has faced intensifying criticism over their treatment. Lawyers say that some were left to sleep on gym mats with foil sheets, and confined to an overcrowded tent.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration must decide what to do with Mr. Trump's incomplete border wall. Critics want it torn down; Republicans want it finished.

Virginia Mayo/Associated Press

3. The E.U.'s main drug regulator pushed back against doubts about the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

Emer Cooke, the head of the European Medicines Agency, said that regulators were still studying concerns about the possibility of rare side effects, but there was "no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions," adding that the benefits outweigh the risks.

The halting of the AstraZeneca vaccine by major European governments is weakening an already faltering rollout: No country in the E.U. is on pace to reach its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of its population by September.

Thailand, Australia and India are still using the AstraZeneca vaccine as investigations continue.

Shane Brown for The New York Times

4. The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma is facing a problem that is likely to become more commonplace across the country: plenty of vaccines, but not enough arms.

The tribe has administered more than 33,000 doses at nine vaccination sites. After vaccinating as many elderly or vulnerable members as possible, the tribe opened appointments to anyone living within its borders. But in a sign of persistent vaccine hesitancy, hundreds of slots have gone unfilled.

National polling suggests a substantial divide along partisan lines, with Republicans much more likely to say they won't get the vaccine. That presents a major challenge to a Democratic administration whose success depends on persuading Americans who did not vote for Mr. Biden to trust that the vaccines are safe, effective and necessary.

Pool photo by Eugene Hoshiko

5. The Biden administration is set for its first face-to-face encounter with Beijing later this week. Things are already tense.

On a visit to Tokyo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, above left, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin rebuked what they called "coercion" and "destabilizing actions" by China's military. Mr. Blinken is set to meet with two top Chinese officials on Thursday in Alaska.

North Korea also warned the Biden administration to "refrain from causing a stink" when Mr. Blinken and Mr. Austin visit South Korea this week.

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Bob Miller for The New York Times

6. The Times examined a failed union effort at an Amazon facility in Virginia, reconstructing the company's tactics as it confronts more labor unrest.

The internet retailer, which has historically resisted employee efforts to organize, promised to stop threatening and intimidating workers in a secret settlement five years ago. Then the pandemic re-energized workers, as Amazon employees became an essential resource for millions of Americans who relied on deliveries while stuck at home.

Now Amazon faces a new union vote at its warehouse in Bessemer, Ala. — the largest and most viable U.S. labor challenge in the company's history. Nearly 6,000 workers have until March 29 to decide whether to join.

Getty Images

7. What would you do to get on the homecoming court?

Laura Caroll, 50, and her daughter, Emily Grover, 17, were arrested on Monday and charged with conspiracy to use Ms. Carroll's school district login to help Ms. Grover get elected homecoming queen.

Ms. Carroll, an assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School near Pensacola, Fla., had gained access to students' accounts at J.M. Tate High School and cast at least 117 votes in her daughter's favor. Ms. Grover has been expelled and Ms. Carroll suspended from her job.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, a mother of a teenager in a cheerleading program was charged with cyber-harassment of three rival teenagers, after officials said she used deepfake technology to create phony images showing the girls nude, drinking alcohol or vaping.

George Etheredge for The New York Times

8. We have spent much of the past week marking a year of pain and disruption. And now for some hope: The arts are coming back this summer. Just step outside.

New York City's Public Theater said it would seek to present Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater, above, once again this summer, restarting a cherished city tradition; the Fountain Theater is about to start building a stage in a parking lot in East Hollywood; and the Austin Opera will stage "Tosca" at a Formula 1 racetrack next month.

It will be a stark departure from months past, when the most stimulation many of us had was via a different kind of cultural performance: streamed exercise classes. Peloton classes in particular, our critic-at-large Amanda Hess writes, offer a "total curation of the mind."

Philippe Ruault

9. Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal won the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honor.

The French architects are known for creating affordable new spaces by repurposing and reinventing existing structures. Put it this way: In their 34 years of putting that approach to practice, they have never demolished a building in order to construct a new one. Above, 53 low-rise apartment units in Saint-Nazaire, France.

In this month's T Magazine design issue, we also looked at Jojutla, Mexico, which became a paradigm for rural revitalization after a devastating 2017 earthquake. Also in the issue: the designer Jasper Conran's magnificent British spring garden.

Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press

10. And finally, a new piece of a very old puzzle.

The Dead Sea Scrolls contain the earliest known copies of almost every book of the Hebrew Bible. Now, Israeli researchers have unveiled dozens of newly discovered fragments from the scrolls containing biblical texts dating back nearly 2,000 years. The small parchment fragments are the first to be unearthed in archaeological excavations in the Judean Desert in about 60 years.

Experts managed to reconstruct 11 lines of text from Zechariah, including the verses, "These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates. And do not contrive evil against one another, and do not love perjury, because all those are things that I hate — declares the Lord."

Have a revelatory night.

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