Your Tuesday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here's the latest. |
 | | Kim Raff for The New York Times |
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1. Spring is here, and so is new outdoor mask guidance. |
Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer need to wear masks outdoors in most situations except for large gatherings, federal health officials said. The risk of the virus spreading outdoors is so low that unvaccinated individuals do not need to wear a mask if they hike, jog, bike or run alone or with a household member, the C.D.C. said. |
The agency stopped short of telling even fully vaccinated people that they could shed their masks altogether in outdoor settings. Above, a picnic in Lehi, Utah, over the weekend. |
President Biden called it a step toward getting "life in America closer to normalcy" by his target date of July 4. The U.S. is averaging around 55,000 new cases a day, a roughly 20 percent drop from two weeks ago. |
 | | Atul Loke for The New York Times |
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2. "I'm sitting in my apartment waiting to catch the disease." |
Jeffrey Gettleman, the New Delhi bureau chief for The Times, wrote a first-person account of life in the pandemic's global epicenter, talking to friends and neighbors about the fear of living amid a disease spreading so rapidly. "So many of us are scared to step outside," Gettleman writes, "like there's some toxic gas we're all afraid to breathe." |
India now records as many as 350,000 infections per day, more than any other country has since the pandemic began. Epidemiologists say the numbers will keep climbing, to 500,000 cases a day and as many as one million Indians dead from Covid-19 by August. |
 | | Erin Scott for The New York Times |
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3. President Biden is proposing an extra $80 billion for the I.R.S. to crack down on tax evasion by high earners to help fund his economic agenda. |
He plans to use the recouped tax funds on his American Families Plan, which is expected to cost at least $1.5 trillion and include programs like universal prekindergarten, federal paid leave and tax credits meant to fight poverty. Mr. Biden will detail the plan in a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. |
In other legislative news, after decades of the military failing to curb sexual assault in the armed forces, a bill that would remove commanders from their role in prosecuting sexual assault cases has bipartisan support among lawmakers and Pentagon leaders. Many have argued that having commanders in control of assault cases has prevented service members from coming forward. |
 | | Carlos Bernate for The New York Times |
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4. Lawyers for the family of Andrew Brown Jr. said a private autopsy showed that he was hit by five bullets and killed by a shot to the head. |
The new findings follow days of demands that body camera footage be made public. Family members of Mr. Brown, a Black man who was killed by sheriff's deputies in coastal North Carolina last week, and one of their lawyers were shown a 20-second snippet of his final moments on Monday. The lawyer said the video showed the "execution" of Mr. Brown, who she said was sitting inside his car with his hands "firmly on the wheel." |
 | | Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times |
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5. China plans to delay retirement — now at 50 for blue-collar female workers, 55 for white-collar female workers and 60 for most men. The idea is deeply unpopular. |
Older people say they will be cheated of their promised timelines, while younger people, above in 2018, worry that fierce competition for jobs will intensify. Workers with physically demanding jobs say they'll be worn down, left unemployed or both. |
Officials are leaving the details vague for now, but suggested that the threshold would be raised by just a few months each year. China's aging population and declining birthrate mean the labor force is shrinking. A 2019 report predicted that the country's main pension fund would run out by 2035. |
 | | Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
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6. Even California, a one-party stronghold, can be rocked by the nation's current political polarization. |
Polls show a solid majority of support for Mr. Newsom, but to stay in office he needs to keep Democratic rivals off the recall ballot and turn out his voters. |
 | | The New York Times |
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7. Blaine Wetzel made the Willows Inn on Lummi Island, 100 miles north of Seattle and reachable only by ferry, a culinary destination in an idyllic setting. Former staff members say he made it toxic. |
After a class-action lawsuit over wage theft and work conditions was settled in March, 35 former employees spoke to our reporter about faked ingredients, sexual harassment and an abusive kitchen, among them a dozen women who said that men in Mr. Wetzel's kitchen crew constantly harassed teenage workers from the island. |
Mr. Wetzel denied allegations that his kitchen failed to live up to the ideals he broadcast to the world. "If we are missing that mark in any way, we must improve," he said. |
 | | Rick Bowmer/Associated Press |
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8. With the N.B.A. playoffs starting in a few weeks, it's time for our basketball reporter's annual power rankings. |
The rash of injuries sustained by so many high-profile players, particularly on teams expected to compete for a championship, complicated his evaluations. But there was one clear choice: The Utah Jazz had to be ranked No. 1. See where your team ranks. |
 | | Molly DeCoudreaux for The New York Times |
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9. Cookpad is one of the largest cooking platforms in the world. Yet it maintains a modest profile. |
The recipes prioritize practicality and are mostly created by home cooks, whose photographs are unpolished; there are no frills or celebrity endorsements. That may explain why it has yet to catch on in the U.S., and why Cookpad has built a small but devoted audience among immigrants who feel overlooked by other American cooking websites and find a diverse, often hyper-regional selection on the app. |
 | | Jeenah Moon for The New York Times |
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10. And finally, from languishing to flourishing. |
People across the U.S. have remarked on what seems like a bumper crop for spring blooms. Here in New York City, the tulips seem more stunning than ever — vibrant, plentiful and the size of dessert plates. Have the tulips changed, or have we? |
The city parks department planted the same number of tulip bulbs as it does most years — about 110,00 citywide — and a private gardening group planted its usual 60,000 bulbs. But a snowy winter made for ideal growing conditions; the pandemic drove a home gardening craze; and a collective emotional state could be priming people to notice hopeful signs. |
"A colorful tulip sort of heightens that effect," one horticulturist said. "I know it does for me." |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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