Evening Briefing: Biden’s plan to go electric

August 5, 2021

By Remy Tumin

Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Thursday.

President Biden drove an electric Jeep Wrangler 4Xe Rubicon around the South Lawn.Tom Brenner for The New York Times

1. President Biden rolled out a strategy for a rapid shift to electric cars — a central part of his plan to cut pollution that is heating the planet.

Biden will restore and slightly strengthen auto mileage standards to the levels that existed under Barack Obama but were weakened during the Trump administration. His administration will also draft more stringent auto pollution rules for both passenger vehicles and heavy-duty trucks.

He also signed an executive order that set a target that half of all vehicles sold in the U.S. be electric by 2030. Experts say that without a radical change to the type of vehicles Americans drive, it will be impossible for Biden to meet his pledge to substantially cut planet-warming emissions. Gasoline-powered cars and trucks are the largest single source of greenhouse gases produced in the U.S.

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A new report had concluded that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed nearly a dozen women.Pool photo by Mary Altaffer

2. The impeachment inquiry into Gov. Andrew Cuomo is nearing completion. His lawyers have been asked to submit evidence in his defense by next Friday.

The New York State Assembly will soon consider "potential articles of impeachment" against him, the chair of the committee overseeing the inquiry said. The impeachment inquiry began in March, and examined several scandals including his handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic, but was expedited this week after a report from the state attorney general's office concluded that Cuomo had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women.

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Cuomo has come to rely on a shrinking cadre of trusted advisers to guide his strategy. On Wednesday, he lost support from key labor leaders and one of his staunchest allies, Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the state's Democratic Party.

Elias Israelsen, 12, of Glastonbury, Conn., got his first Covid-19 vaccine in May.Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

3. The White House is making a new push to get students vaccinated before the start of the school year.

Worried that Covid vaccination rates among young people are lagging, the Biden administration is enlisting pediatricians to incorporate vaccination into back-to-school sports physicals and encouraging schools to host their own vaccination clinics. The initiative is part of a broader "return to school roadmap," aimed at getting students back to the classroom for in-person learning — and keeping them there.

Demand for Covid vaccines has nearly quadrupled in recent weeks in Louisiana. The rush has been driven by an explosion in new coronavirus cases — the state is averaging more than 4,300 a day, according to Times data, the highest per capita in the country.

Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for civil rights.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

4. The Justice Department announced a sweeping civil rights investigation into the Phoenix Police Department.

The investigation will examine whether the Phoenix police discriminate against minorities, use excessive force or retaliate against peaceful protesters, and will scrutinize the department's treatment of homeless people and disabled people. In 2018, more civilians were shot by the Phoenix police than by officers in any other city of its size, by far.

It is the third such inquiry that the Biden administration has opened into abuse allegations against a major police force, part of its emphasis on oversight of the country's police departments.

A firefighter saves an American flag in Greenville, Calif.Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

5. A raging wildfire tore through Greenville, Calif., last night, leaving stretches of the community unrecognizable.

The Dixie Fire, California's largest wildfire this year, has burned more than 322,000 acres and threatened communities in a region scarred by the memory of the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest in the state's history.

Forest fires have also engulfed stretches of Southern Europe, bringing a newly reopened tourism industry to a halt and forcing mass evacuations. The raging blazes drove residents from their homes in villages on the Greek mainland and islands, and across neighboring Turkey. Tourists were forced to abandon beachside destinations.

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Brianna McCain can't take a job outside the home until school and child care reopen.Leah Nash for The New York Times

6. Return to work may not be an option for some parents.

As the Delta variant spreads, many parents of young children — those under 12 who cannot yet be vaccinated — say they're unable to return to workplaces or apply for new jobs as long as there is uncertainty about when their children can safely return to full-time school or child care.

When offices finally reopen, some companies will offer workers the choice to come in just a few days a week, or not at all. But even as the hybrid workplace reduces some longstanding barriers, it could introduce another type of inequality: Bias against remote workers could become a new obstacle to making workplaces more diverse and inclusive, experts say.

Lotte Miller of Norway consoles last-place finisher Claire Michel of Belgium after the triathlon.David Goldman/Associated Press

7. The Tokyo Olympics have been a showcase for the beauty of resilience, our sports columnist writes.

Simone Biles's return to the balance beam. High jumpers agreeing to a gold medal tie. A runner who fell but still won her race. Despite all the challenges of the past year, "At least we have the athletes to revel in and learn from," Kurt Streeter writes.

Here's the latest from the Summer Games and a visual recap:

Adam Ondra, widely considered the world's best climber, was shut out of winning a medal. A single competitor knocked him from first to sixth.
U.S. men's basketball will play France on Saturday for a gold medal after defeating Australia. The U.S. baseball team will play Japan for the gold, too.
Nevin Harrison, 19, won a rare U.S. gold medal in the canoe sprint. Tokyo marks the first time women could compete in the sport.

In other sports news, Lionel Messi will not return to F.C. Barcelona, the only club he has played with since he was 13, the team announced.

Grandmaster Flash, with hand on hat, and the Furious Five in 1980.Anthony Barboza/Getty Images

8. From Sugarhill Gang to Geto Boys to Nicki Minaj, how do you capture four decades of hip-hop?

That's what "The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap" sets out to do with a new 129-song collection and boxed set that acts as a foundation, primer and master narrative of the genre's growth from 1979 to 2013. The songs were selected by an advisory committee of artists, industry figures, journalists and academics.

"To properly anthologize the genre in full is to reckon with its contradictions, its competing narratives and its inconsistencies," our music critic writes. By this measure, the set, out Aug. 20, is both "impressive" and "unavoidably flawed."

For something from the classical genre, here are five minutes that will make you love Stravinsky.

Ian McKellen in the title role of "Hamlet" at the Theater Royal in Windsor, England.Marc Brenner

9. Cue the lights: Theater is officially back.

As England's theaters welcome capacity audiences again, Ian McKellen, 82, is back in a role he first played a half-century ago: Hamlet. "I've rarely heard 'To be, or not to be' communicated as easefully as here," our reviewer writes, adding, "whether riding an exercise bike or scaling the skeletal set, McKellen is always the nimblest presence."

In New York City, patrons flashed their proof of vaccination and filled more than 1,000 seats on Wednesday night. "Pass Over" became the first play staged on Broadway since the shutdown, and is one of seven by Black writers planned this season.

A branch of research in Berkeley, Calif.Jeremy Snowden, UC Berkeley

10. And finally, a different kind of athlete.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, set out to test both the agility and decision making of wild fox squirrels. It turns out, a lot of thought goes into their leaps. Watch here.

Cognitive scientists and biomechanics experts set up a series of cameras and peanuts to test the squirrels' acrobatics and found that the animals put a high priority on a good launching branch. But they are so athletic they can land even when they misjudge the distance. In one part of the experiment, the squirrels invented parkour-like moves mid-leap to bounce against a vertical wall and adjust their speed and distance.

The scientists may have been impressed, but the subjects of the experiment — not so much. As one researcher put it: "They kind of look at us like, 'We're squirrels…'"

Have a fearless night.

David Poller compiled photos for this briefing.

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