Evening Briefing: Corporate vaccine mandates

August 2, 2021

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

Anna Watts for The New York Times

1. Big companies are requiring vaccines — with big caveats.

With the exception of the health care industry, corporate vaccine mandates tend to cover white-collar workers, not those in retail or restaurants who are less likely to be vaccinated. Walmart's new vaccination mandate, for example, doesn't cover the workers at its stores and warehouses who make up the bulk of its 1.6 million work force.

One fear is that mandates can drive away workers who are in short supply. Negotiating with unions, which are mixed on the issue, adds complexity. And along with vaccine mandates, many large companies are postponing return-to-office dates.

In other virus news, Mayor Bill de Blasio urged vaccinated New Yorkers to wear masks indoors as cases surge, but balked at a mask mandate. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a vaccine mandate for New York City transit workers.

Separately, the global vaccine program known as Covax is half a billion doses short of its goal as the Delta variant surges, with new difficulties distributing the vaccines it has obtained.

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T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

2. In a rare weekend session, the Senate finalized a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. We're combing through the 2,702-page bill for details.

The legislation includes billions of dollars to better prepare the country for global warming, in what could be the largest investment in climate resilience in American history. Amtrak would get $66 billion in new funding, which would be the largest investment in passenger rail since it was created.

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Also in the bill, a last-minute lobbying push succeeded in scaling back some of the scrutiny that cryptocurrency will face from the I.R.S.

Afghan interpreters at a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan in April.Wakil Kohsar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

3. The State Department is expanding potential refugee status to Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the war.

The action is meant to protect Afghans who worked for news outlets and other nongovernmental organizations, in addition to those who worked directly for the government or military.

The White House has been under heavy pressure to protect Afghans who worked with the U.S. as the Taliban make rapid gains against the Afghan government. The insurgents have captured more than half the country's 400-odd districts, according to some estimates, and at least 30,000 Afghans are fleeing the country each week.

A mural in honor of Jovenel Moïse in Port-au-Prince on Saturday.Victor Moriyama for The New York Times

4. Haitian officials say they received death threats for refusing to tamper with evidence in the assassination of the country's president, Jovenel Moïse.

Two court clerks and an investigative judge, who examined the bodies of Haiti's slain president and of the mercenaries who are accused of conspiring to kill him, are now in hiding with a backpack full of legal documents that could determine the outcome of the investigation.

During an interview at a safe house, the clerks described witnessing numerous procedural violations, including unknown callers and visitors who pressured them to modify witnesses' sworn statements. Experts and defense lawyers said they had never seen such systematic violations of due process in a high-profile case.

Simone Biles, center, in Tokyo.Doug Mills/The New York Times

5. Simone Biles is coming back.

After withdrawing from most of her events at the Tokyo Olympics because of mental health issues, Biles plans to compete in the balance beam final on Tuesday. On Monday, her teammate Jade Carey won gold in the floor exercise.

Soccer: The U.S. women's team fell to Canada in the semifinal, and will try to salvage a bronze medal from a frustrating Olympics.

Belarus: Kristina Timanovskaya, the sprinter who sought protection at a Tokyo airport after her nation tried to forcibly send her home, has been offered asylum in Poland.

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Lindsey Lee Lugrin, left, and Isha Mehra.Amanda Hakan for The New York Times

6. An app with an unprintable name wants to give more power to social media influencers.

Lindsey Lee Lugrin, a budding social media creator and model, was paid $1,000 for appearing in a Marc Jacobs ad campaign. But as she saw her face on billboards and internet ads, she realized she had undervalued herself, and soon became aware of other pay disparities.

In June, Lugrin and Isha Mehra, a former Facebook data scientist, introduced F*** You Pay Me. Creators can leave reviews of brands they have worked with, and share crucial information for negotiating deals. It's part of a shift in power as influencers seek more leverage in their dealings with brands.

In other business news, Square said it planned to acquire the Australian company Afterpay, which allows users to stagger the cost of their purchases. The all-stock deal — paid all at once — would value Afterpay at about $29 billion.

The Nine Elms district of London on July 25.Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

7. The basement of the Queen guitarist Brian May is a climate indicator.

After two powerful rainstorms, the cellar of his home in the London neighborhood of Kensington backed up with sewage. May placed the blame in part on wealthy residents, who for years have been building luxe multistory basements that obstruct aquifers and interfere with natural drainage.

With his homeowner's howl, May has managed to knit together the escalating threat from extreme weather, which scientists broadly agree is a manifestation of climate change, and the environmental effects of years of extravagant building projects.

In other climate news, after a scorching summer in the U.S., experts expect the drought in the West to worsen and above average temperatures to persist, but a less intense hurricane season than last year's.

In China, the death toll from recent floods rose to 302, more than tripling the previously reported total and raising questions about the full scale of the disaster.

Talia Suskauer rehearsing "The Wizard and I."Cooper Neill for The New York Times

8. The first touring Broadway show since the pandemic is "Wicked."

The show was shut down 16 months ago after touring since 2005. Now the cast and crew have reassembled in Dallas for a high-stakes reboot that starts on Tuesday, a month before Broadway itself reopens.

Touring is big business, bringing in 18.5 million attendees and a gross of $1.6 billion for the industry in its most recent full pre-pandemic season. The "Wicked" production uses 33 actors, an 18-person crew, six musicians, three stage managers, two company managers and a physical therapist, as well as the 16 dogs, one cat and three ferrets brought along for companionship.

The touring production is requiring Covid-19 vaccines for cast and crew, but not for the audience, which will be instructed to wear masks.

The Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh.Sandro di Carlo Darsa

9. The 25 most significant pieces of postwar architecture span the globe, and beyond.

The list compiled by eight experts begins with the cloistered home — joyful yet serene, vivid yet austere — that Luis Barragán built for himself in Mexico City in 1948. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe appears twice, and the iconic Sydney Opera House makes the cut.

There are buildings that no longer exist: Amanda Williams's "Color(ed) Theory," which gave condemned Chicago homes a bright splash of color before their demise. The list ends with a structure most of us will only ever see through a telescope: the International Space Station.

The Nauka module docked to the ISS.Roscosmos/via Reuters

10. And finally, a spin (and a half) on that architectural masterpiece.

The International Space Station is not designed to do back flips.

But when a newly attached Russian module named Nauka unexpectedly fired its thrusters on Thursday, the I.S.S. suddenly began to spin, making one-and-a-half revolutions before coming to a stop upside down.

The NASA flight director Zebulon Scoville — who had come in to watch Nauka dock on his day off — declared the first spacecraft emergency of his career. Crew inside the I.S.S. and on the ground used various thrusters to counteract Nauka until the misfire petered out. Scoville tweeted: "Yeehaw! That. Was. A. Day."

Have an exhilarating evening.

Lance Booth compiled photos for this briefing.

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