Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Wednesday. |
 | | Mercedes Carrera, 71, received a booster shot in Portland, Ore., earlier this month.Alisha Jucevic for The New York Times |
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1. The booster shot battle intensifies. |
Researchers in Israel reported that a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can prevent both infections and severe illness in adults older than 60 for at least 12 days, in the latest salvo of an acrimonious scientific debate over booster doses. Independent experts, including some government scientists in the U.S., were skeptical of the research, which included limited data collected over a short period. |
The regulators examined data on roughly 300 adults who received a Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot six months after their second dose and found an increased immune response. But they also found that coronavirus vaccines without boosters were holding up powerfully against severe forms of Covid-19. |
 | | Gov. Gavin Newsom at the California Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento on Tuesday.Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
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2. California Democrats nationalized the recall vote to keep Gov. Gavin Newsom in office, offering a preview of the 2022 midterm elections. |
The first-term Democratic governor kept himself in office by effectively portraying Republicans "as Trump-loving extremists," our politics reporter writes in an analysis. That's a strategy that can still prove effective when it's "executed with unrelenting discipline, an avalanche of money and an opponent who plays to type." |
In a somber victory address, Newsom warned: "Trumpism is not dead." |
 | | A British Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarine at a naval base in South Korea last month.Yonhap/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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The plan could result in Australia conducting routine sail patrols through areas of the South China Sea that Beijing now claims as its own, and reach as far north as Taiwan. |
The announcement is a major step for Australia, which until recent years has been hesitant to push back directly at core Chinese interests. American officials said Australia had committed never to arm the submarines with nuclear weapons; they would almost certainly carry conventional, submarine-launched cruise missiles, which could still alter the balance of power in the region. |
 | | National Guard members distributed ice outside a community center in New Orleans. Johnny Milano for The New York Times |
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4. The greatest killer in New Orleans wasn't Hurricane Ida's wind and rain. It was the heat. |
The widespread power failure caused by the storm left vulnerable residents in sweltering apartments for days with no air-conditioning or refrigeration. At least 10 deaths in the city have been tied to high temperatures, and experts say there are probably more. Friends of those who died are asking whether more could have been done to protect older residents before they died, often alone, in stiflingly hot homes. |
Tropical Depression Nicholas unleashed heavy rain across much of Louisiana this week, raising the risk of severe flooding in an area already battered by Ida. |
 | | "Communion is not a prize for the perfect," Pope Francis told the news media.Pool photo by Tiziana Fabi |
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5. Pope Francis weighed in on calls to deny communion to politicians like President Biden who support abortion rights. |
Separately, the Justice Department asked a federal judge yesterday to issue an order that would prevent Texas from enforcing a law that bans nearly all abortions, ratcheting up a fight between the Biden administration and the state's Republican leaders. |
 | | Simone Biles was joined by former teammates McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols.Pool photo by Saul Loeb |
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6. Simone Biles and her teammates ripped the F.B.I. |
The F.B.I. director, Christopher Wray, acknowledged the agency's mishandling of the case and apologized to the hundreds of girls and women who were abused by Nassar, the former U.S. gymnastics national team doctor. |
Biles was joined by three of her former teammates, including McKayla Maroney, who said that when she finished telling an F.B.I. agent about numerous instances of horrific abuse in 2015, the agent answered, "Is that all?" Nassar was able to molest more than 70 girls and women under the guise of medical treatment while the F.B.I. failed to act, an inspector general's report concluded. |
The agent who interviewed Maroney was fired two weeks ago. Nassar is now serving what amounts to life in prison for multiple sex crimes. |
 | | Paul Murdaugh was facing charges related to the death of a teenager before he was found shot dead.Michael M. DeWitt, Jr./Augusta Chronicle-USA TODAY NETWORK |
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7. A new twist in a series of mysteries surrounding a prominent South Carolina family. |
The police say that Alex Murdaugh, who found his wife and son shot to death in June, asked a former client to kill him this month so that his other son could collect a $10 million insurance payment. Murdaugh, a member of a powerful legal dynasty in South Carolina, survived being shot in the head. He concocted the plan after trying to stop abusing oxycodone and suffering from "massive depression," according to his lawyer. |
Murdaugh was pushed out of his family law firm a day before the shooting for misusing funds. No arrests have been made in the killings of Murdaugh's wife and son, but their deaths have fueled intense scrutiny of the family's long and tangled history in the region. |
 | | From left: Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, Jared Isaacman and Sian Proctor during a zero-gravity training flight.John Kraus/Inspiration4, via Associated Press |
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8. Heading for space: A physician assistant, a community college professor, a data engineer and a high school dropout who became a billionaire. |
This crew of four is preparing for an extraordinary launch to space tonight in a SpaceX rocket. They will orbit the planet for three days at an altitude higher than the International Space Station — a far more ambitious and risky journey than the minutes-long jaunts to the border of space by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos in July. |
The Inspiration4 mission shows that a private citizen (Jared Isaacman) with a couple hundred million dollars to spare can now essentially rent a spacecraft to circle the planet. Here's how to watch the launch at 8 p.m. Eastern from the Kennedy Space Center. |
 | | Halle Berry said directing "Bruised" let her "put my voice in the world."Adrienne Raquel for The New York Times |
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9. "I understand the trauma of life that makes one want to fight." |
Halle Berry has been a fighter her whole life, whether for movie roles or on behalf of fellow domestic-violence survivors. She thinks of herself as an underdog, and in her first film as a director, "Bruised," she has cast herself as one, too. Berry, 55, plays a humiliated mixed-martial-arts fighter desperate to stage a comeback. It is her most physically demanding role yet. |
As part of Culture's fall preview, we also looked at the rich history of the Black western, a genre that dates to decades ago, when the films were made for segregated audiences. "The Harder They Fall," with Idris Elba, Regina King and Jonathan Majors, opens a new chapter. |
 | | Benchasiri Park in Bangkok last year.Adam Dean for The New York Times |
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10. And finally, get your steps in for a longer life. |
To boost our longevity, we should probably take 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day, or exercise about 30 to 45 minutes on most days, doing sports like tennis, cycling, swimming or jogging, according to two large new studies on the relationship between physical activity and longevity. |
The two studies, which followed more than 10,000 men and women for decades, show that the right types and amounts of physical activity reduce the risk of premature death by as much as 70 percent. Doing more may marginally improve your odds of a long life but at about 10,00 steps, the benefits leveled off. |
| Bryan Denton compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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