Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Wednesday. |
 | | President Biden promoted his economic proposals in Kearny, N.J., on Monday.Al Drago for The New York Times |
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1. White House officials and Democratic lawmakers are racing to resolve key disagreements on their social spending bill. |
Working against a self-imposed deadline of Thursday, when President Biden heads to Europe, some lawmakers signaled they may not be able to agree on a framework by the end of the day. Broad agreement has been reached on extending the child tax credit, granting universal access to prekindergarten and expanding financial assistance for child care, home health care, worker training and housing. |
Senate Democrats' plan to tax billionaires to pay for their agenda hit a major snag after Manchin denounced it as divisive. In the House, Representative Pramila Jayapal said that liberals must see the legislative text of the social-policy and revenue bill before they vote for a separate $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. |
 | | Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in September.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times |
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2. A Chinese test of a hypersonic missile was "very close" to a "Sputnik moment" for the U.S., the top American general said. |
His remarks confirmed how the weapon took American officials by surprise. The test was a "very significant technological event," Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. |
Two tests took place this summer, conducted in a fashion that would be highly visible to satellites, but the U.S. said nothing about it. Hypersonic missiles can quickly maneuver and alter course, making them virtually impossible for existing U.S. defenses to intercept. |
 | | Aspen Pharmacare in South Africa plans to apply for a license to make Merck's Covid-19 pill.Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters |
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3. Merck granted a royalty-free license for its promising Covid-19 pill to a U.N.-backed nonprofit. |
The deal with the Medicines Patent Pool would allow companies in 105 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, to sublicense the formulation for the antiviral pill. It can be manufactured and sold cheaply in poorer nations where vaccines have not been readily available. More than 50 companies have already approached the organization about obtaining a sublicense. |
 | | The shooting took place inside the set of a church at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County.Jae C. Hong/Associated Press |
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Moments later, Baldwin fatally shot the film's cinematographer and wounded the director with the gun, a .45 Long Colt revolver. Dave Halls, the assistant director on the film "Rust," said the film's armorer had opened the gun for him to check the rounds and that "he should have checked all of them, but didn't, and couldn't recall if she spun the drum," according to an affidavit. |
Sheriff Adan Mendoza of Santa Fe County said that the lead projectile Baldwin fired on the set was recovered from the director's shoulder. Investigators also recovered about 500 rounds of ammunition from the set — blanks, dummy rounds and what the sheriff's department suspects to be live ammunition. |
 | | A coal-burning power plant in South Africa run by Eskom, which McKinsey has advised.Joao Silva/The New York Times |
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5. A revolt is brewing inside the world's most influential consulting firm over its work with the planet's biggest polluters. |
Of the 100 biggest corporate polluters over the past half-century, McKinsey has advised at least 43 in recent years, including BP, Exxon Mobil, Gazprom and Saudi Aramco. In 2018, those clients alone were responsible for more than a third of global carbon emissions, by one estimate. |
 | | Outside the Gleaners Food Bank in Indianapolis last week. Kaiti Sullivan for The New York Times |
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6. Many households are being forced to adjust their shopping lists or seek assistance as prices soar. Food banks, too, are feeling the pinch. |
Food pantries are substituting or pulling the most expensive products, like beef, from offerings; donations of food are also down. For one food bank in Indianapolis, a case of peanut butter that was $13 to $14 before the coronavirus pandemic now costs $16 to $19, and green beans that used to retail for $9 a case now sell for $14. |
 | | The Yuki lived in the Round Valley area for tens of thousands of years.Alexandra Hootnick for The New York Times |
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7. A prominent California law school's founder masterminded massacres of Native Americans in the 19th century. Now, there's a reckoning. |
For the past four years, the University of California, Hastings College of the Law has been investigating the role of its founder, Serranus Hastings in a set of massacres of the Yuki people. |
Both the law school and its critics agree that Hastings "bears significant responsibility" for the killings. But they disagree on what to do about it, including whether the school should retain its name over worries of a decline in applications or a loss of donors. Native leaders in California say a broad re-examination over the treatment of American Indians is overdue. |
 | | The author Gary Shteyngart in Red Hook, N.Y.Tony Cenicola/The New York Times |
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8. Are we ready for a pandemic novel? Gary Shteyngart, the author of "Our Country Friends," thinks so. |
Last year, he was 240 pages into a dystopian comedy when the first wave of the coronavirus hit and dropped it to start a new novel, about a group of old friends who decamp for the country to escape Covid. Now "Our Country Friends" is being lauded as "the great American pandemic novel." Our reviewer agrees and says it's Shteyngart's finest novel yet. |
"The constant state where terrible things are happening to every single member of society, where you can't escape, that's going to be the new normal," Shteyngart said. "So we have to change the way we write." |
 | | Is it a surfer or a seal? |
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9. Sometimes sharks make mistakes, too. |
For decades, scientists have floated the theory of "mistaken identity" as a potential explanation behind the rare phenomenon of unprovoked shark bites on humans. A new study puts this theory to the test for the first time: Juvenile white sharks, which are the most frequent biters, most likely cannot tell the difference between a plump sea lion or a surfer, researchers found. |
Researchers filmed from the bottom of aquariums at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney and recorded videos of sea lions, a seal, swimming people and people paddling. After running the videos through a computer program and statistical analysis, they could see — poorly — through a young white shark's less-than-stellar eyes. |
 | | The living room in the reconstructed Alexander Palace, which opened as a museum in August.Mary Gelman for The New York Times |
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10. And finally, take a tour of a Russian czar's palace. |
For more than a decade, a team of architects and researchers has worked to restore the last home of Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, to its early-20th-century glory. It was originally built in 1796 by Catherine the Great for her grandson Alexander. Nicholas II — his great-grand-nephew — moved the imperial family to Alexander Palace in St. Petersburg in 1905 to escape the capital on the eve of revolution. |
Researchers recreated the interiors by working with a few fuzzy colored pictures, thousands of black-and-white photos, some watercolors, several drapery swatches and memoirs of palace life. In some cases, whole patterns of rugs were recreated from a small corner that managed to sneak into a picture or two. Take a look. |
| Bryan Denton compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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