Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Tuesday. |
 | | Moderna's Covid vaccine appears to be the world's best defense against Covid-19.Bess Adler for The New York Times |
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1. The F.D.A. set the stage for a new round of decisions on which Americans should get coronavirus booster shots. |
Regulators released a review from Moderna that found a half-dose booster at least six months after the second dose increased antibody levels significantly. But the agency did not take a position on whether it was necessary. |
An independent advisory panel will examine the available data on both Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters in meetings scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Votes are scheduled on whether to recommend emergency authorization of boosters for both vaccines. While the panel's votes are not binding, the F.D.A. typically follows them. |
Vaccines have been a hard sell for the police. Far more law enforcement officers in the U.S. have died from Covid-19 than from any other work-related cause in 2020 and 2021. |
 | | China's central bank last month issued a rare comment saying it would monitor the real estate market.Wu Hong/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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2. The global economic recovery is losing steam as a coronavirus resurgence in critical links of global supply chains hinders progress, the I.M.F. warned. |
The global growth forecast was pared to 5.9 percent from 6 percent, and the U.S. growth prediction was cut to 6 percent from 7 percent. The fund has warned that disparities in vaccine distribution threaten to prolong the malaise. |
In other economic news, China's attempt to cool its costly, debt-ridden housing market threatens an important economic driver: home sales. Nearly three-quarters of household wealth in China is now tied to property. |
 | | A morgue was set up to handle a surge of Covid-19 deaths in Birmingham, England, in April 2020.Andrew Testa for The New York Times |
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3. Britain's initial response to Covid-19 "ranks as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced," a parliamentary inquiry found. |
The highly critical report blamed the British government for "many thousands of deaths which could have been avoided." In effect, the report indicated, the government pursued an ill-conceived strategy of herd immunity when it failed to carry out widespread testing and delayed imposing lockdowns or border rules in the early months of the pandemic. |
 | | Under proposed guidelines, doctors would be discouraged from starting patients on a daily dose of baby aspirin.Alamy |
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4. Low-dose aspirin should no longer be initially prescribed to try to prevent a first heart attack or stroke, a U.S. panel suggested. |
The proposed recommendation is based on mounting evidence that the risk of serious side effects, including the risk of bleeding, far outweighs the benefit. The panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, also plans to retreat from its 2016 recommendation to take baby aspirin for the prevention of colorectal cancer, which was considered groundbreaking guidance at the time. |
The draft guidelines would not apply to those already taking aspirin or those who have had a heart attack. Those who are taking baby aspirin should talk to their doctor. |
 | | On Sunday, Jon Gruden addressed an email in which he used a racist trope.Rick Scuteri/Associated Press |
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5. Homophobic and misogynistic remarks led to Jon Gruden's swift downfall as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. |
His resignation yesterday came hours after The Times detailed seven years of emails in which he used slurs to denigrate prominent N.F.L. figures. Those comments were discovered during a review of workplace misconduct at the Washington Football Team that ended this summer. It followed an earlier report of a racist statement about a union leader, which the N.F.L. is already investigating Gruden about. |
Separately, the Brooklyn Nets barred Kyrie Irving from all games until he is "eligible to be a full participant." The team has danced around his vaccination status, but its general manager told The Times, "If he was vaccinated, we wouldn't be having this discussion." |
 | | Lining up for food aid in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia on Sunday.Jemal Countess/Getty Images |
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6. Ethiopian forces began a sweeping offensive in a bid to reverse gains by Tigrayan rebels, officials said. |
The U.N. said the attack would deepen the humanitarian crisis in a region that is plunging into the world's worst famine in a decade. With the Ethiopian government blocking aid shipments, some starving Tigrayans are eating leaves to survive. |
The assault, which had been anticipated for weeks, started in the Amhara region, which borders Tigray to the south. But a strict communications blackout imposed by the government means few details can be confirmed. |
For Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister and the winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, the offensive is an effort to wrest control of a brutal 11-month war that has ruined his reputation as a peacemaker. |
 | | An entrance to the estate in Islandton, S.C., where Alex Murdaugh's wife and son were found shot to death.Travis Dove for The New York Times |
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7. The wife and younger son of Alex Murdaugh were found shot to death in June. But it was just the first of many mysteries surrounding the family. |
Murdaugh, a powerful South Carolina lawyer, later asked a handyman to kill him in the hope that his elder son would receive a $10 million life insurance payment. Five people in his family's orbit have died in recent years, and investigators are looking for connections. |
The police have recently reopened closed cases, including one involving the death of a former classmate of Murdaugh's son and another involving a housekeeper thought to have fatally tripped at Murdaugh's home. They are also looking at allegations that Murdaugh stole millions from his law firm and millions more from a settlement intended for the housekeeper's children. |
 | | "I love the character of Chucky, and I don't get tired of him," said his creator, Don Mancini.Michelle Groskopf for The New York Times |
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8. Chucky has been an icon of horror cinema for more than 30 years. In a new TV series, he's also the father of a queer and gender-fluid child. |
Bringing the "Child's Play" franchise to TV allowed the filmmaker Don Mancini, who is gay, to create "the most autobiographical" work of his career. The series focuses on the story of a gay teenager who unknowingly purchases Chucky at a yard sale, and it follows the doll as he terrorizes Hackensack, N.J., protecting the boy from bullies. |
 | | Clockwise from top left: Chona Kasinger for The New York Times; Matt Coughlin; Jessica Attie for The New York Times; Daniel Krieger for The New York Times; Emon Hassan for The New York Times; Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times |
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9. Modern Filipino food in Seattle. Tacos in Brownsville, Texas. A reincarnated steakhouse in New York City. The finest lule kebabs in the Los Angeles area. |
 | | An elk had a tire around its neck before a rescue operation in Colorado.Pat Hemstreet Via Reuters |
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10. And finally, finally free to roam. |
For more than two years, residents of Pine, Colo., have been sending in reports to wildlife authorities about an elk who somehow shoved his head into a discarded car tire that has been hanging around his neck ever since. As his antlers branched out, the tire was locked into place. |
On Saturday night, a resident noticed the elk in his yard and notified Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials, who were able to tranquilize the bull and remove the tire. The officers had to cut the antlers off the elk (a common practice to help free elk from trappings of human civilization), but after the sedation was reversed, the bull was back on his feet within a matter of minutes. |
| Bryan Denton compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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