Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Monday. |
 | | Facebook and its family of apps began flickering back online late Monday.Dado Ruvic/Reuters |
|
1. The hits keep coming for Facebook. |
Facebook and all of its apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp, went down at the same time on Monday. Some employees were unable to enter buildings and conference rooms because their digital badges stopped working. Security engineers said they were hampered from assessing the outage because they could not get to server areas. |
Security experts said that it was unlikely a cyberattack had taken place, and the problem most likely stemmed instead from a misconfiguration of Facebook's server computers. |
 | | Kindergarten at Public School 121 in the Bronx last month. Virtually everyone who works in the city's public schools must be vaccinated.Anna Watts for The New York Times |
|
About 43,000 doses total have been administered since the rule was announced in late August, including more than 18,000 since Sept. 24. |
Now, about 95 percent of all full-time school employees have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, including 96 percent of teachers and 99 percent of principals. The process could lay the groundwork for a much broader requirement for the city's vast work force. |
 | | Groups funded by business interests are lobbying to kill or reshape pieces of President Biden's social and climate plan.Samuel Corum for The New York Times |
|
Business groups oppose higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations; expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision services; and proposed taxes and fees to cut carbon emissions. Perhaps no aspect of the package has generated more lobbying activity than a proposal to lower the cost of prescription drugs by empowering Medicare to negotiate their cost. |
 | | The port in Shanghai in June. "We continue to have serious concerns" about China's trade practices, said Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative.Keith Bradsher/The New York Times |
|
Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, and other officials said that the president would not immediately remove the Trump administration's tariffs and would require that Beijing uphold its trade commitments. |
The administration has also been drawing up an investigation into China's use of subsidies under Section 301 of U.S. trade law. If it is carried out, that inquiry could result in additional tariffs. |
Also in Chinese business news, shares of the real estate developer Evergrande were halted on Hong Kong's stock exchange on Monday as doubts swirled over whether it would be able to meet its immense financial obligations. |
In recent days, Wall Street banks and financial sleuths have been uncovering other liabilities that Evergrande may have in the form of guarantees that may add to its towering debt pile. |
 | | A march by women in support of the Taliban last month in Kabul. The group's main strength is controlling security.Victor J. Blue for The New York Times |
|
5. The Taliban claim religious justification in restricting the freedoms of Afghan women. But their actions also serve a political purpose, our Interpreter columnist writes. |
Experts say rebel groups often struggle to make the transition to governance, lacking experience, funding or personnel. Instead, their main strength is security — exchanging public safety for obedience — and restricting women's freedom is a demonstration of power. |
The Taliban have banned most women from going to work, a supposedly temporary security measure. A return to "traditional" values of subordination may be attractive to Afghan men, but in the depths of an economic crisis, losing women's earnings may cut into the public's acceptance of their rule. |
 | | The Nobel Committee awarded David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries about how we sense our environment.Atila Altuntas/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images) |
|
The scientists who received the prize, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, made breakthrough discoveries about how people sense heat, cold, touch and their own bodily movements. The committee said the two helped answer one of the most profound questions about the human condition: How do we sense our environment? |
 | | Tourists flock to the Canal Grande in Venice. The city is trying to control crowds.Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times |
|
The pandemic gave Venetians a break, and city leaders are trying to maintain it — using hundreds of surveillance cameras and buying the cellphone data of unsuspecting tourists to aid in crowd control. Next summer, they plan to install long-debated gates at key entry points. Day-trippers will have to book ahead and pay a fee, and some may be turned away if too many people want to come. |
The mayor says the goal is to create a more livable city. But many residents see the plans as dystopian, and perhaps a ploy to attract wealthier tourists who might be discouraged by the crowds. |
 | | New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole throws a pitch to the Baltimore Orioles. Cole is known for his studious approach.Julio Cortez/Associated Press |
|
There are reasons to be confident: Cole, a four-time All-Star, has produced a 3.23 earned run average, a 16-8 record and 243 strikeouts this season. In 13 career postseason starts, he has a 2.68 E.R.A., including two Yankees wins last year. Teammates say what sets Cole apart is a meticulous attention to detail and fanatical baseball intellect. |
 | | Robert Sindelar, owner of Third Place Books, in Lake Forest Park, Wash., on Sept. 26. Sindelar said there are probably 100 titles he hasn't been able to restock.Ruth Fremson/The New York Times |
|
Shipping delays, printer backups, worker shortages — and strong demand for printed books — are forcing publishers to postpone new titles and leaving booksellers struggling to replenish older ones as the holiday season, which can make or break the year for independent bookstores, approaches. |
"No one is getting any sleep, and people have been at this for 18 months," said Sue Malone-Barber, director of publishing operations for Penguin Random House. |
In book reviews, a debut fiction collection imagines Black characters reckoning with the legacy — and present reality — of white violence. |
 | | William Shatner with a projection of him in his role as Captain Kirk in 2012. He will be joined on the flight by two other paying customers.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times |
|
10. And finally, Captain Kirk is actually heading to space. |
William Shatner, the actor best known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk in the "Star Trek" TV and film franchise, is going 63 miles up. Shatner is scheduled for a mid-October trip on the tourist rocket built by Blue Origin, the private space company owned by Jeff Bezos. It will be the company's second suborbital flight to the edge of space. |
Shatner, 90, will become the oldest person to fly to space once he completes the flight. "Yes, it's true; I'm going to be a 'rocket man!'" he wrote on Twitter about the news. |
Have a celestial evening. |
| Angela Jimenez compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
|
