Evening Briefing: The slow return of U.S. workers

October 19, 2021

By Remy Tumin

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

Danielle Miess's unemployment benefits have run out, but she isn't looking for another office job.Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times

1. The economic rebound is still waiting for workers.

Despite school reopenings and the end of some federal aid, many people are in no rush to land a job. Over 10 million U.S. jobs are vacant, and there are five million fewer people working than before the coronavirus pandemic began.

Economists point to overlapping factors: Health concerns, child-care issues and built-up savings are making many choosier. Workers up and down the income ladder have leverage. "It's like the whole country is in some kind of union renegotiation," an economist said.

Psychology may also play a role: Surveys suggest that the pandemic led many people to rethink their priorities.

Separately, Democrats agreed to scale back a plan for the I.R.S. to try to crack down on tax cheats, bowing to blowback from the banking industry.

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A protest against President Jair Bolsonaro this month in São Paulo, Brazil.Victor Moriyama for The New York Times

2. Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, should face mass homicide charges over his mishandling of the pandemic, a report from Brazil's Senate is set to say.

The report, excerpts from which were viewed by The Times ahead of its scheduled release this week, asserts that Bolsonaro let the coronavirus rip through the country and kill hundreds of thousands in a failed bid to achieve herd immunity and revive the economy. It also recommends criminal charges against 69 others, including three of Bolsonaro's sons.

In other virus news:

The F.D.A. may allow Americans to mix and match Covid vaccines for their booster shots. The science behind the move is promising.
Pfizer's vaccine is highly effective against hospitalization with Covid among 12- to 18-year-olds, a study shows.

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Broken glass on the doors to the entrance of the Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 6, 2020.Erin Schaff/The New York Times

3. The House's Jan. 6 committee is expected tonight to recommend holding Stephen Bannon in contempt for defying a subpoena.

Bannon, an outside adviser to Donald Trump, has informed the panel that he would defy the subpoena. Both men have claimed executive privilege to keep secrets in the Capitol riot inquiry.

Bannon reportedly communicated with Trump on Dec. 30 and urged him to focus his efforts on Jan. 6, the committee said. At a meeting the day before the violence, Bannon was quoted as saying, "All hell is going to break loose tomorrow."

If it passes the committee, the criminal contempt citation would go to the full House, where Democrats have the votes to approve it. The matter would then be sent to the Justice Department, which would face a tricky case with scant precedent.

Separately, in the spring of 2020, Trump's defense secretary quashed a proposal to send up to 250,000 U.S. troops to seal the border with Mexico.

The Christian Aid Ministries compound in Titenyen, Haiti.Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

4. The gang that kidnapped 17 people in Haiti associated with a U.S.-based Christian group demanded $1 million for each person, a Haitian official said.

The country's justice minister said "often these gangs know these demands cannot be met and they will consider a counter offer from the families," adding that the gang has not issued a deadline and negotiations could take weeks. The people kidnapped — 16 Americans and one Canadian, including five children — were captured in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, the capital, over the weekend.

Separately, the treatment of Haitians apprehended in Del Rio, Texas, last month has galvanized civil rights groups to press for changes to what advocates say is poor treatment of Black migrants that has spanned administrations.

Refugee houses built by locals in Mizoram, India. Atul Loke for The New York Times

5. Fleeing for India, thousands of refugees have left Myanmar as the military junta there cracks down on dissent. Aid groups say an even bigger surge is on the way.

The Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is known, has targeted areas that are home to thousands of armed civilians who call themselves the People's Defense Force. Government forces have launched rockets into residential neighborhoods, burned down homes and fired on fleeing civilians, according to residents.

In Chin State, which borders India, an entire town of roughly 12,000 people has nearly emptied out in the past month. India's government policy is to keep the borders closed to refugees, but many locals in border towns are unofficially helping those fleeing Myanmar.

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Physical science class at Smith Mountain Lake Christian Academy, in Moneta, Va.Veasey Conway for The New York Times

6. Conservative Christian schooling is booming.

The enrollment surge — about 12 percent between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years by one measure — is driven by pandemic frustrations and rising parental anxieties around how schools handle issues including race and transgender students. "This is a once-in-100-year moment for the growth of Christian education," the founder of the Christian Education Initiative said.

In other education news, New York City's Covid safety plan for students appears to be working. The positivity rate among students is 0.25 percent, well below the city's overall rate, but experts believe the city should be testing students more. California is also doing remarkably well limiting school outbreaks.

Dying forests on Sakhalin Island reduce the amount of carbon absorbed.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

7. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, long dismissed the threat of global warming. But fires, disasters and foreign pressure in the country have prompted him to change course.

Last week, Putin said Russia would stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2060, driven by the E.U.'s plans for tariffs on heavily polluting countries, which threaten exports from Russia. His plans are playing out on the 600-mile-long island of Sakhalin, where the regional government pledged to become Russia's first "carbon neutral" region by 2025, using forestry and unproven math.

In other climate news, Africa's last mountain glaciers could disappear within two decades, a troubling sign of climate change's outsize effects on the continent. And four years after Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico's electrical grid in shambles, unreliable electricity remains common.

Golden State's Stephen Curry has high hopes for the season with the expected return of Klay Thompson.D. Ross Cameron/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

8. From swing to swish: October baseball is heating up and the N.B.A. season starts tonight.

In the Western Conference, Stephen Curry is promising "beautiful basketball" with the return of the Warriors' famed core, while the Lakers debut an overhauled roster around LeBron James. In the East, the Bucks might be even better, and the Sixers and Nets are playing wait-and-see with key stars. And the league welcomes its first full-time female play-by-play broadcaster — Lisa Byington, who will call games for the Milwaukee Bucks, the defending champions.

In the M.L.B., the Red Sox lead the Astros in the A.L.C.S. 2-1. The matchup is loaded with representation from Puerto Rico, putting some friendships on hold. The Braves are playing the Dodgers today in the N.L.C.S. Underdog Atlanta leads the series 2-0.

Angelica Morris prepares a drink at The Haunted House Restaurant in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.Angelo Merendino for The New York Times

9. Carnage asada. Bloody cocktails. Grilled Cheese of Darkness.

Several gore-obsessed restaurants have opened across the country since last Halloween, with creative names and even more creative menus. One expert said horror restaurants could be a safe way to have fun with frightening things in distressing times. "People can relate to a screaming face," said the co-owner of Terror Tacos, a horror-themed vegan restaurant in St. Louis.

Scary movies and television shows have helped some people cope better with their anxieties, according to a 2020 study. Here are five horror films to stream right now.

Ricky Jay rehearses at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles in 1996. Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images

10. And finally, a grand master magician's cabinet of curiosities.

When Ricky Jay died in 2018, he left a body of work rooted in sleight of hand and wonder. He also amassed more than 10,000 rare books, art and ephemera, about conjurers, card tricks, charlatans and amazing animals — a vast collection that transformed his Beverly Hills home into a research library dedicated to the human desire to be fooled.

Now, close to 2,000 of those items are to be offered at a Sotheby's auction beginning on Oct. 27. Among the items: a 1903 "Houdini in Russia" poster, commemorating when the illusionist, stripped naked and locked in a Moscow cell, escaped in 28 minutes, and the 1898 window card vividly illustrating the latest achievement of Kellar, another legendary magician: "Self Decapitation."

Have an enchanted night.

Eve Edelheit compiled photos for this briefing.

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