Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Tuesday. |
 | | Travelers arrived for flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.Spencer Platt/Getty Images |
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1. Federal health officials are expanding the search for Omicron in the U.S. |
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, said that the agency was "actively looking" for the new coronavirus variant but had not found a case so far. Officials said that they were expanding a surveillance program at four international airports — in New York, Atlanta, Newark and San Francisco — in an effort to identify and contain what could be the first cases of the variant in the country. |
Omicron has caused widespread fears. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, reiterated that it was still too soon to understand how dangerous the variant might be. |
New test results in the Netherlands show that Omicron was in that country more than a week ago, suggesting that the variant was present there at least a week before the arrival of two flights from South Africa, and before the W.H.O. labeled Omicron a "variant of concern." |
 | | Jerome Powell testified before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times |
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2. The Federal Reserve could pull back economic support faster than planned as concerns over inflation grow. |
Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, signaled that the central bank could end its bond-buying program sooner than expected. The Fed had been buying $120 billion in government-backed securities each month throughout much of the pandemic to keep money flowing in financial markets, and planned to end the program midway through 2022. But Powell said the Fed could taper that off more quickly. |
His comments, made before the Senate Banking Committee, further rattled investors, who had already been fretting about the Omicron variant. Stocks fell sharply after Powell's remarks. |
 | | Parents walked away with students after a shooting in Oxford Charter Township, Mich.Eric Seals/Usa Today Network/Via Reuters |
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3. Three people were killed in a shooting at a high school in Oxford Charter Township, Mich., the authorities said. A 15-year-old student was taken into custody. |
The dead were all students at Oxford High School: a 16-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl. Michael McCabe, the Oakland County undersheriff, said at a news conference that the gunman, a sophomore at the school, "gave up without any problems" and was in custody within five minutes. |
The gunman, whose name was not immediately released, fired 15 to 20 shots with a semiautomatic handgun, the authorities said. Eight others were injured, including a teacher. |
 | | Mark Meadows, then White House chief of staff, last October in Washington. Oliver Contreras for The New York Times |
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4. Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff for Donald Trump, agreed to cooperate with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot. |
Meadows turned over documents and agreed to sit for a deposition, a stunning reversal for a crucial witness in the inquiry. Meadows had previously refused to cooperate with the committee, acting on a directive from Trump. |
The select committee issued a subpoena for Meadows's records and testimony in September, citing his involvement in the plans to subvert the results of the 2020 election. |
 | | People gathered outside the federal courthouse for the second day of Ghislaine Maxwell's trial.Dave Sanders for The New York Times |
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5. A woman who prosecutors say was recruited for sex by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein at 14 took the witness stand. |
She was the first of four women whom prosecutors have described as underage victims of Maxwell and Epstein, and who, as adults, are expected to testify under pseudonyms or partial names in Maxwell's sex-trafficking trial. |
In other court news out of New York City, the wife of El Chapo, the Mexican drug kingpin, was sentenced to three years in prison for helping him run his criminal empire and for playing a role in his escape from custody in 2014. |
 | | A counseling room at Jackson Women's Health Organization in Jackson, Miss.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times |
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6. The Supreme Court will hear the most important abortion case in decades tomorrow: one that could undermine or overturn Roe v. Wade. |
The case concerns a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, long before fetal viability. The court could overrule Roe entirely, allowing states to ban abortions at any point. But some justices may want to sustain the Mississippi law without overturning Roe outright. This would require them to discard Roe's viability standard and replace it with another that would allow a cutoff at 15 weeks. |
 | | Shamma Goodrich, a volunteer with Brooklyn Community Services' shower bus.Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times |
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7. "Everybody should have access to a shower. They deserve that." |
When Shamma Goodrich moved to New York from New Delhi in 2015, she was struck by the homelessness in Manhattan. She is now volunteering with Brooklyn Community Services' shower bus, which helps those without reliable access to bathroom facilities. The organization is one of nine supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. |
 | | Matt Blease |
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8. Two debut novels. A reckoning with slavery in America. A new biography of Sylvia Plath. |
 | | Tony Kushner in New York City.Sean Donnola |
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9. When Steven Spielberg asked the playwright Tony Kushner to take on a "West Side Story" remake, Kushner thought the filmmaker had lost his mind. |
The challenge would be not only to recapture some of the power of the original Broadway show and of the 1961 movie musical — which Kushner says has had "the greatest cultural impact in various ways, except for maybe 'The Wizard of Oz,'" in cinematic history — but also to right some of their wrongs. Kushner spoke to our film critic A.O. Scott about the film, which opens on Dec. 10 and for which Kushner wrote the screenplay. |
And Manohla Dargis reviewed "The Power of the Dog," directed by Jane Campion and starring Benedict Cumberbatch. She calls it "a great American story and a dazzling evisceration of one of the country's foundational myths." |
 | | Camel beauty contests take center stage at the annual Al Dhafra Festival in the United Arab Emirates. |
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10. And finally, a beauty contest where droopy lips are prized. |
As modern culture upends Bedouin society, festivals like Al Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates are one of the few ways Bedouins can sustain their traditions. And at the heart of the festival are camel beauty contests. |
The ideal camel has long straight legs, a long neck, a shapely hump, pert ears, expressive eyes framed by upward-curled eyelashes, a sleek coat and elegant posture. A little jewelry also goes a long way. When Kiki Streitberger, a photographer, visited Al Dhafra in 2019, more than 24,000 camels from all over the Middle East competed for the equivalent of more than $16 million in prize money. Here's what she saw. |
| Angela Jimenez compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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