Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Tuesday. |
 | | Handout photographs from the White House, top, and the Kremlin, bottom. |
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1. President Biden warned President Vladimir Putin of heavy economic penalties if Russia invaded Ukraine. |
Biden also said that in response NATO could reposition its troops and that an invasion would end Russia's hopes of completing a major Russian gas pipeline to Europe, measures that he said would go well beyond what the West did after Russia annexed Crimea seven years ago. The high-stakes virtual meeting came as tens of thousands of Russian troops massed along the Ukrainian border, raising fears of an invasion. |
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, described Biden's comments to reporters but declined to go into detail about the consequences facing Russia. He said that Biden had told the Russian leader that "things we did not do in 2014 we are prepared to do now." |
 | | Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy at the White House in July.Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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2. The U.S. surgeon general warned of a "devastating" mental health crisis among young people made worse by the pandemic. |
The message was part of a rare public advisory from the nation's top physician, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, in a 53-page report noting that the pandemic intensified mental health issues that were already widespread by the spring of 2020. The report cited significant increases in self-reports of depression, anxiety and emergency room visits for mental health challenges. |
 | | The New York Times |
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3. Americans' pandemic-era savings are dwindling. |
Infusions of government cash warded off an economic calamity and buoyed the bank balances of millions of households. But many low-income Americans find their savings shrinking or even depleted. The drop in cash reserves has vast implications for the working class and could dampen consumer spending. |
 | | Representative Devin Nunes, a Republican in California, in Washington in September.Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times |
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4. As legislators across the country draw new House maps to protect incumbents, California could become the only true battlefield for 2022. |
 | | A banner of Jamal Khashoggi during a symbolic funeral prayer for the Saudi journalist in Istanbul in 2018.Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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5. The French police arrested a man in connection with the assassination of the dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi. |
But a Saudi official said the arrest was a case of mistaken identity, and French authorities warned that they were still verifying that they had the right man. The man, identified as Khalid Alotaibi, 33, was arrested at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport north of Paris on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Turkey, just before he was to board a flight for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. |
A man by that name is accused of being a member of the team that killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. |
 | | A Tesla Model 3 electric car in San Diego.Roger Kisby for The New York Times |
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6. A new Tesla safety concern: Drivers can play video games in moving cars. |
The automaker added the games in a software update that was sent to most of its cars this summer. The video games can be played by a driver or by a passenger in full view of the driver, raising fresh questions about whether Tesla is compromising safety as it rushes to add new features. Tesla's Autopilot system has faced criticism for years. |
In other tech news, changes are coming fast and furiously to airports, including advancements in biometrics that can verify passengers' identities and shorten security procedures for those who opt into the programs. Here's what you need to know. |
 | | The assault of a French soccer player on a dark street in a Paris suburb lasted only a minute.James Hill for The New York Times |
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7. The assault of a French women's soccer star made headlines. But what if the story was wrong? |
It's been three weeks since Aminata Diallo, a midfielder for Paris St.-Germain, was questioned by the police as a possible suspect in what they had suggested was an orchestrated attack on her teammate, Kheira Hamraoui. Diallo has repeatedly denied any involvement, but the police have declined to clear her of suspicion. |
The Times interviewed nearly a dozen people with direct knowledge of the attack. As details emerge — about marital infidelity; about accusations implicating other members of the team; about reports of menacing phone calls to players disparaging the victim before she was attacked — the initial account of the assault has been turned on its head. And now no one is sure what, or whom, to believe. |
 | | Dawn Richard's song "Bussifame" connects futuristic funk to her New Orleans roots.Myles Loftin for The New York Times |
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8. A posthumous political statement. A hyperpop star finding his footing. An emerging force's debut smash. A superstar's 10-minute redo. |
We also rounded up 21 things that happened for the first time this year. Among them: A human brain was wirelessly connected to a computer; National Geographic cartographers recognized the world's fifth ocean; and the world's first 3-D-printed school opened in Malawi. |
 | | A Swig soda shop in St. George, Utah.Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times |
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9. Utah's soda shops, which sell hundreds of bubbly variations, may be coming to a neighborhood near you. |
Mixed soda drinks made with flavored syrups, fresh fruit and creamers have grown rapidly in the Mountain West over the last decade, hitting a fever pitch during the pandemic. Now the "dirty" soda shops, which first became popular among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the church prohibits hot caffeinated drinks like coffee and tea — are popping up around the country. |
 | | Researchers challenged the soft robot to jump over cuboids, triangular prisms and cylinders.R. Chen et al., Nature Communications 2021 |
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10. And finally, a jumping robotic pancake. |
Legs, it turns out, are not necessary for something as flat as a flapjack to hop around. A group of scientists has designed a tortilla-shaped robot that can jump several times per second and higher than seven centimeters (about two and a half inches). It weighs the same as a paper clip and is around the size of a squished tennis ball. |
For inspiration, the researchers looked to maggots that miraculously hurl themselves across distances 30 times as long as their log-like bodies. The new robot ran an obstacle course of gravel mounds, slopes, wires and steps, and may eventually be used to inspect machines or explore extraterrestrial surfaces. |
| Angela Jimenez compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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