Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Thursday. |
 | | Karolina Moran, 16, receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in Miami in May.Saul Martinez for The New York Times |
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1. The F.D.A. authorized Pfizer booster shots for 16- and 17-year-olds, clearing the way for several million teenagers. |
The C.D.C. director promptly signed off on the move, saying the agency encouraged adolescents to receive a booster dose as the unknowns of the Omicron coronavirus variant loom. |
More than 200 million Americans — over 60 percent of the population — have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Only 8 percent of Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion, has been fully vaccinated. |
 | | Donald Trump could be questioned under oath in a civil fraud investigation.Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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2. New York's attorney general plans to subpoena Donald Trump to testify in a civil fraud inquiry into his business practices. |
Letitia James, whose office is also participating in the criminal investigation being run by the Manhattan district attorney, wants to question Trump as part of her separate civil inquiry. Civil inquiries cannot lead to criminal charges, but if James finds evidence of wrongdoing, she could file a lawsuit against Trump. |
Both James and the district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., have been focused on whether Trump inflated his property values to secure financing. Separately, James said she was dropping out of the New York governor's race and running instead for re-election. |
In other Trump-related news, an appeals court ruled that Congress may see White House records of the former president's communications and movements related to the Jan. 6 attack. |
 | | Senator Bob Dole lay in state at the Capitol today.Tom Brenner for The New York Times |
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3. It was a busy day in Washington. |
The Senate cleared the last major hurdle to raising the debt ceiling, all but ensuring that the government can steer away from a first-ever default. Fourteen Republicans joined every Democrat in voting to take up legislation that allows a debt ceiling increase with a simple majority vote, skirting a filibuster. |
At the White House, President Biden gathered officials from more than 100 countries that have multiparty elections to discuss how to shore up the values of democracy. But in a sign of the times, even organizing the events raised questions about the definition of democracy and who should — and should not — be invited. |
The day began for many lawmakers on a somber note. Bob Dole, a veteran of the Senate, lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda. Biden described Dole, who died Sunday, as one of America's "greatest patriots." |
 | | Starbucks employees and supporters react as votes are read during their union election.Joshua Bessex/Associated Press |
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4. Starbucks employees at a store in the Buffalo area voted to unionize. They are the only workers yet to do so in nearly 9,000 company-owned stores in the U.S. |
Workers at a second store in the area voted against unionizing, and votes were still being counted at a third store. |
In other economic news, a fresh report set for release tomorrow is expected to reinforce concerns over inflation. A major index could show that inflation picked up by 6.8 percent over the past year, the fastest pace in nearly 40 years. |
 | | The Sackler name will be removed from the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur at the Met.Karsten Moran for The New York Times |
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5. The Sackler name will be removed from seven exhibition spaces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art over the family's ties to the opioid crisis. |
The removal represents a significant break between the world's largest museum and one of the world's biggest benefactors. The museum had already severed ties to the family's funding, announcing in 2019 that it would no longer accept gifts from the Sacklers, given their links to the maker of OxyContin. |
The Sackler family's contributions to the Met date back decades. Forbes put the family's net worth at $10.8 billion in 2020. Two spaces at the Met will continue to bear their Sackler names. |
The announcement is likely to prompt other institutions to reconsider their own Sackler galleries. The Serpentine Gallery in London has refused Sackler money, and the Louvre in Paris removed the Sackler name. |
 | | Family photos of Daniel Dal Canto, who was 16 when he killed himself.Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times |
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6. Two Times investigations reveal the roots of tragedies. |
Most websites about suicide focus on prevention, but not this one. It is linked to a long trail of lives cut short. Tens of thousands of visitors use the site to discuss explicit directions on how to die. The Times identified at least 45 members, many of whom were young, who killed themselves. The number is most likely much larger. |
Australia, Germany and Italy have restricted access to the site, but American law enforcement officials, lawmakers and technology companies have been reluctant to act. |
 | | Peter McIndoe, the 23-year-old creator of the Birds Aren't Real movement, in Fayetteville, Ark.Rana Young for The New York Times |
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7. The creator of a Gen Z-fueled conspiracy theory is ready to come clean. |
Peter McIndoe is the 23-year-old creator of the viral Birds Aren't Real movement, which posits that birds are really drone replicas installed by the U.S. government to spy on Americans. Hundreds of thousands of young people have joined what began as a spontaneous joke. |
"It's about holding up a mirror to America in the internet age," said McIndoe, who grew up in a deeply conservative and religious community marinated in conspiracies. |
 | | "And Just Like That" revisits three of the four main characters from "Sex and the City."Craig Blankenhorn/HBO |
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8. For better — and, according to our reviewer, for worse — Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte are back. |
"Sex and the City" returns today on HBO Max in the form of "And Just Like That," a later-life, limited-series postscript. The reboot is at times "a downer" as the women navigate their 50s, "but it takes risks and in moments is very good," James Poniewozik, our chief TV critic, writes. But the attempts to update its trademark sass in an era of diversity become cringey, fast. |
Poniewozik couldn't help but wonder: "Was this really necessary?"(Warning: The review has some major spoilers, including what happened to Samantha.) |
 | | The organ at St.-Eustache, which is considered a jewel of the French Renaissance.Joann Pai for The New York Times |
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9. "We have become the city's ambassadors of sound." |
Yves Castagnet, the master organist at Notre-Dame, has played at the most visited church in the world for 33 years. But the cathedral remains closed and its musical tradition silenced, two and a half years after a devastating fire. Still, the cathedral's ancient music school and its choirs are preserving the spirit of Notre-Dame outside its walls. Here's how to follow their music this holiday season, in Paris or online. |
 | | A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer spacecraft today.John Raoux/Associated Press |
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10. And finally, an X-ray of the cosmos. |
Early this morning, NASA launched the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE, to better measure black holes, supernovas and other phenomena. The brand-new telescope could reveal a hidden vision of the universe, potentially transforming our understanding of some of the most bizarre and exciting objects in space and even the nature of the universe itself. |
Looking ahead, the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to launch on Dec. 22. The long-awaited successor to the Hubble Telescope may solve mysteries about how and when the first stars and galaxies emerged 13 billion years ago. |
| Bryan Denton compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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