Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Tuesday. |
 | | Businesses in Rehoboth Beach, Del., advertised for workers in December.Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times |
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1. More than 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November, the highest number on record. |
"This Great Resignation story is really more about lower-wage workers finding new opportunities in a reopening labor market and seizing them," one researcher said. |
Still, Americans are pessimistic. Only 21 percent of adults said their finances were better off than a year ago, according to a survey conducted for The New York Times, down from 26 percent last year — even though, by most measures, the economy had substantially improved. Wages are rising, but only 17 percent of workers say their pay has kept up with inflation over the past year. |
 | | An intensive care unit in Farmington, N.M., last month.Shannon Stapleton/Reuters |
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2. Covid hospitalizations are rising, but cases are less severe. |
In Omicron hot spots, the number of patients entering hospitals are straining medical staff, but a smaller proportion of patients are landing in intensive care units or requiring mechanical ventilation. Roughly 50 to 65 percent of admissions in some New York hospitals show up for other ailments, then test positive for the coronavirus. |
"We are seeing an increase in the number of hospitalizations," a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital said. But, he added, "we're not sending as many patients to the ICU, we're not intubating as many patients, and actually, most of our patients that are coming to the emergency department that do test positive are actually being discharged." |
As Omicron continues to surge, some schools are returning to remote learning. Districts in Newark, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Cleveland have temporarily moved to remote learning. The U.S. is averaging more than 480,000 new cases a day, a record. |
 | | Roger Stone departs a meeting with the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times |
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3. The House inquiry into the Jan. 6 riot is ramping up. |
With the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol looming, the panel has redoubled its efforts. Republicans are favored to regain control of the House this fall, and they would almost certainly dissolve the inquiry. |
Working in color-coded teams, investigators have interviewed more than 300 witnesses, from White House officials close to Donald Trump to the rioters themselves, and are sorting through more than 35,000 documents. |
Committee members are looking into two potential crimes in particular: whether there was wire fraud by Republicans who raised millions of dollars off assertions that the election was stolen, and whether Trump and his allies obstructed Congress by trying to stop its electoral vote count. |
 | | President Biden at the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow in November.Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
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4. President Biden faces an increasingly narrow path to meet his climate goals. |
His Build Back Better Act, which contains $555 billion in proposed climate action, is in limbo in the Senate. The Supreme Court is set to hear a pivotal case next month that could significantly restrict his authority to regulate power plant pollution. And the midterm elections in November threaten his party's control of Congress. |
"If they can't pull this off, then we failed; the country has failed the climate test," said John Podesta, a former senior counselor to Barack Obama. |
Most notably, Biden failed to persuade the single Democratic holdout, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, to vote for the Build Back Better bill. The future of the legislation remains uncertain, although Senate Democrats said they were determined to see some version of it pass this year. |
 | | Elizabeth Holmes and her lawyer on Monday.David Odisho/Getty Images |
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5. Elizabeth Holmes exposed Silicon Valley. |
Holmes, the founder of the blood-testing start-up Theranos, was found guilty yesterday of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; each count of wire fraud carries up to 20 years in prison. Here's what happens next and five takeaways from the trial. |
At its best, Silicon Valley is optimistic, writes The Times's Erin Griffith, who covers start-ups and venture capital. At its worst, it believes its own hogwash. |
The optimism works outside the Valley. More start-ups have followed Holmes's strategy of fund-raising outside the small network of Sand Hill Road venture capital firms. Start-ups are raising more money at higher valuations, as mutual funds, hedge funds and private equity funds have rushed to back them. |
 | | The decision was the third time a district attorney has decided not to pursue a case against Andrew Cuomo.Pool photo by Mary Altaffer |
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6. The Albany D.A. dropped criminal charges for Andrew Cuomo. |
Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, will not be prosecuted in the criminal case involving allegations that he groped a former aide in 2020, the Albany County district attorney, David Soares, announced today. |
"While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial," Soares said. |
Prosecutors would have had to clear a relatively high bar with the charge, which required them to prove not only that Cuomo had touched the aide, but that he did so with the intention of satisfying his own sexual desire or to degrade her. |
 | | Xiomara Castro, the president-elect of Honduras, has proposed a system of universal basic income.Daniele Volpe for The New York Times |
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7. Leftist governments are on the rise in Latin America. |
With promises of a more equitable distribution of wealth, better public services and vastly expanded social safety nets, leftist politicians have won elections in Chile and Honduras, and they are the favorites to replace right-wing presidential incumbents in Colombia and Brazil. |
But the region faces serious economic constraints and legislative opposition that could restrict their ambitions and restive voters who have been willing to punish those who fail to deliver. |
The left's gains could buoy China and undermine the U.S. in the competition for regional influence, analysts say, with new leaders who are more open to Beijing's global strategy of loans and infrastructure investment. |
 | | This king cake, from the chef Dominick Lee, has a caramelized apple filling.Beatriz Da Costa for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susie Theodorou. |
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8. King cake, a Carnival tradition, is the diverse flavor of New Orleans. |
In New Orleans, Twelfth Night — celebrated on Jan. 6 — is the start of the pre-Lenten Carnival season, a cycle of baking and eating king cakes, colorful pastries that consist of a brioche dough and are stuffed with a fève, usually in the form of a plastic baby. |
One bakery makes a Bavarian cream king cake. Another offers savory cakes stuffed with boudin, crawfish or spinach-and-artichoke dip. Norma's Sweets Bakery, owned by Honduran immigrants, offers a version with guava and cream cheese. |
"We wanted to give the community a little taste of the Latin product," the owner said. |
 | | A home gym in Thousand Oaks, Calif., with equipment from Technogym.Douglas Friedman |
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9. How to create the perfect home gym. |
An ideal home gym should include more than Peloton bikes and treadmills. It's also important to leave space for floor exercises, another designer said. Cushioned mats and interlocking flooring are better than carpet. And every expert The Times interviewed suggested adding mirrors to enlarge the sense of space and let you check your form. |
If your goal is to improve your health, two and a half to three hours of moderate to vigorous exercise per week will help you reap a vast majority of benefits. After that, you're exercising for performance. Here's how to tell if you're overdoing it. |
 | | Even at limited capacity, exhibition has drawn 12,000 attendees in its first two months.Alex Welsh for The New York Times |
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10. And finally, the Jewish origins of a Vulcan salute. |
At the Skirball, a Jewish cultural center in Los Angeles, an enormous photo of Leonard Nimoy as Spock adorns a wall, his fingers splayed in the familiar "live long and prosper" greeting. The sign is derived from a Hebrew blessing that Nimoy first glimpsed at a synagogue as a boy. |
The center's "Star Trek" exhibition highlights the intersection of the sci-fi franchise and Judaism that began with its original stars, Nimoy and William Shatner, but reaches far beyond them. |
Walking through the artifacts, Adam Nimoy recalled how his father — the son of Ukrainian Jews who spoke no English when they arrived — had said he identified with Spock, pointing out that he was "the only alien on the bridge of the Enterprise." |
| Bryan Denton compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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