Friday, March 29

Your Thursday Evening Briefing – The New York Times


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Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.

1. US gross domestic product shrank again, fueling fears of a recession.

GDP fell 0.2 percent in the second quarter after a 0.4 percent decline in the first, meaning that by one common but unofficial definition, the US economy has entered a recession two years after it emerged from the last one.

Most economists still don’t think the economy meets the formal definition of a recession, which is based on a broader set of indicators. Still, the data leaves little doubt that the recovery is losing momentum.

The legislation also includes tax credits for new and used electric vehicles, $9 billion in rebates for energy efficient appliances, and $60 billion for communities disproportionately affected by climate change. It would be the most ambitious climate action undertaken by the US

Next steps: Democrats hope to muscle the bill past unified Republican opposition in the Senate as early as next week. But it needs unanimous support among Democrats to pass, and Senator Kyrsten Sinema has not indicated whether she plans to support it.

At the state level, West Virginia said it would stop doing business with banks that did not support the coal industry.


A Ukrainian official said the country has a chance to push the Russians from the city, given adequate weapons and equipment. At the same time, Russia was moving “the maximum number” of forces to the southern front of the region, according to the head of Ukraine’s National Security Council.

4. Americans are surrendering to summer heat.

As much of the country sweats through record-setting heat waves, people are beginning to refashion their lives simply to survive the ultramarathon of misery that now defines the white-hot American summer.

Some are turning nocturnal. Some keep their curtains closed all day or head out with a frozen water bottle. People with limited incomes are cutting back on essentials so they can keep the air-conditioner running.

“After 10 o’clock, I’m inside the house,” said Paolo Pinto, 70, an Austin resident. “I have curtains, shades and fans. I don’t come out until around 7 pm I turn red, I get exhausted.”

5. JetBlue Airways reached a deal to buy Spirit Airlines, creating the fifth largest US carrier.

The deal, which values ​​Spirit at $3.8 billion, could reshape the airline industry by putting pressure on the nation’s four dominant airlines — United, Delta, Southwest and American. It comes a day after Frontier Airlines’ bid for Spirit, valued at $2.8 billion, fell apart.

The merger is likely to face a thorough investigation from the Biden administration’s antitrust regulators, who have taken an aggressive stand against corporate consolidation, especially in industries already dominated by a few businesses.

As some of the first life-forms on the planet, fungi helped create soil and the world as we know it. Researchers are focusing on mycorrhizal fungi, a type that clings to roots and has a symbiotic relationship with plants. By one estimate, five billion tons of carbon flow from plants to mycorrhizal fungi each year, keeping it from heating up the Earth’s atmosphere.

The data researchers collect will signal which mycorrhizal fungi species are sequestering so much carbon. Fungi have helped trees adapt on a millennial scale and could be “levers,” as one biologist put it, to address a warming climate.


8. You can tell a lot about a comedian from their water vessel.

Jerry Seinfeld has an elegant glass next to a sleek label-less bottle in his most recent special. Ali Wong uses a stylish, extra tall bottle. Hasan Minhaj puts two bottles on top of the stool. Once you start looking for drinks in standup specials, they’re everywhere.

“It may be that stand-up traditionally leans so much on authenticity,” writes Jason Zinoman, our comedy critic. “The glass of water telegraphs that you are watching a human at work, sweating.”

9. All aboard!

For the first time in 50 years, a train is taking passengers directly from New York to the Berkshires. The Berkshire Flyer will be humming along the Hudson River through Labor Day weekend, one of many new Amtrak services announced in recent months.

International and cross-country travel is up, too. Marta Giaccone, a photographer, took the California Zephyr, a 52-hour trip considered by many rail enthusiasts to be among the most scenic of Amtrak’s long-distance train routes in the US Here’s what she saw.

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More than 400 beagles were released last week and are now settling into new homes. Many of them don’t have names yet, just tattoos with numbers inside their ears. Some are seeing grass for the first time. The remaining 3,600 were expected to be released to shelters, rescues, foster owners and adoptive families in the next two months.


www.nytimes.com

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