Your Monday Evening Briefing

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SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Your Monday Evening Briefing

By victoria shannon and hiroko masuike

Good evening. Here's the latest.

Planet Labs Inc, via Associated Press

1. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. edged toward blaming Iran for the weekend attack on Saudi oil facilities — but didn't go all the way.

The Saudis said that Iranian weapons had been used. They also said the strikes had not been launched from Yemen, home of the Houthi rebels who claimed responsibility for what they said were drone strikes.

The U.S. said cruise missiles might have been involved, and President Trump said the possibility of Iranian involvement was being assessed. The Houthis have threatened more drone attacks. Iran has denied responsibility.

2. Oil's biggest one-day price shock since Hurricane Katrina.

The attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities over the weekend sent the U.S. benchmark oil contract soaring nearly 15 percent.

Prices might have jumped even more, but global supplies are bountiful. Oil production is surging in the U.S., and many industrialized nations have large strategic reserves.

Repairs have already begun at the Saudis' Abqaiq plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world. A return to full capacity may take months, energy experts said.

Erin Kirkland for The New York Times

3. At the heart of the huge G.M. strike: wages and plant closings.

With nearly 50,000 members off the job, the United Auto Workers aims to get General Motors to reopen an idled car factory in Lordstown, Ohio, a goal that President Trump has endorsed.

In its first big labor action since 2007, the union is also pushing for higher pay and a narrower wage gap between new hires and veteran workers. Labor and management are in talks, but may still be far apart. Above, the picket line in Flint, Mich.

The strike's impact will depend on how long it lasts. Even a short walkout could disrupt local economies in swing states like Michigan and Ohio.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

4. Brett Kavanaugh is under new scrutiny.

Amid a spate of new books about his Supreme Court confirmation, fresh details have emerged about the investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct against him.

The Times obtained this copy of a letter from Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, alerting the F.B.I. director that a former Yale classmate of Justice Kavanaugh's might be able to corroborate a story about a raucous dorm party in 1983.

The bureau failed to follow up. Above Justice Kavanaugh, right, with Justice Neil Gorsuch in at the Capitol in February.

One of the new books, excerpted by The Times Sunday Review this weekend, revealed a third allegation of sexual misconduct. Jim Dao, The Times's deputy editorial page editor, answered readers' questions about the editorial process behind its publication.

Hazem Bader/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

5. Israelis make a big choice.

They're voting Tuesday in the country's second election in five months. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to gather a coalition last time, and is still facing possible indictment on accusations of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

So he's fighting — again — for his political life. Polls indicate a tight race between his conservative Likud party and the Blue and White party, led by the former military chief Benny Gantz.

In the U.S. presidential race, Elizabeth Warren picked up a key endorsement and holds a rally in New York tonight, and President Trump has a rally in Albuquerque.

Lexey Swall for The New York Times

6. The Fed appears poised to cut interest rates.

The central bank is anxious to counter risks from a global slowdown and from trade wars, and is under immense political pressure from President Trump.

But the rate cut it's expected to announce on Wednesday — to a range of 1.75 percent to 2 percent — would remain far above Mr. Trump's push for zero or negative interest rates. And even that could provoke discord among Federal Reserve officials.

The Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, has so far said only that the bank will do what is needed to sustain the expansion. July's rate cut was the first in more than a decade.

Miguel Medina/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

7. New trade targets: Wine and whisky.

The U.S. is preparing to impose tariffs on up to $25 billion worth of European products, which could raise prices on imports like wine, fish, Parmesan cheese, and Irish and Scotch whisky, as well as leather purses, carpets, clocks and airplanes.

European officials said that the World Trade Organization would grant the U.S. the necessary permission for tariffs during the week of Sept. 30. It will be the final ruling in a 15-year-old conflict over Europe's subsidies to the plane maker Airbus.

And Europe is preparing to hit back when the organization rules next year on a parallel claim that the U.S. illegally subsidizes Boeing, raising the prospect of another trade battle dragging down global economic growth.

Hilary Swift for The New York Times

8. Another blow against student debt.

Cornell University is the latest to make its medical school free for all students who qualify for financial aid. That means tuition, books, housing and food. Above, the students celebrated the news.

The aim is to make sure the students at New York City's Weill Cornell Medicine — where a single year costs more than $90,000 — have the financial freedom to choose family medicine and pediatrics, rather than being forced by debt into more lucrative specialties

Medical schools at Columbia, U.C.L.A. and N.Y.U. have enacted similar programs, and Democratic presidential candidates and prominent citizens have floated other ambitious plans to make higher education debt-free.

William Mullins, via Alamy

9. The decline of king salmon.

In the 1950s, some 45,000 to 50,000 spring-summer Chinook salmon spawned in the Columbia River basin in the U.S. Northwest. These days, the average is about 1,500 fish and declining.

The greatest impact comes from eight large dams that have warmed the waters and blocked migration routes. Now, many groups and scientists are urging that four of the dams be removed to keep the fish from being lost — and with them, the orcas that survive on them.

"These fish have maybe four generations left before they are gone," one fisheries research scientist said. "Maybe 20 years."

Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

10. A new era of The Far Side is coming.

Gary Larson's surrealistic, single-panel comic ran from 1980 to 1995, becoming a cultural phenomenon with a familiar cast of characters — cave men, cows, dogs and other anthropomorphic figures. Above, Mr. Larson in 1985.

Mr. Larson's teasing website is short on details, showing only a drawing of a thawing block of ice encasing his characters and promising, "Uncommon, unreal, and (soon-to-be) unfrozen."

Have a phantasmagorical evening.

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