Your Thursday Evening Briefing

January 23, 2020

Your Thursday Evening Briefing

By remy tumin and marcus payadue

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

ChinaTopix, via Associated Press

1. Twenty million people are on lockdown as China tries to contain a deadly virus.

The authorities imposed strict travel restrictions on five cities, including Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak that has already spread to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and the United States. Above, a thermometer screening checkpoint near Wuhan.

Experts said the size of the lockdown was unprecedented. The respiratory virus has killed at least 18 people and sickened more than 600. The World Health Organization decided not to declare a global health emergency — yet. Several members thought it was “still too early,” the W.H.O. said in a statement.

U.S. health officials are investigating a second suspected case of the virus in Brazos County, Texas.

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Erin Schaff/The New York Times

2. Day 2 of the Senate impeachment trial.

House impeachment managers, above, focused their argument on the abuse-of-power charge against President Trump. They also made a strategic decision to home in on the actions of former Vice President Joe Biden his son Hunter Biden, a move Mr. Trump’s defenders jumped on. Here’s the latest.

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The managers and Mr. Trump’s defense team sit at curved tables built before President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. They were brought out of storage last week. Here’s a 3-D tour of how the Senate was transformed for this trial.

The ripple effects of the impeachment trial — and its strict rules — are being felt in Iowa, where senators campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination have put their campaign needs in the hands of their young field organizers and political surrogates.

Jim Brandenburg/Minden Pictures

3. The Trump administration removed pollution controls for streams and wetlands.

A new rule will allow landowners and property developers to dump pollutants such as pesticides and fertilizers directly into many waterways, and destroy or fill in wetlands for construction. Above, farmland abutting wetlands in North Dakota.

One lawyer described it as “the biggest loss of clean water protection the country has ever seen.”

In other regulatory moves, pregnant women may be denied visas if officials think they plan to give birth in the U.S. to make their babies citizens, the State Department said.

Pool photo by Abir Sultan

4. World leaders gathered in Jerusalem to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, in a demonstration of resolve to fight anti-Semitism.

The kings of Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, Britain’s Prince Charles and the presidents of Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Ukraine were among those leading nearly 50 delegations attending the events, which culminated with a visit to Yad Vashem, the hillside memorial to the Holocaust.

A formal ceremony at the former Nazi death camp is scheduled for Monday.

Our At War column is documenting lesser-known stories from World War II. The first dispatch is about a family who fled Nazi Germany just weeks before Adolf Hitler invaded Poland.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

5. Pope Francis replaced a conservative archbishop, a sign that the pontiff is still intent on changing the church’s ideological direction in the U.S.

Archbishop Charles Chaput, who was appointed to the position in Philadelphia by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, was often at odds with Francis’ mission to move beyond the culture wars. Above, Francis and the archbishop in 2015.

The move shifts one of its most traditionalist dioceses toward a more pastoral approach. Bishop Nelson Perez of Cleveland, a former Philadelphian and relative newcomer to the national scene, will assume the role.

John Adkisson/Reuters

6. Wells Fargo’s ex-C.E.O. agreed to a lifetime ban from banking and will pay $17.5 million over the bank’s fake account scandal — a rare case of a leader being held accountable for a bank’s misdeeds.

In addition to John Stumpf, two other former executives were also fined, and Wells Fargo’s chief federal regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said it would seek penalties against five others.

Wells Fargo’s pattern of foisting unwanted products and sham bank accounts on millions of customers erupted into public view in late 2016.

Richard Drew/Associated Press

7. Harvey Weinstein’s accusers are taking the stand for the first time at his long-awaited criminal trial.

The actress Annabella Sciorra fought back tears as she told a rapt courtroom, in excruciating detail, about the night she said the former movie producer raped her. The searing testimony in State Supreme Court in Manhattan is just the beginning; five more accusers are expected to testify that Mr. Weinstein attacked them.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

8. The Eli Manning era is officially over. Will he make the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

With the Giants quarterback, above in 2012, set to hold a news conference on Friday to confirm his retirement, the debate about his accomplishments, which has simmered for years, will have closure. Our reporter weighs the odds of his being enshrined in the Hall.

Looking ahead to the next generation of greats, we previewed the rematch between Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open on Friday and detailed the much-anticipated N.B.A. debut of Zion Williamson. A blitz of 17 points in about three minutes showed flashes of a bright future.

Don Arnold/Getty Images

9. Lizzo has eight Grammy nominations, a performance slot during the awards show and the devotion of fiercely loyal fans (here’s looking at you, Lizzbians).

What’s behind the Lizzo moment? Our music and culture critics discuss.

“What’s exhilarating about her as an artist: She’s got nerve,” says Wesley Morris. “And the nerve is what’s made her a hit.”

Leeds Teaching Hospitals/Leeds Museums and Galleries

10. And finally, a talking mummy.

Nesyamun was an Egyptian priest who lived in Thebes. Now, some 3,000 years into the afterlife, Nesyamun can once again be heard — sort of.

Scientists used a CT scanner to create a 3-D-printed version of the mummy’s mouth and throat, and combined it with an electronic larynx to make, as one researcher put it, “the sound that would come out of his vocal tract if he was in his coffin and his larynx came to life again.”

Their work may lay the groundwork for recreating and listening to an ancient person’s voice

Listen to it here. (Spoiler alert: It sounds like what you think a mummy would sound like.)

Have an animated night.

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