jtrent238 test blog: Evening Briefing: Donald Trump’s plans for Jan. 6

July 12, 2022

By Remy Tumin

Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Tuesday.

Protesters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Jason Andrew for The New York Times

1. New details about Donald Trump's plans for Jan. 6 emerge.

The former president planned to lead a march of his angry supporters to the Capitol that day but wanted it to look spontaneous, people involved in the plans told the House committee investigating the riot.

After a Jan. 2 phone call with Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, Trump's former spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson, sent an email to fellow organizers saying that the president's expectation was to "call on everyone to march to the Capitol."

And in never-before-seen text messages, Brad Parscale, Trump's former campaign manager, told Pierson to accept that Trump's rhetoric unleashed violence that led to the death of one of his supporters. "A sitting president asking for civil war," Parscale wrote. "This week I feel guilty for helping him win."

The committee also described "the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency," in which advisers proposed an executive order to have the military seize voting machines in crucial states Trump had lost.

Nearly half of Republican primary voters prefer someone other than Donald Trump for president in 2024, a New York Times/Siena College poll shows.

Behind the curtain of dust and gas in these "cosmic cliffs" are baby stars, now uncovered by Webb.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

2. The James Webb Space Telescope is revealing the cosmos as never before.

NASA revealed a stunning series of images from the largest and most powerful space observatory ever built, including an exploded star, a star nursery, a distant planet and some of the faintest objects ever observed in infrared. See the unforgettable scenes.

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Astronomers believe the spacecraft will help them understand more about black holes, how stars are born and die, and the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars. It may even give us a glimpse back in time — close to the Big Bang. (Here's how.)

Elon Musk at the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany, last March.Patrick Pleul/Pool via REUTERS

3. Twitter is taking Elon Musk to court.

The social platform sued Musk in Chancery Court in Delaware to force him to complete his $44 billion purchase of the company, setting up a legal battle. Musk agreed in April to buy Twitter but said last week that he intended to walk away from the deal over disclosure issues.

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Musk signed a legally binding agreement with Twitter, which included a specific performance clause that allows the social media company to sue to force the deal through as long as the debt the billionaire has corralled for the acquisition is in place.

Many New Yorkers have shed their masks, even on the subway, where they are still required.Gabby Jones for The New York Times

4. New York is responding to a highly transmissible new wave of Covid infections with the most New York of attitudes: shrug.

New York City's Covid-19 test positivity rate is 15 percent, an intensity not seen since January. Transmission levels are high in every borough; even hospitalizations are rising again. But few New Yorkers, once among the most vigilant against the virus, seem inclined to get themselves into high alert mode again: "We know there's a pandemic, but we have to keep moving," one resident said.

As the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron continue to fuel a new wave of infections, re-infections and hospitalizations, the Biden administration is considering expanding the eligibility for second coronavirus booster shots to adults under 50.

Vladimir Putin's visit to Iran would be only his second trip abroad since he invaded Ukraine in February.Pool photo by Alexei Nikolsky

5. President Vladimir Putin of Russia will visit Tehran next week for meetings with the leaders of Iran and Turkey.

The trip is Putin's latest in a recent diplomatic spree aimed at building ties with non-Western countries. The goal is to shore up military and economic backing to counter the West's sanctions and its military assistance to Ukraine. The move comes after President Biden's national security adviser said that Russia was seeking surveillance drones from Iran.

The Biden administration and its allies are struggling to balance their priorities against Kyiv's demands. They are wary of sending too much equipment before Ukrainian soldiers can be trained.

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Through June, rents on new leases climbed by 14.1 percent across the country in 2022.Anna Watts for The New York Times

6. As the Fed raises interest rates to tame inflation, it could lock would-be home buyers into rentals and keep the hot rental market under pressure.

The move is pushing up mortgage costs, putting home purchases out of reach for many first-time buyers and boosting the skyrocketing rental market. The bump in rental demand could, ironically, make it more difficult for the central bank to wrestle inflation lower in the near term. Here's what else to know about the crazy housing market.

In other business news, the euro fell near parity with the dollar for the first time since 2002; that threshold is being watched closely by investors.

A family in Houston tried to stay cool last month.Brandon Bell/Getty Images

7. A blanket of dangerous heat and drought is settling over many parts of the world.

Dozens of cities in eastern and southern China issued heat alerts, with some temperature forecasts expected to exceed 104 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 24 hours; roofs melted and roads cracked. In northern Italy, a prolonged dry spell caused by increasingly dry winters, higher temperatures and less rain has put the fertile region's rice harvest and other crops at risk.

Texas' electricity regulator warned residents and businesses to reduce their power use as the heat index was forecast to soar as high as 112 degrees. We're tracking the heat wave here.

A wildfire in Yosemite National Park that has spread over 3,200 acres is threatening a grove of hundreds of giant sequoia trees, including some that are centuries old.

Brian Cox in HBO's "Succession." The dramedy picked up 25 Emmy nominations.HBO

8. And the 2022 Emmy nominees are …

"Succession," the HBO dramedy about a feuding media dynasty, landed 25 nominations, including best drama — the biggest haul of any show. The Apple TV+ comedy "Ted Lasso" picked up 20. "Ted Lasso" won last year for best comedy; this year it will face off against newcomers "Only Murders in the Building," which landed 17 nominations, and "Abbott Elementary."

Netflix landed three nominations in the best drama category, including for the smash hit "Stranger Things," the South Korean thriller "Squid Game" and the crime thriller "Ozark." "Squid Game" earned 14 nominations, the most ever for a foreign language show.

Here are the full list of nominees and the snubs and surprises, according to our critic. The awards show will be held in September.

The poet Ada Limón in the backyard of her home in Lexington, Ky.Carla Ciuffo for The New York Times

9. "Poetry is a way back in, to recognizing that we are feeling human beings."

The Library of Congress announced that Ada Limón will be the 24th poet laureate of the U.S. Limón, who has published six books, will follow Louise Glück, Juan Felipe Herrera, Robert Hass, Tracy K. Smith and others. The poet laureate has few required duties but is an ambassador for the form. Limón's melodic poems often touch on the natural world.

Elsewhere in the literary world, some surprising good news: Bookstores are booming, meeting a demand for "real recommendations from real people," as one bookseller put it.

If you're in need of a new book, don't forget the Book Review's summer reading list.

Pieces of porcelain and beeswax with Spanish markings have long washed ashore on the Oregon coast.Maritime Archaeological Society

10. And finally, treasure hunting pays off.

In July 1693, a large Spanish galleon veered off course during a trip from the Philippines to Acapulco, Mexico, and vanished. Some of the ship's cargo, including blue-and-white porcelain and beeswax with Spanish markings, has long washed ashore along the coast of what is now northern Oregon. But the mystery of its disappearance has endured.

The Beeswax Wreck, as it is known, is said to have inspired Steven Spielberg's story for "The Goonies," a 1985 film about a group of kids who search the Oregon coast for treasure from a 17th-century pirate ship. A local resident and fan of the film stumbled upon wooden timbers in 2019 that researchers now say are the first tangible remnants of the ship, the Santo Cristo de Burgos.

Have an adventurous night.

David Rosenberg and Brent Lewis compiled photos for this briefing.

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