jtrent238 test blog: Evening Briefing: Russia pours fighters into Bakhmut

January 31, 2023

By Matthew Cullen and Daniel E. Slotnik

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

Russia and Ukraine are each believed to be preparing for larger offensives in the spring.Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

1. Russia is pouring fighters into the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in an attempt to gain Moscow's first significant victory in months.

The eastern city has become an epicenter of the war, and its importance is growing as both sides have added forces to the battle. Part of Moscow's strategy appears to be to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses with waves of soldiers into the city, which President Vladimir Putin sees as key to seizing the entire Donbas area in the east.

That approach would be a departure from Russia's summer campaigns in Luhansk Province, in which artillery pounded cities for weeks before Russia launched a sustained ground offensive. After suffering battlefield setbacks in the south and northeast last fall, the Kremlin appears so intent on securing a victory that it is willing to accept high casualty counts, Ukrainian officials said.

In other news from the war, the U.S. State Department told Congress that Russia was not complying with the only nuclear arms control treaty remaining between the two nations, jeopardizing a source of stability in their relationship.

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Speaker Kevin McCarthy called the White House's refusal to bargain over the debt limit "childish."Kenny Holston/The New York Times

2. Washington appears stuck in a partisan standoff over the debt limit.

Congressional Republicans, who are demanding that Democrats agree to spending cuts in exchange for a vote to lift the borrowing cap, have repeatedly declined to say what specific cuts they are seeking.

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President Biden, who has said he would not negotiate over the debt limit, is set to meet with Speaker Kevin McCarthy tomorrow at the White House to discuss budget priorities. White House officials said that Biden would ask McCarthy for details on his party's demands for budget cuts and seek assurances that Republicans would not accept an economically debilitating government default.

In other news from Washington, the F.B.I. searched a think tank founded by Biden in mid-November — after his aides discovered a small cache of classified documents there earlier that month.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, visited Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader.Pool photo by Ronaldo Schemidt

3. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian leadership amid a surge in attacks.

Blinken visited the occupied West Bank to meet with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. The secretary of state called for a defusing of the violence that has gripped the region in recent weeks and conceded that Palestinians face dwindling prospects in their larger struggle for independence.

In Israeli politics, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being tugged by competing forces: His domestic political partners who want him to annex the West Bank and his global allies, like the U.S., that are pushing him toward moderation.

In other international news, Pope Francis landed in the Democratic Republic of Congo today. The nation is wracked by war, poverty and environmental plunder — and may be the future of the Catholic Church.

Life in China is slowly returning to normal.Alex Plavevski/EPA, via Shutterstock

4. The Covid wave in China seems to have passed.

When China abandoned its strict "zero Covid" policy, many feared a prolonged tsunami of infections. Now, just two months later, the worst seems to have receded.

Doctors who were mobilized across the country to treat a rush of Covid cases said that the number of patients they're seeing has fallen. Towns and villages that had hunkered down under the surge of infections and funerals are stirring to life.

The country has officially reported nearly 79,000 Covid-related deaths in hospitals since Dec. 8, but researchers say that figure is likely a drastic undercount.

In the U.S., the Biden administration plans to let the coronavirus public health emergency expire in May.

Support for Donald Trump has eroded, but the former president still remains a force in the Republican Party.Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

5. Donald Trump's playbook may not deflect his latest legal woes.

For decades, Trump has fended off his foes with a mixture of defiance, counterattacks, bluffs and delays. But the former president's familiar tactics appear less successful than ever, as investigations and court proceedings against him grind on.

Trump has experienced regular reversals in court in recent months, even as he begins his campaign for another term in the White House. And he is concerned about facing a criminal charge, according to people who have spoken with him, something he has worked to avoid since the late 1970s.

Separately, Chief Justice John Roberts's wife has made millions recruiting lawyers to prominent law firms, some of which have business before the court. Now, one of her former colleagues claims that her recruiting work may pose ethics issues.

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New York's mayor has vowed to create a more affordable city to stem the "hemorrhaging of Black and brown families."Nicole Craine for The New York Times

6. Black families are leaving New York City.

The Black population in the city has declined by nearly 200,000 people in the past two decades, or about 9 percent. The drop is starkest among the youngest New Yorkers: The number of Black children and teenagers fell more than 19 percent from 2010 to 2020, and the decline is continuing. One factor many families note as a key reason for leaving New York is that raising a family has become too expensive.

The exodus could transform the fabric of New York. It has alarmed Black leaders as well as economists who point to labor shortages in industries where Black workers have traditionally been overrepresented.

Separately, a new study found that Black taxpayers are at least three times as likely to be audited by the I.R.S. as other taxpayers.

The Boeing factory in Everett, Wash., is generally regarded as the world's largest building by volume.Jovelle Tamayo for The New York Times

7. The last 747 has left the factory.

With a distinctive hump, Boeing's massive airplane helped make air travel more affordable for the masses. The 747, which is perhaps the most widely recognizable commercial airplane ever built, will still likely frequent runways for decades to come, but this afternoon the manufacturer handed over the last 747 it will ever make.

The plane has been supplanted by smaller, more efficient two-engine airplanes that can now fly longer distances. Take a look at the 747's influential history.

Ganni's spring/summer 2023 fashion show. Simon Birk/Ganni

8. Can fashion weeks become environmentally friendly?

For decades, the famous runway extravaganzas — in Paris, Milan, New York and elsewhere — have been wasteful. One 15-minute presentation can take six months to create before much of it is tossed into the garbage.

But organizers of Copenhagen Fashion Week, which begins this week, are trying to change that with a series of strict regulations: Designers at the event must use recycled textiles and brands are required to meet standards for labor practices. The organizers are trying to set a new industry standard in a business that is largely self-governed.

The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program was classified until the early 1990s. Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York Times

9. Geriatric dolphins could teach humans about aging.

For more than half a century, the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program in California has trained bottlenose dolphins to locate underwater mines and recover submerged objects. The program's veterinarians have consequently found themselves caring for an increasingly aged population of animals.

The Navy plans to eventually phase the program out. But until it ends, scientists are studying how the animals age and have found that dolphins can develop brain lesions that look similar to those in people with Alzheimer's, which could make them a useful model for studying the disease.

In other cetacean news, a new study found that dolphins off the coast of Brazil who help human fishermen live longer than those that don't.

Heather Black for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Frances Boswell.

10. And finally, the quest for a better frozen pizza.

The challenge of making a pizza is to cook each ingredient to peak deliciousness at once. When ice and shipping are added to the equation, fresh mozzarella can become clumpy and crusts might be soggy.

But in the last five years frozen pies have gone from a last resort to pieces of culinary craft. New freezing technology and affordable express shipping have made it possible for pizzas that are wood-fired, hand-pulled and made with Italian ingredients to slide into freezers.

To see how far the art of making frozen pizza has come, our colleagues from Food taste-tested 11 nationally available premium frozen pies. The differences among the pies were astounding.

Have a flavorful night.

Brent Lewis compiled photos for this briefing.

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