jtrent238 test blog: Evening Briefing: U.N. calls for peace in Ukraine

February 23, 2023

By Matthew Cullen

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

Workers reinforce protective sandbags at a checkpoint in Kyiv, Ukraine, today.Emile Ducke for The New York Times

1. Ukraine is bracing for a symbolic "revenge" attack on the war's anniversary.

President Volodymyr Zelensky advised residents to brace for new Russian attacks timed to the first anniversary of Russia's initial full-scale invasion, which is tomorrow. Ukraine's schools are already holding classes remotely and locals have been told to avoid large gatherings. We will have updates as dawn approaches in Kyiv.

Tied to the one-year mark, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a lasting peace in Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russia's troops. It passed overwhelmingly, with 141 votes in favor, 7 votes against and 32 abstentions — including China, Iran and India.

The vote was a demonstration of the new, fragmented global order, unlike the landscape the West had hoped for when Russia first invaded. Instead, a vast middle — countries neither in the solid Western coalition or among the handful of close allies of Russia — sees Russia's invasion as primarily a European and American problem.

In other news from the war, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group has feuded with Russia's military leaders, undermining President Vladimir Putin's push for unity.

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"Once I lied," Alex Murdaugh testified in court today, "I continued to lie."Pool photo by Grace Beahm Alford

2. Alex Murdaugh admitted to lying and stealing, but denied murder.

Murdaugh, a prominent South Carolina lawyer who is charged with the murder of his wife and son, admitted in court today that he had lied to investigators about his whereabouts on the night of the killing, blaming paranoia from his addiction to painkillers. But he insisted that he was innocent.

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If you're just now hearing about the accusations against Murdaugh, here's what led up to the trial, as well as a timeline of the nearly two-year investigation.

In other legal news, the movie producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison for committing sex crimes in Los Angeles.

Also, the singer R. Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes.

A snowy highway in Minneapolis today.Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

3. A snowstorm knocked out power to more than 900,000 people in the Upper Midwest.

More than 820,000 of the outages were reported in Michigan, where significant ice accumulated on trees and power lines over the past day. A volunteer firefighter from the state's Paw Paw Fire Department died because of the storm, local officials said.

Here are maps of the expected snowfall.

In Southern California, forecasters are expecting wind gusts of 55 to 75 miles per hour tomorrow and up to seven feet of snow. Officials there warned that the storm could make mountain roads unpassable.

For more: We examined whether heat pumps can really handle the cold.

Norfolk Southern, the train operator, has faced the wrath of residents and lawmakers over the derailment.Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

4. A new report detailed the moments leading up to the train derailment in Ohio.

The crew tried to slow the freight train moments before it derailed in the outskirts of the small town of East Palestine this month, causing a fire and the release of toxic chemicals that the train had been carrying, federal investigators found. The crew was reacting to an audible alarm set off by an overheating wheel bearing.

While the wheel bearing had steadily been heating up as the train traveled through Ohio, the alarm did not go off until a sensor registered that the wheel had reached 253 degrees above the ambient temperature.

Workers pour concrete for a wind turbine in Nebraska in 2020.Walker Pickering for The New York Times

5. The U.S. provided billions for low-carbon projects. Good luck plugging them in.

After years of breakneck growth, the volume of large-scale solar, wind and battery projects is proving too great for the country's antiquated electric grid.

At the end of 2021, more than 8,100 energy projects were waiting for permission to connect into the dozens of networks that move electricity to homes and business. Plans to install 3,000 acres of solar panels in Kentucky and Virginia are delayed for years; wind farms in Minnesota and North Dakota have been abruptly canceled; and the nation's largest grid operator announced a freeze on new applications until 2026.

For more on the climate: Just how good for the world is that huge electric pickup truck?

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Students led worship inside a chapel on the campus of Asbury University.Jesse Barber for The New York Times

6. "Woodstock" for Christians.

Over the past couple weeks, more than 50,000 people have made a pilgrimage to a tiny Christian college in Kentucky for what some scholars are describing as the nation's first major spiritual revival of the 21st century.

Drawn by viral posts on TikTok and Instagram, plus old-fashioned word of mouth, Christians from across the country poured into a chapel on the campus of Asbury University to pray and sing until the wee hours of the morning, leaving only when volunteers closed the chapel at 1 a.m. to clean it for the next day.

However, the nonstop, unplanned event has put a strain on the campus. Administrators, seeking to wind down the disruption, said that tomorrow would be its final day.

New York City's Chinatown in March 2020, early in the Covid pandemic.Ashley Gilberton/VII, for The New York Times

7. How do you think about the pandemic?

We all just lived through an extraordinary time. Now three years into the coronavirus pandemic, we've all experienced the bewildering, time-altering swirl of isolation, loss, fear, hope and uncertainty. But most of us still don't know how to talk about it.

The writer Jon Mooallem noticed that time and time again when he immersed himself into a Covid oral-history project, listening to the accounts of hundreds of people and realizing that we're still missing a narrative.

Here's what he learned during that process.

The cover of Issue 193 of Clarkesworld magazine.Daniel Conway, via Clarkesworld

8. Magazines have been flooded by a deluge of A.I.-generated sci-fi.

The editors of three science fiction magazines said this week that their publishing processes were upended by an enormous flow of stories that appeared to be written not by a human, but by a chatbot equipped with artificial intelligence.

One of the magazines, Clarkesworld, stopped accepting new stories after receiving 500 machine-written submissions — "bad in spectacular ways" — in just a few weeks, the editor said.

For more: China's A.I. ambitions face government hurdles.

Striped bodysuit and red kabuki boots worn by David Bowie for a tour. Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

9. David Bowie, and his personas, will live on at a museum in London.

Tens of thousands of items from the star's musical career, which for many redefined the essence of cool, will be housed at a new David Bowie Center for the Study of Performing Arts at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The center is set to open in 2025.

Beyond 70,000 images of Bowie, the collection includes letters, sheet music, original costumes, fashion, film, music videos, set designs, instruments, album artwork, awards, and of course, fashion.

In other arts news, a new TV show is testing whether contestants can paint like Vermeer.

Some 3,300 workers in Britain participated in a trial of a four-day workweek.Sam Bush for The New York Times

10. And finally, what if the workweek ended today?

For many decades, office workers have spent Monday through Friday on the job, while taking off the weekends. But is that best, or just what we've always done?

In Britain, 61 companies offered employees a four-day workweek to see if it improved moral and productivity. Researchers found that both employers and employees noticed benefits — attrition dropped while productivity remained steady — and nearly every company decided to continue offering the shortened week.

Have a leisurely night.

Elizabeth Bristow compiled photos for this briefing.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

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