jtrent238 test blog: Evening Briefing: A damning report on Louisville police

March 8, 2023

By Matthew Cullen

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

A memorial to Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., in 2020.Xavier Burrell for The New York Times

1. The Justice Department found a pattern of discriminatory policing in Louisville.

A two-year investigation, prompted by the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by the police in 2020, detailed a variety of serious abuses by the Louisville Metro Police Department including excessive force, searches based on invalid warrants, unlawful car stops and broad patterns of discrimination against Black people and people with behavioral health problems.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, appearing in Louisville alongside the city's mayor and acting police chief, announced an agreement to overhaul policing practices he said had led to systemic discrimination against Black people, including Taylor.

Justice Department investigators interviewed hundreds of officers and community members and reviewed body camera video from dozens of officers in the 1,000-member department. Garland said investigators found instances of blatant racism against Black Louisville residents, including the disproportionate use of traffic stops in Black neighborhoods and the use of racist epithets like "monkey," "animal" and "boy."

The Louisville investigation is one of several so-called pattern-or-practice investigations into potentially discriminatory policing around the country that have been opened under Garland.

In other policing news, a judge in Memphis delayed the release of roughly 20 hours of additional video and audio from the night five officers brutally beat Tyre Nichols. The footage had been scheduled to be made public this afternoon.

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The International Criminal Court was created two decades ago in part to investigate war crimes.Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

2. The Pentagon is blocking the Biden administration from sharing evidence of Russian atrocities with the Hague court.

American military leaders oppose helping the International Criminal Court investigate Russians because they fear setting a precedent that might help pave the way for future prosecutions of Americans, according to officials briefed on the matter. The rest of the administration, including intelligence agencies and the State and Justice Departments, favors sharing the evidence with the court, but President Biden has yet to resolve the impasse.

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The evidence in question is said to include material about decisions by Russian officials to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and to abduct thousands of Ukrainian children from occupied territory.

In other news from the war, Russia lacks the resources to make major territorial gains in Ukraine this year and could shift to a hold-and-defend strategy, the top U.S. intelligence official said.

Robert Redfield, former C.D.C. director, testified during today's hearing.T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

3. Lawmakers questioned the prevailing theories about Covid's origin.

In the first public hearing held by the House panel investigating the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans and their witnesses made an aggressive case that the virus may have been the result of a laboratory leak — a notion that has become the subject of intense political and scientific debate.

While some scientists argue that the virus most likely jumped from animals to humans through a natural spillover, the lab-leak hypothesis was thrust into the spotlight again last month when the U.S. Energy Department concluded with "low confidence" that an accidental leak was most likely the cause.

For more: Here's what we know, and don't know, about Covid's origins.

President Biden faces pressure from Republicans to make steep cuts in federal spending.Pete Marovich for The New York Times

4. President Biden's budget proposal aims to trim the deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years.

Biden's spending plan, which will be unveiled tomorrow, is expected to use tax hikes on corporations and high earners, along with some spending reductions, to significantly reduce the federal deficit. The proposal is Biden's most serious embrace of the politics of debt reduction amid a brewing fight with Republicans over raising the nation's borrowing limit.

Republicans are expected to oppose the plan, and have said they will propose their own later this spring. Some of the most conservative lawmakers in the House want to gut the nation's foreign aid budget and make deep cuts to health care, food assistance and housing programs.

In other political news, the Biden administration criticized Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, over his portrayal of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Scientists used a laser to trigger chemical reactions in experiments on superconductors.Lauren Petracca for The New York Times

5. A tantalizing advance toward superconductors.

Scientists announced the creation of a material that could effortlessly convey electricity in everyday conditions, which could lead to a superconductor that works at room temperature. Previously known superconductors, which carry electricity with essentially zero resistance, had to be kept at unearthly, ultracold temperatures.

Such a breakthrough could radically transform almost any technology that uses electricity and open up new possibilities for phones, levitating trains and fusion power plants. But the research comes from a team that faces wide skepticism. In 2020, it retracted a paper on a similar topic after other scientists questioned some of the data.

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A patient from the U.S. being taken for bariatric surgery at a hospital in Tijuana, Mexico.Guillermo Arias/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

6. Is traveling abroad for medical care worth the risk?

Four Americans traveled to a Mexican border town last week so that one of them could get a tummy tuck. The four were kidnapped and two were later found dead.

Every year, millions of Americans make a similar decision to travel outside the U.S. for cheaper pharmaceuticals and surgical procedures. Experts warned of real risks of getting treatment abroad: For example, someone who receives improper medical care may have little or no legal recourse.

In other international news, women in Afghanistan have seen 20 years of progress unravel since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Here's how their lives have changed.

"Losing the Yeezy business is so hard," Bjorn Gulden, the Adidas chief executive, said.Heiko Becker/Reuters

7. Adidas is still deciding what to do with $1.3 billion worth of Yeezys.

The sportswear giant is trying to reposition itself after it ended its once-lucrative partnership with Kanye West last year over a series of antisemitic remarks made by the rapper, now known as Ye.

The company had decided to continue producing the Yeezy products that were in the pipeline when the contract with West was severed, to prevent thousands of people involved from losing their jobs. Now Adidas is debating what to do with its pile of sneakers and other sportswear, including possibly selling them and donating the profits "to do something good."

In other business news, job openings fell in January and layoffs rose.

From left, Mike Farrell, Loretta Swit and Alan Alda in "M*A*S*H," which ran from 1972 to 1983.Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

8. Two "M*A*S*H" stars stepped into their roles for the first time in 40 years, with a script written by A.I.

Alan Alda and Mike Farrell briefly sat for a table read of their old roles of Hawkeye Pierce and B.J. Hunnicutt, two bantering doctors in a Korean War mobile surgical unit, to test out whether ChatGPT could write a scene for the show. (You can take a listen here.)

Did it work?

Not quite. The scene, centered around Hawkeye accusing B.J. of stealing his boxer shorts, lacked the snappy humor and lively dialogue that "M*A*S*H" was famous for. "It has a terrible sense of humor," Alda said of the artificial intelligence software.

In related news, chatbots have ignited a scramble in the technology industry to determine whether they could upend the economics of the internet.

And in Opinion, Noam Chomsky wrote about the false promise of ChatGPT.

Simbarashe Cha for The New York Times

9. What to do tonight:

Style: Many of the biggest names in fashion agree: You're going to want a big black coat.

Cook: Doria — a meal reminiscent of a gratin — is a Japanese dish that is both filling and comforting.

Upgrade: The iPhone's standard weather app has gotten a lot better.

Heal: Here's how to set boundaries with a difficult family member.

Play: Today's Spelling Bee.

Clean: We tested 28 dish soaps. Here's the best one.

Or don't: A wave of young adults are embracing their clutter.

Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel, via Tribune News Service, via Getty Images

10. And finally, a run on Girl Scout cookies.

The Raspberry Rally — a crispy raspberry-flavored cookie coated in chocolate, which was released last week — has already become one of the country's most sought-after snack foods. Just a few hours after the cookies became available, customers bought out the entire supply.

Now, as cookie fans look for a way to get their hands on the new flavor, resellers are charging as much as $30 for boxes that typically sell for $5. The Girl Scouts' national organization said it was "disappointed" to see unauthorized resales of a cookie whose sales are intended to fund troop activities.

Have a wildly popular evening.

Brent Lewis compiled photos for this briefing.

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