Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

May 19, 2020

Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Hiroko Masuike

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Al Drago for The New York Times

1. The country’s top economic policymakers warned of irreparable damage from the coronavirus pandemic.

But in their virtual appearances before the Senate, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, above, and the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, took differing views on how to aid recovery.

Mr. Mnuchin said a swift reopening of states was the key to preventing irreversible economic damage, while Mr. Powell took a more cautious tone, suggesting that Congress, the White House and the Fed might need to provide more help to carry the nation through the pandemic.

The pandemic has plunged America into deep uncertainty, leaving towns across the country struggling to find their moorings. One sociology professor compared it to a “suspense film with no resolution.”

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Christopher Black/World Health Organization, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

2. The World Health Organization agreed to begin an inquiry into the global response to the pandemic. Above, W.H.O. headquarters in Geneva on Monday.

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The resolution calls for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the international response. But it fell short of detailing what the U.S. wanted, which was a thorough review of the Chinese origins of the virus and the W.H.O.’s actions.

President Trump threatened to permanently end U.S. funding for the W.H.O. unless it committed to “substantive improvements within the next 30 days.”

District Administration of Bhola, via Agence-France Press -- Getty Images

3. Elsewhere, in the world:

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from coastal areas along the Bay of Bengal before Cyclone Amphan, one of the most powerful storms in decades, makes landfall on Wednesday. Humanitarian workers are worried that with shelters packed, coronavirus infections could spread.
Just a week after many schools were reopened in France, the discovery of 70 coronavirus cases in classrooms across the country forced the authorities to shutter some preschools and elementary schools.

A new study found that more than 70 percent of coronavirus samples tested in Israel had a genetic tie to the U.S., calling into question the government’s delayed travel restrictions from there.

Jens Mortensen for The New York Times

4. Johnson & Johnson will end sales of talc-based baby powder in North America.

The company has faced nearly 20,000 lawsuits from cancer patients, who claim that its talc was contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen. Sales will wind down over the next few months, the company said.

In October, the company recalled 33,000 bottles of baby powder after the Food and Drug Administration said it discovered evidence of chrysotile asbestos, a carcinogen, in a bottle purchased from an online retailer. The company later said that multiple tests of the same bottle came up clean.

The Times previously investigated the allegations of people who had sued the company, on “The Weekly.”

Luke Sharrett for The New York Times

5. We’re beginning to learn what college life will look like in the fall.

Our higher education reporter listened in on two days of calls among leaders at the University of Kentucky, above, as they considered quarantine dorms, fever checks and regulating interactions between students. Similar discussions are taking place at almost every American college and university.

Notre Dame became the first major university to announce that it would reopen with in-person classes early, on Aug. 10, and skip fall break so that students could go home at Thanksgiving and not return. The University of South Carolina announced a similar schedule.

Ithaca College announced it would delay the start of classes to Oct. 5 to allow additional time to plan.

Audra Melton for The New York Times

6. There’s an unwritten rule that says a running mate must never openly campaign for the job. That seems to be changing.

Prospective vice-presidential candidates appear more and more to be shedding their fake reluctance — or at least not bothering to hide their ambition. Credit Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia candidate for governor, as a trailblazer, pictured above last June.

And on the campaign front, the twin brothers Rafael and Omar Rivero, immigrants from Mexico, are beating President Trump’s team on Facebook. Their group, Occupy Democrats, has emerged as a counterweight to right-wing meme machines.

via Suze Orman

7. Suze Orman is back to help you ride out the economic storm.

America’s favorite financial adviser was trying on retirement. Then came economic Armageddon. We talked to Ms. Orman from her home in the Bahamas, above, about credit cards, the federal response to the coronavirus and why her naysayer attitude still works.

Financial help isn’t the only subject people are struggling with. Sales of D.I.Y. books are surging during the pandemic. As one publisher noted, “These books are kind of like the canary in the coal mine when people are starting to feel insecure.”

Gordon Welters for The New York Times

8. Is this what’s to become of live music?

Forget arenas roiling with sweating, screaming fans. Temperature checks and masks were required at a Travis McCready concert in Fort Smith, Ark., and at least three empty seats separated every occupied one at a performance of Schubert and Mahler in Wiesbaden, Germany, above. Both shows carried heavy criticism.

And looking back, 20 years after Eminem released his second major-label album, “The Marshall Mathers LP” hits differently. But it’s still a vivid snapshot of music at the time, the music journalist Charles Aaron writes. Listen to the songs that came first, and the ones he inspired.

Emily Kask for The New York Times

9. The future of noninvasive archaeology may lie in the power of the canine nose.

Trained cadaver dogs, like Shiraz, above, have located the sites of mass graves, dating from World War II through the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s. They’re also helping archaeologists find ancient remains, from a necropolis in Croatia to a variety of Native American sites.

And a new study suggests that mother sea turtles are sneakier than they look. Researchers found that the turtles create decoy nests designed to fool predators like mongooses, dogs and wild pigs, preventing them from sniffing out the real nests and devouring their eggs.

10. And finally, locals rule the roost again.

What happens when the world hits pause on the most overtouristed destinations? It’s a bittersweet experience for the 11 people we talked to.

In the Galápagos, it feels as if time has rewound to a previous era; in Prague, it has been a relief to admire a bridge without selfie-stick-wielding Instagrammers; Bali, one person said, “is almost in a coma.”

“At first it was bizarre to be there without all those people,” said Gianluca Boscolo in Rome, above, “but as it sank in, it became a beautiful, new experience.”

Hope you find something to marvel at tonight.

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