Your Monday Evening Briefing

June 15, 2020

Your Monday Evening Briefing

By Victoria Shannon and Hiroko Masuike

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

1. The Supreme Court handed gay and transgender workers a stunning victory.

The court ruled that the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects them from workplace discrimination, in a decision that affects millions of people.

Until today’s ruling, it was legal in more than half of the states to fire workers for being gay, bisexual or transgender.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, wrote for the 6-to-3 majority that the decision had a narrow scope: “We do not purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms or anything else of the kind.”

It was the latest in a swift series of legal and political advances for L.G.B.T.Q. Americans, our reporters write in an analysis. Above, Tiffany Munroe waving a pride flag in Brooklyn on Sunday during a march.

The court separately turned down an appeal from the Trump administration seeking to challenge a California “sanctuary law” regarding undocumented immigrants.

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George Frey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

2. The F.D.A. withdrew approval of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for treating the coronavirus.

Saying that the malaria drugs are “unlikely to be effective,” the agency ended the emergency authorization it gave in March.

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The drugs were heavily promoted by President Trump after a handful of studies suggested that they could work in treating Covid-19. Several trials of hydroxychloroquine, which Mr. Trump said he took, are still underway.

In other developments:

Charter schools, including some with cash balances and billionaire backers, have accepted millions of dollars in coronavirus relief from a fund to help struggling small businesses. Charter schools are publicly funded but privately run.
Some residential compounds in Beijing were under lockdown and tens of thousands of people were tested as the government rushed to contain a new cluster of coronavirus infections.
Next year’s Oscars ceremony was pushed back to April 25 because of the pandemic. The eligibility window for films was extended to Feb. 28, 2021, from Dec. 31, 2020.

The Times is providing free access to much of our coronavirus coverage, and our Coronavirus Briefing newsletter — like all of our newsletters — is free. Please consider supporting our journalism with a subscription.

Dustin Chambers/Getty Images

3. A decision is due by midweek on whether to file criminal charges in the fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks.

The district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., told CNN that possible charges against the officer involved included murder, felony murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Mr. Brooks’s family, in an emotional news conference, said their loss, like those of other families of people killed by the police, should be an impetus for systemic change. Above, Mr. Brooks’s widow, Tomika Miller, holds one of her daughters at the news conference.

Illustration by Emily Haasch; Photographs by Getty Images

4. Russian trolls are exploiting unwitting Americans to sow discord.

After targeting U.S. elections, Russian social media accounts are now amplifying the American-made conspiracy theory that Covid-19 is a bioweapon.

The trolls have concluded it is far easier to identify divisive content from real Americans and spread it instead of creating their own material.

“The Kremlin doesn’t need to make fake news anymore,” an information warfare expert said. “It’s all American-made.”

Yamam Al Shaar/Reuters

5. Syria’s president faces threats that he cannot bomb his way out of.

President Bashar al-Assad, who has mostly won Syria’s civil war, now must overcome an economic crisis that has impoverished his people and brought about a currency collapse. Above, a poster of the president hanging in a butcher shop in Damascus.

The government is so strapped that it is squeezing businessmen for funds, a move that prompted open criticism from a tycoon who is a member of Mr. al-Assad’s inner circle.

The rare public rift suggests a weakening of Mr. al-Assad’s power, and American economic sanctions that start Wednesday are likely to make matters worse.

Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

6. A Moscow court sentenced an American to 16 years in jail on spy charges.

Russian prosecutors claimed that Paul Whelan, a former Marine, was an officer with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

He and his family have described the charges as a tool to increase his value in a potential trade for Russians held in the U.S. Above, Mr. Whelan in a defendant’s cage during the hearing today.

John Sullivan, the American ambassador to Russia, told journalists that the closed proceedings were “a mockery of justice” and that Mr. Whelan had been “horribly mistreated” in prison.

Ben Solomon for The New York Times

7. The U.S. Open will go ahead, without the fans.

The United States Tennis Association is set to announce this week that it will hold the 2020 tournament in New York on its original dates, Aug. 31 to Sept. 13, but without spectators, sources said.

Even if the tournament is confirmed, the path of the virus, global travel restrictions and government oversight may still scuttle the plans. Above, last year’s U.S. Open.

The field may also be thinner than usual. The men’s No. 1 player, Novak Djokovic, has criticized restrictions put in place as “extreme,” and the women’s No. 1, the Australian Ashleigh Barty, has said she was uncertain about committing to play.

Also, W.N.B.A. players ratified a plan to play a 22-game season, beginning in late July, along with a full playoff schedule, in Bradenton, Fla.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

8. A tell-all book by a Trump relative is coming.

Mary Trump, a niece of the president, will release the book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” on July 28, according to the publisher, Simon & Schuster.

This would be the first time that the president could be forced to grapple with unflattering revelations by a member of his own family.

Ms. Trump, 55, is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., the president’s older brother, who died in 1981.

Bobby Doherty for The New York Times

9. What’s up with Jon Stewart?

Today’s political and social conflict seems rich fodder for the 16-year host of “The Daily Show,” but since he left the air in 2015 he’s been mostly out of the spotlight.

Now he’s back. “Irresistible,” a comedy he wrote and directed that takes shots at both political parties, premieres on June 26.

In a one-on-one interview, The Times Magazine concludes that being away from the grind of a daily TV show has expanded, rather than shrunk, Stewart’s satirical powers.

Brent Underwood

10. And finally, Brent Underwood lives alone in a ghost town.

There are some 3,800 ghost towns in the U.S. Some languish as ruins, others are national parks.

Mr. Underwood got stuck because of the pandemic in one of them that he plans to convert into a vacation resort, the old silver mining town of Cerro Gordo, Calif., near Death Valley.

He’s come to believe it is truly haunted: “The longer I’m here the more things happen to me that I can’t explain. I was a firm nonbeliever prior to purchasing the property.”

Have a phantasmagoric evening.

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

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