Your Tuesday Evening Briefing
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Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Tuesday.
The site of the subway shooting in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times
1. A man opened fire on a subway train in Brooklyn during the morning rush. At least16 people were injured, 10 of them by gunfire.
The search for the gunman was being hampered by the fact that at least one security camera at the subway station that might have captured the scene had not been operating, Mayor Eric Adams said. Follow our live coverage.
At around 8:24 a.m., as the N train pulled into the 36th Street station in the Sunset Park neighborhood, a man put on a gas mask before releasing a smoke canister and firing shots that hit people both on the train and on the nearby platform.
The shooting set off a panic across New York City, coming just as officials are struggling to lure riders back to a public transit system that has been hobbled by the pandemic.
Also in New York, Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin was charged with bribery and fraud in an indictment that accuses him of directing a scheme to funnel illegal donations to his past political campaigns and cover up the criminal activity.
2. President Vladimir Putin said peace talks with Ukraine had reached a “dead end” and vowed that Russia’s war would succeed.
In his first extended comments on the war in nearly a month, Putin said there was “no doubt” Russia’s goals would be achieved. He also claimed that atrocities recently documented in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha were fake. Russia is pouring troops and equipment into eastern Ukraine as it shifts its wartime focus to the eastern Donbas region.
Adding to concerns of a possible escalation, the U.S., Britain and other allies said they were investigating an unconfirmed report that Russian forces had used a chemical agent in Mariupol, after a handful of people in the besieged city fell ill.
3. Consumer prices rose 8.5 percent in the year through March, reaching the fastest inflation rate since 1981.
Gas and diesel prices have become the leading driver of inflation, accounting for over half of the latest monthly increase. The most recent jump in energy costs has been directly tied to the war in Ukraine and the U.S. ban on Russian oil imports, which was announced in March and will go into full effect this month.
To lower gas prices, President Biden announced a suspension of a summertime ban on sales of higher-ethanol gasoline blends. Energy experts had predicted it would have only a marginal impact at the pump.
4. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be fined for breaking lockdown rules at Downing Street.
A police inquiry into the “partygate” scandal identified at least 50 breaches of the law during the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson is now in the uncomfortable position of being the only prime minister in living memory to have broken laws that he made himself.
Separately, the State Department has ordered all nonemergency consulate employees and their families to leave Shanghai as a lockdown aimed at containing a surge in Omicron coronavirus cases stretched into its second week.
And the world hit a grim pandemic milestone, with 500 million known coronavirus cases across the globe, despite a scaling back of official testing in many countries.
5. Tens of thousands of protesters are swarming Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo.
The demonstrators are clashing with security forces outside the ruling family’s official residences, demanding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa step down.
Public anger has been stirred by growing economic crises, which have led to inflation and food and electricity shortages. Sri Lanka suspended payments on its international debt today, effectively putting the island nation in default.
In other news from Asia, China’s president, Xi Jinping, is backing away from his campaign to promote wealth redistribution, which spooked the private sector, as he prepares to secure a third five-year term later in the year.
6. Republicans in several states are pushing L.G.B.T.Q. restrictions on classroom instruction, youth sports and health care, leavingsome young people feeling isolated.
While strictly political for some, it is hyper personal for others. Opponents of what they call the “Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida warn it may have a chilling effect on teachers and students, including on those who have relied on schools as a safe place to talk about personal issues.
The Human Rights Campaign said that in 2020, state legislatures introduced 79 bills that the group considered to be anti-transgender. In the first months of 2022, that number is already at 140.
To Democrats and some Republicans, the legislative pushes on these issues amount to an effort to inflame the G.O.P. base at all costs — even when it means children and their families see their governments singling them out.
7. Yelp will cover the expenses for its employees who travel out of state for abortions.
Yelp is the latest company to respond to laws such as the one Texas recently passed making abortion illegal after about six weeks of pregnancy. Uber and Lyft said they would pay legal fees for Texas drivers if they’re sued for taking someone to an abortion clinic.
Citigroup said it would pay travel costs for employees affected by the Texas law, though a Texas lawmaker threatened to retaliate by introducing a bill to bar local governments from doing business with Citigroup and other companies that provide abortion benefits.
In other business news, tech companies are going all out to draw employees back to the office: Google planned a private show by Lizzo, Microsoft offered classes for making terrariums and Qualcomm scheduled group fitness classes.
8. For these tuxedoed birds, location matters.
Life’s not easy if you’re an Adélie penguin on the Antarctic Peninsula’s western side. It’s warming faster than almost anywhere on earth, diminishing the krill supply, the birds’ sole food source. Adélie populations have declined by up to 90 percent in some spots, and a researcher there called it a “complete train wreck.”
But it’s a different story on the eastern side, fronting the frigid Weddell Sea. Adélie populations there are healthy and stable, at the levels they were two decades ago. That means the eastern peninsula could be an important refuge for the birds. The Weddell Sea itself has been proposed as a marine protected area under the Antarctic Treaty, further safeguarding the Adélies.
In other polar news, a group of donors including MacKenzie Scott has pledged $41 million for a six-year project to understand how thawing permafrost affects global warming and to help Arctic communities adapt.
9. A beach town on Mexico’s Pacific Coast is a haven for the L.G.B.T.Q. community. But can it last?
For decades, Zipolite has been a popular destination for the queer community, which has been drawn to its bohemian spirit and one of Mexico’s rare nude beaches.
But the town is starting to transform: Foreigners are snatching up land, hotels are multiplying, influencers are flocking to the beach, and many residents and visitors now fear that what once made Zipolite magical could be lost for good.
10. And finally, the mentalist who knew he’d break a running record.
And so he did. Oz Pearlman, also known as Oz the Mentalist, ran 116 miles, or 19 loops, around Central Park in a day. He began his run Friday at 6:05 a.m. and finished after dark, breaking a 2021 record of 16 laps in a day.
Pearlman ran dressed in Ukraine’s national colors to raise money for Ukrainian children. He did, to the tune of more than $100,000.
During breaks in Friday’s run, he took questions on Instagram. Asked if running helped his mentalism he responded: “Mentalism helps my running. If I can get inside your brain, I can get inside my own brain when I’m suffering, dig deep and keep running.”
Have a dauntless evening.
Anna Ruch and Eve Edelheit compiled photos for this briefing.
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