Vaccines, Georgia, Beverly Cleary: Your Friday Evening Briefing
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. States are racing to vaccinate as many people as possible as the coronavirus infection curve continues its plateau for a third week.
The expansion comes at a critical juncture. The U.S. is logging more than 54,000 new cases per day, a level that health experts warn could rapidly escalate into a new wave.
2. Donald Trump is gone from the White House, but Georgia’s crackdown on ballot access proves that his brand of politics remains a political force.
3. With the Suez Canal still blocked by one of the world’s largest container vessels, ships began rerouting around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, which could add weeks to a vessel’s journey.
There are growing signs that efforts to dislodge the ship, Ever Given, may take many days if not weeks. More than 100 vessels are stuck at either end of the canal, above, awaiting clear passage. The fact that one mishap could sow fresh chaos from Los Angeles to Rotterdam to Shanghai underscored the world’s reliance on vulnerable global supply chains.
4. We’re still learning more about the fallout from the crippling winter storm that hit Texas last month.
And as the frigid temperatures froze pipelines and triggered widespread blackouts, drilling companies in the state’s largest oil field were forced to burn off 1.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas in a single day — enough to power 10,000 homes for at least a year. As the state’s power plants went offline and pipelines froze, there was no place to send the gas coming out of the ground, and it had to be set ablaze.
5. Since enacting a national security law last June, the authorities in Hong Kong have moved to quash dissent in the political and educational spheres. Now they’re coming for the arts.
Pro-Beijing lawmakers have called for work by the dissident artist Ai Weiwei to be removed from the M+ museum, slated to open later this year, and a prominent lawmaker said the government should review parts of the museum’s collection, which she described as spreading “hatred” against China. State-owned newspapers have also urged the government to revoke funding from local arts organizations. Above, the temporary venue for M+ in 2017.
“It is possible that artists, especially those who are really critical of society and the political system, won’t be able to get enough resources,” an arts educator said. “They’ll have to go underground.”
6. The N.C.A.A.’s budget for its men’s basketball tournament was nearly double that of its women’s event in 2019, newly revealed financial data shows.
The gap will assuredly drive questions about the organization’s commitment to gender equity, which has come under fire in recent weeks over its management of this year’s tournaments. The tournaments vary substantially in their formats and popularity, and N.C.A.A. executives insist that those differences necessarily account for their budgeting decisions.
The tournaments move to the Sweet 16 this weekend. Here’s what to watch for from the women’s and the men’s teams.
7. Remembering two literary giants.
Beverly Cleary, whose children’s books were beloved by tens of millions of young readers, died at 104. With characters like Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, Ramona Quimby and her older sister Beezus, and other residents of Klickitat Street, Ms. Cleary constructed a world that children recognized — and one that changed with the times.
And Larry McMurtry, the prolific novelist and screenwriter known for “Lonesome Dove” and “Terms of Endearment,” died at 84. Mr. McMurtry demythologized the American West in dozens of novels, essays, memoirs and history, as well as more than 30 screenplays, including “Brokeback Mountain,” adapted from Annie Proulx’s short story. Here’s a look at the trove of work the Pulitzer Prize-winner left behind.
8. Good news for the American bald eagle: The population of birds, once on the brink of extinction, has quadrupled since 2009 in the lower 48 states.
The same can’t be said for Africa’s forest elephants, who have lost nearly nine-tenths of their number in a generation and are now critically endangered — just one step from extinction in the wild.
10. And finally, how do you complete Mozart?
It’s hard to imagine a more intimidating task for a musician. But that’s exactly what Timothy Jones, a Mozart expert who teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London, has done, completing violin sonata fragments that the composer left behind. Listen to them here.
Posthumous completions aren’t uncommon in classical music. But Mr. Jones’s latest effort comes with a twist: He made multiple completed versions of each fragment, each emphasizing different aspects of Mozart’s style.
“Putting the hubris aside,” Mr. Jones said, “I’d much rather Mozart had finished these pieces than I.”
Have a mellifluous weekend.
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