Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/briefing/alex-jones-sandy-hook-britain-bond-markets.html

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

1. A jury ordered Alex Jones to pay nearly $1 billion for calling Sandy Hook a hoax.

The conspiracy theorist and radio host, along with his show’s parent company, must pay the family members of eight victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary and an F.B.I. agent who responded to the scene $965 million in damages, a jury in Connecticut ordered.

Jones had already been found liable for defamation for falsely describing the shooting, which killed 20 first graders and six educators, as a hoax and for accusing the victims’ relatives of being actors complicit in the plot. As a result, the families were threatened in person and online.

Jones was found liable of violating Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act, by using lies about the shooting to sell products on Infowars. There is no cap on punitive damages under that law.

2. The U.S. and its allies moved to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses.

In response to Russia’s bombardment of Ukrainian cities, Germany delivered the first of four ultramodern air-defense systems to Ukrainian troops. The U.S. also said it was expediting delivery of another missile system, and France and the Netherlands will provide additional missiles.

President Biden, in a 48-page document laying out his national security strategy, declared that the country’s overwhelming challenge in the coming years would be “outcompeting China and restraining Russia” while focusing on restoring a damaged democracy at home. Biden made clear that, over the long term, he was more worried about China than he was about Russia.

In Russia, the F.S.B. security service blamed Ukraine’s military intelligence for the bombing of a bridge to Crimea and arrested eight people in connection with the blast. And Brittney Griner’s lawyer said the W.N.B.A. star is increasingly anxious about her chances of being freed in a prisoner swap.

3. British financial markets plunged into turmoil.

A rapid sell-off of British government bonds fueled further chaos in financial markets after the Bank of England sent mixed messages over whether it would continue to prop up pension funds and other investors.

Prime Minister Liz Truss created even more uncertainty when, pressed on how the government would pay for tax cuts, she appeared to rule out a reduction in public spending. Experts said it was hard to square that stance with her vow not to increase the deficit.

In other economic news, a labor shortage has plagued U.S. employers over the past two years, prompting employers to avoid firing employees at all costs. Policymakers are hoping businesses will continue “hoarding workers” even as the economy cools.

4. Abortion is motivating voters, and Republicans would rather change the subject.

In races across the nation, Republican candidates are waffling on their abortion positions, wary of being pressed on difficult issues such as exceptions for child rape and diagnoses of rare and fatal conditions in fetuses.

Some Republicans have been erasing sections about abortion from their websites, changing their positions on state bans and trying to refocus the national conversation on inflation, crime and the country’s southern border.

In other politics news, Leonard Leo, an activist who has worked for decades to push the courts to the right, has quietly built a sprawling network and raised huge sums of money to challenge liberal values.

Also, California’s attorney general said his office would investigate Los Angeles’s redistricting process, after a secret recording showed three City Council members discussing ways to change political boundaries to benefit Latino representatives. The council’s president, Nury Martinez, who made racist remarks during the recorded conversation, announced her resignation.

5. New York officials said a large Hasidic school in Brooklyn is breaking the law.

The state’s education commissioner ruled that Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem is violating a law that requires schools to provide a basic education. It’s the first time that the state has taken action against the private academies, which provide religious instruction in Yiddish but little teaching in English and math, and virtually none in science, history or social studies.

The ruling serves as a stern rebuke of the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, whose Education Department said the school was in compliance, and could be a harbinger of significantly tougher oversight of Hasidic schools.

Last month, The Times reported that more than 100 Hasidic boys’ schools in Brooklyn and in the lower Hudson Valley collected at least $1 billion in taxpayer dollars in the past four years. Schools that don’t comply with strict new guidelines could lose access to public funds.

6. The Biden administration is considering easing sanctions on Venezuela.

U.S. officials are discussing the possibility of restarting oil exports from Venezuela, which they believe could help ease two challenges: a crush of migration at the U.S. southern border and rising energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

American officials are moving closer to allowing Chevron, the last American company producing oil in Venezuela, to resume exports if President Nicolás Maduro’s government takes meaningful steps to alleviate the country’s humanitarian crisis and restore democratic norms.

In other international news, protests have continued to spread across Iran despite a deadly crackdown. Workers from the country’s vital oil sector went on strike as the demonstrations entered their fourth week.

7. The F.D.A. authorized updated Covid boosters for children as young as 5.

Revised Pfizer shots, which target the now-dominant Omicron subvariant, are now available to children 5 or older who last received a dose at least two months ago. Moderna’s version of the booster was authorized for children 6 and older.

Regulators approved the shots for those 12 and older in late August, but much of the general population appears either unaware or uninterested in them. Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 coordinator, estimated that only 13 million to 15 million Americans had received the updated shots through last weekend.

In other health news, Rhode Island is set to become the first state to authorize a supervised drug-consumption site — a daring experiment in harm reduction as overdose deaths soar.

8. The F.B.I. monitored Aretha Franklin for years.

Federal agents kept tabs on the soul and gospel music star, collecting intelligence about her involvement in the civil rights movement and what the F.B.I. suspected were her links to Black Panthers, Communists and others it deemed “Black extremists,” according to a 270-page file released last month.

The file reflects an era when the bureau spied not only on civil rights leaders, political organizers and Communists, but also on popular Black entertainers, including the singer Harry Belafonte and the satirist Dick Gregory.

An expert at Yale’s African American studies department said the file “allows us to once again think about the role that Black art plays in revolutionary ideas in this country and what a threat that poses to the edifices of power.”

9. Umpires expand their duties beyond balls and strikes.

This season, after hours of training and rehearsals, M.L.B. umpires were asked to address rancorous crowds directly and explain some of the sport’s trickiest rules. The effort introduces a practice that had long been adopted by other major men’s leagues in America and is intended to make games easier to watch.

But the transition has been difficult. Even among umpires unafraid of the spotlight, the new system represents a change in their fundamental mission of getting the call right. “You don’t want to embarrass yourself,” one umpire said.

In other baseball news, the Cleveland Guardians are young and inexpensive. Yet they’ve made their way to the playoffs in part because of the leadership of their veteran manager, Terry Francona.

10. And finally, the forceful enthusiasm of Jamie Lee Curtis.

The star of the upcoming movie “Halloween Ends” never meant to become the face of horror. Curtis hates to be scared and doesn’t like to watch violent films. But ever since her original performance in the 1978 classic “Halloween,” she has built a reputation as an intimidating character.

Off screen, Curtis displays her intensity in a different way: Where other actresses can be cagey, she is forthright, whether the topic is aging, addiction or plastic surgery. And at home, she goes to elaborate lengths to make sure that her dog doesn’t know when she’s leaving.

Have a no-nonsense night.

Lara Signorelli and Veronica Sanchis compiled photos for this briefing.

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