Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Wednesday. |
 | | The U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times |
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1. Republicans are expected to back a bill to avert a government shutdown as Democrats try to resolve divisions over advancing President Biden's agenda. |
The Senate could vote as early as tonight on the spending bill, which is needed to prevent a lapse in government funding at midnight tomorrow. The breakthrough came after Democrats removed a debt-limit increase from the bill that the G.O.P. had refused to back. |
But lawmakers still haven't been able to reach a deal on two big-ticket spending bills. Biden himself has mounted an all-out effort to salvage the proposed legislation containing trillions of dollars in spending on infrastructure, education, climate change and more. |
On the other side of the aisle, business groups and some Senate Republicans have mounted their own offensive to secure support for a bipartisan infrastructure bill that is set for a vote in the House tomorrow. (The Senate already cleared the bill.) |
 | | Britney Spears fans wait for news of the hearing.Alex Welsh for The New York Times |
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2. A judge suspended Britney Spears's father from her conservatorship, creating a path to end his legal authority over her finances. |
The major decision capped a whirlwind summer in the 13-year conservatorship, after Spears broke her public silence at a hearing in June when she called the arrangement "abusive" and said that she wanted it to end. |
In a drastic role reversal at the hearing, a lawyer for James Spears argued to end it right away instead of suspending her client, while Britney Spears's lawyer asked the judge to wait in order for him to further investigate her father's conduct. |
 | | The United Airlines terminal at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago last year.Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press |
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3. United Airlines is firing about 600 employees for refusing to comply with its coronavirus vaccination requirement. Nearly all — 99 percent — of its U.S. work force has been vaccinated. |
 | | At a checkpoint in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The New York Times |
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4. Will Vietnam factory closures ruin Christmas in the U. S.? |
Vietnam is the second biggest supplier of apparel and footwear to the U.S. after China. And while it was not hit hard during the first wave of the coronavirus, the surge of the Delta variant of the virus has forced factories to shutter. With the holiday shopping season approaching, many American retailers like Nike, Restoration Hardware and Everlane are expecting shortages of goods, delays and higher prices. |
In Britain, a gas shortage has highlighted the crucial role of truck drivers, many of whom have quit because of low pay and poor roadside conditions. "There is no chance I would go back into that industry," one longtime trucker said. |
 | | Fumio Kishida, a former foreign minister, spoke at a press conference on Wednesday.Kyodo News, via Associated Press |
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The country's governing party elected Fumio Kishida, a former foreign minister and stalwart moderate, as its choice for the next prime minister. Kishida, 64, lagged in public opinion polls but had the backing of conservatives in the governing Liberal Democratic Party. He offered little to distinguish himself from the unpopular departing leader, Yoshihide Suga. |
By going with the safe pair of hands, the party seemed to demonstrate its confidence that it could win in elections this fall despite choosing a leader with lackluster public support. Kishida will have his hands full: Japan faces rapidly declining births and has the world's oldest population, enormous public debt and increasingly damaging natural disasters. The public has also voiced dissatisfaction with the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. |
 | | Ivory-billed woodpeckers filmed in Louisiana in 1935, when the birds were already rare. Arthur A. Allen/Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology |
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6. More than 20 animals and one plant on the endangered species list are now extinct, U.S. wildlife officials said. A million more species are at risk. |
Among the forever-gone species are the ivory-billed woodpecker, several types of freshwater mussels, two fish and a bat. Many of them were most likely extinct, or almost so, by the time the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973, so perhaps no amount of conservation would have been able to save them. |
Without conservation, scientists say, many more species would have disappeared. But with humans transforming the planet so drastically, they add, much more needs to be done. |
In other animal news, researchers studying cassowaries in New Guinea found signs that the sharp-taloned bird, sometimes called murder birds, were raised by humans 18,000 years ago — potentially the earliest known example of humans managing avian breeding. |
 | | Richard Sherman, right, talks with new Tampa Bay teammate Carlton Davis III.Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times, via Associated Press |
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7. All it took was a phone call from Tom Brady. |
Richard Sherman, who is facing criminal charges for five misdemeanors, including two for domestic violence, is joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The arrival of Sherman, one of the best known cornerbacks in the league, raises fresh questions about the N.F.L.'s handling of players accused of violent crimes, and about Brady's role in lobbying for players while they were under investigation. |
In other sports news, the N.C.A.A.'s women's basketball tournament will finally use the "March Madness" branding that has long been applied only to the men's tournament. The league had faced widespread criticism that it had shortchanged its women's tournament for years. |
 | | "No Time to Die" is the 25th installment of the James Bond franchise.Nicola Dove/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures, via Associated Press |
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8. The long-awaited James Bond movie — and Daniel Craig's last as 007 — is more of a super-hero saga than an espionage caper, our film critic writes. |
After an 18-month delay because of the pandemic, the movie, "No Time to Die," the 25th episode in the venerable franchise, finds its hero in a somber mood. Mortality looms over the quips and car chases, and the film is uncommonly preoccupied with memory and leave-taking. Gone is the defiance of every kind of gravity that was a hallmark of the series. |
 | | The former host of "The Daily Show" is back with a new topical comedy series.Apple TV + |
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9. Jon Stewart is returning to television after a six-year hiatus with a new talk show — but he plans to do more listening. |
"The Problem With Jon Stewart," which debuts on Apple TV+ on Thursday, will examine social issues through the personal stories of those most affected. At an early recording of the comedy show, he told his audience that the crux of his program was "trying to figure out how to diagnose what's really, actually going on here." |
 | | Kites by Mikio Toki, Haptic Lab, Scott Skinner and Anna Rubin. |
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10. And finally, new heights for kites. |
One of the earliest stories of kite flying dates back to the Han dynasty about two millenniums ago, when a general sent a square-shaped assemblage of bamboo and cloth into the air. By the 1700s, flying kites became a popular pastime for children in Europe. From there, kites traveled to North America, where they helped pave the way for the Wright brothers' airplane. |
Now, a new generation of artists is taking their creation to new heights. In Kärnten, Austria, one artist uses bamboo-and-paper creations that are designed to resemble "things that shouldn't be flown on a kite," like meteors; a Brooklyn-based artist makes kites into ships and broad-winged cranes; another in Japan is known for his fantastical Edo-style hand-painted designs. Take a look. |
And have a soaring night. |
| Marcus Payadue compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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