Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Tuesday.
Ukraine fired U.S.-made missiles into RussiaEarly this morning, Ukraine’s military launched a volley of American-made ballistic missiles into Russia for the first time. The attack came on the 1,000th day of the war and less than a week after President Biden gave the Ukrainians permission to do so in a major shift of American policy. The strike targeted an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of southwestern Russia, causing explosions, Ukrainian officials said. Russian officials claimed to have shot down five of the six missiles. The use of long-range American weapons was a show of force that demonstrated how continued Western support could help Ukraine more easily degrade Russian forces. The attack came on the same day President Vladimir Putin lowered Russia’s threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. He declared that Russia could use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened, even against a nonnuclear state so long as that state is backed by a nuclear power — similar to the situation in Ukraine. The timing of the long-planned move was clearly meant to send a message to Europe and the U.S. The White House said it had observed “no changes to Russia’s nuclear posture” and played down Putin’s new doctrine. The reaction was telling, my colleague David Sanger wrote. Over nearly three years, the war in Ukraine has inured Washington and the world to the renewed use of nuclear weapons as the ultimate bargaining chip. In related news, Germany’s defense minister claimed that the severing of fiber-optic cables this week in the Baltic Sea was an act of sabotage aimed at Ukraine’s European allies.
Prosecutors called for a four-year freeze on Trump’s caseManhattan prosecutors sent a letter today to the judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s New York criminal case, seeking to oppose the president-elect’s push to dismiss his conviction. Instead, the prosecutors said they were willing to freeze the case for four years while Trump is president. In the letter, the prosecutors said they were “mindful of the demands and obligations of the presidency,” but they emphasized that a jury convicted Trump of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal. Trump is now expected to move for a dismissal, a legal battle that could reach the Supreme Court. His sentencing, which was scheduled for next week, will almost certainly be delayed. In related news, several state cases against Trump’s allies are in fragile shape after the election.
Trump tapped a Wall St. C.E.O. for commerce secretaryTrump announced today that he would nominate Howard Lutnick, the chief executive of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, to be his commerce secretary. Lutnick has been a top economic adviser to Trump over the past year and has been leading the president-elect’s transition team. Lutnick has called for lower corporate taxes, an expansion of American energy production and tariffs to protect U.S. industries. Trump is also trying to find a Treasury secretary with a similar vision. The selection of Lutnick has not received much pushback from Republicans, unlike Trump’s picks to lead the Justice Department and the Pentagon, who he has admitted might not have enough support to be confirmed. Trump is still pushing their nominations and has demanded that the Senate allow him to make so-called recess appointments. Here’s how that would work.
Pro-democracy leaders were jailed in Hong KongA Hong Kong court today sentenced 45 former politicians, journalists and activists to prison, some for as long as 10 years. The punishments — for taking part in an unofficial 2020 straw poll by the opposition — highlighted the sweeping power of a national security law Beijing imposed to tighten its grip on the territory. Here’s a look at the people who were sentenced. More top news
Can ‘Glicked’ recapture the magic of ‘Barbenheimer’?When “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” opened on the same day in the summer of 2023, crowds swarmed to movie theaters to be part of “Barbenheimer.” Now there’s a buzzy new movie face-off with its own catchy name: “Glicked.” “Wicked,” the first installment of the adaptation of the Broadway musical, and “Gladiator II,” a swords-and-sandals epic directed by Ridley Scott, arrive in theaters this Friday. Will Elphaba green replace Barbie pink? Here’s what to know about each film.
Jon Batiste returned to classical music, on his own termsBefore Jon Batiste was a bandleader and Grammy-winning artist, celebrated for his jazzy R&B hits, he was a classical piano student. Batiste returned to those roots this month with a new album, “Beethoven Blues.” On it, Batiste adds his own improvisations to masterpieces like “Für Elise” and the Fifth Symphony. We interviewed him about why he decided to take on the classics and recorded him riffing on Beethoven.
Dinner table topics
Cook: Brighten up your table with this maple-roasted squash dish. Read: Looking for a Christmas read? Check these out. |
