Your Thursday Evening Briefing

Climate Change, Furlough, ‘Sopranos’ View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Thursday, January 10, 2019 [NYTimes.com »]( [Climate Change, Furlough, ‘Sopranos’: Your Thursday Evening Briefing]( By REMY TUMIN AND MARCUS PAYADUE Good evening. The government shutdown will reach its 21st day tomorrow, and, if it lasts to Saturday, become the longest in history. But first: Travis Long/The News & Observer, via Associated Press 1. Scientists say the world’s oceans are heating up far, far more rapidly — [40 percent faster on average]( — than previously thought. The finding, in a newly published analysis, has dire implications. The oceans have been absorbing most of the heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions, offering a buffer against climate change. Their escalating temperatures are already killing off marine ecosystems, raising sea levels and making hurricanes more destructive. Above, Hurricane Florence pummeling Atlantic Beach, N.C., this fall. Continued heating will only make those effects more catastrophic, the scientists say. _____ Jonathan Ernst/Reuters 2. “No wall, no deal.” Vice President Mike Pence flatly declared [there could be no agreement to reopen the government]( without funding for a border wall — terms that Democrats have already rejected. And a bipartisan plan developed in the Senate that would trade wall funding for legal status for undocumented immigrants facing deportation also seemed to be dead on arrival. The partial shutdown, now in its 20th day, will almost certainly become the longest in American history, surpassing a 21-day lapse that began in December 1995. That leaves 800,000 federal employees still furloughed or working without pay. One example of the impact: 600 pollution inspectors and other workers at [the Environmental Protection Agency]( responsible for detecting violations that endanger human health are off the job. Here’s a [state-by-state look at the shutdown’s impact](. And here are stories from federal employees, [describing their sacrifices and preparations](. _____ Doug Mills/The New York Times 3. Along the border in Texas, on a trip that he did not want to take, to discuss a crisis that Democrats say does not exist, President Trump [repeated his demand for a wall](. He reiterated an untrue claim that Mexico would indirectly pay for the wall through a revamped trade agreement, and heard from people who had loved ones killed by immigrants. Above, Mr. Trump in McAllen, Tex. “If we had a barrier of any kind, whether it’s steel or concrete,” Mr. Trump said of tragic stories involving violence and human trafficking, “they wouldn’t even bother trying. We could stop that cold.” The president continued to float the idea of declaring a state of national emergency that could allow him to bypass Congress to fund the wall. Separately, our journalists are driving the length of the approximately 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexico border. [They just sent in their first dispatch](. _____ Chang W. Lee/The New York Times 4. Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, said he would give a congressional panel “a full and credible account” of his work for Mr. Trump in public testimony on Feb. 7. Mr. Cohen has implicated the president in a scheme to pay hush money to two women claiming to have had affairs with him, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison in December, above. And as a consigliere to Mr. Trump, he was privy to workings of his inner circle under scrutiny by the special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors. He could soon share the details [on national television under oath](. _____ Pool photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds 5. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared, in [a speech in Cairo,]( that the United States would take a more activist role in the Middle East. Mr. Pompeo, above, apparently sought to reassure jittery nations with his declaration that the United States would “expel every last Iranian boot from Syria,” but the effect was confounding to many, coming weeks after President Trump’s impulsive announcement that American forces would leave Syria. He also rejected the Obama administration’s Middle East policy — referring to it as “the age of self-inflicted shame” — and outlined an approach based on alliances with authoritarian rulers. Mr. Pompeo denounced the former president for underestimating “the tenacity and viciousness of radical Islam” and for his policies on Iran. Here are the [many ways Mr. Pompeo departed from Mr. Obama](. _____ Baz Ratner/Reuters 6. Tensions are high in Congo. Election officials awarded the presidency to a candidate who was not seen as the top vote-getter. That dashed hopes of an undisputed transfer of power as the longtime leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, steps down. Still, the pick — Felix Tshisekedi, pictured above in December — wasn’t Mr. Kabila’s first choice. That means [Mr. Kabila’s candidate lost so badly]( that his government could not simply hand him the presidency without risking widespread violence and international condemnation. But it was unclear how the decision to pass over the leading opposition figure, Martin Fayulu, would sit with the population. _____ Anastasiia Sapon for The New York Times 7. Female economists say sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying have [pushed them to the sidelines — or out of the field entirely](. “I spent all my time hoping that no one would remember I was female,” Susan Athey, an economist at Stanford, above, said of her first economics department job. The issues took center stage at the American Economic Association’s annual meeting last weekend, following substantiated allegations of harassment against one of the most prominent young economists in the country. The association faces a push for more aggressive action on codes of professional conduct. “There’s just a ton of anger and resentment around how the profession has been,” another economist said at the meeting. Separately, Lady Gaga became the latest musician to apologize for [collaborating with R. Kelly]( who is accused of sexual misconduct and preying on teenagers, after the broadcast of an [explosive investigative documentary]( detailing the allegations against him. _____ Kenji Aoki for The New York Times 8. The extravagant splendor of the animal kingdom can’t be explained by natural selection alone — so how did it come to be? A new generation of biologists is [reviving a theory originally proposed by Charles Darwin]( 150 years ago. Beauty, they say, does not have to be a proxy for health or advantageous genes. Above, a male Indian peafowl. Sometimes, they argue, beauty is the glorious but meaningless flowering of arbitrary preference. Animals simply find certain features — a blush of red, a feathered flourish — to be appealing. And that innate sense of beauty itself can become an engine of evolution. The scientists’ thinking isn’t just rewriting the standard explanation for how beauty evolves — it’s changing the way we think about evolution itself. _____ HBO 9. Twenty years ago today, a mobster walked into a psychiatrist’s office and changed the course of television. “‘The Sopranos was as clear a marker of the beginning of an era as anything in TV,” our chief television critics writes. We also named the[20 best drama series]( since, including “The West Wing,” “The Wire,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Transparent.” (Remember, we said 20 — check out the full list before you email to tell us we missed your favorite.) A “Sopranos” rewatch may be in order: Here’s a [complete guide]( to heading back to Jersey. _____ Barton Silverman/The New York Times 10. We close out the day with a nod to fitness trends past. In the 1960s, Face-o-Metrics, above, were all the rage. In 1971, The Times reviewed Hot Pants, an inflatable “reducing” garment (with a bit more flavor of the Michelin Man than you might expect). In the 1980s, kitchen calisthenics had participants shaking salad dressing and whirling furiously to “Flight of the Bumblebee.” Our writer took a look at how [The Times has recorded fitness fads](. Have a jazzy night. _____ Correction: An item in yesterday’s Evening Briefing about older women in power misstated the age of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She is 78, not 79. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing. [Sign up here]( to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning. Want to catch up on past briefings? [You can browse them here](. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at [briefing@nytimes.com](mailto:briefing@nytimes.com?subject=Evening%20Briefing%20Feedback). LIKE THIS EMAIL? 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