Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

Border Crossing, Scott Gottlieb, H.I.V. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Tuesday, March 5, 2019 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Tuesday Evening Briefing]( By REMY TUMIN, MELINA DELKIC AND HIROKO MASUIKE Good evening. Here’s the latest. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times 1. The southwestern border is at a “breaking point.” That’s how U.S. officials described the situation as more than [76,000 migrants crossed the border]( without authorization in February, more than double the number from the same period last year. It was the fourth time in five months the crossings have broken records. Border enforcement authorities warned that government facilities were full and agents were overwhelmed. The high number of families crossing the border suggests that President Trump’s policies aimed at deterring asylum seekers are not having their intended effect. Customs and Border Protection also announced sweeping changes to procedures for guaranteeing adequate medical care for migrants — an overhaul brought on by [the deaths of two migrant children]( in custody in December. Above, a boy from Honduras with hydrocephalus was among a group of migrants taken into custody last month in Penitas, Tex. _____ Shawn Thew/EPA, via Shutterstock 2. An anti-Semitism resolution that’s up for a vote in the House on Wednesday is touching off a generational fight over one of its members. On one side: veteran Democrats who are responding to Representative Ilhan Omar’s statements, which they say have been deemed hurtful to Jews, with the resolution. On the other side: a new breed of young liberal activists who argue that Ms. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, pictured above last month, [is being singled out for unfair treatment](. A draft of the resolution being circulated on Capitol Hill does not name Ms. Omar. But there is little question it is aimed at her. Also out of Washington: [Scott Gottlieb]( the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, resigned. He was known for his aggressive efforts to regulate the tobacco and e-cigarette industries. _____ Bullit Marquez/Associated Press 3. One more time, only now with big data behind it. A new large study published this week found [no association between the measles vaccine and autism]( — a reason often given by parents for rejecting inoculation. Researchers tracked more than 650,000 Danish children over 10 years, and the study echoes findings of a 2002 study by members of the same team of scientists. Above, a child in Manila receives a measles vaccination last month. The report follows measles outbreaks in Washington State, Texas and New York, as well as a resurgence of suspicion of vaccine safety. Researchers called on doctors and public health officials to clearly label any link between the vaccine and autism a myth. _____ NIBSC/Science Source 4. And we have more on a medical milestone that sparked renewed hope when news of it broke last night. Scientists were reckoning with the announcement that a patient appeared to have been cured of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, for only the second time. Our reporter spoke with AIDS specialists and other experts about [what the news means](. Above, a colored transmission electron micrograph of the H.I.V. virus, in green, attaching to a white blood cell, in orange. For now, change won’t be immediate. At the earliest, a new treatment could be available in five to 10 years. But there is more good news: Groups of scientists are already trying to mimic the benefits of a [bone-marrow transplant]( which both patients who were cured received, without the risks of the procedure. And gene therapy and gene editing are moving at warp speed. _____ Tom Brenner for The New York Times 5. Today in will-they-or-won’t-they: Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York, has announced he will not run for president in 2020. Mr. Bloomberg, writing in a Bloomberg News column, said he would rather use his energy and fortune [to fund other likely candidates]( in the already crowded field of Democratic candidates. “We cannot allow the primary process to drag the party to an extreme that would diminish our chances,” he wrote. Others who have announced they weren’t running include [Hillary Clinton]( the former secretary of state and 2016 nominee, and [Jeff Merkley]( the Oregon senator. For news about those who are running, visit our 2020 [candidate tracker](. [We also talked to Stacey Abrams]( who narrowly lost the Georgia governor’s race and is contemplating throwing her hat into the ring. She said she would decide by late March. _____ Sandra Black 6. “She is completely stuck. She is out of options.” That was the cousin of an American woman, Bethany Vierra, who moved to Saudi Arabia in 2011 and, because of [so-called guardianship laws]( has been trapped there since she divorced her Saudi husband. Ms. Vierra is unable to use her bank account, leave the country with her daughter, pictured above with Ms. Vierra, or even seek legal help. _____ HBO 7. HBO’s new boss excelled at broadcast TV. Can he do the same in cable’s next era? [Robert Greenblatt]( was named chairman of entertainment at AT&T’s Warner Media, giving him oversight of TBS, TNT, a future streaming service and HBO, where ambitious shows like “Game of Thrones,” pictured above, have become a hallmark. He spent much of the last two decades as the head of entertainment at Showtime and NBC, and Mr. Greenblatt’s first assignment is to make AT&T a fearsome competitor to companies like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Apple. Mr. Greenblatt noted that he was not some wildly out-of-the-box pick. “I’m not as much as an outsider that could have been brought in,” he said. “I don’t want to just come in and upend everything and destroy what they’ve built.” Speaking of “Game of Thrones,” [the trailer for the final season dropped today](. The series returns April 14. _____ Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times 8. Tuesday morning in Paris was the end of an era. Karl Lagerfeld’s final act as Chanel’s designer and mastermind came in the form of transforming the Grand Palais into [a Swiss ski town as models walked down the snowdrift runway](. “It was classic Chanel, the Lagerfeld way: merchandised, tongue-in-chic, replete with ideas, alternately delicate and clumpy, forward-looking and connected to the past,” wrote Vanessa Friedman, our chief fashion critic. “Almost cinematic in scale. Free of angst.” She also reviewed the collections of Alaïa and Alexander McQueen as Paris Fashion Week came to an end, as well as the [twists and turns and trompes l’oeil]( at Balenciaga, Thom Browne and Valentino. _____ Sebastian Modak/The New York Times 9. Our 52 Places traveler set out to find Ontario’s ice caves in a rare travel experience: There are no signboards or organized tours, and going out on the ice in search of them is dangerous. After a 12-hour drive from Detroit in whiteout conditions, he eventually found stunning creations born of frigid weather. But the caves are on the 52 Places to Travel list for a disheartening reason: Scientists predict that Lake Superior could be completely ice-free in the next two to three decades, which would [mean the end of the Ontario ice caves](. “To see them now, before they’re gone, felt like an immense privilege,” he writes. _____ Slepkov Biophotonics Lab, Trent University 10. Finally, exploding fruit! For years, people have been putting grapes in the [microwave to watch them explode](. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a pair of grape hemispheres exposed to intense microwave radiation will spark, igniting a plasma,” a physicist recently wrote in a scholarly article. But there is some real science behind the party trick. Scientists had never studied the internet phenomenon until now and found that the same reaction that occurs from microwaving grapes may offer clues to how light works in advanced technologies. Have a grape night. _____ 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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