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Good morning.

We’re covering a new U.N. report on climate change, an earthquake in Albania and a controversial sculpture in Florence.

Emissions must fall by 7.6 percent per year, U.N. says

Ahead of a climate conference in Madrid next week, a new United Nations report said that countries have failed to halt the rise of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions despite repeated warnings from scientists.

The findings are “bleak,” the report said, and the lesson is that deeper and faster emissions cuts are needed — particularly in the world’s 20 richest countries, which are responsible for more than three-fourths of emissions worldwide.

Yet the richest country of all, the United States, is pulling out of the 2015 Paris climate accord. And the U.S. and China, the world’s biggest polluters, were among those expanding their carbon footprints last year.

By the numbers: Greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 1.5 percent a year over the last decade, the report said, and emissions must decline by 7.6 percent each year until 2030 to stay within relatively safe limits.

What’s next: The aim of the Madrid meeting is to finalize rules on implementing the Paris accord.

Water in India: Climate change is messing with the country’s all-important monsoon (and shortsighted policies aren’t helping).

Another earthquake slams Albania

At least 23 people were killed and 650 injured on Tuesday when one of the strongest earthquakes to hit Albania in decades — and the second in two months — struck 19 miles from the capital. Here’s what we know so far.

Residents and emergency crews combed through the rubble of collapsed buildings across Albania, pulling 45 people out alive by Tuesday evening. Emergency teams from Kosovo, Romania, Italy and Greece joined the effort.

Details: The 6.4-magnitude quake and its aftershocks were felt in Montenegro, southern Italy, and some parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a 5.4-magnitude quake struck hours later.

Analysis: Countries in the Balkans and southern Europe have a long history of destructive earthquakes. And, after 40 years of relatively calm seismicity in the region, “strong quakes seem to be back,” an engineer in Montenegro said.

U.S. impeachment inquiry picks up steam

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee plan to deliver a report on President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine as early as next week. Then a judiciary committee would take up the matter, potentially leading to an impeachment vote on the House floor and a trial in the Senate.

Here’s an explainer on how impeachment works, and a rundown of the latest developments:

An official at the White House budget office told investigators this month that two of his colleagues had resigned after expressing concerns about Mr. Trump’s decision to hold up $391 million in congressionally approved security assistance to Ukraine. The revelation underscores the depth of pushback inside the office.

Mr. Trump had already been briefed on a whistle-blower’s complaint about his dealings with Ukraine when he unfroze the aid in September, two people familiar with the matter told The Times.

The House Judiciary Committee has invited the White House to participate in an impeachment hearing next week.

A reckoning for Russian sports

After a whistle-blower implicated Russia in a sophisticated doping scheme, Russian officials attempted to frame him as a ringleader in order to avoid serious penalties from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). That’s one takeaway from an internal agency report obtained by The New York Times.

WADA investigators quickly uncovered Russia’s attempted cover-up. And on Dec. 9 in Paris, the agency’s executive board is expected to heed a recommendation from a WADA committee to bar the country from all international sporting events — including next year’s Tokyo Olympics — for four years.

Looking ahead: If Russia is barred, it can appeal to sports’ highest court. Its athletes deemed to have clean doping records would most likely be allowed to petition to compete as individuals, as they did at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Background: State-run doping fueled Russia’s Olympic golds at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

Catch up: Seven Russians were suspended last week for obstructing an antidoping investigation into a Russian high jumper accused of failing to make himself available for drug testing.

If you have 10 minutes, this is worth it

Challenging economic orthodoxy

The Italian economist Mariana Mazzucato, above, disagrees with many tenets of neoclassical economic theory — like the one about the state being a lumbering, inefficient investor of last resort.

Dr. Mazzucato says the state should instead be an “investor of first resort.” As examples, she cites the internet, the iPhone and clean energy — innovations that were all funded at turns by public investment.

Her ideas are finding a receptive audience with politicians across the ideological spectrum, including Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May in the United Kingdom, and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Marco Rubio in the United States.

Here’s what else is happening

Mali: A midair collision of two helicopters killed 13 French soldiers, the deadliest single incident for the French Army in nearly four decades. The soldiers were part of a force fighting violent jihadism in the region.

Measles: Reported cases of the largely preventable disease jumped 300 percent in the first three months of 2019 compared with the same period last year, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly a quarter of a million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are thought to have been infected by measles in 2019 alone.

New E.U. Leadership: The European Parliament will vote today to confirm a new E.U. Commission. Here’s some background on Ursula von der Leyen, the commission’s incoming president, and some of the bloc’s top priorities.

Britain: The country’s chief rabbi cautioned voters against supporting the Labour Party in next month’s election, as he denounced the party’s handling of anti-Semitism in its ranks.

Malta: Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff resigned and was questioned by the police about the murder of the investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia.

China: After the stunning electoral victory for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong over the weekend, the Chinese state news media accused American politicians of encouraging the unrest.

Afghanistan: The American ambassador to Afghanistan said the country’s spy agency coerced a detained human rights activist to retract allegations that 165 boys had been raped by educators at three rural schools.

Theater ceilings: The collapse of a ceiling at a recent performance of “Death of a Salesman” in London, in which five people were hurt, raises safety concerns about the city’s playhouses.

Snapshot: “Bathing Venus” by Giambologna — or perhaps by an obscure bronzemaker a century later — is on display at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, above. A simmering attribution dispute over the sculpture raises questions about what kind of relationship museums should have with dealers.

Kristin Scott Thomas: The British actress was recently named honorary president of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society. “I thought there must be some mistake,” she told our reporter over tea in London. “I’m not a feminist. I’m not a politician.”

“Friendsgiving”: As Americans prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, our restaurant critic explains how “Friendsgiving” — designed as a relaxed antidote to the stressful family blowout — comes with its own rules and commandments.

What we’re reading: This, from Politico. Bill Wasik, the deputy editor of The Times Magazine, calls it a “truly unmissable piece of reporting and synthesis about Obama’s mind-set toward the 2020 primary.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Cider-braised chicken thighs with apples and greens make for a hearty one-pot dinner.

Watch: In “The Two Popes,” Jonathan Pryce (as the future Pope Francis) and Anthony Hopkins (as the outgoing Pope Benedict) star in a study of faith, friendship and power.

Smarter living: You can’t protect all your consumer data, but you don’t have to give up.

And now for the Back Story on …

Celery’s big moment

Celery — the subject of at least three food fads over the last 150 years — may finally be ready for a permanent starring role.

The vegetable, grown for centuries in the Mediterranean, became wildly popular in the late 19th century. Raw stalks were arranged in crystal vases on dinner tables created to show off the era’s “It” ingredient.

In the U.S., Dutch immigrants started growing the vegetable as early as 1874 near Kalamazoo, Mich., which was subsequently nicknamed Celery City. The seeds were disseminated across the country, and yet another celery craze ensued.

Fast-forward to 2018: “Last year, we had a huge spike in consumption because a Kardashian started juicing it and put it on her Instagram,” said Jake Willbrandt, a fifth-generation celery farmer in Decatur, Mich. (Dietitians say the juice is good for you, but is not a cure-all.)

Whether you’re looking to supplement your Thanksgiving spread or experiment with the neglected stalks in your fridge, here are three recipes — crunchy and raw, bright and light blended into soup, or braised until silky — to showcase an occasionally overhyped vegetable hero.

That’s it for this briefing. We’re off for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and will return Monday. See you then.

— Mike

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Today’s Back Story was based on reporting by Alexa Weibel. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Thanks given in Germany (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The A.V. Club named The New York Times’s “1619” audio series one of the podcasts that defined the 2010s.

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