Monday, 9 Dec 2024

Election Day, Amazon, Iraq Graves: Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. Our first order of business: election results. We’re bringing you updates all evening here. Stay ahead of the curve with our Election Night Cheat Sheet.

There were winding lines at many polling places across the country, and unpleasant weather conditions in some areas, but voters have turned out in what both parties expect to be extraordinary numbers for a midterm election. Our live briefing has the latest. Above, in Brooklyn.

We’ve removed our paywall for the elections. Register or log in to nytimes.com for unlimited access to the entire site.

These maps show when polls close in each state, so you can gauge when results may begin to flow in. Our forecast needle will go live around 7:30 or 8 p.m. Eastern, when we have something to go on. (Here’s how it works.)

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2. Democrats are favored to take the House, and Republicans are favored to hold the Senate, but any combination is possible. Here are the races to watch.

Of 36 governors’ races, two of the most closely watched are in Georgia and Florida, where polls close at 7 p.m. Georgia is one of the states reporting technical glitches, along with Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Arizona. Above, voters with paper ballots in Duluth, Ga.

“We’ve got people who are voting with the paper ballots, and we’ve got people who are standing to wait for the machines to be fixed, and we’ve got people who said they are planning to come back,” an election official in Georgia said.

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3. President Trump had no public events for the day. The mood inside the White House was gloomy, according to aides and people in contact with the president.

His advisers have warned him that the losses could be brutal in House and statehouse races, but that the Senate should be a bright spot.

On the Democratic side, Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, above, predicted sweeping House gains — and warned that Mr. Trump might challenge the legitimacy of votes that went against his party.

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Now let’s catch up on the other things that happened today.

4. Fighting in Yemen has intensified sharply, threatening to plunge the country deeper into war, cholera and famine.

In the embattled Red Sea port of Hudaydah, the United Arab Emirates, part of a Saudi-led coalition that has been backed by the U.S., launched airstrikes against the rebel Houthis. Shipments of grain and other elements of humanitarian aid are in peril. Above, Yemeni forces.

The surge may stem from a Saudi desire to score territorial gains before the peace talks being urged by the U.S. and Britain.

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5. More than 200 mass graves holding as many as 12,000 bodies have been discovered in Iraq.

The U.N. said they were the work of Islamic State militants, who controlled parts of the country from 2014 to 2017, and were part of systematic and widespread violence that “may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possible genocide.” Above, a search for remains.

The months-old, American-backed offensive to drive ISIS from Syria has been hindered by booby traps, land mines and a militant counterattack during a fierce sandstorm.

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6. Facebook acknowledged that its platform was used to “foment division and incite offline violence” in Myanmar where the military unleashed an online campaign targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority that led to murder, rape and forced migration.

“We agree that we can and should do more,” said one of the company’s executives, who disclosed details of a critical human rights report commissioned by the company. Above, Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh last year.

Facebook detractors slammed the company for releasing the report at a time when public attention is focused on the midterm elections.

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7. A man-eating tigress believed to have killed at least 13 Indian villagers over the last two years was recently killed. But local relief has rapidly been overwhelmed by a national backlash.

Politicians and animal rights advocates have denounced the failure to capture rather than kill, and a government official threatened legal action against those responsible.

India’s establishment of reserves to protect its critically endangered tiger population has worked — meaning bloody confrontations with people have risen. Above, two cubs in a reserve.

“We have to think of a mechanism of coexistence,” a researcher said.

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8. Amazon is finalizing plans to split its second headquarters between Long Island City in Queens, N.Y., and Arlington, Va., above, according to people familiar with the decision-making process. The company itself isn’t commenting — just yet.

The company’s 14-month search set off a frenzied bidding war, with states and cities vying for Amazon’s promise of 50,000 jobs. And it appears to be ending with the two most obvious locations, where the company already has more workers than anywhere outside of Seattle, its home base, and the Bay Area.

Critics furiously denounced Amazon for a bait and switch to wring more concessions from pre-ordained choices. But, our technology reporter writes, the strategy allowed the company to gather valuable information for future expansion.

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9. The consequences of the Google walkout last week could reverberate across the entire tech sector.

Our reporter covering workplace issues notes that the workers who joined the protest engaged in the kind of solidarity almost unheard-of in the libertarian world of techies.

But the issues they were addressing — the company’s controversial work with the Pentagon on artificial intelligence, its apparent willingness to build a censored search engine for China and above all its handling of sexual harassment accusations against senior managers — were just too big for solo action. Above, in Manhattan.

“The myth of Silicon Valley is that all the power you need is embodied in you as an individual,” a labor expert told us. “What they were saying here was that all the economic power they had as individuals wasn’t enough.”

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10. Finally, if the latest news cycle has you wanting to send your thoughts to far-off destinations, we can suggest a few.

Lose yourself in Tiny Love Stories, five reader-submitted epics told in under 100 words.

Relax with a CBD cocktail at a Queens spot claiming to be the first in New York City to serve food and drinks infused with cannabidiol (that’s marijuana’s nonpsychotropic cousin).

Or just sit still and breathe. Pop in some earbuds and spend a quiet moment scrolling through The Calm Place, our new oasis of peace that comes with an emotional support dog. Then share it with a stressed-out friend.

Have a serene evening.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

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