(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. A covert social media drive. A letter quietly circulated around Congress. A partnership with a secretive organization financed by millions of corporate dollars.

Energy industry giants and conservative groups have joined forces to aggressively push President Trump’s rollback of fuel efficiency rules for cars, our climate reporter found. Above, a refinery in Detroit.

The campaign’s main argument for easing fuel efficiency standards — that the U.S. is so awash in oil it no longer needs to worry about energy conservation — clashes with decades of federal energy and environmental policy.

_____

2. The Senate voted resoundingly to withdraw U.S. military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, a stinging bipartisan rebuke of President Trump. The vote signaled anger among lawmakers in both parties for the president’s defense of the kingdom despite clear evidence of its role in the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Pentagon has been supplying Saudi Arabia with bombs and intelligence since 2015.

In Yemen, the warring sides took a step toward peace: a cease-fire in the port city of Hudaydah. Above, pro-government forces there.

The U.N. secretary general said the Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition agreed to withdraw their forces from the city, which serves as a gateway for humanitarian aid.

The three-year war has produced the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, pushing 12 million people to the brink of starvation.

_____

3. The charge: conspiring to act as a foreign agent.

In a deal with federal prosecutors, Maria Butina, above, admitted to participating in a Russian-backed effort to win over conservatives and convince them Russia was a friend, not an enemy. She has agreed to cooperate with investigators.

Her plea puts a spotlight on Americans she worked with, including prominent members of the N.R.A. and her boyfriend, Paul Erickson, a longtime Republican operative who now faces accusations of fraud in three states.

Here’s a look at how Ms. Butina promoted gun rights and better relations with Russia, charming a string of older men along the way.

_____

4. President Trump reacted angrily to the relatively short prison sentence handed down to Michael Cohen, his longtime personal attorney and fixer.

Mr. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for guilty pleas in two separate cases — a reduced sentence in consideration of information he shared with federal prosecutors, including details that implicated Mr. Trump in criminal activity.

“I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law,” Mr. Trump said in a series of Twitter posts. “He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law.”

Mr. Trump said that his former lawyer, above, had pleaded guilty in order to embarrass him and to get a reduced prison term.

Separately, here’s an illustrated guide to President Trump’s longtime focus on trade barriers, and how he became a mighty Man of (American) Steel.

_____

5. Apple is expanding.

The tech giant announced it will build a new $1 billion campus in Austin, Tex., and add thousands of jobs in cities around the U.S.

The company, which currently has 90,000 workers in the U.S., said it would open 1,000-worker operations in San Diego, Seattle and Culver City, Calif., and add hundreds of employees in offices in New York, Pittsburgh and Boulder, Colo., over the next three years. Above, its offices in Austin.

It has come under criticism by President Trump for manufacturing its products in China.

_____

6. The arrest of the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada, at Washington’s request, seemed certain to provoke a harsh retaliation from Beijing — or even upend the precarious trade truce between the U.S. and China.

But instead, China decided to take a measured response. And in recent weeks President Xi Jinping has begun lifting new tariffs on American goods. This softer approach may reflect a position of weakness. China’s economy is in a sharp downturn, with car sales plummeting, consumer confidence low and the prospect of foreign investment diminishing. So an end to the trade war is extremely important for the government. Above, a retail store in Beijing.

None of this has stopped Beijing from responding to Ms. Meng’s arrest: The Chinese government arrested a second Canadian working there and announced that both men faced charges of undermining national security. For its part, Canada is finding it very uncomfortable to be stuck in the middle of the dispute.

_____

7. Over 250 journalists have been jailed in 2018, an advocacy group said, calling it a sign that an authoritarian response to critical coverage is “more than a temporary spike.”

The number is the highest since the Committee to Protect Journalists began compiling that statistic in 1990. Above, the Reuters journalists Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone being detained in Yangon, Myanmar, in August.

Turkey is the leading jailer of journalists, the group said. Along with China and Egypt, it is responsible for more than half of the journalists jailed worldwide.

“Hundreds of journalists jailed globally becomes the new normal,” the report said.

_____

8. Who was Nicolas DeMeyer?

He had no online presence, and close friends can barely recall what he did for a living from 1999, when he graduated from Vassar, above, and 2008, when he became the personal assistant to David Solomon, now the C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs.

Then in January, he was arrested by federal agents, accused of looting $1.2 million of wine from Mr. Solomon. Just before a scheduled court appearance where he was expected to plead guilty, Mr. DeMeyer jumped to his death from a Manhattan hotel.

Friends remain perplexed by Mr. DeMeyer’s unraveling. “You never knew the truth of things with Nick,” said one.

_____

9. “The answer is no.”

Critics of the song say the man sounds sinister, and the woman sounds trapped.

Critics of those critics say the whole controversy is a case of political correctness run amok.

As the #MeToo movement fuels conversations about sex, power and consent, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” a 74-year-old holiday classic, is having a moment of reckoning. Above, Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban performing the song in the film “Neptune’s Daughter.”

“I think the song has always been creepy,” one songwriter told us, “but we didn’t have the words to explain why.”

Separately, if being outside in the cold is your thing, our fitness columnist has suggestions for inexpensive ways to stay warm and visible.

_____

10. Finally, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Janet Jackson and Robert Smith of the Cure are among the seven inductees joining the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next year.

Stevie Nicks, above, who was already in the hall as a member of Fleetwood Mac, has been recognized for her solo career. She, Def Leppard and Roxy Music were accepted on their first appearance on the ballot.

The mostly uncontroversial picks, our music reporter writes, come from a cross-section of the last half-century of classic and alternative rock. The class of 2019 will formally enter the pantheon on March 29 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Have a famous evening.

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 [email protected].

Source: Read Full Article