(Want to get this newsletter in your inbox? Here’s the sign-up.)
Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.
2. The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter, but consumer spending and business investment remained sound.
That signaled the economic recovery continued to be resilient, though gross domestic product declined 0.4 percent, the weakest quarter since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Inventories, international trade and lower government spending were all factors.
The White House dismissed the slump, pointing to strength in consumer spending, which grew 0.7 percent in the first quarter. Residential construction grew by about 0.5 percent, another bright spot.
In other business news, with Covid lockdowns disrupting China’s economy, leaders set a stimulus plan.
-
College-educated workers have increasingly taken jobs in nonprofessional workplaces. Now, they’re trying to unionize them.
3. Moderna asked U.S. regulators to approve its vaccine for children under 6.
The company said it would finish submitting its data to the Food and Drug Administration by May 9. Moderna is the first manufacturer to request authorization for a vaccine for the nation’s youngest children — a group of about 18 million. The development could increase pressure on federal regulators to authorize a vaccine for the age group.
In other pandemic news, a study in Nature found that over the next 50 years, climate change will drive thousands of viruses to jump from one species of mammal to another.
4. Florida has become an unlikely laboratory for right-wing policy.
Once the biggest presidential battleground, the state has been transformed over the past two years as Gov. Ron DeSantis has flexed his power to remarkable effect.
The Republican governor has embraced once-unthinkable policies: prohibiting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in early elementary school, rejecting math textbooks for “indoctrination” and banning abortions after 15 weeks. He has even picked a fight with Disney.
In Ohio, the state’s macho Senate primary shows how the Republican obsession with the fiction of a stolen election has spawned a new fake threat of illegal immigration: voter fraud by undocumented immigrants.
In Oklahoma, the state legislature approved a bill prohibiting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.
5. El Salvador’s president is cracking down on civil liberties — and is beloved for it.
After a spike in killings in March, President Nayib Bukele’s government declared a state of emergency, suspending key civil liberties guaranteed in the Constitution.
But most Salvadorans are not complaining. The country has grown weary of endless bloodshed and the gangs that terrorize citizens. Much of the country’s population is willing to tolerate an autocratic leader if it means that someone will finally solve the problem of gang violence — even if Bukele is also undermining the country’s fragile democracy.
6. A fatal traffic stop in Michigan is being scrutinized as a possible case of excessive force and racial profiling.
On April 4, a white Grand Rapids police officer, Christopher Schurr, pulled over Patrick Lyoya, a Black Congolese refugee. Schurr said the car’s license plate didn’t correspond with the car, a possible sign it was stolen.
Three minutes later, Lyoya was dead. Videos showed that Lyoya ran from the officer, grappled with Schurr for about two minutes and tried to grab Schurr’s Taser. The officer got Lyoya facedown on the ground before shooting him in the back of the head.
Of her oldest son’s death, his mother said: “What’s so astonishing, so amazing, what is hurting me so much: I ran away from war, from the killing. But my biggest surprise was I came to a country where I found the same thing happening.”
Russia-Ukraine War: Key Developments
Russian oil embargo. European Union countries are likely to approve a phased embargo on Russian oil, sealing a long-postponed measure that has divided the bloc’s members and highlighted their dependence on Russian energy sources. E.U. ambassadors expect to give their final approval by the end of the week, officials said.
7. The 2022 N.F.L. draft kicks off tonight in Las Vegas.
Over the course of three days and seven rounds, the N.F.L.’s 32 teams will select 262 prospects to join the league. This time, there’s mystery in the air.
Before tonight’s first round, the experts can’t quite agree on who the No. 1 pick will be — but they think it won’t be a quarterback, for the first time in five years. The teams might do well to listen to the pundits: According to a Times analysis, teams usually misfire when they ignore analysts and make a surprise pick early in the first round.
For more on the draft, follow our live blog, or watch the action live starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
8. The strange story of an erratic heir to a margarine fortune and the correspondence he inspired begins airing tonight.
In 1970, Michael James Brody Jr., 21, told reporters he’d give away $25 million to ordinary people to “cure the problems of the world.” For a brief time, he was famous. Tens of thousands of people mailed pleas for money. Brody, who didn’t have the money for his promise, soon revealed he’d made his announcement while “tripped out on drugs.”
“Dear Mr. Brody,” a series that begins streaming on Discovery+ tonight, looks at the slew of letters the filmmakers obtained. Some 30,000 of the letters were donated to Columbia University, and one of our colleagues watched as envelopes were opened there for the first time. Some contained heartfelt pleas, while other requests had hippie-ish vibes. “Let’s face it,” a 24-year-old woman wrote to Brody, “we too would like to go to an island and make love!”
9. Gen Z has a new beauty influencer: Martha Stewart, age 80.
In February, the world’s most celebrated domesticity virtuoso made five startlingly sassy, coquettish, goofy video ads with Clé de Peau, the Japanese skin care and makeup company. They were viewed 78 million times in seven weeks across Instagram and TikTok.
Just as Stewart showed the generation’s mothers how to bake a cake, she is offering up her face to this up-and-coming demographic, doling out hope for an unwrinkled future.
“She is a perfect example, consistently demonstrating icon behavior by being both chic and messy,” said Eve Lee, the founder of the Digital Fairy, a creative agency. “She also shows Gen Z the possibilities for maintaining its hot, sexy vibes, making aging less scary and more exciting.”
10. And finally, little green people on Mars? Nope, it’s just NASA.
For the first time, the Perseverance rover and its sidekick, the helicopter Ingenuity, passed over an area near their original landing site on Mars. A photo Ingenuity sent back captured an object that looked like a flying saucer, but it was only the top part of the landing capsule, known as the backshell, and a supersonic parachute that eased its initial descent in February 2021. The backshell, about 15 feet in diameter, smashed down at 78 miles per hour but only partially shattered.
“There’s definitely a sci-fi element to it,” an engineer who worked on the mission said. “It exudes otherworldly, doesn’t it?” The rover is now on its way to a river delta that once flowed along the western rim of a crater.
Have an out-of-this-world night.
Eve Edelheit compiled photos for this briefing.
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.
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.
Here are today’s Mini Crossword, Spelling Bee and Wordle. If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here.
