Ukraine, Inflation, N.F.L. Playoffs: Your Friday Evening Briefing

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Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.

1. Russia has deployed enough troops for a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon said.

Russia has assembled more than 100,000 troops at Ukraine’s borders, officials said, enough to move throughout the country, far beyond an incursion into the border regions. The forces include combined arms formations, artillery and rockets. “I think you’d have to go back quite a while to the Cold War days to see something of this magnitude,” said Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The U.S. has put 8,500 U.S. troops on high alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe, where most of them would join a NATO rapid response team of 30,000 to 40,000 troops. If Russia invades, the Biden administration plans to hit Russian banks harder than ever before.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that while the situation was dangerous, war was not necessarily imminent or unavoidable.

2. Prices rose rapidly, wages grew and consumer spending fell at the end of 2021.

These latest indicators, released today, showed that despite plummeting unemployment and a strong rebound in growth, the economy has yet to break free of the pandemic’s grip.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, rose 5.8 percent in the year ending in December, up from 5.7 percent the prior month. Overall compensation climbed 4 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the prior year, the data showed, and wages and salaries picked up 4.5 percent.

On Wall Street, stocks rebounded after a day of rocky trading.

3. The East Coast is bracing for blizzard conditions.

A powerful nor’easter was forecast to dump snow from North Carolina to New England over the weekend, prompting officials to prepare for treacherous travel conditions and possible mass power outages. The worst of the storm was forecast to hit Eastern Long Island and coastal New England, which could see up to two feet of snow. Follow here for live updates.

How much snow should you expect? Look up your forecast. (This will be updated regularly.)

4. Ten billion Covid shots have been administered globally, but gaps persist in who gets the vaccine.

The milestone has not been arrived at equitably, even though 10 billion doses could theoretically have meant at least one shot for all of the world’s 7.9 billion people. In the wealthiest countries, 77 percent of people have received at least one dose. In low-income countries, the figure is less than 10 percent.

In other virus news:

• Convoys of Canadian trucks are en route to Ottawa for a protest tomorrow against vaccine mandates.

• A lockdown has quietly been imposed in an area near Beijing as the Olympics approach.

• How long can you keep wearing the same respirator mask? Here’s what the experts say.

5. A bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh, injuring at least 10 people. President Biden visited the city today to talk about the importance of infrastructure.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse, which happened around 6:45 a.m. Only three or four cars and a bus were on the 52-year-old bridge at the time of the collapse, the Pittsburgh fire chief said. The bridge was last inspected in September. Previous reports from 2011 through 2017 listed the bridge in “poor” condition.

Biden visited Pittsburgh, often called the City of Bridges, to talk about the infrastructure bill that passed last fall. He stopped at the site of the bridge collapse this afternoon. By one estimate, more than 45,000 bridges in the U.S. are “considered structurally deficient.”

6. A U.S.-backed militia in Syria delivered a surrender-or-die ultimatum to dozens of Islamic State fighters holed up in a prison a week after they attacked it.

The militia, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or the S.D.F., said the ISIS fighters would face an all-out assault if they did not give themselves up. On Wednesday, the S.D.F. declared that it had regained control of the entire prison complex in Hasaka after six days of fighting.

But a spokesman for the S.D.F. said the militia later discovered about 60 ISIS fighters hiding in a basement in one of the prison buildings. The prison attack was the starkest evidence yet of a resurgence of ISIS across parts of Syria and Iraq, nearly three years after the group lost its so-called caliphate.

7. A federal judge canceled oil and gas leases of more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, citing climate change.

The court ruled that the Biden administration did not sufficiently take climate change into account when it auctioned the leases late last year. The decision is a major victory for environmental groups that criticized the Biden administration for holding the sale after promising to move the country away from fossil fuels. It had been the largest lease sale in U.S. history.

In other climate news, a new analysis of protected old-growth forest in the Amazon of Peru shows alarming levels of mercury. The findings, related to gold mining, provide new evidence of how people are altering ecosystems in dangerous ways around the world.

8. Super Bowl LVI will be set by weekend’s end.

First up, the ascendant Cincinnati Bengals will try to prevent the Kansas City Chiefs from advancing to their third consecutive Super Bowl. Then the star-studded Los Angeles Rams will be tested by the dogged San Francisco 49ers. Both games are Sunday. Here are our picks for the conference championships.

Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger have been mainstays in the N.F.L. playoffs, but this year there are clearer signs of a shift: Quarterbacks are taking on more of their team’s offensive production than ever before.

At the Australian Open, Rafael Nadal will try for a record 21st Grand Slam title when he plays Daniil Medvedev on Sunday. But all eyes are on Nick Kyrgios, who has turned his doubles matches into a party.

9. This winter weather is testing even the hardiest among us. We have recipes that offer comfort.

Start your morning with these tender pancakes. Genevieve Ko whips ricotta into the batter and skips the stiff egg whites in an effortless recipe. This Scottish chicken soup from Melissa Clark is its own kind of medicine.

And looking ahead, the Lunar New Year begins on Tuesday. In China and other countries that celebrate the holiday, such as Singapore, Vietnam and South Korea, the festivities can last for two weeks, and the dishes often symbolize promises of a better year. Here are eight recipes for the good times ahead.

10. And finally, a woman has the watch.

Lausanne, a quaint Swiss city of steep, cobblestone streets, has had a night guard at its cathedral since 1405. But it had never appointed a woman to the role in those 600 years — until now. In August, Cassandre Berdoz, 28, landed the job that was her “childhood dream.”

Part of the job, announcing the time, is no longer needed in a country famous for its watches, nor is safeguarding residents against fire and other nighttime disasters as was the case centuries ago. But Berdoz still upholds the time-keeping element of her ancient job. She cries out each hour, just after the cathedral’s big bell rings.

“I keep alive an amazing tradition,” Berdoz said. “But I also get to shout in the name of women, which is my contribution to feminism.”

Have a barrier-breaking weekend.

Yeong-Ung Yang compiled photos for this briefing.

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

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