Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.
1. The Republican Party declared the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “legitimate.”
The Republican National Committee censured Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois for joining the congressional inquiry into the riot, saying they were taking part in the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
By approving the censure and opting to punish two of its own, Republicans seemed to embrace a position many of them have only hinted at: that last year’s assault and the actions that preceded it were acceptable.
Speaking to a gathering of conservatives in Florida, the former vice president, Mike Pence, said that Donald Trump was “wrong” to claim that the vice president had the legal authority to change the results of the 2020 election.
A year after urging the former president to use the military to overturn the election, Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is fighting on, battling a subpoena and spreading the gospel of a stolen election.
2. The U.S. economy added 467,000 jobs in January, a sign that the spike in Covid cases wasn’t enough to derail recovery.
The Labor Department also said that job growth at the end of 2021 was significantly stronger than initially reported. President Biden celebrated, saying last year’s employment gains — 6.6 million jobs, owing partly to an expansive government response to the pandemic — had shattered records. “History has been made here,” he said.
But a very strong yearly wage growth of 5.7 percent also heightened fears of inflation and expectations that the Fed will soon raise interest rates. There are 2.9 million fewer jobs now than before the pandemic. Stocks on Wall Street rose.
3. A colorful ceremony in Beijing kicked off one of the most logistically complicated and politically fraught Olympic Games in history.
Though leaner than past openings, the two-hour spectacle in China’s National Stadium featured a high-definition LED stage; several thousand performers; leaders of 22 nations, despite a U.S. diplomatic boycott; and a parade of athletes from 90 countries, with the few spectators sometimes defying pandemic guidelines to cheer. In a provocative choice, China picked a Uyghur athlete to help light the Olympic cauldron.
Next comes two weeks of competition. Giving the U.S. an early shot at a medal, Nathan Chen easily finished first in a figure skating event. We have full coverage.
4. China backed Russia in its showdown with the West over Ukraine.
In a highly choreographed display of solidarity, the countries’ leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, met in Beijing ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony and released a joint statement that described a friendship that had “no limits.” China also sided with Russia on one of its critical demands: an end to NATO’s eastward expansion.
According to the Ukrainian military, portions of the Russian Army appear to be nearly ready for war in Ukraine should the Kremlin order it. Military analysts say it may be only a few weeks before the 130,000 Russian troops deployed along Ukraine’s borders are fully prepared for action.
If war breaks out, Russian public opinion will probably be with Putin.
5. Across the U.S., the coronavirus pandemic has now claimed about 900,000 lives.
An estimated 2,600 Americans are dying each day from Covid-19, an alarming number that has climbed by 30 percent in the past two weeks, even as the spread of the Omicron variant has slowed.
Deaths have yet to peak, but there is reason for hope. With the numbers of new infections and hospitalizations falling, the virus seems to be receding into the background of daily life.
In other virus news, new C.D.C. data showed that booster shots confer significant benefits for adults 65 and older, but the gains for younger Americans are less compelling. Here’s our live Covid coverage.
6. Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, was crushed by Antarctic ice in 1915. Now, a team of researchers is heading to the frigid Weddell Sea where it went down.
With more than 100 crew members and scientists aboard, a South African icebreaker is set to leave Cape Town on Saturday. But getting there won’t be easy: The 144-foot-long Endurance is sitting in 10,000 feet of water. “It’s the most unreachable wreck ever,” the director of the expedition said. “Which makes this the greatest wreck hunt of all time.”
The team hopes to find the wreck and explore it with two autonomous submersibles that will take photographs and videos, as well as make precise laser scans of the wreckage.
7. Secondhand clothing sellers in Malaysia are fueling the sector’s rapid growth.
On resale sites like Etsy and eBay, a prevalence of Malaysian vendors has led some shoppers to wonder: Why?
The answer has to do with a passion for secondhand shopping there. The country is dotted with thrift stores — ranging from tiny stalls to yawning warehouses — that keep a close watch on trends and compile vintage treasures among the constant flow of discards from the U.S., the world’s largest exporter of used clothing. Our reporter surveyed the ins and outs of Malaysia’s secondhand clothing boom.
And in Detroit, two sisters behind a unisex fashion line are aiming to bolster their hometown’s growing reputation as a fashion capital.
8. The art of money laundering.
Some experts have long worried that the opacity of the art trade, where buyers and sellers are not always identified, made it an easy way to shroud money transfers. In a report released today, the Treasury Department cited some evidence of money laundering using high-end art, but held off on recommending any immediate action to regulate the art market.
The report is likely to be welcomed by major art dealers and auction houses that spent nearly $1 million over the past two years on lobbying federal officials in Washington over regulatory issues.
In other news from the art world, an exhibition by Chris “Daze” Ellis tries to create a bridge between the New York City of the 1970s and ’80s and its current iteration, which is richer, pandemic-buckled and more atomized.
9. Who gets to be British in 2022?
In 2014, an anonymous letter was leaked to the British press. It outlined a supposed plot to infiltrate public schools in Birmingham, the second largest city in Britain, and run them according to strict Islamic principles.
The letter was eventually exposed as a fraud, but not before it shook the political system and unleashed racism and Islamophobia that altered the lives of many British Muslims. We asked three writers to unpack the complexities of British Pakistani identity.
For more on the so-called Trojan Horse Affair, listen to a new podcast series from Serial and The Times that investigates the mystery.
10. And finally, an eagle-eyed New Yorker.
A few weeks ago, a rare sight was observed in New York City: A bald eagle snatched a gull out of the air in Central Park. The white-headed raptor was Rover, who has been tracked by conservationists since his birth about four years ago in New Haven, Conn., some 70 miles away.
Birds of prey, such as Rover, are increasingly taking to cities. Their numbers have rebounded over the past half-century thanks in part to bans on hunting and the insecticide DDT. The population of bald eagles has quadrupled in the U.S. since 2009.
Have a majestic weekend.
Sean Culligan compiled photos for this briefing.
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