Ukraine, Climate Bill, Beijing Olympics: Your Thursday Evening Briefing

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

1. President Biden strengthened his warning to Russia about a potential attack on Ukraine, a day after setting off alarm with his suggestion of divisions among allies.

Biden had flustered European partners by saying that a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine could mean “we end up having a fight” about the appropriate response. He spoke in starker terms on Thursday, saying that any Russian troop movement into Ukraine would be taken as an invasion and reiterating the threat of sanctions.

Biden’s comments came as the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met with U.S. allies in Germany ahead of a critical Friday sit-down in Geneva with Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia. Blinken’s visit also came amid reports that the U.S. had authorized some Baltic states to transfer American arms to Ukraine.

2. A growing number of Democrats in Congress want to move ahead with the climate portion of President Biden’s stalled spending bill.

Faced with the possibility that Democrats could lose control of Congress in November’s midterm elections, the party is now looking to salvage what it can from the $2.2 trillion Build Back Better Act. Senator Joe Manchin, a swing Democratic vote who stopped the sweeping climate and social-policy bill last month, has suggested that he might back various climate provisions in the legislation.

In other news out of Washington: The Supreme Court once again rejected a request for prompt action on the Texas’s restrictive abortion law from providers. In the dissent, the three liberal justices said the majority, by allowing a time-consuming legal detour, had created “a disaster for the rule of law.”

3. The Tabqa Dam in Syria was on a “no-strike” list, and a military report warned that striking it could cause thousands of deaths. The U.S. bombed it anyway.

At the time of the bombing in 2017, the U.S. denied responsibility for the attack. In fact, members of a top secret U.S. Special Operations unit struck the Islamic-State-controlled dam using some of the largest conventional bombs in the U.S. arsenal.

One of the bombs proved to be a dud; if it had exploded, experts say the whole dam might have failed, sending floods that might have killed tens of thousands of civilians.

Democrats have urged President Biden to overhaul his counterterrorism strategy and drone-strike program, citing civilian deaths from “secretive and unaccountable” operations.

4. An Atlanta district attorney asked for a special grand jury to investigate Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

The request from the district attorney, Fani T. Willis, had been expected because crucial witnesses have refused to participate voluntarily. A grand jury could issue subpoenas compelling them to provide information.

In Jan. 6 developments, Ivanka Trump was asked by a House committee to cooperate with its investigation into the Capitol riot.

Federal prosecutors have built a timeline of events as evidence of the Oath Keepers’ conspiracy to storm the Capitol. This is how the far-right militia is accused of plotting its attack.

5. Live from Stamford, Conn., it’s the 2022 Beijing Olympics!

All of NBC’s sports announcers will call the action from the network’s studios, because of concerns about Omicron and coronavirus restrictions in China for those covering the Olympics. Last summer’s Tokyo Games followed a similar pattern.

In other virus news:

• A South African study of infected zoo lions raised concerns about the virus spreading in the wild, and in a worst case, giving rise to new variants that could jump back to humans.

• Omicron was probably in New York City well before the first U.S. case was detected, wastewater data suggest.

• Vaccinated people may get “hybrid” immunity after a breakthrough infection. But experts still encourage precautions.

• Australia released the court ruling that upheld the expulsion of Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, over his lack of vaccination.

6. The U.S. moved to drop charges against an M.I.T. professor who was accused of hiding his links to Chinese government institutions.

Gang Chen was arrested a year ago and charged with a form of grant fraud. The arrest was met with protest from many of his colleagues, who said prosecutors had overreached, blurring the line between grant disclosure violations and more serious crimes like espionage.

Prosecutors on Thursday said the government could no longer meet its burden of proof at trial. Officials at the Department of Energy recently told prosecutors that the affiliations Dr. Chen had failed to declare would not have prevented the agency from extending the grant.

Separately, most cases of the mysterious “Havana syndrome” are unlikely to have been caused by foreign adversaries, the C.I.A. found.

7. Eighty years ago today, 15 high-ranking Nazi officials planned the Holocaust. It took 90 minutes.

The anniversary of the meeting in Lake Wannsee has a special resonance: Survivors of the Holocaust are dwindling, and antisemitism and the ideology of white supremacy are resurgent in Europe and the U.S., along with attacks targeting Jewish people and ethnic minorities. To many, it stands out as a date to focus on the bureaucratic but genocidal machinery of the Nazi state.

“It is the ordinary, the familiar, that jumps out at us, horrifies us and unsettles us,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s president, said of the Nazis’ protocol.

Today, the United Nations adopted an Israeli resolution that condemns denial and distortion of the Holocaust.

8. Today was another rough day for the leading women at the Australian Open.

In the second round, Garbiñe Muguruza, the No. 3 seed, and Anett Kontaveit, the No. 6 seed, lost within five minutes of each other; Emma Raducanu, who won last year’s U.S. Open title, was also eliminated. No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka looked shaky but pushed through. The day was indicative of the women’s game: unpredictable and deep in talent.

In the men’s draw at the tournament, Carlos Alcaraz, 18, is the youngest player and one of the most exciting next-generation talents in sports, already drawing comparisons to Rafael Nadal. He faces Matteo Berrettini in the third round tonight at 10:30 p.m. Eastern.

9. “I am not going to make a big deal of being more than what I am. Or less.”

Françoise Gilot, the painter, writer and only woman to have walked out on Pablo Picasso, is back in the spotlight — an unsettling, if not entirely unwelcome, return to being an “it girl” at the unlikely age of 100.

She had a few things to say about success, personal style and the nature of intimacy.

We also spoke to the comedian Kathy Griffin about trying to get back on the D-List. Ever since a joke about Donald Trump went wrong in 2017, Griffin has been seeking a professional rebirth. “I wasn’t canceled,” Griffin said. “I was erased.”

10. And finally, around the world in 155 days.

Zara Rutherford, 19, left Belgium in August with a singular goal: to become the youngest woman ever to fly solo around the world. Her trip took her more than 32,000 miles across five continents. She dodged clouds in Colombia and lightning flashes in Mexico, crossed a frozen patch of Siberia and avoided smog in India.

After five months, Rutherford achieved her goal, landing safely in Kortrijk, Belgium, today. “It will be very strange to not have to fly every single day anymore or try to fly every single day anymore,” she said after landing, adding, “I’m just happy to finally also be in the same spot for a few months.”

Have a high-flying night.

Guillermo Hernandez Martinez compiled photos for this briefing.

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