Your Thursday Evening Briefing – The New York Times – NewsEverything New York

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

On the ground, Russia is preparing for an eastern onslaught. “The enemy is trying to cut off all possible ways to leave,” said one governor in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. “Do not delay — evacuate.” Hopes for peace talks faded today after Russia’s foreign minister said that Ukraine had rolled back some of its proposals.

In the suburbs of Kyiv residents spoke to The Times about living through the recent carnage. The mayor of Mariupol said that more than 5,000 people had died there. German intelligence reported intercepting radio traffic in which Russians discussed killing civilians.

3. Pakistan’s Supreme Court today overturned Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decision to dissolve Parliament, paving the way for his removal from office.

A no-confidence vote, almost certain to end Khan’s leadership, will be held Saturday. If he loses, a caretaker government will be formed and the country will prepare for new elections.

Khan, the cricket star turned politician, had tried to block such a vote with his maneuver, which opposition leaders called an “open coup.” Khan’s popularity has waned in recent months as inflation has soared, and his relationship has soured with key leaders of the country’s powerful military.

4. Saudi Arabia may be looking to end the war in Yemen.

Yemen’s exiled president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, stepped down today and passed power to a presidential council, a sweeping reshuffle supported by Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies. Hadi delegated the new council to run the government and lead peace talks with the Houthi rebels who control Sana, Yemen’s capital, and the country’s northwest.

The new push to end the war follows seven years of grinding combat that have shattered the Yemeni state, spawned one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and undermined the security of oil-producing Gulf monarchies allied with the U.S. But analysts raised questions about how effective the presidential council would be at managing the peace process given the divergent positions of its eight members.

5. Shanghai’s draconian pandemic measures are being met with pushback.

Parents implored the government not to separate infected children from their families. Residents confronted officials over containment policies that they see as inhumane. Such public dissatisfaction has been rare in China since the beginning of the pandemic in Wuhan.

The crisis is shaping up to be a political test of the zero tolerance approach on which the Chinese Communist Party has staked its legitimacy. The government looks unmoved — and public health experts have warned that the country is unprepared to live with the coronavirus, with just over half of people ages 80 and over fully vaccinated as of late March.

In New York, the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron is causing a slowly but steadily rising tide of illness, but it has yet to produce a rise in hospitalizations, and deaths remain low.

In other health news, Medicare officially limited the use of the new Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm to patients in clinical trials, citing data showing it has serious safety risks and may not help patients.

6. Atmospheric methane levels increased last year by the largest amount since measurements began 40 years ago.

The previous record was set in 2020, and scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that levels of the potent planet-warming gas have reached a record high.

Methane pours into the air from wells and pipelines, livestock, landfills and more. It has greater short-term effects on global warming than carbon dioxide. A NOAA administrator said that reducing methane could quickly reduce the rate of global warming.

In other climate news, a Gallup poll found that extreme weather affected a third of all Americans in the last two years.

7. Are 1,818 Airbnbs too many in Joshua Tree?

The pandemic fueled a short-term rental gold rush in the Southern California desert town. Investors from Los Angeles, New York, China and elsewhere rushed to buy land to build homes explicitly for Airbnb and Vrbo, eager to cash in on an appetite for an aesthetic that some have called “high desert boho” or “the Joshua Tree Look” on Instagram.

But as in other Airbnb destination cities like Miami Beach, New York and Barcelona, the frenzy is also stirring debate. Some residents, finding themselves priced out of the Joshua Tree area, are concerned for its signature trees and whether the alternative nature of life in the desert of southeastern California is changing forever.

8. The rein of Japan’s monkey queen has just begun.

Yakei, a 9-year-old Japanese macaque, fought other macaques — including an elderly alpha male and her own mother — to become the first known female troop leader in the history of her preserve, home to over 1,000 macaques.

Her ongoing rule has surprised scientists. During her first breeding season as queen, a time when tensions run high, they thought a dramatic love triangle might take Yakei down, fearing that a spurned suitor might steal her throne. But she held onto her position while successfully mating.

“Social smarts are more important than physical strength for Japanese macaques,” one scientist told The Times; another speculated that the allies she amassed as queen likely had her back.

9. Rihanna’s maternity clothes not only aren’t frumpy, they’re barely there.

In the annals of public pregnancy, there’s never been anything quite like it, our fashion critic Vanessa Friedman writes. Since announcing her pregnancy in January, the pop singer Rihanna’s fashion choices have been marked more by what she hasn’t worn than what she has.

Rihanna has displayed her growing, naked belly in artful designs she’s worn everywhere from fashion shows to Oscar parties. But fashion may not even be the main point: It’s a “totally transgressive and highly political statement,” said a professor of media studies, and Rihanna herself refers to her pregnancy style as “rebellious.”

10. And finally, old footage of a very young Prince.

In February, a Minnesota TV station planned to cover an upcoming Minneapolis teacher’s strike. Archivists helped assemble footage of a 1970 strike for context. One producer thought he saw a familiar face.

A boy in ear warmers told a reporter that teachers “should get some more money” because they’re “working extra hours for us and all that stuff.” After a five-week investigation, he was confirmed as Prince Nelson — as he was known at the time — the music legend who died in 2016.