The Morning: The state of summer vacation

Travel is ticking back up, and “vaccine passports” could play a big role.

View in browser|nytimes.com April 2, 2021 By Claire Moses Good morning. Travel is ticking back up, and “vaccine passports” could play a big role. Travelers checking in for flights at Los Angeles International Airport in February.Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The state of summer vacation With Covid vaccinations underway, many people are wondering about travel. The C.D.C. has recommended that Americans, even those who have been fully vaccinated, not travel yet. Case numbers have been rising in the U.S., and variants are spreading. But the reality is that many people who have received the vaccine are booking flights and trips again. Though this summer likely won’t see travel at prepandemic levels, and many places remain closed, “bookings for almost everything are up,” Tariro Mzezewa, a Times reporter who covers travel, told me. “Travel will go beyond the road trips of last summer,” she says. “Vaccinated people will be more comfortable being around other people.” So what will change? Expect to show some sort of proof — either of a negative test or of vaccination — when traveling. “You should be planning on showing your negative test or staying home if you don’t have one,” Tariro says. The European Union, for example, has announced plans for the Digital Green Certificate, a so-called vaccine passport that countries can use to verify a person’s health status and allow free travel across the bloc. The concept of a vaccine passport isn’t new: To travel to certain countries, for example, you already need inoculations against yellow fever and other diseases. The travel industry and tech companies have been working on ways to streamline digital credentials for years, and during the pandemic some have started to repurpose that technology to show proof of vaccination. “It isn’t far off in the future,” Tariro says. Location matters Countries are approaching travel differently. The Biden administration has said that it will leave the development of a vaccine passport in the U.S. to the private sector. At least 17 initiatives are underway, The Washington Post reported. “Some think a coordinated, nationwide vaccine passport system could help us get back to a semblance of normal life and speed up economic recovery,” Rebecca Heilweil wrote in Recode. “But this seems unlikely.” In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that vaccine passports would “definitely” play a role in the future for international travel. China has already introduced its own digital certificate, which shows a person’s vaccine and testing history, and South Korea recently announced it would issue vaccine passports to immunized citizens using a mobile app. A woman showing her “Green Pass” at a bar in Tel Aviv last month.Amir Levy/Getty Images A real-world example In Israel, a possible vision of the postpandemic future is on display. More than half of Israelis have received both vaccine shots, and cases have dropped by 90 percent. The economy has reopened with help from a “Green Pass,” an entry ticket to society. The pass isn’t being widely used for international travel — Israel is still closed to foreign visitors out of fear of variants — but it offers access to restaurants, concerts and more. Newspapers and commercials in Israel are already advertising summer getaways for the fully vaccinated in countries that have agreed to take them, including Greece, Cyprus and Georgia, according to Isabel Kershner, a Times correspondent in Jerusalem. If you’re looking for more answers about vaccine passports, read Tariro’s article. And here’s what you need to know about the simple white cards you get after receiving a vaccine. THE LATEST NEWS The Virus Receiving a Moderna Covid-19 vaccine in Detroit this week.Cydni Elledge for The New York Times Infections and hospitalizations in Michigan have risen sharply in recent weeks, giving it more recent cases per capita than any other state. Officials blame a more contagious variant and a premature return to prepandemic behaviors. “It makes me shudder,” a local health officer said. The Biden administration announced an advertising campaign to promote the vaccines in communities where hesitancy remains high. In London, bereaved families are filling a wall along the River Thames with 150,000 hand-painted red hearts — one for each life lost to Covid in Britain. Politics Interstate 10 split a neighborhood in New Orleans in the 1960s, claiming dozens of Black-owned businesses.Erika Goldring/Getty Images President Biden’s infrastructure plan includes programs meant to address the racial disparities of past infrastructure projects, like highways that split Black neighborhoods, and environmental waste in Hispanic and tribal communities. Mitch McConnell predicted that no Senate Republicans would support Biden’s proposal. But some Republican officials across the country are embracing elements of the plan. A federal investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz is focusing on his involvement with multiple women who were recruited online for sex. Receipts showed that Gaetz and a former Florida official had sent money to the women using cash apps. Business At least 55 of America’s largest corporations, including FedEx and Nike, paid no federal taxes last year on billions of dollars in profits, a study found. An accidental disclosure exposed a $1 billion tax dispute between the I.R.S. and the pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers. Few noticed. Then all traces of it vanished. Senator Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller and other Republicans criticized Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines for speaking out against a new Georgia law that makes it harder for people to vote. A couple is left with a warehouse full of abandoned mannequins, cardboard boxes and other junk from Brooks Brothers stores — and a $250,000 price tag to dispose of it all. Other Big Stories Two paramedics who responded to the scene of George Floyd’s arrest testified that they did not see signs of life when they arrived. And a sergeant said that Chauvin and other police officers should have stopped holding Floyd down once he became unresponsive. (Here are the takeaways from Day 4 of the trial.) A sheriff’s office in Texas fired seven officers over the death of Marvin Scott, a 26-year-old Black man who died after being restrained in a county jail last month. A train derailed in Taiwan, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens of others. Sexual violence has pervaded the civil war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. “What’s happening is unimaginable,” the operator of a local safe house for women said. Virginia’s Supreme Court ruled that the city of Charlottesville could remove statues of two Confederate generals. Opinions Nancy Reagan waged a private campaign to help end the Cold War, the Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty writes in an excerpt from her forthcoming book about the former first lady. Easter is more than a celebration of spring, Esau McCaulley, a biblical scholar, writes in The Times. Morning Reads Modern Love: Was it fear of commitment, or was it something more complicated? Lives Lived: Bibian Mentel was a six-time Dutch snowboarding champion when she lost a leg to cancer. She was soon back on the slopes, competing against able-bodied snowboarders, and she won a gold medal seven months after her surgery. Mentel has died at 48. ARTS AND IDEAS The Yankees opened their season against the Blue Jays yesterday.Amr Alfiky/The New York Times Navigating the new baseball season The most noteworthy thing about this season of Major League Baseball, which began yesterday, is that it’s somewhat normal. After the pandemic forced major changes last year, including a 60-game schedule, the league is returning to a standard 162 games and fans are back in the stands. Here are three things to watch for this year. Lots of home runs. For the past five years, home runs have been flying into the stands in record numbers, and pitchers aren’t happy. To address it, the league has introduced a baseball that is less springy. Still, during spring training, batters hit it out of the park at the highest rate yet, according to The Ringer. The best get better. The Los Angeles Dodgers have been to three of the last four World Series, and won it last year. And they seem to keep getting stronger: Over the winter they added pitcher Trevor Bauer, who won the National League Cy Young Award last year. Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times has high expectations: “This season they’re going to be the best team in baseball history.” Pandemic disruptions. The league has already postponed a game because of Covid — the opening day matchup between the Mets and the Nationals. As the season goes on, expect the virus to complicate things: Players could miss days, and teams may have to reschedule games. For more: Tyler Kepner, a Times baseball writer, explains where all 30 teams stand. — Tom Wright-Piersanti PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Romulo Yanes for The New York Times. Food Stylist:Vivian Lui This one-pot turmeric coconut rice with greens is comforting and delicious. And if you need Easter dinner inspiration, here are some easy recipes. ’Til Death Do Us Part? What’s life like as one of Hollywood’s go-to divorce lawyers? Laura Wasser, whose A-list clients include Stevie Wonder, Angelina Jolie and Kim Kardashian, knows. What to Listen To Whether you’re craving a thriller, a spy documentary or a music history lesson, each of these podcasts can be enjoyed in one big listen. Take the News Quiz Take this week’s News Quiz and compete with other Times readers. Now Time to Play We hope you’ve enjoyed eight weeks of bonus games in The Morning. (And let us know what you thought of all four games — Daily Aha, Big Picture, Ditloids and Bee Plus — in this survey.) Enjoy our final Bee Plus below, and find its answer in the P.S. The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was photograph, and the answers to yesterday’s Bee Plus were goth and rap. Here is today’s puzzle and Bee Plus — or you can play online. BEE PLUS: A word in today’s answer list is also the name of a country. Remove a letter, and the remaining letters in order will spell the name of a plant. In addition, the name of the country is fully hidden inside the name of another plant (9 letters). What are the names of the country and the two plants? Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Lukewarm (five letters). If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you Monday. — Claire P.S. A documentary series based on The Times Magazine’s “The 1619 Project” will debut on Hulu. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams will produce the series. P.P.S. The answers to today’s Bee Plus were China, chia and echinacea. You can see today’s print front page here. Today’s episode of “The Daily” is about Biden’s infrastructure plan. On “Still Processing,” a conversation about “Promising Young Woman,” sexual assault and justice. Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. The Morning Briefing newsletter is now The Morning newsletter. You received this email because you signed up for the newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018

The Morning: Biden’s Afghanistan decision

A deadline approaches in America's longest war.

View in browser|nytimes.com April 1, 2021 By Ian Prasad Philbrick Good morning. The deadline for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan is a month away. Here’s where things stand. U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint in Afghanistan’s Wardak province.Thomas Watkins/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Biden’s Afghanistan dilemma Is America’s longest war finally coming to an end? That’s the question President Biden is confronting before a May 1 deadline to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, where they have been deployed since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. I spoke to my colleagues Helene Cooper and T.M. Gibbons-Neff about Biden’s three basic options, and the potential risks. 1. Withdraw now. Biden’s history suggests he might personally favor a quick drawdown, Helene, who covers the Pentagon, says. As vice president, Biden argued for a smaller U.S. presence in Afghanistan than Barack Obama’s military advisers wanted. (He lost that argument.) Now that Biden is in a position to decide, his outlook seems to have shifted. He has said that bringing the roughly 3,500 U.S. soldiers home by May — a deadline Biden inherited from Donald Trump — would be logistically difficult. “Think about how you move into an apartment and you live there for a year, how much it takes to move out,” T.M., who is based in the Afghan capital, Kabul, says. “Imagine going to war for two decades.” A hasty departure could also have consequences for Afghanistan. The Trump administration agreed to withdraw as part of a deal it struck last year with the Taliban, the repressive militant group that ruled much of the country before the U.S. invaded. The Taliban are already supporting targeted killings against Afghan civilians and soldiers. If American forces leave, some Afghans and U.S. officials fear the Taliban will attempt a military takeover. Biden’s doubts about the May deadline may also reflect domestic political concerns. While the conflict continues to shape life in Afghanistan, it has faded from many Americans’ view. That could change, T.M. says, “if Kabul is falling to the Taliban on nightly news.” 2. Delay. The U.S. could extend its withdrawal by a few months while continuing to support peace talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s democratic government. Biden appears to be leaning toward this option. “We will leave. The question is when,” he said last week. This option could avert the chaos of a quick drawdown. But it may only delay further violence if the Taliban and the Afghan government fail to reach a power-sharing agreement. The Taliban wants the U.S. out, and it reduced its attacks on U.S. troops after striking a deal with the Trump administration. “Expect attacks on American troops to return in full force if we stay beyond May 1,” Helene says. 3. Stay. Biden may conclude that some U.S. troops should stay in Afghanistan to support the Afghan military, which remains weak, and to help protect the imperfect but real gains in women’s education and democracy the country has made since 2001. Similar justifications helped keep Biden’s two immediate predecessors embroiled in Afghanistan, and they could prolong U.S. involvement into a third decade. The war has cost about $2 trillion and thousands of Afghan, American and allied lives. “Leaving will likely mean a complete reversal of any gains made there in the last 20 years,” Helene says. “But troop presence in perpetuity is not something that political leaders are keen to sell to the public.” For more: Negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government are set to continue this month in Turkey. Whether or not they make a deal, the Taliban think they have the upper hand. THE LATEST NEWS Biden’s Infrastructure Plan President Biden outlined his infrastructure plan in Pittsburgh yesterday.Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times Biden unveiled the details of his $2 trillion plan to repair and upgrade the country’s infrastructure, calling it “a once-in-a-generation investment in America.” From rebuilding 20,000 miles of roads to eliminating lead water pipes, here’s how the spending would break down. To fund the plan, Biden has proposed undoing part of the Trump administration’s tax cuts, which shrank the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Biden wants to raise it to 28 percent. Biden’s proposal is a bet that supporting renewable energy and electric cars will aid unions and create jobs. House Democrats hope to pass the plan by July 4. The Virus Abhinav, 12, a participant in the Pfizer vaccine trial in Cincinnati in October.Cincinnati Children's Hospital Pfizer said a clinical trial had showed that its Covid vaccine was extremely effective in 12- to 15-year-olds, with no symptomatic infections among children who received it. A mix-up at a Baltimore factory manufacturing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine ruined 15 million doses, delaying future shipments. France will enter its third national lockdown. Other Big Stories An image from store video that shows George Floyd, right, inside Cup Foods on May 25, 2020.Court TV still image, via Associated Press Jurors in the trial of Derek Chauvin heard emotional testimony from a teenage store clerk who described the moments before George Floyd’s death, and watched police body-camera footage of the arrest. Here are more takeaways from Day 3 of the trial. Four people, including a child, are dead after a shooting at an office building in Southern California, the third mass shooting in the U.S. in the past 16 days. The authorities are expected to release more details this morning. New York State legalized the use of recreational marijuana. And the state’s prisons will end long-term solitary confinement. After staying silent last week, Delta and Coca-Cola, two of Georgia’s largest companies, expressed “crystal clear” opposition to the state’s new law to restrict voting access. A Hong Kong court found prominent pro-democracy activists guilty of unauthorized assembly. It’s part of a Beijing-led campaign to quash opposition. Aleksei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, declared a hunger strike, demanding better medical treatment. The musician Paul Simon sold his songwriting catalog to Sony. Several other noted songwriters have struck big deals recently. After about 10 minutes of grocery shopping, a New Mexico man returned to his car to find 15,000 bees in the back seat. Opinions The border crisis is driven by American companies’ willingness to hire unauthorized immigrants, something lawmakers are failing to address, writes Christopher Landau, Trump’s ambassador to Mexico. Gail Collins and Ezra Klein have columns. Morning Reads Woof: Would you buy your dog a charcuterie board? Lives Lived: The white minority government in Rhodesia imprisoned Janice McLaughlin, an American nun, for exposing atrocities against Black citizens. Years later, when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, she returned to help establish an educational system. McLaughlin died at 79. If you’ve found this newsletter helpful, please consider subscribing to The New York Times — with this special offer. Your support makes our work possible. ARTS AND IDEAS Ryan Kaji with his parents last year.Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images For Nickelodeon Ryan’s World Ryan Kaji is 9. He’s also the highest-earning YouTuber of the last three years. Kaji is largely popular for videos where he reviews toys, and Forbes reported that he made nearly $30 million last year. The children’s section of YouTube is lucrative: Half of the 10 most popular videos on the platform are for children, and the catchy kids’ song “Baby Shark” is its most-viewed video. But as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, Kaji’s success goes far beyond the ad money from his videos. Like the Olsen twins and JoJo Siwa before him, he has an empire built on merchandising. Kaji’s parents have made deals with Walmart and Target for toys and clothes, as well as TV deals with Amazon and Nickelodeon. A footwear line with Skechers is in the works. The bulk of Kaji’s revenue now comes from the licensing side. Other children’s YouTube channels are also cashing in: Cocomelon, which has more than 100 million subscribers, has a line of toys. Pinkfong, the educational brand behind “Baby Shark,” has merchandise and a Nickelodeon series. For more on Kaji, read the rest of Bloomberg’s story. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times Slivers of ginger and scallions elevate this chicken stir-fry. Play Ball Major League Baseball is back today, promising a full 162-game season. Here’s what to watch for in Game 1. What to Read “You Made Me Love You” by John Edgar Wideman is a selection of stories that vividly evoke life in Pittsburgh. In the Garden Oak trees support more life-forms than any other trees in North America. Here’s why you should plant them. And for more gardening advice, read this charming interview with Margaret Roach, The Times’s gardening columnist. Now Time to Play The Morning now includes a bonus game from the team that creates Spelling Bee and the Crossword. The current game is Bee Plus. Your goal is to solve an additional riddle, using only the letters below. The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was anklebone, and the answers to yesterday’s Bee Plus were knee and lobe. Here is today’s puzzle and Bee Plus — or you can play online. BEE PLUS: Anagram the seven letters into two genres of music, using each letter only once in total. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Steal (five letters). If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — Ian P.S. Our colleague Sarah Lyall is writing about burnout and motivation, as more workers contemplate a return to the office. Tell her how you’re coping. You can see today’s print front page here. Today’s episode of “The Daily” is about the Amazon union vote in Alabama. On “Sway,” Cathy Park Hong discusses anti-Asian racism. Claire Moses, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. The Morning Briefing newsletter is now The Morning newsletter. You received this email because you signed up for the newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018