Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.
Trump sharply scales back fuel economy rulesThe Trump administration announced today that it had finalized a plan to significantly reduce fuel efficiency standards for new automobiles. The move was a significant step in President Trump’s effort to reverse the Biden-era campaign to speed America’s shift to electric vehicles. Under the new rules, carmakers will be required to achieve an average fuel efficiency of 34.9 miles per gallon for cars and light trucks by the model year 2031. That’s far below the standard of 50.4 miles per gallon set by Biden, and pretty close to the levels that new cars already achieve. President Trump has championed the scaled-back demands as a way to lower car prices. Critics argue that the change will cost drivers in the long run and reduce American manufacturers’ competitiveness. They also say the move will undermine efforts to address climate change, which Trump has called a “hoax.” In other Trump administration news:
Republicans plan a major ad blitz to protect vulnerable seatsIn Texas and Ohio, two states that Trump won by double digits in 2024, Republicans are on the defensive. The party has booked nearly $52 million in TV and radio ads this week, compared with $10.2 million by their opponents. James Talarico, the Texas Democrat, is polling ahead of Ken Paxton, the Trump-backed Republican. Crucially, it appears that Black voters have warmed to Talarico’s candidacy. In Ohio, many voters seem to think that Sherrod Brown, the Democratic challenger, is actually the incumbent. To follow all of the key races closely, sign up for our Poll Tracker newsletter.
Russia strikes the heart of KyivIn the middle of the workday today in Ukraine’s capital, a Russian jet-powered drone slammed into the National Academy of Sciences. The attack set the top two floors of the institution behind nearly all of the country’s major scientific discoveries ablaze. Images showed workers crawling out of the windows, awaiting rescue. The strike, which killed at least one person and injured six, was part of what has become daily life in Kyiv, where a stroll down the street is now often punctuated by the rat-a-tat of air-defense guns. Ukrainian defenses have struggled to knock down the new jet-powered drones. For more: My colleague Valerie Hopkins spoke with Russians who have lost family members in the war. Many accept the Kremlin’s line, that the fighting must continue.
Investigation into Cornell assault is reopenedAfter outrage over allegations in a new lawsuit, a New York prosecutor said today that he would reopen an investigation into accusations of a 2024 sexual assault at Cornell University. In the lawsuit, a woman asserted that she had been plied with alcohol and drugs and raped by multiple men at the Chi Phi fraternity house when she was a 20-year-old undergraduate. She said she had reported the incident to university police several weeks later, but that no criminal charges were filed by prosecutors.
More top news
A young biologist turned an $80 hotel room into a makeshift lab, and discovered two new species of a rare organism that could illuminate the history of life on Earth.
What it’s like at a phone-free concertWhen Phoebe Bridgers performs her new album tonight in Philadelphia, not a single audience member will be holding up a phone. That’s a major departure from many other popular concerts, but Bridgers says that banning devices is the only way she is comfortable retuning to the stage. At a previous stop on Bridgers’s tour, our critic Lindsay Zoladz noticed that fans were forced to be “present.” Read about what it was like. For more: We talked to Harry Styles fans about how much they were willing to pay to see him during his 30-night New York residency.
Backyard ultramarathons have become surprisingly popularAn ultramarathon is any race longer than 26.2 miles. So-called backyard ultramarathons can be much more grueling: Runners must complete a 4.167-mile loop once each hour. If they finish early, they can rest for the remainder of the hour. If they fail to finish a lap, they are eliminated. The race only ends when the competitors give up. Some go on for days. The challenge is particularly appealing for endurance athletes, who are eager to test their physical limits in a race that does not require fast speeds. It has caught on widely, with more than 700 such races on the calendar for the coming year.
Dinner table topics
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