Your Friday Briefing: Tougher words on Russia

January 21, 2022

By Melina Delkic

Writer, Briefings

Good morning. We're covering a harsher line from the West on Russia and the reasons behind a decision to send Djokovic home.

The Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

The West scrambles for a unified response to Russia

With U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken scheduled to meet today with Russia's foreign minister, Sergi Lavrov, in Geneva, President Biden strengthened his warning to Russia about a potential attack on Ukraine — a day after triggering alarm with his suggestion of divisions among European allies.

Biden had said 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.

In public, top European and NATO officials were quick to play down questions of division. Others pointed out that the response depended on the circumstances and has always been divided.

Details: German leaders have stopped short of a commitment to halt a gas pipeline which may enrich Putin and increase his leverage. On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron surprised and irritated E.U. colleagues by suggesting E.U. nations should come up with their own proposals.

The latest: The U.S. will permit Baltic NATO members to send American-made weapons to Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. also imposed sanctions on Ukrainian officials that it accused of conspiring with Russia, The Guardian reported.

Iran and Russia: Putin and Ebrahim Raisi, the leader of Iran, sought to showcase tightening bonds.

Novak Djokovic arrived at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade on Monday.Christopher Pike/Reuters

Australian judges release reasoning for Djokovic

The three judges who oversaw the case against Novak Djokovic in Australia found that the immigration chief who revoked his visa was reasonable and rational, according to a ruling released on Thursday by the Federal Court of Australia.

The minister had argued that Djokovic's position as a role model who chose to remain unvaccinated against Covid-19 could "foster anti-vaccination sentiment."

In the first public statement of the court's reasoning, the panel of judges concurred: "An iconic world tennis star may influence people of all ages, young or old, but perhaps especially the young and the impressionable, to emulate him," they found. "This is not fanciful; it does not need evidence."

It also noted the broad authority of the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, to control entry into the country. Hawke did not have to provide his reasons for canceling Djokovic's visa, but the judgment said they were "carefully drafted."

Recap: The court's decision, which took the tennis star out of the Australian Open, concluded a volatile saga that prompted debate over immigration law and vaccinations. Djokovic had tried to enter the country under an exemption to the vaccination mandate for foreigners.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

In other developments:

New Zealand cut off the only path for citizens and visa holders abroad to return in an effort to limit the spread of the Omicron variant.
Clues to how long the Omicron surge might last in the U.S. are emerging from an unlikely source: sewage.
Can Omicron cause long Covid? It's too soon to know, scientists say.
Two residents of China's Shaanxi Province got stuck together in lockdown after their second date. They're planning an engagement.

Gang Chen, an M.I.T. scientist, was arrested in 2021 as part of the China Initiative, a government anti-espionage effort that has come under criticism for singling out scientists of Chinese heritage.M.I.T.

Case dropped against M.I.T. scientist

U.S. prosecutors on Thursday dropped the government's charges against Gang Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering at M.I.T. who had been accused of hiding his links to China.

Dr. Chen was arrested during President Trump's last full week in office, and charged with a form of grant fraud. His arrest was part of the China Initiative, a government effort meant to stop scientists from passing sensitive technology to China. The Justice Department is reviewing that program.

Colleagues had rallied around him, saying that prosecutors had failed to distinguish between grant disclosure violations and more serious crimes like espionage or intellectual property theft.

Recently, officials at the Department of Energy told prosecutors that the department would have awarded the grant money to Dr. Chen even if he had disclosed the Chinese ties, calling into question the basis of the charges, according to people familiar with the matter.

THE LATEST NEWS

Asia Pacific

The tangle of cities and districts around Delhi is so sprawling that no canonical count of its population exists; estimates range from 30 million to 60 million.Atul Loke for The New York Times

Delhi is growing far beyond its formal confines, and could become the world's largest city. Plans to accommodate that growth are incomplete.
Australia's prime minister quickly backtracked on a proposal to ease supply chain woes: lowering the minimum age for forklift drivers to 16.
Many people in Tonga evaded the powerful waves set off by a volcano eruption, but the ash cloud it unleashed is posing threats to drinking water, agriculture and air quality.
France's Parliament passed a motion condemning what it called a genocide against Uyghurs in China.
The top-ranked women have struggled in a talented draw at the Australian Open.

Around the World

The Tabqa Dam in 2018. Civilian no-strike sites were used as weapons depots, command centers and fighting positions by the Islamic State.Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

The Tabqa Dam in Syria was on a "no-strike" list, and a military report warned that striking it could cause thousands of deaths. But the U.S. bombed it anyway.
The U.N. on Thursday adopted an Israeli resolution that condemns denial and distortion of the Holocaust.
A report faulted Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI for mishandling at least four cases of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests.
Anger over women's safety is growing in Ireland after the murder of a 23-year-old schoolteacher who was jogging on a well-frequented path in broad daylight.

A Morning Read

"We're appreciating the traditional things, and calling attention to them." said one Makgeolli brewer.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

When the coronavirus pandemic brought travels to a halt, South Koreans started paying more attention to local booze. Makgeolli is a rice wine that was made by Koreans for centuries until postwar restrictions on grain alcohol nearly killed the craft. But it has grown in popularity over the past decade, and it exploded during Covid lockdowns among drinkers and home brewers alike.

Continue reading the main story

ARTS AND IDEAS

A towering force in fashion

André Leon Talley at his home in White Plains, N.Y., in 2018.George Etheredge for The New York Times

André Leon Talley's approach to fashion could best be described as "more." More glamour, more decadence, more delight. He evoked drama in both his personal style — wearing capes and furs — and his declarations. "It's a famine of beauty, honey!" he once proclaimed. "My eyes are starving for beauty!"

Talley, who died this week at 73, was a pioneering figure in fashion. Using his encyclopedic knowledge of fashion history and his quick wit, he became an editor, author, adviser and TV personality. In the 1980s, he worked his way up to creative director at Vogue, and he spent decades there in various roles.

A 1994 New Yorker profile called Talley "The Only One" — a reference to him often being the sole high-powered Black editor in a field that is notoriously white. His influence is hard to overstate: He mentored the supermodel Naomi Campbell and helped dress Michelle Obama as first lady.

Growing up in the Jim Crow South, Talley wallpapered his bedroom with images ripped from Vogue. "I went to school and to church and I did what I was told and I didn't talk much," he told Vogue in 2018. "But I knew life was bigger than that. I wanted to meet Diana Vreeland and Andy Warhol and Naomi Sims and Pat Cleveland and Edie Sedgwick and Loulou de la Falaise. And I did. And I never looked back."

In his own voice: Talley discussed his life on The Times's "Book Review" podcast in 2020.