Your Tuesday Briefing

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Tuesday, Dec 1, 2020 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering the grim coronavirus trends in the U.S., a push for change at NATO and more job losses to globalization in France.

By Natasha Frost

Drive-through coronavirus testing in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on Monday. Stephen Speranza for The New York Times

‘The next three months are going to be just horrible’

With coronavirus vaccines and a new presidential administration on the way, there is distant hope in the beleaguered U.S., which is now facing more than a million new cases every week. But the next few months “are going to be just horrible,” as one expert put it.

President Trump, the person most capable of altering the trajectory between now and the spring, appears unwilling to help his successor, Joe Biden, do what must be done to save the lives of tens of thousands of Americans.

Hospitals in some states are beyond capacity, while the number of deaths seem on track to easily surpass the 2,200-a-day average that was reached last spring. Efforts to urge Americans to avoid holiday travel were only partially successful: More than six million Americans took flights for Thanksgiving last week, about 40 percent of the number of travelers last year.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

In other developments:

■ The drugmaker Moderna said it would apply this week to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize its coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. If approved, the first vaccines could be administered as soon as Dec. 21.

■ Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic of Croatia and his wife have tested positive for the coronavirus, days after his government introduced strict rules meant to curb the virus’s spread as patients inundated hospitals.

■ Five weeks into a second nationwide lockdown, France has proved that it is possible to bring the rate of known infections down while keeping schools open.

NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, at a news conference in Brussels in June. Pool photo by Virginia Mayo

A new report urges change for NATO

A high-level look at NATO’s next 10 years, requested by the secretary general, recommends significant changes to confront the new challenges of an aggressive Russia and a rising China, urging overhauls to fortify the alliance’s cohesion and to better coordinate with democratic allies around the world.

Covering 138 specific recommendations in some 60 pages, the report, which is scheduled to be released on Tuesday evening, will be a major source of discussion over the next two days of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

Quote: “Our intention is to be candid about the challenges to NATO, with a tone of well-grounded optimism,” said A. Wess Mitchell, a co-chairman of the 10-member group of experts behind the report. “NATO has to adapt itself for an era of strategic rivalry with Russia and China, for the return of a geopolitical competition that has a military dimension but also a political one.’’

Nokia employees demonstrated outside Paris in September against the company's plan to cut about 1,000 jobs in France. Martin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Globalization keeps eating away at French jobs

When the coronavirus began sweeping through China and then Europe, disrupting global supply networks, President Emmanuel Macron of France declared that the pandemic could be “a game changer for globalization.” He vowed to create opportunities to secure supply chains and to reverse a decades-long trend that has seen companies send production to low-cost countries.

But despite the government’s calls for “a renewal of ‘Made in France,’” as one local political leader put it, jobs are continuing to leave, as multinational firms relocate production from France to countries with cheaper labor and higher productivity.

Despite political pressure and potential subsidies, the firms appear hesitant to reverse these moves and further disrupt their supply chains. Just 37 percent of business leaders were considering bringing manufacturing services back to Europe, down from 83 percent in May, according to a recent survey.

Analysis: “In the context of the coronavirus, the government has talked about providing aid to bring production back to France, so people think that jobs will be returning,” said one specialist on globalization. “If anything, companies are continuing to offshore production.”

If you have 7 minutes, this is worth it

‘An extreme level of teacher burnout’

Lauren Justice for The New York Times

In the U.S., teachers are at the center of a debate about school reopenings — often vilified for challenging them, sometimes praised for trying to make them work. But many people don’t realize just how thoroughly the pandemic has upended learning in the country’s 130,000 schools. Our reporter spoke with educators about the immense challenges they face. Above, a classroom in Farmington, Illinois, on the last day before switching to full-time remote learning.

Here’s what else is happening

French security bill: After fierce opposition from the public, French lawmakers will completely rewrite a legislative provision that would have restricted the sharing of images of police officers.

Biden transition: Election officials in the U.S. certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victories in Arizona and Wisconsin despite the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the results, and Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, a Republican, rejected President Trump’s calls for him to invalidate mail ballots.

Hong Kong courts: As the Chinese Communist Party extends its grip over Hong Kong, pro-Beijing forces are increasingly targeting the city’s independent judiciary, with party officials calling for an overhaul of the courts.

Foreign policy: As Mr. Biden assembles his foreign policy team, prominent human rights activists across Asia worry about his desire for the U.S. to hew again to international norms. They fear that Mr. Biden will pursue accommodation rather than confrontation in the face of China’s assertive moves.

Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Snapshot: Tens of thousands of Indian farmers have blocked roads into New Delhi in recent days to protest new pro-market agricultural policies. Above, farmers at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in Ghazipur on Monday. Many say the new rules are the beginning of the end of a decades-old system that had guaranteed minimum prices for certain crops.

Lives lived: The award-winning French actor Michel Robin, who was a longtime member of the prestigious Paris theater company the Comédie-Française, and who appeared in more than a hundred movies and television shows, died last month from Covid-19 at age 90.

What we’re reading: This article from the New Zealand media giant Stuff, in which the company reckons with its history of racist coverage of Maori across its many newspapers.

Now, a break from the news

Con Poulos for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susan Spungen. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.

Cook: Use cast-iron cookie stamps to leave imprints on these beautifully textured citrus shortbreads, flavored with tangy orange and lemon zests.

Read: This list of gift recommendations, from our children’s books editor, includes “The Story of Babar” and a complete guide to the periodic table of elements. Adults will love these books, too.

Do: Give someone the gift of healthy living with one of these gift ideas from the writers and editors of Well.

December is already here. At Home has ideas on what to read, cook, watch, and do while staying safe at home.

And now for the Back Story on …

Paul McCartney’s lockdown album

The singer-songwriter used his time spent indoors during the pandemic to record a new album, “McCartney III,” on which he played nearly all of the instruments and handled all the production. It will be released on Dec. 18. He spoke to our columnist David Marchese.

“At no point,” McCartney said, “did I think: ‘I’m making an album. I’d better be serious.’ This was more like: ‘You’re locked down. You can do whatever the hell you want.’” Which was a gas, as always. “What I’m amazed with,” McCartney explained, “is that I’m not fed up with music. Because, strictly speaking, I should have gotten bored years ago.”

Is there anything different about the nature of your musical gift today at 78 than in 1980 or 1970 or when you first started writing songs?

It’s the story that you’re telling. That changes. When I first said to John, “I’ve written a few songs,” they were simple. My first song was called “I Lost My Little Girl” — four chords. Then we went into the next phase of songwriting, which was talking to our fans. Those were songs like “Thank You Girl,” “Love Me Do,” “Please Please Me.” Then came a rich vein as we got more mature, with things like “Let It Be,” “The Long and Winding Road.”

But basically I think it’s all the same, and you get lucky sometimes. Like, “Let It Be” came from a dream where my mother had said that phrase. “Yesterday” came from a dream of a melody. I’m a great believer in dreams. I’m a great rememberer of dreams.

The Beatles broke up 50 years ago. You were in it for roughly 10 years. How central to your own story of your life are those 10 years?

Very. It’s like your high school memories — those are my Beatles memories. This is the danger: At a dinner party, I am liable to tell stories about my life, and people already know them. I can see everyone stifling a yawn. But the Beatles are inescapable.

That’s it for this briefing. Thanks for joining me.

— Natasha

Thank you
Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh provided the break from the news. You can reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about when and how people will be vaccinated.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Slightly off, as glasses (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• A hidden haiku in The Times, as spotted by the Twitter account @nythaikus: “Schools will reopen / as abruptly as they closed / — but only for some.”
• Our reporters Jennifer Medina and Patricia Mazzei joined the “Latina to Latina” podcast to discuss what the U.S. election taught us about the Latina vote.