Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1.California is suffering through the worst wildfires the state has seen — as well as drought, extreme heat waves and poor air quality.
It’s an example of simultaneous disasters that increasingly could be the fallout from climate change, scientists say.
A paper published in a respected scientific journal describes the effects of climate change on heat waves, wildfires, sea level rise, hurricanes, flooding, drought and shortages of clean water.
Without forceful action to curb greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this century, scientists say, tropical coastal areas like the Atlantic coast of South and Central America could be hit by as many as six crises at a time.
Firefighters are continue to work to contain the Camp Fire, still raging in Northern California. We reconstructed how it started and spread, beginning in a secluded area by a river on Nov 8. Within hours, it was consuming the equivalent of a football field every second. Above, Paradise, Calif.
One of our California correspondents covering the fire reflects on a state he calls “heavenly and hellish, sometimes simultaneously.”
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2. Is China just hitting its stride?
In a special series of articles, The Times is examining how an isolated, impoverished backwater evolved into the most significant rival to the U. S. since the fall of the Soviet Union.
China leads the world in homeowners, internet users, college graduates and, by some counts, billionaires. Extreme poverty has fallen from three-quarters of the population in 1984 to less than 1 percent today.
China has risen so quickly that an 18-year-old’s chances at upward mobility today vastly exceed those of his or her U. S. counterparts. Eight hundred million people in China have been lifted out of poverty since 1990, and per capita income grew by 500 percent from 1980 to 2014.
And China’s walled-off internet, widely predicted to fail, has instead thrived.
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3. King Salman of Saudi Arabia, right, speaking publicly for the first time since agents of the kingdom killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, avoided any mention of the international outrage over the episode.
Intense scrutiny of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman led to some speculation that he might be pushed aside. But the king showed no intention of sidelining his chosen successor, who U. S. intelligence agents believe ordered the brutal assassination in Turkey.
The king’s remarks came even as the global fallout continued. Germany announced sanctions on 18 Saudis suspected of involvement and froze arms exports to the country.
And the Turkish defense minister suggested that Mr. Khashoggi’s killers left the country with his body.
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4. Nancy Pelosi is preparing to take back the gavel as speaker of the House.
(A simmering rebellion against her faces a problem: Nobody has stepped forward as its leader.)
That would make Ms. Pelosi, 78, above, the principal counterweight to a president she has described as “a very dangerous man.” At the same time, she would have to rally Democrats to work with President Trump on issues like prescription drug costs, infrastructure and immigration.
It would also most likely be the final act of her long career as the most powerful woman in the history of American politics .
In a profile for The Times Magazine, she reflected on her rise through the ranks, even as leaders within her own party tried to sideline her.
“They didn’t ever invite me to a meeting,” she said. “The only time I was ever in the Democratic speaker’s office was when I became speaker.”
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5. Two garbage companies. Two fire brigades. Two hospitals, electricity providers, soccer teams.
They all serve Mostar, a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one set for Muslims, like the fire station, above; the other for Catholics. Sharp divisions between the populations that led to a bloody ethnic conflict in the 1990s are still being felt, long after the fighting ended.
As Europe and the U. S. struggle with the rise of ethnic nationalism as a divisive force, Bosnia’s divisions offer a dark lesson in how communities can stay splintered long after many people have forgotten what it was that pushed them apart.
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6. The chairman of Nissan was arrested after an internal investigation found that he underreported his compensation to Japanese financial authorities for several years.
Carlos Ghosn, above, one of the auto industry’s highest-profile executives, arrived at the company in 1999 after the French carmaker Renault bought a large stake. He has been credited with saving the carmaker from collapse, and even celebrated in a country where foreign leadership of Japanese companies is rare.
A director at the company was also accused of financial misconduct and taken in by the authorities. Nissan said it was cooperating with Japanese prosecutors.
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7. Brenda Snipes, the embattled elections supervisor in Broward County, Fla., has submitted her resignation .
Her office bungled a recount and came under fire for other errors, including a poorly designed ballot that may have contributed to a weak showing by the defeated Democratic Senate incumbent.
But Broward County wasn’t alone. The recount revealed systemic flaws and areas vulnerable to human error in Florida’s election system, 18 years after the infamous presidential recount of 2000.
Gov. Rick Scott, who is now the state’s Republican senator-elect, had called for an investigation into potential wrongdoing in the office of Dr. Snipes, above, an elected Democrat.
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8. Take a seat.
Research suggests that warnings about the dangers of sitting at work are overblown.
In any case, one expert asserts, there’s no evidence that sit-stand desks do much to help .
“Alternating standing and sitting while using a computer may be useful for some people with low back or neck pain,” he said — but people who use them shouldn’t be under the illusion that they’re getting exercise.
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9. Spoiler alert.
“This production contains: Strobe lighting effects. Sudden loud noises. Theatrical fog/haze. Scenes of violence. Adult language. Sexual situations. Adult humor and content.”
That’s an audience trigger warning from a regional theater, an example of a new trend that began on college campuses and has spread to some playhouses across the country. Above, in Minneapolis.
