How the Kremlin Gets the Election Results It Wants, and R.F.K. Jr. Rallies Vaccine Skeptics

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, September 18th, here's what we're covering. The Times has learned that the White House is considering a new diplomatic approach to Russia, business deals. The Trump administration has spent more than 18 months trying and failing to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. And according to a U.S. official, the White House appears to think offering business benefits first, essentially going the carrot route, more so than the stick, could make a difference. Recently, Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law, who's helping lead talks with Russia, said his goal was to, quote, "come up with a creative solution." It's not clear what the business deals could be, but ever since Trump returned to office, Russian officials have been talking up potential economic endeavors with the U.S. Like deals for rare earth metals, joint ventures in the Arctic, or getting American companies involved in selling Russian natural gas. The administration's potential business first strategy stands in sharp contrast to the approach Congress just took this week of passing a major new sanctions bill that aims to hurt Russia financially, by taking aim at its energy sector. Meanwhile, in Russia. "I've been reporting in Moscow for a few weeks before parliamentary elections that started today, and what struck me there was that there was basically no campaigning, no leaflets, no posters, no rallies. It was a clear sign that it wasn't a free, competitive, fair, electoral campaign, and instead, it was a carefully orchestrated exercise to showcase that the whole country is behind Putin and his effort to win the war in Ukraine." My colleague Ivan Netcherparenko covers Russia for the Times. He says that the Kremlin has been taking an elaborate, multi-layered approach to ensure it gets the election results it wants. It starts with who's even allowed on the ballot. For example, this year, the only party that opposed the war was banned by a court. Then, the Kremlin pressures regional leaders and the heads of big companies to try and get their workers to go to the polls in support of the ruling party, and Russia has also been expanding online voting, where vote counts are easier to tweak or manipulate than with paper ballots. Ivan says that even though the results are a foregone conclusion with a pro-Kremlin party expected to keep it supermajority, the Kremlin still sees the stage-managed vote as crucial for two reasons. "The internal one is that the Kremlin wants to showcase that the whole country is behind Russia's war effort and behind this idea that Russia should continue the war until it achieves some kind of absolute victory, and there's an external element to it too, to showcase that Russia is holding elections, and therefore the Russian government is more legitimate and stronger than the government in Ukraine, which has paused elections because of the martial law and which has argued that it is impossible to conduct them at the time of war when so many of its people voters are either in trenches or abroad." "I didn't come to Washington to protect institutions from uncomfortable questions. I came to make those institutions and answer those questions." Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a speech yesterday to members of a prominent anti-vaccine group, telling them they have his continued support. "Let me be clear, you have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House." Kennedy was speaking at a conference for children's health defense, a group he used to lead. It has repeatedly questioned the science around vaccines and has been accused of spreading medical misinformation. Kennedy took the stage right after another speaker at the conference called "Wide Spread Vaccination, a Public Health Disaster." Since Kennedy was appointed to lead the health department, he has made a number of moves to try and upend national vaccine policy. Last year, he fired all 17 members of a federal vaccine advisory panel, replacing some with vaccine critics. And under his leadership, the federal government has pushed for sweeping revisions to what vaccines are recommended and win, including cutting down on the number of diseases that it says kids should be vaccinated for. Kennedy's remarks come as the U.S. is dealing with the worst measles outbreak in decades. As experts say, vaccine hesitancy has driven down immunization rates. This week, officials in Pennsylvania said a fourth person has died there from the virus, making this the deadliest year for measles since it was declared eliminated more than 20 years ago. Meanwhile, even though the FDA approved the latest COVID vaccines weeks ago, millions of American children cannot get them yet because of a hold-up at the health department. The federal government hasn't decided yet whether to make the shots available through the vaccines for children program, which serves uninsured and low-income families. In HHS spokeswoman told the Times that the government is finalizing its decision, and that officials, quote, "have a responsibility to ensure responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources." He's with insurance or who can afford to pay for vaccines out of pocket can still get them. Driving through Corsica and island of steep mountains and dramatic coastlines, the signs of the separatist movement are everywhere. There is graffiti saying France out and signs for the national liberation front and signs saying Corsica is for Corsicans. My colleague Rhonda Kason has been reporting on the growing push for independence on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, which is part of France. There, separatists have been going to extremes to make their point. The picturesque island is a tourist hotspot, and Rhonda says the separatists have been taking aim specifically at vacation homes, which by one count can be as much as half of the housing stock in some areas on the island and are often owned by people from elsewhere. Corsica has been blowing them up in recent years, they've destroyed as many as 50 homes, including one as recently as March. They see the vacation homes as a key point of their drive for independence, because they really symbolize that Corsica is not for the Corsicans. At the center of this entire movement is this idea that if they can control who gets a right to own property in Corsica, they can control Corsica. Rhonda says last month, the Liberation Front underscored their message with a news conference, where about 15 masked and heavily armed members delivered a blunt threat to tourists and second homeowners in Corsica, quote, "stay home," and if that's not the case, do not consider yourself safe on our national territory. Amid this pressure, next month, the French Senate will vote on a measure to amend the country's constitution to recognize Corsica as having its own unique culture and language, and potentially give the local government more power. Even if that passes, many in Corsica say it's not enough, because it doesn't tackle the central demand of the independence movement, giving Corsicans a say over who gets to buy property there. And finally, it's Friday, that was a lot. You deserve a dinosaur fact, and the Times Science Desk is on it. According to a new study out this week, T. Rex's had a body temperature of about 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Dinosaurs, of course, used to have a reputation for being reptilian and cold-blooded, but science has increasingly shown that's not the case. The question with this study is obviously, how do you take the temperature of a creature that's been dead for 66 million years? The scientists, in this case, looked at T. Rex's teeth and analyzed the chemical bonds within those minerals. Since different numbers of bonds form at different temps, the teeth' chemical record can be read almost like a thermometer. The final calculation was that T. Rex's ran about the same temp as Indian elephants, and just one degree shy of humans. They are also way below chickens, which are apparently burning it up at 105 to 107 degrees. Being warm-blooded means T. Rex's could have lived in a broader range of environments, potentially expanding the places that those tiny-armed tares once roamed. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday news quiz, stick around, it's just after these credits. And, if you are not a time-subscriber yet, you can get a full month of free access to all of the journalism we publish when you download the Times app now. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Kadefa, Jake Lucas, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracey Mumford, original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Sam Dolnick, Miles McKinley, Zoe Murphy, Mark Walsh, and Chris Wood. Now time for the quiz, everyone. week we ask you a few questions about stories the times has been covering. Can you get them all? Here we go. In this new world we must urgently reimagine our partnerships and build global coalitions for our resilience and democracies. On Wednesday the European Union announced that it's extended an invitation for another country to become the first ever associate member of the block. What's especially notable is the fact that this country's capital is thousands of miles away from Europe. Your question what country was just invited to the EU? The answer in short we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible Canada the EU said it was extending the invite as both the 27 nation coalition and Canada have seen their relationships with the US deteriorate during President Trump's second term. And for the map nerds out there while Canada and Europe are obviously nowhere near each other there is a tiny rocky uninhabited Arctic island that Canada and Denmark share ownership of meaning technically there is a Canada EU border, even if it's less than a mile long. Question number two. This week a legendary TV host who dominated daytime for decades announced that she's officially winding down her television career. Her current show will stop releasing episodes next month. I'm going to give you some clues see how quickly you can figure out who I'm talking about. First before becoming a household name she worked for a cosmetics company as a corporate lawyer. At the height of her success she was the highest paid host in TV according to Forbes. She also had a pretty sweet schedule making tens of millions of dollars a year while working about four days a month. And she was best known for truly not holding back with some pretty savage one-liners like beauty fades. Dumb is forever. Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. And they don't keep me here because I'm gorgeous. They keep me here because I'm smart. The answer. You're nothing. And you're going to continue to be nothing unless you go to school unless you get yourself an education. Unless you park your attitudes someplace else. Judith Scheinlin, better known as Judge Judy. At one point a reader's digest survey found that more Americans trusted her than any sitting Supreme Court justice. Now even though she's giving up her own TV show she's not stepping away from the industry altogether. She's an executive producer for a new show starring her son Adam Levy, a former district attorney. And last question. Oh, tonight there is a breaking biology news. Scientists have made a discovery just outside of Oxford and it's unlike any and the history of Ohio. Recently in Ohio researchers officially documented the first instance of one particular mammal migrating into the state. It's gray, skeely, odd eyeballs. Normally this animal lives in the dry, sweltering heat of states like Texas or down in Central or South America. But in the last decade they've been starting to move north into the Midwest. Sadly the animal was dead when it was found, likely killed by a car. And in Ohio University has now taken possession and will likely send the body to its Museum of Natural History. Your question. What creature is it? We're going to give you some of the nicknames this species has as a hint. Pocket dinosaur. Tactical possum. Armored pig. The answer? An armadillo. You know with the hard shell and the scales. As for how far north they will keep migrating, researchers think eventually colder weather will deter them. With one saying quote, they need to stop some time, but so far they keep going. That's it for the news quiz. If you want to tell us how you did, our email is the headlines at nytimes.com. I'm Tracy Mumford. Have a great weekend. We will be back on Monday. [BLANK_AUDIO]