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Social Security boost, Ukraine counterattack and congestion pricing kickoff

 
Today's NATIONAL story

Biden signs boost to Social Security for public workers

What happened
President Joe Biden yesterday signed the Social Security Fairness Act, which repeals two decades-old laws that limited Social Security payments for public workers with pensions and their surviving spouses. The change will boost payments to about 2.5 million teachers, firefighters, police officers, postal workers and other beneficiaries by an average of $360 a month.

Who said what
"The bill I'm signing today is about a simple proposition: Americans who have worked hard all their life to earn an honest living should be able to retire with economic security and dignity," Biden said at yesterday's signing ceremony. "That's a big deal in middle class households like the one I grew up in and many of you did."

The new law, "decades in the making," passed "just under the wire," with the Senate approving it 76-20 on Dec. 21 after the House passed it in November on a 327-75 vote, CBS News said. A White House official said Biden was "the first president in more than 20 years to expand Social Security benefits." It's "expected to be one of the last major pieces of legislation of his presidency," ABC News said.

What next?
The "future of Social Security has become a top political issue," not to mention a concern for its 72.5 million recipients, The Associated Press said. The program's trustees said last May that Social Security's trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2035, and the new law will "hasten the program's insolvency day by about half a year."

 
 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

Ukraine goes on offense in Russia's Kursk region

What happened
Ukraine launched a new offensive in Russia's Kursk region yesterday, Moscow and Kyiv said. Ukrainian forces had captured about 500 square miles of the western Russian province in a surprise incursion in August, but Russian and North Korean troops are believed to have retaken 40-50% of that area.

Who said what
"Good news," Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, said on Telegram. "The Russians are getting what they deserve in the Kursk region." Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had repelled Ukraine's counterattack, but Russian military bloggers "indicated that Moscow's forces faced significant pressure," The Associated Press said.

What next?
Ukraine's "unexpected success in biting off and retaining a slice of Russian territory could boost its negotiating position" in possible peace talks this year, Reuters said, but the incursion also "weakened" Kyiv's "defense of its own eastern regions," where Russia is grinding out slow but steady gains.

Some American skeptics of Ukraine's Kursk campaign have "changed their assessment" as "Russian casualties mounted" in the region, The New York Times said. Zelenskyy said Saturday "the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroops" in fighting near one Kursk village.

 
 
Today's TRANSPORTATION Story

New York rolls out vehicle toll in Manhattan

What happened
The first congestion pricing system in the U.S. took effect in New York City yesterday, with vehicles automatically charged a toll to drive in Manhattan below 60th Street.

Who said what
The toll, initially $9 a day at peak traffic times for most passenger vehicles, is "meant to reduce traffic gridlock in the densely packed city while also raising money to help fix its ailing public transit infrastructure," The Associated Press said. The program "launched without major hiccups" yesterday, following "years of studies, delays and a last-ditch bid by New Jersey" to stop it from taking effect.

What next?
The first "real test for the tolling program will come during the workweek," The New York Times said, but it will "most likely be some time" before it's "clear whether congestion pricing works, or whether it can withstand continuing attempts to overturn it by a broad array of opponents," including President-elect Donald Trump. Proponents noted that congestion pricing in places like London and Stockholm "were largely unpopular when first implemented" but gained approval "as the public felt benefits like faster bus speeds and less traffic," the AP said.

 
 

It's not all bad

Rare images of an isolated Amazon community known as the Massaco people appear to confirm that it is "flourishing despite environmental threats," said The Guardian. Automatic cameras set up in the rainforest offer a glimpse of the uncontacted group and "give further evidence that the population is growing." The Massaco are believed to have doubled their number to 200 or 250 despite "unrelenting pressure from agribusiness, loggers, miners and drug traffickers."

 
 
Under the radar

According to the U.N.'s latest projections, the global population is expected to peak at about 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s, from 8.2 billion today. That's earlier — and fewer people — than previously predicted. The population is then expected to plateau at about 10.2 billion by 2100.

Experts say lower birth rates and falling fertility levels, especially in "ultra-low" fertility countries like China, Italy and Spain, are to blame for the earlier peak. Fertility rates are falling worldwide, and governments' pronatalist policies have "almost totally failed to alter that fact," said Vox. The U.N. predictions might miss by a fair amount, but the "changes are generally baked in." 

The overall population, before it peaks, will continue to get older. By the late 2070s, the U.N. predicts, there will be more elderly people than children. "We're only beginning to grapple with what an older, shrinking world will feel like," Vox said. "All we can do is adapt."

The population will peak at some point, but "one after another, the projections keep missing," said the Financial Times. Predicting the global population's trajectory is no easy task, and "even tiny perturbations today can compound into yawning gulfs." Some experts believe we will see a peak as soon as 2054, 30 years ahead of schedule, with a global population of about 9 billion.  

Maybe the next round of projections "should come with a health warning," said the Financial Times: "These estimates are extremely fuzzy and based on frameworks that were true in the past but may not be today. Use them with caution, and probably err on the low side."

 
 
On this day

January 6, 2021

Supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's victory. The incident was widely described as an attempted insurrection. Four years to the day later, Congress is overseeing the certification of Trump's victory, having won back the White House.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

"Cancer warnings on alcohol? Not so fast," despite a late push by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, USA Today says on Monday's front page. President-elect Donald Trump's November victory will get certified by Congress today, and it will be "less messy" than four years ago, the newspaper adds. Despite his claims of "disaster," The New York Times says, "Trump inherits nation in pretty good shape." For the rioters who stormed Congress four years ago, "their fate rests with Trump," The Washington Post says. The "defendants from Capitol riots hope for pardons," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says. But the "prospect of Jan. 6 pardons divides D.C.," The Boston Globe says. 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

No. 1 fans

A "mosh pit diaper" designed for music fans who dread long bathroom lines at concerts sold out online within 24 hours of going on sale. The $75 black faux leather diaper is a collaboration between sparkling water brand Liquid Death and Depend, the maker of adult incontinence products, and promises concertgoers the freedom to "relieve themselves in the safety of the mosh pit." Each diaper is covered in metal studs and chains, for a truly punk rock fashion statement.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Abby Wilson, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Chris Kleponis / AFP via Getty Images; Serhiy Morgunov / For The Washington Post via Getty Images; Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images