Your Friday Briefing

A center for skepticism becomes a Covid hot spot

The Italian port city of Trieste last month became the epicenter of protests against the government’s new health pass. It is now home to a Covid outbreak linked directly to those protests that threatens to burden intensive care units, with an unvaccinated minority endangering public health.

Italy’s measures, which went into effect Oct. 15, require proof of vaccination, a negative test or recent Covid recovery to go to work. Though protests have died down elsewhere in the country, Trieste has developed a reputation as a center of vaccine skepticism, prompting a ban on demonstrations. The region’s president put it bluntly: “It is the moment to say with clarity: Enough idiocy.”

Last week, new cases in the city of 200,000 doubled from the week before, to more than 800. Covid patients have taken up about 18 percent of the region’s intensive care beds. Trieste’s top law enforcement official said that the current outbreak was “strictly correlated” to the protests.

Divides: In Germany, an increase in cases and hospitalizations has led the health minister, Jens Spahn, to warn of “a pandemic mainly among the unvaccinated, and it is massive.”

Government crackdown in the Ethiopian capital

The authorities in Ethiopia have accelerated their campaign against ethnic Tigrayans, who are accused of sympathizing with the rebels now pressing toward Addis Ababa, the capital. Security officers went from house to house, conducting searches and arbitrary arrests and leaving families cowering in their homes, dreading a knock on the door.

The sweeping measures targeting Tigrayans raised concerns that the stage has been set for bursts of ethnically motivated violence. Tigrayans said they were being targeted on the basis of their identity cards or their language. Fighters from the same ethnic group have been locked in civil war with Ethiopian government forces for the past year.

Ethiopia’s embattled prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, announced a state of emergency on Wednesday that granted him draconian powers. An Ethiopian government post on Facebook made stark reference to Tigrayan leaders and their supporters, stating, “A rat that strays far from its hole is nearer to its death.”

International efforts: The U.S. envoy to the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, flew into Addis Ababa as the leader of an international scramble to stop the violence and bring Ethiopia’s warring parties to the table. There were few signs it might succeed.

A.N.C.’s election setback

In nationwide municipal elections, South Africans rebuked the African National Congress, handing it less than half the overall vote for the first time. Voters went to the polls to choose councilors and mayors, but they used the opportunity to vent about national issues, including record unemployment and the government’s handling of Covid.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, is admired among South Africans, but they see a disconnect between his message of renewal and the corruption that has sullied his party among local leaders. Not since Nelson Mandela was the face of the party has the A.N.C. so heavily relied on the personality of its leader in a local election, one organizer said.

Quotable: They listen to him, they like him,” said Mcebisi Ndletyana, a political scientist at the University of Johannesburg, of the president. “But when they lower their eyes to the local leaders that are there, they see mediocrity.”

George Seitz’s disappearance in 1976 drew little notice — until investigators found his skeleton in a backyard in New York more than 40 years later. This is how the police cracked a grisly cold case.

ARTS AND IDEAS

How Benedict Cumberbatch became a monster

The actor is earning some of the best reviews of his career for his turn as a vicious bully named Phil in the forthcoming movie “The Power of the Dog.” To become that seething cowboy required a focus on the character’s physicality, Roslyn Sulcas reports for The Times.

“He behaves abhorrently, but there is a deep well of pain there,” Cumberbatch said of the character. “If we don’t understand the monsters in our world, what motivates this behavior, if we can’t look at someone beyond being a baddie or a goody, then we’re in trouble.”

On set in New Zealand’s South Island, the actor remained in character even between takes. At what he describes as a “dude camp,” he learned to ride, whittle and work with animals, among other new skills: “Braiding rope, working with the cattle, castrating — braiding rope while smoking a cigarette, incredibly difficult!”

“I told him, the problem is that you’re about as English as anyone can get,” recalled Jane Campion, the film’s director. “But we’re going to make you an American rancher in 1925.”

Read more about Cumberbatch’s process.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

What to Cook

That’s it for today’s briefing. Have a great weekend. — Natasha

P.S. Raja Abdulrahim is joining our Jerusalem bureau to write about Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with a special focus on Palestinian affairs.

The latest episode of “The Daily” is about a rough election night for Democrats.

You can reach Natasha and the team at [email protected].