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Bush Funeral, Emissions, Facebook: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

Jean Rutter and

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

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Credit...Erin Schaff for The New York Times

1. Five living presidents, plus family, friends and dignitaries from around the world, gathered in Washington National Cathedral, above, for a memorial service to honor George Bush, the 41st president.

In a eulogy for his father, former President George W. Bush remembered him as an imperfect, but beloved man who bestowed wisdom. “To us, his was the brightest of 1,000 points of light,” Mr. Bush said, invoking a phrase the elder Mr. Bush used.

A generation of Cold War-era leaders has now receded. Only Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last leader, is alive — and he was too ill to attend the funeral. With those leaders, our White House correspondent writes, the world order they helped build is also fading.

In addition to winding down the Cold War, the elder Mr. Bush is credited by historians with helping in the reunification of Germany and Europe and the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union, and laying the groundwork for the World Trade Organization.

But critics argue that he didn’t do enough to address the AIDS epidemic raging during his time in office.

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Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times

2. Facebook gave special access to users’ data to favored companies like Airbnb, Lyft and Netflix, emails and other internal Facebook documents show.

The documents, released by a British parliamentary committee investigating the company, shine a light on Facebook’s internal workings from roughly 2012 to 2015, as it determined how to manage the mountains of data it was accumulating on users. Above, Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

In a statement, Facebook said the documents were part of a “baseless” lawsuit and “only part of the story.”

In Opinion: A historian of Silicon Valley argues that the end of privacy began in the 1960s, when Congress made choices that allowed tech giants to become as powerful as they are.

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Credit...Janie Osborne for The New York Times

3. Emissions are rising faster.

Worldwide carbon emissions are expected to rise by 2.7 percent this year, according to studies in three scientific journals. Emissions rose by 1.6 percent last year.

The spike was driven primarily by stronger demand for natural gas and oil, which surprised the researchers. “We thought oil use had peaked in the U.S. and Europe 15 years ago,” one said. Above, fracking near Epping, N.D.

The world’s largest polluters are still China, India and the U.S., which together produce almost half of the world’s carbon emissions. And U.S. emissions are expected to rise this year after several decades of declines.

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Credit...Lauren Justice for The New York Times

4. Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin pushed through bills that strip power from the state’s incoming governor, a Democrat.

The legislation, which was the subject of protests and vehement opposition by Democrats, passed early this morning after hours of closed-door meetings. Now it awaits the outgoing governor’s signature. Above, tallying the final votes at the capitol in Madison, Wis.

The bills limit early voting and give lawmakers — not the governor — the majority of appointments on an economic development board. They also shift more authority to lawmakers that would ordinarily be held by the state attorney general, another position about to be filled by a Democrat.

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Credit...Carlos Barria/Reuters

5. Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, helped substantially with the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference and should receive little to no prison time, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Mr. Flynn was the first person from Mr. Trump’s inner circle to strike a deal with Robert Mueller, the special counsel. He pleaded guilty a year ago to lying to the F.B.I. about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

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Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

6. Les Moonves, the former chief executive of CBS, destroyed evidence and misled investigators in an attempt to save his severance deal, according to a draft of a report prepared for the company’s board.

The report, by lawyers hired by the network, said CBS would be justified in denying $120 million in severance to Mr. Moonves, who was forced to step down in September.

Among the revelations: Multiple people told the outside lawyers that CBS had an employee “who was ‘on call’ to perform oral sex” on Mr. Moonves. Above, CBS headquarters in Manhattan.

The report, our business columnist writes, shows that senior executives and even board members were aware of Mr. Moonves’s alleged misconduct — and did nothing to stop him. The repercussions for that failure in corporate governance are likely to reverberate at CBS for years.

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Credit...The New York Times

7. Eritrea is one of the world’s most closely controlled nations, where citizens aren’t allowed to leave and foreign journalists are rarely allowed in.

But now, after the end of a 20-year war with its neighbor Ethiopia, the country is slowly opening up. Above, family members reuniting.

Our reporter, whose father was born in the reclusive nation, shares the signs she found of new beginnings in photographs, video and words.

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Credit...Max Whittaker for The New York Times

8. “You just go until you reach your own finish line.”

Ridiculously long races are growing in popularity, and female runners appear able to hold their own with men. At longer distances, experts say, the biological advantages that men have grow smaller.

Courtney Dauwalter, above, a 33-year-old with a reputation for outrunning men and shattering course records, will try to break the women’s world record for the most miles run in 24 hours this weekend, at a competition in Phoenix. She will have to run more than 161.55 miles to do so.

She already holds the American women’s record: 159.32 miles.

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Credit...Erik Tanner for The New York Times

9. Coming soon: “Clueless, The Musical.”

Amy Heckerling, the writer and director behind the hit 1994 comedy, always thought the film should be a musical. “Two people falling in love,” she said, “well, they got to sing.”

For years, an adaptation of the movie, which was based in part on Jane Austen’s “Emma,” was considered too expensive. But Ms. Heckerling never stopped trying, and now it’s in previews Off Broadway, opening next week.

As a female director, Ms. Heckerling, above, was a woman who was somehow able to join a fraternity and thrive in it. She directed touchstone ’80s comedies like “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Look Who’s Talking.” Our writer takes a look at her career and examines the ways she — like her masterpiece’s main character, Cher — has grown.

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Credit...Carlos Somonte/Netflix, via Associated Press

10. Finally, what’s the best movie you’ve seen this year?

Our two chief film critics share their picks, with links to reviews. One singles out “Roma,” above, a Mexican remembrance of things past; the other has a four-way tie for first place.

Separately, our chief classical music critic shares his favorite performances, accompanied by a Spotify playlist of best surprises.

Have an outstanding evening.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

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Want to catch up on past briefings? You can browse them here.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.

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