Your Tuesday Briefing

7 killed in another mass shooting in California

Seven people were shot to death yesterday afternoon in San Mateo County, Calif., the local sheriff’s office said, the second mass shooting in the state in three days. The shooting happened around 2:20 p.m. local time at two separate locations about 30 miles south of San Francisco, the authorities said. An eighth person was at a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

A suspect, Zhao Chunli, 67, of Half Moon Bay, Calif., was found in his car in the parking lot of a sheriff’s office substation, the authorities said. He was taken into custody “without incident,” an official said, and a semiautomatic handgun was found in his vehicle. The suspect was believed to be a worker at an agricultural nursery, one of the two shooting sites.

Several children were present when the shootings took place. The motive was unknown, and as of late Monday not all the victims had been identified, officials said.

Toll: Another victim of the earlier mass shooting in California, in a thriving Chinese American suburb of Los Angeles, died at a hospital yesterday, bringing the death toll to 11.

Members of Oath Keepers militia are convicted of sedition

After 15 hours of deliberation, a jury found four members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia guilty of seditious conspiracy yesterday for their roles in trying to keep Donald Trump in office after his 2020 election defeat. The verdict came nearly two months after the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, was convicted of the same offense in a separate trial.

Three of the men joined others in the group on Jan. 6 in forcing their way inside the Capitol, while the fourth, who was stationed in a hotel room stocked with rifles in Virginia, sent frequent texts offering to ferry weapons into Washington, D.C., if needed.

Lawyers for the Justice Department argued that the Oath Keepers had for months expressed a desire to help Trump remain in power even after his election loss and that they had positioned themselves in Washington on Jan. 6, ready to back the former president as an armed militia if he authorized them to do so.

Context: Dating to the Civil War era, the charge of seditious conspiracy has been used sparingly because of the complexity of proving that a group planned collectively to oppose the government by force. It has become central to the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute national organizations involved in the riot on Jan. 6.

Related:

• Georgia’s inquiry into Trump’s possible election interference in 2020 has entered the indictment phase. It remains unclear whether the former president will face charges.

• The Arkansas man photographed with his boot on a desk in Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was convicted of eight federal crimes.

The effects of Brexit on British farmers

Two years after Britain left the E.U., ending the ability of the bloc’s citizens to automatically work in Britain, the effects of Brexit are unfolding across the economy. They include a shortfall of around 330,000 workers, which has hit Britain’s food and farming sectors particularly hard. About $27 million worth of fruit and vegetables went unharvested last year.

Polling suggests that Britons’ sentiments have begun to shift against Brexit, as business owners cite difficulty in finding workers, as well as thorny trade issues and what they describe as onerous paperwork requirements. Farmers say that even with immigration from outside Europe, there are not enough workers to sustain previous production levels, especially at peak times.

In the years since Britain voted to quit the E.U., many Eastern Europeans have left the country, including many during the coronavirus pandemic, and Brexit is making it hard to recruit replacements. Although there are visa initiatives for seasonal agricultural workers, they are intended more for shorter stays and for employers who provide temporary housing.

Analysis: “It doesn’t seem to be as advantageous for some East European employees to come over and try and make a living because it’s more competitive to be back in their own country,” said Simon Beardsley, the chief executive for Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce.

More than 23 million American households — nearly one in five nationwide — have acquired pets since March 2020. With many people back in the office, somebody has to walk all those pandemic puppies, meaning that experienced dog walkers may now make six figures annually.

“If I would have told my younger self I can make a living caring for dogs,” one dog walker, who recently bought a vacation home, said, “I never would have believed it.”

SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC

How Arsenal continues to ‘make things happen’: A match winner against Manchester United was a critical point in the story of Arsenal’s development.

How women’s soccer needs to change: Chelsea’s frozen field against Liverpool was embarrassing. The postponement of a top-tier game disrupted fans and players alike, and it is part of a bigger picture of problems that need to be addressed.

Illegal streaming and soccer’s fight: From set-top boxes to modified ‘fire sticks’, illegal streams of soccer matches are a headache that will not go away.

From The Times: After four rounds, the Australian Open is without several of its top stars, with Iga Swiatek, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Coco Gauff out of the running. Behind the scenes, a coterie of power players has engaged in a high-stakes battle to control, and fix, tennis. And in the N.F.L., the playoffs are now down to four teams. All four are led by quarterbacks in their 20s.

America, the bland

Across the U.S., new residential developments are starting to look the same, raising fears that cities are losing their unique charm. But in the current housing crisis, does that matter?

Last year, an estimated 420,000 new rental apartments were built across the country. The new developments look startlingly alike, often in the form of boxy, mid-rise buildings with a ground-floor retail space, sans-serif fonts and vivid slabs of bright paneling.

The bulky design is conspicuous, jutting out of downtown streets and overpowering its surroundings. Over time, it attracts a certain ecosystem — the craft breweries, the boutique coffee shops, the out-of-town young professionals.

Colloquially, some of these buildings have begun to be referred to as “gentrification buildings” or “fast-casual architecture.” That’s in part why they’re so hated, and why it’s acceptable to hate them. “I think they’re terrible,” one passer-by said. “It’s very ugly. Very ugly. I hate it!”