Members phkrause Posted April 29, 2023 Author Members Posted April 29, 2023 April 28, 2023 By David Leonhardt Good morning. Long school closures have put public education — and Randi Weingarten, the leader of a major teachers’ union — on the defensive. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times, via Associated Press The long shadow of school closures During the early months of the Covid pandemic, Randi Weingarten and the teachers’ union she leads faced a vexing question: When should schools reopen? For years, advocates of public education like Weingarten had argued that schools played an irreplaceable role. School was where children learned academic and social skills. It was where low-income children received subsidized meals. Without public schools, their defenders argued, society would come apart. On the other side of the ledger, however, was the worst pandemic in a century. Teachers and parents feared that reopening schools before vaccines were available would spark Covid outbreaks, illness and death. In 2020, the pandemic’s first full year, Weingarten came down strongly on the side of keeping schools closed. Safety measures were not enough to reopen them, she argued. Instead, Covid became an opportunity for her union, the American Federation of Teachers, to push for broader policy changes that it had long favored. As my colleague Jonathan Mahler writes in a new story in the Times Magazine: The A.F.T. had issued its own reopening plan in late April calling for adequate personal protective equipment, new cleaning and sanitization regimens in school buildings, a temporary suspension of formal teacher performance evaluations, a limit on student testing, a cancellation of student-loan debt and a $750 billion federal aid package to help schools prepare to reopen safely and facilitate ‘‘a real recovery for all our communities.’’ In retrospect, the strategy seems to have failed. Today’s newsletter, like Jonathan’s story, looks at the lingering costs to public education. A lost year Many other education leaders took a different approach in 2020 and came to favor a faster reopening of schools. In Europe, many were open by the middle of the year. In the U.S., private schools, including Catholic schools, which often have modest resources, reopened. In conservative parts of the U.S., public schools also reopened, at times in consultation with local teachers’ unions. Some people did contract Covid at these schools, but the overall effect on the virus’s spread was close to zero. U.S. communities with closed schools had similar levels of Covid as communities with open schools, be they in the U.S. or Europe. How could that be? By the middle of 2020, there were many other ways for Covid to spread — in supermarkets, bars, restaurants and workplaces, as well as homes where out-of-school children gathered with friends. Despite the emerging data that schools were not superspreaders, many U.S. districts remained closed well into 2021, even after vaccines were available. About half of American children lost at least a year of full-time school, according to Michael Hartney of Boston College. And children suffered as a result. They lost ground in reading, math and other subjects. The effects were worst on low-income, Black and Latino children. Depression increased, and the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in children’s mental health. Shamik Dasgupta, a philosopher at the University of California, Berkeley, who became an advocate for reopening schools, called the closures “a moral catastrophe.” The closures also caused some Americans to sour on public schools. Nationwide enrollment fell by 1.3 million, or 3 percent, according to the latest federal data. The share of U.S. adults with little or no trust in public schools rose by a few percentage points, to 33 percent, according to Gallup. In last year’s elections, political candidates who supported vouchers — which effectively reduce public-school funding — fared well, as Jonathan explains in his story. “It’s pretty undeniable that the last few years have been bad for public schools — even very bad,” he told me. A democratic failure I recommend his story because it’s a nuanced look at Weingarten and the challenges she now faces. Republican officials have spent years trying to demonize teachers’ unions, and Weingarten in particular (including during a House hearing this week), and have been less successful than they hoped. In Michigan, where Weingarten campaigned for Democrats last year, as she frequently does, the party won a sweep of major offices. In Chicago (an overwhelmingly Democratic city), a former teachers’ union organizer, Brandon Johnson, was elected mayor this month. These results reflect the fact that many Americans are sympathetic to teachers and grateful to their children’s own teachers. Teachers do vital work and don’t make big salaries. Many spend their own money on teaching materials when schools don’t do so. In the case of Covid, the risks associated with reopening schools were unclear in the spring of 2020, and teachers were understandably frightened. Over the course of the summer, however, evidence increasingly suggested that schools could reopen without accelerating the spread of Covid — and that the costs of keeping them closed were steep. Despite this evidence, many schools remained closed for months on end, even after vaccines became available. Dasgupta, the Berkeley philosopher, has a thoughtful way of framing this failure. As he wrote to me in an email: It is clear that extended school closures were a mistake — they harmed children while having no measurable effect on the pandemic. It is also clear that teachers’ unions were a major factor behind the closures. But remember that the unions were just doing their job. Their remit is to advocate for their members and that is exactly what they did. Seen like this, the problem was not the teachers’ union per se — I am personally in favor of public sector unions — but the absence of a comparable organization at the bargaining table to represent the interests of students and their caregivers. It was a failure of democratic decision-making. Looking ahead, my colleague Jonathan puts it this way: The question (and political debate) is where do we go from here — double down on public education, try to address the learning loss and emotional damage caused by the pandemic closures and make an effort to restore the nation’s confidence in public schools, or create more alternatives via school choice? As Jonathan notes, public education is likely to be a major issue again in the 2024 campaigns. Read his story about Weingarten here. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Politics Mike Pence appeared before the grand jury hearing evidence about Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. South Carolina and Nebraska, two conservative states, both failed to pass new bills prohibiting abortion. The nonbinary son of Montana’s Republican governor urged his father to reject new bills on transgender issues. Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York State lawmakers reached a deal on a budget that would change the state’s bail laws and increase the minimum wage. War in Ukraine Russia launched a major assault on civilian targets in Ukraine for the first time in more than a month, killing at least 12 people. As temperatures rise and mud hardens into terrain ideal for armored vehicles, both the Ukrainians and Russians are preparing for renewed fighting. Other Big Stories Sudanese paramilitary fighters in Sudan on Sunday.via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Paramilitary fighters have moved into homes and taken over stores and hospitals in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. “He raped me, whether I screamed or not”: Trump’s lawyer aggressively questioned E. Jean Carroll, probing for inconsistencies. The U.S. economy grew slowly in the first three months of the year but did not fall into a recession. Carolyn Bryant Donham, whose accusation led to the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, died at 88. Jerry Springer died at 79. His talk show defined an era of daytime TV. Opinions Private equity firms are often shielded from legal consequences for their actions. Brendan Ballou explains how people can fight back. Nuclear waste is less dangerous and easier to manage than many people believe, Madison Hilly argues. Here are columns by David Brooks on America’s soul and Jamelle Bouie on the Supreme Court. MORNING READS Video by Kusini Safaris Dizzy buzz: Primates spin in circles for a temporary high, too. Bachelor: It’s OK to be single, according to the Church of England, because Jesus was, too. Former status symbol: Stretch limousines have all but disappeared. Home décor: Judge these books by their covers — they’re fake. Modern Love: David Schwimmer provides solace after a death in the family. “Carbage can”: Keep your car clean for $10. Advice from Wirecutter: These are the best travel car seats. Lives Lived: Dick Groat helped lead the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates to a World Series victory while earning an M.V.P. award. Yet he insisted he was better at basketball — and played a season in the N.B.A. He died at 92. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.F.L. Draft: Bryce Young went No. 1 overall to the Carolina Panthers, but the Houston Texans — who picked at Nos. 2 and 3 thanks to a last-second trade — earned the night’s spotlight. The jilted QB: Kentucky’s Will Levis was projected to be picked in the top 10 of last night’s N.F.L. draft, but was still in the green room at the end of the first round. The East gets clearer: The Boston Celtics closed out the Atlanta Hawks, securing a second-round matchup with the Sixers. The Heat and Knicks begin their second-round tilt Sunday. The Athletic is a sports page for the digital age. Obsessive coverage of your favorite teams. Scoops and insights about the N.B.A. and N.H.L. playoffs, N.F.L. draft and M.L.B. season. And in-depth features telling the human stories that make us love sports. Get it all with a New York Times All Access subscription. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Heidi Horten wearing the “Briolette of India.”The Heidi Horten Foundation, via Christie's Shiny jewels with a dark past Christie’s is preparing for a major jewelry sale next month, and the collection — 700 jewels from the heiress Heidi Horten’s estate — is expected to bring in more than $150 million. (For comparison, Elizabeth Taylor’s jewels sold for $137 million in 2011.) But a painful history hangs over the auction: Horten’s husband, Helmut, built his empire by buying companies from Jews who had been forced to sell them by the Nazis, often at a steep loss. After drawing criticism for the sale, Christie’s added a mention of the history to the auction listing and said it would donate some proceeds to Holocaust research and education. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Chris Simpson for The New York Times These biscuits are crusty on the outside but tender on the inside. What to Read In “The Ugly History of Beautiful Things,” Katy Kelleher considers her desire for rare or pretty objects. Travel Spend 36 hours in Philadelphia. News Quiz How well did you follow the headlines this week? Late Night James Corden signed off after eight years as the host of “The Late Late Show.” Now Time to Play The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were benefited and benefitted. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Tiles. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David P.S. Times journalists won the Hillman Prize in Newspaper Journalism for their investigative series on Haiti. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted April 30, 2023 Author Members Posted April 30, 2023 April 29, 2023 By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. The books we read when we’re young help shape the adults we become in ways we don’t always grasp. María Jesús Contreras Preteen sensations If you ask any kids who grew up reading Judy Blume, they’ll tell you precisely what they learned from each of Blume’s books; which taboo rites of passage each book introduced; probably even where they were, physically and developmentally, when they first stumbled on this information. They might very well remember the precise page number of the paperback that was passed around middle school on which the most eye-opening passages appeared. I recently reread her classic, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” in advance of seeing the film adaptation that opens this week, 52 years after the book’s publication. In my memory, “Margaret” was chiefly about puberty, specifically about getting your period for the first time. I vividly remembered the famous scenes when Margaret first encounters sanitary napkins and when she and her friends do exercises in order to “get out of those baby bras,” chanting, “We must — we must — we must increase our bust!” As I reread the book, though, I was struck not only by its Big Moments, but also by the many small, almost trivial ones that I’d unwittingly assimilated into my understanding of the world. There’s an early scene in which Margaret’s father injures himself while mowing the lawn and Margaret runs out into the yard “to look for the limb,” in case the doctor might be able to sew it back on. I stopped short. This scene was as real to me as one of my own memories. When I’d read the book as an adolescent, it was the first time I’d heard about such a grisly surgical procedure. I didn’t actively think of it again, but “you should always look for the limb” became part of my smart aleck’s understanding of the world, a bit of wisdom, never questioned. I never tied this knowledge back to the book or any source. “Margaret” also instilled in me the belief that wearing loafers with socks makes one “look like a baby” and that it was possible to get a custom label made for a homemade sweater that said “Made Expressly for You … by Grandma.” Small details, certainly not the main themes of the book, not what I’d tell any adult at the time that I “took away” from reading it. “Margaret” the movie — which you should see if you loved the book, or loved the director Kelly Fremon Craig’s first film, “Edge of Seventeen” — is full of these details, moments that change a young reader quietly. Watching it, I felt little electrical connections being made between my childhood brain and my adult brain, between the data that was inputted decades ago and the coherent knowledge it’s become. For more Blume, Fremon Craig and the film’s stars discussed the novel’s cultural impact. “Somebody used to say to me, ‘Just wait till all these kids who grew up with you get to those positions of power in Hollywood — you will see.’” Blume on how the “Margaret” film finally came to be. “To us, Margaret Simon wasn’t a character, she was a proxy — for the girl who stuffed socks in her bra, who felt uncomfortable in her own skin; for the girl who was homesick for a friend who had matured overnight or moved away or turned mean; for the girl who struggled to make sense of the diagrams on the origami-folded instructions inside the tampon box.” The Times’s Elisabeth Egan on the book’s enduring appeal. From April 2020, Cheryl Strayed’s podcast interview with Blume. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE WEEK IN CULTURE Harry Belafonte.(Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) Cool and charismatic, Harry Belafonte, who died this week at 96, channeled his stardom into activism. (Watch some of his greatest screen performances.) Jerry Springer, who died this week at 79, was a talk show populist who threw the studio doors open, and all hell broke through. Ed Sheeran testified in court, defending his song “Thinking Out Loud” against an accusation that he copied it from Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” What qualifies as stealing a song? Hear examples from other famous music trials involving George Harrison, Led Zeppelin and Katy Perry. “He was always looking ahead to the next thing”: Anna Wintour remembers the Karl Lagerfeld designs she wore. The Met Gala will honor his work on Monday. (See his defining looks.) Karin Hindsbo, a Danish-born museum executive, will lead the Tate Modern in London, one of the world’s most popular museums. The BBC’s chairman resigned over his role in a loan for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, deepening the turmoil at the broadcaster. Carrie Bradshaw is back for a new season of “And Just Like That …” The show released its trailer for Season 2. Celebrities came out for Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World gala. See their outfits. A scramble to finish scripts and late-night shows’ contingency plans: Hollywood is bracing for a writers’ strike. Is Tom Ford saying farewell to fashion? Imane Anys, known online as Pokimane, is a star in the world of video games. That puts her on the front lines of the internet’s culture wars. Who wore it best at Coachella? The Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman has thoughts. King Charles III’s coronation is next weekend. The Times’s Styles desk has answers to all — yes, all — of your questions. THE LATEST NEWS Voters in North Carolina last year.Sean Rayford/Getty Images North Carolina’s Supreme Court, with a newly elected Republican majority, reversed its own 2022 ruling about voting district maps. U.S. wage growth remained strong in early 2023 — good news for workers, but a concern for policymakers trying to tamp down inflation. The Federal Reserve acknowledged its own failure to address the risks at Silicon Valley Bank that led to its collapse. The Russian military bombed towns and cities across Ukraine, killing at least 25 people in the deadliest attacks in months. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he had “a pretty good idea who is responsible” for leaking a draft of his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. Montana’s Republican governor signed a bill into law to restrict transition care for transgender minors. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. CULTURE CALENDAR By Gilbert Cruz 📚 “Trust” (Tuesday): In this novel by Hernan Diaz, now available in paperback, the life of an early 20th-century New York financier is told from four different perspectives. Named one of The Times’s 10 best books of 2022, we called “Trust” an “exhilarating pursuit.” 🍿 “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Friday): One of the few directors to hop back and forth between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, James Gunn is taking one more swing with Star Lord and Co. before taking on yet another Superman reboot. Expect jokes, classic rock tunes and light profanity. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT RECIPE OF THE WEEK David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist; Simon Andrews. By Melissa Clark Artichoke Carbonara Whether you’re planning a festive spring gathering or looking to make yourself something extra special for dinner this weekend, Anna Francese Gass’s delightful artichoke carbonara might be just the thing. In her clever recipe, she levels up an easy weeknight pasta by stirring in canned or frozen artichoke quarters, adding flavor and texture without much effort. For a vegetarian version, skip the pancetta and caramelize some onions or mushrooms in the pan instead. Then top each bowl with a raw egg yolk for the silkiest carbonara sauce imaginable. REAL ESTATE Frances Palmer How to grow dahlias: Plant them soon, and other tips. What you get for $450,000: A townhouse in Atlanta; a 19th-century home in Frederick, Md.; or a Craftsman bungalow in Spokane, Wash. The hunt: Two Americans wanted a condo in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Which one did they buy? Play our game. Statement décor: How to design your entryway (even if it’s small). LIVING Nadia Hafid Tipping: Gratuities have become confusing. Here’s advice on how to give. Art and design: Local museums are diversifying their exhibitions. Mittelschmerz: Find out more about the mysteries of ovulation pain. What’s going on with Covid? Hospitalizations and deaths are lower. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Make your cold brew Unless you’re a year-round iced coffee hound, you may be making the annual transition from hot drip to cold brew. At the coffee shop, that can be a splurge, but at home, switching to cold brew might actually save you money. A good cold brew maker, like Wirecutter’s pick from OXO, can smooth out the rough edges of inexpensive, mediocre beans, producing a sweet, mellow concentrate that will last all week. I even like to brew the same grounds twice — coffee pros might disapprove, but the results are great, especially with a splash of milk. — Marguerite Preston GAME OF THE WEEKEND Frank Franklin Ii/Associated Press New Jersey Devils vs. New York Rangers, N.H.L. playoffs: These two teams are so close that you could probably see one arena from the roof of the other without the skyscrapers in the way. Maybe that’s why they have each looked so comfortable in away games: The Rangers started the series with two blowout wins in Newark, and then the Devils won two games in Manhattan. The Devils now lead the series, 3-2, and can advance with a win tonight. Good news for them: The game is in New York. 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC. More N.H.L. news The Islanders — New York’s other team — were eliminated last night by the Carolina Hurricanes. The Dallas Stars knocked off the Minnesota Wild. The Boston Bruins’ historic season is in trouble: After a loss last night, they are headed to Game 7 against the Florida Panthers. NOW TIME TO PLAY The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was excitement. Here is today’s puzzle. What were the hardest and easiest 10 words from the past week of Spelling Bees? See our lists here. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Tiles. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 1, 2023 Author Members Posted May 1, 2023 April 30, 2023 Madison Malone Kircher writes about internet culture for The Times, and she’s the author of a new newsletter called It Happened Online. It will explain and analyze the stories that have people talking. We’re turning over today’s edition of The Morning to Madison so she can make sense of Twitter’s recent overhaul of its blue check marks. — David Leonhardt By Madison Malone Kircher Good morning. Now that anyone can be verified on Twitter, the accompanying blue check means very little. Gregory Bull/Associated Press Social status I got my verified Twitter check mark about eight years ago while working as a cub reporter at a digital news outlet. I did nothing to earn it other than show up to work one day and Oh, hey, would you look at that! I’m verified. Sweet! (Technically, the check mark was white, surrounded by blue, but colloquially they’ve become known as blue checks and I’m not about to squabble over semantics now.) It feels a little pathetic to reflect on how excited I was about getting a check mark, but that was still the era when digital journalism was fighting to be taken seriously. Getting that check, which denoted that Twitter had confirmed the identity of the account’s owner and operator, gave me credibility. Last week, after much throat clearing, Twitter started removing the check marks from previously verified accounts whose users had declined to pay a fee — which was most of them. Now, anyone can be “verified” on Twitter. It’ll cost you $8 a month and comes with basically none of the usefulness that verification used to offer because Twitter is no longer confirming that people are who they say they are. The change in verification is one of the most visible effects that Elon Musk has had on Twitter since he bought it last year. Information on the platform, once considered indispensable for following breaking news, has become increasingly unreliable. And for users who rely on Twitter to follow celebrities or other figures, the verification change is part of a shift that will make many prominent users less visible because they declined to pay to retain their check marks. By the time Musk announced that all previously verified users would be losing their status, a blue check was nothing to be proud of. Some users are now calling it “the dreaded mark” or that “stinking badge,” my colleagues Callie Holtermann and Lora Kelley reported last week. The icon makes its owner appear “desperate for validation,” according to the rapper Doja Cat. Twitter also restored blue checks for popular users who didn’t want them, including LeBron James, Bette Midler and Stephen King. The model and internet personality Chrissy Teigen called her blue check a form of “punishment.” I would argue that the blue check was never as covetable as Musk thought it was. (He has called it a “lords & peasants system.”) For me and many other journalists, it was essentially just a tool to prove to sources I was who I said I was. No different than a press badge or a business card. Why should anyone care about the check mark changes, especially if their job doesn’t involve sliding into DMs? Twitter’s check mark system wasn’t perfect, but it did make it easier for users to figure out if tweets were coming from a real person or organization, or from, say, an account pretending to be Eli Lilly and promising free insulin for all. (This really happened in November 2022, tanking the company’s stock.) Now users will have to work harder to make sure people are who they purport to be. I can attest that it’s harder than it sounds. But that’s not to say Musk’s new system isn’t useful in its own way. The new check marks have instead become an inversion of the old. If I see you have one, I immediately don’t care what you have to say. Times subscribers can sign up for the It Happened Online newsletter here. For more Clunkier and less predictable: How Musk has changed Twitter. The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether elected officials violate the First Amendment when they block people on social media. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT NEWS Politics Black voters are frustrated by President Biden’s performance on issues like voting rights and police accountability. George Mason University’s law school gained influence while giving Supreme Court justices generous pay and unusual perks. Donald Trump is thriving in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination, despite a civil rape case against him. Biden made fun of Fox News and his age at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. International Ukrainian soldiers taking cover.David Guttenfelder for The New York Times Ukrainian soldiers are preparing for a spring offensive. The Times spent two weeks near the front lines hearing their stories of war. Hundreds of Russian men have faced criminal charges for avoiding battle. Many people in Britain are more focused on navigating a cost-of-living crisis than celebrating King Charles III’s upcoming coronation. A Brazilian workers’ movement helps poor people take unused land owned by the rich. Other Big Stories A gunman in Texas killed five people, including an 8-year-old, after his neighbor asked him to stop firing a weapon in his yard. Federal regulators are trying to seize and sell the troubled First Republic Bank before financial markets open tomorrow. A SpaceX rocket struggled to self-destruct as it spun out of control. But Elon Musk called the launch a success. Menopause is forcing women to miss work or quit their jobs. FROM OPINION Jerry Springer tried to convince us we were normal, unlike his guests. But his true legacy is that now we’re all trapped in his show, Jane Coaston writes. Guantánamo is a legal black hole. Biden has the power and the obligation to close it for good, The Times’s editorial board writes. Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on the right-wing takeover of a college and Maureen Dowd on remote work in newsrooms. The Sunday question: Is this the end of Tucker Carlson’s reign in conservative media? Carlson’s rise as a TV personality was mostly a result of the established and loyal Fox News audience, The New Yorker’s Jay Caspian Kang argues. But his ideology could prove more influential and lasting than any cult of personality, Jason Zengerle writes for The New York Times. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. MORNING READS “Mustang,” a 32-foot-tall sculpture outside Denver International Airport.Benjamin Rasmussen for The New York Times Demon horse: The Denver airport is a magnet for conspiracy theories. Weekend-only workouts: Avoid weekdays at the gym with a Sunday exercise plan. N.F.L. draft: Here are the winners and losers. Vows: They fell for each other by asking 36 questions that lead to love. Sunday routine: A classical music power couple spends time in a sauna. Storage: Tips for organizing your garage. Advice from Wirecutter: Wash your jeans less. Lives lived: Jane Davis Doggett was a graphic designer who made airports and other public spaces easier to navigate. She died at 93. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT BOOKS Dishes in Claire Ptak's new cookbook.Maren Caruso and Pia Riverola “Love Is a Pink Cake”: Her desserts and cookbooks are beloved by designers and duchesses. By the Book: The doctor and novelist Abraham Verghese shares the novel that led him to medicine. Our editors’ picks: “Natural Beauty,” which examines our obsession with self-improvement, and eight other books. Times best sellers: David Grann’s “The Wager” debuted at the top of the latest hardcover nonfiction list. THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE Hannah Whitaker for The New York Times. On the cover: How Randi Weingarten and her teachers’ union became the latest flashpoint in American politics. Recommendation: Draw a map to retrace the past. Ethicist: A throuple fell apart. What are the rules of the breakup? Read the full issue. THE WEEK AHEAD What to Watch For Biden will host President Ferdinand Marco of the Philippines tomorrow. Speaker Kevin McCarthy will address Israel’s Parliament tomorrow. The Met Gala is tomorrow evening. Nominations for the 76th Tony Awards will be announced on Tuesday. Federal Reserve officials meet on Wednesday and are expected to increase interest rates. Cinco de Mayo is on Friday King Charles III’s coronation will be held on Saturday at Westminster Abbey. Read more about the coronation. The Kentucky Derby, the first leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, is on Saturday. What to Cook This Week Sheet Pan Miso Honey Chicken.David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Emily Weinstein’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter this week has recipes for a laid-back spring evening. Sheet-pan miso-honey chicken makes use of your oven’s broiler; fried cheese in spicy tomato gravy works with any cheese that stays firm after frying — halloumi, paneer, queso blanco — or with tofu; and this seared salmon dish is great for anyone who loves capers. NOW TIME TO PLAY The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was acquaint. Here is today’s puzzle. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed the week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Tiles. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Read today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 1, 2023 Author Members Posted May 1, 2023 May 1, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY By David Leonhardt Good morning. If there were an affirmative action program for the descendants of enslaved people, would you consider that to be race-based? The Supreme Court.Shuran Huang for The New York Times Not so simple During oral arguments for the biggest Supreme Court cases, the justices’ questions are often pointed, meant to advance their own view of the case. Conservative justices ask friendly questions of lawyers on the conservative side and burrow into the logical weaknesses of the liberal side. Liberal justices do the opposite. The five hours of oral arguments on two affirmative action cases in October mostly fit this pattern. But, about three hours into the session, Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked a less typical question. It involved slavery, and it raised an inconvenient issue for Kavanaugh’s fellow conservatives. “So today, a benefit to descendants of slaves would not be race-based, correct?” Kavanaugh said to Cameron Norris, a lawyer arguing for the end of race-based affirmative action. Norris seemed caught off guard. “I — I think that’s incorrect, Justice Kavanaugh,” he said. Kavanaugh then noted that Norris had already acknowledged that the post-Civil War benefits that formerly enslaved people received from the federal government were not race-based. Those benefits were based on their status as having been enslaved, not their skin color. “If that’s correct, then the benefit for descendants of former slaves is also not race-based,” Kavanaugh said. “You can make other arguments if you want about that, but it does not seem to be race-based.” The conversation quickly moved on (partly because Justice Neil Gorsuch, another conservative, moved it along). But the exchange highlighted a tension that’s likely to be central to the debate over affirmative action after the Supreme Court rules. Put simply, getting rid of race-based admissions policies may turn out to be harder than it sounds. Today’s newsletter is the first in what will be an occasional series on the future of affirmative action. I welcome reader questions and suggestions via email at themorning@nytimes.com. Grit and character The court is expected to rule on affirmative action in June, and observers expect tight restrictions on race-based considerations in college admissions. The six Republican-appointed justices, including Kavanaugh, all seem opposed to the status quo, in which many colleges have different admissions criteria for different racial groups. Black, Latino and Native American applicants are now admitted with lower test scores and grades than Asian and white applicants. But even most opponents of the current system agree that colleges should take into account some parts of an applicant’s background. Consider two teenagers: One grew up with working-class parents, attended a high-poverty high school and scored 1390 on the SAT. The other went to an elite private high school, took SAT prep classes and scored 1400. Surely, the 1390 is more impressive. When a person has overcome hardship, as Patrick Strawbridge, another lawyer opposing racial preferences, said to the justices, “it tells you something about the character and experience of the applicant other than their skin color.” Opponents of today’s affirmative action have tried to draw a clean distinction between racial and nonracial considerations, and the opponents are correct that colleges now use race itself as a major factor. But if the court bars that practice, colleges are likely to become more aggressive about using measures of socioeconomic disadvantage. And that’s where the situation could get tricky. Many socioeconomic measures, after all, are strongly correlated with race. Legacy at U.N.C. Kavanaugh’s question about slavery was jarring because the overlap was complete: An admissions policy based on a family’s history of enslavement certainly sounds like a race-based policy, without being one on paper. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pointed out another example during oral arguments: For a long time universities, including public schools like the University of North Carolina, refused to enroll Black students. Jackson compared a hypothetical applicant who would be a fifth-generation U.N.C. student — and thus receive the so-called legacy boost — with an applicant whose family had lived in the state just as long but whose ancestors had been barred from attending. As Jackson asked, shouldn’t the second applicant receive a boost, too? Both Jackson’s and Kavanaugh’s hypotheticals might seem narrow, involving discrimination that occurred long ago. But the practical questions are broader. Because of the deep racial inequities in the U.S. — caused partly by government policies like whites-only housing subsidies — many admission criteria based on economic disadvantage would apply disproportionately to applicants of color, especially Black applicants. One example would be an admissions policy that gave extra consideration to a student who grew up in a family with a net worth of less than $30,000. Most Black households fall into that category; only a small share of white households do. There are even greater racial disparities in measures based on neighborhood wealth. Source: The Federal Reserve | By The New York Times I’m not suggesting that criteria like these are merely dressed-up versions of today’s system. To many people, they’re more justifiable because they can apply to disadvantaged members of all races. (Here’s a Times profile of Richard Kahlenberg, a researcher who makes that case, arguing for a new class-based system.) Still, the legal fights will not end with a Supreme Court decision. Adam Liptak, who covers the court for The Times, says that he expects a flurry of lawsuits over what constitutes a race-based admissions policy in disguise versus a class-based policy that happens to affect different races differently. As with abortion, a Supreme Court ruling will reshape the political debate without ending it. Is your podcast queue empty? I enjoyed listening to the oral arguments on affirmative action, starting here and continuing here. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Amazon Free technical training programs Amazon Technical Academy and other programs help employees learn and earn more. LEARN MORE THE LATEST NEWS Business San Francisco.Jim Wilson/The New York Times Regulators seized First Republic Bank and sold it to JPMorgan Chase, ending the lender’s weekslong free fall. The move is an attempt to curb a U.S. banking crisis after the failures of two other banks. Here’s what to know. Geoffrey Hinton was an artificial intelligence pioneer before he quit his job at Google to warn the public of the dangers posed by A.I. A push by some states to impose age restrictions on sites like TikTok and Pornhub could alter how adults experience the internet, too. Whole Foods is closing a San Francisco store out of safety concerns, reflecting the city’s economic and crime troubles. International Explosions echoed in Kyiv overnight as Ukrainian officials warned of a large-scale Russian missile attack. Paraguay elected Santiago Peña, a conservative economist, as president, resisting the leftward shift across Latin America. As hospitals close and doctors flee the fighting in Sudan, the medical professionals who remain face harrowing conditions. A top Iranian official shared nuclear secrets with the West as a spy for Britain, intelligence officials said. After his execution, his identity was revealed. Freya, the walrus killed by the Norwegian authorities last year, has been immortalized as a bronze sculpture in Oslo. Other Big Stories The prospect of a Trump-Biden rematch is Democrats’ greatest advantage in getting people to vote. But some former Biden voters want an alternative. A top adviser to New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, said he would resign, citing a Times report that described a toxic work environment. Hundreds of Texas officers are looking for the gunman accused of killing five people after a dispute between neighbors. The government is easing rules on past drug use to help recruiters attract younger workers. An elite New Jersey boarding school admitted that it had failed to protect a bullied student who died by suicide. Opinions We have become a lonely nation. It’s time to fix that, writes Vivek H. Murthy, the surgeon general. And here are columns from David French on Disney v. Ron DeSantis, and Jamelle Bouie on Republicans expelling members of state legislatures. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. MORNING READS A stretch limousine in New York City in 1997.Anders Pettersson/Getty Images Red carpet ride: Stretch limos aren’t cool anymore. Quirky venue: Inside a bizarre, secret New York penthouse. World Chess Championship: Ding Liren became the first Chinese man to hold the title. Oregon: How a man became homeless in the city where he was once mayor. News Quiz: Take our latest news quiz and share your score (the average was 8.8). Metropolitan Diary: Women outside a psychic shop predict a baby’s gender. Coffee subscription: A good one is on sale. Advice from Wirecutter: What to avoid on your work computer. Lives Lived: Dr. LeRoy Carhart performed late-term abortions and argued cases at the Supreme Court, undeterred by arson at his home and by the murder of a colleague. He died at 81. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC Stephen Curry.Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle, via Associated Press Game 7: Stephen Curry scored 50 points and led the Golden State Warriors to a series-clinching victory over the Sacramento Kings. He gave a rare speech to his team ahead of the game. Shocking night for hockey: The Panthers eliminated the Bruins, the best regular-season team in N.H.L. history. The Colorado Avalanche — the defending Stanley Cup champions — are out as well. Good draft, bad draft: N.F.L. draft expert Dane Brugler ranked draft classes from No. 1 to 32. Philadelphia’s haul came out on top. ARTS AND IDEAS A hairdresser combs the perm of a client.Jessica Chou for The New York Times Embracing curls, again The perm is making a comeback. But the hairstyle has changed a lot since its 1980s heyday: Instead of tight curls and loads of hair spray, the modern perm is tender and loose. The style has long been popular in South Korea, but has grown globally since the early 2000s as Korean pop culture became more influential in the West. “I love my curls. I feel so much more self-confident,” Brendan Noji, 25, told The Times. “The waves add a lot more personality that feels a lot closer to my own.” PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times Start your week with a spicy egg-and-cheese on toast. What to Listen To Our pop critic curated a workout playlist for you. What to Read The racy novel “Ex-Wife,” and a new biography of its author, remind us of the brazenly talented women sidelined by convention. Now Time to Play The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were pentacle, placenta and placental. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Tiles. Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter misstated the name of the president of the Philippines. He’s Ferdinand Marcos Jr., not Ferdinand Marco. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. The Met Gala is tonight. Here’s everything you need to know. And here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 3, 2023 Author Members Posted May 3, 2023 May 2, 2023 By German Lopez Good morning. The bank crisis could hurt the whole economy. Regulators seized control of First Republic Bank and sold it to JPMorgan Chase yesterday.Ian C. Bates for The New York Times Bank runs The recent fall of major banks — including First Republic Bank yesterday — has caused concerns that the U.S. is on the brink of a financial catastrophe, one that could resemble the 2007-8 crisis that led to the Great Recession. Three times this year, fearful bank customers and investors have rushed to withdraw their money, and the federal government has taken drastic action to prevent a broader panic that could knock down the rest of the financial system. Nobody knows for certain whether this third time will be the last. For now, the situation has stabilized. The stock market held steady yesterday, and other banks seemed to be doing fine. But a crisis has not necessarily been averted. History is filled with examples of leaders who believed they had stopped a disaster but later found they had underestimated the problem, including during the 2007-8 financial collapse. Some analysts worry that other banks may have as-yet undiscovered problems. And the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, is likely to continue to raise interest rates — the very thing that catalyzed this year’s bank collapses. So why does this matter to everyday Americans? A financial crisis can lead to less spending across the entire economy, suppressing jobs and wages. It can also hurt people’s investments, including retirement accounts and other savings. Today’s newsletter will look at the bank collapses and their potential consequences to the broader economy. Lost faith Regulators seized First Republic Bank and sold it to the financial behemoth JPMorgan Chase yesterday. This deal — in which a bigger bank absorbs a struggling one — is typical during a crisis. What is less typical is the magnitude of this year’s failures. Combined, First Republic, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank held more in inflation-adjusted assets than the 25 U.S. banks that collapsed in 2008. Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation | Data is adjusted for inflation. | By Karl Russell The three banks, and their falls, had some important traits in common. First, the banks’ investments were particularly exposed to the risk of rising interest rates. As the Federal Reserve increased interest rates over the past year, many of First Republic’s assets lost value because they were fixed at lower interest rates and, therefore, lower payouts to the bank. Meanwhile, First Republic had to pay now-higher interest rates on its customers’ deposits. The mix of lower revenue and higher costs toppled the bank’s balance sheet. Second, the three banks had a large share of customers with deposits that surpassed federal insurance limits. These depositors are more likely to be cautious and ready to move their money, because they know that they could lose much of it if a bank goes under. So when First Republic’s investment strategy began backfiring, depositors started to pull out their money in large numbers — a classic bank run. By last week, First Republic revealed that customers had withdrawn more than half of the bank’s deposits. Last, the three banks’ fates were connected. “The failure of Silicon Valley Bank made Americans more concerned about the safety of their deposits,” my colleague Maureen Farrell, who covers finance, said. “And First Republic looked a lot like Silicon Valley Bank.” The threat of further contagion is what led regulators and the financial system to move to try to stabilize the situation. The problems largely come down to mismanagement at the three banks, experts said. But regulators share some of the responsibility for failing to spot warnings and to act on them earlier. The Federal Reserve acknowledged as much last week, saying that regulatory changes and a “shift in culture” left regulators unprepared. The Fed also placed some of the blame on Congress, which in 2018 reduced the central bank’s oversight of so-called midsize banks like First Republic and Silicon Valley Bank. The Fed is now considering tougher rules. Economic fallout What happens next? Some analysts argue that the worst is over: Silicon Valley Bank, Signature and First Republic were all outliers, and their similarities made them unusually vulnerable to the current moment. So far, the government’s swift responses seem to have done a good job containing the potential contagion. But things could get worse. Economists say that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes take time — potentially more than a year — to work through the economy. It was only last year that the Fed began dramatically raising rates. The three banks’ collapses, then, could be the beginning. As higher interest rates warp the economy, other parts of the financial system could fall under the strain, too. Regardless of which scenario plays out, the three bank failures could lead to an economic slowdown. As other banks and investors worry that they could meet a similar fate as First Republic, they may act more cautiously. That caution could translate to less money going to businesses and consumers, meaning less economic activity and growth overall. More financial coverage To prevent future bank runs, the F.D.I.C. proposed protecting larger deposits than it now does. Executives at the major U.S. banks spent the weekend analyzing First Republic’s financials. Here’s how JPMorgan came out on top. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Politics Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.Yuri Gripas for The New York Times Janet Yellen said the U.S. could run out of money to pay its bills in less than a month, pressing lawmakers to quickly strike a deal. The Biden administration will end most federal Covid vaccine requirements next week. Hollywood Writers’ Strike Thousands of movie and television writers went on strike, halting many productions. Find out what the strike means for your favorite shows. Other Big Stories People trying to leave from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday.Fayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Thousands of people have descended on a port city in eastern Sudan in recent days, fleeing the violence in the capital. Vice, the digital-media disrupter that has struggled to find a buyer, is preparing to file for bankruptcy. During a search for two missing teenage girls in Oklahoma, the authorities found seven bodies. The victims were not identified. A transformation is underway in hydroelectric power projects: Giant dams, like the Hoover, are being replaced by pumped storage. Opinions Lula’s overtures to China and Russia have upset the West, but he’s simply supporting Brazil’s national interests, Vanessa Barbara writes. Donald Trump’s civil trial shows that the U.S. legal system is biased against rape accusers, as it has been for centuries, Jessica Bennett writes. And here are columns by Jamelle Bouie on how the Republican Party has gotten weird and Gail Collins and Bret Stephens on the debt ceiling. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. MORNING READS Intaglios recovered from an ancient Roman bathhouse.Anna Giecco Ancient trove: Romans dropped their jewelry down the drain, too. High hopes: An early morning excavation to find a Nazi treasure in a tiny village came up empty. Deep thoughts: A.I. is getting better at reading minds. Happy and healthy: How a gastroenterologist cares for her gut. Make a plan: Moving is tough. Here’s some help. Advice from Wirecutter: 100 things readers loved in April. Lives Lived: Gordon Lightfoot’s gift for melodies made him a popular artist in the 1970s with songs like “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “If You Could Read My Mind.” Lightfoot died at 84. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. playoffs: The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics to go up 1-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinals. (Watch James Harden’s crucial three-pointer.) An injury: The Suns point guard Chris Paul left during the third quarter of Phoenix’s loss to Denver with groin tightness, another postseason injury for one of the game’s best players. N.H.L. playoffs: The New Jersey Devils beat the Rangers in Game 7, a disappointing end for a team that was up 2-0 in the series. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Jared Leto at last night’s Met Gala.Nina Westervelt for The New York Times Fashion’s big night Last night’s Met Gala, fashion’s party of the year that’s held on the first Monday in May, honored the designer Karl Lagerfeld, whose 65-year career is the subject of the Met’s new Costume Institute exhibition. The night included a late arrival by Rihanna, a pregnancy reveal by Serena Williams, Kim Kardashian in a pearls-and-not-much-else look and Jared Leto dressed as Lagerfeld’s cat, Choupette. (The real Choupette didn’t show.) Red carpet: Here are the outfits, and a look at how stars interpreted (or ignored) the theme. Controversies: The exhibit doesn’t pay much attention to some of Lagerfeld’s problematic comments, The Washington Post writes. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott for The New York Times If you like strawberry doughnuts, try making old-fashioned strawberry cake. What to Read In Justin Cronin’s “The Ferryman,” residents of a coastal paradise enjoy cultured lives — until their memories are wiped. What to Watch A new series tells the story of Miep Gies, the secretary who helped Anne Frank and others hide in Amsterdam during World War II. Late Night Seth Meyers contemplates the possible 2024 presidential matchup. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was potbelly. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German P.S. The word “hwagwaja” appeared for the first time in The Times yesterday, in a story about South Korean pastry chefs. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 3, 2023 Author Members Posted May 3, 2023 May 3, 2023 By David Leonhardt Good morning. The outcome of the debt ceiling conflict is genuinely uncertain. Kevin McCarthyHaiyun Jiang/The New York Times A 90 percent story The hardest political stories for reporters to cover and pundits to analyze can be those that are neither 100 percent stories nor 50 percent stories. A 100 percent story is one in which reality is clear (even if partisans sometimes deny it): Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The planet is warming. Crime and inflation are higher today than a few years ago. A 50 percent story is one in which letting both sides have their say is the only fair way to cover it because the issue involves unavoidable trade-offs for society (even if partisans sometimes suggest otherwise). Tax rates, abortion, border security and religion in schools all qualify. These disputes are more about values and priorities than underlying reality. Some stories, however, don’t fit in either category. These stories tend to involve disputed facts, and each side can point to some evidence for its argument — but not equal amounts of evidence. In this third category, one side makes claims that are much more grounded in truth although neither side has a monopoly on it. I think of these stories as 90 percent stories. The fight over the debt ceiling is a 90 percent story. One branch, big demands Almost no other country in the world has a debt ceiling. Elsewhere, politicians argue over how high taxes and spending should be when passing budget laws. Once those laws have passed, the government doesn’t need any additional authority to borrow money to pay for its programs. Your household budget works the same way: You don’t first decide whether to buy a car and then separately decide whether you should repay the car loan. The decision is whether to buy the car in the first place. If you do, you repay the loan — or go bankrupt. The U.S. government instead uses a two-step process. After passing tax and spending policies, Congress must pass another law that authorizes repayment of its obligations. This second law increases the limit on how much the government can borrow, which is known as the debt ceiling. (Here’s an explainer.) Denmark is the only other country with a similar system, and Danish politicians increase their debt ceiling well in advance, typically without rancor. On Monday, Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, announced that the federal government was likely to hit its debt limit in about a month, around June 1. If that happens before Congress raises the ceiling, the federal government could default. Defaulting could spark global financial chaos because investors have traditionally viewed American debt as a safe investment in a risky world. The debt ceiling is not a 100 percent story because both parties have used its existence as a threat, intended to win policy concessions, when the other party controls the White House. As a senator, Biden voted against increasing the ceiling multiple times, and Senator Barack Obama voted against doing so in 2006. But the debt ceiling is not a 50 percent story, because the two parties have nonetheless behaved very differently. Democrats have never allowed the ceiling to get close to being breached; when a Republican is president, Democrats have agreed to increase the limit well in advance. That’s what happened without much drama in 2019, when Donald Trump was president and Democrats controlled the House. “I can’t imagine anybody ever even thinking of using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge,” Trump said. When Obama was president in 2011, by contrast, Republicans came so close to allowing a default that financial markets tightened and the economy and job market suffered. Today, Republicans are calling for sweeping policy changes even though they control only the House, while Democrats control the White House and the Senate. Republicans say they will lift the debt ceiling only if Biden agrees to a large cut in federal spending that would undo some of his climate policies and make it easier for wealthy people to avoid paying taxes. A dangerous mix This asymmetry makes the debt ceiling a 90 percent story. And it puts the Biden administration in a difficult position. The endgame remains genuinely uncertain. A few dozen far-right House Republicans seem willing to allow a default if they don’t get their way. Biden and his aides, for their part, believe that yielding to Republican demands will lead to more turmoil the next time the country reaches its debt limit, perhaps as soon as next year. Instead, White House aides are debating whether the Constitution gives the president authority to act even if Congress does not, The Times reported yesterday, while House Democrats have developed a long-shot plan to force a vote on a simple debt-limit increase that might win support from Republican moderates. “The overwhelming sense on Capitol Hill is that these negotiations may be different than past negotiations,” Catie Edmondson, who covers Capitol Hill for The Times, told me yesterday. “Democrats learned from 2011 that these types of deals only encourage Republicans to play games with the debt ceiling, and the current Republican majority is composed of lawmakers far more willing to dig in and fight, regardless of the consequences. That is a dangerous combination.” Go behind the scenes: On “The Daily,” Catie talked about McCarthy’s strategy. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Business “It’s not how white men fight.” Fox News panicked about Tucker Carlson after finding a text in which he shared inflammatory views about race and the Jan. 6 violence. Late-night talk shows went dark last night, the first TV programs to be affected by the Hollywood writers’ strike. Factories that roared out of the recession have stalled, raising worries about an economic downturn. Politics Biden is sending 1,500 troops to the southern border to manage a possible migration surge as he eases Covid-era restrictions. A judge rejected a transgender lawmaker’s effort to return to the Montana House Floor after Republicans barred her over comments on transgender legislation. Private papers from Justice John Paul Stevens, released by the Library of Congress, show the inner workings of the Supreme Court. Other Big Stories A vigil after a mass shooting in Texas.David J. Phillip/Associated Press After a manhunt, the police said they had captured a man who shot and killed five neighbors in rural Texas last week. A friend of E. Jean Carroll testified in court that Carroll had called her immediately after she said she was raped by Trump and described what had happened. Stabbings have rocked the California college town of Davis. Two people were killed and a third wounded in less than a week. Germany, long a hive of spy activity, has started to take Russian espionage more seriously. Opinions Digital media companies used to be branded as the future of news — it turned out they weren’t, Ben Smith writes. King Charles’s coronation arrives while Britain is wrestling with the fallout from Brexit and a cost-of-living crisis, Hannah Rose Woods writes. Here are columns by Thomas Friedman on artificial intelligence and Bret Stephens on defending Ukraine. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. MORNING READS Line dancing at Stud Country.James Emmerman for The New York Times Line dancing: It’s a sold-out event in New York. Coronation: Would you want to be king? You may need to eat this special pie. Feel less lonely: Put down your phone, and four other tips. Sunscreen: You’re probably applying it wrong. Advice from Wirecutter: These are the best lawn mowers. Lives Lived: Robert Patrick rendered life with caustic wit, an open heart and fizzy camp. His 1964 play “The Haunted Host” became a touchstone of early gay theater. He died at 85. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC The Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid.Frank Franklin Ii/Associated Press N.B.A.’s most valuable player: Joel Embiid, 29, was born in Cameroon and didn’t play basketball until he was 16. Now he’s the league’s M.V.P. The Lakers: LeBron James & co. beat the defending champions, the Warriors, in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals series. Brooks bounced: Memphis informed the Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks that he won’t return to the team next season. N.H.L.’s Kraken keep cracking: Seattle’s overtime win in Dallas continued the two-year-old franchise’s glorious run through the hockey postseason. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS “Some Like It Hot.”Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Musical competition The nominations for the Tony Awards, announced yesterday, turned the spotlight on the potential winners. This year’s competition for best new musical is close, critics say. “Some Like It Hot,” a Jazz Age show about two witnesses to a mob hit, scored the most nominations with 13. It’ll face competition from “& Juliet,” which combines pop songs with an alternative take on Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers; “New York, New York,” a dance-driven show with a postwar setting; and “Shucked,” a comedy about a community’s corn crisis. The critical favorite is “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a high-school student with a life-altering genetic condition. Here are all the nominations. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott for The New York Times Roast this chicken in plenty of olive oil. What to Read A debut novel from Tom Hanks and 12 other books coming this month. What to Listen To Five minutes to fall in love with the jazz of Herbie Hancock. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was buoyant. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Tiles. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. What matters to you about the American South? Times reporters want to hear. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 5, 2023 Author Members Posted May 5, 2023 May 4, 2023 By German Lopez Good morning. Bipartisan support now exists for a once-radical approach to drugs. A Fentanyl test strip.Travis Dove for The New York Times Reducing harm For decades, the U.S. focused on trying to scare people away from drugs, instituting tough criminal penalties and emphasizing law enforcement over addiction treatment. But a major change is underway. The old approach failed to prevent an overdose crisis that now kills more than 100,000 Americans a year. Policymakers have awakened to the urgency of the problem and shifted resources, namely funding, toward treatment. While criminal penalties for drugs remain, many states, led both by Democrats and Republicans, have lessened them. Lawmakers now often discuss drugs as a problem of public health, not just criminal justice. Some lawmakers have even embraced a once-radical strategy called harm reduction. The approach focuses on mitigating the potential dangers of drugs, not necessarily encouraging users to abstain. Republicans, whose party historically opposed harm reduction, are among those backing some tenets of it. The Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives voted last month for a bill that would decriminalize test strips to check drugs for fentanyl, the potent opioid that is often mixed into heroin, pills and other drugs. Republican strongholds, including Kentucky, Utah and Mississippi, recently decriminalized the test strips. Representative Tom OliversonRicardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman, via Usa Today Network “My hope is that every person struggling with addiction has access to a quality recovery program and has the opportunity to gain and maintain long-term sobriety,” Representative Tom Oliverson, the Texas Republican who sponsored his state’s bill, told me. “But if they die instantly from a drug they didn’t even know they were taking, I can’t fix that. Nobody can.” The country has undergone a “decided shift” in favor of harm reduction, said Regina LaBelle, who led the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Biden. In 2015, Congress lifted a funding ban for needle exchanges, where clean syringes are distributed to keep people from reusing or sharing potentially infected devices. And in March, the F.D.A. for the first time made naloxone, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses, available over the counter. Mitigating risk The modern version of harm reduction originated in the 1980s, when a widespread drug problem and the AIDS crisis motivated activists to pursue something other than criminalization. They helped create needle exchanges in hopes of stopping the spread of H.I.V. through dirty syringes. Critics argued that needle exchanges would encourage drug use and could lead to more overdose deaths by removing a deterrent to using drugs. Real-world evidence disproves those claims. Needle exchanges have been shown to reduce infections, according to the C.D.C. In fact, needle exchange programs can reduce overdoses and drug use over time, by acting as hubs that educate people on safe practices and connect them to addiction treatment. Much of this evidence has existed for decades. But it was not until recently that many more policymakers embraced harm reduction approaches. A softer touch What changed? Three things, experts say. First, lawmakers grew desperate to reduce overdose deaths, which have climbed for decades and surpassed 100,000 annually for the first time in 2021. Old ideas, like harsh criminal penalties, were clearly insufficient. So lawmakers turned to alternatives they once dismissed, seeking any kind of solution. Second, the overdose crisis is now so widespread that many more people, including members of Congress, know someone hurt by it. “Every single member of the House and Senate has grieving constituents coming in, having buried kids or brothers or sisters or moms or dads,” Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University drug policy expert, said. “That creates incentives, both emotional and political, to try things that otherwise would be unacceptable.” And third is the role of race and class. Previous drug crises disproportionately hurt marginalized populations — such as Black people during the 1980s crack epidemic and poor white people during the 1990s-2000s meth epidemic. White, wealthy people had little exposure to these problems. Stereotypes about drug use flourished. A punitive approach, aimed at keeping drugs away from as-yet-unaffected communities, took hold. The current overdose crisis has more directly hit white people of all classes, including lawmakers. As uncomfortable as it may be that policymakers can be more apt to act — and do so compassionately — when a problem personally affects them, it’s often true. Limits in support Harm reduction is still far from gaining universal acceptance. Last year, Senate Republicans criticized the potential inclusion of crack pipes in safe smoking kits from federally funded programs. Some conservative states, like West Virginia, have restricted or blocked needle exchange programs. Many lawmakers of both parties reject more controversial ideas, like supervised injection sites. In Texas, the House’s fentanyl test strip bill is mired in a Senate committee, despite Gov. Greg Abbott voicing support for the idea. Still, there is notable movement, however uneven. Three years ago, fentanyl test strips were outlawed in 33 states. Today, they are legal or soon will be in at least 37. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Economy The Federal Reserve announced another interest-rate rise — its 10th in a row — bringing rates above 5 percent for the first time since 2007. Fed officials suggested they could pause increases as soon as next month. Check how higher rates affect you. President Biden and congressional Republicans are still in a standoff about raising the nation’s debt limit. War in Ukraine Red Square and the Kremlin Senate building yesterday.Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters Russia claims it thwarted an attack by two Ukrainian drones trying to assassinate Vladimir Putin. Ukraine said Russia had manufactured the episode. Video footage verified by The Times shows two explosions minutes apart above the Kremlin. Gun Violence Police and emergency workers in Atlanta.Ben Gray/Associated Press A gunman killed one person at a medical office building in Atlanta. The police caught a 24-year-old suspect after an hourslong manhunt. A seventh grader opened fire in his school in Serbia, killing at least eight classmates. Gun violence is rare in the country. The police arrested the wife of the man they say killed five neighbors in Texas last week, accusing her of helping him evade capture. Other Big Stories U.S. regulators approved a vaccine for the respiratory illness R.S.V. for people 60 and older. The Biden administration wants to reduce the risks of artificial intelligence, including through money for research and guidelines for agencies. American eighth graders are falling behind on U.S. history. Try a sample quiz to test your knowledge. Donald Trump’s lawyers will call no defense witnesses in the civil trial over whether he raped E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. Jim Marchant, an election denier, is running for Senate in Nevada. The swing-state race could determine control of the chamber in 2024. A new program could eliminate New York City’s trash bag piles by using containers — at the cost of 150,000 parking spots. Opinions The U.S. is convinced that China is trying to replace it as a world power, but even China doubts it can, Jessica Chen Weiss writes. The Republican Party has a lock on Mississippi. This year, a Democratic candidate for governor may have a chance, David Firestone argues. Here are columns by Charles Blow, on Tucker Carlson, and Pamela Paul, on merit in science. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. MORNING READS “Coronation Flakes” to mark the coronation of King Charles III.Coronation Flakes Coronation: Whether it’s ceramics or cereal, this is commemorative merchandise fit for a king. A code of whiteness: In his first piece as a critic at large, A.O. Scott discusses the racial ideology in Tucker Carlson’s text message. Baffled scientists: Why does this cannibalistic fish keep washing ashore? “A very weird hybrid”: Behold, the corset hoodie. Back up! Secure your digital life. Advice from Wirecutter: Tips for organizing your shed or garage. Lives Lived: Tori Bowie, a sprinter, won three Olympic medals in 2016 and the next year won the world championship in the 100-meter dash. She died at 32. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. playoffs: The Celtics beat the Sixers to tie their to tie their series at 1-1. Last place: The Yankees’ general manager tried to reassure fans of the injury-plagued team a month into the season. A troubling trend: Four horses have been euthanized at Churchill Downs in the last week, days before the Kentucky Derby. “Ain’t no joke”: Snoop Dogg says he’s serious about buying the N.H.L.’s Ottawa Senators. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Imagined soundwaves.via Behrang Garakani, Natalia Espinoza and Midjourney Embracing the machines A graduate course at Columbia University is teaching young artists to embrace A.I. Students are creating immersive performances with tools like ChatGPT and the image generator Midjourney, which they will show in Los Angeles this fall. Haiyu Zhang, a student, said the technology has allowed her to focus on big concepts while the algorithm filled in the details. “What makes artists special is their ability to imagine something new,” she said. “So while I think that A.I. tools help express our creativity, creativity will still be the driving force behind the future of art.” For more: What it’s like to spend a weekend with an emotional support bot. And a review by a Times critic of “the first halfway readable A.I. novel.” PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Christopher Testani for The New York Times\ This cheesecake is big, beautiful, lush and creamy. What to Watch “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is a “dour, visually off-putting two-and-a-half-hour A.S.P.C.A. nightmare of a film.” What to Read Try these new books on Elverhoj, Frances Elkins, offshore décor and designing with plants. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was voltage. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Tiles. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German P.S. The Times has redesigned its evening newsletter. Subscribe to The Morning’s counterpart: The Evening. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 6, 2023 Author Members Posted May 6, 2023 May 5, 2023 The fighting in Sudan is almost three weeks old, and many observers are worried it is on the verge of becoming more intense. To help you understand it, Declan Walsh, The Times’s chief Africa correspondent, is writing today’s newsletter. — David Leonhardt By Declan Walsh Good morning. We explain the background of the military conflict in Sudan. Khartoum on Wednesday.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images ‘A nightmare’ The starkest warning about the destructive potential of the war in Sudan came from a former leader, who until recently drove the country’s hopes for democracy. Fighting between rival military factions erupted on April 15. If it descends into a full-blown civil war, it will be “a nightmare for the world” on par with the worst recent conflicts in the Middle East, Abdalla Hamdok, a onetime Sudanese prime minister, warned this week. “Syria, Libya, Yemen will be a small play” in comparison, said Hamdok, who was ousted 18 months ago by the same generals now battling for control. Whether Sudan’s war could reach that point is unclear, although recent escalation in the fight between two heavily armed military factions, backed by different foreign powers, is an ominous sign. For now, the U.S. and regional powers in Africa are trying to pressure the belligerents — Sudan’s regular army and the Rapid Support Forces, a well-armed paramilitary group — to stop fighting. Yet both sides have agreed to and then discarded multiple cease-fires. Yesterday, fighting raged again around the presidential palace and the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, as well as in the western region of Darfur. The clashes between two generals with a longstanding rivalry have already caused widespread suffering and misery in the nation of 46 million. At least 500 people are dead and 5,000 injured as a result of the fighting so far, but those figures are probably gross underestimates. Over 100,000 Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries, several of which are grappling with their own conflicts. The longer the violence drags on, experts warn, the greater the risk that it will draw other countries into a wider war that could destabilize the entire region. Today’s newsletter will explain what you need to know about the conflict. Where is the fighting? Although the fighting initially occurred across the country, it is now concentrated in two areas: Khartoum and Darfur. In Khartoum, R.S.F. troops control most of the city center and other large neighborhoods, while the regular army holds ground on the city outskirts, including important supply routes. By The New York Times Each side has its advantages. The R.S.F. is a highly mobile force of battle-hardened troops, many of whom fought in the war in Yemen. The Sudanese military is a conventional force with a fleet of warplanes and helicopter gunships, which the paramilitaries lack. Caught in the middle are millions of civilians who have suddenly found themselves living in a battleground. Many are trapped in their homes with no electricity and little food or water. Stray bullets and bombs hit homes, killing many. Sudan’s already fragile health system is crumbling. Two-thirds of hospitals in conflict areas are closed, according to the health ministry. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, left, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed HamdanMarwan Ali/Associated Press, Yasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Who are the generals? The army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been Sudan’s de facto leader for the past four years. He rose to power in the tumultuous aftermath of the 2019 uprising that toppled President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudan’s dictatorial leader of three decades. Until then, al-Burhan was best known as a commander in the army’s brutal counterinsurgency campaign in Darfur in the 2000s. For a time he shared power with civilian leaders as part of an agreed transition to democracy. But in October 2021 he joined forces with Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the powerful commander of the R.S.F., and seized power in a coup. Hamdan had also risen to prominence in the wars of Darfur, as a commander of the brutal Janjaweed militias that became notorious for their scorched-earth tactics. He went on to acquire money and influence, with a business empire built on gold mining. But after the 2021 coup he fell out with his boss, al-Burhan. As tensions rose in recent months, the two men publicly squabbled and began to deploy troops to military camps in preparation for war. Why are other nations invested? Sudan sits in a pivotal position on the African continent. It has a substantial Red Sea coastline and is surrounded by seven countries. Instability threatens many of them. Western officials and Sudan experts fear that the new chaos could draw in these neighboring countries. But other powers also have interests. Russia has pressed Sudan to allow its warships to dock along the country’s coast. The Kremlin-affiliated Wagner private military company operates in Darfur and runs lucrative gold mining operations in Sudan. The U.S., a key player in political talks that collapsed with the outbreak of war, had hoped to turn a new page with Sudan after decades of American sanctions. It also hopes to fend off the influence of China. Persian Gulf countries are major players in Sudan. Saudi Arabia, which has helped to evacuate at least 6,000 people in recent days, has longstanding influence there. And the United Arab Emirates has links to both sides, although it is seen as closer to Hamdan. For more: Fleeing Sudanese are enduring desert journeys and sniper fire. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Politics Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys.Noah Berger/Associated Press Four members of the Proud Boys, including their former leader Enrique Tarrio, were convicted of sedition for leading a violent mob on the Capitol. Through new subpoenas and grand jury testimony, the Justice Department is moving aggressively to determine if Donald Trump hid documents. North Carolina passed a 12-week abortion ban. The state’s Democratic governor said he would veto the bill. Harlan Crow, a conservative donor, paid some private school tuition for a relative of Justice Clarence Thomas. President Biden is planning to appoint Gen. Charles Brown, the Air Force chief of staff, as the nation’s top military officer. Other Big Stories Eight people were killed in Serbia in the country’s second mass shooting in two days. (The U.S. remains a global outlier on gun violence.) A construction system plagued with patronage set up Turkey’s buildings to fail when an earthquake hit. No arrest has been made in the death of a homeless man who was choked on the New York City subway this week. New Yorkers are stunned and divided. Smaller banks, scrambling as their share prices plunge, are trying to reassure their investors. A jury found that Ed Sheeran’s 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud” did not copy Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” A New Jersey mystery: Who dumped hundreds of pounds of pasta in the woods? Opinions Despite Britain’s history of racism, King Charles’s coronation and the monarchy are symbols of mutual respect worth celebrating, David Lammy writes. Alejandra Oliva’s parents came to the U.S. seeking the American dream. The Biden administration’s new asylum measures will betray that ideal, she writes. Here are columns by David Brooks on Gen Z and Paul Krugman on a debt crisis. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. MORNING READS Flightline in front of the breeding shed.Luke Sharrett for The New York Times Payday: For the world’s best racehorses, it’s more lucrative to breed than to run. Processed foods: They affect brain health. Lawn to meadow: Is it enough to just stop mowing? (Not necessarily.) Modern Love: Seeking a lover, not a nurse. 4K on a budget: These are the best TVs. Advice from Wirecutter: Get a better picnic blanket. Lives Lived: Pamela Timmins, Jacqueline Kennedy’s press secretary, was the first person to hold that post for an American first lady. Timmins died at 85. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. playoffs: The Warriors beat the Lakers, tying their series at 1-1. Pink slip: Two years after winning a championship, the Milwaukee Bucks fired the coach Mike Budenholzer after a first-round collapse in this year’s playoffs. Wunderkind: Connor Bedard, 17, will find out next week who gets to pick him at No. 1 in the N.H.L. Draft. College baseball scandal: Alabama fired the coach Brad Bohannon, six days after the coach was apparently involved in illicit betting activity. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Mo Willems, center.Lexey Swall for The New York Times Onstage: silly songs Mo Willems, whose books about a kvetching pigeon and a venturesome stuffed bunny made him a star of children’s literature, has focused his powers of silliness onto a sometimes stuffy medium: opera. In his new show “The Ice Cream Truck Is Broken! & Other Emotional Arias,” Willems collaborated with the composer Carlos Simon to twist arias into material for restless kids. Carmen’s Habanera is now about sharing cotton candy; “La donna è mobile” concerns the way milk squirts out your nose when you laugh. It helps that opera and picture books have a lot in common, Willems told The Times: “It’s big emotions.” PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Evan Sung for The New York Times Traditional English scones are lighter and flakier than their American counterparts. What to Read “Homegrown,” by Jeffrey Toobin, revisits the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Travel What to do for 36 hours in Asheville, N.C. News Quiz How well did you follow the headlines this week? Now Time to Play The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were enlighten, enlightening, lengthening, lighten and lightening. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Tiles. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. The Times’s publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, warned of the dangers to democracy at a World Press Freedom Day event. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 7, 2023 Author Members Posted May 7, 2023 May 6, 2023 By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. Today is Coronation Day in Britain. Come for the crown jewels and gold coach; stay for the questions about the monarchy’s relevance. María Jesús Contreras Crowning moment On the “how interested are you in the royal family?” spectrum, which runs from antipathy to adoration, I’m in the mildly curious range: I know who the major players are; I watched the Harry and Meghan documentary but not “The Crown.” I cannot help but feel some affinity with a person (Queen Elizabeth II) who allegedly invented an indisputably adorable dog breed (the dorgi, a cross between a dachshund and a Welsh corgi). But as with a sports playoff game or Hollywood awards ceremony, the coronation of Charles III has made me into an instant, if temporary, royals superfan. I can’t resist a spectacle — never mind one code-named Operation Golden Orb — resplendent with props like the Stone of Destiny, holy olive oil, a gold coach and a scepter containing the largest colorless cut diamond in the world. But as with all fandom, fair-weather and otherwise, allegiance is complicated. In a recent poll of 3,070 adults in Britain, 64 percent of respondents said they had little to no interest in today’s coronation. The ceremony has been modified to be more inclusive, but still “the hoary rituals of the coronation are a reminder of how — in a secular, multiethnic, digital-age society — the crown is fundamentally an anachronism,” wrote The Times’s London bureau chief, Mark Landler. An over-the-top coronation for a new king does make for an incongruous viewing experience while Commonwealth nations call for Britain to redress its colonialist legacy and the country reckons with a cost-of-living crisis. The dissonance is for the best, I think. It’s possible to be fascinated by the pageantry while remaining skeptical of it, to gawk at the fairy-tale elements of the coronation while still questioning the system that supports them. I talked to Sarah Lyall, a writer-at-large for The Times who is covering the coronation, about how hard it is for an American who isn’t a regular royal watcher to truly understand how the monarchy functions in the U.K. One of its roles, she said, is to exist outside of politics and provide continuity when the government is in disarray. As Britain went through four prime ministers in the past three years, the monarchy endured. “It’s a soap opera,” she said, “but it’s also like a sort of scaffolding in some odd way for the entire system.” Speaking of scaffolding, in order to accommodate the more than 8,000 guests that attended Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, special grandstands were built in Westminster Abbey. This required so much scaffolding that a railway track was built in the church to transport it all. Charles’s coronation, by contrast, will be a more intimate affair, with about 2,200 people invited. For more Watch the coronation and follow The Times’s live coverage. All your questions about the coronation, answered in our F.A.Q. “Can Britain’s first green-minded monarch persuade a nation that loves Sunday roast, chips and chicken tikka masala to embrace the locally grown, organic, climate-friendly diet that he follows?,” The Times’s Kim Severson asks. The coronation is a TV spectacle for the digital age. Why does Britain still have a monarchy? Sarah Lyall consulted its subjects. Camilla’s transformation on the way to becoming queen. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE WEEK IN CULTURE Lil Nas X at the Met Gala.Nina Westervelt for The New York Times Celebrities arrived at the Met Gala in pearls, corsets and cat costumes. See the most over-the-top looks from the gala and its after-parties. An accompanying show honoring Karl Lagerfeld opened at The Met this week. It’s coy about his controversies, The Times’s Vanessa Friedman writes. A Hollywood writers’ strike could last for months, halting production on many shows. Drew Barrymore dropped out of hosting tomorrow’s MTV Movie & TV Awards to support the writers’ strike. Ed Sheeran was found not liable for copying Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic, “Let’s Get It On.” Here are takeaways from the copyright case. Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson and Rage Against the Machine were among the artists voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A documentary by the artist David Hammons explores what it means when white people try to own something Black, The Times’s Wesley Morris writes. A TV adaptation of the novel “City on Fire” cultivates nostalgia for the more analog 2000s in New York. People in Los Angeles are still memorializing a mountain lion, P-22, with T-shirts and a show commissioned by the philharmonic. THE LATEST NEWS Rochelle Walensky.Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will step down next month. The World Health Organization ended its emergency declaration for the pandemic, a symbolic gesture. The leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group threatened to pull his fighters out of the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. The man who choked a homeless man to death on a New York City subway was identified as Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran. He has not been charged. Two students formed an impromptu taxi service and rescued dozens of people from a battle zone in Sudan. Some Americans live in “sacrifice zones” — areas close to chemical plants that put them at higher risk of developing cancer. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. CULTURE CALENDAR By Gilbert Cruz 🎬 “Air” (Friday): In her review of this Ben Affleck-directed film about Nike’s attempt in the 1980s to sign Michael Jordan to the most mega of sneaker contracts, Manohla Dargis wrote, “It’s ridiculous how entertaining ‘Air’ is given that it’s about shoes.’” The film, also starring Matt Damon and Viola Davis, will be available to stream on Prime Video. 🎮 “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” (Friday): It’s been six years since “Breath of the Wild” was released for the Nintendo Switch. That beautiful open world game entered my household during the early days of the pandemic and not a week has gone by in which we don’t talk about it. The highly anticipated sequel is out next weekend, and I don’t plan on doing anything but playing it. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT RECIPE OF THE WEEK Beatriz Da Costa for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Salmon With Asparagus and Lemon Asparagus season is approaching its peak, meaning now is the time to revel in dishes that highlight its grassy-in-a-good-way flavor. Kay Chun’s roasted salmon with asparagus, and lemon does just that, and it couldn’t be easier to prepare. While the salmon roasts, you make the simple pan sauce of lemony brown butter with crisp-juicy peas and thinly sliced asparagus. Capers add a salty tang and parsley (or tarragon, if you prefer), some herbal freshness. Serve this dish, vivid in shades of pink and green, on your prettiest platter for a festive, springtime meal that you can make in 15 minutes flat. REAL ESTATE Tom Blachford An inverted ha-ha: It’s an odd name for a raised mound of earth around a property. Trendy gray floors: A hatred for the color is thriving on social media. Tiny homes: A program builds small houses in Seattle backyards to address homelessness. What you get for $625,000: A four-bedroom bungalow in Minneapolis; a one-bedroom condominium in an 1877 mansion in Newport, R.I.; or a brick townhouse in Louisville, Ky. The hunt: They wanted a house in the Hudson Valley for $500,000. Which one did they choose? Play our game. LIVING Clark Hodgin for The New York Times K9 Jets: Flying with a dog or cat is getting harder. So people are chartering planes for their pets. Ovulation pain: Researchers aren’t sure why it can hurt. King Cobra and Enrique Chagoya: What to see in New York galleries this month. Northern Lights: You can see them further south for the next few years. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Cut weeding time in half With pleasant spring weather comes an unpleasant garden nemesis: weeds. As a relatively new gardener, I have been exploring ways to naturally tackle weeds, and I’ve found the quickest and most efficient to be this $28 garden tool, a stirrup hoe. Think of it like a vegetable peeler for your garden beds. Its trapezoidal steel blade-head slightly oscillates back and forth — a simple push or pull slices the top layer of soil, severing a weed from its roots. It’s as easy as it is satisfying to use. And it’s cut my weeding time in half, giving me more hours to enjoy the spring. — Sebastian Compagnucci GAME OF THE WEEKEND Logan Sargeant.Chris Graythen/Getty Images Miami Grand Prix: Formula 1 has been expanding its footprint in the U.S. since the Netflix series “Drive to Survive” brought a new audience to the sport. This year, three races are in the U.S. — the most in decades — as well as a new American driver, Logan Sargeant. Unfortunately for Sargent, he does not drive for Red Bull, which means he probably won’t win. Red Bull’s two drivers have won every race this year. But even a Top 10 finish, which would earn Sargent his first points of the season, would be reason to celebrate. 3:30 p.m. Eastern tomorrow on ABC. Related: Nearly every weekend, Formula 1 workers pack up their entire sport and send it to the another country. Here’s how the logistical symphony comes together. NOW TIME TO PLAY The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was condominium. Here is today’s puzzle. See the hardest Spelling Bee words from this week. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Tiles. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 7, 2023 Author Members Posted May 7, 2023 May 7, 2023 By the staff of The Morning Good morning. A gunman killed at least eight people at a crowded shopping mall in Texas yesterday. Shoppers being evacuated from the mall.WFAA, via Associated Press Dozens of shots A gunman opened fire at a crowded mall north of Dallas yesterday, killing at least eight people and wounding seven others before he was shot to death, the authorities said. The shooting was the second-deadliest in the U.S. this year. The authorities didn’t identify the gunman but said he had acted alone. There have been 199 shootings of at least four people this year in the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive, a database. And a particularly deadly spate of large-scale shootings has unfolded in recent days. Last weekend outside Houston, a gunman shot to death five people after neighbors had asked him to stop shooting in his yard. Texas has some of the country’s most permissive gun laws, priding itself on being a state with more than 1 million gun owners despite its recent history of mass shootings. Many authorities in Texas say they have seen an increase in spur-of-the-moment gunfire since September 2021, when the state began to allow most adults to carry a handgun without a license. Yesterday’s shooting was the deadliest in Texas since the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde in May 2022. Only the Monterey Park, Calif., mass shooting in January, in which a gunman killed 11 people in a ballroom, has killed more people in a single shooting in the U.S. this year. How it unfolded The gunfire started around 3:30 p.m. at the Allen Premium Outlets, an outdoor mall of more than 120 stores about 25 miles north of Dallas. Allen, a Dallas suburb, has about 100,000 residents, and the shopping center is one of the region’s largest. The gunman got out of a car, then started shooting at people on a sidewalk, according to video circulating online, The Dallas Morning News reported. Dozens of shots rang out as he closed in on shoppers. Videos on social media also showed people dashing for shelter or running through a parking lot amid loud popping noises. A police officer at the mall rushed toward the sound of gunfire and killed the gunman, the Allen police chief said. Witnesses described a familiar scene of pandemonium. Geoffrey Keaton was having lunch when he heard the gunshots. “I immediately knew,” he told The Times. “I got my baby girl under the counter to shield her, and then they got louder, like he was right there.” What we don’t know Little is known about the victims; the authorities have yet to identify them. Seven people died at the mall, and two others died later at hospitals. The wounded range from 5 to 61, a hospital spokesman said. Three people were in critical condition and four in stable condition. The authorities have not identified the gunman’s motive. For more Shoppers said they hid in storerooms at the mall while they waited to evacuate. Last weekend’s shooting outside Houston raised questions about how the police in Texas handle reports of gunfire. State leaders in Texas have systematically rejected measures that would limit access to guns, The Texas Tribune reported. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT NEWS Coronation King Charles and Queen Camilla on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.Andrew Testa for The New York Times King Charles was crowned in an ancient ceremony with modern twists. At a coronation, a dress is not just a dress. Here’s a look at the fashion (including Katy Perry’s hat). “It’s just part of our lives”: Why does Britain still have a monarchy? Other Big Stories More than 9,500 newly uncovered messages offer clues about Jack Teixeira, the airman implicated in a leak of government secrets. As pandemic-era restrictions near their end, U.S. officials are bracing for an immigration surge at the southern border. A California panel called for reparations that could mean hundreds of billions in payments to Black residents to address past injustices. Blackouts from extreme weather linked to climate change are becoming more common. Many people can’t afford generators and batteries. Mage won the 149th Kentucky Derby after a week in which seven horses died at Churchill Downs, two of them in races yesterday. FROM OPINION Social media companies need to address speech that incites fear, Julia Angwin argues. Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on the Supreme Court, Michelle Goldberg on E. Jean Carroll and Ross Douthat on anti-Trump Republicans. The Sunday question: Should Democrats negotiate with Republicans on the debt limit? President Biden learned his lesson from the debt limit crisis in 2011: Negotiating with hostage-takers “invites more hostage-taking,” Catherine Rampell writes for The Washington Post. Kimberly Strassel of The Wall Street Journal argues that House Republicans did their part when they passed a bill that would raise the debt limit, and it’s on Biden to respond. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. MORNING READS Gypsy Wood, a burlesque dancer with the Spiegelworld circus.Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times California revival: A circus is trying to transform a ghost town. Vows: She had grown weary of dating apps. Then a perfect match came along. Unsubscribe, please: Here’s how to actually get off an email list. Advice from Wirecutter: Pick the best cooler for summer. Lives lived: The pianist Menahem Pressler fled Nazi Germany as a youth and became the anchor of a group that, with various lineups, performed all over the world for 53 years. He died at 99. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT BOOKS We crave beauty: But, one author asks, at what cost? By the Book: The artist Sarah Sze would invite Gertrude Stein to a dinner party — to hear her pick a fight. At the tip of India: Read your way through Kerala. Our editors’ picks: “How Not to Kill Yourself,” a messy and unflinching memoir, and eight other titles. Times best sellers: Emily Henry’s “Happy Place” is on top of the hardcover fiction list. THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE Photograph by Ashley Gilbertson/VII, for The New York Times. On the cover: What Kyrsten Sinema’s breakup with the Democratic Party means for American politics. Superfakes: Can you tell the difference between a $10,000 Chanel bag and a $200 knockoff? Nobel laureate: The novelist Rachel Cusk on what makes Annie Ernaux’s fiction shocking. Read the full issue. THE WEEK AHEAD What to Watch For Tomorrow is a public holiday in Britain because of King Charles’s coronation. Financial markets will be closed. This year’s Pulitzer Prize winners will be announced tomorrow. Biden and congressional leaders will meet on Tuesday to discuss the debt limit. The U.S. government will release new inflation figures on Wednesday. Title 42, the pandemic-era authority that allows officials to speedily send migrants out of the U.S., is set to expire Thursday. The U.S. will let its Covid public health emergency expire on Thursday. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, will visit the White House on Friday. What to Cook This Week David Malosh for The New York Times Cooking shortcuts are the focus of Emily Weinstein’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter this week. Yossy Arefi’s citrusy grilled shrimp pairs with a slaw made from packaged cabbage. Crispy sour cream and onion chicken marries a tasty dip with breaded cutlets. And feta is delicious after a stint in the oven; this recipe bakes it on a sheet pan with broccolini, tomatoes and lemon. NOW TIME TO PLAY The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was calorific. Here is today’s puzzle. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed the week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Read today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 8, 2023 Author Members Posted May 8, 2023 May 8, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY By David Leonhardt Good morning. The new surge at the U.S.-Mexico border highlights a broader reality about immigration policy. Migrants in El Paso last week.Justin Hamel for The New York Times Difficult trade-offs The surge of migrants gathering at the U.S.-Mexico border underscores a point that Democratic Party politicians often try to play down: U.S. border policy has a big effect on how many people try to enter the country illegally. The current surge is largely a reaction to the looming end of Title 42, a policy enacted during the Covid pandemic that enables the authorities to quickly expel many migrants who enter the country without permission, rather than letting them stay while courts consider their cases. Title 42 expires on Thursday, as part of the end of the official Covid health emergency. In recent weeks, word has spread in Latin America that entering the U.S. is about to become easier. Smugglers have told potential migrants that the coming period will be a good time to attempt a border crossing, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said last week. U.S. officials believe that the number of illegal crossings per day, which has recently hovered around 7,500, could soon rise above 12,000, according to my colleague Eileen Sullivan. “It’s a real crisis,” Father Rafael Garcia of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in downtown El Paso told The Times. Push and pull When Democrats and progressive activists talk about undocumented immigration, they tend to emphasize forces in other countries — like wars and political oppression — that are beyond the control of the U.S. government. And these outside issues do influence migration flows. The collapse of Venezuela’s economy is a recent example. Experts refer to such forces as “push factors,” because they push people out of their home countries. But “pull factors” in the U.S. matter as well. The strength of the economy is one. The stringency of border security is another. When the U.S. makes it difficult for people to enter the country illegally, fewer people make the journey north to try. When the U.S. sends signals that people will be able to cross the border even without permission, and potentially remain here for years, more people attempt to do so. The pattern is clear. Donald Trump was the most anti-immigration president in decades, promising to build a border wall and demeaning immigrants with racist language. Joe Biden ran for president in 2020 promising a more welcoming approach — and after he won the election, the number of people trying to enter the country without permission spiked: Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection | Data is through March 2023. | By The New York Times “There are feedback loops,” Julia Gelatt, a sociologist at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, told me. Biden’s pivot Like so many other political subjects today, immigration has become highly polarized. As a result, the issue’s complexities and trade-offs sometimes gets obscured. Many Republicans denigrate immigrants. In truth, as research by the economists Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan has documented, immigrant families have continued to thrive in recent decades. The children and grandchildren of immigrants have ascended the economic ladder at rates strikingly similar to those of the 1800s and early 1900s. Democrats have not engaged in anything as hateful as the white nationalist conspiracy theories that are common on Fox News. But Democrats have sometimes brushed aside the hard questions of immigration policy. A relatively lax approach to border security does have downsides. Early in Biden’s presidency, thousands of people in Latin America left their homes and headed north, often taking enormous risks. Some made it to the U.S. and have given themselves a chance at a better future. Others have languished in crowded and dangerous conditions in northern Mexico — a sign that a porous border creates its own humanitarian problems. The migration surge of the past few years has also caused problems in the U.S. Social services and shelters in Texas and Arizona cities have been overwhelmed, mayors say. Even some cities far from the border, like Chicago and New York, have struggled to handle the influx. “The president and the White House have failed New York City on this issue,” Mayor Eric Adams of New York, a Democrat, said last month. “Why are you doing this to New York?” In response, the Biden administration has changed its approach. In early January, Biden announced a tougher policy meant to keep out migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua who did not have a good claim of political oppression. The policy also provided new opportunities to come to the U.S. legally. Immigration advocates and some Democrats criticized the plan as cruel, saying it would deny asylum to deserving refugees. Yet experts say it’s clear that many migrants from these countries are not political refugees. They want to come to the U.S. because it offers better job opportunities. For the migrants themselves, that calculation is understandable. But no wealthy country permits unrestricted immigration. If the U.S. allowed mass immigration for economic reasons, millions more people would likely try to enter the country. Biden’s crackdown has started to have its intended effect. The number of illegal crossings fell sharply in recent months (which you can see in the last few bars of the chart above). Now, though, the end of Title 42 has created a challenge. “A lot of people will see this as their chance,” Gelatt said, “or smugglers will use this to lead people across the border.” To reduce the surge, Biden has dispatched 1,500 troops to the border. The troops are there to manage the chaos — and to send a message: The U.S. does not have an open border, and most people who try to enter the country illegally will not succeed. Will it work? Nobody knows. “We are getting prepared now for the unknown,” Oscar Leeser, the mayor of El Paso, said. For more: These short videos show scenes from both sides of the border. THE LATEST NEWS Texas Mall Shooting A memorial outside Allen Premium Outlets a day after the mass shooting there.Cooper Neill for The New York Times The frustration among some Texans about mass shootings in their state has done little to change the political reality. Greg Abbott, the governor, said there would be no new effort to limit access to firearms in Texas. Here’s what we know about this weekend’s shooting, in which a 33-year-old gunman killed eight people at a mall. Debt Ceiling Standoff Biden is meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week to discuss taxes, spending and debt. But the two sides are far apart. The talks come weeks before the U.S. could run out of cash to pay its bills unless the nation’s borrowing cap is lifted. There are several potential paths. Follow the arrows to see which could cause economic chaos. Other Big Stories A driver plowed into a crowd of migrants near the border in Texas, killing at least eight people. It’s unclear whether the crash was intentional. “Any hope that this would be fast has faded”: Screenwriters and Hollywood companies remain far apart, raising the chances of a long strike. New York City’s suburbs oppose Mayor Eric Adams’s plan to house migrants there. Russia launched drones at Kyiv. Ukraine said it shot all 35 down. A teenager died after being buried under sand in a back-dune area at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina. A Ukrainian immigrant, 82, has lived in a Manhattan hotel for decades. The owners want him out, while receiving millions from the city to house others. Opinions A Democratic primary challenger would be good for Biden and would direct attention to ideas that won’t otherwise get a hearing in Washington, Peter Beinart argues. Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in the name of Russian greatness. The war has done lasting harm to his people and their culture, Serge Schmemann writes. Here are columns by Pamela Paul on Shiv and Tom’s marriage on “Succession” and David French on Tucker Carlson’s influence over the Christian right. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. MORNING READS Elizabeth Holmes at home.Philip Cheung for The New York Times New persona: Liz Holmes wants you to forget about Elizabeth. Churchill Downs: Seven horses died in the lead-up to the Kentucky Derby. Whose fault was it? Health information: Spot a wellness scam. Premium vs. budget: Is a $2,000 television ever worth it? Advice from Wirecutter: The best cold-brew coffee makers. Lives Lived: Vida Blue threw an unhittable fastball as a rookie with the Oakland Athletics in 1971 and became baseball’s hottest player. Blue died at 73. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. playoffs: The Philadelphia 76ers tied their series last night, defeating the Boston Celtics, 116-115. And the Phoenix Suns are now tied with the Denver Nuggets in their series. Bumped: But all eyes were on the Phoenix owner Mat Ishbia, who got into a courtside tussle with Nikola Jokic. Red Bull battle: Max Verstappen won the Miami Grand Prix. Leafs in trouble: After winning a first playoff series in nearly two decades, the Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves in another dire situation, down 3-0 to the Florida Panthers. ARTS AND IDEAS Tony Cenicola/The New York Times The benefits of boxed wine Boxed wines have a bad reputation with producers and customers, but they make ecological sense, the Times critic Eric Asimov writes. “The carbon footprint is about a tenth of the emissions for the production of four single-use bottles, not even taking into consideration weight and transport,” said Melissa Monti Saunders, the chief executive of a wine importer and distributor. “No way around it, boxes are significantly better for the planet.” PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Chris Simpson for The New York Times Oyakodon — a chicken, egg and rice bowl — is pure bliss. What to Watch Bernard-Henri Lévy travels to Ukraine in the dispatch-documentary “Slava Ukraini,” shot in the second half of 2022. What to Read “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” the first novel by Tom Hanks, sags under a deluge of detail. Now Time to Play The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were loveably and volleyball. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Tiles. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David P.S. The word “overapologizing” appeared for the first time in The Times recently in an Opinion article. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 9, 2023 Author Members Posted May 9, 2023 May 9, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY By German Lopez Good morning. Lawmakers are starting discussions on the debt limit, weeks before a critical deadline. President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy.Al Drago for The New York Times Debt showdown President Biden and congressional leaders will meet this afternoon to discuss what, if anything, they will do to prevent a looming economic crisis. The talks at the White House are about the kind of deal Democrats and Republicans might reach to increase the limit on money the federal government can borrow. The stakes are high: If the debt limit is not increased, the government could default on its debts. The U.S. has borrowed tens of trillions of dollars, so a default could trigger chaos in global financial markets. Today’s meeting is the first time in months that Biden and House Republican leaders are directly discussing the issue. Since they last spoke, House Republicans passed their own bill calling for sweeping but largely unspecified government spending cuts. And the Treasury Department warned that the country has until June 1 to raise the debt limit before it runs out of money. The sides are not expected to make a deal, or anything close to it, today. Most likely, the talks will set the contours for future discussions. Today’s newsletter will look at four scenarios for what could come next. 1. Clean increase Congress could raise the debt limit with no conditions. This is the outcome that Democrats want and historically the most common result when the U.S. comes close to breaching the limit. Such increases occurred three times during the Trump administration and dozens of times during previous presidencies. After Congress created a debt limit in 1917, it remained little more than a technicality for decades. Congress’s big fights over government spending would largely center on the federal budget, which sets taxes and spending levels, separate from the debt limit. But over the past few decades, lawmakers — particularly Republicans — have seized on the debt limit as a tool to try to get additional concessions on spending. The Biden administration has tried to end those tactics by refusing to negotiate. 2. Negotiated raise Another possibility is that both sides hash out a deal that raises the debt limit while also cutting spending. This is House Republicans’ preferred outcome. The parties are far from an agreement on how to balance the budget. Republicans have said they want to reduce spending on just about everything besides Social Security, Medicare and the military, potentially shrinking programs as varied as Medicaid, food stamps, border security and grants for local police. Democrats have called that proposal a nonstarter. In turn, Democrats want to raise taxes on the wealthy and large corporations — a nonstarter for Republicans. “While both sides say they want to reduce the nation’s future debt burden, there is almost no overlap in how they aim to achieve that outcome,” my colleague Jim Tankersley wrote. Given the impasse, the parties could agree to a small debt limit increase to give themselves time to reach a deal. (My colleagues Jeanna Smialek and Ashley Wu explored that possibility in greater detail.) 3. Executive action If no deal is reached, the Biden administration could take the unprecedented step of using executive action to bypass the debt limit. No one wants this outcome, but the White House has been privately considering it. Many White House officials dislike this idea because it is untested and can veer into the absurd. The White House could declare that the debt limit is unconstitutional, arguing it violates the 14th Amendment’s clause that “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.” The administration could then ignore the debt limit and continue paying the government’s bills. In a weirder scenario, the government could mint a $1 trillion platinum coin to infuse the government with money to pay those bills. These approaches would likely end up in court, and it’s unclear whether they could survive legal challenges. That uncertainty could hurt financial markets and increase costs for the federal government. Consider an investor’s perspective: If you believe that the only thing holding up the value of government debt is an untested executive maneuver, you will likely charge a higher price — or interest rate — to buy that debt. Yet even that outcome looks better than the one remaining alternative. 4. Government default The last possibility is that the U.S. government hits the debt limit and can no longer pay for anything, including federal programs or debt payments. It could then be forced to default on at least some debts — meaning it will admit that it cannot pay back the money that others effectively lent the government. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, has described a default as “financial Armageddon.” Why? For decades, investors have considered U.S. debt the safest of safe investments because the government always pays them back. So they used U.S. debt as a backstop for riskier opportunities — knowing that, whatever else happens with their less certain bets, they would at least make money from government debt. But if the U.S. no longer repays debts, then that reliability disappears. And the financial system could recoil, taking the economy down with it. For more McCarthy and Biden’s meeting probably won’t produce a final agreement on a fiscal plan that could include raising the debt limit. Biden should negotiate with McCarthy on fiscal policy. But he should stand firm on the debt limit, Dan Pfeiffer writes in Times Opinion. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Apple Card High yield. Low effort Choose to grow your Daily Cash in a high-yield savings account that can earn 4.15% APY. Terms apply. Apply Now THE LATEST NEWS Politics The Texas House advanced a bill to raise the minimum age to buy assault weapons. Biden says he is best placed to beat Donald Trump in 2024. Polls suggest it’s not a sure thing, The Times’s Peter Baker writes. The Republican push for stricter state election laws is organizing for the long term. In the rape trial brought by E. Jean Carroll against Trump, the jury will now have to decide whom they believe, after Trump refused to testify. War in Ukraine Ukrainian forces are turning hobby drones into deadly weapons. Russia celebrates its 1945 victory over Nazi Germany today. Vladimir Putin struck a defiant tone in a speech. Climate Wildfires in the Canadian province of Alberta.Alberta Wildfire, via Reuters Wildfires in Western Canada have burned nearly 1 million acres in a week. At least 400 people died in floods and landslides in the Democratic Republic of Congo last week. Thousands of old oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico are at risk of leaking. Plugging them would cost $30 billion. Norway has embraced electric vehicles. Its air is already cleaner. Other Big Stories A social media profile linked to the gunman who attacked a Texas mall this weekend expressed praise for neo-Nazis and hatred toward women and Black people. The authorities in Texas brought manslaughter charges against a driver who fatally struck migrants on Sunday. Primary care is one of medicine’s least glamorous fields. But it’s attracting multibillion-dollar corporations. Racetracks, parks, offices: New York City is struggling to find housing for an influx of migrants. Canada expelled a Chinese diplomat over allegations of political interference. Hours later, China said it would expel a Canadian diplomat from Shanghai. Phoenix will clear the Zone, a homeless encampment where 1,100 people sleep unsheltered each night. Opinions Spoiler alert: Anna-Lisa Cohen’s research shows we enjoy movies and TV series even if we know how they end. Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on the Oklahoma City bomber and Paul Krugman on critics of Biden’s handling of the debt ceiling. From the archives: Mona Chalabi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning piece about picturing Jeff Bezos’s wealth. Enjoy the complete Times experience today. The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this introductory rate. MORNING READS Caring for a horse in Mexico.Victor J. Blue for The New York Times Horses and donkeys: In Mexico, volunteer vets care for the animals who plow fields and fetch water. Sad news for millennials: Sum 41 says it will disband. Insomnia: Small changes can help teens with trouble sleeping. Inflatable fun: Grown-ups love them, kids love them. Backyard bouncy houses are great. Advice from Wirecutter: The best sandals. Lives Lived: The historian Ronald Steel infuriated presidents, secretaries of state and other national leaders with critiques of Cold War foreign policy. Steel died at 92. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. playoffs: Lonnie Walker scored 15 fourth-quarter points in the Lakers’ momentous Game 4 win, helping put Los Angeles up 3-1 over the Warriors. N.H.L. lottery: The Blackhawks got the No. 1 pick — probably the 17-year-old Connor Bedard. Gambling: Officials are investigating 41 student-athletes from Iowa and Iowa State for prohibited sports wagers, both schools said. ARTS AND IDEAS Barbara Kingsolver, left, and Hernan Diaz.Mike Belleme for The New York Times; Marta Perez/EPA, via Shutterstock The Pulitzer Prizes Two authors won the Pulitzer for fiction this year: Hernan Diaz for “Trust,” the story of a financier’s fortune told from different perspectives; and Barbara Kingsolver for “Demon Copperhead,” a reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield.” The Pulitzer for drama went to Sanaz Toossi for “English,” a play about four Iranians preparing for an English language exam. Two Washington Post reporters, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, won the nonfiction prize for “His Name Is George Floyd.” The journalism prizes: The Associated Press and The Times won for their coverage of the war in Ukraine. AL.com, a local news site covering Alabama, won two awards. Here are the winners. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Julia Gartland for The New York Times These thin slices of French toast taste like bread pudding. What to Read Try these great Y.A. fantasy novels. What to Watch “It Ain’t Over,” a documentary about Yogi Berra, claims he was one of the best baseball players who ever lived. World Through a Lens See the flamenco and fervor of Spain’s El Rocío pilgrimage. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was backfill. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German P.S. Today marks five years of the digital Spelling Bee. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 10, 2023 Author Members Posted May 10, 2023 May 10, 2023 By German Lopez Good morning. Donald Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse. E. Jean Carroll leaving court yesterday.Brittainy Newman for The New York Times $5 million in damages Donald Trump’s legal problems are growing deeper. Yesterday, a jury found the former president liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of the magazine writer E. Jean Carroll, ordering him to pay her $5 million. The case was a civil trial, which means that Trump is not subject to prison time. But the verdict indicates that jurors believed Carroll’s claim that Trump assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Carroll also accused Trump of raping her. The jury ruled against Carroll on that count, finding insufficient evidence to support her allegation. Today’s newsletter will walk through the details of the case, the reactions to the verdict and the potential political consequences. The case At the heart of the lawsuit was Carroll’s account of her encounter with Trump, which she described in detail during the trial. She said that she saw him outside the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan nearly three decades ago, and that he had asked her to help find a gift for a female friend. The two bantered while walking through the store, and he asked her to try on a gray-blue bodysuit from the lingerie section. She declined and told him to put it on instead. Trump then motioned her into a dressing room, where he threw her against the wall, used his weight to pin her down and raped her, according to Carroll. The episode “left me unable to ever have a romantic life again,” Carroll said. (She was able to sue after so much time had passed under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that provides victims of abuse a one-time opportunity to sue the accused.) To make her case, Carroll and her lawyers relied on Trump’s history of comments denigrating women. They pointed to the “Access Hollywood” tape, released during the 2016 election, on which he had boasted that he could grab women by their genitals without their permission. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump said. He stood by those remarks during a deposition in the Carroll case. Carroll’s lawyers argued that Trump’s comments showed he was capable of the assault that she had accused him of. The jury, composed of six men and three women, concluded that the allegations of sexual abuse, but not of rape, were more likely to be true than untrue, holding Trump liable. Trump denied the accusations. He did not testify, and his lawyers called no witnesses as a defense in the trial. He previously told reporters that the allegations could not be true because Carroll was not his “type.” Trump promised to appeal the verdict. “I have absolutely no idea who this woman is,” Trump posted yesterday on Truth Social, his social media platform. “This verdict is a disgrace — a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time!” The reactions Trump is set to appear live on a CNN town hall tonight, where he will take questions from voters. Many of Trump’s political rivals and opponents, including Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, stayed quiet about the verdict. Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and author running for president, defended Trump: “I’ll say what everyone else is privately thinking: If the defendant weren’t named Donald Trump, would there even be a lawsuit?” One 2024 candidate did criticize Trump. “The jury verdict should be treated with seriousness and is another example of the indefensible behavior of Donald Trump,” Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas’s former governor and a longtime Trump critic, said. The political impact It is not clear how the verdict will affect Trump’s presidential campaign. His poll numbers against DeSantis, his main potential rival in the Republican primary, improved even after a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. But Trump’s advisers are not making a similar prediction after the Carroll verdict, my colleagues Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan wrote. Trump is almost certain to confront more legal problems before the 2024 election. The Manhattan trial could start as soon as next January. Trump is also under investigation for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and for his handling of classified documents. More on the verdict More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, but Carroll’s is the only allegation that a jury has affirmed. Why was Trump liable for sexual abuse, not rape? New York law gave jurors three types of battery to consider. While the verdict may have been foreseeable, how Republicans will respond is less clear, David French writes in Times Opinion. The verdict is a reminder that the legal onslaught against Trump can’t be deflected with lies, Michelle Goldberg writes in Times Opinion. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Politics Speaker Kevin McCarthy, left, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy did not reach a consensus over the debt ceiling. They agreed to meet again. Representative George Santos, the New York Republican whose finances have been under investigation, faces federal criminal charges. A recent poll showed Trump leading Biden in the 2024 race. It was an outlier, Nate Cohn writes, but its message is clear: Don’t underestimate Trump. Lawmakers in Texas are pushing voting restrictions that only apply to Harris County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Houston. Senate Democrats asked the billionaire Harlan Crow for a full accounting of his gifts to Justice Clarence Thomas. Florida officials demanded revisions to school textbooks mentioning socialism and Black Lives Matter protests. International A naval guardsman killed at least three people at a synagogue during a Jewish pilgrimage in Tunisia. The Israeli army launched airstrikes on the Islamic Jihad armed group in Gaza, killing three of its leaders and 10 civilians, Palestinian officials said. Here’s a guide to the group. Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, was arrested on corruption charges. He accuses the military of conspiring against him. Health The U.S. will end its Covid emergency tomorrow, winding down programs that began when the virus dominated everyday life. Women should have regular mammograms starting at age 40 rather than 50, an expert panel said. Other Big Stories Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, said he would start a show on Twitter. That could violate his deal with the network. New York City, where about half of middle schoolers are not proficient in reading, is changing how it teaches the subject. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will hire a team to scour its collections for looted treasures. A woman wrote a children’s book to help her sons process their father’s death. Now she is accused of killing him. Opinions If cities want to survive the unpredictability of our climate, they should accommodate an unpredictable ecosystem, Ben Wilson argues. A new Netflix docudrama depicts Cleopatra as culturally Black, Gwen Nally and Mary Hamil Gilbert write. Here are columns by Jamelle Bouie on mass shootings and Thomas Friedman on Vladimir Putin. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today with this introductory offer. MORNING READS In Japanese, these foods are fuwa fuwa, which means “fluffy fluffy.”Esther Choi Beyond crunchy: Cuisines around the world prize texture as much as taste. Hiatus: Some women are taking the summer off from dating apps. Metropolitan Diary: Mic drop at the opera. Health: How to spot — and remove — skin tags. Canine needs: Walking your dog with a harness is safer than leading them by the collar. Advice from Wirecutter: The best Mother’s Day gifts. Lives Lived: Grace Bumbry’s vocal range and transcendent stage presence made her a towering figure in opera and one of its first, and biggest, Black stars. She died at 86. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. playoffs: The Nuggets and Sixers earned 3-2 series leads with victories last night. Women’s soccer: It’s notable enough to be the first Native American to play in the N.W.S.L., but Madison Hammond is much more. An uncertain future: The Oakland A’s agreed to their second land deal in a month for property in Las Vegas, where the franchise plans to move. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Buddy Holly won Best in Show at the 147th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.Desiree Rios/The New York Times Best in show Buddy Holly, a petit basset griffon Vendéen, took the top prize at the Westminster Dog Show. He’s the first of his breed — better known as P.B.G.V., because that is easier to say — to do so. (Second place went to Rummie, a Pekingese whose breeder and handler, David Fitzpatrick, has produced two previous best in show winners, including Wasabi, the 2021 champion.) “I have dreamed of this since I was 9 years old,” said Buddy Holly’s owner and trainer, Janice Hayes. She said the dog was “the epitome of a show dog; nothing bothers him.” Now he gets to relax and go back to his daily life, which involves hanging out with “his girlfriends,” Hayes said. “He never has a bad day”: The Times’s Sarah Lyall visited Striker, a Samoyed who was a crowd favorite at last year’s show. Two Times photographers went behind the scenes. Do not miss their pictures. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Andrew Purcell for The New York Times The secret ingredient in this spaghetti Bolognese is Worcestershire sauce. What to Watch “Dealing With Dad” is a lighthearted movie about generational trauma and chronic depression. What to Listen to Here are six new songs you should hear. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was windfall. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German P.S. Emma Goldberg, who covers the future of work, wants to hear how readers’ jobs have changed in the past few years. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 12, 2023 Author Members Posted May 12, 2023 May 11, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY Masterworks By David Leonhardt and Lyna Bentahar Good morning. Abortion access keeps winning elections. But advocates can’t agree on a strategy to hold more ballot initiatives. Signing a petition in Ohio.Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times A lack of urgency Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion access has fared very well when it has appeared on the ballot. Voters in California, Michigan and Vermont approved abortion-rights amendments to their state constitutions last year. In Kansas and Kentucky — both red states — voters rejected measures that could have led to bans. In Wisconsin this year, the candidate favoring abortion access easily won a judicial election focused on the issue. The 2024 elections offer supporters of abortion rights an opportunity to continue their winning streak. There are 10 states that both significantly restrict abortion (or may soon) and allow citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives, including Florida, Ohio and Arizona. Placing measures on the ballots there offers progressives a possible double victory — to expand access and energize 2024 turnout among Democratic voters. But it remains unclear how many of these states will hold referendums. Advocates have not yet collected the signatures they need in most states, nor have they started a national fund-raising campaign for the effort. At this point, some observers say they would be surprised if even five of the 10 states held initiatives next year. The situation has the potential to be a major missed opportunity for the abortion-rights movement. One progressive activist told us it would be “political malpractice.” What explains the apparent lack of urgency? In interviews, some activists said that placing a measure on a ballot took time and money, and that they wanted to make sure the initiatives used language that would survive legal challenges. “You don’t get two bites at this apple,” Sarah Standiford of Planned Parenthood Action Fund said. Other advocates pointed to internal disagreements and disorganization in the movement that have delayed action. The movement has not been able to agree on a national strategy, including whether ballot initiatives should use the word “women” and how far into pregnancy abortion should remain legal. “There is just not the command and control that other movements have had,” another progressive activist said. In the push for same-sex marriage, by contrast, a few major donors and activists played a coordinating role and insisted on urgency. (Related: “Many reproductive-rights advocates still believe that Planned Parenthood’s agenda is too narrow and too cautious,” Eyal Press writes in The New Yorker. Audm subscribers can listen to that article.) In the rest of today’s newsletter, we look more closely at the 10 states. Furthest along Initiatives seem most likely to happen soon in two states. In Ohio, a coalition of abortion rights groups is collecting signatures to place an initiative on the ballot this year that would protect access through roughly the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. For now, most abortions remain legal in Ohio, thanks to a court ruling blocking a ban. In South Dakota, organizers are optimistic that they can collect the signatures needed for an initiative next year. It is a compromise measure that would seek to reinstate the minimum access required by the Roe v. Wade decision. All abortions would be legal in the first trimester (roughly 12 weeks), and some would be in the second trimester. Early efforts In several other states, efforts have begun, but they’re less advanced. In Missouri, advocates have not yet settled on one approach. Some petitions — an early step to putting an initiative on the ballot — would protect most abortion access until 24 weeks of pregnancy. Others would be narrower and let the state enact parental consent laws. In Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed a near-total ban, advocates are hoping to place an initiative on the ballot that would allow most abortions until 24 weeks. But the state’s pro-marijuana movement helps highlight the slowness of the effort: Organizers of a 2024 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana have already raised $30 million and collected nearly all the required signatures — while organizers of an abortion initiative are just getting started. Arizona has tough rules for ballot initiatives, requiring hundreds of thousands of signatures on a petition. “That said, we think this fight is more than worth it,” said Ezra Levin, a founder of Indivisible, a progressive group that’s part of the effort. Levin explained that an initiative could both protect abortion access and generate enough Democratic turnout to help President Biden win an important swing state. There appears to be less activity in several other states: Arkansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota or Oklahoma. (In Montana, as in Ohio, court rulings have so far prevented bans from taking effect.) In Oklahoma, activists submitted language for a petition last year, but withdrew it a few months later, saying they needed more preparation. Counterattacks Abortion opponents aren’t sitting still. In several states, they are trying to reduce the chances an initiative can pass, as our colleagues Kate Zernike and Michael Wines have explained. In both Missouri and Ohio, Republican officials want to change the law so any ballot initiative will need 60 percent of the vote to pass. (Florida has had such a law for almost two decades.) Missouri officials are also pushing for ballot language that would summarize an initiative as allowing “dangerous, unregulated and unrestricted” abortions. “There’s one reason for all of this,” said Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Pro-Choice Missouri, referring to the opponents. “They know abortion access is popular.” Source: Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults between March 27 and April 2, 2023 The bottom line: Polls show that most residents of red and purple states support some abortion restrictions — but most also support some abortion access. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, opinion has shifted left. Even in many conservative states, ballot initiatives to expand abortion rights would have a good chance of receiving 50 percent of the vote. And 60 percent is not out of the question. Nonetheless, some states may not hold initiatives anytime soon. For more: These Times maps track abortion laws in every state. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Masterworks Everyday investors earned 325% I.R.R. with fine art While the ultra-rich have been banking off art for centuries, a group of everyday investors just used it to rake in a 325 percent annualized gain. All thanks to the fine-art investing platform Masterworks. All of Masterworks’ offerings are qualified with the S.E.C., making it simple for investors with no experience in art to benefit from this $1.7 trillion asset class — at a fraction of the cost. As a trusted partner, The Morning readers are invited to skip the waitlist. See disclosures: masterworks.com/cd Skip the waitlist THE LATEST NEWS Santos Indictment George Santos leaving court in Central Islip, N.Y.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times Representative George Santos, a Republican from Long Island, was indicted on federal charges including wire fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors charged Santos in three schemes. One involves pocketing donations to a fake super PAC. He pleaded not guilty and plans to stay in office. Politics Donald Trump revived lies about the 2020 election and praised Jan. 6 rioters at an unruly CNN town hall. Here’s a fact check. The E.P.A. will announce the first regulations to limit pollution from existing power plants. Biden is wooing moderate Republicans in the debt ceiling standoff, trying to convince them to break away from Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Dianne Feinstein returned to the Senate, after missing more than two months with an illness. The End of Title 42 A rule that let the U.S. expel migrants quickly expires today. “Our border is not open,” the homeland security secretary said. Anticipating an influx of migrants, New York City is temporarily loosening regulations that protect homeless families. Other Big Stories “I never felt like we acknowledged those who we lost”: Families bereaved by Covid are struggling with the end of the health emergency. Inflation slowed for the 10th straight month. Prices have still risen about 5 percent over the past year. The benefits of making a birth control pill available without prescription outweigh the risks, F.D.A. advisers say. A pancreatic cancer vaccine showed promising results in a small trial. Opinions The pandemic’s social safety net expansions are ending. That leaves us unprepared for the next health crisis, Jeneen Interlandi argues. The TV journalist Connie Chung inspired a generation of Asian American women named after her. Connie Wang tells their stories. Times Opinion writers discuss the news on “Matter of Opinion,” a new podcast. Their first subject: Clarence Thomas’s ethics. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Swimmers in Saguaro Lake in Mesa, Ariz.Caitlin O'Hara for The New York Times Open water: Frigid temperatures and amazing views are part of a 40-mile swim through Arizona. Sweet contraband: Americans are smuggling Fruit Roll-Ups into Israel. QVC 2.0: Will American consumers embrace live shopping online? Summer is coming: Try these bug repellents. Advice from Wirecutter: Clean your towels every three days. Lives Lived: Heather Armstrong, the breakout star behind the website Dooce, was hailed as the queen of the so-called mommy bloggers. She gave millions of readers intimate glimpses of her joys and challenges in parenthood and marriage. She died at 47. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. playoffs: The Knicks and the Warriors staved off elimination with home wins. N.H.L. playoffs: The Toronto Maple Leafs stayed alive in Game 4 of their second-round series against the Florida Panthers. Where are the stats? Nearly three years ago, M.L.B. announced an initiative to incorporate Negro League statistics into official record. There has been little progress. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Masterworks Everyday investors earned 325% I.R.R. with fine art While the ultra-rich have been banking off art for centuries, a group of everyday investors just used it to rake in a 325 percent annualized gain. All thanks to the fine-art investing platform Masterworks. All of Masterworks’ offerings are qualified with the S.E.C., making it simple for investors with no experience in art to benefit from this $1.7 trillion asset class — at a fraction of the cost. As a trusted partner, The Morning readers are invited to skip the waitlist. See disclosures: masterworks.com/cd Skip the waitlist ARTS AND IDEAS A definitive biography Jonathan Eig’s new biography of Martin Luther King Jr. is “penetrating, heartstring-pulling and compulsively readable,” the Times critic Dwight Garner writes. Eig told The Times: “We’d turned him into a monument and a national holiday and lost sight of his humanity. So I really wanted to write a more intimate book.” High praise: In The Spectator, David Garrow — author of the last major King biography — makes the case for Eig’s book as the definitive one. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Make toast in a skillet and top it with cheesy eggs. What to Read “Paved Paradise,” by Henry Grabar, examines the U.S. obsession with parking. Concerts Beyoncé opened her first solo tour in seven years in Stockholm. She left most of the choreography to her dancers. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was zoological. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. Krista Mahr joins Times Opinion as its deputy international editor. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 13, 2023 Author Members Posted May 13, 2023 May 12, 2023 For the past three days, a Palestinian group and the Israeli military have been exchanging rocket fire and missile attacks across the Israel-Gaza border. It’s the most intense burst of violence in months. To help you understand what’s going on, my colleague Isabel Kershner, a Times correspondent in Jerusalem, is answering four questions in today’s newsletter. — David Leonhardt By Isabel Kershner Good morning. The death of an imprisoned Palestinian militant leader on a hunger strike prompted new skirmishing. Khader Adnan, the leader of Islamic Jihad, in 2015.Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters Broken cease-fire 1. How did it start? Nearly three months ago, Khader Adnan — a Palestinian prisoner in Israel and a leader of an armed Palestinian group called Islamic Jihad — began a hunger strike to protest his detention. Adnan, who was 45, died last week. Almost immediately, his death set off violence. That afternoon, Islamic Jihad launched more than 100 projectiles toward southern Israel. In response, Israeli officials began planning a counterassault. A week later, Israeli missiles struck three apartments across the Gaza Strip within seconds of one another early Tuesday morning, killing three Islamic Jihad commanders as most Gazans were sleeping. The assault also killed 10 civilians, according to Palestinian officials, including some of the targets’ wives and children. By The New York Times Islamic Jihad retaliated a day later, firing hundreds of rockets and shells toward Israel. Some reached the skies above the suburbs of Tel Aviv, though Israel’s air defense systems intercepted many of the rockets and prevented casualties. Yesterday, Israeli forces killed two more of the group’s commanders and continued to bombard Islamic Jihad weapons sites. Islamic Jihad fired rockets, one of which hit an apartment building in central Israel, killing one resident — the first Israeli casualty in this round of fighting. This morning the cross-border fighting resumed, with Islamic Jihad firing rockets toward the hills around Jerusalem. At least 31 Palestinians were killed in the hostilities, six of them children, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel said that Islamic Jihad’s own misfired rockets caused four of the deaths. 2. What is Islamic Jihad? Palestinian Islamic Jihad, founded in 1981, is a hard-line organization that focuses more on armed struggle against Israel and less on engaging with the Palestinian population. It rejects Israel’s right to exist, as does its primary backer, Iran. The group’s goal is to establish an Islamic state in all the territory of historic Palestine, which includes modern Israel. Hamas, the larger and more popular Islamic militant group that controls the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza, did not take part in the rocket launching, though it did voice support for Islamic Jihad. Hamas sometimes acts in coordination with Islamic Jihad and at other times acts to restrain it. Hamas’s political wing bears responsibility for Gaza’s more than two million mostly poor residents, so it has very different interests. Operating under a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt for security reasons, Hamas’s priorities include keeping open the border crossings between Israel and Gaza for the passage of Palestinian workers and goods. 3. How might it end? Most likely in another shaky cease-fire, such as the one that was broken first after Adnan died and again by Israel’s deadly predawn strikes on Tuesday. Islamic Jihad’s stated conditions for a new cease-fire included Israel’s release of Adnan’s body for burial; a halt to assassinations by the Israeli military; and the cancellation of a provocative annual parade this month marking Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Even once quiet has been restored, the fundamental enmity will remain. Not much will have changed on either side. The cease-fire will hold till the next round. 4. What is Netanyahu’s role? In November, Israelis elected the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in the country’s 75-year history. Its supporters expected it to take more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. The ultranationalist minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, even boycotted government votes in protest of what he considered to be a weak response to the heavy rocket fire last week. It is always hard to gauge the effect of public opinion on government actions. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a conservative with years of experience as Israel’s longest serving premier, has long had a reputation for being risk averse and not eager for military adventures. Israeli political and military leaders said they decided to attack Islamic Jihad’s leadership after determining that they needed to deter the group once it began firing more than 100 rockets in a day. Such Israeli military campaigns are far from unprecedented. The previous, centrist-led government carried out missile strikes in Gaza in August that killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders and more than 40 other Palestinians, including at least 15 children. For Islamic Jihad, it probably makes little difference who is sitting in the Israeli government. For more Egypt is leading mediation efforts between the two sides. Israelis’ debates over what their country should be have intensified under its right-wing government. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS The End of Title 42 People waiting at the U.S.-Mexico border.Mark Abramson for The New York Times There was relative calm along the U.S.-Mexico border early this morning after the expiration of a pandemic-era policy that had limited illegal immigration. Who gets in? An immigration expert explains America’s border rules. “If you cross illegally, how are you going to work?” Hear from some of the people trying to enter the U.S. Politics The Supreme Court overturned two New York fraud convictions, continuing the justices’ skepticism toward federal prosecutions of state corruption. In another ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a California law requiring that pigs be treated humanely. CNN’s chairman defended airing a live event with Donald Trump: “America was served very well.” E. Jean Carroll called Trump’s comments on CNN about her “vile” and suggested she might sue him again. Other Big Stories The man who choked a homeless man to death on the New York City subway will be charged with manslaughter. The F.D.A. ended its decades-long ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men. Travelers to the U.S. no longer need to be vaccinated against Covid to enter the country. An upscale apartment building became a death trap during the earthquake in Turkey in February. This reconstruction shows how. An antiques collector bought two grimy stained glass windows from a Philadelphia church. They turned out to be Tiffany. Opinions Even if Recep Tayyip Erdogan loses Turkey’s presidential election, the country will face the same issues that have stymied it for years, Cihan Tugal writes. Here are columns by Charles Blow on President Biden’s age and Jamelle Bouie on the Supreme Court. Celebrate curiosity. Give the gift of The Times. New York Times gift subscriptions are perfect for Mother’s Day. Show them how well you know them — give The Times. MORNING READS Pop-ups attract those who love to eat pizza and others who only dream of it.DeSean McClinton-Holland for The New York Times Pop-ups: Some of New York’s best pizzas come from mobile kitchens. Get out: The 85 residents of a Swiss village have been told to flee — a mountain could collapse onto their tiny town. Housing: She used to be a professional Airbnb host. Now she’s pushing for affordable housing. Modern Love: After cutting off contact with her mother, she tried to let go. Now she’s trying to hold on. Going cashless: All you need is a slim wallet. Advice from Wirecutter: Find great gifts for college graduates. Lives Lived: Chris Strachwitz devoted his life to music passed down over generations — cotton-field music, orange-orchard music, mountain music, bayou music — that came from a time before there was such a thing as a music industry. He died at 91. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. playoffs: The Nuggets eliminated the Suns last night. And the Celtics beat the Sixers, forcing Game 7 in a series that’s felt backward from the beginning. Unheralded signing: Jourdan Heilig was working at a fast-food restaurant when the Patriots called. Now he could be a special teams ace. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Tvorchi performed in a train station in Kyiv last month.Zoya Shu/Associated Press A pop celebration It’s time for the annual Eurovision Song Contest this weekend, the international event that has helped launch acts like ABBA and Maneskin. Millions of viewers in Europe and beyond will watch the campy celebration of pop music. Last year, the Ukrainian act Kalush Orchestra won with a track that mixed rap and folk music. The country’s act this year, the pop duo Tvorchi, will perform a song inspired by the soldiers who fought to defend the city of Mariupol. They spoke with The Times about rehearsing for the contest during air raid sirens. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Asparagus, spinach and leeks give this soup its bright color. What to Watch In the biographical documentary “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” the actor time-travels through his career. Art Fair See furniture, jewelry, art and antiquities spanning millenniums at TEFAF New York. News Quiz How well did you keep up with the headlines this week? Now Time to Play NYT The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were effecting and infecting. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. Sapna Maheshwari, who covers TikTok, wants to hear from employees, educators and users about their experiences with the app. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 14, 2023 Author Members Posted May 14, 2023 May 13, 2023 The video game Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released yesterday. I’m turning over today’s newsletter to my colleague Jason Bailey, a Culture editor, to look at the cultural impact of the Zelda franchise. See you next Saturday. — Melissa Kirsch By Jason M. Bailey Good morning. Countless people find joy, frustration and discovery in video games. María Jesús Contreras Endless exploration Decades before the internet made physical video game guides obsolete, The Legend of Zelda came packaged with a foldable map that teased its mysteries. My copy is tattered from repeated study sessions. Question marks dot the landscape of burnable bushes and pushable boulders, with entire regions left unrevealed. Along with images of items necessary to complete your quest in the game — bombs, a wooden raft, a silver arrow — is a franchise-defining promise: “Things are also hidden where you wouldn’t expect them to be.” That joy of discovery is a crucial part of Nintendo’s successful Zelda franchise. Over and over, it has produced acclaimed games — A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker among them — and new generations of fans. Breath of the Wild, a luxurious adventure released in 2017, served as a lifeline for many players during the pandemic and is frequently included in the pantheon of greatest video games. It can be intoxicating to spend hours buried in a book or binge-watching a television show filled with flawed characters and a new cliffhanger precisely every 47 minutes. But, like many people, I find myself most fully transported by the enormous environments of open-world video games, those that allow players to stray from the main path and tempt them with side quests and secret treasures. Rather than simply observing a narrative, you control a character who is confronted with scenarios that produce real-world frustration or elation. Breath of the Wild was a prime example of that thrilling empowerment, which is why yesterday was an unofficial holiday for millions: Its long-awaited sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, was finally released. Fans have surely already spent untold hours climbing mountains, hunting for shrines, cooking recipes, invading enemy camps and building makeshift vehicles. This month, The New York Times examined the legacy of the Zelda series, interviewing curators, journalists, YouTubers and game designers about why it has captivated so many for so long. At their finest, the experts said, Zelda games emphasize exploration, encouraging players to search for a dungeon entrance or a puzzle solution or just to wander with the hope of delightful encounters. When Shigeru Miyamoto, the acclaimed Nintendo game designer, began working on the Zelda franchise, he wanted to replicate how he had felt as a child scampering through Japanese mountains and forests. Although Mario, another Miyamoto invention, could enter subterranean pipes or climb vines into the clouds, Super Mario Bros. levels unfurled like a scroll. By contrast, Link, the protagonist of the Zelda series, was dropped into a rocky wilderness in the original game, faced with a beckoning cave entrance and the choice of three directions from which to begin his journey. It was, for the 1980s, an unimaginable degree of freedom. The history of open-world games is itself expansive. Over one five-year stretch, I poured hundreds of hours into the irradiated wasteland of Fallout 3; the cutthroat frontier of Red Dead Redemption; and the drug-addled kinetic energy of Far Cry 3. Last year, Elden Ring turned heads. Now it’s Tears of the Kingdom’s time in the spotlight. For more For nearly four decades, games in the Zelda franchise have pushed the boundaries of lore and storytelling in video games. Throughout, the basic spark of discovery has endured. Influential Nintendo designers explained how they engineered Tears of the Kingdom’s world of skydiving and floating islands. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE WEEK IN CULTURE Writers picketing in Brooklyn.James Estrin/The New York Times Hollywood is bracing for a prolonged writers’ strike. The last one led to rushed production and a turbocharge of reality programming. MTV News bridged a gap between news and pop culture. As it prepares to shut down, Kurt Loder, Tabitha Soren, Sway Calloway and others reflected on its legacy. E. Jean Carroll’s clothes helped build her case against Donald Trump, The Times’s Vanessa Friedman writes. For “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” the writer-director James Gunn wanted to finish the trilogy on his own terms. The “Succession” actor Jeremy Strong will star in a Broadway revival of “An Enemy of the People.” Twenty years after “Freaky Friday,” Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan keep in touch and are in talks for a sequel. Heather Armstrong, the blogger who died this week at 47, was the original influencer, Lisa Belkin writes. (Listen to Belkin’s reflection.) A new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum reunites Vincent van Gogh’s paintings of cypress trees, which preoccupied him toward the end of his life. When a mustachioed man appeared at King Charles III’s coronation, some speculated it was Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in disguise. He insists he’s a real person. In preparation for the Summer Olympics, Paris is remaking the Seine river. The 76th Cannes Film Festival is next week. See 15 of the best looks from the event over the decades. THE LATEST NEWS Matamoros, Mexico.Meridith Kohut for The New York Times The scene at the border as the immigration restriction known as Title 42 expires was one of resolve, uncertainty and waiting. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has concentrated government power to tilt tomorrow’s elections to his advantage. He could still lose. The Chinese government has targeted consulting and advisory firms with foreign ties through raids and arrests, reigniting concerns about doing business in China. Legislators and regulators are tightening oversight of the gambling industry. Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s advertising chief, was named Twitter’s chief executive. His education, his criminal history, his animal charity, the Sept. 11 attacks and the Pulse shooting: These are the topics Representative George Santos has lied about. The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. CULTURE CALENDAR By Gilbert Cruz 📚 “King: A Life” (Tuesday): For the big biography fan in your life, this is the first major one of Martin Luther King Jr. in three decades. And, as our critic Dwight Garner writes in his review, it feels definitive, based on troves of documents that have been released in recent years. Of the author, Jonathan Eig, Garner writes that he has a “clean, clear, journalistic voice, one that employs facts the way Saul Bellow said they should be employed, each a wire that sends a current.” 🍿 “Fast X” (Friday): In 2015, I went to see the seventh installment in the “Fast and Furious” film franchise. In that movie, a sports car is made to jump from one skyscraper into another. And then that car — that same car! — jumps into yet another skyscraper. When all the jumping was done, I stood up, raised my hands in the air and cheered. I can’t imagine a world in which I don’t go and see Part 10. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT RECIPE OF THE WEEK Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Cheesy Pan Pizza There may be no such thing as bad pizza, as the old chestnut goes, but some pizzas are better than others. And one of the best that you can make at home is this cheesy pan pizza, adapted from King Arthur Flour company by Tejal Rao. The recipe combines several smart techniques. The easy, homemade dough is made in advance so it can develop flavor as it rises slowly in the fridge. Then it’s baked in a cast-iron skillet so the crust becomes extra crunchy and crackling. And, finally, layering the sauce and cheese keeps the dough from turning soggy. You do need to plan ahead to give the dough time to rise and rest, but it’s passive time that you can spend doing something else — like going outside and taking advantage of peak spring. REAL ESTATE Glendale, Calif.Aurelia D’Amore Photography What you get for $1.4 million: An 1856 house in Philadelphia, a Colonial Revival home in Glendale, Calif., or a midcentury-modern house in Falls Church, Va. The hunt: Two first-time buyers were looking for a place in Queens. Which home did they choose? Play our game. Live like the Roys: Apartments seen in “Succession” are for sale. Mommunes: Single mothers are joining forces under one roof. LIVING Sonia Pulido #Fitspiration: Research suggests that fitness Instagram accounts risk doing more harm than good. Find ones you can trust. Spring looks: Classic silhouettes with an edge. Architecture hub: Spend 36 hours in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Compost common sense: You don’t have to follow all the rules to get great results. Relaxation getaway: Spas are putting the springs back in Palm Springs, Calif. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Take work outside As spring temperatures rise, one way to inject life into your work-from-home routine is to move it outside. Whether you have a vast yard or a tiny fire escape, basking in spring breezes and the perfume of erupting blossoms can invigorate your mood and boost your productivity. At the very least, greenery and sunshine can make for a charming (or envy-inducing) Zoom background. Wirecutter’s experts have recommendations to outfit your outdoor office so you stay cool and connected. I suggest starting with bug spray, a backup power source and a patio umbrella to shield your laptop from the sun’s glare. — Erica Ogg GAME OF THE WEEKEND Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics, N.B.A. playoffs: The Sixers had a chance to clinch this series on Thursday in front of a raucous home crowd. Instead, they had one of their worst offensive games of the season. Now they go to Boston for Game 7, and history stands in their way: The Sixers have not won a Game 7 in over two decades, and their head coach, Doc Rivers, has lost nine of them in his career, more than any other coach. Will Joel Embiid — their dominant center, who won the league’s M.V.P. award last week — be the one to break the curse? 3:30 p.m. Eastern tomorrow on ABC. For more: The Heat, a No. 8 seed who nearly missed the playoffs, eliminated the Knicks to reach the Eastern Conference Finals. LeBron James and the Lakers knocked off the Warriors. NOW TIME TO PLAY The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was covenant. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. See the hardest Spelling Bee words from this week. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 14, 2023 Author Members Posted May 14, 2023 May 14, 2023 By Lauren Jackson Good morning. A popular show on Netflix is about the glamorous job of a U.S. ambassador. But is it true to reality? Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in “The Diplomat.”Alex Bailey/Netflix Based on a true job The allure of an ambassador’s life is obvious: wielding government power and throwing parties for influential people in a far-flung location. “The Diplomat,” which premiered last month on Netflix, highlights the glamour while omitting the drudgery of the job — the memos, press engagements and red tape. In the show, Keri Russell plays a U.S. ambassador to Britain named Kate Wyler, who spends her days managing international crises with quippy retorts. She lives in a mansion, is photographed for Vogue and is married to a former ambassador, played by Rufus Sewell. “The Diplomat” was Netflix’s most popular show in recent weeks, and U.S. ambassadors around the world are watching. It transforms diplomatic doublespeak into a smooth script, but does it accurately reflect the job? New York Times bureau chiefs and correspondents around the world asked ambassadors how well the show represented their work. “We’re not as tough as the military, nor as cunningly cool as intelligence operatives,” John Feeley, a former U.S. ambassador to Panama, told my colleague Damien Cave. “So to have Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell have sex and call it a diplomatic rapprochement? Well, heck. I’ll take it. But it’s a fantasy.” Here’s what other ambassadors told my colleagues working in Mexico, Australia, China and elsewhere: What the show gets wrong Part of the fun of “The Diplomat,” as with any workplace show, comes when it departs from reality. The ambassadors we spoke with were quick to point out discrepancies, both big (the lack of a Senate confirmation hearing) and small (Kate’s use of a cellphone in the office). “I have a different memory of the confirmation process,” Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, told my colleague Motoko Rich. “The show may get the diplomatic life right, but their grasp of American politics and the U.S. Senate? Not so right.” Here’s what else they said the show got wrong: The ambassador’s use of military jets: “Yeah, right, I wish,” said Richard Buangan, the U.S. ambassador to Mongolia. “Most ambassadors would fly commercial to our posts like everyone else. We must be excellent stewards of U.S. taxpayer money.” The rejoinders and banter: “Hyperbolic, unrealistic, amusing,” said Carlos Pascual, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and Ukraine. “The speeches every diplomat wants to give his or her boss. Eloquence that saves the world. Not exactly the daily course of business.” A Vogue photo shoot: Multiple former ambassadors said the racks of outfits in the show were unrealistic. “Who’s paying for all these clothes?” wondered Vicki Huddleston, a former U.S. ambassador to Mali and Madagascar. Huddleston did once pose for a photo shoot — for The Times. In the photograph that accompanies the article, Huddleston said, she wore her own dress. And the lavish breakfasts in the ambassador’s residence? “I don’t eat breakfast,” Emanuel said. What the show gets right Multiple ambassadors said the relationship between Kate and her No. 2 in the embassy, the deputy chief of mission, was accurate — along with the show’s use of the acronym D.C.M. Emanuel’s office is next to that of his deputy chief, Raymond Greene, he said, so they pop in and out all day long. “Ray is often the first phone call or text at 6 a.m. and, somewhere around 9 p.m., also the last,” Emanuel said. “And also 1,000 times between.” Here’s what else the show gets right: A sprawling staff managing everything: “You really don’t have control of your life,” Emanuel said. “There’s parts of your life that gets cut up, chopped up, and everybody has a piece of it, and all of us are Type A personalities that like control.” The packed suitcase: “I laughed out loud during the scene where Ambassador Wyler freaked out after her household staff packed her suitcase, everything neat and tightly folded,” Buangan said. “When my household staff packed my suitcase for my first trip up country, I freaked out, too. I’m not used to others touching my things.” The gender dynamics: “Women leaders who watch and learn before making changes, as opposed to the male ‘marking their territory’ approach,” Roberta Jacobson, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said. “She’s smart, funny, pushes back on some of the nonsense and is a fast learner — traits essential for any ambassador and perhaps more so for a woman.” Some said they hoped the show would be good marketing for attracting recruits. “‘Top Gun’ drove enlistments and interest in military aviation in the ’80s,” Feeley said. “I’m hopeful that ‘The Diplomat’ drives interest in foreign affairs and diplomacy despite its evident Hollywood veneer.” Keith Bradsher, Steven Erlanger, Natalie Kitroeff, David Pierson and Dionne Searcey contributed reporting. For more The U.S. Embassy in London made a video fact-checking the show (and making fun of a scene that involves an armpit check). “My job is not nearly as sexy”: Diplomats spoke to Politico about the show. Several cast members of “The Diplomat” love the same coffee shop in Brooklyn. See how one actor spends his Sunday. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT NEWS Turkey Elections Today’s election in Turkey is the toughest for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his 20 years in charge. Here’s what to know. A loss by Erdogan would be a relief for Western leaders and a worry for Russia, which could lose an economic and diplomatic partnership. Homelessness Abdul Curry cutting a friend’s hair.Erin Schaff/The New York Times “A daily game of Russian roulette”: As a record number of people die on America’s streets, Abdul Curry fights to stay alive in San Diego. Jordan Neely, who was choked to death on a subway, was on a New York City list of homeless people most at risk. Other Big Stories A U.S. base has been named for a spouse for the first time.Arin Yoon for The New York Times As the Defense Department removes Confederate names from military property, Fort Benning is now Fort Moore. Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad agreed to a cease-fire, ending five days of violence that killed 35 people. Voters in Thailand decide today whether to unseat their prime minister, a general who seized power in a coup in 2014. President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with leaders in Germany, after the country announced a massive package of military aid for Ukraine. Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest with “Tattoo,” a dance track that grows in intensity with each verse. FROM OPINION “For all the pressure I have felt as a doctor or a writer, there is nothing that compares with the expectations placed on mothers,” Daniela Lamas writes. Here are columns by David French on Neely’s subway killing and Maureen Dowd on CNN’s Trump town hall. The Sunday question: Should CNN have hosted Donald Trump? The town hall normalized Trump as a candidate in the name of “ratings and money,” Michael Fanone writes in Rolling Stone. But The Times’s Frank Bruni writes that CNN was correct in identifying Trump as a potent political force, balancing him with a moderator quick to challenge his false claims. The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Kyle, Texas, is hosting a gathering of Kyles.Getty Images Calling all Kyles: Kyle, Texas, needs 2,326 for a record attempt. Vows: He swore off dating for a year, and then quickly found love. Lives lived: Slava Zaitsev, a Soviet-era fashion designer, was once called the “Red Dior” by the Western press. His over-the-top theatrical creations and persona made him a go-to couturier at home. Zaitsev died at 85. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ADVICE FOR LIFE Parenting: The thrills and challenges of becoming a mother after 40. A good gift: For Mother’s Day, tell her she was right. Mental health: Postpartum depression can be debilitating, but there are ways to ease the struggle. From Wirecutter: The best beach umbrella doesn’t look like an umbrella. BOOKS Kimberly Elliott Unwelcome: In Emma Cline’s latest, “The Guest,” the heroine is a call girl on the run. By the Book: The novelist Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah says academic works are labors of love, too. Editors’ picks: “Still Life With Bones,” about an anthropologist’s forensic exhumations, and eight other new books worth reading. Times best sellers: Luke Russert’s memoir, “Look for Me There,” makes its way onto the hardcover nonfiction best-seller list. THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE From Kris Norelius On the cover: Dementia changed her mother. When cognitive decline changes people, should we respect their new desires? Remembering: A year after a white supremacist massacre in Buffalo, the victims’ families live with grief: “There’s no forgiveness for that.” Recommendation: Lurking on the internet. The Ethicist: Can my new boyfriend stop my ex from visiting our dog? Read the full issue. THE WEEK AHEAD What to Watch For Former executives at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which collapsed this year, will testify before a Senate committee on Tuesday. Primary elections for governor in Kentucky and for mayor in Philadelphia are on Tuesday. The Cannes Film Festival begins Tuesday. A panel of federal appeals judges will hear arguments on Wednesday in a lawsuit seeking to overturn F.D.A. approval of an abortion pill. The suspect in the stabbing death of the Cash App founder Bob Lee is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday. The W.N.B.A. season tips off Friday. The Preakness, the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, is on Saturday. What to Cook This Week Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. The recipes in Emily Weinstein’s Five Weeknight Meals newsletter this week are quick to make but feel luxurious. Asparagus-feta pasta combines a yogurt-feta sauce with pasta and veggies and is adorned with mint. For olive oil baked salmon, the oven is at 350 degrees, which makes the fish extra silky. NOW TIME TO PLAY The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were channeled and dancehall. Here is today’s puzzle. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed the week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Lauren Read today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 15, 2023 Author Members Posted May 15, 2023 May 15, 2023 By David Leonhardt Good morning. The Times’s publisher makes the case for journalistic independence — and we give you the latest on Turkey’s election. A.G. Sulzberger in The Times’s office in 2015.Todd Heisler/The New York Times Searching, not knowing The subject of today’s newsletter is a bit different from normal. We’re going to focus on The Times itself — and how we define our mission today. The occasion is a new essay in the Columbia Journalism Review by A.G. Sulzberger, our publisher, in which he explains why The Times’s guiding principle is independence. In addition to summarizing his argument, I’ll offer my own thoughts about how they relate to this newsletter. Sulzberger writes: Independence is the increasingly contested journalistic commitment to following facts wherever they lead. It places the truth — and the search for it with an open yet skeptical mind — above all else. Those may sound like blandly agreeable clichés of Journalism 101, but in this hyperpolarized era, independent journalism and the sometimes counterintuitive values that animate it have become a radical pursuit. Independence asks reporters to adopt a posture of searching, rather than knowing. It demands that we reflect the world as it is, not the world as we may wish it to be. It requires journalists to be willing to exonerate someone deemed a villain or interrogate someone regarded as a hero. It insists on sharing what we learn — fully and fairly — regardless of whom it may upset or what the political consequences might be. Independence calls for plainly stating the facts, even if they appear to favor one side of a dispute. And it calls for carefully conveying ambiguity and debate in the more frequent cases where the facts are unclear or their interpretation is under reasonable dispute, letting readers grasp and process the uncertainty for themselves. The idea of journalistic independence has many critics, he notes. Conservatives argue that journalists are too liberal to be independent, while growing numbers of liberals favor a more confidently ideological form of journalism, as was the norm in the U.S. during the 1700s and 1800s and remains common in Europe. Independence does not always come naturally to journalists. Each of us has our own personal opinions. Sometimes, we fail to rise above our biases and produce flawed coverage. Other times, we overcorrect toward “false equivalence” and neglect to explain that one side in a debate isn’t telling the truth. But striving for independence is a worthy goal. It’s the same goal to which scientists, judges and sports referees aspire. “Failure to achieve standards does not obviate the need for them,” Martin Baron, the former top editor of The Washington Post, has written. “It makes them more necessary.” Sulzberger goes into more detail in the essay — including about the counterarguments —and I encourage you to read it. (Obvious disclosure: He’s my boss.) Covid as case study I want to add one reflection, based on writing this newsletter during the Covid pandemic. That experience highlights the distinction between the independent approach and the alternative. Like many other subjects in American life today, Covid quickly became a source of political polarization. Many conservatives believe that the virus’s threat has been exaggerated. Many liberals think that the country has done too little to fight Covid. The political right and left also disagree about the virus’s origin — from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China, or from an animal at a food market in the same city. Were The Times to adopt a more European journalistic model, our pandemic coverage would have started with the assumption that either the left or the right was correct about all things Covid. The independent model calls for a different approach. It calls for examining the evidence on each aspect of Covid — and accepting the possibility either that one political tribe is correct about almost everything or that each side is correct about only some questions. Sure enough, the data came to show that many conservatives were terribly wrong about vaccines (which are safe and effective) and often wrong about masks (which can protect people when worn consistently). But many liberals — including some in public health, a field that leans left — also came to adopt beliefs that the evidence didn’t support. Many liberals overstated Covid’s dangers to the non-elderly, especially children. Partly for that reason, Democratic-run communities closed schools for longer. It was a bad trade-off: These areas did not have noticeably less Covid, and their children struggled more. The left also appears to have been wrong about long-term mask mandates (which had little effect) and wrong to dismiss the lab-leak theory (which, contrary to being a bigoted conspiracy theory, remains plausible). I want to emphasize that the independent model of journalism does not guarantee accuracy. For example, I initially misread the evidence on waning vaccine immunity and underestimated the value of booster shots. Journalism is called the first draft of history because it is imperfect. Big stories require difficult judgment calls, and reasonable people sometimes come to opposing conclusions. My colleagues and I will make mistakes. I also don’t want to suggest that The Times’s approach is the only legitimate one. In today’s digital landscape, there is plenty of room for ideological publications. I enjoy, and learn from, many of them. But The Times is pursuing another strategy. We believe that no political group — not the left, the center or the right — has a monopoly on clairvoyance. We are not on a team. Our bet is that The Times can best serve society by remaining independent. We believe many readers want such coverage, uncomfortable though it can be. As Sulzberger writes, “independent journalism also rests on the bedrock conviction that those seeking to change the world must first understand it — that a fully informed society not only makes better decisions but operates with more trust, more empathy, and greater care.” Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Turkey Elections President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife, Emine.Burak Kara/Getty Images The Turkish elections will go to a runoff after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to secure a majority of the vote. The election was in many ways a referendum on the performance of Erdogan, Turkey’s dominant politician for 20 years. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the opposition leader, came in second. Both men said they were ready for a runoff, which is set for May 28. Severe Weather Millions of people are under a heat advisory in the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures were 20 degrees above normal in Oregon and Washington State. Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Myanmar. So far, it has not caused the humanitarian disaster officials feared. Politics North Carolina’s governor vetoed a 12-week abortion ban. But Republicans could override the veto, if all their state lawmakers stay unified. Left-leaning New Yorkers say Mayor Eric Adams is moving the city to the right on policing, rent and providing shelter. Other Big Stories Thailand’s election went against the country’s military leaders, with voters overwhelmingly supporting opposition parties. Despite sanctions, millions of dollars of aircraft parts made by Boeing, Airbus and others were sent to Russia last year. U.S. family wealth has soared. The trillions of dollars going to heirs will largely reinforce inequality. These graphics show how. Vice Media filed for bankruptcy. The company has struggled to adjust to the realities of digital publishing. India is struggling to eradicate an age-old scourge: witch hunting. A preacher in Kenya told followers they would meet Jesus if they starved themselves. Why did so many do it? Opinions Doctors who stayed in Sudan’s capital after war broke out should inspire us all to help the people in the places we are from, Farah Stockman writes. Probabilistic decision-making tends to be better decision-making, Robert Rubin has learned with help from a yellow pad. Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss the Trump CNN town hall, the budget and the border. The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS The bottling plant of Brooklyn Seltzer Factory.Juan Arredondo for The New York Times Seltzer museum: The Brooklyn Seltzer Boys factory has a century-old carbonator. Beat that, LaCroix. “The Defining Decade”: What is the point of your 20s? Ask the patron saint of striving youth. Metropolitan Diary: Marrying into a good building. News knowledge: Have you taken our latest news quiz? Squeeze: Pack more into your suitcase with a compression sack. Advice from Wirecutter: The 15 best gifts for gardeners. Lives Lived: Bill Oesterle founded a company to review local contractors. Angie’s List grew into a website with millions of subscribers. Oesterle died at 57. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. Playoffs: The Boston Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference finals after beating the Philadelphia 76ers. The Celtics’ Jayson Tatum set a Game 7 record with 51 points. N.H.L. Playoffs: The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2, in Game 6. Las Vegas advanced to its fourth conference finals in six years of existence. A new era: Two W.N.B.A. teams — New York and Las Vegas — have attracted enough stars to be considered superteams. Welcome to the league’s player-empowerment era. An uncertain future: The Grizzlies have suspended Ja Morant again after he was seen flashing what appeared to be a gun in an Instagram Live. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS The stars of “Seinfeld.”Andrew Eccles/NBCUniversal via Getty Images What’s the deal with adulthood? “Seinfeld,” the show about nothing, ended in May 1998. At the center were Jerry Seinfeld and his three friends, who proudly flouted societal conventions and the rules of traditional adulthood, The Times’s Maya Salam writes. Twenty-five years later, parts of the show seem prescient, Maya writes: “With the realization that long-held images of adulthood may not be as attainable as before, the show has taken on a fresh relatability.” PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook David Malosh for The New York Times This frittata includes sautéed onion, pepper and spinach. What to Watch Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen visit Italy and don’t read as much in “Book Club: The Next Chapter.” What to Read In “Fatherland,” Burkhard Bilger sifts through his German grandfather’s identities — teacher, soldier, traitor. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was autonomy. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. Nylon stockings first went on sale to the American public on this day in 1940. Four million pairs sold out in days. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 16, 2023 Author Members Posted May 16, 2023 May 16, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY Youtube Advertising By David Leonhardt Good morning. Housing has become so expensive that college graduates are leaving New York, Los Angeles and other expensive cities. Eduardo Lerro at home in Minnetonka, Minn.Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times Heading inland For generations, my mother’s family was solidly Northeastern. It was based around Philadelphia, and people rarely moved farther away than New England. But over the past two decades, all that has changed. I am the only member of my generation who still lives in the Northeast — if you count the Washington, D.C., area as part of the Northeast. My sister lives in Colorado. My first cousins have moved to California, Colorado and Texas. Job opportunities and housing costs are major reasons for our dispersion. My family is part of a national pattern. Over the past decade, college graduates have joined a trend that was already evident among lower-income Americans. They are increasingly moving out of the country’s most expensive metropolitan areas, according to a Times analysis of census data. Since even before the Covid pandemic began, more working-age college graduates have been leaving New York, Chicago and Los Angeles than moving to those areas. Over the past few years — as remote work became more common — the list of regions losing college-educated workers has grown to include San Francisco and Washington. Many of the people leaving those places have moved to less expensive major metro areas, like Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Nashville, Phoenix and Tampa. Source: Upshot analysis of American Community Survey; U.S. Bureau of EconomicAnalysis | By The New York Times “My living room is bigger than any apartment in New York I ever had,” said Eduardo Lerro, 45, a former public-school teacher who now lives in Minneapolis and works as a consultant. In many ways, the trend is a healthy one. Americans are responding rationally to financial incentives and building lives for themselves in new places. It helps that more cities have added amenities once associated with the Northeast and the West Coast. “Many smaller and more affordable cities are simply more desirable than they used to be,” said my colleague Emily Badger, who did the new analysis along with Robert Gebeloff and Josh Katz. “There’s good Indian and Thai food to be found in more places. There are growing tech-worker scenes outside of the Bay Area. Many midsize cities have redeveloped their downtowns over the last 20 years.” ‘Grim indictment’ At the same time, the pattern highlights a major problem in many large U.S. metro areas: Housing has become so expensive that even professionals with relative high salaries are choosing to leave. Emily calls it “a pretty grim indictment of these places.” It is arguably the Democratic Party’s biggest failure at the local and state levels, given that the most expensive regions tend to be run by Democrats. For people who chose to move, the decision can create inconveniences. My family, for example, has a harder time getting everybody together than when I was growing up. But the biggest hardships fall on working-class families that choose to remain in the country’s most expensive regions. There are millions of such families. The relocation rate of Americans without a college degree has even declined in recent years, for complex reasons, as Emily notes. For these families, the cost of housing is a major barrier to a middle-class life. All of which helps explain why the nascent effort to encourage more home-building in expensive regions — sometimes called the YIMBY movement, for Yes in My Backyard — may be one of the most important movements in American politics today. Go deeper Read more about the subject in recent Times coverage: President Biden is trying to appeal to working-class voters by emphasizing his plans to create jobs that do not require a college degree. New York City’s Black population has declined by nearly 200,000 people, or about 9 percent, in the past two decades, Troy Closson and Nicole Hong write. Can New York fix its housing problems? It depends on the suburbs. “Housing is at long last a political priority,” Mara Gay of Times Opinion writes, while Peter Coy explains that Herbert Hoover deserves some blame. From Ezra Klein’s podcast: Why housing is so expensive, particularly in blue states, and how one California lawmaker is trying to change things. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More THE LATEST NEWS Politics The special counsel John Durham accused the F.B.I. of ignoring mitigating facts in its Russia investigation. It did not find evidence of politically motivated misconduct, as Donald Trump had suggested. An assailant with a baseball bat attacked two aides to a Democratic congressman in Virginia. Black taxpayers have been far more likely to be audited, the I.R.S. acknowledged. Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy are meeting today to try to strike a debt limit deal. The White House expressed optimism. McCarthy said the two sides were not in a good place. Philadelphia is holding a mayoral primary today. The winner will almost certainly lead the city. Other Big Stories A poster of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leads in an election that will head to a runoff this month. A gunman opened fire on a residential street in New Mexico, killing three people. The police said officers killed the 18-year-old shooter. Russia arrested a former employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russian state media reported. His nationality is unknown. The Tony Awards ceremony will proceed as scheduled on June 11. The writers’ union said it would not picket the show. The W.H.O. recommends against using artificial sweeteners: They don’t reduce weight and could increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes. Opinions Prosecutors have kept innocent people in prison. Not every prosecutor is willing to reconsider a conviction, Lisa Belkin writes. Christopher Blackwell has lived in state prisons, crumbling penitentiaries and isolation, but he was unprepared for a county jail. Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on school prayers and Paul Krugman on the economy. The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Martha Stewart on the cover of Sports Illustrated.Ruven Afanador/Sports Illustrated Domestic diva: At 81, Martha Stewart is a swimsuit issue cover star. Chonkosaurus: A hefty snapping turtle has fans online. “Succession”: Alan Ruck, who plays Connor, is ready to leave the Roy family. Sports craze: It’s tennis vs. pickleball vs. padel. Or is it? Healthy eyes: Are carrots good? Is blue light bad? Experts weigh in. Travel chaos: This gear will help you get through delays. Advice from Wirecutter: The best stuff to bring to the beach. Lives Lived: The champion poker player Doyle Brunson — a.k.a. Texas Dolly — won 10 World Series of Poker events and influenced players with his definitive guide to Texas hold ’em and other games. He died at 89. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.H.L. playoffs: Wyatt Johnston, 20, scored the clincher in the Stars’ victory over the Kraken, becoming the youngest player ever to net a game-winning goal in a Game 7. N.B.A. lottery: The raffle to see which team will have the opportunity to draft 7-foot-4 wunderkind Victor Wembanyama is tonight. Side-eye glances: A strange moment in the Yankees’ win in Toronto last night led to tension between the two teams. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More ARTS AND IDEAS Tiny cocktails with tiny slices of lime.Evan Jenkins for The New York Times The big world of tiny objects “The largest miniature dollhouse convention” — which recently drew more than 3,000 people in Chicago — may sound silly to some, but it is a serious matter for the sellers, Emma Orlow writes in The Times. Attendees sifted through thousands of tiny objects that fill tiny homes, including sponges, chocolate fondue fountains, rocking chairs and barbecue sets. Step inside the event through these photos. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Use your air fryer to make anything. Try grilled cheese, chicken breasts, broccoli or cheesecake. What to Watch “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” is set in an alternate, racially diverse Regency-era Britain. What to Read Henry Threadgill’s memoir unfolds from his maddening Vietnam War experience to his boundary-pushing jazz career, Dwight Garner writes. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was competed. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David P.S. Times journalists won nine awards from the New York Press Club, including one for an investigation of the football star Deshaun Watson. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 17, 2023 Author Members Posted May 17, 2023 May 17, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY Youtube Advertising By David Leonhardt Good morning. Jakarta is sinking, and Indonesia’s president has chosen to move the capital. The Times accompanied him on a tour. 800 miles away “Jakarta has a lot of problems,” says my colleague Hannah Beech, The Times’s senior correspondent for Asia, “but its most existential one is that it is sinking in some places by up to a foot a year.” Climate change is part of the reason: The Java Sea — which surrounds Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital — is rising. But an even bigger factor is that Jakartans, desperate for access to clean water, have dug thousands of illegal wells that effectively deflate the marshes underneath the city. Today, 40 percent of Jakarta lies below sea level, and flooding is increasingly common. The encroaching sea presents a threat to one of the world’s most densely packed cities, where 10 million people live in an area about half the size of New York City, and another 20 million reside in the surrounding region. To deal with that threat, Indonesia’s popular president — Joko Widodo, in his ninth year in office — has devised an audacious solution: He is moving the country’s capital. The new capital, now under construction, is called Nusantara. It is being built from the ground up, about 800 miles from the current capital. Joko promises that the city will be a model of environmental stewardship, carbon neutral within a few decades. Unlike Jakarta, which is in Java, the region that has long dominated the country’s politics and economy, Nusantara is in Borneo, where residents have felt overlooked. “Indonesia is more than Jakarta,” Joko told Hannah on a recent tour of Nusantara. “Indonesia is more than Java. So we must make the capital in a place that is far away.” By Leanne Abraham But it remains unclear whether his grand plans will succeed. Joko wants the new capital to open next year, before his second — and, by law, final — term as president ends. Not all his potential successors support the plan. And it seems to be behind schedule: No residential towers have been built, and the lead architect is worried that the rapid construction schedule could compromise safety. “People want Nusantara to succeed because it means that the developing world — despite all the problems that were placed in its path by the legacy of imperialism, by the legacy of colonialism — that a country can succeed on its own terms and can be a successful democracy and can create its own vision for itself,” Hannah said. “But it’s a very, very challenging thing to do.” Read her story and see the photographs and videos that accompany it. A new product: Today, we launched an iOS app for audio journalism and storytelling where you can find Hannah’s story and many more. Times subscribers can download our new Audio app. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More THE LATEST NEWS Debt Ceiling Standoff President Biden and congressional leaders at the White House yesterday.Tom Brenner for The New York Times A deadline is looming for President Biden to strike a deal with Republicans on raising the debt ceiling. The Senate and the House will go on Memorial Day break soon, reducing the time to act. Biden will shorten a diplomatic trip to Asia. Politics Cherelle Parker outside a polling location in Philadelphia yesterday.Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times Cherelle Parker, a former City Council member who campaigned on hiring more police, won the Democratic nomination for Philadelphia mayor. Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s attorney general and an ally of Mitch McConnell, won the state’s Republican nomination for governor. North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature reapproved a 12-week abortion ban, overriding the Democratic governor’s veto. War in Ukraine A Russian missile is intercepted over Kyiv, Ukraine, yesterday.Gleb Garanich/Reuters Fifteen months into the war, Russia is dealing with stretched resources and disunity in its ranks. But Vladimir Putin’s resolve remains. Ukraine said it had shot down six hypersonic missiles, some of Russia’s most sophisticated conventional weapons. The journalist Masha Gessen resigned from the board of PEN America, a free expression group, after it canceled a panel with Russian writers. Other Big Stories An estimated 60,000 Sudanese refugees have crossed into Chad since April.Yagazie Emezi for The New York Times The war in Sudan has unleashed violence in the western region of Darfur, sending tens of thousands of people into Chad. The U.S. is facing an acute drug shortage. Patients are encountering delays in treatments for cancer and other serious diseases. To attract Black residents, San Francisco is proposing a reparations plan that includes $5 million cash payments and housing aid. China dominates the production process for electric car batteries. Can the rest of the world catch up? Johannesburg is on its sixth mayor in 22 months. Residents are struggling with dry taps, garbage and dilapidated buildings. A court in Germany convicted five members of a crime family for stealing jewels from one of the country’s most secure museums. Opinions Judicial candidates should convey the high stakes of their elections so that voters can claim a role in deciding what their Constitutions mean, Jedediah Britton-Purdy argues. Nadia Marzouki watched as her father went from political prisoner to the first democratic president of Tunisia. Now she watches as the country goes from hope to terror. Here are columns by Bret Stephens on Israel at 75 and Thomas Friedman on immigration. The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS A wedding in Mumbai, India, in February.House on the Clouds Indian weddings: They’re bigger than ever. Dance challenge: Flash Bobs are like flash mobs — but even sillier. #WaterTok: Influencers have turned syrupy water into a trend. Look up: The best ways to photograph birds. Advice from Wirecutter: These graduation gifts are less than $100. Lives Lived: Amy Silverstein wrote two memoirs, including “Sick Girl,” that recount her grueling yet joyous life that required two heart transplants. She died at 59. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. draft lottery: The San Antonio Spurs secured the No. 1 pick — and the right to draft French phenom Victor Wembanyama. The Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons round out the top five. N.B.A. playoffs: The Denver Nuggets defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. N.H.L. playoffs: The final four is set and it’s not a conference-championship field many people saw coming. Here are The Athletic’s predictions. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More ARTS AND IDEAS Gustavo Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2012.Meridith Kohut for The New York Times New York’s next maestro Gustavo Dudamel, the 42-year-old who will be the New York Philharmonic’s next director, doesn’t start his job until 2026. This weekend, though, he will make his first New York appearance since he got the job, leading the Philharmonic through Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. Ahead of the performance, David Allen listened to Dudamel’s recordings — most of which, he writes, are “perfectly listenable, and some are impressive.” PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Ryan Liebe for The New York Times These simple carrot cake cupcakes are nostalgic, portable treats. Cannes Film Festival The actress Fan Bingbing had tigers roaming over the wilds of her gown.Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Here are the movies Times critics are most excited about, including by Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese and Todd Haynes. (And a look at the best outfits.) What to Watch Matt Damon improvised a scene in “Air,” a movie about the creation of the Air Jordan sneaker. What to Read In “Thinning Blood,” Leah Myers explores her tribal heritage. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was handily. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David P.S. Meet Milton Esterow, who has written over 6,000 Times articles on a typewriter. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 19, 2023 Author Members Posted May 19, 2023 May 18, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY Youtube Advertising By German Lopez Good morning. Many Americans can’t get the medications they need. Kayana Szymczak for The New York Times ‘A bit of a curse’ Americans are confronting a shortage of several major drug treatments. Some cancer patients are struggling to get chemotherapy drugs. Antibiotics are scarce after winter’s severe flu season. Medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are in short supply. Even children’s Tylenol has been hard to find, as my colleague Christina Jewett wrote. “This is, in my opinion, a public health emergency,” Dr. Amanda Fader of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine said. Today’s newsletter will focus on the A.D.H.D. medication shortage, which is reflective of many of the broader drug supply problems. The Food and Drug Administration first acknowledged the shortage in October. Patients complain that they have to shop around at pharmacies to get their medications, if they can find them at all. And without the drugs, many say they can’t function. Edward DiNola, a game programmer and designer, told The Times that getting off the A.D.H.D. medication Adderall had made his sleep schedule piecemeal and unpredictable. After a week without the drug, he went to bed one day at 7 a.m. “It’s a bit of a curse to not have control over your own energy,” he said. The broader shortages partly reflect supply chain problems for generic drugs, which make up 90 percent of prescriptions. But the A.D.H.D. medication shortage is more expansive in that it has hit brand-name products, like Adderall, as well. That has left more people without the drugs they need. Rising demand One reason for the A.D.H.D. medication shortage: The use of such drugs has surged in recent years. From 2020 to 2021, prescriptions increased more than 10 percent across many age groups, a recent C.D.C. study found. Why? Experts point to the collision of two recent trends in the U.S.: the growing acceptance and acknowledgment of mental health issues, and policy changes brought on by the Covid pandemic that increased the use of telemedicine. First, activists and policymakers have for decades pushed Americans to take mental health issues more seriously — to view them not as moral failings or character flaws, but as health problems that need treatment. A.D.H.D. is an example of this acceptance. Experts long believed it mostly affected adolescent boys. In recent years, activists and patients have argued that A.D.H.D. can be a lifelong condition and that it is underdiagnosed and undertreated among girls and adults. Their view has gained ground, despite some criticisms that A.D.H.D. is already overdiagnosed in boys who are then treated with powerful, potentially dangerous stimulants. Second, telemedicine got a big boost during the pandemic, as policymakers and medical facilities tried to limit in-person doctor visits. The shift not only allowed existing patients to continue getting treatment, it also allowed treatment for new patients who might not have made the trip to a doctor’s office or a hospital before. These two trends acted together to increase demand for A.D.H.D. medications. As more people started to take their mental health more seriously, they had greater access to treatment. So more got on medications for A.D.H.D. Supply chain problems Beyond demand, several issues have potentially constrained the supply chain. Drug companies claim that government-set quotas have hindered supply, although the Drug Enforcement Administration has said that companies have not fully used what they have. Some pharmacies also argue that tougher rules for opioid painkillers have spilled over to other drugs, making it harder to get the supply they need. For generic drugs, there is a more systemic problem. The companies are under constant pressure to offer the lowest prices possible, and they often cut corners to reduce costs and keep prices low. That leaves them unprepared to increase supply as needed if, for example, demand rises. All of these factors are probably playing some role in the A.D.H.D. medication shortage, said Erin Fox, a drug supply chain expert at the University of Utah. But because much of the drug supply chain is opaque, it is difficult to know what, exactly, is going wrong. The lack of transparency is itself a problem, not only for A.D.H.D. medications but for other drug shortages. If the public and policymakers don’t know what’s going wrong, they can’t help find a solution. For more: Drug shortages will probably get worse, experts say. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More THE LATEST NEWS Politics Lawmakers in Texas banned transgender medical care for minors, including hormone therapies and surgery. Gov. Ron DeSantis is trying to get national attention with signing ceremonies of right-wing bills that sometimes feel like political rallies. The South Carolina House approved a six-week abortion ban. It goes to the Senate, where a bipartisan group of female lawmakers has vowed to filibuster it. TikTok will be banned in Montana with a law that prohibits app stores from offering it. Apple and Google say that may not be feasible in a single state. International A flooded street in the village of Castel Bolognese, Italy, yesterday.Luca Bruno/Associated Press Floods in Italy killed at least eight people and left thousands of people homeless. Some places saw half their average annual rainfall in 36 hours. As the U.S. attends the G7 in Japan, China is hosting its own summit with leaders of five countries in Central Asia. Some European countries want to give F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. The U.S., which needs to approve the deal, has resisted the move. Other Big Stories Military officials caught Airman Jack Teixeira mishandling secrets months before he was charged with leaking documents. Climate change will probably send temperatures to record heights over the next five years. Nearly 110,000 people died last year of drug overdoses in the U.S., a leveling after two years of sharp increases. Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million to sexual abuse victims of Jeffrey Epstein who accused the lender of helping to enable sex trafficking. Prince Harry and Meghan said paparazzi chased them in Manhattan. An initial description recalled the chase that killed Harry’s mother, Diana, in 1997. Opinions Drug tests don’t predict if workers will be impaired and there is no reason to keep doing them, Kevin Boehnke argues. Remember when Donald Trump and DeSantis loved each other? Neither do they, Gail Collins writes. The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Relaxing at Vista Hermosa Natural Park.Daniel Jack Lyons for The New York Times Coming of age: A park in Los Angeles is a meeting place for young queer people. A celebrity hawk: Pale Male died at 32. Or did he? Health: Chronic pain is common. Work from anywhere: Move your home office outside. Advice from Wirecutter: Try this induction cookware. Lives Lived: Marlene Bauer Hagge emerged on the national golf scene at 13 and went on to win 26 pro tournaments, including the 1956 L.P.G.A. Championship — an event she had helped create. She died at 89. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC N.B.A. playoffs: Jimmy Butler pushed Miami to another improbable playoff win over Boston. Horse racing: Mage is the favorite to win the Preakness, which would please his 391 owners who bought shares in the horse via an app. Thick rough: The P.G.A. Championship tees off today. Jon Rahm, who won the Masters last month, is the favorite. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More ARTS AND IDEAS The Codex Sassoon dates from the late ninth or early 10th century.Eric Helgas for The New York Times An ancient treasure An ancient book known as the Codex Sassoon — the oldest known near-complete Hebrew Bible — sold for $38 million yesterday. Even in its own time, the book was an expensive object, requiring the skins of more than 100 animals to create its parchment leaves. Experts thought it might become the most expensive book over sold, but it fell short of the record set two years ago by the sale of a first printing of the U.S. Constitution. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Ryan Liebe for The New York Times Tips for juicy, crisp-skinned salmon: Add salt and wait. What to Read Here’s where to get started with Neil Gaiman’s books for adults. Television Why is Ted Lasso’s shoe game so strong? Credit the show’s star Jason Sudeikis, a sneakerhead who owns 250 pairs. What to Watch The documentary “Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me” is short on insight. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was gamecock. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German P.S. Claire Moses, a writer for The Morning, is joining The Times’s Express team. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 20, 2023 Author Members Posted May 20, 2023 May 19, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY Youtube Advertising By German Lopez Good morning. Both parties seem more willing to compromise on the debt limit. Speaker Kevin McCarthy addressing the news media this week.Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times Path to a deal For months, the U.S. has been barreling toward a debt limit crisis. Democrats refused to negotiate, and Republicans insisted on a deal stocked with right-wing policy priorities. It was unclear how, or whether, they would avert catastrophe. This week, the atmosphere in Washington shifted. The chances of getting a deal done now seem higher. Why? Because both sides budged: Democrats are negotiating, and more Republicans have suggested that they are willing to compromise. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, said yesterday for the first time that he saw a “path that we could come to an agreement.” “That was a marked change in attitude from earlier in the week, when McCarthy was very pessimistic,” my colleague Carl Hulse, The Times’s chief Washington correspondent, told me. The stakes are still high. If Congress does not increase the debt ceiling — the limit on money that the U.S. can borrow — the government may run out of money as early as June 1. It would no longer be able to pay its bills, potentially defaulting on its debts. That could send the financial markets, and the economy, into chaos (as this newsletter has detailed). Today’s newsletter will explain what changed this week and why there is greater optimism about a deal. Democrats’ moves Over the past few months, President Biden and congressional Democrats declined to negotiate over the debt limit. They characterized Republicans as holding the country hostage, threatening to wreck the economy to get their way on policy. Democrats hoped their stance would push Republicans to increase the debt limit without attaching conditions. But then the Treasury Department announced this month that the U.S. could hit its debt limit in just weeks. And House Republicans passed a debt limit bill with right-wing policy priorities, including sweeping but unspecified spending cuts, rollbacks of Biden policies and work requirements for Medicaid, food stamps and welfare benefits. Democrats blinked. Last week and this week, the White House hosted congressional leaders to discuss the debt limit. This week, they had a small breakthrough: Biden agreed to have his staff meet directly with McCarthy’s aides to hash out a deal. By cutting out other congressional leaders, Biden and McCarthy are more likely to reach a compromise quickly. Republicans’ moves On the Republican side, it was always hard to see what kind of deal McCarthy could bring forward that would placate different House Republican factions, particularly on the far right. After all, it took 15 ballots for Republicans to finally vote McCarthy in as speaker. He has barely held his caucus together since. And McCarthy indicated he would push for a debt-limit increase that includes everything in the House Republican bill. As the debt limit deadline drew closer, and as Democrats started to negotiate, Republicans softened their stance. Moderate Republicans have said they are willing to compromise. “We know we’re not going to get everything,” Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska told Politico. And McCarthy’s staff is, after all, meeting with Biden’s in the hopes of reaching a deal. What could that deal look like? It will probably include some limits on federal spending, a clawback of unused Covid relief funds, changes to speed up permits for energy infrastructure and, potentially, new work requirements on some federal benefits. That would amount to “a fairly normal spending and budget deal, typical of a divided government, with a debt-limit increase attached,” Carl said. That deal would not fully satisfy House Republicans’ right flank. But their votes would not be needed to pass a bill if moderate Republicans joined with Democrats. Possible failure Of course, any potential deal could still collapse. One current sticking point is new requirements that would force recipients of government benefits to prove that they have a job or are trying to find work. Republicans want to impose those conditions on Medicaid, food stamps and welfare. Biden has indicated that he is open to doing so for food stamps and welfare, both of which already have some work requirements, but not for Medicaid, which has none. Republicans further to the right say that a deal needs to include work requirements for all three programs. Members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus have called on McCarthy to stop negotiating with Biden until the Senate passes the House Republican bill with such conditions. More liberal Democrats say that they will oppose any new work requirements. “I cannot in good conscience support a debt ceiling proposal that pushes people into poverty,” said Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania. If they come together in opposition, the flanks on the left and right could blow up a deal, my colleague Catie Edmondson, who covers Congress, wrote. Congress could still pass a bill without those flanks, if moderate lawmakers from both parties vote for it. But there are limits to how far the president and speaker will go without the full support of their parties. Biden does not want to aggravate liberal Democrats whom he likely needs for future votes. And McCarthy wants to keep his job; if far-right lawmakers feel betrayed, they could call a vote to oust him as speaker. For more Bankruptcies, recession and irreversible damage to the U.S. role in the global economy: These are some of the potential effects of any default. The U.S. is essentially living paycheck to paycheck right now. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More THE LATEST NEWS Supreme Court Andy Warhol in 1983.Brownie Harris/Corbis, via Getty Images The Supreme Court found that an Andy Warhol print of Prince infringed on the copyright of the photographer who took the original image. And the court left untouched a technology law that shields companies from liability over users’ posts. It was a win for social media platforms. Politics Disney, which has been feuding with Gov. Ron DeSantis, canceled a $1 billion development planned for Orlando. DeSantis privately told donors that Trump can’t win the 2024 election. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s bout with shingles was worse than known and caused a rare brain swelling. G7 Summit Leaders at the G7, including President Biden.Kenny Holston/The New York Times Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, will attend the G7 meeting in Japan. While Ukraine and China will be the dominant agenda items, there’ll be a new topic: how to deal with A.I. Other Big Stories Greece says it doesn’t ditch migrants at sea. This video shows otherwise. Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, is planning to attend an annual summit of Arab leaders for the first time in 13 years. Salman Rushdie attended a literary gala, his first public appearance since being stabbed onstage last summer. A group of TikTok users sued Montana, challenging the state’s ban on the app, which is set to start on Jan. 1. All of New York City’s migrant plans have been met with outrage. Mayor Eric Adams is pleading for understanding and ideas. Opinions Bathroom laws targeting transgender people are the latest example of bathrooms being used to enforce social hierarchies, Lydia Polgreen writes. Even if the U.S. avoids a recession, economic pain seems to be in our future, Paul Krugman argues. Here are columns by Jamelle Bouie on Republican-controlled state legislatures and Pamela Paul on the Cultural Revolution. The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Yulia basks in the sun.Amir Cohen/Reuters Ambassador of sanity: During a tense time in Israel, Yulia the seal has been a source of calm. Spring style: The key to dressing in the season’s transitional weeks? Don’t follow rules. Ancient mystery: An archaeologist is searching for a Viking city of legend. Modern Love: A spectacular betrayal. Uninvited guests: How to keep mosquitoes out of your outdoor space. Advice from Wirecutter: The best gifts for high school grads. Lives Lived: The real estate tycoon Sam Zell acquired The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and other newspapers in a criticized leveraged buyout of their parent company. Zell died at 81. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC Withdrawn: Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis star, will miss the French Open because of an injury. N.B.A. playoffs: The Denver Nuggets are up 2-0 over the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. “Not forgotten”: Brittney Griner is back playing in the W.N.B.A., five months after leaving a Russian prison. While inside, these letters sustained her. Surprise contender: The little-known Eric Cole leads the P.G.A. Championship after Day 1. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More ARTS AND IDEAS Scientists scanned the Titanic shipwreck and created a 3-D model.Atlantic Productions/Magellan A new look at the Titanic A digital imaging project has produced a digital twin of the Titanic, showing the wreckage with new clarity. Researchers mapped every millimeter of the shipwreck more than two miles below the surface. New details have already emerged, like a lifeboat that couldn’t be deployed because of a jammed piece of metal. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Joseph De Leo for The New York Times Spicy heat plays well with melty mozzarella in this kimchi grilled cheese. What to Read These memoirs contain lessons in persistence, coping and cleanliness. Where to Go How to spend 36 hours in Buenos Aires. Reality TV The “Vanderpump Rules” star Ariana Madix talked to The Times about filming the season finale with her ex. News Quiz Test your knowledge of this week’s headlines. Now Time to Play The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were blurring, bullring, burbling and burgling. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German P.S. The Times is retiring datelines and switching to a detailed description of reporters’ locations. You’ll continue to see the old approach in the print newspaper. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 21, 2023 Author Members Posted May 21, 2023 May 20, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY Youtube Advertising By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. Among the films premiering at the Cannes Film Festival are features from Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson and Todd Haynes. María Jesús Contreras Screen time The Cannes Film Festival began this week with Maïwenn’s “Jeanne du Barry,” starring Johnny Depp as Louis XV, and ends on May 27 with a new Pixar film, “Elemental.” In between, there will be many screenings, many awkward standing ovations, many awards bestowed. This is the first year I (kind of) understand the difference between an “Official Selection” and “Un Certain Regard” and all the other golden palm-leaf designations I’ll see on marketing materials for Cannes-affiliated films in the coming months, so I’m paying close attention to the goings-on. Of all the films in competition this year, I’m most excited about Todd Haynes’s “May December.” Julianne Moore and Charles Melton play a couple whose marriage is tested when an actress starring in a movie about them arrives to research her role. Wes Anderson also has a new one, “Asteroid City,” about a junior stargazing convention. It features many members of the Andersonian repertory — Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody and others. It looks quirky, like it will inspire a million TikToks. In “Firebrand,” from the Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz, Alicia Vikander plays Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, who’s played by Jude Law. Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose film “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or in 2018, has a new film, “Monster.” It stars Sakura Ando from “Shoplifters,” and the composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died last month, did the score. Out of competition, the category that tends to feature big commercial films, we have James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the first Indy movie to be directed by someone other than Steven Spielberg. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is in it, which is a draw for me, a person who saw “Raiders of the Lost Ark” as a child and hasn’t paid much attention to the franchise since. The trailer has me begrudgingly excited. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro star in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” about the murders of members of the Osage tribe in the 1920s. I have high hopes that it’ll be as gripping as the David Grann book on which it’s based. Also of interest: Steve McQueen’s documentary “Occupied City,” about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, clocks in at over four hours. Wim Wenders has two films at the festival: “Anselm,” a 3-D documentary about the artist Anselm Kiefer, and “Perfect Days,” about a Japanese toilet cleaner, which he described to Deadline as “an ode to a spirit of service and to ‘nowness’: to live your life in the present tense.” Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” is based on the Martin Amis novel about a Nazi officer who falls in love with the Auschwitz commandant’s wife. And Cate Blanchett plays a nun in “The New Boy,” by the Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton. For more “I don’t have much further need for Hollywood,” Johnny Depp told reporters at Cannes. Depp’s film was an unfortunate festival kickoff, Manohla Dargis writes. See the looks from this year’s red carpet. “Strange Way of Life” is Pedro Almodóvar’s answer to “Brokeback Mountain,” starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. Catch up with The Times’s coverage of the festival. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More THE WEEK IN CULTURE Vin Diesel and Daniela Melchior in “Fast X.” Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures, via Associated Press “Fast X,” the 10th “Fast and Furious” movie, premieres this weekend. Here’s a guide to the franchise’s feuds. People are looking for love in the Hollywood writers’ picket line. Montana banned TikTok from operating inside the state, starting next year. Influencers there are worried about their livelihoods. Do dress sneakers belong in the Oval Office? Experts shudder. The original “White Men Can’t Jump” was about what it takes to win with panache. Here’s The Times’s review of the new remake. Paul Simon ruminates on mortality and faith on “Seven Psalms,” an album that could be a farewell. Killer Mike — part of the rap duo Run the Jewels — opens up on “Michael,” his first solo album in more than a decade. Priscilla Presley and her granddaughter, Riley Keough, agreed to settle a dispute over their family trust. A Christian university in New York fired two employees for including their pronouns in their emails. “The Offbeat Sari,” a London exhibition, explores the influence and evolution of the traditional South Asian garment. The new concert tees: A world of merchandise is growing around courtroom spectacles like Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski crash trial. Forests, an emo band from Singapore, was robbed only days into its first U.S. tour. But the shows went on. THE LATEST NEWS A group of F-16 fighter jets flying over Washington in March.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images President Biden said he would allow Ukraine’s pilots to be trained on F-16 fighter jets, which would be a major upgrade of its military. Both parties are trying to blame the other for the debt limit crisis, but some politicians acknowledge that they would share responsibility for a default. American diplomats destroyed Sudanese passports on security grounds as violence broke out, trapping people in a war zone. As Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida jetted around the country preparing to run for president, a nonprofit group paid the bills and hid the donors. Jim Brown, one of football's greatest players and a civil rights activist whose image was tarnished by accusations of abuse against women, died at 87. NASA awarded a $3.4 billion contract to Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, to make a lander for a 2029 moon mission. The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. CULTURE CALENDAR By Gilbert Cruz 📚 “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World” (out now): Yes, anyone who has ever experienced the very specific stress of driving around city streets looking for a spot to cram a car into will find a point of connection in this book by the Slate journalist Henry Grabar. But really, anyone with a car, regardless of where that person lives, might be interested, says the Times critic Jennifer Szalai, who called the book “wry and revelatory.” 🎬 “Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed” (out now): Before the release of the new Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit album on June 9, it’s worth checking out this documentary, available on HBO Max, about the recording of his last album. He made it alongside his wife, the musician Amanda Shires. It’s an impressive movie about creating art, about marriage, about recovery, about Covid — all in less than two hours. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More RECIPE OF THE WEEK Strawberry drop biscuits.Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Carrie Purcell. By Melissa Clark Strawberry Drop Biscuits After a monthlong delay because of unprecedented rainy weather, California strawberries — in all their red-blushed glory — are once again abundant across the United States. Which means now is the time to bake Jerrelle Guy’s strawberry drop biscuits. They’re as easy as muffins to throw together but have a crunchy, craggy exterior and are light and fluffy inside. Serve them warm from the oven, or let them cool and bring them out for a snack with your afternoon tea. And when strawberry season wanes, make the recipe with other berries or diced stone fruit. You’ll want to put this simple, stunning recipe on repeat. REAL ESTATE Waynesboro, Ga.Anne Marie Kyzer What you get for $325,000: A Victorian home in Waynesboro, Ga.; a rowhouse in Baltimore; or a cottage in Little Rock, Ark. The hunt: They wanted four bedrooms for $275,000 in upstate New York. Which home did they pick? Play our game. Missing packages: Should residents be allowed to check their buildings’ surveillance footage? The best vacation house? On an island, with no room for guests. LIVING Adrian Wilson for The New York Times Food pilgrimage: Plan a trip to Mexico around chilies. Sad songs: We listen to them to feel connected to others. Birding: Help scientists and The Times observe birds in your area. Seasonal allergies: They may play a role in mood disorders. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Make moving less miserable Spring is the beginning of peak moving season, and if you’re among those relocating between now and September, you know what’s coming: The process requires meticulous planning, organization, time and money. Wirecutter experts put together everything you need, including the right gear (you should use uniformly sized boxes) and suggestions to avoid (no, wine glasses should not go in socks; yes, use shrink wrap — but strategically). Check out Wirecutter’s ultimate moving guide here. — Christine Cyr Clisset GAME OF THE WEEKEND Candace Parker.Ethan Miller/Getty Images Las Vegas Aces vs. Seattle Storm, W.N.B.A.: This will be the season of the superteams. The New York Liberty have assembled a roster of all-stars, and the Aces — who won the title last year — added the great Candace Parker to a squad that already included last season’s M.V.P., A’ja Wilson. “The easiest decision in my rankings was placing the Aces at the top,” The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant wrote in her preseason W.N.B.A. breakdown. “Anything short of the best record in league during the regular season would be a surprise, if not a disappointment.” 3 p.m. Eastern today on ABC. For more How did the Liberty attract two former M.V.P.s during the off-season? The Times’s Kurt Streeter went behind the scenes. After nearly a year in Russian captivity, Brittney Griner is back on the court. NOW TIME TO PLAY The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was appendix. Here is today’s puzzle. See the hardest Spelling Bee words from this week. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 22, 2023 Author Members Posted May 22, 2023 May 21, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY Apple TV+ By German Lopez Good morning. The New York Times Magazine’s issue this week focuses on therapy. Illustration by Dadu Shin Mixed results Millions of Americans go to talk therapy. But does it work? It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Talk therapy does produce great benefits for some people, but not for everyone, so it might not work for you, my colleague Susan Dominus wrote for The New York Times Magazine’s therapy issue, published this week. Researchers were able to reach that conclusion only relatively recently. Since the days of Sigmund Freud, the field of psychotherapy has been resistant, even hostile, to evaluating its methods through empirical studies. “At my graduation from psychoanalytic training, a supervising analyst said to me, ‘Your analysis will cure you of the need to do research,’” Andrew Gerber, the president of a psychiatric treatment center in Connecticut, told The Times. That resistance has waned in the past few decades, leading to hundreds of clinical trials. The results have been mixed. Some studies have found that therapy has a higher chance of helping than not. Other research has shown more limited results, suggesting that therapy helps some patients but not many or even most. Why? It likely comes down to individual preferences. A therapist or type of therapy that works for one person might not align with someone else’s personality or problems. So a study looking at whether one kind of therapy works will likely produce limited results, no matter how effective that therapy is for certain individuals. And for some, talk therapy might never be the right match over other kinds of help, like medication. Some experts have drawn a disappointing conclusion. “Maybe we have reached the limit of what you can do by talking to somebody,” David Tolin, the director of another treatment center in Connecticut, said. “Maybe it’s only going to get so good.” Others are now trying to harness the evidence to improve talk therapy and to find ways to connect patients to the type of therapy that would work best for them. Speaking to the researcher Timothy Anderson, Susan voiced her own frustrations about the murky evidence: I had perhaps — as a longtime consumer of therapy in search of reassurance — hit my limit with the disputes among the various clinicians and researchers, the caveats and the debates over methodology. “The research seems very … baggy,” I said, not bothering to hide my frustration. “It’s not very satisfying.” I could practically hear a smile on the other end of the phone. “Well, thank you,” Anderson said. “That’s what makes this research so interesting. That there are no simple answers, right?” Read Susan’s cover story here for more details on the evidence for different kinds of therapy and how therapists are trying to improve. More from the magazine Racial and sexual power dynamics are changing intimate relationships, one couples therapist writes. How do you help a suicidal teenager? Some things do work. Somatic therapy is surging. It focuses on finding healing through the physical rather than the mental. Read what therapists really think about their patients. Here’s the full issue. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Apple TV+ Watch "STILL" on Apple TV+ A Michael J. Fox movie #STILL is now streaming on Apple TV+ Watch Now NEWS G7 Summit Volodymyr Zelensky and Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, at the G7 in Japan.Pool photo by Eugene Hoshiko Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had destroyed Bakhmut, but he denied Moscow’s claim to have captured the city. President Biden promised continuing Western support for Ukraine after announcing more military aid. The U.S. is negotiating agreements for the minerals needed to produce electric cars, an industry dominated by China. “De-risking”: A new word has taken over the summit as diplomats describe China’s grip on global supply chains. Politics Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are expected to speak today about the debt limit. The threat of a default could further destabilize financial markets. Despite health issues, Senator Dianne Feinstein is struggling to let go of a job she views as her identity. As he travels the country, Ron DeSantis is reluctant to talk about the restrictive abortion ban he signed. International An Afghan migrant, Mohammad Rahim, is cared for by his son Bahlol in the Darién Gap in Central America.Federico Rios for The New York Times Thousands of Afghans have tried to enter the U.S. by boat and by foot, desperate to join a nation that they feel left them behind. A stampede at a soccer stadium in El Salvador killed at least 12 people. Other Big Stories A rice farm in Humnoke, Ark.Rory Doyle for The New York Times Climate change is wrecking rice harvests, threatening the food and livelihood of billions of people. National Treasure won the Preakness Stakes as his trainer, Bob Baffert, returned from a suspension after a horse’s failed drug test. The bodies of two missing boys were recovered from New York City rivers. FROM OPINION To create community, we need to have obligations to one another, Brad Stulberg writes. “I have struggled, since writing a eulogy for my 14-year-old, to use the past tense.” Sarah Wildman reflects on losing her daughter to cancer. Gaps in criminal background check databases have fatal consequences. Closing them is crucial to curbing gun violence, Gordon Witkin writes. Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on orgasms and classical music and Ross Douthat on the Hollywood writers’ strike. The Sunday question: Should Senator Dianne Feinstein step down? Feinstein’s greatest act of public service now would be to give up her powerful position, Erwin Chemerinsky writes for The Sacramento Bee. But the campaign against her stems from progressive ambitions to take over her seat without an election, The Orange County Register’s Thomas Elias writes. The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS The 2023 May Day Lei Day Festival in Las Vegas. Hana Asano for The New York Times Leaving paradise: Hawaiians are moving to Las Vegas for more affordable housing. Baring it all: Think performing stand-up comedy is scary? Try doing it naked. Birding holy grail: Does this video show that the ivory-billed woodpecker still exists? Set sail: Jeff Bezos’ new boat is the world’s largest sailing yacht. Heroes’ welcome: Fate brought them together during a blizzard in Buffalo. They reunited in Seoul. A morning listen: Is Dorothy Day worthy of sainthood? Vows: Eighty-six episodes of “The Office” were a sign that she was the one. Lives lived: Martin Amis wrote caustic, bleakly comic novels that redefined British fiction in the 1980s and ’90s. He died at 73. ADVICE FOR LIFE Beach day: Bring this gear on your trip. Working from home: Move your office outside. Juice cleanse: A detox may make you feel good, but the science is mixed. From Wirecutter: Find the best tie-dye kit to use this summer. Travel: Lin-Manuel Miranda offers five tips for visiting San Juan, P.R., where he spent summers as a child. BOOKS Stolen ideas: In “Yellowface,” R.F. Kuang’s satirical thriller, an aspiring writer takes credit for a book her dead friend had written. By the Book: The Pulitzer Prize winner Hernan Diaz begins his writing by reading. Our editors’ picks: “The Covenant of Water,” which follows generations of a family in southwestern India, and eight other books. Times best sellers: “A Day With No Words,” written by Tiffany Hammond and illustrated by Kate Cosgrove, is at the top of the children’s picture book list. THE WEEK AHEAD What to Watch For Greece holds elections today. Two Republicans are expected to enter the presidential race this week: DeSantis and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. A man who was photographed putting his boots on a desk in Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Jan. 6 attacks will be sentenced on Wednesday. A House subcommittee will hold a hearing on bank and regulatory failures on Wednesday. Biden will deliver the commencement address at his alma mater, the University of Delaware, on Saturday. What to Cook This Week Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. Want seafood, but don’t have time to get it fresh from the market? Emily Weinstein’s Five Weeknight Meals newsletter has the recipe: This roasted shrimp cocktail uses frozen shrimp and goes well with creamy horseradish sauce or classic cocktail sauce. Other dinner ideas for the week include edamame pesto pasta, with a new nut-free pesto recipe, and sheet-pan roast chicken with kale and olives. NOW TIME TO PLAY The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was haircut. Here is today’s puzzle. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed the week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — German Read today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted May 22, 2023 Author Members Posted May 22, 2023 May 22, 2023 Continue reading the main story SUPPORTED BY Youtube Advertising By David Leonhardt Good morning. Democrats used to criticize the Supreme Court respectfully. Increasingly, they see the court as irredeemable. The U.S. Supreme Court.Kenny Holston/The New York Times ‘A sea change’ During periods of intense political debate in the U.S., the Supreme Court often becomes a target of harsh criticism. Jefferson complained of “useless judges” and described the judiciary as “a despotic branch.” Lincoln suggested that allowing the Supreme Court to overrule public opinion could lead “to anarchy or to despotism.” A member of Franklin Roosevelt’s cabinet said that one court decision should “outrage the moral sense of the country.” Across history, the goals of such criticism have tended to be similar. The critics hope to damage the court’s credibility with other political leaders and the public, making it uncomfortable for the justices to issue unpopular rulings. Over the past few years, the cycle has started again. With Republican-appointed justices dominating the court — and pursuing an ambitious agenda that does sometimes conflict with public opinion — Democrats are denouncing the court in ways that would have been shocking not so long ago. “There has been a sea change in the way Democrats view and talk about the Supreme Court,” Carl Hulse, The Times’s chief Washington correspondent, who has been covering Congress since the 1990s, told me. “Democrats used to respectfully disagree with the justices. Now they call them illegitimate and corrupt, partisan and extreme.” A classic example of the old approach was Al Gore’s deference to the court, even while disagreeing with it, after the justices halted the counting of votes in the 2000 election and effectively made George W. Bush president. Examples of Democrats’ new approach include: “The problem is not that the Supreme Court is just conservative,” Representative Katie Porter said on the House floor. “The problem is that it is corrupt.” “Each scandal uncovered, each norm broken, each precedent-shattering ruling delivered is a reminder that we must restore justice and balance to the rogue, radical Supreme Court,” Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts said. “The Supreme Court is a cesspool of corruption devastating our communities,” Representative Cori Bush of Missouri said. “Creepy billionaires ran an ‘op’ to capture the court, just like 19th-century railroad barons would capture the railroad commission that set their rates,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said. “This activist, extremist MAGA court faces a legitimacy crisis,” Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon said. “And a legitimacy crisis for the court is a crisis for our democratic republic.” Hardball, two ways The criticism has three main sources. One, Republicans refused to allow Barack Obama to fill a court opening in his final year in office, only to help Donald Trump rapidly fill three seats. Two, the court has been impatient and ambitious, as my colleague Adam Liptak has written, willing to overturn precedents (in the case of abortion and other matters) and bipartisan legislation (in the case of voting rights and campaign finance law). Three, most recently, revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas’s undisclosed receipt of gifts from a billionaire and Republican donor have highlighted the lack of accountability for the justices. Partly for these reasons, the court’s public standing has slipped. Last year, only 25 percent of Americans said they had a lot of confidence in the court, down from 50 percent as recently as 2002, according to Gallup. Source: Gallup Adam Liptak put it this way: “Public confidence in the court has been shaken by two things: the breakneck pace of its conservative supermajority in moving the law to the right and its unwillingness to address questions about the justices’ ethical standards. That combination has left the court vulnerable to political attacks.” Many Republicans view the recent criticism as unhinged and damaging to American democracy. (James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal has made this argument a theme of recent columns.) According to this view, the liberals criticizing the court are sore losers trying to subvert legitimate court decisions with which they disagree. And the language that some Democrats are using certainly can be severe. In the context of American history, however, the fight is not so unusual. Republicans and the judges they appointed have decided to use hardball tactics to shape the law, including the stonewalling of Obama’s last court nominee and the aggressive rulings of the current court. Democrats are responding with their own hardball tactics, trying to damage the court’s credibility. In doing so, the Democrats hope to lay the groundwork for laws that could constrain the court’s authority or change its makeup. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to take such actions, and John Adams, Jefferson and Roosevelt all tried to do so. Adams and Jefferson succeeded, changing the structure of the judiciary. Roosevelt failed to pass his so-called court packing bill, but his criticism of the court — and his popularity — nonetheless seemed to influence the justices: They reversed course in his second term and stopped overruling major New Deal programs. The judiciary is not supposed to be the dominant branch of the federal government. It is supposed to be one of three equal branches. For now, Republicans have the upper hand because Democrats don’t have the votes in Congress to change the law. But the harsh recent criticism is intended to be an early step in a long campaign to constrain the court. “When something is broken, we don’t agonize,” Senator Markey said, while castigating the court. “We organize to fix it.” For more: Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, has defended Thomas against “bullying threats and intimidation tactics.” Jamelle Bouie, a Times Opinion columnist, has argued that Democrats still are doing too little to undermine the Supreme Court’s standing. Lyna Bentahar and Alain Delaquérière contributed research to today’s newsletter. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More THE LATEST NEWS War in Ukraine Family members of a Ukrainian soldier killed in the fight for Bakhmut.Nicole Tung for The New York Times Russia has claimed victory in the eastern city of Bakhmut, celebrating it as a major mission accomplished. Ukraine insists the city has not completely fallen. Moscow’s purported success may also be an Achilles’ heel: Defending Bakhmut could weaken Russia’s ability to hold off a broader Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Biden administration said the U.S. had delivered the equipment Ukraine needs to begin that counteroffensive. U.S. start-ups are using the war to demonstrate new weapons, but they’re struggling to sell them to a risk-averse Defense Department. Russia put more Americans on its sanctions list, singling out enemies of Donald Trump. Politics After a call with President Biden, Speaker Kevin McCarthy sounded more optimistic about reaching a debt limit deal. The two agreed to meet today. Senator Tim Scott’s expected presidential bid could raise the profile of Black conservatives. The N.A.A.C.P. issued a travel advisory for Florida, urging visitors to consider Gov. Ron DeSantis’s policies on diversity and race. International The governing party in Greece took a strong lead in the country’s elections but fell short of a majority, setting the stage for a second vote. Mexico’s top human rights official, an ally of its president, was targeted with Pegasus spyware while investigating the military. The new yellow vest: French people are banging saucepans to protest changes to pensions. Other Big Stories A fire at a Minnesota mosque was at least the fifth similar act of vandalism in the state this year. The Minnesota Senate passed a bill that would guarantee drivers for Uber and Lyft a minimum wage and other benefits. Uber placed its head of diversity, equity and inclusion on leave after workers complained an employee event she moderated, titled “Don’t Call Me Karen,” was insensitive. Meta was fined $1.3 billion for violating E.U. data privacy rules. Opinions “Succession” busts one of America’s most cherished myths, Elizabeth Spiers argues: That striving should be celebrated. American-made F-16 fighter jets will not just keep Ukraine alive, but help it win, David French writes. Here are columns by Nicholas Kristof on parasitic worms and Ezra Klein on the debt ceiling. For a limited time, save 50% on your first year of New York Times Games. Enjoy the full games experience — Spelling Bee, Wordle, The Crossword and more. MORNING READS Zibo, China.Qilai Shen for The New York Times Barbecue city: This is China’s hottest tourist destination. First class: It’s getting bigger. Extreme D.I.Y.: A Washington State couple built a high-style modernist house themselves. Metropolitan Diary: A shop where everyone’s name is the same. Father’s Day: Pick a gift early. Advice from Wirecutter: These are the best deals at R.E.I. Lives Lived: Gloria Molina was a groundbreaking Chicana politician in California, a fierce advocate for the communities she represented. She died at 74. SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC Brittney Griner.Christian Petersen/Getty Images Back on the court: Brittney Griner played in her first official games after months in Russian custody. The Mercury lost, but each appearance was a celebration. W.N.B.A. superstar: In just her second game with the Liberty, Breanna Stewart broke the franchise’s single-game scoring record with a 45-point explosion. N.B.A. blowouts: Miami embarrassed Boston last night, giving the Heat a 3-0 series lead. The Nuggets, their Western Conference counterparts, have their own 3-0 lead against the Lakers. P.G.A. Championship: Brooks Koepka won, becoming the first LIV Golf player to capture a major since joining the circuit. Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM Youtube Advertising The World Watches YouTube If viewers could only watch one service for a year, they'd choose YouTube, according to TalkShoppe. Learn More ARTS AND IDEAS Dining in Dallas Sadelle’s, an upscale deli.JerSean Golatt for The New York Times Dallas is big, and getting bigger — by the 2030s, it could become the third-largest city in the U.S. But without beaches, mountains or other natural attractions, it’s leaning into its high-end dining scene to entice residents. In the past few years, outposts of elite restaurants such as STK, Komodo and Carbone have opened in the city, and more seem to be moving in all the time. “It is like the U.S.’s version of Dubai,” said Julie Macklowe, whose whiskey sells for $400 a shot in some Dallas restaurants. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook Bobbi Lin for The New York Times These chocolate soufflés are simple. Travel Read your way through Los Angeles. What to Listen To A playlist for tranquillity. Now Time to Play The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were combatant and noncombatant. Here are today’s puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter misidentified the commencement speaker at the University of Delaware. It will be the former astronaut Mae Jemison, not President Biden. Here’s today’s front page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.