Members phkrause Posted May 19 Author Members Share Posted May 19 May 19, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Callie Holtermann explains an interesting internet trend among teenage boys. We’re also covering Israel, Indian Muslims and forever renters. — David Leonhardt Evan Jenkins for The New York Times Trending scents By Callie Holtermann Reporter on the Styles desk There’s something going on with the way teenage boys smell. It’s become a cliché for adolescents to douse themselves in Axe body spray at the first sign of puberty. But lately, teen and even tween boys with money to spare are growing obsessed with designer fragrances that cost hundreds of dollars. Ask a teenager why he wants a $200 bottle of cologne, and he might tell you he’s “smellmaxxing,” a term for enhancing one’s musk that is spreading on social media. “I started seeing a lot of videos on TikTok and thought, I don’t want to miss out,” said Logan, a 14-year-old in Chicago who has been putting his bar mitzvah money toward a collection of high-end colognes. He displays bottles from Valentino and Emporio Armani proudly, in front of his lava lamp, and considers his nearly $300 bottle of Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille to be his signature scent. “I don’t think I’ve ever smelled Axe,” he said. Some teens are buying fragrances with their allowance money, while others request them as birthday or holiday gifts from their parents (with varying levels of success). But they’re moving the needle: Teenage boys’ annual spending on fragrance rose 26 percent since last spring, according to a recent survey by an investment bank. For a story in The Times’s Style section, which was published this morning, I talked to adolescents and their parents about the rise of young scent hounds, and why the cosmetic products of adulthood seem to be catching on earlier than ever. Notes of honey I spent a few months speaking to teenagers at fragrance counters around New York and in online cologne forums. What struck me most was the language they used, which sounded more like the stuff of sommeliers than middle schoolers. The scent Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier has “a really good honey note,” said Luke Benson, a 14-year-old who lives in Orlando, Fla., and says he talks about fragrances with his friends at sleepovers. Tom Ford Noir Extreme, on the other hand, is “a lot spicier and a little bit darker.” “I’d never heard him say a designer name of anything,” Luke’s mother, Brooke, told me. Evan Jenkins for The New York Times Other teenagers name-checked obscure legumes used in perfumery or informed me of their distaste for the scent of oud. One paused our conversation to make sure I was familiar with “sillage,” a French term for how heavily a fragrance lingers in the air. (Now I am.) For many boys, the appeal of designer fragrances is in the air of maturity they confer upon their wearer. Young people say the scents make them feel more adult and talk about them in a manner that emulates the older fragrance influencers they follow online. The influencer effect Over the decades, trendy scents like Drakkar Noir and CK One have gone in and out of vogue among late teens and twenty-somethings. But TikTok influencers appear to be motivating even younger boys to seek out more expensive scents. “Social media and TikTok make people want to be more grown up,” Luke said. TikTok’s fragrance influencers recommend scents for different occasions; date night, going to the gym, attending middle school. Most prominent among them is Jeremy Fragrance, an often-shirtless German with nearly nine million followers. In his videos, he sniffs his fans, trying to guess which scents they are wearing. And a younger generation inspired by Jeremy Fragrance is coming up behind him. Jatin Arora, 18, shares daily fragrance reviews with more than a million followers. His collection of nearly 400 bottles includes many free products from brands, which seem to be catching on to the fact that these influencers can get their products in front of younger buyers. Hannah Glover, a middle-school physical fitness teacher in South Carolina, has been a little bewildered to see her 11-year-old students coming to school with $160 bottles of cologne. “These middle school kids are so impressionable,” she said. “I mean, you can sell them anything.” Glover banned spritzing in her classroom, but it wasn’t enough: Glass bottles keep shattering in students’ backpacks and unleashing their scents upon the entire school. “Sometimes I’d rather take the B.O.,” she said. ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Israel-Hamas War Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s cabinet, threatened to leave the government unless Benjamin Netanyahu answered questions about the future of the war, including a postwar plan for Gaza. Thousands of demonstrators in Tel Aviv called on the Israeli government to negotiate a hostage deal with Hamas. Ambassadors to Israel from the U.S. and other countries gave speeches. A marketplace for survival supplies — including entire aid parcels — has emerged in Gaza. War in Ukraine In Kharkiv, Ukraine. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times Russian forces have moved closer to the outskirts of Kharkiv, raising fears that the northeastern city — Ukraine’s second-largest — could soon be within artillery range. The new Russian defense minister is a technocrat with no military experience. He is also a true believer in Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical moves. More International News In Noida, India. Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times “It is a lifeless life”: Indian Muslims grapple with vilification under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Unchecked urban sprawl and poor infrastructure have strained Mexico City’s water supply. This summer, one critical system may stop working. In Pakistan, where people are particularly suspicious of the security services, a conspiracy theory took hold that gold-painted street performers in Islamabad were spies. France has issued scratch-and-sniff baguette postage stamps ahead of the Olympics. Politics Increased threats of violence are changing how public officials in the U.S. do their jobs: Some say they are reluctant to take on contentious issues. President Biden will deliver a commencement speech at the historically Black, all-male Morehouse College. The audience represent a slice of the electorate that is drifting toward Donald Trump. The Pentagon is expanding its capacity to wage war in space, a response to advances by China and Russia. Other Big Stories In Ithaca, N.Y. Todd Heisler/The New York Times Last year, Tommy Rath was beaten and taken away from a homeless encampment in New York. His vanishing has haunted his family and the city of Ithaca. A record number of migrants to the U.S. has left many with legitimate asylum cases unable to find a lawyer. The Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk defeated the British fighter Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Who has the advantage in the presidential debates? Trump. That the debates are occurring at all shows that Biden, trailing Trump in the polls, is desperate. “Time is running out to turn around the public’s dismal view of his presidency,” Liz Peek writes for The Hill. Biden. The low number of debates the candidates agreed to leaves Biden with fewer opportunities to meaningfully gaffe, especially so far out from November. “The guy whose name is on the cover of ‘The Art of the Deal’ just got outmaneuvered,” Jim Geraghty writes for The Washington Post. FROM OPINION We dont always need to use an apostrophe, John McWhorter writes. A.I. chatbots designed to provide lonely people with companionship only discourage them from forming human connections, Jessica Grose writes. Bring back movies dedicated to making us cry, Heather Havrilesky writes. Here are columns by Nicholas Kristof on an invasion of Rafah, and Ross Douthat on Trump’s Manhattan trial. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. ADVERTISEMENT MORNING READS In the Bronx. David Dee Delgado for The New York Times Bouncing: As New York’s Mexican population has grown, lowriders have put a vivid stamp on the city’s car scene. Renters: Many people have decided that renting forever is their best — or only — option. Food fight: Is a taco a sandwich? It depends on the law. Buzz, chirp, wee-oo: Cicadas sing at volumes similar to an airplane. Listen to some species. Vows: Captain Sandy of Bravo’s “Below Deck Mediterranean” finds love on land. Lives Lived: Brig. Gen. Bud Anderson single-handedly shot down 16 German planes over Europe during World War II. After the war, he became one of America’s top test pilots during the “Right Stuff” era. He died at 102. THE INTERVIEW Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Karsten Moran for The New York Times By David Marchese This week’s subject for The Interview is the marine biologist and climate policy expert Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, author of the coming book “What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures.” We talked about how individuals might change their thinking about the climate crisis. Is it your sense that there are people who want to be involved in climate but are paralyzed by fear or despair? First of all, I don’t think there’s any one way we should be communicating about climate. Some people are very motivated by the bad news. Some people are overwhelmed by that and don’t know where to start. I just saw a study that said if we follow the most plausible possible path to decarbonization by 2050, the amount of carbon emissions already in the air will result in something like $38 trillion worth of damages every year. A future like that is going to involve sacrifices. Whether we choose to embrace it as a sacrifice or reframe it like, No, we’re actually helping — What is it that you don’t want to give up? I don’t want to give up the range of possibilities for my kids. I assume you care about other people on the planet, besides your children. You know, I just don’t know how to think about the future. I’ve done a handful of interviews with people who are thinking about the climate crisis, and the fundamental thing I’m trying to understand is how to think about the future, and I don’t feel like I understand. Perhaps it’s worth saying it’s OK not to be hopeful. I feel like there’s so much emphasis in our society on being hopeful, as if that’s the answer to unlocking everything. I’m not a hopeful person. I’m not an optimist. I see the data. I see what’s coming. But I also see the full range of possible futures. I feel like there’s so much that we could create, and the question that motivates me right now is, ‘What if we get it right?’ Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photograph by Peter van Agtmael/Magnum, for The New York Times. Click the cover image above to read this week’s magazine. BOOKS Zoë Schlanger Heather Sten Intelligence: In “The Light Eaters,” the climate reporter Zoë Schlanger looks at how plants sense the world. By the Book: The most interesting thing the artist Kara Walker recently learned from a book? How to skin a man alive. Our editors’ picks: “The Weight of Nature,” about climate change’s impact on our brains, and five other books. Times best sellers: The celebrity memoirs “You Never Know,” by Tom Selleck with Ellis Henican, and Whoopi Goldberg’s “Bits and Pieces” are new this week on the hardcover nonfiction list. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Embrace the dark side. Try a goth cake. Go bold with a yellow bag for summer. Treat your acne. Hang outdoor string lights. Read this before deciding to track your child. THE WEEK AHEAD What to Watch For Trump’s defense team presents its case tomorrow in his trial in Manhattan. Taiwan inaugurates Lai Ching-te as president tomorrow. The French Open begins tomorrow. A British court will hear the appeal of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, against extradition to the U.S. Primary elections in Idaho, Kentucky and Oregon are on Tuesday. Kenya’s president begins a state visit to the U.S. on Thursday. Idaho’s Democratic presidential caucus is on Thursday. The Cannes Film Festival announces the winner of its Palme d’Or award on Saturday. Meal Plan Jessica Emily Marx for The New York Times If, like the Cooking editor Margaux Laskey, the weather where you are is unpredictable, you may want to prepare dishes that work whatever the forecast. In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Margaux offers such recipes, including a shrimp pasta and grilled soy-basted chicken with spicy cashews. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was tributary. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. 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. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted May 20 Author Members Share Posted May 20 May 20, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re covering “neopopulism” — as well as the death of Iran’s president, Chinese social media and Taylor Swift versus the Beatles. Hakeem Jeffries, left, and Speaker Mike Johnson. Kenny Holston/The New York Times A flurry of bipartisanship Washington, you often hear, is a place so polarized that our leaders barely get anything done. But that notion is not exactly consistent with the past few years. Consider these major political stories: President Biden — who had already maintained many of Donald Trump’s trade policies — announced last week that he was expanding tariffs on Chinese-made goods. House Democrats this month rescued the House speaker, a Republican whom far-right members of his party wanted to topple after he helped pass a bipartisan foreign aid package. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a progressive leader, has worked on legislation with several conservative Senate Republicans, including Josh Hawley and J.D. Vance. Vance, for his part, recently praised Lina Khan — the chair of the Federal Trade Commission who is one of the most progressive members of the Biden administration — for “doing a pretty good job.” Biden has signed a more significant set of bipartisan bills — on infrastructure, semiconductors, gun violence, the electoral process and more — than any president in decades. My editors recently asked me to make sense of this conundrum: A polarized country in which bipartisanship has somehow become normal. To do so, I spoke with Congress members from both parties, as well as Biden administration officials and outside experts. I emerged from the project believing that the U.S. was indeed a polarized country in many ways — but less polarized than people sometimes think. Sources: U.S. House of Representatives; U.S. Senate | Excludes those who voted “Present” or those who did not vote. | By Ashley Wu On many high-profile issues, especially connected to economics, most Americans share a basic set of views. They favor both capitalism and government intervention to address the free market’s shortcomings. Most Americans worry that big business has become too powerful. Most are skeptical of both free trade and high levels of immigration. Most are worried about China’s rise and its increasing assertiveness. I describe this emerging consensus as neopopulism. For a quarter-century after the end of the Cold War, policymakers operated under a different consensus, known alternately as neoliberalism or the Washington Consensus. It held that market capitalism, left largely to its own devices, would bring prosperity to the U.S. and freedom to the rest of the world. Most Americans were always skeptical of the core components of the Washington Consensus. They worried about a world in which national borders meant less, and goods, capital and people could all move more freely. As it turned out, they were right to worry: Neoliberalism failed to deliver on many of its promises. Incomes for most Americans have grown slowly, and China and Russia have moved away from liberal democracy. Neopopulism is a response to these developments and to public opinion. To different degrees, both Democrats and Republicans — both Biden and Donald Trump — have adopted it. “There are new problems in the world, and a consensus is emerging about what those problems are,” Oren Cass, who runs a conservative think tank, told me. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, has put it this way: “The center of gravity itself is moving, and this is a good thing.” The title of a recent book by the historian Gary Gerstle also captures the change: “The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order.” In the essay that I’ve written, I trace the history of these ideas and describe where neopopulism may go from here. I also talk about the potential excesses of populism and some threats to the recent period of bipartisanship. You can find the article here — and you can leave a comment if you have thoughts. I look forward to hearing what you have to say and plan to reply to some of your comments later today. ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Iran President Ebrahim Raisi Vahid Salemi/Associated Press Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, died in a helicopter crash, state news media reported. The country’s foreign minister also died. Their helicopter crashed in a rugged, mountainous area. Search and rescue teams combed dense forest through rain and fog for hours. There were no survivors. Raisi, a hard-line Shiite cleric, was a protégé of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, will serve as acting president. He must hold an election within 50 days. For Iran, the crash comes at a difficult time: The country faces economic challenges and tension with Israel. War in Ukraine Halyna Semibratska, 101, right, and her daughter Iryna Malyk, 72. Emile Ducke for The New York Times. A small group of older Ukrainians are reliving memories of German occupation during World War II. The Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk became the undisputed heavyweight champion over the weekend. His victory lifted morale at home. Asia Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, was sworn in today. He said he would strengthen ties with the West and resist threats from China. On Chinese social media, young women who appear to be Russian say they support China. They are deepfakes. More International News Gazans are fleeing Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, as Israel pursues a new offensive there. The Congolese army said it had foiled a coup attempt that involved three Americans. Over the weekend, comet fragments exploded over the skies of Portugal and Spain. See videos. Elections President Biden Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times Biden asked the graduating class of Morehouse College, and by extension Black voters, for their support. Age is a big topic in the presidential election. But it isn’t in the Senate, where few have raised concerns about two octogenarians — Bernie Sanders and Angus King — running for another term. What threat does A.I. pose for the election? The Times customized chatbots to be conservative or liberal. See how they spread disinformation. Business Disneyland character workers in California voted to unionize. A Senate inquiry found that BMW imported cars to the U.S. tied to forced labor in China. As traditional congregations shrink, religious organizations offer money and training to aspiring church founders, The Wall Street Journal reports. Other Big Stories Shawna Brady with a photo of her son, Tre’Von Dickson. Sylvia Jarrus for The New York Times Columbus, Ohio, had only about 100 homicides a year. A pandemic surge in gun violence has changed things. Every year, tens of millions of farm animals travel across state lines in conditions that can facilitate the spread of disease. More than 60 years ago, Edward Dwight was chosen to be the first Black astronaut, but he was passed over to go to space. On Sunday, he finally made it on a Blue Origin flight. The Northern Lights could return today to Scotland and Northern Ireland. There is a slight chance of visibility across parts of Alaska and northern Canada. Opinions Trust in American higher education is at a low. To revive it, universities should educate students on how to be citizens, Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Harun Küçük write. Marijuana’s reclassification as a less-addictive drug won’t end the harm that’s come from its criminalization. The U.S. has to legalize it, Maia Szalavitz writes. Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss Senator Robert Menendez and the latest election polls. Here are columns by David French on the Trump trial, and Ezra Klein on Biden’s bad election news. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS A quick hello. George Etheredge for The New York Times The animals missed you, too: Prospect Park Zoo will soon reopen months after it suffered rain damage. A Times reporter went for a visit. Coffee table book: Take a walk through the Hamptons with a photographer and her iPhone. Ask Vanessa: “Is there an alternative to the little black dress?” Metropolitan Diary: No cooler? No problem. Lives Lived: Moorhead Kennedy Jr., a foreign service officer, was one of 52 hostages seized in Iran and held for 444 days. He later challenged the U.S. government to reshape its diplomacy with the Islamic world. He died at 93. SPORTS N.B.A.: The Minnesota Timberwolves, in the biggest comeback in Game 7 history, defeated the Denver Nuggets to advance to the Western Conference finals. The Indiana Pacers beat the New York Knicks to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2014. Golf: Xander Schauffele, after a career of close calls, finally won his first major tournament at the P.G.A. Championship. NASCAR: The drivers Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got into a fistfight after a wreck on the second lap of the All-Star Race. ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS In Dakar, Senegal. Annika Hammerschlag for The New York Times The Oscar-nominated movie “Io Capitano” follows two young cousins from Senegal — Seydou and Moussa — as they attempt to migrate to Europe. Along the way, they encounter smugglers, armed robbers and the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean. The film’s crew and director have screened it at several places across Senegal, including at youth centers and schools. One viewer at a screening, 18-year-old Barra Gassama, became teary-eyed while watching the movie. His brother died a decade ago trying to make it to Spain. “This reminds me so much of him,” he said. More on culture Swifties Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York Times Is Taylor Swift more popular than the Beatles or Michael Jackson were? See the results of a test. Sean Combs, also known as Diddy, apologized on social media after CNN published a video of him from 2016 striking and dragging Cassie, his girlfriend at the time. The artist Kehinde Wiley, known for his 2018 portrait of Barack Obama, denied claims of sexual assault made by another artist. The spring art sales at auction houses like Christie’s suggested that minimalism may be out and surrealism is in. Read more takeaways. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Julia Gartland for The New York Times Make a coconut-miso salmon curry in less than 30 minutes. Embrace solitude. Improve your bread baking. Give a useful housewarming gift. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were immobilize and mobilize. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted May 22 Author Members Share Posted May 22 May 21, 2024 By German Lopez Good morning. We’re covering a decline in drug overdose deaths — plus Trump’s trial, Iran’s president and Scarlett Johansson’s voice. Narcan, an overdose antidote. Amanda Lucier for The New York Times A turnaround Last week brought some rare good news on drugs: Overdose deaths declined in 2023. And while the opioid crisis has taken some surprising and terrible twists over the years, it may finally be turning around. There are two main causes. First, drug epidemics tend to follow a natural course in which the drugs enter a market, spread and then fade away, at least for some time. The opioid epidemic appears to have entered that final phase. Second, policymakers have increased access to both Narcan, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses, and addiction treatment. These changes have saved lives. Today’s newsletter will explain both causes. Faddish cycle Drugs are often faddish; epidemics tend to ebb on their own. Why? Users die. People see the damage that a drug does, and they shun it. Surviving users move on to other drugs that they see as better or safer, sometimes incorrectly. Think of all the drugs that have come and gone over the past several decades, such as crack, meth and synthetic marijuana. (In the case of meth, a comeback is underway. Even the worst fads can return.) The opioid epidemic is no exception. In fact, it has arguably been a succession of three different fads — first opioid painkillers, then heroin and finally fentanyl — that have felt like one. Source: C.D.C. | Chart shows predicted provisional death counts. | By The New York Times In the 1990s, doctors started to prescribe more painkillers. The drugs proliferated not just among patients but everyone else as teenagers took them from parents’ medicine cabinets and peddlers sold them on the black market. By the 2010s, many painkiller users had moved on to heroin as they lost access to the pills — because doctors stopped prescribing them — or sought a stronger high. Then, fentanyl arrived. Fentanyl has been worse than heroin and other opioids. Drug cartels make it in laboratories in Mexico, using ingredients typically imported from China. Before the current crisis, fentanyl was not widely misused in the U.S. It first spread in drug markets across the East Coast and the Midwest in the mid-2010s, consistently causing a spike in overdoses wherever it went. For a little while, its spread largely stopped at the Mississippi River. It was easier to mix with the white-powder heroin popular in the eastern U.S. than with the black tar heroin popular in the western U.S. As fentanyl’s spread briefly stalled, overdose deaths declined nationally in 2018. But then the drug went westward, reaching the Pacific Coast. That new wave, coupled with the Covid pandemic, caused annual overdose deaths to exceed 100,000. So why is last year’s drop different from 2018’s? Opioids, including fentanyl, have already reached every corner of the country; they have few places left to spread. The Covid pandemic is over, taking with it the chaos and isolation that led to more overdoses. The drug users most likely to die have already done so. More people have rejected opioid use. And the remaining users have learned how to use fentanyl more safely. Policy’s impact Some policy changes have played a role in the decline, too. In particular, federal officials have successfully pushed the use of Narcan (also known as naloxone), a medication that reverses opioid overdoses. Police officers and firefighters often administer it. Libraries and schools carry it. Pharmacies sell it over the counter. Some first aid kits include it. People who overdose are now much likelier to get Narcan quickly enough to save their lives. The federal government has also put more money toward addiction treatment, both through Medicaid and through new laws aimed at the drug crisis. The government has pushed doctors to prescribe medications that treat opioid addiction. Some states, like Vermont, have made treatment more accessible and higher quality. Training community members to test for fentanyl. Desiree Rios/The New York Times These changes have not addressed every problem. Patients can struggle to pay for treatment. And some programs continue to use practices not supported by science, such as confrontational approaches and therapies in which patients bond with horses. Still, the policy changes have helped improve the treatment system overall. More to do Even after last year’s decline, annual overdose deaths remain above 100,000. That death toll is higher than all annual deaths from car crashes and guns combined. The introduction of a new drug — the next fad — could still increase that death toll again. Policymakers could speed up the drop in deaths. They could require health insurance plans to cover addiction treatment. They could fund more high-quality treatment. They could reduce the price of Narcan and similar medications. They could better coordinate with China and Mexico to reduce the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. The opioid epidemic is burning out anyway, but its decline could be steeper, saving thousands more lives. Related: A major study found that weed use among teenagers was lower in states where the drug was legal, confounding expectations. ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Trump on Trial Donald Trump Dave Sanders for The New York Times The prosecution rested its case in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial after Michael Cohen finished testifying. The defense is likely to rest today. Prosecutors found a photo of Trump with his bodyguard from October 2016, taken shortly before Cohen said he called the bodyguard to discuss the payment to Stormy Daniels with Trump. The defense had challenged Cohen’s account of the call. During cross-examination, Cohen admitted to stealing from Trump’s company. He kept money that was meant to go to a tech company hired to rig polls in Trump’s favor. The defense called Robert Costello, a lawyer who advised Cohen before they had a falling out. Costello testified that Cohen told him that Trump “knew nothing” about paying off Daniels. Cohen previously said that he’d lied to Costello. Trump has often sat still, his eyes closed, during the proceedings. Sometimes he’s sleeping; sometimes he seems to be compartmentalizing, our colleague Maggie Haberman says. A verdict could come next week, answering the question of whether Trump will campaign for president as a convicted felon. Iranian President’s Death In Tehran, Iran. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Iran began funeral events for Ebrahim Raisi, its former president who died in a helicopter crash. A “technical failure” caused the crash that killed Raisi and Iran’s foreign minister, the state media reported. Images of the crash site show that Raisi’s helicopter was a model developed for the Canadian military in the 1960s. Iran struggles to update its aviation fleet because of sanctions. Raisi was a candidate to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, as Iran’s supreme leader. His death complicates a difficult search for the next ruler. Israel-Hamas War Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Yahya Sinwar. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters; Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Hamas for crimes related to Oct. 7 and the war in Gaza. President Biden called the prosecutor’s request outrageous: “There is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.” He later said that what’s happening in Gaza “is not genocide.” A.I. Scarlett Johansson Paul Morigi/Getty Images OpenAI asked Scarlett Johansson, who played a seductive virtual assistant in the movie “Her,” to become a voice of ChatGPT. She said no twice, but the company released an assistant that sounds like her. “I was shocked, angered and in disbelief”: Johansson rebuked Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive. The company has suspended the voice. OpenAI designed a voice of a “lightly flirtatious, wholly attentive woman,” our movie critic writes. Read more about how the voice resembled the one in “Her.” More on Business In Torrance, Calif. Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The seafood chain Red Lobster has filed for bankruptcy. The company plans to close many of its restaurants. The financier Ivan Boesky, who symbolized the brash Wall Street of the 1980s — and paid a $100 million penalty for insider trading — died at 87. 2024 Election Trump and the Republican Party beat Biden and the Democrats in fund-raising for the first time this election. The Biden campaign still has far more cash on hand. Trump’s Truth Social account posted a video with hypothetical newspaper articles about what his victory would mean for America that referred to “the creation of a unified Reich.” His campaign said a staffer had posted it. Other Big Stories Jimmy Chérizier, also known as Barbecue, is one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders. Matias Delacroix/Associated Press Gangs control Haiti’s infrastructure, including police stations and ports. South Africa’s highest court barred former President Jacob Zuma, who is attempting a political comeback, from running for Parliament next week. His new party will still put his face on ballots, complicating the election. Contaminated blood products killed about 3,000 patients of Britain’s National Health Service, a long-awaited report found. The authorities hid their failings for years. Storms could bring tornadoes and damaging winds to the Midwest today. Opinions Arizona has a choice: become more like Texas or more like California. This year’s U.S. Senate race will suggest where it’s headed, Tom Zoellner writes. Samer Attar spent weeks documenting the struggle to save lives in Gaza’s ravaged hospitals. Watch his dispatches in this Opinion Video. Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on Trump’s criminal trial and Paul Krugman on the Dow’s hitting 40,000. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS Emilio Parra Doiztua for The New York Times Travel: Spend 36 hours on the Spanish island of Minorca. Climate questions: Is biodegradable plastic really a thing? Yes, but it isn’t a perfect solution. Health: How to soothe — and prevent — ingrown hairs. Lives Lived: Bruce Nordstrom, whose grandfather immigrated from Sweden and founded Nordstrom as a small shoe-store chain, was instrumental in turning the retailer into an international fashion giant. He died at 90. SPORTS N.H.L.: The Edmonton Oilers survived Game 7 in Vancouver despite giving up two goals in the final nine minutes. They will play the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final. N.B.A.: The Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers play in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals tonight. Boston is a favorite. ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s style — the skinny ties, button-downs and weather-beaten tan — is unique among this year’s presidential hopefuls. It also might be an electoral advantage: His preppy look evokes, in the American mind, his father and his uncle, the Times’s chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman writes. “It matters because those unstated associations serve to moderate Mr. Kennedy’s more outré positions,” Vanessa adds. More on culture “Kinds of Kindness” stars Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Emma Stone. Sam Hellmann for The New York Times The Times sat down with the stars of Yorgos Lanthimos’s new dark comedy, “Kinds of Kindness,” which just premiered at Cannes. Penguin Random House, the largest publishing house in the U.S., dismissed two top executives; the industry faces financial challenges. The author of “Crazy Rich Asians” left Singapore’s upper crust when he was 11. He’s still writing about it. The Portal — a live video feed between Dublin and New York City — has reopened. It was shut off last week because of bad behavior on both sides, including a flasher. Stephen Colbert had thoughts about Justice Samuel Alito blaming his wife for the flying of an upside-down American flag. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Linda Xiao for The New York Times Roast a curry-rubbed half chicken with peppers, an ideal recipe for one. Celebrate love with an anniversary gift. Take a portable solar battery charger with you on a hike. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was taxonomy. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German P.S. We apologize: We told you yesterday that the comments section for David Leonhardt’s article on “neopopulism” would still be open, and it wasn’t. But it’s open again now and will remain so all day. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted May 23 Author Members Share Posted May 23 May 22, 2024 Good morning. Today my colleague Azam Ahmed is writing about a hidden history of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. We’re also covering Trump’s trial, Volodymyr Zelensky and “bromakase.” —David Leonhardt Malika mourns her son Ahmad Rahman, who was abducted in front of witnesses in 2016. Bryan Denton for The New York Times America’s monster By Azam Ahmed I covered the war in Afghanistan and went back after the Taliban took over. General Abdul Raziq was one of America’s fiercest allies in the fight against the Taliban. He was young and charismatic — a courageous warrior who commanded the loyalty and respect of his men. He helped beat back the Taliban in the crucial battlefield of Kandahar, even as the insurgents advanced across Afghanistan. But his success, until his 2018 assassination, was built on torture, extrajudicial killing and abduction. In the name of security, he transformed the Kandahar police into a combat force without constraints. His officers, who were trained, armed and paid by the United States, took no note of human rights or due process, according to a New York Times investigation into thousands of cases that published this morning. Most of his victims were never seen again. Washington’s strategy in Afghanistan aimed to beat the Taliban by winning the hearts and minds of the people it was supposedly fighting for. But Raziq embodied a flaw in that plan. The Americans empowered warlords, corrupt politicians and outright criminals in the name of military expediency. It picked proxies for whom the ends often justified the means. I’ll explain in today’s newsletter how using men like Raziq drove many Afghans toward the Taliban. And it persuaded others, including those who might have been sympathetic to U.S. goals, that the U.S.-backed central government could not be trusted to fix Afghanistan. If there was ever any chance that the United States could uproot the Taliban, the war strategy made it much harder. A savage campaign My colleague Matthieu Aikins and I have covered Afghanistan for years. After America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, we were suddenly able to visit people and places that were off-limits during the fighting. We traveled there, hoping to learn what really happened during America’s longest war. Alongside a team of Afghan researchers, we combed through more than 50,000 handwritten complaints kept in ledgers by the former U.S.-backed government of Kandahar. In them, we found the details of almost 2,200 cases of suspected disappearances. From there, we went to hundreds of homes across Kandahar. The original missing-person complaint paperwork and passport pictures for Salahuddin, a rickshaw driver who disappeared in 2016. Bryan Denton for The New York Times We tracked down nearly 1,000 people who said their loved ones had been taken or killed by government security forces. We corroborated nearly 400 cases, often with eyewitnesses to the abductions. We also substantiated their claims with Afghan police reports, affidavits and other government records they had filed. In each of the forced disappearances, the person is still missing. Even at the time, U.S. officials grasped Raziq’s malevolence. “Sometimes we asked Raziq about incidents of alleged human rights abuses, and when we got answers we would be like, ‘Whoa, I hope we didn’t implicate ourselves in a war crime just by hearing about it,’” recalled Henry Ensher, a State Department official who held multiple posts on Afghanistan. “We knew what we were doing, but we didn’t think we had a choice,” Ensher said. The cost It would be too simple to say that Raziq’s tactics were entirely in vain. They worked in some respects, reasserting government control in Kandahar and pushing insurgents into the hinterlands. Raziq earned the admiration of many who opposed the Taliban. More than a dozen U.S. officials said that without him the Taliban would have advanced much faster. But Raziq’s methods took a toll. They stirred such enmity among his victims that the Taliban turned his cruelty into a recruiting tool. Taliban officials posted videos about him on WhatsApp to attract new fighters. Abdul Raziq at his home in Kandahar City in 2015, shadowed by one of his many bodyguards. Bryan Denton for The New York Times Many Afghans came to revile the U.S.-backed government and everything it represented. “None of us supported the Taliban, at least not at first,” said Fazul Rahman, whose brother was abducted in front of witnesses during Raziq’s reign. “But when the government collapsed, I ran through the streets, rejoicing.” Even some who cheered Raziq’s ruthlessness lamented the corruption and criminality he engendered — a key part of why the Afghan government collapsed in 2021. After Raziq’s death, his commanders went further. They extorted ordinary people and stole from their own men’s wages and supplies. “What they brought under the name of democracy was a system in the hands of a few mafia groups,” said one resident of Kandahar who initially supported the government. “The people came to hate democracy.” Historians and scholars will spend years arguing whether the United States could have ever succeeded. The world’s wealthiest nation had invaded one of its poorest and attempted to remake it by installing a new government. Such efforts elsewhere have failed. But U.S. mistakes — empowering ruthless killers, turning allies into enemies, enabling rampant corruption — made the loss of its longest war at least partly self-inflicted. This is a story Matthieu and I will spend the coming months telling, from across Afghanistan. Read Azam’s investigation, and watch him explain how it came together. ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Trump on Trial The defense rested its case in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial. Trump declined to testify. The prosecution cross-examined Robert Costello, a lawyer who once advised Michael Cohen but has since criticized him. The jury saw emails in which Costello seemingly tried to manipulate Cohen on Trump’s behalf as federal officials investigated the hush-money payments. The court is adjourned until Tuesday, when both sides will give their closing arguments. “He wanted to take the stand, but then he saw it was three steps without a handrail”: The late night hosts joked about Trump’s decision not to testify. 2024 Elections Nicole Shanahan Jim Wilson/The New York Times Nicole Shanahan — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate — has called herself a “Silicon Valley princess.” Her past has included drug use and affairs, a Times examination found. Kennedy’s younger sister, Kerry, is leading their family’s opposition to his candidacy. “It’s heart-wrenching to be in this position,” she said. Trump suggested in an interview that he would let states restrict access to birth control. After a backlash, he posted that he would “never advocate” such restrictions. A former aide to Kevin McCarthy won a special election to finish McCarthy’s term in Congress. Read takeaways from yesterday’s elections. More on Politics Rudy Giuliani and 10 other Trump allies pleaded not guilty to charges that they tried to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Arizona. South Carolina barred health professionals from prescribing puberty-blocking drugs and performing gender-transition surgeries for minors. The Biden administration plans to keep fuel prices lower this summer by selling one million barrels of gasoline from a reserve in New England. War in Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview with The Times, said the West should defend Ukraine more aggressively without fear of nuclear escalation. Read a transcript of the interview. As Russian forces advance in northeastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military is fighting while slowly falling back to more fortified positions. Israel-Hamas War Spain, Norway and Ireland said that they would recognize an independent Palestinian state. Israel recalled its ambassadors from Ireland and Norway for consultations. Some of Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics have expressed support for him after the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor requested a warrant for his arrest. None of the aid that entered Gaza through a U.S.-built pier has been distributed, a Pentagon spokesman said. More International News Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, led prayers at a funeral for the country’s president, who died in a helicopter crash. A Greek court dropped charges against nine Egyptians over the sinking of a trawler with hundreds of migrants on board because the shipwreck was in international waters. In Mexico, howler monkeys are falling dead from trees because of the heat, The A.P. reports. Education At elite colleges, Gen Z — despite their popular image as idealists — are particularly corporate-minded. They say “sellout” is not an insult. The Biden administration canceled $7.7 billion in student loans, bringing the total debt canceled to about $167 billion. Other Big Stories Inside a Singapore Airlines flight. Reuters A 73-year-old man died and dozens of other passengers were injured after a flight from London to Singapore hit extreme turbulence. Storms and at least one tornado caused deaths and considerable damage in Iowa. Opinions Israel and Iran are both vulnerable to collapse. But Zionism is the world’s oldest anticolonialist struggle, and the risks facing Iran are graver, Bret Stephens writes. The world is on the verge of eradicating polio. The effort is succeeding because it has put the people living closest to the disease in charge, Richard Conniff writes. Here are columns by Thomas Friedman on Netanyahu and Thomas Edsall on Trump’s impact. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS Kimberly Arcand Supernova or coronavirus? A scientist finds beauty in the “visual synonyms” between the microscopic and the massive. Expiration: Eggs last longer than you think. Letter of Recommendation: One writer praises an unexpected means of escape — conferences. How to: Thinking of going vegetarian? Read this guide. Lives Lived: C. Gordon Bell helped create smaller, more affordable interactive computers that could be clustered into a network. He died at 89. SPORTS N.B.A.: The Boston Celtics won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals over the Indiana Pacers. “Bring ya ass”: A Timberwolves star’s off-the-cuff comment has become a rallying cry for the state of Minnesota. (They face the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals tonight.) N.F.L.: Aaron Rodgers returned to Jets practice for the first time since tearing an Achilles’ tendon four plays into last season. ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Jessica Attie for The New York Times A new sushi experience is on the rise in mainstream American restaurant culture: the “bromakase.” Unlike the tranquil traditional ritual of Japanese omakase dining, these restaurants feature cocktail lounges and hip-hop soundtracks. Bromakases borrow from aspects of high-end American steakhouses — with their excessive tabs, copious consumption and masculine energy — but give them a worldly sheen. Read Brett Anderson’s story. More on culture Chappell Roan Scott Kowalchyk/CBS, via Getty Images Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, singers with big online followings, are having a brush with mainstream success thanks to hook-driven pop tracks. Listen to the Times critic Jon Pareles’s six-minute review of Billie Eilish’s third studio album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” “The Apprentice,” a biopic about Trump’s relationships with his first wife and the lawyer Roy Cohn, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. A Trump spokesman called it “garbage.” Pixar laid off 175 employees and said it would focus on films rather than shows for Disney+. Jenny Erpenbeck’s “Kairos,” a novel about a love affair in the final years of East Germany, won the International Booker Prize for fiction translated into English. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times Try chicken Vesuvio, a classic Chicago dish with potatoes and a white wine sauce. Make the most of a small outdoor space. Buy a fast charger. Clean your grill ahead of Memorial Day. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were bluefin and unbelief. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. New York Times Cooking will publish a cookbook — “Easy Weeknight Dinners” — this fall. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted May 26 Author Members Share Posted May 26 May 24, 2024 SUPPORTED BY CONSUMER REPORTS Good morning. Today my colleague Nate Cohn offers a fresh look at Biden-Trump polling. We’re also covering a state dinner, the N.C.A.A. and driverless cars. —David Leonhardt President Biden greets voters in Wisconsin. Doug Mills/The New York Times A polling risk for Trump By Nate Cohn Chief political analyst The polls have shown Donald Trump with an edge for eight straight months, but there’s a sign his advantage might not be quite as stable as it looks: His lead is built on gains among voters who aren’t paying close attention to politics, who don’t follow traditional news and who don’t regularly vote. Disengaged voters on the periphery of the electorate are driving the polling results — and the story line — about the election. President Biden has actually led the last three New York Times/Siena national polls among those who voted in the 2020 election, even as he has trailed among registered voters overall. And looking back over the last few years, almost all of Trump’s gains came from these less engaged voters. Source: New York Times/Siena College surveys | 2020 data is adjusted to election results. | By The New York Times Importantly, these low-turnout voters are often from Democratic constituencies. Many back Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate. But in our polling, Biden wins just three-quarters of Democratic-leaning voters who didn’t vote in the last cycle, even as almost all high-turnout Democratic-leaners continue to support him. This trend illustrates the disconnect between Trump’s lead in the polls and Democratic victories in lower-turnout special elections. And it helps explain Trump’s gains among young and nonwhite voters, who tend to be among the least engaged. Trump’s dependence on these voters could make the race more volatile soon. As voters tune in over the next six months, there’s a chance that disengaged but traditionally Democratic voters could revert to their usual partisan leanings. Alternately, they might stay home, which could also help Biden. How they’re different It’s not just that less engaged voters are paying less attention. The Times/Siena data suggests that they have distinct political views, and that they get their political information from different sources. In the battleground states, Democratic-leaning irregular voters are far less likely to identify as liberal. They’re less likely to talk about abortion and democracy and more likely to worry about the economy. They overwhelmingly believe the economy is “poor” or “only fair,” while most of their high-turnout counterparts say it is “good” or “excellent.” Source: New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College polls of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada | By The New York Times One important factor might be media consumption. While Biden holds nearly all of his support from voters who consume traditional mainstream media — national newspapers, television networks and the like — the disengaged are far likelier to report getting their news from social media. Biden defectors are concentrated in this group. (A TikTok analysis found nearly twice as many pro-Trump posts on the platform as pro-Biden ones since November.) Low-turnout voters also pose a challenge for pollsters. While millions of them will undoubtedly turn out this November, no one knows just how many of them will ultimately show up — let alone exactly which ones will do so. This is always a challenge for pollsters. But in this cycle, if enough of them stay home, Biden could do much better on Election Day than it appears in the polls. Who will ultimately vote? If there are two consecutive elections with the same level of turnout, you might assume that the same people are voting each time. That’s not the way it works. There’s a lot more churn in the electorate than people realize. Even if the turnout stays the same, millions of prior voters will stay home and be replaced by millions who stayed home last time. Historically, around 25 percent of presidential election voters do not have a record of voting in the previous presidential election. This is partly because of newly registered voters, who usually vote in the next election (and who may have previously voted in a different state). But it’s also because around 30 percent to 40 percent of previous registrants who skipped the last election ultimately show up for the next one. There are good reasons to expect fewer voters in 2024 than in recent cycles, as the 2020 election was the highest-turnout election in a century. But if you think that means that there won’t be many new voters, you’re already wrong: In fact, 10 percent of registered 2020 nonvoters already turned out and voted in the relatively low-turnout 2022 midterms. The usual churn is already at work. Still, Trump’s strength among nonvoters means the exact number of new voters could be decisive. And exactly which new voters show up could also be pivotal. In recent years, Democrats have benefited from a hidden turnout advantage — a tendency for Democratic-leaners who vote to be more anti-Trump than those who stay home. With that history in mind, Democrats can hope that November’s election will draw a disproportionately anti-Trump group of irregular voters to the polls. There were signs of this yet again in The Times’s recent battleground polls. Of course, it’s unlikely that disengaged, irregular voters have already formed solid plans about November. There’s plenty of time for them to make up or change their minds about whom they might vote for — and about whether they’ll vote at all. More on the election Biden’s campaign released an ad aimed at Black voters that featured Trump’s past remarks defending white supremacists. Trump said that only he could get Russia to release Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter jailed in Moscow. Vladimir Putin “will do that for me,” he added. Nikki Haley joins Mitch McConnell, Bill Barr and other Trump critics who now endorse him. Other onetime allies, including Mike Pence and Chris Christie, have refused to. Much of Silicon Valley backs Democrats. But some investors, including two hosts of the popular “All In” podcast, have criticized Biden and embraced Trump. Democrats are investigating Trump’s meeting with oil and gas executives in which he asked for $1 billion in campaign donations and pledged to reverse Biden’s climate policies. Ohio’s governor, a Republican, called a special legislative session to fix a procedural issue that could prevent Biden’s name from appearing on the November ballot there. A MESSAGE FROM CONSUMER REPORTS Shop the tried and tested If it’s in your home or outdoor space, we likely test it. Access CR's expert ratings before you buy. Subscribe Now THE LATEST NEWS Kenyan State Dinner The Bidens with President William Ruto of Kenya and the first lady, Rachel Ruto. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Biden held a dinner in honor of Kenya, but the night was also meant to rally Democratic supporters. Barack Obama was a surprise guest. The guest list also included Bill and Hillary Clinton, Melinda Gates and Sean Penn. See who was there. Biden will designate Kenya as a major ally. Russia and China are also trying to strengthen ties with the country. Supreme Court The Supreme Court allowed South Carolina Republicans to keep a state voting map they drew to benefit their party. A lower court said the map diluted Black voters’ power. Democrats said Justice Samuel Alito should recuse himself from Trump-related cases after The Times revealed that two pro-Trump flags flew above Alito’s homes. Alito was the subject of late night jokes. More on Politics Louisiana’s legislature passed a bill that would designate abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances and make possessing them without a prescription a crime punishable with jail time. The Republican governor is expected to sign it. Senate Republicans again blocked a bipartisan border-security bill. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent who helped negotiate it, also voted no. Voters in Portland, Ore., this week ousted the county’s progressive prosecutor, Mike Schmidt. Schmidt lost to a deputy in his office who pledged to be tougher on crime. Israel-Hamas War Israel said it recovered the bodies of three hostages overnight in northern Gaza, The Washington Post reports. The U.S. military has delivered aid to Gaza through a temporary pier. But aid groups have struggled to distribute the supplies as hungry people have stopped and looted the trucks. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at U.C.L.A. took over a campus building before police officers in riot gear dispersed them. Another group of university presidents — this time from Northwestern, U.C.L.A. and Rutgers — testified to a House committee about antisemitism and pro-Palestinian demonstrations. More International News Rishi Sunak Henry Nicholls/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “Drowning Street”; “Things can only get wetter”: The British press mocked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for making a surprise election announcement in a downpour. See the headlines compiled by The Guardian. Russia is using advanced technology to interfere with Ukrainian troops’ internet service, which comes from Elon Musk’s satellites, Ukrainian officials said. China has millions of empty apartments. The government has a plan to buy them, but it may not work, Alexandra Stevenson writes. A restaurant collapse in Majorca, Spain, killed at least four people. Other Big Stories The Justice Department sued the company that owns Ticketmaster, arguing that it has an illegal monopoly. The government asked a court to break the company up. Forecasters expect an intense hurricane season this year, with up to 25 named storms. Cannabis now tops alcohol as Americans’ daily drug of choice, a study found. Opinions Abortion rights is a win-win issue for Democrats. It motivates the base and appeals to swing voters, Lakshya Jain and Harrison Lavelle write. An antisemitic conspiracy theorist is running for Senate in Minnesota. That he resonates with voters is a sign of a distorted sense of reality, Michelle Goldberg writes. Here are columns by Paul Krugman on Americans’ views of the economy and David Brooks on populism. Our new offer starts now. Enjoy 7 free days to discover the complete Times experience, from news to games to cooking, sports and more, followed by your first six months for just $1 a week. Try The Times today. MORNING READS A portrait of Carlo Acutis. Pool photo by Vatican Vatican: An Italian teenager is set to become the first millennial saint. Los Angeles: For more than 60 years, Moonlight Rollerway has hosted fantastic skate parties. 36 hours: Take a trip to Traverse City, Mich. Modern Love: “I deserved an Oscar for my performances as best supporting wife and mother. After my divorce, I could no longer pretend.” Lives Lived: Bob McCreadie, one of the winningest drivers in dirt racing history, cursed wildly, drove aggressively and occasionally broke his back in spectacular wrecks. He died at 73. SPORTS The double-overtime goal. N.H.L.: Connor McDavid’s double-overtime goal gave Edmonton a win over Dallas and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference final. The game lasted nearly four hours. N.C.A.A.: An antitrust settlement could mean college athletes will get paid directly. Read how it might work. N.B.A.: Jaylen Brown scored 40 points and the Boston Celtics are up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference finals after beating the Indiana Pacers. A MESSAGE FROM CONSUMER REPORTS Shop the tried and tested If it’s in your home or outdoor space, we likely test it. Access CR's expert ratings before you buy. Subscribe Now ARTS AND IDEAS In San Francisco. Jim Wilson/The New York Times San Francisco is known for cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge. But tourists are seeking out a new attraction, too: driverless cars. These cars, also known as robotaxis, have been driving the streets of San Francisco in some form since 2009. But Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company, has made driverless rides available to the public. Read more about them. More on culture Frank Lovejoy in “The Hitch-Hiker.” National Film Registry, via Library of Congress The streaming platform Cultpix collects low-budget, high-creativity cult movies. Watch these films on it. Cassie Ventura said she was grateful for the support she received after CNN published surveillance video showing her being physically assaulted by Sean Combs, known as Diddy. Bella Hadid went viral after wearing a dress that looked like a Palestinian kaffiyeh at Cannes, The Cut reports. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Save the only ice cream recipe you’ll ever need. Make the most of summer. Block noise with these headphones. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was wheeling. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. Masha Gessen, a New Yorker staff writer, is joining Times Opinion as a columnist. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted May 26 Author Members Share Posted May 26 May 25, 2024 Good morning. Today my colleague Des Ibekwe is writing about artists from Africa breaking into the Western mainstream — with a playlist for your summer cookout. —Melissa Kirsch María Jesús Contreras Sonic boom By Desiree Ibekwe Writer on The Morning This week, The Times published a profile of Tems, a 28-year-old Nigerian singer-songwriter who, in recent years, has: become the first African artist to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, appeared on the Beyoncé album “Renaissance” and earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing “Lift Me Up” for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” She will release her debut album next month. To me, Tems’s music — which straddles R&B and Afrobeats — has an honesty: Her tone is earthy and her lyrics are direct, often set to production that isn’t particularly ornate. Her hooks, though, are the killer; they are seemingly crafted to be hummed around the house or screamed over speakers. These elements come together to vividly capture a feeling — whether it be heartbreak (“Damages”), defiance (“Crazy Tings”) or piety (“Me & U”). It was unsurprising, then, to learn about her vibes-based songwriting process from the piece. “I just have a sensation, I have signals,” she told the Times reporter Reggie Ugwu. “You’re just the vessel, it’s just coming out of your mouth.” Tems Erik Carter for The New York Times Tems is one of several artists from nations in Africa who have crossed into the Western mainstream. Burna Boy sold out Citi Field in New York last year; in February, the inaugural Grammy for Best African Music Performance went to the South African singer Tyla for “Water.” And Western artists — including Beyoncé, Drake, Usher, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez — have featured African artists in their music or appeared on remixes of already-popular songs. Last year, for Old World, Young Africa, a Times project about Africa’s youth population boom, I spoke with the Nigerian artist Mr Eazi. He told me that one benefit of the growing popularity of music from Africa was that Africans had been able to wrest some control over narratives about their continent. “People are discovering Africa first, not through the lens of CNN or The New York Times,” he said, but “through the lens of the music.” There are several reasons for the global interest — talented artists, the border-melting power of the internet, collaborations with Western stars — but one I can speak to personally, as a Brit, is the role of the diaspora. My relationship with music from the continent started with my father, who often played highlife — songs that crackle with age and feature piercing guitar riffs — sung in the Nigerian language Igbo. (Here’s an example.) As my peers and I grew up, we developed an appreciation for African music independent of our parents. Songs by artists like D’banj, Wizkid and Burna Boy were in frequent rotation at house parties. Burna Boy Daniel Obasi for The New York Times There is a vibrant cultural exchange between the continent and its diaspora. Young Africans in the diaspora attend concerts and music festivals like Afro Nation, and many travel to Nigeria and Ghana to party during the holiday season, which is lovingly referred to as “Detty December.” Mr Eazi told me that the diaspora in places like Britain had played a role in popularizing African music globally: “These were the ones defining what it is to be cool and embracing their Africanness,” he said. Here’s a playlist for your holiday-weekend cookout; it includes big names from the continent and a few artists from the diaspora. Amapiano — a house genre of South African origin — makes an appearance, as does “1er Gaou,” an Ivorian song that’s a staple at African hall parties. Enjoy. Related: Hip-hop, which dominates the French music industry, is injecting new words and phrases from Africa into France’s suburbs and cities. ADVERTISEMENT THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Anya Taylor-Joy in “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and is now in theaters, offers an origin story for Furiosa, the hard-bitten driver played here by Anya Taylor-Joy. Read our critic’s take. For more on “Furiosa,” our Culture desk rounded up reviews from across the internet, and explained where the story fits into the larger Mad Max timeline. Kyle Buchanan has a dispatch from Cannes about two wild films — “The Substance” and “Emilia Pérez” — that are either stone-cold classics or total fiascos, depending on whom you ask. Go inside the amfAR gala, the unofficial closing party for Cannes, which this year featured Cher and the Jonas Brothers. Asian narratives are more prominent than ever in Hollywood, and many feature artful use of different languages. It helps that audiences are growing more comfortable with subtitles. A new animated film, “The Garfield Movie,” seems to fundamentally misunderstand its lazy orange protagonist, our critic writes. Morgan Spurlock, a documentarian known for the 2004 movie “Super Size Me,” in which he ate only McDonald’s food for a month, died at 53. Art A donor gave the Orlando Museum of Art $1.8 million to buy art for its permanent collection. The museum is asking a court to let it spend the money more broadly, to help ease the financial crisis caused by its “Basquiat fiasco.” Two art shows in New York, a fair in Brooklyn and an Yves Klein exhibition uptown, ask if nude art can still inspire or shock. Our reporter bared all to find out. As the spring art auction season came to a close, it was evident that the market for masterpieces has cooled. Other Big Stories The author Caleb Carr’s own dark history drove him to explore the roots of violence, most famously in his 1994 best seller “The Alienist.” He died at 68. Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, locked in a close race for No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart, are both trying to stoke support from their fan bases. Riley Keough, the actress and granddaughter of Elvis Presley, is suing to stop the sale of Graceland by a company that she and her lawyers say is fraudulent. Kabosu, a Shiba Inu dog whose face helped launch one of the defining memes of the last decade, died at 18 years old. THE LATEST NEWS Israel-Hamas War Ruins in Rafah this week. Eyad Al-Baba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its military offensive on Rafah, a southern Gazan city. The ruling is unenforceable but deepens Israel’s international isolation. Egypt agreed to let fuel and other humanitarian aid into Gaza via Israel after President Biden spoke to its president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Biden’s C.I.A. director will meet with his Israeli counterpart this weekend to try to revive cease-fire talks, which have been on hold. Other Big Stories Countries at the World Health Assembly failed to agree on a treaty for how to handle a future pandemic, including how to ensure equitable vaccine access. Families of the victims of the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting sued Instagram, a gunmaker and the publisher of “Call of Duty,” accusing them of “grooming” the teenage gunman. A gang attack in Haiti killed three members of an Oklahoma-based missionary group. Donald Trump has preemptively cast doubt on the fairness of the 2024 election once a day, on average, since launching his campaign, a sharp increase from 2020 and 2016, a Times analysis found. The drugs Ozempic and Wegovy reduced the risk of complications, heart issues and death in people with Type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, a study found. Our new offer starts now. Enjoy 7 free days to discover the complete Times experience, from news to games to cooking, sports and more, followed by your first six months for just $1 a week. Try The Times today. CULTURE CALENDAR By Andrew LaVallee 🎬 “Hit Man” (Out Now): This is the year (years?) of Glen Powell. After making a big splash in “Top Gun: Maverick,” he starred with Sydney Sweeney in the rom-com “Anyone but You” and has now landed what our movie critic Alissa Wilkinson calls a “romantic, sexy, hilarious, satisfying and a genuine star-clinching turn” as a philosophy professor with an exciting side hustle in “Hit Man.” Directed by Richard Linklater (“Boyhood,” the “Before” trilogy), the movie will begin streaming on Netflix in June, but, as Alissa puts it, “If you can see it in a theater, it’s worth it.” ADVERTISEMENT RECIPE OF THE WEEK Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Potato Salad With Lemon and Mint If you’re planning a picnic or cookout this weekend, you might have potato salad on the brain. As much as I love a classic mayonnaise-drenched version, these can backfire when the temperatures rise, especially if you’re planning for a feast to last all day long. But fear not! I have the perfect alterative, a zippy, herby, olive oil-based potato salad dressed with lemon and mint. This one also contains loads of scallions, which add crunch and a pleasing sharpness while a sprinkle of chile gives it some heat. And it won’t suffer from sitting out for hours, if it’s not all gobbled up before, that is. REAL ESTATE Karine Dubner Beth Coller for The New York Times The hunt: A French-born, Canada-based owner of a fashion brand wanted to find her American dream in the Hamptons. Which home did she choose? Play our game. What you get for $1.6 million: A Queen Anne Revival house in Durham, N.C.; a two-bedroom condominium in Palm Beach, Fla.; or a modern farmhouse in Barrington, R.I. Your next home: After publishing our updated Rent vs. Buy Calculator, The Times wants to hear from readers who recently chose between renting and buying. Tell us your story here. LIVING The Always Pan, by Our Place. Lesley Stockton Instagram pans: A few years ago, direct-to-consumer cookware was all the rage on the internet. Now you can probably find it for free. Dance like it’s the ’80s: TikTok users may skew Gen Z, but some of the hottest videos today feature the moves of their Gen X parents. How to: A guide to becoming vegetarian — or just getting more vegetables into your diet. On the job: Meet a woman who keeps a candy factory running. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER How to pack better There’s one packing essential that Kit Dillon, Wirecutter’s travel expert, recommends to anyone who asks: packing cubes. Is the idea of little bags zipped inside a larger bag a bit silly? Maybe. But in practice it’s actually pretty great. Our experts suggest imagining your suitcase as a dresser, and the cubes as individual drawers. Pack each cube the way you might organize your drawers (for me, that’s swimsuits and underwear in one; shirts in another; pants in a third), and pull out only the one you need as you go. Voilà. Packing, and traveling, made simple. — Sofia Sokolove Wirecutter is giving away a set of packing cubes — and a whole bundle of their favorite travel essentials. (Terms and conditions apply.) GAME OF THE WEEK A practice session in Monaco on Friday. Anna Szilagyi/EPA, via Shutterstock Monaco Grand Prix, Formula 1: There’s a gulf between the allure of the Monaco Grand Prix and the race itself. Monaco is a centerpiece of the Formula 1 season, and perhaps the sport’s most famous event. But, as Ian Parkes explains in The Times, the race has grown more predictable over the years as Formula 1 cars have gotten larger, making it harder to overtake other racers along the tiny country’s narrow, twisting streets. Of course, for many viewers, the competition is secondary to the spectacle of futuristic cars zipping past extravagant yacht parties. Pro tip: More exciting than the grand prix is the qualifying event, in which drivers navigate the course in isolation, trying to log the fastest lap. Their times determine the starting order of the race, which may well mirror the final standings. Qualifying is at 10 a.m. Eastern today on ESPN2; the race is tomorrow at 9 a.m. on ABC NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were machine and mechanic. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections. 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: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted May 27 Author Members Share Posted May 27 May 26, 2024 Good morning. Today we’ve got a guide to the best Times coverage of the start of summer. We’re also covering Papua New Guinea, John Fetterman and Greek mythology. —David Leonhardt Mission Beach, Calif. Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times Summer begins By Lyna Bentahar Memorial Day is a starting gun. While other holidays can be like a finish line — the culmination of so much energy — Memorial Day marks the beginning. The whole summer stretches out in front of us, a track shimmering in the sun. If you’re not yet sure how to spend the long weekend, or the next few months, don’t worry. The Morning has compiled the best ideas and recommendations from The Times to get you ready for the summer. Starting now. For your time outdoors Here’s motivation to get you back in your garden, or to start a new one. Make your outdoor space work for you with these design ideas. A friend of mine recently lamented not having summer break as an adult. Here are ideas to relax even if you work full-time, like her. Outdoor activities — in the mountains or in your backyard — mean a greater chance of injury. Know your first aid basics. Pools are open and families are hitting the beach this Memorial Day. Try these workouts in the water. More people are building ponds in their backyard for swimming. See some examples. The joy of gardening. Ike Edeani for The New York Times For your travels If you’re flying this weekend with some time to kill, test your airport I.Q. with this quiz. If you want some entertainment for a long road trip, here’s a collection of great audiobooks, organized by length. Europe is anticipating yet another season of heat waves. Read how locals, and tourists, are preparing. Here are the best beaches in the U.S. and Mexico for each activity, like swimming, surfing or sand-castle building. Fifty years after working at a Massachusetts hotel, a writer examines what’s changed. Stay at one of these five waterside hotels. For your leisure Read the best fiction and nonfiction of the year (so far). Watch these films this weekend — whether in a movie theater or on your couch. Play these video games if you don’t want to leave your house. Laugh with these new stand-up specials. ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Israel-Hamas War The Israeli military continued its operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, despite an International Court of Justice order to immediately suspend its campaign there. Some in Rafah have chosen not to evacuate, while others have fled and then returned after being unable to find safety elsewhere. In an Israeli prison infirmary, a Jewish dentist aided a seriously ill Yahya Sinwar. Years later, Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, was an author of the Oct. 7 attack. War in Ukraine Vladimir Putin, likely feeling confident about the war and his hold on power, has overhauled his Defense Ministry. Russia is carrying out arson attacks on sites in Europe in a low-level sabotage campaign to undermine support for Ukraine. Some American precision-guided weapons have proved ineffective against Russian electronic warfare, classified Ukrainian reports show. A military branch of professional musicians travels Ukraine’s front lines and taps into a tradition of music as resistance, The Washington Post reports. More International News In Papua New Guinea. Andrew Ruing, via Reuters At least 670 people are thought to have died after a landslide in Papua New Guinea, a local U.N. official said. “They knew that’s where they were supposed to be”: A family member of a missionary couple who were killed in gang violence in Haiti spoke with The Wall Street Journal. Read about why aid groups stay in the country. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi uses wide-reaching welfare programs to create loyal voters. Politics John Fetterman Kenny Holston/The New York Times Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, is picking fights with the progressives he once courted on issues including Israel and immigration. Rates of violent crime in most U.S. cities are down from pandemic-era highs. But rising property crime has made lawlessness an election issue. In Montana, the voting intentions of an influx of wealthy out-of-state newcomers hang over this year’s Senate race. President Biden told West Point’s graduating class that they owed an oath to the U.S. Constitution, not to their commander in chief. See a video. Other Big Stories Severe storms are likely across portions of the U.S., while summer heat settles in across the South. At least five people have died and three others have gone missing on Mount Everest since the beginning of the climbing season. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Should Justice Samuel Alito recuse himself from cases about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack? Yes. The flags in support of rioters on Jan. 6, waved on Alito’s properties, add to the Supreme Court’s crisis of confidence. This incident “is a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining a clear separation between personal beliefs and judicial responsibilities,” Aron Solomon writes for The Hill. No. Justices have expressed political opinions publicly before, such as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about Donald Trump. “In all matters of public interest, justices have opinions — and they are appointed to some extent due to their opinions,” Michael Broyde writes for CNN. FROM OPINION The Fresh Air Fund in New York City teaches children about nature — and invites them to dream big, the editorial board writes. We have a civic obligation to protect America’s 236,000 miles of trails, Justin Farrell and Steven Ring write. Here’s a column by Nicholas Kristof on the I.C.J. ruling against Israel. Our new offer starts now. Enjoy 7 free days to discover the complete Times experience, from news to games to cooking, sports and more, followed by your first six months for just $1 a week. Try The Times today. ADVERTISEMENT MORNING READS Akiva Cohen, a trial lawyer. Kirsten Luce for The New York Times Lawsuit: A team built from the sharpest, funniest tweeters is suing Elon Musk. Soccer: What happens when the women’s game has a prominence similar to the men’s? Look to Barcelona. Grief: Ten artists, including the National Book Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward, describe living and creating through loss. Vows: They owe their relationship to the “three Cs” — cancer, Covid and commitment. Lives Lived: Michael Sugrue, after an academic career in near obscurity, became an internet phenomenon during the pandemic after uploading talks he had given three decades earlier. He died at 66. THE INTERVIEW Ted Sarandos Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times By Lulu Garcia-Navarro This week’s subject for The Interview is Ted Sarandos, the co-C.E.O. of Netflix. We talked about Netflix’s desire to be everything for everyone, and what that means for culture. There’s been a lot of discussion about what’s been dubbed “folding-your-laundry shows” — something that isn’t difficult to watch. It’s light, it’s fun, it’s not expensive to make. Netflix has a lot of examples: “Selling Sunset,” “Ginny & Georgia,” “Alone,” the survivalist show. Do you feel as if you’ve cornered the market on that? And is that a title that you want to own? Look, if there’s one quote that I could take back, it would have been in 2012, I said we’re going to become HBO before HBO could become us. At that time, HBO was the gold standard of original programming. What I should have said back then is, We want to be HBO and CBS and BBC and all those different networks around the world that entertain people, and not narrow it to just HBO. Prestige elite programming plays a very important role in culture. But it’s very small. It’s a boutique business. And we’re currently programming for about 650 million people around the world. We have to have a very broad variety of things that people watch and love. So we take a consumer view of quality. The people who love “Ginny & Georgia” will tell you, “Ginny & Georgia” is great. You have a new head of film, and that suggests to me that you’re tweaking strategy. A criticism of Netflix from some corners is that you make too much stuff that isn’t as good as it could be, specifically in movies. Are you trying to make better movies now? I don’t agree with the premise that quantity and quality are somehow in conflict with each other. We’ve had eight best-picture nominees in the last five years on Netflix [turns out, they’ve had nine]. Our movie programming has been great, but it’s just not all for you. And it’s not meant to be all for you. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photograph by Victor J. Blue for The New York Times. Click the cover image above to read this week’s magazine. BOOKS Marine Buffard Ancient: Novels are taking on the marginalized or vilified women of Greek mythology. Our editors’ picks: “New Cold Wars,” by the Times correspondent David Sanger and his collaborator Mary Brooks, and five other books. Times best sellers: “The Situation Room,” by George Stephanopoulos with Lisa Dickey, is at the top of this week’s hardcover nonfiction list. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Sleep on stylish and durable linen sheets. Take advantage of Memorial Day deals. THE WEEK AHEAD What to Watch For The French Open tennis tournament begins today. Closing arguments for Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan are Tuesday. Manhattanhenge, when the setting sun aligns with the street grid, is on Tuesday and Wednesday. South Africa’s national elections are on Wednesday. The African National Congress faces the threat of losing its majority for the first time since apartheid ended. The verdict for a long-running national security trial against 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists is expected to be delivered on Thursday. India’s parliamentary elections, which began last month, end on Saturday. Meal Plan David Malosh for The New York Times Emily Weinstein and the Cooking team have adapted their Five Weeknight Meals recipes into a cookbook, coming in October: “Easy Weeknight Dinners.” In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily features some recipes from the book, including mayo-marinated chicken with chimichurri and coconut-miso salmon curry. You can preorder the book here. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was nationhood. Can you put eight historical events — including a Dow Jones milestone, the first W.N.B.A. draft and the creation of Dogecoin — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. 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. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted May 27 Author Members Share Posted May 27 May 27, 2024 Good morning, and happy Memorial Day. Today, my colleague Sarah Diamond has a story on the appeal, and the challenges, of being a military musician. We’re also covering Papua New Guinea, surveillance in China and commercials on streaming. —David Leonhardt The West Point Band. Christopher Lee for The New York Times From audition to boot camp By Sarah Diamond Picture the brass section of a symphony orchestra. Now, instead of formal attire and a brightly lit concert hall, imagine the principal horn player wearing camouflage fatigues, crouching over a loaded rifle at a firing range. For the thousands of classical musicians employed by the U.S. military, this seemingly incongruous image is a reality. The military calls itself the nation’s largest employer of musicians, and its ranks include some of the country’s most coveted musical performance jobs. Seats in premier military bands are often as competitive as those in the top symphonies in the country, in part because of their stability, pay and benefits. There are aspects of the job that might require adjustment for a civilian musician, though. Band members must adhere to strict military standards — such as passing physical fitness tests, wearing a uniform during rehearsal and, most daunting of all, completing 10 to 12 weeks of boot camp with no access to their instruments. My latest story, which published this morning, explores how some musicians become service members. I spent more than eight months following the journey of one euphonium player, Ada Brooks, from her audition for the West Point Band through a freezing stint at boot camp in the Ozarks, to her first concert. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain the unique role that military bands play in the classical music world and the intense demands that come with the job. Shipping out Music and the military have long been intertwined. Drums were used to set the pace of marches, and fifes served as battlefield communication before there were radios. The country’s first military band, the United States Marine Band — known as “The President’s Own” — was formed by an act of Congress in 1798. Loras John Schissel, a senior musicologist at the Library of Congress, said that during the Civil War, band members would put down their instruments, take up their weapons and fight — and then resume playing. Today, a military musician’s duties beyond music can involve performing drug tests for cadets or teaching classes. One West Point Band member told me that she helps maintain the band’s website. And while direct exposure to combat has become increasingly rare for military musicians, it is not unheard-of. In 1941, all 21 musicians aboard the battleship Arizona died in the attack on Pearl Harbor while passing ammunition to the ship’s guns. On Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. Army Band helped with search and rescue at the Pentagon. Musicians are trained like infantry soldiers. Christopher Lee for The New York Times A stable career There are scores of regional military bands that represent the armed forces at ceremonies, parades and holiday celebrations across the United States. A smaller group of elite bands — including the West Point Band, The President’s Own, the U.S. Air Force Band, the U.S. Army Band and the U.S. Navy Band — perform at inaugurations and foreign dignitary visits. Seats in the premier bands are particularly attractive. The starting salary is about $70,000, and the musicians also receive tax breaks, education benefits and health care. Because of these factors, band members tend to stay for many years, if not their entire careers. This stability can be appealing for classical musicians, who have fewer opportunities to make a living than many other performers, as Donald Passman, an author and music business expert, explained to me. “It’s ironic that jazz and classical are the most difficult, challenging and require some of the most skilled people, and yet those two areas make much less than pop music,” Passman said. “If you’re a pop musician, you can still do concerts on your own, which is not as easy for a viola player.” Culture shock Some aspects of a military band audition — like playing for a jury hidden behind a curtain, to guard against potential bias — are familiar to most orchestra musicians. Other details are unique to the military. When I attended an audition for the West Point Band, two of the other four candidates said they had to lose weight to qualify, and the finalists were tested for proficiency in marching drills. Military life can be a shock to musicians, most of whom have no prior experience with the armed forces. One tuba player in the West Point Band, Staff Sgt. Alec Mawrence, said that at first it was “a little weird” to have to wear a full combat uniform to play the tuba. “Eventually, your head is shaved and you’re screaming, ‘Yes, drill sergeant,’” he said. But the benefits are apparent. Mawrence, who attended Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, said that he could think of very few others in his graduating class with a career in music. As Brooks, the euphonium player, told me: “Basic training is no big deal compared to 20 years of a performance job.” For more: Read my full story, which includes photographs by Christopher Lee of Brooks’s time at boot camp. ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Asia In Papua New Guinea. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images More than 2,000 people were buried alive in a landslide in Papua New Guinea, the authorities told the U.N. The ground is still unsteady, complicating efforts to reach survivors. In India, at least 34 people died in two separate fires over the weekend. Analysts have warned for years about the nation’s lack of fire preparedness. China has revived a Mao-era surveillance campaign. The efforts include keeping files on elementary school students. Israel-Hamas War Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at central Israel for the first time in months. The Israeli military said some of the rockets had been fired from Rafah, southern Gaza. Hours later, an Israeli airstrike on a tent camp killed at least 35 people in Rafah, according to the authorities in Gaza. The Israeli military said the operation was aimed at a Hamas compound. More than 60,000 Israelis from the region bordering Lebanon remain displaced, months after being evacuated because of threats from Hezbollah, The Wall Street Journal reports. Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, said he wanted to establish a commission to investigate the failure to stop the Oct. 7 attacks and to analyze Israel’s conduct in the war. More International News Bekkersdal, a Johannesburg township, in February 1994. Joao Silva/Associated Press Thirty years ago, Black South Africans voted for the first time. A photographer recalled the violence that preceded the vote. Europe and the U.S. are trying to catch up to Chinese dominance in clean energy and global manufacturing. One factory in Kenya supplies half of Africa’s syringes. See inside. In a small English village, a group of locals uncovered the remains of a lost Tudor palace. New York City The use of New York hotels as migrant shelters has created a shortage of tourist lodgings, a factor that has lifted the average room rate to record levels. E-bikes have soured the way some New Yorkers view the streets. “What used to be a wonderful walking city,” one resident said, has become “a nightmare.” Other Big Stories In Waycross, Ga. Kenny Holston/The New York Times Sgt. Kennedy Sanders was killed this year when an Iran-backed militia launched a drone attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan. Her belongings, shipped home, show a glimpse of her life. Powerful storms hit Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Texas. At least 18 people died and hundreds of thousands were left without power. The Libertarian Party chose a former Democrat, Chase Oliver, over Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as its presidential nominee. Recent accidents in the U.S. involving trains controlled remotely has prompted a federal review. Covid variants are coming this summer. The Washington Post explains the government’s muted response and asks: Will anyone care about a surge? Opinions To society, a single, childless older woman is a tragedy. But for Glynnis MacNicol, her life has all the makings of a fantasy, she writes. Catholic traditionalism has organized against the church’s hierarchy and attempts to modernize. Ironically, the movement’s tactics are progressive, Ross Douthat argues. Here is a column by David French on grief and war. Our new offer starts now. Enjoy 7 free days to discover the complete Times experience, from news to games to cooking, sports and more, followed by your first six months for just $1 a week. Try The Times today. MORNING READS Michael Kors, left, and his husband, Lance Le Pere, at Pietro’s. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York Times A medium-rare goodbye: An old-guard Italian steakhouse — and its regulars — said farewell to the establishment’s longtime Midtown Manhattan home. A holiday’s origin: Read about the history of Memorial Day, which began as a way to remember soldiers killed in the Civil War. Nature: The Times science writer James Gorman suggests studying birds. Their lives are darker than you might imagine. Technology: She lost her right arm in a subway accident two years ago. Now she wears an A.I.-powered prosthetic. Ask Vanessa: “Is it possible to wear neon without looking like a highlighter?” Metropolitan Diary: Help from a well-known stranger. Lives Lived: Don Perlin was a veteran comic book artist who, after decades in the industry, helped create the popular but nontraditional superheroes Moon Knight and Bloodshot. He died at 94. SPORTS Rafael Nadal Dan Istitene/Getty Images French Open: Rafael Nadal, who has won the French Open 14 times, has been insulated from tough matches at the tournament for nearly 20 years — until now. Read a recap of the first day. Golf: The PGA Tour golfer Grayson Murray died by suicide, his family said in a statement. N.B.A.: The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves, pushing their series lead to 3-0. M.L.B.: Ronald Acuña Jr., last year’s National League M.V.P., will undergo season-ending surgery after tearing his A.C.L. Racing: Josef Newgarden won his second straight Indianapolis 500 after a daring last-lap pass of Pato O’Ward. ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Kaitlin Brito There was a time that streaming offered a promise — under their models, commercials would be a thing of the past. However, Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+ and Max have recently added ads in exchange for a slightly lower subscription fee, while Amazon turns commercials on by default. Streamers had initially raced to acquire subscribers, but the issue of profit remained and Wall Street started to cool on their businesses. “Perhaps the changed viewing experience was inevitable,” Times reporter John Koblin writes. More on culture Some much-loved soundtracks. The New York Times The Times asked readers for their favorite movie soundtracks, hundreds responded. Read some of their picks, including “Pretty in Pink” and “8 Mile.” “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” failed to meet Hollywood’s high expectations over the weekend. The box office is struggling. TikTok users have rediscovered an old rural beauty secret: Bag Balm, a moisturizer originally made for cows’ udders. The 2020s — like the 1970s and 2000s — is an era of experimentation with denim, The Washington Post reports. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Make a quick and refreshing cucumber salad. Explore these (actually good) Memorial Day sales. Celebrate Pride Month in New York. Go dark when decorating. Sleep better with blackout curtains. Buy a gift for a co-worker. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was clickable. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted May 28 Author Members Share Posted May 28 May 28, 2024 By German Lopez Good morning. We’re covering China’s support for Russia — plus Rafah, abortion and theater in Ukraine. In Kharkiv, northern Ukraine. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times A proxy war Over the last few weeks, a Russian blitz has claimed more than a dozen villages in northeast Ukraine, near the country’s second-largest city. This summer, Russia will likely continue its offensive push in the country’s east. Russia’s ability to carry out these attacks is in some ways surprising. War is expensive. And Russia’s economy is limited by steep sanctions from some of the richest countries in the world. Yet Moscow has managed to keep paying for its war machine. How? U.S. officials point to China. China has vowed not to send weapons to Russia. But it has supported Russia’s economy by buying oil and expanding other kinds of trade. Russia uses the revenue from that trade to manufacture weapons. It has also bought parts for these weapons from China, according to U.S. officials: Last year, Russia got 90 percent of its microelectronic imports from China, using them for missiles, tanks and planes. Without Beijing’s help, Moscow might still continue its war, but it would do so in a weakened state. Of course, Washington and its allies have also provided support, including actual weapons, to Ukraine. From that angle, the war looks more like part of the broader contest between the U.S. and China — what some analysts call a new cold war — than a one-off conflict. “We are headed into 30 or 40 years of superpower competition and confrontation,” said my colleague David Sanger, who covers national security and recently published the book “New Cold Wars.” Ukraine is just the current front. Today’s newsletter will explain what China stands to gain — and lose — by backing Russia. China’s wager Support for Russia is risky. The U.S. and Europe have warned that they could place sanctions on China if it supports the war. But to China, the benefits of a Russian victory in Ukraine may outweigh the costs. Among those benefits: The war has entangled the U.S. and its allies in a faraway conflict, straining the U.S. military’s ammunition stockpiles. It has made Russia, a big military power, more dependent on China. It has also been instructive: China has ambitions to invade Taiwan, and it has watched Russia’s gamble to see the world’s response — one that has exposed the limits of America’s reach. While Washington got its closest allies to punish Russia for the invasion, big democracies such as Brazil and India continue to buy Russian oil. “Countries around the world won’t follow the U.S. where it wants to go, even with what U.S. officials consider a black-and-white issue like Ukraine,” my colleague Edward Wong, who covers foreign policy, told me. “That is much clearer since the war.” Sergio Lima/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Still, China’s support for Russia could backfire — and in some ways already has. It angered European leaders, who criticized Beijing’s involvement when China’s president, Xi Jinping, visited France this month. Arguably, China’s interference has made it easier for the U.S. to adopt tougher trade restrictions and other policies designed to hurt Beijing. The war united the U.S. and its allies to an extent not seen in decades. If Russia loses, China could be stuck with a diminished partner and frayed relations with some of the world’s biggest economies. To balance the risks and benefits, China has tried to walk a fine line. It has boasted about a “no limits” partnership with Russia. But it also claims it’s neutral in the war and has tried to maintain plausible deniability in its support for its partner. The bottom line Will China’s bet pay off? It depends on the conflict’s outcome. If the U.S. and its allies were to stop supporting Ukraine and it lost the war, China’s biggest partner would come out on top. The West would not look as strong or united as it once was. Knowing this, China might become more aggressive in its territorial claims in Taiwan, the South China Sea and elsewhere. But if the West remained united and Ukraine won, the opposite would be true. Russia would be weakened and embarrassed. The U.S. and its allies would have proved that they remained formidable. And China might reconsider if it could afford to take aggressive action to expand its borders. 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