Members phkrause Posted September 6 Author Members Share Posted September 6 🗞️ NYT publisher sounds alarm Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, penned a rare opinion piece for The Washington Post yesterday, warning that the undermining of press freedoms in democratic nations like Hungary and Brazil serves as an important reminder of what's at stake this election. Why it matters: In placing the 41,000-word essay with a historic rival, Sulzberger sent a broader message about the power of news companies in tackling these issues with a united front, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes. "I'm grateful to The Post for running it, especially given the length," Sulzberger wrote in a note to staff. "It's just another example of how The Post ... has long been one of our closest partners on matters of press freedom. These challenges cannot be solved by one institution." Sulzberger writes in the piece: "To ensure we are prepared for whatever is to come, my colleagues and I have spent months studying how press freedom has been attacked in Hungary — as well as in other democracies such as India and Brazil. The political and media environments in each country are different, and the campaigns have seen varying tactics and levels of success, but the pattern of anti-press action reveals common threads." Between the lines: For many years following the brutal 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, The Post served as the face of the U.S. press freedom fight. More recently, Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour stepped into that role after the arrest of reporter Evan Gershkovich in Russia. Read Sulzberger's op-ed (gift link — no paywall) ... Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted September 6 Author Members Share Posted September 6 September 6, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re covering smartphones in schools — as well as the Georgia school shooting, a trial in France and A.I. music. Confiscated phones in Orlando, Fla. Zack Wittman for The New York Times A turning point? Several times a year, I visit a high school or a college to talk with students about how I do my job and how they see the world. On a typical visit, I spend a few minutes in the back of the classroom while the teacher is conducting another part of that day’s lesson. These experiences have shown me what a dominant — and distracting — role smartphones and laptops play in today’s schools. From my perch behind the students, I can see how many of them are scrolling through sports coverage, retail websites, text messages or social media, looking up occasionally to feign attention. It’s not everyone, of course. Some students remain engaged in the class. But many do not. I would have been in the latter group if smartphones had existed decades ago; like many journalists, I do not have a naturally stellar attention span. And I’m grateful that I didn’t have ubiquitous digital temptations. I learned much more — including how to build my attention span — than I otherwise would have. Above all, my recent classroom experiences have given me empathy for teachers. They are supposed to educate children, many of whom have still not caught up from Covid learning loss, while in a battle for attention with fantastically entertaining computers. A growing body of academic research suggests it isn’t going well. Twister and pickleball In Orlando. Zack Wittman for The New York Times But school officials and policymakers have begun to fight back. It’s probably the most significant development of the 2024-25 school year. At least eight states, including California, Indiana and Louisiana, have restricted phone use or taken steps toward doing so. They are following the lead of Florida, which last year banned phones in K-12 classrooms. Other states, including Arizona and New York, may act soon. (My colleague Natasha Singer, who’s been covering this story, discussed these policies on an episode of “The Daily.”) At the schools that have restricted phones, many people say they already see benefits. In a Florida school district that Natasha visited — and that went even further than the state law requires, banning phones all day — students now have more conversations at lunch and play games like Twister and pickleball. Before, children mostly looked at their phones, one principal said. Of course, there are still some hard questions about these policies, including: How do schools enforce the rules? And what is an appropriate punishment for breaking them? Should schools ban phone use only during class time or for the entire school day? To put it another way, is a more social lunchtime worth the downside that parents can’t easily reach their children? How can teachers incorporate technology into lessons, as the new laws generally allow, without undermining the policies’ benefits? A mixed blessing Even with these difficult questions, the new policies may represent the start of a broader shift. For much of the smartphone era — which began with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 — Americans treated the rapid spread of digital technology as inevitable and positive. Now people view it as more mixed. “Smartphones have brought us a lot of benefits,” Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, told me yesterday. “But the harms are also considerable.” Children’s mental health has deteriorated during the same years that smartphone use has grown. Loneliness has increased, and sleep hours have decreased. In surveys, both teenagers and adults express deep anxiety about their own phone use. By many measures, American society has become angrier, more polarized and less healthy during the same period that smartphones have revolutionized daily life. Social scientists continue to debate precise cause and effect, but many policymakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, argue that the country can’t wait to act. Murthy agrees. “There’s an urgency to this,” he said. “What we need now is a great recalibration of our relationship with technology.” As encouraging examples, he cited schools’ new phone policies and the student-led Log Off movement. If the country ultimately looked back on unfettered smartphone use as a mistake, it wouldn’t be the first time that a public health campaign took years to have an impact. Russell Shaw, the head of Georgetown Day School, an elite private school in Washington, D.C., recently wrote an article for The Atlantic explaining why he was banning cellphones in all grades. Shaw described the ways that constant phone use had harmed social life and learning during his 14 years at the school. Yet he began the article with a historical anecdote on a different subject: When his parents attended high school in the 1960s, they received free samples of cigarettes on their cafeteria trays. “I believe that future generations will look back with the same incredulity at our acceptance of phones in schools,” Shaw wrote. THE LATEST NEWS Georgia School Shooting The father of a 14-year-old accused of killing four people at a Georgia high school this week was charged with second-degree murder. A year before the shooting, the F.B.I. interviewed the suspect and his father about whether he had posted threats online. The teenager said he “would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner.” Read more about the interview. JD Vance, campaigning in Arizona, described school shootings like the one in Georgia this week as an unfortunate “fact of life,” calling for stronger security. International Gisèle Pelicot, who consented to be photographed in an open trial. Lewis Joly/Associated Press A woman in France spoke publicly in court against her former husband, who is accused of drugging her over almost a decade and inviting dozens of men to rape her. She described herself as a boxer who repeatedly stood back up. President Emmanuel Macron appointed Michel Barnier, a conservative, as France’s new prime minister, months after the snap parliamentary elections. More than 30 Catholic priests and missionaries moved from the West to remote Pacific islands after they were accused of sexually abusing children, or had been found to do so. (The Pope is visiting the Pacific.) China is banning most international adoptions. Foreigners in the process of adopting are in limbo. It’s been the hottest summer on record, European officials say. 2024 Election Donald Trump, speaking to New York business leaders, promised a commission to assess government efficiency. He said Elon Musk would lead it. Trump also suggested he would repeal President Biden’s signature climate law, calling global warming “not our problem.” Trump again threatened to jail his political opponents, accusing them of weaponizing the legal system against him. “Two can play the game,” he said. Tim Walz campaigned in Pennsylvania, a battleground state. He spoke with dairy farmers as a Trump flag flew in a neighbor’s yard. Trump Legal Cases The judge overseeing Trump’s Jan. 6 criminal case set a quick schedule, letting prosecutors present evidence by the end of this month. Still, a trial is unlikely to begin before Election Day. If Trump wins, he’s likely to fire the special counsel and order the Justice Department to toss out the case. Separately, the judge overseeing Trump’s Manhattan criminal case plans to rule today on whether to postpone sentencing until after the election. More on Politics A judge halted Biden’s program to cancel student debt for some borrowers, siding with Republican states that sued to block it. Democrats hope that abortion ballot measures will boost their Senate candidates in red states like Montana and Florida, helping the party keep its majority. Michigan asked residents to help design “I Voted” stickers. One, by a seventh grader, features a werewolf tearing off its shirt. Other Big Stories Hunter Biden Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to tax charges, saying he wanted to spare his family “more pain” by avoiding a trial. He faces up to 17 years in prison. The U.S. Justice Department charged five members of the Russian military intelligence agency over cyberattacks on Ukraine before the invasion. Federal agents seized the phones of New York City’s police commissioner, schools chancellor, and several officials in Mayor Eric Adams’s inner circle. It is not yet clear what investigators are looking for. Teen e-cigarette use has fallen sharply. Only 8 percent of high-school students say they have vaped recently — down from 27 percent five years ago. Opinions A.G. Sulzberger, The Times’s publisher, explains in a Washington Post essay how Hungary, Brazil and India have eroded a free press — and how the same could happen in the U.S. Here are columns by Paul Krugman on Trump’s inflation benchmarks and David Brooks on the danger of cheap thrills. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS In the Paralympic Village. James Jill for The New York Times Fix-it shop: These technicians at the Paralympic Games repair wheelchairs, prostheses and even damaged sunglasses. Backlash: When Gambia banned female genital cutting, a 96-year-old practitioner resisted. Her case led to a campaign to make it legal again. Ultraprocessed foods: Are some worse than others? Last-chance tourism: More people want to visit vanishing glaciers, but climate change is also making the sites unstable. Boosters: Where and when should you get another Covid shot? Here’s what the experts say. Lives Lived: The journalist Steve Silberman stripped away the stigma surrounding autism in his 2015 book “NeuroTribes.” He was also an archivist for the Grateful Dead and wrote liner notes for several of the band’s albums. Silberman died at 66. SPORTS U.S. Open: Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz, good friends, play a highly anticipated semifinal tonight. The winner will become the first American man to make the final since 2006. The American Jessica Pegula will play in her first Grand Slam singles final tomorrow. Paralympics: An actress gave up her career to help her baby son, whose leg had been amputated. Almost two decades later, he won two gold medals in track. Soccer: Alex Morgan, an icon of the U.S. women’s national team, announced her retirement. Read about her legacy. N.F.L.: The Kansas City Chiefs are 1-0 after a win over the Baltimore Ravens in last night’s season opener. It was decided by a toe. ARTS AND IDEAS In San Francisco. Christie Hemm Klok for The New York Times A.I. is causing problems for streaming. A North Carolina man used artificial intelligence to create hundreds of thousands of fake songs by fake bands. Then he put them on streaming services where an audience of fake listeners played them, prosecutors said. Penny by penny, he collected $10 million, prosecutors said. Now he’s charged with fraud. More on culture Nicole Kidman Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images See the 15 best looks from the Venice Film Festival. See the 10 most anticipated art shows this season, including Sienese art at the Met and Pan-African art throughout Chicago. Seth Meyers joked about claims that Trump and Vance are weird. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Make a classic marinara sauce. Fall in love with big band jazz. Refresh thrifted clothes. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was fraught. 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 P.S. David Leonhardt appears on today’s episode of “The Daily” to discuss affirmative action in higher education. 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 September 8 Author Members Share Posted September 8 September 7, 2024 SUPPORTED BY UPWAY By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. On the occasion of the U.S. Open finals, let us consider the grief of the lapsed sports fan. María Jesús Contreras Love all “It’s like Black Friday at Walmart,” a tennis fan told The Times of the record-breaking attendance at this year’s U.S. Open. This sort of review might make a normal person glad they’d opted out of attending the tournament. But the more I heard of the colossal throngs, the endless lines attendees were enduring to procure a souvenir hat or a Honey Deuce or just to get inside the stadium complex, the more I wished I were there. I have, for most of my teen and adult life, defined myself as a tennis fan. It’s been a sort of badge of honor: I may not remember the rules of football from one Super Bowl to the next, but I can recall in bright detail the intricacies of the John McEnroe-Jimmy Connors rivalry of the 1980s. Being into tennis has given me a connection to the larger fraternity of sports fans, the parking lot tailgaters and March Madness bracketeers and the people who get up at 4 a.m. to watch World Cup matches. John Jeremiah Sullivan wrote that tennis is “as close as we come to physical chess, or a kind of chess in which the mind and body are at one in attacking essentially mathematical problems. So, a good game not just for writers but for philosophers, too.” For this mostly indoor cat who’s more at home discussing literature than LeBron, tennis has provided a passage from the cerebral to the physical, a means of getting out of my head. In May, in a cafe in Dublin, I struck up a conversation with a woman at a neighboring table. She’d just finalized her plans to attend Wimbledon and was abuzz with anticipation for the players she hoped to see. We chatted about Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Frances Tiafoe, top seeds with good chances of going far. Sensing she’d found a confederate, she moved on to the Italian Open, which was going on as we spoke. As she reeled off the stats of players I’d never heard of, I felt my tennis bona fides slipping. I tried to keep up — it felt good to be connecting with a stranger in a foreign country through the lingua franca of tennis — but I was lost. I could still deconstruct every stroke in Stan Wawrinka’s electric 2015 victory over Djokovic in the French Open final, but, for no good reason, I hadn’t really been engaged with the game since Roger Federer and Serena Williams retired in 2022. I, who used to mark tournament dates in my calendar as soon as they were announced, had essentially retired from tennis myself. The grief of the lapsed fan is hardly a serious matter. With a little light internet research, one can get back into any sport — one could even accomplish this in the few remaining hours before the U.S. Open finals begin. My friend Justin, who texts me “!!!!” whenever something notable happens in a Grand Slam match on the (in recent years incorrect) assumption that I’m watching too, has probably not even noticed that I haven’t been responding all year. I felt a little silly for even describing my U.S. Open FOMO as grief when I chatted about it this week with my colleague Sam Sifton. But he pointed out that he felt it, too, felt the poignancy of not attending the tournament, not taking part in the ritual of walking the boardwalk at Flushing Meadows from the train to the tennis center and back. I loved that part of going to the Open too, the magic-hour light radiant on the faces of fellow fans en route to a night match. If we define ourselves by who and what we love, and I think we should, then it’s valuable to love as many things as we can, to accumulate enthusiasms and lean into them, to hold onto passions when we discover them and not let them fall away. This way, our identities become rich, multidimensional, expansive. Sometimes it feels like there’s more to dislike than to like, more to disdain than to embrace. My longing for tennis feels like an opportunity, a reason to open my arms wider, to take more of the world in. I’m going to seize it. For more David Foster Wallace on Roger Federer as Religious Experience. “The most flamboyant and freakish player was Ezra Pound, who sported an enormous floppy beret to distract his opponent as well as to shade his eyes.” From 1985, why tennis is the sport of poets. Attending the U.S. Open with the writer Philip Levine. A MESSAGE FROM UPWAY E-Bikes on sale Top e-Bikes at unbeatable prices! Use code SUMMER for an extra $150 off sale prices! Ends in 48h. Check Upway.co now U.S. OPEN FINALS PREVIEW Taylor Fritz, in his match against Frances Tiafoe last night. Karsten Moran for The New York Times American men’s tennis has been lost in the wilderness. Before this weekend, the last American man to reach the U.S. Open final was Andy Roddick in 2006; Roddick was also the last to win the tournament, in 2003. Now, finally, the Yanks are back. Taylor Fritz beat Tiafoe in an all-American semifinal last night, winning in five sets, and on Sunday he has a shot to break the two-decade title curse. It won’t be easy: He faces Jannik Sinner, the world’s No. 1-ranked player. American women have had no such drought. Serena Williams reigned over the sport until recently, and Coco Gauff, one of her heirs apparent, won the Open last year. Today, another American, Jessica Pegula, is going for her first Grand Slam title. She faces Aryna Sabalenka, winner of the past two Australian Opens. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Michael Keaton Geordie Wood for The New York Times In “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Michael Keaton returns to a role now enshrined in pop culture — with 35 years of ups and downs, plus an Oscar nomination, under his belt. (Read our review.) Read about the television shows to keep an eye out for this fall, including a “WandaVision” spinoff and Colin Farrell in “The Penguin.” “Who TF Did I Marry,” a popular 50-part TikTok series in which a woman recounted her troubled marriage, is being developed for television, Variety reports. The Times asked readers to share their favorite movies from 1999. Here’s what they said. Fashion Zac Posen Nicholas Albrecht for The New York Times Zac Posen, known for over-the-top glamour, is trying to reinvent Gap Inc. The stakes are high for both the designer and the brand. The Venice Film Festival has been a showcase for new designs as well as vintage pieces. See 15 looks from the event. Music MJ Lenderman, whose particular brand of indie rock fuses Southern twang with tragicomic tales, has a new album. The Times profiled Lenderman, and our critic recommended nine songs to get acquainted with his style. “Transa,” a 46-track album about transgender awareness that features Sam Smith, Sade and André 3000, is set to be released in November. Sergio Mendes, the Brazilian-born musician who brought bossa nova to a global audience through his ensemble Brasil ’66, died at 83. Other Culture Stories OK McCausland for The New York Times Longtime friends Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow are appearing together in “The Roommate” on Broadway. They spoke to The Times about their return to the stage. Anna Sorokin, who claimed to be a German heiress and was convicted of theft, will appear on the next season of “Dancing With Stars.” Astro Bot, out this week for PlayStation, is one of the best-received video games of the year. Our review calls it an “exceptional, imaginative game.” THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election Juan Merchan, the judge in Trump’s Manhattan criminal case. Ahmed Gaber for The New York Times The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal case postponed his sentencing until after Election Day, siding with Trump to “avoid any appearance” of affecting the race. Kamala Harris’s campaign and the Democratic Party raised $361 million last month, nearly triple what Trump and Republicans did. Trump, who was found liable for sexually abusing a woman in the 1990s, said that his accuser was lying, and that another woman wasn’t attractive enough for him to have harassed. Dick Cheney, the Republican former vice president, said he would vote for Harris. Trump, he said, “tried to steal the last election using lies and violence.” Other Big Stories The U.S. labor market continues to slow. The economy added 142,000 jobs last month and earlier job gains were revised downward, boosting the Federal Reserve’s case for cutting interest rates. Stocks fell on the news. The Israeli military appeared to withdraw from Jenin, a city in the occupied West Bank, after a 10-day raid that killed dozens of people and damaged homes, businesses and infrastructure. Elsewhere in the West Bank, a 26-year-old American woman protesting Israeli settlements there was fatally shot. Activists said Israeli soldiers had shot her. The Justice Department accused a Pakistani citizen of plotting to attack a Jewish center in Brooklyn on or near Oct. 7, the anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel. The Times analyzed millions of Telegram messages, and found the app has become a haven for drug trafficking, disinformation and terrorist groups. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. A MESSAGE FROM UPWAY E-Bikes on sale Top e-Bikes at unbeatable prices! Use code SUMMER for an extra $150 off sale prices! Ends in 48h. Check Upway.co now CULTURE CALENDAR By Andrew LaVallee 🎨 “Long Tail Halo” (Wednesday): If you’re in New York, you can see one of the fall’s major art exhibits without paying admission or even walking into a museum. Outside the Met’s entrance, there will be four nearly-10-foot-tall sculptures by Lee Bul, one of South Korea’s most important contemporary artists. 👩🎨 “Emily in Paris” (Thursday): For reasons only discernible to Netflix, this show’s fourth season was released in two batches, and the second one is on its way. Escapism at its finest? A pure, unadulterated hate-watch? Deux things can be true. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Linda Xiao for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Made-in-the-Pan Chocolate Cake Whew, you made it through the first week of September. Now, you deserve a reward for navigating that passage back to work and school — preferably something soothing and easy. My vote goes to Mollie Katzen’s made-in-the-pan chocolate cake, a deep cocoa stunner further enhanced with a generous handful of chocolate chips scattered on top before baking. Ready in under an hour, it’s exactly the kind of instant gratification the whole family can get behind. Make it with your kids, letting them mix and stir to their little hearts’ content, and serve it for midafternoon snacking over the weekend. Then, save some to tuck into lunchboxes during the week. It will make Monday so much sweeter. T MAGAZINE Photograph by Ilya Lipkin. Styled by Jay Massacret Click the cover image above to read this weekend’s edition of T, The Times’s style magazine. REAL ESTATE Kevin, Teri, John and Bethanie Love near the family’s new home outside Philadelphia. Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times The Hunt: A family left the Nevada desert for Greater Philadelphia. Which home did they choose? Play our game. What you get for $925,000: A saltbox-style four-bedroom house in Ancram, N.Y.; a Tudor Revival cottage in Richmond, Va.; or a 2018 house in St. Louis. Andy Cohen: The TV host is selling his 3,500-square-foot apartment in the West Village, painstakingly assembled over two decades. See inside. LIVING Men’s wear: A group of experts chose the 25 most influential postwar collections. Party time: A 16-hour ferry trip between Stockholm and Helsinki is a festive summer ritual, featuring limbo contests (and maybe a bit too much to drink). Seashell art: Works encrusted with oysters and mussels are showing up in galleries and interiors. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER How to de-stink thrifted clothes The joy of scoring an amazing vintage find can quickly dissipate when you realize that it literally stinks: musty, old and dusty. Luckily, getting rid of funky smells from secondhand clothes is easier than you might think. Wirecutter’s experts recommend the same formula some might use for a good spring break: the sun and a shot of vodka. The sun’s UV rays can kill bacteria lingering in the fabric. And our testing has found vodka in a spray bottle works better against odor than Febreze. You’ll then want to pre-treat any stains, wash the item gently and stay far away from your dryer. — Annemarie Conte NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was fivefold. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa P.S. The most clicked story in the newsletter last week was a quiz to determines if you have healthy brain habits. 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 September 8 Author Members Share Posted September 8 September 8, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Maxwell Strachan writes about the extreme lengths we go to improve our sleep. We’re also covering the 2024 election, the U.S. Open and a coup at Disney. —David Leonhardt Illustration by Petra Eriksson Zonked out By Maxwell Strachan I’m an editor on Well, The Times’s personal health section. Americans used to say we’d sleep when we were dead. We viewed sleep as a waste of time — something prized by the lazy, and minimized by the industrious. How times have changed. These days, getting in bed early is cool. People, especially those in younger generations, have come to better understand the benefits of a good night’s rest, and many now make sleep a central part of their personal health routines. Experts say this is a good thing: Consistently solid sleep can benefit your heart, brain, immune system and mental health. But our newfound love of sleep is also leading us to strange places. On social media, you can find some people mixing concoctions meant to induce sleep — called “sleepy girl mocktails” — and others trying on sleep aids like mouth tape, nose tape and jaw straps, sometimes all at once. For many, sleep has become something to be optimized, even perfected. Kate Lindsay has a fascinating new story in The Times today that explores this growing fixation — specifically, the large number of people for whom good sleep is not good enough. They are sometimes called “sleepmaxxers.” Kate’s story raises a question I’ve been wondering myself: After so many years of worrying too little about sleep, is it possible some of us have started worrying too much? In today’s newsletter, I’ll walk you through the science behind some popular methods for improving sleep, and the possible downsides of caring too much about it. A “sleepy girl mocktail.” Molly Matalon for The New York Times Sleep, Inc. A few lucky people can fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. For the rest of us, a multibillion-dollar industry offers a boundless supply of products that promise to help. There are best-selling guidebooks, smartwatches, smart rings, temperature-changing mattresses, straps, plugs, masks, glasses and even mists. And that’s to say nothing of the enormous variety of sleep-inducing pills and gummies. People routinely get millions of views on TikTok and Instagram testing out sleep hacks and accessories, including by filming themselves taking off all the accouterment, a trend known as “morning shed.” Is this all a case of consumerism gone wild, or does any of this stuff actually help? The Times’s Well desk has looked into the science behind a few of these products. Here’s what we found: Mouth tape: A few small studies have found people with mild sleep apnea snored a bit less (or less severely) when they taped their lips closed. The effects for people without sleep apnea are less clear. But experts say you should probably steer clear of mouth tape if you struggle to breathe through your nose, whether because of a deviated septum, allergies, chronic congestion or something else entirely. Magnesium: This common sleep supplement is one part of the viral “sleepy girl mocktail.” And while some observational studies have linked magnesium to better sleep quality, several other, more rigorous trials have found that it has no effect for most people. That said, it’s not harmful, so if it works for you, feel free to keep taking it — you may benefit from a placebo effect. Melatonin: One of the most common sleep-related supplements is also one of the most misused. Many people who take melatonin do so right before they get in bed. But, as the Well team has explained, melatonin is more like a sunset than a light switch. It is best taken hours before bed, so that it can aid your body in the process of winding down. So what works? There’s good news: Sleep experts say the most reliable hacks are often the cheapest and most simple. Get in and out of bed at the same time every day, no matter how well you sleep. Lower the temperature in your room to between 65 and 68 degrees. Limit alcohol and caffeine in the hours before bed. Exercise! Experts also recommend a wind-down period every night. It’s better if that time doesn’t include screens, but if television relaxes you, consider something light that you’ve already seen. (I like to watch “Veep,” “The Office” or “30 Rock” before bed.) And if all else fails, you can stick your head in a freezer. Yes, really. So long as a gadget or product isn’t making your sleep worse, or harming you, there’s no real problem with it. Maybe sipping a “sleepy girl mocktail” or spraying magnesium on your feet helps you relax. But watch out for signs that you are becoming fixated on sleep. In 2017, a few researchers came up with the word “orthosomnia” to describe a phenomenon in which people who wear sleep trackers on a “perfectionistic quest for the ideal sleep” actually have their sleep become worse. If that sounds like you, it might be time to take a step back. “Sleep is a passive process,” one doctor told Kate. “It is to be protected, not forced — or ‘maximized.’” In short, winding down before sleep: good. Winding yourself up about sleep? Not so much. For more: Read Kate’s story on the quest for sleep perfection. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election Donald Trump Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times Donald Trump narrowly leads Kamala Harris by 48 percent to 47 percent among likely voters, according to a national poll by The Times and Siena College. While it’s worth being cautious about the poll’s findings, Nate Cohn writes, it’s plausible that the poll would be the first to capture a shift back toward Trump. At a rally in Wisconsin, Trump pledged to ultimately eliminate the Education Department. Method acting and tough questions: Read how Harris and Trump are prepping for their debate on Tuesday. Middle East A gunman killed three Israelis at a border crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said. The Israeli military struck two school compounds turned shelters in Gaza. The military said that Hamas was using them as a base. The family of an American killed at a protest in the West Bank demanded an independent investigation, saying that Israel could not investigate her death impartially. Iran has sent short-range missiles to Russia, according to U.S. and European officials. Iran denied providing the weapons. More International News Edmundo González, center, at a rally in May. Lexi Parra for The New York Times Edmundo González — the Venezuelan opposition candidate who is widely considered to have won July’s disputed presidential election — has fled the country. He was facing an arrest warrant. In rural China, women are challenging a custom that denies them land rights if they marry outside their village. Cow vigilantism — violence related to the slaughter or smuggling of cows, or the suspicion of such acts — is unnerving some Muslims in India. Other Big Stories Aryna Sabalenka Graham Dickie/The New York Times Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus defeated Jessica Pegula, an American, in the U.S. Open women’s final. The mother of a boy charged with fatally shooting four people at his Georgia high school told relatives she had called to warn the school of an emergency on the morning of the attack, her sister said. A palace coup: Bob Iger outmaneuvered his chosen successor to return to power as Disney’s chief executive. Here’s how it happened. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Which candidate has the advantage heading into the presidential debate on Tuesday? Harris. She is skilled at finding weaknesses in her opponent’s arguments, and she can goad Trump into making weak personal attacks. “Harris can also be deft in flashing anger, turning attempts by opponents to paint her as weak into opportunities to show strength,” The Economist writes. Trump. He can zero in on Harris’s shifting policy stances and subpar tenure as vice president. “With one disciplined debate performance, Trump helped knock Biden out of the race. On Tuesday night, he has a chance to do the same to Harris,” The Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen writes. FROM OPINION Heat waves can often be deadly. Naming them, as we do with hurricanes, could help people take them more seriously, Eric Klinenberg writes. Here are columns by Nicholas Kristof on hiking and Jamelle Bouie on Trump and abortion. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS In Brooklyn, N.Y. Dave Sanders for The New York Times Gowanus Canal: A real estate boom has come to a polluted corner of Brooklyn. Housing: A family fled violence and poverty in El Salvador to build a better life in San Francisco. The city often wasn’t what they thought it would be. Routine: How a celebrity hairstylist spends his Sundays. Vows: From hostel bunk mates to life partners. Lives Lived: Lloyd Ziff designed some of the most visually exciting magazines of the 1970s and ’80s. But his real love, and eventually his focus, was photography. He died at 81. BOOK OF THE WEEK Today, we introduce a new feature to the Sunday edition of The Morning: a book recommendation from Elisabeth Egan, a Times books editor. Each week, Elisabeth will highlight one book she thinks you should consider reading. By Elisabeth Egan “Colored Television,” by Danzy Senna: Take one frustrated biracial novelist. Add an abstract painter husband and two demanding, complicated children (are there any other kind?). Fold in a dwindling bank account, the price of real estate in Los Angeles and an oleaginous TV producer dangling charming, multicultural neighborhood money and you have the ingredients for Danzy Senna’s book-clubbable novel, “Colored Television.” Perfect for fans of “The Plot,” “Leave the World Behind” and “Erasure” (which happens to be written by Senna’s husband, Percival Everett), this modern fable begs the question: What would you sell for the life of your dreams? Read our review of the book here. More on books For almost 30 years, Senna has written about characters who happen to be multiracial — “the country I come from,” as she put it. You know from the opening paragraphs of “Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner, that “you are in the hands of a major writer,” our critic writes. THE INTERVIEW Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times By David Marchese This week’s subjects of The Interview are the comedian Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, his best friend and frequent collaborator. Their upcoming documentary, “Will & Harper,” which opens in select theaters on Sept. 13 and streams on Netflix starting Sept. 27, is about a cross-country road trip the two took after Steele transitioned. Do you have a goal for the movie? Steele: There’s a process of normalizing queer people for America, and this movie does that. It makes the trans experience more understandable. However, I’m not that interested in normalizing for people who have hated me for centuries. I want the movie to make other people be gentler and softer and caring, and maybe if you’re a father who loved “Anchorman” and you’ve got a trans kid now, maybe you’re going to open yourself up. Ferrell: You’re willing to sit down and have a conversation. Steele: That’s the work I want the movie to do. But I don’t particularly care about making myself normal to people who don’t like me. How are you feeling now about being out in the world as a woman? Steele: There are still anxieties. But I basically wake up every morning happy, which is something I didn’t do for, mostly, 59 years. I feel amazing. Was there any apprehension on your part, Will, about making your personal life into a documentary? You’re not a confessional comedian, and I don’t think of your comedy as you working out your personal stuff. Ferrell: I’ve had a long enough career that I’m very secure in exploring the subject matter with my friend. We’ll see what the reaction is toward me. It’s going to be some positive, some negative or whatever, but I’m at a place where I can take any of it. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photograph by Jamie Chung for The New York Times Click the cover image above to read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Go “wild swimming” in these European cities. Tackle back-seat messes with a car vacuum. Get a quality hammer. MEAL PLAN David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein highlights recipes from her list of 100 easy weeknight dinners, including a 30-minute spiced roast chicken, a dumpling noodle soup and a cheesy baked pasta with sausage and ricotta. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were abomination and ambition. Can you put eight historical events — including the creation of the compass, the debut of the “The Wizard of Oz,” and the theory of continental drift — 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 September 10 Author Members Share Posted September 10 September 9, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Kate Zernike explains the 10 abortion measures on the ballot this fall. We’re also covering Harris and Trump, a second Google antitrust case and athletes’ anime obsession. —David Leonhardt Abortion rights supporters in Arizona. Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press Body politics By Kate Zernike I cover abortion. If there’s one thing that captures how the abortion debate has changed in the last two years, it’s ballot initiatives. In the five decades that Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, almost every abortion question on state ballots was put there by anti-abortion groups. Now the reverse is true. In the last two years, abortion rights activists won seven out of seven ballot initiatives. So this fall, they’re swinging big, asking voters in 10 states to establish a constitutional right to abortion. A few of these new measures — in Florida, Missouri and South Dakota — would do something no ballot question has done so far: restore access to abortion where it had been almost entirely banned. Previous ballot initiatives have merely protected access in states where it already existed. And Democrats have another motivation for the initiatives: to drive turnout for Kamala Harris and the party’s congressional candidates, especially in battleground states like Arizona and Nevada. Several measures will be tricky to pass. The one in Florida, for instance, requires a 60 percent majority. (The highest margin the abortion rights side has won in a red state is just below that.) In today’s newsletter, I’ll guide you through the ballot questions that would let voters decide abortion policy in their states. Red-state abortions Most of the ballot measures would amend a state constitution to re-establish the right the Supreme Court established in Roe v. Wade: access to abortion until viability, when the fetus can survive outside the uterus. That’s around 24 weeks of pregnancy. After that, the state could limit or ban abortion, except if a medical provider says it was necessary to protect the mother. Signing a petition in Missouri. Ed Zurga/Associated Press The stakes are highest in the states that restricted abortion after the court overturned Roe, and where Republican-controlled legislatures protect anti-abortion policies. A measure in Missouri would reverse a ban, but a legal challenge may strip it from the ballot this week. Florida bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, which is about two weeks after a woman misses her period. At that point, many women don’t yet know they are pregnant. The amendment would restore access for the roughly four million women of reproductive age in the state — and for millions more who once traveled there for abortions from nearby states that ban them. Anti-abortion groups are sponsoring just one measure, in Nebraska. It would ban abortion in the second and third trimester, enshrining a state law that prohibits abortion after 12 weeks. So why offer the constitutional amendment? Because abortion-rights groups have a competing question that would prevent the state from banning abortion before the fetus becomes viable. If both amendments pass, the one with more votes takes effect. Driving Democratic turnout In some places, the ballot amendment won’t really change abortion policy — it just affirms state law. But it could draw more voters to the polls. A rally in Las Vegas. John Locher/Associated Press In Montana, abortion is already legal until a fetus’s viability (or roughly 24 weeks of pregnancy), thanks to a 1999 state Supreme Court decision. But sponsors of this year’s amendment say they need to enshrine that right in the Constitution so lawmakers or justices can’t undo it. And if it drives turnout to re-elect Jon Tester, a vulnerable Senate incumbent, then all the better for them. Democrats have similar ideas about Arizona and Nevada. These are battlegrounds not only in the presidential race but also in the party’s bid to hold its Senate majority. In Arizona, the amendment would overturn a ban on abortion after 15 weeks. But Nevada already allows abortion until viability, so the immediate objective there seems more purely political. The same is true in Maryland, where Democrats hope a ballot measure helps Angela Alsobrooks beat Larry Hogan, a Republican former governor, in this year’s Senate race. Then there’s the House. To win a majority, Democrats need to net at least four seats. Operatives have identified 18 competitive races across the country where ballot measures could help. The list includes two seats to flip in Arizona and three to hold in Nevada. It also includes two seats they want to win in Colorado, where a ballot measure in November would enshrine current policy, which allows abortion at any time. (That initiative also needs more than a simple majority — 55 percent — to win.) Political compromises The biggest prize liberals see is in blue New York, home to seven competitive House races, five in districts held by Republicans. Abortion is already legal until viability, but a ballot initiative there would go further, establishing an “Equal Protection of Law Amendment” that would bar discrimination based on sex. It doesn’t specifically mention abortion, and Republicans believe its reference to “gender identity” will alienate voters. Activists went with a narrower option in South Dakota, which would allow abortion restrictions in the second trimester — which begins at 13 weeks, well before viability — betting that would pass in a conservative state. Planned Parenthood declined to support it, saying it didn’t go far enough. For abortion rights groups, the ballot strategy may be near its end. Only 17 states allow citizens to put amendments in front of voters. If the groups succeed in November, there will be only three states among those — Arkansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma — that ban abortion. For more More voters, especially women, now say abortion is their top issue. Democrats hope the abortion issue will save the Senate, but in conservative states, it might not be enough. Why hasn’t democracy settled the abortion question in the U.S.? Until recently, voters hadn’t faced many chances to express their views. THE LATEST NEWS More on the Election Harris and Donald Trump are close in the polls heading into their first debate tomorrow, Nate Cohn writes. At the debate, Harris must decide how much to embrace President Biden’s policies or distance herself from them. What are Harris’s strengths and weaknesses as a debater? The Times’s Lisa Lerer looks at moments from the vice president’s previous performances. Watch a three-minute video. Middle East Israeli strikes in western Syria killed at least 14 people, according to Syrian state media. Kuwait, a major oil exporter, has introduced blackouts to cope with surging electricity demand over summer. More International News A stall selling traditional Tajik clothing, rather than hijabs and head scarves. Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times Tajikistan, in an attempt to counter extremism, is restricting visible signs of Islam. It has enforced bans on head scarves, and local authorities with scissors outside a K.F.C. have trimmed men’s beards. A fugitive televangelist accused of leading an international sex abuse ring was caught in the Philippines. He was wanted by the F.B.I. The opposition candidate in Venezuela’s election has sought asylum in Spain. The decision has dimmed hopes for democracy in the South American country. Typhoon Yagi killed at least 21 people and injured more than 200 as it churned across Vietnam. Earlier, it killed at least 24 in China and the Philippines. Greece’s prime minister has proposed measures — including restricting cruise visits — to curb tourist numbers. Business Google’s second antitrust trial begins today. The Justice Department has called for a breakup of the tech giant, which it says controls most online advertising. Apple will today unveil iPhones with artificial intelligence features. The system — called Apple Intelligence — will create a more capable Siri powered by generative A.I. Other Big Stories In Winder, Ga. Christian Monterrosa for The New York Times After a school shooting in the Georgia town of Winder, residents consoled one another and asked whether more could have been done to prevent the attack. A wildfire in Southern California more than quadrupled in size over the weekend, forcing evacuation orders. Russell Nelson, the leader of the Mormon Church, is 100 today. Justice Samuel Alito disclosed a gift of concert tickets worth $900 from a German princess with links to far-right conservatives. Opinions American politics will become increasingly violent if we continue to normalize attacks, Katherine Miller writes. Is your name your destiny? There is good reason to be skeptical, Jesse Singal writes. Here is a column by David French on MAGA. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS The solar system’s innermost planet. European Space Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mercury: New images show the speckled surface of the planet in detail. Dispatch: Catholic priests once came to Indonesia. One of the country’s islands now ordains so many it exports them. Quiz: A.I. can create lifelike videos. Can you tell what’s real? Nature: Apes have been observed making more than 80 meaningful gestures. These theories try to explain why. Metropolitan Diary: It started with a cigarette. Lives Lived: María Benítez was an American dancer and choreographer who, as the founder of a popular Spanish dance troupe, played a major role in making New Mexico a hotbed for flamenco. She died at 82. SPORTS Jannik Sinner Karsten Moran for The New York Times U.S. Open: Jannik Sinner of Italy, the men’s No. 1, defeated the American Taylor Fritz in straight sets in the final. The win reaffirms Sinner’s place atop tennis, our columnist writes. N.F.L.: The Detroit Lions outlasted the Los Angeles Rams in overtime, part of an entertaining Week 1. Soccer: The U.S. player Alex Morgan appeared in her final professional match. It was an emotional night. ARTS AND IDEAS Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns with an anime visor. Nick Cammett/Getty Images High-profile young athletes like the sprinter Noah Lyles and MMA’s Israel Adesanya are broadcasting their obsession with anime like “Naruto” and “Pokémon.” The trend upends outdated labels that divide jocks and geeks. “There’s more nerds out here that can ball out and like anime,” Jamaal Williams of the New Orleans Saints, who has worn an anime helmet visor, said. “You don’t have to be the stereotype where all we do is rap or play ball.” More on culture A revealing and sometimes uncomfortable nine-hour documentary about Prince could redefine our understanding of the singer. It may never be released. “The Room Next Door,” directed by Pedro Almodóvar and starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice International Film Festival. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Top this simple one-pot chicken and rice dish with caramelized lemon slices. Get cozy in the best pajamas. Give a great bridal shower gift. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were weighting, whetting and whitening. 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 September 10 Author Members Share Posted September 10 September 10, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re asking 24 questions that we wish Donald Trump would answer — and covering tonight’s debate, an Israeli airstrike and the Princess of Wales. Donald Trump Roger Kisby for The New York Times Unanswered questions Two weeks ago, The Morning published a list of questions that we wished Kamala Harris would answer. Today — the day of the debate between Harris and Donald Trump — we’re publishing questions for Trump. As before, my Times colleagues who are covering the campaign helped put this list together. The economy 1. The signature legislation of your presidency was a tax cut that disproportionately helped the wealthy. Now you want to make this legislation permanent — and expand it. How will a tax cut geared toward the rich help most American families? 2. The federal debt is already large, and your tax cut would expand it. Do you have any plans to reduce the debt? 3. You have sent mixed signals about whether you will again try to repeal Obamacare. Will you? And when will you release your own health care plan, as you’ve long promised? 4. You have proposed a big tariff on goods coming into this country. Many business executives and economists say it will raise consumer prices. Why do you think they’re wrong? 5. You have signaled that you want to end the Federal Reserve’s independence and help set interest rates yourself. When other countries have politicized their central banks, inflation has tended to rise. Why do you favor this idea? 6. You promised to pass an infrastructure bill as president but didn’t. President Biden did — along with bipartisan laws on veterans’ health, manufacturing and more. Why has he been a more bipartisan president than you were? Other domestic issues 7. You’ve said that you are proud of the demise of Roe v. Wade and that states should decide abortion policy. Will you promise to veto any congressional bill that imposes new restrictions on states? 8. Many abortions occur through prescription medications. Five months ago, you said you would announce a policy on medication abortion, but you haven’t. Will you take executive actions to restrict its availability? 9. You promised to build a border wall — a policy that many voters support — but you completed only modest sections of it. Why should voters believe you will succeed in a second term? Trump in Arizona. Doug Mills/The New York Times 10. You have called for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Whom exactly would you deport — everybody who’s in this country illegally, including children and people who’ve been here for years, or only some groups? And how would you identify and apprehend people? 11. Extreme heat, severe storms and flooding have all become more common. Yet you’ve called climate change “not our problem.” Are you worried about the world you’re leaving to your grandchildren? Foreign policy 12. You’ve suggested that Vladimir Putin should have a freer hand to do what he wants in Europe. Would you try to withdraw the U.S. from NATO? 13. You have criticized U.S. military aid to Ukraine and pledged to end the war there in a single day. Isn’t this effectively calling for Ukraine to surrender and accept a peace deal favorable to Putin? 14. You have promised to bring home the hostages in Gaza. How would you persuade or force Hamas to release them all? 15. Middle East policy during your presidency often followed the wishes of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. His unwillingness to compromise on big questions appears to be an obstacle to peace. Do you disagree with him on anything? 16. If Iran appeared to be building a nuclear weapon, would you order a military attack? 17. You were tougher on China than your predecessors. But you also recently abandoned your opposition to China’s ownership of TikTok, evidently after being lobbied by a Republican donor. Are you willing to stand up to China even if it costs your allies money? Trump himself 18. You tried to overturn the 2020 election result after Biden beat you. Do you believe in American democracy? 19. On Jan. 6, 2021, rioters attacked police officers at the Capitol. You’ve praised those rioters, raised money for them, pledged to pardon them and met with their relatives. Do you understand why this angers officers who were injured in the attack and the families of those who died afterward? 20. A jury found that you had sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. Another jury convicted you for falsifying records to cover up an affair. And you have a long record of demeaning women. Do you regret any of this behavior? 21. You used your power as president to enrich yourself and your family, including by holding events at your properties. Will you do so again? 22. The governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the U.A.E. have invested billions of dollars with a fund run by Jared Kushner, your son-in-law, even though he has little relevant investment experience. Do you think they’re trying to curry favor with you through him? 23. Four years from now, you would be 82. In public appearances, you sometimes give incoherent answers, including a recent one about child care. Will you release your complete medical records? 24. Multiple people who watched you up close as president — including your vice president and a chief of staff — say that you’re unfit to be president. Why do so many of your own appointees feel this way? Tonight’s debate Tonight’s debate is high-stakes: It’s the only one scheduled between Harris and Trump, and they are virtually tied in the polls. It starts at 9 p.m. Eastern. Will Trump restrain himself? Will Harris distance herself from Biden? Here’s what else to watch for. Trump has recently mixed up names, stumbled over words and rambled, raising questions about his age and cognitive health. In past debates, Harris was unafraid to instigate attacks, but could be unsteady when receiving one. More on the election What do Harris and Trump say about each other? Harris has mostly stuck to policy critiques, while Trump has insulted her — as “crooked,” “crazy” or “stupid” — more than three times a day. Harris’s campaign website now has an “Issues” page. It mostly mirrors Biden’s stances and also criticizes Project 2025. Trump said he would vote for a Florida ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana, CNN reports. THE LATEST NEWS Israel-Hamas War Israel struck inside a humanitarian area in the southern Gaza Strip, saying its target was a military command center. An official in Gaza said the strikes killed at least 40 people. Violence is escalating in the West Bank: Palestinian militants have made bolder, more sophisticated attacks, and Israel has intensified its military raids. Politics The eccentric, right-wing German princess who hosted Justice Samuel Alito and his wife at her castle last summer praised him as “pro-life in a time where the majority follows the culture of death.” Justice Elena Kagan said Americans were right to worry about the Supreme Court soon limiting contraceptive access and same-sex marriage. Several congressional Republicans, including JD Vance and Ted Cruz, have spread a false story about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio. War in Ukraine In Kyiv. Oksana Parafeniuk for The New York Times For some women in Ukraine, a visit to a nail salon — which often involves navigating power outages and air-raid sirens — is an act of defiance. A Ukrainian drone attack near Moscow killed at least one person, a Russian official said. Ukrainian civilians increasingly support negotiations with Moscow to end the war, but soldiers are skeptical about a deal, The Wall Street Journal reports. More International News Catherine, Princess of Wales Tolga Akmen/EPA, via Shutterstock Catherine, the Princess of Wales, said she had completed chemotherapy. She has revealed few details about her cancer diagnosis. Seventy-nine environmental activists were killed in Colombia last year, a new report says. Sixty were killed the year before. Nearly half the population of East Timor attended the Mass that Pope Francis held there, according to the Vatican, The A.P. reports. Weather A wildfire in San Bernardino County, Calif., forced schools to close and residents to evacuate. Another erupted in the hills of Orange County. Tropical Storm Francine is growing stronger in the Gulf of Mexico, and could make landfall in Louisiana tomorrow. See the storm’s track. Other Big Stories James Earl Jones in 2012. Todd Heisler/The New York Times James Earl Jones, who stuttered badly as a child but became one of Hollywood’s great voices, roaring life into “Star Wars” and Shakespeare, has died at 93. Read his Times obituary. SpaceX launched a mission to carry a billionaire astronaut further from Earth than any human since the Apollo project. At least seven counties in southeastern Kentucky closed schools as the authorities search for the suspect in a highway shooting. Teenage girls’ brains aged rapidly during pandemic shutdowns, probably from the stress of isolation, a study found. Opinions Liz Magic Laser traces the political history of the raised fist, from the Black Panthers to Trump. The arrest of the Telegram chief and Brazil’s X ban shows that social-media titans are nearing the end of impunity, Alexander Howard writes. Harris should focus on swaying people who don’t like Trump personally but plan to vote for him based on policy, Kristen Soltis Anderson writes. Here’s a column by Michelle Goldberg on Trump’s disrespect for the anti-abortion movement. Readers of The Morning: Don’t miss out on a full year of savings. From in-depth coverage of Decision 2024 to unlimited news and analysis, Games, Cooking, The Athletic and more, subscribe now for only $1 a week for your first year. MORNING READS An iPhone 16. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images iPhone 16: Apple says its new phone has A.I. to make Siri more useful. Tech Fix: You don’t need to buy a new phone to use A.I. tools. Our columnist explains how to get them. Ask Vanessa: “Are special clothes you don’t wear anymore worth keeping?” Lives Lived: In the 1970s, Maria Redo single-handedly convinced thousands of New York City retailers to offer discounts to older people struggling to make ends meet, starting a nationwide trend. She died at 99. SPORTS N.F.L.: The San Francisco 49ers spoiled Aaron Rodgers’s season debut in a 32-19 win over the New York Jets. Read a recap. Deshaun Watson: A Texas woman sued the Browns quarterback, accusing him of sexual assault. Tyreek Hill: The police in Miami released bodycam footage of the Dolphins star’s arrest during a traffic stop on Sunday. The team said officers’ actions had been “overly aggressive and violent.” ARTS AND IDEAS The “wet martini” at Eel Bar in Manhattan. John Taggart for The New York Times Many adjectives have been attached to martinis — dirty, smoky, filthy, flaming — but few bartenders, Pete Wells writes, would have thought it was a good idea to sell a wet martini. “It implied that the bartender had allowed too much vermouth to creep into the glass,” Pete writes. “It was a synonym for anemic, sloppy, wishy-washy.” A martini served by a new restaurant, however, reflects an appreciation of vermouth that’s been a long time coming. More on culture Jorge Ramos is preparing to leave Univision after 40 years at the network. He is known for questioning leaders including Fidel Castro. “You know these are strange times when Dick Cheney and Barbra Streisand are voting for the same person,” Jimmy Fallon joked on his show. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich. Serve this brown butter peach cake at brunch. Avoid these rookie running mistakes. Store files on a USB drive. Enjoy a good night’s sleep on these mattresses. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was typeface. 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 P.S. Has faith shaped your life? The Times wants to hear from you. Tell us what you believe in, whether you’re religious or not. 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 September 11 Author Members Share Posted September 11 September 11, 2024 By David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick Good morning. We’re covering the Harris-Trump debate — as well as Congress, California wildfires and marriage tuneups. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Doug Mills/The New York Times A good night for Harris Debating has long been a Kamala Harris strength. It resembles courtroom argument, a core part of her career as a prosecutor. A debate helped her win her first statewide race in California, 14 years ago. In her only vice-presidential debate four years ago with Mike Pence, polls showed that she won. And she certainly seemed to win last night’s debate with Donald Trump. She was calm and forceful and repeatedly baited Trump into looking angry. As Trump told lies — about Obamacare, inflation, crime, immigrants eating household pets and more — she smiled, shook her head and then called him on the lies. She often looked directly at him or the camera; he seemed unwilling to look at her and looked mostly at the moderators. During the debate, prediction markets shifted a few points toward Harris. Many political analysts, including conservatives, also judged Harris to be the winner — two-and-a-half months after many of those same analysts said Trump had trounced President Biden in their debate: “Y’all, this is not going well for Trump. Don’t get mad at me for saying so,” Erick Erickson, the conservative commentator, wrote on social media. He also accusing the moderators of being biased against Trump — a common Republican argument last night. (The Times’s media correspondent analyzed the moderators’ performance.) “I think she’s winning this. She comes across as normal, clear, and strong. Trump can’t land a blow — he is blustering and unfocused,” Rod Dreher, the Christian conservative, wrote. “Trump looked old tonight,” Chris Wallace, the longtime Fox News host who now works for CNN, said. At least one person who isn’t a political analyst also seemed influenced by the night. “Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight,” Taylor Swift wrote on social media afterward. “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.” Will it matter? A debate watch party in Arizona. Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times There are a couple of important caveats. First, Harris didn’t have a perfect night. She often ignored the questions from ABC’s moderators — like the opening question about whether Americans are better off than four years ago, as well as questions about her changed positions on fracking and other subjects. She recited her talking points instead. She made a few false or misleading statements (though many fewer than Trump), including about the unemployment rate when he left office. She described her policies in ways that weren’t always easy to understand. In Trump’s closing statement, he parried her many promises by pointing out that she has been vice president for three-and-a-half years and asked, “Why hasn’t she done it?” Second, it is uncertain how much Harris’s strong overall performance will matter. “Hillary Clinton also won the debates against Donald Trump,” Julia Ioffe of Puck News noted. The same prediction markets that shifted toward Harris last night continue to show the election as a tossup. The debate’s impact will become more evident as new polls emerge in coming days. But Harris’s campaign seemed very pleased with how last night went. More on tactics During the debate. The ABC News Presidential Debate Body language spoke loudly. The debate began with a handshake (Harris walked over and introduced herself to Trump, as they had never met in person). Later, she used her expressions to signal her distaste. Many of Harris’s answers seemed aimed at Trump’s ego. She mocked his rallies as boring, and said that world leaders laughed at him and that he was “fired by 81 million people.” Trump at times appeared scattered and shouted into his microphone. Trump spoke longer than Harris did overall, but Harris spent more time attacking Trump, as these charts show. Harris’s campaign immediately challenged Trump to a second debate. Trump said he’d “have to think about it.” More on issues Abortion: Trump defended the overturning of Roe v. Wade and declined to say whether he would veto a national abortion ban. Harris deftly attacked Trump’s stance, but she declined to say whether she supported restrictions on abortion in the third trimester. (The Times’s Jonathan Swan noted, “Trump has made clear to advisers that he believes the abortion issue alone could cost him the election.”) Threats to democracy: Trump refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election and falsely claimed he had “nothing to do with” the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, blaming Nancy Pelosi. Immigration: Trump repeatedly pivoted to discuss immigration, where polls favor him. Harris countered that Trump pushed Republicans to kill a bipartisan border-security bill, saying he “would prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.” Ukraine: Trump wouldn’t say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia. Harris said that Vladimir Putin would be “sitting in Kyiv” if Trump were president. Health care: Asked if he had a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, which he has promised for years, Trump said he had “concepts of a plan.” Biden’s record: Harris largely deflected Trump’s efforts to link her to Biden, calling herself “a new generation of leadership.” But she defended Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and much of his administration’s work. Here are the night’s best, worst and most surprising lines and six takeaways. Commentary “Everything seemed to unfold on her terms, not his,” the Times Opinion columnist Lydia Polgreen argued. Here’s what other Opinion writers thought about the debate. The political consultant Frank Luntz praised the debate moderators, ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis, for “covering a wider range of topics than most debates. Perhaps it was because they knew this might be the only debate of this election cycle.” ABC News was the “biggest loser” of the night and the moderators “embarrassed themselves” by only fact-checking Trump, Liz Peek wrote at Fox News. “Trump has done nothing to capitalize on the fact that one-third of voters nationally (more in the swing states) feel like they don’t know enough about Harris. He is not defining her. He’s taking her bait,” National Review’s Noah Rothman wrote. Late night hosts joked about the debate. “Harris got under his skin like she was stuffing in butter and rosemary. It was beautiful,” Stephen Colbert said. THE LATEST NEWS Sept. 11 Today is the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Harris and Trump are both expected to attend memorial events in New York City and in Shanksville, Pa., where Flight 93 crashed. Many Sept. 11 responders developed cancer in the years that followed. Some of their families are still fighting to be recognized. Politics Several House Republicans pushed back on Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to fund the federal government into next year. Hard-liners said it didn’t cut spending enough, while hawks said it would amount to a military spending cut. Johnson’s bill includes a measure requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Trump said Republicans should shut down the government unless they received “absolute assurances on Election Security.” In Missouri, a measure to restore abortion access will appear on the November ballot, the state’s supreme court ruled. Republicans had tried to remove it. Sarah McBride, a Democratic state senator, won her primary for a Delaware House seat. She’s poised to become the first openly transgender member of Congress. Nearly 50 million people — one in seven Americans — have gotten health insurance through the Affordable Care Act over the past decade. Israel-Hamas War A school that housed displaced Gazans in Nuseirat. Bashar Taleb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Palestinians sheltering in schools in Gaza are trying to keep out armed militants to avoid being targeted by Israeli forces. The Israeli military likely used 2,000-pound bombs in a recent strike on a camp for displaced people, weapons experts said. The U.S. suspended exporting those bombs earlier this year. The Israeli military said that the six hostages whose bodies were recently recovered from Gaza spent their last weeks in a tunnel around 5.5 feet tall. Other Big Stories In Riverside County, Calif. Eric Thayer/Associated Press Several fast-moving wildfires threatened homes and forced evacuations in the mountains around Los Angeles, but cooler weather helped firefighters keep them at bay. Russian forces are nearing Pokrovsk, a transit hub in eastern Ukraine. Maps show how its capture could change the war in the region. The police in Pakistan raided Parliament, officials said, and arrested at least 10 lawmakers allied with Imran Khan, the imprisoned former prime minister. Cholera deaths rose by 71 percent worldwide last year. Conflict and climate change drove the increase, according to the World Health Organization. Opinions Margaret Renkl offers an impassioned defense of the so-called trash trees of Tennessee. Here’s a column by Thomas Edsall on the rejection of science. Readers of The Morning: Don’t miss out on a full year of savings. From in-depth coverage of Decision 2024 to unlimited news and analysis, Games, Cooking, The Athletic and more, subscribe now for only $1 a week for your first year. MORNING READS Max Alexander with one of his creations. Graham Dickie/The New York Times Next generation: See New York Fashion Week through the eyes of Max Alexander, an 8-year-old with a knack for sewing and a massive online following. Marriage tuneup: Therapists shared six questions that can bring middle-aged couples closer. Lives Lived: Will Jennings was an English professor who became a lyricist for musicians including Eric Clapton and Dionne Warwick, and won an Oscar in 1998 for “My Heart Will Go On,” the theme from “Titanic.” He died at 80. SPORTS A New Zealand goal in the 89th minute. B/R Football on X. Soccer: The U.S. men’s national team tied with New Zealand. Just before the game, the U.S. officially named Mauricio Pochettino as its new coach. Our reporters detailed why. N.F.L.: There’s no indication the league is investigating the San Francisco 49ers after an apparent discrepancy around Christian McCaffrey’s injury designation. Read a report. ARTS AND IDEAS Eric Helgas for The New York Times A reader wrote to Well, The Times’s personal health section, to ask why we get songs stuck in our head — in the reader’s case, one by the country artist Kacey Musgraves. Research shows that some elements make a song more likely to become an earworm, including fast tempos and long, sustained notes (as in Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”). Read about the science (and tips to get them out). More on culture Internet sleuths spent years trying to identify Celebrity Number Six, a woman whose face appeared on a piece of fabric. They finally found her. A gala at New York Fashion Week brought out the stars, including Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom and Viola Davis. See their outfits. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Julia Gartland for The New York Times Enjoy a hearty and rich beef stew. Be ready if your basement floods. Pick the right cellphone plan. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was docility. 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 and Ian 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 September 13 Author Members Share Posted September 13 September 12, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Charlie Savage explains the contrasting approaches Trump and Harris take to presidential power. We’re also covering polio vaccination in Gaza, a storm in Louisiana and a billionaire’s spacewalk. —David Leonhardt Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Jim Vondruska,Dave Sanders for The New York Times THE STAKES Presidential power By Charlie Savage I cover legal policy and the Justice Department. Nearly every president has pushed the limits of the office’s power by taking actions that some legal scholars consider an overreach — in directing a military strike, issuing an executive order or filling a job without Congress’s approval. Checks and balances can frustrate a leader who wants to get stuff done. And in an era of polarized politics that can paralyze Congress, presidents often believe that their success hinges on unilateral action. These pressures apply to both Republicans and Democrats. But that does not mean Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are equivalent. Harris hasn’t said anything to suggest she would expand presidential power as an end in itself. Trump, by contrast, wants to concentrate more power in the White House and advertises his authoritarian impulses. (Read about his plans.) At Tuesday’s debate, he praised Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, who has eroded democracy in his country, describing him as “one of the most respected men — they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart.” The Morning is running a series in which journalists explain how the government might work under Harris or under Trump. In this installment, I’ll discuss each candidate’s approach to the separation of powers and the rule of law. I’ve been writing about executive power for two decades, and this cycle I’ve been tracking such issues closely again. Trump’s radical vision Trump busted many norms while in office, like when he invoked emergency power to spend more taxpayer funds than Congress approved for a border wall. If he wins again, as my colleagues and I have reported in a series about the policy stakes of his campaign, he has vowed to go farther. Trump says he’d make it easier to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with loyalists. (He issued an executive order laying the groundwork late in his term, but President Biden rescinded it; Trump has said he would reissue it.) He also says he’d bring independent agencies under White House authority and revive the tactic, outlawed in the 1970s, of refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs he dislikes. Building on how Trump pressured prosecutors to scrutinize his foes during his first term, the former president and his allies signal that they’d end a post-Watergate notion: that the Justice Department has investigative independence from the White House. He has threatened to order the prosecution of perceived adversaries, including Biden, election workers, a tech giant, political operatives and lawyers and donors supporting Harris. Trump also wants to use American troops on domestic soil to enforce the law. And he is planning a crackdown on illegal immigration with millions of deportations a year — far higher than the several hundred thousand per year that recent administrations, including his own, managed. To do it, his chief immigration adviser has said, the government would carry out sweeping raids and construct giant detention camps near the border in Texas. Trump is full of bluster. But there are reasons to believe that a second Trump term would carry out more of his ideas than the first. While he was sometimes constrained last time by judges or his own political appointees, he pushed courts rightward by the end of his term. And his advisers plan to hire only true believers in a second term. Ordinary boundary-pushing Unlike Trump, Harris is signaling that she would be a normal president. That would mean usually adhering to a consensus understanding of executive power. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she occasionally pushed the boundaries of presidential authority — albeit within ordinary parameters. Presidents of both parties have stretched executive powers when they haven’t been able to get new bills through Congress — think of Barack Obama’s attempts to shield certain undocumented immigrants from deportation or Biden’s attempts to forgive student debt. They have also claimed sweeping and disputed power to use military force without congressional authorization — like when Obama ordered airstrikes on Libya and when Trump directed the military to attack Syrian forces. Notably, when Harris sought the Democratic nomination in 2019, she wrote for an executive power survey I conduct every four years that “the president’s top priority is to keep America secure, and I won’t hesitate to do what it takes to protect our country.” Still, she also said presidents must obey surveillance and anti-torture laws that George W. Bush claimed the power to override — as well as a detainee transfer statute that Obama claimed he could bypass. If Republicans in Congress blocked Harris’s nominees and legislative agenda, it is likely she would take more aggressive unilateral actions. Those typically lead to accusations of overreach and legal challenges. The growth of executive power has been a story of bipartisan aggrandizement: Presidents take a disputed action, pushing the limits of their legitimate authority; their successors build on that precedent. But based on what Trump has said he is planning to do, I would expect Harris to accelerate that trend much less than Trump. More on the debate Trump called the debate rigged and falsely suggested that ABC gave Harris questions in advance. He said he was “less inclined” to debate Harris again. Several Trump advisers privately admitted that he had performed poorly against Harris. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Fox News that Harris “clearly won.” Over 67 million Americans watched Harris and Trump debate, roughly a third more than watched Trump and Biden in June. Shares of Trump’s social media company fell after the debate, and ended the day at their lowest level since the company went public. Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris after the debate could draw in more young voters. More on the election In Lower Manhattan. Dave Sanders for The New York Times Biden, Harris, Trump and JD Vance commemorated the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center memorial. Harris and Trump, standing a few feet apart, shook hands. After Biden spoke about bipartisanship in Pennsylvania, a Trump supporter asked him to put on a Trump baseball cap. He did. See the photo. The candidates are staking their campaigns on different views of the country, Peter Baker writes. Trump is betting that Americans are angry; Harris is betting that they’re exhausted. The father of an 11-year-old boy who died after an immigrant crashed into his school bus asked Trump and Vance to stop using his son as a political weapon. The Capitol will get extra security when Congress meets to certify the presidential election winner, to prevent another Jan. 6 attack. THE LATEST NEWS Israel-Hamas War In Gaza City. Omar Al-Qattaa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The U.N. said the polio vaccination campaign for children in Gaza was going well in difficult conditions. Israel struck a school building used as a shelter in Gaza, which it said Hamas had used as a command post. A U.N. agency said the strike killed six of its employees. President Biden said he was outraged by Israel’s killing of an American activist in the West Bank, and Harris questioned the Israeli army’s conduct. More International News Alberto Fujimori in 1998. Silvia Izquierdo/Reuters Alberto Fujimori, who rebuilt Peru’s economy over two decades as president but was later imprisoned for human rights abuses, died at 86. In South Korea, men have been victimizing women they know by putting their faces on pornographic clips. England’s National Health Service, one of the country’s most revered institutions, is in critical condition, according to a new report. North Korea is still sending Russia advanced short-range ballistic missiles, despite sanctions. Tropical Storm Francine In New Orleans. David Grunfeld/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, via Associated Press Hurricane Francine weakened to a tropical storm, after lashing the Louisiana coast with 100 m.p.h. winds and heavy rain. Forecasters warned of flash floods and “life-threatening” conditions in New Orleans and nearby. Other Big Stories Speaker Mike Johnson scrapped a House vote on a government funding bill that members of both parties had opposed, leaving Republicans without a plan to avert a shutdown. Inflation continues to slow and is at a three-year low, data from August shows. A gallon of gasoline gotten 12 percent cheaper over the past year. A billionaire in orbit is preparing to walk in space with his crew. Watch the spacewalk live. Two years before Boar’s Head deli meats caused a deadly listeria outbreak, federal inspectors found rust, mold and insects at one of the company’s plants. Doctors tell Black women to get unnecessary C-sections more often than they do other women, a study found. Opinions Getting an IUD inserted can be excruciating. To better serve women, doctors need to stop downplaying the potential pain, Christine Henneberg writes. Here’s a column by Pamela Paul on the deeper meaning of euphemisms. Readers of The Morning: Don’t miss out on a full year of savings. From in-depth coverage of Decision 2024 to unlimited news and analysis, Games, Cooking, The Athletic and more, subscribe now for only $1 a week for your first year. MORNING READS The Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel. Vincent Tullo for The New York Times Rest in luxury: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, John Lennon, Nikola Tesla and Aaliyah all passed through the same New York mortuary. “Man flu”: The internet likes to tease men when they complain about the sniffles. But experts say there are real immunological differences between the sexes. Greed and gluttony: How a $1.5 billion real estate deal and all-you-can-eat shrimp helped sink Red Lobster. Kyoto: Its gardens and temples are famous. But the city’s waterways are enchanting, too. Lives Lived: As an anonymous C.I.A. officer, Edward B. Johnson helped rescue six American diplomats from Iran by casting them as a Hollywood crew — an audacious escape that inspired the Oscar-winning movie “Argo.” He died at 81. SPORTS W.N.B.A.: The Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson, the overwhelming favorite to win her third M.V.P. award, broke the single-season scoring record in a win over the Indiana Fever. M.L.B.: Shohei Ohtani hit the 47th home run of his historic first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. N.F.L.: The Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson will play on Sunday, his coach said, less than a week after a lawsuit accused him of sexual assault and battery. B-girls: The Australian breaker Raygun, whose routines at the Paris Olympics earned widespread mockery, is now the sport’s top-ranked dancer. Here’s how it happened. ARTS AND IDEAS Alan Alda won two Emmys for the same role in 1974. Associated Press/Associated Press Half a century ago, in 1974, the Emmys introduced a new award: the Super Emmy. The Television Academy pitted the winners in the comedy and drama categories against each other during the telecast. In one, Alan Alda (“M*A*S*H”) won actor of the year over Telly Savalas (“Kojak”). The award was deeply unpopular — even the winners spoke out against it — and it never appeared again. These days, though, it’s harder than ever to distinguish between comedy and drama (which category gets “The Bear” again?). It’s possible, Brian Lowry writes, that the Super Emmy “might be one of those once-bad ideas whose time has finally come.” More on culture Thousands turned out in San Francisco to watch Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, record a podcast. Jimmy Kimmel mocked Trump’s debate performance. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Bryan Gardner for The New York Times Bake feta with broccolini, tomatoes and lemon. Squat, even if you have bad knees. Protect your online accounts with a security key. Decorate for Halloween. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were burping and upbringing. 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 September 14 Author Members Share Posted September 14 September 13, 2024 Good morning. Today, two of my colleagues use maps to explain the state of the war in Ukraine. We’re also covering Mexico’s judiciary, a new ChatGPT and “The Golden Bachelorette.” —David Leonhardt Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project | Note: As of Sept. 8 | By The New York Times Summer battles By Andrew E. Kramer and Josh Holder Andrew visited the fronts. Josh tracked troop movements and made the maps. Not long ago, a Ukrainian officer at an artillery position on the eastern front shared a telling detail with The Times. His crew, sweaty and covered in dust, was firing a howitzer at a coal mine it had occupied until just days earlier. Now they were losing ground, and the Russians held the mine. Not since the early months of the war have front lines shifted as swiftly as they have in the past several weeks. In northeastern Ukraine last month, the country’s military staged a surprise attack into Russia and quickly captured about 500 square miles. At the same time, Russian troops pressed ahead with their offensive toward the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, advancing by more than a mile on some days. Yesterday, they were on the city’s doorstep. In today’s newsletter, we’ll examine the new battlefield maps, and we’ll explain why each front is so volatile. The eastern front For more than a year, the lines often shifted only yards per day, despite fierce fighting. Troops were dug into well-fortified lines that led to comparisons to World War I. Then, in February, Russia broke through a dense maze of Ukrainian defenses in the city of Avdiivka, an industrial city that had been a Ukrainian stronghold since 2014. Russia then had a path to the west through Ukraine’s fallback lines. The advances have since continued, sporadically. Russia ground through defensive positions in fields east of Pokrovsk, a city built around a crucial road and railroad junction, this summer. Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project | Note: As of Sept. 8 | By The New York Times The artillery team near the coal mine held a position typical for Ukrainian forces. It was tucked into a grove of trees for camouflage. It overlooked a vast open farm field. The fields, the small villages and the several reservoirs on the Pokrovsk front provide few natural barriers against infantry attacks or sources of cover from Russian artillery and aerial bombs. Since April, Russian troops passed five lines of Ukrainian fortifications. Only two now remain between the front line and the city, Pokrovsk’s military administrator told me. Police cars drove on the city’s streets, blaring orders for residents to evacuate. Its fall would cut key supply lines for Ukraine into the Donbas region and ease Russia’s potential march westward. The northern front Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project | Note: As of Sept. 8 | By The New York Times Ukraine realized it was losing ground in the east. Rather than fight on ineffectively there, on Russia’s terms, Ukraine responded with a risky surprise attack in the north. Troops surged into Russia, hoping to draw forces away from the battle for Pokrovsk. So far at least, it has not worked. Russia still presses ahead in eastern Ukraine. Yet Ukrainian troops have quickly opened a new front in the war. It captured about a hundred settlements near the border, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine’s military broke through thin border defenses manned mostly by young conscripts. Then soldiers advanced along two rivers, keeping the water as a protective barrier along one flank. Their gains have yet to be tested in a serious counterattack. Some of the tactics are similar in both theaters. As Russia has sought to encircle Ukrainian troops in the Donbas, Ukraine has tried the same in Russia. It has blown up bridges over the Seym River to isolate Russian soldiers in a pocket between the water and the Ukrainian border. As Russia tried to build pontoon crossings over the river in recent weeks, Ukraine blew them up with long-range strikes. It’s not a given that this period of quick changes will continue. Going into the fall, the questions are whether Ukraine can defend the Russian territory it captured and whether Russia’s troops can continue on the offensive without a pause to rearm and regroup. The answers will help determine both the future of the war and any potential peace deal. More on the war Near Moscow. Maxim Shemetov/Reuters President Biden is poised to let Ukraine launch long-range Western weapons deep into Russia, as long as it doesn’t use U.S.-provided arms, officials said. The Toronto Film Festival canceled screenings of a documentary on Russian soldiers, which has been criticized as Kremlin propaganda. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Republican Campaign Donald Trump said he wouldn’t debate Kamala Harris again. Harris, who raised $47 million after Tuesday’s debate, said “we owe it to the voters to have another debate.” A Georgia judge threw out three charges in the criminal case against Trump and his allies there, but kept most of it intact. The case remains frozen while the defendants seek to disqualify the prosecutor, who had a relationship with a subordinate. Trump, campaigning in Arizona, called for the elimination of taxes on overtime pay. Springfield, Ohio — where Trump falsely claims Haitian immigrants are eating pets — evacuated its city hall after bomb threats. The mayor has had enough. Trump met with New York firefighters to mark the Sept. 11 attacks. He brought along a conspiracy theorist who has called the attacks an “inside job.” An antisemitic ad campaign, funded by a group that appears tied to Republicans, has targeted parts of Michigan with many Muslim residents. The ads highlight the Jewish faith of Doug Emhoff, Harris’s husband. 2024 Democratic Campaign When Taylor Swift endorsed Harris on Instagram, she also posted a link to Vote.gov, a registration site. In 24 hours, more than 400,000 people clicked on it. Do endorsements like Swift’s matter? The Upshot reviewed the evidence. Alberto Gonzales, a George W. Bush loyalist who served as attorney general, endorsed Harris. “Trump is someone who fails to act, time and time again, in accordance with the rule of law,” he wrote in Politico. More on Politics Alabama has mailed the first absentee ballots of the general election. North Carolina was supposed to mail ballots last week, but delayed them to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name. A judge overturned North Dakota’s near-total abortion ban, saying that the State Constitution protected the right to an abortion until fetal viability. Speaker Mike Johnson faces a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government. He’s caught between a hard right that wants to cut spending and mainstream Republicans who fear a shutdown will endanger their re-election. New York Investigations Commissioner Edward Caban, the top N.Y.P.D. official. Dave Sanders for The New York Times The New York City police commissioner is stepping down. Federal agents seized his cellphone last week as part of an investigation into his twin brother’s nightclub security business. The federal investigation is one of four that touch top city officials. Others involve the mayor’s dealings with Turkey, and the head of the school system. Here’s a guide. International In Mexico City. Luis Antonio Rojas for The New York Times Mexico’s states approved a constitutional amendment to replace thousands of appointed judges through a new system of elections. Pakistan seemed close to beating polio. Now the disease is spreading quickly. Israel conducted a raid in Syria that obliterated a Hezbollah missile production facility near the Lebanese border, according to American officials. The pope’s long tour of Asia signals his commitment to building a church with a less Western future. Other Big Stories Boeing workers are striking for the first time since 2008. It’s a union dispute. Firefighters have made progress in stopping the wildfires in California. OpenAI unveiled a new ChatGPT that can reason through math and science. Opinions The U.S. athletes Jayci Simon, left, and Miles Krajewski. Samantha Hurley/Associated Press Samantha Hurley is a blind photojournalist who covered the Paralympics. See her photos. “Hedonistic excess isn’t the cause of addiction.” Maia Szalavitz talks about the real reason people can’t put down their phones. Here are columns by Paul Krugman on Trump’s position on Obamacare and David Brooks on Harris’s politics of joy. Readers of The Morning: Don’t miss out on a full year of savings. From in-depth coverage of Decision 2024 to unlimited news and analysis, Games, Cooking, The Athletic and more, subscribe now for only $1 a week for your first year. MORNING READS Made Nagi/EPA, via Shutterstock Elon Musk: The billionaire has barricaded himself behind a kind of mini-Secret Service in response to threats. Wedding trends: First comes marriage. Then comes the rehearsal dinner. Monkeys: Marmosets address different individuals with distinct calls, a study suggests. They’re the first nonhuman primates found to use something like names. Lives Lived: Bob Weatherwax was born to train celebrity dogs. He grew up alongside Pal, the first collie to play Lassie, and went on to coach successors, as well as dogs for “Back to the Future” and other films. He died at 83. SPORTS Damar Hamlin tackles Tua Tagovailoa. Jasen Vinlove/Imagn Images, via Reuters N.F.L.: The Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion in a 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills. W.N.B.A.: The Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark liked Taylor Swift’s post endorsing Harris, but says she isn’t endorsing a presidential candidate herself. ARTS AND IDEAS Tia-Maria Smith, 60, isn’t interested in marriage. Amanda Mustard for The New York Times “The Golden Bachelorette” premieres next week, with a 61-year-old school administrator and grandmother going to exotic locations to meet two dozen suitors. But single straight women around that age say real-life dating isn’t like that. Scammers often target older women on dating apps. One women said men have made her feel like dating a woman in her 60s is an act of generosity. “It’s exhausting,” Anne Vitiello, a 60-year-old single woman from New York, said. “It’s like panning for gold in a sewer.” More on culture In New York. Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times New York’s streets had no shortage of great outfits during Fashion Week. See some looks. You may have seen a lot of videos of the V.M.A.s on social media this week. See the show’s seven most memorable moments. Late night hosts joked about Biden briefly wearing a MAGA cap. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Bake cauliflower Parmesan. Take a solo cruise. Travel with better luggage. Slice your pizza with scissors. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was mothball. 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. The Times is re-establishing its Vietnam bureau, which closed in 1975, and Damien Cave will lead it. Here’s our front page from April 30, 1975, covering the fall of Saigon. 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 September 14 Author Members Share Posted September 14 September 13, 2024 Good morning. Today, two of my colleagues use maps to explain the state of the war in Ukraine. We’re also covering Mexico’s judiciary, a new ChatGPT and “The Golden Bachelorette.” —David Leonhardt Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project | Note: As of Sept. 8 | By The New York Times Summer battles By Andrew E. Kramer and Josh Holder Andrew visited the fronts. Josh tracked troop movements and made the maps. Not long ago, a Ukrainian officer at an artillery position on the eastern front shared a telling detail with The Times. His crew, sweaty and covered in dust, was firing a howitzer at a coal mine it had occupied until just days earlier. Now they were losing ground, and the Russians held the mine. Not since the early months of the war have front lines shifted as swiftly as they have in the past several weeks. In northeastern Ukraine last month, the country’s military staged a surprise attack into Russia and quickly captured about 500 square miles. At the same time, Russian troops pressed ahead with their offensive toward the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, advancing by more than a mile on some days. Yesterday, they were on the city’s doorstep. In today’s newsletter, we’ll examine the new battlefield maps, and we’ll explain why each front is so volatile. The eastern front For more than a year, the lines often shifted only yards per day, despite fierce fighting. Troops were dug into well-fortified lines that led to comparisons to World War I. Then, in February, Russia broke through a dense maze of Ukrainian defenses in the city of Avdiivka, an industrial city that had been a Ukrainian stronghold since 2014. Russia then had a path to the west through Ukraine’s fallback lines. The advances have since continued, sporadically. Russia ground through defensive positions in fields east of Pokrovsk, a city built around a crucial road and railroad junction, this summer. Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project | Note: As of Sept. 8 | By The New York Times The artillery team near the coal mine held a position typical for Ukrainian forces. It was tucked into a grove of trees for camouflage. It overlooked a vast open farm field. The fields, the small villages and the several reservoirs on the Pokrovsk front provide few natural barriers against infantry attacks or sources of cover from Russian artillery and aerial bombs. Since April, Russian troops passed five lines of Ukrainian fortifications. Only two now remain between the front line and the city, Pokrovsk’s military administrator told me. Police cars drove on the city’s streets, blaring orders for residents to evacuate. Its fall would cut key supply lines for Ukraine into the Donbas region and ease Russia’s potential march westward. The northern front Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project | Note: As of Sept. 8 | By The New York Times Ukraine realized it was losing ground in the east. Rather than fight on ineffectively there, on Russia’s terms, Ukraine responded with a risky surprise attack in the north. Troops surged into Russia, hoping to draw forces away from the battle for Pokrovsk. So far at least, it has not worked. Russia still presses ahead in eastern Ukraine. Yet Ukrainian troops have quickly opened a new front in the war. It captured about a hundred settlements near the border, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine’s military broke through thin border defenses manned mostly by young conscripts. Then soldiers advanced along two rivers, keeping the water as a protective barrier along one flank. Their gains have yet to be tested in a serious counterattack. Some of the tactics are similar in both theaters. As Russia has sought to encircle Ukrainian troops in the Donbas, Ukraine has tried the same in Russia. It has blown up bridges over the Seym River to isolate Russian soldiers in a pocket between the water and the Ukrainian border. As Russia tried to build pontoon crossings over the river in recent weeks, Ukraine blew them up with long-range strikes. It’s not a given that this period of quick changes will continue. Going into the fall, the questions are whether Ukraine can defend the Russian territory it captured and whether Russia’s troops can continue on the offensive without a pause to rearm and regroup. The answers will help determine both the future of the war and any potential peace deal. More on the war Near Moscow. Maxim Shemetov/Reuters President Biden is poised to let Ukraine launch long-range Western weapons deep into Russia, as long as it doesn’t use U.S.-provided arms, officials said. The Toronto Film Festival canceled screenings of a documentary on Russian soldiers, which has been criticized as Kremlin propaganda. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Republican Campaign Donald Trump said he wouldn’t debate Kamala Harris again. Harris, who raised $47 million after Tuesday’s debate, said “we owe it to the voters to have another debate.” A Georgia judge threw out three charges in the criminal case against Trump and his allies there, but kept most of it intact. The case remains frozen while the defendants seek to disqualify the prosecutor, who had a relationship with a subordinate. Trump, campaigning in Arizona, called for the elimination of taxes on overtime pay. Springfield, Ohio — where Trump falsely claims Haitian immigrants are eating pets — evacuated its city hall after bomb threats. The mayor has had enough. Trump met with New York firefighters to mark the Sept. 11 attacks. He brought along a conspiracy theorist who has called the attacks an “inside job.” An antisemitic ad campaign, funded by a group that appears tied to Republicans, has targeted parts of Michigan with many Muslim residents. The ads highlight the Jewish faith of Doug Emhoff, Harris’s husband. 2024 Democratic Campaign When Taylor Swift endorsed Harris on Instagram, she also posted a link to Vote.gov, a registration site. In 24 hours, more than 400,000 people clicked on it. Do endorsements like Swift’s matter? The Upshot reviewed the evidence. Alberto Gonzales, a George W. Bush loyalist who served as attorney general, endorsed Harris. “Trump is someone who fails to act, time and time again, in accordance with the rule of law,” he wrote in Politico. More on Politics Alabama has mailed the first absentee ballots of the general election. North Carolina was supposed to mail ballots last week, but delayed them to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name. A judge overturned North Dakota’s near-total abortion ban, saying that the State Constitution protected the right to an abortion until fetal viability. Speaker Mike Johnson faces a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government. He’s caught between a hard right that wants to cut spending and mainstream Republicans who fear a shutdown will endanger their re-election. New York Investigations Commissioner Edward Caban, the top N.Y.P.D. official. Dave Sanders for The New York Times The New York City police commissioner is stepping down. Federal agents seized his cellphone last week as part of an investigation into his twin brother’s nightclub security business. The federal investigation is one of four that touch top city officials. Others involve the mayor’s dealings with Turkey, and the head of the school system. Here’s a guide. International In Mexico City. Luis Antonio Rojas for The New York Times Mexico’s states approved a constitutional amendment to replace thousands of appointed judges through a new system of elections. Pakistan seemed close to beating polio.
Recommended Posts