Members phkrause Posted September 29 Author Members Share Posted September 29 September 29, 2024 Good morning. Today, we’re covering one of the most passionate fan bases in literature — as well as Israel and Hezbollah, Hurricane Helene and an interview with John Oliver. —David Leonhardt At a bookstore in London. Jeremie Souteyrat for The New York Times Conversations with fans By Desiree Ibekwe I’m a writer for The Morning. On Wednesday, a crowd of mostly young women, many carrying bookstore tote bags, filled a venue on the bank of the River Thames. They — we — were there to hear the Irish novelist Sally Rooney discuss “Intermezzo,” her latest novel. Rooney is a literary star, and each new release is a highly anticipated and heavily marketed cultural event. Fans attend midnight release parties. The lucky few who get advance copies wield them as status symbols on social media. “I did post the book,” a 26-year-old Rooney fan told me. “Everyone knows I’m obsessed with her.” Rooney’s writing embodies a kind of cool that feels of the moment. Her style is unforced, spare and incisive — the literary equivalent of Gen Z’s habit of omitting capital letters from text messages, or the doe-eyed, bored poses of influencers on Instagram. “If writing is almost too effusive, too emotional, it becomes a bit cliché,” another fan told me. “I think her writing feels really fresh because it’s pared back.” The simplicity of Rooney’s language is part of its power. Her most emotionally resonant sentences have word counts in the single digits, and they arise in mundane situations. “Normal People,” Rooney’s second novel, is about two young people, Connell and Marianne, who are negotiating their relationship, with its various power imbalances, while feeling out their place in the world. I think about this scene a lot: “She smiled, rubbed at her nose. He unzipped his black puffer jacket and put it over her shoulders. They were standing very close. She would have lain on the ground and let him walk over her body if he wanted, he knew that.” Many of the Rooney fans I spoke with at the book talk on Wednesday — all in their late 20s — praised the emotional truth of her writing. “I couldn’t believe that somebody had written something that I related to so much,” a fan said of “Normal People.” Rooney’s books deal in the fraught business of interpersonal relationships — the difficulty of vulnerability, miscommunication, understanding one’s own power over another. At an “Intermezzo” midnight release party in Brooklyn. Ye Fan for The New York Times Her characters often consider their political and social context, what it means to be young and to be in love right now, at a time when connection can be difficult and things appear to be falling apart. In Rooney’s third novel, “Beautiful World, Where Are You,” the character Alice writes to her best friend, Eileen: “I think of the twentieth century as one long question, and in the end we got the answer wrong. Aren’t we unfortunate babies to be born when the world ended?” At the event, I found myself thinking about Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour, which I attended a couple of weeks ago. There are, of course, considerable differences between Rooney and Swift. Yet their fan bases are demographically similar — there is certainly overlap — and they share a desire to see themselves in their idol’s work. I thought, then, about how few avenues Rooney’s fans, as opposed to Swift’s, had to connect to her. A key part of Swift’s appeal is her willingness to narrate her life as it happens. She courts her fans’ investment not only in her work but in herself. Swift is an active participant in her celebrity. Rooney seems quite removed from the hype that surrounds her career. She’s made clear her discomfort with publicity and the idea of books as a commodity, and she guards details about her personal life, and often objects to claims that her work is a reflection of personal experience. “I don’t have any interest in marketing my books,” she told The Times of London. “I certainly don’t answer interview questions with the intention of selling my book.” At the talk on Wednesday, one fan, jokingly, lamented how difficult it was to develop a parasocial relationship with Rooney. Rooney’s debut, “Conversations with Friends,” was released when she was just 26. She published “Normal People” a year later, and it was adapted into a popular television series, which seemed to turbocharge her career. Both novels concerned the lives of university students. In London. Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Rooney is now 33. “Intermezzo,” her latest novel, is about two brothers grieving the loss of their father. One is a 22-year-old former chess prodigy who begins a relationship with an older woman. The other is a 32-year-old lawyer romantically involved with a younger woman. Critics have largely praised the book, many highlighting a new maturity in Rooney’s writing. The change is welcomed by an audience that is growing older alongside her. A fan, a 28-year-old Instagram book reviewer, told me that she could map her life onto those of Rooney’s characters. “I love that she’s writing books that I feel like I can connect with each time she publishes them,” she said. THE LATEST NEWS Middle East In Beirut, Lebanon. Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times The Israeli military struck several targets near Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, including buildings that it said were used for storing weapons. The bombardment killed dozens. Israeli strikes against Hezbollah were once mostly contained to southern Lebanon. Now residents in and around the capital are coming to terms with no longer being spared. Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday was a heavy blow. But analysts say it’s too soon the count the group out. Nasrallah’s death was also a major escalation in Israel’s campaign against Iranian proxies. Tehran, however, appears to be cautious about responding. Israeli strikes killed several Hezbollah leaders in recent weeks. Here’s who remains. Major powers have proved incapable of stopping the conflict in the Middle East. The failure reflects a fragmented global order, Roger Cohen writes. More International News In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party — founded by former SS men in the 1950s — could come out on top in parliamentary elections today. At least 104 people have died in Nepal after three days of monsoon rains caused flooding and landslides. The poverty rate in Argentina rose in the first six months of Javier Milei’s presidency, a reflection of his intense austerity program, The A.P. reports. 2024 Election Republicans are filing lawsuits challenging voting rules ahead of Election Day. Experts say the effort could set the stage to contest the results should Donald Trump lose. Trump has been willing to overlook JD Vance’s missteps because of their unique partnership: Trump views Vance as a kindred political spirit, while Vance has spoken of Trump as a kind of father figure. On “Saturday Night Live,” Maya Rudolph returned as Kamala Harris and Jim Gaffigan made his debut as Tim Walz. This interactive page lets you decide outcomes in the battleground states to see how Harris or Trump could win. More on Politics In Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Eric Lee/The New York Times Black churches across the U.S. are struggling to attract younger congregants. Their absence has consequences for Black political power. Six people granted clemency by Trump as president have been accused of another crime. Prosecutors pursuing corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams appear to have solid evidence, experts say. But they also see potential pitfalls in the case that make additional charges likely. Hurricane Helene “This is a disaster”: Western North Carolina is reeling from the destruction brought by Hurricane Helene. Officials warned of more to come. Helene was the strongest storm to ever hit Florida’s Big Bend region. As it made its way across the Southeast, the storm caused floods and mudslides, killing at least 60. Read what we know about the damage. Other Big Stories Photo illustration by Ricardo Tomas America’s conversation about guns often leaves out less direct consequences of civilian ownership, The Morning’s German Lopez writes. SpaceX launched a mission to bring back the astronauts left at the International Space Station because of issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Should Democrats end the Senate filibuster, as Harris pledged this week, to pass a law reinstating abortion protections? Yes. In addition to helping reinstate abortion protections, ending the filibuster will make the Senate more productive all around. “If you think that Congress has a purpose, and that purpose is passing laws, you might want to join Kamala Harris and Joe Biden in reconsidering aspects of the filibuster,” Jamelle Bouie writes. No. The filibuster is an important guardrail against extremism, and Democrats should consider how the decision to end it might come back to haunt them. “Imagine the frightening things that could happen when the tables are turned and Republicans regain power. Gridlock looks a lot more attractive then,” The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus writes. FROM OPINION Kelly McMasters writes her own obituary every year. It is more comforting than it is maudlin, she writes. Here are columns by David French on Iran’s military losses and Ross Douthat on Harris’s plan for Ukraine. 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 In Manhattan, New York. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times Sushi-Con: The 400-pound star of a Manhattan food expo flew in from Ibiza. The new old age: Wondering who takes care of the dog after your death? Think about a legally binding pet trust. 3,600 years old: Cheese dug up with mummified human remains in China offers insights into the origins of kefir. Vows: It was risky to hold a wedding in Ukraine. They did it anyway. Lives Lived: Amadou Mahtar M’Bow was the first Black African to head a major international organization when he was elected director general of UNESCO. His tenure was contested and led the United States and Britain to pull out. He died at 103. THE INTERVIEW John Oliver By Lulu Garcia-Navarro This week’s subject for The Interview is John Oliver, whose HBO show “Last Week Tonight” has been on the air for 10 years. We spoke about why he doesn’t consider himself a journalist, not giving in to nihilism, and what he’s learned over a decade of making the show. It’s funny going back to the first season as a viewer. I found it to be remarkably similar. There’s a consistency there. [John Oliver makes a face.] I mean it as a compliment! I was literally wincing both inside and outside. I saw you wincing. I don’t do many interviews about myself, so I am kind of emotionally in a defensive position, and I think, unfortunately, it’s translating to my face. [Laughs.] It does seem as if you understood what you were up to quite early on. I think we learned some big lessons early on. It might have been in the first season, we did one story called “Prison,” and it was about 16 minutes, and that seemed like a long time at the time. And I think what we gradually learned was, it is crazy to try and talk about all the problems with prisons in 16 minutes, especially if two of those minutes are going to be a song with “Sesame Street” characters at the end. So, since then, we’ve basically come back and redone that story in 20 different ways. We’ve talked about prison labor, prison phone calls, prison recidivism, prison re-entry. There are so many different aspects to criminal justice. You can’t just slap “prisons” on it and say, “Oh, we’ve done it now.” I look back at that and do slightly wince. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photograph by PEDEN+MUNK for The New York Times Click the cover image above to read Food Voyages, a special edition of the magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Listen to podcasts for word nerds. Discover new books with a subscription service. Work from a comfortable office chair. MEAL PLAN Rachel Vanni for The New York Times In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Margaux Laskey admits that the kid wrangling, lunch packing and commuting of the back-to-school season has tired her out. If you’re also feeling lethargic, she offers recipes that you can eat out of a bowl with a spoon like “a big, overtired baby,” including corn and cod green curry, mushrooms and dumplings, and tortellini soup. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was theology. Can you put eight historical events — including the near-abolition of the Electoral College, the creation of purple, and the making of Mario — 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 October 1 Author Members Share Posted October 1 September 30, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Lisa Lerer explains how Trump and Harris would address abortion as president. We’re also covering Lebanon, Hurricane Helene’s destruction and political hats. —David Leonhardt An abortion clinic in Illinois. Erin Schaff/The New York Times THE STAKES Two views of abortion By Lisa Lerer I cover politics and wrote a book about abortion. The question of whether women should be allowed to end a pregnancy has roiled American politics for more than half a century. But this year’s presidential race is the first since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and abortion politics and policy are changing rapidly. Kamala Harris has made abortion rights a central promise of her candidacy. But she would likely face legislative hurdles to restore them nationwide. Donald Trump takes a murkier approach. He argues that abortion law should be left to the states. But some of his allies want to criminalize the procedure across the country, and he refuses to say whether he would oppose a national ban if Congress passed one. The Morning is running a series explaining the policy stakes of the election and the impact a Harris or Trump victory could have on key issues in American life. In this installment, I’ll focus on abortion. I’ve covered abortion politics for more than a decade and am co-author of a recent book, “The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America.” Trump’s murky view Trump has a long history of reversing course on abortion. In 1999, as he flirted with a presidential run, he declared himself “very pro-choice.” A dozen years later, he publicly changed his position. “Just very briefly, I’m pro-life,” he told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011. During his 2016 campaign, he built a close alliance with social conservatives by promising to nominate “pro-life justices” to the Supreme Court. But as the politics shifted after the fall of Roe, Trump struggled to find his footing. In March, he expressed openness to a 15-week national ban. Anti-abortion activists want such legislation because it would curtail abortion in liberal states where the procedure is legal later in pregnancy. (This tracker by my colleagues shows where abortion is on the ballot in November.) A few weeks later, Trump reversed his stance and said that abortion law should be left to the states — and that any bans should include exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. At a rally this week, he expressed a desire for female voters to move beyond the issue, promising that if he was elected they would “no longer be thinking about abortion.” In fact, there are reasons to believe that Trump could go beyond even a national ban. Some of his allies have suggested using laws like the Comstock Act, a measure from 1873, to prosecute people who ship any materials used in an abortion — including abortion pills, which now account for most U.S. abortions. Others have suggested revoking F.D.A. approval for abortion medication and using the Health and Human Services Department to track personal details about women receiving abortions. They’ve also said the government shouldn’t enforce a law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care to pregnant women who need an abortion. A few want to stop mandating that insurance cover certain emergency contraceptives. Harris’s vocal support Harris’s position has been clearer. She views restricting access to the procedure as not only bad policy but, as she said in the presidential debate this month, “immoral.” Harris has championed the issue like no previous presidential candidate, using direct terms like “uterus” and holding an event at an abortion clinic. She promises to sign a bill re-establishing Roe’s protection of abortion in roughly the first 23 weeks of pregnancy. She also favors access to fertility treatments, which some anti-abortion activists want to limit. Kamala Harris Audra Melton for The New York Times For all her promises, her efforts would likely be hampered by legislative realities. Thanks to Senate filibuster rules, 60 votes are required to pass most legislation. Even if Democrats maintain their slim majority in the chamber, they’re unlikely to clear that hurdle. A simple majority can vote to end the filibuster, and a central question for a Harris presidency would be whether Senate Democrats would do so. There is also uncertainty about what a bill would include. Many abortion rights activists think abortion should be legal beyond 23 weeks. Harris has declined to answer questions about whether she favors abortion rights in the final three months of pregnancy. But on one point there is no confusion: A Harris administration would try to open up more avenues for abortion, and a Trump administration would restrict them. The Stakes A Morning newsletter series on how Harris and Trump view some of the biggest issues facing the country. Presidential power Taxes Immigration More on the election At Bryant-Denny Stadium, Ala. Doug Mills/The New York Times After two assassination attempts, Trump is still going to risky events with complicated security — like a Georgia-Alabama football game. Harris is trying to bait Trump into debating her again. At a Las Vegas rally, she said that she was “all in” and that Trump was “ready to fold.” Harris called for a crackdown on fentanyl. Then Trump twisted her position and said she was in favor of legalization. THE LATEST NEWS Middle East Israel killed Hamas’s leader in Lebanon in an airstrike. As many as 100,000 people have fled to Syria from Lebanon because of Israeli airstrikes, the U.N. said. Israeli warplanes attacked power plants and shipping infrastructure in Yemen. More International News In Kathmandu, Nepal. Prakash Mathema/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In Nepal, flooding and landslides have killed at least 190 people. Japan’s governing party chose a new leader. He is a critic of the country’s longstanding ultralow interest rates, and stocks dropped after the news. In Austria, a far-right party won national elections but may fall short of forming a government. Hurricane Helene Helene has killed more than 90 people, including a woman in her 70s who rode motorcycles. Read about the victims. Some residents in North Carolina still lack water, food, power, gasoline and cellphone service. See the storm’s devastating 600-mile path. Eric Adams Prosecutors pursuing charges against Eric Adams, the New York City mayor, appear to have some solid evidence. Still, they may not win. Adams is accused of getting luxury travel upgrades in exchange for political favors. A Times reporter took the same trip to see what it was like. Other Big Stories In Nashville in 2016. Rick Diamond/Getty Images Kris Kristofferson, the country singer, songwriter and actor, died at 88. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, vetoed a big A.I. bill. It would have been the first in the U.S. to place strict guardrails on the technology. Dockworkers may strike at American ports. Their employers are open to automation, but the workers are afraid for their jobs. Opinions Kamala Harris Damon Winter/The New York Times “Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president,” writes the editorial board, which enumerates the dangers of another Trump presidency. Israel’s devastating blow to Hezbollah is a world-shaking threat to Iran, Russia, North Korea and even China, Thomas Friedman writes. Kamala Harris should cut back on the incessant focus on Trump and spend more time talking with voters, Ashley Etienne, a former Harris aide, writes. Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss Adams’s indictment and immigration. Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on Adams’s lack of Turkish delight, and Nicholas Kristof on a heroic refugee in Sudan. 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 Bobbi Lin for The New York Times The truth about tuna: Should you be worried about mercury content? Experts weigh in. East Village Radio: The underground institution closed around a decade ago. Now, it’s back. Retail: Vintage shopping is booming. Banana Republic and other retailers are changing their products. Ask Vanessa: “Why do so many women wear giant eyeglasses?” Metropolitan Diary: A children’s oasis in Bay Ridge. Lives Lived: Bill Lucy was a trailblazing Black union leader who fought for civil rights in the American South and against apartheid in South Africa. He died at 90. SPORTS N.F.L.: The Baltimore Ravens beat the previously undefeated Buffalo Bills 35-10. W.N.B.A.: In a rematch of last year’s finals, the New York Liberty won Game 1 in the semifinals against the defending champion, the Las Vegas Aces. Read a recap. M.L.B.: The Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets will play a doubleheader today to decide the last two playoff spots. ARTS AND IDEAS Workers in Newark. James Estrin/The New York Times For three decades — since Bill Clinton’s 1996 presidential bid — Unionwear in New Jersey has made political hats for both Democratic and Republican campaigns. Early in the 2024 campaign cycle, the company saw few sales for Biden hats, but since Harris entered the race, production has soared. Read more about the factory. More on culture Francis Ford Coppola spent decades and millions of his own money on the avant-garde fable “Megalopolis.” It died on arrival at the box office. CNN, under a new chief executive, is making documentaries after backing away from the genre two years ago. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Cracker and cheese-crusted chicken. Armando Rafael for The New York Times Coat cheesy chicken cutlets with buttery Ritz crackers. Try this heart-healthy diet. Warm a room with a space heater. Use a great beard trimmer. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was vilifying. 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 October 2 Author Members Share Posted October 2 October 1, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re covering Iran’s response to Israel — as well as Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, a port workers’ strike and Pete Rose. Protesters in Tehran. Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA, via Shutterstock Unanswered attacks It has become a mystery in the current Middle East conflict: Why has Iran responded so meekly to recent attacks on its top officials and close allies? The pattern began in 2020, when the U.S. killed a top Iranian military official in a drone strike. This year, Israel killed several other military officials by bombing Iran’s consulate in Syria. Then Israel assassinated a leader of Hamas — a group that Iran supports — while he was staying in a government guesthouse in Tehran. Over the past two weeks, Israel has decimated the leadership of Hezbollah, a militant group in Lebanon that’s even closer to Iran than Hamas is. In response, Iran has done little. It fired some missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq in 2020 and shot hundreds of missiles into Israel this past April. But neither attack did major damage, and Iran didn’t follow up. So far, it has not responded to Israel’s stunning recent attacks on Hezbollah, either. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain why Iran has been so quiet, with help from my colleagues who are covering the conflict. Iran’s ambitions The lack of response has been notable partly because of Iran’s history as an ambitious Middle Eastern power. Its government celebrates its hostility to the United States — with cries of “death to America” — and repeatedly calls for the destruction of Israel. Iran has fostered a network of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, known as the “axis of resistance,” that attack Israel. (These maps help explain the axis.) Iran has also antagonized Saudi Arabia, the most important Arab ally of the United States and a country run by a Sunni Muslim monarchy, in contrast to Iran’s Shiite clerical government. By The New York Times “Iran’s power in the region is intertwined with its image as the one country that has stood up to Israel, not just rhetorically but by taking aim at Israeli sites and individuals, directly and indirectly” Alissa Rubin, a senior Middle East correspondent for The Times, told me. “The Iranian regime is in many ways defined as anti-Israel and anti-Western.” Iran’s goal, as Alissa has explained in this newsletter, is to become the most powerful country in the Middle East. Nonetheless, Iran has shied away from conflict even as its enemies have attacked. Weakness exposed Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times The biggest explanation appears to be simply that Iran is weaker than it wants the world to believe. And its leaders may recognize that they would fare badly in a wider war. The events in April were telling, my colleagues say. Iran’s attack on Israel, in retaliation for the bombing of its Syrian consulate, was a bust: Israel, with help from the U.S. and other countries, shot down nearly all of Iran’s missiles and drones. Julian Barnes, who covers U.S. intelligence agencies for The Times, has heard from some of his sources that Iran was disappointed. “Iranian officials had believed more of their attacks would penetrate Israeli and American defenses,” Julian said. The following week, Israel launched its own successful retaliation — a targeted strike on an antiaircraft system that protects an Iranian nuclear facility. “That was all the Israelis did,” Alissa said, “but the message was clear: We can enter undetected and take out your antiaircraft system that protects your most sensitive sites.” The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed by a bomb in a Tehran guesthouse in July, was similarly chilling for Iran. These events seem to have fed fears inside Iran’s government about the likely outcome of a larger conflict with Israel. As my colleague Ben Hubbard, who writes about the region from Istanbul, put it: “Iran knows that there are plenty of people in the current Israeli government who would love to have an excuse to bomb Tehran, and any direct attacks from Iran would instantly provide such an opportunity. If that happened, Iran knows that Israel’s superior military would likely do very serious damage to a country that is already largely an international pariah and dealing with severe economic problems.” Already, many Iranians are dissatisfied with their government because of its religious extremism and the troubled economy. “You cannot win a war in the long run without popular support from your own people,” Alissa said. What’s next As humbling as the past few months have been for Iran, they don’t seem to have threatened the government’s authority at home. The heaviest losses have come among fighters for Hamas and Hezbollah, and Iran has historically tolerated a high death toll among its regional allies. In the short term, Iran’s leaders seem to have chosen caution, hoping events may present better opportunities in the future. And the situation seems to be changing. Israel this morning began a ground invasion of Lebanon that could further weaken Hezbollah — but also leave Israeli troops vulnerable to counterattacks. Iran also knows that Israel’s flattening of Gaza and its settlements in the West Bank have hurt Israel’s international reputation. Even if Iran can’t win an all-out war, the axis of resistance isn’t likely to disappear. Finally, there is one other possibility — that Iran will in fact respond aggressively to its recent setbacks, but that it just hasn’t done so yet. More on Israel and Hezbollah Israeli military vehicles near the border with Lebanon. Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times Israel launched an invasion into southern Lebanon. It said its operation is targeting Hezbollah. It’s the first Israeli ground invasion of the country since 2006. Read why Israel is invading. The military was conducting limited raids in a narrow strip of land near the border, Israel said. However, the number of troops deployed in northern Israel has fueled speculation of a broader operation. Lebanon’s government is in economic crisis and will struggle to handle an invasion. The U.S. is sending thousands more troops to the Middle East. THE LATEST NEWS Vice-Presidential Debate JD Vance and Tim Walz will debate tonight on CBS at 9 p.m. Eastern. The Times analyzed their past political debates: Walz exuded Everyman appeal, while Vance was confident and quick on his feet. CBS’s moderators will not fact-check the candidates on the air; instead, the network will have a scannable code onscreen that directs viewers to an online fact-checking page. More on the 2024 Election The man accused of staking out Donald Trump’s golf course to try to kill the former president pleaded not guilty to federal charges. Democrats sued Georgia’s election board over a new rule that requires counties to count ballots by hand. They claimed it would create delays and invite chaos on election night. Trump called Kamala Harris “mentally disabled” and “mentally impaired” over the weekend. Even some of his allies were uncomfortable with the attacks. More on Politics President Biden expanded asylum restrictions at the southern border. The restrictions block most asylum claims there and allow agents to turn people back quickly. They would be lifted only if migration numbers dropped for 28 days straight. A Georgia judge struck down a state law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, allowing abortions to resume there. Timothy Pearson, a close aide and confidant of Mayor Eric Adams, resigned less than a week after the mayor was indicted on corruption charges. Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter Dustin Chambers for The New York Times Jimmy Carter, who has been in hospice since last year, turns 100 today. He’s the longest-living president in U.S. history. Carter holds another, less noticed distinction: He’s the only president who has written more New York Times best-selling books than have been written about him. Hurricane Helene Water and power are still scarce in Asheville, N.C., a mountain haven for artists, chefs and entrepreneurs. The storm wrecked communities across western North Carolina. Here’s a guide to helping those affected. For two decades, Americans have been migrating South and West. The areas growing fastest are also at high risk of natural disasters. Port Strike Thousands of dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts went on strike. The action cut off most trade through some of the busiest ports in the U.S. The dockworkers’ union, which represents around 45,000 workers, and port employers have been unable to agree on wage increases and the use of automation. The strike could hurt the economy quickly. The U.S. imports bananas, car parts, cotton, wood and many other goods through the affected ports. International Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, takes office today. A bus carrying children and their teachers caught fire in Bangkok. Officials said that more than 20 of them are likely dead, The A.P. reports. Britain closed its last coal power plant. It is the first major industrialized economy to eliminate the fossil fuel. The Spanish authorities are searching for dozens of migrants who are missing after their boat sank off the Canary Islands. At least nine people died. Other Big Stories Pete Rose in 1978. Associated Press The baseball star Pete Rose died at 83. His 4,256 career hits still stand as a record, but his gambling led him to be cast out of the game for life. California banned private universities from using legacy admissions, which give special consideration to applicants with connections to a school. (Public schools there have banned them for decades.) Opinions “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s celebrated biography of Robert Moses, is both magisterial and flawed, Ross Barkan argues. Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on a son who turned in his father, a member of an antigovernment militia, and Paul Krugman on Trump’s economic plan. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Evening service at Home Kitchen in London. Andrew Testa for The New York Times Fine dining: At a restaurant in London, a Michelin-star winning chef is employing people on the edge of homelessness to cook. Ukraine: Two soul mates, separated by war, found each other again. Miami: See a list of the 25 best restaurants right now. Lives Lived: Dikembe Mutombo arrived at Georgetown University with aspirations of becoming a doctor. Instead, he became a towering presence in the N.B.A. and a humanitarian in his native Democratic Republic of Congo. He died at 58. SPORTS Kenneth Walker evades Alex Anzalone during the Lions-Seahawks game. N.F.L. N.F.L.: The Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff completed all 18 of his pass attempts during his team’s 42-29 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. M.L.B.: The Atlanta Braves secured a playoff spot with a 3-0 win over the New York Mets. ARTS AND IDEAS Ron Bottitta, left, and Patrick Keleher in “Fatherland.” Maria Baranova Two Off Broadway plays capture the American political moment. “Fatherland” uses court transcripts to tell the true story of a man imprisoned for participating in the Jan. 6 attack and of his teenage son who turned him in. And in “Blood of the Lamb,” restrictive abortion laws threaten a pregnant woman’s health when her flight home to New York is diverted to Dallas. Read more about the plays. More on culture Billie Eilish opened her new tour with a show in Quebec City. The performance was a master class in bringing intimacy to an arena, the Times critic Lindsay Zoladz wrote. Jimmy Fallon joked about Trump’s suggestion that Americans have “one really violent day” to curb crime. “Good news: He stopped talking about Hannibal Lecter,” Fallon said. “Bad news: He suggested we do ‘The Purge’ instead.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Laurie Ellen Pellicano. Try a challah recipe that is ideal for first-time bread bakers. Play the best video games of the year. Boost productivity with a standing desk. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was monoxide. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —David Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted October 3 Author Members Share Posted October 3 October 2, 2024 By David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick Good morning. We’re covering last night’s debate, as well as the latest from the Middle East. Senator JD Vance of Ohio, left, and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. Kenny Holston/The New York Times The last 2024 debate? Last night’s vice-presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz was calmer — and more typical of the pre-Trump political era — than the presidential debate last month. That calmness often made it easier to understand the policy differences between the two campaigns. In today’s newsletter, we’ll walk through four big differences, as well as tell you about key moments from the debate and offer a selection of commentary about how Vance and Walz did. 1. Foreign policy The two campaigns are each making a core argument about foreign policy, and Walz and Vance began the debate by laying them out. Kamala Harris’s campaign argues that Donald Trump is too erratic to be the leader of the free world; he is too self-centered and too willing to coddle dictators like Vladimir Putin, which explains why so many U.S. allies fear a second Trump term. “Look, our allies understand that Donald Trump is fickle,” Walz said. The world can’t afford that unpredictability, Harris and Walz argue, especially when the Middle East, Europe and Asia are all in turmoil. Vance countered by asking voters to compare the amount of global turmoil during Trump’s presidency and Biden’s presidency. On President Biden’s watch, Hamas attacked Israel, Putin invaded Ukraine, and China became even more aggressive in its region. On Trump’s watch, no major new conflicts began. “Ask yourself at home,” Vance said. “When was the last time that an American president didn’t have a major conflict break out?” Vance was effectively arguing that Trump’s unpredictability had contained America’s enemies better than Biden’s diplomacy has. 2. Immigration Both Harris and Trump have a big weakness on immigration, and the two vice-presidential candidates went straight at them. Vance criticized the surge of immigration during the Biden administration and blamed Harris for it. (And, yes, the surge is real, as this newsletter has explained before.) “For three years, Kamala Harris went out bragging that she was going to undo Donald Trump’s border policy,” Vance said. “She did exactly that.” Only over the past year has the administration toughened its border policy — and migration has plummeted. Trump’s biggest weakness on immigration is that he pressured congressional Republicans to defeat a bill this year that would have allowed Biden to enact even stricter border enforcement. And Trump admitted he was doing so to benefit his own presidential campaign. “This is what happens when you don’t want to solve it — you demonize it,” Walz said. He referred to Trump and Vance’s false claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating pets and criticized Trump for failing to build a border wall during his presidency. 3. The economy Vance and Walz each told a straightforward economic story last night — one about inequality, the other about the economy’s recent performance. Walz portrayed Trump as a friend of the rich, noting that he had signed a large tax cut that disproportionately benefited the wealthy; has promised to expand it if he wins again; has no health care plan; and bragged about not paying federal income taxes. “This is the case of an economy that Donald Trump has set for the wealthiest amongst us,” Walz said. Vance countered by talking about how healthy the economy was during Trump’s presidency (without mentioning Covid) and how high inflation has been under the Biden administration. “I believe that whether you’re rich or poor, you ought to be able to afford a nice meal for your family. That’s gotten harder because of Kamala Harris’s policies,” he said. Over the past century, the economy has usually performed better under Democratic presidents than Republican ones — you can see the charts here — but the pattern has been more nuanced since 2016. 4. Democracy The debate ended with a spirited discussion of democracy, and the exchange was one of Walz’s strongest. Walz criticized Trump for refusing to accept that he lost the 2020 election, leading to the violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. Vance mostly tried to change the subject, accusing Harris of supporting censorship on social media. Eventually, Walz turned to Vance and asked, “Did he lose the 2020 election?” Vance replied: “Tim, I’m focused on the future.” Walz then called Vance’s response a “damning non-answer.” The exchange was a reminder that Trump and Vance reject aspects of American democracy that presidents of both parties have long supported. More debate highlights After the debate. Kenny Holston/The New York Times Civility: The two candidates were more respectful to each other than Harris and Trump were last month. During a discussion of gun violence, Walz said he knew that Vance was saddened by gun deaths, while Vance told Walz he was sorry that Walz’s son had once witnessed a shooting. … and yet: During a back-and-forth over immigration, the moderators briefly muted the candidates’ mics. “Gentlemen, the audience can’t hear you,” CBS’s Margaret Brennan said. Families: Vance spoke about his young children and joked that he hoped they were asleep. He also mentioned his mother’s and grandmother’s struggles. Walz spoke about having used fertility treatments to become a parent. Abortion: Walz named women who had died or suffered health issues because of state abortion bans. Vance claimed to have never supported a national abortion ban (he did, with some exceptions). Read more takeaways from the debate. Experts: Walz noted that Trump and Vance often disdained experts like scientists and economists. Vance countered that many economists should be ignored because they were wrong about the effects of global trade. Incumbent: President Biden was rarely mentioned. Vance referred to “the Kamala Harris administration” and blamed her for gas prices, overdose deaths and more. False claims: Vance falsely claimed that Trump “salvaged” Obamacare (he tried to repeal it), while Walz admitted to falsely saying he was in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests (he arrived later). Here’s a fact-check. Flubs: Walz sometimes misspoke — he said at one point that he had “become friends with school shooters.” Here are the candidates’ best and worst lines. Debate commentary Vance showed “exactly why he was chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate,” Bethany Mandel wrote for Newsweek. “He is the wonky and shrewd version of the former president.” Walz took “a while to get warmed up, but he won the debate because he actually had substance,” Joy Reid said on MSNBC. “His job was to sell Kamala Harris as president. He did that very well.” “For Vance, it was a commanding performance. For Walz, it was a nervous ramble,” Ross Douthat wrote, while Gail Collins accused Vance of “spewing lies.” Read what Times Opinion writers thought of the debate. “We’ve come a long way from the libertarian 1990s,” The Nation’s Bhaskar Sunkara argued. “The candidates repeatedly went out of their way to identify areas of agreement on issues like housing and child care.” National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar called Vance and Walz’s collegiality “so remarkable in this era. It redounds to their credit and helps their candidates, too.” Late night went live after the debate, but the hosts were unimpressed. THE LATEST NEWS Middle East Missiles over Ashkelon, Israel, yesterday. Amir Cohen/Reuters Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. Israeli and U.S. defense systems intercepted most of them. Missiles damaged a school in central Israel, and a fragment from one killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the attack was retribution for the recent killings of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders. Iran’s top military officer said the missiles targeted national security buildings rather than civilians or infrastructure. Israel vowed to retaliate. “Iran made a big mistake tonight, and it will pay for it,” Benjamin Netanyahu said. Read the latest updates. Around the same time as the missile attack, two armed Palestinian men attacked a train station in Tel Aviv and killed at least seven people, Israeli officials said. The war is spreading across the Middle East, David Sanger writes. The question now is: How much can it be contained? Port Strikes A dockworkers’ strike stopped the busiest port on the East coast. Biden said he would not use a federal labor law to force the strikers back to work. The decision could win unions’ favor, but a prolonged stoppage threatens economic damage. Other Big Stories Claudia Sheinbaum Luis Antonio Rojas for The New York Times Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, took office. For hours, a 75-year-old man clung to a tree in floodwaters from Helene, crying for help. None came. The ordination of female deacons is no longer on the agenda during a global assembly at the Vatican. It will be discussed separately. Opinions Dockworkers are on strike because they and their employers have too much money to fight over. Deregulation could spur competition and reduce ports’ profits, Clifford Winston argues. Disease outbreaks need phone alerts, like the ones we get for tornadoes and hurricanes, Caitlin Rivers argues. “This is code red for the Middle East,” Thomas Friedman explains on The Opinions podcast. Here is a column by Thomas Edsall on crypto. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Keighley Cougars, in white, the pride of their northern English town. Mary Turner for The New York Times The Great Read: A gay couple bought a professional rugby team. The fans bought into the drag queens. Not just video games: Some popular streamers are de facto political pundits, offering their takes on the news every day. Dermaplaning: This peach fuzz removal technique is effective, experts say. But there can be downsides to trying it at home. Lives Lived: Frank Fritz, a jocular Everyman, found ratings gold by unearthing fortunes in attics, basements and garage sales on the hit TV show “American Pickers.” He died at 58. SPORTS M.L.B.: The New York Mets, just hours after celebrating a playoff spot in Atlanta, beat the Brewers 8-4 in Milwaukee. W.N.B.A.: The defending champion Las Vegas Aces are on the brink of elimination after a close loss to the New York Liberty. N.F.L.: The Las Vegas Raiders’ wide receiver Davante Adams requested a trade, our reporters confirmed, and the team is open to a deal. ARTS AND IDEAS Justin Vivian Bond, left, and Dorothy Roberts. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation The MacArthur Foundation announced this year’s recipients of its so-called genius grants, which reward achievements across arts and science with an $800,000 prize. The winners include: Justin Vivian Bond, a star of alternative cabaret who rose to fame as part of the duo Kiki and Herb. Dorothy Roberts, a scholar focused on racial inequities in social services. Martha Muñoz, a Yale biologist investigating why evolution happens at different rates. See a full list of recipients here. More on culture The finalists for the National Book Award include Percival Everett’s “James,” Salman Rushdie’s “Knife” and Diane Seuss’ “Modern Poetry.” See the full list. Sean “Diddy” Combs faces 120 new sexual assault allegations, NBC reports. Two prominent American journalists are in crisis. Olivia Nuzzi is on leave from New York Magazine for having a relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Her ex-fiancé, Ryan Lizza, is now on leave from Politico after Nuzzi said in court that he blackmailed and harassed her. Black Theater United, a nonprofit that combats racism in the theater community, drew Broadway luminaries including Alicia Keys to its gala. See inside the party. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Bake a date and honey kugel. Read therapist-recommended memoirs. Spend less time in line at Disney. Find the right refrigerator. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was collective. 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 Friday at 12:42 AM Author Members Share Posted Friday at 12:42 AM October 3, 2024 SUPPORTED BY MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM Good morning. Today, two of my colleagues look at how Trump may use the Justice Department in a second term. We’re also covering Israel, foreign workers and gelato. —David Leonhardt Donald Trump Doug Mills/The New York Times A tool for revenge By Emily Bazelon and Mattathias Schwartz We cover legal issues. Donald Trump says Kamala Harris should be prosecuted for the Biden administration’s border policies. He wants President Biden to be prosecuted for corruption, Nancy Pelosi for her husband’s stock trades and Google for its search results about Trump and Harris. His list of targets for investigation also includes state prosecutors, judges and former officials from the F.B.I. and other parts of the Justice Department. If Trump wins, he can use the Justice Department, including the F.B.I., to seek revenge against his political enemies — even if, as in the cases above, there is little or no evidence of a crime. Doing so would go far beyond anything Trump pursued in his first term. There are multiple safeguards in the American legal system. They largely held when Trump was president. Will they hold again if he has a second term? We posed that question to 50 former top officials from the Justice Department and the White House Counsel’s Office, along with a few retired judges and nonpartisan career D.O.J. lawyers. The former officials, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, have served seven presidents. Most of them are freaked out about Trump’s potential impact on the Justice Department, as we wrote today in a story for The New York Times Magazine. Sounding an alarm Here’s what they told us. Forty-two of the 50 former officials said it was very likely or likely that a second Trump term would pose a significant threat to the norm of keeping criminal enforcement free of White House influence, a policy that has been in place since the Watergate scandal. Thirty-nine of 50 said it was likely or very likely that Trump, if elected, would order the Justice Department to investigate a political adversary. (Six more said it was possible.) This, too, is something presidents don’t do. The respondents were more split on how the Justice Department would respond. Twenty-seven of the 50 said it was very likely or likely that career prosecutors at the D.O.J. would follow orders and pursue the case. Thirteen said it was possible. Nine said it was unlikely or very unlikely. Not everyone was panicked. A handful of respondents rejected our survey’s premise, saying we had unfairly or unnecessarily focused on Trump. The survey was an example of “mainstream media bias,” one Reagan-appointed official said, “that permits liberal prosecutors to violate norms for the rule of law with limited oversight in the court of public opinion.” Other former officials said the department’s career professionals would keep Trump in check. But several Republican appointees, along with Democratic ones, warned that an extremist president in general, and Trump in particular, was the biggest threat they saw to the rule of law. “There is every reason to believe that Donald Trump would seek to use criminal enforcement and the F.B.I. as leverage for his personal and political ends in a second term,” said Peter Keisler, a founder of the conservative Federalist Society who was an acting attorney general for President George W. Bush, capturing a common sentiment we heard. Imposing his will How would a politically motivated prosecution unfold? With help from our colleagues, we created this digital feature showing the steps Trump could take to jail his adversaries. Here’s how it could start: Justice Department leaders nominated by the president typically set up a task force to investigate a set of allegations. With a handpicked group of F.B.I. agents and prosecutors, Trump’s appointees could open an inquiry into, say, Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Trump. Even if Garland is never indicted or convicted, defending himself will cost him lots of money and hurt his reputation. In some ways, Trump will have successfully punished his enemies just by naming them as targets. It’s possible for F.B.I. agents and D.O.J. career lawyers to block a case from going forward by telling their superiors that they don’t have enough evidence, resigning, leaking to the press or notifying Congress. But that demands a lot of them. For some, it will be simpler just to follow orders by seeking the desired indictment from a grand jury. Trump could also fire en masse career D.O.J. employees who might stand in the way. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s plan for the next Republican administration, recommends removing civil-service protections from tens of thousands of federal employees who supervise other government workers. Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, but CNN found that at least 140 people who worked in his administration had contributed to the report. “We don’t know what will happen,” Keisler acknowledged about the implications of Trump’s re-election for the rule of law. “But the risk is more concrete, with a higher probability, than in any election in my lifetime.” Read our story about why legal experts are worried about a Trump presidency. More on the election Melania Trump Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Melania Trump, in a new memoir, says she supports abortion rights, The Guardian reported. “Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” she wrote. Tim Walz acknowledged misspeaking at the debate about his time in Hong Kong and about meeting with victims of gun violence. “I need to be clearer,” he said. At the debate, JD Vance seemed to retreat from his proposal to separate healthy and sick people in insurance markets, which could cause disruptions for people with pre-existing conditions Trump is “joking around” when he calls Harris stupid, the Republican Party chair — who is also Trump’s daughter-in-law — said. A MESSAGE FROM MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM A Healthcare System Driven by Innovation At Mass General Brigham in Boston, scientists and clinicians collaborate to provide patients with highly personalized care for all forms of cancer and other diseases. By creating multidisciplinary clinical teams specializing in early detection and treatments including cellular and immunotherapies, doctors at Mass General Brigham bring their research directly from the bench to the bedside. LEARN MORE THE LATEST NEWS Trump Jan. 6 Case Jack Smith, the special counsel, revealed new evidence about Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in a legal brief. A judge made the brief public. According to Smith, Trump responded, “So what?” when an aide told him that Mike Pence’s life was in danger on Jan. 6. The judge must decide how much of Smith’s indictment complies with a recent Supreme Court ruling that gives presidents broad immunity. The brief argues that Trump can be prosecuted because his actions were those of a candidate. Helene Aftermath In western North Carolina. Al Drago for The New York Times Biden viewed damage in the Carolinas from the air and ordered the Pentagon to deploy up to 1,000 troops to help recovery efforts. Harris surveyed damage in Georgia and handed out meals at a food distribution center. At least 183 people died in the storm, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina. FEMA doesn’t have enough funding to make it through the rest of the hurricane season, Biden’s homeland security secretary said. Lawmakers of both parties have urged Congress to pass more aid. Over the past decade, North Carolina has loosened its building regulations. Those rules likely made the storm’s damage worse. Middle East Israel may be ready to risk all-out war with Iran. Read why. Biden said he wouldn’t support an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites in retaliation for missile attacks this week. “They should respond in proportion,” he said of Israel. Strikes near the heart of Beirut, Lebanon killed six people, the health authorities there said. See maps of the fighting. Some people are worried about nuclear war. But experts say Iran would have a year of hard work to master the basics of building a deliverable atomic bomb. Iran’s barrage of missiles against Israel was ineffectual but appeared calculated to maintain solidarity among Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. More International News Protests in South Africa. Associated Press In South Africa, a white farm owner and two of his workers were accused of shooting two Black women and then feeding their bodies to pigs. A drugmaker agreed to allow generic pharmaceutical companies to make and sell its groundbreaking H.I.V. drug at lower prices in developing countries. Many middle-income countries were left out of the deal, however. At least 60 people drowned in Nigeria when a boat carrying passengers to a religious celebration capsized. Mexico’s military shot and killed six migrants. Some in the country are concerned about powerful armed forces that operate with little oversight. Companies in Japan, which for centuries was mostly closed off to immigrants, are learning to embrace foreign workers. Other Big Stories A hurricane in the Atlantic has quickly reached Category 3 strength. It’s over open water, and doesn’t currently pose a threat to land. The mother of the Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s children claims he abused their youngest son. San Francisco topped 90 degrees this week. Those temperatures are rare there — and rarer still in October. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, more than doubled its valuation to $157 billion after a new fund-raising deal. Opinions America has a housing shortage. Instead of building affordable housing, the U.S. needs to make it cheaper to buy existing homes, Yuliya Panfil and Craig Richardson write. Vladimir Putin likes to make threats, but he is unlikely to use nuclear weapons against NATO countries, Lawrence Freedman argues. The misogyny of Gen Z men has been overstated, Jessica Grose writes. Here are columns by Pamela Paul on Trump’s recent good luck, and Charles Blow on Harris’s sorority. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Production in Vico Equense, Italy. Jason Fulford for The New York Times Best gelato ever: A writer went on an odyssey to find a cone she couldn’t forget. Literary guide: Read your way around Hawaii. Nightlife: Three men died recently after leaving clubs in an industrial area of Brooklyn. The police say social media rumors about a serial killer are without evidence. Feeling sick? Here’s how to determine whether it’s wise to exercise. Ozempic: Can weight loss drugs cure eating disorders? Some doctors are trying to find out. Lives Lived: As a third baseman with the New York Giants, Ozzie Virgil Sr. became the first Dominican-born player in the major leagues. Two years later, Virgil became the Detroit Tigers’ first Black player. He died at 92. SPORTS M.L.B.: Three of the Wild Card series resulted in sweeps. The underdog Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals advanced, along with the San Diego Padres. The New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers close out their series today. N.F.L.: The New York Jets may land the wide receiver Davante Adams in a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders. Racing: Michael Jordan, who co-owns 23XI Racing, is part of a federal lawsuit that could change how NASCAR operates. It’s a chance for Jordan to grow his sports legacy, our columnist writes. A MESSAGE FROM MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM A Healthcare System Driven by Innovation At Mass General Brigham in Boston, scientists and clinicians collaborate to provide patients with highly personalized care for all forms of cancer and other diseases. By creating multidisciplinary clinical teams specializing in early detection and treatments including cellular and immunotherapies, doctors at Mass General Brigham bring their research directly from the bench to the bedside. LEARN MORE ARTS AND IDEAS Extra sauce, please. Kieran Kesner for The New York Times The breaded, fried chicken tender as we know it was invented 50 years ago. It has, since then, become ubiquitous: a fixture of school lunches, gas stations, stadiums and all-night diners. The tender has become a symbol with fluid meaning, Pete Wells writes, an expression of unadventurous dining or an icon of unpretentious American taste. Read about how the chicken tender conquered America. More on culture The “Succession” star Sarah Snook will make her Broadway debut next year in a one-woman adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Cassettes are making a comeback, but manufacturers have largely stopped making tape decks. Listeners are finding creative solutions. Late night hosts joked about a strangely chill vice-presidential debate. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times Add tuna to this puttanesca. Read what to expect from Apple’s A.I. Shop the best Amazon Prime Day deals. Prevent toilet bowl stains with a spray. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were mathematic and thematic. 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 Saturday at 12:44 AM Author Members Share Posted Saturday at 12:44 AM October 4, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Hamed Aleaziz explains how well President Biden’s border rules have worked. We’re also covering Israeli strikes across the Middle East, the port strike and food voyages. —David Leonhardt The U.S.-Mexico border. Pool photo by Jae C. Hong A quick plunge By Hamed Aleaziz I cover immigration. For much of the Biden administration’s first three years in office, migration surged at the Mexican border. Administration officials frequently argued that the problem was beyond their control — a reflection not of U.S. policy but of global forces pushing people toward the border. Then, starting in December, when the issue threatened President Biden’s re-election, he began a crackdown. The traffic of people crossing the border plummeted. Today, it remains near the lowest point since 2020 and not so different from levels during parts of the Trump and Obama administrations. This week, the Biden administration imposed tough new rules to keep it that way. Source: Department of Homeland Security | By The New York Times In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how the policy has had such a big effect and why it took so long for the administration to enact. The crisis deepens Border crossings reached record levels this past winter, with almost 250,000 migrant arrests in December alone. At one point, U.S. officials shut down rail crossings and one port of entry, frightening businesses that ship goods between the countries. Just 32 percent of Americans thought Biden was handling immigration wisely. Two efforts this year by the Biden administration made a big difference. First, it pushed Mexico to clamp down on the number of migrants headed to the southern border. Mexico had run out of money to deport those people to their home countries. Then the secretaries of state and homeland security visited in late December to ask for more enforcement. Soon, the authorities there found the money to bus migrants far away, to southern Mexico. Arrests at the U.S. border dropped by half in January and stayed steady for several months. At the same time, Democrats in Congress were trying to pass an immigration bill to slow the number of arrivals and save Biden’s candidacy. Although Republicans had largely backed those objectives, they voted against the measure for political reasons, and it failed. Colombian asylum seekers in September after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. John Moore/Getty Images After that, Biden made a second major decision. He issued an executive order that barred migrants from asylum if they crossed illegally, even if they were fleeing oppression back home — a measure similar to one part of the failed bill. It changed the way people could ask for asylum. Before, when migrants got to the border, U.S. officials asked if they feared returning home. Government officials believed many were saying yes regardless of whether it was true — and also that smugglers were coaching them how to answer. Now, to qualify for asylum, a migrant had to volunteer his or her worries unprompted. Officials say many fewer did so. Because fewer people could get asylum under the new rules, the Department of Homeland Security could deport them much more quickly. The process can take a day or two if someone is from Mexico and does not have an asylum claim. A turnaround With all those moves together, immigration to the U.S. changed quickly. Arrests in September fell to around 54,000, the lowest figure in years. And with fewer people entering the asylum system, it was easier for the government to deport them. In the first few years of the administration, detention centers were often overwhelmed, so officials released people with notices to appear in immigration court years down the line. Policymakers think that word of these strains spread into Latin America and induced more people to come illegally. “There was a message of, ‘this is not permissible,’ but everybody was being permitted to do it. So there was this kind of juxtaposition of public statement and then action,” said Matthew Hudak, a former U.S. Border Patrol official. Now, as strains on the system have eased, officials react differently. Detention centers have space to hold people while they wait to see if they’ll be deported. Democrats have traveled a long arc in the last four years. When Biden took office, he spoke warmly of migrants seeking asylum and even tried to pause deportations altogether. (A court said no.) As his political fortunes sank, he turned toward deterring migrants. Finally, in June, he took a hard line. Now Kamala Harris says she would make sure Biden’s order is kept in place. Related: Immigration is a major issue in this election. Watch a video version of The Daily, where Michael Barbaro and Times correspondents discuss the state of the race. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election Kamala Harris with the Republican former congresswoman Liz Cheney. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Liz Cheney urged voters to reject Donald Trump at a rally with Harris in Ripon, Wis., the birthplace of the Republican Party. “In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration, it is our duty,” Cheney said. Trump pledged to revoke the legal status of tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants whom he has falsely accused of eating pets. He tried to do so in his first term but courts blocked him. Tim Walz decried “staggering and devastating” destruction in Gaza in a video address aimed at Muslim voters, many of whom are angry over the Biden administration’s Israel policy. Crushing overtime, perceived favoritism and unreliable tech contributed to Secret Service agents quitting at the highest rates in decades. The exodus left the agency unprepared to counter threats this year. The International Association of Fire Fighters, a union that backed Biden in 2020, said that it would not endorse a presidential candidate this year. The Teamsters are also not supporting a candidate. More on Politics A judge sentenced a former Colorado county clerk to nine years in prison for tampering with voting machines in a failed attempt to help Trump. A federal judge let the Biden administration resume one of its student debt relief programs for now. Mike Lawler, a vulnerable House Republican from New York, wore blackface as part of a Michael Jackson costume in college in 2006. Lawler said he’d meant it as homage and apologized to anyone he’d offended. Two Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal — urged the Justice Department to criminally prosecute Boeing executives over plane safety issues. Middle East Beirut’s southern suburbs. Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters Israeli forces struck Lebanon, Gaza and the occupied West Bank overnight. Warplanes attacked a site near Beirut, the Lebanese capital, that officials said was an underground bunker where Hezbollah leaders were meeting. The strike near Beirut targeted Hashem Safieddine, a cousin and possible successor of Hassan Nasrallah, the assassinated Hezbollah leader. Nearly 100 people were killed in several strikes in Gaza, including one on an orphanage where women and children were sheltering. Israel said its targets were Hamas command centers. The Israeli military said that Hezbollah had fired at least 200 rockets at Israel, but that its defenses had intercepted most of them. Biden seemed to confirm that Israel might strike Iranian oil fields in retaliation for a missile attack. Oil prices rose on the news. More International News Russian oil tankers are operating under the flags of other nations, making it hard for the authorities to find them and enforce sanctions. Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, has assembled a top team that contains more lawmakers from poor backgrounds. Voters still see it as out of touch. Companies are trying to cut ties with Xinjiang, China, a region full of cotton but known for stark human rights abuses. Beijing is making it hard to leave. Helene Aftermath President Biden with a farm owner. Eric Lee/The New York Times Biden surveyed storm damage in Florida and Georgia. “We have your back,” he said during a visit to a Georgia pecan farm, and he urged Congress to pass more aid. Gov. Ron DeSantis will give election officials in storm-damaged Florida more flexibility in administering early and absentee voting. Other Big Stories In Garden City, Ga. Adam Kuehl for The New York Times A dockworkers’ union suspended its strike after employers offered a bigger wage increase. The deal allowed major U.S. ports to reopen. Three former Memphis police officers were acquitted in the most serious charge in the case regarding the death of Tyre Nichols. Americans are using more potent marijuana products more often. A growing number are suffering serious health effects. In a retrial, a Manhattan man was convicted in the murder of a transgender woman. Opinions Eric Adams and Bob Menendez show that Democrats have a corruption problem they need to address, Sarah Chayes writes. Voters see Harris as assertive. Finally, they also view that as an asset, Alison Fragale and Adam Grant write. Here are columns by David Brooks on American manufacturing, and Paul Krugman on Trump and disaster relief. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS In Huntsville, Ala. Robert Rausch for The New York Times Saving cinema: Movie theaters are using specialty concessions — like elote flatbreads — to lure customers. Social Q’s: “Should I press my adult son to break up with his girlfriend?” Pitch me: Singles are using PowerPoint presentations, billboards and business cards to find love. Growth: Pandemic start-ups are helping to fuel the U.S. economy. Lives Lived: Masamitsu Yoshioka was the last known survivor of the Japanese bombardiers who attacked Pearl Harbor. He died at 106. SPORTS Pete Alonso’s home run. MLB M.L.B.: The New York Mets advanced to the National League division series thanks to Pete Alonso’s ninth-inning home run. Read a recap. N.F.L.: Quarterback Kirk Cousins threw for 509 yards in the Atlanta Falcons’ thrilling 36-30 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. W.N.B.A.: Caitlin Clark won Rookie of the Year honors with 66 of 67 votes. Angel Reese received the other vote. ARTS AND IDEAS Delicacies around the world. The New York Times Many people travel just for food. But how far would you go for a single bite? The New York Times Magazine sent writers and photographers on long journeys — to Italy, Peru, Senegal — to taste bites they couldn’t replicate anywhere else. One couple took their son who hates eggs along. They wanted to see if some of the world’s best chefs could convince him to change his mind. Read the food voyages. More on culture Garth Brooks was accused of rape and assault in a lawsuit. Whole Foods tried to change the recipe of Berry Chantilly, a cake with a cult following. Customers lost it. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times Add sausage and peppers to this one-pot pasta. Stop straining your eyes. Charge your iPhone with a good cable. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were grounding and rounding. 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 Sunday at 06:54 PM Author Members Share Posted Sunday at 06:54 PM October 5, 2024 By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. Sometimes the scariest movies are the ones that depict the ordinary horrors of life. María Jesús Contreras Fear factors I was fascinated to discover recently that each October, my friend Alex undertakes a spooky-season film festival, endeavoring to watch one horror flick for each day of the month. I do not expect that his roster includes the 2012 documentary “Part of Me,” a chronicle of the musician Katy Perry’s California Dreams concert tour. But I happened to watch that film this week, and it made me contemplate what, exactly, makes a movie frightening. “Part of Me” is not a scary movie, not outwardly at least. It’s mostly a confection, lots of footage of Perry dressed up in candy-themed costumes, dancing and singing and gamely greeting her devoted fans in arenas around the world. There is one scene, however, that comes near the end of the movie. Perry is in São Paulo, Brazil, where the largest crowd of the tour has gathered to see her perform. As fans fill the arena, we see Perry sprawled backstage sobbing. Her entourage mills about, fretting over how to handle the situation. “You have two options. You can cancel the show, or you can do your best,” her manager tells her gently. Perry thinks for a moment, then commands her makeup artist to begin his ministrations. She goes onstage and puts on the spectacle, even though she’s hanging on by a thread. (The film implies that this episode was, at least in part, precipitated by the breakdown of her marriage to the comedian Russell Brand.) The scene of Perry crying wasn’t outright terrifying in the way a horror movie is, but it filled me with anxiety all the same. Here’s a person laid low with sadness who has to scrounge up some will to go out onstage and be a convincing avatar for uncomplicated joy and delight. This “show must go on” gumption is the stuff from which stories of cinematic uplift are made, but maybe it was my frame of mind, or the cultural moment, that made Perry’s resilience seem chilling. I admired her fortitude, and felt grateful that I didn’t have a multimillion-dollar machine depending on my being able to shake off a personal nightmare. This might be why I don’t tend to seek out scary movies — there’s enough that fills me with dread in movies that don’t advertise themselves as particularly spine-chilling. One might expect that the new movie “Saturday Night,” about the making of the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” in 1975, would be a fun romp, but that movie, too, was rife with the anxiety of artists needing to put on a show in spite of strong forces that would have it otherwise. The new FX documentary series “Social Studies,” about teenagers and their relationship with social media, gripped my attention, but I also found myself gritting my teeth as I worried about the kidstherein, their compulsion to perform carefree abandon for their followers while the realities of their offscreen lives were in many cases pretty bleak. One of the appeals of scary movies is that one gets to undergo the experience of a worst-case scenario with the knowledge that this is a fiction, that no matter how anxiety-inducing or ghastly or gruesome the events onscreen, we are safe, we are going to walk out of this theater and have dinner with friends. There are no zombies in the bushes, there is no killer in a hockey mask lying in wait. The journey from sheer terror back to the gorgeous safety of real life offers an ecstatic release, a burst of gratitude for the unremarkable pleasures of the mundane. For those of us who can find things to fear in the least fearsome of films, this, perhaps, is the key to enjoying a Halloween-season fright fest: find movies that deviate so much from real life that the anxieties they provoke aren’t even remotely plausible. Seek out depictions of horror whose stories offer maximum contrast with the actual dreadful content of everyday life. I’ve scoffed at the stock characters of Halloween — the witches and ghosts and skeletons rattling around in top hats and tails. Who would actually find these beings frightening? They don’t even exist! Maybe, for a fraidy cat like me, that’s a good place to start. For more Halloween film festivals worth traveling for (if that’s your thing). Five horror movies to stream now. How horror stories help us cope with real life. Last weekend, the musician Chappell Roan canceled a pair of performances in New York and Maryland. “Things have gotten overwhelming over the past few weeks and I am really feeling it,” Roan said in a statement posted on Instagram. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV A scene from “Joker: Folie à Deux.” Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures “Joker: Folie à Deux,” a crime-thriller-musical starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, is “such a dour, unpleasant slog that it is hard to know why it was made or for whom,” our critic writes. Read the review. “The Outrun,” which stars Saoirse Ronan as an alcoholic who moves to an island off Scotland to heal, is one of five new movies our critics are talking about. John Amos, who played the patriarch in “Good Times,” America’s first sitcom featuring a two-parent Black family, died at 84. A judge in New Mexico declined to grant a new trial to the armorer in the fatal “Rust” shooting. Her lawyers had argued that an evidence dispute, which led to a mistrial in the case against the film’s star Alec Baldwin, had also deprived her of a fair trial. The Netflix dating show “Love Is Blind” returned. A body language expert shared tips for divining participants’ motivations. Music Kris Kristofferson Jack Robinson/Condé Nast, via Getty Images Kris Kristofferson died at 88. After years of struggling as a songwriter, he found his voice with a direct, evocative style. See his life in pictures. Levi’s wants more female customers. Beyoncé and her song “Levii’s Jeans” provided the marketing department with an opportunity. Oasis added North American dates to their 2025 reunion tour. Pras, a member of the Fugees, sued his former bandmate Lauryn Hillover a canceled reunion tour. More on Culture The revival of David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face” is a pointed critique of identity, masquerading as a mockumentary, our critic writes. The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles announced its new director: Zoë Ryan, who leads the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania. Robert Downey Jr. made his Broadway debut in Ayad Akhtar’s timely new play about a literary star who gets assistance from A.I. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election President Biden at a press briefing on Friday. Kenny Holston/The New York Times “I’m confident it will be free and fair. I don’t know whether it will be peaceful,” President Biden said of the election, calling Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 outcome “very dangerous.” Trump appeared with Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Republican governor, whom he has repeatedly criticized for certifying Biden’s 2020 win there. They surveyed Hurricane Helene’s damage, and Trump praised Kemp’s response. Trump claimed on social media that Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, had endorsed him. Dimon hadn’t. Trump will hold a rally today in Butler, Pa., at the same site where a gunman tried to assassinate him in July. Donald Harris, Kamala Harris’s 86-year-old father, lives just two miles from her. But the two have been estranged for years and rarely speak. Middle East The U.S. has sent warships and troops to the region. Military officials are debating whether the deployments are deterring a wider war or inflaming one. Hamas no longer seems interested in cease-fire negotiations, U.S. officials said. Its leader, Yahya Sinwar, wants to see Israel embroiled in a wider regional conflict. “All my dreams are about bombs”: Israel’s airstrikes against Hezbollah have taken an emotional toll on residents of Beirut. Other Big Stories The U.S. labor market remains strong: Employers added 254,000 jobs last month, far surpassing expectations, and unemployment ticked down. Biden will end programs that let Cuban, Venezuelan, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants stay in the U.S. legally, forcing them to find other ways to stay or face deportation. Americans started businesses at the fastest rate in decades under Covid. Many of them have thrived. A gang attack killed at least 70 people, including three infants, in an agricultural region of central Haiti where violence has surged. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. CULTURE CALENDAR By Desiree Ibekwe 🎥 The Apprentice (Friday): In this movie, a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) is ascendant in New York real estate, aided by Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). It charts Trump’s rise in the 1970s and ’80s, and depicts him sexually assaulting his first wife and getting liposuction and a scalp reduction. With weeks to go until the election, it is a glimpse at the origins of a ubiquitous figure. You’ve probably already heard about this movie, but there was a chance many wouldn’t get to see it: After it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Trump threatened to sue to block its release (a spokesman called it defamatory). Gabriel Sherman, the political journalist who wrote the film, described feeling validated by Trump’s response. “Life was imitating art,” he said. “Trump’s legal threat followed the first rule Cohn elucidates in the movie: Attack, attack, attack.” RECIPE OF THE WEEK Christopher Testani for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Sheet-Pan Sausages With Shallots and Apples Crisp, juicy new-crop apples are back in season and ready for all your snacking, pie-making and teacher-gifting inclinations. But you can also turn them into a sweet-savory dinner with Lidey Heuck’s recipe for sheet-pan sausages with caramelized shallots and apples. A splash of cider vinegar and a spoonful of mustard brighten the richness of the sausages, which can be made from pork, turkey or chicken. Either red or green apples will work well here, or use a combination for a most colorful dish. Serve this with noodles or mashed potatoes for a cozy autumnal meal. REAL ESTATE Selene Plastiras with her dog, Hula, in Brooklyn. Katherine Marks for The New York Times The Hunt: A Manhattan-based lawyer sought (relative) peace and quiet in Brooklyn for less than $800,000. Which home did she choose? Play our game. What you get for $399,000: A sunny one-bedroom condo in Minneapolis; a ranch-style house in Williamstown, Mass.; or a 19th-century townhouse in Baltimore. LIVING The writer and curator Lucy Lippard. Tony Floyd New Mexico: Over the past century, the state has provided refuge for renegade artists. Beauty: See a list of all the makeup brushes you actually need — and how to clean them. Literary Ireland: A book critic visits Dublin, a city that celebrates its rich literary past in bookstores, parks and even pubs. Smoking: A medication called cytisine is used elsewhere in the world to help smokers quit. There are efforts to bring it to the U.S. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Which coffee maker is right for you? There’s no one perfect way to make coffee — and finding a just-right maker can feel overwhelming. Wirecutter’s kitchen experts recommend taking a moment to be honest with yourself about who you really are when you roll out of bed. How many cups do you drink a day? Do you need it ready the moment you wake up? Do you dream of making fancy lattes? The answers can help you narrow down the best method for you. For example, if you drink just a cup or two of black coffee a day, a simple dripper might be best. But if you love to experiment and have plenty of time — and money — an all-in-one espresso machine could be worth it. — Haley Jo Lewis GAME OF THE WEEK Grimace throwing out the first pitch at Citi Field on June 12. Rich Schultz/Associated Press New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies, M.L.B. playoffs: The Mets and Phillies have been divisional rivals for as long as the major leagues have had divisions. Somehow, though, they had never met in the playoffs until now. The Phillies have been one of baseball’s best teams for the past few years. They reached the World Series in 2022, came one game shy last year and easily won the division this season. But the better story here is the Mets, who had a dreary start to the year until the McDonald’s mascot Grimace visited Citi Field in June to throw out the first pitch. They’ve had the best record in baseball since. Game 1 is today at 4 p.m. Eastern on Fox NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was payphone. 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 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 Sunday at 09:31 PM Author Members Share Posted Sunday at 09:31 PM October 6, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Ken Belson writes about a looming change in sports officiating. We’re also covering the Middle East, Donald Trump and dogs in Ukraine. —David Leonhardt Isaiah Likely of the Baltimore Ravens with his toe out of bounds. Ed Zurga/Associated Press The future of sports By Ken Belson I cover sports and business. For most of sports history, there was no recourse when a referee made a bad call. Fans could boo and players could complain, but the game went on. Instant replay changed that a few decades ago, allowing coaches to challenge a call and ask the referees to review it. That made games fairer, but it also made them slower. Now, many professional sports are on the verge of a new technological breakthrough: automated referee systems, which get the call right every time and significantly reduce delays from reviews. Leagues insist that these systems, which they are testing in the minors or in preseason games, are not meant to eliminate officials. Umpires and referees are still necessary to make nuanced calls — checked swings in baseball, charging in basketball, pass interference in football. But the leagues believe automated systems could make games both fairer and faster. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain what this technology can do as well as the concerns that some league officials have about it. Referees check an instant replay during an N.F.L. game. Adam Hunger/Associated Press State of the tools Technology is built into the rules of professional sports. The N.F.L. requires instant-replay reviews of all scoring plays and turnovers to ensure that the calls are right. That was on display on the final play of the season-opening game in Kansas City. The Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely caught a potential game-tying pass in the back of the end zone. But after a 90-second video review, officials determined that Likely’s toe was out of bounds, negating the pass and handing Kansas City the win. It was an example of what technology does best in sports: help referees make a decision about an easily defined play. But it also highlighted one pitfall of the current system: For fans, that 90-second wait can feel a lot longer. Automating those decisions would allow games to move more quickly. And for one sport, that has already happened at the highest level. Sony’s Hawk-Eye Live system, which for years allowed tennis players to challenge calls and see exactly where a shot had landed, has gotten so good that it now handles all the line calls at the U.S. Open and the Australian Open. Holding the first down chain. Mike Comer/Getty Images On the horizon America’s big professional sports leagues have not moved to automated refereeing yet, but most of them are testing their own systems. Baseball appears to be nearing a major change. It has used a system that automatically determines whether a pitch is a ball or a strike in its minor leagues, across more than 8,000 games. The system could make its first appearance in the majors next year, when the league may test it during spring training. The N.F.L. is also testing computerized officiating. This preseason, the league introduced cameras that help spot the ball after plays. The technology could mean the end of the chain gangs who run onto the field with two poles connected by a 10-yard chain to measure first downs. And the N.B.A. is testing technology to automatically detect goaltending calls, which involves determining whether the ball was moving upward or downward when it was blocked. The human element When baseball began testing its automatic umpire system in the minor leagues, it introduced two variations. One determines balls and strikes on every pitch and notifies the umpire, who signals the result. The second variation, which uses the same technology, is called upon only when a pitcher, catcher or batter challenges an umpire’s call. Umpires have been right on about half of those challenged calls. But players still said they preferred the challenge system to the automated one. Some said that challenges add a strategic element. “Originally, we thought everybody was going to be wholeheartedly in favor” of the fully automatic calls, said Rob Manfred, the M.L.B. commissioner. But, he said, “players feel there could be other effects on the game that would be negative if you used it full-blown.” Rich McKay, the chief executive of the Atlanta Falcons, leads the N.F.L.’s committee on game rules and had similar feelings about the potential for automated calls in football. “When you take the officiating out of the game and try to put it in a different place, I’m just nervous about what that leads to,” he said. “You’d have to rewrite all the rules.” THE LATEST NEWS Republican Campaign Donald Trump Doug Mills/The New York Times Donald Trump returned to the stage in Butler, Pa., where a gunman tried to kill him in July. His latest rally there sought to recapture the momentum he had before President Biden left the race. Trump invited Elon Musk to speak. Musk, who wore a black MAGA hat and twice lifted his arms above his head and jumped, told the crowd: “As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m dark MAGA.” It is unclear whether Trump, if elected, would reduce U.S. support for Ukraine, but he has a longstanding animus toward the country. A 2017 meeting with Vladimir Putin helps explain that. Democratic Campaign Kamala Harris will sit for several interviews this week, mostly friendly ones, after largely avoiding the press since her campaign began. She is set to appear on “The View” and Stephen Colbert’s late night show. Harris met with Arab and Muslim leaders in Michigan, where the U.S. position on the war in Gaza could threaten her support. For months, Democrats have trained volunteers across battleground states to personally testify, both on television and locally, about the effects of Republican-led abortion restrictions. Israel and Hezbollah Over Beirut’s southern suburbs. Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters The Israeli military carried out an intense bombing campaign in Lebanonovernight and said it had killed two Hamas commanders there. “How is anyone benefiting from what’s going on?”: Many Lebanese are angry that Hezbollah is dragging their politically and economically frail country into a war. The way Israel began its latest ground campaign against Hezbollah suggests it has learned lessons from its 2006 invasion of Lebanon. Ending the fight will be harder. More on the Middle East Israel appears to be intensifying its operations in Gaza. Its warplanes attacked Jabaliya in the north of the enclave. Hours earlier, the Israeli military struck a mosque and a school-turned-shelter in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza. The Israeli military has told Palestinians to evacuate from the vast majority of northern Gaza, speaking of “a new phase” in the war. Emmanuel Macron called on countries to stop shipping Israel weaponsfor use in Gaza. “The priority is that we return to a political solution,” he said. The Israeli military seems prepared to strike Iran in response to its missile barrage against Israel this past week. Here’s what the counterattack could look like. More International News In Newfoundland. Ian Willms for The New York Times Moose, introduced to Newfoundland 120 years ago, are involved in hundreds of car crashes every year. But the animal is an accepted part of life there. Tunisia’s autocratic president, Kais Saied, will almost certainly win re-election today. His leading challenger is in prison. Other Big Stories The genetic testing company 23andMe is struggling. The turmoil has raised concerns about what might happen to the data it’s collected from millions of customers. More than a week after Hurricane Helene made landfall, officials in the southeastern United States are scrambling to fix electrical lines and roads. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Should Pete Rose be in the Baseball Hall of Fame? Yes. Major League Baseball was right to punish Rose for his gambling and subsequent lying while he was alive, but the ban should end at his death. “Rose isn’t being punished, his fans are,” Christopher Scalia writes for The Wall Street Journal. No. Now that sports betting is legal, it’s even more important for the league to enforce its rules strictly. “Backing down would undermine the league’s commitment to zero tolerance,” Bloomberg’s Adam Minter writes. FROM OPINION As a young, idealistic medical student, Jonathan Reisman thought his job would always be safe from artificial intelligence. Then ChatGPT came along. Here are columns by Ross Douthat on the Biden presidency and Maureen Dowd on JD Vance. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS In Kyiv. Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times Wartime comfort: In Kyiv, Yorkies, poodles and bichons frisés rule the streets. Routine: How a gardener at a Brooklyn park spends her Sundays. Health: After bouts of vision loss for 18 years, a young woman finally received a diagnosis that made sense. Vows: Thirteen days after meeting, she proposed on TV and he followed suit. Lives Lived: Marvin Schlachter was a record executive who helped launch Dionne Warwick and the Shirelles in the 1960s and, a decade later, created an influential disco label. Schlachter died at 90. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “The Sequel,” by Jean Hanff Korelitz: When it comes to writers — their quirks, insecurities and woe-is-me-isms — nobody is more self aware and witty than Jean Hanff Korelitz. Her last best seller, “The Plot,” plumbed the depths of a middling novelist’s career, showing how far he’d go for a hit. Her new novel, “The Sequel,” picks up where that one left off, but from the perspective of the novelist’s widow, Anna Williams-Bonner, who’s written a book of her own. As she’s traveling the country, hopscotching from festival to bookstore to hotel room, she realizes that her new career isn’t the blank slate she’d hoped for … because somebody knows her secret back story. Will Anna’s debut double as a finale? As sequels go, Korelitz’s is remarkably independent. You don’t need to cram “The Plot” to get your bearings, but you might want to just for fun. Read our review of “The Sequel” here. More on books As a literary agent, Betsy Lerner is well acquainted with the foibles of novelists. Now, at 64, she’s joining the fray. Looking for a low-key book group with intelligent conversation and no guilt? Join the Book Review Book Club. This month’s pick is “Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney. THE INTERVIEW Al Pacino Philip Montgomery for The New York Times By David Marchese This week’s subject for The Interview is the legendary actor Al Pacino. His memoir, “Sonny Boy,” will be published Oct. 15. I saw an interview with you a couple of years ago in which you mentioned that you’d been asked to write a book. You said you didn’t want to because the prospect seemed torturous. What changed? Nothing. I regret it. Who needs to be out and about in this world, putting yourself up as another target? I mean, waking up in the middle of the night, having tremors — you break out in a cold sweat thinking, I shouldn’t have done this. But I was telling the truth. That’s all I know. You must get directors who have said to you, thinking about other performances you’ve done, something to the effect of, “Give me more Al Pacino.” What do you think they’re looking for? Go louder. [Laughs.] I couldn’t tell you. Nobody’s ever said that. They did say things to me in the theater, and I had to adjust. One director came up to me once, when I was young, and he says, “The character did this, and then he’s feeling this way here, and he does this.” So I said to him, “You seem to really relate to this person.” He said, “What?” I said, “Maybe you should play him.” Dead silence. I don’t like that kind of talk. A director who’s directing you and is helping you with your part is telling you how to do it? I don’t understand that. Then why did you cast me in the first place? What’s a great note you got from a director? One of the best notes I ever got was from Lee Strasberg when we were doing “… And Justice for All.” I was doing a scene, and Lee leaned over. He says, “Darling, you’ve got to learn your lines.” Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Click the cover image above to read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Make better scones by adding potatoes. Keep your grill safe during winter. Charge your phone wirelessly. MEAL PLAN Ryan Liebe for The New York Times In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein recommends placing this one-pot chicken and rice with caramelized lemon at the top of your fall cooking list. She also suggests making crispy gnocchi with spinach and feta, coconut fish curry and honey-habanero pork chops with carrots. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was officially. Can you put eight historical events — including the California gold rush, the life of Confucius, and the creation of the Band-Aid — 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 Monday at 10:00 PM Author Members Share Posted Monday at 10:00 PM October 7, 2024 By German Lopez Good morning. We’re covering the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack — as well as Trump’s age, Hurricane Helene’s aftermath and “Megalopolis.” In Ashkelon, Israel, on Oct. 7, 2023. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times One year later Many Israeli families were starting their weekend routines — on a Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, one year ago — when the first signs of trouble appeared. Hamas sent explosive drones and fired thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Soon after, militants smashed through border fences out of Gaza and landed in southern Israel on paragliders. They killed more than 1,100 people and took hundreds more hostage, broadcasting some of the attacks on social media. The Oct. 7 attack, among the deadliest acts of terrorism in history, has reshaped the Middle East in the year since. In today’s newsletter, I’ll focus on three main changes: First, Israel has weakened its enemies. Second, Israeli attacks have devastated Gaza and its people. Third, the Middle East is on the precipice of a regional war. At the bottom of the newsletter, I’ve also included links to The Times’s coverage of this somber anniversary. 1. A weakened axis When Israel went into Gaza, it vowed to destroy Hamas, the Iran-backed group that launched the Oct. 7 attack. Israel has not done so, and U.S. officials are skeptical that it ever will. But the incursion into Gaza has nonetheless devastated Hamas. Israel has killed thousands of its fighters and destroyed much of its weapons stockpiles. Israel has also killed many of Hamas’s leaders, including the head of its political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, while he was in Iran. Many of the group’s previous bases of operations, in Gaza, are in ruins. Israel has also weakened Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group on its northern border. Hezbollah began firing missiles into Israel the day after the Oct. 7 attack, in solidarity with Hamas. The barrages have forced tens of thousands of Israelis out of their homes in the north. In recent weeks, Israel has become much more aggressive toward Hezbollah; through airstrikes and covert operations, it has killed many of the group’s members and leaders, including its head, Hassan Nasrallah. Together, these successes have reduced the ability of Israel’s enemies to carry out another attack like Oct. 7. Family members of hostages. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times One thing Israel has not accomplished: bringing home all of the hostages. More than 100 hostages, some of whom have died, still have not been returned. A cease-fire agreement to bring them home remains elusive, despite the U.S. and Arab countries’ efforts to negotiate a deal. 2. A humanitarian crisis Second, the war has caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israeli attacks have killed more than 41,500 Palestinians, including both civilians and militants. Frequent airstrikes have forced Palestinians to cower in shelters and flee their homes. As tanks have rolled into Gaza, survivors have lost family and friends to fighting. Food, water and medical supplies remain scarce, leading to starvation and untreated illness. Entire neighborhoods are now rubble, leaving people without housing and other important infrastructure. In the southern Gaza Strip in November. Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times For all of Israel’s military successes, Gaza’s suffering has consumed much of the international attention to the conflict and damaged Israel’s reputation abroad. Israel argues that Hamas is largely to blame for the civilian deaths, because the group deliberately hides in schools, hospitals and other civilian buildings and even uses them as command centers. That forces Israel to strike these places to take out Hamas. Still, many people who see the destruction in Gaza, knowing that Israel has the ability to end the war, demand that Israel do so for the sake of Palestinians. Biden administration officials argue that Israel has largely achieved its military objectives in Gaza and should reach a cease-fire to return the remaining hostages. Israeli officials say that withdrawing would allow Hamas to rebuild itself. 3. A wider war What began as an Israeli campaign into Gaza has turned into a multifront conflict between Israel and Iran, which has financed and advised both Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel has also invaded Lebanon, where Hezbollah controls territory, forcing thousands of Lebanese civilians to flee. And Iran has twice fired a barrage of missiles at Israel. Israel promised to retaliate for the second attack, which took place last week. Israel and Iran do not seem to want an all-out war, but at the same time they both believe that they have to respond to each other’s attacks. Iran wants to assert its influence over the Middle East and demonstrate that it can inflict pain on Israel for strikes on Iran’s allies. Israel wants to show Iran that it can’t fund terrorist attacks on Israel without consequences. Each side hopes that its attacks will get the other to back down, out of fear of what could come next. The attacks have instead led Israel and Iran to steadily escalate over the past year. Each side seems to want to deter the other, but in practice both are in a cycle of violence that is pushing the region further into war. More on the anniversary A gathering at the site of the Nova music festival near Re’im, Israel. Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times Israelis are commemorating the attacks. People gathered for a ceremony in the Re’im forest, the site of the music festival where more than 380 people were killed. A small group of the families of hostages taken by Hamas gathered near Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem. “A whole year in which time has stopped. I’m still on the same day,” one mother said. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has exposed the limits of American influence and highlighted Netanyahu’s staying power. Read an explanation of why the war continues. One major difference between the war in Gaza and other conflicts: Palestinian refugees have nowhere else to go. See a video from The A.P. of Gaza City before and after Oct. 7. Israelis are trickling back to the villages attacked on Oct. 7 — and facing the traumas of that day once again. Seven Times photojournalists who have covered the war in Israel and Gaza share the images that have stayed with them most. A year on, many American Jews say the attack drove them to re-evaluate their identities. More on the Middle East The Israeli military said it had sent more troops to Lebanon and conducted airstrikes against Hamas in Gaza. A Hezbollah rocket attack injured at least five people in Haifa, northern Israel, CNN reports. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election Donald Trump’s economic plans could increase the national debt and raise costs for most Americans, two analyses found. Trump’s speeches have become less focused, longer and angrier, raising questions about his age. Polls show that the race remains tight after the vice-presidential debate and a strong jobs report. One in five Americans consider themselves rural. Watch the Times reporter Astead Herndon explore how Republicans expanded their advantage among these voters — and whether Democrats can remain competitive. The docket for the new Supreme Court term looks fairly routine. That could change quickly if the election results are contested, Adam Liptak writes. More on Politics Dianne Feinstein’s jewelry. Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times Senator Dianne Feinstein collected jewelry, paintings and political mementos. A year after her death, many of her belongings are on sale. The men behind Trump’s cryptocurrency venture are serial entrepreneurs who have left a trail of lawsuits and unpaid debt. International The Russian arms dealer who was traded in a prisoner swap for the U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner is now trying to sell weapons to the Houthis, The Wall Street Journal reports. The chief of staff to the new British prime minister, Keir Starmer, resigned. The first months of Starmer’s government have been turbulent. Pope Francis named 21 new cardinals, cementing his influence on the group that will choose his successor. Weather In Asheville, NC. Juan Diego Reyes for The New York Times School closures and trauma in the wake of Hurricane Helene could leave children with lasting emotional and academic setbacks, experts say. Conspiracy theories about Helene relief efforts are alarming officials and workers. Hurricane Milton is expected to bring significant rain and wind to parts of Florida this week. Other Big Stories A lobbying group backed by the likes of Meta and Google is behind lawsuits that have derailed several states’ efforts to regulate the tech industry. Two boys, ages 12 and 13, have been arrested and
Recommended Posts