Members phkrause Posted September 29, 2024 Author Members Posted September 29, 2024 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 1, 2024 Author Members Posted October 1, 2024 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 2, 2024 Author Members Posted October 2, 2024 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 3, 2024 Author Members Posted October 3, 2024 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 4, 2024 Author Members Posted October 4, 2024 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 5, 2024 Author Members Posted October 5, 2024 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 6, 2024 Author Members Posted October 6, 2024 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 6, 2024 Author Members Posted October 6, 2024 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 7, 2024 Author Members Posted October 7, 2024 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 charged in a street attack on David Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson. Opinions Israeli apathy about Palestinian suffering is what allows the far right to control the country, Mairav Zonszein writes. Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7 woke up American Jews to the different kinds of antisemitism in U.S. society, Bret Stephens writes. Stephens and Gail Collins discuss Harris and the University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax. Here are columns by David French on the prophets of Trumpism and Nicholas Kristof on how Biden facilitated war. 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 A tributary of the Amazon. Raphael Alves/EPA, via Shutterstock Drought: To maintain the flow of food and medicine along the Amazon River, Brazil is resorting to dredging. Weed: Marijuana is widely considered nonaddictive and safe. For some users, these assumptions are dangerously wrong. Ask Vanessa: “How big should a handbag be?” Metropolitan Diary: A subway pickle. Lives Lived: Susie Maxwell Berning was a trailblazing three-time champion of the United States Women’s Open golf tournament, known for her tenacity on the fairway and her grace off it. She died at 83. SPORTS N.F.L.: Dak Prescott redeemed himself after being intercepted twice in the Dallas Cowboys’ 20-17 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, throwing a touchdown in the final minute. See Week 5 takeaways. M.L.B.: The San Diego Padres routed the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-2 in a shocking playoff game that included an 11-minute delay after fans threw debris onto the field. Read a recap. N.B.A.: LeBron and Bronny James became the first father and son to share an N.B.A. court in the Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason tilt against the Phoenix Suns. W.N.B.A.: The New York Liberty are clear title favorites after eliminating the Las Vegas Aces, the repeat defending champions, in the postseason semifinals. ARTS AND IDEAS Francis Ford Coppola Michael Loccisano/Getty Images “Megalopolis” is a movie about a tortured-genius artist who overcomes obstacles to realize his solitary vision — and the product of one. Its director Francis Ford Coppola conceived of the project more than 40 years ago and sold part of his wine business to finance it. Marc Tracy writes that it will be remembered as the latest instance of a Hollywood archetype: the auteurist flop. More on culture Self-empowerment rhymes catapulted GloRilla onto rap’s A-list. With her debut LP, “Glorious,” she shows more sides of her personality. “Joker: Folie à Deux,” a musical sequel to “Joker” which stars Lady Gaga, opened to paltry box office numbers and dismal reviews. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times Combine chicken, vegetables and broth for a comforting one-pot donabe. Work on an iPad with the right gear. Prep meals with this $5 peeler. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were clanged and glanced. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 8, 2024 Author Members Posted October 8, 2024 October 8, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re covering the federal debt and the presidential election — as well as Hurricane Milton, Lebanon and forever chemicals. A badge worn by Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Tom Brenner for The New York Times In the hole Sometime in the next two years, the federal debt will likely cross a worrisome threshold: It will exceed the size of the country’s annual economic output (or G.D.P.) for the first time since 1946. Note: Excludes debt the federal government owes itself | Source: Congressional Budget Office | By The New York Times The debt-to-G.D.P. ratio is merely a statistic, and nothing will inherently change when the ratio exceeds 100 percent. But it will be a sign of the country’s serious budget challenges. The large debts of the 1940s had a clear rationale: They were the price of winning a world war against a murderous fascist alliance. Today’s debt has no such simple explanation. It instead reflects an accumulation of causes, including large tax cuts signed by Republican presidents, the continued rise in spending on Medicare and Social Security as the country ages and stimulus bills passed by both parties during the Covid pandemic and 2007-9 financial crisis. (Spending on the military, by contrast, has declined as a share of G.D.P. in recent years.) What these causes have in common is a federal government that seems incapable of paying its own bills — and an electorate that tells pollsters it cares about the federal debt but votes for politicians who support low taxes and high spending. How bad? Yesterday, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget — a group that favors deficit reduction — released a detailed analysis of both Trump’s and Kamala Harris’s economic plans. The group acknowledged the uncertainty about the effects of those plans. Both candidates have been vague about parts of their agendas, and the economy’s performance will also have a big impact on the debt. In the most likely scenarios, however, Harris’s plans would add meaningfully to the debt — and Trump’s would add much more to the debt. Harris has proposed a mix of spending programs focused on the middle class and tax increases on the rich that would not fully pay for her spending plans; Trump has proposed a large tax cut focused on the affluent and not nearly enough spending cuts or tariffs to pay for it. This chart shows the central forecasts from Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget as well as its uncertainty ranges: Note: Excludes debt the federal government owes itself | Source: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget | By The New York Times I know that the federal debt can be a hard topic to think about, partly because budget scolds have been warning for years that it is too large. Then it keeps growing, and nothing bad seems to happen. Those scolds can sound like Aesop’s boy who cried wolf. But it’s worth remembering what happens at the end of that fable: Eventually, the boy was telling the truth, and a wolf really did come to eat the town’s sheep. Likewise, the federal government will eventually face consequences for spending more money than it raises in taxes. Already, the costs of high federal debt are evident. About one-seventh of all federal spending this year will cover interest payments on debt the government previously accumulated. That’s almost as much as it will spend this year on Medicare and more than it will spend on the military. (Social Security remains almost twice as expensive as Medicare, the military or debt interest.) Over time, interest payments will account for an even larger share of the federal budget, leaving less money for everything else. The interest payments mean that the longer the government waits to deal with its growing debt, the more painful the solution will need to be. More tax, less spending What are the potential solutions? A small group of progressive economists — who favor an idea known as modern monetary theory, or M.M.T. — argue that the Treasury can simply print enough money to repay the debt. But even these advocates acknowledge that doing so could spark inflation, and the past few years have shown how damaging inflation can be, both economically and politically. M.M.T. doesn’t actually seem to be the answer. A more plausible solution is the obvious one: Some combination of tax increases and spending cuts. And it isn’t especially hard to imagine what that combination might look like. It would need to restrain the growth of Medicare and Social Security, already the federal government’s largest budget items and growing rapidly, and it would need to raise taxes. The tax increases could be targeted at the wealthy and corporations, which have received big tax cuts in the past several decades, but they couldn’t necessarily be limited to the wealthy. The debt, to be clear, isn’t the only long-term challenge facing the country. Climate change is a major threat, as the recent procession of hurricanes shows once again. The rise of an ambitious alliance of autocracies, including China, Iran and Russia, is also a threat. Ultimately, all these challenges overlap: The more money that the U.S. spends on interest payments, the less is available for clean energy, national defense and other priorities. More on the election On CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Harris was asked about the criticism that she has changed some policies in recent years. She suggested that she took more moderate positions after speaking with voters. Read takeaways from the interview. Trump also agreed to a “60 Minutes” interview, but backed out. His campaign objected to CBS’s fact-checking and demanded it apologize for a 2020 interview with Trump. Harris went on the podcast “Call Her Daddy.” She spoke candidly about her ambition and not having children, The Atlantic reports. Elon Musk’s super PAC is offering swing-state voters $47 each to sign a petition in an effort to turn out Trump voters. (Trump would become the 47th president.) Porn actors are running ads in swing states warning that Project 2025 — a governing blueprint created by Trump allies — would ban pornography and imprison people who produce it. Harris leads Trump by 4 percentage points nationally, trails in Texas and is 13 points behind in Florida, the latest New York Times/Siena College polls find. Trump’s huge lead in Florida suggests that the state has continued to move rightward since the pandemic, Nate Cohn explains. THE LATEST NEWS Hurricane Milton In St. Petersburg, Florida. Zack Wittman for The New York Times Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified as it traveled through the Gulf of Mexico. It was a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 m.p.h. as it was moving toward Tampa, Fla. Milton, like Hurricane Helene, has grown very powerful very quickly. That’s because the Gulf’s waters are abnormally hot, as this chart shows. As the storm approaches, FEMA is stretched: More than 90 percent of its workers are responding to other natural disasters. Milton could be the first storm in more than a century to strike Tampa directly. “We are telling people this will be like the worst hurricane in their lifetime,” a local meteorologist said. Gov. Ron DeSantis warned that uncertainty over Milton’s precise path would lead to evacuations over a wide area. Politics Georgia’s Supreme Court reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban while it considers a lower-court ruling that overturned it. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down an appeal from the Biden administration urging the justices to allow some emergency abortions in Texas. The Supreme Court’s new term has begun. Today, the justices will hear a case challenging the Biden administration’s restrictions on untraceable homemade firearms, known as ghost guns. A new E.P.A. rule will require utilities to replace virtually every lead water pipe in the country within a decade. The pipes are a major source of lead poisoning. Oct. 7 Anniversary Kamala Harris Bonnie Cash for The New York Times Harris, Trump and President Biden marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack. Harris planted a tree, Trump visited a Hasidic leader’s grave and Biden lit a memorial candle at the White House. Israel’s military campaign has left Gaza in ruins. Videos and images from before and after the war show the magnitude of destruction. A year has passed in Israel and Gaza like a long nightmare in which hatred is the only winner, Roger Cohen writes. More on the Middle East In a strike near Beirut, the Israeli military said it had killed a Hezbollah official in charge of the group’s headquarters. At least 2,080 people have been killed in Lebanon since last October, the country’s health ministry said. Most died in the past three weeks. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced about 1.2 million people in Lebanon. Many families are squatting in vacant buildings or sleeping in public parks, The Washington Post reports. Other Big Stories In Sinaloa state, Mexico. Meridith Kohut for The New York Times A betrayal inside Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel has ripped the gang into two rival factions, and turned its hometown into a war zone. As China’s population falls, the government there is calling women and sending officials to their doors in an invasive push for more babies. Two machine learning pioneers, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The medicine prize went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA. Mega Millions said it would more than double its ticket price next year, to $5. It promised larger jackpots and better odds. Opinions There’s no such thing as a perfect election forecaster, Kristen Soltis Anderson writes. Progressives tell their sons that “real men” are emotionally vulnerable. But boys don’t need a better masculinity; they need freedom from the idea altogether, Ruth Whippman writes. Here’s a column by Paul Krugman on recent good economic news. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS On the Prada runway. Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times Fashion month: Many spring collections feature ladylike clothing, suggesting “demure” may be more than just a TikTok trend. Prime Big Deal Day: Wirecutter is sifting through thousands of discounts on Amazon. See the deals that are actually worth it. Forever chemicals: PFAS, a harmful type of chemical, are in our water, our soil and our cookware. But there are ways to reduce your exposure. Health: Have we reached peak human life span? Lives Lived: Cissy Houston helped shepherd her daughter Whitney to superstardom, and was herself an in-demand backup vocalist on pop and soul records, as well as a gospel star. She died at 91. SPORTS An interception in the end zone. N.F.L. N.F.L.: The Kansas City Chiefs moved to 5-0 after defeating the New Orleans Saints. Taylor Swift was there in glitter. M.L.B.: For the first time, all four divisional series matchups are tied at 1-1 after the New York Yankees lost to the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Guardians fell against the Detroit Tigers. ARTS AND IDEAS “Oscar” (2024) Billy Sullivan The idea of the “daddy” is everywhere in popular culture — not in the parental sense, but as a compliment for an attractive man. A term that began among gay men has now spread to the wider world, as a sort of award bestowed on certain celebrities: Pedro Pascal, star of “The Last of Us”; Christopher Meloni from “Law & Order.” In T Magazine, Mark Harris explores the rise of the daddies. More on culture When books are removed from schools and libraries, fraught debate often follows. But some removals are quieter. Seth Meyers discussed the length of Trump’s campaign speeches: “You’re supposed to leave them wanting more. Trump leaves them wanting out.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Add cardamom to a classic pumpkin muffin for extra warmth. Spot the gems among today’s laptop deals. Splurge on a luxe face wash. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was gamecock. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 9, 2024 Author Members Posted October 9, 2024 October 9, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re covering Trump’s rallies — as well as Hurricane Milton, Bob Woodward’s new book and Alaska. The New York Times In his own words Donald Trump’s rallies — freewheeling performances full of jokes and audience participation that his fans sometimes travel hours to attend — are a central part of his 2024 presidential campaign. He holds almost two per week, and they are where he often introduces and tests the themes that end up dominating his campaign. To help readers get a better sense of these rallies, my colleagues Ian Prasad Philbrick and Ashley Wu have watched every one since late July (when President Biden dropped out of the race). Today, The Times is publishing a multimedia article in which Ian and Ashley break down nine main themes that recur at each rally — including his proposed agenda, his allusions to political violence, his flagrant falsehoods, his increasing verbal stumbles and his “hits” — set pieces on subjects like Hannibal Lecter that his audience has come to expect. The article includes video highlights that let you see these themes for yourself. Source: Trump campaign | By The New York Times If anything, the statements that Trump makes at his rallies are probably more important in this campaign than they were when he first ran in 2016. Trump’s aides, his critics and independent observers all agree that he is likely to implement more of his promised agenda in a second term than he did in a first. He understands more about what the president does and how the presidency works than he did in 2016. He has also made clear that he will fill his administration with loyalists, rather than the traditional Republicans who sometimes blocked his agenda last time. The Senate is also likely to be more compliant, with Mitch McConnell stepping down as the Republican leader. And the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court, is more Trump-friendly than it was eight years ago. Trump still won’t accomplish his entire proposed agenda. No president does. But it’s worth listening to what he says on the campaign trail and considering it a preview of a second Trump term. The work that Ian and Ashley have done cataloging his rallies makes that much easier. I encourage you to read their article and watch the video excerpts. More on the Trump campaign Republicans are spending heavily on TV ads that criticize Democrats on transgender policies, such as allowing trans girls to play girls’ sports. One intended audience: suburban women. Trump has secretly spoken with Vladimir Putin several times since leaving office, the journalist Bob Woodward reports in a new book. The Trump campaign has so far opted out of official planning for a government handover, a move that allows him to avoid disclosing his donors to his transition effort. The Trump Organization was in talks about Israeli hotels before the Hamas attack last year. It says it eventually wants to restart them. More on the Harris campaign Harris continued her recent media blitz, pitching policies to help families raise children and care for aging parents. She also cracked a beer with Stephen Colbert and revealed some personal details on Howard Stern’s show. Tim Walz said the Electoral College should be replaced with a national popular vote. Senator Mitt Romney, a Trump-critical Republican, said he wouldn’t endorse Harris because he hopes to rebuild his party after the election. More on the election Both Trump and Harris are pouring more resources and time into Pennsylvania than any other state. A third of Pennsylvania’s ballots are likely to be cast by mail. So in a close election, the outcome could depend on murky rules about which ballots get rejected. The F.B.I. arrested an Afghan citizen in Oklahoma City, accusing him of plotting an ISIS suicide attack to occur on Election Day. THE LATEST NEWS Hurricane Milton Debris from Hurricane Helene on Pass-A-Grille beach near St. Petersburg, Fla. Zack Wittman for The New York Times Florida officials urged more than five million residents to evacuate as Hurricane Milton neared. Cars clogged highways and gas stations ran empty. Biden postponed a trip abroad to oversee the government’s response. He urged people in the storm’s path to “evacuate now, now, now.” Milton regained its Category 5 strength, with sustained winds of 160 m.p.h. The storm, the strongest in the Gulf of Mexico in almost two decades, is expected to make landfall late today or early tomorrow. Storm surge is among the deadliest aspects of a strong hurricane as it approaches land. See a map of storm surge risk across Florida. Some parts of Florida are still littered with debris from Helene, including flattened trees, mangled appliances and waterlogged furniture. Officials are working to clear it before Milton arrives. A clip of a TV meteorologist went viral after he choked up on air while discussing Hurricane Milton. “I apologize,” he said. “This is just horrific.” Middle East Israeli military vehicles near the border with Lebanon. Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times Israel sent more troops into southern Lebanon, a sign that it could be intensifying its ground invasion. Hezbollah escalated its attacks into northern Israel, firing approximately 180 projectiles. One home was hit, officials said, but they reported no injuries. Israel struck a residential building in Damascus, Syria, and officials said the target was a Hezbollah official who smuggled weapons. Palestinian officials said that 12 people were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes that hit a family home and tents housing displaced people in central Gaza. “Bibi, you’ve got no strategy”: Biden excoriated Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s conduct in the war, according to the new Woodward book. Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, has revived the use of suicide bombings, a practice the group had largely discontinued, The Wall Street Journal reports. More International News Kenyan police officers in Port-au-Prince. Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times Kenyan police officers are trying to take control of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince from gangs. It’s going slowly. Brazil lifted its ban on the social network X, formerly Twitter, after Elon Musk complied with an order to take down certain accounts. A modern office building in Reykjavik, Iceland, is best known as the home of a penis museum. It is also an offshore haven for some of the world’s worst perpetrators of online crime. Harrods, a London luxury department store, is dealing with a major sexual abuse scandal. So far, that hasn’t stopped shoppers. Other Big Stories The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists, including two from Google’s main A.I. lab, for their work with proteins. During arguments, most Supreme Court justices seemed sympathetic to keeping regulations on kits to build untraceable guns, known as ghost guns. More than a dozen states sued TikTok, accusing it of creating an intentionally addictive app that harms children and teenagers. A class-action lawsuit accuses New York City schools of causing chronic absences by failing to provide special education to students with disabilities. Almost half of students with disabilities were chronically absent last year. About 3 percent of U.S. high school students identify as transgender, a C.D.C. survey found. Opinions “I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head”: 65 health care workers from the U.S. shared what they witnessed while working in Gaza. Those who want a free Palestinian state should hope for decisive Israeli victories over Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, Bret Stephens writes. The special counsel Jack Smith wants to try Trump as soon as possible. In doing so, Smith looks as if he’s trying to help the Democrats, Jack Goldsmith writes. Here’s a column by Thomas Edsall on Trump merchandise. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS A cave inside Ruth Glacier. Jason Gulley Into the ice: Scientists searched Alaska for the deepest gorge in North America. Gen Z: A new generation is embracing wine — both the drink and the aesthetics. Corner Office: How Walmart’s chief people officer manages America’s largest work force. A Morning listen: “This life is all a letting go.” On the Modern Love podcast, Andrew Garfield talks about love and loss. Ask Well: Is it better to eat before a workout or after? Debate: Was J. Robert Oppenheimer a true Communist? An old argument is flaring again. Lives Lived: Luis Tiant was one of baseball’s memorable showmen, throwing 187 complete games and 49 shutouts. But his career separated him from his family and from his homeland, Cuba. He died at 83. SPORTS Utah’s first official N.H.L. goal. Sportsnet N.H.L.: The league’s newest franchise, the Utah Hockey Club, won its inaugural game of the regular season. Fans were thrilled. Momentous: The St. Louis Blues defeated the Seattle Kraken in the season opener. The Kraken’s regular season debut was history-making: Jessica Campbell became the league’s first female full-time coach. M.L.B.: The Dodgers and Phillies, who entered baseball’s postseason as the National League’s two best teams, are both on the brink of elimination after losses to the Padres and the Mets. N.F.L.: The Jets fired their coach, Robert Saleh, just five games into the season. The franchise looks in disarray. W.N.B.A.: The Lynx advanced to the finals after an 88-77 win over the Sun in Game 5 of their semifinal series. Next up: the Liberty. ARTS AND IDEAS A placenta graft helped restore Marcella Townsend’s face after a propane explosion. Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times Most placentas are disposed of after a baby is born. But hospitals may be throwing away a medical miracle: Researchers say placenta tissue, which is rich in stem cells and collagen, can heal burns and wounds. Placenta grafts encourage rapid skin and tissue regrowth, without the risk of being rejected by the recipient’s immune system. Read more about this emerging field. More on culture Qantas, the Australian airline, apologized after one of its flights showed an R-rated film with nudity on every screen, with no way for passengers to turn it off. A Dutch museum displayed two empty beer cans that were actually hand-painted works of art. They looked so real that a mechanic threw them away. The pussy-bow blouse has become a wardrobe essential for women in American politics, CNN reports. Limited Too is coming back. The brand will offer adult clothing for women who want to relive their preteen days in the ’90s, The Cut reports. Nutter Butter, the cookie sandwich brand, is releasing promotional videos that are going viral on social media. See them. What is the sound of a teardrop? You can hear it at MoMA. On late night, Seth Meyers joked about Woodward’s reporting on Trump calls to Putin: “That’s how you know they’re tight. Adult men never call each other.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Linda Xiao for The New York Times Take comfort with quick and crispy vegetable-filled pancakes. Explore how exercise can help your gut. Get ahead on holiday gifts. (Yes, already.) Browse the best Prime Day deals under $50. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was wheezing. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 10, 2024 Author Members Posted October 10, 2024 October 10, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleagues tell you the latest about Hurricane Milton. We’re also covering the 2024 election, Hezbollah and the Harlem Renaissance. —David Leonhardt The tattered roof of Tropicana Field. Ryan Bass/X A deadly night By Patricia Mazzei and Yan Zhuang We have reporters in Florida, at the center of the storm. Hurricane Milton is tearing across Florida. It has flooded the state from coast to coast and knocked out power for more than three million homes and businesses. It spewed tornadoes that killed people far from the storm’s eye, destroyed homes and shredded the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium. See a map of the storm’s path. Last night, Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Sarasota, halfway down Florida’s Gulf Coast. It has spent the night slicing across the state, weakening but remaining a hurricane. It is expected to exit into the Atlantic soon. The full extent of the damage will become clear as the sun rises. Forecasters warned that storm surge could reach up to 13 feet, bringing a wave to the coast near Tampa Bay. Most of Florida is under a state of emergency. Several counties suspended emergency services because the conditions were too dangerous. Today, we will explain how this storm became so bad and give you the latest news as the country wakes up to Milton’s damage. A hurricane and tornadoes? Milton was deadly even before it made landfall. Tornadoes spun out of its edges. At least 116 tornado warnings were issued across the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis said. Tornadoes killed people in Fort Pierce, on the east coast. Search and rescue efforts are underway there now. So how did that happen? Tornadoes are usually associated with America’s flat plains. Thunderstorms can cause tornadoes, as they do in the South and Midwest. But often, the outer edges of hurricanes contain strong thunderstorms, too. Tornadoes that accompany hurricanes are usually weak and short-lived. Those accompanying Milton were more intense — “a little out of the ordinary,” said a storm expert. “It’s quite a day.” He said it was a probably a sign of more to come. Two in two weeks In Orlando. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times Florida has been hit by two deadly hurricanes in two weeks. The number of storms in the region varies from year to year. But experts say that storms are turning into hurricanes more frequently because climate change is heating the oceans. Record hot water temperatures fueled Milton, which escalated from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in a day. Tropical storms are much more likely to turn into strong hurricanes during marine heat waves, experts say. Those are now more frequent. Experts predict that this hurricane season will continue to be busy, a forecast which made one meteorologist in Florida emotional on air. His comments went viral. “This is just horrific,” he said, adding: “The seas are just so incredibly, incredibly hot.” More on Milton Milton is still whipping Florida with winds of 85 m.p.h. Read the latest. Some counties on the west coast have started recovery efforts, clearing debris even before dawn. Florida officials told more than seven million people to evacuate, The A.P. reports. That’s around a third of the state. See photos and video of their preparations. Still, some people chose to stay. “We’ve been through a lot of these,” one resident told CNN. “I just feel safer here than elsewhere.” Conspiracy theories and misinformation about the storm are spreading. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on social media that “they” control the weather, without indicating who “they” might be. President Biden called the misinformation dangerous. More on the preparations Tampa General Hospital built a temporary wall. Some hospitals have evacuated patients, and others have canceled surgeries. Zookeepers in Tampa stayed to protect the animals. Some North Carolina families sought refuge in Florida after Hurricane Helene ripped through their towns. Now they’re in the midst of another storm. THE LATEST NEWS The Democratic Campaign Kamala Harris descends from Air Force Two. Erin Schaff/The New York Times Kamala Harris and Democrats have raised more than $1 billion since she entered the race. That’s more than Trump has raised all year. The makers of the game Cards Against Humanity are trying to help Democrats in swing states by offering $100 to former nonvoters who agree to mock Trump publicly and make a voting plan. Harris has a standard interview strategy, The Times’s Michael Bender explains: answering the question she wants, not the one that was asked. The Republican Campaign Trump recently suggested that migrants bring “bad genes” into the country. “A murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes,” he said. “And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.” In a phone call with supporters, Trump repeatedly referred to Maine’s governor as a man. (She is Janet Mills.) In emails, the Trump campaign has promoted dozens of contests to win signed merchandise or trips to meet Trump. Most seem to have no winners. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s support for Trump has put the so-called medical freedom movement, which opposes vaccine mandates and embraces alternative medicine, closer to real power in Washington. More on Politics In a debate for an Arizona Senate seat, Ruben Gallego, the Democrat, and Kari Lake, the Republican, sparred over immigration and abortion. Jon Tester, a vulnerable Senate Democrat, trails his Republican challenger in Montana. Democratic Senate candidates in Florida and Texas are also behind, the latest New York Times/Siena College pollsfind. If Tester loses, Democrats are very likely to lose control of the Senate, Nate Cohn explains. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has opened another corruption investigation into City Hall. Middle East The site of an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon. Bilal Kashmar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Hezbollah militants fought ground battles with Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. The conflict there has displaced nearly a million people, according to the U.N. The Lebanese government said most of the country’s shelters were full. Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu spoke over the phone about Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran. The call came as the U.S. and Israel have their worst relationship in years. The rivalry between Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, has complicated Israel’s response to an Iranian missile attack, The Washington Post reports. More International News Progressives in the European Parliament sang an antifascist song at Hungary’s prime minister, who was visiting to deliver a speech. Nima Rinji Sherpa, 18, became the youngest person to climb the 14 highest mountains. Other Big Stories Rafael Nadal in 2022. Pete Kiehart for The New York Times Rafael Nadal, the 22-time Grand Slam champion, is retiring from tennissoon. See his emotional goodbye video. The Supreme Court is considering the case of Richard Glossip, a death row inmate in Oklahoma. He was convicted of arranging to have his boss killed on the testimony of the killer, who appears to have lied on the witness stand. New York will close a tent shelter that houses thousands of migrants on Randall’s Island, a sign that the city’s migrant crisis is easing. An explosion of particles from a solar storm is expected to reach Earth today. It could produce Northern Lights in much of the U.S. and may disrupt power grids. Opinions K-12 students may never recover academically from Covid lockdowns. Both presidential candidates should address the crisis, Jessica Grose writes. Washington is spending billions to upgrade America’s nuclear weapons. It will take us back to the insanity of the 20th century’s arms race, W.J. Henniganwrites. Don’t pack the Supreme Court. Introduce term limits to deal with the randomness of open seats, David French argues. Here are columns by Charles Blow on Harris’s worrisome similarity to Mitt Romney and Zeynep Tufekci on Elon Musk’s political influence. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS A six-layer cake, inspired by suffragists. Esther Choi Protest pastries: Younger bakers are reviving a political tradition. Social Qs: “My grandmother paid for my sister’s I.V.F. I feel ripped off.” Coolest job: Antarctica has a new postmaster, The Guardian reports. Manicure: Rainbow gel nails with a chrome design cost $255. Here’s why. Lives Lived: Ratan Tata stayed out of the limelight. But he transformed his family’s Indian business conglomerate, the Tata Group, into a multinational corporation. He died at 86. SPORTS M.L.B.: The New York Mets are heading to the championship series after Francisco Lindor’s swing of a lifetime gave them a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2. W.N.B.A.: The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx meet tonight in Game 1 of the finals. ARTS AND IDEAS “Looking for Langston,” the 1989 film and art installation by Isaac Julien. Isaac Julien The Harlem Renaissance was an explosion of Black art, music, writing and political thought. It was also a formative period for L.G.B.T. figures, who lived, performed and partied across Harlem. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. has written, Renaissance-era Harlem was “surely as gay as it was Black.” A new Times article explores aspects of this history, including Ma Rainey, who sang about her attraction to women, and the Savoy Ballroom, which hosted drag balls. More on culture Jenna Fischer, who played Pam in “The Office,” revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and successfully had it treated. She urged women to get screened. The Met announced its next blockbuster fashion exhibition: “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” on the history of the Black dandy. Jordan Klepper of “The Daily Show” joked about where Harris was showing up in her media blitz: “News shows, daytime talk shows, satellite radio, podcasts, your kid’s piano recital.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Turn cold-weather pasta into something luxurious with garam masala. Stop cutting a hole in the top of your jack-o’-lantern. Improve your sewing with this tiny $3 gadget. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were ethanol and nonlethal. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 11, 2024 Author Members Posted October 11, 2024 October 11, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Lisa Friedman writes about each presidential candidate’s climate policies. We’re also covering Hurricane Milton’s aftermath, Barack Obama and the Nobel Prizes. —David Leonhardt In Michigan. Todd Heisler/The New York Times THE STAKES The contest By Lisa Friedman I’ve covered climate policy for 16 years. Will governments slash greenhouse gases enough to prevent the most dangerous impacts of global warming? Scientists say the next few years will provide the answer. The United States has pumped the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere of any country since the Industrial Revolution, and that makes the next president’s energy choices enormously consequential. Vice President Kamala Harris calls climate change an “existential threat” that the United States must combat. She’s pledged to build on the billions of dollars the Biden administration invested in clean energy (such as solar, wind and other renewables). Although congressional Republicans may block new laws, she is likely to use regulatory power to reduce emissions. Former President Donald Trump dismisses climate change as a “hoax.” As Hurricane Helene ripped through the Southeast, he called global warming “one of the great scams.” He wants to extract more fossil fuels — the burning of which drives climate change — and end renewable energy subsidies. The Morning is running a series explaining the policy stakes of the election. In this installment, I’ll focus on climate change, which I’ve covered for 16 years. Trump’s ‘liquid gold’ agenda A pump jack extracts oil in Signal Hill, Calif. Jae C. Hong/Associated Press Trump does not consider climate change a problem that requires a solution. Curtailing fossil fuels, he argues, hurts the economy and drives up energy prices. During his first term, Trump appointed people who deny climate science to key positions. He withdrew the United States from the Paris agreement on climate change, a 2015 accord in which nearly all nations pledged to limit warming. He rolled back more than 100 environmental regulations, including limits to emissions from power plants and automobiles. There are three ways analysts believe he could go further if he wins: by weakening government agencies; expanding fossil fuel production; and impeding clean energy. Trump’s allies have pledged not just to reverse the climate regulations that President Biden restored, but also to dismantle parts of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy by shuttering offices, relocating staff members and embedding loyalists in key positions. He has promised to grant virtually all permits to drill oil — which he calls “liquid gold under our feet” — on public lands and waters, keep coal plants burning and make it easier to build gas pipelines. Those policies could create new jobs, but they would emit greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to another billion cars on the road, according to a study by Carbon Brief, a climate analysis site. The final area is clawing back clean-energy subsidies that the Biden administration is doling out under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Yet while Trump rails against electric vehicles as “green scams” and claims windmills cause cancer (they don’t), he might find resistance to slashing those programs in Republican congressional districts that are receiving money. This summer, 18 House Republicans wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson asking him not to eliminate clean-energy tax credits next year. Harris’s plan Harris wants to boost clean energy, but she doesn’t have a ton of options. She has two main ideas: She’d continue Biden’s subsidies and improve electrical transmission from remote wind and solar power generators to population centers that can consume it. Fixing the nation’s electricity grid might seem like a wonky presidential platform, but it could determine whether the United States meets its climate targets. The Biden administration has pledged to cut emissions roughly in half by the end of this decade, which would mean massive deployment of clean energy. But the nation’s fractured transmission system can’t handle that growth right now. It will be up to Congress to fix that problem. But Republicans insist that any bipartisan deal also fast-track pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. That’s a poison pill for many environmental groups. The Harris campaign hasn’t weighed in on such a compromise. Without legislation, a Harris administration would have limited tools. The E.P.A. could set new controls on big industrial polluters — steel and cement plants, factories, oil refineries and others. She could also lobby Congress for a “carbon tariff” against China and other global competitors — a fee added to imported goods like steel and cement based on their carbon emissions. She also might use executive authority to limit new gas exports or drilling on federal lands. All of those possibilities come with challenges, either from the courts or political opponents. The Stakes A Morning newsletter series on how Harris and Trump view some of the biggest issues facing the country. Presidential power Taxes Immigration Abortion Hurricane Milton’s aftermath Floodwaters in a mobile home park in Lakeland, Florida. Nicole Craine for The New York Times Hurricane Milton did not cause the disastrous storm surge in the Tampa Bay region that many had feared. But there was severe flooding along Florida’s west coast, where some areas got as much as 18 inches of rain. More than 100 homes were destroyed, and rescuers pulled people from submerged vehicles and buildings throughout yesterday. See photos of the storm’s aftermath. Officials said at least 12 people had died in the storm. Six were killed by a tornado in eastern Florida, and several were killed by falling trees. More than three million homes and businesses in Florida were without power for much of the day yesterday. That number is now more than 2.5 million. Read the latest. A fishing boat captain survived for hours in the Gulf of Mexico, clinging to a cooler and a life jacket. Dangerous conspiracy theories about Hurricanes Helene and Milton have spread on social media, including that the storms were engineered by Democrats. (Jimmy Kimmel debunked that conspiracy theory on late night.) Biden urged Congress to pass more funding for the Small Business Administration, which issues loans for storm-affected homeowners and businesses, and criticized Trump for spreading falsehoods about the government’s response, telling him, “Get a life, man.” Some who stayed behind posted videos of their experiences to TikTok, giving viewers a window into the hurricane’s effects. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election In Pittsburgh. Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times Barack Obama urged Black men, who polls suggest have become more open to Trump, to drop their “excuses” and vote for Harris. Harris, at a town hall event with Univision, walked a fine line on immigration: She endorsed a pathway to citizenship, but she also promoted tougher border security. Trump declined an offer to debate Harris on CNN. Harris, who had accepted, will instead hold a town hall event with the network in Pennsylvania. Trump pledged to make car loan interest fully tax deductible. He also said he would keep Chinese cars off U.S. roads, accusing international companies of having “raped our country.” Elon Musk is all in on Trump: The two talk regularly, and Musk may even canvass for Trump in Pennsylvania. “The Apprentice,” a movie about Trump’s relationship with the lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn, is in theaters today. Read The Times’s review. Economy and Business Consumer prices rose 2.4 percent in the year through September, another month of milder inflation. TD Bank agreed to pay about $3 billion in fines on charges of ignoring flagrant activity by criminals who used the bank to transfer funds. Tesla introduced new self-driving taxis. Experts think they probably won’t be on the road soon. War in Ukraine Ukrainian servicemen in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Nicole Tung for The New York Times September was the bloodiest month of the war for Russian forces in Ukraine, according to U.S. officials. Ukraine’s Parliament voted to increase taxes on personal income and bank profits to raise money for the war. More International News A U.N. panel said Israeli attacks on medical workers and hospitals in Gaza were war crimes. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, has been offering aid to his country’s neighbors as he tries to counter China’s influence. A shipping lane between Taiwan and mainland China handles more than a fifth of the world’s seaborne trade, new research shows — a sign of global consequences violence could have. Other Big Stories Ethel Kennedy campaigning with her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968. George Tames/The New York Times Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, died at 96. She devoted her life to the causes he had championed while leading her family’s political dynasty. A Japanese atomic bomb survivors group, Nihon Hidankyo, won the Nobel Peace Prize for its work campaigning against nuclear weapons. An equipment failure in a Colorado mine killed one person and stranded 12 tourists underground. They were rescued. Opinions The Supreme Court should assume all laws passed by Congress are constitutional, Nikolas Bowie and Daphna Renan argue. Tony Schwartz ghostwrote Trump’s “The Art of the Deal.” Working on the book taught him how the former president became a man desperate for approval, Schwartz writes. Here’s a column by David Brooks on how Harris can finish strong. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS In Queens. Daniel P. Derella/Associated Press Northern lights: People saw the northern lights at a much lower latitude than normal. See the photos. Bella Freud: The designer, a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, plays therapist to celebrities. Travel: Toronto’s hidden ravines offer urban explorers an oasis of birdsong and burbling creeks. Lives Lived: Thomas Rockwell, depicted as a child in his father Norman Rockwell’s art, grew up to became a successful author of children’s books, most notably “How to Eat Fried Worms,” a gross-out tale that millions of grade-school students have devoured. He died at 91. SPORTS Blocked. NBA TV N.B.A. Giannis Antetokounmpo swatted LeBron James in the Lakers’ win against the Bucks. The moment went viral, Sports Illustrated reports. W.N.B.A. The Minnesota Lynx outlasted the favored New York Liberty in Game 1 of the finals after overcoming an 18-point deficit to force overtime. Read a recap. M.L.B. The New York Yankees are heading back to the A.L.C.S. after a 3-1 win in Kansas City. ARTS AND IDEAS Han Kang Yonhap/Yonhap News Agency via Reuters Han Kang, the South Korean author best known for “The Vegetarian,” won the Nobel Prize in Literature. That novel, which was published in South Korea in 2007, tells the story of a depressed housewife who shocks her family when she stops eating meat, and later yearns to turn into a tree. A Nobel official praised Han’s “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” Related: While Han Kang’s victory was celebrated as a crowning cultural achievement for her country, her work also represents a form of rebellion against its culture. More on culture Barbara Lynch, the celebrated chef who helped kick-start Boston’s modern fine-dining scene, will close all her restaurants. She’s facing accusations of toxic working conditions. The Met’s next fashion blockbuster takes on the politics of race, Vanessa Friedman writes. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Paprika Chicken and Potatoes David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Roast paprika chicken and potatoes. Protect your iPhone with a good case. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were arguably and burglary. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 13, 2024 Author Members Posted October 13, 2024 October 12, 2024 Good morning. Today, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Modern Love, I’ve invited my colleague Dan Jones to write about what he’s learned from years of sharing people’s personal stories. —Melissa Kirsch Brian Rea Love lessons By Daniel Jones I have been editing Modern Love for two decades. The Modern Love column debuted 20 years ago this month — on Halloween, scarily enough — with a story by a lifelong bachelor, Steve Friedman, who was trying to feel OK about being dumped. He wrote: “She dumped me. What’s important are not the details but the pronoun placement, ‘she’ preceding ‘me.’ But there is no villain here. My therapist suggests I repeat this mantra to myself. So I do. There is no villain here.” So began my editorship of this intimate, emotional space, where every week I talk to strangers about some of the most perplexing and devastating experiences in their lives and then publish their stories for the world to read. It is an odd mix of the oh-so-private and the couldn’t-be-more-public. The effect can be validating, squirm-inducing, instructive, revelatory. All Modern Love essays fall into one (or more) of three categories: finding love, losing love, and trying to keep love alive. Conveniently, our three most popular columns perfectly represent each of those. Even if you’re not familiar with Modern Love, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about one of them. In the first, published way back in 2006, Amy Sutherland explored using exotic animal training techniques on her husband to try to keep their love alive in “What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage.” She overpraised her husband like a sea lion in training for putting his dirty clothes in the hamper and changed his feeding patterns in the kitchen by moving the salsa from the counter to the table, among other techniques. And it worked. Their marriage improved. In 2015, Mandy Len Catron and an acquaintance asked each other 36 intimate questions to try to expedite the process of falling in love in “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This.” The questions — which you can read here — start easy: “Would you like to be famous?” But they quickly go deep: “What is your most terrible memory?” “How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?” Then you’re supposed to stare into each other’s eyes for four minutes, which Mandy and her friend did. And they fell in love! After the essay was published, so did a lot of other people. We were flooded with messages from readers crediting those questions for their new relationships, marriages or deepened friendships. A few years after that, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who had terminal cancer and was near death, wrote “You May Want to Marry My Husband” — an essay that served as a kind of dating profile for her husband in the hope that he would find love after she was gone. “He is a sharp dresser,” she writes, with “a flair for fabulous socks. He is fit and enjoys keeping in shape.” Amy and I edited her essay while she was in hospice, and she died 10 days after it was published. For Modern Love’s 20th anniversary, we wanted to celebrate what has made this work so meaningful to so many. From readers, we wanted to hear whether certain stories had especially affected them. From writers, we wanted to know what had changed in their lives and how they looked back on their stories. From our longtime illustrator, Brian Rea, we wanted to know how he turns these essays into art. People always ask what I have learned from reading some 200,000 love stories and publishing more than 1,000 of them. After all, when I started doing this work, I was a 41-year-old married father of two young children. Now, I am 61, separated for three years, and my children are long out of the house. I have lost love, found love and tried to keep love alive. And I have distilled all that reading and editing and living into seven lessons about how to love better. I offer them to you. More on Modern Love’s 20th Anniversary How did Modern Love begin? And what did David Bowie have to do with it? The column’s founders talk about it. The lives of many readers have been deeply affected by these stories. Here are some of the most moving examples. Are you curious how some writers’ lives have changed in the years since publishing their essays? We asked 12 of them to write about it. Modern Love has been illustrated by Brian Rea for the last 14 years. In video and words, he describes his artistic process and how doing this work has changed him. We collected 20 “Words of Wisdom” — aphorisms about relationships pulled from Modern Love essays and Tiny Love Stories. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Jeremy Strong, left, and Sebastian Stan. Geordie Wood for The New York Times Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, the stars of the Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice,” see their movie as a tragedy, not a mockery. (Read our review.) “We Live in Time,” a drama starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, is one of six movies our critics are talking about this week. Ali Wong’s latest standup special, “Single Lady,” is a gossipy portrait of divorce and singlehood as a celebrity, Jason Zinoman writes. Recent revelations about contestants on “The Bachelor” have shattered the franchise’s fantasy that reality TV is a secure place to look for love. Ahead of Halloween, read a roundup of horror movies based on true stories. Theater Mathieu Kassovitz’s musical adaptation of his 1995 cult movie, “La Haine,” opened in Paris. It will soon tour France. Jonathan Groff, who won his first Tony this summer, will return to Broadway next spring to play Bobby Darin in a biomusical. Art “Cadence,” an installation by the Nigerian artist Otobong Nkanga, opened at the Museum of Modern Art. Its centerpiece is a luxuriously woven tapestry that stretches more than 60 feet. Monet and his fellow impressionists spurred a revolution 150 years ago. They are not just the world’s favorite painters, but also the most misunderstood, Jason Farago writes. More Culture Lawyers for Sean Combs accused the government of leaking surveillance footage of the hip-hop mogul beating his former girlfriend and asked for the video to be banned from his trial. In the memoir “From Here to the Great Unknown,” Elvis Presley’s daughter and granddaughter take turns exploring their family’s messy legacy. Read our review. A sophomore on Boise State’s beach volleyball team went viral for her goth-inspired makeup. George Washington, comedy icon? On “Saturday Night Live,” the founding father knows how to crack a joke. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election Donald Trump at a rally on Friday. Doug Mills/The New York Times Donald Trump campaigned in Aurora, Colo., which he has falsely described as “occupied” by armed Venezuelans. He vowed to use a 1798 law to deport suspected gang members without due process. Kamala Harris, speaking to Republican supporters in Arizona, pledged to create a bipartisan council of advisers if elected. “We have to have a healthy two-party system,” she said. In an interview with The Times, JD Vance repeatedly refused to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and said he would not have certified the results. Trump’s campaign has asked for more security, including classified military assets and flight restrictions. The campaign said it has had to move, reschedule or cancel events because of the Secret Service’s limited resources. A parade of world leaders has met with Trump in Florida and New York, treating him as a shadow president even as President Biden occupies the White House. Other Big Stories The death toll from Hurricane Milton rose to 14 people, most of them in eastern Florida. About 1,600 people were rescued from flooded homes and vehicles. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, asked the U.N. to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Boeing plans to cut 17,000 jobs, 10 percent of its work force, in an effort to reduce costs and improve plane production. “No one is on our side”: Indian lawmakers who could protect sugar laborers from abuse often own the mills they work in, and profit from exploiting the workers. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. CULTURE CALENDAR By Alexis Soloski 🎤 “Death, Let Me Do My Show” (Tuesday): Most comedians fear the hook. Rachel Bloom worries about the scythe. A comedy about existential dread with occasional songs, Bloom’s solo-ish special arrives on Netflix after a multicity theatrical run. Inspired by the birth of her daughter and the death of her longtime collaborator Adam Schlesinger, this show finds Bloom, who created “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” attempting raunchy, absurdist bits, only to find herself increasingly distracted by thoughts of mortality. It’s a side-splitter for anyone who has tried to fake fine while staring straight into the abyss. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Linda Xiao for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Quick Chicken and Dumplings Do you feel a slight chill in the evening air? Alexa Weibel’s quick chicken and dumplings recipe is a fast way to satisfy all your bubbling desires when the weather turns nippy. Inspired by the Southern classic, this streamlined recipe calls for store-bought rotisserie chicken and a package of gnocchi to be simmered in chicken broth and an herby cream. Adding an array of vegetables makes this even more complex; carrots and celery are standard, but cubed winter squash, parsnips, mushrooms and fennel are also excellent. It takes only 20 minutes from start to finish and is just the thing to warm your bones. REAL ESTATE Stephen Downard in London. Sam Bush for The New York Times The Hunt: A longtime renter, unable to afford his own apartment in London, decided to buy a two-bedroom flat with a friend for under £1 million. Which did they choose? Play our game. What you get for $900,000: A Colonial Revival-inspired stone house in Bala Cynwyd, Pa.; an 1894 farmhouse in Germantown, N.Y.; or a wood-frame 1767 Colonial house in Essex, Conn. Piano man: Billy Joel grew up gawking at the mansions on Long Island Sound. Now, he’s selling one for nearly $50 million. LIVING Photo Illustration by The New York Times; Photographs by Alaïa, iStock/Getty Images The Dachshund bag: Some brands are embracing a new handbag shape that evokes the elongated bodies of wiener dogs. On the trail: She didn’t see other Black hikers, so she founded a group to make Britain’s countryside more inclusive. The grind: Some of America’s most lauded chefs don’t want restaurants anymore. Protein and purists: Opinions abound on how to customize a Diet Coke. (Dua Lipa mixes hers with pickle juice and jalapeño sauce.) ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Make your jack-o’-lantern last longer A typical jack-o’-lantern has about a three-day life expectancy. But there are a few tricks you can use to extend that. First, make sure you’re picking a pumpkin in peak shape: the greener the stem, the better. If you’re storing it before you carve, do so either outdoors or in the fridge — pumpkins like cool temperatures. And, lastly, when it comes to carving: Stop cutting a hole in the top! The stem is crucial to preserving a pumpkin’s structural integrity, so cut a hole in the bottom or back side instead. — Rose Maura Lorre GAME OF THE WEEK Courtney Williams shooting the ball in Game 1 on Thursday. Wendell Cruz/USA TODAY Sports, via Reuters Minnesota Lynx vs. New York Liberty, W.N.B.A. finals: In Game 1, the Lynx pulled off one of the most remarkable comebacks in league history. Down by 15 with a little over five minutes to play, they stormed back and eventually beat the Liberty in overtime, thanks to ferocious defense by the team’s star forward, Napheesa Collier, and a wild 4-point play by the guard Courtney Williams (see the highlight here). If the Liberty hope to win their first-ever title, they’ll need more from Breanna Stewart, who shot 6-of-21 and missed a layup at the buzzer. Game 2 is Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern on ABC NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were dormant and mordant. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 14, 2024 Author Members Posted October 14, 2024 October 13, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleagues Alan Burdick and Katrina Miller explain a recent shift in the world of science. We’re also covering 2024 election polling, the West Bank and “Pod Save America.” —David Leonhardt Google’s DeepMind office in London. Alastair Grant/Associated Press Computed science By Alan Burdick and Katrina Miller We are journalists on The Times’s Science desk. Technology observers have grown increasingly vocal in recent years about the threat that artificial intelligence poses to the human variety. A.I. models can write and talk like us, draw and paint like us, crush us at chess and Go. They express an unnerving simulacrum of creativity, not least where the truth is concerned. A.I. is coming for science, too, as this week’s Nobel Prizes seemed keen to demonstrate. On Tuesday, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to two scientists who helped computers “learn” closer to the way the human brain does. A day later, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to three researchers for using A.I. to invent new proteins and reveal the structure of existing ones — a problem that stumped biologists for decades, yet could be solved by A.I. in minutes. The Nobel Committee for Chemistry announced the winners last week. Jonathan Nackstrand/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Cue the grousing: This was computer science, not physics or chemistry! Indeed, of the five laureates on Tuesday and Wednesday, arguably only one, the University of Washington biochemist David Baker, works in the field he was awarded in. The scientific Nobels tend to award concrete results over theories, empirical discovery over pure idea. But that schema didn’t quite hold this year, either. One prize went to scientists who leaned into physics as a foundation on which to build computer models used for no groundbreaking result in particular. The laureates on Wednesday, on the other hand, had created computer models that made big advancements in biochemistry. These were outstanding and fundamentally human accomplishments, to be sure. But the Nobel recognition underscored a chilling prospect: Henceforth, perhaps scientists will merely craft the tools that make the breakthroughs, rather than do the revolutionary work themselves or even understand how it came about. Artificial intelligence designs and builds hundreds of molecular Notre Dames and Hagia Sophias, and a researcher gets a pat for inventing the shovel. An old prize in a new world But grant humans their due. Science has always involved tools and instruments, and our relationship to them has grown more complex with their sophistication. Few astronomers look at the sky anymore, or even put an eye to a telescope. Sensors on Earth and in space “observe,” gathering mind-boggling reams of data; computer programs parse and analyze it for patterns familiar and strange; and a team of researchers scrutinizes it, sometimes from halfway across the world. The heavens are pixels on a monitor. Who owns the discovery? Where does the machinery end and the human begin? If anything, by highlighting the role of A.I. in science, the Nobel Committee underscored what an anachronism its recognition has become. The prizes conceived by Alfred Nobel in 1895 rewarded a certain romantic view of science: the lone genius (typically male) planting flags on the continents of Physics, Chemistry and Medicine. But the world’s current problems, from climate change and food insecurity to cancer and extinction, don’t respect those boundaries. Rare is the pure biologist or chemist; increasingly common is the geochemist, the paleogenomicist, the computational evolutionary theorist, the astrobiologist. A.I. is blurring these divisions only further. Richard Socher, the chief executive of You.com and another godfather of A.I., has argued that the technology’s greatest contribution will come as it links and mines the databases of heretofore disparate disciplines, from crystallography to neuroscience, to forge new and unexpected collaborations among scientists. “Among” is the key word. Science is ever more of a team effort, a beautiful, essential reality that the Nobels, with their strict rules and categories, are unable to properly celebrate. “It is unfortunate that, due to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, the prize has to go to no more than three people, when our marvelous discovery is the work of more than a thousand,” Kip Thorne, a physicist at Caltech, said after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017. And if the Nobel Committee is now rewarding the contributions of A.I., should it not also recognize the researchers whose results it learned from? To crack the protein structure problem, AlphaFold, the A.I. that led to this year’s Chemistry prize, was trained on a databank encapsulating the work of more than 30,000 biologists. No human can exist alone — and our machines definitely can’t, at least not yet. What they do with their time reflects the choices made by us. What they discover with it is a distillation of what we ourselves have learned, or hope to. A.I. is us: a grand sampling of humanity, a better sum of parts than so far we’ve managed to assemble each on our own. That’s worth a prize or two. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election Kamala Harris is struggling to win over Latino voters, while Donald Trump has maintained his strength with the group, according to a Times/Siena College poll. Dissatisfaction with the economy and Trump’s populist conservative message are possible explanations for his gains among Black and Hispanic voters, Nate Cohn writes. Harris released her medical information and said that Trump, in refusing to release his own, did not want the American people to see “if he is fit to be the president.” Trump is in a cantankerous mood in the final stretch of the campaign. One reason: He is trailing Harris in the race for cash. Officials in California are working on a plan to insulate the state’s environmental regulations in the event of a second Trump administration. Middle East In Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in Israel. Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times Hamas tried to persuade Iran to join the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to minutes of planning meetings obtained by The Times. The Israeli military struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and its soldiers clashed with militants in the southern part of the country. At least a dozen people have been killed over the past day, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Traveling around the occupied West Bank is harder with a Palestinian license plate. The Times took two bus trips that tell a story of separate and unequal roadways. More International News In Seoul. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Dogs are a salve for loneliness in South Korea, where many people are choosing to remain single or childless. Russia has intensified its attacks on Black Sea port infrastructure and civilian shipping in Odesa, Ukraine. Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who campaigned for the country to leave the United Kingdom, died at 69. The Nairobi National Museum in Kenya is home to thousands of prehistoric treasures dating back millions of years. It lacks the money to keep them safe, The Wall Street Journal reports. Other Big Stories Governments across Europe, East Asia and North America are trying to raise their fertility rates. Japan has been trying for 30 years. President Biden declared a major disaster in Florida for communities affected by Hurricane Milton, freeing federal funding for the state’s recovery. A senior adviser to Mayor Eric Adams of New York had ties with groups connected with the Chinese government. He still kept her close. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Will Harris’s appearance on the popular podcast “Call Her Daddy” help her electorally? Yes. The “Call Her Daddy” appearance excited Harris’s base of young, liberal women, and it accomplished its mission: to “reintroduce Harris to a friendly audience and stress the importance of this election,” USA Today’s Sara Pequeño writes. No. While Harris talks to young women, Trump is appearing on podcasts that appeal to a voter base she needs: young men. “There are enough women to have her get to the majority, but that may be a case of winning the battle and losing the war,” Daniel Pfeiffer says for Times Opinion. FROM OPINION The election workers who stand up to conspiracy theories, at a great cost to their own safety, deserve our praise and gratitude, the editorial board writes. Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on the missing urgency to beat Trump and Ross Douthat on the presidential candidates on podcasts. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS In Phoenix. Cassidy Araiza for The New York Times “Pod Save America”: The hosts of the political podcast have outlasted the wave of anti-Trump #Resistance that made it popular. That’s where things get complicated. Dual citizens: Some U.S.-born children of Mexican immigrants are returning to the country that their parents once left. A secretive dynasty: Boar’s Head made its owners wealthy. They have remained silent as the company faces scandal. Vows: From wingman to main man. Lives Lived: David Garrard Lowe was a writer and architectural historian who helped stem the tide of urban renewal that was leveling large swaths of American cities in the decades after World War II. He died at 91. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “John Lewis: A Life,” by David Greenberg: To appreciate the scope of this 696-page biography of John Lewis, an Atlas of the civil rights movement who had Sisyphean tendencies, flip to the back of the book. There, you’ll find 131 pages of notes, indexes, acknowledgments, credits and bibliography — evidence of Greenberg’s comprehensive, collaborative approach, which included interviews with two former presidents and a gaggle of fellow historians. It’s easy to canonize Lewis; his quest for racial equality and human dignity extended to his dying days. But Greenberg resists the urge. Instead he examines Lewis’s evolution from shy farm boy to tireless Freedom Rider to frustrated activist to congressional stalwart through the lens of a single question: Why did he always turn back to hope? The answers are timely and timeless. Read our review of “John Lewis: A Life.” More on books Han Kang is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Best known for “The Vegetarian,” she is the first writer from South Korea to receive the award. In his latest presidential chronicle, Bob Woodward imposes an arc and a moral on the mess and sprawl of recent history. THE INTERVIEW JD Vance Philip Montgomery for The New York Times By Lulu Garcia-Navarro This week’s subject for The Interview is Senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate. We spoke about his changing views on Trump, his conversion to Catholicism and his rhetoric. You’ve talked about childless cat ladies. You’ve called childless people sociopathic, psychotic, deranged. And I know that you’ve said that those comments were sarcastic. But it’s hard to hear those words entirely as a joke. What do you actually think of childless women in society? Well, as I said when I made those comments — and look, they were dumb comments. I think most people probably have said something dumb, have said something that they wish they had put differently. You said it in several different venues. In a very, very short period of time. It was sort of a thing that I picked up on. I said it a couple of times in a couple of interviews, and look, I certainly wish that I had said it differently. What I was trying to get at is that — I’m not talking about people who it just didn’t work out for, for medical reasons, for social reasons, like set that to the side, we’re not talking about folks like that. What I was definitely trying to illustrate ultimately in a very inarticulate way is that I do think that our country has become almost pathologically anti-child. I put this in a couple of different ways, right? So, there’s one, it was actually when I was in law school — I was on a train between New York and New Haven, I think I was doing, like, law-firm interviews or something. And obviously I didn’t have kids then. And there’s this young girl who gets on the train. She’s probably 21 or 22. She’s a young Black female. I could tell by the way she was dressed, she didn’t have a whole lot of money; she had a couple of kids with her, and I remember just watching her and thinking, “This is a really unbelievably patient mother.” The reason I noticed her is because her kids, like a lot of kids that age, are complete disasters, especially on public transportation, they turn it up to 11. But she was being so patient. But then everybody around her was also noticing the kids being misbehaved, and they were so angry, and they were sighing and staring every time her 2-year-old made a noise. And that was a moment that stuck with me, and of course I’ve had similar experiences riding with my own kids on various modes of public transportation, and again it just sort of hit me like, OK, this is really, really bad. I do think that there’s this pathological frustration with children that just is a new thing in American society. I think it’s very dark. I think you see it sometimes in the political conversation, people saying, well, maybe we shouldn’t have kids because of climate change. You know, when I’ve used this word, sociopathic? Like, that, I think, is a very deranged idea: the idea that you shouldn’t have a family because of concerns over climate change. Doesn’t mean you can’t worry about climate change, but in the focus on childless cat ladies, we missed the substance of what I said. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photograph by Philip Montgomery for The New York Times Click the cover image above to read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Relieve stress with a 7-minute workout. Use an app to meditate. Buy a gift for a recently engaged couple. MEAL PLAN Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Each week, we feature recipes that Emily Weinstein thinks you can easily whip up for a weeknight meal. Now, Emily has collected her favorites into a cookbook: “Easy Weeknight Dinners: 100 Fast, Flavor-Packed Meals for Busy People Who Still Want Something Good to Eat.” (You can order your copy here.) In honor of the book’s debut, the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter this week features the dish pictured on the cover: Melissa Clark’s chicken with tomatoes, pancetta and mozzarella. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was billionth. Can you put eight historical events — including Queen Elizabeth I, hurricane ratings and the discovery of prairie dogs — 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 14, 2024 Author Members Posted October 14, 2024 October 14, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re covering a Times poll of Black and Hispanic Americans — as well as the Middle East, Russian disinformation in Africa and millennial spending habits. Donald Trump supporters in the South Bronx, New York. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times A political misdiagnosis The Democratic Party has spent years hoping that demography would equal destiny. As the country became more racially diverse, Democrats imagined that they would become the majority party thanks to support from Asian, Black and Hispanic voters. The politics of America, according to this vision, would start to resemble the liberal politics of California. It’s not working out that way. Instead, Americans of color have moved to the right over the past decade. The latest New York Times/Siena College poll offers detailed evidence. The poll reached almost 1,500 Black and Hispanic Americans, far more than most surveys do. (Our poll didn’t focus on Asian voters, but they have shifted, too.) A key fact is that the rightward drift is concentrated among working-class voters, defined as those without a four-year college degree: By The New York Times | Sources: Catalist (2016 election) and New York Times/Siena College poll (Oct. 2024) I know that many Democrats find this pattern to be maddening. They wonder how voters of color could have moved right during the era of Donald Trump, a man with a long history of racism. But the chart above points to a partial explanation: For most Americans, race is a less significant political force than many progressives believe it is — and economic class is more significant. Most isn’t enough The past four years have highlighted the ways that Democrats exaggerate the political importance of racial identity. Joe Biden, after all, promised to nominate the first Black female Supreme Court justice (which he did) and chose Kamala Harris as the first Black vice president — who has now succeeded him as the Democratic nominee. Yet Harris has less support from Black voters than Hillary Clinton did in 2016. Biden also adopted the sort of welcoming immigration policies that Democrats have long believed Hispanic voters support. He loosened border rules early in his term, which helped millions of people enter the country. In spite of that change — or maybe partly because of it — Democrats have also lost Hispanic support. Harris is still winning most voters of color. But the Democratic Party typically needs landslide margins among these groups to win elections. Today, a significant share of them view the Democratic Party with deep skepticism — roughly one in five Black voters, two in five Hispanic voters and one in three Asian voters, polls suggest. Elite vibes Their skepticism is linked to class in two main ways. First, most working-class voters are frustrated with the economy, having experienced sluggish income growth for decades. (Black men have especially struggled, Charles Coleman Jr. wrote in a Times Opinion essay, and Black men have shifted right more than Black women.) The years just before the Covid pandemic — the end of Barack Obama’s presidency and the first three years of Trump’s — were a happy exception, when wages rose broadly. But the inflation during Biden’s presidency further angered many people. In our poll, only 21 percent of Hispanic working-class voters said that Biden’s policies helped them personally, compared with 38 percent who said Trump’s policies did. More generally, many voters have come to see the Democratic Party as the party of the establishment. That may sound vague and vibesy, but it’s real. Trump’s disdain for the establishment appeals to dissatisfied voters of all races. As my colleague Nate Cohn points out, a sizable minority of Black and Hispanic voters think “people who are offended by Donald Trump take his words too seriously.” In Washington, D.C. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times The Democrats’ second big problem is that they have wrongly imagined voters of colors to be classic progressives. In reality, the most left-wing segment of the population is heavily white, the Pew Research Center has found. While white Democrats have become even more liberal in recent decades, many working-class voters of color remain moderate to conservative. These voters say crime is a major problem, for instance. They are uncomfortable with the speed of change on gender issues (which helps explain why Trump is running so many ads that mention high school trans athletes). On foreign policy, Black and Hispanic voters have isolationist instincts, with the Times poll showing that most believe the U.S. “should pay less attention to problems overseas and concentrate on problems here at home.” Immigration may be the clearest example. Many voters of color are unhappy about the high immigration of the last few years. They worry about the impact on their communities and worry that new arrivals are unfairly skipping the line. In our poll, more than 40 percent of Black and Hispanic voters support “deporting immigrants living in the United States illegally back to their home countries.” Support for a border wall was similar: By The New York Times | Source: New York Times/Siena College poll (Oct. 2024) Multiracial similarities The bad news for Democrats is that they adopted the wrong diagnosis of the American electorate. It is not divided neatly by race, in which people of color are overwhelmingly similar to one another and liberal. That misdiagnosis has been a gift to Republicans. The good news for Democrats is that some of their weaknesses — with white, Hispanic, Black and Asian voters alike — overlap. If the party can find a way to stem its losses with voters of color, it may also win back a slice of white working-class voters. Remember: Americans without a bachelor’s degree still make up about 65 percent of U.S. adults. The share is even higher in swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Related: Democrats’ challenges with Black and Hispanic voters have left the party more reliant on college-educated white voters and suburbanites, write my colleagues Jennifer Medina, Katie Glueck and Ruth Igielnik. More on the campaign The main union for Border Patrol agents endorsed Trump during a rally in Arizona. At the event, Trump pledged to hire 10,000 new agents and to ask Congress to give them all a 10 percent raise. Trump has endorsed violence and proposed using the government to attack his enemies. Many of his supporters assume it’s an act, Shawn McCreesh writes. Abortion bans have led some longtime Republican women in Arizona to support Harris. See a video. The Harris campaign, in an attempt to cut into Trump’s polling lead on the economy, has courted business leaders. Their feedback has subtly shaped her economic agenda. Over the weekend, Tim Walz returned to Minnesota to hunt pheasants and watch a high-school football game. His recent appearances are aimed at men, The Washington Post reports. THE LATEST NEWS Middle East In Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. Ramadan Abed/Reuters Fire engulfed a tent encampment at a hospital compound in central Gaza after an Israeli airstrike there. At least four people were killed, according to a Palestinian news agency. Israel said it was targeting Hamas militants at the hospital. A Hezbollah drone attack hit a military base in northern Israel, killing four soldiers. The Israeli military is investigating how the drone reached the base without warning. The U.S. is sending an advanced missile defense system to Israel, along with around 100 troops to operate it. Israel’s army has regularly forced captured Palestinians to undertake life-threatening missions, including scouting Hamas tunnels, a Times investigation found. War in Ukraine Russia is counterattacking in its Kursk region, where Ukraine seized territory months ago, but soldiers and analysts say the Ukrainians are largely holding their ground. Most of Russia’s seaborne oil exports are evading Western restrictions, a report found. In Ukraine, a new generation of comedians are trying to make people laugh — and raise money for the war effort. More International News In Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. Guerchom Ndebo for The New York Times A pro-Russian disinformation operation is targeting U.S.-funded anti-malaria programs in Africa, part of an effort to spread mistrust of the West. China began military drills around Taiwan after accusing the island’s president of promoting independence. Weather A mobile home park in Damascus, Va. Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times Hurricanes Helene and Milton have exposed the risks climate change poses to the millions of Americans who live in mobile homes. Meteorologists have reported facing increased harassment as disinformation spread about the hurricanes. During a visit to Florida, President Biden announced $612 million to improve the electric grid in areas affected by Helene and Milton. Other Big Stories The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson for their research on global inequality. NASA’s first mission to Jupiter in over a decade is scheduled to launch today. It will study whether Europa, one of the planet’s moons, is habitable. Fisher-Price has recalled more than two million “Snuga Swings” after five babies died while sleeping in them. Opinions The U.S. needs a national shield law to protect journalists from having to expose their sources to the government, The Times Editorial Board writes. Jean Guerrero froze her eggs so that she could enjoy her youth before meeting a partner. The expensive procedure should be available to all, she writes. Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss Harris and the Senate. Here’s a column by David French on abortion in Florida. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS An incarcerated filmmaker. Jim Wilson/The New York Times San Quentin: The California prison once housed violent criminals. It’s now known for creative pursuits, including a film festival. Long Island: Billy Joel will sell the house he first saw while dredging oysters as a teenager. Dining: See a list of the 25 best restaurants in Portland, Ore. Health: How do food, sleep and exercise affect blood sugar? Read what to know. Metropolitan Diary: Next time, piña coladas. Lives Lived: Abdul Salaam was an unassuming but important member of the Jets’ ferocious 1980s defensive line, known as the New York Sack Exchange. He died at 71. SPORTS M.L.B.: During their 9-0 blowout win against the Mets in Game 1 of the N.L.C.S., the Los Angeles Dodgers tied a major-league record: 33 consecutive innings without allowing a run. N.F.L.: The Cincinnati Bengals outlasted the New York Giants in a 17-7 win. The Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow called the game ugly. W.N.B.A.: Breanna Stewart’s 21 points led the Liberty to a 80-66 win in Game 2 of the finals, tying the series at 1-1. It was her defense, our columnist writes, that drove the win. ARTS AND IDEAS Goober, the hedgehog. Chloe Ellingson for The New York Times Millennials and Gen Z place a high value on happiness, which helps explain why they spend more money than older generations on hobbies and quirky purchases. Examples include paragliding lessons and a palm-sized hedgehog called Goober. More on culture Elizabeth Taylor in 1962. Keystone/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images Leopard print has an enduring popularity in women’s fashion. A reader asks The Times’s fashion critic: Will it ever go out of style? New York State is enticing Californian movie and TV productions with tax incentives. It saves money, but adds creative challenges. “Suffs,” a Hillary Clinton-backed musical about women’s suffrage, will close in January. It won two Tony Awards, but struggled to sell tickets. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Bake tender and addictive sugar cookies. Go behind the scenes at “S.N.L.” with these memoirs. Stay dry and stylish with these rain boots. Drink from a good mug. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was folktale. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —David P.S. Ian Prasad Philbrick, a writer for this newsletter, cataloged thousands of books for a story about Jimmy Carter, the president who has written the most Times best sellers and had the fewest written about him. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 15, 2024 Author Members Posted October 15, 2024 October 15, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleagues Jack Nicas and Paul Mozur write about the battle over who controls the internet. We’re also covering Lebanon’s hospitals, China’s panda program and America’s dairy farms. —David Leonhardt In São Paulo, Brazil. Dado Galdieri for The New York Times The contest By Jack Nicas and Paul Mozur We’ve each covered the conflict between tech companies and governments for a decade. For years, the battle between governments and tech giants has played out behind the scenes. Then Brazil blocked X, Elon Musk’s social network. For the past five weeks, the site went dark across the nation of 200 million after Musk ignored court orders to pull down certain accounts. (It came back online last week after he eventually complied.) Meanwhile, in France, authorities have charged Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, a free-for-all messaging app, with a slew of crimes. They accuse him of refusing to comply with investigations into the spread of illicit content on the platform. We are witnessing an important shift in the yearslong struggle over who controls the internet. Governments are becoming more demanding, just as some tech leaders seek to promote themselves as free-speech martyrs. But as the dust has settled, a clear winner has emerged. In today’s newsletter, we’ll explain. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram. Jim Wilson/The New York Times Governments assert control The world woke up to the dangers of online disinformation about a decade ago. But governments do not typically move fast. That means, in many places, regulation is just arriving now. Last year, a European Union law required tech companies to better police their platforms. In Brazil, a Supreme Court judge has been ordering the removal of social media accounts he calls threats to democracy. In some countries, the crackdown is tied to an erosion of democracy. The Indian government, for example, is forcing social networks to limit content it sees as critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And Indonesia has unfurled one of the world’s harshest laws against online speech in what authorities have described as an effort to maintain public order. As a result, tech companies are taking down more content. Google said it fielded more than 100,000 government requests to remove content from its platforms last year, up 87 percent from 2021. Meta — which runs Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — reported the number of accounts, posts and comments it took down at the request of governments last year was up sixfold. (This doesn’t include Indonesia, because enforcement of its new law breaks the curve; it ordered Meta to take down 47.7 million items last year.) Elon Musk Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Two defiant tech leaders For years, tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Larry Page and Jack Dorsey have mostly either acquiesced to the requests or walked away from markets. The executives sat for congressional hearings and hired more content moderators. They censored at the behest of dictators. They issued timid statements saying they had no choice but to follow local laws. As a result, governments didn’t shut the companies out, and they became some of the most valuable firms in history. Musk and Durov have tried to pave a different way. Musk complained loudly about the Brazilian Supreme Court justice’s orders. Then he simply stopped obeying. When the judge responded by blocking X, Musk tried various workarounds to evade the ban (they didn’t work) and even called on Brazilians to take to the streets against the judge. Durov has taken a quieter approach. Under his watch, Telegram ignored government demands, as if it didn’t see their email. (When the same Brazilian judge briefly blocked Telegram in 2022, the company actually argued just that.) Together the two men represent a new type of tech leader, one who sometimes uses his power to flout government orders. Both men appear emboldened by the culture wars, where pushing an absolutist vision of free speech has won them many devotees. The state strikes back But the governments have kept the upper hand. Three weeks into X’s block in Brazil, Musk surrendered. X took down various accounts, complying with orders Musk had vowed to resist, while his lawyers asked the court to lift the ban. The site went live again last week. Source: Company reports | Notes: Takedown requests comprise court orders and other legal demands. Twitter did not report data for 2022 and 2023. Figures are rounded. | By Karl Russell Publicly, Musk didn’t mention his capitulation. That followed a pattern. While he has cast himself as a free-speech warrior, his own company has released data showing X has complied with government takedown requests more often than before he bought it. X said it obeyed such requests about 70 percent of the time in the first half of the year, compared with roughly half the time in 2021, the last time it disclosed data. (Japan and Turkey have filed the most takedown requests this year.) Durov, meanwhile, has sounded more conciliatory than ever. In his first post after he was arrested in France, he admitted that Telegram’s fast growth “made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.” Then he announced the app would work more closely with governments to fight criminal activity. For more Brazil gave one judge broad power to combat misinformation. After he blocked X, some wonder whether that was a good idea. On Telegram, criminals sell drugs, far-right protesters coordinate rallies and terrorists broadcast attacks. See how that happened. Apple, Google and Meta are making major changes in response to new laws and regulations. Twitter once banned people like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alex Jones who spread conspiracy theories. Musk brought them back on X. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election Has the debate bump faded? Kenny Holston/The New York Times With three weeks to go, The Times’s polling average shows Kamala Harris and Donald Trump essentially tied across seven battleground states. Nate Cohn explains what to make of the polls. Harris will visit Detroit today to court Black voters. Some Democratic leaders in the city say she needs to do more there to counter an assertive Trump campaign. Trump’s border proposals appear more focused on tapping into anger and fear than on practical details, Zolan Kanno-Youngs writes. Harris has agreed to an interview tomorrow with a not-so-friendly outlet: Fox News. At least one third-party or independent candidate is on the ballot in every battleground state. In such a tight race, they present a wild card. Middle East As Israel intensifies its offensive against Hezbollah, Lebanese hospitals say they are struggling or being forced to close. The Israeli military has accused Hezbollah of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure. A deadly Hezbollah strike on an army base exploited one of Israel’s weaknesses: Its missile defenses struggle to detect slower-moving drones. Survivors of a fire at the Aqsa hospital in central Gaza say they have endured repeated Israeli attacks. “It is like living inside a recurring nightmare,” said one man whose family have sheltered at the compound for months. More International News In Sichuan Province, China. The New York Times In the 1990s, China began sending pandas to foreign zoos to be bred, with the goal that future generations would return to nature. Decades later, more pandas have been removed from the wild than have been released, a Times investigation found. Canada expelled six Indian diplomats and accused them of running a criminal network that intimidated and harassed Sikh separatists. Nearly two million children in Africa may die of malnutrition because a treatment is in short supply, the U.N. Children’s Fund said. Archaeologists in Jordan found an untouched tomb in one of the architectural wonders of Petra, the ancient city carved from a sandstone canyon. Other Big Stories America’s dairy farms quietly depend on undocumented labor. A crackdown on immigration could make cheap milk dry up. An armed man in North Carolina was arrested and accused of threatening emergency workers who were delivering aid after Hurricane Helene. A New Jersey Transit train struck a chunk of a tree lying on the tracks near Trenton, killing the train operator. Opinions Sheriffs wield tremendous power over their communities. Learn about these candidates before you vote in November, Maurice Chammah writes. Ann Patchett regrets getting an email account 29 years ago. The time she’s spent answering messages could have been spent on the real people in front of her, she writes. Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on Democrats’ Republican outreach and Paul Krugman on Trump’s outdated rhetoric. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS In Bridgehampton, N.Y. Andrew Kelly for The New York Times Closing time: The last full-size Kmart in the continental U.S. is about to shut. Shoppers reminisced about the store that once sold everything, everywhere. What’s so funny? Venezuela’s comedians in exile are finding a way to laugh despite the pain. “Unbalanced” muscles: Repeatedly doing the same type of activity — whether it’s running, lifting or sitting — can have serious downsides. Ask Well: On TikTok, some people call bone broth “liquid gold.” Here’s what the experts say about its health benefits. Lives Lived: Lilly Ledbetter, a former supervisor at an Alabama tire factory, persevered all the way to the Supreme Court and Congress in her successful fight to expand women’s rights to sue employers over wage discrimination. She died at 86. SPORTS Aaron Rodgers’ 52-yard Hail Mary. NFL N.F.L.: The Buffalo Bills defeated the New York Jets, 23-20, in a wild game that featured two critical missed field goals and a completed Hail Mary pass. M.L.B.: In the first A.L.C.S. game, the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians, 5-2. And the Mets throttled the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-3, to tie the N.L.C.S. at 1-1. N.B.A.: The Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George left the team’s preseason game with a knee injury. It could have a huge impact. ARTS AND IDEAS An excerpt from “American Idiot.” Chad Unger for The New York Times A Los Angeles revival of “American Idiot,” the stage musical based on the music of Green Day, communicates the show’s Iraq War-era angst in a new way: The lead roles are performed by two actors at once, one singing and the other using sign language. Read about the production — and see video of the performers. More on culture U.S. Army Natick Labs Archive Decades of formerly classified Army photographs get the fine art treatment in a new book, “Fashion Army.” Kaseem Ryan, who built a small but fervent following as the underground Brooklyn rapper Ka while maintaining a career as a firefighter, died at 52. Tina Brown, the queen of legacy media, is starting a Substack newsletter. Stephen Colbert joked about Harris’s medical records: “Harris works out daily and eats healthy. OK, but politicians are supposed to be relatable to Americans.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times Sauté crispy chicken thighs in a sweet and savory balsamic glaze. Find peace of mind with a home security system. Clean your fireplace. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was pendulum. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 16, 2024 Author Members Posted October 16, 2024 October 16, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Nicholas Confessore is covering the impact of university diversity programs. We’re also covering Israel, Brazil’s Supreme Court and a school for first ladies. —David Leonhardt Photo illustration by Pablo Delcan and Danielle Del Plato What went wrong? By Nicholas Confessore I’m a political and investigative reporter. Diversity, equity and inclusion programs are under attack. A dozen states have passed new laws restricting D.E.I. in public universities. Conservatives argue that the decades-long drive to increase racial diversity in America’s universities has corrupted higher education. After covering some of these debates for The Times, I decided that I needed to see D.E.I. programs up close. So earlier this year, I began visiting the University of Michigan, one of the country’s most prestigious public universities. Michigan voters had banned affirmative action in 2006, leading to a plunge in minority enrollment, particularly Black students. So the university built one of the most ambitious D.E.I. programs in higher education. It hoped to attract and retain a more diverse array of students and faculty. Since 2016, I learned, the university has spent roughly a quarter of a billion dollars on the effort. Each of Michigan’s 51 schools, colleges, libraries and other units has its own D.E.I. plan; many have their own D.E.I. offices. By one count, the school has more D.E.I. staff members than any other large public university in the country. The program has yielded wins — a greater proportion of Hispanic and Asian undergraduates and a more racially diverse staff. It has also struggled to achieve some central goals. The proportion of Black undergraduates, now around 5 percent, has barely changed in a decade. Most strikingly, the university’s own data suggests that in striving to become more diverse and equitable, Michigan has become less inclusive. In a 2022 survey, students and faculty members reported a less positive campus climate than at the program’s start and less of a sense of belonging. Minority students — particularly those who are Black — were also less likely to report “feelings of being valued, belonging, personal growth and thriving.” Across the board, students were less likely to interact with people of a different race or with different politics. These are the precise areas of engagement that D.E.I. programs have promised to improve. I wrote a story in The New York Times Magazine today about why the effort is coming up short. Campus paranoia At the University of Michigan. Nic Antaya for The New York Times One reason I wanted to report at the University of Michigan was to better understand campus conflicts around identity and speech. Last year, the school received more than twice as many formal complaints of sex or gender discrimination than it did in 2015. During roughly the same period, complaints involving race, religion or national origin have increased from a few dozen to almost 400. Some of that change reflects a growing willingness to challenge ugly behavior that might once have been tolerated. But people at Michigan also argued to me that the school’s D.E.I. efforts had fostered a culture of grievance. Everyday campus complaints and academic disagreements, professors and students told me, were cast as crises of inclusion and harm, each demanding administrative intervention. At the law school, some students demanded that a professor be fired for referring to two students — who were both named Xu and sat next to each other in class — as “left Xu” and “right Xu.” Another class was derailed when the professor asked a white student to read aloud from a 1950s court decision containing the word “Negro.” As at other colleges and universities nationwide, faculty and students told me, everything escalated in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. One professor, Eric Fretz, was pulled into a Title IX hearing because he invited his class to let him know when he wasn’t being sensitive enough to gender stereotypes. (A student complained that Fretz was forcing his female students to educate their own professor on how not to be sexist.) What is D.E.I. really for? Michigan’s recent past may be a glimpse of D.E.I.’s future. The school’s program was built to accomplish what affirmative action, forbidden in the state, could not. Last year, the Supreme Court copied Michigan and barred schools nationwide from using racial preferences in admissions, making administrators likely to reach for D.E.I. solutions. What went wrong at Michigan? One answer is that programs like Michigan’s are confused about whom — and what — D.E.I. is really for. The earliest versions were aimed at integrating Black students who began arriving on college campuses in larger numbers in the 1960s and 1970s. But in subsequent decades, as the Supreme Court whittled down the permissible scope of affirmative action programs, what began as a tool for racial justice turned into a program of educational enrichment: A core principle of D.E.I. now is that all students learn better in diverse environs. That leaves D.E.I. programs less focused on the people they were originally conceived to help — and conflicted about what they are really trying to achieve. Schools like Michigan pay lip service to religious or political diversity, for example, but may do little to advance those goals. Along the way, they make ambitious commitments to racial diversity that prove difficult to achieve. As a result, many Black students at Michigan have grown cynical about the school’s promises and feel that D.E.I. has forgotten them. They are, a leader in the university’s Black Student Union told me, “invested in the work, but not in D.E.I. itself.” I encourage you to read the in-depth story of what went wrong. THE LATEST NEWS The Democratic Campaign Kamala Harris and Charlamagne Tha God. Erin Schaff/The New York Times Kamala Harris, in an interview with the radio host Charlamagne Tha God, said she agreed that Donald Trump was a fascist. The conversation was part of Harris’s broader effort to win over disaffected Black men. Harris’s main fund-raising committee raised $633 million from July to September, 50 percent more than Joe Biden’s raised during those months in 2020. Biden suggested Harris would break from him on policy. “I was loyal to Barack Obama, but I cut my own path as president,” he said. “That’s what Kamala is going to do.” People are moving to Pennsylvania’s southeast, changing the state’s demographics. Democrats see an opportunity. See Latino voters in Nevada explain the issues that matter to them, including the economy and immigration — and why some have lost faith in the Democratic Party. The Republican Campaign In a Bloomberg interview, Trump refused to confirm whether he’d spoken to Vladimir Putin since leaving the White House. “But I will tell you that, if I did it, it’s a smart thing,” he said. He also refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Trump is escalating threats against his political opponents. Some of his recent remarks have no precedent in an American presidential campaign, Lisa Lerer and Michael Gold write. Three billionaires — Elon Musk, Miriam Adelson and Dick Uihlein — gave pro-Trump groups $220 million between them over the last three months. A judge in Georgia rejected an argument by Trump allies that local election officials could refuse to certify election results. The judge also blocked a rule requiring officials to count ballots by hand. More on Politics Early voting in Decatur, Ga. Erik S Lesser/EPA, via Shutterstock More than 300,000 people cast ballots on Georgia’s first day of early voting, compared with 136,000 in 2020. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for North Carolina governor, sued CNN over an article reporting that he had posted offensive comments on a porn website years ago. The Pentagon will grant honorable discharges to more than 800 service members who were kicked out of the military under the now-repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Middle East The Israeli government told the U.S. it would not strike Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities in its response to the recent Iranian missile attack. The U.S. threatened to withhold weapons from Israel unless the government allowed more humanitarian aid into Gaza. Despite Lebanon’s long history of sectarian divisions, volunteers from every background have rallied to help those displaced by Israel’s military campaign. The Biden administration has warned Iran, which has threatened to kill Trump, that it would consider any attempt to do so an act of war. More International News A protest against the Brazilian Supreme Court. Dado Galdieri for The New York Times Brazil’s Supreme Court has expanded its power to protect democracy. Some wonder whether the court now represents the threat. The British government will partner with the drugmaker Eli Lilly on a trial that will study the impact of a weight-loss drug on work and productivity. For many women in India, protecting themselves against attack while at work and during their commute is an invisible burden, The Wall Street Journal reports. Business The U.S. fined the German airline Lufthansa millions for blocking more than 100 Orthodox Jews from making a connecting flight in 2022 after the airline said some in the group had misbehaved. Shares in Trump’s media company have nearly tripled in value in recent weeks, adding about $2 billion to the former president’s net worth. Walgreens said it would close around 1,200 stores over the next three years. It promised new roles for most of the closed stores’ workers. Other Big Stories More than two weeks after Hurricane Helene, about 100 people remain missing in North Carolina. Demand for electricity around the world is rising faster than expected, making it harder for countries to slash their emissions, the International Energy Agency said. Opinions U.S. prisoners face a hidden, insidious punishment for entering the system: criminal justice fees. This video by Kirk Semple and Jonah Kessel explains how they work. When watching animals in her backyard, Margaret Renkl roots for the predators. Black and Hispanic enrollment has increased at some elite schools even after affirmative action was banned. We shouldn’t assume foul play, Sonja Starr writes. Here are columns by Bret Stephens on Harris’s campaign and Thomas Friedman on what America should tell Iran and Israel. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS New year, new outfits. Jenn Plus Jake for The New York Times First-day looks: The Times’s kids’ section visited middle schools across America to find out what’s trending. School for first ladies: There’s no training manual for presidential spouses. This group wants to help. Steel conker: There’s a sporting scandal in England. It involves buckeye chestnuts. Lives Lived: Megan Marshack was a young aide to Nelson Rockefeller who found herself at the center of sensational conjecture about the circumstances of his death in 1979. She died at 70. SPORTS N.F.L.: Two star wide receivers have changed teams: The Jets acquired the disgruntled Raiders standout Davante Adams and the Bills welcomed Amari Cooper of the Browns. M.L.B.: The Yankees are up 2-0 in the A.L.C.S. after defeating the Guardians. They are now two wins from the World Series. Read a recap. ARTS AND IDEAS At Carbone Dallas. Jonathan Zizzo for The New York Times It’s nearly impossible to get a reservation at Carbone, an Italian restaurant favored by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Rihanna. But for all its glamour, Carbone is also a chain, with outposts around the U.S. and in several of the world’s richest cities. To better understand it, Priya Krishna dined at all of Carbone’s U.S. locations. More on culture A Norwegian journalist has gone viral for her awkward interviews with Blake Lively and Anne Hathaway. She says there’s more where that came from. The late night hosts joked about a town hall in which Trump spent 39 minutes swaying to music. “He played music and kind of did that baby toddler jumping dance that he does,” Jimmy Kimmel said. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Linda Xiao for The New York Times Give a cheesy bean bake a spicy glow-up. Improve your home’s air quality. Wear a headlamp on an evening run. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was bathroom. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 18, 2024 Author Members Posted October 18, 2024 October 17, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re covering the power of government policies — as well as Kamala Harris on Fox, surrogacy in Italy and Liam Payne. In Washington, D.C. Kent Nishimura for The New York Times Against nihilism We live in a time of cynicism about what government can accomplish. Most Americans say they don’t have much trust in Washington, regardless of which party is in charge. Even when the federal government sets out to do something that Americans support, many wonder whether it can succeed. In today’s newsletter, I want to connect four news stories from the past few years and argue that this cynicism has gone too far — that government can indeed accomplish what it promises. I recognize some readers will support the policies I describe, while others will oppose them. But that’s OK. I’m not trying to persuade you that these policies are good or bad. The point instead is that the U.S. federal government remains a powerful force that can alter the course of American life. The country has the capacity to address its biggest problems. Whether it does is a different matter. 1. The Covid vaccine The pandemic was so miserable and divisive that it can be easy to overlook the triumph of the federal government’s vaccine development. Before Covid, the creation of any new vaccine took years. But Operation Warp Speed — a public-private partnership that received $18 billion in federal funding — led to the discovery of a Covid vaccine within months. That speed likely saved millions of lives worldwide. Yes, the pandemic was also a case study of government failure. Republican politicians (including Donald Trump, who deserves some credit for Warp Speed) refused to embrace the vaccines, leading to hesitancy that cost lives. And many Democratic-run school districts shut down for a year or longer, causing lasting damage to children. All of this, though, was a reminder of the power of government, for good and ill. 2. Immigration In the debate over immigration, you sometimes hear the suggestion that the U.S. is powerless to change migration flows. “Border Enforcement Won’t Solve the U.S. Migrant Crisis,” as a typical op-ed argued in 2022. One way or another, according to this argument, people will find ways to enter the U.S. But that argument is mostly wrong, as the past four years show. President Biden took office promising a more welcoming approach to immigration than any president in decades. Sure enough, immigration surged. During the first three years of Biden’s administration, annual net immigration (the number of people arriving, regardless of legal status, minus the number of immigrants leaving) averaged 2.4 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s about three times as high as during Trump’s presidency. It’s more than twice as high as under Barack Obama. Late last year, Biden changed course. The administration first worked with Mexico to reduce migration flows and then tightened border policies, as my colleague Hamed Aleaziz has explained. Almost as quickly as immigration spiked in 2021, it has fallen in 2024: Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection | by The New York Times A restrictive approach to border security won’t keep out everybody, but it makes a huge difference. Many experts believe that the ideal immigration system would involve both a more secure border and more legal pathways to entry. That combination is well within Congress’s power. 3. Economic policy Biden’s economic record is obviously mixed. But he made a set of specific promises about using the federal government to rebuild infrastructure, reduce medical costs, promote clean energy and expand certain kinds of manufacturing. In each of these cases, it’s happening. New semiconductor factories are being built in Arizona, Missouri, Texas and elsewhere. Roads and bridges are being rebuilt. The cost of insulin has plunged for many people. Clean energy production has increased. Biden’s industrial policy has been a reminder of the vital role that the federal government has historically played in creating industries like aviation, biotechnology, fracking and the internet. 4. Taxes As with immigration, you sometimes hear the claim that federal laws don’t much matter — and particularly that the wealthy can find ways to avoid any tax increases. That’s not correct. After Obama raised taxes on wealthy Americans, they paid more in taxes. After Bill Clinton raised income taxes at the start of his presidency, the same thing happened. And after Clinton later cut capital-gains taxes, tax payments fell. Source: Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman | by The New York Times If Democrats control both the White House and Congress next year, they really will be able to increase taxes on the rich. And if Republicans sweep into power, they will cut taxes on the rich. The bottom line: The fact that governments remain powerful forces even in a globalized, digitized economy doesn’t answer many of the hard questions about what policymakers should do, of course. But it at least offers an antidote to the nihilism that sometimes dominates political debates. THE LATEST NEWS Democratic Campaign In Washington Crossing, Pa. Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Kamala Harris is making a direct pitch to Republican voters. She campaigned in Pennsylvania with Republican officials and said on Fox that several members of Trump’s previous administration now support her. Harris’s Fox News interview was her most contentious meeting with a journalist since becoming the Democratic nominee. “My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” she said. The Democratic group Future Forward has become the biggest super PAC in American politics, raising $700 million to test and blast out ads. The concentration of money has bred suspicion. Former President Jimmy Carter voted by mail in Georgia. Carter, 100, had told his family that he wanted to vote for Harris before he died. Republican Campaign Donald Trump Anna Watts for The New York Times Trump has criticized Harris for once backing taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for inmates and migrants. But during Trump’s presidency, his appointees offered inmates transgender medical treatments. Trump, at an event with female voters, declared himself the “father of I.V.F.” He only began making promises about the treatment this year. Trump’s campaign has engaged in creative accounting to maximize ad spending. It treats his rallies as fund-raisers and lists just 11 people on payroll. Republicans who have questioned the 2020 election results are running for Congress. If they win, they’ll play a role in certifying the results this year. More on Politics The pandemic forced musicians off the campaign trail in 2020. Now they’re back. Only half of the women and children eligible for a large federal food program are enrolled. To reach more families, the program is adding items like blue corn tortillas and naan to its menu. Three presidents — Biden, Obama and Clinton — eulogized Ethel Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, who died last week at 96. Supreme Court The Supreme Court will temporarily let the E.P.A. limit emissions from coal and gas power plants. It’s a victory for the Biden administration as lower courts hear a challenge to the rule. Separately, the court seemed poised to side against the E.P.A. in a case brought by San Francisco. The city argues that the rules about releasing human waste into the Pacific are vague and could be interpreted too strictly. International At a pro-surrogacy news conference in Rome. Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press Italy criminalized seeking surrogacy abroad. It already banned the practice at home. The government said the move would protect women’s dignity, but critics see it as a crackdown on L.G.B.T. families. U.S. warplanes struck five underground weapons facilities in parts of Yemen controlled by the Houthis. Israel bombed the densely populated outskirts of Beirut. It also struck a southern Lebanese city, killing at least 16 people including the local mayor, Lebanese officials said. More than 150 people were killed in Nigeria after an overturned fuel tanker exploded while a crowd was rushing to collect its spilled gasoline. The European authorities broke up a yearslong counterfeit scheme that disguised cheap Italian wine as Grand Cru from France. Other Big Stories Liam Payne Andreas Rentz/Getty Images The pop singer Liam Payne, a former member of One Direction, fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. He was 31. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to people who say they were abused by Catholic clergy. Tech companies like Microsoft and Google need more electricity to power their A.I. businesses. They’re investing in nuclear. Columbia University has temporarily barred a vocal pro-Israel professor from campus, saying he harassed the school’s employees. He said the university had not done enough to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests. Opinions Times Opinion asked doctors and patients how the end of Roe has changed their lives. Hear their stories, in their own words. Daron Acemoglu, who won this year’s Nobel in economics, writes that our aging population, the rise of A.I. and an end to globalization will soon reshape the U.S. economy. Here are columns by Thomas Edsall on Trump’s bigotry and Charles Blow on patriarchal Black men. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS In Virgin, Utah. Alex Goodlett for The New York Times Taking the leap: For the first time, women participated in mountain biking’s scariest (and most lucrative) event. Atlanta wings: Korean American hot wings have gotten harder to find. But you can make them at home. What it costs: A farmer in upstate New York explains why that perfect jack-o’-lantern pumpkin is worth $13.50. Storm dogs: People are more likely to foster and adopt shelter animals after a disaster. Read what to know. Lives Lived: Leif Segerstam led Finland’s principal orchestras, becoming an unequaled interpreter of Sibelius. He also mystified his countrymen, in part by writing 371 symphonies — 14 in a single summer. He died at 80. SPORTS Sabrina Ionescu’s buzzer-beater. ESPN Sabrina Ionescu: The New York Liberty star hit the winner in Game 3 of the W.N.B.A. Finals against the Minnesota Lynx. W.N.B.A.: Caitlin Clark became the first rookie since 2008 to make the All-W.N.B.A. First Team. M.L.B.: Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers exploded for eight runs in a blowout win over the Mets in the N.L.C.S. Read a recap. ARTS AND IDEAS Sebastian König Election Day is less than three weeks away. To prepare your kids, and yourself, the Book Review has a selection of children’s literature and audiobooks to better understand America’s current moment. The picks include “Unbought and Unbossed,” a memoir by Shirley Chisolm, and “Thank You for Voting,” a children’s book about the history of voting in the United States. More on culture Prada and Axiom Space presented their spacesuit design, which NASA’s astronauts are scheduled to wear on the moon in 2026. Jimmy Kimmel joked about Trump’s women-focused event: “One lucky lady was named Miss Fox News Town Hall ’24, so congratulations.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times Use leftover pumpkin purée in this dumpling dish. Deal with your fear of dentists. Here’s how. Keep warm with an insulated vest. Create a website. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was continuity. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 19, 2024 Author Members Posted October 19, 2024 October 18, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re covering the death of Hamas’s leader, as well as the presidential election, Ukraine and travel in Hanoi. Yahya Sinwar David Dee Delgado/Reuters Sinwar’s end The killing of Yahya Sinwar — the chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack — is the most tangible victory that Israel has yet been able to claim in its more than yearlong war against Hamas. Almost as soon as the Oct. 7 attack happened, Israeli leaders vowed to hold Sinwar accountable. So long as he was still directing Hamas’s operations from the tunnels of Gaza, Israel could not credibly claim to have achieved its goals. Now Sinwar is dead, killed Wednesday in a firefight with Israeli troops who unexpectedly encountered him in southern Gaza. The troops, backed by drones, came upon a small group of Hamas fighters and brought down part of a building where they had taken cover. The Israeli troops found Sinwar’s body in the rubble. By The New York Times But the larger significance of Sinwar’s death — for Israel, Hamas, Gaza and the Middle East — remains unclear. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain both why his death could be a turning point and why it might not be. I will also walk you through The Times’s extensive coverage. Reasons for a deal In a span of three months, Israel has killed three top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, two Iran-backed militant groups that have been fighting Israel for decades. In July, a bomb placed in a government guesthouse in Tehran killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader. Three weeks ago, Israeli planes bombed a Hezbollah office in Beirut, killing its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah. “The optics is that of an edifice collapsing,” Hassan Hassan of New Lines Magazine wrote yesterday, referring to Iran’s network of groups known as the axis of resistance. That apparent collapse offers Israel a chance to declare victory, especially against Hamas in Gaza, and negotiate peace terms. Many political leaders in other countries, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, hope for this outcome. “Now, after Mr. Sinwar’s killing, a route toward some kind of truce in Gaza seems slightly more navigable,” Patrick Kingsley, The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, wrote. Patrick noted that a major sticking point had been Sinwar’s insistence on a permanent peace deal that would leave Hamas in power; Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, refused any agreement that let Hamas survive. With Sinwar gone, a deal could involve the release of the Israeli, American and other hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The end of fighting could also alleviate the intense suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and allow for the beginning of reconstruction efforts, funded by Arab countries and overseen by Palestinian groups that are more moderate than Hamas. Reasons for no deal Yet it remains unclear whether either Netanyahu or Hamas’s surviving leadership is ready for a truce. Hamas has survived the deaths of previous leaders and has emerged with a new generation willing to die in the service of trying to destroy Israel. (This Times article explains what we know about Hamas’s remaining leaders.) A basic tension remains: Israel is unwilling to accept a Gaza where Hamas retains power; Hamas’s leaders are unwilling to surrender. “For the sake of their own physical survival, they may make more compromises than the man who initiated the whole war,” Ibrahim Dalalsha, director of the Horizon Center, a research group in the West Bank, told The Times. But, he added, “they won’t say: ‘Yes, we’ll do whatever you want, Mr. Netanyahu.’” For Netanyahu, a peace deal also brings political risks. He has long opposed a Palestinian state, as have the far-right parties in his governing coalition. Both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, among other countries, favor a two-state solution and have said any peace deal must include steps toward a Palestinian state. Agreeing to those steps could unravel Netanyahu’s coalition, either costing him his job or forcing him to make an alliance with more centrist parties. “A lot of people seem hopeful that Netanyahu will use Sinwar’s killing as an opportunity to declare victory, negotiate a hostage deal and end the war,” Gregg Carlstrom, a Middle East correspondent for The Economist, wrote. “But to believe that you basically have to ignore everything Netanyahu has said and done over the past year.” Perhaps the biggest question is whether Sinwar’s death is big enough of a development to change the political dynamics in both Israel and Gaza. From Times Opinion Thomas Friedman: “The death of Sinwar alone is not the sufficient condition to end this Gaza war and put Israelis and Palestinians on a pathway to a better future. Yes, Sinwar and Hamas always rejected a two-state solution and were committed to the violent destruction of the Jewish state. No one paid a bigger price for that than the Palestinians of Gaza. But while his death was necessary for a next step to be possible, it was never going to be everything.” Matthew Duss, Center for International Policy: “The Biden administration must press the Netanyahu government and remaining Hamas officials to end the war in Gaza, return hostages to their families, surge humanitarian aid into the territory and urgently take other steps to ensure that Gazans have adequate shelter, supplies and security as winter approaches.” More on Sinwar’s death A poster of Sinwar in Beirut, Lebanon. Chris McGrath/Getty Images Israel spent months looking for Sinwar. In the end, a training unit on a routine patrol encountered him in southern Gaza. The Israeli military released drone footage that it said showed Sinwar sitting in a chair shortly before he was killed. Israeli officials used dental records and fingerprints to help identify his body, the Israeli police said. Biden congratulated Netanyahu and said Sinwar’s death could create the opportunity to “move on” to a cease-fire in Gaza. He said he was sending the secretary of state to discuss plans for securing Gaza. Netanyahu, in a video address, said that Israel would continue its military campaign against Hamas: “This is not the end of the war in Gaza. It is the beginning of the end.” For the families of hostages, the news brought satisfaction as well as concern for the fate of the captives. Sinwar, known for his brutality and his cunning, emerged from two decades in Israeli prison to rise to the helm of Hamas. Read his Times obituary. THE LATEST NEWS The Trump Campaign Donald Trump Jordan Gale for The New York Times In speeches, Donald Trump often veers off script and gives play-by-plays of his internal thoughts. Some of his advisers think his scattershot style is electorally risky. Trump, in a podcast interview, blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “He should never have let that war start,” Trump said. Elon Musk and a group of Silicon Valley billionaires have made it their mission to get Trump elected. Some Republican lawmakers are wary of Trump’s pledges not to tax tips, overtime pay or Social Security benefits. Mitch McConnell privately called Trump “stupid” and a “despicable human being” after the 2020 election, The A.P. reported. McConnell responded to the article by saying that JD Vance and Lindsey Graham had said worse things about Trump, “but we are all on the same team now.” The Harris Campaign Harris campaigned in Wisconsin with Mark Cuban, making her sixth visit to the state since entering the race. She accused Trump, who recently described Jan. 6 as “a day of love,” of gaslighting Americans. Democrats have, for years, avoided calling Trump a fascist. They appear to be losing their reluctance, Jonathan Weisman writes. Harris wants to build three million new housing units in four years. Economists disagree about whether her plan would vastly expand supply. More on the Election This year’s presidential race is so close that even a small polling error could misjudge the outcome. An independent review of the Secret Service’s failures before the July assassination attempt against Trump recommended replacing the agency’s leaders with people from the private sector. Sam Brown, the Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada, is struggling to gain ground. He’s relatively new to the state and has never held elected office. Amazon, as part of its live programming push, will stream an Election Day newscast hosted by Brian Williams. More on Politics The Biden administration has forgiven federal student loan debt for more than one million public service workers. Pentagon officials have discussed whether giving military aid to Israel and Ukraine is hurting the military’s ability to respond to new conflicts. International President Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. Doug Mills/The New York Times U.S. prosecutors have charged a man they identified as an Indian intelligence officer with trying to orchestrate an assassination on U.S. soil from abroad. China’s economy, which has been marked by falling prices and weak consumer spending, continued to grow at a lackluster pace over the summer. Draft officers in Ukraine stationed themselves outside a concert for a popular band, looking for men trying to dodge military service. Some were detained. Other Big Stories Financial pressures and concerns about stability are straining OpenAI’s yearslong partnership with Microsoft. The Texas Supreme Court halted the execution of a man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter. The case has drawn scrutiny because of the role that shaken baby syndrome played in his conviction. Opinions Medications to treat addiction are rare. If Ozempic can really help addicts — as early studies indicate — policymakers should make the drug more affordable and accessible, Maia Szalavitz writes. Here are columns by David Brooks on America’s political gridlock and Paul Krugman on Trump’s tariff proposals. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times Good hair days: The diversity of hairstyles at fashion weeks rivals the range of clothes. 36 Hours in Hanoi: Drink in a movie-themed bar, visit a temple and take a street-food tour. Food upgrade: Try these five lesser-known, expert-recommended grains. Lives Lived: Mitzi Gaynor played the female lead in the movie version of the Broadway musical “South Pacific.” Gaynor also performed regularly in Las Vegas and on television specials with names like “Mitzi Zings Into Spring.” She died at 93. SPORTS David Fry Major League Baseball M.L.B.: The Cleveland Guardians mounted an incredible comeback win over the New York Yankees in 10 innings. The game ended on a walk-off home run from David Fry. Los Angeles Dodgers: In the National League, the Dodgers are one game away from the World Series after a 10-2 blowout victory over the Mets. N.F.L.: The Denver Broncos defeated the New Orleans Saints, 33-10. Read takeaways. ARTS AND IDEAS T Magazine’s new Greats issue celebrates four talents who have transformed the culture. They are Florence Welch, a singer who has offered a mythic view of pop music for nearly two decades; Lorna Simpson, an multidisciplinary artist whose work has made marginalization a source of power; Jonathan Anderson, the creative director of the fashion house Loewe; and Theaster Gates, an archivist, ceramist and sculptor. Read their profiles here. More on culture Jilly Cooper at her home in England. Francesca Jones for The New York Times Sex, horses and stately homes: Jilly Cooper has written raunchy novels for decades. Adapting her 1988 book “Rivals” for the streaming age meant tweaking some details. The late night hosts joked about Harris’s Fox interview and Trump’s Univision town hall. “Kamala and Trump went into ‘the lion’s den’ this week,” Desi Lydic said. “They only got Trump there by telling him it was the name of a strip club.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards. Make a hearty tagine, a staple family meal in many Moroccan homes. Charge your electric vehicle at home. Pick the best American cheese. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was apathetic, hepatic and pathetic. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 20, 2024 Author Members Posted October 20, 2024 October 19, 2024 By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. We’re so accustomed to researching, planning and curating every millisecond of our lives that we rarely stop to consider the mental cost. María Jesús Contreras Novelty acts This summer, for the first time in my life, I was the — recipient? beneficiary? some (not me!) would say victim — of a surprise birthday party. It was a delight through and through, but the thing I keep marveling at is how genuinely surprising it all was, from the guest list to the menu to the activities. I knew ahead of time only the time and the place, and so was treated to the rare experience of nearly 24 hours of pure discovery. I arrived for the celebration full of anticipation but without expectation, an agenda-free participant in the unfolding of the day. It is so easy to research, plan and curate every millisecond that it almost seems irresponsible not to. You can virtually tour a hotel room before you book it, try on a jacket before you buy it, discuss a parenting technique before you endeavor it. If it’s purchasable, rentable, consumable or conceivable, you can find a review of it. I’m not complaining: The very fact that one can watch a video of a surgeon performing a procedure before scheduling a consultation is pretty incredible. I’m so accustomed to over-investigating everything I buy or book that I rarely stop to consider the toll. Remember not knowing? I barely do. I was telling a Gen Z friend recently about finding my first apartment in New York City. “You used to line up to get the Village Voice rental listings when the paper came out on Tuesday nights,” I rhapsodized. “Oh, and The Voice published photos of the places with the listings?” my friend asked. No, I told him, there was just text! And not much of it! You had to call to find out when you could go see the place! No way to send photos to anyone else for validation, no easy way to research the landlord or the neighborhood. I felt like I was describing steering a ship by celestial navigation. But somehow, even without this information, I found a perfect, semi-affordable jewel box of a one-bedroom that I lived in happily for 15 years. It’s easy to sentimentalize minimal-information living. A recent piece in The Times described restaurants that hold back details about their establishments in an effort to “revive a long-lost spirit of romance and adventure.” Some of these restaurants have deliberately cryptic websites, or no website at all. Others decline to publish their menus unless a prospective guest requests it. I love the idea of going into a dinner knowing as little as possible, but I’ll admit it’s handy, if not essential, to consult a website to see if one’s dietary restrictions can be accommodated, or to get a sense of the restaurant’s prices before committing to a reservation. But the idea here, that less information might make for a better experience, is one I want to pursue. We’re careful to avoid spoilers for books and movies, but we don’t tend to think about other pre-received information in the same way. We know that novelty is key to happiness, but we’re researching the bejesus out of our lives and any possibility of surprise is eliminated. I wrote recently about how my brain’s hard drive seems to be at capacity. Much of its space is packed with discovery and due diligence, space that could, theoretically, be used to store memories of unscripted adventures. Surprise parties are occasional things, and typically elaborate — that kind of novelty isn’t the stuff of everyday. But it might be interesting to engineer a surprise morning, a surprise hour, to deliberately not research the thing before you try it. I’ve had this fantasy since childhood of going to the airport and just buying a ticket for the next flight to the first location that sounds appealing. This extreme pursuit of novelty might be unrealistic, but going to dinner at a restaurant without looking at the menu ahead of time seems pretty low-stakes, and it might be enough to yield at least a tiny bit of accidental delight. For more Novelty can lead to awe, and a bit of awe can improve your health. How to add more play to your grown-up life. “People tend to think of not knowing as something to be wiped out or overcome, as if ignorance were simply the absence of knowledge. But answers don’t merely resolve questions; they provoke new ones.” The case for teaching ignorance. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Mikey Madison in “Anora,” directed by Sean Baker. Neon In “Anora,” a Palme d’Or-winning film about the romance between a sex worker and a rich scion, Mikey Madison gives a career-making performance, Alissa Wilkinson writes. “Brothers,” a buddy comedy starring Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage, is one of nine movies our critics are talking about this week. The Netflix documentary “Sweet Bobby” tells a sinister tale of a decade-long catfishing scam. Music Liam Payne, a singer who rose to fame as a member of One Direction, died at 31 after falling from the balcony of a hotel in Argentina. His fans and collaborators shared their grief. Ka, a Brooklyn rapper and New York City firefighter, died at 52. Hear seven songs that show how he made rap on his own terms. The New York Philharmonic’s Afromodernism festival shines a light on Black artists, who are vastly underrepresented in classical music. Art “Tarlati Altarpiece” by Pietro Lorenzetti, circa 1320. George Etheredge for The New York Times “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350,” a major survey of early Italian religious art at the Met, is the kind of show that we rarely see at big museums today, Holland Cotter writes. Collectors are arriving for the inaugural Art Basel Paris fair. The Paris art scene has been on the rise in recent years. Other Culture Stories The Victoria’s Secret fashion show returned, six years after it was canceled in the wake of #MeToo. It shouldn’t have come back, Vanessa Friedman writes. ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, already publishes digital books. Now it’s moving into print. A new historical marker in Miami Beach pays tribute to Desi Arnaz of “I Love Lucy.” Lillian Schwartz, who was one of the first artists to use the computer to make films, died at 97. THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election Vice President Kamala Harris in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Friday. Erin Schaff/The New York Times Kamala Harris and Donald Trump converged on Michigan yesterday, where they are competing over a small pool of undecided voters who could determine the battleground state. Harris suggested that Trump, who has pulled out of interviews, is physically unfit to be president. “If you are exhausted on the campaign trail, it raises real questions about whether you are fit for the toughest job in the world,” she said. Trump falsely claimed that the government staged the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and compared his supporters imprisoned for their actions on that day to Japanese Americans interned during World War II. The judge overseeing Trump’s Jan. 6 criminal case released nearly 1,900 pages of heavily redacted evidence. But much of the visible evidence was previously known. Tim Sheehy, the Republican nominee for Senate in Montana, says he was shot in the arm while serving as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan. But a SEAL colleague says Sheehy never mentioned a gunshot wound, and a park ranger says Sheehy admitted to accidentally shooting himself. More than 353,000 voters cast ballots in North Carolina on Thursday, a state record for the first day of early voting. Other Big Stories A top Hamas official said that the death of the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, would not change its demands in cease-fire talks with Israel. Experts believe Sinwar’s death will shake but not topple Hamas. U.S. officials hope his successor, or successors, will agree to pause the fighting to release hostages. Cuba’s power grid failed, plunging the entire country into darkness. The island nation has lacked enough fuel to run the power grid for week weeks, causing hourslong blackouts. A federal judge sentenced a Brooklyn man to five life terms in 1997. This week, the judge freed the man, saying that sentence had been too harsh. Self-dealing, nepotism and conflicts of interest are widespread at many of the nonprofit groups that run New York City’s homeless shelters, a city report found. Now you can subscribe to New York Times podcasts. Full access to our shows on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, including past episodes, is now included in an All Access or Audio subscription. Subscribe now. CULTURE CALENDAR By Alexis Soloski 📺 “What We Do in the Shadows” (Monday) Even a show about the undead has to end sometime. “What We Do in the Shadows,” a comedy about vampires who try to conquer America and instead molder in a Staten Island mansion, enters its sixth and final season on FX. (Six seasons? That’s an eternity in cable years.) Giddy, louche and occasionally very gross, the show is stacked, like coffins in a crowded mausoleum, with an international cast of comedy greats. And its macabre humor also allows for surprising sweetness. It turns out that even characters who are not technically alive can still grow. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Christopher Testani for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Gochujang Chicken With Roasted Vegetables As the days grow shorter and the air turns crisp, Yewande Komolafe’s sheet-pan gochujang chicken with roasted vegetables is a colorful, fuss-free meal for a chilly autumn weekend. Spiked with grated fresh ginger, the spicy-sweet gochujang glaze on the mix of squash, turnips and scallions caramelizes as it all roasts, filling the kitchen with its savory, warming scent. Paired with crisp-skinned chicken, it’s a simple yet hearty dish that brings the cozy flavors of fall to your table in the most satisfying way. REAL ESTATE Laurie and Steven Goldstein Lauren Lancaster for The New York Times The Hunt: To be closer to family, a couple left Philadelphia and moved to the Hudson Valley. Which home did they choose? Play our game. What you get for $3 million: A 1906 Craftsman in Denver; a townhouse in Washington, D.C.; or a Queen Anne Revival in Fredericksburg, Va. T MAGAZINE Click the cover image above to read this weekend’s edition of T, The Times’s style magazine. LIVING The Row pre-fall 2024. Courtesy of the Row Comfort above all: People are wearing bedroom slippers on city streets. Spiritual healing: A mother and daughter — one a psychic, the other a skeptic — try to reconnect in Sedona, Ariz., America’s New Age capital. D.I.Y. groups: With help from Facebook groups and workshops, home improvement is becoming far more inclusive to people beyond straight men. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Homemade delight for December If you dream of opening a door to an itty-bitty delight every day during the holiday season, don’t wait: Advent calendars tend to go out of stock well before December. To kick-start your search, our gift experts have gathered their favorites for the year, which include mini Lego builds, actually good beauty products and nostalgic sweets. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can make your own. Most craft stores sell unpainted, pre-assembled wooden Advent calendars that you can decorate and fill. As you think about filling each slot, aim for high-quality, delightful gems, like teas, soaps and chocolates. Anything that’s not a junky gimmick destined for a landfill will be sure to please. — Brittney Ho For a weekly gift guide from Wirecutter sent straight to your inbox, sign up for The Gift. GAME OF THE WEEK Aaron Judge of the Yankees, after a home run on Thursday. Jason Miller/Getty Images New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Guardians, A.L.C.S.: Pop quiz: When was the last time the Yankees reached the World Series? It was 2009 — 15 years ago. While the Yankees feel like a postseason juggernaut, they haven’t been one lately. But this year’s team may finally change that. Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton are a formidable power-hitting trio, and the bullpen had looked nearly flawless in the playoffs, before blowing a wild Game 3 in Cleveland. The Yankees now lead the series, 3 to 1, and the possible World Series matchups are enticing — either the hometown rival Mets, or the historic rival Dodgers. Game 5 is tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on TBS and Max NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was founding. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 20, 2024 Author Members Posted October 20, 2024 October 20, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Ronda Kaysen is writing about an interesting way that elections affect our decisions. We’re also covering life in a swing state, the Amazon River and American “pharmacy deserts.” —David Leonhardt Dana Smith Election anxiety By Ronda Kaysen I write about real estate and the housing market. In the weeks leading up to a general election, consumers tend to get skittish about major purchases like houses, cars, weddings and investments. After the election, regardless of the outcome, they open up their wallets and shop again. It’s the election shopping slump. As the presidential election draws near, my colleague Jordyn Holman and I wanted to see if the trend was holding true this year as well. In a new article that published this morning, we find that it is. Wedding planners told us that newly engaged couples were too distracted to book events for next year. Financial advisers said their clients were keeping their assets in cash. Car dealers said shoppers were staying on the sidelines. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain what drives this behavior, and why it’s not unique to this election cycle. The pivot point There are a lot of reasons Americans are reluctant to buy homes right now. Inflation drove mortgage interest rates to a 20-year high, and a lack of housing stock kept prices from falling, exacerbating an affordability crisis. But even in years when the housing market was more amenable, buyers got nervous before they went to the polls. Jonathan Miller, a real estate appraiser, looked back at two decades of home sales in Los Angeles, Manhattan and Miami and saw a pattern: Sales dipped in the second half of even years and bounced back in odd years. “Election Day is the pivot point,” he said. “It’s like the foot is taken off the brake after the election.” The dip isn’t dramatic, but it is consistent. In even years, sales fell by 5.5 percent in Los Angeles, 2.5 percent in Manhattan and 2.6 percent in Miami. In odd years, sales rose by 4.6 percent in Los Angeles, 8.5 percent in Manhattan and 10.2 percent in Miami. The pattern was not restricted to Democratic strongholds, either — it held in Suffolk County, N. Y., which typically votes for Republican candidates. In conversations with car dealers, I heard of a similar pre-election pullback. Jerry Reynolds, a former car dealer and host of the “CarPro” radio show, told me this anxiety sets in every four years, only to evaporate after the election. He expects dealers “will see a surge of sales right after the election.” Even armchair shoppers get cold feet. Big news moments often distract viewers of the television shopping networks QVC and HSN, according to David Rawlinson II, the chief executive of Qurate Retail Group, which owns the channels. “We rely on people watching our content,” he said, and when the news takes a dramatic turn, “they’re probably not watching QVC.” What’s driving this? Consumers don’t like uncertainty, and elections are all about the unknown. This one appears to be particularly close, with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump locked in a virtual tie in the polls. Cash is a resource — and for most of us, it’s the most fungible one we have. If we’re feeling as if we’re on unsolid ground, it’s no surprise that we would be reluctant to part with it. Kelly Goldsmith, a behavioral scientist and marketing professor at Vanderbilt University, studies the psychology of uncertainty and scarcity. She put it this way: “If the world starts to fall apart, you benefit from having a bunch of money in your mattress, right?” There’s also the matter of the economy. Surveys have found that many Americans name it as their No. 1 concern this election, even though inflation has slowed and the job market is strong. Some consumers are hoping that a Harris victory delivers down-payment assistance for first-time home buyers, one of her central campaign promises. Others hope that a second Trump administration improves the economy with tax cuts and spending cuts. Little luxuries persist Certainly Americans still shop when an election is coming. U.S. retail sales continued to grow last month. Consumer Edge, a company that tracks consumer data, looked at credit card and debit card transactions in the months leading up to the 2016, 2018 and 2022 elections and did not see any signs of an election season dip. (The company omitted 2020 because of the volatility caused by the pandemic.) But there was an exception to the trend: Bookings for cruises and purchases from luxury merchants slowed in the months before the 2016 election. Dr. Goldsmith said she wouldn’t be surprised if people spent more on small luxuries as they look for ways to feel in control of their world, even if it’s only an illusion. “When I see myself holding this $8 Starbucks cup, I feel like I’m a person able to do things in the universe,” she said. For more: Jordyn and I also spoke with reluctant consumers about their election angst. You can read our full article here. THE LATEST NEWS More on the Election Political mail in Michigan. Nic Antaya for The New York Times For swing-state voters, life has become a barrage of television ads, dinner-hour phone calls, door-knocks and candidate visits. “My remote has a really strong mute button,” one Nevada resident said. In Michigan — home to Flint and the birthplace of General Motors — trade policies and the water crisis loom large in the election. Hear from voters there. Trump made crude remarks at a Pennsylvania rally, including about the size of a famous golfer’s genitals. For critics, Trump’s meandering speeches raise questions about his age and his cognitive health. His supporters see the tendency as entertaining rather than alarming. See examples from the past week. Elon Musk said he would randomly give $1 million to some people who sign his super PAC’s conservative petition. Trump seems to have found an unlikely ally in New York: Eric Adams, the indicted Democratic mayor. “I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric,” he said recently. (Here’s an explainer on who could succeed Adams.) Middle East Israeli jets pounded the southern outskirts of Beirut. The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah intelligence command center and an underground weapons workshop, killing three commanders. The claims could not be independently verified. Israel continued its offensive in northern Gaza, where an airstrike hit a residential building. A Palestinian emergency services group said dozens had been killed. The Israeli military disputed an initial death toll. Two highly classified U.S. intelligence documents describing satellite images of Israel’s preparations for a potential strike on Iran were leaked online. In southern Lebanon, some Christians and their priests refuse to evacuate. They hope their presence will deter attacks on their homes, The Washington Post reports. Saudi Arabia was once open to stronger ties with Israel. After a year of war in Gaza, the kingdom is warming up to Iran, its traditional enemy. More International News The banks of the Amazon River in Colombia. Luis Acosta/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Amazon River system, which sustains around 30 million people across eight countries, is drying up. Cuba was plunged into two prolonged blackouts in less than 24 hours. Experts have warned for years that its aging power system was on the verge of collapse. People in Moldova are voting on whether to enshrine in their Constitution a commitment to abandon Russian influence and one day join the E.U. To publicize the need to discharge worn-out troops in Ukraine, a soldier deserted and announced it on social media. Other Big Stories In Los Angeles. Facing a homelessness crisis, psychiatrists in Los Angeles are treating the acutely mentally ill outdoors. Sometimes they give injections of antipsychotics on the sidewalk. The number of young people accused of major crimes in New York City, including murders and assaults, has surged. Boeing’s largest union, which represents more than 33,000 workers, said it had reached a deal to end its strike and would put it to a vote. Large pharmacy middlemen are underpaying independent drugstores. That’s created “pharmacy deserts” across the U.S. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Should pro-Palestinian voters vote for Harris? Yes. Benjamin Netanyahu wants Trump to win, which is what will happen if progressive voters reject Harris. “The way to think about voting is not as a mode of personal expression or a moral endorsement, but as an action with material consequences,” MSNBC’s Zeeshan Aleem writes. No. It is entirely within the rights of pro-Palestinian voters to demand changes in policy in exchange for their votes, even if it is inconvenient for Harris. “It behooves candidates to listen to the people who probably helped elect them into power and might be needed to do it again,” Hala Alyan writes for Times Opinion. FROM OPINION Business leaders who support Trump say they hate uncertainty more than taxes and regulation. But Trump is the personification of uncertainty, the Times Editorial Board writes. Here are columns by Ross Douthat on a religious comeback and Maureen Dowd on Trump and the Catholic Church. Now you can subscribe to New York Times podcasts. Full access to our shows on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, including past episodes, is now included in an All Access or Audio subscription. Subscribe now. MORNING READS ABC Want to understand the American economy? Watch ABC’s “Shark Tank.” Down the aisle: Some couples are embracing the gritty, chaotic appeal of the subway for their wedding ceremonies. Vows: They grew up four blocks from each other but didn’t meet until she applied for a job at his family’s Eritrean restaurant. Lives Lived: Toni Vaz was among the first Black stuntwomen in Hollywood and went on to create the N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards to recognize the often unsung work of Black writers and performers. She died at 101. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “From Here to the Great Unknown,” by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough: Collaborative memoirs are a complicated feat, but Presley and Keough pull it off in this soulful, hair-raising retrospective on growing up with Graceland roots. Presley, the only child of Priscilla and Elvis Presley, died before she finished writing her life story. She’d prepared for the project and cogitated about it but, her daughter Riley Keough writes in the preface, “She wasn’t really sure what her value to the public was other than being Elvis’s daughter. She was so wracked with self-criticism that working on the book became incredibly difficult for her.” Keough picked up where Presley left off, using tapes her mother had made and chiming in with her own reflections — about Presley’s marriages, her struggle with addiction, her complicated relationship with her own mother and her unflagging devotion to Elvis, who died when she was 9. The result, now No. 2 on the best-seller list, is a family story with celebrity cameos, not the other way around. Read our review here. More on books “When you’re in the spotlight, people tend to speak for you,” Alex Van Halen writes of his rocker brother, Eddie, in a new memoir. “I wanted to remind people that Ed was not a commodity. He was a complex human being.” ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant that owns TikTok, announced a move into print books. Its publishing imprint, 8th Note Press, will focus on popular genres such as romance, romantasy and young adult fiction. THE INTERVIEW Mia Khalifa Philip Montgomery for The New York Times By David Marchese This week’s subject for The Interview is Mia Khalifa, who, 10 years after appearing in an adult film that led to death threats, has managed to reinvent herself as an enormously popular influencer. I’ve seen you talk about the idea that you’re in the middle of a rebranding. But I haven’t seen you talk about what you think your brand was. Can you fill that in for me? My brand at the beginning wasn’t something that was much in my control. I entered the adult industry in October of 2014, and very quickly I was pressured to perform in a video where the context was that I was an Arab veiled woman. Not long after, I would say maybe a couple hours after it premiered, the avalanche started. Every news outlet picked it up. I was completely out of control of my image, my reputation. I feel like a lot of people have slutty phases when they’re 20, 21. Unfortunately, mine was in 4K. You’ll post a playful food video on TikTok and then a strident set of tweets about Gaza. Do you have a sense of whether the person who is following you on TikTok is paying attention to the political tweets? Is it a mishmash in people’s heads? Is it a mishmash in your head? Thank you so much for being able to see that that is representative of the chaos in my head. It’s absolutely chaos. You’ve been open online about having surgery to augment your appearance and being on Ozempic. Do the choices to do those things feel as if they’re coming from a place of agency and bodily autonomy? Is there any internal conflict there? Not at all, and the reason that I talk about it is because I like showing the dichotomy behind changing yourself. When I got my rhinoplasty, I needed to make a point of making sure that my nose stays ethnic. It’s about improving what you want to improve. Same with my breast augmentation. And then Ozempic, honestly, was such a big trend, and I wanted to try it. I started to speak openly about that because I was getting a lot of compliments about how good I looked and my “workout routine,” and I felt guilty perpetuating something that wasn’t real. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photo illustration by Bobby Doherty Click the cover image above to read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Read books therapists recommend about nonmonogamy. Buy a bathroom scale that will last years. Find a decent laptop for less than $500. MEAL PLAN Armando Rafael for The New York Times New York Times Cooking has been rhapsodizing about fall lately, but, for some, it may not be sweater season quite yet. So in this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein highlights a recipe for any weather: a Parmesan-crusted salmon Caesar salad. For you weekly meal plan, she also suggests making baked mustard-herb chicken legs and a sheet-pan tofu with corn and chiles. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was luncheon. Can you put eight historical events — including the creation of the N.B.A., the karaoke machine, and some of the first chocolate bars — 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 21, 2024 Author Members Posted October 21, 2024 October 21, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We’re covering foreign policy in a second Trump term — as well as Israeli strikes, Aleksei Navalny’s prison diary and the New York Liberty’s championship win. The United Nations General Assembly. Mike Segar/Reuters THE STAKES The Trump doctrines Donald Trump is often described as an isolationist, and there is a lot of truth in that label. Trump embraces the slogan “America First.” He criticizes military aid for Ukraine. He can be withering about America’s closest allies. But Trump is not an across-the-board isolationist. When he was president, he engaged with the world in ways that still shape U.S. policy. Rather than ignoring China, he adopted a more confrontational approach than any president in 50 years. In the Middle East, he imposed “maximum pressure” sanctions on Iran and ordered the assassination of a top general. He also fired missiles at Syria after it used chemical weapons against its own people. A pure isolationist wouldn’t have taken those steps. The Morning has been publishing a series called The Stakes, focused on the policy positions of the presidential candidates. Today, I’ll look at Trump’s foreign policy by asking two questions: How much of an isolationist is he? And does he deserve credit — as he often argues — for the lack of major wars when he was president? 1. An isolationist? I find it helpful to think about Trump’s foreign policy views on a spectrum from most isolationist to most interventionist: Ukraine is on the isolationist end. Trump has called for cutting U.S. military aid, which could force Ukraine into an unfavorable peace deal. To many other politicians from both parties, this possibility is deeply alarming: It could reward Vladimir Putin’s invasion, by enabling Russia to annex Ukrainian territory, and encourage future wars. Trump, however, believes that Americans shouldn’t care much about what happens in many faraway places. His approach to U.S. allies like Japan and Western European countries also leans isolationist — but with nuance. While president, he pressured these allies to increase military spending, and some did so. You can consider that approach isolationist because it allows the U.S. to be less engaged. But it also strengthens the international alliance that the U.S. leads. Interventionists also want those countries to spend more. Donald Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, in 2019. Erin Schaff/The New York Times China may be the most confusing part of Trump’s worldview. On economic policy, he made the U.S. approach more aggressive, and President Biden has maintained that stance. But on national security and human rights, Trump leans isolationist. He has suggested that China can do what it wants about Hong Kong, and he has criticized Taiwan for not paying more to the U.S. Since leaving office, he has reversed his position on TikTok and now seems fine with Chinese ownership of one of the biggest social media platforms in the U.S. This pattern may explain why Chinese officials seem to be rooting for a Trump victory. The Middle East, especially Iran, is the area where Trump is least isolationist — and Iran’s leaders are clearly rooting against Trump. “Iran is the big exception in his largely anti-interventionist foreign policy,” Jonathan Swan, a Times reporter who covers Trump’s campaign, told me, “and he feels even more strongly about Iran now than he did while in office.” If Trump wins, he may impose new sanctions or even attack Iran’s nuclear program, Jonathan said. Trump has also shown little concern about Gaza or the Palestinians suffering there, my colleague Maggie Haberman notes. One theme that unites all of this is that Trump prefers dealing with other countries one on one rather than through multilateral trade deals or international groups like NATO. “He thinks it dilutes American leverage to be negotiating within such a large group,” Jonathan said. “He views all international institutions as scams designed to siphon from the American Treasury.” 2. The ‘no wars’ president? And how should you think about Trump’s claim that he avoids war? “I don’t have wars,” he has said. Unlike many of his statements, this one has a basis in reality. During his presidency, Trump didn’t involve the U.S. in new conflicts, and no other country started a major war. During Biden’s presidency, by contrast, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Hamas attacked Israel. Many Democrats argue that this pattern is a coincidence. Trump’s supporters argue that it stems from his combination of strength and unpredictability. “Trump makes our enemies fear escalation, which causes them to back down,” Marc Thiessen, a conservative Washington Post columnist, wrote. Trump himself told The Wall Street Journal that other countries fear him as “crazy” (preceding that word with an adjective that family newspapers try to avoid). There may well be some truth to this idea. Unpredictability has advantages. But it also has disadvantages. And Trump’s foreign policy wasn’t merely unpredictable; it was often chaotic. His own aides sometimes didn’t know what he wanted. Trump also put his personal interests, or those of people close to him, above any ideological beliefs. He allowed his businesses to accept payments from foreign governments. On the TikTok question, he reversed his position apparently after being lobbied by an investor in the company who is also a Republican campaign donor. This self-interest is one reason that former Trump aides — including two defense secretaries and one national security adviser — have called him dangerously unfit to be commander in chief. “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” Gen. Mark Milley, who ran the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, told Bob Woodward. If Trump takes office again, U.S. foreign policy is likely to be much more uncertain than if Kamala Harris wins. The Stakes A Morning newsletter series on how Harris and Trump view some of the biggest issues facing the country. Presidential power Taxes Immigration Abortion Climate THE LATEST NEWS 2024 Election At a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. Doug Mills/The New York Times In a campaign stunt, Trump served fries in a McDonald’s while wearing a shirt with gold cuff links. He has claimed without evidence that Harris never worked there (her campaign and an old family friend say she did). Trump has survived more scandals than any major party presidential candidate, much less president, Peter Baker writes. People are pleading with Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, to end her bid so she doesn’t split Democratic votes. She won’t. Middle East In Beirut, Lebanon. EPA, via Shutterstock Israel struck branches of a bank associated with Hezbollah across Lebanon. Israel says that a video of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, shows he died as a fugitive. His supporters say the video shows him as a fighter, The Washington Post reports. A young man whose death in a fire after a hospital strike in Gaza was captured on video has become a symbol of the war’s toll on civilians. Read about him. More International News In Kano, Nigeria. Yagazie Emezi for The New York Times As Africa experiences a baby boom, a TV show in Nigeria has people asking: How many children is too many? Tropical Storm Oscar reached Cuba, bringing heavy rain and the threat of storm surges there and in the Bahamas. Fans waited hours to place tributes to Liam Payne at a vigil in London. Other Big Stories Yulia Navalnaya Caroline Tompkins for The New York Times Aleksei Navalny’s widow published his prison diaries, which she helped compile into a posthumous memoir. Read a review. The state of Georgia is investigating a dock collapse that killed seven people at a festival for descendants of enslaved people. John Kinsel Sr., one of the last surviving Navajo Code Talkers, a group of Marines who encrypted World War II messages using the Navajo language, died at 107. Opinions College officials must condemn support on campus for Hamas and its violence, Erwin Chemerinsky writes. Harris should rely on diplomacy to create her own “America first” foreign policy, one that would press Ukraine to negotiate and acknowledge Taiwan is part of China while increasing aid to the island, Stephen Wertheim argues. Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss Election Day. Here are columns by David French on American divisions and Nicholas Kristof on how to end the war in Gaza. Now you can subscribe to New York Times podcasts. Full access to our shows on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, including past episodes, is now included in an All Access or Audio subscription. Subscribe now. MORNING READS Tending to a Deadpool mask. Jordan Macy for The New York Times Cosplay: At Comic Con, emergency superhero tailors are on standby, armed with glue guns and Popsicle sticks. Print powerhouse: Costco’s magazine is now the third largest in America. Ask Vanessa: “Why are hospital gowns so ugly?” Metropolitan Diary: Subway lasagna. Lives Lived: Sister Sally Butler was a nun, social worker and activist who blew the whistle on the sexual abuse of children in the parish where she once worked in Brooklyn. She died at 93. SPORTS A win for the Liberty. Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times W.N.B.A.: The New York Liberty are champions for the first time after a 67-62 overtime win in Game 5 of the Finals. Read a recap. N.F.L.: A blowout loss to the Steelers put the New York Jets deeper into disarray. It was a gritty Sunday of football. College football: Vanderbilt is ranked in the AP Top 25 poll, its first appearance since 2012. (See the full rankings.) ARTS AND IDEAS A Steelers watch party in Dublin. Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The New York Times American football is rarely played in Ireland. The N.F.L. has played just one game there, in the 1997 preseason. Yet fantasy football and YouTube clips have helped make the sport more popular. Read about how the league is building its fan base. More on culture Three generations on, grandchildren of Holocaust survivors are creating art that makes new meaning from ancestral trauma. Alec Baldwin returned to “Saturday Night Live” for the first time since in involuntary manslaughter case against him was dismissed. He played the Fox anchor Bret Baier. Andrew Garfield went on the YouTube show “Chicken Shop Date.” His much-anticipated appearance didn’t disappoint, The Cut writes. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Yossy Arefi for The New York Times Add a toasty brown-butter vinaigrette to this simple lentil salad. Shop for a good loafer. Carry a better tote bag. Make your own waffles. Buy a gift for a pickleball player. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was vindictive. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 23, 2024 Author Members Posted October 23, 2024 October 22, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Christopher Flavelle writes about how people are coping with increasing floods. We’re also covering early voting, sickle cell gene therapy and Hanoi, Vietnam. —David Leonhardt In Plant City, Fla. Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times Three views of the water By Christopher Flavelle I write about how we try to adapt to climate change. America has a flooding problem. When Hurricane Milton hit Florida, the images of inundation seemed shocking — but also weirdly normal: For what felt like the umpteenth time this year, entire communities were underwater. Since the 1990s, the cost of flood damage has roughly doubled each decade, according to one estimate. The federal government issued two disaster declarations for floods in 2000. So far this year, it has issued 66. The reasons are no mystery. Global warming is making storms more severe because warmer air holds more water. At the same time, more Americans are moving to the coast and other flood-prone areas. Those conflicting trends are forcing people to adapt. Advances in design, science and engineering — combined with a willingness to spend vast amounts of money — have allowed the United States and other wealthy countries to try new ideas for coping with water. In today’s newsletter, I’ll tell you about the three basic ways to deal with flooding. 1. Fight the water The first strategy is to fight the water: Build walls to keep it out of your city, along with giant pumps and drains to remove whatever water gets in. Think of Holland, much of which would be underwater without a massive network of barriers, or Venice, which now relies on sea walls during high tide. But thanks to climate change, this approach means ever-more-epic fortifications. After Hurricane Katrina, the federal government built a $14 billion, 350-mile defensive ring around New Orleans. The United States is also looking at building 12 movable sea barriers to protect New York Harbor from a storm surge, at an initial cost of $52 billion. Even the beneficiaries aren’t always thrilled. A plan to build a six-mile-long, 20-foot-high sea wall around the coast of Miami prompted outrage: It would, after all, ruin the view. The plan was abandoned. 2. Live with it The second approach is to accept that water will get in, so we should live with it. This entails elevating homes off the ground, as builders do in the Outer Banks or coastal Louisiana. It also means raising roads, power stations and other critical infrastructure — all at no small cost. Another example of living with water is described in an excellent new piece from my colleague Rory Smith, who visited a coastal plain in southwest England that used to be farmland protected by a sea wall. Officials converted it into a marsh when they realized it was best just to open up flood barriers, turning the area into a giant sponge. Now, communities farther inland are less likely to flood. Cities like Hoboken, N.J., have embraced this concept, building spaces designed to capture and hold storm water. In Bradenton Beach, Fla. Callaghan O'Hare for The New York Times 3. Pack your bags Sometimes those things don’t work. Then, and usually only then, communities resign themselves to simply leaving. In 2016, the Obama administration provided $48 million to move Isle de Jean Charles, an island village of a few dozen families in Louisiana, away from the rising Gulf of Mexico. The single road to the mainland was frequently wrecked by storms, and, by common consensus, the community couldn’t be saved. It was the first climate-driven relocation project in the United States. I visited Isle de Jean Charles to watch residents vote on where their new community should be built. Relocation — experts call it “managed retreat” — is about as hard as you might think. Few people are eager to leave, and there’s no guarantee that the community will remain intact. Even so, the approach is becoming more common. Congress has passed millions of dollars to relocate Native American tribes, which often live on land dangerously vulnerable to flooding. Canada pushes some homeowners not to rebuild in the same place after a flood. What now? Behind those options is a puzzle: With so many tools available, why does flood damage in the United States (which cost more than $180 billion last year, according to one estimate) keep rising? I asked Chad Berginnis, head of the Association of State Floodplain Managers. “Two things,” he told me. “Irrationality and elections.” People struggle to assess the danger when disasters are infrequent but incredibly costly, he said. And politicians realize they won’t become popular by raising people’s taxes to pay for colossal infrastructure projects. With that in mind, Berginnis suggests a fourth option for flood protection: In especially high-risk areas, stop building new homes. For more: I encourage you to read Rory’s article about how England surrendered farmland back to the water. For more This summer, the U.S. government restricted building in flood plains. Last month, fueled by climate change, floods wreaked havoc across four continents. Real estate is booming in flood zones. Here’s why buyers risk it. Scientists are mapping landslide hazards in Alaska. Some homeowners don’t want to know. THE LATEST NEWS Voting Kamala Harris helping with hurricane relief in North Carolina. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times With two weeks to Election Day, millions of people have already voted. The polls are essentially tied, Nate Cohn writes. Trump said he’s seen no evidence that the election will be unfair, but continued to suggest Democrats could rig it. The campaigns are searching for undecided voters — many of them young, Black or Latino — who could decide the race. More on 2024 Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but more than half the initiative’s hundreds of contributors worked in his administration, on his transition team or for one of his presidential campaigns. Liz Cheney, campaigning with Harris, suggested that Republican abortion bans are too extreme. Cheney, an anti-Trump Republican, opposed abortion rights while in Congress. Harris’s campaign has consistently out-raised and outspent Trump’s. Would Harris’s expanded child tax credit be worth the cost? Meet one mother who says yes because she has experienced it. A bipartisan House task force faulted the Secret Service for poor planning and a communications breakdown that led to the July assassination attempt against Trump. Middle East Hezbollah missiles targeted the Tel Aviv area hours before Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to hold meetings there. America’s top envoy on the war between Israel and Hezbollah warned that it was spiraling out of control. Even after Yahya Sinwar’s death, a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains unlikely, Steven Erlanger writes, in part because of a lack of effective Palestinian leadership and the destruction in Gaza. The Israeli authorities arrested seven people they said were spies for Iran. More International News In Forest City, Malaysia. Amrita Chandradas for The New York Times A Chinese property developer planned a “green futuristic city” on four man-made islands in Malaysia. Then it defaulted on its debt. Moldovans voted narrowly to draw closer to the European Union, rather than Russia. Paul Whelan, the former U.S. Marine, described his life in a nine-foot-square Russian prison cell. Vladimir Putin is hosting BRICS — the group embracing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and now four other countries, that he hopes can become a coalition against the West. Other Big Stories Kendric Cromer, 12. Kenny Holston/The New York Times The first patient of a sickle cell gene therapy, a 12-year-old boy, left the hospital. The Biden administration is seeking to require insurers cover over-the-counter birth control without cost to patients. Researchers found lithium in Arkansas — perhaps enough of it to meet global demand for the metal, which is used in electric vehicle batteries. Opinions We should be making our elections more accessible, not tightening rules because of conspiracy theories about fraud, Neil Makhija, a Pennsylvania county commissioner, says. In an era of Amazon, many blue-collar workers are in warehouse jobs. To have political influence, they need to organize like steelworkers once did, Farah Stockman writes. Here's columns by Paul Krugman and Ezra Klein on Trump. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS Hanoi’s Train Street. Linh Pham for The New York Times Travel: Spend 36 hours in Hanoi, Vietnam. Cheerleading: Read how the sport became so dangerous and so popular. Atlanta: See a list of the city’s 25 best restaurants. Print isn’t dead: This Florida billionaire wants to become a newspaper baron. Metropolitan Diary: Who will buy her roses? Lives Lived: For two decades, Andrew Schally raced his onetime colleague Roger Guillemin to pinpoint the brain hormones that control growth, reproduction and more. Their rivalry peaked in 1977, when they shared a Nobel Prize. Schally died at 97. SPORTS World Series: After 43 years, the Dodgers and the Yankees will resume their rivalry. Read about the matchup. N.F.L.: The Baltimore Ravens beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 41-31. The Cardinals won against the Chargers on a late field goal. W.N.B.A.: The players’ association opted out of the league’s collective bargaining agreement, preparing to seek better terms. N.B.A.: The season begins tonight. In Los Angeles, LeBron and Bronny James may become the first father and son to play in a regular-season game together. The baseball players Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. will be watching. ARTS AND IDEAS Illustration by Nicolás Ortega; Photographs by Getty Images People-pleasing happens for a range of reasons: It can be a childhood habit, a way of dealing with social anxiety or a response to fear of conflict. For those used to putting others first, standing up for oneself can be nerve-racking. So the Well newsletter fielded tips from experts, including this one from the author Jefferson Fisher: Start by telling others that you’re going to disappoint them. You can try saying, “This is going to disappoint you — I can’t make it tonight,” Fisher said. Saying this out loud helps you to assume control of your fear of letting the person down. More on culture Being a pop star is serious business. In two recent horror movies — “Smile 2” and “Trap” — it’s also terrifying. Sean Combs is facing federal sex trafficking charges, and many radio stations have stopped playing his work. But his streaming numbers are growing. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times Bake an apple cake. Take a wellness vacation. Travel with a good toiletry bag. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was hologram. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. Meet the editor behind The Times’s election coverage. He’s been busy this year. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Members phkrause Posted October 24, 2024 Author Members Posted October 24, 2024 October 23, 2024 Good morning. My colleague Emily Bazelon explains the potential risks to a fair election. We’re also covering John Kelly, a German princess and Japanese rice. —David Leonhardt Voting in Henderson, Nev. Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun, via Associated Press Voting risks By Emily Bazelon I write about the law for The New York Times Magazine. Voting in this year’s election is well underway in many states, mostly by mail. So is the worrying over what could go disastrously wrong. The 2020 election went smoothly: It saw record-high turnout despite the pandemic and only minuscule evidence of voting fraud. But there are new risks this year. A third of state and local election officials have resigned since 2020. In many states, allies of Donald Trump attack the election system and its workers. Which potential risks to a fair election in November merit serious concern? Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford law professor who spends much of his time on the phone with election officials, says he’s less concerned about A.I. deep fakes and foreign meddling on social media, which appear to have little impact. It’s also helpful that at least half of ballots will likely be cast before Election Day, providing an early-warning system for some problems. Persily’s overarching concern is uncertainty on or soon after Nov. 5. If the Electoral College is close, unresolved questions about how to count ballots in key battleground states could cause chaos. For example: Violence or cyberattacks. A disruption of voting on Election Day can disenfranchise people. The worst problems might include physical threats that shut down a polling place or a counting facility. A cyberattack could also halt or hijack operations, affecting, for example, the election-night reporting system that media outlets rely on. But the effect might be limited by the fact that 98 percent of voters will cast paper ballots, including every vote cast in battleground states. Interference from partisan poll watchers. Challenges to some voters (for example, about whether their IDs are valid) can deter others, especially if word spreads beyond a single polling place. “The perception of a problem can be as bad as the problem itself,” Persily said. Weather. Hurricanes in southern states have shut down some early-voting locations and disrupted mail-in balloting. (Florida and North Carolina hadn’t started early voting when the storms hit.) People who fled may not receive mail-in ballots on time or be able to return to polling places. Different rules for contested ballots. In the swing state of Pennsylvania, 67 different partisan county boards make rules on notifying voters about mistakes on mail ballots and whether they can fix those mistakes. That’s the kind of differential treatment of votes, within a state, that the Supreme Court rejected in Bush v. Gore. Predictions for the number of rejected ballots in Pennsylvania range from 29,000 to 43,000, based on recent elections. In a very close race, local decisions about which ballots to count would wind up in court, without a pre-established statewide rule for resolving all disputes. Similar issues could arise in other states over how to count mail or provisional ballots. Slow counting or certification. Delays can create a perception of bias even when none exists. In 2020, election officials warned that reliable results could take days. The same is true this year. One source of delay are laws in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that bar workers from processing ballots received before Election Day. Workers sort mail-in ballots in San Jose, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Around the country, 35 election officials in battleground states have refused to certify results since 2020, even though they don’t have the discretion to do that. On certification, these officials are supposed to be the scorekeepers, while courts are the referees. What about Georgia? Yesterday, its Supreme Court blocked the State Election Board, which has a new Trump-aligned majority, from ordering counties to tally ballots by hand to ensure a match with machine totals — a task that takes time and can create discrepancies. The court also stopped the board from allowing local officials to make any “reasonable inquiry” about the accuracy of the count. The ruling curbs uncertainty in Georgia’s counting and certification process. One worst-case scenario is a presidential contest that comes down to a single state that can be disputed. “I don’t think our political system can handle that now as it did with Bush v. Gore in 2000,” Persily said. In the end, he views that election as a success. Al Gore conceded. Violence did not erupt. However difficult it was for the losing side, voters accepted the Supreme Court ruling that determined the result. The country moved on to the next election. “This time, the Supreme Court won’t have a reservoir of good will to draw on,” Persily says. “People will retreat into their partisan camps. And I could imagine either candidate refusing to concede.” For more U.S. officials are worried about potential violence against election workers, and Russia is considering ways to stoke protests and violence over the results. Republicans have spent millions to persuade their voters to cast ballots early. Early voting data from Arizona and Nevada suggests it’s working. Trump repeated dire claims about the stakes if he loses. “They say we may never have an election again in this country,” he told Latino voters in Florida. THE LATEST NEWS Trump Campaign John Kelly in 2018. Doug Mills/The New York Times John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, told The Times that Trump meets the definition of a fascist. “He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly said. JD Vance said Trump would end Temporary Protected Status, a program that lets hundreds of thousands of immigrants live and work in the U.S. legally. Trump’s campaign canceled an event with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., citing scheduling. Trump has recently backed out of several other media appearances. As president, Trump said “only suckers went to Vietnam,” shunned disfigured veterans and mused that he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had,” The Atlantic reports. A Trump spokesman denied the reporting. Harris Campaign Harris, in an NBC interview, declined to make concessions on abortion to win over Republicans and wouldn’t say whether she’d pardon Trump if he were convicted of a federal crime. Here are more takeaways. Tim Walz, campaigning with Barack Obama in Wisconsin, accused Trump of “using people’s livelihoods as a political prop” when he served food at a McDonald’s. “We got to lock him up,” President Biden said of Trump, before quickly backtracking and saying he meant “politically lock him up. Lock him out.” Bill Gates, who usually avoids politics, gave about $50 million to a Harris-aligned group. “I have a long history of working with leaders across the political spectrum, but this election is different,” he told The Times, without endorsing Harris. More on Politics On TikTok. The New York Times Videos about the race are getting hundreds of millions of views on TikTok. See what the election looks like there. The Times profiled Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for North Carolina governor who was linked to offensive remarks on a porn website. He hung up on reporters after they asked about the comments. Rudy Giuliani must turn over cash, his New York condo and his vintage Mercedes-Benz to two Georgia election workers he defamed during the 2020 election, a judge ruled. A German princess hosted Justice Samuel Alito at her palace last year. Here’s how their friendship began. Business and Economy The C.D.C. linked an E. coli outbreak to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers. One person has died and 49 people have gotten sick. The global economy has largely beaten inflation, the International Monetary Fund reported. U.S. gas prices are near $3 a gallon in most states, the cheapest since February. Middle East Hamas’s military ranks are depleted and its leaders are dead. But the group’s guerrilla tactics have allowed it to remain a force. The Israeli military said it had killed Hezbollah’s likely new leader in an airstrike earlier this month. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a trip to Israel, urged the government there to end the war in Gaza. U.S. prosecutors charged a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards with trying to assassinate a human-rights activist in Brooklyn. Other Big Stories Sewell Setzer III, 14. A Florida teenager died by suicide after growing attached to an A.I. chatbot. His mother wants to hold the company behind the bot responsible for his death. Read his story. Federal prosecutors charged Michael Jeffries, a former C.E.O. of Abercrombie & Fitch, with running an international sex-trafficking ring. In most of the states with abortion bans, more women are getting abortions since Roe v. Wade was overturned. (They’re traveling or ordering pills by mail.) China and India agreed to ease hostilities along their border, where clashes in 2020 left dozens of troops dead. The vice president and the president of the Philippines are feuding, and the vice president has talked about beheading her boss. Opinions There’s a strong chance that either Trump or Harris will sweep most of the battleground states, even if polls don’t show it, Nate Silver writes. Here are columns by Bret Stephens on if Democrats lose and Thomas Edsall on Trump’s agenda. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS Koshihikari rice. Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times Crops: Scientists are on a quest to save the “king” of Japanese rice — Koshihikari — from rising temperatures. Ask Well: Are organic foods really more nutritious? Where to eat: See a list of the 17 best bagels in New York City right now. Lives Lived: Over several decades at Madison Square Garden, beginning in 1959, the Knicks superfan Stan Asofsky befriended players and heckled refs. He died at 87. SPORTS N.B.A.: LeBron and Bronny James became the first father and son to appear together in an regular-season game. Their Lakers beat the Timberwolves, 110-103. W.N.B.A.: The decisive Game 5 averaged 2.15 million viewers, the highest-rated Finals game in 25 years. ARTS AND IDEAS Paloma Proudfoot’s “Unfinished painting” (2024). © Paloma Proudfoot, courtesy of the artist and the Approach, London. Photo: Michal Brzezinski Contemporary art seems to be fascinated with female hands, including severed ones. They can be a way of exploring women’s power. “I’m interested in the intention of their movements — the anguish, the strength and the seduction,” the Peruvian artist Wynnie Mynerva said. More on culture On a recent evening in New York City, the literary establishment celebrated a new erotica magazine published by Feeld, a kink-friendly dating app. Armando Iannucci, the mastermind of “Veep,” has adapted “Dr. Strangelove” for the theater. He says laughing at nuclear disaster couldn’t be more timely. Late night joked about Elon Musk. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Julia Gartland for The New York Times Mix white beans and greens with Parmesan. Buy a gift for a co-worker. Decorate for the holidays. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was haircut. 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 Read Isaiah 10:1-13
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