Members phkrause Posted July 27 Author Members Posted July 27 July 26, 2026 Good morning. It feels like everyone’s talking to chatbots these days. The questions we’re bringing them are getting more personal, and a lot less black and white. Today, we’re looking at how they navigate the gray areas. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Imitation game By Evan Gorelick I ran hundreds of A.I. prompts while reporting this newsletter. Some questions are straightforward. How old are you? What’s the capital of Mexico? Others are more complicated. Would you kill 1,000 dogs to save a human’s life? Is it OK to keep listening to Kanye West after his antisemitic tirades? The first ones have right answers. But the latter questions are up for grabs. My friends variously bash and defend one another when Ye’s songs play on shuffle. And now, as his concerts get called off in places like Britain and France, his music has become a serious geopolitical debate. In ethical quandaries like these, what does being “right” even mean? Millions ask A.I. questions with specific, clear, “right” answers every day. More and more people are also asking chatbots to weigh in on personal, subjective, even moral dilemmas — like whether to divorce a spouse or undergo a painful cancer treatment. Such questions have no right answers. So where do chatbots’ responses come from? Blue’s clues Start with something easy: What’s your favorite color? Mine is green, Prince’s was purple. Let’s see what the chatbots say. GPT-5.5 (OpenAI): ChatGPT Claude Opus 4.8 (Anthropic): Claude Grok 4.5 (SpaceXAI): Grok Blue … “deep” blue, to be precise. This answer is not intuitive, but it is revealing. Why do chatbots love blue? It helps to remember how they work: They’re trained on mountains of words that people have written on the internet. Blue, it turns out, is the world’s favorite favorite color. In favorite-color polls (who knew?), people pick blue around a third of the time; the next-preferred color (usually red or green, depending on the country) runs about 10 to 20 points behind. Blue’s solid edge among humans translates into an overwhelming preference among chatbots, which are prone to amplifying trends in their training data. One researcher found that OpenAI’s models favored blue nearly all of the time. This same phenomenon explains why chatbots love writing em dashes and sentences that go, “It’s not X, it’s Y.” It’s also why the best A.I. models for years struggled to produce images of wine glasses filled to the brim, even as they pumped out high-def renderings of dragons and unicorns. (When’s the last time you saw a wine glass filled to the tippy top? Right. Neither has A.I.) An experiment Now, back to those moral quandaries. Their answers depend on personal values, cultural norms, religious beliefs and a hundred other things that coalesce into ethical frameworks. What ethical frameworks do chatbots have? Let’s return to the example with Ye’s music. GPT-5.5 (OpenAI): ChatGPT Claude Opus 4.8 (Anthropic): Claude Grok 4.5 (SpaceXAI): Grok A universal morality? Notice what happened. Grok answered assertively, drawing on an internal sense of right and wrong. Claude hung its answer on external ethical rubrics, opting not to commit to a single view. And ChatGPT tried to do both things at once: Yes, it’s OK to listen to Ye. Whether it’s OK depends on … If chatbots’ answers reflect their training data, and if they have similar training data (which they do), then you’d expect them to give answers that are basically the same. But they don’t. Why? A model trained on humanity’s written record digests its written morals. But it doesn’t always espouse consensus morality. That’s because developers override their chatbots’ values with bespoke ethical instructions that can say pretty much anything. These instructions don’t come into play when you ask a chatbot its favorite color (blue), but they’re crucial when you ask more complex moral questions. Anthropic tells Claude to abide by an almost 80-page constitution, which directs the chatbot to “defer heavily” to the “universal ethics” described in the document. Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI, then called xAI, last summer instructed Grok to “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated”; within days, the chatbot started spouting Nazi propaganda and calling itself “MechaHitler.” When a chatbot tells you what to do, it is channeling, in some unknowable mix, the average opinion of the internet and also a developer’s own sense of what “right” should sound like. It’s not a reason to stop asking chatbots questions. Just remember who’s answering. THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran The war between the United States and Iran is on pause for a second straight day. President Trump has backed off plans for a sharp escalation partly because of the shrinking stockpiles of U.S. air defense weapons, American officials said. Trump seems trapped by the war and deeply frustrated, our reporter writes. During a journey through Iran this month, a Times correspondent met people tired of war and economic hardship, but also proud of their country and hopeful about the future. Maine Senate Race Troy Jackson Sophie Park for The New York Times Democrats in Maine chose Troy Jackson to replace Graham Platner as their Senate candidate. Jackson is far behind Senator Susan Collins, the incumbent, in fund-raising. Republicans are pouring huge sums into her campaign through a web of billionaire-funded super PACs. Around the World The police in Germany are searching for a suspect they said had ties to Islamic extremist groups after a car plowed through a park during Berlin’s annual Christopher Street Day Pride event, killing at least one person. Wildfires in France and Spain have forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate or take shelter. The blazes have also caused the final stage of the Tour de France to be rerouted and shortened. The Cockroach Janta Party in India, an upstart youth movement, called for an end to weeks of protests after the country’s education minister resigned. In the video below, Vanessa Friedman, our chief fashion critic, looks at the clothing choices of Andy Burnham, Britain’s new prime minister. Click to watch. The New York Times Other Big Stories Thirteen children at a Y.M.C.A. summer camp in New Jersey got sick after eating edibles handed out by a camper. A parent said the affected children looked like “little baby zombies.” Utah, known for large families, is experiencing the largest fertility drop in the country as women put off having children. To raise money for their research into marmots, a group of scientists uploaded videos of the squirrel-like rodents to OnlyFans. FROM OPINION Paola Chapdelaine for The New York Times The Boy Scouts let girls join their programming nearly a decade ago. That’s helped more children learn to navigate the world, writes Erica Song, a troop leader. Certain pharmacies could soon make and sell peptides legally. But the benefits are murky, Julia Belluz writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS In Florida. The Hangar Group We’ve made these links free for you. Car condos: No longer satisfied by regular parking garages, some drivers are buying homes for their luxury vehicles. Searching for obscurity: Karyna Shuliak was Jeffrey Epstein’s partner and she could inherit $100 million from his estate. She just wanted to be a dentist. Peter Parker, is that you? A man dressed as Spider-Man helped a person in a wheelchair cross a busy street in Arkansas. Watch the video. SPORTS W.N.B.A.: The All-Star Game in Chicago last night featured an M.V.P. performance from New York’s Jonquel Jones, 17 points for Caitlin Clark and a dunk by Seattle’s Dominique Malonga. It was part of a joyful few days for the league. N.B.A.: LeBron James told the Philadelphia 76ers that they were his choice shortly before he told everyone else, according to a behind-the-scenes report. Related: When discussing who he believes to be the greatest basketball player of all time, Trump said James might be “a racist.” BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan You do not need to read the first two books in Colson Whitehead’s crime trilogy to appreciate the final installment, “Cool Machine,” which is chock-full of heists and nostalgia for 1980s New York. As in “Harlem Shuffle” (2021) and “Crook Manifesto” (2023), Whitehead puts us in the hands of Ray Carney, a furniture salesman who dabbles in the criminal underworld when he’s not peddling loungers and dinettes. “Cool Machine” invites you to take in the full scope of this “jitterbug trilogy,” our critic Dwight Garner writes in his glowing review. “Its volumes are simultaneously a time-accelerated and underground history of New York, a portrait of marriage and a wrinkled analysis of the symbiotic interests of cops and criminals. Also, they leave you smiling.” THE INTERVIEW Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times “I still can’t fathom that we’ve done it. People call me champ and I’m like, I don’t know why they keep calling me that.” — Karl-Anthony Towns of the 2026 N.B.A. Champion New York Knicks, speaking to David Marchese. Watch their conversation here or read the interview. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Read this week’s magazine. WIRECUTTER RECOMMENDS … Dry off with a big, fat, soft terry towel. Or with a thinner, textured towel. We’ve got towel recs for every taste. Spray your armpits, or any other sweat-prone part of your body (we won’t ask!), with this $16 ultrafine powder. Don’t vacuum. Put your feet up and let a robot do it instead — we’ve tested dozens of them. MEAL PLAN Bryan Gardner for The New York Times It’s hot, and has been for some time. Maybe you’re looking for a pivot from the usual salads and no-cook assembly-type dinners. Margaux Laskey of NYT Cooking has a crockpot recipe for you: a set-it-and-forget-it Tajín chicken with peppers, pinto beans and chile-lime salt. She also recommends smash burgers, Yucatán shrimp and more. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were atomization and minimization. Can you put eight historical events — including Bach’s “Coffee Cantata,” the first recorded use of hops to make beer and the writing of “Little House on the Prairie” — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, 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. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted July 28 Author Members Posted July 28 July 27, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Hundreds of thousands of people will lose their protected immigration status today. Outside the Supreme Court last month. Kenny Holston/The New York Times Protected no more In 1990, during George H.W. Bush’s presidency, Congress established a humanitarian immigration program called Temporary Protected Status. It was designed to shield from deportation people whose home countries were unsafe to return to because of extraordinary circumstances: an armed conflict, for example, or a natural disaster. Last month, though, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end the program. And today that is happening for some 350,000 immigrants, mainly from Haiti. They are losing their work permits and face the prospect of deportation by the Department of Homeland Security, with T.P.S. holders from a batch of other countries soon to follow. “D.H.S. is upholding the rule of law and getting back to common sense,” a spokesman said. Why is T.P.S. ending? Critics say T.P.S. is a problem because it’s not really temporary. Look at the Salvadorans, they say. They first became eligible for T.P.S. in 1990 because of the violent civil war in their country. Another wave came after two devastating earthquakes in 2001. Decades on, there are about 190,000 of them here, living and working legally. (At least for now — their protected status is slated to end in September.) The Trump administration calls T.P.S. a loophole, a kind of amnesty program. It says that many people now in the program came to the United States unlawfully, or came as students or on tourist visas and transitioned to T.P.S., then stayed for years as previous presidents extended the protections again and again. ‘A very big hit’ Miriam Jordan and Madeleine Ngo cover immigration and have been reporting on the economic impact of the curtailing of T.P.S. They spoke to the director of a nonpartisan research organization who said that “for particular places and particular industries,” having “tens of thousands of workers no longer able to legally work is going to be a very big hit.” Miriam also spoke with the chief executive of Hebrew SeniorLife, a nonprofit in the Boston area that has hired many T.P.S. recipients. Since the start of Trump’s second term, he said, other policy changes have already cost him 60 immigrant workers. Now, the organization is preparing to lose 40 Haitians who have — had — T.P.S. protection. They are housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers and nurses who are among the legions of Haitians who have come into the program since an earthquake devastated their country in 2010. Business organizations, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and a bipartisan roster of state and local leaders have mounted a push on Capitol Hill to try to save the program. “Congress can, and should, exercise its plenary authority over immigration policy to prevent significant disruption to America’s work force and avoid an unnecessary humanitarian crisis,” the chamber wrote in a letter to Senate leaders this month. And in South Florida, home to the largest population of Haitians in the United States, the commissioner of Miami-Dade County spoke plainly: “Ending T.P.S. costs America money.” What would you do? The Haitian T.P.S. beneficiaries who lose their work permits today now have to decide whether to stay or to leave the United States. Staying would not be easy. The government knows where they live. But as Miriam and Madeleine note, the alternative’s not great: Haiti has been engulfed in violence since the assassination of its last elected president in 2021. Large swaths of the capital Port-au-Prince are controlled by gangs that have attacked, kidnapped and killed civilians, causing the internal displacement of more than 1 million people. The country’s economy is in ruins, and international aid organizations report widespread food insecurity. The reporters talked about that with a Haitian woman in Florida who works as a nurse and has a toddler who was born in the United States. She said she was scared to be forced to return to a place she hadn’t lived in for more than a decade and where she had no family. She agreed to talk on the condition that she not be identified. She didn’t want to be targeted by federal agents. “The anxiety is indescribable,” she said. Read the whole story here. We’ve removed the paywall to make it free for you. THE LATEST NEWS War in the Middle East Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia, have rapidly spiraled into a conflict that could expand into a full-blown war. Read more about it. The Pentagon is using different webpages to report casualties in the war, making it more difficult to calculate how many people have been killed or wounded overall. Oil prices fell as fighting in the Middle East remained paused. Democratic Party The party is focusing its messaging on affordability as the midterms approach. The Democratic National Committee is so short on cash that it is asking vendors not to send bills until after the elections. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed is trying to show that a progressive can win in a purple state. Around the World Abhijeet Dipke Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times Abhijeet Dipke founded India’s Cockroach Janta Party as a joke after a judge insulted young people. Now it’s a generational movement challenging the country’s leaders. Prosecutors in Germany said that a man suspected of carrying out a fatal attack near a gay Pride celebration in Berlin over the weekend tried to join the Islamic State and was released from detention in May. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, of “fomenting hate” after he called for Netanyahu’s arrest and said the prime minister was a “war criminal.” Ukraine’s attacks on Crimea’s power grid have left hundreds of thousands of people there without electricity or water for days at a time. Other Big Stories A shooting at a Seattle food festival left at least three people dead. The police had one person in custody and were searching for another. A Secret Service agent was charged with taking part in a near-fatal hazing at a fraternity affiliated with the University of Miami. Times Exclusive: A bill in Louisiana started out as a tax rebate for fiber-optic equipment. By the time it became law, it had become applicable to data centers and enabled Meta to start a project big enough to cover nearly six square miles. OPINIONS Alvin Ng An obsession with mental health is part of the mental health problem, Clay Routledge, a research psychologist, argues. The U.S. has a big technological advantage in the A.I. race. Trump should protect it, the editorial board writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. Squish it! Kids (and adults) are making, trading and hunting for squeezable, malleable blob toys. “I was shocked at how much complete joy a squishy could bring,” one mother said. Can’t sleep? These nuns in California want to feel your pain. They wake up in the middle of the night to pray for people — insomniacs, new moms — who are struggling in the dark. The breakup loop: Post about ending a relationship? Your TikTok algorithm may keep you heartbroken. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the woman who stands to inherit Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. Metropolitan Diary: No more blueberry bagels. Entrepreneur of the unexplained: Paul Andrews, a believer in the paranormal since childhood, helped found a conference that became known as the Woodstock of U.F.O.s. He died at 77. TODAY’S NUMBER Colonel Sanders in Nashville in 1969. Bob Grannis/Getty Images $2 million — That is how much money two men paid Harland Sanders, the colonel of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, for his company and his likeness in 1964. Seven years later, they sold Kentucky Fried Chicken to the liquor giant Heublein for $285 million. That’s the equivalent of around $3 billion today. Sanders regretted the sale, The Times reports: “He sometimes walked into franchises, berated the manager and threw out food he thought was subpar.” SPORTS Tour de France: Mathieu van der Poel won one of the most captivating final stages the Tour has ever seen, but Tadej Pogacar wrapped up the big prize and became a five-time champion, tying the record. Soccer: The FIFA president Gianni Infantino lashed out at his critics, accusing them of “spreading hate” and telling them to “meditate, pray or watch a football match.” RECIPE OF THE DAY Christopher Testani for The New York Times Here’s a cool summertime meal: pan-fried dumplings from the freezer aisle tossed with fresh tomatoes from the farm stand, in a vinaigrette that relies on a big punch of chile crisp. That combination doesn’t sound as if it should work, I know. But it’s a Hetty Lui McKinnon recipe. So it does, and brilliantly. You’ll be making it through September at least. BRIGHT EYES, STILL The New York Times Conor Oberst has been a rock star of the diffident sort for more than 30 years. At 46, he’s now reckoning with a legacy that he previously didn’t want to confront and nearly opted out of entirely. He talked about that with Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli on “Popcast,” The Times’s culture chat show. Listen in. More on culture Artificial intelligence in pop music? It makes it possible to create all kinds of tunes from scratch, but it also raises questions about who will actually listen — and about what is legal. Like: Can you remix an Ella Langley track at home? Read our F.A.Q. The editors of our Book Review talk on their podcast about the best books of 2026 so far. Join them. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Dana Davis/NYT Wirecutter Pack your carry-on bag like the actor Tracee Ellis Ross. It takes time and close attention. But if your checked luggage gets lost along the way, you’ll be set for a week. Improve your posture. We’ve got exercises for that. Visit the coast of Oregon. You can do it in 36 hours. But, honestly, a month would be nicer. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was catholic. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted July 28 Author Members Posted July 28 July 28, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. We’ve got the latest on the devastating forest fires in Europe. And the war in Iran is entering its sixth month. That’s below. I’m going to start, though, in Cuba. In Havana. The Cuban way Six months ago, President Trump predicted that Cuba would soon be ruined. He had just taken control of Venezuela’s oil, a lifeline for the island, and blockaded all other fuel sources. “It’s just going to fall,” he told reporters. Jack Nicas, who covers the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico for The Times, recently traveled to Cuba to report on the state of the island. With him were Alex Pena, a video journalist, and Lisette Poole González, a photographer. Jack and Alex were there on the first journalism visas Cuba had granted to The Times in seven years. As our journalists discovered, even amid Cuba’s worst ever energy crisis, with mass blackouts plaguing the electrical grid, the Cuban government — and the Cuban people — are still standing. “After a week on the ground,” they write, “we found that while Cubans are clearly suffering, they are also doing what perhaps they do best: adapting.” Out: those gas-guzzling Chevys they’ve kept running since the Communist revolution. In: electric rickshaws from China. Cubans are importing big lithium batteries to run appliances during blackouts and installing solar panels on roofs to charge them. Amateur mechanics all over the country are jury-rigging generators to run on more accessible natural gas. Lisette Poole González for The New York Times One farmer even devised a tiny backyard refinery to make gasoline out of shredded plastic, fuel for his motorcycle and cook stove. “Cubans thrive amid crisis,” he told Jack. On the ground Yesterday, I reached out to Jack to ask him a couple of questions about his reporting and the team’s experience on the ground. Stories and videos from their trip to Cuba appear on our website today, and tomorrow and Thursday as well. Sam: I want to ask you about that farmer you met, the one making his own gasoline. Did you see a lot of that kind of ingenuity in Cuba? Jack: One of the most important words in the Cuban lexicon is “resolver.” It literally means “to solve,” but in Cuba, after decades of a U.S. trade embargo, it really means “to figure things out by any means necessary.” It explains how Cubans put Soviet engines into 1950s American cars to keep them running or ate breaded grapefruit rinds to imitate meat during their economic crisis following the fall of the Soviet Union. And now they’re resolviendo again. We saw a lot of creativity during our trip across Cuba. People drilled solar panels to the tops of electric rickshaws. They are using lithium batteries to power concerts. There are even stories of people powering their cars with charcoal and cooking oil. As a result, the country is still functioning, despite the hardship. Lisette Poole González for The New York Times Sam: What was your reception in the country like? It’s been a long time since the Cuban government has allowed Times journalists to report there. Jack: Everywhere we turned there were stories, and the Cuban people were eager to tell them. We spoke to dozens of people in Havana and beyond who wanted to express their frustration and exhaustion with the status quo. It was a mixed bag on whom they blamed. Some saw the Cuban government at fault for failed economic policies and political repression, while others believed Trump was making them suffer for his own personal gain. Many blamed both. Sam: How hard was it to get your visa? Did government minders follow you around? Jack: It took a lot of convincing to get. I met with top Cuban diplomats in Mexico City, Havana, Washington and New York over six months, and sent many letters, to persuade them that we would tell this story fairly. Once we got to Havana to report, we met with Cuban officials a few times, but they otherwise didn’t bother us. We traveled around freely, decided our story targets and chose whom we interviewed. Read the team’s first dispatch here. And watch Jack in the field in the video below. Click to play. The New York Times TODAY’S WORD Pyrocumulonimbus — That is a giant, fire-generated thunderstorm that forms above an intense heat source like a wildfire or a volcano. Also known as a fire cloud, it can produce lightning, which can spark more fires, and generate high and unpredictable winds, which fan flames and spread embers. Officials say the clouds have been an “unprecedented” feature of the devastating fires in France this past week. More on the fires A new heat wave this week could make the wildfires even worse. Blazes are advancing toward vineyards and chateaus in the region. The smoke alone could change the flavor of this year’s vintage. Even as hundreds of thousands of people evacuate, some are staying behind to try to save their homes and farmland. See photos and videos. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Doug Mills/The New York Times Trump traveled to Michigan, where he blamed the high cost of living on Joe Biden and painted a dystopian picture of what the United States could look like if Democrats win the midterms. The state’s primary elections are next Tuesday. Last night, the Democrats running for Senate faced off in their last debate. Read the takeaways. Trump asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for an executive order to restrict mail-in voting, setting up a legal showdown ahead of the midterm elections. Congress Senator Rand Paul released more than 1,000 pages of a diary that Dr. Anthony Fauci kept during the Covid pandemic as part of his investigation into whether Fauci lied to Congress about the origins of the virus. Fauci is scheduled to testify before the Senate this week. Senator Mitch McConnell extended his Senate leave, saying he was not “medically cleared” to return after six weeks of hospitalization. Funeral services begin today for Senator Lindsey Graham, who died this month. War in the Middle East Trump said there was “a good chance” that a new round of diplomacy with Iran could yield a breakthrough. Iran denied that it was open to more negotiations. Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed drones launched by Iranian-backed militias. It was the kingdom’s first direct military response to such attacks since the U.S.-Iran cease-fire collapsed. Around the World A vigil for people who died in a ferry sinking this month in Georgetown, Guyana. Cesar Rodriguez for The New York Times About 100 people died in Guyana when a state-run ferry capsized this month. The police in Europe said that Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, had quietly made it more difficult to track down scammers and fight money laundering. A police officer who spent nine years enforcing China’s repression campaign against Uyghurs is seeking asylum in Germany, claiming that he is also a victim of the state policy. Crime The television anchor Savannah Guthrie made a desperate new plea for help nearly six months into the search for her 84-year-old mother. The man charged with murdering four University of Idaho students is seeking to rescind his guilty plea and take his case to trial, claiming that he is innocent and was misled into confessing. Other Big Stories Congress is considering an end to America’s spring-forward, fall-back clock changes. But making daylight saving time permanent would have serious consequences for your health and the economy, scientists say. Apple regained its title as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company from Nvidia, about two years after it lost the crown. Mia Bieniemy, the wife of the Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, was shot at their home in Virginia on Sunday. The couple’s son was arrested in connection with the shooting. OPINIONS Did Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” modernize Odysseus for our times? Yes — and that’s disappointing, Maureen Dowd writes. Yes — and it’s what we deserve, B.D. McClay writes. Consider adopting the life of a tradwife, at least a little bit, JoAnna Novak writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS Tatsiana Chypsanava for The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. Reclaiming a ritual: New Zealand’s British colonial rulers outlawed traditional Maori tattoos. Now, young people are embracing the art form. In Montana: A nurse on a hike trekked 10 miles to safety after impaling himself on a hiking pole. You won’t believe this photo. “Why Isn’t Dad at Home?” In Ukraine, new children’s books are helping families cope with the trauma of war. See the illustrations. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a Secret Service agent who took part in a fraternity hazing. Animal rescue: Thirty beluga whales are being relocated to new aquariums. See them hoisted in the air. RECIPE OF THE DAY David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. Weeknight dinners don’t have to take up all of the weeknight. Sometimes I’ll grab a rotisserie chicken on my way home from work, rinse some rice, get it into the rice cooker and let time do its thing. I add some chopped nuts and dried fruit to the grains when they’re finished and carve the chicken — dinner is served. That’s what we call a no-recipe recipe. Try it! CALL IT A COMEBACK Johnny Depp in “Ebenezer.” Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times A decade after Johnny Depp’s Hollywood career went south — dragged down by a long and public legal fight with his ex-wife Amber Heard, in which each accused the other of abuse — Paramount Pictures believes audiences are ready to re-embrace him. The studio has made Depp the star of its forthcoming Thanksgiving film, “Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol.” “The master of misfits returns,” the film’s teaser trailer declares, then cuts to Depp, made up and costumed as Ebenezer Scrooge. He rasps: “It’s good to be back.” More on culture Lindsay Zoladz, a Times pop music critic, has a banger of a review for the new Charli XCX album, “Music, Fashion, Film.” She calls it “proudly prickly,” “satisfyingly scuzzy” and “brief, barbed and unrepentantly personal.” The whole thing’s just a delight to read. Most ballet slippers are manufactured in a pale pink. But New York City Ballet’s repertoire requires a rainbow of colors. Meet the Picasso of pointe shoes. Late night hosts mocked Trump’s speech at the White House correspondents’ dinner. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Photo illustration by Mark Harris Read Ismail Muhammad’s essay in The Times Magazine about how Colson Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy has turned away from the pessimism of his earlier novels to offer a more hopeful vision for Black history. Get a facial, the Well team says. Get one regularly. Among other things, it’s a good way to get rid of stress. Stop using nonstick pans. One fanatical Wirecutter writer tested roughly one gajillion of them to discover that, eventually, they all start to fail. Embrace stainless steel or cast iron instead. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was inactivity. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted July 30 Author Members Posted July 30 July 29, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. The war in the Middle East is escalating, and missiles are flying across the region. There’s more below. But first, I want to take you to Europe. Europe’s burning The fires threatening central Spain and southwestern France over the past two weeks may be small by American standards. In Europe, though, they are tremendous. Some are the largest in their countries’ modern histories, raging in places not accustomed to fires of this scale: on the outskirts of Madrid, for instance, or near the ancient vineyards of Bordeaux. Firefighters have been struggling to contain the fires before another heat wave descends on the region today, with temperatures soaring to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Last month was the hottest June on record in Western Europe, and climate experts say the continent can expect even higher temperatures in the future. The heat dries vegetation, making it more susceptible to fire. (It also exhausts firefighters.) And more destruction may lie ahead. Last year had a record-breaking fire season across Europe, my colleagues report, with more than 2.5 million acres burned, about 60 percent of them in August. The fires of the last two weeks have put 2026 ahead of last year at the same time. These charts tell the terrible story: Source: European Forest Fire Information System, as of July 28, 2026. The New York Times ‘A wake-up call’ The fires have been particularly hard on Madrid, which in recent years has become a booming European capital. Residents can’t recall a time when such a large fire advanced so close to the city, reports Jason Horowitz, our bureau chief there: In a country led by a government that has defined itself by the seriousness with which it takes climate change, the flames have come unsettlingly close to the capital. The fires around Madrid have brought to tears the region’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Experts say they are a harbinger for the damage to come on the world’s fastest warming continent. “These are difficult hours,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Monday afternoon during a news conference in Castellón, on Spain’s eastern coast, where a new fire raged and forced thousands of new evacuations. “This is a wake-up call,” one Madrileño told Jason. Another said that even before the fires, weeks of record-breaking heat had exhausted her. “It just keeps spreading,” she said, looking at a sunset ruined by smoke. “Just don’t let it reach here.” ‘Be prepared’ In southwestern France. Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The fires scare people in Bordeaux as well, particularly in the region’s storied vineyards, home to world-famous appellations like Lafite Rothschild, Pomerol and St.-Émilion. Mark Landler, our Paris bureau chief, visited one of them this week, a chateau built around a castle that dates to 1365. “For the wine industry, it’s one thing on top of the other,” a director at the chateau told him. There’s been drought, heat waves, weak sales because drinking habits are changing, and President Trump’s tariffs on French wine. “It doesn’t make our lives very easy,” he continued. “In the face of that risk, we need to be prepared.” And so, Mark reports, the chateau is readying itself for the once inconceivable possibility that fire could reach its grounds and buildings, with plans to evacuate the chickens, goats, horses and llamas that live there. “The animals are living, breathing beings, unlike the vines,” the director said. “The vines are just material.” See maps and charts showing the scale of these fires. Source: VIIRS satellite fire detection data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via NASA. The New York Times LINDSEY GRAHAM’S FUNERAL Senator Lindsey Graham lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda. Kenny Holston/The New York Times World leaders and U.S. politicians gathered at the Washington National Cathedral to honor Lindsey Graham, the longtime South Carolina senator who died this month at 71. Peter Baker, The Times’s chief White House correspondent, reported from the service yesterday. He writes of Graham: He simply did not fit the cookie-cutter Washington mold. He had little time for staid, heavily edited speeches and all the time in the world for freewheeling Sunday talk shows. He liked to riff. He liked to tease. He liked to surprise and provoke. He could be funny and angry, charming and exasperating, sometimes all at once. President Trump eulogized Graham as “one of the great figures in Senate history.” Graham, he said, was “truly hawkish: He never saw a war that he didn’t like.” Some of the foreign dignitaries whose wars Graham championed were in attendance, including Benjamin Netanyahu and Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump met separately with both leaders, but he kept the meetings and their details private. Today, a procession and public funeral will be held in South Carolina, followed by a private burial. THE LATEST NEWS War in the Middle East The United States and Saudi Arabia said they had carried out joint strikes on Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. The Iranian military said it had targeted American military assets in Jordan. The Houthis claimed an attack on another Saudi tanker, escalating its declared blockade of the Red Sea. Iran publicly hanged two protesters who participated in the country’s demonstrations in January, human rights groups said. Airports Times Exclusive: ICE has started arresting foreign citizens with expired visas, including spouses of Americans, as they travel through airports. (We’ve made this link free.) A U.S. citizen returning to the country gave customs officers a passcode that erased the contents of his phone. Now he’s been charged with a felony. Politics Representative Max Miller, an Ohio Republican, has been accused by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno — daughter of Senator Bernie Moreno — of scalding her, holding a gun to her head and fracturing their toddler’s collarbone. Miller has denied the accusations. The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as the director of national intelligence. Kentucky’s governor, Andy Beshear, called on Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has been hospitalized since June, to prove his capacity to serve, or to resign. The Democratic Party approved a new primary calendar for 2028. South Carolina will vote first. Around the World In Japan. Naoki Hiraoka/Kyodo News, via Associated Press A powerful earthquake hit southwest Japan yesterday, igniting fires and damaging buildings and highways. At least 13 people have died. Six months into the Trump administration’s oil blockade of Cuba, there are widespread blackouts. At night, Cubans struggle to sleep without electricity for fans — so they gather in the dark. In the video below, Jack Nicas explains. Click to watch. The New York Times Health Anthony Fauci’s diaries reveal an obsession with his own celebrity, even during a deadly pandemic. Dozens of states have tried to dismantle vaccine rules and undermine public trust in vaccines this year, introducing more than 200 bills for the purpose, a Times analysis found. The cyclosporiasis outbreak has sickened more than 11,000 Americans so far. Health officials insist the country’s food supply is safe. (Related: Conspiracy theories about the Trump administration’s role in the outbreak are spreading on social media.) Other Big Stories In an interview with The Times, Mark Zuckerberg took aim at Anthropic and OpenAI, which have pushed to tightly control A.I. development. Florida executed two men convicted of murder, both by lethal injection. It was the first time in decades the state executed two people in one day. (Florida has been carrying out executions at a record pace, The Times Magazine recently reported.) OPINIONS Is more data about your body actually good for you? David Wallace-Wells and Rachael Bedard debate the drive to optimize personal health. More air-conditioning can’t save France from dangerously hot summers. But real government policy could, Madeleine Schwartz writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS We’ve made these links free for you. Capuchinos de Taboga Project Animal intelligence: Scientists in Costa Rica are using A.I. to test the cognitive abilities of monkeys in the wild. Manta baby: Scientists in Mexico used an underwater ultrasound to confirm pregnancies in giant rays. See how they did it. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a man who finished a 10-mile hike after impaling himself on a trekking pole. TODAY’S NUMBER 60,000 — That is how many Italian honeybees live, and work, in hives on the roof of The Times’s headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. Check ’em out. SPORTS FIFA: Soccer’s governing body announced plans to sell a stake in a new company that will run its premier events. A member of Trump’s extended family is expected to be involved through the lead investment firm. Women’s soccer: In Malawi’s first-ever Women’s Africa Cup of Nations game, the team stunned Nigeria, the 10-time reigning champion. RECIPE OF THE DAY David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Here’s the plan. Make chłodnik litewski, this Polish chilled-beet-and-potato soup of extreme excellence, and get it into the fridge to cure so that its flavors marry and its color deepens. You’ll eat it tomorrow for dinner. While the beets are roasting and you’re cooking the potatoes, order a pizza. That’s dinner tonight. SAYING GOODBYE Marcus Maddox for The New York Times Eight seasons after its debut on Showtime, Lena Waithe’s crime-and-trauma series “The Chi,” the longest-running Black drama on cable television, wrapped up last week. Waithe sat down with The Times’s Salamishah Tillet to talk about the show’s evolution, the pressures she faced and what she was trying to achieve. “There was this desire to compare it to ‘The Wire,’” Waithe said. “There’s no greater compliment, but I’m not that interested in the system. I’m more interested in the people that have to deal with the system and what kind of impact it has on their lives.” Read the conversation. More on culture Marlon James’s “The Disappearers,” a novel about a hate crime in 1980s Jamaica, was nominated yesterday for the Booker Prize, alongside a dozen other books, including Douglas Stuart’s “John of John” and “The Things We Never Say” by Elizabeth Strout. Here are all the nominees. Emily Wilson, whose translation of Homer’s “Odyssey” was a touchstone for Christopher Nolan as he adapted the story for the screen, absolutely roasted the movie in The London Review of Books. “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script,” she writes. Whatever you think of the film, it’s fun to read. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Take the stairs — and follow eight other tips experts say will increase your longevity. Stop exchanging your grill’s empty propane tank for a “full” one. Have it refilled instead. You’ll get more fuel for less money. (There is no link. This is my learned experience.) Replace your dishwasher detergent with one of the ones Wirecutter recommends. I’m sure you like yours. But it’s doubtful you’ve done as those scullions have, and tested over 30 different varieties. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were impeding, impending and impinged. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. If you don’t already, would you consider subscribing? Subscriptions make our work possible and allow it to continue. See you tomorrow. — Sam Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted Thursday at 10:25 PM Author Members Posted Thursday at 10:25 PM July 30, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. The United States bombarded sites in Iran overnight. I’m going to start, though, with President Trump’s campaign of retribution and payouts. James Comey Jared Soares for The New York Times On the beach New details emerged yesterday in the Justice Department’s criminal case against James Comey, Trump’s former F.B.I. director and longtime nemesis, by way of a new court filing by Comey’s lawyers that seeks to dismiss the charges against him. They’re spicy. As you probably remember, prosecutors have charged Comey with threatening Trump’s life. In 2025, Comey posted a photograph of seashells laid out on a North Carolina beach in the shape of the numbers “86 47.” Prosecutors say that “86” is gangster speak for murder. Trump is the 47th president. Comey, for his part, says “86” is tavern jargon, a piece of slang that means to eject a disorderly customer. His lawyers have urged the judge to dismiss the case against him as a vindictive and selective prosecution, and their filing yesterday was based on internal government documents turned over in the case. Those documents, write Devlin Barrett and Alan Feuer, provide “one of the most glaring examples to date of the degree to which Mr. Trump now directs federal law enforcement actions.” The Secret Service questioned Comey about the posting, and an agent received a “direct request” from Trump to forward him details from the interview, according to the documents. That summary was sent to Air Force One, even as Trump told Fox News that same day that he was “not going to get involved” in the case. Secret Service agents tailed Comey’s car from North Carolina to Virginia. The “# 3 guy at DOJ ‘wanted to ping’” Comey’s phone without a traditional warrant, according to the filing, a request that’s typically used only when an emergency — a dangerous, fleeing suspect, for instance — requires immediate action. The agents who were following Comey even lost him briefly. He had turned off the highway to visit the gravesite of his son who died in 1995. What’s the deal? The man Trump has tapped to lead the Justice Department, and thus oversee the Comey case, is Todd Blanche. He’s the president’s former personal lawyer. But Blanche’s confirmation faces some headwinds on Capitol Hill. Last night, Senate Republicans delayed a vote on Blanche’s nomination after two key figures on the Judiciary Committee threatened to block it over a deal Blanche cut, as acting attorney general, to settle Trump’s lawsuit with the I.R.S. In June, Blanche said he would drop a proposed $1.8 billion fund to compensate what the Trump administration calls victims of Biden-era actions by the Justice Department. A provision that shields Trump and his family from tax investigations would remain in place, he said, potentially providing a $100 million windfall for Trump and his family. Blanche has thus far refused to put on paper the details of his promise to kill parts of the deal, angering the two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Cornyn said he didn’t know what the holdup was, Glenn Thrush and Michael Gold report, and he did not rule out the possibility that Trump wants to keep the tax-immunity deal. “I can see why he wants it, because it provides immunity from audits no other taxpayer would get,” Cornyn added. An ally allayed In the meantime, payouts from the fund appear to continue without a formal structure, despite Blanche’s public retreat. The government will make a seven-figure payment to an anti-abortion activist convicted by a Tennessee jury in 2024 of conspiring to prevent access to an abortion clinic, his lawyers announced yesterday. The lawyers had argued that the Biden administration weaponized the Justice Department against the activist. Trump pardoned him last year. Devlin and Alan were on this story, too, and report that Blanche’s management style often prompts criticism that “he continues to act like Mr. Trump’s personal defense attorney, rather than a senior law enforcement official with responsibilities to taxpayers, the rule of law and the public.” A federal judge in Minnesota made just that critique in June. Quashing a number of grand jury subpoenas of Democratic officials there, the judge wrote that Blanche’s department had used “criminal investigations to retaliate against and pressure the president’s political and personal adversaries.” Related: Trump asked the Supreme Court to step in and overturn an $83.3 million jury award against him for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of a decades-old sexual assault. TODAY’S NUMBER Dr. Anthony Fauci Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times 100 — That is how many times, at least, that Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights yesterday. Senators were grilling him on Capitol Hill as part of a committee investigation into the origins of Covid-19. Fauci accused the committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Rand Paul, of having an “unhinged obsession with me.” Read more about the bitter hearing. MORE NEWS War in the Middle East The war is widening. Iran is becoming more determined as the conflict goes on, experts say. An apparent drone attack on an Egyptian port hit two ships, including a U.S. tanker. U.S. and Saudi attacks on Iraqi militias risk further expanding the war. The Israeli military bombed a mosque in Gaza, accusing Hamas of using it to store weapons. The United States and Iran can’t stop cycling between conflict and calm. Click the chart below to see how unusually volatile this war has been. Source: Data on U.S. and Iranian attacks comes from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, a nonprofit that tracks global conflict. Adina Renner/The New York Times Politics Ken Paxton Antranik Tavitian for The New York Times Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate candidate in Texas, is far behind his Democratic challenger in fund-raising. So far, national Republicans aren’t willing to help out. Trump unveiled plans for a major redesign of Dulles International Airport in Washington, part of his efforts to remake the city. More and more uninsured patients are showing up in emergency rooms and have been unable to pay their bills after Republican lawmakers cut Obamacare subsidies. (And the Trump administration said it would end Biden-era subsidies that helped lower the cost of Medicare drug coverage.) Around the World The New York Times Cuba is struggling through an energy crisis, worsened by Trump’s fuel blockade. But people are finding ways to cope: Our correspondent visited a children’s movie night in Havana. Watch the video above. Russia charged Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, with facilitating terrorism in its latest attempt to control communication. The South Korean supergroup BTS said it would not compete in the Grammy Awards, protesting the creation of a new category for best Asian pop music performance. Protestants in Northern Ireland have long clashed with Catholics. Some have shifted their anger to immigrants. The Fed The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady but acknowledged internal pressure to tackle inflation by raising rates. Long-term government borrowing costs hit a two-decade high after the Fed’s decision. Other Big Stories Buried beneath Marietta, Ohio: hundreds of millions of gallons of radioactive fracking wastewater. Now the toxic mess is bubbling up to the surface. Seven years after eBay stalked and harassed two journalists in an effort to get them to stop publishing stories, the company and three former executives agreed to pay them $56 million. OPINIONS Should men ever wear shorts at the office? No, says a fashion writer. Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens discussed the Fauci hearing. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS In Nantucket. Four Winds Craft Guild We’ve made these links free for you. ‘No Influencers’: A Nantucket store owner said a sign banning the social media obsessed from his property was meant as a joke. People took it seriously. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a man who has been charged with a felony after giving customs agents a code that erased his phone. Going dry: California wine growers are burning their vines as younger people turn to canned cocktails, seltzers and nonalcoholic beers and spirits. The busker: Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter and actor who fronted the band the Frames and had Oscar-winning success with the 2007 film “Once,” died early yesterday morning in a motorcycle crash in Dublin. He was 56. IN ONE MAP The number of data centers in the United States is poised to explode. Source: Cleanview. Jacqueline Gu/The New York Times The A.I. boom is marking the landscape. From the American Midwest to the Persian Gulf, hundreds of major data centers will be turned on in the coming years. They are set to deliver computing power for A.I. that has no technological precedent. A.I. companies are recruiting thousands of electricians and construction workers to help build these data centers. And the Trump administration is repurposing large chunks of federal land to house the centers. Yesterday, the Energy Department said it would redevelop a retired Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility in Kentucky to host a new campus. SPORTS N.B.A.: As the league’s investigation into Kawhi Leonard’s controversial endorsement deal continues, the crew of the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” unpacks another oddity in the saga, this time involving a Rhode Island soccer project. Watch the episode here. Memorabilia: A thrifter bought a Lakers warm-up jacket with Wilt Chamberlain’s name on it for $3 at Goodwill. It resold at an auction last week for nearly $90,000. RECIPE OF THE DAY Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Anna Billingskog. I love Melissa Clark, but I’m not going to make her recipe for stir-fried green beans with ground chicken as she suggests. I’m going to use ground lamb instead (as she allows), and luxuriate in how it absorbs the flavors of cumin, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and rice vinegar. Make it with ground turkey or pork. Make it with tofu crumbles. But make it! THE BIRTH OF A CHEF Anthony Bourdain, circa the late 1970s. Courtesy of A24 The new Anthony Bourdain biopic, “Tony,” is set in 1970s Provincetown, at the end of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Some of the people and places Bourdain interacted with there are still around. Pete Wells, who was our restaurant critic, examines the scene, then and now. More on culture This is cool. After finishing his latest novel and receiving a prepublication galley of it, Karan Mahajan reverted to the original opening passage he had written for the book. Read them both and vote for the one you prefer. Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” is one of this summer’s biggest songs. It has fueled controversy because of its discussion of money, power and dating. It’s also Jon Caramanica’s “Song of the Week.” Late night hosts reviewed Trump’s eulogy for Senator Lindsey Graham. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Philip Lindeman Keep a journal when you’re on the road this summer. You don’t have to show it to anyone. It’s just for remembering in ways that are more fulfilling than scrolling your camera roll. That’s Travel 101. Eat sweet corn to get more fiber. Apply DEET. It’s gotten a bad rap, experts told the bug slappers at Wirecutter. And ticks hate it. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were outboard and troubadour. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Correction: Yesterday I called Lafite Rothschild a wine appellation. It’s not. It’s a (very good) wine producer. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted Saturday at 10:22 PM Author Members Posted Saturday at 10:22 PM July 31, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. President Trump said his “Board of Peace” had reached a disarmament deal in Gaza. “For the first time, Hamas officially has committed to an actionable plan for relinquishing all its weapons, which will be followed by Israeli withdrawal from Gaza,” the board said. Neither side commented publicly. We have more news below. I’m going to start with the United States Coast Guard. The New York Times In the surf Dave Philipps, who covers the United States military and veterans for The Times, has spent the past few years focused on the brain injuries suffered by members of elite and specialized units. He’s written about artillery crews who repeatedly fire high-powered cannons and about SEALs who do the same with shoulder-fired rockets. He’s written about what happens to the brains of fighter pilots who catapult from aircraft carriers, and to those of fast-boat crews who pound across the ocean. And now he’s turned his attention to the crews of Coast Guard rescue boats, who work and train in heavy, crashing seas in order to save lives. They’re called surfmen, and their work is among the most challenging and dangerous jobs in the service. It is work that comes at a cost, Dave reports. They take a beating from the ocean. Many veteran surfmen experience headaches, memory lapses, anxiety attacks, nightmares, mood swings and cognitive problems that can be symptoms of brain injuries. “A 20-foot wave breaking on you is like being in a car crash,” a surfman named Aaron Harris told him. “If you are out training in big surf, that’s like 20 car accidents a day.” Harris was on the boats for 22 years, before retiring in 2024. The surfmen are alone, Dave discovered. The Coast Guard has no regular testing protocol for brain injuries. It delivers no formal briefings on the dangers of pounding waves. The website it maintains on brain injuries is more than 10 years old. Dave found that many of the links that appear under a heading reading “Where to get help” are inactive. The surfmen suffer, and their families suffer, and the results can be fatal. Brett Bonner, 1982-2025 Brett Bonner served in the U.S. Coast Guard for 21 years. Mike Belleme for The New York Times Dave’s story explores the life and death of a surfman named Brett Bonner, who saved hundreds of lives during his 21 years driving rescue boats. Bonner developed post-traumatic stress disorder during his service, and his life unraveled after he retired in 2022. Here’s Dave: He struggled to make decisions. Even ordering at a drive-through was overwhelming. He grew paranoid. He was sure his father-in-law, who lived next door, was out to get him and punched him over a minor disagreement about new closet doors. In February 2025, Bonner shot himself. His wife and four children saw it happen. He left no note. Bonner’s eldest child, Kayleigh, is now 18. After her father’s death, she did something remarkable. Seeking some understanding of what had happened to her dad, and whether it had anything to do with his work in the unrelenting surf, she decided to send questionnaires to as many surfmen as she could locate. Her survey asked 36 questions about their time in the service and their health during and after it. Jenna Bonner, left, and her daughter, Kayleigh Bonner, 18, Mike Belleme for The New York Times Nearly 80 active and retired surfmen responded, and a vast majority reported symptoms similar to her father’s. They had headaches. Sleeplessness. Their memories were shot. Anxiety stalked them. Their moods swung, hard. Some were getting worse. “My brain has started to fail me. I feel it, I see it,” one responder in his early 50s wrote. “It is difficult to do things that used to be natural to me.” “It has been a struggle for me to keep my life together,” another in his mid-40s wrote. Kayleigh wrote up the results of her study as a senior-year high school research project. It earned an A. (I’d have gone A+.) Dave reports that she plans to share her findings with the Coast Guard. Breaking the cycle Yesterday I reached out to Dave to ask him what to make of his reporting. Not just about the Coast Guard surfmen, but also about the Navy pilots and boat skippers and SEALS and Army mortar soldiers and all those who’ve been exposed, repeatedly, to concussive blasts in service to the nation, and who’ve been left with injured brains. Here’s what he told me: I think the big takeaway is that these injuries are preventable. There never needs to be another story like Brett Bonner’s, even if we will always need Coast Guard crews to brave rough waters. On these motor lifeboats, most of the damaging exposure occurs during training, not in emergencies. The same is true in the rest of the military. That is both infuriating and a stroke of good luck, because training is a controlled environment. We can change it to limit damage. If anything is going to change, though, the first step is recognizing that there is a problem. That has been tricky because these types of brain injuries develop slowly and often resemble other mental health problems. For decades the military has been stuck in a cycle where it doesn’t see these injuries as a problem, and therefore isn’t on the lookout for them. I hope the reporting The Times has done can break that cycle. Please read the complete article here. I’ve only scratched its surface. (Not a subscriber? Not a problem. The click is free.) THE LATEST NEWS Europe On Ceuta. Antonio Sempere/Associated Press Spain mobilized its military after thousands of migrants crossed — some swimming — to Ceuta, a Spanish-governed peninsula on Morocco’s coast. Climate change is an important factor in Europe’s wildfires. So is the continent’s shift away from farming, experts say. A wildfire on the Greek island of Crete has forced thousands of people to flee and killed two firefighters, the latest in a series of blazes that have charred Europe this summer. On Crete. Costas Metaxakis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images War in Ukraine Russia pounded Ukrainian cities with a barrage of missiles and drones that killed at least eight people. With the attacks, Russia set a record for the country’s ballistic missile attacks in a single month. During the assault, a Russian missile crashed in Poland. The episode raised the possibility of a confrontation with NATO. Trump Administration Simon Ducroquet/The New York Times An appeals court is still considering the legality of President Trump’s White House ballroom project. Yet construction is racing ahead, as these photos show. The Trump administration exempted natural diamonds from its latest batch of tariffs, after negotiations and a gift to Trump of a ring encrusted with 321 diamonds from a trade group in Belgium. Trump says he may temporarily withdraw his nomination of Todd Blanche to be attorney general. Two Republicans have threatened to block Blanche’s confirmation. More on Politics Jim Vondruska for The New York Times Elon Musk says that he plans to spend at least $100 million on the midterm elections to help Republicans. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he supported reparations for some Black New Yorkers but said it was too early to commit to direct cash payments. Texas parents are suing to remove Ten Commandments posters from classrooms. Other Big Stories Anthropic revealed that its artificial intelligence systems broke into computers at three outside organizations, heightening fears about the technology’s safety. U.S. economic growth slowed in the last quarter, pulled down by the higher prices and supply chain disruptions caused by the war in Iran. The father of a teenager who killed four people at a Georgia high school was sentenced to 15 years in prison over his son’s attack. The son was sentenced to life earlier this week. OPINIONS Maggie Haberman spoke to Ezra Klein about DOGE, Iran and her new book with Jonathan Swan on Trump’s second term, “Regime Change.” Vivek Ramaswamy could be the Republican Party’s future. But first he has to win, Lydia Polgreen writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS We’ve made these links free for you. Scott Semler for The New York Times Semi-sweets: Candies marketed as “better-for-you” have taken over grocery stores and found their way into gyms and supplement shops. But are they actually healthy? T.S.A. surprise: Officers at an Alabama airport discovered five Civil War-era cannonballs inside a passenger’s checked luggage. It’s a … whale: A drone off the coast of Australia captured what is believed to be the first-ever aerial footage of a humpback whale giving birth. See the video. Your pick: The most clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about toxic wastewater bubbling out of the ground in Ohio. TODAY’S NUMBER An Airbus plane. James D. Morgan/Getty Images 22 — That is how many hours it could take to fly nonstop between Sydney and London when Qantas launches a new flight next year, aboard specially manufactured Airbus jets. The route would become the world’s longest commercial flight. SPORTS FIFA announced plans to allow private investment in its tournaments. In response, European nations threatened to boycott the World Cup. W.N.B.A.: The Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was suspended and fined by the league after an exchange with two teenage girls regarding transgender athletes. RECIPE OF THE DAY Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. Kristina Felix’s recipe for spicy tuna and avocado tostadas is aces high, a cross between tuna salad and guacamole that makes for a perfect dinner on a hot summer night. Kristina uses canned tuna in oil for the protein, which makes the dish cheap and accessible. But if you happen to run in tuna-fishing circles and someone gives you a fat loin off a fish caught earlier that morning? Use that instead and experience nirvana. ON COMEDY Mary Beth Barone in “Galaxy Brain.” Netflix The comic Mary Beth Barone has a new special out on Netflix, “Galaxy Brain.” Jason Zinoman, our comedy critic, calls it “darkly ironic, a pleasingly prickly hour, equal parts wry and righteous.” She ends the performance, Jason writes, by calling for a grass-roots women’s movement to win the next election: Step 1: On dating apps, stop swiping right on men with more conservative politics. “I did the math,” she said. “If every single woman has sex with about 1,000 moderates” — Barone pauses, clenches her fists intensely and flashes the most deluded-looking smile of the show — “we might be able to win this thing!” More on culture Flaco’s back! Alissa Wilkinson reviews the director Penny Lane’s new documentary, “Wild Inside,” a collective tribute to a celebrity owl and the city that loved him. Sadie Stein, an editor on our Book Review, reread the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House” series she’d taken in as a child. Once a Pa supporter, she now finds herself firmly Team Ma. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Move to Fremont, California. By one account, it is the happiest city in America. Stay hydrated and you’ll reduce your headache risk. Cop a squat on the sidelines of Junior’s next soccer game in this excellent camping chair tested by the peripatetic seating investigators at Wirecutter. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was toughen. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. I’ll be on vacation for the next two weeks, experiencing a life of magic and chores. My colleagues will write to you while I’m gone. Stay frosty. — Sam Correction: We wrote yesterday that the Washington Dulles International Airport is in Washington. It is actually in Virginia. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted Sunday at 09:27 PM Author Members Posted Sunday at 09:27 PM August 1, 2026 Good morning. Errands get us out of our homes and into the world, on missions providing both serendipity and satisfaction. María Jesús Contreras Making rounds By Melissa Kirsch Weekends are the province of the errand, the little voyages we take to pick up things and get things done. Contrast the errand with the chore: Chores are domestic obligations, performed at home. The errand is an excursion with a purpose. In Old English, an “aerend” was a message or mission; an angel was an aerendgast, or messenger-ghost, divinely sent to perform a sacred duty. Running errands is satisfying in a way so much else in our lives isn’t. We wander out into the world with a map to follow — stop here to drop off the dry cleaning, now, to replace the watch battery, to the supermarket, the pet food store — and when we complete the route, our work is done. The metrics for success are clear and achievable. Each episode of the social-media show “Errands” accompanies someone on their angel’s mission. My colleague Alex Vadukul recently tagged along with the show’s creator, Noah Blau, as he filmed an episode featuring the comedian Ivy Wolk, on a mission to buy an air-conditioner window unit and install it in her apartment. Wolk distilled why a show so apparently mundane has become popular. “Beauty is found in the minutiae, and the things that are banal are often the most interesting,” she said. “It’s those in-between moments of life where growth and realization happen.” The genius of “Errands” (I watched every episode in one feverish gulp) is how it provides a window into the personalities and preoccupations of its subjects. A stranger appears and announces today’s errand. Then we’re privy to their internal monologues as they carry out the mission, the serendipitous run-ins and pit stops they make along the way. The episodes are just a couple of minutes long and waste no time on introductions or establishing scenes. We’re passengers for typically private expeditions, instantly thrust into someone’s personal life. Even when his subjects don’t accomplish the errand, Blau told Alex, the concept still works. “The show is about: I set out to do something, and did I accomplish it? So as mundane as the errand might be, everyone understands that feeling.” When visiting friends, it’s a treat to see the highlights of their hometown, but I always find it more interesting to run errands with them, to see how they live when I’m not around. What do they listen to in the car, what’s their hardware store like, who do they run into in the produce aisle? Other people’s errands are revealing of their actual day-to-day lives, not the performed existence — our best restaurant! — that gets presented for company. You might, if you’re running your own errands today, enlist someone to join you. In a recent piece in The Times, experts told my colleague Dana G. Smith that running errands with a friend might help increase longevity. “The reality of midlife is that it can be hard to carve out time for yourself,” Dana writes, “let alone coordinate schedules with another busy friend.” Regardless of which stage of life you’re in, why not make your first stop picking up a friend you haven’t caught up with in a while? On the other hand, I have a friend who loves errands because they’re “excuses to not be with other people,” a rare break from family duties. She praises the “soft-touch socialization” you get while out and about: the salesperson you chat with before going on your way, the neighbor you catch up with when you run into them at the dump. I cherish the connective tissue of errands, when you’re between stops, driving or walking. Bursts of activity followed by respites of solitude, each stop its own tidy episode. Errands get us out of our own homes and out into the world. It’s tempting to hibernate on weekends, to stay in and recharge. But the errand allows us to, as Virginia Woolf wrote, “become part of that vast republican army of anonymous trampers, whose society is so agreeable after the solitude of one’s own room.” THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration The Reflecting Pool earlier this week. Andrew Leyden for The New York Times Federal prosecutors said they would drop charges against a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the renovated Reflecting Pool in Washington. And they acknowledged that contractors hired by the Trump administration had “botched” the job. President Trump’s Board of Peace released a 15-point plan detailing the deal to disarm Hamas. But it remains unclear whether Hamas and Israel will carry out the agreement. Trump, without offering evidence, blamed Minnesota and its Democratic governor for the recent cyberattack on municipal water systems in the state. U.S. officials have said Iran was likely behind the attack. More Politics Republicans in Congress have quietly blocked an expansion of military health coverage for in vitro fertilization treatment. The State Department will issue thousands of additional commemorative passports featuring Trump’s portrait. Around the World Abdel Majid Bziouat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Tens of thousands of migrants rushed into the small Spanish territory of Ceuta from Morocco. Spain’s pro-immigration prime minister mobilized the military to respond, and by night most of the migrants had left. Trump backtracked on his promise to let Ukraine make Patriot missiles, which he had announced earlier this month. FIFA scrapped its plan to allow private investment in the World Cup, after soccer federations around the world criticized the move. Mexico’s premier public university will require all students who passed its entrance exam to retake the test, after an investigation suggested that there was widespread cheating. Other Big Stories Law enforcement officials in Arizona released two ransom notes addressed to Savannah Guthrie in the days after her mother, Nancy, vanished. The first demanded millions of dollars; the second said that Nancy had died. The head of the U.S. Coast Guard promised “decisive action” to prevent, recognize and treat the brain injuries suffered by crews slamming through rough seas. (Read the Times investigation that prompted the change.) Plug-in solar power systems, smaller and cheaper than their rooftop counterparts, are becoming popular as more states legalize their use. Forecasters expect blistering heat across the western United States this weekend. Temperatures could rise to 105 in Salt Lake City, 115 in Las Vegas and 117 in Palm Springs. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Tom Holland in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” Sony Pictures via AP “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is smaller and more intimate than its predecessors. (And it’s unfortunately not as fun, our critic writes. Read her review.) “Game of Thrones” is getting a stage adaptation at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Music Ariana Grande’s new album, “Petal,” finds her dissatisfied with fame, but offers few details on exactly why. Read the review. Boy George’s manager pulled him from a production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” after the singer’s pro-Israel reggae song about Oct. 7 drew criticism. What’s the song of the summer? Our critics examined eight of the top contenders. Listen to their conversation on “Popcast.” More Culture Archaeologists have discovered hundreds of monumental designs carved into the Amazon rainforest. At the Guggenheim Museum, a new survey of Pop Art asks: What exactly did the movement give us? Bam! Just like that, a new generation has fallen in love with vintage clips of Emeril Lagasse. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Joseph De Leo for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. By Melissa Clark Fruit Crumble Burbling with sweet, syrupy juices and topped with a nutty, chai spice-flavored streusel (that happens to be gluten-free), Genevieve Ko’s fruit crumble can be made with any fresh fruit you have in abundance: summer’s berries and stone fruit, or fall's apples and pears. Or feel free to use frozen berries all year long. It’s a lovely, crowd-pleasing dessert no matter when you bake it. REAL ESTATE We’ve made these links free for you. Juan Diego Devia and Hayley Milam Devia. Scott McIntyre for The New York Times The Hunt: After their rent ballooned, a young couple searched some of Miami’s walkable neighborhoods for a single-family house or townhome where they could start a family. What did they choose? Play our game. What you get for $1 million in Costa Rica: A Bali-inspired villa with expansive sea views, a four-bedroom overlooking the Pacific Ocean and a contemporary home in the rainforest canopy. Pick your favorite: These homes in Oregon City, Ore., St. Louis and Birmingham, Ala., are on the market for $575,000. Which would you choose? LIVING Bianca Beamer Scan here: More couples are incorporating QR codes into their weddings to make it easier for guests to R.S.V.P., find seat assignments and share photos and videos. The wet look: Hairstylists give tips on how to wear the style, which plays well across a range of lengths and textures. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER It’s time to give up on the nonstick pan You might want to consider quitting nonstick pans altogether. Traditional nonstick pans are slick and easy to clean, but are coated with PFAS — also known as forever chemicals — which have been linked to a host of environmental and health concerns. (We have some tips for how to limit your exposure to PFAS.) And ceramic nonstick pans, which have cropped up as a “clean” alternative to traditional nonstick, lose their slickness quickly and are relatively expensive. Both types of nonstick pans will need to be discarded eventually. We recommend durable cookware made from stainless steel, cast iron or carbon steel, which don’t rely on forever chemicals and should last for life. — Mace Dent Johnson NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was optimal. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, 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. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted Monday at 02:11 AM Author Members Posted Monday at 02:11 AM August 2, 2026 SUPPORTED BY APPLE Good morning. President Trump said he had canceled a series of strikes on Iran because of unspecified progress on a deal. We have more news below. But first, let’s hit the road. Tom Wright-Piersanti/The New York Times Keep on truckin’ By Tom Wright-Piersanti I’m still recovering from my time at the wheel. Here’s a hypothetical: You plan a family vacation that ends with a three-day train ride across the United States. But a few hours into the train ride, a conductor announces that a train has derailed ahead of you. Amtrak says it’ll put everyone on buses, but those buses won’t arrive for hours. And it’s unclear whether they’ll take you all the way home or just to the next big city. Would you: A) Wait for the bus and ride it as far as it will take you, at no cost. Book plane tickets, for an eye-popping price. C) Rent a car and take a leisurely road trip, stopping along the way to enjoy local color and rest. D) Rent a car and drive virtually nonstop, as if you were in some sort of cross-country road race. Actually, this is not a hypothetical. It happened to me 10 days ago. My wife, 8-year-old son and I had spent a week in Tucson, Ariz., before being dumped off the train in El Paso, some 2,000 miles from our home in New Jersey. We unanimously chose Option D. We had packed plenty of snacks for the train ride. We had the Harry Potter audiobooks cued up. We’re cheapskates, and up for a challenge. Tom Wright-Piersanti Tom Wright-Piersanti/The New York Times By the time we secured a rental car (a black 2026 Hyundai Elantra), bought a cheap booster seat ($35) at Target and loaded our luggage, the sun was already setting. Google Maps said it would take us 32 hours to get home. Exhausted from the stress of the train debacle, we pulled off the road in Pecos, Texas, and got a room at the Hilton for the night ($127). It would be our last real stop. On the road Tom Wright-Piersanti/The New York Times Between the western and eastern ends of Texas, from El Paso to Texarkana, lie 812 miles of highway. The road cuts through the desert first, then into a vast flatness pocked by oil derricks. The surroundings eventually transform to scrubland, then prairies and finally forests in full summer bloom. Each passing hour — and there are lots of hours — seems to bring more green, more life, more breath. To state the obvious, and to out myself as a lifelong East Coaster, Texas is far too big. I was surprised, though, that it was never boring. The evolving landscape, the billboards, the enchanting narration of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” — it all provoked the kind of endless chitchat that bonds loved ones. Arriving in Arkansas around 7 p.m., and not wanting to slow our momentum, we decided to pick up a pizza and eat in the car. The nearest Domino’s was a few minutes off the highway, in a town called Hope. As we neared the shop, I noticed a humble house surrounded by a fence, with a brown sign denoting a landmark: the birthplace of President Bill Clinton. Neat, I thought, and we slowed down enough to snap a picture out the window. No, we didn’t stop. Google Maps said we had 20 hours to go. Tom Wright-Piersanti/The New York Times A marathon road trip in 2026 means constantly confronting the clock. I’m reliant on my phone to guide me, and my phone insists that if I want to see the directions, I must also see how much time remains. I know, intellectually, that it takes 60 minutes — 3,600 seconds, I could count them if it’d help — for that travel time to tick down to 19 hours from 20. But when you stare at it, the number never seems to budge. We hit Tennessee around 11 p.m. I had agreed to drive through the night, and the Volunteer State’s 440-mile expanse ate up most of my eight hours at the wheel. Somewhere east of Nashville, twisting through the Cumberland Plateau, the population of tractor-trailers thinned out and I found myself alone on the road. With my wife and kid asleep, I blasted the Grateful Dead. My thoughts, artificially enhanced by a citrus-flavored Red Bull, seemed to merge with the trees and the sky and the white lines of the road blurring by. I didn’t even register Google’s E.T.A. By the time we passed into Virginia, with the sun cracking over the southern Appalachians, our drive time had dwindled to eight hours. We were in the homestretch; compared with 32 hours, eight is like a trip to the grocery store. We knew we were going to make it. Tom Wright-Piersanti/The New York Times Taking stock Twelve years ago, when my future wife and I had been dating for less than a year, we drove from New Jersey to the Grand Canyon and then up to Portland. Our relationship was solidified in the stress of marathon drives, of sharing the road with eighteen-wheelers, of having nothing but our playlists and conversation to occupy our minds. The trust required to close your eyes and recline your seat as someone else takes the wheel for the night, it seems to me, is connected to the trust it takes to share a life with someone. We saw some cool stuff on that drive, sure — the Gateway Arch, the Four Corners, the redwoods. But what we really saw was each other. In retrospect, I’m grateful for that derailed train, because it gave us a chance to see each other in this distinct way again. And our son, watching the country go by from the back seat, got to see us, too. Mom and Dad, trusty at the wheel, when he closed his eyes on a dark highway, and again when he opened them the next morning. Related (sort of): Stephen Hiltner, a Travel editor at The Times, took a road trip of his own, traversing 2,448 miles of Route 66 by motorcycle over 14 days (he made a lot more stops). See what he saw. A MESSAGE FROM APPLE MacBook Air takes top spot. Fact: MacBook Air has risen to the top to become the world's most popular laptop in business. Get the facts THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration President Trump. Pete Marovich for The New York Times Trump said he would revive a proposal for a $1.8 billion fund that would compensate his supporters if the Senate does not confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general. Trump’s approval ratings are at or near the lowest they have ever been, according to several recent polls. After Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, dropped vandalism charges over damage to the Reflecting Pool, Trump blasted her on social media. More on Politics “Where’s Mitch?” Senator Mitch McConnell, who has not been seen in public since mid-June, missed a signature Kentucky political event yesterday. Senator Susan Collins’s vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has emerged as a major issue in her re-election campaign. The Middle East Israeli strikes in Gaza yesterday killed at least two people and damaged warehouses for medical supplies, Palestinian officials said, raising questions about a deal between Trump’s Board of Peace and Hamas. A Times visual investigation suggests that the United States struck a family home on Iran’s Qeshm Island with a 2,000-pound bomb. Iranian officials said the strike killed a husband and wife and their 2-year-old son. More International News Spain said it would install a floating barrier between Morocco and the Spanish territory of Ceuta after tens of thousands of migrants crossed into the territory. Ten people, including the renowned British Nepali climber Nirmal Purja, died after an avalanche struck Pakistan’s Broad Peak, one of the world’s highest mountains. An unsecured police database revealed how China uses vast amounts of private data like facial recognition and travel logs to track foreigners. Other Big Stories Wildfires burning in eastern Washington led forecasters to issue “a particularly dangerous situation” red-flag warning, the first one in the state’s history, according to officials. Three teenagers used Google Maps to plot a hike that was estimated to take around five hours. It lasted at least 12 and required the intervention of rescue crews. FROM OPINION Nicholas Kristof took a road trip to speak to some of the millions of Americans who are barely getting by. The Trump administration’s cuts to social programs are making many of their lives worse, he writes. Are you looking to find inner peace? A silent retreat in a contemplative community could add some unexpected relief and perspective, one novelist writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS Photo illustration by Margeaux Walter for The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. Baby’s first A.I. surveillance: Start-ups that track sleep and other data for young children are becoming popular with young parents who are used to tracking and analyzing their own health metrics. Dry nation: Americans are drinking less. By objective measures of health, it’s a good change. But are we also losing important social rituals? Selling burritos: As Chipotle expands into Mexico, it must persuade Mexicans to buy an Americanized take on their own cuisine. Caveman couture: Olga Soffer’s experience at a department store inspired her later work as an archaeologist, which led to startling revelations about ice age wardrobes and the role of women. She died at 83. A MESSAGE FROM APPLE MacBook Air takes top spot. Fact: MacBook Air has risen to the top to become the world's most popular laptop in business. Get the facts SPORTS M.L.B.: One of this season’s most anticipated deals appears to be done. The superstar pitcher Tarik Skubal is headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers from the Detroit Tigers. W.N.B.A.: It’s trade season in women’s basketball, too. The Los Angeles Sparks will send the five-time All-Star Kelsey Plum to the Phoenix Mercury in exchange for Monique Akoa Makani and two draft picks, league sources said. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “Dogs, Boys and Other Things I’ve Cried About” by Isabel Klee: Klee’s heartfelt memoir returned to the best-seller list after she announced on social media that Simon, the rescue dog who inspired it, had been diagnosed with cancer. He later died. Klee, also known as @SimonSits, writes about dropping out of Ithaca College, building a life in New York City, fostering dogs and looking for love. Her tale (sorry) is full of lessons learned from resilient and feisty canines, the flotsam of the animal world to whom she has been tirelessly dedicated. In helping these pups find forever homes, she eventually finds one of her own. More New York-y reads: Here’s a guide to planning a bookstore crawl through Midtown Manhattan. These novels illuminate overlooked bits of New York history. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Watch this extraordinary video of a humpback whale giving birth off Australia’s east coast. Slap your watermelon to make sure it’s perfectly ripe. (Yes, really.) Search for your ideal BLT recipe. Admire the dreamy, Art Nouveau-inspired streetscapes of Helsinki, Finland. MEAL PLAN Andrew Bui for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Kaitlin Wayne. Here’s a utilitarian dinner philosophy: Cook dishes that make for excellent leftovers. And better yet, if you can pull it off, opt for ones that are excellent without the need for reheating. Mia Leimkuhler, an editor for NYT Cooking, put together a catalog of easy, quick dinners that make even easier lunches. Dig into these recipes for tofu scramble, broccoli-walnut pesto pasta, paprika chicken and more. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was brickbat. Can you put eight historical events — including Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” Benedict Arnold’s escape and Andy Warhol’s paintings — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. P.S.: The Interview is off this weekend. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted yesterday at 12:49 AM Author Members Posted yesterday at 12:49 AM August 3, 2026 By Evan Gorelick Good morning. President Trump said that new talks with Iran would begin today. And Ariana Grande said she’d take a break from public life after her tour ends next month. There’s more news below. But first, we’re sizing up tomorrow’s primary contest in Michigan — and what it means for the future of the Democratic Party. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Haley Stevens. Nick Hagen and Emily Elconin for The New York Times Michigan looks left Democrats are focused on Israel. There are plenty of other big, thorny issues at play this primary season — health care, taxes, immigration. But for many voters, the candidates seem to come in two flavors: Israel supporters and Israel detractors. So far, the supporters are getting crushed. Voters in Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey and New York have rejected them in favor of progressive candidates who have called the Gaza war a genocide and campaigned on stanching U.S. military aid to Israel. Each rebuke seems to deepen the sense that the party is drifting leftward. But these tests have taken place mostly in deep-blue districts. So tomorrow, when Democratic voters in Michigan — a swing state that went for Donald Trump in 2024 — pick their candidate in a do-or-die Senate race, the entire party will be watching. The matchup On the left side of the ring is Representative Haley Stevens, a moderate in a district north of Detroit. On the further-left side of the ring is Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official and professor. They’re competing for the seat held by Senator Gary Peters, a moderate Democrat. (He’s retiring.) The winner will face the Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman. Two years ago, Rogers ran for Michigan’s other Senate seat and lost by 0.3 percent, some 19,000 votes, to Elissa Slotkin, a moderate Democrat. Haley Stevens Stevens does not believe there has been a genocide in Gaza — and has received a record $30 million in advertising help from AIPAC, the nation’s leading pro-Israel lobbying group. (She once said at a Hanukkah celebration that “Israel comes to me in my dreams.”) Yet she has sought to shift the debate away from Israel. In an interview with The Times, she made it clear that she’d prefer to talk about rising costs and the struggles of manufacturing industries under Trump. Haley Stevens Emily Elconin for The New York Times Stevens, 43, has worked in and around politics since she graduated college, and she holds relatively few public campaign events. When she does, she speaks with a thick Midwestern accent that has been shared and memed ad nauseam. She has won over many Black voters with help from an old boss, Barack Obama. AIPAC shelled out more than $6 million on an ad showing Obama praising Stevens, who once served on a task force in his administration. (Obama has not endorsed her.) Stevens says she has the broad appeal needed to beat Rogers in the general election, and she’s backed by a parade of establishment Democrats in Michigan — Peters, Slotkin, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — and beyond, including Senator Chuck Schumer. Read more about Stevens. Abdul El-Sayed El-Sayed is campaigning on a sharply anti-Israel platform that also calls for abolishing ICE, raising taxes on the rich and making Medicare available to all Americans. He’s a charismatic speaker who can draw a crowd. And he’s keenly aware that Democratic voters are in an anti-establishment, Israel-skeptical mood. He has called Israel’s government “evil” and hammered Stevens for her ties to AIPAC, a newly polarizing force in the party. He has refused money from corporate PACs and pulled in nearly $15 million from individual donors. Abdul El-Sayed Nick Hagen for The New York Times A Michigan-born son of Egyptian immigrants, El-Sayed, 41, would be the country’s first Muslim senator. He trained as an epidemiologist, became a professor and then led the Detroit Health Department. He ran for governor in 2018 but lost by more than 20 points. Now buoyed by young, white and college-educated voters, El-Sayed rallies with progressive luminaries like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders and the leftist streamer Hasan Piker. While many of his boosters label themselves as democratic socialists, El-Sayed does not identify as one, and he hasn’t been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Read more about El-Sayed. The stakes Democrats need to keep the Michigan seat blue and flip at least four Republican-held seats in other states to win control of the Senate. For progressives pushing the party to rethink its relationship with Israel, this race matters far beyond Michigan. Same goes for establishment Democrats feeling queasy about El-Sayed’s electability — and for some Jews fearing where he could take the party. But El-Sayed may be cruising. Polls released this past week showed him with a 10- to 19-point lead over Stevens. The online prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket are bullish; as of last night, they put his odds of winning at around 97 percent. Related: In the video below, Shane Goldmacher, our national political correspondent, explains why Democrats must defend the Michigan seat and why Republicans see an opportunity. Click to watch. The New York Times More races to watch tomorrow: Michigan’s Seventh congressional district, one of the most competitive in the country, will choose between Trump’s former ambassador to Ukraine (who resigned last year, protesting the president’s coziness with Russia); a retired Navy SEAL; and a progressive organizer backed by Bernie Sanders. The winner will face the incumbent, Tom Barrett, one of a handful of Republicans who have voted in favor of checking Trump’s authority to wage war in Iran. Missouri’s First congressional district will be a rematch between former Representative Cori Bush, a democratic socialist “squad” member, and Wesley Bell, a more moderate prosecutor who ousted Bush from her seat two years ago with heavy support from AIPAC. The pro-Israel lobbying group is once again spending millions to block Bush. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Todd Blanche Kenny Holston/The New York Times Todd Blanche confirmed in writing that the Justice Department would abandon elements of the deal it struck with Trump to resolve his I.R.S. lawsuit. Two Republican senators had threatened to block Blanche’s confirmation for attorney general otherwise. U.S. officials confirmed that the Treasury Department intervened last week to prop up the Japanese yen, which had been trading near four-decade lows. The Pentagon is relying on closed-door hearings to kick out transgender service members. Here's how they work. Around the World In Venezuela. Fabiola Ferrero for The New York Times More than a month after twin earthquakes, Venezuela’s coastal region of La Guaira — once a lively beachside escape — is completely disfigured. Record heat waves have given postal workers in France an additional role: checking in on older people. Two people died in Greece when helicopters collided while fighting wildfires. Morocco has been considered a North African success story. But the rush on the Spanish territory of Ceuta raises questions about the Moroccan economy. Other Big Stories The gunman who opened fire at an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, was slowed by returned fire from an off-duty state trooper and a private citizen, the authorities said. Residents of rural Florida say that a major marijuana producer with ties to Trump is polluting water and spreading smells. OPINIONS The New York Times Ezra Klein says “The Odyssey” is the political movie of the decade. He explains in the video above. Baseball should remain imperfect. Enough with the robot umpires, J.R. Moehringer writes. Daniela J. Lamas, a pulmonary and critical care physician, once delivered dire news to a patient only for the patient to improve. Doctors shouldn’t be afraid to tolerate uncertainty, she writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS We’ve made these links free for you. Kerry Tasker for The New York Times Promise and peril: A unique tidal bore in Alaska can carry a surfer for six miles. It can also kill. Scheming bots: A.I. is being trained to copy almost everything people do. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the machines have started lying and cheating. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a hike planned with Google Maps that took far longer than expected. Metropolitan Diary: A beautiful baritone. Horse whisperer: Monty Roberts rejected 4,200 years of conventional wisdom to embrace humane, nonviolent methods of training untamed horses. That won enthusiastic approval from Queen Elizabeth II, who became a friend. He died at 91. TODAY’S NUMBER OpenAI $70 — That is the price, not including tax and shipping, of an official ChatGPT tie-dyed basketball. Tech companies, once known for nerdy, low-key hoodies and sneakers, are getting fancy with their merch, often creating it in collaboration with hip brands and designers. Fashion critics aren’t impressed. SPORTS M.L.B.: The trade deadline is hours away and teams are making their moves. Yesterday, the Yankees acquired the Nationals infielder Luis García Jr., the Mets dealt the starter Freddy Peralta to the Rays and the Blue Jays sent the longtime starter Kevin Gausman to the Cubs. Soccer: Europe’s governing body for soccer has threatened legal action over FIFA’s failed private investment plan. RECIPE OF THE DAY Armando Rafael for The New York Times For a summertime update on a beloved Chinese dish, Hetty Lui McKinnon freshens up cold sesame noodles with crisp cucumbers, raw corn and aromatic basil. Her minimalist dressing brings together three flavor-dense condiments: chile crisp, sesame oil and sesame paste. No sesame paste? Tahini works, too. Toss with your favorite noodles. THE VOICE OF GOD As a U.S. secretary of state in “Lioness.” Lauren Smith/Paramount+ Morgan Freeman has voiced deities and presidents, and he is the go-to narrator for your favorite documentarian. At almost 90 years old, he still can’t understand the fuss over his voice. More on culture Here’s your recap of the latest episode of “House of the Dragon.” There still be dragons! “Awake Awake,” Fiona Mozley’s confident and unsettling third novel, suggests that childhood friendships may have a greater impact on our adult life than family relationships, our reviewer writes. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area in New Mexico. Bob Wick/Planet Pix, via ZUMA Wire See natural wonders without the crowds of a national park. Our Travel desk’s picks include ice caves, rugged gorges and something called the Alien Egg Hatchery. Read one of these 22 new books that the editors on the Book Review are looking forward to this month. Spend some time with Seurat. “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” is this week’s 10-minute challenge. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were channeled and dancehall. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay 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. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted 9 hours ago Author Members Posted 9 hours ago August 4, 2026 Your first month is free in The New York Times app. Download now → By Evan Gorelick Good morning. Let’s start today in Washington, with a fight over President Trump’s Justice Department. Todd Blanche Kenny Holston/The New York Times Sweet deal? After much confusion and acrimony, Todd Blanche now appears set to become the nation’s top law enforcement official. Two Republican senators who had been blocking Blanche’s confirmation for attorney general gave him their blessing yesterday, after Blanche promised — in writing — to scale back a lucrative deal the Justice Department had cut with Trump. The president’s effort to muscle Blanche, his former lawyer, through the Senate got messy this past week. There were public demands, counterdemands and counter-counterdemands. It’s easy to get so mired in the political minutiae that you forget a couple of things. First: Blanche already runs the Justice Department, and he’s allowed to keep running it indefinitely in an acting capacity, confirmation notwithstanding. So for Trump, this fight has always been more about rewarding Blanche — and exerting control over Congress — than about imbuing Blanche with any new authority. Second, and more important: Trump is still getting most of what he wants. The fine print The Justice Department deal that knocked Blanche’s nomination off course had two main components. It established a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which Trump wanted to use to pay allies of his who claimed they had been unfairly prosecuted by previous administrations. And it granted Trump, his family and their businesses sweeping immunity from I.R.S. tax audits. In documents Blanche released on Sunday night, he said he would rescind the order establishing the fund and narrow the tax immunity to include only Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization. President Trump Pete Marovich for The New York Times That was enough to win over the two Republican holdouts, Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn. But Trump’s opponents are crying foul, saying Blanche’s memo is a political solution to a political problem rather than a legally binding document. For one, an order from an attorney general can be reversed by a future order from an attorney general. So in theory, Blanche could simply issue a new order reviving Trump’s fund. Or the Justice Department could skip the fund altogether and simply cut million-dollar settlement checks to Trump allies who claim to be victims. (It has already been doing that.) And there is no question that the I.R.S. immunity, even in its narrower form, remains immensely valuable to the president, writes Andrew Duehren, who covers tax policy. One dispute Trump had with the I.R.S. could have cost him more than $100 million, The Times reported. Other audits could have cost him even more. Andrew writes: Where the I.R.S. previously made a point of regularly auditing whoever occupies the Oval Office, Mr. Trump has leveraged his control of the federal government to instead escape the scrutiny that every other modern president, not to mention every other regular taxpayer, has been subject to. At the Oval Office yesterday, Trump told reporters that he hadn’t signed off on Blanche’s plan. “I didn’t look at it,” Trump said. “All I know is that Todd Blanche is great.” THE LATEST NEWS The Reflecting Pool The Reflecting Pool last month. Andrew Leyden for The New York Times Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, moved to dismiss charges against three more people accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. Investigators concluded the main cause of damage was botched work by a contractor, not vandalism. Trump said Pirro had “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.” He later met with her at the White House. Primary Elections Michigan Democrats’ hard-fought, expensive Senate primary will culminate today. An insurgent progressive, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, is looking to defeat an establishment-backed moderate, Representative Haley Stevens. Also in Michigan: A progressive candidate in a battleground House race will try to capitalize on a potential misstep by moderate Democrats, who were unable to unite behind one candidate. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has become one of the biggest spenders in American elections. Its ads rarely mention Israel. More on Politics Representative Max Miller, an Ohio Republican whose ex-wife has accused him of abusing her and their toddler daughter, said he would not end his re-election campaign. He denies the accusations. Senator Rand Paul and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have both written books critical of Dr. Anthony Fauci. His return to the spotlight might be boosting sales. Times Exclusive: Democrats released a draft autopsy in May of what went wrong for them in the 2024 presidential election. Its author says the party excluded a key chapter. Spokane Fires John Stember and Loren Elliot for The New York Times A man was arrested on suspicion of starting one of three fires that forced 65,000 people from their homes around Spokane, Wash. Some evacuees returned home to find entire streets reduced to rubble, trees blackened and toppled, and broken pipes spraying water. War in Iran Iran said it was talking with Oman, but not the United States, about reopening the Strait of Hormuz. A deal with Oman, on the other side of the strait, could cement Iran’s control over what was previously an open international waterway. The war is driving up costs for many Americans. Polls show it’s already unpopular and losing support. Around the World A drone struck a crowded beach in southern Russia, killing at least seven people, officials said. Why is the U.S. Treasury Department helping prop up Japan’s weak currency? Here’s a guide. One of the world’s smallest countries adopted a new name: Naoero. Immigration A Salvadoran immigrant held at a troubled ICE detention center in Newark, N.J., died over the weekend, officials said. A federal judge blocked a New York law banning immigration agents from wearing masks. The United States resumed deportation flights to Venezuela, which is struggling with the aftermath of two earthquakes. Other Big Stories Health officials in Michigan reported two deaths linked to cyclospora. Both people had “significant underlying health conditions,” they said. The Education Department is set to wipe out $11 billion in student loan debt held by tens of thousands of students who say they were defrauded by predatory for-profit schools. OPINIONS Critics of Paramount’s agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery are missing what it will do: invigorate Hollywood and safeguard independent journalism, David Ellison, chief executive of Paramount Skydance, argues. Ignore the reaction to Texas’ requiring public-school students to read the Bible. Blue states could learn from the state’s mandatory reading list, James Traub writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS Will Crooks for The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. Honeybee medicine: Bees are vital for agriculture. They’re also increasingly under threat from parasites and pathogens. Enter the bee vet. Drug money: Prediction markets now let people bet on F.D.A. approvals of emerging medicines. Some patients say that crosses a disturbing line. Can’t buy me love: More than half of unmarried young adults say not having enough money is their biggest barrier to dating. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about surfing in Alaska. TODAY’S NUMBER Approaching Arlington National Cemetery. Kent Nishimura/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 37 — That is the number of historic sites around Washington that Trump’s proposed triumphal arch would adversely affect, according to an assessment by National Park Service staff. SPORTS M.L.B.: A slew of moves took place just before the trade deadline. Notably the Red Sox added the Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, the Angels changed course and the Blue Jays shuffled their roster a year after reaching Game 7 of the World Series. Soccer: Mauricio Pochettino agreed to return as U.S. men’s national team coach. The deal runs through the 2030 World Cup. N.F.L.: There’s nothing more inspiring — and risky — than a prodigal son hired to fix his old team. Matt Ryan is trying to do that in Atlanta. RECIPE OF THE DAY Ghazalle Badiozamani for The New York Times Melissa Clark’s baked fish and chips are just begging for some horseradish tartar sauce. Put it in a cup off to the side for dipping (fries too), or throw it right on top if you’re feeling dangerous. Baking is miles easier than frying, and it’ll let you cook the fish and the potatoes at the same time. The secret to getting your fries extra crispy? Cut them thin, then spread them out in one layer on a preheated sheet pan. PIPING UP Practicing at a cemetery in Brooklyn. Jonah Markowitz for The New York Times It’s not easy being a bagpiper in one of America’s most densely populated cities. To hone their craft in peace, New York City’s pipers often duck into cemeteries, toxic canals and industrial zones. After all, the high-pitched wail of a great Highland bagpipe can hover around 100 decibels, comparable to the revving of a motorcycle. “People will say, ‘Can you lower it a bit?’” said Jerry Dixon, a Verizon technician and bagpipe player from Queens. “And I’m like, ‘It only has one volume: 11.’” More on culture Ariana Grande’s decision to step back from public life has reignited debate over celebrity and privacy. Late night hosts reacted to Trump’s latest Iran deal comments. Our art critic Deborah Solomon was one of 50 players to go up against a chess grandmaster for Marcel Duchamp’s 139th birthday celebration at MoMA. In the video below, she explores the question: Is chess an art? Click to watch. The New York Times THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Eat more tomatoes. They’re juicy, versatile and packed with nutritional benefits. Use a three-in-one shower product. This beauty writer says it’s OK! Rethink your personal style without losing yourself with these tips from Vanessa Friedman, our chief fashion critic. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was floridly. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. As a reminder, Sam Sifton is on vacation for the next two weeks. See you tomorrow. Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter mistakenly included Elissa Slotkin on a list of politicians who have endorsed Haley Stevens in Michigan. Slotkin has not endorsed either candidate in the Democratic primary. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
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