Members phkrause Posted February 27, 2025 Author Members Posted February 27, 2025 February 26, 2025 Good morning. We’re covering a new report about religion in America. Plus, Ukraine, Israel and egg prices. In Cumberland, Md. Maggie Shannon for The New York Times One nation, under God By Lauren Jackson I’m working on a project about belief. As religion in America declined, experts administered last rites. Churches were approaching “their twilight hour” as attendance fell, The Brookings Institution wrote in 2011. In his 2023 book, “Losing Our Religion,” the evangelical preacher Russell Moore asked: “Can American Christianity survive?” The answer appears to be yes. People have stopped leaving churches en masse, according to a new study released this morning by Pew Research. America’s secularization is on pause for now, likely because of the pandemic and the country’s stubborn spirituality. Most Americans — 92 percent of adults — say they hold one or more spiritual beliefs that Pew asked about: Source: Pew Research Center | By The New York Times “Spirituality is not declining. And in fact, it’s high; it’s stable,” said Penny Edgell, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota. The United States is an outlier compared with most other Western countries, which are far less religious. America’s persistent religious and spiritual curiosity is visible in its centers of power. In Washington, President Trump and JD Vance talk a lot about God in their quest to remake America. In Silicon Valley, tech billionaires — long obsessed with religion-adjacent projects like artificial intelligence, transhumanism and immortality — are warming to Christianity. In Hollywood, films and shows about faith, such as “Conclave,” the latest season of “The White Lotus” and “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” have dominated streaming charts. Below, I’ll explain why religion still has such a strong hold in America. What is happening? Over the last 25 years, tens of millions of people left American religion. It was a major shift that affected how people voted, when they married and where they lived. Christianity took the hardest hit: Around 15 percent of American adults who once went to church stopped going. While some people switched to new faiths, many left religion altogether. Experts called this phenomenon the “rise of the nones,” a group that includes atheists, agnostics and people who said in surveys that they identified with “nothing in particular.” The nones grew to include about 30 percent of the country. But the rise of the nones has stopped, Pew found. People are no longer leaving churches en masse, and other major religions are growing, largely because of immigration. Source: Pew Research Center | By The New York Times The report’s authors are careful to say that the nones could resume growing, especially as younger people, who are less religious than older people, age. (Read more about the report from my colleague Ruth Graham.) Why is this happening? Experts point to a few possible explanations. First is the pandemic. Pew found that people turned to faith for support during those years, as the number of people going to religious services — either in person or virtually — remained consistent at about 40 percent. About a quarter of Americans even told Pew that the pandemic had strengthened their faith. “Religion was in their psychological tool kit for dealing with the hard times,” said Alan Cooperman, an author of the report. The second explanation is that secularization has a limit in the United States. Americans pray more often, are more likely to attend weekly religious services and value faith in their lives more than adults in other wealthy democracies like Canada, Australia and most European countries, Pew found in a separate study. Americans — both religious and not — also report high levels of spirituality: Eighty-three percent say they believe in God or a universal spirit, Pew found. Ryan Burge, a political scientist, argues that most people who disagree with their religion on political or social issues — on Trumpism, abortion or gay marriage, for instance — have already left or switched faiths. “What’s left is like the bedrock of American religion, which is exceptionally large,” he said. The report reveals how many people remain committed to their religious traditions even after those defections. What does this mean? Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan this week. Dave Sanders for The New York Times We’re in a moment of resurgent religious conservatism. The Supreme Court has anointed prayer in public schools. Elon Musk said he believes in the teachings of Jesus. Religious tradwives reign supreme on Instagram. The right says it all amounts to a “vibe shift.” Still, those examples are anecdotal. And as the swing from George Floyd protests to sudden D.E.I. takedowns shows, vibes in America can shift quickly. This data doesn’t rely on vibes. Instead, it offers measurable insights on the trends shaping American politics and culture. The ranks of the godless have stopped growing for now. But, when it comes to spiritual longing for the possible, the transcendent — Americans are surprisingly in agreement. Related: We want to hear more about people’s experiences with religion or spirituality. Have you discovered, deepened, questioned or lost faith? I’m working on a project about the moments that shape our beliefs. Tell me your story here. THE LATEST NEWS War in Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky Tetiana Dzhafarova/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Ukraine agreed to give the U.S. revenue from some of its mineral resources. It is not yet clear what, if anything, Ukraine will get in return. Read what we know so far about the deal. Ukraine has deposits of nearly half of the 50 minerals the U.S. Geological Survey lists as critical for America’s economic development, including titanium and lithium. A group of traditional Republican lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for siding with Russia at the U.N. on resolutions about the war in Ukraine. Trump Administration The Trump administration announced that it would handpick the media outlets that get to ask the president questions at the White House. DOGE has deleted the five biggest items from its public ledger of spending cuts after news outlets reported that it contained mistakes. A group of civil servants resigned from DOGE. They refused to implement Musk’s reshaping of the federal government. More than 700 National Park Service employees accepted Musk’s offer to resign. The parks could be understaffed during the summer tourism season. Trump plans to create a “gold card” alternative to green cards for “high level people.” He said the price tag would be about $5 million. More on Politics The House narrowly passed a Republican budget resolution that calls for trillions in tax cuts and federal spending cuts over a decade. Republican lawmakers propose cuts to Medicaid to pay for Trump’s tax plan. Republican state attorneys general sued the F.D.A. last year to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone. The largest pill maker in the U.S. is now asking to be a defendant. Jan. 6 prosecutors charged some rioters with crimes discovered during their investigation. The Justice Department increasingly argues that Trump pardoned them for those crimes, too. New York Andrew Cuomo is preparing to run for mayor of New York City. He resigned as New York’s governor in disgrace three years ago. More than three decades after being wrongly convicted of rape, a second member of the so-called Central Park Five will run for office in New York. Middle East The Israeli military struck sites in southern Syria. It announced the move hours after the new Syrian leadership had demanded that Israel pull back in the country, where it has seized territory since the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s new president is trying to prove that he can rebuild the country. Read about his unlikely path from Al Qaeda commander to head of state. More International News In St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. James Hill for The New York Times Pope Francis is still in critical condition. Vatican City is on edge. Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced an increase in military spending. He’s due to meet with Trump at the White House tomorrow. The former East Germany still votes virtually as a separate country, and increasingly for a party that has been linked to neo-Nazis. Other Big Stories In Petaluma, Calif. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Egg prices are soaring, and the biggest U.S. egg producer has rising revenues and profits. Now some Democrats are calling for an investigation into pricing. The Supreme Court granted a new trial to a death row inmate in Oklahoma. The state’s attorney general had backed the request. Opinions “Heartbeat of the bygone”: Deborah Garrison writes a poem on Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of a young Bob Dylan. Here are columns by Bret Stephens on how Trump indulges Russia and Thomas Friedman on Trump and Putin. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Illustration by Eric Schwarz Letter of Recommendation: A poetry ritual to replace early-morning scrolling. $8.50 per shrimp: Would you pay $34 for shrimp cocktail? A lot of people do. Four-minute mile: Can a woman finally break the barrier? Most clicked yesterday: A fake, graphic video of Trump and Musk played in a government building. American division: After a woman interrupted a town-hall meeting in Idaho, private security guards dragged her out. See the video. Lives Lived: Marian Turski survived Auschwitz and returned to his home in Poland to give voice to fellow victims of the Nazis and their collaborators. He warned the world in writings and speeches about the dangers of indifference to racial and ethnic injustice. Turski died at 98. SPORTS W.N.B.A.: The Mercury star Diana Taurasi, 42, announced her retirement after a 20-year career. N.F.L.: The Ravens general manager called allegations of sexual misconduct against the team’s kicker Justin Tucker “concerning” in the Ravens’ first comments since the news broke. N.B.A.: Luka Dončić recorded a triple-double in the Lakers’ 107-99 win over the Mavericks, the team that traded him last month. ARTS AND IDEAS Bianca Bagnarelli Women tend to outlive men. This is true regardless of where women live or how much they earn. But they also tend to live fewer years healthy years: They are generally more frail in old age and more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s. Some scientists are trying to understand why the sexes age differently. More on culture Miriam Miller Thea Traff for The New York Times Miriam Miller was recently promoted to principal at New York City Ballet. She’ll make her debut in “Swan Lake.” Fyre Festival 2 is coming, almost a decade after the chaotic, failed first festival. Late night hosts joked about it. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Craig Lee for The New York Times Whip up classic lemon pancakes with cottage cheese. Read one of these great thrillers, recommended by the best-selling mystery writer S.A. Cosby. Visit Bolivia’s wine country. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were building, bundling, unbuilding and unbundling. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —Lauren Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 February 28, 2025 Author Members Posted February 28, 2025 February 27, 2025 Good morning. Today, my colleague Brian Rosenthal explains a problem with organ transplants in the U.S. We’re also covering minerals, foreign aid and Gene Hackman. Readying a liver for transport. Bryan Denton for The New York Times Skipping the list By Brian M. Rosenthal I’m an investigative reporter. Who gets the kidneys and livers and hearts donated by people who die? For decades, the U.S. government has enforced strict rules — devised by doctors and ethicists — to ensure they go to the patients who need them the most. The system is supposed to be fair. Increasingly, it is not. Doctors in the United States transplant more than 40,000 organs from deceased donors per year — the most in the world. And in more and more cases, officials skip patients at the top of waiting lists and send organs to people who are not as sick and have not been waiting as long. Those recipients are disproportionately white and better educated. Source: Based on Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network data as of Jan. 17. | By Jeremy White Last year, this happened nearly 20 percent of the time — six times as often as in 2020. Some people never got a transplant and ended up dying. I’ve been working with a team of Times journalists to uncover the problem, and our story was just published. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain why people at the front of the line don’t always receive the transplants they need. ‘Making a mockery’ More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for a transplant. But they don’t all appear on one list. Instead, a new list is created for each organ that becomes available — about 200 a day. Here’s how it works: Every state has at least one nonprofit that recovers organs and uses algorithms to rank all potential recipients across the country. Priority goes to patients who are sicker, have been waiting longer and are nearby. The nonprofits are supposed to follow the lists when they offer organs. But this can take time. A recipient’s doctor can decline an offer for a number of reasons — the lungs might be too big, the donor too old, the patient too far from the hospital. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking; organs last only so long outside the body. A donated kidney. Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times So, sometimes, officials make exceptions: If an organ is at risk of becoming unusable, they ignore the rankings and simply pick a hospital to take the organ, ensuring that the donation doesn’t go to waste. For decades, this happened about 2 percent of the time. But in 2020, government regulators began pressuring the nonprofits to throw away fewer organs. In a scramble to respond, the organizations began skipping patients far more often. The nonprofits describe a tension between what they’re supposed to do (place as many organs as possible) and what hospitals often do (reject organs they deem a mismatch for the patient). The head of the nonprofits’ trade group told us that skipping was a necessary, if imperfect, solution. They say they ignore the lists to save lives and place organs that may otherwise spoil. But our reporting found that they regularly do it — even with higher-quality organs that still have plenty of time. We found that they bypass patients because it’s easier to steer organs to hospitals with which they have relationships. Those hospitals have freedom to choose which of their patients receive the organs, regardless of their spot on the waiting lists. They have an incentive to choose healthier recipients because they are judged on how many patients survive after surgery. People throughout the transplant network have become alarmed about these practices. “They are making a mockery of the allocation system,” said Dr. Sumit Mohan, a kidney specialist at Columbia University. “It’s shocking. And it’s going to destroy trust in the system.” Who lives and who dies? We analyzed more than 500,000 organ transplants since 2004 and found that ignoring the queue did not prevent waste. In fact, the rate of discarded organs has gone up. Source: Based on Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network data as of Jan. 17. | By Jeremy White And the practice means Black and Latino people are treated worse. When nonprofits and hospitals ignore the queue, transplants disproportionately go to white and Asian patients and people with college degrees, the data shows. Over the past five years, more than 1,200 people died after they got close to the top of a waiting list but were skipped, we found. It is possible that their doctors would have decided that the organ wasn’t a good fit for them, but they never got a chance to find out. Patients rarely learn that they’ve been skipped. They just don’t get the call that can mean the difference between life and death. THE LATEST NEWS Cabinet Meeting At the White House. Doug Mills/The New York Times At the first cabinet meeting of his second term, President Trump praised Elon Musk’s cost-cutting efforts and refused to guarantee Ukraine’s security. Musk, who is not part of the cabinet, attended the meeting and spoke more than anyone except Trump. In the meeting, Trump said that the head of the E.P.A. intended to fire 65 percent of its staff. More on the Trump Administration European countries have tried versions of Trump’s proposed “gold card” visa, which would offer permanent residency for a fee of about $5 million. The outcomes are mixed. At a confirmation hearing, Justice Department appointees suggested some court orders can be ignored. X has given prominent online conservatives a direct line to Musk’s team. They appear to be influencing policy. The U.S. is talking with several countries that could export more eggs to reduce prices. Trump’s efforts to pressure the news media and punish political opponents evoke the early days of Vladimir Putin’s reign in Russia, Peter Baker writes. More on Politics The Chaerhan Salt Lake in Golmud, China, an area rich in lithium and other minerals. Qilai Shen for The New York Times China dominates in critical minerals, and Trump has tried high-pressure tactics to acquire them. They also were a focus for Joe Biden. The Supreme Court seems poised to rule in favor of a woman who argues she lost out on a promotion because she’s straight. The ruling is likely to be narrower than many conservatives wanted, Adam Liptak writes. Climate Republicans want to overturn a California rule meant to encourage electric car production. State lawmakers say the Republican plan is illegal. A former chemical industry lobbyist, who once fought regulations on formaldehyde, now leads an E.P.A. office that approves new chemicals. The energy giant BP announced that it would spend more on oil and gas and less on clean energy. Middle East Thousands of Israelis lined the streets to mourn Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, whom Hamas kidnapped on Oct. 7. Hamas turned over the remains of what they said were four Israeli hostages. Read more about the hostages. Israel released dozens more Palestinian prisoners. It is expected to release hundreds more once it has identified the bodies turned over. The first phase of the cease-fire is set to expire this weekend. On social media, Trump shared an A.I.-generated video depicting Gaza as a gaudy Trump-branded resort. More International News At the Maha Kumbh Mela. Atul Loke for The New York Times In India, the world’s largest religious gathering came to a close. Three Austrian political parties reached a deal to form a government without the far right. A draft of the deal to share Ukraine’s mineral revenues with the U.S. includes vague language about American security guarantees. Volodymyr Zelensky is set to visit Washington tomorrow to sign the agreement. Women in South Korea, which has the world’s lowest fertility rate, gave birth to more children last year than in 2023. It was first rise since 2015. A military plane crashed into a city block in Sudan, killing at least 46 people. Business The Washington Post’s opinion editor resigned after Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner, directed the section to advocate “personal liberties and free markets” without publishing opposing views. Amazon announced that Alexa, its virtual assistant, would now be powered with generative A.I. Other Big Stories Gene Hackman Associated Press Gene Hackman — Hollywood’s consummate Everyman, who starred in some of the most noted films of the 1970s and ’80s — died at 95. He was found dead in his New Mexico home alongside his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 64, and their dog. The local authorities said they did not suspect foul play. An unvaccinated child died of measles in West Texas. The disease is spreading there and in New Mexico. Opinions Support for traditional gender roles is increasing, Michael Tesler, John Sides and Colette Marcellin write. Here are columns by Jamelle Bouie on Musk and Carlos Lozada on Trump and common sense. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times Head-turning fashion: Our photographer found the coolest looks on and off the runways at London Fashion Week. Humanity: When this professor got cancer, he didn’t quit. He taught a class about it. Social Q’s: “My mother-in-law wants to be in the delivery room with me. Help!” Most clicked yesterday: For the second day in a row, a fake, graphic video of Trump and Musk was our most clicked link. Lives Lived: The Haitian artist and writer known as Frankétienne published the first novel written entirely in Haitian Creole and was the nation’s foremost literary figure. He died at 88. SPORTS N.B.A.: Shaedon Sharpe may have had the dunk of the year, ESPN writes. See it here. Soccer: Japan beat the U.S. women’s national team in an upset at the SheBelieves Cup. N.F.L.: The Giants and Raiders have emerged as serious contenders to trade for the Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. ARTS AND IDEAS Joe Biden Eric Lee/The New York Times Last weekend, a group of history professors gathered at Princeton University to evaluate Biden’s presidency. They asked broad questions: How much do intentions versus concrete achievements matter? How do you weight a policy record against the backlash it generated? Read about their efforts. More on culture Michelle Trachtenberg Michael Tran/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Michelle Trachtenberg, an actress who grew up onscreen in shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Gossip Girl,” died at 39. More than 100 Oscar nominees gathered ahead of the ceremony for a class photo. Here’s what our photographer and columnist saw. Late night hosts joked about Trump’s “gold card.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Kate Sears for The New York Times Make a simple, five-ingredient yogurt cake. Hydrate this Ramadan with a homemade lassi. Run at night with a headlamp. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was moonwalk. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 1, 2025 Author Members Posted March 1, 2025 February 28, 2025 By German Lopez Good morning. We’re reporting on the latest from Washington. We’re also covering cartels, federal workers and K-pop. President Trump Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times A busy day On some days, the Trump administration acts on so many different issues at once that it can be hard to keep track of everything. Yesterday was one of those days. President Trump hosted the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, for diplomatic talks about Ukraine, trade and more. Trump announced that tariffs on Canada and Mexico would go into effect next week. And his administration began readying the most widespread firings across the federal bureaucracy so far, while a federal judge ruled against other terminations. Today’s newsletter walks through each of these stories, with help from my colleagues at The Times. Trump’s diplomacy Starmer’s main goal was to persuade Trump not to abandon Ukraine. But Trump seemed unmoved. He continued to argue that Ukraine should pay back the United States for military aid — an unusual approach in the middle of a conflict, Amanda Taub pointed out. He said that Vladimir Putin could be trusted to not violate the terms of a peace deal. “I think he’ll keep his word,” Trump said. “I’ve known him for a long time now.” Trump and Starmer also announced that they were working on a trade deal. They spent much of their news conference complimenting each other and their countries’ relationship. Trump praised Starmer for announcing this week that Britain would increase its military spending to 3 percent of economic output within a decade. As Mark Landler explained, “That addresses one of Mr. Trump’s core grievances: his contention that Europeans are free riders, sheltering under an American security umbrella.” Later today, Trump will meet with Ukraine’s president. They are set to sign a deal that gives some of Ukraine’s mineral wealth to the United States, meeting one of Trump’s conditions for supporting Ukraine. In Trump’s transactional outlook, alliances come with strings attached, as Luke Broadwater put it. Tariffs return Trucks coming from Mexico in Laredo, Texas. Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The New York Times Trump also said that 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10 percent tariff against China, would take effect on Tuesday. The three countries are America’s biggest trading partners, and two are close allies. They have promised to retaliate. The ensuing trade war could push up prices and slow growth, economists warn. Trump said the tariffs punish the three countries for the flow of drugs through their borders and into the United States. But very few drugs come from Canada, Ana Swanson reported. All of last year, federal officials intercepted about 43 pounds of fentanyl at the U.S.-Canadian border — less than what my in-laws’ dog weighs. Officials seized 500 times that amount of fentanyl at the border with Mexico. Trump nearly imposed the levies on Canada and Mexico a few weeks ago but backed off at the last moment when they promised some concessions. Maybe he’ll do that again. He is also attentive to the stock market, which does not respond well to tariffs. The U.S. economy has already shown signs of strain from Trump’s previous tariff threats, Alan Rappeport wrote. More mass firings Former U.S.A.I.D. employees hug. Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times Lastly, the Trump administration published a memo that asked federal agencies to submit plans for mass firings by March 13. “Denigrating the federal bureaucracy as ‘bloated’ and ‘corrupt,’ the seven-page memo called for agencies to be drastically cut — in some instances to the fullest extent allowed by the law,” Chris Cameron wrote. Steep cuts are already expected at the Social Security Administration, The Washington Post reported, and at the Environmental Protection Agency. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration started mass layoffs yesterday. The administration is also trying to move some offices out of Washington. Officials have justified this as a cost-cutting measure, but it is also an attempt to fulfill Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp.” He argues that Washingtonians are out of touch with the general public, and that moving the offices could connect programs more closely with the people they serve. But the moves could backfire. In his first term, Trump moved the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo. The change led to the departure of 87 percent of staff, Lisa Friedman reported at the time — a brain drain for an agency that handles technical issues, such as oil and gas leases on federal lands. Joe Biden reversed the move. Some of Trump’s cuts and other changes might not stick. Yesterday, a federal judge told the administration to retract directives that led to the firing of probationary workers. Federal workers have filed other lawsuits, and experts say that many of the administration’s actions are illegal. The White House has also admitted to accidentally cutting some things, including staff at a nuclear security agency and funds to contain Ebola. The cuts, initiated by Elon Musk as part of his Department of Government Efficiency, echo the Silicon Valley mantra of “move fast and break things.” That attitude can work for an app trying to keep users entertained. But when parts of the federal government break — say, health care or safety functions — people can die. Related: Cabinet secretaries are trying to figure out how to respond to Musk without annoying the president. Read the inside story. THE LATEST NEWS Government Overhaul The origins of DOGE: A Times investigation reveals how Musk dreamed up, and executed, his plan to remake the federal government from the inside. Here’s what we know about DOGE’s staff members, few of whom have experience in Washington. Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, is working with DOGE to revamp the government’s retirement system, which still relies on paperwork filled out by hand. More than a dozen senior leaders at FEMA, including some with deep experience leading disaster recovery, have been fired or resigned. More on Politics Iowa lawmakers voted to end civil rights protections for transgender people. If the governor signs the bill, it would be the first time a state has revoked such protections, advocates say. Attorney General Pam Bondi released a batch of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, but the documents revealed little new information. Defense Department schools, which serve American children on military bases, have cut programs — including pride and STEM clubs — to comply with Trump’s anti-D.E.I. rules. The Defense Department is barring transgender members of the military from service. Meet the trans troops affected. International The Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero. Reuters Mexico transferred more than two dozen drug cartel operatives to the U.S. for prosecution, including a founding member of the Sinaloa cartel. The Israeli military released the first findings from its internal investigations into the Oct. 7 attacks. It found that senior officers had underestimated Hamas and misinterpreted warnings about the attack. A London teenager’s parents tricked him and left him in Ghana because they feared their son was becoming involved in a gang. The son sued them, but a court sided with his parents. The South Korean police are investigating a Japanese woman for kissing a K-pop star from the group BTS without his consent during an event. China has been staging military drills off Australia and Vietnam. It is trying to signal power in the region. Francis’s illness is making the Vatican ask: Who will govern if the pope can’t? Other Big Stories Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa in 2003. Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press Investigators say the actor Gene Hackman and his wife appear to have died in separate rooms, and that pills were scattered near her body. Read what we know. Rose Girone, believed to be the oldest survivor of the Holocaust, died at 113. She fled Nazi Germany in 1939 with her husband and baby only to be forced into a Jewish ghetto in Shanghai. Still, she would often say, “Aren’t we lucky?” Poverty is rising in New York City. One in four people can’t afford essentials. Opinions States use tax revenue to prop up the struggling horse racing industry. It’s time to let the sport die, Noah Shachtman writes. Faith leaders can save lives by promoting vaccines to their congregations, Jessica Grose writes. Here are columns by David Brooks on red tape, and Zeynep Tufekci on the measles outbreak. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Libbie Mugrabi in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Graham Dickie/The New York Times A fight: A socialite reported her Warhol stolen. A lender said it was entitled to keep it. The fallout has been a mess. Health: Celebrities are talking about preventative scans. Do they work? Ione Skye: The actress has written a memoir about her 1990s heyday. Caught: A couple on a flight boasted about illegal hunting. Wildlife officers were listening. Not a coder? With A.I., just having an idea can be enough. Most clicked yesterday: Read Gene Hackman’s obituary. Modern Love: Rules for staying close to exes. Lives Lived: Peter Elbow, a professor and champion of free writing, emerged as a towering and divisive figure in college English departments with the publication of his book “Writing Without Teachers.” He died at 89. SPORTS N.B.A.: Stephen Curry scored 56 points and made 12 3-pointers in the Warriors’ comeback win over the Magic, a performance that electrified a road crowd and his own locker room. N.F.L.: The Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter said he intended to play both wide receiver and cornerback in the N.F.L. Tennis: The top five seeds are out at the Mexican Open in Acapulco after an illness ravaged the tournament. ARTS AND IDEAS Steve Olive Jennelle Fong for The New York Times Who makes the red carpet for the Oscars? Steve does. Steve Olive has worked in the event carpet business for more than three decades, and he’s the man the Academy trusts to get its iconic rug just right. Read more about him. More on culture Jack Whitten’s painting “Mirsinaki Blue” (1974). Image courtesy of the Johnson Museum Why are we so obsessed with blue? The color has an unshakable hold on musicians, artists and writers. Katy Perry and Gayle King will be among the crew on the next space tourism flight by Jeff Bezos’ private company, Blue Origin. The creator of the TV show “Shtisel” fled his orthodox life. Then he returned. Stephen Colbert has little sympathy for Trump voters with buyer’s remorse. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Serve fattoush, a Lebanese salad with pita and tomato, for Ramadan. Use a dash cam. Age at home with these smart devices. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was calorific. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 2, 2025 Author Members Posted March 2, 2025 March 1, 2025 Good morning. Today, we’re covering an Oval Office meeting that could shift global alliances. Melissa Kirsch, our usual Saturday writer, will appear tomorrow. Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump in the Oval Office yesterday. Doug Mills/The New York Times Oval Office showdown By David E. Sanger I cover the White House and national security. After five weeks in which President Trump made clear his determination to scrap America’s traditional sources of power — its alliances among like-minded democracies — and return the country to an era of great-power negotiations, he left one question hanging: How far would he go in sacrificing Ukraine to his vision? The remarkable Oval Office shouting match yesterday provided the answer. As Trump admonished President Volodymyr Zelensky and warned him that “you don’t have the cards” to deal with Vladimir Putin, and as Vice President JD Vance called the Ukrainian leader “disrespectful” and ungrateful, it was clear that the three-year wartime partnership between Washington and Kyiv was shattered. Maybe it can be repaired, but it’s hard to imagine how. Still, the venomous exchanges made evident that Trump regards Ukraine as an obstacle to a far more vital project. What Trump really wants, one European official told me as the administration had its first, ugly encounters with America’s allies this month, is to normalize the relationship with Russia. If that means rewriting the history of Moscow’s illegal invasion, if it means dropping investigations of Russian war crimes or refusing to offer security guarantees that would keep Putin from finishing the job in Ukraine later, then Trump, in this assessment of his intentions, is willing to make that deal. Trump and Ukraine Trump believes that the post-World War II system, created by Washington, ate away at American power. That system prized relationships with allies committed to democratic capitalism, even when those alliances came with a cost to American consumers. It sought to avoid power grabs by making the observance of international law, and a respect for established international boundaries, a goal unto itself. To Trump, that system gave smaller and less powerful countries leverage over the United States, leaving Americans to pick up the tab for defending allies and promoting their prosperity. While his predecessors — Democrats and Republicans — insisted that alliances kept the peace and allowed trade to flourish, Trump viewed them as a bleeding wound. In the 2016 presidential campaign, he repeatedly asked why America should defend countries that are running trade surpluses with the U.S. But only in the past five weeks has Trump begun exercising a plan to destroy that system. It explains his demand that Denmark cede Greenland to the United States and that Panama return a canal Americans built. When asked how he could seize Gaza for redevelopment as a “Riviera of the Middle East,” when it was sovereign territory, he shot back: “Under the U.S. authority.” Ukraine was always a more complicated case. Only 26 months ago Zelensky was feted in Washington as a warrior for democracy, invited to address a joint session of Congress, and applauded by Democrats and Republicans. A vision for U.S. power Trump and Vance had signaled for months that in their minds the American commitment to Ukraine’s independence was over. Three weeks ago Trump told an interviewer that Ukraine “may be Russian someday.” Zelensky knew this but did not read the room. While the leaders of France and Britain preceded him to the Oval Office with plans to placate Trump, and explain how Europe was stepping up its defense spending, Zelensky became combative. He reminded Trump that the oceans between America and Russia won’t protect it forever. Trump raised his voice and told the Ukrainian he would be lucky to just get a cease-fire, suggesting that any terms would be better than defeat. “I want to see guarantees,” Zelensky retorted. Minutes later, he stormed out of the White House, leaving the luncheon of rosemary roasted chicken and crème brûlée uneaten, a minerals deal unsigned and his country’s future ability to defend itself in doubt. The Russians celebrated their good luck. Former President Dmitri Medvedev thanked Trump for “telling the truth” to Zelensky’s face. He urged him to suspend remaining American aid. Of course, it is easier to blow up an existing world order than to create a new one. For all its faults, the post-World War II system avoided great-power war and encouraged economic interdependence. Trump, instead, would use American power to strike deals — essentially an argument that peace is as simple as weaving together minerals agreements and trade pacts. There is little precedent to suggest that approach alone works, especially with authoritarian leaders like Putin and President Xi Jinping of China. But judging by yesterday’s display in the Oval Office, Trump seems convinced that as long as he is at the helm, the world will order itself as he commands. More coverage The Oval Office confrontation, a public clash with an ostensible ally, was without precedent in modern American history, Peter Baker writes. See a video of the astonishing meeting, and read excerpts from the exchange. Zelensky later told Fox News he believed he and Trump could salvage their relationship. Zelensky thought his Washington trip would win his country additional support from the U.S. His approach had the opposite effect, Andrew Kramer writes. European leaders spoke in support of Zelensky after the meeting. Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, said the West should be thanking Ukrainians. Here’s what we know about the status of the U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal. THE LATEST NEWS More on Trump The Trump ally leading the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington demoted several prosecutors who investigated Jan. 6 cases. Federal workers received another email asking them to list their accomplishments. A similar order last weekend, directed by Elon Musk, set off a firestorm. The Trump administration has insisted that Musk has no formal position with DOGE. A federal judge said that claim seemed “factually inaccurate.” Trump plans to sign an executive order designating English as the official language of the U.S. About 500 employees resigned from NOAA, a leading center of climate research. International Guards outside the San Vicente migrant camp on Tuesday. Federico Rios for The New York Times More than 100 people who tried to seek asylum in the U.S., including women fleeing the Taliban and Christian converts fleeing Iran, are being held in a jungle camp in Panama. Argentina’s president promoted a cryptocurrency that bilked investors out of $250 million. Critics are calling for his impeachment. Pope Francis, 88, suffered another setback in his recovery from pneumonia. He has been hospitalized for two weeks. Other Big Stories Iowa’s Republican governor signed a bill to end civil rights protections for transgender people A jury convicted a man on murder and hate crime charges for fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in suburban Illinois in 2023. Like V.R. goggles for the mouth: Scientists tested a device that allows users to taste foods that aren’t really there. Citigroup accidentally credited a client’s account with $81 trillion, greater than the entire U.S. economy. It caught the error after about 90 minutes. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Parker Posey Erik Madigan Heck for The New York Times Parker Posey, an indie-film darling of the 1990s, has found a satisfying role on “The White Lotus.” “Last Breath,” about a diver rescue mission starring Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu, is one of eight new movies our critics are talking about. The new Netflix limited series “Zero Day” — about presidential overreach and disinformation — was in development for several years. It’s suddenly timely. Michelle Trachtenberg, who was found dead at 39 in Manhattan, made a mean character sparkle in “Gossip Girl,” Annie Aguiar writes. Music RZA Andre D. Wagner for The New York Times The Wu-Tang Clan is hitting the road for the last time. RZA spoke with The Times about how he got the group back together. A Missouri woman agreed to plead guilty in a scheme to defraud Elvis Presley’s heirs and sell Graceland. Roberta Flack, who died this week at 88, had a voice that could be cool, luxurious or powerful, Ben Sisario writes. More Culture Gene Hackman’s quiet, art-filled life in Santa Fe, N.M. came to a jarring end. Authorities now believe he was dead for more than a week before he and his wife’s bodies were found. Bill Burr, the acerbic comic, is about to appear on Broadway in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Rachel Maddow called out her own network, MSNBC, for firing its “non-white hosts,” Vulture reports. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. CULTURE CALENDAR By Alexis Soloski ? “Doctor Odyssey” (Thursday) When the waters of life grow choppy, you could do worse than being put to sea with “Doctor Odyssey.” The new Hulu series, from the prolific producer Ryan Murphy, is cousin to the outrageous disaster show “9-1-1.” Here the setting is a luxury liner, and the main characters are a doctor and two nurses (and Don Johnson, playing a captain, but also somehow himself) solving medical mysteries — beyond norovirus! — while looking extremely attractive in uniform. The series begins with an episode subtly titled “Shark Attack!” RECIPE OF THE WEEK Julia Gartland for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Pork and Ricotta Meatballs Kay Chun’s pork and ricotta meatballs call for just five ingredients (not counting the salt and pepper). Yet somehow they come together into a savory dish that’s both brawny and delicate, with an airy texture from the ricotta. You can serve them simply by themselves, with some lemon wedges and crusty bread on the side, or simmer them in a pan of marinara sauce and spoon them over spaghetti. And feel free to substitute turkey or chicken for the pork. With a recipe this flexible, you can’t go wrong. REAL ESTATE The village of Kenmore in Scotland. Robert Ormerod for The New York Times Who gets to own Scotland? Half of all the country’s private rural land is owned by a total of about 420 landowners. Centuries of feudalism are hard to shake. The Hunt: She wanted a New Orleans home near the Mardi Gras parade route. Which one did she pick? Play our game. What you get for $2 million: An Arts and Crafts house in Portland, Ore.; an 1836 Gothic Revival church building in Yarmouth Port, Mass.; or a rustic compound with a cottage and barn in Tivoli, N.Y. LIVING Gage Spex Allison Lippy Obsession: This New York performance artist has turned their New York apartment into a Barbie dollhouse. Quiz: The way you smell can say a lot about you. Find your signature scent. Need a date? In Los Angeles, a barbershop owner has added matchmaker to his list of services. Travel: Rewards programs are shifting to spending rather than miles flown. Here’s how to maximize your awards. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER A better way to hang your clothes If you’re starting to turn over your seasonal wardrobe and find yourself staring at a disorganized mess, there are a few simple ways to restore order to your closet. Start by reorganizing the way you hang your clothes: Do it by length. Instead of having your things randomly slotted in, group the long-hanging and short-hanging clothing together. Not only does this reduce visual clutter, but it frees up a chunk of floor below the shorter pieces to use as storage space. As far as the hangers themselves, our experts recommend upgrading to good quality slim ones — they’re the most efficient way to maximize space. — Brittney Ho GAME OF THE WEEK JuJu Watkins celebrated after scoring against U.C.L.A. last month. Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press No. 4 U.S.C. vs. No. 2 U.C.L.A., women’s college basketball: There are three serious contenders for N.C.A.A. player of the year, according to The Athletic, and two of them are in this game: Lauren Betts, U.C.L.A.’s dominant center, and JuJu Watkins, U.S.C.’s sophomore phenom. Betts is one of the nation’s top shot-blockers and Watkins one of its top scorers, but neither is a specialist — they both excel at all things basketball. This game should be great; it’ll be even better if these teams meet again next month in the Final Four. Tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern on Fox NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was picnicked. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 3, 2025 Author Members Posted March 3, 2025 March 2, 2025 By David Leonhardt Good morning. Today, we’re covering an under-the-radar Oscar nominee. But first, I have news about me and The Morning. A Morning transition My colleagues and I started this newsletter almost five years ago, in the early weeks of the Covid lockdowns. And running it has been one of the best jobs I’ve had. I’m grateful to all of you who make time in your day for The Morning. But I’ve learned during my 25 years at The Times that change is healthy, and I will be switching to a new job this week on the Opinion side, overseeing the writing and editing of Times editorials. You will be in great hands here at The Morning. This newsletter has always been a group project, produced by a spirited team of journalists in New York, Washington, London and elsewhere, and The Times will name a new lead writer soon. Starting tomorrow, I will join you as one of The Morning’s many readers. Now onto the rest of today’s newsletter. María Jesús Contreras Close encounters By Melissa Kirsch The Brazilian film “I’m Still Here” is up for three trophies at tonight’s 97th Academy Awards. If I had my way, which the academy year after year for some reason sees fit to deny me, “I’m Still Here” would win best picture. It’s the movie that thrilled me the most, the movie I can’t stop thinking about and recommending and wanting to watch again. Our all-seeing awards season columnist Kyle Buchanan tells me best picture is probably going to “Anora,” but he thinks the star of “I’m Still Here,” Fernanda Torres, will win for best actress. The movie’s a beautiful and harrowing tale of a family in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, a portrait of easy domestic happiness that’s shattered when the father is disappeared by Brazil’s military dictatorship. The woman sitting next to me in the theater was wholly overcome by the dramatic tension and repeatedly grabbed me during the most suspenseful moments. At the end, as the theatergoers wept quietly in the dark, I felt her body lean into mine, a meaningful hand placed on my shoulder, as if we’d been through a war together and were bonded forever. I should be clear: This was a stranger. I wrote recently about how movie audiences are laughing at inappropriate moments these days. Perhaps, I thought, this woman was just like those moviegoers, unsure how to behave in a theater after so many years growing accustomed to streaming alone at home. “Respect my personal space!” I thought to myself the first time she clutched me. I found her repeated contact startling, invasive, but, as it went on, also sort of funny and endearing. This is what good cinema does, right? It makes us react, emote, clutch strangers. “I’m sorry, my friends are sitting in the back of the theater, so you’re going to be my friend, OK?” she whispered urgently during a scene in a dreary prison. I felt comforted that this was a person who ostensibly had friends on the premises, people who could vouch for her (and help her put herself back together emotionally when the lights came up). “Art can endure through life, even in difficult moments,” Torres said in her Golden Globes acceptance speech in January, after she won for best actress in a drama, adding, “This is a film that helps us to think how to survive in tough times.” This view of art as a means by which we make sense of our lives — this is what makes me feel excited rather than cynical about the Academy Awards. When I hear about a studio “mounting a campaign” for a film or actor to win an award, I am simultaneously fascinated by the machinery of the movie business and disappointed. I want awards to be solely about excellence. I want the films that are honored to be the ones that move the most people, that are exemplars of art at its most effective and affecting. I’ve been known occasionally to grab the person next to me — always someone I know! — during a thriller or horror movie, but for the most part, I tend to keep to myself in the movie theater. But I’ve been thinking about the woman next to me during “I’m Still Here,” how her need to literally connect during the film transcended all notions of etiquette. I’m thinking about that surge of emotion each time she reached out. She understood the theater as a place where whoever is sitting next to you, friend or stranger, is going to be a person you make contact with when moved. Even while I don’t endorse grabbing strangers in the dark, I could relate to her impulse. (Of course, I suspect I’d feel differently if my neighbor’s behavior had felt in any way menacing.) If art is to help us think about how to survive, if it’s to help us make sense of the world, then I want to lean into the deep emotional response. I want to regard a movie as a vehicle for connection with others, an opportunity — emotionally and psychologically — to get closer to other people. The movies that enable this kind of closeness are the ones that, once the academy inevitably decides to let me run things, will win all the awards. For more: I chatted with Kyle and The Times’s chief film critic, Manohla Dargis, about who will, and should, win at the Oscars. More on the Oscars Conan O’Brien will host the show for the first time. Why did he agree to do it? “I need the money,” he joked. Many of the best picture nominees this year are weird, Wesley Morris writes — audaciously weird, in fact, in the best way possible. Can you match Oscar-nominated films to their Times headlines? Play our game. THE LATEST NEWS Middle East In southern Gaza. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times The cease-fire between Israel and Hamas has expired. Israel halted the entry of aid into Gaza, hours after proposing a temporary extension to the truce. Israel and Hamas have struggled to move from the first phase of the cease-fire into a second, more comprehensive phase. Government Overhaul DOGE has claimed credit for canceling government contracts that ended under previous administrations, the latest in a string of public errors on its website. Thousands of people gathered in national parks to protest President Trump’s firing of at least 1,000 National Park Service employees last month. Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal government challenge a decades-old effort to build a civil service stocked with experts. More on the Trump Administration A federal judge in Washington blocked Trump from firing the leader of a federal watchdog agency. Trump signed an order designating English as the official language of the U.S. The order ends a requirement for agencies to offer help for people who don’t speak English, but allows current policies to continue. The Pentagon is sending about 3,000 additional troops to the southwestern border. Trump ordered an investigation into whether lumber imports threaten national security, a move that could lead to tariffs. Canada is the largest exporter of wood to the U.S. New York Andrew Cuomo Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times The former governor of New York Andrew Cuomo said he is running for mayor of New York City. Mayor Eric Adams, who has faced calls to resign over concerns that he is beholden to Trump, has still not hired a campaign manager and his fund-raising has slowed. Adams faces a large field of primary challengers. See a list. War in Ukraine The Oval Office blowup between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky makes it more likely that Vladimir Putin will hold out for a peace deal on his terms. European leaders have been working to support Ukraine and strengthen their own defenses. That’s now more urgent. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Britain and France would work with Ukraine to present a peace plan to the U.S., The Guardian reports. Other Big Stories Pope Francis remains in a hospital with a complex lung infection and other serious ailments. Read about what would happen should he die. Wildfires broke out in North and South Carolina, fueled by winds and dry conditions. Several towns have evacuation orders, though some wider warnings expired last night. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Who provoked the Oval Office showdown between Trump and Zelensky? The Americans. Vice President JD Vance incited the altercation when he denigrated the Ukrainians, leaving Zelensky little choice but to defend his country. “As with the war, Mr. Zelensky didn’t start this Oval Office exchange,” The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board writes. The Ukrainians. The only way to engage with Trump is to flatter him, and Zelensky should have known that. “In a strange way, I do feel like Zelensky should have studied this a bit more,” Fareed Zakaria says on “Real Time with Bill Maher.” FROM OPINION Illustration by Shoshana Schultz/The New York Times; Photograph by Ludovic Marin/Getty Images. Times Opinion asked 10 columnists and contributors to assess Trump’s moves this month on several topics, including Ukraine, immigration and D.E.I. Here are columns by Ross Douthat and Maureen Dowd on Trump and Ukraine. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS At Rooftop Defense. Houston Cofield for The New York Times The new American gun store: A thriving crop of retailers offer lifestyle gear for women and have minority owners. Jacob Elordi bathed here: The tub from a steamy scene in the movie “Saltburn” is on display inside an Ohio home. Most clicked yesterday: Watch a video of Trump and Zelensky’s heated Oval Office exchange. Vows: An engagement fib that came true. Lives Lived: Angie Stone was a hip-hop pioneer in the late 1970s who later switched gears as a solo R&B star with hits like “Wish I Didn’t Miss You.” She died at 63. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “All or Nothing,” by Michael Wolff: “Every presidency has its chronicler: McCullough on Truman, Schlesinger on Kennedy, Caro on Johnson,” our reviewer wrote of “All or Nothing,” which follows Trump’s successful campaign for a second term. Most of these authors wrestle with their material for years, the review notes: “Not so Wolff, whose chronicles of the Trump years, like Trump’s own rapidly announced and chaotically rolled out executive orders, are run off while events are still molten.” As with Wolff’s first three books about the president (“Fire and Fury,” “Siege” and “Landslide”) there’s an air of instant gratification to “All or Nothing.” Readers who want to know what was happening behind the scenes after the first debate or the vibe of the election night party at Mar-a-Lago will not be disappointed. More on Books Scorching-hot westerns, seafaring adventures and steamy romances are an ideal way to stay toasty as winter fades into spring. Here are 10 books to help you beat the cold. THE INTERVIEW Philip Montgomery for The New York Times By Lulu Garcia-Navarro This week’s subject for The Interview is Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts. We spoke about how she thinks the Democratic Party can rebuild its brand, and how she views her role as the governor of a blue state in this new Trump era. President Trump has made rolling back D.E.I. — diversity, equity and inclusion — central to his political project. He has said that he’s going to be cutting federal funding for schools that include it. You’ve said that Massachusetts schools are going to “stay true to themselves.” What do you mean by that? We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. I am the first woman in Massachusetts history to be elected governor. I happen to be the first gay person elected governor. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have support and legal protections against discrimination my entire life. I was born in 1971, so just around the time of Title IX. And I had a career as a professional basketball player before I went to law school. I think about all that was made possible for me, as a woman, because there were state and federal laws in place that said, you know what, we should treat everybody fairly. I’m not giving up on that. Even if it means pulling federal funding? I just think people need to speak to why that’s such a bad thing. Talk to any C.E.O. of a major Fortune 500 company. They’ll tell you that their bottom line, dollar wise, does better when there’s more diversity in the room. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Erik Madigan Heck for The New York Times Click the cover image above to read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Fix your spotty internet. Find a truly nonstick pan. Try sleeping with socks. MEAL PLAN Linda Xiao for The New York Times Emily Weinstein has five weeknight dishes your kids will like. Her own can be picky, but they do like mojo chicken with pineapple, sesame salmon bowls and coconut ginger black beans. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was hydrant. Can you put eight historical events — including the first kidney transplant, the creation of the Statue of Liberty, and the discovery of fractals — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 4, 2025 Author Members Posted March 4, 2025 March 3, 2025 Good morning. Today, our colleague David Enrich explores Trump’s relationship with the media. We’re also covering tariffs, Congo and the Oscars. President Trump Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Trump and the press By David Enrich I write and edit business investigations. President Trump has spent years demonizing the press. He popularized the phrase “fake news” and branded journalists the “enemy of the people.” He frequently sues news outlets. His administration is investigating broadcasters. Trump and his followers falsely claim that news organizations, including The Times, are bankrolled by the government. Bashing the press is a time-honored tradition for presidents of both parties. But Trump has gone much further, attacking the very notion of an independent news media, one that will refute his distortions. He wants journalists to parrot his views and face consequences if they don’t. In today’s newsletter, we’ll look at how the president is already acting on his threats — and what additional peril the press faces in the Trump era. Trump vs. journalism Trump’s crackdown on the press began almost immediately after he returned to office. The White House excluded Associated Press reporters from events because the wire service wouldn’t reclassify the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. It plans to select which reporters and news outlets are part of the press pool that covers the president, a tactic used by authoritarian leaders. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating whether TV networks like CBS and PBS are operating in the public interest, as required by law. An administration official accused a Voice of America reporter of treason when he quoted someone who had criticized Trump. Media executives and lawyers expect more of the same. The Justice Department could prosecute reporters under anti-spying laws. Some news outlets are bracing for retaliatory investigations into their compliance with immigration and tax laws. For Trump personally, litigation remains a favorite cudgel. Last spring, he sued ABC News for defamation after an anchor erroneously said that Trump had been found liable for rape. (A jury found him liable for sexual abuse.) More recently, he sued CBS and The Des Moines Register, arguing that an edited TV interview and a faulty poll were akin to deceptive advertising. In addition, Trump’s lawyers and aides often threaten news outlets with litigation over critical articles. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. Doug Mills/The New York Times Supreme Court protections Traditionally, lawsuits like these don’t work. That’s because a series of Supreme Court decisions, starting with New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964, made it hard for public figures to win defamation cases. The court didn’t want the rich and powerful to be able to use litigation to muzzle the press or stop it from informing the public and exposing abuses. So the justices required public figures to prove that reporters knew what they published was false or acted with reckless disregard for accuracy. That is a high — but not insurmountable — bar. Trump and many other conservatives are pushing to overturn those precedents — a campaign I detail today in a Times Magazine article adapted from my forthcoming book, “Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful.” Doing so would make it easier to sue the press. It would make even the threat of litigation much scarier for news outlets. A likely result: More publications would treat the rich and powerful gently. In recent years, the effort has gained momentum. Politicians and other public figures — including Trump, Sarah Palin and the Republican megadonor Steve Wynn — have asked judges to overturn or narrow the Sullivan precedents. At least two Supreme Court justices have endorsed that effort, though it’s unclear whether any of their colleagues will join them. An intermediate option might be for the court to tighten the definition of who is a public figure so that more famous people could win libel suits. Harassing newsrooms Regardless of what happens to Sullivan, newsrooms already feel the impact of this anti-press campaign. Local politicians, business owners and others are using the legal system to harass small news organizations and independent journalists. Plaintiffs don’t need to win in court in order to be effective. Defending against them is expensive and time-consuming. News organizations that get sued often find that insurance companies jack up premiums — or cut them off altogether. Sometimes editors have to choose between backing down or incurring years of overwhelming legal costs. Maybe it’s just safer not to scrutinize that local mogul. Even some of the country’s largest media organizations are finding that they are vulnerable. Why? Because they are owned by companies or individuals with interests before the Trump administration. Executives at Disney, which owns ABC, will pay $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit in part because they didn’t want the president to see their company as an enemy. Meanwhile, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, needs F.C.C. approval to complete a multibillion-dollar merger. It’s not a coincidence that Paramount is also considering a deal to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against CBS. The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, scrapped its endorsement of Kamala Harris and drew praise from the White House last week for its plan to move the opinion section rightward. Amazon and Blue Origin, Bezos’ other companies, have large federal contracts. Media lawyers and some of Trump’s allies say the concessions have emboldened the president’s legal team. More lawsuits are likely. They will probably be accompanied by other attempts to delegitimize the press — an important strategy for a White House that uses lies to advance its agenda. THE LATEST NEWS Trump Tariffs Extra tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China are set to begin tomorrow. Trump could yet pause them, but businesses are braced. “I’m basically in Hail Mary mode,” one importer said. In response to Trump’s tariff threats, Canada and Mexico have tried to show that they are increasing border security. China has made no such overtures. If the tariffs come into effect, Canada is ready to retaliate. More on the Trump Administration Trump directed federal agencies to consider ways of bypassing environmental regulations to expand timber production in national forests. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the measles outbreak in West Texas is a top priority. But he has shied away from loudly and directly encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated. There are now 100 active suits in federal court against Trump administration actions. The White House is mounting political attacks on judges who rule against it. Trump has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, David Gelles, Lisa Friedman and Brad Plumer write. So based, much wow: On X, Elon Musk tries to use the language of the internet to marshal his followers in support of DOGE. Israel-Hamas War Eli Sharabi Saher Alghorra for The New York Times On Oct. 7, Eli Sharabi gave himself up to gunmen to save his wife and teenage daughters. He emerged from nearly 500 days in Hamas captivity to learn that they had been killed. The first phase of the cease-fire in Gaza is over. Israel and Hamas have continued negotiations, but they are also preparing for a possible return to war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio bypassed Congress to send $4 billion in weapons to Israel. Mexico Mexico, spurred by the Trump administration, is cracking down on organized crime. Several cartel operatives said that, for the first time in years, they genuinely fear arrest or death. The U.S. Supreme Court will consider a Mexican lawsuit tomorrow that accuses American gunmakers of complicity in the trafficking of weapons used by cartels. The justices may be skeptical. More International News In the Donbas region. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Drones, rather than traditional weapons of war, do most of the killing in Ukraine. The shift could change the way wars are fought. In a small coastal city, Japan is fighting its largest wildfire in more than three decades. At least one person has died and authorities have ordered thousands to evacuate. Congo’s large army is struggling to fight a much smaller militia, M23, which has swept through the eastern part of the country. Other Big Stories In Washington, D.C. Jason Andrew for The New York Times In downtown Washington, figure skaters paid tribute to the 67 people who died in a plane crash above the Potomac River. Many of the victims were young skaters. The New York State Police are investigating the death of a 22-year-old at an upstate prison. Nine prisoners told The Times that corrections officers had beaten him brutally. Opinions The business elite remains firmly behind Trump, even if many of its members don’t say so publicly. They may yet come to regret their support, Steven Rattner writes. In a time of lies, Margaret Renkl is keeping a running of lists of truths she doesn’t want to lose sight of. Here is a column by David French on American damage. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS “The Last Day of Pompeii” by Karl Bryullov. World History Archive/Alamy Two thousand years later: Scholars still disagree on the day of the destruction of Pompeii. Two new studies fan the fire. As seen on TV: Sitcoms have a history of ushering in social progress, but that may be harder now. Focus challenge: Spend 10 uninterrupted minutes with this photo. Health: This nurse is a foot soldier in America’s losing war with chronic disease. Wheels of fashion: S.U.V.s look like trucks again. Metropolitan Diary: Packed like sardines in silence. Lives Lived: Khalil Fong was a Hong Kong singer-songwriter who infused a soul and R&B sensibility into Chinese pop songs. He died at 41. SPORTS College basketball: South Carolina women’s basketball will have the No. 1 overall seed in the SEC Tournament thanks to a coin-toss victory over No. 6 Texas. The teams ended the regular season in a tie. College football: Mason Alexander, an 18-year-old freshman cornerback at Pittsburgh, died in a car crash in Indiana. ARTS AND IDEAS The cast and crew of “Anora.” Philip Cheung for The New York Times Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comedy-drama about an exotic dancer from Brooklyn who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, won five Oscars and was the big winner of last night’s awards. The movie, which cost just $6 million to make, took home best picture. Mikey Madison, its star, won best actress, and Baker won for directing, editing and his screenplay. The film’s sweep is reflective of an academy that has become younger and edgier, Brooks Barnes writes. Elsewhere, “The Brutalist,” a three-hour epic about a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor, secured three awards, and “Wicked” took home two. See the full list of winners, including Melissa Kirsch’s favorite, “I’m Still Here.” More on the Oscars Adrien Brody and Halle Berry. Sinna Nasseri for The New York Times The Oscars red carpet is the show before the show. The Times captured tender moments and notable looks. As host, Conan O’Brien was joyful, impassioned and largely apolitical. Read about the best and worst moments from the ceremony. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Linda Xiao for The New York Times Cook shrimp scampi with orzo, which simmers directly in the garlicky, buttery pan sauce. Read what to know about menopause hormone therapy. Jog while pushing your stroller. Organize your bathroom with a magnetic knife rack. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was adjudging. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. If you missed yesterday’s newsletter, David Leonhardt has left The Morning after five years for a new job at The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 4, 2025 Author Members Posted March 4, 2025 March 4, 2025 By German Lopez Good morning. We’re covering President Trump’s new tariffs — as well as military aid to Ukraine, Mardi Gras and what children saved from the fires. President Trump Doug Mills/The New York Times America’s flex President Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China took effect at midnight. By now, you’ve probably heard about the risks: higher prices, slower economic growth, a trade war. Trump acknowledges the potential for economic pain. Yet he signed off on the levies anyway — 25 percent for Canada and Mexico, another 10 percent for China. Why? He believes he can’t advance his “America First” agenda without rebalancing trade with other countries. This, he says, will make them do things that are in the United States’ interest. With these latest tariffs, he has demanded that Canada, Mexico and China do more to stop drug trafficking. But the tariffs could also harm American interests. If Canada and Mexico decide that America is no longer a reliable partner — one that keeps its word and prizes stability over chaos — they may seek other customers for their goods. They could even turn to U.S. adversaries like China. America would end up more isolated on the world stage. This issue isn’t just about trade; it’s about America’s alliances in general. To bend other countries to his will, Trump has suspended military aid to Ukraine, publicly hectored world leaders, threatened to withdraw U.S. troops from Europe and pulled out of international groups like the World Health Organization. Trump might succeed. But he also might scare off would-be friends. Today’s newsletter will look at two potential outcomes for Trump’s policy: one in which tariffs and pushy diplomacy accrue advantages for the United States and another in which the nation stands weaker and alone. America first? Trump’s America First approach has produced policy wins. When the president threatened Canada and Mexico with tariffs last month, both countries made limited concessions to appease him. Canada promised to name a “fentanyl czar.” Mexico said it would move troops to its northern border. Those countries are still trying to curry Trump’s favor to avoid tariffs. Few migrants now come through the U.S.-Mexico border, my colleague Annie Correal reported. And Mexico has stepped up efforts against organized crime. For the first time in years, cartel operatives say they fear arrest, my colleagues Natalie Kitroeff and Paulina Villegas explained. Trump’s friendlier stance toward Russia has also led European countries to commit to more spending on their militaries. They plan to defend the continent themselves — exactly what Trump wanted. And Trump’s impatience with Ukraine moved its president to offer some of the country’s mineral wealth to the United States. Russia, too, has dangled economic opportunities to get in Trump’s good graces. Trump’s critics do not like the abrasive, chaotic approach he has used to get some of these wins. But the means matter less to Trump than the ends. In his view, he pushed other countries to take U.S. interests more seriously. Or America alone? The counterargument is that it’s still early. Foreign leaders may appease Trump for now, but eventually they may shift away from working with America because it’s too fickle. Consider Australia’s example. Over the past few years, it worked with America to confront China. But what if Trump makes his own deal with China, as some Australian officials fear he might? Then Australia would suffer China’s wrath alone while America reaped benefits, Fareed Zakaria, the CNN journalist, told Ezra Klein. After that, it would be unlikely to trust Washington again. Meanwhile, European countries are building up their militaries so they won’t need America’s protective umbrella. They’re crafting a “coalition of the willing” to help Ukraine, Mark Landler and Jeanna Smialek reported. They could use their newfound independence to, say, more aggressively help each other with trade and block American goods. Canada and Mexico, too, could look for more buyers of their goods in Europe and China. If Trump spurs shifts like those, an America First strategy may create new rivals, instead of stronger allies, for U.S. power worldwide. Some of these outcomes might seem unthinkable. After all, Canada, Mexico and European countries have been close allies with the United States for generations. But those friendships endured because foreign leaders saw Washington as reliable; the president, no matter who he was, had their backs. If American allegiances shift wildly from election to election, the foundation for these friendships may crumble. There are already signs that Trump’s approach is backfiring. Some European officials warn that America is no longer a friend, Steven Erlanger reported. Canadians are more nationalistic and anti-American since Trump took office, Vjosa Isai wrote. Down south, “government and businesses have rekindled a ‘Made in Mexico’ campaign,” James Wagner explained. Even in the short term, the U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal collapsed after Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s shouting match in the Oval Office last week. In that moment, Trump’s style actually pushed Ukraine to not put American interests over its own. More on tariffs China imposed retaliatory tariffs on many foods imported from the U.S., including chicken and corn, minutes after Trump’s tariffs took effect. It also essentially halted sales to 15 American companies. Canada also responded this morning. It will apply 25 percent tariffs on $30 billion worth of American goods and extend them to $125 billion worth in 21 days. Mexico is expected to respond today. Stocks fell after Trump confirmed that his tariffs would take effect. Failed business ventures? Personal vendettas? No one’s quite sure what Trump has against Canada, but there are theories. THE LATEST NEWS War in Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office. Doug Mills/The New York Times Trump halted military aid to Ukraine with immediate effect. The order affects more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition. Officials said Trump would rescind it once Ukraine showed a good-faith commitment to peace negotiations. The suspension puts the U.S. in opposition to its NATO allies. Many of the largest European nations are promising to increase aid to Ukraine. Trump’s behavior has stoked support for a proposal to use billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to arm and rebuild Ukraine. Zelensky is back in Ukraine after a diplomatic mission that included humiliation at the hands of Trump and a warm embrace from Europe. Elon Musk Elon Musk Eric Lee/The New York Times Elon Musk’s DOGE team removed hundreds more entries from its public ledger of government cuts, erasing $4 billion that the group claimed to have saved. On Joe Rogan’s podcast, Musk called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Some Tesla owners are selling their cars because they’re fed up with Musk, or with being hassled about him by strangers. More on the Trump Administration The Senate confirmed Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive, as education secretary. Eugene Daniels, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, is fighting the president’s hostility toward the press while he navigates a new job at MSNBC. Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress tonight. Here’s what to watch for. More on Politics Democrats blocked a Republican-written bill to bar transgender women and girls from school sports teams. Two Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee launched an investigation into the Justice Department’s move to drop charges against Mayor Eric Adams. They accuse the department of covering up a quid pro quo agreement. International Arab leaders plan to meet in Cairo today to discuss the future of Gaza. A 40-year-old man drove a car into a lunch-hour crowd in Mannheim, Germany, killing two and injuring 11. The authorities say the driver appeared not to have a political motive. Pope Francis had two acute respiratory crises yesterday. He has been hospitalized for more than two weeks. New York Andrew Cuomo, who is running for New York City mayor, has cast failed Democratic leadership as the cause of much of the city’s problems. As New York State corrections officers strike, some inmates have gone without hot food and mental health care, and at least seven prisoners have died. The operator of a New York City day care where a 1-year-old boy died after ingesting fentanyl was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Other Big Stories In New Orleans. On its first Mardi Gras since the New Year’s Day terrorist attack, New Orleans is filled with merriment and trepidation. Strong winds forced at least one Louisiana parish to cancel parades. TSMC, the world’s largest computer chip manufacturer, plans to invest $100 billion over the next four years to expand its operations in the U.S. Opinions Covid changed everything around us, from our faith in public health to the way we protest, David Wallace-Wells writes. C.E.O.s have the influence and the ability to talk to politicians. They should lobby Trump to abandon his tariff agenda, Jeff Sonnenfeld and Stephen Henriques write. Here is a column by Thomas Edsall on presidential power. Today marks the first anniversary of Strands! Celebrate a year of mind-bending Spangrams and deviously clever clues with a special commemorative puzzle from editor Tracy Bennett. Play here. MORNING READS Philip Cheung for The New York Times Priceless: Eight children who fled the Los Angeles wildfires showed us what they saved from their homes. Skin care: Should anti-aging products come with an age minimum? A California bill seeks to prohibit sales to under 18s. Travel: Spend 36 hours in Kathmandu, Nepal. Faith and history: A major initiative aims to preserve Black churches. Check out the photos. The Great Read of the day: A longtime friend of the artist Francis Bacon claims to have a trove of his unpublished artworks. Most clicked yesterday: Try a focus challenge. Spend 10 uninterrupted minutes with this photo. Lives Lived: Laura Sessions Stepp, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, reported on teenage sex and “hookup” culture on college campuses in strikingly intimate detail in The Washington Post and in her best-selling book, “Unhooked.” She died at 73. SPORTS N.B.A.: The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Houston Rockets, 137-128. The OKC star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander bolstered his M.V.P. case with a 51-point performance. NASCAR: Katherine Legge, a 44-year-old British sports car and open-wheel driver, will become the first woman to race in the Cup Series in over seven years. Chess: The jeans that the world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen wore when he quit a tournament over its dress code have fetched $36,100 on eBay. ARTS AND IDEAS Antoine Doré Gone are the days when travelers had to sneak their pets into their hotel rooms. Hotels are going all out to please four-legged guests, providing custom bedding and freshly cooked food. The Plaza Hotel in New York City even offers a fluffy white bathrobe in five doggy sizes. Read more about how hotels pamper pups. More on culture Timothée Chalamet Nina Westervelt for The New York Times See inside Vanity Fair’s Oscars party. Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years, died at 82. He inspired many of Parton’s songs including “Jolene” and “From Here to the Moon and Back.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times Fill cardamom buns with cream for a delicious Mardi Gras treat. Refresh your old computer. Pick the best smart speaker for your home. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was vegetable. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 5, 2025 Author Members Posted March 5, 2025 March 5, 2025 By German Lopez Good morning. We’re covering Trump’s address to Congress — as well as tariffs, Ukraine and the world’s largest iceberg. President Trump Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times A rally in Congress Last night, President Trump gave what sounded like a campaign speech. He mocked Democrats, decried “wokeness,” bragged about his accomplishments and repeated falsehoods. Except this speech wasn’t delivered at a rally. It was in Congress, and the audience included Democrats. The mood was sour, and the parties jeered at each other. The evening showcased the chasm in our polarized politics. Democrats repeatedly interrupted Trump. Representative Al Green of Texas waved his cane and shouted when Trump said he’d won a mandate. Green refused to sit down, and the House speaker ordered security to remove him. Democrats continued to yell throughout the speech. Many held signs saying “FALSE.” Trump egged on the confrontation. He said Democrats wouldn’t clap or cheer at anything he said or did — even if he cured a deadly disease or eliminated crime. “They won’t do it, no matter what,” Trump said. Democratic lawmakers during the joint address. Kenny Holston/The New York Times At one point, Trump pointed to Republicans to say, “It’s our presidency.” He called Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts “Pocahontas.” He derided Democrats for launching criminal investigations against him. “How did that work out?” he asked. The back and forth would have been unthinkable during most of the formal, and typically stuffy, addresses that presidents have given to joint sessions of Congress for more than a century. Consider the outrage that milder displays drew in previous years: In 2005, pundits from both parties condemned Democrats for booing George W. Bush during his State of the Union speech. In 2009, a Republican congressman publicly apologized after interrupting Barack Obama’s speech by yelling, “You lie!” Trump also embraced his role as a showman. He gave a Secret Service badge to Devarjaye Daniel, a 13-year-old with brain cancer who wants to be a cop and came to the speech wearing a police uniform. He unveiled an executive order to rename a Texas wildlife refuge for Jocelyn Nungaray, a Houston 12-year-old killed, the police say, by Venezuelan migrants. And the president surprised Jason Hartley, a high school senior whose family members served in the military, with admission to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Devarjaye Daniel holding his honorary Secret Service badge. Doug Mills/The New York Times Today’s newsletter will break down Trump’s speech, with reporting from my colleagues. Trump’s policies Historically, presidents address Congress to urge lawmakers to work on specific legislation. Trump did little of that last night. For much of his speech, he boasted about how much he has done without Congress. He listed his accomplishments, often making misleading statements: Ukraine. Trump said he appreciated a conciliatory note from Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, that seemed to calm the dispute the two leaders had in the Oval Office last week. “They are ready for peace,” Trump said of Russia. “Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” Tariffs. He acknowledged that tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China might hurt American farmers, saying that there “may be a little bit of an adjustment period.” Immigration. He cited a drop in illegal immigration. He also claimed that his administration was conducting rapid deportations. This is misleading: At the current pace, the Trump administration would deport half as many people as the Obama administration once did in a 12-month period. Government cuts. Trump recited a list of funding programs that Elon Musk’s DOGE team cut, including one in the African nation of Lesotho, a country he said “nobody has heard of.” He also said his administration had found “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud,” a claim that lacks evidence. Spending. Trump said Congress would balance the federal budget. But the proposal House Republicans advanced last week includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would add to the deficit. Attacks on “wokeness.” Trump cited his efforts to eradicate D.E.I. and bar transgender athletes from women’s sports. “Wokeness is trouble, wokeness is bad, it’s gone,” he said. Read The Times’s fact check, which assessed more than two dozen of Trump’s claims. More on the night Doug Mills/The New York Times Trump’s speech lasted over 100 minutes — the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history. Senator Elissa Slotkin delivered the Democrats’ response. She argued that Trump’s agenda would hurt taxpayers and America’s reputation. Trump, she said, is “going to make you pay in every part of your life.” Trump pressed for the United States to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal. “We’re going to get it one way or the other,” he said of Greenland. House Democrats’ guests included military veterans whom Trump fired from government jobs. Trump’s speech didn’t convey, or rationalize, the scale and intensity of the disruption his presidency has caused, David Sanger writes. Trump stressed his support for Musk’s government overhaul and re-litigated the 2024 presidential campaign: Read six takeaways and the full transcript. Commentary Democrats were right to protest, writes David Firestone of Times Opinion: “It’s hard to blame those who couldn’t stop themselves from shouting at the barrage of misinformation.” The verbal sparring made up the best and worst moments of a night long on theater, Times columnists write. Daniel Goldman, a Democratic congressman from New York, criticized the president for not making a stronger call for the release of the Israeli hostages. Carlos Gimenez, a Republican congressman from Florida, supported Trump’s remarks on Panama, calling its canal an “American innovation.” THE LATEST NEWS Trump’s Tariffs Trump, by imposing tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico, has courted a trade war with America’s biggest trading partners. Economists are puzzled. Justin Trudeau said he found Trump’s intentions hard to determine, but suggested that the tariffs were motivated by territorial aggression. “We will never be the 51st state,” he said. The Trump administration said it would lift tariffs on Canada and Mexico once deaths from fentanyl fall. They’ve already fallen. Mexico’s president did much of what Trump asked: She moved to secure the border, hunted down cartels and sent drug lords for prosecution in the U.S. He imposed tariffs anyway. Canadians are angry about how their neighbor is treating them. Some say the relationship between the U.S. and Canada will never be the same. More on the Trump Administration BlackRock, a giant American asset manager, plans to buy ports at both ends of the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong-based company. The deal could relieve some of the pressure Trump has put on Panama. A judge blocked the Trump administration from firing the head of a board that protects government workers from being wrongfully fired. Another judge stopped the administration from withholding funds from hospitals that offer gender transition treatments to young people. The Trump administration marked hundreds of federal properties for potential sale, including offices for the Social Security Administration and the I.R.S. War in Ukraine In Ukraine. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Zelensky offered terms he said could end the war with Russia: He promised to release prisoners of war and halt long-range attacks if Vladimir Putin agreed to do the same. Experts say Ukraine’s military might buckle in as little as four months without U.S. weapons. The Kremlin propaganda machine long portrayed the U.S. as an evil empire. With Trump in charge, its view is rosier. The leader of the E.U. wants to increase European military spending by more than $800 billion to support Ukraine and the continent. International Xi Jinping Andy Wong/Associated Press At a set-piece meeting in Beijing, China’s leaders tried to project economic confidence despite sluggish growth and geopolitical uncertainty. Israel’s domestic security service said it failed to heed warning signs before the Oct. 7 attacks, but also said that government policy had emboldened Hamas. A doctor is on trial in France, charged with raping or sexually assaulting 299 people, mostly his young patients. His family’s testimony suggested a culture of silence. Other Big Stories The world’s largest iceberg — about four times the size of New York City — has run aground after months of drifting. The Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computing, went to two A.I. pioneers who developed reinforcement learning, a technique vital to chatbots like ChatGPT. Opinions Luxury brands have often aligned themselves with liberals. They might benefit from getting closer to the tax-averse, oligarch-friendly Trump administration, Amy Odell writes. Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on Trump’s address to Congress and Bret Stephens on arguments for betraying Ukraine. The Games Sale. Our best offer won’t last. Come play with us. Subscribe to New York Times Games for up to 75% off your first year. Strengthen your strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, play The Crossword and more. MORNING READS An Amtrak train in Del Mar, Calif. Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times Cliffhanger: A scenic California train line sits on the precipice of eroding bluffs. Officials are looking for a new route before it’s too late. Good and bad pain: When should you keep running after a twinge in your knee, and when is it a sign of a bigger problem? Most clicked yesterday: What’s behind Trump’s love-hate relationship with Canada? Lives Lived: Refugee, prisoner, wine merchant, spy: Peter Sichel was many things in his long, colorful life, but he was probably most often identified as the man who made Blue Nun one of the most popular wines in the world. He died at 102. SPORTS N.B.A.: LeBron James became the first to reach 50,000 career points across the regular season and playoffs. Relive his milestones. N.F.L.: The Jets released the star wide receiver Davante Adams after a disappointing three-month stint. ARTS AND IDEAS Clockwise from top: West Village in Chengdu, the Museum of Clocks and “Memorial to Hu Huishan.” The Pritzker Architecture Prize This year’s winner of the highest honor in architecture, the Pritzker Prize, is Liu Jiakun of China. When Liu was 17, he was sent to labor in the countryside as part of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. One of his notable creations is the Museum of Clocks — a large circular structure, punctured by a skylight, that contains a series of clocks signifying the end of the Cultural Revolution. See more examples of Liu’s work. More on culture An artist put three live piglets in an exhibition about animal cruelty, planning to let them starve to death. Instead, the pigs have gone missing. Jimmy Fallon joked about Trump’s speech: “The night was pretty much a welcome back party for Trump, Republicans and measles.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times Drizzle homemade yum-yum sauce over shrimp fried rice. Clean a lamp. Do your laundry better. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was phlegmy. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 7, 2025 Author Members Posted March 7, 2025 March 6, 2025 By German Lopez Good morning. We’re covering how the judiciary is stopping parts of the Trump agenda — as well as government cuts, China and the most divisive restaurant in London. Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh. Doug Mills/The New York Times Judges vs. Trump Yesterday, the Supreme Court reminded President Trump that at least one branch of government would not bend the knee. The justices, in a 5-4 vote, rejected Trump’s request to freeze $2 billion in foreign aid, a part of his effort to slash government spending and dismantle the “deep state.” “A bare majority of the court ruled against Mr. Trump on one of his signature projects,” my colleague Adam Liptak wrote. “The president’s many programs and plans, the order suggested, will face close scrutiny from a deeply divided court.” That’s the second time the Supreme Court has stopped Trump in his second term, although lower courts have blocked many more parts of his agenda. With Republicans in control of Congress, the courts remain the only serious obstacle to the president. Today’s newsletter looks at the tangle of cases — and at what may happen if Trump ignores the rulings they produce. The court battles The Times is tracking dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration. The legal challenges, in federal courts around the country, fit into four categories: Government overhaul: With the help of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Trump is trying to downsize the federal government. His administration has tried to fire tens of thousands of civilian employees and dismantle entire agencies. The legal challenges contend that Trump didn’t follow rules for firing certain employees, that he can’t shut down agencies established by law without congressional approval and that DOGE has gone beyond what laws allow it to do. Immigration: Trump has pushed his administration to end birthright citizenship, deport many more migrants, restrict asylum and withhold funds from cities that resist his policies. His critics say many of these moves violate laws or constitutional standards that protect immigrants’ rights. Reversing liberal policies: Trump has tried to curtail a host of liberal policies, including environmental rules, legal protections for transgender people, congestion pricing in New York and D.E.I. initiatives. Some of the lawsuits seek to overturn Trump’s orders and resurrect these policies. Others focus more narrowly on restoring access to government data, such as information about climate change and H.I.V. treatments, that officials have taken offline. Press freedom: Trump has blocked Associated Press reporters from official events because the A.P. style guide uses Gulf of Mexico instead of Gulf of America. The news service says this violates the First Amendment and the right to due process. These cases start in district courts, which can pause a policy. Then both sides argue their positions in court, and the losing side can appeal the ruling to appeals courts and eventually the Supreme Court. So far, 41 rulings have paused Trump’s initiatives, at least temporarily. (Look at the whole list here.) Eventually, the Supreme Court could uphold or reverse Trump’s actions permanently. But that process often takes years. The Trump administration could take advantage of that slowness to fire workers and reshape the government before the courts could react. Will Trump listen? President Trump in the House chamber. Kenny Holston/The New York Times Scholars argue about whether the country is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. But most experts, both liberal and conservative, agree that one thing will cross a line: if Trump ignores a Supreme Court ruling. At that point, the checks and balances that the constitutional system relies on could collapse. The administration has already failed to comply with some lower court orders, such as one revoking a broad federal funding freeze. And some of Trump’s supporters, including Vice President JD Vance, argue that the president should not listen to orders that constrain him. “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance posted on social media. Vance has also adapted an apocryphal Andrew Jackson line: “The chief justice has made his ruling; now let him enforce it.” The implication is that courts have power only if people obey them. Judges don’t have police officers or soldiers they can dispatch to enforce their rulings. Trump so far has not written off judicial authority. In the instances when the administration hasn’t followed court orders, it has pointed to alternate legal justifications for its actions. Previous presidents did similar things, such as when Joe Biden cited other legal avenues for student loan forgiveness after the Supreme Court ruled against his initial attempt. Still, Trump doesn’t like being told no. He has already stretched the powers of the presidency. He might believe that, in defying the courts, he can do it again. THE LATEST NEWS Government Overhaul Some universities, pre-empting cuts by the Trump administration, are enrolling fewer PhD. students. The administration’s cuts have pushed out young federal employees. Some experts fear losing a generation of civil servants. The Veterans Affairs Department plans to eliminate 80,000 jobs, about 15 percent of its staff. A board that handles federal worker disputes ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of employees it fired at the Agriculture Department. Musk has derided Social Security as a pyramid scheme and eliminated thousands of jobs within the program. Democrats see a political opportunity. The C.I.A. has started firing some employees whom it hired in the last two years. More on the Trump Administration The Trump administration announced a one-month pause on tariffs for cars from Canada and Mexico. The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche, Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, to take the No. 2 position at the Justice Department. Trump promised to disclose the donors to his transition effort. So far, he hasn’t. A federal appeals court ruled that Trump could fire a federal ethics watchdog, a role that Congress created. The Supreme Court may take up the case. The Trump administration plans to overhaul a program to expand high-speed internet. The changes could benefit Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service. The team behind the musical “Hamilton” canceled performances at the Kennedy Center because of Trump’s takeover. Sanctuary City Hearing At a House committee hearing. Eric Lee/The New York Times In a contentious hearing over sanctuary laws that protect migrants, Republican lawmakers accused the Democratic mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York of blocking Trump’s immigration agenda. At several points, the mayors turned Republicans’ law-and-order focus back on them. “If you wanted to make us safe, pass gun reforms,” Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston said. Democrats grilled Mayor Eric Adams of New York City over whether he had cut a deal with Trump to crack down on immigration in exchange for avoiding federal prosecution. Read takeaways from the hearing. More on Politics Representative Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor who had just begun his first term in Congress, died at 70. A soberly delivered message or cane-waving outrage? Democrats are divided on how to resist Trump. The mayor of Washington plans to remove the city’s two-block-long Black Lives Matter mural. War in Ukraine The U.S. has stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine to pressure its government to comply with Trump’s push to end the war. Trump’s decision to stop sending weapons could reorder Ukraine’s military strategy and deplete the systems that defend cities against missile attacks. China A video of a woman chained by the neck prompted weeks of uproar in China. The government quashed the public outcry with a campaign of surveillance and censorship. As Beijing works to increase birthrates, Chinese companies are instructing their employees to start families or lose their jobs. The U.S. charged a dozen Chinese citizens with stealing data from American businesses for the government. More International News U.S. officials have spoken to Hamas about hostages held in the Gaza Strip, breaking with a policy to use intermediaries when dealing with groups that the U.S. deems terrorists. Two militias, one backed by the U.S. and the other by Turkey, are fighting in northeastern Syria. The fighting complicates the new Syrian government’s efforts to unify the country. Armed men in Sudan have raped hundreds of children during the country’s civil war, a U.N. report said. The South Korean military mistakenly bombed a village during an exercise with the U.S., injuring 15 people. Other Big Stories Los Angeles County sued Southern California Edison, blaming the utility’s equipment for the Eaton fire. Prosecutors said that two children, ages 7 and 12, were forced to help torture Sam Nordquist, a transgender man killed in western New York last month. Researchers identified a gene that they think helps women’s brains age more slowly. Opinions Trump fired 16 inspector generals at the start of his term. Times Opinion spoke to seven of them about how his move could introduce more fraud in the government. Andrew Tate’s prominence creates a culture that devalues young women, Jessica Grose writes. Here’s a column by Thomas Friedman on lessons from the Iraq war. The Games Sale. Our best offer won’t last. Come play with us. Subscribe to New York Times Games for up to 75% off your first year. Strengthen your strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, play The Crossword and more. MORNING READS In London. Peter Flude for The New York Times Yellow Bittern: The most divisive restaurant in London is open only for lunch. The wizard of vinyl: In a sprawling Kansas factory, Chad Kassem is “saving the world from bad sound.” Ask Well: My partner snores. What should we do? Lives Lived: Juan Hamilton was an aimless young ceramist when he turned up on the doorstep of the octogenarian painter Georgia O’Keeffe. He would become her caretaker, confidant and the object of sensational accusations as virtually the sole beneficiary of her will. He died at 79. SPORTS N.H.L.: The Washington Capitals’ winger Alex Ovechkin is nine goals from Wayne Gretzky’s record after scoring in the team’s win over the New York Rangers. N.F.L.: Players are on the move before free agency begins. The Chargers released Joey Bosa after nine seasons and the Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf requested a trade. Men’s college basketball: Connecticut, the two-time defending champions, defeated No. 20 Marquette, but there’s arduous work ahead. ARTS AND IDEAS Flush with memories, short on cash. Audra Melton for The New York Times Gen Z fans pay much more for tickets than previous generations of concertgoers. In 1996, the average cost of a ticket to the year’s biggest tours was $26 — adjusting for inflation, that’s about $52 today. Last year’s average was $136. How do 20-somethings afford live music? Some save; others go into debt. More on culture Take five minutes to fall in love with Chicago jazz. On late night, Taylor Tomlinson discussed Trump’s address to Congress: “Democrats stood up to him the only way they know how: by writing about it later in their diaries.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Sip a bone-warming carrot and cauliflower soup. Stay balanced and injury-free as you age. Try these fantasy sports apps. Turn an iPad into a laptop with these keyboard cases. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were awarding, drawing and warding. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 8, 2025 Author Members Posted March 8, 2025 March 7, 2025 Good morning. We’re covering the fractured Democratic opposition to President Trump — as well as Elon Musk, South Korea and Pope Francis. During President Trump’s address to Congress. Kenny Holston/The New York Times The new resistance By Lisa Lerer I cover politics and elections. Yesterday, several Democrats disavowed one of their own. Representative Al Green of Texas had jumped up during President Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday. The lawmaker yelled that Trump had no mandate to cut Medicaid, shook his cane at the dais and refused to sit down. Eventually, the House speaker ejected him. It was a showy protest on national TV. And two days later, 10 of his fellow Democrats joined a Republican censure of him, renouncing his call for “righteous indignation and righteous incivility.” How should Democrats resist Trump this time around? The answer isn’t clear. Eight years ago, liberal voters flooded the streets, week after week, to protest Trump’s actions on immigration, climate change and women’s rights. This time, they’re much quieter and far less unified. They lack a galvanizing leader. They’re divided over ideology, strategy and tactics. Elected Democrats aren’t sure how to battle a president whom more voters wanted than didn’t. And many of their supporters are demoralized and resigned, choosing to tune out the news altogether. Their party is still grasping for a coherent response, and the speech on Tuesday captured their disorganization. Some Democratic lawmakers boycotted; some didn’t. Some walked out of the chamber during the speech. Others held up signs, heckled Trump and wore hot pink suits in protest. Afterward came a sober-minded official Democratic response from Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a rising star who won in a swing state. Today’s newsletter looks at the fractured Democratic opposition to Trump 2.0. It falls roughly into four categories. The compromisers Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado. Nathan Howard/Reuters, Pool photo by Hyoung Chang Lawmakers, party leaders and strategists in this group point out that Trump won the election, so clearly voters wanted some of what he was selling. Governors — such as Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Jared Polis of Colorado — have given some political ground on issues where surveys indicate popular support for Trump’s position. Think of immigration, tariffs and transgender athletes on girl’s sports teams, which California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, recently described as “deeply unfair.” Some of this approach is driven by the need of governors to work with the federal government. Before Trump took office, Newsom positioned himself as a leader of the opposition, calling a special session of the state legislature to craft lawsuits and “safeguard California values.” After the fires ravaged Los Angeles in January, he adopted a less confrontational style. For instance, he suspended provisions of some state environmental laws while he appeals to the federal government for aid. The resisters These Democrats — a younger and more liberal group — argue that the party must stridently oppose nearly every action taken by the administration. They want to update the 2017 strategy of outrage and protest for a new era. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut embodies this approach. As my colleague Annie Karni detailed last month, he assails the administration in videos on social media, posts on X, floor speeches, interviews and essays. “The case I’m making to Democrats is that we have to fight every single day,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” this week. “We have to be on the offensive 24/7.” Green, the censured Texas congressman who heckled Trump, is an adherent of this view. Many others in the House agree. The lawyers Another set of Democratic officials believes the best place to fight Trump is in court. With Democrats locked out of federal power, the party’s 23 attorneys general have become the front line of the opposition. They’ve already filed seven lawsuits against the administration, challenging executive actions to end birthright citizenship, freeze federal funding and other moves. The attorneys general of Arizona, Minnesota, New Mexico and Oregon even held their own town hall meeting this week in Phoenix, responding to voters in an unusual joint event. The pragmatists Senators Elissa Slotkin and Chuck Schumer. Pool photo by Paul Sancya, Eric Lee/The New York Times This group of Democrats argues that the party needs to find a message that works and not just reflexively oppose everything Trump does. The most extreme version was articulated by the strategist James Carville, who says Democrats should let Republicans and Trump sink under the unpopularity of their initiatives. “Roll over and play dead,” he told Democrats. But in Congress, Democrats have largely chosen an economic focus, stressing issues like the cost of eggs, the potential of higher prices from tariffs and the threats to popular programs like Medicaid and Social Security. Many of those championing this approach are more experienced members of Congress, like Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader. But not all: Slotkin, who won in a state where Trump prevailed, stuck to bread-and-butter issues during her response to Trump on Tuesday. Wrapped within her message was a far more basic plea: “Don’t tune out. It’s easy to be exhausted, but America needs you now more than ever,” she said. “If previous generations had not fought for democracy, where would we be today?” To her and other Democrats, there are two dire problems. Trump is one. The other is the apathy of their own voters. Related: Trump’s critics, fearing retribution, are going silent. THE LATEST NEWS Trump’s Tariffs Trump suspended most new tariffs on Canada and Mexico just two days after they took effect. The quick reversal seemed to unsettle the stock market. Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, earned Trump’s admiration. Their warm relationship helped persuade him to pause the tariffs. Canada has taken a harder line on Trump: After the tariffs briefly took effect, many government-run liquor stores pulled American-made spirits off the shelves. Trump appears to enjoy turning tariffs on and off like tap water, David Sanger writes. But allies and investors simply feel whiplash. Government Overhaul Linda McMahon, the education secretary. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Trump is said to be preparing an executive order to dismantle the Education Department, though it’s likely that only Congress can eliminate it. Republican lawmakers have pushed for the elimination of the department since its creation by an act of Congress four decades ago. Republicans are growing uneasy with Elon Musk’s federal government cuts. Trump, in apparent response to the concerns, said the next phase would be done with a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet.” More than a dozen immigration judges accepted government payouts to leave their jobs, further depleting an overwhelmed system. The State Department plans to close a dozen overseas consulates by the summer, and it is considering shutting down many more. A record number of people visited U.S. national parks last year. It appears the Trump administration, which has fired park employees, wants to keep the record quiet. The administration has started to reinstate some of the federal workers that it had let go. See a list of those who were fired and then rehired. More on Trump The administration is finalizing a plan to bar visitors from certain countries, a ban that would be broader than the versions Trump issued in his first term. Trump signed an executive order to create a national stockpile of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Critics call the idea a scheme to enrich crypto investors. Trump’s policies — and their sometimes chaotic application — have shaken America’s once-solid economic outlook. In his Senate confirmation hearing, Dr. Marty Makary, Trump’s pick to lead the F.D.A., said he would review rules on abortion pill access. Europe U.S. and Ukrainian officials plan to meet next week to discuss the first steps of a deal that could seek to end the war with Russia. Donors to Britain’s Conservative Party are now funding a right-wing populist party that models itself on Trump’s MAGA movement. More International News President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea. Pool photo by Song Kyung-Seok A South Korean court ordered the release of the country’s impeached president from jail. “This tears open a deep wound all over again”: Israel’s release of a Hamas leader convicted over his role in a deadly bombing has prompted intense emotion. Eastern Australia is bracing for a powerful cyclone. The authorities ordered thousands to evacuate, and tens of thousands more are without power. Other Big Stories Pope Francis thanked Catholics for their prayers in an audio recording from the hospital. A SpaceX rocket failed during a test flight. Falling debris disrupted flights in Florida and Pennsylvania. South Carolina plans to execute a man today. The inmate chose to be executed by firing squad, the first use of the method in the country in 15 years. An unvaccinated person who died in New Mexico tested positive for measles, possibly the second such fatality in a growing outbreak. Opinions Trump believes his sacrifice of Ukraine will protect the United States from war with Russia. He risks antagonizing Washington’s allies, Farah Stockman writes. Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on the right’s self-deception and David Brooks on Trump’s ego. The Games Sale. Our best offer won’t last. Come play with us. Subscribe to New York Times Games for up to 75% off your first year. Strengthen your strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, play The Crossword and more. MORNING READS Photographs by Jeffrey S. Pippen Nature: Butterfly populations are falling in the U.S. See how they’re faring in your area. ‘Rebel With a Clause’: Grammar fans are flocking to a film about participles and gerunds. A $1.5 billion hack: How the biggest crypto heist in history went down. Stops and starts: Aging may not be a linear process. Getting better: Are you in a therapy rut? Here’s how to get out. Most clicked yesterday: Inside the most divisive restaurant in London. Lives Lived: In addition to being a master of the jazz vibraphone, Roy Ayers was a leader in the movement that added electric instruments, rock and R&B rhythms, and a more soulful feel to jazz in the 1970s. He died at 84. SPORTS ESPN: Stephen Smith agreed to a five-year, $100 million contract extension with the broadcasting giant. Boxing: Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor will fight for a third time atop the first all-women’s card held at Madison Square Garden. ARTS AND IDEAS In Kyiv, Ukraine. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times After Ukrainian soldiers die, the band of the 101st Separate Guard Brigade of the General Staff bids them farewell. At funerals, the mission of 21-member band is twofold: to acknowledge the toll of the conflict and to keep spirits high for those who are still fighting. “We treat every funeral like it’s our most important concert,” one member said. Read more about the band’s work. More on culture A Muslim athlete needed modest sportswear. Now she sells it to others. Late night hosts joked about Trump’s tariff pivot: “I can’t believe this, but your tariff went bad faster than my avocados,” Seth Meyers said. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times Make “marry me salmon” when you want to impress. Edit videos with a powerful laptop. Survive daylight saving time. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were cavatelli and vacillate. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. Times reporters and editors answered readers’ questions about how we cover the Trump administration. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 9, 2025 Author Members Posted March 9, 2025 March 8, 2025 By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. Daylight saving time begins tomorrow, and the days are getting lighter and more expansive. If we want to, we can, too. María Jesús Contreras Lightening up Daylight is adding up, about three minutes more each day as March progresses, give or take. Tomorrow, we bank a full hour at once: Change your clocks, change your smoke detector batteries, start planning menus around tender lettuces. Spring hasn’t arrived yet, but her plane’s definitely left the ground. I call this time of year The Great Thaw, or sometimes The Great Unclenching. Despite winter’s cozy associations with holiday gathering, with mugs of cocoa enjoyed before the blazing hearth, it’s always felt to me like a time of contraction, of hoarding. We button and zip ourselves up into ourselves and move quickly past one another. We sleep more and default to indoors. The days are always ending again. When the light returns, something unclenches in me, and I like to imagine that it does in all of us, although I know better than to impute my own longing for the warmer months to the bewildering characters who prefer the cold. “Daylight Saving Time Begins.” That entry on the calendar always reads like a triumphant return, a welcome back. We tried this “standard time” thing all winter, tried being measured and responsible with how we spent our time, and now, exhale, finally, that’s over. Now, we will loosen up. Now we will stop being so withholding and rigid with our time, with our presence, with our imaginations. Now a perfectly good Saturday plan is just to meet up outside and see what develops. The season of scarcity is coming to a close and now we will spend ourselves with abandon. Whether or not you feel a sort of inner unleashing happening this time of year, opening up is a seductive prospect, isn’t it? If there’s a tension between the seasons — fall and winter’s contraction vs. spring and summer’s expansion — then there’s a similar tension in us. Being timid vs. living out loud. Rushing in from the cold vs. lingering. Playing it safe vs. risking it. Keeping ourselves small and contained vs. letting loose our full splendor. Sometimes we need inducements to be our most expansive selves, an invitation to open up. Let tomorrow’s onset of longer, brighter days serve as that invitation. Why not? We change the clocks by an hour, making this deliberate shift from dark to light in our external worlds. How can we do this internally as well? How will we meet this unofficial beginning of the lighter, looser half of the year? How will we thaw out, unclench, let go? THE LATEST NEWS The Trump Administration Elon Musk leaves the White House on Tuesday. Pete Marovich for The New York Times Members of President Trump’s cabinet clashed with Elon Musk in a contentious meeting on Thursday. Afterward, Trump pulled back some of Musk’s power over agency cuts. The Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing its failure to protect Jewish students from harassment. Federal agencies are purging hundreds of so-called “woke” words from government documents. See the list of terms. Trump’s immigration plans call for private prisons to detain many more migrants. That means big profits for the companies that run the facilities. Trump’s Foreign Policy Trump said he asked the Iranian government to reopen nuclear talks. In 2018 he withdrew the U.S. from a nuclear deal with Iran. Trump says he is considering imposing sanctions and tariffs on Russia until it reaches a deal to end the war in Ukraine. Panama will release more than 100 migrants, deported by the U.S., that it had been holding in a jungle camp. International At least 140 people have died in clashes between Syria’s new authorities and forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. It’s the bloodiest fighting since the Assad regime fell. A German court convicted five men with plotting to kidnap the country’s health minister on live TV in order to create chaos and destabilize the government. Dominique Pelicot, the French man convicted of drugging and raping his wife, now faces a similar charge from his daughter. Business Hiring in the U.S. is holding steady: The country added 151,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate rose just slightly. The Justice Department is investigating whether major U.S. egg producers violated antitrust laws, causing the cost of eggs to spike. Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul sentenced to 25 years in prison, is lobbying for a presidential pardon. Other Big Stories Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died of a virus linked to rodents, a medical examiner said. Hackman, who had Alzheimer’s, appears to have died a week later. A firing squad in South Carolina executed a man convicted of murder. It was the first such execution in the U.S. in 15 years, and the first ever in South Carolina. Athena, a privately developed spacecraft meant to shuttle NASA instruments to the moon, toppled while landing and died shortly after. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Danny McBride stars in “The Righteous Gemstones.” Illustration by Erik Carter The final season of “The Righteous Gemstones,” a satire of American televangelism that’s both supremely crude and deeply humanizing, begins tomorrow. Hulu’s “Deli Boys” centers on South Asians, drugs, violence and the minimart. Its two lead actors found dream roles playing no one’s hero. While in-person moviegoing languishes in much of the world, French audiences are returning to the cinema. George Lowe, whose baritone lent an air of silly seriousness to the cartoon talk-show host Space Ghost, died at 67. Oscars “Anora” was the big winner at the Oscars. Sean Baker, the movie’s director, used a speech to urge audiences to keep seeing films in theaters. “Wicked” duets and stand-up bits: The hosts of “Popcast” discussed the ways the Academy Awards incorporated music into its ceremony. On Oscars night, a number of celebrities opted for nearly nude fashion. These eight celebrities ruled the red carpet this awards season. Music Hear the music that our classical music and opera critics can’t stop thinking about — including Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and Julia Wolfe’s “Her Story.” Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years, died at 82. His crush on a bank teller early in his marriage inspired Parton’s 1973 hit “Jolene.” Jay-Z sued the woman who withdrew her rape lawsuit against him last month, claiming that she and her lawyers knew the allegations were false. More Culture Tim Curry, left, and Kim Milford on Broadway in 1975. Martha Swope/Billy Rose Theatre Division, via The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Before “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was a cult classic film, it was a Broadway flop. Read an oral history of the production. A new exhibition in Rome features 24 works by Caravaggio, the sword-bearing bad boy of Baroque art. Sadie Sink will star in “John Proctor Is the Villain” on Broadway, about a group of students studying “The Crucible” in the midst of the #MeToo era. A lot of political comedy on the left has been subdued. The British comic Nish Kumar stands out for his combative nature, our columnist writes. Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last. Love to play? Discover all our games. Subscribe to New York Times Games today and save up to 75% on your first year — improve your Wordle strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, plus more. Come play with us. CULTURE CALENDAR By Claire Fahy ? “Mickey 17” (out now): The latest effort from the Oscar-winning “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho features Robert Pattinson as Mickey, a hapless man working on a spaceship as its “Expendable” — an experimental guinea pig who is repeatedly killed and reborn in the name of expedition research. Our critic Manohla Dargis calls it “a movie that teeters close to apocalyptic despair,” but also one that “lifts you to the skies.” RECIPE OF THE WEEK Julia Gartland for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Sweet and Sour Cauliflower To match the imminent sunshine with bright, vegetable-full fare, Hetty Lui McKinnon’s sweet and sour cauliflower is an excellent choice. A vegetarian riff on sweet and sour dishes at Chinese American restaurants, cauliflower stands in for the usual chicken or pork. The secret to the brick red sauce is ketchup, which provides some necessary sweetness tempered by vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. It will bring the sunshine into your kitchen, too. T MAGAZINE Photograph by Luis Alberto Rodriguez. Styled by Carlos Nazario Click the cover above to read this weekend’s issue of T, The Times’s style magazine. REAL ESTATE Margy Waller in Manhattan. Tony Cenicola/The New York Times The Hunt: With $400,000 to spend, a Cincinnati transplant hit Manhattan. Which home did she choose? Play our game. Outies welcome: Step into the real-life Lumon Industries from “Severance,” which was a hub for technological innovation in the 20th century. What you get for $850,000: A condo in Miami; a 1920 cottage in Newport, R.I.; or an adobe house built in 1910 in Taos, N.M. LIVING Dr. Sandra Lee Maggie Shannon for The New York Times Dr. Pimple Popper: A dermatologist built an empire by sharing gnarly extractions online. Agnès b.: The shop in Paris that changed what we wear. Travel: Plan a vacation around these blockbuster women’s sporting events. Lifetime of love: Have you been married for over 30 years? The Times wants to hear your advice for sustaining a healthy relationship. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Declutter your fridge If spring cleaning is on your weekend to-do list, don’t try to tackle the whole house at once. Instead, focus on specific, contained areas that you frequent. A good high-traffic place to start? The fridge. Take everything out, throw away expired ingredients and give the shelves and drawers a good wipe-down. As you’re putting everything back, make sure to place your most-used ingredients and condiments in view. A spinning tray or some rimmed baking sheets can also help keep things organized. So satisfying. — Elissa Sanci GAME OF THE WEEK Manuel Ugarte of Manchester United, left, and Gabriel Martinelli of Arsenal. Visionhaus/Getty Images Manchester United vs. Arsenal, Premier League soccer: Arsenal holds the No. 2 spot in the Premier League standings, but the club had struggled recently: Before this week, it had failed to score a goal in three of its previous four matches. Thankfully, for fans, it got back on track Tuesday with a 7-1 rout of the Dutch club PSV. Manchester United is not having a great season, though anything can happen in a rivalry match; last time these two played, in January, United won in a penalty shootout. Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern on NBC NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was mahogany. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter said that more 2024 voters picked President Trump than didn’t. Trump won more votes than Vice President Kamala Harris, but there were more overall voters for Harris and third-party candidates. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 10, 2025 Author Members Posted March 10, 2025 March 9, 2025 Good morning. Today, we’re covering a surprising form of Gen Z burnout — as well as a MAGA fracture, Mayor Eric Adams and an English tradition. The New York Times Trend overload By Callie Holtermann I cover pop culture and Gen Z. Consider yourself lucky if you have never heard of the “coastal grandmother aesthetic.” Or “blueberry milk nails,” or the “mob wife aesthetic” or a hundred other blink-and-you’ll-miss-them crazes that cycle online with the ferocity of a centrifuge. These microtrends, as they’re known, tend to be associated with Gen Z. But members of that generation say they are exhausted by the onslaught of faddish clothes and new phrases they encounter every time they pick up their phones. I’ve spent the last few months asking young people about the fashion and social media trends that are actually registering in their offline lives. More than any one trend, the teenagers and twentysomethings I spoke with wanted to talk about just how many trends there were, and how overwhelming it all felt. Every generation feels pressure to keep up with trends, especially in its youth. But many members of Gen Z seem to be under particular stress: The fire hose of social media offers endless opportunities to feel left out. Others say they just can’t afford — mentally or financially — to try to keep up. For a new story in The Times’s Style section, I talked to young people about the frenzied trend ecosystem — and what some of them were doing to escape it. Keeping up Short-form video platforms like TikTok are fertile territory for microtrends. They get a heavy assist from fast fashion companies like Temu and Shein that sell inexpensive but poorly made clothes and accessories, available in just a few clicks on the apps. On the first day of sixth grade, Neena Atkins noticed that several girls at her middle school wore scrunchies on their wrists. She searched for scrunchies on TikTok, and in the days that followed she was served dozens more videos in which the hair ties were being worn as bracelets. “I distinctly remember being like, ‘Wow, am I weird?’” Neena, now 16, said. “The repetition over and over, it really seeps in to your brain.” Because TikTok’s algorithm is designed to show viewers more of the things they already like, viewers can feel like they are passing the same billboard hundreds of times rather than once or twice a day. That can be pretty convincing, especially in combination with the age-old teenage desire to fit in. Neena bought a 30-pack of scrunchies on Amazon, but before long, the girls in her feed were obsessing over something else. The cycle began anew. “There were these two months where cheetah print was everywhere,” Neena added, “and now when I go on TikTok, I see people saying, like, ‘Cheetah print is getting so old.’” Dropping out Many young people I spoke to said they felt stuck in a cycle of chasing, buying and discarding in order to keep up. Others, though, are trying to move beyond it. Some are swearing off fast fashion, or limiting their clothing to a similar uniform every day. A few have deleted social media. Before buying something, Abner Gordan, 21, a student in Manhattan, tries to ask himself whether he wants something because it appeals to his sense of style, or because he is emulating what he has seen online. He was heartened when he saw some TikTok users push “underconsumption core,” a style of video in which they showed off their underwhelming apartments and very regular clothing. But he was discouraged when he saw that trend lose steam after just a few months. “In a weird way, being anti-trend is very trendy,” he said. THE LATEST NEWS Government Overhaul Elon Musk and Steve Bannon at the White House in 2017. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The populists vs. the ultrawealthy: Steve Bannon and Elon Musk’s fractious relationship captures a tension at the heart of the MAGA movement. Trump administration cuts have disrupted medical research at the Veterans Affairs Department. Some say further cuts could harm former service members. Musk’s work in government has prompted a sometimes violent backlash against Tesla. People have set charging stations ablaze and fired shots into a dealership. A climate nonprofit sued the Environmental Protection Agency, seeking access to nearly $7 billion in grant money frozen under President Trump. Some Republican governors and state lawmakers want to capitalize on the MAGA base’s excitement about Musk’s DOGE by starting their own versions. More on the Trump Administration Many undocumented workers are staying home out of fear of deportation. Industries that rely on them say consumers could soon feel the impact. The Iranian supreme leader decried “bullying governments” in an apparent rebuff of Trump’s offer to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program. The Trump administration might readmit Russian diplomats to the U.S. Some are likely to be spies. Since returning to office, Trump has shifted his positions and contradicted himself. It’s the ultimate cover, Erica Green writes. More on Politics Mayor Eric Adams Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times Mayor Eric Adams promised law and order. Instead, his scandal-ridden mayoralty became a symbol — and engine — of New York City’s chaos. To reach the apolitical men who tilted toward Trump, some Democratic leaders are appearing on sports podcasts. International At a Hamas handover of the remains of a young hostage. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times Israel promised that the military campaign in Gaza would help save hostages. At least 41 have died in captivity, some killed by Hamas and others in Israeli airstrikes. Chaos has swept coastal Syria as Assad loyalists battle government security forces. More than 1,000 people have been killed since Thursday, a war monitor said. A group of experts detailed what enforcement of a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine could look like. Canada’s Liberal Party elects a new leader today, who will become the country’s prime minister. Read what to know. Other Big Stories Wildfires erupted on Long Island, injuring at least one firefighter. A legal services company has created a hotline to collect sexual assault accusations against the music mogul Sean Combs, formerly known as Diddy. It says it has received around 26,000 contacts. The Newark police have arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection with a shooting that killed one of their detectives and injured another officer. TRUMP’S ACTIONS It can be hard to keep up with the deluge of news from the White House. The Times has created a page to track the Trump administration — including its major executive orders, memos, lawsuits and social media posts. Here are some from the past week: Military: Restored the name of another base named for a Confederate leader, Fort Benning, but said it was now named for a formerly obscure soldier who shared the surname. Cryptocurrency: Signed an executive order to create a national stockpile of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Government overhaul: Posted, and then took down, a list of more than 440 federal properties that could be sold — including the F.B.I. and Justice Department headquarters. Ukraine: Suspended Ukraine’s access to U.S. satellite imagery, which tracked the movement of Russian troops. See the full list here. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Was it wise for Andrew Cuomo to enter the New York City mayor’s race? Yes. Cuomo has government experience and oversaw the creation of a new terminal at LaGuardia Airport. “Cuomo’s nearly 12 years as governor — not to mention four years as HUD Secretary and four as state attorney general — allow him to accurately claim to have far more experience than any of his rivals,” New York Magazine’s Errol Louis writes. No. During the pandemic, Cuomo hid the true death toll in nursing homes and then denied any wrongdoing. “As Mr. Cuomo seeks a return to high office, it’s worth revisiting how he handled the most important leadership test of his career,” Bill Hammond writes for The Wall Street Journal. FROM OPINION Musk’s risk-taking works in business. In government, though, those strategies can lead to death, the Editorial Board writes. Alyona Synenko took up singing two years into the war in Ukraine. Having a goal made life during conflict bearable, she writes. Here are columns by Ross Douthat on French leadership in Europe and Nicholas Kristof on Trump’s recklessness. Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last. Love to play? Discover all our games. Subscribe to New York Times Games today and save up to 75% on your first year — improve your Wordle strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, plus more. Come play with us. MORNING READS In Atherstone, England. Craig Bernard for The New York Times Drink, fight over a ball, don’t kill anyone: Inside an English town’s 800-year-old tradition. Travel: 36 hours in Valencia, Spain. Routine: How a sculptor spends his Sundays. Most clicked yesterday: See the list of so-called “woke” words that federal agencies are purging from government documents. Vows: An Australian wedding so nice they celebrated it three times. Lives Lived: The nutritionist and educator Joan Dye Gussow was often referred to as the matriarch of the “eat locally, think globally” food movement. She died at 96. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “Dream Count,” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: It’s been 12 years since Adichie published “Americanah,” her acclaimed novel about a young Nigerian woman finding her way in the United States. Since then, she’s delivered a trio of pocket-size nonfiction on feminism and grief. Now Adichie is back with “Dream Count,” a novel about the braided lives of four African women — a lawyer, a banker, a travel writer and a housekeeper. In an author’s note, she explains that one character was inspired by Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel employee who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French politician and economist, of sexual assault. Adichie wanted to “‘write’ a wrong” with a “gesture of returned dignity,” she writes. Our critic described the book, which was just longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, as “dreamy indeed: an accumulation of scenes and sensations, cloudlike in their contour, floating this way and that against the backdrop of the pandemic.” Read the review. More on books Before Harper Lee published “To Kill a Mockingbird,” she wrote short stories exploring some of the themes that would make her famous: fathers and daughters, race relations, small town gossip. Those stories will be published this fall. THE INTERVIEW Philip Montgomery for The New York Times By David Marchese This week’s subject for The Interview is Lady Gaga, whose new album, “Mayhem,” is out now. Your partner, Michael Polansky, is an executive producer on the album. What impact did he have on the music? He oversaw the whole process of making the record, completing it, helping me to shape the sound of the record creatively. It was an amazing thing to do with your partner, because when I start to doubt myself, there is nobody that’s going to call me on it better than he is. I could imagine that relationships are tricky in your position because you might have questions about whether someone’s feelings are genuine. How did you realize that Michael was genuine? From the moment that I met Michael, he had the most warm disposition. Yes, he was impressive, but the thing I cared about the most was he wanted to know about my family. [Pause.] I’m sorry I’m crying. No, it’s OK. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I knew Michael was genuine because he wanted to be my friend. He wanted to take walks with me. He took me rock climbing. I also have a pain condition [fibromyalgia], but he had this belief that I could get better, and he inspired me to have more hope about it. So, yeah, I guess I know Michael is genuine because he’s my friend. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photo illustration by Jamie Chung. Concept by Pablo Delcan. Click the cover image above to read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Try sources of protein that aren’t meat. Choose an odor absorbing litter tray. Braise, sear or bake using a Dutch oven. MEAL PLAN Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Ali Slagle. In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein suggests making maple and miso salmon, shrimp fried rice doused in yum yum sauce, and spiced chicken and rice with cardamom and cinnamon. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were littleneck and telekinetic. Can you put eight historical events — including the settlement of Manhattan, China’s Cultural Revolution and the Tariff of Abominations — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 10, 2025 Author Members Posted March 10, 2025 March 10, 2025 Good morning. Our colleague Margot Sanger-Katz explores how Republicans could change Medicaid. We’re also covering tariffs, Syria and literature festivals in India. On Capitol Hill. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Cutting Medicaid? By Margot Sanger-Katz I cover health care. Republican leaders in Congress have directed the committee that oversees Medicaid to cut $880 billion from the next budget. They say these cuts aren’t necessarily aimed at Medicaid, the insurance program for 72 million poor and disabled Americans. The cuts could come from Medicare, for instance. But Trump has vowed not to touch that very popular program. And a sum this large can’t come from anywhere else. The Republican process is just getting started, and we don’t yet know how lawmakers will change the program. Most Medicaid money goes to states, so the best way to think about the proposal is as a cut to state budgets. State lawmakers could react by dropping coverage, raising taxes or slashing other parts of their budget. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain a few possible scenarios. Each square represents $250 billion in 10-year gross mandatory spending. | Source: Analysis of federal budget data by Richard Kogan, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | By The New York Times Who’s covered Medicaid was designed to divide a patient’s medical bills: the federal government and the state would each pay a set share. (A state’s contribution depends on how poor it is.) The law is precise about what Medicaid must cover — cancer screenings and kidney transplants, for instance, but not prosthetic legs — and Republicans can’t change that with a budget bill. Every state has to cover certain populations, including poor children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and patients in nursing homes who run out of money. Most states also choose to cover an optional group that was added as part of Obamacare in 2014: anyone who earns less than a certain income (around $21,000 for a single person). Republicans want to impose a work requirement on this group for people who aren’t disabled. That idea is popular with the public but would save the federal government only around $100 billion, not enough to meet the G.O.P. target. Percentages for adults are for ages 19 to 64. | Source: KFF | By The New York Times Bigger targets Anything more to lower the federal government’s share would put the burden on states. And lawmakers there could deal with the problem in their own ways. They could cut optional populations like the Obamacare group. Twelve states have laws that will automatically do this if federal funding drops. If they don’t want to drop people, states can drop optional benefits, such as prescription drug coverage. After those cuts, states face tough choices. They could pay doctors, hospitals and nursing homes less for care. But there is a limit. If Mississippi suddenly started paying $50 for an echocardiogram instead of around $160, cardiologists might stop seeing Medicaid patients. (Many Medicaid patients already struggle to find care because the program pays doctors so little.) Cuts like these could also put some nursing homes or rural hospitals out of business. Even so, states would still need a lot more money for Medicaid, usually their second-largest expense after education. Where could they get it? They’d have to sacrifice other priorities. One option is to cut education. Another is to raise taxes. None of these would be required by federal legislation; it’s up to the states how they cope. That allows Republicans in Congress to say they are not cutting Medicaid benefits or eligibility, even if that is the inevitable effect in most places. Too big to fail Republicans point out that the original pact between Washington and the states has frayed, and feds are covering more than their share. That’s true. Through various accounting gimmicks, states have lowered their Medicaid contributions and now pay about a third of the bill, on average. Plus, Washington assumed almost the whole cost of the 2014 Obamacare expansion. But that expansion has made Medicaid popular. More than half of Americans say someone in their family has used the program, and only 17 percent support cutting its budget. Local lawmakers also probably won’t win over voters by chopping education or raising taxes to save Medicaid. That’s why Democrats have settled on Medicaid as their top talking point about the G.O.P. budget plan. Republicans tried to cut Medicaid’s budget in 2017, too. Grassroots opposition helped defeat the effort, as did extensive lobbying by Republican governors, who urged senators not to leave them with a huge fiscal hole. The unpopularity of that bill — and its failure — helped Democrats retake the House the next year. Related: Cutting Medicaid, taxing scholarships and killing invasive plants: A guide to the Republican wish list. THE LATEST NEWS Trump’s Tariffs In Toronto. Cole Burston/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images China’s retaliatory tariffs have taken effect on many farm products from the U.S., including chicken and wheat. While many American companies oppose President Trump’s tariffs, leaders of steel and aluminum companies welcome them. They say they’ve been harmed by unfair trade. In a Fox News interview, Trump declined to rule out the possibility that his policies would cause a recession. Canada Mark Carney Cole Burston for The New York Times Mark Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, won the Liberal Party leadership election and will replace Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister. The Liberals had been struggling, but their polling has surged since Trump came into office. Carney is expected to quickly call a federal election. Trump is likely to be his biggest challenge. “America is not Canada. And Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form,” Carney said in his acceptance speech. More on the Trump Administration Immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian activist at Columbia. The activist had a green card, and his arrest is part of Trump’s crackdown on what he has called antisemitic campus activity. Trump’s layoffs at the I.R.S. have hurt the agency’s ability to conduct audits and investigate businesses, former and current officials said. A group of Native American tribes and students sued the Trump administration to reverse recent firings at Native schools. Trump’s alienating approach to foreign policy has forced many Americans to rethink the country’s role as a world leader. New York The New York City mayor’s race is a durability test for the #MeToo movement: Three candidates have faced accusations of sexual misconduct. New York and state prison guards reached a deal to end the strikes that have created chaos in jails. Middle East Abdul Qahar Ghorbandi, right, at work. Elise Blanchard for The New York Times Abdul Qahar Ghorbandi was a Taliban spy. Now he’s the friendly taxman of Kabul. Israel cut off electricity to Gaza to pressure Hamas over cease-fire talks. The move will mainly affect a single wastewater treatment plant. Syria’s new government dismissed the Assad regime’s security forces. Now, many Syrians fear going out after dark. More International News The president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, attempted a military takeover in December. Instead, he got himself impeached. Here’s how he blew it. Ukrainian forces have stalled the Russian offensive in the eastern Donetsk region in recent months and reclaimed some small patches of land. The Romanian electoral commission barred an ultranationalist candidate from the presidential race. He won the first round of an aborted election last year. Covid Anniversary At a Los Angeles funeral home in 2021. Alex Welsh for The New York Times Five years ago this week, everything — health, education, sports, crime, travel — changed. These 30 charts show how. Scientists are beginning to understand how Covid can cause long-term and sometimes invisible damage to the body. The tightly knit Fusco family lost five members in the pandemic. “For families like us,” Elizabeth Fusco said, “Covid will never be over.” Other Big Stories After the wildfires, many L.A. residents are anxious about toxic chemicals left in the soil. Some residents are doing their own tests. A small aircraft carrying five people crashed in a parking lot of a Pennsylvania retirement community. Opinions Trump’s immigration policies address an imaginary horde of murderers and ignore real problems, Megan Stack writes. Turning to private companies to manage pandemics is a recipe for disaster, Siddhartha Mukherjee writes. Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss Trump’s speech to Congress and campus antisemitism. Here’s a column by David French on religious liberty and free speech. Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last. Love to play? Discover all our games. Subscribe to New York Times Games today and save up to 75% on your first year — improve your Wordle strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, plus more. Come play with us. MORNING READS In Harlem. Miranda Barnes for The New York Times Exclusive: If you have to ask about this Harlem dinner party, you’re not invited. Small hooves, big hope: Some scientists are confident that organs from genetically modified pigs will one day be routinely transplanted into humans. Ethical questions remain. Ask Vanessa: “Why are so many women wearing neckties?” “Super big and super gnarly”: Japan’s ski slopes have too much snow. Work Friend: “Help! I’m marrying my co-worker and no one at work knows.” Metropolitan Diary: A close-up for the nude scenes. Most clicked yesterday: Inside Steve Bannon and Elon Musk’s fractious relationship. Lives Lived: Art Schallock pitched for the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles in the 1950s and lived to be the oldest surviving major leaguer. He died at 100. SPORTS N.F.L.: The Seahawks traded the star wide receiver DK Metcalf to the Steelers, who will sign him to a massive extension. M.L.B.: The league commissioner is pressuring Stu Sternberg to sell the Tampa Bay Rays, people briefed on the conversation told The Athletic. ARTS AND IDEAS In Kerala, India. Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times In India, young people are driving a boom in book festivals big and small. These readers are increasingly consuming books in their native tongues and in English. They are learning in ways that India’s higher education system — with its focus on exams — often does not encourage. More on culture “Flow,” a wordless Latvian animation, won an Oscar. It’s also keeping pets riveted. Lady Gaga released “Mayhem,” her first pop album in nearly five years. Our critic compiled a list of some of her greatest deep cuts. Listen here. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Microwave this Nutella pudding cake, which has just three ingredients. Deep clean your home. Fly in stylish, comfortable clothes. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were entanglement and gentleman. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 11, 2025 Author Members Posted March 11, 2025 March 11, 2025 Good morning. Our colleague Claire Cain Miller shares some lessons from the pandemic. We’re also covering the stock market, an activist arrest and balloon art. Liana Finck What Covid taught us By Claire Cain Miller I cover gender, families and education. When the pandemic upended our lives five years ago today, it gave researchers a rare chance to learn more about who we are and how we live. The entire world changed at once, creating natural experiments everywhere. What happens when sports teams play in empty stadiums? When the government sends people money? When women stop wearing high heels? When children stop going to school? In many cases, it was impossible to know what caused the specific changes — some aspect of the Covid pandemic or another invisible influence. But the findings demystified several aspects of our world. My colleague Irineo Cabreros and I wrote about them in a story we published today. Here are some highlights: Crowds help the home team When sports teams played in empty stadiums, research showed that yes, the fans made a difference: Home teams played worse without them around. They were less likely to win at home and had poorer performances. The effect was smaller for teams already accustomed to smaller crowds. But the home advantage wasn’t just about fans. When the N.B.A. restarted play, the top 22 teams isolated in Orlando, Fla., allowing researchers to study the effects of jet lag. Rebounding, shooting accuracy and wins were all higher among players who hadn’t traveled across time zones. Virtual doctor visits work … Telehealth, once uncommon, accounted for half of medical visits early in the pandemic. Mostly, patients and doctors were satisfied with seeing one another online. Telehealth lowered health care costs. It was especially useful for treating chronic illnesses and for psychotherapy. And in some cases, the pandemic revealed, people don’t need to see a doctor at all. The number of patients showing up with mild appendicitis decreased, while the number with complicated appendicitis didn’t change, which suggested that some people who would typically have had surgery recovered on their own. … but virtual school doesn’t Liana Finck When it came to learning, remote schooling wasn’t enough. Across the country, in rich and poor districts, and among white, Black and Hispanic students, test scores in reading and math fell. Many students still haven’t caught up. There was learning loss even in countries that had shorter school closures than the United States did. But the data is clear: The sooner children returned to classrooms, even part time, the better they did. Dolphins talked more When humans were less active — what scientists call the anthropause — animals began breeding more and traveling farther. Dolphins whistled longer, birds changed their songs, sea turtles laid more eggs. In some places, predators or invasive species arrived. Urban wildlife that had become accustomed to coexisting with humans (and our trash), like crows or raccoons, retreated. It revealed the ways in which humans both threaten and protect the natural world, scientists said. Men do less The lockdowns brought a crush of domestic labor. More dishes piled up, and more needy children were underfoot. But even when men worked from home, women still handled more of the work. Eight in 10 mothers said they managed remote schooling. (Fathers overestimated their contribution, surveys found.) That’s likely a reason mothers’ antidepressant use increased when schools were closed, but not fathers’. Mothers were also more likely than men to cut back at work — though they returned as soon as they could. Only couples who want egalitarian relationships, researchers wrote, can overcome “the stickiness of gender inequality in household work.” Plants make us happy Liana Finck People flocked to natural areas when they could, and they were better off for it. A study in Hong Kong compared people who lived near urban green spaces with those who didn’t. It found that parks provided physical activity and a refuge. A study in nine countries found that access to nature — even a balcony or a garden at home — improved people’s moods. And a study in Taiwan analyzed the “window/wall ratio” in people’s quarantine rooms and found that more windows, especially ones that offered views of vegetation, made them happier. There were so many other striking findings — such as how easy it is to lift children out of poverty and how dangerous high heels can be for women. Read the whole list here. More on the Covid anniversary The New York Times The Times asked 19 photographers to revisit their most enduring images of the pandemic. See their pictures here. Restructured family dynamics and going makeup-free: Twenty-nine Americans shared how the pandemic changed their lives, for better and for worse. THE LATEST NEWS Stock Market Wall Street had its worst day of the year so far after President Trump suggested that his trade policies could cause a recession. Markets in Asia are down this morning. Tech stocks suffered some of the hardest falls. The tech-heavy Nasdaq experienced its biggest one-day drop since 2022, The Wall Street Journal reports. Tesla shares fell 15 percent in a day. The company’s stock price, which soared after the election, has halved since December. Trump campaigned on a promise of “skyrocketing wealth.” His tariffs have made that a difficult promise to keep. Russia Ukraine targeted Moscow with a major drone attack. Moscow’s mayor said the attack was the largest against the city since the war began. Volodymyr Zelensky has offered a truce on long-range strikes like this. But Ukraine appears to be sending a reminder of its power. Ukrainian and American officials will meet today for their first high-level talks on a cease-fire since an Oval Office shouting match between their presidents. More International News Former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines Anthony Kwan/Getty Images Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, was arrested on an International Criminal Court warrant. The court accuses him of crimes against humanity in his war on drugs. Pope Francis is out of imminent danger from pneumonia, the Vatican said. The Kurdish-led militia that controls northeastern Syria agreed to merge with the country’s new government. Despite backing rebels at war in Congo, Rwanda still lures tourists and investors. Government Overhaul A judge ordered the State Department and U.S.A.I.D. to pay grant recipients for work completed in the first weeks of Trump’s term. Another judge found that Elon Musk’s DOGE is probably subject to public disclosure laws and must hand over documents to a group that sued for access to its emails. Harvard froze hiring. It said Trump’s threats to cut funding for higher had created uncertainty. Activist Arrest The Trump administration is relying on an obscure law in its effort to deport a pro-Palestinian student activist. The activist, Mahmoud Khalil, has a green card and is married to a U.S. citizen. After his arrest, officials moved him to an ICE detention center in Louisiana. Trump cheered Khalil’s arrest, writing on social media, “This is the first arrest of many to come.” The arrest divided the American Jewish community, which is trying to reconcile its support for Israel with its long commitment to civil liberties. More on the Trump Administration Trump is wooing Republican lawmakers, while maintaining an implicit threat to ruin them if they stray from his agenda. At the start of his term, Trump said Guantánamo Bay would house as many as 30,000 migrants awaiting deportation. As of this weekend, 40 were there. As a measles outbreak spreads, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised alarms about measles vaccines, despite evidence of their safety. The Justice Department’s pardon attorney opposed a request to restore Mel Gibson’s gun rights. The department fired her a day later. The U.S. energy secretary, before a crowd of oil and gas executives, promised to reverse the government’s focus on climate change. Amazon will stream “The Apprentice,” deepening the company’s relationship with Trump. “I look forward to watching this show myself,” Trump said in an Amazon statement. Other Big Stories Researchers repaired a disease-causing gene mutation for the first time, using a single infusion to correct a spelling error in patients’ DNA. Mississippi became the third state to ban lab-grown meat, after Florida and Alabama, Wired reports. Georgia and Nebraska may soon follow. A number of colleges, faced with increasing political pressure, have adopted policies to stay silent on social issues. Opinions Companies should get rid of their D.E.I. policies and hire people on their merits, Anson Frericks writes. Here are columns by Lydia Polgreen on migration in Dubai and Michelle Goldberg on the arrest of the student activist. Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last. Love to play? Discover all our games. Subscribe to New York Times Games today and save up to 75% on your first year — improve your Wordle strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, plus more. Come play with us. MORNING READS In Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Janice Chung for The New York Times Caffeine at 3 a.m.: Yemeni immigrants are making their mark on U.S. coffee. Bright lights, bot city: Can an A.I. travel agent plan a dream trip to New York City? Look again: You may not actually understand your dog. Most clicked yesterday: Scientists are beginning to understand how Covid can sometimes cause invisible damage to the body. Lives Lived: David Sellers believed architects would plan better if they did their own construction, and he became the father of the design-build movement. He died at 86. SPORTS N.F.L.: The Seahawks and the top free-agent quarterback Sam Darnold agreed to a three-year, nearly $101 million contract. It was the biggest deal on a day full of them. M.L.B.: The Yankees ace Gerrit Cole will undergo Tommy John surgery, ending his 2025 season before it began. Memorabilia: A new line of M.L.B. hats upset and amused fans; one accidentally spelt out a vulgarity. See the hats. ARTS AND IDEAS A balloon sculpture by DJ Morrow. Jake Michaels for The New York Times You won’t find one of DJ Morrow’s balloons at a children’s birthday party. Morrow, an avant-garde artist, creates ephemeral inflatable sculptures that can disturb as much as they delight. His works have explored political power, mental health and his upbringing in a cult. See him at work. More on culture In a new book, a former Facebook executive offers an exposé about her time at the company. “Not only does she have the storytelling chops to unspool a gripping narrative; she also delivers the goods,” Jennifer Szalai writes. Jimmy Fallon joked about Trump and the stock market: “It’s not great when the summary of your first two months in office is ‘Stocks down, measles up.’” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Sang An for The New York Times Smash 20 cloves of garlic for these San Francisco-style noodles. Improve bone density and coordination. Prepare for the worst with a medical alert system. Replace exhausted household essentials. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was liturgy. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 13, 2025 Author Members Posted March 13, 2025 March 12, 2025 Good morning. We’re covering Trump’s layoffs at the Education Department, tariffs and Spelling Bee. In Atlanta. Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times Education reform By Dana Goldstein I cover education. Last night, the Trump administration fired more than a thousand workers at the Education Department. It’s not gone; only Congress can abolish a cabinet-level agency. But President Trump can hobble it while retaining a core staff to advance his agenda. Trump wants to use the department to crack down on schools and colleges with D.E.I. efforts he opposes. He also says parents and local governments should fully control education policy. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s allies have slashed the education research budget and moved to replace some human labor with artificial intelligence. Combined with earlier layoffs, the latest cuts will leave the agency with about half the staff it had before Inauguration Day. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain what the Education Department does and, after this week, what it may not do. The main job Students are unlikely to feel much immediate impact. That’s because, despite what Trump says, state and local school districts already make their own decisions about reading lists, curriculums, teacher pay, testing policies and student discipline practices. Only about 10 percent of funding for public education flows through Washington. It’s mostly directed toward low-income and disabled students. Trump can’t withhold that money. The government distributes it according to formulas set by Congress. Most of the Education Department’s budget helps students pay for college, through grants and loans. Many Trump allies believe that the student aid program should be transferred to the Treasury Department — and sources in Washington say that work is now underway. The department’s critics In Washington, D.C. Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times The federal government has collected data and conducted research on education since the 19th century. But historically, both Democrats and Republicans have doubted whether the United States needs a cabinet department for this. Jimmy Carter created the department in 1979, fulfilling a campaign promise to teachers’ unions. But even he was skeptical. At a celebration of the agency’s creation, Carter tempered the crowd’s exuberance, warning, “This thing won’t work as well as you think it will.” Some liberals flatly opposed the department back then, believing that a single federal agency should handle all the programs — health care, cash welfare and education — that affect kids. Still, in recent decades, the Education Department’s work became part of the Beltway firmament and enjoyed bipartisan support. Many of the programs it oversees are popular. Those include Pell grants, which pay for college tuition, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which helps disabled children get services. Trump’s education goals The right’s view has changed in recent decades. Republicans like George W. Bush thought the federal government had an important role: It should ensure that students really learn at school, and it should push more students to and through college. Trump’s movement has a very different agenda. He and his allies want to give parents public dollars they can use to pay for private school tuition and home-schooling. Conservatives also oppose student debt forgiveness, a Biden administration priority. (Joe Biden wiped away debt for millions of borrowers. The Supreme Court blocked part of that effort, calling it illegal.) Alongside some liberal allies, they now argue that fewer Americans need traditional four-year college. Both Trump and his education secretary, Linda McMahon, have encouraged more students to pursue vocational education instead. Student performance In Studio City, Calif. Philip Cheung for The New York Times Trump officials posit that test scores are low because of the federal role in education. And like any government bureaucracy, there is bloat — dated websites and research projects that aren’t relevant to students or teachers in the real world. Still, achievement improved during two periods when Washington was unusually involved in schools, scholars say. In the 1970s and 1980s, when courts desegregated Southern classrooms, academic gaps between racial groups closed significantly. Test scores also rose in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Experts are still debating why, but those years were the height of a bipartisan movement focused on standards and accountability. Bush signed a law holding schools and teachers accountable for student test scores. Barack Obama supported those goals, too. But that meant students took more exams, and a backlash to testing gathered strength. In 2015, Obama signed a law relaxing the federal pressure. In other words, yesterday’s cuts come at a time when federal involvement in classrooms is the lowest it has been in decades. More on the federal government: The Trump administration intends to eliminate Environmental Protection Agency offices responsible for addressing the disproportionately high levels of pollution facing poor communities. THE LATEST NEWS Tariffs Trump’s 25 percent tariff on metal imports went into effect. The move is expected to raise the cost of making cars, solar panels and other products in the U.S., potentially slowing the economy. The European Union announced billions in retaliatory tariffs. Trump vs. Canada The Ambassador Bridge, which links Michigan to Ontario. Rebecca Cook/Reuters In a frenetic tit-for-tat, officials in Canada and the U.S. imposed — and then rescinded — bursts of fees and tariffs. Ontario added a surcharge on electricity it supplies to neighboring U.S. states. In response, Trump doubled his tariffs on steel and aluminum. By the end of the day, both had relented. Trump repeated his threat to annex Canada: “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” he wrote on social media. War in Ukraine Ukraine said it would support the Trump administration’s plan for a 30-day cease-fire in the war with Russia. Russia has not yet responded to the proposal. In exchange for Ukraine’s cooperation, the U.S. resumed military assistance and intelligence sharing. Russian forces are assaulting Sudzha, the main town in the part of its Kursk region that Ukraine captured last year. Trump’s diplomatic moves over the past 50 days have hollowed out the international system that the U.S. built after World War II, David Sanger writes. More on Trump On the grounds of the White House. Doug Mills/The New York Times Trump and Musk surveyed Teslas in front of the White House in what was essentially an extended commercial for Musk’s company. (Late night hosts weighed in.) Musk told Trump’s advisers that he wants to donate $100 million to Trump’s political operation. A senior official at U.S.A.I.D. ordered employees to destroy classified documents. It’s not clear if records officials gave permission. Tuberculosis is resurgent after Trump cut aid that helped treat the disease across Africa and Asia. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told food company executives that he intends to eliminate artificial dyes. More on Politics The House passed a bill to fund the government through the fall. It will need Democratic support to pass in the Senate, and the government would shut down without it. Keith Self, a Texas Republican, repeatedly referred to the only transgender woman in Congress as a man, then adjourned the session when a Democratic member challenged him. International Greenland held a parliamentary election, which had a very high voter turnout. The winning party has criticized Trump’s rhetoric about buying the island. Separatists in Pakistan hijacked a train with about 400 people aboard and threatened to kill the passengers unless the government agreed to a prisoner exchange. Chinese warships circled Australia for nearly a month. Covid Anniversary On March 12, 2020, Broadway went dark. Now, audiences are back to 95 percent of their prepandemic levels. In some respects, Covid echoed the 1918 flu pandemic. But in many others, medical historians say, it was unique. Other Big Stories New Yorkers protested the arrest at Columbia of a Palestinian activist who held a green card and is married to an American. Archaeologists in Italy unearthed what they believe to be an ancient Jewish ritual bath. It would be the oldest found in the Roman world. Opinions The United States’ unreliability is encouraging allies to develop nuclear weapons. Trump should denounce their plans, Bill Hennigan writes. After a pandemic, it takes years for normalcy to return. Trust in public health speeds up that progress, Charles Kenny writes. Here are columns by Thomas Friedman and Bret Stephens on Trump’s zigzagging policies. Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last. Love to play? Discover all our games. Subscribe to New York Times Games today and save up to 75% on your first year — improve your Wordle strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, plus more. Come play with us. MORNING READS Firstview Spooky: This fall’s fashion has a “witchy vibe.” Space: Astronomers knew Saturn had at least 146 moons. They just spotted another 128. “Bookie boo”: On TikTok, choreographers are finding words for their moves. Orange feathers: In Michigan, a snowy owl named Rusty or Creamsicle has enthralled and mystified bird watchers. See a photo. Most clicked yesterday: These exercises can help you age well. Dog as default: Cats often remain medical mysteries. Lives Lived: Stanley Jaffe was a Hollywood wunderkind — president of Paramount at 29 — who went on to be an Oscar-winning producer of films such as “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Fatal Attraction” and “The Accused.” He died at 84. SPORTS M.L.B.: The first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is asking the Blue Jays for $500 million in his next contract, sources briefed on the negotiation told The Athletic. N.F.L.: The Eagles will visit the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl victory. Golf: Tiger Woods says he ruptured his Achilles’ tendon. That probably ends his 2025 season. ARTS AND IDEAS The New York Times Every day for the past seven years, Sam Ezersky, the editor of The Times’s Spelling Bee, has scrambled 25 letters for millions of solvers. Today, for the 2,500th digital puzzle, he did something he’d never done before: He included S. As regular players know, S is a fraught letter for the Bee, given its potential to increase the word count. The puzzle, which you can find lower in this newsletter, has a pangram to match the occasion. “Rather than a random word with an S, I wanted to pick a good fun word,” Sam said. See the puzzle below. More on culture Read how “Operation Mincemeat,” a very British hit, is changing for Broadway. On her new Netflix show, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, says Sussex is her surname. Royal experts aren’t so sure. Michelle Obama is starting a video podcast with her brother. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Yossy Arefi for The New York Times Roast broccoli with a vinegar-mustard glaze. Choose better hangers. Buy your ski passes for next season and save some money. Organize your bathroom better with this hack. Protect your passwords. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was embankment. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. Are you a federal worker? The Times would like to hear about your experience in the second Trump administration. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 14, 2025 Author Members Posted March 14, 2025 March 13, 2025 Good morning. We explain how Trump is inadvertently helping some liberal leaders abroad. We’re also covering a possible government shutdown, the U.S. economy and Covid’s fifth anniversary. Mark Carney, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press Rally ’round the flag By Lauren Jackson I’m an editor on The Morning. President Trump’s trade war is escalating. Yesterday, the European Union and Canada announced billions of dollars in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports. There’s a good reason nations are fighting back: Opposing Trump is helping world leaders domestically. Trump’s methods — insisting on tariffs, threatening to buy territory, insulting allies — have infuriated voters in Britain, Mexico, Ukraine and elsewhere. In Canada, for instance, the Liberal Party mounted an extraordinary comeback against the Conservatives this week. Mark Carney, the incoming prime minister, helped revive his party with a promise to oppose Trump: “Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form,” Carney said of the president’s threat to annex his country. “Make no mistake. In trade as in hockey, Canada will win.” Source: Ipsos | Data is from September 2021 to Feb. 25, 2025. | By The New York Times Trump has given some populations abroad an adversary to mobilize against. Now they’re backing leaders who take a stand against him. It’s a phenomenon known in political science as the “rally ’round the flag” effect. When a country faces a crisis, public support for the leader or the current governing party often rises. Below, I’ll explain how Trump’s antagonism is actually helping some of his opponents. What is happening Trump is fracturing America’s alliances. But the world leaders involved? They’re doing fine. Trump imposed global tariffs on metal and announced a 25 percent levy on all goods from Mexico and Canada. He fought with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Soon after, the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, welcomed Zelensky in London with a hug. Mr. Starmer has continued to back Ukraine. In each of these cases, the leaders and parties who stood up to Trump saw a lift in their domestic approval ratings, as my colleague Mark Landler has noted. Canada: The governing Liberals were set for a major election defeat. But in the last few weeks, as Trump instituted tariffs, the party’s polling has rebounded by at least 10 points. In the race for prime minister, Carney is now tied — and running ahead in some polls. The escalating trade war may simply induce Canadians to dig in. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico Alfredo Estrella/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mexico: President Claudia Sheinbaum, the country’s leftist leader, saw her support rise to 80 percent in one poll as she negotiated with Trump on tariffs. Tens of thousands rallied in Mexico City last weekend to celebrate her success in delaying the levies. Britain: Starmer has been careful to stay close to Trump. He hasn’t retaliated on tariffs. But he loudly backed Zelensky after Trump withdrew support for the war. As a result, the prime minister’s ratings rose. British voters now see Starmer’s Labour Party as better at dealing with foreign policy and defense challenges than the Conservative Party is. (Voters usually regard the Conservatives as better at defense.) Ukraine: Zelensky’s fight with Trump may have saved his job. As the war dragged on, his political opponents saw an opportunity to oust him. After his trip to Washington, his approval ratings rose, according to two recent polls, and his opponents have said publicly that now is not the time for elections. Why this is happening People don’t like to ditch their leaders in a crisis, research shows. The rallying phenomenon can shift the balance of power both within and between countries. Several current spats qualify, said Matthew Baum, a public policy professor at Harvard: “Is national honor challenged? Check. Is a country’s security threatened? Check. Has a single adversary emerged? Check.” The inverse is also true in cases of weak leadership. In Colombia, President Gustavo Petro sparred with Trump over deportation flights. His decision to send back planes full of deportees surprised even his inner circle. Then Trump retaliated, ordering a 25 percent tariff on all Colombian goods and threatening to tank the country’s economy. Petro folded. His handling of the crisis fractured his governing coalition. “It’s hard for him to spin that he’s a strong leader standing up for the national honor,” Baum said. Perhaps Petro’s example offers Trump a way to overcome his most stubborn opponents. In Canada, for instance, Trump could eventually make it too costly for Carney to fight. In Brazil, a target of the metal tariffs, the government signaled that it would not retaliate. “President Lula said to remain calm at this time,” Brazil’s economy minister said. “We’ve negotiated under worse conditions than this.” What could happen next Trump is focused on calling the shots. He seems to believe, The Times has reported, that forceful (and sometimes erratic) decisions give him an advantage against other nations in negotiations. In some ways, they do. Leaders elsewhere don’t get to set the agenda; they’re forced to react. That means the world is dealing on Trump’s terms, at least for now. Opposing Trump is a delicate art. Still, liberal leaders who do it well are finding success. That may not last: The rally effect is sometimes temporary. Covid initially increased domestic support for many world leaders, but their standing soon fell — in some cases to prepandemic levels. In the meantime, though, the leaders who get it right can expect a boost. For more Trump’s election has transformed the fortunes of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who has now assumed a leadership role in Europe. This past weekend, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio threatened Poland on social media, BBC News reports. In Greenland’s parliamentary elections, the winners were a party critical of Trump’s rhetoric, but the results also showed the island was divided over seeking independence. THE LATEST NEWS Government Shutdown Chuck Schumer Eric Lee/The New York Times Senate Democrats say they will not support a Republican-written bill to fund the government through the fall. They say the legislation gives Trump and Musk too much leeway to slash the federal government. Democrats want Republicans to pass a one-month extension while they work out a compromise, but that’s unlikely: House Republicans left town on Tuesday. Without a spending deal, the federal government will shut down on Friday night. Government Overhaul Trump’s cuts reduced the Education Department’s civil rights division by half. Musk’s cost-cutting team has started obscuring the details of its actions on its website. The Times was still able to detect another batch of mistakes. The federal agency dedicated to mental illness and addiction could lose about half its staff to cuts this week. More on Politics The E.P.A.’s leader, Lee Zeldin, plans to rescind more than two dozen protections against air and water pollution. The agency’s new mission, Zeldin said, is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business.” For the second time, the U.S. abruptly cleared out all the migrants it had taken to Guantánamo and returned them to the United States. The reasons for the move were unclear. Trump pardoned an imprisoned former Tennessee state senator who was two weeks into a 21-month sentence for campaign fraud. Trial-court judges have blocked parts of the president’s agenda with injunctions that apply across the country. Some conservatives want to limit that power. Military veterans are scrambling to bring Afghan allies to the U.S. before Trump’s travel ban comes into effect. Activist Arrest ICE investigators have searched the internet for campus protesters whom they could accuse of supporting Hamas. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate, was the first they arrested. Protesters gathered outside a Manhattan courthouse yesterday for the first hearing in Khalil’s case. A judge ordered the government to let Khalil speak privately with his lawyers, which he had not been allowed to do. Administrators at Columbia University told students who were not U.S. citizens to avoid publishing work on Gaza or risk punishment from the Trump administration. Yale suspended a pro-Palestinian scholar after an A.I.-powered news site accused her of having links to terrorists. Business and Economy Inflation eased more than analysts expected last month, driven by a drop in airfares. America’s largest companies, including Walmart and Meta, scaled back diversity, equity and inclusion goals in recent months, a Times analysis found. Trump’s trade wars amount to a huge gamble: Americans will endure months or years of economic pain for the distant hope of re-industrializing the heartland, David Sanger writes. Other Big Stories In Shanghai. Qilai Shen for The New York Times “Let’s not talk about it”: China endured the longest Covid lockdowns in the world. Its citizens are still grappling with what they lost. Vladimir Putin, dressed in fatigues, visited Kursk to cheer the troops trying to eject Ukrainian forces from the Russian border region. Space X, because of a technical issue, postponed a mission that would return two NASA astronauts who have been in orbit for more than nine months. These maps show where U.S. measles outbreaks are spreading. In one Texas school district, only 46 percent of kindergartners received their measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Opinions Take Gail Collins’s news quiz to see how well you’ve been following the Trump administration. The more Christian nationalists embrace politics, the more they will push younger generations away from religion, Jessica Grose argues. Gazans don’t have time to care about politics when they have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, Megan Stack writes. Here’s a column by Jamelle Bouie on constitutional crises. Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last. Love to play? Discover all our games. Subscribe to New York Times Games today and save up to 75% on your first year — improve your Wordle strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, plus more. Come play with us. MORNING READS Pandemic artifacts in New York. Daniel Terna for The New York Times Stickers, screens and masks: Reminders of Covid are everywhere in New York. Lunar eclipse: Earth’s shadow will swallow the moon tonight, turning our satellite into a striking red sphere. Here’s how to watch. Travel: Ever wonder what happens to your luggage after you check in for you flight? Follow one bag’s journey. Most clicked yesterday: The colors of this snowy owl have enthralled and mystified bird watchers. Lives Lived: Selma Miriam was a self-described unhappy housewife until she divorced her husband, came out as a lesbian and founded the feminist vegetarian restaurant Bloodroot. She died at 89. SPORTS Women’s soccer: The U.S. national team star Mallory Swanson will not play for the Chicago Stars in their N.W.S.L. season opener tomorrow because of personal reasons, the team said. N.F.L.: Players received $452 million in performance-based pay last season. See the top earners. M.L.B.: The league pulled more hats from its online store after a new design unintentionally evoked vulgar phrases. ARTS AND IDEAS Chantal Jahchan We spent a lot of time online during the pandemic. As such, we consumed, and participated in, a number of memes. Think Stanley Tucci’s Negroni, the sudden ubiquity of sea shanties, the mysterious monolith in Utah and a lawyer’s Zoom cat filter. The Times has put together a retrospective of the memes and online trends that brought us joy in the dark days of Covid lockdown. More on culture The New York Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, will premiere an unpublished five-minute piece by Maurice Ravel. “Netflix actually picked up this show by accident,” John Mulaney joked on his new late-night show. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Sang An for The New York Times Bake Nigella Lawson’s simple but deeply pleasurable Chocolate Guinness cake. Organize your cleaning supplies. Try Korean skin care. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. The pangram for the 2,500th Spelling Bee was fabulous. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — Lauren Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 15, 2025 Author Members Posted March 15, 2025 March 14, 2025 Good morning. We’re covering astronauts, a government shutdown and movies. Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. JSC/NASA Space time By Kenneth Chang I cover space. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore thought they were taking off for a couple weeks in space. Their mission was to test Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft and then head home. It didn’t go as planned. Nine months later, the NASA astronauts will finally return to Earth from the International Space Station next week if there are no other hitches. Their relief is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX ship tonight (though weather may change the plan) and arrive at the space station on Saturday. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how Williams and Wilmore got stuck in orbit for so long — and why NASA decided not to bring them back sooner. A puzzle Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in June. Joe Skipper/Reuters The saga started in June. Although NASA thought the mission would be short, the agency was careful; it trained Williams and Wilmore to work and live on the space station for months, just in case the flight went awry. As Starliner approached the space station, some of its thrusters stopped working for a while. Still, it was able to dock. After a couple of months of troubleshooting, space agency officials decided to play it safe. They’d bring Starliner back to Earth without the astronauts. (It landed without incident in September.) But that meant Williams and Wilmore needed another ride home. Think of it as the space version of rebooking passengers after a flight cancellation. It’s not easy being a NASA travel agent. The agency likes having seven astronauts on the space station. Every six months or so, it swaps four out. (Russia sends three astronauts at a time.) With Williams and Wilmore sticking around, NASA had two more bodies to worry about. The options NASA had three choices: Put Williams and Wilmore on the four-seat SpaceX craft that was already docked at the station and bring them home when the other crew’s mission concluded. But that would have meant delaying the return of two of the astronauts who were already there, stretching their stay to about a year. Launch a SpaceX ship to bring home Williams and Wilmore immediately. But with the other SpaceX craft and its four astronauts also departing at about the same time, that would have left the space station understaffed with just three astronauts. Rushing to send replacement astronauts might have cost hundreds of millions of extra dollars and scrambled the schedule for future crew rotations. Launch the next SpaceX mission in September with two astronauts instead of four. Then Williams and Wilmore could stay as part of the space station crew until February, and there would be seats for them on the return trip. Nine months is not an inordinately long time to spend in orbit. Some astronauts have spent a year or longer at the space station. NASA picked No. 3, though the February pickup date slipped to March as SpaceX failed to ready a new ship on time. In Cape Canaveral, Fla. Steve Nesius/Reuters The astronauts have spent their time at the space station on research, mostly studying what the absence of gravity does to the human body. Weightlessness reduces the density of bones. Astronauts counteract that by exercising for a couple of hours a day. Other experiments have looked for changes in eyesight, cardiac health and brain function. A political gambit In January, President Trump and Elon Musk opened up a new debate about NASA’s plans. They accused the Biden administration of having callously abandoned Williams and Wilmore. Now the president asked Musk to go rescue them as soon as possible. Musk later added that he had offered to bring the astronauts home months earlier but that NASA had turned him down to avoid helping a Trump ally. But it’s unknown whom Musk spoke to or what exactly he offered. Musk avoids talking to reporters, and NASA officials have sidestepped questions about him. They say they chose the plan that made the most sense. To many, an unexpected nine-month layover in orbit sounds like a business trip gone horribly wrong. But astronauts live to go to space, and they don’t get many chances. Williams, 59, and Wilmore, 62, had each been there only twice during a quarter-century at NASA. Interviews from the International Space Station. The New York Times In an appearance on “The Daily” today, Williams turned wistful about how this could be her last trip off the planet. “It makes you really want to enjoy every bit of your time that you have up here,” she said. Related: When is the launch and how can I watch it? Your questions are answered here. More on space The moon last night. Yuri Cortez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Earth’s shadow blanketed the moon early this morning, casting it in a deep red. If you couldn’t stay awake to witness the eclipse, see a video. An asteroid-chasing spacecraft just swung past Mars. As it zipped by, it took hundreds of photos. THE LATEST NEWS Government Shutdown Senator Chuck Schumer said he and a group of Democrats would support a Republican-written spending bill to prevent the government from shutting down tonight. “A shutdown would give Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk permission to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now,” Schumer wrote in a Times Opinion guest essay. Democrats who oppose the bill say that it, too, gives the Trump administration wide latitude to slash government employees and programs. Government Cuts A federal judge said the government must rehire thousands of probationary workers across six agencies. The judge called the Trump administration’s rationale for the firings a “sham.” A federal judge ordered Elon Musk and his cost-cutting operatives to provide documents and answer questions about their role in directing mass firings and dismantling government programs. Musk’s team said it would disclose its savings and cuts transparently. These graphics show how its website has inflated and deleted claims. More on the Trump Administration Trump asked the Supreme Court to allow his order targeting birthright citizenship to take effect. An appeals court is set to consider the order’s constitutionality this summer. Trump threatened to impose a 200 percent tariff on wines and other alcohol from Europe. Wine businesses fear disaster. The Trump administration demanded discipline and admissions policy changes at Columbia. A Kennedy Center crowd booed Vice President JD Vance before a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra. A Senate panel will hold a confirmation hearing today for Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid. (He became famous for giving medical advice. But was it any good?) China is worried about American tariffs on Mexico, which has been an indirect route to the U.S. market for Chinese goods. Immigration officers detained German tourists for weeks before deporting them. War in Ukraine After the U.S. and Ukraine proposed a cease-fire, Vladimir Putin said he was open to negotiations. But his proposals suggest he wants to stall negotiations or make a truce impossible. Volodymyr Zelensky called Putin’s response to the cease-fire plan “manipulative.” Weather The New York Times A portion of the U.S. stretching from Iowa through Texas is at high risk for wildfires today. An even broader swath, covering the Midwest and the South, could get hail, tornadoes and thunderstorms. A tornado hit a Los Angeles neighborhood as heavy rain threatened areas that wildfires ravaged this year. Other Big Stories The S&P 500 stock index fell again. It’s now more that 10 percent below its recent peak, which puts it into so-called correction territory (here’s what that means). The U.N. accused Israel of targeting reproductive health facilities in Gaza. Officials diverted a plane to the Denver airport, worried about an engine. The engine caught fire while taxiing and forced passengers to evacuate onto a wing. The Japanese government held a rare auction this week to address a rice shortage in the country. More than half of teenagers say that boys and girls are now mostly equal in school. Opinions Before vaccines, diseases like measles destroyed economies and shuttered towns. These charts show how they spread. Ukraine’s president should hold local elections to prove his commitment to democracy, Michael Bociurkiw writes. Here is a column by Michelle Goldberg on Gavin Newsom’s podcast. Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last. Love to play? Discover all our games. Subscribe to New York Times Games today and save up to 75% on your first year — improve your Wordle strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, plus more. Come play with us. MORNING READS Maxim Arbugaev for The New York Times Bone hunters of Siberia: These explorers dive beneath ice in search of the fossils of long-extinct creatures. Trapped: A woman fell asleep while driving and crashed in a ditch. Pinned to the dashboard with broken bones, she couldn’t get help. Read the story of how she survived for six days. Stinky and $800 a pound: The Times joined a pack of dogs on the hunt for Oregon truffles. It’s natural: Our bodies change as we age. Not every change warrants a doctor’s visit. Social Q’s: “My mother is punishing me for not coming out to her sooner. Help!” Navigating conflict? This Texas trial lawyer has the right words. Most clicked yesterday: The video of the lunar eclipse. Lives Lived: Larry Buendorf was a Secret Service agent credited with saving the life of President Gerald Ford in an assassination attempt in 1975. Buendorf died at 87. SPORTS M.L.B.: The Tampa Bay Rays ownership announced that the team would not move forward with a stadium project in St. Petersburg, Fla. Men’s college basketball: Cooper Flagg of Duke injured his ankle in the Blue Devils’ win over Georgia Tech. N.B.A: The Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry became the first player to record 4,000 3-pointers. ARTS AND IDEAS Our movie critics watch a lot of films — and have been doing so for years. We compiled our favorite movies since 2000. See if your favorites made the list. More on culture An American influencer outraged Australians — including the prime minister — because she grabbed a baby wombat that was near its mother. “The White Lotus” Season 3 has shown full-frontal nudity. But the last episode had a prosthetic, The Cut reports. Late-night hosts joked about Trump’s liquor tariff threat. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times Mix orzo with asparagus, garlic bread crumbs and a lemony dressing. Avoid work burnout. Read one (or more) of these 24 new novels the Book Review is excited about. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were couponing and pouncing. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 16, 2025 Author Members Posted March 16, 2025 March 15, 2025 By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. On the five-year anniversary of Covid, a look at the ways we vowed our lives and relationships would change afterward — and how they still might. María Jesús Contreras Social distance Where were you in March of 2020? When did you realize Covid was a thing that was going to disrupt life as you knew it? I was hiking in Joshua Tree, spending my days delirious at the natural beauty of the desert, unsure if I should return to New York. Each time I refreshed The Times’s coverage, it seemed more and more evident that going home would mean staying indoors for the foreseeable future. I came back. I began working at The Times a few months later (from my living room) and soon started writing a newsletter called At Home, wherein I tried to help people lead full, cultured lives from their living rooms. It was a project intended to help people find distraction, comfort, meaning, joy, sense, commiseration and community in the midst of what felt at times like intolerable uncertainty. Here’s what to watch, read, cook, listen to, think about. You could attend this virtual disco, or this virtual poetry reading or someone’s virtual birthday party, where you’ll squint at screen after screen of squares of people you know and people you don’t, smiling and focused, so close up and so far away. Remember virtual happy hours? Remember Zoom shirts? Remember when it was weird to see your colleagues’ bedroom décor on video calls? Who would have thought Brian from analytics would choose those table lamps? I spent so much time thinking about coping in those days. We all did. In the midst of a lot of confusion and sadness, there was creativity. Pandemic pods. Sourdough mania. Alfresco dining enabled by every conceivable form of outdoor heating element. A friend of mine started a dance troupe in her town that practiced its choreography on Zoom then performed their dances on neighbors’ lawns. Another built a bed in the back of her SUV and drove across the country, sleeping in her car. I reconnected with college pals I hadn’t spoken to in decades; once we realized how easy it was to FaceTime, it seemed ridiculous that we hadn’t been doing it all along. Five years isn’t long enough to get perspective, not really. It’s a roundish number so it feels meaningful: a good time for retrospectives, to ask what we learned, how we’ve changed, how we haven’t. The things we swore we’d do differently once “the world opened up again” — are we doing them? I vowed more socializing, more dinner parties, more dancing, more trips, more visiting people just because. No more taking in-person contact with other humans for granted! I’d like to renew these vows, but the world opened up and so did the options. There was so much room for longing in lockdown, so much time to romanticize freedom of movement and to fantasize about the possible lives we’d lead in the future. But unless you put some kind of plan in place for executing these intentions, it was easy enough to just slide back into how it once was: Other humans are lovely at times and annoying a lot of the time and it takes effort to plan a dinner party. But remember when every hug involved calculation? I wrote about it in the At Home newsletter, how I hoped “this new appreciation for each fleeting moment of contact, the meaning in every casual touch” wouldn’t ever go away. Despite my best intentions, it has. However sincere our lockdown-era intentions to forever relish all the things we missed, we reverted. There’s probably not a lot from that period we want to resurrect, but maybe those plans, those intentions to value each other a little more intentionally, we could consider revisiting. THE LATEST NEWS Government Funding Senator Chuck Schumer, center, in the Capitol on Friday. Ben Curtis/Associated Press The Senate passed a spending bill to keep the government running, after Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, and several other Democrats allowed the measure to advance. Schumer, who made an about-face on the bill in recent days, said he was protecting Democrats from the long-term damage of shutdown. But many in his party disagreed. “I believe that’s a tremendous mistake,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. More on Politics In a speech to the Department of Justice, President Trump lashed out at the lawyers and prosecutors who had investigated him or opposed his policies. (Here’s a fact-check.) A draft list for the Trump administration’s planned travel ban includes 43 countries — broader than the ban he enacted in his first term. See the list. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, is investigating whether intelligence officials leaked information to the news media. In his Senate confirmation hearing, Mehmet Oz, the former TV doctor tapped to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, largely deflected Democrats’ concerns and seemed to escape unscathed. Oklahoma’s Board of Education approved social studies standards that would ask high school students to identify “discrepancies” in the 2020 election. President Trump signed an executive order seeking to dismantle seven more federal agencies, including the one that oversees Voice of America. Other Big Stories A wildfire in Stillwater, Okla. Nick Oxford/Reuters Wildfires spread rapidly across the Texas Panhandle and parts of Oklahoma, fueled by dry conditions and hurricane-force winds. President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine order its forces in the Kursk region of Russia to surrender. Russian forces have recently taken the upper hand in the region. SpaceX launched a rocket en route to the International Space Station, which will allow two NASA astronauts to return home after an unexpected nine-month stay. A group of volunteers searching for missing relatives in Mexico discovered what they called an “extermination camp,” with several underground cremation ovens. It’s not clear who operated the camp. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. Claudette Barius/Focus Features, via Associated Press In “Black Bag,” Cate Blanchette and Michael Fassbender play married spies who turn on each other. It’s one of 10 new movies our critics are talking about this week. Netflix is lavishing money on adaptations of beloved literature — and making them feel like just more Netflix, Robert Rubsam writes. There’s a new Looney Tunes movie out. Listen to Eric Bauza, the voice of Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Music On her latest album, “Mayhem,” Lady Gaga dances on the line between clever self-referentiality and rehashing, our critic writes. The new season of the New York Philharmonic includes a celebration America’s 250th birthday. Our critics compiled a list of highlights from the lineup. The Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina created music that was at once adventurous, religious and great, a rarity in modern times. Gubaidulina died this week at 93. Theater Paul Mescal, Anjana Vasan and Patsy Ferran in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Paul Mescal stars in a revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Our critic says Mescal, known for sensitive portrayals of hurting hunks, does justice to the brutish Stanley. The veteran stage and screen actress Jean Smart will star in “Call Me Izzy,” a one-woman Broadway show. A new production of “Othello,” starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, made $2.8 million last week — a record for a nonmusical on Broadway. More Culture Niantic, the company behind the hit mobile game Pokémon Go, is selling its video game business to a company owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund for $3.5 billion. A philanthropist couple donated $50 million to the Lincoln Center to promote contemporary dance. The center hopes the gift will revive New York’s dance industry after the pandemic. Netflix signed a deal with the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who drew widespread scorn last year when he mocked Puerto Rico at a Trump rally. How much do you know about the great author feuds of modern literature? Take this quiz. Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last. Love to play? Discover all our games. Subscribe to New York Times Games today and save up to 75% on your first year — improve your Wordle strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, plus more. Come play with us. CULTURE CALENDAR By Desiree Ibekwe ? “We Tell Ourselves Stories” (Out now): The culture is obsessed with Joan Didion. It’s easy to understand why: Her virtuosic works allowed us to peer into her mind, but only just. Since her death in late 2021, several books have sought to parse her legacy. Next month, Knopf will publish 200 pages of her journal entries. Here’s another Didion biography for the bookshelf. In this book — subtitled “Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine” — the Times critic Alissa Wilkinson explores Didion’s relationship to film. It is not a hagiography, however: “Its strongest sections,” our reviewer writes, “are the ones that question rather than venerate her.” RECIPE OF THE WEEK Christopher Simpson for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Pasta With Spicy Sausage, Broccoli Rabe and Chickpeas If you’re craving the comfort of a big bowl of pasta, Lidey Heuck’s pasta with spicy sausage, broccoli rabe and chickpeas makes an easy and hearty late winter meal. Lidey’s clever move is to add earthy, nutty chickpeas to the traditional Italian combination of sausage and broccoli rabe. Then she takes it all one step further, stirring Parmesan, butter, and lemon into the pan to balance the flavors and add body to the sauce. Her recipe is flexible, too. Substitute broccoli or other study greens in for the broccoli rabe, and feel free to use any kind of sausage or shape of pasta you’ve got on hand. Maybe make it once according to the recipe, then let yourself play. Dishes like these are the most fun to adapt. REAL ESTATE Chris Ramos in the Bay Area. Marissa Leshnov for The New York Times The Hunt: A California native spent years living in room rentals and a van to save for a home of his own. Which did he choose? Play our game. What you get for $350,000: A 1936 cottage in San Antonio, Texas; a 1925 stucco house in University City, Mo.; or a loft-style condo in Atlanta. LIVING Milan’s Centrale railway station. Pontus Berghe Four trains, five cities: A writer devised her own urban European grand tour. A new life: The art and fashion world convened at Rick Owen’s house for the relaunch of Karlie Kloss’s i-D Magazine. Florida: Palm Beach society goes on, with and without Trump. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Spring gardening essentials When it comes to gardening, plenty of factors are out of your control (weather, pests, even how long it takes a flower to bloom). But the right gear can make a big difference. Consider your hose: If you’ve ever stood in your yard hopelessly untangling a knotted, dribbling one, you’re probably due for an upgrade. Wirecutter’s experts have tested and gathered the best essential gardening gear, including gloves, pruners and a very cute watering can. And don’t forget to protect yourself from the sun: A wide-brimmed hat can help. — Haley Jo Lewis GAME OF THE WEEK Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari car during a practice round on Friday. Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images Australian Grand Prix: Formula 1 exploded in popularity a few years ago, thanks in part to a captivating Netflix documentary series, but the sport itself has been in a dynastic rut. Max Verstappen (with Red Bull) won the past four drivers’ titles; before him, Lewis Hamilton (with Mercedes) won four straight. No other team had won a title in 14 years. Finally, things seem to be changing. A different team — McLaren — won last year’s team title. Verstappen’s Red Bull car is no longer dominant. And Hamilton has left Mercedes for team Ferrari. This very well could be the most interesting season in years. Tonight at 12 a.m. Eastern on ESPN (replay tomorrow at 3 p.m. on ESPNews) NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was rollback. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 17, 2025 Author Members Posted March 17, 2025 March 16, 2025 Good morning. We’re covering the rise of women’s college basketball — as well as student activists, housekeepers in Saudi Arabia and gentle parenting. Dawn Staley, the South Carolina head coach. Karl B. Deblaker/Associated Press Crossover appeal By Claire Fahy Attend, or even just watch, a women’s sports game these days and you’ll see the phrase splashed across the front of fans’ black T-shirts: “Everyone watches women’s sports.” At last year’s N.C.A.A. women’s basketball tournament, that idea seemed truer than ever. For the first time since the inception of the N.C.A.A. women’s championship in 1982, the women’s final drew more viewers than the men’s — 18.9 million compared with 14.8. Source: Nielsen | By The New York Times For the women, it was a dramatic jump from the year before, when the final drew almost 10 million viewers. For the men, it continued a downward trend: Viewership was roughly half what it was in 2015, according to Nielsen. The 2023 and 2024 finals featured Caitlin Clark, whose four years with the Iowa Hawkeyes helped push the sport to new highs. But Clark did not do it alone: Women’s basketball had been growing before her arrival. A parade of superstars Men’s basketball had a head start. The N.C.A.A. was created in 1906, but it did not have leagues for all women’s sports until after the 1972 passage of Title IX, a law that requires equal treatment for all students in school sports. Over those first seven decades, the men received more investment and also more airtime, which gave them greater visibility. Over the last 30 years, though, women have narrowed the attention gap, with help from a cadre of superstars who paved the way for Clark. Rebecca Lobo led the University of Connecticut to its first national championship in 1995; now the Huskies have a record 11 titles. Tennessee’s Candace Parker in 2006 became the first woman to dunk during the N.C.A.A. tournament. And Sabrina Ionescu finished her career at Oregon in 2020 with more than 2,000 career points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists — the first men’s or women’s collegiate player to do so. A new era More recently, the rivalry between Clark of Iowa and Angel Reese of Louisiana State pushed the sport forward once again. Their games attracted sellout crowds, even on the road, and broke TV viewership records. At the same time, the popularity of the W.N.B.A., women’s soccer, and even of sports like women’s rugby exploded. Women’s sports bars began opening across the country. Ad dollars rose sharply. And the introduction of name, image and likeness programs made it so that college athletes could cash in on their celebrity. With Clark and Reese now graduated to the W.N.B.A, women’s college basketball seems to be holding its own. On ESPN, viewership is up 3 percent from last season, according to The Sports Business Journal. More than a million people tuned in to see U.C.L.A. defeat U.S.C. in the Big 10 Conference championship last Sunday — an impressive number, though it’s two million fewer viewers than those who tuned in to the same game last year, when Clark played. Tonight, the N.C.A.A. will announce which teams are in the women’s and men’s tournaments. The women’s field has big stars — including Paige Bueckers of UConn and JuJu Watkins of U.S.C. — and talented teams like Texas, Notre Dame and U.C.L.A. that will try to stop South Carolina from winning its second straight title. More from The Athletic Sabreena Merchant breaks down the women’s field: She thinks five teams have a shot at the title. Sabreena and Ben Pickman chose a few dark-horse candidates, including West Virginia and Florida State. Jordan Brenner and Peter Keating identified a few Cinderella candidates on the men’s side, including Drake and Utah State. THE LATEST NEWS Immigration President Trump Eric Lee/The New York Times A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from using an obscure wartime law from 1798 to deport Venezuelans without a hearing. The judge also ordered the return of any planes that had departed the country with immigrants under the law. President Trump, building on Biden-era policies, has choked the flow of migrants into the U.S. Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border are at their lowest level in decades. Many student protesters wore masks during demonstrations against the war in Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident who now faces deportation, did not. That made him a target. An Indian student left the U.S. after her student visa was revoked and immigration agents visited her. She is among several noncitizens recently targeted at Columbia. U.S. Economy Retaliatory tariffs by foreign governments are designed to affect industries that employ mostly Trump voters, a Times analysis shows. Trump’s moves have prompted some investors to pull money from the U.S. The S&P 500 now trails major markets in Europe and China. If Trump’s delayed tariffs on Canada and Mexico take effect, new car prices could rise by $4,000 or more, according to one estimate. More on the Trump Administration As chairman of the Kennedy Center, Trump is pushing for greater influence over the selection of its honorees. “New York Wants You!”: Some state governments are trying to recruit federal workers fired under the Trump administration. Kash Patel wants to decentralize the F.B.I.’s command structure, a significant departure from the way the agency has worked. Trump has tried to rally support for Tesla. Conservative support may not be enough to offset the boycott of Elon Musk’s company. Eric Adams, the mayor of New York and a Democrat, wooed Trump. Here’s how he did it. Middle East Outside a military base in Israel. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews, once exempt from military service, are now being drafted. The Times spoke with some of them. Israel has blocked aid into Gaza to pressure Hamas in truce talks. Aid officials warn that supplies in the enclave are dwindling. The U.S. said it attacked dozens of targets in Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis. The group said the strikes killed at least 31 people and has vowed to retaliate. Other Big Stories In Nairobi, Kenya. Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times In Saudi Arabia, domestic workers from East Africa are raped and abused. Hundreds have died in recent years. Ukrainian women are slowly beginning to talk about sexual assault during the war against Russia. The storms that spawned tornadoes in the Midwest and South, killing at least 34 people, are expected to sweep across the East Coast. A Black Lives Matter mural in Washington was removed this past week. For some, its erasure feels symbolic. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Was Senator Chuck Schumer right to support Republicans’ spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown? Yes. Voters want change, not a dysfunctional government. “Our country has to be about more than one side gaining the advantage over the other,” NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo says. No. The spending bill gives Trump power to fire more federal workers. “Oligarch Elon Musk and his acolyte Donald Trump are already shutting down the government, illegally, unconstitutionally, in pieces,” Joan Walsh writes for The Nation. FROM OPINION Defending controversial opinions in academia protects higher education from censorship, the Editorial Board writes. Dani Shapiro always thought of her diaries as garbage. But after a cancer diagnosis, they became the only unedited record of her life, she writes. Here’s a column by David French on Mahmoud Khalil. Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last. Love to play? Discover all our games. Subscribe to New York Times Games today and save up to 75% on your first year — improve your Wordle strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, plus more. Come play with us. MORNING READS At the rink. Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times No slowing down: At 95, Iichi Marumo is the world’s oldest speedskater. He’s gunning for 100. Ask the Therapist: “‘Gentle parenting’ is spoiling my granddaughter. What should I do?” Most clicked yesterday: A draft list for the Trump administration’s planned travel ban includes 43 countries. See the list. Vows: Learning a shared love language that includes signing. Lives Lived: Roy Prosterman was a lawyer who left a lucrative corporate law practice to champion land reform in the underdeveloped world. He died at 89. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “Careless People,” by Sarah Wynn-Williams: When Wynn-Williams was 13, she was attacked by a shark while vacationing in a remote part of New Zealand. The pain — it felt “like being hit by a knife attached to a freight train,” she writes in her memoir — turned out to be an apt metaphor for her career at Facebook, where she worked for seven years starting in 2011. In “Careless People,” Wynn-Williams recalls her time there, first as manager of global public policy and eventually as director. This is an insider’s account — she flew on private planes with Mark Zuckerberg and navigated Davos alongside Sheryl Sandberg, then chief executive officer — and she has stories. Some are choice tidbits (Sandberg’s $13,000 lingerie bill); others are classic corporate drama (should Zuckerberg follow Big Bird in a lineup of speakers at the Global Citizen Festival?). But the real takeaway from this frank, occasionally funny book is Wynn-Williams’s disillusionment. She signed on with dreams of global connection and left convinced that, as she puts it, “Facebook is an autocracy of one.” More on books Our critic described “Careless People” as “darkly funny and genuinely shocking: an ugly, detailed portrait of one of the most powerful companies in the world.” Looking for a novel to read this spring? Start here. THE INTERVIEW Philip Montgomery for The New York Times By Lulu Garcia-Navarro This week’s subject for The Interview is Schumer, the Senate minority leader. We spoke before and after his controversial vote for the Republican spending bill, which averted a government shutdown. Can I just ask you about the tactic here? Because the choice that you made to vote with the Republicans, isn’t that an argument to get rid of the filibuster? You wanted to keep it when you were in the majority, but if you’re not going to use it in the minority, then what’s the point of it? The point here, again, I’ll repeat what I said, would be how devastating a shutdown would be. But I’m asking about the use of the filibuster. The bottom line is if the filibuster would have been used and the government shut down, the devastation would be terrible. You see, we’ve had government shutdowns before, but never against such nihilists, such anti-government fanatics as Trump, DOGE, Musk. They’ve given us a playbook, by the way. [Russell] Vought has already has written what he wants to shut down if he got a shutdown. Trump wanted a shutdown. Musk wanted a shutdown. Ask yourself why. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photograph by Evgenia Arbugaeva for The New York Times Click the cover image above to read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Keep peas in your freezer, says Yotam Ottolenghi. Choose the best MacBook for you. Exercise on a rowing machine. MEAL PLAN Kerri Brewer for The New York Times In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Margaux Laskey recommends five highly rated, easy recipes that pack a protein punch, including honey-habanero pork chops, coconut-caramel braised tofu and shrimp and asparagus stir-fry. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was violator. Can you put eight historical events — including the development of Champagne, the writing of “The Great Gatsby” and the creation of the “I Heart NY” logo — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 17, 2025 Author Members Posted March 17, 2025 March 17, 2025 Good morning. Today you’ll hear from our colleague Teddy Rosenbluth, who traveled to the center of a Texas measles outbreak. We’re also covering deportations, the war in Ukraine and a penguin retirement home. In Lubbock, Texas. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images An outbreak By Teddy Rosenbluth I write about health. The United States declared victory over measles 25 years ago. And yet one of the worst outbreaks since then is ravaging Texas and New Mexico. For now, it isn’t a threat to most Americans. But there’s a reason this is happening — and why the next measles epidemic could be even worse. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain the virus’s possible resurgence in America. Sources: State health departments; C.D.C. | Data is through March 13. | By The New York Times Beating measles Derailing this virus was a decades-long project. The United States began administering a vaccine in 1963, soon after its invention. At the time, the disease infected nearly all children before they turned 15. Why did containment take so long? Because measles is one of the most contagious viruses on the planet. In a hypothetical community where nobody has immunity, each person with measles can infect up to 18 others. But this graphic by my colleague Jonathan Corum shows what happens when enough people are vaccinated: By Jonathan Corum Experts generally want a community to have a vaccination rate of around 95 percent. That means, statistically, that the virus will spread to fewer than one person in the group, causing it to fizzle out. That’s exactly what the United States accomplished in the early 2000s. A campaign to encourage inoculation, alongside strict vaccine requirements at public schools, dropped infections from nearly 28,000 in 1990 to just 85 a decade later. The cases that popped up here and there were mainly from international travel. Source: C.D.C. | Data is through March 13, 2025, and totals for 2023-2025 are preliminary. | By The New York Times A reversal Experts worry we may now revive the disease. That’s because vaccination rates for the measles, mumps and rubella shot, which had been hovering around 95 percent, began to fall during the pandemic. Data from the last school year shows that only 93 percent of kindergartners were inoculated — the danger zone. In some regions of the country, such as West Texas, it’s closer to 80 percent. The country almost lost its elimination status from the World Health Organization thanks to an outbreak in New York six years ago. The fear now is that, as pockets of unvaccinated Americans continue to grow and multiply, measles will be more likely to hop from group to group, traveling farther and infecting more people. The current outbreak, which started in West Texas, has already spread to New Mexico and Oklahoma. Why has the rate of vaccination fallen so much? Part of the answer lies in the Covid pandemic. Conspiracy theories about Covid-19 vaccines made many question the safety of other routine shots. The vaccine-skepticism movement is growing quickly, driven by declining trust in science and rampant misinformation on social media. Unpopular pandemic mandates also fueled a revolt against vaccination requirements at public schools. In recent years, many states have weakened those mandates, which are perhaps the best way to keep childhood vaccination rates high. In 43 states, officials will grant an exemption based on religion. In 13 of those states, all you need is a personal objection to opt out of a school vaccine requirement. Two futures Some experts believe there is still time to rein in the virus. Perhaps if enough Americans witness the toll of measles, which killed an unvaccinated child in Texas in February, they will recall why vaccines are important. Others say that is naïve. They fear that distrust in science is so deeply rooted and that misinformation is so ubiquitous that many will choose to stay unvaccinated. And they worry that if vaccination rates don’t rise, other preventable diseases like polio will follow. Vaccine skeptics now walk the corridors of power in Washington. President Trump has questioned the safety of vaccines. So has Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, who wrote a book about measles in 2021 saying that outbreaks had been fabricated so the government could “inflict unnecessary and risky vaccines on millions.” There is no cure for the virus, but Kennedy has also promoted unproven treatments: He said this month that doctors had told him about patients who had an “almost miraculous and instantaneous recovery” after they took cod liver oil, steroids and antibiotics. Health officials in Texas tell me such promises may have caused measles patients to delay medical care. The outbreak in Texas supports the pessimistic thesis. There, even communities plagued by serious illness and death have still largely rejected the M.M.R. vaccine. Related: The Times is keeping track of where measles is spreading. THE LATEST NEWS Immigration In Tecoluca, El Salvador. El Salvador's Presidency Press Office, via Reuters The Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, despite a judge’s order that the planes reverse course and return to the U.S. It’s unclear when exactly the planes landed. Legal analysts are trying to figure how close the administration is to open defiance of the judiciary. The White House denied that it had violated the order, saying that the president had broad powers to deport the migrants under an 18th-century law and that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over his power to expel foreign enemies. In Massachusetts, federal authorities deported a Lebanese professor at Brown University’s medical school, even though she had a valid visa and despite a court order that temporarily blocked her expulsion. The Trump administration has revived the detention of undocumented immigrant families. The practice fell out of use during the Biden administration. Government Overhaul Cuts by Elon Musk’s DOGE have reached the agency that manages America’s nearly 4,000 nuclear bombs and warheads. “It’s extremely destructive”: Cost-cutting efforts could destabilize the Social Security Administration, many current and former officials warned. DOGE has moved to terminate more than 800 federal office leases. A government agency is reversing more than 100 of the terminations. More on Politics Many Democratic lawmakers are frustrated with Chuck Schumer for allowing a Republican spending bill to pass. The chairwoman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, once a champion of Eric Adams, endorsed Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York. War in Ukraine Ukrainian soldiers. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times Ukrainian forces have almost entirely pulled out of the Russia’s Kursk region, ending an audacious offensive that began last summer. Trump said he would speak about the war with Vladimir Putin tomorrow. The U.S. withdrew from a multinational group created to investigate leaders responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, including Putin. More International News A nightclub fire in North Macedonia killed at least 59 people and injured more than 150. Fireworks during a concert set the club’s roof ablaze. Deadly violence in northwestern Syria has highlighted the new government’s lack of control over its forces and affiliated fighters. The Vatican released the first image of Pope Francis since he was hospitalized more than a month ago. Other Big Stories In Mississippi. Edmund D. Fountain for The New York Times A large storm system has killed at least 40 people across seven states. See photos of the devastation. The race to create artificial intelligence is changing the way the world builds computers. Birthrates have risen in states with abortion bans. The effects are most pronounced among Black and Hispanic women, and women without a college degree. Opinions Trump has dismantled the systems that monitor weather at a time when climate change makes them more important than ever, Jonathan Mingle writes. The public has to understand the risk of lab leaks if we want to prevent another pandemic. The way we were misled about Covid makes that harder, Zeynep Tufekci writes. Here are columns by Margaret Renkl on Native American tradition and M. Gessen on transgender rights. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS In Boston. Cody O'Loughlin for The New York Times Retirement island: A Boston aquarium built a home for its geriatric penguins. Ask Vanessa: “How do I know which jeans are best for me?” Donor: Brendan Costello’s family was bracing for goodbyes. But he had arranged one last interruption. Metropolitan Diary: Bird-watching is contagious. Most clicked yesterday: “‘Gentle parenting’ is spoiling my granddaughter. What should I do?” Lives Lived: Slick Watts was an undrafted, 6-foot-1 point guard who became seen as the ultimate Seattle SuperSonic. He also had patchy hair, and a headband that made an enduring fashion statement. Watts died at 73. SPORTS College basketball: The N.C.A.A. revealed its tournament brackets. See the men’s and women’s draw. N.F.L.: The Bengals agreed to contracts with their top two wide receivers, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Chase became the highest paid non-quarterback in league history. Women’s soccer: Mak Whitham, 14, of Gotham F.C. became the youngest player to enter a league game. ARTS AND IDEAS Van Gogh or faux? Peter Fisher for The New York Times If you think you’ve acquired a work by Vincent van Gogh, you’ll want to speak to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam: Large auction houses are unlikely to sell your painting without its input. But the museum has become increasingly resistant to authentication requests — because disappointed art collectors can be litigious. More on culture On the Upper East Side. Lila Barth for The New York Times The Frick Collection, a museum based in Henry Clay Frick’s Fifth Avenue mansion, will reopen next month after a $220 million renovation and expansion. See inside. A new “Hunger Games” novel, “Sunrise on the Reaping,” goes on sale tomorrow. Read what to know. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Ryan Liebe for The New York Times Boil spaghetti, cherry tomatoes and kale in the same pot for a thick, starchy sauce. (This dish was in Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s new show.) Control your social media habit. Tame a nest of cables. Choose a gag gift that’s actually useful. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were outgunned and tongued. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 18, 2025 Author Members Posted March 18, 2025 March 18, 2025 By German Lopez Good morning. We’re covering Trump’s immigration crackdown — as well as attacks in Gaza, DOGE cuts and sushi in Ukraine. Immigrants deported from the U.S. arriving in Panama City. Matias Delacroix/Associated Press Immigration crackdown President Trump’s promised immigration crackdown is here. Over the past two weeks, his administration has pushed against the limits of executive power — and surpassed them, critics say — to kick more people out of the country. The administration has readied two facilities in Texas to again detain immigrant families, including children, my colleagues Jazmine Ulloa and Miriam Jordan reported yesterday. It invoked an arcane law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador, despite a judge’s order. It deported a kidney transplant expert who works at Brown University, also despite a judge’s order. It detained a green-card-holding leader of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. Presidents have not traditionally treated illegal immigration as a national security issue, but Trump says migrants pose a threat. He claims without evidence that other countries have deliberately emptied their prisons and asylums to fuel an “invasion” of the United States. Today’s newsletter examines the new rationale for the crackdown — and the way it is taking shape. Stretching powers In each of the examples above, the Trump administration has gone further, or plans to go further, than previous administrations felt they could: Family detention: The administration has indicated that it will contest a 20-day limit on how long child migrants can be detained. Trump’s allies have long decried such limits as imposing a “catch and release” policy that forces the government to free unauthorized migrants. Venezuelan deportations: To evict migrants without a hearing, the administration cited a wartime law used most recently to intern Japanese Americans during World War II. (The United States is not at war with Venezuela.) It dispatched planeloads of migrants over the weekend despite a court order that tried to stop the deportations. White House officials argue that a judge can’t restrict the president’s national security powers, and even if one could, the order came too late. They stuck to those arguments in a court hearing. The nephrologist’s deportation: The government deported Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese kidney transplant expert at Brown University, over the weekend. She had a valid visa, and a court tried to block the move. The administration said that it deported her because she attended a Hezbollah leader’s funeral during a trip to Lebanon. The student activists: The administration detained Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of pro-Palestinian protests, this month. Another student activist at Columbia, Ranjani Srinivasan, fled to Canada after immigration agents revoked her visa and showed up at her home. Supporters of Khalil and Srinivasan argue that the First Amendment protects their right to protest. But the Trump administration counters that immigrants, particularly those it deems national security threats, do not enjoy the full freedom of speech. It suggests that the activists supported a designated terrorist group, Hamas. (Read more about Khalil’s story and why he was targeted.) A proposed revival for the travel ban: During his first term, Trump repeatedly tried to ban visitors from mostly Muslim countries, citing the threat of terrorism. The courts blocked the first two attempts. But the Supreme Court eventually allowed a ban on eight countries, six of them predominantly Muslim, to remain. Last week, my colleagues Charlie Savage and Ken Bensinger reported on a plan to bring back the ban — and grow it to cover 43 countries. In some ways, these examples continue a longstanding executive tradition: Presidents often use national security concerns to expand their powers. George W. Bush, for example, pointed to worries about another attack like Sept. 11 to detain and torture people without trial, drawing criticism from civil rights advocates. Preparing for more The extraordinary measures are needed to deliver on a campaign pledge, Trump says. He has struggled to execute the mass deportations he promised. In fact, he has deported migrants at a lower rate than Joe Biden did, as this chart shows: Source: ICE | Data is through March 8, 2025; no data available for Dec. 2024. | By The New York Times (The Times broke down what the data shows about Trump’s deportation efforts so far here.) Some of that failure is a result of the administration’s success. Fewer people are crossing the border illegally, leaving fewer people to ship back. But Trump vowed to deport not just recent arrivals but also those who’ve been in the country for months or years. He has so far failed to kick out much of that second population, which enjoys stronger legal protections, such as rights to specific immigration court hearings, than people caught at the border do. By claiming major new executive powers, Trump has set the groundwork to bypass more legal protections and execute his vision. Before Trump’s election, his allies talked about deporting at least one million people a year. Experts always doubted he could reach those numbers as quickly as hoped. But with a different view of what is legal, he eventually might. More on immigration A Justice Department lawyer refused to answer a judge’s questions about the timing of the deportation flights. The judge asked officials to provide him a timeline by noon today. Two of the flights carrying Venezuelan migrants were in the air when the judge ordered them to turn back, and one had yet to take off, a Times analysis found. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, boasted on social media about accepting Trump’s deportees into his prisons. He has described himself in the past as the “world’s coolest dictator.” THE LATEST NEWS Israel-Hamas War In Gaza City. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times Israel launched a major attack on Gaza, its first on that scale since the cease-fire with Hamas began roughly two months ago. Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the attack because Hamas refused to release its remaining hostages. Israel consulted the White House before attacking. The strikes killed at least 300 people, including children, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The attack followed weeks of negotiations to extend the cease-fire. It was not clear whether Israel aimed to force Hamas to compromise or to start a new phase of war. The Israeli government says that 59 hostages are yet to be returned, and it believes that fewer than half of them remain alive. Government Overhaul In Asheville, N.C. Mike Belleme for The New York Times Town halls in Republican districts have become tense. Voters are expressing anger and anxiety over Trump and Elon Musk’s government cuts. The Trump administration plans to eliminate the E.P.A.’s scientific research arm and fire as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists and other scientists. After a standoff involving the police, Musk’s DOGE team entered the headquarters of the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent agency, and evicted its officials. The Department of Veterans Affairs halted most transgender medical treatments, citing a Trump executive order. Trump said he considered some of Biden’s pardons invalid because Biden had used an autopen, a common automatic signing device. There’s no power in the Constitution or case law to undo a pardon. The president also ended Secret Service protection for two of Biden’s children, Hunter and Ashley. More on the Trump Administration Trump privately told auto executives to prepare to operate under tariffs. Trump says he will release thousands of files this afternoon related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The administration asked 20 prominent law firms for information about diversity, equity and inclusion practices in their recruitment, suggesting they could have discriminated against white candidates. Trump visited the Kennedy Center for the first time since taking over the organization. At a board meeting, he floated the idea that he might host its honors ceremony. Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service, is now accessible across the White House complex. More on Politics A conservative F.D.A. lawyer defended the Biden administration’s position on the abortion pill. In retaliation, a Republican senator has forced her out of her role. Senator Chuck Schumer postponed his book tour because of backlash to his decision to vote with Republicans to prevent a government shutdown. War in Ukraine In his call with Vladimir Putin today, Trump will, in essence, negotiate how large a reward Russia will receive for its 11 years of aggression against Ukraine, David Sanger writes. Russia has sabotaged warehouses, railways and undersea cables, escalating its actions over the past two years to pressure the U.S. and Europe to curb support for Ukraine, a study found. In a town near Ukraine’s front line, a popular sushi restaurant braves artillery strikes to bring in its fish. Other Big Stories The daughter of Gisèle and Dominique Pelicot uses the pen name Caroline Darian. Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times The daughter of Gisèle Pelicot believes her father drugged and raped her, too. Texas authorities arrested a midwife and an associate, and charged them with illegally performing abortions in greater Houston. Harvard will offer free tuition for students whose families earn less than $200,000. Other elite colleges have made similar changes in an effort to diversify their student bodies. A swath of the southern and central Plains faces severe fire danger, with dry air and wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the NASA astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station for months, are headed back to Earth. Opinions China cracked down on fentanyl before Trump took office. His tariffs might make Beijing cooperate less, not more, Brandon Yoder writes. Andrew Cuomo understands better than his rivals what New Yorkers want from their transit system: for it to be as safe as it used to be, Nicole Gelinas writes. Here’s a column by Michelle Goldberg on a Meta whistle-blower. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS Karsten Moran for The New York Times Across the Hudson: See a ferry terminal’s faded grandeur before it’s renovated. Blossom in winter: A Times critic explains why he loves Piet Mondrian’s “Blue Chrysanthemum” — a delicate watercolor from a painter known for simple shapes and primary colors. Most clicked yesterday: “How do I know which jeans are best for me?” Lives Lived: Jesse Colin Young’s sincere tenor vocals for the Youngbloods graced one of the most loving anthems of the hippie era, “Get Together,” with a chorus that began, “Come on people now, smile on your brother.” He died at 83. SPORTS N.F.L.: Derek Stingley Jr. agreed to a three-year, $90 million contract extension with the Houston Texans, making him the highest-paid defensive back in league history. College basketball: The N.C.A.A. tournament starts tonight with play-in games on the men’s side. Read The Athletic’s bracket advice. Women’s basketball: Chelsea Gray and the Rose Basketball Club are the first-ever Unrivaled champions after defeating the Vinyl Basketball Club in the inaugural championship game. It ends a successful debut season for the league. ARTS AND IDEAS In Tokyo. Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers star, is ubiquitous in Tokyo. He’s on billboards, products and television ads. Talk shows dissect his diet, fashion choices and home décor. In Japan, Ohtani is a marketer’s dream: sports icon, pop star and national hero rolled into one. More on culture Conan O’Brien will host the Oscars again next year. “I want to hear Adrien Brody finish his speech,” he said in a statement. Jon Stewart joked about Trump’s golf championship win. “Oh, he ‘won the tournament’ at ‘Trump International’? How did that happen?” he said. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Bobbi Lin for The New York Times Try a classic Cantonese noodle dish, commonly enjoyed for breakfast or lunch at dim sum. Slather the best sunscreen on your face. Take photos or video in any situation with an action camera. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was notched. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 19, 2025 Author Members Posted March 19, 2025 March 19, 2025 By German Lopez Good morning. We’re covering Trump and the judicial branch — as well as Putin, the J.F.K. files and astronauts. Chief Justice John Roberts and President Trump. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times The judiciary’s role President Trump’s latest adversary is the judicial branch. Yesterday, Trump called for the impeachment of a judge who had ruled against him, earning a rare rebuke from the chief justice of the Supreme Court. The administration had ignored the judge’s order to stop deportations over the weekend, saying the government would heed only his written command, not a spoken one. It was hardly the first sign of trouble. Trump’s lawyers have peddled distortions and lies in court, as my colleague Charlie Savage explained. They’ve also said a judge can’t meddle in Trump’s work protecting the United States from threats. His aides have suggested that the president can ignore rulings. All three branches of government are, in theory, equal; Congress passes laws, presidents enforce them and judges interpret them. That’s the norm, anyway. Historically, presidents almost always respect what the courts say, even if they disagree. They obey judges. Their representatives don’t lie in court or claim exemption from judicial oversight. But the United States may soon find out what happens when those norms no longer hold. Trump and his lawyers are challenging the balance of power among the branches of government. Experts worry this is the beginning of a constitutional crisis. Is it? Today’s newsletter looks at the signs of peril — and the signs that America’s constitutional order is holding up for now. The dangers Judicial review is the concept that judges can strike down laws if they violate the Constitution. The notion came from the Supreme Court’s 1803 decision in Marbury v. Madison, and it made the court a backstop to the excesses of Congress or the presidency. But the decision came with a quirk: The Supreme Court can’t actually enforce its rulings. It relies on the president and Congress to believe in the courts and take their judgments seriously. Some presidents have challenged the court in minor ways, and Andrew Jackson defied it brazenly when he allowed Georgia to expel Cherokees from their land. But presidents have unhappily followed the Supreme Court’s judgments over the past century and a half. Barack Obama abided by the court’s decision after it limited Obamacare’s requirement that health insurance plans cover contraception. In response to rulings, George W. Bush adjusted his plans to put Guantánamo detainees on trial. Trump and his allies question that tradition. The administration has ignored a raft of lower court rulings over deportations, agency staffing and government funding. Trump himself has suggested that he’s above the courts. “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” he said online. His vice president, JD Vance, has said that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” Vance adapted an apocryphal quote attributed to Andrew Jackson: “The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.” All of this, experts say, amounts to a red flag for the constitutional order. Averting crisis Still, America may not be in a crisis yet. Republicans in Congress have not actually impeached any judges. A judge has not yet held Trump or anyone in his administration in contempt. The administration has not defied the Supreme Court — only lower court orders; that still breaks dangerous new ground, but those rulings are not always final. Some Trump supporters argue that he is challenging a narrow aspect of the judicial branch, not the whole constitutional system. For years, experts and members of both parties have complained about how much power lower courts have. A single federal district judge from Sherman, Texas, for instance, can stop an executive order across the whole country, as when a jurist stopped an Obama-era rule requiring overtime pay for millions of workers. Litigants can shop around for sympathetic judges, all but guaranteeing their victory until a higher court weighs in. Even believers of judicial review can, and do, take issue with this dynamic. The red line The real danger, then, is if Trump openly defies a Supreme Court ruling. That will send a clear message: The president is above the judicial branch. America’s constitutional system requires the president to believe in checks and balances; it falls apart if he doesn’t. More on the courts Trump is already undercutting the separation of powers, legal scholars say. Their question now is: How will that change the country? Justice Department lawyers again refused to tell a federal judge when two planes of deportees took off last weekend. The judge, who is trying to determine whether the government defied his order to halt the deportations, gave them until today to comply. A federal judge ruled that Elon Musk’s dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. was likely unconstitutional and ordered the agency to partially resume its operations. Judges also blocked the Trump administration from barring transgender people from the military and ordered the Education Department to restore some grants it terminated in a purge of D.E.I. programs. THE LATEST NEWS Immigration The Trump administration says the people it deported to El Salvador were all gang members. But it’s not clear how officials determined that. “We finally got you”: Immigration agents arrested an undocumented woman in Denver whose public claim of sanctuary in a church made national news during Trump’s first term. Government Overhaul In the Oval Office. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Trump fired the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, a rejection of the regulator’s traditional independence. “You’re not alone”: Federal workers have taken to forums on Reddit to vent and share information about Trump’s cuts. DOGE, after criticism, reinstated details on its website about grants it canceled. More on the Trump Administration Trump and his allies are trying to cripple his opponents using executive orders, investigations and threats. Attorney General Pam Bondi called recent attacks on Tesla dealerships acts of domestic terrorism directed at Musk. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suggested that poultry farmers should let bird flu run through their flocks to identify birds that may be immune. Scientists say this would be disastrous. The administration threated to withhold funding from New York’s mass transit system if the M.T.A. did not answer questions about subway crime. Republicans named Vance to lead the party’s fund-raising, an apparent first for a vice president. War in Ukraine In a call with Trump, Vladimir Putin agreed to pause strikes on energy infrastructure if Ukraine did the same. He stopped short of accepting a broader cease-fire. Russia and Ukraine have attacked each other’s infrastructure since the call, BBC News reports. The U.S. ended funding to track thousands of Ukrainian children whom Russia has abducted, and officials or contractors may have deleted a database about them. Israel-Hamas War In Gaza City. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times Israel’s renewed attacks on Gaza killed more than 400 people, the enclave’s health authority said. That would make yesterday one of the deadliest days of the war. Talks between Israel and Hamas to extend a cease-fire have stalled. Israel appears to have returned to war to force concessions, Patrick Kingsley and Ronen Bergman write. In a televised address, Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that more attacks were coming. “This is only the beginning,” he said. More International News Lawmakers in Mexico City banned traditional bullfighting. They permitted a version designed not to harm the animals. The Turkish authorities arrested the mayor of Istanbul on charges linked to corruption and terrorism. A leading opposition party had been poised to make him its presidential candidate. Canada is improving its military defenses in the Arctic. The U.S., Russia and China have all tried to increase their control over the region. J.F.K. Papers Records released yesterday. Carlos Barria/Reuters The U.S. released thousands of documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Times reporters reviewed some of them here. Historians don’t expect major revelations, though it could take them months to sort through all the files. Nothing in the archives will dispel the fog of conspiracy theories around the assassination, A.O. Scott writes. You can see the documents on the National Archives website. Other Big Stories Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, NASA astronauts who had been in orbit since June, finally returned to Earth. They splashed down off the Florida Panhandle. Google agreed to buy a cybersecurity start-up, Wiz, for $32 billion — its largest ever deal. Opinions Without U.S.A.I.D., it’s up to private philanthropists to support humanitarian work around the world, Farah Stockman writes. Here are columns by Bret Stephens on Chuck Schumer and Jewishness and Thomas Edsall on the tech elite. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS Karlene Petitt and Joseph Emerson, former airline pilots. Noel Spirandelli for The New York Times Flight risk: The F.A.A. has strict rules about pilots with mental illness. That incentivizes many to hide their depression. Letter of Recommendation: Facebook Marketplace has the messiness of real life. Witch project: A Maryland politician wants to clear the name of the women her state convicted of witchcraft. Most clicked yesterday: A Times critic explains the painting that got him through winter. Lives Lived: The speechwriter Anthony Dolan gave Ronald Reagan the phrase “evil empire” to describe the Soviet Union and in another address consigned Marxism to “the ash heap of history.” Dolan died at 76. SPORTS N.C.A.A. Tournament: On the first night of play-in games, North Carolina routed San Diego State, while Alabama State advanced to the first round with a buzzer-beater. College football: EA Sports will increase payments to athletes for appearing in its College Football 26 game this summer. ARTS AND IDEAS Lucian Simmons Vincent Tullo for The New York Times The Metropolitan Museum of Art has surrendered dozens of supposedly looted artworks to the authorities in recent years. Now it has a dedicated leader to examine whether other objects in its collection might have dubious origins: Lucian Simmons, head of provenance. Read about his work. More on culture Black novelists and filmmakers are thriving in satire. Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy for the second time in five years. This time, the fast-fashion retailer could really be facing the end. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Bake these flourless walnut cookies for the Iranian New Year. Pack an emergency travel bag. Run with the best shoes. Clean your glass shower door. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was lifelong. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 20, 2025 Author Members Posted March 20, 2025 March 20, 2025 Good morning. Today you’ll hear from the Times’s chief economics correspondent, Ben Casselman, who weighs evidence about a possible recession. We’re also covering executive power, Volodymyr Zelensky and the MetroCard. On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A Trump recession? By Ben Casselman I cover the economy. Is the U.S. economy headed for a recession? Stocks have plunged. So have measures of consumer and business confidence. Forecasters expect slower growth, higher unemployment and faster inflation than they did just a few months ago — and yesterday, policymakers at the Federal Reserve said they agreed. Source: LSEG Data & Analytics | By The New York Times The administration has announced and then delayed tariffs; it has ended and then restored programs. Even some experts who are sympathetic to President Trump’s aims worry that businesses will pull back on hiring and investing in the face of so much uncertainty — a word that the chairman of the Fed used repeatedly in a news conference yesterday. Most forecasters still don’t expect a recession. But they say the chances of one have risen sharply — a turnabout from when Trump took office. How likely is a downturn? In today’s newsletter, I’ll explore three big questions about the Trump economy. 1. Actions versus feelings? So far, the evidence of a slowdown comes mostly from “soft” indicators. These are surveys showing that businesses are more reluctant to hire and invest, and that workers are more worried about losing their jobs. “Hard” indicators — measures of actual activity — haven’t shown the same weakness. Job growth was solid in February, for example. Retail sales slumped in January but rebounded last month, although less than forecasters had expected. Attitudes almost always change before actual behavior does. A company that loses a contract today probably won’t lay off its staff tomorrow; an employee who hears a rumor of job cuts might not immediately cancel a long-planned vacation. And even when behavior does shift, it takes time to show up clearly in the economic data. Source: University of Michigan | Data is monthly through March 2025; March 2025 data is preliminary. | By The New York Times But it is also possible that falling confidence won’t ever translate into real-world decisions. Consumer confidence was low through much of the Biden administration, for example, but actual spending never faltered. And evidence suggests that sentiment measures have become less reliable in an era of extreme partisanship. 2. How determined is Trump? Trump made tariffs a centerpiece of his campaign last year. But many people on Wall Street didn’t believe he would follow through — in part because if he did, stocks would fall and Trump would reverse course. So far, that has been a losing bet. In his first term, Trump worried when markets fell and bragged when they rose. But when stocks fell after tariff announcements this month, he disregarded the selloff and refused to back down. “Markets are going to go up and they’re going to go down,” he told reporters last week. He and members of his administration now suggest that a period of economic pain is necessary to balance the economy. (Hardly any economists agree.) Still, Trump could change tactics if the slump worsened. 3. Is there a cushion? Coming into this year, most forecasters expected economic output to grow about 2 percent, adjusted for inflation. That’s slower than the 2.5 percent it grew last year, but it’s a long way from a recession. Yet even before Trump took office, some forecasters warned that the economy was not as strong as well-known indicators like the unemployment rate suggested. Hiring was slowing; the housing market was frozen in place; consumers were saving less to maintain their spending. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis | Data is a biweekly average through March 19, 2025. | By The New York Times “All of these things were pretty obvious even in December,” said Neil Dutta of Renaissance Macro Research, a financial firm. He argues that a slowdown in growth was inevitable this year, regardless of who won the election — which would mean that Trump is operating with less of an economic buffer than most people believe. The economy has repeatedly proved doubters wrong in recent years, and it may do so again. But it doesn’t take a recession to cause real hardship. Even a mere slowdown in growth could leave hundreds of thousands out of work — and, if history is any guide, send Trump’s approval ratings through the floor. That’s the kind of outcome presidents usually do everything in their power to avoid. (Why are economists so bad at forecasting recessions? I tried to answer that question in this piece I wrote a few years ago.) THE LATEST NEWS Government Overhaul President Trump Doug Mills/The New York Times Trump is trying to consolidate control over the courts, over Congress, and, in some ways, over American culture, Times political correspondents write. Trump plans to sign an executive order today instructing the head of the Education Department, Linda McMahon, to begin dismantling the agency. The department cannot be closed without Congress’s approval. The administration appointed two officials who helped dismantle U.S.A.I.D. to be the agency’s new leaders. What happens after a judge reinstates fired federal employees? Rather than returning to work, many are trapped in limbo. Steve Davis, a longtime Elon Musk loyalist, is effectively the leader of DOGE. Musk has praised Davis’s cost-cutting abilities by comparing him to chemotherapy. “A little chemo can save your life; a lot of chemo could kill you,” Musk said. Immigration A federal judge granted the Justice Department another day to reveal the details of two deportation flights that may have defied his orders. U.S. officials detained a Georgetown scholar from India, who is in the U.S. legally on a student visa, and accused him of “spreading Hamas propaganda.” The Trump administration wanted to move the deportation case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and pro-Palestinian protester, to Louisiana. Instead, a judge transferred the case to New Jersey. More on the Trump Administration The administration plans to suspend about $175 million in funding to the University of Pennsylvania, apparently because of the school’s past support for a transgender swimmer. Musk donated to members of Congress who support impeaching federal judges who oppose Trump’s actions. The Justice Department plans to restore gun rights to some convicts, an issue that became contentious after agency officials sought to reinstate Mel Gibson’s firearm access. The Kennedy assassination files that Trump released this week offers little new information about the shooting, but they do reveal some details about C.I.A. spycraft. In the rush to release the files, the administration publicized the personal information, including Social Security numbers, of people who are still alive. War in Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in a limited cease-fire also backed by the Kremlin. It’s not clear when the pause will start. In a phone call with Zelensky, Trump suggested Ukraine hand over control of its energy facilities, including nuclear plants, to the U.S. Putin has offered few concessions to Ukraine. Experts worry that Russia is discussing a cease-fire only to buy time for the U.S.-Ukrainian relationship to collapse. Middle East Israeli ground troops pushed into Gaza and took partial control of a corridor in the center of the territory, reclaiming an area it had held before the cease-fire. Thousands of Israelis gathered outside Parliament to call for a renewed cease-fire. The demonstrations are a sign that national solidarity over the war is fraying. Trump said the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen would be “completely annihilated” by the U.S. and warned Tehran to stop supplying the militia with equipment. More International News Donald Trump Jr. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Donald Trump Jr. visited Serbia to show his support for the country’s embattled leader. Belgrade, the Serbian capital, is also the site of a Trump hotel project. Canada is in talks to help Europe’s military expansion, a deal that would reduce Canadian dependence on the U.S. China executed four Canadians over drug-related convictions. New York The M.T.A. announced that it would stop selling MetroCards by the end of the year, a move that it said would save at least $20 million a year. Trump officials gave New York until tomorrow to end the city’s congestion pricing program. New York’s leaders have refused to stop the tolls. Read what could happen next. Other Big Stories A jury in North Dakota ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $660 million for its role in protests against a natural gas pipeline. The group said the penalty would likely force it to close its U.S. operations. Ben & Jerry’s accused Unilever, its parent company, of firing its C.E.O. for political reasons. The International Olympic Committee will elect a new leader today. The race has become strange and nasty. Opinions Trump’s attempts to threaten Iran into a nuclear deal only drives Tehran away from the negotiating table, W.J. Hennigan writes. Here are columns by Nicholas Kristof on aid for Sudan, and David French on a Democratic tea party. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS Lila Barth for The New York Times Old money: Take a room-by-room tour of the renovated Frick Collection with a Times art critic. The Kindertransport: Thousands of Jewish children fled the Nazis alone. Newly found papers tell their stories. Social Q’s: “My friend is refusing to talk politics with me. Can she do that?” Most clicked yesterday: Pack an emergency travel bag. Lives Lived: K.W. Lee was sometimes called the dean of Asian American journalists. His reporting sought to humanize and unite Asian Americans; it also led to the release of a Korean immigrant on death row. Lee died at 96. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: The N.C.A.A. tournament’s first round tips off today, starting one of the busiest weekends on the sports calendar. Follow updates here. N.F.L.: The league will consider rule changes this month, including a ban on the “tush push” and a retooling of playoff seeding. Payday: A California high school agreed to a seven-figure multimedia deal, the first of its kind. ARTS AND IDEAS At Emmett’s in New York City. Marissa Alper for The New York Times Restaurateurs in New York and other big cities are noticing a surprising shift: Diners are no longer taking home to-go boxes. Emmett Burke, who owns two pizzerias, says the trend is especially acute among people on dates. “I think maybe it’s embarrassing, like you don’t want to be the equivalent of going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and putting rolls in your dinner jacket,” he said, adding, “But I always say, even billionaires like open bars.” More on culture Before Bill Cunningham became a legendary Times photographer, he was a milliner. Eight of his one-of-a-kind hats are up for auction. The late-night hosts joked about the release of the J.F.K. files. “There’s no evidence of a second gunman, which means Ted Cruz’s father is off the hook,” Jimmy Kimmel said. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Serve honey garlic shrimp over white rice. Refresh your hair with a dry shampoo. Try these good-looking storage solutions. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was hyacinth. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 23, 2025 Author Members Posted March 23, 2025 March 21, 2025 Good morning. Today you’ll hear from our tax policy reporter, Andrew Duehren, about the tricky math of Republican tax cuts. We’re also covering a war briefing, Heathrow Airport and the Houston Rodeo. House Speaker Mike Johnson Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Picking tax cuts By Andrew Duehren I cover tax policy. Republicans have a math problem. There’s a long list of taxes they want to cut. But they can’t cut them all, because House Republicans have set a $4.5 trillion limit on the amount of money the federal budget can lose over the next 10 years to tax cuts. Even such a huge figure is not enough to encompass all of Republicans’ ambitions, which include ending taxes on tips, trimming corporate payments and extending other treasured tax breaks. So members of Congress are negotiating over what they can actually squeeze into their bill — and what they’ll have to leave out. In today’s newsletter, I’ll walk through the Republican wish list. I’ll also explain how Senate Republicans want to use what is essentially a budgetary cheat code to make the math problem much easier. The old tax cuts Much of the $4.5 trillion plan will be eaten up just by keeping the last round of tax cuts in place. In 2017, during President Trump’s first term, Republicans passed a bill that lowered taxes for individuals and corporations. Then, too, they were trying to cram their ambitions below a ceiling. So they scheduled many of the cuts, including a larger standard deduction and an expanded child tax credit, to expire at the end of 2025. They were betting that Congress would not let taxes go up on many Americans. They were right. But keeping taxes where they are now will cost roughly $4 trillion over 10 years. And a few business tax breaks are already phasing out. Restoring those would cost an additional $200 billion. That would leave just $300 billion for other ideas. There’s another problem: Republicans said their target was contingent on $2 trillion in spending cuts. If they slash less than that, the tax cut will have to shrink, too. Suddenly, the House plan does not seem so sweeping. The new tax cuts Source: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget | Not all proposed tax cuts are shown. | By The New York Times But Trump wants to do more than just extend the tax cuts from his first term. During the presidential campaign, he outlined several new ideas, many of which call for exempting different types of income from taxation. These will be expensive. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group, has estimated their costs over 10 years: At least $100 billion not to tax tips At least $250 billion not to tax overtime At least $550 billion to lower taxes on Social Security benefits At least $200 billion to increase the deduction for state and local taxes Including all of these ideas in the bill would exceed the G.O.P. limit by hundreds of billions of dollars. So House Republicans are looking to raise other taxes — by ending subsidies for electric vehicles, for example — to compensate. They almost certainly can’t balance the scales, but they have a few options. They could abandon some of Trump’s pledges, continue the 2017 tax cuts for less than 10 years or do some combination of the two. Lawmakers are crunching the numbers to figure out what they can stomach. The Senate solution Republicans in the Senate believe they have an easy answer to this conundrum. They want to change the way tax cuts are counted. According to their proposal, keeping the old Trump tax cuts in place would cost nothing. How is that possible? Right now, scorekeepers in Washington evaluate future costs based on what the law says. Because much of the 2017 tax law ends this year, extending it would count as a new tax cut — and tax cuts cost money. Republicans in the Senate see it differently. They argue that the cost of legislation should be compared to the price of policies that are in place right now. The old Trump tax cuts are currently in effect, they say, so maintaining the status quo should appear to cost $0, not $4 trillion. (My colleagues collected some of the most colorful comparisons for this maneuver. One budget expert said, “It’s like taking an expensive weeklong vacation and then assuming you can spend an extra $1,000 per day forever since you are no longer staying at the Plaza.”) Adopting this standard would make it a lot easier to craft a tax bill that, on paper, costs less than $4.5 trillion. Then only new measures, like not taxing tips, would add to the cost. But some Republicans in Congress warn that changing the score-keeping rules could destroy the last shreds of fiscal discipline in Washington, potentially expanding a deficit that most economists already believe is too large. The bottom line It’s unclear if Republicans will solve their arithmetic problem. Reaching a consensus could take months. With the tax cuts expiring at the end of the year, they face an unforgiving deadline. Failure would mean that Republicans would either oversee a tax increase on many Americans or turn to Democrats for a bipartisan fix. Republicans are hoping to avoid both of those outcomes. For more: Read how the tax cuts could affect your finances. THE LATEST NEWS Education Department At the White House. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times President Trump, surrounded by schoolchildren in the East Room of the White House, signed an executive order that he said would “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all.” (A Times reporter asks: Can he really do that?) Only Congress, which created the department, can dissolve it. But Republican members would probably face blowback from education leaders in their districts. If the Education Department does go away, your student loans won’t: Another federal entity would take over the loan system. Late night hosts joked about Trump’s cuts to the department. Immigration A federal judge said the government had been “woefully insufficient” in turning over details about last weekend’s deportation flights. He gave the White House until Tuesday to explain itself. CBS News published the names of the 238 Venezuelan men aboard those flights. To invoke wartime deportation powers, Trump asserted that Venezuela’s government controls the Tren de Aragua gang. A U.S. intelligence assessment says that is not true. More on the Trump Administration The Pentagon is set to brief Elon Musk on the U.S.’s plans for a potential war with China, some of the military’s most closely guarded secrets. A federal judge said the Social Security Administration could not give Musk’s government-slashing DOGE team access to sensitive records. A law firm bent to Trump’s demands. It said it will represent clients regardless of their politics and donate $40 million to causes Trump supports. He then dropped the executive order he had signed against the firm. Tariffs Tax revenues have fallen in China, leaving the government with less money to help consumers or exporters as Beijing braces for Trump’s tariffs. European Union officials said that they would delay retaliatory tariffs on American whiskey and other goods until mid-April, allowing more time for a deal. Middle East After two months of an uneasy truce, Gaza is once again descending into war. Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv as Israeli troops expanded their ground raids. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, who had been investigating officials in the prime minister’s office. More International News Stranded passengers at Heathrow Airport. James Manning/Press Association, via Getty Images Heathrow Airport in London has stopped all operations because a fire nearby caused a power outage. Around 300,000 people set to travel could be affected. Sudanese military forces recaptured the presidential palace in the capital, Khartoum. It could be a significant shift in Sudan’s civil war. See a video from inside Sudan. The Taliban released George Glezmann, an American airline mechanic who was detained while visiting Kabul in 2022 as a tourist. Shipping companies say they do not plan to return to the Red Sea until there is a broad Middle East peace accord that includes the Houthis. Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, is being held at The Hague. Go inside the operation that led to his high-stakes arrest. Other Big Stories The University of California said it would stop the use of diversity statements in hiring. A.I. is supercharging the practice of drug repurposing — finding alternative uses for existing medicines — leading to new treatments for rare and aggressive cancers. Two former top editors at The Washington Post sent a letter to Jeff Bezos imploring him to replace the newspaper’s C.E.O. Tesla is recalling nearly all of its Cybertrucks after it found that an exterior trim panel was falling off. Opinions The New York Times Today is World Down Syndrome Day. In a video essay, the documentary filmmaker Jonatas Rubert says he doesn’t understand how the world can see his brother, who has Down syndrome, as anything but normal. The U.S. economy is productive because of its large immigrant work force; Trump’s anti-immigration policies undermine the economy’s growth, Rebecca Patterson writes. Here is a column by John McWhorter on pidgin English. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS DESI collaboration and Ronald Proctor/NOIRLab Good news: New research suggests that dark energy — the force pushing the cosmos apart — might not destroy the universe. Poetry: Our critic shows why “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” by Adrienne Rich, is pretty much perfect. Traveling to the U.S.? Read what to know as an international visitor. Vacation help: Find the perfect trip for two picky travelers. Take this quiz. House hunt: How to shop for a home that won’t be destroyed by climate change. Most clicked yesterday: China executed four Canadians for drug convictions. Lives Lived: Jeffrey Bruce Klein was one of four journalists who founded the crusading left-wing magazine Mother Jones in 1976. He left a few years later, but he came back in 1992 as editor in chief, bringing a tech-savvy sensibility to the magazine’s investigative coverage. He died at 77. SPORTS A 2013 self portrait by Oyarzabal. Hugues Oyarzabal Surfing: Hugues Oyarzabal, one of Europe’s most accomplished surfers who filmed spectacular feats from inside the curl of a wave, died at 39. Men’s college basketball: McNeese State and Drake had big upsets on the first day of the N.C.A.A. Tournament. Women’s college basketball: The women’s tournament starts today. The Athletic’s data shows UConn as the favorite. N.B.A.: The Boston Celtics were sold for $6.1 billion, a record for North American professional sports. ARTS AND IDEAS In Houston. Meridith Kohut for The New York Times The Houston Rodeo is like the Super Bowl of country culture. It is the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world, and it includes musical performances, chuck-wagon races and an international wine competition. But it’s also the backdrop to serious business deals: Millions are spent on cattle. See photos of the event. More on culture Elon Musk is preparing to open a diner and drive-in theater in Los Angeles where people can charge their Teslas. Body diversity is becoming less common on fashion runways. A live-action remake of “Snow White” has been the subject of controversy. Some people criticized the dwarves. Others mocked the actress’s wig. (This week, around 100,000 people had clicked “like” on the trailer on YouTube, while 1.5 million had clicked “dislike.”) THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Simpson for The New York Times Roast ginger-dill salmon, and serve with fresh citrus and radishes. Fight inflammation with these exercises. Commute with an e-bike. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was aground. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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 March 24, 2025 Author Members Posted March 24, 2025 March 22, 2025 By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. Being new at something isn’t always pleasant, but beyond the discomfort, rewards await. María Jesús Contreras Spring awakening One afternoon last week, I convinced a friend to accompany me to a restaurant in Brooklyn to learn how to play Hong Kong-style mahjong. I’d always been intrigued by mahjong’s colorful bakelite tiles, the satisfying clacking sound they make as they’re shuffled. My mother plays the American version twice a week with the same groups of friends, a clubby ritual that makes me a little jealous: Why don’t I have a regular game of something going? We were a group of 15 or so students, all new to the game. To begin, we played a dummy round with all the tiles turned over so that everyone could see their values and the teacher could walk us through each step of gameplay: Here’s how you set up the table, building a wall of tiles. Roll the dice to see which player gets to break the wall. These are the suit tiles, these are the honor tiles, the dragons, the winds. Mahjong’s not a cinch to learn. Our teacher was excellent, repeating each step of the rules several times, asking us to repeat them back to him. There were whiffs of card games I knew, but I found the intricacies confusing: Wait, you need three identical tiles to form a pung? How did that guy just win the game when I was still working out how the flower tiles operate? And then: Why am I learning to play this game when I already know many other games and I do not ever play them? This was the thought that snagged me, that made me want to politely claim an emergency and walk out mid-lesson: Why am I doing this? Ostensibly, I’m a curious person, one who’s drawn to new experiences, who wants to expand her horizons, to multiply opportunities for fun. Mahjong offers all of these things! But learning a new game is something I haven’t done in ages. It’s something kids (and their parents) do readily, but eventually, most of us stop. The machinery for learning new things becomes creaky. It’s not easy or comfortable to get that old mainframe up and running again. So many things in life are not easy or comfortable already! Why opt in to another one? And do I even have room in my brain, on my calendar, for another thing that I do? The friend I’d brought with me to mahjong surprised me a few days later, when I had assumed we’d both decided that our lesson was diverting enough, but neither of us had the energy or appetite or brain plasticity to ever play again. “I got us a mahjong set,” she announced. “Now we just need two other people and we can play.” I thought back to our lesson, how I’d wanted to leave because I wasn’t mastering mahjong fast enough. Being bad at something feels bad. Being new is often unpleasant and embarrassing. Of course we default to doing things we’re good at. We like to be confident and comfortable and look cool. But here was an invitation to community. An invitation to be bad at something with other people, with the goal of getting to the other side: a new hobby, a new ritual, maybe, eventually, that clubbiness I’d envied in my mom’s games. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how I think of this time of year as one of unclenching, of letting go of that coiled, withholding winter self and opening up to spring, which officially arrived this past Thursday in the Northern Hemisphere. The unclenching, I am now thinking, can sometimes be challenging. Deliberately moving from a familiar place to an unfamiliar one isn’t without its discomforts. I was reading recently about how, when a chick is ready to hatch, it develops an egg tooth, a sharp little structure on its beak that it uses to peck its way out of the egg. How incredible! How do we grow our own egg teeth, generate our own tools to crack our own shells, escape our too-tight enclosures and emerge into the light? THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration Columbia University agreed to overhaul its protest policies and its Middle Eastern studies department, conceding to demands from the Trump administration. President Trump’s grudge with Columbia traces back to a failed real estate deal 25 years ago. President Trump revoked security clearances for prominent figures like Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and more. The administration shut down watchdog agencies in the Department of Homeland Security responsible for overseeing the president’s immigration crackdown. The Pentagon canceled a scheduled briefing for Elon Musk on top-secret plans for a potential war with China after The Times reported on the meeting. Trump announced that he would move some core functions of the Education Department, including student loans and special education services, to other agencies. Other Big Stories Brendan George Ko for The New York Times In some parts of Los Angeles where wildfires turned neighborhoods to rubble, trees were the only thing left standing. George Foreman, the heavyweight boxing champion who parlayed his fame into a multimillion-dollar grill business, has died at 76. London’s Heathrow Airport has resumed operations, after a fire forced it to cancel or divert more than 1,000 flights. Bryan Johnson, an entrepreneur known for the extreme lengths he goes to to remain young, has long used confidentiality agreements to control his image. Now those agreements are starting to backfire. THE WEEK IN CULTURE TV Adam Scott and Britt Lower in the "Severance" season finale. Apple TV+ “Severance,” the hit Apple TV+ series, released its season finale. Noel Murray has a recap of the episode, and Tejal Rao wrote about how the show’s food is its own chilling character. For the past 20 years, Ellen Pompeo has rarely worked outside the hospital environment of “Grey’s Anatomy.” For a new Hulu series, she changes out of her scrubs. The British detective show “Ludwig,” about a reclusive puzzlemaker who solves mysteries, is a charming escape from uncertain times. For the “White Lotus,” Patrick Schwarzenegger drew on his own privilege to play a cocky finance bro. Film Disney’s live-action “Snow White,” our critic writes, “is neither good enough to admire nor bad enough to joyfully skewer.” Robert De Niro plays two friends-turned-rivals in “The Alto Knights.” It is one of the nine new movies our critics are talking about this week. Wes Anderson, the eccentric director, hoarded props from all his film sets. This week, his collection went on display in a French museum. Theater Tituss Burgess has taken over as Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh, Mary!” Read about how he prepared for his return to Broadway. The country singer Orville Peck is dropping his ever-present face mask for a role on Broadway. More Culture On fashion runways, ultra-thin models are back. Assassin’s Creed Shadows follows an African-born samurai and a young shinobi in Japan. The game’s vibrant world, however, is more compelling than its story. Jensen McRae, the buzzy folk-pop songwriter, is one of 11 artists to watch, as picked by our critics. See the list. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. CULTURE CALENDAR By Alexis Soloski ? “Mid-Century Modern” (Friday) What if “The Golden Girls” were … boys? That’s the shtick behind this something-old, something-new situation comedy from David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, the creators of “Will and Grace.” Filmed before a live audience for Hulu, the show focuses its cameras on three men (played by Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer and Nathan Lee Graham) who take early retirement together in Palm Springs. Droll, zingy and sometimes melancholic (there are at least two funerals this season), it’s both a throwback to sitcoms past and a contemporary look at gay men in midlife. RECIPE OF THE WEEK David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. By Mia Leimkuhler Creamy Asparagus Pasta With spring officially springing, vegetable-filled pastas are the move. Krysten Chambrot, an assistant editor on the Food desk, has assembled 24 easy spring pastas for you here; this creamy asparagus pasta gives the season’s favorite stalk an umami boost with roasted seaweed and kombu. A little sesame oil glosses the rigatoni at the end for a dish that’s full of bite in no time at all. REAL ESTATE Jordan Fenlon, Adam Stone and Penny the dog. George Etheredge for The New York Times The Hunt: After a London sale fell through, a couple found their way to New York with a budget of $900,000. Which home did they choose? Play our game. Living in: The Bywater Historic District in New Orleans offers a calm retreat just 15 minutes from Bourbon Street. What you get for $1.1 million: A 19th-century red brick townhouse in Hudson, N.Y.; a 2021 condo in Honolulu; or an 1893 Romanesque Revival building in Philadelphia. LIVING Angela Hau By design: An actor wanted a maximalist home. He got something else entirely. Changes: Yes, adults can develop seasonal allergies. Here’s why. Generation wars: Tight-on-tight or tight-on-baggy? Millennials and Gen Z are fighting about gym clothes. Vroom! In Italy’s “Motor Valley,” car enthusiasts can admire — and even drive — Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Scam or not? People are using vibration plates to lose weight. Here’s what the data says. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER How to find the perfect pair of running shoes It takes some trial and error to find the right pair of running shoes. Wirecutter’s experts recommend starting by considering what you want most from your shoes. If it’s distance, pay attention to cushioning. If it’s speed, focus on the weight and responsiveness. As for fit, it’s a good idea to be flexible about sizing: Every brand’s sizes are a little different. Use your normal running-shoe size as a starting point, but don’t be shy about sizing up (or, more rarely, down). To help inspire your search, we have recommendations for some of our favorite women’s and men’s running shoes — including a pair stylish enough to wear every day. — Seth Berkman GAME OF THE WEEK St. John’s guard RJ Luis Jr., left, and Arkansas forward Trevon Brazile. Eric Canha/Imagn Images N.C.A.A. tournament: It’s the best weekend of the year for college basketball fans, with games on from noon till night in both the women’s and men’s tournaments. Here are three to watch today from the men’s bracket: St. John’s vs. Arkansas: Rick Pitino and John Calipari — two championship-winning coaches — both took on program-rebuilding jobs with these teams in the last two years. Apparently, the rebuilds didn’t take long. Gonzaga vs. Houston: Most experts thought Gonzaga was underrated as a No. 8 seed, and a blowout win in the first round only made that seem more true. Now, though, the Zags must face the relentless defense that earned Houston a No. 1 Seed. Drake vs. Texas Tech: No. 11 seed Drake plays at the nation’s slowest tempo and generates a ton of turnovers. But if they hope to continue their Cinderella run, their offense will probably have to play better than it did in the first round. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was incentivize. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch 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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