Members phkrause Posted August 22, 2025 Author Members Posted August 22, 2025 August 22, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: California: Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers approved a plan to redraw congressional districts, countering a Republican map in Texas. California’s plan requires voter approval. Immigration: A federal judge ruled that a detention center in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz, should accept no more migrants and ordered much of the facility dismantled. Middle East: Gaza City and the surrounding areas are officially under famine, a global group of experts said. An Israeli agency rejected the finding. (The most clicked article in The Morning yesterday was about Israel’s preparations to take over Gaza City.) More news is below. But first, we look at the relationship between digital stars and their followers. Erik Carter Fan encounters By Joseph Bernstein I cover the collision of digital subcultures and politics. In an austere warehouse, a very online political pundit sits at a small desk. Sometimes it’s a conservative — Candace Owens, say — and sometimes it’s a progressive, like Mehdi Hasan. No matter who it is, the format is the same: The star is surrounded by a mob of 20 people who rush the desk, vying for the chance to argue against the professional rhetoricians over inflammatory proposals like “the sexual revolution has devalued women and made them infinitely less happy” or “Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza is ethnic cleansing.” Over the course of about 90 minutes, everyone in the circle gets a go. Officially, there are no winners in “Surrounded,” the YouTube debate series. But millions of viewers delight in watching people just like them confront famous ideological foes. The videos aren’t really about changing anyone’s mind. They’re about the electrical charge that emerges between one star of the digital commentariat and a crowd of normies. The staged intermingling of stars and their audiences is a staple of modern celebrity culture. But a new type of interaction is rising — the one-versus-all stunt. It promises fans more than just autographs or selfies. The fan who wonders if the masculinist influencer Andrew Tate would consider him a “Top G” now has the chance to fight Tate, literally. The subscriber to Bonnie Blue’s OnlyFans videos can now pay her to, well, live out what he has seen: One day this year, she had sex with more than 1,000 fans in a London apartment. The one-against-many stunts physically embody interactions once confined to bytes and screens. They dramatize interplay between creators and the nameless masses to whom they owe their success. Today’s newsletter is about those interactions and what they mean. A new connection For decades, the star-fan relationship went in one direction. The average person developed a parasocial connection with stars, imagining one-sided friendships. Fan clubs organized around exclusive knowledge. Gossip magazines purported to show celebrities who dined and shopped “just like us.” Reality TV churned out an inexhaustible supply of everyday personas for audiences to obsess over, laugh about, compare themselves with. The internet — and in particular the advent of social media — blazed new pathways, giving audiences a way to kick over the rope cordoning off celebrities from everyone else. You could talk to anyone who had a Twitter account. Celebrities responded to Instagram comments. Today, content creators are in a relationship with their fans, and their work is designed to feel that way. That’s why talk shows that mimic the intimacy of close friendship dominate podcast charts. Joining the show In an era in which public health authorities have declared loneliness an epidemic, it stands to reason that many Americans have invested these one-way relationships with meaning. In turn, these creators promise more of themselves the deeper the audience is willing to go. Substackers and podcasters offer bonus content and chat rooms for paying fans. Tate drew the participants for his rumble from the War Room, an online network with an $8,000 annual membership. Many find that audience interaction strengthens the parasocial bond. Twitch streamers like Hasan Piker spend hours responding live to fans; Kai Cenat, another popular streamer, once let fans watch him sleeping. The new formats are a way for passive fans to take active roles in a world they have only imagined. But because the one-on-many stunts are themselves intended for wider consumption, they produce an amplifying effect: The participation of “normal” people only intensifies the sense of intimacy. What all of these stunts provide, too, is the chance for a member of the crowd to best an internet celebrity, to prove that he is just as good as the object of his obsession — and to complicate that bothersome one-way relationship, at least temporarily. Because the fans are part of the content, but only for a moment. As soon as his turn ends, each participant recedes back into the crowd. Read more about the collapsing boundaries between celebrities and their fans. RETURNING TO THE SCENE Joao Silva/The New York Times; Michael Kamber Joao Silva, a Times photographer, doesn’t recall hearing the explosion that took his legs in Afghanistan nearly 15 years ago. His images and essay explain what happened next. The land mine made a metallic click of sorts, followed by an immeasurable electric shock that ripped through my lower body, overpowering all my senses. I collapsed into a rising cloud of smoke and dust. It was October 2010, and I was working in Afghanistan as a photographer for The Times. In May, I went back to the place where it happened, a small farming village called Deh-e Kuchay. The compound where the mine was planted was gone. In its place stood a pomegranate orchard in flower, the petals glowing blood red in the afternoon sunlight. It gave me some comfort to see that life now grew from what had been a place of destruction. From the moment I picked up a camera again, eight months after the explosion, I had wanted to return to this village. Now I was back, seeing the country as I had never seen it before: at peace. THE LATEST NEWS Immigration The judge who ruled that the Florida detention site be shut down for now said that state and federal governments had failed to consider environmental harms before building it. For the first time in decades, more immigrants are leaving the U.S. than arriving, a new study found. Another judge ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully withheld visas under the president’s travel ban. The administration rescinded federal guidance requiring schools to provide services to students who don’t speak English well. Federal Agencies To crack down on waste, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said she must personally approve expenses over $100,000. That has created a backlog of critical contracts. The Office of Management and Budget is ignoring a directive from Congress and refusing to fully fund the H.I.V. program PEPFAR. This year will end with 300,000 fewer federal workers than there were in January, a Trump official said. That’s the largest single-year reduction since World War II. The F.B.I. plans to lower its recruitment standards. It will no longer require a college degree and will give less training. Many agents are alarmed. War in Ukraine Vice President JD Vance Doug Mills/The New York Times Vice President JD Vance said he warned Volodymyr Zelensky to “behave” as they headed into this week’s Oval Office meeting. Trump fired the foreign policy experts that presidents usually rely on during tricky negotiations. Now, he is trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine without them. More on the Trump Administration The White House published a list of Smithsonian exhibits that it finds objectionable, including material on topics like sexuality, slavery and immigration. What are federal agents up to in Washington, D.C. as part of Trump’s crackdown? The Times reviewed hundreds of images and videos. Trump’s attacks on the Fed and the Bureau of Labor Statistics could undermine America’s reputation as a reliable place to do business, Ben Casselman and Colby Smith write. Some in Trump’s base, wary of I.V.F., are pushing what they call a “natural” approach to infertility, one long confined to the medical fringe. New York City A New York appeals court threw out a half-billion-dollar fine against Trump while preserving the fraud case against him. Manhattan prosecutors announced sweeping corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams’s former chief adviser and several associates. A lawyer for the Adams aide who handed cash to a journalist this week said it was a Chinese custom. Times reporters witnessed similar payments at other events this year. Other Big Stories In North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Arlette Bashizi Sexual violence is widespread in Democratic Republic of Congo. The conflict there has left victims without legal recourse and dismantled the clinics that offered care. A parole panel kept Erik Menendez in prison, 36 years after he and his older brother, Lyle, killed their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. Here’s what to know. Donations to Gavin Newsom have been pouring in since he began his campaign last week to redraw California’s congressional maps. TRUMP’S EMERGENCIES By The New York Times Before he sent National Guard troops to patrol Washington this month, Trump declared a “crime emergency” in the capital. So far in his second term, he has made nine other emergency declarations that have been used to justify hundreds of actions that would typically require approval from Congress or lengthy regulatory reviews. All presidents declare national emergencies. They allow the government to respond quickly in a crisis. But experts say Trump has used this power for situations that do not qualify as true emergencies. Read our full analysis here. OPINIONS Children whose lives depend on Medicaid coverage don’t have a voice or a vote when states cut funding. You do, Rachel Roth Aldhizer writes. Write a note of gratitude. Here are examples, to teachers, veterans and mayors, to get you started, Glenn Kramon writes. Here’s a column by David Brooks on right-wing nihilism. A new listening experience, now in The Times app. Make sense of the news. Gain new perspective. All in the Listen tab. Download app MORNING READS In Long Beach, New York. Steven Molina Contreras for The New York Times New York City: Thanks to Hurricane Erin, conditions have been ideal for the urban surfer. Athlete brain: What sports psychologists want you to know about mental toughness. Health: Covid is spreading again this summer. Here’s why. “Queen of quilts”: Shelly Zegart, who died at 84, was a colossus in the world of quilting, instrumental in elevating what was long considered a mere utilitarian craft into the canon of art and material culture. SPORTS M.L.B.: The broadcast and streaming shake-ups continue: ESPN and the M.L.B. have an agreement that would, if signed, give the network exclusive rights to sell all out-of-market games digitally, as well as some in-market games, sources told The Athletic. W.N.B.A.: New York police arrested a man on suspicion of throwing a sex toy that hit other fans during a game earlier this month. He is at least the third person arrested over similar accusations this month. NSFW “HARRY POTTER”? At the Strand Bookstore in New York. Ye Fan for The New York Times Millions of people online have read “Manacled,” a “Harry Potter” fan-fiction that — keep an open mind here — centers on a morally ambiguous romance between adult versions of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. A revamped and retitled version of the story is expected to be one of the biggest romantic fantasy debuts of the year. It’s a full-circle moment. The current explosion of the romantic fantasy genre, or “romantasy,” stems from the legacy of popular young adult series like “Twilight” and “Harry Potter.” Those books molded generations of readers who still crave big fantasy novels — now with a dose of erotica. More on culture Aubrey Plaza, left, and Margaret Qualley. Taylor Miller for The New York Times Aubrey Plaza and Margaret Qualley, stars of the new movie “Honey Don’t,” visited the Times studio kitchen to make pizzas and talk about the film. Watch here. Trending: The “Stranger Things” actress Millie Bobby Brown announced that she and her husband, Jake Bongiovi, have adopted a baby daughter, NBC News reports. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Use lemon juice, mint and olive oil for a lighter take on potato salad. Save your neck with this laptop stand. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was dimpling. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 August 24, 2025 Author Members Posted August 24, 2025 August 23, 2025 Good morning. Is there anything so magical, so right, as submerging yourself in the summer? María Jesús Contreras The water cure By Melissa Kirsch “Everything you have to do to get to the point of actually doing it is a hassle,” a friend groused to me recently as I extolled the virtues of swimming. I get it. If you don’t live close to a body of water, hauling yourself and your brood to the shore with all the attendant gear can be a massive hassle, like trekking the Oregon Trail. But once you arrive, once you’re in the water, is there anything so magical, so ecstatically right as floating there, your body suspended? The sun may beat down, but you’re comfortably submerged. You’re a cool and weightless mer-creature, returned to the primordial soup that formed you. I should be clear: I do not technically swim when I’m in the water. I know swimming is incredible exercise, but when I’m in a lake or pool I want to splash and drift and look up at the sky, not toil or kick or perfect the pull of my crawl stroke. I have a group of friends, however, who are competing to see how many lake laps they can swim before Labor Day, and I’m intrigued by their industry. They take what I approach as the ultimate in relaxation and make it into an endurance sport. August is high season for swimming the English Channel, a feat that, for a polliwog like me, is so impressive and impossible it feels hard to imagine. Twenty-one or more miles from Dover to Cap Gris-Nez, powered by your own arms and legs and all that bilateral breathing. Channel swims used to be big news. (“Willis Hanks, who walks five miles a day taking special delivery mail to the garment district, announced yesterday that he would try to swim the English Channel next month,” began a Times story from 1958.) Now, we’re accustomed to achievements of extreme athletic endurance. Perhaps no one was more breathlessly celebrated than the first woman to make the crossing, a 20-year-old New Yorker and gold-medal Olympian named Gertrude Ederle. Monday was the 100th anniversary of Ederle’s first attempt at the Channel. She completed the swim in 1926, breaking the men’s record by nearly two hours. If you find yourself with time when you’re not swimming this weekend, you might take a dive into Ederle’s life — archival stories about her contain delightful details. She sparred publicly with the coach for her first attempt, telling The Times, “I will never understand Mr. Wolffe’s statement that I sat around playing the ukulele when I should have been training.” At the start of her successful swim, she sang “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” to the rhythm of her stroke, while her accompanying boat crew yelled at her to conserve her breath. While she swam, the crew held up signs reading “one wheel” and “two wheels” to remind her of the red roadster her father promised her if she finished. She was, according to a member of her team, “this pretty, tiny atom of humanity in her red bathing dress.” Calvin Coolidge called her “America’s best girl.” An estimated two million people turned out for the ticker-tape parade in New York on her return. Ederle’s story is inspiring, but not enough to make me abandon my devotion to steeping languidly in the lake while hardier aquanauts complete their 97th, 98th lap of the summer. The water doesn’t care if you’re a wader or a whale. How wonderful that it will cool you off and surround your limbs and exert its upward force on you. No matter if you’re in it to break a world record or just to lie still like a buoy, face up in the late-August sun. THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration Outside John Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Md. Jason Andrew for The New York Times F.B.I. agents searched the home of John Bolton, a former adviser to President Trump who later became a critic. Officials said the raid was part of an investigation into Bolton’s handling of sensitive information, though it also fit Trump’s pattern of using law enforcement as retribution. The Pentagon fired the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency weeks after the agency contradicted Trump’s assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran. The Trump administration stopped construction on a $4 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that is already mostly built. Economy Trump said that Intel agreed to sell the U.S. government a 10 percent stake in its business. It’s one of the government’s largest such interventions since the 2008 financial crisis fallout. Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, offered his strongest signal yet that the central bank is preparing to cut interest rates. Stocks rose after his remarks. Other Big Stories The Justice Department released the transcript of its recent interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate. Here are takeaways. Officials denied parole to Lyle Menendez, who has been in prison since the 1990s for killing his parents. His brother was denied parole on Thursday. The Texas Legislature approved a redrawn congressional map that could deliver Republicans five U.S. House seats. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador and then returned, was released from jail in Tennessee. Ask The Times: The On Politics newsletter is answering reader’s questions about immigration. Send us yours here. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Aubrey Plaza and Margaret Qualley in “Honey Don’t!” Focus Features “Honey Don’t!,” the second solo feature by Ethan Coen, is a murder mystery that involves a sex cult and a revenge cycle. Our reviewer calls it wry, weird and sometimes cruel. “Lurker” is a Gen Z psychosexual thriller in the tradition of “All About Eve” and “Single White Female.” Its director spoke with The Times about the movie. Some parents are reliving a golden era of boy bands and girl groups thanks to their kids’ obsession with the Netflix hit “KPop Demon Hunters.” Spike Lee’s latest movie, “Highest 2 Lowest,” gives us Black maximalism and Denzel Washington’s best hairline yet. Our critic Wesley Morris dives into it on the “Cannonball” podcast. Watch it here. Music Lucia Bell-Epstein for The New York Times The rising British pop-soul singer Lola Young is self-loathing, self-aggrandizing, irreverent, evasive and in-your-face. Joe Coscarelli followed her over one weekend in July. Taylor Swift’s upcoming 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” is being teased as a pivot back to pop bangers. The “Popcast” hosts break down why. Listen here. More Culture A perfume favored by Elizabeth Taylor was nearly lost to time. Fans rescued it from extinction. The share of Americans who read for pleasure has fallen sharply in the last two decades, according to a recent study. A Los Angeles woman charged with selling the ketamine that killed Matthew Perry, the “Friends” star, has agreed to plead guilty. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. GAMES OF THE PAST Photo illustration by The New York Times By Jason M. Bailey We are in the era of the forever game. Many of the most popular video games today — Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto — use pop culture collaborations and casino-like psychological tactics to entice players to return to their online worlds night after night, year after year. That makes this a particularly interesting moment to look back on gaming in the year 2000. In that quaint period, before smartphones and social media, online gaming hadn’t yet hit the mainstream. Instead, many games were self-contained single-player experiences with affecting narratives. Others could be played for hundreds of hours on solo quests for rare loot, or deep into the night with friends on a basement couch. This week, The Times published articles and essays on some of the biggest games from 25 years ago, exploring what made them so memorable: By packing its side quests with emotional depth, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask expanded the scope of narrative storytelling. With its fusion of hip-hop, punk and nu-metal, the soundtrack for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 helped players get into the mood to nosegrind a helicopter. The stealth cyberpunk game Deus Ex encouraged players to comb through every dark alley and pick every last lock in search of secrets. Counter-Strike, whose permanent deaths and tense gameplay influenced decades of first-person shooters, was built in a dorm room. The Sega Dreamcast console was willing to get weird, with games like Seaman and Shenmue offering an alternate version of 21st-century gaming. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Armando Rafael for The New York Times By Melissa Clark One-Pot Ratatouille Pasta Vivian Chan-Tam’s one-pot ratatouille pasta is a streamlined take on everyone’s favorite French vegetable dish. As in the classic, she cooks the vegetables in stages: the eggplant and onions first, followed by the zucchini and peppers. This brings out their deepest flavors and allows everything to cook through while still retaining some texture. Then, the raw pasta is simmered in the sauce at the end, absorbing all the good, herby flavors. Make it now while summer vegetables are at their peak. REAL ESTATE Katrina Hanson and Maya Brodkey. Jason Henry for The New York Times The Hunt: After the pandemic forced them to leave Oakland, Calif., a couple returned to realize their dream of owning a home there. Which did they choose? Play our game. What you get for $2.8 million: A stone house in Old Lyme, Conn.; a recently renovated midcentury house in Miami; or a 1790 rowhouse in Charleston, S.C. LIVING Running toward the water at Deauville Beach. Camille McOuat for The New York Times 36 hours in Normandy: Visit the remains of William the Conqueror and take a seaside stroll. Going away to college: These momfluencers want to help you decorate your dorm room. Eating in: Cooking in a vacation rental can be stressful. Bring a few kitchen items from home to make it more relaxing. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Maximize your smallest spaces With a little planning — and the right design hacks — even the tiniest spaces can feel expansive. A few tips from our experts: If you’re working with a small kitchen, loosely divide it into five zones (food prep, cooking, food storage, non-food storage, cleaning) to make it easier to figure out where your tools and equipment should be stored. For a bathroom with limited storage, choose accessories that double as décor, like vintage glassware that can hold your toothbrushes. And lastly, if a room has more than one function, being intentional about your furnishings and lighting means the difference between flow and chaos. Try a standing room divider to elegantly partition sections, or a rug or pendant light to delineate different areas. — Sofia Sokolove GAME OF THE WEEK Sam Balkansky/Associated Press Little League World Series: Four teams remain in this annual fixture for youth sports glory. On the U.S. side of the bracket is Fairfield, Conn., which hasn’t lost a game yet, and Las Vegas, which earned a spot in the final thanks to a last-inning home run. And on the international side, two teams with very different histories: Taiwan, which has more titles than any country besides the U.S., takes on Aruba, which has never won a title. The international final is today at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, and the U.S. final follows at 3:30 p.m. The winners will meet in the championship game, tomorrow at 3 p.m. All games on ABC. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was confirm. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 August 24, 2025 Author Members Posted August 24, 2025 August 24, 2025 Good morning. Today we’re covering the war in Ukraine, the Epstein investigation and A.I. travel tools. But first, a tech reporter explains how he got caught up in an embarrassing data leak. Vice President JD Vance, whose playlists were part of a prankish Spotify leak. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Revealing taste By Mike Isaac I’ve covered technology and Silicon Valley for more than 15 years. Last month, at around 10:30 on a Tuesday evening, I got an encrypted text message from someone calling himself “Tim.” It felt cloak and dagger — he sent me a link to a website that contained data compiled from public figures, airing their personal information. It was far from the next Watergate. The site showed the Spotify listening habits of about 50 people — politicians, tech executives, journalists — scraped from information that they seemed to be unaware was public. To gild the lily, he called it the Panama Playlists, a riff on the decidedly more consequential Panama Papers leak of years past. It was clever and, honestly, a bit funny. It showed that Vice President JD Vance listens to Justin Bieber and the Backstreet Boys — while making dinner, if the playlist’s title is any indication — and that the beloved weatherman Al Roker is really into Elton John (he appears to have played the track “Philadelphia Freedom” 151 times last year). It got a little less funny, though, when I scrolled down and found myself, along with my colleague Kashmir Hill, on the list. If two reporters who write about technology and privacy for a living were sharing personal information without realizing it, how many others were doing the same? Kashmir and I decided to get to the bottom of it. (You can read our story here.) In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain what we found. Public figures, public playlists The true identity of “Tim” is Riley Walz, a 23-year-old engineer who has a history of digging around for open sources of data and spinning them into public projects. The idea for this one, he told me, was not to make “some grand political statement,” but to call attention to how much of our information is sitting out there, available to anyone with the time and interest to surface it. Walz made it clear that he wasn’t trying to paint any one type of person or political party negatively. He said his goal was to prod Spotify to improve its privacy controls, which make users’ playlists public by default. But he clearly had fun with it. The playlist he surfaced for Pam Bondi, the Republican attorney general, plays with a temperature theme (she listens to Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” and Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice”). Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House, had a playlist called “Galentines” featuring tracks from M.I.A., Rihanna and Gwen Stefani. We should note, not all of the playlists in the leak have been confirmed as real. A dozen or so people in tech and media told us their listings were authentic, while most of the politicians didn’t get back to us. And at least one person, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, told us Walz’s entry on him was mistaken. A long trail of data The stakes of this leak were, admittedly, pretty low. I was embarrassed that people could see I listened to one song called “Huggin & Kissin” by a band called Big Black Delta 139 times this year (though I maintain that it is a very good song). But this was far from spilling state secrets; none of my bank account details were divulged, nor were my unsatisfactory high school grades made available for public scrutiny. For me, the entire affair was a reminder that no matter how much I’ve grown accustomed to sharing online, there’s always more than I realize that’s sitting out in the ether, waiting to be discovered. To be clear, I know that there’s plenty about me to be found on the internet, much of which I’ve shared willingly across social media. I post photos of concerts I’ve gone to on Instagram, and I treat my X account as a running commentary on the tech industry. But it’s all about context; there’s a difference between the curated parts of myself I show the public and the stuff I didn’t realize was being shared on my behalf. Thankfully, I have good taste in music. Or at least I think so — take a look at my entry in the Panama Playlists and decide for yourself. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Michael Gordon, a former federal prosecutor who investigated the Jan. 6 riot. Octavio Jones for The New York Times The purge after the pardons: The Justice Department has fired or demoted more than two dozen prosecutors who were assigned to hold the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters accountable. A top Democrat on a House investigative committee said most of the documents that the Justice Department had given Congress in the Jeffrey Epstein case were already public. Restaurant owners in Washington say President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops has been terrible for business. War in Ukraine Today is Ukraine’s Independence Day. In a speech in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky made a plea for peace. Much of the fighting in Ukraine has been in the Donbas, a mineral-rich territory nearly the size of West Virginia. The fate of that region will be at the center of any peace negotiations. Times reporters explain why the Donbas is so important to Ukraine and Russia. Watch the video. Other Big Stories A crosswalk outside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel, via Associated Press Florida painted over a rainbow crosswalk that was part of a memorial to the 49 people killed in a 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. A tour bus crashed while traveling to New York City from Niagara Falls, N.Y., killing five people. Survivors described the ordeal. In Pakistan, the crime of blaspheming Islam can carry a death sentence. Arrests are soaring, and many of the accused say they were entrapped online by extortionists. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has mimicked Trump’s style on social media as a way of trolling the president. Is that the right move for Democrats? Yes. Newsom’s trolling is effective in frustrating Republicans and demonstrating to Democrats a willingness to fight back. “The California governor may come off like a sleazy politician, but at least he’s our sleazy politician,” USA Today’s Sara Pequeño writes. No. While Democrats may find Newsom funny, any incivility is bad for democracy. “There won’t be a bottom until Americans resurrect some ground rules and enforce them against any violators (even on their own side),” Steven Greenhut writes for The Orange County Register. FROM OPINION The left and the right have put too much focus on Epstein conspiracy theories. Doing so allows more Americans to lose faith in democracy, James Kirchick writes. American spy novelists are comically bad at naming international characters. It’s time they consult native speakers, Michael Idov writes. Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on Trump’s attack on the Smithsonian and Nicholas Kristof on appreciating the American wilderness. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS Joey Han Travel smart: Can A.I. improve your vacation planning? Our writer put some tools to the test. Climate change: In addition to looking beautiful, this nearly $300 million park also aims to shield Manhattan from rising seas. How fast should kids throw? It’s a paradox for parents of youth baseball players. Routine: Here’s how an environmental artist spends a day in her workshop. Vows: A simple favor turned her “hot neighbor” into her husband. Your pick: The most-clicked article in yesterday’s newsletter was five takeaways from the Justice Department’s interview of Ghislaine Maxwell. Lives Lived: Ron Turcotte, a champion jockey who made racing history when he rode Secretariat to the 1973 Triple Crown, died at 84. SPORTS College football: The season began in Ireland, where No. 22 Iowa State overpowered No. 17 Kansas State. M.L.B.: Baseball is getting a new trophy, beginning next year: the Relief Pitcher of the Year Award. NASCAR: Ryan Blaney won the last race of the regular season in thrilling fashion, moving from 13th place to first in the final two laps. N.F.L.: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Shilo Sanders, son of the Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, was ejected from a preseason game for throwing a punch at the Buffalo Bills tight end Zach Davidson. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “The Gods of New York,” by Jonathan Mahler: This biography of New York City in the late 1980s gives readers a panoramic view, from the top of the Twin Towers to the deepest subway station, then builds a track from a tumultuous time gone by to the one we’re in now. Mahler, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, shows how the era’s racial tensions paved the way for current crises; how AIDS activists reshaped conversations around public health; how homelessness was (and remains) frustratingly insurmountable; and how a local real estate developer made his way from Queens to the White House with a boost from tabloids and politicians. Most of all, “The Gods of New York” reminds us that, while boldface names form an ever-shifting scaffolding around the city, ordinary people are its bedrock. More on books If you have time for just one single romance novel, make it this one. THE INTERVIEW Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times By David Marchese This week’s subject for The Interview is the best-selling writer Jen Hatmaker, who, at 51, has gone through two middle-age crises: first when she fell out with the evangelical world that had made her a famous author and influencer, and then again when she learned that her pastor husband of 26 years was cheating on her. Her upcoming memoir, “Awake,” is the first time she has gone into detail publicly about the breakup of her marriage — a heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful process. You start the book with this dramatic scene of realizing that your husband is being unfaithful. Can you tell me about the initial feelings of realizing that your husband was cheating on you? That was the singular most shocking thing that has ever happened to me. We were pastors. We had been married for 26 years. We’d followed the rules. So there was this initial period of just grief and trauma. But as I started to work through that, I had to finally begin admitting this marriage was in trouble. For a while my preferred story was everything was great, he’s a terrible person, he ruined our family. That is to some degree true, but what is untrue is that everything was going great until it wasn’t. You describe yourself in “Awake” as being codependent. How did codependency show up in your marriage? I learned that codependency is essentially feeling and trying to become responsible for other people’s choices, feelings and life, and then allowing however they’re living their life to affect you. Purging myself of codependency has been one of the biggest and the heaviest lifts of the last five years. I’m doing terrible at it. Have there been moments since you were divorced that made you feel like, yes, I am on my way to being a functional independent adult? I was a teenage child bride and had never spent one minute of adulthood in independence. I’d never been to a movie by myself. I had never filed taxes. I had to build my own independent life because there was no one else to do it for me. Then I discovered I’m good at this. It’s like I woke up halfway through my life. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photograph by Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times. Click the cover above to read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Avoid getting caught up in “air rage.” Treat back pain with these exercises. Drink stream water on a hike with a little water filter. Track your workouts. MEAL PLAN David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui. In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Margaux Laskey suggests easy, high-protein dishes. They include cowboy caviar that you can eat alongside grilled chicken, slow cooker chickpea stew with lemon and coconut, and baked chicken meatballs. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was inveighed. Can you put eight historical events — including the founding of the F.B.I., the creation of Central Park and the invention of the photocopier — 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 August 25, 2025 Author Members Posted August 25, 2025 August 25, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Washington: National Guard troops in D.C., deployed as part of President Trump’s crackdown, have begun carrying weapons. More than 2,200 Guard troops were in the city as of yesterday. China Evergrande: The company has been removed from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its 2021 collapse exposed the weak points of China’s economy. Ukraine: Russia’s top diplomat said that there was no meeting planned between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, a blow to Trump’s efforts to mediate an end to the war. More news is below. But first, a look at how Trump selectively enforces the law. Attorney General Pam Bondi, F.B.I. director Kash Patel, and the U.S. attorney in Washington Jeanine Pirro. Doug Mills/The New York Times Cases closed By Evan Gorelick I’m a writer for this newsletter. The law says you can’t carry a rifle or a shotgun in Washington, D.C. But the Trump administration generally takes a dim view of gun restrictions, and it said last week that it wouldn’t bother enforcing that provision anymore. (Officials cited a pair of Supreme Court decisions that overturned other gun restrictions, The Washington Post reports.) The administration has made similar announcements about several other laws that don’t align with its agenda. The Constitution says the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” He has some leeway to decide what that means. President Obama, for instance, chose not to prosecute a raft of marijuana crimes and put off deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. President Trump has zealously embraced the same discretion this year. In the most extreme example, he ordered the Justice Department not to enforce a bipartisan law banning TikTok that the Supreme Court had unanimously upheld. Some experts say that he does not have the power to nullify laws that way. But not every case is so clear. In many fuzzier instances, Trump is using his discretion to realize his political goals. Today’s newsletter looks across the government at how he is selectively enforcing the law. The targets Executive agencies don’t have unlimited staff or money, so officials get to make choices about what bothers them most. In February, for example, Trump issued an executive order telling agencies to preserve “limited enforcement resources” by “de-prioritizing” enforcement of certain regulations. Here’s what that looks like: Corruption: Trump ordered the government to stop enforcing a law that makes it illegal for U.S. companies to bribe foreign governments. (He said the law hurts American firms.) The attorney general told the Justice Department not to worry about a law requiring foreign lobbyists to disclose their activities. During Trump’s first term, prosecutors had invoked it to bring charges against several of his allies. Civil rights: As part of his effort to root out D.E.I., Trump told government offices to stop enforcing many civil rights provisions. A Labor Department office, for instance, will no longer investigate employers who allegedly underpaid women or awarded promotions based on race. The administration has abandoned hundreds of cases under the fair housing law, meaning it won’t prosecute landlords who keep out gay people or owners who refuse to sell to people of a different faith. Trump also instructed the government to nix the “disparate-impact” test, which looked at whether minority groups were affected differently by criminal background checks, credit checks, zoning regulations and more. Climate: Trump has ordered federal agencies to stop fighting climate change, which means ignoring the statutes that mandate such efforts. Coal plants have skirted pollution limits under the Clean Air Act by asking the E.P.A. nicely over email. In May, Trump told the Energy Department not to enforce what he called “useless” water-conservation rules for things like sinks and showers. Signing executive orders at the White House. Eric Lee/The New York Times Nobody home A direct order is not the only way to curb enforcement. Trump has also slashed budgets and head counts, which has a similar effect. Laws bite only if people are there to enforce them. Taxes: Trump culled a quarter of the I.R.S. work force and wants to reduce its funding by nearly 40 percent next year. Taxes account for almost all of the government’s revenue. But Trump’s cuts could limit enforcement and cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars, according to the nonpartisan Tax Law Center. Tax evaders, who tend to be America’s highest earners, may get off easy. Crypto: The Trump administration moved staff members responsible for enforcing crypto regulations at the S.E.C. into other roles. It also disbanded the Justice Department office responsible for investigating cryptocurrency crimes. (Trump and his family have invested in crypto ventures that stand to benefit from weaker oversight.) Vulnerable consumers: Since Trump installed the White House’s budget director as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency has halted nearly all its enforcement actions and tried to fire 90 percent of its workers. Congress created the bureau in 2010 to watch over predatory businesses and the big banks that brought on the mortgage crisis. An interpretive dance Congress makes laws; courts interpret them; and the president enforces them. Yet the president has interpretive power, too. How much interpretation is too much? Consider two examples: The Supreme Court said in 2020 that laws prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace also apply to sexual orientation and gender identity, and the Biden administration brought such cases on behalf of trans workers. But Trump told the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop. Compared with the Biden administration, which filed 30 cases against polluters in its first six months, the Trump administration has filed 11, according to a Times analysis of federal data. It’s normal for enforcement to change as administrations come and go. The Supreme Court knows they have different priorities, so its rulings say they can decide on a case-by-case basis not to take action against someone who might have broken the law. But the court has repeatedly barred a more sweeping approach to nonenforcement. The government cannot, the justices say, simply throw out a law. THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration As part of Trump’s D.C. crackdown, federal cases are being made out of low-level arrests. Read about some of them here, including one involving an open container of alcohol. Trump threatened to investigate the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie over a 2013 political scandal known as “Bridgegate,” after Christie criticized his use of the Justice Department. Trump is expected to meet with the new leader of South Korea today. Washington’s increasing focus on China is straining the two countries’ decades-old alliance. For most college students, Trump’s fight with elite colleges barely registers: Many are enrolled in community colleges while juggling work or child care. Columbia was able to strike a deal with the government to get most of its research funding back. However, nationally, the outlook for federal science funding is still bleak. China The Chinese consulate in Manhattan has mobilized community groups to sink the careers of local politicians who oppose China’s government, a Times investigation found. Evergrande, now delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is a symbol of China’s real estate boom and bust — the country’s housing crisis has been grinding on for five years. War in Ukraine In Poltava, Ukraine. Oksana Parafeniuk for The New York Times While many militaries remove pregnant soldiers from combat, Ukrainian women usually serve until their seventh month. For Trump, consistency is less important than the trappings of leader-to-leader diplomacy. The result is a strategic muddle, David Sanger writes. Read about what’s next for Ukraine, on and off the battlefield. Israel At a protest in Kfar Yona, Israel. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Ultra-Orthodox Israelis, exempt for decades from military service, are now being drafted. Their rage is dividing Israel. Israel’s approval of a settlement in the occupied West Bank that had been delayed for decades shows how far Benjamin Netanyahu has gone in dashing Palestinian aspirations, Isabel Kershner writes. Other Big Stories Why are Americans worried about global trade? The lack of a comprehensive social safety net, Peter Goodman writes. As part of Kim Jong-un’s modernization plans, North Korea has started to imitate Western brands like IKEA and Starbucks. See videos taken inside the country. SpaceX postponed the critical 10th test flight of its Starship, the rocket that Elon Musk hopes to use to take people to Mars. Krispy Kreme is struggling: Competitors like Dunkin’ are everywhere and consumers are increasingly embracing wellness. IN ONE MAP Source: L2 | By Ani Matevosian Most states allow people to register with a political party. Democrats have lost ground in every one of them, as the map above shows. By contrast, Republicans gained in most states. Last year, for the first time since 2018, more new voters chose to be Republicans than Democrats nationwide. Read our full analysis of the Democratic Party’s voter registration crisis. OPINIONS Serving in Congress appeals mostly to the old and wealthy. To resolve this, we should pay our legislators more, Brendan Buck writes. The Department of Veterans Affairs wants to reduce abortion access. Further restrictions will lead more vets to die, Chelsea Donaldson argues. Here are columns by David French on choosing life and Ezra Klein on OpenAI’s GPT-5. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS Lettering by Abraham Lule. Photo illustration by Justin Metz. Health: What does it take to get men to see a doctor? One clinic is trying to persuade them that getting checked out could save their life. Summer chill: As the planet gets hotter, travelers are taking “coolcations” in Nordic countries. Metropolitan Diary: Broadway on the subway. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was Times journalist Mike Isaac’s author page. He was caught up in a leak of prominent people’s Spotify habits. Read the story here. Greatest showman: Humpy Wheeler, who died at 86, was a racing promoter as colorful as his name who helped propel NASCAR into a national phenomenon. Wheeler was known as the P.T. Barnum of motorsports for staging three-ring circuses and mock army battles before races. SPORTS U.S. Open: The tournament began yesterday. Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz claimed straight-sets, first-round wins. Here are the story lines to follow over the next two weeks. Trending: The golfer Tommy Fleetwood won the Tour Championship. It is his first PGA Tour win after 30 top-five finishes in 164 tour starts. A LITTLE FRIEND In Florida. Todd Anderson for The New York Times Move over mouse ears, Disney adults have a new obsession: the “Shoulder Plush.” The toys — tiny stuffed animals that use magnets to stay perched on your shoulder — are a hit at Disney theme parks across the world. “Ears are boring — everyone wears them now,” David Gallegos, 23, told The Times. “I wanted something more comical.” Read more about the trend. More on culture Young people, fueled by documentaries and podcasts, pushed for the release of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who murdered their parents 36 years ago. Parole commissioners took a harder line. Draw boundaries, protect your peace: Emma Goldberg asks whether today’s self-help is teaching everyone to be a jerk. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Ryan Liebe for The New York Times Combine Caesar salad and pasta salad for a cookout hit. Bring food to work in a stylish lunch box. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were arability, arbitrarily, irritability, irritably, ratability and tribally. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 August 26, 2025 Author Members Posted August 26, 2025 August 26, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: The Fed: President Trump said he was firing Lisa Cook from the bank’s Board of Governors, citing unconfirmed allegations of mortgage fraud. Cook refused to step down. Australia: The country accused Iran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks there last year and said it was severing diplomatic ties with Tehran. Immigration: Agents once again detained Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this year, days after he was released from custody. His lawyers said Trump officials had threatened to deport him to Uganda. More news is below. But first, a look at journalists in Gaza. In Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Abed Rahim Khatib/Picture-Alliance, via Associated Press Bearing witness By Jodi Rudoren I covered the last two wars in Gaza. The video footage from Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza is horrifying. You can see rescue workers in orange vests tending to Palestinians injured in an Israeli attack. You can also see a journalist with a boom mic. Another wears a camera around his neck and holds a smartphone in his hand, documenting the scene. And then, for a moment, you can’t see anything at all. The screen goes black as you hear the loud blast of a second strike. Five journalists were among the 20 people killed in the successive strikes on the hospital yesterday morning. In a rare statement of regret, Israel’s prime minister called it a “tragic mishap.” Nearly 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza, more than in any other conflict or any single place since the Committee to Protect Journalists began keeping track in the 1990s. All but a handful were Palestinians who had to balance their own families’ displacement and hunger with the mission of bearing witness amid grave danger. Israel barred international correspondents from Gaza when the war began, except for occasional military embeds. So we’re all relying on locals to tell us what happens there. Today’s newsletter looks at Monday’s strike on the hospital and the particular challenges of reporting from Gaza now. ‘Tragic mishap’ Outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after Israeli strikes. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Israeli officials have not given a reason for the attack. Hospitals are off limits under international law, but Israel points out that Hamas operates from hospitals and other protected sites. Human rights groups say Israel targets journalists and acts without regard to their presence in the line of fire. Israel denies those claims. Two weeks ago, Israel assassinated Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera correspondent who it said was also a member of Hamas’s armed wing. Five other journalists were killed in that strike, which targeted a press tent in northern Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unusually contrite about yesterday’s attack. He promised to investigate. “Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff and all civilians,” he said. “Our war is with Hamas terrorists.” The slain journalists worked for The Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye. (You can read more about them here.) Chilling effect From top left, Mariam Dagga, Mohammad Salama, Ahmed Abu Aziz and Moaz Abu Taha. All four were killed yesterday. Jehad Alshrafi/Associated Press, Reuters There are more than 1,000 journalists working inside Gaza, the International Federation of Journalists estimates. Like nearly all of Gaza’s two million residents, most have slept in tents or the courtyards of hospitals or in their cars. Some have had dozens of relatives killed. Some have isolated themselves from their children because they fear being targeted as journalists. Movement within Gaza is challenging. Israel does not allow people to cross between north and south. Journalists — like all civilians — struggle to keep up with neighborhood evacuation orders, strike warnings and the routes of aid convoys that frequently erupt in riots. Editors weigh the relative risks of every assignment, often employing security experts to help make the call. When messages go unanswered for hours — or days — everyone worries. The recent spate of killings has had a chilling effect. “It’s reached the point where I’m scared to report,” one photographer told The Times. Another, who was wounded along with his daughter during a July strike on a nearby home, said: “There’s a lot of fear, and there’s no protection.” No access Israeli officials have argued that all Gazan reporters are inherently biased. But in contrast to the Israel-Hamas wars that I covered in 2012 and 2014, international correspondents are not allowed to enter Gaza except under military escort. That makes it extremely difficult to report independently. Without Gazan journalists, “there’s no other source of information from Gaza other than Hamas itself,” said Dan Perry, a longtime A.P. bureau chief in the region. In restricting access, Israel joins a list of mostly authoritarian countries taking extreme measures to control the narrative around conflicts. Russia passed laws that can make reporting on its Ukraine war an act of treason. The Syrian regime blocked most journalists from entering the country during its civil war, forcing us and other international outlets to rely on social media accounts from inside. Myanmar and South Sudan have also historically prohibited foreign correspondents. Last week, 28 countries — including Britain, France and Germany — called on Israel to allow “immediate independent” access to Gaza, saying journalists “play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war.” Their letter followed a petition signed by more than 1,300 journalists that said the press blackout would set a precedent: “that governments and military actors, through censorship, obstruction and force, can shut down access to truth in times of war.” THE LATEST NEWS The Fed Lisa Cook Brittany Greeson for The New York Times “I will not resign”: Cook said Trump did not have the grounds to fire her from the Fed board. In the hopes of forcing down interest rates, Trump has relentlessly attacked the Fed and its members. His attempt to fire Cook is an escalation of that pressure campaign. Here’s what to know. Trump appeared to set the stage for a battle that could define the limits of his power over the Fed. His decision to remove Cook could be legally challenged. Immigration A judge in Maryland barred the U.S. from again deporting Abrego Garcia until she could consider his case. He is being held in an ICE facility in Virginia. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say the Trump administration has threatened to deport him to Uganda unless he pleads guilty to charges of human smuggling. Here’s what else to know about Abrego Garcia’s detention. D.C. Takeover Trump ordered the creation of specialized National Guard units in Washington, D.C., and all 50 states, significantly expanding the Guard’s law-enforcement role. Trump enlisted two more federal agencies in his crackdown. They will investigate whether local authorities are properly enforcing safety requirements for housing and transportation. House Republicans are investigating Washington crime statistics, broadening the dispute over crime amid Trump’s federal police takeover. Trump signed executive orders threatening to cut federal funding from Washington and other jurisdictions that allow cashless bail. Your pick: The most clicked article in The Morning yesterday was about National Guard troops in Washington, who are starting to carry weapons. More on the Trump Administration President Trump with the South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung. Doug Mills/The New York Times In a meeting with South Korea’s president, Trump repeatedly praised the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Days after the U.S. agreed to acquire a stake in Intel, the struggling American chipmaker, Trump signaled that he would pursue similar investments in other major companies. A federal judge in Maine said the government could strip Medicaid funding from one of the state’s largest abortion providers. FEMA employees wrote to Congress warning that the Trump administration’s actions were reversing improvements made to the agency after Hurricane Katrina. More on Politics Over the next decade, the Electoral College will tilt significantly away from Democrats. Here’s how. Cities are turning away from the needle exchanges, test strips and nasal sprays that prevent deadly drug overdoses. Other Big Stories Scientists in China performed the first pig-to-human lung transplant, with mixed results. An expert in the U.S. called it a “great first step.” Ismael Zambada García, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel who is known as El Mayo, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in the U.S. He will be sentenced to life in prison. SUN DAMAGE A heat wave hit Taipei, Taiwan, last July. Annabelle Chih/Reuters Some like it hot. But our bodies, research finds, do not. That’s because extreme heat can push the body’s rate of aging into overdrive, according to a new study. For every two years’ worth of heat-wave exposure — around 46 hot days for the sample population — a person’s biological age ticks up by an extra eight to 12 days. That might sound marginal, but those days add up. Over time, they weaken important biomarkers like blood pressure, cholesterol and lung function. And heat waves are becoming more common because of climate change. Last year, the hottest on record, climate change added 41 days of extreme heat worldwide. The U.S. West Coast and Iran are sweltering as we speak. Read the full story here. OPINIONS Brazil and India’s resistance against economic coercion shows that Trump’s tariffs won’t restore American dominance. They’re speeding up its decline, Matias Spektor writes. Blue book essays and oral exams: As A.I. enters classes, the only way for students to show they understand the material is for professors to go medieval, Clay Shirky argues. Here are columns by M. Gessen on a Russian opposition journalist and Tressie McMillan Cottom on MAHA. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS Thomas Merceron Prepared for climate disaster? Test your knowledge of how to handle hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires. Ask Vanessa: “What can I wear on a plane besides leggings and sweats?” Going green: More Americans are choosing burials in which everything is biodegradable. Private and connected: Maurice Tempelsman, who died at 95, was a Belgian American diamond magnate who drew media scrutiny for his business dealings in Africa and was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s companion for more than a decade. SPORTS U.S. Open: A month into her comeback, Venus Williams lost to Karolina Muchova in three sets. Elsewhere at the tournament, the 2022 champion Carlos Alcaraz completed the day’s schedule with a clinical straight-set win against Reilly Opelka. N.B.A.: Three collectors, including Kevin O’Leary of “Shark Tank,” revealed themselves as the buyers of a $12.9 million Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant autographed patch card. CONCRETE JUNGLE Alex Kent for The New York Times What does it say about status-obsessed New Yorkers that even their trees have an elite inner circle? The Great Trees of New York City is an exclusive list of the city’s 120 best trees, nominated by residents for their historical, botanical or cultural significance. They include a Weeping Beech that stands sentry among military graves at the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens, a Callery Pear that survived in the rubble of the Sept. 11 attacks and a Dawn Redwood that rises more than 100 feet over a Brooklyn sidewalk. More on culture At the Paris Theater in New York. Ye Fan for The New York Times “I’ve watched it a million times”: Over the weekend, kids and parents across the country attended singalong showings of “KPop Demon Hunters.” The Times was at one. Trending: People online are talking about the “Love Island U.S.A.” Season 7 reunion episode. Read takeaways. The Kennedy Center named Stephen Nakagawa, a former Washington Ballet dancer, as its new dance director. Nakagawa had written to the center’s president criticizing “woke” ballet culture. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times Blend whole limes in this refreshing coconut limeade. (For now, the NYT Cooking recipes that appear in this newsletter are free in our app. Click here for access — no subscription needed.) Buy a cat-approved cat bed. Capture video with a drone. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was although. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 August 28, 2025 Author Members Posted August 28, 2025 August 27, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Tariffs: President Trump’s 50 percent tariff on Indian goods went into effect today. Half of the rate is punishment for India’s buying of Russian oil. FEMA: The agency suspended around 30 employees who had warned Congress in a letter that the Trump administration’s cuts were gutting the nation’s ability to handle disasters. Middle East: The Israeli military said that a deadly attack on a Gaza hospital was supposed to destroy an observation camera that it said Hamas had placed there. The military did not provide evidence for the claim. More news is below. But first, Times reporters answer our questions about state intervention. In the Oval Office. Doug Mills/The New York Times State business By Adam B. Kushner I’m the editor of this newsletter. Conservative orthodoxy once held that the free market was the key to America’s economic success. In this view, Milton Friedman was a laissez-faire prophet. The Soviet Union was the sclerotic alternative. Ronald Reagan captured Republican sentiment when he said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” That’s not how President Trump — or his party — feels. The president wields tariffs to boost American companies. Populist Republicans in Congress back government subsidies to juice manufacturing. The United States is taking a 10 percent stake in Intel and a 15 percent cut of sales by Nvidia, both chipmakers. And Trump wants to replace the people who run the independent Federal Reserve with more compliant appointees. Protectionism, industrial policy and government ownership — all once conservative boogeymen — are now official doctrine. In today’s newsletter, I speak with several of The Times’s expert beat reporters about the new state interventions. A stockholder Florence Lo/Reuters Lauren Hirsch, who covers Wall Street, answers these questions. Trump wants to help Intel compete with chipmakers abroad that are doing much better. But how does a government ownership stake work? On paper, the government put a few limitations on its role as a shareholder. It has agreed to side with the Intel board on most issues requiring a shareholder vote. (This usually includes things like selection of board directors and approval over major deals.) As a result, Intel’s other shareholders will now have less sway. But the government still has the power of the bully pulpit. What happens if Trump posts online that he would like Intel to build a factory in a certain state? When Washington bailed out banks and automakers in 2008, did it take a position in those companies? Yes, but they were different. At the time, officials worried that the collapse of the auto or banking industry would pull down the broader economy. And the U.S. government bailed them out because they couldn’t get cash elsewhere. (It sold its stock in G.M., Citigroup and others after the downturn ended.) This time, Intel isn’t facing that sort of crisis. And while the White House and others argue that Intel is important from a national security perspective, its demise wouldn’t wreck the U.S. economy. Now Trump says the U.S. may buy stakes in “many more” companies. Is this state-managed capitalism? The Trump administration says this isn’t socialism. But what’s unusual is that the government appears to be selecting companies, not industries. And it’s unclear whether those companies have a choice. The bipartisan Chips Act, passed under President Biden, awarded $11 billion to Intel so it would make more chips in the United States. But Trump this month called for its chief executive, Lip-Bu Tan, to resign, citing his ownership stakes in Chinese companies. Tan “walked in wanting to keep his job, and he ended up giving us $10 billion for the United States,” Trump said. An ideological shift Tony Romm, who covers economic policy, answers these questions. Is Trump moved by traditional Republican views about keeping the government out of the private sector? Conservatives have long said that Washington should not pick winners and losers. Historically, they have opposed efforts to nationalize certain firms or sectors, arguing that it risks taxpayer money and warps an efficient marketplace. But Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, explained this week that the administration now expected something in return before it would allow a company to benefit from government largess (as Intel did) or to do something it is not permitted to do (as with Nvidia’s chip sales to China). He appeared to open the door for future government stakes in other industries, including defense contractors. Why has the G.O.P. pivoted so much in the Trump era? Michael Strain, an economist at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, describes two camps. In one, Republicans “are genuinely wrestling with how to navigate our increasingly adversarial relationship with China while still maintaining a commitment to free markets.” Some think America must sacrifice some economic liberty to beat China. The other (larger) camp “doesn’t support an equity stake in Intel but doesn’t want to speak out against the president,” Strain says. Breaking the bank Ben Casselman, The Times’s chief economics correspondent, answers these questions. The president wants to oust the Fed chair — who has kept interest rates too high for Trump’s taste — but he can’t do it without “cause.” So Trump hopes to chip away at his supporters on the board. What’s he doing? Trump is attempting to fire a member of the board, Lisa Cook. If he can replace her, and the Senate also confirms his nominee for another open slot, he will have appointed four of the seven governors — theoretically enough to control the board. Powell was appointed as governor by Obama and nominated as chair by Trump. | By The New York Times But governors, like the chair, can be fired only for cause. Trump has accused Cook of committing mortgage fraud by claiming two homes as her primary residence before she joined the board. She has vowed to fight her firing, and it will be up to the courts to decide whether Trump has sufficient cause to replace her. The issue seems to be that Trump wants more control over the central bank, which is meant to be independent. Why is that important? Like central banks in most advanced economies, the Fed is meant to be insulated from politics as it weighs interest rates and inflation. But Trump has tried to control the central bank directly to a degree other recent presidents have not. He has repeatedly threatened to fire Jerome Powell, the Fed chair. He plans to nominate Stephen Miran, a top economic adviser, to an open seat on the Fed board. And now he is trying to push out Cook. What should we expect if the president gets more sway over Fed decisions? There is a lot of economic research on what happens when central bank independence breaks down. The gist is that inflation goes up. But I think there’s a broader point here. Trump has gone after independent actors that don’t align with his political objectives. Those moves threaten to chip away at what has long been a pillar of U.S. economic strength: our reputation as a safe, reliable place for investors to put their money and entrepreneurs to build their businesses. That isn’t something that will disappear overnight, but attacks on the Fed’s independence could help push companies and investors to look elsewhere. More on the economy The most clicked article in The Morning yesterday was about Trump’s attempt to fire Cook. That move joins the various ways Trump has systematically accumulated greater authority, Charlie Savage writes. Many American importers, to reduce dependency on China, shifted production to India in recent years. Trump’s 50 percent tariff undermines that strategy. The trillions of dollars that tech companies are pouring into A.I. are starting to show up in economic growth. THE LATEST NEWS Cabinet Meeting At the White House. Doug Mills/The New York Times Trump held a televised cabinet meeting at the White House that lasted over three hours. It was a glimpse of how he runs his administration. The cabinet members spoke in turn, each working a little bit harder than the last to offer Trump praise and to assure him that they were working to tackle his long list of grievances, Katie Rogers wrote. During the meeting, when discussing deploying National Guard troops to Chicago, Trump said he had “the right to do anything I want to do.” Trump also called for the death penalty in all murder cases in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court ruled mandatory death sentences unconstitutional nearly 50 years ago. Immigration A federal judge dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit against all 15 Maryland federal judges over an order related to immigration cases. Americans are divided over the administration’s jokey names for new immigrant detention centers, including “Alligator Alcatraz,” “Speedway Slammer” and “Cornhusker Clink.” The U.S. has again detained Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year. Now, he could be sent to Uganda. Click the video below to watch Alan Feuer explain the case. More on the Trump Administration DOGE uploaded Social Security information to a vulnerable cloud server, jeopardizing the personal data of millions of Americans, according to a whistle-blower complaint. Trump wants to rename the Defense Department the War Department, which it was called until the 1940s. Can he do that? More on Politics A Utah judge said lawmakers must redraw the state’s congressional map, ruling that the Republican-controlled legislature ignored safeguards against gerrymandering. When Republicans repealed Biden-era “equity” grants, which pay for transportation projects, they ended up canceling funding for many of their own districts. “Reagan is still a vibe”: Gen Z conservatives have taken to wearing “Reagan Bush ’84” T-shirts, The Washington Post reports. Middle East Emmanuel Macron told Benjamin Netanyahu that calling for Palestinian statehood did not promote antisemitism but was “essential” for Israel’s security. Rabbis have become vocal critics of the Israeli government’s conduct in Gaza, on moral and religious grounds. Other Big Stories Trending: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement in an Instagram post captioned, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” See a timeline of their relationship. Cracker Barrel will keep its original guy-and-a-barrel logo after its plans to rebrand set off a conservative backlash on social media. Dust storms swept through Arizona late Monday, grounding flights and knocking out power for tens of thousands of people. See videos of the storms. CHATGPT LAWSUIT A photograph of the 16-year-old, Adam Raine. Mark Abramson for The New York Times Two grieving parents have filed the first known wrongful death case against OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Their 16-year-old son initially used ChatGPT for help with schoolwork. But over time he confided in it more, and he eventually told it that he was thinking of ending his own life. They discussed suicide extensively. When he asked for advice on nooses, the bot furnished suggestions. He later hanged himself. “This tragedy was not a glitch or an unforeseen edge case — it was the predictable result of deliberate design choices,” the lawsuit says. The suit may serve as a test case for an area of the law that does not yet have much precedent: When a machine with some capacity for decision-making has a role in a person’s death, who bears the responsibility? Read the full story here. OPINIONS New Orleans understands that every hurricane season may be its last. Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, politicians are taking steps that will accelerate the city’s sinking, Nathaniel Rich writes. Here are columns by Bret Stephens on state capitalism and Michelle Cottle on the Democrats’ national security moms. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS In Queens, N.Y. Lanna Apisukh for The New York Times Honey deuce: The pink vodka cocktail is entering its 18th year as the U.S. Open’s signature drink. It’s still a hit. Cushion forts: The Nugget, a couch that kids can easily turn into a play zone, became a hit during the pandemic. Costco’s version might be even better, Wirecutter says. A physicist: Rainer Weiss, who died at 92, shared a Nobel Prize in Physics for developing a device that uses gravity to detect intergalactic events, like black holes colliding, and helped confirm two central hypotheses about the universe: the Big Bang theory and Einstein’s theory of general relativity. SPORTS U.S. Open: Coco Gauff has a new serve focused more on accuracy than on power. It helped her advance out of the first round of the U.S. Open, defeating Ajla Tomljanovic in three nervy sets. N.F.L.: Here’s how Kelce and Swift’s engagement could affect the Kansas City Chiefs in what could be Kelce’s final season. ‘THE PETE AND BOBBY CHALLENGE’ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pete Hegseth. Department of Health and Human Services Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have a fitness challenge for you: 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups, all in 10 minutes or less. In a video posted on the Health Department’s official YouTube channel, Hegseth and a sweat-soaked Kennedy bang out their reps alongside muscled Marines. (Hegseth says he finished in just five and a half minutes.) They’re inviting Americans to try it, too. But experts warn that the challenge isn’t for everyone. What could go wrong? More on culture A certain vegetable is all over London restaurant menus at the moment, and it embodies hip and cool. It’s the Hispi cabbage. The chief executive of the publisher Simon & Schuster will step down but will remain to start Simon Six, an imprint that will publish six carefully curated books a year. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Kerri Brewer for The New York Times Make the best roasted eggplant of your life. Shop for the best olive oil. Here’s how. Use a good bike pump. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were dehumidified and humidified. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 August 29, 2025 Author Members Posted August 29, 2025 August 28, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: C.D.C.: The White House said that it had fired the head of the Centers for Disease Control, Susan Monarez. She has refused to leave. Nvidia: The chip maker’s sales jumped 56 percent in the last quarter, a sign that demand for A.I. technology, which its chips power, isn’t slowing down. Ukraine: An hourslong barrage of Russian missiles and drones killed more than a dozen people in Kyiv this morning. The attack was the largest on the city since the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. More news is below. But first, we have the latest on a shooting in Minneapolis and a look at the state of modern self-help books. A vigil for victims in Minneapolis last night. Liam James Doyle for The New York Times A shooting in Minnesota Minneapolis is in mourning after a shooter opened fire at a school Mass marking the start of the academic year. “We are a city united in grief,” Jacob Frey, the mayor, told a crowd at a candlelight vigil. “Let us take the next step to be a city united in action.” The shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, in the south of the city, lasted about two minutes. It took the lives of two children and wounded more than a dozen people. Children and staff members ducked for cover under the pews, witnesses said, as the assailant fired into the church through the stained-glass windows. At least two doors of the church had been barricaded from the outside, the police said. The attacker later shot herself. The F.B.I. is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics. Here’s what else to know: The victims: The attack killed two children, ages 8 and 10, who died in the pews of the church. At least 14 other children, between the ages of 6 and 15, were wounded, as were three parishioners in their 80s. The suspect: The authorities identified the attacker as Robin Westman, a 23-year-old who they believe was a former student at the school. The shooter was armed with three guns, all of which had been legally purchased. The motive: Investigators said they had not determined a motive. The suspect’s social media posts show a fixation on guns, violence and school shooters. Videos she posted featured diary entries that described the killing of children and a drawing of the church’s interior. The response: President Trump signed a proclamation lowering flags to half-staff until Sunday. Pope Leo, the first American leader of the Catholic Church, expressed profound sadness over the shooting. On social media, Gov. Tim Walz said, “Minnesota is heartbroken.” He added, “We will get through this together.” The prevailing self-help message in many popular titles today is that it’s perfectly OK to turn inward. Getty Images Help me out By Emma Goldberg I cover political subcultures. A certain kind of self-help book is dominating the best-seller list. With titles like “The Courage to Be Disliked” and “Set Boundaries, Find Peace,” these books tell readers not to worry so much about letting people down, not to answer those calls from aggravated friends, not to be afraid of being the villain. Every era offers a different lesson about how to self-actualize. Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” for instance, told readers in the 1910s to smile more, dole out compliments and placate people. The message today, though, is the opposite: Amid wars, venomous politics and memes of crying migrants, it’s OK to turn inward — even if that means ignoring the apparent travails of others. If you think of the best-seller list as a mirror of the social moment, the message of 2025 is that it’s OK to be a little bit of a jerk. The bookshelf “The Courage to Be Disliked” has sold more than 10 million copies. “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” has been on the New York Times best-seller list for more than 300 weeks since it came out in 2016. In September comes “Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves — and How to Find Our Way Back.” Its thesis is that some people are conditioned by their life experiences to placate others and that they’d be better served by resisting that twitch and putting their own desires first. Across this new set of self-help titles, authors tend to urge readers not to become so invested in being liked and instead focus on being satisfied. It’s a tantalizing set of takeaways for people used to soaking up therapy language about setting boundaries and cutting off “toxic” people. There’s an old question nestled in these tomes: When is it necessary to work on yourself and not stress about the big, gnarly ills of the world? A worthy question! But especially online, lessons about self-improvement become flattened as they spread. People on TikTok are advised to “protect their peace” with a whole list of to-dos, like “distancing ourselves from people and spaces that drain us.” One person’s list includes avoiding the news. The message Self-help has always been a sneakily political genre. Carnegie’s book, for all its promises to democratize the tools of influence, credited charm for the ascent of the powerful, which was maybe not the whole story. Conversely, Dear Abby and Ann Landers in some ways helped smooth the way toward social progress — the two advice-giving sisters evolved with the culture. When they changed their minds on interfaith marriages and divorces, they gave some readers permission to do the same. Today, the tone of some self-help books echoes a focus in the podcast universe on improving (or “hacking”) ourselves by fixing our diet and sleep. Influencers in the “manosphere” court listeners by urging them to make their beds, lift weights and take creatine supplements. Hosts in the “womanosphere” tell their fans to eat more protein and to let go of stress so they can improve their fertility. I asked Ingrid Clayton, the author of “Fawning,” if her anti-people-pleasing, “do less” message might have bigger social or political ramifications. “Anything can be taken to extremes — it’s certainly not in the spirit of my work,” she said. But, she admitted, “they might need to disengage in order to grow their capacity, and they can step back in when they have more agency.” What might it be if your friends are all intent on “protecting their peace”? They might see it as a tax when you call to ask for help. THE LATEST NEWS C.D.C. Firing Susan Monarez in June. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Monarez, the head of the C.D.C., refused to step down after the White House said it had fired her. A lawyer for Monarez said the firing was “legally deficient” because the president didn’t announce it. Monarez was sworn in just last month. She clashed with Kennedy over vaccine policy, people familiar with the dispute said. Four other high-profile C.D.C. officials quit yesterday, apparently in frustration over Kennedy’s leadership. Immigration Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was arrested again this week as officials sought to deport him for a second time, asked a judge to grant him asylum in the United States. Immigrant detainees are being moved out of “Alligator Alcatraz” center in Florida. There may soon be none left. D.C. Takeover The Transportation Department said it would take control of Union Station, Washington’s main train and bus hub. Prosecutors failed to secure an indictment against a man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent on the streets of Washington. More on the Trump Administration Trump is pressuring other countries to relax their pledges to address climate change and instead burn more oil, gas and coal. For a second time, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to let the government freeze billions of dollars in foreign aid. The gay men of the Trump administration are a new power tribe in Washington. Meet the A-Gays. War in Ukraine Russia or its proxies are flying surveillance drones over U.S. weapons routes in eastern Germany, according to U.S. and other Western officials. Ukraine had barred young men from leaving the country once they turned 18, but now it’s raising that age to 23. Here’s why. More International News Israel is preparing to call up thousands of reservists for its Gaza City offensive. Officials aren’t sure how many will return to the fight. Kim Jong-un will visit Beijing next week to attend a military parade. He will have a chance to meet with the leaders of Russia and China. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is fighting about money with the Dutch Ministry of Culture and could close. The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog sent inspectors back to Iran for the first time since the country suspended cooperation with the agency last month. Other Big Stories New York City will start rebuilding Pennsylvania Station, America’s busiest train station, in about two years, officials said. The F.D.A. approved new Covid vaccines but authorized them for people 65 and older and those with underlying conditions. Doctors are finding early success with partial heart transplants. FROM GREENLAND WITH LOVE Outside Nuuk, Greenland. Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press If you happen to find yourself puttering around Greenland with some time to kill, the U.S. government might want your help. That’s because America is reportedly stepping up its spy operations there, according to a report by the main public broadcaster in Denmark, which controls Greenland. Trump has repeatedly proclaimed his intention to “get” Greenland and its wealth of natural resources. But most Greenlanders want him to buzz off. Trump is trying to change that. According to the report, three Americans have gathered information and cultivated contacts as part of “covert influence operations.” One spy collated a list of Greenlanders who seem sympathetic to Trump and could be recruited into a secessionist movement; another asked Greenlanders for information that would help disparage Denmark in the media. The allegations come from anonymous sources within the Danish government, but Denmark seems to take them seriously. Within hours of the report’s publication, Denmark summoned the head of the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen for a meeting. The Trump administration had no immediate comments. Read what we know here. Related: Denmark issued a long-awaited apology to Greenland yesterday for a scandal in which Danish doctors forced birth control devices on Greenlandic women and girls. OPINIONS If we allow Trump to deploy federal forces into cities that neither need nor request them, we risk a future in which those officers can be turned against any of us, Andrea Flores argues. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement was deliberately posed and probably micromanaged. It still made Jennifer Weiner happy. Here’s a column by Jamelle Bouie on Trump’s sense of ownership. The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS Isabella Cotier A close read: What do you see when you peer down a well? Our critic reflects on a Robert Frost poem about reflections. The ‘himbo’: The new dream guy is beefy, placid — and politically ambiguous. Your pick: In the most clicked article in The Morning yesterday, Wirecutter expressed its love for a Costco dupe of The Nugget, a popular couch that kids can turn into a play zone. Overcoming adversity: Angela Mortimer, who died at 93, was a British tennis champion who dealt with dysentery and partial deafness during a career in which she won three Grand Slam singles titles, including her last, at Wimbledon in 1961. SPORTS Trending: Jelena Ostapenko appeared to tell Taylor Townsend she had “no education” during an altercation after Ostapenko’s loss to Townsend at the U.S. Open. Townsend appeared to tell Ostapenko she could “learn how to take a loss better.” N.F.L.: The league is playing seven international games this year, and Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he wants to increase that number even more. Here’s what that might look like. SOUND OF SUMMER There isn’t a universally agreed-upon song of the summer. So, to take the pulse of the season, the “Popcast” hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli asked 10 cultural figures for their picks. Jeff Goldblum chose “Lover Girl” by Laufey, which he said reminded him of “those ’60s bossa nova things that I was enchanted with.” Questlove picked “Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and the Family Stone. And Zohran Mamdani made the case for “Funds” by the Nigerian artists Davido, Odumodublvck and Chike. Check out the other picks here. More on culture The Kansas City area has been in a state of shameless joy since Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announced their engagement. Global demand for Labubus, the cute-ugly plush elf dolls, has prompted a flood of counterfeits. That has led to safety warnings and raids. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Bake oatmeal cups for a gluten-free breakfast on the go. Read one of these new books coming in September. Decorate a dorm room. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was invalidly. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 August 30, 2025 Author Members Posted August 30, 2025 August 29, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Tariff: President Trump closed a loophole today that had allowed packages worth less than $800 to enter the U.S. tariff-free. Here’s what to know. Memphis: A judge ordered a new federal trial for three former officers found guilty of charges related to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in 2023, citing concerns about the appearance of bias. Thailand: A court removed the country’s prime minister from office, finding her guilty of breaching ethical standards. She is the third member of her family to be ousted as prime minister. More news is below. But first, a look back on Hurricane Katrina, 20 years later. Students created a mural at the site of a Hurricane Katrina levee breech. Annie Flanagan for The New York Times Living with Katrina By Adam B. Kushner I’m the editor of this newsletter and a New Orleans native. Every New Orleanian had a unique experience of Hurricane Katrina. My parents fled on different days and in different directions, reuniting on the other side of the country. Many of my friends lost their homes. I watched the levees break from my desk in a Washington, D.C., newsroom. Experiencing the devastation through TV news and internet chat boards was much safer — nearly 1,400 people died from the storm — but still surreal. I’ve never felt more helpless. Katrina made landfall 20 years ago today. What happened since then? It’s hard to sum up, really. A city basically ceased to exist for half a year. Many of its residents never returned. Officials wrestled over culpability and eventually settled on the Army Corps of Engineers. It took years and billions of dollars to rebuild; the new structures look different from the old ones. A distinctive culture changed in ways that are easier to feel than to measure. But most of all, several hundred thousand people processed a trauma that was both personal and collective. That trauma, as well as what people made of it, is the theme of several stories The Times published recently about the legacy of Katrina. An object lesson The best thing you can do after a tragedy is learn from it. But that’s easier said than done. Diagnosis. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is still the subject of local grumbling for its performance during Katrina. Its leader back in 2005 had no disaster experience, and the agency was slow to deliver supplies or help stranded residents find places to sleep. Congress passed a law in 2006 requiring experienced leadership and better preparedness. But events this week suggest the government is not following those mandates. A revolt. President Trump came to office arguing that states should handle their own disasters. He has threatened to close FEMA, and funding cuts have already hampered its work. A third of the staff is gone, plus hundreds of call center contractors. Days after their firing, when the deadliest floods in generations hit Texas, two-thirds of the calls to FEMA’s disaster assistance line went unanswered. This week, 186 current and former employees said in a letter that the agency was unlearning the lessons of Katrina, writes Maxine Joselow, a climate policy reporter. The administration fired some of the signatories. In New Orleans this month. Annie Flanagan for The New York Times On the ground. New Orleans, too, is sort of muddling along. “Where are we heading?” one resident asked in an interview with Eduardo Medina, who covers the South for The Times and spent this week taking the pulse of New Orleanians. The mayor is under indictment, home and car insurance premiums are unaffordable, residents are leaving and the local economy still relies mostly on tourism, which provides low-wage jobs. As one expert put it: “Traffic lights aren’t working, the streetlights aren’t working, the drainage pumps aren’t working and City Hall is not working.” At the same time, crime is down. Restaurants continue to innovate some of the finest food on the planet. The city survived an Islamist terror attack on New Year’s Day to host the Super Bowl a month later. New Orleans’s problems today are mostly the same ones it had when I grew up there in the 1980s, which itself is something of a miracle. The survivors What was it like to grapple with the disaster? New Orleanians have spent two decades seeking ways to cope. Art therapy. I was haunted by this story about the drawings children made shortly after Katrina, before they could even speak about the tragedy that had upended their lives. One girl didn’t learn for three months that her mother had survived the floods. Another drew this picture, with more bodies below the waterline than above: Community Initiatives Foundation Documentary. The director Spike Lee saw the hurricane and its aftermath as a parable about racism in America. The city’s Black majority disproportionately lived in flood-prone areas. Unsubstantiated stories after the storm cast many Black survivors as looters, and government reconstruction aid appeared to favor white residents. As the city came back to life, some historically Black neighborhoods filled up with Airbnb units and the tourists enjoying them. And the Black share of the population fell from 67 percent before Katrina to 55 percent today. Lee just released “Come Hell and High Water,” the third installment of his docu-trilogy about all this and more. The showrunner talked to Reggie Ugwu, a culture reporter, about what the filmmakers found: You see a lot of gentrification happening. The housing projects have been knocked down, and they pushed those people into other neighborhoods, out of places where they had generational family connections. So what is lost? The culture. … New Orleans, this cultural mecca of America, is losing what made it so. Film. A new series at the Museum of Modern Art focuses on the lives of survivors. It features Lee’s earlier Katrina work; an episode of the HBO series “Treme”; and my favorite piece of post-Katrina art, “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” I didn’t experience anything like what the people living there at the time did. But watching the literal submergence of my youth, even from afar, left me bereft. For the last big anniversary, I poured my heart out in an essay about misunderstanding the significance of my hometown. We’re all processing. THE LATEST NEWS The Fed Lisa Cook Drew Angerer/Getty Images Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor, sued Trump over his decision to fire her. She said the president had no authority to order her dismissal. The future of the Fed and whether it will continue to operate independently now rests largely on Cook’s shoulders, Colby Smith and Ben Casselman write. Trump has accused Cook of mortgage fraud, a political attack that has become increasingly common. That’s because there’s a lot of mortgage data out there — is yours public? The C.D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wanted Susan Monarez, the head of the C.D.C., to oust agency leaders and back his advisers. When she didn’t, he sought to fire her, according to people familiar with the events. Monarez’s future is in doubt: Kennedy told employees he had installed an acting director, but Monarez is refusing to leave unless Trump personally fires her. Trump has been silent. “Everyone is in tears”: After six months of turmoil, there’s a growing sense of despair inside the C.D.C. More on the Trump Administration The administration is planning an immigration crackdown in Chicago that would involve hundreds of Homeland Security officers and the use of a naval base. The Education Department threatened to pull funding from Denver public schools unless they barred transgender students from using bathrooms that aligned with their identity. Trump ordered government agencies including NASA and the National Weather Service to end collective bargaining agreements with unions representing their employees. He also signed an order to make “federal architecture beautiful again.” It requires Washington buildings to maintain Greco-Roman architecture; think marble columns and austere hallways. Minneapolis Shooting At Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times The suspect in the shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis that killed two children visited the site in the last three months to plan the attack, a senior law enforcement official said. Read more about Annunciation Catholic Church and School, which has been a neighborhood anchor in Minneapolis for more than a century. The most clicked article in The Morning yesterday was about the suspect. Here’s what we know about the shooting. Middle East A neighborhood in Gaza City transformed into a wasteland during Israel’s military campaign in recent weeks. See the satellite images. This summer, Israeli travelers have been harassed in Europe, sometimes just for speaking Hebrew. The U.N. voted to withdraw peacekeepers from Lebanon, signaling the end of a nearly 50-year effort. Other Big Stories CVS is currently not offering Covid vaccines in 16 states, including Florida and New York, because it needs a C.D.C. panel to recommend the shots. Fishermen pulled in an orange shark off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica: “My God, what is this?” FEDERAL ARRESTS IN WASHINGTON Source: D.C. Superior Court records compiled by The New York Times | Note: The court is closed on Sundays, so arrests made on Saturdays and Sundays are reported together on Monday. Those arrests are split among Sunday and Monday. | By Lazaro Gamio and Jeff Adelson Since Trump sent federal agents to Washington, D.C., two weeks ago, arrests have increased slightly. But a Times analysis reveals that, instead of the targeted crime-fighting operation that Trump promised, federal officers often cast a wide net for low-level offenses. They’re conducting traffic stops, performing low-dollar buy-and-bust drug operations or checking if someone is drinking liquor from an open container. Here’s what we found. OPINIONS Democrats colluded with Republicans to create the cruel and deadly immigration system Trump oversees today, Jean Guerrero argues. The political center should be thought of less as a point on a spectrum between the left and the right and more as a mind-set that takes ideas from both sides, Kristen Soltis Anderson writes. Here’s a column by David Brooks on defining love. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. MORNING READS Roomy streets. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times August in Paris: With so many away for long vacations, the French capital transforms into a more friendly place. The new mating economy: The gold digger was an archvillain. Now, she’s an aspiration. Seeing double: The N.Y.P.D.’s facial recognition tool doesn’t always work. This is how it implicated a man eight inches too tall to be the perp. A master: A.K. Best, who died at 92, was an illusionist of fly fishing. He used bits of feathers, fur, hair and thread to create lifelike beetles, mayflies and other aquatic insects, tying them to hooks to entice trout. SPORTS Trending: A lot of people online were searching for information about the N.F.L. star Micah Parsons. The Dallas Cowboys traded him to the Green Bay Packers in a blockbuster deal. What were the Cowboys thinking? Tennis: In an emotional match, Coco Gauff beat Donna Vekic in the second round at the U.S. Open. Earlier, Venus Williams’s last-minute doubles entry with Leylah Fernandez upset Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez. AUDIENCE HUNTER Fans outside a New York City screening of “KPop Demon Hunters.” Ye Fan for The New York Times The animated musical “KPop Demon Hunters,” about a trio of stars who grapple with a diabolical boy band, is Netflix’s most watched movie ever. One reason? Its understanding of fandom, our critic Maya Phillips writes. The film carefully engages niche fan groups, like those for anime and K-pop. And those fan groups helped the film’s catchy songs climb the charts. Fandom is also a key driver of the film’s narrative, with concert scenes featuring shots of adoring fans. Read more from Maya. More on culture Heidi Gardner and Michael Longfellow became the latest “S.N.L.” cast members to depart the show, CNN reports. An A.I.-enhanced version of “The Wizard of Oz” premiered yesterday. Artificially generated images were added to fill the massive wraparound screen at the Sphere in Las Vegas. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Linda Xiao for The New York Times Wrap and freeze bean and cheese burritos for any new parents in your life. Keep an eye on a pet while you’re at work with a security camera. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was covenant. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 August 31, 2025 Author Members Posted August 31, 2025 August 30, 2025 Good morning. This weekend marks summer’s unofficial end — but that doesn’t have to mean abandoning the season’s many splendors. María Jesús Contreras Golden hour By Melissa Kirsch Labor Day arrives as early as it can this year, like the teacher’s pet impatient to break out the new school supplies. For those of us who believe there is an even sweeter, even more perfect ear of corn yet to be consumed, the holiday’s hasty entrance seems a little unfair. Cling as we might to the still respectably late sunset (7:28 p.m. Eastern on Monday), point as we might to the mosquitoes that are hardly done making their meal of us, Labor Day comes striding in. “Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach,” it sings, a twisted burial hymn. I urge you not to give up summer so readily. While it’s true that clinging to a thing or a time or a season is folly, I remind you that there are currently 23 days before fall begins on Sept. 22. I’ve been trying for a while to make the term “equinoctials” catch on as a name for those of us who believe the almanac decides when summer ends, not the purveyors of pumpkin spice everything. If I were an Instagram influencer, I’d create the #equinoctialchallenge: Do one defiantly summer-specific thing every day between Labor Day and the equinox. Go to the beach. Eat a tomato sandwich, using the kitchen sink as your plate. Pick berries. Wade in a creek. (What creek? Find a creek!) Don’t let Monday be the last time this year you throw a barbecue with all your neighbors. (Well, maybe not the ones who refuse to pick up after their dog, but most of them are fun enough.) Yes, school is back in session or will be soon, and this might mean you’re required to concern yourself with fall’s business sooner than you’d like. Yes, it was 51 degrees last night; you considered building a fire. But these three weeks and change before summer’s official end can be a soft and gradual landing, a time of easing in and easing out. Deliberately do the things you won’t be able to once it’s cold out and dark early. Take some time to contemplate the things you like about your summer self — the way you hurry less, or how you eat more fresh vegetables — and consider how you can maintain these things into the fall. Let me be clear that the cold months have much to recommend them — I too have leaf-peeped and pumpkin-picked — but they don’t encourage the same lingering mind-set, the same unclenched openness as a day boasting double-digit hours of sunshine. The other night, dining outside under the stars, it was impossible to ignore how loud the cicadas have become. Cicadas live underground for years and then emerge for just a few weeks to mate before they die. Late August, early September, the males’ buzzing becomes increasingly desperate. We don’t need to act with such urgency; our lives will continue after the first frost. But the cicadas’ urgent chorus acts as a reminder. The season isn’t over, but it is winding down. Dwell in it as abundantly as you can, while you can. THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration President Trump earlier this month. Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times A federal appeals court ruled that many of President Trump’s most punishing tariffs were illegal. But the judges delayed the enforcement of their order until mid-October to allow the Supreme Court to consider the case. A judge blocked a pillar of Trump’s mass deportation campaign: fast-track deportations of people detained far from the southern border. The White House informed Congress that it planned to cancel $4.9 billion for foreign aid programs. The move will test the legality of a little-known power to claw back approved spending. Trump terminated Kamala Harris’s Secret Service protection. Vice presidents normally lose their security six months after leaving office, but Joe Biden had extended hers by an additional year. Emil Bove, a senior Trump administration official, has continued to work at the Justice Department even after he was confirmed for a federal judgeship. More Politics Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed into law a newly gerrymandered congressional map. “Texas is now more red in the United States Congress,” he said. Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, will not seek re-election next year. Her seat could be a crucial one in the fight over control of the Senate. International Displaced Palestinians leaving Gaza City on Thursday. Eyad Baba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Israeli military resumed daytime operations in Gaza City, ending a pause that was intended to ease the delivery of aid. It’s a sign that a full-scale invasion is near. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would not issue visas to Palestinian officials to preclude them from attending the U.N. General Assembly next month. Weapons will soon begin flowing into Ukraine under a new system: The U.S. sells them to other NATO countries, who then give them to Ukraine. At least 70 people died, and more than 60 others are still missing, after a boat capsized off the West African coast. Other Big Stories Inflation stayed steady in July, according to the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure. That means the Fed is still on track to lower interest rates. The assailant in the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting was transgender. Conservative activists have seized on her identity, though investigators have not yet found a clear connection to the attack. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Taylor Swift The happy couple after the 2024 Super Bowl. Doug Mills/The New York Times You may have heard? Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got engaged this week. Here’s a timeline of how America’s royal couple fell in love. And here’s a closer look at her massive ring. Swift’s image has always evolved to reflect the shifts in her music. Now that she’s engaged, she has a new look to go with her new status, Vanessa Friedman writes. And let’s hear it for the couples who got engaged on the same day. Film and TV Darren Aronofsky’s new movie, “Caught Stealing,” stars Austin Butler as a rough-and-tumble bartender on an odyssey through a grimy, throwback New York City. Read our review. The breakout star of “Caught Stealing” may well be a cat named Tonic. He’s a seasoned pro. In “Roses,” Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch are in a terrible marriage. Our critic says the film is strangely bad, though not because of the actors. “The Paper,” a spinoff of “The Office” set at a struggling local newspaper, will drop on Peacock on Thursday. Here’s what to know. More Culture Venus Williams at the U.S. Open on Monday. Clive Brunskill/Getty Images Venus Williams may have lost this week at the U.S. Open but her fuzzy shearling racket bag was a winner. The rapper Cardi B took the stand at her assault trial this week — and turned it into stand-up comedy, Vulture reports. Jillian Michaels used to be a Hollywood liberal. Now, she’s a leading voice for MAHA. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. CULTURE CALENDAR By Desiree Ibekwe ? Thursday Murder Club (Out now): In the mood for something quaint? Look no further. This Netflix movie, based on a book of the same name, follows a group of British seniors who solve murders from their retirement home. The film stars Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan, but it’s not the star power that has fans excited — people really love the “Thursday Murder Club” book series. In the last few years, I have, on more than one occasion, turned to a companion on vacation and found them rifling through the pages of one of the books. I also want to shout out the author here: Richard Osman, a British television executive-turned-national treasure who hosts maybe my favorite BBC quiz show, “Richard Osman’s House of Games.” (If you have trouble falling asleep, seek out episodes on YouTube; they’re quiet and charming.) Check out our review of the movie. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Armando Rafael for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Tajín Grilled Chicken Perfect for Labor Day weekend barbecues and beyond, Rick Martinez’s Tajín grilled chicken harnesses the chile-lime magic of the Mexican spice blend. Its tangy heat gets a sweet counterpoint from agave syrup, while smoky chipotles deepen the flavors. Serve it on its own or tuck the shredded meat into buns with mayo, scallions and pickled jalapeños. REAL ESTATE Faith Pennick in Brooklyn. Katherine Marks for The New York Times The Hunt: A woman returned to Brooklyn with $300,000 and a dream. Which home did she choose? Play our game. What you get for $1.2 million: A two-story brick house in Salt Lake City; a midcentury-modern house in Tucson, Ariz.; or a 1924 neo-Classical Revival house in Richmond, Va. LIVING The Bad Bitch Book Club summer camp. Jackie Molloy for The New York Times Bad Bitch Book Club: A group of women who met in an online book club traveled to Maine to read together. It was oddly moving. 36 Hours in Portland, Ore.: Scale an extinct volcano, visit the city’s largest farmers’ market and enjoy elevated Haitian cuisine. Look of the week: Packing a punch in primary colors. Homemaking: How to build a house, according to four people who actually did it. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Back-to-school shopping is for adults, too The year is 1996, and I’m in Staples — no limits, no budget and no parents in sight. My cart is loaded with slabs of loose-leaf paper, packs of unsharpened pencils, a row of yet-to-dessicate markers. There’s no subject I can’t conquer, no friend group I can’t infiltrate, no style trend I can’t master. I unhitch one strap of my overalls. There is nothing I can’t achieve. In all the days since, through life’s small and large moments, I’ve yet to top the feeling of optimism that comes with back-to-school shopping. I haven’t matriculated in decades, but I still treat September as a time to reset. I’ve found thoughtfully treating myself to a great grown-up school supply helps cultivate some of the hopefulness I felt in those Staples aisles. — Hannah Morrill GAME OF THE WEEK Texas quarterback Arch Manning and Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith. Jacob Kupferman/Associated Press; Joseph Maiorana/USA TODAY Sports No. 1 Texas vs. No. 3 Ohio State, college football: Not many teams begin their season with a potential national title matchup. Ohio State won it all last year and returns a lot of talent, including wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, a Heisman Trophy front-runner who tops this year’s Freaks List, an annual ranking of the sport’s best athletes. Texas, which has reached the semifinals the past two seasons, now has Arch Manning (yes, one of those Mannings) as its starting quarterback. The Longhorns’ championship dreams will be put to the test immediately: As The Athletic notes, they’re the first top-ranked team in modern college football to open the season as an underdog. Today at 12 p.m. Eastern on Fox. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were uncocked, uncooked and undocked. 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. Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter said the administration had fired some FEMA workers who signed a letter about the agency’s problems. It put them on leave. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 1, 2025 Author Members Posted September 1, 2025 August 31, 2025 Good morning. Today we’re covering Israel, Ukraine and redistricting. But first, we show you how to play a new Times game. Our new game By Tom Wright-Piersanti I’m an editor of The Morning. My fastest Saturday crossword time is 5:31. My favorite assignments in grade school were the logic puzzles that teachers would hand out when the class had downtime. They offered a few pieces of information — Zoe’s house is blue; Mark lives next to a green house; Jason doesn’t live next to Mark or Zoe — and challenged us to deduce the full picture. To my third-grade brain, it seemed like a magic trick. By putting a few X’s and O’s on a grid, and by thinking about it hard enough, I could reveal entire worlds. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since. Today, I’m what you might call a “puzzle guy.” I play any puzzle video game I can get my hands on. I edit The Times’s weekly news quiz. And I’m a crossword obsessive. When my colleague Melissa Kirsch attended the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for this newsletter, I tagged along and competed, trying to keep pace with the world’s best. (I couldn’t.) Word games make up most of my puzzle diet these days. But I was excited when The Times recently introduced a new game of deduction, Pips, that does away with letters in favor of numbers. In today’s newsletter, I’ll show you how to play. Tips for Pips The goal of Pips is simple: Place the domino pieces you’re given into a bunch of open squares. Certain conditions tell you which pieces can go where. If several adjoining squares are marked with a number, the pieces you place there must add up to that number. If the squares are marked with an equals sign, you’ll have to place pieces that all have the same number of dots, or pips. Placing one piece correctly will often cause the next move to become obvious. The revelations cascade, meaning one sharp placement can unlock a puzzle that, at first glance, seemed impenetrable. Still, for those who aren’t as adept with numbers as they are with letters, figuring out that correct move can be tricky. So I asked Ian Livengood, the editor of Pips, to share a few tips for new players. Beginner tip: Find a toehold. Almost all Easy (and some Medium) puzzles will have an obvious starting point, where only one domino makes logical sense. These “toeholds” will help you finish the rest of the puzzle. In this example, there’s only one domino with five dots on it, so it must go in the pink “5” region. From there, the other dominoes fall into place. Intermediate tip: Spot the distinctive numbers. Be on the lookout for a region that asks for a number that can only be satisfied with a specific set of dominoes. For example, a two-space region marked with a “12” must have a 6 and a 6. A three-square region with a “17” must be 5, 6 and 6. Advanced tip: Use doubles to your advantage. Any domino that has the same number twice is very helpful because it informs where other dominoes can be placed. In this example, the double-zero domino must go in the middle of the teal “0” region. After that, the puzzle begins to fall into place. More games If you’re like me, you sometimes finish The Times’s daily suite of puzzles and crave more. Here are a few of my favorites from around the web to add to your roster. Bracket City, an ingenious nested word game from The Atlantic. Flipart, a color-based puzzle from Puzzmo. Revealed, a combination of trivia and deduction from Britannica. Tango, a logic game from LinkedIn. Align, a sort of mini-crossword without clues from The Boston Globe. THE LATEST NEWS Middle East In Gaza City. Omar Al-Qattaa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Israeli strikes killed at least 17 people in Gaza City yesterday, Palestinian emergency workers said. Israel recently ended its policy of pausing daytime operations in the area that was intended to facilitate aid deliveries. An Israeli attack killed the prime minister of the Houthi-controlled government in Yemen, a spokesman for the militia said. His death is unlikely to cripple the group. Recent strikes on the Nasser Hospital in Gaza killed at least 20 people. A Times visual analysis calls into question what the Israeli military was initially targeting there. Trump Administration President Trump’s cuts to the federal work force are disproportionately affecting Black women, experts say. Authoritarians have long feared and suppressed science as a rival for social influence. Historians see Trump as borrowing some of their tactics. Crime in Washington has fallen since the start of Trump’s crackdown. Experts say it probably won’t last. Cracker Barrel and Sydney Sweeney: In his second term, Trump has opinions about American culture to share, Katie Rogers writes. Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA employees are worried about how the U.S. will handle the next big storm. Click the video below to see Christopher Flavelle explain why. More on Politics A redistricting arms race is spreading across the country. That’s a headache for incumbent lawmakers who have spent years figuring out how to win their districts. Nate Cohn looks at which party will come out ahead in the midterms if the redistricting push goes as expected. Other Big Stories By hitting an American-run factory and European diplomatic offices in Ukraine, Russia seemed to signal that it would resist Western efforts to make peace, analysts said. A man who had embarked on a three-day hike in Wyoming was found dead there after being missing for about a month. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Is the federal government’s purchase of a 10 percent stake in Intel a socialist move? Yes. In practice, socialist governments have seized the means of production and directed the economy through central planning. “The government owning part of Intel is, on some level, socialism. It’s at least socialism-ish!” Robby Soave writes for The Hill. No. The United States has a long history of getting involved in company ownership for the purpose of staying competitive with rival nations. “When America faced an international communist threat sponsored by Moscow, conservatives knew absolute devotion to free markets was self-defeating,” Daniel McCarthy writes for The Daily Signal. FROM OPINION Elizabeth Austin gave up the couch of her dreams for an inelegant one. It’s improved the living room all the same, she writes. Here are columns by Ross Douthat on the Minneapolis church shooting and Maureen Dowd on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and vaccines. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. MORNING READS Setting the mood. Lucy Hewett for The New York Times Ambience: Restaurateurs are falling back in love with old-school, high-maintenance candles. Routine: How a blind pianist spends a day performing and rock climbing. Labor Day deals: Most sales you’ll see this weekend are overhyped. Wirecutter’s experts found discounts on some of their favorite recommendations that are actually worthwhile. Vows: The fishwife becomes a musician’s wife. Your pick: The most-clicked article in The Morning yesterday was a look at Taylor Swift’s engagement ring. Trending: People online are searching for the first reviews of Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” which debuted at the Venice Film Festival. See some of them on Rotten Tomatoes. A captor: Tran Trong Duyet, who oversaw the detention of John McCain and other American captives during the Vietnam War, died at 92. Decades after the war, he endorsed McCain’s run for president. SPORTS “Linsanity”: Jeremy Lin has retired from professional basketball after 15 years. He played for eight N.B.A. teams and won one championship, but he is best known for a brief stretch on the Knicks where he electrified fans and the nation. U.S. Open: Coco Gauff eased past Magdalena Fręch to set up a blockbuster meeting with Naomi Osaka tomorrow. Jannik Sinner rallied from a set down to beat Denis Shapovalov. Read more takeaways from Day 7 of the tournament. N.F.L.: If you’re one of the many fantasy football players with no idea how to assemble a roster before Week 1, The Athletic has your back. Here’s how to prep for your fantasy draft in 15 minutes or less. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “The Broken King,” by Michael Thomas: In this memoir, which our reviewer described as “unbearably bleak yet entirely mesmerizing,” Thomas explains where he’s been since the publication of his much-lauded novel “Man Gone Down” in 2006. Fatherhood has a lot to do with his publishing hiatus, and Thomas writes movingly about that without the shellac of so much parenting content. But the root cause of Thomas’s silence was his own childhood, which reared its ugly head as he set out to become a father different from his own. “The Broken King” takes readers back there, to Boston in the ’70s and to the trauma and racism that shaped Thomas. Our reviewer writes: “With a virtuosic command of language and an eagle eye for punishing detail, Thomas has rendered beautifully an excruciating existence from which it is impossible to turn away.” THE INTERVIEW Nishanth Radhakrishnan for The New York Times By Lulu Garcia-Navarro This week’s subject for The Interview is Arundhati Roy, a Booker Prize-winning author whose new memoir, “Mother Mary Comes to Me,” is both a reflection on her difficult relationship with her mother and an exploration of Roy’s evolution into political writing. That writing, which often focuses on marginalized people in her home country of India, has made her a target of the government. We spoke about the parallels between India under Narendra Modi and the United States under Trump. You are currently under threat of arrest in India for comments you made about Kashmir in 2010. Can you tell me a little bit about the status of that legal case? I really don’t want to talk about it, actually, because it just increases the risk of something being taken out of context and something blowing up. It’s dormant right now, so I just let it be. Even the manner in which you’re responding, which is that you do not want to address this because of the fear of legal repercussions, what does that say? Well, I think in America you’re beginning to head in that direction. Ours started a long time ago, and one has to learn how to navigate it. And the reason that I don’t talk about it is because I would much rather write what I want to write than have some controversy about something you say off the cuff. It’s like they’re always trying to trip people up and trying to prevent you from thinking clearly. This culture of fear is everywhere here. You touched on this a little, and so I would love to hear your thoughts on how you view parallels between the Hindu nationalist movement in India and the MAGA movement here in the United States. There are a lot of parallels. If you look at the attack on citizenship, the attack on universities, the attack on students, the attack on Rohingyas, the continuous uncertainty, the fact that you might be ambushed by anything at any time — it’s so similar that you wonder, is there a playbook or is it just osmotic authoritarian behavior? The ruling party is confused with the government and all of it is confused with one man. So you’re seeing that in the U.S., and I look at it in shock. You thought that there was a mechanism in place, there were checks and balances in place. But clearly there isn’t a way of handling someone who’s completely out of control. Read the interview here, or watch a longer version of the interview on our YouTube channel. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Kevin Cooley for The New York Times Read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Watch a comedy special over the long weekend. Here are some of our critic’s favorites. Visit these reader-recommended state parks. Achieve restaurant-quality scallops at home. Treat yourself to a cashmere sweater. MEAL PLAN Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Mia Leimkuhler offers up salmon recipes that are quick and easy to make on any busy evening. She suggests throwing together a sticky miso salmon bowl, salmon with garlic butter and tomato pasta, and a grilled salmon salad with lime, chiles and herbs. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was magazine. Can you put eight historical events — including “The Travels of Marco Polo,” the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the first email addresses — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 2, 2025 Author Members Posted September 2, 2025 September 1, 2025 Good morning, and Happy Labor Day. Here’s the latest: Afghanistan: A 6.0-magnitude earthquake in the country’s east killed more than 800 people. The death toll is expected to rise significantly. Deportations: A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting dozens of Guatemalan children. They were already sitting in planes on tarmac. Car crash: Rudy Giuliani was injured in an accident in New Hampshire. He has a fractured vertebra. More news is below. But first, we look at excellent photography from The Times’s archives. John F. Kennedy George Tames/The New York Times Contact sheets By Jodi Rudoren I oversee newsletters at The Times My daughter, who likes to note that she was born the same year as the iPhone — 2007 — took disposable cameras to her senior prom in June and on a road trip a few weeks later. This was on trend, part of a Gen-Z embrace of the single-use point-and-shoots given to 1990s wedding guests. The company that processed the cameras sent back prints and digital images, which my daughter promptly shared on Instagram. It also sent negatives, something she had never encountered and found utterly enchanting. When she started college recently, she hung them in a corner of her dorm room as a kind of art. Perhaps this is why I connected with a recent Times article about contact sheets, the positive prints made from those negatives that photo editors of old used to select which images we’d see in the paper. Turns out my daughter is not alone in seizing on these analog artifacts as art in themselves. Contact sheets have been featured in gallery shows and coffee table books. The Museum of Modern Art is displaying a floor-to-ceiling version of one that depicts the artists who lived on a certain Manhattan street in the 1950s and 60s. China vs. USA in gymnastics at Madison Square Garden in 1973. Larry C. Morris/The New York Times The Times article is by Anika Burgess, who wrote a recent book on how early photography transformed our culture. It draws mainly from contact sheets in the Times archive. And it explores how the grease-pencil marks on the sheets reveal the thinking of photojournalists and editors. Working from contact sheets was totally different from how photos are edited now. These days, photographers submit a few dozen “selects” to editors, all of which they imagine suitable for publication. With contact sheets, in contrast, editors were examining every frame they’d shot. One photographer likened it to someone reading your journal; another called the sheets “as private as conversations with a psychiatrist.” Scanning the sheets is like a journey through the photographer’s mind at work. You can watch them reposition for a new angle, experiment with light and exposure, look at various characters in a scene. You can see how lucky timing intersects with talent to capture a surprising moment. In Anika’s article, you also get to see the grease-pencil marks that show which images editors selected to tell the story. A Times design tool zooms in and out from the contact sheets to individual images as you scroll through. “The reader gets to experience the power of choice,” explained Maridelis Morales Rosado, a photo editor who worked on it. The piece showcases several iconic images: George Tames/The New York Times J.F.K. in the Oval. George Tames’s famous photo shows President John F. Kennedy from the back, in silhouette and leaning on his desk in 1961. It appears to be “a moment of tense solitude,” as Anika puts it, a window into “the pressures of the presidency.” But the contact sheet also includes shots from the side that show Kennedy’s face and a more workaday moment of him merely looking down at some papers. “Was the photographer cheating us?” one reader asked in the comments. New York City The New York Times Vampire Weekend. Neal Boenzi went to the Empire State Building one November day in 1966 to shoot what the next day’s front page described as “islands in a sea of smog.” The image had a long afterlife, gracing the cover of the 2013 indie rock album “Modern Vampires of the City.” The contact sheet essentially shows dozens of versions of the same frame with different exposure times. Barbra Streisand John Orris/The New York Times “Funny Girl.” A 1964 portrait shows Barbra Streisand putting on eye makeup in her dressing room. The contact sheet adds other angles and ideas: there’s a shot of her wardrobe, one showing two women standing in the doorway and three that include the photographer himself, John Orris, looking over her shoulder in the mirror. “With contact sheets,” Anika concludes, “it’s these details that keep us looking.” Check out the contact sheets here. THE LATEST NEWS Afghanistan Earthquake In Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Aimal Zahir/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In Afghanistan, rescue workers are rushing to reach communities in mountainous areas hit by the quake. The epicenter was near Jalalabad, an eastern city of about 200,000 people. It sent strong aftershocks into Kabul, the capital. Middle East The U.S. suspended almost all visitor visas for Palestinian passport holders, according to American officials. The Houthis vowed to retaliate after an Israeli attack killed senior members of the group’s government in Yemen. The Israeli military said it had killed the longtime spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing. Hamas did not immediately comment on the claim. China Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping, in a photo from India’s government. Indian Prime Minister's Office, via Associated Press At a summit in China, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi aim to project an alternative to U.S. leadership. Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on India have reversed the country’s effort to present itself as a strong competitor to Chinese factories. More International News Mexican cartels are adopting the tools of modern warfare, including drones. In South Korea, doctors are returning to work after an 18-month walkout. In Australia, far-right, anti-immigration protests are worrying government officials. High-strength Californian weed is so popular in Britain that large quantities are being illegally smuggled on passenger flights. Politics Robert Mueller Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times Robert Mueller, the former special counsel who led the Russia investigation during President Trump’s first term, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease four years ago, his family said. A man served a sentence for a criminal conviction in the U.S., and was released in 2021. The Trump administration just deported him to a prison in Eswatini, a country he is not from. He is being held there without charge. Trump pardoned rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. Now, some are also seeking compensation. Other Big Stories Covid vaccines will be harder to get this season. Here’s what to know. A man was found dead at Burning Man, prompting a homicide investigation. The northern lights could appear starting tonight across many U.S. states. See where the lights may be visible. OPINIONS Since the fall of affirmative action in university admissions, some students now feel compelled to emphasize their race in their college essays, Justin Driver writes. A fair justice system shouldn’t detain accused people as a default before their trial. We must pursue bail reform, Jeremy Cherson and David Gaspar write. Here are columns by David French on Cracker Barrel’s logo and Margaret Renkl on a great bird roost in Nashville. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. MORNING READS David Payr for The New York Times Wellness: In Austria, government health care can look a bit like a spa. “States of Elevation”: He wants to climb nearly all of America’s tallest peaks — in a month. Fentanyl: After a woman lost her son to an overdose, she went on a quest to hold someone accountable for his death. National parks: Trump shrank staffing. See how many of the parks are struggling. Ask Vanessa: “Why are everyone’s bra straps showing?” Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about a hiker who went missing in Wyoming and was found dead. Trending: On Google yesterday, more than a half-million people asked: “What is Labor Day?” We explain here. Metropolitan Diary: The curious vegetarian. Émigré press: Zdena Salivarova, a Czech publisher and writer, is dead at 91. In exile in Canada, she published books that had been outlawed by the Soviet-backed Communist regime. SPORTS U.S. Open: Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka are into the quarterfinals. Taylor Fritz and Carlos Alcaraz also advanced, while Taylor Townsend fell in a three-set thriller. College football: Miami beat Notre Dame with a late field goal. Read takeaways from Week 1 of the season. M.L.B.: Two Guardians pitchers’ suspensions have been extended “until further notice” while the league continues its sports betting investigation into the players. ARTS AND IDEAS In Shanghai. Visual China Group, via Getty Images China’s most popular summer movies are about fighting Japan during World War II. In movie theaters, people are standing and singing the national anthem, and children are crying. The films — part entertainment, part propaganda — are part of an effort by the ruling Communist Party to rally the nation as its economy slows. Read more about the trend. More on culture The Cut explains a contentious job posting and asks: Would you work in fashion in New York City for $55,000? This fall, men’s wear is expected to have wild textures and bright accessories. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Rachel Vanni for The New York Times Marinate strawberries in vinegar, honey, basil, salt and pepper, then spoon over cottage cheese. Rekindle a love of reading. Pack away your seasonal clothes. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was chromium. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 2, 2025 Author Members Posted September 2, 2025 September 2, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Russia: At a summit in China, many world leaders welcomed Vladimir Putin. Sudan: A rebel group said a landslide killed more than 1,000 people in a remote village. Unions: President Trump’s orders stripped nearly half a million federal workers of protections in August. More news is below. But first, we answer your questions about K-12 schools. Then, our reporters take you inside the most feared prison in Syria. In DeWitt, Iowa. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times Your education questions By the staff of The Morning Today is the traditional start of the new school year, though in reality more than two-thirds of the nation’s 55 million students returned to class in August or even July. This fall, children, teachers and parents are facing new rules restricting cellphone use and grappling with generative A.I. They’re at the center of new culture wars over diversity and religion. And they’re watching to see whether President Trump will follow through on his vows to shutter the federal Education Department and further expand private school vouchers. We invited Morning readers to submit questions about K-12 schools. To answer them, we enlisted our beat experts: Sarah Mervosh and Dana Goldstein, both national education reporters; Troy Closson, who covers schools in New York; and Natasha Singer, who writes about A.I. and other technology. Inside the classroom How will the closure of the federal Education Department affect special education? | Carla Nelson, Minnetonka, Minn. Sarah: Good question, Carla, and one that a lot of readers sent in. We are not expecting significant changes to the amount of federal funding for students with disabilities. Whether that money ultimately gets moved to another federal department, it’s too soon to say. Remember: Only Congress can actually close the Department of Education. But the Trump administration has already cut the department’s staff by about half, which could hinder its ability to investigate complaints of discrimination. That is something we will be closely watching this school year. It won’t work to ban generative A.I., just like it didn’t work to ban the internet 25 years ago. How can schools teach students to learn with it and develop the competence that future jobs will demand? | Lisa Holubar, Evanston, Ill. Natasha: A.I. is developing so fast that nobody, including A.I. makers like OpenAI, know what future workers will need to know. Schools even less so. It may be that the best way to prepare kids for the future is to encourage creativity and other human skills that chatbots can’t match. But schools are definitely experimenting with it. At a Miami high school I visited earlier this year, an English teacher had her students input their essays about free will into Google’s Gemini A.I. The chatbot offered immediate feedback on their arguments. In a social studies class, students prompted chatbots to “act like President Kennedy” discussing his social policies and then critiqued the accuracy and tone of the texts the A.I. had produced. In Walker County, Ala. Wes Frazer for The New York Times I am a openly queer educator who teaches fifth grade at a public school. Will families have legal precedent to opt students out of my class on religious grounds because of that? | Doug Hecklinger, Brooklyn Sarah: The short answer is no. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that parents with religious objections can opt their children out of reading books that include L.G.B.T.Q. themes. The ruling was about curriculum, not teachers. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson raised your exact question in oral arguments, asking about a gay teacher putting their wedding photo on their desk. In response, the plaintiffs’ lawyer noted that teachers have free speech rights, too. My district had a D.E.I. officer who introduced programs like one to help minority students get into A.P. classes. Do K-12 schools need to cancel those programs and fire those workers because of Trump administration actions? | Raahim Hashmi, Piscataway, N.J. Dana: The White House considers these sorts of programs illegal. But there may not be much pressure on your district to make immediate changes. There are more than 13,000 school districts across the country, and the Trump administration has chosen only a few — like the Chicago Public Schools — to investigate. Plus, in August, a federal judge halted some of Trump’s anti-D.E.I. agenda, saying it violated free speech. Of course, the White House could appeal that ruling, and this conservative Supreme Court may have more to say soon on race and education. How schools work Is ICE apprehending students at school? Are schools doing anything to prevent that? | PJ Holbrook, Conway, Mass. Dana: We aren’t aware of this actually happening. And many school systems have tried to reassure parents that they do not track immigration status and would not allow federal agents into buildings without a warrant. But fear of deportation is nonetheless leading some immigrant parents to keep kids at home, and attendance is down. Some parents fear they might be deported without their children while the kids are at school. Others are worried about encountering ICE agents while traveling to and from school. In Los Angeles. Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York Times How do students feel about active shooter drills? Do the drills make them anxious? What should we tell young kids about why we do this? | Kate Gearhart, Jenkintown, Pa. Sarah: Simple lockdown drills — doors closed, lights off — can usually be done without much harm. But experts say drills simulating an actual shooting are not recommended. David Schonfeld, director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, noted that young children are used to having safety discussions about fire drills and seatbelts in cars. “You present it to children the same way,” he said. “There are steps we take to try to keep ourselves safer.” Schools where I live seem to be starting earlier these days than when I attended. Is this a nationwide trend? If so, why? | Kristen Gast, Sacramento Troy: You’re not dreaming. The first day of school used to be a post-Labor Day tradition across the country. That changed over the past few decades, leaving a confusing mash-up of start dates through the summer months. Some kids in Arizona have been back in school since mid-July, while some New Jersey students don’t start until Thursday. A recent analysis by the Pew Research Center shows school tends to start earlier in the South. How common are phone bans? Do they work? | Liam Flake, Ames, Iowa Troy: Common! As this school year begins, more than two dozen states now require limits on devices in schools. New York is one place implementing a ban this fall. I spoke to many teachers in districts that already require students to store their phones during class, and they say it’s led to more attentive classrooms and less bullying. National studies show mixed results, though. And with many districts giving kids laptops and tablets to use in class, it’s hard to fully limit distractions. SYRIA’S MOST FEARSOME PRISON By The New York Times During the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, Bashar al-Assad’s regime killed tens of thousands of people to stamp out opposition. Others were locked up in Sednaya prison, the heart of Assad’s torture network. Times journalists visited Sednaya several times after Assad’s government fell, interviewing former inmates and prison officials. Sednaya was so feared that few in Syria dared to utter its name. Former prisoners told The Times that they were tortured, beaten and deprived of food, water and medicine. Most did not expect to make it out of alive; more than 30,000 prisoners are thought to have died there over the course of the civil war. Read about what the survivors remember here, and see diagrams of the inside of the prison. Former Sednaya prisoners. Clockwise from top left: Ehab Mouma, Fares al-Diq, Munzer al-Uthman and Mohammad al-Abdallah. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times THE LATEST NEWS Afghanistan Earthquake In Mazar Dara, Afghanistan. Hedayat Shah/Associated Press Rescue workers in Afghanistan struggled to reach people in mountainous areas after an earthquake killed more than 800 people. After the quake, landslides covered roads. See images and videos from the country. More International News Bulgaria believes that Russia was behind the GPS jamming of a plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the E.U.’s executive branch, European officials said. Israel is changing its stance in cease-fire talks, and it is planning a new offensive in Gaza City. That may mean a longer war, experts say. Politics Representative Jerry Nadler Clark Hodgin for The New York Times Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat and a leading liberal voice in Congress for three decades, will not seek re-election next year. Trump’s D.C. crime crackdown also includes aggressively cracking down on guns. That’s dividing Republicans. Crowds large and small gathered around the U.S. on Labor Day to denounce Trump and support workers. Other Big Stories Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, dismissed its chief executive over an undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate. China has run out of patience with its electric car companies’ slashing of prices, and it has started a campaign against excessive competition. Ask The Morning: Do you have questions about A.I.? Send them here. We’ll answer some in a future newsletter. OPINIONS Trump’s deportation policies are America’s loss but could be Central America’s gain, Anita Isaacs writes. Forcing people into drug treatment can save their lives, Keith Humphreys writes. Here are columns by Thomas Friedman on working with China on A.I. and Thomas Edsall on Trump’s chaos. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. MORNING READS Amy Lombard for The New York Times Bad Bunny: His concert series in San Juan, P.R., is spurring a short-term surge in Puerto Rico’s economy. 10-minute challenge: Spend time with this Monet in Venice. Former glory: A European heir is restoring old American cars. See the images. Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about where the northern lights might be visible in the U.S. this week. Trending: People were searching online for pictures of the actress Chloë Grace Moretz’s wedding dress. See it in Vogue. First Nations actor: Graham Greene, a Canadian actor who portrayed Indigenous characters, is dead at 73. He appeared in “Dances With Wolves” and other Hollywood films but resisted moving to New York or Los Angeles. SPORTS College football: The college coaching debut of the N.F.L. coach Bill Belichick was one to forget: He watched his North Carolina Tar Heels fall to TCU, 48-14. U.S. Open: After a video of a man snatching Kamil Majchrzak’s hat from a young boy spread online, the man apologized, saying he got “caught up in the heat of the moment.” M.L.B.: Trevor Story thought he hit a double. The outfielder thought a fan interfered with the ball. The result? One of the strangest home runs of the season. MOVIES IN THE SPHERE At Sphere in Las Vegas. Sphere Entertainment At its core, a critic’s job is simple, our movie critic Alissa Wilkinson writes: “We say what we saw.” But in her two decades of writing criticism, she said, she has rarely run across something that resists categorization as much as “The Wizard of Oz” at Sphere in Las Vegas. For her, it was a testament to the theatrical experience, a harbinger of the future and perhaps, at its most extreme, the end of cinema. Read more here. More on culture At the Serra da Cangalha impact crater in Brazil. Dado Galdieri for The New York Times An all-female research group in Brazil has become famous for searching for meteorites. Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” has a new book about her “once-in-a-million-years love story.” The Cut has an excerpt. Pickleball has taken over thousands of tennis courts. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich. Make a simple strawberry shortcake within an hour. Invest in this one exceptional carry-on backpack. Go back-to-school shopping for yourself as an adult. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was tenacity. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 3, 2025 Author Members Posted September 3, 2025 September 3, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Google: A judge spared the company harsh penalties after it was found to have a monopoly in online search. Deportations: A federal appeals court blocked President Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans. Boat attack: The U.S. bombed a vessel in the Caribbean that officials said was transporting drugs and gang members. Los Angeles: A federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of troops to the city was illegal. More news is below. But first, we have an update on President Trump’s health and a unique protest in China. Is Trump OK? President Trump on Sunday. Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times Rumors of President Trump’s death swirled on social media over the weekend. He hadn’t been seen in public for a few days, and some viral photographs showed bruises on his hands. Katie Rogers, a White House correspondent, explains what happened: Trump is definitely alive. He appeared yesterday in the Oval Office, where he took questions from reporters and announced plans to move the U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama. Talk of his untimely demise peaked Saturday and then dipped Sunday, when he was spotted golfing in Virginia. “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE,” he wrote on Truth Social that day. Trump, 79, was recently diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition that can cause swelling and pain. He also takes aspirin to reduce the risk of cardiac problems; White House officials blamed it for the mysterious bruising. Trump’s doctor wrote in July that he remained in excellent health. “For years, justifiable concerns and questions about Mr. Trump’s health have often been met with minimal explanation or obfuscation from the people around him,” Katie writes. “Mr. Trump’s physicians have not taken questions from reporters in years.” There’s no reason to believe something sinister is happening. But many voters had the impression that President Biden and his allies hid his age-related decline, so the push for transparency now is not entirely mysterious. Act of defiance By Li Yuan I write about Chinese society. China has spent decades stamping out dissent, censoring the corners of the web where it lives and punishing the people who utter it. But last week, an activist in a city of 30 million people showed how hard it can be to silence all the haters. He didn’t just stage a protest; he also turned the tools of surveillance on the state. It was proof that defiance still existed, even in one of the world’s most surveilled places. At 10 p.m. on Friday, a large projection on a building in Chongqing lit up the night with slogans calling for the end of Communist Party rule. “Only without the Communist Party can there be a new China,” read one. Another declared: “No more lies, we want the truth. No more slavery, we want freedom.” The projection came from a nearby hotel. But when the police arrived 50 minutes later to shut it down, the activist was gone, and he’d left cameras behind. He soon released footage of officers fiddling with the projector. A handwritten letter addressed to the police was on the coffee table. “Even if you are a beneficiary of the system today, one day you will inevitably become a victim on this land,” said the letter, which the activist also circulated online. The next day, the man who staged the protest, Qi Hong, published another image from surveillance footage showing police officers questioning his frail, hunched mother in front of her village home. The act was both a protest and a performance, documented in real time. The visuals, when seen together, seemed to mock the Communist Party security apparatus, which had poured enormous resources into ensuring stability ahead of a military parade today. By the time the police arrived, Qi had already left China nine days earlier with his wife and daughters. He had turned on the projection and recorded the police’s response remotely from Britain. Technology has strengthened the Chinese government’s ability to control its people. Qi illustrated how the same tools can enable resistance. “My only intention was to express myself,” he told me in his first media interview. “The party installs surveillance cameras to watch us. I thought I could use the same method to watch them.” Read about how Chinese people online viewed Qi’s act of defiance. Related: Beijing hosted a military parade today, with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un in attendance. It was China’s most ambitious display of power in years. THE LATEST NEWS Google Ruling A judge ordered Google to hand over its search results and some of its data to rival companies to curb its dominance of the online search market. The judge did not force Google to sell its Chrome web browser, which the government had argued was necessary to remedy Google’s monopoly. Shares in Google’s parent company, Alphabet, jumped more than 8 percent in after-hours trading. Here’s what the ruling means for the company. Trump’s Deployments Members of the California National Guard in Los Angeles in June. Philip Cheung for The New York Times In ruling Trump’s Los Angeles deployment illegal, a federal judge accused Trump of turning Marines and National Guard soldiers into a “national police force.” Asked about his proposal to send troops to Chicago next, Trump said, “We’re going in.” Illinois officials said they were ready to fight the administration in court. The Los Angeles ruling complicates Trump’s plans to send troops into Chicago and other U.S. cities, Charlie Savage explains. More on the Courts A federal appeals court blocked President Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants, rejecting the administration’s argument that they were part of an “invasion.” Lower-court judges aren’t sure how to handle the Supreme Court’s emergency orders. A judge apologized after failing to apply one such order to a new case. Politics Representative Nancy Mace was visibly shaken after a meeting with Epstein victims. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A House committee released more than 33,000 pages of records that the Justice Department turned over last month in connection with Jeffrey Epstein. Trump blamed A.I. for a widely shared video of a trash bag being thrown from a White House window — though officials had already confirmed the video was real. Trump demanded proof that Covid vaccines work. That proof is easy to find. Climate The Amazon rainforest has been getting drier. That change is directly linked to deforestation, a new study finds. Scientists say a report from the Trump administration that downplays the threat of climate change is filled with errors and cherry-picked data. Natural Disasters Hundreds of Sudanese villagers were killed by a landslide in Darfur, a region already stricken by famine and war. An earthquake in Afghanistan killed 1,400 people on Sunday. The Times interviewed villagers on the ground. International A U.S. Navy warship in Panama. Martin Bernetti/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The strike in the Caribbean, which Trump said killed 11 people, raises tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. Trump posted video of the attack on social media. Just a day before the strike, Venezuela’s president warned that he would respond to any U.S. military action with an “armed fight.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet today with Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, to discuss drug cartels. Her country’s domestic politics will require her to tread lightly. Israel’s leaders are divided over how to end the war in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on a comprehensive deal, but some high-power opponents want a temporary truce first. French judges issued an arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad, the ousted Syrian ruler, for killing and wounding journalists in 2012. The Times reviewed testimony and documents to piece together how Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, tried to stay in power after losing the 2022 election. OPINIONS Climate change is altering the physical world, worsening already-tense border conflicts. But it’s also a reason to set those conflicts aside, Peter Schwartzstein writes. As his immigration policies reduce the American work force, Trump should invest in high-skilled labor so that manufacturers can do more with fewer workers, Oren Cass writes. Here is a column by Bret Stephens on Europe’s rightward shift. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. MORNING READS Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times Extreme heat: Our reporter visited a lab that recreated hot days to understand how heat affects the human body. Career change: Meet the millionaire who left Wall Street to become a paramedic. Brew at home: Instant coffee has undergone a transformation. It’s actually good now. Your pick: The most-clicked article in yesterday’s newsletter was Wirecutter’s guide to the best travel backpacks. Press Corps encyclopedia: Mark Knoller, a White House correspondent for CBS News, died at 73. He was known for his voluminous records of presidential minutiae, from vacation days to teleprompter use, which he shared freely with other reporters. SPORTS Online rage: Internet vigilantes went after a C.E.O. who snatched a souvenir hat from a young fan at the U.S. Open. They also went after an unrelated business owner in Poland. U.S. Open: Novak Djokovic beat Taylor Fritz to advance to the semifinals. There, Carlos Alcaraz awaits him. VOGUE’S NEW EDITOR Chloe Malle’s official title is head of editorial content. Amir Hamja for The New York Times For the first time in 37 years, there is a new editor of American Vogue: Chloe Malle, the 39-year-old editor of the magazine’s website and a host of its podcast. Malle succeeds Anna Wintour, a titan in fashion, who will continue to oversee all 28 international editions of Vogue. “Placing my own stamp on this is going to be the most important part of this being a success,” Malle told The Times. “There has to be a noticeable shift that makes this mine.” But in today’s media landscape, our fashion critic writes, Vogue may need a new identity. More on culture Source: Box Office Mojo | Adjusted for inflation. Summers are the first Friday in May through Labor Day weekend. | By Christine Zhang Aside from during the Covid years, box offices in the United States and Canada have had their worst summer since 1981, an analysis shows. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Johnny Miller for The New York Times Use late-summer tomatoes in this twist on mapo tofu, the classic Sichuan dish. Stream these five science fiction movies. Organize your life with the best apps for to-do lists. Stop using liquid dishwasher detergent. Powder (or a powder-based pod) is superior. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were schoolbook and schoolbooks. 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. Jonathan Wolfe contributed to this newsletter. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 4, 2025 Author Members Posted September 4, 2025 September 4, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Hacking: Chinese cyberattackers may have stolen data from almost every American. Harvard: A judge ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when it froze the university’s research funding. Portugal: A popular funicular in Lisbon crashed, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than a dozen others. Health: Florida plans to stop requiring vaccines in schools. It would be the first state to do so. More news is below. But first, we look at President Trump’s emergency declarations. National Guard members in Washington on Tuesday. Alex Kent for The New York Times Calling national emergencies By Adam B. Kushner I’m the editor of this newsletter. The United States is a nation in crisis, President Trump says. The problems are both profound and urgent. He knows how to fix them, but his ideas are hard to implement: They require new legislation or lumbering legal petitions. But there’s a way around that. The law often gives the president new and broad powers in a state of emergency. So he has declared nearly a dozen. Trump can deport immigrants without due process, he says, because it’s an emergency to fight a Venezuelan gang’s invasion. He can dispatch federal troops to L.A. and D.C. because it’s an emergency to quell protests and fight crime. He can ask the Supreme Court for emergency rulings because we can’t afford to wait for judges to debate his policies. Even when Trump doesn’t declare a legal emergency, he describes crises that justify dramatic action: Foreign aid is so woke and wasteful that we should end it altogether. The vaccine advisory board at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was so beholden to drug companies that its members had to be fired en masse. It feels dizzying. Just how urgent are these crises, and who gets to decide? For an essay The Times published this morning, I wanted to catalog Trump’s emergencies — both the legal ones and the rhetorical ones — to explore how he is using them to remake the government. The law Unlike several other nations, the United States doesn’t have a broad emergency provision that lets its leader suspend rights and laws. But a web of statutes gives the president emergency powers in specific instances. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 empowers him to quickly deport foreigners during a war or an invasion — but doesn’t define what an invasion is. Trump’s Homeland Security Department has said it is battling an invasion by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. U.S. law under Title X lets the president deploy the National Guard domestically to enforce federal law. Trump sent troops to Los Angeles because, he said, protesters had endangered federal buildings and immigration officers. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 says the president can take action against an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” Trump imposed new tariffs on dozens of countries because he said the U.S. trade deficit presented such a threat, though it is not new. Source: Census Bureau| Note: The E.U. was formed in 1993; data before 1997 n.a.| By Karl Russell A local law in Washington, D.C., lets the president take over the police force in a “crime emergency” — even though crime has fallen. Source: Metropolitan Police Department | Includes homicides, assaults with a weapon, sexual abuse and robberies. | by The New York Times Judges must now decide whether Trump’s emergencies are genuine. They’re generally bad at this. “It’s striking how little policing of bad faith courts do,” says David Pozen, a constitutional expert at Columbia Law School. “They’re working with limited precedent, vague statutory language and a tradition of deference to the executive branch, all of which potentially cut in Trump’s favor.” In this way, the president has immense power to define reality. The vibe Even if the courts constrain Trump’s legal declarations of emergency, the spirit of emergency seems to inflect everything that the White House does. A judgment against Trump’s tariff plan will “literally destroy the United States,” he says. His chief policy adviser, Stephen Miller, declares: “The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.” The climate of emergency can be used to rationalize virtually any action. The president can pardon insurrectionists and fire the people who punished them, meaning the very idea of justice is up for grabs. The president can say that data about the economy — or weather or autism or the census — is bogus and proffer his own figures instead. Perhaps Trump’s zeal for emergencies will backfire: In polls, voters say they dislike the chaos around his administration. But it’s also possible they’ll just acclimate. By invoking so many crises, Trump signals that he must take abnormal action to cope with an abnormal time. Read why scholars are alarmed by the idea of government-by-crisis: “We tend to associate autocracy with emergency,” one told me. THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration Polls have shown Eric Adams in fourth place as he runs for re-election as mayor of New York City. Al Drago/Bloomberg Trump’s advisers have discussed giving Eric Adams a role in the administration, hoping that his exit from New York’s mayoral race would hurt Zohran Mamdani’s chances. The White House instructed a half-dozen agencies to obstruct the offshore wind industry. Trump has criticized wind farms as ugly, expensive and inefficient. More Politics Eric Lee for The New York Times Victims of Jeffrey Epstein gathered near the Capitol to demand the release of more documents related to his case. The Pentagon canceled a senator’s classified visit to a military spy agency after the far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer complained. The Justice Department has challenged several states that offer in-state tuition to unauthorized immigrants, saying that the policies discriminate against U.S. citizens. Tariffs The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to move swiftly to allow the president to continue imposing tariffs around the world. The tariffs are undermining John Deere, an American icon and the type of manufacturing powerhouse that Trump says he wants more of in the U.S. China has been boycotting U.S. soybeans because of Trump’s tariffs. The standoff poses a big risk for China. Vaccines California, Oregon and Washington are seeking to create their own guidance on vaccines, in defiance of changes at the C.D.C. under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy plans to nominate seven new advisers to a panel that recommends vaccines, according to officials. He will face a Senate grilling today. Some Republicans have questioned whether his recent actions contradict pledges he made during his confirmation hearing. China’s Parade Kevin Frayer/Getty Images; Maxim Shemetov/Reuters; Liu Xu/Xinhua; Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik; Tingshu Wang/Reuters President Xi Jinping transformed Beijing into a stage for an elaborate Chinese military parade. See photos of the spectacle. Vladimir Putin of Russia and Kim Jong-un of North Korea joined Xi at the parade. Trump, who has spoken highly of all three leaders, accused them of conspiring against the U.S. In a conversation caught on a hot mic, Xi and Putin mused over how people might soon live to 150 — or forever — thanks to modern medicine and organ transplants. Venezuela The Trump administration said a deadly U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean was the start of a broader campaign against cartels. (The news of the strike was the most-clicked article in yesterday’s newsletter.) It’s not clear whether the people killed on the boat were given a chance to surrender before the U.S. blew it up. Specialists in the law of war have questioned the legality of the attack. What is Venezuela’s role in the drug trade? Genevieve Glatsky, a reporter in South America, explains. THE MORNING QUIZ This question comes from a recent edition of the newsletter. Click an answer to see if you’re right. (The link will be free.) Trump blamed A.I. for a widely shared video that showed which of the following being thrown from a White House window? A person A makeshift rope ladder A trash bag An apple pie OPINIONS People often assume they’ll get along with others who share their background or personality. But it’s actually the ability to riff that binds us together, Maya Rossignac-Milon and Erica Boothby write. Bret Stephens and Frank Bruni discuss what Democrats can do to get rid of the scarlet L for “loser.” Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. MORNING READS David Chow Weird and wobbly: After decades of simple stemware and minimalist tumblers, eye-catching glassware is the new vogue. Bison: Tens of millions once called North America home. Restoring them could reawaken ecosystems. Flu shots: Here’s everything you need to know for this fall. Papa’s son: Patrick Hemingway, the second son of the novelist Ernest Hemingway, died at 97. He was a safari guide and big-game hunter in Africa and completed a book his father had started. SPORTS U.S. Open: Naomi Osaka’s comeback continues. She knocked off No. 11 seed Karolina Muchova to reach her first Grand semifinal since 2021. Trending online: The N.B.A. is investigating the Los Angeles Clippers and its star, Kawhi Leonard, after the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” reported that the team’s owner paid Leonard millions through a no-show job to evade the salary cap. Pirate site: The world’s largest illegal sports-streaming platform, Streameast, was shut down after a sting operation in Egypt. MUSIC FOR MONEY The King Fahad Cultural Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Iman Al-Dabbagh for The New York Times The Metropolitan Opera is turning to Saudi Arabia to ease its financial problems. Since the pandemic, the Met has withdrawn more than a third of the money in its endowment fund — about $120 million — to help cover operating costs. The deal with Saudi Arabia is expected to bring the company more than $100 million; in exchange, it will perform in the kingdom for three weeks each winter. But it also puts the Met in a precarious position politically. The company has been a vocal champion of human rights, and many in the West have shunned Saudi Arabia over its record of abuses and speech restrictions. More on culture In a letter to the White House, the Smithsonian pushed back against Trump’s demand for a review of exhibits but also said a team would review what information it would turn over. Oasis has returned in all its glory. Check out images from a concert in New Jersey. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Joe Lingeman for The New York Times Make your own Honey Deuce melon-ball punch to celebrate the U.S. Open. Learn to love the pianist Mal Waldron by listening to five minutes of his music. Enhance your cooking with a carbon steel pan. Never let your pets ride loose in the car. Here’s how to secure them. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were argonaut, guarantor and orangutan. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 5, 2025 Author Members Posted September 5, 2025 September 5, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Hearing: Senators on both sides of the aisle grilled the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over C.D.C. firings, Covid vaccines and Medicaid. Northwestern: The university’s president said he would resign, following months of Republican attacks and funding cuts of at least $790 million. Fed: The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor President Trump said he would fire. More news is below. But first, we bring you inside a secret military operation the United States conducted against North Korea during the first Trump administration. The story begins with an intelligence problem: It was hard to know what was happening inside North Korea. American spies found it difficult to recruit human sources, and information rarely leaked out. But policymakers in Washington wanted to understand more about Kim Jong-un, the country’s unpredictable leader, ahead of a meeting with Trump. Here is part of the investigation, published today in The Times, into the operation they devised. Max-o-matic Nighttime raid By Dave Philipps I’ve covered the military for 15 years. I reported this story alongside veteran military reporter Matthew Cole. A group of Navy SEALs emerged from the ink black ocean on a winter night in early 2019 and crept to a rocky shore in North Korea. They were on a top secret mission so complex and consequential that everything had to go exactly right. The objective was to plant an electronic device that would let the United States intercept Kim Jong-un’s communications amid high-level nuclear talks with President Trump. The mission had the potential to provide the United States a stream of valuable intelligence. But it meant putting American commandos on North Korean soil — a move that, if detected, could not only sink negotiations, but could also lead to a hostage crisis or an escalating conflict with a nuclear-armed foe. It was so risky that it required the president’s direct approval. For the operation, the military chose SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron — the same unit that killed Osama Bin Laden. SEALs who were more used to quick raids in places like Afghanistan and Iraq would have to survive for hours in frigid seas, slip past security forces on land and perform a precise technical installation. The SEALs rehearsed for months, aware that every move needed to be perfect. Yet the team faced a serious limitation: It would be going in almost blind. Typically, Special Operations forces have drones overhead during a mission, streaming high-definition video of the target. Often, they can even listen in on enemy communications. In North Korea, though, any drone would be spotted. So the mission would have to rely on satellites and high-altitude spy planes that could provide only low-definition still images after a lag of several minutes. So they spent months watching how people came and went in the area. They studied fishing patterns and chose a time when boat traffic would be minimal. The intelligence suggested that if SEALs arrived silently in the right location in the dead of a winter night, they would be unlikely to encounter anyone. But when they reached what they thought was a deserted shore that night, wearing black wet suits and night-vision goggles, the mission swiftly unraveled. A North Korean boat appeared out of the dark. Flashlights from the bow swept over the water. Fearing that they had been spotted, the SEALs opened fire. Within seconds, everyone on the North Korean boat was dead. Read the story to find out what happened next. The details remain classified and are being reported here for the first time. The Trump administration did not inform key members of Congress who oversee intelligence operations, before or after the mission. The Times is disclosing it to provide the public with a fuller understanding of the risks taken by the first Trump administration during a critical period of diplomacy toward North Korea — and to provide greater transparency about the elite and secretive commando forces in U.S. Special Operations. CAN HE DO THAT? Earlier this week, Trump ordered the U.S. military to kill a group of people aboard a boat that he said was smuggling drugs to the United States. Charlie Savage, who covers legal policy for The Times, wrote about how the strike stretches legal precedents. Here are the basics: Trump wants to redefine the criminal problem of drug trafficking as an armed conflict, which means the U.S. could fight it with wartime rules instead of law enforcement rules. Troops in armed conflicts may lawfully kill enemy combatants on sight; law enforcement officers can use deadly force only against criminal suspects who pose an imminent threat. Trump is telling the military to treat smugglers as combatants. Congress has not authorized any armed conflict against cartels. Pressed for a legal explanation, the White House said the attack was in “defense of vital U.S. national interests and in the collective self-defense of other nations who have long suffered due to the narcotics trafficking and violent cartel activities of such organizations.” Officials also noted that it had occurred in international waters and had not put American troops at risk. But experts Charlie consulted were skeptical of that explanation. Read his full analysis. For more Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration wanted to help other nations “blow up” more crime groups. Two armed Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over a U.S. Navy destroyer in the southern Caribbean Sea in a show of force. THE LATEST NEWS Kennedy Hearing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Over three loud hours, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave remarkably combative and dismissive answers as senators hurled questions about vaccines and conflicts of interest. Two prominent scientists filed whistle-blower complaints saying they had been removed from leadership positions at the N.I.H. after objecting to Trump administration policies. New York’s governor is planning to sign an executive order to let state pharmacists give Covid vaccines to almost anyone who wants them. Employees will likely face higher health care costs and may lose some benefits next year, a large survey found. In the Courts National Guard members in Washington, D.C., last month. Kenny Holston/The New York Times The District of Columbia sued the Trump administration in federal court, challenging the president’s deployment of National Guard troops in the city. Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center can remain open, an appeals court ruled. The Trump administration is moving forward with a plan to use military lawyers as temporary immigration judges. The man accused of killing two young Israeli Embassy employees in Washington in May pleaded not guilty. He could face the death penalty. More Politics Congressional leaders are grasping for a short-term deal to avert a government shutdown. The Trump administration’s military deployment in Los Angeles has cost nearly $120 million so far, Gavin Newsom says. Eric Adams told friends and advisers that he was seriously considering suspending his re-election campaign, amid discussions of a possible role in the Trump administration. Trump will sign an executive order to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, the White House said. International A Ukrainian soldier in the Kharkiv region in May. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Russia says it wants its own “security guarantees” before laying down arms in Ukraine. Here’s what they look like. Many male rescuers aided men but not women after Sunday’s earthquake in Afghanistan. Cultural norms forbid physical contact between men and women who are not family members. Business Trump’s campaign to expel immigrants means fewer workers, which is masking very slow job growth. Trump recently fired the head of the agency that produces monthly job numbers. New data comes out today, and economists say it can still be trusted — with the usual caveats. U.S. imports and exports rebounded slightly in July after several months of sluggish trade. Other Big Stories Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times; Tim Jenkins/WWD — Getty Images; Fairchild Archive/WWD — Getty Images; David Lees/Getty Images; Vittoriano Rastelli/Corbis — Getty Images; Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch, via AP; Eric Bouvet/Gamma-Rapho — Getty Images; Tiziana Fabi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Giorgio Armani, who rewrote the rules of fashion not once but twice in his lifetime, died at his home in Milan. He was 91. Neurologists are exploring medications to help the brain recover after a stroke or traumatic injury. They could revolutionize neuroscience. The Vatican is expected to name its first millennial saint this week. His nickname is “God’s influencer,” since he used technology to express his religious beliefs. A researcher is feared dead after he fell into a stream on an Alaskan glacier and was carried by the water into a hole in the ice, the authorities said. OPINIONS The Trump administration killed 11 people on a boat in the Caribbean because it bet on Americans to be indifferent to extrajudicial executions, W.J. Hennigan writes. Americans hate their health care system. But from cancer treatments to polio vaccines, it still stands ahead of the rest of the world, Aaron Carroll argues. Here are columns by David Brooks on why he’s not liberal and Michelle Goldberg on Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. MORNING READS Ahn Hak-sop at his home in Gimpo, South Korea. Woohae Cho for The New York Times A communist warrior: Ahn Hak-sop was captured during the Korean War and imprisoned for more than 40 years. Now he wants to return to the North to die. Fall art: Here are 14 art shows worth traveling for, from Europe to the West Coast. Nightmare scenario: You’re in another country and your passport is missing. Here’s what to do. Your picks: The most-clicked article in yesterday’s newsletter was about Chinese cyberattackers that may have stolen information from nearly every American. SPORTS Trending: People were searching online for the Philadelphia Eagles, last year’s Super Bowl champions, as they began the new N.F.L. season with a game against the Dallas Cowboys. The Eagles won, 24-20. W.N.B.A.: Caitlin Clark’s season is officially over. Clark, the Indiana Fever guard, said she would not play the rest of the regular season or in the playoffs because of a groin injury. ANIME’S AMERICAN TAKEOVER Anime has grown from a niche Japanese export to a defining visual language of animation. Its unique appearance arose, in part, from a cost-effective animation method. But that style can also evoke more emotion than the same images might in Western animation. Many anime imports were edited for U.S. audiences, which meant purging references to Eastern prayer and changing beer to orange juice. Read more about how anime become so popular in the U.S. More on culture Do you have $3 million to buy Darth Vader’s lightsaber? Famous movie props, including Indiana Jones’s whip and the Batsuit worn by Michael Keaton, will be sold at auction this week. “The Paper,” a spinoff of the NBC sitcom “The Office,” is Hollywood’s latest attempt to take journalism onscreen. It premiered this week on Peacock. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Linda Xiao for The New York Times Cook fish in scallion oil for this four-ingredient dish. Snuggle up with one of these 27 upcoming novels. Restore the cord. Plug-in vacuums offer a lot of cleaning power for their price. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was halcyon. 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. Jonathan Wolfe contributed to this newsletter. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 7, 2025 Author Members Posted September 7, 2025 September 6, 2025 Good morning. We spend a lot of time thinking of reasons we shouldn’t do things. What if we decided to default to yes? María Jesús Contreras Offer accepted By Melissa Kirsch This past week, true to my vow to continue engaging in summer activities until the equinox, I picked raspberries and flowers at a farm under the impossibly clear September sky. I was joined by my friend Aliza. I knew Aliza would be up for the outing because she operates on a policy that dictates if something is “on offer,” you should avail yourself of it. Of course, berry picking is not a hard sell. But I’ve been observing the way decision-making becomes simpler if you default to accepting what’s on offer: taking the slice of pie, staying out just a bit later, stopping at the strange little fair you happened to drive past. All tiny things one could easily decline, all things with potential for pleasure. We spend a lot of time hemming and hawing, coming up with reasons we shouldn’t do things, even things that fall under the rubric of “Things We’d Probably Enjoy.” We decide not to try the dance class, afraid of looking foolish. We skip the picnic because we don’t know any of the people going. We consider the downsides and decide to stick with what’s familiar. As much as I try to be a “yes person,” I have an unfortunate talent for turning opportunities into obligations. “It’s on offer” is such a gentle (and British) way of considering what’s available. I might decide I am, in fact, too tired or not interested in whatever’s on offer, but I’m examining the opportunity as an option, a gift, an offering — not viewing it as a problem. “I think it’s a protection against regret, or too much judgment — often my go-to feelings,” Aliza said when I asked her about her position. She reminded me of a day this summer when we were wandering around a town we’d never been and came upon a run-down winery. A guy with a guitar was belting some off-key Jimmy Buffett covers on the patio. Should we stop and try some suspiciously inexpensive rosé? It was on offer! The wine was not great, but that wasn’t the point. By taking what was on offer, we took a departure. What could have been an otherwise unmemorable day was made indelible. One should not, it seems worth noting, be doctrinaire about taking every single thing that’s on offer. Breadth of experience can come at the expense of depth, and what’s on offer could end up being expensive, or dangerous. I’m thinking of “take what’s on offer” as a default that can be overridden. It feels of a piece with a question I’ve taken to asking myself when I’m worried about something: “What if it all works out?” This is my attempt to shift my thinking from worst-case scenarios to best- or better-case ones. Being open to what’s on offer is similarly optimistic. This stand-up comedian could be terrible, this party could be boring, this offering could be one I will wish I’d refused. But it could also be great. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Trump National Doral in Florida. Scott McIntyre for The New York Times President Trump announced that next year’s Group of 20 summit would be held at Trump Doral, a resort he owns near Miami. He dropped a similar plan during his first term because of ethical concerns. ICE arrested nearly 500 workers, mostly South Korean citizens, at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. U.S. officials called it the largest ever Homeland Security enforcement operation at a single location. Democratic lawmakers warned that severe staff cuts at an office that monitors election threats will open the door for Chinese interference. Advisers have been crafting a plan for Trump to nominate Eric Adams, New York City’s mayor, to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Federal grand jurors have become an extraordinary source of resistance to Trump’s crime crackdown in D.C., repeatedly refusing to indict their fellow residents over interactions with officers. By renaming the Defense Department the Department of War, Trump is restoring a name that was used until shortly after World War II. Here’s the history. Economy The U.S. job market stalled this summer: Employers added only 22,000 jobs in August, below expectations, and revised numbers from June show that employment actually fell that month. The weak report makes it even more likely that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its meeting this month. Other Big Stories Joseph McNeil, who jolted the civil rights movement when he and three other students held a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., has died at 83. The European Union fined Google roughly $3.5 billion for unfairly undercutting smaller rivals. The A.I. company Anthropic agreed to pay authors and publishers $1.5 billion after a judge ruled it had illegally downloaded millions of copyrighted books. Tesla’s board proposed a pay package that could make Elon Musk, its chief executive, the world’s first trillionaire. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Theater Julio Torres David Billet for The New York Times Julio Torres always seems to be adding hyphens to an already multihyphenate life — “S.N.L.” writer, children’s book author, stand-up comedian. Next up: his first Off Broadway play. This month, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter — friends since they appeared together in the “Bill and Ted” films — will bring Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” to Broadway. A forthcoming biography of Lin-Manuel Miranda tells the story of how he created “Hamilton.” Read an excerpt. Film and TV Even as “The Conjuring” horror movie franchise continues making money, there has been a noticeable decline in quality, writes Beatrice Loayza. “The Conjuring: Last Rites” is a disappointing send-off. “Saturday Night Live” announced five new cast members for its upcoming season. Learn about them here. Our critic reviewed “Riefenstahl,” a cleareyed documentary on how Hitler’s favorite filmmaker tried to rewrite history. Dwayne Johnson’s pivot to a dramatic role as a drug-addicted U.F.C. fighter in “The Smashing Machine” earned a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. Music Sting is being sued by two of his former Police bandmates, who say the singer has underpaid them for the “digital exploitation” of songs like “Every Breath You Take.” Sabrina Carpenter became one of pop’s new queens of quirk last year. But on her newest album, “Man’s Best Friend,” she’s hiding behind her characters, writes the Times critic Jon Caramanica. More Culture New museums in Harlem and Princeton, N.J. There’s a bumper crop of new museums, from Taiwan to Paris to Harlem. In a world transformed by A.I., we need these physical buildings more than ever, writes a senior critic at the Yale School of Architecture. The artist Amy Sherald, who canceled a show at the Smithsonian over a dispute about a painting of a transgender Statue of Liberty, will restage the exhibition in Baltimore. Hollow Knight: Silksong, a hotly anticipated indie video game, was released this week. Fans have followed its development for more than six years. Dan Brown has brought back Robert Langdon, the hero of “The Da Vinci Code,” for a new adventure: “The Secret of Secrets” features a shocking conspiracy that unravels in Prague. In Downtown Manhattan, Sophie Becker and her dummy, Ronnie, are reviving the lost art of ventriloquism. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. CULTURE CALENDAR By Alexis Soloski ? ‘Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale’ (Friday): “Downton Abbey,” which made its U.S. debut on PBS in 2011, began briskly, whisking audiences to a grand English estate in 1912. Profoundly soothing if you didn’t think too hard about the paternalism and occasional death, the show ran for six seasons, plus Christmas specials. It also birthed two movies, which brought the action up to 1928. But most estates close their doors eventually. This film, apparently the last, finds the family and its retainers in the 1930s, as social change looms. In mourning already? The creator of “Downton,” Julian Fellowes, is busy with money both older and newer on HBO’s “The Gilded Age.” For more: Read about the lavish jewelry that appears in the final film. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. By Melissa Clark Baked Salmon After a packed back-to-school week, you might be in need of a speedy dinner. Lidey Heuck’s baked salmon is just the thing. This minimalist delight calls for a pantry-friendly mix of brown sugar, paprika and garlic (powdered or fresh) for topping the fillets, which melts into a heady glaze as the salmon bakes, its rich flesh firming just enough to flake with a fork. It goes with pretty much any side — rice, noodles, couscous or whatever vegetable you care to throw onto another sheet pan in the same oven. Maybe some peak-season zucchini for a dinner decked out in pink and green. REAL ESTATE Claudia and Chris Beiler with their five sons. Hannah Yoon for The New York Times The Hunt: A family with five sons between the ages of 2 and 10 went looking for a fixer-upper in rural Chester County, Pa. Which home did they choose? Play our game. Rent vs. buy: The number of millionaire renters in the United States more than tripled between 2019 and 2023. Built by bots: Are 3-D printed homes the solution to fill the affordable housing gap? What you get for $475,000: A former schoolhouse in upstate New York; a semidetached house near the Ohio State campus; a three-story wood frame house in Louisville, Ky. T MAGAZINE Photograph by Casper Kofi. Styled by Jay Massacret Click to read the latest issue of T, The Times’s style magazine. LIVING Jonathan Stokes for The New York Times 36 hours in Costa Brava: The raw beauty of Spain’s “wild coast” lured artists and intellectuals like Salvador Dalí and Truman Capote. Here is a guide to visiting. Scene report: People have called Gen Z “generation stay-at-home.” But parties are everywhere if you know where to look. Health: Obesity drugs can leave people with loose, sagging skin. Experts say creams and supplements won’t magically fix that. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Do your dishes better In their years of testing dishwashers, detergents and soaps, Wirecutter’s cleaning experts have unearthed some dish-cleaning advice that strays from what your parents may have told you. Arguably the biggest, easiest swap you can make to boost your dishwasher’s power: Stop using liquid detergent; it’s far inferior to powder or powder-based pods. And if you continuously squeeze dollops of soap onto your sponge when hand-washing dishes, you’re probably using too much. A more effective way to get the chore done is to fill the sink with soapy water. We’ve found that sometimes you need only a teaspoon of dish detergent in a sinkful of water to produce a healthy layer of foam. — Brittney Ho GAME OF THE WEEK Josh Allen, left, and Lamar Jackson. Michael Reaves/Getty Images, Terrance Williams/Associated Press Baltimore Ravens vs. Buffalo Bills, N.F.L.: Josh Allen, the Bills’ quarterback, is one of the most jaw-dropping players in the N.F.L., able to bowl over defenders like a fullback or throw a perfect pass while falling out of bounds. Lamar Jackson, the Ravens’ quarterback, is equally awesome — he runs around defenders, rather than through them, and led one of the league’s most powerful passing offenses last year. Both players have won M.V.P. awards, but neither has won a Super Bowl. Will this be the year that changes? The Athletic’s experts think so — in a poll of four dozen writers and editors, these two teams were the most popular picks to win it all this year. Sunday at 8:20 p.m. Eastern on NBC NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was jellybean. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 7, 2025 Author Members Posted September 7, 2025 September 7, 2025 Good morning. Today, on the last day of the U.S. Open, we have a chat with a tennis writer. At Flushing Meadows. Ben Solomon for The New York Times String theory By Adam B. Kushner I’m the editor of this newsletter. I’m a delusional tennis player. Not the kind who brags about his excellence on court. (I’m a middle-aged weekend warrior; let’s be real.) But the kind who watches match highlights on YouTube all year, treating the shots and tactics there like a how-to manual. Carlos Alcaraz blasted an inside-out forehand and then finished his opponent with a perfect stop-volley. I can do that! No, sir, you cannot. Watching the U.S. Open up close, the reason is clear. When you see how fast the ball moves, when you hear the pop of the racket, when you witness players screeching to a halt using their sneakers like hockey skates, you understand that the pros play a totally different game from the one that 26 million American hobbyists play. It’s a show of acrobatics, power, endurance and mental toughness. Millions of us don’t get to see it in person. So I asked Matthew Futterman — who covers tennis for our sister publication, The Athletic, and basically lives at Flushing Meadows for two weeks — about the big show, which ends today in a clash between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. There’s great spirit at the Australian Open, surprise upsets at the French Open and vaunted tradition at Wimbledon. So why does the U.S. Open feel so much more alive than the other majors? It’s the only Grand Slam where the fans actually look like the population of the city, especially during the first week, when the tickets are more affordable and so many matches are on smaller courts outside the stadium. You really saw it this year during the mixed doubles the week before the tournament, when tickets for Louis Armstrong Stadium were free and fans got to watch some of the best players in the world compete for a big prize. And remember, it’s held in a city-owned park. Those outdoor courts are public courts that we can play on during the year. It’s not a private club. That’s huge. Sources: U.S. Open; Baruch College | By Karl Russell What does it feel like on site that I’m not seeing on TV? Because New York is so diverse, every player, no matter where they are from, can feel like they are playing at home. For Alex Eala of the Philippines, Filipino fans made it feel like she was playing in Manila. Brazilian fans turned João Fonseca’s matches into a mini Rio. And when you’re on Ashe in a big match in the second week with 24,000 people, it feels like you’ve been invited to the biggest, coolest party there is, intimate and massive all at once. Oh, there’s Lin-Manuel Miranda! Oh, there’s Alicia Keys! American players are doing better than they have in a generation. Both the men and the women are winning tournaments and crowding the top 20. What’s going on? American tennis associations have done a great job of making sure the best kids got access to top coaching during the past 15 years. Tennis is an expensive sport. Few families can afford the costs of elite development. Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, Amanda Anisimova, Coco Gauff — all needed help and got it in various forms. Title IX also means the government must provide the same amount of opportunities for women’s sports as men’s sports, which has built a culture of women’s sports over the last 50 years. There were some compelling story lines this year. Naomi Osaka reached her first semifinal since having a kid; Novak Djokovic got there at the age of 38 and did a dance from “K-pop Demon Hunters.” A Latvian player told the African American woman who beat her that she had “no education.” And then there’s Anisimova, who bounced back from a 6-0, 6-0 battering in the Wimbledon final two months ago to exorcise the ghost of Iga Swiatek in the quarters. Then she staged a late-night comeback over Naomi Osaka in the semis to make a second consecutive Grand Slam final. Even though Anisimova lost yesterday, she showed that in tennis and life, only one thing matters — what you do next. I never thought we’d get a rivalry like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s. But we may have one! The world’s top-ranked men, Sinner and Alcaraz, meet today in their third major final this year. (This was a great story about their relationship.) They’re both forces of nature with incredible athleticism and power. Sinner can also function as a human backboard. Alcaraz is an acrobat. His ceiling for achievement is probably higher, but his floor is lower. Sinner’s ability to get in and out of corners — showing the agility of the champion junior skier he once was — is ridiculous. So is this behind-the-back half volley from Alcaraz: US Open What do players do in New York when they’re not on court? Iga Swiatek craves nature and goes for walks in Central Park. Karolina Muchova is a coffee nerd who hunts for great cafes. Alex de Minaur likes to eat in the meatpacking district. Coco Gauff enjoys shopping. Players mostly stay at luxury hotels in Midtown or downtown, though Stefanos Tsitsipas owns an apartment in Tribeca. Novak Djokovic stays at a friend’s estate in Alpine, N.J. For many of them, the city is a little hectic. It’s not what they are used to. Is the Honey Deuce, the melon-garnished drink of the tournament, as delicious as people say on TikTok? Wrong guy to ask. I had a bad night with vodka when I was a teenager and can’t drink it. But they sold 556,782 Honey Deuce cocktails last year, so they must be doing something right. More coverage: Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 1, beat Anisimova to win her second straight U.S. Open. Meet the woman who decides which famous people get free tickets for the tournament. Can you ace our tennis quiz? Osaka arrived at each match with a glittering Labubu. We spoke with the artist who bedazzled them. THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration On national security, spending and oversight, President Trump continues to trample Congress’s power. Republicans in charge have mostly shrugged, Julian Barnes and Catie Edmondson write. Trump is openly campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize. In a mixed message this week, he signed an executive order to establish a “Department of War.” The administration has started an ICE operation in Massachusetts that will probably last several weeks. Trump is also threatening an immigration crackdown in Chicago. International Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan Yuichi Yamazaki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Japan’s prime minister says he’ll step down, adding political uncertainty to an already turbulent time. Russia hit Kyiv’s heavily protected government district in an overnight strike. Israel’s war in Gaza has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.2 million Palestinian residents. Many of them fear they’ll never return to their old homes. France’s financial woes are pushing its government to the brink. Here’s how it got to this point. Other Big Stories Joel Eisiminger, a wildfire fighter, in Oregon in 2020. Joel Eisiminger Wildfire fighters are being sent to work in poisonous smoke. When these firefighters get sick, they don’t all receive the same help. Powerball’s $1.787 billion jackpot had two winning tickets, one sold in Missouri and one in Texas. “Father Mother Sister Brother,” directed by Jim Jarmusch, won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. Her brother disappeared 52 years ago. This year, his remains were identified. “I just knew they had found him, in my heart. I just knew it,” she said. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Should states have their own vaccine recommendations? Yes. State guidelines will increase confidence among people who are skeptical of the federal authorities. “If the federal government’s vaccine-related apparatus can no longer be trusted, giving more authority to the state makes sense,” The Boston Globe’s editorial board writes. No. A patchwork system will make it harder to know whom to trust and will leave us all more vulnerable to outbreaks. “Viruses don’t recognize state lines,” Bloomberg’s Lisa Jarvis writes. FROM OPINION The convenience of disposable plastics doesn’t just come at an environmental cost. It has changed how we eat, shop and raise children, Saabira Chaudhuri writes. If Major League Baseball wants to enter partnerships with the gambling industry, it should let players bet, too, J.R. Moehringer writes. Here are columns by Ross Douthat on Trump’s imperial presidency and Maureen Dowd on the battle of the sexes. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. MORNING READS Joan Wong Pill blues: Women are being bombarded with social media clips about birth control. Many are questioning what they’ve long been told. Screen time: This researcher sounded the alarm about kids and phones years ago. Now, she shares her own rules. (Chief among them: No smartphone until you get your driver’s license. And no social media until you turn 16.) Masked enforcement: ICE agents are covering their faces. Is that un-American? Your pick: The most-clicked story in the newsletter yesterday was about a family searching for a home to restore in Chester County, Pa. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “Buckeye” by Patrick Ryan: There’s something refreshingly timeless about Ryan’s second novel for adults, which unfolds in the fictional town of Bonhomie, Ohio, in the aftermath of World War II. The book follows two couples — Cal and Becky Jenkins and Margaret and Felix Salt — as their marriages take root, bear fruit and intertwine with each other in complex ways. “What Ryan has to say about infidelity is far more nuanced and humane than anything the meme-judgment generation might offer,” our reviewer wrote. The same is true of Ryan’s window on a tight-knit community, and the way a place grows and changes alongside the people who live there. With shades of Wallace Stegner’s “Crossing to Safety” and Daniel Mason’s “North Woods,” “Buckeye” is the rare novel that manages to be sweeping and intimate at the same time. More on books “Mrs. Dalloway” is turning 100. Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece is more relevant than ever. Looking for novels to read this fall? Go here. THE INTERVIEW Photo illustration by The New York Times By Lulu Garcia-Navarro This week’s subject for The Interview is Brené Brown, an author, podcaster and academic who became famous for her research on empathy, vulnerability and courage. In recent years, Brown has turned her focus to corporate settings. She works with C.E.O.s to promote what she calls “courageous leadership” and has written a book about the same thing, titled “Strong Ground.” It’s about her perspective on leadership, but also this moment of intense technological and cultural upheaval in workplaces. Like a lot of people in every industry, I personally am feeling overwhelmed by the pace of change. Same. In your new book, you quote Amy Webb, a C.E.O. and professor at N.Y.U. who studies the future, and she described this moment as a “supercycle” of unprecedented change. This massive disruption, all this new technology that companies have available to them, how they’re supposed to use it and then how to train people on it: What does that look like inside a workplace at this moment, when it just feels like everything is up in the air? It looks like a complete [expletive] show. What it looks like is scarcity. We’re not doing enough, we don’t know enough, we don’t have enough people trained, we’re not investing enough. This is what everyone’s doing and we’re behind. So it looks like fear and scarcity driving huge investments in A.I. that are not even aligned with business strategy. In this moment of profound change, what is a good leader? A good leader to me right now is a leader who understands urgency but is working from productive urgency. Not, like my grandma would say, “chicken with your head cut off” urgency — we’re seeing a lot of that — but productive, strategic urgency. Action over impact is so dangerous, and right now we’re seeing a ton of action over impact as companies try to integrate this technology. They’re not understanding how to bring people along, how to use it in smart ways, where it will work, where it will not work. Linda Hall — a Harvard Business School professor and researcher who studies digital transformation — will tell you the hardest thing about digital transformation is never the technology; it’s always the people. Then you add to that geopolitical instability around the world. Leaders wake up and, depending on the tariff fever dream of the night before by this administration, everything has changed. Read more of the interview here, or watch a longer version of the interview on our YouTube channel. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Lettering by Abraham Lule. Photo illustration by Justin Metz. Read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Make the best boxed macaroni and cheese. Listen to these albums coming this fall. Watch one of our critics’ favorite shows on Netflix right now. MEAL PLAN David Malosh for The New York Times Summer’s gone and life is getting more chaotic. So Emily Weinstein’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has recipes to help you manage. They include crispy chicken with lime butter, lemon pasta with almonds and arugula and beef fried rice. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were codevelop and codeveloped. Can you put eight historical events — including the first battery, “The Wizard of Oz” and Rodin’s “The Thinker” — 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 8, 2025 Author Members Posted September 8, 2025 September 8, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Trump administration: President Trump tried to downplay a social media post in which he threatened Chicago. Shooting in Jerusalem: Gunmen killed at least five people in what the Israeli authorities called a terrorist attack. Tennis: Carlos Alcaraz won his second U.S. Open. More news is below, but first, a Times investigation into how JPMorgan financially enabled Jeffrey Epstein. Photo illustration by Tyler Comrie and Hannah Whitaker for The New York Times Epstein’s bankers By David Enrich My colleagues and I reviewed more than 13,000 pages of legal and financial records for this article. JPMorgan executives knew that Jeffrey Epstein was bad news. As far back as 2006 — long before his 2019 arrest — officials debated cutting their longtime client loose. Employees raised concerns about the danger of doing business with the admitted criminal, and officials confronted him about news reports that he had raped and trafficked young women and girls. But Epstein generated millions of dollars for JPMorgan. The giant bank lent him large sums and processed more than $1 billion of transactions for him (including payments to women who had been lured into his sex-trafficking network). Bankers debated the risks and decided he could stay, according to an investigation my colleagues Matt Goldstein and Jessica Silver-Greenberg and I published today. In short, until JPMorgan dropped him as a client in 2013, America’s leading bank financially enabled the century’s most notorious sexual predator. Why? The answer, we found, is that bankers, like all people, respond to incentives — and the incentives at JPMorgan rewarded doing business with Epstein. Today’s newsletter explains them. A lucrative client Epstein kept hundreds of millions of dollars at the bank. At one point, he generated more revenue than any other investor client in JPMorgan’s private-banking division, which caters to the richest of the rich. But Epstein was much more than just another customer. He introduced bank executives to other clients, including Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder who parked more than $4 billion at JPMorgan. He helped orchestrate an important acquisition for the bank. And he was a trusted adviser to some of the bank’s top executives — even while he was incarcerated in Florida after pleading guilty to a sex crime. Long after Epstein became a registered sex offender, at least some JPMorgan employees were convinced that serving him was in the bank’s interest. (A JPMorgan spokesman said the bank regretted doing business with Epstein but denied responsibility for his crimes.) Managers had his back Epstein cultivated a number of senior JPMorgan executives, but none more than Jes Staley, who ran JPMorgan’s huge investment-banking division. For years, he argued for preserving the bank’s relationship with Epstein. Staley and Epstein were unusually close. Staley visited Epstein’s far-flung properties. They referred to each other as family in emails. Staley sent his daughter to Epstein for career advice and dished confidential information — about the bank’s acquisition plans and its negotiations with the Fed, among other topics — to the sex offender while he was incarcerated. At one point, Staley had sex with a woman who worked at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and later accused Epstein of forcing her to engage in commercial sex with his friends. When bank executives grew uncomfortable with Epstein’s activities at the bank and pushed to remove him as a client, they had to make their case to Staley. At the time, he was the front-runner to become the bank’s next chief executive, and it is easy to imagine executives worrying that having a fight with Staley about his friend would be an unwise career choice. The C.E.O. didn’t intervene Jamie Dimon, arguably the most powerful man on Wall Street, has said under oath that he doesn’t recall knowing anything about Epstein until federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking in 2019. Staley, however, said in a sworn deposition that he had talked about Epstein with Dimon. And my colleagues and I found hints that Dimon might have been in the loop, including email traffic among JPMorgan employees that said Epstein’s accounts might be closed “pending Dimon review.” One thing is clear: Dimon, well known for his tendency to micromanage, was disengaged when it came to one of his bank’s most controversial clients. He didn’t encourage his subordinates to rein in Epstein or end the relationship. When his top lieutenants disagreed about whether to keep doing business with him, Dimon didn’t get involved. Nor, he says, was he aware that the bank’s top compliance executive and its top lawyer both wanted Epstein out. And so for at least 15 years, JPMorgan kept serving Epstein. Read more about its internal deliberations here. WHAT’S YOUR SIGN? Thought it was Virgo season? Think again. By The New York Times The Zodiac signs were originally based on our view of the stars from Earth. But over thousands of years, that view has shifted. For example, Sept. 8 (today) is in Virgo because 2,000 years ago, the constellation Virgo was more or less behind the sun on that date. But the actual constellation behind the sun today is Leo. Use our tool to see your (astronomically accurate) zodiac sign, and learn why the signs no longer line up with the constellations they’re named after. THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration After saying on social media that Chicago was “about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” Trump told reporters that he merely wanted to “clean up” the city. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s distrust of his own department’s scientists and doctors has created turmoil within the nation’s public health agencies, Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes. International The scene of a shooting in Jerusalem’s northern outskirts this morning. Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The gunmen who killed at least five people in Jerusalem this morning were “neutralized” at the scene, the Israeli police said. Local news reports said two men had opened fire on bus passengers at a junction. A drone attack by Houthi militants in Yemen shut down an airport in southern Israel. An Israeli alert system failed to raise alarms about the incoming assault. Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, flooded the streets ahead of the last week of his trial on charges of attempting a coup. Russia is campaigning to sway elections in the small European nation of Moldova. The Trump administration has cut support for the country’s fight against Russian influence. Other Big Stories The Australian woman convicted of murdering three people by serving them a beef Wellington laced with deadly mushrooms received a life sentence. A West Point alumni group canceled an event that would have honored Tom Hanks. A 20-year-old American pilot and content creator who spent more than two months stranded at a Chilean base on King George Island has been released. OPINIONS Releasing older prisoners would cut the prison population and keep Americans safe, German Lopez argues. People concerned with tackle football’s gladiatorial style should consider flag football, which is relatively safe and friendly to female athletes, Mary Pilon writes. Here are columns by David French on the use of military force and Ezra Klein on a government shutdown. New: The Times family subscription is here. One rate. Four individual logins. Savings for all. Now you and three others can enjoy unlimited access to The Times, while personalizing your own experience. Learn more. MORNING READS A 5-year-old shows his Onidaiko performance. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times Ancient theater: Noh — a ghostly theater form — was once the entertainment of medieval warriors. Today, a remote Japanese island embraces it. Crypto convict: Ross Ulbricht was convicted of money laundering and distributing narcotics online. Since Trump pardoned him, he has embarked on a strange comeback. Your pick: The most clicked story in yesterday’s newsletter was the preview of 27 coming novels. A political boss: John Burton, who died at 92, was one of the most influential figures in California politics. He and his allies helped pick or mentor state leaders including Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris. SPORTS Carlos Alcaraz, pictured, beat Jannik Sinner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 yesterday. Sarah Stier/Getty Images Tennis: By beating Sinner in the U.S. Open final, Alcaraz reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking. N.F.L.: The Bills and Josh Allen engineered a stunning comeback over the Ravens and Lamar Jackson to win 41-40 on Sunday Night Football. M.L.B.: Ben Rice of the Yankees hit a 380-foot three-run homer in the first inning after Cody Bellinger realized that the Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer was tipping his changeup. MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS Mariah Carey at the VMAs last night. Charles Sykes/Invision, via Associated Press The MTV Video Music Awards aired last night and leaned into nostalgia. Doja Cat’s performance threw it back to the 1980s. Ricky Martin lived la vida loca again as the recipient of the inaugural Latin Icon Award. And Busta Rhymes and Mariah Carey received honors. Here are the most memorable moments and the best looks. More on culture The Broadway revival of “Cabaret” will close in two weeks. Charlie Sheen’s memoir comes out tomorrow. The actor calls it an “all-access, backstage pass to the truth.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Simmer tortellini in cream sauce with lemon, prosciutto and peas. Watch “Unknown Number: The High School Catfish,” a hit documentary on Netflix. Go back to using an alarm clock. Find the perfect crisp white T-shirt. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were drooping, dropping, and prodding. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 9, 2025 Author Members Posted September 9, 2025 September 9, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Epstein: A House panel released an image of a page from a 2003 birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein apparently signed by Donald Trump. Nepal: The country’s prime minister resigned. Protests are raging and parts of the capital are burning. Gaza: The Israeli military ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate. Immigration: The Supreme Court said ICE is allowed to stop people in Los Angeles based on their ethnicity or language. More news is below. But first, we look at abortion laws. Hannah Yoon for The New York Times Abortion lawfare By Pam Belluck I’m a health and science reporter. Does Colorado have to honor the laws of Utah? The Constitution says, generally, yes. But abortion has begun to test that principle. Wildly divergent laws — punishing abortion in red states, protecting providers in blue states — have pitted states against one another. Texas fined a doctor in New York who prescribes abortion meds by mail and then sued a clerk who wouldn’t help enforce it. Yesterday, New York stepped in to defend the clerk. “Texas has no authority in New York, and no power to impose its cruel abortion ban here,” said the attorney general. Today’s newsletter is about what happens when states battle one another about whose law is supreme. Sources: Center for Reproductive Rights; Guttmacher Institute; KFF; UCLA Law | By Allison McCann and Amy Schoenfeld Walker States’ rights The contest. When the Supreme Court revoked the nationwide right to abortion three years ago, many states adopted bans. To reach patients in those places, doctors elsewhere offer telemedicine prescriptions and ship abortion pills by mail. The states with bans see this as an effort to circumvent their laws, and many of them regard people who provide abortions to their residents as criminals. (Texas lawmakers have even passed a bill that lets a citizen file a lawsuit for at least $100,000 against anyone who manufactures, distributes, prescribes or mails abortion medication to Texas residents.) Legal warfare. Some of the blue states from the above map passed laws saying they would not cooperate with these prosecutions. They won’t comply with out-of-state abortion investigations, won’t arrest doctors, won’t answer subpoenas. And New York, Washington, Colorado, Maine and Massachusetts recently enacted measures that let doctors mail abortion pills without putting their names on the packaging. California may go further, allowing the pills to be sent without the name of the patient, prescriber or pharmacist in the package. (A majority of medication abortion services across the country use California-based pharmacies.) What next. At issue is the Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, which says that states should generally respect other states’ laws. For example: Kansas will extradite a woman accused of fraud in Nebraska. Montana will recognize a marriage license from Minnesota. But Texas says New York’s abortion shield law amounts to a “policy of hostility to the public acts/statutes of a sister state.” The states with shield laws say governments elsewhere can’t punish their citizens for following local laws. They point out that the Full Faith and Credit Clause makes an exception for this. Eventually, the Supreme Court will likely have to decide. Other battles States have gone to war in recent decades over several policy disputes. Evan Gorelick, a writer for this newsletter, looks at some of the conflicts: Guns: Many states with stricter gun laws — including Illinois, Hawaii and Massachusetts — refuse to honor concealed-carry permits from other states. Climate: States sometimes petition to stop pollution that comes from upwind: New York, for instance, has repeatedly sued for protection from smog and acid rain generated by industrial plants in other states. And 22 Republican-led states sued New York this year for requiring fossil-fuel producers to devote billions of dollars to fighting climate change; the plaintiffs argue that New York’s law hurts their states’ energy industries. Waste: States have tried to stop one another from shipping waste across their borders. The Supreme Court has struck down these efforts under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. (The justices say trash can’t gain or lose legal status based on where it comes from.) But local governments have tried to block new landfills, impose fees and add administrative hurdles. Marriage and divorce: Nevada was once a destination for quick-and-easy divorces that other states refused to honor; the Supreme Court eventually ruled that other states had to honor them. Marriage has caused tension, too: Before the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the Constitution protects gay marriage, some states refused to recognize same-sex couples from other states. THE LATEST NEWS Epstein Investigation This image was subpoenaed from the Jeffrey Epstein estate by the Oversight Committee. The book containing the suggestive note, apparently signed by Trump, was part of a gift for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday. The book celebrates Epstein’s lechery. The White House denies that Trump signed or sent the letter. The signature closely matches several on letters that he wrote around the same time. Immigration The Trump administration said it had begun an immigration crackdown in Chicago. Local officials said they knew of only a handful of arrests. Since Trump’s deportation campaign began, immigrants in the U.S. have transferred more money to relatives in Latin American countries. Local sheriffs are turning their jails into ICE detention centers to support the Trump agenda and shore up their budgets. More on Politics An appeals court upheld a decision that Trump must pay the writer E. Jean Carroll $83 million for defamation. Trump was found liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s. The Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, threatened to punch another administration official in the face at a private club in Georgetown last week. Trump said that “a little fight with the wife” should not count as a crime, and that his opponents were using domestic offenses to undermine his crime record in Washington. Footage of a murder in North Carolina has become an accelerant for conservative arguments about the perceived failings of Democratic policies. In her new book, “Listening to the Law,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett tries to sidestep the Supreme Court’s recent controversies, the critic Jennifer Szalai writes. Nepal Nepal’s prime minister resigned during a second day of raging protests ignited by a social media ban. Protesters in the capital, Kathmandu, set fire to government offices and to his and other leaders’ homes. Black smoke is visible across the city. At least 19 people died yesterday after the authorities fired into crowds. More International News The New York Times Small drones have revolutionized warfare in Ukraine. See how tanks — still a crucial part of the battle — have evolved. The Israeli military’s order to Gaza City residents signaled that it was moving ahead with its full-scale invasion of the city. France’s prime minister will have to resign after losing a confidence vote in Parliament that he had called over his proposed austerity measures. President Emmanuel Macron is expected to appoint the prime minister’s successor. South Korea negotiated the release of hundreds of Korean nationals whom ICE had detained at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. Watch a video. Media Lachlan Murdoch, left, and Rupert Murdoch, center, last year. Emily Najera for The New York Times The Murdoch family’s succession battle has ended. Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son, will retain control, ensuring that his father’s media empire will keep its conservative slant. CBS News selected a right-wing policy veteran without news experience to review complaints about its coverage. Other Big Stories Some police departments in New York state have protected officers from punishment after they drove drunk, an investigation by The Times and New York Focus found. The reading skills of American high school seniors are the worst they have been in three decades, according to federal data. Using sprinklers and specialized tree-climbing crews, firefighters in California are trying to protect a grove of giant sequoias from a wildfire. OPINIONS The New York Times Make America Healthy Again is turning health-conscious people against all health care. Alexander Stockton and Derek Beres show how. France has lost confidence in two prime ministers in one year because of its budget woes. The solution is obvious: a tax on the ultrawealthy, Harrison Stetler argues. Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on giving up on a two-state solution and Carlos Lozada on “the Trump era.” New: The Times family subscription is here. One rate. Four individual logins. Savings for all. Now you and three others can enjoy unlimited access to The Times, while personalizing your own experience. Learn more. MORNING READS In Tokyo. Kentaro Takahashi for The New York Times Food mecca: Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens? After the smartphone: Some experts think we’ll soon be wearing smart glasses or always-listening A.I. devices. A disturbing trend: Deadly falls are becoming more common for older people. Some experts say rising prescription drug use may be to blame. Your pick: The most clicked story in yesterday’s newsletter was a feature on how the zodiac signs are 2,000 years out of date. Goodbye stranger: Rick Davies, a founder of the British band Supertramp, died at 81. He helped transform a faltering English progressive rock act into a pop juggernaut whose 1979 album “Breakfast in America” sold more than 18 million copies. SPORTS N.F.L.: The Minnesota Vikings orchestrated a fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Chicago Bears 27-24 in the first “Monday Night Football” game of the season. N.F.L.: Peyton Manning said he sent a handwritten invitation to Pope Leo XIV — a Chicago native and Bears fan — to join “ManningCast.” The pope hasn’t responded, but Manning called it “an open invitation.” Collectibles: A trading card company is offering $5,000 to the Phillies fan who took a home-run ball from a child at a Phillies-Marlins game if she writes “I’m sorry” on the ball. WHERE TO EAT Yuvraj Khanna and Janice Chung for The New York Times There’s great food to be found across the United States: seafood at a riverside shack in Connecticut and Wagyu at a luxe Miami steakhouse, Indian in a New Jersey strip mall and Italian in Cincinnati. They’re all on The Times’s new Restaurant List, a collection of the best places to eat in America right now. To curate this year’s edition, Times journalists hopped on 76 flights and dined at more than 200 restaurants. See if any restaurants near you made the list. More on culture Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” has a new memoir. Our reviewer calls it “earnest, vulnerable but ultimately quite corny.” The National Gallery in London, founded in 1824, will collect works from the 20th century for the first time. The late night hosts talked about the “Department of War.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Cook a hearty lemon pasta with chickpeas and parsley. Visit Ireland’s rugged Atlantic coast for a sea swim and a sauna. Use a better keyboard. Upgrade your wardrobe with a new suit. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was galumph. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 11, 2025 Author Members Posted September 11, 2025 September 10, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Ukraine war: Poland said it had shot down Russian drones that entered its airspace. It called the incursions an “act of aggression.” Middle East: President Trump said he was “very unhappy” that Israel conducted an airstrike in Qatar. The bombing aimed to kill Hamas leaders. Nepal: Many protesters went home last night after troops imposed a nationwide curfew. The unrest forced the prime minister to resign. More news is below. But first, we look at the Make America Healthy Again movement. The White House released a report about children’s health. Tony Luong for The New York Times MAHA speaks By Adam B. Kushner I’m the editor of this newsletter. The movement to Make America Healthy Again is an unusual political force. Its blunt views about our collective well-being hold a certain countercultural, even courageous, appeal: We eat junk. We stare at our phones too much and move too little. Chemical companies have toxified our lives. Drugmakers aren’t helping. Our children’s health is too important to tolerate all this. Many scientists and experts back these conclusions and have fretted about them for years. The ideas poll well. And in an age of polarization, the movement draws together all sorts of Americans — MAGA die-hards, libertarians worried about government mandates, liberal parents who don’t want their kids ingesting trash. At the same time, many MAHA claims defy science, push misinformation or simply do little to address the problems. Its advocates, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., say that common vaccines can be dangerous. That fluoride has no place in drinking water. That chemicals in the environment could be making people gay. Yesterday — with a long-awaited report about children’s health and a move against drug advertisements — the Trump administration embodied this MAHA alchemy. Today’s newsletter is about the new actions. A statement American kids are not all right, the administration says. It cites four reasons: a poor diet dominated by ultraprocessed foods; bad habits like screen addiction and physical inactivity; exposure to pollutants; and “overmedicalization,” in which kids are given unnecessary treatments. Yesterday’s report proposes remedies: About 5 percent of children take medication for A.D.H.D. The government wants insurance companies to raise the standard for who gets approved. Fluoride in drinking water staves off cavities. And although the levels in American water are safe, Kennedy wants it gone, because too much fluoride can lead to bone and brain problems. The government has already limited access to Covid vaccines. Change may come also for other inoculations, including the timing of when kids receive which shots. And the National Institutes of Health will now scrutinize vaccine side effects more closely. The government will commission a slew of studies to better understand microplastics, air quality and the cumulative toll of chemicals and electromagnetic radiation. The report also points to a number of actions the Trump administration has already taken, writes Dani Blum, a Times health reporter. These include cracking down on food dyes, relaunching the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools and studying the causes of autism. What goes unmentioned. Kennedy supporters hoped he would limit toxic pesticides, but the MAHA statement calls only for more trust in “robust review procedures” and more study about how farmers can use fewer chemicals. It also does not call for direct restrictions of ultraprocessed foods. What happens next. Kennedy has not said how the government will implement or finance certain goals. Times health reporters wrote that experts like the proposals for “more research on nutrition, greater oversight of food additives, revisions to nutrition labels and healthier foods in schools and hospitals.” But those represent political challenges. “Expecting industry to change voluntarily is fantasy,” one scholar said. Taking action. Trump moved decisively yesterday on one issue that Kennedy favors: He revived a decades-old policy to restrict advertising of prescription drugs directly to consumers. Odd bedfellows Kennedy occupies an unusual role in the administration. He’s an environmentalist and a former Democrat whose agenda differs somewhat from Trump’s, as my colleagues Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Maggie Haberman report. Kennedy denounces the Covid vaccines that Trump brags about. That awkward dynamic was evident in the MAHA report, too. It says government programs should provide “whole, healthy food” for low-income Americans, but Trump’s domestic policy bill slashed funding for food assistance. It says we should study the health effects of poor water and air quality, but the administration has rolled back pollution regulations. Yet both men are outsiders who are suspicious of academia and the federal bureaucracy. “Mr. Trump decries the ‘deep state’ and Mr. Kennedy continually calls the agencies he oversees ‘corrupt,’” Sheryl and Maggie write. And the two men need each other. Kennedy’s supporters shore up Trump’s base, and Trump has given Kennedy a wide berth to implement his agenda. More coverage The Trump administration has been discussing severe restrictions on medicines from China. If enacted, they could upend the availability of generic drugs in America. School cafeterias are enacting tighter nutritional standards. THE LATEST NEWS Nepal Protests In Kathmandu, Nepal. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters; Reuters; Birkam Rai/Reuters; Adnan Abidi/Reuters Protesters set fire to Nepal’s Parliament, along with police stations and politicians’ houses, as anger over corruption, economic inequality and a social media ban exploded into the country’s worst unrest in decades. The unrest quieted last night, as the military enforced a nationwide curfew. Troops are now patrolling Kathmandu. Follow the latest updates. Young Nepalis are also angry about wealthy “nepo kids.” Middle East Israel’s strike on Qatar — a U.S. ally and a mediator between Israel and Hamas — hit a residential headquarters where members of Hamas’s political leadership live. Hamas said the strike failed to kill senior officials in the group. Trump gave conflicting answers about whether he knew about the strike in advance but said that he felt “very badly about the location.” More International News In São Paulo, Brazil. Victor Moriyama for The New York Times Brazilian nationalists have adopted the American flag as a right-wing emblem. A Russian bomb exploded in a crowd of older people picking up pension payments in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 23 people, the Ukrainian authorities said. Protesters in France blocked highways, roundabouts and bridges as a new prime minister, a centrist ally of President Emmanuel Macron, prepared to take office. Epstein Investigation A House petition is nearing the 218 signatures it needs to force a vote on the release of the remaining Jeffrey Epstein files. The White House and some Republicans are trying to stop it. After Congress released a drawing from Epstein’s 50th birthday book with what appeared to be Trump’s signature, many Republicans claimed that they hadn’t seen it. (The drawing was the most-clicked story in yesterday’s newsletter.) Also in the birthday book: A photo in which Epstein holds an oversize check with a phony Trump signature, appearing to make a joke about a woman both men dated. Late night hosts joked about the book. More on the Trump Administration A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump from removing Lisa Cook, a Fed governor. Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily allowed the White House to block $4 billion in foreign aid that had been appropriated by Congress. Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, took the unusual step of retracting a report on Venezuela that described work by a Trump envoy. Trump ventured one-tenth of a mile beyond the gates of the White House for dinner at a restaurant. Protesters heckled him there. Economy The Bureau of Labor Statistics revised jobs data again, saying that the economy probably added close to a million fewer jobs in 2024 and early 2025 than it had reported. The Trump administration is halting an I.R.S. crackdown on tax shelters used by America’s biggest companies and wealthiest people. New York City Zohran Mamdani leads Andrew Cuomo, his next closest rival in the New York City mayoral race, by more than 20 percentage points, according to polling by The Times and Siena University. If the race narrows to just Mamdani and Cuomo, Mamdani has a much smaller lead among likely voters — and Cuomo leads among all registered voters. Views on the war in Gaza are shaping the race. A poll has found that more New Yorkers are sympathetic with Palestinians than with Israelis, which helps Mamdani. Other Big Stories Reversing a decades-long ban, the U.S. government will let wildfire fighters wear masks, which can protect against harmful particles in wildfire smoke, after a Times investigation. Talks between Harvard and the Trump administration appear to have stalled, but a dozen other universities and major law firms have struck deals with the White House. A Times analysis shows what concessions the deals have in common: By Ashley Wu OPINIONS Gavin Pretor-Pinney, the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, argues we take clouds for granted. Look at the different types. Take Gail Collins’s quiz to see how well you followed the first eight months of the Trump administration. Here are columns by Bret Stephens on pro-Palestinian gestures and M. Gessen on a Russian defector. New: The Times family subscription is here. One rate. Four individual logins. Savings for all. Now you and three others can enjoy unlimited access to The Times, while personalizing your own experience. Learn more. MORNING READS Robbie Blue in Brooklyn. OK McCausland for The New York Times Ecstatic dance: Robbie Blue’s choreography is plush and razor sharp. Sex and love addiction: There’s no official diagnosis, but experts say obsessive focus on romance can be a real problem. Trending: Apple released a slimmer phone — the iPhone Air. It has a shorter battery life and worse cameras. Sandwich scholar: Andrew Huse, a historian with a voracious appetite for telling stories about food, died at 52. He once went on a quest to unravel the disputed origins of the Cuban sandwich. SPORTS N.B.A.: An essay by LeBron James sparked criticism after it ran on a state-controlled news outlet in China. The Lakers star didn’t actually write it, The Athletic reports. N.F.L.: The league suspended the Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter without pay for one game for spitting on Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback. He’ll be eligible to play against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. THE PAST THAT NEVER WAS A still of A.I. imagery from a video made by Tavaius Dawson published on his Instagram account, Maximal Nostalgia. Nostalgia is spreading on social media. In A.I.-generated videos, unnervingly realistic teens from decades past pause their wholesome activities to inform the viewer that the internet killed joy. In one, set around the summer of 2000, a young man with spiked hair tells us about his era: “No chats, no DMs, just stories around the fire ’til morning.” Anyone who lived through the 2000s can tell you that people weren’t always relaxed and carefree and sitting around campfires. Still, these videos are connecting with scores of viewers online — some who miss their youth, others who are too young to remember. Read more about the rise of A.I. nostalgia bait. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Joseph De Leo for The New York Times Make this red lentil soup. It has five stars after 33,000 reader ratings. Cook any of these dozen recipes recreating Times writers’ favorite restaurant dishes. Read Dan Brown’s new novel, “The Secret of Secrets,” which captures a hectic adventure across Prague. Our critic liked it. Sleep on these cotton sheets. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were embolden and emboldened. Here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. And a new spin on Connections: Sports Edition from The Athletic lets you test your N.F.L. knowledge with games for all 32 franchises. Find your team here. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 11, 2025 Author Members Posted September 11, 2025 September 11, 2025 Good morning. We are following the killing of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The authorities are searching for the shooter. As of this morning, nobody was in custody. Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University yesterday. Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune, via Reuters An assassination By The Morning Team Charlie Kirk never held office or worked on a campaign. But he was a crucial organizer of the MAGA movement. Turning Point USA, the group he founded when he was 18, helped recruit many young conservatives and elect Republicans across the country. He was a practiced debater who posted videos of himself parrying liberal critiques. That’s exactly what he was doing yesterday when a shooter assassinated him during a talk at Utah Valley University. Here is what we know about the killing: The authorities continue to search for the shooter. They captured two people yesterday — one immediately after the attack, another in the evening — but released both without charges. Kirk was hit in the neck by a single bullet, the police said. About two hours later, his spokesman announced that he had died. Here is a timeline. About 3,000 people attended the outdoor event. After the shooting, police officers went building to building to escort students off campus. Videos recorded before and after the shooting show someone on the roof of a campus building about 150 yards away. A university official identified the building as the shooter’s location. Aerial image by Google | By Lazaro Gamio and Daniel Wood Kirk’s influence Kirk built Turning Point USA to mobilize students. The group, which has more than 850 chapters, sends right-wing speakers to college campuses and convenes young people for political discussions. In a feature in The Times Magazine this year, Robert Draper, a political reporter, explained how the group had guided many young men to vote for Trump in 2024. Kirk frequently visited college campuses for speaking engagements and debates, and videos of his question-and-answer sessions amassed millions of views on YouTube. He frequently criticized D.E.I., abortion, immigration and gun control. He was answering a question about mass shootings when he was shot. Kirk was a close friend of Trump’s and a fixture in his administration. He spoke at Trump’s inauguration, helped vet appointees and frequently visited the White House. He was also a close friend of Donald Trump Jr. (the two recently took a trip together to Greenland) and an early backer of Vice President JD Vance. Kirk, a Christian, lived in Arizona with his wife and two children. Read his Times obituary here, and hear more about him on today’s episode of The Daily. Reactions to the shooting Trump posted a tribute to Kirk on social media, writing: “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.” In a video address from the Oval Office, Trump said that liberal criticism of conservatives was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today,” and he vowed to go after groups that fund or support it. Democratic politicians condemned the shooting. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California called the attack “disgusting, vile and reprehensible.” Social media fell into a well-worn groove: Some users posted tributes, while others posted dark jokes. And many argued with each other along the usual partisan lines. Shortly after the shooting, many conservative and religious influencers began to refer to Kirk as a “martyr.” Speaker Mike Johnson paused the House mid-vote for a moment of silence. But afterward, when Representative Lauren Boebert called for a spoken prayer, several Democrats objected, pointing out that the House had not done the same for a school shooting in Colorado earlier in the day. Political violence Several politicians said yesterday that they were worried that political violence was becoming normalized in the United States. In recent years: Trump survived two assassination attempts. Rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attacking police officers. A masked man shot two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses in Minnesota, killing one couple and wounding another. A man attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, with a hammer at their San Francisco home. A man set fire to the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. In a story on political violence for The Times Magazine, Charles Homans wrote that about a fifth of Americans believe political violence is at least sometimes justified, and at least half agree that it’s sometimes justified if the other political party committed violence first. At a speaking event four years ago, a man in the audience asked Kirk about when it would be justified to kill political opponents. Kirk shut him down. “We must exhaust every peaceful means possible,” Kirk said. For more: The Times’s editorial board condemned America’s worsening political violence. “We Americans have lost some of our grace and empathy in recent years,” the board writes. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Chuck Schumer Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Senate Republicans blocked an effort by the chamber’s Democratic minority leader to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. A Venezuelan boat that the U.S. military destroyed in the Caribbean last week is said to have turned around before the attack. The Trump administration wants to repeal a Biden-era rule that protected millions of acres of public lands and to prioritize oil drilling, coal plants and timber instead. In her new book, Kamala Harris writes that it was a mistake to let Joe Biden insist on running for re-election, and that “perhaps” she should have told him not to. The White House has exerted extraordinary influence over decisions at the F.B.I., a lawsuit by three ex-officials said. Education The Trump administration says it will restart the flow of some federal research money to Harvard. But its pressure campaign against the university probably isn’t over. The Education Department is halting federal funding for some of America’s most diverse colleges, saying the programs it has cut were inherently racist. The Supreme Court says a transgender boy can use the boys’ bathroom in his South Carolina high school — at least for now. Texas A&M fired an instructor after a student accused her of teaching “gender ideology” in a children’s literature class. Immigration The Justice Department abandoned a claim that parents of unaccompanied Guatemalan children wanted them to be deported. ICE officers raided a construction site near the C.I.A. headquarters and some fleeing workers tried to scale the fence around the spy agency’s campus. Britain The British government fired its ambassador to Washington after emails showed that he had close ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Prince Harry met with his father, King Charles III. It may be the first step toward healing a rift. More International News Israel attacked Houthi sites in Yemen, a day after its widely criticized airstrike against Hamas leaders in Qatar. With escalating air attacks, Vladimir Putin seems determined to demonstrate that he will dictate the terms for any end to the war in Ukraine, Anton Troianovski writes. A gas explosion under a highway overpass in Mexico City killed three people and injured at least 70, creating chaos in one of the city’s most heavily populated areas. Other Big Stories After critically injuring two other students, a male student suspected of a shooting at a high school in Colorado died of self-inflicted injuries. CBS News is considering making Bari Weiss editor in chief or co-president as part of a deal to buy her media start-up, The Free Press. Twenty-four years ago today, Ruth Fremson photographed the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City. In the video below, she describes her memories. Click to watch. OPINIONS Parents should be wary about allowing children unfettered access to new A.I technologies, Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop write. Here are columns by Jamelle Bouie on Abraham Lincoln’s America and M. Gessen on totalitarianism. New: The Times family subscription is here. One rate. Four individual logins. Savings for all. Now you and three others can enjoy unlimited access to The Times, while personalizing your own experience. Learn more. MORNING READS An image captured by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. NASA Science: A rock recovered from an ancient river on Mars presents the strongest evidence yet that the planet once harbored life. Ask the therapist: My friend ghosted me. But am I the jerk? A stylish friendship: Sofia Coppola’s first documentary is an affectionate portrait of her bond with the designer Marc Jacobs. “Kiss my grits”: Polly Holliday, best known for playing Flo, the sassy Southern waitress on the sitcom “Alice,” died at 88. She had a long career on the big screen and on Broadway, which included a Tony nomination in 1990 for her performance in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” SPORTS College basketball: The N.C.A.A. revoked the eligibility of three Division I men’s basketball players, saying they had gambled on their own games and manipulated their performances to alter outcomes. N.F.L.: The Jaguars coach said Travis Hunter would play more defense Sunday against the Bengals. “HAMILTON” ON TIKTOK An Irish teenager dressed as Alexander Hamilton. Zoe Coyle The musical “Hamilton” is internet catnip. The latest online trend is a mixture of absurdity and sweetness that serves as a tribute to the show as well as a loving critique of it. In videos on TikTok, fans lip sync to the lyrics of the song “Best of Wives and Best of Women,” showing Alexander Hamilton as he is leaving for a deadly duel, ignoring his wife’s pleas to stay home. In these videos, Fans have found goofy ways of showing Hamilton leaving the house and portraying him as a bad boyfriend or spouse. See examples here. More on culture The British courts service removed a new work by the anonymous artist Banksy — which showed a judge attacking a demonstrator with a gavel — from the side of one of its buildings. The late night hosts talked about Trump’s night out at a restaurant. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui. Pack veggies into these harvest muffins. Read one of these fantasy novels with outcast heroes, recommended by the author P. Djèlí Clark. Give someone the perfect gift. Swipe off makeup with these reusable cotton rounds. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was pituitary. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 12, 2025 Author Members Posted September 12, 2025 September 12, 2025 Good morning. We’re covering the latest in the search for Charlie Kirk’s assassin. More news to start your Friday is below. At the Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix. Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times A manhunt By Tom Wright-Piersanti I’m an editor of The Morning. Yesterday was Sept. 11. On one side of the country, F.B.I. agents and police officers pursued the assailant who killed Charlie Kirk. On the other, the families of those who died more than two decades ago in a harrowing act of political violence held their annual rituals of mourning. And in between, Americans grappled with the feeling that the bloodshed had become inescapable. As of this morning, the search for Kirk’s killer still has not turned up a suspect. Here is the latest: Search for a suspect: The authorities released several images of a person they were seeking in the case. The photos show a man who appears to be of college age wearing a black shirt, a baseball cap and dark sunglasses. See them here. Clues found: Investigators said they had found a bolt-action rifle in a wooded area near the campus. They also found imprints of a forearm, a palm and a shoe on a building. See the latest updates. Reward: The F.B.I. has offered up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the shooter. False tips and wild speculation abound. Death penalty: At a news conference last night, Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, asked the public to help the authorities capture “this evil human being.” He said prosecutors would pursue the death penalty if a suspect was caught. A leadership test: The F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, arrived in Utah to oversee the manhunt more directly. His handling of the investigation is under scrutiny. Americans across the political spectrum told The Times that they were saddened, but not surprised, by the shooting of a political figure. “There was someone on TV, and he kept saying that this was not who we are — that we are not one of those countries that shoots people over politics,” said Charles Phoenix, 62, a left-leaning artist in the Los Angeles area. “But it is who we are now. We do shoot political leaders. We are that country.” Erwin McKone, 55, a salesman near Flint, Mich., who voted for President Trump, said the killing seemed to arise from an animus that was increasingly disconnected from facts, accountability and reason. “It seems like we’re totally living in insanity,” he said, “every moment of every day.” Emily Rose, a liberal 19-year-old at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, said students largely discussed politics only with like-minded people. “Sometimes when the conversation veers toward politics in a mixed space, things feel tense,” she said. Law enforcement officers searching for evidence near Utah Valley University. Loren Elliott for The New York Times The manhunt has been fraught for the F.B.I. and its relatively inexperienced director, my colleagues report in a new story. They describe a tense online meeting with Patel and 200 agents around the country: Mr. Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, made it clear they were under intense pressure to catch Kirk’s killer. They expressed themselves with such fierce urgency that, in the view of some participants, it hinted at another motive: to prove they were up to the task. The director wasted no time before calling out subordinates that he said failed to give him timely information and was incensed that agents in Salt Lake City waited nearly 12 hours to show him a photo of the suspected killer, according to three people familiar on the exchange. Mr. Patel said he would not tolerate any more “Mickey Mouse operations,” an official on the call recounted. It was one of his few utterances without profanity, the person added. On Capitol Hill, Kirk’s killing has rattled lawmakers, Times reporters in Washington write. And though the shooter’s ideology is not yet known, Republican representatives were quick to point the finger across the aisle. “The left and their policies are leading America into a civil war,” Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin wrote on social media. “Some on the American left are undoubtedly well-meaning people, but their ideology is pure evil,” Bob Onder of Missouri said in a speech on the House floor. Trump voiced a similar view, Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer write. Still, as the country’s leaders feuded, some Democrats and Republicans sought common ground, Jesse McKinley and Madison Malone Kircher report. Groups representing young Republicans and Democrats came together in at least two states to issue statements after the killing that condemned political violence and urged people to avoid hurtful dialogue about the assassination. “We may disagree on policy, but we are united in our belief in the value of life, civil discourse and mutual respect,” wrote Kenneth Naylor, the chairman of the young Republicans group in Rhode Island. “Let us honor Charlie’s memory by working together to create a safer and more compassionate political culture.” For more For Trump, Kirk’s killing is deeply personal. They were close. The Times spoke to the last person at the event to question Kirk. His question was about gun violence. INFLATION ? Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics | By Karl Russell Inflation in the U.S. rose in August as tariffs continued to bite. Goods overall cost only a bit more, but you might find it more expensive to buy: Coffee. It’s up more than 20 percent since last year. Used vehicles. Prices rose 1 percent in August and are up 6 percent from a year earlier. Fruit and vegetables. Their cost rose around 1.6 percent last month. Falling prices in other categories helped balance things out, but inflation is likely to make the Federal Reserve cautious about lowering borrowing costs too fast. The Fed might start cutting rates as soon as next week. THE LATEST NEWS International Jair Bolsonaro Dado Galdieri for The New York Times Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup. After protests, Nepal’s capital is choked by smoke and gripped by fear. Belarus freed 52 political prisoners, including 14 foreign citizens, in a deal brokered by the United States. After Trump frustrated both South Korea and Japan, both are questioning the nearly $1 trillion in U.S. investments they promised in exchange for lower tariffs. Pacific island nations, vulnerable to rising sea levels, are disappointed at unkept American promises on climate change. Trump Administration Trump spoke at the Pentagon for the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He later attended a Yankees game, where fans greeted him with a mix of cheers and boos, The Athletic reports. Millions of dollars’ worth of contraceptives, which U.S.A.I.D. had purchased to distribute in low-income countries, have been destroyed at the direction of the Trump administration. Trump wants to be a peacemaker, but when it comes to Ukraine and Gaza, he has recast himself as a bystander, writes David Sanger. Politics Nadine Menendez, the wife of the convicted former New Jersey senator Bob Menendez, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for bribery. Of the almost 500 people ICE detained from a Georgia battery plant last week, at least one was employed legally yet forced to leave the country, officials admitted. Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who won the mayoral primary in New York, said he would apologize for calling the N.Y.P.D. racist in 2020. Ten Democratic senators want employees from JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions to testify about their ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Other Big Stories For the first time, children with obesity outnumber those who are underweight around the globe, according to UNICEF. The authorities in Colorado identified a student suspected of shooting two classmates on Wednesday. They said he had been “radicalized by an extremist network” but did not elaborate. A false report of a shooter at the Naval Academy prompted an actual shooting. A midshipman mistook a law enforcement officer for the shooter and struck him with a parade rifle. He then fired at the midshipman, wounding him. David Ellison, the media mogul who took over Paramount last month, wants to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. OPINIONS Before they agree to avert a shutdown, Democrats should insist on concessions that make life more affordable for Americans, Jonathan Alter argues. Trump is trying to make the U.S. economy look more like China’s. He risks copying its mistakes, too, Seth Levine and Elizabeth MacBride write. New: The Times family subscription is here. One rate. Four individual logins. Savings for all. Now you and three others can enjoy unlimited access to The Times, while personalizing your own experience. Learn more. MORNING READS The Valley of Agabat in Egypt’s Western Desert. Claire Thomas The sands of time: Look at these images of one of Egypt’s lesser-known wonders. A workaround: Students are exploiting a loophole in smartphone bans thanks to some old-school technology — iPods and cassette players. Maine: Did a couple kill their neighbor’s trees so they could have a better view? Your pick: Yesterday’s most-clicked link in the newsletter was a video about a photographer who covered 9/11. A screen siren: June Wilkinson, a pinup queen of the 1960s, died at 85. Though her father dismissed her young dreams of Hollywood fame, she went on to appear in more than two dozen films and in Playboy seven times. SPORTS Erich Sailer with his daughter, Martina Sailer. via Sailor Family Skiing: Erich Sailer, a coach who helped shape champions using a modest slope in Minnesota, died at 99. N.F.L.: The Green Bay Packers and their new star Micah Parsons stifled Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders in an impressive win. (This was the No. 1 trending topic on Google last night.) W.N.B.A.: The Chicago Sky star Angel Reese recently served a suspension for criticizing her team. But on Thursday, fans came out to support her, holding signs that said “Free Angel” and “Fire Jeff,” a reference to the Sky general manager, Jeff Pagliocca. A NEW FASHION ERA Pierpaolo Piccioli for Balenciaga. Federico Sorrentino for The New York Times Welcome to the season of seismic fashion change. This year almost 20 fashion houses, including some of the most famous names (Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Balenciaga), appointed new designers. That means the clothes you see in stores or on the street, or when you’re immersed in the endless digital scroll, will soon be very different. Remember the “cerulean” scene in “The Devil Wears Prada”? When Meryl Streep explains how changes at the top matter for us little people in the world of fashion? That’s what’s happening now. Vanessa Friedman spoke to the designers — read the interviews here. More on culture Pantyhose are back in style, The Cut explains, and they don’t look like your mom’s. Late night hosts called for less aggression in American discourse. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times Grate firm tofu and sprinkle scallions on top. Eat Mexican food in New York City. This writer promises it’s the real deal. Plan a garden like Jimmy Fallon. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were cackling, clacking, clanking and lacking. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 14, 2025 Author Members Posted September 14, 2025 September 13, 2025 Good morning. In this age of constant distraction, we could all stand to “lock in.” María Jesús Contreras Focus point By Melissa Kirsch Last week, my colleague Nicole Stock wrote about the Great Lock In challenge on TikTok. “It’s just about hunkering down for the rest of the year and doing everything that you said you’re going to do,” a content creator told Nicole. Participants set goals — run a marathon, reach 100,000 Instagram followers — they hope to reach before Dec. 31, when the rest of the world typically makes their resolutions. When you’re locked in, you’re hyper-focused. Nothing is going to divert your attention, nothing will deter you from reaching your goal. Doesn’t this sound appealing? Sometimes it seems that the world is composed entirely of distractions, a mess of seductively windy byways coaxing you off the path. These detours form a tangle so convoluted that any efforts to make it back to the trailhead are futile. I’ve been trying lately to examine the conditions necessary for undivided attention on a task, whether it’s taking on a long-term aspiration or just making it through a lengthy article on my iPad without meandering to, say, answer three texts, do a little of the crossword, pay my electric bill, check tomorrow’s weather. We tell ourselves that if we could just get off our devices, we could lock in. I find it amusing and slightly alarming to observe how my brain is online even when I’m not. When my thoughts reach an impasse or my memory glitches, my brain assumes a Google search is impending, help is on the way. There’s a pause where my brain wants to hand off the baton to the machine. When the machine isn’t there, there’s static before the brain, crackling back to life, remembers that it knows how to think without help, without every unknown addressed. It’s silly to say, but I miss the spaces my brain used to hold before it saw all the things it didn’t know as knowable. Creativity happened there. I think about flow, that effortless state that athletes and artists experience when they’re performing or working and everything aligns, when self-consciousness evaporates and they’re totally absorbed in the task at hand. This kind of locked-in-ness isn’t a state you can will into happening by turning off your phone or being disciplined. It happens on its own, when the conditions are favorable. I covet flow, imagine sometimes I’ve achieved it when working, wonder how to create the environment for it to happen again. My friend Peter is a writer, the author of several books, fiction and nonfiction. He seems, always, to be in a locked-in state. He’s a closer. When he says he’s going to get work done, he does it. I asked him about how one can get so locked in that a goal — cleaning out the garage, doing 100 push-ups, finishing a novel — feels attainable, and that the journey toward it feels like its own reward. How can one, if not engineer flow, at least cultivate habits that might invite it? “If you think of the end product, you’re toast,” he said, sort of, though he used an expletive in place of “toast” that we wouldn’t publish in The Morning. When endeavoring a big project, he said, your mantra must be, “I gotta move a little bit forward today,” rather than, “I must meet my goal.” This makes sense: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business,” T.S. Eliot wrote in “East Coker.” It’s inspiring, exciting, healthy to set goals and focus on achieving them. But letting go of attachment to the outcome, making our business the trying rather than the end product, allows us to enjoy our lives along the way, whether we arrive at our planned destination or somewhere else entirely. CHARLIE KIRK SHOOTING The Manhunt Law enforcement outside the apartment of Tyler Robinson. Kim Raff for The New York Times The 33-hour manhunt that followed the killing of Charlie Kirk ended when Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old man from Utah, turned himself in at a sheriff’s office 250 miles away from the shooting site. Officials said a family friend of Robinson’s alerted the police that he was likely the shooter, and that relatives had helped him “come to a positive resolution to turn himself in.” People who knew Robinson in his youth said he was a reserved, intelligent young man raised in a Republican family. But a relative told the police he had become more political in recent years and had talked about disliking Kirk’s views. Investigators found cartridges engraved with messages near the gun used in the shooting. One read, “Hey, fascist! Catch!” Others referred to slang from internet memes. But the slippery, ironic nature of online in-jokes makes their meaning tricky to parse. More Coverage On “Fox & Friends,” Trump said that the “radical left” was responsible for much of the political violence in the country and downplayed violence from the right. Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, urged the country to lower the political temperature. “We have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse,” he said. Conservative influencers have encouraged people to search the internet for remarks celebrating Kirk’s killing and expose those who posted them. Four of Kirk’s books have vaulted to the top of the Amazon best-seller list after his murder. Classes at several historically Black colleges and universities were canceled after a wave of fake threats against schools. Listen to a special episode of “The Daily” about the suspect’s arrest and what Kirk’s assassination means for the conservative movement. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Tennessee’s governor is working with Trump to send National Guard troops to Memphis, making it the latest city targeted in the federal crackdown. The E.P.A. announced a plan to stop requiring polluting facilities to report their greenhouse gas emissions. As the health secretary challenges the safety of Covid vaccines, the F.D.A. is examining rare cases in which young people died after they received the shots. International A staunch anti-corruption crusader was named as the caretaker prime minister of Nepal after protests led the government to collapse. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is steering the Trump administration toward a much more aggressive military strategy in Latin America. Other Big Stories An ICE officer fatally shot a man in the Chicago area. The agency said the man had driven his car into officers while resisting arrest during a vehicle stop. To accelerate use of next-gen aircraft, the Trump administration will allow companies to test electric air taxis before regulators approve their commercial use. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV A scene from “Alien: Earth.” Patrick Brown/FX “Alien: Earth,” now in its first season, continues the half-century-old “Alien” franchise. But the true horrors aren’t ravenous xenomorphs anymore; they’re tech companies. Spinal Tap is back for one last concert, four decades after its first big-screen hit. “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” will surprise exactly no one, our critic writes, but it makes for a genial 83 minutes. The futile pursuit to find a “Joe Rogan of the left” has put a spotlight on Adam Friedland, a former podcaster and comedian who now hosts a buzzy YouTube talk show. Pop and Jazz Ed Sheeran isn’t giving up his pop throne just yet. He sat down with Popcast, The Times’s music show, to discuss his new album, “Play.” Bad Bunny’s casita, a pink and yellow house built in the middle of an arena at his Puerto Rican residency, has become a summer hub for celebrities. “You’re not quite sure what genre it is”: Meet the adventurous Trio of Bloom, a new jazz experiment assembled by the producer David Breskin. Classical A Belgian music festival canceled a Munich Philharmonic program, citing concerns over an Israeli conductor’s possible views on Gaza. German leaders called the move antisemitic. Meet the composer bringing “symphonic electronica” to the Metropolitan Opera. More Culture Is it abusive to make art about your children? A spate of new memoirs is forcing a reckoning on what consent means when your parent is the artist, the Times critic Parul Sehgal writes. As Cuba’s economy falters, members of the storied Cuban National Ballet have found work in companies abroad. New: The Times family subscription is here. One rate. Four individual logins. Savings for all. Now you and three others can enjoy unlimited access to The Times, while personalizing your own experience. Learn more. CULTURE CALENDAR By Tom Wright-Piersanti ? The 77th Emmy Awards (Sunday): The monoculture isn’t dead, exactly, but it’s not what it once was. That’s especially true for TV, which over the span of a few decades has gone from our great cultural meeting place to our most fragmented form of entertainment. Did you watch that show, or are you going to binge it in a few years? Do you even have that streaming service? “Severance,” the most-nominated show this year, may be the closest thing we have now to a collective TV experience — and it gets about a tenth of the viewership that an episode of “Roseanne” would get in the 1990s. Still, it’s nice to celebrate great art. “Severance” is excellent. Good luck to Mark S., Helly R. and the rest tomorrow. For more: John Koblin compares “Severance” with another nominated drama, “The Pitt,” to understand the state of modern TV. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Christopher Testani for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Brown Butter Peach Cake Gather ye peaches while ye may, because the season is ending fast. Then, use them to make Millie Peartree’s brown butter peach cake, a crumble-topped coffeecake-like confection that’s studded with sweet, juicy fruit. Serve it plain or gently scoop some vanilla ice cream on top. It’s just the kind of easy, homey cake that celebrates summer stone fruit before the season slips into apple-picking and pumpkin spice. REAL ESTATE Pat and Maria Toth Joel Goldberg for The New York Times The Hunt: Two empty-nesters toured some condo communities on Long Island with about $650,000 to spend. Which did they choose? Play our game. What you get for $1.1 million in Berlin: a loft with a custom kitchen in a former film studio and factory; a full-floor apartment in a snail-shaped glass building; a duplex maisonette in a new building on Am Köllnischen Park. LIVING Nate Abbott for The New York Times 36 hours in Sedona: Rising from the Arizona desert like a giant Surrealist sculpture garden, it’s famed for hiking and biking, healing and wellness, galleries and boutiques. Wild swimming: It’s the most luxurious hotel amenity of all. Here are five hotels that offer it. For foodies: Here’s an assortment of European culinary events to whet your autumnal appetite, including celebrations of truffles in Istria and pistachios on a Greek island. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER You (probably) don’t need to upgrade your phone This week, Apple announced a shiny new lineup of iPhones. And while there’s plenty to get excited about (including the thinnest iPhone yet), our tech expert’s advice is clear: If you have a phone that you’re happy with, keep it. If you properly care for your phone, you won’t need to replace it every year, or even every other year. Doing just a few things with your phone — like keeping it out of extreme temperatures, not charging it to 100 percent (yes, really) and updating the software regularly — can ensure it will last for a long while. — Haley Jo Lewis Join us for Wirecutter’s 3-part phone newsletter series to learn how to use your phone better. GAME OF THE WEEK Abbie Parr/AP Photo, Ethan Miller and Brandon Vallance/Getty Images W.N.B.A. playoffs: The postseason has arrived. And unlike the past few years, when New York and Las Vegas were clear favorites, there’s quite a bit of parity this time. In The Athletic, Ben Pickman highlights five story lines to watch. Here are a few: The Minnesota Lynx, who narrowly lost in last year’s finals, are the top seed. They have been especially dominant in home games, with a 20-2 record. The Las Vegas Aces are on a 16-game winning streak. Their star, A’ja Wilson, has averaged more than 26 points and 11 rebounds per game over that span. The Golden State Valkyries are the first expansion team to make the playoffs. Their defense is a strength; they allow the fewest points in the paint. Round 1 begins on Sunday, with games on ESPN and ABC. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was munchkin. 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 15, 2025 Author Members Posted September 15, 2025 September 14, 2025 Good morning. Today we’re launching Believing, a newsletter about modern religion and spirituality. To kick it off, we’re exploring how chatbots are mimicking chaplains — and even gods. ChatwithGod.ai Chatting with God? By Lauren Jackson I am an editor for The Morning and the host of Believing, a new newsletter. Delphine Collins, a 43-year-old preschool teacher, used to go to McDonald’s for breakfast before work. She’d always order the Big Breakfast — eggs, sausage and pancakes — as the sun turned Detroit’s skyline pink. She stopped going, though, when a woman in her neighborhood was stabbed to death while working there. Collins, who fled Liberia’s civil war years ago, turned to a spiritual chatbot for comfort. It offered a psalm and said that “the Scriptures remind us of God’s power to heal and restore.” She said it helped. She isn’t alone. Tens of millions of people are turning to A.I.-powered religious apps that mimic conversations with clergy — or even God. These apps are rocketing to the top of Apple’s App Store. Bible Chat, a Christian app, has more than 30 million downloads. Hallow, a Catholic app, was Apple’s most-downloaded app at one point last year, ahead of Netflix, Instagram and TikTok. The apps are attracting tens of millions of dollars in investments, and people are paying up to $70 a year for subscriptions. Now, other apps — like Pray.com, a platform that encourages people to pray and has about 25 million downloads — are rolling out chatbots, too. I’ve been reporting on these apps for a story we published today. It was part of my work on Believing, a new Times newsletter on modern religion and spirituality that we’re launching today. (Sign up to get Believing each week.) Below, I explain why these chatbots are so popular, as well as what concerns they raise. Personalized guidance This is an excerpt from a user’s conversation on ChatwithGod.ai. ChatwithGod.ai In religious texts, the protagonists are often ghosted: Moses wandered in the desert. Job’s suffering seemingly had no end. Muhammad petitioned heaven and, for a period, found silence. Their predicament is universal. People often seek cosmic help in their toughest moments and then wait for a response. To some, this was a business opportunity. Tech founders realized chatbots could offer people the instant, personalized support that clergy can’t always provide. Krista Rogers, who is 61 and lives in Xenia, Ohio, goes to church regularly and uses religious apps. She also turns to a chatbot when she has spiritual questions that she doesn’t necessarily want to ask her pastor, including about remarriage after divorce. “It is more low-stakes,” she said of talking to a chatbot. Plus, she added, “you don’t want to disturb your pastor at 3 in the morning.” Several religious leaders told me they were supportive of the chatbots as long as they complement — but don’t replace — traditional religious communities. “There is a whole generation of people who have never been to a church or synagogue,” said Rabbi Jonathan Romain, a leader in Britain’s Reform Judaism movement. “Spiritual apps are their way into faith.” Others are more wary. “The curmudgeon in me says there is something good about really, really wrestling through an idea, or wrestling through a problem, by telling it to someone,” said Fr. Mike Schmitz, a Catholic priest and podcaster. “I don’t know if that can be replaced.” He is also worried about data privacy. “I wonder if there isn’t a larger danger in pouring your heart out to a chatbot,” he said. “Is it at some point going to become accessible to other people?” Seeking omniscience In the past few years, chatbots have become so many things — tutors, therapists, research assistants and engineers — that their foray into chaplaincy may seem unremarkable. This area of life, though, is different. Religions are in the business of omniscience. They promise answers to the unknowable, encounters with the mysterious, and communion with the divine. While chatbots can seem all-knowing, they’re only a facsimile. They borrow the aggregated wisdom of the internet, but they are incapable of cultivating their own. (At least, for now!) Many people have devoted their entire human lives to spiritual contemplation; chatbots offer replies in about three seconds. Still, they are shaping how people think about huge, eternal concerns — salvation, deliverance, confession. Karen Fugelo, who works at a middle school in Pennsylvania, has turned to religious apps for advice on perhaps the most urgent of spiritual matters — death. “My mother is going to be 95 and reaching the end of her life’s journey,” she said. On Hallow, Fugelo asked the chatbot “how to prepare myself as well as my mother for going to be with God.” That’s also what Laurentiu Balasa had in mind when he created Bible Chat, after the death of his own father eventually brought him back to church. “People come to us with all different types of challenges: mental health issues, well-being, emotional problems, work problems, money problems,” Balasa told me. “I believe this is a new way of approaching faith.” Read the full story here, and sign up to get my Believing newsletter in your inbox every Sunday. THE LATEST NEWS Charlie Kirk Anna Watts for The New York Times After Charlie Kirk’s assassination, historians say that America will need to decide what type of country it wants to be moving forward, Elisabeth Bumiller writes. The suspect in the case chatted with friends about photos the F.B.I. released from the crime scene, joking that his “doppelganger” did it. Kirk’s widow, Erika, is grieving in public — and mixing the personal with the political. She has vowed to continue Turning Point USA, the group he founded. In an era of polarization, unity is not President Trump’s mission, Peter Baker writes. International In Kathmandu, Nepal. Atul Loke for The New York Times A wave of arson tied to protests in Nepal has left dozens dead and overwhelmed a burn unit at one of the capital’s hospitals. Tens of thousands of people attended a far-right rally in London. Thousands of antiracist demonstrators held a counterprotest. Children under 5 in Gaza are particularly vulnerable to starvation. See what a lack of food does to a child’s body. Two boat accidents in a week in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed more than 200 people, dozens of them students, and left over 100 missing. River transport isn’t regulated there. Ukraine is struggling to defend itself against growing waves of Russian attack drones. Trump’s campaign to stop coup plot charges against Jair Bolsonaro has pushed Brazil closer to China. But some Brazilian lawmakers are discussing how to free the former president, who is starting a 27-year prison term. Other Big Stories Under Joe Biden, Lina Khan revamped the Federal Trade Commission. Now, she’s trying to remake the Democratic Party. Paramount criticized a boycott of Israeli film institutions that more than 4,000 actors and directors have endorsed. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Why do students’ reading scores keep falling? Social media. The drop aligns with when social media platforms began targeting our youth. “The circumstantial evidence is sufficiently strong to justify more experimentation with bell-to-bell phone bans in schools,” Martin West writes for Education Week. Parents. Many adults don’t know how to read, or read only at a primary school level, and it’s getting worse. “A major focus must be in investing in educating entire families,” Eugene Scott writes for The Boston Globe. FROM OPINION Profanity has become too common, and it’s making the world seem smaller and meaner, Mark Edmundson writes. Here’s a column by Carlos Lozada on the Kirk assassination. New: The Times family subscription is here. One rate. Four individual logins. Savings for all. Now you and three others can enjoy unlimited access to The Times, while personalizing your own experience. Learn more. MORNING READS Some 2025 Emmy nominees, clockwise from top left: Britt Lower, Seth Rogen, Adam Brody and Brian Tyree Henry. Thea Traff for The New York Times, Sinna Nasseri for The New York Times, Kadar Small for The New York Times, Adali Schell for The New York Times The Emmys: They’re tonight. Read what to watch for and how you can tune in, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern. Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was about hotels where you can swim in natural waters. Film: Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming version of “Frankenstein” offers a new interpretation of the monster: It will appear newly born rather than repaired, with no stitches. “Fit for Life”: Marilyn Diamond, who wrote a blockbuster diet book, died at 81. She attracted millions of adherents to a fruit-and-vegetable-rich regimen but also drew sharp criticism from the medical establishment. SPORTS College football: Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz collected his 206th win as a Big Ten coach, surpassing the Ohio State legend Woody Hayes. The record came in Ferentz’s 27th year with the Hawkeyes. Trending: People online were discussing how No. 6 Georgia prevailed over No. 15 Tennessee, 44-41, in overtime. The game ended on a 1-yard touchdown run that officials said was short, but video replay overturned the call. N.B.A.: Some basketball fans may need to pay nearly $1,000 to watch every game this season. Find out what it could cost you. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “The Secret of Secrets,” by Dan Brown: Dan Brown is back, and once again he delivers a novel that reads like a very entertaining movie. The sixth installment in the Robert Langdon series opens with the mysterious near-death of a woman in Prague. Langdon, Brown’s long-adventuring professor of symbology, happens to be in town, and he must rescue his plus-one, who has been targeted by a mysterious organization after making a significant breakthrough in the field of human consciousness. Capers abound, as they tend to do in a Brown vehicle. This one also happens to be “a wistful testament to the power of the printed word,” our critic writes. “At a time when reading sometimes seems to be in terminal decline and books have ceded influence to listicles, podcasts and video, it’s heartening to pick up a fat volume that dares to insist otherwise.” More on Books Looking for the best — and sturdiest — books for toddlers? Start here. Blackmail, betrayal and murder are stars of these new thrillers. THE INTERVIEW Cameron Crowe Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times By David Marchese This week’s subject for “The Interview” is the writer-director Cameron Crowe, who is publishing a memoir, “The Uncool,” next month. In it he shares the personal dramas — of the rock ’n’ roll and family varieties — that inspired the tender self-mythologizing of his film “Almost Famous.” But the book’s tight focus means there’s a lot still left to explore, like the dissolution of his marriage, his recent career struggles, and what he saw in his most memorable leading men. Tom Cruise was in your films “Jerry Maguire” and “Vanilla Sky.” But I’m curious for your perspective on Tom Cruise’s career over the last 10 years or so. He’s really focused on these spectacular films, the “Mission: Impossible” movies. Do you think his interests as a storyteller have just diverged from the kind of work that he was making with you? I see that there’s a time coming where he’s going to segue into character roles as strongly as he segued into doing action movies of the highest quality. That Paul Newman character phase is just around the corner and will fry people’s minds. I’ll tell you one little thing: I have the same lawyer as Clint Eastwood, and he invited me to a dinner party. He sat me next to Clint Eastwood, and I was so nervous. What do you say to Clint Eastwood? So I’m sitting there and Clint Eastwood leans over and says, “Tom Cruise.” And I go: “Oh, man, Tom Cruise.” And he goes, “In a hundred years, they’re gonna look back — that’s the career, Tom Cruise’s career.” You know, even as a younger man, you were writing these battered idealist characters: Jerry Maguire, Lloyd Dobler in “Say Anything.” But since you wrote those characters, you’ve experienced so much more life — more ups, more downs. So I wonder if you think about those characters any differently at 68 than you did when you wrote them? Also, what’s the state of your own idealism? The fires of my own idealism burn brightly. It’s kind of how I live. I love all those characters. Is that crazy? I love them because they’re part of my family in a way. They all still speak to me in a way. And sitting here talking, it does make me want to capture things that are happening in my life right now, too. I want to be that person that writes about my age group in some way or another, as I get older. I’ve got some catching up to do. Read more of the interview here or watch a longer version of the interview on our YouTube channel. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Watch “Hedda,” in which Tessa Thompson puts a sexy, messy spin on the “female Hamlet.” Save your camera with a strap. Trust us. Revert to wired earbuds — it’s cool again. MEAL PLAN Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susie Theodorou. With kids back in school, Emily Weinstein has five suggestions for what to cook on a weeknight when everything feels busy, including chicken, cod and quesadillas. (Also, we recently published our annual list of 100 easy dinner recipes to make this year.) NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were anabiotic, antibiotic and botanic. Can you put eight historical events — including Lincoln’s first Inaugural Address, the evolution of the U.S. flag, and the creation of the smiley face — 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: Evan Gorelick, Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, 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 September 15, 2025 Author Members Posted September 15, 2025 September 15, 2025 Good morning. Here’s the latest: Kirk assassination: Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah said the suspect had been “radicalized” after he dropped out of college. Sudan: Starving children are eating animal feed in a besieged city. Emmys: “The Pitt,” a low-budget medical series, won best drama. More news is below. But first, we answer your questions on A.I. In Chicago. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times A.I. questions By Adam B. Kushner I’m the editor of this newsletter. Artificial intelligence is no longer a gee-whiz technology. It’s already reshaping the workplace, the academy, the culture. The Times employs many reporters who cover those changes. We recently invited readers of The Morning to submit questions about artificial intelligence. You wanted to know who’s winning and losing, how the tech works and how governments are coping. To answer, we enlisted beat experts from across the newsroom. (Got a question for us? Submit it here.) The tech How does A.I. use energy and how much does it use? Stephanie Christie, San Clemente, Calif. Karen Weise, a tech reporter who has covered data centers, writes: A.I. needs a lot of power. There’s not enough electricity to meet that demand, so U.S. energy consumption will rise. Some could come from growing renewable sources and a potential revival of nuclear power, but for now much is coming from natural gas, which contributes to climate change. In Louisiana, for example, three new gas plants will be built to power a massive Meta data center. In the long term, new breakthroughs could reduce the climate burden: Maybe A.I. will become more efficient, and maybe it will make other industries more efficient. Tech companies hope new power technologies pan out, including smaller nuclear reactors, improved batteries, geothermal sources and nuclear fusion. I’m retired — and not exposed to A.I. at work or in school. But I don’t want to be a Luddite, like elders of yore who said they didn’t need to know how to use a computer or search the web. What should I do to keep up? Lindy Washburn, Fair Lawn, N.J. Brian X. Chen, a tech columnist, writes: OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot is what started this whole conversation about A.I., so, at minimum, I’d suggest using a web browser to visit chatgpt.com and start typing away. Some ideas: Ask the chatbot to draft a letter by typing “write a testy letter to my electricity provider asking why my bill was so high last month.” Ask the chatbot a question that you would normally type into Google.com, such as, “What’s the difference between the iPhone 17 and iPhone 12?” Ask the chatbot to produce images by typing something like “generate an illustration of a cat on a window sill.” From there, just use your imagination. Tech companies are trying to stop hallucinations, where A.I.s give fictitious answers. Why does this phenomenon happen and what work is being done to rectify this problem? Julie Lynn Moore, Marion, Ind. Cade Metz, who reports on artificial intelligence, writes: Companies have been working on this problem for years. And in some cases, they have managed to reduce the number of hallucinations and other mistakes made by these A.I. systems. But the truth is that there is no known way of ensuring that they produce accurate information. When you type questions into a chatbot, it uses mathematical probabilities to choose each response. This means that a certain number of responses are going to be wrong. The trick is to always be aware that these systems make mistakes. Be skeptical of everything they say — and always double-check important information. It’s getting harder to tell A.I.-generated content from human-made content. What efforts exist to address this? Joel Dixon, Round Rock, Texas Stuart Thompson, who covers the spread of misinformation, writes: There are some companies that analyze images, videos and text for signs that they are made by A.I. Our tests from a few years ago showed that some were pretty good, while others really struggled. The companies say it is an arms race: as they improve their A.I. detectors, the A.I. tools get better, too. For text, we have sometimes used GPTZero. For images, we have used AI Or Not. These tools are merely a starting point. If you see something dubious, just pause and think. If you have any doubts, don’t share. (To see how hard it is to recognize A.I. videos now, try my quiz.) A drone demonstrating how it would deliver packages. Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times Business and the economy What job industries are less likely to be taken over by A.I. and more likely to require humans? Audrey Toda, Woodside, Calif. Lydia DePillis, who reports on the American economy, writes: Hi Audrey — this is a simple question with a surprisingly complex answer. So far, the most endangered occupations are those that process a lot of formulaic information: Think financial consultants, medical billing analysts, language translators. In some professions, such as computer programming, A.I. might augment a worker’s capabilities rather than replace them, making the worker more productive. If there’s enough demand for those services, the industry could actually add jobs. Right now, there’s little evidence that A.I. is wreaking havoc on employment, but it’s early days. Ultimately, the industries safest from A.I. are those that require skilled physical work, whether it’s carpentry or classical dance. Which countries stand to gain the most in terms of access to minerals, computer chips, data centers and the skill sets that will be most valuable in managing A.I. for the world? Lindsey Deperi-Franz, Boulder, Colorado Adam Satariano, a tech correspondent based in London, writes: The U.S. is the biggest winner, but other countries stand to gain. China has promising A.I. companies and controls the supply of many key minerals needed for chips, data centers and other tech. The Netherlands is home to the complex lithography machines needed to make leading A.I. chips. Taiwan is the global hub for chip manufacturing. The U.A.E., Malaysia and Sweden are building data centers. Australia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia could also benefit through the production of minerals like lithium, cobalt and nickel. Large language models hoover up writing and data from around the web. How do copyright and intellectual property rights factor in? Charlotte Keene, Austin, Texas Cade Metz, who reports on artificial intelligence, writes: That question is currently being decided by more than 40 court cases across the country. This includes a suit The New York Times brought against OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, claiming that the companies trained their A.I. using our stories without permission or payment. (OpenAI and Microsoft have denied those claims.) This month, the A.I. start-up Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to a group of authors and publishers after a judge ruled that the company had illegally downloaded and stored millions of copyrighted books. It was the largest payout in the history of U.S. copyright cases, and it could pave the way for more companies to pay large sums to rights holders, either through court settlements or licensing fees. But the many court battles over A.I. and copyright are only just getting started — and there are many legal questions yet to be decided. Government and oversight What government oversight is in place to prevent the use of A.I. for propaganda and disinformation? Lori Brown, Santa Cruz, Calif. Cecilia Kang, a D.C.-based reporter who covers tech policy, writes: The short answer is none. There is no federal law against A.I.-generated propaganda or disinformation. And if there were, tech companies would surely challenge it in court on free speech grounds. But there are efforts in states to curb the use of deepfakes and other A.I.-generated content in elections, with required disclosures when the technology is being used. If A.I. displaces millions of jobs — making it harder for a huge share of the population to pay taxes and buy goods or services — will federal or state governments have a plan to address such a historic disruption? Todd Hill, Fredericktown, Ohio Benjamin Casselman, the Times’s chief economics correspondent, writes: Everyone in Silicon Valley is talking about the ways A.I. could change the economy. But that discussion has barely begun to shape policy debates. And given the uncertainty around A.I., it’s hard to know what those policies should even be. Will it displace a subset of workers or lead to a more fundamental change to the nature of work? Will it create new categories of jobs, and, if so, what skills will workers need? The government’s history of addressing major economic shifts isn’t encouraging — think about the failure to help workers displaced by the industrial revolution or globalization. That is partly because the effects of technological changes can be hard to predict. In the 1990s, many people thought the internet would change the economy, but few foresaw how. That means government policies almost always end up responding to problems once they develop, rather than anticipating them before they occur. THE LATEST NEWS Charlie Kirk Utah’s governor said the suspect had a “leftist ideology,” without giving specifics, and that his romantic partner was transitioning genders. The Trump administration has asked Congress to approve millions in emergency funding to increase security for the Supreme Court. 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