The New York Times

[phkrause]

December 26, 2025

Good morning. Sam is away.

The U.S. launched a number of strikes against ISIS fighters in Nigeria who, the White House asserts, have been targeting Christians. The strikes involved missiles fired from a Navy ship in the Gulf of Guinea and hit insurgents in two ISIS camps. The operation was done in coordination with the Nigerian military, according to a U.S. military official.

We’ll have more news below. But first, we have a look back at the most powerful photographs that Times journalists captured this year.

The New York Times

The year in pictures

	By Dionne Searcey

A president returned to power in America. Wildfires ravaged populated neighborhoods of Los Angeles. A fragile cease-fire took hold in Gaza. A conflict in Sudan wore on. Over the course of a turbulent year, photographers captured those and other events with intrepidness and determination — even when they put themselves at risk to do so.

Doggedly, they trailed a young mayoral candidate as he electrified his base in New York. In cities across the United States, they were on the front lines of an increasingly aggressive immigration crackdown.

In their bold photographs, they show their own neighbors eking out a life amid the rubble of their destroyed homelands. Their diligence allows us to peek inside a quiet vigil for a coyote returning to its pups, and to observe a tender hug between a boy and a man with 100 years between them. The images that make up “The Year in Pictures” are stunning.

Looking back on the year through those fleeting moments gives us a chance to reflect on the world, and to endeavor to understand it better. Here’s a taste of what The Times’s photographers have done.

Jan. 9: Los Angeles

A house destroyed by the Palisades fire, which killed 12 people and engulfed thousands of homes. Once known for its stunning views, the Pacific Palisades area was left unrecognizable by the blaze.

Kyle Grillot of The New York Times says:

I was struggling to find something that wasn’t just completely destroyed, something that showed human life and habitation. Besides maybe one house that didn’t burn, it was kind of hard to tell what you even were looking at. I thought the pool was something you could relate to. Times were had there.

Jan. 19: Ilulissat, Greenland

Sea gulls swarmed a fishing boat in the Ilulissat Icefjord. Greenland was thrust into a geopolitical maelstrom when President Trump, covetous of the island’s untapped mineral resources, announced that the United States would take it over.

Ivor Prickett of The New York Times says:

Fishing was such a big part of the community, so I was trying to get a sense of what life was like for fishermen. It was so cold I could barely use my hands. It was a nice moment where I saw them gutting their catch, and every single sea gull in the fjord arrived. A beautiful place.

March 12: Khartoum, Sudan

The commander of a sniper unit in the Sudanese Army observing Rapid Support Forces positions from the bedroom of a deserted apartment. Two years into a civil war, Sudan’s military recaptured the presidential palace in the devastated capital.

Ivor Prickett of The New York Times says:

Just days later, those same troops we were with took over the river and presidential palace, and within two weeks it was all under the control of the Sudanese military. Declan Walsh [chief Africa correspondent] and I were some of the first journalists to set foot inside Khartoum proper. That was a huge moment and a privileged position.

May 10: Arcadia, Calif.

After the Eaton fire destroyed their campus, 40 students at Aveson School of Leaders came together to stage their spring musical, “Alice in Wonderland.” For children and their families grappling with loss and devastation, rehearsals provided much-needed normalcy.

Isadora Kosofsky of The New York Times says:

The play was really an escape for some of these kids. Losing a school is traumatic, but some of these kids lost their homes as well. Their school had been an oasis in the hills. It had a yurt and an orchard, and the kids used to garden and take care of chickens. It was their own wonderland.

May 12: San Francisco

Coyotes vanished from San Francisco decades ago, after a campaign that encouraged people to poison or shoot them. Now, the animals have become ubiquitous in the city once again. Some residents find them delightful; others view them with disdain.

Loren Elliott of The New York Times says:

I was working with a wildlife ecologist. We set up a camera and immediately retreated. I stood in the forest hiding behind a tree on top of a stepladder. I waited for four or five hours until one of the coyote parents came back. I just started furiously clicking the remote trigger in my hand, hoping I had something good.

July 16: Manhattan

Federal officers detaining Carlos Javier Lopez Benitez, a 27-year-old from Paraguay, after he attended an asylum hearing at the Federal Plaza courthouse. Migrants showing up for mandatory court dates and check-ins increasingly ended up in ICE custody.

Todd Heisler, a Times staff photographer, says:

Many of the detentions I photographed were so abrupt that we were unable to glean any information about the person. Often nearby family members were left reeling, sobbing, unable or unwilling to speak. Sometimes we could barely get a person’s country of origin as they were whisked off. Throughout the day, this tableau plays out over and over.

July 24: Kharkiv, Ukraine

A woman fled her apartment with her pet dogs after Russian bombs exploded nearby. Russia showed no signs of pulling back in its war, instead intensifying its long-range strikes on cities and attacks across the front line.

David Guttenfelder, a Times staff photographer

Aug. 4: Manhattan

Sophie Becker, 31, came to New York with dreams of becoming an actress. Years later, she’s putting on her ventriloquist act at downtown establishments like Jean’s and Roxy Cinema with her dummies Ronnie, pictured, and Jerry.

Dina Litovsky of The New York Times says:

I followed the ventriloquist from her house to her performance. The whole train was looking at her. She was doing a little performing, doing her voices and things. People were coming back from work, everybody was tired, and you could see how delighted everybody was. They probably came home and told everybody about it. It was a fun train ride.

Sept. 16: Baidoa, Somalia

Malyun Ali Ibrahim and her daughter at an emergency feeding center. Hunger and disease surged, and the health care system was in disarray in Somalia after the Trump administration dismantled the Agency for International Development and ended much foreign assistance.

Brian Otieno of The New York Times

Sept. 21: Khan Younis, Gaza Strip

Palestinians at the Al-Mawasi displacement camp waiting to receive a free meal. Leaders of 20 aid organizations issued a statement in September accusing Israel of obstructing aid delivery efforts in Gaza “every step of the way.”

Saher Alghorra of The New York Times

Sept. 30: Quantico, Va.

Top U.S. military commanders were summoned for campaign-style speeches from President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Trump leveraged the meeting to trumpet his policy moves, and suggested troops should use cities as “training grounds.”

Doug Mills, a Times staff photographer, says:

This was almost like a Rembrandt when you looked out and saw all of this high-brass military sitting as stiff and straight and proper as you can. Never had that many generals been assembled in one location to hear the president speak. It was so striking to see them sitting in chairs like they were at the movie theater.

Oct. 14: Chicago

Smoke filled the air after federal agents used tear gas during a confrontation with residents on the far South Side. The agents were conducting an immigration enforcement operation; locals reacted by throwing objects and shouting, “ICE go home!”

Jamie Kelter Davis of the Times says:

Most of the people there were families, and people out watching. I saw the tear gas, and I ducked and put on my gas mask. They were throwing canisters. That was right at the end, when the agents were trying to leave. It was like the grand finale at the fireworks show, like, We’ll just throw it all out there.

Nov. 11: Charallave, Venezuela

Deisy Carolina Venecia Farías and her son Emmanuel, 11. They were apart for nearly seven months after she was detained by U.S. immigration officials and deported; for three of those months, the boy lived alone in their Texas home.

Adriana Loureiro Fernandez of the Times says:

He’s her youngest son and they have this really beautiful relationship. They seemed like best friends. He was alone without his mom and dad for so long, he made himself go to school unsupervised. His mom told me he was intent on presenting himself as clean and organized so his teachers would not suspect that she wasn’t around.

Dec. 8: Damascus, Syria

Fireworks lit the sky over Syria’s capital as tens of thousands of people celebrated the first anniversary of the fall of the dictator Bashar al-Assad and the end of his family’s decades-long tyrannical rule.

David Guttenfelder, a Times staff photographer

Browse all the photos here.

THE LATEST NEWS

Christmas

Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press, Tyler Hicks/The New York Times, Bruna Casas/Reuters, Saher Alghorra for The New York Times, Luis Tato/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In his Christmas address, Pope Leo called for peace and addressed the plights of refugees and the poor.

Some U.S. government agencies posted overtly religious messages for Christmas, including the Department of Homeland Security account, which wrote, “We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior.” Thousands of Venezuelans were unable to join relatives for the holiday after Trump declared the airspace around Venezuela closed. From churches to beaches to war zones, see images of people celebrating Christmas around the world

War in Ukraine

In Odesa. Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times

Residents of Odesa, Ukraine, have been living under hellish conditions after two weeks of repeated Russian bombardment. Volodymyr Zelensky said that he would meet soon with Trump, possibly in the next few days.

More International News

Palestinians continue to be killed in Gaza despite a two-month-old cease-fire. Bashar al-Assad’s generals fled Syria after his regime collapsed a year ago. Now in exile, those generals are plotting to undermine the fledgling government that ousted them. A civil war in Myanmar has collapsed its health system, leading to outbreaks of preventable illnesses like malaria and cholera.

Weather

A record-setting holiday rainstorm in California shut down highways, major interchanges and airport runways. New York City is expecting as much as 5 to 7 inches of snow later today into Saturday. It could be the biggest snowfall there in more than three years.

OPINIONS

How much do you remember about Trump’s first year as president? Take Gail Collins’s quiz to find out.

Here is a column by Michelle Goldberg on the resistance against Trump.

The Times Sale starts now: Our best rate for readers of The Morning.

Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year.

MORNING READS

In Paris. Renaud Marion

A retail phenomenon: A Paris boutique has become a favorite of fashion insiders in just six months.

Mix with the locals: Apple’s new Live Translation feature lives up to the hype, according to our reporter who tested it on a trip to Japan.

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was about some weird signs of aging.

TODAY’S NUMBER

$10

— That’s how much money one nonprofit pays annually for a 99-year lease on seven theaters in Manhattan. (There are 64 years left.)

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The Green Bay Packers clinched a playoff berth on Christmas Day when the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Detroit Lions.

Tennis: The seven-time Grand Slam singles winner Venus Williams married Andrea Preti, a Danish-born Italian actor and model.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Mbatata. Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Roscoe Betsill. Prop Stylist: Sophia Eleni Pappas.

These soft-baked Malawian sweet potato cookies, called mbatata, have a tender crumb with invigorating notes of black pepper, nutmeg and allspice. They’re made from sweet potato purée lightly folded with flour, butter, brown sugar, dried fruit and spices. They go perfectly with a warm cup of coffee or tea. An impossible-to-resist (but optional) lemon-sugar glaze adds an acidic bite. Try it out.

FREEZE FRAME

Brian Darwas Lanna Apisukh for The New York Times

Film is a dying medium — if not in the artistic sense, then certainly in the physical one. Prints of films are delicate, susceptible to decay and cursed with a limited shelf life. And they’ve been mostly stowed away since digital formats took over in the early 2000s.

But not everyone is ready to give up. A Times reporter, Andrew Keh, found a group of film enthusiasts who assembled not long ago at the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers, N.Y., to watch a 35-millimeter reel of “American Psycho.” The reel belongs to Brian Darwas, who began collecting prints around 15 years ago and now has hundreds of them.

Read about how private collectors are keeping film alive.

More on culture

This year, K-pop peaked in terms of global awareness as “KPop Demon Hunters” became the most watched film in Netflix history. But the future success of the genre may depend on the results of a legal dispute involving one of its most innovative groups.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

In Park City, Utah. Alex Goodlett for The New York Times

Hit the slopes in Park City, Utah. One of the ski destination’s main resort areas, Deer Valley, has more than doubled its terrain.

Steam your clothes. A good steamer can de-rumple creased, tired-looking duds in minutes, without the need for an ironing board.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was phoenix.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

December 27, 2025

Good morning. This week, we close out the year with your best advice of 2025.

María Jesús Contreras

Good calls

	By Melissa Kirsch

I try to follow the maxim “all unsolicited advice is self-serving” and ask before I offer my opinion on what I think someone else should do. I think we all love receiving well-meaning guidance; we just bristle when it arrives unbidden, when it lands as thinly disguised criticism.

Each fall, I solicit advice from readers of The Morning, asking for the best wisdom they received in the previous 12 months. This year, as last year, I’m struck by how many people have been moved by Mel Robbins’s “Let Them” theory. I was intrigued by the couple of people whose best advice came from a chatbot (in my opinion, the human advice was better). Lots of you were changed by advice to stretch, drink water, walk more — these are perennials. I don’t know why I can’t seem to take the advice to drink a glass of water upon waking up. One reader suggested it’s watering yourself, as you would a plant. I like this — some mornings the only word that seems appropriate to describe how I feel is “wilted.”

The best advice I received this year was from my friend Lori, who, when I was expressing anxiety about some far-off worry, advised, “Move the horizon closer.” Another bit that I’ve returned to: “What if it all works out?” Taken together, the instruction seems to be: Keep your gaze in the present, and if you must consider the future, choose the best-case scenario to ponder. It’s just as likely to transpire as the worst-case one, after all.

The best advice you received

Nothing changes if nothing changes. — Kristine Tobin Balasz, Charlevoix, Mich. If it’s meant to serve you, and it doesn’t (and it’s affordable), replace it. Daily things like your bag, your water bottle, your socks. Find ones you actually like using. — Alissa Gulin, Laurel, Md. Before your kids go to college, find something you are passionate about other than work. — Sandra Beaulieu, Bellevue, Wash. You don’t need to tell everyone everything that goes into making the chicken soup. — Hannah Schoff, New York City Your parents are also doing things for the first time. Cut them some slack. — Katie Claytor, Richmond, Va. Don’t think harder, breathe deeper. Most of us are surviving on shallow sips of air. — Carly Sotas, Los Angeles Never second-guess going to a funeral. — Kathy Nechanicky, Lakeville, Minn. We tend to forget that baby steps still move us forward. — Becki Moss, Sarasota, Fla. Good conversations have lots of doorknobs. — Samantha Good, Portland, Ore. It’ll be fine or it’ll be over. — Nathalie Cunningham, Tacoma, Wash. Do dishes when the baby does dishes. — Lisa Francomacaro, White River Junction, Vt. Ask yourself: What if there was no problem to solve right now? — Brianán Kiernan, San Francisco Write what’s bothering you down on a piece of paper; put it in a little box. A year later, read what’s in there and see if you don’t start laughing. — Diane Huebner, Merced, Calif. “Wear the ring.” — A jeweler who cleaned a family heirloom I’d kept in a box for 50 years for fear of losing it. — Arline Sirkus, New York City Best advice for decluttering: If you didn’t own it, would you buy it again? — Margaret Roberts, Kodiak, Alaska Stop trying to calm the storm. Calm yourself, the storm will pass. — Lyn Banghart, Easton, Md. Go outside first thing in the morning before you do anything else. — Carrie Swift Heck, Lee, Mass. Your job needs to leave you enough time to go for walks with your old dog. — Gillian Williams, Madrid, Spain Ask for a favor, get advice. Ask for advice, get a favor. Asking for a favor can put someone in an uncomfortable spot, but asking for advice taps into their intelligence and shows respect. It may feel slower, but it ultimately gets you what you want more effectively. — Max Zawacki, Conroe, Texas Even in the hardest of times, you have the ability to whistle in the dark. — Kate Chimenti, Los Gatos, Calif. Don’t make what someone told you into your narrative. — Jean Anderson, Winter Garden, Fla. When going on a trip, ask yourself: Are you going to see places or show yourself? Then pack accordingly. — Marina Selcuk, Oakville, Ontario, Canada Always have a bottle of Champagne chilling in the fridge. — Helen Labun, Montpelier, Vt. Don’t pick up the rope: When someone is starting to argue, state the facts calmly and walk away. — Laurel Givens, Houghton, Mich. Why don’t you get hearing aids? — Amy Kepple Strawser, Columbus, Ohio In order to fall asleep, you pretend to fall asleep. Perhaps that’s how everything works … cheers to faking it ’til you make it. — Christen Bakken, Pine, Colo. Anxiety is not intuition. — Kaylee Davis, Fuquay Varina, N.C. When your 100-pound German shepherd takes off after a squirrel, drop the leash so you don’t end up with a broken arm. — Cherie Walker, Pickens, S.C. From a fellow vegetarian: Don’t bother ordering the sad, token meatless item on the menu when they drag you to a steakhouse. Just get dessert, and relish it. — Emily Wasserman, Portland, Me. Sometimes, you have to let people lie to you. You don’t always have to be right or call people on their nonsense. — Rob Lancia, Nanuet, N.Y. Put away your phone whenever there is a human being in front of you. — Emily Herrick, Vashon, Wash.

For more, here are the reader advice newsletters of years past: 2024, 2023, 2022.

THE LATEST NEWS

Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month. Tetiana Dzhafarova/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Russia launched waves of missiles and attack drones at Kyiv as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine prepared to meet with President Trump on Sunday to discuss a plan to end the war. Trump exempted a lead-spewing smelting facility from air-quality rules. All the facility had to do was email the E.P.A., The Times found. Trump said the targets of airstrikes in Nigeria were Islamic State terrorists responsible for killing Christians. But experts say the situation is much more complicated. A lot has happened during Trump’s past year in office. Times reporters in Washington took a look back at some of the biggest moments.

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

Film and TV

Tyler, the Creator, in a scene from “Marty Supreme.” A24

Josh Safdie’s Ping-pong comedy “Marty Supreme” is chock-full of cameos, including a “Shark Tank” investor, a supermarket magnate and N.B.A. All-Stars. Here’s a guide. Many film and TV hits this year seemed to agree on one thing, the critic Salamishah Tillet writes: The best vantage for exploring our times is the political middle. A new villain aligns with a familiar one in “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third installment in James Cameron’s franchise. Watch Cameron dissect a scene from his film. Kate Winslet’s directorial debut, “Goodbye June,” is based on a script written by her son.

Music

Perry Bamonte, who was a roadie and guitar tech for the Cure before he joined the band full time as a guitarist and keyboard player, died at 65. “The End of an Era,” the Disney+ series exploring Taylor Swift’s globe-trotting concert extravaganza, has come to an end. These are the biggest takeaways.

The British police dropped their criminal investigation into a band that chanted “Death, death, to the I.D.F.,” in reference to Israel’s military. The singer Barry Manilow has lung cancer and will undergo surgery. He postponed several concert dates.

More Culture

Figurines in a shop in Naples, Italy. Nadia Shira Cohen for The New York Times

Italian craftspeople have built scenes depicting Jesus’ birth for generations. This year, some are including Trump statuettes in the Nativity. Puzzle designers are always searching for that “satisfying click.” Here are some of the best creations from the past year. Robert Redford, Roberta Flack, Diane Keaton and Brian Wilson are among the cultural luminaries who died this year. Here’s a tribute to some of them, in their own words.

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.

REAL ESTATE

Clockwise, from left: Claudia and Chris Beiler with their five sons; Katie Israel and her children; Rahul Barua and Winnie Wong; and Adam Stone and Jordan Fenlon. Hannah Yoon; William DeShazer; George Etheredge; Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

The Hunt: This year, we followed families in 17 states and three countries who made their home-buying dreams a reality. Here are the stories that stuck with us.

What you get for $2 million: An 1850 rowhouse in Savannah, Ga.; a 1970s house in Topanga, Calif.; and a home in a converted stable in Washington, D.C.

Space savers: See how designers in Milan combined a bedroom and a kitchen to make the most of 215 square feet.

Wall-to-wall: Carpet is back! Unlike the nylon shags of the 1970s, these floor coverings are made of natural materials and can cost tens of thousands of dollars per room to install.

LIVING

The New York Times

Hit novels: These days, most best sellers are written by authors who are household names. Not these five breakout books.

The year in slang: Do you speak 2025? Take our quiz.

Good housekeeping: Two Mississippians have amassed the world’s largest collection of aprons.

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

The case for an oil-filled radiator

Oil-filled radiators cost more and take longer to heat than fan-forced ceramic space heaters. But once they’re cranking, you can’t beat their comfort. They are great at retaining heat, which creates a more natural-feeling, ambient warmth. My favorite space heater helps keep the chillier rooms in my New England bungalow toasty — walking back into my office when it’s on feels like sliding into a warm bath. Just remember: While radiator-style space heaters are safer than other types, they still present some risks, so it’s important to use them properly. Make sure to avoid contact with water, store them on the floor and try to keep children’s fingers away from the interior fins. — Liam McCabe

GAME OF THE WEEK

Dante Moore of Oregon and Terrance Carter Jr. of Texas Tech. Tom Hauck/Getty Images, Stacy Revere/Getty Images

No. 4 Texas Tech vs. No. 5 Oregon, Orange Bowl: After a fairly sleepy first round, the College Football Playoff seems ready to catch fire. And among the slate of great second-round matchups, this one, between two teams trying to win their first national title, might be the best.

Loosely regulated player payments and unlimited transfers have reshaped the sport, and perhaps no team made better use of the changes this year than Texas Tech. The Red Raiders reportedly spent $25 million to build an all-star roster, with a particular focus on the defensive line. That unit is now one of the best in the country — No. 1 in run defense, and No. 3 in yards per play and points per game.

Oregon, for its part, has an elite offensive line and a great quarterback in Dante Moore, who transferred from U.C.L.A. But as Ralph D. Russo of The Athletic noted in his preview of the game, when Oregon faced Indiana’s powerful defense earlier this year, that offense struggled mightily.

Jan. 1 at 12 p.m. Eastern on ESPN

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was adjacency.

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.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

December 28, 2025

Good morning. President Trump is expected to meet Volodymyr Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago today to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine. It’s been a year since a deadly plane crash in South Korea, but victims’ families are still waiting for answers. And Brigitte Bardot has died.

We’ll have more news below. But first, the host of our Cooking newsletter offers a few ideas for New Year’s Day breakfasts that you can prep ahead of time.

French toast casserole. Christopher Testani for The New York Times

Head start

	By Melissa Clark I’m a columnist for NYT Cooking and the host of the Cooking newsletter.

If your New Year’s Eve is frenetic, a whirlwind lasting way past bedtime, the morning after should be anything but. You want the year’s first breakfast — well, let’s say brunch — to be special yet calm, and preferably cooked by someone operating on a full night’s sleep and no hangover. If such a person is not readily available, however, the next best thing would be to do most of the work ahead while it’s still 2025.

The editors at New York Times Cooking have saved you the difficult first step by collecting 25 make-ahead breakfast dishes that are festive enough for a holiday, but can (mostly) be prepared the day before, so they’re easy to serve up the next morning as you wait for the caffeine to kick in.

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Anyone craving the decadent trifecta of fat, salt and melted cheese will adore this buttery breakfast casserole. The move here is to use croissants, whose flaky layers readily absorb the savory mix of eggs, sausage and Gruyère that they bake in. Crisp on top, soft in the center, delicious all over. Equally indulgent, but meatless, is Sarah Copeland’s crustless egg and cheese quiche, a wobbly, custardy mix of mushrooms and Cheddar or Comté that can be popped in the oven while the coffee brews.

For breakfast pastry lovers, you can’t beat blueberry muffins, especially if they’re as light and cakey as the ones in this recipe from the (now closed) Jordan Marsh department store that Marian Burros adapted years ago. It’s a keeper.

Or maybe your resolutions involve eating more thoughtfully and healthfully, in which case there’s Ifrah Ahmed’s matcha overnight oats, a delightful mash-up of a bowl of oatmeal and a matcha latte. You can make this as potent as you like; add the full teaspoon of matcha powder for a verdant dish with a strong punch of green tea, or use less for something more delicate. Then serve it dolloped with yogurt and covered with berries and mango for pops of color and tanginess.

Armando Rafael for The New York Times

Happy kids mean happy parents, especially when said parents are recovering from a long night. To satisfy early-rising little ones, bake up a batch of homemade Pop-Tarts, which are sure to delight sweet tooths of all ages. Margaux Laskey’s recipe calls for making your own cream cheese pastry and a quick berry jam, but feel free to substitute store-bought pie dough and your favorite jarred fruit preserves. Or go rogue on the filling, substituting chocolate-hazelnut spread or peanut butter and jelly. You can make these up to a week ahead and then warm them up in the toaster oven just before serving.

For a breakfast that doubles as a dessert, Sheela Prakash’s Earl Grey cardamom crumb cake is moist, just sweet enough and covered with nubby, spice-filled streusel that gets gloriously crisp after baking.

If none of these seem quite right, we have 20 other ideas for you here. So go ahead, stay out late and then sleep in knowing that whenever you do make it out of bed, a good breakfast will be waiting for you. It’s the least 2025 can do for 2026.

Want more from Melissa? Her Cooking newsletter features new recipes, easy dinner ideas and smart kitchen tips. Get it in your inbox

THE LATEST NEWS

Immigration

In Iowa. KC McGinnis for The New York Times

Almost a year into Trump’s immigration crackdown, towns across the country are feeling the effects. Workers at import warehouses say that customs officials are helping immigration agents arrest migrants.

Trump Administration

Trump promised radical change in his second term. Here’s what he has done so far. America’s big tech companies are benefiting from the administration’s policies on A.I. and cryptocurrency.

International

In Myanmar. Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

Voters in Myanmar went to the polls today in the country’s first election since a 2021 coup. The ruling military junta is expected to maintain power. Thailand and Cambodia agreed to a brief cease-fire in their 20-day border war. In Yemen, a Saudi-led coalition said that it would intervene if separatists did not withdraw from an oil-rich part of the country.

Science

The National Kidney Registry has arranged thousands of kidney swaps, but it also has paid millions to a company owned by its founder. The age of an ovary, not just the eggs it contains, is important to fertility, recent research suggests.

Other Big Stories

In Australia. Matthew Abbott for The New York Times

Parents around the world are debating whether more countries should follow Australia’s lead and bar children under 16 from social media. Some billionaires say they are considering leaving California because of a proposed wealth tax. Slopes at Telluride, Colo., are closed this weekend because of a labor dispute.

THE SUNDAY DEBATE

It’s a perennial question around this time of year: Should you be wishing people a “Merry Christmas” or a “Happy Holidays”?

Merry Christmas: Wishing someone a “Merry Christmas” isn’t about agreeing with a theology but about recognizing their cultural identity and strengthening relationships. “‘Happy Holidays,’ by contrast, often feels transactional, avoiding engagement instead of encouraging it,” Eli Federman writes for Fox News.

Happy Holidays: The greeting is an appreciation of our country’s religious diversity. “My season’s greeting isn’t a political statement, nor — in keeping with the spirit of the season — should it be,” The Los Angeles Times’s Jackie Calmes writes.

FROM OPINION

Morten Kantsø

Steven Rattner offers 10 charts to show the impact of Trump’s first year back in the White House.

Celebrities spend thousands of dollars on plastic surgery and injections to try to stay beautiful and young. Resist the urge to join them, Marisa Meltzer writes.

Here is a column by Nicholas Kristof on the bright side of a bad year.

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

Michelle Cathey-Casino and Murray Hill Ye Fan for The New York Times

Vows: Murray Hill knows how to put on a show. This one doubled as a wedding.

‘She was pouncing on me’: His wife started taking testosterone. It changed their marriage.

Hard Fork: Tech leaders said A.I. would help cure diseases and fix the planet. But where is all of the A.I.-driven scientific progress?

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was about the year’s surprise hit novels.

Sears’s demise: There are only five stores left in the country. The end looks near for this once-mighty American retailer.

Helping the homeless: A program that tackles the root causes of homelessness for some New Yorkers has a promising track record, but can involve months in a psychiatric ward.

BRIGITTE BARDOT (1934-2025)

Brigitte Bardot Associated Press

The French actress Brigitte Bardot became a world-famous sex symbol with the 1956 film “And God Created Woman.” In the 1950s and ’60s, she was a megastar, hounded by paparazzi and a frequent topic of discussion among France’s intellectual set.

She announced her retirement from films in 1973 and devoted her life to animal rights and welfare. In her later years, she often attracted attention for her contentious political views, which many saw as racist. She died at 91. Read her full obituary.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The Houston Texans clinched a playoff spot with a win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Eligibility: The Heisman Trophy runner-up Diego Pavia is part of a lawsuit challenging an N.C.A.A. rule that counts athletes’ years playing in junior college against their eligibility.

College football: Top teams are already circumventing the sport’s new spending cap.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

Read this week’s magazine.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Fix your lumpy, moldy bathtub caulk with this $5 tool.

Sleep on one of these mattresses if you’re having trouble with back pain.

Ask yourself these seven questions for a happier new year.

MEAL PLAN

David Malosh for The New York Times

It’s a funny moment for food. We usually recommend fast and simple recipes. But this is the time of year that calls for luxury, pageantry and scale — food that requires a team of home cooks and more than a few sets of hands.

In that spirit, Emily Weinstein’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has some recipes for you that are fancy but still Tuesday night-level easy. You’ll love Naz Deravian’s one-pot whole roasted chicken and rice, golden from turmeric and a pinch of saffron, and Joshua McFadden’s chicken ragù bianco, a superb pasta recipe from his new book.

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were gauntlet, ungulate and untangle.

Can you put eight historical events — including the seven-day week, the high five and the three rival popes — 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.

P.S.: The regular Book of the Week and Interview sections of this newsletter are on a holiday break. They will return in January.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

December 29, 2025

Good morning. Sam is away.

President Trump said while hosting Volodymyr Zelensky that a deal to end the war in Ukraine was “maybe very close.” But a proposal appeared unfinished, as Russia rejected several items.

Trump also said the United States had knocked out “a big facility” in Venezuela, an apparent reference to a drug trafficking site. If true, it would be the first known attack on Venezuelan land since Trump’s military campaign there began.

We’ll get to the news below. But first, we look at our year of visual journalism.

Visual journalism

	By Karl Russell I’m a graphics editor.

When President Trump’s supporters started saying they’d like to see his head carved into Mount Rushmore, we wondered: Could it work? Times reporters stitched together more than 120 photos taken at the South Dakota memorial, added a three-dimensional model of Trump’s head, analyzed the local stone and looked back at the challenges overcome by its original sculptor. Click to see what we found.

At The Times, we look for visual ways to tell big news stories. This year, my colleagues built 3-D models of houses, mapped nuclear sites, tracked butterfly populations and offered much more to help readers explore patterns and personalize the news for themselves.

Here are some standouts from the year.

Your home without China

It’s hard to imagine an American home without Chinese products. Many essentials are imported almost exclusively from China — and with new tariffs, prices are rising. We analyzed import data to show where Americans may see product shortages, fewer choices and price increases.

10-minute challenge: Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’

This is my favorite in a series about digging into art. We invite you to gaze at this painting, uninterrupted, for 10 minutes. Can you do it? If you want to do it again, sign up for new challenge notifications on the first Monday of every month.

Can you contain a contagious disease?

To stop the spread of a pathogen like measles (which returned in force this year), you don’t have to vaccinate everyone. How many people are enough? We simulated an outbreak of a hypothetical disease, about as contagious as the flu. (A lot less contagious than measles.) You can experiment with vaccination rates among a population to see how they affect the spread of disease.

The invisible target in Iran

Why was it so difficult to know how much damage U.S. strikes did to the underground Fordo nuclear site in June? For the same reason it was so hard to hit in the first place. It’s buried deep underground and the United States has limited intelligence about what’s down there, though an assessment in the aftermath described it as badly damaged. But a look at the local geology, the facility’s structure and the American bomb offers some clues.

Tanks were just tanks, until drones made them change

In 2022, when Russia tried to take over Ukraine, the two sides’ tank divisions looked much as they did during the Cold War. Now, to thwart drone attacks, the machines roll across the battlefield covered in nets and spikes, dangling chains and unwieldy cages. Have a look at these disguises.

A highway is crumbling. New York can’t agree on how to fix it.

A stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway needs replacing before it falls down. Times reporters captured video of the undersides of one section of the highway to understand its current state. You can see hundreds of steel mesh sheets, including at deteriorated joints, holding the concrete in place. Detailed visualizations show what a proposed replacement might look like.

See how butterflies are surviving, or not, near you

The contiguous United States lost 22 percent of its butterflies in two decades. Check which ones you can expect to find where you live — and which species are thriving or suffering.

What the Black Hawk pilots could see just before the crash

It wasn’t clear what two helicopter pilots noticed before they crashed into a commercial jet above the Potomac River on Jan. 29. So reporters built a 3-D model to recreate what may have been in the aviators’ field of vision minutes before the accident. The analysis is based on audio recordings, flight path data and video footage.

‘Unsafe to inhabit’: The toxic homes of L.A.

The Times asked survivors of the Los Angeles fires in January about their dealings with their home insurance — and received over 500 responses. A majority of people whose homes were still standing said their insurance companies had declined to pay for testing for toxic substances. But scientists have found that even those who are far from the flames can be harmed. We visualized the dangers inside one home.

Related: Insurers are pushing families back into homes contaminated by smoke from wildfires, a New York Times investigation found. Tests revealed the presence of carcinogens and neurotoxins.

Your zodiac sign is 2,000 years out of date

The 12 signs in Western astrology were originally based on the constellations behind the sun, from our perspective on Earth. That was 2,000 years ago. Now the planet’s position has changed relative to the sun. Enter your birthday to see if the sign you thought was yours is truly accurate. For many, it won’t be.

Check out all our best visual journalism here.

THE LATEST NEWS

War in Ukraine

In Palm Beach, Fla.  Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Trump and Zelensky held talks at Mar-a-Lago about a draft peace plan. Zelensky called it a “great meeting,” but aides to Vladimir Putin dismissed the plan. The 20 points in the proposal cover security guarantees and commitments to help rebuild Ukraine. See what is in it.

Politics

A Virginia man confessed to planting pipe bombs near the Capitol before the Jan. 6 attack. Court documents show he believed that the 2020 election had been “tampered with.” What could happen to American cities as immigration is restricted? The country’s history offers clues.

International

China announced live-fire military exercises around Taiwan, a show of force and a warning to the island. A passenger train derailed in Oaxaca, Mexico, killing at least 13 people and injuring nearly 100. Officials are investigating the cause. Benjamin Netanyahu is facing critical choices on issues including Gaza, conscription and a judicial overhaul, with Israeli elections next year. The Philippines is struggling to meet a growing demand for ube, a purple yam.

Other Big Stories

A major winter storm brought dangerous travel conditions to Minnesota and Wisconsin, causing crashes and flight delays. Google has started to introduce a way for users to change their Gmail addresses and keep all their emails. Texas is expanding its park system because of a friendship between a Republican megadonor and an environmental activist.

OPINIONS

Federico Tramonte

Under the Trump administration, Harvard’s new campus orthodoxy is even more stifling than the old, Alex Bronzini-Vender writes.

To those of you resolving to clean house in the new year: Whatever you do, keep your old books, Roger Rosenblatt writes.

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

A photo shoot in Manhattan. Sydney Krantz for The New York Times

Trending: Mirror Palais has become the go-to brand for Generation Z party girls.

Engagements: Read about some of the best marriage proposals from this year.

Your pick: The most-clicked story yesterday was about breakfasts you can make ahead.

Metropolitan Diary: Readers picked their favorite entries of 2025.

Soul singer: Don Bryant spent much of his career as a songwriter for his wife, Ann Peebles. At 75, he finally got his break as a solo act. He died at 83.

TODAY’S NUMBER

11,000

— That’s how many square feet of living space are in Gracie Mansion, where New York City mayors have lived for generations. Zohran Mamdani will give up his 800-square-foot rent-stabilized apartment to live there. He may get a cold reception from the conservative Upper East Side neighborhood.

SPORTS

N.B.A.: Kawhi Leonard scored a career-high 55 points, tying a single-game record for the Los Angeles Clippers and paving the way for the team’s fourth straight win.

Motorsports: Two people were hospitalized after large fire started at a home owned by the NASCAR star Denny Hamlin.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Black-eyed peas are a Southern good-luck tradition for New Year’s Day, one with deep roots in African American culture. Simmer the peas with charred onion, chile de árbol and cloves, and they’ll soak up deep flavor. This recipe comes from the chef Mashama Bailey of the restaurant Grey in Savannah, Ga., who makes it for her New Year’s feast.

SÃO PAULO BIENAL

Gê Viana’s “A colheita de Dan” (“Dan’s Harvest”), 2025. via Fundação Bienal de São Paulo; photo by Natt Fejfar

What if we think about humanity not as a state of being but as something we must actively practice — something we have to do? That’s the question posed by this year’s Bienal de São Paulo, on view through Jan. 11.

This year’s show includes more than 1,200 works. See a few of them here.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Check out these stealth recliners.

Buy a new purse without spending too much.

Sleep on your stomach easily with these mattresses.

Stream a Brigitte Bardot movie. (She died at 91 yesterday.)

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was chlorophyll.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

December 30, 2025

Good morning. Sam’s away.

We’re starting with new details on an attack in Venezuela. Then, we look at some of our best stories of 2025 that Times editors thought deserved more attention.

A port strike

The C.I.A. conducted a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela last week, people briefed on the operation said. The strike was on a dock where U.S. officials believe a Venezuelan gang was storing narcotics, and it did not kill anyone, they said. The strike is the first known American operation inside Venezuela.

This Times story offers new details on the strike, which President Trump has already discussed openly, despite the secrecy that typically surrounds C.I.A. operations. (He recently told reporters at Mar-a-Lago: “There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.”)

The Venezuelan government did not directly comment on the strike, but a minister denounced months of “imperial madness” from the United States.

The Trump administration has focused on three goals — to limit Nicolás Maduro’s power, to use military force against drug cartels and to secure access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves for U.S. companies. Read more about the U.S. pressure campaign here.

For more

Remnants of a burned boat on a beach. Federico Rios for The New York Times

The grim evidence of Trump’s airstrikes in the Caribbean has started washing ashore in Colombia — including a scorched boat, mangled bodies and packets with traces of marijuana. A U.S. military strike killed two more people accused by the Trump administration of trafficking narcotics in the eastern Pacific, Pentagon officials said. The death toll from U.S. strikes on boats is now at least 107.

The New York Times

Overlooked stories

	By Adam B. Kushner I’m the editor of this newsletter.

Here is one of the most frustrating things that can happen to you as a journalist: You write or edit what you think is a gem. You gather incredible reporting, spit-polish the prose, showcase stunning videography. And when you publish … crickets.

The reasons vary. Sometimes urgent news crowds out a beautifully crafted feature. The search and social-media algorithms change. Maybe an editor like me writes a dud of a headline.

Each one of my colleagues forged a few labors of love this year that could have gone viral — but didn’t. It’s a normal aspect of newsroom life, an easy trade-off for a career most of us treasure. But, dude? It stinks.

Every year, The Morning dedicates a newsletter to the stories from across the newsroom that deserved more eyes or ears. I hope you take a moment to enjoy some of the terrific journalism below.

Politics and government

Under a Red Cross program, Guantánamo Bay prisoners have been sending photos of themselves to their families, smiling or looking serene. They’re now available to the public. Last month, a Syrian official was indicted and charged with torture, ending a yearslong investigation that Western intelligence agencies helped him evade. States have more information about you than the federal government does. Trump is pushing to give the feds more data from those sensitive troves.

Sports

Runners in Eldoret, Kenya. Brian Otieno for The New York Times

“You’ll never find anybody running for health”: In Kenya, where professional running can make the difference between survival and starvation, doping is mainstream. The Astrodome, which has characterized Houston’s landscape for decades, now sits empty. No one’s sure what to do with it. Some former N.F.L. players are leaving the football field to start careers in nursing.

Climate

Follow a group of divers hunting for fossils in the coldest inhabited place on earth. A British writer has reinvented ways to navigate by star. (They’ll point you south.) Ocean currents are changing, shifting rain belts and strengthening hurricanes. Here’s how scientists who sailed the North Atlantic are better understanding the threat.

Business

A construction technology company in Texas has 3-D printed hundreds of houses in a bid to solve America’s housing crisis. Silicon Valley is obsessed with “TBPN,” a streaming show that treats tech and business like fantasy football. Would you pay nearly $9,000 for a wooden puzzle? Some of these devoted hobbyists would.

Culture

The Twitch streamer Kai Cenat. Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

Kai Cenat, the boisterous Twitch streamer, has a record 20 million followers who watch him eat, sleep and play video games. A nonprofit art space obtained fallen Confederate monuments and statues and transformed them into new works of art.

Opening a restaurant in New York City is no picnic. The Times followed a rookie owner for a full year to see what it takes.

Animals

Some pet owners are trying to treat their animals’ medical ailments with apple cider vinegar and essential oils — while declining standard medications and vaccines. There is a growing literary canon of memoirs about writers’ relationships with exotic and wild animals. For years, food entrepreneurs have been trying to convince people to feed their pets ground-up bugs and lab-grown meats. Could it be more ethical and sustainable?

Other stories

New York City still has 15 miles of cobblestone streets. Meet the specialty bricklayers helping to preserve those quaint remnants. Joe Nickell was, in his own words, “the world’s only full-time professional paranormal investigator.” He dug into hundreds of mysteries, offering rational explanations for the Loch Ness monster and countless hauntings. He died this year at 80. These new early-evening parties wrap up before many nightclubs open. They cater to women who have things to do in the morning — and want to dance. More women are asking doctors to shrink their waists. Plastic surgeons have been working on a rib-fracturing procedure to make those changes permanent.

Opinion

People concerned with tackle football’s gladiatorial style should consider flag football, which is relatively safe and friendly to female athletes, Mary Pilon writes. To succeed in life, everyone should have a nemesis, Rachel Feintzeig writes.

THE LATEST NEWS

Politics

Marjorie Taylor Greene Philip Montgomery for The New York Times

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia congresswoman, has gone from Trump’s loudest cheerleader to his loudest Republican critic. She didn’t hold back when The Times asked her why. Read more here.

Trump met with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at Mar-a-Lago. Trump said that the United States would back Israeli strikes on Iran if Iran continued with its ballistic missile and nuclear weapon program. New Year’s Eve concerts at the Kennedy Center were canceled. Some performing groups pulled out after the center was renamed to include President Trump.

More International News

Russia accused Ukraine of targeting a rural residence of Vladimir Putin’s in a drone attack. It threatened to harden its stance on peace talks in response. Ukraine said there was no such attack. The U.S. said it would provide $2 billion next year in U.N. humanitarian aid. Doing so would likely keep the U.S. as the biggest international aid donor next year, even as the Trump administration slashes funding for foreign assistance programs. Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first female prime minister, whose decades-long rivalry with another woman at the helm of a political dynasty shaped the fate of the country, died. She was believed to be 80.

Other Big Stories

Uber has let many drivers with sexual misconduct complaints continue to drive for the company, a Times investigation found. For the next eight weeks, Raymond Zhong, a climate reporter, will be traveling to Antarctica alongside researchers studying some of the fastest-melting glaciers on the frozen continent. Watch the first video of his journey below, and track his progress here.

The New York Times

OPINIONS

Palestinian artists reflected on years of war, loss and survival through their art. See it here.

M. Gessen asks: Can a corporation be complicit in war crimes?

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

Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times

Dress code: Take a look at each outfit featured in The Times’s Look of the Week column.

Your pick: The most-clicked article in The Morning yesterday was about your zodiac sign being out of date.

TODAY’S NUMBER

707 million

— That’s how many paper books people bought this year. They account for three-quarters of all book sales, blowing up the prediction that readers would fully adopt e-books.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The Atlanta Falcons staved off a Los Angeles Rams comeback to win 27-24.

College football: Notre Dame and its head coach, Marcus Freeman, have agreed on a new contract that puts him among the highest-paid coaches in the sport.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Rachel Vanni for The New York Times

It’s like a cross between a cake and a bread. It’s called vasilopita, and it’s a citrusy Greek dessert served around New Year’s. With a delicate, dry crumb, it goes perfectly with coffee, tea or, perhaps more fittingly, Champagne. It’s traditionally baked with a gold coin inside for good luck. (An old New York subway token could work just as well, if you give it a thorough scrubbing.)

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Have a spirited winter vacation, even if you’re doing a Dry January.

Listen to these podcasts to rekindle a love for reading.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were balding, blading and dabbling.

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.

Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

December 31, 2025

Good morning, and happy New Year’s Eve. Sam is away.

The Justice Department is now reviewing more than five million pages of Epstein files, according to people familiar with the matter. And Tatiana Schlossberg, an environmental journalist and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy who received worldwide praise for a moving essay about having terminal cancer, has died at 35.

We’ll get to more news below. But first, the year in video.

The New York Times

Watch this

	By Lauren Jackson I’m an editor for this newsletter.

I was working on The Morning when news of the massacre at Bondi Beach broke. When I saw the video on social media of Ahmed el Ahmed, an Australian man, tackling one of the shooters, my first thought was: Is this real?

Because artificial intelligence is becoming more sophisticated at producing video, and more people are turning to it to create social media content, I hesitated. But I knew my colleagues on our video team would have an answer soon. They quickly confirmed it was real, and we got it into the newsletter as soon as they did.

Every day, The Times’s video journalists work to verify crucial information in an age of rampant disinformation. They did a lot of that in 2025. They also told stories, held power to account and conducted some of our most sprawling investigations.

The Times is increasingly coming to you in videos — in The Morning, on our home page and on social media. So we wanted to share with you a highlight reel of some of the original Times videos you watched the most:

Texas flooding: The Times joined two brothers as they searched for their parents.

The New York Times

Climate change: The world breached a key limit for global warming. The Times explained what’s next. Immigration: In Charlotte, N.C., border patrol agents appeared at an after-school care facility for immigrant children. Families went into hiding. ICE agents: We went inside their job fair.

The New York Times

Police violence: Los Angeles police officers broke protocol and injured protesters. Plane crash: We looked at what happened in the moments before the midair collision near Reagan National Airport that left 67 dead. Louvre heist: Thieves stole priceless jewelry in just eight minutes. This is how they did it. War in Ukraine: Kyiv is making advances in how it fights with drones.

The New York Times

War in Gaza: Video of a child escaping a burning building after an Israeli airstrike garnered widespread attention online. We found her in a hospital in Gaza and pieced together what had happened. Six deadly minutes: We took a close look at how Israeli soldiers killed 15 rescue workers in Gaza. Aid cuts: The Trump administration has cut nearly a billion dollars in food aid, creating a scarcity crisis at food banks across the country. Fresh food is being replaced with junk. Elon Musk: As his Department of Government Efficiency slashed federal spending, we found huge errors in its “wall of receipts,” where the group listed what it had saved by canceling federal contracts. Coughing black dust: Recycling lead for U.S. car batteries is poisoning children. We know because we tested them.

The New York Times

Tate brothers: Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, were prohibited from leaving Romania for years after they were accused of trafficking dozens of women for a porn business. They courted powerful figures on the American right in order to gain their freedom. Miley Cyrus: Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviewed the pop star about fame, family and the therapy she said saved her life.

The New York Times

THE LATEST NEWS

War in Ukraine

As President Trump pushed publicly for an end to the war in Ukraine, factions in the Pentagon and the White House were severing an alliance between Washington and Kyiv that had helped the country survive the Russian invasion. A Times investigation reveals the details. The investigation, by Adam Entous, drew on hundreds of interviews with military officials, intelligence officers and diplomats around the world. Here are takeaways.

In the Courts

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Newly released emails show that Justice Department leaders pushed for charges against Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, raising questions about whether officials had misled a judge in the case. A federal judge ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cannot lose its funding. The Trump administration has been trying to defund it. A federal judge blocked the deportation of more than 200 migrants from South Sudan.

Politics

The federal health department paused child care payments to Minnesota in response to a growing fraud scandal involving the state’s social services programs. The crew of an oil tanker fleeing U.S. forces in the Atlantic Ocean painted a Russian flag on the side of the vessel in an apparent attempt to claim Russian protection, American officials said.

International

Protests in Iran over worsening economic conditions spread to universities in several cities. Students clashed with security forces near some campuses. The government of the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad interfered with evidence to conceal atrocities it committed during the Syrian civil war, a Times investigation found.

Other Big Stories

Tatiana Schlossberg Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Tatiana Schlossberg, who died at 35, leaves behind a husband, two young children and a grieving Kennedy family. Read more about her life and her work. Here’s a look ahead at the space events our science reporters are anticipating next year, including spaceflights and a solar eclipse.

DEPORTATIONS, UP CLOSE

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The reporter Luis Ferré-Sadurní and the photographer Todd Heisler spent 2025 traveling across the U.S., from Texas and New Mexico to Illinois and New York, to document the Trump administration’s effort to carry out the largest deportation campaign in American history.

Luis writes:

Over the year, the deportations forced Americans, even those who welcomed the stepped-up enforcement, to reckon with the human consequences of rounding up and expelling people from their streets. Homes were emptied. Families were splintered. Neighborhoods were subdued.

Read more, and see Todd’s photos, here.

OPINIONS

Which politician was the most surprising dropout? Michelle Cottle awards superlatives to the best and worst of U.S. politics.

Here is a column by Thomas Edsall on how Trump gets away with it.

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

A cannabis farm in Wynnewood, Okla. Shuran Huang for The New York Times

China’s influence: Behind these Oklahoma cannabis farms are Chinese New Yorkers with ties to Beijing.

A Great Read: She tried to kill a president. He loved her anyway, and it tore his family apart.

Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about Marjorie Taylor Greene’s shift from Trump loyalist to Trump critic. Read more here.

TODAY’S NUMBER

401

— That’s how many years Denmark’s postal service has been operating. This week, the carrier stopped delivering letters.

SPORTS

N.B.A.: The Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić has avoided a season-ending knee injury but will miss at least four weeks.

N.F.L.: The Dallas Cowboys released the veteran cornerback Trevon Diggs with one game remaining in the season.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Scampi are tiny, lobster-like crustaceans with pale pink shells. Italian cooks in the U.S. used shrimp instead but kept both names. Hence, shrimp scampi.

Today’s recipe is a classic take on the dish. The garlic, white wine and butter sauce pairs nicely with a pile of pasta or a hunk of crusty bread. Once the shrimp are in the pan, the trick is to cook them just long enough that they turn pink, but not so long that their bodies curl into rubbery rounds.

A LASTING LEGACY

Millions of people watch the ball drop every year in the New York City square named for this news organization. A long-ago publisher, Adolph Ochs, started the tradition in Times Square when he set off fireworks to celebrate his company’s new building there in 1904.

Tonight, our current publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, will be there to mark another milestone: The Times turns 175 years old in 2026. Sulzberger will spend the year talking about the value of reporting, the most important constant in our company’s history. We’ll publish features and host events that emphasize how important independent reporting is to our society, especially when that work is under attack. The livestream for tonight is here.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Don’t bum a cigarette at your New Year’s Eve party — even the occasional drag can be harmful.

See Wirecutter’s 100 most popular products of 2025.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were dogpile and dogpiled.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 1, 2026

Good morning. Welcome to 2026.

The Morning brings you bad news every day: wars, mass shootings, congressional gridlock, bedbugs in France. At the beginning of a new year, we’re doing something different. We’re going to talk about the psychology of hope.

A rainbow in the Faroe Islands. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Your hopes

	By Lauren Jackson I am the host of Believing.

America has become a country of cynics. At least, that’s what studies show.

People don’t trust each other, the media or the government. Most Americans, about 80 percent, don’t feel confident their children’s lives will be better than theirs. About half the country thinks America’s best days are in the past.

“Cynicism is vastly on the rise,” said Jamil Zaki, the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. It’s a dangerous trend — but Zaki and other experts say it’s reversible if people cultivate hope that another future is possible.

Hope, as a word, can be pat (does my barista really hope I have a good one?) and overly saccharine (think: the generic painted sign in an Airbnb). But it is also, experts tell me, an action verb.

While optimism is the belief that the future will be better, hope is the belief “that we have the power to make it so,” said Chan Hellman, the director of The Hope Research Center at the University of Oklahoma. It is “one of the strongest predictors of well-being,” he said. It helps improve the immune system and aids recovery from illness. More hopeful people may actually grow taller than less hopeful people.

To cultivate hope, people need three things, Zaki said: They first need to be able to envision a better future, either personally or collectively. Second, they need the willpower or motivation to move toward that future. And third, they must be able to chart “a path from where they are to where they want to be,” he added.

How to be more hopeful

There are a few ways, experts say.

People can set specific goals and then “begin brainstorming the pathways or road maps” to achieve them, ideally by writing them down, Hellman said. That can start small. “It is much better to set and focus on short-term goals rather than long-term, abstract goals,” he added.

Another tactic is to “replace cynicism with skepticism,” Zaki said. “Skepticism is not believing that everything will turn out great, but also not prejudging things as terrible, either.”

That can often mean speaking more positively about other people, as trust in others is an indicator of low levels of cynicism. People gossip three times as much about the selfish things others do than about the generous things they do, Zaki has found. To address that, he and his family practice “positive gossip.”

“Each evening we try to share one story of something positive that somebody else did that day,” he said “The research finds that when you know you’re going to have to share something, you pay a lot more attention to it.”

What you told us

Let’s try some positive gossip, of sorts, for 2026. I wanted to know how we could be “good and proactive and even somewhat desperate” patients, as George Saunders once said, in seeking a more generous outlook. So we asked you what gives you hope, and more than 600 of you replied. Many of you spoke positively about others. Here’s what you said:

Random acts of kindness

People like Ahmed el Ahmed in Australia, who don’t think twice about risking their lives to help others. Makes me remember Mister Rogers telling us, when things are bad, to “look for the helpers.” Seeing a man playing peekaboo with a young toddler seated in front of him on an airplane (a stranger to him), over and over. Tim. Early in our friendship, he texted me one morning: “Hey! I just heard on the radio that today is going to be the best day ever.” I smiled, actually believed him. About a week later, same text: “Hey! I just heard on the radio that today is going to be the best day ever.” The lovely man who held the door for me at the post office, smiled and said, “Have a beautiful day.”

Children

In Gjoa Haven, Canada.  Renaud Philippe for The New York Times

Have you heard a kid really laugh? From their gut? That sound could end all wars. My little girls. They are the kindest people I have ever met. Whenever I meet a real, live high school student.

History

Mothers Against Drunk Driving. No one thought we could re-educate the populace to stop drinking and driving. We did by persevering and by educating children about it. They listened. We changed. We can do this again around the differences we have now. My experience has taught me that the future does end up better, even if it seems a bit delayed.

Sports

I’m looking forward to watching the Super Bowl with my grandkids. And then, in March, I’m taking them to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo! The World Cup! The biggest global event, bringing people together.

Travel

The first overseas trip for our children, 12 and 10. I’m excited to see their minds open.

My cousin’s cowboy-themed wedding in Sweden.

Other sources

In Mobile, Ala.  Vincent Alban/The New York Times

Belief in God.

The progress we’re making as a society on renewable energy.

Living in the same place for 30 years is a great adventure when one pays attention.

I hope, in 2026, we can all be more like Tim.

Each week, I write about topics like this in Believing, a newsletter about how people find meaning in their lives now. You can subscribe to Believing here.

THE LATEST NEWS

The New Year

A couple during the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square. Vincent Alban/The New York Times

People around the world celebrated the start of 2026. See photos of the festivities, from New York to São Paulo, Brazil. Thousands who gathered to watch New Year celebrations in Sydney, Australia, held a vigil for the 15 people killed in the Bondi Beach shooting last month.

Venezuela

Venezuelan security forces have detained several Americans since the U.S. campaign against the Maduro government began, according to a U.S. official. The Coast Guard traditionally intercepted drug boats and took suspected smugglers into custody. People involved in those missions worry that the Pentagon’s shift to killing suspects could erode intelligence gathering. An oil tanker that fled from an attempted seizure by the Coast Guard is now listed as a Russian vessel, which could make it harder for U.S. forces to board.

Politics

Members of the Texas National Guard at a U.S. Army Reserve Training Center in Elwood, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, in October. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

President Trump said he would abandon, at least for now, his efforts to deploy the National Guard in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Ore. Trump issued the first two vetoes of his second term, rejecting legislation that would have funded a water pipeline in Colorado and expanded tribal land in Florida. Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York City in a private ceremony held at an abandoned subway station. A public inauguration will take place this afternoon outside City Hall. Mamdani reversed his position that the mayor should not control the city’s schools, and he picked a district superintendent from Manhattan to lead the system.

More International News

Dozens were presumed dead after a fire at a ski resort bar in Switzerland during a New Year’s celebration, officials said. Thieves who cracked into a bank vault in Germany made off with millions of dollars’ worth of valuables, officials say. A government-ordered shutdown in Iran closed businesses, universities and government offices in response to days of protest over the country’s struggling economy.

OPINIONS

Jeneen Interlandi writes about the damage Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done as health secretary in less than a year.

London’s drinking culture, and the city itself, is changing. Its pubs show how the city has become irrationally expensive, Jimmy McIntosh argues.

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

Photo illustration by Ricardo Tomas

The political right: Is the future of Trump’s MAGA movement anti-Israel?

Running NPR: The organization’s C.E.O. was already a right-wing target. Then the funding cuts started.

Confession: An inmate tried repeatedly to confess to killing a man at a Mississippi jail. He said no one wanted to listen.

Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about what Times reporters saw at a job fair for ICE.

TODAY’S NUMBER

295

— The amount, in dollars, that some people paid to take a crystal from the New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square as a keepsake.

SPORTS

College football: Miami upset last year’s champion, Ohio State, 24-14 in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff. And Arch Manning led Texas to a 41-27 win over Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.

N.F.L.: New England Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore faces misdemeanor assault and battery charges against his former girlfriend. Another Patriots player, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, is separately facing a felony strangulation charge involving his private chef.

Olympics alum: The Mexican authorities seized motorcycles, Olympic medals and drugs in raids linked to Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian snowboarder who is wanted by the U.S. government.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Making fluffy, tender scrambled eggs for a crowd is easier than you might think. This recipe makes just a few tweaks to a common technique to accommodate two dozen eggs. Trade the skillet for a Dutch oven and add the eggs to a warm, not hot, pot. As you slowly scrape in long sweeps, the eggs will begin to clump. Once you see the bottom of the pot behind your wooden spoon, take the pot off the heat and add cold butter, which will drop the temperature to prevent overcooking. Flip the curds until the still-runny egg and melting butter form a creamy coating.

ROCK ON

Geese performing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Randy Holmes/Disney, via Getty Images

Is rock music dead? You’d have to go back to the heydays of grunge, nu-metal and pop-punk to hear guitars screeching on mainstream airwaves. Other genres have since stripped rock for parts: Country latched onto crowd-pleasing anthems, hip-hop borrowed drumbeats and riffs, and pop stars treated electric guitars as fashion statements.

But, far beyond the pop charts, rock has stubbornly stuck around. And its handmade imperfections are crucial at a time when A.I. threatens to strip the humanity from music, writes Jon Pareles, our chief pop music critic. He recommends a few bands that broke through in 2025, including Geese, Wednesday and Turnstile.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Try a new mascara color. See tips here.

Replace these household essentials.

Get a new duvet cover.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was factotum.

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.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 2, 2026

Good morning. The authorities in Switzerland continue to investigate the cause of a New Year’s Eve fire that left around 40 people dead. We have the latest on that news below.

But first, an exploration of the uniquely American animosity toward artificial intelligence.

Loren Elliott for The New York Times

Rage quit

	By Evan Gorelick I’ve interviewed dozens of A.I. haters.

Technological change can be unsettling. Industrialization brought a moral panic. Telegraphs, radio, telephones and TV were hard to swallow. The internet has been polarizing, too. But artificial intelligence has brought a whole new level of fear and loathing.

It’s easy to have an opinion when the tech is everywhere. Chatbots are in kids’ classrooms. Autonomous agents rank résumés and conduct job interviews. Software companies use A.I. to write code. Lawyers use it to draft legal briefs. Experts say we’re adopting it faster than any other technology in history.

As these tools spread, the ranks of skeptics are growing. Haters, too. Most Americans are concerned about A.I., polling shows. Fewer are excited. And four out of five of those optimists still say they’re alarmed.

The freakout shows up everywhere. Hollywood screenwriters and actors went on strike when they thought A.I. might replace them. Nurses in California protested the rush to implement what they called “untested and unregulated” technology. Hordes of haters vandalized ads for A.I. on the New York City subway. Doomsayers warn that A.I. will annihilate the human race. Here’s how to understand the animosity.

The backlash(es)

A.I. is broad. A breakthrough in manufacturing may affect only manufacturing, but an A.I. breakthrough could transform manufacturing, physics, finance, music and dozens of other fields. So the backlash is just as sprawling, and there are various reasons for it:

Jobs. Nearly three-quarters of Americans expect A.I. to slash jobs. At some companies, that’s already happening. Salesforce, a business software company, laid off 4,000 customer-support employees, citing A.I. automation. Amazon told employees the new efficiencies would shrink its work force. Trust. The inner workings of A.I. are a black box — even to the engineers who make it. People worry about its biases, its readiness to fabricate information and its ability to meaningfully shift public opinion and influence elections. And don’t forget all the A.I. slop flooding social media. Agency. People who never wanted A.I. are stuck with it. The fortunes of public pensions, retirement accounts and individual investments now depend on it. The companies that make it are responsible for most of the recent stock-market gains. (And if A.I. turns out to be a bubble, it could trigger a recession.)

There are also massive data centers siphoning off energy and water. There are artists and creatives losing control of their copyrighted work. There are users obsessing over their virtual companions. And there are Silicon Valley executives, just a handful, who increasingly control this technology.

American scrollers

An A.I. prompt page Andria Lo for The New York Times

These worries are real. But in many cases, they’re about changes that haven’t come yet. One reason we have such strong feelings is that we have pre-existing views of digital tech.

“The frame through which Americans are viewing technological change is the rise of social media,” said Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford law professor who studies A.I. For more than a decade, Americans have been revolting against social media for farming their data, limiting their privacy and getting kids hooked. That backlash long predated mainstream A.I. In polls just months before ChatGPT’s release, around two-thirds of Americans said they saw social media as a bad thing for democracy.

People in many other developed democracies — Japan, Israel, Sweden, South Korea — had warm views of social media in a 2022 survey; now respondents in those countries feel more optimistic about A.I. Americans, on the other hand, approach the A.I. revolution skeptically, Persily said. We’re more concerned about this technology than just about anyone else.

More on A.I.

The S&P 500 rose more than 16 percent throughout 2025. Investments in A.I. explain the sharp climb, but the tech also presents risks for next year. Governments around the globe are racing to deploy A.I. in schools and universities — fueled, in part, by American tech companies.

NEW YEAR’S FIRE

In Switzerland. Til Bürgy for The New York Times

The fire that tore through a New Year’s Eve celebration in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, killed around 40 people and injured more than 100 others, officials said yesterday. Bruno Martins, 17, said he was headed to the bar, Le Constellation, to meet friends when he saw it engulfed in flames. “It was total panic,” he said. “People were trampling each other.”

Here’s what we know about the blaze.

The cause: Officials said that a fire at the bar was followed by an explosion that was likely caused by flashover, a phenomenon in which a fire in an enclosed space spreads rapidly.

The victims: Survivors were flown on helicopters and jets to specialized hospitals in Switzerland. But the number of people with severe burns exceeds the capacity of the country’s burn units. Some patients are being transported to hospitals in France, Germany and Italy.

The location: Crans-Montana is an alpine ski resort town that caters to a wealthy, sometimes famous, clientele and offers views of the Matterhorn. The bar where the fire took place, Le Constellation, was a low-key venue popular with a younger crowd.

Follow updates here.

THE LATEST NEWS

Mamdani’s Inauguration

In New York City. Amir Hamja for The New York Times

Zohran Mamdani was publicly sworn in as New York City’s mayor before a shivering crowd of thousands. He assured New Yorkers that he would govern “audaciously.” The ceremony drew celebrities and progressive figures like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders. Here are takeaways. On his first day in office, Mamdani signed a number of executive orders, including one to revoke all orders issued by former Mayor Eric Adams after his 2024 indictment.

Iran

President Trump said the U.S. would come to the aid of protesters in Iran if the government there used lethal force against them. Protests over high inflation and the collapse of the national currency began on Monday. At least one person has been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces.

Trump Administration

The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library. Officials say its holdings, some of which are not digitized or available elsewhere, will either be placed in a warehouse or thrown away. A federal judge blocked the administration’s move to end temporary deportation protections for tens of thousands of people from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua. Trump and his family have engaged in a moneymaking campaign unlike any other in modern presidential history. Times journalists mapped the tangled web of crypto, real estate and foreign governments.

War in Ukraine

In Ukraine. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

In hundreds of official complaints, inadvertently posted online by the Russian government, Russian soldiers describe a lawless and violent military that abuses its own troops. Some drones in use on the battlefield in Ukraine pursue targets without human involvement. Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines do not expect the fighting to end anytime soon. One soldier told The Times that his goal for the new year was just to survive.

More International News

Russia has asked the U.S. to stop pursuing an oil tanker that is trying to claim Russian protection. Hospitals in China are using an A.I. tool to detect pancreatic cancer. The Finnish police suspect sabotage after a cargo ship damaged an undersea telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland.

OPINIONS

Zohran Mamdani’s rise marks a shift away from Wall Street’s influence in New York City politics, Kim Phillips-Fein writes.

People are more hopeful about the future when they engage with their faith, according to David DeSteno .

Here is a column by Carlos Lozada on the questions he’s tired of hearing.

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

Victor J. Blue for The New York Times, Simar Bajaj; Vincent Alban/The New York Times

90 minutes to a new heart: Doctors in the U.S. perform about 100 infant heart transplants every year. Baby Luna received one of them.

Life is boring: Meet the influencers who want you to do nothing.

Rock, paper, lizard: Scientists unraveled the mating strategy of this reptile species by thinking of it as a game.

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was about a vacationing couple who suffered a bedbug attack.

A painter: Janet Fish painted everyday objects like jars of pickles and bowls of fruit in a rebellion against Abstract Expressionism. She died at 87.

TODAY’S NUMBER

112

— That’s how many mayors New York City has had, according to historians. The official count was off by one for about three centuries — and it’s still disputed today.

SPORTS

College football: Indiana defeated Alabama 38-3 in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff at the Rose Bowl. In the Orange Bowl, Oregon shut out Texas Tech 23-0, and Ole Miss upset Georgia 39-34 in the Sugar Bowl.

Tennis: Venus Williams has received a wild-card entry into the Australian Open. It will be her first appearance at the tournament in five years.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

This vegetarian reimagination of beef stroganoff is rich and decadent thanks to the walloping umami of the mushrooms. You can achieve a nice mix of textures if you use a variety of mushrooms, but the flavor is intense even with just a single type.

HEADS OR TAILS

Q-UP Everybody House Games

The premise of the video game Q-UP seems ridiculously simple, and sort of ridiculous: Every match is decided by a coin flip.

There’s more to it, of course. After a while, players receive in-game messages that introduce a comic metanarrative about a fictional game corporation and a computing start-up it has hired to ensure “pure quantum randomness” for the pivotal coin. Eventually, the focus shifts from flipping coins to, well, everything else. Read more about the game.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Sarah Kobos/NYT Wirecutter

Cook something new with the help of these meal kit delivery services recommended by Wirecutter.

Shift goals away from yourself and more toward others to have a positive year, experts say.

Take our news quiz.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were analytic, analytical, analytically and titanically.

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.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 3, 2026

Good morning. We’re following news out of Venezuela. Earlier today, President Trump announced that the U.S. had captured the nation's president, Nicolás Maduro, and was flying him out of the country.

In Venezuela. Matias Delacroix/Associated Press

An operation in Venezuela

Reports of explosions in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, began early this morning. Eyewitnesses described sounds of explosions around a large military base in the city as well as near the local airport. Just after 4 a.m., President Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. had carried out “a large scale strike against Venezuela,” and that Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been captured. In a brief phone call with The Times, Trump celebrated the success of the mission. “It was a brilliant operation, actually,” he said.

The Venezuelan government declared a state of emergency in response to the attacks.

The Trump administration had been building pressure on Venezuela for months. Since late August, the Pentagon has amassed troops, aircraft and warships in the Caribbean. The U.S. military has attacked many small vessels that U.S. officials maintained were smuggling drugs. And the C.I.A. conducted a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela last month, according to people briefed on the operation.

Trump said he would hold a news conference later this morning at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the operation.

Follow updates here.

María Jesús Contreras

Open season

	By Melissa Kirsch

The original Roman calendar had 10 months, starting with March and ending with December. What we now call January and February were an unnamed expanse of dark days, useless to the agricultural and military concerns of the state, which would recommence when the weather improved. Welcome, then, to the in-between, the gap, the once-nameless winter days when society was off the clock.

It’s seductive to imagine we might for these several weeks retreat to our hibernacula, as the Roman soldiers called their winter quarters, to focus on our versions of spinning wool and grooming horses until spring arrives. What would you stock your hibernaculum with? I’m thinking lots of sweaters and soup.

For better or worse, January exists now, named for Janus, the god of beginnings, endings, transitions and doorways. Janus is two-faced, looking to both the future and the past: Where are we going, where have we been? We like to treat January as a clean slate, a forward-facing time for resolutions and plan-making. But the first weekend of January is also a good time for reconciling our accounts, for looking back over last year, maybe making an Away/Toward List of the things we want to leave behind and those we want to cultivate.

January feels so momentous — to think it was once deemed so useless that it didn’t merit a name! We stuff it with expectation, our hopes and dreams for a newer, better us. Mark Twain said of this practice: “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” A dyspeptic view, for sure, but we’ve all heard how gym attendance drops before the month ends.

I’ve made a practice of visiting my New Year’s intentions regularly, keeping the page on which I’ve written them close at hand and checking it a few times a year to see how I’m doing. I have also summed up all the things I’ve resolved to do with one word that I can return to as a sort of mantra (2025’s was “abbondanza”; I’m still working on this year’s). Having one word to use as a sort of north star is helpful in the thick of it all, a shorthand for asking, “Is my behavior or thinking or action in keeping with my larger goals for this year?”

Last year, one of the things I put on my “Toward” list was “reading hard,” which to me meant reading with rigorous commitment, in volume, with deep curiosity and maybe even beyond comfort. I failed at this, so it appears again on this year’s list. I’m thinking I might use “reading hard’ as a guiding principle during the former no-man’s-land span of January and February. It’s a finite period, a testing ground for the rest of the year. If making grand declarations for the year feels destined for failure or just too much, you might try a goal for the next two months. If the resolution sticks, you can extend it.

If not, you can always say you’re following the example of Romulus, and start your year in March.

THE LATEST NEWS

International

A vigil outside the Constellation bar in Switzerland. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Sparklers attached to Champagne bottles most likely ignited the fire that killed dozens of New Year’s revelers at a bar in Switzerland, according to officials. Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine and the U.S. are 90 percent of the way toward a deal to end the war with Russia. A sticking point: Who will control Europe’s largest nuclear power plant?

Politics

Mayor Zohran Mamdani canceled executive orders that had barred New York City agencies from boycotting Israel and defined some criticism of Israel as antisemitic. In response, the Israeli government accused him of antisemitism. President Trump said the U.S. was “locked and loaded” and prepared to intervene if Iran’s government used lethal force against protesters. Several people have already been reported dead after clashes with security forces. The sanctioned oil tanker that the U.S. Coast Guard has been chasing for more than two weeks broadcast its location in the North Atlantic Ocean. Russia has asked the U.S. to stop pursuing the vessel.

Other Big Stories

The weedkiller Roundup has come under renewed scrutiny after a landmark study on the safety of its active ingredient, glyphosate, was retracted. The Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric cars. Tesla’s sales dropped 9 percent in 2025, after Congress and Trump eliminated tax credits that had encouraged Americans to buy those cars.

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

Film and TV

Amanda Seyfried Lila Barth for The New York Times

In “The Testament of Ann Lee,” Amanda Seyfried plays the founder of the Shakers, the 18th-century religious group named for the ecstatic dancing that characterized their worship. Seyfried’s body and voice seem ignited from within, our dance critic writes. There’s a new documentary about Chevy Chase, the prickly comedian and founding “S.N.L.” cast member. Our reporter had a spirited conversation with Chase and the film’s director. The number of women directing box-office hits dropped significantly last year, a new study found. What were the best movies of 2025? Here’s what Times readers think.

Music

The influential K-pop band NewJeans plunged deeper into a legal battle with its label after executives kicked one member out of the group. About 50 million people watch the Vienna Philharmonic’s annual New Year’s Concert. At the baton this year: a star conductor known for his unconventional look.

More Culture

Jean Iribarne’s wallet, which was recently returned to his daughter. Magdalena Bernhard/Arolsen Archives

Restitution of Nazi loot often focuses on high-profile art. But for descendants of Jews who suffered in the Holocaust, keepsakes with little monetary value matter, too. How do you put a celebrity at ease? Times Cooking’s new interview series has just the trick: Make a pizza with them.

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.

REAL ESTATE

Paul and Amy Silverman. Kate Glicksberg for The New York Times

The Hunt: A retired couple searched Brooklyn for a two-bedroom condo with plenty of light and private outdoor space. Which home did they choose? Play our game.

What you get for $2 million in London: A loft in a 19th-century warehouse, a four-bedroom house in South London or a home on the former estate of Sir Henry Tate.

Appliances included: Landlords in Los Angeles now must provide tenants with a working refrigerator and a stove after a new law took effect Jan. 1.

Let the light shine: In New York, skylights are a coveted design feature, especially during short winter days. These examples double as functional works of art.

LIVING

Nishant Choksi

The pour: Whether because of stereotypes or evolving tastes, these great wines tend to be prematurely dismissed.

Shoes off: You’re probably used to slipping off your shoes when entering some friends’ homes. How would you feel if you had to do the same at the office?

Modern Love: It took my mother being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s for my siblings and me to learn the truth about our childhood.

Phone searches: Customs agents have broad authority to look through travelers’ devices. Here are tips for keeping your data safe.

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

Stinky house? Here’s how to fix it.

If your home has an odor you can’t seem to banish, there’s a good chance you can remedy the issue with a deep clean or a little preventive maintenance. Start with the obvious culprits: Beyond taking out the trash regularly, you should also deep-clean your garbage can weekly. A full fridge clean-out can help you chuck the rancid produce hiding in the crisper and wipe up any smelly spills. And a high-quality detergent and a scoop of borax can do wonders for mildewy towels. Still can’t locate the lingering smell? There are a few unexpected sources of stink worth addressing — including hidden pet odors and your book collection (yes, really). — Caroline Mullen

GAME OF THE WEEK

Taliah Scott of Baylor, left, and Audi Crooks of Iowa State. Candice Ward/Getty Images, David Purdy/Getty Images

No. 22 Baylor vs. No. 10 Iowa State, women’s college basketball: If you haven’t watched Audi Crooks yet, here’s your chance to jump on the bandwagon before March Madness turns her into a bona fide star. Crooks, Iowa State’s center, leads the N.C.A.A. in scoring with nearly 30 points per game. She has topped 40 points in three games already. But her most impressive stat, as The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant recently noted: Crooks is the only women’s basketball player this century, in college or the pros, to average more points than minutes per game.

Tomorrow at 3 p.m. Eastern on ESPN

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was honeybun.

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.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 4, 2026

Good morning. The Times threw its reporting might at the U.S. incursion into Venezuela. Here’s what you need to know.

At Mar-a-Lago. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

The Venezuela takeover

	By Adam B. Kushner I’m the editor of this newsletter.

Yesterday, President Trump resurrected the interventionist foreign policy he had mocked for years. Under his orders, American troops invaded Venezuela and seized the president and the first lady. Hours later, Trump said that the United States would “run” the country for the foreseeable future. He acknowledged the potential for entanglement: “We’re not afraid of boots on the ground.”

The administration spent much of 2025 twisting the vise on President Nicolás Maduro, calling him a cartel leader and trying to dislodge him from office. After his arrest yesterday, the attorney general said that Maduro would face narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges. But Trump also spoke about another rationale: Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world. He said that U.S. companies would soon rebuild Venezuela’s oil sector.

For how long will the United States oversee Venezuela? How did troops capture Maduro? What will happen to him next? How did Venezuelans and other countries view the incursion? We have some answers below. To follow the latest news all day, click here.

The operation

C.I.A. officers slipped into the country in August and, with the help of stealth drones, began studying Maduro and his movements. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday that the spies wanted to understand “where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets.” A source in the Venezuelan government helped the C.I.A. track him.

Preparation. In Kentucky, the military built a full-scale model of Maduro’s compound. Elite Army Delta Force commandos rehearsed a strike, blowing through steel doors at ever-faster paces, our intelligence and defense reporters write. When the weather was clear, and the risk of civilian casualties seemed low, the commandos struck.

The seizure. First, a cyber-operation cut power to large parts of Caracas, allowing 150 American planes, drones and helicopters to approach undetected. They bombed radar and air-defense sites and dropped off the commandos at Venezuela’s most fortified military base. The Delta Force blew open a door and found Maduro three minutes later. One helicopter took fire, and about a half-dozen U.S. soldiers were injured, but no Americans died. At least 40 Venezuelans were killed, including troops and civilians, an official there said.

The whole operation took a little over two hours; Trump followed along on screens at Mar-a-Lago. “I watched it, literally, like I was watching a television show,” he told Fox News. Afterward, he posted an image of Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed.

Acting alone. While presidents often open military campaigns without a congressional declaration of war, the White House usually informs some lawmakers about its plans. Yesterday, though, Trump said they could not be trusted because “Congress has a tendency to leak.”

What’s next

Flames at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex. Luis Jaimes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

At a press conference yesterday, Trump said the United States would manage Venezuela “until such time that we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” But who will be in charge and how will it work? As David Sanger, a White House correspondent, asked yesterday: “Will the United States have an occupying military force? Will it install a pliant government for some number of years? Will it run the courts, and determine who pumps the oil?” There weren’t many answers.

A transition. Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, took the oath of office yesterday and is now the country’s interim leader. Still, she called the United States an illegal invader and said Maduro was the “only president.” (Read more about Rodríguez, the scion of a Marxist guerrilla who nevertheless built bridges with the business community.) Trump said she would hold power as long as she “does what we want.” He declined to support the accession of Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in October.

The expectation. White House reporters explained that officials declined to call their plan an occupation:

Instead, they vaguely sketched out an arrangement similar to a guardianship: The United States will provide a vision for how Venezuela should be run and will expect the interim government to carry that out in a transition period, under the threat of further military intervention.

Nation building? Trump said that a key goal of the operation was to regain oil rights that Venezuela had “stolen” when it nationalized the industry. He described the result as “a total bust.” The country now produces a quarter of what it did in the 1990s, thanks to corruption, mismanagement and sanctions. Now, Trump said, U.S. oil companies will “go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money” — both for Venezuelans and for themselves.

A legal question. The administration described the operation as a law-enforcement action, not a military invasion. Maduro has been indicted several times in the United States on drug and corruption charges. But under the U.N. Charter, “a nation may not use force on the sovereign territory of another country without its consent, a self-defense rationale, or the authorization of the U.N. Security Council,” writes my colleague Charlie Savage, who covers national security and legal policy. An occupation, too, has no basis in international or domestic law, an expert told him.

The charges. Maduro arrived in New York by helicopter last night and was taken to a detention center in Brooklyn. A four-count indictment in federal district court charges him and his wife, as well as their son and two high-ranking Venezuelan officials, with cocaine smuggling.

Reaction around the world

In Caracas. Pedro Mattey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Outrage. Russia, China, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and others denounced the coup as illegal overreach. The U.N. secretary general said the attack set a “dangerous precedent,” and the Security Council plans to meet tomorrow.

A measured response. European leaders seemed glad to be rid of Maduro, and they were cautious about criticizing Trump’s intervention. Friedrich Merz of Germany said that Maduro had “led his country into ruin” and that the U.S. intervention required “careful consideration.” Emmanuel Macron of France said the Venezuelan people could “only rejoice” at the ousting of Maduro. In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing a backlash from members of his Labour Party and other left-wing U.K. parties for failing to criticize the U.S. operation.

Two Venezuelas. Maduro’s supporters demanded his — and the first lady’s — return, and they staged protests and rallies, which were broadcast on Venezuela’s state-run TV. Some who opposed Maduro hesitated to celebrate while the future remained uncertain. “The first thing on my mind isn’t, ‘We are free and I’m so happy,’” a man named José told The Times. “It is, ‘What will happen tomorrow?’” Fearing the chaos to come, Venezuelans flocked to supermarkets to stock up.

In South Florida, members of the Venezuelan diaspora celebrated Maduro’s capture. Some blared music or honked their car horns. Many danced at impromptu parties.

Liberal shock. Democrats criticized the operation. “The American people have been very clear: They do not want to be occupiers again and they do not want to be the world police,” Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona said in an interview on Fox News. New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, posted a message on X saying the military action was “a violation of federal and international law.” He called Trump to register his objection.

Conservative division. Elected Republicans were supportive. Speaker Mike Johnson called the operation “decisive and justified.” But some on the right didn’t understand why the “America first” president had deposed a foreign leader and promised to run his country. “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former MAGA stalwart, wrote on social media. “Boy were we wrong.”

For more:

A White House correspondent cold-called the president a 4:30 a.m. to ask about the raid. Trump answered. Venezuelan asylum seekers in the U.S. are wondering what Maduro’s ouster means for their immigration status. Here’s a timeline of the rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.

THE LATEST NEWS

International

In Switzerland. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

The two managers of a bar in the Swiss Alps where at least 40 people died in a New Year’s Day fire are under criminal investigation over suspicions of negligence. Volodymyr Zelensky is reshuffling his cabinet amid a corruption scandal and negotiations over a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.

Other Big Stories

The Times turns 175 this year. A look back at its 1851 prospectus shows what has changed and what has endured. A Wisconsin judge convicted of obstructing immigration agents has resigned. In California, heavy rain and unusually high tides caused flooding and mudslides. Kimberly Guilfoyle, the new U.S. ambassador to Greece, has become the talk of Athens.

THE SUNDAY DEBATE

In California, a proposed ballot measure that would impose a one-time tax of 5 percent on billionaires to fund health-care costs has raised concerns of a billionaire exodus. Are these concerns well founded?

Yes. A tax hike in 2012 led some wealthy Californians to leave or reduce their taxable income in a state with already high taxes. “Progressives will want to return to the well until they’ve sucked it dry,” the Washington Post editorial board writes.

No. Multiple studies have shown that tax exoduses tend to be small, if they happen at all, and that people often remain because of business and family ties. “A one-time, well-designed wealth tax minimizes migration risk while funding the health and food systems millions rely on,” Teresa Ghilarducci of Forbes writes.

FROM OPINION

If there is a lesson of American foreign affairs in the past century, it is that trying to oust even deplorable regimes can make matters worse. That’s why Trump’s intervention in Venezuela isn’t just illegal, but also unwise, the Times editorial board writes.

The capture of Maduro will not solve Venezuela’s problems, Colette Capriles argues.

Queer intimacy has been lacking in mainstream culture. The hit series “Heated Rivalry” finally shows it, Jim Downs writes.

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

Filming “The Pitt.” Mark Peterson/Redux, for The New York Times

The doctor is in: A reporter went behind the scenes of “The Pitt,” HBO Max’s acclaimed medical drama, to see its exquisitely choreographed chaos come to life.

Worth traveling for: Use these nine art exhibitions as inspiration for a European vacation this year.

‘It was a decision I had to make’: As enhanced Obamacare subsidies expire, some Americans who struggle to pay for insurance are settling for expensive plans or forgoing coverage altogether.

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was about the U.S. attack on Venezuela.

A jockey: Diane Crump made horse-racing history in 1970 when she became the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby. She died at 77.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: Here is a visual guide to every team’s playoff chances going into the last Sunday of the regular season.

Skiing: The Swiss skier Camille Rast dedicated her first win in a World Cup giant slalom race to the victims of the New Year’s Day fire in Crans-Montana, near her hometown.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

Stephen Ogilvy

Read this week’s magazine.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Go see “An Ark,” a 47-minute play that features the Oscar nominee Ian McKellen and involves the use of glasses that blend the real and digital worlds.

Cultivate your garden differently this year. A changing landscape requires a fresh approach.

Get stronger with these five strength-training goals.

MEAL PLAN

Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Sarah Jampel.

Luxury and simplicity aren’t mutually exclusive. Emily Weinstein’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter points to spaghetti carbonara — which requires no fancy ingredients but is salty, silky and abundantly satisfying — as proof. There’s an outrageousness to how delicious it is and a disheveled quality that only makes the dish better. It’s a meal to get excited about. Emily has other excitement-worthy meals for you this week, too, including French-onion-soup-inspired chicken and curry shrimp with sweet potato.

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were councilor and unicolor.

Can you put eight historical events — including Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch,” Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and the oldest surviving printed book — 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.

P.S.: The regular Book of the Week and Interview portions of this newsletter will return next week.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 5, 2026

Good morning. Sam’s back tomorrow. Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, will make their first appearance in a New York City courthouse today on drug-trafficking charges. Investigators in Switzerland have identified all the victims of a New Year’s fire. And “One Battle After Another” took best picture at the Critics Choice Awards.

We’ll get to all of it, and more, below. But first, we take a look at President Trump’s emerging foreign policy doctrine.

The Donroe doctrine

President Trump Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

	By David E. Sanger I’m a White House correspondent focused on foreign policy and national security.

Barely 48 hours after toppling the leader of Venezuela and asserting U.S. rights to the country’s oil, President Trump threatened Colombia with a similar fate. He declared that Cuba was not worth invading because “it’s ready to fall,” and he once again claimed that Greenland needed to come under American control. He seems to feel emboldened after the quick capture of Nicolás Maduro, the strongman who was seized on narco-trafficking charges.

“We’re in charge” of Venezuela, Trump claimed, as he described his plans to breathe new life into the Monroe Doctrine, the 1823 foundational statement of U.S. claims over the Western Hemisphere. “The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal,” said Trump, who keeps a pensive portrait of the fifth U.S. president near his desk in the Oval Office. “But we’ve superseded it by a lot, a real lot.”

He called his update, named after himself, the “Donroe doctrine.”

A new doctrine?

Trump talks in blunt declarations. A more nuanced vision is described on Page 15 of the Trump administration’s two-month-old National Security Strategy, a document that appears to have been written with this moment in American territorial adventurism in mind. The strategy describes the “Trump Corollary” to Monroe’s principle that European powers have no business meddling in the Americas.

The Trump Corollary asserts an American right to “restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere,” and to deny “non-Hemispheric competitors” — namely, China — “the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets.”

What vital assets? Trump explained Saturday that the U.S. must have access to Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world. Trump was opening Venezuelan crude only for American companies — some owned or operated by his supporters. (He said he expected to keep selling crude to China, which takes most of Venezuela’s paltry output.)

It falls short of a global strategy; Trump has not said whether, if he claims the Western Hemisphere, China is free to do the same in Asia.

The president never discussed restoring democracy in Venezuela as an American objective, even though the country had a decades-long tradition of free elections until Hugo Chávez took power in 1999. The promotion of democracy gets little attention in the document the White House published in November. (An exiled diplomat, Edmundo González, is widely considered the winner of the country’s 2024 election. He says he is the legitimate president. Trump hasn’t mentioned him.)

In Chicago this weekend. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

A new context

When Monroe devised his doctrine two centuries ago, the United States was a nation of roughly 10 million people. Its Navy was limited to a few dozen ships, manned by 3,500 or so sailors and 500 officers — about a fifth the size of the force the Pentagon amassed off Venezuela to oust Maduro. Latin American countries were shaking off their distant masters, Spain and Portugal. Monroe worried that the European powers would seek to make them colonies again.

Here is the logic of this past weekend: Trump can claim resources that, in his view, America cannot live without. He is already setting up a parallel argument for Greenland, which may have substantial rare-earth minerals. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,’’ he told reporters on Air Force One last night. “Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”

At what cost? It will be expensive to restore Venezuela’s oil system. “The infrastructure is rotten, rusty,” Trump said yesterday. But the immediate price tags may not matter to him. Venezuela, Greenland, maybe Canada: These are legacies that will, over time, pay for themselves, he believes.

For more

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the U.S. did not plan to “run” Venezuela but rather that it would to coerce the new leadership into favorable policies. Trump contradicted him later, saying, “We’re in charge.” Venezuela’s acting leader, Delcy Rodríguez, appeared to soften her tone toward the U.S. “We extend an invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperative agenda,” she said last night. Trump threatened Colombia, which he said was “run by a sick man,” and many Cubans are wondering if their island nation is next. Officials told The Times that Maduro’s habit of dancing when discussing Trump’s threats drove the White House to follow through on the invasion. To the Latin American left, the incursion confirmed that the U.S. exploits its southern neighbors for their resources, the Times correspondent Jack Nicas writes. For the right, the events raised hope that Venezuela could realize its economic potential. Rubio has said that the U.S. will maintain its military “quarantine” on Venezuela’s oil exports, but tankers are evading the blockade. Trump’s action on Venezuela has opened a rift within the MAGA movement. Ask The Morning: Send us your questions about Venezuela here.

BUILD A BETTER BRAIN

Eiko Ojala

Every January, Well, The Times’s personal-health desk, offers readers a five-day challenge to improve some aspect of their health. This year’s edition, which kicks off today, is focused on the brain. Dana G. Smith, a reporter with a Ph.D. in psychology, explains:

There are a lot of scary headlines about brains these days. One recent report estimated that the number of people in the United States with dementia would double by the year 2060. But that figure doesn’t tell the whole story: Though the total is increasing, the rate of dementia in the U.S. — that is, the percentage of people with the condition — is actually dropping. The same is true for strokes.

That’s good news, and experts say it’s due in part to changes in our health. Far fewer people smoke cigarettes, for instance. And we are now much better at taking care of our cardiovascular health, which is linked to brain health.

In this year’s Well Challenge, I’m going to show you that there are real, practical steps you can take to protect your brain health, and help you get those habits started.

These aren’t gimmicky health hacks — in fact, some of the behaviors probably aren’t that surprising. But the science behind how they affect brain health is fascinating.

Move those muscles. The brain shrinks with age, typically starting in a person’s 30s, and exercise is one of the few ways to counteract that loss. Getting your heart rate up can cause a cascade of molecular changes in your brain, which help to build new connections between neurons and repair damaged cells. Grill some salmon. Eating fatty fishes can help brain cells communicate more efficiently. That’s because the omega-3 acids they contain help to insulate the nerve fibers carrying information from one brain cell to another. Get more sleep. The brain has a self-cleaning mechanism, called the glymphatic system, that helps clear out the protein amyloid, which is a major contributor to Alzheimer’s disease. But that system only cranks into high gear during sleep.

Sign up for the Well newsletter to get the challenge in your inbox, and jump into Day 1 now.

THE LATEST NEWS

International

In Nigeria. Yunusa Umar/Associated Press

Gunmen in Nigeria killed dozens of villagers and abducted others. It was the first large attack on civilians since the U.S. attacked militant targets in the country. Ukrainians are divided on whether to celebrate the removal of Maduro, a Russian ally, or to condemn a military intervention. Ten people have been convicted of cyberbullying France’s first lady. In the video below, Raymond Zhong, a climate reporter currently on a reporting trip to Antarctica, answers readers’ questions. Click to watch.

The New York Times

Other Big Stories

A top Interior Department official is under scrutiny for not disclosing her family’s financial interest in a lithium mine that her agency approved. The Supreme Court increasingly favors the wealthier side, a new study finds. Near-constant storms in California in recent weeks have caused floods, power outages and mudslides. But they have also eased the state’s drought problem.

IN ONE CHART

By Larry Buchanan/The New York Times

A year ago, New York City began charging drivers $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street during peak travel times. How did it turn out? Traffic jams are less severe, streets are safer and commutes are shorter.

The New York Times reviewed city and state data, outside research and the feedback of more than 600 readers to assess the impact of congestion pricing so far.

OPINIONS

To address affordability , the government should use policies that increase the supply of goods and services, Jared Bernstein writes.

Here is a column by Nicholas Kristof on what he saw on his last visit to Venezuela.

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

At St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M. Nina Riggio for The New York Times

A ‘tech fast’: These college students went a week without their smartphones.

Focus challenge: Can you spend 10 minutes with the painting “Artist in Greenland” by Rockwell Kent?

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about Kimberly Guilfoyle, the new U.S. ambassador to Greece.

Metropolitan Diary: Wrong doorman, right pizza.

TODAY’S NUMBER

7-foot-1

— That’s the height of Stephanie Okechukwu, who signed with Texas Tech. She will be the tallest player in the history of women’s college basketball.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The playoff schedule is set after the end of the regular season yesterday.

Tennis: Novak Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion, said he was stepping away from the Professional Tennis Players Association, which he co-founded.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.

These sweet potatoes have a healthy kick — by boiling them instead of roasting them, you will slow the rate at which their sugars are absorbed into the bloodstream. And chermoula, a North African fresh herb sauce, helps elevate the flavor.

AWARD SEASON OPENS

The cast and director of “One Battle After Another.” Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

The Critics Choice Awards usually follow the Golden Globes, and the winners are rarely surprises. This year, though, the two ceremonies swapped their order, making Critics Choice the early flare for award season.

“One Battle After Another” took home prizes for best picture, director and adapted screenplay. The top acting awards went to Timothée Chalamet for “Marty Supreme” and Jessie Buckley for “Hamnet.”

More on culture

The “Shark Tank” judge Kevin O’Leary is just one of the many celebrities making their film debuts in “Marty Supreme.” Despite his lack of acting experience, O’Leary had no qualms about making changes to the script to suggest ways his character, a cutthroat businessman, could be even more ruthless.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

In Carefree, Ariz. CIVANA, Wellness Resort & Spa

Try these destinations for a vacation that makes the most of Dry January.

Stay active with these fitness gear recommendations from Wirecutter.

Take our news quiz.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was familiarly.

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.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 6, 2026

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Trump, told CNN that the U.S. had the right to take Greenland. “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,” he said.

And the Trump administration said it planned to freeze $10 billion in funding for child care subsidies, social services and cash support for low-income families in five states controlled by Democrats. Trump officials claim, without evidence, that programs in the states are riddled with fraud.

There is more news below. But we’ll start today, again, with Venezuela.

Nicolás Maduro in New York yesterday. Vincent Alban/The New York Times

What Venezuela wants

Fifteen years ago, on assignment for The Times, I traveled to Venezuela to fish the turquoise water and bone-white sand flats of Los Roques National Park, a short flight from Caracas, the nation’s capital.

I had dinner one night in Chacao, a relatively wealthy Caracas neighborhood that was a hub of opposition to Hugo Chávez, then the president. The restaurant was chic and sexy, with a menu of elevated Venezuelan cooking of the sort that might have involved tweezers and foam. There were bottles of Johnnie Walker Black on quite a few tables, I noticed, and glasses of the amber gold on more. I asked my host about it. “Whiskey is a legacy of Standard Oil,” he told me, half-seriously.

What I think he meant was: The drink is a marker of success in Venezuela, something to show that you have wealth and taste. For some, it says you’re part of the capitalist engine and not the socialist one, that you don’t stick merely to the local rum. (For Chávez, my colleague Simon Romero reported back in 2006, that made it political. Chávez once described oil executives as “living in chalets performing orgies, drinking whiskey.”)

I’ve been thinking about those tables in Chacao, and the legacy of Standard Oil, as I’ve watched the U.S. attack and its aftermath. Venezuela, like all countries, contains contradictions. There’s an appetite there for Marxist nationalism and another for cosmopolitanism; a belief in capitalism, a hatred of American imperialism and yet also a hunger for a more functional economy that President Trump now promises to bring. Plenty of people just want to be left alone to live. These things are often in tension.

Trump’s proxy?

A refinery in El Palito, Venezuela. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

The greatest tension, though, may be between Venezuela’s new leadership and the United States.

After the Trump administration seized Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, took control of the country’s government. “We extend an invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperative agenda,” she wrote on social media. What’s on that agenda? Trump wants her to open up Venezuela’s oil reserves to American companies. “This is OUR Hemisphere,” the State Department posted on X yesterday.

It’s a strange posture for both nations, revealing another tension. The United States has gathered a fleet offshore to enforce its will, an echo of 19th-century gunboat diplomacy. Who will implement the administration’s agenda? The U.S. did not attempt to elevate María Corina Machado, the capitalism-friendly Nobelist opposition leader now in exile (or Edmundo González, the candidate she backed in the 2024 election). It settled instead on Rodríguez, the leftist disciple of Chávez’s Bolivarian revolution, a movement to counter American imperialism.

Will this work? At the National Assembly gathering at which she was formally sworn in as interim president yesterday, there was little support for acquiescence. Rodríguez said that Maduro was still the president of Venezuela. She bemoaned the “illegitimate military aggression” by the United States and said that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were being held hostage in the United States.

That raises questions about the future of the U.S. effort. People in Washington may believe the Chávez movement is spent, a senior political analyst in Caracas told The Times. “I don’t think that’s true. They still see themselves as leading a revolution. They can’t afford to be seen to be turning Venezuela into a simple satellite of the U.S.”

More on Venezuela

Outside the courthouse in Manhattan yesterday. Karsten Moran for The New York Times

In the U.S.

In a Manhattan courtroom, Maduro told a judge that he was a prisoner of war who had been “kidnapped” and that he was not guilty. “I am a decent man,” he said. “I am still the president of my country.” At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, Mike Waltz, the American ambassador, said there was “no war against Venezuela or its people.” Secretary General António Guterres said the Trump administration had violated the U.N. charter, and even allies condemned what the U.S. had done. After leaving lawmakers in the dark about its plans to capture Maduro, the Trump administration yesterday briefed members of Congress about the mission. Deepfakes of Maduro flooded the internet in the hours after his capture. Experts said it was one of the first times that A.I. imagery depicted real figures as a historical moment was unfolding. One in three Americans approves of the U.S. military raid that captured Maduro, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded yesterday. Trump’s overall approval rating was 42 percent, the highest since October.

Around the world

Machado praised Trump on Fox News and offered to share her Nobel Peace Prize with him. Venezuela expected the partial U.S. blockade of tankers to reduce oil production by roughly 70 percent this year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the blockade provides “leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes.” Cuba said that at least 32 of the 80 people killed during the U.S. incursion were members of its armed forces and interior ministry. The casualties show how Maduro relied on Cuban agents to protect him. China and Russia condemned the capture of Maduro, but they have not threatened to defend Venezuela, an ally. Trump’s might-makes-right foreign policy could provide cover for their own ambitions. In the video below, Anatoly Kurmanaev, a reporter covering events in Venezuela, describes what we know about Delcy Rodríguez. Click to watch.

The New York Times

THE LATEST NEWS

Trump Administration

On Jan. 6, 2021. Kenny Holston/The New York Times

A year ago, Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 rioters. Many remain angry at the Trump administration. The C.D.C. reduced the number of routine vaccines it recommends for children to cover 11 diseases, down from 17. The military censured Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former Navy pilot and astronaut, over his role in a video reminding troops that they could refuse illegal orders. Kelly might be demoted or lose some of his pension.

More Politics

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who was Kamala Harris’s running mate, will not seek another term as governor. Senator Amy Klobuchar is considering a run in his place. Democrats want to flip the Senate in this year’s midterm election, but they face a tough map. Here are the races to watch. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funded NPR, PBS and hundreds of local radio and TV stations, voted to dissolve because Congress cut off its federal money.

International

In Tehran last month. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

Iran’s government, facing protests over an economic crisis, announced plans to provide every citizen with a small monthly payment. (The stipend is enough to buy roughly two pizzas in downtown Tehran.) Swiss officials said that a bar that burned on New Year’s Eve, killing 40 people, had not been inspected for five years. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is being criticized over his proposal for a commission to investigate the events of Oct. 7.

Other Big Stories

Immigration officials accused a hotel in Minnesota of “maliciously” canceling agents’ reservations. Nvidia plans to release a new A.I. chip that can do more computing with less power.

OPINIONS

Who will benefit from Trump’s takeover of Venezuela’s oil production in the near term? U.S. companies, but probably not the average American, argues Rebecca Patterson.

Trump has flipped the legacy of the Jan. 6 attack by pardoning rioters, punishing law enforcement officials and placing insurrectionists in high ranks, Representative Jamie Raskin writes.

Here is a column by Michelle Goldberg on the significance of Trump’s actions in Venezuela.

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

The New York Times

Travel the world: Here are our 52 places to go in 2026. On this year’s list: a revolution, an eclipse, the World Cup and much more.

Reset your appetite: Pete Wells, our former restaurant critic, left his post because his diet was making him sick. Here’s how he changed his eating habits and dropped 55 pounds. (It was a loss, he wrote, “roughly equivalent to dropping an entire male basset hound.”)

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the rift in the MAGA movement over Trump’s actions in Venezuela.

Late night: Stephen Colbert doubts Trump’s ability to run two countries at once.

An Off Off Broadway titan: Robert Heide, a playwright, Warhol contributor and downtown raconteur, died at 91.

TODAY’S NUMBER

770

— That is how many millions of dollars Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan, earned in 2025, a combination of salary, bonuses, dividends, stock grants and appreciation in his allotment of the bank’s shares.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: Three head coaches — Pete Carroll of the Las Vegas Raiders, Kevin Stefanski of the Cleveland Browns and Jonathan Gannon of the Arizona Cardinals — were fired yesterday, the first day after the regular season.

Soccer: Some women on OnlyFans have made soccer teams a significant part of their online brands, posing in jerseys and lingerie.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Linda Xiao for The New York Times

Garlic, ginger, bay leaf and turmeric flavor this simple, nourishing chicken soup, which gains heartiness with zucchini and nutty brown rice. (If you let it cook and cook, it’ll take the soup in the direction of a stew — the rice will swell in the broth into what could almost be a porridge.) Then keep cooking in that style with one of these 21 easy, healthy recipes for 2026. You can get back to fried chicken and steak once we’re through January.

WOLFF HALL

Victoria Wolff Justin Kaneps for The New York Times

The bombastic writer Michael Wolff, a onetime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein, has become something of a lifestyle influencer of late. That is in large part thanks to the efforts of his wife, Victoria Wolff, author of the newsletter and Instagram account Our Amagansett House. “It’s CNN’s ‘Crossfire’ mixed with Ina Garten’s ‘Be My Guest,’” Rory Satran writes.

More on culture

Here is a lovely collection of dance moves taken from the streets of Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia and performed by cast members of “American Street Dancer,” a touring production by the hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

The New York Times

Listen to jazz. We’ll help you get started.

Mind your diet. It’s Day 2 of Well’s five-day Brain Health Challenge.

Fix your gear rather than replacing it. I broke a wheel on the rolling luggage Wirecutter recommends. I found a new one online for $20 and swapped it in for the missing piece in 10 minutes flat. That was incredibly satisfying.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was okaying.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 7, 2026

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. President Trump wrote on social media last night that Venezuela would begin sending oil to the U.S. and that he would control the profits from selling it. The White House also said that it had not ruled out a military invasion of Greenland, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump would prefer to buy the territory.

We’ll get to more news below. But we’ll start today with where America’s new foreign policy might take us — and the world.

In Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday. The New York Times

Law of the jungle

What are the larger lessons of the U.S. raid on Venezuela last weekend to oust Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president?

Vice President JD Vance offered his answer on Saturday: Any nation that crosses the United States and defies its wishes does so at its own peril. President Trump, he said, “was very clear throughout this process: The drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States.” Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, had a more epigrammatic take on Maduro: “He effed around and he found out.”

But two of my colleagues wrote recently about another takeaway that bears watching: the notion that a powerful nation has the right — or at least the ability — to command affairs in nearby, less powerful nations. It is the principle that stands behind the “Donroe Doctrine,” a Trumpian rebooting of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which staked U.S. claims over the Western Hemisphere. On Monday night, Stephen Miller, a top Trump policy adviser, gave the rawest expression of the idea in an interview with Jake Tapper of CNN. “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he said. “These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

Territoriality

In the Eastern Hemisphere, China has for years made roughly the same argument about Taiwan, as David Pierson reported yesterday. “China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that’s just a fact,” the foreign minister told Southeast Asian officials in 2010. Sounds familiar!

Since then, China has tightened its grip on Taiwan by punishing nations that support it and by working to isolate it. Barely more than a week ago, Beijing shot rockets all around its coastline, a warning that the Chinese military would make it difficult for any outside force to come to the island’s defense in a conflict there.

The I-can-do-what-I-want prerogative, of course, also applies to President Vladimir Putin’s invasions of Georgia and Ukraine (twice). Sovereign power is an argument Putin could someday use in other parts of the former Soviet Union, like the South Caucasus and Central Asia, which the Kremlin thinks of as within its sphere of influence, Anton Troianovski reports.

“If we have the right to be aggressive in our own backyard,” a first-term Trump administration official told Anton, “why can’t they?”

Future histories

What could happen if this principle governed more of world affairs, as it did in centuries past? It would certainly buttress the Trump administration’s desire to take control of Greenland from the Kingdom of Denmark, to say nothing of its designs on Canada. Landlocked Ethiopia could assert a right to its own Red Sea port — in neighboring Eritrea. And Rwanda could annex the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Could Serbia take back Kosovo or Sudan take back South Sudan? Could Israelis declare that they will run Gaza again in perpetuity? Could any powerful nation launch a mission into Jerusalem and execute an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for Israel’s prime minister? Could Australia grab all of Antarctica?

Anton put it bluntly. Trump’s assault on Venezuela, he wrote, “has ushered in new uncertainty around the globe, with allies and adversaries alike scrambling to reckon with a superpower ready to use force in the service of a transactional, might-makes-right foreign policy.”

More on Venezuela

The Venezuelan government has issued an emergency order that appears to criminalize support for the U.S. attack. Most of Maduro’s government appears to be intact. Here are profiles of the main players. Below, Jonah Bromwich, who covers criminal justice, explains what is happening with Maduro’s trial in New York City. Click the video to watch.

The New York Times

MINNESOTA’S FRAUD SCANDAL

A whiteboard used by investigators to track fraud. Ben Brewer for The New York Times

A federal investigation into fraud in Minnesota’s social programs became a political scandal last year. This week, it also drove the state’s governor to drop his re-election bid and the Trump administration to announce plans to freeze billions in funding for five Democratic-run states.

Here’s a timeline:

January 2022: The F.B.I. raids homes and offices around Minneapolis as it investigates programs designed to feed needy children during Covid. The government says program administrators used millions in federal aid to buy houses, cars and other personal items. September 2022: The Justice Department charges dozens of people. Merrick Garland, the attorney general at the time, describes it as the country’s largest pandemic relief fraud scheme. 2022 to 2025: Around 60 people, including many members of the state’s large Somali community, are convicted in three separate social-services fraud plots in Minnesota. The Times covers the scandal as it unfolds, including in a story this past November. Dec. 26, 2025: A 23-year-old YouTuber posts a video purporting to expose rampant fraud at Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota. The video gets millions of views and earns praise from Republican officials. “This dude has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 @pulitzercenter prizes,” Vance writes on social media. (The government has not yet charged anybody mentioned in the video.) Dec. 30, 2025: The Trump administration, citing the video, says it is pausing child care payments to Minnesota and orders the state to audit those day care centers. Monday: Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who has been in office since 2019, says the growing scandal has led him to end his re-election campaign. Yesterday: The Trump administration announces that, because of fraud, it will freeze $10 billion in funding for child care subsidies in Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado. Officials have not offered evidence of fraud in those four other states.

THE LATEST NEWS

Jan. 6 Anniversary

Rioters in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Erin Schaff/The New York Times

On the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the Trump administration created a new page on the official White House website that absolves Trump of responsibility. Trump, meanwhile, continued to push election conspiracies. Democrats commemorated the anniversary at the Capitol. They accused Republicans and Trump, who pardoned nearly 1,600 rioters, of trying to “rewrite history and whitewash the horrific events.” Many who stormed the Capitol also returned there yesterday, saying they came to see their friends or to memorialize rioters who died in the attack. One woman who was part of the riot, however, returned to offer an emotional apology.

Politics

Trump told Republicans that if they lose control of the House in the midterm elections, he expects to be impeached. The Department of Homeland Security is escalating its immigration crackdown around Minneapolis. Representative Doug LaMalfa, Republican of California, died yesterday. His vacant seat depletes Republicans’ tiny House majority to the bare minimum of 218 votes.

International

At a Doctors Without Borders center in Gaza on Monday. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

Israel told Doctors Without Borders to cease operations in Gaza after the aid group refused to comply with requirements to register all Gazan employees and restrict criticism of Israel’s conduct. Britain and France agreed to a postwar troop commitment in Ukraine.

Other Big Stories

The suspect in the killings of two Brown University students and an M.I.T. professor left behind videos saying he would not apologize for the attacks. Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, raised $20 billion from investors — $5 billion more than it sought.

IN ONE GRAPHIC

Federal health officials narrowed their recommendations for the childhood vaccine schedule this week. The chart below shows the changes; read more here.

Note: The start of the age range for each recommended dose is shown. Elena Shao/The New York Times

OPINIONS

The federal judge presiding over the Maduro trial is 92 — too old for a case of this magnitude. He must step aside, Jeffrey Toobin writes.

Here is a column by Bret Stephens on why the U.S. was justified in capturing Maduro.

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

Scenes from New York. Daniel Arnold for The New York Times

Voters’ choice: Michael Kimmelman, our architecture critic, composed this ballot of 17 ways Zohran Mamdani, New York’s new mayor, might change the city. Vote for your favorite ideas — or propose other ones in the comments section — and we’ll let you know the results of the poll next week.

Lost history: When hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in 2017, U.N. aid workers registered many of their birthdays as Jan. 1. Now the date is one more reminder of what they lost.

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about how Pete Wells, our former restaurant critic, changed his eating habits.

A turncoat: The C.I.A. officer Aldrich Ames’s work as a double agent for the Soviet Union led to the death of as many as 10 spies and revealed the identities of dozens more. He died in federal prison at 84.

TODAY’S NUMBER

12,000

— That’s the number of United miles you’d need to redeem to take batting practice at Daikin Park, home of the Houston Astros.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The Baltimore Ravens fired their head coach, John Harbaugh, yesterday after 18 seasons with the team.

M.L.B.: For the second time, the Athletics franchise has failed to win trademarks for “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Vegas Athletics.”

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

The recipe developer Nisha Vora, whom you may know from her YouTube channel, Rainbow Plant Life, brought us this shockingly flavorful recipe for savory grated tofu. It’s almost larblike in texture, with a fiery, salt-kissed acidity mellowed by sesame oil. Big vegan flavor. Goes great with a mound of steamed rice.

BESPOKE TAILORING

Sara Naomi Lewkowicz for The New York Times

Meet Ralph Fitzgerald, tailor to movie stars, financial executives and Marc Jacobs. Fitzgerald is one of a community of millennial tailors carrying on the craft of cutting and stitching a suit totally by hand, writes Jacob Gallagher, who covers men’s fashion. Fitzgerald works alone and builds just 10 suits a month. They start at $6,000.

Simon Kim, a restaurateur, told Jacob that Fitzgerald’s atelier is the only place he shops now. He has about a dozen suits. “Once you go custom, it’s borderline impossible to go back,” he said.

More on culture

How did “KPop Demon Hunters” come to be the most watched film in Netflix’s history? Melena Ryzik, an arts reporter, put together an ace oral history of the project, which took nine years to come to fruition.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Eiko Ojala

Try a new workout, part of Well’s 5-Day Brain Health Challenge.

Consider a new water bottle, with recommendations from the camel-backed hydration experts at Wirecutter.

Watch television. There are a lot of new titles coming to the screen this week, including the second season of “The Pitt” on HBO Max and Marcello Hernández’s debut special on Netflix.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were vibrato and vibrator.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Correction: In yesterday’s newsletter, an item on the New Year’s Eve fire in Switzerland misstated the number of years that had elapsed since the bar received a safety inspection. It was six years, not five.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 8, 2026

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Last night, President Trump sat in the Oval Office with four of our White House reporters and watched a video from Minneapolis on an aide’s laptop. It showed an immigration agent fatally shooting a 37-year-old American citizen, Renee Nicole Good.

The journalists were at the White House for an interview with the president — a remarkable, wide-ranging, on-the-record discussion that lasted for nearly two hours. They also sat in on a lengthy call Trump took from Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, the contents of which were off the record, and were led on a walk through the residence.

Trump was animated and energetic throughout the interview. As the Times reporters — Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Tyler Pager, Katie Rogers and David Sanger — pressed him on a variety of topics, he summoned aides to bring supporting documents, printouts and a scale model of the ballroom he’s building where the East Wing once stood. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were in the room for the Petro call.

In the coming days, we’ll bring you news from the interview along with analysis of what the president said — and didn’t say — about the affairs of the nation and the world.

Beyond the shooting in Minneapolis, Trump spoke extensively about Venezuela, saying the United States would likely be engaged there for years; his need for “ownership” of Greenland; and the future of his immigration crackdown. He also answered questions about the rifts in his coalition regarding antisemitism; presidential power and the judiciary; his own health; whether international law applies to him; and many other topics. The Times will be publishing stories based on the interview, and it will be the subject of Friday’s episode of “The Daily.” We’ll also publish a transcript.

But we’ll begin today with Minneapolis.

Natalie Harp, a presidential aide, showing a video of the fatal shooting in Minneapolis yesterday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

An Oval Office viewing

“I want to see nobody get shot,” Trump said of Good’s confrontation with immigration agents, speaking to our reporters. “I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen.”

He also said she had targeted an immigration agent with her car: “She behaved horribly, and then she ran him over.”

A video that captured the incident does not show the agent being run over, the reporters told him.

“I’ll play the tape for you right now,” Trump replied. He called for a staff member to bring a laptop and stand behind the Resolute Desk to show the reporters what he said would be evidence of Good’s wrongdoing.

The video played in slow motion. It showed agents ordering Good to exit her S.U.V., which partly blocks a street. She backs up, then drives forward and turns. An agent near the headlight fires, and then continues to shoot as her car moves past.

After the reporters watched it with the president, one of them said that it did not appear to show the car running over the ICE officer. “It’s a terrible scene,” Trump said when the video ended. “I hate to see it.”

Still, he implied that Good had brought it on herself.

“I watched the one woman screaming, the one woman in the car before she got shot I heard was unbelievably bad, badly behaved,” he told the reporters. “You’re supposed to listen to law enforcement.”

The reporters reminded Trump that ICE had also wrongfully detained American citizens. Was he comfortable with immigration operations if they looked like this? Trump sidestepped the question, instead blaming his predecessor’s immigration policies, Zolan Kanno-Youngs writes.

Read his full account of the exchange here.

More on Minneapolis

Renee Nicole Good’s car hit a telephone pole after she was shot. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

At a press conference in the city, Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, accused Good of “domestic terrorism” and of “stalking” immigration officers. Minnesota Democrats rejected that account. Gov. Tim Walz called it “propaganda.” The city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, called it “bullshit” and described the shooting as “an agent recklessly using power.” Protesters gathered at the site of the shooting, which was less than a mile from where the police killed George Floyd in 2020. By night, there were thousands of them, Times reporters at the scene wrote. Good, the victim, was remembered as a compassionate, giving person. Since September, ICE agents have fired on at least nine people in five states and in Washington, D.C., all of whom were in their vehicles.

THE LATEST NEWS

The oil tanker Bella 1, now rebranded the Marinera, in the Singapore Strait in March. Hakon Rimmereid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Venezuela

The U.S. seized an oil tanker that it had been chasing for more than two weeks after it was intercepted en route to Venezuela. Trump described the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan president, as “perfectly executed.” In fact, the lead helicopter came under fire and struggled to stay aloft, officials said. Since the Venezuela invasion, Trump has shown a renewed interest in taking over Greenland. But under a little-known Cold War agreement, the U.S. already enjoys broad access to the island.

Below, Rebecca Elliott, who covers energy, explains why Trump has become fixated on Venezuela’s oil reserves. Click the video to watch.

The New York Times

Politics

Trump asked Congress to prohibit private equity firms from buying single-family homes, a practice that has driven up rent prices. Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the longest-serving House Democrat, will retire from Congress when his term ends in early 2027.

International

About a million people in the Dnipro region of Ukraine were without power and heat after Russian airstrikes overnight. Trump said the U.S. would withdraw from a 34-year-old climate treaty. The decision could make it harder for future administrations to rejoin the Paris agreement. In Iran, strikes and protests over the economy spread, and the head of the judiciary threatened protesters.

L.A. Fires

In Altadena, Calif., last month. Mark Abramson for The New York Times

One year after devastating wildfires erupted in Los Angeles, the disaster remains a raw wound. More than 70 percent of residents who were displaced remain so. Spencer Pratt, a reality tv star who has criticized California’s Democratic leaders since his home burned down in the fires, announced that he would challenge Mayor Karen Bass.

Other Big Stories

The lawyer representing Nick Reiner, who is charged with killing his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, removed himself from the case. Philip Yancey, an evangelical Christian author whose writings on grace earned him prominence, admitted that he had a “sinful affair” with a married woman for years. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said it would shut down and cease publication. The newspaper’s origins date to 1786.

BUTTER UP

RealFood.gov

The Trump administration yesterday released new dietary guidance that flips the food pyramid on its head. Literally: It’s an upside-down pyramid now, with steak, cheese and whole milk near the top.

Some of the new guidelines are close to mainstream nutrition advice. They encourage Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables and to avoid sugary, processed foods. But there’s also guidance that lack a robust scientific basis — like urging people to cook with butter and beef tallow.

“My message is clear: Eat real food,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.

Alcohol recommendations also got a big change. For decades, the government told people to cut themselves off after one or two drinks a day. Not anymore. The new guidelines are looser, telling Americans to “limit alcohol beverages” without suggesting a specific cap. “Alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together,” the head of Medicare and Medicaid, Mehmet Oz, said. He added, “Don’t have it for breakfast.”

OPINIONS

States should spend more money preparing for disasters. That will mean lower costs when a hurricane, flood or fire strikes, Saket Soni writes.

Bret Stephens and Frank Bruni discuss the implications of Trump’s raid on Venezuela.

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

Sophie Park for The New York Times

The trades in crisis: Construction workers have one of the highest suicide rates of any major industry in the United States. Ronda Kaysen looked into the death of one of them, a private tragedy that underscores a pervasive danger in a difficult field. Her portrait is shattering.

When in Rome: Abel Ferrara, a hero of New York independent cinema who has a key role in “Marty Supreme,” tells the story of his career in a memoir. (He makes movies in Italy now.)

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was a video about Maduro’s arraignment in a federal court in Manhattan.

Slow-moving cinema: Bela Tarr’s grim and lengthy movies, including the seven-hour “Satantango,” made him a hero of art house cinema. Our critic A.O. Scott once wrote that Tarr was like “a medieval stone carver who happened to get his hands on a camera.” He died at 70.

TODAY’S NUMBER

773,000

— That’s the approximate age of primate fossils discovered in a Moroccan quarry. The find could revise theories on early human evolution.

SPORTS

N.B.A.: The Atlanta Hawks agreed to trade Trae Young, a four-time All-Star point guard, to the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert.

Figure skating: Ilia Malinin, who earned the nickname Quad God for his four-rotation jumps, could become a household name during next month’s Winter Olympics in Milan.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

David Malosh for The New York Times

Here’s a fast-cooking, deeply flavorful dinner of tandoori-style sheet-pan shrimp tikka. Marinate the shrimp for a few minutes in spiced yogurt, then roast them over a bed of vegetables for a few minutes more. There are bell peppers and sliced onions in there for sweetness, cumin seeds for a delightful crunch and a final run under the broiler for char and smokiness. Serve with steamed rice, some yogurt run through with diced cucumber and minced cilantro, and plenty of lemon wedges. If you have the time to make naan, do!

A DOG’S LIFE

Dav Pilkey Kevin Serna for The New York Times

Dav Pilkey is the force behind the “Dog Man” series of graphic novels about a crime-fighting pooch who strives, above all, to be good. Elisabeth Egan, a reporter for The New York Times Book Review, says if you’re not familiar with his work, here’s one reason: “His graphic novels are the kind that young readers enjoy on their own, no adult facilitation required.”

Pilkey’s books sell like mad. (Remember “Captain Underpants”? That’s his, too.) He has a notion why. “I’m writing for the kid I used to be,” he told Liz. Read all about it.

More on culture

“The Pitt” returns to HBO Max tonight for its second season. James Poniewozik, our television critic, says it’s very good: “not an advance on the excellent first season, just a consistent continuation of the idea of emergency rooms as the stitching that holds a wounded society together.” He can say that because he got advance screeners for all nine episodes. You and me? We’re going to have to watch them one by one, Thursdays at 9 p.m. No spoilers here. Late night hosts joked about Trump’s plans to become an oil baron.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

A luxury train car. Salva Lopez/Britannic Explorer, a Belmond Train

Take a long, luxurious train ride, my colleagues at T Magazine advise. Say the 22-day Grand Silk Road trip between Beijing and Tashkent, Uzbekistan? Not cheap, by any means. But probably pretty cool.

Play a game. That’s the advice on Day 4 of Well’s 5-Day Brain Health Challenge.

Document your biometrics with one of the fitness trackers recommended by Wirecutter’s ambassadors of data gratification.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was pendulum.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 9, 2026   SUPPORTED BY APPLE WATCH

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. In a pre-dawn social media post, President Trump said he had canceled a “second Wave of Attacks” on Venezuela because the country was cooperating with the United States. He also said that “BIG OIL” would invest at least $100 billion in the country ahead of a meeting with oil executives at the White House today. The industry has been wary so far.

We’ll get to that below. But first, let’s turn to what my colleagues who cover the White House heard in their unpredictable, nearly two-hour-long interview with the president.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

A vision of power

President Trump views his power to command world affairs as vast — almost unchecked. He told four White House reporters who visited the Oval Office on Wednesday evening that he, not international law or treaties, would be the arbiter of any limits to his authority. Asked if there were any restraints on his global powers, he answered: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

“I don’t need international law,” he added. “I’m not looking to hurt people.”

The reporters — Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Tyler Pager, Katie Rogers and David Sanger — asked whether his administration needed to abide by international law. “I do,” the president responded. But there was a caveat. “It depends what your definition of international law is,” he said.

As the reporters wrote:

Trump’s assessment of his own freedom to use any instrument of military, economic or political power to cement American supremacy was the most blunt acknowledgment yet of his worldview. At its core is the concept that national strength, rather than laws, treaties and conventions, should be the deciding factor as powers collide.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Using that rationale, Trump can justify many actions that his predecessors would not have considered:

In Venezuela, Trump removed the president and said U.S. oversight of the nation could last for years. Trump would like Greenland to be a part of the United States, even if that means jeopardizing the existence of NATO.

The reporters asked Trump why he needed to possess the territory. “Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success,” he said. “I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.”

Onstage at the Trump show

Doug Mills/The New York Times

The interview gave Trump a chance to show off his many sides. First and foremost, Katie reported, Trump sought to appear hale and hearty, a picture of health for a news organization that he has accused of sedition for reporting about his fitness and age.

But he also showed himself a complainer (he gets no respect), a host (he summoned a valet bearing a tray of waters and Diet Cokes), a grudge-holder (Joe Biden’s name came up many times, Katie reported) and a father figure to his aides and staff. At one point he referred passingly to Vice President JD Vance, 41, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 54, as “kids.” Both men were wearing shoes he had given them as gifts, Katie reported.

He showed himself as an ambitious builder as well, eager to renovate the White House into something spectacular, excited to show off his plans for the new White House ballroom and the marble flooring he had installed in a room just off the Rose Garden.

Katie captured a telling exchange about that:

Near the end of the interview, when asked about the possibility of elections in Venezuela, Mr. Trump hit pause on the question. A valet had just entered with a model of his White House ballroom project.

“I’m a big fan” of democracy, Mr. Trump said. “Let me show you this before I talk about democracy.”

And of course he projected the stature of a world leader. He sat behind the Resolute Desk with a file marked “top secret” before him and his vice president and secretary of state nearby while he took a call from Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia. They spoke for the better part of an hour as our reporters listened in.

“Do you think Biden could do that?” he asked afterward.

Other highlights from the interview

Trump said his administration was taking steps to strip some naturalized Americans of their citizenship, with a particular eye for those of Somali descent. He also said the hip-hop mogul Diddy had written to him requesting a pardon, but that he did not plan to give him one. The president revealed new plans for the White House: He wants to build a second level on top of the colonnade that connects the West Wing to the residence, which he called the “Upper West Wing.” Trump said that he had never taken obesity drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, but that he “probably should.”

A MESSAGE FROM APPLE WATCH
	Turn resolutions into routines Apple Watch motivates you to stay active and committed all year long Learn more

THE LATEST NEWS

ICE Agents

In Minneapolis.  Caitlin Callenson

More ICE agents are heading to Minnesota after an agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman there. And state officials withdrew from the investigation into the shooting after the federal government denied them access to evidence. The federal government said the woman was trying to ram the officer at the time of the shooting. A Times analysis of witness videos shows that’s not the case. That same ICE agent was dragged about 100 yards last year by a different driver in Minnesota during an immigration operation, according to interviews and court records. As people protested the shooting in Minneapolis, federal agents shot two people in Portland, Ore., yesterday during a traffic stop.

Venezuela

Atali Cabrejo waiting for the release of her son. Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times

Venezuela’s government has started to release political prisoners, an effort to signal the country is changing under its new leadership. People in Venezuela are burying the dozens of people, including civilians, killed in American strikes on the country. Read some of their stories. The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was a video explaining why Trump is obsessed with Venezuelan oil.

More Foreign Policy

Rubio said he would meet with Danish officials next week to discuss the future of Greenland, after saying Trump plans to buy Greenland rather than invade it. Colombia’s president was frantic after Trump said military action against his country “sounds good.” Then Trump called and appeared to defuse the crisis.

Congress

The Senate agreed in a rare bipartisan vote to debate a resolution aimed at limiting Trump’s use of military force in Venezuela; that’s expected to happen next week. (Here are the five Republicans who broke with Trump.) The House passed bipartisan legislation to reject cuts requested by Trump and to fund parts of the government ahead of a Jan. 30 government shutdown deadline.

Iran

In Tehran in October. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

Iran is in a nationwide internet blackout as protests have spread across the country. People are demanding “freedom, freedom,” and crowds have chanted, “Death to Khamenei,” referring to Iran’s supreme leader.

War in Ukraine

Russia said it used a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead against Ukraine, a warning to the West. Ukraine awarded a major lithium project to investors with links to Trump.

Politics

Federal prosecutors are said to be investigating financial transactions involving New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and her longtime hairdresser. The Justice Department has been trying for months to build a case against James. New York City announced a plan to expand free and low-cost child care, putting the city on track to become the first in the country to provide free universal child care.

Other Big Stories

Texas A&M University told a philosophy professor to cut some teachings of Plato from his syllabus to comply with new policies limiting discussion of race and gender. Scientists discovered poison residues on 60,000-year-old arrows in South Africa. They’re the earliest known example of poisoned weaponry.

CANINE PRODIGIES

Elle Baumgartel

How big is your dog’s vocabulary? If you’re lucky, your pooch might know a few basic commands — “sit,” “stay,” “roll over.”

But a select group of gifted dogs is capable of learning a lot more. Over the past two decades, scientists have identified dogs that can learn and remember dozens or even hundreds of words.

Basket, a 7-year-old Border collie who lives in Manhattan, is one of them. She knows the names of at least 150 toys (including Froggy, Crayon Box and Pop-Tart) and can retrieve each of them on command. Basket learned these names through direct instruction — and also by eavesdropping on her owners. Scientists say the latter skill puts her on equal footing with an 18-month-old child.

OPINIONS

Barring institutional investors from buying single-family homes would worsen the housing crisis. They provide more options for renters and capital for homebuilders, Binyamin Appelbaum writes.

By killing Renee Good in Minneapolis, ICE sent a warning to us all, Michelle Goldberg writes.

Each year, The New York Times Communities Fund supports nonprofits. This year, the fund is working with seven organizations that focus on helping people through education, from preschool to vocational training. Donate to the fund here.

A MESSAGE FROM APPLE WATCH
	Turn resolutions into routines Apple Watch motivates you to stay active and committed all year long Learn more

MORNING READS

A gilded fortress: Myanmar’s generals live in luxurious villas spread across the otherwise empty capital of Naypyidaw, a vast, moldering bunker far from the people they have spent decades repressing. With its defensive layout and gargantuan scale, Naypyidaw stands testament to the junta’s fear of invasion — and to its tastes for the trappings of a tropical totalitarianism. Hannah Beech, who covers Asia, got a rare look.

Act it out: Scholars at Sorbonne University trained A.I. to imitate Molière. The result is a new play.

A debonair saxophonist: Take five minutes to fall in love with Dexter Gordon.

TODAY’S NUMBER

1

— That is the number of men in their 20s who have won an Oscar award for best actor. (Related: Timothée Chalamet, who hopes to be nominated this year for his performance in “Marty Supreme,” just turned 30.)

SPORTS

College football: The Miami Hurricanes earned a spot in the College Football Playoff title game with a dramatic win over Ole Miss. The 10th-seeded Hurricanes will play Indiana or Oregon for the national championship.

Mr. Goalie: Glenn Hall, an N.H.L. goaltender who pioneered the modern netminder’s “butterfly” style and played in a record 502 consecutive regular-season hockey games without wearing a mask, died at 94. He estimated that over the course of his career he received up to 300 stitches after getting hit by flying pucks.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

David Malosh for The New York Times

Here is an absolute banger of a Friday night meal: roasted chicken Provençal. It’s a recipe I was taught years ago by the designer Steven Stolman and have cooked roughly one billion times since. For something so elegant, it’s really quite simple: chicken thighs or legs dusted in flour, then roasted with shallots, lemons and garlic over a glass of vermouth and beneath a shower of herbes de Provence. The chicken gets very crispy, and the shallots and garlic melt into sweetness beneath it. Make a simple green salad with vinaigrette to serve alongside. And put a warmed baguette on the table for your guests to mop their plates.

CONSPIRACY MINDED

Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood in Tracy Letts’s “Bug.” Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

A revival of Tracy Letts’s play “Bug,” about a romance between a sad-sack waitress and a mysterious drifter, opened on Broadway last night, two decades after its American debut.

American life is so awash in conspiracy theories these days, our critic Jason Zinoman writes in his review, that the dramatic question at the center of the play — How could someone fall for one? — seems more urgent than ever.

“No play this century dramatizes this better, and with as much twisted horror,” Jason writes, singling out Carrie Coons’s “superb” performance as the waitress. “This revival announces ‘Bug’ as a layered and assured tragedy for our cracked moment,” he says. The show is what we call a Critic’s Pick. That means go if you can.

More on culture

Here’s a recap of last night’s season premiere of “The Pitt” on HBO Max, if recaps are your bag. Discuss! Late night hosts joked about Kristi Noem’s cowboy hat.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Have better sex this year. The “Modern Love” podcast has tips.

Make five appointments. That’s the last test in Well’s 5-Day Brain Health Challenge, and it’s an important one. You’ll see!

Take our news quiz.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was daytime.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. Here’s some housekeeping: Yesterday I wrote that our television critic had watched all nine episodes of the second season of “The Pitt.” In fact, he had watched the first nine. There are 15 in total. Apologies. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 10, 2026

Good morning. The dream of cohabitating with a group of friends is an attractive fantasy, but we can benefit from its lessons, regardless of our living situation.

María Jesús Contreras

Acquired tastes

	By Melissa Kirsch

I can’t stop thinking about a recent guest essay in The Times by Elizabeth Oldfield. Oldfield is 41 and lives in a house in London with her husband, their two children, a couple with a baby on the way, another woman and a cat. Each time a particularly enticing story of co-living surfaces (see: this one about a women-only community in Texas), my friends and I share the link and fantasize about how someday we’ll all live together, like the Golden Girls, or like a hippie commune, or just in the same neighborhood. I dated a guy who seemed seriously committed to co-purchasing homes around the world where different configurations of friends could live at any given time. (We broke up before I got to see if this ambitious dream could be realized.)

When we imagine living in a group, we think of all the practical things we’ll get in the bargain: a perpetual dinner party, shared household expenses, someone to drive us to the airport or sit by our bed when we’re ill. Oldfield acknowledges these benefits, but she goes further, holding up communal living as one solution to the perennial problem of loneliness and division. We increasingly “avoid ties of mutual obligation in favor of frictionless transactions,” she writes. This results in a weakening of our connection-making muscles, what she calls “relational decay.”

She presents several habits she’s picked up from co-living that might help stave off this decay, regardless of one’s living situation. The advice I keep returning to is her suggestion to “loosen your grip on your preferences.” Living with others, Oldfield has had to compromise on her strong opinions on décor and how to store cheese. She’d prefer not to have to clean up immediately after using the kitchen, but consideration for her housemates requires she adjust.

The older we get, the more comfortable and calcified we get in our preferences and quirks. We like things the way we like them — the thermostat at 68 and not a degree warmer, the aisle seat, steak medium-rare but closer to medium, don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee. This self-knowledge is comforting, and central to forming an identity, but it’s also limiting. We are used to controlling our environments, to minimizing variables so that we can avoid discomfort.

“No hothouse-flowering,” I’ll silently admonish myself when I notice I’m making my life smaller because of some arcane preference, behaving like an exotic plant that needs too much coddling. Usually it has something to do with my physical comfort — if my levels of hunger, body temperature, caffeination and restedness are not calibrated, I might be grumpy, I might decline a social invitation. Our grip on our preferences can be so tight that our lives constrict around it.

Living with others isn’t, in Oldfield’s telling, continuously joyous. She describes frustration and conflict, concessions that could be avoided in a more conventional setup. But I think one thing that’s so attractive about it, and why I and so many people I know keep returning to the fantasy, is a desire not only to live with friends, but also to be people who can happily and companionably thrive in that setting. We like the idea of ourselves as people who can share and compromise, who prioritize community over comfort. Deep down, we don’t want to be hothouse flowers, requiring very specific conditions in order to bloom. We know, as Oldfield has come to realize, that “the relentless enhancement of experience does not usually bring inner peace. Avoiding minor annoyances becomes addictive, and it can lead to a life perfectly optimized to our preferences, all alone.”

THE LATEST NEWS

Venezuela

Trump administration officials and oil executives in the White House yesterday. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

President Trump urged U.S. oil executives to invest in Venezuela’s dilapidated oil infrastructure during a White House meeting. Trump said their companies would invest at least $100 billion.

The U.S. military intercepted another tanker in the Caribbean carrying Venezuelan oil. It’s the fifth tanker U.S. forces have boarded or seized in the past month. Trump’s power grab in Venezuela is a frontal attack against China’s oil pipeline — and its economic dominance in Latin America. In the meeting with oil executives, Trump said he was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not.”

Politics

A federal judge in New York temporarily blocked the Trump administration from freezing roughly $10 billion in child care and social services funding for five Democratic-led states. The Trump administration is trying to assert sweeping new powers over “underperforming” defense contractors. The head of the F.B.I.’s office in New York is expected to become deputy director, the No. 2 position previously held by Dan Bongino. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said nutritional guidance would be free from conflicts of interest. But his new food pyramid, which emphasizes protein, meat and milk, was informed by experts with ties to the meat and dairy industries.

Federal Shootings

Minnesota officials are calling for the federal government to let state agents help investigate the deadly shooting of a woman by an ICE agent. The Department of Homeland Security said the two people shot by federal agents in Portland this week were associated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, though they have not yet offered evidence. The shooting in Portland was at least the 10th since September by federal agents carrying out Trump’s immigration crackdown.

International

The E.U. agreed to a sweeping trade pact with four South American countries. It would create one of the largest free-trade zones in the world. Iran’s supreme leader vowed that his government would “not back down” in the face of swelling protests. He also accused protesters of trying to “please” Trump.

Other Big Stories

U.S. employers added 50,000 jobs last month, as hiring continued at a modest pace despite economic uncertainty. Hessy Levinsons Taft died at 91. As an infant, she appeared on the cover of a Nazi magazine promoting her as the ideal Aryan baby — a distinction complicated by the fact that she was Jewish. Indiana crushed Oregon, 56-22, in the College Football Playoff semifinals. The Hoosiers will play Miami in the championship game.

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

Music

Mario Miralles Michael Schmelling for The New York Times

A world-class maker of string instruments kept precious wood in a shed outside his home in Altadena, Calif. Last year’s wildfire reduced the shed, and the wood within, to ash. The artistic legacy of Tom Verlaine, the enigmatic frontman of Television, who died three years ago, rests in 35 tightly packed cardboard boxes. For megafans of megastars like Madonna and Mariah Carey, spending $650,000 on memorabilia is an emotional investment.

Trump and the Arts

The Washington National Opera is moving its performances out of the Kennedy Center, saying attendance and donations had dropped since Trump took control of it. The Smithsonian faces an ultimatum from the White House: turn over records about its programming or face budget cuts.

More Culture

Will Arnett, Laura Dern and Bradley Cooper have been friends for years. Their new dramedy, “Is This Thing On?” — about stand-up comedy and shared history — leans on that real-life bond. Read our interview with the stars. Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” published 250 years ago this week, ignited the fire of American independence. But that was hardly the end of his strange and winding story.

Each year, The New York Times Communities Fund supports nonprofits. This year, the fund is working with seven organizations that focus on helping people through education, from preschool to vocational training. Donate to the fund here.

A LENS ON HISTORY

Doug Mills, left, photographing President Trump after an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

The photojournalist Doug Mills, who began covering the White House in 1983, has been in the Oval Office thousands of times. Even for him, though, The Times’s nearly two-hour interview with Trump this week was extraordinary, as he explains in a new Q&A. Here’s an excerpt:

Do you like shooting in the Oval, or is it hard to make something fresh and new in a place that has been photographed so much?

Doug: Every time you go in that room, you see something you didn’t see the last time you were there. He adds something weekly if not daily. People give him things, or he sees something that he likes. There’s a fairly new Jackie Kennedy small little 8-by-10 beautiful painting hanging up near the fireplace; I had not seen that before.

I pinch myself every time I come in there. It’s just an incredible office to be in. It’s a unique place to be able to photograph in.

Did you start shooting a lot right at the beginning because you were worried about getting kicked out? Or do you take it slowly, wait for your moment, so as not to attract too much attention?

I’m the quietest one in the room. My cameras are completely silent. I’m not moving around a lot. You’re limited because he’s sitting behind the desk. There’s a recorder in the foreground — that’s an obstacle. I had four reporters — those are obstacles.

Karoline [Leavitt, the press secretary] had said it’s OK if you come in at the top and then peel out, so I thought at any time she might say, OK, I think you have enough. Thankfully, Karoline never asked me to leave. I think that’s mainly because the president’s very comfortable having me around. If there’s something that comes out, a folder that says “Top Secret” on it, I put my cameras away. I know I can’t photograph that stuff.

CULTURE CALENDAR

	By Alexis Soloski

? “Industry” (Sunday): Is there a hole in your heart that only wealth, party drugs and jumpy camerawork can fill? Then rejoice that “Industry,” the moody, horny HBO series about a band of young bankers, has returned for a fourth season. Set in contemporary London, the drama celebrates high finance and low morals. While the glossy bedlam of the pilot has since birthed something resembling a story line, “Industry,” still revels in the most outrageous choices. The new season, which untethers its characters from the central investment firm, adds Charlie Heaton and Kiernan Shipka to the cast.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

James Ransom for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

By Melissa Clark

Gochujang Potato Stew

Take advantage of January’s cozy, quiet chill and simmer up a pot of soup. Eric Kim’s gochujang potato stew is chock-full of greens, beans and soft pieces of potatoes, all spiked with soy sauce, honey and a judicious dollop of gochujang for a gentle kick. Make a potful this afternoon, then eat it all week long.

REAL ESTATE

Tom and Patty Chan in Atami, Japan. Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times.

The Hunt: A couple from California wanted a traditional house in Japan that they could rent out, but also stay in occasionally. Which one did they choose? Play our game.

What you get for $425,000: A cottage in Nashville, a contemporary condo in Kansas City, Mo., and a 1950s bungalow in Orlando.

Design trends: Color experts say that all-white trim is out, and moody, earthy colors are in.

LIVING

Sydney Sweeney’s luscious mane at the 2023 Met Gala was partly the work of Helena Jhong. Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

Wig bigwig: She creates custom hair pieces that appear all over Hollywood.

Ear seeds: As this acupressure practice grows more popular, the traditional seeds are being replaced by Swarovski crystals. “It’s like piercings without the actual piercing,” said one influencer.

Great spaces: These home libraries will seem like paradise to book- and design-lovers alike.

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

Do you really need to shampoo twice?

“Lather, rinse and repeat,” reads the back of many shampoo bottles. But is that final step really necessary? The answer certainly isn’t universal, but in some cases, there is a real benefit to shampooing twice, and it can make a noticeable difference in how clean your hair feels. If you have greasy roots, for instance, the first round helps break through the oil, giving the second wash more direct access to your scalp. This helps clear buildup that could lead to inflammation and irritation. And if you’re in the market to switch up your shampoo, our beauty experts have some favorites. — Hannah Frye

GAME OF THE WEEK

C.J. Gardner-Johnson broke up a pass during a game in December. Patrick Mcdermott/Getty Images

Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears, N.F.L. playoffs: One of the N.F.L.’s best rivalries gets a rare playoff matchup. The Packers enter this wild-card round on a four-game skid. But quarterback Jordan Love is set to return after missing two games, which could give the team a boost. “He’s hungry, he’s ready,” the team’s offensive coordinator said.

The Bears, on the other hand, are surging. After four straight losing seasons, a new head coach, Ben Johnson, has turned things around. And they have a breakout star in quarterback Caleb Williams, who set the franchise record for passing yards. But perhaps their biggest advantage will be a raucous Soldier Field. As tight end Cole Kmet put it, “To be able to be at home, against Green Bay, it’s going to be a special atmosphere.”

For more: The Athletic asked N.F.L. coaches and executives to predict the winners in all this weekend’s games. Here are their picks.

Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on Prime Video

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was headpiece.

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.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 11, 2026

Good morning. The U.S. launched strikes against the Islamic State in Syria. Prosecutors are trying to figure out how to bring the strongest case against Nicolás Maduro. And the Smithsonian removed text that referred to President Trump’s impeachments from the National Portrait Gallery. We have more below.

But first, Sarah Mervosh, an education reporter, has some good news about schools in a place you might not expect.

Summeral Newman, the literacy coach at Hazlehurst Elementary School in Mississippi. Rory Doyle for The New York Times

An education ‘miracle’?

	By Sarah Mervosh

As recently as 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th in the country for education. Its standing seemed predictable, even inevitable, for a state with low education spending and one of the nation’s highest child poverty rates.

Today, though, Mississippi is a top 10 state for fourth graders learning how to read, and one of the best places in the country for a poor child to get an education.

Mississippi’s turnaround has been the talk of the education world over the last few years. Its success has generated awe but also skepticism. After all, it is notoriously difficult to improve schools at scale. Could the “Mississippi miracle,” as some have called it, be real?

I traveled to Mississippi last month to see for myself.

What I found is that the most common explanation for Mississippi’s progress — changing the way it teaches reading to young children — is only part of the story. The state has also held schools accountable for student test scores, an approach that fell out of favor nationally after No Child Left Behind, the maligned Bush-era education law. And it has offered teachers more support.

In other words, in a country that prizes local control of education, Mississippi takes an unusually strong role in telling schools what to do.

What Mississippi did

A reading lesson. Rory Doyle for The New York Times

In 2013, Mississippi changed the way reading is taught, embracing the “science of reading.” Teachers use sound-it-out instruction, known as phonics, and other direct methods, like the explicit teaching of vocabulary.

Around the same time, it also raised academic standards and started giving every school a letter grade.

But the state hasn’t simply demanded proficiency, as under No Child Left Behind, which set an unattainable goal of having every child in America be proficient in reading and math. Instead, Mississippi has emphasized student growth toward proficiency. Schools get credit when students improve — and double credit for the improvement of their lowest-scoring students. That means every school, rich or poor, has an incentive to help everyone.

The state also approves a list of curriculums, used by most districts. This is not always the case in other states, where decisions are often left up to individual school districts.

And the state doesn’t just punish schools that are struggling, another difference from No Child Left Behind. It also takes a proactive role in helping them.

Take the state’s literacy coaches: They are sent into the elementary schools that have the lowest reading scores each year, with a mission to teach teachers, not children. On my visit, I was surprised to find that teachers seemed to love it. That is probably because coaches are there to mentor, not to tattle on bad teachers.

Other states have tried to copy Mississippi, mostly by focusing on the science of reading. But people involved in Mississippi’s turnaround told me it was nearly impossible to cherry-pick strategies and expect results.

“You’ve got to do that and that and that,” said Carey Wright, Mississippi’s state superintendent from 2013 to 2022. “And you have also got to do it year in and year out.”

Inside one school

Rory Doyle for The New York Times

One criticism of Mississippi’s approach is that it revolves around standardized testing.

I visited the elementary school in Hazlehurst, a rural area south of Jackson where more than half of children live in poverty. Students there take tests every two weeks, a greater frequency than even the state recommends.

There was also plenty of joy. I saw preschoolers sounding out letters into toy telephones, and second graders coaching one another on how to sound out words like “disappointment.” One 10-year-old named Johnny told me about the satisfaction he feels from learning: “If I make a bad grade but I’m going up, it’s like a staircase.”

A big question now is whether Mississippi can keep going in the face of declining test scores nationally. At Hazlehurst, scores have climbed to 35 percent of students reading on grade level, compared with 12 percent a decade ago.

No miracle, but real progress.

For more, including what Mississippi is doing to try to extend its gains to older students, read my full story here.

THE LATEST NEWS

Iran

Demonstrations in Tehran last week. UGC/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Nationwide antigovernment protests continued in Iran over the weekend. Here’s what to know. Trump has been briefed on new options for military strikes in the country, according to U.S. officials. He has threatened to attack Iran for cracking down on protesters. In the video below, Katrin Bennhold, a senior writer, discusses what’s fueling the protests with Erika Solomon, our bureau chief for Iran and Iraq. Click to watch.

The New York Times

More International News

The Norwegian Nobel Institute issued a statement saying that its prizes could not be transferred after María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader, offered to give her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump. European officials are debating ways to respond to the Trump administration’s statements about Greenland. Wildfires in the Australian state of Victoria have burned nearly 900,000 acres since last week.

Immigration

Protesters in Portland, Ore. yesterday. Jordan Gale for The New York Times

Protests took place across the U.S. yesterday after activists called for a weekend of demonstrations in response to shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis and Portland, Ore. Tensions between federal and local law enforcement have risen over issues like immigration sweeps, which could make it harder to fight crime. A federal judge has paused a Trump administration policy that would have ended a program allowing some migrants to reunite with family in the U.S.

THE SUNDAY DEBATE

Dry January has returned, testing many people’s will to abstain from alcohol for a whole month. But is the challenge beneficial?

Yes. It has helped Americans change their views by providing a space to “take a hard look not just at how much and how often we drink, but at how it affects our sleep, mood and even weight,” Bloomberg’s Lisa Jarvis writes.

No. Real behavioral change requires sustainable goals, not short-term deprivation. “The point isn’t to ‘win’ January. It’s to make January through December healthy and happy: fewer risky nights, more dinners with friends and routines that don’t depend on heroic self-control,” Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel writes for Time.

FROM OPINION

Pablo Delcan

Since the attack on Venezuela, it seems as if the old rules that govern world order are slipping away. Times Opinion asked a group of writers, including Adam Tooze and Margaret MacMillan, to consider what will come of that.

The digital economy relies on monetizing our attention. It’s time to break free by rethinking what attention is, D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh and Peter Schmidt argue.

To help Iranians with their protests against the government, Western leaders should work with human rights organizations and lift sanctions, Holly Dagres writes.

Each year, The New York Times Communities Fund supports nonprofits. This year, the fund is working with seven organizations that focus on helping people through education, from preschool to vocational training. Donate to the fund here.

MORNING READS

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in Netflix’s “The Rip.” Claire Folger/Netflix

Performance bonuses: Netflix usually pays a set fee determined upfront. But it made an exception for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

Bye, California: Google’s founders are cutting some ties to the state where they built their fortunes.

American dominance: The realist school of foreign policy holds that politics boils down to power. The Trump administration is channeling an aggressive, crude strain of realism.

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was the obituary of Hessy Levinsons Taft, a Jewish woman who, as a baby, appeared on the cover of a Nazi magazine.

Sexualized deepfakes: By letting his chatbot create nearly nude images of real people, Elon Musk is entering legally perilous territory.

A member of the Dead: Bob Weir, whose songwriting and inventive timing on the rhythm guitar helped shape the sound of the Grateful Dead, has died at 78. Here are 10 of his most notable performances.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The Chicago Bears earned their first playoff win in 15 years with a victory over the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round.

M.L.B.: Alex Bregman, one of this off-season’s top free agents, has agreed to a five-year, $175 million contract with the Chicago Cubs, according to league sources.

Fans: Hand-knitted jerseys — and patterns to make your own — are popping up on sites like Etsy as fans find ways to combine their love of sports with their love of crafting.

BOOK OF THE WEEK

	By Elisabeth Egan

“Strangers,” by Belle Burden: A divorce memoir might not sound like ideal new year reading, but Burden, a lawyer and descendant of a storied American family, hits the mark with her introspective debut. The book begins at the dawn of the pandemic, when the author and her family decamp to their summer home on Martha’s Vineyard. As soon as they’re settled — as settled as anyone could be — Burden’s husband of 20 years announces that he’s done with their marriage, all of it. He doesn’t want custody of the couple’s three children; he provides no explanation for his sudden exit. Burden offers a day-by-day account of what happened next, juxtaposing the dismantling of life as she knew it with the comings and goings of an osprey family that nests on her land. Her privilege is immense, as is her pain. Both are laid bare with grace.

More on books

For a sneak peek at the novels everyone will be talking about in 2026, start here. And for the nonfiction everyone will be talking about, look here.

THE INTERVIEW

The New York Times

	By David Marchese

This week’s subject for The Interview is George Saunders, whose new novel, “Vigil,” about two angelic beings who visit the deathbed of an oil tycoon, is out this month. Saunders is not just known as a writer of fiction, but also, ever since his 2013 convocation speech at Syracuse University on the benefits of kindness, as something of a guru of goodness. This is a label he’s not entirely comfortable with, as we discussed.

Recently you won a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation, and in one of the introductory speeches, you were referred to as “the ultimate teacher of kindness and of craft.” You’re often positioned in terms of kindness and goodness, almost as a kind of secular saint. And — you just rolled your eyes.

I was just keeping myself from levitating.

I wonder if we can complicate that positioning a little bit.

The whole kindness thing came out of a talk I did at Syracuse, and the point was not that it’s easy, but that it’s impossible. I was never making the case that I had got it, because I don’t. I’m anxious, and I’m sometimes pretty grumpy and I’m also way too busy. That secular-saint business — I’m resisting that narrative, because it jars with what I know about myself as an actual person.

People who are interested in ideas of kindness are a self-selecting group of people. But for this other group of people who maybe aren’t thinking about or don’t care about questions of kindness, is there anything you would suggest that they read to open up the door a little bit?

Well, I want to push back on your framing, because even the worst turd on the planet, if you fall down in front of him, he’s going to help you up. So then we get to a different statement of your question: A person who in his own life does value kindness and does love his parents, love his kids, why does he hit the switch on whatever harmful thing he’s doing? That’s a deep question. You can look at our politics right now, and I don’t really have an answer.

Read more of the interview here. Or watch a longer version on YouTube.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

Read this week’s magazine.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Try decorating rooms in your house with colors inspired by individual items or concepts.

Experience Olympic sports like slalom and skeleton without a trip to Milan.

Accomplish more this year by reading these books recommended by psychologists, researchers and executive coaches.

MEAL PLAN

New year, new me? If you’re hunting for healthy recipes — breakfast, lunch, dinner, anything — you’re in the right place. Emily Weinstein’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter recommends this fantastic one-pan spicy chicken and mushrooms dish from Yewande Komolafe. Here, she simmers chicken thighs in a sauce of roasted red peppers enhanced with miso and anchovies.

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were mourning, rumoring and unmooring.

Can you put eight historical events — including the Iranian revolution, the creation of the food pyramid and the origins of the silhouette — 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.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 12, 2026

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, is under criminal investigation. “One Battle After Another” and “Adolescence” were the big winners at the Golden Globes. And you can read the entire transcript of our interview last week with President Trump.

We’ll get to more below. We’ll start today, though, by taking your questions.

From left, Nicolás Maduro being escorted off a helicopter last week, and an oil refinery in Venezuela. Vincent Alban/The New York Times; Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

Your Venezuela questions

Was the U.S. incursion into Venezuela legal? Do everyday Venezuelans favor American involvement in their country’s affairs? What will happen to the oil — or the president and his wife, seized by Delta Force commandos more than a week ago?

We asked readers for their questions about Venezuela. Today, The Times’s expert beat reporters — and our executive editor — answer.

The legality

Is there a precedent for this? | Katie Matthies, Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Michael Crowley, who covers foreign policy, writes:

Yes. President Nicolás Maduro’s capture echoes the 1989 arrest of Panama’s former dictator, Manuel Noriega. Like Maduro, the Panamanian general was considered an illegitimate ruler and had been federally indicted for drug trafficking. But his apprehension involved a major U.S. ground invasion with nearly 30,000 troops. After his surrender, Noriega was tried, convicted and imprisoned in the U.S. for many years. Congress largely supported President George H.W. Bush — who said he was also protecting democracy, the Panama Canal and American citizens in Panama — but some lawmakers argued that he lacked legal authority.

Nicolás Maduro is set to stand a real trial, not a show trial like Saddam Hussein’s. What happens if a jury in New York finds Maduro not guilty or if he posts bail? Would he walk the streets of New York freely? | Max White, Brooklyn, N.Y.

William K. Rashbaum, who covers political corruption, writes:

The likelihood that the judge will release Maduro on bond is very slim, because he has effectively been a fugitive for nearly six years, having been indicted in March 2020 on similar charges. And if he were acquitted? Under our system of justice, he will be free to go unless prosecutors bring other charges against him. Any trial, however, is probably over a year away.

Why was Maduro’s wife arrested, and what are the charges against her? | Sandra Simon, Wenham, Mass.

Jonah Bromwich, who covers White House influence on New York courts, writes:

Before she was Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores was a powerful Venezuelan politician: She was Hugo Chávez’s criminal defense lawyer, a leader in his political machine and eventually a member of the nation’s legislature. Prosecutors charged her with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States as well as a pair of charges related to possessing machine guns. The indictment accuses her of joining her husband in partnering with narcotics traffickers and says she accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.

The oil

In Caracas. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

Why does the United States think it has the right to access Venezuelan oil? Isn’t that Venezuela’s decision? | Matt Wilhelm, Kennett Square, Pa.

Simon Romero, who covers Latin America, writes:

The Trump administration seems to be thinking about assets once owned by American oil companies that Venezuela nationalized in two different phases. In 1976, the country took control of the operations of Exxon Mobil and Chevron. U.S. companies received compensation. Chávez carried out the second nationalization in 2007, which was much more contentious. Most U.S. companies abandoned Venezuela at the time, saying they had lost billions. Chávez used oil revenue to turbocharge his socialist-inspired revolution at home and strengthen alliances with countries like Cuba, Iran and Russia.

Oil is something that many Venezuelans view as their birthright, and Venezuelan law says the government controls the country’s energy wealth. So there is broad opposition in the country to the idea that foreign countries can lay claim to Venezuela’s oil.

Venezuelan crude oil is of low quality, called “sour oil.” It will be expensive to refine. Why is the administration so focused on it? | Dianne Gardner, Oxford, Fla.

Stanley Reed, who covers energy, writes:

Yes, Venezuela’s dense oil is difficult to produce and refine. But many American refineries are configured for that type and may welcome, and profit from, more Venezuelan barrels. To Washington, Venezuela’s reserves may look like an A.T.M. for covering the cost of America’s intervention there — and a way to wield greater influence over global oil markets.

It will cost billions to restore Venezuela’s oil infrastructure. And crude already trades at the low price of $60 per barrel. Will U.S. oil companies really want to enter a market where long-term political stability isn’t guaranteed? | Alexander Fisher, Washington, D.C.

Rebecca F. Elliott, who covers energy, writes:

There is a big gap between what the president has claimed and what American oil companies are prepared to do in Venezuela. Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, is the only American producer currently operating there. Will others return? It will come down to how the political situation evolves and the terms of investment. Exxon Mobil, which has been burned in Venezuela before, made clear on Friday that a lot would need to change. “Today it’s uninvestable,” Darren Woods, the company’s chief executive, told President Trump at the White House. Low oil prices are another obstacle, since companies would need high prices to offset the cost of drilling new Venezuelan wells.

Geologically, why is there so much oil in Venezuela, and where in that country is it? | Bill Charlton, Cambridge Springs, Pa.

Lisa Friedman, who covers the environment, writes:

The country’s oil is concentrated in the Orinoco Belt, a region in the east covering some 20,000 miles. It sits atop a massive deposit of organic-rich rock formed from ancient marine life. Buried under immense heat and pressure over millions of years, it converted into oil.

The politics

In Caracas. The New York Times

Are everyday Venezuelans leaning for or against U.S. intervention? Are they OK with the invasion and abduction since it means Maduro is out of power? | Gan Nu Suo, Fairfax, Va.

Anatoly Kurmanaev, who is reporting in Venezuela, writes:

Most Venezuelans wanted Maduro out, but not at the cost of invasion. A November national survey conducted in person by Datanalisis, one of the country’s most established independent pollsters, found that less than one in four Venezuelans supported foreign intervention in the country. This broadly echoes private polling I’ve seen here in recent months. At the same time, Maduro was wildly unpopular and lost the last presidential election by a margin of nearly 40 percentage points.

What do Venezuelans think today? My reporting shows that many are glad that Maduro is gone, but there’s widespread discontent across the political spectrum over the nakedly imperialist rhetoric from the Trump administration, which is basically trying to turn Venezuela into an American oil colony. Understanding whether that discontent triggers violence or political action is a focus of my reporting.

Will this strengthen Trump’s position going into the 2026 midterms? For many Latinos, U.S. policy toward authoritarian regimes is deeply personal. Could this help recruit more Latino support in 2026? | Daniel Quinones, Miami Beach

Jennifer Medina, who covers politics and demographic change, writes:

It seems unlikely. Venezuelans are the fastest-growing group of Latinos in the United States, but they make up just .3 percent of the population. And they’re concentrated in South Florida, where Republicans already largely dominate. The majority of Latino voters in the United States — and in swing districts — are Mexican Americans, and there is little evidence that they vote based on foreign policy. Latino voters who have moved to Republicans in recent elections have repeatedly made it clear that their top concern is the economy.

Is Trump’s attack on Venezuela, without congressional approval, an impeachable offense? | Joan Conover, Chicago

Carl Hulse, The Times’s chief Washington correspondent, writes:

Congress determines what is impeachable by deciding what amounts to “high crimes and misdemeanors.” It’s unlikely his Republican allies would see the Venezuela raid that way. But the president says he expects Democrats to impeach him if they win control of the House in November, even though the Senate might dismiss such an action. The main focus for Democrats at the moment is passing legislation that would prohibit Trump from taking further military action without authorization from Congress. Should he continue to do so, Democrats might consider those actions part of an impeachment case if they return to power.

Our coverage

After U.S. airstrikes in Caracas. The New York Times

Some media reporters wrote that The Times knew of the raid in advance but didn’t cover it until after it had begun. Why? | Anna French, Bozeman, Mont.

Joe Kahn, executive editor of The Times, writes:

We reported on U.S. missions targeting Venezuela, including boat strikes and preparation for land-based military action, in considerable detail for several months. Our Pentagon, national-security and intelligence-agency beat reporters talked repeatedly with their sources about heightened preparations for bolder action against the Venezuelan leadership. Contrary to some claims, however, The Times did not have verified details about the pending operation to capture Maduro or a story prepared, nor did we withhold publication at the request of the Trump administration.

I’d like to walk through a little of how we approach reporting and publishing stories and this coverage.

The use of military force by the United States is a high-priority area of coverage, including preparatory stages when a major operation is under consideration. We published a story in November about U.S. military planning options and the looming possibility of a U.S. strike in Venezuela and an effort to capture Maduro. In December, we reported on a buildup in military assets in the region. And just days before the eventual operation, we revealed a possible plan for Army Delta Force units to enter the country by land. Given the stakes, our reporters stayed in close contact with sources through the year-end holiday period and were aware of the possibility that that planning could result in new operations.

While not relevant in this case, The Times does consult with the military when there are concerns that exposure of specific operational information could risk the lives of American troops. We take those concerns seriously, and have at times delayed publication or withheld details if they might lead to direct threats to members of the military. But in all such cases, we make our editorial decisions independently. And we have often published accountability and investigative stories about military and intelligence operations and national-security decision making that government officials pressed us to withhold.

Our reporting on the U.S. and Venezuela has provided the public, including Congress, with information they would not otherwise have. In a democracy, the public needs independent, fair and verified reporting, and we consider that mission especially critical when it comes to coverage of the military.

The Times is using the word “incursion” rather than the word “invasion” when describing our invasion of a sovereign nation. Why? | Nancy Swaim, Rockville, Ind.

Susan Wessling, the Times editor in charge of standards and language, writes:

The action in Venezuela on Jan. 3 was limited and brief, and the White House says there are no troops now on the ground there. That temporary military presence fits the definition of “incursion,” though there’s no newsroom requirement that reporters and editors have to use the word. This is different from the invasion of Panama in 1989. The United States ordered tens of thousands of troops into action to attack Noriega’s government after he declared a state of war.

THE LATEST NEWS

Federal Reserve

President Trump and Jerome Powell toured the renovation site at the Federal Reserve in July. Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Federal prosecutors opened an investigation into whether Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, lied to Congress about the scope of renovations at the central bank’s headquarters. Powell responded to the charges with a video message in which he called the investigation “unprecedented” and questioned the motivations behind it.

Politics

Trump wrote on social media that Cuba would no longer receive “oil or money” from Venezuela and that Cuba should “make a deal, before it’s too late.” Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said “hundreds more” federal agents would be sent to Minneapolis to help ICE agents, citing a welfare fraud investigation as the reason.

International

In Tehran on Saturday. UGC, via Associated Press

Iran’s government said that it was prepared for war, but open to negotiation, after Trump hinted at possible military action to stop a crackdown on antigovernment protesters. Related: In Los Angeles, a man in a U-Haul drove through a march supporting the demonstrations in Iran. No one was hurt. Israel has demolished more than 2,500 structures in Gaza since the beginning of the cease-fire with Hamas, a Times investigation found.

OPINIONS

In eight cartoons, Alison Bechdel gives advice on how to start a commune. One idea: Run with goats on a treadmill to produce electricity.

The new dietary guidelines’ emphasis on red meat will worsen Americans’ health and our environment, Matt Prescott says.

To stop bad actors from using A.I. to generate child sexual abuse material, Congress needs to create a legal safe harbor for testing A.I. models, Riana Pfefferkorn writes.

Here is a column by David French on how Trump talks to his base.

Each year, The New York Times Communities Fund supports nonprofits. This year, the fund is working with seven organizations that focus on helping people through education, from preschool to vocational training. Donate to the fund here.

MORNING READS

Fat Man United competes against Totten-Ham and Cheese in suburban Dallas. Desiree Rios for The New York Times

“Man v Fat”: Players in this Dallas-area soccer league take a self-deprecating approach to weight loss.

Find your turn-on: Focusing too much on sex can be a way to kill desire, some experts say. Try these unconventional approaches to spark intimacy.

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was about Netflix’s deal with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

Metropolitan Diary: She was singing my song.

TODAY’S NUMBER

40

— That is the percentage increase in the acidity of surface seawater between the Industrial Revolution and 2024. Acidic seawater causes problems for the metabolism, sensory perception, reproduction and communication of ocean creatures.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The San Francisco 49ers upset the defending Super Bowl champion, the Philadelphia Eagles, 23-19 in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

Collectibles: The memorabilia of Jim Irsay, the Indianapolis Colts owner who died last year, will be up for auction in New York in March. The collection includes Muhammad Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle” championship belt and the guitar Kurt Cobain used on Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell.

Spanakorizo is a simple Greek dish of rice and spinach adorned with herbs and feta, with a big squeeze of lemon juice. Pop a jammy egg or two on top and you’ve got a lovely dinner, a taste of summer in the depth of its opposite. Could you make the dish in a rice cooker? Yes, though I think I’d cook the aromatics and ginger in a skillet beforehand.

GOLDEN GLOBES

Members of the cast and crew of “Hamnet.” Rich Polk/Penske Media, via Getty Images

At last night’s Golden Globe Awards, “One Battle After Another” was the most-awarded film, winning honors for best comedy, director, screenplay and best supporting actress. Timothée Chalamet received his first Globe, for “Marty Supreme,” and Jessie Buckley was also a first-time winner, for “Hamnet.” In the television category, “Adolescence” was the big winner with four Globes, and Noah Wyle took home his first Globe for “The Pitt,” which also won best television drama. See the complete list of winners here.

Nikki Glaser was an even better host than she was last year, our critic thought, while an overwhelmed Teyana Taylor of “One Battle After Another” made a memorable speech. The production choices ranged from goofy to crass. Here are the best and worst moments.

Now, let’s discuss 15 unforgettable looks from the night. Bella Ramsey, wrapped!

More on culture

Our “Popcast” team sat down with the 22-year-old rage-pop phenomenon 2hollis and his father, John Herndon, of the post-rock band Tortoise. They talked music and fame, and it’s a delight. Watch the whole thing on YouTube.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter

Swing a kettlebell to improve strength and balance. The gym rats at Wirecutter have discovered two of the best.

Seek closure, they tell us. The Well desk wonders if that’s always necessary.

Take our news quiz.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was companion.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 13, 2026

	by Sam Sifton and Evan Gorelick

Good morning. The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first deadly strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean last September. And Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, vowed to stop a proposed wealth tax that has already caused some billionaires to leave the state.

There’s much more below. But first, my colleague Evan Gorelick and I look at the protests in Iran.

In Tehran last week. Getty Images

Crisis in Iran

Antigovernment protests have engulfed the streets of Iran. And government forces are killing the protesters in droves.

The demonstrations began two weeks ago in the bazaars of Tehran — the historic heart of Iran’s economy — when the Iranian rial plunged to a new low against the U.S. dollar. The fall unleashed a wave of anger against the government: My money’s worth less. The protests have since spiraled into a wholesale revolt against the country’s authoritarian clerical rulers. Protesters are marching in the capital, at universities and in impoverished towns.

Note: As of Jan. 8. Shows protests since Dec. 29. Source: Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project. Samuel Granados/The New York Times

Over the past few days, as government forces have tried to quash the protests, the confrontations have gotten bigger and more violent. Although Iran’s government has shut down the internet and frozen phone service, videos transmitted through the blackout and verified by The Times show corpses lined up in body bags outside hospitals. Human rights groups have confirmed the deaths of more than 500 protesters so far — and dozens of government personnel. But the true toll may be much higher, they say, and we won’t know for sure until the internet returns.

President Trump warned over the weekend that the U.S. military might intervene to support the protesters if the violence continued. Iran’s government said yesterday that it was ready for a war but open to negotiating.

On the ground

In Tehran last week. Getty Images

Iranians have been challenging their theocratic rulers on and off for more than a decade. They protested in 2009, 2019, 2021 and 2022. Each time, government security forces have responded with crackdowns.

Still, some of our colleagues reporting on Iran — among them Erika Solomon, Sanam Mahoozi and Sanjana Varghese — managed to talk to 10 protesters by phone.

The calls did not come easily. As Erika told us yesterday, The Times does not have reporters in Iran right now. “It’s important to be clear that we are still getting a very fragmented picture of what is happening,” she said.

There have been blackouts before, though Erika says this is one of the worst she has seen. “When people get access, which is usually very sporadic,” she continued, “they will send us audio notes sharing what happened to them or answering questions we previously wrote out to them on mobile texting applications like WhatsApp or Telegram.” Everyone proceeds carefully. As Erika noted, “These are sources that we trust and who trust us to keep them safe, often people we’ve spoken to for many years.”

Because people are terrified. The Times’s Farnaz Fassihi and Malachy Browne spoke with Parisa, a 35-year-old Tehran resident who witnessed the violence of the government response on Friday night. From their story:

Four security agents swarmed a middle-aged man and his teenage son who had been standing at a corner, cheering on the crowd and joining in the antigovernment chants. The officers opened fire, killing the father, said Parisa, who asked that her last name not be published out of fear of retribution.

The son screamed, his cries mingling with the crowd’s, as some fled and others began cursing and throwing rocks at the security forces. Parisa said that she had noticed the man bending down to fix his shoe, adding that perhaps the security forces had believed he was reaching for a weapon. But she saw none.

The violence has spread far from Tehran, the capital. Videos verified by The Times show armed men shooting down empty streets in two other Iranian cities, an apparent effort to intimidate residents and would-be protesters. Security forces also fired tear gas at worshipers exiting a mosque.

Iran’s president said on Sunday that he was working to address protesters’ anger over the economy. Earlier, the government said it planned to provide most citizens with a monthly payment equivalent to around $7 in a bid to help. But Iran’s supreme leader vowed that the government would “not back down” from the protests. Tehran’s public prosecutor said that those involved in clashes with security forces could face death by hanging.

Trump weighs in

Over the weekend, Trump said that the U.S. might be ready to intervene.

Asked by reporters whether Iran’s leaders had crossed a red line, he replied: “It looks like it. There seems to be some people killed who weren’t supposed to be killed.” He did not go into detail, but added: “We’re looking at it very seriously, the military’s looking at it. And there’s a couple options.”

Trump has repeatedly threatened to use lethal force against the Iranian government for its efforts to suppress demonstrations. “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” he wrote on social media on Saturday. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”

Yesterday, officials said that Trump was exploring possibilities for diplomacy while considering whether to attack.

Iran is weaker than it used to be. The nation was once the center of a powerful network of anti-Western forces across the Middle East — including in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza — but its regional power has contracted over the past two years as Israel has decimated Hezbollah and Hamas. In June, Israeli missiles rained down on Tehran, killing some of the country’s military leaders and nuclear scientists, and hundreds more civilians. American bombers pounded key nuclear facilities to the south.

Iranian officials blame the U.S. and Israel for the current unrest, claiming that they have supported “terrorist” teams that have infiltrated the protests, killing both protesters and government personnel to stoke more violence.

Some experts call the crisis the most serious challenge to Iran’s clerical rule since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Now, let’s see what else is happening in the world.

THE LATEST NEWS

Minnesota Shooting

In Minneapolis on Sunday. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

The F.B.I. is investigating whether Renee Good, the woman killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, had ties to activist groups protesting the Trump administration. The agent is unlikely to face criminal charges, officials said. Trump suggested that Good’s “highly disrespectful” attitude toward law enforcement could help justify her killing. Officials in Minnesota and Illinois separately sued the Trump administration to stop the ICE deployments in their states. Ask The Morning: What questions do you have about the ICE deployments and the efforts to block them? Ask us here. David Guttenfelder, a visual journalist for The Times, was at the scene in Minneapolis immediately after Good was killed. In the video below, he explains what he saw. Click to play.

The New York Times

Federal Reserve

Several Republican senators criticized the Justice Department’s investigation into Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska called it “nothing more than an attempt at coercion.” Three former Fed chairs — Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan — denounced the charges as an attempt to undermine the Fed’s independence. Powell had strenuously sought to avoid a public fight with Trump. But after the president escalated his fight, Powell did, too, writes Colby Smith, who covers the Federal Reserve.

Politics

Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona sued Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth over his effort to punish Kelly for participating in a video telling soldiers they could ignore illegal orders. The E.P.A. used to consider how many lives would be saved when setting air-pollution rules. In a reversal, the agency now plans to calculate only the cost to industry, according to internal documents seen by The Times.

Other Big Stories

In Manhattan yesterday. Vincent Alban/The New York Times

Nearly 15,000 nurses went on strike in New York City, setting the stage for what could be the city’s biggest health care labor showdown in decades. After a nearly yearlong delay to its efforts to compete in artificial intelligence, Apple says it plans to base its A.I. products on technology from Google. Paramount says it plans to nominate directors to the board of Warner Bros. Discovery to advance its hostile bid for the company.

ARCTIC FRONT

On Svalbard. Emile Ducke for The New York Times

Svalbard, a cluster of islands in the Arctic near the North Pole, is part of Norway. But a unique treaty signed in 1920 has long allowed just about anyone to live there without a visa.

Now, though, Norway is asserting more control over Svalbard. It is stripping voting rights, blocking land sales, restricting research and claiming hundreds of miles of seabed.

Norway insists it has little choice. Svalbard is one of the best places on earth to download satellite data and monitor missile trajectories, and coveted supplies of rare-earth minerals lie beneath the surrounding seas. If it does not safeguard this corner of the Arctic, Norway says, the islands could become a launchpad for hostile powers.

Times reporters traveled by plane, truck and snowmobile to report on the changes in Svalbard. Read their story here.

OPINIONS

The U.S. needs to help the Venezuelan opposition remove the leaders of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, argues John Bolton, who served as national security adviser in the first Trump administration.

Here is a column by Michelle Goldberg on the growing risk of fascism.

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

He Jiankui Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

“Dr. Frankenstein”: He Jiankui, the Chinese scientist who created the world’s first gene-edited babies, spent three years in prison for deceiving Chinese medical authorities. Now back at work, he sees a greater opening for researchers who push boundaries.

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the most unforgettable looks at the Golden Globe Awards.

A chef: Elle Simone Scott, the first Black cast member on the PBS cooking show “America’s Test Kitchen,” used her influence to help other female chefs of color. She died at 49.

TODAY’S NUMBER

2.4

— That was the percent rise in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2025, after two years of decline. It was also the percent rise in energy demand nationwide last year.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The Houston Texans beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-6 to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs, where they will face the New England Patriots. Here’s the rest of the postseason schedule.

Golf: Brooks Koepka, who played four seasons in LIV Golf, is returning to the PGA Tour this month after the tour announced a new, time-sensitive program for LIV Golf defectors to come back.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell.

Malaay qumbe is a Somali version of coconut fish curry. It’s rich with xawaash, a spice blend of cumin, coriander, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and turmeric that sits at the heart of Somali cuisine. The mixture balances out the sweetness of coconut milk and the acidity of tomatoes really nicely. Serve over steamed rice or alongside muufo, a slightly sweet cornmeal flatbread. “Made exactly according to recipe,” one reader commented. “Absolutely delicious.”

THE END OF AN OLD-MONEY DREAM

Belle Burden, far right, in 1999 with her stepmother, Susan Burden, center, and Brooke Astor. Bill Cunningham/The New York Times

When the editors of The New York Times Book Review do an exceptional job of pairing a reviewer with a book, someone like me will exclaim, “Good casting!” One example: Alex Kuczynski, who used to cover the very rich and quietly famous for The Times, on Belle Burden’s memoir, “Strangers,” about the sudden dissolution of Burden’s 20-year marriage.

It’s a world Alex knows well and writes about silkily — all private beaches and private clubs and private schools, trust funds and family wealth offices, along with the weird expectation amid all of it “that the world will automatically take care of you.” It won’t, Alex knows — and admires Burden for writing her way through the pain.

More on culture

The philosopher C. Thi Nguyen’s new book, “The Score,” is a “mind-expanding exploration of the philosophy of games,” Jennifer Szalai writes in a fascinating profile. Nguyen shows “how scoring systems teach us what to desire and make our motivations legible to one another.” Let’s play. Jon Stewart skewered Trump’s self-declared role as “acting president of Venezuela.”

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Tom Hiddleston and Camila Morrone in Season 2 of “The Night Manager.” Des Willie/Prime

Watch “The Night Manager” on Amazon Prime. You’ll see.

Tromp through the snow in the hiking boots that the chill cats at Wirecutter think are best for powder and slush.

Read “This Is Where the Serpent Lives” by Daniyal Mueenuddin. Our critic Dwight Garner calls it “sensitive and powerful” — Chekhovian in its spare, up-close magic.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was italicize.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. Here’s a small piece of housekeeping. Yesterday, we wrote that the Orinoco Belt, a region in Venezuela that’s rich in oil, covers some 20,000 miles. Those are square miles, of course. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 14, 2026

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Saks, the parent company of the luxury department stores Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, filed for bankruptcy last night. The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland will meet with Trump administration officials at the White House today. And China announced the world’s largest trade surplus ever last year, despite challenges posed by U.S. tariffs.

We’ll have more news below. But I’m going to start today in Minneapolis.

In Minneapolis yesterday. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

A city’s limit

Minneapolis is on a knife’s edge. One week after a federal agent shot and killed Renee Good, aggressive arrests have enraged residents. The Trump administration has redoubled its effort to deport illegal immigrants, sending officers into residential neighborhoods and the parking lots of big-box stores in search of people to grab. They’ve also detained — and roughed up — several U.S. citizens, and social media is awash in viral videos of the confrontations.

Meanwhile, activists have sought to observe, document or impede the agents, Julie Bosman reports. On WhatsApp, neighbors watch out for immigration officers and run from their homes to shout at them. “It feels like our community is under siege by our own federal government,” State Representative Michael Howard, a Democrat, told The Times.

The encounters can be terrifying. My colleagues verified images circulating this week that show agents tackling a man at a gas station and shoving Elliott Payne, the president of the City Council. Payne told my colleagues that there were federal agents equipped with assault rifles and combat gear patrolling the streets, repeatedly unholstering their handguns. “It feels like a military occupation,” he said.

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Some of the stops go beyond ordinary law enforcement. In a few of the run-ins, you can feel the animosity building between federal officers and citizens they serve. One man The Times spoke to said he was glad that there were other people around to film his encounter with federal agents, which occurred after they rammed their car into his, forcing him to a stop.

He said he believed the presence of people with cameras had helped lead the agents to let him go. But as the crowd grew — the crowds always seem to grow now — and began to yell at the officers, he worried that the situation could tip over into something darker, something violent. “It makes them act different, like they have more power,” he said.

Urban strife

President Trump does not seem interested in de-escalating anything in Minneapolis. This week, he said that one justification for the shooting of Renee Good might have been that she had been “disrespectful” to officers. Being disrespectful is a form of speech, though — one protected by the Constitution.

Now the government is sending 1,000 more immigration officers to Minnesota on top of the 2,000 already there. The administration also said it would end deportation protections for more than 2,000 migrants from Somalia. The state is home to the largest diaspora of Somalis in the world.

Minnesota filed a lawsuit on Monday alongside the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, asking a judge to block the federal government from “implementing the unprecedented surge in Minnesota.”

“FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA,” Trump wrote on social media yesterday, “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”

A tinderbox

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

It’s worth pausing on these encounters between federal officers and Minneapolis residents. They contain multiple truths.

On the one hand are people driving to work, walking out of a store, trying to get home. On the other are federal agents sent to a place they are unwelcome and told to round up people many locals want to protect. Some activists are throwing snowballs at officers, blowing whistles, chanting at them, parking in the way of their vehicles. Residents have honked car horns through the night next to a hotel where agents are staying and followed a commander into the bathroom to shout at him.

Agents respond with pepper spray, tear gas or worse.

Everyone is just mad — at the injustices they perceive, at the people performing them, at the awful facts on the ground. That’s as true of the masked federal agents as it is of the citizens and noncitizens they face. The steam pipe valve is screwed down tight in Minneapolis. The pressure only goes up. Good is dead, and more may follow.

Brian O’Hara, Minneapolis’s police chief, has been warning about this for weeks. More than five years ago, the killing of George Floyd by members of his department tore Minneapolis apart. O’Hara came in afterward to rebuild the force and re-establish trust with the city’s residents.

On Monday, Michael Barbaro interviewed him for “The Daily” and asked what his first thought had been when he heard about the Good shooting. O’Hara was measured throughout the interview, and you can hear the pause as he considers the question. “I just thought, Fuck, this is it,” O’Hara said. “You know? This is potentially 2020 all over again.”

“George Floyd all over again?” Michael asked.

“The destruction of the city,” the chief responded.

More coverage

Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned because the Justice Department pushed to investigate Good’s widow, but not to investigate the ICE agent who shot Good. Peter Baker, The Times’s chief White House correspondent, contrasts Trump’s support for Iranian protesters with his disdain for those in Minnesota: “Those who take to the streets supporting a cause he favors are laudable heroes,” Peter writes. “Those who take to the streets to oppose him are illegitimate radicals.”

THE LATEST NEWS

The Supreme Court

At the Supreme Court. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

The Supreme Court appears inclined to uphold laws in West Virginia and Idaho that bar transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports teams. The cases have implications for the 25 other states with similar laws. Meet the students behind the cases: One sued to join the girls’ cross-country team at her middle school, and the other to join her university’s track and cross-country teams.

Politics

Bill and Hillary Clinton Pool photo by Melina Mara

Bill and Hillary Clinton refused to testify before a House panel investigating Jeffrey Epstein. Senior Republicans criticized Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen, transcripts of secret grand jury testimony from Georgia show. One called the fake elector plan “the craziest thing I’ve heard.” Trump has repeatedly complained about Attorney General Pam Bondi in recent weeks, describing her as weak and ineffective, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Economy

In Dearborn, Mich., yesterday. Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Trump defended his economic strategy during a visit to Detroit yesterday. He also made an obscene gesture at a heckler during a tour of a Ford factory. Annual inflation was 2.7 percent in December, a similar rate to the previous month. The steadiness makes it likely that the Fed will not change interest rates at its next meeting. Grocery prices were an outlier: They climbed 0.7 percent in December, the largest one-month increase since October 2022.

Iran

In Tehran. via Reuters

Officials in Iran said that about 3,000 people had been killed in protests across the country, although the true toll remains unclear. U.S. officials offered a more conservative estimate of around 600 protesters killed. The brutal crackdown indicates that Iran’s government considers the protests an existential threat, analysts say.

More International News

In Thailand, a crane fell on a passenger train, killing dozens of people. Marine Le Pen, the far-right French politician, is appealing a conviction that bars her from office.

IN ONE CHART

Projections show the outlook if no other departures happen and Democrats gain two seats, as expected, in upcoming special elections. | Source: U.S. House of Representatives. By Ashley Wu/The New York Times

Republicans’ margin in the House of Representatives has dwindled to almost nothing. After a surprise resignation and a death, the G.O.P. holds 218 seats, as the chart above shows. Democrats have 213, and a special election this month is expected to bring them to 214.

That means two Republican defections on any vote would result in a tie. And under House rules, a tie vote fails, as Ashley Wu and Annie Karni explain.

OPINIONS

The Trump administration’s policies against electric vehicles may hurt the automobile industry, Bill Saporito writes.

Here’s a column by Bret Stephens on how Iran’s antisemitic policies have backfired.

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

The Kid Mero Michael Tyrone Delaney for The New York Times

On the air: The Kid Mero, a graffiti writer turned school aide turned Twitter comedian turned podcasting superstar, is learning to adjust his foul-mouthed freewheeling style as he takes over the premier morning slot on New York’s storied hip-hop station Hot 97.

‘We need to be the news’: Inside Bari Weiss’s bumpy revamp at CBS.

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was a video report from Minneapolis.

At the office: Scott Adams, the former middle manager who created the comic strip “Dilbert,” died at 68. His satire of corporate life was a national sensation until 2023, when more than 1,000 newspapers dropped the strip after he made racist comments on his podcast.

TODAY’S NUMBER

2.7

— That’s how many million acres of the Earth that are owned by Stan Kroenke, the rancher and billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets and other major sports teams. It is more than twice the size of the land mass of Delaware. Kroenke is the largest private landowner in the United States.

SPORTS

Golf: Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith committed to LIV Golf for 2026, ignoring the option to return to the PGA Tour.

Olympics: Chloe Kim, the American snowboarding star, says she expects to be ready for next month’s Winter Games despite suffering a tear in her shoulder.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Lots of cilantro, mint and scallions, toasted rice powder, fried ground pork, a zing of lime juice, a pow of ground chilies? That’s pork laab (which you may know as moo larb or laap), one of northern Thailand’s greatest contributions to the world menu. Serve it with cabbage and cucumbers for additional crunch, and an extra spray of fish sauce. You’ll be in the Chiang Rai of your mind!

IN THE REEDS

The New York Times

Consider the oboe, a breathtakingly difficult instrument to play — “invented by a sadist,” one musician told Jesse Green, a culture reporter, adding, “You sound like a wild duck for at least the first three years.” Consider, too, how difficult an instrument it is to build.

Jesse, who spent his childhood mangling the instrument, recently visited the Laubin oboe company in upstate New York to do both. He heard one of the instruments played. “What then seemed hard to believe was that anyone was ever willing to live without such a sound, and thus without the bizarre, expensive machines that make it,” he wrote. “The haunting Act II theme from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’ and the jaunty peeping of Sonny & Cher’s ‘I Got You Babe’ do not come cheap; Laubins start at $13,200.”

More on culture

Jason Zinoman, our comedy critic, did not take quietly the news that Ricky Gervais won a Golden Globe for best stand-up comedy this week. “That his dismal, meandering laundry list of jokes was even nominated was absurd,” he wrote. “That it won, perverse.” Last week Michael Kimmelman, our architecture critic, published 17 suggestions for how New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, might improve the city’s urban environment. He asked readers to give them a thumbs up or down, and tens of thousands obliged. The winner, with more than 35,000 votes: devote more resources to parks and libraries. (Coming in second: repair the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.) Stephen Colbert accused Trump of “invading Minnesota.”

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Start reading Karl Ove Knausgaard with the help of this guide to the Norwegian author’s essential writing. (It may not work. Knausgaard’s not for everyone.)

Stop picking at your face with these great pimple patches tested by the spot-prone skin care enthusiasts at Wirecutter.

Lock in a consistent sleep schedule to improve your overall health.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were eminently and imminently.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 15, 2026

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Four astronauts returned to Earth this morning, splashing down near San Diego after evacuating from the International Space Station. A federal agent shot a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis, setting off hours of protests. And tensions remain high in Iran. There’s more on all of that below.

But I’ll start today with Greenland.

Nuuk, Greenland. Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press

Greenland’s future

Yesterday, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met behind closed doors with the American vice president and the secretary of state. Afterward, the Europeans described a “fundamental disagreement” over what the future of Greenland should be. President Trump keeps insisting the United States should take over the island, and they’re not interested.

Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the Danish foreign minister, told reporters he hoped the three governments could lower the temperature on the debate. “This is actually the very first time where we could sit down at a top political level to discuss it,” he said. He said he understood Trump’s view that Greenland’s future lies with America — or China or Russia. “We share, to some extent, his concerns,” he said. “There’s definitely a new security situation in the Arctic and the High North.”

That morning, the White House had posted a cartoon on X showing Greenland’s supposed paths:

Alongside it, Trump declared that anything less than U.S. control of Greenland was “unacceptable.”

The view from Nuuk

How does the saber-rattling play with the 57,000 people who live in Greenland?

Not well, report Jeffrey Gettleman and Maya Tekeli, who traveled to Nuuk, the capital, to find out. They discovered a kaleidoscope of feelings: shock, anger, confusion, humiliation, insult and, most of all, fear. No one they spoke to wants Greenland to be recolonized, and very few have any interest in joining the United States. One told them she was well aware of the holes in this country’s health care system and its gaping economic inequality.

I talked to Jeffrey about that yesterday. He told me the people he spoke to hated the idea that officials thousands of miles away might decide their fate. And they are worried about changing the way they live:

People here enjoy a highly Scandinavian standard of living, which means free health care, free education and a strong safety net. At the same time, they value their traditions. I can’t tell you how many people we’ve met who still hunt seals and reindeer and love ice fishing and spending hours outside, with their sled dogs or on their snowmobiles.

Jeffrey had just talked to a Greenlander selling secondhand clothes and knickknacks on the street in Nuuk. “Trump really wants it, he keeps saying he wants it, and if he comes what are we going to do?” the guy told him. Then he laughed. His name was Thue Norhsen. Jeffrey asked him if he wanted to become an American. “I like the way things are,” Norhsen said. “I don’t want to give that up.” Jeffrey said it was a refrain he had heard in Greenland over and over again.

A strategic hub

The Trump administration wants Greenland for a host of reasons, including its mineral resources, its size and its strategic location near Canada, Europe and even Russia via the Arctic Ocean. Among other things, it’s a good place to keep track of Chinese and Russian naval ships crossing new routes through melted ice. (It’s also a good place, because it’s so close to the North Pole, to track missiles.)

NATO countries like the United States also use those routes and gather intelligence to counter Russia. Trump has repeatedly berated and coerced the organization, demanding that its member nations pay more for defense. Now, his quest to take over Greenland, which as part of the Kingdom of Denmark is already under NATO’s protection, has raised concerns that he will shatter the alliance itself.

Trump said yesterday that NATO “should be leading the way for us to get” Greenland.

That view came with an implied threat: Without American military power, “NATO would not be an effective force or deterrent — Not even close!” he wrote on social media. “They know that, and so do I. NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES.”

But what if Trump seizes the island by force? Then NATO has a different problem. Its founding treaty holds that an attack on one ally in the organization — in this case, Denmark — is an attack on all. An attack on all brings the obligation for each NATO member to respond, though not always with armed force.

In the nearly eight decades of the alliance, no NATO ally has ever attacked another.

More coverage

Denmark announced yesterday that it was increasing its military presence in and around Greenland. Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet is raising sea levels globally and may be slowing ocean currents, which could affect weather patterns.

THE LATEST NEWS

Iran

In Tehran last week. via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Iranian officials postponed the execution of a 26-year-old protester, stepping back from a red line that Trump had suggested would provoke a U.S. attack. The U.S. military evacuated some nonessential personnel from its main air base in Qatar, which lies less than 200 miles south of Iran and could be a target if Trump orders an attack on Iran. American allies in the Persian Gulf are asking Trump not to strike Iran.

Politics

The U.S. health agency reversed its decision to cut $2 billion for mental health and addiction services. The Trump administration said it would suspend the processing of immigrant visas for people from 75 countries, including Iran and Somalia. The Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement officials can enter a home without a warrant in an emergency.

Congress

Senate Republicans blocked a resolution that sought to force Trump to seek congressional approval for any U.S. military action related to Venezuela. Congress is rejecting almost all of Trump’s proposed spending cuts for the year. Federal judges upheld California’s new voting map, which could help Democrats gain five seats in the House.

Minneapolis Shooting

In Minneapolis on Tuesday. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

Lawyers for Renee Good’s family say they plan to investigate her shooting. The ICE agent who killed Good is unlikely to face criminal charges in her death.

International

A fentanyl lab in Mexico. Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

The U.S. is pressuring Mexico to allow joint operations against fentanyl labs inside the country. Mexico’s president has resisted allowing U.S. troops over the border. A top Venezuelan diplomat is traveling to the U.S. today, the same day Trump is scheduled to meet with the opposition leader María Corina Machado. In Australia, nearly five million social media accounts belonging to teenagers have been deactivated or removed since the country barred those younger than 16 from using the services. Chinese universities are rising in global rankings as U.S. schools slip. The U.S. government is trying to sell millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil, which have been trapped in the country since Trump started blocking the movement of tankers.

GOVERNMENT WORK

Note: Data represents December snapshots (November for 2025). It includes all federal civilian employees, with some exceptions, including the Postal Service, foreign nationals overseas, some intelligence agencies and temporary Census Bureau workers. Source: U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Alicia Parlapiano/The New York Times

The federal work force shrank by about 10 percent, or 220,000 workers in the first 10 months of the Trump administration, according to new government data analyzed by our colleagues Emily Badger, Francesca Paris and Alicia Parlapiano. Some agencies saw much bigger declines. The U.S. Agency for International Development, for instance, lost all but 8 percent of its staff.

See how a decade of growth for America’s largest employer ended. You can look up more than 500 agencies and sub-agencies, comparing their employment as of November with one year earlier.

OPINIONS

The MAGA movement is deeply unpopular. Democrats can win voters by providing a fresh economic agenda that addresses affordability, writes David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s former campaign manager.

The world can support the protesters in Iran by imposing more sanctions on government officials, the editorial board writes.

Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens discuss the fictions of the Trump administration.

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

The New York Times

Heavy-metal diplomacy: The prime minister of Japan, a heavy-metal drummer, wrapped up a day of talks with the president of South Korea by inviting him to jam with her. The two leaders rocked out to songs from “KPop Demon Hunters” in a hotel ballroom.

Heating up: Did your hometown feel warmer than usual last year? If so, you’re not alone. Click here to see the average temperature last year where you live.

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about Trump making an obscene gesture at a heckler.

A civil rights icon: Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white woman, but her act of resistance was overshadowed a few months later by a similar stand by Rosa Parks. Colvin was later a star witness in the landmark Supreme Court case that desegregated public transportation. She died at 86.

TODAY’S NUMBER

125

— That’s how many millions of dollars the Congressional Budget Office estimates it could cost to change the name of the Department of Defense to the “Department of War.”

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The New York Giants are expected to hire John Harbaugh as their head coach, according to a league source. He coached the Baltimore Ravens for 18 seasons before being fired this month.

Soccer: FIFA said it had received more than 500 million ticket requests for this year’s World Cup, which will be in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Matt Taylor-Gross for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

Here’s a lovely recipe from Yasmin Fahr for baked fish with olives and ginger that works particularly well with cod, though I bet Gulf Coasters would hit it out of the park with grouper. West Coasters could use halibut to great effect. Whitefish for the Great Lakes crowd? Yes, please. Whichever protein you use, nestling the fillets in oil will help keep them moist in the oven while helping to create a no-work pan sauce brightened by lemon. Don’t like the ginger? Bring in a few anchovies or cloves of garlic instead. We’re flexible here and aim only for the delicious.

JODIE IN PARIS

Benjamin Malapris for The New York Times

Jodie Foster’s latest film is “A Private Life,” in which she plays an American psychoanalyst in Paris whose life unravels when one of her patients dies. Foster’s character believes it was murder. Tragicomedy ensues. The whole thing’s in French.

It’s a language Foster has been speaking fluently since childhood. Still, she prepared for the role, she told Elaine Sciolino, who has covered France for decades. She “read French books aloud at home and then turned up in Paris to immerse herself in French life, visiting bookstores, riding the Métro and the bus, working out at a gym, meeting with French psychoanalysts, taking cello lessons, dining in small bistros.”

“I am a different person in that language,” Foster told Elaine. “I have a whole host of other things to express. I would maybe even like to direct in French.”

More on culture

Gourmet magazine, which shuttered in 2009, is back. Sort of. Its trademark, long held by Condé Nast, expired in 2021 and was scooped up by a team of five 30-something food writers eager to publish words and recipes with complexity. They’ll start next week with a newsletter. “More power to them,” said Ruth Reichl, Gourmet’s last editor. Forget the cynics, writes Amy Kellner in The New York Times Magazine. You should get your dog a stroller. Don’t snigger. As Amy writes, “You never know what someone’s going through.” Late night hosts commented on Trump’s visit to a Ford factory.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Megan Moroney Seth Herald/Reuters

Listen to Megan Moroney’s “6 Months Later,” a single off one of the seven albums our critic Lindsay Zoladz is looking forward to in 2026.

Refresh your mind and bolster your brain with these mental health tips.

Subscribe to a coffee roaster. The caffeinated evaluators at Wirecutter have found the best deals on beans.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was placebo.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 16, 2026

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. The world’s attention this week has largely been on Iran, on Venezuela, on Minneapolis. And we have news from all three below. I’d like to start this morning, though, with a look at some remarkable reporting from Myanmar.

The Shunda Park scam complex in Myanmar. Jes Aznar for The New York Times

Where scams come from

Deep in the densely forested borderlands of war-torn Myanmar, two of our journalists recently visited Shunda Park, an office center that opened for business in 2024 with more than 3,500 workers from nearly 30 nations. Some were there willingly, some had been kidnapped. All were dedicated to the causes of online chicanery and digital scams.

The park was largely abandoned, having been captured and closed by one of the rebel militias that has been fighting the Myanmar military for years. But the militia allowed Hannah Beech, a reporter who covers Asia, and Jes Aznar, a photographer, to document what Hannah called “the inner sanctum of this secretive, highly fortified industry.” They were able to meet some of the scammers as well — some of whom were trying to return to their home countries, and others who were looking for another gig in the grift economy.

What they saw was amazing, just one of Southeast Asia’s compounds of cyberfraud, an enterprise that took at least $10 billion out of the United States alone in 2024.

Jes Aznar for The New York Times

There were huge open-plan work rooms filled with computer monitors, the walls adorned with inspirational, always-be-closing sale slogans: “Keep going,” “Dream chaser,” “Making money matters the most.” Videoconference suites were decorated with (fake) business books and (fake) modern art meant to evoke the boardroom of a successful business concern.

Here were photographs the scammers used to help establish false identities. There were a trio of porta-potty-style boxes that scammers told Hannah were used as punishment chambers, in plain view of the rest of the room. Everywhere were discarded cellphones. “In some buildings, with nearly every step I took,” Hannah wrote, “I crunched on SIM cards, scattered like snow in the tropical heat.”

A Sisyphean loop

Who ran this place? A Chinese transnational crime network — in other words, a gang. The militia doesn’t have the resources to investigate, and no one else has expressed much interest either.

Whoever it was ran the business with brutal efficiency. Hannah spoke with several scammers whose bodies bore scars from beatings or tight shackles. They weren’t paid for their 12-hour shifts. Hannah wrote about that beautifully, tragically: “Life was a Sisyphean loop: sleep, eat, scam, eat, sleep, scam.”

Thousands of cellphones and photographs used in the scamming business. Jes Aznar for The New York Times

One told her his job for more than a year was to send “hellos” to social media accounts. If he didn’t receive responses to at least 5 percent of his greetings, he said, he would be punished physically.

The workers came from all over the world: Namibia, Russia, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, France. Some Chinese scammers were paid, Hannah discovered, though often not what they’d been promised.

Under fire

Hannah and Jes traveled to Shunda Park during what was supposed to be a lull in the fighting between the rebel militia, known as the Karen National Liberation Army, and the Myanmar military.

Mark that word, supposed. The thud of mortar rounds and sharp cracks of gunfire provided the soundtrack for their visit. As they worked, shells flew over their heads and landed across the river in neighboring Thailand. The day after they left the compound, a 60-millimeter mortar hit a building where they’d been sheltering, wounding three people, including their guide.

I urge you to read more, and to take in more of Jes’s remarkable photography, here.

Now, let’s see what else is happening in the world.

THE LATEST NEWS

In Minneapolis on Thursday. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

Minneapolis

President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would let him deploy the military within the U.S., “if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law.” A couple said ICE agents used tear gas and stun grenades around them and their six children after they inadvertently wound up at a protest. Public opinion has turned against ICE. But some Democrats think that calls to abolish the agency will turn off voters and make change harder. Two Times photographers, David Guttenfelder and Todd Heisler, witnessed agents dragging a woman out of her car. In the video below, they describe the scene. Click to watch.

The New York Times

Renee Good Shooting

A lawyer for the family of Renee Good, who was killed by an ICE officer, said she was concerned about the agency but was not “following anybody.” Transcripts of 911 calls related to Good’s shooting reveal chaos and confusion at the scene. Experts say it is unclear whether she was legally obligated to follow an order to get out of her car.

Iran

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, asked Trump to postpone any attack on Iran, a senior U.S. official said. Starlink satellite internet systems that activists had smuggled into Iran helped spread information about protests during a communications blackout. Iran appeared to backpedal on previous threats to execute protesters while continuing to cast some as “terrorists.”

Venezuela

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, gave Trump her Nobel Peace Prize during a meeting at the White House. The Nobel Committee says prizes are not transferable, but they have been sold. Trump continues to back Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s interim leader instead of Machado. The Coast Guard seized another oil tanker that was trying to evade Trump’s partial blockade on Venezuela’s oil industry.

More International News

A tent providing electricity and heat in Kyiv, Ukraine. Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, causing blackouts for days during a winter freeze. In a break with the U.S., Canada agreed to lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

Deportations

Mahmoud Khalil Scott Heins for The New York Times

An appeals court ruling means that Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia graduate and pro-Palestinian protester, could be rearrested. A federal judge in Boston said that he would limit the Trump administration’s ability to deport noncitizen academics. The Trump administration acknowledged that it mistakenly deported a college student who was flying home for Thanksgiving, but it has not dropped its case against her.

Other Big Stories

Gmail is adding A.I. features that can summarize emails, create to-do lists and streamline writing — but using them requires giving the tool access to your entire inbox. X is restricting the ability of its A.I. chatbot Grok to generate sexualized images of real people after regulators around the world opened investigations.

IN ONE CHART

Note: Does not include presidential libraries. The New York Times

Trump loves having things named after himself. Other presidents do, too. But unlike them, Trump hasn’t had to wait. While it took years or even decades for his predecessors to have their names emblazoned on federal buildings, as the chart above shows, Trump already has two — and he’s still in office. He also has plans for a Trump dollar coin and a class of Trump naval ships.

OPINIONS

The protests in Iran are proving that the government’s use of fear is no longer working, Abbas Milani writes.

Here are columns by David Brooks on our perception of the brain and Michelle Goldberg on the right’s crusade against liberal white women.

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

The New York Times

Free as a bird, for a while: An emu named Tina escaped from a Florida farm recently. A corporal in the local sheriff’s department gave chase. It did not go well.

A reasonable question: A.I. consumes, analyzes and stores vast amounts of information, accelerating scientific research. But could it ever do the research itself?

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a Supreme Court ruling that allows law enforcement officials to enter a home without a warrant in an emergency.

A jazz singer: Rebecca Kilgore won acclaim for her fresh takes on pop standards of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. She died at 76.

TODAY’S NUMBER

146.1 million

— That’s how many subscribers Verizon has in the U.S. Many of them were affected by widespread outages in the company’s wireless network on Wednesday. The company has offered a $20 credit for the inconvenience.

SPORTS

M.L.B.: Kyle Tucker, this offseason’s top free agent, agreed to a four-year, $240 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

College basketball: Federal prosecutors charged 26 men, including athletes, with participating in a conspiracy to manipulate games.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini

Glorious ingredients can be thin on the ground in a January supermarket. But there’ll always be canned staples, blocks of protein and commodity vegetables, and with Yewande Komolafe’s help, you can make those into ambrosia: masala chickpeas with tofu and blistered tomatoes. The spicing gives the beans a warming heartiness, and searing the tomatoes concentrates their flavor beautifully. I don’t know why tearing the tofu instead of cutting it works so perfectly (perhaps the resulting cragginess sops up more flavor?), but I do know it looks great on the plate. Serve over rice, with wedges of lime.

SHE IS THE CAPTAIN NOW

Erik Tanner for The New York Times

Holly Hunter plays the lead in the new “Star Trek” series, “Starfleet Academy.” Her character is the school’s chancellor, an authoritative space captain who is more than 400 years old. Alexis Soloski, a culture reporter, spoke to her before the show’s premiere last night, and the result is excellent reading. “To put a woman at the helm of such power, it rides on the rails of a different sensibility — the empathy and the listening and the patience and the softness,” she told Alexis. “And that feels inherently female.”

More on culture

In academic circles, professors and students sometimes practice the act of “explication de text.” TL;dr? They read close and spout jargon. Our critic A.O. Scott does something very different. He reads close and shows us things that we may not have seen or considered. And he does it in plain language, with wit. You’ll see. Here he is on Trump’s signature social media sign-off: “Thank you for your attention to this matter.” Alicia Keys, the singer whose adolescence forms the basis of the plot of “Hell’s Kitchen,” the Tony-winning Broadway musical, said yesterday that she was ending its run in New York. Keys, who is the lead producer, said her investors would be better served by the show’s North American tour and forthcoming productions in Australia, Germany and South Korea. “This national tour is going crazy,” she told Michael Paulson, who covers theater. “They’re selling out everywhere they’re going.” Seth Meyers wondered if Trump would trade his Diet Cokes for whole milk.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Let us help you find your next book. It’s like a game!

Hop into a new workout routine with one of the jump ropes recommended by the swole fitness scientists at Wirecutter.

Take our news quiz.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was weighted.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Correction: A chart in yesterday’s newsletter misstated the number of employees at the federal Food and Nutrition Service in November 2024. It was 1,830, not 4,981.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 17, 2026

Good morning. In the run-up to the Oscar nominations, let’s talk with a reporter who has followed every twist and turn of the race.

María Jesús Contreras

Prize fight

	By Melissa Kirsch

Awards season has begun, the time of year when I become a happy student of Kyle Buchanan, a.k.a. The Projectionist. Kyle’s commentary and prognostications on the Oscars and other movie races keep me rapt and slightly on edge the way I imagine committed sports fans feel as the playoffs approach. This week is especially intense: On the heels of the Golden Globes last weekend, Oscar nominations will be announced this Thursday. (The ceremony is on March 15.)

I love reading about the races, who’s up and who’s down, whether Leo or Timothée or Michael B. is favored to win, how their speeches at one ceremony might set them up for a future nomination. But I’m also interested in Kyle’s life reporting on this stuff. In my imagination, his awards season is a whirl of parties and events, luncheons and red carpets, glitzy cavorting followed by feverish typing. He found time to talk to me in the brief intermission between the Globes and the Oscar noms, and, happily, he didn’t really dispel my fantasy.

Kyle’s been following most of the films with Oscar potential since late August, when he made his annual back-to-back trips to the Venice and Toronto film festivals. “By the end of those two weeks,” he said, “I will have seen all but a handful of the movies that are presumed to be Oscar contenders.”

At film festivals, he’ll see three or four movies a day while trying to attend some of the adjacent events. “While the parties are fun, you’re also going to the parties because you’re getting intel,” he said. What films have buzz? What’s the current state of Hollywood?

These festivals are big marketing opportunities for the movie industry. Kyle recalled that Lionsgate used to throw “orgiastic victory lap parties” for “The Hunger Games” each year at the Cannes Film Festival. “They would rent a gigantic chateau and outfit it to look like the Capitol,” he said, “and have people in absurd Elizabeth Banks wigs and cotton candy and chocolate fountains.”

As for things he’s watching for this week when the Academy announces its nominations, Kyle has his eye on the supporting actress category, for which there are many worthy contenders. Amy Madigan (“Weapons”) and Teyana Taylor (“One Battle After Another”) have each won big awards already for their performances. Will Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas from “Sentimental Value” get nominations? Perhaps multiple actresses from “Marty Supreme”? Then there’s Wunmi Mosaku from “Sinners,” and don’t count out Chase Infiniti (“One Battle After Another”): “Warner Brothers is campaigning her as a lead actress, but I think she’s going to get a lot of supporting votes,” Kyle said.

Kyle will be covering all the nomination action early on Thursday, which is also the first day of the Sundance Film Festival, “a true 10-car pileup on the freeway — to use a California metaphor — of things that require my attention,” he said. But he’s not complaining. Growing up, he said, the Oscars telecast “would offer me a portal into these worlds that I didn’t know anything about. It’s incredible to feel that I have gone through that portal.”

THE LATEST NEWS

Trump Administration

Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, led the visit to Denmark on Friday. Hilary Swift for The New York Times

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers traveled to Copenhagen to assure Denmark that they supported its control of Greenland. At the same time, President Trump suggested he may use tariffs to pressure countries to go along with his annexation of the island. Trump issued new pardons this week, freeing a twice-convicted fraudster and people who had donated to him and his allies. Trump appointed four new members to the independent agency set to review his plans for a large new White House ballroom. Among the appointees is the architect who provided the initial designs for the ballroom. The Trump administration said it would temporarily delay forced collections from people who defaulted on their student loans. Trump’s efforts to stifle the offshore wind power industry suffered another legal setback this week, after a federal judge ruled that an $11 billion wind farm could resume construction.

Minneapolis

A federal judge in Minnesota told ICE agents that they cannot retaliate against people “engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity.” The Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation into Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey. Both officials dismissed the inquiry as an attempt to intimidate them. Trump seems to have backed down from his threat to send military forces into Minneapolis using the Insurrection Act. Temperatures are expected to plunge to around zero degrees this weekend. Protesters say they will be out in the street, using the ice to their advantage against ICE.

International

A heavy police presence and the government’s violent crackdown have quieted anti-regime protests across Iran. The director of the C.I.A. met with Delcy Rodríguez, the interim president of Venezuela, reinforcing the idea that the U.S. considers her the best path to stability. Trump established a new committee to oversee the Gaza Strip as it is rebuilt. It includes administration officials, a former British prime minister and Trump’s son-in-law. Schools in Kyiv will close until February amid blackouts caused by Russian strikes — one of the most severe disruptions yet to daily life in Ukraine.

Other Big Stories

A judge in Italy dropped a case against the country’s most famous influencer, Chiara Ferragni, that involved fraud allegations and Christmas cakes. Several board members overseeing the University of Virginia resigned under pressure from the state’s incoming Democratic governor.

A SEA WALL

The New York Times

China quietly mobilized thousands of fishing boats twice in recent weeks to form massive floating barriers at least 200 miles long — a show of Beijing’s power at sea, experts say. Last week, the formation was so dense that some approaching cargo ships had to zigzag through, ship-tracking data showed.

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

Film and TV

Sony Pictures, via Associated Press

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” is unsubtle in its religious allusions. But that’s a good thing, writes critic Alissa Wilkinson: This is a postapocalyptic zombie movie, after all, and the time for subtlety is long past. Nick Reiner, charged with murdering his parents, the Hollywood director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, had been placed into a mental health conservatorship in 2020.

Opera

The Washington National Opera announced that its spring performances of “Treemonisha” and “The Crucible” will take place at George Washington University rather than the Kennedy Center. The surrealist opera “What to Wear” features a lot of ducks. According to its composer, “that’s really what the piece is about.”

Music

BTS, the K-pop powerhouse that has been on hiatus since 2022, unveiled the dates for its colossal comeback tour. It kicks off in April in South Korea. MTV Rewind, an unofficial archive, makes an appeal to Gen X nostalgia by letting users stream old music videos. The thrash-metal band Megadeth announced that its upcoming studio album will be its last.

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

? ⚔️ “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” (Sunday, HBO): Here’s another spinoff from the “Game of Thrones” universe, this one on a much smaller scale. The series follows Ser Duncan the Tall, an aspiring knight who goes by Dunk, and Egg, a wise 9-year-old who volunteers to be his squire. “The show, which marries a light comic tone with flashes of fierce violence and tragedy, quickly becomes as much about their relationship as Dunk’s travails,” writes Alex Marshall, who witnessed the show being filmed in Northern Ireland.

For more: Our critic gives it a good review, writing, “‘Game of Thrones’ could often be funny, but this is something else. It’s … fun?”

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Craig Lee for The New York Times

By Melissa Clark

Banana Crumb Muffins

The fragrant, almost caramel-like character of these easy banana crumb muffins, created for a baking contest at the 1997 Connecticut State Fair, comes from using bananas so overripe and speckly they’re nearly black. Ultra-moist on the inside, with a crunchy streusel topping, they’re a not-too-sweet treat that work perfectly as either breakfast or dessert.

REAL ESTATE

Beth and Brandon Sheafor. Janie Osborne for The New York Times

The Hunt: After their children left for college, a couple wanted to trade their five-bedroom home in the suburbs of Helena, Mont., for something closer to downtown. What did they choose? Play our game.

What you get for $1 million: A midcentury-modern in Eugene, Ore., an 1884 farmhouse in McKinney, Texas, and an 1890 townhouse in Hudson, N.Y.

Create a cohesive feel for your home with a color palette inspired by a single item, like a favorite photo or lipstick.

LIVING

Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times

Stay warm: Our street photographer Simbarashe Cha captured the stylish coats men are wearing this winter.

Vows: They became “vacation boyfriends” in Mexico. The rest is history.

Acting debut: This is how a travel writer became Timothée Chalamet’s pingpong nemesis in “Marty Supreme.”

Kitchen, kaput: Your favorite restaurant will close one day. What to do?

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

The $5 workhorse you already have

You already know that a squirt of good dish soap and a great sponge can help scrub away a scorched pan’s crud or make stemware sparkle. But dish soap has uses far beyond the sink. I use a solution of dish soap and water to keep my induction cooktop pristine, wipe fingerprints off greasy cabinets and freshen grimy baseboards. Dish soap is also one of the best stain removers for mascara, lipstick and foundation — simply massage it into the stain before throwing the garment into the washing machine. We’ve found several other uses for this cleaning workhorse, but allow me to share my biggest “don’t”: Do not use dish soap in lieu of detergent in your dishwasher. If you do, prepare to mop up a whole lot of suds. — Andrea Barnes

GAME OF THE WEEK

Sam Hodde/Getty Images

Miami vs. Indiana, college football championship: It is so weird that Indiana is here. Not weird for this season, of course — the Hoosiers are No. 1, undefeated, favored by nine points in the title game. But it’s weird in the long run. Three years ago, Indiana was on a run of mediocre seasons, in keeping with its objectively mediocre history. College football is not a sport of plucky upstarts. The blue bloods recruit the best players; those players trample the little guys; the cycle continues.

Except Indiana broke the cycle. Head coach Curt Cignetti took over two years ago and sent the moribund program soaring. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who won the Heisman Trophy, has thrown more touchdowns (eight) than incompletions (five) in the playoffs. Indiana is one of the best teams in the country at scoring and at stopping opponents. They don’t turn the ball over. They don’t commit penalties. As Dan Lanning, Oregon’s head coach, said after Indiana thrashed his team in the semifinal: “There’s not a weakness in their game.”

Monday at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN

More coverage:

Matt Baker has a preview of the matchup. Is college football broken, or the best it’s ever been? Both can be true, writes Joe Rexrode. How did Indiana get so good so fast? Scott Dochterman goes inside Cignetti’s turnaround.

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was malefic.

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.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 19, 2026

Good morning. It’s Martin Luther King’s Birthday. Sam’s off today.

President Trump continues to show little interest in compromise over Greenland. Spain has closed part of its high-speed rail network after a collision between two trains killed dozens of people. And Prince Harry’s case against the publisher of the Daily Mail goes to trial today.

We’ll get to more news below, but first we take a look at Trump’s impact on government spending.

President Trump with his “gold card,” an expedited visa. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Make it rain

	By Evan Gorelick I’m a reporter for The Morning.

President Trump returned to the White House last year with a buzz saw. He promised to cut spending, ax workers and trim fat from the government. He created the Department of Government Efficiency, put Elon Musk in charge and told it to shrink the federal bureaucracy. He dismantled entire agencies, pushing out hundreds of thousands of civil servants in the process.

When it comes to saving money, that effort didn’t really work: Many of the savings DOGE claimed were bogus. Government spending actually rose this past year, a Times analysis found. And Congress last week quietly swept away many of the budget cuts that Trump had proposed in the early months of his presidency.

Trump is still focused on the government’s coffers, but something has changed. He now seems to dwell less on cutting costs and more on adding revenue. He says he wants the government to rake in more cash — but not by taxes, the standard mechanism. His tax law slashed what businesses and high earners pay.

Instead, he’s hyping unconventional sources of money.

The shift

Costs and revenues each affect the Treasury’s bottom line. But cutting is subtractive and managerial. It means saying, “We can’t afford this,” which also makes it harder to justify new spending. And people notice cuts (of, say, food stamps or health care subsidies or mental health assistance — cuts the Trump administration reversed last week). We tend to feel the sting of a loss more acutely than the joy of an equivalent gain, behavioral economists have found.

So leaders often prefer to gather money from revenue instead. Income taxes are a tough sell, politically; lowering them is popular, and that’s what Trump did, even though they make up the bulk of government revenue. He also hobbled the agency responsible for collecting those taxes by firing its workers and limiting its capacity to enforce the tax code. Fewer audits, more carve-outs.

But adding revenue in other ways can feel like winning. You know those tariffs? The ones that raised $250 billion this past year? The president says they’ll generate enough to eliminate income taxes, start a sovereign wealth fund and send millions of families envelopes of cash.

During what voters call an affordability crisis, that holds obvious appeal. (He has not explained how these policies might work. The cash rebates alone could cost the government almost twice as much as it will collect in tariff revenue this year, according to the Yale Budget Lab.)

How it’s going

Consider some of Trump’s creative revenue-raising policies:

Venezuelan oil. After ousting Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, Trump promised to take over the country’s oil industry and “make a lot of money” selling crude. The administration has already brought in $500 million from these sales — and billions more could follow. “Board of Peace.” Trump formed this body last week as part of his plan to rebuild Gaza. To snag a permanent seat, countries must cough up at least $1 billion in cash. “Gold Card” visas. Trump created this expedited visa program for people willing to pay $1 million. Businesses can also apply on behalf of employees for a “Corporate Gold Card,” which costs more than $2 million. The sign-up website also mentions a “Platinum Card,” which will cost more than $5 million. Skilled-worker visas. Trump is imposing a $100,000-a-year fee for H-1B visas, which let qualified foreigners like software engineers work in the United States. As of last year, hundreds of thousands of people were working on H-1Bs. (The attorneys general of 20 states sued to block Trump’s new fees.) Foreign investment pledges. Trump’s trade talks have focused on securing pledges from trading partners to invest in the U.S. economy. In exchange for lower tariff rates, South Korea, Japan and the E.U. cumulatively pledged to spend more than $2 trillion. (Still, it’s not clear when or whether those nations will fulfill their promises.) Higher-ed deals. The White House has accused many universities of bias and antisemitism, freezing billions in research funding until they agree to pay up in recompense. Several schools have forked over millions to restore their funds and end federal investigations. Columbia agreed to pay $200 million; Northwestern, $75 million; Cornell, $60 million. Other universities are still negotiating or fighting Trump’s demands in court. China chip sales. Trump is allowing the chip maker Nvidia to sell more of its artificial intelligence chips to China. In return, the U.S. will take a 25 percent cut of every sale. (Trump has reached a similar agreement with another chip maker, AMD.) The deals could funnel billions of dollars to the U.S. government.

These flashy moneymaking initiatives are modest countermeasures in the larger scheme of things. Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told me the potential gains from such revenue streams are “far outweighed” by Trump’s tax policies, which are expected to reduce government revenue by $5 trillion over the next decade.

This past year, the U.S. spent nearly $2 trillion more than it collected in revenue. It will be hard to turn those numbers around.

THE LATEST NEWS

Minneapolis

In Minneapolis last week. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

A federal judge ruled that ICE agents in Minneapolis used excessive force against protesters and violated their First Amendment rights.

Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, denied that her department had used pepper spray against protesters in Minnesota, but backtracked after being shown a video of federal agents doing so. Hospitals in Minneapolis struggle to serve patients while armed immigration agents roam the halls. Some right-wing commentators are calling Renee Good AWFUL, a derogatory term for liberal white women.

Politics

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania writes in a memoir that during the vetting process to be Kamala Harris’s running mate, he was asked if he had ever been an agent of the Israeli government. Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, asked for advice from Jewish leaders before criticizing pro-Hamas chants. A federal appeals court ruled that an Islamic scholar’s statements encouraging men to join a militant group in Pakistan after the Sept. 11 attacks were protected by the First Amendment.

CBS

CBS studios in New York. Lucia Vazquez for The New York Times

CBS News finally aired a “60 Minutes” report about deported Venezuelans after adding comments from the Trump administration. The segment was pulled last month by the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss. Last week, the network aired an uncut 13-minute interview with Trump. His press secretary said the administration would sue if the conversation were edited.

Business

The World Economic Forum in Davos opens today. The agenda includes topics ranging from the war in Ukraine to artificial intelligence. The International Monetary Fund is raising its forecast for global growth, citing investment in A.I.

International

In Guatemala City yesterday. Edwin Bercian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Guatemalan government declared a state of emergency to deal with an increase in gang violence. The Japanese prime minister has called a snap election for next month in an attempt to strengthen her power. About 1 percent of New Zealand’s population left the country in a single 12-month period. Many were looking for better economic opportunities. The Syrian government and a militia led by Kurdish forces agreed to a cease-fire after weeks of on-and-off fighting. In southern Chile, wildfires have destroyed neighborhoods and forced thousands to evacuate.

OPINIONS

Martin Luther King III, son of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Norman J. Ornstein, a scholar of voting rights, discuss a Supreme Court case that could nullify a key piece of the Voting Rights Act.

Congress needs to push back on Trump’s use of law enforcement for vengeful retaliation against critics, the editorial board writes.

Here is a column by David French on civil immunity.

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

The New York Times

A family business: This London chimney sweep has the same job his great-great-great-grandfather had in the mid-19th century. Chimney sweeps have been in business in Britain since at least 1519. High electricity prices, among other things, mean that business these days is very good.

“A cold-blooded icon”: Thousand of San Francisco residents gathered to mourn the death of a beloved local alligator.

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was a video analysis of the shooting of Renee Good.

Metropolitan Diary: “Could you tie my tie?”

A knuckleballer: Wilbur Wood, who played for the Chicago White Sox, started more games and pitched more innings in a season than any pitcher in the past 100 years. He died at 84.

TODAY’S NUMBER

1

— That is the ranking The Athletic gave to Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks in its midseason list of the best National Hockey League players under age 23.

SPORTS

A.F.C.: The New England Patriots reached the A.F.C. championship game after their 28-16 win over the Houston Texans. The Patriots will play the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

N.F.C.: The Los Angeles Rams defeated the Chicago Bears 20-17 in overtime to make it to the N.F.C. championship game, where they will face the Seattle Seahawks.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Armando Rafael for The New York Times

Alexa Weibel’s neat recipe for crispy tofu tacos has you grate a block of tofu, drizzle it with oil and soy sauce, season the bejesus out of it, then roast the mixture in a hot oven for around 45 minutes, until everything goes brown and crisp. Blitz a few avocados with mayonnaise and lime juice while the tofu cooks and pair the sauce with the finished tofu, blistered corn tortillas, slices of red onion and radish and a whole bunch of chopped cilantro. That is a delicious meal.

ROCKY’S RETURN

Jason Nocito for The New York Times

ASAP Rocky’s album, “Testing,” came out in 2018. Since then, he has acted in movies, had three children with his romantic partner, Rihanna, and faced two criminal prosecutions. It sometimes seemed as if he might not ever put out an album again.

“I never accepted that,” he told Joe Coscarelli and Jon Caramanica, the hosts of the “Popcast” show. “That’s my core. I consider myself a Renaissance man, so it starts with music.” Listen in. Rocky’s latest album, “Don’t Be Dumb,” was released on Friday.

More on culture

Bruce Springsteen denounced the actions of federal agents in Minneapolis and dedicated a song to Renee Good during a surprise performance in New Jersey. Why has Taffy Brodesser-Akner, who writes about culture and celebrity, seen the Broadway musical “Operation Mincemeat” 13 times? An investigation.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Jodie Foster with Daniel Auteuil in “A Private Life.” Jérôme Prébois/Sony Pictures Classics

Watch one of the eight new movies our critics are talking about this week.

Manage the temperature of your home more efficiently, with the smart thermostats that the climate boffins at Wirecutter have declared best in class.

Fix your attention span with these three steps.

Take our news quiz.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were addicting, dictating and indicating.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

[phkrause]

January 20, 2026

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. President Trump’s demands to take over Greenland are the talk of this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump will be there tomorrow, along with dozens of world leaders. “There can be no going back,” he wrote on social media about Greenland early this morning.

We have more news below. I’d like to start today, though, by talking to Anatoly Kurmanaev, who is reporting from inside Venezuela for The Times. You ought to get to know him.

Damage from U.S. airstrikes in Venezuela. The New York Times

Our man in Caracas

Sam: Anatoly, for the past three years you’ve been a reporter in our Moscow bureau. In recent months, though, you’ve shifted your focus to the confrontation between the United States and Venezuela. How did that come to happen?

Anatoly: I have covered President Nicolás Maduro’s government, mostly from Caracas, ever since he came to power in 2013, and I thought that my experience and contacts could be useful at this historic moment. So, I asked my editors if I could shift topics — and received unequivocal support. I spent a few weeks in Caracas in October, reporting on the escalating tensions and Maduro’s attempts to negotiate his way out. Then I came back to the country just a few days before the U.S. attack.

Anatoly Kurmanaev Andrew Testa for The New York Times

You grew up in Siberia and went to college in Britain. How did you end up so deeply sourced and fluent in Latin American affairs?

I minored in Spanish in university and spent a year in Chile on a student exchange. I fell in love with Latin America: its diversity, its spontaneity and drama. I moved there in 2010 with a backpack and my beat-up ’90s bicycle; I started writing without pay for expat papers, and gradually built a career.

The Times hasn’t had a bureau in Venezuela for many years, and it’s been hard for reporters to gain access to the country. What are journalists allowed to do in Venezuela? Are there restrictions on your work or travel?

Venezuela for years had one of the world’s highest homicide rates, and criminality was rampant. The danger for journalists today comes primarily from security forces. The risks are particularly elevated now because there are still questions about how much control Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, exercises over the multitude of different security agencies, police forces and paramilitary groups. The country is full of security checkpoints, and the men with guns are jumpy. This means there’s little room for error. But we don’t censor ourselves. We have written many high-impact stories about sensitive topics in Venezuela in recent years, and we will continue doing so.

How do you report on the Maduro administration and just generally find out what’s going on? Where do you find and cultivate sources?

Ha. A good journalist never talks about their sources! It’s a fairly small country, and I have been here, on and off, for 13 years. I have reported from 22 of the country’s 23 states. I still speak to people I’ve met along the way. These are relationships built on trust. I would like to think that I have built a certain reputation for fairness, even among people who broadly dislike our coverage. If I don’t know someone directly, I can usually secure an introduction or find an intermediary.

What are Venezuelans saying about the prospect that the government will accommodate U.S. demands?

This country has lived through one of the longest economic crises in modern history, and more than anything people crave stability and an improvement in their standard of living. In the short term, most people seem willing to tolerate some loss of sovereignty and lack of democratic legitimacy to meet their immediate economic needs. They want to breathe after years of daily struggle for survival. But I suspect that as the economy stabilizes and the most pressing problem of runaway inflation is solved, more people will start to question the current arrangement. I expect that Venezuelans’ nationalistic and democratic streaks will eventually come to the fore, whether in months or years.

Can you tell us a little bit about Caracas right now? What do the streets and stores and restaurants look like? I guess this is a question about the mood there.

The city has more or less returned to normal by now, since the American attack on Jan. 3. On Thursday I walked past the La Carlota military air base in the city, and servicemen and office workers there were casually strolling in and out on their lunch break, cracking jokes and making chitchat. It was hard to imagine that only two weeks ago the base was bombed, the first time that the capital had come under a foreign military attack in more than a century. I have always been amazed at how daily routine asserts itself even in the most extraordinary circumstances.

In Los Teques, Venezuela, last week. The New York Times

And the people? Are some quietly rejoicing and others continuing to assert the political ideology of Hugo Chávez — Chavismo? You said the other day that there was a sense of “cautious optimism” in the nation. Who are those who feel that way, and why?

I think people are still trying to make sense of what happened and where the country is heading politically. But there’s also hope, even euphoria for some, about the economic opportunities that a thaw with the U.S. is expected to bring. The first dollars from the U.S.-brokered sale of Venezuelan oil are entering the country this week, and this is halting the collapse of the national currency. A desire for economic stability and opportunity unites both Chavistas and opposition supporters. Maduro and his fate are very quickly fading into the background.

You first arrived in Venezuela as a journalist in 2013, as Maduro came to power, and wrote about the first eight years of his rule. Do you feel you’re now covering his fall, or does his administration continue under Rodríguez?

It certainly feels like a new chapter. It is the same government, practically the same cast. But the script has changed. The U.S. military went from attacking Caracas and killing 100 people to helping Rodríguez bring back wayward tankers. American policymakers went from strangling the Venezuelan economy to rushing funds there. The White House went from calling a Venezuelan leader a narco-terrorist to calling another one “terrific.” All this happened in two weeks. Imagine what it will look like in two years.

THE LATEST NEWS

Greenland

In a text to Norway’s prime minister, Trump linked his desire to acquire Greenland with being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize. See their conversation. He also targeted European leaders in social media posts early this morning as they gather in Switzerland, reiterating his desire to acquire Greenland.

Tariffs

Trump threatened to impose 200 percent tariffs on French wine and Champagne if Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, refused an invitation to join his board to oversee the cease-fire in Gaza. He calls it a “Board of Peace,” and he’s charging a billion dollars in cash for permanent membership. The Supreme Court could release rulings today, including a highly anticipated decision on Trump’s tariffs.

Immigration

The Trump administration is deporting Cubans in Florida in record numbers. The administration told a judge it would appeal limits on the tactics immigration agents can use against protesters in Minnesota.

Trump’s First Year

Trump has used the Oval Office as a stage to flex his power, holding meetings there with more than 40 world leaders. The president has cited falsehoods and baseless claims to justify significant policy changes during his second term.

More on Politics

Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago. Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

Three top-ranking Roman Catholic cardinals in the U.S. issued a statement criticizing the Trump administration’s foreign policy. An Indiana judge and his wife were shot and injured in their suburban home. The incident has raised concerns that public officials aren’t safe. Trump issued a proclamation for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday last night after civil rights groups criticized him for not doing so. Travel restrictions and visa costs are leading some musicians and theater companies to cancel plans for U.S. performances.

Train Crash

In Spain yesterday. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

The Spanish authorities are investigating the cause of a crash between two high-speed trains yesterday that killed at least 41 people. A journalist traveling on one of the trains said the crash felt “like an earthquake.” A Spanish railway union warned last year that there were problems with the rail line where the crash occurred.

International

In Guatemala, uprisings in three prisons have killed 10 police officers. Dozens of beaches in eastern Australia were closed after four shark attacks occurred in 48 hours. China’s birthrate hit its lowest level since 1949 despite government efforts encouraging people to have more babies.

OPINIONS

Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Nathan Howard/Reuters

Trump has poured his energy into exploiting the presidency for profit. It’s earned him more than $1.4 billion, the Times editorial board calculates.

Democrats should focus on unifying issues instead of race to resist Republicans’ white identity politics, Zaid Jilani writes.

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

In Vermont last month. Lily Landes for The New York Times

Losing business: A Vermont destination for cheese enthusiasts has seen its share of tourists drop dramatically since Trump threatened tariffs on Canada.

Construction jobs: Immigrants make up much of the roofing industry. So where did all the American-born roofers go?

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a derogatory term for liberal white women.

TODAY’S NUMBER

$45 million

— That was the price of the tech billionaire Larry Ellison’s recently sold modernist home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. Ellison bought it more than three decades ago, reportedly for about $4 million.

SPORTS

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

College football: The Indiana Hoosiers defeated the Miami Hurricanes 27-21 in the College Football Playoff championship, earning the undefeated Hoosiers their first national title. The Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza’s fourth-down touchdown run secured the win.

N.B.A.: LeBron James was not named an All-Star Game starter for the first time since his rookie season.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Con Poulos for The New York Times

I do most of the cooking where I stay, but the other night my wife knocked out a Kay Chun classic — sheet-pan chicken with potatoes, scallions and capers — and as we devoured it, in candlelight, with the family, I thought: I could get used to this. For those who enjoy labor in the kitchen, it’s worth recalling that there can be something incredibly joyful about not laboring, but experiencing the fruits of someone else’s labor instead, and being well and truly grateful for the deliciousness they’ve shared with you. Get someone to cook for you one of these days. And give thanks when they do.

VALENTINO, DEAD AT 93

Photographs by Guy Marineau/Penske Media, via Getty Images; The New York Times; Stephane Cardinale/Sygma, via Getty Images; Franco Vitale/Reporters Associati & Archivi, via Getty Images; Toni Anne Barson/WireImage

Valentino Garavani, the last of the great 20th-century couturiers, a dresser of grandees who became one himself, died yesterday at his home in Rome. He was 93.

Our fashion critic Vanessa Friedman has a glittering obituary. Valentino was, she wrote, “a designer who defined the image of royalty in a republican age for all manner of princesses — crowned, deposed, Hollywood and society.”

Take a look at his life in photographs, too, including a lovely image of him with Brooke Shields closing a show in Rome in 1981.

More on culture

It’s not quite a return to the world of the Filofax, but for some young women, this season’s must-have accessory is a small, leather-bound journal from a little Paris boutique. They’re made to order, and quite expensive. Which is part of the appeal for A-listers and celebrities — “a more personalized, like, white-glove-service experience,” in the words of one customer. The movies are showing us a lot of hapless men these days, writes Diego Hadis in The New York Times Magazine, and a lot of hypercompetent women beside them. You might expect that to say something about modern gender relations, he argues, “but it may really have more to do with politics.” Click. Late night hosts mocked Trump’s “secondhand” Nobel Peace Prize.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Read “Call Me Ishmaelle,” by Xiaolu Guo, an audacious retelling of “Moby-Dick.” The novel has a “tenor of enchantment,” our reviewer wrote, “a subtle register of near fairy tale that lets you know you’re in the hands of a genuine storyteller.”

Upgrade your dribbly old shower head with a new, high-performing model, with help from the hardworking plumbers at Wirecutter.

Add olive oil to your diet for long-term health benefits.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was workload.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren