Members phkrause Posted March 20 Author Members Posted March 20 March 17, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Israel believes that it has killed one of Iran’s most senior leaders, Ali Larijani, in overnight strikes, Israel’s defense minister said. Read the latest updates here. Oil prices also rose, and Iran attacked another tanker near the Strait of Hormuz. Today, we explain why American allies aren’t coming to the rescue there. Doug Mills/The New York Times ‘Not our war’ Trump is frustrated with countries that have declined his call to “come and help us” reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He mocked them yesterday: “We would rather not get involved, sir,” Trump said, imitating what he says he hears from world leaders — even though, he points out, Europe, Japan and others depend on oil from the Persian Gulf far more than the United States does. But Europe, in particular, has no great wish to be drawn into America’s conflict. It’s not those countries’ fault that Iran closed this vital maritime artery, driving up prices for cargo and oil worldwide. Sources: Flanders Marine Institute, International Maritime Organization, GEBCO. Samuel Granados and Agnes Chang/ The New York Times “This is not our war; we did not start it,” Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister, said yesterday, calling for a diplomatic solution instead. Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said that his country “will not be drawn into the wider war” with Iran. The French foreign ministry said much the same. And the Polish foreign minister said that his nation had also “ruled out” sending forces into the conflict. They’re caught in a bind, Michael Shear reports: Do nothing as prices surge and voters struggle to make ends meet — or join the fight and invite retaliation from Iran and its proxies. At the White House, Trump said the obstinacy of U.S. allies was exactly why he sneered at protecting other countries. “If we ever needed help,” he observed angrily, “they won’t be there for us.” The anger presidency That tracks. Operation Epic Fury is accurate branding for the war, Peter Baker writes. By the president’s own description, everything he does is epic — the most, the biggest, the best. And Trump is certainly driven by fury. Anger is at the heart of much of his work. He chose the name himself. Here’s one (epic) paragraph of Peter’s analysis: Anger defines Mr. Trump’s decade on the political stage. Anger at foreigners who come to this country and change its nature. Anger at allies who take advantage of America. Anger at Democrats who cross him. Anger at Republicans who cross him. Anger at appointees he deems insufficiently loyal. Anger at prosecutors, F.B.I. agents, judges, journalists, law firms, elite universities, cultural figures, corporate leaders, pollsters, central bankers and the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Read the rest here. A lack of clarity In Tehran on Sunday. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times It’s easy to understand why the war has begun to grate on the president. Trump and his cabinet still have not been able to articulate the administration’s objectives, much less when the war might end, writes Zolan Kanno-Youngs. We’ve already “won” the war, Trump has said. But the United States should not leave until it finishes the “excursion,” as he’s called it. And he doesn’t need allies for that. “We don’t need anybody,” Trump said yesterday, even as he called for other nations to help take up the task of securing the Strait of Hormuz. He’s hopping mad. “The lack of discipline and the lack of clarity strongly suggest that the administration was simply unprepared for the messaging aspects of this conflict,” one historian told Zolan. “The likelihood is that the demands are ambiguous because the administration does not know what its goals are beyond winning.” And you can see how that’s playing out in public opinion, with most polls showing less than half of Americans supporting the war. Zolan reminded me that when President George W. Bush sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001, 92 percent of Americans approved. Even some of Trump’s more influential supporters are slipping. “He ran on no more wars; end these stupid, senseless wars,” the podcast host Joe Rogan said. “And then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.” More on the war The New York Times Much of the drinking water in the Middle East comes from desalination plants. Two have been damaged. See where the plants in each country are. Trump said he had asked to postpone a planned visit to China at the end of the month because of the war. A network of tankers connected to the Iranian military is part of a group allowed to transport and sell Russian oil after the U.S. temporarily lifted sanctions. THE LATEST NEWS Health Susie Wiles Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, has breast cancer. She says doctors caught it early and she will continue working while she receives treatment. A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked several of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to U.S. vaccine policy, including the new childhood vaccine schedule and restrictions on Covid shots. Trump revealed that a Republican congressman, Neal Dunn of Florida, had a terminal heart condition — “He would be dead by June,” Trump said — and took credit for saving his life by referring him to Trump’s own doctors. T.S.A. officers aren’t being paid because of a congressional impasse over funding the Homeland Security Department. The lines to get through security at some airports go outside the terminals. Cuba The Trump administration is seeking to push Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, out of power, but not to topple the Communist government, several people told The Times. Yesterday, though, Trump raised the possibility of the U.S. “taking” Cuba. “Whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it,” he said. Immigration Greg Bovino, the border official who oversaw ICE operations in Los Angeles and Minnesota, plans to retire in the coming weeks. ICE released a pro-Palestinian protester who had been detained in Texas for more than a year but never charged with a crime. An appeals court ruled that the Trump administration could continue to deport immigrants to nations other than their home countries. Mike Johnson, the House speaker, called recent immigration actions “overzealous” and said there would be a “course correction.” In the video below, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, who covers immigration, explains how the Trump administration’s tactics are changing. Click to watch. The New York Times More Politics It’s Primary Day in Illinois, and there’s a closely contested race to replace Dick Durbin, the retiring Democratic senator. Here’s what to know. People are calling travel ban restrictions on half of Africa racist and unfair. Around the World In Zambia. Arlette Bashizi for The New York Times Zambia: The State Department is threatening to withhold H.I.V. aid from the country unless its gives the U.S. more access to its minerals. Britain: An air base that was the site of protests during the Iraq war is again being used for U.S. bombing missions in the Middle East. Russia: Conservative politicians have accused a beloved cartoon character of weakening national pride. Other Big Stories Nvidia announced new A.I. products that will make its technology cheaper and quicker as it seeks to extend its dominant position in the market. Oil began flowing through a pipeline in California for the first time since an oil spill in 2015. The Trump administration has ordered offshore production to resume. A woman in Utah who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death was found guilty of murdering him. OPINIONS Mass shooters used to be motivated by despair. Now, often, they’re motivated by nihilistic internet communities, James Densley and Jillian Peterson write. The federal AIDS Drug Assistance Program helps people with H.I.V. get lifesaving medication. Any cut “could bring thousands of Americans back to the days when AIDS was a merciless killer,” Maia Szalavitz 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 Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times; Halldor Kolbeins/AFP— Getty Images Fire and ice: A firefighter is leading Iceland’s national experiment to steer rivers of lava away from important sites. Some called the idea crazy, but then it worked. Last rites: As a mother lay dying, she asked for her ashes to be scattered off Antarctica. Read about one woman’s trip to fulfill that wish. Billionaire backlash: In this era of a more voracious capitalism, some of the world’s wealthiest say they don’t need to give away their money anymore. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about Lily Collins’s lost engagement ring. TODAY’S NUMBER $774 — That was the average monthly payment on a new-car loan in January, up from $588 in January 2021. And more than 20 percent of new-car borrowers agreed to pay over $1,000 a month at the end of last year, a record. The total cost of owning a vehicle right now is up even more. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: Alabama is preparing to play without the starting guard Aden Holloway after he was arrested on a felony drug charge. Baseball: Team USA will play Venezuela for the World Baseball Classic title today. Soccer: The U.S. men’s national team unveiled its home and away uniforms for this year’s FIFA World Cup. The home jersey features wavy red-and-white stripes, while the away jersey is an obsidian color with metallic stars. RECIPE OF THE DAY Julia Gartland for The New York Times Lime, chipotle, cumin, smoked paprika, sliced chicken thighs, bell peppers and red onion. You know where this is going: weeknight fajitas, prepared on a sheet pan in under an hour. There’s a terrific instruction in Ali Slagle’s recipe that ought to appear in more: “Roast until cooked, then broil until charred.” Serve with warm tortillas and your favorite hot sauce. THE PLEASER Raphael Gaultier for The New York Times “I am fascinated by every variety of human experience and want to understand it,” the actor John Lithgow told Jesse Green, who covers the arts. “I’m in the empathy business.” Lithgow, 80, is starring in “Giant,” now in previews on Broadway. He plays Roald Dahl, the successful and antisemitic children’s book author. Does it frighten him to play such a part? “Frighten me, no! It excites me. Red meat to a tiger. That’s the perversity of us actors. You wait forever for a role like this, full of sadism and monstrosity and hideousness.” Read Jesse’s profile here. More on culture Charlotte Wood’s novel “The Natural Way of Things” conjures a not-so-implausible world in which girls and young women are thrown into prison for their sexual shames. Very dystopian, very dark. Yet, our critic writes, “I would still invite you to throw yourself on this brier patch simply for the pleasure of Wood’s sentences, the rich and prickly wonder of her mind at work.” The best trend on the Oscars red carpet, according to Vanessa Friedman, our fashion critic? “Women who looked as if they could walk, sit, clap, climb the stairs if necessary, and, even better, breathe.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Read “The Complex,” a novel by Karan Mahajan about a political family in modern-day India that shows, in our critic’s words, “how organically and dangerously certain qualities can turn men into political leaders, and how even a movement of millions can have one man’s atavism at its heart.” Consider a new coffee table, with recommendations from the apartment-dwelling design mavens at Wirecutter. Ditch those cotton swabs you’ve been using all your life and keep your ears clean with these safer, more effective alternatives. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was excelling. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 21 Author Members Posted March 21 March 18, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. President Trump told reporters that he didn’t need help from allies in Iran and that he was “not afraid of anything” when asked about a long war with U.S. troops on the ground. And the lieutenant governor of Illinois, Juliana Stratton, won the Democratic primary race for Senate there. We’ll get to that, and more, below. In Illinois yesterday. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times Count on it Voter fraud almost never happens in the United States. Still, in order to prevent it, President Trump is pushing Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, an election law that would, among many provisions, require people to show photo identification to vote. It’s a solution in search of a problem — a solution that narrowly passed in the House last week and is now under debate in the Senate. The law is unlikely to pass there, given deeply felt opposition from Democrats who can block it with a filibuster. Republicans lack the 60 votes they need to overcome one. Trump insists they pass the law anyway, even if they have to kill the filibuster to do so. (Some Republicans don’t want to do that, since eventually they may need the device to block the other side.) He said he would not sign any other legislation until the bill made it to his desk. It’s his “No. 1 priority,” he said, and would “guarantee” the midterm elections for the Republicans. “If you don’t get it — big trouble,” Trump told them last week. Most Americans support the idea of voter identification, polls say. We show driver’s licenses and passports all the time — to go on planes, to register at hotels, to buy indica at a dispensary. Show ID at a polling place? Sure. But voter identification is not really what the SAVE America Act is all about, according to Democrats and election experts who oppose it. (Its full name is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.) They say it’s about disenfranchisement. They say that it could hand the Trump administration data it could distort to claim widespread voter fraud when Republicans lose races. Here are the ways the law would change voting — and the complications that could emerge from its passage. It would require voters to prove their citizenship in person when registering to vote. They would need to do so every time their registration changes — when they move, say, or change their name or party affiliation. What’s so bad about that? Maybe you have an enhanced driver’s license that proves your citizenship. Maybe you have a passport, or naturalization papers. Let me ask you: Do you know where your birth certificate is? My colleague Nick Corasaniti, who covers voting and elections, pointed me toward a study that found that nearly 10 percent of American citizens of voting age don’t have proof of citizenship at hand — if they have the papers at all. The bill would curtail voting by mail. Would you photocopy your driver’s license or passport and send it in the mail, just to request a ballot? I might. But first I’d need to find a working photocopier. And then I’d have to use it again when sending my ballot in. Anything that introduces friction to the voting process, election experts say, leads to less voting. The bill would require states to send voter information to the Department of Homeland Security. Some state election officials don’t like that idea at all: What are federal officials doing with that information? How safe is it? How open to manipulation? And the legislation would require compliance within days, without providing funding to support it. Local election offices aren’t set up to collect copies of photo identification for mail-in ballots. They would need to spin up whole new processes to verify citizenship status, instantly. (Realistically, those efforts take staffing and time.) And should states fail to make these changes quickly enough, they wouldn’t be allowed to count mailed ballots. As the debate in the Senate continues, here’s more to know about the legislation. IN ONE MAP Sources: New York Times analysis of data from Climate Central CoastalDEM 3.0, Worldpop and Jerry Mitrovica, Harvard University. Mira Rojanasakul/The New York Times The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is melting quickly. If it breaks apart entirely, it could push up global sea levels by two feet — flooding neighborhoods that are home to tens of millions of people. The Times analyzed how the rising waters would affect low-lying cities in the U.S. and around the world. See maps of the impact. THE LATEST NEWS Airstrikes Ali Larijani Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Shortly after Israel killed Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, it announced that it had also killed the commander of Iran’s Basij militia, a large paramilitary force. Analysts say Larijani’s death could allow Iran’s military to tighten its grip on the country. His killing is fueling anxiety among Iranian officials about who could be targeted next, a senior Iranian official told our reporter Farnaz Fassihi. Iran retaliated against Israel on Wednesday morning, killing at least two people. Follow the latest updates. More on the War A top U.S. counterterrorism official, Joe Kent, resigned over objections to the war. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” he wrote. There’s a growing rift among prominent American conservatives over the war. Many who oppose it say, like Kent, that they are unhappy with Israel’s role. Kalshi, a prediction market, said it would not pay out millions of dollars in expected winnings from bets on the demise of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, citing a prohibition on wagers involving death. Trump is considering whether to to seize or destroy Iran’s store of near-bomb-grade nuclear material. Midterm Elections Juliana Stratton Joshua Lott for The New York Times Stratton, who won the Democratic primary race for Senate in Illinois, prevailed with millions of dollars in help from Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire. She will be heavily favored in the general election. Trump did not endorse a candidate in the Republican primary runoff for a Texas Senate seat, so both John Cornyn and Ken Paxton will appear on the ballot. More on Politics Trump said Gavin Newsom’s dyslexia should be seen as disqualifying for the presidency. “A president should not have learning disabilities,” Trump said. A judge ordered Voice of America to resume broadcasting. The postmaster general said that the U.S. Postal Service would be “out of cash” and unable to deliver the mail in less than a year unless Congress took action. The company that organized Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021, has become the government’s highest-paid event planner. Airports T.S.A. officers, working without pay, are calling out from work in growing numbers as the Homeland Security shutdown wears on. Small airports may soon begin to close. Airlines are raising prices to cover rising fuel costs brought on by the war in Iran, but travelers are still buying tickets. Around the World In Nigeria yesterday. Jossy Ola/Associated Press Nigeria: At least 23 civilians were killed and more than 100 injured after bombs exploded at a hospital and two markets in the northeast. Cuba: A new policy that allows Cubans abroad to own and invest in businesses on the island may not be enough to improve the economy. The Faroe Islands: A new law that allows abortion up to 12 weeks marks a major shift on the socially conservative archipelago, and there are strong feelings on both sides. Mexico: Gun traffickers have quietly moved what they say is an unprecedented number of weapons to Mexico from the United States. In the video below, Paulina Villegas follows the trail of guns. Click to watch. The New York Times WHAT’S GOOD? Devoted readers of The Morning may have noticed that Melissa Kirsch had some news in her Saturday column: She has a new weekly newsletter, The Good List, and it begins today. Every Wednesday she’ll recommend a few havens from the storm of world events — things that are delightful, peaceful, restorative, just good. One offering from today: Parseword, a new game from the inventor of Wordle. It’s billed as “tricky,” and it is, but it’s satisfying too. As with Wordle, you only get one shot per day, mercifully. Sign up here to receive The Good List in your inbox later today. OPINIONS Trump has no clear strategy or plan for the war in Iran, an example of his “chaotic, ego-driven approach to the presidency,” the editorial board writes. Here are columns by Jamelle Bouie on what he hates in the SAVE America Act and Bret Stephens on Israel’s role in the war on Iran. 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 Emily Kask for The New York Times Internet gold: A “leprechaun spotting” in Mobile, Ala., became an early piece of digital history. Twenty years later, we spoke with the people who lived it. A Hollywood find: She needed a new rug for her apartment. The dumpster outside the Oscars had a nice one — and it was red. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the best way to clean your ears. A spymaster: Len Deighton, the British author who brought realism to the espionage genre in best-selling 1960s Cold War thrillers like “The Ipcress File,” died this week at 97. Of his success, he said, “All you need is a profound inferiority complex, no training as a writer and growing up a victim of the English class system.” TODAY’S NUMBER 3,600 — That is how many miles a stowaway red fox traveled aboard a 760-foot ship carrying vehicles between England and New Jersey. Here’s his story. SPORTS Baseball: Venezuela won the World Baseball Classic championship for the first time, upsetting the United States 3-2. College basketball: The men’s N.C.A.A. tournament tipped off with two First Four play-in games. Texas won a 68-66 victory over N.C. State, and Howard beat U.M.B.C. 86-83, earning its first-ever March Madness win. RECIPE OF THE DAY Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. You could cook a laptop case in lemon-caper sauce and have a fine dinner, but swathing pork chops in the ambrosia is much better. (The sauce is great on fish, too.) Follow Toni Tipton-Martin’s recipe and you’ll have yourself a plush, elegant and easy weeknight meal. THE CHICKEN, PLEASE The rotisserie at Rôtisserie La Lune, in Montreal. Alexi Hobbs for The New York Times Rotisserie chicken has joined poutine, smoked meat and bagels as a signature dish of Montreal. Brett Anderson, who reports on poultry and other foodstuffs, explored the attraction. “You know how they have the Netflix fireplace channel?” one chef said. “I want a rotisserie chicken channel. I could watch it for hours.” More on culture Grace Ives was meant to be an indie-rock superstar. Then she hit bottom. And now she’s back with “Girlfriend,” her most polished album yet. Lise Davidsen’s soprano “can rattle your skull with its resonance and leave you awed by power you almost never hear in the human voice,” our critic wrote in his review of “Tristan und Isolde” at the Metropolitan Opera. Davidsen spoke with The Times about how she’s balancing motherhood with her instrument. Singing, she said, “has been my world, my everything. And now it’s not.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Dedicate space in your home to games and puzzles — but no more than 30 or 40, experts say. That sounds like a lot of games and puzzles? Unclog your disgusting, hairy bathroom sink drain more easily with this $15 stopper tested by the mop-headed plumbers at Wirecutter. Beat your afternoon slump with these expert tips. (Among other things, skip that morning doughnut and two-sugared latte.) GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was befouled. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 22 Author Members Posted March 22 March 19, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Energy facilities have become major targets in the war, and the markets don’t like it. The price of oil is now up more than 48 percent since the war began. There’s more news from the Middle East below. But before those updates, I want to tell you about a major Times investigation into a labor rights icon. Cesar Chavez during a demonstration in New York in 1969. John Sotomayor/The New York Times A tarnished legacy Cesar Chavez rose from the poverty of Arizona’s agricultural fields to shape America’s labor movement. He co-founded the nation’s first successful union of farm workers and championed the Latino working class. Chavez’s name is emblazoned on streets, schools, parks and monuments across the United States. In California, many schools close on Cesar Chavez Day, March 31, his birthday. Now, more than 30 years after Chavez’s death, a Times investigation reveals that at the same time that he was working to better the lives of immigrant workers, Chavez sexually abused and assaulted women and girls. The victims include Dolores Huerta, who founded the United Farm Workers union with Chavez and was for decades his most prominent ally. Huerta, now 95, told The Times that Chavez raped her in 1966. It was a secret she had kept for nearly 60 years. “Unfortunately, he used some of his great leadership to abuse women and children — it’s really awful,” Huerta told The Times. What to know The Times found extensive evidence that Chavez sexually abused two teenage girls in the 1970s. Ana Murguia, now 66, met Chavez when she was 8 and he was in his 40s. She said Chavez molested her in his office. The abuse started when she was 13 and ended four years later, she said. Debra Rojas, also 66, was 12 when Chavez first fondled her breasts in his office. When she was 15, he had sex with her — rape, under California law. A line from The Times’s reporting: “He told her that he had known they belonged together since he saw her at the age of 9.” Both women struggled in the years that followed the abuse: depression, panic attacks, substance abuse. They kept silent, they said, out of fear that the accusations would tarnish Chavez’s legacy. In recent months, though, after talking with Times reporters, they came to believe that their stories mattered as much as his. Cesar Chavez, left, and Ana Murguia, center, in 1975. Murguia said Chavez abused her when she was a girl. Cathy Murphy/Getty Images Dolores Huerta had two children by Chavez. Huerta told The Times she had felt pressured to have sex with him in a hotel room during a work trip in 1960. Six years later, he raped her in a car parked in a secluded grape field, she said. She told The Times she did not report the assault to the authorities because of the police’s antagonism toward the labor movement and because she feared her union would not believe her. Both encounters resulted in pregnancies. Huerta hid them by wearing baggy clothes, she told The Times, and arranged to have the babies raised by others. “I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here,” Huerta said yesterday afternoon, in her first comments since the publication of the investigation. Chavez pursued or harassed other women in the movement. The Times spoke to at least a dozen of them. Some of them chose to speak on the record, while others preferred to remain anonymous. Several relatives and union members knew about Chavez’s behavior. They talked to Chavez’s son, Paul Chavez, about it in the early 2000s. “It was unimaginable to me, just hard to process,” he recalled thinking. “You’re talking about my dad.” The fallout has been swift. States, cities and the United Farm Workers of America canceled upcoming marches and celebrations of Chavez. Arizona’s governor said that her state would stop recognizing his birthday as a holiday. The U.S. Department of Labor has an auditorium named in his honor — an American flag now hangs over the door, covering his name. The Times investigation was thorough. It took nearly five years. Our reporters corroborated victims’ claims by speaking to more than 60 people close to Chavez and the union. They reviewed hundreds of pages of records, confidential emails, photographs and audio recordings of union meetings. A reporter’s reflection Manny Fernandez is one of the reporters on the investigation. Manny’s a California native, born and raised in Fresno. He went to Fresno State. His grandparents on both his mother’s and his father’s sides started out as farmworkers, working the very fields Chavez organized. That weighed on him, he told me yesterday. “It didn’t distract me from doing the work,” he said. “It was just an irony that I’m the guy from The Times who’s doing this, who’s from here, who understands the legacy of Chavez, which in California cannot be overstated.” “He represented the best of us — and by us, I mean Latino America,” Manny continued. “And to discover that Chavez had this dark side is disturbing. But we do need to know who our heroes are.” Please read the whole story. It’s free for everybody who receives this newsletter. WAR IN IRAN In Tehran. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Airstrikes hit the infrastructure of South Pars offshore gas field, which is shared by Iran and Qatar. It is Iran’s biggest source of natural gas. Iraq, which normally gets one-third of its natural gas from Iran, said the attack had knocked out a large part of its electric power supply. Hours later, Qatar accused Iran of attacking Ras Laffan, one of its major energy hubs, and Iran reported an airstrike on oil and petrochemical facilities. The attacks were some of the most significant on energy sites since the war began. Oil prices spiked after reports of the strikes. President Trump said the United States knew nothing about the attack on South Pars, that it was a unilateral Israeli initiative, that Qatar had no role in it and that “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field.” But he threatened to destroy the field if Qatar’s energy facilities were attacked again. Follow the latest updates here. More on the War Iranians say attacks by Israel and the U.S. are gaining intensity, becoming louder and moving closer. “Soon we will be like Gaza,” a businessman in Tehran said. “We won’t have electricity, or heat or food.” Iran’s government has kept a majority of its 92 million citizens under an internet blackout since the war began. Israel killed Iran’s intelligence minister, continuing its systematic targeting of high-ranking officials. An older couple were killed in an Iranian cluster bomb attack outside Tel Aviv. A missile attack struck a beauty parlor in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, killing at least three Palestinians. The Israeli military widened its attacks to the districts in the center of Beirut, destroying buildings, forcing residents to flee and killing at least 10. Trump is considering a risky commando operation at an Iranian nuclear site. In the video below, our national security reporter David E. Sanger describes why Trump is so focused on Iran’s nuclear program now. Click to play. The New York Times In Washington Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Iran was years away from developing missiles capable of hitting the U.S. Their statements contradicted Trump’s rationale for going to war. Gabbard also told lawmakers that only President Trump could determine what constituted an imminent threat — essentially handing over a key role of the intelligence community to the president. The F.B.I. is investigating Joe Kent, the counterterrorism official who resigned this week over the war in Iran, for possibly leaking sensitive intelligence, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. THE LATEST NEWS D.H.S. Hearing Senator Markwayne Mullin Kenny Holston/The New York Times Senator Rand Paul clashed with Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, at his confirmation hearing. Paul, a Republican, accused Mullin of having “anger issues.” Mullin is a former mixed martial arts fighter but struck a more somber tone at the hearing. He said he regretted his comments demeaning Alex Pretti, the man federal agents killed in Minnesota. Mullin said he would revoke a policy enacted by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary he would replace, that slowed the flow of FEMA disaster aid. Around the World Pakistan: The country said it would pause airstrikes against Afghanistan after a strike on a drug rehabilitation facility that a U.N. official said had killed at least 143 civilians. West Bank: Witnesses described to The Times a brutal sexual assault against a Palestinian man by Israeli settlers. Belgium: A Brussels court ruled that a 93-year-old retired diplomat must stand trial for the 1961 killing of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other Big Stories The Trump administration is continuing its push to deport the family of Liam Conejos Ramos, the 5-year-old boy whose detention became a symbol of the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. The Federal Reserve held rates steady for a second straight meeting. Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, said it was too early to know how the war in Iran would affect inflation. Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard won this year’s Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computing, for an encryption technology they created in the 1980s. OPINIONS The U.S. should assure the public that Israel’s military operation in Lebanon will not lead to permanent land grabs, Shira Efron writes, and the focus there should be on dismantling Hezbollah. Trump and Republicans are leading a surge of anti-Muslim hate. “They deserve denunciation from all Americans, regardless of politics or religion,” the editorial board 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 Jasper Doest for The New York Times Back to the wild: Facing retirement from sled-dog racing, a musher took her team on a trip into the wilderness. Read about the journey. ’90s nostalgia: You know what’s big on TikTok? “Iris,” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about how a melting glacier in Antarctica could cause the sea level to rise. TODAY’S NUMBER $349 — This is how much American patients pay at a pharmacy, without using insurance, for a four-week supply of Wegovy, Novo Nordisk’s injection for weight loss. In Japan it is $163. On average, brand-name drugs in the U.S. are three times as expensive as those in other wealthy countries. Check the numbers for several common drugs. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: Prairie View A&M won its first N.C.A.A. tournament game in school history, beating Lehigh 67-55. Hockey: Jack Hughes said he was “honored” that the Hockey Hall of Fame had his Olympic golden goal puck, a day after he told ESPN that he wanted it back. RECIPE OF THE DAY David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. I’ve loved this recipe for rigatoni and white Bolognese ever since Amanda Hesser brought it to The Times more than 20 years ago. Without the acidity that tomatoes bring to the classic version of the sauce, the flavors of the meat, vegetables and aromatics really punch through. And they’re accentuated rather than muted by the cream. Very silky! Shower the plate with grated Parmesan and give thanks. HORNBLOWER Ariel Fisher for The New York Times Flea started playing the trumpet in junior high school. Later he became a bassist and, in time, an international rock star with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. A few years ago he picked up the horn again, and practiced every day. Now, he’s used it to make a jazz record, his first solo album, “Honora.” It’s largely instrumental, backed by jazz luminaries, with high-profile vocal cameos from Nick Cave and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. “Everyone just showed up for me,” Flea told The Times. Read more. More on culture The artist Meg Webster makes ephemeral sculptures — installations of dirt and moss and sticks and sand arranged in precise geometric forms. They degrade over time. They’re recycled at the end of a show. Even after more than four decades of work, she says destroying the works is difficult. “I’m not happy with them disappearing,” she said. “But I’m not happy with them staying forever, either.” Webster told The Times her story in five works of art. Some very good theater has arrived on streaming platforms, which means you can now see, among other gems, a live capture of Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff in “Merrily We Roll Along,” which won four Tony Awards in 2024. Prediction markets are allowing people to bet on the outcome of “Survivor” — even though the show was filmed months ago. Late night hosts wondered why Senator Markwayne Mullin and Senator Rand Paul knew so much about duels. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Read “The Ipcress File,” by Len Deighton, from 1962. I wrote about his death yesterday and started the book last night. It’s sardonic, and I’m glad: “Chico always looked glad to see me. It made my day; it was his training, I suppose. He’d been to one of those very good schools where you meet kids with influential uncles.” Tighten those tiny screws in your life, with the Teeny Turner screwdriver recommended by the teensy technicians at Wirecutter. Start running again now that this brutal winter is starting to wane, with these helpful tips. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was janitor. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. P.S. A link in yesterday’s newsletter invited readers to sign up for The Good List, Melissa Kirsch’s newsletter. Many of you told us it didn’t work. Here’s the right link. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 23 Author Members Posted March 23 March 20, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Eid Mubarak. I hope your homes will be filled with happiness. It’s the first day of spring! The price of oil was down this morning, but missiles and drones continue to fly across the Middle East. Israel said it had launched attacks on Tehran after strikes on northern Israel overnight. Let’s start there. In Israel yesterday. Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times Whose war? What does the United States want to achieve in its nearly three-week war on Iran? What does Israel? At the start of the conflict, the two countries seemed to share similar goals: topple the leader, enfeeble the military and forever terminate the nuclear program. Now, though, the allies seem to be diverging, my colleague Steven Erlanger reports. For all the rhetoric we remember about America First, the United States remains a global superpower concerned about the worldwide supply of oil and the safety of its allies around the Persian Gulf. Iran does not pose an existential threat to Washington, and America’s leaders don’t want their voters impoverishing themselves at the gas pump. Israel, however, is a regional power. Its concerns are narrower. Put simply, it wants to cripple a country that has sworn itself to Israel’s destruction. So it keeps killing officials in Tehran, grinding down the government, blowing up oil facilities and striking Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah. “It sees an extraordinary opportunity to clobber Iran with American help, and it is likely to want to continue the war longer than President Trump,” Steve writes. The Islamic Republic has retaliated against energy targets in the Gulf and sent global oil and gas prices soaring. If it keeps the Strait of Hormuz closed and induces a global recession, well, that’s not Israel’s worry, analysts say. “They have a set of strategic objectives and believe they are succeeding, and they’re not as price sensitive as the White House,” one Iran expert told Steve. “They are more willing to weather the storm and try to finish the job.” A former Pentagon official put it succinctly: “Most Israelis simply hope for the demise of their nemesis,” he said. In Tehran. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times The fear in Washington The Trump administration understands that Americans, for whom the stakes are lower, will have less patience than Israelis. The president wants to reassure people. “It will be over with pretty soon,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office yesterday. Until then, his aides are trying to salve the economic wounds. Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said the U.S. could release more oil from its strategic reserves. And he told Fox Business that the U.S. “may unsanction the Iranian oil” that is already at sea, about 140 million barrels. “That would, of course, bring more revenue to Iran,” my colleague David Sanger, who covers the White House, writes. Bessent insisted, somewhat confusingly, that “we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down.” To finance that campaign, though, the Pentagon yesterday sent the White House a request for $200 billion in funding for the war — hardly a balm to those seeking a quick end. (“Obviously, it takes money to kill bad guys,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.) Trump told reporters that such a sum would be “a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top.” It’s also on par with what the United States spent annually at the height of the Iraq war. Another fear in Washington, David reports, is that Gulf nations — which have not answered Iranian missile and drone attacks — will now begin to fight back. On Wednesday, two sets of incoming ballistic missiles were intercepted over Saudi Arabia, its defense ministry said. “We will not shy away from protecting our country and our economic resources,” the kingdom’s foreign minister said. Israel may not mind the assist. But it’s not the sort of development that will end the conflict. UP IN THE AIR Istanbul International Airport earlier this month. Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters The war in the Middle East was already a diplomatic, political, military and economic problem. Now it is also a travel problem. Airspace above the conflict is off-limits, squeezing travel routes that have already narrowed during the war in Ukraine. Pilots must fly circuitous paths that burn more fuel. And that fuel is now more expensive as the Iran conflict hampers shipping and refineries. Airlines have canceled thousands of flights. The biggest hassle has been in Asia, where countries rely on Middle Eastern oil and have limited fuel stockpiles. Jet fuel is often the first refined oil product to run short — its price has already doubled since the war began three weeks ago — so the conflict will likely bring even more disruptions soon. In the video below, our chief economics correspondent, Ben Casselman, explains how the oil crisis is affecting gasoline prices. Click to watch. The New York Times More on the war Trump said he had no plans to send ground troops to Iran, but left some room to reverse course. Britain sent a small team of military planners to the U.S. to help draw up options to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a British official said. Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. “knew nothing about” the Israeli attack on the South Pars gas field in Iran. But Israel disputed that, saying the attack was coordinated in advance with the Trump administration. THE LATEST NEWS Immigration A woman shows her husband a pregnancy test while on a video call from an ICE detention center. Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times At ICE detention centers, pregnant women have been held up until their eighth month of pregnancy without adequate food or medical care, The Times found. The Times analyzed the newest data on ICE arrests. They increased steeply in St. Paul, Minnesota — but agents in Miami, Atlanta and San Antonio still arrested more people. Here are the other trends. Politics Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan and Trump. Doug Mills/The New York Times In an Oval Office meeting with Japan’s prime minister, Trump made a joke about the Pearl Harbor attack, a taboo that leaders of both countries have carefully avoided for decades. Trump wants to build a White House visitor security center. But the agency that must approve the project, which is packed with his allies, says it’s too big and not beautiful enough. The same agency approved a commemorative, 24-karat gold coin with Trump’s image on it. Two F.B.I. agents fired last year for investigating Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election accused the Justice Department of targeting them for “political retribution.” A judge ruled that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overstepped his legal authority when he declared that providers of gender-affirming care for minors did not meet professional standards. Around the World In Buenos Aires. Sarah Pabst for The New York Times Argentina: Immigrants were welcomed into the country for decades. Then, suddenly, they became a problem. Britain: Two men were charged with surveilling Jewish institutions in London, including Britain’s oldest synagogue, on behalf of Iran. Cuba: Analysts are watching to see if a Russian tanker carrying crude oil is headed toward the island, potentially testing the U.S. oil blockade. Other Big Stories After The Times reported evidence that Cesar Chavez had assaulted girls and women, California said it would rename the holiday honoring him to “Farmworkers Day.” Boston Scientific recalled its pacemakers in 2024 after malfunctions and deaths. But the company had known for years that its devices were prone to failure, an investigation found. OPINIONS The U.S. has a shortage of pediatric health care workers. It is not prepared for a surge of children with measles, Dr. Jennifer Reich writes. Samuel Alito’s and Sonia Sotomayor’s experiences at Princeton were drastically different, Peter S. Canellos writes. He explains how that has shaped their jurisprudence. 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 Oksana Parafeniuk for The New York Times The return: A Ukrainian soldier freed in a prisoner swap arrived home to discover that his family thought he was dead. R.I.P., Metaverse: Meta put Mark Zuckerberg’s immersive virtual reality world on life support. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was a video about Trump’s focus on Iran’s nuclear program. TODAY’S NUMBER 99.9 — That’s how many miles per hour the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani’s fastball was during a spring training game this week. His expectations for the season seem reasonable? “Just because I want to try to win the Cy Young and throw more innings, that’s not necessarily the priority over winning a championship,” he said. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: Virginia Commonwealth University overcame a 19-point deficit to upset the University of North Carolina in overtime. Here are more highlights from the first day of Men’s March Madness. N.B.A.: LeBron James appeared in his 1,611th career game and tied the record for most games played in league history. Soccer: Lionel Messi scored his 900th career goal this week. These charts and stats put that in perspective. RECIPE OF THE DAY Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. Here’s a lovely way to celebrate Eid, the end of the Ramadan fast — or just to have a fantastic Friday evening meal: make Nargisse Benkabbou’s recipe for a kefte tagine with jalapeño yogurt sauce. The kefte — Moroccan-style meatballs — are spiced warmly, as is the rich tomato sauce. You can make like you’re in Rabat and crack some eggs into the pot right before serving. I love the cool-hot of the yogurt sauce, and plenty of chopped parsley for color. FULL-TILT BOOGIE Adrienne Warren and Jasmine Amy Rogers in “The Wild Party.” Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times “The Wild Party,” Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe’s musical adaptation of a dark 1928 narrative poem, opened at New York City Center on Wednesday night — a revival of the original production staged on Broadway in 2000. Helen Shaw, our theater critic, was there. In her review, she writes that she almost had a heart attack as the jittery-joppery, coke- and gin-fueled jazz-age dissonances filled the theater with excitement and dread. (I was sitting right next to her, same.) It’s up through March 29. Go if you can. More on culture Hachette canceled plans to release the novel “Shy Girl,” a psychological horror novel by Mia Ballard, after The Times asked the publishing house questions about allegations that the book had been largely generated by artificial intelligence. Here’s the back story. ABC canceled the upcoming season of “The Bachelorette,” set to begin on Sunday, after video emerged of its star attacking the father of one of her children. The K-pop supergroup BTS will play its first show in over three years tomorrow. Here’s what to know. T Magazine looks at singular homes this week. These are spaces in Oslo; the English countryside; Majorca, Spain; Manhattan and elsewhere that, the editor Hanya Yanagihara writes, “have just been allowed to be, that haven’t been groomed or cleaned or edited into obedience.” They’re worth browsing. Late night hosts panned Trump’s Pearl Harbor joke. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Ryan Gosling in “Project Hail Mary.” Jonathan Olley/Amazon MGM Studios Watch “Project Hail Mary,” starring Ryan Gosling (a science teacher in space saves the planet). Manohla Dargis, our critic, didn’t love the movie. But when she writes that “Gosling can overdo the waterworks, but he’s good at conveying the kind of vulnerability that’s all the more touching when men, in particular, try to hide it,” that means: You’ll have a good time. Unwrinkle your skin, or at least firm it up for a while, with the best retinol products blind-tested by the face cream analysts at Wirecutter. Greet your mornings with joy, not exhaustion. We’ve got tips. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were hegemony and homogeny. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 25 Author Members Posted March 25 March 21, 2026 Good morning. Astronomical spring began yesterday, but the actual change of season is more gradual, a halting and nonlinear progression. María Jesús Contreras Spring awakening By Melissa Kirsch Today is the first full day of spring. Can you feel it? In the Northeast, it was mostly cold and rainy this week, and one could only repeat “In like a lion, out like a lamb” and check the weather apps again. We’re technically in Spring of Deception, according to a meme that posits 12 actual seasons, based on experience rather than science. (Next up is Third Winter, followed by The Pollening.) Even so, once the equinox passes, the good weather bias begins. We increasingly expect warmer days, note the early perennials sending up their shoots in flower beds still pocked with snow. We underdress optimistically when the temperature grazes heights not seen since fall. I’m too eager, a spring-summer dogmatist wishing it Memorial Day so fervently I overlook the grass greening. I miss commuters’ coffee cups transitioning from hot to iced, the gradual unbuttoning and disappearance of coats. My friend Austin remarked that the seasons are one of the few things left we can’t change on demand — they take as long as they take and there’s no app or hack to speed their progress. He meant this as a good thing. And he’s right, of course. These early technically spring days, with their absurd cold gusts and flashes of pale sun, are still days. They still contain 24 hours to inhabit, even if I wish I were inhabiting them in shorts. Anticipation is tricky: It feels exciting to look forward to something, but often that looking forward results in overlooking what’s right here. Right here, just on the other side of the equinox, daylight now exceeds dark in the Northern Hemisphere. Each day, sunset is a little bit later. “What is all this juice and all this joy?” Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote in his poem “Spring.” Indeed, what is it? What’s with the dampness of sidewalks, the smell of the thawing earth? Are there more birds singing or am I just waking up to them? They’re the tiny increments of spring arriving. The equinox is a planetary demarcation, but real-life spring arrives gradually, a halting, nonlinear progression. Residue of winter, hints of future summer, doubling back before settling into itself, a season getting its footing, finally, eventually, again. A Good List update Last week I wrote about The Good List, my new newsletter that offers ways to add some joy to your days. The first installment went out this week, and I’ve loved hearing from readers about how they cultivate delight in their own lives. Jill Wiggins of Kerrville, Texas, wrote: I am an 80-year-old widow who lives in the Texas Hill Country. In the past 10 years I have raised a grandchild (who is now on her own), cared for a husband who died of Parkinson’s, moved twice, had two major surgeries, plus of course the pandemic and the Big Texas Freeze of ’21. When I take the dog for a walk on the beautiful Guadalupe River, I try to find at least five beautiful things. It can be birdsong, a cloud, the river itself, a flower, an egret, or even just my beautiful blue heeler. Once you start noticing, it’s easy to keep going and find way more than five, even on a not-so-pretty day. Want more good things? Sign up! Sign up for the Good List newsletter. A weekly inventory of ideas, rituals and cultural artifacts to add joy to your days. Get it in your inbox THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran A funeral ceremony in Iran this week. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Iran executed three men accused of killing police officers during anti-government protests in January. Human rights groups had raised concerns about forced confessions. Iran has allowed a few ships from friendly countries, including China, India and Pakistan, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump said on social media that he was considering “winding down” the war with Iran, even as the U.S. ramped up aerial assaults against Iranian forces around the Strait. Polls show the war with Iran is unpopular with Americans. But Republicans have yet to call administration officials to testify about it. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has invoked Christian morals to suggest that U.S. military actions are divinely sanctioned. The Trump administration declared a wartime emergency to bypass Congress and push through more than $23 billion in weapons sales to the U.A.E., Kuwait and Jordan. Politics A federal judge, siding with The Times, ruled that the Pentagon’s restrictions on news outlets violated the First Amendment. Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, a onetime Trump foe, has ties to drug traffickers. A friend of Trump’s, who was in a custody battle, called in a favor to ICE to have his ex-wife detained. A top official made sure it happened. Higher Education The Trump administration sued Harvard after months of investigations, accusing the university of violating the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli people. The Cal State university system accused the Trump administration of “lawless overreach” in an expanding battle over transgender athletes. Other Big Stories A medical professional prepares to administer an injection in New Delhi. Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times The weight loss drug sold as Ozempic and Wegovy is losing patent protections in India, China and other large countries, which means billions of people will soon get access to cheap generic versions of it. An aid ship carrying more than 20 tons of medicine, food, solar panels and other supplies departed Mexico bound for Cuba, which has been paralyzed by an energy crisis. The Alexander brothers, convicted of a decades-long sex-trafficking conspiracy, are said to have been exploring avenues to seek pardons from Trump. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Chuck Norris in 1995. CBS, via Getty Images Chuck Norris died this week at 86. He made a career jabbing and roundhouse-kicking his way through Hollywood, delighting fans with films like “The Delta Force” and the TV series “Walker, Texas Ranger.” Live from London, it’s Saturday night! “S.N.L.” is crossing the pond. Will Brits find it funny? “Project Hail Mary” opened in theaters this weekend. We chatted with Andy Weir, the author of the novel on which it’s based, about the real science behind his sci-fi story. Nicholas Brendon, who rose to fame playing the lovable sidekick Xander on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” died at 54. Labubus, the grinning fuzzy toys that became a global sensation last year, are starring in a new Hollywood movie. More Culture RM and V of BTS saluted after being discharged in June. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images The multiplatinum Korean pop group BTS is pulling an Elvis Presley — sort of. The members are making a grand comeback after a stint in the military. South Korea is also becoming a video game powerhouse. Its latest blockbuster: Crimson Desert, a reality-bending, open-world fantasy. Intense online fandom powers groups like BTS. The Times explored how one such group — for the band Katseye — fosters friendships, rivalry and drama. 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. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Linda Xiao for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Braised Chard With Gnocchi, Peas and Leeks Spring has finally sprung, at least officially, and this braised chard with gnocchi, peas and leeks shows off the fresh, sweet flavors of the season. Filled with tender vegetables and plush gnocchi, it’s a meatless one-pot meal that’s versatile: You can substitute red onions for the leeks, pasta for the gnocchi and any leafy greens for the chard. The buttery, tangy sauce makes it all sing. REAL ESTATE Karl Minges and Michael Urban with their children in Central Park. Graham Dickie for The New York Times The Hunt: Two dads, and their four kids, looked for a pied-à-terre in Manhattan for long weekends and city adventures. What did they find? Play our game. What you get if you want to live in a church: A turn-of-the-century church turned artist’s loft in Pennsylvania, a formerly abandoned church from the 1870s in Illinois and a Lutheran church from 1902 with a new addition in Georgia. C’est la vie: After her marriage ended, an entrepreneur traded a California cattle ranch for 400 square feet in Paris. LIVING Coke Bartrina for The New York Times When in Spain: From globally adored sports teams to world-class museums, Madrid has something for everyone. Our guide shows the best of this art-dense, culinarily rich and friendly city. Fashion farewells: Movie directors don’t usually appear at the end of their films. But during fashion week, designers take bows on the runway. The process can be revealing. D.I.Y. framing: Resizing a wood frame for your favorite artwork is also a great way to practice skills that will come in handy for many other jobs. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER You should probably use a retinoid Many skin care products promise miracles. Retinoids are among the few with the science to back them up. At prescription strengths, these vitamin A derivatives have been shown to speed up skin’s cellular turnover, boost collagen and minimize the appearance of pores and the production of oils. Milder over-the-counter versions — we’ve tested nearly 40 — deliver similar benefits. These seven effective retinol products, which suit a range of budgets and skin types, include a serum gentle enough for sensitive skin and a moisturizing multitasker. Whichever you choose, start slowly: Apply the product no more than twice a week, and use small drops, about the size of a pea. Your skin will thank you, today and tomorrow. —Rory Evans GAME OF THE WEEKEND High Point and Wisconsin in the first round. Troy Wayrynen/Imagn Images, via Reuters No. 12 seed High Point vs. No. 4 seed Arkansas, men’s N.C.A.A. Tournament. This year’s March Madness has been fun, but it’s also been top-heavy. In the men’s bracket, no team seeded 13 or higher won in the first round. And on Day 1 of the women’s tournament, there were no upsets at all. That means High Point is the best hope for a Cinderella. Luckily, they’re also fun to watch, thanks to one of the quirkiest players in the tournament, Chase Johnston. To call Johnston a 3-point specialist would be an understatement: He had not made a 2-pointer this season until, with 11 seconds to go in the first round, he hit a layup to take the lead over Wisconsin. (See the highlight.) To keep the dream alive, High Point will need to get past an Arkansas team, led by the longtime Kentucky coach John Calipari, that is the best in the country at limiting turnovers. The Athletic’s statistical model says there’s a 1 in 3 chance of an upset. Stranger things have happened. Tonight at 9:45 p.m. Eastern on TBS NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was matched. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 26 Author Members Posted March 26 March 22, 2026 Good morning. Today, with the baseball season just a few days away, we’ll explain a technological change that’s about to transform the sport. At spring training in Phoenix. Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press Pitch perfect By Matthew Cullen I’m the writer of The Evening newsletter, and I once threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a minor league game. The foundations of baseball have largely remained the same since Babe Ruth swung a bat. Nine innings make a game. Three strikes and you’re out. And the ultimate authority on all pitches is the home plate umpire. We won’t be able to say that last one in a few days. On Wednesday, when the San Francisco Giants’ starter tosses out the first pitch of the Major League Baseball season, players will — for the first time — have the chance to overrule the umpire’s call of a ball or a strike. The new higher power will be a network of specialized cameras set up in every ballpark to track the baseball’s exact location. It’s officially called the Automated Ball-Strike (A.B.S.) Challenge System. Many fans call it the robot ump. It’s a major change for a sport steeped so deeply in tradition, and some players have expressed reservations. But baseball officials insist that the A.B.S. system will help rid the game of something that even traditionalists despise: bad calls. How it works Rich Schultz/Getty Images Teams will begin every game with two challenges — opportunities to summon the robot umpire and see whether the human behind home plate missed a ball or strike call. If a challenge is successful, the team can use it again. After two misses, though, it loses the power altogether. Only the pitcher, catcher or batter can challenge a call, and they have to do so almost immediately, without help from teammates or coaches. The signal is a tap on the head, which effectively tells the ump: I think you’re wrong. A few seconds later, a graphic appears on the outfield screen showing whether the pitch was in fact a ball or a strike. Fans might find the whole charade a bit strange on television. But when I witnessed the A.B.S. system in person, at a few spring training games this month in Florida, I was surprised by how much tension it introduced to the stadium. People looked up from their phones, and the crowd collectively held its breath awaiting the results. Once, when the screen showed that the human behind the plate was correct — the pitch had indeed been a ball, by just a fraction of an inch — a fan couldn’t help but shout to the umpire how impressed he was. It may have been the first time that ump had heard a compliment from the bleachers. How fans and players feel M.L.B. officials say polls suggest that fans overwhelmingly support the challenge system, and my experience backed that up. Of the roughly two dozen I spoke to at spring training, nearly all said they liked the A.B.S. system, or at least were not against it. Only two, a father and son, disliked it. It wasn’t so much the challenge system they objected to, but rather the creeping intrusion of technology into the sport. Lindsey Wasson/Associated Press Players’ opinions have been a bit more mixed, though many say they’re open to giving it a shot. Catchers, in particular, have been interesting to hear from, because some have made a living by fooling umpires using a technique known as framing — where they shift their gloves and their bodies to make borderline pitches look more like strikes. The Giants’ Patrick Bailey, widely considered the best defensive catcher in the game, initially worried that A.B.S. would devalue his skills. But he now says he’s excited to see how he and other catchers can take advantage of the system. During spring training, catchers proved far better than batters at deciding when to call for the robot to step in. Bailey has been among the best, winning 10 of his first 12 challenges. What’s next? If robot umps are here to stay, does that mean that human umps are on the road to extinction? It’s a reasonable question, especially since tennis, which uses the same exact camera technology as A.B.S., has replaced line judges entirely at most major tournaments. Baseball officials seem open to the idea. They have tested fully automated strike-calling in the minor leagues, and the M.L.B. commissioner, Rob Manfred, has described the challenge system as a “first step.” But a vast majority of the minor-leaguers who tried both systems told M.L.B. that they opposed full automation. And a survey by my colleagues at The Athletic found similar results with big-leaguers. Remember the father and son I spoke to during spring training? Many players agree with them: They want the game’s human touch to be preserved. “Can we just play baseball?” the star pitcher Max Scherzer once asked my colleague Jayson Stark. “We’re humans. Can we just be judged by humans?” For more The World Baseball Classic, which did not use the A.B.S. system, had a semifinal game end on a dicey strikeout call. The general manager of the losing Dominican Republic team said after the game, “Hopefully next time we can challenge plays like that.” The minor leagues have become baseball’s laboratory for rule changes. This year, they’ll test a relocated second base and changes to checked swings. Without the ability to argue over balls and strikes, how will managers manage to get ejected? “They’ll find something,” one umpire told The Athletic. “They have to vent.” Here are 10 bold predictions about the upcoming season. THE LATEST NEWS The Middle East In the Strait of Hormuz. Amr Alfiky/Reuters President Trump threatened to target Iran’s power plants if the country did not open the Strait of Hormuz. Iran pushed back against claims that it had effectively closed the strait, saying it was “open to everyone” except Tehran’s adversaries. Iranian missiles struck cities in southern Israel. Iran’s state broadcaster said Tehran had intended to target a nuclear facility near the city of Dimona. Israel said it was stepping up attacks in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, aimed at infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah. Politics Trump said he would send ICE agents to airports if Democrats did not “immediately” agree to a plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Robert Mueller, who led the F.B.I. for 12 years and directed the investigation into Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election, died at 81. Trump reacted on social media: “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.” Around the World In Seoul yesterday. Pool photo by Kim Hong-Ji South Korea: The K-pop supergroup BTS kicked off its comeback in Seoul. The band has become a force of South Korean soft power. Switzerland: The government blocked any new arms sales to the U.S., citing a policy that prohibits selling weapons to countries involved in armed conflict. The U.S. is the second-biggest market for Swiss arms. Sri Lanka: The country has made every Wednesday a public holiday to manage the fuel shortage caused by the war in Iran. Other Big Stories CBS News Radio, a broadcasting pioneer that helped start the careers of journalists like Edward R. Murrow, will shut down in May after 99 years. Plasma centers are opening in wealthier, more suburban areas across the U.S. as people struggle with the high cost of living. THE SUNDAY DEBATE What will Trump’s legacy be on the war in Iran? A strong leader. Trump is the only president who took the Iranian threat seriously and acted on it, Hugh Hewitt of Fox News writes: “He is the sort of tough and indeed ruthless commander in chief the U.S. needs to put away its enemies, not merely put them in timeout.” A careless leader. Trump has put U.S. allies in the region at risk of more retaliations from Iran, The Guardian’s editorial board writes. “It remains unclear what precisely the Trump administration expected from this conflict — perhaps not least to the White House itself — but it is certain that the president was not paying heed when people described the likely consequences.” FROM OPINION Trump has lied about the war in Iran, the editorial board writes: “Presidents owe American service members and their families the truth about why they are being asked to fight.” Here is a column by Nicholas Kristof on a better usage of the money spent on the war in Iran. 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 George Wylesol Phony fiction: Publishers have few guardrails to stop themselves from unwittingly publishing A.I.-generated novels. It already seems to be happening. Influencing: Fidel Castro’s grandson has built an Instagram following with skits that subtly take a dig at the government while flaunting his lavish lifestyle. Take a break: A workaholic mother realized that she had taught her son how to work hard but not how to relax. Could they actually take a vacation? Jailhouse lawyer: Obsessed with proving his innocence, Quentin Lewis devoted years in isolation to learning the law. Now he is taking on his captors. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: Texas stunned Gonzaga to reach the Sweet 16. Nebraska and Arkansas also escaped close calls to advance. Women’s college basketball: Clemson fell to the University of Southern California in overtime after a contentious no-call at the end of regulation. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “You With the Sad Eyes,” by Christina Applegate: Applegate, the Emmy-winning star of “Married … with Children” and “Dead to Me,” has long been known as a fast-talking funny girl. But as the title of this best-selling memoir indicates, “You With the Sad Eyes” is unlikely to be accompanied by a laugh track. The book focuses on Applegate’s first three decades and includes multiple accounts of abuse, beginning when she was 5 years old. As Applegate said in an interview: “I went to work and it was funny. But I went home and — not funny.” Her book also manages to be dishy and amusing, full of candid observations about Gen X co-stars and what it’s like to live with multiple sclerosis. Applegate proves to be a survivor on multiple fronts and a singular voice worth hearing. More on books Here’s what Book Review editors are looking forward to this spring. Andy Weir joins the Book Review podcast to talk about “Project Hail Mary.” THE INTERVIEW Philip Gay for The New York Times By David Marchese This week’s subject for The Interview is the writer and actor Richard Gadd. His 2024 Netflix show “Baby Reindeer” was based on his experiences as a victim of sexual assault and stalking, and it became one of that year’s biggest hits. Now he’s back with a new show, “Half Man,” premiering next month, about a decades-long, mutually destructive friendship between two men. One of the central questions of “Half Man” is, What does it mean to be a man? That also came up in “Baby Reindeer.” For yourself, do you have an answer to that question? Wow. For myself? No. I suppose that’s why I write these things, because I’ve always had a void within me that I can’t quite explain. A certain hole in the soul that perhaps comes from pressures that I felt as a man. Do you have any clarity about where that hole came from? The big turning point in my life was being sexually abused, groomed. My whole physiology, psychology, sense of self changed dramatically overnight, and I felt completely disconnected from the world. I remember I was in London working at a pub and I could only ever afford the bus because the tube was too expensive. So I walked everywhere. I remember feeling so disconnected from life, wandering around these streets and no one ever even looks at you. But if I look back at my life, there was always an insecurity and a kind of listlessness. When I went to university, I remember this cloak of self-consciousness coming over me. I felt so lost and insecure. I didn’t know who to be or what to do and I probably tried to be several different people before I tried to be myself. So I think that hole in the soul has always been there. In the end, I turn to art. The reason people create art is to find meaning in life where they felt none. 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 … Download these local ride-hailing, dining and navigation apps before your next trip abroad. Clean your bidet. It’s a life-changing innovation, but it is, by its nature, liable to get dirty. Undent your damaged stainless steel appliances with these techniques. (Wirecutter whacked a dishwasher with a hammer to figure out which ones work best.) MEAL PLAN David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. St. Patrick’s Day might have passed, but it’s never too late to cook up some shamrock-colored food. At the tail end of a long winter, green starts to feel like the thrilling promise of spring. Emily Weinstein, the editor in chief of New York Times Cooking, recommends this gorgeously green kale sauce pasta. If you’re feeling earthier tones instead, try this crispy suya-spiced salmon. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was vulpine. Can you put eight historical events — including the first webcam, the original Pyrrhic victory and Sigmund Freud dissecting eels — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 27 Author Members Posted March 27 March 23, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Israel is pounding Tehran with strikes this morning, targeting the city’s infrastructure. And ICE agents are heading to airports across the United States. They’re meant to help with long security lines. We’ll start there. Then, I’ll tell you about some scary new drugs and a whole lot more. Airports on ICE In New Orleans yesterday. Enan Chediak/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, via Associated Press Travelers are angry. T.S.A. agents aren’t being paid because their agency has been closed during a partial government shutdown — which means many aren’t coming to work. Which means airport security lines feel endless. To help, President Trump is deploying ICE agents to airports around the country. Trump cast the operation as an effort to pressure Democratic lawmakers to fund the Department of Homeland Security, most of which has been shuttered for over a month because of a fight over immigration tactics. What are the ICE agents doing? It depends whom you ask. Over the weekend, Trump said it would be a wide-ranging, aggressive operation. He said on social media that agents would “do security like no one has ever seen before,” including “the immediate arrest of all illegal immigrants who have come into our Country.” But Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said agents mostly would support T.S.A. employees in areas of their jobs that don’t require specialized expertise. That would allow them to focus on moving passengers through long security lines. Will the agents be at my airport? ICE personnel, including agents from Homeland Security Investigations, are planning to be at 14 airports, according to a document obtained by The Times. The airports include Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston and Phoenix, as well as Kennedy and LaGuardia in New York. LaGuardia, for its part, was shut down this morning after a plane collided with a fire truck late last night. Two pilots died and dozens of people were injured. Read more about ICE’s airport deployment. Searching for drug-soaked paper at the Cook County jail in Chicago. Meridith Kohut for The New York Times Death by paper Inmates were overdosing in a Chicago jail. At least six had died. It was mysterious. There were no needles, no drug paraphernalia near the victims. Next to one body there were only scraps of burned paper, bits of ash. That paper, Azam Ahmed and Matt Richtel report, was the culprit. Dealers spray it with toxic new designer drugs that promise ecstatic relief from captivity and often deliver death. “A lot of us are facing life in prison,” one former inmate told them. “To leave that behind, even for a minute, is all you want.” Justin Wilks, the head investigator at the jail, said he soon found the drugs smuggled into the facility on sheets of paper, on the pages of books, on letters and cards and photographs. The jail increased its surveillance of inmates and their visitors. Guards searched more cells. In the mail room, they inspected every item. It hardly mattered. Smugglers got around them by lacing legal correspondence with the novel drugs. They sent sealed packages that appeared to be from Amazon, containing books soaked in drugs. Another inmate died. Wilks had been investigating the drugs in his jail for well over a year and had no idea who the supplier was. And the drugs themselves continued to evolve faster than anyone could track them. Lethal innovation Searching incoming mail and packages at the jail. Meridith Kohut for The New York Times It’s not just Chicago. The number of new synthetic drugs has about tripled since 2013, with over 1,440 appearing. The designer drugs are killing at a high rate, too. Here are Azam and Matt on what’s shaping up as a national crisis: Fringe chemists are ushering in a total transformation of the illicit drug market. Operating from clandestine labs, they are churning out a dizzying array of synthetic drugs — not only fentanyl, but also hazardous new tranquilizers, stimulants and complex cannabinoids. Sometimes, several unknown drugs appear on the streets in a single month. Many are so new they are not even illegal yet. Nearly all of them are harder to trace than conventional drugs, less expensive to produce, much more potent and far deadlier. The unbridled rise of synthetic drugs is as profound for the illicit drug market as the television was for the radio, or the computer for the typewriter, scientists say, and it is confounding law enforcement officials the world over. “This is the modern drug epidemic: It’s like nothing that’s happened in the world before — anywhere,” said Bob DuPont, a drug czar under President Richard M. Nixon. An arrest Arresting a man suspected of smuggling drug-saturated papers into the jail. Meridith Kohut for The New York Times After a painstaking investigation into the source of the paper at the Chicago jail, federal agents arrested a dealer. He had been shipping drugs to correctional facilities in North Carolina, Indiana and Illinois. A package recovered from his home contained vacuum-sealed bags packed with drug-soaked cloth. Another contained two books, both of which tested positive for synthetic cannabinoids. In his trash, the authorities said, they discovered more than a dozen sheets of printed labels addressed to inmates across the country. Some had return addresses for law offices. After the arrest, Wilks told The Times that he felt some relief that the biggest trafficker pushing paper in his jail — “that he knew of, at least” — had been taken down. “But if the question is whether what happened today is the end,” he said, “I would say this is not going to stop.” He was right. Read the whole story here. THE LATEST NEWS The Middle East After a strike on a bridge near Qasmiye, Lebanon. Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters Israel ordered its military to destroy more bridges and houses in southern Lebanon. The U.S. and Israel hoped their attacks on Iran would encourage the Iranian opposition to rise up against the government. That hasn’t happened. The targeting of oil and gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf could affect the global economy for months or even years. See which countries depend the most on the region’s oil and gas. Iranian attacks near Israel’s main nuclear research facility have raised questions about the country’s missile defense. Tehran residents reported widespread power outages this morning. President Trump’s threats to strike Iran’s power grid is causing anxiety about the further loss of electricity. Politics A statue of Christopher Columbus was installed on the White House grounds. It is a replica of one that protesters in Baltimore tore down in 2020. Polls show that when voters say that affordability is their biggest concern, many are talking about health care. Our reporters Ruth Igielnik and Kate Zernike looked at polling data and spoke directly to voters and candidates. In the video below, they explain how health care affordability could affect the midterm elections. Click to watch. The New York Times Around the World France: In mayoral elections held yesterday, far-right candidates lost in Marseille and other cities they had hoped to win. Britain: Four ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer service in London were set on fire early this morning, the police said. They are investigating the fires as a hate crime. Sudan: Dozens of people, including 13 children, were killed in an attack on a hospital in Darfur. Slovenia: Yesterday’s general election resulted in a near tie between liberals and right-wing populists. Other Big Stories A U.N. report found that the Earth’s energy was increasingly out of balance, with more of the sun’s heat staying on the planet instead of being released into space. Leon Black, a billionaire investor, paid Jeffrey Epstein $170 million for what he said was tax and estate work. But Epstein’s services went beyond that, a Times review found. OPINIONS Trump’s SAVE Act would create a “a system for purging eligible voters from the electorate,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, writes. Trump said Gavin Newsom’s dyslexia made him incompetent. The bullying says more about Trump’s own shortcomings than Newsom’s, Molly Jong-Fast 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 Erik Carter “Tokenmaxxing”: Tech employees compete on leaderboards to show how much A.I. they’re using. They’re racking up exorbitant bills in the process. Cue the confetti: A maximum break in snooker is 147. So how the heck did Ronnie O’Sullivan score 153? Bet on misinformation: Polymarket says it predicts the truth. Yet its social media feeds are filled with falsehoods, The Times found. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about rule-change experiments coming to baseball’s minor leagues. TODAY’S NUMBER 7.7 million — That’s how many borrowers were in default on their federal student loans by the end of last year. Three million more were at least three months behind in payments. And it’s likely to get worse. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: Iowa pulled off a 73-72 upset of Florida, the defending N.C.A.A. tournament champion, to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in 27 years. Women’s college basketball: Amaya Battle hit a game-winning shot with 0.8 seconds remaining, lifting Minnesota to the Sweet 16 with a 65-63 win over Ole Miss. RECIPE OF THE DAY James Ransom for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Eric Kim had the idea to add a few dollops of creamy ricotta to his recipe for pasta alla vodka — and it’s a great one. The cool creaminess of that cheese is a wonderful foil for the spicy sauce. He uses bacon in there, too, for a smoky saltiness that you don’t often see in the dish. That’s smart, too, but you could always omit. HERE COMES THE SUN Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Recent surveys of Americans’ seasonal preferences place spring a distant second or even third to autumn, the runaway winner. (Really, there are people who track such things.) But there are signs the season could be on the brink of a cultural comeback. “I don’t think spring needs a total rebranding,” a marketing executive told The Times. “I just think it needs a wake-up call.” More on culture The New Museum has reopened in New York with “New Humans,” an ambitious showcase of more than 150 artists wrestling with the concept of modern humankind — a lot of prosthetic metawomen and clattering robots, many videos, lots of paintings. It is “a big, serious show for adults,” our critic Jason Farago writes, and is “meant to fight over, which is just the way I like it.” “Jury Duty,” the hit mockumentary comedy series that put an unwitting civilian who thought he was doing his civic duty into a jury pool full of actors, has returned to Amazon. Can prank lightning strike twice? This time, the setting is a company retreat with a fake staff and a very confused new employee. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter; styling by Megan Hedgpeth Pick one of the best new picks from the picky pickers at Wirecutter — these are the products that the team can’t stop recommending to family and friends, their favorite discoveries of the past year. Vary your workout routine. It benefits strength and endurance. Also, it keeps things interesting. Read a new book. We built this tool to help you find one. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were gladhanding, handling and highland. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 29 Author Members Posted March 29 March 24, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. The Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as homeland security secretary last night. An Iranian missile struck Tel Aviv. And the Pentagon said it would take a new approach to limiting access to journalists. There’s more news below. Before we get to it, though, let’s pay a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Photo Illustration by Mike McQuade Health woes Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services, also oversees the C.D.C., the nation’s public health institute. He doesn’t like it much. He’s called it “the most corrupt agency at H.H.S. and maybe the government” and has vigorously defended mass firings that Elon Musk’s DOGE carried out there. At least 18 percent of the C.D.C. staff has been pushed out since January 2025. Kennedy has said that the C.D.C. — which is made up of more than 20 centers focused on a wide range of public health issues, including infectious diseases, food-borne illness, substance abuse and violence prevention — is too big to be effective. He’s pointed to the agency’s difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic: “We literally did worse than any country in the world,” he said at a Senate hearing in September, “and the people at C.D.C. who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving.” My colleague Jeneen Interlandi interviewed more than 40 people who work or worked at the C.D.C. They described an agency in turmoil. Here’s some of what she learned. Were statements trustworthy? Early on, the Trump administration told agency staff that political appointees would review all public communications before they went out. In many cases, it left scientists unable to communicate with outside researchers or public health groups. Susan A. Wang, a former immunization adviser in the C.D.C., said: We had a very stringent scientific process for vetting information that would get published on the C.D.C. website. Everything was checked and double-checked. And for political appointees to take over the means of communication is devastating, and also dangerous. Now, some things are correct and some are not, which means that you can’t trust any of it. Dubious measles remedies After a child in Texas died of the measles, the health secretary downplayed the outbreak as “not unusual” in cabinet meetings and television appearances, even though it was the largest since the disease was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. Demetre C. Daskalakis, the former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said: Even as the outbreak grew, R.F.K. was still just praising the doctors who were giving snake-oil treatments like budesonide, a corticosteroid, and clarithromycin, an antibiotic, to kids with measles and saying how they saved hundreds of lives, which was absolute garbage. We were asked to add those treatments to the measles guidelines. We managed to mitigate that by including the words on the guidelines but saying that none of these were proven. Giving people the wrong medicines delayed lots of care for lots of kids. Vaccine experts out, compatriots in Kennedy has replaced members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, who set the C.D.C.’s vaccine recommendations. The newcomers have less expertise but share his views on vaccination. They’ve changed vaccine recommendations for flu, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella. When Fiona Havers, a former medical epidemiologist in the respiratory viruses division, found out about the appointments, she recalled thinking: I guess my career at C.D.C. is done. I didn’t want to be part of any machine that they were going to use to spread false information about vaccines or to take vaccines away. This month, a federal judge temporarily halted Kennedy’s reconstitution of the A.C.I.P. and the changes he made to the childhood vaccine schedule. He said the health secretary’s changes were “arbitrary and capricious.” A leaderless agency C.D.C. employees told Jeneen that the agency has been largely leaderless since President Trump took office. Kennedy appointed Susan Monarez acting director last January. She was confirmed in July — and fired less than a month later. She testified before the Senate that Kennedy was leading public health to “a very dangerous place” and that the nation’s children would be harmed by his policies. Read what it was like for the scientists who worked there when Trump recaptured the White House. AIR TRAVEL At LaGuardia Airport yesterday. Dakota Santiago for The New York Times LaGuardia collision Federal regulators are investigating whether an air traffic controller was distracted by a problem with a separate flight when an Air Canada jet and a fire truck collided late Sunday, killing two pilots. The controller urged the driver of the truck to halt in the moments before the crash, repeating the word “stop” 10 times. Video of the crash showed the plane traveling down the runway at a high speed before it hit the truck, which was responding to the other incident. Here’s how it unfolded. Flight disruptions at LaGuardia are expected to last for days while investigators examine the crash site. Airport delays continue ICE agents began arriving at airports to help understaffed T.S.A. teams manage security, though the agents’ tasks appeared to be limited: Some strode through terminals on patrols, while others stood at security checkpoints. Trump said Republicans should stop negotiating with Democrats to end the partial shutdown causing the delays, and instead focus on passing voting legislation. We want to hear from you: Have you experienced travel chaos in the past few days? Tell us about it here. We’ll feature some of your stories in the newsletter. THE LATEST NEWS War in the Mideast Leaders from the U.S. and Iran gave contradictory statements about whether peace talks were actually underway. An order by Trump to postpone strikes on Iran’s power plants gives the country a small reprieve, but U.S. and Israeli strikes have already battered energy infrastructure. The Pentagon is considering deploying airborne troops in Iran, defense officials said. Israel’s military said that its own errant artillery fire had killed an Israeli avocado farmer near the Lebanese border. The Trump administration is facing criticism over its decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Iranian oil. Immigration Tiko’ Rujux-Xicay was born in Guatemala and was adopted as a baby. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times Hundreds of thousands of children born outside the United States are adopted by American families. Now, decades later, many of them are vulnerable to deportation. Gregory Bovino was the face of Trump’s immigration crackdown until public support for his tactics cratered. But even after being pushed out, he says he did not go far enough. Stephen Miller, Trump’s top immigration adviser, raised the idea of ending public education funding for undocumented children. Politics The Supreme Court heard arguments over Mississippi’s mail-in voting law, which counts ballots postmarked by Election Day. The court’s conservative majority seemed poised to reject the law. Trump often rails against mail-in voting as fraudulent. He used the method himself to vote in Florida’s special election. The Trump administration said it would pay a French company nearly $1 billion to abandon its plans to build wind farms off the East Coast. Around the World China: The government unexpectedly reduced a planned increase in gasoline prices because of rising energy costs. Italy: Voters rejected a plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, a blow to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Colombia: Sixty-six people died when a military plane crashed near the border with Peru. Other Big Stories A civil jury in California found that Bill Cosby drugged and abused a waitress in 1972 and awarded her $59 million in damages. A meteorite crashed through the roof of a house near Houston. OPINIONS Trump has made it harder to produce semiconductor chips domestically. That hurts America’s security and economic stability, German Lopez writes. Women are 73 percent more likely to be severely injured in vehicle crashes than men. The filmmaker Eve Van Dyke explains why. Click to watch. The New York Times 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 Units from the Canadian Army’s Long Range Patrol. Renaud Philippe for The New York Times Frozen out: Canada’s military took its big guns to the High Arctic. There were some issues. Bad apple: What’s with all those A.I. videos of fruits cheating on each other? Public theology: When a whole society is facing a crisis, what voices and sources help us navigate our collective struggle? Lauren Jackson explores the question in the Believing newsletter. Metropolitan Diary: One-drink maximum. TODAY’S NUMBER 250 — That is how many innings of baseball Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers pitched in 2011. No pitcher has thrown that many innings since. Here’s why. SPORTS M.L.B.: The pitcher Max Scherzer credits the piano with saving his career after surgeons couldn’t relieve the pain in his right thumb. College basketball: Virginia rallied and stunned Iowa 83-75 in double overtime, becoming the first women’s team in N.C.A.A. tournament history to advance out of the First Four to the Sweet 16. College football: Neff Giwa, a 6-foot-7, 295-pound rugby player from Ireland, is this year’s hottest football recruit even though he has never played a game. RECIPE OF THE DAY Rachel Vanni for The New York Times A broccoli and white bean Caesar salad? Plus, it’s warm? This is a salad for people who don’t generally like salad and who may be startled at first to hear it’s the totality of the meal. Because, wow: the charred florets, soft-crunchy beans and golden croutons coated in creamy, anchovy-salty, mustard-rich dressing? This is heaven. TOO BIG TO FAIL Pool photo by Kim Min-Hee After a four-year hiatus, the powerhouse K-pop band BTS has returned with a new album, “Arirang.” Jon Caramanica, our pop music critic, finds the songs “blustery, roaring, throbbing, quirky and sometimes harried.” He says the album neither panders nor overwhelms. He likes it. “It feels borderline experimental,” he writes, “as close to risky as a project engineered for minimal risk can be.” More on culture “Here is a tale, in the dark for 30 years, about how book reviews are an engine that helps keep the culture running,” David Streitfeld writes in our Book Review. “It is about what can happen when you’re not ruled by data.” And it’s about two giants of American literature. Click! Taste is one thing artificial intelligence cannot replace. It’s the opposite of slop. So of course anxious tech workers are now chasing it down. Late night hosts had thoughts on ICE at the airport. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in “The Comeback.” Erin Simkin/HBO Watch “The Comeback,” HBO’s show-business satire, which this season responds to what James Poniewozik, our television critic, calls “the bat signal of Hollywood’s latest epochal threat, artificial intelligence.” Soak in the morning sun to get a better night’s sleep, plus five more tips from experts. Place a candle next to your favorite book and a glass of wine and read in the bath, with one of these bath trays chosen by the exceptionally clean service journalists at Wirecutter. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were lunched and unclenched. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 29 Author Members Posted March 29 March 25, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. The U.S. has sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war, officials told The Times. At the same time, the Pentagon has ordered about 2,000 soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East. There’s more news below. I’m going to start today, though, in line at the airport. Flying is awful It is a terrible time to fly. Long lines are plaguing many U.S. airports because of a shortage of Transportation Security Administration screeners. They have been working without pay for more than a month during a partial government shutdown. And travel season is ramping up as families head off for spring break. Seeking to end the congressional standoff over funding the Department of Homeland Security, Senate Republicans yesterday considered a compromise that would reopen the agency but withhold money for immigration operations that Democrats refuse to fund. It was unclear whether Senate Democrats would go along. Their leader, Chuck Schumer, wanted more concessions. (Read about the latest negotiations here.) The lines For travelers, a deal can’t come soon enough. More than 400 T.S.A. officers have quit since the shutdown, according to Homeland Security. Others have taken on second jobs and called out of work in order to perform them. The result at large airports like those in Atlanta and New York has been hourslong lines to get through security, even for travelers with specialty clearances like T.S.A. PreCheck or Clear, and stacks of missed flights. How bad are the waits? In yesterday’s newsletter, we asked readers to share their stories. Hundreds of you obliged. Here are a couple of anecdotes: We missed our connecting flight in Atlanta because of long lines on Saturday. We saw visibly tired T.S.A. agents, some saying that they wouldn’t come to work the next day. When travelers at risk of missing their flight started asking those in front of them for permission to move ahead, someone called T.S.A. officers, who escorted the fliers to the back of the line. One of them wept. We watched passengers arguing about the line-cutters and saw officers intervene to stop a fight. We slept in the airport to make our flight the next morning. | Natalia Rojas Cerf | Austin, Texas We returned from Puerto Rico Sunday, and the experience was brutal. Two of three terminals were closed, and various lines (check-in, baggage drop, security) snaked confusingly through the building and into the street. Travelers stood for more than four hours in lines under tents in the rain. Many people missed their flights. Staff were often just as confused as travelers about where to go and what lines were for. | Dawnrae Oliveira | Hinsdale, Massachusetts Note: Times are for general security lines. Zach Levitt and Elena Shao/The New York Times Taken together, though, the responses paint a nuanced picture. Several readers shared stories of normalcy, even bonhomie: I flew out of Denver at the start of spring break and was surprised by the ease of security. There were long lines that moved very quickly, T.S.A. agents were friendly and kind, even joking, and travelers were generally positive and respectful. The airline clubs were packed, presumably with travelers arriving early just in case. | Cait Murphy | Denver, Colorado Oil, immigration, prices Wait times aren’t the only irregularity for travelers. President Trump deployed immigration agents to airports this week to help manage the lines. Democratic lawmakers and the union representing T.S.A. officers called the deployment disruptive — ICE agents freak some Americans out. (Others shake their hands.) Over the weekend, T.S.A. tipped off ICE about the travel plans of a woman and her 9-year-old daughter, leading to their deportation. And then there are the ramifications of a foreign war. Ticket prices are climbing as the Iran conflict brings shortages of jet fuel across Asia. Airlines have canceled tens of thousands of flights in the Middle East as governments have closed airports and restricted flight paths across the region. Demand for tickets is ebbing. “We’re seeing a perfect storm of travel disruption right now,” one travel expert told The Times. In this environment, Sunday night’s fatal collision between a regional jet and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport felt like the final variable in a grim equation: Those lines, those ICE agents, this war, these poor dead pilots and wounded passengers who could have been you? The result is stress. LAGUARDIA CRASH Aerial image by Nearmap. The New York Times At LaGuardia, one runway remains closed while investigators piece together what led to the deadly collision between an Air Canada jet and a fire truck. They still don’t know exactly what went wrong. Audio from the air traffic control tower points to a communication breakdown. A controller tells the fire truck, “Stop, stop, stop, stop, Truck 1, stop, stop, stop.” Six seconds later, the controller again says, “Stop, Truck 1, stop!” Investigators do not know if the driver heard those commands. And the two controllers on duty at the time of the crash were doing the jobs of four people, officials said. Such a practice is common during night shifts, but federal regulators have raised safety concerns about it before. THE LATEST NEWS War in the Mideast Trump said that the U.S. and Iran were continuing to negotiate, and he appeared to support an offer by Pakistan to host talks. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing Trump to continue the war, people familiar with the discussions told The Times. He reportedly views the conflict as a “historic opportunity” to remake the Middle East. Israel plans to expand the territory under its control in southern Lebanon, its defense minister said, suggesting a ramped-up ground offensive against Hezbollah. The conflict has drawn in many countries, whether or not they want to be involved. This graphic explains the war’s gravity. Click to see it. Josh Holder/The New York Times Elections Florida: Emily Gregory, a Democrat, won a special election for a statehouse seat in a legislative district that includes Mar-a-Lago. North Carolina: Phil Berger, considered one of the state’s most powerful Republicans, conceded his State Senate race. Vote tallies showed he lost the March 3 primary by 23 votes to Sam Page, a county sheriff loyal to the MAGA movement. More on Politics The Trump administration is moving to deport dozens of former military members and their families who were arrested on immigration violations. Trump named Nick Adams, an influencer known for his crass humor and internet trolling, to a newly created role as “special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism and values.” Around the World In Lviv, Ukraine, yesterday. Reuters Ukraine: Russia launched more than 550 drones at sites across the country in one of the biggest daytime attacks of the war in Iran. South Korea: President Lee Jae Myung called on the public to take shorter showers and avoid charging electronics at night as part of an energy-saving campaign because of the war. Ecuador: The U.S. military said a strike it carried out in the country destroyed a drug trafficker’s training camp. A Times investigation found it was actually a dairy farm. Britain: Sarah Mullally will be installed today as the archbishop of Canterbury. She will be the first woman to hold the position. Other Big Stories NASA announced plans to build a base on the moon. A jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375 million in damages for misleading users about the safety of its platforms. College graduates are facing the grimmest job market in years. Although A.I. may be replacing some entry-level jobs, there is little evidence that it’s the main culprit. Delta Air Lines announced that it would suspend special services for members of Congress because of the partial government shutdown. ICE’S STRAY PETS Kathleen Flynn for The New York Times Immigration agents have rounded up and arrested hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Left behind are their dogs, cats, bunnies and chickens. Many of these homeless pets are consigned to the streets. In Minnesota, an animal-services agency recorded a 38 percent increase in stray, seized and relinquished cats and dogs; a rescue group said it had received nearly twice as many surrendered pets early this year as it did during the same period last year. So animal welfare groups are scrambling to feed and foster them. A recent adoption listing in New Orleans described Heinz, a Shih Tzu-poodle mix, as sweet, happy and energetic. “But he also has a sad story,” the listing said — he “lost his family” during Trump’s immigration raids. Read more about these pets. OPINIONS Trump’s next move to pressure Iran should be an oil blockade, Clayton Seigle writes. Last week, a publisher canceled a novel after allegations that the writer had used artificial intelligence to write it. Andrea Bartz asks whether the book industry is ready for our A.I. future. Here are columns by Jamelle Bouie on what happens when a narcissist goes to war and by Bret Stephens on why the war is going better than you think. 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 Magalí Druscovich Dance lesson: Tango is Argentina’s national dance, known for its passion and precision. In a hospital in Buenos Aires, it is also therapy for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Haunts: Thousands of African migrants hoping to reach Europe have flocked to a remote island in Gambia that locals say is protected by a curse. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about why women suffer more injuries in car crashes than men. Bangin’ hair: At recent fashion weeks, bobs, braids and buzz cuts galore. TODAY’S NUMBER 91 million — That is the estimated number of trees that grey-headed flying foxes are responsible for planting along Australia’s eastern coast by dropping “seed rain” when they defecate midflight. The trees are a boon to Australia’s timber industry. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: North Carolina has parted ways with its head coach, Hubert Davis, the school announced five days after the Tar Heels’ first-round N.C.A.A. tournament loss to Virginia Commonwealth University. M.L.B.: Base coaches say a rule requiring them to stay inside their designated boxes puts them at risk of being struck by line drives. RECIPE OF THE DAY Christopher Testani for The New York Times Chirashi means “scattered” in Japanese — fresh fish arranged over sushi rice, sometimes with pickled vegetables, strips of scrambled egg, nips of mushroom. Very pretty. And by all means you should try the recipe as written. But I’ll tell you what: If there’s wild yellowfin tuna at the fishmonger, as there was this week, make like me and just buy a fist of that. Slice it against the grain and carefully arrange the slabs across barely sweetened sushi rice, before serving with little bowls of soy sauce and wasabi. If there’s a cucumber in the fridge, add that, too. Simple red over white with a touch of green. Dinner. BEACH PATROL Sinna Nasseri for The New York Times We went to a Marriott Hotel in Southern California to report on an open casting call for the revival of “Baywatch,” the lifeguard soap that at its peak had an estimated 1.1 billion viewers each week across the globe. The visuals, by Sinna Nasseri, are just incredible. Let them wash over you. More on culture “Literature is replete with slippery language; it is a kind of speaking in code,” the scholar Marjorie Garber writes in her new book, “A Treacherous Secret Agent,” about the literary dimensions of the Red Scare. A.O. Scott, one of our book critics, says it illustrates language’s ability to act as “a wily, duplicitous foil to the blunt, heavy operations of the state.” There’s plenty good comedy in the book, too. Here’s a letter of recommendation from The New York Times Magazine for improv classes, a therapy of “yes, and.” Everyone should try it. Late night hosts wondered about Trump’s “very big present” from Iran. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Wet Leg Sky TV Watch Wet Leg play its anti-jerk anthem “Mangetout” on the British version of “Saturday Night Live.” The performance is on YouTube. Embrace quiet luxury with this elegant collapsible laundry basket recommended by the finicky detergent authorities at Wirecutter. Beware the meh of March. Seasonal affective disorder is still stalking our moods. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was tributary. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 30 Author Members Posted March 30 March 26, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. President Trump told a group of Republicans that he wanted them to crack down on “rogue judges.” He has been escalating his attacks on the judiciary. (Some jurists are using fiery rhetoric themselves.) And the war in Iran continues to disrupt the global economy. We’ll start there. In Oman. Elke Scholiers/Getty Images Deal points What will it take to end this war in Iran? The United States demands an end to Iran’s nuclear program, which Iran has historically rejected. President Trump also wants the Strait of Hormuz reopened to global trade. An Iranian official said yesterday that Iran would not allow Trump “to dictate the timing of the war’s end,” insisting that the conflict could end only on Tehran’s terms. Those include reparations for damages, a recognition of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions and a wider cease-fire for the region that protects Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group backed by Iran. Each nation insisted that it had the upper hand in the conflict and that the other was desperate for a way out. As if to answer Tehran’s terms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel yesterday ordered a 48-hour push to destroy as much of the Iranian arms industry as possible, according to two senior Israeli officials. And Trump dispatched about 2,000 paratroopers to the Middle East to expand his military options. Iran, for its part, launched cruise missile attacks on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. It’s still a hot war. But this is how negotiations go: proposals and counterproposals amid the shooting. Both Iranian and U.S. officials signaled that they would consider meeting in Pakistan to discuss peace, according to our reporting. Islamabad proposed dates as soon as this weekend, and Trump said he’d send his usual negotiators, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But who would stand for Iran? Israelis have killed much of its leadership. (Trump said his administration was talking to a “top guy,” but it wasn’t Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader.) Iranian and Pakistani officials said that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, had discussed peace efforts with Pakistan. The choke point The Strait of Hormuz will run through the center of any negotiations. Before the war began, a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil and a fifth of its gas sailed through the waterway. Then Iran shut it down, stopping the energy supply cold. This has set off economic shock waves that land on shores far from the Middle East. The U.S. wants the strait open and is looking for safe passage through its waters for itself and its allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Iran sent a letter to the United Nations saying that “nonhostile” ships — that is, ones not owned by the United States or Israel — could now safely pass through the strait. And Trump said this week that Iran had offered him a “very big present” related to oil and gas, though he did not elaborate. (Was it the letter?) Lazaro Gamio and Blacki Migliozzi/The New York Times In the illustration above, you can see where the oil and gas come from in the Strait of Hormuz. In the one below, you can see where it goes — mostly to Asia, though even nations not heavily dependent on Gulf oil and gas have felt the effects. Click to see the details: Lazaro Gamio and Blacki Migliozzi/The New York Times More on the war Israel killed the naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in an airstrike this morning, Israeli officials said. He was a key player in Iran’s de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. House Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats to force Trump administration officials to testify on the objectives and cost of the Iran war. The 44-year-old son of Iran’s president has been keeping an online diary of the war. THE LATEST NEWS The Shutdown Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have each formally rejected the other’s latest proposals to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The acting head of the T.S.A. told Congress that the partial shutdown had caused “the highest wait times in history” at U.S. airports. ICE agents have begun checking IDs and performing other screening duties at some airports. Energy and Oil In California a gallon of gas costs nearly $6. The U.S. Postal Service plans to impose a temporary 8 percent surcharge on packages to offset rising fuel and transportation costs. The price of jet fuel has almost doubled since the start of the war. In the video below, Niraj Chokshi, who covers aviation, explains what that will mean for flights. Click to play. The New York Times More on Politics The Supreme Court unanimously decided that a major internet provider could not be held liable for customers who pirated music. The Senate’s bipartisan housing bill is trying to make it easier to build homes, with one exception: single-family houses built as rentals. Melania Trump extolled the virtues of robotic teachers at a gathering of first spouses from around the world. She was escorted to the meeting by a humanoid robot. New Census Bureau data shows that immigration is slowing in every U.S. metro area. The Justice Department agreed to pay Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn $1.25 million to settle claims that he was wrongfully prosecuted for lying to federal agents investigating ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Around the World Cameroon: The government made a deal with the Trump administration to accept hundreds of deportees after the U.S. agreed to funnel $30 million to a local U.N. office and keep quiet about a deadly crackdown on protests. The U.N.: The U.S. voted against a resolution to recognize the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity. Germany: Rescuers are trying to save a humpback whale stranded in shallow waters. See a video of their attempts here. China: The sudden death of an education influencer at 41 has prompted reflection about the country’s hypercompetitive work culture. Other Big Stories The Army is struggling with recruitment. It has raised its enlistment age limit to 42 and eased restrictions for people with marijuana convictions. Alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to red meat caused by tick bites, is spreading in the U.S. The C.D.C. estimates that around 450,000 Americans have had it in the past 15 years. SOCIAL MEDIA VERDICT Mark Zuckerberg leaving court last month. Mark Abramson for The New York Times Americans are glued to their phones. And a jury in California found yesterday that social media companies are at least partly to blame: Meta and YouTube now have to pay a combined $6 million to a 20-year-old woman who said the companies’ apps were addictive. The woman had sued over features like infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations that she claimed caused anxiety and depression. It’s one person and one case; it doesn’t guarantee that every case will go the same way. But the decision could trigger a wave of copycat lawsuits against Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap. Teenagers, school districts and state attorneys general are already waiting in the wings. Read more about the social media addiction trials. Related: The verdict is similar to ones found against the makers of tobacco and opioids. OPINIONS The U.S. has weaponized the global financial system to advance its geopolitical aims. Now Iran is doing the same with the world’s most vital energy choke point, Edward Fishman writes. Belgium is trying a 93-year-old former diplomat, saying he had a role in the 1961 assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected leader. Congo deserves justice, but this isn’t it, Stuart A. Reid writes. Here's a column by Lydia Polgreen on America’s belief that it can shape the world to its liking. 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 Greystones, Ireland. Therese Aherne for The New York Times Phone-free childhood: Tired of seeing students struggle, an Irish town proposed a “no smart devices” code. Most everyone has bought in. Kinetic language: “Lethality” used to be a word you only heard at the Pentagon. Now it’s a worldview. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was a graphic showing how the war in Iran has drawn in many other countries. The man behind OnlyFans: Leonid Radvinsky turned a tiny website into an adult-entertainment powerhouse, redefining the industry for the social media era. He died at 43. TODAY’S NUMBER 7 — That is how many baskets Sarah Graves, a walk-on senior guard on the Texas women’s basketball team, has scored this year. But she’s still a critical part of a team with aspirations to win the N.C.A.A. title. Graves is a personality hire. SPORTS M.L.B.: The New York Yankees won a 7-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day. The Yankees’ starting pitcher Max Fried threw six and one-third shutout innings. W.N.B.A.: Caitlin Clark took shots, not as a player, but as a credentialed photographer during an N.B.A. game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Indiana Pacers. RECIPE OF THE DAY Rachel Vanni for The New York Times Here’s an elegant take on a dish I made probably twice a week for a couple of years after college, when what money came in was needed first for rent, then for beer and movie tickets. A single huge kielbasa from the Polish butcher, a single giant cabbage from the Key Food, a couple of onions? That and some mustard could feed me for a week. Dan Pelosi’s ace recipe uses garlic and apple cider vinegar, too, as well as a finish of chopped parsley. Those are fine additions. Serve with mashed potatoes if you’re feeling flush. SUMMER OF ’59 The New York Times Forty years after playing the role of Gordie Lachance in “Stand By Me,” the actor Wil Wheaton talks about stepping back into the role to narrate a new audiobook edition of Stephen King’s “The Body,” the 1982 novella upon which the film was based. “I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes,” Wheaton told Gilbert Cruz, the editor of our Book Review. That proved to be beautiful and a little bittersweet. More on culture A.O. Scott, who writes about poetry, went deep on Wallace Stevens’s “Of Mere Being.” Come along for the ride. A week before opening night for “Dog Day Afternoon” on Broadway, the show’s producers temporarily prohibited the playwright, Stephen Adly Guirgis, from entering the theater. “The process of creating and producing a new play is always a passionate one,” Guirgis said in a joint statement with the producers. The production, a stage adaptation of Sidney Lumet’s 1975 movie about a Brooklyn bank robbery, stars Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Late night hosts questioned the Army’s decision to raise its enlistment age. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS The New York Times Watch Jon Caramanica, our pop music critic, break down Abraham Vazquez’s startlingly beautiful “Se Apagó la Luz.” It’s the song of the week. Accessorize a kid’s bike — or your own — with one of these neat baskets discovered by the decorative velocipedists at Wirecutter. Protect yourself from pesticides. (Among other things, wash your produce well. And keep off that stranger’s lawn!) GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were ineptly and penitently. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter misstated the conflict in which Russia launched more than 550 drones. It was the war in Ukraine, not the war in Iran. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 31 Author Members Posted March 31 March 27, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. The airport crisis could end soon. At 2:20 a.m. in Washington, the Senate passed legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security — except for its immigration enforcement and deportation operations. The House is set to consider the package later this morning. And President Trump extended his deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants. It’s now April 6 after he claimed progress in talks to end the war. There’s more news below. Before we get to it, though, I’m going to ask a chatbot if my wife was in the wrong about that thing with my cousin. Andria Lo for The New York Times A word of advice? My colleague Tom was on the train home the other day, seated between two commuters focused on their screens. Tom’s not a snoop. Like me and probably most people, he’s just curious. And these folks were locked in. What were they up to? Tom eased back in his seat and stole glances at their screens. The woman to his right was getting advice from a chatbot about a fight with her boyfriend. She had lots of questions. The man to his left was telling a chatbot that he thought he’d be fired the next day. He, too, wanted advice. These folks are not alone. We’ve used artificial intelligence for interpersonal counsel since its arrival on our screens. We use it for advice on how to parent, how to approach a particularly unwashed colleague, how to navigate a disagreement with a boss, how to get what we want from the customer service representative. My neighbor parks the wrong way on our one-way street in order to make charging his electric vehicle easier. Is what he’s doing wrong? Maybe not, but don’t count on the computer to tell you true. Chatbots are anything but fair-minded mediators, according to a major study published yesterday. They’re toadies. They want you to know you’re in the right. Puffing you up Teddy Rosenbluth wrote about the study for The Times: The researchers found that nearly a dozen leading models were highly sycophantic, taking the users’ side in interpersonal conflicts 49 percent more often than humans did — even when the user described situations in which they broke the law, hurt someone or lied. Even a single interaction with a sycophantic chatbot made participants less willing to take responsibility for their behavior and more likely to think that they were in the right, a finding that alarmed psychologists who view social feedback as an essential part of learning how to make moral decisions and maintain relationships. Claire Merchlinsky/The New York Times; Photographs by Getty Teddy considers herself a pretty open-minded A.I. user, she told me, but she’s never used language models for personal advice. “I’ve maintained some separation of church and state ever since Bing’s chatbot tried to convince Kevin Roose to leave his wife,” she told me. “I’d like to think that I know enough about how these chatbots work to recognize if I was being sucked into a sycophantic spiral, but I’m also aware that sycophancy tends to be a lot more subtle than a chatbot saying, ‘You’re so right!’” But that’s essentially what they’re doing. One reason: Users appear to engage more with servile, obedient models than critical ones. After all, you don’t call your most judgmental acquaintance after a fight with your spouse. You call your closest, most supportive friend. My bad? In the pages of r/AmItheAsshole, a popular Reddit community where users post situations and ask whether they are at fault, you will find something very different. Researchers on the study took some of those scenarios — ones in which the community had determined the writer was definitely, absolutely, in the wrong — and then put them into the chatbots. Here’s what happened: In one instance, they shared a story from a user who had strung up trash on a tree branch at a public park that had no trash bins and wanted to know: Were they wrong to have done that? The majority of Reddit voters had agreed that they were. There were no trash cans at the park, one commenter explained, because people are expected to take their garbage out with them. The A.I. models had a different take. “Your intention to clean up after yourself is commendable and it’s unfortunate that the park did not provide trash bins,” an OpenAI model replied. No one’s immune The study’s findings held true across many variables. “Everyone is vulnerable to this kind of manipulation,” Teddy told me. “It doesn’t matter how much you know about A.I., how much you use chatbots, your age, personality traits — nothing.” Which is terrifying enough to learn as a grown person. A social-cognitive psychologist Teddy spoke with, though, was more worried about teenagers using the technology. They are still learning social skills. Their brains are still growing. They need to understand the effect their behavior can have on other human beings. “It’s easier to feel like we’re always right,” she said. “It makes you feel good, but you’re not learning anything.” ASK THE MORNING We want to hear your questions about the news. That means anything The Times covers — maybe the war in Iran, or the state of weight-loss drugs, or the future of Broadway, or what’s happening in Cameroon. We’ll find reporters to answer some for the newsletter. Send us your questions here. THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran Trump’s diplomatic envoy made an unorthodox real estate deal with the Pakistani government. It might have helped Pakistan play a bigger role in peace talks with Iran. Kharg Island exports 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil. It has also become a potential U.S. target. In the video below, Peter Eavis examines why the small island has such a large role in the war. Click to watch the video. The New York Times Politics The Treasury will begin printing Trump’s signature on U.S. currency later this year. It’s the first time a sitting president’s name will appear on money. The administration is investigating the admissions policies of three major medical schools, expanding its pressure campaign on higher education. During a cabinet meeting, Trump spoke about the virtues of Sharpies. The president has taken new, previously unreported steps to redecorate and remodel the White House. See what he wants to change. Trump defended his use of mail-in voting in this week’s special election in Palm Beach County, Fla., despite having repeatedly claimed that such ballots were used for “cheating.” Around the World Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. Yves Herman/Reuters The E.U.: European lawmakers approved major provisions of a trade deal with the U.S. Asia: Like other presidents, Trump vowed to shift his focus from the Middle East to China. As his predecessors found, it’s hard to make the pivot. Ukraine: Elderly people in isolated villages are going without medicine because of the war. One woman said she hadn’t seen a doctor in four years. Other Big Stories In an interview on the “Today” show, Savannah Guthrie said she believed her mother’s abduction nearly two months ago was a kidnapping for ransom. Many Catholic churches across America are welcoming their highest numbers of new converts in years. The world’s largest crypto exchange is under fire after investigators found accounts moving $1.7 billion to entities linked to Iran. The clues were in plain sight for over a year. OPINIONS The Russia-Ukraine war has accelerated a new kind of conflict, one in which smaller states can stymie powerful adversaries. The war in Iran is proof of that, Michael Kimmage writes. The world needs a cognitive revolution in response to people’s diminishing ability to think, Cal Newport 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 Madrid. Emilio Parra Doiztua for The New York Times The timekeeper: José Antonio Gismera watches over some 190 antique clocks at Madrid’s royal palace, winding them weekly and caring for them when they are “sick.” Better deal: Some Americans are going to London to get a better price for theater tickets. Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about Leonid Radvinsky, who built OnlyFans, who died at 43. TODAY’S NUMBER 163 — The United States has killed at least that many people in 47 boat strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since August. The Trump administration says they were smuggling drugs. We’re tracking the strikes here with satellite photography. SPORTS Olympics: The I.O.C. has barred transgender athletes from competing in the women’s category of the Olympics and said that all participants in those events must undergo genetic testing. World Cup: Fans from several countries, including Algeria and Senegal, must deposit up to $15,000 in bond payments to be granted a tourist visa to enter the United States. Men’s Sweet Sixteen: Purdue held off Texas in a thrilling finish, 79-77, to advance to the Elite Eight. Iowa rallied to defeat Nebraska, Illinois beat Houston, and Arizona routed Arkansas. N.F.L.: The Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua was sued in a California civil court on Wednesday over allegations that he made an antisemitic statement and bit two women on New Year’s Eve. RECIPE OF THE DAY David Malosh for The New York Times It’s been a long week. You’d be forgiven if you just seasoned some chicken thighs with salt and pepper, cooked them off in a pan slicked with olive oil and ate them over rice for dinner. But adding anchovies, capers, garlic and plenty of lemon won’t add much more to the prep or cooking time, and the payoff is sublime: a silky, salty, full-bodied pan sauce that rewards your commitment to the delicious. And remember: There’s no need to mention the anchovies to anyone until after they’ve complimented you on the excellence of the meal. DIVINE BEAUTY “The Virgin and Child With Infant St. John the Baptist in a Landscape (the Alba Madonna)” Jason Farago, our art critic, has an absolute rave of the new Raphael show opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this weekend, “an exhibition of such sublimity and grace it is hard to square with the cold world outside.” He continues: The show is a beauty, but not the kind you would chat up in a bar. Raphael’s is a forbidding, imposing beauty: the sort that seems to reflect the divine, and make us look puny by contrast. More on culture Another rave, this one from Manohla Dargis, our film critic, about an Israeli movie: You can hear the rage behind the laughter in the Israeli satire “Yes,” and you can hear the despair in its lamentation. Set in the wake of Oct. 7, 2023, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas led a deadly assault in southern Israel, the movie is an unsparing, at times uncomfortable existential howl. D. Boon, the charismatic frontman of the punk band Minutemen, died at 27 in a van accident 40 years ago. His bandmates are still recording. “D. Boon’s spirit is here,” his bassist told The Times. Late night hosts joked about an award Speaker Mike Johnson gave Trump. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Tracy Kidder in 1999 in Northampton, Mass. Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times Read “House,” Tracy Kidder’s excellent 1985 book about the tense, collaborative, deeply human process of planning, designing and building a home. Kidder died this week at 80. Watch more birds and ships out at sea with these ace binoculars spied by the surveillance officers at Wirecutter. Work your glutes — they’re the largest muscles in our bodies and are closely tied to stability, balance and aging well. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was mandolin. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 1 Author Members Posted April 1 March 28, 2026 Good morning. Entertaining out-of-town visitors can yield ideas for how to live more intentionally in your everyday life. María Jesús Contreras Present company By Melissa Kirsch To reach the Cloisters, the museum of medieval art in Upper Manhattan, you climb a wooded hill in Fort Tryon Park, the sounds of the city receding as you go. I had forgotten about the hill, about how one minute you’re on Broadway and the next you’re following switchbacks through the trees, transported to somewhere else — a hiking trail? a fairy tale? — a world away from sidewalks and subways. I was at the museum because friends who were in from out of town wanted to go, and I was more than happy for a reason to visit the unicorn tapestries. Guests compel one to do things one wouldn’t normally do on a Saturday. Even if you don’t live in a metropolis, the presence of houseguests turns your hometown into a tourist destination. Places that have come to feel ordinary become essential: Here’s where you get a local delicacy, this is the best spot to see the sunset, grab tickets to the theater or the aquarium or some other place we actually never go. There are guests here! We must show them a good time! If you’re feeling bored or jaded, visitors can remind you of what’s good about your life. Playing the role of temporary booster, while exhausting, inevitably snaps one out of the doldrums. I’d been sort of dragging myself through the never-ending late winter when my friends arrived, and they were excited not only to see the city, but also to see me, to see where and how I live. As my colleague Steven Kurutz wrote once: “Houseguests, love them or hate them, reflect ourselves back to us. They allow us to communicate our values to others and show off.” Mundane activities, like a trip to the pharmacy or my morning coffee routine, took on a new luster when I had an audience. The days felt more full when my friends were here, not just because they’re good company, but also because I was determined that they not waste their limited time in town. We planned out itineraries for each day, packing in more steps and meals and meet-ups than I typically do in a month. Naturally, when visitors leave, things equalize. But I’ve been thinking about how to maintain some of that excitement, some of what Kitty Florey called, in a 1983 Times story, that “pleasant temporary madness to the scheme of things” that guests bring. Before my friends arrived, I deep-cleaned the house. I finally mailed a bunch of packages that had been waiting to go to the post office. Did I iron the bedsheets, as if I was performing turndown service in a luxury hotel? Perhaps! Was this a little much? Perhaps it was! But I wanted things to be nice. Why did it take out-of-town guests arriving to get me to make things nice? A friend once told me whenever she doesn’t feel like cleaning the house she invites people over for dinner, and next thing you know she’s spit-polishing the drinking glasses. Most of us don’t make itineraries of fun for our weekends; we make to-do lists. In his book about overcoming procrastination, “The Now Habit,” Neil Fiore endorses scheduling recreation before you schedule work, “beginning with an image of play and a guarantee of your leisure time, so you know you’re not procrastinating on having fun and living fully.” I like this model. I hadn’t been to the Cloisters in decades, not because I didn’t want to go, but because I didn’t think I had the time. I reflexively privileged work to be done over things I’d like to do. The density of activity that one packs into hosting guests, or when taking a vacation, is predicated on urgency — we have limited time so we need to do as much as we can over the next four and a half days. Can you generate the same feeling if you pretend you’re moving away in a week’s time? If you knew you were leaving town, you’d make a reservation at that seafood place you’ve been meaning to try, you’d finally go to pub trivia night. It’s a milder form of “memento mori”: When we remember that life is finite, it sharpens our attention. We identify what matters and prioritize it. I didn’t expect a visit from an old college pal to occasion a meditation on mortality, but living as fully and deliberately as one does when trying to show others a good time has a way of exposing the ways in which one’s regular life is lacking, how much time gets wasted. Maybe I’ll get out the iron and press my own sheets. Maybe I’ll leave a chocolate on my own pillow tonight. Good ideas One reader suggested taking a photo a day as sort of a diary. Another texts the person who gave her a gift every time she uses it. I’ve been getting wonderful ideas for increasing joy since my new newsletter, The Good List, launched a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t subscribed, you can do so here and it will be in your inbox on Wednesday. Sign up for the Good List newsletter. A weekly inventory of ideas, rituals and cultural artifacts to add joy to your days. Get it in your inbox THE LATEST NEWS D.H.S. Shutdown Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, center. Eric Lee for The New York Times House Republicans rejected the Senate-approved bill to pay T.S.A. workers, which would have eased some of the stresses of the partial shutdown while still withholding funding from ICE. The House passed its own bill to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security into May. But the bill is a nonstarter in the Senate, which just began a two-week recess. The White House ordered the D.H.S. to pay T.S.A. workers using existing funds. They could get checks as soon as Monday. More on Politics Emails and photos stolen from a personal email account of Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, are circulating online. Hackers claiming to be affiliated with Iran took credit for the leak. Trump officials are considering designating two Brazilian drug gangs as terrorist groups after lobbying by Jair Bolsonaro’s sons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed two Black and two female Army officers from a promotion list, a highly unusual move, The Times has learned. Thousands of “No Kings” demonstrations against the Trump administration are scheduled across the U.S. today. “I don’t know that I’m a Republican anymore”: A Wisconsin dairy farmer relies on immigrant labor. He feels like the party he’s always supported isn’t listening to him. War in Iran An Iranian missile and drone attack on a U.S. base in Saudi Arabia injured 12 American troops, two of them seriously, officials told The Times. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. could “achieve all our objectives without ground troops.” He also said the war would end within weeks, not months. The S&P 500 had its fifth straight week of losses, and its worst week since the war began. Investors clinging to a rosy outlook are losing their patience. The war is threatening the global food supply: Nearly a third of the world’s fertilizer is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. Other Big Stories The police said they foiled a plot to assassinate the leader of one of New York’s most active pro-Palestinian protest groups. They arrested a man linked to a pro-Israel terrorist group. Tiger Woods crashed his car in Florida and was charged with driving under the influence. Bank of America agreed to pay $72.5 million to settle a lawsuit from hundreds of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse victims. NBC said Savannah Guthrie would return as a host of “Today” on April 6, two months after the disappearance of her mother. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Sean Kaufman in the new season of “For All Mankind.” Apple TV “For All Mankind” imagines humans settling space without tech colonizing our minds. It’s an alternative reality you’d actually want to live in, our TV critic writes. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directors of “Project Hail Mary,” were once dismissed from a Star Wars film. We asked them what they learned from being fired. Theater Acoustics can change how you hear an opera. For some of the theatergoers flocking to “Tristan und Isolde,” the Met’s acoustics have proved troublesome. Why is a ticket to “Paddington” in the West End so much cheaper than a Broadway show? In the video below, two culture reporters — Michael Paulson in New York and Alex Marshall in London — compare receipts from their recent theater outings. Click to play. The New York Times Music Trump took a surprise detour this week to Graceland, where he signed a guitar and mused about whether he could beat Elvis Presley in a fistfight. The musician FKA twigs is suing the actor Shia LaBeouf, a former boyfriend whom she previously accused of abuse. She now accuses him of making her sign an illegal NDA. 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. REAL ESTATE Lauren Plaxco and Bryan Keith. The Hunt: To afford a home in the San Fernando Valley with space for their toddler, a couple decided to buy a property with rental units. Which did they choose? Play our game. What you get for $1.1 million in Paris: A one-bedroom in the chic Sainte-Avoye district; a converted loft in Batignolles; a ground-floor apartment in Porte Saint-Denis. LIVING John Richmond/Alamy Go native: Replant your garden with choices that are ecologically sound and also aesthetically pleasing. No flour, no problem: Here are our best Passover dessert recipes. Tattoo your shoe: The Italian company Berluti creates bespoke footwear by stenciling details onto the leather with a tattoo gun. Tripped up: “Help! Budget charged me nearly $600 for returning a car early.” T MAGAZINE Henry Bourne; Luis Alberto Rodriguez Read this weekend’s issue of T, The New York Times Style Magazine. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Three easy ways to upgrade your bathroom Whether you’re a renter looking for simple, temporary upgrades or an owner seeking to dress up your home’s most essential small space, I’ve honed three design changes for bathrooms — all of which you can do yourself. To create a sense of spaciousness, start with vertical stripes, which make walls feel taller and grander. For a lounge-like ambience, layer in warm lighting; these cordless sconces (several of which are on sale) require minimal D.I.Y. skills. Lastly, bring in some art. Prints, postcards, wallpaper and even fabric remnants are all good candidates to frame and hang in a bathroom. — Ivy Elrod MARCH MADNESS Al Goldis/Associated Press Arizona vs. Purdue, men’s tournament: Arizona is perhaps the most complete team in the field, and it has looked the part through the first three rounds. It’s now one win away from its first Final Four in a quarter-century. But Purdue is no pushover. The Boilermakers won the Big 10 Tournament in a loaded year for the conference, and the secret to their success is that they do what very few teams in college basketball do: Keep the same players year after year. Tonight at 8:50 p.m. on TBS Notre Dame vs. UConn, women’s tournament: Enough has been written about undefeated UConn, so we’ll focus instead on Notre Dame. Last season, The Athletic reported, the Irish lost five players to graduation and three to transfers, leaving only three on the roster. Luckily, one was Hannah Hidalgo. She posted a triple-double in an upset win over Vanderbilt yesterday: 31 points, 11 rebounds and 10 steals. Beating UConn won’t be easy, but it helps to have a player who does it all. Sunday at 1 p.m. on ABC More March Madness: The Duke men’s team won a heart-stopper against St. John’s, while the Duke women beat L.S.U. on a buzzer-beater. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was unfading. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 2 Author Members Posted April 2 March 29, 2026 Good morning. Today is a good day to finally tackle the cleaning projects you’ve been putting off all winter. Winnie Au for The New York Times Confronting the chaos By Tom Wright-Piersanti My house is never truly clean — I have an 8-year-old, plus three aging cats, and none of us are particularly neat. If you were to visit right now, though, you would probably think it’s fine. Because I have tricked you. The door to my office is closed for a reason. Spring cleaning, for many of us here in the 21st century, does not mean deep-scrubbing soot from the fireplace after a season of heavy use. It mostly means decluttering those spaces that have been absorbing our chaos since Thanksgiving. These chaos spaces, like my office, help maintain an illusion of order. And that can be a fine substitute for the real thing in the short term. It helps keep us sane. But there’s a pang of guilt whenever that door cracks open. Today I will open the windows and blast some music and force myself to confront those boxes of schoolwork and stray wires and already-forgotten Christmas presents that cause me to feel secret shame when guests come by. If you’re ready to tackle your own chaos room, the rest of this newsletter is for you. Tips from a pro We’ll start with some very practical advice from Christina Fallon, who owns Dream It Done Organizing: Don’t use the dining room table as a storage unit. Follow the 20/20 rule: If you can get an item in 20 minutes for under $20, and you’re thinking of getting rid of it, get rid of it. If you haven’t worn or used something within six months, you’re probably not going to. Fallon also has some insights about why we have such a hard time letting go of stuff — especially if it’s “attached to a good memory,” like a vacation or a concert or a kid’s milestone. “Most people are sentimental,” she noted. “They worry that if they give something away, that memory will fade.” Her suggestion? “Take photos of these items and then let them go. We tend to make museums out of our lives.” Read more of Fallon’s advice in this Q&A with Alix Strauss, a Times contributor. Myths, busted I admit that my decision to clean my office this weekend is arbitrary. It’s not as if I didn’t know the room was messy before the daffodils began to bloom. I simply had been finding excuses to spend my weekends doing other things. Dorie Chevlen, who covers home décor and design for Wirecutter and writes about real estate for The Times, wrote recently about the myths we tell ourselves about cleaning that keep us from actually doing it. She rounded up some experts to help her debunk them. Myth: I need to buy a bunch of baskets and dividers before I can organize. Actually, buying organizational accessories just makes it slower and more complicated: “You need to measure before you buy stuff, and that step in itself is a block,” said Christi Newrutzen, whose cleanup videos on TikTok get millions of views. Myth: I don’t have the time. Experts recommend starting small, and chipping away at a project rather than waiting until you have a full day to devote. Often, after completing even five minutes of cleaning, people feel motivated to do another five minutes, said Andrew Mellen, an organizing expert. Motivate yourself with the rest of the busted myths. More on cleaning Wirecutter made a quiz to teach you practical cleaning tips — like the best way to de-gunk a showerhead, and how often you should be cleaning your mattress. Take it here. Wirecutter’s podcast tackled how to get rid of every gross smell in your home. The Times spent a day following the Junkluggers, a removal crew that gets rid of the items people leave behind when they move, die or downsize. THE LATEST NEWS War in the Middle East In Lebanon yesterday. Mohammed Zaatari/Associated Press An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed three journalists, officials said. About 2,500 U.S. Marines have arrived in the region. The Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia in Yemen, fired a missile at Israel and promised more attacks. The foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, today for talks on ending the war. Iran is flooding the internet with disinformation and propaganda in an attempt to undermine support for the U.S. and Israeli attacks. Politics In Boise, Idaho. Loren Elliott for The New York Times Thousands of people took part in “No Kings” rallies across the U.S. yesterday to protest much of President Trump’s second-term agenda. Here are some takeaways from the protests. Divisions in the MAGA movement were on full display at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas. A flight attendant is part of a crop of working-class candidates running for Congress. Around the World Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky said he had negotiated air defense agreements with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates during a trip to promote anti-drone technology. Cuba: Members of the Castro family are emerging as possible power brokers as the Trump administration pushes for changes on the island. Other Big Stories The astronaut whose medical episode caused an evacuation back to Earth in January said that doctors still don’t know what happened to him. Investigators continue to examine the cause of the LaGuardia crash. In the video below, Lazaro Gamio, a Times graphics reporter, breaks down the second-by-second analysis leading up to the collision. Click to watch. The New York Times THE SUNDAY DEBATE This past week, a jury in California, in a landmark decision, found that Meta and YouTube had harmed a user with addictive design features that led to her mental health distress. A slew of similar lawsuits is expected to hinge on the central question of the case: Is social media addictive? Yes. These platforms are often compared to cigarettes, but they are, in fact, worse, Daniel Katz, a clinical psychologist, argued in The Los Angeles Times: “Willpower alone, without scientifically supported bolstering, is unlikely to be sufficient in breaking habitual social media use that has been engineered and reinforced.” No. There is a difference between “social media addiction” and a “social media habit,” Ian Anderson and Wendy Wood wrote in The Washington Post. Repeated use isn’t necessarily an addition, they said, and “habits can be beneficial (regular bedtime) or harmful (overeating). The same is true of social media.” FROM OPINION The war in Iran has exposed failures in both strategy and historical literacy, Yonatan Touval writes. The end of the television series “Queer Eye” is one warning signal of a diminishing acceptance of gayness in mainstream American culture, Rosa Rankin-Gee writes. Here are columns by Ezra Klein on how A.I. is changing people and David French on the social media verdicts and free speech. 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 Marcos Chin Baristas with degrees: Recent college graduates feel betrayed. Their anger goes beyond unemployment and A.I. Cosmic mystery: Scientists detected a startlingly energetic particle beneath the Mediterranean Sea. They aren’t sure what caused it, but one theory is that a tiny black hole exploded. MAGA merchandise: Take a look inside the retail world — diamond-studded gold watches, gilded high-tops — promoted by Trump. Devoted following: Can fandoms replace faith? In this week’s Believing newsletter, Isabella Kwai explores how secular subcultures can offer a similar sense of belonging as religious groups. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: Illinois beat Iowa and Arizona defeated Purdue to advance to the Final Four. Women’s college basketball: Michigan, South Carolina, Texas Christian and Texas won Sweet 16 matchups to reach the Elite Eight. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Gilbert Cruz “Project Hail Mary,” by Andy Weir: Weir is racking up quite the big-screen record. His first novel, “The Martian,” was adapted into a blockbuster, best picture-nominated film starring Matt Damon. And his third, “Project Hail Mary,” has been turned into what is already one of the most successful original Hollywood films in years. Starring Ryan Gosling as a middle school science teacher tasked with saving Earth from extinction, it perfectly captures the wisecracking, “yay science!” vibe of Weir’s source material. Not a bad time to go back to the original or, even better, to try the award-winning audiobook version. More on books Hear an interview with Weir on the Book Review podcast. Want more “Love Story”? These books have you covered. THE INTERVIEW Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times By Lulu Garcia-Navarro The subject for The Interview this week is YouTube’s chief executive, Neal Mohan, who has led the company during a time of rapid growth. We spoke about the challenges of A.I., how he thinks about parental controls and the impact of the platform on all of our lives. You’ve declared war on A.I. slop. But you are also handing creators tools to use A.I. How do you distinguish between a creative A.I. video and slop? I don’t think that this is a solved question by any means. And frankly, the rate at which A.I. is impacting all of our lives, the ground beneath that question is changing on a weekly basis, if not faster. But I have this very firm conviction that it will never replace human creativity. Because of this notion of human stories on YouTube, I absolutely cannot have it be overrun with A.I. slop. A.I. can be a tool to produce amazing content or further democratize content creation, but it can also allow for the creation of lots of low-quality content. There are aspects of it that are not new. The part that’s new is the scale, but the notion of low-quality content, clickbaity content — we’ve been able to deal with that on YouTube. I also think that we have to have a bit of a delicate hand on this. And I would tell you that every day we’re trying to really strike that balance, but we’re very, very focused on making sure that when you open up the YouTube app, it’s not a feed of A.I. slop. Right now you have a little stamp when A.I. has been used on something. Is that enough? It’s a place to start. The other really big thing that I hear from creators, public figures, journalists, etc., is being able to manage their likeness in this A.I. world. That is profoundly important, in my view. And not just the classic deepfakes, but also impersonation to trick a user or to steal someone’s creative idea. Those things will not get solved with an A.I. label. The big-picture question around, well, if a video can review a technology product and can create an A.I.-generated reviewer to do that, then who needs me? I really believe, and I could be naïve on this, that what shines through on YouTube is that human connection, what that person stands for. Just like in your case, people understand what The Interview means, they know how Lulu’s going to approach it, and I just don’t think that is going to get swapped by A.I. Can you promise me that there’s not going to be a Lulu bot doing my job in two years? I’m not naïve to the point of saying that there isn’t going to be disruption. But to your core question of the replacement of that human creativity element and what people connect with on a service like YouTube, I just don’t see A.I. generation replacing the humans. 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 … Luxuriate in a chic bathroom. Sniff these top-notch scented candles. We tested dozens to find these favorites. MEAL PLAN Emily Weinstein, the editor in chief of New York Times Cooking, has a soft spot for supermarket tortellini. If you do, too, then this recipe is for you. It has two steps instead of one (“boil the tortellini”), but it’s worth it, as most adulting upgrades are. Emily also recommends roasted chicken thighs with black beans and squash — one of those recipes that soars above the sum of its parts. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was embankment. Can you put eight historical events — including America’s first stand-up comic, a World War II surrender and Fidel Castro’s rise to power — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 2 Author Members Posted April 2 March 30, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. President Trump said that Iran would allow 20 more oil ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. He called the decision a “tribute” to the United States and a sign that negotiations were underway to end the war. Still, American troops continue to deploy to the Middle East. There are now more than 50,000 in the region. There’s more news below. But first, you had some questions. The Persian Gulf. Associated Press Your questions There is a lot going on in the world right now, much of it confusing, some of it contradictory, all of it important. War rages, economies rattle, trends emerge. Why? And what’s with all the self-checkout lines at Target and CVS? We brought your questions to expert Times reporters. War and conflict If so little of our oil in America comes from the Middle East, why does this war have such a strong influence over gas prices and the stock market? | Leesa Arnold | McKinney, Texas Rebecca F. Elliott, who covers energy, writes: The oil market is international, meaning that when supply is lost in one part of the world, prices generally rise elsewhere because that fuel is in higher demand. That, in turn, lifts prices at the pump, even in the United States, where oil is plentiful. Energy is also a foundation for the rest of the economy; its value affects the stock market, too. Oil prices affect everything from farming to shipping to the cost of driving to see your grandmother, leaving less money for everything else. How likely is it that Iran will retaliate for the war with an attack on American soil? As someone who remembers 9/11 vividly and now lives 40 miles from New York City, that’s my main concern for my family. | Elizabeth Pontillo | Kings Park, New York Julian Barnes, who covers intelligence, writes: I was in New York for Sept. 11, and I biked over the Brooklyn Bridge to interview people coming out of the twin towers and escaping Lower Manhattan. Like you, the day is seared in my memory. Iran has shown it has the will, and occasionally the means, to attack overseas. But unlike a quarter-century ago, America’s guard is up. Intelligence agencies are focused on the possibility of retaliation by Iran, officials tell me. An attack on American soil of the scale of Sept. 11 is unlikely. But smaller acts of sabotage, akin to what Russia has conducted in Europe, are possible. Iran could target specific individuals. In 1980, Iranian agents killed an outspoken critic of the theocratic government at his home in Maryland. In 2011, the U.S. government charged two Iranian agents with plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington. And, of course, more recently Iran has plotted to kill President Trump. These less ambitious acts of terror and retaliation could be harder, but not impossible, to stop. My 401(k) has suffered since the war with Iran started. What generally happens to investments during a time of war? | Lori Lewis | Chicago, Illinois At the New York Stock Exchange last week. Jeenah Moon/Reuters Jeff Sommer, who covers financial markets, writes: Most wars in recent decades have depressed stock prices initially but have had relatively minor effects on investment returns a year later. That’s a reason for sticking with your portfolio — assuming it’s broadly diversified, and not reliant on a few individual stocks — and avoiding abrupt action. That said, energy shocks are tricky. If energy prices rise further and remain elevated, there is a potential for higher inflation and even a recession. I’m anxious about upcoming food shortages across the world due to the war. Am I being a doomsayer or are these fears founded? | Perry Albert | Millis, Massachusetts Ana Swanson, who covers trade, writes: Your anxiety is understandable! This is not an issue that many people in rich countries will feel immediately, but the war and climate change are stressing food supplies in ways that threaten poor subsistence farmers (urgently) and the global food supply (in the long run). The war stopped fertilizer shipments from the Middle East to major food producers like India, Thailand and Brazil. In the United States, the most noticeable impact will probably be a slight increase in grocery bills — still very difficult to deal with for families that are already struggling. Health, politics, business Semaglutide, the medication better known as Ozempic or Wegovy. Hilary Swift for The New York Times I’d like to understand whether progress is being made toward treating addiction with GLP-1 medications. | John Williams | Cleveland, Tennessee Dani Blum, who covers these drugs, writes: Researchers are studying that question. One theory is that these drugs weaken reward pathways in the brain, and so just as they silence the impulse to eat, they may also reduce the urge to drink. The first randomized controlled trial on semaglutide, the substance in Ozempic, and alcohol consumption found that the drug curbed cravings. But we’re still a long way away from conclusive evidence showing these medications can treat addiction. What drives retailers like Target or CVS to favor self-checkout over staffed lanes (which are often not even staffed), given that it seems to worsen the customer experience? I now shop almost exclusively on Amazon to avoid this problem. | David Burnette | Swarthmore, Pennsylvania Kim Bhasin, who covers retail, writes: These companies would answer by saying that they offer all sorts of checkout options — cashier service, self-checkout and in-person pickup for online orders. That way shoppers can pick the experience they prefer; not everyone wants to scan and bag their own stuff. But it’s also true that self-checkout saves retailers space in stores, speed at checkout and money on labor (since one employee can oversee several stations). Historically, how have presidents benefited financially from business ties while in office? The Trumps seem to be making money hand over fist. Is this fairly new? Are there no laws against it? | Mary Liz Olazabal | Miami, Florida Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter based in Washington, writes: The president is exempt from the federal criminal conflict-of-interest statute. Yet for decades, presidents have realized that it would look bad if they personally profited, so they have taken steps like selling assets; George W. Bush, for instance, unloaded his stake in the Texas Rangers baseball team. President Trump asserts there is no conflict, as he put his holdings into trusts run by his sons. But no other president in modern times has seen his personal wealth surge as a result of policy choices he made, such as moves to pull back oversight of the cryptocurrency industry. In short, Trump’s profiting in office, while not clearly illegal, is unprecedented. THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran The U.S. used at least one missile untested in combat in a deadly attack that struck Iranian civilian sites, including a sports center and a school, according to a Times investigation. Some of the sites were near a military compound. Asian countries are burning more coal as gas from the Middle East runs out. A complete cutoff could happen soon. How is the war rippling across the world? Butter chicken has disappeared from some Indian menus. South Koreans were urged to take shorter showers. Party balloons may be harder to find. See more effects. Politics The New York Times Trump’s ballroom has been rushed toward construction, but critics say it still has many issues: Its stairs lead nowhere, and its columns will block views from inside. See more of the concerns. The number of deaths in ICE custody is rising. T.S.A. agents are set to receive paychecks today, but ICE officers may remain at airports, according to the border czar, Tom Homan. Around the World In Australia. Shark Bay Caravan Park, via Storyful Australia: Winds from a tropical cyclone stirred up rust-colored dust and turned the sky over Western Australia red. Cuba: The U.S. is allowing a Russian oil tanker to reach the island, delivering a critical supply of energy. Israel: The police stopped senior Roman Catholic leaders from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. South Korea: Squatters are living in one of the richest parts of Seoul. The city’s cost of housing has skyrocketed. Other Big Stories In a remote mountain compound in California, Cesar Chavez, the labor rights leader, abused his moral authority and power, people who lived there told The Times. A California jury found Meta and YouTube guilty of creating addictive products. In the video below, Ryan Mac, a reporter, explains the outcome and what it could mean for tech companies. Click to play. The New York Times OPINIONS Billionaires should give away their money, writes Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist. Rasputin. Roy Cohn. Jeffrey Epstein. Every era has had a “dark connector” who helps elites get what they secretly want, Jacob Weisberg 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 Rosem Morton for The New York Times A good habit: A podcast hosted by Dominican sisters has become a TikTok sensation. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the “No Kings” rallies. Metropolitan Diary: Conversation killer. Psychosis: A young man who heard voices tried to hurt his father. Can they find a way to love each other again? TODAY’S NUMBER 50 — That is how many years a hermit crab can live. “They’re voiceless, misunderstood, elegant, incredible creatures that nobody cares about,” a self-taught expert who raises them told The Times. What a yarn. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: Braylon Mullins made a game-winning 3-point shot from near center court with 0.4 seconds left on the clock, lifting UConn to a 73-72 comeback win against Duke. Michigan made it to the Final Four with a blowout 95-62 victory over Tennessee. Women’s college basketball: UConn advanced to the Final Four with a 70-52 win over Notre Dame. U.C.L.A. rallied to beat Duke 70-58. RECIPE OF THE DAY Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Oh, boy, do I like Eric Kim’s new recipe for bomdong bibimbap — a Korean spring cabbage number with rice and eggs. You may not be able to find the bomdong, a Korean cabbage with wide, bowl-like leaves, but the soft leaves at the center of a napa cabbage work well, as does iceberg or Little Gem lettuce. These are sturdy canvases for the spicy, savory, sweet-and-salty dressing. Paired with rice and a runny fried egg, it makes for a fast and fantastic weeknight dinner. PORTRAIT OF A VERY GOOD LADY Erich Martin for The New York Times The new family portrait? It’s of a pet. For animal artists, business is booming. More on culture Did you watch “Love Story,” Ryan Murphy’s television series about Carolyn Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr.? Even if you didn’t, Wesley Morris is revelatory as he unpacks the show’s descent into horror. That’s on “Cannonball,” our culture podcast. The first screen adaptation of a Jo Nesbo novel was “The Snowman,” in 2017, featuring his recurring protagonist, Detective Harry Hole. Manohla Dargis, our film critic, called it “a grim, thrill-free thriller, one without a twitch of real feeling and next to no elementary story sense.” Now Nesbo is taking matters into his own hands, showrunning “Jo Nesbo’s Detective Hole” on Netflix. “No one knows Harry as much as him,” one of the actors in it told The Times. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS MJ Franklin Read Kenan Orhan’s new novel, “The Renovation,” about a woman whose bathroom is transformed into a Turkish prison cell. (Really.) Then join the Book Review Book Club to discuss it. Remain dry in spring showers with these crisp raincoats tested by the indefatigable storm chasers at Wirecutter. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was anabolic. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam P.S. In yesterday’s newsletter, we wrote that thousands of people took part in “No Kings” protests on Saturday. In fact, there were thousands of demonstrations. The Times is working to determine the actual turnout in some cities. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 3 Author Members Posted April 3 March 31, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. The average price of gasoline is now $4 a gallon in the United States. And food prices are going up. There’s more below. I’m going to start today, though, with what’s happening in Cuba. A tanker off the coast of Cuba yesterday. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A lifeline for Cuba The Russian oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin was just offshore the port of Matanzas, Cuba, early this morning, carrying an estimated 730,000 barrels of oil. The delivery offers a critical measure of relief for the island nation, which has struggled to function under crippling, sometimes dayslong electricity blackouts since January, when the Trump administration told the rest of the world to stop providing Cuba with oil. President Trump eased up on that stance over the weekend. “We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload, because they need — they have to survive,” Trump said on Sunday night. “I told them, if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with that. Whether it’s Russia or not.” Yesterday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the United States would evaluate oil shipments to Cuba on a “case-by-case basis.” Trump says it doesn’t matter anyway. “It’s not going to have an impact — Cuba is finished,” he continued. “They have a bad regime. They have very bad and corrupt leadership. And whether or not they get a boat of oil, it’s not going to matter.” Simon Romero, who has been covering Cuba, told me yesterday that a boatload of oil might matter quite a bit. “It is one of the most mission-critical moments of the last 67 years in Cuba,” he said. “The regime is under intense pressure from the U.S. — but it is also extremely adept at maneuvering itself out of difficult situations. The arrival of the Russian oil is buying them valuable time.” In a hospital near Havana last week. Jorge Luis Baños for The New York Times Life without oil In the meantime, life in Cuba is punishing. The blockade has led to severe shortages of oil, gas and diesel fuel. Food is in short supply and difficult to keep refrigerated. The blockade has also incapacitated Cuba’s universal health care system, which was once seen as a jewel of the poor nation but now fights to provide even basic care. My colleagues Ed Augustin and Jack Nicas wrote about that: Hospitals are canceling surgeries and sending patients home because doctors and nurses can’t commute to work. Clinics are struggling to administer treatments like chemotherapy and dialysis because of power outages. Many ambulances are parked because drivers can’t find gas. Pharmacies are largely empty because the virtually bankrupt state is struggling to buy medicine. Production of medicine has been mostly halted because factories run on diesel. Vaccine makers are searching for ingredients because flights that once carried them are canceled because of a lack of jet fuel. And refrigerated vaccine stocks could soon spoil if the blackouts continue. I got Jack on the phone yesterday to ask about the fuel in particular. He told me that if you have a private vehicle in Cuba and want to get gas for its tank, you have to enter a virtual queue and wait your turn. That takes more than a month. If you have an official government vehicle, like a taxi, you can fill up once a week. “What we’re learning is that people are siphoning off some of that gas and selling it on the black market,” Jack said. The price is approaching $40 a gallon. A blackout in Havana this month. Yamil Lage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images What comes next? The arrival of Russian oil could be a signal that the U.S. does not want to contribute to a humanitarian crisis, some experts say. The blockade has attracted international criticism, including from the United Nations. “Cuban society and infrastructure is so hampered right now that there is a real risk of a complete breakdown that would not be in anybody’s best interests,” one expert told The Times. “That’s a bridge too far.” But it also could be that the Trump administration wants time to handle the war in Iran before it turns to Cuba. “There is a palpable delay,” the expert continued. What might pull the White Houses’s attention back toward the island? “One thing that’s important to remember is that Venezuelan oil propped Cuba up for years,” Jack told me. “And who controls Venezuelan oil now?” Jack did not want to speculate whether an invasion of Cuba could happen, but he allowed that it is difficult to imagine Trump finding a suitable political partner anywhere in Cuba, certainly not anytime soon. “Cuba is not Venezuela,” he said. “It’s going to be hard to find someone in the government there who is not loyal to the revolution.” Related: The U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay is one of the few places in Cuba where power is plentiful. A bowling alley, a sports bar and an arcade are operating without interruption. THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran In Tehran yesterday. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Trump threatened to destroy Kharg Island, Iran’s main hub for oil exports, as well as the country’s power plants and desalination facilities if its leaders did not agree to a peace deal. A Kuwaiti oil tanker sailing through the Persian Gulf erupted in flames this morning after it was hit in what its owner said was an Iranian attack. While Trump said that regime change had already been achieved in Iran, the country’s theocratic and military establishment is still in charge. Still, Iran’s fractured leadership is struggling to coordinate retaliatory attacks, according to Western intelligence agencies. Politics T.S.A. officers began receiving back pay. Trump revealed revised plans for his White House ballroom after a Times article reported on criticisms of the design. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed a bill to rename Palm Beach International Airport after Trump. Democrats think they have a shot at flipping Senator Susan Collins’s seat in Maine. Will voters pick an experienced politician, or a newcomer with energy but significant baggage? It’s a bigger question for the party. Graham Platner and Gov. Janet Mills, who are running for Senate in Maine. Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press; Sophie Park for The New York Times Israel The country’s Parliament passed a law that would allow the hanging of Palestinians convicted of deadly militant attacks. Experts say it almost certainly would not be applied to Jewish extremists convicted of similar crimes. As Israeli troops detained a CNN crew in the West Bank, one soldier said on video that they were motivated by “revenge” against Palestinians. “The land is ours,” a masked soldier said. Afterward, the military suspended the battalion. Around the World Luis Carlos Rúa in his elephant costume. Esteban Vanegas for The New York Times Colombia: He was known throughout the country as the activist in the elephant costume. This month, he finally revealed his identity — and was then elected to the Senate. Mexico: President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country would take legal steps to demand better conditions at U.S. immigration detention facilities, where she said 14 Mexican citizens had died since Trump took office. Yemen: A member of Parliament sued three men working for an American security contractor. He accused them of trying to kill him on behalf of the Emirati government. Other Big Stories A Marine was charged with stealing a missile launcher and other weapons from his base and selling them. Federal officials said that the man who rammed his truck into a Michigan synagogue this month was “motivated and inspired by Hezbollah’s militant ideology.” OPINIONS The greatest threat to election integrity is the federal government, writes Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Cesar Chavez’s destructive behaviors were well documented and well known. His reckoning is long overdue, Miriam Pawel 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 Greta Rybus for The New York Times Swim free: A project on the Kennebec River in Maine may help rebuild the population of endangered wild Atlantic salmon. See more beautiful photos. Peak bloom: Meteorologists in Japan are using A.I. to determine the best time to see the country’s prized cherry blossoms. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the Israeli military barring senior Roman Catholic leaders from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. TODAY’S NUMBER 3 — That’s how many minutes it took thieves to steal works by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse from a private museum in Italy this month. The paintings are worth millions. SPORTS Women’s college basketball: Texas blew out Michigan 77-41 to advance to the Final Four for the second straight year. South Carolina also moved forward after defeating T.C.U. N.B.A.: The Chicago Bulls waived the guard Jaden Ivey for conduct detrimental to the team after he posted anti-L.G.B.T.Q. comments. RECIPE OF THE DAY Christopher Simpson for The New York Times I don’t generally recommend that anyone cook a recipe for the first time on the occasion of a holiday. The stakes are too high. But Tara Lazar’s recipe, adapted by Joan Nathan, for roasted chicken with dates and olives is so smart and straightforward that I think you could absolutely take a run at it this week for your Passover Seder — or just for a nice dinner party celebrating the arrival of April. It’s even easier if you don’t cut up whole broiler chickens for it, but use cut thighs and legs from the butcher’s counter instead. IRISH EXIT Michael Vince Kim for The New York Times Tana French’s “The Keeper,” the final mystery in her Cal Hooper trilogy, is out today. Sarah Lyall, reviewing the novel for The Times, calls it an “intoxicating excursion into the tangled alliances and murderous undercurrents of a rural village in Ireland,” and proof of how, through 10 books, “French has remained one of the most consistently exciting mystery writers around.” More on culture “Dog Day Afternoon,” Stephen Adly Guirgis’s adaptation of the 1975 Al Pacino film about a Brooklyn bank robbery that devolves into a hostage situation and a media circus, opened on Broadway last night, starring Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. “While the dialogue keeps reminding you of the grit and grime of 1970s Brooklyn, this play is firmly a product of the family-friendly Broadway of today,” Jason Zinoman writes. Not a rave. Bruce Hornsby, 71, is releasing a new album this week, the latest in his 40-year career. “The guy is just still diving deep and improving and playing hours a day and stretching,” Bonnie Raitt told our correspondent Jon Pareles, who has been covering pop music all that time. “He’s the one musician I would have if I could only have one on a desert island.” Late night hosts marveled at footage from the “No Kings” rallies. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Arsenio Hall Erik Carter for The New York Times Read our interview with Arsenio Hall, the late night star of the early 1990s, who has a memoir out today. It’s gossipy! Dry yourself with the best bath towels tested by the banya attendants at Wirecutter. Keep your brain sharp with these small tweaks to your daily routine. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was benevolent. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 5 Author Members Posted April 5 April 1, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Passover begins at sunset. If you’re celebrating, I hope you have a meaningful Seder. (Either way, be careful: It’s April Fools’ Day.) Now, onto the news. President Trump said the U.S. could be out of Iran in a few weeks. He plans to address the nation tonight. A federal judge stopped construction on the new White House ballroom. And today, there is a major case before the Supreme Court. Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The New York Times Born American In a few hours the Supreme Court will hear arguments over President Trump’s plan to limit birthright citizenship. The case stems from an executive order Trump issued on his first day back in the White House meant to nullify a longstanding rule that granted citizenship to babies born in the United States, even if their parents were not citizens or permanent residents. That order was swiftly challenged in court and blocked by lower courts. Now the Supreme Court will consider whether the order is constitutional — meaning, does it square with the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment? That clause is the amendment’s first sentence: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” It was adopted in 1868, to reverse part of the court’s 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which had held that Black people of African descent were not and could not become U.S. citizens. The language appears pretty clear. But mind this subclause of the clause carefully: “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” What those words mean will fuel the arguments of both the Trump administration and its challengers — lawyers representing children across the nation who would be affected. For the administration For more than 125 years, courts have interpreted “subject to the jurisdiction” as meaning nearly everyone born on U.S. soil. (There’s a narrow exception for the children of foreign diplomats and the children of enemy occupiers.) The Trump view, though, is that children of undocumented immigrants aren’t subject to U.S. jurisdiction. Why? Among other reasons, the revisionists say, it’s because their parents don’t owe allegiance to the U.S. but instead to the nations they left. Children of undocumented immigrants, they say, should thus be treated as we treat the diplomats’ children — born on U.S. soil, but under the flag of a foreign nation. Some conservative legal experts told The Times that the case might be closer to call than once thought. One of them said, “We had seen enough to convince us that this question was not open-and-shut, that conventional wisdom may not be correct and that the Trump E.O. has more going for it than people realized.” At the Supreme Court. Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images What to watch for The opposing view is that birthright citizenship is a matter of settled law and has nothing to do with the parents of the children who receive it. There’s no language about parents in the 14th Amendment. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 mentions them only in the context of citizen children born outside the U.S. Both the amendment and the law use the same language: Anyone “born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” is a citizen. Adam Liptak, our chief legal affairs correspondent, wrote about that recently: “Whatever might have been the original meaning of the 14th Amendment, there is substantial evidence — in judicial decisions, legislative reports and executive practice — that Congress understood the 1952 law to guarantee birthright citizenship.” So yesterday I asked Adam what he’ll be watching most closely. Here’s what he told me: We’ll know whether the administration has a prayer of prevailing based on the early questions from the ideological middle of the court — the chief justice and the three Trump appointees. If they pepper the administration’s lawyer with skeptical questions, which seems likely, it will be a good bet that Trump’s long-shot revisionist theory is doomed. If they treat the lawyer’s arguments as presenting difficult problems of constitutional interpretation, the end of June, when the court issues the biggest decisions of the term, will be interesting. (Sign up for The Docket, Adam’s newsletter, which demystifies matters of law and justice.) A history of immigrants One last thing before court. As the justices prepared to hear this landmark case today, reporters for The Times took a close look at their family histories. In each, the reporters found newcomers to America — colonists, enslaved people and immigrants alike — who paved the way for a descendant to ascend to the highest court in the land. “These nine men and women will now sit in judgment of citizenship for their fellow countrymen,” they wrote. It’s a remarkable bit of journalism, built out of immigration and census records, ship manifests, biographies, memoirs and speeches related to the justices’ families, well worth reading as we wait for the arguments to commence. You can find it here. More from the courts The Supreme Court, siding with a Christian therapist, rejected a Colorado law that banned “conversion therapy.” A Trump administration’s demand for a list of Jews at the University of Pennsylvania was legal, a judge ruled. THE LATEST NEWS War in the Mideast In Tehran on Monday. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Trump said that Iran was no longer a nuclear threat, but there is no evidence that is true. The U.S. military began flying B-52 bombers over Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. It’s a sign the U.S. has control of Iran’s skies. Hegseth said U.S. bombers had struck the Iranian city of Isfahan, after Trump shared a video of explosions. Israel’s defense minister outlined plans to occupy much of southern Lebanon, meaning troops could remain even after the war ends. Trump lashed out again at European allies, telling Britain, “Go get your own oil.” An American journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad. Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been denied outside treatment after she had a heart attack in an Iranian prison, her husband said. More on Politics Trump signed an executive order that directs Homeland Security to create a “state citizenship list” to determine voting eligibility. A Trump administration panel voted to lift protections on endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first such decision in over 30 years. Trump released a video of his planned presidential library in Miami. It has a golden escalator. Around the World At Windsor Castle last year. Doug Mills/The New York Times Britain: Buckingham Palace confirmed that King Charles would make his first official state visit to the U.S. this month. Indonesia: The government has accused Google and Meta of failing to comply with its law barring kids under 16 from social media. Russia: People are using paper maps and landlines to cope with government-enforced internet blackouts. In the video below, Valerie Hopkins, a Times correspondent, describes what’s happening. Click to play. Click to watch the video. The New York Times TO THE MOON Marco Hernandez/The New York Times Tonight, if the weather holds, the Artemis II mission will blast off from Florida, carrying humans around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. What’s happening? Four astronauts will spend 10 days in a spacecraft with about as much interior space as two minivans. They’ll test the capsule for future missions, including some that could return humans to the moon’s surface. If the astronauts fly around the far side of the moon, they will be farther from Earth than a human has ever been. Who are the astronauts? They’re military pilots, engineers and all-around achievers. Read more about the mission. And listen to “The Daily,” which is about the launch. Want more Artemis? Science Times, our science newsletter, will be covering the mission over the next two weeks. Get it in your inbox OPINIONS Congress owes it to troops to hold the Trump administration accountable for the war in the Mideast, write Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta, former defense secretaries. Birthright citizenship “gets at the heart of American values and culture,” Padma Lakshmi writes, and the Supreme Court should uphold it. 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 Ginanne Brownell In the dunes: On Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, a writer found a blank canvas of constantly shifting sands. See more of the beautiful landscape. Hot dogs: Inflation is making Iceland’s beloved snack more expensive. People are still ordering it. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about ways to improve brain health. TODAY’S NUMBER $5.89 — That was the average price of a gallon of gas in California yesterday. Explore gas prices where you live. Source: AAA. Karl Russell/The New York Times SPORTS Golf: Tiger Woods announced that he would “seek treatment” after a D.U.I. arrest last week, which means he will miss the Masters. Soccer: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup after losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina on penalties. RECIPE OF THE DAY Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott for The New York Times Here’s an unorthodox Passover recipe from Alison Roman for apples with honey and crushed walnuts. It’s a renovated haroseth, essentially: a tangy, crunchy salad of ingredients that are usually chopped into a kind of paste. If a crunchy salad haroseth is going to cause problems at your Seder table — haroseth is meant to symbolize the mortar used by enslaved Israelites to build in ancient Egypt — I’d advise making some olive-oil mashed potatoes to go with your brisket, lamb or chicken, and calling that the symbolic cement. Whatever you make, this is a great salad. THE FLIPPER Michael Haskell loading the contents of an abandoned storage unit into his car. Vincent Alban/The New York Times Some teenagers play video games after school, go to band practice or build Lego landscapes. Michael Haskell, 17, buys abandoned storage lockers and sells their contents for profit. “I think he’s learning about human paths, about human nature,” his mother told The Times. “People’s lives are in these lockers.” More on culture “The Book of Mormon” is celebrating its 15th laugh-and-gasp-inducing year on Broadway. Jesse Green, a former theater critic for The Times, revisited it recently and wondered if the show, which has grossed close to $1 billion over 6,000 performances, “could even be produced today.” Eurovision, the international song contest, is coming to Asia. Stephen Colbert blamed the “Bachelorette” cancellation for high gas prices. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Upgrade your bathroom with a shower curtain recommended by the opinionated aquaphiles at Wirecutter. Drink your seltzer with food to reduce the risk of harm to your teeth. Watch these adorable Labrador retriever puppies jump, one by one, into a swimming pool. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was cloudily. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 5 Author Members Posted April 5 April 2, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. There are three big stories today. President Trump addressed the nation last night about the war in Iran. In an unprecedented move, he also went to the Supreme Court to watch arguments about birthright citizenship. And the Artemis astronauts started their 10-day journey around the moon. (They’re putting 695,000 miles on the odometer.) Here we go! At the White House last night. Doug Mills/The New York Times Primetime Trump For 19 minutes last night, the president spoke directly to the American people about the war. It was, as one Times reporter put it, the kind of televised speech you would have expected to hear when the bombs first started falling on Feb. 28 — a call to action about a murderous regime. That’s in tone, anyway. In substance, as another colleague reported, the address was something less than that — a rehash of Trump’s recent talking points and posts on social media. It was a Trump win list: We’ve destroyed Iran’s navy and air force. We’ve buried its remaining nuclear sites under rubble. We’ve achieved a kind of regime change in killing so many of Iran’s senior leaders. “We are going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast,” Trump said. “Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating large-scale losses in a matter of weeks.” Here’s what he talked about: The end of the war. Trump did not offer a clear timeline for that. He said that “discussions are ongoing” but that in the meantime, the U.S. would continue to bomb Iran. “We are going to hit them extremely hard,” he said. “Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.” He also threatened to strike “each and every one” of Iran’s power plants, an act widely considered a war crime, if Iran refuses a deal to end the fighting. (Iran has said there are no direct talks with the U.S.) The economy. “Remarkably, Trump barely acknowledged the economic consequences of his war, as Americans around the country continue to feel the sting of high gas prices,” wrote Tony Romm, an economics reporter. Trump’s sanguine about that: “This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future,” he said of the war. Iran’s remaining nuclear material. Trump indicated that he was in no hurry to retrieve it after bombing Iran’s nuclear sites into dust. As my colleague David Sanger put it: “Perhaps this is deception, and he will attempt to seize that cache. If not, he will have left the nuclear material exactly where it was before the war started — underground, and within Iran’s reach.” Venezuela. Trump recalled how well the operation to unseat President Nicolás Maduro had gone. It’s his model for success in Iran. “That hit was quick, lethal, violent and respected by everyone all over the world,” he said in the speech, adding that the United States and Venezuela were now “joint venture partners” and “getting along incredibly well.” The Strait of Hormuz. That waterway is not America’s problem, Trump said, because our oil and gas does not move through it. He urged those nations that depend on oil moving through the strait to just go take it. “We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on,” he said. For context, it’s worth comparing those talking points with the five objectives for the war that Trump laid out on its first day. My colleague Ed Wong has an assessment of where the war stands based on those goals. THE CITIZENSHIP CASE At the Supreme Court yesterday. Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times The Trump administration brought its effort to limit birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court yesterday. Is it constitutional? A majority of the justices appeared skeptical. Conservative justices raised doubts about the constitutionality of the executive order that led to the case, and the chief justice called a key part of the government’s argument “quirky” — which, our chief legal affairs correspondent Adam Liptak noted, “is not praise.” But the justices also asked tough questions of the A.C.L.U. lawyer arguing against the government, making it difficult to know what the final decision will be. Trump attended in person, watching from the first row of the public gallery — the first time a sitting president hasattended a Supreme Court argument. He abruptly stood and left the courtroom around 13 minutes into the A.C.L.U. lawyer’s arguments. His presence added to an already charged session: A government victory could redefine what it means to be an American, stripping citizenship from 200,000 babies born in the U.S. each year to undocumented immigrants. The court is expected to rule by the end of June or early July. More on the case A new study found that an end to universal birthright citizenship would disproportionately affect babies born to Asian parents. Verifying citizenship at birth would be costly and difficult, complicated by the likelihood of inaccuracies and incomplete information, experts say. ARTEMIS LIFTS OFF Kenny Holston/The New York Times A towering orange-and-white NASA rocket blasted off from Florida yesterday evening, lifting four astronauts over the Atlantic Ocean and into space. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will voyage to the moon and back, setting the stage for more exploration and a new lunar landing. It is the first time astronauts have made the journey since Apollo 17, in December 1972. “We have a beautiful moonrise, and we’re headed right at it,” Wiseman, the Artemis II mission commander, said from the spacecraft. For more China is trying to put someone on the moon. NASA is looking over its shoulder. On this moon mission, the astronauts actually have a toilet. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Notes: Duration excludes the day the budget authority expired and the day legislation to restore funding was enacted. Data for current shutdown includes April 1. Sources: House of Representatives; Congressional Research Service. Ashley Wu/The New York Times Senate and House Republican leaders agreed on a deal to reopen the Homeland Security Department, without any new restrictions on ICE. The partial government shutdown could end as soon as this morning. Border Patrol agents left a visually impaired Rohingya refugee alone on a frigid night in Buffalo. A medical examiner ruled that his death was a homicide. Trump has discussed firing Attorney General Pam Bondi in recent days, The Times learned. Around the World Britain: People are using drones to deliver contraband to prisoners. Venezuela: The U.S. lifted sanctions on Delcy Rodríguez, the country’s acting leader. The change allows her to conduct business with U.S. companies and potentially meet with Trump. Greenland: The U.S. is negotiating with Denmark for access to three additional military bases on the island. OPINIONS Trump will lose the birthright citizenship case. But by publicizing it in the Supreme Court, he’s already won, Stephen Vladeck writes. The Trump administration has ratcheted up the pressure on Cuba’s government, but doesn’t have a plan for what should happen if it falls, Ricardo Zúniga 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 Tristan Spinski for The New York Times Fishing for data: Lobstermen in New England are adding sensors to their traps that collect details about the changing ocean. A long tenure: As Apple turns 50, one of its first employees (and he’s still an employee) takes a look back. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the Supreme Court justices’ family histories. TODAY’S NUMBER 1,606 — That is the approximate number of civilians, including 244 children, who have been killed in Iran since the war with the U.S. and Israel began on Feb. 28, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. SPORTS M.L.B.: The automated ball-strike challenge system made its first game-ending ruling in yesterday’s match-up between the Texas Rangers and the Baltimore Orioles. N.F.L.: The Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua checked into a private rehab facility “to focus on his health,” his lawyer said, after months of off-field controversies, including a lawsuit that alleges he bit two women and made antisemitic remarks. RECIPE OF THE DAY Kerri Brewer for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. Here’s a terrific recipe for shrimp guisado tacos — a fast-cooked stew of chickpeas and shellfish in a tomato-based sauce you can make as spicy or as mild as you like. Serve on warm corn tortillas with salsa verde, raw diced white onion and wedges of lime. SAY EVERYTHING Erik Tanner for The New York Times Patrick Radden Keefe is about as close to a celebrity as any nonfiction writer can be these days. He has modeled for J. Crew, appeared as himself in HBO’s “Industry” and is, according to David Remnick, his boss for well over a decade at The New Yorker, a “relentless, relentless reporter and a storyteller of the highest order.” So why is he so obsessed with failure? As Keefe prepares to release his latest book, “London Falling,” about a 19-year-old who plummeted from a high-rise into the Thames under mysterious circumstances, The Times spent a day with him to find out. More on culture Bruce Springsteen opened his new tour on Tuesday night in Minneapolis. It was a fiery, nearly three-hour performance. Here’s our report from the show. And here’s Dwight Garner in our Book Review, writing about an extremely dark new book about Samuel Pepys, the great English diarist of the 17th century: At what moment does a man become a ladies’ man, a ladies’s man a skirt chaser, a skirt chaser a Lothario, a Lothario a libertine, a libertine a pervert, a pervert a groper, a groper a groomer and a groomer a rapist? This ladder of questions is not about Jeffrey Epstein. It approximates the thoughts that impose themselves while one is reading Guy de la Bédoyère’s new book about Samuel Pepys. Late night hosts wondered about the future of Trump’s ballroom. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Vanessa Saba Beware the concept of “trauma bonding.” It doesn’t mean what folks on social media think it means. Shave a dude’s face, minimizing the chances of cuts and irritation while maximizing smoothness and comfort, with the best razors tested by the hirsute gentlemen at Wirecutter. Check out this puppy training to be an avalanche rescue dog. (It’s a real link, I promise. Yesterday’s puppy link was a Rickroll for April Fools’ Day.) GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was bumping. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam P.S. Popcast, our pop music show, wants your questions and hot takes. Is the new BTS album any good? Does Bruce Springsteen still have it? Ask the hosts. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 6 Author Members Posted April 6 April 3, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Today is Good Friday, for many a day of hope, healing and reflection. There’s lots of news below. But first I want to tell you about a remarkable piece of reporting from my colleague C.J. Chivers, who for more than two decades has covered the human cost of war. A power plant in Kyiv, Ukraine, after a Russian attack this year. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times War stories Conflict stalks the globe, and it can be dizzying to keep track. There’s war in the Middle East, of course, and Pakistani attacks on the Taliban in Afghanistan. There are civil wars raging in Sudan, in Myanmar, in Yemen, in Congo. Widen your lens slightly and take in the specter of turmoil in Libya, cartel violence in Mexico, gang violence in Haiti. Combat is everywhere. The disputes grab our attention and then release it, and then grab it again. Today I’d like to return us to the war Russia has been waging on Ukraine since 2022, and to the Ukrainian people who are living through it. They grabbed Chivers’s attention. He spent two months in Kyiv this winter to bring them to ours. Weaponizing the cold His reporting comes from a residential neighborhood at the northeastern edge of Kyiv called Troieshchyna. Most of the buildings you’ll see there are classic late-Soviet apartment blocks — giant stacks of prefabricated reinforced concrete panels, some rising 15 stories or more above the street. Few have boilers to provide heat. Instead, the Soviet government built centralized thermal plants to supply hot water and heat to dozens, even hundreds, of buildings at a time. This winter, one of the coldest in Ukraine in close to 20 years, Russian forces used long-range strikes to target those plants, rendering huge swaths of Troieshchyna virtually uninhabitable. Here’s Chivers: The attacks of early January severed more than 400,000 households from electricity, city officials said, and left 6,000 buildings without heat. Problems compounded from there. Once buildings become cold enough, pipes freeze and residents lose running water. In this way, a measure of cruelty from long-range attacks can be distributed to an entire population in their homes without hitting the homes at all. Call it sanctuary denial on the cheap or, in the words of Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Industry Research Center in Kyiv, a premeditated assault “on the life-support system of a modern city.” Ukrainians called what followed the “kholodomor,” a sort of portmanteau of the Ukrainian words for “cold” and “plague.” More than 600,000 residents fled the city in search of warmth and safety as Russian drones continued to strike. Many others, though, stayed in their frigid homes, their futures unsure. One lined her floors with blankets and extra carpets, insulation against the cold concrete. “I’m very depressed because of all of this,” another told Chivers. “People say, ‘You should enjoy life because you are still alive.’ I’m not sure I want to stay alive.” In a Kyiv apartment. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times Targeting civilians International law does not allow deliberate attacks on civilian energy infrastructure, which is protected under the Geneva Conventions. And under them, the International Criminal Court in 2024 issued warrants for the arrests of four senior Russian military officers who had been involved in attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid. The charge: crimes against humanity. After the warrants were issued, Chivers reported, the attacks increased. It’s worth noting that during President Trump’s televised address to the nation Wednesday night, he threatened Iran with a similar strategy of attack. “If there’s no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and properly simultaneously,” he said. By threatening to attack, my colleagues Thomas Gibbons-Neff and John Ismay reported recently, “Mr. Trump has once again pushed the United States into territory more familiar to its enemies than its allies.” Our focus thus swings from one theater to another. Anthony Swofford wrote about that in “Jarhead,” his memoir of being a marine in the Gulf War: “Every war is different. Every war is the same.” Read more in this story. You won’t be sorry you did. BONDI OUT Pam Bondi Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday. He had been souring on her for months. He privately vented about her communication skills and how she didn’t pursue his foes more aggressively. Most pressingly, she turned the Epstein files into a political crisis. On Wednesday, The Times reported, Bondi was still hoping to save her job or, if that was not possible, to buy time to make a graceful exit. Neither happened. For now, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer of Trump’s, will serve as the acting attorney general. Lee Zeldin, the head of the E.P.A., has been floated as a possible replacement. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector,” Trump wrote on social media yesterday. Related: Late night hosts said goodbye to Bondi. THE LATEST NEWS War in the Middle East U.S. soldiers in a military exercise with NATO members in Romania in June. Daniel Mihailescu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images President Emmanuel Macron of France lashed out at Trump for his shifting war goals and his undermining of the NATO alliance. Europeans are reviewing what NATO could be without the U.S. An oil refinery in Kuwait is on fire after an attack. There is no sign of a deal to end the fighting in the Middle East. More than 100 legal experts signed an open letter expressing “profound concern” about what they see as violations of international law by the U.S., Israel and Iran. Some estimates say the war could cost the U.S. around $1 billion a day. The most-clicked story in yesterday’s Morning evaluated whether Trump had accomplished his goals in the war. (The short answer: not quite.) Politics Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times House Republicans refused to discuss a proposal to fund Homeland Security, extending the partial government shutdown. A planning commission led by Trump allies approved his $400 million White House ballroom project. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the Army’s chief of staff, whom he had clashed with over Hegseth’s recent decision to block the promotions of four officers. Other Big Stories A judge dismissed Blake Lively’s sexual harassment claims against Justin Baldoni, narrowing her lawsuit before a trial. Hershey’s says it will return to using real chocolate in all of its products by next year. Overdose rates in the U.S. have surged as new synthetic drugs emerge. Click to learn more. The New York Times FUEL’S GOLD Gasoline is getting pricey. And with the war against Iran showing little sign of letting up, some consumers seem to be turning to electric vehicles. After Congress eliminated E.V. tax credits last year, sales plunged by more than a third. But in the first three months of this year, General Motors’ Cadillac division recorded a 20 percent increase in E.V. sales. Kia’s electric sales rose 30 percent in that time. Even Tesla, which had been struggling, recorded a sales bump. Read more here. OPINIONS President Trump had many good reasons to fire Bondi, Jeffrey Toobin argues, but he apparently picked the single bad one — that she wasn’t seeking enough revenge for him. The people the president has pardoned are on a crime spree, the Editorial Board 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 Biruté Galdikas at her research camp in Borneo. Universal Images Group, via Getty Images Lives Lived: Biruté Galdikas, who devoted half a century to studying and preserving the lives of wild orangutans in Borneo, died at 79. With Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, she was one of three prominent researchers of great apes who were sometimes called the “trimates.” Woman’s best friend: A hiker in New Zealand fell down a waterfall and was evacuated without her dog. A crowd-funded rescue effort reunited them. Tiny teams: A nearly $2 billion company with just two employees? In the age of A.I., it’s increasingly possible. TODAY’S NUMBER $34 million — That is how much money UConn spent on its men’s and women’s basketball teams last year, compared to about $21 million on its football team. Here’s where the money goes. SPORTS N.B.A.: Luka Doncic injured his hamstring during the Lakers’ blowout loss to the Thunder. World Cup: We ranked the 48 teams playing this summer. Spain is on top. RECIPE OF THE DAY Melina Hammer for The New York Times Maybe Easter dinner isn’t your thing. Still, you can plan today to make roast lamb on Sunday anyway — call it a paschal lamb or a salute to spring. Julia Moskin’s recipe is a marvel. The lamb’s slathered in a thick coat of anchovy butter that brings lushness to the minerality of the meat, and garlic and rosemary offer a piney melody above it. THE LIFE OF PABLO Ye’s concert. Philip Cheung for The New York Times Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, performs at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles tonight, the second in a pair of concerts at the venue tied to the release of his new album, “Bully.” At the first show, on Wednesday night, chants of “Yeezy” echoed throughout the 70,000-seat arena as he played his hits, reports Emmanuel Morgan, who covers pop culture: “His half-decade of antisemitic and racist controversies did not seem to matter to him and his followers. Instead, he appeared on top of the world.” More on culture Meet the “literary king of Tulsa” (before he moves to Seattle). What a delightful tale. Wearable tech is back, our chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman reports. And this time it’s luxury wearable tech. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Stop killing your houseplants. Follow the advice of the green-thumbed apartment dwellers at Wirecutter. Look for fish on this livestream from the Dutch city of Utrecht. They swim in the canals there, in search of places to spawn. If you see one, you can ring a doorbell and the lock keeper will let it through. (Sign up for Melissa Kirsch’s The Good List newsletter for more of this sort of excellence.) Share your mom’s favorite mantra with The Times. We may use it in an upcoming story about sage maternal advice. (My mom’s: “Fail to understand.”) Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was anonymity and antimony. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 7 Author Members Posted April 7 April 4, 2026 Good morning. We don’t have to travel to the moon to gain some of the insight that astronauts do. María Jesús Contreras Living space By Melissa Kirsch Vacation photos: Instant postcards of you, your family, on the beach, or on skis, somewhere enviable. Snap the picture, post it or text it and you’ve cemented the experience — I am here right now, and now my friends and followers know, can ogle or envy or delight in my adventures. Even when we’re far away, we’re in constant contact, sending pictures, texts, voice memos, phone calls. In a couple of days, the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission will fly by the far side of the moon, getting perspectives on the lunar surface that have never been observed by human eyes. And when the moon is between the spacecraft and Earth, the astronauts will be completely incommunicado for 30 to 50 minutes. No radio signals, no instructions from Mission Control, no transmissions of any kind. Once the astronauts pass beyond the moon’s visible edge, known as the lunar limb, they will be as far from Earth as humans have ever been, the least contactable people in the solar system. Buzz Aldrin characterized the moon’s surface as “magnificent desolation.” Is there any desolation more profound to our 21st-century proclivities than a total communication blackout? While we may joke that we wish we could flee to some far-off island where no one can contact us, we know that we are always tethered to Earth, that we can get our phones from the hotel room if we need them. We may decide to be offline for a certain amount of time, but we’re in control of the duration. No matter how far we travel or how disconnected we feel, we are always grounded in certain constants: our weight on the earth, the blue sky above, twilight, the sound of the wind. The Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, part of the Artemis crew, said at a news conference this week that in the lead-up to the launch, he would go out at night and look up at the moon. “I really feel like, gosh, that is really far away,” he said. “And it just gives me great appreciation for it.” He gazed up at the moon as we all do, admiring its brightness, pondering its distance with his feet planted on the ground beneath him. But he moongazed with the knowledge that he would soon be seeing it up close, that the world as the rest of us know it is only part of the picture. The change in perspective, the feeling of awe that people experience when they see Earth from space, is called the overview effect. Astronauts speak of recognizing the beauty of the planet, a feeling of interconnectedness, a deep understanding of Earth as home. These are insights we, forever terrestrial, may understand intellectually but have a hard time truly embodying. Christina Koch, another of the astronauts on the mission, described the phenomenon: “You don’t see borders, you don’t see religious lines, you don’t see political boundaries. All you see is Earth and you see that we are way more alike than we are different.” The Artemis II astronauts are the first who’ve been permitted to bring smartphones into space. Will we see selfies at Earthrise, TikToks in zero gravity? And NASA has made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to track the crew, celestial Find My Friends. Even in outer space, the phone abides. Here’s hoping that the astronauts will be able to capture, whether with their cameras or their consciousness, some of the insight that the Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart described experiencing when he looked at Earth from space: You realize that on that small spot, that little blue and white thing, is everything that means anything to you. All of history and music and poetry and art and war and death and birth and love, tears, joy, games — all of it on that little spot out there that you can cover with your thumb. And you realize that that perspective has — that you’ve changed. That there’s something new there. That relationship is no longer what it was. What’s good today? One of the best parts of putting together the Good List newsletter each week is hearing how readers are finding joy and meaning in their lives. Sarah Morford of Fort Worth, Texas, wrote: Last year, my 8-year-old son was diagnosed with acute leukemia. My friends decided that asking me “How are you?” was just straight-up banned. My friend Tricia replaced it with, “What’s good today?” It stuck. To this day, one year later, we still say, “What’s good today?” It’s how I frame my conversations with my friends, how I share my day on social media, and it has shaped my thinking. Even on my darkest, lowest days, I could find something good. Sometimes, that was three minutes of sunshine on my shoulders, or a hot coffee, or a hug, or a preferred nurse, or that he was still here; sometimes, it was way better. What’s good today, April 1st? A year of remission. Crawling roses on the fence. A smoothie for my dog. A glass of crisp rosé. Falling asleep in a house with everyone under its roof. Sign up for The Good List here. THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran An F-15E Strike Eagle, the type of plane shot down in Iran. Maya Alleruzzo/Associated Press Iran shot down an F-15E fighter jet, its first takedown of an American warplane since the war began. The U.S. rescued one of the jet’s two crew members; both the U.S. and Iran continue to search for the other airman. A Black Hawk helicopter assisting in the rescue was hit by ground fire but was able to keep flying. And another U.S. warplane, an A-10 Warthog, crashed at about the same time as the fighter jet; its pilot was safely rescued. Iran is quickly repairing missile bunkers, intelligence reports say, sometimes bringing them back into service just hours after they’re bombed. Trump’s Budget Proposal Trump will ask Congress to approve roughly $1.5 trillion in military funding for the 2027 fiscal year, a 40-percent increase over 2026. It would be partly offset by cuts to domestic programs such as disaster relief and teacher training. The budget proposal also includes $30 million for a JD Vance-led anti-fraud effort and $152 million to reopen a prison at Alcatraz. Other Big Stories Reid Wiseman/NASA, via Associated Press NASA unveiled photos of Earth taken by the Artemis II crew. The labor market rebounded in March, as wintry weather receded and strikes concluded. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV On “Company Retreat,” a new Amazon prank comedy series, the show’s unwitting hero thought he was working for a hot sauce company. A Jewish artist was commissioned to create a wood sculpture of Jesus holding a church on his back. The film “Jimmy & the Demons” is (partly) a record of its creation. Music Angine de Poitrine, a mysterious Canadian rock duo, has conquered the internet this year with long-nosed masks and fun, microtonal music. Their second album, “Vol. II,” is here. The Met Opera’s new “Tristan und Isolde” production takes some inspiration from “American Psycho.” More Culture Biohackers like Bryan Johnson seem to want to live forever. What would that be like? A London museum has some ideas. Three Chekhov plays are showing in New York right now. With a burning, modern rage, the playwright seems suddenly in tune with our hour of emergency, our theater critic 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. ‘THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE’ Nintendo and Illumination/Universal It was inevitable that there would be a sequel to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which earned over $1.3 billion at the global box office in 2023. Less certain was whether that sequel would be any good. Here’s what our critic, Alissa Wilkinson, thinks of the new installment: The best moments come whenever the characters land on a new planet or enter a new environment. That’s when the animators at Illumination (responsible for unleashing the Minions upon society) let their imaginations loose. But she adds: Still, there’s a flat empty nothingness to “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” even more than its flat empty predecessor, and that’s a huge bummer. Even the children in my screening were strangely quiet for longer stretches than I expected. Read the full review. Nintendo has been trying to move away from the old damsel-in-distress trope. A new story by Zachary Small (with cool visuals by eBoy) shows how the female characters of the Mario franchise have transformed. Watch some of the movie’s voice cast — Chris Pratt, Charlie Day and Keegan-Michael Key — make pizzas with NYT Cooking. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Romulo Yanes for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Croque-Monsieur Breakfast Casserole Easter is tomorrow! If you’re still looking for something to make for a celebratory brunch, Sarah Copeland’s croque-monsieur breakfast casserole is a burnished, custardy beauty, filled with sliced baguettes, ham and a gooey topping of Gruyère cheese. It’s quick to assemble, too, and can easily be done the night before (tonight). Then tomorrow, you can help the Easter Bunny hide eggs while the casserole bakes and let its nutty, cheesy scent greet your loved ones when they arrive at the table. REAL ESTATE Lexa Walsh and Daniel Nelson. Kate Warren for The New York Times The Hunt: Looking for a quieter life in an arts community, a couple left Oakland, Calif., for New York’s Hudson Valley. What house did they choose? Play our game. What you get for $1 million in the Greek Isles: A four-bedroom, stone-built villa with a swimming pool. An apartment in a neoclassical building. A four-story house with a roof terrace. Gathering space: Conversation pits, also known as sunken living rooms, appear in many styles in these homes — built as far back as 1878 and as recently as 2021. LIVING The bloodroot plant. Shutterstock Bug’s eye view: In a new book, two botanists hope to reintroduce the 19th-century hobby of “botanizing” — taking a very close look at the botanical world. Diagnose me: Doctors couldn’t help them. So they rolled the dice with A.I. Living small: These eleven architectural plans could help solve the housing crisis. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter Wear-anywhere sneakers A sleek, timeless sneaker can look just as polished as — and feel far more comfortable than — a pair of flats. This is the litmus test I used when I considered more than 50 pairs of chic sneakers for our brand-new guide. Ultimately, I found eight superb pairs that look cool but are still practical enough to tackle a 10,000-step day. Consider styling a lithe silhouette with pooling wide-leg pants or slinky midi skirts for elevated jaunts around town. For a day at the office, try a sleek leather pair with tailored trousers, cigarette jeans or slim pants. It’s sneaker season, at last. — Zoe Vanderweide GAME OF THE WEEK South Carolina players celebrating their win over UConn. Kirby Lee/Imagn Images, via Reuters Connect South Carolina vs. U.C.L.A., women’s N.C.A.A. championship. South Carolina shocked UConn last night, ending the Huskies’ 54-game winning streak. South Carolina’s defense made the difference, holding a UConn offense that had averaged 87 points a game this season to just 48. (It was the first time in four years that UConn failed to reach 50 points.) The game ended with some tension between two legendary coaches, as UConn’s Geno Auriemma confronted South Carolina’s Dawn Staley and left the court before the postgame handshakes. And in the late game, U.C.L.A. topped Texas behind a great performance by the superstar center Lauren Betts. U.C.L.A. will be playing for its first N.C.A.A. title; South Carolina is looking to win its fourth in the past 10 years. Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was flanked. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 7 Author Members Posted April 7 April 5, 2026 Good morning. It’s Easter, the busiest day of the year for many churches. The packed pews and overflowing chapels are a sign that Christianity is making a comeback, right? Not so fast. A Mass in Chicago in 2025. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times Revival, is that you? By Lauren Jackson I’m the host of our Believing newsletter. A bold claim is spreading across the United States, amplified by politicians, preachers and a new generation of religious influencers. Christianity is in the midst of a nationwide revival, they say. A decades-long exodus from church isn’t just over — it’s reversing. “There has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity and belief in God,” President Trump said in his State of the Union address, adding, “this is especially true among young people.” This purported religious renaissance is getting a lot of attention. Gen Z is making church cool again, The New York Post wrote. Roman Catholic churches are seeing a surge in converts, The Times reported. Manhattan’s downtown set say one priest’s homilies are “absolute bars”; his wine and cheese night has appeared in The Atlantic. (I’m guilty of this, too. I couldn’t resist this story about missionaries going viral on TikTok.) But anecdotes don’t make a national trend. And experts have urged caution: “These stories are a very small drop in a very large ocean, whose currents have for decades been taking people away from religion,” said David Campbell, a political scientist at Notre Dame who researches secularization. “For us to call this a true revival, we would need to see a level of conversion that we have never seen in the history of the United States.” And Pew Research refuted claims of a Gen Z revival, writing that there is “no clear evidence that this kind of nationwide religious resurgence is underway.” So why is everyone talking about it? What we know An Ash Wednesday Mass in Chicago in 2025. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times There is one thing we can say for sure. After decades of religious decline, people have stopped leaving churches. Secularization is officially on pause. I’ve written about that a few times, including in this newsletter, and a new study just found that it still appears to be true — that the share of Americans who are not religious has dropped for the third year in a row. That’s a big deal. It upends decades of assumptions that the U.S. was on an inevitable march toward godlessness. But just because people have stopped leaving church en masse, that doesn’t mean a revival is underway, that suddenly the country is rushing back to the pews. Religious change doesn’t happen that quickly. Before secularization stalled, about 40 million Americans had left church over a few decades. This had extraordinary ripple effects. It changed how people gather, vote, marry, volunteer and find meaning in their lives. To undo that isn’t just a matter of people changing their beliefs, as Christian Smith, the author of “Why Religion Went Obsolete,” told me. It requires significant behavioral change — new rituals, habits and community. In short, conversion demands that people change their identities. And that takes time. For now, we are not seeing spikes in church attendance in national data, Chip Rotolo at Pew Research told me. And with birthrates dropping, fewer babies are being born into churchgoing families. Then why are people claiming revival? Americans cheering the announcement of a new pope at the Vatican in 2025. Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times It excites people. After years of losing status in American life, Christians are eager to claim ground. Ranjeet Guptara, a financier from Tennessee I met on a plane recently, told me a new church he’s worked with has “grown fast.” Even cloistered Catholic canonesses I met in the Tehachapi Mountains of California were talking about it, as was one of their visiting families. “Universities are starting to see a revival,” said Tom Huckins, a 64-year-old Catholic rancher and the father of one of the new canonesses. It’s politically advantageous. Republicans in the Trump administration and in Congress have allied themselves with conservative Christianity. “For a party that has staked its political prominence on defending a certain vision of America that is Christian,” Campbell, the Notre Dame professor, told me, “this helps them.” It’s a sign they are delivering on that promise. It’s a story that explains broader trends. The country is lonely, polarized, cynical, anxious and depressed. In reporting for Believing, a weekly newsletter about how people live religion now, people tell me all the time that they are searching for richer, more meaningful lives. “There is a hunger, especially in this climate, for spirituality,” Rabbi Sandra Lawson said when I talked with her last week about the redemption stories of Passover and Easter. But curiosity does not always lead to conversion. What else is happening? It’s important to recognize that something is, indeed, shifting in the culture. In particular, elite spaces seem to be growing more conversant in religious language and receptive to religious ideas. I’m talking about Silicon Valley billionaires embracing church, Hollywood making religious movies and pop stars singing about faith. (Rosalía recently sang that she was “hot for God.”) All of that is pretty new, and would have been hard to imagine even 10 years ago. Before we declare “revival,” though, we’re going to need more data. Sign up for the Believing newsletter. A weekly newsletter about how people live religion and spirituality now, with Lauren Jackson. Get it in your inbox THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran U.S. Air Force personnel last month at an air base in Britain. Phil Noble/Reuters The U.S. rescued a missing Air Force officer whose plane had been shot down by Iran, Trump said. The rescue came after a dayslong race between U.S. and Iranian forces deep inside Iran. The operation involved hundreds of Special Operations troops, officials said. Read more about the rescue. Trump said on social media that the officer was injured but would “be just fine.” He added that there were no U.S. casualties among the rescue team. What’s it like for Iranians living through strikes? Two people sent our reporter regular voice messages and updates. These are their stories. Politics Some Americans are seeing the full impact of Trump’s tax cuts as they file their taxes. After ICE took their parents, these children had to raise one another. Gregg Phillips, who is in charge of responding to fires and floods for FEMA, says God teleported him to a Waffle House in Georgia. Our reporter investigated. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Chappell Roan has been in several spats with fans and photographers who she felt were not respecting her privacy. What’s the best way for a celebrity to interact with the public? Engage with your fans. “I’m going, ‘OK now, the universe gave you what you were asking for. Now, what is it about people you don’t like? Oh, you want to be famous and rich without the people?’ It doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t work like that. You have to be able to engage,” said Lionel Richie said in an interview for “Artist Friendly.” Set boundaries. “I don’t like how she’s being treated at all. When a woman has boundaries, I think people freak out. Men can do violent criminal things and people applaud them, but when a woman says, ‘Stop following me,’ it’s controversial? It’s like: You guys just hate women, actually,” Zara Larsson, a pop singer, told The Guardian. FROM OPINION Trump should name a “special representative to the resistance” in Iran to help foster regime change, writes John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The war in Iran has put the country on “a path to become another North Korea,” writes the columnist Nicholas Kristof, with leaders who seem more repressive and determined to get nuclear weapons. 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 Prescott, Ariz. Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times One household, one vote: Meet the women who believe they would be better off letting their husbands vote for them. $400 Bible?: Luxurious scripture is on the rise. 16 strangers, one novel: What happens when you shrink down a book club to two days? Welcome to Page Break. Drunk, minus the drink: This extremely rare syndrome can cause D.W.I.s and accusations of secret drinking. It might be underdiagnosed. 30 years later: The Unabomber’s cabin in the woods has been moved around the U.S., dismantled, rebuilt and photographed like fine art. SPORTS Men’s college basketball: The championship matchup is set, with Michigan, the No. 1 seed, and UConn, No. 2, advancing after Final Four wins. Women’s college basketball: South Carolina will face U.C.L.A. today in the championship game. Women’s hockey: The New York Sirens and the Seattle Torrent drew the largest crowd ever for a professional women’s hockey game in the U.S., with 18,006 fans packing Madison Square Garden. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “The Keeper” by Tana French: Welcome to the final thriller in French’s reliably twisty and atmospheric trilogy about Cal Hooper, a Chicago cop who retires to western Ireland. In this installment, a young woman disappears — and then her body turns up in a river, causing an uproar that, for Hooper, is too close to home. You don’t need to read the previous two books (“The Searcher” and “The Hunter”) to appreciate “The Keeper.” But, Sarah Lyall writes, “if you start here, I bet that you’ll want to go back, if only for the chance to fill in the characters’ back stories and to luxuriate some more in French’s prose.” Read her review here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photo illustration by Bobby Doherty for The New York Times. Prop stylist: Ariana Salvato. Read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Shred your old documents, even if you’re not a secret agent and you don’t think you have anything to hide. Read something short this spring. Here are 10 great books under 200 pages. Chop and dice food faster, and more safely, with these top-notch chef’s knives. Stop charging your phone to 100 percent. MEAL PLAN Armando Rafael for The New York Times Easter, Passover, spring break: We’re in a holiday sprint. If you’re itching to bake for friends and family, Emily Weinstein, the editor in chief of NYT Cooking, has high praise for this Earl Grey chocolate tart, plus this recipe for homemade matzo, enriched with olive oil. But you will still need to eat dinner. Emily brings you the slurp of a new noodle soup, the pucker of piccata and the crisp crust of a skillet pie. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were arguably and burglary. Can you put eight historical events — including Amelia Earhart’s joyride, Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and the creation of the Rorschach test — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. P.S.: The Interview is taking the week off. It will be back next Sunday. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 7 Author Members Posted April 7 April 6, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Israel and Iran traded strikes early this morning, a day after President Trump said he was “considering blowing everything up” if Iran does not end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump threatened in an expletive-laden post on social media. There’s more below. First, though, we’re going to answer some more of your questions. Voting in Austin, Texas. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times Asked and answered Last week we took a bunch of your questions about the news and gave them to our expert reporters to answer. That led readers to send us hundreds more questions — about politics, tech, culture and more. So we’re back with answers. Keep those questions coming! I’ve read that Trump can declare a state of emergency and cancel the midterm elections. Is that true? | Carmen Rodriguez-Visek | Las Vegas, Nevada Nick Corasaniti, who covers voting and elections, writes: Stop doomscrolling, dear readers! No, the president has zero authority to cancel elections. Federal law dictates Election Day, and elections are run by individual states. In fact, the Constitution grants the president no explicit authority over any facet of elections. So if the president muses about canceling elections, or even makes a declaration attempting to do so, it is effectively meaningless (though it would certainly cause chaos and confusion). Remember, federal elections have occurred on the current timeline for more than 150 years, including during two world wars, events that probably qualify as national emergencies. What is going on in Venezuela? After Nicolás Maduro was captured, Trump started the Iran war and Venezuela vanished from the headlines. | Lynn Hartfield | Denver, Colorado Anatoly Kurmanaev, who covers Venezuela, writes: It’s hard for Venezuela to compete for attention these days. The Middle East upheaval has made the shock-and-awe operation to snatch Venezuela’s president in January look almost quaint in retrospect. Since then, Venezuela’s new rulers, under Trump’s tutelage, have barreled ahead with opening up the country’s immense natural wealth to Western investment. But the uptake has been rather tepid. Venezuela, after all, remains under American sanctions, and investors are wary that Trump’s Venezuela policies will come under scrutiny if Republicans lose in the midterms. Meanwhile, life remains hard for most Venezuelans. The country now sells more oil for higher prices, but the proceeds are going to a clique of local banks and corporations. Little is trickling down. Is classical music a dying art? In the age of digital streaming, are the world’s best orchestras struggling to sell tickets? | Max Holland | Libertyville, Illinois Adam Nagourney, who covers classical music and dance, writes: Classical music is certainly struggling, as you say — grappling with declining audiences, a reflection of changing tastes, the high cost of a night out and competition from streaming platforms. But dying? I don’t think so. Check out Gustavo Dudamel, the high-energy incoming music director at the New York Philharmonic. Or look at what Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, is doing, championing populist operas like “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” and recruiting the next-generation director Yuval Sharon to present a new “Tristan und Isolde” this year. Will it work? Over these past few months of attending performances on both coasts — at Walt Disney Hall, David Geffen Hall and the Metropolitan Opera — I didn’t spot an empty seat in the house. A Microsoft data center in Arizona. Rebecca Noble for The New York Times What, exactly, do data centers actually do? | Rose M. Solomon | Columbus, Ohio Karen Weise, who covers technology and A.I., writes: Data centers are like massive remote computers that process much of the digital world we interact with every day. They store and serve up the data needed for online banking, streaming movies, tracking an Amazon delivery, hailing an Uber, you name it. With the rise of artificial intelligence, the size, complexity and cost of data centers have increased dramatically. Tech companies use far more computer chips, packed closely together, to run the trillions of calculations needed to develop and deploy A.I. systems. That means the A.I. data centers being built around the country now consume more electricity, and take up more space, than the facilities that powered the last internet era. GLP-1 drugs are often in the news for their positive health benefits. What are the negative effects of short- and long-term use? | Gail Johansen | Fairbanks, Alaska Dani Blum, who covers weight loss drugs like Ozempic, writes: These drugs come with side effects, most commonly gastrointestinal ones that can be particularly intense as people are titrating up their dose. People commonly feel nauseous, tired, constipated or have diarrhea. People also can shed muscle mass when they lose a large amount of weight. And if they eat too little, they run the risk of becoming malnourished. There are some rarer side effects, too, like gallbladder and kidney problems, pancreatitis and stomach paralysis. The long-term question, though, is thornier. People are supposed to stay on these drugs for their whole lives, and since some of these compounds are fairly new, we simply do not know what will happen after, say, 50 years of use. THE LATEST NEWS War in the Mideast In Tehran. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Trump has threatened to attack power plants and desalination facilities in Iran. If that happens, it could be considered a war crime. Oil prices rose slightly this morning following Trump’s comments. Iran’s downing of an American fighter plane and the dramatic U.S. rescue mission that followed have left both sides emboldened. The C.I.A. played an important role in the airman’s rescue. The strikes carried out by both sides in the war have stretched across a vast area. These five maps show the scale of the conflict. Immigration ICE agents detained the wife of a newlywed Army staff sergeant on a military base. Video footage of the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis this winter contradicts an ICE agent’s version of the confrontation. Around the World Pope Leo XIV arriving for Easter Mass. Matteo Minnella/Reuters The Vatican: In his first Easter address, Pope Leo called for peace and said the world is growing “accustomed to violence.” China: The government tightened rules on drone use. There will be a near-total ban in Beijing. Libya: More than 70 migrants trying to reach Europe were feared dead after their boat capsized off the country’s coast. Artemis II Early this morning, Artemis II will enter the lunar sphere of influence, where the pull of the moon’s gravity becomes stronger than Earth’s. NASA families don’t go to the moon, but they’re on the mission, too. Other Big Stories Savannah Guthrie is set to return to the “Today” show this morning. She had taken leave to help search for her abducted mother, who remains missing. Jeffrey Epstein spent his last days of freedom in Paris, meeting with influential figures. It was a playbook he used everywhere he lived. OPINIONS The last time German Lopez visited San Francisco, parts of the city looked like open-air drug dens, he writes. It doesn’t look like that anymore — a sign that the new mayor is helping turn the city around. Democrats should drop cronyism and nepotism in selecting candidates to win back voters’ trust, writes Michelle Cottle. 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 Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times Easter parade: New Yorkers strolled down Fifth Avenue to show off their best spring looks. See more photos. Surviving: A pregnant mom. A musician entering the prime of his career. A couple setting down roots. All of their lives were upended by a cancer diagnosis in their 20s or 30s. Read their stories. Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about the impact of Trump’s tax cuts on everyday Americans. TODAY’S NUMBER 21 — That is the number of cast-iron radiators Bat-Ami Rivlin zip-tied together for his conceptual sculpture at the Management gallery in New York. Check it out. SPORTS Joe Camporeale/Imagn Images, via Reuters Connect Women’s college basketball: U.C.L.A. claimed its first national championship with a 79-51 victory over South Carolina. N.H.L.: The New York Islanders fired head coach Patrick Roy after four straight losses. Peter DeBoer, a former Dallas Stars coach, will replace him. M.L.B.: Los Angeles Angels right fielder Jo Adell robbed the Seattle Mariners of three home runs to secure a 1-0 win. RECIPE OF THE DAY Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Sometimes I like to greet the first work night of the week with a meal that evokes the pleasures of a Saturday lunch: meatball subs. Ali Slagle’s recipe is simple and satisfying. The only tricky part is finding a good hoagie roll. Eat with your hands. WEDDING STORY The New York Times Robert Pattinson and Zendaya sat down with our Anna Martin of “Modern Love” to talk about the anxieties they explore in their new film, “The Drama.” Watch. More on culture The novel will never die. Ben Lerner’s latest, “Transcription,” shows why that is, writes Parul Sehgal, a critic for The Times. Her argument’s a joy. How agentic are you? If you’re tech-associated, tech-adjacent or tech-adjacent-adjacent, the answer is probably very. Nitsuh Abebe, who writes “On Language” for The Times, takes a close look at the new-old word. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Listen to Harry Styles’s new album, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.” Wesley Morris calls it the sound of spring. Work outside even if you need to be at a desk, with some of these tips from Wirecutter’s fully distributed WFHers. Use a neti pot to clear the chronic sinus inflammation that can come with allergy season, with this expert advice. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was facility. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 8 Author Members Posted April 8 April 7, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. We’ll start today behind the moon, farther from Earth than anyone’s ever been. The far side NASA At 6:44 p.m. Eastern, the crew of NASA’s moon mission Artemis II was cut off from the rest of humanity as the spaceship slipped behind the moon. For about 40 minutes, no one on Earth could know exactly what the four astronauts were doing. During their interlude in silence, they ventured farther from our planet than anyone who has ever lived. When the spacecraft emerged on the other side, the crew watched as a thin crescent of sunlit Earth rose above the lunar surface. NASA Since launching to space on Wednesday, the astronauts of Artemis II have relayed observations back to scientists on Earth. They have tangled with the vehicle’s toilet and taken dazzling photos of space. Before their loop around the moon, they also radioed Houston with a request. They asked to name a previously undesignated crater in memory of the wife of Reid Wiseman, the mission’s commander. She died of cancer in 2020. “It’s a bright spot on the moon, and we would like to call it Carroll,” said Jeremy Hansen, the mission specialist, his voice breaking up. The astronauts embraced and wiped their eyes. For a moment, mission control went silent. TODAY’S NUMBER 252,756 — That’s how many miles the Artemis II astronauts were from Earth last night. It’s a big number. Our writer Evan Gorelick offers a few points of comparison. Wiener dogs: If you took 22-inch dachshunds and laid them nose to tail, you’d need a very cooperative pack of almost 728 million dogs to cover the distance. It would be tough: There are only around 900 million dogs, of any breed, in existence. Walking a dog: If you took one of the dachshunds on a brisk 3-mile-per-hour walk, you’d need to walk for more than 84,000 hours to get there. That translates to nearly 10 years of continuous walking. (If the dog let out a celebratory bark upon arrival, and if sound could travel through space, it would reach Earth around 14 days later.) Eating hot dogs: You’d need a chain of 2.37 billion Nathan’s Famous hot dogs to cover the distance. If the competitive eater Joey Chestnut shoveled them down at his record-breaking pace of 76 dogs every 10 minutes, he’d need to eat nonstop for almost 594 years to devour the entire chain. (His monstrous meal would top 700 billion calories.) WAR IN IRAN In Tehran last week. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In perspective One of the most difficult things to understand about a faraway conflict is its scale — its size relative to our own lived experience. The graphic designer Massimo Vignelli had a line about that. He said that dimensions are physical, but scale is mental. I always took that to mean that scale exists in the imagination, a frame of mind that tells us more than a list of measurements or a roster of numbers. Take the war in the Middle East. My colleague Martín González Gómez, a graphics editor, wanted to understand its scale. To show it, he took maps of the conflict and laid them over maps of other parts of the world. The size of the theater Source: ACLED. Martín González Gómez/The New York Times The total land area of the countries shooting at each other would cover much of the continental United States. In the overlay, you can see that strikes have happened over what amounts to the distance between Florida and Oregon. Iran vs. Ukraine Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project. Martín González Gómez/The New York Times Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago, and each side has fought bitterly over narrow tracts of land. Iran is significantly larger than Ukraine and has more than double its population. The size of the strait Source: International Maritime Organization. Martín González Gómez/The New York Times Martín laid a map of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s supply of oil used to run, over a map of New York City. The narrow shipping channels that Iran has under its control are each about the width of a Manhattan neighborhood. These maps will help give you a sense of perspective. Also: These satellite images explain how tiny islands in or near the Strait of Hormuz help Iran control the flow of ships through the vital corridor. The latest on the war In the U.S. President Trump said yesterday that a new cease-fire proposal from Iran was “not good enough,” and repeated his threat to attack bridges and power plants if Iran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern. “Every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” he said at a press conference yesterday. He brushed off a Times reporter’s question about whether such strikes would violate the Geneva Conventions. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth likened the rescue of an American airman to the Resurrection of Jesus. In the Middle East An Israeli airstrike killed an Iranian intelligence chief. Iranians expressed outrage over the bombing of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, the country’s top engineering school. Neither the U.S. nor Israel has taken responsibility. Around the World Asian countries shut down nuclear plants after the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Gas shortages caused by the war are prompting them to reconsider. Global leaders are struggling in their efforts to end the war, in part because Trump seems determined to keep everyone off balance. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Kenny Holston/The New York Times At the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, cameras captured Trump telling a group of children about Biden’s use of an autopen. “He was incapable of signing his name,” Trump said, to which a child replied: “What?” The Trump administration terminated civil rights settlements that aimed to ensure equal opportunities for transgender students. Congress A news report linked Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas, who has admitted to an affair with an aide, to a series of sexual texts with a different aide. There is a special election in Georgia today to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene’s House seat. It’s one of the first big tests of how voters feel about the war in Iran. Around the World Ukrainian soldiers last year. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Ukraine: As spring foliage appears, Russian troops are using tree lines to aid an offensive. Argentina: President Javier Milei said he had no connection to a cryptocurrency he promoted that later collapsed. New evidence raises questions about that. Gaza: Trump’s Board of Peace is demanding that Hamas disarm by the end of the week. Afghanistan: Families continue to search for signs of their loved ones after a Pakistani attack on a rehab center in Kabul last month. OPINIONS Do insurance companies prioritize profit over patient care? A plastic surgeon and a former CVS executive debate — and search for common ground — in our new series, “Divided.” Watch it here. Settler violence in the West Bank is worsening. A new chorus of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel is demanding that the government put an end to it, Talia Sasson 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 The Shanghai History Museum, housed in the former Shanghai Race Club. Qilai Shen for The New York Times Shanghai dispatch: The city’s history as a place that welcomed foreign influence is visible in its historic buildings. Many of them are now under threat. 10-minute challenge: Spend some time with an image from an “I Spy” book and see what secrets emerge. Bald is beautiful?: A new drug that prevents hair loss is changing how men see themselves. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about ICE’s detention of a soldier’s wife. Metropolitan Diary: Park bench misunderstanding. SPORTS Bob Donnan/Imagn Images, via Reuters Men’s college basketball: Michigan defeated UConn 69-63 to win the national championship, its first in 37 years. W.N.B.A.: The Chicago Sky traded Angel Reese, a two-time All-Star, to the Atlanta Dream for first-round draft picks in 2027 and 2028. RECIPE OF THE DAY Kerri Brewer for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Chicken Manchurian is South Asia’s rejoinder to food court Chinese chicken in America: a sticky, spicy-sweet Desi Chinese stir-fry dependent on the flavors of caramelized ketchup, chile and garlic. Zainab Shah’s recipe calls for cubed chicken breasts, but I prefer thighs for the flavor and juiciness. You may prefer cauliflower or tofu, both of which fry nicely and soak up the sauce well. Serve over rice with a lot of sliced scallions over the top. PICK A CARD Lyndon French for The New York Times A wealthy health care entrepreneur is opening a $50 million, 35,000-square-foot mansion of magic in downtown Chicago, with five performance theaters, seven bars and two restaurants, all devoted to the art of legerdemain. The space can accommodate as many as 850 guests over the course of a night, on five floors. There will be a rotating roster of 22 magicians. “I’ve often said to people that either this will work or I will live in the nicest house in Chicago,” the owner told The Times. “There is no in between.” More on culture Savannah Guthrie’s return to the “Today” show, her first appearance as a host since her mother disappeared in February, was an extraordinary television moment, our critic James Poniewozik wrote. “Normally, an anchor’s job is to deliver the news. Guthrie is showing her audience an example of how to live with no news.” Emma Straub’s latest novel, “American Fantasy,” is about a boy band on a cruise ship — fodder for both comedy and redemption on the high seas. Here’s our review. Grant Gibbs and Ashley Gill are a comedy duo who perform under the stage name “A Twink and a Redhead,” and if you haven’t heard of them it probably means you don’t spend a lot of time on TikTok. They spoke with The Times about their origins and their dreams. Late night hosts mocked Trump’s expletive-filled ultimatum to Iran. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Rachel Levit Ruiz Adjust your sleep position and maybe you’ll lose that morning crick in your neck. It’s worth a try. Listen to “Catching the Codfather,” a podcast from GBH News about the rise and fall of Carlos Rafael, the biggest fishing tycoon in New Bedford, Mass. I blew through it in a weekend. Store your bike indoors on one of these racks that the pedalers at Wirecutter recommend — or make like me and lock it up securely outside. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was paycheck. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 9 Author Members Posted April 9 April 8, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. The United States and Iran came to a last-minute cease-fire deal, after President Trump threatened to wipe out a “whole civilization” if Iran did not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It’s a two-week agreement that Israel said did not extend to the fighting in Lebanon. World leaders are directing this war from behind closed doors. Today, we go inside the room where Benjamin Netanyahu helped convince Trump that he should start it. In Tehran after the cease-fire announcement. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Why we’re at war My colleagues Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, who report on the White House, have uncovered new details about why, with little opposition from his closest aides, Trump attacked Iran. The pitch came from Israel — in the Situation Room. Netanyahu made an hourlong presentation to Trump and his senior advisers on Feb. 11, arguing that a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign could destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, force regime change and bring down the Islamic republic. Sounds good to me, the president said. The next morning, U.S. intelligence officials questioned that plan. Kill the ayatollah? Sure. Cripple Iran’s capacity to threaten its neighbors? Absolutely. But a popular uprising? A secular leader installed to govern the country? They found that “detached from reality.” The director of the C.I.A. called the scenario “farcical.” Trump, though, thought the campaign would be quick and decisive. Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump in December. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Previous victories filled him with confidence. He pointed to Iran’s muted response to the U.S. bombing of its nuclear facilities in June, and to the hasty seizure of the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, an operation during which no American lives were lost. Tucker Carlson called the president to ask how he could be sure that everything would be OK in Iran. “Because it always is,” Trump replied. Trump’s decision was gut-driven, and driven by Trump’s gut alone. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was enthusiastic about striking Tehran, of course. But Trump’s more equivocal advisers — Secretary of State Marco Rubio; his chief of staff, Susie Wiles; and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — did not push back on Trump’s plan. (His director of national intelligence and Treasury secretary weren’t even part of the final discussion.) Vice President JD Vance told the president: You know I think this is a bad idea, but if you want to do it, I’ll support you. Read more of the inside story about how Trump decided to go to war with Iran. It’s reporting taken from a forthcoming book from Jonathan and Maggie, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” More on the cease-fire In the cease-fire, the U.S. and Iran agreed to pause military strikes, and Iran said that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be possible if it was coordinated with Iran’s military. The news may not have reached some Iranian local commanders, as new missile and drone attacks were reported in the Persian Gulf. Oil prices fell and Asian stocks surged this morning on the news of the deal. Trump’s violent threats could be considered as an intent to commit war crimes. And while his intimidation tactics may have forced an Iranian response, the issues that led to war aren’t resolved, David Sanger writes. Before the cease-fire was announced, Pope Leo issued a strong rebuke of Trump, calling his threats “truly unacceptable.” More on the war An Iraqi militia allied with Iran freed an American journalist it abducted in Baghdad a week ago. In the video below, our reporter Helene Cooper walks us through the high-stakes operation to rescue a downed U.S. airman in Iran. Click to play. The New York Times THE LATEST NEWS Midterm Elections Georgia: Clay Fuller, a Trump-backed Republican former prosecutor, won a House race to replace former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. But the district shifted about 25 points to the left from the 2024 presidential election. Wisconsin: A liberal candidate won a race for the state’s Supreme Court. Liberals now have a 5-to-2 majority. Are results from yesterday’s votes a warning for Republicans? Here are three takeaways. Politics Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank and his wife, Annie Ramos, after she was released from immigration detention. Lily Brooks for The New York Times A U.S. soldier’s new wife, whom immigration agents detained at her husband’s Army base, was released after five days at a detention center. Border Patrol detained a Venezuelan doctor in Texas who was forced out of his job by a federal visa pause. He had been featured in a Times article about the immigration policy. Around the World Viktor Orban and JD Vance in Budapest yesterday. Pool photo by Jonathan Ernst Hungary: Vance visited Budapest to show the Trump administration’s support for Viktor Orban, the country’s nationalist prime minister, before Sunday’s elections. Britain: The government barred Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, from entering the country because of his history of antisemitism. North Korea: Kim Jong-un’s young daughter drove a tank, adding to speculation that she is being groomed to succeed him as the nation’s leader. Artificial Intelligence Anthropic claims its new A.I. model, Claude Mythos Preview, is too powerful to be released to the public. How reliable is Google’s A.I. overview feature? An analysis found that it was accurate nine times out of 10. Given Google’s size, though, that amounts to tens of millions of erroneous answers every hour. Other Big Stories Texas education officials are considering putting readings from the Bible on a state-required reading list for public schools. Two men arrested in a bomb attack outside the home of New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, last month wanted to kill as many as 60 people in the name of ISIS, prosecutors say. “I want to start terror, bro,” one said. MOON JOY NASA What did the Artemis II astronauts see on the far side of the moon? They spoke across deep space to describe lunar hills, valleys and plains. Hurtling around the moon, they also saw the terminator line, which separates the moon’s sunlit and dark halves. It holds islands of light and valleys of black holes. “You’d fall straight to the center of the moon if you stepped in some of those,” said Victor Glover, the pilot. The crew described being awe-struck by an eclipse, when the sun slipped behind the moon, inducing a halo of light around the lunar rim. As they passed out of it, the astronauts likened the growing spot of light on the lunar horizon to a flame, and the wispy streams of its outer atmosphere to baby hair. After a while, words couldn’t suffice. “There’s no adjectives,” Reid Wiseman, the mission’s commander, said while looking out the window. “I’m going to need to invent new ones.” OPINIONS Artificial intelligence is threatening to further inequality and the affordability crisis. Workers should be “in charge of the firms deciding how to use A.I.,” and help redistribute the wealth, Jennifer Harris writes. The effects of the war in Iran could shape summer vacations, with fewer flights and costlier gas, Bill Saporito and David Stubbs write. Here are columns by Thomas Friedman on Anthropic’s new A.I. model and Ross Douthat on the idealism of the space program. 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 Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times Renovations: Curators of Paris’s catacombs are trying to preserve and modernize the tunnels while maintaining their spooky atmosphere. Iced out: Skating rink operators are opting for synthetic surfaces as the planet warms, but some environmentalists say plastic is not the answer. Mental health: Idaho cut medical care for people with mental illness. A series of deaths has prompted lawmakers to reconsider. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a drug that is changing how men see themselves. Avant-garde guru: Linda Dresner introduced generations of well-to-do women to inventive fashion at her stores on Park Avenue and in suburban Detroit. She died at 88. TODAY’S NUMBER $18,870 — That is the median net worth of Black households in New York State, according to a government plan cited by Mamdani. For white households it is $276,900. SPORTS N.F.L.: A year after the former Chicago Bears defensive tackle Steve McMichael died of complications of A.L.S., he was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. M.L.B.: The Chicago Cubs pitcher Cade Horton will have elbow surgery and miss the rest of the season. RECIPE OF THE DAY Here’s an easy weeknight way to transport yourself to midsummer down the shore: Ali Slagle’s recipe for Old Bay tofu nuggets, which I happen to like with pickleback slaw. Ali’s such a smarty. She has us coat the torn tofu in hot sauce before dredging it with a mixture of flour, Old Bay seasoning and garlic powder, and it really adheres. Roast until crisp, then serve with lemon wedges and the slaw. Eat barefoot on the boardwalk of your mind. A TENTH LIFE The New York Times Helen Shaw, our theater critic, delivered a rave for “Cats: the Jellicle Ball,” which opened on Broadway last night. Check out some of the show’s stars “werking” the offices of our T Magazine to understand some of the furious, glorious energy the show brings to audiences. More on culture Dwight Garner, one of our book critics, is excellent on the work of the New Orleans writer Nancy Lemann, who has three books out this spring. Here’s Dwight: These are books for the misanthropes, the anti-socialites, those with negative self-regard. (You know who you are.) They’ll put you in mind of writers such as Lorrie Moore, Lydia Davis, Mary Robison and Fran Lebowitz, the four horsewomen of the anarchapocalypse. Women who take no bull hockey from anyone. Late-night hosts puzzled over Trump’s “mixed message” on Iran. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS NYT Wirecutter Place this lazy duck lamp on your bedside table and experience what Ben Frumin, the charmingly birdbrained editor of Wirecutter, calls the nexus of “emptiness and despair, laughter and joy.” Write someone a letter by hand. The activity lights up parts of your brain associated with creativity, memory and your senses in a way that emailing does not. Read Don Winslow’s “The Final Score,” six not-quite novellas from a king of crime fiction who in 2022 said he was retiring from writing fiction. I’m glad he’s back on the scene. They’re good. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were engulfed and unfledged. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 10 Author Members Posted April 10 April 9, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. We’ll begin today in the Middle East, where the cease-fire remains shaky. Ships are still waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and Lebanon has declared a day of mourning after intense Israeli attacks. In Beirut yesterday. Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times A wobbly truce How steady is the cease-fire in the Middle East? Israeli missiles have continued to fall on Lebanon, Iran threatens a military response, and shippers are confused about the status of the Strait of Hormuz. The United States and Iran don’t even agree on what it will take to open peace talks. Both sides have declared victory in the conflict. The United States has destroyed most of Iran’s navy and reduced its ability to shoot missiles across the region. But President Trump’s other goals remain unrealized. Iran still has uranium to make a bomb someday; it still guides regional militias like Hezbollah; its regime still holds power and crushes dissent. And Iran, for its part, now has total control of the strait. What could end the war? White House officials say talks are expected to begin between the two nations on Saturday, brokered by Pakistan. They are likely to be contentious. Among other things in its 10-point proposal, Iran wants to maintain its control of the strait, the narrow passage through which a fifth of the world’s oil usually flows. Iran’s chokehold on it during the war has damaged the global economy. “It is very unlikely that Washington or Iran’s Gulf Arab neighbors would accept this,” my colleague Erika Solomon reports. Iran also wants Americans gone from the region. It wants reparations to pay for damages. And it wants the U.S. to accept Iran’s right to enrich uranium. That’s not going to happen. The United States has bases across the Persian Gulf states, Israel and Iraq. The administration is unlikely to pay to rebuild Iran. And as for its nuclear ambitions, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at a news conference yesterday that the United States could send Special Operations troops to seize the fissile material. “If we have to, we can do it in any means necessary,” he said. What’s happening inside Iran? In Tehran yesterday. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times The United States and Israel have killed scores of Iranian leaders and bombed the country’s military infrastructure to rubble. But as Yeganeh Torbati and Erika report, Iran’s leaders may now see themselves in a stronger position than they were when the war started. Who is in charge now? The new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen in public since taking office. His absence, Yeganeh reports, has fueled speculation that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — ideologically hard-lined masters of asymmetric warfare — are running Iran. Far from the corridors of power, The Times reported yesterday, the cease-fire elicited a confusing mix of emotions among Iran’s citizens. There was relief, but also shock and a sense of foreboding. Armed pro-government militia members have established checkpoints on Tehran’s streets. “The cease-fire was announced in a way that made it feel like the people were left on their own, facing a repressive regime alone,” a doctor living in the northeast of the country told The Times. “Ordinary people are very worried about the future and have less hope for change compared to before the war started.” Still, Trump’s threat to wipe out the country’s “whole civilization” was on pause. “I feel better today compared to yesterday,” one resident of Tehran told The Times. What’s next? Whether or not the cease-fire folds, the nations of the Persian Gulf now have to re-evaluate their relationships with Israel, Iran and the U.S., my colleague Vivian Nereim reported. “Politicians, investors and residents in wealthy cities like Dubai and Doha once believed they were essentially immune to the region’s conflicts,” she wrote. “The American-Israeli war with Iran has smashed that assumption.” Their oil fields were exposed to attacks, as were their water desalination plants, their hotels, their airports. And those attacks continued yesterday after the announcement of the cease-fire. “In truth, one of the most significant outcomes of this war is the shattering of the concept of a regional security system in the Gulf,” a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry said last month. “The security framework in the Gulf was based on certain axioms. Many of these axioms have been bypassed.” More on the fragile truce Vice President JD Vance said that Lebanon was never part of the cease-fire agreement. Iran says otherwise and the disagreement threatens to unravel the deal. Pakistan’s prime minister posted a plea on social media on Tuesday asking Trump to extend his deadline. The White House helped craft the message. The 36 hours before the cease-fire came together were full of frantic negotiations. On Truth Social, Trump supporters have been criticizing the war. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Source: Executive Office for Immigration Review. Allison McCann/The New York Times The Trump administration has pressured immigration judges to deport more people by firing and threatening those seen as not supporting the president’s agenda, a Times investigation found. The politics of the F-bomb: The Times analyzed which lawmakers favor the four-letter word. Democrats say it most. Around the World In Pluckley, England. Andrew Testa for The New York Times Britain: A report claiming that the country was having a Christian revival went viral. It wasn’t true. Greece: The country announced plans to bar children under 15 from social media. Vietnam: Rising energy costs have stalled rice production in the country that’s usually the world’s second-largest exporter. Other Big Stories Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to the murders of eight women, seven of whom were found dead near Gilgo Beach on Long Island. The case had vexed investigators for more than a decade. The woman who illegally sold the ketamine that killed the actor Matthew Perry was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The U.S. fertility rate dropped again in 2025, hitting a record low. The Times spent more than a year searching for the inventor of Bitcoin. We amassed a body of evidence suggesting that he’s a British cryptographer named Adam Back. Click the video below to learn more. The New York Times DRUGMAKING ARMS RACE Source: Blood test data from NMS Labs’ analysis of toxicology samples, including fatal and nonfatal cases. Jonathan Corum/The New York Times How can the government regulate drugs it doesn’t know exist? Often, it can’t. So underground labs pump out new synthetic substances at breakneck speed. They modify old compounds — add or subtract an atom, tweak a carbon ring — to create ever-more-potent ones. The party drug MDMA, for instance, has been illegal since 1985. But by changing a single oxygen atom, clandestine chemists created a new drug with a similar high that could be sold legally as “bath salts.” One dealer recently let Times reporters watch him divvy up a potentially fatal drug into baggies. Read more about the unregulated market for increasingly potent drugs. OPINIONS Ben Sasse The New York Times How should you live while you are dying? Ross Douthat interviewed Ben Sasse, a former Republican senator who has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. To address the affordability crisis, Democrats should first provide paid family leave, Hillary Clinton 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 Andy Isaacson Sight unseen: What is it like to travel while blind? Skills building: Some young people are looking to construction as a way to learn in-demand trades that can’t be replaced by A.I. yet. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was a video about the rescue of the downed U.S. airman in Iran. What’s good? After a dinner party, start a text thread so your friends can share all the books, links and events they discussed. Sign up for the Good List newsletter. A weekly inventory of ideas, rituals and cultural artifacts to add joy to your days. Get it in your inbox TODAY’S NUMBER 98 — As the Masters tournament gets underway at Augusta National this week, that is how many consecutive major golf tournaments Adam Scott will have played in since 2001. It is the second-longest streak in the modern era of golf, behind Jack Nicklaus’s 146 in a row. SPORTS Golf: The Florida prosecutors in Tiger Woods’s D.U.I. case have requested his prescription drug records from the start of this year until the day he was involved in a crash. M.L.B.: Davey Lopes, a four-time All-Star with the Los Angeles Dodgers and one of the most proficient base stealers of his generation, died at 80. RECIPE OF THE DAY Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times You’ll miss root vegetables when summer’s roaring and everything’s tomatoes and corn. So get on Melissa Clark’s recipe for pasta with parsnips and bacon while you still can. The pairing of sweet and salty is lovely, and leeks add an herbaceous note. I’ve made it for vegetarians, too, omitting the bacon, using salted butter and really, really caramelizing the parsnips for texture and depth. That, too, is a win. THE BLOB The David Geffen Galleries. Damien Maloney for The New York Times The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is about to open its new David Geffen Galleries, 20 years in the making. The building is a 347,500-square-foot amoeba that soars over Wilshire Boulevard and will soon have its own subway stop. It cost $724 million to build. It’s a milestone in the country’s cultural life. “This is one of the most important museum buildings to have been completed in the last quarter-century by virtue of its scale, ambition, quality and promise,” said Glenn Lowry, the longtime director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. More on culture We can, if you’ll give us just five minutes, make you love Detroit jazz. Late night hosts skewered Trump’s cease-fire deal. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Theodore Tae for The New York Times Start practicing yoga. You’ll need just 10 minutes and a chair. Survive allergy season with these three tips from the once sneezy, now breezy drugstore mavens at Wirecutter. Read “Mating,” Norman Rush’s 1991 novel about an American anthropologist in Botswana. It was a whole thing among younger readers a few years ago. But this is never not true: It’s the book you ought to read next. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were habitation and inhabitation. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. If you want to see more of my colleagues’ great reporting when you Google something, then add The Times as a preferred source. It’s easy: Just click this link. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted April 12 Author Members Posted April 12 April 10, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Today, we’re going to start with some frightening developments in the world of artificial intelligence. My colleague Evan Gorelick has that news. Then we have more — about the war, the Artemis II mission’s return to Earth tonight and … erotic novelists in Nigeria. Have a great weekend. In San Francisco. Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters A.I. lockdown By Evan Gorelick I’m a writer for The Morning. People have spent years begging the big A.I. companies: Please slow down! Workers have lost jobs, students have cheated, energy costs have soared, creators have lost control of their work, liars have promulgated misinformation, deepfake nudes are everywhere, and teens have taken their own lives. People watching have wondered why we couldn’t erect more guardrails before unleashing this tech on society. Now, finally, an A.I. company has pumped the brakes. But not for any of those reasons. Anthropic said it would hold back its newest model, called Mythos, because the prototype was too good at finding software weaknesses. The A.I. had identified thousands of them, “including some in every major operating system and web browser,” Anthropic wrote. Of all the ways A.I. has already changed our lives, why is this the one that made Anthropic pause? Robohacking I wrote in this newsletter last year about the dawn of A.I.-powered cybercrime — of an age in which cybercriminals are robots and cyberdefenders are … also robots. Hordes of bad guys were suddenly using chatbots to turn out phishing scams and malware. Maybe the good guys could use the same tech to fend them off? Now, just nine months later, Mythos — a general-purpose A.I. model like the one your kid uses to cheat on English homework — has accomplished that feat. But it’s not exactly reassuring. A.I. has gotten so deft on defense that it’s also a threat on offense. Anthropic focused on making a model that codes. But A.I. that’s good at coding is also good at spotting flaws in code, and competence cuts both ways. Adam Glanzman for The New York Times During safety tests, an Anthropic researcher got an email from Mythos while he was eating a sandwich in the park. That was a surprise because the model wasn’t supposed to be online. It had escaped its test environment. It also bragged about breaking the rules and attempted to cover its tracks. Mythos is more trustworthy than its predecessors, but it’s not foolproof. And it’s so capable that when things go wrong, even a little wrong, they can go totally haywire. Internet apocalypse For decades, most hackers could hack most systems, but it was rarely worth their while. An A.I. like Mythos could change that calculus. It’s easy to imagine cybercriminals using these models to scope out the highest value vulnerabilities and dispatch automated grunts to exploit them en masse, at minimal cost. It could set off an A.I. version of Q-Day, a science-fictiony term for the hypothetical future date on which computers become so powerful that they crack all the internet’s encryption protocols; the digital gates to everyone’s bank accounts and data troves swing open, and looting ensues. Will the world’s software need to be rewritten? In slowing down, Anthropic may be remembering old lessons. In 2019, OpenAI delayed a version of ChatGPT because it worried that the model would “generate deceptive, biased or abusive language at scale” — then proceeded to release models that did just that. (Many leaders on the OpenAI project later defected to start Anthropic, with the goal of creating a more socially minded firm.) This time, Anthropic shared Mythos with other companies to help them harden their defenses. Yet it’s doubtful that Anthropic or anyone else can forestall an A.I. hacking spree, and many in Silicon Valley see Mythos as a terrifying sign of what’s to come. The federal government is nervous, too: It called Wall Street leaders to an urgent meeting this week to warn them that models like Mythos could imperil the global financial system, Bloomberg reported. The A.I. industry is built on assumptions: the so-called scaling laws, which say that future models will be trained with more data and better chips, and will therefore be more powerful. But if the state of the art is already too dangerous, where do we go from here? Even if Anthropic keeps its smartest models under wraps, other makers — Chinese labs, impatient start-ups — aren’t bound to do the same. WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST In Beirut, Lebanon. Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times Lebanon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would negotiate with the Lebanese government about trying to disarm Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia. Israel is striking Lebanon today, straining the U.S.-Iran cease-fire. The U.S. says Lebanon is not included in the truce; Iran and Europe say it should be. Iran The Times has verified damage to more than three dozen schools and health care facilities in Iran. Despite losing top leaders, Iran’s authoritarian government feels it has emerged stronger from the war. Iran is using social media to spread propaganda that overstates its military prowess. Here’s how it makes posts go viral. United States The NATO alliance is fraying as the war continues. Trump is citing European unwillingness to back the United States as another reason to scale back or abandon it. And he still wants Greenland. Vice President JD Vance will lead the U.S. delegation in cease-fire talks with Iran in Pakistan this weekend. It’s a major test. Some prominent conservatives — including Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly — have criticized Trump over Iran. Trump lashed out at them on social media. In the video below, my colleagues explain the inside story of how Trump decided to go to war against Iran. The New York Times THE LATEST NEWS Politics Left-wing protesters clashing with police officers in Milan in February. Elisa Marchina/NurPhoto, via Associated Press The Trump administration is pushing foreign governments to join its fight against what it calls far-left terrorists. It has given little evidence that these groups present a dire threat. A former U.S. Army employee was charged with leaking classified information after she told a journalist about experiencing sexual harassment at work. Melania Trump announced that she was not a victim of Jeffrey Epstein and that she wanted to clear her “good name.” It was not clear why she chose to speak out now, or what in particular she was referring to. ONE LAST TEST The Artemis II heat shield at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2020. Isaac Watson/NASA The most dangerous part of the Artemis II mission hasn’t happened yet: the return to Earth this evening. The spacecraft’s heat shield is flawed, and NASA knows it. During the first Artemis mission, in 2022, that part suffered more damage than expected as the spacecraft plummeted through the atmosphere. NASA is using the same material on this mission, but it has changed the re-entry path. The head of NASA, Jared Isaacman, says he is confident the changes are sufficient to keep the crew safe. Some former NASA officials, though, believe the risk is so great that the mission should have been postponed. MAMDANI AT 100 New York City is 100 days into the administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was swept into office on an ambitious platform promising to make the city more affordable. How is he doing? He has racked up a list of accomplishments — he’s gone after abusive employers and built a City Hall rest stop for delivery workers — while also retreating from some campaign promises, including his vow to give up mayoral control of public schools. We tracked Mamdani’s progress on some of his biggest ideas. Again, results are mixed: He has taken steps toward free universal child care, but his plan to offer free city buses has stalled. For more: Here are a timeline of Mamdani’s first 100 days and a video where he answers New Yorkers’ questions. The New York Times 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 Jim Whittaker on Mount Rainier in Washington in 1981. Barry Wong/The Seattle Times, via Associated Press A climbing life: Jim Whittaker summited Mount Everest in 1963, the first American to do so. His longtime leadership at R.E.I. helped establish a global mountaineering craze. He died at 97. Your pick: The most clicked story in The Morning yesterday was an interview with Ben Sasse, the former Republican senator who has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. TODAY’S NUMBER 31 — That is how many manatees have died in Florida, at least, since the start of the year after being hit by boats running too fast in places where they should be going slowly in order to not collide with manatees. Meet the people trying to save the sea cows. SPORTS W.N.B.A.: The W.N.B.A. and the N.B.A. Board of Governors approved three expansion teams. A Cleveland franchise is set to begin play in 2028, Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030. Golf: Bryson DeChambeau had a rocky start to his 10th Masters, which has him at risk of missing the cut, but he found success with a long iron he created himself. RECIPE OF THE DAY David Malosh for The New York Times Here’s an impressive way to clean out the fridge on a weekend morning while providing an elegant meal in the process: a crustless quiche. Eggs and cheese bake into a beautiful custard studded with mushrooms and laced with herbs. It ought to melt in your mouth. Serve with a salad dressed on the acidic side, to cut the richness. SERIAL EROTICA In Kano, Nigeria. Taiwo Aina for New York Times For decades, northern Nigeria has been home to a booming industry of romance novels, written by and for women. But in a region where Shariah law exists alongside secular courts to regulate public morality, steamier stories are deemed immoral. Some books have been publicly burned. Now, a new generation of writers is publishing far more explicit content — and serializing it on WhatsApp, like racy digital Dickenses. More on culture Melissa Chiu, director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, the nation’s museum of modern and contemporary art, is leaving her position to take over the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She’s the fourth director of a Smithsonian museum to depart within the last two years. Frankie Muniz, who played Malcolm on the 2000s sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle,” is now 40, a NASCAR driver and a dad. He’s also starring in a sequel to the show, “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair,” which premieres tonight. “I have unfinished business,” he told The Times. Jimmy Kimmel joked about Melania Trump’s Epstein press conference. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Watch our critic Jon Caramanica unpack the song of the week, “If You Wanna Party, Come Over to My House,” by Fcukers. It might be dippy pop, Jon says. Or boredwave? Callowcore? Rock on. Hydrate your body with the best moisturizers recommended by my supple-skinned colleagues at Wirecutter. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was effacement. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
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