Members phkrause Posted 20 hours ago Author Members Posted 20 hours ago August 28, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Authorities in Nepal are warning rescuers that more flooding may be on its way. Let’s start there. Atul Loke for The New York Times After the deluge As emergency workers flew helicopters up steep Himalayan river valleys yesterday to find survivors of a flood that killed more than 500 people and left more than 1,000 missing, scientists began to investigate its cause. They’ve been looking at satellite imagery and seismological data. The likely culprit: A gigantic landslide high in the mountains led to a glacial collapse that sent millions of tons of ice and rock into the valleys below it, pulverizing them into mud and water. The slurry burst dams and turned rivers into hydraulic rams. “The rock that the glacier was sitting on collapsed,” one scientist said. The scale of the disaster is staggering. It’s as if 1,000 Empire State Buildings exploded at the same time and the debris coursed down a canyon. The path of destruction ran for more than 40 miles. It washed away roads, cut bridges in half, overcame buildings and swallowed people whole. On the ground The Nepal Army carrying young children to a rescue helicopter to help their parents board. Atul Loke for The New York Times Anupreeta Das, who covers South Asia, was in Nepal yesterday, flying with rescuers to interview shocked survivors. They told her about the torrents of mud that brought horror into their lives. Here’s what she heard from a resident of a village close to Nepal’s border with Tibet: “They all died, and I lived,” said Dawa Lama, 45, starting to weep as he recounted how, just before 9 a.m. on Wednesday, he had heard a thunderclap, and then felt a breeze. Before he knew it, an enormous wave of muddy water had slammed into his home of 12 years in the border village of Timure, carrying away not just his belongings but also his wife and their two daughters, 7 and 8. Read more from the survivors here. Our changing climate Source: Satellite image by Copernicus and Landsat via Google | By The New York Times Scientists may still be putting together the exact causes of this week’s floods, but they are certain that climate change is heating the Himalayas and increasing the risks of disaster. Here’s why: A warming planet is melting the region’s permafrost, the mixture of frozen soil and rocks that has sat below its glaciers for millennia. Losing it leaves mountains and glaciers unstable — prone to landslides and collapse. “As the glaciers retreat and the permafrost melts, we see that these slopes become more susceptible to failure,” one scientist who studies glaciers told The Times, adding, “There’s a very straight link between climate change and these types of disasters.” More on the flooding Read why climate change is making flooding disasters more likely. See maps and images of the devastation. In The Kathmandu Post, a journalist wrote about seeing his childhood village disappear. MORNING READS Getty Images We’ve made these links free for you. Blended refreshers: Your favorite Starbucks drink may be making your barista break out in hives. Iceland Eclipse festival: Meet the most optimistic people in the world. Your pick: The most clicked story in The Morning yesterday was a video of the flooding in Nepal. LAKE ONTARI … OH! President Trump signed an executive order yesterday renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, effective immediately. The lake sits between the United States and Canada, so it’s a symbolic target amid the trade war between the two countries. (Trump said yesterday that Canada “treats us very badly.”) Legally speaking, the order — like Trump’s earlier one to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America — likely requires only federal entities to recognize the change. Other countries don’t have to recognize it. Nor do Americans and their businesses, even those within spitting distance of Lake … whatever you call it. (The Times will continue to call it Ontario.) Amanda Miller, 45, owns Lake Ontario Realty, which has helped people buy and sell waterfront properties in the area for over 20 years. By yesterday afternoon, her phone was blowing up. Everyone wanted to know: Would it be “Lake America Realty” now? No. It’s nothing personal, Miller told me; business is business. Lake Ontario Realty is well-known in the area around Chaumont, N.Y., and rebranding for no reason is “the worst thing you can do,” she said. — Evan Gorelick Related: A Canadian official said the U.S. had raised issues with the country’s use of the French language in trade negotiations — and that if the Trump administration changed course, trade talks could potentially resume. THE LATEST NEWS Foreign Policy John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, made a secretive visit to Moscow. He urged the Russians to end their war against Ukraine before their military and economic situation gets worse. The Pentagon will withdraw about 200 U.S. troops from Nigeria. They were deployed to help fight Islamist militants who President Trump said were attacking Christians. Politics The New York Times Angie Nixon, who scored a surprise victory in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary, made pink the signature color of her campaign. Our chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, examines the choice. Click above to watch. The administration of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, “misappropriated” $10 million in taxpayer money by diverting it to a charity tied to his wife, according to a leaked Florida grand jury report. An ICE agent facing charges in Minnesota was released from jail in Texas after Republican officials there blocked his extradition. The Trump administration plans to expand deportation flights to Haiti. Around the World King Harald V of Norway at his coronation in 1991. Inge Gjellesvik/NTB, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images King Harald V of Norway, whose 35-year reign opened an ancient monarchy to a contentious cast of family connections, including a celebrity shaman and Jeffrey Epstein, died at 89. Crown Prince Haakon, his only son, will become monarch. The success of progressive candidates in the United States is inspiring leftists in Latin America. Six months into war, Iran’s regime stands and American goals remain unmet, our diplomatic correspondent writes. Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for his role in Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II, died at 83. Ratko Mladic in Sarajevo in 1994. He was captured in 2011 and put on trial for genocide and war crimes. Pascal Guyot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Other Big Stories Two air traffic controllers at LaGuardia Airport left work early the night a jet collided with a fire truck in March, killing two people. The F.A.A. is moving to fire them. The Trump administration acted illegally when it barred Anthropic from working with the U.S. government, a federal judge ruled. Times Exclusive: Mark Zuckerberg publicly criticized Anthropic even as his company, Meta, has become one of Anthropic’s biggest customers. ASK THE MORNING (ABOUT POLLING) Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat running for a second term in Pennsylvania, holds a 16-point lead over his Republican opponent, Stacy Garrity, a New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena poll found. Morning readers often ask how The Times’s polling works. Here’s a question we received from Jean Oswald in Rochester, N.Y.: How do we know polls are truly showing the breadth and width of Americans’ feelings? I don’t answer my phone when the number is unrecognizable. Perhaps many people like me are not polled. We asked William Davis, our director of election data analytics, to answer: Jean, you’re not alone. In our last national poll, we placed 250,000 calls to 100,000 people in order to get 1,500 responses. The question is whether you and other people like you persistently pick up the phone less frequently than groups that are demographically and attitudinally different. Pollsters have some ways of fixing those issues. They can call more people in groups who are less likely to respond. Or they can adjust the weight of individuals in the poll so groups are correctly represented compared with the census or other sources. But it’s hard. We know that voters who are engaged with the news respond to polls at higher rates, but we don’t know what the right number of highly engaged news consumers is. As a result, polls can be off if, for example, a candidate like Donald Trump is singularly able to get people who don’t pay much attention to the news to vote for him in overwhelming numbers. OPINIONS Trump’s spat with Canada is proof that America is in decline, Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens argue in this week’s edition of The Conversation. Seeking help is not just for moments of life-or-death crisis. It’s also crucial to becoming successful, Angela Duckworth writes. Get access to five locked games. Save 75% on your first year of a New York Times Games subscription. Get full access to Wordle, Spelling Bee, Crossplay, the Crossword and more. TODAY’S NUMBER At Davoll’s General Store. Jillian Freyer for The New York Times 1793 — That is the year Davoll’s General Store opened for business in South Dartmouth, Mass. It’s living history. Loiter and linger as long as you like. The photos are great. SPORTS Advertising controversy: Good Good Golf lost its partnership with Callaway after an ad from the online platform that depicted its male co-founder shoving a female employee to the ground. N.F.L.: The Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs was charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery and criminal damage to property stemming from an incident at his Wisconsin home. RECIPE OF THE DAY Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times The chef Mario Carbone taught me how to make these pork chops in cherry-pepper sauce a number of years ago and — marone! — what a deliciously pure taste of Italian American cuisine they are. This time of year, with cherry peppers ripening on the vine, I make the dish with fresh peppers instead of the pickled ones called for in the recipe. If you do that, add a splash of lemon juice or white wine vinegar to the sauce at the end, for acidity. PERSON OF INTEREST Peter Grainger at home in Cambridgeshire. Ellie Smith for The New York Times Peter Grainger is a British crime writer who self-published his way into prominence. His main character, the independent-minded detective D.C. Smith, plays things straight. “One of the things you pick up when you read successful crime novels is how dysfunctional the police are,” he told Sarah Lyall, who writes about lots of things at The Times but is particularly great on thrillers and mysteries. “They’re having breakdowns, they’re alcoholics, they’re in abusive relationships. I thought, ‘This trope has taken over the genre and I don’t want to do that. I will do the opposite.’” Read about the best literary detective you’ve never heard of. More on culture Take in the scene at the first night of Harry Styles’s 30-day residency at Madison Square Garden. He rarely appeared to sweat. The U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic recently removed a work of art by Kehinde Wiley, perhaps best known for his portrait of Barack Obama. The decision wasn’t about art, writes Jason Farago, our art critic. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Find your next book based on what you loved last. The editors of our Book Review make the task easy. Just click. Listen to a new track from the Jayhawks, “Mr. Lincoln.” The band’s latest album, “Sanctuary Park,” is out today. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was motorway. 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 News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted 46 minutes ago Author Members Posted 46 minutes ago August 29, 2026 Good morning. How do we balance our desire for modern conveniences with our nostalgia for the uncomplicated felicity of our pre-internet past? María Jesús Contreras Fast forward By Melissa Kirsch The cursed island town in the horror-comedy series “Widow’s Bay” is so remote that there’s no Wi-Fi and cell service is unreliable. This means residents are left to landlines and walkie-talkies to communicate. These limitations not only add to the feeling of creepy isolation, but they also dispense with the modern challenge of depicting smartphone usage onscreen. When Mayor Tom Loftis wants to talk to someone, he must call them using the multi-line phone in his office or the rotary model affixed to his kitchen wall. Nostalgia for outmoded technology is bittersweet: We can’t imagine life without present-day conveniences, but things were so much simpler before! Our understanding of the world was slow to update. We said we’d meet at the restaurant at 6, and you couldn’t switch the location at the last minute or change the time if you were running late. We settled on the route we’d take to drive from A to B, no GPS to change it with a few seconds’ notice because of the traffic jam ahead. No moment-to-moment updates from friends, no impulse-Googling the name of that shampoo or tomorrow’s weather, no asking Claude. Our brains contained a certain amount of knowledge, and we didn’t add to it without time and effort. In The Times today, Kera Bolonik writes about the mix tape, that relic of another era, which “took time, thought, careful listening and a level of physical coordination beyond what goes into the making of a Spotify playlist.” Good mix-tape-makers were experts in manipulating the pause and record buttons on the hi-fi, engaging with the equipment to create a tangible artifact. Unlike a playlist, tapes were material, present in the landscape. It made sense that something so meaningful took up room in the world. “You have to imagine a space where music was a rumor,” the writer Jonathan Lethem told Kera. “You might hear something and not be able to know what it was, and no one can tell you, and it’s driving you crazy.” In the Shazam-less past, you’d hear a song and have no way to instantly entrap it. You’d live with the memory of the song you heard, hoping to catch it again on the radio. I remember becoming enamored of a song I heard on the radio in France in 1995 and telling my boyfriend back home that I’d heard the best new David Bowie track. There was no new Bowie album that we knew about, but we asked the clerks in every record store about it all the same. It would be six months before it came out in the States, and we discovered it wasn’t a Bowie song at all, but “A Girl Like You” by the Scottish musician Edwyn Collins. I put it on every mix tape I made that year. There’s a whole universe of pared-back gadgets for those who miss the simplicity of old tech: dumbphones, internet-connected typewriters, screen-free digital cameras. There are apps that take a long time to send texts. But there’s something unsatisfying about using tech to address over-technification. Perhaps the answer lies in the technology that has persisted in its unimprovable simplicity: A pad and paper have never failed to save my journal entries or added formatting I didn’t ask for. I treasure my wristwatch that I never have to charge, the digital alarm clock that shows me the time from across the room. I no longer have the dual-cassette boom box on which I made countless mixes, but Maxell released a Bluetooth cassette player this year. I don’t love the idea of buying something new in order to capture the magic of something old, but that something old might be worth pursuing. As Kera wrote: “More than just relics, mix tapes are portals to specific moments. Perhaps even more than old photos, they reanimate the past.” THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration A refinery in Punto Fijo, Venezuela, in 2021. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times The U.S. reached a deal to take majority control of a huge portion of Venezuela’s oil reserves, President Trump announced last night. The deal is for more than 65 billion barrels of oil — almost as much as all of the proven reserves in the United States. The Trump administration has proposed giving a parcel of public land in Yosemite National Park to a private developer. ICE has arrested Milo Yiannopoulos, the British right-wing agitator and early Trump supporter. He faces possible deportation after overstaying his visa. More Politics Wyoming’s governor, a Republican, said he was concerned by the “very odd” behavior of federal election monitors who tried to interview voters and examine voting machines during the state’s primaries last week. It looks as though a New York Jet will finally win something: A former kicker, Jay Feely, is running against a former sideline doctor, Amish Shah, in a House race in Arizona. The Times analyzed thousands of donations this midterms season and made a leaderboard of the top 20 biggest donors. It’s dominated by tech figures and Republicans. Nepal Floods Atul Loke for The New York Times At least 1,900 people are missing after the devastating flash flood in the Himalayas, officials now say, roughly twice as many as previously estimated. New video shows how a giant glacier broke away from a mountain ridge, sending floodwaters crashing through valleys below. Watch The Times’s exclusive footage. Around the World The Taliban have banned education for millions of Afghan girls. Times journalists examined the secret classrooms where some are defying the rules. Iranians are increasingly desperate six months into the war with the United States. Even some who initially cheered Trump’s intervention now fear a failing economy. Other Big Stories In his first speech before the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson, Wyo., the new chair, Kevin Warsh, said the central bank was chiefly focused on getting inflation down. Investors expect interest rates to rise. A judge ruled that a key confession by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, was not voluntary and must be excluded from his trial. REMEMBERING THREE ICONS Dolly Parton At the Library of Congress in 2018. Andrew Harnik/Associated Press Everyone knows Dolly as a consummate singer and songwriter. But she was also a prolific philanthropist whose gifts supported wildlife conservation and the development of the Covid-19 vaccine, among other things. The crown jewel of her philanthropic efforts was the Imagination Library, which has given children hundreds of millions of free books. Tim Curry Evening Standard, via Getty Images Curry’s performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the cross-dressing mad scientist of “The Rocky Horror Show,” helped bring androgynous fashion into the mainstream. Along with being extraordinarily funny, Curry was a superlative storyteller. A writer who interviewed him three times last year reflects on what it was like to talk with him. Yayoi Kusama A video projection of “Song of a Manhattan Suicide Addict,” by Yayoi Kusama, in 2024. Philip Fong/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In her long life, Kusama achieved something rare: two very different moments of stardom, almost as though she’d been two different artists, our critic writes. Kusama created a hugely varied oeuvre — abstract paintings, fabric phalluses, naked performance pieces … you name it. See her life in pictures. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto VI, the series’ first entry in over a decade, is due out in November. It’s a rare monocultural moment, akin to the release of a new Beyoncé album or Martin Scorsese film. Our reporter visited the studio in Edinburgh where it’s being made. In “Coyote vs. Acme,” a new live action-animation hybrid in theaters this weekend, Wile E. Coyote sues the company behind those gadgets that always seem to backfire. It’s “a terrifically daffy film,” our critic writes. Rupert Grint, who starred as Ron Weasley in all eight “Harry Potter” films, will reprise the role in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” on Broadway. “Paranormal Activity,” the horror film series, is now haunting Broadway. Our theater critic says it “feels like watching a magic show on a roller coaster.” Get access to five locked games. Save 75% on your first year of a New York Times Games subscription. Get full access to Wordle, Spelling Bee, Crossplay, the Crossword and more. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. By Melissa Clark Ratatouille Have you made ratatouille yet this year? Fear not — there are still a few weeks of eggplant-zucchini-pepper-tomato season left to go before the pumpkins take over. In my riff on the Provençal classic, I roast the vegetables separately on sheet pans to soften and brown them, then combine them for a final, olive oil-coated bake that lets them practically melt. Served with fresh goat cheese and a warm baguette, it’s one of my favorite meatless meals. REAL ESTATE We’ve made these links free for you. Dan Cronin for The New York Times The Hunt: A costume supervisor for TV and film productions wanted a home in Portland, Ore., with a yard and a spare bedroom for visitors. Which house did he choose? Play our game. What you get for $725,000: An American Foursquare in Providence, R.I.; a Spanish-style house in Tulsa, Okla.; and a two-story house in Salt Lake City. See them all. Tree-huggers: In Red Hook, Brooklyn, developers spent $400,000 to ensure their new project didn’t disturb a six-story maple tree already on the lot. Ask Real Estate: My neighbor installed a camera pointing at my yard. Is that legal? LIVING Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times New boosters: The F.D.A. approved updated Covid vaccines this week. Here’s what you need to know about the shots. Elective M.R.I.s: Celebrities are raving about full-body scans. But researchers say that healthy people don’t need them — and that they can lead to more harm than good. Baby on board: Traveling while pregnant is possible, but there are some risks. It’s wise to plan ahead. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Find some trend-proof pants In fashion, what goes around comes around. Take culottes: These mid-calf, wide-leg pants have gone in and out of style for decades. Today, all signs point to a culotte revival, and I have a few tips to help you find a timeless pair. Go for something that feels familiar, like a khaki-esque pair that could match T-shirts, button-ups, sweaters or cardigans. One of my favorite pairs has sumptuous legs and immaculate pleats. They’re hard to ignore, yes, but they’re easy to style year-round. In warmer weather, they look great with heeled sandals. For fall, why not try them with cowboy boots? (Another classic!) — Frances Solá-Santiago NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was validity. 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 News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.