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☆ Donald Trump on Trial
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( David Leonhardt | Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A criminal trial is often a contest between competing stories. In the trial of Donald Trump that’s just begun, prosecutors used their opening statement yesterday to tell a story about a man they say lied — and broke the law — to get elected president. The story that Trump’s lawyers offered in their own opening statements had two main features. Second, Trump’s lawyers argued that his attempts to affect the election were ordinary politics. “There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election,” Todd Blanche, one of Trump’s lawyers, said in his opening statement.

Persons: Donald Trump that’s, —, Trump, Michael Cohen, Trump’s, “, ” Todd Blanche, “ It’s, ”

☆ Trump’s Nostalgia Bump
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Trump left office wildly unpopular. A plurality of voters, 42 percent, now say the Trump years were “mostly good” for the country. Biden says he finds the nostalgia “amazing,” and at a time when Trump is a defendant in four criminal cases, it may seem surprising. Today, I’ll explain why voter nostalgia seems to be helping Trump, and how that might change. A longstanding patternDecades ago, the polling firm Gallup started asking Americans what they thought about past presidents.

Persons: Trump, —, Biden’s, Biden, Gallup, John F, Kennedy, Ashley Wu Organizations: New York Times, Siena

☆ Republicans Who Like Putin
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( David Leonhardt | Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Large parts of the Republican Party now treat Vladimir Putin as if he were an ideological ally. Putin, by contrast, continues to treat the U.S. as an enemy. It does not appear to stem from any compromising information that Putin has about Donald Trump, despite years of such claims from Democrats. Instead, Trump and many other Republicans seem to feel ideological sympathies with Putin’s version of right-wing authoritarian nationalism. Already, House Republicans have blocked further aid to Ukraine — a democracy and U.S. ally that Putin invaded.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Putin, Donald Trump, Trump, Viktor Orban of Hungary, — Organizations: Republican Party, House Republicans Locations: Ukraine, Russia

☆ Three Big Legal Questions
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( David Leonhardt | Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a two-hour oral argument at the Supreme Court yesterday, nearly all justices appeared skeptical of Colorado’s effort to keep Trump off the ballot. Maine has also moved to bar Trump, and other states would likely follow if the Supreme Court were to allow it. The legal issues are complex, and we walk through them below. As Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The Times, told us yesterday:Donald Trump is accused of doing grave wrongs in trying to overturn the election. Many legal experts expect the court to rule quickly (as this story explains) and to issue a broad decision that applies to all states.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Trump, Adam Liptak, Donald Trump, Neal Katyal, Obama Organizations: Colorado, Trump, The Times, ”, Republican Locations: Washington, United States

☆ The Year’s Best Movies
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-03 | by ( Ian Prasad Philbrick | More About Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I found myself at the movies this year more often than last. And though neither metric has yet rebounded to prepandemic levels, it finally feels like the movies are, in some sense, back. Maybe it was the monotony of at-home streaming or just the desire to finally get off the couch. A quick scan of The New York Times’s list of the year’s best movies makes the point. The films, picked by the critics Manohla Dargis and Alissa Wilkinson, span a number of genres, including dramas and biopics.

Persons: I’m, Manohla Dargis, Alissa Wilkinson, Wes Anderson, Steve McQueen, Rockwell, Celine Song, ”, Martin Scorsese Organizations: Office, Osage Locations: York, Chilean

Yesterday’s elections went well for the Democratic Party. Andy Beshear won re-election in normally red Kentucky, 53 percent to 48 percent, by emphasizing his support for abortion rights and the economic benefits of Biden administration policies. In increasingly red Ohio, voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment that keeps abortion legal until roughly 23 weeks of pregnancy. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, all seven states to have voted on abortion rights have chosen to protect or expand them. Miles Coleman, an election analyst at the University of Virginia, said of abortion.

Persons: Andy Beshear, Biden, Roe, Wade, Glenn Youngkin’s, ’, ” J, Miles Coleman, “ It’s, ” Organizations: Democratic Party, Gov, State Senate, Youngkin, University of Virginia Locations: Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia

Today is Election Day, and we are using this newsletter to give you a guide. One theme is that Democrats are hoping to continue their strong recent electoral performance despite President Biden’s low approval rating. They are older, more affluent and more highly educated than people who vote only in presidential elections. But these victories do not necessarily foreshadow presidential elections. The other side of the class inversion is that Democrats are increasingly struggling with lower-income and nonwhite voters, many of whom vote only in presidential elections.

Persons: Biden’s Organizations: Democratic Party

Gaetz, a far-right House Republican who viewed Speaker Kevin McCarthy as too willing to compromise with Democrats, started a process three weeks ago to unseat him. Not only did that effort work, but House Republicans emerged from their recent chaos yesterday to elect Mike Johnson as the new speaker. “Because now we have both a man and a plan.”Johnson had little national profile until he emerged as the leading candidate for speaker on Tuesday night. Unlike the three failed speaker candidates who came before him, Johnson has few enemies among House Republicans. His hallmark in Congress, our colleague Annie Karni wrote in a profile of Johnson, “has been combining his hard-line views with a gentle personal style.”

Persons: Matt Gaetz’s, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Johnson, Johnson, McCarthy, “, ” Gaetz, ” Johnson, Susan Collins, Annie Karni Organizations: Republican, Democrats, Republicans, 118th, Wall Street, Maine Republican, House Republicans Locations: Maine

President Biden will visit Israel tomorrow after accepting an invitation from Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden will be following his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who was in Israel yesterday for the second time in the past week, after already having visited Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Any country attacked as Israel was on Oct. 7 — with Hamas’s killing of more than 1,400 people and kidnapping of at least 199 — would be likely to respond militarily. “Israel is going after a group of people who have engaged in barbarism that is as consequential as the Holocaust,” Biden said in a “60 Minutes” interview. “Israel has to respond.”

Persons: Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Antony Blinken, ” Biden, “ Organizations: Israel, Hamas Locations: Israel, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, U.S, Gaza, “ Israel

Hurricane Idalia intensified overnight and is now a Category 4 storm heading toward Florida’s Gulf Coast. The strongest part of the storm will be over Florida’s Big Bend, where the state’s long peninsula curves to meet its Panhandle. More than half of Florida’s western coastline is at risk of life-threatening storm surges, as rising ocean water floods towns. Tallahassee is preparing for outages that could last days, expecting its strongest storm in decades. That’s partly because of human-driven climate change, which appears to have contributed to record-breaking ocean temperatures off the Florida coast.

Persons: Idalia, You’re, Ron DeSantis, ”, Heath Davis, “ Organizations: Carolinas, ”, Florida National Guard, California . Locations: Florida’s Gulf, Big Bend, United States, West, Central Florida, Georgia, Florida, Tallahassee, Tampa, Naples, Fla, California, U.S

As his re-election effort gets underway, President Biden is signaling that health care — and particularly the cost of it — will be central to his campaign. “We’re taking on powerful interests to bring your health care costs down,” he has said. Biden is emphasizing the cost of health care partly because it has been one of his administration’s biggest priorities, even if other policies — such as those on the climate and infrastructure — receive more attention. His administration has reduced the cost of hearing aids, reduced the cost of health insurance for people who buy it though an Obamacare exchange and reduced an array of expenses for Medicare recipients. “Millions of people benefit from the health care provisions,” Larry Levitt, an executive vice president at KFF, a health care research group, told us.

Persons: Biden, “ We’re, ”, “ I’m, Larry Levitt Organizations: White Locations: KFF

☆ The U.S. Regulates Cars, Radio and TV. When Will It Regulate A.I.?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Ian Prasad Philbrick | More About Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Historically, regulation often happens gradually as a technology improves or an industry grows, as with cars and television. In 1937, an untested and poisonous liquid version of sulfanilamide, meant to treat bacterial infections, killed more than 100 people across 15 states. “Before we seek to regulate, we have to understand why we are regulating,” said Representative Jay Obernolte, a California Republican who has a master’s degree in A.I. “Only when you understand that purpose can you craft a regulatory framework that achieves that purpose.”Brain drainEven so, lawmakers say they’re making strides. “Congress is taking the issue really seriously,” said Camille Carlton of the Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit that regularly meets with lawmakers.

Persons: ”, Jonathan Lewallen, Jay Obernolte, ” Mr, Obernolte, Camille Carlton Organizations: Food and Drug Administration, University, Tampa, California Republican, Center for Humane Technology Locations: California, A.I

The eight Republican presidential candidates who took the stage last night had a lot going for them. There was a sitting senator and two sitting governors, as well as an entrepreneur, a few former governors, a former U.N. ambassador and a former vice president. Polls show that several of them have high approval ratings among Republican voters. But the 2024 Republican campaign is shaping up to be unlike any in memory. Donald Trump remains so popular among Republican primary voters that there is no obvious path for any of the other candidates to displace him.

Persons: Donald Trump Organizations: Republican, Republicans, Fox News

The two previous indictments of Donald Trump focused on his personal conduct, one involving a sex scandal and the other his handling of classified documents. Yesterday’s indictment is different. It involves arguably the most central issue in a democracy: an attempt to subvert an American election. “At the core of the United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump is no less than the viability of the system constructed” by the founders, our colleague Peter Baker, The Times’s chief White House correspondent, wrote. The chargesThe new indictment lays out a scheme that, by now, is widely known: Trump falsely claimed the 2020 election results were rigged and tried to rally federal officials, state lawmakers and his supporters, including rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn his loss to President Biden.

Persons: Donald Trump, Donald J, Trump, Peter Baker, Biden Organizations: “, White House, U.S, Capitol Locations: United States, America

After raising interest rates again yesterday, the Federal Reserve now faces a tough decision. Any further increases in that benchmark rate, which is now at its highest level in 22 years, would heighten the risk of a recession, according to these economists. But other experts — the hawks — point out that annual inflation remains at 3 percent, above the level the Fed prefers. Unless Fed officials add at least one more interest rate increase in coming months, consumers and business may become accustomed to high inflation, making it all the harder to eliminate. For now, Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, and his colleagues are choosing not to take a side.

Persons: Jerome Powell, “ We’ve, ” Powell, ” Organizations: Federal Reserve Locations: U.S

In their details, the judicial changes that Israel’s Parliament passed yesterday sound like something that liberals in the U.S. and democracy advocates around the world might support. Going forward, democratically elected leaders will have more power, and unelected judges will have less. But the reaction from political progressives, moderates and even some conservatives — in Israel and elsewhere — has instead been one of extreme alarm. And that alarm stems from worries among many observers that Israel is using the mechanics of democracy to transform itself into an undemocratic country. Freed from judicial oversight, it will have the ability to push Israel further toward becoming a religiously conservative country.

Persons: —, Benjamin Netanyahu, Freed Locations: U.S, Israel

☆ If Biden Wanted to Ease U.S.-China Tensions, Would Americans Let Him?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Americans still worry more about terrorism and other foreign policy issues than about China. “That’s percolated into the general public,” said Richard Herrmann, an Ohio State University professor who studies international relations and public opinion. A feedback loopSouring public opinion, in turn, may worsen U.S.-China relations. That might seem surprising; most Americans don’t pay that much attention to foreign policy, which is typically far removed from their daily lives. And once public opinion on a foreign policy issue calcifies, as it increasingly has on China, political leaders often pay attention to it.

Persons: ” —, Biden, ”, Richard Herrmann, Dina Smeltz, ” Joshua Kertzer Organizations: Soviets, Ohio State University, Chicago Council, Global Affairs, Democrats Locations: China, U.S, Taiwan, Washington, Harvard

☆ A.I. or Nuclear Weapons: Can You Tell These Quotes Apart?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Ian Prasad Philbrick | Tom Wright-Piersanti | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

executives have likened their product to nuclear energy. creators’ calls for national and international regulation — much as scientists called for guardrails governing nuclear arms in the 1950s. The creators of this technology are telling us we need to pay attention.”Not every expert thinks the comparison fits. and nuclear energy, has upsides and risks. or nuclear technology.

Persons: “, ’, ”, Rachel Bronson, Julian Togelius Organizations: Atomic Scientists

☆ How Much Do Voters Really Care About Biden’s Age?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Many Americans say they do not want President Biden to run for re-election, and his age is a big reason. In an NBC News poll released last weekend, 70 percent of adults said Mr. Biden, who is 80, should not run again. Mr. Biden, already the oldest president in U.S. history, would be 86 at the end of his second term. Mr. Biden’s age is a frequent punchline on late-night television. With the obvious caveat that a serious age-related gaffe or health crisis could change things, there are good reasons to think that Biden’s age may matter less than some polls suggest.

Global inflation, war in Ukraine, transformational Supreme Court rulings, midterm elections, the Winter Olympics and the World Cup … this was an eventful year. We’ve chosen 52 people to test how well you recognize some of the defining personalities of 2022. We’ll show you a face; you tell us the name (and there are hints to help you out). At the end, we’ll show you how you did compared with other Times readers.

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