Tag Archives: The New York Times

The New York Times Magazine – Oct 22, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (October 22, 2023): The latest issue features In Search of Kamala Harris; Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America and The Botched Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Killer….

In Search of Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris stands with her arms crossed.

After nearly three years, the vice president is still struggling to make the case for herself — and feels she shouldn’t have to.

By Astead W. Herndon

All the conditions seemed right for a chance to reset the narrative.

At the Munich Security Conference in February, amid rising international angst about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris led a delegation of Americans, including around 50 lawmakers from both parties. She spent her first day in Germany in seclusion, preparing for the next 48 hours: meetings with European leaders the first day and a keynote speech the next in the ornate ballroom of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof. When she emerged, head high and shoulders back, Harris exuded what her staff members have argued is a particular comfort with her role on the international stage. There, they say, she is respected.

Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America

An illustration of various historical photographs depicting technologies in a collage.

For decades, spending on the future put the nation ahead of all others. What would it take to revive that spirit?

By David Leonhardt

Every morning in 21st-century America, thousands of people wake up and prepare to take a cross-country trip. Some are traveling for business. Others are visiting family or going on vacations. Whether they are leaving from New York or Los Angeles, Atlanta or Seattle, their trips have a lot in common.

The New York Times — Friday, October 20, 2023

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Deal Lays Groundwork for Aid to Reach Desperate Gazans, Officials Say

People looking through the rubble of a home in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, that was destroyed by an airstrike on Thursday.

Trucks loaded with food and medicine are lined up tantalizingly close to people who need it, separated only by border gates that war and diplomatic wrangling have kept closed.

Biden Lays Out Stakes for America as He Seeks Aid for Israel and Ukraine

“American leadership is what holds the world together,” President Biden said in his Oval Office address on Thursday.

In a prime-time address, the president said the United States and the world bear the costs “when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression.”

Biden’s Moment: A President Convinced of America’s Role in the World

In a fractured political moment at home and abroad, it is unclear whether President Biden can bring many Americans along.

Republican Tempers Flare as Speaker Fight Continues, Paralyzing the House

G.O.P. lawmakers spent Thursday fighting privately as one faction refused to back Representative Jim Jordan for speaker and another balked at an interim solution to allow the House to operate.

The New York Times — Thursday, October 19, 2023

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U.S. Says Israel Didn’t Cause Hospital Blast, as Biden Promises Aid to Gaza

President Biden, squinting and holding sunglasses in one hand, embraces Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, whose back is to the viewer.

President Biden backed Israel’s claim that a Gaza City explosion that killed hundreds, which Hamas blamed on Israel, had come from a failed rocket launch by an armed Palestinian group.

In Tel Aviv, Biden’s Embrace of Israel Came With a Gentle Warning

In a rare wartime visit, President Biden paired his support for Israel with a plea not to let overwhelming grief or anger drive the country to go too far.

After Writing an Anti-Israel Letter, Harvard Students Are Doxxed

A truck with a billboard displayed their names and photos, and critics put out do-not-hire lists. The students say it’s a campaign to shut them up.

A Sudden Blast, Then Carnage in a Hospital Courtyard

“We’ve never lived through a war this intense,” said a Palestinian journalist who captured the aftermath of the blast in Gaza that killed hundreds.

The New York Times — Wednesday, Oct 18, 2023

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Hundreds Reported Killed in Blast at a Gaza Hospital

With President Biden about to arrive in Israel, Palestinians and Israelis blamed each other for the explosion that devastated the hospital, where people had sought shelter from Israeli bombing.

Netanyahu Opted for Limited Strikes in the Past. This Is His First All-Out War.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday in Tel Aviv.

In his 15 years as Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has been seen as risk-averse, avoiding open-ended military engagements and peace initiatives.

Hamas Hijacked Victims’ Social Media Accounts to Spread Terror

The use of hostages’ Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounts to livestream attacks and issue death threats is a new tactic, experts said.

Ukraine Uses Powerful American-Supplied Missiles for First Time

Ukrainian forces attacked two key Russian air bases behind enemy lines on Tuesday, using American-made long-range missiles known as ATACMS, a U.S. official said.

The New York Times — Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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Biden to Visit Israel as Gaza’s Crisis Worsens Under Siege

Palestinians and dual citizens at the Rafah border crossing in Gaza, hoping for the border to open to cross into Egypt, on Monday.

President Biden will make the extraordinary trip on Wednesday as Israel readies a possible invasion of Gaza in response to the worst terrorist attacks in its history.

For Hostages’ Families, an ‘Endless Loop of Hope and Despair’

Friends and relatives of Maya Regev, 21, and Itay Regev, 18, watching a news segment about the Israelis kidnapped by Hamas, at their parents’ apartment in Herzliya, Israel. The siblings attended the rave in southern Israel and are believed to have been kidnapped by Hamas militants.

Relatives of those captured or missing express despair at the lack of information, and they are terrified of what an expected Israeli invasion of Gaza may mean for their loved ones.

Confusion and Frustration Reign at Egypt-Gaza Border

Told they could escape Gaza, scores of people with foreign passports gathered at the only border crossing into Egypt, only to find it still closed, as diplomatic efforts floundered.

Scientists Offer a New Explanation for Long Covid

In some patients, remnants of the coronavirus in the gut may stifle production of serotonin, an important neurotransmitter, researchers suggest.

The New York Times — Monday, October 16, 2023

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As Israeli Invasion Looms, Diplomats Seek to Meet Gaza’s Dire Human Needs

An Israeli airstrike on Gaza City as seen from Sderot, Israel, on Sunday.

The U.S., Egypt and other countries are urging the delivery of food, water and fuel to counter the desperate shortages facing Gaza’s two million residents.

Gaza’s Hospitals Face ‘Impossible’ Choices With Israel Evacuation Order

The wounded and their families arriving inside Al Shifa Hospital on Thursday.

As a widely anticipated ground invasion looms, hospitals in Gaza City said they had no way to evacuate thousands of sick and injured patients.

Slaughter at a Festival of Peace and Love Leaves Israel Transformed

In this massacre of its youth, Israel’s 75-year-old quest for some carefree normalcy met the murderous fury of those long-oppressed Palestinians who deny the state’s right to exist.

Inside Trump’s Backroom Effort to Lock Up the Nomination

As the former president dodges debates, it can seem as if he’s bypassing the primary. But he and his team have been working quietly to twist the delegate rules in their favor.

The New York Times — Sunday, October 15, 2023

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The Secrets Hamas Knew About Israel’s Military

Israeli soldiers collect the bodies of civilians killed by Hamas militants on Saturday in the village of Kfar Aza.

Hamas gunmen surged into Israel in a highly organized and meticulously planned operation that suggested a deep understanding of Israel’s weaknesses. Here is how the attacks unfolded.

Poised for Attack, Israel Steps Up Calls for Gaza Residents to Leave ‘Battle Zone’

Israeli armored vehicles massed near Erez, Israel, by the Gaza border on Saturday, in preparation for a widely anticipated invasion in coming days.

Nearly one million displaced Gazans are facing shortages of food, clean water and shelter, while Americans remain trapped in the enclave.

Fact or Fiction? In This War, It Is Hard to Tell.

Social media is full of false and misleading posts. The rise in A.I. is making it worse. And the trust in traditional news sources has declined.

Behind a Senator’s Indictments, a Foreign Spy Service Works Washington

The charges against Senator Robert Menendez and his wife highlight how Egypt’s powerful intelligence agency wields influence.

The New York Times Book Review – October 15, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (October 15, 2023): This week’s issue features  a fabulous historical novel, the Janet Malcolm-like account of an Australian murder triala sprightly history of the Oxford English Dictionary, a homage to “The Haunting of Hill House”,  historical fictionthrillerscrime novelsromancehorror & Gothic fictionscience fiction & fantasy.)

A Fitting — and Frightening — Homage to ‘The Haunting of Hill House’

Apparitions, black hares and time warps festoon the pages of Elizabeth Hand’s “A Haunting on the Hill,” set in the same moldering mansion as Shirley Jackson’s classic horror novel.

The Wife Has Committed Murder but It’s the Husband Who Scares Her Lawyer

In Marie NDiaye’s new novel, “Vengeance Is Mine,” a woman is haunted by a decades-old trauma she feels, but cannot quite remember.

The book cover of “Vengeance Is Mine” is designed like a ripped sheet of paper. The image features a blank surface with a triangular cutout running down from the top. The layer underneath the tear is red and reveals the author’s name and the novel’s title.

By Lovia Gyarkye

VENGEANCE IS MINE, by Marie NDiaye. Translated by Jordan Stump.


The characters in Marie NDiaye’s novels are an unsettling brood. They fret and pace around their homes, tormented by their pasts. Their minds trap and trick them. A daughter can’t shake memories of her mother’s murder; a man gropes for the truth about his imprisonment in a deserted vacation town; a chef pursues culinary perfection at any cost; a woman — reminded of a friend, a schoolteacher or was it her mother? — fatally chases an apparition in green.

The New York Times — Saturday, October 14, 2023

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Israel Sticks to Call for Gaza Evacuation and Readies a Possible Invasion

An Israeli soldier stands outside a burned-out house in the Be’eri kibbutz in Israel on Friday, days after it was overrun by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations and others condemned the call for more than a million people to leave northern Gaza, and Israel softened its initial 24-hour timetable.

For Jewish New Yorkers, Shared Grief Puts Divisions on Hold

Jewish New Yorkers from across the political spectrum gathered outside the United Nations this week in the wake of the terror attacks in Israel.

Usually lively and often fractious, political conversations are set aside among the large community of Jews in the city.

Thousands Flee Northern Gaza as Israeli Evacuation Order Stirs Panic

Some residents fear a start of another permanent displacement. Gaza authorities said at least 40 people were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit some vehicles heading south.

Across U.S., Chinese Bitcoin Mines Draw National Security Scrutiny

Microsoft reported one site in Wyoming because of its proximity to a data center and nuclear missile base. Records show other cryptocurrency facilities have ties to the Chinese state.

The New York Times Magazine – Oct 15, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (October 15, 2023):

My Delirious Trip to the Heart of Swiftiedom

All the photographs in this article are black-and-white. Taylor Swift onstage facing away from the camera.

Taylor Swift’s greatest gift is for telling her own story — better than any journalist could. But Taffy Brodesser-Akner gives it a shot anyway.

By Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Section 301, in the second-to-highest tier of Levi’s Stadium, floats 105 feet above Santa Clara, Calif. It comprises 251 seats — a mere hamlet in the vast 64,000-seat general kingdom of the place, but it was our hamlet, and on the last Saturday in July, we took up each one of those seats and watched, our collective breath held, as Taylor Swift emerged from a bevy of billowing pastel parachutes and rose up on a platform to perform the 47th show of her Eras Tour. A few songs in, she announced, laughing, that her father told her that Santa Clara had named her its honorary mayor during her two-night stay there and that the entire town had been renamed Swiftie Clara. 

How Jesmyn Ward Is Reimagining Southern Literature

Jesmyn Ward

The novelist is competing with giants like William Faulkner, while mapping territory all her own.

By Imani Perry

Jesmyn Ward gestured with her eyes and a tilt of her face, hands on the wheel. “This crazy colored house right here? That’s my grandmother’s house. That’s the house I grew up in. And her sister lives there” — she pointed — “and then that little blue house? That’s my great-grandparents’ house.” She was driving me around DeLisle, Miss., her hometown and the inspiration for Bois Sauvage, the fictional setting of her first three novels. It is Deep South-in-August hot outside, and the air-conditioning was a relief. “My mom’s side of the family was all clustered around this road.”