Aurelia Butler

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    The Abundance Agenda Has Its Own Theory of Power

    I have had a fascinating few months. “Abundance,” the book I wrote with Derek Thompson, is either going to save the Democratic Party or destroy it. You think I’m kidding. Here’s The Wall Street Journal’s headline: “Can the ‘Abundance Agenda’ Save the Democrats?” Here’s The Nation: “Why the ‘Abundance Agenda’ Could Sink the Democratic Party.” The Atlantic placed the book at the center of “the coming Democratic civil war.”Before “Abundance” came out, I worried that its argument would be too agreeable to generate much debate. I didn’t foresee Ragnarok.But I was wrong about who would perceive it as a threat. The book is largely a critique of how Democrats have governed in the places where they’ve held power. But the obvious targets of that critique — blue-state governors like Gavin Newsom and Kathy Hochul and top Obama and Biden administration officials — have largely embraced it. Maura Healy, the governor of Massachusetts, laid out a plan for “housing abundance.” More than one top Democrat I expected to react defensively to the argument told me that they felt that they could have written it.This is, for Democrats, a liquid moment. The party is reimagining itself after its crushing loss in 2024, and a lot is riding on which critiques are woven into its renewal. And so the backlash to the book has come from a faction of the party that saw itself rising within the wreckage and worries that “Abundance” will derail its ascendance: the anti-corporate populists.“Abundance” is an effort to focus more of American politics on a surprisingly neglected question: What do we need more of, and what is stopping us from getting it? It is that focus that some of my friends on the populist left object to. Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham law professor who’s a central figure on the anti-monopolist left, told me that her problem with “Abundance” wasn’t the policies but the central question: “We should be focusing Democratic politics and politics in general on the problem of concentrated power and the way in which concentrated power is making it impossible to do things.”Demand Progress, a leftist advocacy group, went so far as to commission a poll to see which message appealed to more voters. Voters were asked to choose between the two framings of “the big problem” in American life: Was it “‘bottlenecks’ that make it harder to produce housing, expand energy production or build new roads and bridges” or rather that “big corporations have way too much power over our economy and our government.” Unsurprisingly, the latter won.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Jesus Has ‘More to Say Than Any Human Language Can Carry’: A Q&A With Rowan Williams

    Rowan Williams is among the most important religious thinkers in the world. A theologian, poet, playwright and literary critic, he served as the archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. I spoke to Dr. Williams about his journey of faith and doubt, why God allows the innocent to suffer and how to interpret the Bible (and how not to). He talked about the New Atheists and the influence on his theology of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, what makes Jesus such a compelling figure and what it means to pastor people through grief. Dr. Williams also talked about how, for him, the Christian faith is “the perspective that enriches.” Our conversation, which has been lightly edited, is the third in a series of interviews I am doing that explores the world of faith.1. Dostoyevsky Led the WayPeter Wehner: Let me start out by asking you to describe your journey of faith. As a young adult, what was the pull toward Christianity for you? Was it primarily intellectual or aesthetic or an appeal to the imagination or some combination of those? Did you experience what C.S. Lewis called “Sehnsucht,” an intense longing and divine spark for something that’s unattainable in this material world?Rowan Williams: I’d grown up in a Christian environment but not a very intense one. It was really when I was a teenager that it began to speak to me, and it did so largely, to pick up your categories, at the imaginative level. It felt like a larger world to inhabit and at a time when I was discovering more and more about the literary world, about philosophical questioning, about the historical roots of our culture.All of that seemed to me, as a student, enriching and exciting. But it was also brought alive — and here was my good fortune — through particular people who were very important to me at the time, especially my parish priest, who was a huge influence — encouraging, supportive, giving me the message all the time that there’s room for all that in the life of faith.When I started as a university student — coming into contact with an awareness of human need and human suffering that I hadn’t quite registered before, meeting homeless people when I was a student in Cambridge, the sense that you needed to have quite a capacious picture of human nature in order to see the dignity and the need — that reinforced my feeling that the faith I’d grown into was something which actually allowed you to engage at depth with people.Wehner: Is the draw of faith for you now essentially what it was when you were younger?Williams: It’s probably pretty much what I grew up in, in many ways, which is not to say it’s not changed or developed. It’s certainly been battered and tested in various ways. But when I go back to what I was learning at that time, it’s still that same sense that this is the perspective that enriches. This is the perspective that enlarges.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Today’s Wordle Hints for June 9, 2025

    Scroll down for hints and conversation about the puzzle for Monday, June 9, 2025.Welcome to The Wordle Review. Be warned: This page contains spoilers for today’s puzzle. Solve Wordle first, or scroll at your own risk.Wordle is released at midnight in your time zone. In order to accommodate all time zones, there will be two Wordle Reviews live every day, dated based on Eastern Standard Time. If you find yourself on the wrong review, check the number of your puzzle and go to this page to find the corresponding review.Need a Hint?Give me a consonantRGive me a vowelOOpen the comments section for more hints, scores and conversation from the Wordle community.Today’s DifficultyOur testers let us know how many guesses out of 6 it took them to solve the puzzle. If they miss the word, we count it as 7 guesses. They are paid to solve each puzzle in advance. Learn more about what they do.Today’s average difficulty is 4.5 guesses out of 6, or moderately challenging.Your own rating may be different. For a deeper and more personalized analysis of puzzle difficulty, please visit Wordle Bot.Today’s WordClick to revealToday’s word is BOARD, a noun. According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, it means “a long, broad, flat piece of sawed wood ready for use; thin plank.”Our Featured ArtistAlex Ram is an illustrator based in London. He has a playful and informative approach to his work, often focusing on themes such as communities, mindfulness and a balanced lifestyle. He takes inspiration from both everyday life and current events to depict a range of characters in relatable scenarios.Further ReadingSee the archive for past and future posts.If you solved for a word different from what was featured today, please refresh your page.Join the conversation on social media. Use the hashtag #wordlereview to chat with other solvers.Leave any thoughts you have in the comments! Please follow community guidelines:Be kind. Comments are moderated for civility.Having a technical issue? Use the help button in the settings menu of the Games app.See the Wordle Glossary for information on how to talk about Wordle.Want to talk about Spelling Bee? Check out our Spelling Bee Forum.Want to talk about Connections? Check out our Connections Companion.Trying to go back to the puzzle?Follow the New York Times Games on Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. More

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    Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Is Shot at Campaign Event

    The condition of Miguel Uribe, who belongs to a conservative party and was seeking to be its presidential nominee, was not immediately clear.A conservative Colombian senator, presidential hopeful and grandson of a former president was shot from behind at a campaign event on Saturday in the capital, Bogotá, according to his party.The shooting of the senator, Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, by unknown perpetrators comes amid escalating political tension in the country as the country’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, tries to introduce changes to labor regulations that Mr. Uribe and other conservatives oppose.Conflict between armed groups also continues to plague the country, though it has taken place mostly in the countryside.Mr. Uribe’s condition and a motive for the shooting were not immediately clear.In a statement, his party, the Democratic Center, called the event “an unacceptable act of violence.”“We energetically reject this attack that not only endangers the life of a political leader, but also threatens democracy and freedom in Colombia,” the party added.President Petro also expressed his concern and said that he was canceling a trip to France because of the attack.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Gina Ortiz Jones, a Progressive, Is Elected San Antonio’s Mayor

    Ms. Jones, a former under secretary of the Air Force under the Biden administration, prevailed over Rolando Pablos, a conservative with ties with to Gov. Greg Abbott.Gina Ortiz Jones, a Filipino American who served as under secretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration, won a runoff election on Saturday to become the mayor of San Antonio, making her the first openly gay leader of the seventh-largest city in the country.Ms. Jones, 44, defeated Rolando Pablos, 57, a Mexican immigrant and former Texas secretary of state known for his close ties to Gov. Greg Abbott, a conservative Republican.“San Antonio showed up and showed out,” Ms. Jones told a group of supporters Saturday night, and then referring to voters she added. “We reminded them that our city is about compassion and it’s about leading with everybody in mind.”“So I look forward to being a mayor for all.”The election was a test of Latino sentiment after the dramatic shift of Hispanic voters toward Donald J. Trump in 2024. Kamala Harris handily won San Antonio, a Latino-majority city and Democratic stronghold, but Mr. Trump made significant gains in the city on his way to a 14-percentage-point victory in Texas.On Saturday night, Mr. Pablos conceded. “We tried. It was a very tough race.”Though technically nonpartisan, Mr. Pablos did not downplay his ties to Republican leaders in Texas, nor did Ms. Jones shy from her longstanding Democratic connections. Heading into Saturday, she was seen as the front-runner, having earned the largest portion of the voting bloc in a crowded, 27-candidate election in May. Then, she won 27 percent of the vote to Mr. Pablos’s 17 percent.She was also closely aligned with the politics of the outgoing mayor, Ron Nirenberg, who was first elected in 2017 and is term limited after four consecutive wins.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Is Deploying National Guard Troops Under a Rarely Used Power

    President Trump bypassed the authority of Gov. Gavin Newsom by sending 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protesters.President Trump took extraordinary action on Saturday by deploying 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protesters in California, making rare use of federal powers and bypassing the authority of the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom.Governors almost always control the deployment of National Guard troops in their states. But according to legal scholars, the president has the authority under Title 10 of the United States Code to federalize the National Guard units of states to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”In a presidential memo, Mr. Trump said, “To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on Saturday night that President Trump was deploying soldiers in response to “violent mobs” that she said had attacked federal law enforcement and immigration agents. The 2,000 troops would “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester,” she said.Protests have occurred Friday and Saturday in California to oppose federal immigration raids on workplaces in California. The latest incident was at a Home Depot in Paramount, Calif., about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, immediately rebuked the president’s action, indicating that Mr. Trump had usurped his own state authority.“That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions,” Mr. Newsom said, adding that “this is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.”California Democrats have braced for months for the possibility that President Trump would seek to deploy U.S. troops on American soil in this way, particularly in Democratic-run jurisdictions.Mr. Trump suggested deploying U.S. forces in the same manner during his first term to suppress outbreaks of violence during the nationwide protests over the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.He opted against doing so at the time, but he has repeatedly raised the idea of using troops to secure border states.“Federalizing a state’s National Guard is a huge expansion of presidential power,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. “It allows use of the military in domestic matters. It would be stunning to see this done here.”Trump and his aides have often lamented that not enough was done by Minnesota’s governor to quell protests that followed the death of Mr. Floyd in 2020.During a campaign rally in 2023, Trump made clear he was not going to hold back in a second term. “You’re supposed to not be involved in that, you just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in — the next time, I’m not waiting,” Mr. Trump said.Jonathan Swan More

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    Jane Larkworthy, 62, a Top Magazine Writer and Editor on Beauty, Dies

    She made her mark in publications like Glamour, W, Jane and Mademoiselle. In 2007, she was on the receiving end of media attention, testifying in a sensational trial.Jane Larkworthy, a veteran beauty writer and top-ranking editor during “The Devil Wears Prada” era of influential print fashion magazines, died on Wednesday at her home in New Marlborough, Mass. She was 62.Her sister, Kate Larkworthy, said the cause was breast cancer.Ms. Larkworthy’s work began appearing in magazines in the mid-1980s; her first job was at Glamour, followed by a stint at Mademoiselle. By 1997, she was the beauty director of Jane, a popular magazine aimed at young women. (It was named after another journalist Jane — Jane Pratt.)Later moving on to W magazine, Ms. Larkworthy became its executive beauty director. She was active online, too, writing for websites like Air Mail and New York magazine’s The Cut, where for a time she was beauty editor at large.Ms. Larkworthy in 2015, when she was executive beauty director of W magazine.Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Saks Fifth AvenueMs. Larkworthy looked the part of an editor at a glossy fashion magazine, the kind satirized in the 2006 movie “The Devil Wears Prada,” with her straight long hair in a refined shade of celebrity-colorist-applied straw and, more often than not, polished outfits that might have well brought Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy to mind.But while her fields of expertise might seem superficial, her views on fillers and face creams were infused with industry knowledge and a large dose of well-grounded skepticism.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Atentado contra Miguel Uribe en Colombia: esto sabemos

    Se desconoce el estado de salud de Miguel Uribe, militante de un partido conservador que aspiraba a ser candidato presidencial.Atacantes desconocidos dispararon por la espalda a Miguel Uribe, senador de Colombia y aspirante a la presidencia, en un acto de campaña el sábado en la capital, Bogotá, según indicó su partido.No estaba claro de inmediato cuál era su estado.Su partido, el conservador Centro Democrático, calificó el suceso de “acto de violencia inaceptable” en un comunicado.“Rechazamos enérgicamente este ataque que no solo pone en peligro la vida de un líder político sino que también atenta contra la democracia y la libertad en Colombia”, añadió el partido.Uribe había declarado su intención de presentarse como candidato de su partido a las elecciones presidenciales del próximo año.No se tenía información sobre si había algún detenido en relación con el tiroteo, ocurrido en Fontibón, un suburbio del oeste de Bogotá. El ministro de Defensa colombiano condenó el atentado en X y ofreció una recompensa de hasta 3000 millones de pesos colombianos, o 728.000 dólares, por cualquier información que condujera a la captura de los autores del ataque.Dijo que había ordenado al ejército, la policía nacional y los organismos de inteligencia “desplegar todas sus capacidades para esclarecer con urgencia los hechos” y que pronto celebraría una reunión para determinar la estrategia a seguir.“Nos duele este atentado. Nos moviliza a redoblar esfuerzos por proteger la vida, garantizar la participación política libre y hacer justicia”, añadió.El presidente Gustavo Petro también se pronunció en X.“Mi solidaridad a la familia Uribe”, escribió. “No sé cómo mitigar su dolor”.Esta es una historia en desarrolloSimón Posada More