Aurelia Butler

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    The Official Unofficial Record

    On This Week’s Episode:How do you count almost 12 million votes if you’re not the government?This is the extraordinary story of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who created the only verifiable public record of votes in their presidential election.Juan Barreto/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNew York Times Audio is home to the “This American Life” archive. Download the app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. More

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    Trump Cabinet: Inside the Many Ideologies of His Nominees

    One faction of prospective nominees appears focused on revenge, another on calming markets and a third on relentlessly — perhaps hopelessly — cutting people and budgets.President-elect Donald J. Trump’s final flurry of cabinet picks and other appointments rounded out what his aides described as a unified, loyal, MAGA-driven administration. But scratch the surface and there are at least three distinct factions and a range of ideologies, barely suppressed to get through the rigors of the confirmation process.There is a revenge team, led by prospective nominees with instructions to rip apart the Justice Department, the intelligence agencies and the Defense Department, hunting down the so-called deep state and anyone who participated in the prosecutions of Mr. Trump.There is a calm-the-markets team, which Mr. Trump hopes will be led by Scott Bessent, the Wall Street billionaire who Mr. Trump chose for Treasury secretary. Mr. Bessent can recite the MAGA lines about deregulation and lower taxes but would likely try to make sure Mr. Trump’s most extreme solutions, like inflation-inducing tariffs on foreign goods, do not end the post-election stock market surge.And then there is a government shrinkage team, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whose goals are wildly ambitious, to put it mildly. They want to carve what Mr. Musk says will be “at least” $2 trillion from the annual federal budget, a figure that exceeds the annual cost of salaries for every federal employee. (For the record, the total federal budget in the 2024 fiscal year was $6.75 trillion.)How these missions will mesh and where they will collide is one of the biggest unknowns of the incoming administration.Diversity of ideology and opinion is usually seen as a strength, not a defect, of presidential cabinets. But if there is a surprise about Mr. Trump’s choices in recent days, it is the range of experiences and worldviews that in some cases lie just beneath a veneer of recently declared Make America Great Again loyalty — and loyalty to Mr. Trump himself. It is hard to imagine a few of his picks sitting comfortably at a Trump rally.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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    NYT Crossword Answers for Nov. 25, 2024

    Dena R. Witkes makes her Crossword debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — It’s easier to solve a crossword puzzle than it is to construct one, and the easiest puzzles can actually be the hardest to construct. So it is precisely because today’s solve was such a breeze that I want to applaud its constructor, Dena R. Witkes. Not only is this a thoroughly enjoyable Monday puzzle, it’s also Ms. Witkes’s New York Times Crossword debut. What an auspicious start to a career in crosswords, insofar as there is such a thing.Today’s theme has been influenced, you might say, by a certain subject that all of us feed on. I trust the solve will make you content.Today’s ThemeIn addition to hinting at the theme itself, a puzzle’s revealer — here, at 59-Across — will tell you which clues are part of it: [Modern networking aid, as suggested by the starts of the answers to the starred clues]. We find these starred clues at 17-, 27- and 44-Across.17A. A [Corporate investor] is a SHAREHOLDER.27A. If something is [Difficult to wrangle, per an idiom], you might say it’s LIKE HERDING CATS.44A. FOLLOW YOUR BLISS is good [Advice to someone seeking happiness].The “starts” of these entries are their first words or compounds: SHARE, LIKE, FOLLOW. The networking aid that uses these terms is SOCIAL MEDIA.Did you FOLLOW all of that? SHARE any thoughts you have about the theme in the comments section — I’d LIKE to hear them.Tricky Clues40A. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by verbs’ past participles masquerading as adjectives (and vice versa). You can’t know whether “bothered” in the clue [Really bothered] functions as a verb or an adjective, so your best bet is to wait for crossings to reveal it to you. It’s a verb, in this case, and the answer is ATE AT.58A. In crosswords, [Miss Piggy’s pronoun] is generally neither she nor her. Rather, it’s a French term that she uses to refer coyly to herself: MOI.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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    Israel Conducts Widespread Strikes Near Beirut

    As negotiators inch toward a cease-fire deal, the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon has intensified.The Israeli military late on Sunday conducted a heavy barrage of airstrikes on the southern outskirts of Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway, with fighter jets racing across the skies above the Lebanese capital and deafening explosions ringing out for miles.Lebanon’s state-run news agency described the bombardment as a “ring of fire,” with thick, black plumes of smoke seen rising above the city’s skyline.The airstrikes followed a series of sweeping evacuation warnings on Sunday by the Israeli military for the area, known as the Dahiya — more warnings than in any other day this month. They also came as Hezbollah fired about 250 projectiles into Israel on Sunday, one of the group’s largest aerial attacks over the past year.Analysts said that Israel’s ramped up attacks in recent days were intended to pressure Hezbollah into accepting a cease-fire on favorable terms. Hezbollah, however, has shown few signs of backing down, and both sides have pledged to keep up their attacks while negotiations are taking place.There were no immediate reports of casualties from Israel’s strikes late on Sunday. The Dahiya, once a bustling cluster of neighborhoods that are home to hundreds of thousands of people, has been almost entirely emptied in recent weeks because of intense airstrikes.The Israeli military said in a statement late on Sunday that it had struck 12 “command centers” in the Dahiya that it described as belonging to Hezbollah.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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    Los inmigrantes en todo EE. UU. se preparan para las medidas de Trump

    La promesa del presidente electo de llevar a cabo deportaciones masivas ha empujado a los inmigrantes a buscar medidas de protección y asesoramiento.El presidente electo Donald Trump ha prometido reducir drásticamente la inmigración, tanto legal como ilegal, y aumentar las deportaciones desde el primer día.Los inmigrantes se apresuran a adelantarse a la ofensiva.Los residentes nacidos en el extranjero han estado saturando las líneas telefónicas de los abogados de inmigración. Están abarrotando las reuniones informativas organizadas por organizaciones sin fines de lucro. Y están tomando todas las medidas posibles para protegerse de las medidas radicales que Trump ha prometido emprender tras su toma de posesión el 20 de enero.“Gente que debería estar asustada está viniendo, y gente que está bien con una green card se está apresurando a venir”, dijo Inna Simakovsky, abogada de inmigración en Columbus, Ohio, quien añadió que su equipo se ha visto desbordado por las consultas. “Todo el mundo tiene miedo”, dijo.Las personas con tarjeta de residencia permanente, o green card, quieren convertirse en ciudadanos lo antes posible. Las personas que tienen un estatus legal precario o entraron ilegalmente en el país se apresuran a solicitar asilo, porque incluso si la petición es débil, tener un caso pendiente los protegería —con los protocolos actuales— de la deportación. Las personas que tienen una relación con algún ciudadano estadounidense están tramitando su matrimonio con rapidez, lo que les da derecho a solicitar la green card.En total, hay unos 13 millones de personas con residencia legal permanente. Y se calcula que había 11,3 millones de personas indocumentadas en 2022, la última cifra disponible.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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    Dartmouth Sorority and 2 Fraternity Members Are Charged After Student’s Drowning

    The 20-year-old student died this summer after attending an off-campus party. The fraternity members and sorority were charged with offenses related to providing alcohol to minors.A Dartmouth College sorority and two fraternity members have been charged with underage alcohol offenses in the death of a 20-year-old student who drowned after attending an off-campus party this summer. The authorities said the student, Won Jang, attended the party hosted by the sorority Alpha Phi on July 6. Most people at the gathering, including Mr. Jang, were underage and drank alcohol that was provided by members of Mr. Jang’s fraternity, Beta Alpha Omega.Alpha Phi was charged with a misdemeanor for hosting a party where underage drinking occurred, according to a Friday news release from the police department in Hanover, N.H., where Dartmouth’s campus is. Two members of Beta Alpha Omega, who are not underage, were each charged with a misdemeanor for supplying alcohol to attendees under 21, the release said. On the night of the party, several attendees went swimming in the Connecticut River, which runs along Hanover, the police said. Many departed when a heavy rainstorm hit, but Mr. Jang, who his family said could not swim, was left behind.Mr. Jang was found dead in the river the day after the party, the authorities said. The medical examiner’s office determined that the cause of death was drowning, and a toxicology report found that Mr. Jang had a blood alcohol level that indicated he was likely to have been significantly impaired. Lt. Michael Schibuola of the Hanover Police Department said the police had investigated whether hazing had contributed to Mr. Jang’s death but ultimately determined it had not.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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    Tony Campolo, Preacher Who Challenged Religious Right, Dies at 89

    A mesmerizing speaker, he urged his fellow evangelicals to turn away from politics in favor of the values of charity and love espoused by Jesus.The Rev. Tony Campolo, one of the most influential evangelical preachers of the past half century, who urged Christians to resist the strong political tug of the religious right and to affirm that their faith called them, first and foremost, to fight poverty and racism, died on Nov. 19 at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pa. He was 89.The cause was heart failure, his son, Bart, said.With a mesmerizing speaking style that combined humor, passion, worldliness and Scripture, Dr. Campolo in his prime addressed 500 or more audiences a year, at churches and conferences, often challenging the hegemony of the Christian right that aligned white evangelicals with the Republican Party.He was a founder of Red Letter Christians, a movement that urges evangelicals to turn away from politics in favor of the values of charity and love preached by Jesus, whose words are printed in red in some editions of the Bible.His lodestar was Chapter 25 in the book of Matthew, which warns that Christ will judge his followers by the compassion they showed to “the least of these” among humanity.“While you were sleeping last night,” Dr. Campolo would tell audiences, “30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition.”“Most of you don’t give a shit,” he added.“What’s worse,” he’d say, building on the shock value, “is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said ‘shit’ than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”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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    Hezbollah Fires Waves of Projectiles Into Israel After Deadly Strike in Beirut

    Israel’s military has been intensifying operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon in an apparent attempt to pressure the militant group into a cease-fire.Hezbollah fired more than 150 projectiles into Israel on Sunday, a day after an Israeli strike in the heart of the Lebanese capital killed at least 20 people.More than 65 people were wounded in the attack on Saturday in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Three Israeli defense officials said the strike was an attempt to assassinate a top Hezbollah military commander, Mohammad Haidar. One of the Israeli defense officials, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, later said that Mr. Haidar was not killed.On Sunday, waves of air raid sirens blared throughout much of Israel, including in the Tel Aviv area and the hilltop town of Safed. Israel’s military said that around 160 projectiles — a term usually referring to rockets — had been launched as of early afternoon, and that some were intercepted by air defense systems.Magen David Adom, an Israeli emergency rescue service, said it had treated at least six people with injuries. It also shared images of cars engulfed by fires in central Israel.Hezbollah said it had fired several salvos of rockets at Israel on Sunday.The militant group said that one of the salvos — which it said had targeted a military installation in Tel Aviv around 6:30 a.m. — was in response to Israel’s targeting of Beirut. The Israeli military did not report an attack aimed at Tel Aviv around that time, and The New York Times was not able to independently verify the claim by Hezbollah.The exchange of fire came as the Israeli military said it struck what it described as militant infrastructure next to a border crossing between Syria and Lebanon. It also ordered the evacuation of five villages in southern Lebanon and for at least two buildings in the Dahiya, an area just south of Beirut.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