Elections

Five articles from around The Times, narrated just for you. This weekend, listen to a collection of narrated articles from around The New York Times, read aloud by the reporters who wrote the stories.When Vaccines Become an Internet Personality Test Written and narrated by Amanda HessWhen Vaccines Become an Internet Personality TestFor months, social media has been operating as if mass death and collective trauma could be processed (or at least ignored) by rigorously serving up topical memes on our phones. Now, the long-running Covid dramedy appears to be nearing its finale, in the form of an orgiastic flurry of vaccine content.Images of filled-out vaccine cards are status symbols. The syringe emoji is spurting everywhere. There are vaccine fan-fiction TikToks where the pharmaceutical brands are spun into whole personalities. There is even a vaccine heartthrob: Huge Ma, the “Vaccine Daddy” behind the Twitter account @TurboVax, which surfaces open appointment slots in New York.◆ ◆ ◆The Island Is Idyllic. As a Workplace, It’s Toxic.Written and narrated by Julia MoskinSarah Letchworth is one of several young women from Lummi Island who worked at the Willows as a teenager, and who said they experienced sexual harassment by Blaine Wetzel’s kitchen crew.Jessica Pons for The New York TimesThe Island Is Idyllic. As a Workplace, It’s Toxic.Since Blaine Wetzel took over the kitchen at the Willows Inn, a restaurant on Lummi, a tiny island near the San Juan archipelago of Washington State, it has become a global destination. Culinary pilgrims come for multicourse dinners of foraged dandelions, custards infused with roasted birch bark and salmon pulled from Pacific waters they can see from the dining room. Beyond the food, guests come for the story, and pay at least $500 to live in it for a night.But 35 former staff members who spoke to The New York Times said that story — the one Mr. Wetzel tells to diners, to the media and to aspiring chefs who come to Lummi to learn from him — is deeply misleading.◆ ◆ ◆The Biggest Mayor’s Race in Years? New Yorkers’ Minds Are Elsewhere.Written and narrated by Michael WilsonAndrew Yang speaking at an event in the Bronx last week. “The only thing I’m thinking about is Covid,” said one woman who recently saw Mr. Yang in the borough. Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesThe Biggest Mayor’s Race in Years? New Yorkers’ Minds Are Elsewhere.The next mayor of New York faces a staggering slate of extraordinary challenges: resuscitating tourism and refilling the empty skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan, bringing jobs back and the commuters to perform them, lowering crime while raising confidence in the city’s police and law enforcement.And yet, a seemingly large portion of New Yorkers, with only eight weeks left before the Democratic primary, remain utterly disengaged and oblivious to the race. For many, the ongoing toils of living with the coronavirus and lingering weariness from the 2020 presidential campaign have crowded out time or energy for local politics.◆ ◆ ◆There’s a Booming Business in America’s Forests. Some Aren’t Happy About It.Written and narrated by Gabriel PopkinA tree being dragged to a wood chipper, a first step toward being transformed into wood pellets and shipped overseas.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesThere’s a Booming Business in America’s Forests. Some Aren’t Happy About It.In barely a decade, the wood pellet industry in America’s Southeast has grown from almost nothing to 23 mills with capacity to produce more than 10 million metric tons annually for export. It employs more than 1,000 people directly, and has boosted local logging and trucking businesses.Supporters see the thriving industry as a climate-friendly source of rural jobs. For others, it’s a polluter and destroyer of nature.◆ ◆ ◆Rural Ambulance Crews Have Run Out of Money and VolunteersWritten and narrated by Ali WatkinsStephanie Bartlett, left, and Cheryl Rixey pulling out a stretcher at a hospital in Sweetwater County, Wyo., for a patient transfer this month.Kim Raff for The New York TimesRural Ambulance Crews Have Run Out of Money and VolunteersThe ambulance crews that service much of rural America have run out of money and volunteers, a crisis exacerbated by the demands of the pandemic and a neglected, patchwork 911 system.The situation is particularly acute in Wyoming, where nearly half of the population lives in territory so empty it is still considered the frontier. At least 10 localities in the state are in danger of losing ambulance service, some imminently, according to an analysis reviewed by The New York Times.Want to hear more narrated articles from publishers like The New York Times? Download Audm for iPhone and Android.The Times’s narrated articles are made by Parin Behrooz, Carson Leigh Brown, Anna Diamond, Aaron Esposito, Elena Hecht, Emma Kehlbeck, Marion Lozano, Anna Martin, Tracy Mumford, Tanya Perez, Margaret Willison, Kate Winslett and John Woo. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Ryan Wegner, Julia Simon and Desiree Ibekwe. More

In his 100 days address this week, Joe Biden outlined his plans for a big, bold legislative agenda to come. He previewed a two-pronged economic package: the $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan and the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan. He spoke about the need to pass universal background checks for firearms, comprehensive immigration reform, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.The success of that agenda hinges on whether 50 Senate Democrats — ranging from Bernie Sanders to Joe Manchin — can come together and pass legislation. They don’t have a single vote to spare. And the person responsible for making that happens is the New York senator and Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer.Schumer has a theory of politics that he believes can hold or even win Democrats seats in 2022. It’s not a complicated theory: For Democrats to win over middle-of-the-road voters — including those who voted for Donald Trump — they need to prove that government is actually helping them. But to do that, the government needs to actually help those voters, in clear and visible ways. That means passing big, bold legislation. And the institution Schumer leads — the Senate — is the primary obstacle to that happening.So I invited Schumer on the show to talk about how exactly he plans on doing that. How do you win over Trump voters? What kinds of economic policies can help deliver Democrats victory in 2022? How should the party approach topics like race and gender? How will he pass bills, like the For The People Act, that can’t go through budget reconciliation? And, of course, what do you do about the filibuster?(A full transcript of the episode will be available midday.)Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Doug Mills/The New York Times“The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Roge Karma and Jeff Geld; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld. More

The bill, which Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign, is the latest Republican effort to restrict voting after the 2020 election. It will make Florida the first major swing state won by Donald Trump to pass such a law.MIAMI — Republicans in the Florida Legislature passed an election overhaul bill on Thursday that is set to usher in a host of voting restrictions in one of the most critical battleground states in the country, adding to the national push by G.O.P. state lawmakers to reduce voting access.The bill makes Florida the first major swing state won by former President Donald J. Trump to pass significant voting limits and reflects Republicans’ determination to reshape electoral systems even in states where they have been ascendant. Mr. Trump carried the state last year by more than three percentage points, other Republicans also performed strongly, and the party raised new hopes of its ability to appeal to Latino voters.But Republicans in Florida argued that its elections needed to be more secure, despite the fact that voting unfolded smoothly in 2020 and arguments by Democrats and voting rights experts that some of the new measures would disproportionately affect voters of color. Now the state is on the verge of weakening key parts of an extensive voting infrastructure that was slowly constructed after the state’s chaotic 2000 election and was rapidly enlarged last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.The new bill would limit the use of drop boxes; add more identification requirements for those requesting absentee ballots; require voters to request an absentee ballot for each election, rather than receive them automatically through an absentee voting list; limit who could collect and drop off ballots; and further empower partisan observers during the ballot-counting process. The legislation would also expand a current rule that prohibits outside groups from providing items “with the intent to influence” voters within a 150-foot radius of a polling location.Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has indicated his support for the voting overhaul and is expected to sign it. The bill passed largely along a party-line vote in both chambers, 77 to 40 in the House and 23 to 17 in the Senate, though one Republican state senator, Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg, voted against it.The legislation follows a similar law passed recently by Georgia, and comes as Texas, Arizona and other states led by Republicans pursue limits on access to the ballot. G.O.P. lawmakers have been fueled by a party base that has largely embraced Mr. Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud and a stolen 2020 election. In Florida, Republican legislators promoted the voting bill while providing little evidence of any problems with fraud, and despite their continued claims that the state’s 2020 election was the “gold standard” for the country.“There was no problem in Florida,” said Kara Gross, the legislative director and senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. “Everything worked as it should. The only reason they’re doing this is to make it harder to vote.”Once the bill is signed into law, Florida will become the first state to create new barriers to voting after businesses across the country embarked on a public pressure campaign to oppose such measures. Major corporations, after speaking out against voting bills in states like Georgia and Texas, remained largely muted on the Republican push in Florida.Hovering over Florida’s debate about the bill was the state’s strong and exceptionally popular tradition of voting by mail — and a recent sea change in which party benefited most from it.In the 2016 and 2018 elections, roughly a third of the state’s voters cast ballots through the mail. And in both years, more Republicans than Democrats voted by mail.But in 2020, more than 2.1 million Democrats cast mail ballots, compared with roughly 1.4 million Republicans, largely because of a Democratic push to vote remotely amid the pandemic and Mr. Trump’s false attacks on the practice. (The former president and his family, however, voted by mail in Florida in the June 2020 primary.)Florida has a popular tradition of voting by mail, a method that favored Republicans until 2020, when Democrats encouraged the practice during the pandemic.Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesGiven that history in Florida, its bill will act as a unique test of the national Republican push to curtail voting access, especially absentee and mail voting. And the G.O.P. effort carries risks: Was the Democratic surge in mail balloting a sign of a new normal for the previously Republican-dominated voting method, or a blip caused by the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic?The legislation has already become something of a political balancing act, as state Republicans try to appease a Trump-friendly base hungry for new voting limits while not harming the party’s turnout. In 2022, the state is poised to yet again become a marquee political battleground as Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Mr. DeSantis seek re-election.Democrats in the Legislature seized on Republicans’ justification for the bill.“So what’s the problem that we’re trying to fix?” Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democratic representative from Orlando, asked rhetorically. “Oh, here’s the problem: Florida Democrats cast 600,000 more vote-by-mail ballots.”But Republicans defended the bill, saying that it was popular with “our constituents” and noting that voting options in Florida were still far more extensive than in other states. Florida will still have no-excuse absentee voting and will mandate at least eight days of early voting.“If the opposition says that we are creating barriers to voting, those barriers already exist in other states,” said Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican state representative from Hernando County who helped lead the push for the bill. “But we never hear a peep from the opposition about those laws.”Other Republican legislators echoed language used by Mr. Trump and his allies during their challenges to the 2020 election.“I believe that every legal vote should count,” said Travis Hutson, a Republican senator from Northeast Florida. “I believe one fraudulent vote is one too many. And I’m trying to protect the sanctity of our elections.”Data requested by lawmakers themselves suggested there was little need for the legislation. The Republican-led House Public Integrity and Elections Committee surveyed the state’s 67 election supervisors in February, asking them about past elections. Almost all of the supervisors responded and said that, over the past four years, they had reported very few instances of possible fraud — one of lawmakers’ stated reasons for pushing the legislation — and that most of their drop boxes were already monitored, through either physical or video surveillance, public records show.“It seems like the Legislature is ignoring — I would say deliberately ignoring — the facts that they have in their possession,” said Stephen F. Rosenthal of Miami, who is part of a group of Democratic lawyers that requested the records. The group also queried elected state prosecutors about voter fraud, finding a minuscule number of prosecuted cases.The supervisors’ answers to the House committee also revealed that election supervisors had received millions of dollars in grant funding from outside organizations in 2019 and 2020. That money will now be prohibited, with no obvious substitute for it in the future.Republicans, when pressed for details on any reported fraud that would prompt the need for the bill, often demurred.“I don’t know, but I’m sure it was going on,” Mr. Ingoglia responded to a question on the House floor about any reported instances of illegal ballot collection. “Just the fact that they weren’t caught doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not happening.”The bill was not without criticism from notable Republicans inside and outside the Legislature. D. Alan Hays, a conservative Republican who had previously served in the State Senate for 12 years and is now the election supervisor in Lake County, told his former colleagues at a legislative hearing last month that their bill was a “travesty.”Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign the bill into law, will face re-election in 2022.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesThe new bill is likely to face legal challenges from Democrats; hours after Gov. Brian Kemp signed Georgia’s voting bill into law, a coalition of Democrats and civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit challenging its legality.Democrats in the Florida Legislature focused heavily on the bill’s potential impact on communities of color.“Typically, in communities of color, households are very diverse,” said State Representative Bobby DuBose, the minority leader, taking issue with the restriction that says a person could collect only two absentee ballots from other voters to bring and drop off at a polling location. “And so, if the intent was to add two — and in many households, there are more than two — why the number two and why not expand beyond two if your intent was to open up the accessibility to voting?”Mr. Ingoglia said he believed allowing two ballots per person was sufficient, but Democrats disagreed, likening the rule to racially discriminatory laws of the past. Over and over, they framed the bill as a solution in search of a problem.One Democratic representative, Fentrice Driskell of Tampa, framed the debate as similar to the hunt for the chupacabra, the mythical, nightmarish mammal-gobbling and goat-blood-sucking beast.“Members, I’ve got no evidence for you on the chupacabra, and I got no evidence for you about ballot harvesting,” Ms. Driskell said. “But what I can tell you is this: that our system worked well in 2020, by all accounts, and everyone agreed. And that for so many reasons, we don’t need this bad bill.” More

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All three major female Democratic candidates for mayor have called on Scott Stringer, who has denied the allegation, to drop out of the primary contest.A bombshell sexual misconduct accusation against Scott M. Stringer pushed two major questions to the forefront of New York City’s mayoral race: Could the claim be corroborated, and how would Mr. Stringer’s campaign be affected by the allegation?The answer to the first question is not yet clear; Mr. Stringer, the city comptroller, continues to vehemently deny the account of a woman who came forward on Wednesday to accuse him of sexually assaulting her when she worked on his 2001 race for public advocate. But by Thursday, the political warning signs for his meticulously planned campaign were beginning to come into focus.All three of the leading female mayoral candidates — including Maya D. Wiley, perhaps his most powerful rival for progressive voters — have now called on him to drop out of the race. State Senators Jessica Ramos and Jabari Brisport, two prominent left-wing lawmakers, have rescinded their endorsements of Mr. Stringer.His campaign confirmed that a birthday fund-raiser scheduled for Thursday evening, headlined by some of the state’s most high-profile progressive Democratic officials, would not go forward.Mr. Stringer’s campaign faces a moment of crisis, just as he had appeared to catch momentum — and some on the left fear that the fallout will help more moderate candidates like Andrew Yang or Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, win the primary.“Every time there are allegations like this, they need to be taken really seriously,” said Cea Weaver, a strategist for the Housing Justice for All Coalition. “It’s not good. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I’m really concerned that absent Stringer’s campaign, the left doesn’t have a viable candidate.”At issue is an allegation from Jean Kim, now a political lobbyist, that Mr. Stringer groped her, made other unwanted sexual overtures and told her to keep those actions quiet during his 2001 race. Mr. Stringer has strongly denied those claims, saying that they had a consensual relationship that stretched over a few months.The claim injected a new measure of unpredictability into the race and gave a number of his opponents fresh arguments for their own candidacies.“We cannot afford a distraction” from the most consequential issues facing New York City, said Ms. Wiley, who picked up endorsements on Thursday from the women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem and Roberta Kaplan, a civil rights lawyer.“Anyone who wants to sit and serve the people of the city of New York should be able to understand that there is simply no man who can tell a woman whether or not she has consented to a sexual relationship,” Ms. Wiley said. “That’s not how it works.”For months, Mr. Yang, the former presidential candidate, has topped the sparse public polling, typically followed by Mr. Adams. But in a number of recent polls, Mr. Stringer had appeared to be virtually tied or just behind Mr. Adams. He had been buoyed in recent weeks by several major endorsements, including from the Working Families Party, the New York City chapter of the Sunrise Movement, a climate advocacy group, and the United Federation of Teachers.Yet the allegation against Mr. Stringer — who, along with some of his top supporters, has preached a zero-tolerance message in other instances of allegations against public officials — threatens to reorder the entire mayoral contest, and especially the battle for the left.Mr. Brisport, the state senator, had supported Mr. Stringer as his second choice in June’s ranked-choice primary, with Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive, as his top pick. That was exactly the strategy Mr. Stringer had been working toward to engage the city’s furthest-left voters, but Mr. Brisport’s withdrawal of support on Thursday was a troubling sign.The developments have also given new fuel to Ms. Wiley, as well as to Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, and other candidates who like Mr. Stringer are campaigning on a mantle of competence and government experience.“It does open up the race in Manhattan in way that I think was not the case a few weeks ago, and probably Park Slope a bit,” said Alicia Glen, a former deputy mayor and supporter of Ms. Garcia’s. “It has put those votes in play.”Mr. Stringer on Thursday huddled on a private videoconference call with top supporters, including Representative Jerrold Nadler; representatives from major unions that have endorsed him, like the U.F.T.; and other supporters including State Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, according to people familiar with the meeting. “Any woman who has experienced any misconduct or abuse must be allowed to safely and freely come forward to share their story,” Mr. Nadler said in a statement. “I have known Scott to be a man of enduring character and integrity. Scott has clearly stated that there is no basis to these allegations, and I continue to support his candidacy.”Others plainly had more reservations. “Three days ago, I’m 1,000 percent a Scott guy. Now, I have to reassess. I didn’t see this coming,” said Al Taylor, an assemblyman who represents Harlem and Washington Heights. “I want to honor everyone that has made accusations. I want to make sure they are heard.”Many of the left-leaning politicians who endorsed Mr. Stringer are waiting to see whether State Senator Julia Salazar and Ms. Biaggi rescind their endorsements of Mr. Stringer. Neither responded to text messages Thursday afternoon asking for their latest thinking.One politician who endorsed Mr. Stringer said the campaign was working hard to stop others from rescinding their endorsements. Emissaries for Mr. Stringer’s campaign were adamantly making the case that any sexual activity with Ms. Kim was consensual. They also stressed that Ms. Kim was a 30-year-old woman, not a young intern just out of college, when the alleged incidents occurred.In a statement, Tyrone Stevens, Mr. Stringer’s campaign spokesman, disputed several aspects of Ms. Kim’s account and that of her lawyer, Patricia Pastor.Jean Kim went public with her accusations against Mr. Stringer at a news conference on Wednesday.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times“They said Ms. Kim was an ‘unpaid intern’ on the Stringer campaign,” Mr. Stevens said. “This is false. In fact, she was a 30-year-old adult and friend of Scott’s who was employed elsewhere and had nothing to do with the campaign’s established internship program.”Ms. Pastor said the distinction was immaterial.“Does it matter?” she asked. “She uses the term ‘intern’ because there’s no title, she wasn’t officially given a title, she had a relationship where he came to her and asked her to work on his campaign.”On Wednesday, Ms. Pastor said that to the best of her knowledge, she was unaware that Ms. Kim sought a job on Mr. Stringer’s 2013 campaign. On Thursday, however, Mr. Stringer’s campaign provided a 2013 email Ms. Kim wrote to one of Mr. Stringer’s campaign workers, asking if she could “be helpful” on his campaign for comptroller and passing along her résumé. She was not hired..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}In response, Ms. Kim said on Thursday that she wanted to give Mr. Stringer’s campaign “the right of first refusal,” adding that she felt he had “tremendous power in politics.”Mr. Stringer’s team noted that Ms. Kim went on to work for Mr. Stringer’s 2013 opponent, Eliot Spitzer. Chris Miller, who was a general consultant for Mr. Spitzer’s campaign that year, said Ms. Kim “helped with local politics in Queens and in Chinatown and Manhattan, essentially making introductions and helping build relationships, primarily with community leaders,” but that she hardly appeared vindictive toward Mr. Stringer.“That says a tremendous amount about her,” said Mr. Miller. “Had that news broken, then that certainly could have helped our efforts.”Ms. Pastor did not provide any specific names when asked who could corroborate Ms. Kim’s account from that time. Reached by cellphone on Wednesday, Ms. Kim referred all questions to Ms. Pastor.For his part, Mr. Stringer tried to proceed with his campaign for mayor on Thursday. Standing alone behind a podium at Fordham Station in the Bronx as a Metro-North Railroad train sped by, Mr. Stringer called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to open up the commuter rail system and reduce all in-city trips to the price of a subway ride.But he was asked only one question about his proposal from journalists. The remainder of the questions were about the sexual assault allegations.Mr. Stringer said he has respect for those who have rescinded their endorsement of him, but that it would not stop his campaign.“I have no intention of going anywhere except to City Hall to rebuild this city,” he said.Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting. More

President Mahmoud Abbas said elections could not take place unless Israel allowed voting in East Jerusalem. But privately, he also fears a poor result for his party, officials said.JERUSALEM — When the Palestinian Authority called in January for parliamentary elections, many Palestinians hoped the vote — the first in the occupied territories since 2006 — would revive Palestinian discourse, re-energize the independence movement and end a 14-year division between Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.But those hopes were dashed Thursday night when President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority announced that the vote, scheduled for May 22, would be delayed indefinitely.The news compounded an unsettled political dynamic across the occupied territories and the state of Israel, where both Israeli and Palestinian societies remain racked by political stalemate and division, where tensions are rising in Jerusalem and Gaza, and a return to peace negotiations appears less likely than ever.The official reason for the postponement was the refusal by the Israeli government to confirm that it would allow voting in East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. East Jerusalem is mainly populated by Palestinians who participate in elections for the Palestinian Authority, a semiautonomous institution that exerts partial jurisdiction in other parts of the occupied territories.“We decided to postpone the legislative elections until guaranteeing that Jerusalem and its people take part,” said Mr. Abbas in a speech in Ramallah. “We don’t give up Jerusalem.”But the postponement also served another purpose: Mr. Abbas was concerned that if the election went ahead, his party, Fatah, might lose ground to two Fatah splinter groups, according to a Palestinian official and a Western diplomat briefed by the Palestinian leadership.A family in a Gaza Strip refugee camp watching  President Mahmoud Abbas announce the election delay Thursday.Said Khatib/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIsraeli officials, meanwhile, were concerned that the elections would lead to a greater role in the Palestinian leadership for Hamas, the militant Islamist group that wrested control of Gaza from Mr. Abbas in 2007, and which has never recognized Israel.“It is a big mistake to go to these elections,” Kamil Abu Rokon, an Israeli general who oversaw administrative aspects of the occupation until earlier this month, said shortly before leaving his post. “My recommendation is not to cooperate.”Analysts also said the Israeli leaders were happy to keep their Palestinian counterparts divided, since it undermines the Palestinians’ ability to pursue a final status agreement with Israel as a unified bloc.Hamas condemned Mr. Abbas’s decision, describing it as a “coup” that lacked popular support.The development comes amid a volatile period across the West Bank, Gaza and the state of Israel. Israeli politics is also at an impasse, following an election in March — Israel’s fourth in two years — in which both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponents failed to win a workable majority.In Jerusalem, the situation is tense, following a march last week by far-right Jewish supremacists who chanted “Death to Arabs,” attacks on both Palestinians and Jews, and the provocative Israeli decision, now rescinded, to close a central plaza in East Jerusalem where Palestinians enjoy gathering during the ongoing month of Ramadan.That unrest broke months of relative calm in Gaza, where militants fired dozens of rockets toward Israel last weekend to protest the situation in Jerusalem.The city is at the heart of the pretext provided by Mr. Abbas to postpone elections.Under the interim agreements signed in the 1990s between Israeli and Palestinian leaders known as the Oslo Accords, the Israeli government is obliged to allow Palestinian elections in East Jerusalem.President Mahmoud Abbas casting a ballot in the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, the last time elections were held.Muhammed Muheisen/Associated PressBut Israel has neither blocked the election nor agreed to allow it. The Israeli government has not made a decision either way, an Israeli official confirmed, despite requests by the Palestinian leadership. The Israeli police have detained several representatives of Palestinian parties who attempted to campaign in the city. Palestinian officials said that to proceed with an election without East Jerusalem would be tantamount to giving up Palestinian claims on the city and its sacred Islamic sites, including the Aqsa mosque.“It’s not that we are trying to avoid elections,” said Ziad Abu Amr, deputy prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, and an adviser to Mr. Abbas. “Jerusalem cannot be forsaken or abandoned. You can’t surrender to the fait accompli that Israel tries to impose on Jerusalem.”But insiders said Mr. Abbas had an ulterior motive for postponement.Long the engine of the Palestinian national movement, Mr. Abbas’s party, Fatah, now faces unprecedented challenges, not only from its longtime rival Hamas but also from ex-Fatah grandees whose campaigns chipped away at support for their former party.Were elections to go ahead, Fatah’s supporters would be forced to choose among three Fatah-linked factions — the official party; a splinter group led by an exiled former security chief, Muhammad Dahlan; and a second breakaway faction, headed by Nasser al-Kidwa, a former envoy to the United Nations, and Marwan Barghouti, a popular militant serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison for five counts of murder.In the most recent poll, Mr. Abbas’s faction still came out on top, with about a quarter of the vote. But it was projected to fall far short of an overall majority because nearly as many voters said they would vote for the rival Fatah groups. Hamas polled under nine percent.No Palestinian official would admit publicly this week that these factors affected Mr. Abbas’s thinking. But speaking on the condition of anonymity, a Palestinian official and a Western diplomat briefed by the Palestinians said that he feared losing influence to his former allies.And after Mr. Kidwa and Mr. Barghouti broke with Mr. Abbas in March, a senior Palestinian official said in an interview with The New York Times that the move put the elections at risk because it risked undermining Fatah.Supporters of an exiled former Fatah security chief, Mohammed Dahlan,  protesting the election delay in Gaza City on Thursday.Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“Fatah’s situation needs to be strong, it needs to lead the Palestine Liberation Organization and the national project,” said Wassel Abu Yousef, a member of the executive committee of the P.L.O., the official representative of the Palestinian people. “If there is harm to the national project, there will be heavy and powerful voices that will be in favor of postponing the elections.”Some Palestinians met the postponement with a shrug. Many felt the elections would not have occurred in a particularly free environment, while some always suspected they would be canceled. Others felt voting for a Palestinian Parliament would have little effect on the biggest problem in their lives: the Israeli occupation.Elections suggest “there is a sovereign entity in which people are participating in a democratic process,” said Yara Hawari, a senior analyst at Al Shabaka, a Palestinian research group. “But you can’t have a full democracy under occupation.”Many Palestinians were nevertheless furious at being deprived of a rare chance to choose their representatives. Crowds of protesters, many of whom were too young to vote in the last Palestinian elections, demonstrated against the decision in both the West Bank and Gaza.“The people demand the ballot box,” they chanted.Muhammad Shehada, a 28-year-old unemployed civil engineer from Gaza City, called the decision “a big disappointment.” The situation in Jerusalem was no reason to cancel the elections, he said: “The occupation controls Jerusalem, whether the elections are held or not.”The lack of elections also raises the specter of intra-Palestinian violence, since different factions will now have no peaceful forum in which to air their grievances and express their frustrations, said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al Azhar University in Gaza City.“Many Palestinians were hoping that elections would ease the tension and friction between the factions,” said Dr. Abusada. But the election delay, he said, “will leave the Palestinians fighting against each other.”Iyad Abuhweila contributed reporting from Gaza City, and Irit Pazner Garshowitz from Jerusalem. More

[Want to get New York Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.]It’s Thursday.Weather: Occasional showers, with afternoon thunderstorms. High in the mid-70s. Alternate-side parking: Suspended today for Orthodox Holy Thursday and tomorrow for Orthodox Holy Friday. Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesScott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller and a candidate for mayor, now faces accusations of sexual assault.Jean Kim, above, who said that she worked on Mr. Stringer’s 2001 campaign for public advocate, said that Mr. Stringer “repeatedly groped me, put his hands on my thighs and between my legs” without consent.Mr. Stringer denied Ms. Kim’s account, saying that they had a consensual relationship for a few months.[Ms. Kim said that Mr. Stringer warned her not to tell anyone about his advances.]Here’s what you need to know:The accusationsMs. Kim said at a news conference yesterday that she did not speak out earlier because she feared that Mr. Stringer would “destroy my career in politics.”“I am coming forward now because being forced to see him in my living room TV every day, pretending to be a champion for women’s rights, just sickens me,” Ms. Kim said.Ms. Kim’s accusations come about eight weeks before the Democratic primary on June 22, which will likely determine the next mayor.The responseAt his own news conference, Mr. Stringer suggested that his relationship with Ms. Kim was friendly until 2013, when he did not give her a job on his campaign for comptroller.(Ms. Kim’s lawyer said that she did not believe that Ms. Kim had applied for a job on Mr. Stringer’s campaign that year.)“Sexual harassment is unacceptable,” Mr. Stringer told reporters. “I believe women have the right and should be encouraged to come forward. They must be heard. But this isn’t me. I didn’t do this.”The contextLimited early polling shows Mr. Stringer in third place in the crowded mayoral field, behind Andrew Yang, the 2020 presidential candidate, and Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president. But his campaign recently won some key endorsements, and allies said they were concerned that the accusations could damage his chances.Mr. Stringer has cast himself as an ardent progressive in recent years. In March, he called for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who also faces allegations of sexual misconduct, to resign.By yesterday afternoon, some of Mr. Stringer’s opponents were calling on him to drop out of the race.From The TimesCuomo Aides Spent Months Hiding Nursing Home Death TollNew York Man Found Guilty of Threatening Democrats After Capitol RiotFederal Investigators Search Rudy Giuliani’s Apartment and OfficeN.Y.P.D. Robot Dog’s Run Is Cut Short After Fierce BacklashNew York’s Spring of Optimism: Finally, the Second Virus Wave Is EbbingWant more news? Check out our full coverage.The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.Make your voice heard: A recent wave of violence, including attacks in New York and California, has brought new attention to anti-Asian bias, what it means to be of Asian descent in the United States and what the term “Asian-American” means to the millions of people it aims to describe.How does it feel to be Asian-American right now? The Times wants to know. Please leave a voice message or submit a response here.What we’re readingThe electric motorbike service Revel plans to start an all-Tesla ride-hailing company in New York City, but the Taxi and Limousine Commission may not be on board. [The Verge]The city’s public hospital system is providing coronavirus vaccinations and other medical care to the city’s street homeless population with three minibuses. [Gothamist]Subway ridership is edging back up, but full-time workers who commute aren’t helping much, Metropolitan Transportation Authority numbers showed. [Daily News].css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}And finally: The battle to develop a South Street Seaport parking lotThe Times’s Michael Kimmelman writes:As New York real estate sagas go, the battle over a parking lot at 250 Water Street in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport Historic District approximates the Thirty Years’ War.You might ask how a landmarked oasis of quaint Americana came to include a huge surface parking lot that leaves a bizarre no-man’s land between the low-rise 19th-century storehouses lining Water to the east and the modern skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan, west of Pearl.A full explanation involves deals cut back in the day by local politicians appeasing NIMBY constituents who didn’t want their waterfront views blocked by a tower at 250 Water.Now a new proposal from the Howard Hughes Corporation for a $1.4 billion, 470-foot-high mixed-use development is making its way through the city’s bureaucracy.The plan initially envisioned 260 market-rate condos occupying the towers along with up to 100 subsidized units for tenants averaging 40 percent of the area’s median income, and funding for the South Street Seaport Museum.Supporters and opponents of the development were vociferous at two Landmarks Preservation Commission hearings about it, and Hughes responded with a scaled-back plan. Another hearing is scheduled for May 4.This may not be anyone’s ideal way to address the city’s affordable housing crisis or finance a cultural touchstone or build a skyscraper or a neighborhood.But one thing is certain.It’s better than a parking lot.It’s Thursday — build on the past.Metropolitan Diary: Spot saver Dear Diary:When my car is parked in a “good spot” — one that I wouldn’t have to give up to comply with alternate-side parking rules — I know that when I pull out in the morning for my teaching job in Connecticut, the doorman who works down the block will be waiting for me in his silver Subaru. It’s a parking dance that’s been going on for about 20 years.One Thursday morning, I was in the car adjusting my mirrors and plugging in my phone when the doorman pulled alongside me with his passenger-side window down.“Hey,” he said. “What time do you come back to the city?”“Um, around 4:30 or 5,” I said.“If you get here by 4, you can have the spot back,” he said.I thanked him, thinking to myself that he had never asked that before. And as he backed up to give me room to pull out, it occurred to me that it would be an ideal time to ask his name.After all these years, I still had no idea what it was.— Kimberly SteinhornNew York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com.What would you like to see more (or less) of? Email us: [email protected]. More

Big names in tech including Peter Thiel and Keith Rabois have moved to Miami in the past year. Mayor Francis Suarez is welcoming them with open arms in his zeal to transform Miami into the next tech hub. The sell? Sunshine, low taxes and a mayor who is always willing to take their calls (or, as Kara Swisher puts it, “pet them.”)In this conversation, Swisher presses Suarez on whether Miami — a city with rising sea levels and without an institution like Stanford in its back yard — can really become the next Silicon Valley. She also asks what he’s angling for in the long term. Suarez, a Republican, attracted national attention during the pandemic for his tensions with Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, and President Donald Trump.He’s now rumored to be a contender to be Nikki Haley’s running mate in the 2024 presidential race — speculation that he also welcomes with open arms. “I certainly was not shy about wanting to build a bond and a relationship with her,” he says. So, does Suarez want to be on a Republican ticket? His answer: “I wouldn’t say no.”Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Pete Marovich for The New York TimesThoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Transcripts of each episode are available midday.Special thanks to Shannon Busta, Liriel Higa, Michelle Harris and Isvett Verde.“Sway” is produced by Nayeema Raza, Blakeney Schick, Heba Elorbany, Matt Kwong and Daphne Chen, and edited by Nayeema Raza and Paula Szuchman; fact-checking by Kate Sinclair; music and sound design by Isaac Jones; mixing by Erick Gomez. More