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      NYT Crossword Answers for April 9, 2025

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      Aidan Deshong and Oren Hartstein write a set of less-than-stellar reviews.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Greetings, my fellow puzzleheads! Deb Amlen here, sitting in for my illustrious colleague, Sam Corbin, who is recovering from a mild mystery illness in an undisclosed location. She will be back next week with even more puns, if you can imagine. I don’t know where she gets them all.The constructors of today’s puzzle, Aidan Deshong and Oren Hartstein, were close friends in high school, and they have maintained their friendship in college.Mr. Deshong has had three puzzles published in The New York Times, and this is Mr. Orenstein’s debut. Their theme was sparked by a bright 36A that Mr. Orenstein had. And now here he is with an entire puzzle published in The Times.All it takes is one spark, and if you stoke it, that spark can become a flame. If you are wondering if you could construct a crossword, don’t be overwhelmed by the idea that you have to have an entire set of theme entries made all at once. Let it cook for a while in your brain. If you can, find published constructors and bat your ideas around with them. They can help you develop a theme by suggesting things you may not have considered. If you are not sure how to find the items that other constructors use, such as word lists and puzzle making software, here is a list of resources.Today’s ThemeThe theme of today’s puzzle is “meh.” That’s not a critique of the puzzle, mind you. It’s simply about less-than-enthusiastic, three-star reviews of a cocktail shaker, the game Battleship, an easy-A class, the city of Tulsa, Okla. and Good Friday, the Friday before Easter.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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      Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Old Friends’ Review: A Broadway Party With 41 Songs

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      Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga lead the festivities in a new Broadway revue of the great musical dramatist’s work.Fast approaching the number of musicals Stephen Sondheim wrote is the number of revues written about him. The first, to my knowledge, was a 1973 fund-raiser held on the set of the original production of “A Little Night Music.” It featured so many stars, speeches and songs that even truncated, even then, its recording filled two LPs.I snapped that album up and wore it out. The cover alone was fascinating, with the titles of nine of his shows spelled out in intersecting Scrabble tiles. (Something like nine more shows were to come before his death in 2021 — and one after.) Threaded through those tiles like a secret theme was Sondheim’s name itself.I was younger then, a teenager, but that secret theme became part of my life’s music.How then to hear a new Sondheim revue with fresh ears and fresh heart? As the latest, “Old Friends,” says right in its name, we are already well acquainted.Whether onstage, online, in cabarets or, like “Old Friends,” on Broadway, all such compendiums play their own game of Sondheim Scrabble. Though there are many hundreds of songs in the catalog, compilers must pick from the same limited subset of favorites, arranging them in various concatenations and outcroppings. Occasionally a 10-point rarity turns up, but most of the choices are deeply familiar to those who have followed the man’s work.Peters and Jacob Dickey in the “Hello, Little Girl” number from “Into the Woods.”Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“Old Friends,” which opened on Tuesday at Manhattan Theater Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater, is in that sense a lot like its predecessors. The 41 numbers it features come from the main pool, with an emphasis on songs from “Sweeney Todd,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Company,” “Follies” and “Into the Woods.” Most of them were brilliant in their original context; many remain so outside it. Some are sung spectacularly by a bigger-than-usual cast of 17, led by Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. Others are middling, a few are misfires.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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      Ken Paxton Says He Will Challenge Senator John Cornyn in 2026

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      Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, officially announced on Tuesday that he was challenging Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary next year, setting up what is likely to be the most contentious and expensive intraparty contest of 2026.Mr. Paxton, a firebrand conservative litigant who has sought to strongly align himself with President Trump, had been teasing a run against Mr. Cornyn for weeks. He all but announced his intentions in an interview with The New York Times last week.On Tuesday, Mr. Paxton unveiled a website for his nascent campaign, prominently featuring a photo of him posing with Mr. Trump, and he officially announced his run in an interview on Fox News.“It’s definitely time for a change in Texas,” Mr. Paxton said in the interview with Laura Ingraham. In a post on social media, he promised to “fight for President Trump’s agenda and take a sledgehammer to the D.C. establishment.”Mr. Paxton has tried to position himself as the preferred candidate of the Republican primary base in Texas, a conservative electorate that has appeared receptive to his campaign in recent polling.Mr. Cornyn, realizing the looming challenge, announced his own campaign last month in a video that heavily featured his own connections to Mr. Trump. In recent days he rolled out an endorsement from the union for U.S. Border Patrol agents, an important show of support for conservative voters who list border security among their top issues.In response to Mr. Paxton’s announcement, the Cornyn campaign pointed to the senator’s voting record, which it said aligned with President Trump more than nearly every other senator. The campaign referred to Mr. Paxton as “a fraud.”“This will be a spirited campaign and we assure Texans they will have a real choice when this race is over,” the campaign said in a statement on Tuesday.Republican voters in Texas are well familiar with both Mr. Cornyn, who has been in state politics for four decades, and Mr. Paxton, a former state representative and state senator now in his third term as attorney general.Mr. Paxton survived an impeachment trial in 2023, initiated by Texas House Republicans, over allegations of corruption and abuse of office that were lodged against him by some of his former top aides.Those aides also filed a whistle-blower suit against him over their firings. Late last week a judge sided with them, saying that Mr. Paxton had admitted to the allegations and that the state should pay $6.6 million to settle the claims. Mr. Paxton has vowed to appeal. More

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      3 Visitors to Yellowstone Get Jail Sentences for Violations

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      Tourists are required to stay on marked paths in thermal areas because of the dangers of the hot springs, geysers and steam vents, and to protect nature.Three visitors to Yellowstone National Park were sentenced last month to short jail terms for unrelated misdemeanor violations, federal prosecutors said, emphasizing the need for safety on protected parkland.Two visitors who strayed from clearly marked paths or roads in thermal areas at the park were each sentenced to seven days in jail, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming said late last month. A third visitor was sentenced to 10 days for driving under the influence of alcohol in the park, the office said.The three were sentenced for public land violations that happened last fall, and their terms were handed down just weeks before the peak tourist season begins at Yellowstone, most of which is in Wyoming.“The No. 1 priority is public safety, but natural resources are also important in places like Yellowstone National Park,” Lori Hogan, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wyoming, said in an interview on Tuesday.“More dangerous offenses, like thermal trespass or wildlife disturbance, could potentially lead to jail time, while minor violations might result in fines or warnings,” she said. “The public should understand the violations and their consequences before visiting.”Walking on the thermal grounds at Yellowstone can be extremely dangerous, park officials said, because the ground is fragile and thin, and scalding water just below the surface can cause severe or fatal burns.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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      Death of Palestinian American Boy in West Bank Sparks Outcry

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      Amer Rabee, 14, was fatally shot Sunday by Israeli forces in the West Bank, according to his family. On Tuesday, community leaders gathered in New Jersey to demand justice.Members of northern New Jersey’s Palestinian community gathered on Tuesday to condemn the recent killing of a Palestinian American boy by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.The boy, Amer Rabee, 14, was shot and killed in the town of Turmus Aya on Sunday, his family said. Two other Palestinian American teenagers who were with Amer at the time were shot and injured by the soldiers, the family said.Amer, who was originally from Saddle Brook, N.J., moved with his family to the West Bank around 2013. The family said that since then, it had divided its time between the West Bank and New Jersey.At a news conference on Tuesday, community leaders stood at a small wooden lectern at the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, N.J., to decry Amer’s death and call on the U.S. government to investigate the shooting. They were joined by Rami Jbara, an uncle of Amer’s, and by Amer’s father, Mohammed Rabee, who called in remotely from the West Bank.“We cannot let this horrific crime be swept under the rug,” said Rania Mustafa, the center’s executive director.“Our stories are consistently ignored,” she added. “Our people are consistently dehumanized. Our deaths are repeatedly ignored.”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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      Chinese Intelligence May Be Trying to Recruit Fired U.S. Officials

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      The National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned on Tuesday that China’s intelligence services were using deceptive efforts to recruit current and former U.S. government employees.The center, along with the F.B.I. and the Pentagon’s counterintelligence service, said in an advisory that foreign intelligence agencies were posing as consulting firms, corporate think tanks and other organizations to recruit former U.S. officials.The American government has long said that China uses social networks to secretly recruit people. But former U.S. officials say China now sees an opportunity as the Trump administration shuts down agencies, fires probationary employees and pushes out people who had worked on diversity issues.The warning advised former officials who have security clearances of their “legal obligation to protect classified data” even after they leave the government. It added that China and other foreign countries were targeting a variety of former officials.Postings on the social media platform Bluesky targeted researchers dismissed by the National Institutes of Health, offering them a chance to “pursue career development” in Shenzhen, China.Former officials said other outreach from foreign intelligence services has targeted agents let go from the F.B.I. and military officers who have retired.“Current and former federal employees should beware of these virtual approaches and understand the potential consequences of engaging,” the counterintelligence center said.Chinese intelligence services often begin recruitment efforts by offering a small fee for an innocuous research paper. Over time, the requests push for more sensitive material.The center advised former officials, particularly people with security clearances, to be careful about what they post concerning their government work.Red flags of the recruiting efforts include offers of disproportionately high salaries and flexible work conditions, the center said. Recruiters can also be “overly responsive” to messages from a former government official and give a strange amount of praise.Last month, CNN reported that China and Russia had directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of U.S. federal employees working on national security issues, including targeting people who could be fired.Former officials have said that workers forced out of government jobs can be vulnerable — desperate for work and angry at the government — and could let down their guard. While some approaches, like the ones posted on Bluesky, were obviously of Chinese origin, others may be better disguised, appearing to come from American companies, former officials said.While intelligence and military officials are trained to recognize such efforts by foreign intelligence services, government researchers do not routinely receive the same level of counterintelligence training.The intelligence agencies have not cut as deeply as some departments, like the U.S. Agency for International Development, but the C.I.A. has fired about 80 probationary employees. The National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have also fired workers. More

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      Trump Officials Point to Outreach on Tariffs in a Bid to Calm Markets

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      President Trump’s top trade official defended the administration’s aggressive tariff moves on Tuesday, arguing before a Senate committee that the U.S. economy is facing “a moment of drastic, overdue change” after decades of being propped up by the financial sector and government spending.The remarks by Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative, came as the Trump administration faced blowback from trading partners, businesses and investors over Mr. Trump’s approach. The president’s moves this month to impose a 10 percent global tariff and steep “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries have already triggered a trade war with China and caused other countries to draw up their own retaliation plans. Economists now consider a recession increasingly likely.Mr. Trump has dismissed those concerns and said he will not back away from his trade agenda, which he says is necessary to return manufacturing and industrial production to the United States. He and his economic advisers have claimed that countries are clamoring to make new trade agreements with the United States and to lower their tariffs and other trade barriers.In a social media post on Tuesday, Mr. Trump described a call with South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, about trade and tariffs and that South Korean officials were heading to the United States for talks. He also expressed optimism that a trade war with China could be averted.“China also wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started,” Mr. Trump wrote. “We are waiting for their call. It will happen!”Mr. Greer said in his prepared remarks that nearly 50 countries have approached him to discuss how to “achieve reciprocity on trade.”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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      Chris Sununu Skips a New Hampshire Senate Bid, Dashing Trump’s Hopes

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      The former New Hampshire governor had been seen as a top Republican recruit in the liberal-leaning yet competitive state. President Trump had said on Sunday, “I hope he runs.”Chris Sununu, the Republican former governor of New Hampshire, announced on Tuesday that he would not run for Senate in 2026, dashing the hopes of President Trump and others in their party that he would help flip a seat in the state after a Democratic senator’s retirement.Mr. Sununu, who served for four two-year terms as governor, was once a vocal critic of Mr. Trump’s — he endorsed Nikki Haley in the 2024 primary race — but the president had warmed to the possibility of luring the popular former governor into the Senate race.“I hope he runs,” Mr. Trump said on Air Force One on Sunday, noting that he had met recently with Mr. Sununu in the Oval Office. “He’s been very nice to me over the last year or so.”Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, announced her retirement last month. Representative Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, a Democrat, recently began a bid to succeed her. The other House member from the state, Representative Maggie Goodlander, has said she is also considering a run.Mr. Sununu, who has flirted with Senate campaigns for years but never actually declared a candidacy, officially pulled himself out of contention on Tuesday.”No, I’m not going to run,” he said in a radio interview on The Pulse of NH, saying it was not right for his family.He said that Republicans could still win, and that he had on Tuesday informed Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, of his decision. “It doesn’t have to be me,” Mr. Sununu said.A spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Maeve Coyle, called it “ an embarrassing recruitment failure.”Another potential Republican candidate is Scott Brown, a former senator from Massachusetts, whom Ms. Shaheen needled after she announced her exit, telling Semafor: “He’s making noises. He’s not from New Hampshire.”The New Hampshire seat is one of three vacancies that Democrats must defend in 2026, along with Michigan and Minnesota. No Republican senators in competitive states have yet to announce retirements. More