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    NYT Crossword Answers for Nov. 12, 2024

    You heard it here first: Avery Gee Katz and Aaron Gee make their collaboration debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — Calling all gossips: They’re talking about you in the crossword of the day. And by “they,” I mean its constructors, Avery Gee Katz and Aaron Gee. This buzzy puzzle is the siblings’ first collaboration for The New York Times — Ms. Katz made her solo debut earlier this year — and it’s a pure delight to solve. If you would rather not take my word for it, though, you can hear it directly from the theme’s key source at 56A.Today’s ThemeThe source [From which to hear the real story, as suggested by the starts of 20-, 26- and 51-Across] is the HORSE’S MOUTH. At the beginnings of the cited entries, we have phonetic plays on the sounds made by a HORSE’S MOUTH:20A. Father KNICKERBOCKER, a [personification of New York City in old cartoons]26A. [Vocal skeptics], often referred to as NAYSAYERS51A. WINNIE THE POOH, the [Bear who sings “I’m so rumbly in my tumbly”]As horse sounds, these are generally written as nicker, neigh and whinny. I interpreted the location of each of these sounds — at the “mouths” of their respective entries — as another layer of humor.Tricky Clues5A. The use of vernacular in a clue is no accident. It’s an indication of how formal or colloquial the entry will be. [Li’l fella] is playful and casual, so it solves to a similarly playful term for a child — KIDDO.25A. My solution for [Smooth sailing, so to speak] was just one letter off, but it was only after solving the rest of the puzzle that I discovered the error. The answer is EASE, and I had “easy.” In my defense, I tend to use the phrase “smooth sailing” as an adjective — everything was decidedly not smooth sailing in this case.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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    ‘A Wonderful World’ Review: Blowing Louis Armstrong’s Horn Isn’t Enough

    The great jazz trumpeter and sandpaper vocalist gets the old jukebox treatment in a new Broadway musical starring James Monroe Iglehart.Who, having lived through 20th-century pop culture, could fail to recognize that voice like a truck without a muffler? That piercing trumpet and embracing spirit?Who could fail to recognize Louis Armstrong?Yet he is something of a blur in “A Wonderful World,” the Armstrong jukebox musical that opened Monday at Studio 54. Not for lack of a precise embodiment. In the leading role, James Monroe Iglehart has every Satchmo detail perfectly tuned: the rumble, the chortle, the hankie, the beam, the satchel-like cheeks that inspired the nickname. If drama were merely a tribute concert, there would be nothing to complain of.But with such a major figure we want something deeper. And though subtitled “The Louis Armstrong Musical,” the show, with a book by Aurin Squire, spends too little time exploring its subject’s interior life while plumping for his greatness as if the point were in doubt. The score, drawn from songs he performed but (with two exceptions) did not write, makes the case irrefutably already, encompassing the astonishing range of a man who grew up with the blues, changed the course of jazz, excelled at swing, perfected scat and won a Grammy for “Hello, Dolly!”To balance such a rich and varied artistic life, let alone a chaotic personal one, Armstrong deserves more than the standard jukebox bullet-point biography he gets here. Offering little you would not learn from a good obituary, or from a visit to the terrific museum at his home in Queens, “A Wonderful World” compresses 60 years, from youth to death and even beyond, into four discrete chapters defined cleverly but overneatly by decade, locale and wife.The 1910s segment, set in Armstrong’s native New Orleans, introduces wife No. 1, Daisy Parker (Dionne Figgins), a prostitute with a “Kiss of Fire.” After leaving her to join the jazz scene of Chicago in the 1920s, he falls for the pianist and arranger Lil Hardin (Jennie Harney-Fleming), who polishes his musicianship along with his wardrobe. Nevertheless, he leaves her too; she and Daisy bring down the first act with a furious medley of “Some of These Days” and “After You’ve Gone.”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 Wallace to Quit CNN After 3 Years

    The 77-year-old veteran anchor told The Daily Beast that he planned to venture into streaming or podcasting.Chris Wallace, a veteran TV anchor who left Fox News for CNN three years ago, announced on Monday that he was leaving his post to venture into the streaming or podcasting worlds.Mr. Wallace, 77, told The Daily Beast that he was leaving the network to pursue independent content creation, where, he told the outlet, “the action seems to be.” He mentioned he was still unsure what form of content he would make, but said his career in broadcasting was over.He said his decision to leave CNN at the end of his three-year contract did not come from discontent. “I have nothing but positive things to say. CNN was very good to me,” he said.One of the network’s most recognizable faces, Mr. Wallace started in 2022 as an on-screen commentator and hosted a weekly talk show called “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” He also anchored CNN’s coverage of the U.S. presidential election last week.Before joining CNN, Mr. Wallace worked at Fox News for 18 years and hosted “Fox News Sunday.” He turned heads at the conservative news outlet when he spoke out against President Trump’s “direct, sustained assault on freedom of the press” in 2020. He moderated an unruly presidential debate in 2020 between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr.Mr. Wallace had initially joined the network to be part of its new CNN+ service, which imploded just weeks after its much-promoted release.CNN’s chief executive, Mark Thompson, confirmed Mr. Wallace’s departure in a statement posted by the network.A representative for Mr. Wallace did not respond immediately to a request for comment. More

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    No Corrections: Nov. 12, 2024

    No corrections appeared in print on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024.Errors are corrected during the press run whenever possible, so some errors noted here may not have appeared in all editions.To contact the newsroom regarding correction requests, please email nytnews@nytimes.com. To share feedback, please visit nytimes.com/readerfeedback.Comments on opinion articles may be emailed to letters@nytimes.com.For newspaper delivery questions: 1-800-NYTIMES (1-800-698-4637) or email customercare@nytimes.com. More

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    Wildfire Grows in New Jersey and New York, Despite Modest Rainfall

    The Jennings Creek fire is currently burning across 3,500 acres, officials said, and is expected to grow to over 5,000 acres.A wildfire consuming a vast stretch of hilly forest along the New York-New Jersey border continued to grow on Monday despite the first significant rainfall in nearly six weeks, fire officials said. Bone-dry weather and gusts of up to 40 miles per hour are expected to sweep through the region on Tuesday, raising the risk that the fire will continue to spread.More than 3,500 acres were burning in New Jersey and New York as of Monday night, and the fire was expected to grow to more than 5,000 acres, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said.About 20 percent of the New Jersey portion of the fire was contained, according to the state’s Forest Fire Service. It was not clear how much of the New York portion of the fire was contained.The rain on Sunday night, measuring just a quarter of an inch across the region, only temporarily slowed the fire’s growth, said Christopher Franek, an assistant division fire warden for the Forest Fire Service.“We’re throwing everything we’ve got at it,” he said. “A lot of manual labor is choking on smoke and dust.” Five thousand acres is nearly eight square miles — about a third the size of Manhattan.Hundreds of firefighters from dozens of fire departments in both states are battling the blaze in a rugged patch of Passaic County in New Jersey and Orange County in New York near the Appalachian Trail.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 Expected to Name Marco Rubio as Secretary of State

    The president-elect appears to have settled on the Florida senator to be the nation’s top diplomat.President-elect Donald J. Trump is expected to name Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as his secretary of state, three people familiar with his thinking said on Monday, as Mr. Trump moves rapidly to fill out his foreign policy and national security team.Mr. Trump could still change his mind at the last minute, the people said, but appeared to have settled on Mr. Rubio, whom he also considered when choosing his running mate this year.Mr. Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010, and has staked out a position as a foreign policy hawk, taking hard lines on China and Iran in particular.He initially found himself at odds with those Republicans who were more skeptical about interventions abroad, but he has also echoed Mr. Trump more recently on issues like Russia’s war against Ukraine, saying that the conflict has reached a stalemate and “needs to be brought to a conclusion.”Mr. Rubio was a loyal surrogate for Mr. Trump during the campaign even after being passed over as the vice-presidential pick.A spokesman for Mr. Rubio declined to comment, and a spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mr. Trump has made his choice for a number of other national security roles. He has selected Representative Michael Waltz, Republican of Florida, to be his national security adviser, and Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, to be ambassador to the United Nations.Mr. Rubio was he was first elected to the Senate in 2010 as part of a new generation of conservative Tea Party leaders. But some conservatives considered him wobbly on immigration, an issue that caused him political problems when he ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 against Mr. Trump and others.During that campaign, Mr. Trump belittled him as “Little Marco,” and Mr. Rubio responded with acerbic attacks.But after Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory, Mr. Rubio went on to patch things up with him, serving as an informal foreign policy adviser and helping to prepare him for his first debate against President Biden in 2020.Under Florida law, Gov. Ron DeSantis can temporarily appoint a replacement to Mr. Rubio’s seat who will serve in the Senate until the next regularly scheduled general election is held. After last week’s elections, Republicans are set to hold at least 52 seats in the chamber.Catie Edmondson More

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    Donald Trump Jr. Joining a Venture Capital Firm

    The firm, 1789 Capital, invests in products and companies aimed at conservative audiences.The eldest son of President-elect Donald J. Trump will not be a member of his father’s administration — he is joining a venture capital firm.Donald Trump Jr. told a crowd of a few hundred donors on Sunday that he was joining 1789 Capital, a firm whose investments include Tucker Carlson’s media company. Mr. Trump was speaking at a conference held by the Rockbridge Network, a network, co-founded by Vice President-elect JD Vance, of tech-friendly Republican donors who are supportive of Mr. Trump.Chris Buskirk, the leader of Rockbridge, asked the younger Mr. Trump on Sunday evening if he had plans to join his father’s administration. He responded that he would be joining as a partner at 1789 Capital, according to two people with knowledge of his remarks.The firm focuses on investing in companies and products popular with conservative audiences. Its other partners and backers, in addition to Mr. Buskirk, include the investor Omeed Malik, along with Rebekah Mercer, a prominent Republican donor, both of whom were at Rockbridge’s event in Las Vegas this week.Mr. Buskirk was interviewing Mr. Trump as part of a fireside chat at the fall meeting of the Rockbridge group — the session was titled “Inaugurating the Next American Golden Age.”Mr. Trump has a business background as a longtime real estate executive at the Trump Organization. He has recently also displayed an interest in the crypto industry, and he has emerged as a liaison between his father and the tech community. He also was an investor in PublicSquare, an online marketplace for conservatives.Mr. Trump will most likely still play some role in his father’s political operation. He has said he wants to make sure that his father is surrounded by true loyalists during his second administration. More

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    Trump Allies Push Him to Block Thune From Becoming Senate G.O.P. Leader

    Advisers to the president-elect, who already has a strong hold on congressional Republicans, want him to tighten his grip by torpedoing the bid of the establishment front-runner for the post.Some of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s closest allies are privately counseling him to try to block a onetime Republican nemesis from becoming the Senate majority leader, pushing him to impose his will more forcefully on an already compliant G.O.P. Congress.Mr. Trump has been considering the counsel of advisers who believe he should join an effort on the right to stop Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, from winning the top post, according to people familiar with the talks who insisted on anonymity to discuss them, though one person close to the president-elect noted that he had not weighed in on the race.Doing so would be an extraordinary move even for Mr. Trump, who during his first term and since he has left office has had an iron grip on congressional Republicans, demanding and almost always receiving loyalty from them on matters of policy and personnel.Intervening in an internal leadership struggle in the Senate, which has at times been more resistant to the former president’s dictates and where members are fiercely protective of their independence, would signal Mr. Trump’s determination to dominate the legislative branch in his second term. The majority leader controls the Senate floor, including what proposals and nominees receive votes — and when.Mr. Trump has already indicated his desire to hold a tighter rein on the Senate in the days since he was elected. He posted an ultimatum on social media on Sunday in which he demanded that any new Senate leader cooperate in his efforts to circumvent the confirmation process by calling recesses during which he could appoint personnel without winning Senate approval. All three candidates vying to lead the Senate next year quickly promised to speed through his choices.Republican senators and senators-elect are set to vote by secret ballot on Wednesday on who should serve as majority leader in the next Congress. Mr. Thune, an establishment Republican who like Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the current leader, is reviled by some on the MAGA right, is competing against Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida.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