Elections

El expresidente Donald Trump habló de políticas en Las Vegas y lució casi animado. En Arizona, se deleitó con el apoyo de un antiguo rival de campaña, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Fue un momento que el mundo político se había estado preguntando durante semanas.Si la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris tenía una buena convención, ¿podría descolocar aún más al expresidente Donald Trump?¿Toda esa prensa positiva para Harris —los grandes índices de audiencia, el apoyo de las celebridades y las bromas de Obama— podría llevar a Trump a lo profundo de sus patrones más autodestructivos?El viernes por la tarde, en un restaurante ítalo-mexicano de Las Vegas, parecía que teníamos la respuesta: no, al menos por ahora.Trump se presentó en el restaurante para promocionar su propuesta de “no gravar las propinas” entre los trabajadores del sector de servicios. En general se mantuvo centrado, no habló de sí mismo, sino de la difícil situación de los camareros y barmans. Les dijo que había sido Harris quien había roto un empate votando a favor de que el Servicio de Impuestos Internos contratara a 87.000 personas, las mismas que les arrebatarían las propinas que tanto les había costado ganar. (La verdad es un poco más matizada).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

She and her husband, LeRoi Jones, published works by their literary friends. After he left her and became Amiri Baraka, she found her own voice.Hettie Jones, a poet and author who with her husband, LeRoi Jones (who later became the incendiary poet and playwright Amiri Baraka), made her household a hub for Beat writers and other artists — but who was often described as a footnote in the rise of her famous spouse as “the white wife” he disavowed — died on Aug. 13 in Philadelphia. She was 90.Her daughter Kellie Jones confirmed the death.Raised in a conventional middle-class Jewish household in Queens, Ms. Jones was musical, rebellious and ambitious, uninterested in tweedy academia or suburban domesticity. She dropped out of graduate school at Columbia University, where she was studying drama, to work at The Record Changer, a jazz magazine, for $1 an hour. There she met a charismatic young poet named LeRoi Jones, and they fell in love.They hung out at the Five Spot on Cooper Square, listening to jazz musicians like Thelonious Monk. Though they were the rare mixed-race couple in Greenwich Village in the late 1950s, theirs was a mostly colorblind world, Ms. Jones thought — until it wasn’t.She recalled the day they were walking together and heard jeers and racial slurs from behind. She wheeled around to protest, but Mr. Jones held her back.Ms. Jones in the 1960s. She was musical, rebellious and ambitious, uninterested in tweedy academia or suburban domesticity despite her conventional upbringing.via Jones familyThe situation was more dangerous for him, she realized, struck by her own naïveté and ignorance. (At the time, more than half the country had laws criminalizing interracial marriage.) She also realized, as she later wrote, that “to live like this I would have to defer to his judgment.”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

Although the storm is not expected to pass directly over the Big Island, forecasters warned of threats including flooding and damaging winds.Debbie Arita, an office manager at a supermarket in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, took stock of the conditions. Tropical Storm Hone was approaching the region, but the scene on Friday was far from chaotic — no frantic rush for supplies, no desperate boarding up of windows.To Ms. Arita, who said she has been through her fair share of hurricanes and tsunamis, the prevailing mood seemed to be alertness without anxiousness.“There’s no sense of panic here,” she said.Hone (pronounced ho-NAY) is expected to deliver a glancing blow to Hawaii as it passes near or south of the Big Island late Saturday into early Sunday. Forecasters have warned of the potential for damaging winds, life-threatening surf and flash floods.Officials and residents largely said they were preparing, but not with alarm. While a landfall of a named storm on Hawaii is rare, storms frequently come close enough to affect the islands’ weather. Mitch Roth, the mayor of Hawaii County, which covers the Big Island, wants residents to remain watchful. “We want people to be prepared for any kind of hazard,” Mr. Roth said. In August 2018, Hurricane Lane drenched the Big Island with 58 inches of rainfall, damaged over 100 buildings and killed one person — despite the eye of the storm passing over 100 miles south of the state.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

She was a teacher when she participated in an educational experiment with IBM. As a result, she became the first female video game designer.This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.In the 1960s, Mabel Addis was an elementary-school teacher in a small town in New York State when she was offered a unique opportunity that would make history: Create an educational game with IBM.What resulted was the Sumerian Game, an early video game that taught the basics of economic theory to sixth graders. In it, a student would act as the ruler of the Mesopotamian city-state of Lagash, in Sumer, in 3500 B.C. In Level One, the primary focus was on growing crops and developing tools; Level Two oversaw a more diversified economy; and in Level Three, Lagash interacted with other city-states. In each round, students responded to prompts issued by Urbaba, the royal steward.The video game was text-based, but it is believed to be the first to introduce storytelling and characters, and the first in a genre now known as edutainment. It also made Addis the first known female video game designer, according to several game historians.The Sumerian Game “is pretty rudimentary by today’s standards, but the thing about being ‘first’ is that just existing at all becomes innovative,” Kate Willaert, the author of the blog “A Critical Hit!,” who has studied the game extensively, said in an email. Addis, she maintained, was the first video game writer ever.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

The field and wooden grandstand in Ontario, Calif., were the backdrop for the 1992 movie about a women’s baseball league.The wooden grandstand, locker rooms, press box and dugout of Jay Littleton Ball Park, a baseball field in California that was featured in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” were destroyed in a fire on Thursday, a city spokesman said.Aerial footage showed scorched debris ringing a grassy baseball diamond at the park in Ontario, Calif., which is about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.Firefighters responding to the fire at 11:25 p.m. local time on Thursday encountered flames engulfing the wooden structures of the stadium, which they were unable to save, Dan Bell, Ontario’s communications director, said on Saturday.“This is an old-school, 1937, all-wood grandstand construction,” Mr. Bell said. “Once it lit, it just went up.”It was not immediately clear what caused the fire. Mr. Bell said the city had closed the field to the public four years ago because of the dilapidated and dangerous condition of the grandstand. The city had been considering finding funds to restore it.Geena Davis, center, and Megan Cavanagh, left, in a scene from “A League of Their Own.”Columbia Pictures“A League of Their Own,” which also starred Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell and Tom Hanks, told the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, a professional league founded in 1943 when many minor league teams were disbanded because the draft was sending players and other men to fight in World War II. The league lasted 12 seasons.In one memorable scene from the movie, the character played by the actress Geena Davis does a split and makes a spectacular catch in front of the grandstand.In addition to “A League of Their Own,” the ballpark served as a setting for the 1992 movie “The Babe,” starring John Goodman, and the 1988 movie “Eight Men Out.”Representative Norma J. Torres, Democrat of California, whose district includes Ontario, said on social media on Friday that the site had been “generations of families’ favorite ballpark since the 1930s.”The park, which the city designated a historic landmark in 2003, was originally called the Ontario Ball Park, home to the semiprofessional baseball team, the Ontario Merchants.It was, at that time, a modern baseball facility with a wooden grandstand that could seat 3,500, team locker rooms and a press box complete with radio transmission towers on the roof, according to a historic structure report conducted by the city in 2019.Because wood construction was susceptible to fire, most professional baseball stadiums from the early 20th century were built with less flammable materials, such as brick, concrete and steel.For economic reasons, amateur ball parks like Ontario’s continued to be built of wood, the report said.The park was later renamed for Jay Littleton, a semiprofessional baseball player from Ontario who went on to work as a Major League Baseball scout, according to a 2003 obituary. More

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to suspend his presidential campaign and endorse former President Donald J. Trump was — depending on where on the political spectrum the coverage came from — treated with either outright glee — or derision. Conservative sites primarily focused on the potential electoral boon to Mr. Trump, while liberal media outlets focused more on Mr. Kennedy’s dysfunctional campaign, including by returning to several negative story lines.Mr. Kennedy announced on Friday that he would suspend his presidential campaign in key battleground states, though he intended to remain on the ballot in some states. He suggested he worried his presence in the race would pull voters away from other candidates, though recent polling wasn’t clear about who might benefit from Mr. Kennedy’s change in plans.Conservative sites, more than a dozen of which prominently featured the news on their home pages, saw the news as a win for Mr. Trump. They argued that Mr. Kennedy’s decision could reshape the race by turning Mr. Kennedy’s supporters into Mr. Trump’s, and by shifting the attention of Americans away from this week’s Democratic National Convention.Liberal media outlets described Mr. Kennedy’s decision as self-serving, and in keeping with his unpredictable campaign. Several referenced Mr. Kennedy’s assertion that Mr. Trump had offered him a role in a second Trump administration, something the former president declined to confirm on Friday. The sites referred to him using words like “power-hungry” and “transactional.”Here’s how the news was covered by a selection of outlets:FROM THE RIGHTThe Washington ExaminerWashington ExaminerThough polling suggests Mr. Kennedy’s decision is unlikely to significantly shift the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Mr. Trump, many conservative commentators said the decision could swing the contest. Ben Shapiro, the editor in chief of The Daily Wire, said in a livestream after Mr. Kennedy suspended his campaign that the announcement, which was made during a speech in Phoenix, could “dwarf” the positive impact of the Democratic National Convention for Ms. Harris.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

Politicians quickly condemned the attack, at a time when antisemitic incidents have been on the rise in France. Two vehicles parked outside a synagogue exploded in a French town on Saturday in what prosecutors called an act of terrorism.The cars exploded outside the Ben Yacoov synagogue in La Grande Motte, a resort town on the southern coast of France. The synagogue’s doors were also set on fire, prosecutors said in a statement. Five people, including the rabbi, were inside the synagogue at the time of the attack, around 8 a.m., as worshipers would have been making their way to the synagogue.No one was killed, but one police officer responding to the explosions was hurt when a gas bottle inside one of the vehicles exploded, according to a statement from the antiterrorism unit in the prosecutor’s office.Prosecutors are treating the attack as an attempted assassination by a terrorist organization intended to cause harm and destroy property, the antiterrorism unit said in its statement. No one had been arrested in the case as of Saturday afternoon. The attack is likely to heighten fears of growing antisemitism in France, which has the largest Jewish population in Western Europe. Attacks against Jewish people in France have increased in recent years, and the government said it had recorded more than 360 antisemitic episodes in the first three months of 2024. The Israel-Hamas war has further heightened tensions in a society increasingly divided by religion and ideology. President Emmanuel Macron vowed that the perpetrators would be tracked down, and that Jewish places of worship in France would be protected.“The fight against antisemitism is a constant battle,” Mr. Macron said, adding that it was a fight for “a united nation.”Officials in the municipality of Hérault, which includes La Grande Motte, said the city would be vigilant in protecting buildings associated with its Jewish community. The municipality also canceled a demonstration planned for Saturday in nearby Montpellier by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which seeks to mobilize economic and political pressure on Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. During France’s recent elections, the country’s left, particularly Jean-Luc Melénchon, the founder of France Unbowed, was accused of fanning antisemitism. After Saturday’s explosions, Mr. Melénchon described the attack as an “intolerable crime” and called on France to uphold principles of secularism. More

Border numbers are down significantly. But migrant activists say the restrictions President Biden imposed in June are weeding out people who may have legitimate claims of asylum.In the months since President Biden imposed sweeping restrictions on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, the policy appears to be working exactly as he hoped and his critics feared.The number of people asking for haven in the United States has dropped by 50 percent since June, according to new figures from the Department of Homeland Security. Border agents are operating more efficiently, administration officials say, and many of the hot spots along the border, like Eagle Pass, Texas, have calmed.The numbers could provide a powerful counternarrative to what has been one of the Biden administration’s biggest political vulnerabilities, particularly as Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, tries to fend off Republican attacks.But migrant activists say Mr. Biden’s executive order is weeding out far too many people, including those who should be allowed to have their cases heard, even under the new rules. They say the figures are so low in part because of a little-noticed clause in the new policy, which changed how migrants are treated when they first arrive at the border.Under the new rules, border agents are no longer required to ask migrants whether they fear for their lives if they are returned home. Unless the migrants raise such a fear on their own, they are quickly processed for deportation to their home countries.As of early June, border agents are no longer required to ask whether migrants are fearful of returning to their home countries. Instead, the agents are to look for signs of fear, such as crying or shaking.Paul Ratje for The New York TimesWe 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