Elections

He basically invented the stand-up special in 1960 and continued to be a source of comic brilliance until his final years.Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy.Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.Onstage, he didn’t curse, bust taboos or show anger. His style was gentle and wry. As opposed to motormouth contemporaries like Lenny Bruce or Mort Sahl, his defining trait was a cheerful, sloth-paced delivery, stammering, pausing, gradually, meticulously working his way through a sentence. He belonged to neither of the great branches of American humor — the legacies of Jewish or Black comedy. A Roman Catholic from the west side of Chicago, Newhart came off as an entirely respectable example of Midwestern nice.Newhart brought his own kind of neurosis, a comedy rooted in nuanced deadpan and silence. He was exasperated, clinging to sanity. He wasn’t one to get revenge in a joke. When I met him at his home for an interview tied to his 90th birthday, he had no scores to settle, no grievances or assumptions he was looking to upend. He was even humble and magnanimous talking about death, saying he thought he knew what awaited him after he passed away, but wasn’t sure. Then he joked about a comic who famously (and unfairly) accused him of stealing a bit: “Maybe I’ll come back as Shelley Berman and be pissed at myself.”Bob Newhart could occasionally get lumped in with the “sick comics” of the mid-20th century and his early work did have a political, even slangy edge. One of his signature bits, where an advertising man coaches Abraham Lincoln before the Gettysburg Address, was a pointed critique of the cynicism of professional politics. “Hi, Abe, sweetheart” begins the man from Madison Avenue, who encourages him to work in a plug for an Abraham Lincoln T-shirt. When the president says he wants to change “four score and seven years ago” to “87,” the ad man first patiently explains they already test marketed this in Erie. Then he says: “It’s sort of like Mark Antony saying “Friends, Romans, countrymen, I’ve got something I want to tell you.”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

US prosecutors are “beginning to offer retooled plea deals” and drop charges in cases related to the January 6 attack on Congress, CNN said, citing legal filings in the weeks since the rightwing-dominated US supreme court narrowed how prosecutors can charge rioters with obstructing an official proceeding.The report noted a Monday filing concerning five members of the far-right Proud Boys group, which said each defendant had been offered a plea deal not including the obstruction charge.Should the deal be declined, CNN said, the obstruction charge would be dropped and the men taken to trial on other charges.A rioter famously seen carrying a Confederate battle flag through Congress is also among prisoners or defendants whose cases are being reassessed.On 6 January 2021, Kevin Seefried, from Laurel, Delaware, was part of the mob that stormed the Capitol at the urging of Donald Trump, seeking to stop certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.A famous picture showed Seefried underneath portraits of the senator and vice-president John Calhoun, a champion of secession in the early 19th century, and Senator Charles Sumner, a leading voice for union and the abolition of slavery in the civil war years.In February this year, Seefried wept as he was sentenced to nearly three years in prison for obstruction of an official proceeding, as well as misdemeanour charges.But he was soon released to await a decision in Fischer v United States, a supreme court case concerning the obstruction charge.In late June, the court’s decision narrowed the grounds on which the charge could be used in January 6 cases.According to the chief justice, John Roberts, the obstruction charge should be applied to whether a “defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of [actual] records, documents, objects, or … other things used in the proceeding, or attempted to do so”.The opinion was sent to an appeals court for further consideration. Prosecutors were left to work out how to link the obstruction charge to threats to actual records, in particular the electoral college certificates used to formalise results, rather than to the general attempt to overturn an election.The supreme court decision prompted outrage among court observers.Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or Crew, said Roberts and the other five justices who ruled in the majority had helped “insurrectionists dodge accountability”, adding: “If attempting to block the certification of the 2020 election isn’t obstructing an official proceeding in the court’s eyes, then what is?”The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, was also disappointed, saying the court had “limit[ed] an important federal statute that the [justice] department has sought to use to ensure that those most responsible for that attack face appropriate consequences”.Nonetheless, Garland said, “the vast majority of the more than 1,400 defendants charged for their illegal actions on January 6 will not be affected by this decision. There are no cases in which the department charged a January 6 defendant only with the offense at issue in Fischer.”Though the department would “comply with the court’s ruling”, Garland said, it would “continue to use all available tools to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy”.Earlier this month, the US justice department released statistics showing how January 6 cases would be affected by the supreme court ruling.More than 1,472 people had been charged in relation to the attack on Congress by the time the court said it would consider Fischer, it said. Of those people, “roughly 259 … were charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so”.Of those 259 defendants, Seefried and 132 others had been sentenced. Of those 133, the department said, 76 were convicted of obstruction and other felonies while “approximately 17” were convicted on the obstruction charge but no other felonies and were then still serving prison time.“Nearly all” the other 126 defendants were on pre-trial release, the justice department said.The department said it would review “individual cases against the standards articulated in Fischer, as well as the anticipated ongoing proceedings related to Fischer in the DC circuit, to determine whether the government will proceed with the charge”.The department also noted the wide range of other charges against January 6 rioters, many concerning violent conduct.“Approximately 531 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees,” it said, “including approximately 157 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.”Fourteen convictions have been secured for seditious conspiracy, the most serious charge arising from the Capitol attack.Running for president again, Trump leads Biden in most polling.He has promised pardons to those imprisoned over January 6. 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Representative Nancy Pelosi has told President Biden and House Democratic colleagues in recent days that she is pessimistic about his chances of beating Donald J. Trump as the highest levels of the party leadership intensify pressure on Mr. Biden to reconsider his candidacy.Ms. Pelosi, according to those who have talked with her, conveyed her sentiments in phone calls with the president and with alarmed colleagues who have reached out to her for guidance on what to do. The former speaker is intimately familiar with the minutiae of campaigns from her years following House races district by district, and she has been marshaling her knowledge of the political map, polling data and fund-raising information to press her case with Mr. Biden.One ally said that Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Biden in a recent call that she had seen polling data suggesting that he could not win, and the president pushed back, saying he had polls showing otherwise.Ms. Pelosi challenged him on that.“Put Donilon on the phone,” Ms. Pelosi asked the president, referring to Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime aide, according to people familiar with the exchange, which was reported earlier by CNN. “Show me what polls.”Aides to Ms. Pelosi, a prodigious fund-raiser and a firm believer in the power of money in campaigns, have also sought detailed fund-raising information from the Biden campaign in recent days to help the former speaker assess the status of the campaign, according to two people familiar with the request.“She does not think he can win,” said one Pelosi confidant who asked not to be identified. People interviewed for this article spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.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

After time away from the spotlight, the right-wing host is increasingly welcomed by Trump’s inner circle. He also made a surprise visit to Fox’s convention studio.All of a sudden, Tucker Carlson has roared back to the forefront of Republican politics.Once the top-rated anchor on Fox News — only to be abruptly ousted 15 months ago, his national platform yanked out from under his feet — Mr. Carlson has made an improbable re-emergence into America’s living rooms at this week’s Republican National Convention.He was the first person to greet Donald J. Trump after the former president’s dramatic entrance in the convention hall on Monday, and cameras later caught them joking together in Mr. Trump’s friends and family box, just two seats apart. He is even returning to prime time: Mr. Carlson is set to deliver a televised address to the convention on Thursday in a coveted slot shortly before Mr. Trump accepts his party’s nomination.Mr. Carlson once electrified Fox viewers with racial grievances and flimflam conspiracy theories. Spurned by the network, he found mixed success with a self-produced video series on X and a subscription streaming service that failed to generate much buzz, although a recent pivot to lengthy, Joe Roganesque podcasts has attracted more listeners.But behind the scenes over the past year, Mr. Carlson has become more deeply allied with Mr. Trump than at any point in his long relationship with the former president, a man for whom the broadcaster once expressed deep ambivalence.Mr. Carlson lobbied Mr. Trump to select Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, who had been a frequent guest on his Fox show, as his running mate, and he helped broker a meeting in Milwaukee between Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate.He and a longtime producer of his shows, Justin Wells, recently visited Mar-a-Lago to pitch Mr. Trump on a fly-on-the-wall docuseries about his campaign. Mr. Trump granted access, and the series is set to be released on Mr. Carlson’s streaming platform before the election; Mr. Wells and a cameraman were filming several feet away from the former president in Pennsylvania on Saturday when he was shot by a would-be assassin.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 Republican National Convention will end Thursday night with Donald J. Trump formally accepting the party’s presidential nomination.Before that, the night will include leaders of the Republican Party’s efforts to retain its House majority and retake the Senate, as well as former Trump administration officials and celebrities — among them the wrestler Hulk Hogan.The programming will begin around 5:30 p.m. Central time. Here are the major speakers on the agenda, in the order they are scheduled to speak, according to a person briefed on the planning.5 o’clock hourSenator Steve Daines of Montana, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial CommitteeRepresentative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee6 o’clock hourDiane Hendricks, billionaire businesswoman from WisconsinDiane Evans, member of the “Trumpettes” group of female Trump supportersLinda McMahon, former head of the Small Business AdministrationMike Pompeo, former secretary of stateLorenzo Sewell, “everyday American” and pastorJohn Nieporte, top golf professional at one of Mr. Trump’s clubsSteve Witkoff, real estate investor7 o’clock hourAlina Habba, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyersTucker Carlson, former Fox News hostCarrie Ruiz, golf general manager at one of Mr. Trump’s clubsHulk Hogan, retired wrestlerAnnette Albright, former school board candidate in Charlotte, N.C.8 o’clock hourFranklin Graham, evangelical leaderEric Trump, Mr. Trump’s sonDana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship9 o’clock hourFormer President Donald J. TrumpMaggie Haberman More

On a recent scorcher of a Houston afternoon, Carlos Eduardo Espina was driving to a restaurant that specializes in Nicaraguan and Puerto Rican food when he received a news alert on his iPhone: The former president of Honduras had been sentenced to 45 years in a U.S. prison for drug trafficking.“Oh, I need to make a video, actually, in the car,” Mr. Espina, 25, said apologetically as he pulled his Honda crossover S.U.V. into the restaurant’s parking lot. He skimmed a Honduran newspaper’s Instagram post about the news and then opened TikTok, where he has 9.4 million followers. He turned the camera on himself while his girlfriend, who was sitting behind him, crouched out of the frame, clearly used to this sort of drill.His hazel eyes widened, and he boomed, “Importante noticia de última hora” — Spanish for “important breaking news” — then shared a one-minute recap. The video racked up more than 100,000 views during lunch, which Mr. Espina received for free because the restaurant owner was thrilled to recognize him from TikTok.Mr. Espina created TikTok content on his phone while dining at a Nicaraguan restaurant in Houston.Callaghan O’Hare for The New York TimesMr. Espina watching Mexico play Venezuela in the Copa América at a Venezuelan food truck in College Station, Texas. Mr. Espina, whose videos are mainly in Spanish, has flown under the radar in the national press.Callaghan O’Hare for The New York TimesMr. Espina, a recent law school graduate who lives in College Station, Texas, has become something of a one-man Telemundo for millions of Latinos in the United States and one of the White House’s favored social media personalities. He posts almost constantly, sharing earnest and personal news about immigration and the Latino community, along with videos about food, sports and politics — and often championing the Biden administration’s agenda.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

When a man obsessed with woodblocks began to do business with a man obsessed with medical antiques, their relationship flowered — until it soured.Earl Washington loves wood.He loves maple wood from Wisconsin and boxwood from Turkey. He loves running his hands on its surface, feeling its heft and texture. But most of all he loves carving it. Thoughts about carving, he says, consume his waking moments.“If I’m looking at your face when I’m talking to you, I’m literally looking at how I’m going to carve your eyes and carve your nose on a piece of wood,” he said in an interview.For decades, beginning in the late 1990s, Washington, 62, created thousands of ornate woodblocks and used them to make intricate prints of all kinds of things: biblical imagery, erotica, anatomical illustrations, the stark motifs of German expressionism.Mastery was never enough for him, though. To profitably sell woodblocks — which can be an oddity in the art market — Washington decided he also needed myth. So he created elaborate origin stories for his pieces. Some, he claimed, had been made or acquired by his great-grandfather. Others he promoted as rare creations from the 16th and 17th centuries.Thousands of people bought them unquestioningly, but a few became suspicious and raised concerns online and to the authorities. The F.B.I. fielded some complaints, but was not aware, it said later, of the “depth and the breadth” of Washington’s scheme, so he continued to sell his creations, having mastered the craft of carving and the art of fooling others.Until one day in 2013, when he met Douglas Arbittier.Everything Earl Washington feels about wood, Arbittier feels about medical antiques.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

Melissa Hobley believes in the power of dating apps, but she’s been moonlighting as an old-fashioned matchmaker for over a decade.It might seem odd that Melissa Hobley is a real-life matchmaker who is working with 50 to 100 singles around the globe at any given time.She has, after all, spent much of the last decade working for dating apps whose goal, presumably, is for singles to connect through their phones. She is the chief marketing officer of Tinder, a position she’s held since August 2022. Before that she worked for OkCupid for over five years.It’s not that Ms. Hobley believes that dating apps are dead or even dying, though some statistics show troubles. Bumble and Match Group, which owns Tinder, OKCupid, Hinge and Match.com, among other brands, have lost more than $40 billion in market value since 2021 as they struggle to attract young people to pay for the more expensive features.Ms. Hobley pointed to Tinder’s great success: It has 50 million users in 190 countries, she said. “Every three seconds a relationship starts on Tinder, which is actually crazy.” (This credence is rooted in a study Match Group did in 2023 that defined “relationship” as anything lasting more than three months.) But Ms. Hobley, 44, who splits her time between New York City and the North Fork of Long Island with her husband and two daughters, believes there are many ways for people to mingle. She wants to be involved in all of them.For Ms. Hobley, in-person matchmaking is a “hobby or a passion,” she said, not something she has “ever been paid to do.” Sometimes singles will reach out to her via email or social media asking for help. Other times she strikes up conversations with strangers while out and about. “I will just meet someone at an event or in line for a coffee shop or that amazing doughnut place in Sag Harbor, and we will start talking,” she said. “I’ll say, ‘You’re great. Let’s help you find someone as perfect as you.’”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