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    For Biden, Another Trump Nomination Presents Opportunity, and Great Risk

    Some Democrats consider the former president the Republican they would have the best chance against this fall, but also the one they most fear the consequences of losing to.To be clear, no one in President Biden’s White House would ever root for Donald J. Trump. To a person, they consider him an existential threat to the nation. But as they watched Mr. Trump open the contest for the Republican presidential nomination with a romp through Iowa, they also saw something else: a pathway to a second term.Mr. Biden’s best chance of winning re-election in the fall, in their view, is a rematch against Mr. Trump. The former president is so toxic, so polarizing that his presence on the November ballot, as Mr. Biden’s advisers see it, would be the most powerful incentive possible to lure disaffected Democrats and independents back into the camp of the poll-challenged president.And so, some Democrats felt a little torn this week as the Republican race got underway. None of them would cry if Mr. Trump were taken down by someone like former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who has one shot in New Hampshire next week to make it a race. Whatever Ms. Haley’s flaws, and Democrats see many, they do not believe she would pose the same danger to democracy that Mr. Trump does.But if she won the Republican nomination, she might pose a bigger danger to Mr. Biden.The paradox recalls 2016, when many Democrats were not unhappy when Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, on the theory that the country would never elect a bumptious reality-television star who specialized in racist appeals and insult politics. Burned once, they are not so certain this time, but Democrats are banking on the hope that the country would not take back a defeated president who inspired a violent mob to help him keep power and has been charged with more felonies than Al Capone.“I was not one of those Democrats who thought Trump would be easier to beat in 2016,” said Jennifer Palmieri, Hillary Clinton’s communications director in the election she lost to Mr. Trump. “Some Democrats root for Trump. I think it is better for the country” for him “to be defeated in the Republican Party and not continue to gain strength.” If Mr. Trump did lose, she added, she believed Biden could defeat Ms. Haley or Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.But it might not be as easy. Ms. Haley would be vulnerable to Democratic attacks for enabling Mr. Trump as his ambassador to the United Nations, and even as a Republican candidate for president who largely declined to attack the former president and would not rule out voting for him if he won the nomination.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?  More

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    Trump Won 98 of Iowa’s 99 Counties, as Haley Prevented a Shutout

    Former President Donald J. Trump won 98 of 99 counties in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, according to preliminary results published by the state Republican Party, demonstrating just how broadly he swept the first-in-the-nation contest.In counties large and small, Mr. Trump racked up commanding leads across the state. In the only county he lost, it was by a single vote: Johnson County, the state’s bluest county and the home of Iowa City and the University of Iowa, went for former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina.Shut out from a single victory was Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who had banked his candidacy on Iowa and put enormous effort into campaigning in rural, sparsely populated areas. He visited every one of Iowa’s 99 counties in the months before the caucuses, a tour known as the “Full Grassley,” and was rewarded on Monday with second- and third-place finishes from Sioux City to Davenport.Vivek Ramaswamy, the pro-Trump entrepreneur who dropped out on Monday after receiving just 7 percent of the vote in Iowa, had visited all 99 counties at least twice, a strategy that did not deliver the surprise performance he had been brashly predicting for months.Mr. Trump in contrast had put far less effort into circuiting the state and indulging in the kind of retail politics that Iowa campaigning is known for. He also had surrogates do much of the campaigning for him until the final week before the caucuses.After battling fiercely for second place in the race’s final weeks, Ms. Haley finished third overall in Iowa on Monday night. Her lone bright spot, albeit narrowly, was Johnson County. In his 2020 re-election campaign, Mr. Trump lost the county with just 27 percent of the vote, to over 70 percent for Joseph R. Biden Jr.Ms. Haley had been expected to do better in more populous urban and suburban areas — much like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who eight years ago won significant margins in the counties of Des Moines, its suburbs and Iowa City, as he, too, came in third place.But turnout fell sharply across the state this year, the lowest since the Republican caucuses in 2000, and urban counties lost thousands of votes. In the end, Ms. Haley fell far short in Iowa’s largest cities, losing by wide margins to Mr. Trump — and sometimes behind Mr. DeSantis — in the counties that include Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Sioux City. More

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    Nikki Haley Looks to New Hampshire Primary With a Focus on Independents

    The former South Carolina governor has banked her campaign on the state, buoyed by an influx of cash and an advertising blitz as she looks to rebound from Iowa.Former President Donald J. Trump’s resounding victory in Iowa significantly raises the stakes of next week’s New Hampshire primary for Nikki Haley and the increasingly desperate contingent of Republicans who want to move on from Mr. Trump.While Iowa was largely a foregone conclusion at the top, with a spirited battle only for second place, a small but ever narrowing path still exists for Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, to beat Mr. Trump in New Hampshire. It relies heavily on tens of thousands of independent voters expected to participate in the Republican primary.Ms. Haley, who got a late start in Iowa, has from the beginning banked her campaign on a strong showing in New Hampshire, and has recently been buoyed by an influx of cash from the super PAC supporting her. The demographic makeup of the state is also much more favorable to her than the more rural and conservative Iowa. She has invested significant money and time here — holding 80 events in the state — and has the support of some its top Republicans, including the popular governor, Chris Sununu.“She’s on the ground, she’s in the diner, she’s doing the town halls,” Mr. Sununu said. “She’s answering anybody’s questions. Trump’s not doing that. You’re lucky to get him to fly in once a week to do a rally and then get the heck out of there.”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?  More

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    Trump Left Iowa With Momentum and a Court Date

    Also, the U.S. struck Houthi targets for a third time. Here’s the latest at the end of Tuesday.The Iowa caucuses could hardly have gone better for Donald Trump. The former president won the first presidential nominating contest by 30 percentage points — more than double the record in the state’s competitive Republican races. His dominance codified, yet again, his double-fisted hold on the Republican electorate.Now the race moves on to New Hampshire, where next week’s primary is perhaps the last clear chance for one of Trump’s rivals to slow him. Nikki Haley has banked on independents there, and one poll this month showed her at 32 percent, just seven points behind Trump. But her third-place showing in Iowa suggested that Ron DeSantis would continue challenging her, despite lacking a clear path forward.“If you have two serious opponents running against him, there’s virtually no chance of beating him for the nomination,” my colleague Shane Goldmacher said, adding that yesterday’s result was “basically exactly what the Trump campaign would have hoped for.”All three leading candidates have events tonight in New Hampshire. But first, Trump stopped in Manhattan for the opening day of a trial in a suit filed against him by E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of defaming her after she accused him of rape. His decision to appear, under no obligation, reflected his effort to use the legal threats against him to energize his supporters.Houthi fighters held a rally near Sana, Yemen, on Sunday against strikes by the U.S. and Britain.Associated PressThe U.S. struck Houthi targets for a third timeU.S. forces carried out a strike today against Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles in Yemen, according to military officials. It was the third attack against the Iran-backed rebel group since a U.S.-led air and naval barrage that hit dozens of targets last week.The strikes, which targeted four missiles that were being prepared to be fired, came after the Houthis launched a new round of attacks in critical shipping lanes. The group attempted to hit an American warship on Sunday, damaged a U.S.-owned commercial ship yesterday and hit a Greek bulk carrier today. Houthi leaders have said they will continue their attacks until Israel withdraws from Gaza.In Gaza, Qatar said Israel and Hamas had reached a deal to allow additional aid into Gaza in exchange for the delivery of medication to Israeli hostages.Also, Israel has been surprised by the extent and quality of the tunnel network beneath Gaza. They now believe there are far more than they once thought: between 350 and 450 miles of tunnels.Supporters of extending the child tax credit in 2022.Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesLawmakers struck a bipartisan tax dealTop Democrats and Republicans in Congress announced today that they had reached a $78 billion compromise to partly extend a major pandemic expansion of the child tax credit, which cut child poverty rates nearly in half in 2021, and restore three popular expired business tax breaks. The deal would be financed by reining in the pandemic-era employee retention tax credit.Yet the rare bipartisan agreement, spanning both chambers, still faces steep obstacles in a Congress laboring to tackle the basic work of funding the government. Some House Democrats have argued that the legislation should do more to expand the child tax credit, while several Senate Republicans have voiced resistance.A courtyard in Fort Worth, yesterday. Desiree Rios for The New York TimesIt’s cold in the Deep SouthA blast of Arctic air reached into the Deep South today, breaking low-temperature records, while the Midwest and the Great Plains faced dangerous below-zero wind chill temperatures. Even New York received its first significant snowfall in almost two years.Another Arctic blast is expected to begin by the end of the week. See what you are in for, and follow these steps to protect yourself and your home.More top newsBusiness: A judge blocked JetBlue’s $3.8 billion proposal to buy Spirit Airlines, agreeing with the Justice Dept. that the merger would hurt competition.Courts: A lawsuit claimed that James Dolan, the mogul behind Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks, pressured a woman into unwanted sex.Tech: Elon Musk demanded that Tesla’s board give him shares worth more than $80 billion if it wants him to work on artificial intelligence.Nigeria: Shell said that it had agreed to sell its onshore oil and gas business to a group dominated by local companies for $1.3 billion.New York: The suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial killings was charged with a fourth murder.Supreme Court: Oral arguments are set for tomorrow in a potentially major case that is backed by the billionaire Charles Koch.Business: The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting kicked off in Davos.Finance: Goldman Sachs earned $2 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.Health: Diabetes is fueling a rise in amputations in San Antonio.Pets: A dog from Portugal was honored as the world’s oldest. Now his age is being investigated.Sports: A Welsh rugby star said he is stepping away from the sport to pursue a career in the N.F.L.TIME TO UNWINDJesse Armstrong, the creator of “Succession,” right foreground, accepted the Emmy Award for best drama.Mario Anzuoni/ReutersThe Emmys may have been a send-off for Peak TVLast night’s Emmy Awards, which were dominated by the likes of “Succession” and “The Bear,” felt a touch more nostalgic than most award shows. One reason was the strike-related delays that left several 2022 shows up for honors. Another reason, my colleague John Koblin wrote, is that they felt like a goodbye to the so-called Peak TV era.The days in which streaming services offer an almost endless supply of new programming seem to be coming to an end, John wrote. Luckily, many of the top-quality shows are sticking around.Best dressed? Pick out your favorite outfit from the award show.Keith NegleyLearning a language may help stave off dementiaResearch suggests that speaking multiple languages can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by up to five years. Having to inhibit your mother tongue, in theory, makes the brain more resilient to the impairments caused by diseases like dementia.It’s not clear whether casually following a language app confers the same cognitive advantage. But the regularity with which you use the second language appears to be more important than when you learn it.Sabato De Sarno introduced his first Gucci collection for men.Gabriel Bouys/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDinner table topicsGucci’s reboot: The label’s new creative director ditched his predecessor’s pussy bows and brought back some old-school cool.The Ozempic age: The food industry has long marketed its products as impossible to resist. Has that lost its selling power?Text bubbles: Group chats have quietly become the de facto spaces for everything: sharing dumb jokes, grieving or even planning for an insurrection.A reader asked: How much water do I really need to drink every day?WHAT TO DO TONIGHTLinda Xiao for The New York TimesCook: This pimento cheese pie will become a fast favorite for parties.Watch: The season finale of “Fargo” is tonight. Here’s what else is on TV this week.Read: Kyle Chayka’s new book considers how technology has narrowed our choices.Listen: Check out Ariana Grande’s new track, and nine more songs worth listening to.Nourish: We have tips for making sure you eat enough fruits and vegetables.Replace: If you have any of these 17 household items, it might be time for a new one.Compete: Take this week’s Flashback history quiz.Play: Here are today’s Spelling Bee, Wordle and Mini Crossword. Find all our games here.ONE LAST THINGThe Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo in 2014.Noritaka Minami, via SFMOMAA second life for an architectural marvelIt’s been 50 years since the Nakagin Capsule Tower was erected in Tokyo. Back then, it looked like something out of a science-fiction film: a futuristic tower composed of 140 detachable, single-resident capsules with porthole windows, like a pile of eyes fixed on the city.Now it’s gone. After years of neglect, the pods were pulled down one by one in 2022. Only 23 of them could be salvaged. But those orphaned puzzle pieces are embarking on another life across Japan and the world as art spaces, museum pieces and even holiday accommodations.Have an enduring evening.Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — MatthewWe welcome your feedback. Write to us at evening@nytimes.com. More

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    Trump’s Landslide Victory in Iowa

    More from our inbox:Young Voters: Vote!U.S. Strikes in YemenThe Genocide Charges Against IsraelDonald J. Trump at a caucus site in Clive, Iowa, on Monday evening. His victory was called by The Associated Press only 31 minutes after the caucuses had begun.Doug Mills/The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Trump Wins Iowa in Key First Step Toward Rematch” (front page, Jan. 16):If you weren’t scared before Monday night’s Iowa caucuses, you should be terrified now. The disgraced, twice-impeached, quadruple-indicted former president came within one vote of winning all 99 of Iowa’s counties, and received 51 percent of the vote.Ron DeSantis came in a distant second with 21 percent of the vote, and Nikki Haley was a distant third with just 19 percent of the vote.The bid for the Republican nomination for president is all but over, leaving America with a terrible choice between the autocratic and awful former president, and the obviously too old and frail current president.Unless Ms. Haley can win convincingly in New Hampshire, and match Donald Trump in South Carolina, the former president will be the nominee.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?  More

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    Asa Hutchinson Drops Out of 2024 Presidential Race

    Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who entered the presidential race as an outspoken critic of former President Donald J. Trump but never gained traction, suspended his bid for the Republican nomination on Tuesday.“Today, I am suspending my campaign for president and driving back to Arkansas,” he said in a statement after finishing with less than 1 percent support in the Iowa caucuses on Monday. “My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front-runner did not sell in Iowa. I stand by the campaign I ran.”Mr. Hutchinson, who announced his candidacy in April, frequently called on the former president to drop out of the presidential race over his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, to no avail.“How in the world are you going to beat Donald Trump,” he said during an interview just days before the Iowa caucuses, “if somebody is not out there sounding the alarm that we can all go down in flames if we have the wrong nominee?”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?  More

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    Even the Battle for Second Turned Out Well for Trump in Iowa

    A dominant victory and little momentum for his rivals.Donald Trump won by 30 percentage points. Doug Mills/The New York TimesIf there was any question whether Donald J. Trump was on track to win the Republican nomination, it was answered Monday night by the voters of Iowa.The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses delivered him a sweeping victory, offering the most concrete proof yet of his dominance over the Republican Party.With nearly all the votes counted, Mr. Trump’s share was 51 percent. Ron DeSantis finished a distant second at 21 percent, with Nikki Haley at 19 percent.The result is not surprising or even unexpected, but Mr. Trump’s victory is no small feat. A year ago, Iowa did not look as if it would be easy for the former president. In an upset eight years ago, Iowa voters rejected Mr. Trump in favor of Ted Cruz. And unlike the rest of the country, the Iowa political establishment has refused to get in line behind Mr. Trump.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?  More

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    Haley’s Missed Opportunity: Iowa Slows Her Roll Into New Hampshire

    A third-place finish didn’t deliver the boost Nikki Haley wanted as she tries to turn the race into a one-on-one with Donald Trump.Nikki Haley had hoped to vault into New Hampshire ahead of next Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary with a head of steam from a second-place finish in Iowa and a powerful case to make that the 2024 nomination fight was a two-candidate race between her and Donald J. Trump.Instead, as Ms. Haley hobbles into New Hampshire, the pressure is on to show she can compete with Mr. Trump.Her disappointing third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses on Monday showed that for all the hype, her momentum ultimately stalled in the face of a Republican electorate still in the thrall of the former president. That included not only Mr. Trump’s working-class base but also the bastions of college-educated Republicans in and around Des Moines that she was supposed to dominate.In her speech after the caucuses, Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, sharpened her attack on Mr. Trump, questioning his age and his ability to unite a fractured country. She lumped Mr. Trump with Mr. Biden as backward-looking barriers to an American revival.“The question before Americans is now very clear: Do you want more of the same or do you want a new generation of conservative leadership?” she asked, drawing loud applause and chants of “Nikki, Nikki.” “Our campaign is the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden nightmare.”Still, Ms. Haley’s final tally in Iowa most likely breathed some new life into the campaign of her rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, and indicated that, for all the excitement around her campaign in the closing weeks, her pitch may have limited appeal with Republicans.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?  More