Letter to the Editor: Historians Critique The 1619 Project, and We Respond – The New York Times

Low-Dose Aspirin May Not Reduce Heart Risks for Black Americans, Study Finds

It’s fairly established medical science that people who have had heart attacks can take regular low doses of aspirin to significantly lower their risk of having another heart attack, or other heart problems including stroke. But it is still an open question whether or not people who haven’t had a heart event, but are at…

The December Democratic Debate Is Back on After Labor Dispute. Here’s What to Know

After days of tense negotiations, it seems the December Democratic debate will go ahead as scheduled. The last Democratic presidential primary debate of 2019 — and the last before the debates move to early voting states — will air live from the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles on Thursday at 8 p.m on PBS.…

Ruth Carter and Cynthia Erivo on Clothes, Culture and Self-Expression

Admiration SocietyTwo creative people in two different fields in one wide-ranging conversation.Ruth Carter (left) and Cynthia Erivo shot at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles Hotel at Beverly Hills on Oct. 27, 2019.Credit...Joe LeavenworthPublished Dec. 10, 2019Updated Dec. 11, 2019“This has been a long time coming!” said Ruth Carter, 59, in her Academy Award acceptance…

I Oversaw Executions. We Cannot Resume the Federal Death Penalty.

Opinion|I Oversaw Executions. We Cannot Resume the Federal Death Penalty.The system has too many flaws for the Trump administration to carry out the executions it has scheduled for Monday.By Jim PetroMr. Petro is a former Ohio attorney general. Dec. 4, 2019The Department of Justice is seeking to carry out the first federal executions in 16…

Cory Booker Jokes Biden ‘Might Have Been High’ When He Made Marijuana Comments – The New York Times

Politics|Cory Booker Jokes Biden ‘Might Have Been High’ When He Made Marijuana CommentsAt the Democratic debate, the New Jersey senator sparred with the former vice president over legalizing marijuana. Senator Cory Booker on screen during the Democratic presidential debate in Atlanta.Credit...Demetrius Freeman for The New York TimesNov. 20, 2019Senator Cory Booker, in an attempt to…

Richard G. Hatcher, Ex-Mayor of Gary, Ind., and Champion of Urban and Black Issues, Dies at 86 – The New York Times

Mr. Hatcher was one of the first two black people elected in 1967 as mayor of a large American city.Mayor Richard G. Hatcher of Gary, Ind., center, in 1979.Credit...Associated PressPublished Dec. 14, 2019Updated Dec. 15, 2019, 11:02 a.m. ETRichard G. Hatcher, one of the nation’s first big-city black mayors who in two decades leading Gary,…

Trump Has a Gift for Tearing Us Apart

There are a lot of different ways to build walls.By Thomas B. EdsallMr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C. on politics, demographics and inequality.Dec. 11, 2019Supporters at a Trump rally in Dallas in October.Credit...Jonathan Ernst/ReutersDonald Trump has done everything within his power to activate racial and ethnic animosity in this country. His main…

Inside The World of Interiors, Condé Nast’s Secret Weapon

The gold-standard shelter magazine runs on a brass-tacks budget and refuses to kowtow to the internet.Lord of the light box: Rupert Thomas, the editor in chief of The World of Interiors, at the magazine’s office in London.Credit...Tom Jamieson for The New York TimesPublished Dec. 4, 2019Updated Dec. 5, 2019LONDON — To be a magazine reader…

Mass Opioid Abuse Is ‘Destabilizing’ World’s Poorest Nations

(KAPURTHALA, India) — Reports rolled in with escalating urgency — pills seized by the truckload, pills swallowed by schoolchildren, pills in the pockets of dead terrorists. These pills, the world has been told, are safer than the OxyContins, the Vicodins, the fentanyls that have wreaked so much devastation. But now they are the root of…

11 New Books We Recommend This Week

Editors’ ChoiceReligiously speaking, I’m something of a Christian mutt — the grandson of a Congregational minister, I was raised Presbyterian and educated at an Episcopal high school before converting to Catholicism almost a decade ago. (Before I did, I told a Jesuit friend that I had doubts. “Who doesn’t?” he said.) So the spiritually minded…

9 New Books We Recommend This Week

Editors’ ChoiceThere’s a funny moment in Kevin Wilson’s new novel, “Nothing to See Here” — it’s one of two novels we recommend this week — in which a 10-year-old girl tells her new caretaker that she loves reading but had nothing good to choose from at her grandparents’ house, where she and her twin brother…

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley Says South Carolinians Saw the Confederate Flag as ‘Service’ Before Dylan Roof ‘Hijacked’ It

Former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley told conservative commentator Glenn Beck Friday that white supremacist Dylan Roof “hijacked” the Confederate flag, which she said South Carolinians saw as representing “service and sacrifice and heritage.” Haley was speaking about the 2015 mass shooting at a church in Charleston, S.C., in which Roof murdered…

House Passes Bill to Restore Key Parts of Voting Rights Act

(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic-controlled House approved a bill Friday that would restore key sections of the Voting Rights Act that once required officials in all or parts of 15 mostly Southern states to receive federal approval before making changes to the voting process. The bill would amend the 1965 law to impose new obligations on…

Black Leader in South Bend Endorses Joe Biden Over Pete Buttigieg – The New York Times

Politics|Black Leader in South Bend Endorses Joe Biden Over Pete ButtigiegEmphasizing the country’s need for experienced leadership, Oliver Davis, a longtime council member in the city, has been a frequent critic of Mr. Buttigieg.Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., has struggled to receive support from black voters.Credit...Maddie McGarvey for The New York TimesSOUTH BEND,…

‘Broke’ Chronicles a City Out of Cash and Awash in Desperation

NonfictionAn abandoned home on Detroit’s east side, 2017.Credit...Erin Kirkland for The New York TimesWhen you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.BROKE Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises By Jodie Adams KirshnerDetroit does not have the luxury of solving one problem at a time. It has…

At Howard University, Homecoming Is a Pilgrimage

Surfacing“Coming to Howard for the first time was seeing the beauty of blackness,” one alumnus said.Written by Bianca LadipoPhotographs by Andre WagnerImageThere’s no limit to how many people can join the celebration — the campus gates never close during the weekend.Credit...Andre D. Wagner for The New York Times“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Ashley…

‘99 Problems but My ABCs Ain’t One’: Jay-Z Sues Over Children’s Book

Australia|‘99 Problems but My ABCs Ain’t One’: Jay-Z Sues Over Children’s BookThe Little Homie, a small Australian online retailer, says it is celebrating hip-hop. Jay-Z, who has spoken out about black identity and equality, says it is engaging in theft.Jay-Z and his wife, Beyoncé.Credit...Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for DisneyNov. 28, 2019SYDNEY, Australia — When the children’s…

Ho Chi Minh City’s Hilarious Side

heads upStand-up comedy is sweeping Vietnam’s largest city, often called Saigon, with locals braving open-mic nights in the city’s hippest cafes and bars. Uy Le, above right, is among the local comedians making stand-up comedy a new tradition in Ho Chi Minh City.Credit...Justin Mott for The New York TimesVietnam’s largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City,…

Radar Points to a Long-Lost Black Cemetery in Tampa

“We feel as though our ancestors are coming back and talking to us,” said a member of a historical committee that is investigating the discovery of about 145 coffins at a high school. Ground-penetrating radar was used to search the site of King High School in Tampa, Fla. Evidence of about 145 coffins was found…

How Russia Meddles Abroad for Profit: Cash, Trolls and a Cult Leader

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — The Russians were hard to miss. They appeared suddenly last year in Madagascar’s traffic-snarled capital, carrying backpacks stuffed with cash and campaign swag decorated with the name of Madagascar’s president.It was one of Russia’s most overt attempts at election interference to date. Working from their headquarters in a resort hotel, the Russians…

How Rising Temperatures Due to Climate Change are Shortening Pregnancies

It’s bad enough that adults have made a climatological mess of the world. It’s worse that the mess is having a disproportionate impact on kids—who did nothing to create the problem, but are more susceptible to health issues caused by rising temperatures than adults are. Now, it appears, global warming is doing its damage even…

China Says U.S. Will, and Must, Cut Tariffs to Reach a Trade Deal

The development suggests progress toward an interim agreement that would provide relief to businesses and consumers.A container ship docked at a port in Shanghai.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York TimesWASHINGTON — The United States and China have agreed that an initial trade deal between the two countries would roll back a portion of the…

Arkady Renko Has Been Sent to Siberia. And He’s Fine With That.

CrimeCredit...Pablo AmargoPublished Nov. 15, 2019Updated Nov. 18, 2019If this is a Martin Cruz Smith mystery, we must be in Moscow, maybe in Gorky Park. But in a thrilling change of pace, THE SIBERIAN DILEMMA (Simon & Schuster, $27) takes us out of the city and into Russia’s untamed wilderness in search of a journalist who’s…

Saving Birds by Ruffling Some Feathers

Children’s BooksWe hear so much about the challenges of young female friendships. But STRANGE BIRDS: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers (Kokila, 350 pp., $16.99; ages 8 to 12), Celia C. Pérez’s second middle-grade novel (after “The First Rule of Punk”), is a story about the magic and beauty of these bonds, especially when they…

Report: Black Crime Victims Are Much Less Likely to Have Legislation Named in Their Honor

(CLEVELAND) — The slayings of Reagan Tokes and Alianna DeFreeze had much in common. Both were abducted, raped and killed in Ohio in 2017. Tokes was a 21-year-old college student, DeFreeze a 14-year-old seventh grader. Both their killers were previously convicted sex offenders. Yet only one victim got a law with her name on it…

Massachusetts Becomes the First State to Ban Flavored Tobacco and Vaping Products

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts became the first state to ban flavored tobacco and nicotine vaping products, including menthol cigarettes, after Republican Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law on Wednesday a bill that’s meant to reduce the appeal of the products to young people amid a rash of illnesses and deaths linked to vaping. Anti-smoking groups…

Chicago Mayor Fires City’s Police Superintendent Over ‘Ethical Lapses’

(CHICAGO) — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot fired the city’s retiring police superintendent Eddie Johnson on Monday, citing “ethical lapses” that included telling lies about a recent incident in which Johnson was found asleep at the wheel of his car after having drinks. Named to the job in the wake of a police shooting that killed…

Michael Bloomberg Launches Democratic Presidential Bid

NEW YORK — Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the world’s richest men, has formally launched a Democratic bid for president. Ending weeks of speculation, the 77-year-old former Republican announced his candidacy Sunday in a written statement posted on a campaign website describing himself as uniquely positioned to defeat President…

14,000 Lives: ‘Rare Case Where Racial Biases’ Protected Blacks

The New health CareFewer opioid prescriptions meant fewer deaths (possibly 14,000), but the episode also reveals how prevalent and harmful stereotypes can be, even if implicit.Published Nov. 25, 2019Updated Dec. 2, 2019When the opioid crisis began to escalate some 20 years ago, many African-Americans had a layer of protection against it.But that protection didn’t come…

What the 2019 Election Means for 2020 – The New York Times

On PoliticsFour lessons from Tuesday night.Credit...Tim LahanNov. 6, 2019There was at least one clear loser in last night’s elections: my dream of reaching Inbox Zero.My email (current unread count: 40,149!) is now flooded with hundreds more messages, all from overjoyed Democratic organizations, strategists and candidates eager to get their piece of the credit for the…