Ruth Westheimer,
the sex guru
known as Dr. Ruth, dies at 96
(NYTimes) — Ruth Westheimer, a grandmotherly psychologist who as “Dr. Ruth” became America’s best-known sex counselor with her frank, funny radio and TV programs, died Friday at her home in New York. She was 96. Westheimer was in her 50s when she first went on the air in 1980, answering listeners’ mailed-in questions about sex and relationships on radio station WYNY in New York. The show, “Sexually Speaking,” was a 15-minute segment heard after midnight on Sundays. It was such a hit that she quickly became a national media celebrity and a one-woman business conglomerate. In the 1980s, she had syndicated live call-in shows on radio and television.
The Republicans are headed to Milwaukee.
So are protesters.
(NYTimes) — As tens of thousands of Republicans arrive in Milwaukee on Monday for their party’s convention, another large gathering is expected just outside the official meeting site: Thousands of protesters will march in opposition to the Republicans’ platform and their nominee, Donald Trump. More than 120 groups have joined a Coalition to March on the RNC 2024, and organizers say they expect as many as 5,000 people to take to the streets of downtown Milwaukee for a march and rally. Organizers said they have seen a surge of interest and intensity in the protests outside the Republican National Convention as questions mounted over President Joe Biden’s age and acuity.
Sanders urges
Democrats to
stay the course
with Biden
(NYTimes) — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., urged skittish Democrats on Saturday to rally around the embattled president in a guest essay in The New York Times. Sanders wrote that despite his policy disagreements with the president, Biden still gives Democrats the best chance of defeating former President Donald Trump in the November election. He contended that Biden’s calamitous debate performance June 27 was not the deal-breaker that some politicians and pundits have said it was as they have called for Biden to step aside as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Hispanic male Democrats make an abortion-rights pitch to Latino men
(NYTimes) — For decades, Democrats saw the abortion-rights issue as a losing one with Latinos, who tended to be more religious and to say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Some strategists still consider it a risky subject among Hispanic men, who have typically expressed more concern about the economy. But several Hispanic male Democratic candidates said there was no avoiding the abortion debate this year. They point to polling and Democratic electoral victories in the two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned that capture how Latinos’ views on the issue have reversed.
The NRA is facing
a court fight for
control of its future
(NYTimes) — Five months after the longtime face of the gun rights movement, Wayne LaPierre, was found liable for misspending $5.4 million of the National Rifle Association’s money, the group’s leadership will return Monday to a New York City courtroom. For the NRA itself, the stakes this time will be far higher. LaPierre stepped down as the group’s CEO in January, on the eve of the first phase of the trial, which featured testimony about years of lavish spending and executive perks. In the second phase, a judge will decide whether the group needs outside monitoring.
Punishing heat
wave shifting to
East Coast
(NYTimes) — A heat wave that broke dozens of temperature records across the American Southwest is shifting to more of the country this weekend, with heat peaking in the Northeast early next week. Some East Coast cities, including Baltimore and Washington, D.C., will experience temperatures reaching up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. That will not necessarily break records, but it can still be dangerous. “What we want people to be prepared for is the hot daytime temperatures, and the temperatures that don’t really cool off that much at night,” said meteorologist Richard Bann.
How Hamas is fighting in Gaza: tunnels, traps and ambushes
(NYTimes) — Through eight months of fighting in the Gaza Strip, Hamas’ military wing has fought as a decentralized and largely hidden force, in contrast to its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Instead of confronting the Israeli invasion that followed in frontal battles, most Hamas fighters have retreated from their bases and outposts, seeking to blunt Israel’s technological and numerical advantage by launching surprise attacks on small groups of soldiers. The strategy has helped Hamas fulfill some of its goals: The war has tarnished Israel’s reputation, exacerbated long-running rifts in Israeli society, restored the question of Palestinian statehood to global discourse, and allowed the group to survive.
Israel launches major attack
against a senior Hamas commander
(NYTimes) — Israel conducted a major airstrike in southern Gaza on Saturday that it said had targeted a top Hamas military commander considered an architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to six senior Israeli officials. The Gaza Health Ministry said 90 people had been killed in the assault and 300 wounded. The target of the attack, Mohammed Deif, leads the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing. He is the second most senior Hamas figure in Gaza, after its leader in the territory, Yahya Sinwar. By Saturday night, the status of Deif was unclear.
Ukraine is
targeting Crimea, a crucial base for Russia’s invasion
(NYTimes) — In the night sky above the shores of Odesa, Ukraine, the faint glow from missiles streaks over the Black Sea. For much of the war, it was one-way traffic, with Russia using the occupied Crimean Peninsula first as a launchpad for its invasion and then as a staging ground for routine aerial bombardments. Ukraine, now armed with U.S.-made precision missiles, is for the first time capable of reaching every corner of Crimea. It is a new strategic push as Ukraine seeks to force the Kremlin to make difficult choices about where to deploy some of its most valuable air defenses to protect crucial military infrastructure.
Colombia faces
a new problem:
too much cocaine
(NYTimes) — Colombia, the global nexus of the cocaine industry, is facing tectonic shifts as a result of domestic and global forces reshaping the drug industry. The changing dynamics have led to blocks of unsold coca paste piling up across Colombia. The purchase of the paste in more than half of the country’s coca-growing regions has dropped precipitously or disappeared completely, spurring a humanitarian crisis in many remote, impoverished communities. The upending of the cocaine industry is an unintended consequence of a landmark peace deal eight years ago with the country’s largest armed group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that had financed its war largely through cocaine.
Acquittal for Pakistan’s Khan and wife in illegal marriage case
(NYTimes) — Former Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan and his wife were acquitted on appeals Saturday in a case that accused them of unlawful marriage, the latest in a string of legal victories for the embattled leader ousted from power two years ago. However, he is unlikely to be immediately released from prison as authorities have suggested that he will face new charges. Just days before parliamentary elections in February, Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were convicted of having violated Islamic law by not adhering to the required waiting period between Bibi’s divorce and her marriage to Khan.
How Janet Yellen
became an unlikely culinary diplomat
(NYTimes) — There was mayonnaise mixed with ants in Mexico City. The garlic at a Persian restaurant in Frankfurt, Germany, was aged 25 years. And, yes, the magic mushrooms in Beijing were hallucinogenic. This is a taste of what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been eating on the road during the past three years as she has been grappling with inflation and devising new ways to cripple the Russian economy. Yellen’s food adventures have become the subject of global fascination on local and social media. She has come to see food adventures as a way to connect with other officials while gaining a better understanding of local economies.
