11.4.26

WEBVTT
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Welcome to the reading of the New York Times for
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November 4th, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Your reader for today is Linda Rice. We'll start today's
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reading with the Merriam-Webster word of the day, and that
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is fulsome. It's an adjective. What it means, fulsome describes
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someone or something that is generous in amount, extent, or spirit.
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Examples are, they were fulsome in their praise of her
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efforts to raise money for the new wing of the
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Children's Hospital. Or another sentence, a day out offering a
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weak non-apology for instigating a basis-clearing brawl, the pitcher expressed
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more fulsome regrets at a press conference taking full responsibility.
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Now we will read the front page headlines from today's editions.
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Trump effort to prove rampant non-citizen voting leads to few
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charges so far. The next title, Democratic divisions on Israel
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become thundering back in preview of fights to come. Israeli
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claims of Iranian chemical weapons divide U.S. officials. Or William
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Nordhaus Dye's noble winner influenced climate policy. And then we'll
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move on into the first article. Trump effort to prove
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rampant non-citizen voting leads to few charges so far. Around
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236 people have been charged with voting fraud-related offenses by
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the Trump administration, despite its unsubstantiated claims that fraud is widespread.
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Written by Madeline Ngo. The Department of Homeland Security has
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mounted an extraordinary campaign to hunt for illegal voters, devoting
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hundreds of federal agents to the task of pouring over
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tens of thousands of voter records and knocking on the
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doors of people suspected of being non-citizens who unlawfully cast ballots.
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But the crusade so far has resulted in the Trump
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administration's charging only about 236 people with voting fraud-related offenses
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across the country. since the president took office, according to
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the Justice Department's tally on Monday afternoon. That includes some
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non-citizens accused of registering to vote but not actually casting ballots.
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The figure is a minuscule share of the more than
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158 million ballots cast in the 2024 general election and
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falls far short of the figures cited in July by
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Mark Wayne Mullen, the Homeland Security Secretary, who claimed without
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evidence that more than 20 250,000 potential non-citizens were registered
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to vote in just four states alone. The small number
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of charges has further undermined President Trump's specious claims that
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voting by non-citizens is pervasive and tilting elections for Democrats,
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and raises questions about why the Homeland Security Department has
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dedicated vast resources to the effort ahead of the midterm election.
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This is about delegitimizing an election that they're very worried about,
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said David Becker, a former voting rights lawyer for the
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Justice Department who runs the Center for Election Innovation and Research,
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a nonpartisan group that works to support election officials. They're
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trying to manufacture evidence, and they're failing. The administration's campaign
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to scrutinize noncitizen voters has involved a close partnership between
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the Homeland Security Department and the Justice Department. which has
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led efforts to criminally charge non-citizens with illegal voting. The
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Homeland Security Department's investigatory work has also been core to
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recent attempts by the Justice Department to intervene in the election.
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The Homeland Security Department has defended its focus on the issue,
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saying that it would root out election fraud wherever it
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could be found and ramp up deportations of non-citizens who
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illegally voted or registered. DHS is committed to ensuring fair, honest,
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and accurate elections, the department said in a statement. DHS
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is upholding the rule of the law and protecting the
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integrity of American elections by removing aliens who vote and
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dilute the votes of U.S. citizens. Only Americans should elect
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American leaders. Voting by non-citizens who are barred by law
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from registering to vote or casting ballots is exceptionally rare,
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according to multiple studies. Critics have said the Homeland Security
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Department's aggressive efforts to investigate non-citizen voters instead appear to
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be aimed at intimidating voters and laying the groundwork to
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challenge the election results. Immigration advocacy groups have also expressed
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fears for months that federal agents could turn up at
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polling places, though as of Tuesday afternoon, there were no
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signs of immigration authorities patrolling voting sites. Tasking hundreds of
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officers was with scouring state voter rolls and deploying agents
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to interview people at their homes to root out non-citizen
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voters is a remarkable use of the Homeland Security Department's powers.
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The largest federal law enforcement agency, the department was created
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in the wake of September 11, 2001 attacks to help
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protect the country from threats. The Trump administration has leveraged
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at least four of its nine main agencies to promote
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investigations into non-citizen voters. That includes agencies that typically focus
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on deportations, border management, disaster relief, and immigration applications. Federal
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agents who specialize in investigating national security threats and immigration
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benefit fraud have been diverted to finding non-citizens on the
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voter rolls. Homeland security agents who usually investigate crimes like
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child exploitation and illegal trade have also investigated more than
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150 organizations that they say may be helping non-citizens illegally
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register to vote. But the department's efforts have so far
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resulted in a small number of charges and little evidence
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that voter fraud is rampant. As of Tuesday afternoon, the
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Justice Department said it had charged 240 people with voting
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fraud-related offenses up from the previous afternoon. The bulk of
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the 240 charges have been made in the last nine
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weeks alone, according to the Justice Department. a sign that
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the administration has dramatically ramped up prosecutions ahead of the midterms.
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The proportion actually convicted of an offense could end up
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even smaller. Investigations into non-citizen voters have historically followed a pattern.
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State or federal election officials first report that hundreds or
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thousands of non-citizens may be on voter rolls, but the
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figures often shrink to dozens after further investigations. Each inquiry
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ends with few, if any, prosecutions. The massive amount of
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resources that have been devoted to this operation have uncovered
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only tiny numbers of individuals who may have voted or
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registered to vote, said Wendy R. Weiser, the Vice President
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for Democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice. It's just
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reinforcing what is known and actually raises questions as to
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what is the purpose of this operation. Some of the
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Trump administration's claims of large numbers of non-citizens on the
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voter rolls in certain states have also unraveled. After Homeland
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Security officials claimed that nearly 16,000 people might be non-citizens
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registered to vote in Nevada, they sent to the state
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a list of 185 names that had gone through a
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rigorous manual review process. State officials later determined that all
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185 were citizens. Some of the Homeland Security Department's efforts
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have faced legal setbacks. Last month, a federal judge in
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California restricted the department from carrying out field interviews in
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nine states as part of an effort to investigate non-citizen voters.
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In September, a federal judge ruled that the Federal Emergency
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Management Agency, which leads the Federal Response to Disasters, could
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not withhold emergency preparedness grants from states that refused to
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make changes to their election processes, including verifying voter citizenship.
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But that has not deterred the department from pressing ahead
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with other investigations. In late October, a group of officers
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with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency within Homeland
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Security Department, were directed to review about 15,000 cases of
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people suspected of illegally registering to vote in California, according
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to documents reviewed by the New York Times. The directive
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is a continuation of an earlier nationwide effort by the
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agency to examine voter records and federal databases to generate
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leads for ICE agents to further investigate potential cases of
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non-citizen voters. The agency's investigation led immigration officers to identify
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more than 20,000 people the agency claimed illegally registered to
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vote in California, according to court documents. The new effort
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underscores the Trump administration's fixation on California, which the Justice
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Department recently sued to try to force the state to
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set aside ballots from the 20,000 people the administration suspects
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are likely non-citizens. In a court filing, data scientists analyzing
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that list of voters said they found that more than
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40% of the people on the list do not appear
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on California's voter rolls. The analysis also found that the
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list included thousands of people who appear to be citizens.
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After a federal judge rejected the effort, the administration asked
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the Supreme Court on Monday to require that California set
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aside the ballots. The court rejected the request just hours later.
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In an October email reviewed by the Times, Paul Gleason,
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a Homeland Security official, told officials involved in the new
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effort that officers would be examining registered voters in California
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with no evidence of actual voting. It is illegal for
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non-citizens to falsely certify that they are citizens when registering
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to vote, even if they never ultimately cast a ballot.
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Some immigrants, though, have said that they inadvertently registered while
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obtaining or renewing driver's licenses pointing to voter laws that
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have made it easier for people to register to vote
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at motor vehicle agencies. In a September email reviewed by
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the Times, Mr. Gleason said that immigration officers had already
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reviewed more than 150,000 cases and made over 66,000 referrals
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to ICE for further investigation as part of the nationwide
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effort to find non-citizen voters. Several former Homeland Security officials
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said in interviews that the number of referrals amounted to
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a massive workload for ICE agents tasked with following up
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on the leads. Proponents of the administration praised it for
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investigating a problem they believe deserves more scrutiny. Kennedy T.
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Cuccinelli II, an acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary during the
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first Trump administration, said he thought it was clearly appropriate
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for Homeland Security agents to investigate non-citizen voting and help
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secure elections. I realize that the extent or scope of
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the problem itself is debated, Mr. Cuccinelli said in a
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recent interview, but what can't be debated is that the
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issue exists. But some former Homeland Security officials questioned why
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the department had devoted ample resources to the effort and
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tasks federal agents with investigating the rare issue of non-citizen voting.
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Should you be pulling special agents and federal criminal investigators
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off national security issues to focus on that? When I
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weigh out public safety threats, the answer is absolutely not,
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said Eric Balliot, who worked at Homeland Security Investigations, the
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criminal investigations arm of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement for
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more than 20 years. The next article is entitled, Democratic
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divisions on Israel come thundering back in preview of fights
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to come. A shattered alliance in Michigan between Dr. Abdul
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El-Sayed and his former primary rival Representative Haley Stevens underscored
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broader tensions in the party. By Tim Balk and Jennifer Medina.
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The midterm elections are ending as they begin as they
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began with Democrats fighting about Israel. The debate returned to
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center stage late in the pivotal Senate race in Michigan
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when Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic Party, pulled
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her endorsement from the winner, Dr. Abdul Saeed, reciting his
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rhetoric on Israel, among other issues. She stunned and dismayed
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her fellow Democrats by endorsing the Republican nominee, Mike Rogers,
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a former congressman. The surprising turn of events the weekend
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before the election suggested that the party's divisions over Israel
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were sure to endure after the new Congress is seated
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and the party lurches into a wide-open 2028 presidential primary.
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Democratic lawmakers and candidates have become more critical of the
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Israeli government since the start of the war in Gaza,
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reflecting a broader shift in public opinion within the party.
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opposed U.S. economic or military support for Israel. But the new,
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more critical stance has antagonized other members of the Democratic
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coalition who have argued against moving too far from a
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close U.S. ally and who have warned that criticisms of
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Israel have at times veered into anti-Semitism. The party had
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hoped to table the debate going into Tuesday's elections. Instead,
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it came roaring back. It is an agonizing set of issues,
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said Brad Lander, a Jewish New York Democrat who won
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a House primary this year. Mr. Lander, who accused the
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Israeli government of genocide in Gaza and campaigned for Dr. El-Sayed,
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added that the conundrum is likely to continue. Mr. Lander
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defeated Representative Dan Goldman, another Jewish Democrat, in a primary
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race consumed by the candidates' positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Goldman,
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who accepted the endorsement of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee,
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the pro-Israel lobbying organization, lost by more than 30 percentage
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points in a district with a considerable Jewish population. In
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the Chicago area, another House primary ended with two top contenders,
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each declaring that the group wanted them to lose. Ultimately,
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Daniel Biss, a Jewish Democrat, won after opposing unconditional aid
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for Israel against but he did not accuse Israel of
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genocide as their runner-up had. The new Democratic class in
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the House is poised to be far more skeptical of
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Israel than the previous ones. It is expected to include
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emphatic critics of Israel's government, including Darlaiza Avila-Chevalier of New York,
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a pro-Palestinian progressive who stunned a longtime incumbent in a primary,
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and Representative Analia Maja of New Jersey who who has
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accused Israel of genocide and is favored to hold on
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to the seat she won in a special election this year.
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That could present a challenging dynamic for Representative Hakeem Jeffries
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of New York, who is seen as likely to become
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Speaker if Democrats win the House. Mr. Jeffries has long
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supported the U.S.-Israel relationship, though he has been fiercely critical
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of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Other House Democrats who
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have defended the U.S.-Israel alliance, such as Representative Josh Gottheimer
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of New Jersey, have vowed to fight Democrats who portray
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Israel as a pariah. Potential 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls have
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a wide spectrum of views on Israel. Those prospective candidates
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include Representative Alexandria Ossio-Cortez of New York, who accuses Israel
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of genocide and opposes all U.S. military aid to the country.
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including for defensive systems. Senator John Ossoff of Georgia, who
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is Jewish and says he has family in Israel, has
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opposed certain weapon transfers to the country and has stopped
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short of accusing it of genocide. And Senator Cory Baker
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of New Jersey, a supporter of Israel, who in September,
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suggested by Dr. El-Said, was a fringe candidate. In Michigan,
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Israel had long been at the core of the feud
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between Dr. El-Said and Ms. Stevens, even as their rupture
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had been fueled by other factors, including an uneasy personal
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dynamic and sensitive egos. Last week, Ms. Stevens demanded that Dr.
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El-Sayed disavow an ad that she described as anti-Semitic and
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called on him to apologize for comments he had made
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about Israel. We can't stand with hate, Ms. Stevens said
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as she stood with Mr. Rogers near a church in Detroit,
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pointing in part to support Dr. El-Sayed had received from
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the provocative streamer Hassan Piker, a fierce critic of Israel,
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who has made incendiary statements about Jews. We can't stand
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with Hassan Piker. Mr. Piker said in a text message
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that Ms. Stevens had pulled a selfish stunt. If Dr.
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El-Sayed wins in a swing state with a relatively large
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Jewish population, it could embolden progressive Democrats who argue their
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party is has moved too slowly to shift its position
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after the war in Gaza. Although polls show that U.S.
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policy on Israel is not the most important issue for
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an overwhelming majority of voters, it has become a lightning
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rod in the last several years among Democrats around the country.
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Few issues provoke such passions among Democrats, fracturing some of
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its most loyal constituencies. In Congress, Democratic support for Israel
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has been waning, though lawmakers are split. In a July
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House vote, the party was almost evenly divided on a
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measure to end aid to Israel. Mr. Jeffries voted against
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the measure, while Representative Catherine Clark of Massachusetts, the minority whip,
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supported it. Michigan has long been at the center of
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the debate. The Detroit area is home to one of
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the largest Arab American populations in the United States and
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a large Jewish community. Many Democrats in Michigan have embraced Dr.
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El-Said's forceful criticism of Israel. Dr. El-Sayed supports ending U.S.
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aid to Israel and has said, Israel is not actually
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our friend. But some Jewish Democrats say they worry his
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rhetoric will make them less safe. Andrew Bank, 37, of
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Ann Arbor, Michigan, said he planned to unhappily vote for Dr. El-Sayed.
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There are Jewish people who are saying, can I trust
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the progressive left side of this party to protect Jews,
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he said. Rabbi Josh Winston, a Democrat who leads a
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reformed synagogue in Ann Arbor, declined to say how he
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would vote in the Senate race. but said that he
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thought Dr. El-Said's rhetoric had offered a potential permission for
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people with radical views to do harm to the Jewish community. Dr.
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El-Said said he takes the Jewish safety seriously. To all
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of my sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith, or
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any faith at all, or no faith at all, he
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said in a speech after winning the primary, I want
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you to know that my commitment to your safety, to
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Jewish safety, is the same commitment that I have to
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the safety of my own daughters. Mr. Lander, the House
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candidate in New York, defended Dr. El-Sayed. I just don't
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have any doubt he will show up for Jewish Michiganders,
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he said. On Friday, four days before the election, Mr. Gottheimer,
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the New York Jersey congressman, suggested that the feud between Ms.
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Stevens and Dr. El-Sayed was not about Ms. Stevens, but
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about bigger questions facing Democrats. He called on Dr. El-Sayed,
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to condemn the ad from an outside group that bothered Ms. Stevens.
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The video showed a grocery shopper blaming Israel for rising
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costs of living in America. Addressing Dr. El-Said, Mr. Gottheimer
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wrote on social media, you can be for lower costs
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and stand up to hate at the same time. Dr.
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El-Said ultimately condemned the ad, saying on Saturday that he
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did not agree with its contents, but he stood firm
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in his fierce criticism of Israel. declined to disavow Mr.
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Piker and cast Ms. Stevens' criticisms as distractions. The Michigan
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Democratic Jewish Caucus has declined to endorse him. The next
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article is entitled, Israeli Claims of Iranian Chemical Weapons Divide U.S. Officials.
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Some administration officials suggested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying
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to draw President Trump back into military action. written by
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Julian E. Barnes, Nadine Odenheimer, Eric Schmidt, Adam Raskin, and
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Dustin Volz. Israel has shared intelligence with the United States
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asserting that Iran is considering the use of chemical weapons
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against its adversaries, information met with alarm by some American
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officials and deep skepticism by others, according to U.S. and
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regional officials. Some American officials see the Israeli intelligence as
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part of a pressure campaign by Prime Minister Netanyahu Benjamin
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Netanyahu's government to persuade the Trump administration to return to
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major combat operations against Iran. Other officials believe the threats
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should be taken seriously, given the recent array of warnings
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about Iran's preparations to attack American interests. Israel has shared
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some of the information with officials in Gulf countries. Several
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doubted that Iran was developing plans to use chemical weapons
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and believed and believe Israel is trying to push the
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United States and its partners to return to a more
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intense phase of the war. American claims about Iran's chemical
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weapons or its intent to build them go back decades.
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In 2003, Iran acknowledged it had developed chemical capabilities during
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the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, but said it later
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dismantled them. In recent years, the United States has publicly
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asserted in its annual unclassified report intelligence assessments that Iran
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likely aims to continue its research and development of chemical weapons.
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Iran has publicly denied having chemical weapons and previously described
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such allegations as psychological war waged by Israel and Mr. Netanyahu.
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All of the people interviewed for this article spoke on
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the condition of anonymity, given the secret nature of the
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Israeli intelligence, the sensitivity of Iranian planning, and the classified
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American discussions. After eight months of war, the United States
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and Iran are in something of a holding pattern, exploring
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the possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough and preparing for renewed warfare.
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The debate over the new intelligence shows how tense the
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moment is and the potential for grave miscalculation. U.S. officials
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have said the Trump administration has no intention of using
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a nuclear weapon, but Iranian officials are not so sure. Netanyahu,
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who is fighting for his political survival after he failed
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to secure a clear path to forming a government in
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elections last week. Some analysts believe that the veteran leader
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may be seeking to use a security emergency as leverage
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to compel opposition leaders to join him in a coalition.
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In recent conversations with the U.S., spy agencies and other
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officials over the past two weeks, Israeli officials have portrayed
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the chemical weapon threat is more urgent than Iran's ambitions
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to develop a nuclear weapon. The Home Front Command, the
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Israeli military unit responsible for emergency response and issuing guidance
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to civilians, is running drills across Israel this week, but
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is not including chemical weapons preparation as part of the exercises.
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The command has also not issued widespread reminders to its
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officers or the public regarding safety guidelines for such a possibility,
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according to two unit officials who spoke on the condition
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of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to
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the news media. The Israeli military declined to comment. In
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recent weeks, the U.S. military has built up a vast
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arsenal in the region, with naval ships, fighter planes, and
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bombers ready to launch a relatively short campaign of intense
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strikes after the midterm elections, should President Trump authorize action.
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At the same time, the U.S. and other diplomats are
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trying to forge an agreement with Iran which would reopen
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the Strait of Hormuz, address Tehran's nuclear program, and put
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off further military action. The buildup of forces could be
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intended as much to support that diplomatic push as it
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is to prepare for a return to war. Iran has
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intensified attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz,
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hoping to exert maximum economic pressure on the United States
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ahead of its elections on Tuesday. The use of chemical
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weapons is a particularly fraught issue for Iran, one of
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a few countries that have suffered the effects of them.
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During the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein deployed chemical weapons, killing
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thousands and leading to decades of health problems among some 100,000
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Iranian veterans and civilians, according to Iranian experts. U.S. intelligence
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agencies have long attracted Iran's development of chemical weapons, which
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are banned under international law. Israeli intelligence agencies have told U.S.
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counterparts that they believe Iran is moving rapidly to develop
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the technology to put such weapons on a missile or
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to sneak them into Israel or another country to use
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in an attack, according to American officials. For some American officials,
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the talk of chemical weapons threats from Iran has evoked
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the flawed U.S. intelligence in 2002 about Iraq's weapons of
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mass destruction. Iraq has largely abandoned or frozen its nuclear, chemical,
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and biological programs by then, but U.S. intelligence agencies told
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President George W. Bush's White House that their assessment that
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Iraq had such weapons was ironclad. People briefed on the
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new intelligence had different views on how quickly or effectively
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Iran could deploy a chemical weapon. While mounting a chemical
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weapon on a ballistic missile is not difficult, ensuring that
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the weapon can effectively disperse a chemical agent is, according
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00:28:02.630 --> 00:28:06.319
to weapons experts and U.S. officials. Smuggling a bomb across
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00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:11.160
a border also poses challenges. Using a drone to deliver
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a chemical weapon is also a possibility. A regional official
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said Israel had presented Gulf countries with claims that Iran
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was working to make its chemical weapons operational. Israeli officials
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did not share evidence but briefed the officials on their assessments,
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which the official said Gulf governments found unserious. The White
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House did not comment, but a U.S. official said Mr.
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00:28:36.670 --> 00:28:40.029
Trump would keep America and its allies safe from any
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00:28:40.089 --> 00:28:48.049
potential threat. The CIA declined to comment. A spokesman for Mr.
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00:28:48.450 --> 00:28:53.630
Netanyahu's office said that Israel closely tracks every threat posed
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00:28:53.690 --> 00:28:56.450
by the Iranian terror regime and is prepared to deal
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00:28:56.490 --> 00:28:59.410
with it. A spokesman for Iran's mission to the United
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00:28:59.450 --> 00:29:03.440
Nations did not return a request for comment. While there
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00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:06.660
is little debate in the U.S. intelligence community that Iran
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is developing chemical weapons, there is significant debate over whether
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00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:14.380
its leaders would ever use those weapons, especially if not
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provoked by further attacks. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence
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00:29:18.740 --> 00:29:22.740
warned in 2024 that Iran probably aims to continue research
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00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:27.119
and development of chemical and biological agents for offensive purposes.
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00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:32.170
Dana Struhl, the Pentagon's top Middle East policy official in
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the Biden administration, said it had been known for more
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than two decades that Iran stockpiled components for chemical weapons
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but that Tehran had never deployed them. But Iran might
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feel existentially pressured and potentially cross the line to direct
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offensive use of these unconventional weapons, said Mistral, who is
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now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The
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United States has monitored a variety of threats from Iran
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as intelligence collection intensified after the discovery of an Iranian
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00:30:09.029 --> 00:30:12.289
plot to attack a military base in Britain used by
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American warplanes. On October 23rd, Jay Clayton, the Director of
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00:30:17.380 --> 00:30:21.319
National Intelligence, sent Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State and
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National Security Advisor, a memo warning of the threat of
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Iranian attacks. U.S. diplomats and other personnel were then put
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on high alert. U.S. agencies assessed that the threat against
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00:30:33.799 --> 00:30:36.880
Americans in the Middle East and several other countries is
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at its highest level since the war started in February, U.S.
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officials said. The United States Central Command has a plan
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00:30:44.259 --> 00:30:47.720
to strike Iran beginning as early as Wednesday after the U.S.
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00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:51.250
midterm elections and when three aircraft carriers are in the region,
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according to U.S. officials. The ideal conditions for the type
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of campaign the military has laid out will last only
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00:30:58.230 --> 00:31:01.569
a short time. After early November, one of the aircraft
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00:31:01.589 --> 00:31:04.230
carriers will need to return to its home port. Early
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00:31:04.329 --> 00:31:07.519
November is a period of moonless nights, the kind of
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00:31:07.579 --> 00:31:11.140
deep darkness the US military likes to use for its attacks.
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00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:15.160
Some Trump cabinet members have argued for more time to
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let a campaign of economic pressure work. They say a
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00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:21.900
US blockade and sanctions on the country will eventually bring
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down the Iranian government. But some officials point out that
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Iran has been able to weather the pressure campaign and
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that there is little indication that the Iranian government will
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collapse without additional military attacks. Stephanie Walker, a senior national
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security and intelligence official at the FBI, said last week
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that the Iranian threat to the United States' interests was
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00:31:43.769 --> 00:31:47.329
a top focus right now for the entirety of the U.S. government.
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Tehran's goals, Ms. Walker said, include espionage, influence, and cyberattacks.
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Iran-linked hackers targeted scores of water systems across the United
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States this summer, leading some counties to issue boil water advisories.
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Iran has also attempted to impersonate people online in order
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to dupe their associates into sharing access to sensitive information
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with them. Artificial intelligence has made this form of trickery
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00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:19.289
far easier, especially with phishing, she said, referring to voice-based
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phishing attacks. The war changed Iran's calculus for what they
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are willing to do here against us, Ms. Walker said
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last week at a national security conference in Sea Island, Georgia.
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The next article is entitled, Hochul Fends Off Trump Ally
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00:32:37.190 --> 00:32:40.849
to Capture Second Full Term as New York Governor. Kathy Hochul,
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00:32:41.009 --> 00:32:45.390
New York's first female governor, defeated Bruce Blankman, capitalizing on
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00:32:45.430 --> 00:32:51.960
voter frustration with President Trump and other Republicans. written by
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00:32:52.019 --> 00:32:58.339
Benjamin Oreskes. Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat whose folksy centrist
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00:32:58.660 --> 00:33:02.180
approach has helped to forge relationships with leaders as disparate
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00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:07.259
as President Trump and Mayor Zoran Mamdani, won a second
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full term as governor of New York on Tuesday, according
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to the Associated Press. Ms. Hochul, the state's first female governor,
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defeated Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, a Republican who
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is a longtime friend of Mr. Trump's. Their alliance proved
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auspicious for Ms. Hochul, a Buffalo native who spent months
469
00:33:26.700 --> 00:33:32.660
bashing her opponent for supporting the Trump administration's policies. But Ms. Hochul, 68,
470
00:33:32.660 --> 00:33:35.420
who also displayed an ability to work with the president
471
00:33:35.720 --> 00:33:39.210
despite their profound differences, she worked with the Trump administration
472
00:33:39.269 --> 00:33:42.650
on new energy projects, including the jump-starting of several stalled
473
00:33:43.069 --> 00:33:46.529
natural gas pipeline projects, and has looked for moments to
474
00:33:46.910 --> 00:33:50.970
influence the administration's immigration enforcement in the state. At the
475
00:33:51.019 --> 00:33:54.500
same time, The governor fought the Trump administration's efforts to
476
00:33:54.539 --> 00:33:57.960
kill the congestion pricing program, which is on track to
477
00:33:58.019 --> 00:34:02.279
raise $ 15 billion for transit improvements by charging vehicles to
478
00:34:02.380 --> 00:34:06.940
enter the Manhattan Business District. At one point, Mr. Trump
479
00:34:06.980 --> 00:34:11.630
posted on social media, Congestion pricing is dead. Manhattan and
480
00:34:11.730 --> 00:34:14.909
all of New York is saved. Long live the king.
481
00:34:15.750 --> 00:34:19.210
In response, Ms. Hochul said, We are a nation of laws,
482
00:34:19.630 --> 00:34:22.190
not ruled by a king. We'll see you in court.
483
00:34:22.909 --> 00:34:25.670
New York ended up prevailing in court, and the toll
484
00:34:25.710 --> 00:34:29.929
remained in effect. The Associated Press called the race just
485
00:34:30.010 --> 00:34:32.940
as the polls closed at 9 p.m., prompting rounds of
486
00:34:32.980 --> 00:34:35.920
cheers in the ballroom at the New York Hilton Midtown,
487
00:34:36.260 --> 00:34:39.300
where Ms. Hochul was holding an election night party with
488
00:34:39.340 --> 00:34:43.880
top state Democratic officials. Ms. Hochul's re-election bid became as
489
00:34:43.960 --> 00:34:46.500
much a referendum on the actions coming from the White
490
00:34:46.539 --> 00:34:50.340
House as on policies flowing from the state capitol in Albany,
491
00:34:50.380 --> 00:34:55.170
New York. The governor's campaign focused on Mr. Blakeman's fidelity
492
00:34:55.269 --> 00:34:58.150
to Mr. Trump in its tens of millions of dollars
493
00:34:58.530 --> 00:35:03.409
in attack ads against her rival. Speaking to her supporters
494
00:35:03.469 --> 00:35:07.260
just before 11 p.m., Ms. Hochul noted that her victory,
495
00:35:07.610 --> 00:35:12.000
with Adrienne Adams as her lieutenant governor-elect and Latita James'
496
00:35:12.699 --> 00:35:15.940
expected re-election as attorney general, meant that the three most
497
00:35:15.980 --> 00:35:18.840
powerful positions in the state government would be held by
498
00:35:18.940 --> 00:35:22.619
women for the first time in history. The governor talked
499
00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:26.159
up the accomplishments of her first term, including expanding child
500
00:35:26.199 --> 00:35:29.909
care options and making school lunches free, while also taking
501
00:35:29.949 --> 00:35:32.829
a jab at the president for telling voters to act
502
00:35:32.889 --> 00:35:35.550
as if he were on the ballot. Well, Mr. President,
503
00:35:35.730 --> 00:35:38.510
you got your wish, she said to loud cheers. She
504
00:35:38.550 --> 00:35:41.280
then expressed her willingness to work with Mr. Trump, while
505
00:35:41.340 --> 00:35:44.900
also defending citizens of New York from attacks that emerged
506
00:35:44.940 --> 00:35:48.980
from Washington. No matter who occupies the White House, I
507
00:35:49.059 --> 00:35:51.789
know who I answer to. It's the people of New York,
508
00:35:51.909 --> 00:35:56.309
she said. Despite his best efforts, Mr. Blakeman, 71, a
509
00:35:56.369 --> 00:36:00.599
longtime player in Republican politics on Long Island, struggled to
510
00:36:00.639 --> 00:36:04.699
shake loose from his association with Mr. Trump. After winning
511
00:36:04.739 --> 00:36:08.480
re-election as county executive last fall, Mr. Blakeman entered the
512
00:36:08.519 --> 00:36:13.289
governor's race, setting up a primary against Representative Elise Stefanik,
513
00:36:13.909 --> 00:36:17.610
a well-known staunch defender of Mr. Trump. But Ms. Stefanik
514
00:36:17.650 --> 00:36:20.739
abruptly dropped out and announced she would not seek re-election
515
00:36:20.760 --> 00:36:24.579
to the House. Mr. Blakeman used his campaign messaging to
516
00:36:24.639 --> 00:36:28.800
try to attract disaffected Democrats and independent voters who had
517
00:36:28.820 --> 00:36:32.300
been burdened by rising energy costs and high taxes. But
518
00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:36.260
he was dogged by fundraising challenges and temporarily waylaid by
519
00:36:36.340 --> 00:36:40.590
irregularities in his required filings to the state. At one point,
520
00:36:40.710 --> 00:36:43.750
he was removed from the campaign finance matching program and
521
00:36:43.809 --> 00:36:47.449
had to sue to regain access. In the end, He
522
00:36:47.469 --> 00:36:51.750
spent around $ 24 million on ads, according to Ad Impact,
523
00:36:52.289 --> 00:36:55.010
just a bit shy of what Ms. Hochul spent and
524
00:36:55.070 --> 00:36:59.559
benefited from help from a group that was seeded with
525
00:36:59.599 --> 00:37:02.780
donations from James Dolan, the owner of the New York Knicks.
526
00:37:03.760 --> 00:37:07.840
Speaking to supporters at an event space in Nassau County, Mr.
527
00:37:07.880 --> 00:37:10.559
Blakeman told them that he had spoken to Ms. Hochul
528
00:37:10.599 --> 00:37:13.480
and told her she ran a great race. Now the
529
00:37:13.500 --> 00:37:15.860
race is over. We all have to unify and work
530
00:37:15.880 --> 00:37:18.199
together to make for a better state of New York,
531
00:37:18.239 --> 00:37:22.360
he said. For Ms. Hochul, winning a second term strengthens
532
00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:25.000
her own legacy and opens the door for her to
533
00:37:25.079 --> 00:37:31.030
match two recent predecessors, Mario Cuomo and Georgie Pataki, who
534
00:37:31.150 --> 00:37:35.349
each served three full terms. She entered office in August
535
00:37:35.389 --> 00:37:39.550
of 2021, moving up from Lieutenant Governor after Andrew Cuomo
536
00:37:39.610 --> 00:37:44.070
resigned amid sexual harassment allegations that he denies. Her first
537
00:37:44.110 --> 00:37:47.960
year in office was denied defined by efforts to stabilize
538
00:37:48.019 --> 00:37:51.360
state government, which was still dealing with the pandemic and
539
00:37:51.409 --> 00:37:55.130
the fallout of scandals related to Mr. Cuomo. Her election
540
00:37:55.170 --> 00:37:59.329
to full term in 2022 proved to be closer than expected,
541
00:37:59.710 --> 00:38:03.230
leading Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker, to accuse Ms.
542
00:38:03.250 --> 00:38:06.170
Hochul of dragging down the Democratic ticket when the party
543
00:38:06.210 --> 00:38:09.610
lost five House seats in the state. She struggled initially
544
00:38:09.690 --> 00:38:13.409
to pass big-ticket policy items related to housing and to
545
00:38:13.469 --> 00:38:17.340
win approval for her preferred pick for the state's top judge.
546
00:38:17.940 --> 00:38:21.380
She also drew criticism for initially withdrawing her support of
547
00:38:21.420 --> 00:38:26.500
congestion pricing, only to reverse her decision shortly after her election,
548
00:38:26.920 --> 00:38:30.949
while lowering the charge from $ 15 to $ 9 for most vehicles.
549
00:38:31.590 --> 00:38:34.610
Throughout much of her full term, Ms. Hochul, a former
550
00:38:34.710 --> 00:38:38.030
Erie County clerk, was viewed warily by legions of progressive
551
00:38:38.050 --> 00:38:40.630
voters in New York City. She began to find her
552
00:38:40.670 --> 00:38:44.989
footing after Mr. Trump's re-election in 2024, which she became
553
00:38:45.030 --> 00:38:49.550
a vocal bulwark against Washington. Still faced with the middling
554
00:38:49.789 --> 00:38:52.969
approval numbers of numerous rivals from both parties preparing to
555
00:38:53.030 --> 00:38:55.869
challenge her, she seemed far from certain to win a
556
00:38:55.909 --> 00:39:00.190
year ago. But several primary challenges from Democrats either sputtered
557
00:39:00.550 --> 00:39:04.909
or never materialized. One such bid came from her lieutenant governor,
558
00:39:05.360 --> 00:39:09.320
Antonio Delgado, who had hoped to challenge her from the left.
559
00:39:09.780 --> 00:39:14.840
His campaign was undermined by Ms. Hochul's relationship with Mondani,
560
00:39:15.280 --> 00:39:19.150
who endorsed the governor last winter. Mr. Delgado dropped out
561
00:39:19.289 --> 00:39:21.789
after the state party convention and was replaced on the
562
00:39:21.829 --> 00:39:24.530
ticket with Ms. Adams, the former speaker of the New
563
00:39:24.570 --> 00:39:29.309
York City Council. Mr. Mondani's support followed a similar gesture
564
00:39:29.369 --> 00:39:31.980
from Ms. Hochul. who became one of the most prominent
565
00:39:32.019 --> 00:39:37.139
Democrats to endorse him during his mayoral run. Since his victory,
566
00:39:37.219 --> 00:39:41.139
the two have built a surprisingly fruitful governing partnership, despite
567
00:39:41.179 --> 00:39:45.980
profound ideological differences on a number of fronts, including raising
568
00:39:46.019 --> 00:39:51.179
taxes and support for Israel. Ultimately, Mr. Mondami's support for Ms.
569
00:39:51.199 --> 00:39:54.760
Hochul appeared to be crucial, helping to excite the younger,
570
00:39:54.860 --> 00:39:59.900
more progressive coalition of voters that propelled his mayoral campaign
571
00:40:00.239 --> 00:40:03.639
to victory last year. Over the last month, they appeared
572
00:40:03.679 --> 00:40:08.599
together repeatedly. Mr. Mondami also filmed several videos highlighting their
573
00:40:08.639 --> 00:40:12.159
work together to expand child care and resolve the city's
574
00:40:12.199 --> 00:40:16.340
budgetary woes. Their partnership will be tested early next year
575
00:40:16.780 --> 00:40:20.820
when the state legislator gavels back into session. The mayor
576
00:40:20.860 --> 00:40:24.099
is likely to push for higher taxes, a policy that Ms.
577
00:40:24.119 --> 00:40:28.840
Hochul may be reluctant to embrace. Speaking at Ms. Hochul's
578
00:40:28.889 --> 00:40:33.210
victory party, Mr. Mamdani was content to highlight what he
579
00:40:33.250 --> 00:40:36.889
and the governor had accomplished so far. The conventional wisdom
580
00:40:36.949 --> 00:40:39.090
for some was that as long as there was a
581
00:40:39.150 --> 00:40:41.670
governor in Albany and a mayor in New York City,
582
00:40:42.030 --> 00:40:45.639
there would be struggles and petty feuds, Mr. Mamdani said.
583
00:40:46.179 --> 00:40:49.510
Governor Hochul and I are working together to rewrite what
584
00:40:49.550 --> 00:40:53.840
that convention looks like. The next article on the front
585
00:40:53.860 --> 00:40:59.320
page is titled William Nordhaus Dies, Noble Winner Influenced Climate Policy.
586
00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:04.099
The Yale Professor Moved Climate Change into Mainstream Economic Analysis,
587
00:41:04.619 --> 00:41:09.659
written by Lydia DePillis. William D. Nordhaus, a Yale economist
588
00:41:09.699 --> 00:41:13.079
and Nobel laureate who tabulated the economic wreckage of carbon
589
00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:18.280
emissions and influenced climate policy across several presidential administrations, died
590
00:41:18.360 --> 00:41:20.659
on Friday at his home in New Haven. He was 85.
591
00:41:20.659 --> 00:41:25.190
The cause was glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer,
592
00:41:25.570 --> 00:41:30.989
according to a statement from Yale University. In 2018, Professor
593
00:41:31.070 --> 00:41:35.130
Nordhaus shared the Nobel in Economic Science with Paul M. Romer,
594
00:41:35.449 --> 00:41:39.739
an economist at New York University. The Nobel Committee cited
595
00:41:39.780 --> 00:41:43.820
Professor Nordhaus' work in developing a method to balance climate
596
00:41:43.840 --> 00:41:47.639
change's long-term damage with the costs required to contain it.
597
00:41:48.409 --> 00:41:52.389
The model, which Professor Dornhaus refined over decades, has underpinned
598
00:41:52.489 --> 00:41:56.230
dozens of regulations around the world aimed at limiting fossil
599
00:41:56.250 --> 00:41:59.650
fuels and seeded the ground for a new field of
600
00:41:59.750 --> 00:42:03.630
research that bridges the gap between economics and earth science.
601
00:42:04.349 --> 00:42:07.010
He played a crucial role in terms of bringing consideration
602
00:42:07.050 --> 00:42:11.110
of natural environment into the mainstream of economics, whereas earlier
603
00:42:11.130 --> 00:42:14.190
it was sort of a fringe area, said Robert Stavins,
604
00:42:14.590 --> 00:42:18.389
the director of environmental economics program at Harvard. who wrote
605
00:42:18.750 --> 00:42:23.369
about Professor Nordhaus's impact. Professor Nordhaus saw climate change as
606
00:42:23.409 --> 00:42:27.949
a clear threat to humankind, but he emphasized that potential
607
00:42:27.969 --> 00:42:31.579
damages must be balanced with the economic cost of preventing them.
608
00:42:32.340 --> 00:42:38.820
Climate stabilization would appear enormously expensive, he concluded in his
609
00:42:38.880 --> 00:42:42.659
initial paper describing the model. To deal with the problem efficiently,
610
00:42:43.039 --> 00:42:47.679
Professor Nordhaus proposed a modest carbon tax that would escalate
611
00:42:47.719 --> 00:42:51.130
over time. The idea gained support in the 2000s among
612
00:42:51.190 --> 00:42:55.369
liberals like Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, and
613
00:42:55.409 --> 00:42:59.010
Republicans such as former Secretaries of State James Baker III
614
00:42:59.389 --> 00:43:02.510
and George P. Schultz, who championed it as a conservative
615
00:43:02.570 --> 00:43:08.030
climate solution. Ultimately, although carbon taxes have proven politically toxic
616
00:43:08.550 --> 00:43:11.730
in the face of corporate opposition and have only rarely
617
00:43:11.769 --> 00:43:16.389
been instituted, many countries and sub-national governments like states and
618
00:43:16.449 --> 00:43:20.269
provinces have set up emissions training systems that impose carbon
619
00:43:20.349 --> 00:43:24.329
limits and use markets to set prices. One such proposal
620
00:43:24.409 --> 00:43:28.519
passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009 but died
621
00:43:28.559 --> 00:43:32.739
in the Senate. Perhaps a more endearing outgrowth of Professor
622
00:43:32.780 --> 00:43:36.760
Nordhaus's model is a metric called the social cost of carbon,
623
00:43:37.159 --> 00:43:41.010
which quantifies the benefits of combating climate change. In the
624
00:43:41.070 --> 00:43:45.110
Obama administration, it became a fundamental tool for regulating emissions
625
00:43:45.460 --> 00:43:48.840
from power plants and vehicles until the second Trump administration
626
00:43:49.219 --> 00:43:53.030
banned its use in rulemaking last year. The Nobel was
627
00:43:53.070 --> 00:43:56.289
widely seen as a rebuke to the Trump administration, which
628
00:43:56.349 --> 00:43:59.090
had at the time begun to dismantle the building blocks
629
00:43:59.530 --> 00:44:03.949
of the American environmental policy. Mr. Trump often called climate
630
00:44:03.989 --> 00:44:08.360
change a hoax. Although colleagues found Professor Nordhaus to be
631
00:44:08.420 --> 00:44:12.559
scrupulously apolitical, he gave an interview to the Nobel Committee
632
00:44:12.579 --> 00:44:16.050
in 2018 in which he decried what he called Mr.
633
00:44:16.090 --> 00:44:20.719
Trump's ludicrous statements about climate change. Winning the prize, he said,
634
00:44:21.199 --> 00:44:23.219
gives a kind of courage and heart to the people
635
00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:27.079
who are on the right side of history. William Dobney Nordhaus,
636
00:44:27.519 --> 00:44:30.099
the third of four children, was born in Albuquerque on
637
00:44:30.159 --> 00:44:34.619
May 31, 1941. His father, Robert J. Nordhaus, was a
638
00:44:34.679 --> 00:44:38.760
Yale-educated lawyer for American Indian rights. He also was an
639
00:44:38.840 --> 00:44:42.639
outdoorsman who started a ski resort in nearby Sandia Mountains
640
00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:45.889
and helped build a popular tram to bring visitors to
641
00:44:45.909 --> 00:44:51.760
the tourist destination. His mother, Virginia Riggs Nordhaus, oversaw the home.
642
00:44:52.739 --> 00:44:57.780
Professor Nordhaus graduated in 1959 from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts,
643
00:44:58.199 --> 00:45:01.940
and in 1963 received a bachelor's degree in economics from
644
00:45:02.420 --> 00:45:07.179
Yale University. In 1967, he completed his doctoral studies in
645
00:45:07.239 --> 00:45:11.960
economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying under future
646
00:45:12.039 --> 00:45:18.130
Nobelist Robert M. Solow, Kenneth Arrow, and Paul Samuelson, with
647
00:45:18.170 --> 00:45:22.320
whom Professor Norhaus continually updated and later took over primary
648
00:45:22.380 --> 00:45:26.619
authorship of a widely used textbook, Economics. He returned to
649
00:45:26.659 --> 00:45:30.260
Yale in 1967 as an assistant professor just as the
650
00:45:30.340 --> 00:45:35.320
environmental movement was gaining steam. He became interested in accounting
651
00:45:35.340 --> 00:45:38.920
for planetary harms after reading an article in a Transworld
652
00:45:38.960 --> 00:45:43.860
Airlines in-flight magazine that criticized the traditional measure of economic output,
653
00:45:44.230 --> 00:45:47.550
the gross national product. In the words of a young radical,
654
00:45:47.909 --> 00:45:51.050
don't tell me about your GNP. To me, it's really
655
00:45:51.110 --> 00:45:56.070
gross national pollution, Professor Nordhaus recalled that it said. I thought, wow,
656
00:45:56.449 --> 00:45:59.670
that's really cute, but is it true? The question launched
657
00:45:59.730 --> 00:46:03.239
an effort to quantify the impact of natural resource depletion.
658
00:46:03.699 --> 00:46:08.159
The work to reflect the environmental and national economic statistics
659
00:46:08.480 --> 00:46:14.619
took another step forward in national academies of sciences Engineering,
660
00:46:14.969 --> 00:46:19.289
and Medicine Report that Professor Nordhaus led in 1999 and
661
00:46:19.329 --> 00:46:23.610
continues today as governments have tried to supplement official metrics
662
00:46:23.909 --> 00:46:29.030
that ignore many aspects of human welfare. In the 1970s,
663
00:46:29.409 --> 00:46:31.630
awareness of the impact of carbon dioxide on the Earth's
664
00:46:31.650 --> 00:46:35.309
climate was just dawning. Professor Nordhaus hit upon the problem
665
00:46:35.550 --> 00:46:39.730
in 1974 during a residency at the International Institute of
666
00:46:39.789 --> 00:46:43.210
Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, where he shared an office
667
00:46:43.250 --> 00:46:46.510
with a climatologist who encouraged him to study the linkages
668
00:46:46.869 --> 00:46:49.730
with the economy. That led to the first known paper
669
00:46:50.130 --> 00:46:55.320
integrating carbon emissions into an economic model that estimated what
670
00:46:55.340 --> 00:46:58.199
it might cost to limit the fallout for the climate.
671
00:46:59.179 --> 00:47:01.920
Soon after his return to the United States, Mr. Nordhaus
672
00:47:01.960 --> 00:47:04.840
went to Washington, D.C. to serve as a member of
673
00:47:04.860 --> 00:47:08.980
the President Jimmy Carter's Council of Economic Advisors. In close
674
00:47:09.019 --> 00:47:12.280
communication with his brother, Robert, an energy lawyer who wrote
675
00:47:12.340 --> 00:47:16.250
key provisions of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and
676
00:47:16.309 --> 00:47:19.550
later was general counsel at the Department of Energy under
677
00:47:19.570 --> 00:47:23.349
President Bill Clinton, he generated recommendations about how to gauge
678
00:47:23.670 --> 00:47:28.030
the economic costs and benefits of proposed regulations. The concept
679
00:47:28.150 --> 00:47:33.070
was legally mandated for federal rulemaking processes in 1981, although
680
00:47:33.090 --> 00:47:36.889
the criteria have changed with the priorities of successive administrations.
681
00:47:37.809 --> 00:47:41.250
Back at Yale, Professor Nordhaus kept working to quantify the
682
00:47:41.289 --> 00:47:44.849
implications of climate change for economic growth. It was a
683
00:47:44.909 --> 00:47:48.590
lonely project. Few others were studying the question. And when
684
00:47:48.610 --> 00:47:51.489
he finished a model that assessed the cost of several
685
00:47:51.510 --> 00:47:57.119
approaches to limiting emissions, mainstream economic journals rejected the submission.
686
00:47:57.719 --> 00:48:00.119
They didn't see why this was important. That's why it
687
00:48:00.159 --> 00:48:03.820
was published in Science. Lindt Barrage, an associate professor of
688
00:48:03.900 --> 00:48:08.320
energy and climate economics at ETH Zurich, a public research university,
689
00:48:08.710 --> 00:48:11.630
who studied under Mr. Nordhaus and worked with him on
690
00:48:11.670 --> 00:48:15.070
later updates to the model, said in an interview, you
691
00:48:15.090 --> 00:48:17.889
don't stick with the topic and swim against the stream
692
00:48:18.239 --> 00:48:21.920
if it's not something you're really convinced about. As Professor
693
00:48:21.980 --> 00:48:25.880
Nordhaus' research gained mainstream acceptance, it also came under fire.
694
00:48:26.739 --> 00:48:30.099
One challenge arrived in the form of a 2006 report
695
00:48:30.480 --> 00:48:33.139
commissioned by the British government that called for a much
696
00:48:33.179 --> 00:48:37.340
more aggressive approach to limiting carbon emissions than Professor Nordhaus expected.
697
00:48:38.289 --> 00:48:42.449
had recommended. The core dispute was over how much policymakers
698
00:48:42.489 --> 00:48:46.099
should value the welfare of future generations compared with that
699
00:48:46.139 --> 00:48:50.880
of people now. Professor Nordhaus wrote a withering riposte, and
700
00:48:51.179 --> 00:48:54.519
his question remains central to debates over how much to
701
00:48:54.559 --> 00:48:59.579
pay for climate mitigation. Another disagreement arose over whether conventional
702
00:48:59.679 --> 00:49:04.059
economic analysis could be applied when considering the potentially infinite
703
00:49:04.099 --> 00:49:08.570
cost of unlikely but catastrophic climate disasters. This one came
704
00:49:08.610 --> 00:49:12.679
from the Harvard economics professor Martin Weitzman, to whom Professor
705
00:49:12.739 --> 00:49:17.010
Nordhaus respectfully responded that such scenarios were limited. He would
706
00:49:17.050 --> 00:49:21.630
later call Professor Weitzman, who died by suicide, in 2019,
707
00:49:21.630 --> 00:49:27.559
the preeminent environmental economist of the modern era. Other criticisms
708
00:49:27.639 --> 00:49:31.559
arose over whether the harms from climate change should be
709
00:49:31.639 --> 00:49:35.280
balanced with conventional metrics of economic growth, which many see
710
00:49:35.340 --> 00:49:39.789
as the wrong yardstick. When he carried out that analysis,
711
00:49:39.869 --> 00:49:42.429
his view was, let the chips fall where they may,
712
00:49:42.869 --> 00:49:46.809
said Professor Stevens. As a result, the policy actions and
713
00:49:46.849 --> 00:49:50.369
trajectories that he was recommending early on were not as
714
00:49:50.449 --> 00:49:54.809
ambitious as many advocates would like. Under the Biden administration,
715
00:49:55.170 --> 00:49:59.050
federal climate policy largely abandoned the idea of pricing carbon,
716
00:49:59.650 --> 00:50:04.670
favoring subsidies as both more politically palatable and potentially more
717
00:50:04.789 --> 00:50:09.750
equitable in shifting behavior. And over time, Professor Nordhaus adjusted
718
00:50:09.809 --> 00:50:13.670
his model to incorporate new science, pushing up his estimate
719
00:50:13.710 --> 00:50:18.429
of the appropriate carbon price significantly. Other economists have now
720
00:50:18.510 --> 00:50:23.820
constructed their own integrated models that reach different conclusions. In 1964,
721
00:50:23.820 --> 00:50:27.739
he married Barbara Feiss, who later became a psychoanalyst. In
722
00:50:27.800 --> 00:50:31.340
addition to his wife, he is survived by three children, Jeff, Monica,
723
00:50:31.460 --> 00:50:36.239
and Rebecca, a brother, Richard, a sister, Elizabeth, and three granddaughters.
724
00:50:36.989 --> 00:50:40.769
Another legacy of Professor Nordhaus' work may only now be
725
00:50:40.809 --> 00:50:44.949
taking root. As international climate diplomacy floundered in recent years,
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00:50:45.429 --> 00:50:48.530
he proposed the concept of a climate club of willing
727
00:50:48.570 --> 00:50:53.039
nations that would impose trade penalties on non-participants. One such
728
00:50:53.119 --> 00:50:58.119
effort took effect this year, the European Union's Carbon Border
729
00:50:58.480 --> 00:51:02.380
Adjustment Mechanism, which levies tariffs on goods from outside the
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00:51:02.420 --> 00:51:07.510
bloc that correspond with their impact on the climate. Our
731
00:51:07.570 --> 00:51:11.710
final article is entitled, High in Mexico's Mountains, A Homecoming
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00:51:11.769 --> 00:51:14.210
for the Dead. Over the course of 10 days in
733
00:51:14.230 --> 00:51:17.829
a remote Mexican town, dances and processions summon souls in
734
00:51:17.849 --> 00:51:20.969
the belief that the dead are never truly gone. Written
735
00:51:21.010 --> 00:51:26.380
by Paulina Villegas and photographs by Luis Antonio Rojas. The
736
00:51:26.420 --> 00:51:29.179
dead here do not really die. Deep in the rugged
737
00:51:29.219 --> 00:51:33.159
mountains of southern New Mexico, the dead returned home last
738
00:51:33.199 --> 00:51:38.469
week to Melitonac, a remote indigenous town breached by winding
739
00:51:38.489 --> 00:51:41.869
dirt roads where ancestral beliefs remain woven into daily life.
740
00:51:42.469 --> 00:51:45.929
All weekend, firecrackers thundered across the small town of roughly 19,400
741
00:51:45.929 --> 00:51:50.739
in the southern state of Guaro. The scent of copal
742
00:51:50.800 --> 00:51:54.119
incense hung thick in the air, and marigolds blazed orange everywhere.
743
00:51:54.659 --> 00:51:57.639
The celebration of the dead was underway for the indigenous
744
00:51:57.679 --> 00:52:00.860
people known as the Nasavi, or people of the rain.
745
00:52:01.360 --> 00:52:04.329
For this mixtape group, death is not an ending, but
746
00:52:04.369 --> 00:52:07.250
a passage to the place where the dead dwell, and
747
00:52:07.289 --> 00:52:11.070
their During their 20-day celebration, the departed returned to visit
748
00:52:11.110 --> 00:52:14.949
with the living. Inside homes, elaborate altars stand beneath arches
749
00:52:14.989 --> 00:52:18.650
of brilliant orange marigolds, the flower long associated with the
750
00:52:18.690 --> 00:52:23.320
passage between life and death. Fruit and sugar bread hang
751
00:52:23.380 --> 00:52:26.860
from the arches, their scents joining the flowers to guide
752
00:52:26.920 --> 00:52:31.300
loved ones home. Under the arches, photographs of the departed
753
00:52:31.659 --> 00:52:35.579
stand among tamales, atoli, a warm, thick corn drink, and
754
00:52:35.639 --> 00:52:39.500
other foods the dead once enjoyed. tiny coin-sized tortillas for
755
00:52:39.559 --> 00:52:43.420
children and pets that have passed, cigarettes for those who smoked.
756
00:52:44.840 --> 00:52:48.000
Millions of families across Mexico gathered over the weekend to
757
00:52:48.059 --> 00:52:50.519
honor their deceased loved ones. The Day of the Dead
758
00:52:50.539 --> 00:52:53.480
has become a major tourist draw in recent years, featured
759
00:52:53.519 --> 00:52:57.139
in Hollywood films and embraced by global pop culture. But
760
00:52:57.179 --> 00:53:01.000
for many, the holiday remains an intimate family tradition. In
761
00:53:01.039 --> 00:53:03.960
a country so often scarred by violence and tragedy, the
762
00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:07.179
Day of the Dead offers a shared ritual of remembrance
763
00:53:07.610 --> 00:53:11.269
across social, cultural, and ethnic divides, a collective moment of
764
00:53:11.349 --> 00:53:15.090
pause to honor the dead and perhaps confront the fragility
765
00:53:15.130 --> 00:53:18.150
of one's own existence. In some parts of Mexico, the
766
00:53:18.170 --> 00:53:24.820
holiday is two days long. In Melatonin, it is commemorated
767
00:53:24.840 --> 00:53:28.039
for 10. While altars and visits to cemeteries are common,
768
00:53:28.460 --> 00:53:34.280
Melatonin's 10-day observance blends ancestral Mixtec beliefs with Catholic rites.
769
00:53:34.730 --> 00:53:37.389
It includes dances and processions to summon the souls of
770
00:53:37.429 --> 00:53:40.309
the dead. Here the belief that death is just a
771
00:53:40.349 --> 00:53:44.030
passage remains particularly strong. Life does not end here. It
772
00:53:44.070 --> 00:53:48.110
goes on, said Celso Guarva, who emigrated to California two
773
00:53:48.170 --> 00:53:51.400
decades ago, joining the many residents who left this remote
774
00:53:51.440 --> 00:53:54.699
mountain town in search of a better life. California is
775
00:53:54.739 --> 00:53:57.659
now his home, but he returns each year for the celebration.
776
00:53:58.219 --> 00:54:02.000
The body perishes, but the spirit continues and returns these days.
777
00:54:02.400 --> 00:54:05.420
That is why we are happy. Inside his home, perched
778
00:54:05.480 --> 00:54:08.960
above the town cemetery, a brass band played funeral marches
779
00:54:09.280 --> 00:54:12.710
before an altar dedicated to his late grandparents. A smaller
780
00:54:12.750 --> 00:54:15.429
shrine beside it honored his brother, who died at the
781
00:54:15.469 --> 00:54:18.210
age of seven. But there was little sorrow in the room.
782
00:54:18.570 --> 00:54:21.869
His mother, Aurora Solano, swayed and danced to the music.
783
00:54:22.530 --> 00:54:25.809
Melatonin is the only place where people are not afraid
784
00:54:25.849 --> 00:54:28.179
of dying, because we know that next year you will
785
00:54:28.219 --> 00:54:30.440
come back to hang out, to dance, to eat with
786
00:54:30.480 --> 00:54:35.449
your loved ones, Mr. Grover said. Time here stands still
787
00:54:35.550 --> 00:54:37.730
as the veil between the living and the dead dissolves,
788
00:54:38.070 --> 00:54:41.070
and the town gathers to welcome its departed with tenderness
789
00:54:41.110 --> 00:54:45.469
and devotion. Beginning on October 24, families summon the recently departed,
790
00:54:45.880 --> 00:54:50.320
followed by those lost for many years on October 28.
791
00:54:50.320 --> 00:54:53.500
On October 31, the spirits of the children are called home.
792
00:54:54.019 --> 00:54:56.739
Everyone else is summoned the next day before they all
793
00:54:56.780 --> 00:55:01.289
depart on November 2. Mexico's relationship with death has fascinated
794
00:55:01.690 --> 00:55:08.570
Mexican writers, poets, philosophers, and anthropologists for generations, particularly the
795
00:55:08.590 --> 00:55:11.590
apparent paradox at the heart of its culture. Death is
796
00:55:11.650 --> 00:55:14.960
not only mourned, it is celebrated, invited to dinner, and
797
00:55:15.019 --> 00:55:19.380
even mocked. That idea echoes in the ancestral beliefs of
798
00:55:19.420 --> 00:55:23.420
the non-Savi here in Melatonac. The dead remain members of
799
00:55:23.440 --> 00:55:26.639
the community. Their stories do not end, nor are those
800
00:55:26.679 --> 00:55:29.760
who passed away relegated to memory. For these few days,
801
00:55:30.039 --> 00:55:32.659
they come back to be part of the village. On Saturday,
802
00:55:32.929 --> 00:55:36.519
hundreds circled the town's church through thick clouds of incense smoke,
803
00:55:36.920 --> 00:55:40.280
carrying armfuls of marigolds and burning white candles to guide
804
00:55:40.320 --> 00:55:43.940
the spirits of children home. Girls carried a small Dalek
805
00:55:43.980 --> 00:55:48.420
figure dressed in a traditional embroidered tunic representing the children's souls.
806
00:55:50.059 --> 00:55:53.960
At the cemetery, Petra Garcia Moreno sat on her husband's gravestone,
807
00:55:54.340 --> 00:55:58.429
gathering blossoms into small bouquets as her son, Rotulio de
808
00:55:58.469 --> 00:56:01.369
la Cruz, tied them to a wooden arch above the grave.
809
00:56:02.019 --> 00:56:04.699
The dead are like gods for us, watching over the living, Mr.
810
00:56:04.739 --> 00:56:09.530
Delacruz said. During these reunions, he explained, families ask for protection, health,
811
00:56:09.570 --> 00:56:13.369
and guidance. Their answers, he believes, come in dreams. Sometimes
812
00:56:13.409 --> 00:56:17.860
the messages come in more mischievous ways. Yaravi Gawarva, 27,
813
00:56:17.849 --> 00:56:21.150
said she believes her late father Paulino and her grandparents
814
00:56:21.210 --> 00:56:24.530
expressed any grievance or displeasure by toppling offerings in the
815
00:56:24.570 --> 00:56:29.230
shrines or leaving peculiar patterns in candle wax. Like most
816
00:56:29.389 --> 00:56:33.130
families here, She treats the dead as honored guests, serving
817
00:56:33.150 --> 00:56:36.449
them hot coffee and breakfast before anyone else eats. Then
818
00:56:36.849 --> 00:56:39.380
two more meals. At night, she and her siblings wish
819
00:56:39.389 --> 00:56:44.219
them good night. For decades, families in Latonic lived off
820
00:56:44.360 --> 00:56:48.079
cultivating corn, beans, and squash. Yet jobs beyond farming and
821
00:56:48.119 --> 00:56:51.679
other basic services remain scarce. A small clinic serves the
822
00:56:51.699 --> 00:56:54.909
town with no hospital. Such hardships have pushed roughly 35%
823
00:56:54.909 --> 00:56:57.869
of the population to migrate to the United States in
824
00:56:57.889 --> 00:57:01.550
the past decade. according to Marvin Rojas, the town's mayor,
825
00:57:01.590 --> 00:57:04.190
who took office last year after his brother was killed.
826
00:57:04.949 --> 00:57:08.469
Money sent home has brought a measure of prosperity to
827
00:57:08.510 --> 00:57:13.460
what was considered Mexico's poorest municipality in 2003. Adobe houses
828
00:57:13.480 --> 00:57:17.179
have gradually given way to two-story cinder block constructions. For
829
00:57:17.219 --> 00:57:20.019
those who have left for the United States, like Mr. Guarva,
830
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:22.739
the bond with their home and its shared beliefs endures
831
00:57:23.039 --> 00:57:27.329
despite the separation, even beyond death. Everyone in this town
832
00:57:27.409 --> 00:57:30.349
dreams that when we die, we will be buried here
833
00:57:30.429 --> 00:57:33.750
because we know that only here we will remain alive,
834
00:57:33.809 --> 00:57:36.840
he added. This concludes the reading of the New York
835
00:57:36.880 --> 00:57:40.039
Times for today. Your reader for today has been Linda Rice.
836
00:57:40.659 --> 00:57:44.079
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program,
837
00:57:44.480 --> 00:57:50.599
please feel free to call us at 859-422-6390. Thank you
838
00:57:50.619 --> 00:57:54.730
for listening, and now, please stay tuned for continued programming
839
00:57:55.150 --> 00:57:55.929
on Radio Eye.