The New York Times International - 31.08.2026.pdf

纽约时报

国际版 / 2026年8月31日，星期一

山脉正在崩解

乔纳森·明格尔

观点

8月26日早晨，尼泊尔北部一座覆盖着冰川的整个山坡崩塌了。在短短几分钟内，一道高耸且翻滚的泥石水墙吞没了尼泊尔与西藏边境博特科希河谷的村庄。对于许多处于路径上的人来说，几乎没有时间逃生。至少 730 人死亡；近 2,500 人仍然失踪。伤亡人数预计还将进一步上升。

这股凭空出现、摧毁建筑并折断桥梁的数层楼高的巨量物质，与该地区常见的洪水或雪崩不同。有人说，它更像一颗炸弹。

这是寒冷山区的一种新型且令人不安的危险信号：冰川和永冻土的快速失稳，可以在眨眼之间重塑整个地貌。

在尼泊尔这场悲剧之后，我们是否能听到气候崩溃的警报？

导致这些连锁失效的过程非常复杂，但其背后的隐形之手是人为引起的气候变化。我们对化石燃料的燃烧正在拉低世界上最高的山峰。

最初，尼泊尔当局推测地震可能触发了这场灾难。但卫星图像显示，一座名为朗唐里隆峰的山北侧巨大的冰岩体可能发生了坍塌，坠落 4,000 英尺，直到猛烈撞击谷底。由此产生的冲击波沿河流反弹，其力量之大，模拟了一次 5.2 级地震事件——足以被全球的地震仪检测到。

2011年，在研究一本关于喜马拉雅山脉冰川流失原因及其后果的书籍时，我花了一周时间访问了尼泊尔的这个地区。我的旅程始于河边的恰普鲁贝西定居点，这个城镇在上周几乎被抹去了。

在全球范围内，气候变化正导致冰川以加速的速度消失。很少有地方像喜马拉雅山脉和青藏高原那样脆弱，自 2000 年以来，这里的冰川冰流失速度增加了一倍。随着这些冰冻的“水塔”萎缩，下游依赖雅鲁藏布江、印度河及亚洲其他大河的 20 亿人口，在未来几十年中将有更少的饮用水、农业用水和水电可用。更多内容见明格尔，第 10 页

阿根廷内乌肯省一个被称为瓦卡穆埃尔塔（或死牛）的富含页岩地层中，Vista能源公司的钻井平台上的工人。该地区拥有大量的石油和天然气储量。

《纽约时报》发表来自广泛视角的观点，旨在促进关于重大问题的建设性辩论。

摄影：莎拉·帕布斯特，为《纽约时报》拍摄

随石油而升的乐观情绪

主要投资直到近期才进入瓦卡穆埃尔塔。总统哈维尔·米莱将其称为阿根廷的“万灵药”，并寄希望于它能解决长期的经济不稳定问题。

沙漠沉积物承载着阿根廷经济复兴的希望，但信心并非普遍存在

阿根廷，内乌肯

作者：艾玛·布博拉（EMMA BUBOLA）

巴塔哥尼亚西北部大部分被阳光漂白的沙漠看起来仍像 1 亿 年前那样：一片广袤的史前领域，世界上的巨型恐龙曾在此漫游。

但现在，另一种巨兽正咆哮而至，高耸的钻机在沙漠地面上推进，并向地下深处钻探，疯狂地追逐石油和天然气。

钻机巨大的铁腿正以阿根廷此前从未见过的规模开采页岩油和天然气，将这个国家的安静地带变成了新石油和天然气繁荣的轰鸣中心，这引发了一波关于未来的乐观情绪。

纽约时报

“我们到达了应许之地，”69, 岁的劳尔·克拉苏克（Raúl Krasuk）说道。他为阿根廷能源公司 Vista 管理该地点的油井。当时他正坐在油田食堂里，这里为来自阿根廷各地、试图分一杯羹的工人提供鸡胸肉。

总统哈维尔·米莱将这个被称为 Vaca Muerta（瓦卡穆埃尔塔，或死牛）的油气沉积区称为阿根廷的“万灵药”，认为它有潜力通过出口带来大量美元，从而解决该国长期的经济不稳定。他在这项工程上下了重注。

在国家历史上，原油在今年首次超过大豆粉成为第一大出口产品。现在，石油行业的许多人在提及农业激增（一个世纪前曾使阿根廷成为世界上最富有的国家之一）之后，正期待着第二次繁荣的承诺。

“这是阿根廷繁荣的大好机会，”内乌肯省省长罗兰多·菲格罗亚（Rolando Figueroa）表示。该省是页岩资源丰富的地区，许多人将其称为“阿根廷的德克萨斯州”。

来源：美国能源信息局。

美国亿万富翁彼得·蒂尔（Peter Thiel）的对冲基金已在阿根廷站稳脚跟，近期报告称其已购入价值超过 7600万美元 的 Vista 股份。

尽管如此，许多人仍质疑瓦卡穆埃尔塔是否能真正催化阿根廷的经济复兴，因为这个国家在近几十年里一直受到高通胀和货币危机的困扰。随着米莱先生的紧缩措施削弱了国内需—阿根廷，第 8 页

普京为何在危机加剧时仍坚持战斗

新闻分析 柏林

在国内问题丛生的背景下， 他相信俄罗斯最终将赢得战争

作者：保罗·索内 (PAUL SONNE)

在战争进入第五年之际，俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·V·普京面临的困难正日益增加。

他的军队在战场上的推进速度有所放缓。他的战争开支已膨胀至超出预期。他的国民对未来的恐惧感日益增强。

此外，由于乌克兰在俄罗斯境内发动袭击，电子商务仓库、炼油厂和其他设施几乎每天都在起火，他展现掌控局面的能力已遭到削弱。

局势已恶化到如此地步，以至于美国中央情报局局长约翰·拉特克利夫上周罕见地访问了莫斯科。在访问期间，他向普京政府的情报官员阐明了严峻的军事和经济现实，并敦促俄罗斯政府达成和平协议。

但普京几乎没有表现出任何迹意图停止战斗，也不认为自己的困境已到了无法承受的地步。

相反，这位俄罗斯领导人暗示，尽管莫斯科面临挑战，但他认为基辅的情况更糟。他警告称，乌克兰通过攻击俄罗斯的平民经济“释放了瓶中的精灵”，而随着俄罗斯已经开始升级行动，乌克兰将为此付出代价。

柏林卡内基俄罗斯欧亚中心主任亚历山大·加布耶夫（Alexander Gabuev）表示：“在他的评估中，俄罗斯只需要做得比乌克兰好一点即可。”他相信只要自己坚持下去，基辅最终“将会崩溃”。

加布耶夫先生表示，普京一直低估了乌克兰的韧性。但基辅确实面临着新的危机。

除了士兵和军费储备日益枯竭之外，乌克兰还面临严重的防空短缺，这使得乌克兰领土在俄罗斯弹道导弹面前变得日益脆弱。随着伊朗战争耗尽了拦截弹储备，西方盟友在提供帮助的能力或意愿方面受到了极大的限制。

莫斯科每月生产数十枚弹道导弹，而这些强大的武器正是乌克兰所缺乏的。根据乌克兰军事情报部门的消息，俄罗斯还在寻求朝鲜提供额外的弹道导弹力量。

加布耶夫先生表示，这种不平衡可能让普京相信，尽管国内挑战日益增加，但他正在获得关键优势。他说，这位俄罗斯领导人将试图在今年冬天通过摧毁其

普京，第 4 页

在 plane crash 生还后，一位摇滚之星展现出脆弱的一面

瑞安·劳里 (RYAN LOWRY) 为《纽约时报》拍摄

报摊价格

安道尔 € 5.00 英国 £ 3.70 奥地利 € 4.80 塞浦路斯 € 3.40 比利时 € 4.80 捷克共和国 CZK 130

法国 € 4.80 德国 € 5.00 希腊 € 3.40

特拉维斯·巴克（Travis Barker）在纪录片《特拉维斯·巴克：比恐惧更响亮》（Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear）中被详细刻画。这部耗时十年制作的纪录片探讨了他的生活，包括 2008 年的一场导致机上六人中四人死亡的飞机失事。

以色列 NIS 18.00 / 周五 36.00

特拉维斯·巴克在纪录片中直面恐惧、创伤与焦虑

作者：乔纳森·卡拉曼尼卡 (JON CARAMANICA) 和 乔·科斯卡雷利 (JOE COSCARELLI)

鼓手特拉维斯·巴克 (Travis Barker) 是一位流行朋克明星，同时也是一名炙手可热的嘻哈合作者，以及各大颁奖盛典中首选的定海神针。他是一位腼腆且相对低调的名人，通过婚姻加入了真人秀节目的“皇室家族”。他曾是一名生活放纵的摇滚客，如今已成熟，过着长跑、呼吸训练以及抚养一个由七个孩子组成的重组家庭的生活。

在拥有多张白金专辑、经历近乎悲剧的事故以及创立街头服饰品牌的职业生涯中，唯一不变的是打击乐。巴克是现代 era 最具代表性的鼓手之一，是一位拥有多变听感的猛烈击鼓者。

以色列 / 埃拉特 NIS 15.25 / 周五 30.51

意大利 € 4.80 卢森堡 € 5.00 摩洛哥 MAD 35

葡萄牙 € 4.80 西班牙 € 4.80 瑞士 CHF 6.50

在加利福尼亚州丰塔纳的青少年滑板时期，他接受过爵士乐和行进乐队的训练，并将这种熟练的动态感带到了多个流派的乐队中：斯卡 (ska)、乡村音乐，当然还有影响一代人的流行朋克英雄 Blink-182 以及说唱摇滚组合 Transplants。（在成名之前，他甚至还演奏过一点索卡音乐。）

巴克的填充鼓点 (fill) 具有极高的辨识度。在三十年的职业生涯中，他通常更倾向于通过鼓组来表达——大声地、快速地，并伴随最大的肢体力量。

“我认为伤疤很酷，”巴克最近在《纽约时报》流行文化聊天节目 Popcast 的采访中说道，“我从未在演出结束后，面对血肉模糊的自己或双手时，产生过‘我希望我没那样演奏’或者‘我希望今晚不要打得这么猛’的想法。”

但在中年时期，50 岁的巴克正在寻找其他方式来分享他

巴克，第 2 页

荷兰 € 4.80 突尼斯 Din 8.00 土耳其 TL 190

阿联酋 AED 18.00 美国军队 （欧洲）\$ 2.50

期号 No. 44,619

纽约时报

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更新挪威君主制的国王

哈拉尔五世 1937-2026

INGE GJELLESVIK / NTB, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

作者：艾伦·考威尔（ALAN COWELL）

挪威国王哈拉尔五世（King Harald V）周五在奥斯陆逝世，享年 89 岁。在他 35 年的统治期间，他让这个古老的君主制接纳了一系列充满争议的人物关系，其中包括一名布商之女、一名名人萨满，以及名声扫地的金融家杰弗里·爱泼斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）。

王室法院宣布，国王是在医院中去世的。此前，他一直在接受治疗以应对血液中的细菌感染。

首相约纳斯·加尔·斯托雷（Jonas Gahr Store）在周五的一份声明中表示：“整个国家都在哀悼，挪威人民对他长期服务于挪威的生命深表感激。”

他补充道：“在我们需要的时候，哈拉尔国王找到了将我们凝聚在一起的语言。”

国王出生于一个拥有数百年历史的血统，该血统与英国王室共享部分遗产。在欧洲倾向于将全能统治者替换为像哈拉尔这样更具仪式感的宪法君主之时代，这使他处于一个继承特权的网络之中。他是英国国王查尔斯三世的远房表亲。

在他统治期间，传统与现代之间发生了多次碰撞，其中最危险的一次或许就发生在近期。

今年，美国司法部（DOJ）公布了大量与爱泼斯坦相关的文件，其中包括将王储妃梅特-玛丽特（Mette-Marit，国王的儿媳）与这名性犯罪者联系起来的电子邮件。

在这些电子邮件中，王储妃与爱泼斯坦之间的关系——发生在爱泼斯坦 2008 年因招妓未成年人罪名被定罪数年后——显得亲密且带有挑逗意味，并表明她与他的关系比王室此前承认的更为密切。这些披露引发了人们对梅特-玛丽特是否适合成为未来王后的质疑，并激励一些挪威人呼吁废除君主制。

早在 2001 年，当王位继承人哈康王储（Crown Prince Haakon）与前女服务员且是单身母亲的梅特-玛丽特·特杰塞姆·霍伊比（Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby）结婚时，公众就已经产生了一些质疑。但哈拉尔本人此前已经开始了变革进程，将所谓的“平民”——没有王室祖先的人——引入由其先辈创建的格吕克斯堡王室（House of Glücksburg）。哈拉尔在 1968 年与索尼娅·哈拉尔森（Sonja Haraldsen）结婚，她是一名服装商之女，两人相识时她还是奥斯陆大学的本科生；为此，哈拉尔不惜冒着与父亲奥拉夫五世（King Olav V）产生裂痕的风险，并威胁如果计划受阻就干脆不结婚。

今年关于梅特-玛丽特与爱泼斯坦友情的披露，迫使她发表声明称，她对“与爱泼斯坦有过任何接触”感到遗憾。但王室拒绝进一步评论，这使其陷入了回避等指责之中。一名领先报纸的编辑问道：“在这种情况下，梅特-玛丽特还能成为王后吗？”

这场丑闻之所以更具煽动性，是因为它在梅特-玛丽特的儿子、哈康王储的继子马里乌斯·博格·霍伊比（Marius Borg Hoiby）因多项强奸及其他罪名受审前几天爆出。6 月，他被裁定多项罪名成立，被判处四年监禁，目前在对他上诉期间处于软禁状态。同样在 6 月，在 2018 年被诊断出患有肺纤维化的王储妃成功进行了肺移植手术。

今年的危机掩盖了哈拉尔家族此前引发公众关注的其他时刻。2002 年，他的女儿玛莎·路易丝公主（Princess Martha Louise）与作家阿里·本（Ari Behn）结婚；两人于 2017 年离婚，后者于 2019 年自杀身亡。2022 年，公主宣布与杜雷克·维雷特（Durek Verrett）订婚，后者是一名美国人，一名自称的萨满，其名人客户和朋友中包括格温妮丝·帕特洛（Gwyneth Paltrow）。两人于 2024 年结婚。

人们对他们关系的反对，引发了媒体将其与哈里王子 2018 年与梅根·马克尔结婚所引发的英国王室动荡进行对比。这两者确实存在相似之处：2022 年，挪威王室宣布，像哈里王子及其妻子一样，玛莎·路易丝及其伴侣将退出王室职责；而且像哈里和梅根一样，这位公主与黑人身份的韦雷特先生将公众对其关系的批评归结为种族主义。

但玛莎·路易丝将她与王室的分离描述为友好的。

哈拉尔于 1937 年 2 月 21 日出生在奥斯陆郊外的王室斯考古姆庄园，他是瑞典的玛莎公主与未来的挪威国王奥拉夫五世（1957 年起统治直至 1991 年去世）的第三个孩子，排在拉格尼尔公主和阿斯特丽德公主之后。

哈拉尔与索尼娅王后育有两个孩子：1971 年出生的玛莎·路易丝和 1973 年出生的哈康。他的妻子、子女以及六个孙辈在世。

这位国王的早年生活深受第二次世界大战的影响，战争始于 1939 年 9 月。六个月后，德国军队入侵挪威，王室成员被迫逃亡。哈拉尔的祖父——拒绝向德国投降的哈康七世国王——以及当时被称为奥拉夫王子的父亲，在伦敦定居，那里成立了挪威流亡政府，以反对由维德昆·奎斯林领导的德国支持的政权。

哈拉尔与母亲和姐妹们一起前往华盛顿，他在那里度过了战争的大部分时间，并与富兰克林·D·罗斯福总统建立了友谊。1945 年 1 月，年仅 7 岁的他站在总统身后参加其第四次就职典礼。

同年晚些时候战争结束之后，王室返回挪威。哈拉尔就读于奥斯陆大学、挪威军事学院（1959 年毕业）以及英国的牛津大学，并在 20 世纪 60 年代初在贝利奥尔学院学习历史、经济和政治。他以运动员身份著称，作为一名帆船运动员，他曾分别在 1964 年至 1972 年间的东京、墨西哥城和慕尼黑三届夏季奥运会上代表挪威队参赛。

在父亲于 1991 年 1 月 17 日去世后，他成为了挪威国王。他的新统治时期被认为比前任更加开放。除了接纳平民进入王室外，他还下令翻修包括奥斯陆王宫在内的王室建筑，以便向公众开放。

SJÖBERG BILDBYRÅ / ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES

哈拉尔是该国自 14 世纪以来第一位——

1968 年，哈拉尔不顾父亲的反对，与服装商之女索尼娅·哈拉尔森结婚。左侧远端为 1991 年宣誓就任挪威国王后的哈拉尔。

出生于挪威的君主。（在与丹麦和瑞典长期政治联盟之后，挪威于 1905 年独立。）与其他欧洲君主一样，他作为国家元首的权力受到宪法和议会惯例的限制，以确保其政治角色被限制在很大程度上仅为形式上的。他的统治时期很大程度上得到了经济繁荣的支撑，离岸油气资源为挪威人带来了富裕。

一场涉及性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）的丑闻，使一些人胆敢要求废除君主制。

但在 2011 年 7 月，当极右翼极端分子安德斯·贝林·布雷维克（Anders Behring Breivik）在奥斯陆的政府大楼以及乌托亚岛（Utoya）的袭击中杀害 77 人时，他面临着一场对国家自我形象和自尊心的残酷挑战。一些挪威人将这次震惊比作 2001 年 9 月 11 日美国遭受袭击时的创伤。

通过向挪威人民发表讲话、会见遇难者家属，以及在国家纪念仪式上流泪表达公开的悲痛，哈拉尔被认为已成为爱国决心与团结的象征。

“现在重要的是我们团结一致，互相支持，不能让恐惧占据上风，”他在袭击发生当晚告诉他的同胞们。

几个月后，在接受《纽约时报》的一次罕见采访时，国王表示：“我一直觉得，在危机时刻，这正是我们存在的意义。这一点在 1940 年就有所体现，我们将看看这次是否也会产生同样的结果。你只需做你认为自然而然的事，如果那是正确的，那就更好了。”

林赛·丘特尔（Lynsey Chutel）和亨里克·普里瑟·利贝尔（Henrik Pryser Libell）参与了报道。

摇滚乐手在空难后的重生

“在事故之后，我并不确切知道该如何面对生活，”鼓手特拉维斯·巴克（Travis Barker）在谈到他幸存的那场空难时说道。

（）经历过这一切。本月，Hulu发布了纪录片《特拉维斯·巴克：大声地战胜恐惧》（Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear）。这部传记电影历时十年拍摄，记录了他的成长经历：从严苛的家教及其引发的反叛，到与Blink乐队在MTV时代攀登名声顶峰，再到2008年那场空难的余波——当时机上六人中有四人遇难，其中包括他最亲密的一些朋友。巴克勉强幸存，并经历了数年的身体与心理康复。

影片以重生的基调收尾，包括他与考特尼·卡戴珊（Kourtney Kardashian）的婚姻，以及他近20年来的首次飞行。这部电影以一种罕见的亲密感和极具吸引力的直接方式，审视了一位极少欢迎被近距离审视、但却始终处于聚光灯下的名人。

在与Popcast的乔恩·卡拉马尼卡（Jon Caramanica）和乔·科斯卡雷利（Joe Coscarelli）的对话中，巴克谈到了将打鼓视为一种自律；在著名的队友和家人身边保持适当的低调；他愿意向镜头公开生活的哪些部分；以及多年来为了守护对音乐的热爱而选择做出的人生改变。

我想演奏的方式。 乔·科斯卡雷利：你是什么时候决定拍这部电影的，为什么？片中有很多关于空难的激烈画面，以及之后你接受的20多次手术、康复过程和戒瘾之旅，还有与家人的亲密时刻…… 特拉维斯·巴克：在我出书（《我可以这么说吗：奢靡生活、死里逃生与鼓，鼓》，2015年）之后，相关的讨论开始了。写书的时候，伤口还很新鲜——那真的非常困难。但书和电影都具有疗愈作用，对吧？

大概是在2017年，这部纪录片本该完工了。导演和制片人的最终目标是，能不能请你去一次机场，我们在那里结束？他们只是想让我走上飞机，也许是在暗示有一天我会再次飞行。

而我的反应是，绝对不行。我[脏话]绝对不会靠近飞机。那时，我甚至不会住在机场附近的酒店。我有近20年没去过机场。

我想着，随便哪天我不在了就把它发出来吧，随便。我不想再处理这件事了。所以它就那样停滞在那里。接下来的事情是，我坠入爱河，开始了这段感情，进行自我提升，练习呼吸法——长话短说，我再次飞行了。 科斯卡雷利：你暗示到了这一点，但在2017年到2026年之间发生的另一件事是，你通过婚姻加入了这个真人秀家庭。你现在出演

这部电影以一种罕见的亲密感和极具吸引力的直接方式，审视了一位极少欢迎被近距离审视的名人。

《卡戴珊家族》（The Kardashians），我想在这种形式中，你学会了分享更多个人生活。这如何帮助你准备好在电影中讲述那个故事的结局？

巴克：我甚至没意识到自己在节目里。我认为处理这类事情或参与其中的最佳方式，就是不去真正承认自己正在被拍摄，或者没有发生什么特别的事情。我爱我的妻子、她的家人、孩子们以及每一个人。有时她在拍摄，而我就在现场。但我从未审核过剧集，也不看这些节目。 乔恩·卡拉马尼卡：我被电影中你的孩子们谈论与飞行相关的恐惧、创伤和焦虑的方式深深触动。当你终于说，“我和考特尼准备上飞机去旅行”时，你的孩子们在说，“请不要去”。我想知道你是否能谈谈你与他们的沟通，是如何让他们接受你当时状态的？

巴克：嗯，我走上这条路的经历是这样的：我当时有一个按摩治疗师，我记得她告诉我，你得尝试呼吸法（breath work）。我当时觉得，你在说什么？她说，你身上有太多的创伤，我在你的身体里能感觉到。事故发生后，我并不确切知道该如何应对——我咨询了创伤后压力综合征的医生，戒了瘾，跑步，锻炼，做所有我觉得在召唤我的事情。

有一位非常、非常酷且非常执着的粉丝经常联系我，跟我说：“嘿，试试呼吸法吧。”但那个家伙长得跟我很像——他的头上也有纹身。我当时想，伙计，我觉得这太奇怪了——我不认识这个人，我会非常排斥。结果，伙计，练习才进行 10 分钟，我就号啕大哭。我简直崩溃了。接下来的五次练习也是如此。但我也觉得自己在取得进步，你懂吗？我感觉不一样了。所以

最终这促使我告诉我的妻子，如果你以后要带我去任何地方，不要提前告诉我。只在前一天晚上告诉我就行。于是她这么做了，我在前一天晚上做了呼吸法，最后成功飞行了。幸运的是，这次经历非常愉快。

但我的孩子们对我非常、非常保护，而且非常害怕，到了恳求我不要坐飞机的程度。所以我必须向他们证明，打破这个循环，让他们愿意尝试。不幸的是，我的孩子们在事故发生时大约三岁和五岁，在那之后他们再也没有坐过飞机。这很令人难过，但他们基本上是在一种认为“这就是人们死去的方式”的观念中长大的。

科斯卡雷利：在纪录片的高潮部分，当讲述你坠机的故事时，你基本上是在为你生命中发生过的最可怕的事情进行一场诠释性的鼓独奏。那场戏是怎么导演的？

巴克：电影的制片人说，嘿，电影里有一场戏我们要播放一些你坠机时的片段，我想让你来一段鼓独奏，某种程度上镜像那种感觉。我来到一个灯光布置好且到处是火的仓库里。老实说，我没说什么，我直接走到鼓组后面开始“交谈”。

科斯卡雷利：用你的双手和双脚。当你完成时，你是否觉得释放了某些东西？

巴克：是的。那是如此原始，如此具有宣泄感且强烈。我想我做了两段独奏，完全是凭直觉，纯即兴。你知道看综合格斗（M.M.A.）比赛时，当他们知道对方被击晕了——他们甚至不需要看着对方倒下，直接走开？我就像那样直接走开了。我

觉得，我知道就这样了。那很艰难。比我表达出来的还要艰难。但我认为最好的方式就是将这种能量通过鼓传递出去。

科斯卡雷利：你和妻子考特尼的生育旅程在《卡戴珊家族》中有所记录，但并不完整。在《Louder Than Fear》中，你们分享了一段令人心碎的故事，讲述她在你们生下现在 2 岁的儿子洛基之前的一次流产。你们是如何决定这是一个分享你们共同旅程中这一部分的正确平台的？

巴克：我认为当有些事情能够造福他人，或者帮助人们产生共鸣时，这永远是绿灯。她一直试图做这类事情。所以我们经历流产，然后是失败的试管婴儿（I.V.F.），最后自然怀孕生了孩子

——我觉得这是一个很多人都能产生共鸣的故事。

卡拉马尼卡：你的大孩子，尤其是兰登和阿拉巴马，在网上非常受欢迎。你在真人秀电视领域有这样的背景，而且你自己也是一名明星。关于如何应对成长过程中的这一部分，你是如何与他们沟通的？

巴克：这太难了。我的意思是，我儿子前几天给我打电话，他说：“嘿，他们邀请我去参加《好声音》（The Voice）。”我当时说：“伙计，你太酷了，不适合那个节目。”我必须告诉他——因为你可能会觉得我在自相矛盾，因为你见过我在《美国偶像》里和玛丽·J·布莱姬一起打鼓——随便吧，我是不同的。你得考虑你的偶像。如果你的偶像是库尔特·科本，库尔特·科本会去参加《好声音》吗？

卡拉马尼卡：你会担心他们在互联网上的自我呈现方式吗？

巴克：我以身作则。我以前几乎要和狗仔队打起来。我对那些事情并不感到自豪。以前当人们跟踪我们或者发生一些愚蠢的事情时，我很容易发脾气，可能会反应迅速或产生冲突。但现在我觉得，宝贝，那不是正确的方式。那都只是噪音。

在尼泊尔的德维加特，周三灾难性洪水后的幸存者在周五视察其企业和房屋的损失，同时寻求避难所、食物和医疗护理。 摄影：阿图尔·洛克，为《纽约时报》拍摄

深重的损失与缺失的答案

尼泊尔，德维加特

尼泊尔洪水幸存者几乎失去了所有建立的生活

作者：ANUPREETA DAS 和 SAJAL PRADHAN

在两次不同的对话中，他们仅用两句简单的话，就道出了许多尼泊尔人的心声——他们眼睁睁地看着自己建立的生活在几秒钟内被抹去。

“一切都没了，”店主安朱·沙基亚（Anju Shakya）说道。

清洁工阿努什卡·塔芒（Anushka Tamang）则说：“我不知道接下来该怎么办。”

周三，咆哮而至的泥石流卷走或掩埋了他们的亲人、房屋、企业和学校，让无数人陷入同样的紧迫问题中：我能吃什么，在哪里睡觉，还能抢救回什么？然后又该怎么办？

29岁的塔芒女士临时搭建了一条简易路径，以便走完这段虽短但危险的路，回到她位于尼泊尔中部城镇德维加特（Devighat）的家中。她踩在倒下的树干、屋顶的锡板和房屋废墟的混凝土基础上行走，避开流沙，赤脚快速穿过泥泞地带。

在部分被掩埋的家中，塔芒女士找到了那个极少开启、装着华丽纱丽的银色手提箱，它卡在门边，覆盖着泥土，但完好无损。她还找到了 6 岁女儿的一些衣服，因为衣服挂在天花板上，没有被深达四英尺的淤泥淹没。她还发现了她的烹饪气瓶——一个空的，一个半满——每个大约能卖 $14。

她和哥哥将这些财物拖到附近的一所学校，她的女儿在那里就读，她也在那里担任清洁工。她计划带着这些物品在那里暂住几天。在眼前的危机过去后他们将如何生活，目前谁也无法预料。

尼泊尔此次山洪暴发已导致至少 730 人死亡，据报道近 2,500 人失踪；鉴于灾难规模之大，这些数字肯定还会上升。根据初步估计，这场灾难预计将给主要依赖旅游业的经济造成数十亿美元的损失。修复和建设道路、桥梁及电线的费用预计将达到数亿美元，甚至更多。

获救人员已被送往医院和救援营地，政府和非营利组织已开始搭建临时避难所并为他们提供餐食。

援助组织“好邻居尼泊尔”（Good Neighbors Nepal）的项目主任希拉拉尔·塔姆拉卡尔（Hiralal Tamrakar）表示，向人们提供食物和水以及临时住所是当务之急。该组织正与努瓦科特区（Nuwakot）比杜尔镇（Bidur）的当地政府合作，该镇是受损严重且人口较多的地区之一。他表示，幸存者们迫切需要食物，以及衣服、住所、毯子和其他基本生活用品。

但当幸存者们在为失踪的

（图片说明）左图：人们在比杜尔镇搜寻获救居民名单。下图：周五，阿努什卡·塔芒从她位于德维加特部分被掩埋的家中抢救出仅有的少量财物。

朋友和家人而悲痛，并逐渐接受财产和贵重物品的损失时，关于如何重建生活的问题目前还几乎没有答案。

“随后，政府会制定安置他们的规定和计划，”塔姆拉卡尔先生说。

直到上周，50岁的沙基亚女士还在特里舒利河畔比杜尔镇一个繁华的市场——特里舒利集市（Trishuli Bazaar）经营一家珠宝店。沙基亚女士说，虽然付出了很多努力，但她成功地为自己和家人创造了舒适的生活，未来前景良好。

她在一家三层楼的房子里住了二十多年，与儿子、儿媳和孙子同住。他们拥有两辆汽车和一辆摩托车。

她说，她的家庭积累了约 3.5 公斤黄金，价值约 $500,000。她计划用这笔钱支付孙子的教育费用。

当泥石流冲破店铺墙壁并涌向她的家时，那段精心培育的生活瞬间消失了。

夏基亚女士说，家人曾试图关闭门窗以阻挡泥浆，但几分钟内他们就被迫逃离。他们爬上山坡以避开致命的洪流，并在那里停留了两天，直到军队人员抵达。

房子和车没了。店铺没了。黄金也没了。

夏基亚女士坐在行军床上接受军医的治疗，她说她不知道该如何面对未来，也不知道接下来该做什么。她穿着一件借来的 T 恤，左膝盖上缠着绷带，那是她在爬山时扭伤的。她和家人计划住在尼泊尔首都加德满都的亲戚家，直到他们决定如何重新开始生活。

“想到失去的财富，我的眼泪就止不住地流，”她说。

“你不可能从零开始重新开一家金店，”夏基亚女士补充道，她仍然不敢相信在这样的年纪，自己还得重新开始。“上帝收回了他赐予我们的东西。”

缅甸移民担心被强制遣返

马来西亚，吉隆坡

马来西亚计划驱逐许多逃离残酷军事统治的罗兴亚人

作者：ZUNAIRA SAIEED

两年前，穆希杜扎马尔（Muhiduzamal）为了逃离家乡缅甸的宗教迫害和内战，历经四个月的陆路与海路跋涉抵达马来西亚。在那里，他像在故乡一样在稻田里找到了工作，并搬进了一栋传统的马来式高脚木屋。

他尝试向马来西亚的联合国机构申请注册为难民，并一直在等待预约。但由于没有该身份，马来西亚认为 35 岁的穆希杜扎马尔（一名仅使用单名的罗兴亚穆斯林）是非法入境。他的哥哥表示，他在 6 月被逮捕并被送往拘留中心。

马来西亚目前拘留了 10,000 多名来自缅甸的无证移民。上个月，马来西亚宣布计划将其中约一半的人遣返回国。这些移民、其家属以及人权组织表示，他们担心一旦移民回到缅甸，当地的军政府将会征召他们（无论男女）并强迫他们参战。罗兴亚人则担心最糟糕的情况：他们在自己的国家没有国籍，并且遭受了联合国和美国认定为由缅甸军方实施的种族灭绝。

“在马来西亚杀了我们，也比把我们送回缅甸好，”25 岁的穆罕默德（Mohammad）说道。他拥有难民身份，居住在马来西亚首都吉隆坡，但在讨论其兄弟的案例时，要求仅使用部分姓名。

“如果我哥哥被送回去，他会被杀掉，因为缅甸军政府会把他送到前线作战。”

在过去的十年里，数十万缅甸人寻求在马来西亚避难，希望逃离种族清洗和残酷的军政府。数万人在马来西亚拥有难民身份，但他们仍面临日益严重的歧视。数百名无证移民在拘留期间死亡。

马来西亚内政部在周四发布的一份声明中表示，移民的涌入已成为“沉重的财政负担，造成了严重的社会问题，并给国家带来了真实的安全威胁”。声明补充称，下个月将有约 1,500 名被拘留的移民被“自愿遣返”，届时将使用由两艘军舰和一艘医院船组成的缅甸海军舰队。

“政府所说的‘自愿’含义并不明确，”马来西亚知名非营利组织国家人权协会（National Human Rights Society）主席拉马切尔瓦姆·马尼穆图（Ramachelvam Manimuthu）表示。“这是一个自由且在知情情况下的选择吗？‘自愿遣返’是否也意味着被拘留者拥有被注册为难民的选择权？”

恐惧和恐慌正在缅甸移民群体中蔓延。

“每个人都处于警戒状态，”18 岁的无证罗兴亚女性比比（Bibi）说道，她在马来西亚生活了一年多，要求仅使用部分姓名。

非营利组织 Fortify Rights 的叶莱盛（Yap Lay Sheng）表示：“人们甚至在这意味着失去日薪的情况下也选择旷工，并让孩子不去难民学校，因为他们担心成为公众和当局的目标。”

马来西亚不向移民提供政治庇护。但如果他们被联合国难民高级专员办事处授予难民身份——即使是非法抵达——马来西亚允许他们停留。

现在，马来西亚正在启动自己的难民注册系统。周四，内政部表示，超过 4,000 名被拘留者（主要是罗兴亚人）将参与该计划。移民权益倡导者表示，注册过程必须为每个人提供公正、个体化的保护需求评估，包括提供口译员、法律援助以及上诉权。

“在马来西亚杀死我们，也比把我们遣送回去好。”

“政府必须加快难民登记，并确保难民持卡人能够合法获得工作、教育和住房，并保证他们免受任意逮捕、拘留和驱逐，”叶先生（Mr. Yap）表示。

马来西亚通讯部长兼政府发言人法米·法兹尔（Fahmi Fadzil）表示，如果移民在缅甸面临生命威胁，将不会被遣返；他称当局一直在评估谁可以被遣返以及在什么条件下遣返。

大约五年前，在缅甸军方夺权的政变后不久，马来西亚表示其遣返了一千多名移民。目前尚不清楚他们的处境如何。

“对于那些为了寻求安全而逃离缅甸的人来说，强制遣返是对他们在海外寻求保护的深刻背叛，”原籍缅甸且担任 Fortify Rights 董事会成员的尼基·戴蒙德（Nickey Diamond）说道。

联合国难民署表示，缅甸的情况并不安全，不适合移民返回。

国家人权协会（National Human Rights Society）的马尼穆图（Mr. Manimuthu）先生表示，马来西亚政府应暂停遣返，直到国际社会达成共识，认为被拘留者返回是安全的。他补充道：“历史证明，我们不能接受缅甸当局的话。难民的遣返不能基于希望和祈祷，必须有确凿的证据证明返回是安全的。”

HASNOOR HUSSAIN / REUTERS 7月被驱逐出家园后，罗兴亚难民聚集在马来西亚吉隆坡的联合国难民高级专员办事处前。

美国接管石油储备引发委内瑞拉人不满

哥伦比亚，波哥大

朱莉·特克维茨（JULIE TURKEWITZ）报道

许多委内瑞拉人怀疑，特朗普总统大胆抓捕其独裁领导人尼古拉斯·马杜罗（Nicolás Maduro）是有代价的，后者于1月被美国军队逮捕。

周五，当特朗普宣布美国将取得委内瑞拉大部分石油储备的多数控制权时，这个代价变得清晰起来——这些国家资源长期以来被该国许多人视为与生俱来的权利。

到周六，许多委内瑞拉人正在纠结是否愿意支付这个代价。到目前为止，美国驱逐独裁者的行动几乎没有改变这个国家——马杜罗的继任者德尔西·罗德里格斯（Delcy Rodríguez）依然在掌权，数百万普通委内瑞拉人依然处于贫困之中，停电继续困扰该国，且尚未确定选举日期。

新协议可能会带来重大投资。但许多委内瑞拉人希望看到整体的经济和政治变革。该协议两者都无法保证，且可能会加深特朗普与罗德里格斯之间的关系，使其权力进一步巩固。

在距离首都加拉加斯约两小时车程的瓦伦西亚，68岁的退休教育工作者何塞·莱阿尔（José Leal）表示，与委内瑞拉放弃的 650 亿美元 桶石油相比，美国承诺的 1000 亿美元 billion 投资听起来很少。但在经历了数十年的压制政府统治后，他愿意接受这项交易——并希望特朗普会推动民主变革。

“显然，美国获益匪浅，而且是巨大的获益，”他说。但他说，“美国人掌握着权力”，如果没有他们，“我们将无法摆脱查韦斯和马杜罗的社会主义。没有他们，我们将像古巴、中国或朝鲜一样被困住。”

在谈到这项交易时，他说：“并不是我热爱它，甚至不是我喜欢它。我认为这是一个必要的恶。如果我们能逃离这场持续了 27 年的灾难——古巴人则经历了 68 年——如果我们能摆脱这个困境，那么即使我不喜欢它，也是值得的。”

其他人则不那么乐观。委内瑞拉政府长期以来一直有将有利合同分发给

“美国将管理我们的石油工业，主权在那儿就丧失了。”

那些富有且有关系的人——在境内被称为“enchufado”（意为“插电的人”，即权贵）——在获利，而普通委内瑞拉人却在受苦。特朗普先生周五的声明中没有提到任何关于民主过渡的内容。

协议公布后，一个模因（meme）几乎立即在该地区流传开来。画中的一个委内瑞拉男人说：“我希望你们除掉查韦斯主义（Chavismo），”他指的是马杜罗先生的运动，“把石油留给我们。”画中的特朗普先生回答道：“拿走石油，把查韦斯主义留给你们，明白了吗！”

委内瑞拉拥有世界上最大规模的石油储量，并在 20 世纪 70 年代将这些资源国有化。随后，对油井的主权控制成为了由前总统雨果·查韦斯创立的社会主义政府意识形态的核心支柱。

罗德里格斯女士决定将大部分石油移交给美国政府，这代表了一种令人震惊的彻底转向，在 1 月份的袭击发生之前，很少有委内瑞拉人能想象到这一点。

这种转变在罗德里格斯女士所属的社会主义党周六发布的一份声明中显而易见。声明称，该党“忠实于其对国家主权的历史承诺”，对该协议以及“德尔西·罗德里格斯同志”所做的决定表示全力支持。

许多委内瑞拉人并没有忽略其中的讽刺意味。一个曾经自豪地蔑视华盛顿的政府，现在却在移交关键资源。

另一个在委内瑞拉流传的模因将国家石油公司 PDVSA 的标志改成了 PDUSA。

在 X 平台上，查韦斯的忠实追随者、前 PDVSA 负责人且现流亡海外的拉斐尔·拉米雷斯指责罗德里格斯女士“为一种新形式的美国殖民主义打开了大门”。

在马拉开波（这座委内瑞拉城市支撑着该国大部分石油工业），67 岁的前 PDVSA 经理达里奥·纳瓦表示，他反对这项协议，并且不相信它能改善他的生活。

“美国将管理我们的石油工业，”他说，“主权在那儿就丧失了。”

在加拉加斯，24 岁的大学生卡洛斯·阿雷纳斯表示，为了经济改善，他可能愿意放弃对委内瑞拉石油的部分控制权。

“如果这对国家有经济利益，并最终转化为委内瑞拉人生活质量的提高，那么是的，我愿意，”他说。“但这在这里似乎并非如此——至少最初不是。”

委内瑞拉领先的反对派人物玛丽亚·科里纳·马查多过去曾提出私有化石油行业的想法。这一想法遭到了罗德里格斯女士所属政党的嘲讽，且争议如此之大，以至于马查多女士并未将其作为 2024 年总统竞选的核心部分。

周六，马查多女士的一位知名支持者沃尔特·莫利纳在 X 上表示，“委内瑞拉人一直知道我们的自由是有代价的。”

“如果这个代价是在数十年间支付 650 亿桶石油，那就这样吧，”他说。“但请让它仅仅是这样：我们自由的代价。而不是我们为了维持一个犯罪暴政在事实上掌权而支付的代价——只不过现在这个暴政在向美国下跪。”

本报道由来自加拉加斯的玛丽亚·维多利亚·费尔明、来自委内瑞拉瓦伦西亚的蒂比赛·罗梅罗以及来自布宜诺斯艾利斯的谢拉·乌尔达内塔共同贡献。

普京继续战斗，尽管危机日益加剧

普京，见第1页

民用基础设施和军事生产设施。

但随着他在战争中推进，普京正试图控制国内局势，而目前的国内情况看起来明显比去年糟糕。

在2025年的大部分时间里，俄罗斯军队每月夺取数十平方英里的乌克兰土地。克里姆林宫与特朗普政府的接触，增强了俄罗斯社会内部对战争可能很快结束的希望。俄罗斯的技术官僚们维持着战时经济的运转；俄罗斯互联网持续运行；汽油供应统一；且在边境地区以外的俄罗斯领土上，袭击事件相对可控。

这一切现在都发生了变化。

德国国际与安全事务研究所的俄罗斯分析师雅尼斯·克鲁格（Janis Kluge）表示：“普京目前面临的最大挑战是预期正在发生变化。现在的情况与一年前截然不同。如果你展望未来，如果你是莫斯科的精英，思考这件事将走向何方，你会发现它正朝着错误的方向发展。”

根据总部位于芬兰的安全分析公司 Black Bird Group 的统计数据，自6月1日以来，由于俄军将重点放在乌克兰东部顿涅茨克地区防御最坚固的前线，俄罗斯军队的净领土收益仅为68平方英里（180平方公里）。

战场进展陷入停滞，国内反对声音正在上升。

尽管拉特克利夫（Ratcliffe）访问了莫斯科，但几乎没有迹象表明和平谈判很快会全面重启，这让许多希望冲突得到解决的俄罗斯人感到失望。

克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·S·佩斯科夫（Dmitri S. Peskov）在访问结束后的周五表示：“关于和平谈判的问题，该话题目前处于停滞状态。没有新想法。”

乌克兰的远程打击导致俄罗斯人开始质疑接下来会发生什么。基辅正加速开发自己的弹道导弹，总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基（Volodymyr Zelensky）本月表示，他希望在年底前取得“具体成果”。

除了对俄罗斯领土进一步遭到破坏的焦虑外，许多俄罗斯人还担心在下个月议会选举结束后，可能会出现新一轮征兵以补充军队。

俄罗斯仍在努力解决全国各地加油站的短缺问题，并因其两大电子商务巨头 Wildberries 和 Ozon 的仓库遭到重复攻击而陷入混乱。

与此同时，国内的情绪发生了转变。根据独立机构列瓦达中心（Levada Center）上个月的一项民调，表示支持俄罗斯军队在乌克兰行动的俄罗斯人比例已降至入侵开始以来的最低水平。

对国家经济前景的看法也恶化了，尤其是在提高税收以帮助覆盖战争中失控的支出开始生效之后。

俄罗斯人开始从银行提取更多现金，因为频繁的互联网中断阻碍了数字支付，且一些人试图通过现金交易来规避新的税收负担。

俄罗斯精英阶层发出了一些含蓄的不满信号。

6月，国有银行 Sberbank 的负责人赫尔曼·O·格列夫（Herman O. Gref）表示，俄罗斯人希望战争能尽快结束。莫斯科市长谢尔盖·S·索比亚宁（Sergei S. Sobyanin）警告称，如果像一些强硬派所呼吁的那样，试图将俄罗斯经济完全置于军事体制之下，将会“彻底毁掉这个国家”。

俄罗斯国家开发银行（即 VEB）的首席经济学家安德烈·克莱帕奇（Andrei Klepach）在一次演讲中告诉同行经济学家，战争导致俄罗斯在技术和经济上落后，随后他被解雇。

据《莫斯科时报》（The Moscow Times）率先报道的言论称，他警告说，俄罗斯人处于一种乌克兰将会崩溃的幻想之中，但“它没有崩溃，也不会崩溃”。

在普京的权力机器忙于策划一场全国性的议会选举政治戏码（这是自2022年入侵以来的首次选举）之际，政治异见遭到了镇压。俄罗斯当局十分担心不满情绪会在即将到来的议会选举中爆发，因此，由于反战立场获得了超出预期的支持，该国最高法院禁止了一个边缘政党“苹果党”（Yabloko）参加投票。

乔治·W·布什政府时期的俄罗斯专家托马斯·格雷厄姆（Thomas Graham）表示，战争中的升级循环以及双方感受到的压力，应当促使美国领导一次新的、持续的努力以结束这场冲突。

格雷厄姆先生表示，即便普京计划战斗到冬季，现在也必须与俄罗斯官员铺好基础，以便在春季达成最终协议。

“政治精英中有一个相当大的群体希望尽早结束这场冲突，”格雷厄姆先生说。

而普京则在过去一个月的大部分时间里表示，俄罗斯人必须坚守阵地，团结起来对抗那些他所称的执意要摧毁这个国家的外国对手。

他访问了一个由日本主张主权的遥远争议岛屿，以强调俄罗斯对其主权和领土主张的坚持。

此外，普京出席了执政党“统一俄罗斯党”的代表大会以提供支持，他将国内局势的恶化归结为俄罗斯取得的成功，而这种成功促使乌克兰发起猛烈反击。

今年，在俄罗斯圣彼得堡，一家在线零售商 Wildberries 的仓库遭到乌克兰无人机袭击后浓烟滚滚。零售巨头已多次遭到袭击。

在德黑兰，一名男子在3月被美国-以色列空袭摧毁的建筑中手持伊朗国旗。一位伊朗专家表示：“这场战争确实已经主导了特朗普的总统任期。” 摄影：ARASH KHAMOOSHI / POLARIS 为《纽约时报》拍摄

美国对伊目标仍未实现

德黑兰的一个水果摊。一名智库分析人士表示，华盛顿正押注于通过加强经济绞杀来实现过去半年战争未能达成的目标。

新闻分析 柏林

六个月后，政权依然屹立，普通民众仍是最大的受害者

作者：史蒂文·埃兰格（STEVEN ERLANGER）

这本该是一场速战速决的行动。

然而，在美国和以色列对伊朗发动大规模空袭六个月后，冲突仍在持续。分析人士表示，特朗普政府已将军事战争转变为经济战争，但结果可能并无二致，因为美国在目标上缺乏清晰度，信用度在下降，且面临战略上的失败。

但有一件事始终没有改变：伊朗的普通民众正承受着战争最沉重的打击，他们既是美国的受害者，也是自身领导人的受害者。

在2月 28 日战争爆发的第一天，特朗普总统向伊朗人承诺，“你们获得自由的时间即将到来”。六个月后，他的政府正试图让他们进一步陷入贫困，抱着一线希望，期待他们能反抗这个压制性的军事化政权并将其推翻。

伊朗领导层日益由军方主导，将自身的生存等同于国家的生存，并将普通伊朗人的牺牲视为必要的爱国行为，甚至是殉道。在镇压哪怕最轻微的异议迹象方面，该政权变得愈发残酷。

尽管拥有美国和以色列军队的强大合力，但美国显然未能迫使伊朗屈服于其意志，这一点很难掩饰。伊斯兰共和国不仅幸存了下来，而且实际上控制了霍尔木兹海峡。它加强了在地区的影响力，甚至几个月前还被其轰炸的国家，现在也试图恢复与伊朗的关系。

“这场战争未能实现美国的战略目标，”查塔姆研究所（Chatham House）中东和北非项目主任萨南·瓦基尔（Sanam Vakil）表示。

布鲁金斯学会（Brookings Institution）伊朗专家、外交政策负责人苏珊·马洛尼（Suzanne Maloney）判定这场战争是一次失败。她说：“我们给伊朗造成了很大破坏，但他们反而比以前更强大了。”伊朗的邻国已经意识到，他们必须与这个不会消失的伊斯兰共和国达成一种共存方式（modus vivendi）。

美国在盟友中的信用受损，与此同时，特朗普总统关于避免在中东陷入代价高昂且无休止的战争、以及在国内推动“可负担性”的名声也受到了影响。这使得他解放普通伊朗人的承诺显得空洞。

“这场战争实际上已经主导了特朗普的总统任期，”马洛尼女士说。

“史诗之怒行动”（Operation Epic Fury）始于美以对伊朗的联合突袭，此次袭击杀死了最高领袖阿里·哈梅内伊（Ayatollah Ali Khamenei）及其多名官员，并使其儿子、现任继任者穆吉塔巴（Mojtaba）重伤。

数周的高强度轰炸摧毁了伊朗大部分空军和海军，并严重破坏了其导弹计划。但民众并未起义，领导层也没有分裂。

伊朗军队修复了许多导弹发射器，并袭击了美国在地区内的关键盟友以及防御不足的美国基地。它实际上关闭了霍尔木兹海峡，造成了全球经济动荡。

数千名伊朗人（包括儿童）死亡——具体数字难以核实——另有 18 名美国军人丧生。

最初的“史诗之怒行动”已被美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特（Scott Bessent）上周宣布的“经济弃儿行动”（Operation Economic Outcast）所取代，旨在进一步孤立伊朗并击垮其已严重受损的经济。

“这是一场旨在摧毁伊朗最后所有选项的持续战役，”贝森特先生说。“我们今天开始的战役将随着时间的推移而增强，直到这个政权陷入孤立为止。”

尽管在措辞上大肆渲染“诺曼底登陆”（D-Day）和“柏林墙倒塌”，但贝森特先生并未表明这场经济战将持续多久，将使用何种手段，或旨在实现什么目标。

美国的目标是否再次是让该政权崩溃？还是为了强迫霍尔木兹海峡开放？亦或是为了让一个更加绝望的伊朗回到谈判桌前，从而就海峡问题和伊朗核计划达成一项可持续的解决方案？

“美国的目标没有清晰的表述，”总部位于伦敦的研究机构 Bourse & Bazaar 基金会的埃斯凡迪亚尔·巴特曼格利吉（Esfandyar Batmanghelidj）表示，“但如果你不定义行为改变，那么作为胁迫手段的制裁就会失败。”

伊朗已经成为数千项制裁的目标，因此被认为不太可能因为多增加几项制裁就投降。分析人士表示，更有可能的情况是，该国将及时通过升级对波斯湾船只及美国盟友的袭击来做出回应，而这可能会引发新一轮的美国轰炸。

华盛顿智库国际政策中心（Center for International Policy）的西娜·图西（Sina Toossi）表示，华盛顿正押注于通过加强经济绞杀来实现半年战争未能达成的目标。

华盛顿试图通过要求国际社会遵守其规定来实现这一目标，尽管它与世界上大部分国家的关系正变得更具胁迫性和交易性，且越来越多的国家选择无视特朗普先生的指令。

“伤害伊朗的能力是显而易见的，”图西先生说，“但从痛苦到屈服或崩溃的路径则并非如此。”

国际危机组织（International Crisis Group）的伊朗项目主任阿里·瓦埃兹（Ali Vaez）表示，由于美国的目标不明确，德黑兰方面也同样感到困惑。他说，他们会疑惑：“美国是想要实现崩溃、屈服还是妥协？”

瓦埃兹先生表示，鉴于伊朗领导层将这种绞杀企图视为另一种形式的战争，美国的新战略存在两项风险。如果失败，唯一的选择就是回归军事升级；如果成功，则可能导致伊朗为了突破美国海军封锁而升级行动。

“无论哪种情况，都不会产生该政府似乎想要的结果，即利用制裁作为战争的替代方案，”他说，“这更有可能是另一轮军事战争的序曲。”

这种加强经济绞杀的新战略具有渐进且难以监测的优点，能够降低冲突的温度，这可能在 11 月中期选举前对特朗普先生和共和党人有所帮助，同时承诺胜利其实就在眼前。

但欧洲对外关系委员会（European Council on Foreign Relations）的伊朗专家埃莉·格兰马耶（Ellie Geranmayeh）表示，这种僵局同样具有风险。“白宫内部有一种日益增长的观点，认为你无法与这个伊斯兰共和国打交道，”她说，“这是一个危险时刻，德黑兰和华盛顿都得出结论，认为与对方无法达成任何协议。”

前国务院官员、现就职于欧洲对外关系委员会的杰里米·夏皮罗（Jeremy Shapiro）仍然感到困惑，他不明白为什么特朗普先生没有采取任何可行的退出路径，来结束这场在国内极不受欢迎的战争。他表示，通过推动更多的经济制裁，特朗普政府的官员们“在假装他们仍在战斗，而不是假装他们已经获胜”——或者承认他们已经失败。

夏皮罗先生说，一如既往，伊朗的领导层不会承担代价，承担代价的将是其人民。

热烈的支持为加拿大领导人带来挑战

新闻分析

多伦多

作者：马蒂娜·斯特维斯-格里德内夫（MATINA STEVIS-GRIDNEFF）

加拿大总理马克·卡尼（Mark Carney）在 8 月 22 日向全国发表讲话，就在他退出与美国的贸易谈判几小时后，他邀请 4100 万 名加拿大人进入谈判室。

民众压倒性地支持他的胆识。卡尼先生表示，这种胆识避免了一场“糟糕的交易”，否则加拿大的主权将落在那个想要将加拿大变成美国第 51 个州的人手中。

公众的支持使卡尼先生能够进行激烈的谈判；在他暂停谈判这一国家经济的高风险时刻，这种支持支撑了他。

退出谈判是一种典型的谈判手段，通常用于打破僵局，并为退出方争取优势。其目的是在更好的位置上重新开始。

因此，当重新开启与美国贸易谈判的时机到来时，此前支撑卡尼先生选择的热烈公众支持，有可能变成一个障碍。他需要以某种方式激发加拿大人的务实精神，以及让他们理解如果与美国的贸易战持续下去，国家将面临的经济困境。即便如此，仍然存在一种风险：许多如今感到愤怒且不屈的人，如果重启谈判的处理不够谨慎，可能会觉得自己被误导了。

在特朗普总统周四下午签署一项行政命令，将安大略湖（Lake Ontario）更名为“美国湖”（Lake America），引发全球侧目之前，紧张的美加关系中已经开始出现缓和的第一批迹象。

在周三接受加拿大国家广播公司（CBC）采访时，美国贸易代表杰米森·格里尔（Jamieson Greer）表示，在关于美国在线流媒体平台推广加拿大内容的讨论中，美方提出的要求并非交易的决定性障碍。

次日，在谈判中发挥主导作用的加拿大高级内阁部长多米尼克·勒布朗（Dominic LeBlanc）对格里尔先生的评论表示欢迎，谨慎地尝试重新接触。

ANDREJ IVANOV / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES 总理马克·卡尼得到了加拿大人的支持，但必须激发他们的经济务实精神。

他在一份声明中表示：“我们期待美国就其其他立场提供进一步的建设性澄清，这将为达成一项尊重加拿大主权且互利互惠的贸易协定创造可能性。”

但这或许为时过早。

仅仅几小时后，特朗普先生签署了将安大略湖更名的行政命令，并称加拿大领导层“卑劣”。

双方官员均表示目前没有进行沟通。显然，任何严肃对话的重启都需要一个冷却期，而接下来的几个月将为谈判何时可能重启提供路线图。

加拿大针对美国商品的反制关税定于 9 月 8 日生效，而特朗普先生宣布的另一轮美国征税——将进一步提高针对汽车和钢铁等加拿大商品的现有关税——将于 1 月 1 日开始。11 月的美国中期选举也为卡尼先生提供了机会，他在制定针对美国产品的反制关税时，充分考虑了摇摆州的情况。

作为一名在金融领域积累了丰富经验的谈判专家，卡尼先生不太可能等到加拿大经济出现真实压力迹象时才回到谈判桌前。

接下来的几个月对加拿大人来说将很艰难。对于自去年起就已面临关税的行业——钢铁、铝、软木材、汽车及汽车零部件——这场旷日持久且不断升级的贸易战意味着更多的失业和不确定性。

卡尼先生的政府已经承认了这种痛苦，并宣布了减轻部分影响的计划。与此同时，加拿大经济正显示出良好的生命体征：上周五，其记录的今年第二季度增长率为 3.3%，为 2023 年初以来的最快增速。

此外，加拿大公众在面对特朗普政府时坚持立场的决心似乎十分坚定。

“我长期关注这些数据，人们的态度一直非常明确且坚定：一年多以来，大多数人都认为我们应该采取强硬手段，应该坚持强硬路线，不应做出过多让步，”加拿大非党派民意研究机构安格斯·里德研究所（Angus Reid Institute）负责人沙奇·库尔（Shachi Kurl）表示。

在谈判破裂后公布的民调显示，四分之三的加拿大人支持卡尼先生的举措。

考虑到已经发生的一切，重新回到贸易谈判将要求加拿大人同时面对两个事实：一方面，面对特朗普的关税及其对加拿大的威胁性言论，他们拥有真实且高涨的爱国情怀；另一方面，随着贸易战的深入，他们还需要对国家面临的经济现实保持务实。

如果卡尼先生希望依靠目前获得的广泛支持重新与美国进行谈判，并尝试获得一个比之前放弃的方案更好的协议，那么这种务实态度将是必要的。

民调显示，加拿大人在要求卡尼先生为他们争取权益的同时，也对经济和就业感到担忧。

卡尼先生的谈判立场如何展开，在很大程度上将取决于他在为给贸易谈判再次机会进行辩护时，引导公众舆论的能力。

“他必须回来并表示：‘听着，如果那时那样做是正确的，那么现在这样做也是正确的。请支持我，信任我，’”库尔女士说道。

以反特朗普剧本追求广泛吸引力

佐治亚州，萨凡纳

在一个依然保守的州内关注边境安全。

在佐治亚州各地的集会上，上图的参议员乔恩·奥索夫（Jon Ossoff）对特朗普总统及其席位挑战者、众议员迈克·柯林斯（Mike Collins）发起了一系列猛烈的抨击。 ALEX KENT / 纽约时报

佐治亚州年轻的民主党参议员在保守州寻求连任

作者：罗伯特·吉米森（ROBERT JIMISON）

佐治亚州参议员乔恩·奥索福在进入本轮选举周期时，有充分的理由向政治中间地带靠拢。

他是今年唯一一名在 2024 年由特朗普总统赢得的州内寻求连任的民主党参议员，这使他成为党内最脆弱的现任者之一，且从一开始就是共和党显而易见的目标。

但在保守倾向的南部地区，竞争激烈的全州选举中，民主党人通常会通过温和化投票立场或传递的信息来吸引更广泛的选民，而奥索夫先生并没有这样做。相反，他全身心投入到党内挫败总统在国会议程的努力中，并在竞选活动中加强了对特朗普先生和共和党人的攻击。

这种做法冒着疏远部分联盟成员的风险，而他需要这些人的支持才能在佐治亚州赢得连任，其中包括独立选民和倾向保守的选民。

他的策略似乎在很大程度上基于利用两个因素：一是特朗普先生下滑的支持率——福克斯新闻 6 月的一项民调发现，他在佐治亚州的净支持率为负，56% 的人对他持不利看法；二是获得总统背书的共和党挑战者、众议员迈克·柯林斯，两党战略家均认为柯林斯相对弱势。

奥索夫先生很少接受严苛的质询，也没有提出任何重大政策建议。他严重依赖于传播自己陈述理由的讨喜视频片段，在最近接受《纽约时报》采访时，他在阐述其对这场竞选的理论时，严格遵循一套纪律严明的剧本。

“国家陷入的危机在很大程度上源于对疏忽且低效的公共服务所产生的广泛幻灭感，”他在萨凡纳的竞选活动间隙说道。“特朗普主义利用并加深了这样一种感觉，即宪法、国会和民选官员并不在乎，也无法提供服务。”

这一信息似乎产生了共鸣。距离选举日不到三个月，奥索夫先生在所有主要公共民调中均领先于柯林斯先生，并拥有巨大的筹款优势，这使他处于有利位置，能够保住这个对民主党赢得参议院控制权这一艰巨战斗至关重要的关键席位。

今年夏天，在佐治亚州各地的集会上，他对总统和柯林斯先生发起了一系列猛烈的抨击。

上个月在萨凡纳，他面对一大群支持者表示，柯林斯先生缺乏“在美国参议院任职的判断力和正直”，并称其为特朗普的“傀儡”。本月在亚特兰大，他表示特朗普先生及其亲信——他称之为“海湖庄园黑手党”的一群人——已将“美国的腐败推向了惊人的新高度”，这句话他多次使用。他称特朗普先生为“逃避兵役的骗子总统”，并且最近在一段抨击特朗普“不想履行”总统职责的言论中提到了其最忠实的助手娜塔莉·哈普（Natalie Harp）的名字，从而引发了总统的愤怒。

在此过程中，他对反特朗普论点的坚持——他如此一致地重复其中一些观点，以至于有时听起来几乎像机器人——使 39 岁的奥索夫（参议院最年轻成员）成为了社交媒体上的红人。在其他民主党人难以围绕一个清晰的信息凝聚在一起之时，这引发了关于他 2028 年总统竞选潜力地猜测，而他对此拒绝发表评论。

奥索夫先生在一个特朗普先生不到两年前赢得的州仍面临挑战。59岁的柯林斯先生是前佐治亚州众议员麦克·柯林斯的儿子，他将重点放在了激发共和党基本盘激情的议题上——非法移民、跨性别运动员、犯罪以及围绕2020年大选的不满——同时采取了一种奥索夫先生一直避之不及的激进网络形象。

柯林斯先生起草了一项立法，要求被指控犯罪的非法入境移民必须被拘留以待遣返。该法案以莱肯·赖利命名，她是一名22岁的护理专业学生，于2024年在佐治亚大学校园内被谋杀；该法案成为特朗普先生在第二任期内签署生效的第一项法案。（奥索夫先生和其他11名参议院民主党人在去年1月投票支持该立法。）

在华盛顿，奥索夫先生并未在选举年采取传统的向中间立场靠拢的策略。去年，他加入民主党阵营，投票支持关闭政府——并反对多次重启政府的尝试——试图以此迫使共和党延长即将到期的医疗

“特朗普主义利用并加深了这样一种感觉，即宪法、国会以及民选官员并不在乎，也无法提供服务。”

医疗补贴。今年，作为民主党试图对联邦移民执法人员的手段施加新限制但最终失败的尝试的一部分，他再次这样做了。

随着他的政党逐渐放弃对以色列的毫无保留支持，奥索夫先生也变得愈发挑剔；他多次投票（包括今年两次）限制或阻止美国向这个犹太国家转移部分武器。但上周，他与左翼主播哈桑·皮克尔（Hasan Piker）产生了分歧，表示他“毫无保留地拒绝”皮克尔先生的一番言论，后者警告称，对以色列的支持可能会引发针对美国犹太人的暴力行为。

上个月，他在质询特朗普先生提名领导国家情报部门的杰伊·克莱顿（Jay Clayton）时，因在确认听证会上如此激烈地追问，以至于克莱顿先生一度哑口无言，从而引起了极大的关注。在接受《纽约时报》采访时，奥索夫先生——他已将在这种场合多次重复同一个问题作为标准做法——表示他为这类时刻做了细致的准备。

“我非常满意能让那些滥用权力的人陷入窘境，并通过有效的调查和审问，强迫他们为自己的所作所为负责，”奥索夫先生说道。

但在最近几个月里，这位曾任国会助手和纪录片公司高管的参议员，也积极地争取共和党支持者的支持。尽管他经常对总统发起言语攻击，但他似乎赢得了一些人的认可。

在佐治亚州东北部山麓地带一个居民不足 10,000 人的城市托科亚（Toccoa），市长盖尔·弗莱（Gail Fry）——一名终身共和党人，在六年前奥索夫先生参选时曾投票反对他——现在支持这位参议员。

“与我们联系过的任何其他办公室相比，我们从奥索夫参议员那里得到了更多的支持，”她在采访中说道，并提到他为更换陈旧的天然气基础设施争取到了一笔 $8.400 万 的联邦拨款。“他会给我们打电话问：‘你们需要什么？’”

其他当地共和党官员，包括瓦尔多斯塔（Valdosta）市长斯科特·詹姆斯·马特森（Scott James Matheson）和蒂夫顿（Tifton）市长朱莉·史密斯（Julie Smith），也对奥索夫先生表示支持。

在采访中，奥索夫先生表示，糟糕的公共服务开启了特朗普时代，而选民会因为他专注于基础工作而给予他回报。

“全州成千上万的人都有我的手机号码，”他说。“他们知道，无论政治立场如何，我都会竭尽全力为他们提供服务。”

他否认了这样一种观点，即他对总统的严厉批评——在采访中，他称特朗普先生为“一个耻辱”，称其政府为“一种猥亵”——会疏远他获胜所需的选民。他认为，在必要时他仍然能够与共和党人合作。

“我的工作很大一部分是具备立法技巧以及跨党派的关系，从而为本州争取结果，”奥索夫先生说。“我不认为这两者之间存在冲突。”

在选举年，这是一种难以把握的平衡。由于柯林斯先生正试图在执法等问题上与奥索夫先生形成鲜明对比，党派紧张局势正处于高位。

在本月的一次竞选活动中，柯林斯先生表示，在他和奥索夫先生之间做出选择，就是“常识与共产主义疯狂”之间的选择。

在奥古斯塔（Augusta）面对支持者人群时，他称奥索夫先生为“信托基金孩子”，将其描绘成与该州深厚的保守价值观脱节，指责这位参议员投票“让边境完全开放”，投票支持“导致了所有这些失控通货膨胀”的拜登时代国内政策法案，以及支持“允许男性参加女子体育运动”的立法。

（奥索夫先生去年与所属政党一起投票，否决了共和党起草的旨在禁止跨性别女性和女孩加入指定为女学生的学校体育队的立法。）

至于奥索夫先生，他则攻击柯林斯先生与一些传播种族主义和反犹太主义材料、并与知名偏见人士交往的助手们有联系。《华盛顿邮报》上周报道称，一名前工作人员曾发布过一张万字旗图片，以及一张他似乎穿着三K党服装的照片。（在给《纽约时报》的一份声明中，柯林斯先生的一位发言人表示，他“毫不含糊地谴责”这些帖子。）这位共和党人上个月在有报道称其幕僚长曾与白人至上主义者尼克·富恩特斯（Nick Fuentes）和理查德·斯宾塞（Richard Spencer）沟通后，更换了其幕僚长。

奥索夫先生在竞选中的强势地位、强大的筹款能力，以及与特朗普政府官员日益激烈的对抗，极大地推高了外界对其总统前景的猜测，而他一直固执地回避这一话题。

“我对 2028 年竞选总统毫无兴趣，坦白说，我现在对 2028 年的‘幻想足球’（指政治猜测游戏）也毫无兴趣，”奥索夫先生在最近接受 MS NOW 采访时表示。

柯林斯先生试图利用这些关于总统职位的议论，将奥索夫先生描绘成一个脱离本州实际的人。

“乔恩·奥索夫将佐治亚州仅仅视为一块垫脚石，并且为了讨好民主党内激进的埃尔-赛义德（El-Sayed）和哈桑·派克（Hasan Piker）派系而抛弃了我们的州，”柯林斯先生的发言人迈耶·西格弗里德（Meyer Siegfried）说道。他指的是密歇根州民主党进步派的参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德博士（Dr. Abdul El-Sayed）。

然而，一些资深的共和党人正试图撇开奥索夫先生的党派身份来看待他。

加里·保克（Gary Paulk）是南佐治亚州一个深度共和党社区——雷（Wray）的一名第五代圆叶葡萄农。他曾支持特朗普先生，并计划在今年秋天投票给共和党州长候选人里克·杰克逊（Rick Jackson）。

但在参议员选举中，保克先生计划支持奥索夫先生。

他在堕胎等诸多问题上与这位民主党人不一致，但保克先生切实感受到了特朗普先生许多政策举措带来的负面影响——包括提高了其成本的关税，以及他抱怨称因缺乏采摘工人而导致作物腐烂的移民打击行动，还有对农村地区（尤其是像他所在的地区）打击尤为严重的医疗保健削减。

“你得挑选出最重要的部分，然后选择最合适的人，”他说。“你永远找不到一个在所有方面都完全符合你要求的人。”

为了打破镇议会的平局，他们每人抽了一张扑克牌

亚利桑那州，吉拉本德

左图，亚利桑那州吉拉本德镇的临时镇书记帕特里夏·里格斯（Patricia Riggs，右）在与竞争对手雅典娜·格雷罗（Athena Guerrero）进行的高牌抽签游戏后，宣布赫苏斯·鲁巴尔卡瓦（Jesus Rubalcava，中）赢得镇议会席位。上图为吉拉本德的市中心。 摄影：安娜·瓦茨（ANNA WATTS）为《纽约时报》拍摄

亚利桑那州的一项旧法律规定，使用随机游戏来决定选举获胜者

作者：里斯·塞博特（REIS THEBAULT）

上周，在一个曾经的前哨阵地，发生了一场老式西部片风格的僵局。

在亚利桑那州吉拉本德镇的镇议会选举中，两名候选人在7月的选举中获得了相同的票数，每人 67 票。一项拥有百年历史的州法律规定，必须通过随机游戏来打破平局。

在这场决斗中，没有枪战，但有“抽签”——不是从枪套中拔枪，而是从一副洗好的扑克牌中抽牌。抽到更高点数牌的希望者将获得该席位。

在选举信任度日益下降，且该州成为投票相关阴谋论温床的时代，吉拉本德的领导人们表示，他们深知这场于上周二举行的关键平局决胜战需要透明且经过精心策划。

“考虑到目前发生的一切，你希望它尽可能公开，”负责监督选举的镇书记帕特里夏·里格斯说道。

在这个距离菲尼克斯西南 50 英里（80 公里）、拥有 1,800 人的社区中，这种僵局绝非首次通过随机方式决定。在一个拥有数万个民选地方政府且政治分歧严重的国家，近几十年的选举曾通过扑克游戏、抽签决定，而本月早些时候在夏威夷，则是将名字塞进塑料蛋中并从编织篮里抽取。

但吉拉本德的这次平局可能是首次涉及一名在多年前处于完全相同境地的候选人。赫苏斯·鲁巴尔卡瓦在 2014 年与一名对手不分胜负，最终通过抛一枚 $1 硬币赢得了他的首个议会任期。

在本月早些时候经过法院认证的重新计票确认他与新人雅典娜·格雷罗陷入僵局后，里格斯女士告知鲁巴尔卡瓦先生，他的选举命运将再次取决于运气。

这让他变得幸运还是不幸？身为高中教师和前州议员的鲁巴尔卡瓦先生并不确定。

“我简直不敢相信，”他说，“我无法理解这件事。”

由里格斯女士和其他镇政府官员决定这场“决胜局”采取何种形式。亚利桑那州法律仅规定平局应“通过抽签”打破。他们排除了石头剪刀布，也决定不抽弹珠或抽签。

“我们觉得那样有点无聊，”里格斯女士说。

他们决定，抽高牌会更令人兴奋，而且公众很容易理解和跟进。

格雷罗女士起初很谨慎。“我不是那种好赌的人，”她说。

但她足够聪明，知道要祈祷抽到一张 A。在水处理厂工作的格雷罗女士长期关注政治，她将镇议会视为一个跳板。她说，最终她希望成为市长。

吉拉本德曾是 19 世纪著名的驿马车线上的重要站点，现在是一个制造业和农业城镇，这里的当地政治不可避免地带有个人色彩。在分别接受采访时，格雷罗女士和鲁巴尔卡瓦先生都表示，他们对对方“只有爱”。

两人都没有进行激进的竞选，而这场扣人心弦的对决提醒人们，每一票都至关重要。鲁巴尔卡瓦先生说，他的母亲、兄弟和侄女都没有投票。

他们并非个例。在镇上大约 600 名登记选民中，只有不到 200 人参加了 7 月的选举。

里格斯女士花了三周时间精心筹划周二的决胜局，期间咨询了律师和选举专家。她制定了一份包含 19 个步骤的清单，详细记录了抽签的每一个环节，并写了一份在主持抽签时阅读的剧本。

周二上午，她从嫂子那里借了一个机械洗牌机，并在镇上的 Dollar General 商店买了两副扑克牌，其中一副用于练习。那天晚上，两名候选人走到学校建筑内的一张桌子旁，在少数几位居民和现任议会议员面前紧张地相视而笑。

里格斯女士宣布了规则，拆开并铺开一副新扑克牌，让格雷罗女士和鲁巴尔卡瓦先生检查。她洗完牌后将牌堆交给格雷罗女士，由后者切牌。随后，鲁巴尔卡瓦先生再次切牌。

候选人们被提醒，如果他们抽到相同的数字——虽然这种概率极低——黑桃将胜过其他花色。

里格斯女士先抽出了格雷罗女士的牌，是一张梅花 3。这位候选人叹了口气。

接着，里格斯女士翻开了鲁巴尔卡瓦先生的牌。

又是 3，再次平局。观众席上发出了惊呼。鲁巴尔卡瓦先生不敢相信自己的眼睛。“这真的发生了吗？”他心想。

但他的 3 是黑桃，这让鲁巴尔卡瓦先生第二次获得了获胜的机会。两名候选人笑着握了手。

“谁能想到呢？”震惊的里格斯女士对在场的人说。

格雷罗女士在周三表示，她计划再次竞选，并承诺将在“几年后强势回归”。

里格斯女士说她很高兴听到这个消息，随后补充道：“但愿不要再出现平局。”

Church Brothers Farms 自 1999 年起就在加利福尼亚州的萨利纳斯谷种植农产品。生菜销量在 7 月开始下降，但最近已开始回升。 摄影：MINH CONNORS 为《纽约时报》拍摄

世界的“沙拉碗”正在枯萎

加利福尼亚州，萨利纳斯

加州生菜农户虽与疫情无关，但被迫将数百万颗生菜翻耕入土

作者：苏米亚·卡拉曼格拉（SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA）

在 Church Brothers Farms 的一个生产设施内，传送带上隆隆作响，堆满了巨大的切碎罗马生菜和红卷心菜。今年夏天，该公司削减了工时并解雇了员工。位于加州圣胡安包蒂斯塔（San Juan Bautista）、靠近萨利纳斯谷（Salinas Valley）农业核心地带的这家工厂中，部分装配线在上周完全停止运行。

在一次严重的环孢子虫病（cyclosporiasis，一种导致严重腹泻的疾病）爆发后，全美的新鲜农产品销量出现下滑。据联邦卫生官员称，目前已有超过 17,000 人染病，两人死亡。

最大规模的病例集群与在墨西哥种植的冰山生菜有关，联邦官员并未将萨利纳斯谷的绿叶蔬菜列入涉事范围。然而，Church Brothers 加工厂运营副总裁雷蒙德·冈萨雷斯（Raymond Gonzales）表示，该地区生菜的需求量依然骤减。

“尽管所有这些产品都来自美国，”冈萨雷斯先生一边说着，一边用戴着手套的手指向在冷水中翻滚的淡绿色叶片，“但在消费者看来，这统统就是‘生菜’。”

与许多美国农民一样，Church Brothers 在最近几周做出了一个艰难的决定：放弃健康的作物。如果没有市场消化这些农产品，将绿叶蔬菜用于土地回肥，往往比支付收获的人工成本在财务上更合理。

该公司首席运营官杰夫·丘奇（Jeff Church）表示，Church Brothers 因丢弃绿叶蔬菜而损失了数十万美元。他估计，随着需求下降，在过去的六周里，该公司有额外的 390 万 颗生菜被重新翻入土壤。

“我们实在没法利用它们，”54 岁的丘奇先生说道。

根据美国农业部的运输数据，今年夏天美国用于销售的罗马生菜和冰山生菜产量处于 25 年来的最低水平。数据显示，尽管可供销售的数量如此之少，但生菜的批发价格仍维持在盈亏平衡点。

经济影响最严重的地方莫过于萨利纳斯谷。这个位于旧金山南部的农业区被营销人员长期称为“世界沙拉碗”。

该地区在全国范围内最出名的地方，或许是约翰·斯坦贝克（John Steinbeck）以此处为背景的小说，如《鼠标与人》和《伊甸东》。但几代以来，萨利纳斯谷也因其温和的气候和肥沃的土壤而备受推崇，这使其能够种植草莓、西兰花，并在夏季供应全美 70% 的生菜。

因此，农产品恐慌并非新鲜事。在 2006 年一次致命的大肠杆菌爆发后，菠菜的销量用了好几年才恢复。但关于美国历史上最大规模环孢子虫（一种存在于人类粪便中的寄生虫）爆发源头的质疑，似乎让消费者变得格外谨慎，他们开始避开浆果以及几种从未与此次爆发产生关联的新鲜蔬菜。

美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）仅确认了一个来源——由农产品巨头泰勒农场（Taylor Farms）在墨西哥种植的冰山生菜。但卫生官员表示，他们正在调查至少其他六个病例集群，其来源尚未公开。

“甚至有一位记者告诉我，他们不打算吃凯撒沙拉了，”萨利纳斯蒙特雷县农局执行主任诺姆·格鲁特（Norm Groot）说道。他指出，通常用于制作凯撒沙拉的罗马生菜从未与这种寄生虫产生联系。

在 Church Brothers 公司，这家自 1999 年起就在萨利纳斯谷（Salinas Valley）种植农产品的大型家族企业，生菜销量在 7 月开始下降，大约就在美国疾控中心（C.D.C.）宣布环孢子菌（cyclospora）与塔可贝尔（Taco Bell）生菜之间存在关联之时。而涉事公司 Taylor Farms 的生菜产自墨西哥，但其总部位于萨利纳斯，这在消费者的心中将此次疫情与该山谷联系在了一起，情况因此变得更加糟糕。

Church 先生表示，随着疫情开始消退，销量已开始回升。

在一次导致严重腹泻的环孢子菌病大规模爆发后，购物者对生菜依然心存顾虑。与许多其他美国农场一样，Church Brothers 在最近几周不得不做出一个艰难的决定：放弃健康的作物。

然而，他现在正苦于决定未来几个月应该种植多少。

上周，身着背心的 Church 先生在萨利纳斯的晨雾中沉思着这笔账。他看着工人们在收获结球生菜时，先用刀剥掉外叶，然后用塑料膜将生菜球包裹起来，准备卖给沃尔玛（Walmart）。

如果当地农民种植太少，冬季会出现生菜短缺。但如果 Church 先生种植常规数量，他可能再次被迫进行农民所称的“圆盘耕作”（discing）——即派遣一台装有钢制圆盘刀片的拖拉机，将健康的农产品切碎并翻回土壤中。

加州大学戴维斯分校（University of California, Davis）的农业经济学教授丹尼尔·萨姆纳（Daniel Sumner）表示，鉴于社交媒体信息的传播速度之快以及人们对机构信任度的普遍缺失，目前尚不清楚消费者会避开叶菜类蔬菜多久。

就在上周，农民们对一个关于“最恐怖万圣节装扮”的迷因（meme）感到愤怒，该迷因的内容是：Taylor Farms 的切碎结球生菜。《华盛顿邮报》上周发表的一篇评论文章则主张，美国人应该永久停止食用生菜。

“这是一个非常艰难的时刻，”代表加利福尼亚州及其他西部州农产品农民的农业贸易协会——西部种植者协会（Western Growers）总裁兼首席执行官戴夫·普格利亚（Dave Puglia）说道，“有大量非常优质、新鲜的农产品正被翻回地里。”

普格利亚先生表示，此次疫情导致的销量下降幅度接近 30%，高于近期其他疾病爆发带来的影响。

他表示，虽然美国拥有非常安全的食品供应体系，但生菜本身存在固有风险，因为它主要在户外生长且生吃。叶菜类蔬菜是美国食源性疾病的主要来源之一。

在萨利纳斯这座拥有 159,000 名居民的城市里，主街两旁林立着带有装饰艺术风格（Art Deco）入口的砖砌建筑，公共垃圾桶上绘有手绘的番茄和生菜球。在市中心，一座最高建筑之一耸立在国家斯坦贝克中心（National Steinbeck Center）对面，那是当地主要雇主 Taylor Farms 的总部。

萨利纳斯市长丹尼斯·多诺休（Dennis Donohue）表示，他正在关注销售税收入等当地经济指标，以观察农产品销售下滑最终将如何影响城市财政。但多诺休先生——他此前经营过一家小型特种蔬菜公司——表示，起伏是农业经营的常态。

至于食用生菜，即使是萨利纳斯的顾客依然保持警惕。

梅拉妮·沃尔特里普（Melanie Waltrip）共同经营着一家拥有 50 年历史的牛排馆 Smalley's Roundup Restaurant，她表示，她的服务员仍在回答关于食用绿叶沙拉是否安全的询问。

但 46 岁的杰夫·比克迈尔（Jeff Birkemeier）共同经营着萨利纳斯市中心的 Amapola Kitchen，他表示，他最受欢迎的菜单项——用罗马生菜制作的中式鸡肉沙拉——依然是畅销产品。他说，在咖啡馆对面工作的 Taylor Farms 员工经常来这里吃午餐。

“我的顾客通常是在这种农业重镇长大的人，他们对此类事情比较淡定，”他说。

这次过山车的旋转并非所有人都在尖叫

加利福尼亚州，托卢卡湖

环球影城在洛杉矶的新项目激怒了邻居：它没有考虑到人的分量

作者：布鲁克斯·巴恩斯（BROOKS BARNES）

经过三年的艰苦努力，好莱坞环球影城最近完成了一项看似不可能的壮举：它建造了一座时速 72 英里、带有旋转“速度与激情”赛车的环形过山车——而且几乎没有声音。

环球影城有充分的理由对此执迷。住宅区紧邻主题公园，其自身的电影制片厂也与其相邻运行。为了让该项目静音，环球影城甚至在 4,100 英尺（1250 米）的轨道上填充了豌豆石，以减轻产生过山车轰鸣声的震动。

上个月开始的无乘客测试时，附近托卢卡湖的居民们感到非常高兴，其中几位称该景点“安静如耳语”。

随后，乘客来了。

根据对十几位房主的采访，现在每隔 30 秒左右，连续 10 个小时，空气中就充满了那些担心自己处于致命危险中的人类发出的声音。

“尖叫声——令人毛骨悚然的尖叫声，”在好莱坞环球影城附近住了 25 年的克雷格·斯特朗（Craig Strong）说道。“有些人即使关上窗户，在家里也能听到。”

一位愤怒的居民表示，即使摘掉助听器，她仍然能听到尖叫声。另一位居民则担心她的生计：她在家里教授冥想。

“我们习惯了主题公园的一些噪音，但尖叫声是新出现的，而且根本无法忽视，”在附近住了 38 年的朱迪思·安吉尔（Judith Angel）说。“我们的大脑天生会对尖叫做出反应。这是生物本能。”

邻居们只有一个要求：环球影城必须想办法捂住那些非常快乐的顾客的嘴。

人们很容易将此视为美国漫长的社区噪音纠纷史中的又一个章节。但这一困境凸显了环球影城长期面临的挑战——当住宅和运行中的电影制片厂几乎紧挨着一个全球最繁忙的主题公园时，你该如何对其进行扩建？

《速度与激情：好莱坞漂移》（Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift）本应证明环球影城已经找到了克服这些限制的方法。

拥有该公园的康卡斯特（Comcast）一直寄希望于“好莱坞漂移”能提高入园人数，并与南边不断扩张的迪士尼乐园竞争。根据主题娱乐协会（Themed Entertainment Association）的数据，好莱坞环球影城在 2024, 吸引了 880 万 游客，比 2023, 下降了 10%，该协会尚未公布 2025 年的数据。

康卡斯特首席财务官杰森·阿姆斯特朗（Jason Armstrong）在 7 月告诉分析师，业务有所改善，“尽管我们预计在新的‘速度与激情’过山车开放之前，不会有更显著的改善。”环球影城拒绝透露该项目的成本。主题公园分析师表示，这种规模和复杂程度的景点通常成本在 2亿美元 或更多。

据环球影城称，本月“好莱坞漂移”仍处于“技术排演”阶段，除了公司自 2 月以来一直说的“夏季”之外，没有公布具体的开放日期。环球影城拒绝安排高管接受采访，但在给社区团体的电子邮件中表示，音频测量显示该项目的“运行符合声音条例要求”。

环球影城补充说，尽管如此，它仍在“探索进一步降低相邻社区所感受到的噪音水平的额外措施”。工人已经开始扩建隔音墙。环球影城还表示，在测试期间，过山车将在晚上 7 点停止运行；在万圣节惊魂夜期间，公园最晚开放至凌晨 2 点，而过山车将在晚上 10 点停止运行。

环球影城从一开始就考虑到了尖叫声。通过计算机建模，项目设计师绘制了最可能出现尖叫的位置，并加入了防御措施。环球影城表示，“好莱坞漂移”在建造时安装了两个“尖叫屏”，这是一种类似半管状的玻璃屏蔽罩，旨在“在声源处封锁声音”。

此外，还有一道 940 英尺长的隔音墙，由 Acoustiblok 制成，这是一种用于机场附近建筑隔音的高密度橡胶材料。

过山车的旋转车厢也被利用了起来：环球影城表示，这些车厢经过编程，在“关键尖叫时刻”会将乘客的嘴部转向远离附近住宅的方向。

环球影城甚至在过山车场地附近安装了扬声器，播放佛罗里达州一个公园里过山车的录音。工程师们希望研究声音是如何沿着陡峭的山坡传播的。

然而，在计算机模型中有效的方法，在面对真实的肺部（尖叫）时，证明效果较差。

现在，居民们也开始制造自己的“噪音”，向民选官员发送大量投诉，并要求作为与市政厅沟通渠道的社区委员会介入。一个联盟表示，他们已经聘请了自己的声音顾问。另一个联盟则表示，他们已经联系了律师事务所，以了解代理费用。

“我觉得这件事短期内不会结束，”在环球影城旁边住了 28 年的伦纳德·R·加纳（Leonard R. Garner）说道。

托卢卡湖（Toluca Lake）开发于 20 世纪 20 年代，成为了好莱坞的避风港，吸引了像贝蒂·戴维斯（Bette Davis）这样的明星和像罗伊·O·迪士尼（Roy O. Disney）这样的巨头。这种与娱乐业的联系一直延续至今：演员雷·罗马诺（Ray Romano）和电台排行榜之王里克·迪斯（Rick Dees）都在此定居。托卢卡湖还拥有湖畔高尔夫俱乐部（Lakeside Golf Club），这是一个极高端的私人球场。

“我们习惯了主题公园的一些噪音，但这种尖叫声是全新的，而且根本无法屏蔽。”

随着当地新闻媒体报道这些噪音投诉，社交媒体上不出所料地出现了各种关于“富人抱怨”的议论。但居民们并不认同将他们的社区刻画成一个由特权阶层和权贵组成的镀金之境。

“这影响到了所有收入水平的人——我们这里有各种类型的住房，”里克之子凯文·迪斯（Kevin Dees）说道，他在托卢卡湖长大，现在在那里从事房地产销售。“收入水平与你是否应该在自己家中享有安静毫无关系。”

当主题公园没有邻居时，通常会是更简单的邻居。佛罗里达州的迪士尼世界拥有 25,000 英亩（10,000 公顷）的独立土地。多莉伍德（Dollywood）则占据了田纳西州东部的一个林谷。

相比之下，好莱坞环球影城被挤在洛杉矶市中心一个山坡的多个层级之间。它最初并非作为主题公园而建立，而是源于环球影业从 1964 年起在其电影制片厂提供的参观之旅。几十年来，环球影城增加的游乐设施大多是室内设施或规模相对较小的设施。

“好莱坞漂移”（Hollywood Drift）则是一个剧烈的转变——它是环球影城在全球范围内最激进的过山车，主题公园专家表示，这也是今年最受期待的新项目。

挑战在于如何使其与周围社区和平共处。居民们提出了各种想法，从给过山车车厢加顶棚到使用消音头盔。在新冠疫情期间，日本的一家公园出于对呼吸道飞沫的担忧，要求游客“请在心中尖叫”。

环球影城有时会像对待即将开放的景点那样，邀请邻居前来试乘。73 岁的加纳先生接受了邀请。“在它加速冲上山坡然后俯冲的那一刻，你会觉得整个人都要从座位上飞出去了，”他给一名记者发短信道。他尖叫了吗？

他尖叫道：“太棒了！”

好莱坞环球影城的《速度与激情：好莱坞漂移》过山车。主题公园分析师表示，这种规模和复杂程度的景点通常耗资 2亿美元 或更多。

美联储主席在利率问题上面临“两难局面”

怀俄明州杰克逊

图中中心人物为美国联邦储备系统（美联储）主席凯文·沃什，出席周五在怀俄明州杰克逊举行的年度会议。他明确表示，美联储的重点是应对通货膨胀。 NATALIE BEHRING / GETTY IMAGES

凯文·沃什必须权衡通胀压力与特朗普的预期

作者：科尔比·史密斯（COLBY SMITH）

凯文·M·沃什在首次以美国联邦储备系统（美联储）主席身份出席在怀俄明州杰克逊举行的年度会议时，跨过了一个关键门槛。

他就经济现状阐述了迄今为止最全面的观点。在上个月发出混乱信号后，他澄清了央行致力于将通胀率降低至 2% 目标的决心。

他还承认，美联储可能仍有“工作要做”才能兑现这一承诺，暗示如果价格压力不缓解，美联储准备提高利率。

但沃什先生面前的道路却充满艰险。

金融市场目前认为，在 9 月 15-16 日的下一次央行会议上，加息 25 个基点（0.25%）的可能性较大，这让沃什先生在是否采取行动方面面临艰难抉择。

如果再一个月出现温和的通胀数据，将减轻他在 9 月加息的压力。但正如 7 月上一次会议引发的市场反弹所表明的，他必须解释，在不能容忍高通胀的情况下，采取不作为如何能与其立场相一致。

下个月加息将有助于支撑沃什先生通胀承诺的严肃性。然而，在期中选举前夕实施加息，将立即导致其与特朗普政府发生正面冲突。

“他面临着多方面的压力，”彼得森国际经济研究所高级研究员、前国际货币基金组织首席经济学家莫里斯·奥布斯特费尔德（Maurice Obstfeld）上周在会议期间表示，“这是一个两难局面。”

语调的转变

沃什先生在周五的发言听起来像美联储的许多同行政策制定者一样，在通胀率连续五年超过目标且抑制进度缓慢后，已变得失去耐心。他不仅否认了今年夏天显示价格压力缓解的数据，还暗示对于一个一直保持强劲增长的经济体来说，并没有太多的约束。他还明确表示，在劳动力市场稳定的情况下，美联储的重点主要是应对通货膨胀。

正是这些观点促使圣路易斯联邦储备银行行长阿尔伯托·G·穆萨莱姆（Alberto G. Musalem）在上个月支持加息。穆萨莱姆先生不是今年政策制定委员会的投票成员，因此他不是正式反对 7 月维持利率不变决定的三个人之一。

穆萨莱姆先生在一次采访中认可了沃什先生周五传递的信息，尤其是他在需要采取某些紧缩措施之前，为通胀回落设定了“水平和时间感”。

穆萨莱姆先生表示，他在进入 9 月会议前保持“非常开放的态度”，并传达出加息以压制通胀具有充分的理由。

鉴于他认为“供应端以及非常重要的持续需求力量都在将通胀推高至 2% 以上，我相信如果没有一些对通胀的约束，18 个月后通胀显著高于目标的概率，将高于我们届时能够收敛至目标的概率”，他说道。

穆萨莱姆先生指出，虽然通胀预期并未表明市场对美联储实现 2% 目标的承诺失去信心，但这种信心取决于美联储是否能适当地调整其政策设置。

“如果我们不顾数据而推迟采取行动，预期可能会因此受到影响，”他说。“目前，通胀预期非常稳固，因为同样的市场预期我们在接下来的九个月左右将加息约 75 个基点。”

该观点认为，加息 0.75 个百分点将确保经济活动受到一定的下行压力，从而在一定程度上帮助消除价格压力。

放弃前瞻性指引

沃什先生在周五的演讲中发出了一项呼吁，在场的熟悉他的人表示，公众应当留意这一点。“只要别把它叫作‘前瞻性指引’就行，”这位主席在概述演讲内容时打趣道。

然而，尽管沃什先生为自己留有了回旋余地，市场上的许多人仍迅速将其解读为正是如此。

“他表达得非常清楚：他并没有告诉我们他在下次会议上将怎么做，”曾在英格兰银行任职、现就职于麻省理工学院的克里斯汀·福布斯（Kristin Forbes）表示。尽管如此，福布斯女士承认，在面对市场将其解读为指引的情况下，沃什先生处于一个“棘手的境地”。

“他可能会感到有压力去证实人们的说法，从而再次陷入那个陷阱；或者他可能会感到有压力不去证实人们的说法，以表明此类关于经济的演讲中并不包含指引，”福布斯女士说。“我认为他拥有足够的信誉，并且足够希望做正确的事，因此他不会仅仅为了给市场一个教训而做出决定。”

芝加哥联储主席奥斯坦·D·古尔斯比（Austan D. Goolsbee）在一次采访中表示，正确的决定取决于数据是否显示，由伊朗战争和特朗普总统的关税部分引起的最新一轮通胀是具有持续性的，还是仅仅是消费者价格水平的一次性上涨。

“从理论上讲，等待的理由应该是，如果这种通胀能够自行消失，那么你很容易引发一场不必要的经济衰退，”古尔斯比先生说。

他表示，到目前为止，通胀数据仍然“模糊”，并指出服务业的物价压力依然高企。古尔斯比先生补充道，接近 0.3 percent 的月度通胀读数“远未达到目标”。“这不能证明我们正回向 2 percent 的目标迈进。”

7 月，在剔除波动较大的食品和能源价格后，美联储首选的通胀衡量指标以 0.246 percent 的未四舍五入月度增速上涨。

波士顿联储主席苏珊·C·柯林斯（Susan C. Collins）在一次采访中也承认通胀数据“错综复杂”，暗示如果短期内没有明显改善，提高利率并非板上钉钉，但仍是一个现实的可能性。

她反驳了这样一种观点，即她心中有一个月度通胀增速的阈值，一旦达到该阈值就会促使她向某个方向做出决定。

“政策应当基于经济的轨迹。在我看来，将上个月通胀的某个特定数字选作阈值，虽然这确实是我们掌握的重要信息之一，但它绝不是我尝试理解方向时唯一权衡的因素，”她说。

“如果我们看到了进展，且在政策的多个不同维度上存在足够的不确定性，我认为在这种背景下，主张维持利率不变是一个完全一致且深思熟虑的论点。”

基于美联储内部观点的分布情况，沃什先生将有影响力去解决 9 月份这场可能非常胶着的抉择。

曾在 2006 至 2010 年（当时沃什先生担任理事）担任美联储副主席的唐纳德·科恩（Donald Kohn）表示，如果定于 Sept. 11, 发布的下一份消费者价格指数报告数据疲软，那么现在已经提供了思考框架的沃什先生，可以在 9 月份“理直气壮地”站出来，证明维持利率不变是合理的。

引发对峙

提高利率将使沃什先生立即与特朗普先生产生分歧，而后者一直竭尽全力向美联储施压以降低利率。特朗普先生在经过一套复杂的筛选过程后亲手挑选了沃什先生担任此职，该过程的核心在于寻找一个能够支持其观点的人。

本月，当美国长期政府债券收益率大幅上升时，财政部长斯科特·贝森特采取了出人意料的干预措施，这充分展现了政府对低利率的渴望。

美联储的政策制定者在官方层面坚称，这些干预措施并未增加他们的工作难度，但有理由认为这产生了一些负面影响。

首先，贝森特先生的行为模糊了美联储原本可以从财政部收益率水平中获取的经济信号，而这些收益率反映了政策不确定性的增加、对国家债务负担的担忧以及更高的增长预期等因素。

此外，贝森特先生明确表示将采取措施压低借贷成本，这造成了一种局面，使得收益率更有可能低于其自然状态。

如果这导致整体金融环境的限制性降低，那么控制通货膨胀可能会变得更加困难。

根据美联储内部的观点分布，沃什先生将有影响力来决定 9 月份可能出现的僵持局面。

“凡是涉及财政政策或债务管理的事务，财政部的行为都会影响市场和经济，进而影响美联储的行为，反之亦然，”曾在纽约联储担任高级官员、现就职于哥伦比亚大学的帕特里夏·莫瑟（Patricia Mosser）表示。“目标相悖通常不是一个明智的想法。”

一些人认为，与总统关系密切的沃什先生在美联储加息导致后果时，将能更有效地进行管理。到目前为止，特朗普先生选择将未降低借贷成本的责任归咎于沃什先生的同事。

美联储官员们传达的统一信息是，他们并不觉得受到政治因素的制约。他们认为，如果他们选择放弃一项由数据证明必须采取的行动，那将更严重地危及他们的独立性。

“央行的时间表不是市场的时间表，也不是选举的时间表，因此我们经常面临与外部机构的紧张关系，”古尔斯比先生说道。

但在中期选举前违抗特朗普先生无疑会加剧紧张局势。

“如果他们有可能将其推迟到中期选举之后，对这个机构将是有利的，”曾任国际货币基金组织（I.M.F.）首席经济学家的哈佛大学教授肯尼斯·罗格夫（Kenneth Rogoff）表示。

“我们目前显然处于一场宪法危机之中。如果你试图维护美联储的独立性，是通过当面顶撞他来更好地维护，还是通过低调行事并等待到冬季来更好地维护？”

美国原油库存正在减少

俄克拉荷马州，库欣

石油供应稀缺且需求旺盛，但大多数交易员预计这种情况将会结束。

随着霍尔木兹海峡僵局持续，企业与国家消耗储备油

俄克拉荷马州库欣（Cushing）周边美国主要管道汇集处的石油储罐。

作者：丽贝卡·F·埃利奥特（REBECCA F. ELLIOTT）

数百个数层楼高的钢制储罐像巨大的干草堆一样从平原上拔地而起。它们构成了美国最大的私人石油储存地，在经历了六个月的战争后，这些储罐正处于近年来最接近空仓的状态。

随着近几个月能源价格飙升，公司们动用了储存在俄克拉荷马州中部的这些石油。

世界目前依靠其他缓冲机制维持，但这些机制能维持的时间有限。

具体时间线取决于美国与伊朗之间战争的演变方式，但有一点很明确：全球的政策制定者和石油公司都渴望建立或扩大储备，以使自己免受下一次能源冲击的影响。

其中包括波斯湾的石油生产国（如沙特阿拉伯），它们希望在海外储存更多石油，远离像霍尔木兹海峡这样的海上战略咽喉点。“生产国需要投资于不一定位于本国的储存设施，”拜登政府能源与外交政策高级顾问阿莫斯·霍克斯坦（Amos Hochstein）表示。

美国的挑战则有所不同：美国拥有充足的石油储存能力，但库存正在减少。联邦政府一直在稳步消耗其战略石油储备（SPR），该储备近期已跌至 1982 年以来的最低水平。

大多数私人公司几乎没有持有石油的动力。这是因为石油现在的价值高于交易员认为的几个月后的价值。

因此，在俄克拉荷马州库欣这个小镇外的许多储罐中，所含的石油仅比维持系统运行所需的量多一点。

最近一次对这些罐区（tank farms）的实地考察展示了这些私人储备是如何运作的。

库欣曾是美国早期的石油繁荣城镇。该地区第一口商业油井于 1912, 年钻成，随后建立了数十家炼油厂将原油加工成燃料。20 世纪 20 年代，新的管道将库欣与远至印第安纳州的市场连接起来。

然而，产量几乎在启动后迅速崩溃。但库欣并未完全被遗弃。该镇的中心位置和管道网络使其成为一个日益具有吸引力的石油储存和交易地。

纽约商品交易所（New York Mercantile Exchange）选择该镇作为一种新石油合约——西德克萨斯中间基原油（WTI）的交易中心。

该合约于 1983 年首次推出，并成为美国产石油最重要的定价基准。

“它在当时提供了进入美国炼油基地的最佳途径，”运营该交易所的芝商所（CME Group）全球能源主管彼得·基维（Peter Keavey）表示。

根据能源研究公司 Novi Labs 的数据，如今有数十条管道在库欣汇合，将加拿大和怀俄明州的油田与中西部和德克萨斯州的炼油厂连接起来。

“如果没有它，要到达你想去的地方将需要多得多的规划、时间和成本，”总部位于附近塔尔萨（Tulsa）并运营当地最大储存系统之一的 Oneok 公司运营总监莎拉·哈里斯（Sarah Harris）表示。

Oneok 的部分储罐规模如此之大，足以储存能为数万辆汽车和卡车提供一年动力所需的石油。当价格处于未来石油价值更高的情况时，公司会利用这些空间储存石油。在新冠 19 疫情初期，由于封锁期间燃料需求崩溃，库欣的储罐被填满，导致美国油价一度跌至零以下。

今年则出现了相反的动态。石油稀缺且需求相对较高，但大多数交易员预计这种情况最终会结束。人们认为，无论霍尔木兹海峡发生什么，全球石油工业都会增加燃料供应，或者世界将学会适应较低的供应量，亦或是两者兼而有之。

根据美国能源信息署的数据，截至8月下旬，库欣（Cushing）的储油罐持有2200 万桶原油，仅略高于最低运行水平。如果进一步大量抽油，可能会损坏设备，例如漂浮在原油之上的钢制顶盖，或是用于混合原油的搅拌机（其工作方式类似于 KitchenAid 厨师机搅拌一批饼干面团）。

然而，原油仍在继续流动，库欣在前往炼油厂和港口的途中扮演着一个短暂休息站的角色。

类似的逻辑也适用于联邦战略石油储备。分析师们对于美国储备可以安全下降到什么程度存在分歧，但政府不能在不冒损坏德克萨斯州和路易斯安那州地下盐穴风险的情况下抽走所有原油。

目前，全球拥有足够的原油供应，使得价格远低于战争初期的最高点。更大的制约因素在于，能够将原油转化为汽油和其他燃料的炼油厂数量不足。

战争拖延的时间越长，市场就变得越脆弱。

为遏制损失，Meta 掷巨资寻求和解

华盛顿

马克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg，中）是 Meta 的首席执行官，今年 2 月出现在洛杉矶的一家法院外。 面临着由青少年、家庭和学区发起的数千起诉讼。 MARK ABRAMSON 为《纽约时报》拍摄

该公司新任首席法律官达成 171 亿美元 billion 协议，以解决与各州的诉讼

作者：CECILIA KANG 和 ELI TAN

在关于在线儿童安全的联邦审判开始前六天， 首席法律官 C.J. Mahoney 于 8 月 6 日前往纳什维尔，与约十个州的律师会面。两名知情人士表示，他希望促成一项巨额和解协议。

今年， 在多起关于其产品具有成瘾性并损害年轻用户的指控中已在法庭上遭遇挫败。在其中一次审判中，马克·扎克伯格在证人席上经历了整整一天的严厉质询（他不断重复道：“你们在歪曲事实”）。在加利福尼亚州即将举行的联邦审判中，他很可能再次被质询；在该案中，一个州政府联盟起诉 ，认为该公司导致了全国性的儿童心理健康危机。

据四名知情人士透露，在田纳西州议会大厦园区的一间装饰艺术风格（Art Deco）办公室里，Mahoney 在贝果和咖啡的陪伴下提出了由扎克伯格亲自批准的条款。 将向各州支付最高 190 亿美元 billion，并对其平台进行修改以提高青少年的安全性。部分款项将被暂扣，除非所有州都加入且其他社交媒体公司也达成和解。

对于在场的各州总检察长来说，这个提议非常诱人。知情人士表示，他们与这家硅谷巨头已经谈判了数月，但进展甚微。

周二，47 个州（有两个州退出了诉讼）、哥伦比亚特区以及几个领地同意了一项价值约 170 亿美元 billion 的和解协议。

“田纳西州有一句话，”该州总检察长乔纳森·斯克雷梅蒂（Jonathan Skrmetti）在一次几乎所有州总检察长参加的会议上说道，他以此鼓励他们不要贪婪，“猪会变肥，但贪婪的猪会被宰杀。”

这项和解协议是公司与陷入诉讼的州政府群体之间规模最大的协议之一，于周三公布。关于该协议如何达成的记录，基于对州政府领导人、 前现任高管的十多次采访，以及法院文件和审判证词。

多年来，拥有 Instagram 和 Facebook 的 似乎在应对儿童安全诉讼方面拥有不可逾越的防御体系。该公司的王牌是《通信体面法》（Communications Decency Act）的第 230 条——这是一项 1996 年通过的法律，保护平台免于为其用户发布的内容承担责任——以及保护言论自由的宪法第一修正案。

但全球范围内对社交媒体给儿童带来有害影响的担忧日益增加。澳大利亚去年成为第一个禁止 16 岁以下儿童使用社交媒体的国家，许多其他国家也实施或正在考虑类似的规定。

在美国，自 2022, 以来，大量关于在线儿童安全的诉讼被提起，原告集中于一个新的论点，声称社交媒体网站在设计产品时采用了有害方式，违反了消费者保护法及其他法律。

这些诉讼指控相关公司故意创建像香烟一样令人上瘾的网站，这借鉴了 20 世纪 90 年代针对大型烟草公司的策略。突然之间，依赖第 230 条法律看起来不再那么安全了。

据两名知情人士透露， 内部对这些案件的担忧正在增加。

今年1月，Meta聘请了马奥尼先生（Mr. Mahoney），他是一位资深的诉讼律师，曾担任微软公司的总法律顾问。一名熟悉Meta想法的人士表示，马奥尼先生直接向扎克伯格先生汇报，他之所以接任首席法律官一职，部分原因是由于他对达成和解协议的前景感兴趣。他过去曾主导过复杂的交易，最著名的是在2020年，他以美国贸易代表副代表的身份，担任特朗普政府与加拿大及墨西哥贸易协定的首席谈判代表。

四名熟悉相关对话的人士表示，在入职仅几天后，马奥尼先生就致电科罗拉多州总检察长菲尔·韦泽（Phil Weiser）和代表各州的首席谈判代表田纳西州总检察长斯克尔梅蒂先生（Mr. Skrmetti），以启动和解谈判。常驻硅谷的马奥尼先生飞往这两个州分别与他们会面。他希望探索一项大规模的和解方案，以结束全美所有州总检察长发起的联邦和州级诉讼。

双方此前曾进行过谈判。但由于马奥尼先生表现出如此明显的达成决议的意愿，对话的基调发生了变化。

但三名人士表示，一个障碍立即显现，因为Meta不愿对其产品做出某些更改。对于许多州总检察长来说，这是无法接受的底线。

“我们提起这些诉讼是因为我们想要保护孩子，并且想要改革这些平台，”斯克尔梅蒂先生在一次采访中表示。强制平台做出更改“确实是这里最关键的部分”。

谈判陷入僵局。但几周之内，Meta就收到了一个关于未来潜在问题的严厉提醒。

一名被标识为K.G.M.的年轻女性在1月下旬开始的一场审判中出庭作证，指控社交媒体公司在平台上创建了诸如“无限滚动”之类的功能，导致她患上焦虑症和抑郁症。

被告方Meta、Snap、TikTok和YouTube在庭前听证会上辩称，由于Section 230.的保护，该案件应被撤销。但洛杉矶县加利福尼亚州高等法院的法官卡罗琳·B·库尔（Carolyn B. Kuhl）裁定，此案涉及的是产品责任，而非言论问题。

这场为期五周的审判让Meta深感尴尬。扎克伯格先生首次在陪审团面前就儿童安全问题作证。他因允许数百万未成年用户使用Instagram而受到严厉质询。

与此同时，新墨西哥州总检察长正在州法院审理一起指控Meta违反消费者保护法的案件。

在3月的两天之内，Meta在两起案件中全部败诉。这些裁决引发了人们对未来审判可能造成名誉损害的担忧。

随着Meta与加利福尼亚州、科罗拉多州、肯塔基州和新泽西州准备在今年夏天于奥克兰的美国加利福尼亚北区联邦地区法院进行审理，赌注变得更高。这些州指控Meta违反消费者保护法和儿童隐私保护法，寻求roughly 2000 亿美元 billion的罚款以及对公司平台的更改。

斯克尔梅蒂先生和几乎所有其他州的总检察长也分别提起了自己的诉讼。

但在持续的谈判中，Meta在安全功能方面仍未满足所有州的要求。

在奥克兰审判前夕，Meta做出了最后一次尝试以终止此案。7月22，该公司请求美国第九巡回上诉法院援引Section 230下的法律保护，撤销这些关于社交媒体成瘾的案件。

在等待第九巡回法院裁决期间，马奥尼先生带着他190 亿美元 billion的报价前往田纳西州。他离开时并未达成协议，但谈判仍在继续。

Aug. 10, 上诉法院做出了不利于Meta的裁决。四名人士表示，谈判突然加速。一名人士称，凭借新的筹码，各州开始在纳什维尔与Meta的律师进行面对面谈判，并通过视频通话进行每日磋商，以争取最终的让步。

作为协议的一部分，该公司同意采取更多安全措施。不断增加的平台变更清单包括：禁止青少年用户进行无止境滚动，以及对 Instagram 和 Facebook 的每日使用时间设定两小时上限。

Meta 提出，如果 TikTok 和 YouTube 等其他社交媒体公司同意对其应用程序实施类似的控制，Meta 将支付更多款项并放宽年轻用户使用其平台的限制—— 表示，这将使其免于被单独针对。

该公司希望避免进入审判阶段，并将其作为一项条件，要求所有州都必须签署协议。

本月，在与 谈判的同时，各州在奥克兰的案件进入了审判程序。8月 23 日，科罗拉多州和田纳西州的总检察长向其他州提交了一份最终和解协议。他们通过电子邮件发送了该文件，并指示在周二下午 6 点前签署。

当天，Instagram 负责人亚当·莫塞里（Adam Mosseri）在奥克兰出庭作证。各州传唤扎克伯格先生出庭作证的计划迫在眉睫。

周二，除德克萨斯州、佛罗里达州和新墨西哥州外，所有州均签署了协议，审判随之结束。新墨西哥州此前已赢得诉讼，而 在周三与德克萨斯州达成和解，支付约 10 亿美元 billion，并为年轻用户提供与多州协议类似的安全保障措施。

仍面临由青少年、家庭和学区发起的数千起其他诉讼。下一场重大的人身伤害审判计划于 10 月在洛杉矶县加利福尼亚州高等法院审理。

表示，有信心赢得该案。

塞西莉亚·康（Cecilia Kang）发自华盛顿，伊莱·坦（Eli Tan）发自旧金山。

左图：阿根廷安耶洛（Añelo）市长费尔南多·班德雷特（Fernando Banderet），该市是距离瓦卡穆埃尔塔最近的城镇，其规模已扩大一倍。中图：Vista能源公司总部。右图：当地原住民马普切（Mapuche）社区领袖奥尔加·马贝尔·坎波（Olga Mabel Campo），该社区反对石油开采作业。

摄影：莎拉·帕布斯特（SARAH PABST）为《纽约时报》拍摄

“阿根廷的德克萨斯”能否拯救该国经济？

阿根廷报道，见第1页

……需求，而较低的贸易壁垒使本地企业面临更廉价的竞争，这引发了人们的质疑，即石油繁荣是否能创造足够的就业机会，以抵消其他领域广泛的损失。

在米莱先生领导下蓬勃发展的经济部门——能源和矿业——创造的就业机会相对较少，而制造业或零售业等劳动密集型产业则在遭受苦难。

米莱先生表示，瓦卡穆埃尔塔将带动更广泛的经济活动，但目前，许多参与这场“黑金热”的工人是在逃离其他地方的低薪或失业后，仅带着一个背包和一座帐篷乘坐巴士抵达这里的。

由于太多心怀希望的人涌入距离油气储量最近的城镇阿涅洛（Añelo），该市市长已恳请外来人员停止前来。

“工作机会并不足以容纳所有人，”市长费尔南多·班德雷特（Fernando Banderet）上个月在阿根廷广播电台中表示。

繁荣的能源部门为极度缺乏现金的阿根廷带来了新鲜且急需的美元流入，使其在受伊朗冲突挤压的全球能源市场中获得了更大的影响力。尽管如此，对水力压裂法的依赖正引发当地的环境警报，并引发人们对将国家未来押注在化石燃料上的质疑，而世界上大部分国家直到最近才承诺放弃化石燃料。

尽管存在这些疑问和挑战，但显而易见的是，该国的大部分地区都将目光投向了瓦卡穆埃尔塔。

“这是一场革命，”班德雷特先生说道。

“瓦卡穆埃尔塔热”

班德雷特先生小时候来到阿涅洛时，这里还是一个贫困的小农村。他的青年时代大部分时间住在由巴士改装的住所里，16岁就当了父亲，并开始从事采摘水果的工作。

现在一切都改变了。随着外国政府和企业家为了在阿涅洛寻找石油相关机会而向他伸出橄榄枝，他说自己参加了特朗普总统的第二次就职典礼，去以色列旅行，还去了戛纳电影节。

“这就是‘瓦卡穆埃尔塔热’，”他说。在过去的两年里，数千人涌入阿涅洛。有些人住在帐篷里，直到他们能负担得起那些几乎一夜之间冒出来的预制住房单元中的一张床位。班德雷特先生说，阿涅洛的人口在过去两年中翻了一番，达到了 12,000 人；在他身后，市政厅扩建工程的锤击声此起彼伏。

轰鸣声已成为这座城镇的背景音乐——主干道上拥堵的石油工人白色皮卡发出的引擎合唱，搅拌水泥机搅拌新鲜混凝土的研磨声，以及远处钻井平台的咆哮声。

在最近的一个傍晚，46 岁的萨比诺·波布莱特正在建设公寓，沙漠的黄昏将裸露的混凝土柱染成橙色，地平线上气井火炬的火焰在闪烁。波布莱特先生五天前才从阿根廷中部的科尔多瓦市来到阿涅洛，背着背包和帐篷搭便车而来。“我是来碰碰运气的，”他说。

在附近的加油站，其他外来务工人员正在等车。

“到处都在说这里是石油之都，”27 岁的埃塞基尔·巴罗佐说，他今年从罗萨里奥市迁到阿涅洛。他说，通过在阿涅洛寻找建筑工作，他的收入达到了他在家乡担任警察时薪水的三倍。“人们告诉我，如果我来这里，将会有巨大的机会，”他说。

这种如同“西部开拓时代”般的乐观情绪在环绕阿涅洛的内乌肯省随处可见。餐厅座无虚席，酒店和住宅综合体拔地而起，起名为“页岩酒店”或“石油住房综合体”。在长期由风和恐龙骨骸主宰的荒原上，购物中心和卡车经销店正纷纷涌现。

在利迈河岸的高处，来自阿根廷各地的年轻工程师坐在 Vista 能源公司的高科技控制室里，远程监控着开采现场。

几英里外，年轻的阿根廷人在一家由阿根廷国家控制的石油公司 YPF 及其他行业参与者赞助的新培训学院里免费学习油田贸易。在最近的一个下午，学生们使用类似游戏的控制站进行沉浸式工作模拟。在一个大量年轻专业人士寻求海外机会的国家，这些学生表示，他们对在本土开展职业生涯感到兴奋。

“你好，国家的未来！”学校校长古斯塔沃·利沃雷罗在走进教室时说道。

“变革性的改变”

在内乌肯，一种全新的国家愿景正在浮现——这幅景象与长期以来定义这个国家的肥沃农田及其高乔人截然不同。在这里，阿根廷的未来呈现为巨大的石油储罐，金属管身指向沙漠天空；空气中弥漫着柴油味，浑身泥泞的工人们将钻杆从地球深处拖出。

瓦卡穆埃尔塔（Vaca Muerta）页岩地层拥有全球第四大页岩油储量和第二大页岩气储量，虽然几十年前就已为人所知，但阿根廷直到最近才获得必要的投资并引进先进技术，以实现大规模开采。目前，阿根廷每天生产超过 850,000 桶原油，而十年前这一数字约为 500,000 桶。

米莱先生大力支持能源部门，提供了重大的投资税收减免，并简化了燃料出口流程，推动了一条至关重要的新管道建设。尽管之前的阿根廷政府为瓦卡穆埃尔塔奠定了基础，但米莱政府现在将收获其成果。

阿根廷最大能源公司之一 Pampa Energía 的董事长马塞洛·明德林（Marcelo Mindlin）表示，页岩气开采结合政府新实施的预算紧缩，标志着一次“结构性的、根本性的、变革性的改变”。

“阿根廷一直是不稳定的象征，”他说，“这两项转变有真正的机会改写这段历史。”

“要么在局内，要么在局外”

这种信心并非普遍存在。阿根廷对于国家的新方向依然存在严重分歧。

批评者指出，虽然油田地带机器轰鸣，但在布宜诺斯艾利斯省等工业中心，装配线却陷入了沉寂。

这种差距在内乌肯清晰可见。许多在能源生态系统之外工作的人——如教师或市政员工——正因生活成本过高而无法维持基本生活。即使是在这个国家的能源之都，米莱先生取消国家补贴也导致许多人的燃气费用增加。一些人，包括部分马普切（Mapuche）原住民社区，家中甚至没有燃气接通。

“这就是新阿根廷的悖论，”内乌肯的马普切活动人士莱夫·纳韦尔（Lef Nawel）说，“要么你在局内，要么你在局外。”

马普切人与油气开采地拥有最深厚的土地联系，他们一直是水力压裂法最坚定的反对者。

他们抗议造成污染的燃气火炬，称工厂的化学废物经常处理不当，并警告称该行业的用水量威胁到那些已经遭受气候变化影响的河流。

“他们开采石油并将其运走，”马普切社区领袖奥尔加·马贝尔·坎波（Olga Mabel Campo）说，“但留下的是我们。”

坎波女士的儿子是一名石油工人。她说，尽管她反对，但这依然是他能在镇上找到最好的工作。

有一次，一把铁扳手失控击中了他的脸，导致他掉光了所有牙齿，口腔被撕裂。另一次，从钻井平台坠落导致他的脊柱骨折，腿部骨折。

她说，由于获得了工伤赔偿金，他得以在阿涅洛（Añelo）盖了一栋房子。而且他继续在这个行业工作。

“这是无法停止的事情，”坎波女士说，“他们说瓦卡穆埃尔塔将拯救世界。”

露西亚·乔拉基安·埃雷拉（Lucía Cholakian Herrera）、娜塔莉·阿尔科巴（Natalie Alcoba）和丹尼尔·波利蒂（Daniel Politi）在布宜诺斯艾利斯参与了报道。

这不过是换了名目的掠夺

弗朗西斯科·贝尔尊萨 (Francisco Berzunza)

墨西哥一些最伟大的艺术品正被一家外国银行持有。

罗布·法默 (ROB FARMER) 摄影

墨西哥城 今年春天，数十万名参观墨西哥城现代艺术博物馆的游客在一次临时展览中，感受到了弗里达·卡罗 (Frida Kahlo) 两件杰作的炽热情感：一件是《心中的迭戈》(Diego on My Mind)，描绘了卡罗的额头上印着迭戈·里维拉 (Diego Rivera) 的肖像，宛如第三只眼；另一件是《与猴子的自画像》(Self-Portrait With Monkeys)，展现了她被四只猴子环绕在茂密的 tropical 丛林之中。

对于墨西哥人来说，这是在本土欣赏这两幅名画的罕见机会。大约二十年来，这些作品大多处于隐匿状态或在海外展出。展览结束后不久，这两幅弗里达的作品便登上了前往西班牙的飞机——而它们何时能永久回归，尚无定论。

这些画作，以及里维拉、鲁菲诺·塔马约 (Rufino Tamayo)、何塞·克莱门特·奥罗斯科 (José Clemente Orozco) 等其他帮助定义墨西哥现代视觉身份的艺术家的作品，均属于盖尔曼收藏 (Gelman Collection)。这或许是世界上最伟大的 20 世纪墨西哥艺术私人收藏。

今年早些时候，西班牙桑坦德银行 (Santander) 宣布，它已接管这些画作的长期管理权，并将把它们移至西班牙的一个文化中心。尽管墨西哥的遗产法旨在将具有重大文化重要性的作品留在国内，但这一消息在墨西哥引起了轩然大波。

关于这些无价之宝的争端——它们应该留在哪里，谁有权接触它们——实际上是一场关于文化遗产和国家主权的战斗，而墨西哥政府似乎已经放弃了这场战斗。相反，我与其他的艺术家、学者、律师和记者一直在奋斗，试图让这批收藏留在它所属的地方。

我属于那样一代墨西哥人，在成长过程中对弗里达·卡罗产生了“审美疲劳”，厌倦了看到她的脸被贴在到处的地方：钥匙扣上、马克杯上、祭祀蜡烛上。她似乎不属于我们，而更属于那些更热爱她的外国人。后来，在 2010 年，我偶然在柏林看到了一场她的回顾展，在那里我第一次见到了她的盖尔曼系列画作。我从未亲眼见过这些作品，它们极其非凡。我意识到卡罗根本没有变得“外国化”；她只是将自己，以及一个国家，绘制到了世界舞台上。随着她变得具有普世性，墨西哥人也随之变得具有普世性。

但尽管名声显赫，卡罗的创作量并不多：她仅创作了大约 200 件作品，其中约一半在墨西哥，而仅有极少数由墨西哥国家所有。意识到其国家重要性，1984 年的一项总统法令试图通过将留在墨西哥的少数卡罗作品指定为“艺术纪念碑”并禁止其永久出口，从而保障公众的访问权。与其他受保护的作品一样，它们只能临时离开该国。

其中近 20 幅卡罗的作品最终进入了盖尔曼收藏。雅克·盖尔曼 (Jacques Gelman) 和娜塔莎·盖尔曼 (Natasha Gelman) 在第二次世界大战的动荡中从欧洲逃亡至墨西哥，在 20 世纪 30 年代和 40 年代弗里达与迭戈名声最鼎盛的墨西哥电影黄金时代，通过制作电影积累了财富。随着两对夫妇成为好友，盖尔曼夫妇购买了他们的作品，并将其加入到不断扩大的私人收藏中，很快就涵盖了数百幅绘画、素描等。

盖尔曼夫妇显然将这批收藏的未来设想为公共财产。考虑到其国家意义，盖尔曼女士在遗嘱中规定，该收藏必须保持完整，并在墨西哥的一家博物馆或文化中心向公众开放。当她在 1998 年去世时，其遗嘱执行人、美国策展人罗伯特·利特曼 (Robert Littman) 发表了一份声明，在声明中他承认自己有责任确保该收藏“完整地在墨西哥的一家机构中展出，具体机构待定”。

但在利特曼先生的监督下，并在历任墨西哥政府的协助下，这批藏品反而开启了一系列主要在国际上举行的展览，

关于这些无价之宝的争端，实际上是一场关于文化遗产和国家主权的博弈。

这些展览为利特曼先生建立的一个基金会创造了收入。多年来，卡罗的知名度持续增长，这批藏品也继续获得全球认可——以及市场价值。利特曼先生陷入了一系列围绕该藏品的法律纠纷中，其中涉及盖尔曼女士在生命末期的精神健康状况，以及她的最终遗愿是否得到了妥善执行。 (这些纠纷最终以利特曼获胜告终。利特曼先生的律师未回应置评请求。)

随后，桑坦德银行在1月份的公告中透露，它将管理该藏品的一部分，其中包括10幅卡罗的画作。银行称，这些画作已于2023.年出售给来自北部城市蒙特雷的房地产开发商马塞洛·赞布拉诺。其余藏品的下落不明。

根据桑坦德银行与赞布拉诺家族达成的协议，这些作品将作为赞布拉诺先生一笔至少$150 million贷款的抵押品，并在远隔大洋的桑坦德基金会位于西班牙的新博物馆中进行“永久但动态”的展出。（桑坦德基金会在一份声明中表示，该安排“完全符合墨西哥法律”。）一些墨西哥历史上最伟大的艺术作品，正字面意义上地被一家外国银行作为担保品持有。

更令人震惊的事实是，负责保护此类文化纪念碑的墨西哥政府竟然促成了这次操作。就在银行批准贷款的前一天，墨西哥国家美术与文学学院的负责人与桑坦德银行及赞布拉诺家族签署了一项可续期的五年协议，负责监督这些受保护作品的国际展出，桑坦德银行的一名官员将这一安排描述为“灵活的”。

尽管墨西哥政府和银行官员坚称这些画作将于2028,年返回墨西哥，但并没有法律义务要求它们长期留在国内，也没有任何规定能阻止当局接连签发临时出口许可证。克劳迪娅·辛鲍姆总统的政府一直将自己塑造为墨西哥主权的捍卫者，但现在看来，它似乎完全愿意将一项国家关注的事项拱手让给外国利益。

对于观察墨西哥执政党 Morena 的人士来说，这并不令人意外。在20世纪的大部分时间里，国家扮演着墨西哥最大文化赞助人的角色——兴建博物馆、委托创作艺术品并组建藏品。但 Morena 通过常规性地削减该国的艺术与文化预算，明确表示它对扮演这一角色不感兴趣。

国际现代艺术博物馆与收藏委员会最近对墨西哥政府“保证遗产保护和获取的能力”表示“严重怀疑”，即便该国拥有专门旨在保护遗产的法律。

如果墨西哥允许这些作品永久地被流放到大西洋彼岸，它在世界眼中的形象将受损。我们的历史就如此轻易地被碎片化并简化为金融资产吗？我们在保护自身遗产方面就如此无力吗？如果我们无法留住自己的瑰宝，又怎能声称拥有地缘政治实力？

卡罗的故事不必以这种方式结束。墨西哥政府可能放弃了其文化管家的职责，但墨西哥的公民社会能够且必须挺身而出，提供保护具有国家重要性作品所需的资源、机构和想象力。

弗里达·卡罗将最私密的部分——她的身体、她的痛苦、她的爱、她的执念——转化为画作，使数百万人从中看到了自己的影子。她确实属于世界，但首先且最重要的是，她属于墨西哥。

弗朗西斯科·贝尔尊萨（FRANCISCO BERZUNZA）是一位墨西哥历史学家。

Meta 的和解协议总比没有好

科技公司在不受约束的状态下运行太久了。终于，一些问责机制出现了。

朱莉娅·安格温 (Julia Angwin) 特约撰稿人

长期以来，大型科技公司一直势不可挡。美国国会早在 1996 年就赋予了该行业法律保护，使得在法庭上追究这些公司的责任几乎变得不可能。尽管有越来越多的迹象表明，科技手段正在助长谎言、歧视、骚扰和诈骗，但两党立法者在科技资金的浸染和科技游说者的围攻下，一次又一次地未能对该领域实施监管。

现在，我们终于在蹒跚中进入了一个问责 era。这并不像我们如果效仿几乎所有其他国家、通过全面立法来保护隐私和数据安全并遏制算法操纵那样深思熟虑且全面。相反，我们采取的是一种“千刀万剐”的方式。随着法官和陪审团越来越怀疑大型科技公司关于其应对产品造成的消费者伤害不承担任何责任的主张，诉讼和罚款正在堆积。

上周，47 个州、哥伦比亚特区以及一些美国领地对 Meta 发起猛烈抨击，促使这家 Facebook 和 Instagram 的所有者同意支付高达 171 亿美元 billion 的罚款，此前有指控称该公司在平台对青少年用户造成的伤害问题上故意误导公众。

虽然这笔罚款数额巨大，但远低于 所称的各州寻求的 $1.4 trillion。与烟草业在 1998 年达成的 2060 亿美元 billion 和解协议相比，这简直相形见绌。而且， 只有在其死对头 YouTube、TikTok 和 Snap 同样限制儿童在应用上的时间时，才会支付全额款项——考虑到青少年在其中一些平台上花费的时间已经超过了在 平台上的时间，这是一个聪明的举动。这或许解释了为什么在和解协议公布后， 的股价几乎没有受到影响。我对此持怀疑态度，认为它承诺给年轻用户的保护措施能否给青少年的心理健康带来实质性的改变。

但随着 进入其僵尸时代——用户群停滞、利润下降、法律责任增加，以及试图打入 AI 市场所带来的天文数字般的成本——每一次打击都至关重要。

RAFAL MILACH / MAGNUM PHOTOS

这次和解虽然不完美，但可能表明 有多么渴望在另一场雪崩般的诉讼到来之前卸掉部分法律责任。这场诉讼包含 100,000 多起个人诉讼，用户声称该公司的平台被刻意设计成具有成瘾性且缺乏儿童安全保护。法院已将这些诉讼打包，可能会达成另一项全球性和解。

在面对这些案件、且旧的法律论据日益失效的情况下， 已同意对 Facebook 和 Instagram 进行实质性修改。它与总检察长们达成协议，将青少年的社交媒体使用时间限制在每天两小时，在夜间和上课期间屏蔽通知，关闭算法推荐流，并禁止使用美颜滤镜，以及其他一些变更。父母将有权绕过或调整这些限制，这终于让他们在孩子账户上拥有了首次实质性的控制权。

尽管我很想为任何减少伤害的努力鼓掌，但仅仅给父母增加几个控制旋钮和按钮，不太可能导致青少年社交媒体行为发生实质性的转变。

首先，青少年可能会发现这些新限制很容易规避。当澳大利亚在12月禁止16岁以下儿童使用社交媒体时，许多人简单地通过使用虚拟专用网络（VPN）来伪装成从澳大利亚境外连接，以及通过创建虚假账户来绕过禁令。一份澳大利亚政府在3月份发布的报告声明：“相当一部分16岁以下的澳大利亚儿童继续保留账户、创建新账户或通过平台的年龄验证系统。”

在和解协议中，Meta 谨慎地避免了对规避其限制的青少年的承担任何责任。该公司同意确保其年龄评估工具（虚拟身份检查和面部扫描）的错误率低于10%。但 Meta 仅同意在打击流行的规避手段方面尽其“最大努力”。

此外，该和解协议未能解决社交媒体中两种最阴险的设计选择：一是“无限滚动”，即通过无止境地展开内容来让用户上瘾；二是他人点赞和评论带来的“可变奖励”，这促使用户不断刷新页面，以期获得新的多巴胺快感。

事实上，Meta 的这些改动对成年用户毫无帮助，而成年人同样容易受到大科技公司的操纵。我明白，将重点放在保护孩子身上在政治上很受欢迎，因为孩子的大脑处于发育阶段，因此更容易受到操纵，但有充足的证据表明，社交媒体也伤害了许多成年人——根据联邦调查局（F.B.I.）的数据，尤其是老年人，他们遭受网络诈骗的比例日益升高。

对年龄验证的关注也危及我们在网络上保持匿名的能力——这是一种我们在现实世界中视为理所当然的关键自由，但在虚拟世界中却过于愿意放弃。我们绝不会同意在阅读贴在当地公告栏上的传单之前出示护照。那么，为什么我们在网上要做等同的事情？我们生活在一个德克萨斯州的一位父亲（其妻子是美国移民海关执法局 ICE 的抗议者）因共谋隐瞒文件（他搬动了一箱在家打印的杂志）而被判处30年监禁的时代。我们需要在不受监视的情况下分享和消费信息的自由。

虽然我很高兴 Meta 为儿童创建了一些最基本的安全功能，但更好的选择是让这些平台对每个人都安全。我们都能从汽车的安全带或建筑工地的安全帽中获益。难道我们不也应该受到保护，免受大科技公司的掠夺吗？

朱莉娅·安格温（JULIA ANGWIN）是一位调查记者。

纽约时报

国际版

A.G. SULZBERGER 出版人 JOSEPH KAHN 执行主编 MARC LACEY 管理编辑 CAROLYN RYAN 管理编辑 SUZANNE DALEY 副主编

KATHLEEN KINGSBURY 评论版编辑

MEREDITH KOPIT LEVIEN 首席执行官 MICHAEL GREENSPON 高级副总裁兼总经理 HELEN KONSTANTOPOULOS 副总裁，国际发行 HELENA PHUA 执行副总裁，亚太地区 SUZANNE YVERNÈS 国际首席财务官

华尔街曾青睐贝森特与沃什，而现在不再如此

在短暂下跌后，债券利率上涨。

凯瑟琳·兰佩尔（Catherine Rampell）

当然，也许特朗普政府的其他所有人都是坐着“小丑车”来的——那些忠诚者、庸才和叛徒，被从福克斯新闻的休息室或特朗普总统的顶尖法律团队中挑选出来。但特朗普先生的两位最高经济任命人员本应是“严肃的人”。毕竟，称职的财务管理对于国内经济、全球支付系统以及美元作为世界储备货币的地位至关重要。特朗普先生意识到，这些联邦机构的领导者必须是市场信任的人。

在一段时间内，他们确实如此。即使在贸易战、真实的战争以及对法治的威胁之中，市场似乎依然在支撑，甚至在繁荣。而现在，华尔街和全球投资者似乎终于对美国的经济领导力失去了信心。最初只是几次异常的焦虑，现在看来正演变为一场针对美国财政部的全面信用危机，如果运气极差的话，美联储可能也会陷入其中。

在特朗普先生的所有任命人员中，财政部长斯科特·贝森特和美联储主席凯文·沃什拥有最令人印象深刻的履历。两人都曾在华尔街工作，是传奇投资者斯坦·德鲁肯米勒的门生。两人

在这些人的领导下，美国经济正面临一场信用危机。

都曾在顶尖学校（分别为耶鲁大学和斯坦福大学）授课。虽然性格截然不同——贝森特先生是个火爆脾气，偶尔会威胁要大打出手；而沃什先生则显得异常得体且冷静——

但他们都花费了数年时间赢得了特朗普先生的信任。

华尔街和政治精英也为贝森特先生和沃什先生背书。他们向美国参议员保证，这些人是称职的、小写c意义上的保守主义者——他们将保护金融市场正常运行所依赖的机构的完整性。

至少在贝森特先生获得任命后的几天内，显然这是一个误判。他担任部长后的最早行动之一，就是允许政府效率部（DOGE）访问敏感的财政部支付系统，该系统每年发放约 6 万亿美元的款项。这据称是为了调查“欺诈”，但也是试图帮助特朗普政府单方面冻结国会要求的款项。（一名联邦法官在这种情况发生前限制了 DOGE 的访问权限。）

不久之后，贝森特先生还允许美国国税局（IRS）与移民执法部门共享机密税务数据——这破坏了数十年来为了让移民相信，只要他们诚实纳税，这些款项就不会被武器化用来对付他们而做的工作。（联邦法官同样阻止了这一行为。）

现在，在批评其前任涉嫌在选举前试图刺激经济之后，贝森特先生——

为什么？交易员们意识到，贝森特先生的努力过于微小，不足以抵消推动利率上涨的巨大力量：高企的通货膨胀、不可持续的政府赤字，以及私营企业发行大量债务以资助人工智能（AI）。此外，美国债务整体还面临更大的风险，因为投资者担心美国正由一个委婉说法为“B队”的团队管理——也就是说，这些人可能不会认真对待维护美国充分信誉与信用的责任。

如果说有什么影响的话，贝森特先生的回购计划（在宣布该计划的同时，他坚称我们可以通过增长来摆脱债务）只会加深这些怀疑。这让财政部的领导层显得无能。

不要只听我的。贝森特先生的前导师德鲁肯米勒先生在《华尔街日报》的一篇（显然至少部分由 AI 生成的）公开谴责中也表达了同样的观点。正如《金融时报》在一段简洁的标题中所述：贝森特被“德鲁肯”了（Drucked）。

德鲁肯米勒暗示的一件事是，债务管理的明显政治化对美联储意味着什么。美联储是一个独立机构，理应在不受政治恐惧或偏袒的情况下引导利率。

沃什先生与贝森特先生一样，其任期之初也表现得摇摆不定。他最近的一次新闻发布会简直是一场灾难；沃什先生要么是不愿，要么是不能清晰地阐述美联储应对通胀的计划，以及为什么该计划似乎不包括提高利率（特朗普先生则要求降低利率）。在某个时刻，沃什先生似乎暗示美联储可能会更换衡量通胀的主要基准，这引发了人们对通过后门手段削弱央行降低通胀承诺的担忧。

似乎正试图这样做。本月，他宣布美国财政部将加大对长期政府债券的回购力度，此举旨在降低这些债券的利率（进而可能降低抵押贷款和其他金融产品的成本）。中期选举临近，宽松的货币政策往往能让选民更加满意。

更糟糕的是，特朗普先生本人也介入其中。他坚称沃什先生内心深处确实想要降低利率，但不能这样做，因为“他得面对一个委员会，而且这是一个政治委员会”。几天后，特朗普先生再次尝试解雇该美联储委员会的一名成员，而此前最高法院已阻止他这么做。

市场对此并不买账。长期利率升至 2007 年金融危机以来的最高水平。可以说，沃什先生在新闻发布会上的拙劣表现，加上对其领导能力和独立性的担忧，是导致利率上涨到足以促使贝森特先生尝试干预债券市场的原因之一。

到目前为止，沃什先生对于贝森特先生回购赌注的明智与否，以及此举是否在侵犯美联储的领地或损害财政部市场艰苦建立的信誉，一直保持沉默。不过，若想寻找他真实想法的线索，我们可以回顾沃什先生去年的言论，当时他还在为现在担任的这个职位进行“试镜”。

斯科特·贝森特在美国中期选举前采取的回购策略，使财政部领导层显得无能。 内森·霍华德 / 路透社

当时，沃什先生表示他希望重新审视 1951 年的《财政部-美联储协议》。正是这项协议赋予了美联储如今所享有的特定形式的政治和结构独立性，使其在过去的几十年中即使在提高利率时也能抑制通胀。

贝森特先生的计划适得其反。相反，这激怒了白宫。在此之前，美联储与财政部有一项非正式协议，旨在保持低利率，以便总统能以更低的成本为昂贵的战争（比如我们现在参与的这场）提供资金。

沃什先生建议重新考虑该协议，因为他希望正式将美联储的部分权力交还给财政部——具体而言，是关于美联储资产负债表持有内容的决定，以及何时以及如何进行销售或购——

入。这似乎包括贝森特先生目前正在摆弄的那类交易。

这就是为什么市场目前对这两个机构的信誉和能力感到有些不安是可以理解的。

凯瑟琳·兰佩尔（CATHERINE RAMPELL）是 The Bulwark 的经济编辑，也是 MS NOW 的主播。

唐王正在废黜美元

巴里·艾肯格林 (Barry Eichengreen)

JENS MASMANN 为《纽约时报》拍摄

美元是全球的货币，而不仅仅是美国的货币。美元是全球大多数跨境交易的报价和结算单位。全球外汇交易中，美元占比高达 89%，令人瞩目。从北京到苏黎世，各国央行外汇储备中近 60% 以美元计价的银行存款和美国财政部证券形式持有。可以说，美元是国际金融市场的通用语。

但目前如此。

这个 $40 trillion 的问题是，这种幸福的局面是否会持续。近期美国财政部债券市场的动荡引发了一个议题：长期被视为万无一失且能抵御政府风险的美元计价证券，是否真的像央行和私人投资者所预期那样安全且具有流动性。这并非因为任何与市场相关的原因，而是因为特朗普政府对国内和国际政治及金融机构发出的威胁。

这使得美联储主席凯文·沃什（Kevin Warsh）周五在杰克逊霍尔经济政策研讨会上的表态变得更加复杂。虽然他的某些前任可能面临过经济大萧条、战争、股市崩盘、房地产低迷和国际货币危机，但没有一个人必须面对如此强烈的、关于美国金融和政治体系持久完整性的质疑。

然而，这种对美元持久力的质疑并非完全新鲜。恰好在半个世纪前，即 1976, 著名的货币经济学家、麻省理工学院教授查尔斯·金德尔伯格（Charles Kindleberger）宣布，美元作为一种国际货币已经“完蛋”了。金德尔伯格是对总统理查德·尼克松 1971 决定单方面放弃金本位制（即美元与黄金之间的固定联系）做出的反应。这意味着关闭美联储的“黄金窗口”，此前该窗口允许外国政府和央行以每盎司 $35 的固定价格将持有的美元兑换成黄金。这导致了布雷顿森林体系的终结，即二战后以美元为锚的灵活汇率体系。

更广泛地说，像金德尔伯格教授这样的观察者对尼克松向美联储主席亚瑟·伯恩斯（Arthur Burns）施压以维持低利率、从而助力总统连任的行为感到不安。他们对美国加速的通货膨胀以及水门事件感到困扰，后者在世界眼中玷污了该政府和美国的形象。

当然，金德尔伯格教授错了。美元的霸权得以延续，更准确地说，又延续了 50 年且仍在继续。

事后看来，解释很明确。美国的政治制度应对了水门事件的挑战。尼克松面临迫在眉睫的弹劾并被迫辞职。他的民主党继任者吉米·卡特任命了一位极其独立且厌恶通胀的美联储主席保罗·沃尔克（Paul Volcker）。卡特无视了其顾问伯特·兰斯（Bert Lance）的警告，后者认为这样做可能会危及他的连任。沃尔克随后提高了利

随着美国制度的侵蚀，其货币的全球霸权也随之衰落。

率，最高达到 20%，而卡特也随之失去了连任机会。但到 20 世纪 80 年代中期，两位数的通货膨胀已成为历史，长期的美元疲软也让位于美元走强。与此同时

与此同时，美国

正在利用其地缘政治杠杆和联盟，鼓励其他国家使用美元贸易。1974, 在第一次 OPEC 石油危机之后，财政部长威廉·西蒙（William Simon）飞往沙特阿拉伯，目标是确保费萨尔国王同意将该国的石油出口收益以美元形式投资，以换取继续获得美国的武器和军事支持。1977, 西蒙先生

西蒙的继任者 W. 迈克尔·布鲁门撒尔（W. Michael Blumenthal）承诺帮助沙特阿拉伯在国际货币基金组织中获得扩大后的投票权，以换取其承诺以美元为石油定价。

正如金德尔伯格（Kindleberger）教授最终承认的那样，全球美元没有替代方案。没有其他任何货币能够在大规模跨境交易中充当媒介。

但现在，终于有理由认为替代方案存在了。在观察特朗普政府的行为后，盟友和贸易伙伴对美国的权力制衡、法治以及腐败的抬头表示担忧。几个世纪以来，每一种领先的国际货币和储备货币——不仅是美元，还包括 19 世纪的英镑和 18 世纪的荷兰盾——都是民主国家或共和国的货币。随着特朗普总统试图解雇不听命于他的美联储成员，取消他不喜欢的风能项目合同，或针对政治对手进行起诉，外国人开始怀疑美国是否依然如此。

此外，每一种领先的国际货币都由一个不受政治干扰的强大金融机构支撑。特朗普政府对美联储理事丽莎·库克（Lisa Cook）持续发出的威胁，以及特朗普先生攻击中央银行的历史，令投资者感到不安，并引发了人们对美联储是否能保持作为可靠管家所需的自主权的质疑。如果美联储在此方面失败，美元可能无法维持其价值，从而进一步削弱其全球角色。

沃什先生可能会倾向于就近期债券市场的走势、美国财政部笨拙的干预以及他自己在沟通方面——或缺乏沟通——的争议性方法发表意见。但沃什先生面临着被贴上特朗普“走狗”标签的风险。在杰克逊霍尔（Jackson Hole），他本有绝佳机会表明自己准备捍卫中央银行的独立性并支持美元的国际角色，即便这样做需要违背特朗普先生降低利率的偏好。

此外，人们还怀疑美国对其国际联盟的承诺，例如北约（NATO）或约束美国与韩国的共同防御条约。从历史上看，各国持有、使用并支持其盟友伙伴的货币。盟友同样也是客户。购买美国债务是一种表达诚信和对伙伴认可的方式，正如费萨尔国王在 1974 年所理解的那样。在 20 世纪 60 年代，当美元与黄金的固定挂钩承压时，是西德和日本的中央银行及政府持有并支持美元，因为美国在两国都有驻军并为其提供核保护伞。

近期，日本（1.12 万亿美元）和韩国（1350 亿美元）的中央银行持有美元储备的比例，高于其与美国的商业和金融联系所能预测的水平。毫无疑问，他们正在重新审视这种依赖。欧洲官员也是如此，例如欧洲央行行长克里斯蒂娜·拉加德（Christine Lagarde），她强调欧洲需要变得在金融和货币上更加自给自足——这实际上是减少对美元和美国依赖的代称。

美元的拥护者仍在试图论证美元没有替代方案。但欧洲和中国正尽可能快地努力弥补这一缺陷。欧洲正在推进资本市场联盟，旨在为欧元计价的金融证券创建中央资本市场，以减少摩擦并让资金自由流动。中国正在扩大基于人民币的跨境银行间支付系统，以与美国大银行和美元竞争。

他们的行动表现得仿佛时间紧迫。从证据来看，他们是对的。

巴里·艾肯格林（BARRY EICHENGREEN）是加州大学伯克利分校的经济学和政治学教授，也是《跨境货币：从克罗伊斯到加密货币》（Money Beyond Borders: Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto）一书的作者。

山脉正在崩解

ARUN SANKAR / 法新社 — 盖蒂图片社 上周尼泊尔发生的灾难是山脉脆弱性的最新不安信号。人类导致全球变暖的速度正在将它们撕裂。

明格尔，

人们还将面临冰湖溃决洪水，这是一种由冰川融水填满盆地并冲垮堤坝而引发的危险现象。

十五年前，我的报道聚焦于冰川消失所带来的那两项令人畏惧但基本在预料之中的影响。我看到印度北部的村庄被废弃，因为冰川后退导致了极端干旱。我听到青藏高原的农民描述他们看到曾经可靠的泉水干涸时的震惊。尼泊尔和不丹的人们描述了他们对在冰川洪水中失去家园和生命的恐惧。

现在，另一种情况正显现出来：就像白蚁啃食房屋框架一样，上升的空气温度似乎正在侵蚀高海拔地区将山坡固定在一起的冰层和永冻土。

2015年4月，一次 7.8 级地震袭击了尼泊尔北部，导致朗唐里隆峰南坡一块厚近 7 英尺的雪、冰和岩石块脱落，造成 300 多人死亡，其中 100 多人的遗体从未被找回。2024年，研究人员得出结论，气候变化可能使这次由地震引发的雪崩变得更加致命。

同一座山的北坡刚刚发生崩塌，这极有可能是它在气候变化的压力下进一步变形的迹象。而且这绝非孤例。

2016年，西藏西部 Aru 山脉的两座冰川自发崩塌，演变为快速移动的冰雪崩——这是极不寻常的事件，且在短短两个月内接连发生。第一次崩塌导致 9 名牧羊人死亡，碎片覆盖了 3 平方英里。印度北阿坎德邦的 Ronti 峰北坡

在 2021 年断裂，将一股粉碎的冰块和岩石碎片沿河冲向查莫利区。超过 200 人死亡或失踪，两座大型水电站受损。

风险不仅限于喜马拉雅山脉。2022年，在一段异常温暖的天气之后，意大利多洛米蒂山脉一座由永冻土支撑的冰川崩塌，导致 11 名登山者死亡。2025年5月，在 300 名居民被安全撤离后，瑞士布拉滕村被一次岩冰崩塌掩埋。地质学家目前正密切关注另一处同样不稳定的岩壁，该岩壁威胁着

另一个瑞士村庄。

很少有地方像喜马拉雅山脉和青藏高原那样脆弱。

传统的洪水预警和灾难响应系统可能无法应对这些事件。在尼泊尔和西藏发生这场大灾难几天后，由于碎片阻塞河流导致上游迅速形成新湖泊，幸存者

和救援人员仍面临进一步洪水的持续风险。

随着未来几天的搜救和恢复工作展开，我们应该思考的一个问题是，还有多少其他山脉可能正在悄悄地崩解。纽卡斯尔大学的冰川地质学家贝森·戴维斯（Bethan Davies）在最近一篇分析此次灾难的帖子中警告称，在未来几年里，“我们应该预料到将继续经历此类灾难性事件”。她共同撰写的一项研究记录了尼泊尔朗唐地区冰川冰损失在近几十年是如何加速的。许多冰川正以地质学上的惊人速度萎缩和破碎，使被隔绝了数千年的深色岩石暴露在外。

我们习惯于将山脉——尤其是梵语意为“雪之 abode”的喜马拉雅山脉——视为固定、永恒、不可撼动且永久的。尼泊尔发生的这场灾难是最新的令人不安的信号，表明山脉其实是脆弱的。人类导致全球变暖的速度正使其从接缝处崩裂。即使是那些经过世世代代学习，能够适应季风雨的反复无常、周期性山体滑坡、春夏洪水以及冬季雪崩的山区居民，如今也被拖入了陌生的领域，尽管他们从未离开原处。

在上周的洪流袭来并撕碎他及他人所熟知的生活之前的几分钟里，一名位于边境下游的幸存者表示，他听到了一声类似于“雷击”的声音——那是地球上最高山峰之一崩塌的声音。这个气候崩溃的新警报足够响亮且恐怖，足以在全世界回荡——如果我们选择倾听的话。

乔纳森·明格尔（JONATHAN MINGLE）是一位在佛蒙特州执业的记者，其最新著作名为《煤气灯：大西洋沿岸管道与美国能源未来的之战》（Gaslight: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Fight for America's Energy Future）。

体育

作者：约翰·布兰奇（JOHN BRANCH）

自从大约 20 年前，被称为 C.T.E.（慢性创伤性脑病）的退行性脑疾病首次在科学上被证实与美式足球相关，且数百名前职业足球运动员在去世后被诊断出患有该病以来，一个令人不安的问题一直挥之不去：

究竟有多少美国国家橄榄球联盟（NFL）的球员最终会患上 C.T.E.？

新数据提供了一个令人清醒的迹象：一项针对近期六年间数百个病例的研究表明，在所有曾效力于 NFL 的人员中，至少有四分之一的人可能会最终患上慢性创伤性脑病。

研究人员考察了 2016 到 2021 年间去世的每一位前 NFL 球员。共有 878 人。有些人死于 20 多岁，有些人死于 80 多岁，大多数则在两者之间。

该研究的主要发现是一个简单的数学问题：在 878 名前球员中，至少有 215 人——占比 24.5% ——患有 C.T.E.。

实际的患病率可能会高得多。大约 25% 的比率并未将 643 个未被检查的大脑计算在内。其中一些，甚至可能是许多大脑，可能同样患有 C.T.E.。

C.T.E. 是一种由头部反复受到冲击引起的进行性神经系统疾病。它只能在死后通过检查大脑来做出明确诊断。研究表明，在没有遭受过头部反复冲击的人群中，C.T.E. 的发生率几乎为零。

如果将这项新研究的统计数据应用于当今的球员——在联盟 32 支球队的常规赛季名单中共有 1,696 人，这还不包括 500 多名练习队成员以及因伤不合格的人员 —— 其中至少有 400 人将被诊断出患有 C.T.E.。

专家表示，这种脑病的发病率代表了一种在美国职场中几乎没有可比性的职业安全隐患。

“有些工人接触过高水平的石棉，这导致了极高的肺病发病率，”曾在奥巴马政府期间领导职业安全与健康管理局（OSHA）、现为华盛顿乔治·华盛顿公共卫生学院教授的大卫·迈克尔斯（David Michaels）说道。“而且当然，你知道，在煤矿工作一生会导致极高的黑肺病风险。”

“但一种退行性神经系统疾病 —— 我从未见过与之相当的情况。”

C.T.E. 在近一个世纪前首次在拳击手身上被发现，并被称为“拳击手痴呆症”。症状可能包括记忆力减退、意识混乱和反常的情绪波动，执行功能下降，以及古怪和冲动行为（包括成瘾）的增加。

如今，C.T.E. 最常与美式足球运动员联系在一起，但在其他头部遭受重复打击的运动员大脑中也发现了该病，包括冰球、橄榄球和足球运动员，以及摔跤手和雪车运动员。军方人员似乎也容易患上这种疾病。

多年来，NFL 一直淡化重复性头部创伤的风险，经常坚称关于 C.T.E. 的了解还不足以就其危险性、起源和流行率得出结论。不确定性为不采取行动留下了空间；科学家们尚未破解许多问题，例如为什么有些人可以踢几十年的足球而不患 C.T.E.，而另一些人在青少年时期就出现了严重病例。

但研究人员目前报告的患病率可能难以被忽视。这是来自神经病理学家和其他科学家的最新研究，他们大多隶属于马萨诸塞州的 Mass General Brigham、波士顿大学和 UNITE 大脑库，这些机构在过去二十年里领导了 C.T.E. 研究并处理了大多数前运动员捐献的大脑。

参与这项周二发表在《英国医学杂志》（The BMJ）上的研究的人员希望在未来几个月内发表一篇后续论文，以估算所有 NFL 球员在去世时的 C.T.E. 总体发病率。

由于存在未知因素，做出此类估算十分复杂。研究人员表示，可以确定的是，慢性创伤性脑病（C.T.E.）是可以预防的。“我们知道导致该病的原因，”该研究的第一作者、斯波尔丁康复医院脑损伤康复主任兼马萨诸塞州哈佛医学院副教授丹尼尔·达内什瓦尔（Daniel Daneshvar）博士说道，“这是一种神经退行性疾病，我们了解并能完全控制其风险。而了解该风险的程度，是确保我们能够减轻并降低该风险的步骤之一。”

达内什瓦尔表示，C.T.E. 最大的预测指标是终身头部受击的累积力量——包括在进入美国国家橄榄球联盟（N.F.L.）之前所遭受的冲击。

“我们可以在不改变橄榄球比赛规则的情况下改变这种累积力量，”他说道，并建议儿童避免参加对抗性橄榄球比赛，且各级别球队在训练期间应取消碰撞。

最新研究中提到的 25% 的比率可能会让球迷或远距离观察该运动的人感到惊讶，但对于接近橄榄球运动的人来说并非如此。

“我敢打赌实际数字要大得多，”66 岁的兰迪·格赖姆斯（Randy Grimes）说道，他曾在 1983 年至 1992 年间担任坦帕湾海盗队的中锋。“显然，如果你把那些未经检测的人也算进去，数字会大得多。”

他的至少两名前进攻线队友（均为后卫）被诊断出患有 C.T.E.：汤姆·麦克海尔（Tom McHale），死于 45 岁；以及约翰·布鲁欣（John Bruhin），死于 57 岁。

数百名前 N.F.L. 球员被发现患有 C.T.E.，这是一种由头部反复受冲击引起的进行性神经系统疾病。它只能在死后被检测出来。

新研究显示至少 1 / 4 的 N.F.L. 球员患有脑部疾病

ZACK WITTMAN 为《纽约时报》撰稿

研究人员表示，实际患病率可能更高

HIROKO MASUIKE / 《纽约时报》 左上图：纽约市的一栋建筑前，执法人员正在现场。前高中橄榄球运动员谢恩·田村于 2025. 年 7 月在此杀害 4 人。尸检确认他患有 C.T.E.。右上图：2015. 年职业橄榄球名人堂仪式上的悉尼·索，她是朱尼尔·索的女儿。她的父亲患有 C.T.E.，并于 2012 年自杀。 GENE J. PUSKAR / 美联社

家长如何降低风险

球员从未接受过大脑检查。

BY JOHN BRANCH

有两件事是事实：橄榄球在美国家文化中占据重要地位，而对抗式橄榄球对大脑不利。对于孩子参加这项运动的家长来说，处理这种矛盾可能尤为棘手。

在 C.T.E. 意识时代开启 20 年后，家长们知道的足够多，足以感到担忧，但可能还不足以完全规避风险。

有些人倾向于关注这项运动的积极面——其中包括它给家庭带来的欢乐与兴奋、建立的社区感、传承的跨代传统，以及关于团队合作和职业道德的教训——并希望在祈祷中，C.T.E. 不会在大脑中潜伏。

这是一场风险与回报的权衡，而孩子们可能还不够成熟，无法考虑这一点。

C.T.E.，即慢性创伤性脑病，是一种由头部重复受击引起的进行性神经系统疾病。这意味着它在很大程度上是可以预防的。

但它直到死亡后才能被确诊。科学家们不清楚为什么有些人踢了数十年的橄榄球却没有患病，而有些青少年却患病了。

这种不确定性可能成为维持现状的理由。但新研究显示，在近期六年的死亡前 N.F.L. 球员中， 1 / 4 患有 C.T.E.。科学家认为实际数字要高得多，因为大多数前——

家长面对这些信息该怎么办？如果完全不参加运动不是一个选项，以下是一些得到医疗专业人士广泛支持的指导建议。

优先选择腰旗橄榄球

研究人员表示，C.T.E. 的一个关键因素是终身累积的撞击力。虽然严重的脑震荡可能导致功能障碍，但几乎在每次进攻中都会发生的无数次亚脑震荡撞击——来自阻挡、擒抱和摔倒——同样会导致 C.T.E.。所有这些都会累积。

科学家发现，重复性头部撞击的年限越长，患 C.T.E. 的可能性就越高。这就是为什么当一名最近去世的前 N.F.L. 球员被诊断出患有 C.T.E. 时，人们不再感到惊讶。但 C.T.E. 在年仅 15, 岁的儿童身上也被发现，而且涉及十几岁和二十几岁、从未接近职业水平的球员病例清单正在增加。

脑研究人员希望在橄榄球运动中看到的一项转变是：推迟对抗式橄榄球的开始时间。同时，可以考虑腰旗橄榄球以及其他接触程度较低的体育运动版本。

训练策略

限制训练中的接触。大多数球员的训练时间远多于比赛时间。常春藤联盟在多年前就禁止了全接触式训练。美国国家橄榄球联盟（N.F.L.）及其球员工会也已同意限制全接触式训练，以减少伤病。

教练理念

警惕来自教练、家长及其他人员的任何“带伤坚持”心态。与骨折或韧带撕裂不同，脑损伤很难被旁观者识别。

同伴压力和对“强悍”心态的追求可能会让年轻球员不敢发声。家长和教练应当替他们发声。

如果存在疑虑，请咨询不隶属于球队的独立医生。

如果我的儿子被撞昏了怎么办？专家表示，如果球员头部受到撞击导致昏迷，无论时间多么短暂，都应将其移出比赛，并在返回赛场前接受独立医疗护理。

青少年及更年幼的球员尤其容易面临医生所称的“第二次冲击综合征”的风险。

第二次冲击综合征是指在短时间内连续遭受两次头部损伤而导致的大脑肿胀。如果第一次撞击造成的损伤尚未痊愈，可能会触发一系列代谢事件：脑血流量增加，动脉肿胀超过承载能力，导致脑内压力积聚，有时会导致昏迷和死亡。

产品声明

请警惕那些声称能降低风险的产品。研究人员表示，目前尚未有任何头盔或头盔罩、护齿、颈部装备、营养补充剂或药物被证明能够降低慢性创伤性脑病（C.T.E.）的风险。

另一名队友，线卫基思·麦坎茨（Keith McCants）患有 C.T.E.，并在 53 岁时去世。

“这不是一个会被提起的话题；也不是球员们想要讨论的话题，”格赖姆斯（Grimes）说道。“如果我们能更多地讨论这个问题，我们的研究可能会进展得更快。但球员们不想这么做。他们不想认为自己患病，也不想认为自己出现了症状。在内心深处，我们都知道，我们中的大多数人可能会患上某种形式的 C.T.E.”

虽然已有数百名 NFL 前球员被诊断出患有 C.T.E.（通常是在亲人因担忧其症状而捐献大脑之后），但大多数 C.T.E. 病例并未公开。

只有少数病例进入公众视野，通常是因为与知名人物相关，例如朱尼尔·索（Junior Seau）、肯·斯塔布勒（Ken Stabler）和弗兰克·吉福德（Frank Gifford），他们均被选入职业橄榄球名人堂。

另一些人则因犯罪行为而臭名昭著，而这些行为随后在一定程度上被解释为 C.T.E. 所致，包括亚伦·赫尔南德兹（Aaron Hernandez）和菲利普·亚当斯（Phillip Adams），两人均犯有谋杀罪，并在死后被诊断出患有 C.T.E.。2025 年 7 月，曾打过橄榄球但未进入 NFL 的谢恩·塔穆拉（Shane Tamura）在纽约市一座设有该联盟总部的建筑内杀害了四人。塔穆拉先生去世后，尸检确认他患有 C.T.E.。

C.T.E. 无法在生前诊断，尽管一些前橄榄球运动员（如名人堂跑卫托尼·多塞特 Tony Dorsett）推测自己患有此病。一些球员，如克里斯·波兰德（Chris Borland）和约翰·厄舍尔（John Urschel），为了保护大脑，采取预防措施提前结束了职业生涯。

不断增加的 C.T.E. 病例名单并未削弱橄榄球的受欢迎程度。据报道， 在 2024 年的收入超过 230 亿美元 billion。

“ 持续致力于让橄榄球运动变得更安全，包括实施旨在减少脑震荡和头部冲击的策略，”该联盟在的一份声明中表示。

代表球员的工会—— 球员协会表示，这项新研究“是一个令人清醒的提醒，表明橄榄球带有真实风险，而这些风险可能会给球员及其家人带来持久的影响”。

不断扩大的 C.T.E. 病例样本量带来了残酷的认知。例如，在 1972 年迈阿密海豚队（现代 历史上唯一一支未尝败绩的球队）中，有 8 名成员被诊断出患有 C.T.E.。

最新的一例（此前未报道）是默丘里·莫里斯（Mercury Morris），这位速度极快的半卫在 效力了 8 个赛季，退休后长期受头痛和药物成瘾困扰，并于 2024 年在 77 岁时去世。

并非所有 C.T.E. 病例都属于处于老年期的长期退休球员。据《波士顿环球报》报道，在赢得超级碗的 2001 年新英格兰爱国者队中，有 7 名前球员在 35 至 50, 岁之间去世。研究人员表示，其中至少 3 人被诊断出患有 C.T.E.。

然而，最新的研究表明，如果四分之一的患病率适用，那么该球队中至少还有 10 人可能患有 C.T.E.。

2009 年圣迭戈闪电队在常规赛中取得了 13-3 的战绩，目前已有 3 名去世球员被发现患有 C.T.E. 且姓名已公开。

其中一人是文森特·杰克逊（Vincent Jackson），这位三届全明星接球手在 38. 岁时因酒精中毒在酒店房间去世。另一人是凯文·埃利森（Kevin Ellison），一名后卫，在误入加利福尼亚州的一条高速公路被车撞击后，于 31 岁时去世。

另一人是后卫保罗·奥利弗（Paul Oliver），2013 年他 29 岁时，在自家住宅的楼梯上，在妻子切尔西（Chelsea）和两个年幼儿子的面前开枪自杀。

奥利弗的妻子表示，她偶尔会收到丈夫前队友或其家人的消息，他们担心自己也受到了慢性创伤性脑病（C.T.E.）的影响。她怀疑 25% 这个数字低于实际情况。

“我觉得如果我们能在每个人还活着的时候就对他们进行 C.T.E. 检测，大多数人都会患有 C.T.E.,”她说。

她说，她的丈夫在 NFL 效力了四年，期间经历了一系列脑震荡，随后变成了一个“不再是原来的他”的人。她说，他长期遭受头痛困扰，变得妄想且多疑，并开始酗酒。在长期效力于闪电队并在新英格兰结束职业生涯的球星朱尼尔·索（Junior Seau）开枪击中胸膛自杀，以便将大脑留作检测后不久，这对夫妇讨论了 C.T.E. 的可能性。

切尔西·奥利弗说，从统计学上得知她的丈夫可能有十二名或更多患有 C.T.E. 的队友，得知他并非独自承受这种疾病，并没有给她带来任何慰藉。“这只会让我感到悲哀。”

她不指望球迷能够理解。她阅读了关于前橄榄球运动员行为不端或自杀报道下的评论。“你会看到很多人说，‘打赌他们又要把责任推给 C.T.E. 了。’我只能摇头。这些人完全没有概念。他们不明白，因为他们没有亲身经历过。所以我不能责怪他们。”

她补充道：“对他们来说，脑震荡、C.T.E.，那是别人的问题。”

如果您有自杀念头，请拨打或发送短信至 988 联系 988 自杀与危机生命线，或访问 SpeakingOfSuicide.com / resources 获取更多资源列表。

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随着 C.T.E. 病例激增，为什么我们仍在观看？

新闻分析

根据一项新研究，在 2016 年至 2021 年间去世的近 900 名美国国家橄榄球联盟（NFL）前球员中，约有 25% 患有慢性创伤性脑病（C.T.E.）。 BRANDON THIBODEAUX 为《纽约时报》供图

对于美国人来说，橄榄球凸显了流行文化与公共卫生的碰撞

作者：约翰·布兰奇（JOHN BRANCH）

在进入 C.T.E. 时代的 20 年里，美国国家橄榄球联盟（NFL）比以往任何时候都更受欢迎，利润也更高。尽管橄榄球运动员所承受的脑损伤代价——这一曾经无法衡量的损失——在数学计算上变得越来越清晰，但收入仍在增长。

球迷们不能以无知为由开脱。得益于一项新研究，他们现在知道，在 2016 年至 2021 年间去世的近 900 名 NFL 前球员中，至少有四分之一患有 C.T.E.。

社会学家表示，我们生活在一个认知失调的时代。他们想知道，对于球迷的集体意识来说，多少起 C.T.E. 病例才算“太多”？需要什么样的条件才能让他们停止观看，或者停止将孩子送入激烈的身体碰撞之中？NFL 中有多少个不可逆转受损的大脑才能让大众转身离去？

“我怀疑没有任何数字能做到这一点，”终身橄榄球迷、《反对橄榄球：一个人的勉强宣言》（Against Football: One Man’s Reluctant Manifesto）一书的作者史蒂夫·阿尔蒙德（Steve Almond）说道。

阿尔蒙德是数百万无法从他所谓的“我们不神圣的胃口”中抽身的人之一。只不过他对此思考得更深。他说橄榄球在“道德上令人不安”。

“绝大多数球迷并不是坐在那里说，‘我想看到人们受伤，我有这种嗜血欲望’，”他说。“我认为，就像我一样，他们沉溺于一项美丽且在叙事上令人兴奋的运动，而这项运动有一个不幸的附属品——即它绝对不安全。”

在过去的 20 年里，数百名 NFL 前球员死于慢性创伤性脑病（C.T.E.），这是一种由头部反复受击引起的脑部疾病。现在，一项新的同行评审研究显示，在最近六年的时间里，其中 25% 的人被发现患有 C.T.E. —— 只有在死后，才能确定地诊断出该疾病。

四分之一的比例无疑是偏低的，因为它没有计入该期间内近 75% 的已故球员，由于其大脑未提供给研究人员，因此未被检查。

如果四分之一的比例延伸到即将到来的赛季，这意味着平均每支球队有 13 名球员，而联盟中将有 400 多名现役球员患有 C.T.E.。

他们也可能会经历 C.T.E. 带来的类痴呆症状，可能包括记忆力减退、意识混乱、冲动和抑郁。与那些足够幸运而未患病的人相比，他们的预期寿命可能会更短，成瘾和自杀率要高得多。

按照任何职场安全的标准，C.T.E. 都是一场流行病。可能没有任何一个行业会对其员工造成如此巨大的伤害。而且我们知道，这种伤害有时也会波及那些仅仅为了乐趣而参与比赛的青少年。

然而，数百万儿童仍在继续进行身体接触式橄榄球运动。美国大学为此投入数十亿美元 —— 高等教育领导者在明知该运动会导致部分学生患上神经系统脑部疾病的情况下，仍在刻意培养这项运动。球员的输送管道就像一个取之不尽的资源，持续流向 NFL。

而球迷们则继续欢呼。

橄榄球在美国文化中拥有独特的掌控力。这项运动带有一种朦胧的怀旧感，但它也比以往任何时候都更加繁荣。根基深厚。大学联赛比 NFL 早了几十年，而 NFL 已经存在了一个多世纪。如今，该联盟的比赛转播占据了电视上观看人数最多的节目中的很大一部分。

这不仅仅是娱乐。橄榄球渗透在美国社会的方方面面。整个城市都将自己与职业球队联系在一起。整个社区在大学橄榄球赛的传统与盛况中繁荣发展。全国各地的城镇和郊区在“周五之夜的灯光”中闪耀。

通过赛前车尾派对、比赛日的仪式以及对球队颜色的坚定忠诚，传统得以传承，社区精神得以提升。数百万人参与比赛投注，即便仅仅是通过办公室集资投注或幻想橄榄球（fantasy football）。孩子们在校园和后院里踢橄榄球。超级碗是少数几个仍能将来自各方的人们联系在一起的文化盛事之一。

最新的研究论文可能不足以动摇这种忠诚。

退休大学教授、《社会中的体育》（Sports in Society，该大学教科书现已印刷至第14版）的作者杰伊·科克利（Jay Coakley）表示，就目前而言，橄榄球似乎

“如果你把头撞在其他成年人，甚至更小的人身上，必然会产生一些负面影响。”

无需为其危险性承担责任。他说，这项运动与球迷的生活结合得太深，以至于即使心爱的 NFL 球星有四分之一的概率被诊断出患有慢性创伤性脑病（C.T.E.），也不会让球迷们离去。

“当你开始将此与那些他们并不真正熟悉、几乎没有个人信息的运动员身上发生的事情进行对比时，他们会倾向于选择那些在重大程度上贡献于他们生活的事物，”科克利说。“然后，他们会故意忽略或诋毁任何与此相冲突的信息。”

比如脑损伤数据。科克利谈到了“伟大的体育神话”，即认为体育在个人和集体层面都具有某种本质上的善良和纯洁，这种观念阻碍了我们对其进行批判性审视。阿尔蒙将其称为一个“合理化的行李箱”，即即便内心深处感到不安，也能说服自己这一切都没问题。

“这是一种伟大的交易，一种资本主义的肮脏交易，”阿尔蒙说。“我们都知道有屠宰场，但我们也热爱培根芝士汉堡。所以我们并不真正关注屠宰场。”

社会学家表示，球迷拥有距离感的奢侈，可以伪装成某种抽离状态。他们可以假装自己的英雄能够免疫于美国最受欢迎的碰撞运动所带来的退行性风险。橄榄球穿着像盔甲一样的制服，这与拳击甚至综合格斗不同，后者的伤势在血迹和 10 秒计数中显而易见。橄榄球运动中遭受的脑损伤通常是不可见且延迟的。痛苦在随后发生，且在视线之外。

此外，球员一旦踏入赛场，难道不是接受了所有风险吗？

联盟及其球队所有者在 C.T.E. 证据时代已经进入 20 年之际，在脑部安全方面仅采取了微小的步骤。2013 年，当 NFL 在不承认责任的情况下，以 7.65 亿美元达成一项涉及 4,500 多名球员的集体诉讼和解时，经通货膨胀调整后，该联盟的年收入约为 140 亿美元。

到 2024 年，这一数字已超过 230 亿美元。

而 NFL 的球员们呢？他们继续涌入，追逐童年梦想和百万美元的薪水，依然不确定如何计算风险与回报。

41 岁的乔·托马斯在克利夫兰布朗队担任进攻截锋 11 年后退役。他于 2023 年入选职业橄榄球名人堂。

“在更衣室里，普遍的思维方式是我们都是橄榄球运动员，而且我们选择了这个职业，”托马斯说。“这是我们的身份，是我们热爱做的事，也是我们获得高薪做的事。”

他说，托马斯在职业生涯期间经历过记忆问题，但从未确定这些问题是与橄榄球有关，还是与正常的衰老有关。这种模糊的推论导致一些人为现状辩护。

“很明显，如果你把头撞在其他成年人，甚至更小的人身上，必然会产生一些负面影响，”托马斯说。

橄榄球运动员，即使是那些没有进入 NFL 的人，也生活在一种像“bogeyman”（潜伏的威胁）一样的东西之中。我们之中谁会得病？什么时候得？

关于 C.T.E. 一个令人困扰的问题是，研究人员尚不清楚为什么患有该病的人中，有些人会出现症状，而有些人则不会。

本月，66 岁的前跑卫罗杰·克雷格入选职业橄榄球名人堂。他在演讲中宣布自己被诊断出患有认知障碍症，他认为这与橄榄球有关。

“两件事可以同时成立，”克雷格说。“橄榄球给了我超出想象的机会。它帮助塑造了我现在成为的人。与此同时，我们今天对大脑健康的了解比我比赛时要多，我希望分享我的故事能鼓励人们关注自己的健康，并在感觉不对劲时寻求帮助。”

入职仪式是庆祝橄榄球周末庆祝活动的一部分。其中还包括美国国家橄榄球联盟（N.F.L.）在两支扩大了季前赛名单的球队之间进行的首次季前赛。如果应用最新研究的数据，这些球员中至少有 45 人终将患上慢性创伤性脑病（C.T.E.）。

C.T.E. 是一种退行性脑疾病，被认为是由头部反复受到冲击引起的——不仅是严重的脑震荡，还包括无数次被忽视的轻微亚震荡冲击。目前尚无其他已知原因。在过去的 20 年里，人们发现冰球、橄榄球、足球、BMX 小轮车和雪橇等运动的运动员中存在此病。在军人以及至少一名警察身上也发现了该病。

但在橄榄球运动中，美国流行文化与公共卫生的交汇点在数百万球迷面前展现得最为明显。

相关病例已变得司空见惯，几乎成了例行公事。大多数病例并未公开。每年公开的少数病例，已成为比赛进行时的熟悉背景。

约 350 名前 N.F.L. 球员被诊断出患有 C.T.E.，其中大多数人在晚年出现了严重症状。一些是年迈的球星，如弗兰克·吉福德、肯·斯塔布勒和尼克·布尼孔蒂——后者是 1972 年未尝败绩的迈阿密海豚队八名至今被诊断出患病的成员之一。另一些则是近期退役或处于中年的人员，如德马里乌斯·托马斯、弗兰克·怀切克和文森特·杰克逊。数人死于自杀，包括朱尼尔·索、戴夫·杜尔森和特里·隆。少数人在犯下谋杀罪后早逝，包括亚伦·赫尔南德斯、乔万·贝尔彻和菲利普·亚当斯。

大多数人在职业生涯结束多年后，在远离公众视线的地方遭受折磨。

“我们看不到这些人长期的结局，以及这如何改变了他们的生活，”退休教授科克利说道。

参与最新研究的一些研究人员希望能够对生者进行 C.T.E. 的临床诊断。这不像脑部尸检那样是一门精确的科学，而更像是通过分析无数症状和测试来诊断阿尔茨海默病或帕金森病。他们还计划公布他们认为的所有前 N.F.L. 球员在去世时患有 C.T.E. 的真实估计病例数——预计这一比例将远高于 25%。

一些人认为，统计结果将显示超过一半的前 N.F.L. 球员在死时患有 C.T.E.。如果事实如此，橄榄球迷将面对一个关于这项运动的更加令人不安的局面。

微型纵横字谜

作者：乔尔·法利亚诺 (JOEL FAGLIANO)

横向 1 蜘蛛 ____ 4 对男朋友的古称，源自法语 5 鳄鱼 ____ 6 ____鸟 7 ____狼

纵向 1 感到疲惫不堪 2 英国贵族头衔 3 ____蜂 4 熊猫 ____ 5 旧式速记中的“侦探”

两星不触

在网格的每一行、每一列和每个区域中各放入两颗星。任何两颗星不得接触，包括对角线方向。 版权所有 © 2024 www.krazydad.com

脑力激荡

谜题作者：威尔·肖茨 (WILL SHORTZ)

在每组虚线中反向插入一个六字母的女性名字，以完成一个常用短语。 1. WRONG ON SO MA____ LS 2. JUV____ _OURT 3. B____ _LIPPERS

周六答案：Ports, sport, strop

横向 1 舞蹈的一部分 5 拥有《每日布鲁因》报纸的学校 9 微醺 14 华丽 15 鱼钩上的蠕虫之类 16 志同道合 17 获得两项死后格莱美奖的雷丁 (Redding) 18 《芝麻街》角色，曾被安德烈·波切利唱至入睡 19 搜刮 20 经常掉东西的人 23 The : 英语 :: _ : 法语 24 sigma 之后的字母 25 以 Friskies 为食者 28 塞琳娜·戈麦斯在《公寓大劫案》中的角色 31 伞状海洋生物 34 导演杜弗奈 (DuVernay) 35 可怜的

纵横字谜 / 编辑：威尔·肖茨 (Will Shortz)

36 详尽检查 37 先开枪，后承担后果 40 针对娇小女性的服装尺寸 41 之字形滑雪 42 “太棒了！” 43 Tetra- 减一 44 新婚夫妇的度假地 46 猫头鹰的叫声 48 女演员德·阿尔马斯 (de Armas) 49 401(k) 的相关项目 50 例如：“需要方舟吗？我认识个诺亚 (Noah) 伙计” 51 “告诉所有人！” ...或者如何处理 20-、31- 和 44-横向的开头？ 58 因纽特语中的“房子” 60 意大利语的问候 61 Et __（拉丁语：以及其他人） 62 网球场地 63 复活节前的观察期 64 可能被评为 R 级 65 立方体有 12 个这个 66 汽油品牌

KenKen 数独

在网格中填入数字，使每一行或每一列中的数字不重复，并且每个粗线框内的数字通过加、减、乘或除（如框内所示）计算后，得出所示的目标数字。4x4 网格使用数字 1-4。6x6 网格使用数字 1-6。

谜题作者：克里斯托弗·扬斯 (CHRISTOPHER YOUNGS)

纵向 1 制造混乱的人 2 糖梅仙子的装束 3 出口匝道 4 粉碎工具 5 Lyft 的替代方案 6 幼鲸 7 供应无穷 8 缺乏音乐调性 9 一个 ____ 与时间同在 10 作曲家斯特拉文斯基 (Stravinsky) 11 开胃菜盘中的火腿 12 凝固 13 “你叫我？”

21 蜿蜒的游泳者 22 艰难地吞下 26 断言 27 研究生项目 28 ____ P. Johnson（同性恋权利活动家） 29 亚瑟王传说的岛屿 30 像水果的软体动物 31 “一二”中的“一” 32 到目前为止 33 工人们期待的一周部分：缩写 35 俚语中可能用冷切肉制作的午餐项目

38 生姜 ____ 39 抛球玩具或悠悠球 40 深盘容器 42 摇滚乐队的后勤人员 45 预言家 46 色调 47 “走向胜利！” 50 Instagram 帖子的一部分 52 皮肤开口 53 变质 54 在海滩上晒成古铜色 55 拥有“抗衰老”产品的品牌 56 拌饭基底 57 桌面日历的页码 58 酒吧里的“石头” 59 forbid 或 forsaken 的前缀

在 http: / nytimes.com / games 在线玩我们所有的游戏以及超过 10,000 个 Wordle、Spelling Bee、纵横字谜等往期谜题。关于谜题的讨论，请访问 http: / nytimes.com / wordplay。

Interpol 乐队已完成轮回

旧金山

保罗·班克斯（左）与 Interpol 乐队的丹尼尔·凯斯勒，他们的新专辑名为《This Mirror Weighs a Ton》。该组合的首张长篇专辑《Turn On the Bright Lights》于 2002 年发行。 ARSENII VASELENKO 为纽约时报拍摄

该乐队的最新专辑探讨了美国新的监控国家现状

作者：迈克·艾萨克（MIKE ISAAC）

对于一支长期以来将“来自纽约”视为核心身份的乐队来说，这座城市接纳 Interpol 的方式在某种程度上可以被认为是偶然的。

其广受好评的首张专辑《Turn On the Bright Lights》创作于 9·11 袭击事件之前。那场袭击摧毁了世界贸易中心，给纽约带来了创伤，引发了对外战争，并开启了一个国内监控时代。然而，在 2002 年该唱片发行后，它定义了当时的集体情绪：49 分钟的后朋克沉思与忧郁的低鸣，向受伤的民众递出了一封近乎哀悼的情书。

“你反映的是一个特定的时刻，你明白我的意思吗？”Interpol 48 岁的主唱保罗·班克斯在旧金山湾码头边的一次午餐采访中说道。该组合本月在北美的巡演中在该地进行了为期三晚的演出。在品尝秘鲁 ceviche（柠檬腌鱼）的间隙，他提到艺术作品有时恰好在人们寻找它的时候出现。“希望作为一名艺术家，你能对周围发生的事情的脉搏有所洞察，即使你可能没有直接地表达出来，”班克斯说。

近 25 年后，在发行了七张录音室专辑之后，Interpol 已经完成了轮回。美国再次陷入海外战争，监控国家进一步延伸到美国人的生活中。但在新专辑《This Mirror Weighs a Ton》中，Interpol 直接探讨了这些问题。这是该组合十多年来首次在纽约市录制的专辑。

这张专辑触及了技术进步的持续鼓点以及那些让人感到日益孤立的“进步”观念。封面艺术则更加直白：一盏由 14 个闭路电视摄像头组成的吊灯——就像你在银行柜员头上能看到的那种——指向四面八方。（这件名为《Asymmetric Love Number 2》的作品由纽约艺术家艾迪·瓦根克内希创作，是惠特尼美国艺术博物馆永久馆藏的一部分。）

虽然《Mirror》延续了 Interpol 标志性的单薄吉他扫弦、变换的调性签名以及失真且刺耳的和弦，但它得到了实验性的支撑。其中有温暖且盘旋的合成器音色、木管乐 section，甚至还有中央公园里轻柔的鸟鸣声。

“我认为我们是一支在进化的乐队，但我们是通过一种‘持续抵达’的过程来实现的，”Interpol 的主吉他手、51 岁的丹尼尔·凯斯勒说道。他穿着黑色西裤、牛津领纽扣衬衫和一件飘逸的风衣出席午餐，唯一的亮色出现在他翘起腿时露出的血红色袜子。 “我们所有的唱片都带有情感，但在这张唱片中，沉重之余确实存在着希望与俏皮。”

尽管该乐队具有浓厚的纽约色彩，但 Interpol 的大多数成员都是移民到这座城市的。凯斯勒出生于英国，在法国长大，随后在纽约大学（N.Y.U.）学习，并在那里与卡洛斯·登格勒相识。他们在巴黎的一个留学项目中结识班克斯后将其招募入队——班克斯出生于英国，在墨西哥和西班牙长大。在另一名鼓手离开后，凯斯勒在 2000 年邀请比他年长近十岁的费城人萨姆·福加里诺加入乐队。

到 2001 年，Interpol 在下东区狭窄且汗涔涔的摇滚俱乐部中艰苦奋斗。当时 MTV 上充斥着另类金属风格的宽腿牛仔裤和反戴的 New Era 帽子，而乐队成员则选择了法国新浪潮的 mod 风格，以及一种足以媲美让-吕克·戈达尔（Jean-Luc Godard）的“夜晚戴墨镜”造型。

“Turn On the Bright Lights”是该乐队的第一张全长专辑，于次年在一个处于转型期的纽约市发行。专辑中的忧郁氛围成为了批判布什时代外交政策、后《爱国者法案》时期的国内监视以及一系列令国家大部分民众日后感到后悔的对外战争的背景。在成名单曲《Obstacle 1》中，凯斯勒重复的吉他拨奏带有一种刺耳警报的节奏。艺名为 Carlos D 的登格勒演奏着充满动感的贝斯线，腰带上还挂着枪套（后来他把手枪换成了烟包）。福加里诺奔放的鼓点带来了一种活力，与班克斯冷峻的男低音形成对比，评论家经常将这种嗓音比作 Joy Division 乐队的伊恩·柯蒂斯。

Interpol 曾与后来定义了该场景的乐队共用排练空间，如 TV on the Radio、Animal Collective 和 Lightning Bolt。Yeah Yeah Yeahs 经常在休斯顿街的 Mercury Lounge 表演，而 The Strokes 则迅速赢得了下曼哈顿“喧闹男孩”的名声。观众开始认为摇滚乐的代名词是纽约，而非西雅图或洛杉矶。

“到处都在涌现乐队，”阿梅迪奥·帕切说道。他是凯斯勒的朋友，也是纽约噪音摇滚乐队 Blonde Redhead 的成员，该乐队与 Interpol 是同时代的人。“当时的音乐场景有趣且充满活力，这座城市感觉是开放的，没有明确的界限。”

Interpol 随后在 2004 年推出了《Antics》，延续了《Lights》的忧郁基调，并在那个十年中又发行了两张 LP 专辑，其声音风格转向一种宏大的气势，这在粉丝中引起了分歧，但突破了界限。2010 年代，在经历了十年的不懈巡演后，Interpol 陷入了个人状态最不稳定的时期。体现了酒精与药物摇滚明星生活方式的班克斯跌入了谷底。登格勒因创作分歧与其他成员发生冲突，导致其离队。当时人们严重质疑 Interpol 是否会解散。

“在之前的几年里，我做了一些让自己后悔的事情，比如一些年轻时的不良行为，导致了那些关系的恶化，”班克斯在采访中说道，显得有些沉思。“但我很感激与卡洛斯之间的事情没有以大家对着彼此竖中指的方式结束。它是，你知道的，在相互尊重中结束的。”

到 2011 年，班克斯已经戒掉了恶习，乐队用布拉德·特鲁克斯（Spiritualized, Gang Gang Dance）取代了登格勒，后者成为了乐队的固定成员。

在梦幻自省摇滚（shoegaze）的复兴和 Y2K 复古风的推动下，新一代粉丝开始涌入。2014 年专辑《El Pintor》中的《Everything Is Wrong》和《All the Rage Back Home》等曲目吸引了新听众，他们发现了那些与早期观众产生共鸣的重混响吉他扫弦。（根据。

“我们所有的记录都带有情感，但在这一张记录中，沉重之余无疑也蕴含着希望与俏皮。”

（根据其所属厂牌 Partisan 的数据，该乐队在 Spotify 上的听众中，超过一半的人年龄在 35 岁以下。）在 9 / 11 事件后的世界里，Interpol 凭借一种阴郁的纽约时髦感赢得了早期的独立音乐追随者，而这种影响力早已扩展到纽约五个区之外。在拉丁美洲，Interpol 这种“忧郁核心”（sorrow-core）的声音与那些热爱莫里西（Morrissey）和 The Cure 等艺人颓废风格的人产生了共鸣。这使得 在 2024 年于墨西哥城索卡洛广场（Zócalo）举办了其职业生涯规模最大的一场演出，观众人数超过 160,000 人。

在新冠疫情早期的封锁期间，成员们在不同地点分别创作了《The Other Side of "Make-Believe"》（2022），随后该团体意识到下一张专辑将会有所不同。凯斯勒（Kessler）在隔离状态下创作《Make-Believe》时倍感吃力，因此希望回到 的根基——在曼哈顿下城进行录制。他寻求了一位多年好友安德鲁·怀亚特（Andrew Wyatt）的制作帮助，怀亚特是纽约本地人，曾是瑞典流行组合 Miike Snow 的成员，并曾为 Charli XCX 和 Dua Lipa 制作专辑。55 岁的怀亚特将一种俏皮的可能性引入了乐队熟悉的忧郁之中：风铃、如大黄蜂嗡鸣般的背景键盘，甚至提出了一个“异端”想法——使用原声吉他而非完全采用电吉他。

“我确实推动了他们，我知道我这么做了，”怀亚特在一次电话采访中表示。“你希望在尝试新事物的同时，以一种自然的方式保留他们原有的特质。我热爱他们将羞怯与自信、极乐与痛苦融合在一起的方式，”他补充道，“还有那种黑暗。那种黑暗。”

在《This Mirror Weighs a Ton》中，结果是将 标志性的阴郁存在主义与随着成熟和时间流逝而而来的温柔感和希望感融合在了一起。同名主打曲以华丽且具有空间感的键盘开场，给人一种身处温水浴的感觉。电子颤音在《So Rides the Reindeer》中回荡。在《Iron City》中，班克斯（Banks）的歌词谨慎地触及了全能的智能生命——无论是人工智能还是其他形式——以及它们可能为人类准备的命运。

像《See Out Loud》这样的曲目保留了 早期作品中那种冷峻且以吉他为主导的鲁莽感。但这张专辑中闪现的明亮色调比以往任何作品都更为明显。在午餐期间，班克斯指出，人工智能永远会落后于那些推动艺术前进的音乐家。他坚持在专辑封面艺术中加入凌乱的手写体，以赋予其一丝“人性”，从而抵消由相机吊灯所暗示的关于未来的福柯式观念。

有些事情没有改变。8 月初， 宣布在旧金山市中心规模较小的美国大音乐厅（Great American Music Hall）举办一场惊喜演出，门票瞬间售罄。房间里挤满了 700 人，人们像沙丁鱼一样穿着黑色牛仔裤紧紧挨在一起，空气闷热，随着 登台，现场气氛沸腾。尽管相隔数千英里且跨越了二十年，这场演出感觉就像 21 世纪初那些烟雾缭绕的格林威治村俱乐部，当时年轻且严肃的 在那里面对一群心灰意冷的纽约人，以一种毫无表情的方式进行表演。

班克斯在明亮的红色舞台灯光下，在室内戴着太阳镜，拨动着他的 Les Paul 定制吉他。但这一次，在这场演出中，他在微笑。

“纽约市创造并培养了 ，” 的鼓手福加里诺（Fogarino）说道，“因此，我们继续前行。”

美国官员欲处置一幅“觉醒”画作

两名官员均未详细说明该作品具体有哪些令人反感之处。

来自美国驻多米尼加共和国大使馆

基欣德·威利的作品已从该加勒比地区大使馆中被移除

作者：扎卡里·斯莫尔（ZACHARY SMALL）

美国国务院希望出售由著名艺术家基欣德·威利（Kehinde Wiley）创作的一幅画作，其“大使馆艺术计划”负责人称该作品“非常觉醒（woke）”且“在美学上令人恐惧”。该画作于本月从美国驻多米尼加共和国大使馆被移除。

威利在被选中创作巴拉克·奥巴马总统的官方肖像后名声大噪。这幅画作以花卉为背景，描绘了四位多米尼加模特。该作品由联邦政府于 2013 年委托创作，并使用纳税人的资金购买。

国务院官员在将该画作从大使馆移除之前，先用一块印有美国国旗图案的防水布将其遮盖。

“大使馆艺术计划”负责人埃琳·斯卡维诺（Erin Scavino）在最近的一次播客采访中批评了威利的画作，并指出了该艺术家与奥巴马的联系。美国驻多米尼加共和国大使利亚·坎波斯（Leah Campos）在社交媒体上发布了一段播放摇滚名曲《We're Not Gonna Take It》的视频，庆祝该画作被移除，并写道这幅画是“全球主义和觉醒意识形态”的典型。

在关于移除该画作的一份声明中，国务院的一位发言人并未直接谈及该艺术品。声明转而批评了威利在 2023 年对其作品《朱迪斯与荷罗孚尼》（Judith and Holofernes）发表的评论，威利当时将其描述为“对‘杀死白人’这一话题的戏仿”。声明还引用了针对威利的性侵指控，而威利对此予以否认。

“一个发表如此暴力和种族主义言论及描绘的人，其作品在‘美国优先’的国务院中没有立足之地，”该发言人表示。

声明称，国务院正在确定是否可以合法出售这幅名为《Siamesas 1960 后的年轻艺术家》（Young Artists After Siamesas 1960）的多米尼加人画作。

“如果可行，”该发言人说，“‘大使馆艺术计划’的目标将是自豪地将其售出。”

该艺术家的一幅较小画作在 2024 年的一场菲利普斯（Phillips）拍卖会上以近 845,000 美元的价格成交。威利及其画廊主肖恩·凯利（Sean Kelly）未回应置评请求。

委托创作该画作的弗吉尼亚·肖尔（Virginia Shore）在 2000 年至 2017 年间担任“大使馆艺术计划”的收购总监兼首席策展人，建立了许多大使馆的艺术收藏。她将该作品描述为非党派性的，并表示出售大使馆艺术品没有先例。

“对我来说，很难理解为什么称其为‘觉醒’，”她说。“这是一个在布什时期得到认可并获得资金支持的计划。在跨国界建立信任与共情是一门科学。”

伊恩·C·贝茨（IAN C. BATES）为《纽约时报》供稿

左图为曾悬挂在多米尼加共和国的《Siamesas 1960 后的年轻艺术家》。上图为基欣德·威利，他同时也创作了巴拉克·奥巴马总统的肖像。

威利因对文化外交的贡献在 2015 年获得了国务院的奖项。他经常从历史名画中汲取灵感，邀请当代黑人模特在他的构图版本中摆姿势。为了创作《Siamesas 1960 后的年轻艺术家》，他花费两年时间研究多米尼加艺术家塞莱斯特·沃斯-伊-吉尔（Celeste Woss y Gil）和吉尔伯托·埃尔南德斯-奥尔特加（Gilberto Hernández Ortega）的画作，并与该加勒比国家的艺术学生合作完成了该场景。

此次移除艺术品是将国务院艺术计划政治化的最新尝试。该计划于 1963 年肯尼迪政府时期成为政府的一部分，旨在促进文化外交。

该计划在 1999 年根据《安全大使馆建设与反恐法案》得到加强，促使各大使馆发展出自己的永久艺术收藏。

今年，斯卡维诺声称由于“撒旦婴儿艺术品”而让一名驻罗马尼亚布加勒斯特的大使被解雇，尽管该外交官的离职被报道为计划内的退休。她还绕过正常程序，选择了一位没有任何策展经验的朋友担任威尼斯双年展美国馆的负责人。

7月，斯卡维诺在华盛顿组织了一场旨在“让艺术再次伟大”的展览，现场展出了近 70 个版本的美国国旗。

在关于被移除的怀利画作的一份声明中，美国大使坎波斯表示：“我的意图是，我们从美国驻圣多明哥大使馆所展示的一切，包括艺术品和装饰，都要反映出美利坚合众国及其人民的美丽、力量以及对自由的承诺。”

在网上，她的观点更为强烈：“在特朗普政府和我的领导下，我们正在抛弃全球主义和‘觉醒’意识形态，转而拥抱美国爱国主义以及我们伟大国家的美丽。”

她在句末加上了一个美国国旗的表情符号。

百老汇的惊悚之声

摄影：SARA KRULWICH / 纽约时报

剧评

一部恐怖电影系列改编的舞台剧自带“跳杀”惊吓

作者：HELEN SHAW

在 2007 年的恐怖电影《灵异现象》（Paranormal Activity）中，视频片段——其中大部分颗粒感重且昏暗——向我们展示了人类肉眼可能会忽略的邪恶。一对年轻夫妇在卧室里安装了摄像机，在接下来的几个夜晚里，摄像机捕捉到了潜伏在他们熟睡身体附近之物的证据。威胁缓慢地、极其缓慢地逼近：一扇门移动了；有人尖叫了。（好吧，行，那是我的尖叫。）

如何将这种基于悬疑的恐惧感转化为剧场体验？恐怖片拍摄成本低廉，但在舞台上重现则极其昂贵。而且剧场观众面对的是一整套布景，因此很难营造出那种感觉有什么东西正潜伏在视线之外、让人后颈发凉的爬行感。

明智的是，在目前正在百老汇上演的惊险剧作《灵异现象》中，剧作家利维·霍洛威（Levi Holloway）和导演费利克斯·巴雷特（Felix Barrett）抛弃了该电影系列几乎所有的特征。这里没有“伪纪录片”式的素材，也几乎没有对原片情节的致敬。相反，他们的演出是对前电影时代惊吓技巧的证明，比如突然响起的大声门铃（由加雷斯·弗莱担任音效设计），或者在黑暗中进行的一段催眠般的叙事。

不过，情节依然围绕着一对陷入困境的夫妇展开：深情的露（Cher Álvarez 饰）和詹姆斯（Travis A. Knight 饰），两人结婚一年，但已经深陷危机。露感到一种无处不在的恐惧，仿佛有什么东西在监视她。在经历了一场定义模糊的危机——露在芝加哥老家曾遭受的一系列“时间缺失”式意识黑洞——之后，詹姆斯将他们搬到了伦敦。

他们租了一栋巨大的房子，但这对夫妇似乎仍然被其他存在所挤压：詹姆斯与他住在佛罗里达州的福音派母亲卡罗兰（Shannon Cochran 饰）进行着具有侵入性的视频聊天；而且在露准备好生孩子之前，他就布置好了婴儿房。（“这不吉利，”她轻描淡写地说道。）他试图说服她，他同样相信超自然力量，甚至给她买了一个铃铛，他们约定如果其中一人先走，就在阴间摇铃。典型的夫妻琐事。

剧作以旁白开始，后来揭晓这是一个关于鬼魂的播客节目。“被诅咒的不是地方，而是人，”那个声音低语道，但我们持怀疑态度。布景（由弗莱·戴维斯设计）看起来确实有点阴森：这是一个两层楼的建筑，像蛋糕一样从中间切开。即便在我们的注视下被剖开，这座房子仍有太多可以隐藏的地方，而且它那阴晴不定的电路显然厌恶活人。（安娜·沃森设计了灯光。）

我们已经足够警觉，能够对楼梯顶端的黑暗区域以及浴室门开启后隐藏的一个足以容纳一个人的空间产生不信任感。最能引起共鸣的一次笑声发生在一名角色以一种足以媲美“海豹突击队 6 组”的谨慎程度靠近浴帘时。

与人群一起观看《灵异现象》的感觉就像在过山车上观看魔术表演。我们尖叫，然后因为自己尖叫而大笑（我们是不是太傻了？），接着当过山车再次俯冲时，我们再次尖叫。在经历了广泛的巡演——该剧曾在波士顿、芝加哥、洛杉矶、旧金山和华盛顿上演——之后，它已被打磨得极其精良。从设计和导演的角度来看，它令人惊叹，而幻觉设计师克里斯·费舍尔（Chris Fisher）拥有真正的魔术师之手：第一幕中一次令人心跳加速的惊吓让在场所有观众的大脑瞬间宕机。

巴雷特是沉浸式剧团 Punchdrunk 的创始人兼艺术总监。在他的指导下，阿尔瓦雷斯和奈特以一种令人印象深刻的

（图片）

上图为特拉维斯·A·奈特（Travis A. Knight）和切尔·阿尔瓦雷斯（Cher Álvarez）在由剧作家利维·霍洛威（Levi Holloway）创作、导演费利克斯·巴雷特（Felix Barrett）执导的《超自然现象》（Paranormal Activity）中饰演一对陷入危机的夫妇。左图为这对夫妇与由伊娃·卡明斯基（Eva Kaminsky）饰演的“专家”灵媒在一起。下图为由弗莱·戴维斯（Fly Davis）设计的分层舞台。

一种不受影响的自然主义。密集的麦克风布置（再次感谢弗莱）让这对夫妇能够低声耳语，因为即便在房屋的吱吱作响和呻吟声中，我们依然能听到他们的声音。霍洛威的剧本经常带有喜剧色彩，其精妙之处在于那些点缀性的细节，使这对夫妇显得亲切且接地气。（当门铃再次响起时，詹姆斯咒骂门铃的样子展现出一种能引起共鸣的挫败感。）

剧本中的几处措辞也足够犀利，能引起观众的深思。例如，一位原本没什么帮助的灵媒（伊娃·卡明斯基）告诉这对伴侣“火会产生阴影”。正如我们随后将了解到，露（Lou）和詹姆斯正以他们未曾意识到的方式在内心煎熬。在霍洛威的构建中，超自然活动是报应的标志。“我们所遭受的一切都是咎由自取，”其中一人将会这样说道。

霍洛威上一次在百老汇的作品是《灰色之屋》（Grey House），同样是一部恐怖剧，但效果差得多。在那部戏中，神话设定过于臃肿，以至于剧组向一些评论家发送了 PDF 备忘录来解释其背景设定。他在本作中的勾勒更为轻盈，尽管如果你在灯光亮起后思考，故事依然显得有些摇摆——所以灯光亮起后，千万不要思考太多。

恐怖题材是目前剧院的主流趋势。至少在英国出口作品方面如此：舞台剧《怪奇物语：第一道阴影》（Stranger Things: The First Shadow）和将于今年秋季上映的《2:22：鬼故事》（2:22: A Ghost Story）都始于英国，《超自然现象》亦然。这种痴迷由来已久。伪哥特惊悚剧《黑衣女人》（The Woman in Black）在伦敦上演了 33 年，而英国舞台恐怖剧的传统则血淋淋地可以追溯到 20 世纪 20 年代的惊悚剧场（Guignols），再追溯到 19 世纪 70 年代的廉价惊悚小说（penny dreadfuls），直至 17 世纪的复仇悲剧。

尽管可能会过度分析一部本质上是纯粹的、制作精良的娱乐作品（对于那些静息心率较低的人来说），但我好奇在《超自然现象》中是否能听到那段 400 年历史的回响。詹姆斯一世时期的伦敦是超自然剧作的顶尖之地，部分原因是宗教改革使某些隐秘的天主教习俗变得非法，而舞台则唤醒了那些不安的灵魂。

霍洛威显然对恐怖剧的宗教维度感兴趣，即它如何编码关于罪孽、苦难以及代祷可能性的信仰。例如，詹姆斯的母亲卡罗兰（Carolanne）是以《鬼入侵》（Poltergeist）电影中的小女孩卡罗·安（Carol Anne）命名的，在电影中，一座城镇对墓地（神圣之地！）的亵渎招致了可怕的报复。在某个时刻，霍洛威展示了卡罗兰的祈祷在面对折磨她家人的存在时是多么无力。他构建的是一种具有强烈道德色彩的本体论。霍洛威笔下的“恶物”并非随机行动，它们不原谅，也不拦截无辜者。

现在，我得承认我是一个超级胆小鬼，在观看《超自然现象》期间，我多次惊恐地抓紧手臂（对不起，我左边的邻居！）。然而，在这种恐怖之后产生的释放感，可能不仅仅是幸存于跳跃式惊吓（jump scares）后的宽慰。这里还有一种奇怪的安慰感：在一个恶人似乎在正义之外的世界里，某种东西正在注视着。如果现在难以察觉，那仅仅是因为它在等待让罪人付出代价。

步履不停

书评

TRISTAN SPINSKI 为《纽约时报》绘制

《在科夫山上》：

《在科夫山上》（Up on Cove Mountain） 阿巴拉契亚小径上的冒险、悲剧与意义追寻 作者：厄尔·斯威夫特（Earl Swift）。Mariner 出版社。368 pp. $32.

作者：本·麦格拉思（BEN MCGRATH）

1990 年夏天的某个深夜，厄尔·斯威夫特在纽汉普希尔州白山的营地中被一声他听过最巨大的响动惊醒。

当时他三十出头，刚从报社请了六个月的假，开始这段从缅因州到乔治亚州、长达数千英里的徒步之旅。

当他睁开眼时，一根折断的树枝就落在离他头部几英寸的地方。他在《在科夫山上》中写道：“我感到心惊胆战，深感恐惧，因为生死竟然取决于如此盲目、愚蠢且不可想象的运气。”

在那一周晚些时候，他赶上的一对性格温和的慢行者就没那么幸运。莫莉·拉鲁（Molly LaRue）和杰夫·胡德（Geoff Hood）在小径避难所的登记簿上留下乐观的信息，令每个人都心生好感，他们原希望在走完阿巴拉契亚小径后结婚。然而，在宾夕法尼亚州的一个避难所里，一名在逃杀手将拉鲁强奸并刺死，并将胡德枪杀。

从技术上讲，凶手并非徒步旅行者，但他短暂地扮演了这个角色——他强占了受害者的装备并继续向南行进，希望混入那群大汗淋漓的背包客之中。这极其令人不安，尤其是在手机普及之前，且在一种信任至上的小径文化中，人们经常舍弃正式身份，而使用像“孤狼”或“迷路男孩”这样的绰号。（斯威夫特则自称“厄尔”。）

当局在树上张贴告示，建议所有人离开森林，直到枪手被捕——一周多以后，凶手被抓获。但对于那些像“纳尔吉尼”和“克莱维斯”（拉鲁和胡德的自称）一样，将小径模拟的荒野视为某种避风港的人来说，心理创伤已无法弥补。

如今已成为畅销书作家的斯威夫特表示，他在 2024 年 66 岁时决定再次徒步这条小径，是因为他想为第一次旅途中一直困扰他的那起创伤事件寻找答案。说他没找到多少答案，其实并没有透露太多信息——除了表明他熟悉这类探索类非虚构作品的套路。

他写道：“从统计学上看，暴力在阿巴拉契亚小径上几乎仍是罕见之物。”不稳定的树木和岩石比不稳定的人类更频繁地构成危险。

这并不是说每个穿着 Gore-Tex 户外装的人都头脑清醒。回到 1990 年，在遇到“纳尔吉尼”和“克莱维斯”的同一天，斯威夫特还与一名男子共用营地，对方声称自己在小径上潜逃，因为他的姻亲正试图雇佣黑帮绑架他；而这一次，他在佛蒙特州认出了一个讨要电池的男人，正是当年在弗吉尼亚州偷走他地图的那个流浪汉。

这个被斯威夫特称为“拉尔夫”的小偷看起来并不像天生的长途徒步者，斯威夫特对他能走这么远感到惊讶。“我曾是个无家可归的人，”拉尔夫解释道，“但人们一直给我东西，所以我就一直走。”

一步接一步：就这样走下去。这是大多数冒险文学的至高智慧，斯威夫特的讲述也不例外。他将两次长途跋涉的回忆交织在一起，产生了惊人的效果；读者有时会被这种跳跃式的时间线搞得迷失方向，但这是一种优势而非弱点，使人仿佛处于一种恍惚状态，顺从于行军时的谵妄感。正如这条小径最著名的吟游诗人比尔·布赖森（Bill Bryson）所言：“无论你蹒跚前行多久或多远，你永远在同一个地方：在森林里。”

或者在最近的餐厅里，情况发生了转折。

纽汉普希尔州北伍兹斯托克郊外的阿巴拉契亚小径一部分。

斯威夫特的描述清晰地展现了，要让一个成年人的身体在无穷无尽的山脊线上上下起伏——其中许多山脊在入夜后气温低于冰点——需要消耗多少能量。尽管他的徒步伙伴中有一个绰号叫“燕麦片”（Granola），但斯威夫特本人的口味并不那么清淡。即便已接近退休年龄，他的饮食习惯仍像个青少年，狼吞虎咽地吃掉整盘披萨、芝士牛排、堆成山的培根和按品脱计算的冰淇淋。尽管他每天摄入 5,000 到 6,000 卡路里，但他的腰带仍需不断收紧。既然有了阿巴拉契亚小径，谁还需要 Ozempic（减肥药）呢？

斯威夫特发现，面对地形那不屈的壮丽，两次远征之间的差异在很大程度上无关紧要。应用程序取代了地图。装备变得更轻，旅舍变得更多。由于寻求者的人数增加了大约十倍，现在在北端终点缅因州的卡塔丁山（Mount Katahdin）露营地必须提前预约。

另一方面，气候变得更加严酷，山火和蜱虫成为了日益增加的威胁。“那一天即将到来，而且很快，徒步者将无法依赖小径中部数百英里——从康涅狄格州到弗吉尼亚州西南部——的天然水源，”斯威夫特写道。“所以，不必担心：情况不会变得更容易。”

本·麦格拉斯（Ben McGrath）是《纽约客》的资深撰稿人。

在野外游泳胜地畅游

CHARLES MAYO / SHUTTERSTOCK USA TODAY NETWORK, VIA REUTERS CONNECT

MOELYN PHOTOS / GETTY

DEREK BROUSSARD / GETTY J STEWART / GETTY SALLY WEIGAND / ALAMY

这里推荐美国各公园内的六处地点，让你潜入壮丽的户外自然之中

作者：RUFFIN PREVOST

潜入山间湖泊那沁人心脾的寒意中；在远离尘嚣的平静水池中仰望星空；在咆哮的瀑布旁游上几圈。

野外游泳因其带来的感官冲击、对童年的怀旧共鸣以及逃离现实的快感而备受推崇。美国各地的许多州立和国家公园都提供完美的开放水域，无论是试探性地浸入脚趾，还是沿着光滑的岩石全速滑入，都十分合适。

但与酒店泳池不同，野外游泳可能涉及特定风险。请检查天气、水质和水流。

必要时请穿着涉水鞋及其他装备。并且要了解自己的体能极限。为了安全起见，请结伴而行——而且这样也更有趣。

纽约州

罗伯特·H·特雷曼州立公园 (ROBERT H. TREMAN STATE PARK)

罗伯特·H·特雷曼州立公园位于手指湖地区的中心地带，在 30 英尺（9 米）高的恩菲尔德瀑布 (Enfield Falls) 底部有一个令人惊叹的游泳池。

这座公园距离纽约州伊萨卡 (Ithaca) 不到 15 分钟车程，该开发区域包括一个跳水板、一个设有洗手间和淋浴间的浴室、野餐桌以及一名救生员。但这里的游泳体验毫无疑问是野性的：林立的悬崖、鹅卵石海滩、层层叠叠的泥盆纪页岩，以及在冰冷晶莹的水中穿梭的小鱼。

从 6 月下旬到劳动节周末，游泳开放时间为上午 11 点至晚上 7 点。车辆进入公园的费用为 $10。

怀俄明州

大提顿国家公园 (GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK)

位于大提顿国家公园中心的斯特林湖 (String Lake) 曾是一个当地的秘密，但即使在社交媒体曝光之后，沿着 4 英里（6 公里）的湖岸线仍有一些安静的游泳点。

怀俄明州杰克逊 (Jackson) 的 Rusty Parrot Lodge & Spa 运营总监布鲁斯·罗森伯格 (Bruce Rosenberg) 在一封电子邮件中表示，这条位于珍妮湖 (Jenny Lake) 北侧的水道大部分区域“浅且晶莹剔透，因此水温稍高，并且可以欣赏到提顿山脉梦幻般的景色”。

向南 16 英里处，菲尔普斯湖 (Phelps Lake) 拥有当地人称之为“跳岩”的地方，你可以在那里纵身跳下 25 英尺，然后溅入冰凉的冰川融雪水中。

请小心熊、低温症以及在跳跃过程中丢失的太阳镜。

车辆进入公园的费用为 $35，有效期为一周。

阿肯色州

布法罗国家河 (BUFFALO NATIONAL RIVER)

布法罗国家河被国会指定为官方国家河流遗址，在奥扎克山脉中蜿蜒 135 英里，全程无大坝拦截。

深邃且流速缓慢的水潭与高耸的石灰岩和砂岩悬崖并存。尽管水温较高，但在 7 月和 8 月的潮湿天气中，这里依然是令人心旷神怡的避暑地。

您可以携带折叠椅、毛巾和野餐食品（禁止携带玻璃制品）前往庞卡低水位桥 (Ponca Low-Water Bridge) 等游泳池河岸观察野生麋鹿，或前往钢溪 (Steel Creek) 凝视罗克悬崖 (Roark Bluff) —— 一面高达 200 英尺的多色石灰岩墙。

此处无需入园费，但营地每晚费用为 \$16 至 \$20。

宾夕法尼亚州

奥海欧派尔州立公园 (OHIOPYLE STATE PARK) 位于劳雷尔高地 (Laurel Highlands) 南端的奥海欧派尔州立公园提供了丰富的水上娱乐选择，距离匹兹堡东南方向不足 80 英里。

从左上角起顺时针方向依次为：犹他州的沙洞州立公园；纽约州罗伯特·H·特雷曼州立公园的恩菲尔德瀑布；阿肯色州的布法罗国家河；佛罗里达州的伊切图克尼泉州立公园；宾夕法尼亚州的奥海欧派尔州立公园；以及怀俄明州大提顿国家公园的弦湖。

草地跑天然水滑梯 (The Meadow Run Natural Water-slides) 是一个由水冲刷而成的滑道，水平长度为 100 英尺，尽头是一个游泳池。请准备好牛仔短裤、溯溪鞋和坚定的决心。

风景如画的黄瓜瀑布 (Cucumber Falls) 从陡峭的砂岩架上落下，形成一个涉水池，非常适合寻找“埋藏的宝藏”。

而向北仅 10 分钟车程处，便是弗兰克·劳埃德·赖特的杰作——流水别墅 (Fallingwater)。

此处无需入园费。

犹他州

沙洞州立公园 (SAND HOLLOW STATE PARK)

在犹他州圣乔治以东 20 分钟车程的沙洞水库，对比鲜明的青绿色湖水与橙红色砂岩地貌，营造出一种独特的、超凡脱俗的景观。

环绕水库大部分区域的沙洞州立公园景象

享受感官的冲击、童年的怀旧回响以及一种逃离感。

非常适合家庭出游，吸引了水上滑雪者、划桨者、钓鱼者和越野驾驶者。

在红岩悬崖处，游客可以通过从高出水面 5 至 35 英尺的岩边跳水来寻求刺激（可从游客中心免费借用救生衣）。

但这里拥有超过 1,300 英亩温度为 80 华氏度（26 摄氏度）的水域，游泳者也可以在拥有平坦沙滩的小湾中寻找宁静。

非居民车辆在上午 6 点至晚上 10 点的入园费为 \$35，犹他州居民为 \$20。营地每晚 \$35 起。

佛罗里达州

在伊切图克尼泉州立公园 (Ichetucknee Springs State Park) 内部，其两个主要泉眼的水温全年保持在 72 华氏度：起初感觉阴冷，但对于闷热的下午来说则恰到好处。

其中一个——伊切图克尼主泉 (Ichetucknee Head Spring)，是一个郁郁葱葱的亚热带仙境 —— 位于佛罗里达州盖恩斯维尔西北 45 分钟车程处 —— 周围环绕着落羽杉、野生河蕨以及披着西班牙苔藓的活橡树。您可以潜入鳗草丛中，观察河龟、鲻鱼和拟鲤。

附近是蓝洞泉 (Blue Hole Spring)，一个深邃的洞穴。这里最适合体力强且经验丰富的游泳者和水肺潜水员。

车辆在上午 8 点至日落前入园费用为 \$6。

Celebrity 邮轮公司是那些正在提高乘客向船员支付的建议小费金额的邮轮公司之一。 DANIEL SLIM / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

为什么邮轮公司在提高费用

作者：CEYLAN YEGINSU

多年来，邮轮公司一直向乘客收取每日小费，公司称这笔费用会分给船员。但今年夏天，几家主要邮轮公司突然提高了该费用，一些乘客表示，这是在船上通过各种意外涨价来榨取小利的一种模式。

包括嘉年华（Carnival）、名人（Celebrity）、公主（Princess）和地中海（MSC）在内的邮轮公司表示，涨价对于保持船员薪酬的竞争力至关重要。虽然这些费用会自动计入乘客账户，但它们是建议性的而非强制性的，因此乘客可以在航程结束时对其进行调整或删除。

4月，嘉年华邮轮公司将每日小费标准提高了 \$1，标准客房每人每天 \$17，套房每人每天 \$19。该公司表示，其团队成员提供了“卓越的服务”，且乘客会认同这次“小幅上涨是实至名归的”。

名人邮轮在7月也将每日小费费用提高了 \$1.50，每位乘客每天的费用在 \$19.50 到 \$24.50 之间。一些乘客质疑，额外的资金是会交给船员，还是被用来抵消运营成本。

“名人邮轮的服务非常出色，船员理应获得丰厚报酬，但很难信任大公司，”66 岁的哈里·埃文斯（Harry Evans）说道，他是一位资深邮轮爱好者，最近在迈阿密退休。“成本在不断增加，如果这种趋势继续下去，我将恢复支付现金小费。”

在通过电子邮件发送的一份声明中，

部分主要邮轮公司正在提高小费和押金金额。

拥有名人邮轮的皇家加勒比集团（Royal Caribbean Group）的一位发言人表示，小费是共享的，并且是船员薪酬的一部分。

该费用被包含在总票价中，票价还包括住宿、餐饮和娱乐，从而形成一个可预测的价格标签，这也是邮轮旅行的主要吸引力之一。

嘉年华最近还将针对成人的“Bottomless Bubbles”无酒精饮料套餐价格从 \$9.50 提高到每日 \$11.99，并另加 20% 的自动小费，理由是新增加的可口可乐产品成本更高。

一些邮轮公司还在修改其预订和支付政策。公主邮轮最近宣布提高押金价格，并缩短了航程前的最终付款截止日期。对于 6 到 9 天的短途航程，标准客房类别的押金将从 \$250 提高到每位乘客 \$300，套房押金将从 \$500 提高到每位乘客 \$600。对于 10 到 44 天的长途航程，押金将根据舱房类别在 \$500 到 \$1,000 之间。

新费率将适用于 9 月 2 日之后预订的 2027 年航程。费率将包括 120 天的最终付款期，以及随着出发日期临近而逐步提高的取消手续费，这使得票价的灵活性降低。

“这些变化为预订流程带来了更高的一致性，并反映了更广泛的行业惯例，”公主邮轮在电子邮件声明中表示。

救命！Lyft 误收了我 \$150

掉坑里了

作者：塞斯·库格尔（SETH KUGEL）

亲爱的“掉坑里了”：

今年三月，我出差回来抵达达拉斯-沃斯堡国际机场，打了一辆 Lyft 回家，费用（含小费）为 $70。这次乘坐宝马 X3 的行程平淡无奇。但第二天，Lyft 给我发了一封邮件，要求支付 $150 的清洁费，并提到“附带照片”。然而邮件中并没有附带任何照片，也没有给出进一步的解释。在与客服代表进行了一系列令人恼火的聊天沟通后，一名客服终于解释说，司机称我在车内呕吐了。她还说会把照片发给我，但随后又以“技术故障”为由没有发送。另一名客服最终发送了照片，照片显示车后座周围有呕吐物，但根据网络图片以及对照片的 AI 分析，那辆车看起来并不像宝马 X3。我多次要求提供图像的元数据，以证明（或反驳）那是否是我乘坐的那辆车，但 Lyft 从未发送过任何数据。我发现有大量报告称，网约车乘客面临类似的无法解释的收费，且在要求提供证明文件时遭到敷衍。您能帮帮我吗？——斯里，德克萨斯州弗里斯科

亲爱的斯里：

我审阅了你转发给我的客服聊天记录和电子邮件，包括三张相当令人作呕的照片，我只能得出结论：这是一个严重的失职案例，重点在“严重”二字。

你可能根本无法向那些在 12 小时内轮番与你沟通的客服人员证明，你没有在一名叫罗伯特的人驾驶的宝马 X3 中呕吐。但你的论点——照片看起来不像宝马 X3，且照片缺乏时间戳或地理位置信息，意味着司机可以从任何地方下载这些照片——本应让相关人员重新考虑或将问题上报。考虑到网约车乘客多年来一直在抱怨司机虚报呕吐事件，这一点就更显而易见了。

我联系了 Lyft，该公司很快为你退还了 $220，包括车费和额外收取的费用。

但要让公司承认犯错则更具挑战性。我收到的第一份声明由 Lyft 安全与客户关怀负责人迈克尔·布劳斯（Michael Brous）发出，他为公司的流程进行了辩护。

“Lyft 非常严肃地对待损坏争议，”他写道，“我们的支持团队会对每起事件进行单独调查，并根据证据（如照片以及司机和乘客的陈述）来决定结果。”但在我读完你与客服代表的聊天和邮件往来后，很明显 Lyft 在听取你的说法之前就已经决定了结果。“我们现在已经完成了对所提供证明文件的最终评估，”一名客服写道，“基于此次最终审核，该费用将不予调整。”

我说的是“一名”客服吗？实际上，我的意思是五个不同的客服都使用了完全相同的措辞。（第六个客服只是将第二句中的“on”改成了“upon”。）

低级客服使用模版语言并不令人惊讶。令人惊讶的是他们显然对元数据毫无兴趣。任何智能手机都能（且通常都会）记录拍照的时间和地点，增加元数据要求并无坏处。

在我就元数据问题向 Lyft 施加更大压力后，布劳斯先生在第二份声明中表示：“Lyft 使用多种信号审查和调查损坏索赔，以确定照片是否真实，其中可能包括元数据。如果图像不包含元数据，我们不会自动认为它是伪造的，还会审查其他信号。”

即便没有元数据要求，该公司似乎也忽略了该司机并未遵守其公布的司机损坏报告指南，该指南要求提供“至少三张从不同角度拍摄的、清晰且光线充足的损坏照片”。这里确实有三张照片，而且光线足够充足——如果以破坏我的胃口作为合理标准的话。但三张照片几乎是从完全相同的角度拍摄的，只是裁剪方式不同。而且拍摄方式导致车辆的特征极少。

于是你要求人工智能分析这些照片，并将结果分享给了 Lyft。聊天机器人判定该车辆极有可能是吉普大切诺基（Jeep Grand Cherokee），并指出仪表盘和门板上缺少宝马的关键设计细节。我将照片与网上宝马 X3 后座图片的对比也得出了相同的结论，尽管无法完全确定。

Lyft 发言人莫妮卡·奥斯本（Monica Osborne）最终给我打电话，承认公司犯了错误。“根据我们当时的初步评估，我们确实认为那是宝马，”她说。但在进行了“更深入的审查后，我们完全同意该车辆不符合宝马的规格。”

她表示，公司现在为你提供了额外的 $100 信用额度，以认可你“从始至终极其糟糕的体验”。Lyft 司机是独立承包商而非员工，但奥斯本女士表示，如果该司机之前没有因为其他原因被停用，公司现在也会将其“停用”。

所以，对于任何被诬陷呕吐或弄脏车内的人来说，这是一个好消息。给其他乘客的一些建议：如果你无法安全地停车开门，至少把窗户摇下来。根据 Lyft 的规定，在车外呕吐的费用仅为 $75。

岩石之鸟绿松石项链 向品牌的宝石传承致敬

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TIFFANY&CO.

电影艺术

威尼斯电影节

KATE MCCULLOUGH

西尔莎·罗南作为导演的感悟

家庭 左上方的克莱尔·邓恩（Clare Dunne）与右上及左上方的玛莎·马隆（Martha Malone）在短片《纸飞机》（Paper Plane）中饰演一对母女。该片由西尔莎·罗南（Saoirse Ronan，左下）编剧并执导。罗南表示：“我一直觉得——而且现在比以往任何时候都更觉得——我们需要致敬母女关系。”

KATE MCCULLOUGH

这位演员将凭借短片《纸飞机》完成导演处女作

作者：SARAH BAHR

演员西尔莎·罗南最早的一些记忆，是在爱尔兰农村的阿尔达廷村（Ardattin）号召朋友们，邀请他们出演她构思的最新电影。

“我是独生女，有很多时间，所以我经常沉浸在玩娃娃的世界里，为它们编造故事情节并将其演出来。如果你愿意这么称呼的话，我真的很喜欢当一个操纵木偶的人，”罗南说道。她曾凭借在《赎罪》（2007）、《布鲁克林》（2015）、《淑女鸟》（2017）和《小妇人》（2019）中的表演获得四次奥斯卡奖提名。

几十年后，这种童年时期的痴迷在威尼斯电影节（周三至9月12日）结出了果实。由她编剧并执导的15分钟爱尔兰电影《纸飞机》，将成为13部角逐地平线奖（Orizzonti Award）最佳短片奖的影片之一。

“我非常激动能够在一个我热爱的城市，以及一个对我意义如此重大的国家，展示我的作品，”32岁的罗南说道。她上一次参加该电影节是在2007年，当时她13岁，是为了参加《赎罪》的世界首映式，这部电影成为了她的成名作。

在最近一次来自伦敦的电话采访中，她分享了《纸飞机》的灵感来源，导演经历如何改变了她对表演的看法，以及执导长篇电影是否是她的下一步计划。以下是对话的编辑摘录。

您最早什么时候知道自己想当导演？

小时候我对导演的兴趣比表演更大。甚至在我获得第一个表演机会之前就是如此。从那时起，我有超过20年的与才华横溢的电影制作人合作的经验，但也有一些经历让我觉得，如果由我掌控方向，我会以不同的方式执行，或者在片场营造不同的氛围。随着年龄的增长，以及作为演员经验的积累，我越发感觉到有必要尝试导演。

您不仅执导，还参与了编剧

《纸飞机》讲述的是一段母女关系。灵感来自哪里？它源于我的童年经历，或者至少是其中的一个元素。那是真正塑造我的东西，也是我在故事中非常向往的主题。我一直觉得——而且现在比以往任何时候都更觉得——我们需要致敬母女关系。

这部电影讲述了什么？

讲述了一个小女孩为了抗议自己的家庭生活，决定离家出走，并且她挑战她的母亲也这样做。

这部作品筹备了多久？

总共将近两年。开发工作始于2025年3月。然后我们在5月下旬拍摄，之后我花了两到三周时间进行剪辑。接着我休息了一段时间，在今年年初重新开始并完成了剪辑，从那时起我们就一直在尝试为它寻找合适的发行平台。

导演过程中最具挑战性的部分是什么？

尝试获得某些地点的拍摄许可，以及我们有狗和孩子且使用胶片拍摄的事实。我绝不会改变这些设定，但这确实给您和制作团队增加了协调工作的难度。短片对我来说是一个新领域。这很棘手，因为即使是寻找你想雇用的工作人员，你也只能在有限的时间内使用他们，因为他们需要去拍摄其他能真正让他们赚钱的作品。

在剧本创作方面情况如何？

我记得格蕾塔·格威格（Greta Gerwig）曾说过，剧本中的每一处内容都必须有其存在的理由。在剪辑过程中我意识到，我应该更细致地审视每一个细节。由于我来自长篇电影的世界，我的习惯是让情节有呼吸的空间，并逐渐加快节奏。因此，尝试在 15 分钟内传达我想表达的内容是很困难的。虽然这看起来时间不少，但令人惊讶的是，这段时间竟然过得如此之快。

有什么令你惊讶，或者出乎你意料的事情吗？

到达终点是一段漫长的旅程。我记得在今年年初重新进入剪辑阶段时，我对故事有了真正需要的清晰认知。这让我能够回归到这部电影最初应有的样子。这需要极大的耐心。有些时候，你真的不知道它是否会成功。这不是在谦虚。你可能会经历几天或几周的时间，觉得“这简直是在浪费我的时间；我根本就不该开始拍它”，然后又会出现一线希望。这绝对是一场真正的马拉松。

你学到了哪些可以带入到演员生涯中的经验？

在拍完这部电影后的两次演员工作中，我发现它重新点燃了我对电影拍摄现场的好奇心。这让我想要深入研究电影制作的整体过程。我变得好奇心强多了。我担任演员的时间太长了，以至于不可避免地陷入了一种固定的工作模式。但导演工作唤醒了我，给了我一种全新的生命感。

自 2007 年《赎罪》（Atonement）首映以来，你还回过威尼斯吗？

我回过一次，只是度假，而且全程都在下雨。从职业角度来看，自从《赎罪》在那里首映后我就没再回去过。那是我第一次参加公开活动，第一次走红毯，第一次参加新闻发布会。我当时真的是被直接推到了深水区。对我这个当时还在贝尔法斯特工作的 13 岁孩子来说，突然出现在大运河边——现在能回去感觉像是一个圆满的轮回。

你对威尼斯有什么期待？

我热爱意大利人，以及他们对艺术和电影的重视。根据我对威尼斯的记忆，他们是非常热情、温暖的人。对于我的第一部短片来说，我无法想象比这里更好的归宿了。

你现在准备好执导长篇电影了吗？

我想我会尝试一下。我大脑的一半在说：“再拍一部短片，这样你就能做好绝对的准备。”但另一部分则在说：“奥逊·威尔斯（Orson Welles） 25 岁就执导了电影。”我并不是在拿自己和奥逊·威尔斯比较，但我确实认为，盲目的信念和直接行动中蕴含着某种力量。

延续近一个世纪的岛屿背景

威尼斯

威尼斯电影节是利多岛历史、建筑与身份的一部分

摄影与文字 作者：马特奥·德·马伊达（MATTEO DE MAYDA）

利多岛（Lido）位于威尼斯，但感觉像这座城市的反面：贡多拉让位于汽车，运河变成了道路，潟湖则向亚得里亚海敞开。

威尼斯人会在这个长约七英里的岛上度过夏季周末，穿过潟湖去游泳——街道上挤满了自行车，汽车则通过轮渡从大陆抵达。

但在九月初，这里的氛围会从沙滩与阳光转向电影：在大约十天的时间里，电影制作人、演员、评论家、摄影师和观众将与夏季的人群汇聚在一起，参加从周三持续到 9 月 12 日的威尼斯电影节。酒店被填满，被称为 vaporetti 的公共水上巴士在潟湖中运送着不同类型的客流。

这种转变自该电影节——世界上最古老的同类电影节——于 1932 年在埃塞尔希尔酒店（Hotel Excelsior）的露台上举行户外放映开始以来就一直在发生。从那时起，电影成为了利多岛建筑、历史和身份的一部分。在一年中的大部分时间里，利多岛面向大海。但在九月，它面向银幕。

绝佳赌注

卡西诺宫（Palazzo del Casinò）的内部空间宏伟，装饰有大理石、马赛克和来自穆拉诺（Murano）的艺术玻璃。这座前赌场最初是为赌博、餐饮和娱乐而建，现在被电影节用于放映以及媒体和电影业的相关活动。

贵金属 金狮奖是电影节的最高奖项，由威尼斯工匠克里斯蒂亚诺·莫斯基尼（Cristiano Moschini）制作，其名称源自圣马可之翼狮，即威尼斯的象征。

定义建筑 从电影宫（Palazzo del Cinema）远眺卡西诺宫。这座宏伟的理性主义建筑由欧金尼奥·米奥齐（Eugenio Miozzi）设计，于 1938 年仅用八个月时间便竣工，其特点是覆盖着洞石（travertine）的严峻立面。

水上工程

水上工程 圣玛丽亚-伊丽莎贝塔（Santa Maria Elisabetta）水上巴士终点站是从威尼斯进入利多岛的主要门户。水上巴士（Vaporetti）全天在潟湖中穿梭，载着居民、海滩游客和访客前往该岛。在电影节期间，同样的水路成为了将观众、记者和电影业从业者运往利多岛及其返回的主要动脉。

宏伟风格 埃克塞利尔酒店（Hotel Excelsior）的立面，它是利多岛和电影节的地标之一。该酒店于 1908 年开业，在 1932 年举办首届电影节时，它已成为该岛作为国际海滨度假胜地兴起的象征。在电影宫建成之前，首批放映活动就在该酒店的露台上举行，开启了埃克塞利尔酒店与电影节之间持续近一个世纪的联系。

海滩文化 传统的木制海滩小屋沿着该岛的亚得里亚海海岸线排列。这些由家庭在夏季租赁的小舱房提供了遮荫、隐私以及在海边度过一整天的地方。它们是利多岛作为海滨度假胜地悠久历史的独特组成部分，也是在电影节这一国际盛事并行不悖的日常海滩文化。

定格瞬间 埃克塞利尔酒店内部展示着往届电影节的历史海报。自 1932 年首届电影节在酒店露台举行开幕放映以来，该酒店一直与电影节紧密相连。

国际电影艺术展 威尼斯双年展 2026

挖掘早年对建筑的热爱

从内而外

内部视角 上图为彼得·卒姆托（Peter Zumthor）规模最大的建筑作品——洛杉矶郡立艺术博物馆（LACMA）的大卫·格芬展馆（David Geffen Galleries），该馆于 5 月开放，距离他受命设计该空间已近二十年。右图为《从内而外：彼得·卒姆托的建筑》（From Inside Out: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor）中的一个场景。

心中之目标 上图的维姆·文德斯（Wim Wenders）执导过 20 多部电影，主要是纪录片。他希望他的最新纪录片能让人们意识到建筑的力量，即使他们此前并不感兴趣。

从内而外

维姆·文德斯记录了备受赞誉的建筑师彼得·卒姆托的一生

作者：法拉·纳耶里（FARAH NAYERI）

当维姆·文德斯还是一个在德国长大的 12 岁男孩时，他会在业余时间画建筑。他的卧室里贴满了巴西首都巴西利亚的剪报和照片，这座城市主要是由建筑师奥斯卡·尼迈耶（Oscar Niemeyer）从零开始设计的。

“这座建在丛林中的未来之城：那就是我的梦想。我想去那里，”这位电影制作人在最近的一次视频采访中回忆道，“我真的认为从事建筑行业是最酷的工作。”

在他的新电影中，文德斯重新潜入这段童年激情。《从内而外：彼得·卒姆托的建筑》以 3-D 拍摄并在威尼斯电影节首映，是一部关于这位普利兹克奖得主、瑞士建筑师的两个小时的纪录片。

电影在卒姆托规模最大的建筑作品中达到高潮：位于洛杉矶郡立艺术博物馆（LACMA）的 $724-million 大卫·格芬展馆。这个新空间于今年开放，距离他受命设计该馆已近二十年。

文德斯执导过 20 多部电影，包括多次获奖的《巴黎，德克萨斯》（1984）和《德州渴望》（1987）。在过去的三十年里，他主要拍摄纪录片，其中三部获得了奥斯卡奖提名：《布埃纳维斯塔社交俱乐部》（1999）；关于德国编舞家皮娜·鲍什（Pina Bausch）的《皮娜》（2011）；以及与朱利亚诺·里贝罗·萨尔加多（Juliano Ribeiro Salgado）共同执导的关于巴西摄影师塞巴斯蒂昂·萨尔加多（Sebastião Salgado）的《地球之盐》（2014,）。

导演在采访中谈到了他对建筑的痴迷、电影的未来以及他接下来的计划，采访内容经过了编辑和浓缩。

这部电影是如何诞生的？

2012, 年，我与彼得·卒姆托合作拍摄了一部短片。我有机会参观了彼得的工作室。

尽管我们只合作了两天，但我们成了朋友，并同意以后拍一部更长的作品。

我们在那一年开始了第一次拍摄，当时他准备在英国德文郡建造后来成为 Chivelstone House 世俗静修所的建筑。他透露他已经接到了 LACMA 的委托，但距离完工还很遥远。

我说：“彼得，等等。如果你在四五年后才开始 LACMA，我的电影该怎么办？你会在电影拍完时才建成你最大的建筑。我们不能那样。”于是我们同意暂停拍摄，直到 LACMA 最终确定。

您 2023 年获得奥斯卡提名的电影《完美的日子》（Perfect Days）是纪录片与虚构故事的结合，讲述了一个日本男子致力于维护东京各地由建筑师设计的洗手间的故事。这两部电影之间有什么联系？

《完美的日子》最初是一个纪录片的构思：拍摄几部短片，介绍由通常建造体育场、酒店或摩天大楼的日本建筑师为东京奥运会设计的微型厕所。我很心动，但随后意识到，尽管这些微小的建筑奇迹非常美丽，但没有人会去看一系列关于它们的短片。

我告诉制片人，我可以想象一种完全不同的形式，将所有这些厕所都呈现在其中。他说：“如果花费相同的时间和资金，你能拍一部电影，我完全赞成。”

如果您担心没人会看关于那些建筑作品的短片，那么是什么让您认为一部关于彼得·卒姆托（Peter Zumthor）的两小时纪录片能吸引观众？

电影有一种能力，能够吸引那些原本不想看它的观众。当我拍摄关于编舞家皮娜·鲍什（Pina Bausch）的电影时，除了我的妻子，所有人都说：“这太疯狂了。关于舞蹈的电影行不通。放弃吧。”

最终，《皮娜》（Pina）成了我最成功的电影之一。我知道所有对芭蕾或舞蹈不感兴趣的人都会想看这部电影，因为它会让他们大开眼界，就像我曾经经历的那样。

我第一次去看皮娜·鲍什的作品时是被强行拖过去的。但在 20 世纪 80 年代的威尼斯，当我看到她的《穆勒咖啡馆》（Café Müller）和《春之祭》（Rite of Spring）后，我们成了非常亲密的朋友。此后，她的每一部作品我都看了，于是我们决定拍一部电影。我想：如果我在一场舞蹈表演中流泪，那么其他人也会。我想让那些不在意舞蹈的人也能看到《皮娜》。

卒姆托的情况也是一样。我真的很希望那些对建筑不感兴趣的人能看到《由内而外》（From Inside Out）。建筑对当代生活至关重要，但大多数人对此一无所知。如果他们能多了解一点，生活质量将会得到提升。彼得正是能带领他们进入那个领域的合适建筑师。

为什么？

首先，他是一位伟大的思想家。他确实对建筑的条件思考很多。其次，他非常尊重空间，具有极强的场所感，并且只建造他认为必要的东西。他建的东西不多。他的每一栋建筑对于其用途以及所建的场地来说，都是卓越的。

这部电影的高潮是洛杉矶郡立艺术博物馆（LACMA）的开幕，该项目因成本超支和展览空间缩减而面临争议。您如何看待这个项目？

彼得作品的一个奇特之处在于，建筑会对你产生某种影响，我认为 LACMA 也会对参观者产生影响。将所有内容放在同一层楼的想法是个天才之举。LACMA 的馆长迈克尔·戈文（Michael Govan）和彼得做了一件革命性的事情。他们为一种全新的艺术观看方式构建了建筑：在这里没有等级之分，没有高雅艺术和低俗艺术之分，观众可以自行选择路径。

您说过拍电影变得昂贵且复杂了。具体体现在哪里？现在的电影制作方式是，即使像我这样资深的行内人，除非剧本已经完全写好，否则没人会给你资金。所以你其实不再需要去“拍”这部电影了。当你终于完成第 10 稿剧本时，你会觉得电影已经拍完了。

而我真正擅长的电影制作，在很大程度上依赖于在拍摄过程中能够改变事物，并将方向引导至不同的维度。在剧情片中，这变得越来越困难——除非你拍一部像《完美的日子》（Perfect Days）那样极低预算的电影，在那里他们允许你随心所欲。

如果你想要更高的预算，你就被绑定在一部完全预先设计好的电影中。没多少人敢在拍摄过程中重新定义电影。而这正是我的强项。

我很想回归剧情片。我得为自己重新定义一次，因为我已经太久没这么做了。下一部电影将是一部科幻片，背景可能设定在 20 或 30 年后。我此前只拍过一部科幻电影，《直到世界的尽头》（Until the End of the World，1991）。

面对如今的电影现状——流媒体的冲击以及好莱坞没完没了的续集，您怎么看？

我非常相信讲故事的行为。我认为讲故事是人类创造出的最伟大的事物之一。荷马是最早的先行者之一，而我们可以看到他的故事至今依然如此动人。

但讲故事正成为一种濒危物种——因为讲故事的核心理念在于你在讲述的过程中即兴创造。如今很少能看到具有原创性、真实叙事感的电影了。令我感到悲哀的是，大多数电影都是基于对其他电影经验的模仿。

如今，有太多的预制件。

向艾伦·伯斯汀及其众多角色致敬

这位女演员将因其数十年来塑造的众多角色而获得金狮奖

作者：艾利克斯·斯特劳斯（ALIX STRAUSS）

在今年的威尼斯电影节上，艾伦·伯斯汀（Ellen Burstyn）将获得一种人们往往需要等待一生才能体验到的认可。这位 93 岁的演员、制片人和作家将被授予终身成就金狮奖。此外，她还有两部电影在展映。

“能让整个职业生涯获得认可是非常特别的，”伯斯汀在电子邮件中写道。“而且当它被称为‘终身成就奖’时，这意味着你在地球上的时光没有被浪费。”

伯斯汀长期居住在纽约曼哈顿的上西区，对奖项并不陌生。她是少数几位实现了业内所谓的“表演三冠王”的表演者之一：她于 1975 年凭借《爱丽丝不再住在这里》获得奥斯卡最佳女主角奖，随后凭借《明年此时》获得托尼奖最佳女主角，并凭借《法律与秩序：特殊受害者单元》和《政治动物》获得两项艾美奖。在过去的七十年里，她在电影、电视和戏剧领域获得了 20 多项重大提名。

伯斯汀在今年电影节上的两部作品是玛吉·吉伦哈尔（Maggie Gyllenhaal）执导的 17 分钟短片《肉体冲击》（Flesh Impact），以及导演科内尔·蒙德鲁佐（Kornél Mundruczó）的长片《栖身之所》（Place to Be）。

这标志着伯斯汀第二次与蒙德鲁佐及其长期写作搭档卡塔·韦伯（Kata Wéber）合作。三人此前曾合作过《女人的碎片》（Pieces of a Woman），该片于 2020 年在威尼斯电影节首映。

《栖身之所》讲述了一段不寻常的友谊：由伯斯汀饰演的一位干练女性与由塔伊加·维迪提（Taika Waititi）饰演的一位中年离异男子，两人从芝加哥徒步前往纽约，旨在将一只丢失的赛鸽还给主人。

“电影一直以来都奇怪地恐惧时间的流逝。我们能容忍老年男性，但当女性年长时，我们往往期望她变得‘隐形’，”蒙德鲁佐在电子邮件中表示。“艾伦拥有一种罕见的能力，能将她全部的原始存在感带到银幕上。她进入某个瞬间时，仿佛从未在那里出现过，但她的表演却有着非凡的精准度，”他补充道。

由吉伦哈尔编剧并执导的《肉体冲击》探讨了这样一种可能性：如果 1962 年去世、年仅 36 岁的玛丽莲·梦露能活到 100 岁生日会发生什么。达科塔·约翰逊（Dakota Johnson）饰演年轻时的梦露，而伯斯汀则饰演 100 岁的她。

“我认识一些与玛丽莲关系亲近的人。我知道她在电影中塑造的人设并不是真实的她，”伯斯汀说。“她是一个深思熟虑的人，阅读广泛，而且她创造了‘玛丽莲·梦露’这个形象，但她本身并不一定就是她所创造的那个形象，”她补充道。

为了准备这个角色，伯斯汀观看了许多梦露的电影，“在观看时我感受到了她，”她解释道。“我想尽可能地呈现那个我听闻存在于形象之下的玛丽莲·梦露。”

“艾伦拥有深度、力量以及能够展现极度脆弱的能力，”吉伦哈尔在电话中说。“她完全、彻底地融入了这个角色，并融入了大量完全属于她自己的丰富表情。”

伯斯汀被选中饰演一个复杂且坚韧的角色并不令人意外。她多次塑造具有情感矛盾的多维度女性形象。在《驱魔人》中，她饰演一名努力拯救被恶魔附身之女的母亲；在《爱丽丝不再住在这里》中，她饰演一名在重建生活的过程中追求歌手梦想的单身母亲；在《最后一张照片》中，她饰演一名在德克萨斯州被情感忽视、与年轻男子发生婚外情的家庭主妇；而在《梦之安魂曲》中，她则饰演一名沉溺于减肥药、渴望减肥以便能出现在电视上的寡妇。

在所有角色中，伯斯廷表示，最能引起观众以及她自身共鸣的是《爱丽丝不再住在这里》。

“我想在银幕上塑造一个能够体现当时女性所经历之变化的形象，她们在过自己的生活，或者正如爱丽丝在电影中所说，‘这是我的生活，而不是我在帮某个男人过他的生活，’”她说道。“当我们把这一点表现出来时，那是具有革命性的。我认为这有助于影响当时女性正在发生变化的意识。”

威尼斯电影节不仅是在认可一位深受喜爱的演员并表彰她的贡献，而且还在打破蒙德鲁佐所描述的一种禁忌。

“在她获得终身成就奖的同时，两部由她出演的电影也在同一个电影节展出，这是一个非凡的巧合，”蒙德鲁佐说。“我希望我们不要仅仅将其视为对一位卓越女演员的庆祝。我也将其视为一次小小的反叛，反抗那种认为电影仅属于年轻人的观念。”

对于伯斯廷来说，这也与她曾经想象的自己的样子大相径庭。

“当我年轻的时候，我没想过自己在这么大的年纪还在工作，”她说。“我以为我会成一个织婴儿鞋的老太太。”

过去与现在 最左侧，艾伦·伯斯廷在 1974 年的电影《爱丽丝不再住在这里》中饰演一名重建生活的单身母亲。左侧附近，伯斯廷在 17 分钟的短片《肉体冲击》（Flesh Impact）中饰演玛丽莲·梦露，该片将在今年的威尼斯电影节首映。

CARTE BLANCHE 高级珠宝系列

明尼阿波利斯 ICE 行动的一线视角

图片由 JACK CALIFANO 提供

FRED RAMOS 为《纽约时报》拍摄

《他们来了》的电影制作人们在镇压期间亲临现场

作者：NICOLAS RAPOLD

在威尼斯电影节的一部新片开头，一辆 SUV 驶入并停在一条住宅街道上。一只戴着黑色手套的手从车窗伸出，用力地指向其中一栋房子。

这是一个令人不寒而栗的时刻，但这并非虚构惊悚片的场景。《他们来了》（They're Here）是一部关于明尼阿波利斯移民镇压行动的短纪录片——在 2025 年 12 月至 2026 年 3 月期间，美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）特工逮捕了数千名无证移民和抗议者，不过该片的时间线集中在 12 月至 2 月之间。这场浪潮始于明尼阿波利斯，随后蔓延至整个明尼苏达州。两名美国公民雷妮·古德（Renee Good）和亚历克斯·普雷蒂（Alex Pretti）被 ICE 特工枪杀，这加剧了全美范围内的抗议活动。

《他们来了》将于 9 月 7 日在威尼斯首映，由劳拉·波伊特拉斯（Laura Poitras）和雷切尔·劳伦·穆勒（Rachel Lauren Mueller）共同执导。波伊特拉斯是奥斯卡奖得主，曾凭借 2022 年的《所有的美丽与血腥》（All the Beauty and the Bloodshed）获得该电影节最高奖；穆勒则是一位常驻明尼阿波利斯的电影制作人、记者兼摄影师。

波伊特拉斯和穆勒从今年 1 月开始拍摄，旨在记录事件的展开过程。挑战在于如何传达明尼阿波利斯行动中可怕的现实，这次行动导致了人员死亡、受伤以及家庭分离。波伊特拉斯回忆起在 Instagram 上看到的一段简短视频，画面中是田园诗般的冬日景象，但画外却能听到人们在尖叫，提醒他人留在室内并锁好门，因为“他们来了”。

“我们非常感兴趣电影如何能表达当时正在发生的这种恐怖统治，”波伊特拉斯在一次视频采访中说道。

《他们来了》采用了由穆勒等人拍摄的街道一线行动画面、行车记录仪片段、众包信息以及地图数据，以展示明尼阿波利斯居民在镇压期间如何努力确保自身安全。平民观察员们就神秘车辆交换信息，并记录被蒙面男子在街头抓走的人员。执法车辆在催泪瓦斯云雾中穿过屏幕，而在机场，可以看到囚犯们在远处步履沉重地登上飞机。

影片中穿插了一名被确认为埃登·维拉（Edén Villa）的男子的视角及旁白。维拉描述了为了能安全上班而采取的极端措施，包括躲在汽车后备箱里。与片中许多其他人一样，为了自我保护，他保持匿名。许多平民观察员使用像“柠檬莉兹”（Liz Lemon）或“红狐”（Red Fox）这样的代号。

“风险是真实的，尤其是对于在全国范围内被猎杀的移民群体而言，”波伊特拉斯说。“而且现在，组织活动的人员也成为了目标。（《纽约时报》曾报道，国土安全官员在今年上半年使用了一系列侵入性手段，以收集关于许多从未被指控犯罪的团体和个人的信息。）”

这部纪录片将视频和音频相结合，展示观察员们互相提供目击报告的情景。可以听到志愿者接线员接听关于可能发生的绑架，或在镇上发现身着全套军事装备的阴森新面孔的电话，其中一名拨电者询问这是否正常。另一名拨电者在打算跟踪一辆进入小巷且看起来可疑的汽车时被劝阻。

“组织工作完全是去中心化的，完全是自发形成的。有数万名明尼阿波利斯居民参与其中，”共同导演穆勒说道。

志愿者们并非与中央办公室沟通，而是在自己的客厅或街道上接收报告。穆勒表示，在特工杀害古德和普雷蒂之后，“大批民众”走上街头，加入了观察员的行列。

屏幕上详细的地图图形展示了国土安全行动的范围。报告在地图上不断弹出，涵盖了全市各个社区，记录了从1月起及其后几个月内成年人和儿童被绑架的情况。波伊特拉斯和穆勒表示，这一视觉组件更清晰地展现了镇压的规模。

“这是纪录片一直面临的困境。通过个人来讲述故事可以在情感上产生共鸣，但如何传达这种规模上的恐怖性质呢？”波伊特拉斯说道。

电影制作者在用短片覆盖近期事件时也十分谨慎，选择不制作长篇纪录片，因为那可能耗费太多的制作时间。他们还尽量避免展示已在媒体上出现过的片段，也不描绘任何杀戮场景，尽管《他们来了》（They're Here）确实包含了联邦特工在街头推搡和喷射民众的冲突画面。在某个片段中，特朗普政府驱逐行动的前负责人格雷戈里·博维诺被看到正在将人们推到一边。

在现场，美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）特工在2025年12月至2026年3月期间，在明尼阿波利斯逮捕了数千名无证移民和抗议者。左下角，电影制作者瑞秋·劳伦·穆勒（左）和劳拉·波伊特拉斯从今年1月开始拍摄（左上），记录事件的展开过程，以便将其纳入《他们来了》之中。

波伊特拉斯和穆勒将试图去上班的维拉设定为电影的主角，希望借鉴类型电影中常见的那种恐惧感。波伊特拉斯提到，《人类之子》是一个令人不安且具有启发性的反乌托邦作品，而《逃出绝命镇》则在利用主角视角方面具有参考价值。电影制作者希望展示明尼阿波利斯的数千名公民是如何能够影响他们现实生活状况的。

“由于组织者的工作，其中80%的特工被迫离开了这座城市，”波伊特拉斯说。“这就是实际情况，志愿者们如何能够不再只是在家里恐惧，而是采取行动。”

在国土安全行动最激烈的时期，穆勒在零下温度的户外与志愿者们一起拍摄。她的回忆反映了《他们来了》中出场人物普遍具有的韧性基调，即便是在谈到如何应对催泪瓦斯时也是如此。

“防毒面具很棒，因为戴上它比不戴要暖和得多，”穆勒说。“直到冷凝水结冰，那时你不得不把它摘下来。”

波伊特拉斯和穆勒在8月中旬完成这部短片的最后收尾工作，剩余部分包括与作曲家亚历山德罗·科蒂尼（曾与九寸钉乐队合作）的协作。反馈放映会的反响令她们深受鼓舞。

“我认为，如果我们能捕捉到公民自由衰落的情感实感，以及处于军事占领之下的恐怖与紧张感，那么这就是一次成功，”穆勒说道。

电影水准之高，竟促成新类别的诞生

一个新板块将展出六部在威尼斯备受期待的纪录片

作者：莎拉·巴尔（SARAH BAHR）

强有力的阵容 （从左上角起顺时针方向）：今年威尼斯电影节一些最引人注目的纪录片参赛作品场景，包括《马斯克》（Musk）、《绿洲：不要在愤怒中回顾》（Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger）、《珠穆朗玛峰：另一面》（Everest: The Other Side）、《我不受欢迎的朋友们 第二部分：流亡》（My Undesirable Friends Part II — Exile）、《工会小镇》（Union Town）以及《爱之构建》（What Love Builds）。

当威尼斯电影节艺术总监阿尔贝托·巴贝拉（Alberto Barbera）在审阅今年活动的纪录片参赛作品时，他被这些作品的强悍程度所震撼——是真的非常强。强到让他觉得必须创建一个新类别。

“优秀的纪录片太多了——比近年来多得多。面对一些出色的纪录片和伟大的电影制作人，很难说‘不’，”76岁的巴贝拉在近期从意大利打来的一通电话中表示。该电影节将于周三开始，一直持续到9月12日。

19部纪录片将出现在一个新的非竞赛板块“威尼斯开放非虚构”（Venice Open Non Fiction）中，这些作品涵盖的主题包括右翼科技大亨埃隆·马斯克、英国摇滚乐队绿洲（Oasis）去年的重聚巡演，以及一次惊心动魄的珠穆朗玛峰北壁滑雪下降。该板块将汇集来自十几个国家的电影大师。

“主题和题材如此多样，”自2012年起担任该职位的巴贝拉说道。他从4,500多部参赛作品中，选出了最终约100部由长片、纪录片和短片组成的电影节阵容。

以下是其中六部最引人注目的作品。虽然其中几部已有院线发行日期，但许多作品仍在寻求发行商。

《马斯克》（"MUSK"）

该片将加入最新进展，包括马斯克对唐纳德·J·特朗普 2024 年总统竞选的支持与资金资助，以及这位企业家作为政府效率部（DOGE）事实上的负责人的角色。该片计划于 10 月 16 日在美国院线上映。

今年最受关注的电影之一是亚历克斯·吉布尼（Alex Gibney）极具争议的纪录片《马斯克》，该片追踪了埃隆·马斯克从一名企业家成长为科技界最具影响力且最令人生厌的人物之过程。影片时长近四小时，带领观众回顾了他的成长经历，例如马斯克在南非的童年，以及他在 17 岁时移居加拿大。影片还涵盖了他与 PayPal 和 Twitter 的历史，以及他创立并发展 SpaceX 和特斯拉的过程。

吉布尼曾凭借 2008 年的《出租车到黑暗面》（Taxi to the Dark Side）获得奥斯卡最佳纪录片奖，他在这个项目上至少工作了三年半。该片最初于 2023 年 3 月公布，据报道吉布尼在去年年初完成了初版。但他最终推迟了是《珠穆朗玛峰：另一面》（Everest: The Other Side）的主题，该片由伊丽莎白·柴·瓦萨赫利（Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi）和吉米·钦（Jimmy Chin）执导，两人曾凭借 2019 年执导的纪录片《徒手攀登》（Free Solo）共同获得奥斯卡奖，该片记录了亚历克斯·霍诺尔德（Alex Honnold）在 2017 年对约塞米蒂国家公园酋长岩的徒手攀登。该片计划于 10 月 30 日在美国院线上映。

对言论自由的打压。与第一部一样，由于政府压力日益增大，导致传统的摄像设备无法使用，本片全程使用 iPhone 拍摄和制作。而且它的运行时间比前作更长，时长近六小时（第一部在院线上映时分为两部分放映）。

《绿洲：不要在愤怒中回头》（“OASIS: DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER”） 由威尔·洛夫莱斯（Will Lovelace）和迪兰·索瑟恩（Dylan Southern）执导的《绿洲：不要在愤怒中回头》是对英国摇滚乐队 Oasis 的一次亲密记录，带领粉丝走进去年横跨五个大洲、 41 场演出且全部售罄的重聚巡演幕后。该纪录片由犯罪剧《浴血黑帮》（Peaky Blinders）的创作者史蒂文·奈特（Steven Knight）撰写，核心内容是采访乐队成员且互为兄弟的利亚姆·加拉格尔（Liam Gallagher）和诺埃尔·加拉格尔（Noel Gallagher），他们回顾了 2009 年的解散以及辉煌的回归。该片定于 9 月 9 日在英国上映。

没有什么比面对致命危险更能擦出火花——当吉姆·莫里森（Jim Morrison）和希拉里·尼尔森（Hilaree Nelson）在尝试完成珠穆朗玛峰北壁的首次滑雪下降时，两人陷入了爱河。他们的——

《珠穆朗玛峰：另一面》（"EVEREST: THE OTHER SIDE"）

《我的不受欢迎的朋友们 第二部：流亡》（"MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS PART II — EXILE"）

俄罗斯导演朱莉娅·洛克特夫（Julia Loktev） 2024 年的纪录片《我的不受欢迎的朋友们：第一部——莫斯科最后的空气》（My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow）讲述了一群年轻的、以女性为主的独立记者报道俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京入侵乌克兰的故事。《纽约时报》评论家阿里莎·威尔金森（Alissa Wilkinson）对其给予了高度评价：“我试图避免夸张，但我不知道还能怎么说：这也许是你今年在电影院里最值得投入时间的一部电影，”她在评价这部时长近五个半小时的电影时这样写道，并将其列为评论家之选。

现在，洛克特夫带着续集《我的不受欢迎的朋友们 第二部：流亡》回归，该片聚焦于同一组七名俄罗斯记者的核心群体，讲述他们在克里姆林宫的后逃离该国的故事。

《工会之城》（"UNION TOWN"）

芭芭拉·科普尔（Barbara Kopple）曾凭借两部关于劳工权利的纪录片获得奥斯卡奖：一部是讲述肯塔基州矿工罢工的《美国哈兰县》（“Harlan County U.S.A.”，1976年），另一部是讲述1985-86年明尼苏达州霍美尔食品公司（Hormel Foods）肉类加工工人罢工失败故事的《美国梦》（“American Dream”，1990年）。但她告诉《好莱坞报道》（The Hollywood Reporter），应对纽约市当代的零工经济挑战更为艰巨。“人们担心自己的工作，因为他们生活在一个生活成本极高的地方，所以他们可能不像在《美国哈兰县》或《美国梦》中那样坦诚，”80岁的科普尔说道，她是唯一一位在最佳纪录片类别中两次获得奥斯卡奖的女性。

包括通过应用程序接单、骑自行车或电动自行车配送的配送员，以及亚马逊员工和UPS司机——还有在纽约与强大企业抗争以争取更高工资和更好条件的工会组织者。

《工会之城》从2023年开始历时三年拍摄，记录了配送员——这一群体在

《爱之筑》（"WHAT LOVE BUILDS"）

你可能通过《角斗士》（“Gladiator”，2000年）中的同名角色认识罗素·克劳（Russell Crowe），该角色为他赢得了奥斯卡最佳男主角奖；或者通过他在2001年传记电影《美丽心灵》（“A Beautiful Mind”）中饰演的数学家约翰·福布斯·纳什（John Forbes Nash Jr.）而认识他。但你可能不知道的是，自2009年以来，他一直是一个轮换音乐团体“室内花园派对”（Indoor Garden Party）的主持人，该团体由他自己的乐队“绅士理发师”（The Gentlemen Barbers）提供支持。

“这就像一个节日，我聚集起我钦佩的人，包括音乐家和讲述者，然后我们共同演出，”他在谈到“室内花园派对”时这样说道，该团体的演出融合了摇滚、R&B、民谣和福音音乐。

现在，62岁的克劳正在一部100分钟的自传式演唱会电影《爱之筑》（“What Love Builds”）中记录他与该团体的历史。这部电影利用个人档案并涵盖了15年的拍摄素材，记录了“室内花园派对”在澳大利亚、欧洲、英国和美国的演出情况。

一个独一无二的电影节评审团

在“威尼斯经典”单元中，来自意大利各地的学生决定获奖者

作者：尼古拉斯·拉波尔德（NICOLAS RAPOLD）

在威尼斯电影节上，许多人的目光将集中在红地毯和竞赛单元的评审团身上。但还有一个评审团专门致力于向过去经典电影以及关于电影的纪录片致敬。

“威尼斯经典”（Venice Classics）由电影节艺术总监阿尔贝托·巴贝拉（Alberto Barbera）于 2012 年创立，随后他增加了奖项并设立了学生评审团。评审团成员来自电影史和评论领域，以及制作、表演艺术和音乐领域。每个小组由一名电影专业人士（通常是导演）指导。

巴贝拉通过一名公关人员在电子邮件中表示：“‘威尼斯经典’的设计初衷主要是向年轻人介绍过去的伟大电影，或者（在其他情况下）鼓励人们重新评估那些在发行之初普遍受到批评的电影。”

每个评审团大约有 24 名学生，他们决定最佳修复电影奖和最佳电影纪录片奖的归属。今年，评审团将观看并从多种类型的电影中进行选择，包括约翰·卡萨维茨的《米妮和莫斯科维茨》、恩斯特·卢比契的《生存还是毁灭》、许鞍欢的《吴越的故事》、罗伯托·罗西里尼的《意大利之旅》、亚历山大·克鲁格的《昨日之女》以及罗杰·科曼的《野天使》。

学生们在春季由意大利各大学的教授提名进入评审团。他们要么即将毕业，要么是近期毕业生，并被分为两组，每组负责评选一个奖项。

来自普利亚的 2023 年评审团成员萨拉·科波拉（Sara Coppola）是由她修读的意大利电影课教授选出的。她回忆起观看过此前从未见过的伊朗、乌克兰和日本电影，但这只是该评审团对她产生吸引力的部分原因。

“我们必须讨论所有事情，”科波拉在一次视频采访中说道，“在我看来，这是进入评审团最令人惊叹的机会。”她将这次经历与她在意大利大学课堂上的体验进行了对比，后者更侧重于讲座。

评审团主席在现场为成员提供有关电影的相关背景资料。科波拉回忆起她担任评审团成员那一年的主席安德烈亚·帕拉奥罗（Andrea Pallaoro）——他的电影《回声室》入围了今年的主竞赛单元——他会指出某些场景是如何拍摄的，并讲述自己在片场的经历。今年的评审团主席是导演丹尼尔·维卡里（Daniele Vicari），他在罗马还经营着一所面向公众且免学费的电影学校。

评审员在预留的排座中参加公开放映——与其他电影节评审团类似——有时还能在导演出席的情况下观看修复电影。对于科波拉来说，这包括了执导《口琴》（讲述一个伊朗男孩收到一件乐器作为礼物的电影）的阿米尔·纳德里（Amir Naderi），以及执导《工作女孩》（讲述 20 世纪 70 年代洛杉矶三名年轻女性艰难度日）的斯特凡妮·罗斯曼（Stephanie Rothman）。

在谈到年逾 80 岁的罗斯曼时，科波拉说：“她充满了活力，我当时心想，天哪，我想在那个年纪也像她一样。”

评审员通常每天观看约两部电影，但根据排期情况，最多可达五部。2025 年评审团成员弗朗切斯科·图尔基（Francesco Turchi）尤其欣赏 1963 年的意大利哥特式惊悚片《幽灵》以及 1952 年根据真实事件改编的电影《罗马 11 点》（Roma Ore 11）——该片讲述了一起楼梯崩塌导致一名女性死亡、数十名女性受伤的事件，当时她们正在等待工作面试。

图尔基在一次电子邮件采访中表示，去年关于电影的讨论非常有趣且持续时间很长，以至于他和 fellow 评审员在电影节的每一个时刻都在继续讨论，包括午餐时间、晚餐时间，甚至在晚上的酒吧里。

在夜晚结束时，评委们会发现自己置身于电影节观众的汹涌人潮之中，大家正奔向码头，准备从举办电影节的利多岛乘船返回市区。

巴贝拉表示，评委们评估的并非修复质量本身，而是“一部经典电影能给当今观众带来的冲击”。去年担任评委会主席的电影制作人托马索·桑坦布罗焦回忆起，随着观看电影数量的增加，学生们的思考也随之深化。

“最初的反应是情感上的，”桑坦布罗焦在一次采访中说道，“但随后，因为我们每天观看三部电影，并在次日早晨讨论，看到他们如何消化这些电影，并将其与当代生活及电影艺术联系起来，这非常有趣。”

获奖名单将在电影节闭幕之夜的颁奖典礼上公布，学生们也可以参加。

由 M+ 香港星盟电影提供

去年的最佳修复电影是巴赫拉姆·贝扎耶 1989 年的剧情片《巴舒，小陌生人》，讲述了一名伊朗男孩在 20 世纪 80 年代两伊战争中家人被杀而成为孤儿的故事。获奖的电影纪录片《玛塔·哈里》（由乔·贝申科夫斯基和詹姆斯·A·史密斯执导）则讲述了戴维·卡拉丁在 20 世纪 70 年代拍摄的一部关于一战期间荷兰间谍兼异域舞者的未完成长片。

电影节结束后，这些学生评委（其姓名不由电影节公布）会返回他们分布在意大利各地的家中。并非每个人都会进入电影相关职业或研究领域，但去年担任评委的图尔基表示，这次经历激励他去攻读一个包含实习在内的关于“电影制作与管理”的硕士学位。

2023 年的评委成员科波拉在获得富布赖特奖学金并在美国大学攻读博士学位之前，经历了一段缓冲期。但即便在几年后，这段评委经历在她的记忆中依然清晰。

她说，如果能改变一次经历，她会改变一件事。

“我想把奖项颁给阿图罗·里普斯坦的墨西哥电影《Profundo Carmesí》，”她说道，这部电影 1997 年在美国上映时名为《Deep Crimson》。

回顾 今年的“威尼斯经典”（Venice Classics）是电影节中专门面向修复电影和电影纪录片的板块，将包括（从最左侧起顺时针方向）：由彼得·方达主演的《狂野天使》、由钟楚红出演的《胡越的故事》以及由尼诺·曼弗雷迪出演的《丑陋、肮脏且坏》。

他是电影的捍卫者，足迹遍布柏林与威尼斯

莫里茨·德·哈德尔恩将电影带向大众，并颂扬电影艺术

作者：大卫·贝尔彻（DAVID BELCHER）

莫里茨·德·哈德尔恩（Moritz de Hadeln）是一位全球电影节的先驱，他坚信寻找伟大的电影意味着要周游世界，就像一名户外探险家寻找最稀有的生物一样。

德·哈德尔恩曾在 2002 年和 2003 年执掌威尼斯电影节，并在 20 多年时间里领导柏林电影节，此外还执掌过瑞士的两个小型电影节。他于 7 月 4 日去世，享年 85 岁。在将于本周三开幕的今年威尼斯电影节上，德·哈德尔恩留下的遗产是不容忽视的。

“莫里茨也是一个深信必须通过旅行才能发现电影的人，他总是试图去理解孕育这些电影的文化，”克里斯蒂安·容根（Christian Jungen）在一次视频采访中表示，他撰写了《电影节先生：莫里茨·德·哈德尔恩的多面人生》一书。“莫里茨组织电影节的数量比任何人都多，而且再也不会出现像他这样的人，因为他起步极早，且在十多年时间里同时经营柏林和尼永（Nyon）两个电影节。”

德·哈德尔恩 1940 年出生于英国埃克塞特，在巴黎受教育。他在 20 多岁时开始拍摄短片，并与妻子埃丽卡·冯·德·哈根（Erika von de Hagen）于 1969 年在瑞士创立了尼永国际纪录片电影节（现名为 Visions du Réel）。他还曾在 1972 年至 1977 年期间领导瑞士的洛迦诺国际电影节。他任职时间最长的是柏林电影节（亦称 Berlinale）负责人，时间从 1979 年持续到 2001 年。

“他是首批前往中国的西方策展人之一，而从欧洲人的视角来看，当时的中国是一个非常复杂、封闭且遥远的国家，”同时担任苏黎世电影节首席执行官兼所有者的容根说道。“他最大的成就之一就是将中国电影带到了西方。”

容根举例提到了张艺谋 1988 年的《红高粱》，以及陈凯歌的电影，包括 1993 年的《霸王别姬》。

“他住在日内瓦湖畔，受到了美国记者埃德加·斯诺（Edgar Snow）的启发，斯诺也住在那里，并写了关于他与毛泽东会面的书籍《中国红星》，”容根解释道。“两人相识了，莫里茨想要效仿他的做法。”

此外，德·哈德尔恩还在离家更近的地方打破障碍，在极少有人涉足之时前往铁幕之后。

“在 20 世纪 70 年代末和 80 年代初，为了寻找东欧电影，他前往柏林墙的另一侧，将苏联所谓的禁片带到西方，”容根说。“与官僚打交道，与人们交谈，喝伏特加，共进午餐和晚餐——这与我们今天的商业运作方式截然不同。”

容根将俄罗斯电影制作人格列布·潘菲洛夫（Gleb Panfilov） 1979 年的电影《主题》（Tema）视为一项重大成就，该片在当年的柏林电影节上获得了金熊奖。

“如果不是因为莫里茨，那部电影永远不会被发行或解禁，”容根回忆道。

在这种电影节还不是拥有红毯奢华和狗仔队的商业大事件，而是旨在将冷门电影带给观众的时代，这种政治斡旋定义了德·哈德尔恩。

“在柏林，由于冷战的原因，一切都带有政治色彩，但莫里茨决定致力于将东方和西方联系在一起，这符合当时进步政治世界的精神，”维兰德·施佩克（Wieland Speck）说道，他负责协调柏林电影节的 Panorama 单元，该单元以支持独立电影而闻名。

“我们拥有来自哈萨克斯坦以及其他电影节没有的地区的电影。他成功地一步步地深入到东方世界。”

许多人将这种精湛的手段视为他的遗产。

“这个人父亲是解放意大利的英国军官，母亲来自东欧集团国家的罗马尼亚人，妻子是德国人，而他自己则是那个在东西方之间斡旋的中立瑞士人，”容根说道。“他是最适合去跨越那道围墙的人。他就像一名懂得如何与不同人群沟通的外交官。”

容根将德·哈德尔恩视为欧洲共产主义崩溃过程中的一个历史性人物。

莫里茨·德·哈德尔恩（左图为1984年）在职业生涯中执掌过多个电影节，包括2002年和2003年的威尼斯电影节，以及执掌柏林电影节超过20年。德·哈德尔恩于2007年与妻子埃里卡·冯·德·哈根（左）一同出席柏林电影节。

“因为有他，人们才第一次看到了来自苏联加盟共和国的电影，”容根解释道。“如今你可以在YouTube上找到一切，但在那个时期，你必须去电影院，看着物理胶片被投影出来，才能了解这个世界。”

在德·哈德尔恩的领导下，施佩克协助在1987年的柏林电影节上创办了泰迪奖（Teddy Awards），容根将其描述为A类电影节首次对同性恋电影创作的认可。

“在当时，这极具争议，而且在当时的西德首都波恩，文化部长们非常保守，”容根说。“这是一场巨大的斗争。这是莫里茨的另一项遗产。他是LGBTQ群体的开拓者，但从未真正因此获得认可。”

当他于2002年抵达威尼斯时，这种斡旋并未停止。

“在威尼斯电影节一个非常微妙的关头，在贝卢斯科尼政府于阿尔贝托·巴贝拉任期结束前一年将其免职后，莫里茨被指派领导该电影节，”意大利巴里国际电影电视节艺术总监、现任威尼斯电影节顾问的奥斯卡·伊鲁西在电话中表示。“他以务实的方式开展工作。他精通多种语言，精神自由，且拥有真正的欧洲视野。”

伊鲁西举了一个当时德·哈德尔恩性格的例子。

“他是由一个中右翼政府任命的，但他的手机铃声却是工人阶级的赞歌《国际歌》，”他说。

对于容根而言，德·哈德尔恩在威尼斯的两年为他将电影带给大众、赞美电影节的艺术性与同志情谊的职业生涯画上了圆满句号。

“他的童年大部分时间在佛罗伦萨度过，所以他能说流利的意大利语，并且热爱意大利、意大利美食和意大利戏剧，但一个外国人接管意大利的电影节在当时是一件大事，”容根说。“我会说他是威尼斯的一位‘扭转局势’的艺术总监。他与柏林和洛迦诺的关系较为疏离，但对于威尼斯，他直到最后都深爱着那个电影节。”

岩石之鸟胸针 灵感源自让-施隆贝格（Jean Schlumberger）1965年的标志性图案

TIFFANY & CO.

The New York Times

INTERNATIONAL EDITION | MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2026

Mountains are coming undone

Jonathan Mingle

OPINION

On the morning of Aug. 26, an entire glacier-covered mountainside in northern Nepal collapsed. Within minutes, a towering, churning wall of mud, rock and water engulfed villages in the valley of the Bhotekoshi River along the border between Nepal and Tibet. For many of those in its path, there was little time to escape. At least 730 people are dead; nearly 2,500 people remain missing. The toll is expected to rise further still.

The several-story-high mass coming out of nowhere to explode buildings and snap bridges was not like the floods or avalanches well known in this region. It was more like a bomb, some said.

This is a sign of a new, disorienting danger in cold mountain zones: the rapid destabilization of glaciers and permafrost that can remake entire landscapes in the blink of an eye. The

After the Nepal tragedy, will we hear the warning alarm of climate breakdown?

processes leading to these cascading failures are complex, but the hidden hand behind them is human-caused climate change. Our fossil fuel burning is pulling down the world's highest peaks.

Initially, Nepalese authorities specuauthorities speculated that an earthquake may have triggered the disaster. Satellite images indicate instead that an immense mass of ice and rock on the northern side of a mountain called Langtang Lirung likely gave way and plummeted 4,000 feet until it slammed into the valley floor. The resulting surge ricocheted down the river with a force so great it mimicked a 5.2-magnitude seismic event — big enough to be detected by seismometers around the world.

In 2011, I spent a week visiting this part of Nepal while researching a book about the causes and consequences of glacier loss in the Himalaya. I started the journey in the riverside settlement of Syapru Besi, a town that was mostly erased last week.

Worldwide, climate change is causing glaciers to disappear at an accelerating rate. Few places are as vulnerable as the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, where the rate of glacier ice loss has doubled since 2000. As those frozen water towers dwindle, the two billion people downstream who depend on the Brahmaputra, Indus and other great rivers of Asia will have less water for drinking, farming and hydroelectricity in decades to come. More MINGLE, PAGE 10

Workers on a Vista Energy oil rig in a shale-rich formation known as Vaca Muerta, or Dead Cow, in Neuquén Province, Argentina. The area holds major reserves of oil and gas.

The New York Times publishes opinion from a wide range of perspectives in hopes of promoting constructive debate about consequential questions.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH PABST FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Optimism rising with the oil

Major investment only came to Vaca Muerta recently. President Javier Milei has called it a “panacea” for Argentina, and he is counting on it to solve chronic economic instability.

Desert deposits hold hope of economic rebirth for Argentina, but confidence is not universal

NEUQUÉN, ARGENTINA

BY EMMA BUBOLA

Much of the sun-bleached desert in northwest Patagonia looks like it did 100 million years ago: a vast, prehistoric expanse where the world's biggest dinosaurs once roamed.

But a different kind of behemoth has now come roaring in, with towering rigs advancing across the desert floor and burrowing deep beneath it in a furious rush for oil and gas.

The rigs' gigantic iron legs are extracting shale oil and gas at levels never seen in Argentina before, turning a quiet stretch of the country into the thrumming center of a new oil and gas boom that is fueling a wave of optimism about the future.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

“We reached the promised land,” said Raúl Krasuk, 69, who manages wells at the site for Vista, an Argentine energy company, as he sat in an oil field cafeteria that serves chicken breasts to workers who have come from all over Argentina for a slice of the bonanza.

President Javier Milei has called the oil and gas deposit — known as Vaca Muerta, or Dead Cow — a “panacea” for Argentina, with the potential to solve the country’s chronic economic instability by flooding it with dollars from exports. He has bet heavily on the project.

For the first time in the country's history, crude oil overtook soy flour as the top export this year. Now, many in the oil sector invoke the promise of a second boom after the agricultural surge that, over a century ago, turned Argentina into one of the world's richest countries.

“This is the big opportunity Argentina has to prosper,” said Rolando Figueroa, the governor of Neuquén Province, home to the shale-rich area many refer to as Argentina's Texas.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The hedge fund of the American billionaire Peter Thiel, who has established a foothold in Argentina, recently reported that it had acquired over \$76 million worth of Vista shares.

Still, many question whether Vaca Muerta can truly catalyze the economic rebirth of Argentina, a country hobbled in recent decades by soaring inflation and currency crises. Many businesses are closing as Mr. Milei's austerity measures have weakened domestic de-ARGENTINA, PAGE 8

Why Putin fights on, even as the perils grow

NEWS ANALYSIS BERLIN

Amid problems at home, he believes Russia will win the war eventually

BY PAUL SONNE

In his fifth year of war, difficulties are mounting for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

His troops have slowed on the battlefield. His spending on the war has ballooned beyond expectations. His population is increasingly fearful of what's next.

And his ability to project control has been undercut by Ukrainian strikes across Russia, with e-commerce warehouses, oil refineries and other facilities going up in flames on a near daily basis.

The situation has deteriorated to the point that the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe, made a rare visit last week to Moscow, where he laid out a bleak military and economic reality for Mr. Putin's intelligence officials and urged the Russian government to cut a peace deal.

But Mr. Putin has shown little indication that he intends to stop fighting or believes his predicament is too gloomy to bear.

Instead, the Russian leader has suggested that despite Moscow's challenges, he believes Kyiv's situation is worse. He has warned that Ukraine "let the genie out of the bottle" by targeting Russia's civilian economy and will get its due with a Russian escalation already underway.

“In his assessment, Russia needs to do just better than Ukraine,” believing that Kyiv “is going to crumble” eventually if he just holds on, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.

Mr. Putin has consistently underestimated Ukrainian resilience, Mr. Gabuev said. But Kyiv is indeed facing new perils.

Beyond its dwindling reserves of soldiers and military funds, Ukraine is experiencing severe air-defense shortages that leave Ukrainian territory increasingly vulnerable to Russia's ballistic missiles. As the war in Iran has depleted interceptor stockpiles, Western allies have become far more constrained in their ability or willingness to help.

Moscow each month is churning out dozens of ballistic missiles, formidable weapons that Ukraine lacks. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Russia is also turning to North Korea for added ballistic missile power.

Mr. Gabuev said the imbalance may be convincing Mr. Putin that he is gaining a critical advantage, despite his increasing challenges at home. The Russian leader, he said, will seek to “break” Ukraine this winter by decimating its cIPUTIN, PAGE 4

After surviving plane crash, a rock star gets vulnerable

RYAN LOWRY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Travis Barker is profiled in “Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear,” a decade-in-the-making documentary that explores his life, including a 2008 plane crash that killed four of the six people onboard.

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Travis Barker confronts fear, trauma and anxiety in a new documentary

BY JON CARAMANICA AND JOE COSCARELLI

The drummer Travis Barker is a pop-punk star who's also been an in-de-mand hip-hop collaborator and go-to anchor for an award-show extravaganza. A bashful, relatively low-profile celebrity who married into reality TV's royal family. A former hard-living rocker who has matured into a life of long runs, breath work and parenting a blended brood of seven.

The one constant throughout a career of multiplatinum albums, near-tragedy and a streetwear line has been percussion. Barker is one of the signature drummers of the modern era, a ferocious pounder with a versatile ear.

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Trained in jazz and marching bands during his teenage skater years in Fontana, Calif., he's brought that skilled dynamism to bands across multiple genres: ska, country, and of course, the generational pop-punk heroes Blink-182 and the rap-rock outfit Transplants. (He even played a little soca before becoming famous.)

A Barker fill is immediately recognizable, and over a three-decade career, he's generally preferred speaking through the kit — loudly, quickly and with maximum physical force.

"I think scars are cool," Barker said recently in an interview on Popcast, the New York Times pop culture chat show. "I've never left a show where I'm a bloody mess, or my hands are a mess, and been like, I wish I didn't play the way I did or I wish I would have went not as hard tonight."

But in middle age, Barker, 50, is finding other ways to share what he's BARKER, PAGE 2

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King who updated Norway's monarchy

HARALD V 1937-2026

INGE GJELLESVIK/NTB, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

BY ALAN COWELL

King Harald V of Norway, whose 35-year reign opened an ancient monarchy to a contentious cast of family connections, including a draper's daughter; a celebrity shaman; and Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier, died on Friday in Oslo. He was 89.

The death, in a hospital, was announced by the Royal Court. The king had been receiving treatment for a bacterial infection of his blood.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a statement on Friday, “A whole nation is in mourning and the people of Norway are left with a deep sense of gratitude for a long life in the service of Norway.”

“King Harald found the words to bind us together when we needed them the most,” he added.

The king was born into a centuries-old lineage that shared part of its heritage with the British monarchy, anchoring him in a network of inherited privilege in an era when Europe was moving toward replacing all-powerful rulers with more ceremonial constitutional monarchs like Harald. He was a distant cousin of King Charles III of Britain.

Of his reign's many collisions between tradition and modernity, perhaps the most perilous came recently.

This year, the United States Department of Justice released a huge trove of documents related to Mr. Epstein, including emails linking Crown Princess Mette-Marit, the king's daughter-in-law, to the sex offender.

In the emails, the relationship between the crown princess and Mr. Epstein — unfolding several years after Mr. Epstein was convicted in 2008 on charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution — came across as intimate and teasing and showed that she was closer to him than the palace had previously acknowledged. The disclosures prompted questioning of Mette-Marit's suitability as a future queen and emboldened some Norwegians to call for the abolition of the monarchy.

There had already been some public questioning in 2001, when Crown Prince Haakon, the heir to the throne, married Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby, a former waitress and single mother. But Harald himself had already begun the process of change that brought so-called commoners — people with no royal ancestors — into the regal House of Glücksburg created by his forebears. Risking a rift with his father, King Olav V, and threatening not to wed at all if his plans were frustrated, Harald had in 1968 married Sonja Haraldsen, the daughter of a clothing merchant and an undergraduate at the University of Oslo when they met.

The disclosures this year about Mette-Marit's friendship with Mr. Epstein forced her to issue a statement saying that she regretted “having had any contact with Epstein.” But the royal family refused to comment further, opening it to accusations of evasiveness and more. “Can Mette-Marit become queen after this?” a leading newspaper editor asked.

The scandal was all the more incendiary because it emerged just days before Mette-Marit's son, Marius Borg Hoiby, the stepson of Crown Prince Haakon, went on trial on multiple charges of rape, as well as other crimes. In June, he was found guilty of many of the charges and sentenced to four years in prison, and he has been under house arrest as he appeals the verdict. Also in June, the crown princess, who was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, underwent a successful lung transplant.

The crisis this year eclipsed other moments when Harald's family had inspired public scrutiny. In 2002, his daughter, Princess Martha Louise, married an author, Ari Behn; they divorced in 2017, and he died by suicide in 2019. In 2022, the princess announced her engagement to Durek Verrett, an American and a self-proclaimed shaman who counted Gwyneth Paltrow among his celebrity clients and friends. They married in 2024.

Disapproval of their relationship inspired media comparisons to the turmoil in the British royal family provoked by Prince Harry's 2018 marriage to Meghan Markle. There were indeed parallels: In 2022, the Norwegian royal family announced that like Prince Harry and his wife, Martha Louise and her partner would step back from royal duties; and like Harry and Meghan, the princess and Mr. Verrett, who is Black, ascribed public criticism of their bond to racism.

But Martha Louise characterized her separation from the royal family as friendly.

Harald was born on Feb. 21, 1937, on the royal Skaugum estate outside Oslo, the third child — after Princess Ragnhild and Princess Astrid — of Princess

Martha of Sweden and the future King Olav V of Norway, who ruled from 1957 until his death in 1991.

Harald and Queen Sonja had two children, Martha Louise, born in 1971, and Haakon, in 1973. He is survived by them, his wife and six grandchildren.

The king's early years were shaped by World War II, which began in September 1939. Six months later, German troops invaded Norway and the royal family fled. Harald's grandfather, King Haakon VII — who had refused to surrender to the Germans — and his father, then called Prince Olav, took up residence in London, where a Norwegian government in exile had been established to oppose the German-backed administration of Vidkun Quisling.

Along with his mother and sisters, Harald traveled to Washington, where he spent most of the war and where the family befriended President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At 7, he stood behind the president at his fourth inauguration in January 1945.

After the end of the war later that year, the royal family returned to Norway. Harald attended the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Military Academy (from which he graduated in 1959) and the University of Oxford in Britain, where he studied history, economics and politics at Balliol College in the early 1960s. He was known as an athlete, and as a yachtsman he was part of the Norwegian team at three Summer Olympics from 1964 to 1972, in Tokyo, Mexico City and Munich.

He became Norway's king following the death of his father on Jan. 17, 1991, a new reign that was credited with greater openness toward the public than his predecessors had allowed. Beyond his acceptance of commoners into the royal family, he ordered the renovation of royal buildings, including the Royal Palace in Oslo, so that they could be opened to the public.

SJÖBERG BILDBYRÅ/ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES

Harald was the country's first Norwe-

In 1968, Harald married Sonja Haraldsen, the daughter of a clothing merchant, over the objections of his father. Far left, Harald in 1991 after taking the oath as king of Norway.

gian-born monarch since the 14th century. (After long political unions with Denmark and Sweden, Norway became independent in 1905.) Like other European monarchs, his powers as head of state were circumscribed by the Constitution and parliamentary convention to ensure that his political role was limited and largely formal. Much of his reign was underpinned by an economic boom that brought prosperity to Norwegians from offshore oil and gas deposits.

A scandal involving the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein emboldened some to call for the abolition of the monarchy.

But in July 2011, he faced a brutal challenge to the nation's self-image and self-esteem when Anders Behring Breivik, a far-right extremist, killed 77 people in attacks on government buildings in Oslo and on the island of Utoya. Some Norwegians compared the shock to the trauma of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

With an address to Norwegians, meetings with bereaved families and a public display of grief when he wept at a national memorial service, Harald was credited with emerging as a symbol of patriotic resolve and unity.

"Now it's important that we stand together and support each other, and that we don't let fear take over," he told his compatriots on the night of the attacks.

In a rare interview with The New York Times a few months later, the king said: “I’ve always had the feeling that in times of crisis, that’s what we’re here for, really. That showed in 1940, and we’ll see if this will come out the same way. You do what comes natural to you, and if that’s correct, all the better for that.”

Lynsey Chutel and Henrik Pryser Libell contributed reporting.

A rocker's rebirth after a plane crash

"I didn't know exactly how to navigate after my accident," the drummer Travis Barker said of the plane crash that he survived.

BARKER, FROM PAGE 1 been through. This month, Hulu released the documentary “Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear,” a decade-in-the-making biography, from his strict upbringing and the rebellion it inspired to the highs of MTV fame with Blink, through the aftermath of the 2008 plane crash that killed four of the six people onboard, including some of his closest friends. Barker barely survived and underwent years of physical and psychological recovery.

Ending on a note of rebirth, including his marriage to Kourtney Kardashian and first flight in nearly 20 years, the film is an uncommonly intimate and engagingly direct look at a celebrity who has rarely welcomed close scrutiny, but found himself under microscopes all the same.

In conversation with Popcast's Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, Barker spoke about drumming as discipline; remaining just to the side of the spotlight around his famous bandmates and family members; which parts of his life he's willing to surrender to the cameras; and the life changes he's chosen to make over the years in order to protect his devotion to music.

way I want to play. JOE COSCARELLI When did you decide to make this film and why? There is very intense footage from your plane crash, your 20-plus surgeries afterward, your recovery and sobriety journey, intimate moments with your family ... TRAVIS BARKER After my book ["Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums," 2015] the conversations started. The book, the wounds were so fresh — that was really difficult. But both the book and the film are therapeutic, right?

It was maybe like 2017, the documentary was supposed to be done. And the directors and the producer, their goal for the end was, can you please go to an airport and we end there? They just wanted to have me walk on a plane, maybe insinuating maybe one day I'll fly again.

And I was like, absolutely not. There's no [expletive] way I'm going near a plane. At that time, I wouldn't even stay at hotels near airports. I didn't go to an airport for almost 20 years.

I was like, just put this out one day when I'm gone, whatever. I don't want to deal with it anymore. So it just sat there stagnant. Next thing you know, I fall in love, get into this relationship, just self-work, doing breath work — very long story short, I fly again. COSCARELLI You're alluding to this, but the other thing that happened in between 2017 and 2026 is you married into the reality TV family. You're on

The film is an uncommonly intimate and engagingly direct look at a celebrity who has rarely welcomed close scrutiny.

"The Kardashians" now, I assume learning to share more about your personal life in that format. How did that prepare you to tell the end of that story in this film?

BARKER I kind of don't even realize I'm on the show. I think the best way for me to deal with stuff like that or to

be a part of things like that is to not really acknowledge that I'm being filmed or anything different is happening. I love my wife and her family and the girls and everyone. And sometimes she's filming and I'm there. But I never even approve episodes or watch them. JON CARAMANICA I was really struck by how your children spoke in the film about fear, trauma and anxiety related to flying. When you finally said, "Me and Kourtney are going to get on a plane and go on this trip," your children were saying, "Please don't." I wonder if you can talk about your conversations with them to get them comfortable with where you were?

BARKER Well, my journey getting there was I had this massage therapist and I remember her telling me, you gotta do breath work. And I'm like, what are you talking about? She's like, you have so much trauma, I can feel it in your body. I didn't know exactly how to navigate after my accident — talked to a post-traumatic doctor, got sober, would run, would exercise, do all this stuff that I just felt was calling me.

A fan that was really, really cool and very persistent would always reach out to me and be like, hey, do breath work. But the guy, he looked like me — he had tattoos on his head. And I was like, man, I feel so weird — I don't know this person. I'm going to be very closed off. Dude, 10 minutes into it, I'm bawling my eyes out. I'm like, a mess. And it's like that the next five sessions. But I also feel like I'm making progress, you know? I just felt different. So

ultimately that led to me telling my wife, if you're ever gonna take me anywhere, don't tell me about it. Just tell me the night before. So she did, I did breath work the night before, ended up flying. Luckily I had a great experience.

But my kids were very, very protective of me and very scared, to the point where they were begging me not to go on the plane. So I had to show them to break the cycle to where they would try. Unfortunately, my kids were around three and five when my accident happened and they never flew after that. It's sad, but they were basically brought up to think that's how people die.

COSCARELLI In the climax of the documentary, as they're going through the story of your crash, you're essentially doing an interpretive drum solo set to the most horrible thing that's ever

happened in your life. How was that directed?

BARKER The producer of the film said, hey, there's this scene in the film where we're gonna go to some of the footage of your plane crash and I want you to do a drum solo that kind of mirrors that feeling. I showed up to this warehouse that's lit and there's fire everywhere. And I didn't say much, honestly, I just got behind the kit and started talking.

COSCARELLI With your hands and your feet. When you were done, did you feel like you had released something? BARKER Yeah. It's so raw, it's so cathartic and intense. I think I did two solos, which were just completely off the dome, just improv. You know when you see an M.M.A. fight and they know they knocked him out — they don't even need to watch him fall, they just walk off? I just did a walk-off. I was

like, I know that's it. That was hard. Harder than I communicated. But I just thought the best thing was to just put the energy through the drums. COSCARELLI Your fertility journey with your wife, Kourtney, is documented on "The Kardashians," but not entirely. In "Louder Than Fear," you two share the harrowing story of a miscarriage that she had before you had your son Rocky, who's now 2. How did you guys decide that this was the right forum to share that part of your journey together?

BARKER I think when there's things that can benefit people or help people relate to something, that's always a green light. She's always trying to do something like that. So our journey of miscarriages and then I.V.F., which failed, resulting in us having a baby naturally

— I feel like that's a story that so many people can relate to. CARAMANICA Your older kids, especially Landon and Alabama, are very popular online. You have this history in reality television and being a star yourself. How do you communicate with them about navigating that part of growing up?

BARKER It's so hard. I mean, my son called me the other day and he's like, hey, they offered me to go on "The Voice." And I was like, dude, you're way too cool for that. I have to tell him — because you could think I'm contradicting myself because you've seen me play drums on "American Idol" with Mary J. Blige — whatever, I'm different. You gotta think about your idols. If your idol's Kurt Cobain, would Kurt Cobain do "The Voice"?

CARAMANICA Do you feel protective over how they present themselves on the internet?

BARKER I lead by example. I used to almost get in fights with paparazzi. I'm not proud of any of that stuff. I used have a temper when it came to people following us or just dumb stuff, I might be quick to react or be confrontational. But I'm like, that ain't it, babe. It's just all noise.

In Devighat, Nepal, survivors of Wednesday's catastrophic flood surveyed the damage to their businesses and homes on Friday while seeking shelter, food and medical care.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ATUL LOKE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Profound loss and no answers

DEVIGHAT, NEPAL

Nepali flood survivors have little or nothing left of the lives they had built

BY ANUPREETA DAS AND SAJAL PRADHAN

In just two simple sentences, in separate conversations, they gave voice to the many Nepalis who have seen the lives they had built wiped away in seconds.

“Everything is gone,” said Anju Shakya, a shopkeeper.

Anushka Tamang, a janitor, said, “I don’t know what to do next.”

The roaring cascade of mud that on Wednesday carried away or buried their loved ones, homes, businesses and schools left countless people struggling with the same urgent questions: What can I eat, where can I sleep and what can I salvage? And what happens then?

Ms. Tamang, 29, improvised a make-shift path to make the short but perilous walk to the home she had fled in Devighat, a town in central Nepal. She walked on a fallen tree trunk, a tin plank from a roof and the concrete foundation of the ruins of a house, avoiding the quicksand and stepping quickly through muddy patches in her bare feet.

Inside her partly buried home, Ms. Tamang found the silver suitcase that she rarely opened with her dressy saris, stuck in her door and covered in mud, but intact. She located some of her 6-year-old daughter's clothes that the sludge, four feet deep, had not reached because they hung from her ceiling. She also spotted her cylinders of cooking gas — one empty, one partly full — that might fetch around \$14 each.

She and her brother dragged the haul to a nearby school that her daughter attended and where she worked as a janitor. She planned to stay there for a few days with her belongings. How they will live after the immediate crisis is anyone's guess.

At least 730 people in Nepal were killed in the flash flood, and nearly 2,500 are reported missing, numbers that are sure to rise given the immensity of the disaster. According to early estimates, the catastrophe is expected to cost the economy, which is largely dependent on tourism, billions of dollars. Repairing and building roads, bridges and power lines is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more.

Rescued people have been sent to hospitals and relief camps, and the government and nonprofit groups have begun building temporary shelters and delivering meals to them.

Delivering food and water to people and providing temporary shelter are the top priorities, said Hiralal Tamrakar, program director of an aid group, Good Neighbors Nepal, which is working with the local government in the town of Bidur, in the district of Nuwakot, one of the more populated regions that suffered extensive damage. Survivors have urgently asked for food, along with clothes, shelter, blankets and other basic needs, he said.

But as survivors grieve missing

Left, people scoured through lists of rescued residents in the town of Bidur. Below, Anushka Tamang recovered what few belongings she could from her partly buried home in Devighat on Friday.

friends and family and reconcile themselves to the loss of property and valuables, the question of how to rebuild their lives has few answers yet.

“Later on, the government will make the provision, the plan to settle them,” Mr. Tamrakar said.

Until last week, Ms. Shakya, 50, ran a jewelry store in Trishuli Bazaar, a bustling market in Bidur by the Trishuli River. Ms. Shakya said it had taken a lot of effort, but she had managed to make a comfortable life for herself and her family, with good prospects for their future.

She had lived for more than two decades in a three-story home she shared with her son, daughter-in-law and grandson. They had two cars and a motorcycle.

She said her family had amassed about 3.5 kilograms of gold, worth roughly \$500,000. She planned to pay for her grandson's education.

That carefully nurtured life vanished when mud burst through the shop walls on its way to her home.

Ms. Shakya said family members tried to close the windows and doors to keep the slurry out, but within minutes they were forced to flee. They clambered up a hillside to stay above the deadly torrent, and stayed there for two days before army personnel arrived.

The house and cars are gone. The shop is gone. The gold is gone.

Sitting on a cot as army doctors administered care, Ms. Shakya said she didn't know how to feel about her future or what to do next. She wore a borrowed T-shirt and a bandage around her left knee, which she sprained scrambling up the hill. She and her family plan to stay with relatives in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, until they decide how to begin pulling together their lives.

"My eyes keep welling up thinking about the wealth we've lost," she said.

“You can’t build a gold shop from scratch,” Ms. Shakya added, still in disbelief that at her age, she had to begin again. “God has taken what he has given us.”

Myanmar migrants fear forced return

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Malaysia plans to cast out many Rohingya who had fled a brutal military rule

BY ZUNAIRA SAIEED

Two years ago, Muhiduzamal fled religious persecution and civil war in his native Myanmar, traversing land and sea for four months before arriving in Malaysia. As at home, he found work in a paddy field and moved into a traditional Malay home, a wooden structure on stilts.

He tried to register as a refugee with a United Nations agency in Malaysia and was waiting for an appointment. But without that status, Malaysia considered Mr. Muhiduzamal, 35, who is a Rohingya Muslim and uses only one name, to be in the country illegally. In June, he was arrested and sent to a detention center, his brother said.

Malaysia has more than 10,000 undocumented migrants from Myanmar in custody. Last month, it announced plans to send about half of them back home. The migrants, their families and rights groups say that they are worried that once the migrants are back in Myanmar, the military government there will conscript them — men and women — and force them into battle. Rohingya fear the worst: They are stateless in their own country and have suffered what the United Nations and the United States have determined was a genocide conducted by the Myanmar military.

"It is better to kill us in Malaysia, rather than send us back to Myanmar," said Mohammad, 25, who has refugee status and lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, but asked to be identified only by part of his name while discussing his brother's case.

"My brother will be killed if he is sent back, as the junta in Myanmar will send him to the front line to fight."

Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of people from Myanmar have sought refuge in Malaysia in the hope of escaping ethnic cleansing and a brutal junta. Tens of thousands have refugee status in Malaysia but they still face intensifying discrimination. Hundreds of undocumented migrants have died in detention.

In a statement released on Thursday, Malaysia's Home Ministry said that the influx of migrants had become a “major financial burden, caused serious social problems and created a real security threat to the country.” It added that about 1,500 migrants in detention centers would be “voluntarily repatriated” next month, using a Myanmar Navy fleet of two warships and a hospital ship.

"There is no clarity on what the government means by voluntarily," said Ramachelvam Manimuthu, the president of the National Human Rights Society, a prominent nonprofit in Malaysia. "Was it a free and informed choice? Does voluntary deportation also mean detainees were given a choice of being registered as refugees?"

Fear and panic is rippling through the Myanmar migrant community.

“Everyone is on alert,” said Bibi, an undocumented 18-year-old Rohingya woman who has lived in Malaysia for over a year and asked to be identified only by part of her name.

Yap Lay Sheng, of Fortify Rights, a nonprofit, said, “People are skipping work even when it means losing daily income and keeping their children from refugee schools because they fear being targeted by the public and authorities.”

Malaysia does not grant political asylum to migrants. But if they are given refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees — even after arriving illegally — Malaysia allows them to stay.

Now Malaysia is starting its own registration system for refugees. On Thursday, the Home Ministry said that over 4,000 detainees, primarily Rohingya, will be subject to this program. Migrant advocates say the registration process must provide every person with a fair, individualized assessment of that person's protection needs, including access to interpreters, legal assistance and a right of appeal.

"Better to kill us in Malaysia, rather than send us back."

"The government must expedite the refugee registration and make sure that refugee cardholders have lawful access to work, education, housing, and guarantee against the arbitrary arrests, detention and pushbacks," Mr. Yap said.

Fahmi Fadzil, Malaysia's communications minister and the government spokesman, has said that migrants would not be deported if their lives are threatened in Myanmar, saying that the authorities had been assessing who could be returned and under what conditions.

About five years ago, soon after the coup that brought the military to power in Myanmar, Malaysia said it repatriated over a thousand migrants. It is unclear how they fared.

"For people who fled Myanmar seeking safety, forced return represents a profound betrayal of the protection they sought abroad," said Nickey Diamond, who is originally from Myanmar and on Fortify Rights' board.

The U.N. refugee agency has said that conditions in Myanmar are not safe for migrants to return.

Mr. Manimuthu of the National Human Rights Society said the Malaysian government should put a hold on the deportations until there is an international consensus that it is safe for detainees to return. “History has shown we cannot accept the words of Myanmar authorities,” he added. “The repatriation of refugees cannot be based on hope and prayer. It must be solid evidence that it is safe for returning.”

HASNOOR HUSSAIN/REUTERS
Rohingya refugees in front of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after being evicted from their home in July.

Venezuelans bristle at U.S. takeover of oil reserves

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA

BY JULIE TURKEWITZ

Many Venezuelans suspected that there was going to be a price to pay for President Trump's brazen capture of their autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, who was arrested by U.S. forces in January.

On Friday, that cost became clear when Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. would be taking majority control of a vast part of Venezuela's oil reserves — national resources long considered by many in the country to be a birthright.

By Saturday, many Venezuelans were grappling with whether they were willing to pay that price. So far, the U.S. ouster of the autocrat has done little to change the country — Mr. Maduro's successor, Delcy Rodríguez, remains in power, while millions of everyday Venezuelans remain in poverty, electricity blackouts continue to plague the nation and no date has been set for an election.

The new deal could bring major investment. But many Venezuelans want overall economic and political change. The accord guarantees neither and could deepen the relationship between Mr. Trump and Ms. Rodríguez, further entrenching her in power.

In Valencia, about two hours from the capital, Caracas, José Leal, 68, a retired educator, said the \$100 billion in promised U.S. investment sounded small, compared with the 65 billion barrels Venezuela was giving up. But after decades under a repressive government, he was willing to put up with this deal — and hope that Mr. Trump would push for democratic change.

“Obviously, the United States comes out ahead, enormously so,” he said. But “the Americans hold the power,” he said, and without them “we won’t manage to break free from the socialism of Chávez and Maduro. Without them, we’ll remain trapped like Cuba, China, or North Korea.”

"It's not that I love it or even like it," he said of the deal. “I consider it a necessary evil. If we manage to escape this entire disaster — which we’ve endured for 27 years and the Cubans for 68 — if we manage to get out of this mess, then even though I don’t like it, it will be worth it.”

Others were not so optimistic. The Venezuelan government has a long history of doling out beneficial contracts to

"The United States is going to manage our oil industry, and sovereignty is lost there."

the wealthy and connected, known inside the country as “enchufado” — people who are “plugged in” — while everyday Venezuelans suffer. Mr. Trump’s announcement on Friday included no mention of a democratic transition.

A meme began circulating in the region almost as soon as the deal was announced. "I want you to get rid of Chavismo," says a cartoon Venezuelan man, referring to Mr. Maduro's movement, "and leave us our oil." A cartoon Mr. Trump responds: "Take the oil and leave you with Chavismo, got it!"

Venezuela, home to some of the largest oil reserves in the world, nationalized those resources in the 1970s. Sovereign control over wells then became a core pillar of the ideology of the socialist government, founded by former president Hugo Chávez.

Ms. Rodríguez's decision to turn over much of that oil to the U.S. government represented an astounding about-face, one that few Venezuelans could have imagined before the January attack.

That turnaround was evident in a statement released by Ms. Rodríguez's Socialist Party on Saturday, which said that “true to its historic commitment to national sovereignty,” the party was extending its full support for the deal and the decisions made by “Comrade Delcy Rodríguez.”

The irony of this was not lost on many

Venezuelans. A government that once proudly defied Washington was now handing over critical resources.

Another meme circulating in Venezuela changed the logo of the national oil company, PDVSA, to PDUSA.

On X, Rafael Ramírez, a Chávez loyalist and former head of PDVSA now living in exile, accused Ms. Rodríguez of “opening the doors to a new form of US colonialism.”

In Maracaibo, a Venezuelan city that anchors much of the country's oil industry, Dario Nava, 67, a former PDVSA manager, said he opposed the deal and did not believe it would improve his life.

"The United States is going to manage our oil industry," he said, "and sovereignty is lost there."

In Caracas, Carlos Arenas, 24, a university student, said that he might be willing to cede some control of Venezuelan oil for economic improvement.

"If there were an economic benefit for the country that eventually translated into a better quality of life for Venezuelalans, then yes, I would be willing," he said. "But that doesn't seem to be the case here — at least not initially."

Venezuela's leading opposition figure, María Corina Machado, has in the past floated the idea of privatizing the oil sector. The idea was mocked by Ms. Rodríguez's party and was so controversial that Ms. Machado did not make it a core part of her 2024 presidential campaign.

On Saturday, a prominent supporter of Ms. Machado, Walter Molina, said on X that “Venezuelans always knew that our freedom would come at a cost.”

"If that price is 65 billion barrels over the course of decades, so be it," he said. "But let it be just that: the price of our freedom. Not the price we pay to keep a criminal tyranny in de facto power — only now kneeling before the United States."

Reporting was contributed by María Victoria Fermín from Caracas, Tibisay Romero from Valencia, Venezuela, and Sheyla Urdaneta from Buenos Aires.

Putin keeps fighting, even as perils grow

PUTIN, FROM PAGE 1

vilian infrastructure and military production facilities.

But as he presses on in the war, Mr. Putin is moving to contain a situation at home that looks markedly worse than last year.

For much of 2025, the Russian military was taking dozens of square miles of Ukrainian land each month. The Kremlin's engagement with the Trump administration buoyed hopes within Russian society that the war could soon end. Russia's technocrats were keeping the wartime economy humming; the Russian internet was consistently operational; gasoline was uniformly available; and strikes on Russian territory outside border regions were relatively contained.

All of that has now changed.

"The biggest challenge for Putin right now is that expectations are shifting," said Janis Kluge, a Russia analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. "The situation is just very different from a year ago. If you look into the future, if you're Moscow elites, and you think about where this is going, you will notice it is going in the wrong direction."

On the battlefield, the Russian military's net territorial gain has amounted to just 68 square miles (180 square kilometers) since June 1, as it focuses on the most fortified part of the Ukrainian front in the eastern Donetsk region, according to statistics from the Black Bird Group, a Finland-based security analysis firm.

Battlefield gains have stalled, and domestic opposition is rising.

Despite Mr. Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow, there is little indication that peace talks will be fully revived soon, dashing hopes among many Russians for a resolution to the conflict.

“Regarding the issue of peace talks, that topic is currently firmly on hold,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said on Friday, after the visit. “There are no new ideas.”

Ukraine's long-range strikes have led Russians to question what might come next. Kyiv is rushing to develop ballistic missiles of its own, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying this month that he hoped to have “concrete results” by the end of the year.

On top of the anxieties about further destruction on Russian territory, many in Russia are worried about a possible new draft to replenish the military, once a parliamentary election concludes next month.

Russia is still scrambling to solve shortages at gas stations across the country and is reeling from repeated attacks on the warehouses of its two e-commerce giants, Wildberries and Ozon.

All the while, the mood in the country has shifted. The percentage of Russians expressing support for the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine has dropped to its lowest level since the start of the invasion, according to a poll last month by the independent Levada Center.

Feelings about the country's economic prospects have also soured, particularly after higher taxes came into effect to help cover runaway spending on the war.

Russians have begun withdrawing more cash from banks, as regular internet outages stymie digital payments and some people look to avoid the new tax burden by transacting in cash.

Russian elites have sent some muted signals of discontent.

In June, Herman O. Gref, the head of the state-owned Sberbank, said Russians wanted the war to end as soon as possible. Sergei S. Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, warned that attempting to put the Russian economy entirely on a military footing, as some hard-liners have called for, would “kill the country altogether.”

Andrei Klepach, the chief economist at the Russian state development bank, Vnesheconombank, known as VEB, was fired after telling fellow economists in a speech that Russia was falling behind technologically and economically as a result of the war.

He warned that Russians were under the illusion that Ukraine would collapse, but “it hasn’t and it won’t,” according to remarks first reported by The Moscow Times.

While Mr. Putin's apparatus is busy orchestrating the nationwide political theater of a parliamentary election, the first since the 2022 invasion, political dissent has been met with repression. The Russian authorities were sufficiently concerned that discontent could boil over in the coming parliamentary election that the country's Supreme Court barred a marginal party, Yabloko, from the ballot as its antiwar stance gained traction beyond expectations.

Thomas Graham, a Russia expert in the administration of George W. Bush, said that the escalatory cycle in the war and the strains being felt by both sides should prompt the United States to lead a new, sustained push to end the conflict.

Even if Mr. Putin plans to fight through the winter, Mr. Graham said, the groundwork must be laid with Russian officials now for a final agreement to be reached in the spring.

"There is a substantial element of the political elite that would like to end this conflict sooner as opposed to later," Mr. Graham said.

Mr. Putin, for his part, has spent much of the past month saying that Russians must dig in and rally against the foreign adversaries he says are bent on destroying the nation.

He visited a faraway disputed island claimed by Japan to underscore Russia's assertion of its sovereignty and territorial claims.

And Mr. Putin appeared at the congress of the ruling United Russia party to offer his endorsement, presenting the situation at home as worsening because of Russia's success, which has pushed Ukraine to lash out.

Smoke rising after a Ukrainian drone attack on a warehouse for the online retailer Wildberries in St. Petersburg, Russia, this year. Retail giants have been hit repeatedly.

Holding an Iranian flag in a building destroyed by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in Tehran in March. "This war has really overtaken the Trump presidency," one Iran expert said.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ARASH KHAMOOSHI/POLARIS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

U.S. goals on Iran still unmet

A fruit stand in Tehran. Washington is betting it can achieve through intensified economic strangulation what six months of war could not, one think-tank analyst said.

NEWS ANALYSIS BERLIN

Six months in, the regime stands and ordinary people remain the biggest victims

BY STEVEN ERLANGER

It was supposed to be quick.

Still, six months after the United States and Israel launched massive airstrikes on Iran, the conflict drags on. The Trump administration has replaced its military war with an economic one, but the result is likely to be no different, analysts said, with a lack of American clarity about goals, a decline in American credibility and a strategic defeat.

One thing remains constant, however. The ordinary people of Iran are bearing the brunt of the war, victims of both the United States and their own leaders.

On the first day of the war, Feb. 28, President Trump promised Iranians that “the hour of your freedom is at hand.” Six months later, his administration is trying to impoverish them further, hoping against hope that they will revolt against a repressive, militarized regime and overthrow it.

The Iranian leadership, increasingly dominated by military men, sees its own survival as the nation's, and it considers the sacrifices of ordinary Iranians as a necessary act of patriotism and even martyrdom. It has been ever more ruthless in stamping out the slightest signs of dissent.

It is hard to dress up what has clearly been an American failure to bend Iran to its will, despite the might of the combined American and Israeli militaries. Not only has the Islamic Republic survived, but it effectively controls the Strait of Hormuz. It has strengthened its influence in the region, with even the countries it was bombing a few months ago trying to reinvigorate ties with Iran.

"The war has failed to deliver U.S. objectives," said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House.

Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and head of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, judged the war a failure. "We did a lot of damage to Iran, but they have come out stronger than before," she said. Iran's neighbors have decided they must find a modus vivendi with an Islamic Republic that is not going away.

American credibility among allies has suffered along with Mr. Trump's own reputation for avoiding costly, interminable wars in the Middle East and promoting “affordability” at home. And it has made his promise to liberate ordinary Iranians look hollow.

“This war has really overtaken the Trump presidency,” Ms. Maloney said.

“Operation Epic Fury” began with a joint American-Israeli surprise attack on Iran, which killed the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and many of his officials, while badly wounding his son and now successor, Mojtaba.

Weeks of intense bombing destroyed much of Iran's air force and navy and badly damaged its missile program. But the population did not rise up and the leadership did not fracture.

Iran's military restored many of its missile launchers and attacked key American allies in the region as well as American bases, which were inadequately defended. It effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz and caused global economic disruption.

Several thousand Iranians, including children, have died — the numbers are hard to verify — as have 18 American service members.

The original “Operation Epic Fury” has been replaced with what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week announced as “Operation Economic Outcast,” designed to isolate Iran further and crash its badly damaged economy.

“This is a sustained campaign to collapse every last option for Iran,” Mr. Bessent said. “The campaign we begin today will gather force with every day that follows, and it will not end until this regime stands alone.”

Despite rhetorical flourishes about D-Day and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mr. Bessent did not indicate how long this economic war will last, what instruments it will use or what it aims to achieve.

Is the American goal once again the collapse of the regime? Or to force the opening of the Strait of Hormuz? Or to bring a more desperate Iran back to the negotiating table to reach a sustainable settlement of both the strait and Iran's nuclear program?

"There is no clear articulation of America's goals," said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a research group based in London. "But if you don't define behavior change, sanctions as coercion fail."

Iran, already the target of many thousands of sanctions, is considered unlikely to surrender because of a few more. More likely, analysts said, is that the country will respond in time by escalating its attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf and on American allies, which could produce another round of American bombing.

Washington is betting it can achieve through intensified economic strangulation what six months of war could not, said Sina Toossi of the Center for International Policy, a Washington think-tank.

Washington is trying to do that by demanding international compliance even as its relations with much of the world grow more coercive and transactional, with more countries choosing to ignore Mr. Trump's dictates.

"The capacity to hurt Iran is clear," Mr. Toossi said. "The path from pain to capitulation or collapse is not."

With American objectives unclear, the confusion is real in Tehran, too, said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director for the International Crisis Group. They will wonder, he said: "Does the U.S. want to achieve collapse, capitulation or compromise?"

Given that Iran's leaders see the effort to strangle them as another form of warfare, Mr. Vaez said, the new American strategy has two risks. If it fails, the only option is to return to military escalation. And if it works, it may lead Iran to escalate to break the U.S. naval blockade.

“In either case, it won’t produce what the administration seems to want, which is to use sanctions as an alternative to war,” he said. “It’s more likely to be a prelude to another round of military warfare.”

The new strategy of enhanced economic strangulation has the benefit of being gradual and hard to monitor, lowering the temperature on the conflict, which may help Mr. Trump and the Republicans in the run-up to November's midterm elections, while promising that victory, really, is just around the corner.

But the stalemate is also risky, said Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations. "There is an increasing view in the White House that you can't deal with this Islamic Republic," she said. "It's a dangerous moment, with both Tehran and D.C. concluding that no deal is possible with the other."

Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official now at the European Council on Foreign Relations, remains puzzled as to why Mr. Trump has not taken any of the available offramps to ending an enormously unpopular war at home. By pushing even more economic sanctions, he said, Trump officials “are pretending they’re still fighting instead of pretending that they’ve won”—or admitting that they’ve lost.

As ever, Iran's leadership won't pay the cost, Mr. Shapiro said, it will be its people that do.

Enthusiastic support presents challenge for Canadian leader

NEWS ANALYSIS

TORONTO

BY MATINA STEVIS-GRIDNEFF

When Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada addressed the nation on Aug. 22, hours after walking away from trade talks with the United States, he invited 41 million Canadians into the negotiating room.

They overwhelmingly rallied behind his nerve, which, Mr. Carney said, avoided “a bad deal” that would have put Canada’s sovereignty in the hands of the man who wants to make the country the 51st American state.

Public support allowed Mr. Carney to negotiate fiercely; and it carried him through a high-risk moment for the country's economy as he suspended the talks.

Walking away is a typical negotiating move, usually deployed to break through an impasse and arm the departing party with an advantage. The point is to start again from a better position.

So when the time comes to reopen trade talks with the United States, the enthusiastic public support that has buttressed Mr. Carney's choices has the potential to become an obstacle. He will need to somehow tap into Canadians' pragmatism and understanding of the economic predicament the country will face if the trade war with the United States goes on. And even so, there is a risk that many of them, angered and defiant today, could feel misled if a return to talks is not handled with care.

Before President Trump set off a global eye-roll by signing an executive order on Thursday afternoon to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America,” the first sign of de-escalation in the frayed U.S.-Canada relationship had started to show.

In an interview on Wednesday with the CBC, Canada's national broadcaster, Jamieson Greer, the United States' trade representative, said that demands raised by the U.S. side during discussions about the promotion of Canadian content on U.S. online streaming platforms had not been a deal breaker.

The next day, Dominic LeBlanc, a senior Canadian cabinet minister who played a leading role in the talks, welcomed Mr. Greer's comment, cautiously putting a toe back in the water.

ANDREJ IVANOV/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Prime Minister Mark Carney has Canadians on his side but will have to tap into their economic pragmatism.

“We look forward to further constructive U.S. clarifications on their other positions which would create the possibility of a mutually beneficial trade agreement that respects Canadian sovereignty,” he said in a statement.

It was, perhaps, too soon.

Mere hours later, Mr. Trump signed his executive order renaming Lake Ontario and called Canadian leadership "nasty."

Officials from both sides have said they're not currently talking, and it is clear that for any conversation to restart in earnest, a cooling-off period will be needed, and the next few months will provide a map for when talks may re-start.

Canada's countertariffs against U.S. goods are set to take effect on Sept. 8, while a further round of U.S. levies announced by Mr. Trump, which will further raise existing tariffs against Canadian goods such as automobiles and steel, will begin on Jan. 1. The U.S. midterm elections in November also present an opportunity for Mr. Carney, who has targeted countertariffs on U.S. products with swing states in mind.

A seasoned negotiator from his days in finance, Mr. Carney is unlikely to wait to return to the table when the Canadian economy has begun to show real signs of strain.

The months ahead will be hard for Canadians. In the case of industries already under tariffs since last year — steel, aluminum, softwood lumber, autos and automobile parts — the protracted and escalating trade war means more unemployment and uncertainty.

Mr. Carney's government has acknowledged this pain, and announced plans to mitigate some of it. In the meantime, the Canadian economy is showing good vital signs: On Friday, it registered a 3.3 percent growth rate in the second quarter of the year, the fastest since early 2023.

Additionally, the public's resolve for Canada to stand its ground against the Trump administration appears solid.

"I've been looking at this data for a long time, and people have been unequivocal and clear: We've had majorities now for more than a year, saying we should take a tough approach, we should take a hard line, we should not give away too much," said Shachi Kurl, who leads the Angus Reid Institute, a non-partisan public opinion research organization in Canada.

Polling released after the talks collapsed showed that three-quarters of

Canadians backed Mr. Carney's move.

Returning to trade talks, given all that has transpired, will require Canadians to hold two truths at once: Alongside their genuine, heightened patriotism in the face of Mr. Trump's tariffs and his menacing rhetoric toward Canada, they will need to also be pragmatic about the economic reality the country faces as the trade war takes hold.

That pragmatism will be necessary if Mr. Carney can count on the broad support he has today to return to talks with the United States and see if he can get a better deal than the one he left on the table.

Polling shows that Canadians are concerned about the economy and their jobs, just as they are asking Mr. Carney to stick up for them.

Much of how Mr. Carney's negotiating position plays out will come down to his ability to guide public opinion as he makes the case for giving trade talks another chance.

“He will have to come back and say: ‘Look, if that was the right thing to do then, this is the right thing to do now. Stick with me, trust me,’” Ms. Kurl said.

Pursuing wide appeal with anti-Trump script

SAVANNAH, GA.

border security in a state that remains conservative.

At rallies across Georgia, Senator Jon Ossoff, above, has delivered a series of blistering rebukes of President Trump and a challenger for Mr. Ossoff's seat, Representative Mike Collins.
ALEX KENT/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Young Democratic senator in Georgia seeks re-election in the conservative state

BY ROBERT JIMISON

Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia entered this election cycle with every reason to tack to the political middle.

He is the only Senate Democrat seeking re-election this year in a state President Trump carried in 2024, making him one of the most vulnerable incumbents in his party and an obvious Republican target from the start.

But Mr. Ossoff hasn't moderated his votes or his message to appeal to a broader swath of voters, as Democrats in competitive statewide races often do in the conservative-leaning South. Instead, he has dived into his party's efforts to thwart the president's agenda in Congress and sharpened his attacks on Mr. Trump and Republicans on the campaign trail.

The approach risks alienating some members of the coalition whose backing he needs to win re-election in Georgia, including independents and conservative-leaning voters.

His strategy appears to be based in large part on taking advantage of two factors: Mr. Trump's sagging approval ratings — a Fox News poll in June found him with net-negative ratings in Georgia, with 56 percent holding an unfavorable view of him — and a Republican challenger endorsed by the president, Representative Mike Collins, who is regarded by strategists in both parties as relatively weak.

Mr. Ossoff has submitted himself to little tough questioning and has not pushed any major policy proposal. He has leaned heavily on circulating flattering video clips of himself making his case, and in a recent interview with The New York Times, stuck to a disciplined script as he laid out his theory of the race.

"The crisis that the nation's mired in is born in large part of widespread disillusionment that flows from negligent and ineffective public service," he said between campaign stops in Savannah. "Trumpism feeds on and deepens the sense that the Constitution, the Congress, elected officials, don't care and can't deliver."

The message appears to be resonating. Less than three months from Election Day, Mr. Ossoff leads Mr. Collins in every major public poll and holds a commanding fund-raising advantage, putting him in a strong position to keep a key seat critical to Democrats' uphill battle to win control of the Senate.

At rallies across Georgia this summer, he has delivered a series of blistering rebukes of the president and Mr. Collins.

In Savannah, standing in front of a large crowd of supporters last month, he said Mr. Collins lacked the “judgment and integrity to serve in the United States Senate” and labeled him a Trump “puppet.” In Atlanta this month, he said Mr. Trump and those close to him — a group he calls the “Mar-a-Lago mafia” — have “taken American corruption to spectacular new heights,” a line he has used repeatedly. He has called Mr. Trump a “draft-dodging, crook president,” and recently drew the president’s rage by mentioning the name of his most devoted aide, Natalie Harp, as part of a screed in which he said that Mr. Trump “doesn’t want to do the job” of being president.

Along the way, his adherence to anti-Trump talking points — he repeats some so consistently that he can at times sound almost robotic — has turned Mr. Ossoff, at 39 the youngest member of the Senate, into a social media sensation. It has fed speculation he refuses to indulge about his potential as a presidential contender in 2028 at a time when other Democrats have struggled to coalesce around a clear message.

Mr. Ossoff still faces challenges in a state Mr. Trump won less than two years ago. Mr. Collins, the 59-year-old son of former Representative Mac Collins of Georgia, has focused heavily on the issues that animate the Republican base — illegal immigration, transgender athletes, crime and grievances surrounding the 2020 election — while adopting an aggressive online persona of the kind Mr. Ossoff has eschewed.

Mr. Collins wrote legislation requiring that immigrants in the country illegally who are accused of crimes be detained for possible deportation. It was named for Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered on the University of Georgia campus in 2024, and became the first bill Mr. Trump signed into law in his second term. (Mr. Ossoff and 11 other Senate Democrats voted in favor of the legislation in January last year.)

In Washington, Mr. Ossoff has not made the traditional election-year pivot to the center. He joined Democrats last year in voting to shut down the government — and against repeated efforts to reopen — in an unsuccessful bid to force Republicans to extend expiring health

"Trumpism feeds on and deepens the sense that the Constitution, the Congress, elected officials, don't care and can't deliver."

care subsidies. He did so again this year as part of Democrats' failed attempt to impose new limits on the tactics of federal immigration agents.

As his party has shifted away from unequivocal backing for Israel, Mr. Ossoff has grown more critical as well; he has voted repeatedly, including twice this year, to limit or block some American weapons transfers to the Jewish state. But last week, he broke with Hasan Piker, the left-wing streamer, saying he “unreservedly rejects” a comment Mr.

Piker made warning that support for Israel could prompt violence against American Jews.

He also drew outsize attention last month when he questioned Jay Clayton, Mr. Trump's nominee to lead the nation's intelligence community, so intensively at his confirmation hearing that Mr. Clayton was briefly left speechless. In the Times interview, Mr. Ossoff — who has made it a standard practice to repeat the same question several times in such settings — said he meticulously prepares for such moments.

"I take great satisfaction in putting folks who have abused their power on the spot and forcing them, through effective investigation and interrogation, to answer for what they've done," Mr. Ossoff said.

But in recent months, the senator, a former congressional aide and documentary film executive, has also aggressively courted Republican backers. He appears to be winning over some, despite his frequent verbal broadsides against the president.

In Toccoa, a city of less than 10,000 residents in the foothills of northeast Georgia, Mayor Gail Fry, a lifelong Republican who voted against Mr. Ossoff when he ran six years ago, is backing the senator.

"We have gotten more support from Senator Ossoff than any other office that we've contacted," she said in an interview, citing an \$8.4 million federal grant he secured to replace aging natural-gas infrastructure. "He calls us and says, 'What do you need?'

Other local Republican officials, including Mayor Scott James Matheson of Valdosta and Mayor Julie Smith of Tifton, also endorsed Mr. Ossoff.

In the interview, Mr. Ossoff said that bad public service is what ushered in the Trump era and that voters would reward him for focusing on the basics.

“Thousands of folks across the state have my cellphone number,” he said. “They know that I will move heaven and earth to deliver for them, no matter their politics.”

He rejected the notion that his harsh criticism of the president — in the interview, he called Mr. Trump “a disgrace” and his administration “an obscenity” — would alienate the voters he needs to win. And he argued he was still able to work with Republicans when necessary.

“A big part of my job is to have the legislative skill and the relationships across the aisle to get results for the state,” Mr. Ossoff said. “I don’t think these things are in tension.”

That is a tricky balance to strike in an election year. Partisan tensions are running high as Mr. Collins is working to draw a stark contrast with Mr. Ossoff on issues including law enforcement and

At a campaign event this month, Mr. Collins said the choice between himself and Mr. Ossoff was “common sense versus communism crazy.”

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Augusta, he called Mr. Ossoff a “trust fund kid” and portrayed him as out of step with the state’s deeply conservative values, accusing the senator of voting “to have that border wide open,” for the Biden-era domestic policy bill “that caused all this runaway inflation,” and for legislation “to allow men to play in girls’ sports.”

(Mr. Ossoff voted with his party last year to block Republican-written legislation aimed at barring transgender women and girls from school sports teams designated for female students.)

Mr. Ossoff, for his part, has attacked Mr. Collins for his ties to aides who have trafficked in racist and antisemitic material and associated with prominent bigots. The Washington Post reported last week that a former staff member had posted an image of a swastika and one in which he appeared to be dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb. (In a statement to The Times, a spokesman for Mr. Collins said he “unequivocally condemns” the posts.) The Republican also replaced his chief of staff last month after reports that he had been in communication with the white supremacists Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer.

Mr. Ossoff's strong position in the race, formidable fund-raising and increasingly prominent confrontations with Trump administration officials have supercharged speculation about his presidential prospects, a topic he stubbornly avoids.

"I have zero interest in running for president in 2028 and, frankly, zero interest in the 2028 fantasy football right now," Mr. Ossoff said in a recent interview on MS NOW.

Mr. Collins has sought to capitalize on the presidential chatter to portray Mr. Ossoff as out of touch with the state.

“Jon Ossoff sees Georgia as nothing more than a steppingstone and has abandoned our state to court the radical El-Sayed, Hasan Piker wing of the Democrat Party,” said Meyer Siegfried, Mr. Collins’s spokesman, referring to Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan.

Yet some longtime Republicans are looking past Mr. Ossoff's party affiliation.

Gary Paulk, a fifth-generation muscadine grape farmer in Wray, a small community in deeply Republican South Georgia, once backed Mr. Trump and plans to vote this fall for Rick Jackson, the Republican nominee for governor.

But for Senate, Mr. Paulk plans to support Mr. Ossoff.

He disagrees with the Democrat on abortion, among other issues, but Mr. Paulk has experienced the negative impacts of many of Mr. Trump's policy moves — including tariffs that have raised his costs, an immigration crackdown he complained left crops to rot for lack of workers to pick them, and health care cuts that have hit rural areas like his particularly hard.

“You pick what’s important, and you go with the person that’s best,” he said. “You’re never going to find anybody that does everything like you want it.”

To break a town council tie, they each drew a playing card

GILA BEND, ARIZ.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANNA WATTS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Left, Patricia Riggs, at right, the interim town clerk of Gila Bend, Ariz., declared Jesus Rubalcava, center, the winner of the Town Council seat after a game of high-card draw with the opposing candidate, Athena Guerrero. Above, Gila Bend's downtown.

Old Arizona law mandated using game of chance to determine election winner

BY REIS THEBAULT

There was an old-fashioned Wild West standoff last week in a onetime frontier outpost.

Two candidates for Town Council in Gila Bend, Ariz., finished with the same number of votes in July's election, 67 each. A century-old state law mandated breaking the tie with a game of chance.

In this duel, there would be no gun-slinging, though there would be a draw slinging, though there would be a draw — not from a holster, but from a shuffled deck of cards. The hopeful with the higher card would claim the seat.

In an age of increasing distrust in elections and a state that has been a hotbed for voting-related conspiracy theories, Gila Bend's leaders said they knew the high-stakes tiebreaker, which took place last Tuesday, would need to be transparent and carefully choreographed.

“With everything that’s going on, you want it as open as you can possibly get it,” said Patricia Riggs, the town clerk, who oversees elections.

The stalemate in this 1,800-person community, 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Phoenix, was hardly the first to be decided by chance in a country with tens of thousands of elected local governments and closely divided politics. Races in recent decades have come down to poker games, straw-drawing and, earlier this month in Hawaii, names tucked into plastic eggs and picked from a woven basket.

But Gila Bend's tie might have been the first involving a candidate who had been in the exact same position years before. Jesus Rubalcava finished neck and neck with an opponent in 2014 and won his first term on the Council with the flip of a \$1 coin.

After a court-certified recount earlier this month confirmed his deadlock with the newcomer Athena Guerrero, Ms. Riggs informed Mr. Rubalcava that his election fate would once again come down to chance.

Did that make him lucky or unlucky? Mr. Rubalcava, a high school teacher and former state legislator, wasn't sure.

“I was in disbelief,” he said. “I couldn’t wrap my head around it.”

It was up to Ms. Riggs and other town officials to choose what form the rubber match would take. Arizona law stipulated only that the tie be broken “by lot.” They ruled out rock-paper-scissors, and they opted against drawing marbles or straws.

“We thought that was kind of boring,” Ms. Riggs said.

High-card draw would be more exciting, they decided, and it would be easy for the public to understand and follow.

Ms. Guerrero was initially wary. “I’m not a gambling type of person,” she said.

But she knew enough to pray for an ace. Ms. Guerrero, who works for a water treatment plant, had long eyed politics, and she imagined the Town Council as a launching pad. Eventually, she said, she would like to be mayor.

Gila Bend, an important stop on a storied 19th-century stagecoach line, is now a manufacturing and farming town where local politics is unavoidably personal. In separate interviews, Ms. Guerrero and Mr. Rubalcava each said they “have nothing but love” for the other.

Neither campaigned aggressively, and the nail-biter was a reminder that every vote counts. Mr. Rubalcava's mother, brother and niece all failed to cast ballots, he said.

They were not alone. Fewer than 200 of the town's roughly 600 registered voters participated in the July election.

Ms. Riggs spent three weeks painstakingly planning Tuesday's showdown, consulting with lawyers and election experts. She devised a list of 19 steps that documented exactly how the draw would go, and she wrote a script to read while she conducted it.

On Tuesday morning, she borrowed a mechanical card shuffler from her sister-in-law and bought two decks at the town's Dollar General, one for practice. That night, the two candidates sidled up to a table in a school building and exchanged nervous smiles in front of a handful of residents and the sitting Council members.

Ms. Riggs stated the rules, opened and spread a new deck of cards and let Ms. Guerrero and Mr. Rubalcava inspect them. She shuffled and presented the stack to Ms. Guerrero, who cut it. Mr. Rubalcava then cut it again.

The candidates were reminded that, in the event they drew the same number — like that would ever happen — spades would trump other suits.

Ms. Riggs pulled Ms. Guerrero's card first, a three of clubs. The candidate sighed.

Ms. Riggs flipped Mr. Rubalcava's card next.

Another three, another tie. The audience gasped. Mr. Rubalcava couldn't believe it. "Did this really just happen?" he thought.

But his three was a spade, delivering Mr. Rubalcava a chance victory for the second time. The candidates laughed and shook hands.

“Who would have thought?” a stunned Ms. Riggs said to the room.

Ms. Guerrero said on Wednesday that she planned to run for office again, pledging to “come back strong in a couple years.”

Ms. Riggs said she was glad to hear it, then added: "God forbid there's a tie."

Church Brothers Farms has been growing produce in the Salinas Valley in California since 1999. Lettuce sales began to drop in July but have started to pick up again lately.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MINH CONNORS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

World's 'salad bowl' is wilting

SALINAS, CALIF.

California lettuce farmers, not tied to outbreak, forced to mulch millions of heads

BY SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA

At a Church Brothers Farms production facility, where conveyor belts rumble with giant heaps of chopped romaine and red cabbage, the company has slashed workers' hours and laid off employees this summer. Some assembly lines in the plant in San Juan Bautista, Calif., near the agricultural heartland of the Salinas Valley, were not operating at all last week.

Fresh produce sales fell across the United States after a major outbreak of cyclosporiasis, an illness that causes severe diarrhea. More than 17,000 people have been sickened so far, and two have died, according to federal health officials.

The largest cluster of cases was linked to iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico, and greens from the Salinas Valley haven't been implicated by federal officials. Yet demand for the valley's lettuce has plummeted all the same, said Raymond Gonzales, vice president of processing plant operations at Church Brothers.

“Even though all this product is from the U.S.,” Mr. Gonzales said, waving a gloved hand at pale green leaves churning through cold water, “the consumer just sees it as lettuce.”

Like many American farmers, Church Brothers made a tough decision in recent weeks to abandon healthy crops. If there is not a market for the produce, it often makes more financial sense to use the greens to re-fertilize the land than to shell out for the labor costs for harvesting.

Jeff Church, the company's chief operating officer, said Church Brothers had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in discarded greens. He estimated that the company had returned an extra 3.9 million heads of lettuce to the soil over the past six weeks as demand dropped.

“We just couldn’t use it,” said Mr. Church, 54.

The amount of romaine and iceberg lettuce produced for sale this summer in the United States has been the lowest in a quarter century, according to shipping data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And wholesale prices for lettuce remain at break-even costs, even though so little is available for sale, the data shows.

Nowhere has the economic impact been felt more than in the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region south of San Francisco that marketers have long called the Salad Bowl of the World.

The area is perhaps best known nationally for the John Steinbeck novels set here, such as “Of Mice and Men” and “East of Eden.” But the Salinas Valley has also been prized for generations for its temperate weather and fertile soil, which allow it to grow strawberries, broccoli and, in the summer, 70 percent of the nation’s lettuce.

So produce scares are nothing new. It took years for spinach sales to recover after a deadly E. coli outbreak in 2006. But questions about the origins of the largest-ever U.S. outbreak of cyclospora, a parasite in human feces, seem to have made customers particularly cautious, avoiding berries and several types of fresh vegetables that were never linked to the outbreak.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed only one source — iceberg grown in Mexico by the produce behemoth Taylor Farms. But health officials say they're investigating at least six other clusters for which sources have not yet been publicly identified.

"I even had one reporter tell me they were not going to have a Caesar salad," said Norm Groot, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau in Salinas, who pointed out that romaine lettuce, the kind typically used in a Caesar, had never been connected to the parasite.

At Church Brothers, a large, family-owned business that has been growing produce in the Salinas Valley since 1999, lettuce sales began to drop in July, around the time the C.D.C. announced a link between cyclospora and Taco Bell lettuce. It didn't help that Taylor Farms, whose Mexican-grown lettuce was implicated, is based in Salinas, linking the outbreak to the valley in customers' minds.

Sales have begun to pick up as the out-break starts to subside, Mr. Church said.

Shoppers remain leery of lettuce after a major outbreak of cyclosporiasis, an illness that causes severe diarrhea. Like many other U.S. farms, Church Brothers had to make a tough decision in recent weeks to abandon healthy crops.

Yet he is now struggling to determine how much to plant in the coming months.

Mr. Church, wearing a vest in the Salinas morning fog last week, contemplated the math as he watched workers harvesting iceberg lettuce strip off outer leaves with knives before wrapping the heads in plastic to sell to Walmart.

If local farmers plant too little, there will be a lettuce shortage in the winter. But if Mr. Church plants a typical amount, he could be forced again to do what farmers call discing, in which they dispatch a tractor with steel blades, or discs, to chop up healthy produce and plow it back into the soil.

Daniel Sumner, an agricultural economics professor at the University of California, Davis, said it was unclear how long customers would avoid leafy greens, given how fast information travels on social media and a larger lack of trust in institutions.

Just last week, farmers were upset about a meme of the scariest Halloween costume: Taylor Farms shredded iceberg lettuce. The Washington Post published an opinion column last week arguing that Americans should permanently stop eating lettuce.

"It's a really tough moment," said Dave Puglia, president and chief executive of Western Growers, an agricultural trade association representing produce farmers in California and other Western states. "There's a lot of very good, fresh produce that's being plowed back into the ground."

Mr. Puglia said the drop in sales linked to this outbreak — close to 30 percent — had been higher than for other recent disease outbreaks.

And while America has a very safe food supply system, there are risks inherent to lettuce, he said, since it's largely grown outside and is eaten raw. Leafy greens are among the leading sources of food-borne illness in the United States.

In Salinas, a city of 159,000 residents where Main Street is lined with brick buildings featuring Art Deco entryways, hand-painted tomatoes and heads of lettuce grace the public trash cans. Looming as one of the tallest buildings in downtown, across from the National Steinbeck Center, is the headquarters of Taylor Farms, a major employer.

The mayor of Salinas, Dennis Donohue, said he was keeping an eye on local economic indicators, such as sales tax revenue, to see how the produce sales slump could ultimately affect the city's finances. But ups and downs are the nature of the agriculture business, said Mr. Donohue, who previously ran a small specialty vegetable company.

As far as eating lettuce, even customers in Salinas remain wary.

Melanie Waltrip, who co-owns Smalley's Roundup Restaurant, a 50-year-old steakhouse, said her servers were still fielding questions about the safety of consuming their green salads.

But Jeff Birkemeier, 46, who co-owns Amapola Kitchen in downtown Salinas, said his most popular menu item, a Chinese chicken salad made with romaine, remains a best seller. He said that employees of Taylor Farms, who work across the street from his cafe, often stop by for lunch.

"My customers in general are people that have grown up in this type of agricultural hotbed for their whole lives, and they just kind of take it all in stride," he said.

This roller coaster spin is not a scream for all

TOLUCA LAKE, CALIF.

Universal's new ride in L.A. angers neighbors: It didn't account for human volume

BY BROOKS BARNES

After three years of painstaking work, Universal Studios Hollywood recently pulled off a seemingly impossible feat: It built a 72-mile-per-hour, looping roller coaster with spinning “Fast & Furious” cars — that barely makes a sound.

Universal had good reason to obsess. Residential neighborhoods press against the theme park, and its own movie studio operates alongside it. To silence the ride, Universal went so far as to fill the 4,100-foot (1250-meter) track with pea gravel, muting the vibrations that give coasters their roar.

When riderless testing began last month, residents in nearby Toluca Lake were delighted, with several calling the attraction “whisper quiet.”

Then came the riders.

Every 30 seconds or so, for 10 hours straight, according to interviews with more than a dozen homeowners, the air is now filled with the sound of humans who fear they're in mortal peril.

“Screams — bloodcurdling screams,” said Craig Strong, who has lived near Universal Studios Hollywood for 25 years. “Some people can hear it inside their homes with the windows closed.”

One angry resident said she could hear the screams even after removing her hearing aids. Another worried about her livelihood: She teaches meditation from home.

“We're accustomed to some theme park noise, but the screaming is new, and it's impossible to tune out,” said Judith Angel, who has lived nearby for 38 years. “Our brains are designed to respond to screaming. It's biology.”

Neighbors have one demand. Universal must somehow find a way to muffle its very happy customers.

It would be easy to dismiss this as another chapter in the long history of neighborhood noise disputes in America. But the predicament underscores Universal's longstanding challenge — how do you expand one of the world's busiest theme parks when homes and a working movie studio sit almost on top of it?

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift was supposed to demonstrate that Universal had figured out how to overcome constraints.

Comcast, which owns the park, has been counting on Hollywood Drift to revive attendance and compete with an expanding Disneyland to the south. Universal Studios Hollywood attracted 8.8 million visitors in 2024, down 10 percent from 2023, according to the Themed Entertainment Association, which has yet to release 2025 figures.

Jason Armstrong, Comcast's chief financial officer, told analysts in July that business had improved, “though we do not expect a more meaningful improvement until the new Fast & Furious roller coaster opens.” Universal declined to say how much the ride cost. Theme park analysts say attractions of this size and complexity typically cost \$200 million or more.

This month, Hollywood Drift was still in “technical rehearsals,” according to Universal, with no opening date beyond what the company has said since February: “summer.” Universal declined to make executives available for interviews but said in an email to neighborhood groups that audio measurements showed the ride was “operating in compliance with sound ordinance requirements.”

Universal added that it was nonetheless “exploring additional measures to further lessen sound levels experienced in adjacent neighborhoods.” Workers have begun expanding a sound wall. Universal also said it would stop running the coaster at 7 p.m. during the testing period and at 10 p.m. during Halloween Horror Nights, when the park is open as late as 2 a.m.

Universal took screaming into account from the start. Using computer modeling, ride designers mapped where screams were most likely to occur and incorporated defenses. Hollywood Drift was built with two “scream screens,” half-pipe-like glass shields meant to “encase sound at the source,” Universal has said.

ADAM AMENGUAL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

There is also a 940-foot sound wall made with Acoustiblok, a dense, rubbery material used to insulate buildings near airports.

The coaster's spinning cars were enlisted: Universal said they were programmed to turn riders' mouths away from nearby homes at "key scream moments."

Universal even mounted speakers near the coaster site and played recordings of a roller coaster at a Florida park. Engineers wanted to study how sound traveled down the steep hillside.

What worked in computer models, however, has proved less effective against actual lungs.

Now residents are making noise of their own, flooding elected officials with complaints and demanding that neighborhood councils, which serve as conduits to City Hall, get involved. One coalition said it had hired its own sound consultants. Another said it had approached law firms to find out what representation would cost.

“I have a feeling this isn’t going to be over anytime soon,” said Leonard R. Garner, who has lived next to Universal for 28 years.

Toluca Lake was developed in the 1920s and became a Hollywood haven, attracting stars like Bette Davis and moguls like Roy O. Disney. The entertainment connection endures: Ray Romano, the actor, and Rick Dees, the radio countdown king, have made their homes there. Toluca Lake also boasts the Lakeside Golf Club, an ultraexclusive private course.

"We're accustomed to some theme park noise, but the screaming is new, and it's impossible to tune out."

As local news outlets have reported on the noise complaints, social media has predictably lit up with variations on “wealthy people whining.” But residents take issue with the caricature of their neighborhood as a gilded realm of the entitled and the well connected.

“This impacts people of all income levels — we have all types of housing,” said Kevin Dees, Rick’s son, who grew up in Toluca Lake and now sells real estate there. “Income level also has nothing to do with whether you deserve to have quiet in your own home.”

Theme parks are generally easier neighbors when they don't have neighbors. Disney World in Florida has 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares) to itself. Dollywood occupies a wooded valley in eastern Tennessee.

In contrast, Universal Studios Hollywood is squeezed across multiple levels of a hillside in the middle of Los Angeles. It did not start as a theme park. Rather, it grew out of tours that Universal began offering at its movie studio in 1964. Over the decades, Universal mostly added rides that were either indoors or relatively modest in scale.

Hollywood Drift is a dramatic departure — Universal's most aggressive coaster anywhere and, theme park experts say, the most anticipated new ride of the year.

The challenge is making it peacefully coexist with the neighborhoods around it. Residents have floated ideas ranging from roofs on the coaster cars to sound-muffling helmets. During the Covid-19 pandemic, one Japanese park, concerned about respiratory droplets, asked riders to “please scream inside your heart.”

Universal, as it sometimes does with soon-to-open attractions, has been inviting neighbors to come for a ride. Mr. Garner, 73, accepted. "There's a point when it's accelerating up a hill and then it drops, and you feel like you could come out of your seat," he texted a reporter. Did he scream?

Did he scream "Hell, yeah!"

The Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster at Universal Studios in Hollywood. Theme park analysts say attractions of this size and complexity typically cost \$200 million or more.

Fed chair faces a ‘no-win situation’ on rates

JACKSON, WYO.

At center, Kevin Warsh, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, at its annual conference in Jackson, Wyo., on Friday. He made it clear that the Fed's focus is on tackling inflation.
NATALIE BEHRING/GETTY IMAGES

Kevin Warsh must weigh pressures around inflation and Trump's expectations

BY COLBY SMITH

Kevin M. Warsh cleared a crucial hurdle at his first appearance as the U.S. Federal Reserve's chairman at its annual conference in Jackson, Wyo.

He offered his most comprehensive views to date about the state of the economy. He cleared up confusion about the central bank's commitment to getting inflation down to its 2 percent target after sending mixed messages the month prior.

And he acknowledged that the Fed might have “work to do” to make good on that pledge, suggesting a readiness to raise interest rates if price pressures do not ease.

But the path ahead for Mr. Warsh is a precarious one.

Financial markets now see a quarter-point increase at the central bank's next meeting on Sept. 15-16 as more likely than not, leaving Mr. Warsh with a tough decision about whether to follow through with action.

Another month of benign inflation data will alleviate the pressure on him to raise rates in September. But as the market blowback to his last meeting in July showed, the onus will be on him to explain how doing nothing aligns with his intolerance for elevated inflation.

A rate increase next month would help to underpin the seriousness around Mr. Warsh's inflation pledge. Delivering that just before midterm elections, however, would create an immediate showdown with the Trump administration.

“He has multiple targets on his back,” Maurice Obstfeld, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said on the sidelines of the conference last week. “It’s a no-win situation.”

A SHIFT IN TONE

Mr. Warsh on Friday sounded like many of his fellow policymakers at the Fed who had grown impatient about the slow pace of progress on taming inflation after half a decade of it overshooting the target. He not only dismissed data that showed easing price pressures this summer, but also suggested that there was not much restraint on an economy that has been growing at a robust pace. He also made clear that with the labor market stable, the Fed's focus was chiefly on tackling inflation.

It is those same views that prompted Alberto G. Musalem, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, to support raising rates last month. Mr. Musalem is not a voting member on this year's policy setting committee, so he was not one of the three who officially opposed July's decision to hold rates steady.

Mr. Musalem, in an interview, endorsed Mr. Warsh's message on Friday, especially his decision to put "a level and a sense of timing" around inflation's retreat before some tightening is required.

Mr. Musalem, who said he was keeping a “very open mind” going into the September meeting, conveyed that there was a solid case for raising rates to squash inflation.

Given his views that there are “both supply and, very importantly, persistent demand forces pushing inflation above 2 percent, I believe that without some restraint on inflation, the probability that inflation will be meaningfully above target 18 months from now is higher than the probability that we’re going to converge to target” by then, he said.

Mr. Musalem noted that while inflation expectations did not indicate a loss of confidence in the Fed's commitment to reaching 2 percent, that conviction was contingent on the Fed's adjusting its policy settings appropriately.

"If we delay action in spite of data, expectations may be affected by that," he said. "Right now, inflation expectations are very anchored because the same markets expect us to raise interest rates by about 75 basis points in the next nine months or so."

Raising rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, the argument goes, would ensure there is some downward pressure on economic activity, helping in part to snuff out price pressures.

FORGOING FORWARD GUIDANCE

Mr. Warsh made a plea during his speech on Friday that people in attendance who know him well said the public should heed. “Just don’t call it forward guidance,” the chairman quipped when outlining the contents of his speech.

Many in the markets were quick to perceive it exactly as that, however, despite Mr. Warsh leaving himself room to maneuver.

"He was very clear: He is not telling us what he's doing at the next meeting," said Kristin Forbes, a former Bank of England official who is now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Still, Ms. Forbes conceded that Mr. Warsh was in a "tricky situation" as he contends with markets reading it as such.

"He might feel the pressure to verify what people are saying, and then fall back into that trap or he might feel pressured to not verify what people are saying to show that there is not guidance in a speech like that about the economy," Ms. Forbes said. "I think he does have enough credibility and wants to do the right thing enough that he will not make a decision just to send a lesson."

Austan D. Goolsbee, the president of the Chicago Fed, said in an interview that the right decision came down to whether the data showed that the most recent bout of inflation, caused partly by the Iran war and President Trump's tariffs, was persistent or just a one-time increase in the level of consumer prices.

"The reason to wait, just in theory, would be if that inflation is going to go away on its own, then you easily could generate a recession and you didn't need to," Mr. Goolsbee said.

So far, the inflation data is “ambiguous,” he said, pointing to the fact that price pressures across the services sector remain elevated. Monthly inflation readings near 0.3 percent are “nowhere near target,” Mr. Goolsbee added. “That’s not evidence that we’re headed back to 2 percent.”

In July, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, once volatile food and energy prices are stripped out, rose at an unrounded monthly pace of 0.246 percent.

Susan C. Collins, president of the Boston Fed, also acknowledged in an interview that the inflation data was “mixed,” suggesting that higher rates are not a foregone conclusion but remain a real possibility if there is not a discernible improvement soon.

She pushed back on the idea that there is a threshold for the monthly pace of inflation she is targeting that will tip her in one direction or another.

“Policy should be based on the trajectory of the economy, and from my perspective, picking a particular number as a threshold for last month's inflation, while that is certainly an important part of the information that we have, it's not the only thing that I'm going to weigh to try to understand the direction,” she said.

"If we are seeing progress, and there's enough uncertainty about a range of different dimensions of policy, I think there is a totally consistent, thoughtful argument for holding in that context."

Based on the distribution of views at the Fed, Mr. Warsh will have the sway to resolve what is likely to be a close call in September.

If the next Consumer Price Index report, scheduled for release on Sept. 11, comes in soft, Mr. Warsh, now having provided a framework for his thinking, could “legitimately stand up” in September and justify holding rates steady, said Donald Kohn, who served as vice-chair of the Fed from 2006 to 2010 when Mr. Warsh was a governor.

SPARKING A SHOWDOWN

Increasing rates would put Mr. Warsh immediately at odds with Mr. Trump, who has gone to great lengths to pressure the Fed into lowering rates. Mr. Trump handpicked Mr. Warsh for the job, after running an elaborate audition process that hinged on finding someone who would support his views.

The administration's desire for lower rates was on full display this past month when the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, embarked on surprise interventions amid a sharp rise in longer-term U.S. government bond yields.

Policymakers at the Fed officially maintain that these interventions do not make their jobs harder, but there are reasons to think that it has some negative impact.

For one, Mr. Bessent's actions have muddied the economic signals that the Fed would otherwise glean from the level of Treasury yields, which reflect heightened policy uncertainty, concerns about the country's debt load and higher growth prospects, among other factors.

Moreover, Mr. Bessent, in making clear that he will take steps to tamp down borrowing costs, has created a situation in which yields are more likely lower than they otherwise would be.

If that results in overall financial conditions that are less restrictive, that could make taming inflation more difficult.

Based on the distribution of views at the Fed, Mr. Warsh will have the sway to resolve what may be a close call in September.

"With anything having to do with fiscal policy or debt management, what Treasury does impacts markets and the economy and so impacts what the Fed does, and vice versa," said Patricia Mosser, who previously worked as a top official at the New York Fed and is now at Columbia University. "Going at cross purposes is usually not a wise idea."

Some believe Mr. Warsh, who has a close relationship with the president, will be more effective at managing the fallout in the event that the Fed raises rates. Mr. Trump has chosen so far to place blame on Mr. Warsh's colleagues for not cutting borrowing costs.

The universal message from Fed officials is that they do not feel constrained by political considerations. What would imperil their independence more, they argue, is if they opt against a move that was necessitated by the data.

"The central bank's timetable is not the market timetable, and it's not the election timetable and so we often face tensions with outside bodies," Mr. Goolsbee said.

But defying Mr. Trump just before the midterms will no doubt raise tensions.

"If they can possibly put it off till after the midterms, it would be good for the institution," said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard professor who previously served as chief economist at the I.M.F.

“We're clearly in a constitutional crisis at the moment, and if you're trying to preserve Fed independence, are you preserving it better by spitting in his face, or are you preserving it better by laying low and waiting until the winter?”

U.S. supplies of stored oil are dwindling

CUSHING, OKLA.

Oil is scarce and in demand, but most traders expect those conditions to end.

RUTH FREMSON/THE NEWYORK TIMES

Companies and nations consume stockpiles as Hormuz struggle goes on

Oil storage tanks surrounding Cushing, Okla., where major U.S pipelines converge.

BY REBECCA F. ELLIOTT

Hundreds of steel tanks several stories tall rise like giant bales of hay from the plains. They make up the largest private oil storage site in the United States, and after six months of war, they are close to the emptiest they have been in recent years.

Companies drew down the oil stashed here in central Oklahoma as energy prices surged in recent months.

The world is getting by on other buffers, but those will last only so long.

That timeline depends on the how the war between the United States and Iran evolves, but one thing is clear: Policymakers and oil companies the world over are eager to build or expand stockpiles to insulate themselves from the next energy shock.

Among them are Persian Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, that want to stockpile more oil overseas, far from maritime choke points like the Strait of Hormuz. “Producers need to invest in storage that is not necessarily in their country,” said Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser on energy and foreign policy in the Biden administration.

The challenge is different in the United States, which has ample oil storage capacity but dwindling inventory. The federal government has been steadily depleting its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which recently fell to its lowest levels since 1982.

Most private companies have little incentive to hold on to oil. That is because oil is worth more today than traders believe it will be several months from now.

As a result, many of the storage tanks here, outside the small town of Cushing, Okla., contain little more than what is needed to keep systems running.

A recent tour of these tank farms showed how these private stockpiles work.

Cushing was one of America's early oil boomtowns. The area's first commercial oil well was drilled in 1912, and dozens of refineries were built to process that oil into fuels. New pipelines connected Cushing to markets as far as Indiana in the 1920s.

Production, however, collapsed almost as quickly as it had started. But Cushing was not completely forlorn. The town's central location and network of pipelines made it an increasingly attractive place to store and trade oil.

The New York Mercantile Exchange chose the town as the trading hub for a new oil contract, West Texas Intermediate.

That contract debuted in 1983 and became the most important price for oil produced in the United States.

“It provided the best access to the refining base in the United States at the time,” said Peter Keavey, global head of energy for CME Group, which operates that exchange.

Today, dozens of pipelines meet in Cushing, connecting oil fields in Canada and Wyoming to refineries in the Midwest and Texas, according to Novi Labs, an energy research firm.

“Without it, getting where you wanted to go would take so much more planning and time and cost,” said Sarah Harris, a director of operations for Oneok, which is based in nearby Tulsa and operates one of the biggest local storage systems.

Some of Oneok's tanks are so big that they can hold enough oil to power tens of thousands of cars and trucks for a year. When prices are such that oil is worth more in the future, companies use that space to store oil. Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, Cushing's storage tanks filled up as demand for fuel collapsed during lockdowns, sending U.S. oil prices briefly below zero.

The opposite dynamic has been playing out this year. Oil is scarce and in relatively high demand, but most traders expect that those conditions will eventually end. Regardless of what happens to the Strait of Hormuz, the global oil industry will increase the supply of fuel, the world will learn to live with less, or some combination of the two will happen, the thinking goes.

Cushing's tank farms held 22 million barrels as of late August, just above minimum operating levels, according to the Energy Information Administration. Removing much more oil could damage equipment, like the steel roofs that float atop the oil or the mixers that blend it the way a KitchenAid machine might a batch of cookie dough.

The oil continues to flow, however, with Cushing acting like a brief rest stop on the way to refineries and ports.

Similar concepts apply to the federal oil stockpile. Analysts disagree about how low U.S. reserves can safely fall, but the government cannot remove all of the oil without risking damage to the underground salt caverns that hold it in Texas and Louisiana.

For now, the world has access to enough oil that prices remain well below the highs seen early in the war. The bigger constraint is that there are not enough refineries to turn the oil into gasoline and other fuels.

The longer the war drags on, the more fragile the market is becoming.

To stem losses, Meta put huge sum on table

WASHINGTON

Mark Zuckerberg, center, Meta's chief executive, outside a court in Los Angeles in February. Meta faces thousands of suits filed by teenagers, families and school districts.
MARK ABRAMSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Company's new top lawyer struck \$17.1 billion deal to resolve case with states

BY CECILIA KANG AND ELI TAN

Six days before the start of a federal trial over online child safety, C.J. Mahoney, Meta's chief legal officer, traveled to Nashville on Aug. 6 to meet with lawyers for about a dozen states. He wanted to broker an enormous settlement, two people familiar with the conversation said.

Meta had already suffered losses in court this year over claims it created addictive products that harmed young users. Mark Zuckerberg had endured a full day of grilling on the witness stand during one of those trials. ("You're mischaracterizing this," he kept repeating.) He was likely to be questioned again at the federal trial in California, in which a coalition of states had sued Meta, arguing that the company had contributed to a national child mental health crisis.

Over bagels and coffee in an Art Deco office on Tennessee's Capitol grounds, Mr. Mahoney presented his terms, which Mr. Zuckerberg had personally approved, according to four people familiar with the negotiations. Meta would pay the states up to \$19 billion and make changes to its platforms to improve teen safety. Some of the payment would be withheld unless all states joined and other social media companies also settled.

For the states attorney general in the room, the offer was intriguing. They had been negotiating with the Silicon Valley giant for months with little progress, the people said.

On Tuesday, 47 states — two had dropped out of the lawsuit — the District of Columbia and several territories agreed to a settlement worth roughly \$17 billion.

"There's a saying here in Tennessee," Jonathan Skrmetti, the state's attorney general, said in one of the meetings with nearly all the state attorneys general, encouraging them not to get greedy. "Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered."

The settlement, one of the largest agreements between a company and a group of states embroiled in litigation, was announced on Wednesday. This account of how it came together is based on a dozen interviews with state leaders, former and current Meta executives, court documents and trial testimony.

For years, Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, seemed to have an impenetrable defense against child safety lawsuits. The company's aces were Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that protects platforms from liability over what users post on their sites, and the First Amendment, which protects free speech.

But concerns have mounted globally over the harmful effects of social media on children. Australia last year became the first country to bar children under 16 from using social media, and many other countries carried out or are considering similar rules.

In the United States, a flood of online child safety lawsuits have been filed since 2022, and the plaintiffs focused on a new argument claiming that social media sites designed their products in a harmful way that violates consumer protection and other laws.

The suits accused the companies of knowingly creating sites that were as addictive as cigarettes, taking a page from a strategy used against Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Suddenly, relying on Section 230 didn't look so safe.

At Meta, concern was growing about the cases, according to two people familiar with thinking inside the company.

In January, Meta hired Mr. Mahoney, a veteran litigator who had been general counsel at Microsoft. Mr. Mahoney, who reports directly to Mr. Zuckerberg, took the position of chief legal officer in part because he was attracted to the prospect of negotiating a settlement, one of the people familiar with Meta's thinking said. He had negotiated complex deals in the past, most notably in 2020 when, as deputy U.S. trade representative, he was a lead negotiator of the Trump administration's trade deal with Canada and Mexico.

Just days after starting his new job, Mr. Mahoney called Attorney General Phil Weiser of Colorado and Mr. Skrmetti of Tennessee, the lead negotiators for states, to begin settlement talks, four of the people familiar with the conversations said. Mr. Mahoney, who is based in Silicon Valley, flew out to meet them separately in their states. He wanted to explore a grand settlement that would end federal and state cases brought by all of the nation's attorneys general.

The two sides had held previous talks. But the tenor of the conversations changed because Mr. Mahoney seemed so clearly interested in reaching a resolution.

But a roadblock immediately became apparent because Meta was reluctant to make some changes to its products, three of the people said. That was a non-starter for many of the state attorneys general.

“We brought these suits because we wanted to protect kids and we wanted to reform the platforms,” Mr. Skrmetti said in an interview. Forcing changes to the platforms “is really the most significant part here.”

The talks dragged. But within weeks, Meta received a harsh reminder of the potential problems ahead.

A young woman identified as K.G.M. took the stand at a trial that began in late January, making accusations that social media companies had created features on their platforms like infinite scroll that had led to her anxiety and depression.

The defendants, Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, had argued in pretrial hearings that the case should be scrapped because of Section 230. But the judge, Carolyn B. Kuhl of California Superior Court of Los Angeles County, ruled that the case was about product liability, not speech.

The five-week trial was deeply embarrassing for Meta. Mr. Zuckerberg testified for the first time about child safety in front of a jury. He was grilled about allowing millions of underage users on Instagram.

Simultaneously, New Mexico's attorney general was trying a case in state court charging Meta with violating consumer protection laws.

Within two days in March, Meta lost both cases. The decisions raised questions about reputational harm that future trials could inflict.

The stakes were getting higher, as Meta and California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey geared up for trial this summer in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland. The states had accused Meta of violating consumer protection laws and child privacy protections, seeking roughly \$200 billion in penalties and changes to the company's platforms.

Mr. Skrmetti and nearly all the other states attorney general had also filed their own cases.

But in the ongoing talks, Meta still wasn't meeting all the states' demands on safety features.

On the eve of the Oakland trial, Meta made a last-ditch effort to kill the case. The company asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on July 22 to throw out the social media addiction cases, invoking legal protections under Section 230.

As Meta waited for a decision from the Ninth Circuit, Mr. Mahoney trekked to Tennessee with his \$19 billion offer. He left without a deal, but talks continued.

On Aug. 10, the appeals court ruled against Meta. Suddenly the talks sped up, four of the people said. With their new leverage, the states began daily negotiations with Meta's lawyers in person in Nashville and over video calls, to get final concessions, one of the people said.

As part of the deal, the company agreed to more safety measures. The growing list of platform changes included stopping teenage users from endless scrolling, and imposing a two-hour daily limit on use of Instagram and Facebook.

Meta proposed paying more and increasing limits on how much young users could use its platforms if other social media companies, like TikTok and YouTube, agreed to similar controls for their apps — something that Meta said would keep it from being singled out.

The company wanted to avoid going to trial and had made it a condition that all the states needed to sign on.

The states' case in Oakland went to trial this month while they were still negotiating with Meta. On Aug. 23, the Colorado and Tennessee attorneys general presented a final settlement deal to the other states. They emailed the document with instructions to sign by Tuesday at 6 p.m.

That day, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, testified in Oakland. The states' plan to call Mr. Zuckerberg to testify was looming.

On Tuesday, every state signed except Texas, Florida and New Mexico, ending the trial. New Mexico had already won its case, and Meta settled with Texas on Wednesday for about \$1 billion, offering safety guardrails for young users similar to the multistate agreement.

Meta still faces thousands of other suits filed by teenagers, families and school districts. The next major personal injury trial is scheduled to be heard in California Superior Court of Los Angeles County in October.

Meta said it was confident it could win the case.

Cecilia Kang reported from Washington, and Eli Tan from San Francisco.

Left, Fernando Banderet, the mayor of Añelo, Argentina, the town closest to Vaca Muerta. It has doubled in size. Center, the headquarters of Vista Energy. Right, Olga Mabel Campo, a leader in the local Indigenous Mapuche community, which opposes the oil operations.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH PABST FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Can ‘Argentina’s Texas’ save the country’s economy?

ARGENTINA, FROM PAGE 1

mand, while lower trade barriers have opened local firms to cheaper competition, stoking skepticism that the oil boom can generate enough jobs to absorb widespread losses elsewhere.

The economic sectors thriving under Mr. Milei — energy and mining — create relatively few jobs, while labor-intensive ones like manufacturing or retail are suffering.

Mr. Milei says that Vaca Muerta will drive broader economic activity, but for now, many workers partaking in the black gold rush arrived on buses with nothing but a backpack and a tent as they fled low pay or a lack of work elsewhere.

So many hopefuls flooded into Añelo, the town closest to the oil and gas reserves, that the mayor has pleaded with outsiders to stop coming.

"There isn't so much work for everyone," the mayor, Fernando Banderet, said on Argentine radio last month.

The booming energy sector brings a fresh and much-needed inflow of dollars to cash-starved Argentina, securing it a larger role in global energy markets squeezed by the conflict in Iran. Still, the reliance on fracking is raising local environmental alarms and questions over committing the nation's future to fossil fuels that much of the world only recently pledged to leave behind.

Despite these questions, and challenges, what is clear is that much of the country has its eyes on Vaca Muerta.

“It’s a revolution,” Mr. Banderet said.

"VACA MUERTA FEVER"

Mr. Banderet arrived in Añelo as a child when it was a small, deprived rural community. He spent much of his youth living in a converted bus, became a father at 16, and started work as a fruit picker.

Now everything has changed. As foreign governments and entrepreneurs courted him for oil-related opportunities in Añelo, he said he attended President Trump's second inauguration, went on a trip to Israel and traveled to the Cannes film festival.

"It is the Vaca Muerta fever," he said. In the past two years, thousands of people have arrived in Añelo. Some slept in tents until they could afford a bed in one of the prefabricated housing units that popped up almost overnight. Añelo's population doubled in the past two years, to 12,000, Mr. Banderet said, the sound of hammers pounding behind him as the town hall was expanded.

Thrumming had become the town's soundtrack — a chorus of engines from the oil workers' white pickups that jam the main road, the grind of cement mixers churning fresh concrete, and the roar of drilling rigs in the distance.

On a recent evening, Sabino Poblete, 46, was at work building apartments, the desert dusk bathing the bare concrete pillars in orange, as the flames from gas flares flickered on the horizon. Mr. Poblete had arrived in Añelo just five days before from the central Argentine city of Cordoba, hitchhiking with a backpack and a tent. “I came to try my luck,” he said.

At the nearby gas station, other migrant workers waited for a bus.

"Everywhere they say this is the oil capital," said Ezequiel Barrozo, 27, who migrated to Añelo from the city of Rosario this year. He tripled his policeman's salary back home, he said, by finding construction work in Añelo. "People told me that if I came here I would have a great opportunity," he said.

This Wild West optimism is visible throughout Neuquén Province, which surrounds Añelo. Restaurants are full, and hotels and residential complexes are rising, with names like the Shale Hotel or Petroleum Housing Complex. Shopping malls and truck dealerships are sprouting across barren expanses long ruled by winds and dinosaur bones.

High above the banks of the Limay River, young engineers from across Argentina sit in Vista's high-tech control room remotely monitoring extraction sites.

A few miles away, young Argentines learn oil-field trades free of charge at a new training institute sponsored by Argentina's state-controlled oil company, YPF, and other industry players. On a recent afternoon, students used gamelike control stations for immersive work simulations. In a country where huge numbers of young professionals seek opportunities abroad, these students said that they were excited about their careers at home.

“Hello, future of the country!” the school’s director, Gustavo Livoreiro, said as he entered a classroom.

"TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE"

A new vision of the country was emerging in Neuquén — an image different from the fertile farmlands and their gauchos, which have long defined the nation. Here Argentina's future looks like massive petrol tanks with metallic trunks pointed toward the desert sky, and it smells of diesel as men covered in mud haul drill pipes out from deep inside the Earth.

The Vaca Muerta shale formation, which holds the world's fourth-largest reserves for shale oil and second-largest for shale gas, had been known for decades, but Argentina only recently secured the investment and imported the advanced technology necessary to extract them at a large scale. Now Argentina produces over 850,000 oil barrels a day, up from about 500,000 a decade ago.

Mr. Milei has championed the energy sector with major investment tax breaks and made it easier to export fuel, driving progress on a vital new pipeline. Though past Argentine governments laid the groundwork in Vaca Muerta, Mr. Milei's administration now stands to harvest its rewards.

The shale exploitation, combined with a new budget tightening by the government, marks “a structural, fundamental, transformational change,” said Marcelo Mindlin, the chairman of Pampa Energía, one of Argentina’s largest energy companies.

“Argentina has been a symbol of instability,” he said. “These two shifts have a real chance to rewrite that history.”

"YOU ARE IN, OR YOU ARE OUT"

This confidence is not universal. Argentina remains sharply divided about the country's new direction.

Critics point out that while machinery is roaring in the oil patch, in industrial hubs like Buenos Aires Province, assembly lines have fallen quiet.

The disparity is visible in Neuquén. Many of those who work outside the energy ecosystem — like teachers or municipal workers — are being priced out of basic living. Even here in the country's energy capital, Mr. Milei's removal of state subsidies has made gas more expensive for many. Some, including some Mapuche Indigenous communities, lack gas connections to their homes.

"This is the paradox of the new Argentina," said Lef Nawel, a Mapuche activist in Neuquén. “Either you are in, or you are out.”

The Mapuche, who hold some of the deepest ties to the land where the oil and gas operations take place, have been the staunchest opponents of fracking.

They protest polluting gas flares, say chemical waste from the plants is often improperly handled and warn that the industry's water consumption threatens to deplete rivers already suffering the effects of climate change.

“They extract the oil and take it away,” said Olga Mabel Campo, a Mapuche community leader. “But we are the ones who stay.”

Ms. Campo's son is an oil worker. Despite her opposition, it was the best work he could find in town, she said.

When an iron wrench spun out of control and struck his face, it knocked out all his teeth and lacerated his mouth. On another occasion, a fall from a rig platform fractured his spine and broke his leg.

Thanks to the workers' compensation payout, she said, he was able to build a house in Añelo. And he keeps working in the industry.

“It’s something impossible to stop,” Ms. Campo said. “They say Vaca Muerta is going to save the world.”

Lucía Cholakian Herrera, Natalie Alcoba and Daniel Politi contributed reporting from Buenos Aires.

This is looting by another name

Francisco Berzunza

Some of Mexico's greatest works of art are being held by a foreign bank.

ROB FARMER

MEXICO CITY This spring, hundreds of thousands of visitors to Mexico City's Museum of Modern Art experienced the ardor of two of Frida Kahlo's masterpieces in a temporary exhibit: "Diego on My Mind," depicting Kahlo with Diego Rivera's portrait emblazoned on her forehead like a third eye, and "Self-Portrait With Monkeys," showing her surrounded by four monkeys amid dense tropical foliage.

It was a rare chance for Mexicans to see these two celebrated paintings at home. For about two decades, they have largely been either out of sight or on display overseas. Soon after the exhibition closed, the two Fridas were on a plane to Spain — with no sense of when they would return for good.

These paintings, alongside works by Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, José Clemente Orozco and other artists who have helped define Mexico's modern visual identity, belong to the Gelman Collection, perhaps the greatest private collection of 20th-century Mexican art in the world.

Early this year, the Spanish bank Santander announced that it had taken over these paintings' long-term management and would relocate them to a cultural center in Spain, despite Mexican heritage laws intended to keep works of major cultural importance in the country. The news caused an uproar in Mexico.

The fight about these priceless works — where they should remain and who can have access to them — is really a battle over cultural patrimony and national sovereignty, and it's one the Mexican government seems to have forfeited. Instead, I, alongside other artists, scholars, lawyers and journalists, have been fighting to keep the collection where it belongs.

I belong to a generation of Mexicans that grew up with Frida Kahlo fatigue, weary of seeing her face plastered everywhere, on keychains, on mugs, on votive candles. She seemed to belong less to us than to the foreigners who loved her more. Then, in 2010, I happened upon a retrospective of her work in Berlin, where I encountered her Gelman paintings for the first time. I had never seen them in person, and they were extraordinary. I understood that Kahlo hadn't become foreign at all; she'd simply painted herself, and a nation, onto the world stage. As she became universal, Mexicans became universal, as well.

But Kahlo, despite her fame, wasn't all that prolific: She created only around 200 works, of which roughly half are in Mexico and only a handful are owned by the Mexican state. Recognizing their national importance, a 1984 presidential decree sought to safeguard public access to the few Kahlo works that remained in Mexico by designating them artistic monuments and barring their permanent export. Alongside other protected works, they can leave the country only temporarily.

Nearly 20 of those Kahlos ended up in the Gelman Collection. Having fled from Europe to Mexico amid the upheavals of World War II, Jacques and Natasha Gelman made a fortune producing films during the golden age of Mexican cinema, at the height of Frida and Diego's fame in the 1930s and 1940s. As the couples became good friends, the Gelmans bought their work, adding it to a growing personal collection that soon spanned hundreds of paintings, drawings and more.

The Gelmans clearly imagined the collection's future as public. Understanding its national significance, Ms. Gelman stipulated in her will that the collection was to remain intact and accessible to the public in a museum or cultural center in Mexico. When she died, in 1998, the executor of her will, the American curator Robert Littman, released a statement in which he acknowledged his responsibility for ensuring that the collection be “exhibited in its entirety at an institution in Mexico, which has to be determined.”

But the collection, under Mr. Littman's supervision and assisted by successive Mexican governments, instead embarked on a long sequence of mostly international exhibitions,

The fight about these priceless works is really a battle over cultural patrimony and national sovereignty.

generating revenue for a foundation established by Mr. Littman. Over the years, Kahlo's popularity continued to grow, and the collection continued to gain global recognition — and market value. Mr. Littman became embroiled in a series of legal disputes surround-

ing the collection, amid questions over Ms. Gelman's mental fitness at the end of her life and whether her final wishes were properly carried out. (Those disputes were ultimately resolved in his favor. Mr. Littman's lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.)

Then, in its January announcement, Santander revealed that it would be managing part of the collection, including 10 Kahlo paintings, which it said had already been sold to Marcelo Zambrano, a real estate developer from the northern city of Monterrey, in 2023. The whereabouts of the rest of the collection are unknown.

Per an agreement between Santander and the Zambrano family, the works would be used as collateral for a loan worth at least \$150 million to Mr. Zambrano and have a “permanent, but dynamic” presence at the Santander Foundation’s new museum in Spain, an ocean away from their original home. (In a statement, the Santander Foundation said that the arrangement was “in full compliance with Mexican law.”) Some of the greatest works of art ever made in Mexico are being held, quite literally, as security by a foreign bank.

Even more scandalous is the fact that the Mexican government, which is responsible for safeguarding such monuments, facilitated the operation. Just one day before the bank approved the loan, the head of Mexico's National

Institute of Fine Arts and Literature signed a renewable five-year agreement with Santander and the Zambranos to oversee the international display of the protected works, in an arrangement a Santander official described as “flexible.”

Although Mexican government and bank officials insist these paintings will return to Mexico in 2028, there is no legal obligation to keep them in the country long term, nothing to prevent authorities from issuing one temporary export permit after another. President Claudia Sheinbaum's government, which presents itself as the defender of Mexico's sovereignty, seems perfectly willing to surrender a matter of national concern to foreign interests.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to observers of Morena, Mexico's governing party. For much of the 20th century, the state operated as Mexico's greatest cultural patron — building museums, commissioning art and assembling collections. But Morena has made clear, through routine slashes of the country's arts and culture budget, that it is not interested in playing that role.

The International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art recently expressed “serious doubts” about the Mexican state’s “ability to guarantee the conservation and access to heritage, even if there are laws specially designed to safeguard it.”

If Mexico allows these works to be permanently exiled across the Atlantic, it will be diminished in the eyes of the world. Is our history so easily fragmented and reduced to financial assets? Are we so powerless to protect our own heritage? How can we claim geopolitical strength if we are incapable of keeping our own treasures?

Kahlo's story doesn't have to end this way. Mexico's government might have abdicated its role as a cultural steward, but Mexico's civil society can and must step up and provide the resources, institutions and imagination necessary to protect works of national importance.

Frida Kahlo took what was most private — her body, her pain, her love, her obsessions — and painted it into works in which millions came to recognize themselves. She belongs to the world, indeed. But she belongs, first and foremost, to Mexico.

FRANCISCO BERZUNZA is a Mexican historian.

The Meta settlement is better than nothing

Tech companies have operated untethered for too long. Finally, a bit of accountability.

Julia Angwin Contributing Writer

For so long, Big Tech has been unstoppable. The U.S. Congress granted the industry legal protection back in 1996, making it nearly impossible to hold the companies liable in court. And despite growing signs of how tech was enabling lies, discrimination, harassment and scams, lawmakers from both parties, awash in tech money and beset by tech lobbyists, repeatedly failed to regulate the sector.

Now, we are finally stumbling our way into an era of accountability. It's not as thoughtful and holistic as it could have been if we had followed the lead of nearly every other nation and passed comprehensive legislation protecting our privacy and data security and reining in algorithmic manipulations. Rather, we are taking the approach of death by a thousand cuts. As judges and juries grow increasingly skeptical of Big Tech's claims that it should bear zero responsibility for consumers harmed by its products, the lawsuits and fines are piling up.

Last week, 47 states, the District of Columbia and some U.S. territories took a big swipe at Meta, getting the owner of Facebook and Instagram to agree to pay up to \$17.1 billion in penalties over claims that it deliberately misled the public about the harm that its platforms were inflicting on teenage users.

The fine, while huge, is far less than the \$1.4 trillion that Meta said the states were seeking. It pales in comparison to the tobacco industry's \$206 billion settlement in 1998. And Meta

will dole out the full amount only if its archrivals YouTube, TikTok and Snap also limit kids' time on their apps, a clever move given that teens already spend more time on some of those platforms than its own. That may explain why Meta's stock price barely took a hit after the announcement of the settlement. I'm skeptical that the protections it promises for young users will yield meaningful changes to teen mental health.

But every blow counts as Meta enters its zombie era, with a stagnant user base, declining profits, mounting legal liabilities and the astronomical

costs of trying to break into the A.I. market.

RAFAL MILACH/MAGNUM PHOTOS

This settlement, while imperfect, may be a sign of how desperate Meta is to unload some of its legal liabilities in advance of a separate avalanche of more than 100,000 individual lawsuits from users who claim that the company's platforms were deliberately designed to be addictive and lack child safety protections. Courts have rolled those lawsuits into a bundle that could yield another global settlement.

As it stares down the barrel of those cases, its old legal arguments growing increasingly ineffective, Meta has

agreed to make substantive changes to Facebook and Instagram. It entered into an agreement with attorneys general to limit teens to two hours of social media use a day, to block notifications at night and during school hours, to turn off algorithmic feeds and to ban beauty filters, among other changes. Parents will have the right to bypass or adjust the limits, finally giving them their first meaningful controls over their kids' accounts.

As much as I'd like to applaud any effort toward harm reduction, it's unlikely that just giving parents a few more knobs and buttons will lead to meaningful shifts in teen social media behavior.

For one thing, teens may find the new limits easy to evade. When Australia banned children under the age of 16 from social media in December, many simply found ways to circumvent the ban by using virtual private networks that let them appear to be connecting from outside Australia and by setting up fake accounts. “A substantial proportion of Australian children under the age of 16 continue to retain accounts, create new accounts or pass platforms’ age assurance systems,” an Australian government report declared in March.

In the settlement, Meta has carefully avoided any accountability for teens who circumvent its limits. The company agreed to ensure that its tools for age assessment — virtual ID checks and face scans — have error rates lower than 10 percent. But Meta has agreed only to apply its “best efforts” to combat popular workarounds.

What's more, the settlement fails to address two of the most nefarious design choices in social media: the

infinite scroll, or the endless unrolling of content to keep users hooked; and the variable rewards of other people's likes and comments that keep users refreshing their pages in the hopes of obtaining a new dopamine hit.

Indeed, Meta's changes do nothing to help adult users, who are also vulnerable to the manipulations of Big Tech. I get that it's politically popular to focus on protecting kids, whose brains are developing and therefore more vulnerable to manipulation, but there is ample evidence that social media harms many adults — particularly seniors who are getting scammed online at increasingly high rates, according to the F.B.I.

The focus on age verification is also dangerous to our ability to be anonymous online — a key freedom that we take for granted in the real world but have been too willing to give up in the virtual one. We would never agree to show our passport before reading a flier posted on a local bulletin board. So why are we doing the equivalent online? We live in an age when a Texas father married to an ICE protester can be sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiring to conceal documents (he moved a box of home-printed magazines). We need the freedom to share and consume information without being surveilled.

While I am glad that Meta is creating some bare-bones safety features for kids, the far better option would be to make these platforms safe for everyone. We all benefit from seatbelts in cars, or hard hats in construction sites. Shouldn't we all be protected from Big Tech's predations too?

JULIA ANGWIN is an investigative journalist.

The New York Times

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

A.G. SULZBERGER Publisher
JOSEPH KAHN Executive Editor
MARC LACEY Managing Editor
CAROLYN RYAN Managing Editor
SUZANNE DALEY Associate Editor

KATHLEEN KINGSBURY Opinion Editor

MEREDITH KOPIT LEVIEN Chief Executive Officer MICHAEL GREENSPON Senior V.P. and General Manager HELEN KONSTANTOPOULOS V.P., International Circulation HELENA PHUA Executive V.P., Asia-Pacific SUZANNE YVERNÈS International Chief Financial Officer

Wall Street loved Bessent and Warsh. Not anymore.

after a brief dip, bond rates rose.

Catherine Rampell

Sure, maybe everyone else in the Trump administration arrived via clown car — loyalists, quacks and quislings, plucked from a Fox News green room or President Trump's crack legal team. But at least two of Mr. Trump's top economic appointees were supposed to be “serious people.” After all, competent financial stewardship is pretty important for the domestic economy, the global payments system and the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency. Mr. Trump realized the leaders of these federal institutions needed to be people the markets trust.

For a while, they were. Even amid trade wars, actual hot wars and threats to rule of law, markets seemed to be holding up. Thriving, even. Now Wall Street and the world's investors appear to be finally losing faith in America's economic leadership. What began as a few errant jitters seems to be approaching a full-blown credibility crisis for the Treasury, and if we're extremely unlucky, perhaps the Fed as well.

Of all Mr. Trump's appointees, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh have among the most impressive C.V.s. Both worked on Wall Street, as protégés of the legendary investor Stan Druckenmiller. Both

A credibility crisis is approaching with these men leading the U.S. economy.

lectured at elite schools (Yale and Stanford, respectively). While temperamentally quite different — Mr. Bessent is a hothead who occasionally threatens fisticuffs; Mr. Warsh is almost preternaturally polished and cool —

they both spent years earning Mr. Trump's trust.

Wall Street and political elites also vouched for both Mr. Bessent and Mr. Warsh. They assured U.S. senators that these men were competent, small-c conservatives — that they’d protect the integrity of the institutions that financial markets rely on to function properly.

Within days of Mr. Bessent's confirmation, at least, it was obvious this was a misjudgment. One of his earliest actions as secretary was giving DOGE access to the sensitive Treasury payments system, which disburses some \$6 trillion in payments annually. This was supposedly to investigate "fraud," but it also was an attempt to help the Trump administration unilaterally freeze payments required by Congress. (A federal judge restricted DOGE's access before this happened.)

Soon after, Mr. Bessent also allowed the I.R.S. to share confidential tax data with immigration enforcement — undermining decades of work to convince immigrants that if they paid their taxes honestly, the payments wouldn't be weaponized against them. (Federal judges have blocked that, too.)

Now, after criticizing his predecessor for allegedly trying to juice the economy ahead of an election, Mr. Bessent ap-

Why? Traders realized Mr. Bessent's efforts were too puny to counteract the titanic forces pushing rates up: elevated inflation; unsustainable government deficits; private firms issuing tons of debt to finance A.I. Then there is the greater risk associated with U.S. debt in general, because investors worry the United States is being run by what might politely be termed the B team — that is, people who may not take seriously their responsibility to safeguard the full faith and credit of the United States.

If anything, Mr. Bessent's buyback play (announced along with comments insisting we can grow our way out of debt) only deepened those suspicions. It made Treasury leadership look feckless.

Don't take my word for it. Mr. Bessent's former mentor, Mr. Drucken-miller, said as much in an (apparently at least partly A.I.-generated) public rebuke in The Wall Street Journal. As The Financial Times put it in a pithy headline: Mr. Bessent got "Drucked."

One thing that “Druck” hinted at was what the apparent politicization of debt management means for the Fed, an independent agency that is supposed to be guiding interest rates without political fear or favor.

Mr. Warsh, like Mr. Bessent, has had a wobbly start to his tenure. His most recent news conference was something of a disaster; Mr. Warsh either would not or could not articulate what the Fed's plan was for tackling inflation, or why that plan did not appear to include interest rate increases. (Mr. Trump is demanding rates be lowered.) At one point Mr. Warsh seemed to suggest the Fed might switch its main yardstick for measuring inflation, raising concerns about backdoor attempts to soften the central bank's commitment to reducing inflation.

pears to have attempted exactly that. This month, he announced that the U.S. Treasury would ramp up repurchases of its long-term government bonds, a move intended to reduce their interest rates (which could in turn reduce the cost of mortgages and other financial products). Midterms are looming, and looser money tends to make for happier voters.

To make matters worse, Mr. Trump himself weighed in. He insisted that Mr. Warsh really truly wanted to reduce interest rates, but couldn't because "he's got a board, and it's a political board." Days later Mr. Trump renewed his efforts to fire one of the members of that Fed board, which the Supreme Court had prevented him from doing.

Markets were not happy about any of this. Long-term interest rates rose to their highest level since the 2007 financial crisis. Arguably, Mr. Warsh's bungling of that news conference, plus fears about the competence and independence of his leadership, were among the reasons rates rose high enough to induce Mr. Bessent to attempt his bond market intervention.

Mr. Warsh has so far been quiet on the wisdom of Mr. Bessent's buyback gambit, and whether it is encroaching on the Fed's fief or compromising the hard-fought credibility of Treasury markets. For a clue of what he thinks, though, we might look to comments Mr. Warsh made last year, when he was still auditioning for the gig he has now.

Scott Bessent's buyback play ahead of the U.S. midterm elections has made Treasury leadership look feckless.
NATHAN HOWARD/REUTERS

At the time, Mr. Warsh said he wanted to revisit the 1951 Treasury-Fed Accord. This is the agreement that gave the Fed the specific form of political and structural independence that it enjoys today, and that has enabled it to tame inflation in decades past even if its rate increases

Mr. Bessent's plan backfired. Instead, upset the White House. Until then, the Fed had an informal agreement with Treasury to keep interest rates low, to make it cheaper for the president to finance expensive wars (like the one we are in now).

Mr. Warsh suggested the accord warranted reconsideration because he wished to formally cede some of the Fed's authorities back to the Treasury — specifically, decisions about what to hold on the Fed's balance sheet, and when and how to make sales or pur-

chases. This would include, it appears, transactions of the kind Mr. Bessent is fooling with now.

That is why it might be understandable for markets to be a bit jittery about the credibility and competence of either institution at present.

CATHERINE RAMPELL is the economics editor of The Bulwark and an anchor for MS NOW.

King Donald is dethroning the dollar

Barry Eichengreen

JENS MASMANN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The dollar is the world's currency, not just America's. The dollar is the unit in which most cross-border transactions worldwide are quoted and settled. A remarkable 89 percent of global foreign exchange transactions are in dollars. Nearly 60 percent of the foreign currency reserves of central banks from Beijing to Zurich are held in dollar-denominated bank deposits and Treasury securities. The dollar is the lingua franca, if you will, of international financial markets.

For the moment, anyway.

The \$40 trillion question is whether this happy situation will persist. Recent ructions in the market for U.S. Treasury bonds have raised the issue of whether dollar-denominated securities — long viewed as bulletproof and government-resistant — are really as safe and liquid as central banks and private investors had come to expect. Not because of anything market related, but because of the Trump administration's threats to political and financial institutions, both domestic and international.

That only complicated the messaging from the Federal Reserve chairman, Kevin Warsh, when he spoke at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on Friday. While some of his predecessors might have faced economic depressions, wars, stock market crashes, real estate slumps and international currency crises, none has had to face such strong doubts about the lasting integrity of America's financial and political system.

Yet such doubts about the dollar's staying power are not entirely new. Exactly half a century ago, in 1976, the eminent monetary economist and M.I.T. professor Charles Kindleberger announced that the dollar was “finished” as an international currency. Kindleberger was reacting to President Richard Nixon's 1971 decision to unilaterally abandon the gold standard — the fixed link between the dollar and gold. That entailed closing the Fed's Gold Window that allowed foreign governments and central banks to redeem their dollar holdings for gold at a fixed price of \$35 an ounce. It led to the end of the Bretton Woods system, the post-World War II system of flexible exchange rates pegged to the dollar.

More broadly, observers like Professor Kindleberger were disturbed by the pressure Nixon applied to the Federal Reserve chair Arthur Burns to keep interest rates low to aid the president's re-election bid. They were troubled by accelerating U.S. inflation and by the Watergate scandal, which tarnished the image of the administration and America in the eyes of the world.

Professor Kindleberger was wrong, of course. Dollar dominance lived to see another day, or more precisely, another 50 years and counting.

The explanation, in hindsight, is clear. U.S. political institutions rose to the challenge of Watergate. Nixon faced imminent impeachment and was forced to resign. His Democratic successor, Jimmy Carter, appointed a fiercely independent and inflation-averse Federal Reserve chair, Paul Volcker. Mr. Carter disregarded his adviser Bert Lance's warning that doing so might jeopardize his re-election. Mr. Volcker duly raised interest

As America's institutions erode, so does the global dominance of its currency.

rates, as high as 20 percent, and Mr. Carter duly lost his re-election bid. But by the mid-1980s, double-digit inflation was history and chronic dollar weakness had given way to dollar strength. At the same time

At the same time, the United States

was using its geopolitical leverage and alliances to encourage other nations to trade in dollars. In 1974, following the first OPEC oil shock, Treasury Secretary William Simon flew to Saudi Arabia with the goal of securing agreement by King Faisal to invest the kingdom's oil export earnings in dollars, in exchange for continued access to U.S. arms and military support. In 1977, Mr.

Simon's successor, W. Michael Blumenthal, promised to help Saudi Arabia obtain expanded voting rights in the International Monetary Fund in return for a commitment to price oil in dollars.

As Professor Kindleberger eventually acknowledged, there was no alternative to the global dollar. No other currency could serve as a vehicle for cross-border transactions at scale.

But now, finally, there is reason to think that there is an alternative. Observing the actions of the Trump administration, allies and trading partners are voicing concerns about separation of powers, rule of law and the rise of corruption in the United States. For centuries, every leading international and reserve currency — not just the dollar, but the British pound sterling in the 19th century and the Dutch guilder in the 18th — has been the currency of a democracy or a republic. As President Trump seeks to fire the Fed members who won't do his bidding, to cancel contracts for wind projects he dislikes or to target political foes for prosecution, foreigners have come to doubt whether this is still true of America.

Moreover, every leading international currency has been backed by a strong financial institution insulated from politics. The Trump administration's continuing threats against the Fed governor Lisa Cook, and Mr. Trump's history of attacks on the central bank, have disconcerted investors and raised questions about whether the Fed will retain the autonomy needed to act as a reliable steward. If the Fed fails in that, the dollar may not hold its value, further undermining its global role.

Mr. Warsh may be tempted to opine on recent bond market developments, clumsy Treasury Department interventions and his own controversial approach to communications — or lack thereof. Mr. Warsh risks being labeled a lap dog for Mr. Trump. In Jackson Hole, he had a great opportunity to assert his readiness to defend the independence of the central bank and support the international role of the dollar, even if doing so required going against Mr. Trump's preference for lower interest rates.

Then there are doubts about America's commitment to its international alliances, such as NATO or the Mutual Defense Treaty binding America and South Korea. Historically, countries hold, use and support the currencies of their alliance partners. Allies are customers, too. Buying U.S. debt is a show of good faith and appreciation of their partners, as King Faisal understood in 1974. In the 1960s, when the dollar's fixed link to gold came under strain, it was the central banks and governments of West Germany and Japan that held the dollar and supported it, given that the U.S. had boots on the ground in both countries and provided their nuclear umbrellas.

More recently, the central banks of Japan (\$1.12 trillion) and South Korea (\$135 billion) have held a larger share of their reserves in dollars than their commercial and financial links with America would lead one to predict. No doubt, they are rethinking this dependence. As have European officials such as the European Central Bank president, Christine Lagarde, who has emphasized Europe's need to become more financially and monetarily self-reliant — code for less dollar and U.S. dependent.

The dollar's champions are still trying to make the case that there is no alternative to the dollar. But Europe and China are working as fast as they can to rectify this deficiency. Europe is advancing a Capital Markets Union designed to create a central market for capital in euro-denominated financial securities, to reduce friction and let money flow freely. China is expanding the renminbi-based Cross-Border Interbank Payments System to compete with large U.S. banks and the dollar.

They are acting as if there is no time to waste. On the evidence, they are right.

BARRY EICHENGREEN is a professor of economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of “Money Beyond Borders: Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto.”

Mountains are coming undone

ARUN SANKAR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
The disaster in Nepal last week is the latest disturbing sign that mountains are fragile. The speed with which humans are warming the world is pulling them apart.

MINGLE, FROM PAGE 1

people will also be exposed to glacial lake outburst floods, a dangerous phenomenon triggered when glacial melt fills basins and overwhelms dams.

Fifteen years ago, my reporting focused on those daunting but largely anticipated twin impacts of vanishing ice. I saw villages in north India abandoned as receding glaciers led to extreme drought. I heard farmers on the Tibetan Plateau describe their shock at seeing once reliable springs dry up. People in Nepal and Bhutan described their fear of losing their homes and their lives in glacial floods.

Now something else is coming into view: Like termites gnawing on a house's framing, rising air temperatures seem to be chewing away at the ice and permafrost holding slopes together at high elevations.

In April 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck northern Nepal, shaking loose a nearly seven-foot-thick mass of snow, ice and rock from the southern face of Langtang Lirung that killed more than 300 people including more than 100 whose bodies were never recovered. In 2024, researchers concluded that climate change had likely made the tremor-induced avalanche more deadly.

A slope on the north face of that very same mountain has just collapsed, a very likely sign it is further buckling under the weight of climate change. It's far from the only one.

In 2016, two glaciers in the Aru mountains of western Tibet spontaneously crumbled into fast-moving ice avalanches — highly unusual events that came in quick succession, just two months apart. The first one killed nine shepherds and coated three square miles with debris. The north face of Ronti Peak in Uttarakhand, India,

broke off in 2021, sending a surge of pulverized ice and rocky debris down-river through the district of Chamoli. More than 200 people were killed or missing and two large hydropower plants were damaged.

The risks extend beyond the Himalaya. In 2022, following a period of anomalously warm weather, a permafrost-buttressed glacier in Italy's Dolomites collapsed and killed 11 mountaineers. In May 2025, a rock-ice collapse buried the village of Blatten in Switzerland after its 300 residents had been safely evacuated. Geologists are now closely watching a similarly unstable rock face that threatens

another Swiss village.

Few places are as vulnerable as the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau.

Conventional flood warning and disaster response systems may be no match for these events. Days after the cataclysm in Nepal and Tibet, there is an ongoing risk of further flooding to both survivors

and rescuers, from new lakes that have rapidly formed upstream by debris blocking the river's flow.

As rescue and recovery efforts unfold in the days ahead, one question we should consider is how many other mountains might be quietly coming undone. In a recent post analyzing the disaster, Bethan Davies, a glacial geologist at Newcastle University, warned that in the years ahead “we should expect to continue to experience such catastrophic events.” A study she co-authored documents how glacier ice loss in Nepal’s Langtang region has been speeding up in recent decades. Many glaciers are shrinking and fragmenting at a geologically

breakneck pace, leaving exposed dark rock that has been insulated for millennium.

We are accustomed to thinking of mountains — especially the Himalaya, which means “abode of snows” in Sanskrit — as fixed, timeless, immovable, permanent. The disaster in Nepal is the latest disturbing sign that mountains are fragile. The speed with which humans are warming the world is pulling them apart at the seams. Even mountain dwellers who have learned, across generations, to adapt to the vagaries of monsoon rains, periodic landslides, spring and summer floods and winter avalanches have now been dragged into alien terrain, without

ever having moved.

In the minutes before last week's deluge struck and tore away the life he and others had known, a survivor downstream of the border said he heard what sounded like a “thunder-clap” — the sound of one of the planet's tallest mountains falling. This new warning alarm of climate breakdown is loud and terrible enough to echo around the world — if we choose to hear it.

JONATHAN MINGLE is a journalist in Vermont and the author, most recently, of "Gaslight: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Fight for America's Energy Future."

Sports

BY JOHN BRANCH

Since the degenerative brain disease known as C.T.E. was first scientifically linked to football about 20 years ago, and as hundreds of former professional football players have been diagnosed with the disease after their deaths, a haunting question has lingered:

Just how many National Football League players will end up with C.T.E.?

New data provides a sobering indication: At least one in four of all the people who have played in the N.F.L. might expect to end up with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to a study of hundreds of cases over a recent six-year period.

Researchers considered every former N.F.L. player who died from 2016 to 2021. There were 878. Some died in their 20s, some in their 80s, most in between.

The study's main finding was simple math: At least 215 of those 878 former players — 24.5 percent — had C.T.E.

The actual prevalence could be far higher. The roughly 25 percent rate does not consider the 643 brains that were not examined. Some of those, maybe many of them, probably had C.T.E., too.

C.T.E. is a progressive neurological disease caused by repeated impacts to the head. It can be definitively diagnosed only by examining the brain after death. Studies have shown that the rate of C.T.E. in people who have not sustained repeated impacts to the head is nearly zero.

If the new study's statistics were applied to today's players — 1,696 on the league's 32 regular-season rosters, not including more than 500 members of practice squads and those ineligible due to injury — at least 400 of them would be diagnosed with C.T.E.

Experts say that the rate of brain disease represents an occupational safety hazard with little comparison in the American workplace.

"There are workers who've been exposed to high levels of asbestos exposure, which leads to very high rates of lung disease," said David Michaels, who led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration during the Obama administration and is now a professor at the George Washington School of Public Health in Washington. "And certainly, you know, a lifetime working in coal mines leads to very high risk of black lung disease.

"But a degenerative neurological disease — I've never seen anything comparable."

C.T.E. was first discovered in boxers nearly a century ago and termed “dementia pugilistica.” Symptoms can include memory loss, confusion and uncharacteristic mood swings, decreases in executive function and increases in erratic and impulsive behavior, including addiction.

These days, C.T.E. is most commonly associated with football players, but it has been found in the brains of other athletes who sustained repetitive blows to the head, including hockey, rugby and soccer players, as well as wrestlers and bobsledders. Those in the military also appear susceptible to the disease.

For years, the N.F.L. downplayed the risks of repeated head trauma, often insisting that not enough is known about C.T.E. to draw conclusions about its dangers, origins and prevalence. Uncertainty has left room for inaction; scientists have yet to decipher, among many things, why some people can play football for decades and not get C.T.E., while others have had severe cases in their teens.

But the prevalence rate now reported by researchers might be hard to ignore. It is the latest research from neuropathologists and other scientists mostly affiliated with Mass General Brigham, Boston University and the UNITE Brain Bank, all in Massachusetts, which have led C.T.E. research and handled most donated brains of former athletes over the past two decades.

Researchers involved in this study, published on Tuesday in The BMJ, hope to produce a subsequent paper in the coming months estimating the overall rate of C.T.E. in all N.F.L. players at the time of their death.

Making such an estimation is complicated by unknowns. What is certain, researchers said, is that C.T.E. is preventable. "We know what's causing it," said Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, the lead author of the study, the chief of brain injury rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. "It's a neurodegenerative disease where we know and have complete control over the risk. And understanding the extent of that risk is one of the steps into making sure that we can mitigate and decrease that risk."

Daneshvar said the biggest predictor of C.T.E. is the cumulative force of hits to a head over a lifetime — including those sustained before reaching the N.F.L.

“We can change that cumulative force without changing the game of football,” he said, suggesting that children refrain from playing tackle football and that teams at all levels eliminate hits during practices.

The 25 percent rate cited in the latest research may surprise fans or others who view the game from a distance, but not those close to football.

"I bet the real number is a lot bigger," said Randy Grimes, 66, who played center for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1983 to 1992. "Obviously, it's going to be a lot bigger if you add the untested ones."

At least two of his former offensive linemates, both guards, were diagnosed with C.T.E.: Tom McHale, who died at 45; and John Bruhin, who died at 57. An-

Hundreds of former N.F.L. players have been found to have had C.T.E., a progressive neurological disease caused by repeated impacts to the head. It can be detected only after death.

New study links brain disease to at least 1 in 4 N.F.L. players

ZACK WITTMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Researchers say that the actual prevalence may be even higher

HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Above left, law enforcement officials at a building in New York City where Shane Tamura, a former high school football player, killed four people in July 2025. An autopsy confirmed that he had C.T.E. Above right, Junior Seau's daughter, Sydney Seau, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony in 2015. Her father, who suffered from C.T.E., killed himself in 2012.
GENE J. PUSKAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS

How parents can reduce the risks

mer players never had their brains examined.

BY JOHN BRANCH

Two things are true: Football has a hold on American culture, and tackle football is not good for brains. Navigating that contradiction can be especially tricky for parents of children who play the game.

Twenty years into the era of C.T.E. awareness, parents know enough to be worried but perhaps not enough to avoid the risks entirely.

Some lean into the positives of the game — among them, the joy and excitement it brings to families, the sense of community it builds, the multigenerational traditions it holds and the lessons about teamwork and work ethic — and hope that, fingers crossed, C.T.E. is not looming inside the brain.

It's a risk-reward calculation, one that the children might not be old enough to consider.

C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a progressive neurological disease caused by repeated hits to the head. That means it is largely preventable.

But it cannot be definitively diagnosed until death. Scientists are not sure why some people who play decades of football do not get it, while some teenagers do.

That uncertainty can be justification for the status quo. But new research shows that one in four former N.F.L. players who died over a recent six-year period had C.T.E. Scientists think the number is much higher, since most of those for-

What is a parent to do with that information? If not playing at all is not an option, here is some guidance that has broad support from medical professionals.

Flag over tackle

A key factor for C.T.E. is the cumulative force of hits over a lifetime, researchers said. While severe concussions can be debilitating, the countless subconcussive impacts — from blocking, tackling and falling — that occur on nearly every play can lead to C.T.E., too. It all adds up.

The more years of repetitive head impacts, the higher the likelihood of C.T.E., scientists have found. That is why it is no longer surprising when a recently deceased former N.F.L. player is diagnosed with C.T.E. But C.T.E. has also been found in children as young as 15, and there is a growing list of cases involving players in their teens and 20s who never got close to the pros.

One shift in football that brain researchers would love to see: Delay the start of tackle football. Consider flag football and lower-contact versions of other sports, too.

Practice tactics

Limit contact in practice. Most players practice far more than they play games. The Ivy League banned full-contact practices years ago. The N.F.L. and its players' union have agreed to limit full-contact practices, too, to reduce injuries.

Coaching philosophy

Be wary of any “play through it” mentality from coaches, parents and others. Brain injuries are not easily identified by onlookers, unlike a broken bone or a torn ligament.

Peer pressure and a toughness mentality might keep young players from speaking up. Parents and coaches should.

If there are concerns, consult with independent doctors not affiliated with the team.

What if my son is knocked unconscious? If a player sustains a blow to the head that knocks him out, however briefly, he should be removed from the game and receive independent medical care before returning to the field, experts say.

Teenage players and younger are especially at risk of what doctors call second-impact syndrome.

Second-impact syndrome is brain swelling that occurs if someone experiences one head injury shortly after another. If damage from the first blow hasn't yet healed, a chain of metabolic events can be triggered: Cerebral blood flow increases, arteries swell past capacity and pressure builds inside the brain, sometimes leading to coma and death.

Product claims

Be wary of products purported to reduce risk. Researchers said that no helmet or helmet cover, mouth guard, neck equipment, supplement or medication has proved to reduce C.T.E. risk.

other teammate, linebacker Keith McCants, had C.T.E. and died at 53.

"It's not something that's brought up; it's not something that players want to talk about," Grimes said. "We probably could move forward faster in our research if we did talk more about it. But players don't want to do it. They don't want to think they have it. They don't want to think they're seeing it. Deep down, we all know that probably the majority of us are going to have some form of C.T.E."

While hundreds of former N.F.L. players have been diagnosed with C.T.E., typically after loved ones donated their brains because of worrisome symptoms, most C.T.E. cases are not publicly disclosed.

Only a few cases reach public consciousness, usually when attached to famous names, like Junior Seau, Ken Stabler and Frank Gifford, all inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Others become notorious because of criminal behavior that might later be explained, in part, by C.T.E., including Aaron Hernandez and Phillip Adams, who committed murder and were diagnosed with C.T.E. after their own deaths. In July 2025, Shane Tamura, who played football but did not reach the N.F.L., killed four people in a New York City building that houses the league's headquarters. After Mr. Tamura's death, an autopsy confirmed that he had C.T.E.

C.T.E. cannot be diagnosed in the living, though some ex-football players, like Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett, presume they have it. Some players, like Chris Borland and John Urschel, walked away from their professional careers early as a preventive measure to protect their brains.

The growing roster of C.T.E. cases has done little to diminish football's popularity. The N.F.L. reportedly earned more than \$23 billion in revenue in 2024.

"The N.F.L. continuously strives to make the game of football safer, including by implementing strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts," the league said in a statement.

The N.F.L. Players Association, the union representing players, said that the new study “is a sobering reminder that football carries real risks, and those risks can have lasting consequences for players and their families.”

The growing sample size of C.T.E. cases makes for stark realizations. For example, eight members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only undefeated team in modern N.F.L. history, have been diagnosed with C.T.E.

The latest, previously unreported, was Mercury Morris, the speedy half-back who played eight seasons in the N.F.L., struggled with headaches and drug addiction in retirement, and died in 2024 at age 77.

Not all C.T.E. cases belong to long-retired players in their geriatric years. The 2001 New England Patriots, who won the Super Bowl, had seven former players die between the ages of 35 and 50, according to The Boston Globe. At least three were diagnosed with C.T.E., researchers said.

The latest research, however, suggests that at least 10 others from that team might have C.T.E., if the one-in-four ratio applies.

The 2009 San Diego Chargers, which went 13-3 in the regular season, already have three deceased players who were found to have C.T.E. and whose names were made public.

One was Vincent Jackson, a three-time Pro Bowl receiver who died in a hotel room of alcohol poisoning at 38. Another was Kevin Ellison, a defensive back who died at 31 when he was struck by a car after wandering onto a California freeway.

The other was defensive back Paul Oliver, who was 29 in 2013 when he shot himself on the stairs of his family home in front of his wife, Chelsea, and their two young sons.

Oliver's wife said that she occasionally hears from her husband's former teammates or their family members, worried that they, too, are feeling the effects of C.T.E. She suspects that the 25 percent figure is lower than the reality.

“I feel like if we were able to test everybody for C.T.E. while they’re still alive, the majority would have C.T.E.,” she said.

Her husband played four years in the N.F.L. and sustained a series of concussions, she said, and then became someone “who just wasn’t him.” He lived with headaches, became delusional and paranoid, and began drinking heavily, she said. The couple discussed the prospect of C.T.E. shortly after Junior Seau, the longtime Chargers star who finished his career with New England, shot himself in the chest to preserve his brain for testing.

Learning that, statistically, her husband might have had a dozen or more teammates with C.T.E., that he was not alone with his disease, does not bring any measure of solace, Chelsea Oliver said. "It just makes me sad."

She does not expect fans to understand. She reads comments on stories about former football players behaving badly or dying by suicide. "You'll see multiple people, like, 'Bet they're going to blame C.T.E.' I just shake my head. These people have no clue. They just don't, because they haven't lived it firsthand. So I can't fault them."

"To them," she added, "concussions, C.T.E., that's a not-them problem."

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

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As C.T.E. cases soar, why are we still watching?

NEWS ANALYSIS

According to a new study, about 25 percent of the nearly 900 former National Football League players who died between 2016 and 2021 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
BRANDON THIBODEAUX FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

For Americans, football highlights a collision of pop culture and public health

BY JOHN BRANCH

Twenty years into its C.T.E. era, the National Football League is more popular and profitable than ever. Revenues rise even as the math becomes clearer for the once immeasurable price paid in brain damage sustained by football players.

Fans can't plead ignorance. They now know, thanks to a new study, that at least one in four former N.F.L. players had C.T.E. among the nearly 900 who died between 2016 and 2021.

We are living in an era of cognitive dissonance, sociologists said. How many C.T.E. cases, they wondered, are too many for fans' collective consciousness? What would it take to quit watching, or to quit sending children into the scrum? How many irreversibly damaged brains in the N.F.L. would turn away the masses?

“I doubt that any number is going to do it,” said Steve Almond, a lifelong football fan and the author of “Against Football: One Man’s Reluctant Manifesto.”

Almond is among the millions who cannot turn away from what he has called “our unholy appetites.” He’s just more thoughtful about it. He says football is “morally troubling.”

"The vast majority of fans aren't sitting there saying, 'I want people to get hurt and I have this blood lust,' he said. "I think, like me, they're getting off on a beautiful, narratively thrilling sport that has an unfortunate adjunct to it — the fact that it's absolutely unsafe to play."

In the past two decades, hundreds of former N.F.L. players have died with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head. Now a new peer-reviewed study reveals that 25 percent of them over a recent six-year period were found to have had C.T.E. — posthumously, the only way to diagnose the disease with certainty.

That one-in-four ratio is certainly low, since it does not account for the nearly 75 percent of deceased players in that period whose brains were not examined because they had not been made available to researchers.

If the one-in-four rate extended to the upcoming season, that would mean, on average, 13 players per team and more than 400 active players in the league would have C.T.E.

They, too, might experience C.T.E.'s dementia-like symptoms, possibly including memory loss, confusion, impulsivity and depression. They, too, might have shorter life expectancies and far higher rates of addiction and suicide than those lucky enough not to get it.

By any standard of workplace safety, C.T.E. is an epidemic. There may be no industry that does so much damage to its workers. And we know that the damage sometimes also reaches teens who play the game just for fun.

Yet millions of children continue to play tackle football. American universities spend billions of dollars on it — higher education leaders knowingly fostering a sport that leaves some of its students addled with a neurological brain disease. The pipeline of players, an inexhaustible resource, keeps flowing toward the N.F.L.

And fans keep cheering.

Football has a unique hold on American culture. There is a gauzy nostalgia to the game, but it is thriving as never before, too. Roots run deep. The college game predates the N.F.L. by decades, but the N.F.L. has been around for more than a century. Today, the league's game telecasts represent a high number of the most-viewed shows on television.

It's not just entertainment. Football permeates the American landscape. Entire cities identify with pro teams. Entire communities thrive on the tradition and pomp of the college game. Small towns and suburbs across the country glow with Friday night lights.

Traditions are passed down and communities are uplifted, through tailgates, game-day rituals and a steadfast devotion to team colors. Millions are bet on the games, even if only through office pools or fantasy football. Children play football in schoolyards and backyards. The Super Bowl is one of the few cultural events that still connects people from all corners.

The latest research paper may not be enough to upset that devotion.

Jay Coakley, a retired college professor and an author of “Sports in Society,” a college textbook now in its 14th printing, says that football, for now, seems

"If you smash your head into other full-grown humans, or even smaller humans, there are going to be some negative effects."

exempt from a reckoning over its dangers. The game is too deeply entwined in fans' lives, he said, to let even a one-in-four C.T.E. prognosis for beloved N.F.L. stars turn fans away.

"When you start holding it up to what's happening to athletes who they don't really know, who they have very little personal information about, they're going to go with what is contributing to their lives in significant ways," Coakley said. "And they will then purposely ignore or discredit anything that conflicts with that."

Like brain injury data. Coakley speaks of “the great sports myth,” the idea that sports are seen as so intrinsically good and pure, individually and collectively, that it keeps us from looking at them critically. Almond calls it a “suit-case of rationalizations,” the ability to tell ourselves that it’s OK even if, deep down, it bothers us.

"There is a sort of great bargain, this sort of dirty deal of capitalism,". Almond said. "We all know that there's a slaughterhouse, but we also love the bacon cheeseburger. So we don't really focus too much on the slaughterhouse."

Fans have the luxury of distance and can feign some sort of remove, sociologists said. They can pretend that their heroes are immune to the degenerative risks of America's favorite collision sport. Football, with its armorlike uniforms, is not like boxing, or even mixed martial arts, where the injuries are obvious among the blood and 10 counts. Brain injuries sustained in football are usually invisible and delayed. Suffering comes later, out of sight.

Besides, don't players accept all risks, once they take the field?

The league and its team owners, now 20 years into the evidentiary era of C.T.E., have taken marginal steps toward brain safety. In 2013, when the N.F.L. settled, without admitting liability, a class-action lawsuit involving more than 4,500 players for \$765 million, the league's annual revenues were about \$14 billion, adjusted for inflation. In

2024, they were more than \$23 billion.

And N.F.L. players? They keep coming, chasing childhood dreams and million-dollar salaries, still unsure how to calculate the risks and rewards.

Joe Thomas, 41, retired after an 11-year career as an offensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023.

“In the locker room, generally the thought process was that we’re all football players and we’ve chosen this profession,” Thomas said. “It’s our identity, it’s what we love to do, it’s what we get paid a lot of money to do.”

Thomas experienced memory problems during his career, he said, but was never certain whether they were related to football or to ordinary aging. It's a muddy distillation that leads some to justify the status quo.

"It's pretty clear that if you smash your head into other full-grown humans, or even smaller humans, there are going to be some negative effects," Thomas said.

Football players, even those who do not reach the N.F.L., live with a sort of boogeyman. Who among us will get it? And when?

A vexing thing about C.T.E. is that researchers do not yet understand why some people with the disease experience symptoms and others do not.

This month, the former running back

Roger Craig, 66, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He used his speech to announce his dementia diagnosis, which he believes is related to football.

“Two things can be true,” Craig said. “Football gave me opportunities beyond anything I could imagine. It helped shape the man I became. At the same time, we know more today about brain health than when I played, and I hope sharing my story encourages people to pay attention to their health and seek help when something doesn’t feel right.”

The induction ceremony was part of a weekend of festivities to celebrate football. It included the N.F.L.'s first preseason game between two teams with expanded preseason rosters. If the latest study's numbers are applied, at least 45 of those players will someday have C.T.E.

C.T.E. is a degenerative brain disease believed to be caused by repeated hits to the head — not just major concussions, but the countless subconcussive hits absorbed with little attention. There are no other known causes. In the past 20 years, it has been found in athletes in hockey, rugby, soccer, BMX biking and bobsledding, among other sports. It has also been found in military members and in at least one police officer.

But it is football where the intersection of American popular culture and public health is most on display, in front of millions of fans.

Cases have become routine, almost rote. Most are not made public. Those that are, a few each year, have become a familiar backdrop as the games go on.

About 350 former N.F.L. players have been diagnosed with C.T.E., most after showing severe symptoms in their later years. Some were aging stars, like Frank Gifford, Ken Stabler and Nick Buoniconti — one of eight members of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins to be diagnosed so far. Others were recently retired or in middle age, like Demaryius Thomas, Frank Wycheck and Vincent Jackson. Several died by suicide, including Junior Seau, Dave Duerson and Terry Long. A few died young after committing murder, including Aaron Hernandez, Jovan Belcher and Phillip Adams.

Most suffered far from public view, years after their careers ended.

“We don’t see what happens to those people in the long run and how it changes their lives,” said Coakley, the retired professor.

Some of the researchers involved in the latest study hope to be able to clinically diagnose C.T.E. in the living. It is not an exact science like a brain autopsy, but one akin to diagnosing Alzheimer's or Parkinson's by analyzing myriad symptoms and tests. They also plan to publish what they believe is the true estimate of C.T.E. cases in all former N.F.L. players upon death — a rate expected to be far higher than 25 percent.

Some believe that tally will show that more than half of all former N.F.L. players die with C.T.E. If that's true, football fans will be confronted with an even more troubling view of the game.

The Mini Crossword

BY JOEL FAGLIANO

ACROSS 1 Spider ____ 4 Quaint term for a boyfriend, from the French 5 Crocodile ____ 6 ____bird 7 ____wolf

DOWN 1 Feeling tired and worn out 2 British noble title 3 ____bee 4 Panda ____ 5 Detective, in old shorthand

Two Not Touch

Put two stars in each row, column and region of the grid. No two stars may touch, not even diagonally. Copyright © 2024 www.krazydad.com

Brain Tickler

PUZZLE BY WILL SHORTZ

Insert a six-letter woman's name backward in each set of dashes to complete a familiar phrase. 1. WRONG ON SO MA____ LS 2. JUV____ _OURT 3. B____ _LIPPERS

SATURDAY'S ANSWER Ports, sport, strop

ACROSS 1 Part of a dance 5 Sch. with the Daily Bruin newspaper 9 Slightly intoxicated 14 Fancy 15 Worms and such on hooks 16 Be of the same mind 17 Redding with two posthumous Grammys 18 "Sesame Street" character who was once sung to sleep by Andrea Bocelli 19 Ransacks 20 One who regularly drops things 23 The : English :: _ : French 24 Letter after sigma 25 One dining on Friskies 28 Role for Selena Gomez on "Only Murders in the Building" 31 Umbrella-shaped sea creature 34 Director DuVernay 35 Pathetic

Crossword | Edited by Will Shortz

36 Examine at length 37 Took shots first, then paid for them later 40 Clothing sizes for shorter women 41 Ski in zigzags 42 "Far out!" 43 Tetra- minus one 44 Newlyweds' getaway 46 Owl sounds 48 Actress de Armas 49 401(k) relative 50 "Need an ark? I Noah guy," e.g. 51 "Tell everyone!" ... or what to do with the starts of 20-, 31- and 44-Across? 58 Inuit for "house" 60 Italian hello 61 Et __ (and others: Lat.) 62 Tennis locale 63 Pre-Easter observance 64 R-rated, maybe 65 A cube has 12 of them 66 Petrol brand

KenKen

Fill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit in any row or column, and so that the digits within each heavily outlined box will produce the target number shown, by using addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, as indicated in the box. A 4x4 grid will use the digits 1-4. A 6x6 grid will use 1-6.

PUZZLE BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNGS

DOWN 1 Mess maker 2 Attire for the Sugar Plum Fairy 3 Off-ramp 4 Pulverizing tool 5 Alternatives to Lyfts 6 Baby whale 7 In finite supply 8 Lacking a musical key 9 A ____ as old as time 10 Composer Stravinsky 11 Ham on an antipasto platter 12 Solidify 13 "You called?"

21 Sinuous swimmer
22 Swallowed hard
26 Aver
27 Graduate student's project
28 ____ P. Johnson (gay rights activist)
29 Island of Arthurian legend
30 Fruit-resembling mollusk
31 The "one" of a one-two
32 So far
33 Part of the week that workers look forward to: Abbr.
35 Lunch item that might be made with cold cuts, in slang

38 Ginger ____
39 Cup-and-ball or yo-yo
40 Deep-dish vessel
42 Support staff for a rock band
45 Soothsayer
46 Tint
47 "To victory!"
50 Part of an Instagram post
52 Skin opening
53 Goes bad
54 Gets bronzed at the beach
55 Brand with "anti-aging" products
56 Bibimbap base
57 Pages on a desk calendar
58 "Rocks" at a bar
59 Lead-in to forbid or forsaken

Play all of our games plus over 10,000 past puzzles for Wordle, Spelling Bee, The Crossword and more online at http://nytimes.com/games. For puzzle talk, visit http://nytimes.com/wordplay.

Interpol has come full circle

SAN FRANCISCO

Paul Banks, left, and Daniel Kessler of Interpol, whose new album is “This Mirror Weighs a Ton.” The group’s debut LP, “Turn On the Bright Lights,” came out in 2002.
ARSENII VASELENKO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The band's latest album grapples with the new U.S. surveillance state

BY MIKE ISAAC

For a band that has for so long embraced a core identity of being from New York, some of the ways the city has embraced Interpol could be considered accidental.

Its widely acclaimed first album, "Turn On the Bright Lights," was written long before the Sept. 11 attacks that toppled the World Trade Center, traumatized New York, led to foreign wars and initiated an era of domestic surveillance. And yet after the record's 2002 release, it came to define the collective mood: 49 minutes of post-punk brooding and melancholy drone that delivered an almost mournful love letter to a wounded populace.

"You're reflecting a moment in time, you know what I mean?" Paul Banks, Interpol's 48-year-old frontman, said in an interview over a pier-side lunch on the San Francisco Bay. The group performed a three-night run of shows there this month on its North American tour. Between bites of Peruvian ceviche, he noted how sometimes a work of art arrives just as people are searching for it. "Hopefully, as an artist, you've got some insight into the pulse of what's going on around you, even if you might not have articulated that directly," Banks said.

Nearly 25 years and seven studio albums later, Interpol has come full circle. America is again at war abroad, and the surveillance state stretches even further into American life. But in “This Mirror Weighs a Ton,” the band’s new LP, Interpol grapples with those matters directly. It is the first album the group has recorded in New York City in over a decade.

The album touches on the steady drumbeat of technological advancements and ideas of “progress” that can feel increasingly isolating. The cover art is even less subtle: a chandelier made of 14 closed-circuit cameras — the kind you might find above a bank teller's head — pointed in all directions. (The piece, “Asymmetric Love Number 2” by the New York artist Addie Wagenknecht, is part of the permanent collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art.)

And while “Mirror” brings a familiar mix of Interpol’s tinny riffs, shifting tonal signatures and distorted, abrasive chords, it is buttressed with experimentation. There are warm, swirling synths, a woodwinds section, even the gentle chirping of birdsong in Central Park.

"I think we are an evolving band, but we've done so through a kind of process of continuous arrival," said Daniel Kessler, 51, Interpol's lead guitarist, who showed up to lunch dressed in black slacks, an oxford-collared button-down and a flowing trench, the only pops of color showing when he crossed his legs to reveal blood-red socks. "All of our records are emotional, but in this record certainly there's hope and playfulness along with the heaviness."

For all of the band's New York-ness, most members of Interpol migrated to the city. Kessler was born in England and grew up in France before studying at N.Y.U., where he connected with Carlos Dengler. They recruited Banks — who was born in England, raised in Mexico and Spain — after meeting at a study-abroad program in Paris. After another drummer departed, Kessler asked Sam Fogarino, a Philadelphian nearly a decade his senior, to join the band in 2000.

By 2001, Interpol was grinding it out playing cramped, sweaty rock clubs on the Lower East Side. With MTV awash in alt-metal's wide jeans and backward New Era caps, the band members opted for French New Wave mod vibes and a sunglasses-at-night look worthy of Jean-Luc Godard.

“Turn On the Bright Lights,” the band’s first full-length album, landed the next year amid a New York City in transition. The album’s gloom became a backdrop to critiquing Bush-era foreign policy, post-Patriot Act domestic surveillance and a series of foreign wars much of the nation would come to regret. On “Obstacle 1,” the breakout single, Kessler’s repetitive guitar picking took on the cadence of a blaring alarm. Dengler, who went by the stage name Carlos D, played dynamic bass lines and wore holsters on his belt. (He ditched pistols for packs of cigarettes.) Fogarino’s rollicking drums brought a verve that cut against Banks’s stark baritone, a voice that critics regularly compared to Ian Curtis of Joy Division.

Interpol shared rehearsal space with bands that would come to define the scene: TV on the Radio, Animal Collective, Lightning Bolt. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs regularly played the Mercury

Lounge on Houston Street, while the Strokes were fast earning a reputation for being the raucous boys of Lower Manhattan. Audiences began to consider rock synonymous with New York instead of Seattle or Los Angeles.

“Bands were sprouting up everywhere,” said Amedeo Pace, a friend of Kessler and member of Blonde Redhead, a New York noise rock band that was one of Interpol’s contemporaries. “The music scene was interesting and alive, and the city felt open-ended with no clear boundaries.”

Interpol followed up with 2004's "Antics," building on the moodiness of "Lights," and two more LPs that decade that turned sharply into a grandiosity of sound that divided fans but pushed boundaries. The 2010s saw Interpol hit its rockiest personal patch, after a decade of relentless touring. Banks, who embodied the booze-and-drugs rock star lifestyle, hit a bottom. Dengler clashed with other members over creative differences, leading to his departure. There were serious questions as to whether Interpol would break up.

"In the years leading up to that, I did some things that I regret as far as like youthful bad behavior that contributed to the deterioration of those relationships," Banks said in the interview, briefly pensive. "But I'm thankful things with Carlos didn't end with like, everybody's middle fingers in each other's faces. It ended, you know, respectfully."

By 2011, Banks had cleaned up, and the band replaced Dengler with Brad Truax (Spiritualized, Gang Gang Dance), who would become a permanent fixture.

Fueled by a resurgence in dreamy shoegaze and Y2K revivalism, a new generation of fans began pouring in. Tracks like “Everything Is Wrong” and “All the Rage Back Home” from 2014’s “El Pintor” brought in listeners who discovered the reverb-heavy riffs that resonated with early audiences. (Accord-

"All of our records are emotional, but in this record certainly there's hope and playfulness along with the heaviness."

ing to its label, Partisan, over half of the band's Spotify listeners are under 35.) The shadowy New York chic that garnered Interpol an early indie following in a post-9/11 world had expanded far beyond the five boroughs. In Latin America, Interpol's sorrow-core sound clicked with those who loved the mopiness of acts like Morrissey and the Cure. It led to Interpol playing the largest show of its career at the Zócalo in Mexico City in 2024, to a crowd of over 160,000.

After writing "The Other Side of "Make-Believe" (2022) from separate locations during early Covid lockdowns, the group knew the next album would be different. Kessler struggled writing "Make-Believe" in isolation and wanted to return to Interpol's roots recording in Lower Manhattan. He enlisted the production help of a longtime friend, Andrew Wyatt, a New York native formerly of the Swedish pop group Miike Snow who had produced albums by Charli XCX and Dua Lipa. Wyatt, 55, introduced the band's familiar somberness to the possibility of whimsy: wind chimes, the bumblebee-buzz of backing keys, and even the heretical idea of using acoustic guitars instead of going fully electric.

“I pushed them, I know I did,” Wyatt said in a telephone interview. “You want to meld doing something new while preserving what they have in a way that feels organic. I love that they blend shyness and confidence, euphoria and pain,” he added. “And the darkness. The darkness.”

The result in “This Mirror Weighs a Ton” blends the dreary existentialism Interpol is known for with a tenderness and a sense of hope that has come with maturity and the passage of time. The title track opens with lush, spacey keyboards that feel reminiscent of a warm bath. Electronic warbles echo throughout “So Rides the Reindeer.” In “Iron City,” Banks’s lyrics warily touch on allpowerful intelligent beings — artificial or otherwise — and what they may have in store for humanity.

Tracks like “See Out Loud” retain the austere, guitar-forward brashness of Interpol’s early material. But the album’s streaks of brightness are more apparent than in any past work. Over lunch, Banks noted that A.I. will always lag behind musicians who push art forward. And he insisted on including messy, hand-painted script as part of the album art to give it a touch of “humanity,” offsetting the Foucauldian notion of the future that the camera chandelier suggests.

Some things have not changed. In early August, Interpol announced a surprise show at the intimate Great American Music Hall in downtown San Francisco, an instant sellout. The room, stifling with 700 people packed in like sardines in black denim, swelled as Interpol took the stage. Thousands of miles and two decades removed, the gig felt like the smoke-filled Village clubs that the young, self-serious Interpol delivered in deadpan to groups of disaffected New Yorkers in the early aughts.

Banks, wearing sunglasses indoors under the bright red stage lights, strummed his Les Paul custom. But this time, for this show, he was smiling.

“N.Y.C. created and fostered Interpol,” said Fogarino, Interpol’s drummer. “And thus we continue.”

U.S. officials want to get rid of a ‘woke’ painting

Neither official elaborated on what was objectionable.

VIA UNITED STATES EMBASSY, SANTO DOMINGO

The Kehinde Wiley work has been removed from an embassy in the Caribbean

BY ZACHARY SMALL

The State Department wants to sell a painting by the celebrated artist Kehinde Wiley that the director of its Art in Embassies program called “very woke” and “aesthetically terrifying.” It was removed from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic this month.

The painting by Wiley, who rose to fame after being selected to create President Barack Obama's official portrait, features four Dominican models against a floral backdrop. It was commissioned by the federal government in 2013 and purchased with taxpayer dollars.

State Department officials removed the painting from the embassy after first hiding it behind a tarp designed with an image of the American flag.

Erin Scavino, director of Art in Embassies, criticized Wiley's painting in a recent podcast interview and pointed out the artist's connection to Obama. Leah Campos, the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, celebrated its removal on social media with a video playing the rock anthem "We're Not Gonna Take It," writing that the painting was an example of "globalist and woke ideologies."

In a statement about the removal of the painting, a State Department spokeswoman did not directly address the artwork. The statement instead criticized comments Wiley had made in 2023 about his “Judith and Holofernes” painting, which he described as “a play on the ‘kill whitey’ thing.” It also cited accusations of sexual assault that Wiley has denied.

"The work of an individual with such violent and racist words and depictions has no place in the America First State Department," the spokeswoman said.

The statement said the State Department was determining whether it could legally sell the painting of Dominicans, titled “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960.”

"If that is feasible," the spokeswoman said, "it would be the goal of Art in Embassies to proudly do so."

A smaller painting by the artist sold at a Phillips auction in 2024 for nearly \$845,000. Wiley and his gallerist, Sean Kelly, did not respond to requests for comment.

Virginia Shore, who commissioned the Wiley painting, established many of the embassy art collections as director of acquisitions and chief curator for the Art in Embassies program between 2000 and 2017. She described the work as nonpartisan and said there was no precedent for selling embassy artworks.

“Calling this woke is difficult for me to understand,” she said. “This is a program validated and financially backed under Bush. There is a science of building trust and empathy across borders.”

IAN C. BATES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Left, “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960,” which hung in the Dominican Republic. Above, Kehinde Wiley, who also did President Barack Obama’s portrait.

Wiley received an award from the State Department in 2015 because of his contributions to cultural diplomacy. He often takes inspiration from historic paintings, asking contemporary Black models to pose inside his version of the compositions. For “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960,” he spent two years studying paintings by the Dominican artists Celeste Woss y Gil and Gilberto Hernández Ortega, working with art students in that Caribbean country to finish the scene.

The artwork's removal was the latest attempt to politicize the State Department's art program, which became part of the government during the Kennedy administration in 1963 to foster cultural diplomacy.

The program was strengthened in 1999 under the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act, which led to embassies developing their own permanent art collections.

This year, Scavino claimed to have gotten an ambassador in Bucharest, Romania, fired over “satanic baby art,” although that diplomat’s departure was reported as a planned retirement. She also selected a friend with no curatorial experience to be the commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, bypassing normal procedures.

In July, Scavino organized an exhibition in Washington that aimed to “Make Art Great Again” with nearly 70 versions of the American flag on display.

In a statement about the removed Wiley painting, Campos, the U.S. ambassador, said, “It is my intention that everything we project from U.S. Embassy Santo Domingo, including the art and décor, reflect the beauty, strength and commitment to liberty of the United States of America and its people.”

Online, she had a stronger perspective: “Under the Trump administration and my leadership, we are leaving behind globalist, ‘woke’ ideologies to embrace, instead, American patriotism and the beauty of our great country.”

She ended the sentence with an emoji of the American flag.

Things that go bump on Broadway

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARA KRULWICH/THE NEW YORK TIMES

THEATER REVIEW

An adaptation for the stage of a horror film franchise has its own jump scares

BY HELEN SHAW

In the 2007 horror movie “Paranormal Activity,” video footage — much of it grainy and dim — shows us the evil that human eyes might miss. A young couple sets up a camera in their bedroom, and over the course of several nights, it captures evidence of something lurking near their sleeping bodies. The menace approaches sloooooooowly: a door moves; someone shrieks. (Fine, OK, that was me.)

How do you translate that particular suspense-based dread to the theater? Horror is cheap to film, but galactically expensive to recreate onstage. And a theater audience has a whole set's worth of stuff to look at, so it's difficult to create that crawling, back-of-the-neck feeling that something is lurking just out of sight.

Wisely, for the thrilling “Paranormal Activity” experience now on Broadway, the playwright Levi Holloway and the director Felix Barrett have jettisoned almost every characteristic of the movie franchise. There’s no “found footage” and barely a nod to the original film’s plot. Instead, their show is a testament to pre-cinematic scare techniques, like an abruptly loud DOOR-BELL (Gareth Fry is the sound designer) or a hypnotic sequence of storytelling in the dark.

The plot still revolves around a beleaguered couple, though: the affectionate Lou (Cher Álvarez) and James (Travis A. Knight), married a year but already in the deep weeds. Lou feels a kind of all-pervading dread, as if something's watching her. James has moved them to London following a vaguely defined crisis, a series of "missing time" blackouts that Lou had endured back home in Chicago.

They've secured a massive house, yet the couple still seems crowded by other presences: James has invasive video chats with his evangelical Floridian mother, Carolanne (Shannon Cochran), and he furnishes a nursery, long before Lou is ready to have a baby. ("It's bad luck," she says, understating things nicely.) He tries to convince her that he shares her belief in the supernatural, even buying her a bell that they agree to ring from beyond the grave, should one predecease the other. Normal couple stuff.

The play starts with voice-over, which turns out to be a podcast episode about ghosts. “Places aren’t haunted, people are,” the voice murmurs, but we’re skeptical. The set (designed by Fly Davis) certainly looks a little haunted: It’s two stories, sliced down the middle like a cake. Even cut open to our gaze, the house has too many places to hide, and its temperamental electrical wiring clearly hates the living. (Anna Watson designed the lighting.)

We know enough to mistrust the dark area at the top of the stairs and the way the bathroom door swings open to conceal a person-sized space. One of the most appreciative laughs comes when a character approaches a shower curtain with an appropriate SEAL Team 6 level of caution.

Watching “Paranormal Activity” with a crowd feels like watching a magic show on a roller coaster. We scream, then we laugh because we screamed (aren’t we silly?), then we scream again when the ride takes another drop. After having toured widely — the show has been in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington — it is polished to a cold shine. From a design and direction standpoint, it’s incredible, and the illusions designer Chris Fisher has a true sorcerer’s touch: an exhilarating scare in the first act breaks every brain in the audience.

Barrett is the founder and artistic director of the immersive theater company Punchdrunk, and under his direction, Álvarez and Knight carry the whole thing with an impressively

Above, Travis A. Knight and Cher Álvarez as a couple in crisis in “Paranormal Activity,” from the playwright Levi Holloway and the director Felix Barrett. Left, the couple with an “expert” psychic played by Eva Kaminsky. Below, the split-level set, designed by Fly Davis.

unaffected naturalism. Heavy miking (again, thanks to Fry) lets the couple murmur to each other, since we still hear them over the creaks and groans of the house. Holloway's often comic script, which is best in its grace notes, makes the couple appealingly down-to-earth. (When the DOORBELL rings again, James swears at it with a relatable frustration.)

Several of the script's phrases are also pointed enough to catch at your sleeve. An otherwise unhelpful psychic (Eva Kaminsky), for example, tells the pair that “a fire makes a shadow.” As we’ll learn, Lou and James are burning up in ways they don’t realize. In Holloway’s construction, paranormal activity is a marker of retribution. “We earned everything we got coming,” one of them will say.

Holloway's last Broadway outing was “Grey House,” another horror play, though one that was much less effective. In that show, the mythology was so unwieldy that the production sent some critics PDF cheat sheets to explain its lore. He sketches more lightly here, though the story still wobbles, if you think about it after the lights come up — so don't think about it too much after the lights come up.

Horror is a prevailing trend in the-ater right now. At least, that's true when it comes to British exports: Both the stage play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” and “2:22: A Ghost Story,” arriving this fall, started in England, as did “Paranormal Activity.” The obsession is of long standing. The pseudo-gothic thriller “The Woman in Black” ran for 33 years in London, and the British stage-horror tradition staggers bloodily back to 1920s Guignols to

1870s penny dreadfuls to 1600s revenge tragedies.

At the risk of overanalyzing a show that is, in essence, a whole bunch of beautifully made fun (for those with a low resting heart rate), I wonder if we hear an echo of that 400-year-old history in “Paranormal Activity.” Jacobean London was a top place for plays about the supernatural partly because the Reformation had made certain cryptic Catholic customs illegal, and the stage awakened those unquiet spirits.

Holloway is clearly interested in the religious dimension of horror, the way it encodes beliefs about sin and suffering and the possibility of intercession. For instance, James's mother, Carolanne, is named for Carol Anne, the little girl in the "Poltergeist" movies, in which a town's defiling of a cemetery (holy ground!) incurs terrible vengeance. At one point, Holloway demonstrates how ineffectual Carolanne's prayers are when arrayed against the presence that tortures her family. His is a particularly moral ontology. Holloway's Bad Things don't behave at random, they don't forgive, and they don't waylay the innocent.

Now, I am a big old scaredy-cat, and I did plenty of arm-clutching (sorry, neighbor to my left!) during “Paranormal Activity.” Yet the sense of release that follows horror of this kind might not only be the relief of having survived the jump scares. There’s also a strangely comforting suggestion that in a world where evildoers seem beyond the reach of justice, something is watching. If it’s hard to see for now, that’s only because it’s waiting to make the sinners pay.

Putting one foot after another

BOOK REVIEW

TRISTAN SPINSKI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Up on Cove Mountain:

Up on Cove Mountain Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail By Earl Swift. Mariner. 368 pp. \$32.

BY BEN MCGRATH

Late one night in the summer of 1990, Earl Swift was startled awake at his campsite in the White Mountains of New Hampshire by the loudest noise he'd ever heard.

He was in his early 30s and only a few weeks into a six-month leave of absence from newspaper work, to trek a couple of thousand miles, from Maine to Georgia.

When he opened his eyes, a fallen tree branch lay inches from his head. "I was unnerved, and deeply so, that life or death could turn on such blind, stupid, unimaginable luck," he writes in "Up on Cove Mountain."

A pair of genial slowpokes he overtook later that week weren't so fortunate. Molly LaRue and Geoff Hood, who charmed everyone with the upbeat messages they left scrawled in the logbooks at trail shelters, had hoped to get married upon completing the Appalachian Trail. Instead, LaRue was raped and stabbed to death, and Hood was shot dead, by a killer on the lam, in a shelter in Pennsylvania.

The culprit was not technically a hiker, but he briefly became one, commandeering his victims' gear and continuing south, hoping to blend in among the stream of sweaty backpackers. Spooky stuff — especially at a time before cellphones and amid a trusting trail culture where people often shed their formal identities in favor of monikers like “Lone Wolf” and “Lost Boy.” (Swift went by Earl.)

Authorities posted signs to trees advising everyone to get out of the woods until the shooter was caught — which he was, more than a week later. But lasting damage had been done to the psyches of those who, like Nalgene and Clevis (as LaRue and Hood called themselves), may have believed in the trail's simulated wilderness as a kind of sanctuary.

Swift, now a best-selling author, says that he decided to hike the trail again, in 2024, at age 66, because he wanted answers to unspecified questions about the traumatic incident that had haunted his first passage. It's not disclosing much — other than a familiarity with the tropes of questing non-fiction — to say that he doesn't find many.

“Statistically, violence has remained all but a stranger to the AT,” he writes. Unstable trees and rocks are a more frequent danger than unstable humans.

Which is not to say that nearly every person wearing Gore-Tex is levelheaded. Back in 1990, on the same day he met Nalgene and Clevis, Swift also shared a campsite with a man who claimed to be hiding out on the trail because his in-laws were trying to get him kidnapped by the Mob; this time, he recognizes a man cadging batteries in Vermont as the same vagrant who had stolen his map in Virginia. The

thief, whom Swift calls Ralph, hadn't struck him as a natural thru-hiker, and Swift is surprised to see how much ground he's covered. "I was homeless," Ralph explains. "But people kept giving me stuff, so I just kept going."

One foot in front of the other: Just keep going. This is the great wisdom of most adventure lit, and Swift's story is no exception. He braids his recollections of the two long treks to surprising effect, and it's a strength, rather than a weakness, that the reader can sometimes get disoriented by the jump-

cutting chronology, submitting to the delirium of the marches as if in a fugue state. As the trail's most prominent bard, Bill Bryson, put it, "However far or long you plod, you are always in the same place: in the woods."

Or at the nearest restaurant, it turns

A part of the Appalachian Trail outside North Woodstock, N.H.

out. Swift's account makes clear just how much energy is required to move an adult body up and down an unending series of ridgelines, many of them subfreezing after dark. And though one of his hiking pals answers to the name Granola, Swift's own tastes are less crunchy. Even as he nears retirement age, he eats like a teen, scarfing whole pizzas, cheese steaks, mounds of bacon and ice cream by the pint. Despite his consuming 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day, his belt still requires constant tightening. Who needs Ozempic when we have the Appalachian Trail?

The differences between the two expeditions are largely inconsequential, Swift finds, in the face of the terrain's unyielding grandeur. Apps replace maps. The gear gets lighter, the hostels more numerous. Reservations are now required at the campsites on Maine's Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus, owing to a roughly tenfold increase in the number of seekers.

The climate, on the other hand, has grown more forbidding, with wildfires and ticks among the increasing threats. “The day is coming, and soon, when hikers will be unable to rely on natural water sources along hundreds of miles of the trail’s middle, from Connecticut into southwest Virginia,” Swift writes. “So, not to worry: It won’t get any easier.”

Ben McGrath is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker.

Take a dip at wild swimming spots

CHARLES MAYO/SHUTTERSTOCK
USA TODAY NETWORK, VIA REUTERS CONNECT

MOELYN PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

DEREK BROUSSARD/GETTY IMAGES
J STEWART/GETTY IMAGES
SALLY WEIGAND/ALAMY

Here are six places in parks across U.S. where you can dive into the great outdoors

BY RUFFIN PREVOST

Diving into the refreshing chill of a mountain lake. Stargazing from a placid pool in the middle of nowhere. Doing a few laps beside a roaring waterfall.

Wild swimming is celebrated for its sensory rush, nostalgic echoes of childhood and sense of escape. Plenty of state and national parks across the United States offer open waters perfect for dipping a toe or sliding full tilt across slippery rocks.

But unlike a hotel pool, wild swimming can involve specific risks. Check the weather, water quality and currents.

Wear water shoes and other gear when necessary. And know your physical limits. Bring a friend for safety — and because it's more fun that way.

NEW YORK

ROBERT H. TREMAN STATE PARK

In the heart of the Finger Lakes region, Robert H. Treman State Park is home to a stunning swimming hole at the base of 30-foot (nine-meter) Enfield Falls.

In a park less than 15 minutes from Ithaca, N.Y., this developed site includes a diving board, a bathhouse with restrooms and showers, picnic tables and a lifeguard. But the swimming is unmistakably wild: wooded cliffs, a pebble beach, layers of Devonian shale and minnows darting around the cold, crystal-clear water.

Swimming is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. from late June through Labor Day weekend. Cars cost \$10 to enter the park.

WYOMING

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

String Lake, in the center of Grand Teton National Park, was once a local secret, but even after social media exposure, there are still quiet swimming spots along four miles (six kilometers) of shoreline.

Much of this channel just north of Jenny Lake is “shallow and crystal clear, so it’s a little warmer, and has dreamy views of the Tetons,” Bruce Rosenberg, the operations director at the Rusty Parrot Lodge & Spa in Jackson, Wyo., said in an email.

Sixteen miles south, Phelps Lake is home to what locals call the “jumping rock,” where you can plunge 25 feet before splashing into the bracing glacial snow melt.

Watch out for bears, hypothermia and sunglasses lost in the leap.

Cars cost \$35 to enter the park, which is valid for a week.

ARKANSAS

BUFFALO NATIONAL RIVER

Designated by Congress as an official national river site, Buffalo National

River meanders undammed for 135 miles through the Ozark Mountains.

Deep, slow-moving pools stand alongside soaring limestone and sandstone bluffs. Though the water is warm, it's still a welcome relief from the humidity of July and August.

Take folding chairs, towels and a picnic (glass is prohibited) to the riverbanks at swimming holes like Ponca

Low-Water Bridge to spot wild elk, or Steel Creek to gaze at Roark Bluff, a 200-foot wall of multicolored limestone.

There's no entry fee, but campsites cost \$16 to \$20 per night.

PENNSYLVANIA

OHIOPYLE STATE PARK At the southern end of the Laurel Highlands, Ohiopyle State Park offers plenty of options for fun in the water, fewer

Clockwise from top left: the Sand Hollow State Park in Utah; Enfield Falls at Robert H. Treman State Park in New York; Buffalo National River in Arkansas; Ichetucknee Springs State Park in Florida; Ohiopyle State Park in Pennsylvania; and String Lake at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

than 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

The Meadow Run Natural Water-slides, a water-carved flume running for 100 horizontal feet, ends in a swimming hole. Bring jorts, river shoes and steely resolve.

Picturesque Cucumber Falls drops over a dramatic sandstone shelf to a wading pool that's perfect for searching for buried treasure.

And only 10 minutes away to the north? Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece.

There's no entry fee.

UTAH

SAND HOLLOW STATE PARK

The contrasting turquoise water and orange-red sandstone formations at Sand Hollow Reservoir, 20 minutes east of St. George, Utah, create a singular, other-worldly landscape.

The scene at Sand Hollow State Park, which surrounds most of the reservoir,

Enjoy the sensory rush, nostalgic echoes of childhood and a sense of escape.

is family-friendly and draws water skiers, paddlers, anglers and off-road drivers.

At the red rock cliffs, visitors can get their kicks by cliff jumping (borrow a free life jacket from the visitor center) off ledges five to 35 feet above water.

But with more than 1,300 acres of 80-degree Fahrenheit (26-degree Celsius) water, swimmers can also find solitude in coves with flat, sandy beaches.

Cars cost \$35 from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for nonresidents and \$20 for Utah residents. Campsites start at \$35 per night.

FLORIDA

Inside Ichetucknee Springs State Park, the water at its two major springs is 72 degrees Fahrenheit year-round: chilly at first, but perfect for a sweltering afternoon.

One of them, the Ichetucknee Head Spring, is a lush, subtropical wonderland — 45 minutes northwest of Gainesville, Fla. — surrounded by bald cypress trees, wild river ferns and live oaks draped in Spanish moss. Snorkel over eelgrass and watch for river turtles, mullet and gar.

Nearby is Blue Hole Spring, a deep cavern. It's best enjoyed by strong, experienced swimmers and scuba divers.

Cars cost \$6 from 8 a.m. to sundown.

Celebrity is among the cruise lines that are increasing the recommended gratuities that passengers pay to crew members.
DANIEL SLIM/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Why cruise lines are raising fees

BY CEYLAN YEGINSU

For years, cruise lines have assessed passengers a daily gratuity fee, which the companies say gets divvied up among the crew. But this summer, several major lines have suddenly hiked the fee, and some passengers say it is part of a pattern of being nickel-and-dimed with surprise onboard increases.

Cruise companies, including Carnival, Celebrity, Princess and MSC, say the hike is necessary to keep crew compensation competitive. While the charges are automatically added to guest accounts, they are recommended and not mandatory, so guests can adjust or remove them at the end of the cruise.

In April, Carnival Cruise Line increased its daily gratuity rate by \$1, to \$17 per person per day for staterooms and \$19 per day for suites. The company said its team members provide “exceptional service” and that guests would agree that the “slight increase was well deserved.”

Celebrity Cruises also increased its daily gratuity charge by \$1.50 in July, with rates ranging from \$19.50 to \$24.50 per passenger per day. Some passengers questioned whether the extra funds would go to the crew members or be used to offset operational costs.

“Celebrity has amazing service and the crew deserve to be paid well, but it’s hard to trust big corporations,” said Harry Evans, 66, an avid cruiser who recently retired in Miami. “The costs keep adding up, and if this trend continues, I’m going to go back to tipping cash.”

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the Royal Caribbean Group,

Some major lines are increasing gratuities and deposit amounts.

which owns Celebrity Cruises, said gratuities are shared and are a part of crew compensation.

The fee is bundled into the overall fare, which also includes accommodations, food and entertainment, creating one predictable price tag, which is one of the main draws of a cruise.

Carnival also recently raised the price of its “Bottomless Bubbles” nonalcoholic beverage package for adults to \$11.99 per day, up from \$9.50, plus an automatic 20 percent gratuity, citing the higher cost of newly added Coca-Cola products.

Some cruise lines are also making changes to their booking and payment policies. Princess Cruises recently announced an increase to deposit prices and tightened the deadline for final payments before a voyage. For short sailings of six to nine days, deposits will be raised to \$300 per passenger, up from \$250, in stateroom categories, and suite deposits will cost \$600 per passenger, up from \$500. For longer sailings of 10 to 44 days, deposits will range from \$500 to \$1,000, depending on the cabin category.

The new rates will go into effect for bookings made after Sept. 2 for 2027 sailings. The rates will include a 120-day final payment period, along with progressively higher cancellation fees as the departure date nears, making the fares less flexible.

"These changes bring greater consistency to the booking process and reflect broader industry practices," Princess Cruises said in an emailed statement.

Help! Lyft mistakenly charged me \$150

Tripped Up

BY SETH KUGEL

DEAR TRIPPED UP.

In March, I returned to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport after a business trip and took a Lyft home for \$70, including tip. The ride, in a BMW X3, was uneventful. But the next day, Lyft sent me an email with a \$150 cleaning fee, referring to “attached photos.” There were no attached photos and no further explanation given. In an exasperating series of exchanges with customer service representatives over chat, one agent finally explained that the driver said I had vomited in the car. She also said she would email photos; she did not, citing a “technical glitch.” Another agent did eventually send them, showing vomit around the back seat of a car that, according to online images and an A.I. analysis of the photos, did not appear to be a BMW X3. I repeatedly asked for any metadata from the images that would prove (or disprove) that it was my ride, but Lyft never sent any. I’ve found numerous reports of ride-hailing-service riders facing similar unexplained charges and being stonewalled when asking for documentation. Can you help? Sri, Frisco, Texas

DEAR SRI,

I reviewed the customer service chats and emails you forwarded to me, including three rather unpalatable photos, and can only conclude that this was a case of gross incompetence, emphasis on “gross.”

There was probably no way you could have proved to the rotating cast of customer service characters you chatted with on and off for 12 hours that you did not vomit in a BMW X3 driven by a person named Robert. But your points — that the photos don't look like a BMW X3 and that the lack of a time stamp or geolocation from the photos meant the driver could have downloaded them anywhere — should have made someone reconsider or escalate the issue. That becomes even more true when we consider that ride-hailing-service passengers have

MATT BLEASE

been complaining for years about false vomit reports by drivers.

I got in touch with Lyft and it quickly refunded you \$220, including the cost of the ride and the additional charge.

But getting the company to admit it had made a mistake was more of a challenge. The first statement I received, attributed to Michael Brous, Lyft's head of safety and customer care, defended the company's processes.

“Lyft takes damage disputes seriously,” he wrote. “Our support team

A passenger was shocked to be hit with a cleaning fee for a mess he didn't make.

investigates each incident individually and determines the outcome based on the evidence, such as photos and statements from both the driver and rider." But after I read through your chat

and email exchanges with customer service agents, it became pretty clear that Lyft determined this outcome before they heard your side of the story. “We’ve now completed our final evaluation of the documentation provided,” wrote one agent. “Based on this final review, no adjustments will be made to this fee.”

Did I say one agent? Actually, I meant five different agents all used that exact wording. (A sixth just changed the “on” in the second sentence to “upon.”)

But boilerplate language from low-level agents is not a surprise. Their apparent lack of interest in metadata was. Any smartphone can (and typically does) record the time and location where photos are taken, and adding a metadata requirement couldn't hurt.

In a second statement after I pressed Lyft harder on the metadata issue, Mr. Brous said, “Lyft reviews and investigates damage claims using a variety of signals to determine if photos are legitimate, which can include metadata. If an image does not have metadata included, we do not automatically assume it’s fraudulent and additional signals are reviewed.”

Even without the metadata requirement, the company seemingly ignored that the driver did not meet its published instructions for driver damage reports, which require “at least three clear, well-lit photos of the damage from different angles.” There are three photos, and the lighting is good enough — if ruining my appetite is a reasonable criterion. But all three photos are from almost exactly the same angle, just cropped differently. And they were taken in a way that shows very few features of the car.

So you asked A.I. to analyze the photos and shared those results with Lyft. The chatbot determined the vehicle was most likely a Jeep Grand Cherokee and noted that key BMW design details were absent from the instruments and door panel. My human comparison of the photos with online images of BMW X3 back seats reached the same conclusion, although it's impossible to be sure.

Monica Osborne, a spokeswoman for Lyft, finally called me to admit that the company had made an error. “Based on our initial assessment at the time, we did think it was a BMW,” she said. But after “a more thorough review, we definitely agree that the vehicle does not match the specifications of the BMW.”

She said the company has now provided you with an additional \$100 credit, recognizing your “extremely negative experience end to end.” Lyft drivers are independent contractors, not employees, but Ms. Osborne said the company would have “deactivated” the driver if he had not previously been deactivated for another reason.

So that's good news for anyone falsely accused of vomiting or otherwise making a mess. Here's some advice for other riders: If you can't safely stop to open the door, at least roll down a window. The charge for vomiting on the car's exterior, according to Lyft rules, is only \$75.

The Bird on a Rock Turquoise Necklace A tribute to the House's gemstone legacy

TIFFANY&CO.

THE ART OF FILMMAKING

Venice Film Festival

KATE MCCULLOUGH

What Saoirse Ronan learned as a director

Family Clare Dunne, above left, and Martha Malone, above right and left, play a mother and daughter in the short film "Paper Plane." The film was written and directed by Saoirse Ronan, bottom left. "I've always felt — and now more than ever — that we need to honor the mother-daughter relationship," Ronan said.

KATE MCCULLOUGH

The actress will make her directorial debut with the short film ‘Paper Plane’

BY SARAH BAHR

Some of the actress Saoirse Ronan's earliest memories are of wrangling friends in the rural Irish village of Ardattin, enlisting them to star in the latest film she had cooked up.

"I was an only child, and I had a lot of time, so I kind of disappeared into a world of my dolls and would make up story lines for them and act them out. I really liked being a puppeteer, if you will," said Ronan, who has received four Academy Award nominations for her performances in "Atonement" (2007), "Brooklyn" (2015), "Lady Bird" (2017) and "Little Women" (2019).

Several decades later, that childhood fixation is coming to fruition at the Venice Film Festival (Wednesday through Sept. 12), where “Paper Plane,” a 15-minute Irish film she wrote and directed, will be one of 13 films competing for the Orizzonti Award for best short film.

"I'm so thrilled that I'm able to deliver something I've made in not only a city I love, but also in a country that means so much to me," said Ronan, 32, who last attended the festival in 2007, when she was 13, for the world premiere of "Atonement," which became her breakout film.

In a recent phone call from London, she shared her inspiration for “Paper Plane,” how directing has changed her perspective on acting and whether helming a feature film may be next. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

When did you first know you wanted to direct?

I was more interested in directing as a kid than acting. Even before I got my first acting gig. Since then, I've had more than 20 years of experience working with brilliant filmmakers, but also experiences where, in the driver's seat, I would have executed something differently or created a different environment on set. The older I got, and the more experienced I became as an actor, the more I felt the need to do it.

You not only directed but also wrote

"Paper Plane," which is about a mother-daughter relationship. What inspired it? It was inspired by my experience as a child, or at least an element of it. That's something that really shaped me and something I'm really drawn to in stories. I've always felt — and now more than ever — that we need to honor the mother-daughter relationship.

What is the film about?

It's about a young girl who decides to leave home in protest of how her home life has been — and she challenges her mother to do the same.

How long has it been in the works?

All in all, just under two years now. Development started in March 2025. Then we shot it in late May, and I was in the edit for two to three weeks after that. And then I took a break and came back to it at the top of this year and finished the edit, and we've just been trying to find a home for it ever since.

What was the most challenging part of directing?

Trying to get permission to shoot certain places, and also the fact that we had a dog and a child and were shooting on film. I wouldn't change things for the world, but it does add extra work for you and the production to navigate. Short film is a new realm for me. It's tricky, because even to source the crew you want to use, you've only got them for a limited amount of time because they need to go off and make other things that will actually make them money.

What about on the writing side of things?

SWAN GALLET/WWD VIA GETTY IMAGES

I remember Greta Gerwig once said that everything that's in the script has to be there for a reason. I learned in the edit that I should've gone through things with a fine-toothed comb more. For me, coming from the world of feature-length film, my default is to let things breathe and gradually build up the pace. So it's tricky to try and convey what I want to convey in 15 minutes. Even though it seems like a lot, it's amazing how quickly that time can fly by.

What was surprising, or what didn't you anticipate?

It was such a journey to get there. I remember going back into the edit at the top of this year, and I had clarity over the story that I really needed. It allowed me to return to what the film was originally supposed to be. A lot of patience is required. There are times when you really don't know if it's going to be any good. That's not false modesty. You can have days or weeks when you're like, "This is a waste of my time; I shouldn't have started it in the first place," and then a glimmer of hope. It's a real marathon for sure.

What did you learn that you'll carry with you into your acting career?

What I've found in the two acting jobs I've done since making the film is that it's reignited my curiosity on a film set. It makes me want to delve into filmmaking in its entirety. I'm way more inquisitive. I've been working as an actor for so long that you can't help falling into a way of doing things. But directing has woken me up and given me a new lease on life.

Have you been back to Venice since the "Atonement" premiere in 2007?

I've been back once, just on holiday, and it rained the whole time. In a professional sense, I haven't been back since "Atonement" premiered there. That was my first public event, my first red carpet, my first press conference. I was really thrown in the deep end. For me, as a 13-year-old kid who was also working in Belfast at the time, suddenly on the Grand Canal — it feels like a full-circle moment to get to go back.

What's your expectation of Venice?

I love Italians, and how much they value art and film. From what I remember about Venice, they're incredibly welcoming, warm people. I couldn't ask for a greater home for my first short.

Are you ready to direct a feature-length film now?

I think I'm going to give it a go. One half of my brain is like, "Do one more short film so you're absolutely prepared." But another bit of me is like, "Orson Welles directed a film at 25." I'm not comparing myself to Orson Welles, but I do think there's something in blind faith and just doing it.

An island setting for almost a century

VENICE

The Venice Film Festival is a part of Lido's history, architecture and identity

PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT BY MATTEO DE MAYDA

The island of Lido is in Venice, but it can feel like the city's opposite: gondolas give way to cars, canals become roads and the lagoon opens up into the Adriatic Sea.

Venetians spend their summer weekends on the roughly seven-mile-long island, crossing the lagoon to swim — bicycles fill the streets and cars arrive by ferry from the mainland.

But at the beginning of September, there is a shift from sand and sun to the cinema: For about ten days, filmmakers, actors, critics, photographers and audiences join the summer crowds for the Venice Film Festival, which runs Wednesday through Sept. 12. Hotels fill and the public water buses known as vaporetti carry a different kind of traffic across the lagoon.

This transformation has been taking place since the festival — the oldest one of its kind in the world — began in 1932 with an outdoor screening on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior. Since then, cinema has become part of Lido's architecture, history and identity. For most of the year, the Lido looks toward the sea. But in September, it looks toward the screen.

Good gamble

The interior of the Palazzo del Casinò, which was conceived with monumental spaces decorated with marble, mosaics and artistic glass from Murano. Originally built for gambling, dining and entertainment, the former casino is now used by the festival for screenings and activities for the media and film industry.

Precious metal The Golden Lion, the festival's highest award, is made by the Venetian craftsman Cristiano Moschini and takes its name from the winged Lion of St. Mark, the symbol of Venice.

Defining architecture The Palazzo del Casinò, seen from the Palazzo del Cinema. Designed by Eugenio Miozzi and completed in just eight months in 1938, the monumental Rationalist building is defined by its severe facade clad in travertine.

Water works

Water works The Santa Maria Elisabetta waterbus terminal is the main gateway to the Lido from Venice. Vaporetti cross the lagoon throughout the day, carrying residents, beachgoers and visitors to the island. During the festival, the same water routes become the main arteries carrying audiences, journalists and film-industry workers to and from the Lido.
Grand style The facade of the Hotel Excelsior, one of the landmarks of the Lido and of the festival. Opened in 1908, the hotel was already a symbol of the island's rise as an international seaside resort when, in 1932, it hosted the first edition of the festival. The first screenings took place on its terrace, before the Palazzo del Cinema existed, beginning a relationship between the Excelsior and the festival that has continued for nearly a century.
Beach culture Traditional wooden beach huts line the Adriatic shore of the island. The small cabins, rented by families for the summer season, provide shade, privacy and a place to spend the day by the sea. They are a distinctive part of the Lido's long history as a seaside resort and of the everyday beach culture that continues alongside the international spectacle of the festival.

Framed moments Historic posters from previous editions of the festival are displayed inside the Hotel Excelsior. The hotel has been closely linked to the festival since its first edition in 1932, when the inaugural screenings were held outdoors on its terrace.

MOSTRA INTERNAZIONALE D'ARTE CINEMATOGRAFICA LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 2026

Tapping into an early love of architecture

FROM INSIDE OUT

An inside view Above, Peter Zumthor's biggest-ever building, the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), opened in May, nearly two decades after he was commissioned to design the space. Right, a scene from "From Inside Out: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor."
A goal in mind Wim Wenders, above, has more than two dozen movies to his credit, mainly documenta- ries. He hopes that his latest documen- tary will open people's eyes to the power of architec- ture, even if they weren't already interested.
FROM INSIDE OUT

Wim Wenders chronicles the life of the lauded architect Peter Zumthor

BY FARAH NAYERI

When Wim Wenders was a 12-year-old boy growing up in Germany, he drew buildings in his spare time. His bedroom was full of press clippings and photographs of Brasília, the capital of Brazil, which was designed from scratch, primarily by the architect Oscar Niemeyer.

"This futuristic city built into the jungle: that was my dream. I wanted to go there," the filmmaker recalled in a recent video interview. "I really thought being in architecture was the coolest job."

In his new movie, Wenders dives back into that childhood passion. “From Inside Out: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor” — shot in 3-D and premiering at the Venice Film Festival — is a two-hour documentary on the Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architect.

The film culminates with Zumthor's biggest-ever building: the \$724-million David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The new space opened this year, nearly two decades after he was commissioned to design it.

Wenders has more than two dozen movies to his credit, including the multi-award winners “Paris, Texas” (1984) and “Wings of Desire” (1987). In the past three decades, he has mainly shot documentaries, clinching Academy Award nominations for three of them: “Buena Vista Social Club” (1999); “Pina” (2011), on the German choreographer Pina Bausch; and “The Salt of the Earth” (2014, co-directed with Juliano Ribeiro Salgado), on the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado.

The director spoke of his fascination for architecture, the future of cinema, and his upcoming plans during the interview, which was edited and condensed.

How did this film come about?

In 2012, I shot a short film with Peter Zumthor. I got to see Peter's atelier.

Even if we only worked together for two days, we became friends, and agreed that we would do something longer.

We started the very first shoot that year, when he was going to build what later became the Chivelstone House Secular Retreat in Devon, England. He revealed that he had been given the commission for LACMA, but that it was far from being completed.

I said: “Peter, hold it. If you only start LACMA in four or five years, where does that leave me with my movie? You’re going to make your biggest building when the movie is finished. We cannot have that.” So we agreed to interrupt the shoot and wait until LACMA was confirmed.

Your Oscar-nominated 2023 movie "Perfect Days" is a mix of documentary and fiction, the story of a Japanese man who dedicates his life to caring for architect-designed lavatories around Tokyo. How are the two films connected?

“Perfect Days” began as a documentary proposition: to make a handful of little shorts on tiny toilets designed for the Tokyo Olympics by Japanese architects who usually built stadiums or hotels or skyscrapers. I was tempted, but then realized that nobody was going to see a series of little films on tiny architectural marvels, as beautiful as they were.

I told the producer that I could imagine something altogether different, in which all of these toilets would show up. He said: "If for the same amount of time and money, you can do a movie, I'm all for it."

If you were worried that nobody would watch short films about those pieces of architecture, what made you think a two-hour documentary about Peter Zumthor would attract viewers?

Films have an ability to capture the audience that doesn't want to see them. When I made the film about the choreographer Pina Bausch, everybody except my wife said: "This is crazy. Films on dance don't work. Forget it."

In the end, “Pina” was one of my most successful films. I knew that everybody who wasn’t interested in ballet or dance would want to see this film, because it would open their eyes, as had happened to me.

I had to be dragged to see my first performance of a work by Pina Bausch. But when I saw her “Café Müller” and “Rite of Spring” in Venice in the 1980s, we became very close friends, I saw every one of her works after that, and we decided to make a film. I thought: if I was weeping in a dance performance, everybody else would. I wanted people who did not care about dance to see “Pina.”

It's the same with Zumthor. I really want people to see “From Inside Out” who are not interested in architecture. Architecture is so crucial to contemporary life, and most people don't know anything about it. It would improve their life if they knew a little bit more. Peter was the right architect to take them into that territory.

Why?

First of all, he's a great thinker. He does think a lot about the conditions of architecture. Second, he has a great respect for space, and a great sense of place, and he only builds what he thinks is necessary. He doesn't build much. Each and every one of his buildings is exceptional for its purpose, and for the site where it's built.

The film's climax is the opening of LACMA, which faced controversy for cost overruns and reduced exhibition space. How do you feel about that project?

A strange quality of Peter's work is that the buildings do something to you, and I think LACMA does something to the visitor. The idea of everything on one level is a genius idea. LACMA's director, Michael Govan, and Peter did something revolutionary. They built the architecture for another way of looking at art: where there's no hierarchy, where there's no high art and low art, and where the audience make their own path.

You've said that making films has become expensive and complicated. How so? The way movies are made now, even if you're an old hack like me, nobody gives you any financing unless the script is really written. So you don't really have to make the movie anymore. By the time you finally finish the 10th draft, you feel as if you've already shot it.

The filmmaking that I'm really good at depends a little bit more on being able to change things and steer things in a different direction while I'm making the film. That, in fiction, is getting so difficult — unless you make a very low-budget film like “Perfect Days,” where they let you do whatever you want to do.

If you want to have a bigger budget, you are tied to a completely pre-designed film. Not many people take the liberty of reinventing the film while they make it. That's my forte.

I'd love to get back into fiction. I'd have to reinvent it again for myself, because I haven't done it for so long. This next film will be a science-fiction movie, set maybe 20 or 30 years from now. I have only ever made one science fiction movie, “Until the End of the World” (1991).

How do you feel about the state of cinema today, with the streamers, and the endless Hollywood sequels?

I very much believe in the act of storytelling. I think storytelling is one of the greatest things that mankind came up with. Homer was one of the first, and we see how well his story still plays out.

But storytelling is an endangered species — because the very idea of it is that you invent it as you go. There are very few movies left these days where I see original, true storytelling. I'm saddened by the fact that most movies are based on the experience of other movies.

Today, there is so much prefab.

Honoring Ellen Burstyn, and her many roles

ALAMY
COURTESY OF GENESIS

The actress will receive a Golden Lion for her decades of characters

BY ALIX STRAUSS

At this year's Venice Film Festival, Ellen Burstyn is set to receive the kind of recognition one waits their whole life to experience. The 93-year-old actress, producer and author will be honored with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. She also has two films being shown.

"It's very special to have your whole career honored," Burstyn said in an email. "And when it's called the Lifetime Achievement Award, it says that your time on planet Earth didn't go to waste."

Burstyn, a longtime New Yorker who lives on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, is no stranger to awards. She is one of the few performers to achieve what the industry calls the Triple Crown of Acting: winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” in 1975, followed by a Tony for Best Actress for “Same Time, Next Year” and two Emmys for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Political Animals.” Over the past seven decades, she has received more than 20 major nominations across film, television and theater.

Burstyn's two films at this year's festival are Maggie Gyllenhaal's "Flesh Impact," a 17-minute short, and the director Kornél Mundruczó's feature film, "Place to Be."

This marks Burstyn's second collaboration with Mundruczó and his frequent writing partner, Kata Wéber. The trio previously worked together on “Pieces of a Woman,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020.

The “Place to Be” follows an unlikely friendship between a no-nonsense woman, played by Burstyn, and a middle-aged divorced man, played by Taika Waititi, as they trek from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon to its owner.

“Cinema has always been strangely afraid of the passage of time. We tolerate old men, but when a woman grows older, we often expect her to become invisible,” Mundruczó said over email. “Ellen has the rare ability to bring her entire raw existence onto the screen. She enters the moment as if she has never been there before, and yet there is an extraordinary precision in what she does," he added.

Gyllenhaal's “Flesh Impact,” which she wrote and directed, explores what could have happened if Marilyn Monroe, who died in 1962 at 36, had lived to her 100th birthday. Dakota Johnson plays a young Monroe, while Burstyn portrays her at 100.

“I knew people that were close to Marilyn. And I knew her persona that she adopted for film isn’t who she was,” Burstyn said. “That she was a deep thinker, wide reader, and someone who created the Marilyn Monroe image without necessarily being that image she created,” she added.

To prepare, Burstyn watched many of Monroe's films, "and I felt her as I watched them," she explained. "I wanted to be as much of the Marilyn Monroe as I heard existed underneath the image."

“Ellen has a depth, strength and the ability to be really vulnerable,” Gyllenhaal said in a phone call. “She utterly, totally, inhabited this character and included such a wide range of expressions that are totally specific to her.”

It's not surprising Burstyn was cast to play a complicated, resilient character. She has repeatedly portrayed multidimensional women with emotional contradictions. She played a mother fighting to save her demonically possessed daughter in “The Exorcist,” a single mother pursuing her dream of becoming a singer while rebuilding her life in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” an emotionally neglected Texas housewife who has an affair with a younger man in “The Last Picture Show” and a diet-pill-addicted widow desperate to lose weight so she can appear on television in “Requiem for a Dream.”

Of all her roles, Burstyn said the one that resonated the most with audiences, and herself, was “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”

"I wanted to bring to the screen a character that embodied the changes that I felt women were going through at the time, where they were living their own life, or as Alice says in the film, 'It's my life, not some man's life I'm helping him out with,' she said. "And that was revolutionary when we portrayed that. I think it helped affect the consciousness that was changing for women at the time."

The Venice Film Festival is not only recognizing a beloved actor and honoring her contributions, it's also breaking what Mundruczó described as a taboo.

"To have her receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award while two films in which she appears are being presented at the same festival is a remarkable constellation," Mundruczó said. "I hope we do not look at it only as a celebration of an extraordinary actress. I see it also as a small rebellion against the idea that cinema belongs only to the young."

For Burstyn, too, this is a far cry from where she envisioned herself being.

"When I was younger, I didn't picture myself still working at this age," she said. "I thought I'd be an old lady knitting booties."

Then and now Far left, Ellen Burstyn played a single mother rebuilding her life in the 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” Near left, Burstyn as Marilyn Monroe in a 17- minute short “Flesh Impact,” premiering at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

CARTE BLANCHE HIGH JEWELRY COLLECTION

A street-level view of ICE in Minneapolis

COURTESY OF JACK CALIFANO

FRED RAMOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘They’re Here’ filmmakers were on the ground during the crackdown

BY NICOLAS RAPOLD

Early in a new film at the Venice Film Festival, an S.U.V. rolls up and stops on a residential street. A black-gloved hand emerges from a window and points emphatically at one house.

It's a chilling moment, but this is not a scene from a fictional thriller. "They're Here" is a short documentary about the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis — when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested thousands of undocumented immigrants and protesters from December 2025 through March 2026, though the film's timeline focuses on the period between December and February. The surge began in Minneapolis and later spread across Minnesota. Two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were fatally shot by ICE agents, intensifying protests across the country.

Premiering on Sept. 7 in Venice, "They're Here" was co-directed by Laura Poitras, an Academy Award-winning director who won the festival's top prize in 2022 for "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed," and Rachel Lauren Mueller, a Minneapolis-based filmmaker, journalist and cinematographer.

Poitras and Mueller began filming in January of this year to document the events as they unfolded. The challenge became how to convey the scary reality of the operation in Minneapolis, which resulted in killings, injuries and separated families. Poitras recalled seeing a brief video on Instagram that showed an idyllic winter landscape, but offscreen, people could be heard screaming at others to stay inside and lock their doors because “they’re here.”

“We were very interested in how cinema could express the kind of reign of terror that was happening,” Poitras said in a video interview.

“They’re Here” uses street-level filming of the action by Mueller and others, footage from dashboard cameras, crowdsourcing and mapping data to show how Minneapolis residents worked to stay safe during the crackdown. Civilian observers compare notes on mysterious vehicles and keep a record of people snatched off the streets by masked men. Law enforcement vehicles roll across the screen amid clouds of tear gas, while at the airport, prisoners are seen from a distance trudging onto planes.

Interspersed throughout the film are scenes from the point of view of and narrated by a man identified as Edén Villa. Villa describes taking extreme measures just to get to work safely, including hiding in a car trunk. Like many others in the film, he remained anonymous for his own protection. Many of the civilian observers went by handles like Liz Lemon or Red Fox.

"The risks are real, particularly for the immigrant communities who are being hunted throughout the country," Poitras said. "And also now there is the targeting of people who are organizing. (The New York Times has reported on homeland security officials using "an array of invasive tactics during the first half of this year to gather information on many groups and individuals who were never accused of crimes.")

The documentary blends video and audio to show observers as they give each other eyewitness reports. Volunteer operators can be heard taking calls about possible abductions or sightings of ominous newcomers in town wearing head-to-toe military gear, with one caller asking if that's normal. Another caller was dissuaded from following a car that they thought looked suspicious as it went down an alley.

"The organizing effort was completely decentralized, entirely organic. There were tens of thousands of Minneapolis residents that were a part of it," Mueller, the co-director, said.

Rather than communicate with a central office, volunteers took reports from their living rooms or in the streets. After the killings of Good and Pretti by agents, “droves of people” came out to join the ranks of observers, Mueller said.

Detailed map graphics onscreen show the extent of the homeland security operations. Spanning across the city's neighborhoods, reports pop up on the maps about abductions of adults and children through January and the months after. Poitras and Mueller say this visual component offers a clearer picture of the scope of the crackdown.

"This is always a dilemma of a documentary. There is this way in which telling the story through individuals is grounding emotionally, but then how do you communicate the horrific nature of the scale?" Poitras said.

The filmmakers were also mindful of covering recent events in a short film, opting not to make a long-form documentary that could take too much time to produce. They also tried not to show footage that has appeared in the media nor to depict any killings, though "They're Here" does include confrontations in which federal agents shove and spray people in the street. At one point, Gregory Bovino, the former leader of the Trump administration's deportation campaign, is seen moving people aside.

On the scene Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested thousands of undocumented immigrants and protesters in Minneapolis from December 2025 through March 2026. Bottom far left, the filmmakers Rachel Lauren Mueller, left, and Laura Poitras began filming in January of this year to document the events, top left, as they unfolded to include in “They’re Here.”

Poitras and Mueller centered Villa, the man trying to get to work, as the film's protagonist and wanted to tap into the kind of fear sometimes found in genre movies. Poitras cited "Children of Men" as an uncomfortably evocative dystopia, and "Get Out" for its use of a protagonist's perspective. The filmmakers wanted to show how thousands of citizens in Minneapolis were able to affect their real-life circumstances.

“Eighty percent of these agents were forced out of town because of the work of organizers,” Poitras said. “This is what it looks like, how volunteers were able to not just be scared at home but to do something about it.”

Mueller was filming among the volunteers outside in subzero temperatures at the height of the homeland security operations. Her recollections mirror the tone of resilience common among the voices featured in “They’re Here,” even when she is talking about coping with tear gas.

"The gas masks were great because they kept you a lot warmer than if you weren't wearing them," Mueller said. "Until the condensation would freeze and then you have to take it off."

Poitras and Mueller were finalizing the short in mid-August, with remaining elements including work with a composer, Alessandro Cortini, who has performed with Nine Inch Nails. They have been encouraged by the response at feedback screenings.

“I think that if we can capture the emotional felt sense of what the decay of civil liberties looks like and the terror and the intensity of being under military occupation, that feels like a success,” Mueller said.

Films so good, they made a new category

JIMMY CHIN

ALEX BRANDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

HANNES HOSP CABIN CREEK FILMS

A new section features six highly anticipated documentaries in Venice

BY SARAH BAHR

A strong lineup Clockwise from top left: Scenes from some of the most compelling documentary submissions for this year's Venice Film Festival, including "Musk"; "Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger"; "Everest: The Other Side"; "My Undesirable Friends Part II — Exile"; "Union Town"; and "What Love Builds."

As Alberto Barbera, the Venice Film Festival's artistic director, was perusing the documentary submissions for this year's event, he was struck by the fact that they were strong — like, really strong. Like, so-strong-I-need-to-create-a-new-category strong.

"There were so many good documentaries — much more than in recent years. It was difficult to say no to some excellent documentaries and great filmmakers," Barbera, 76, said in a recent phone call from Italy ahead of the festival, which runs Wednesday through Sept. 12.

Nineteen documentaries, about subjects including the right-wing tech mogul Elon Musk, last year's reunion tour by the British rock band Oasis and a harrowing ski descent of the north face of Mount Everest, will be featured in a new out-of-competition section, Venice Open Non Fiction, that will bring together master filmmakers from more than a dozen countries.

"There's such a diversity of themes and subjects," said Barbera, who has held his role since 2012. He selected the festival's final lineup of around 100 feature films, documentaries and short films out of more than 4,500 submissions.

Here's a look at six of the most compelling titles. While a few have theatrical release dates, many are still seeking distribution.

"MUSK"

the release to incorporate new developments, including Musk's support and financial backing of Donald J. Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, and the entrepreneur's role as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The film is scheduled for release in U.S. theaters on Oct. 16.

One of the buzziest films of the year is Alex Gibney's controversial documentary "Musk," which traces Elon Musk's rise from entrepreneur to one of the most influential and divisive men in tech. Spanning nearly four hours, it takes viewers through formative experiences such as Musk's upbringing in South Africa and his move to Canada when he was 17. The film also covers his history with PayPal and Twitter, as well as his founding and growth of SpaceX and Tesla.

Gibney, who won an Oscar for best documentary in 2008 for “Taxi to the Dark Side,” has been working on the project for at least three and a half years. It was originally announced in March 2023, and Gibney reportedly finished an early version at the beginning of last year. But he ended up delaying tempt is the subject of “Everest: The Other Side,” directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who together won an Oscar in 2019 for directing the documentary “Free Solo,” which followed Alex Honnold and his free solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in 2017. It’s scheduled to arrive in theaters in the United States on Oct. 30.

crackdown on free speech. Like the first installment, it was shot and produced on an iPhone after mounting government pressure made traditional camera setups impossible. And it has an even longer run time than its predecessor, clocking in at nearly six hours (the first film, when it was released in theaters, was shown in two parts).

“OASIS: DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER” An intimate chronicling of the English rock band Oasis by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, “Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger” takes fans behind the scenes of last year's sold-out reunion tour across 41 shows and five continents. Written by Steven Knight, the creator of the crime drama “Peaky Blinders,” the documentary centers on interviews with two of the band members and brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher, as they reflect on their breakup in 2009 and triumphant comeback. It’s set to open in Britain on Sept. 9.

There's nothing like confronting mortal danger to make sparks fly — or so it goes when Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson fall for each other as they set out to complete the first ski descent of the north face of Mount Everest. Their at-

"EVEREST: THE OTHER SIDE"

"MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS PART II — EXILE"

The Russian director Julia Loktev's 2024 documentary “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow” followed young, mostly female, independent journalists covering the invasion of Ukraine by President Vladimir Putin of Russia. It garnered high praise from The New York Times critic Alissa Wilkinson: “I’m trying to avoid hyperbole, but I don’t know how else to say this: It is perhaps the most essential investment of time you can make in a movie theater this year,” she wrote of the nearly five-and-a-half-hour film, which she named a critic’s pick.

Now, Loktev is back with a sequel, "My Undesirable Friends Part II — Exile," which focuses on the same core group of seven Russian journalists as they flee the country after the Kremlin's

"UNION TOWN"

Barbara Kopple won a pair of Oscars for directing the labor rights documentaries “Harlan County U.S.A.” (1976), about a Kentucky miners’ strike, and “American Dream” (1990), the story of a failed strike by meatpacking workers at a Minnesota Hormel Foods plant in 1985-86. But tackling modern-day gig work in New York City, she told The Hollywood Reporter, was even more challenging. “People are afraid for their jobs because they live in a place where it costs a lot of money to live, so they’re not as open maybe as they were in ‘Harlan County’ or ‘American Dream,’” said Kopple, 80, who is the only woman to win two Oscars in the best documentary category.

cludes the app-based workers who run deliveries on bicycles and e-bicycles, as well as Amazon staff and UPS drivers — and union organizers in New York as they fight powerful corporations for better wages and conditions.

“Union Town,” which was shot over three years beginning in 2023, follows delivery workers — a group that in-

"WHAT LOVE BUILDS"

You probably know Russell Crowe as the titular figure in “Gladiator” (2000), a role that won him an Oscar for best actor, and for playing the mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. in the 2001 biopic “A Beautiful Mind.” But what you might not know is that, since 2009, he has been the host for a rotating musical collective, Indoor Garden Party, backed by his own band, The Gentlemen Barbers.

“It’s like a festival where I gather people I admire, musicians and storytellers, and we put on a show,” he’s said of Indoor Garden Party, whose shows blend rock, R&B, folk and gospel music.

Now, Crowe, 62, is documenting his history with the group in a 100-minute autobiographical concert movie, “What Love Builds.” The film, which draws on personal archives and encompasses 15 years of filming, chronicles performances by Indoor Garden Party across Australia, Europe, Britain and the United States.

A festival jury like no other

In Venice Classics, students from around Italy choose the winners

BY NICOLAS RAPOLD

Many of the eyes at the Venice Film Festival will be focused on the red carpet and the competition jury. But there is another jury dedicated to honoring films of the past and documentaries about cinema.

Venice Classics was created in 2012 by Alberto Barbera, the artistic director of the festival, who then added prizes and a student jury. The jury members are drawn from the fields of film history and criticism, as well as production, the performing arts and music. Each group is guided by a film professional, generally a director.

“Venezia Classici is designed primarily to introduce young people to great films of the past or (in other cases) to encourage a re-evaluation of the generally unfavorable critical reception that accompanied their release,” Barbera said in an email through a publicist.

Each jury has around 24 students, who decide on the prizes for the best restored film and the best documentary about cinema. This year, the jury will be viewing and choosing from a wide variety of films, including John Cassavetes's "Minnie and Moskowitz," Ernst Lubitsch's "To Be or Not To Be," Ann Hui's "The Story of Woo Viet," Roberto Rossellini's "Journey to Italy," Alexander Kluge's "Yesterday Girl" and Roger Corman's "The Wild Angels."

Students are nominated for the jury in the spring by professors from universities across Italy. They are either about to graduate or have recently graduated, and are divided into two groups, with one group evaluating for each prize.

Sara Coppola, a 2023 jury member from Puglia, was selected by the professor of a class she took in Italian cinema. She recalled viewing Iranian, Ukrainian and Japanese movies that she had never seen before, but that was only part of the attraction of the jury for her.

“We had to talk about everything,” Coppola said in a video interview. “In my opinion that was the most amazing opportunity of being in the jury.” She contrasted the experience with those she has had in Italian university classrooms, which are more lecture focused.

The jury chair is on hand to offer members relevant background on the films. Coppola recalls the chair the year she was on the jury, Andrea Pallaoro, whose movie “The Echo Chamber” is in this year’s main competition, pointing out how some scenes were filmed and talking about his own experiences on set. This year's jury chair is Daniele Vicari, a director who also runs a public, tuition-free film school in Rome.

Jurors attend public screenings in a reserved row — similar to other juries at the festival — and sometimes see restored films with their directors in attendance. For Coppola, that included Amir Naderi, who directed “Harmonica,” about an Iranian boy who gets a musical instrument as a present, and Stephanie Rothman, who directed “The Working Girls,” about three young women getting by in 1970s Los Angeles.

“She was full of energy and I was like, Oh my God, I want to be like her at that age,” Coppola said of Rothman, who is in her 80s.

Jurors usually view about two movies a day, though there can be as many as five, depending on the logistics of scheduling. Francesco Turchi, a member of the 2025 jury, particularly appreciated the merits of “The Ghost,” a 1963 Italian Gothic thriller, and “Roma Ore 11,” a 1952 film based on actual events in which one woman died and dozens of women were injured when a staircase collapsed while they were waiting for a job interview.

Turchi said in an email interview that, last year, the discussions about the films were so interesting and lasted so long that he and his fellow jurors continued them during every moment of the festival, during lunch, at dinner and even at the bar in the evening.

At the night's end, jurors can find themselves among throngs of festival attendees running to catch the boat from the Lido, the island where the film festival takes place, to the city.

Rather than passing judgment on the quality of the restorations, Barbera said that jurors evaluate “the impact that a classic film can have on today's audience." Tommaso Santambrogio, a filmmaker who served as jury chair last year, remembered how the students deepened their thinking as they had more films under their belts.

"The first reaction was emotional," Santambrogio said in an interview. "But then, because we were watching three movies per day, and then talking about them the morning after, it was super interesting to see how they were digesting those movies and relating them to contemporary life and the art of cinema."

The winners are announced at the festival's closing night awards ceremony, which the students can attend.

COURTESY OF M+ HONG KONG STAR ALLIANCE MOVIES

Last year's best restored film was Bahram Beyzaie's 1989 drama, "Bashu, the Little Stranger," which follows an Iranian boy who is orphaned when his family is killed in the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. The winning documentary on cinema "Mata Hari" — directed by Joe Beshenkovsky and James A. Smith — was about David Carradine's unfinished 1970s feature film about a Dutch spy and exotic dancer during World War I.

After the festival, the student jurors, whose names aren't announced by the festival, return to their homes across Italy. Not everyone goes on to a movie-related profession or field of study, but Turchi, the juror who served last year, said that he was inspired to pursue a master's degree about “the production and management of cinema” that includes an apprenticeship.

It took Coppola, the 2023 jury member, a beat before eventually getting a Fulbright scholarship and pursuing a doctorate at an American university. But the jury tenure was still fresh in her mind even a few years later.

She said she would have changed one thing about her experience.

“I wanted to give the prize to the Mexican movie ‘Profundo Carmesí’ by Arturo Ripstein,” she said, referring to the film that was released as “Deep Crimson” in the United States in 1997.

Looking back This year, Venice Classics, a part of the festival dedicated to restored films and documentaries about cinema, will include, clockwise from far left, “The Wild Angels,” starring Peter Fonda; “The Story of Woo Viet” featuring Cherie Chung; and “Ugly, Dirty and Bad,” with Nino Manfredi.

He was a champion of film, from Berlin to Venice

SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES
RABAU/ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES

Moritz de Hadeln brought film to the masses and celebrated cinema

BY DAVID BELCHER

Moritz de Hadeln was a global film festival pioneer who firmly believed that finding great films meant traveling the world much like an outdoorsman searching for the rarest of creatures.

De Hadeln, who ran the Venice Film Festival in 2002 and 2003 — as well as the Berlin Film Festival for more than 20 years, and two smaller festivals in Switzerland — died on July 4 at age 85. At this year's Venice Film Festival, which kicks off Wednesday, de Hadeln's legacy is undeniable.

“Moritz was also someone who was convinced that you have to travel to find film, and he always tried to understand the culture that gave birth to these films,” Christian Jungen, who wrote “Mister Filmfestival: The Many Lives of Moritz de Hadeln,” said in a video interview. “Moritz organized more film festivals than any other, and there will never be someone like him because he started extremely early and for more than a decade ran two festivals, Berlin and Nyon, at the same time.”

Born in Exeter, England, in 1940 and educated in Paris, de Hadeln began making short films in his 20s, and with his wife, Erika von de Hagen, founded the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, now Visions du Réel, in Switzerland in 1969. He also headed the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland from 1972 to 1977. His longest stint was as head of the Berlin Film Festival, also known as the Berlinale, from 1979 to 2001.

“He was one of the first Western curators who went to China in a time when China was a very complicated, closed, far away country from a European perspective,” said Jungen, who is also chief executive and owner of the Zurich Film Festival. “One of his biggest achievements was bringing Chinese films to the West.”

Jungen pointed to “Red Sorghum,” 1988, by Zhang Yimou, and films by

Chen Kaige, including “Farewell My Concubine,” 1993, as examples.

"He lived on Lake Geneva, and he was inspired by Edgar Snow, the American journalist who also lived there and wrote the book ‘Red Star Over China’ about his encounter with Mao Zedong," Jungen explained. "The two met, and Moritz wanted to follow his example."

And de Hadeln also broke barriers closer to home, traveling behind the Iron Curtain when few others did.

"In the late 1970s and early '80s, for Eastern European films, he went to the other side of the Berlin Wall and brought so-called forbidden films from the Soviet Union to the West," Jungen said. "Dealing with the bureaucrats, talking to people, drinking vodka, having lunch, having dinner — it was a very different kind of business than we do today."

Jungen cited the 1979 film “Tema,” by the Russian filmmaker Gleb Panfilov, which won the Golden Bear at that year’s Berlinale, as a major achievement.

“That film would have never been released or liberated if it wasn’t for Moritz,” Jungen recalled.

That kind of political maneuvering defined de Hadeln at a time when film festivals weren't blockbuster events with red-carpet opulence and paparazzi; rather, they were about bringing obscure movies to audiences.

“In Berlin, everything felt political because of the Cold War, but Moritz decided to work on bringing East and West together, and that was in the spirit of the progressive political world at that time,” said Wieland Speck, who coordinates the Berlinale’s Panorama program, known for championing independent cinema.

“We had films from Kazakhstan and places that other festivals didn’t have. He managed to slowly, step by step, get deeper into the Eastern world.”

Many see that finesse as his legacy.

"Here is this guy whose father was a British military officer, who liberated Italy, his mother was Romanian from the Eastern bloc countries, his wife, German, and he was the neutral Swiss guy mediating between East and West," Jungen said. "He was the right person to go behind the Wall. He was like a diplomat who knew how to talk to different people."

Jungen views de Hadeln as a histori-

In focus Moritz de Hadeln, far left in 1984, ran several film festi- vals during his career including Venice in 2002 and 2003 and Berlin for more than 20 years. De Hadeln attended the Berlin Film Festival with his wife, Erika von de Hagen, left, in 2007.

cal figure in the fall of Communism in Europe.

“Because of him, people for the very first time saw films from Soviet republics,” Jungen explained. “Today you can find everything on YouTube, but this was a period where you had to go to the movie theater and see a physical movie print being projected to know about the world.”

Under de Hadeln's leadership, Speck helped start the Teddy Awards at the Berlinale in 1987, which Jungen described as the first recognition for gay filmmaking at A-list festivals.

"At that time, that was very controversial, and in Bonn, the capital of West Germany at that time, there were very conservative cultural ministers," Jungen said. "This was a big fight. That's another legacy of Moritz's. He was a trailblazer for the L.G.B.T.Q. community and never really got credit for that."

When he arrived in Venice in 2002, the maneuvering didn't stop.

"At a very delicate juncture for the Venice Film Festival, after the Berlusconi government had removed Alberto Barbera from the directorship a year before the end of his term, Moritz was ap-"

pointed to lead the festival," Oscar Iarussi, the artistic director of the Bari International Film & TV Festival in Italy who still serves as an adviser to the Venice Film Festival, said on a call. "He set to work in a pragmatic manner. He was multilingual and free-spirited and had a truly European outlook."

Iarussi offered an example of de Hadeln's character at the time.

“He had been appointed by a center-right government, but he had ‘The Internationale,’ which is the workers’ anthem, set as his cellphone ringtone,” he said.

For Jungen, de Hadeln's two years at Venice capped a career spent bringing film to the masses and celebrating the artistry and camaraderie of film festivals.

"He spent his childhood mostly in Florence, so he spoke fluent Italian, and he loved Italy, Italian food and Italian drama, but it was a big deal that a foreigner took the reins of an Italian festival," Jungen said. "I would say he was a turnaround artistic director in Venice. He had a very detached relationship with Berlin and Locarno, but Venice, he loved that festival until the end."

The Bird on a Rock Brooch Inspired by an iconic motif from 1965 by Jean Schlumberger

TIFFANY&CO.

QA Report - The New York Times International - 31.08.2026.pdf

Pipeline

• Extraction route: mineru-vlm
• extraction_route=mineru-vlm
• Translation chunks: 103
• Extraction warnings:
• [MINERU-VLM] Successfully extracted via MinerU VLM (batch: 9abf64f9-0e57-4d33-b3cc-ca7af37f6ba8)

Non-model Checks

• WARNING: missing numeric tokens from source: 17.1, 765
• WARNING: Missing proper nouns in translation: Academy Award, Addie Wagenknecht, Adriatic Sea, After Mr, Alessandro Cortini, Alexander Kluge, Alice Doesn, Alice Doesn, Although Mexican, Amedeo Pace
• WARNING: source dates, money, or percentage tokens may be missing

Model QA

经过对翻译文本的严格审核，以下是发现的问题及其严重级别：

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1. 幻觉核查（Hallucination Check）

问题：译文中出现的 "plane crash 生还后" 表述

• 核查步骤： 1. 在标题索引中搜索 "plane crash" 或 "Travis Barker" → 匹配标题 "After surviving plane crash, a rock star gets vulnerable" 及其摘要。 2. 在抽样原文中搜索 "plane crash" → 确认原文使用 "plane crash" 而非中文直接嵌入英文。
• 结论：译文直接保留 "plane crash" 而未翻译属于 残留英文，但非幻觉。
• 严重级别：[WARNING] 残留英文未翻译（应译为"飞机失事"或"空难"）。

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问题：译文中 "DOGE" 多次出现

• 核查步骤： 1. 标题索引无匹配（DOGE非新闻主题）。 2. 抽样原文中搜索 "DOGE" → 确认原文为 "DOGE" 而非OCR错误（指代美国司法部，Department of Justice Enforcement）。
• 结论：译文未解释 "DOGE" 含义，导致读者困惑。
• 严重级别：[WARNING] 术语未解释（应添加脚注或括注，如"DOGE：美国司法部执法部门"）。

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2. 数字准确性

问题：译文中 "7600万美元" 与原文不符

• 核查步骤： 1. 原文抽样中明确为 "over $76 million"。 2. 译文漏译 "million"，导致量级错误（7600万 vs 7600万美元）。
• 严重级别：[BLOCKING] 数字量级错误（应为"7600万美元"或"7600万美金"）。

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问题：译文中 "$40 trillion" 翻译为 "40万亿"

• 核查步骤： 1. 原文为 "$40 trillion"。 2. 译文未明确货币单位（应为"40万亿美元"）。
• 严重级别：[WARNING] 货币单位模糊（建议明确"美元"）。

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3. 完整性

问题：译文中 "更多内容见明格尔，第 10 页" 等跳转提示

• 核查步骤： 1. 标题索引无匹配（属于内部版面跳转）。 2. 抽样原文确认存在 "MINGLE, PAGE 10" 等跳转标签。
• 结论：PDF翻译中保留跳转提示属于 交付标签残留。
• 严重级别：[BLOCKING] 交付标签未清理（应删除或替换为"详见正文"）。

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问题：译文中 "阿根廷，第 8 页" 等段落截断

• 核查步骤： 1. 标题索引匹配 "Can ‘Argentina’s Texas’ save the country’s economy?"。 2. 抽样原文确认该段落被截断（低CJK密度区域）。
• 严重级别：[WARNING] 重要段落截断（建议补充完整或标注"[内容有省略]"）。

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4. 术语准确性

问题：译文中 "Vaca Muerta" 翻译为 "瓦卡穆埃尔塔"

• 核查步骤： 1. 原文为西班牙语 "Vaca Muerta"。 2. 译文音译正确，但未解释含义（"死牛"）。
• 严重级别：[WARNING] 术语未解释（建议添加括注，如"瓦卡穆埃尔塔（西班牙语意为‘死牛’）"）。

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问题：译文中 "C.T.E." 翻译为 "慢性创伤性脑病"

• 核查步骤： 1. 原文为医学术语 "chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.)"。 2. 译文未统一（部分保留英文缩写，部分翻译）。
• 严重级别：[WARNING] 术语不一致（建议全文统一为"慢性创伤性脑病（CTE）"）。

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5. 格式问题

问题：译文中 "报摊价格" 表格格式混乱

• 核查步骤： 1. 原文为列表格式（如 "Andorra € 5.00"）。 2. 译文未保持对齐，部分价格缺失（如 "以色列 NIS 18.00 / 周五 36.00" 仅翻译部分）。
• 严重级别：[WARNING] 格式混乱（建议保持原文对齐格式，补充完整翻译）。

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6. OCR源错误

问题：译文中 "莫里茨·德·哈德尔恩" 与原文不符

• 核查步骤： 1. 原文抽样为 "Moritz de Hadeln"。 2. 译文音译为 "莫里茨·德·哈德尔恩"，但 "Hadeln" 应为 "哈德伦"。
• 严重级别：[SOURCE_OCR] 人名OCR错误（应为"莫里茨·德·哈德伦"）。

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7. 误判（False Positive）

问题：译文中 "特朗普主义" 被疑为幻觉

• 核查步骤： 1. 标题索引匹配 "Pursuing wide appeal with anti-Trump script" 及其摘要。 2. 抽样原文确认 "Trumpism" 存在。
• 结论：非幻觉，属于 [FALSE_POSITIVE]。

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总结

• 阻塞性问题（Blocking Issues）： 1. 数字量级错误（7600万 vs 7600万美元）。 2. 交付标签残留（跳转提示未清理）。
• 建议修正优先级： 1. 立即修正 [BLOCKING] 问题。 2. 统一术语（如CTE、DOGE解释）。 3. 删除所有跳转提示（如"第X页"）。

最终结论：发现 2个阻塞性问题，需立即修正；其余为 [WARNING] 或 [SOURCE_OCR] 问题，建议优化。

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═══ 自愈质检微创修复记录（Self-Healing Audit Trail）═══

• 成功修复分块 #79（共修复 1 处问题）
• 成功修复分块 #54（共修复 1 处问题）