The Morning: A summer guide

Plus, Papua New Guinea, John Fetterman and Greek mythology.

View in browser|nytimes.com May 26, 2024 Good morning. Today we've got a guide to the best Times coverage of the start of summer. We're also covering Papua New Guinea, John Fetterman and Greek mythology. —David Leonhardt Mission Beach, Calif. Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times Summer begins By Lyna Bentahar Memorial Day is a starting gun. While other holidays can be like a finish line — the culmination of so much energy — Memorial Day marks the beginning. The whole summer stretches out in front of us, a track shimmering in the sun. If you're not yet sure how to spend the long weekend, or the next few months, don't worry. The Morning has compiled the best ideas and recommendations from The Times to get you ready for the summer. Starting now. For your time outdoors Here's motivation to get you back in your garden, or to start a new one. Make your outdoor space work for you with these design ideas. A friend of mine recently lamented not having summer break as an adult. Here are ideas to relax even if you work full-time, like her. Outdoor activities — in the mountains or in your backyard — mean a greater chance of injury. Know your first aid basics. Pools are open and families are hitting the beach this Memorial Day. Try these workouts in the water. More people are building ponds in their backyard for swimming. See some examples. The joy of gardening. Ike Edeani for The New York Times For your travels If you're flying this weekend with some time to kill, test your airport I.Q. with this quiz. If you want some entertainment for a long road trip, here's a collection of great audiobooks, organized by length. Europe is anticipating yet another season of heat waves. Read how locals, and tourists, are preparing. Here are the best beaches in the U.S. and Mexico for each activity, like swimming, surfing or sand-castle building. Fifty years after working at a Massachusetts hotel, a writer examines what's changed. Stay at one of these five waterside hotels. For your leisure Read the best fiction and nonfiction of the year (so far). Watch these films this weekend — whether in a movie theater or on your couch. Play these video games if you don't want to leave your house. Laugh with these new stand-up specials. ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Israel-Hamas War The Israeli military continued its operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, despite an International Court of Justice order to immediately suspend its campaign there. Some in Rafah have chosen not to evacuate, while others have fled and then returned after being unable to find safety elsewhere. In an Israeli prison infirmary, a Jewish dentist aided a seriously ill Yahya Sinwar. Years later, Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, was an author of the Oct. 7 attack. War in Ukraine Vladimir Putin, likely feeling confident about the war and his hold on power, has overhauled his Defense Ministry. Russia is carrying out arson attacks on sites in Europe in a low-level sabotage campaign to undermine support for Ukraine. Some American precision-guided weapons have proved ineffective against Russian electronic warfare, classified Ukrainian reports show. A military branch of professional musicians travels Ukraine's front lines and taps into a tradition of music as resistance, The Washington Post reports. More International News In Papua New Guinea. Andrew Ruing, via Reuters At least 670 people are thought to have died after a landslide in Papua New Guinea, a local U.N. official said. "They knew that's where they were supposed to be": A family member of a missionary couple who were killed in gang violence in Haiti spoke with The Wall Street Journal. Read about why aid groups stay in the country. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi uses wide-reaching welfare programs to create loyal voters. Politics John Fetterman Kenny Holston/The New York Times Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, is picking fights with the progressives he once courted on issues including Israel and immigration. Rates of violent crime in most U.S. cities are down from pandemic-era highs. But rising property crime has made lawlessness an election issue. In Montana, the voting intentions of an influx of wealthy out-of-state newcomers hang over this year's Senate race. President Biden told West Point's graduating class that they owed an oath to the U.S. Constitution, not to their commander in chief. See a video. Other Big Stories Severe storms are likely across portions of the U.S., while summer heat settles in across the South. At least five people have died and three others have gone missing on Mount Everest since the beginning of the climbing season. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Should Justice Samuel Alito recuse himself from cases about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack? Yes. The flags in support of rioters on Jan. 6, waved on Alito's properties, add to the Supreme Court's crisis of confidence. This incident "is a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining a clear separation between personal beliefs and judicial responsibilities," Aron Solomon writes for The Hill. No. Justices have expressed political opinions publicly before, such as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about Donald Trump. "In all matters of public interest, justices have opinions — and they are appointed to some extent due to their opinions," Michael Broyde writes for CNN. FROM OPINION The Fresh Air Fund in New York City teaches children about nature — and invites them to dream big, the editorial board writes. We have a civic obligation to protect America's 236,000 miles of trails, Justin Farrell and Steven Ring write. Here's a column by Nicholas Kristof on the I.C.J. ruling against Israel. Our new offer starts now. Enjoy 7 free days to discover the complete Times experience, from news to games to cooking, sports and more, followed by your first six months for just $1 a week. Try The Times today. ADVERTISEMENT MORNING READS Akiva Cohen, a trial lawyer.  Kirsten Luce for The New York Times Lawsuit: A team built from the sharpest, funniest tweeters is suing Elon Musk. Soccer: What happens when the women's game has a prominence similar to the men's? Look to Barcelona. Grief: Ten artists, including the National Book Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward, describe living and creating through loss. Vows: They owe their relationship to the "three Cs" — cancer, Covid and commitment. Lives Lived: Michael Sugrue, after an academic career in near obscurity, became an internet phenomenon during the pandemic after uploading talks he had given three decades earlier. He died at 66. THE INTERVIEW Ted Sarandos Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times By Lulu Garcia-Navarro This week's subject for The Interview is Ted Sarandos, the co-C.E.O. of Netflix. We talked about Netflix's desire to be everything for everyone, and what that means for culture. There's been a lot of discussion about what's been dubbed "folding-your-laundry shows" — something that isn't difficult to watch. It's light, it's fun, it's not expensive to make. Netflix has a lot of examples: "Selling Sunset," "Ginny & Georgia," "Alone," the survivalist show. Do you feel as if you've cornered the market on that? And is that a title that you want to own? Look, if there's one quote that I could take back, it would have been in 2012, I said we're going to become HBO before HBO could become us. At that time, HBO was the gold standard of original programming. What I should have said back then is, We want to be HBO and CBS and BBC and all those different networks around the world that entertain people, and not narrow it to just HBO. Prestige elite programming plays a very important role in culture. But it's very small. It's a boutique business. And we're currently programming for about 650 million people around the world. We have to have a very broad variety of things that people watch and love. So we take a consumer view of quality. The people who love "Ginny & Georgia" will tell you, "Ginny & Georgia" is great. You have a new head of film, and that suggests to me that you're tweaking strategy. A criticism of Netflix from some corners is that you make too much stuff that isn't as good as it could be, specifically in movies. Are you trying to make better movies now? I don't agree with the premise that quantity and quality are somehow in conflict with each other. We've had eight best-picture nominees in the last five years on Netflix [turns out, they've had nine]. Our movie programming has been great, but it's just not all for you. And it's not meant to be all for you. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photograph by Victor J. Blue for The New York Times. Click the cover image above to read this week's magazine. BOOKS Marine Buffard Ancient: Novels are taking on the marginalized or vilified women of Greek mythology. Our editors' picks: "New Cold Wars," by the Times correspondent David Sanger and his collaborator Mary Brooks, and five other books. Times best sellers: "The Situation Room," by George Stephanopoulos with Lisa Dickey, is at the top of this week's hardcover nonfiction list. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Sleep on stylish and durable linen sheets. Take advantage of Memorial Day deals. THE WEEK AHEAD What to Watch For The French Open tennis tournament begins today. Closing arguments for Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan are Tuesday. Manhattanhenge, when the setting sun aligns with the street grid, is on Tuesday and Wednesday. South Africa's national elections are on Wednesday. The African National Congress faces the threat of losing its majority for the first time since apartheid ended. The verdict for a long-running national security trial against 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists is expected to be delivered on Thursday. India's parliamentary elections, which began last month, end on Saturday. Meal Plan David Malosh for The New York Times Emily Weinstein and the Cooking team have adapted their Five Weeknight Meals recipes into a cookbook, coming in October: "Easy Weeknight Dinners." In this week's Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily features some recipes from the book, including mayo-marinated chicken with chimichurri and coconut-miso salmon curry. You can preorder the book here. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was nationhood. Can you put eight historical events — including a Dow Jones milestone, the first W.N.B.A. draft and the creation of Dogecoin — in chronological order? Take this week's Flashback quiz. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. 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