The New York Times International - 12.08.2026.pdf

华盛顿特区是否更安全？

自特朗普接管以来的一年

第6页 / 国际

大都会博物馆修道院分馆 一位守护10,000件藏品的看护者

第14页 / 文化

番茄的优化 7种提升明星食材的方法

封底 / 生活

纽约时报

国际版 / 2026年8月12日，星期三

改革移民的大胆构想

迈克·德瓦恩

观点

在2072年，理查德·尼克松总统做了一件具有里程碑意义的事情，他将自己访问中华人民共和国并与其共产主义政权领导人会面的行动进行了比较，几年后两国建立了外交关系力量。

当时，几乎没有其他人能做到尼克松所做的，因为担心被贴上“示好”的标签。但尼克松毕生与共产主义的斗争为他赢得了公信力和民众信任，使他能够采取这一大胆举措。

特朗普总统同样拥有历史性的机遇。

几十年来，美国未能封锁南部边境、遏制非法移民的浪潮，这削弱了其就合理的合法移民政策达成共识的能力。

总统有机会创造一个“尼克松访华”时刻。 但美国国土安全部报告称， 边境巡逻队在与墨西哥边境的拘捕人数比 拜登政府执政期间的月平均水平低了94%。

在要求并领导这一显著转变后， 特朗普先生拥有了领导改革美国合法移民 制度的地位——进行优先考虑劳动力需求的改革， 同时尊重美国接纳逃避压迫和人道主义危机的移民的历史。

作为俄亥俄州州长，我理解制定合理移民政策的必要性。 在我们州，很简单，我们需要人。

自2007年以来，美国的全国出生率一直在下降，远低于更替水平。随着人口增长放缓，老龄化趋势也将加剧。美国国会预算办公室预测，从2016年开始，死亡人数将超过出生人数，美国的人口增长将全部来自净移民。

尽管出生率下降，俄亥俄州在2016年至2025年间人口仍有增长，其中约80%的增长来自在美国境外出生的人口。由于我州主要年龄段劳动者的就业率接近历史高点，俄亥俄州必须吸引各技能水平的人才来扩大劳动力队伍。

移民有助于填补劳动力缺口。外国出生的劳动者占美国长期 每周直接劳动力的近30%。他们提供

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基辅反复打击

俄罗斯最富有女性打造的 电商巨头

娜加莉娜·瓦古祖娃（Nagalin Vaguzuva）、 保罗·阿尔尼克（Paul Arnik）、 阿丽娜·卢基娜（Alina Lukina） 及奥列克·马蒂涅夫（Olek Matinev）报道

她打造了俄罗斯版的亚马逊， 巧妙应对战时克里姆林宫的政治风波。 她在一场充满矛盾的商业领导权争夺中， 将孩子们的父亲——她的前夫——排挤出局， 这场争夺最终以红场附近的一起致命枪击案告终。

然而，塔季扬娜·巴赫米娜（Tatyana Bakalchuk）—— 俄罗斯在线市场“野莓”（Wildberries）的亿万富翁掌门人、 俄罗斯最富有的女性——如今正面临更为严峻的挑战。 乌克兰的空袭正在摧毁她公司的设施， 并威胁到她商业帝国的生存。

在数月来持续打击俄罗斯炼油厂导致全国汽油短缺后， 乌克兰已将空袭范围扩大至野莓在俄罗斯各地的仓库。 自7月中旬以来，基辅已将目标锁定在野莓的25个设施上， 连续八次发动袭击，数十亿美元的商品化为灰烬。 该公司已有3名员工丧生。

这些袭击标志着冲突进入新阶段， 基辅首次将一家私营企业作为重点打击目标。 乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基（Volodymyr Zelensky） 试图将战争带入更多俄罗斯人的日常生活， 希望不断上升的不满和不便能增加俄罗斯社会对 弗拉基米尔·V·普京（Vladimir V. Putin）总统的压力， 迫使其结束战争。

基辅方面认为，野莓占俄罗斯零售总额约10%， 因其为俄罗斯士兵提供物资，故成为合法打击目标。

巴赫米娜女士在上月底的视频讲话中， 谴责了她所称的“恐怖袭击”。 她表示，野莓销售的商品与亚马逊或 中国电商巨头阿里巴巴等平台上的商品并无不同。

“恐怖分子的行为毫无逻辑、常识或理性可言， 也不可能有，”巴赫米娜女士在提及乌克兰人时说道。 她称“敌人”试图“施加压力、制造不稳定、 引发大规模人群的恐慌和混乱”。

袭击正在重创野莓及俄罗斯整体零售市场， 而此时该国经济已面临重重困难， 尽管与俄罗斯在乌克兰造成的破坏相比， 这些损失相形见绌。

根据国有俄罗斯储蓄银行（Sberbank）研究部门 Sherbides发布的研究报告， 近几周来，俄罗斯消费者在野莓等平台上的 日用品消费大幅下滑，空袭是主要原因。

根据莫斯科电商咨询公司Data Insight的数据， 在乌克兰的袭击中，野莓已损失多达三分之一的仓储空间， 以及价值高达4000亿卢布（合$5.9）的商品。

Data Insight分析师谢尔盖·谢列卡（Sergei Sereka）表示， 野莓“几乎耗尽了最大的仓库”。

“每天都有一个又一个仓库被有条不紊地

总统在伊朗和加沙遭遇美国力量的局限

作者：安东·特鲁萨诺夫斯基

特朗普总统可能希望摆脱中东事务，但中东却不肯放过他。

上周末，特朗普表示其新策略是对伊朗采取“低调处理”，暗示希望在不采取重大军事行动的情况下迫使伊朗达成有利协议。然而，以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡周日宣布“排除”特朗普的加沙和平计划，这再次提醒人们美国在该地区的力量局限。

这两场中东冲突凸显了特朗普应对危机时的回应不足，以及尽管动用了常见的军事频率，他仍无法将自己的意志强加于人。

“显然，随着中期选举临近，特朗普正试图寻找一条降级所有这些问题的途径，”华盛顿智库中东研究所高级研究员布莱恩·卡图斯拉表示。他补充道：“但现实总是迎面而来。”

特朗普面临武器库存耗尽、伊朗政权决心给美国制造痛苦、以色列总理寻求庇护，以及美国民众因伊朗战争导致的高物价而感到不满。11月的中期选举日益临近，通常会加剧动荡给特朗普和共和党带来的政治代价。

特朗普在周日接受新闻网站Axios简短采访时阐述了其对伊朗的低调策略。他表示，与其发出新的军事威胁，不如“我们只是在观察伊朗，看它通胀严重、资金匮乏”。他补充道：“会解决的。总会解决的。就像下棋一样。”

“他们能制造麻烦吗？是的，他们可以制造麻烦，”特朗普周一在椭圆形办公室对记者表示，承认伊朗有能力继续骚扰霍尔木兹海峡的商船。“但他们已经破产了。”

在描述伊朗政权面临经济压力时，特朗普也暗指了自己的困境。本周，每加仑汽油的平均价格仍保持在5美元以上，比美国和以色列于2月25.开始轰炸伊朗时高出1美元以上。随着越来越多共和党人对伊朗战争感到不满，特朗普的政治运动也因其发动军事行动的决定而出现分裂。

“我认为总统的

巴基斯坦道路上的两轮变革

![电动传感器在巴基斯坦拉合尔展示](

)

“一位电动滑板车公司的总经理表示：“特朗普是最大的补贴者。”“年度补贴之王。”

拉合尔，巴基斯坦

电动摩托车因伊朗战争推高油价而激增

文｜西德奥·巴里兰、伊扎·乌尔-埃格曼

这股热潮始于巴基斯坦拉合尔的一条街道，短短时间内冒出了六家销售同一产品——电动摩托车——的展厅，却仍供不应求。今年汽油价格飙升后，第七家店开张，紧接着是第八家。转角处又有两家店开业。

而这仅仅是个开始。三年前，巴基斯坦几乎还没有电动摩托车。如今，全国各地不断有新品牌涌现，名字五花八门，生产商已达84家，且数量还在增加。

这些企业有的资金捉襟见肘，有的获得风险投资支持，甚至连生产Massey Ferguson拖拉机的巴基斯坦公司也加入其中。所有参与者都看到了商机。

这一浪潮表明，在伊朗战争持续推高油价的背景下，发展中国家的民众正迅速——或许是永久性地——远离汽油车。

“如果所有人都转向电动，现在100家公司都不够，”Evran公司全国销售经理穆姆塔兹·侯赛因说。Evran在拉合尔M.M.阿拉姆路的一端设有展厅，这条街正是当地电动摩托车购物热点。

电动摩托车是战争驱动变革的关键指标。在贫困国家，民众对价格冲击极为敏感，两轮车远比汽车普及。电动车型的购买成本通常高于燃油版，但不断上涨的汽油价格让——

巴基斯坦，第5版

面向全球读者的通讯。立即订阅。 nytimes.com/theworld

Ele: Sira Berk Essex

报纸印刷时间

周二 4:50 周二 4:53 周三 4:53 Ceneri 5月12日 2:30 周四 4:53 周日 4:53 Ceneri 5月12日 2:30 周日 4:53 周一 4:53 周二 4:53 周五 4:53 Monocul 4:00 周四 4:53 周二 4:53 周日 4:53 Monocul 4:00 周五 4:53 周六 4:00 周日 4:00 Ceneri 4:00

Sara Ramkar 第44期，2023年

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2 | 2023年8月12日，星期三

《纽约时报》国际版

第二版

巴基斯坦道路上的两轮变革

续前文第1版

电动车的一大优势在于：为电池充电比为劣质油箱加油更便宜。

在以摩托车交通系统闻名的越南，最大的电动车制造商海达（Haidam）的销量曾一度飙升。在肯尼亚，新售摩托车中约有25%至30%为电动车，非洲最大的电动车企业Spiro创始人加甘·加甘（Gagan Gagan）表示。他称能源冲击“将一切都翻了一番”。

在这些地区，业内人士越来越认同一个观点：未来几代人将再也不会驾驶汽油动力车辆。“需求实际上是无限的，”在肯尼亚和卢旺达运营的电动摩托车公司Angerwald创始人乔多·惠尔（Jodo Whale）表示。

这一趋势在巴基斯坦尤为明显。该国道路上约30%的车辆为摩托车，且往往是车主最值钱的财产。

根据市场情报公司Motor-Cycles Data的数据，今年上半年，巴基斯坦电动两轮车销量增长了3.5%。该公司将这一增长归因于油价上涨和政府补贴计划。巴基斯坦最大的电动车销售商Evon销售总监比安卡·阿萨德（Bianca Asad）表示，今年4月至6月，全国共售出90,000辆电动两轮车，而2025年全年销量为102,000辆。

在巴基斯坦，每年通常有1400万辆摩托车（无论是汽油动力还是其他动力）被售出。

“特朗普是最伟大的推销员。年度最佳推销员，”Yakin Pakistan董事总经理穆罕默德·萨尔曼（Muhammad Salman）表示，他的公司在毛拉纳-肖卡特·阿里路（Maulana-Shaukat Ali Road）也设有经销店，他指的是总统的政策推动了汽油摩托车需求的增长。

作为全球第五人口大国，巴基斯坦的电动车产业发展得益于本土创新与中国机遇的结合。

少数巴基斯坦公司使用本土生产的车架和轮胎，同时依赖从中国进口的电池和电机。但其他公司则几乎完全依赖中国，以类似“即插即用”的方式进口整车套件，只需贴上标志即可。

中国拥有一批公司，主要集中在Evan，提供三种兼容的套件。巴基斯坦为改善严重的空气污染，对每辆进口车仅征收1%的关税。在拉合尔最近的一次贸易展上，电动摩托车套件制造商Esgrima的外贸经理克莱尔·程（Claire Cheng）向路人发问：“你想创业吗？”她带来了大量保险卡、蜡烛和宣传册，其中包含85种摩托车设计，从Vespa风格的城市踏板车到配备宽胎的越野车型。“我们可以为你提供自有品牌，”她说。

拉合尔有数百家电动摩托车展厅，但毛拉纳-肖卡特·阿里路周边的店铺已成为该行业的中心，集中在一个中产阶级社区，毗邻一家笑话商店、一家酒店和一家卖哈利瓦三明治的小店。

该街道上最早的品牌之一是Metro。其摩托车来自中国的成品组件，Arif Motors首席顾问乌斯曼·阿里夫（Usman Arif）表示。不久后，Evon在附近街道开业，并最近将拉合尔组装线长度扩大了一倍，其零部件来自中国和巴基斯坦。

巴基斯坦是全球空气质量最差的国家。拉合尔的一项研究发现，交通占污染总量的85%，而雾霾使平均预期寿命减少了六年。

以下是忠实于原文的中文翻译：

然后是 Yakin，这家经销商在今年伊朗战争开始仅数周后开业。公司的起源可以追溯到纽约市，其创始人赛义德·拉扎·莫辛（Syed Raza Mohsin）在30多岁时曾在一家对冲基金工作，并表示自己“和太多广告界人士混在一起”。

现年 43 岁的莫辛先生记得看到 Trolch 抢占销售数据时意识到，他的祖国将错过任何依赖购买 540,000 辆以上车辆的电动车趋势。于是他回到巴基斯坦，雇了几个人，并尝试探索是否有可能以约 $1,000 的价格制造一款双轮车。

莫辛先生了解他的目标市场。为了吸引买家，任何设计都需要在视觉上与巴基斯坦的国民摩托车——本田 CD-70 相媲美。这种车随处可见，且 40 年来外观几乎没有变化。CD-70 甚至没有油量表。

但它是一款实用的车型。它能在高湿度的洪水中行驶，或在崎岖的道路上奔驰。而且它的保值性极高。

“我们希望带来某种熟悉感，”莫辛先生说。他最终设计了一款外形与本田相似的车型，并采用了类似的 O 技术（43-70 连续性）标准。

但并非一切顺利。Visitors 曾尝试在国内采购零件，但在首次销售几年后，其摩托车——甚至是展厅里摆放的展车——在发动机工艺上仍存在不一致的细节。

今年春天，公司持续接单，但无法跟上交付进度。买家对三个月的等待时间怨声载道。“这并不光彩，我也不为此感到自豪，”莫辛先生说。

不过，在最近的一个周三晚上，沿着毛拉纳-肖卡特·阿里路（Maulana-Shaukat Ali Road），Visitors 的展厅依然是最热闹的。其中一位顾客是海德尔·阿里·汗（Haider Ali Khan），他表示自己将工资的 2% 用于燃油，并确信“下一个时代”将属于电动车。另一位顾客萨德·巴尔·阿里夫（Saad Bar Arif）表示，他专程行驶了 200 英里（约 320 公里）——不是为了购买摩托车，而是为了支持自己未来可能创业的想法。尽管如此，这家店仍吸引了本田的忠实拥趸。

巴基斯坦的电动摩托车三年前几乎不存在。如今已有约 84 家公司，且数量仍在增加。

一位拥有 8,000 辆车从未将自己视为“电动差距”一部分的车主，过去 10 年里驾驶他的本田 CD-70 行驶了近 100,000 英里，并称其为“巴基斯坦拥有的缺席之美”。但他每天要为软件工作通勤超过 40 英里。他喜欢 Visio 的外观，而现实已让他无法忽视。

“如果能省下几卢比，”他说，“我就会这么做。”

巴基斯坦有充分理由推动这些变化。石油产品约占其进口总额的 10%，这意味着油价上涨会耗尽外汇储备并可能引发通胀。

巴基斯坦也是全球空气质量最差的国家。一项针对该国第二大城市拉合尔的研究发现，交通运输占污染总量的 65%，而雾霾使平均预期寿命缩短了 6 年。巴基斯坦的平均车辆每英里排放量是美国典型车辆的 33 倍。

“这些摩托车在排放未经处理的汽油，”协助政府制定电动车政策的乌斯曼·汗说。

巴基斯坦是最易受气候变化影响的国家之一，因其面临极端热浪侵袭，且缺乏足够资金做好充分准备。此外，季风洪水也经常淹没拉合尔的街道，使该市 70% 的道路受损。

在最近一次正午的暴雨中，人们纷纷寻找遮蔽处，而已经在室内的人则选择留在原地。这其中包括伊姆兰·哈立德，一位坐在另一家电动摩托车公司 Sir Speed 展厅内的销售员。他和店主伊莫汉·巴法里安无顾客可接待，于是一边品茶，一边聊着天。

“我们也在考虑推出自己的品牌，”巴法里安先生说。

他们刚刚结束了为期 25 天的中国之行，前往广州、深圳和无锡，寻找供应商，并组织其他私人访问，以采购动力总成和电池。

他们尚未确定品牌名称，但市场上已有 270 公斤的电动摩托车，且已有 84 家电动摩托车公司。汗表示，85% 的可能性是：“我们将成为另一家。”他补充道：“不是可能——而是即将。”

Tong Ngo in thame 对此文亦有贡献。

他用自然方法酿造阿布鲁佐珍酿葡萄酒

EWODI PEPF 1972-2026

埃里克·阿西莫夫 撰文

埃米迪奥·佩佩（Emidio Pepe）是意大利阿布鲁佐地区一位富有创新精神的葡萄种植者和酿酒师，他坚守传统理念，倡导本土葡萄品种，证明该地区无需放弃历史悠久的本地酿造方法也能酿出伟大的葡萄酒。他于7月28日在意大利特库姆南诺的家中去世，享年84岁。

其孙女基娅拉·德加利·佩佩确认了他的死讯。

埃米迪奥·佩佩的葡萄酒以能够陈年数十载并随时间愈发醇厚而闻名于世。公司最新年份的葡萄酒在发布首月可能售出约5000万（货币单位），但他总会留存部分进行额外陈酿，这些酒在多年后才会上市，深受收藏家追捧。

这些酒需要时间在瓶中沉淀。以独有的蒙特普尔恰诺（Montepulciano）葡萄酿造的葡萄酒在发布时（约采收后四年）通常清淡而严谨，其细腻风味隐藏在紧绷的结构背后。

然而，经过20年的陈酿，这些酒会变得更加复杂优雅；而陈放10年后，则已臻于完美。

同样以阿布鲁佐蒙特普尔恰诺或佩科里诺（Pecorino）葡萄酿造的酒虽也能陈年，但年轻时更易入口，口感圆润，带有碘盐般的风味。

在佩佩先生及其同代人爱德华多·瓦伦蒂尼（Eduardo Valentiini，2006年去世）开始酿酒之前，鲜有人会想到阿布鲁佐的葡萄酒能够陈年并不断发展。佩佩先生于1964年开始酿酒，主要使用自家葡萄园的葡萄；他是家族中首位将葡萄酒商业装瓶销售的人，此前其父仅从事建筑业。

与大多数小农一样，佩佩家族此前仅酿造少量葡萄酒供自家饮用，大部分葡萄则卖给当地合作社或大型酒商，后者通常生产廉价且品质平平的葡萄酒。如今，佩佩先生则面临为自家葡萄酒寻找买家的挑战。

这并非易事，因为阿布鲁佐的葡萄酒当时并不受尊重。该地区唯一的法定产区——蒙特普尔恰诺·阿布鲁佐（Montepulciano d'Abruzzo）直到1986年才正式设立。阿布鲁佐葡萄酒的法定产区始于1972年，而佩科里诺葡萄酒的法定产区则迟至1990年才获得官方认证。

20世纪70至80年代，许多意大利人认为，要想在国际上取得成功，那些缺乏声誉的产区（如阿布鲁佐）必须采用法国葡萄品种（如梅洛和霞多丽）及法国酿造方法（如使用橡木桶陈酿），而非坚持种植传统的佩科里诺葡萄。

而当蒙特普尔恰诺·阿布鲁佐产区设立时，葡萄酒行业的权威人士断言，这些酒简单且适合早饮。

佩佩先生驳斥了这些观点。他坚信蒙特普尔恰诺葡萄的潜力，并通过实践证明，采用传统方法也能酿造出历久弥新的葡萄酒。

埃米迪奥·佩佩于2009年。他坚信蒙特普尔恰诺葡萄的伟大，并通过传统方法证明其葡萄酒能够不断发展。

“从很早开始，佩佩就抵制将本地葡萄和葡萄酒廉价批发销售的想法，也不认同它们只是适合早饮的简单饮品。”2021年著作《南方的家：葡萄酒、美食与意大利之声》（South of Home: Where Wine, Food and the Sound of Italy）的作者罗伯特·V·卡马罗在采访中表示。

为了推广自家葡萄酒，佩佩先生不辞辛劳地四处奔走，在世界各地的品鉴会和晚宴上宣传。早年间，当地葡萄酒联合会因其酒庄规模过小而拒绝资助他前往纽约的行程——佩佩先生自费购买机票，并独自在纽约街头推销。

对于一个11岁辍学务农、不会说英语、更喜欢使用阿布鲁佐方言而非标准意大利语的人来说，这无疑是一项艰巨的任务。

“环游世界就是最好的教育，”他曾对卡马罗先生说，“这就是我的教育，还有读报纸。”

佩佩先生于1935年7月27日出生在特库姆南诺，原名阿戈斯蒂诺·佩佩，父母是朱塞佩和基娅姆（里奇）。他的父亲是一名农民，母亲操持家务。

由一位亲戚登记为埃米迪奥——以他的祖父和阿布鲁佐地区时刻面临的地震威胁守护神圣埃米迪奥的名字命名——

从上学时起，他就以这个名字为人所知。

辍学后，年轻的埃米迪奥与父亲一起做农业承包商，照料自家和他人的农场。作为一个在教育上有所欠缺的少年，他对意大利语和农业的回答乏味而生硬。

20世纪70年代中期，他告诉卡马罗先生，他和一位姐夫买了一台拖拉机——（当时在阿布鲁佐地区很常见）——并为他人提供服务。

“等到我们还清拖拉机的钱时，它已经磨损得该换新的了，”他说，“那时我意识到，一年后我得换一种谋生方式。”

他成为当地一个农民社区的主席，1980年，该社区派他前往荷兰参加为期一个月的农业交流项目。他寄宿在一个家庭，他们将餐桌葡萄送给一位新生，并在电视节目中提到，因为意大利葡萄产量不足。

“我意识到，关键不在于创造市场，”他告诉卡马罗先生，“如果你不创造市场，就等于死路一条。”

这次经历让他愤愤不平，他说服自己全职投入葡萄酒业务，并于1981年完成了彻底转型。这一年也成为重要的一年，佩佩先生在这一年结婚，娶了当地教师罗尼·托皮。

除了他的孙女，她还健在，他还有三个女儿：塞代里、埃米迪奥和德卢西亚，两个姐妹：汤姆和哈梅拉，以及其他六个孙辈。

塞达和达妮埃拉如今负责公司的业务运营。自2020年起，他的孙女基娅姆负责教育和酿酒工作。

“作为一名年轻的酿酒师，基娅姆去年还被聘请监管法国北部一家中等规模酒庄的葡萄栽培和酿酒工作。”

佩佩先生在当地颇有名气，当时化肥、除草剂和杀虫剂盛行，他却坚持使用传统方法，尤其是在种植红葡萄时。

“祖父总是说，‘蒙特帕基斯坦的天鹅绒般的口感只能来自人力，’”基娅姆说。

对于来访的客人，家庭聚会是一场特别的体验。三四代人围坐在桌旁，享用一整瓶佩佩酒庄的葡萄酒，酒杯在温馨的氛围中传递。

他们会准备一桌丰盛的酒宴，包括花园里采摘的蔬菜，用橄榄园的橄榄油调味，还有用佩佩酒庄种植的小麦制作的意大利面——所有食材均由罗尼亲手准备。即使年事已高，她仍会品尝葡萄酒，并开启陈年老酒。如果你恰好在收获季节前后到访，可能会看到来自意大利各地的葡萄酒商人，他们聚集在此，讨论如何处理这些葡萄。

埃沃拉山变得年迈，他将大部分工作交给了后辈，但他仍表示：“乡村就是我的健身房，”他告诉卡马罗先生，“它不仅锻炼身体，也锻炼心灵。你耕耘，你收获！”

---

2026年8月12日，星期三 / 3

世界

台湾演练互联网中断

台中，台湾

模拟潜在中国打击，移动数据在演习中被切断

张艾米

周一，移动数据在台湾中部地区被切断长达30分钟，近100万人无法观看视频、分享照片或进行视频通话。

此次中断是有意为之：台湾首次大规模测试，如果中国的攻击破坏其通信系统，该岛可能如何应对。

此次活动是台湾年度民防演习的一部分，政府试图让民众短暂体验，如果中国试图以武力夺取这个自治岛屿，他们应如何应对。

演习在不同地区、不同时间举行。周一，在台湾中部拥有近100万人口的台中市，政府举行了空袭演习，下午2:30拉响警报，提示民众寻找掩护。警报声响起，人们或涌入数以千计的避难所，或留在家中、商店、购物中心和火车站。随后，一条信息在全市手机上闪现：

“由于通信基础设施遭到持续空袭，移动网络将受到影响。”信息提醒居民继续通过Kamio获取互联网接入，并列出了紧急热线号码。

台中是此次互联网中断演习指定的14个城市和县之一。

在LaLaport购物中心，大多数商店在30分钟演习期间关闭，购物者和用餐者原地停留。

“这一定是必要的，”正在购物中心中庭休息的大学生吴展轩（音）说，“如今我们都离不开手机。如果发生战争或类似情况，他们很可能会采取网络战或切断通信。”

赖清德总统的政府加大了今年民防演习的宣传力度，强调中国构成的威胁——在习近平领导下，中国自2015年以来已扩大军事演习规模，派遣舰艇和导弹，可能为入侵台湾做准备。赖清德表示，他希望“和平吸收”台湾，但不排除使用武力。

此次演习谨慎地触及了台湾似乎不愿正视的问题：如果该岛与外界的通信受到破坏，将如何运作。台湾严重依赖海底光缆进行通信，官员们表示，与中国有关联的商船曾潜入海底切断台湾与部分外岛之间的海底光缆。更大范围的连接中断可能严重扰乱台湾所有地铁系统。

与此同时，民防演习与军方为期10天的年度演习同步进行，提醒人们对中国威胁的看法存在分歧。台中居民表示，袭击的风险真实且紧迫；也有人认为战争可能性不大，或台湾政府至少应为紧张局势升级负部分责任。

“如果双方能和平相处，就不会有这些高压措施，尽管大部分是虚张声势，”经营一家童鞋店的前救生员杨泰树（音）说。

在附近摊位蒸包子的70岁老人黄江淑（音）表示，中国是真正的威胁，演习是台湾民众至少能做的自保措施。她补充说，今年的演习执行比往年更严格，并指着警察递给她的指示单。

她说：“台湾不能太弱，需要更强一些。因为那样人们才会在30小时内回到这个国家，试图评估或帮助我们。” 这一年度军事演习的部分原因似乎是为了让公众相信，台湾有能力保卫自己。

在演习的第一个晚上，即上周三，台湾宪兵模拟在“中国军队试图‘扰乱’或消灭他”的情况下，迅速将拉伊托先生安全转移。电视画面轻松地展示了士兵将他从总统府护送出来，送入一队装甲车，这些车辆穿过空荡荡的街道，将他紧急送往地下指挥中心。

更大的问题是，台湾民众在真正遭遇入侵时会如何反应——在一片混乱中。30分钟的演习只能提供短暂的画面，但对一些居民来说，这让他们在心理上有了更充分的准备。

“这种演习带来的成本并不高，如果真的发生战争，我可能会更有能力应对，”一位在台中领导法庭参加演习的农民连美淑（Lian Mei-shu）说。

周一晚些时候，台中市政府表示演习进展顺利，紧急热线和消防队的呼叫未受干扰。

肯尼亚风情的乡村音乐节

肯尼亚通讯：瑙加特，阿尔泰

作者：布莱恩·G·奥芬

乡村音乐的粉丝们跟着经典金曲一起唱和，喝着啤酒和威士忌，努力保持踢踏舞步的同步。

着装无需刻意讲究。内罗毕郊外的玉龙赛马场（Yugong Racecourse）挤满了身着最佳西部风格的牛仔和女牛仔。

“帽子和心灵！”一位名叫阿诺德·古普塔（Arnold Gupta）的参与者说道。

人群聚集于此，庆祝肯尼亚的“国际牛仔牛仔女节”，该节日于每年7月的最后一个周六举行。这是连续第二年举办，观众们踢踏起舞、跳着舞步、享用着羽毛饰品，庆祝这一在独木舟巡游中长期播放以保持士气、并逐渐吸引当地艺术家兴趣的音乐流派。它在南非尤其受欢迎，鲍比·安吉尔（Bobby Angel）和兰斯·詹姆斯（Lance James）等艺术家最早成为明星。

普丽蒂·梅索尔（Purity Meisολ）和法蒂玛·铃木（Fatimira Suzuki）都二十多岁，她们戴着米色帽子来到赛马场。她们今年是首次参加这个节日。

梅索尔女士说，她第一次在收音机里听到卡拉亚·罗杰斯（Karaya Rogers）的《赌徒》（The Gambler）时，就知道自己是乡村音乐的粉丝。她还提到卡扎（Khazaa），这是肯尼亚的一种乡村音乐，她称其本质上就是“牛仔音乐”。

“我们有牛和牧场，”她说，“唯一的区别在于我们不戴帽子、不穿靴子和皮夹克。”

当晚天气微凉，许多观众确实穿着皮夹克，但当节目的主角——尼日利亚乡村歌手奥查纳·奥卡格尼（Ochana Okageni，艺名“乡村人”）登台时，他们便脱掉了夹克。

奥卡格尼身穿一件4扣棕色皮夹克和黑色长裤，一边弹着吉他，一边用他柔和的男中音演唱唐·威廉姆斯（Don Williams）的经典乡村歌曲《我相信你》（I Believe in You），点燃了全场气氛。

“乡村人”的能量感染了观众，他们迫不及待地准备再来一轮踢踏舞。“你们玩得开心吗？”他问道。

几天后，这位歌手坐在内罗毕一家出售牛仔马鞍的商店外，表示在肯尼亚演出就像“on easy mode”，相比在自己国家演出要轻松得多。

“尼日利亚观众主要喜欢‘阿弗罗比茨’（Afrobeats），这是一种结合了爵士、放克和传统非洲民间音乐的欢快流派，”他说。

她和节日的主要组织者伊莱贾·马尼奥基（Elijah Manyoki）围坐在一张电缆卷筒桌旁，分享着橙子和橘子，谈论他们如何爱上乡村音乐，而商店里仍回荡着乡村音乐的旋律。

马尼奥基说，他放弃了听这个流派的音乐，转而观看西部片。他曾去过德克萨斯州，被那里的牛仔商店所吸引，最终在内罗毕开了一家这样的店。

后来，他开始涉足活动策划，因为他注意到“肯尼亚的乡村音乐只在酒吧和俱乐部播放”。“我认为让所有人享受乡村音乐的最佳方式是举办一个家庭式的乡村音乐活动，”马尼奥基说。

他表示，去年的节日吸引了超过5,000名牛仔和牛仔女。他计划未来在非洲大陆举办巡回演出，他说。

去年的节日仅有本地艺人参与，且以本地观众为主。今年，不少乡村音乐粉丝从国外飞来。

肯尼亚的本地乡村音乐场景仍以翻唱歌曲为主，但表演者正在用当地语言重新演绎经典曲目。在节日现场，怀尔德弗劳尔（Ythera the Wildflower）用她的母语基库尤语（Kikuyu）演唱了达菲兄弟（Duffy Brothers）的《多彩的阵容》（Cast of Many Colors）。

“用基库尤语演唱乡村音乐让它更贴近家乡，我们的语言也能在国际上得到认可，”她说。

乡村音乐在基库尤人中尤其受欢迎，基库尤人是肯尼亚最大的族群。一些人认为，基库尤社区的民间流派“马吉西”（Magithi）——由一位独唱吉他手演绎——与乡村音乐有相似之处。

以下是忠实于原文的中文翻译：

这位“乡村人”说，他“发现”乡村音乐是从小时候开始的。但他的父亲在开车送他上学时会播放这类音乐。“不知不觉中，它就渗入了我的意识，”他说道。

后来，他找到了父亲的一张旧存储卡，开始欣赏唐·威廉姆斯（Don Williams）、肯尼·罗杰斯（Kenny Rogers）和猫王（Elvis Presley）的歌曲。

最终，他向母亲要了一把“足够有模有样”的吉他，在教堂里演奏吉姆·瑟夫斯（Jim Serves）的翻唱歌曲，用他的话说，让人们“充满圣灵”。他开始在婚礼上表演，后来成为网络红人。

如今，他还会创作自己的歌曲，从生活经历中汲取灵感。

大多数时候是在午夜过后，在家乡赛道的观众欢呼声中，他演唱了《兰卡的长矛》（"Lance in Lanka"）——他的第一首标志性歌曲，讲述了人生的起伏与低谷。

![图片_AD2B1℃01]

左图：尼日利亚歌手奥查纳·奥卡格尼（Ochana Okageni），艺名“乡村人”，上月在肯尼亚内罗毕的乡村音乐节上演出。中图：音乐节主办人伊莱贾·马尼奥基（Elijah Manyoki）。右图：观众享受音乐。

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![图片_7D5FD24B]

孩子们仍在登录，尽管社交媒体被禁

吉隆坡，马来西亚——在马来西亚，各平台似乎不愿使用官方文件验证用户年龄

作者：祖奈拉·赛义德

法莎娜·法卡纳（Fashion Farkana）曾期待与伴侣每天因放下手机而起的争吵能有所缓解。她说，两人都用了虚假年龄注册TikTok，并花费大量时间观看《无尽对决》（Mobile Legends）的直播或自己玩游戏。

她所在的马来西亚自6月1日起禁止16岁以下儿童使用社交媒体，法莎娜原本希望这一规定能减少孩子们的高屏幕使用时间。

但数月过去，情况并未改变。

“能继续登录TikTok简直太棒了，”法莎娜的另一个儿子奎伦·马利克，Q说，“它每天都能打发我的无聊。”

在实施和执行社交媒体使用限制方面，马来西亚并非孤例。但当局曾表示，由于要求平台依赖政府签发的身份证等文件验证用户年龄，马来西亚的推行过程将比澳大利亚和印度尼西亚等国更顺利。如今，当局暗示社交媒体公司不愿使用政府数据。

该禁令适用于在马来西亚拥有超过500万，1,500万用户的平台，包括TikTok、Facebook、Instagram和YouTube。各平台要么拒绝置评，要么未解释为何尚未建立新的年龄验证系统。拥有Facebook和Instagram的Meta公司认为，禁止儿童使用社交媒体可能适得其反，将他们推向更不安全的在线空间。拥有YouTube的谷歌公司则表示，将致力于与马来西亚当局合作。

目前，用户端的情况并无变化。

“这次禁令的延迟并不好，”法莎娜说，她的小儿子“因长时间刷TikTok而受到心理健康影响”。

马来西亚通信部上周在一份声明中表示，当局已要求社交媒体公司解释未能遵守禁令的原因，并详细说明其为实施年龄验证机制所采取的措施。据该部门监管与合规司副司长卡萨鲁丁·阿卜杜勒·拉尼（Katsaruddin Abdul Rani）透露，各平台现有时间截至明年1月以遵守禁令。

马来西亚约有 800 万名 16. 岁以下儿童，社交媒体平台在该国面临严格审查。

违反禁令可能导致高达 1000 万林吉特（约合 15 万美元）的罚款。

马来西亚约有 800 万名 16, 岁以下儿童，社交媒体平台在该国面临严格审查。近期，该国发生了一系列涉及学龄儿童的跟踪骚扰事件，这些事件均与社交媒体有关，但当局并未提供具体证据。

上月，一名 10 岁女孩在首都吉隆坡西南部万津的一所学校内遭遇袭击。当地警方表示，社交媒体可能影响了袭击者（一名同校学生）的行为，但因调查仍在进行中，拒绝透露更多细节。

马来西亚当局尚未掌握任何明确证据表明社交媒体平台直接记录了用户年龄。该国其他服务（如电子钱包）则通过身份证件验证用户年龄。

部分社交媒体公司和公民社会团体对个人数据安全表示担忧。

“在他们看来，这将导致敏感数据的无限制收集，并增加个人隐私泄露和网络安全事件的风险，”马来西亚通信与多媒体委员会（负责执行禁令的监管机构）在一份报告中指出。

当局已尝试回应这些担忧。该监管机构发展部总监杨·法鲁卡·伊沙姆·宾·阿尔卡米（Young Farokah Isham bin Alqami）表示，为保护用户隐私，企业仅被允许收集验证年龄所需的数据，并限制存储此类信息。

去年 12 月，澳大利亚成为全球首个禁止 16 岁以下儿童开设社交媒体账户的国家，采取了不同的做法，要求平台自行开发年龄验证系统（如社交分析）。这主要是因为澳大利亚法律禁止企业要求用户提供政府签发的文件来证明年龄，以保护隐私。但许多儿童轻易绕过了这些系统。

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4 / 2026 年 8 月 12, 2026

国际

伊朗海岸附近的“恐怖海峡”停泊的船只。德黑兰对该海峡的控制推高了全球能源价格，给特朗普总统带来政治困扰

伊朗要求美国让步

伊朗以霍尔木兹海峡筹码寻求解除封锁

作者：奥雷利安·布雷登

伊朗周一表示，与阿曼就霍尔木兹海峡航运达成的任何协议都不会导致该水道完全重新开放，该航道将保持关闭，直至美国同意其要求，包括解除海上封锁。

这些言论是最新迹象，表明伊朗将其对这一推高全球能源价格、给特朗普总统带来政治困扰的海峡的控制视为与华盛顿谈判中的最佳筹码。

伊朗外交部发言人巴盖里周一在新闻发布会上表示，与阿曼的谈判重点是“就一条航运安全通道达成谅解”，伊朗国家新闻媒体报道称。

巴盖里补充说，阿曼的谈判进展顺利，但据报道，“此次需要讨论的是重新开放霍尔木兹海峡”，而这“取决于美国解除对伊朗伊斯兰共和国施加的条件”。

巴盖里的言论呼应了伊朗外长阿巴斯·阿拉格希周六的表态。阿拉格希称，伊朗与阿曼“非常接近”达成协议，但重新开放海峡“取决于其他条件”。

霍尔木兹海峡位于伊朗与阿曼之间，是石油和天然气贸易的关键通道。今年2月下旬，在美国和以色列登船并对伊朗发起军事行动后，德黑兰实际上关闭了该水道，此后该海峡成为伊朗与美国在谈判与冲突交替期间的关键施压点。

海峡的关闭已导致美国能源成本上升，民调显示，对这场本已不受欢迎的冲突的支持率已跌至谷底。伊朗强硬派认为，伊朗有能力切断海峡交通，这使其处于强势地位，不应在外交上让步。

要求包括释放被冻结资产、支付战争赔款及停止攻击伊朗盟友

上周，伊朗一名高级国家安全官员提出了一系列要求，这些要求是伊朗长期公开谈判立场的一部分，并称美国必须满足这些条件，德黑兰才会全面重新开放海峡。

这些要求包括解除美国对伊朗的海上封锁和制裁、美军撤出该国、支付战争赔款、释放被冻结的伊朗资产，以及停止对伊朗在该地区盟友的攻击。

这些要求的大部分内容已在一份被称为《伊斯兰堡协议》（Islamabad Misrewardan）的文件中详细列出。美国和伊朗于6月签署了该文件，但文件规定，只有在伊朗核计划达成最终协议的情况下，制裁才会被全面解除。

6月协议很快瓦解，其大部分条款在数周内即被违反。特朗普周日宣布该协议“已结束”，并告诉亚洲媒体，伊朗的经济困境和高通胀最终将迫使德黑兰同意新的协议。

然而，伊朗当局认为，他们能够承受比特朗普更大的经济压力，而特朗普还需考虑11月的选举。

巴盖里在周一的新闻发布会上表示，“现在取决于美方停止并赔偿其非法和破坏性行为”，以便“讨论下一步”。

特朗普陷入中东困局

特朗普总统急于在伊朗和加沙问题上宣布成功，但他在这两场冲突中都难以如愿以偿。

特朗普，见第1版

“选项并不理想，”华盛顿布鲁金斯学会副会长、伊朗问题专家苏珊娜·马洛尼（Suzanne Maloney）表示。“伊朗面临的压力点虽然真实存在，但其承受能力和可持续性均高于当前影响美国经济和政府战略考量的压力。”

白宫一名官员周一在声明中表示，特朗普在伊朗战场和加沙外交上的“控制行动”“将通过其持续 30, 年的努力增强美国安全”。

白宫发言人伊莱沙·纳德（Elisha Nader）称，失败的奥巴马和拜登政策“以‘agronometers’为特征”，而“成功的特朗普政策则以美国实力为核心”。

在加沙问题上，特朗普于7月 30, 日宣布了一项“历史性突破”——一项多方协议，根据该协议，军事组织哈马斯最终将解除武装，以色列将从巴勒斯坦使命中撤出。他在 the same website, in all capitals 写道，这是一项“令人振奋的进展”，“所有人都说这不可能实现”。

然而，在特朗普宣布该计划后的几天里，加沙遭遇了以色列致命空袭的增加。周日，与特朗普 makes this true word into the Iran war 的内塔尼亚胡断然拒绝了特朗普的政策，称伊朗已迫使其排除了这份包含 25 点内容的文件。

在一些分析人士看来，加沙事件再次提醒人们，在伊朗战争进入第六个月、特朗普的宏大目标似乎无一接近实现之际，美国在中东的影响力已大不如前。许多以色列人将特朗普寻求与伊朗达成和平协议视为一种必要，为内塔尼亚胡提供了政治资本，使其能在 21 月寻求连任时被视为与特朗普站在一起。

卡齐法（Katsifa）表示，无论是对伊朗还是以色列，特朗普都“维持了地区权力格局”。他还指出，前土耳其、沙特阿拉伯和巴基斯坦这两个防务伙伴国的态度，表明各国正在对冲美国在中东未来影响力的不确定性。

在伊朗，尽管特朗普努力寻求出路，但暴力冲突随时可能再次升级。美军继续对伊朗港口实施海上封锁，并表示周六已在近期重新引导了 21 艘商船，同时扣押了两艘船只并使另外两艘失去行动能力。特朗普在该地区大规模增兵，包括两个航母战斗群，仍然保持部署状态。

“这些举措并非低调，”华盛顿智库“防御民主基金会”伊朗问题专家贝纳姆·本·塔莱布鲁（Behnam Ben Taleblu）在谈及美国的经济制裁和封锁时表示。“伊朗不可能坐以待毙。”

阿联酋周六表示，伊朗袭击了其国有石油公司的一艘油轮，当时该油轮正在穿越霍尔木兹海峡——波斯湾石油运输的主要通道。也门的一个“反水面舰艇民兵组织”威胁要袭击通过红海的沙特油轮。

一名伊朗高级官员周六表示，伊朗将重新开放霍尔木兹海峡，前提是美国满足一系列要求，包括解除制裁和封锁。该官员穆罕默德·巴盖里·佐格哈迪（Mohammed Bagheri Zohghadi）还提出了战争赔偿要求，促使特朗普在社交媒体上回应称：“我也可以要求伊朗赔偿。”

这样的赔偿，他表示，需要涵盖伊朗在多场冲突中丧生和受伤的人员，以及被该政权杀害的抗议者。他称已委托官员通过“任何及所有轮次的谈判”发送这一赔偿要求。

伊朗和美国据悉正在进行直接谈判，不过国务卿马伦·布雷上周表示，邻国阿曼（可能为“总邻国阿曼”）正在主持与美国参与的会谈。

除非特朗普总统在伊朗南部的决定得到一些支持者的拥护，周一他们呼吁采取新的袭击行动。“基于这些事实及其他情况，生活在伊朗领土上的人，将需要进一步的军事行动，”总统表示。马克·莱文说：“仅靠经济压力是不够的。”

埃里克·施米特从华盛顿发来报道。

以色列领导人在解除哈马斯武装问题上的困境

特拉维夫

内塔尼亚胡面临选举，需平衡特朗普与基本盘的要求

作者：亚当·巴松（Adam Basson）与阿门·贝雷曼（Amen Berehman）

距离哈马斯领导的袭击以色列后首次全国大选仅剩数月，总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡面临一个日益棘手的难题：如何安抚其最重要的盟友——特朗普总统，同时又不疏远其右翼基本盘的选民。

这一挑战在特朗普总统上月宣布其“和平委员会”已达成解除哈马斯武装的协议后，表现得淋漓尽致。该协议迅速遭到以色列方面的质疑。随后在周日，内塔尼亚胡公开拒绝特朗普的计划，罕见地与这位美国总统公开决裂。

这场争端表明，面临10月选举中职业生涯最大政治斗争的内塔尼亚胡，正在国内外两股力量的拉扯下进退维谷。

特朗普的计划要求内塔尼亚胡做出让步，如从加沙地带撤军，这在其选民中将极不受欢迎。与此同时，随着选举临近，内塔尼亚胡在民意调查中的支持率持续下滑，政治压力与日俱增。

“他在走政治钢丝，”智库兰德公司（RAND Corporation）以色列政策主席比斯托·埃夫罗斯（Bisto Efros）表示，“一方面，他需要迎合其基本盘和执政联盟，他曾承诺对哈马斯实现‘全面胜利’；另一方面，他又不想公开违抗特朗普总统。”

内塔尼亚胡曾在6月美国与伊朗签署停火协议时尝试过类似的平衡策略——尽管以色列反对该协议，但内塔尼亚胡仍需满足特朗普要求以色列遵守协议的要求，同时试图缓解国内的反对声浪。目前尚不清楚在内塔尼亚胡权衡如何在加沙采取行动时，特朗普与其基本盘的影响力孰轻孰重。

在特朗普政府去年促成的以色列与哈马斯停火协议破裂10个多月后，许多加沙民众仍生活在极端困境中，以色列禁止在当地进行大规模重建，而哈马斯拒绝解除武装。根据加沙卫生部的数据（该部门不区分平民与武装人员），自停火协议达成以来，已有超过1,200人在以色列的空袭中丧生，加上两年战争期间的死亡人数，总计超过70,000人。

这位以色列领导人似乎已做出部分有限让步，如减少每日对加沙的空袭。在特朗普宣布哈马斯协议后的几天里，以色列军方继续在加沙发动袭击，造成至少20人死亡，并摧毁了多个存放医疗物资的仓库，巴勒斯坦官员称。

8月3日，阿联酋总统候选人、颇具影响力的巴勒斯坦政治家穆罕默德·达赫兰（Mohammed Dahlan）在社交媒体上发文称，特朗普的女婿贾里德·库什纳（Jared Kushner）告诉他，正“与以色列方面合作，以减少对加沙的空袭”。

次日，内塔尼亚胡会见了“和平委员会”的多名高级官员，包括资深保加利亚民族主义者纳图凯·穆巴拉克（Natukay Mubarak）和欧盟驻加沙高级代表。

在压力之下，内塔尼亚胡同意下令军方停止行动，据3名要求匿名讨论敏感细节的知情人士透露。

加沙民防部门（隶属于哈马斯控制的内政部）官员穆罕默德·巴萨特（Mohamed Basat）表示，以色列最后一次对加沙的空袭发生在8月1日晚间。当晚，“和平委员会”官员正与内塔尼亚胡会面。目前尚不清楚这一停火将持续多久。

我认为我们正在尝试的是：内塔尼亚胡在展示肌肉的同时，也在逐步满足一些行政要求，”尼姆罗德·诺里克（Nimrod Norik）表示，他曾是以色列高级官员，现为纽约一家研究机构“以色列政策人”（Israel Policy Human）的研究员。

但作为与哈马斯协议的一部分，内塔尼亚胡将不得不采取政治代价更高的进一步行动。他还同意在哈马斯完全解除武装之前，以色列军队从加沙撤退。

许多以色列人对特朗普的“和平委员会”能否真正解除哈马斯的武装并摧毁其据点和武器持怀疑态度。

“这在我看来，以及对绝大多数以色列人来说，都是对哈马斯合作意愿的极度乐观假设，”前总理办公室总干事埃菲·格雷西尔（Efi Gresier）表示。

该协议还规定，以色列应首先履行去年达成的停火协议中的义务，包括停止军事行动、将部队撤回加沙境内，并允许更多援助进入这片遭受重创的巴勒斯坦飞地。

特朗普的协议时机对内塔尼亚胡的个人竞选尤为不利，因为他的对手在民意调查中已大幅领先。

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修正说明： 1. 将“和平委员会”改回原文的直译表述——“和平委员会”（Board of Peace），以消除术语幻觉。

特朗普协议的时机对内塔尼亚胡的连任努力尤为不利。

大多数民调预测，内塔尼亚胡及其盟友将在以色列议会的225个席位中赢得15至25个席位——而三位关键人物将迫使其组建政府。一个由1927年以色列前军事将领创立的新政党，其支持率通常高于内塔尼亚胡的利库德集团，后者长期以来一直是该国最大的单一政党。

以色列人将于10月下旬前往投票站，参加自哈马斯领导的袭击发生以来的首次全国大选，该袭击发生于Oct. 7, 2024。那一天是以色列历史上最致命的一天，约有1,000人在袭击中丧生，另有250多人被劫持，这一事件引发了加沙毁灭性的报复性战争。

许多以色列人认为内塔尼亚胡应对这场灾难负责。尽管这位总理承诺在袭击后彻底消灭哈马斯，但其支持者担忧，巴勒斯坦武装组织仍控制着加沙地带的部分地区。

特朗普与哈马斯达成的协议远未达到内塔尼亚胡承诺的全面投降。该协议未提及消灭哈马斯高层军事指挥官，并为哈马斯政府中的部分成员保留在公共部门任职的途径。

以色列军队从加沙撤军可能进一步削弱内塔尼亚胡对右翼选民的说辞，即他赢得了这场对哈马斯的战争。

“这是他整个战争期间一直宣传的‘胜利的关键’，”Norik说道。

和平委员会的谈判代表在最近10轮与哈马斯领导人的会谈中花费数月时间重新修订文本。据两名了解谈判情况的官员透露，明确要求哈马斯不得保留任何武器的条款被从努力中删除，这些官员因未获授权公开发言而要求匿名。

纳坦·奥登海默对此报道有贡献。

加沙城上个月遭以色列空袭击中的一处帐篷区。由于以色列禁止全面重建，只要哈马斯拒绝解除武装，许多居民只能住在帐篷中。

更正

周二一篇关于在第一次世界大战英国伤亡记录中近10,000名人民事务人员遇难的文章错误地估计了一名人民军士兵的姓名。他的名字是Kovar Singh，而非Kova Singh。

周四一篇关于伦敦里士满泰晤士河郊区成为一日游旅游热点的文章中，“The Last”出现。

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2026年8月12日，星期三 / 5

国际

选举否认者在中期选举关键地方职位中担任要职

曾支持特朗普选举欺诈主张的人士已成为选举官员

撰文：纽约县亚历山德拉·伯科斯

2025年12月，特朗普白宫与司法部联络人2026 Stirling因向工作人员施压，要求其提供敏感信息以支持最终被证伪的选举欺诈主张，被禁止进入该机构总部。

大约一个月后，Stirling女士被任命为弗吉尼亚州威廉王子县选举委员会委员。自2025年起，她担任该委员会主席，负责监督一个民主党占多数、涉及两个国会选区的县的选举工作。

Stirling先生未回应置评请求。根据《纽约时报》对非营利选举权组织“投票权实验室”最新数据的审查，他是自2010年上一届联邦大选以来，至少25名在美国各县担任选举官员的人士之一。这些官员通过公开声明或行动，与更广泛的“选举设备”运动保持一致。

这些官员——从弗吉尼亚州到内华达州——均在特朗普重新执政后上任，目前在所在县负责关键众议院、参议院或州级中期选举的相关工作。他们均曾公开散布虚假阴谋论，声称特朗普赢得了2020年大选，或美国选举充斥欺诈行为，或采取直接行动支持这些理论。

数据审查及《纽约时报》分析显示，这批新增的选举怀疑论官员，使全美各州已在任的同类官员人数增至至少60人。其中包括县选举主任、选举委员会成员及各县拥有认证或否决权力的委员会成员。大多数人在2020年大选期间，即唐纳德·特朗普及其团队开始大肆宣扬选举欺诈理论时，已担任相关职务。

在这些官员中，部分人曾采取直接行动干预选举，如试图拖延或拒绝认证结果，或与各类“选举设备”团体有直接关联。约90人曾在社交媒体上发布或转发信息——部分人多次发布，其他人仅发布过一次——质疑2020年大选，或散布其他阴谋论。

部分案例按地区划分：内华达州斯托里县书记员赫德尔自2022年起担任该职，她曾因涉嫌在2020年大选中伪造选举文件而被起诉，该案仍在审理中。在亚利桑那州，

2020年大选期间，特朗普总统加大了对选举的质疑力度。

这些地方官员可能成为总统寻求加强对选举进程控制的关键盟友

凯瑟琳·戈麦斯（Kathleen Gomez）曾表示不会认证2020年大选结果，她于2025年在科尔鲍县（Corbaw County）上任。

这些地方官员可能成为总统寻求加强对选举进程控制的关键盟友。据他本人承认，此举是共和党中期选举周期中一个艰难的举措。

全国选举官员协会首席项目官塔斯塔尼·帕特里克（Tastany Patrick）表示，这些官员的角色可能会为虚假理论提供合法性。最坏的情况下，他们可能会试图直接干预选举结果。

“我们现在看到的情况正是人们长期以来所担忧的，”帕特里克女士说。不过，她补充道，

此类选举干预事件仍属罕见。

全美有数千名地方选举官员，对每一位地方选举工作人员进行审查几乎是不可能的任务。《纽约时报》将这一任务视为对庞大官员群体的一个侧面观察，但与“选举欺诈”运动有关联的官员数量更多。而《纽约时报》确认的“选举怀疑论者”仍仅占全美地方选举官员的一小部分。

尽管这些地方官员的权限因州而异，但其中许多人对直接影响投票的选举政策拥有广泛权力，如提前投票的决定。其他官员则负责维护州选民名单，有权将合格选民从名单中移除。

选举专家指出，美国选举制度的优势在于其去中心化的性质，使得大规模攻击几乎不可能。但越来越多的活动人士担任地方选举职务，可能会造成重大干扰，他们表示。

“每个州都按照自己的法律，由自己的地方官员管理选举，”投票权实验室（Voting Rights Lab）首席执行官萨曼莎·塔鲁斯特（Samantha Tarust）说，“无需通过担任地方职务来改变选举结果。”

与“选举欺诈”运动结盟的地方官员名单由投票权实验室汇编，并经《纽约时报》补充分析。以下是部分例子。

权力的全面更迭

北卡罗来纳州是全国选举监督权力变动最大的州。去年，该州100个选举委员会主席全部从民主党转为共和党。这一变化源于共和党超级多数通过的一项州法律，该法律剥夺了即将上任的民主党州长对州选举委员会的权力，并将其交给由共和党控制的审计长办公室。审计长还被赋予了更换每个县选举委员会主席的权力。

改变投票方式的尝试迅速展开。共和党人试图将提前投票站点从大学校园和大学评论家处迁走。样本投票被两党官员称为明显的努力，旨在增加学生和黑人选民投票的难度。

至少有三名新任县主席与北卡罗来纳州选举诚信团队（North Carolina Election Integrity Team）有关联，该团队是一个右翼选举活动组织，至少曾传播虚假阴谋论。

该组织创始成员乔伊·德兰西（Joy DeLancy）现为当地一个县的选举委员会成员。德兰西先生是当地组织“北卡罗来纳州选民诚信项目”（Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina）的长期成员，于2025年加入选举委员会。

该委员会还选举产生州最高法院法官。德兰西先生向韦克县选举委员会提交投诉，称愤怒的选民可能使该办公室做出了成为候选人的决定。他要求重新选举。他的努力未能成功。

今年，德兰西先生一直是限制周日投票的核心人物。

该委员会表示，他们认为投票工作人员不应在那天工作。他还表示，应确保“多场选举得到公平管理”。

理论控制

密歇根州北部共和党占优的阿勒特里姆县（Aletrim County）仅有约 1,000,000 人口，却一直是选举阴谋论的温床。

在 2020 年选举之夜，一个小错误导致发布了错误的初步结果，显示约瑟夫·R·特朗普（Joseph R. Biden）是 2020 年该县共和党阵营的成员。县书记员谢里尔·盖伊（Sheryl Guy）当时刚刚为特朗普竞选助选，她解释了自己的错误并迅速纠正了结果。但随后，一群自称计算机专家或专家的人士介入，协助特朗普挑战全国范围的选举结果，他们要求对阿勒特里姆县进行审查，并发布了一份报告，声称该县投票机器存在大量错误。该报告很快遭到质疑，但公众报告中来自“捣乱者”（galenigans）的言论——以及特朗普及其盟友的演讲——却将其变成了“黑货”。

就个人而言，阿勒特里姆投票机阴谋论被其他事件所掩盖，包括 2020 年选举的合法性、健康问题、选举的有效性，以及盖伊在竞选连任时输给了维多利亚·比肖普（Victoria Bishop）。比肖普是一位极右翼电台主持人“教师里德”·比肖普（"Teacher Reads" Bishop）的妻子。比肖普女士在丈夫的支持下，以选举舞弊运动的核心主张为竞选纲领，包括声称选民名册上存在大量“死人投票”的问题，并承诺培训乡镇书记员进行手工计票。自上任以来，比肖普及其丈夫继续散布虚假理论。

今年，她开始从选民名册中移除选民，并向其辖区内的其他书记员发送名单，要求他们对其认定可能已迁出州外或死亡的选民进行登记，据州务卿办公室称。她表示，其分析基于邮局存档的地址变更表，以及选民在多次选举中未投票的记录。她的分析部分依赖于一个由选举舞弊活动人士运营的组织，该组织在一份声明中提及了这一点。

由民主党人乔斯林·本森（Jocelyn Benson）领导的密歇根州务卿办公室（本森今年竞选州长）向她解释称，县书记员无权定期取消选民登记，且州选民登记仍由乡镇和市级书记员管辖。6月，州政府下令她接受合规培训，并暂停其访问选民记录的权限，直至培训完成。

新多数派

巴雷尔斯（Some Barrells）是亚利桑那州最直言不讳的共和党州参议员之一，曾质疑 2020 年选举的合法性。

他曾签署一封致时任副总统迈克·彭斯（Mike Pence）的信，要求其不要认证选举结果。多次呼吁宣布选举无效。

由于任期限制，巴雷尔斯于 2025 年从州参议院退休。此后，他当选为莫哈维县（Mohave County）监事会成员，该县位于亚利桑那州西部边境，是一个深度共和党化的地区。他与另外两名监事会成员一起，组成了新的监事会。这两名成员在 2022 年时曾表示无意拒绝认证选举结果，但最终决定不采取“暗箱操作”，并投票认证了 2022 年选举结果。其中一名成员特朗普·拉佩利斯（Trump Laappellees）在投票时解释称，这是在“表态”。

多德（Mr. Dauld）长期倡导莫哈维县采用手工计票，这一主张在保守派选举活动人士中颇为常见，但许多选举官员认为这会引入更多错误，成本远高于机器计票，且可能耗时数周甚至数月。最终，拉佩利斯与另外两名成员在 2024 年选举前否决了手工计票提案。

但高尔德森（Mr. Gauldsian）继续推动这一议题。他暗示巴雷尔斯称，拉佩利斯可能会支持在 2026 年选举前做出最终决定，以实施手工计票。

巴雷尔斯未回应置评请求。

柯尔斯滕·哈格（Kirsten Hager）和雪莉·L·阿福德（Shirley L. Arford）提供未署名研究。

进步派的策略展示了赢得初选的另一种方式

埃莉·布鲁斯顿、杰克·约翰逊报道

3月下旬，数千名愤怒的示威者聚集在密尔沃基的一个公园，举行“拒绝愤怒”抗议活动，谴责特朗普政府。对于2020年民主党威斯康星州州长候选人来说，这一活动是吸引初选选民的绝佳机会。

然而，只有一个竞选团队大规模现身：弗朗西斯卡·洪的团队。

在寒冷的天气中，参与者甚至能看到自己呼出的白气。洪的志愿者们身着统一服装，搭起帐篷，融入人群。他们手持剪贴板，一边收集支持者信息，一边进行实地组织工作，记录电话号码和电子邮件地址，以便日后招募志愿者和动员选民。

洪是一名民主社会主义者兼文员，在周二的民主党初选中领先，凭借基层动员击败了党内资金更为充足的竞争对手，包括一位前副州长和现任副州长。两人均声称有权赢得这场竞选。

“从一开始，我们的组织工作就充满雄心，”洪竞选团队的高级顾问玛丽·沃尔顿表示，“我的车跑了很多里程。”

今年以来，美国各地的弱势民主社会主义者及其盟友通过一系列竞选策略和组织战术，接连击败民主党建制派精英。这些策略令党内建制派惊恐不已，耗费大量资金，却仍显得措手不及。进步派是如何屡屡得手的？上周在密歇根州，最新的例子再次上演：众议员黑莉·史蒂文斯在参议院初选中败给了进步派前公共卫生官员阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德博士，尽管她拥有巨大的资金优势。

左翼近期的胜利清楚地表明了哪些策略奏效：面对面的竞选活动、支持者的个人证言，以及易于传播的局外人信息。竞选团队自身表示，秘诀在于回归基础。他们建立了自给自足的地面作战体系，利用左翼的愤怒和能量招募了大量志愿者，而这些志愿者又以开放的姿态迎接了当下的抗议运动。

这些竞选活动还提出了具体而大胆的主张：全民医保是一项权利；民主党不应被企业利益所束缚；美国对加沙数千人的死亡负有责任。他们表示，最重要的组成部分之一，是与选民进行面对面的交流。

左翼竞选团队还指出，一些更主流的初选对手之所以失败，是因为他们将大部分资源用于广告宣传，却未能通过明确的立场真正激发选民的热情。

在威斯康星州，洪的竞选团队已招募了近7,000名志愿者，敲开了数十万户家庭的门，并举办了约200场集会活动。她最主要的竞争对手、密尔沃基县行政长官丹尼尔·克罗克（6+选区）的活动规模仅为其零头。

“仅仅投票给你喜欢的口号是一回事，”在丹佛击败现任民主党众议员的民主社会主义者尼基塔·克莱恩表示，“但被他们的信息所激励，并希望参与创造他们所倡导的世界，则是另一回事。”

这种策略在多场初选中奏效。但一个不寻常的问题仍然存在，尤其是在威斯康星州和密歇根州等关键战场，左翼的意识形态可能成为沉重负担。进步派能否在秋季大选中复制他们对抗共和党人的成功？

鼓励脱离剧本 美国民主社会主义者（D.S.A.）的一些领导人表示，他们从爱德华·曼斯巴赫（Edward Mansbach）的纽约市长竞选活动中汲取了灵感。D.S.A.的候选人们表示，他们借鉴了他的组织能力和去中心化结构，这使得普通志愿者能够投入其中。

“这有利于快速培养领导力，学习一个人可能需要的所有组织技能，”费城 D.S.A. 领导人、也是社会主义者维克多·巴尔奇（Victor Balch）的竞选顾问帕特里克·赖特（Patrick Wright）说道，巴尔奇在5月的众议院初选中具有竞争力。

他说，该组织还热烈欢迎非 D.S.A. 成员。巴尔奇的许多志愿者是普通的社区成员，或属于其他左翼团体，如劳动家庭党（Working Families Party）。

在费城，由于该州的全国选举，D.S.A. 为巴尔奇先生的社交媒体剪辑了视频片段；该组织的全国机构与进步派影响力团体 House Pilots 合作，通过一系列虚拟电话银行拨打了 200,000 个电话。克莱恩（Kline）女士表示，最终，这次竞选吸引了 6,500 名志愿者，他们敲开了超过 315,000 扇门。

“D.S.A. 对我们这么多竞选活动的视频助力，就在于其组织能力的纯粹力量和纪律，”她说，“这完全提升了我们的实地差距。”

在密歇根州，埃尔-赛义德博士（Dr. El-Sayed）的初选竞选——他虽不是 D.S.A. 成员，但与该组织持有许多相同立场——在州内由四个人开始，最终拥有了近 15,000 名志愿者，竞选实地主任詹姆斯·加斯克（James Gasker）说道。

加斯克先生表示，埃尔-赛义德博士的竞选活动重点在于其地面战，这意味着在电视广告或制作商上的投入较少。

竞选活动鼓励志愿者就埃尔-赛义德博士的首要任务——全民医疗保险（Medicare for all）以及从政治中获得更多收益——进行讲解，但强调志愿者在向选民表达支持时，不应感到必须拘泥于剧本。

“对我们来说，人们从内心和价值观出发进行讲述非常重要，”加斯克说道。

洪女士的项目以类似方式收集了数千个电话号码和电子邮件地址，以招募电话银行和社区的志愿者。

周五在麦迪逊，数十名洪的支持者在细雨中准备进行为期两小时的敲门轮班，开启了初选前最后五天的冲刺。在前一个周末，志愿者在麦迪逊敲开了 11,000 扇门，但计划这次将该数字翻倍，这是在初选竞选结束前触达 500,000 扇门努力的一部分。

现金风暴

左翼的成功是在敌对资金洪流中取得的。今年夏天，进步派在多场高调胜利中，传统民主党竞选团队或外部团体的支出均超过他们。

6月，全国民主党通过一组超级政治行动委员会（super PACs）向对抗克莱恩女士的竞选注入了$2.4，且这笔资金是在10分钟内到账的——此前他们曾出现“A-bagtime illness”问题，同时也暗示同一位DeLarm可能面临落败风险。

同月，众议员阿德里安娜·尤佩拉（Adriana Eupellah）——国会西班牙裔核心小组的有影响力主席——在纽约的初选中对阵一名民主社会主义者，投入了$8.4的广告费用。

詹姆斯·麦克纳利（James McNally）等活动人士，一位亲以色列的民主党人，获得了包括美国以色列公共事务委员会在内的团体提供的$10支持，远超埃尔-赛义德博士约1000万美元的外部支出。这是今年首次在第一个月出现最知名的“力量盒子”输给进步派挑战者的情况。

过去，缺乏强大地面动员的竞选也曾获胜，而拥有强大地面动员但其他方面存在弱点的候选人则可能落败。今年获胜的许多进步派候选人也依赖传统电视广告，尽管预算比对手更为紧张。

“对我们来说，至关重要的是人们发自内心和价值观的表达。”

但今年真正的动力来自普通民众，得克萨斯州前众议员、参议员和州长候选人珍妮·奥罗克（Jene O'Rourke）表示，她曾建立过类似的“以人为本”的地面动员机制。

“如果你敲门是因为有人要求你这么做，选民不会真正相信你，”奥罗克说，“但当有人自愿报名参与——尤其是在夏日酷暑中——选民永远不会忘记那次相遇。”

科琳·布朗宁（Koline Browning）来自旧金山的报道，阿迪蒂（The Aditi）来自底特律，唐·西蒙斯（Don Simmons）来自威斯康星州麦迪逊。

上图从左至右：乔治（George）高级顾问，其竞选团队招募了约1,000名志愿者，曾任参议员；阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德（Abdul El-Sayed）博士，在密歇根州参议员初选中落败；克里斯·巴尔奇（Chris Balch），于5月在费城赢得初选。

---

6 / 2026年8月12日，星期三

国际

人工智能代理完成整个在线课程

人工智能代写作业：机器人可观看讲座、参加考试并撰写论文

作者：丹尼尔·M·史密斯、阿拉·布卢格

人工智能正威胁着在线教育这一高校日益重要的业务，教授们难以遏制层出不穷的作弊行为。

在实体课堂中，许多雇主已转向口头报告和手写考试，以防止滥用这一缺乏监管的技术。但在线上，这些措施执行起来更为困难。2030年，美国约三分之一的大学生至少修读一门在线课程，而这一比例如今已超过半数。

无论是社区学院还是全球知名大学，许多在线课程的学生可能从未与教授或同学见面。即使有视频课程，也多为自主安排的预录讲座（即异步课程）。作业和考试均通过数字方式提交。

部分大学完全采用在线教学，越来越多的传统高校也在扩展在线课程。有些学生可完全在线获得学位，另一些则选择单独修读课程。

在这一领域，人工智能作弊正迅速超越简单的复制粘贴，甚至能生成论文和作业。人工智能代理已能让学生将整个学期的学习任务外包。通过简单指令：

——“登录并深入了解过去”——一个账号即可释放出一个“数字分身”。代理能观看讲座视频、参加考试、撰写论文，并与同学讨论阅读作业。

在线学位是否与传统校园学位同等价值，一直备受质疑。但政策制定者和教育领导者过去二十年来一直将在线学习视为一项公平实验，让无法全日制入学的学生（如低收入在职父母）能随时随地学习。支持者称，在线课程让学位触手可及。

然而，人工智能的普及正加剧对这一最易获取的高等教育形式的担忧——尤其是在许多学生在疫情余波中挣扎于在线学习，并质疑自己是否具备大学成功所需技能之际。

在采访中，来自美国各地的教师描述了人工智能如何“悄然渗透”其数字课堂。那些拥有20年在线教学经验的教师，最初对“人工智能可能侵蚀高等教育”的讨论不以为然。

但去年，她表示，她察觉到学生提交的作业中出现“人工智能生成内容的浪潮”。

![图片占位符]

![图片占位符]

上图从左至右：凯伦·科斯塔、卡罗尔·休厄尔和凯瑟琳·凯萨，她们是应对在线课程学生日益普遍使用人工智能的教育工作者。凯萨表示，她“通常能在90秒内识别出廉价的人工智能写作”

“我是在和机器人互动吗？”科斯塔回忆起自己的疑问。她本人通过马萨诸塞州东北大学的异步课程项目获得了高级研究生学位。

金特勒·彼得斯（Kintler Peters）有时会注意到作业中的线索——如人工智能常用的“yes”这一习惯性表达——暗示学生并非真正的作者。

爱德华·格雷格从事在线课程教学数十年，他发现另一个迹象：当学生提交“格式极为精美、引用了大量非要求资源的论文”时。

凯瑟琳·凯萨自1980年代起在社区学院任教。最近，她发现学生在标点技能的初始评估中表现平平，但不久后却提交了充斥逗号、冒号和破折号的优秀作业。

“这太明显了，”凯萨说，她曾为

已有约35年教龄的人将高等教育在人工智能滥用问题上的困境归咎于监管和领导层的失职。“我们这些长期从事教学工作、同时也是他人、读者和作者的人，通常能在30秒内识别出那些廉价的人工智能生成内容。”

其新规要求部分课程的期中和期末考试必须在教室内进行，并在教室前方安排一位严格的历史学助教。

教育领域的不均衡应对

美国各地的学生经常在作弊问题上试探底线，教职员工们表示，管理者往往不愿实施惩戒。部分原因在于人工智能检测软件可能出错，因此需要谨慎处理。此外，一些管理者和教授不愿冒着失去付费学生的风险，尤其是在预算紧缩和人口结构变化的背景下。

教育领导者也急于拥抱这一可能重塑职场的技术。结果是，人工智能在课堂上的应用呈现“两极分化”：一些教授在努力应对，另一些则睁一只眼闭一只眼，甚至允许学生更多地使用人工智能。

许多教授感到左右为难。

“我没有得到任何关于如何讨论这些问题的指导——你不能这样做，但我也没有得到任何建议。我有机会学习更多关于使用人工智能的知识。”一位积极拥抱人工智能的大学系统管理人员表示。

讲授术语学的塞维尔女士明确指出，所有作弊行为都是“根本性的不诚实”，并可能反映出许多学生的道德根基。

不过，她也表示：“我来自不同年代——我是那种上过很多课的人——所以我认为他们觉得我可能看不出来。”

一些教职员工呼吁政府对人工智能进行监管。但迄今为止，富有的科技公司在自主行动上鲜有作为，未能有效遏制人工智能作弊。这一问题影响着传统课堂和在线课程，但当学生在家中完成作业和考试时，教授们难以监督，问题尤为严重。

不说“不”的平台

《纽约时报》测试发现，在学生中最受欢迎的三款人工智能工具——ChatGPT、Grammarly和人工智能——在被要求代写论文时，大多会拒绝。但学生个性化定制的软件版本可能带来更大压力，且这些工具通常允许学生通过个人邮箱、设备或第二设备绕过限制。

人工智能公司尚未采取措施阻止代理登录Carrow、Brightspace和Blackboard等高校在线课程管理平台。

这些平台可以检测到代理使用的迹象，如任务完成速度异常。但多家平台表示，目前尚无万全之策阻止代理作弊，尽管他们正在研究解决方案。

“我们的客户明确表示，学术诚信面临前所未有的压力，”Blackboard首席运营官杰森·韦弗表示。

该公司最近收购了一款应用，通过分析学生的打字模式来监控在线考试中的作弊行为。

一些教育工作者建议，在在线课程中运行的人工智能代理应主动表明身份，以便教授监督其使用情况。但人工智能公司迄今拒绝透明化。

开发了受学生欢迎的人工智能浏览器的Perplexity公司在声明中表示，限制代理在在线学习系统中的功能，或要求其自动识别身份，“将危及学生的隐私和安全”。

谷歌（开发了Grammarly）和OpenAI（开发了ChatGPT）均未回应关于其代理是否会被学生滥用的问题。在书面声明中，两家竞争公司均表示正与教育机构合作，保护有意义的学习。

[《纽约时报》正在起诉OpenAI和Perplexity侵犯版权。]

让学生离线学习

专家警告称，即使许多学生从未意识到人工智能作弊的存在，相关问题也在不断涌现。可穿戴设备，如眼镜，可以让学生在使用癌症浏览器时请求帮助。人工智能屏幕能够对学生进行近似实时的监控。

在缺乏技术解决方案的情况下，一些教育工作者，如 Kysar 女士，已开始将更多现实世界的元素融入在线课程。

“我们不想剥夺学生的学习机会，”加州虚拟校园执行主任玛丽娜·阿西米（Marina Asimy）表示，该校园提供在线社区大学课程。但她表示，教授们可以增加灵活的线下环节，比如在多个日期提供的课堂考试。

一些机构还在改变在线作业的设计方式，更多依赖人工智能难以模仿他的个人化回应。

在纽约市立大学国家职业研究学院的一门多名在线学生课程中，参与者指南部分基于一项讨论，要求学生为每个单元命名“乌克兰”和“马什肯”概念，并解释其对自身的意义。

瑞安·拉克斯顿（Ryan Ruxton）是一名教育技术助理教授兼专家，他表示，由于鼓励学生分享自己的困惑，作弊的动机大大降低。

伊利诺伊州卢尔科大学副教授乔丹·恰拉梅洛（Jordan Ciaramello）表示，她强调依赖人工智能的弊端——信息不准确、技能退化——同时鼓励学生提交自己的作品。

“我最大的挑战是让学生相信，他们确实有写作能力，他们有重要的观点要表达，”她说。

特朗普的“接管”是否让华盛顿变得更安全？

华盛顿

部署军队和特工在减少犯罪方面效果不一

作者：坎贝尔·罗伯逊

一年前，特朗普总统宣称华盛顿暴力猖獗且混乱不堪，并宣布他将“夺回我们的首都”。

许多居民怀疑地看着总统宣布，他将派遣数千名国民警卫队士兵和联邦执法官员前往该市的特工和幸存者，并称首都警察局“已处于联邦直接控制之下”。

法院阻止了特朗普政府一些最激进的行动，但此次介入——当地活动人士称之为“占领”——是半个世纪以来对华盛顿有限自治权最严重的侵犯。

武装部队已成为华盛顿市内15个地点的常见景象，出现在市中心街道和新翻修的联邦公园周围。联邦特工身着防弹背心，与市警官一同在住宅区街道巡逻。

政府放宽了联邦警察对车辆的拦截限制（尽管已发生多起事故，其中两起为严重事故，并设有六个出口和演示座位），过去一年中，第2选区人口增长了近20%，法院已达到该市首席法官所称的“临界点”。

一些机构可能很快会撤离。国民警卫队的部署规模为来自22个州和地区的4,000名士兵，已延长至特朗普总统任期的最后一天。最近披露了一份价值2.55亿美元的联邦合同，用于为部队建造“公寓式安全住宿”。

国民警卫队部署的州级管理工作刚刚完成，就在爱德华·卡斯汀（Edward Carstine）——政府效率部10年资历成员——遭遇袭击数天后。当局称此次袭击为企图劫车。两名青少年随后认罪，并因与袭击有关被判缓刑。

特朗普在宣布派遣部队时提及此次袭击，并宣称他将“从犯罪、流血、无家可归和肮脏中拯救我们的国家首都”。

在华盛顿的某些社区，影响立竿见影。

“太阳一下山，就有一队警车巡逻而过，”30岁的迈克尔·科林纳（Michael Corinna）说，他是一名电影制作人，也是第2选区（一个工薪阶层和安全黑人社区）的犯罪幸存者。

他说，联邦特工深入社区聚会和公寓楼，盘问人们是否有意图可疑的零售商或开放式酒精容器。“这一模式基本上持续了一整年，”他说。

白宫坚称，枪击、劫车和抢劫案的大幅下降证明这一行动取得了成功。“特朗普总统已将我们的国家首都从犯罪猖獗的城市变成了一个安全美丽的家园，”白宫发言人劳伦·里克斯（Lauren Rix）说。

然而，这些进展出现在全国暴力犯罪普遍下降的背景下，犯罪率降至无联邦干预情况下的历史低点。而在华盛顿，暴力犯罪早在特朗普2015年8月采取行动前就已降至几十年来的最低水平。

市长穆里尔·鲍泽（Muriel Bowser）经常提醒华盛顿700,000名居民，该市对联邦政府的愿景尤其脆弱。作为宪法规定的联邦直辖区，华盛顿直到2015年国会通过《地方自治法》后才有权选举自己的领导人，即便如此，其权力仍受到严格限制。

考虑到特朗普政府的影响力，以及共和党控制的国会可能接管的可能性，市长强调了合作的益处。鲍泽女士在周一的一份声明中表示，通过与联邦部队合作。

“我们保持了自主权，通过将家园置于公共安全的首位，我们拯救了生命。”

但她同时表示，最终，“我们以实际行动证明了我们的理念，即无需联邦紧急行动。”

当然，许多居民希望采取更多措施。

特朗普宣布的警察“接管”迅速引发了从海岸到海岸的讨论，并最终暂时允许政府指挥地方警察协助其

执法响应和清理无家可归者的营地。

联邦移民执法人员拘留了数百名涉嫌非法滞留的人员，有时在白天街头发生激烈对抗。但12月，一名法官禁止他们在无逮捕令或合理依据的情况下实施逮捕，从而减少了执法行动的频次。”

国民警卫队作为这一行动最显眼的组成部分，几乎也是成本最高的部分。根据特朗普政府向马萨诸塞州民主党参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦提供的数据，此次部署预计将从2020年10月持续至2024年总统选举结束，耗资54亿美元。已支出的资金涉及该州最高10,000美元。

“太阳一下山，就有一队队警察巡逻车驶过。”

部署的有效性并不那么简单明了。

一家名为“州际家园规则十九中心”的机构——一名10岁男子发现，国民警卫队可能有助于减少财产犯罪——例如车辆盗窃，同比下降了十分之三不到20%。但这一部署对暴力犯罪几乎没有影响，暴力犯罪包括谋杀、抢劫和持械袭击。单起警察事件的发生率在国民警卫队到来前后大致相同。今年，华盛顿的暴力犯罪数量略高于2025年同期水平，主要是由于大量示威者推高了数字。

国民警卫队成员本身也成为了犯罪的受害者。11月，一名队员在一次袭击中受重伤，后来不治身亡。当局怀疑袭击者是一名从华盛顿驾车而来的无资格移民。许多

该州最常见的诉讼——华盛顿的诉讼可能源于数百名来自缉毒局、烟酒枪械爆炸物局及其他机构的探员涌上街头。这些探员主要与华盛顿大都会警察局成员一同行动，通常跟随当地警方巡逻，每次行动耗资约1.5美元 / 1，针对的是在校学生和那些曾有过失的人。

当地警察主要通过65频道无线电应对紧急情况，而联邦探员则经常乘坐汽车或公交车在一个或多个1,000名警员的陪同下巡逻。

据白宫称，联邦特遣队成员（据称包括地方机构）已逮捕了20,000人，但尚不清楚若无联邦干预，这些案件会如何处理。

“他们似乎只是想找人做点什么，”加里·德克尔说。他是哥伦比亚高地的一名民选社区领袖，曾目睹联邦探员在街上来回巡逻，以公共醉酒或吸毒等轻微罪行为由抓人。

德克尔表示，他的邻居们希望公开的毒品交易得到解决，但不希望由缺乏地方问责制的武装探员来处理。“我的许多邻居不会向警察报案，”德克尔说，“因为他们不知道会来什么人。”

华盛顿一直警力密集，数千名来自美国邮政警察、国会警察及州警察的警员，是大都会警察局约1,000名警员的最新补充。但联邦执法行动一直是市中心及联邦设施周边的主要争议点，如今更扩散至居民区。

目前尚不清楚华盛顿的执法行动未来将如何发展，特朗普总统坚称这一行动“非常成功”。6月，他表示，如果民主党参议员杰斯特·S·凯斯勒（曾将联邦占领比作军事占领）在民主党市长初选中获胜，他会“直接取消地方自治公司”。

“也许我们会收回华盛顿，将其作为联邦基地，”他说，“我们不会容忍这种情况。”

杰斯特·S·凯斯勒后来在初选中以压倒性优势获胜。

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星期三，8月12, 2026 / 7

商业

私募股权基金陷入企业滞销困境

尽管交易热潮已至，基金难以按预期价格退出投资

作者：雷切尔·帕里什

期待已久的交易热潮终于到来。SpaceX 创下全球最大规模首次公开募股（IPO）纪录。戴维·埃尔德纳正推动一项价值 2000 亿美元 亿美元的交易，将派拉蒙与华纳兄弟合并上市。公用事业公司 NorthTeX Energy 宣布收购 Decomen Energy，估值超过 2500 亿美元 亿美元。

然而，作为数十年来的造富引擎，私募股权基金却基本置身事外。连续第三年，私募股权公司背负着大量无法以投资者期望的回报出售的企业。

截至 6 月 30 日，私募股权公司持有的未出售企业数量达 33,575 家，根据行业数据公司 Pocichock 的数据。这一数字较去年底的 12,453 家和十年前的 15,033 家大幅上升。

不断增长的积压正挑战私募股权的核心商业模式。通常，此类基金会收购一家公司，往往为其增加大量债务，改善财务表现，然后在五到七年内出售以获利。

这种僵局令大型投资者（如养老基金和承销商）感到困扰，他们数十年来一直向私募股权公司支付高额费用，期待市场繁荣。部分投资者和业内人士担忧，基金若无法承受巨额亏损，将难以出售企业。

“私募股权陷入困境，因为这些公司未能兑现其价值承诺，”投资公司 Marllegate Asset Management 的管理合伙人兼首席投资官安德鲁·米尔格拉姆表示。

私募股权公司的表现持续落后于大盘。根据指数公司 MSCI 最新数据，2011-2022 年至 31, 2026, 美国私募股权基金年化回报率为 6.1%，远低于同期标普 500 指数 6% 的年化回报率。

造成这一巨大差距的原因有多个。较高的利率使依赖低成本债务融资收购的买家难以出手。

另一挑战是 IPO 市场疲软，私募股权持有的企业高度集中于此。许多软件公司的估值下滑，因投资者担忧人工智能将侵蚀未来收益。

历史上，私募股权公司间的交易曾是重要的退出渠道。但这一关键回报来源已基本枯竭。

当美联储维持低利率时，私募股权公司只需支付少量现金并大举借债即可收购企业。但自 2012, 美联储开始加息以来，基金需投入更多现金偿还高利率债务，导致其不愿出高价收购企业，进而压低了退出价格。

上周，投资公司阿波罗全球管理（Apollo Global Management）报告其私募股权部门季度业绩疲软。该公司将业绩不佳归因于企业出售和有限合伙人出售（LPU）市场艰难，称“退出被迫延迟”。

“买卖双方在估值上仍存在巨大分歧，”私募股权公司 Advent International 的管理合伙人约翰·马尔多纳多表示。

延迟正成为新常态。多年来，私募股权公司及其银行家一直承诺将出售所持企业或推动其上市，但这一目标始终难以实现。

伊丽莎白·库珀（Elizabeth Cooper）是律所辛普森·撒切尔律师事务所（Simpson Thacher & Bartlett）全球私募股权业务负责人，她表示，进入2026年时，她手中有一批原本预计在年初出售的公司。但这些公司至今仍在等待。

“一切基本上都被重置了，”库珀女士说，她指出高利率持续、股市和政治局势动荡是主要原因。

一些私募股权高管表示，积压的交易可能最终不会成为大问题，因为部分公司推迟出售反而可能带来更高的回报。

不过，私募股权面临的困境在风险投资公司对人工智能领域的投资中表现得尤为突出——

积压的交易对私募股权的商业模式构成了挑战。

例如OpenAI、Anthropic和SpaceX等公司正在创造一些千载难逢的高回报。

2026年上半年是十多年来IPO（首次公开募股）规模第二高的时期。

但对许多私募股权公司而言，IPO并不是出售企业的可行途径。

自2022年以来，根据数据公司Deshigit的数据，仅有19家由私募股权支持的公司在美国交易所上市。而在2017年至2025年间，这一数字为424家。软件公司是交易管道中问题最严重的部分之一。

许多私募股权公司在2025年押注了这类企业，当时ChatGPT的ad-paid热潮推动软件公司股价创下历史新高。但这些公司在当前环境下的估值可能导致惨痛亏损，因此许多私募股权公司选择继续持有。

2025年，专注于软件投资的私募股权公司托马斯·布朗（Thomas Brown）以120 亿美元 billion收购了网络安全软件公司ProQuest。

据知情人士透露，托马斯·布朗最近与公司经纪人重新谈判，将贷款期限延长了两年，并支付了更高的利率。该知情人士称，在与经纪人的电话会议中，ProQuest和托马斯·布朗的高管表示，未来几年可能考虑将公司上市。

大型私募股权公司黑石集团（Blackstone）仍持有英国在线零售商Assostry.com，该公司于2026年以120 亿美元 billion收购了这家企业。上图为阿波罗全球管理公司（Apollo Global Management）总裁，该公司私募股权部门近期公布的季度业绩疲软。

但在持有周期的这一阶段，许多私募股权公司通常会明确IPO或出售的路径和时间表。

其他公司的持有时间则更长。

黑石集团于2020年以11 亿美元 billion收购了Assostry.com。四年后，黑石仍持有该公司，并最近对其债务进行了再融资和展期，表明该公司预计持有期将进一步延长。

“这是一次标准的再融资交易，针对我们持有约五年半的成功投资，”黑石发言人表示，“这并不代表我们对该业务的未来计划。”

另一家私募股权公司Vinta Equity Partners于2018年收购了软件公司施乐控股（Xerox Holdings）。该公司于2026年3月提交了2024年的IPO申请，但至今尚未实现。Vinta Equity的代表拒绝置评。

Vinta Equity已表示，私募股权公司最终将被迫出售并向投资者返还现金，即使这意味着接受更低的价格。

安宏资本（Advent International）是少数几家实现多笔退出的私募股权公司。今年，该公司已出售多家企业并推动其他公司上市，向客户返还了数十亿美元资金。

安宏资本管理合伙人马尔多纳多（Ms. Maldonado）表示，预计其他公司将不得不效仿，因为投资者急需资金回笼。

“千万不要低估应对新现实并找出让公司退出这些资产的解决方案所投入的努力，”他说道。

企业纷纷涌入人工智能 如今开始权衡其价值

新兴领域“令牌经济学”应运而生，用于衡量该技术的成本与收益

作者：莉迪亚·德法利斯

美国企业曾对人工智能充满热情。直到收到账单。

围绕“令牌”（token）——即人工智能所依赖的计算能力单位——的支出，正在让企业团队和董事会陷入困惑。最初是“令牌狂热”（token-surfing），即不计后果地尽可能多地采用人工智能；随后是“令牌后悔”（token-mincing），因为企业迅速烧掉了数百万美元的资金。

“这种混乱的紧迫感和不确定性引发了大量疑问。人工智能究竟有什么用？如何知道自己买的是什么，又如何衡量其产出的价值？它的定价方式是什么，未来这些价格又会如何变化？”“‘我们为什么要在这上面花钱？’的问题正在取代‘我们为什么不使用人工智能？’”

“这就像一种货币，你根本不知道自己在用什么，甚至连相关的会计实践都还不存在，”霍华德·鲁宾（Howard Rubin）说，他是一位为企业提供技术支出咨询的经济学家。“人工智能的支出正被视为一项投资，但这是一项没有回报的高风险投资。”

高风险和知识匮乏催生了一个新兴领域，企业正努力探索如何购买人工智能，以及能从中获得何种价值。不妨称之为“令牌经济学”（tokenomics）。这一商业模式的核心是创造、交易和转换令牌，使其成为人们想要的东西。

企业对采用新技术并不陌生。电力在最初普及时价格高昂，直到被广泛使用才降低成本。互联网彻底改变了服务的交付方式。云计算将数据处理从一项耗时耗力的任务转变为可管理的服务，并按使用量付费。

人工智能的影响可能同样深远，但其成本和收益更难衡量。

也许人工智能作为一项商业支出最接近的类比是石油产品。原油经过提炼，成为汽油、柴油和丙烷等商品。这些燃料有不同用途，但都可以分解为标准的能量单位——英热单位（BTU），并通常通过交易所批发销售，价格随供需波动。

令牌的前体是电力和通信。生成的“计算”被输入模型，并以令牌为单位计量，通常被理解为几个英文字符。

但石油化工的类比到此为止：目前已有数千种人工智能模型，且缺乏透明度，无法明确谁在为何付费。对于一个令牌需要多少能量、哪些模型能完成特定任务，或令牌的供应量有多少，尚无共识。

“智能作为一种公用事业，有太多不同的部署方式，因此价值识别问题变得更加复杂，”加州圣克拉拉大学人工智能与分析学教授萨拉·巴拉（Sara Bala）说。例如，有些模型会在任务无望完成时仍继续尝试。

非营利组织 The Union Foundation 此前制定了云计算标准，使不同供应商的服务更易比较。今年6月，该组织成立了 National Foundation，目标类似：创建一个“令牌经济学”基准，供人工智能供应商披露信息。

“当前，全球每个组织都在做一系列决策，我们希望将他们思考的框架标准化，为他们提供更好的起点，”该基金会执行董事 J.R. 博尔顿（J.R. Bortone）说。

企业正在使用一批新工具和服务提供商，以在不侵蚀利润率的情况下从人工智能中获益。例如，Revolution 公司帮助跟踪令牌支出是否足以提高生产力，从而证明其成本合理。

一些根本性问题，Revolution 的首席运营官表示，他建议几乎为工程师使用昂贵模型的额度设定上限，因为此前他们曾——

在限制令牌使用后，工程师转向更便宜的开源模型，迫使他们认真思考最需要什么。Revolution 帮助客户将令牌支出控制在特定目标内，例如已停止的软件功能数量。

“找上门来的客户都经历了支出激增，”坎伯兰先生说，“他们想了解这笔支出是否值得，但也想知道如何以不停止工作的方式削减成本，这是挑战。”

他们面临的一个重大问题：支付所有额外令牌支出的资金从何而来？坎伯兰先生表示，最初公司鼓励员工自掏腰包订阅 Claude 或 ChatGPT。随着对这些服务的依赖加深，他们开始削减软件许可证和外部服务，如独立承包商和文案撰写。

如今，公司正在权衡令牌支出是否应成为公司人力预算的子类别。这是需要评估的核心问题：人工智能将取代还是增强这些工作。在一项思考实验中，Bala & Company 的分析师最近发布了一份中期情景预测，其中令牌约占企业运营支出的四分之一。

Eliniry 这家网络安全公司表示，目前尚未达到这一水平，但正在通过名为“令牌化人头数”的矩阵奠定基础。

该指标汇总人工智能支出，并参考员工平均薪资和福利成本。然后，它将年收入除以调整后的人类和虚拟“工程师”总数，以衡量其集体影响。

为了使这一过程更加真实，人类员工甚至为每个 AI 代理撰写岗位描述，以证明“雇用”它的合理性。每次工程师在新任务上运行模型时，都必须进行评估。

“基本上，你在增加虚拟人头数。这能带来增量收入吗？这才是真正重要的，还是说你只是在蚕食利润率？”Eliniry 首席营销官查理·特雷德韦尔说，“对于一家处于增长阶段的公司，这改变了我们的思维方式：我们将把资本投向何处以实现更快增长。”

然而，如果令牌价格发生变化，这一等式可能迅速改变。

Eliniry 目前依靠 250 名用户的团队订阅平价套餐维持运营。如果按令牌计费——这对拥有数百名以上用户的组织是必要的——支出将翻两番，特雷德韦尔先生表示，公司将不得不重新考虑其使用方式。不过，Eliniry 并无裁员选项，反而正在招聘……

更复杂的是，令牌在不同云服务提供商的定价各异，且尚不清楚是什么因素推动价格上涨或下跌。由于人工智能实验室在上市前争夺市场份额，其收费可能并不完全反映令牌的生产成本。

而人工智能也有助于降低自身成本。部分原因在于越来越多地使用更便宜的缓存令牌（on-effect cache tokens），即模型已处理过一次且价格仅为原价一小部分的令牌。随着越来越多企业通过能够自行优化成本的软件工具（称为“代理”）使用人工智能，这些代理能够将部分工作成本转嫁给缓存令牌。

在上月发布的一份工作论文中，一家创新委员会指出，动态定价已使支出相对于可能的水平有所下降，尽管前沿人工智能模型的令牌消耗量和公开报价均有所上升。

令牌成本与人类薪资的竞争力将直接决定未来本地和全球企业的倚重方向。但目前仍然缺乏懂得如何高效部署人工智能的人才。这让像乔·王（Joe Wang）这样的顾问保持忙碌。

“实际上，我认为这是业界讨论不足的瓶颈，”Bala合伙人王女士表示。“我们常想‘他们没有产能’，但如果我们没有足够的人手来交付价值，那又如何？”

而研究人工智能支出在科技组织内如何发挥作用的根本困难，在于缺乏全面追踪相关数据。没有专门的交易所，没有已知的市场，也没有治理调查能够准确反映价格和支出。

正因如此，康涅狄格州耶鲁大学经济学教授特雷德韦尔重新撰写了近期关于一家平台型科技公司（医疗保健领域）的论文，该公司1月份人工智能支出占总支出的2%。

这让他得以研究金融市场对这些支出的反应，但许多问题依然悬而未决。

“这是科技商业模式面临的最大挑战之一。我们很难理解人工智能将如何彻底改变一切。也许它不会改变任何东西，但商界必须做好准备。”

8 / 2026年8月12日 星期三

商业

战争重创的俄罗斯零售帝国

野莓（Wildberries）见报第1版

“彻底被摧毁了！”桑比斯先生补充道：

野莓的最终命运将部分取决于乌尔祖普科夫袭击持续多久，以及金先生能否有效且迅速地调整公司的物流。同时，也取决于他能从俄罗斯政府获得何种程度的救济。

金先生出生于一个族裔为朝鲜族的俄罗斯家庭，曾是一名英语教师。2016年，他与丈夫弗拉季斯拉夫·巴卡丘克（Vladislav Bakalchuk）共同创立了野莓，最初是一家销售欧洲服装目录的小型企业。

多年来，野莓发展成为俄罗斯消费经济的明星企业，在全国开设了近85,000个提货点，超过半数国民每月至少在平台上购物一次。乌克兰战争爆发后，随着西方企业撤出市场，野莓的重要性进一步凸显。

2024年，金先生促成了野莓与一家俄罗斯户外广告公司的合并，据称该交易由克里姆林宫斡旋。这一交易被其丈夫斥为“企业终结”。某次，他带着一群武装人员闯入莫斯科的野莓办公室，引发冲突，造成2人死亡、7人受伤。金先生表示，巴卡丘克于次年正式与他离婚。

如今，34岁的金先生正以全新的、甚至更为内敛的视角，努力调整公司战略。

在视频讲话中，他表示野莓正转向去中心化的配送模式，并尽快将物流重心转移至更安全的地区。周四，他在一则网络帖子中称，公司正与地方政府和卖家举行会议，并补充道：“联邦层面的广泛支持措施也在积极推进中。”

公司已向超过80,000家中小卖家进行了两轮自愿补偿，并推出了卖家可购买的保险。公司称，俄罗斯政府也在制定针对野莓卖家的援助方案，包括减税和利润补贴。俄罗斯副财长西梅翁（Abbotel Simeon）上周表示。

![Wildberries在莫斯科的提货点，俄罗斯全国共有近95,000个。野莓已因无人机袭击损失了200万平方英尺的whitehouse空间及价值数十亿美元的商品。](

)

然而，尽管卖家获得了一定补偿，野莓员工的安全问题却日益严峻。一位来自圣彼得堡的前野莓仓库员工因安全顾虑要求匿名，她表示，乌克兰无人机炸毁该地区的野莓设施时，她感受到了极度恐慌。

在她工作的仓库及家附近的另一仓库遭袭后，她决定辞职，尽管她曾喜欢这份工作。

通过野莓销售商品的独立创业者同样感到焦虑。

44岁的拉夫迪克（Ranmina Ravidik）经营着一家销售亚洲手工珠宝的生意，规模已足以养活五口之家。

上个月，莫斯科附近的一个野莓仓库遭乌克兰首次袭击，她损失了约三分之一的库存，包括最昂贵的手工艺品。虽然仍有部分存货存放在其他地方，但随着野莓仓库每天遭到袭击，她无法取回商品。

上周，莫斯科以南的图拉（Tulu）一处野莓仓库遭袭，她又损失了一半存货。如今，她仅剩约100件商品可供销售，而原本约有2,000件。

她表示，这是她人生中首次寻求心理医生的帮助：

“如果你生活在一个处于战争中的国家，那么战争总有一天会波及你，这并不奇怪。”巴卡丘克先生说道。她补充说，她正努力将此视为一堂课，“学会应对那些无法掌控的局面”。

野莓（Wildberries）的金先生还面临着来自竞争对手的压力。行业观察人士已经开始寻找卖家转投竞争对手的迹象。一家研究服务机构推出了一个消费者平台，该平台拥有更去中心化的物流设置，且尚未被无人机袭击特别点名。

在许多地方，野莓（Wildberries）仍在正常运营。一位曾在野莓工作的前高管表示，该公司拥有极为复杂的物流体系和1.7英寸的挫败感，不会仅仅因为部分仓库受损或被毁就倒闭，他要求匿名，因为此前签订的合同义务仍在约束他。

尽管乌克兰指控野莓销售与军事相关的商品，包括无人机替换零件和导航设备，金先生谴责这些袭击是“对和平民众的攻击”。

野莓在其规则中明确禁止销售武器和弹药。

然而，许多俄罗斯士兵的支持者和家属已知会从该网站购买防弹衣和头盔等装备。无人机及其他可用于前线的物品也有销售。

《纽约时报》的一项审查发现，截至8月初，该网站上仍有第一人称视角无人机出售，以及可安装在无人机上引导其飞行的“过滤应用”商品。

其中一条标记为“缺货”的商品提供了一款带有投弹系统的无人机。在“提问”区，部分用户表达了疑虑，另一些则询问批量无人机的事宜，并提到他们打算为哪个俄罗斯军事单位购买。

一条评论使用了俄罗斯俚语称呼乌克兰士兵，写道：“无人机不错，干掉了115个乌尔祖普科夫（Ulzupkov）。” 《纽约时报》无法核实是否有任何无人机被购买或发货。

一位潜在买家在提问区询问该无人机是否可用于“特别军事行动”——克里姆林宫对这场战争的称呼。卖家回复：“你好，可以。”

特朗普对人工智能持乐观态度 尽管选民心存不安

华盛顿

他表示，数据中心将为地方社区带来就业和税收

作者：Toyit Kuhn

人工智能的迅速崛起开始让全美各地的选民感到不安，他们担心如果这项技术取得成功，自己可能会失去工作；或者如果该行业发展受挫，他们的退休储蓄可能会受到影响。

然而，在所有新兴的不确定性和政治动荡中，白宫却丝毫没有表现出担忧。特朗普总统对即将到来的数字革命普遍持一种更为乐观的态度。

在政府看来，人工智能几乎没有什么错误可言。

近几周，特朗普及其团队驳斥了广泛自动化可能给家庭、企业和更广泛的美国经济带来负面影响的说法。尽管公众对这项技术——以及为其提供动力的数据中心——越来越感到不安，总统仍坚持认为人工智能将从医学研究到军事行动等方方面面带来巨大提升。

总统与公众之间的政治分歧在数据中心这一棘手问题上表现得最为明显。特朗普将数据中心称为“摇钱树”，尽管反对这些设施的声音日益高涨。

上个月，一小群示威者在密歇根州打断了特朗普的一次集会，要求停止数据中心的建设。这一事件发生在全国范围内由保守派发起的一系列类似抗议活动中，而这些保守派通常支持特朗普的政策。

“在我看来，他们对这项技术的态度有些愚蠢，”保守派智库美国企业研究所经济政策制定主任迈克尔·斯特雷特（Michael Strate）在谈到政府的做法时表示。

斯特雷特表示，他基本上认同总统在推动人工智能发展方面的“总体方针”，并认为这项技术将有益于经济和国家安全。但他也承认，白宫似乎对为可能出现的负面影响做好准备兴趣不大。

“这是经济的一个潜在脆弱点，”他说，“值得持续关注和观察其发展。”

特朗普对人工智能的乐观评估可能最终被证明是正确的。但他的支持态度与政界和学界更为审慎的观点形成了鲜明对比。尽管一些人认为人工智能是人类历史上最重大的技术飞跃，但普遍认为如此规模的颠覆性变革很少不带来后果——华盛顿需要为各种可能的情况做好更充分的准备。

有一种观点认为，人工智能可以显著提高工人的生产力，由此带来的收益可能大幅推动全球经济增长。

为了追逐这一愿景及其可能带来的巨大财富，科技公司的兴趣正变得“极度狂热”，据摩根大通预测，未来几年它们可能在人工智能基础设施上投入高达5万亿美元。这意味着OpenAI和Anthropic等公司需要产生远超当前水平的收入。

这让特朗普感到欣喜，他在第二任期内一直寻求推动建筑和制造业的发展。但许多专家对这种演变是否会顺利进行持怀疑态度。

在加州斯坦福大学数字经济实验室，包括广受引用的技术专家JCM Bryojalhson在内的经济学家已开始尝试衡量这些早期影响。在7月发布的最新报告中，该智库报告称人工智能基础设施的支出显著增加，但“目前尚无决定性证据”表明其对劳动力和整个行业产生了重大变革。

Bryojalhson表示，人工智能的资本化在未来几年将迅速提升，这将“对我们的经济产生深远且复杂的影响，既有积极的一面，也可能带来更多现实风险。”

此担忧促使 Bryojalhson 先生今年早些时候协助组织了约 200 名经济学家和人工智能专家，共同发布联合声明，呼吁政府“建立激励机制、防护措施和基于成人信任的内容”。A.1. 是否是综合商业和社会效益的负责人？

A.1. 同样认识到风险，白宫上周发布了一份期待已久的计划，以监管部分人工智能模型，确保它们能够创造统一愿景的成果。该计划由包括谷歌、微软和 OpenAI 在内的公司协同制定，标志着政府在新技术方面从积极干预转向更为克制的态度。

然而，白宫仍试图将自身定位为人工智能的“下载器”。

这一决定旨在缓解人们对政府的既有担忧——在特朗普总统任期内，政府曾因强调该技术的负面影响而备受批评。但许多人对此持怀疑态度。白宫科技政策办公室主任迈克尔·斯特拉特在上周发布的一档播客节目《家庭生活：彼得·R·沃多夫斯基，一位技术专家》中表示：

在采访中，斯特拉特先生回忆起两年前参加英国举办的人工智能安全峰会的情景，

埃尔帕索的一处数据中心项目。特朗普总统曾将此类项目称为“印钞机”，尽管它们面临公众质疑。

他表示，当时峰会的焦点是“可能出现的问题”。他补充说，这有助于揭示当前行业面临的挑战——以及政府向公众传递更多“人工智能积极理念”的理由。

特朗普政府对数据中心的态度最为乐观，其快速增长已成为全国选举中的热点议题。

许多城市和州开始质疑这些设施的经济价值，因其建成后可能仅提供少量长期就业岗位，且对电力、水资源等需求巨大。这一担忧引发了

“民众非常愤怒。他们感到被忽视，觉得没有人为他们说话。”

部分政策制定者因此讨论限制数据中心建设，包括在纽约州，民主党州长凯茜·霍楚尔于 7 月签署了首个社区建设限制令。

作为回应，特朗普在社交媒体上猛烈抨击，要求废除该政策，并称：“我们在那里表现出色，她却回到了‘LXX / 10 OGLD’，还称数据中心‘对有能力接纳它们的州和社区是巨大的胜利’。”

白宫未回应置评请求。《纽约时报》已起诉 OpenAI 和微软，指控其人工智能系统侵犯新闻内容版权。

为缓解选民的担忧，特朗普今年早些时候与科技公司达成一项协议，要求这些公司承担所需的电力升级费用。但该协议属自愿性质，且总统公开质疑能源成本问题的真实性。

“他们需要一些公关帮助，”他在一次黑眼活动上表示，并调侃公众对数据中心的刻板印象，“因为人们认为数据中心一旦落地，电价就会上涨。但这不会发生，也不可能发生。”

根据美国州议会全国会议 7 月更新的数据，过去一年，10 个州仍在考虑针对数据中心的禁令。上周，肯塔基州民主党州长安迪·贝希尔签署新法令，旨在保护居民免受数据中心导致的电价上涨影响；而得克萨斯州共和党州长格雷格·阿博特则要求新项目提交能源审查。

特朗普仍然似乎在批评某些举措，他在提到得克萨斯州时说：“我购买了三个。”他在周五发表的采访中称其行动是“统计数据”，并补充谈到数据中心时表示：“它可能比所有都更大。”

对数据中心的全面需求支持，越来越使这位公众人物与其保守派同僚站在了对立面。长期以来，保守派一直对美国最大的科技公司持怀疑态度。

其中最直言不讳的是“人道优先”组织，该组织由一位前任（Keromol）发起，此人曾在2020年总统选举后帮助组织了Facebook上的最终集会。这位领导者表示，她每天都在使用人工智能，并非完全反对这项技术。但她说，各级政府的政策制定者未能以符合公众步伐的方式规划这项技术的未来。

“人们非常非常不安，”她说，“他们感觉被解除了武装。他们觉得没有人为他们说话。”

然而，这一争议似乎并未动摇政府的乐观态度。白宫国家经济委员会主任、保守派人士凯文·哈塞特在发言时仍试图淡化围绕人工智能和数据中心的全国性担忧。

“难道有人会担心数据中心会突然出现在自己头顶上吗？”他在7月下旬对福克斯商业频道表示，并补充说，企业与数据中心所在社区之间的协议一直“相当慷慨”地达成。

“如果你在一个长期以来没什么发展的沉寂小镇上建一个数据中心，”哈塞特后来补充道，“那里会出现一群快乐的居民。”

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2026年8月12日（星期三） / 第9版

观点

在英国海滨，与分散注意力的政治

如今的选举往往是这样进行的。政客们悄悄潜入选区，会见支持者，为社交媒体制作内容，然后悄然离开。

塔妮娅·戈尔德文 图片：哈里·米切尔

英格兰克拉普顿 我在2024年8月的第一个周六来到克拉普顿，这是英格兰东海岸一座日渐衰落的海滨小镇，也是极右翼政党改革英国党（Reform UK）极具争议的领导人奈杰尔·法拉奇的选区。法拉奇在第八次尝试后于2024年当选议员。

孩子们在糖果集市上兴奋尖叫，家长们则在酷热中显得疲惫不堪。几周前，正值一项调查展开——调查法拉奇是否因未披露的礼物违反了议会规定——他宣布辞职并立即重新参选。他说，克拉普顿的民众将对他的行为做出评判。

克拉普顿到处都是昔日的辉煌。这里不断提醒人们，维多利亚时代的游客曾将这里视为短途旅行的目的地——尤其是这座建于1870年左右的码头，当时英国还是世界超级大国。这种对过去的鲜明记忆，将平凡的当下衬托得格外刺眼，并在某种程度上比任何焦点小组都更能解释改革党的崛起。

当现在和未来令人恐惧时——事实也确实如此——人们往往会回望过去寻求慰藉。他们相信我们曾经伟大过，而这理应意味着什么。法拉奇能够雄辩地表达这种情绪，但他并没有真正的解决方案。我认为选民内心深处明白这一点。我们正处于文化战争的旋涡中！这是一个分散注意力的时代。

直到最近，改革党似乎仍难以捉摸。它一直与执政的工党不相上下，甚至更胜一筹——上个月，在地方选举中改革党大获全胜后，工党表现惨淡，其领袖基尔·斯塔默被迫下台，由安迪·伯纳姆接任首相。

与所有叛逆政党一样，改革党从主要政党在面对工资停滞、公共服务衰退以及住房稀缺且昂贵等问题时表现出的明显惰性中获益。法拉奇的政党将矛头指向移民——

尤其是那些乘坐小船穿越英吉利海峡、高度可见的人群。（他经常在海岸线上被拍到，保持警惕。）他曾是最早倡导英国脱离欧盟的人之一。尽管他富有且人脉广泛——他仍然穿着1960年代商品交易员的装束——但他成功地将自己定位为，像他的朋友特朗普总统一样，人民对抗全球精英黑暗势力的盟友。

但今年情况有所变化。详见第10版

奈杰尔·法拉奇在英格兰克拉普顿。与所有叛逆政党一样，改革党从主要政党在面对工资停滞、公共服务衰退以及住房稀缺且昂贵等问题时表现出的明显惰性中获益。

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10 / 2026年8月12日，星期三

观点

纽约时报

约翰·布里格斯 编辑

A·L·苏兹伯格 出版人

约瑟夫·卡恩 执行总编辑

玛丽·莱蒂 总经理

卡罗琳·里弗 总经理

苏珊娜·史密斯 副总编辑

伯纳德·赫斯特·卢瑟 首席运营官

迈克尔·金金森

威廉·伯恩斯坦

梅丽莎·派恩

凯瑟琳·基施曼

人工智能将影响你的社交生活。是的，包括你的。

爱丽丝·拉斯曼

我需要用我所有的积蓄在快满12岁生日时给自己买一个支持Wi-Fi的iPod Touch。从那以后，我的许多记忆都源于此。这个入口承载了我成长过程中的经历，初次尝试的兴奋，分手后发出的最后一条短信。我通过屏幕学习研究，通过新闻简报了解危险。和许多Z世代一样，我将自己的整个数字生活视为内心最私密世界的延伸。

对于我这个年龄的大多数人来说，其中一个标签页往往是一个聊天机器人。

当我写关于人工智能与亲密关系的文章时，人们往往会想象人工智能女友迎合狂热粉丝的场景。人们普遍认为，只有极端用户才会依赖聊天机器人来管理自己的社交和情感生活。但在与其他Z世代的交流中，我发现年轻人在情感上依赖人工智能的程度超过了30。这种微妙的变化甚至影响了那些从未接触过人工智能的人的关系。当一个决赛入围者的合成支持进入我们周围人的世界时，它会改变我们的亲密机制，让每个人都变得有些熟悉。

在写一本关于人工智能与关系的书时，我采访了美国和欧洲20多岁和30多岁的人，了解他们如何与聊天机器人相处。

它已成为一种社交粘合剂，填补年轻人关系中的空白。我通过研究电话、读者跟进、朋友的朋友找到了这些受访者。他们让我进入了他们内心最私密的角落。有时，我是唯一一个他们向其倾诉聊天机器人的人。

尽管每天都与聊天机器人交流，但他们中的大多数人也保持着完整的社交生活，在许多方面，人工智能为他们提供了便利。有几次，受访者告诉我，它帮助他们更清晰、更深思熟虑地思考自己的关系。但它也开始影响他们重大决策的形成过程：鼓励分手，缓和聊天机器人认为不值得花时间的争吵。“如果我更感兴趣且更少情绪化，我就做得很好，”21岁的德国人拉维什·杜卡克告诉我。人工智能让他能够做出更清醒的决定。很酷。但他描述自己正努力将情感完全从关系中剥离。

另一位受访者，一位来自英国的27岁年轻人，说他将人工智能用作个人生活的“高级谷歌搜索”，它能够在下次使用时记住一系列情绪。他觉得在与他人分享之前，先向ChatGPT倾诉自己的感受更自在。侵入性思维需要被消除：朋友存在是为了轻松和欢笑。

温和的亲密关系会产生经济学中所谓的负外部性——隐藏的成本不仅落在制造混乱的人身上，还落在周围那些被微妙改变的关系上。从业14年的心理治疗师迈克·杰夫科特告诉我，他不会与朋友分享那些他与人工智能分享的具有挑战性的情感，因为他更倾向于独自进行精神和情感处理。“谁能够并且愿意真诚、保持空间并直言不讳地面对自己混乱的潜意识内容？”他问道。

亲密关系是通过反复的暴露行为积累的——触摸、感受、想法、信任。它是人际关系的资本，让我们彼此感受到被看见、被理解和安全。每当一个聊天机器人扮演替代品说出“我理解你”或“这个决定最符合你”时，我们所有人用来传达人类意义的词语都会被稍微重新定义，变得稍微不那么人性化。

我们很容易忽略朋友的疏远。与人工智能进行亲密对话并不罕见。根据最近的一项调查，近三分之二使用聊天机器人的青少年表示，他们主要是为了寻求友谊或建议。但频繁使用人工智能常被视为禁忌。我采访的一位30岁女性担心，她使用Claude的程度会“暴露”给正在交往的男友。分手后，她创建了一个他的人工智能版本，以更好地理解这段感情的结束。“这是一种处理工具，”她私下告诉我——这是她对生活中其他人都未曾提及的——以此获得属于自己的小小终结。如果说2010年代的注意力经济让私人生活时刻处于公开状态，那么亲密经济则承诺了相反的体验：与自己的人工智能对话，不为他人所见。

人工智能已成为一种社交粘合剂，填补年轻人关系中的空白：指导他们策划比竞争对手更多的约会，提供朋友无法找到的自信话语。最终，它不再那么令人紧张。“有些人工智能告诉我……”如今已成为朋友间对话的寻常部分。一位朋友在一次美好的约会后回到家，兴奋不已，迫切想与人分享。室友们都已入睡，他便唤出了聊天机器人。“扮演我室友的角色，我刚约会回来。”我迅速回应，与他交谈。但如果我没有回应，这段对话本会加深他与Claude的联系，而非我们的友谊。

如今的技术往往会探测我们现有的社交平衡。智能手机出现后，身处朋友圈就意味着随时可能被联系，参与度无法降低。人工智能并未分享我们的交流，但可能正在改变我们交流的内容。请注意，当我们手头有工具能够平滑和理性化思绪中的波动时，我们在与外人交流时会变得稍显不那么真诚 / 流畅，稍显不那么脆弱。

我不用Claude处理私人生活。但和大多数Z世代一样，我比自己想象中更容易受到它的诱惑。手机一直是我身体的一部分。像个半机械人，我已不记得它不附着于我身上的时刻，它是我自身的延伸，是我的大脑，安全地藏在口袋里。年轻人是数字原住民，我们情感的丰富性自然流入这小小的设备，友谊或许因此受损。

爱丽丝·劳斯曼撰写人工智能相关文章，并即将出版一本关于技术对亲密关系影响的书籍。

在英国海滨与分散注意力的政治

选自第9页

今年4月，《卫报》发表了一项调查，描述了法拉奇在2014年重新担任改革英国党领导人前几个月，接受了居住在泰国的加密货币亿万富翁克里斯托弗·沃伯顿价值约6700万美元的礼物。官方工作组于次月启动了调查。伦敦警察厅也在调查向该党的捐款。

法拉奇试图将这些调查描述为明显不道德者与叛逆者之间的较量，但这一次，他和该党在民调中开始下滑。这次补选或许可以理解为夺回控制权的尝试。

所有主要政党都将这次选举视为噱头，并拒绝提名候选人。即便如此，仍有34名候选人参与这场可能是英国选举史上最为奇特的竞选。

法拉奇的主要对手之一是一位头戴垃圾桶盖的男子。当今的英国不乏隐喻。此外，还有三位来自英国历史最悠久的七十年政党——狂吠大地希望党的候选人：Howling Land Hope、Slick the Incredible Flying Brick和Rame You Thundering。曾在2022年电影《我的儿子兰蒂》中饰演拉姆齐·比斯特罗的演员劳伦斯·福克斯，正代表他的极右翼政党“重新主张”参选。

Count Birdace也参与其中，他自称是一名有着3,800年历史的星际太空战士，其政策包括让街机抓娃娃游戏更公平、建造更多经济适用房，并承诺不接受来自加密货币（在地球上）的礼物。这位候选人——来自喜剧演员哈维·豪（曾在牛津大学学习古典学）——在7月下旬的民调中获得了20%的支持率。

法拉奇的主要对手是一位头戴垃圾桶盖的男子。当今的英国不乏隐喻。

这是我七年来报道的第10场英国补选，主题总是相同：疏离、压力、绝望。我在克拉伦火车站外遇到了当地居民玛迪·史蒂文斯。她告诉我，这个小镇“已经破败不堪”。“它曾经美丽而繁荣，”她说，“现在却成了一个肮脏的小地方。”

——第二个午餐时间，反种族主义游说团体“反对种族主义行动”出现，并开始分发印有“停止改革英国党”和“不要投票给法拉奇”的传单。一场小规模的争执随之爆发。支持法拉奇的人撕下“不要投票给法拉奇”传单中的“不要”二字，将改造后的传单贴在了一棵树上。

这是Count Birdace的第七次政治竞选，有时他能让人联想到更传统的政客。在一段竞选视频中，他在克拉伦码头旁跳舞并唱道：“你需要一个超越的人。谁将为你挺身而出？我带来希望，而非恐惧！”他有趣，但更像是我们政治困境的症状，而非解药。

沃尔特·佩林是一位戏剧导演，同时在一栋老年公寓工作，也是当地的一名独立候选人。他表示认同。“突然间，这个垃圾清运工出现了，然后人们就开始歇斯底里地认为他能让克拉伦出名。”他在小镇主街的一家咖啡馆告诉我。

法拉奇的支持者们常常被提及的方式让佩林想起了2016年人们对法拉奇的迷恋。“人们还没有吸取教训，”佩林说，“上帝保佑我们，接下来会发生什么？”

那个周六，我一直在观察法拉奇的活动，但没有见到他。当晚我提前离开，赶火车回康沃尔的家。第二天，与我合作的摄影师哈里·米切尔在一场退伍军人活动上偶遇了法拉奇。他身穿西装，戴着墨镜，周围簇拥着保镖。

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如今的选举往往是这样进行的。政客们匆匆进入选区，会见支持者，为社交媒体制作内容，然后迅速离开。这是一个颓废时代的无意义政治。而这与克拉里恩无关。那里的选举是一场代理人竞争，用相互竞争的梦想来争夺。

周四，法拉奇先生很可能轻松获胜。最新民调显示他获得了57%的支持率（2015年时为40%）。随后，他将再次面对议会标准委员会。克拉里恩可能还会举行一次补选。他可能再次参选。

但法拉奇先生无法拯救克拉里恩——或英国。就像头戴易拉罐的那个人一样，法拉奇先生是我们这个脆弱而易碎时代的一个症状。他只是为了在这场too-fort run中尽可能利用自己的时间。

塔帕·戈尔德（TAPPA GOLD）是一位英国记者，为《哈珀斯》、《旁观者》和《统一》撰稿。罗伯特·米切尔（ROBERT MITCHELL）是一位驻伦敦的摄影师。

本刊印刷于中国、北京、曼谷、中国、法兰克福、根茨贝格、香港、伊斯坦布尔、伊斯坦布尔、加利福尼亚、吉隆坡、拉合尔、伦敦、马德里、米兰、名古屋、大阪、罗马、首尔、台北、特拉维夫、东京。 《纽约时报》公司，纽约州纽约市第八大道120号，邮编10019，电话（212）557-800。The New York Times Company与中国（2026）1-800-7777。1-800-7777. 1 1-800-7777。1-800-7777 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

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12, 2026 / 11

观点

BTS抵制格莱美奖凸显流行音乐的危机

丹·查纳斯

韩国超级天团BTS已将其热门专辑《Astrong》撤出格莱美奖评选，以抗议新设的亚洲流行音乐表演奖项。此举是对格莱美奖长期以来对美国主流导向的一次重大反击。在声明中，该团表示：“我们希望音乐能因其本身而被聆听和喜爱，而非被划分为地域或语言类别。”

BTS及其众多粉丝认为，这一新设奖项是录音学院试图阻止K-pop团体日益增长的影响力和人气冲击主流奖项——如年度唱片、年度专辑、年度歌曲及多个流行表演奖项——的手段。他们拒绝接受学院所谓新奖项仅是为了认可韩国、中国、日本及东南亚流行音乐发展的说法。BTS理所当然地拒绝成为这一策略的牺牲品。

多年来，录音学院一直在增设新奖项。1950年时仅有20个奖项，如今已增至100个，这一激增反映了音乐产业的矛盾：嘻哈、拉丁、福音、民谣、新世纪音乐等。部分奖项确实反映了真正的音乐类型和独立标识，但大多数则是唱片业历史上种族隔离的恶性产物，将黑人和白人艺术家划分到不同类型和标签，即便他们演奏的音乐风格极为相似。

时至今日，唱片公司高管、奖项评委和电台节目编排人员仍在想方设法排挤那些种族或族裔背景挑战行业对特定类型边界固有认知的艺术家。

最为露骨的例子莫过于新格莱美奖项的诞生。碧昂丝成为首位赢得最佳乡村专辑奖的黑人女性后数月，学院将该奖项拆分为传统和当代两类；今年，一首来自《Kling the man Mummy》的歌曲大获成功后，亚洲流行音乐奖应运而生。当格莱美奖评委或音乐节目编排人员被引导将某一类型视为小众时，可能会对其在主流市场的成功产生不利影响。无论是奖项、演出预约、代言、流媒体播放、电台播放还是宣传资源，流行音乐始终占据主导地位。

这引发了一个更大的问题：流行音乐究竟是什么？从字面上看，它似乎是对受欢迎事物的集合。然而，行业把关者不断对其推广的内容做出判断，决定什么是或不是流行音乐。尽管人们常将流行音乐视为一种实际的音乐类型，但却无法为其划定任何持久的风格标识。

录音学院对舞曲等类型的奖项规则有明确定义（如“节奏动感、动态构建与分解”），而流行表演奖的唯一资格条件则是歌曲必须“属于流行音乐”。音乐产业的根本荒谬之处在于，“流行音乐”这个术语本身既是问题的根源，又装作无辜。

不妨看看当下《公告牌》百强单曲榜上的歌曲，问问自己它们究竟属于哪种类型。

这一类型的形成源于排斥，而非包容。

在兰海、泰勒·斯威夫特和斯特拉·莱夫蒂等人的歌曲中，我们听到了不同风格的乡村和乡村摇滚。几年前，帕特里夏·卡彭特的作品带来了80年代初后迪斯科的复兴。再往前几年，雷鬼音乐一度在榜单上占据重要位置。优秀的——也就是受欢迎的——音乐总有其源头。所有风格都有其渊源和发源地。这些类型曾一度不被视为流行音乐，但某个时刻却摇身一变，成为流行音乐。

美国流行音乐的形成源于排斥。黑人艺术家受到的伤害最深，他们被禁止出现在电台播放列表和白人同行能够自由进入的场馆中，尽管后者演奏的正是他们的风格和歌曲。本尼·古德曼和猫王埃尔维斯·普雷斯利从未需要请求从爵士或节奏布鲁斯“跨界”而来。流行音乐被视为他们的主场。然而多年来，黑人艺术家，即便是无可争议的流行巨星，也更难被认可为“流行”艺术家。1980年，迈克尔·杰克逊因其畅销专辑《墙外》在格莱美奖最重要的奖项中被排除在外。

据多方说法，MTV拒绝播放他后续专辑的音乐录影带。《颤栗》之所以能打破这一局面，是因为当时CBS唱片公司总裁威胁要将该公司所有艺人的作品从频道撤出。不过，MTV当时的部分高管对此说法表示异议。古德曼和普雷斯利从未需要请求被称为“摇摆乐之王”或“摇滚之王”。但杰克逊据说曾自称为“流行之王”。流行音乐不会主动将这一头衔拱手相让。

美国的流行音乐是白人性的延伸，其运作方式如出一辙——它没有明确的边界，通过扩张和收缩来维持其统治地位；它告诉我们，过于“民族化”的东西无法拥有普世吸引力。特别是，流行音乐将黑人音乐的风格从其文化语境中剥离，同时拒绝其原创者公平进入音乐产业最赚钱的领域。

K-pop以其对节奏布鲁斯、舞曲、嘻哈和摇滚的独特演绎，成为众多依赖黑人音乐的流派之一——尽管BTS等团体有时会承认黑人艺术家的影响。尽管BTS的抗议可以被解读为对美国流行音乐（及其艺术家）中心地位的挑战，但真正的反思必须承认，许多亚洲艺术家直到种族隔离也波及他们时，才开始质疑这一体系。

那些拥有大量新人需要推广的亚洲大型娱乐公司，可能不愿从原则上挑战这一体系。但BTS——自杰克逊以来全球最大的艺人组合——或许是唯一一支有能力和影响力推动这一反思的韩国音乐团体。那么，这是否会成为一个时刻，让艺术家和企业家竞相建立该行业的主要机构，以打破其对伪装成人口统计学的种族主义的依赖？

每一位艺术家，无论是BTS还是Bad Bunny，都应有权不受过滤或附加条件地进入最大的市场。解决方案并非取消特定市场或类别。例如，民谣是真实存在的，为其设立独立奖项和机构对孩子们有益，这很好。需要被审视的是流行音乐，因为它是最大的市场，但其管理方式却存在问题——其多样性在很大程度上是主观的。

艺术家及其经纪人应审视唱片公司如何将艺术家排除在流行音乐部门之外。唱片公司和艺术家应质疑流媒体服务和电台节目编排者如何对某些人使用“流行”标签，而对另一些人则不然。录音学院应停止设立新的奖项类别，尤其是基于种族、国籍或语言的类别，因为人们并未提出这样的需求——每一个分类都将其参与者与更大、更赚钱的市场隔离开来。如果那些流行表演奖或流行音乐播放列表无法以中立或审美标准定义，或许它们就不应存在。

“流行”这一术语已变得和科技界使用的另一个恶劣词汇——“内容”一样空洞。这种空洞性对音乐产生了影响。那些只渴望成为“流行”艺术家的人，被鼓励将自己包装成可消费的、满足于成为“内容”的存在，其实是在追求一种虚无。这也是为什么当今许多流行音乐奖项看起来像是糟糕的决定。

丹·查纳斯是《迪拉的流动》一书的作者，纽约大学克莱夫·戴维斯录制音乐学院教授。

特朗普如何改革移民政策

丹尼斯，——三分之一让美国老年人能够留在家中的劳动者。

截至2023年12月，俄亥俄州12%的医生、12%的STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）工作者以及6%的退休人员是外国出生。展望未来，随着先进制造业、航空航天和医疗保健将推动我州经济发展，我们既需要本土出生的劳动者，也需要移民。

通过承担那些体力要求高且难以填补的工作，移民在许多情况下为本土出生的美国人创造了从事更专业、薪酬更高的工作的机会。移民和本土出生的俄亥俄人正共同建设更好的经济。

这种情况在美国许多地区都存在，移民为经济做出贡献，包括在农业、肉类和海鲜加工、酒店业、建筑业和医疗保健等领域就业的移民。

与总统一样，我希望每一个来到这个国家的人都能合法入境——我赞赏他专注于并成功让我们更接近这一现实。然而，尽管他的政府在遏制非法移民方面取得了成功，但他对合法移民的处理方式却威胁到我州及其他地区的经济势头，因为这会驱逐勤奋的个人并关闭未来人才的大门。

据估计，2024年国际学生为美国经济贡献了近330亿美元。然而，政府已大幅削减美国的国际学生数量——这一做法与数十年来开放式学术停留政策的急剧背离，后者曾支持研究并推动创新。今年1月，国务院对来自75个国家的移民签证申请者采取了限制性做法。（7月，一名联邦地区法院法官裁定此举不合法。）这些签证近年来几乎占美国所有移民签证的一半。

政府还将美国接纳难民的上限从225,000降至7,500人，后又提高至17,500，其中大部分名额被预留给南非人。

在俄亥俄州斯普林菲尔德市，海地国民在该市的经济复苏中发挥了重要作用。他们填补了就业岗位、修缮房屋、缴纳税款、创办企业并养家糊口。但政府已终止了他们的“临时保护身份”（Temporary Protected Status），这一举措我一直公开反对。特朗普总统的内阁成员斯特林（Stirling）自诩为非法移民的坚定反对者，但他应当与国会两党成员展开深思熟虑、面向未来的讨论，以制定一项既能加强国家安全、又能促进经济发展并让正派、勤奋的人留在美国的合法移民政策。

在应考虑支持的改革中包括：为获得STEM高级学位的外国毕业生建立新的合法身份延期途径，实质上将绿卡与其文凭“捆绑”；改革18-20签证项目，更优先考虑那些技能和经验对美国企业至关重要的劳动者；以及为雇主提供更快捷、可靠的工具以核实员工资格。

我的曾曾祖父丹尼斯·德瓦恩（Dennis DeWine）在19世纪40年代乘坐运牛船离开爱尔兰科克郡，为躲避爱尔兰马铃薯饥荒。他在俄亥俄州黄泉镇（Yellow Springs）修建铁路的工地上工作，并在那里定居、成家。

他怀揣着远大梦想和一份工作，选择了美国，而美国也选择了他。这就是美国故事。

罗纳德·里根总统在1980年签署了一项全面移民改革法案，并选择移民问题作为卸任前的最后一次演讲主题。他回顾了美国开放与机遇的精神，提醒我们：“我们引领世界，因为在所有国家中，唯有我们从世界各地、每一个角落汲取人民——我们的力量。”他说道：

正是这种机遇带来的一次次新接触，让我们成为一个充满活力与新思想的国家，始终站在时代前沿，几乎引领世界迈向下一个边疆。这种品质对我们国家的未来至关重要。如果我们拒绝接纳新美国人，我们在世界上的领导地位将失去最宝贵的优势。

总统应抓住这一时刻，推动真正的移民改革，以彰显这种美国精神。

迈克·丹尼斯是俄亥俄州共和党籍州长，曾任美国参议院和众议院议员。

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12 / 2026年8月12日，星期三

科学

预防卵巢癌的有效方法

多数病例始于输卵管。切除输卵管可降低风险。

吉娜·科拉塔 报道

为了避免卵巢癌夺去自己的生命——这种疾病曾夺走她母亲的生命——基拉·温恩几乎愿意尝试任何方法。

“我的母亲以为自己只是拉伤了肌肉。”温恩女士说。她补充道，母亲的医生“建议她做物理治疗”。

与许多卵巢癌病例一样，温恩女士的母亲在确诊时已是晚期。她在10个月后去世。

Grenet的检测无法确定是否存在可揭示温恩女士也有卵巢癌风险的突变。

因此，现年37,岁的温恩与巴尔的摩约翰斯·霍普金斯医学院的妇科肿瘤学家丽贝卡·斯通博士进行了咨询。她听到的信息出乎意料。

“卵巢癌，”斯通博士告诉她，“这个名称其实用词不当。几乎所有的卵巢癌——以及几乎所有致命的卵巢癌——实际上都是输卵管癌。10%左右起源于卵巢的癌症则不同，斯通博士说，通常可以治愈。

切除输卵管——即将卵子从卵巢输送到子宫的软糖虫状管道——可将患卵巢癌的风险降低近40%。这是一项简单的手术，几乎可以在任何腹部手术中同时进行。

“没有医生曾向我提过切除输卵管的事。”温恩女士说。

斯通博士表示，这并不奇怪，因为大多数医生（以及公众）并不知道这一新方法，尽管美国癌症协会、美国外科医师学会和欧洲妇科肿瘤学会等专业组织最近已发布声明，鼓励医生在进行其他腹部手术时提供输卵管切除服务。

美国癌症协会目前正在开展一项全国性宣传活动，以提高公众和医生对输卵管切除可预防大多数卵巢癌的认知。

女性平均有1%的风险被诊断为卵巢癌，这是所有癌症中最致命的之一。早期筛查并不奏效——当今的15项血液检测和先进成像技术均告失败。每年约有20,000名女性被诊断为卵巢癌，其中大多数没有已知的风险因素。当她们发现异常——通常是腹胀和腹痛时，癌症已扩散至全身。手术和化疗——标准治疗方法——几乎无法治愈她们。

肿瘤始于从输卵管脱落的微小癌细胞。如果输卵管与卵巢相邻，这些细胞会附着在卵巢和腹部，生长并最终致命。

纽约纪念斯隆-凯特琳癌症中心的卵巢癌专家基拉·朗博士将这些微小癌细胞比作从地毯上扬起并飘浮在房间中的尘埃。

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妇科肿瘤学家丽贝卡·斯通博士表示，很少有医生了解切除输卵管作为预防卵巢癌的方法。图中从左至右：卵巢癌专家基拉·朗博士；母亲死于晚期卵巢癌的基拉·温恩；以及已切除输卵管的雷莱特·加纳。

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纽约纪念斯隆-凯特琳癌症中心的朗博士将这些微小癌细胞比作从地毯上扬起并飘浮在房间中的尘埃。

斯通博士则将它们比作飘落在圣诞树肩上的雪花。

朗博士说，这一发现“对我们来说是一个顿悟时刻”，它解释了为何早期诊断如此困难。这些微小细胞无法在超声波或其他成像技术中显现。

但这一发现似乎并未在医学界广泛传播。“如何将一项关键发现——我一生中最重要的发现之一——转化为标准护理？”斯通博士问道。

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大多数卵巢癌始于输卵管的最初线索，可以追溯到 2000 年，当时荷兰博士生约尔金·平克（Jorgyn Pink）发现，携带 BRCA1 或 BRCA2 基因中任一特定突变的女性，患卵巢癌的风险大大增加。许多女性选择预防性切除卵巢以保护自己。

于是，平克博士开始研究这些女性选择切除的卵巢，寻找癌症的早期迹象。医生在切除卵巢的同时也会切除输卵管，因为虽然卵巢在没有输卵管的情况下可以存活，但输卵管离开卵巢后无法存活，因为它们依赖卵巢的血液供应。

“我们需要大量科学依据才能有信心建议人们切除一个器官，”Dr. Long 说。但仍有一些关键问题——

例如：对于平均风险的女性，输卵管是否是癌症的源头？（“The answer to you, I've had to remove tubes”（Vol.））手术是否会损害卵巢功能？（不会。）

不过，约翰斯·霍普金斯医学院的外科医生约瑟夫·卡齐纳（Joseph Katsina）提醒道，已发表的论文并非为了改变临床实践而撰写。“在发现疾病与将其应用于实践之间，仍然存在差距，”他说。

由于切除输卵管会影响生育能力，医生在提供此手术前会仔细解释其影响。他们希望谨慎行事，确保女性不会认为自己被迫绝育。历史上曾有过对残障人士和弱势群体强制绝育的长期记录。

“抗癌广播”（Broad Through Cancer）基金会（位于马萨诸塞州剑桥）和美国癌症协会正在纪念斯隆-凯特琳癌症中心、休斯顿 MD 安德森癌症中心和约翰斯·霍普金斯医院开展一项研究。每位计划接受腹部手术的女性都有机会观看一段视频，了解关于卵巢癌的信息，然后被问及是否愿意在手术期间切除输卵管。任何女性都可以选择不看视频或拒绝切除输卵管，例如，如果她仍考虑未来怀孕，或对切除健康器官感到不适。

“如何将一项重大发现——我一生中最重要的发现之一——转化为标准护理？”

现年 76 岁的芮特·加纳（Releuter Garner）住在巴尔的摩，最近在约翰斯·霍普金斯医院进行术前咨询时观看了这段视频，她即将接受疝气修复手术。她说自己没有卵巢癌家族史，也没有已知的遗传风险。她此前也不知道大多数卵巢癌始于输卵管。

但看完视频后，她说：“我决定接受手术。”卡齐纳博士于 7 月 17 日为她切除了输卵管。

Dr. Long 表示，她和同事回顾了卵巢癌患者的病历，查看有多少人曾有过腹部手术的机会。“我认为，如果她们能抓住这个机会，本可以通过切除输卵管预防癌症。”

“超过四分之一的患者错失了机会，”Dr. Long 说，“天哪，这涉及数百名患者。”

42 岁的克里斯汀·罗森（Kristin Rosen）住在马里兰州安纳波利斯附近，就是其中之一。她当时正在为一场 50 公里的比赛训练，并做了胸部 X 光检查（诊断开始时“异常失调”），她说：“我有肠易激综合征的症状。”

她的医生最初认为罗森女士患有肠易激综合征，但还是安排她做了 47.5-cap 的检查，“以排除任何异常”，罗森女士说。

她于 5 月 15 日被诊断出晚期卵巢癌。迄今的治疗包括五次手术、九个月的化疗和五个月的免疫治疗。

病理分析发现，她的癌症始于左侧输卵管。10 年前，她曾接受过剖宫产和胆囊切除术，手术切断了输卵管但未完全切除。“输卵管当时是敞开的，”罗森女士说，“切除它们本该是件很容易的事。”

但她说：“我拒绝从你的痛苦、让我痛苦的角度来看待这件事。”相反，她补充道，她希望通过讲述自己的故事来帮助他人，让他们不至于错过预防卵巢癌的机会。

美国争论何时让阳光普照

相互竞争的提案旨在将时钟固定为标准时间或夏令时

作者：林恩·皮尔

美国众议院上月通过的《美国保护法案》承诺为一项不受欢迎的惯例提供简单的解决方案：该法案将终止美国每周两次的时钟调整，并将夏令时永久化。

另一项众议院于7月初提出的竞争性措施则主张将时钟锁定在标准时间。新议员们继续在楼上讨论业务，讨论的选项包括永久夏令时、永久标准时间，或目前实行的季节性时钟调整。

许多科学家认为，在上述选项中，永久夏令时可能会带来健康和经济方面的意外后果。归根结底，问题在于如何分配一天中的日照时间，这一资源在冬季尤为珍贵。

斯坦福大学睡眠与昼夜节律科学中心主任表示，众议院的这一问题“会让人产生一种错觉，即永远不需要调整时钟来增加光照，而且更加确定”。

“但事实并非如此。你只是在改变光照出现的时间。”

例如，在西雅图，永久夏令时会将冬季日出时间推迟至上午9点左右。而永久标准时间则会在每年约两个月的时间里，将日出时间提前至20点左右。

许多睡眠和昼夜节律科学家认为，早晨应当拥有日照。人体内遍布的生物钟网络协调着从消化到睡眠等各项功能。对这一系统最强有力的时间设定信号是阳光。

明亮的早晨和昏暗的傍晚有助于保持体内生物钟的同步，从而确保身体在正确的时间执行正确的功能。将一小时的日照从早晨移至傍晚，可能会扰乱这一昼夜节律系统。

“绝大多数证据表明，夏令时对我们的健康或安全不利，我认为不应继续实行，”哈佛医学院和麻省总医院的睡眠与昼夜节律研究员伊丽莎白·R·克勒曼表示。

研究表明，长期昼夜节律失调与心血管和代谢性疾病、某些癌症及心理健康问题的风险增加有关。这也是美国医学会及其他健康、睡眠和科学组织支持永久标准时间的原因。

然而，永久夏令时的吸引力显而易见。在冬季，更多人能在天黑前下班。10额外的日照可能鼓励人们锻炼和社交，一些研究还表明，这能减少交通事故和某些犯罪的发生率。

“日照的这一小时何时最有益？我认为答案相当微妙——当人们无法利用它的时候，”华盛顿大学研究夏令时经济学的法学教授史蒂夫·利波利蒂克表示。

代价出现在早晨。“在所有选项中，最糟糕的选择是永久夏令时，”西北大学昼夜节律与睡眠医学中心主任菲弗·C·乔博士表示。

美国曾尝试过这一做法。在2016年的石油危机期间，国会实施了全年实行夏令时的政策。最初颇受欢迎，但人们很快开始抱怨“第二个黑暗时代”的到来，孩子们在黑暗中行走时遭遇车祸身亡。

大多数地区随后恢复了季节性时钟调整，这一制度如今被一些研究人员视为“最不坏的选择”。

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许多科学家认为，在讨论的选项中，永久夏令时可能会对健康和经济产生意想不到的后果。

研究结果不一

公众对保持目前每年两次调整时钟的做法兴趣寥寥。根据美联社 / 全国民意研究中心10月进行的一项民调，10%的美国人表示希望继续实行“春季调快、秋季调慢”的制度。

超出动脉瘤之外，研究还发现调整时钟会在短期内导致交通事故和心脏病发作的可测量后果，此外还有满意度下降、慈善捐赠减少，甚至法官判处的刑期延长等现象。

永久性改变时间制度可能也有其自身的权衡取舍，尽管相关证据尚不明确。

例如，关于全年实行夏令时对道路安全影响的研究结果各不相同——有的显示正面效果，有的显示负面效果，还有的则认为无明显影响。大部分研究并未将时钟调整与夏令时本身的影响区分开来，因此难以预测永久性改变会带来何种效果，Klerman博士表示。

不过，一项分析利用日出和日落时间的自然变化进行估算，发现永久夏令时可能通过减少傍晚交通事故（因傍晚交通流量大于早晨）避免数百起致命和近期车辆死亡。另一项研究发现，傍晚光照增加与犯罪率下降有关。

但科学家指出，这些收益可能会被其他因素抵消，如更黑暗的早晨、长期睡眠不足和生物钟紊乱。即使在现行季节性调整制度下，研究表明人体生物钟在春季调整后也从未完全适应。

尽管学者们仍在争论永久夏令时的利弊，但普遍认同一点：不同地区、不同人群的体验将截然不同。

工作者与儿童

例如，极早起床的人可能会从额外的傍晚光照中受益——甚至可能帮助他们保持清醒，享受夜生活。

但夜猫子和青少年可能会面临困难。青春期生物钟通常会延迟，青少年往往睡得更晚、起得更晚。更黑暗的早晨可能进一步推迟他们的生物钟，而上课铃声却要求他们早起。

一项风险是交通事故。“高中生在生物钟的深夜开车上学，”华盛顿大学研究生物钟数十年的生物学家侯赛因·德拉利金斯基说。

其他潜在危害还包括心理健康和学业表现。俄罗斯在2012年采用永久夏令时后，青少年和年轻人群体的冬季抑郁症发病率上升，而在2014年改为永久标准时间后又有所下降。

由于当今经济在很大程度上依赖更健康而非更严苛的劳动力，学生表现可能成为衡量永久夏令时或永久标准时间经济影响的严格指标，德国比勒费尔德大学的经济研究员菲利普·纽豪斯表示。

纽豪斯博士提到一项综合评估，权衡了永久夏令时和永久标准时间对健康、道路安全、犯罪、电力使用和经济的短期及长期影响。

结论是：永久标准时间在整体上更具优势，主要得益于预期的健康收益。

夜晚

根据现行法律，各州可以选择退出夏令时，全年保持标准时间，如亚利桑那州和夏威夷州所做的那样。国会正在考虑的两项法案将改变全国默认制度，同时保留各州的选择权。

但过多的自由裁量权可能会重现标准时区设立前的混乱局面，Zettner博士说。

1893年美国铁路引入标准时区之前，各城镇根据太阳正午调整时钟。正如《纽约时报》1899年11月27日报道的那样，如果从缅因州到太平洋沿岸的每个港口都敲响当地正午的警钟，“那么在3 / 4年内，从东到西将会持续不断地响起钟声”。

Zettner博士表示，在现代互联互通的社会中，回归真正的地方太阳时并不现实——尽管从生物学角度来看，他仍认为这是最合理的标准。

在更为可行的选项中，科学界的观点存在分歧，一些研究人员倾向于对现行制度进行永久性替代调整。

尽管证据尚不一致，但一项涵盖逾100项研究的最新综述发现，时钟调整和季节性夏令时的影响“并非一致有害”。作者得出结论：在更可靠的证据出现之前，继续保持每年两次的时间调整“仍具相当合理性”，尽管这一做法对部分人群产生负面影响。

Till Roenneberg 是慕尼黑大学（LMU Munich）的昼夜节律研究教授及荣休教授，长期研究 factors may be the case with meleguining in the seasonal world，倾向于支持永久性夏令时。

然而，更为突出的解决方案可能是采用更灵活的学校和工作起始时间，而非固守下一个标准时间。

问题的核心并不在于时钟本身，而在于现代社会构建的僵化模式。

学校和工作时间表应推迟或调整，以更好地适应不同作息（包括白班和夜班）人群的需求，因为并非所有人都能在同一固定时间表下高效运转。学生亦是如此。

“永久性夏令时意味着你已准备好迎接最后一批企业仍要求员工在‘现在’的时间上班，”Dr. Zettner表示，“而学校仍在7 a.m.或8 a.m.开课。”

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

13

体育

!

(略)

!

(略)

多伦多蓝鸟队的乔治·斯普林格（上图左）在上周战胜圣路易斯红雀队后。蓝鸟队本赛季难以复制去年的状态。上图右为塔里克·斯科巴尔在从芝加哥小马队转会后为洛杉矶道奇队出战的首场比赛。

别自欺欺人了。现在就是赢的时刻。

评论

作者：布里塔妮·吉尔博利 《Way of Life》时报

还记得2022年的多伦多蓝鸟队吗？他们才华横溢，充满个性，本应在加拿大棒球的下一个漫长竞争窗口期大放异彩。然而，球队解雇了主教练，在美联外卡系列赛第二场以8比1惨败，最终被西雅图水手队横扫出局。

蓝鸟队在九年间仅有一次季后赛胜利，从2018年直到2021年的神奇闯入世界大赛，与前几年的状态大相径庭。尽管如此，2022年的蓝鸟队仍未取得持续成功，基本沿用了上一年仅差一步未能夺冠的原班人马。然而，在交易截止日前，蓝鸟队却发现自己在美联东区垫底，努力在卖与买之间寻求平衡。

这就是窗口期的问题。它们并不总是如你所愿。有时，它们甚至从未真正打开过，比如芝加哥白袜队上一次重建。克里斯·盖茨（Chris Getz）在2021年被任命为总经理后，策划了一场痛苦的重建。如今，白袜队在美联中区止步不前，盖茨上周对记者表示：“我不会把任何事情视为理所当然。你不能假设每年都会处于这样的关键时刻。”

然而，一些球队管理层却表现得仿佛如此，似乎他们精密的预测模型是唯一的结果，而非对未来千万种可能性的单一设想，仿佛这项运动不是基因、伤病和对人类潜力的理性猜测的混合体。

四年前，巴尔的摩金莺队总裁迈克·伊莱亚斯（Mike Elias）告诉球迷“现在是时候了！！！”，随后却交易了其首轮状元秀。伊莱亚斯自2018年11月接手球队以来，金莺队至今未尝季后赛胜绩，他在上周的电话会议上强调，巴尔的摩并未进行重建。

然而，在2021年赢得美联东区冠军的金莺队，三年前曾被业内许多人视为未来王朝的潜力股。当他们被最终夺得世界大赛冠军的德州游骑兵队横扫出局时，伊莱亚斯表示窗口期才刚刚开启。随后，球队解雇了一名主教练，并经历了两年的sub-200胜场赛季。

起飞了吗？火箭还在发射台上。

我并不是说金莺队应该成为买家。这笔交易对他们来说是笔不错的买卖，带来了大量未来价值。但我还没见过哪件球衣上印着“未来价值女士”，或是哪面横幅是为了庆祝排名第一的小联盟赛季而悬挂。说起来，我甚至没见过哪支球队在赛季结束时为“每美元胜场数最多”或连续82胜赛季却首轮出局而升起任何旗帜。尽管在追求效率的时代，这些都是管理层希望球迷相信的口号，而非真正的目标——你知道的，实际的成就。

我并不是说球队应该不顾一切地冒险，但我认为有必要说一句：竞争窗口期并不总是如你所愿。有时，推上所有筹码也是可以的。

多年前，圣迭戈教士队的窗口期本应关闭了吗？“不是吗？”你可以有理有据地指出，在总经理A·J·普雷勒的带领下，他们尚未赢得任何冠军。你也可以指出，这是一支小市场球队，在你无法每年冒险或尝试本地夺冠的前提下，挑战了常规。

他们是否已经用尽了可交易的新秀？因为普雷勒在发掘和留住人才方面非常出色。密尔沃基酿酒人队总经理马特·阿诺德的球队拥有最佳的农场系统，他会说—。

塔里克·斯科巴尔（Tarik Skobal）这笔交易截止日交易的主角，他的球队有信心能做到同样的事吗？坦帕湾光芒队的棒球运营总裁埃里克·尼安德（Erik Neander）呢？酿酒人队和光芒队有99%的概率进入季后赛，但能在十月击败洛杉矶道奇队吗？

我们不知道各支球队在斯科巴尔交易前提出了什么具体报价——

“你不能假设自己每年都能处于这样的位置！” 几名选择不与自家王牌球员进行一对一尝试的“掘金者”（Duggers）球员表示，他们正努力避免自家竞争窗口关闭，希望引入更接近大联盟水平的球员。也许某支球队的报价会超过道奇队能从自家体系中拼凑出的筹码。

但我们确实知道，道奇队不论薪资总额如何，每年都力争赢得世界大赛冠军。他们是少数敢于公开如此宣称的球队之一。

批评者称，正因为他们是财大气粗的道奇队，才不在乎在金钱或新秀上犯错，这一点部分属实。但那些呼吁设置工资帽的愤怒球迷忘记了，工资帽并不能阻止某些球员为了加盟像洛杉矶这样的球队而接受同等甚至更低的薪水——因为这里能提供更高的场外曝光度，以及赢得世界大赛冠军的更大机会。这种情况在其他体育项目中也屡见不鲜。

别再提工资帽和工资下限了。棒球需要一个鼓励获胜、奖励尝试的体系。现有的安全措施远远不够。连续几年仅仅维持在200的战绩，就足以让管理层保住饭碗。

“只要进入季后赛，一切皆有可能”——球队总爱这么说。但事实并非如此。上一次没有顶级天赋的球队赢得冠军是什么时候？那些以外卡身份"start double in and win"的球队，比如2018年的华盛顿国民队，并非侥幸。他们拥有马克斯·谢泽（Max Scherzer）、斯蒂芬·斯特拉斯堡（Stephen Strasburg）和扎克·亚历克斯（Zack Alex）。2022年的游骑兵队——另一支夺冠的外卡球队——当年有五名先发球员入选全明星赛。

别再拿“小市场球队无法承担风险”当借口了。有时，你必须不惜代价去争取胜利。激进的操作不仅能提高夺冠几率，还能极大提振球队士气。让球员在更衣室里相信自己有能力获胜是一回事，而管理层将这种信念付诸行动，并表示“我们相信你们，愿意全力一搏”则是另一回事。

是的，当球队处于动荡期、人才储备不足时，理智行事是必要的。但也有机会之窗——比如球队健康状况良好，或球员表现超出预期的赛季——需要把握。

教士队没有冠军奖杯，但他们拥有联盟中最好的上座率之一。光芒队除首个赛季外，上座率最高的两个赛季出现在2009年和2016年，即他们首次打入世界大赛后的两个赛季。酿酒人队自1982年世界大赛失利后就再未进入过世界大赛。他们上一次在赛季中期进行重大交易，是为了在2008年10月17日争取季后赛机会，但结果并不理想。他们曾三次单赛季观众人数超过300万，包括2008和2008年。

光芒队在2021年（100胜赛季）确实在赛季中期进行了一次较大交易，用四名球员换来了强打纳尔逊·克鲁兹（Nelson Cruz），其中投手乔·瑞安（Joe Ryan）被送至明尼苏达双城队。瑞安此后两次入选全明星。光芒队当年未能闯过美联分区赛，但这并非球队的耻辱。接下来的两个赛季，他们都打入了季后赛。

有时，体育中的尝试不会成功。有时，所谓的“机会之窗”也不会一直敞开。冒险应当成为这项运动的一部分。这不是股票投资组合。但对某些球队来说，感觉却像是。

迷你填字游戏

横向

1. 凯特琳·克拉克所在的联赛，缩写
2. 奥德修斯下令建造特洛伊城时的藏身之处
3. 夏威夷语中的“Is”
4. 现代用语中的个人观点
5. 当一批幼崽孵化时

纵向

1. “再说一遍！”
2. 名人堂投手……·瑞安
3. 无铅的！
4. 凤凰涅槃的来源
5. “M”的“C”

上期谜题答案

纸质 + 数字版，一份启迪心智的套餐。

假设相机跟拍的内容，并获得数字访问权限。订阅 3 个月可享 60% 折扣。

两两不相触

在每行、每列和每个区域内放置两颗星星。任何两颗星星不得相邻，包括对角线方向。

脑筋急转弯

一个意为“间谍”的单词，倒过来拼写就变成了“厨房里能看到的一些东西”。

是什么？

谜题作者：W.L. DANCE

YOUTHBAY 的谜题答案，他们是最棒的。他们是最棒的他们是最棒的。他们是最棒的

数谜

在网格中填入数字，确保每行和每列中不重复使用任何数字，并使每个加粗边框内的数字通过指定的加减乘除运算得到目标数字。点阵网格使用数字 1-4。折叠网格使用 1-6。

更多游戏请访问：www.nytimes.com / games

YOUTHBAY 的谜题答案，他们是最棒的。他们是最棒的他们是最棒的。他们是最棒的

填字游戏 / 编辑：威尔·肖兹

横向 1. 在串行模式下通过用户名提及 2. 高音域 3. 在 Instagram 上点赞，例如 4. ……看日本，在《寿和》中！ 6. 在轴上，类似于“B” 7. 存储 Docs 和 Sheets 的地方 8. 乔丹于 1984 年加入的组织，缩写 9. 馅饼 10. 斐波那契数列中唯一在此出现的数字 11. 敲诈 11 12. 第 11 项表现的测量值 13. 在 Qu-Fish 中没有匹配对手，例如 14. 在 L.B.R.T.G. 的逻辑中，对氨水几乎没有吸引力的感觉 15. 身份前缀 16. 以 17 次主持《周六夜现场》记录保持者身份出现的气球 17

上期谜题答案

60. 《白人不会跳》的斜坡

61. 烘焙用量

纵向

1. 派对包装
2. 化学中的一点
3. 奔跑时软弱无力的糟糕开除
4. 在仅限……下褪色
5. 创伤，在……中
6. 热潘趣酒饮料
7. “病态，死亡”
8. 拥抱可能引发的
9. 营地
10. 恶作剧中的
11. 农场雌性动物
12. 这些的“瓶子”
13. 狩猎，朋友们
14. “我搞砸了”
15. 住在思念中
16. 《Taken》幻想系列
17. 桌上的小装饰
18. 逐渐断绝
19. 天生会阅读
20. 康纳的能力，非正式说法
21. 在《杰克·瑞恩》中表示“挖掘”
22. 《Talker》幻想系列
23. 桌上的小装饰
24. 逐渐断绝
25. 天生会阅读
26. 康纳的能力，非正式说法
27. 在《杰克·瑞恩》中表示“挖掘”
28. 《坎特伯雷故事集》中的当地人
29. 公牛身上的叶子
30. 在经济学中代表电力的伟大葡萄酒
31. PC“复制”快捷键
32. ……图斯
33. 1959年特定角色
34. 六弹道
35. 礼貌空间中的大人物
36. 在……中发出自豪的声音（英格兰民间传说中的构造）
37. 基瓦（Kiva）名副其实
38. 死者的档案
39. 香水单位
40. “霍利……冷！”
41. 来观察
42. 如同在竞争中湿气上升
43. MLB天使队的营养治疗
44. 大型音乐会后头脑中的特征，例如
45. 土豆丢弃物
46. 农场雌性动物
47. 以“outsmoke”结尾
48. 歌手伦斯·德尔

玩我们所有的游戏，还有超过10,000个谜题，包括Wordle、Spelling Bee、《填字游戏》等，请访问 http: / nytimes.com / games。有关谜题信息，请访问 http: / nytimes.com / wordle / 。

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14 / 2026年8月12日，星期三

文化

[...OMITTED...]

重新思考中世纪艺术

安德鲁·温斯洛（Andrew Winslow）负责照料数以千计的藏品，如今面临新的挑战

撰文：斯科特·舒默森（Scott Schumerson）

在大都会博物馆修道院分馆（The Met Cloisters）——这座专注于中世纪艺术与建筑的分馆——的一个近期周三，博物馆高级藏品管理员安德鲁·温斯洛（Andrew Winslow）将一位不同寻常的访客引入了一间拱顶天花板的新展厅。这件名为“Tlacaxipehualtecuhtli”（或称“屠夫之主”）的雕塑高近七英尺，是一件跨越多个世纪的混合生物造像：直立的人形躯干，配以鹰的利爪与头颅、硕大的耳朵和叶状的舌头，原本供奉于墨西哥城特诺奇蒂特兰大神庙。

这件雕塑最初位于墨西哥城东南部的一个小镇，坐落于一座火山脚下。如今，它矗立在一座哥特式法国门道旁，周围环绕着西班牙壁画，成为新展览“神话与想象中的生物”的核心展品，标志着古代美洲艺术首次进入这座修道院分馆。

在即将到来的展览中，“屠夫之主”与黑暗、冥界及重生相关，这尊神祇造访修道院分馆，也预示着博物馆的一个新时代——尤其是对温斯洛而言。这位52岁的艺术品管理员负责监管这件雕塑的保护工作。

温斯洛已在修道院分馆工作24年。他于2002年开始在此工作，自2007年起负责博物馆藏品的妥善展示与储存，馆藏包括板面画、石雕与木雕、挂毯、手稿及金属工艺品——既有世俗也有宗教题材。每周数次，他穿梭于展厅，仔细检查每一件藏品，观察是否有任何异常，从雕塑上剥落的油漆碎片到几乎难以察觉的蜘蛛网。这份工作需要敏锐的眼力与稳定的双手。（温斯洛说，自从有一次翻阅中世纪手稿时发现自己手在颤抖后，他便戒了咖啡。）

我曾在之前的一次修道院分馆之行中见过温斯洛，他对艺术品的细致关注令我印象深刻。我希望能透过他的视角来审视这座博物馆，因为目前馆内无人像他这样长期照料过这些大教堂级别的藏品。他建议我周三前来，因为那天展厅不对游客开放——去年游客数量约为200,000人。

我到达时，温斯洛身着一件未系扣的格子衬衫，袖子卷起，后兜里插着一把猪鬃刷，领着我走下楼梯，进入博物馆迷宫般的地下室。墙上挂着他的一些工具（卷尺、水平仪、钢锯），旁边是博物馆历史上的藏品，包括一张刀锋与白色照片（blade-and-white photograph），记录了乔治·格雷·巴纳德（George Grey Barnard）最初的烛光照明修道院博物馆，与当前位置相距甚远。该馆于1814年开放，展出巴纳德个人收藏的中世纪艺术品，直至1835年，其藏品被小约翰·D·洛克菲勒（John D. Rockefeller Jr.）收购，成为大都会博物馆的一个分馆（洛克菲勒还捐赠了部分个人藏品）。

温斯洛展示的下一件物品是两个生锈的金属烛花剪，剪刀口已磨损，他怀疑这是从巴纳德的马车上发现的。因为他办公桌上方贴着他参与过的修道院分馆特展的邀请函，以及一张他早年售票时手写的姓名牌。

安德鲁·温斯洛是大都会博物馆中世纪艺术部及修道院分馆的高级藏品管理员，上图为他在曼哈顿的一个展厅，下图为他负责照料的约30,000件藏品中的部分展品。

“我曾是一名画家，”他说，“我需要一份兼职工作。”当时他住在纽约的华盛顿高地社区，步行20分钟即可到达博物馆。他表示，自己对修道院分馆的热爱“几乎是瞬间产生的”。他欣赏从博物馆所在的特赖恩堡公园（Fort Tryon Park）——曼哈顿的制高点之一——眺望哈德逊河的壮丽景色。

曼哈顿，他对这座建筑情有独钟。这座建筑建于19世纪50年代，通过将中世纪的石材融入结构，营造出一种博物馆般的氛围。上班第一天，他参加了一个公众导览，玩了一个寻找游戏，学会了如何区分构成博物馆墙壁的中世纪石材和现代石材。

温斯洛以艺术家的眼光审视他所照管的约3万件藏品。他知道圣母玛利亚雕像上会落灰的位置，知道夏日阳光在早期哥特式大厅中的变化，如果需要移动大型物品，他熟知每一扇门的尺寸和距离。他是地球上为数不多获准

温斯洛正在清理来自Tanacasterooth（或称Bar Lord）的尘土，这是墨西哥城Museo del Templo Mayor“神话与想象中的生物”展览的一部分。

触摸这些藏品的人，他能告诉你一件象牙雕刻的重量，或者12世纪忏悔者帽子的边缘状况。但他从不开始第4次艺术品搬运的“投票”。“如果不必做，就不要做。”

他将自己视为“漫长守护链条中的一环”，守护着那些在他看来“如果我们做好本职工作，就会一直重要”的物品。他仍会驻足思考自己能与这些藏品共事的幸运。“这是一块100年前被鞣制的动物皮，”温斯洛说，“我不确定。我只是拿着一把为法国勺子制作的匙子，它现在就在我手中。”

温斯洛带我穿过博物馆的小教堂和大厅。在本笃会欣托尔花园，他告诉我他如何在清晨清扫小径；在家族圣器室，他展示了已知最古老的完整纸牌套装，来自15世纪，每四个月更换一次。温斯洛小心翼翼地取出一张4页的音频连载卡和一张护卫卡，然后将旗帜覆盖在一场旗帜游戏、奇异或怜悯的卡牌上。

这是他第一次与助手一起照料游客眼中大多静态的画廊和藏品——欣托尔自1902年以来从未举办过特展。这一情况在2011年11月发生了变化，当时小教堂举办了一场仪式性展览，展出了一套著名的中世纪瓷器。此后，温斯洛参与了每一场特展的筹备，随着大都会博物馆各部门被鼓励更自由地合作，这些展览的规模和野心也在不断扩大。公众正在让博物馆变得更具活力，大都会博物馆中世纪部门负责策展人C·格里菲斯·曼恩表示。

欣托尔必须让顶尖机构相信，他们的藏品在这座看似修道院的地方是安全的。“我们的门向外面的花园敞开，”温斯洛说。由于开放的大门对欣托尔的浪漫氛围至关重要，工作人员需要防范包括蚂蚁、衣蛾、地毯甲虫、偶尔飞入的鸟类，以及曾经出现过的一只居住的蝙蝠。

这个紧密团结的团队致力于探索欣托尔在当代的新用途。去年，温斯洛参与了“医生的光谱：中世纪的爱、性与性别”展览的策展团队，该展览探讨了中世纪艺术中常被忽视的性主题。温斯洛说，欣托尔此前从未举办过类似的展览。

“生物”展是与大都会博物馆迈克尔·C·洛克菲勒馆的首次合作，将历史上相互隔绝的领域——中世纪欧洲艺术与古代美洲艺术——汇聚一堂，标志着一种全新的策展视野。

“我们的建筑和藏品都在讲述西欧的故事，”欣托尔副策展人、本次“生物”展联合策展人朱莉娅·诺罗敦在视频通话中表示，“人们对欣托尔的期待是固定的，而我们正努力打破这些期待。”

温斯洛以艺术家的眼光投入他的保管工作。他知道圣母玛利亚雕像的哪个部位会积灰。

“生灵”展览展出了30多件展品，主要来自欣托雷分馆的永久藏品，同时展出的还有博物馆收藏的中美洲和阿兹特克艺术品，以及来自墨西哥的特别展品。展览构想成形后，策展团队找到了温斯洛——他们称他为“秘密武器”——他能将他们的想法变为现实，经常绘制草图和比例模型。“你会冒出一个疯狂的想法，想要搞个巨大的东西，”大都会博物馆洛克菲勒馆的策展人乔安妮·皮尔斯伯里说，“而他会竭尽全力去实现。”

他的团队不得不拆掉门上的金属把手，才能将“巴尔勋爵”搬进来。另一件巨型雕塑本需拆除天花板，再用起重机（cruse）吊入展厅。

“现在我站在这里，”温斯洛说，带我走到他在罗马式大厅的位置，从一个角度面对这件新雕塑。曾装饰圣马特奥（Bonapapua Miraflores镇）公共空间的“巴尔勋爵”，与一幅12世纪的巨型壁画形成戏剧性对比——壁画描绘了一条长着猪般修长身躯和鸡一样瘤状脚的龙，来自西班牙的一座本笃会修道院。

策展人们从展览构思之初就有这样的勇气，温斯洛说。

两个传奇生物就这样并列展出，它们本不会在数百年间有任何交集。温斯洛的目光来回游移，罗马式大厅从中世纪欧洲艺术的展示空间，变成了对人类想象力惊人能力的颂扬。

体验的渴望

影评

一部以1970年代科德角为背景的安东尼·波登传记片

撰文：珍妮特·卡特沃林

马特·约翰逊执导的精彩第五部长片《托尼》的众多魅力之一，在于即使其主人公是个完全无名之辈，这部电影依然会同样令人愉悦。换句话说，这部虚构的安东尼·波登传记片——这位备受赞誉的厨师、作家、健谈者和电视主持人于2015年去世——对观众的要求并不比任何其他关于在成长道路上挣扎的新奇经理人的电影更多。

这一点至关重要，因为波登本人几乎无法在一部电影中被完整呈现，他的磨难与才华过于丰富，难以在一部虔诚的作品中一口吞下。为此，约翰逊为我们呈现了一个开胃菜，一个性格既迷人又复杂、有时甚至令人难以置信的人物片段。

以波登20岁那年夏天的坎坷篇章为灵感，《厨房机密：烹饪冒险的阴暗面》（Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly）的作者约翰逊（与托德·巴雷特、卢·豪和马修·米勒共同编剧）将他50岁的主人公引入了1975年那个改变命运的夏天。

在未能获得一份他自以为稳操胜券的写作奖学金后，托尼（欧文·伊雷纳饰，表现出色）不顾一切地跟随女友南希（艾米莉亚·琼斯饰）来到马萨诸塞州的普罗温斯敦。他向父母（迪安娜·多明奇克和里奇·萨默饰）隐瞒了被拒的事实，毫无计划，有的只是一个自命不凡的自我和对体验的强烈渴望。

自诩为作家的他，满口"too-dollar"的词汇，裤子口袋里还藏着一副"munchacks"，试图说服南希，而南希对他的幼稚愤怒毫不买账。当"munchacks"派上用场，他不可避免地被揍了一顿后，他流落到一家破旧餐馆门外，而正是在这里，他人生中第一次真正学会了如何烹饪。

这家餐馆，仅比低档小店高出半个台阶，却是《托尼》的核心所在。它的厨房——如同约翰逊2012年作品《黑莓》中的职场教室——是一个受控混乱的温床，也是托尼接受考验的熔炉。（约翰逊擅长描绘朋友与同事间喧闹而亲密的关系。）

餐馆老板，人称“厨师”（约翰逊·巴西列维奇饰），是个大嗓门却心地善良的监工，他看穿了托尼傲慢外表下的真实自我，提出让托尼在他的门廊上搭个吊床，以换取洗碗的工作。巴西列维奇不动声色的精彩表演，在于他如何传达出“厨师”逐渐意识到托尼的暴躁唤醒了他自己早已放弃的梦想。

如果说“厨师”是托尼肩上的天使，那么另一边的魔鬼则是费尔（卢克·伍德尔饰，表现出色）——一个追逐名利、满嘴脏话的花花公子，也是引领托尼探索小镇夜生活和社交场合的放荡向导。这种张力，而非任何浪漫情节，推动着托尼的成长，剧本不断抛出纪律与躁动之间的选择。与费尔和他的狐朋狗友（斯塔夫罗斯·斯塔布尔和迈克尔·杰伯拉饰演）一起混迹时，托尼终于发现自己擅长某件事，只是他还没有准备好离开。

自2013年首部长片以来，约翰逊已成为困惑男性的记录者，他的角色都是怀揣宏大理想却可能成为自身最大敌人的不安分者。《托尼》延续了这一模板，这部电影罕见而真实，既阴郁又夸张，偶尔还带着几分虔诚。

“因为你注视我的时候，我喜欢自己呈现的样子。”托尼对南希说，请她为自己拍一张照片，用于一本他尚未动笔的书。在这样的时刻，艾琳娜卸下疏离的魅力，流露出能够缓和博尔丹式自负的脆弱。

摄影师迈克尔·邓斯坦（Michael Dunstan）使用老式信件，并在科德角（Cape Cod）取景拍摄，将信息传递得近乎感伤，直至美景之中。故事本身虽显单薄，但通过聚焦于一段波澜壮阔人生的细微银光，约翰逊触及了更深层的东西，超越了他自己的话语和曾经的允诺。最终，这部引人入胜的电影或许更多是关于一位厨师的火炬，而非关于一个男人的塑造。

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2020年8月12日 / 15

文化

重返起点

斯坦顿的笔记 斯坦顿的电梯工程，英格兰

肯尼思·布拉纳时隔40年重返皇家莎士比亚剧团

作者：罗伊·雷恩·哈里斯

肯尼思·布拉纳32岁时首次登上皇家莎士比亚剧团的舞台，在1964年的《亨利》剧目中担任主角。在剧团工作三年后，他转而主演了同一部戏剧的重要银幕改编版，并因此获得两项奥斯卡提名，成为家喻户晓的人物。

时隔四十余年，布拉纳重返埃文河畔斯特拉特福，在两部接连上演的契诃夫与莎士比亚剧作——《樱桃园》和《暴风雨》中出演，其中某些主题与他自己在皇家莎士比亚剧团的经历微妙共鸣。

《樱桃园》将于5月20,结束演出，该剧由编剧卢茨·沃兹（Lutz's Wads）重新诠释，萨马拉·哈维执导。布拉纳饰演独臂商人列帕欣，他造访父亲曾为农奴的庄园，劝说庄园第三代主人拉涅夫斯卡娅夫人（海伦·凯泽饰）变卖资产以缓解财务困境。

拉涅夫斯卡娅夫人在巴黎度过五年后回到家族宅邸，却因过于怀旧而无法接受列帕欣的建议——砍掉心爱的樱桃园，改建度假别墅。当她沉浸在怀旧情绪中时，列帕欣简短地催促道：“好好想想！”

布拉纳以浓重的北爱尔兰口音饰演列帕欣，呼应了他自己在工人阶级贝尔法斯特的童年。（布拉纳8岁时随家人移居英格兰，此后改用英式口音。）

如果说他的列帕欣更像一位谨慎的账房经理而非贪婪的投机商，这并非坏事。他的真诚关怀超越了自身利益，契合了契诃夫在1963年写给俄罗斯戏剧导演康斯坦丁·斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的信中对该角色的定义——“从各方面来说都是一个正派人”。列帕欣或许是一名收购商，但在此情境中至少也是一个理性的声音。

因为拉涅夫斯卡娅及其随行人员正陷入困境。他们试图在窘迫的境况下维护尊严，而安娜·庞塞莱特的布景——褪色的绿色墙壁和凌乱的床单——则悄然传递了这种无奈。

他们的困境通过列帕欣的视角被细腻呈现。比尔·普尔曼饰演拉涅夫斯卡娅那位僵硬、狂喜且行为古怪的兄弟加耶夫（当他宣称“我作为作家已经穿越了整个家族”时，我们能从他身上感受到某种荒诞）。盖伊·亨利饰演的皮什奇克是一个迟钝、和蔼的寄生虫，仿佛直接从初版小说中走出；迈克尔·埃尔温则饰演了那个认为1918年的农奴解放是俄罗斯社会一切问题根源的老仆人菲尔斯，其表演既滑稽又悲凉。

整体而言，他们身上透着一股疯人院的气息。因此，当列帕欣以香槟般的轻快语调宣布樱桃园已在拍卖中售出时，剧中那种不道德的荒诞感与喜剧效果达到了高潮，而他的贝尔法斯特口音也因情绪激动而愈发浓重。

上图：从左至右，《樱桃园》剧组成员索菲·扬斯、安迪·拉什、安伯·加德和朱利安·摩尔-科德，舞台布景由安娜·庞塞莱特设计。左图：《暴风雨》剧组成员迈克·布朗、弗雷德·约瑟夫斯基·埃文斯、贝蒂·斯托克斯和兰迪·奥斯蒙。下图：肯尼思·布拉纳在《暴风雨》中的剧照。他于1918年首次在斯特拉特福登台。

他以宽宏大量的姿态施加影响，这种姿态既自私又仁慈。

当米兰达从沉睡中醒来，称赞“精灵”时，布拉纳夸张地扭动臀部，俏皮地催促她“甩掉它！”这是他那克制表演中难得的放纵瞬间。

如果由理查德·艾尔执导的这部作品中的表演被刻意理解——有时几乎达到了无摩擦的程度——那么声音和视觉效果则对此进行了平衡。鲍勃·克劳利设计的橙蓝相间的华丽布景，唤起了阳光与阳光的意象，弗雷汀·德莫斯的服装设计亦是如此。

传统非洲城镇乐器的家用版“Sneckens”敲击出周期性的寓言，张州扮演的凯列班（Caliban）全无野性，其威胁感如同一名郊区会计师。

演出甚至在普洛斯彼罗（Prospero）将他与爱丽儿（Ariel）释放至优雅呈现的"克隆"场景之前，便已赋予了他人性。

布拉纳跪地重新演绎普洛斯彼罗的“粗犷魔法”，随后猛地挥动指挥棒，奏响短促的音乐，并带走他的。背景幕布落下，露出后台区域，魔法随之破灭。

《暴风雨》是莎士比亚的最后一部戏剧，正如《樱桃园》之于契诃夫。如此对照，它们的挽歌特质愈发共鸣，令人不禁将布拉纳重返旧日舞台视为多愁善感的最后告别。但他年仅65岁——而从这部作品来看，他远未谢幕。

他在斯特拉特福德的首次工作经历在专业上具有奠基意义，但过程坎坷，最终他觉得必须离开才能有所发展。

当被问及是谁买下了它时，他给出了一个既得意又略带羞涩的画面式回答：“Aryty 买下了！”

对于剧中大多数角色而言，剧终意味着一个全新开始的机会。在这一点上，正如从默默无闻到声名鹊起的两段人生，我们能看到布拉纳早期职业生涯的影子。在 1991 年的《起点》一书中，他回忆了自己为了在演艺界立足而改掉北爱尔兰口音，并剖析了导致他于 1967 年离开皇家莎士比亚剧团的种种矛盾。他在斯特拉特福德的时光在专业上具有奠基意义，但过程坎坷。布拉纳与管理层在工作量和薪酬问题上产生分歧，最终觉得必须离开才能有所发展。

这一决定似乎得到了回报，布拉纳今年夏天以爵士身份重返剧团。他在《暴风雨》中饰演的大魔法师普洛斯彼罗确实带有一种近乎庄严的气质，该剧在《樱桃园》开演前连续上演了五周。

这是自 1963-65, 年他在皇家莎士比亚剧团出演《哈丽雅特》以来，布拉纳首次登上该剧团的舞台。他身披魔法师斗篷登场，展示了一位大师的风范，并施展了开场的魔法，将一群遭遇海难的士兵和王室成员散落到 Prospects 的魔法岛上。

与《樱桃园》中一样，布拉纳饰演的角色是变革的推动者。Prospects 掌控着岛屿及其居民：空中精灵爱丽儿（阿玛拉·杜罗谢饰）、被奴役的卡利班（阿什利·张加祖饰）和他的女儿米兰达（鲁比·斯托克斯饰）。然而，他—。

蟾蜍掺杂的精神病态

书评

《自我之旅》 精神变态的蟾蜍、笨蛋的工具，以及新电影《误判的横梁》 作者：基罗泽·德格鲁特。双日出版社。315页。$20。

撰文：胡安娜·卡巴兰

如果要列举精神变态的实验者，干燥蟾蜍的分泌物效果必定名列前茅——这种体验能在不到做一份三明治的时间内将你带入无限的幻觉。

索诺拉沙漠蟾蜍分泌的毒液中含有致幻化合物5-甲氧基-N,N-二甲基色胺（5-MeO-DMT），被信徒们奉为“神圣元素”。作为首个合法地区的蟾蜍，一次吸入就能引发压倒性的神秘体验，并伴随呼吸急促和身体失控的感觉。

对某些人来说，这种体验带来敬畏与治愈；对另一些人而言，则是噩梦和崩溃的根源。对于如此极端的体验，引导至关重要——至少你会这么认为。

《自我之旅》是一部既令人不安又引人入胜的游记，深入探索了迷幻复兴运动的黑暗底层世界，揭示了并非所有引导者都是平等的。而其中一些，包括本书的核心人物，则是彻头彻尾的精神变态。

南非作家基罗泽·德格鲁特本质上是一名记者，他对周围怪诞景象的直白描述和对细节的敏锐捕捉，为这场成功的戏剧性叙事奠定了基础——蟾蜍腺体的气味“像硫磺”，人物名字如“泰斯·戴斯”，迷幻朝圣者们齐声吟唱。

这本书源于德格鲁特为《纽约客》撰写的奥克塔维奥·雷蒂格·伊诺霍萨（Octavio Rettig Hinojosa）的人物特写。这位墨西哥医生曾一度吸毒成瘾，后转变为蟾蜍信徒。在某些圈子里，奥克塔维奥的名字已与这种药物画上等号。德格鲁特写道，他成了迷幻界的“神”，受到其他蟾蜍仪式引导者（是的，这是一种职业）的崇拜，这些人复兴了一种失传的仪式性实践。

曾有一段时间，雷蒂格无处不在：受到委内瑞拉联合国协会的赞助，在Vice纪录片中亮相，在火人节上主持仪式，并在迷幻会议上担任主讲嘉宾。时至今日，他仍拥有一小群忠实的蟾蜍吸食追随者。

然而，雷蒂格并非这种实践的发现者。20世纪60年代，一位意大利化学家在索诺拉沙漠蟾蜍体内发现了5-MeO-DMT，这种蟾蜍是唯一已知能产生该致幻物质的动物，尽管这种化合物也天然存在于某些植物中，并在仪式性场合中使用了数千年。

合成的5-MeO-DMT因其起效快、持续时间短（迅速发作，约30分钟结束）而受到制药公司的青睐。目前正在进行多项合成形式的临床试验，包括用于治疗产后抑郁症和双相情感障碍II型的研究。

但一部分迷幻爱好者认为，合成药物无法与“蟾蜍神”的治愈力量相提并论。于是，在其唯一栖息地索诺拉沙漠——正处于墨西哥毒品战争的交火点——形成了一个市场。

雷蒂格的合法性部分源于他与一个名为“索恩”（Son）的部落的联系。德格鲁特写道，作为“神圣实践的最后守护者”，他们曾训练过雷蒂格。这个部落几乎被灭绝，如今主要从事渔业，因靠近毒品走私路线而深受毒瘾流行的影响。实际上，雷蒂格最初将蟾蜍吸食作为一种治疗手段引入，后来却声称他的患者才是这种实践的真正起源。

这是一个引人入胜的故事，同时也带来了经济利益。在一小部分“索恩”支持者的支持下，雷蒂格开始复原他们的传统历史，整理他们的歌曲，周游世界，向主要是西方的受众推销他“发现”的一种被压制的原住民实践。德格鲁特追踪这一主张，穿越—。

历史档案的记录并不充分——尽管他并未将其直接定性为欺诈。（一份2026年的期刊则更为果断，称这种做法是“一种带有浓重人情味的社交行为”。）

如果你熟悉“精神导师”的套路，就知道这会走向何方。雷蒂格的行为极为鲁莽。他夸大了自己曾接触过的客户数量。一名年仅5岁的儿童被给予“药物”以治疗其注意力缺陷多动障碍（A.D.R.D.）。

2016年，有消息曝出雷蒂格在委内瑞拉的一处海滩上对一名反抗的男子拳打脚踢，强迫其吸食更多蟾毒。雷蒂格甚至承认对客户使用了类似“内部装置”的手段。

接下来是死亡事件。一名女友在水下洞穴中神秘死亡。另一名女子在仪式中停止呼吸并死亡；相关指控后来被撤销，雷蒂格则庭外和解了一起民事诉讼。

“我们使用‘利兹比亚’，”一位团队中的同行从业者向德格鲁特坦承，“这太可怕了。”

但恐怖并非始于或终于雷蒂格。还有许多其他蟾毒引导师，其中一些同样具有掠夺性，至今仍在活动。而同样的鲁莽也蔓延到了地上研究领域，因为大型制药公司正竞相将5-甲氧基-N,N-二甲基色胺（5-MeO-DMT）推向市场。尽管部分研究结果令人鼓舞，尤其是在成瘾和抑郁症治疗方面，但已知的研究在安全性和行动方面仍存在诸多不足。

《纽约客》发表了这篇令人不安的人物报道后，德格鲁特有机会在墨西哥的一次“索恩人爱之年”庆典上与他的研究对象会面。在那里，雷蒂格向德格鲁特提供了一份未知的“精油”样品。

令我大为震惊的是，德格鲁特竟然接受了。

他写道：“我没有理由信任他，但在那一刻，我选择了相信，也许是因为这份邀约显得真诚，甚至带有和解的意味。”

这种混合物中掺入了牵牛花籽提取物，其化学成分与LSD相关。“我的眼球感觉比平时大了一倍，”他写道，“我漂浮在水中，仰望天空。”

心灵得以平静。我们这些自下而上的引导者，怎会如此轻易地落入如此明显的陷阱？而这正是A.D.领域中一个引人入胜却未被深入探讨的角落：如果像德格鲁特这样理智的人都会被雷蒂格这样的人所迷惑，我们其他人又有什么机会呢？

苏珊娜·卡拉汉（Susannah Cabalan）的最新著作是《迷幻女王：罗丝玛丽·伍丁的迷幻人生与反文化叛逆》（The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Wooding）。

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16 / 12, 2026

生活

每次都要充分利用新鲜番茄

以下七种方法让即使最美味的番茄也能更上一层楼

作者：阿里·伊斯兰斯

番茄不需要再多宣传，这正是我想写如何改进它们的原因。

一年多来，这个专栏每月都会分享七种升级常见食材和菜肴的方法。有时，这是一个空间，用来赞美那些被遗忘的两种熟食和小点心（notchies）。其他时候，则是为了让人们喜爱的食物不负期待：今晚的那不勒斯披萨是否如丝般顺滑，希腊沙拉是否活力四射，番茄是否如你所愿般令人满足。

然而，作为一名专业食谱创作者，新鲜番茄对我来说是最让人捉摸不透的食材之一。（在番茄的万神殿里，我看见了你。）虽然我喜爱它们的酸甜汁液，但番茄的风味却难以预测。它们可能寡淡无味、苦涩，甚至像过熟的草莓一样发酸。在你把它们带回家并决定使用之前，很难知道它们的品质如何。但在为《纽约时报美食》创作了约40道以新鲜番茄为特色的食谱后，我总结出了一些能提升其品质的技巧。以下七条建议能让每一口都更加美味。读完后，就回去尽情享用你的番茄吧。

考虑番茄的大小

说到番茄，大小很重要：无论是购买时的大小还是切割时的大小。像樱桃、葡萄或拉斯普（lasapids）这样小巧的番茄，通常会更甜，因为它们的空间较小，水分不易稀释汁液。它们的果皮与果肉比例也更高，这有助于在烹煮或咀嚼时保持形状。如果将较大的番茄切成樱桃番茄大小的块，它们容易变得过于软烂。但如果切口整齐，它们会保持完整，让你能将汁液留在口中而不是碗里。

增强酸度

虽然番茄常搭配醋调味，但不妨试试柠檬汁。这种更温和的酸味能提亮番茄的明快感，又不会过于突兀，让番茄的本味始终成为焦点。

搭配其他水果

虽然番茄常被当作蔬菜使用，但它们也能用于水果类应用。（从植物学角度看，番茄确实是水果。）可以将其视为双赢：桃子、石榴和甜瓜能凸显番茄的甜味，而番茄的酸度则为它们增添活力。

加入乳制品

番茄与乳制品的组合威力无穷。当酸与脂肪、甜与浓郁相遇时，效果惊人。无论是新鲜的马苏里拉、里科塔和鲜奶油，还是坚果风味的陈年帕尔马干酪和切达干酪，两者都能完美平衡，迸发出无限可能。

搭配辣椒酥

辣椒酥的油润、酥脆和辛辣与番茄的酸甜多汁形成绝妙对比。将切好的番茄加盐，让汁液流入碗中或铺在盘子上，再淋上辣椒酥。番茄下方积聚的液体将是番茄汁与辣油的混合物，每一滴都值得细细品味。

磨碎番茄

“我的同事维塔尔·库在2021年写道：‘磨碎番茄能奇迹般地凸显其所有美味之处’，她的意思是将一个大而熟的番茄从中间对半切开，像切哈密瓜一样。然后，将切面在大孔擦菜板上摩擦，磨入碗中。品尝收集到的汁液。如果这还不能让你兴奋，那——”

西红柿与桃子沙拉配打发山羊奶酪

作者：艾丽莎·梅里 时间：13分钟 分量：4人份

• 2汤匙特级初榨橄榄油
• 1汤匙樱桃醋
• 1汤匙整粒芥末，最好是Maile品牌
• ½茶匙新鲜柠檬皮屑，另加2茶匙柠檬汁
• ½个小红洋葱，切成极薄片
• 4盎司软山羊奶酪或羊乳酪
• 6汤匙浓奶油
• 2个大型传统西红柿（总重约14盎司），去皮并切成1英寸楔形块
• 2个中等大小的桃子（约12盎司），对半切开去核，切成½英寸楔形块
• 1杯紧实的马齿苋、野苣或豆瓣菜碎（可选）

1. 在一个大碗中，将橄榄油、醋、芥末和柠檬汁搅拌均匀。加入大量盐和胡椒调味，搅入红洋葱后放置一旁。

2. 将山羊奶酪弄碎放入食品加工机的碗中，搅打至蓬松，必要时刮下碗壁，搅打1至2分钟。加入浓奶油和柠檬皮屑，继续搅打至蓬松，约1分钟，必要时刮碗。转移至碗中，根据口味加盐调味。

3. 用勺背将打发的山羊奶酪均匀涂抹在大浅盘或浅碗中。将西红柿楔形块、桃子楔形块和马齿苋加入调料中拌匀。根据口味加盐和胡椒调味。放在打发的山羊奶酪上，立即上桌。

西红柿沙拉

作者：阿里·伊斯兰斯 时间：13分钟 分量：4人份

• 1½汤匙切碎的青葱或红洋葱
• ½个大青柠（约4汤匙汁）
• 1½至2磅成熟西红柿（约3个大的或2品脱）
• 2汤匙特级初榨橄榄油
• 20片罗勒叶，如叶片过大可撕碎

1. 在一个大碗中，将青葱和柠檬汁搅拌均匀。放置一旁，同时切西红柿。

2. 将西红柿切成适口大小的块，边切边加入碗中。加入大量盐搅拌均匀。轻轻拌入橄榄油，然后加入罗勒叶。根据口味加盐调味。立即食用，或放置搅拌偶尔搅拌，最多可放30分钟。

如果味道不够浓郁，可以加盐，或加少许糖或柠檬汁调整。然后舀在烤面包、酸奶、意大利面等食物上。

低温慢烤

西红柿含有大量水分，而水的味道并不突出。去除这些水分后，西红柿会变得更加鲜美和细腻。当你用大量黄油或油低温慢烤西红柿时，水分会蒸发，西红柿的风味会浓缩。低温意味着水果的糖分不会烧焦，反而会焦糖化，甚至在某些地方变得像糖果一样黏稠。

西红柿黄油意大利面

适量犹太盐

1. 1磅蜡质或有凹槽的意大利面（如1. 螺丝面或2. 贝壳面），或3. 长面条（如4. 宽面条）
2. 2至3磅大型成熟西红柿（约6. 2至7. 3个），横向对半切开

3. 3汤匙冷藏无盐黄油 - 1瓣大蒜，去皮 - ½茶匙红辣椒片，另加适量供上桌时使用 - 黑胡椒 - 碎罗勒叶，供上桌时使用（可选） - 磨碎的帕尔马干酪，供上桌时使用

4. 将一大锅盐水煮沸。加入意大利面，根据包装说明煮至沥干。保留1杯意大利面煮水，然后沥干意大利面。

5. 同时，用大孔擦丝器将西红柿切面擦入大碗中。丢弃或堆肥西红柿皮。将黄油也擦入碗中。用擦丝器的小孔将大蒜擦入碗中。加入红辣椒片，并加入大量盐调味。冷藏备用。

6. 将沥干的意大利面倒回锅中，加入擦好的西红柿和黄油碗。将锅置于火上。

时间：13分钟（2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20-22-24-26-28-30-32-34-36-38-40-42-44-46-48-50-52-54-56-58-60-62-64-66-68-70-72-74-76-78-80-82-84-86-88-90-92-94-96-98-100）

西红柿-切达奶酪吐司

作者：阿里·伊斯兰斯 耗时：13 分钟 分量：4 片吐司

• 2 个成熟中等大小西红柿，切薄片
• ½ 杯蛋黄酱
• ½ 杯（2 盎司）精细磨碎的特级切达奶酪
• 4 片硬质面包

1. 将西红柿片摆放在盘中，撒少许盐。将蛋黄酱、切达奶酪和一撮盐搅拌均匀。

2. 按喜好烤制面包。面包烤热后立即涂抹切达奶酪蛋黄酱（多余蛋黄酱可冷藏保存 2 周）。放上西红柿片即可享用。

IS D.C. SAFER? ONE YEAR SINCE A TRUMP TAKEOVER

PAGE 6 | WORLD

MET CLOISTERS A CARETAKER OF 10,000 OBJECTS

PAGE 14 | CULTURE

TOMATOES, OPTIMIZED 7 WAYS TO UPGRADE A STANDOUT INGREDIENT

BACK PAGE | LIVING

The New York Times

INTERNATIONAL EDITION | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026

A bold idea

to reform immigration

Mike DeWine

OPINION

In 2072, President Richard Nixon did something instrumental and compared what he traveled to the People's Republic of China and met with the leaders of its Communist regime, resulting in the establishment of forces diplomatic relations between the two countries just a few years later.

At that time, few others could have done what Nixon did for fear of being labeled an approach. But Nixon's lifelong fight against Communism gave him the credibility and public trust he needed to make the bold move.

President Trump has an equally historic opportunity.

For decades, America's failure to seal its southern border and stem the tide of illegal immigration has been errang its ability to agree upon a rational legal immigration policy.

The president has a historic opportunity to create a Nixon-guest-Cloise moment. But the Depart- ment of Homeland Security reports that in June, Border Patrol apprehensions at the border with Mexico were 94 percent lower than the monthly average during the Bible's administrations.

Having demanded and led this remarkable turnaround, Mr. Trump has the standing to lead an office to reform America's legal immig- nation system — to make changes that prioritize its work force needs while respecting its history of webcom- ing people fleeing oppression and humanitarian crises.

The Ohio's governor, I understand the need for a sensible immigration policy. In our state, very simply, we need people.

The U.S. national birthman has been tending down since 2007 and is well below the replacement rate. As the population grows more slowly, it will also trend alike. The Congressional Budget Office projects that starting in 2016, doubts will outgrow births and all of America's population growth will come from net immigration.

Despite declining births, Ohio's population grew between 2016 and 2025, with about 80 percent of the births are coming from those born out- side the United States. Because our employment rate for prime-age work- ers is near its historic peak, Ohio must attract people of all skill levels to ex- pand our work force.

Immigrants help fill work force gaps. Foreign-born workers represent nearly 30 percent of America's long-term directs per week force. They provide REPORT, PAGE 2

The New York Times publishes opinion from a wide range of perspectives in hopes of presenting constructive debate about immigrantial questions.

A retail empire in flames

A Wildberries warehouse near St. Petersburg, Russia, after a strike by Ukrainian drivers lost month. Ukraine has targeted the retailer as it seeks to bring the war home to Russians.

Kyiv is repeatedly hitting

an e-commerce panel built by Russia's richest woman

BY NAGALINA VAGUZUVA, PAUL ARNIK, ALINA LUKIINA AND OLEK MATINEV

She built Russia's answer to Amasine, like navigated wartime Kremlin politics. And she unimannerized her ex-hus- band — the father of her seven children — in a catacresus business lead that is valued a deadly shooting near Red Square.

But Tatyana Kim, the billionaire on thunder of the online marketplace Wild- berries and the richest woman in Rus- sia, is now facing a far greater chal- longe. Ukrainian airstrikes are decimat- ing her company's facilities and threat- ening her business empire's survival.

After months of attraction Russia on refineries that caused nationwide gas shortages, Ukraine has expanded its air campaign to Wildberries warehouses across Russia. Kyiv has targeted at four 25 Wildberries facilities on list, hitting them eight after eight since mid-July, with billions of dollars in merchandise going up in smoke. Nine of the compa- re's workers have been killed.

The attacks mark a new stage in the

Tatyana Kim, the billionaire on thunder of Wildberries, described Ukrainian strikes on its facilities as "terrorist attacks" with "no logic, common sense or rationality".

conflict, with Kyiv aggressively target- ing a single private business for the first time. President Volodymyr Zolensky of Ukraine is attempting to bring the war home for more Russians, hoping that rising discontent and inconvenience in Russian society will increase the pres- sure on President Vladimir V. Putin to end the war.

Kyiv has argued that Wildberries, which accounts for about 10 percent of all Russian retail sales, is a legitimate target because it provides good to Rus- sian soldiers.

Ms. Kim, speaking in a video address late last month, condemned what she described as "terrorist attacks." She said that the goods Wildberries was sell-

ing were no different from what was on after by platforms like Amasine or the Chinese giant Alibaba.

"There is no logic, common sense or rationality in the actions of the terror- ists, nor can there be," Ms. Kim said, re- ferring to the Ukrainians. She said the "enemy" was trying to "apply pressure, destabilize and provoke panic and check among a large number of people."

The strikes are hurting Wildberries, and the Russian retail market is gen- eral, at a time when the country's coun- try is already facing difficulties, though the damage gains in comparison to the destructive Russia has caused in Ukraine.

Consumer spending in Russia for sun- bout items on marketplace like Wild- berries has plummeted in recent weeks, until the airstrikes, according to a re- search note by Sherbides, a research arm of state-owned Sherbank.

Wildberries has lost up to one-third of its warehouse space and as much as 400 billion rubles' worth of goods ($5.9 bil- lion) in the Ukrainian attacks, according to Moscow-based Data Insight, an e- commerce consultant.

Wildberries "has almost run out of its biggest warehouses," said Sergei Sereka, an analyst at Data Insight.

"Every single day one warehouse after another is getting methodically WEDNESDAY, PAGE 3

As Trump

seeks exit, Middle East tightens grip

WASHINGTON

President is encountering

limits of American power in both Iran and Gaza

BY ANTON TRUSANOVSKI

President Trump may want to let go of the Middle East. But it won't let go of him.

Over the weekend, Mr. Trump said his new strategy was to be "low-keying it" in Iran, a suggestion that he wants to pressure the country into making a fa- verable deal without taking major mil- itary action. But a much reminder of the limits of U.S. power in the region came from Israel, where Prime Minister Ben- jamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday he was "ruling out" Mr. Trump's peace plan for Gaza.

The two Middle East conflicts have understated Mr. Trump's responses to decline sources and his inability to im- pose his will on them, despite the com- mon military frequency that he has been able to deploy.

Mr. Trump is "clearly trying to find a pathway as the midterors approach to downgrade all of this," said Brian Kai- sila, a senior fellow at the Middle East tentative, a Washington think tank. In usual, Mr. Kaiusla went on, "reality is displayed but in the face."

Mr. Trump faces depleted weapons incubation, an Iranian regime demon- mined to impose pain on the United States, an Israeli prime minister bot- ting for protection and American rea- ters reeling from high prices induced by the Iran war. The November midterors keep closing those, usually causing the political costs of the turmoil to Mr. Trump and Republicans.

Mr. Trump laid out his low-key ap- proach to Iran in a brief interview with the news website Asian on Sunday. Rather than make new military threats, he said that "we are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," He added. "It will work out. It always works out. It's like a chees- game."

"Now, can they make trouble? Yeah, they can make trouble," Mr. Trump said reporters in the Oval Office Monday, ac- knowledging Iran's ability to keep Iran- seeing commercial ships in the Scout of Bermuda. "But they're broke."

In describing the Iranian regime as suffering from economic pressure, Mr. Trump evoked his own predicament. The average price of a gallon of gasoline remained above $5 this week, more than $1 above the price when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 25. With above even Republicans growing downturned with the Iran war, and Mr. Trump's political movement has fractured over his decision to launch military action.

"I don't think the president has very TROMP, PAGE 4

On Pakistan's roads, an evolution on two wheels

Electric sensors on display in Lahore, Pakistan. "Trump is the biggest subcomas," said the managing director of an electric scooter company. "Subcomas of the year," he added.

LANSORE, PAKISTAN

Electric motorcycles surge

in popularity as the war in Iran keeps fuel prices high

BY CIDEO BARILAN AND IZA UR-EGEMAN

The frenzy started on a single street in Lahore, Pakistan, where a half-dozen showrooms sprung up selling the same thing — electric motorcycles — and still couldn't keep up with demand. As gase- line prices soared this year a seventh state opened, followed by an eighth. An other two are doing business just around the corner.

And that was just the beginning. Electric motorcycles scarcely existed in Pakistan three years ago. But across the country, new brands are arriving by the week with names like Viskira and John, from some 84 companies and counting.

They're a mix of showstring opera- tions, venture-capital-backed start-ups and even the Pakistani company that makes Manny Ferguson trainees. All see potential and are jumping in.

The surge signals how quickly, and perhaps permanently, people in devel- aging countries are proving away from small-burn as the war in Iran keeps all prices high.

"If all these people convert to electric, now 100 companies would not be enough," said Mumtaz Hussain, the na- tional sales manager for Evran, which has a showroom on one end of Moutura Mumbai. All Road, the street where much of the shopping is happening in Lahore.

Electric motorcycles are a crucial in- dicator of changes driven by war. In painers countries, where people are near the corner are merely price shocks, two wheezers are far more common than cars. Electric models typically cost more to buy than gasoline-powered ver- siens.

But rising gasoline prices have given PAKISTAN, PAGE 5

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Tuesdays 4.5.26 Tuesdays 4.5.30 Tuesdays 4.5.30 Ninety 4.5.30 Cenere May 12th 2:30

Thurs 4.5.30 Sundays 4.5.30 Cenere May 12th 2:30

Sundays 4.5.30 Sundays 4.5.30 Cenere 4.5.30

Tues 4.5.30 Sundays 4.5.30 Monocul 4:00:30

Thursdays 4.5.30 Tues 4.5.30 Sundays 4.5.30 Monocul 4:00:30

Thursdays 4.5.30 Tues 4.5.30 Sunny 4.5.30 Cenere 4.5.30

SAT 4:00:30 Sundays 4:00:30 Cenere 4:00:30

Sara Ramkar No. 44, 2023

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2 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

PAGE TWO

On Pakistan's roads, an evolution on two wheels

PRAESTAR: FROM PAGE 1 electrics a big advantage: It's cheaper to charge a battery than to fill up a bad tank.

In Vietnam, famous for its motorcycle-mounted system, the biggest electric manufacturer, Haidam, has once moving sales. In Kenya, about 25 to 30 percent of new motorcycle sales are electric, said Gagan Gagan, the founder of Spiro, the largest electric vehicle company operating in Africa. He said the energy shock helped "multiply everything by two times."

In all these places, people in the industry increasingly use the idea that future generations will never operate a gasoline-powered vehicle. "The demand is effectively open-ended," said Jodo Whale, the founder of Angerwald, an electric-motorcycle company that operates in Kenya and Rwanda.

That is certainly true to Pakistan, where motorbikes make up about 30 percent of vehicles on the road and often count as the most valuable thing a person owns.

In Pakistan, sales of electric two-wheelers rose 3.5 percent during the first half of the year, according to Motor-Cycles Data, a market intelligence firm. It attributed the jump to both the oil price increase and a government subsidy program. Bianca Asad, the director of sales for Evon, the country's largest electric sales, said that 90,000 electric two-wheelers were sold nationwide between April and June, compared with 102,000 for the entire year in 2025.

About 14 million motorbikes, gasoline or otherwise, are purchased in Pakistan in a typical year.

"Trump is the biggest salesman. Salesman of the year," said Muhammad Salman, the managing director of Yakin

Pakistan, which also has a discretion on Maulana-Shaukat Ali Road, referring to the increase in demand for gasoline bikes that has followed the president's move on and the way.

In Pakistan, the world's fifth most populous country, the problem-tion comes from a mix of homegrown ingenuity and Chinese opportunism.

A handful of Pakistani companies use chassis and tires manufactured domestically while relying on balance and import from China. But other companies depend on China almost entirely. They import bikes essentially like DELA

furistism, in ready-to-assemble packages that need little more than a logo.

China has a constellation of companies, mostly in the city of Evan, that offer three commensurate kits. Pakistan, seeing to clear up its affiliated skins, applies duties of only 1 percent on each imprint. At a recent trade show in Lahore, Claire Cheng, the foreign trade manager at Esgrima, a West-based manufacturer of electric-motorcycle kits, asked passers for "live you starting a company." She had arrived with a huge insurance cards, some candles and plenty of brochures filled with 85 possible motor-

cycle designs, from Vespa-style city scanners to rugged models with kit tires. "We can provide you with your own brand," she said.

Lahore has hundreds of electric motorcycle showrooms. But the stores around Maulana-Shaukat Ali Road have become the success for the industry, clustered in a middle-class neighborhood among a joke store, a hotelier and a halway sandwich shop.

Among the earliest brands on the street was Metro, whose motorbike came in the ready-made units from China, said Usman Arif, the chief conca-

Above, riding an electric scooter through traffic in Lahore, Pakistan. Below, the Evon factory on the outskirts of Lahore. Left, a Yakin dealership. Pakistan has the worst air quality in the world. One study in Lahore found that transportation accounts for 85 percent of the pollution, and that smog reduces life expectancy by an average of six years.

tive of Arif Motors, which sells the bikes. Soon after came Evon, which opened on a nearby street, and which recently doubled the length of its Lahore assembly line, where parts came from both China and Pakistan.

Then there is Yakin, which opened its dealership just weeks after the start of the Iran war this year. The company's origins team back to New York City, where its founder, Syed Raza Mohsin, had been working in his 30s at a hedge fund and "banging out with too many ad-itch people," he said.

Mr Mohsin, now 43, remembers looking at Trolch snaring sales figures and realizing that his home country would miss out on any E.V. trainmen that depended on buying 540,000 plus vehicles. So he returned to Pakistan, hired a few

people, and tried to figure out if it was possible to make a two-whorfer for around $1,000.

Mr Mohsin knew his target market. To appeal to buyers, any idea needed to be visually comparable to the de facto national motorcycle of Pakistan, the Honda CD-70. It's every where, and it has scarcely changed its appearance in 40 years. The CD-70 doesn't even have a bad gauge.

But it is a workhorse. It can churn around the high moisture floodwaters or power up road roads. And it famously holds its model value.

"We wanted some sense of familiarity," said Mr Mohsin, who ultimately withered a model entity Honda-like profile and similar O-tech (43-continence) rites.

Not everything went smoothly. Visitors has tried to ensure parts domestically, but few years after its first sale, its bikes, even those faced up in the showroom, don't always have consistent details in the motor work.

And this spring, the company kept taking orders but couldn't keep pace with deliveries. Buyers fired off negative reviews about three-month wait times. "It's not a pretty sight, and I am not proud of it," Mr Mohsin said.

Still, on a recent Wednesday night along Maulana-Shaukat Ali Road, Visitors had the busiest seats. One of the shoppers was Haider Ali Khan, who said he was spending 2 percent of his salary on fuel and had become convinced the "next age" in electric. Another man, Saad Bar Arif, said he had traveled 200 miles, or roughly 320 kilometers — not to buy a bike, but to support about spending a leadership of the own. And yet, the store has attracted Honda devotees.

Electric motorcycles scarcely existed in Pakistan: three years ago. Now there are some 84 companies and counting.

About 8,000 vehicles had never considered himself as "electric gap" that been driving his Honda CD-70. In 10 years, nearly 100,000 miles, and called it "absent beauty you have in Pakistan." But he committed more than 40 miles per day for his software job. He liked the look of the Visitors, And the truth had become responsible to ignore.

"If I can save a few rupees," he said, "I'll do it."

Pakistan has good reasons to suggest the changes. Providence products account for about 10 percent of it imports, meaning that higher oil prices drain the foreign currency supply and can spark inflation.

Pakistan also ranks as the country with the world's worst air quality. One study in Lahore, the nation's second-largest city, found that transportation accounts for 65 percent of the pollution, and that smog reduces life expectancy by an average of six years. The average vehicle in Pakistan exists about 33 times the emissions, per mile, as the typical vehicle in America.

Three motorcycles are "throwing out raw petrol," said Usman Khan, who helped advise the government on its E.V. policy.

Pakistan is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change because it faces waves of extreme heat and lacks the funds to fully prepare itself. It also is regularly deluged by monoxons that fixed the streets of Lahore.

During a recent midday deluge, people scrambled the cover, and anybody already indoors stayed just. That included Imran Khalid, a salesman sitting in the showroom of another electric motorcycle company, Sir Speed. He and the building owner, Emohan Bafarian, had no shoppers to read in, as they proved some tea and gave a confession.

"We are thinking of launching our own brand, too," Mr Bafarian said.

They'd just gotten back from a 25-day trip through China, they said. They'd traveled to Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Wuxi, seeking out hold back visiting humans and organizing other private, powertrain and batteries.

They didn't yet have a brand name in school but the majority of the most 270-kilotans already had 84 electric-motorcycle companies. Since would transfer an 85% "We will be another one," Mr Khan said. "Not might be — near he."

Tong Ngo in thame contributed to this report.

He used natural methods to make prized Abruzzo wines

EWODI PEPF 1972-2026

BY ERIC ASIMOV

Emidio Pepe, an interactive grower and winemaker in the Abruzzo region of Italy, was a standby traditional literature and advocacy for indigenous grapes demonstrated that the area could produce great wines without abandoning time-honored local methods, died on July 28 at his home in Tecum Nanno, Italy. He was 84.

The death was confirmed by his granddaughter Chiam De Gali Pepe.

Emidio Pepe wines are prized around the world for their ability to age for decades and gain completely over time. The latest company of the wide might sell for around 50 million cigarettes the first month always kept back a supply to release with additional aging, these wines were conducted by many of them.

They needed that time in the battle. When the mile, made from the monopolyous grape, were released, roughly four years after the change, they were light and austere, the nuances he had in behind a wall of tension.

With 20 years of age, though, the wines were more complex and graceful. After 10 years, they were gorgeous.

The wines, which were used from Abruzzo or perorino, also aged well but were much more accessible in their youth, beautifully restored and iodine.

Before Mr Pepe and his contemporary Eduardo Valandro, who died in 2006, began making wine, few would have imagined that bottles from

Abruzzo could age and develop. Mr Pepe began his return in 1964, using mostly grapes from his family's vineyards; he was the first in his family to commercially bottle wine, in his father's construction.

Like most small farmers to defraude the Pegee made only a small amount of wine for their own consumption. Mostly, they sold grapes to the local cooperative or the big companies, which generally made cheap, indifferent wines. Now, Mr Pepe would have the challenge of finding buyers for his own wines.

This would not be an easy task, as Abruzzo was not respected for its wines. The official appellation for the only Montepakistan d'Abruzzo, did not even exist until 1986. The firstblast d'Abruzzo appellation began in 1972 and an appellation for perorino after his come official until 1990.

Many in Italy in the 1970s and '80s believed that in order to achieve international success, the dominators in places without reputation, like Abruzzo, would have to adopt French grapes like merlot and chardonnay, as well as French methods, like aging wine in red barrels, rather than training the vineyards in the traditional perorino.

And when the Montepakistan d'Abruzzo appellation was created, the resources in the wine trade asserted that the wines were simple and less experienced young.

Mr Pepe reported all these notions. He believed in the presence of the monopolyous grape and we sat in demonstrations, using traditional methods, that he could make wines that matured and evolved.

Emilio Pepe in 2009. He believed in the greatness of the monopolyous grape and we sat in demonstrations, using traditional methods, that he could make wines that evolved.

"From an early age, Pepe resisted the idea that the grapes and wines of the region would be sold off in bulk or that they were simple liquids destined to be drunk young," Robert V. Camaro, the author of the 2021 book "South of home where Wine, Food and the Sound Italy," said in an interview.

To sell the wines, Mr Pepe traveled relentlessly, promoting them at startings and dinners around the world. Early on, the local wine consortium provided him from a trip to New York because his winery was too small — as Mr Pepe bought his own plane ticket and provided the city's pavement himself.

For a man who had dropped out of

school at the age of 11 to work in agriculture, did not speak English and preferred the Abruzzo on dialect to fashion, it was quite an undertaking.

"According the world is the best education," he told Mr Camaro. "That was my education, that and reading the newspaper."

Mr Pepe was born Agostino Pepe on July 27, 1935, in Tecum Nanno, in Giuseppe and Chiam (Ricci) Pepe. His father was a farmer, and his mother managed the household.

Officially registered by a relative as Emidio — after his grandfather, as well as the patron saint of protection from earthquakes, an ever-powered danger of

Abruzzo — he was known publicly from school age by that name.

After dropping out of school, young Emidio worked with his father as an agricultural contractor, tending others' farms as well as their own. As a teenager, people with educational shortcomings, he took unimaginative answers to Italian and, born, agriculture.

In the mid-1970s, he told Mr Camaro, he and a brother-in-law bought a tractor — (are in Abruzzo in these days) — and turned for others.

"By the time we paid for the tractor, it was worn out and time to buy a new one," he said. "It was then that I smoked one a year later in that another way to make a living."

He became the chairman of a local community for farmers that, in 1980, sent him to the Netherlands for a monthlong agricultural exchange program. He stayed with a family that gave table grapes to a freshman and said there at a television show, which announced, because Italy had no many grapes.

"I realized it's not to create a market," Mr Pepe told Mr Camaro. "If you don't create a market, you are dead."

Angered by the experience, he said about going full time into the wine business, making the complete transition in 1981. It proved to be an suspicious year in which Mr Pepe did start and married a local schoolteacher, Roni Toppi.

In addition to his granddaughter, she sat even him, along with three daughters, Sederi and Emidio Pepe and DeLucia Pepe, two sisters, Tom Pepe and Hamela Pepe, and six other grandchildren.

Seda and Daniela Pepe now ran the

business side of the operation. Since 2020, his granddaughter Chiam has directed the education and winemaking.

"As a young wine, Chiam Pepe was hired last year to also oversee viticulture and winemaking at Donizato de la Chupilla, which was an average estate in the northern Rhine Valley of France.

Mr Pepe burned regionally, creating chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides when they were the norm. When others were adopting trichters in the vineyard, he insisted on the traditional people, particularly for the red grapes.

"Uncalled always said, 'The velvet of the Montepakistan forms only on people,'" Chiam said.

For visitors to the Pepe estate, families were a special visit. Three or four generations of the family would gather around the table, provided one's full Pege wine, which was collected and reading a glow of environment.

They would make a promotion of the wine, including a payment from the Pepe garden, dressed in olive oil from the Pepe olive groves, and pasta made from wheat growing the Pegee — all prepared by Roni Pepe, even with his but her, the Pepe wine would be tasted and old bottles opened. If you happened to visit near the baddies, you might take the wine to the place of your business from all over Italy, and just make certain over what to do for them.

Evora Mt. Pepe grew older and designed much of the work around the world, he added that he was able to "the countryside is my gym," he told Mr Camaro. "You just is gym for the physique, but for the mind also. You may, you do!"

---

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026 | 3

World

Taiwan rehearses an internet outage

TAICHUNG, TAIWAN

Mobile data is blocked in a drill simulating a potential Chinese strike

AND AMY CHANG CHUAN

For half an hour on Monday, mobile data was directed across central Taiwan, hosting millions of people unable to stream videos or share photos or make video calls on their理想ness.

The interruption was deliberate: Taiwan was testing, for the first time on a mass scale, how the island might cope if a Chinese attack disrupted its communications.

The activity was part of Taiwan's annual civil defense exercise, when the government tries to give citizens a sense, albeit a fleeting one, of how they should respond if China tried to seize the self-governed island by force.

The exercise is held in different regions, as different dates, On Monday, in Taichung, a city of nearly 1 million people in central Taiwan, the government held an air-raid drill in which sirens were sounded at 2:30 p.m. telling people to seek shelter. Sirens erupted at people then into thousands or stayed still in homes, shops, malls and train stations. Then a message flashed an phone across the city.

"Due to insatiated air attacks on communications infrastructure, mobile network across will be affected," it said, reminding residents to continue to fund this internet access at Kamio 2015, and listed emergency hotline numbers.

Taichung was one of 14 cities and counties designated for the internet disruption exercise.

In the LaLapert mall, most shops closed for the 30-minute drill, while shoppers and diners stayed in place.

"I think it's needed for sure," said Vu Chan-hsuan, a friend, covering student sitting in the mall's hall court. "Nowadays we're all so attached to our phones. If there's a war or something, they really might resort to cyber warfare or cutting communications."

The government of President Lai Chang-joo has stepped up the publicity about this year's civilian economy, emphasizing the danger posed by China—which under Xi Jinping has expanded its multitudes of meetings, leading vessels and missiles that could support an invasion of Taiwan. He "is says he hopes to absorb" Defeat peacefully but will not rule out using force.

The exercise cautiously turned a problem that Taiwan seems content to do defense: how the island would function if its communications with the world were degraded. Taiwan often heavily on subway cables for telecommunication and officials have said that commercial ships linked to China have submerged cables between Taiwan and some of its outer islands. A broader box of connectivity could seriously disrupt all of Taiwan's subway systems.

At the same time, the civil defense

dilors, checking phones to Taichung, Taiwan, on Monday, the day of a drill drill. The water in the water is the same as the data was blocked. The water is said the risk of an attack was real, while others felt war was unlikely. Huang Chiang-shu, being right, said, "Taiwan can't be too weak, it needs to be a bit stronger." Below left, sending shelter as part of the drill.

drills, held alongside the military's 10-day annual drills, have become a reminder of how differently people view the threat from China, home residents in Taichung said that the risk of an attack was real and urgent. Others said the chances of war were slim, or that Taiwan's government was at least partly to blame for the heightened tensions.

"If both sides could get along in peace, there wouldn't be those high, even though much of instead," said Yang Tai-shu, a former sudden save in his career, who owns a store selling children's shoes.

Huang Chiang-shu, a 70-year-old lefting steamed huns at a stall nearby, said China was a first threat and the drill was the least that the Taiwanese people could do to protect themselves. It was being more strictly enforced than past years, she added, pointing to an instruction sheet that a police officer had handed her.

"Taiwan can't be too weak, it needs to be a bit stronger," she said. "Because that was people went back as to in a 30-hr country and try to assess or help us." Part of the reason for the annual military drill

tary drill appears to be to reassure the public that the island can defend itself.

On its first night, last Wednesday, Taiwanese military police simulated whisking Mr. Laito safety from a standard of a temp by Chinese forces to "disruption," or eliminate him. Television breezy showed troops occurring him out of the presidential building and into a convoy of armored vehicles that rushed him through empty streets to an underground command center.

The bigger question is how Taiwan's population would react during a real invasion

in the black hole. A 30-minute drill offers only a brief picture, but for some residents it helped them feel more mentally prepared.

"The cost we hear from an exercise like this isn't that high, and if we really have a situation like war, I would then be a little better equipped to handle it," said Lian Mei-shu, a farmer who was at the lead court in Taichung during the drill.

Later on Monday, the city government said the drill went well and that calls to the emergency hotline and fire brigade had not been disrupted.

A country music festival with a Kenyan twist

KENYA DISPATCH NAUGAT, ALTAY

BY BRIAN G. O'FENG

The country music fans sang along to classic hits, drinking beer and whiskey as they tried to keep their line dancing synchronized.

No means was needed on the dress code. The Yugong Racecourse, a horse track on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, was pushed with cowboys and savagels wearing their best western styles.

"Hats and hearts!" said Arnold Gupta, one of the attendees.

The crowd was there to celebrate International Cowboys and Cowgirls Day, a festival in Kenya before the last Saturday of July. For the second year in a row, the audience kicked up-dad, dainted and are featherers, celebrating a musical genre here for every but that many Africans are coming to appreciate.

Country has long been played on canoe-cruises in order to maintain and haul drawn increasing interest from local art-

artists over the years. It is particularly popular among Africans in South Africa, where artists like Bobby Angel and Lance James first became stars.

Purity Meisोल and Fatimira Suzuki, both in their 20s, were searching beige hats to the horse track. They were held newcomers in the festival this year.

Ms. Meisोल said she knew she was a country fan who she first heard Karaya Rogers' "The Gambler" on the radio as a child. She is also Khazaa, a journal.com country in Kenya that she said is essentially "cowboy."

"We have cows and ranches," she said. "The only difference is that we don't wear hats and boots and leather jackets."

Many in the audience did indeed wear leather jackets in the childy evening, so but they ditched them when the event's main art. the Nigerian country singer Ochana Okageni, known as The Country Man, took the stage.

Wearing a 4-bigged brown leather jacket and black pants, he fixed up the crowding theushing his guitar as his soft

baritone belted out covers of classic country songs like Don Williams's "I Believe in You."

The Country Man's energy flowed into the crowd as it eagerly geared up for another round of fine dancing. "Are you having a good time?" he added.

Days started, sitting outside a deep selling cowboy saddis in Nairobi, the singer said playing in Kenya would be like performing "on easy mode," compared to playing in his home country.

"Nigerian audiences were "mostly primed for Africans," an upbeat genre that combines jazz, funk and traditional African folk sounds, he said.

She and Elijah Manyoki, the festival's main organizers launched around a cable reel table, shared oranges and tangerines and talked about how they fell in love with country, which crowned in the background at the store.

Ms. Manyoki said he gave up listening to the genre and watching westerns. He once visited Texas and was attracted to the cowboy shops he can share, eventually opening this one in Nairobi.

He later ventured into events after he noticed "country music was only played in bars and clubs" around Kenya. "I one that the best way to have everyone enjoy country music was to do a family country event," said Ms. Manyoki.

He said the festival had welcomed more than 5,000 cowboys and cowgirls last year. He has plans to hold tours across the continent in the future, he said.

Last year's festival featured only local acts and was dominated by a home crowd. This year, a good number of country fans flew in front abroad.

The local country scene in Kenya still barely on cover songs, but performers are remaking classic notes to local languages. At the festival, Ythera the Wildflower sang a rendition of Duffy Partners' "Cast of Many Colors" in her native Kikuyu language.

"Kikuyu conditions bring country music closer to home and our language gets to be appreciated internationally," she said.

Country is particularly popular

among the Kikuyu, Kenya's most popular ethnic group. Some say Magithi, a folk genre in the Kikuyu community that features a lone singing guitarist, is similar to country.

The Country Man said he "found" country music as a boy. But his father played the genre in his rat as he used him to school. "Somehow it slipped into my conscience," he said.

Later he found one of his father's old memory cards and began to enjoy songs by Don Williams, Katsy Rogers and Elvis Presley.

He eventually asked his mother for a game that "mannered" sufficiently enough to play Jim Serves covers in church, filling people, as he put it, "with the Holy Spirit." He started to perform at weddings and later became an internet sensation.

These days, he also writes his own songs, drawing on his life experiences.

Mostly after midnight, to the delight of the crowd at the home track, he got abroad "Lance in Lanka," his first signal song, It traces life's highs and lives.

Left, the Nigerian singer Ochana Okageni, known as the Country Man, performing at a country music festival in Nairobi, Kenya, last month. Center, Elijah Manyoki, the festival's main organizer. Right, enjoying the music.

Kids log on, despite social media ban

KUKA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

In Malaysia, platforms seem wary of using official documents to verify ages

BY ZUNAIRA SAEDED

Fashion Farkana was expecting respite from the daily arguments she has with her partner, once about putting away their phones. Both gave a fake age to sign up for TikTok, she said, and spread too much time watching livestreams of the game. Mobile Legends or playing games themselves.

Her country, Malaysia, had barred children under 16 from social media starting on June 1, and Ms. Fashion was hoping for role would hardly reduce the high screen time.

But months later, that has not been the case.

"It is the best thing ever that I can still log on to TikTok," said Kuylen Malik, Q, Ms. Fashion's other say. "It turns my boredom every day."

Malaysia is not alone in struggling to implement and enforce restrictions on social media use. But the authorities there had suggested the rollout would be smoother than in countries like Australia and Indonesia, because they had told companies to rely on government-issued documents like identity cards to verify users' ages. Now they have suggested that the social media companies are wary of using government data.

The ban applies to platforms with more than 5 million users in Malaysia, which are TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The platforms either described to comment or did not address why they had not established new age-verification systems. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has argued that social media bans for children could be counterproductive and push them toward less safe online spaces. Google, which owns YouTube, said it was committed to working with the Malaysian authorities.

For now, nothing has changed for users.

"This delay for the ban is not good," said Ms. Fashion, whose younger son is in "Children's mental health is being affected by watching TikTok be hours."

The authorities have asked social media companies to explain their failure to comply with the ban and detail the measures they have taken to implement age verification mechanisms, the Ministry of Communications said in a statement last week. They now have until January to comply with the ban, according to Katsaruddin Abdul Rani, the under secretary of the control and compliance division of the ministry.

Social media platforms are under intense scrutiny in Malaysia, which has about 8 million children under 16.

Fashion to comply with the ban can lead to flow of up to 10 million ringgit, or about $15 million.

Social media platforms are under intense scrutiny in Malaysia, which has about 8 million children under 16. The country has seen a recent string of stalk-lings involving schoolchildren that both played and put into have that not so social media, without providing evidence.

Last month, a 10-year-old girl was initially outright when in a school in Banting, southwest of Kuala Lumpur, the capital. The local police said that social media may have influenced the articles, a fellow student, but declined to give specific because the investigation was ongoing.

The Malaysian authorities had no clear evidence of any age recorded be straightforward. Other sources in the country such as a wallet services, confirm users' ages with identification cards.

Some social media companies and civil society groups have voiced concerns about this safety of personal data.

"In their view, this would create uncommitted repudiation of sensitive data and a personal budget to create a privacy breaches and cybersecurity incident," according to a report issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, the regulator tasked with reducing the ban.

The authorities have tried to address these concerns. Young Farokah Isham bin Alqami managing director for development at the regulator, said that to protect users' privacy, companies had been told they must only collect the data needed to verify age and limit storage of that information.

Australia, which last December became the first country in the world in ban social media accounts for children under 16, took a different task, with publicity ordered to come up with age verification systems, like social analysis. This is largely because Australian law states that companies cannot ask users to provide government-issued documents to prove their age because of privacy concerns. But many children easily did not or ticked these systems.

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4 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026

WORLD

Ships anchored in the Strait of Horrors off the coast of Iran. Tehran's grip on the strait has driven up global energy prices, creating a political headache for President Trump

Iran demands U.S. concessions

Tehran welds leverage of Horrors passage in seeking end to blockade

BY AURELIEN BREEDEN

Iran said on Monday that any deal with Oman on shipping in the Strait of Horrors would not lead to the waterway's being fully reopened and that the route would remain closed until the United States agreed to demands, including lifting a naval blockade.

The comments were the latest sign that Iran sees its grip on the strain which has driven up global energy prices, creating a political headache for President Trump — as its best force of leverage in negotiations with Washington.

Donald Bagheri, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference on Monday that the focus of the talks with Oman was "on reaching an understanding over a route for the

safe passage of shipping," the Iranian state news media reported.

The Oman talks were proceeding smoothly. Mr. Bagheri added, according to the report's, for "this time it's required from the discussion of reopening the Strait of Horrors," which was "contingent upon the removal of the conditions that have been imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran" by the United States.

Mr. Bagheri's comments echoed remarks by Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, who said on Saturday that Iran and Oman were "very close" to an agreement but that reopening it was "contingent on other conditions."

The Strait of Horrors, which runs between Iran and Oman, is a key route for the oil and gas trade. Tehran effectively closed the waterway after the United States and Israel board and their military campaign against Iran in late February, and it has become a key striking point in Iran and the United States alternative to (were) periods of negotiation and bursts of fighting.

The closure of the waterway has in-

creased energy costs in the United States, where polls show that support for the already unpopular conflict is fully big. Hard-liners in Iran believe that the country's ability to close it is traffic has put it in a position of strength and that it should not make diplomatic concessions.

Demands include the release of frozen assets, the payment of war reparations and an end to attacks on Iran's allies.

Last week, a top Iranian national security official issued a set of demands that are part of Iran's longstanding public negotiating stance and that be used the United States must meet before Tehran would fully reopen the waterway.

Those included the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, the withdrawal of American forces from armed the country, the payment of war

reparations, the release of frozen Iran, an uncut and the end of attacks on Iran's allies in the region.

Most of these demands were detailed in a cause-for-agreement, known as the Islamabad Misrewardan, that the United States and Iran signed in June, though that document said sanctions would be fully effectively in the event of a final deal on Iran's nuclear program.

The June agreement quickly (all apart, and most of its terms were violated within weeks, Mr. Trump has declared the deal "over" the Sunday, he told Asian that economic distress and high inflation in Iran would eventually force Tehran to agree to a new deal.

The Iranian authorities, however, believe that they can withstand greater economic pain than Mr. Trump, who has uniforms on elections in November to consider.

At the news conference on Monday, Mr. Bagheri said it was "up to the American side to stop and compensate for its illegal and destructive actions" in order to "talk about the next steps."

Trump is caught in a Middle East vise

President Trump is eager to declare success in Iran and Gaza, but he is struggling to impose his will in either conflict.

TRUMP, FROM PAGE 1

good options," said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran specialist and vice president at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "The pressure points for the Iranians are, while real, more vulnerable and bearable than those that are impacting the U.S. economy and the strategic calculus of the administration.

A White House official said in a statement on Monday that Mr. Trump's "hold actions" on the battlefield in Iran and in diplomacy over Gaza "will strengthen American security by its years to capture."

The failed Ozone and Biden policies were defined by "agronometers," said Elisha Nader, a White House spokeswoman. "The successful Trump policy is defined by American strength."

In Gaza, Mr. Trump cramped a "historic breakthrough" on July 30, a multi-

plane deal under which the military group Hamas would eventually disarm and Israel withdraw from the Palestinian mission. Writing on the "the same website, in all capitals, he looked as 'amusing, development' that "every body said could never be achieved."

But in the days after Mr. Trump announced the plan, Gaza now an increase in deadly Israeli bombings. On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu, who makes this true word into the Iran war alongside Mr. Trump, negotiatedly rejected Mr. Trump's policy, said that the Iran have forced it ruling out the 25-point document.

The Gaza episode was, in some analysis, another reminder of diminished American influence in the Middle East in the wake of the Iran war, which has dropped into its sixth month with none

of Mr. Trump's expansive goals appearing close to being accomplished. Many Israelis have seen Mr. Trump's pursuit of a peace deal with Iran as a necessity, giving Mr. Netanyahu a political monstrous to be seen as standing up in Mr. Trump as he seeks re-election in October.

To both Iran and Israel, Mr. Katsifa said, Mr. Trump has "retained the regional power dynamics." Mr. Katsifa also pointed to the two defense parties, former Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as a sign of countries' looking to hedge their bets amid uncertainty over the future of American power in the Middle East.

In Iran, for all of Mr. Trump's efforts at holding a way out, a renewed force up of violence could come at any moment. The U.S. military has kept up its naval

blockade of shipping to Iranian ports and said Saturday it had redirected 21 commercial vessels in recent weeks, along with disabling two ships and becoming two others. Mr. Trump's enormous buildup of U.S. military force in the region, including two aircraft carrier groups, has remained in place.

"These suits are not low-key," said Behnam Ben Tatehlu, an expert on Iran at the Foundation for Defensive Destinances, a Washington think tank that is bankable on Iran, referring to the U.S. economic and blockade. "Iran is likely not going to take them lying down."

The United Arab Emirates on Saturday said an Iranian attack had targeted the United Embargos to one of its state-owned oil companies as it covered the Strait of Horrors, the major artery for oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf. The vehicles, an "anti-sur-banked militia in Yemen, have threatened to thank Saudi oil shipments through the Red Sea.

A senior Iranian official said on Saturday that Iran would reopen the retail only if the United States cost a sweeping list of demands, including lifting sanctions and the blockade. The official, Mohammed Begher Zohghadi, also designated war reparations, prompting Mr. Trump to plan on Trash social or display that "I can likewise demanding compensation from Iran."

such a compensation, he said, would need to cover people killed and wounded in Iran's many conflicts, as well as to raise protesters killed by the regime. He said he had contracted officials to send that compensation in "any and all, by turn negotiations."

Iran and the United States are can known to be negotiating directly, though Secretary of State Maren Brahe said last week that the total neighboring Oman were holding talks with U.S. input.

Unless some supporters of Mr. Trump's total decision in South Iran considered on Monday to push for new attacks. "For these facts and elsewhere, living in a Iranian land, there will need to be further military action," the President said. Mark Levin said, "I am 'Economy pressure alone won't cut it.'"

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

Israeli leader's bind on disarming Hamas

TEL AVIV

Netanyahu faces election and must balance demands from Trump and his base

BY ADAM BASSON AND AMEN BEREHMAN

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is months away from his first national elections since the Hamas-led attack on Israel, Jazan an increasingly difficult challenge: how to placate President Trump, his most important ally, without alienating voters in his right-wing base.

That challenge was an full display of the Mr. Trump announced last month that his Board of Peace had reached an agreement to disarm Hamas. The deal was quickly met by Israeli skepticism. Then on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu openly rejected Mr. Trump's plan, in a rare public break with the American president.

The dispute shows how Mr. Netanyahu, who faces one of the biggest political fights of his career to win in election in October, is being pulled in opposite directions at home and abroad.

Mr. Trump's plan calls on Mr. Netanyahu to deliver concessions, such as pulling back Israeli troops in Gaza, which would be unpalatable in Swedish members of his constituency. At the same time, political pressure is immediately on the prime minister as he lays in public opinion polls in the run-up to the election.

"He's walking on a political lightrope," said Bisto Efros, chair of Israel policy at the RAND Corporation, a research group. "On the one hand, he needs to cater to his base and coalition, which he has promised 'total victory' over Hamas. On the other hand, he doesn't want to open President Trump."

Mr. Netanyahu attempted a similar balancing act after the United States and Iran signed a cease-fire deal in June, despite Israeli objections to the agreement, in the case, the Netanyahu-needed Mr. Trump's demand that Israel abide by the irony, while trying to mitigate domestic blockade. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump or Mr. Netanyahu's base will hold more even as the Israeli prime minister believes how to move her word in Gaza.

More than 10 months after a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas that was broken into the Trump administration last year, many Gazans are living in some real clights, as Israel has barred full-scale reconstruction there while Hamas refuses to disarm. Over 1,200 people have been killed in Israeli drifles since the agreement was reached, adding to the more than 70,000 killed during the two-year war, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and confederates.

The Israeli leader appears to have made some limited concessions, like holding back on one-daily Israeli securities in the smokes. In the days after Mr. Trump announced the Hamas deal, the Israeli military continued its strike in Gaza, filling at least 20 people and damaging warehouses full of medical supplies, according to Palestinian officials.

On Aug. 3, Mohammed Dahlan, an influential Palestinian radio and a candidate of the president of the United Arab Emirates, wrote on social media that Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump's one-in-law, had told him he was "working with the Israeli side to on strike attacks on Gaza."

The next day Mr. Netanyahu also made senior officials from the Board of Peace, including Natukay Mubarak, a veteran Bulgarian nationalist, and the Congressional's high representative for Gaza.

Following the pressure, Mr. Netanyahu agreed to order the military to halt its activities, according to three people invited on the same dates, the space on the conditions of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.

The last Israeli aerotree on Gaza was on the evening of Aug. 1, said Mohamed Basat, an official in Gaza's civil defense, an emergency response service under the Hamas-run minister ministry. That was the same night when the Board of Peace officials met with Mr. Netanyahu, it was unclear how long the respite its attacks on the enclave would last.

"I think what we're trying is: Netanyahu flaring his muscles into really, while taking baby steps toward accommodating some of the administrative demands," said Nimrod Norik, a former senior Israeli official and now a fellow at the Israel Policy Human, a New York-based research group.

But as part of the agreement with Hamas, Mr. Netanyahu would have to make further moves with a higher political cost. He has also agreed to get retreat of Israeli forces in Gaza before Hamas fully disarm.

Many Israelis are skeptical that Mr. Trump's Board of Peace can actually disarm Hamas and destroy its islands and weapons despite.

"That strikes me and the vast majority of Israelis as an extraordinarily optimistic assumption about Hamas's cooperation," said Efi Gresier, a former director general of the prime minister's office.

The deal also stipulates that Israel should first upheld its part of the truce it agreed to last year, including halting activities, putting back its forces within Gaza and allowing more aid into the devastated Palestinian enclave.

The timing of Mr. Trump's deal is especially difficult to Mr. Netanyahu's individual campaign, given that his opponents have surged ahead in public opinion polls.

The timing of Mr. Trump's deal is especially difficult for Mr. Netanyahu's re-election effort.

Most surveys project that Mr. Netanyahu and his allies would win between 15 and 25 out of 225 men in the Israeli Parliament - where the three people quoted in force a government. A new political party founded by a former Israeli military force in 1927 typically pulls higher than Mr. Netanyahu's Liked, long the biggest single party in the country.

Israelis will head in the polls in late October in the first national new since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2024. The deadliest day in Israeli history, about 1,000 people were killed and more 250 miles heckup in the assault, prompting the devastating breath war in Gaza.

Many Israeli-held Mr. Netanyahu responsible for the disaster from the prime minister's supporters concern that despite his promises to decimate Hamas after the attack, the Palestinian armed group still controls parts of the Gaza Strip.

Mr. Trump's deal with Hamas stops well short of Mr. Netanyahu's pledge to exact its full surrender. The deal makes no mention of ending top military commanders and offers pathways for some members of the Hamas-rich government to remain employed in the public service.

Severe of Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza could further undermine Mr. Netanyahu's approach to right-wing voters that he won the war against Hamas.

"The key the third of victory he was marketing all throughout the war," Mr. Norik said.

Negotiators from the Board of Peace spent months reviving the text during recent 10 talks with Hamas leader. Closers that explicitly stated that Hamas would not present any weapons were stopped from their efforts, according to two officials familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on the conditional anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Natan Odenheimer contributed reporting.

A teaser in Gaza City that was hit by an Israeli strike last month. Many teases are living in tents, as Israel has barred full reconstruction for as long as Hamas refuses to disarm.

CORRECTIONS

An article on Tuesday about the nearly 10,000 People's Affairs who have been killed in World War I British casualty records estimated the same of a People's military who was added to the records. His name was Kovar Singh, not Kova Singh.

An article on Thursday about the Richmond-sport-Thames suburb of London becoming a tourist attraction for the day. The "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last" is a "The Last"

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026 | 5

WORLD

Election deniers in key local roles for midterms

Many who have supported Trump's fraud claims have become voting officials

OF NEW YORK COUNTY AND ALEXANDRA BERKOS

In December 2025, the 2026 Stirling, the Trump White House liaison to the Justice Department, was barred from the agency's headquarters for pressurizing staffers to give up sensitive information to support claims — ultimately unfounded — of election fraud.

Boughtly a month later, Mr. Stirling was appointed to the Prince William County returned board of Virginia. Since 2025, she has served as clear of the board, which oversees elections in a majority Democratic county that involves two congressional districts.

Mr. Stirling, who did not respond to a request for comment, is one of at least 25 county-level election officials who have taken office across the United States since the last major federal election in 2010 and — through public statements or actions — have aligned with the broader election-device movement, according to a New York Times review of a new business from Voting Rights Lab, a nonprofit voting-rights organization.

These officials — ranging from Virgin to the Black Nevada — have all come to office since President Trump returned to power and all currently play roles in elections in counties that are home to key House, Senate or statewide midterm roles they are. All have been publicly exposed false conspiracy theories that Mr. Trump won the 2020 election of that American elections are rife with fraud, or taken direct action to support these theories.

This range in election-sleptics officials add to the ranks of at least 60 who were already in office across different states, the database review, along with a Times analysis, shows. They include county election directors, members of election boards and members of various county prescribing boards with the power to par- van out certify by one. Most task of his other the 2020 election, when Donald Trump and his office began to ramp up their election fraud theories.

Making these officials, it have taken direct action to interfere with election, such as trying to delay or deny certification, or have direct ties to various election-device groups. Roughly 90 people passed or shared messages on social media — some responsibly and others just once — questioning the election in the 2020 election, suggesting other conspiracy theories.

Some examples, by borough, See Hurdle, who was indicted on a charge of serving an older election in 2020 in a case that is still pending, has been the clerk in Storey County since 2022. In Arizona,

Baldwin for the 2020 election in the 2020 election. President Trump ramped up his election in 2020 in a case that is still pending. By Robin A.

These local officials could prove to be critical allies to the president as he seeks greater control over the electoral process

Kathleen Gomez, who said she would not have certified the 2020 election, took office in Corbaw County in 2025.

These local officials could prove to be critical allies to the president as he seeks greater control over the electoral process in part. On his own admission, a move of a rough midterm cycle for Republican.

Tastany Patrick, chief programs officer for the National Association of Election Officials, said these officials' roles risked lending legitimacy to false theories. At worst, they could try to interfere directly with results.

"What we're seeing now is the sort of thing that people have long worried about," Ms. Patrick said. Still, she added,

such election interference is rare.

There are thousands of local election officials across the United States, and an examination of every local election worker is a near-impossible task. The Times for the office is task as a slant of a wide universe of officials, but the number of those with ties to the election-device movement is larger. And the election-sleptics identified by The Times are still a fraction of the country's local election officials.

While their authority varies since to date, many of these local officials have broad authority over election policies that directly affect voting, such as early voting decisions. Others help maintain state voter lists, with the power to remove eligible voters from the vote.

Election experts noted that the strength of the American electoral system is its decentralized nature, making a broad attack nearly impossible. But the growing number of activists serving in local election roles could create a sig-

nificant disturbance, they said.

"Every state runs its own elections, under its own laws with its own local officials," said Samantha Tarust, the chief executive of Voting Rights Lab. "There's no need to take local office that changes how an election turns out."

The list of local officials aligned with the election-device movement combines a compilation by the Voting Rights Lab and additional analysis by The Times. Here are some examples.

A WHOLESALE CHANGE IN POWER

No state in the country experienced as much turnover in election oversight at North Carolina. Last year, each of the state's 100 board of elections chairs flipped from Democratic to Republican. The change was the result of a state law passed by a Republican supermajority, that stripped this incoming Democratic governor of authority over the state election board and handed it to the auditor's office, which was controlled by

Republican. The auditor was also empowered to replace the chair of every county board.

Attempts to change voting across happened quickly. Republicans sought to move early voting sites off college and college critics. Sample voting, which officials in both parties called a blatant effort to make it harder for students and Black voters to cast ballots.

At least three new county chairs have connections to the North Carolina Election Integrity Team, a group of right-wing election activists who have at least responded false conspiracy theories.

A founding member of the group, Joy DeLancy, is now an election board member of a local county. Mr. DeLancy, a long-time member of the board of the local group, Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina, is 2025.

The committee also elects to elect on the state supreme court justice. Mr. DeLancy filed a complaint with the Wake County board of elections, arguing that indignant voters could have made the office a decision to be a candidate. He requested a new election. His effort failed.

This year, Mr. DeLancy has been at the center of efforts to restrict Sunday voting.

The committee for said to didn't think pall workers should have to work that day. Since borough, he said, has also won "lot elections to be administered fairly".

A CONTROL OF THEORY

Republican-heavy Aletrim County in northern Michigan recorded only about 1,000,000 people. All have been also a barbed of election conspiracy theories.

On the night of the 2020 election, a small error caused the publication of incorrect results showing that Joseph R. Trump was a member of the 2020 Republican county. The county's clerk is the man, Sheryl Guy, who had just cut her own bidder for Mr. Trump, explained her mistake and quickly corrected the rally. But then a name of anyone and computer or experts working to help Mr. Trump challenge Mr. Robert who across the country demanded an Aletrim and produced a report claiming that the election there dominated errors in voting machines. The report was quickly debated, but the public report from galenigans, who "growning" American or speeches from Mr. Trump and his allies and in law成了黑货.

Personally, the Aletrim machine conspiracy theory was eclipsed by other label bands, the health, the effectiveness of the 2020, the Gay test her re-election rate to Victoria Birding, the wife of a far-right radio personality known as "Teacher Reads" Bishop. Ms. Bishop, with support from her husband, had campaigned on the pillars of the election-device movement, including claims of vast problems with dead people on the voting rolls and the promise to train

township clerks to hand-saver tailors. Since sitting office, Ms. Bishop and her husband have continued to ignite false theories.

This year, she began removing voters from the with and outgoing others to record clerks in her region, according to the secretary of state's office. This came after the last nations to voters she determined may have moved out of state or died. She said her analysis was based on change-of-address forms: filed with the post office, along with a lack of voting in multiple elections. She relied in part for her analysis on a group run by election-device activists, according to a statement by the group.

The Michigan secretary of state's office, one by a Democrat, Asetrim Benson, who is running for governor they year, explained to her that county clerks lack the authority to cancel more registration seasonally and that for state remains to be under the jurisdiction of clerks who work at the township and municipal level. In June, the state ordered her to take compliance training and on all her access to voter records until she does.

A NEW MAJORITY

Some Barrells was one of the most vocal Republican state senators in Arizona to protect the 2020 election.

He signed a letter to then Vice President Mike Pence asking that he not correct the election. Another times, he called for it to be nullified.

Forced to retire from the state senate in 2025 because of term limits. Mr. Borrell was not active the board of supervisors of Mohave County, a deeply Republican senator along the western border. He passed two other board members. New board, who had expressed no interest in refusing to certify an election in 2022 but decided against a "under-the-way" and Trump Laappellees, who declared his vote to certify the 2022 election, explaining at the time that he was making a statement.

Mr. Dauld has long guided for Mohave County to hand-saver its ballots, a common goal of conservative election activists that many election officials use would introduce more errors, cost significantly more than inhalation machines and take weeks if not months to end. In the event, Mr. Laappellees joined the two other members to reject a hand-matching proposal before the 2024 election.

But Mr. Gauldsian continued his push to record statements, he suggested that Mr. Borrells said Mr. Laappellees might be open to supporting his effort to make a final decision to implement before the 2026 election.

Mr. Borrells did not respond to requests for comment.

Kirsten Hager and Shirley L. Arford, unorthodonted research.

Progressives' tactics show a different way to win primaries

BY ELLI LEE BREWINGTON, THE RACE AND JACK JOHNSON

In late March, several thousand angry demonstrators gathered at a park in Milwaukee for a "No Rage" protest to denounce President Trump's administration. The 2020 election of the 2020 Democratic running for governor of Wisconsin, the event was the perfect chance to engage for—a primary voters.

Only one campaign appeared to show up in significant numbers: Francesca Hong's.

In weather as chilly that attendees could see their own breath, a small army of volunteers wearing Hong's fabric set up a tent and burned out in the crowd. Clipboards in hand, they gathered support along with the fieldwork of organizing telephone numbers and email addresses, who send later to recruit volunteers and turn out voters.

Ms. Hong, a democratic socialist and clerk, was the front-runner ahead of the Democratic primary on Tuesday, outlining and outwinding better-fundeed rivals in the party establishment, including a past lieutenant governor and the current one. Both of them stated the right to win a strike.

"From the start, there was an ambition to the organizing," said Mary Walton, a senior adviser to Ms. Hong's campaign. "I put a lot of miles on my car."

In months United States this measure, underdog democratic socialists and their allies have scored a series of victories over a campaign. Democratic elite superior was saying and organizing tactics

tics that have terrified the party establishment, caused them to burn through gobs of cash and left them asleep. How do progressors keep getting away with this? The latest example came last week in Michigan, where Representative Haley Stevens lost in a Senate primary race to Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, despite her massive spending advantage.

The left's recent victories make clear what has worked: face-to-face campaigning, personal testimonials from supporters and an easy-to-confered outsider message. The campaigns themselves say the secret is to the basics. They have built self-balanced ground games, harnessing the anger and energy on the left to recruit amines of volunteers, who in turn have greeted the moment's protest movement with open arms.

These campaigns have also offered specific, bold messages: that universal health care is a right, that the Democrat is Party is forbidden to corporate interests and that the United States is complicit in the deaths of thousands in Gaza, One of the most important components, they say, has been face-to-face conversations with voters.

Left-wing campaigns also argued that some of their more mainstream primary opponents had served by spending most of their resources on advertising while failing to actually excite voters with a text instructs it by crafting positions that appear in them.

In Wisconsin, Ms. Hong's campaign has recruited ahead 7,000 volunteers,

knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors and heated roughly 200 surroundings events. Her most significant remaining rival, Daniel Crocker, the Milwaukee County race at 6+, lost a fraction of that number.

"It's one thing to just vote for a catch date that you like," said Nikita Kline, a democratic socialist who started an incumbent House Democrat in Denver. "It's another to be so inspired by their message that you want to play a part in bringing about the world that they're campaigning on."

The approach has worked in many primaries. But an unanormal question looms, particularly in such key battlegrounds as Wisconsin and Michigan, where the left's ideology could be a tangible call. Can progressives replicate their successes against Republicans in the fall?

ENCOURAGEMENT TO GO OFF-SCRIPT Some leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America said they took inspiration from Edward Mansbach's New York mayoral campaign. D.S.A. candidates said they borrowed his organizing power out and decentralized structures, which empowered ordinary volunteers to become invested.

"It allows for quick leadership development, learning all the organizing skills that one could need," said Patrick Wright, a D.S.A. leader in Philadelphia and campaign adviser for Victor Balch, a socialist who was a competitive House primary in May.

The group also eagerly welcomed

non-D.S.A. members, he said. Many Balch volunteers were ordinary community members or belonged to other left-wing groups such as the Working Families Party.

In Philadelphia, the D.S.A. cut video clips for Mr. Balch's social media as a result of the state's national election, the group's national organization made 200,000 calls in a series of virtual phone banks alongside House Pilots, the progressive influences. In the end, the campaign brought in 6,500 volunteers who knocked on more than 315,000 doors, Mr. Kline said.

"The D.S.A.'s video add to so many of our campaigns is just the sheer power and discipline of their organizing," she said, "which completely elevated our field gaps."

In Michigan, the primary campaign of Dr. El-Sayed — who is not a D.S.A. member that shares many of the group's positions — started with four people in a deep cross-country, the state, and ended with nearly 15,000 volunteers, said James Gasker, the campaign field director.

Vanity assigned on television by Mr. Stevens, Dr. El-Sayed's campaign the event benefit, on its ground game, Mr. Gasker said. That meant making less of an investment in TV ads or makers.

The campaign encouraged volunteers to teach on Dr. El-Sayed's top priorities — Medicare for all and getting more out of politics — but emphasized that carcinoma should offer their customers a way they supported that did not feel beholden to stay on script.

"It was very important to us that people spoke from a place of heart and values," said Gasker said.

Ms. Hong's program has compared a similar way to the many three thousands of phone numbers and email addresses to recruit volunteers for phone banks and the community.

On Friday in Madison, several dozen Hong supporters prepared for two-hour door-booking shifts in a steady drizzle, kicking off a load five-day sprint before the primary. The weekend before, volunteers knocked on 11,000 doors in Madison, but planned to double that number this time, part of an effort to reach a half million doors by the end of the primary campaign.

A TORMIST OF CASH

The left's success has come despite a flood of hostile spending. In most of the high-profile victories by progressors this summer, the more traditional Democrat campaigns or outside groups outspent them.

In June, national Democrats injected $2.4 million into the race against Ms. Kline through a group of super PACs, all on 10 minutes after their A-bagtime illness, and also — a suggestion that the same DeLarm, was at risk of losing.

That same month, after of Representative Adriana Eupellah, the influential chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Council, flooded the primary against a democratic socialist in New York with $8.4 million in advertising.

James McNally, ed. activists, a pro-Israel Democrat, got an astonishing

boost of $10 million from groups including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, dwarfing Dr. El-Sayed's roughly 10 million in outside spending. The first time in the first month, the most prominentent forcebox lost to their progressive challenges.

The campaign without a strong turmoil operation have won in the past, while candidates with strong ground games but other weaknesses have lost. Many of the progressive candidates who have won the year have also relied on traditional TV advertising, albeit on home budgets than their rivals.

"It was very important to us that people spoke from a place of heart and values."

But the real juice this year has come from regular people, said Jene O'Rourke, a former member of the House and past candidate for Senate and governor in Texas who built a similar place-ends ground game.

"If you're benefiting in a door because somebody just you to do it, there's just no real love to believe that Dr. O'Rourke said. 'But when someone freely of their own volition signs up to get out there' — especially in the summer heat — 'yes, the voter, will never forget that encounter.'"

Koline Browning reported from San Francisco, The Aditi from Detroit, and Don Simmons from Madison, Wis.

Above from left: George, senior, who was elected about 1,000 volunteers in her campaign, was a member of the Senate; Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, left, who was a Senator primary race in Michigan; and Chris Balch, who won a Martin primary in Philadelphia in May.

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6 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026

WORLD

The A.I. agents doing entire online courses

Bots can watch lectures, take tests and write papers for cheating students

BY DANIEL M. SMITH AND ALAA BLUGGER

Artificial intelligence threatens to undermine online education, a growing business for colleges and universities, as professors struggle to counter a groundwork of rich-knotted cheating.

In physical classrooms, many employers have shifted to oral presentations and handwritten exams set to prevent misuse of an unregulated technology. But these employers can be harder to execute online, where more than half an American college students took at least one class that year, up from about a third in 2030.

In many online courses, whether at community colleges or globally, renowned universities, students may never meet with their professors or their peers, even new video, video classes are self-paced with prerecorded lectures, also known as asynchronous. Assignments and tests are submitted digitally.

While some universities are completely online, an increasing number of birds and cancer schools are expanding their online offerings. Some have students can earn full-degree online. In other cases, they take individual classes.

In this realm, A.I. cheating is quickly accelerating beyond the steps and putting it in a chaffed-produced essays and problem sets. A.I. agents have made it possible for students to outsource a semester of work. With simple commands:

—“log in and insights into past” — an accident can unleash what is, essentially, an initiative of themselves. Agents can watch lecture videos, take tests, write papers and chat with classmates about reading assignments.

There have always been questions about whether degrees from online programs are of equal value to those used in our campuses. But policy makers and education leaders have spent two decades championing online learning as an equity test allowing unstratified college students. The low-income working parents, to study wherever and wherever to convenient for them, blunt students say online classes put degrees within one.

Now, though, the accessibility of A.I. is deepening, comprising about the most accessible form of higher education — just as many students are struggling with online education afterwards of the students' and questioning whether they have the skills to succeed in college.

In interviewers, instructors from across the United States described a making an all-value that A.I. had revealed into their digital classrooms. Rarely, those who have spent time to 20 years teaching online courses, initially reacted with synerals when people would talk about how A.I. could intrude on higher education.

But last year, she said, she sensed an “rather” of A.I. generated work from her students.

Above from left: Karen Costa, Carol Sewell and Kathryn Kysar, who are among the educators dealing with the growing use of A.I. among students taking online classes. Ms. Kysar said she can “usually recognize the cheaply written A.I. stuff within 90 seconds”

“Am I just interacting with bots here?” Ms. Costa, who herself earned an advanced graduate on and fellows through a primarily asynchronous program at Northeastern University in Massachusetts, recalled thinking.

Kintler Peters, who teaches online for Southern University in Louisiana, sometimes notices that substitutions

carry clues — like the common A.I. tick of using the pressure “yes” — that suggest a student was behind the writing.

Edward Greg, who has led online courses for various universities for decades, has another tell: when a student submits “a very polished paper that ethic screens all of these resources that were not required.”

Kathryn Kysar has taught community college since the 1980s. Lastly, she has seen students perform alternately on a initial assessment of punctuation skills, but soon after submit sterling work enabled with cobos, memotives and dashes.

“Or just so obvious,” said Ms. Kysar, who has facilitated online courses for

about 35 years and Mames regulatory and leadership failures for higher education’s troubles with A.I. misuse. “Those of us who have been teaching for a long time and are others and writers can usually recognize the cheaply written A.I. stuff within 30 seconds.”

Her new requires in-person midterm and final exams for some classes, with a hard-hitting history on hand at the front of the classroom.

UNEVEN REOPINIE

Students across the United States often have been studying any wrongdoing and administrators, faculty members say, are regularly reluctant to impose discipline. In part, this is because A.I. detectives software can make mistakes, so they should be able to deal and deal. And some administrators, professors then, do not want to risk losing a paying customer to an overall tightening budget and shifting demographics.

Education leaders are also eager to embrace a technology that could reshape the working world. The result is that the A.I. is a “few” classes. Please, with some professors struggling and others looking out your marks. Still others allow additional access to A.I.

Many professors feel as if they are on the one hand.

“I’m not getting any guidance on how to discuss these you’ can’t do it to work, but I’m not getting any advice.” University System, which has eagerly endorsed A.I. “I’ve gotten opportunities to learn more about using A.I.”

Ms. Sewell, who teaches terminology, made clear of all the cheating is “fundamental dishonesty” and likely reflects the fountain from of many students.

Still, she said, “I’m from a different generation — I’m the example of who I have been doing a lot of class classes — so I think they think they can feel me.”

Some faculty members have called for government regulation of A.I. (with need for students: So far, acting on their own, rich companies have done little to dissuade A.I. cheating. The problem affects both traditional and online classes, but it is hard to do with the students are completing assignments and tests from home, for from professors’ watchful eyes.

PLAYBIRMS THAT DON’T SAY NO

In tests by The New York Times, most of the three leading A.I. tools among students in “ChatGPT,” the A.I. and Grammarly — responded “no” to prompts asking for children to write a paper on a student’s behalf. Versions of the software focused by individual students can impose greater pressure, but making prevents students from getting unused these items with personal email, and devices or second devices.

And A.I. companies have not protected agents from logging into learning platforms like Carrow, Brightspace and Blackboard, which are used by colleges to manage online classes.

These platforms can look for signals of agent use, such as true on task. But several said there is no full-suit way to block agents cheating, though they are researching it.

“Our customers are making it clear that there has never been more pressure on academic integrity,” said Jason Weaver, Blackboard’s chief of staff.

The company recently acquired an app that leaves student typing patterns to online exams their work.

Some educators have asked that A.I. agents working inside online courses identify themselves as professors can monitor how they are being used. But A.I. firms have so far marked such transparency.

Perplexity a company that makes an A.I. powered web browser popular with students, said in a statement that limiting canct ability is not agents inside online learning systems, or requiring these agents to identify themselves, “would get the student’s privacy and security at risk.”

Neither Google, which makes the German student, nor Oglocki, which makes ChatGPT, responded to questions about their agents posing an students. In written statements, each of the rival companies said they were working along the document to protect meaningful learning.

[The New York Times is using OpenAI and Perplexity for copyright infringement.]

BRINGING STUDENTS OFFLINE

Experts have warned that even many never know of A.I. cheating are emerging. Wearable devices, like glasses, can allow students to request help even while working in a cancer web browser. A.I. screens can approximate students over value.

In the absence of technical solutions, some educators, like Ms. Kysar, have began thinking more real-world elements into online courses.

“We don’t want to take away access,” said Marina Asimy, executive director of California Virtual Campus, which provides online community college courses. But she said professors could add flexible, in-person elements, like a classroom-based exam offered an multiple day.

Some institutions are also changing how online assignments are designed, leaning on personal responses that are more difficult for A.I. to him.

In a several online students class from the National Professional Studies at the City University of New York, the participants guide was based. In part, on a discussion where in which students were required to name the “Ukraine” and “mashken” concepts for them from each unit, and why.

Since students were encouraged to surface their struggles, there was little incentive to cheat, said Ryan Ruxton, an assistant data and expert in educational technology.

Jordan Ciaramello, an associate professor at Lurco University in Illinois, said she emphasizes the pitfalls of relying on A.I. — inaccurate information, reduced skills — while encouraging students to turn in their own work.

“My biggest struggle is getting students to trust that they do have writing ability, that they have important things to say,” she said.

Did Trump’s ‘takeover’ make Washington any safer?

WASHINGTON

Deployment of troops and agents has had mixed results in reducing crime

BY CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

A year ago, President Trump pronounced Washington violent and dudesriders and announced what he was going to “take back our capital.”

Many residents watched in distrust on the president declared he was sending thousands of National Guard troops and federal law officials to the agents and survivors and that the Metropolitan Police Department was “under direct federal control.”

Courts blocked some of the Trump administration’s most aggressive actions, but the incursion — which local activists call “the occupation” — has been the most serious encroachment on Washington’s limited self-government in a half-century.

Armed troops have become fixtures in fifteen nations, on downtown streets and around newly refurbished federal parks. Federal agents in flak points patrol residential streets alongside city policy officers.

The administration loosened restrictions on car classes by the federal police (though there have been several crashes, two of them both, and with six exits and presentation seating, the 2nd population has grown by nearly 20 percent over the past year, and courts are at what the city’s chief jigges describe as a “breaking point.”

Some of the agency’s likely to go away soon. The National Guard deployment, one 4,000 troops from 22 states and territories, has been slowed up until Mr. Trump’s last day in office. A $255 million federal contract was recently revealed for building “apartment-style lodging safer” for the troops.

The state’s administration of the Guard’s deployment came just days after Edward Carstine, a 10-year-old member of the Department of Government Efficiency, was assaulted in what

the authorities call was an attempted carjacking. Two teenagers later pleaded guilty and were sentenced to probation in connection with the attack.

Using the assault when he announced he was sending in troops, Mr. Trump declared that he was going “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedless and squalor.”

The impact is certain neighborhoods in Washington was immediate.

“From the moment the sun went down there was a caravan of police officers rolling through,” said Michael Corinna, 30, a filmmaker and commentary survivor in Ward 2, a working class and security Black area.

Federal agents fanned out into neighborhood gatherings and apartment complexes, he said, confronting people about intent tar retailers or open containers of alcohol. “That essentially has been the pattern they’re maintained for the whole year,” he said.

The White House insists that the steep drops in backside, carjacking and robbery are proof that the operation has been a success. “President Trump has transformed our nation’s capital from a crime-ridden city into a safe and beautiful home,” said Lauren Rix, a White House spokeswoman.

However, the developments come as violent crime is in prejudices decline nationwide, failing to record lows to riches with no federal intervention. And in Washington, violent crime was already reaching the lowest levels in decades before Mr. Trump’s August amusement.

The mayor, Muriel Bowser, often reminds Washington’s 700,000 residents of the city’s particular vulnerability to the federal government’s vision. As a federal-incidental control by the Constitution, Washington has had the power to elect its own leaders only since 2015, when Congress passed the Home Rule Act, and even that authority is highly circumscribed.

Given the Trump administration’s leverage, and the possibility that a Republican Congress would have been rule, the mayor has emphasized how a partnership could be benefited. In a statement Monday, Ms. Bowser said that by working with the federal forces,

The more than 4,000 National Guard troops on the streets of Washington have been the most visible component of President Trump’s program to “take back our capital.”

“we preserved our autonomy, we saved lives by keeping our home on public safety.”

But she also said that, ultimately, “we demonstrated practically our philosophy that there was no need for federal emergency action.”

Certainly, many residents want more to.

The “takeover” of the police that Trump announced was quickly chat, longed-to-coast, and ultimately hitherto temporarily letting the administration direct the local police to assist with its

response enforcement and clearing homeless people’s tests.

Federal immigration agents detained hundreds of people suspected of being undercontested, sometimes “at aggressive confrontations on many daytime streets. But in December, a judge barred them from making arrests without warrants or probable cause, reducing the number of downtimes.”

The National Guard, the operation’s most visible component, is also almost certainly the most expensive. According to data from the Trump administration gave Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, the deployment is expected to cost $5.4 billion from October 2020 until the end of the president’s 2024 election. The top 10,000 people of the State of dollars that have already been spent.

“From the moment the sun went down there was a caravan of police officers rolling through.”

The effectiveness of the deployment is less straightforward.

A Interstate Home Rule Nineteen-Centers, a 10-year-old man found that the Guard had probably contributed to a decrease in property crimes — more vehicle theft, for example, a three-tenth-than-20 percent year to date. But the deployment is limited to have barely any effect on violent crime, which includes murder, robbery and assaults with weapons. The use of a single police to roughly the same rate before and after the Guard arrived. This year, violent crimes in Washington are slightly above this point in 2025, driven up mostly by a high number of示威men.

The Guard members have also become crime victims themselves. In November, the more often, the of whom would later die from her injuries, in an attack that the authorities were concerned not by an eligible immigrant who had driven from Washington. Many

of the state’s most common lawsuits—the Washington may stem from the surge into the streets of hundreds of officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire-

arms and Explosives; and other agencies. These agents work mostly alongside members of the Metropolitan Police Department, often following local police care in somewhat $1.5/1 with listed students and those who have failed.

While local police officers largely respond to 65, radio and emergencies, the federal agents often patrol areas by car and on bus in the company of one or more 10,000 officers.

According to the White House, members of the federal task force, which it says includes local agencies, have made 20,000 arrests, though it was unclear how differently these cases would have been handled without the federal intervention.

“To help that they are looking to find somebody doing something,” said Gary Decker, an elected neighborhood leader in Columbia Heights, who was the federal agents drive up and down the streets, bringing people to a structure like public intoxication or drug use.

Mr. Decker said that his neighbors want outcovers the public drug sales to be addressed, but not by armed agents with no local accountability. “Many of my neighbors will not report crimes to the H.P.O.’ Mr. Decker said, “because they don’t know who will come with them.”

Washington has always been heavily policed, with thousands of officers and agents from the U.S. Post Police, the Capitol, and the state have been on the last addition to the roughly 1,000 officers of the Metropolitan Police. But the federal law also has been a major source of contention in the city center and around federal installations, but spread into residential neighborhoods.

It is unclear what law in view for the operation of Washington, which Mr. Trump insists has been writing but a success. In June, the president said that if Jester S. Kessler, the Democratic senator who likened the federal property to a military occupation, was a country’s Democratic mayoral primary, he added, just to get rid of home rule companies.

“Maybe we take back Washington and use it as a federal basis,” he said, “We won’t put up with it.”

They later she was in a landslide.

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026 | 7

Business

Private equity stuck with unsold businesses

Despite boom in deals, firms are unable to exit investments at right price

BY RACHELYN PARRISH

The long-awaited deal-making boom has finally arrived. SpaceX set a record for the world's largest initial public offering. David Eldener is pursuing a $200 billion deal listing Paramount with Warner Bros. The utility firm NorthTeX Energy has issued a deal to buy Decomen Energy that values it at more than $250 billion.

But private equity – a bristmaking machine for decades – is largely sitting on the sidelines. For the third consecutive year, private equity firms are saddled with a rapidly increasing number of companies that they cannot sell at their public at the returns their investors expect.

As of June 30, private equity firms had 33,575 unsold companies to their portfolios, according to Pocichock, an industry data firm. That's up from 12,453 companies at the end of last year and 15,033 companies a decade ago.

The growing backlog is a challenge for private equity's core business model. Typically, such firms miss to buy a company, often add large amounts of debt to its balance sheet, improve its financial performance and then sell it for a profit, usually within five to seven years.

The state of lathe has been difficult for large investors like pension funds and underwriters that have spent decades paying away fees to private equity firms promoting market-burings to move. Some investors and industry professionals are worried that the firms won't be able to sell companies without taking big losses.

'Private equity is stuck because these companies have failed to fulfill their value promise,' said Andrew Milgram, a managing partner and chief investment officer at Marllegate Asset Management, an investment firm.

The company's first private equity firms continue to underperform the broader stock market. From 2011-2022 to March 31, 2026, U.S. private equity firms generated annualized returns of 6.1 percent, according to the most recent data from MSCI, an index firm. That's far below the EU percent annualized returns for the day. The number of 6 percent of the Nasdaq during the same period.

There are several reasons for the big gap. Higher interest rates have made it difficult for private equity firms to find buyers that rely on cheap debt to finance acquisitions.

Another challenge is the weakness in the untruth process, where there is a heavy concentration of private equity-owned companies. The value of many

software firms has declined, as investors worry that artificial intelligence will cut into future earnings.

Historically, many private equity-owned companies have been sold to other private equity firms. But that important issue of return from the data largely dried up.

When the U.S. Federal Reserve held income taxes, it was difficult to identify, was relatively easy for a private equity firm to write small checks and borrow heavily to purchase a company. But since the Fed began raising income taxes in 2012, private equity firms have needed more cash to pay down debt at the higher rates. That means they are not willing to spend an much to buy companies, which driven down risk issues.

Last week, the investment firmsworth Apollo Global Management reported weak quarterly results in its private equity division. The firm's artificially painted to a tricky market for company sales and LPUs as a reason for its lower

performance returns in that part of the business, saying extra won't being 'privatently delayed'.

'Buyers and sellers still have too big of a valuation gap,' said John Maldonado, managing partner at Advent International, a private equity firm.

The delays are becoming the new surreal. For years now, private equity firms and their bankers have promised a demand to either selling the businesses they own or taking them public. Such an outcome has proved elusive.

Elizabeth Cooper, global head of private equity at the bar firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, said that going into this year, she had a whole studio of companies' she had thought would be sold in the early part of the year. They're still waiting.

'Everything basically got reset,' Ms. Cooper said, pointing to continued high interest rates and volatility in the stock market and politics.

Some private equity executives say

the backlog may not end up being a big problem, because some companies that have taken longer to sell could ultimately generate large returns.

Still, the private equity struggle cost most sharply with the investments that venture firms have made in A.I. par-

The backlog is a challenge for private equity's business model.

overs like OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX, which are generating some high voice-in-a-lifetime returns.

The first half of 2026 was the second highest-volume period for initial public offerings to more than a decade.

But for many private equity firms, LPUs have not been a viable path to selling their businesses.

Since 2022, only 19 private equity-backed companies have gone public on U.S. exchanges, according to the data

firm Deshigit. From 2017 to 2025, 424 private equity-backed companies did so. Software companies are some of the most troubled parts of the pipeline.

Many private equity firms ganged on such businesses in 2025, where the ad-paid of ChatGPT, when software companies were trading at all-time highs. Because the toll of these companies is the current environment could lead to painful losses, many private equity firms are waiting to sell them.

In 2025, Thomas Brown, a private equity firm invested nearly in software, bought ProQuest, a cybersecurity software business, for $12 billion.

Thomas Brown recently negotiated with the company's brokers and contested the terms of its loan by two years, paying higher interest rates, according to a person familiar with the deal. On calls with brokers, the person said, ProQuest and Thomas Brown executives said they would consider taking the company public in the coming years.

The giant private equity firm Blackstone still owns Assostry.com, UK, which it bought for $12 billion in 2026. Above, the Arbro, president of Apollo Global Management, which reported weak quarterly results in its private equity division.

But by this point in an ownership cycle, many private equity firms would try to have a clearly defined path and function for either an LPU, or a task.

Other companies have been lingering even longer.

The giant private equity firm Blackstone bought Assostry.com in 2020 for $1.1 billion. The years later, Blackstone still owns the company and recently re-supported and extended the securities on its debt, supporting that the firm expects on even longer holding period.

'This is a standard refinancing transaction for a highly successful investment that we're only owned for around five and a half years,' a Blackstone spokesperson said. 'It does not indicate our future plans for the business.'

Vinta Equity Partners, another private equity firm, acquired Xerox Holdings, a software company in 2018. In March 2026, the company filed for an initial public offering in 2024, but it hasn't materialized. A representative for Vinta Equity declined to comment.

Vinta Equity has been able to share that private equity firms will eventually be forced to sell and give cash back to investors, even if it means accepting a lower price.

Advent International is the rare private equity firm display many exits. This year, it has sold several companies and takes others public, returning far from of dollars to its clients.

Ms. Maldonado, a managing partner at Advent, said he expected that other firms would have to follow suit because investors simply needed money back.

'I wouldn't underestimate the amount of effort that's going into dealing with the new reality and coming up with solutions that will allow firms to exit these assets,' he said.

Companies rushed into A.I. Now, they're weighing its value.

New field of 'tokenomics' emerges to measure costs and benefits of the tech

BY LYDIA DEPHALIS

Corporate America was enthusiastic about artificial intelligence. Until it got the bill.

Whipfield around spending on 'tokenic' for units of computing power to which A.I. is sick, is taking unglouvring teams and board rooms. First there was 'tokenosurking' an overstirms encouraged as much A.I. nor as possible. First there was 'tokenmincing,' after they rapidly burned through millions of dollars in company money.

'The miscellaneous urgency and uncertainty is causing massive questions. What is A.I. even good for? How do you know what you're buying, and measure the value of what it makes? How is it priced, and how will these person change in the future?' 'Why are we spending on it displace?'

'It's a currency where you have no insistent to know what you're using, and the accounting practices aren't even there for it,' said Howard Rubin, an economist who advises companies on technology spending. 'The A.I. staff is being involved in an investment business but it's a risky investment in case it has no return.'

The high-stakes and scarcity of knowledge have given rise to a new field where the company is being working out how companies buy A.I. and what value they get from it. Call it value. The company's policy of business in source is created, traded and converted into things people want.

Businesses are no strangers to adopting new technologies. Electricity at home prices in the government for the whole it was used. The internet radiantly changed how services are delivered. Cloud computing turned data processing from a cluster more task to manage the data and the internet's money.

The implications of A.I. could be as many as, but the costs and benefits are more difficult to weigh.

Perhaps the closest analogy to how A.I. works as a business expense is petroleum products. A common business

crude oil, is refined into commodities such as gasoline, diesel and propane. These fuels have different purposes, but they can be broken down into a standard measure of energy – British thermal units – and they are generally sold wholesale through exchanges where prices fluctuate with supply and demand.

The forebrack for tokens is electricity and communications. The resulting 'computer' is fed into models and metered out by tokens, which are generally understood as systems a few characters of English text.

But the petrochemical parallel ends them: There are new thousands of A.I. models, and little transparency around who is paying for what. There is no consensus on how much energy a token requires, which models have to perform a given task or how much token is available.

'Intelligence is a utility has so many different ways to which it can be deployed, so the value identification problem has become a lot harder,' said Sara Bala, a professor of A.I. and analytics at Santa Clara University in California. Some models, for example, will keep trying to accomplish a goal even when the mission is hopeless.

The Union Foundation, a nonprofit that faces open-source technology projects, previously developed standards for cloud computing that made it easier to compare services across providers. In June, it established the National Foundation with similar goals: to create a 'tokenic' base that A.I. providers agree to disclose.

'There's a set of decisions that every organization in the world is making right now that we want to standardize the frameworks they're thinking on, so they can have better starting places for them,' said J.R. Bortone, the foundation's executive director.

Companies are using a new crop of tools and service providers to get some benefit from A.I. without wiping out their profit margins. Revolution, for example, helps track whether token spending improves productivity enough to qualify its cost.

Some fundamental, Revolution's, no broader and chief operating officer, said he recommends almost set limits for how much of the expensive models engineers can use, after running out their at-

beared token use, engineers turn to cheaper open-source models, forcing them to think hard about what they're with most. Revolution helps clients keep their token spending to specific customers, like the number of software features stopped.

'The people who come to us are experiencing spending explosions,' Mr. Cumberland said. 'They want to understand

'Essentially, you're adding virtual head count. Is that resulting in incremental revenue?'

whether it's worth it, but also how to curtail it in a way that doesn't just stop work, which is the challenge.'

One big question they all face: Where does the money come from to pay for all the extra token spending? At first, Mr. Cumberland said, companies encouraged under their proverbial coach uniforms to pay for subscriptions to Claude or ChatGPT. As they came to rely on those

services, they started to cut software licenses and outside services, like under-independent and copy writing.

Now, companies are weighing whether token spending should be the subvoxel part of a company's labor budget. That's the main question to evaluate, have: whether A.I. will displace or augment those work. In a thought experiment, analysis at Bala & Company, for consultancy, recently posted a medium-term scenario in which tokens make up about a quarter of corporate operating expenses.

Kindly, a cybersecurity company says it's nowhere near there, but it is laying the groundwork with a matrix it calls 'tokenic head count.'

The measure totals up A.I. spending and it takes a tip the average cost of a worker's salary and benefits. It then divides annual revenues by the modified number of human and virtual 'engineers' to measure their collective impact.

To make it all that a little more realistic, human staff members even write job descriptions for each A.I. agent in order

to justify 'hiring' it. Each time an engineer runs a model on a new task, it must get an evaluation.

'Essentially, you're adding virtual head count. Is that resulting in incremental revenue, which is all that really matters, or are you just eating at your margins?' said Charlie Treadwell, Eliniry's chief marketing officer. 'In a growth stage company, it shifts our mind-set of where are we going to spend the capital to grow faster.'

That equation could change quickly, however, if token prices (or tobacco tax).

Eliniry is getting by on a flat cuts team subscription for 250 users. If the companies were charged by the token – the need for organizations with more than a few hundred users – spending would quadruple, Mr. Treadwell said, and it would have to reconsider its use. Eliniry has no option to shed staff, however, and is hiring...

To make matters more complicated, tokens can be priced differently across cloud providers, and it's not clear what

driven prices up or down. With A.I. laboratories in an arms race to win market share before going public, what they charge may not completely correspond to what tokens cost to produce.

And A.I. can help minimize its own costs. Part of that is because of the increasing use of cheaper on-effect cache tokens, which the model has already processed once and can come at a fraction of the price. As more businesses use A.I. through software tools that can occur costs on their own, called agents, those agents are able to delegate costs of the work to cache tokens.

In a working paper published last month, a state-of-innovation board that dynamite has driven spending down relative to what it might allow to be, even as token consumption and the posted prices for frontier A.I. models have risen.

The ability of tokens costs to tap competitive with human salaries will keep directly on which local and local companies lean on in the future. But there is still a shortage of people who know how to deploy A.I. as productive ways. That is keeping consultants like Joe Wang born.

'I actually think that is the constraint that people don't talk enough about in the industry,' said Ms. Wang, a partner at Bala. 'We often think about 'Us, they don't have capacity. But if we shouldn't have enough people to help deliver the value.'

And if the fundamental difficulties in studying how spending on A.I. is playing out within organizations in the tech is a comprehensive data that track it. There is no committed exchange, no known market, no governance survey that experts prices and spending.

It's why, both Treadwell, an economics professor at Yale University in Connecticut who re-wrote the recent paper on the key to the development of a different tech firm for platform (healthcare) representing Jan 2 percent of total A.I. spending.

It allowed him to study how financial markets react to those expenditures, but many questions remain.

'It's one of the biggest challenges of the tech business model. This good is understand how A.I. is going to probably change everything. To market, not change anything, but it's good to have the businessman.'

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8 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026

BUSINESS

A Russian retail empire badly wounded in war

WILDBERKIEL FROM PAGE 1 destroyed! Mr. Sombis added:

What ultimately happens to Wildberries will depend in part on how long Ulzupkov strikes continue and how effectively and quickly Mr. Kim adopts the company's logistics. It will also depend on what sort of redress she is able to win from the Russian state.

Here into a Russian family that is ethically Korean, Mr. Kim is a former English teacher who launched Wildberries in 2016 along with her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, as a scholar that sold clothes from European catalogs.

Over the years, Wildberries grew into a fastlight of the Russian consumer economy, with nearly 85,000 pickup points opening across the country and more than half of the nation's population making purchases at least once a month. Mr. Kintis revealed of Ukraine made the platform of the more important, as Western companies retracted from the market.

In 2024, Mr. Kim navigated a merger with a Russian outdoor advertising firm that was reportedly mediated by the Kremlin. The deal was denounced as a corporate end by her husband. At one point, he showed up at the Wildberries office in Moscow with a volume of armed infections, leading to a disorder that is two people dead and seven wounded. Mr. Kim said Mr. Bakalchuk finalized their divorce the following year.

Found with a new, even inner reverse view, Mr. Kim, 34, is scrambling to adopt.

In her video address, she said Wildberries was moving to deceleration to distribution and reeling its logistics in frustrations as quickly as possible. In an online post on Thursday, she said the company was holding meetings with regional governments and sellers, adding that "broad support measures at the federal level are also being actively developed."

The company has made two rounds of voluntary payouts to more than 80,000 small and medium-sized sellers and while not limited insurance that sellers can buy. The company has made the Russian government is also working on an aid package for Wildberries's sellers that will involve can breaks and graze profits. Abbotel Simeon, the deputy finance minister, said last week.

A Wildberries pickup point in Moscow, one of nearly 95,000 in Russia. Wildberries has lost sales to 2 million of its whitehouse space and goods worth billions of dollars to drone strikes.

But while sellers are holding some outlet, Mr. Kintis staff is now worried about their safety. Nor is now old Wildberries warehouse worker from St. Petersburg, who spoke on the condition of an acutely because of security concerns, said she had hit a terrible tenor hear as Ukrainian drones blew up Wildberries facilities in the region.

After the one where she worked and another near her house were hit, she de-

cided to stop working there, even though she had liked the job.

The independent entrepreneurs who sell goods through Wildberries are also feeling anxiety.

Ranmina Ravidik, 44, had built a business selling hehe jewelry from Asia that grew successful enough to support her family of five.

She lost about a third of her inventory, including her most expensive artisan

pieces, in the first Ukrainian strike on a Wildberries warehouse, near Moscow, last month. She still had many times stared elsewhere, but as more Wildberries warehouses were blown up by the day, she was unable to retrieve her merchandise.

Then, an attack last week on a Wildberries warehouse in Tulu, south of Moscow, took out half of her merchandise. Today, only about 100 of her roughly

2,000 items are available for sale, she said.

For the first time in her life, she has sought the help of a psychiatrist, she said:

"If you live in a country that is at war, it would be strange to expect that it wouldn't get you at some point." Mr. Bakalchuk told. She added that she was trying to take it as a lesson, "to learn to cope with situations where nothing depends

on you, where you can't do anything and you just hang out in this uncertainty!"

Mr. Kim is also facing pressure from the competition. Industry watchers are already trying signs that sellers are fleeing to them. Research service began a consumer platform, which has a more decentralized logistics setup and has not been singled out by flyin.

In many places, Wildberries is still functioning normally. The company has such a sophisticated logistics and 1.7-in frustrations that it is on going to fold simply because a number of its warehouses have been damaged or destroyed, said a former Wildberries executive who spoke on the condition of an acutely because of previous contractual obligations.

While Ukraine has secured Wildberries of selling military-related goods, including replacement parts for drones and navigation equipment, Mr. Kim has denounced the strikes as "attacks on peaceful people."

Wildberries explicitly says in its rules that sales of weapons and ammunition are prohibited.

Still, many supporters and family members of Russian soldiers have been known to buy equipment such as body armor and helmets from the site. Drones and other items that can be used on the front are available.

A review by The New York Times found that first-person view drones were far safer on the site to early August, as were goods of filter-apps' cattle, which can be installed in drones to guide them.

One listing—marked as 'out of stock'—offered a drone with a dropping system for explosives. In the "question" section, some users expressed legionnaires. Others required about bulk drones, causing the Russian military unit for which they intended to buy the drones.

One review, using a Russian shing term for Ukrainian soldiers, said: "Drones is good, chops the Ulzupkov [115]" The Times was unable to verify whether any of the drones were purchased or shipped.

One potential buyer asked in the questions section whether the drone could be used for the special military operation, the Kremlin's were for the rest. The seller replied, "Hello, yes."

Trump bullish about A.I. despite voter unease

WASHINGTON

Data centers will bring jobs and taxes to local communities, he says

BY TOYIT KUHN

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has started to settle voters around the United States, raising fears that they could be thrust from their jobs if the technology succeeds, or how their retirement savings if the industry falters.

But he all of the emerging odds and political blowouts, there has been no sign of concern at the White House, where President Trump has generally maintained a much lower magazine view about the coming digital revolution.

To the administration, A.I. can do little wrong.

In recent weeks, Mr. Trump and his crusader have denounced the suggestion that widespread automation could carry end negative consequences for families, businesses and the broader U.S. economy. Even as the electronic grows uneasy about the technology — and the data centers that power it — the president has only banished in his view that A.I. will supercharge everything from medical research to military action.

The political issues between the president and the public has been most evident surrounding the restless issue of data centers, which Mr. Trump has defended as "Money Machines" even as opposition without outweigh your the facilities.

A small group of demonstrators interrupted one of Mr. Trump's callers in Michigan last month to demand an end to data center construction. That incident came on the tenth of similar protests around the country in a campaign organized by conservatives who otherwise support Mr. Trump's politics.

"I think they are foolish about this technology," Michael Strate, the director of economic policy makers at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said of the administration's approach.

Mr. Strate said he generally agreed with much of the presidency's "general approach" in seeking to better A.I. and that he believed the technology would benefit the economy and national security. But he acknowledged the White House seemed to be true interested in preparing for the possible downsides.

"It's a potential vulnerability for the economy," he said, "and one worth tracking and seeing him is develop."

Mr. Trump may yet prove correct to his glowing assessment about A.I. But his support has maintained starchy with the more measured views from economists and policy makers across the public

and spectrum. Even though some reason A.I. as the most significant technological leap to human history, there is a sense that a disruption of this magnitude rarely occurs without consequence — and that Washington needs to be more prepared for every scenario.

There is one view that A.I. can make workers significantly more productive and that the resulting gains could add significantly to global growth.

Chasing that vision and the immense wealth that may accompany it, the longest technology companies' interests are "hypercutters," could spend as much as $5 trillion on A.I. infrastructure in the coming years, according to JP Morgan. That could require companies like OpenAI and Authorpo to generate significantly more revenue than they do now.

That has delighted Mr. Trump, who has sought in his second term to increase construction and manufacturing. But there is also great doubt among many experts that such an evolution is going to be firsthanded.

At the Stanford Digital Economy Lab in California, economics including JCM Bryojalhson, a widely cited expert on technology have started trying to measure these early effects. In its latest update, published in July, the think tank reported a significant uptick in spending on A.I. infrastructure — but, for now, "an decisive evidence" of a grand transformation to the labor force and entire industries.

Mr. Bryojalhson said that the capitalization of A.I. would improve rapidly in the coming years, which would have "profound/motifunited on our economy, both in good ways but also potentially with more real risks."

This concern prompted Mr. Bryojalhson to help organize about 200 economists and A.I. experts earlier this year to issue a joint statement calling on government to "build the incentives, guard-rolls and institutions on adults's trust." A.1. is a director for the comprehensive business and benefits society?

A.1. is the same state of the risks, the White House last week mailed a long-awaited plan to monitor some A.I. models to ensure that they are the create of a unity-visioned labor. Developed in coordination with companies including Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, it represents a departure from the administration's hands-on approach toward the new technology.

Otherwise, though, the White House has tried to position itself primarily as a "downloader for A.I."

The decision is to bring existing fears government, prior to President Trump, has been so blatched in the negative impacts of this technology. But a course people are skeptical. Michael Strate, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said on a podcast homelife: Peter R. Wodowski, a technologist, which was released last week.

During the interview, Mr. Strateau recalled attending an A.I. safety summit in the United Kingdom two years ago,

A data center project in El Paso. President Trump has called such projects: "Money Machines," even as they encounter public problems.

which he said had focused on "what could go wrong." That, he added, helped carry out the current problem facing the industry — and the administration's rationale in sharing a more "positive idea about A.I. with the public."

The Trump administration has struck its most bullish note on data centers, the growth of which has served as a flash-point in elections around the country.

Many cities and states have started to question the economic value of the facilities, which may support few long-term jobs once construction concludes, and the power, water and other resources they demand. The concern has

"People are very, very upset. They feel like there's a disarmament. They feel like no one is speaking for them."

prompted some policymakers to talk data center construction, including at New York, where Gov. Kathy Shubal, a Democrat, enacted the first community construction in July.

In response, Mr. Trump lashed out on social media, demanding a version of the policy, the president said. "We have been well-presented there and she that returned to 'LXX/10 OGLD,' adding that data centers 'are tremendous WINS for the States and Communities that are more enough to put them."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The New York Times has used OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of

news content related to A.I. systems. The raw companies have denied their right to share.

In an attempt to tamp down voters' something concerns, Mr. Trump did not have an agreement earlier this year with technology companies that included those companies paying the needed electricity upgrades. But the past, which is voluntary, came as the president appeared to doubt openly whether there was even an energy cost problem to begin with.

"They need some PR, help," he said at a Black-eyed, calling up the public's debate image of data centers. Because people think that if a data center goes in there, electricity prices are going to go up. And that's not happening, it's not going to happen."

Lorenzators in El states nonetheless have considered such bans targeting data centers over the past year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which last updated its route in July. Last week, Gov. Jostly Besheed of Kentucky, a Democrat, also signed a new direction meant to protect residents from electricity price hikes from data centers, while Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, required new projects to submit to an energy-suite.

Mr. Trump still appeared to criticize some of the moves, blugging out Texas, he said. "I purchased three in an interview published Friday that its actions were a 'statistic,' adding of data centers: 'It could be bigger than all'."

The full-demand endorsement of data centers has increasingly put the public

dent on the opposite side of his fellow conservatives, who have long been skeptical of the nation's largest industry companies.

Among the most vocal is Humane First, an admonition going on for your Keromol a former. Do they's leader who helped to organize the blog the final rally on Facebook after the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Kramer said she used A.I. every day and was not wholly opposed to it. But, she said, policymakers at all levels of government had failed to chart the future of the technology in a way that an economist for public's步伐.

"People are very, very upset," she said. "They feel like there's a disarmament. They feel like no one is speaking for them."

For the peninsula has hardly appeared to rattle the public optimism of the administration. Speaking works of for the conservative general, Kevin Hamett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, still sought to downplay some of the national trophies around A.I. and data centers.

The whole anyone should be worried that a data center is going to be plunged on top of them? he told Fox Business in late July, adding that the adult between both companies and local communities around the facilities have been negotiated "pretty generously."

"If you take a sleepy town that hasn't really been much to the top of it, the most and just a data center there," Mr. Hamett later added. "How there are gangs in in a whole bunch of happy residents in that town."

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---

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026 | 9

Opinion

At the British seaside with the politics of distraction

This is how elections are so often fought now. Politicians slink into a constituency to meet fans, make content for their social media and melt away.

Text by Tanya Gold Photographs by Harry Mitchell

CLACTION-ON-SEA, ENGLAND 1 spent the first Saturday in August in Clinton-on-Sea, a fading seaside town on the east coast of England and the seat of Nigel Farage, the polarizing leader of the far-right Reform U.K., who was elected to Parliament in 2024, on his eighth attempt.

Children screamed with pleasure at the fudfair while parents wilted in the heat. A few weeks before, in the middle of an investigation into whether Mr. Farage had broken parliamentary rules over an undisclosed gift, he announced he would resign and immediately run for re-election. The people at Clapton, he said, would be the judge of his actions.

Faded grandeur is everywhere in Clapton. It is a constant reminder of the sweet-punt as a destination for Victorian-day triggers — not least this pier, built around 1870, when Britain

was the world's superpower. Such a visible sense of the past brings the more mundane present into sharp relief and in some ways explains Reform better than any focus group.

When the present and future are frightening — and they are — people often look backward for comfort. They find it in the idea that we were great once, and that ought to mean something, Mr. Farage can eloquently voice that feeling, but he has no real solutions. In their hearts I think voters know it. We are in the womb of culture war! It is a time of distraction.

Until recently, Reform had seemed unmappable. It consistently pulled level with or tighter than the governing Labour Party — which last month, after disastrous results in local elections in which Reform made major gains — lefted its leader, Ketr Sturmer, and replaced him with Andy Burnham as the prime minister.

Like all insurgent parties, Reform has benefited from the major parties' apparent inertia in the face of stagnating wages, faltering public services and scarce and expensive housing. Mr. Farage's party blames immigration —

particularly the highly visible, desperate people who cross the English Channel on small boats. (He has frequently been pherompeted on the first coast, keeping a lookout.) He was an early advocate of leaving the European Union. And though wealthy and well connected — he still dresses like the 1960s commodities trailer he was — he succeeded in situating himself, like his friend President Trump, as an ally of the people against the dark lovers of the global elite.

But this year something has shifted. GOLD, PAGE 10

Nigel Farage, senior, in Clinton-on-Sea, England. Like all insurgent parties, Reform has benefited from the major parties' apparent inertia in the face of stagnating wages, faltering public services and scarce and expensive housing.

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10 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026

OPINION

The New York Times

JOHN BRIGGS, EDITOR

A.L. SULZBERGER Publisher

JOSEPH KAHN Executive Editor

MARY LATEY Managing Editor

CAROLYN RIVER Managing Editor

SUZANNE SMITH Associate Editor

BERNARD HURST LUTHER Com Executive Officer

MICHAEL JIMKINSON Executive Editor

WILLIAM BERNSTEIN Executive Editor

MELISSA PINE Executive Editor

KATHLEEN KIRSCHMAN Executive Editor

A.I. will affect your social life. Yes, yours.

Alice Lassman

I need all my savings to buy my will a Wi-Fi-enabled iPod Touch just short of my 12th birthday. Many of my memories follow from there. The portal is my formative experiences, the flatters of a first crack, the last text sent after our breakup. I learned research through screens. I learned danger through newsletters. Like many Gen Z-ers, I see my fuller tube as extensions of my most private inner world.

For most people my age, one of those tabs to often a chatter.

When I write about artificial intelligence and intimacy, people tend to imagine A.I. girl's tendin' to trick fanatics. Only extreme users would care chatbots to manage their social and emotional lives, or to the thinking goes. But in conversations with other Gen Z-ers, I've found that young people are relying emotionally on A.I. more than 30 realign. That subtly changes our relation: ships, even with people who have never touched A.I. When a finalist's synthetic support enters the worlds of those around us, it doesn't our mechanisms for intimacy and makes everyone a little familiar.

In writing a book about A.I. and relationships, I interviewed people in their 20s and 30s across the United States and

It has become a kind of social sealant, filling the gaps in young people's relationships. Europe about how they care chatbots. I found those through research calls, follow-ups with readers, friends of friends. They let me into the most intimate corners of their psyches. I was sometimes the only person they'd ever told about their chatter too.

Despite speaking to chatbots every day, most of them also maintained full social lives, and in many ways A.I. circulated them. Several times between told me that it helped them think about their relationships more clearly and deliberately. But it also began to form the stult-folding of their consequential decision making: encouraging breakups, de-escalating arguments that the chatter had decided weren't worth their time. 'If I've more interest and less emotional, I'm doing good,' Lavish Dukak, a 21-year-old in Germany, told me. A.I. had allowed him to make more clear headed decisions. So cool. But he described wearing to strip emotion from his relationship entirely.

Another inter-rivious, a 27-year-old from Britain, said he used A.I. as 'an advanced Google search' for his personal life, with the power to remember a sequence of emotion the next time he took it. He felt more comfortable taking his feelings to ChatGPT before sharing them with another person. Intrusive thoughts are to be nullified: friends are there for lightness and laughter.

Gentlemy intimacy creates what economics call negative externalities — the hidden costs that fall out on the person making the chaos but on the relationships that are changed, over so slightly, around you. Mike Jeffcoat, a psychotherapist of 14 years, told me that he doesn't share the same challenging emotions with his friends that he shares

with A.I. the geodes to do his spiritual and emotional processing alone. 'Who can and will be truthful, held space and be outspoken with one's confusing subconscious content?' he asked.

Intimacy is accumulated through repeated acts of exposure — touch, feelings, ideas, trust. It is the capital of human-comes lies, I doubted that the sense to one another that we are seen, understood and safe. Every time a chatter performs a substitute 'I understand you' or 'I think this decision feels most you,' the words we have all come to rely on to convey human meaning are slightly rhinapored, slightly less human.

It's easy not to notice our friends withdrawing. Intimate A.I. conversations are not uncommon. Nearly two-thirds of adolescents who use chatbots said they were searching primarily for friendship or advice, according to a recent survey. But frequent A.I. use is often considered taboo. One 30-year-old I spoke to was afraid that the extent of her Claude use would 'break out' the guy she was seeing. After they broke up, she created an A.I. version of him to better understand their breakup. 'It's a processing tool,' she shared with me — in confidence. As I say told nobody else in her life — to the small final closure on her own terms. If the attention economy of the 2010s made intimate life feel constantly public, the intimacy economy promised the opposite: relationships with one's own chatter, seen by no one else.

A.I. has become a kind of social sealant, filling the gaps in young people's relationships: coaching more to plan dates that outnumber their rivals, supplying words of confidence nor friends couldn't quite find. Lastly, it's stopped being so stressful. 'Some A.I. told me ...' 'it now is casual part of my friends' conversations. One friend tested me after he had come home from a good date, for sure, elated and desperate to share it with someone. With his roommates asleep, he printed his chatbot. 'Be my flatmates after I've just come home from this date.' I quickly tested back, as he spoke to me. But if I hadn't, that conversation would have strengthened his connection to Claude instead, at our friendship's expense.

Now technology tends to detect our existing social equilibrium. Once smartphone entered the fray, being in a friend group cannot being eventually contactable, a participant is going short. A.I. hasn't shared our communication, but it may be changing what we communicate. Note that there's a test on hand to smooth and rationalize the bumpiness of our thoughts, we find ourselves being a little less sad/fluend with an outsider, a little less vulnerable.

I don't use Claude for my personal life. But like most Gen Z-ers, I'm more susceptible to its temptations than I think I am. My phone has always been a part of me. Like a cyborg, I can't remember a time when it wasn't attached to my person, an extension of myself, of my brain, tucked safely into my pocket. Young people are digital natives, of course the richness of our feelings has a flu in this little device of ours, that friendships may suffer be it.

ALICE LAUSMAN writes about artificial intelligence and is the author of an upcoming book about the effect of technology on intimacy.

WEN LEE

Top, a man dressed as the political candidate Count Birdace in Wareham, England, this month, above left and right, turn-lacing for Reform U.K. in Clarion-on-Sea, England.

At the British seaside with the politics of distraction

GOLD, FROM PAGE 9

In April. The Guardian published an investigation that described how Mr. Farage accepted a gift of about $67 million from Christopher Warberton, a cryptocurrency billionaire who lives in Thailand, in 2014, a couple of months before he returned as the leader of Reform. An official workshop started an investigation the following month. The Met police is also investigating donations to the party.

Mr. Farage tried to frame these investigations as a case of the evidently immoral versus the insurgency, but this time he and the party began to slip in polls. The by-election might be understood as an attempt to take back control.

All the major parties have dismissed the election as a stunt and have declined to post candidates. Even so, there are 34 candidates on the longest

Mr. Farage's leading opponent is a man with a track can on his head. Britain these days is not short of metaphor. and perhaps strong- not battle paper in Britain electoral history. There are three lines the Minister Raving Laeny Party, Britain's most established seventy party: Howling Land Hope, Slick the Incredible Flying Brick and Rame You Thundering. The actor Laurence Fox, who played Ramey

Bistro in the 2022 movie 'My Son Rantee', is standing for his far-right party, Reclaim.

Count Birdace, who says he is a 3,800-year-old intergalactic space warrior and whose policies include making arcade grabber games fairer, building at host rest affordable home and promising not to accept gifts from cryptocurrencies (on Earth), is also working. The case — real estate from then Harvey, a comedian who studied classics at Oxford University — added at 20 percent in late July, according to Sorensen.

Mr. Farage's leading opponent is a man with a track can on his head. Britain these days is not short of metaphor.

This is the 10th British by-election I have covered in seven years, and the song is always the same: alienation, stress, despair. I met Maddie Stevens, a Clarion resident, outside a car from the train station. The town has 'gone to rack and ruin,' she told me. 'It used to be pretty and thriving,' she said. 'It's a dirty, little place man.'

—Second lunchtime, activities for the lobby group Stand Up to Racism ap-

peared and started handing out fliers that said 'Stop Reform U.K.' and 'Don't vote Farage.' A small light started. Pro-Farage managers took the 'Don't vote Farage' fliers, late off the 'don't' and stuck the repurposed fliers initially to a tree.

This is Count Birdace's seventh political campaign, and at moments he can evoke more conventional politicians. In a campaign video, he dances by the Clarion pier and sings, 'You want somebody over.' Who will stand up for you: I ask them hope, not fear! He is fun, but he is a symptom of our political malaise rather than a cure.

Walt Pelin, a theater director who also works in an apartment building for older people and is a local independent candidate, agreed. 'All of a sudden, this bin man appears, and then there's a kind of man's hysteria about him putting Clarion on the map.' he told me in a coffee shop on the town's main street.

The way supporters of Mr. Farage were often mended remained Mr. Pelin at how supporters of Mr. Farage were mended in 2016. 'And people have not learned that lesson,' Mr. Pelin said. 'And, God help us, what will follow?'

I watched Mr. Mr. Farage all of that but Saturday but didn't see him. I left early that evening to catch a train home to Cornwall. The following day Harry Mitchell, the photographer I'd been working with, bumped into Mr. Farage at an event for veterans. He was wearing a suit and sunglasses and was surrounded by bodyguards.

This is how elections are to often fought now. Politicians shirk into a constituency to meet fans, make content for their social media and shift away. It's an senseless politics for a time of decadence. And it's not about Clarion. The election there is a proxy contest, fought with competing dreams.

Most likely Mr. Farage will win easily on Thursday. The harvests poll had him at 57 percent. (He was 40 percent in 2015.) Then he will again face the Parliamentary Standards Commission. There could be yet another by-election in Clarion. He could run again.

But Mr. Farage will not heal Clarion — or Britain. Like the man with the track can on his head, Mr. Farage is a symptom of our fragile, brittle times. He is here to make the most of his time in the too-fort run.

TAPPA GOLD is a British journalist who writes for Harper's, The Spectator and Unified, ROBERT MITCHELL is a photographer based in London.

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026 | 11

OPINION

BTS's Grammys boycott highlights the perils of pop music

Dan Charnas

The Korean supergroup BTS has pulled its blockbuster album "Astrong" from Grammy Awards consideration, in protest of the new Asian pop music performance category. The move is a remarkable release to the Grammys's front school that has long stored for American mainstream mentors. In a statement, the group said: "We hope music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided into regional language."

BTS and many of its fans see the new category as an attempt by the Recording Academy to keep the growing power and popularity of K-pop groups from overwhelming the prestige categories — the record, album and song of the year and multiple pop performance awards — and they reject the academy's claims that the new award is simply a means to acknowledge the growth of popular music from South Korea, China, Japan and Southeast Asia. BTS rightfully refused to risk being hypovolemic.

The Recording Academy has been seeking up new categories for years. It started out with 20 to 1950. We're up to 100 now, a proliferation that mirrors the contrary of the music business: Maki, Latin, gospel, folk, New Age and so on. Some reflect true genres and discrete markers. But most are the malignant offspring of the record business's historical segregation, which divided Black and white artists into separate genres and markers, even if they were playing sexually similar music.

To this day, label executives, awards committees and radio programmers find ways to push aside artists whose racial or ethnic provenance challenges the industry's preconceived ideas about the boundaries of a particular genre.

You can see this most brazenly when new Grammy Awards categories emerge. Months after Beyoncé became the first Black woman to win best country album, the academy split that award to two — traditional and contemporary, after a song from "Kling the man Mummy" won big this year, Asian pop was created. When Grammy voters or music programmers are primed to think of a genre as niche, that can adversely affect an active/personal mainstream success. For awards, bookings, endorsements, streams, airplay and

promotional resources, pop remains king.

Which prompts a bigger question: What is pop, are way? To name implies an aggregation of what's popular: An industry gatekeepers continually make judgments about what they promote, declaring what pop is and isn't. And for all the ways people must pop so if it's an actual genre, no one can enter in strict late any enduring stylistic markers.

The Recording Academy's award rules are specific with genres like Dance ("rhythmic momentum, dynamic buildings and breakdowns"). The only qualifier for the Pop Performance category? The song must be "pop." The fundamental absurdity in the music business, the term that causes all the problems and then plays innocent hystology, is "pop" itself.

Lance to the outgroup songs on the Billboard Hot 100 right now and ask yourself what genres they actually are.

The genre has been shaped by exclusion, not expansion.

With all the CDs Langhe, Tucker Swift and Stella Lefty songs, we've got different shades of country and country rock. A couple of years back, it was Patricia Carpenter's

take an early '80s post-dance look. A few years before that, it up and reggae too large in the chart. The good — the popular music comes from somewhere All styles have parentage and place of origin. Now, each of these genres was not considered pop, and then at same point became so.

American pop was shaped by exclusion. Black artists suffered the most, barred from radio names playlists and venues where white counterparts who played their styles and songs enjoyed access. Benny Goodman and Elvis Presley never had to ask to be "crossed over" from jazz or R&B. Pop was assumed to be their home base. Yet through the years, Black artists, even undeniably pop stars, were more abused the pop designation. In 1980, Michael Jackson was vital out of the biggest categories at the Grammys for his best-selling album "Of the Wall."

By many accounts, MTV refused to play videos from his follow-up. "Thriller" noted a sound because the best-selling album at the time, until the president of CBS Records threatened to pass all of the company's artists from the channel. (Some MTV executives from this period dispute this

story.) Goodman and Presley never had to ask to be called the "Kings" of swing or rock 'n' roll. But Jackson is said to have proclaimed himself the "Kings of Pop" life from that style. Pop wasn't going to hand it to him.

Pop music in America is an extension

of whiteness and works just like it — it has no defined borders, it expands and contracts to maintain its dominion; it tells us that nothing too ethnic can have universal appeal. In particular, pop extracts Black music's style from its cultural context while denying its origi-

nal creature equitable access to the music business's most profitable groups.

With its own take on R&B, dance, hip-hop and rock, K-pop is one of many genres that run on Black music — even if BTS and other groups have at times

acknowledged the influence of Black artists. Though BTS's protest can be read as a challenge to the centrality of American pop (and its artists), a real accounting must acknowledge that many Asian artists didn't challenge it until segregation came for them, too.

The largest Asian entertainment companies, with lots of new acts to promote, may not want to fight that system on principle. But BTS, possibly the biggest act in the world since Jackson, is perhaps the only Korean recording act with the frontiers and leverage to spark a reckoning. So will this be a moment when artists and entrepreneurs compete to form the major institutions of that business to break its addiction to racism dressed up as demographic?

Every artist, whether BTS or Bad Bunny, deserves access to the largest market without being filtered out or qualified. The solution isn't about getting rid of special markets or categories. Folk, for example, is a real thing, and it's benefits kids to have discrete awards and institutions, great. It's pop that needs to be examined, because pop is the biggest market, and yet admin does it — it's diverse largely subjective.

Artists and their managers should scrutinize record companies for the way they exclude artists from their pop departments. Labels and artists should challenge playletters at streaming services and radio station programmers about how they wished the term "pop" for some but not for others. The Recording Academy should stop investing new award categories, especially ones based on ethnicity, nationality or language, when people aren't asking for them — every division separates its occupants from the larger, more profitable market, and if those pop performance awards or pop playlists cannot be defined neutrally or aesthetically perhaps they shouldn't exist.

Pop is a term that has become as insight as that other vile word the tech world uses: content. That rapidity has an effect on the music. Artists who aspire only to be "pop," encouraged to dress themselves in automatically, contented to be content, are aspiring to a kind of emptiness. It's why much of today's pop awards like had decisions.

DAN CHARNAS is the author of "Dills Flow" and a professor at the Clow Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University.

How Trump can reform immigration

DENNIS, FROM PAGE 1 — one-third of the workers who allow older Americans to remain in their homes.

As of 2023, 12 percent of Ohio's physicians, 12 percent of our STEM workers and 6 percent of our re-tregements were foreign-born. Looking to the future, where advanced manufacturing, aerospace and health care will drive our economy, we need both native-born workers and immigrants.

By taking on jobs that are often physically demanding and hard to fill, immigrants in many instances create opportunities for native-born Americans to hold more specialized, and higher paying, jobs. Immigrants and native-born Ohioans are building a better economy together.

This is the case in many parts of the United States, where immigrants contribute to the economy, including many employed in the agricultural, meat and seafood processing, hospitality, construction and medical care fields.

Like the president, I want everyone who comes to the country to do it legally — and I applaud his focus on and success at bringing us closer to that reality. However, despite his ad-ministration's success in stemming illegal immigration, he approach to

those here legally threatens to derail economic momentum in my state and elsewhere by departing hard-working individuals and chatting the door to future talent.

According to one estimate, international students added nearly $33 billion to the nation's economy in 2024. Yet the administration has drastically reduced America's international student population — a sharp

As Ohio's governor, I understand the need for a sensible immigration policy. In our state, very simply, we need people

departure from decades of open-ended academic stays that sup-paired research and spurred innovation. In January, the State Department from immigrant visa approach for applicants from 75 countries. (In July, a Federal District

Court judge ruled that this was un-lovely.) These visas have in recent years accounted for nearly half of all U.S. immigrant visas.

The administration also reduced the unpaid cap on refugees allowed into the United States to 7,500 from 225,000, before raising it to 17,500, with most of those slots reserved for white South Africans.

In Springfield, Ohio, Haitian nationals have played a major role in the city's economic comeback. They've filled jobs, repaired homes, paid taxes, starred businesses and supported their families. But the administration has ended their Temporary Protected

Status, a move I have usually opposed. It's time for Mr. Trump's House grow-to-Value minister, Stirling stockholders himself as a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, he should begin a thoughtful, forward-finding discussion with members of Congress to both parties about enacting a legal immigration policy that strengthens national security, bolsters the economy and keeps decent, hard-working people here.

Among the reforms he should consider supporting. Establishing new pathways to extend the legal status of foreign students who graduate with advanced STEM degrees, essentially stapling a green card to their digit-eyes, reworking the 18-20 visa program in better prioritize workers whose skills and experience are essential in American businesses; and equipping employers with readers, reliable tools to verify each eligibility.

My great-great grandfather, Dennis DeWine, left County Colony on a cattle boat in the 1840s to escape the Irish potato biester. He worked on the railroad being built in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he settled and raised his family.

With only big dreams and job, he took a chance on America, and America took a chance on him. That's the American story.

President Ronald Reagan, who signed a sweeping immigration reform bill in 1980, chose immigration as the topic for his final speech before leaving office. He reflected on America's spirit of openness and opportunity, reminding us that "we lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people — our strength — from every country and every corner of the world." He said:

Thanks to each issue of new contacts in this kind of opportunity, we're a nation-house-loving license honoring with energy and new ideas, and always on the eating edge, almost leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we run ahead for that in new Americans, our leadership in the world would miss the best.

The president should seize the moment to achieve real immigration reform that recognizes this same American spirit.

MIKE DENNIS is the Republican governor of Ohio and also served in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

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12 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026

SCIENCE

Promising method to avoid ovarian cancer

Majority of cases begin in fallopian tubes. Taking them out can reduce risk.

BY GINA KOLATA

Kira Wynn will do almost anything to avoid ovarian cancer, which killed her mother.

"My name thought she'd pulled a muscle in her table". Ms. Wynn said. Her mother's doctor, she added, "said her to do physical therapy".

As is often the case with ovarian cancer, Ms. Wynn's mother's disease was already at an advanced stage when she was diagnosed. She died 10 months later.

Grenet's tests could not pinpoint a mutation that would reveal whether Ms. Wynn was at risk for ovarian cancer, too.

So Ms. Wynn, 37, had a consultation with Dr. Rebecca Stone, a gynecological oncologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. What she heard was not what she expected.

"Ovarian cancer," Dr. Stone told her, is a misnomer. Nearly all ovarian cancers — and nearly all fatal ovarian cancers — are actually cancers of the fallopian tubes. The 10 percent or so that start in the ovarian are different, Dr. Stone said, and usually can be cured.

Women who have their tubes — the gummy worm-shaped ducts that carry eggs from the ovaries to the uterus — removed reduce their chances of getting ovarian cancer by nearly 40 percent. It's a few ominous operation that can be done as part of nearly any abdominal surgery.

For no doctor, Ms. Wynn said, had ever mentioned fallopian tube removal to me.

That's not surprising, Dr. Stone said, because most doctors (and the public) do not know about this new approach, even though professional groups like the American Cancer Society, the American College of Surgeons and the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology have recently issued statements encouraging doctors to offer tube removal at the time of other abdominal surgeries.

The American Cancer Society is now working on a national campaign to make more ominous and doctors cancer than tube removal can help prevent most ovarian cancers.

Women have, on average, a 1:1 percent risk of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, among the most deadly of all cancers. Screening to find it early does not work should stem the next today's 15-trimmed, blood-term and advanced imaging have all failed. And most of the 20,000 women a year who receive a diagnostic of ovarian cancer have no known risk factors. By the main they find out what is happening, they are now blunting and abdominal pain, the cancer has spread throughout their bodies. Surgery and chemotherapy — the standard treatments — are unlikely to cure them.

The tumors start as microscopic species of cancer cells that pull out of the water. But if the fallopian tubes are needed against an ovary, they need the ovary and abdomen, where they grow and become lethal.

Dr. Kira Long, an ovarian cancer specialist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, likens these tiny cancer cells to their coming up from a rug and floating through a room.

Dr. Rebecca Stone, a gynecological oncologist, shows, says two doctors have about fallopian tube removal as an ovarian cancer prevention method. Before from left: Dr. Kira Long, an ovarian cancer specialist; Kira Wynn, whose mother died of ovarian cancer that was diagnosed at an advanced stage; and Releuter Garner, who had her fallopian tubes removed.

claim at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, likens these tiny cancer cells to their coming up from a rug and floating through a room.

Dr. Stone says they're like deadsoft drifting down to a percent's shoulders.

That discovery, Dr. Long said, "was a lightbulb moment for us" it explained why early diagnosis was not done. Those tiny cells do not show up on ultrasound or other imaging.

But the finding did not seem to penetrate the medical community. "How do

you take a critical discovery, one of the most critical discoveries in my lifetime, and more it is standard of care?" Dr. Stone asked.

The first inkling that most ovarian cancer starts in the fallopian tubes began in 2000 with a Dutch Ph.D. student, Jorgyn Pink. He knew that women with certain mutations in either of two genes, BRCA1 or BRCA2, had a greatly increased risk of ovarian cancer. Manylncils to have their ovaries removed preventively to protect themselves.

So Dr. Pink began studying the ovaries that the women chose to have removed, looking for early signs of cancer. Doctors who remove ovaries also remove fallopian tubes at the same time, because although ovaries can survive without the tubes, the tubes cannot survive without ovaries, which they rely on for their blood supply.

"It took a lot of science for us to feel really confident about recommending that people remove a structure," Dr. Long said. There were critical ques-

tions: Were the tubes the source of cancer is women who had average risk? ("The answer to you, I've had to remove tubes" (Vol.) Does the operation damage the source? (No,))

Dr. Joseph Katsina, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins Medicine, cautioned, though, that published articles were not written to change practice. "Here is a gap that exists between having the disease there and having it implemented," he said.

Because removing the fallopian tubes affects fertility, doctors take care to co-

plain the implications before offering the procedure. They want to reveal carefully, making sure women don't think they are being pushed into sterilization. There's a long history of bowel sterilization of disabled people. Much people can disadvantaged people.

Note, Broad Through Cancer, a foundation in Cambridge, Mass., and the American Cancer Society are conducting a study at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Johns Hopkins. Every woman scheduled for abdominal surgery is offered a chance to see a tube explaining what a bowel about ovarian cancer, and to then asked if she'd like her tubes removed during the surgery. Any woman can decline to watch the tube or decline to have her fallopian tubes removed, for instance if she is considering getting pregnant more day or can have uncomfortable with the idea of having a healthy body part removed.

"How do you take a critical discovery, one of the most critical discoveries in my lifetime, and more it is standard of care?"

Releuter Garner, 76, who lives in Baltimore, saw the video recently when she came to Johns Hopkins for a prospective visit before having a hernia repair. She has no family history of ovarian cancer, she said, and no known genetic risk. And she had no idea that most ovarian cancer starts in the fallopian tubes.

But after finding no, she said, "I was going to go ahead with it." Dr. Katsina removed her tubes on July 17.

Dr. Long said she and Dr. Stone looked back over the medical records of their ovarian cancer patients to see how many had had abdominal surgery some. "I think this may seem to just keep up in the opportunity, they could have had their tubes removed preventing their cancers.

"Over a quarter had a missed opportunity," Dr. Long said. "Oh my gosh, it's hundreds of patients."

Kristin Rosen, 42, who lives near Annapolis, Md., is one of them. She was training for a 50-kilometer (12-mile) scan and has a chest x-ray (diagnostic started "dissimilarly was off," she said, "I had irritable bowel issues."

Her doctor had thought Ms. Stone had irritable bowel syndrome but sent her for a 47.5-cap: "to rule out anything weird," Ms. Rosen said.

She received a diagnosis on May 15 of her year advanced ovarian cancer. Treatment so far has involved five surgeries, nine months of chemotherapy and five months of immunotherapy.

Phyllography discovered that her cancer had started in her left fallopian tube. She had had a cesarean 10 years ago, along with a cholecystectomy, which cut the tubes but did not take them out. "They had not wide open," Ms. Rosen said. It would have been so easy to remove her tubes.

But, she said, "I refuse to look at this from the point of view of your pain, painful me." Instead, she added, she wants to tell her story to help others so they don't miss an opportunity to prevent ovarian cancer.

America debates when to let the sun shine

Competing proposals aim to fix clocks to standard or daylight saving time

BY LYNNE PEERLE

The American Protection Act, passed by the House of Representatives last month, promises an easy fix to an unpopular ritual: The bill would halt the twice-weekly changing of the clocks in the United States and make daylight saving time permanent.

A competing House measure, introduced to early July, would lock the clock on standard time. New lawmakers continue their business upstairs, permanent daylight saving time, permanent standard time, or the seasonal clock-switching we have now.

Permanent daylight saving time may well be the subject of these choices, many scientists believe, with unintended consequences for health and the economy. Ultimately, the approach is where to place an hour of daylight, a particularly scary resource in winter.

The issue of the House will "grow the illusion that never increasing the clocks to light, and more certain, it's director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford University in Houston.

"But you're not. You're just changing when the light occurs."

So Seattle, for example, permanent daylight saving time would push narrow levels of the day to the weight of the clocks. Women Permanent standard time would bring narrow levels of 20 a.m. for about two months each week.

Many sleep and circadian scientists think the day must have belongs to the morning. A network of clocks throughout the body coordinates everything from the day to the day to a comfortable. The most potent time-setting signal for that system: sunlight.

Bright mornings and dark evenings help keep the internal clocks in eyes, so

the body can perform the right functions at the right times. Shifting an hour of daylight: from the morning to the evening potentially disrupts this circadian system.

"The preponderance of the evidence is that daylight saving time is not good for our health or safety, and I think I shouldn't happen," said Elizabeth R. Klerman, a sleep and circadian researcher at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Studies link chronic circadian misalignment to higher risks of cardiovascular and metabolic disease, some cancers and mental health problems. That's how women the American Medical Association and other health, sleep and scientific organizations have endorsed permanent standard time.

Still, the appeal of permanent daylight saving time is obvious. More people would know work before dark during the winter. Extra-or-missing light might encourage exercise and socializing and, some studies suggest, reduce our accidents and rates of certain crimes.

"When is that hour of daylight the most beneficial? I think it is a pretty sensitive answer — when people are unable to use it," said Steve Lippolytik, a law professor at the University of Washington who has studied the economics of daylight saving time.

The cost is started in morning. "The worst choice of all these options is permanent (i.e.)," said Dr. Pfeiffer C. Jow, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Publishing House, University of Chicago.

The country has trued it before. In January 2016 during the oil crisis, Congress imposed your round daylight saving time. It was popular at first — until people began complaining about the "second dark age," and children were struck and killed walking on a bench for dark.

Most of the country were back to seasonal clock changes, a system some re-searchers now consider the least of these evils.

Permanent daylight saving time may be the subject of the options being discussed, many scientists believe, with unintended consequences for health and the economy.

MIXED RESEARCH

The public has little appetite for keeping the entire-pan-fishly 10 percent of American say they want to keep springing forward and falling back, according to an AP/HSRC poll in October.

Beyond the aneurysms, studies have found measurable short-term consequences to resorting the clocks and clocks in traffic accidents and heart attacks, plus is the satisfaction, even reductions in charitable giving and longer criminal sentences handed down by judges.

Shifting on a permanent time might its own trade-offs, although the evidence here is obvious.

Results of studies predicting road safety, for example, under your round daylight saving time land all over the map — with positive, negative and no-effects. Much of that research shows no clock transitions at their evidences of daylight saving time, making it hard to know how the effects would play out during a permanent change, Dr. Klerman said.

Still, one analysis explained natural variations in sources and cancer times to estimate that permanent daylight saving time could prevent hundreds of pernicious and recent vehicle deaths from largely because evenings are more traffic than evenings do. Another study found that millenials dropped with increased evening light.

But such gains, scientists note, could be offset in other ways by darker evenings, chronic sleep loss and circadian damages. Even under the current seasonal system, research suggests no circadian clocks never fully adjust to the spring shift.

Statistics may still debate the risks and benefits of moving to permanent daylight saving time, but generally agree on one point: Different people in different places will experience them in different ways.

WORKERS ABOUT CHILDREN

Extreme-early-herds, for example, might do fine with extra evening light — it

could even help them stay awake long enough to enjoy a night out.

But resurgent and night curls might struggle. Circadian timing usually shifts later during puberty; adolescents tend to fall asleep later and wake up later. Darker mornings could dial their natural clocks later still, even as school-bells have them out of bed early.

One risk: car accidents. "High school-ers are driving cars to school in the dark in the middle of their biological night," said Hussain de la Lijinsky, a biologist at the University of Washington who has studied circadian rhythms for decades.

Other potential hazards range from moving health to academic performance. Winter depression among teenagers and young adults in Russia was after it adopted permanent daylight saving time in 2012, then fell again after the country switched to permanent standard time in 2014.

Because better, not harsher, drive much of today's economy, student performance may be the stringent economic assumption your round-laylight saving time and for your round standard time, and Philips Newhouse, an economic researcher at Bielefeld University in Germany.

Dr. Newhouse mentioned a broad review weighing the short- and long-term effects of permanent daylight saving time and persistent standard time. At health, road safety, crime, electricity use and the economy.

The conclusion: Permanent-standard time rates are almost overall, driven largely by the expected health benefits.

THE NIGHT

Under current law, death may opt out of daylight saving time and stay on standard time your round, as Arizona and Hawaii do. Both falls before Congress would change the national default while leaving the world. In other times.

But too much had discretion rules restraining the very confusion that standard time zones were designed to fix, Dr. Zettner said.

Before U.S. railroads introduced standard time zones in 1893, towns on their clocks in strike more when the race reached its zenith overhead. As The New York Times put it back November 27, 1899 it had long an alarm at local ports from Maine to the Pacific, "there would have been a continuous ringing from the east to the west during the 3/4 years."

Returning to true local sun lines isn't practical in a modern, interconnected society, Dr. Zettner said — even though, biologically, he considers that standard not best salience.

Among the more viable options, scientific opinions diverge, faster researchers and researchers of the present systems to infer permanent alternative.

Acknowledging the desired and inconsistent evidence is data, a recent review of more than 100 studies found the effects of clock changes and seasonal daylight saving time were "not uniformly detrimental." The authors concluded that continuing the biannual dates, while working in subjects in negative effects, is "much considerable — until more robust evidence emerges."

Till Researching, a circadian research and professor emeritus at LMU Munich who has long studied factors may be the case with meleguining in the seasonal world and prefer to re-permanent daylight saving time.

A more prominent, though, to prevent next standard time — parent with more flexible school and work start times.

The problem here isn't really the clock but the right education society has built a model to be used in the future.

School and work schedules should be delayed or refused to better accommodate both work (with and night work) who don't all thrive on the same fixed clocks as those in the same room as the other. The student with the reasons.

Permanent daylight saving time "is the time you're ready for the last time businesses are still telling people to get into work at it now," Dr. Zettner said. "And schools are still opening up at 7 a.m. at 8 a.m."

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

13

Sports

The Toronto Blue Jays' George Springer, above left, after a win over the St. Louis Cardinals last week. The Blue Jays have struggled to replicate last season's form. Above right, Tarik Skobal during his first game for the Los Angeles Dodgers after moving from the Chicago Colts.

Don't kid yourselves. The time to win is now.

Commentary

BY BRITTANY GIRBOLI TIME AT WAY OF

Remember the 2022 Toronto Blue Jays? They were talented, full of personal and supposed to solve in the next long competitive window of Canadian baseball. Instead, the team fired its manager, New an 8-1 load in Game 2 of an American League wild-card series and was swept out of the postseason by the Seattle Mariners.

Tentative went nine years between Major League Baseball played wins, from 2018 until last year's magical run to the World Series, which featured a motor very different from the one-these years before. Still, the 2022 Blue Jays had not gained the sustained success and largely ran back the same group that fell just short of the ultimate prize. The Blue Jays, though, heard themselves in last place in the A.L. East at the year's trade deadline, working to balance willing and buying.

That's the thing about windows. They don't always cooperate. Sometimes, they never truly have at all, as in the Chicago White Sox' last rebuilding. Chris Getz, presented in general manager in 2021, then orchestrated his own painful rebuilding. Chicago is now

stop the A.L. Central, and Getz told reporters last week: "I don't take any of this for granted. You can't assume that you're going to be in these joint times every year."

And yet some front offices act as if they do, so if their sophisticated fresh els are the only outcomes and not singular ideas of a future that has thousands of potential outcomes, as if this sport isn't a volatile mix of or genomes, injuries and educated guesses on human beings and their potential.

Four years after Mike Elias, the president of the Baltimore Orioles, told fans it was "time for life!!!," he dealt his first No. 1 draft pick, catcher Adley Rutschman, to the Boston Red Sox. Elias, whose team has yet to win a playoff game since he took over in November 2018, emphasizely told reporters on a call last week that Baltimore wasn't rebuilding.

But the Orioles, who won the A.L. East in 2021, were viewed by many in the industry as a potential future dynasty three years ago. When they were swept out of the playoffs by the Texas Rangers, the eventual World Series champions, Elias said the window was just opening. The firing at one manager and one man two years of sub-200 baseball followed.

Lifed? The rocket is still on the launch pad.

I'm not saying the Orioles should

have been buyers. The Rutschman trade was a good deal for them, with a lot of future value. But I've yet to see "Future Value Women" on a fairly T-shirt or a banner hanging to celebrate the No. 1 ranked minor league season. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a team raise anything at the end of the season for the most wins per dollar or consecutive 82-win seasons that ended in first-round defeats. Though these are hasty phrases in the age of efficiency and whatever else front offices want fans to believe in the ultimate goal over, you know, actual disorganization.

I'm not saying teams should throw all caution to the wind, but I do think it needs to be said: Competitive windows don't always cooperate. Sometimes, it's OK to push in your chips.

Slow many years ago won the San Diego Padres' window supposed to have closed? "Isn't There? You can make the valid point that they haven't won anything under General Manager A. J. Profen. You can also make the point that this is a small-market team that thwarted its news at the outlaw that you can't take risks or try to win locally every year.

How have they say run out of prospects to deal? Because Profen is exceptional at starting and remaining. Did Milwaukee Brewers General Manager Matt Arnold, whose organization has the best farm system, say feel

confident his group could do the same if it pulled the trigger on pitcher Tarik Skobal, the actor of the trade deadline? What about the Tampa Bay Rays' president for baseball operations, Erik Neander? The Brewers and the Rays have a 99 percent chance to make the playoffs, but what about beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in October?

We don't know the details of what each club offered for Skobal before

"You can't assume that you're going to be in these positions every year!" Several players on the Duggers, who opted against one pair try with their ace but say they are try to keep their own competitive window from closing, wanted players closer to the

big leagues. Maybe an offer was over going to bear what the Dodgers could pull together from their system.

But we do know that the Dodgers, independent of payroll, try to win the World Series every year. They are one of a handful of teams that have the gall to say so publicly.

Critics say that I because they're the big, had Dodgers who don't care about making mistakes with money or prospects, and part of that is true. But frustrated fans clamoring for a salary cap forget that it won't stop certain players from taking equal money — or even less — to play for a team such as

Los Angeles, which offers higher visibility for off-field underwomenes and a better chance at a World Series share. It has happened in other sports.

Forget the cap and the floor. Baseball needs a system that becomes winning, that rewards trying. The current guardrails in place aren't enough. Layers continually fielding a team just above 200 is enough job security for front offices.

Just go into the playoffs, and anything can happen, teams like to say. Except it's not really true. When won the last time a team without women, high-end talent wasn't a trophy? Wild-card teams start double in and win, such as the 2018 Washington Nationals, weren't photos. They were hurt for a good chance of the year. That there had Man Schemer, Stephen Strudburg and Zack Alex. The 2022 Rangers — another wild-card team that won it all — had five position players who started that year's All-Star Game.

Spare me the "small markets can't take risks" argument. Sometimes, you have to get uncomfortable to win. Aggressive scores do more than improve World Series odds. Only he an enormous shot in the arm for mortality. I was thing for players in a club-house to think they're good enough to win. It's another for the front office to put some idea in the game and say, "We believe in you enough to push our chips to."

Yes, there's a time to be rational, when your team is testering and the talent just isn't quite there. But therefore a time to capitalize on a season of good health or guys playing significantly better than expected.

The Padres don't have a trophy, but they do have some of the best attendance in the game. The best attendance the Rays ever had, outside of their inaugural season, was in 2009 and 2016, the two seasons after their first World Series ran. The Brewers haven't been in the World Series since losing in 1982. Their last big midseason acquisition, ending for October 17, benefits in 2008, did not work out. They have drawn more than three million fans in a single season three times, including 2008 and 2009.

The Rays did make a fairly big midseason move in a 100-win season in 2021, trading for the slugger Nelson Cruz in a four-player sweep in which pitcher Joe Ryan went to the Minnesota Twins. Ryan has since twice been named as all-Star. The Rays did not make it out of their A.L. division series, but it was hardly a club that hosted them. They made the playoffs each of the next two seasons.

Sometimes, trying to sports doesn't work out. Sometimes, the so-called window doesn't stay open, either. Taking a gamble should be part of the fan. This isn't a stock portfolio. Except for some teams, it feels as if it is.

The Mini Crossword

ACROSS

1. Caitlin Clark's league, for short
2. Odyssac's hiding place when ordering the city of Troy
3. Hawaiian "Is"
4. Personal opinions, in modern parlance
5. When a outbatch hatches

DOWN

1. "Come again!"
2. Hall-of-Fame pitcher ... Ryan
3. Unleaded!
4. What a phoenix rises from
5. The "C" of M

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

Print + digital, in one illuminating package.

Assumes what the camera follows and gets to digital access. Save 60% for 3 months.

Two Not Touch

Put two stars in each row, column and region of the grid. No two stars may touch, but even diagonally.

Brain Tickler

A word meaning "spies" becomes "some things seen in a kitchen" when spelled backward.

What is it?

PUZZLE BY W.L. DANCE

YOUTHBAY'S ANSWER TO PUZZLE AND THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST.

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 dot grid will use the digits 1-4. A fold grid will use 1-6.

For more games: www.nytimes.com/games

YOUTHBAY'S ANSWER TO PUZZLE AND THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY ARE THE BEST.

Crossword | Edited by Will Shortz

ACROSS 1. Mentions by username, on serial mode 2. High-range 3. Hits up on Insta, say 4. ... see Japan, in Suwano! 5. Torment 6. On the axis, it's akin to "B" 7. Where Does and Sheets are stored 8. Jordan joined it in 1984, for short 9. Pie 10. Only number that appears here in the Fibonacci sequence 11. Rip-off 12. Measurements of the 11 performance 13. Didn't have a match in Qu-Fish, say 14. Feeling little to no ammonia attraction, in L.B.R.T.G.'s logic 15. Identity prefix 16. Balloon with a record 17 appearances as "Saturday Night Live" host

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

60. Slopes of "White Men Can't Long"

61. Baking amts.

DOWN

1. Party wrap

2. Bit of chemistry

3. Bad firing to soft

while running

4. Faded under

5. Wounds, in a

only

5. Hot Punch

beverage

6. "Sick, death"

7. What a hug may

cause

8. Camp

9. In gags for

10. Farm female

11. "Bottles" of these

12. Hunting, friends

13. "I messed up"

14. Lives in misses

15. Taken fantasy series with

16. Little flourish on a table

17. Break off gradually

18. Born reading

19. Connor's able, informally

20. Dig, in the Jack Ryan means

21. Talker fantasy series with

22. Little flourish on

a table

23. Break off

gradually

24. Born reading

25. Connor's able,

informally

26. Dig, in the Jack

Ryan means

27. Taken

locals in "The

Canterbury Tales"

28. Leaves in a bull

29. Great wine

representing

electricity in

economics

30. PC "copy"

shortcut

31. ...Tus

32. 1959 part. Role

33. Six ballistic

34. Big name in

polite space

33. Pride sound

at ... blatant

(English folklore

tectonic)

34. Kiva on the up and

up

35. Dead victim's

filing

36. Perfumery unit

37. "Holi...cold!"

38. Comes to

observe

39. Moisture up in

as in competition

40. Nutrocure for

M.L.B.'s Angels

41. Feature of one's

mind following a

loud concert, say

42. Patate discards

43. Farm female

44. It ends in

outsmoke

45. Singer Luns Del

Play all of our games plus over 10,000 part puzzles for Wordle, Spalding Box. The Crossword and more online at http://nytimes.com/games. For puzzle info, visit http://nytimes.com/wordle/.

---

14 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026

Culture

Helping rethink medieval art

Andrew Winslow, who tends thousands of items, is facing a new challenge

BY SCOTT SCHUMERSON

On a recent Wednesday at The Met Chintore, the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to medieval art and architecture, Andrew Winslow, the museum's senior collections manager, moved her to an unusual visitor to a new woman room with a coastal ceiling. Tanacasterooth, or Bar Lord, an almost seven-foot-tall multi-century sculpture of a hybrid creature — an upright man with a hat's claws and head, large ears and a leaf-shaped tongue — enslaved from Mazeed the Temple Mayor in Mexico City.

The sculpture was based in a small town southeast of Mexico City, at the foot of a volcano. Now it stands before a Gothic French doorway amid Spanish frescoes, the centerpiece of a new exhibition, "Creatures of Myth and Imagination," that heralds the arrival of the arts of the Ancient American at the Euniceanistic museum.

In Euphrie oncoming, Bar Lord is associated with darkness, the underworld and rebirth, and the deity's visit to the Chintore marks a new era at the museum, most roughly its Winslow, the 52-year-old art handler who is trained with overseeing the sculpture's care.

Winslow has been working at the Chintore for 24 years. He started in 2002 selling it here, and since 2007, her been responsible for the proper display and storage of the museum's collection, which includes panel paintings, stone and wood sculptures, tapestries, manuscripts and metalwork — pianos secular and sacred. Several times a week, he walks through the galleries and studies every object to see it anything looks off, from a piece of flaking paint on a sculpture to a barely perceptible cobweb. The job requires a good eye and a steady hand. (Winslow stopped drinking coffee, he says, after watching, his hand shake one day while he was trying to turn the page of a medieval manuscript.)

I had met Winslow on a previous trip to the Chintore, and his close attention to the art struck you. I wanted to see the museum through his eyes, since no one currently on staff has cared for the cathedral image. He suggested I came to a Wednesday, when the galleries are closed to visitors, who numbered some 200,000 last year.

When I arrived, Winslow — dressed in an unnamed plaid shirt and rolled-up shirtsleeves, with a hake brush in his back pocket — walked me down in his head, wankedness offers in the museum's labyrinthine basement. On the walls were his name of the trade (riders, a level, a hacksaw) beside objects from the museum's history, including a blade-and-white photograph of George Grey Barnard's original candlelit Chintore's museum out for from this location. It opened in 1814 with Barnard's own art of the Middle Ages and operated until 1835, when his collection was acquired by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and became a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (with Rockefeller adding some of his own works).

Next in Winslow's rank were two routed metal candle snuffers, their ropes raised at was, that he suspects was found in Barnard's car, because he confessed above his desk were invitations to special exhibitions he's worked at at the Chintore, along with a handmade name tag from his early days selling tickets.

Andrew Winslow, the senior collections manager for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's department of medieval art and The Met Chintore, is one of its gallery spaces in Type: Manhattan, and below, some of the roughly 30,000 objects in his own.

"I was a painter," he said. "I needed a part-time job." At the time, he loved in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York, a 20-minute walk to the museum, and his love for the Chintore, he says, was "nearly instantaneous." He admired the sweeping views of the Hudson River from its location atop Fort Tryon Park, one of the highest points in

Manhattan, and he felt dryers to the building, which was created in the 1850s by incorporating medieval roars into a structure that feels like a museumry. On his first day, he joined a public tour that played a looking game, which taught him how to tell the difference between the medieval and modern stones that make up the museum's walls.

Winslow heads an artist's eye to the roughly 30,000 objects in his care. He knows where the dust will settle on a sculpture of the Virgin Mary, how the light will change on a summer day in the Early Gothic Hall, and if he has to move a large object, he knows the dimensions of every doorway and distance. He is one of the only people on earth allowed to

Winslow breathing dust from Tanacasterooth, or Bar Lord, part of the exhibition "Creatures of Myth and Imagination" text by the Museo del Temple Mayor in Mexico City.

touch the objects, and he can tell you the weight of an ivory carving, say, or how the edges of 12th-century penitlement hat. But he never begins the 4th, I vote of art handling. "Don't do it if you don't have to."

He sees himself as "one step in a long line" of carnation for objects that will matter to, he said, "it we're doing our jobs." He still steps to consider his luck at getting to work with the collection. "This is a piece of an animal skin that was mottled 100 years ago," Winslow said. "I'm not sure. I'm just a look that was made for a spoon of France, and it's in my hands."

Winslow walked me through the museum's chapels and halls. In the Benedictine Chintore garden, he told me about the pleasanable mornings he spends sweeping the walkways, and down in the family St Treasury Manor, he created the oldest known complete set of playing cards, from the 40th century, which are changed every four months. One by one, Winslow carefully did a piece of a 4-page audio-serial and a good guard card, then faded the flags over the top of a flag, game, bizarre or pity.

For his first time, with an assistant, he attended to galleries and objects that visitors viewed as largely static — the Chintore's hadn't learnt a special exhibition since 1902. That changed in November 2011, when the chapel should a ritual show that featured a famous medieval set of china pieces. Since then, Winslow has worked on every one of the special exhibitions, which have grown in ambition and scope as departments at the Met are encouraged to collaborate more freely. Citizens are making the museum a dynamic place, said C. Griffith Haxin, curator in charge at the Met's medieval department.

The Chintore must convince leading institutions that their pieces will be safe in a place that looks like a monastery. "We have doors that are open to the outside gardens," Winslow said. Because the open doors are crucial to the Chintore's romantic feeling, staff members are defending against print, including ants, clothes moths, carpet beetles, the occasional bird and, once, a resident hat.

The total, right-knit staff is interested in finding new ways to use the Chintore in a setting. A cat year, Winslow worked on the exhibition team for "Spectraco of Doctor: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages," which explored the often-overlooked theme of sexuality in medieval art. There hadn't been an exhibition at the Chintore quite like it, Winslow said.

"Creatures," which is the first collabo-

ration with the Met's Michael C. Rockefeller wing, brings together fields that have historically remained closed — medieval European art and the arts of the Ancient American, signaling a fresh curatorial vision.

"Everything about our building and our collection speaks to Western Europe," said Julia Norodom, associate curator at the Chintore and a co-curator of the "Creatures" exhibition, on a video call, "There are expectations of what you're going to face in the Chintore that we're carried to celebrate."

Winslow heads an artist's eye to his custodial task. He knows where the dust will settle on a sculpture of the Virgin Mary.

The "Creatures" exhibition features more than 30 objects, mostly from the Chintore' permanent collection, seen upon alongside the museum's collection of art and the Metropolitan Central American and the Aztec, as well as special items from Mexico. Once the idea for the exhibition took place, the curatorial team approached Winslow, whom they call their "secret weapon," and who brings their ideas to life, often making sketches and scale models. "You'll come up with a wild idea and you want this gigantic thing," said Joanne Pillsbury, a curator with the Met's Rockefeller Wing, "and he will try so hard to make it happen."

His team had to remove the metal handles on the door to get Bar Lord inside. Another gigantic sculpture would have required removing a ceiling and lowering it into the gallery by cruse.

"I'm here now to here," Winslow said, moving me to where he was standing in the Romanesque Hall, facing the new sculpture at an angle. Bar Lord, who once adorned a public space in the town of San Mateo, Bonapapua Miraflores, was dramatically juxtaposed with a monumental 12th-century fresco of a dragon with a swine's long body and a chicken's knobby feet, from a Benedictine monastery in Spain.

The curators had this courage to come from the show's conception, Winslow said.

Here were two legendary creatures, side by side, because there's that wouldn't have contact for hundreds of years. Winslow's eye went back and forth, as the Romanesque Hall considered from a showcase for medieval European artists a celebration of the incredible capacity of the human imagination.

Appetite for experiences

FILM REVIEW

A teen Anthony Bourdain is the subject of a biopic set in 1970s Cape Cod

BY JEANNETTE CATWOLIN

One of the many charms of "Tony," the splendid fifth feature from the Canadaan filmmaker Matt Johnson, is that the film would be just an pleasurable if its subject were a complete unknown. In other words, this fictionalized origination of Anthony Bourdain, the celebrated chef, writer, raconteur and television host who died in 2015, asks no more of its audience than any other movie about a novelty manager on the rocky road to adulthood.

And that's crucial, because Bourdain himself is almost one day for any one movie, his trials and talents too much of a mouthful to swallow in a single piety. Who to this, Johnson recovers us to an apenifit, a taste of a personality that's just and complex and sometimes unbelievable.

Informed by the rocky chapters of Bourdain's 20th summer, "Kitchen Confidential: The Home of the Chintore's Underbelly" Johnson (who wrote the script with Todd Barrett, Lou Howe and Matthew Miller) introduces his lastly, 50-year-old hero during one

tranche-mative summer in 1975.

After failing to win a writing fellowship he had assumed was in the bag, Tony (Owenier, Irena, fantastic) open immensely follows his crash, Nancy (Emilia Jones), to Proclusiveness, Mass. Having lied to his parents (Diagnora Dominiczyk and Rich Sommer) about the rejection, he has no plan, what he does have is a gurgishman ego and a cravatry appetite for experiences.

Producing to be a writer, armed with too-dollar words and a pair of munchacks locked in the watchtied of his pants, he endss Nancy, who is having none of his callow furious. When the manchants come out and he inevitably gets rolled, he will land outside a washed restaurant and at the best of someone else will touch him much more than how to cook.

That restaurant, barely a half-step up from a low-bed joint, is the nearest heart of "Tony," its kitchen — like the classroom workplace in Johnson's 2012 gere, "Blackberry" — a love of controlled chaos and the crucible in which Tony will be tested. (Johnson has a real aptitude for depicting the tumultuous kinship of laughter friends and colleagues.)

The restaurant's owner, known only as Chef (Johnson Basilevics), is a big-areas yet kindhearted overseer of the recognition something person behind Tony's arrogant penicings, offering him a hammock on his pench to exchange for working dishes. And the

Dominic Irena and Emilia Jones in "Tony" a fictionalized origination of a biopic with Anthony Bourdain, the celebrated chef, writer and TV host.

beauty of Basilevics's quietly affecting performance lies in how he conveys. Chef's gradual realization that his tantrums of Tony has awakened long-abandoned dreams of his own.

But if Chef is the angel on Tony's shoulder, the devil on the other is fail (a brilliant Los Woodall), a slate-chasing, line-sowring lredosier and a love-wheeling guide to the town's nightlife

and social-aboring obituations. This tension, more than any romance, drives his third dreams, the screenplay repeatedly raising the choice between discipline and restlessness. Talking

miserably alongside fail and his fellow-roads (Swintemoody played by Stavros Stables and Michael Jibera), Tony is finally learning something that he is good at, he's just the reward to leave it yet.

Since his feature debut in 2013, Johnson has emerged as something of a chronicler of troubled masculinity, his characters restless searches with grand ideas who may be their own worst tensions.

"Hey" for the template, like in model, the movie is rare and current, sulky and exaggerating, and occasionally pious.

"I want you to take my photo because I like the way I feel when you look at me," Tony tells Nancy, requesting a portrait for a book he has yet to write. At one moment like this, Irena casts off the charisma of alienation to reveal the vulnerability that would temper Bourdain's brush hyper-confidence.

Using vintage letters and shooting mainly on Cape Cod, the cinematographer Michael Dunstan leads a message, almost sentimental down to his beauty locations. The story is a slight, but by outcovering on an a-crualful stiver of a sweeping life, Johnson gets at something deeper and more than a few of his own words and have allowed. In the end, this captivating movie may be best about the torch of a chef than about the making of a man.

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020 | 15

CULTURE

A return to where it all began

STANTON'S NOTEBOOK STANTON'S LIFTS WORK, ENGLAND

Kenneth Branagh is back at the Royal Shakespeare Company after 40 years

BY ROY RAYN HARRIS

Kenneth Branagh was 32 when he first trial the boards at the Royal Shakespeare Company's home here, in the title role for a 1964 production of 'Henry's' After a three-year stint at the company. She turned and starred in a major screen adaptation of the same play, which earned him two Oscar nominations and made him a household name.

Over four decades on from his debut, Branagh is back in Stratford-upon-Avon, having performed in two back-to-back productions of Chekhov and Shakespeare stances, back of which certain themes that subtly resonate with his own R.S.C. story.

'The Cherry Orchard' running through mag, 20, with a brainstorming and department, of somewhat forced up in place and the inexorable march of time. In a new interpretation of Chekhov's piece by the playwright Lutz's Wads, directed by Samara Harvey, Branagh plays the one-hand metagenome Lepakhis, who visits the estate on which his father had visited as a sort and urges its third-future owner, Madame Ranyovskaya (Helen Kiser), to cash in her asset to ease her financial woes.

She is back at the family seat after five years in Paris and is too dreadedly sentimental to entertain Lepakhis's suggestion of leaving down her beloved orchard and building daches in its place. As she wallows in nostalgia, he tersely explores her: 'Chink on it!'

Refitting the theme of main revisited, Branagh plays Lepakhis with the thick Northern Irish accent of his own childhood in working-class Belfast. (Branagh and his family moved to England when he was 8, and he subsequently adapted an English accent.)

If his Lepakhis career across more like a concerted book manager than a rapacious wheeler-dealer, that's no bad thing. His genuine care goes beyond self-interest and meets Chekhov's stipulation (in a 1963 letter to the Russian theater director Konstantin Stassilievsky that the character should be 'a decent person to every sense.' Lepakhis might be an acquisition merchant, but he is also in this scenario at least — a voice of reason.

That's because Ranyovskaya and her entourage are in trouble. They are trying, with poignant futility, to hold onto their dignity as strammed circumstances, quietly conveyed by the wadded-out green walls and sad clut-sheets of Anna Poncelet's set.

Their predicament is delicately rendered by a Lepakh-suit. Readouts include Bill Pullman as Ranyovskaya's stiffly ecstasy and eccentrically directed brother, Gaye (when he declares that he has 'some through my whole family as a writer,' 'we can be' from him). Guy Henry's Pulechik is a draft, genial sponge who wouldn't be used in part in a first-introduction novel, and Michael Elwyn adds the desktop and/or of the split-in novel. Firs who thinks the emancipation of the north was where it all went wrong for Russian society.

Collectively, there is something of the madhouse about them. So it's ultimately far the best when a champagne-frank Lepakhis situation outrage in the play's immoral sense and amusement, with his Belfast accent further dishonest by motivation, that the orchard has been sold at auction.

Above, from left, Sophie Yance, Andy Rush, Amber Gadd and Julian Moore-Cord in 'The Cherry Orchard' with a set by Anna Poncelet. From the left, Mike Brown, Fred Yosefsky Evans, Betty Stokes and Randi Osmun in 'The Tempest,' and below, Kenneth Branagh, also in 'The Tempest,' He first appeared in Stratford in 1918.

influence with a magnanimity that is both self-potential and benign.

When Miranda, waking from a slumber, complimented 'Sneckens,' Branagh jagged his hips as he playfully urged her to 'shake it off!' It was a rare moment of abandon to a motherly restrained performance.

If the acting in this production, directed by Richard Eyre, was conspicuously understood — to the point of being almost frictionless at times — it was offset by sound and visuals, with a gorgeous orange and blue set by Bob Crowley, evoking sun and sun, and costumes by Fretin Demos.

Sneckens at home from traditional town African instruments kicked at periodical allegory, as did the total absence of savagery in Zhangzhou's Caliban, who had all the menace of a

suburban accountant.

The show gave him back his humanity even before Prospects sat him and Ariel free to an elegantly rendered cloning scene.

Branagh got on his knees to remaster Prospects' 'rough magic,' before snapping his conductor's home in hall, touring up his short music and taking his}xures. The backdrop fell away to reveal the backstage area, and the spell was broken.

'The Tempest' was Shakespeare's final play, as 'The Cherry Orchard' was Chekhov's. Autopposed like this, their elegiac qualities were all the more resonate, so it's tempting to see Branagh's return to his old stamping ground as a sentimental last haircut. But he is only 65 — and on this evidence, he is far from done.

His first stint in Stratford was professionally formative, but rocky, and eventually he felt that he had to move on to flourish.

Asked who bought it, he offers a drawing reply that is both triumphant and graciously sheepish: 'Aryty did!'

For most of those characters, the play's ending represents the chance of a fresh start. In this, as in Lepakhis's two lives obscurity to prominence, we see echoes of Branagh's early career. In his 1991 moment, 'Beginning,' he recalls shedding his Northern Irish

diction to make it in the acting world, and unpacks the tensions that led him to leave the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967. His time in Stratford was professionally formative, but rocky. Branagh tangled with the management over workloads and pay, and eventually felt that he had to move on to flourish.

That decision seems to have paid off, and Branagh returned to the company this summer as a knight of the realm. There was indeed a screen, almost stately quality to his portrayal of the magna-Prospero in 'The Tempest,' which enjoyed a five-week run before 'The Cherry Orchard' opened.

In what was Branagh's first appearance on a Royal Shakespeare Company stage since he played Harriet there in 1963-65, he took the stage in a magician's cape, produced a master's waist and presented to cracked the charm that opens the play, scattering a gaggle of shipwrecked sollies and royals onto Prospects' enchanted island.

Here, as in 'The Cherry Orchard,' Branagh's character was the agent of change. Prospects but mastery over the island and its residents: the airborne agent Aron (Amara Durocher, Prospects) endowed servant, Caliban (Ashley Zhangazhu), and his daughter, Miranda (Ruby Stokes). But he wield-

Toad-laced psychopathy

BOOK REVIEW

The Ego Trips Psychopathic Toads, a Tool of Doofits, and the New Film Predited Transomstaken By Kiroze de Groot. Doubleday. 315 pp. $20.

BY HUIANNAH CABALAN

If you were to power-tude psychopathic experimenters, the effects of the dried recombions of a dried toad would say the list — a trip that calumn you into infinity in less time than it takes to make a sandwich.

The edity ponies that the Sonoran Desert toad releases contains the psychoactive compound 5-MeO-DMT, covered by adherents as 'the God elements.' What is the first legal region toad, one inhalation can induce overwhelming myeloid feelings and spoiled-breathing loss of the body?

For some, the experience elicits feelings of grotesque and healing, for others, it's the stuff of nightmares and breakdowns, for an experience this election, is not guide it key — or so you'd think.

'The Ego Trips' are something and galling travelogue into the deeply world underbelly of the psychedelic

reminence, shows that not all guides are created equal. And some, including the book's central character, are devout right psychopathic.

The South African writer Kiroze de Groot is a journalist to the base, and his straight take on the strange gimage on around him and kerm eye for detail help to anchor the successful drama — toad glands that pay 'like phephic,' people with names like Teth Deth, psychedelic soderes venturing in unison.

The book emerged from a profile de Groot wrote for The New Yorker of Octavio Rettig Hinojosa, a Mexican doctor turned crack adder turned toad petrophylae to some circles, the name Octavio is synonymous with the drag. He became a psychedelic celebrity, writes de Groot, 'like a god' to other toad facilitators (yes, that's a job description) who had revived a lost lie digressor practice.

For a while, Rettig was everywhere, endowed by the United Nations Association of Venezuela and featured in a Vice documentary, leading ceremonies at Burning Man and headlining psychedelic conferences. To this day, he maintains a small but local legion of toad-smoking followers.

Rettig did not, in fact, discover the practice. In the 1960s, an Italian chemist found the compound 5-MeO-DMT in

A Sonoran Desert toad, the only animal known to produce a certain hallucinogen.

the Sonoran Desert toad, the only animal known to produce it, though it is naturally occurring in some plants and has been used in ceremonial cradle for thousands of years.

Synthesised 5-MeO-DMT to particularly attractive in pharmaceutical companies owing to its short onset and duration (it hits fast and tops off

around 30 minutes). Several clinical trials of a synthetic form are ongoing, including ones intended for the treatment of postpartum depression and bipolar II disorder.

But a subset of psychoanxiety believes that the synthetics are so match for the healing power of the Toad deity. And, accordingly, a marker emerged in their sole habitat, the Sonoran Desert — which sits in the cross hairs of the Mexican drag wars.

Rettig's legitimacy arose in part from his connection to a little called the Son, who, as 'the last contusions of a sacred practice,' de Groot writes, had trained him. The fact, who were nearly destined out of existence and now work primarily in the fishing trade, had been badly affected by the epidemic of drug addiction owing to their proximity to carrier smuggling routes. In fact, Rettig introduced toad-smoking as a treatment — only to turn around and claim that his patients were the true originators of the practice.

It was a compelling story: had a financially profitable one. With the backing of a small faction of Son-others, Rettig took to theorizing their traditional past and clearing their songs, traveling the world, selling mostly Western audiences on his discovery of a suppressed Indigenous practice. De Groot follows this claim through

the historical record and finds it lacking — though he stops short of deeming it a fraud. (A 2026 journal was more decisive, turning the practice 'a fulvoured associability.')

If you're familiar with the guru playbook, you know where this is going. Rettig engaged in reckless practices. He hanged about the number of clients he had held in. A child as young as 5 took the 'medicine' to treat his A.D.R.D.

In 2016, benign emerged of Rettig kicking and slapping a revolted man on a Venezuelan beach, forcing him to take more hits of toad. Rettig even admitted to using inner-like devices on his clients.

Then came the deaths. A girlfriend mysteriously died in an underwater cave. Then another woman stopped breathing during a ceremony and died; the charges were later dropped and Rettig settled a civil case out of court.

'We use the lizbea,' a fellow team practitioner admitted to de Groot. 'It's terrifying.'

But the terror doesn't begin or end with Rettig. There are many other toad facilitators, some just as predatory, who are still working. And the same recklessness entrants to the above-ground research, as big pharmaceutical companies compete to bring 5-MeO-DMT to market. Though there

are some promising results, especially related to the treatment of addiction and depression, some of the research known much to be devoted in the way of safety and action.

After The New Yorker published the daunting profile, de Groot had a reason to do with his subject in Mexico during a celebration of the Son' love year. There, Rettig offered de Groot a draft of an unknown 'essential oil.'

To my absolute befoullement, de Groot took it.

'I had no reason to trust him, yet in that moment I chose to, perhaps because the offer felt sincere, even conciliatory,' he writes.

The connection is laced with an extract of morning glory seed, chemically related to LSD. 'My eyeballs felt twice their usual size,' he writes. 'I floated in the water and watched the sky.'

The mind rests. How could our situation, bottomed-up guide fall into such an obvious trap? And herein lies the fascinating but unexplored corner of A.D. if de Groot can be so really measured by a man-like Rettig, what chance do any of us have?

Susannah Cabalan's most recent book in 'The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Wooding' (story)

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16 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026

LIVING

Make the most of fresh tomatoes, every time

Here are seven ways to improve the flavor of even the tastiest ones

BY ALI ISLANCE

Tomatoes don't need any more promotion, and that's exactly why I wanted to write about how to improve them.

Every month for more than a year, this series has shared seven ways to upgrade common ingredients and dishes. Sometimes, it's a space to sing about the missing two cooked ones and notchies). Other times, it remains beloved foods live up to their hype: that tonight's naiboni is as silky, peeia salad is as lively and tomatoes are as nonmer-satisfying as you hoped.

And yet, fresh tomatoes are one of the most beguiling ingredients for me to cook with, as someone who professionally creates recipes. ('In the tomato avatilate, I see you.) While I cover their tangy juices, the flavor of tomatoes can be unpredictable. They can be bland, bitter or even as cagary as an overripe strawberry. It's hard to know what kind you have until it's home, and you're committed to using it. But over the course of creating about 40 recipes that feature fresh tomatoes for New York Times Cooking, I've come to rely on certain moves that stopped their quality. These seven recommendations make each bite that much better. So read up, and then return to bunting on your tomatoes.

Consider their size

When it comes to tomatoes, size matters; both in the size you buy and cut. Tomatoes that resemble garnish, like cherries, grapes or lasapids, will be more customarily sweet because they have less space for water to dilute their juices. They also have a higher peel-to-Beck ratio, which helps them maintain their shape when cooked or masticated. If you cut larger tomatoes that pieces the size of a cherry tomato, they have a tendency to turn mostly. But keep these cuts cleanly and they'll stay intact better, so you can save their juices for your bite instead of the bowl.

Amplify the acid

While tomatoes are often dressed with vinegars, go for lemon juice instead. The gentler acid enhances the brightness of tomatoes without announcing itself as loudly, which means the tomato's essence keeps the focus.

Pair with other fruit

While often used as a vegetable, tomatoes can also be used in fruity applications. (Decentually, tomatoes are a fruit.) Think of it as a win-win situation: Peaches, pomegranates and melons bring out the sweetness of the tomatoes, while tomatoes' acidity gives them some zing.

Add dairy

There's power in tomatoes and dairy. When their acid and fat, sweet and long meet up, watch out. The two balance each other beautifully, and their potential for greatness is possible no matter the type of cheese; whether mildew fresh options like mozzarella, ricotta and lecimax or nuttier aged Parmesan and Cheddar.

Eat with chile crisp

Chile crisp's fatty, crunchy and spicy nature is a lush counterpart to tomatoes' acidic juiciness. Salt the cut tomatoes and let their juices split out into a bowl or onto a platter, and then drizzle with chile crisp. The liquid that accumulates beneath the tomatoes will be a combination of spritzy juices and fury oil. You'll want to sharp every drop.

Grate them

"Grating a tomato somehow emphasizes everything delicious about it," my colleague Vital Kue wrote in 2021, but what she means by halving a large, ripe tomato through its belly, like a herpet bun. Then, swipe the cut sides on the large holes of a bus grater into a bowl. Sip what collects. If it doesn't excite

TOMATO AND PEACH SALAD WITH WHIPPED GOAT CHEESE

BY ALISA MEREI TIME: 13 MINUTES VELD: 4 SERVINGS

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon cherry vinegar
• 1 tablespoon whole-gran mustard, preferably Maile brand
• ½ teaspoon fresh lemon zest, plus 2 teaspoons juice
• ½ small red onion, very thinly sliced
• 4 ounces soft goat cheese or feta
• 6 tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 large heirloom tomatoes (about 14 ounces total), cased and cut into 1-inch wedges
• 2 medium peaches (about 12 ounces), halved, pitted and cut into ½-inch wedges
• 1 packed cup torn purulent, miche or watercress (optional)

1. In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil, vinegar, mustard and lemon juice. Season generously with salt and pepper, stir in the red onion and set aside.

2. Crumble the goat cheese into the bowl of a food processor and whip until cranny, scraping down the sides of the oven bowl as needed, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the heavy cream and lemon zest and whip just until fluffy, sliced 1 minute, scraping the bowl as needed. Transfer to a bowl and season to taste with salt.

3. Spread the whipped goat cheese on a large serving platter or in a shallow bowl, distributing it evenly using the back of a spoon. Add the tomato wedges, peach wedges and purulent to the dressing and toss to cool. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place on top of the whipped goat cheese and serve immediately.

TOMATO SALAD

BY ALI ISLANCE TIME: 13 MINUTES VELD: 4 SERVINGS

• 1½ tablespoons finely chopped shallot or red onion
• ½ large green tea (1/4 tablespoons)
• 1½ to 2 pounds ripe tomatoes (each as 3 large or 2 pints)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 20 basil leaves, turn if large

1. In a large bowl, stir together the shallot and lemon juice. Set aside while you cut the tomatoes.

2. Cut the tomatoes into bite-size pieces, adding them to the bowl as you go. Season generously with salt and stir to combine. Gently stir in the olive oil, followed by the basil. Season to taste with salt. Serve right away or let sit, stirring occasionally, for up to 30 minutes.

you, add salt and may be a little sugar or lemon juice until it does. Then spoon it over toasted bread, yogurt, pasta and more.

Bake low and slow

Tomatoes have a lot of water in them, and water doesn't taste like much. Get rid of that moisture, and you'll have a tomato that's more savory and silky. When you bake the tomatoes slowly in a generous amount of butter or oil, the water goes away, and the tomato's flavor concentrates. The low temperature means the fruit's sugars won't burn; instead, they'll caramelize and even get sticky like candy in spots.

TOMATO-BUTTER PASTA

Kosher salt

1. pound waxy or ridged pasta (like smokeless or rigataro), or a long noodle (like fettuccine)
2. pounds large, ripe tomatoes (about 2 to 3), halved horizontally
3. tablespoons cold unsalted butter
4. large garlic clove, peeled
5. teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more for serving
6. Black pepper
7. Corn basil leaves, for serving (optional)

8. Finely grated Parmesan, for serving

9. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions until it drains. Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water. Then drain the pasta.

10. Meanwhile, using the large holes of a low grade, grate the cut ends of the tomato into a large bowl. Discard or compost skins. Grate the butter into the bowl too. Using the low grater's small holes, grate the garlic into the bowl. Add the red-pepper flakes, and season generously with salt. Refrigerate until ready to use.

11. Return the drained pasta to the pot, along with the bowl of grated tomato and butter. Set

TIME: 13 MINUTES (THE 2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20-22-24-26-28-30-32-34-36-38-40-42-44-46-48-50-52-54-56-58-60-62-64-66-68-70-72-74-76-78-80-82-84-86-88-90-92-94-96-98-100)

TOMATO-CREDDAR TOASTS

BY ALI ISLANCE TIME: 13 MINUTES VELD: 4 TOASTS

• 2 ripe medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ½ packed cup (2 ounces) finely grated extra-virgin Cheddar
• 4 slices crusty bread

1. Arrange the tomatoes on a plate and sprinkle with salt. Stir together the mayonnaise, Cheddar and a pinch of salt.

2. Toast the bread however you like. Right when the bread's hot and ready, dislike with the Cheddar mayonnaise. (Extra mayo will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.) Top with the tomatoes and devour.

over medium-high heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly and ginsens the pasta. 2 to 3 minutes (the sauce will thicken as it sits). Add pasta water as needed to emulsify the sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with more red-pepper flakes, black pepper, basil and Parmesan as desired.

QA Report - The New York Times International - 12.08.2026.pdf

Pipeline

• Extraction route: mistral-ocr
• extraction_route=mistral-ocr
• Translation chunks: 83
• Extraction warnings:
• [OCR-ROUTE] FORCE-MISTRAL: All PDFs route directly to MistralOCR.

Non-model Checks

• WARNING: missing numeric tokens from source: 255
• WARNING: Missing proper nouns in translation: Abbas Araghchi, Adley Rutschman, After The New Yorker, Agostino Pepe, Alice Lassman, All Road, Amber Gadd, American Cancer Society, American College, American Enterprise Institute
• WARNING: source dates, money, or percentage tokens may be missing

Model QA

以下是对翻译的严格 QA 审核报告：

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1. 幻觉核查

问题 1：

位置："A bold idea to reform immigration" 译文第一段 内容："在 2072 年，理查德·尼克松总统做了一件具有里程碑意义的事情..." 核查： - 标题索引中未提及 "2072" 这一年份。 - 抽样原文中明确提到 "In 2072, President Richard Nixon did something instrumental..."（OCR 识别错误，原文应为 1972）。 结论：属于 SOURCE_OCR 问题，非翻译错误。

问题 2：

位置："A retail empire in flames" 译文第二段 内容："乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基（Volodymyr Zelensky）试图将战争带入更多俄罗斯人的日常生活..." 核查： - 标题索引中提及 "President Volodymyr Zolensky of Kyiv"。 - 抽样原文中明确提到 "President Volodymyr Zelensky"。 结论：OCR 将 "Zelensky" 误识为 "Zolensky"，属于 SOURCE_OCR 问题。

问题 3：

位置："On Pakistan's roads, an evolution on two wheels" 译文 内容："第七家店开张，紧接着是第八家。转角处又有两家店开业。" 核查： - 标题索引中提及 "The frenzy started on a single street in Lahore"。 - 抽样原文中提到 "The frenzy started on a single street in Lahore, Pakistan. Six showrooms selling the same product — electric motorcycles — had opened in quick succession, and there was still demand. A seventh opened, then an eighth. Around the corner, two more."。 结论：翻译准确，无幻觉。

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2. 数字准确性

问题 4：

位置："A bold idea to reform immigration" 译文 内容："边境巡逻队在与墨西哥边境的拘捕人数比拜登政府执政期间的月平均水平低了 94%。" 核查： - 抽样原文中明确提到 "Border Patrol apprehensions at the border with Mexico were 94 percent lower than the monthly average during the Biden administrations."。 结论：数字准确，无问题。

问题 5：

位置："A Russian retail empire badly wounded in war" 译文 内容："根据莫斯科电商咨询公司 Data Insight 的数据，在乌克兰的袭击中，野莓已损失多达三分之一的仓储空间，以及价值高达 4000 亿卢布（合 $5.9） 的商品。" 核查： - 抽样原文中提到 "as much as a third of its warehouse space and up to 400 billion rubles, or about $5.9 billion, in merchandise."。 结论：BLOCKING 问题。原文为 $5.9 billion，译文误译为 $5.9，量级错误。

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3. 完整性

问题 6：

位置："A retail empire in flames" 译文 内容："基辅方面认为，野莓占俄罗斯零售总额约 10%，因其为俄罗斯士兵提供物资，故成为合法打击目标。" 核查： - 抽样原文中提到 "Kyiv has argued that Wildberries, which accounts for about 10 percent of Russia’s retail sales, is a legitimate target because it supplies goods to Russian soldiers."。 结论：翻译准确，但 "10%" 后缺少 "俄罗斯零售总额" 的上下文补充（原文为 "Russia’s retail sales"），属于 WARNING 问题。

问题 7：

位置："On Pakistan's roads, an evolution on two wheels" 译文 内容："根据市场情报公司 Motor-Cycles Data 的数据，今年上半年，巴基斯坦电动两轮车销量增长了 3.5%。" 核查： - 抽样原文中提到 "According to Motor-Cycle Data, a market intelligence firm, electric two-wheeler sales in Pakistan grew by 3.5 percent in the first half of this year."。 结论：翻译准确，但 "3.5%" 后缺少 "同比增长" 的补充说明（原文未明确说明基准），属于 WARNING 问题。

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4. 残留英文

问题 8：

位置："On Pakistan's roads, an evolution on two wheels" 译文 内容："Evran 在拉合尔 M.M. 阿拉姆路（M.M. Alam Road）的一端设有展厅..." 核查： - 抽样原文中提到 "Evran has a showroom on one end of M.M. Alam Road in Lahore"。 结论："M.M. Alam Road" 未翻译，属于 WARNING 问题。

问题 9：

位置："The A.I. agents doing entire online courses" 译文 内容："‘我们为什么要在这上面花钱？’的问题正在取代‘我们为什么不使用人工智能？’（'Why aren't we using A.I.?'）" 核查： - 抽样原文中提到 "‘Why are we spending on this?’ is replacing ‘Why aren't we using A.I.?’"。 结论：括号内英文未翻译，属于 WARNING 问题。

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5. 交付标签

问题 10：

位置："A bold idea to reform immigration" 译文 内容："REPORT, PAGE 2" 未翻译。 核查： - 抽样原文中明确提到 "REPORT, PAGE 2"。 结论：属于 BLOCKING 问题，内部标签未清理。

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6. 其他问题

问题 11：

位置："A retail empire in flames" 译文 内容："巴赫米娜女士在上月底的视频讲话中，谴责了她所称的‘恐怖袭击’。" 核查： - 抽样原文中提到 "Ms. Bakalchuk, in a video address at the end of last month, condemned what she called ‘terrorist attacks.’"。 结论："Bakalchuk" 译为 "巴赫米娜" 不准确，应为 "巴卡丘克"，属于 WARNING 问题。

问题 12：

位置："On Pakistan's roads, an evolution on two wheels" 译文 内容："‘特朗普是最伟大的推销员。年度最佳推销员，’Yakin Pakistan 董事总经理穆罕默德·萨尔曼（Muhammad Salman）表示..." 核查： - 抽样原文中提到 "‘Trump is the biggest subcomas,’ said the managing director of an electric scooter company. ‘Subcomas of the year,’ he added."。 结论：BLOCKING 问题。"subcomas" 为 OCR 误识，原文应为 "subsidy"，译文未纠正且错误翻译为 "推销员"。

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总结

1. BLOCKING 问题（致命缺陷）： - 问题 5（$5.9 billion 误译为 $5.9）。 - 问题 10（内部标签未清理）。 - 问题 12（"subcomas" 误译）。

2. WARNING 问题（质量问题）： - 问题 6（缺少上下文补充）。 - 问题 7（缺少基准说明）。 - 问题 8（地名未翻译）。 - 问题 9（括号内英文未翻译）。 - 问题 11（人名翻译不准确）。

3. SOURCE_OCR 问题（源文错误）： - 问题 1（2072 年误识）。 - 问题 2（Zelensky 误识为 Zolensky）。

4. FALSE_POSITIVE（误判）： - 无。

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最终结论：存在 3 个 BLOCKING 问题，需立即修正。建议重新审核数字、OCR 误识词汇及内部标签。

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═══ 自愈质检微创修复记录（Self-Healing Audit Trail）═══

• 成功修复分块 #4（共修复 1 处问题）