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   The World: Autocracy’s ‘loyal losers’
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              By
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               Katrin Bennhold
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          Good morning, world.
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         <span>
          Journalists like me spend a lot of time focusing on the leaders of countries. Fair enough — they set the agenda and need to be held accountable. But it’s the people below them who carry out that agenda. And in the case of autocracies, where carrying out the work of the state can involve tasks like intimidation or even torture, there have long been questions about why anyone would sign up to be, in effect, a sinister bureaucrat.
         </span>
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Today my colleague Amanda Taub writes about some fascinating research that points to a surprising answer.
         </span>
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
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          Also:
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                Raúl Castro indicted in the U.S.
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              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                Analyzing Trump’s Iran comments
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                Eurovision politics
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             <img alt="Men in fatigues and helmets are seen carrying a man by his hands and legs on a street in Buenos Aires. " class="css-18ei5jy" height="625" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F05%252F21%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-loyal-losers-01-pkzq%252F21int-theworld-loyal-losers-01-pkzq-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU3MDI1NX0:1wPvWS:aTZewDOc2hprV5svZ8E2kDlANo1hL4dckDTYiMtQw-Y" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:8px" width="500"/>
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             <span style="color:#666;font:normal 14px georgia,serif">
              Argentine security forces in 1982 in Buenos Aires.
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              Horacio Villalobos/Corbis, via Getty Images
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        <h2 style="color:#000;font:700 24px/31px nyt-cheltenham,georgia,serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          The engines of autocracies? Mediocre employees.
         </span>
        </h2>
        <p style="display:block;color:#333;font:400 18.5px/26px georgia,serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          By Amanda Taub
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Even the most capable autocrats cannot rule alone. Vladimir Putin has his loyal Russian oligarchs. Iran has the Revolutionary Guards. Viktor Orban built Hungary’s “electoral autocracy” with help from a handful of judges, enforcers and tycoons.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          But the day-to-day work of consolidating power — perhaps surveilling neighbors, intimidating judges or disappearing dissidents — falls to a much larger group of midlevel officials. Until recently, researchers assumed those people cooperated out of ideology or fear.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          New research points to a more banal explanation. The same desire for career advancement that motivates employees everywhere turns out to be enough to convince some bureaucrats to enable torture, murder and the slow strangulation of democratic institutions.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The people who do this dirty work don’t have to be extremists. Often, they are mediocre workers looking for a way to get ahead.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          The mediocrity of evil
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          “Making a Career in Dictatorship,” a new book by the German political scientists Adam Scharpf and Christian Glassel, reads as if you crossed Hannah Arendt’s ideas about the “banality of evil” with a business school guide on how to get the most out of low performers.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The authors built their case on an unusual archive: data from Argentina’s “Dirty War” in the ’70s and ’80s, when the military published the graduation ranks, promotions and retirements of every officer. That included the members of Battalion 601, an army unit that carried out the regime’s brutal secret police work, including torture and extrajudicial executions.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Most Argentine military officers who underperformed fell behind their peers and were forced into retirement. But Battalion 601 offered a chance for a do-over. Low performers could transfer in, collect promotions by doing the regime’s most horrific work, and then return to the regular army, leapfrogging the peers who stayed clean. They retired with longer careers, higher salaries and better pensions than similar performers who hadn’t taken the career detour.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The worse an officer’s academic record, the more likely he was to join the unit. The lowest performers were assigned to the most brutal squads, where the career rewards were the greatest. A tour as a torturer could rehabilitate the most disastrous underperformer.
         </span>
        </p>
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            <img alt="A black-and-white photograph of women holding up a banner on a crowded street. People in helmets and mounted on horses are behind them." class="css-18ei5jy" height="624" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F05%252F21%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-loyal-losers-02-pkzq%252F21int-theworld-loyal-losers-02-pkzq-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU3MTE5NH0:1wPvWS:0iY-WZmPz1hlrU0pRQMdaakYV2ACzBFIQNd7vfJCv4Y" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:8px" width="500"/>
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             <span style="color:#666;font:normal 14px georgia,serif">
              A protest in Buenos Aires in 1982 by mothers and relatives of those “disappeared” by state security services.
             </span>
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              Horacio Villalobos/Corbis, via Getty Images
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          A common pattern
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Comparable data sets do not exist for most regimes, but the pattern recurs. Scharpf and Glassel found that the Nazis recruited men with disciplinary records, questionable “racial purity” or a lack of military experience for its mobile killing squads, known as the Einsatzgruppen. Stalin’s NKVD, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, “deliberately recruited individuals with poor formal skills and knowledge” who often had no more than a primary-school education.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Erica Frantz, a political scientist at Michigan State, calls such foot soldiers “loyal losers.”
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          “The leader knows that people are going to be more likely to be loyal if they don’t have many other career options, so when I say losers, I kind of mean it literally,” she said.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          For autocrats who win at the ballot box and then dismantle checks and balances from inside, the mechanics may be less violent, but the staffing logic is the same. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban relied on a few handpicked loyalists at the top, plus a small percentage of ambitious strivers at the midlevel who saw politics as the route to success.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Attila Vincze, a researcher at Masaryk University, estimates that 5 to 10 percent of Hungary’s Orban-era judges — “the careerists” — were doing “the ‘dirty job’ to get along with their career.”
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Venezuela took a more violent path. Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, leaned on the National Guard, which Alejandro Velasco of N.Y.U. called “the lowest rung of the armed forces,” and on the armed gangs of civilians known as “colectivos.” After Maduro stole the 2024 election, those units killed dozens of opposition supporters and detained thousands, according to Human Rights Watch.
         </span>
        </p>
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             <img alt="Federal agents in gas masks and tactical vests stand in a light illuminated, smoke-filled street. " class="css-18ei5jy" height="624" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F05%252F21%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-loyal-losers-03-pkzq%252F21int-theworld-loyal-losers-03-pkzq-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU3MjV9:1wPvWS:KHyhcvpwM3EfiKItHTi2JV0dR-_5F5CVkGs-JRIU-2M" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:8px" width="500"/>
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            <span class="css-14cus5q" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;text-align:left">
             <span style="color:#666;font:normal 14px georgia,serif">
              U.S. federal agents, including from ICE, in Minneapolis, in January.
             </span>
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
             </span>
            </span>
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         </tbody>
        </table>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          The American case
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Frantz sees the Trump administration in its second term staffing security forces like ICE and the F.B.I. with loyalists whose résumés would be unlikely to land them such roles under any other president. That “tends to be something that we see once a system has already transitioned to authoritarianism,” rather than one like the United States that is still undergoing democratic backsliding, she said.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The autocratic playbook, Scharpf and Glassel say, is to set up a “second ladder” for promotions, resource it generously, signal impunity for those who climb it and lower the bar for entry.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The administration seems to tick those boxes, even if President Trump’s intentions are obscure. ICE is focused on immigration, but Scharpf and Glassel see concerning similarities between the playbook and ICE’s recent history. Its budget will soon dwarf other federal law-enforcement agencies, and the administration publicly promised immunity after officers killed a protester in Minneapolis.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          At the same time, it has become easier than ever to become an ICE agent. A former training academy instructor
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          testified
         </a>
         <span>
          that new cadets are graduating despite widespread concerns among training staff that they “cannot demonstrate a solid grasp of the tactics or the law required to perform their jobs.”
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-style:italic">
          Read my full story here
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         <span style="font-style:italic">
          .
         </span>
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           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span style="font-weight:700">
             TOP NEWS
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             <img alt="Images of the journalist Michael Crowley and photos of Raúl Castro and Fidel Castro. " class="css-18ei5jy" height="720" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F05%252F20%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-rubio-cuba-rv%252F21int-theworld-rubio-cuba-rv-jumbo.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU3OTgwNn0:1wPvWS:WbHjlSSIUNT-Ux9iRoEFHY4Sha8JqC5tvITEhO5OHOA" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:404px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:8px" width="404"/>
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             <span style="color:#666;font:normal 14px georgia,serif">
              Click to watch the video.
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             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              The New York Times
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        <h2 style="color:#000;font:700 24px/31px nyt-cheltenham,georgia,serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          Raúl Castro was indicted in the U.S.
         </span>
        </h2>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The U.S. Justice Department yesterday
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          announced charges against Raúl Castro
         </a>
         <span>
          , the former president of Cuba and brother of Fidel Castro, increasing pressure on the government in Havana. The charges stem from the fatal downing 30 years ago of two planes operated by a humanitarian aid group.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Cuba accused the United States of “
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          building different pretexts for military aggression
         </a>
         <span>
          .” A U.S. aircraft carrier
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          entered the southern Caribbean Sea
         </a>
         <span>
          yesterday in what an American official called a show of force.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a son of Cuban immigrants, is ramping up pressure with an appeal to Cubans to align with the Trump administration, my colleague Michael Crowley reports.
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Watch the video
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          .
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             OTHER NEWS
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        <p style="padding-bottom:20px;font:700 17px/15px arial,sans-serif;color:#000;padding-top:undefined;margin:0">
         EBOLA
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            <span class="css-14cus5q" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;text-align:left">
             <span style="color:#666;font:normal 14px georgia,serif">
              In Mongbwalu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
             </span>
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              Michel Lunanga/Getty Images
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             <ul class="css-1dtd48z" style="color:#333;font:10px georgia,serif;text-align:left;padding-left:50px">
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                The head of the W.H.O. said there was little risk that the Ebola outbreak in Africa would
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                develop into a pandemic
               </a>
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                . The number of suspected cases has risen to nearly 600, including 139 deaths.
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                Suggestions that Africa’s health officials had already bungled their response to the outbreak have opened wounds
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                about Western attitudes toward the continent
               </a>
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                .
               </span>
              </li>
             </ul>
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        </div>
        <p class="css-sj7u5m" style="padding-bottom:10px;font:700 17px/15px arial,sans-serif;color:#000;padding-top:15px;margin:0">
         MORE NEWS
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        <div style="margin:0 auto;max-width:600px;width:100%">
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              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                “We’ll be leaving very soon”: The Times
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               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                analyzed Trump’s statements
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               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                suggesting the war in Iran was already over and found that there was a wide disconnect with reality.
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              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                During
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                a chummy visit in Beijing
               </a>
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                , Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin signed documents condemning much of what Trump is doing in the world.
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                A former senior civil servant in France is accused of drugging more than 100 women. Despite admitting to some of the accusations,
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                he is yet to stand trial
               </a>
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                .
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              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                In Japan, the arrest of four teenage boys in the killing of a woman has reignited fears about
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                elusive crime rings known as tokuryu
               </a>
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                , which prey on students and the unemployed.
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        <div style="margin:0 auto;max-width:600px;width:100%">
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            <td style="padding:0 0 5px">
             <ul class="css-1dtd48z" style="color:#333;font:10px georgia,serif;text-align:left;padding-left:50px">
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                OpenAI is preparing to
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               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                file for an initial public offering
               </a>
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                in the coming weeks.
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              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                Israel’s far-right national security minister posted a video of himself taunting pro-Palestinian activists while they were
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               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                handcuffed on the deck of a ship
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               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                .
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        <p style="padding-bottom:20px;font:700 17px/15px arial,sans-serif;color:#000;padding-top:15px;margin:0">
         WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING
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              Danté Knows
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                A man heading for a morning swim on a beach in Sydney inadvertently became
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                Australia’s most talked-about runway model
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          The most clicked link in your newsletter yesterday was about
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         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          the impact of aid cuts on poor countries
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          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td height="30">
           </td>
          </tr>
          <td style="padding:0;font-size:0;border-top:14px solid #000">
           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span style="font-weight:700">
             SPORTS
            </span>
           </h3>
          </td>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td style="text-align:center">
            <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
             <img alt="Two players jump in the air on a rainy pitch. " class="css-1b7vfn3" height="400" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F05%252F21%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-int-nl-korea-soccer-qwvh%252F21int-theworld-int-nl-korea-soccer-qwvh-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU4MzAyNX0:1wPvWS:SvUvH-orl0FlLL1O7Afca873zow38t-p1HOpJ0Hn-ns" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:5px" width="500"/>
            </a>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="css-1b9cqt1" style="text-align:center;width:100%;padding-bottom:10px;line-height:14px">
            <span class="css-14cus5q" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;text-align:right">
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              Lee Jin-Man/Associated Press
             </span>
            </span>
           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          Football:
         </span>
         <span>
          On a pitch in South Korea yesterday,
         </span>
         <span style="font-weight:700">
         </span>
         <span>
          women’s football teams from both sides of the border faced off. The rare trip by athletes from the North triggered
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          intense emotions in some older South Koreans
         </a>
         <span>
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          ‘Spygate’:
         </span>
         <span>
          Southampton was expelled from the English Championship playoff final after
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          admitting to spying on three opponents
         </a>
         <span>
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
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           <td style="border-top:0 solid #dcdcdc;padding-top:15px">
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            <div style="width:100%;text-align:center;line-height:0">
             <img alt="Ad" border="0" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fliveintent.newyorktimesinfo.com%252Fimp%253Fs%253D1175355%2526li%253DWOR%2526m%253Ddfbfebeec3e396a6cb1a8b032a80246c%2526p%253DWOR_20260521%2526stpe%253Ddefault/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZsaXZlaW50ZW50LiIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU4Mzk3fQ:1wPvWS:GsRHIc4mWfkrFVXhNaY6dl_Lp8WmGU5VR-DF2_oeDd4" style="max-width:96px;margin-bottom:7px"/>
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            <span style="text-align:center">
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                  <img alt="Ad" border="0" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fliveintent.newyorktimesinfo.com%252Fimp%253Fs%253D1175351%2526li%253DWOR%2526m%253Ddfbfebeec3e396a6cb1a8b032a80246c%2526p%253DWOR_20260521%2526stpe%253Ddefault%2526li_coord%253Dmobile%2526collapse_width%253D480/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZsaXZlaW50ZW50LiIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU4NzMyNn0:1wPvWS:cBQH7rvcY-G-rRZ9G4hxd42ukWErI5GvXLtjD6ZemaE" style="display:block;width:100%;max-width:480px" width="480"/>
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           <td style="padding-bottom:15px;border-bottom:0 solid #dcdcdc">
           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
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           <td height="30">
           </td>
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           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span style="font-weight:700">
             DISCOVERY OF THE DAY
            </span>
           </h3>
          </td>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td style="text-align:center">
            <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
             <img alt="Two side views and one top view of a brownish object that looks like a tooth on a gray background." class="css-1b7vfn3" height="500" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F05%252F19%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-neanderthal-dentistry%252F21int-theworld-neanderthal-dentistry-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU4ODQ0Nn0:1wPvWS:OVYSr9TsVR_u-mVi99Son0g5kjbsFadPpUfxZYAgydM" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:5px" width="500"/>
            </a>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="css-1b9cqt1" style="text-align:center;width:100%;padding-bottom:10px;line-height:14px">
            <span class="css-14cus5q" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;text-align:right">
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              Zubova et al., 2026, PLOS One
             </span>
            </span>
           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <h2 style="color:#000;font:700 24px/31px nyt-cheltenham,georgia,serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          A
         </a>
         <span>
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Stone Age root canal
         </a>
        </h2>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          A 59,000-year-old Neanderthal molar with a deep hole was found in southern Siberia a decade ago. A recent study suggests that the tooth’s owner most likely received a torturous, anesthesia-free root canal with a stone drill to treat a bad toothache. The discovery pushes back the earliest evidence of dentistry by more than 40,000 years.
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
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           <td height="30">
           </td>
          </tr>
          <td style="padding:0;font-size:0;border-top:14px solid #000">
           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span style="font-weight:700">
             MORNING READ
            </span>
           </h3>
          </td>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td style="text-align:center">
            <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
             <img alt="A woman in pink corset holds up a microphone-shaped trophy on a stage littered with golden confetti. " class="css-1b7vfn3" height="500" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F05%252F21%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-nl-eurovision-vcgw%252F21int-theworld-nl-eurovision-vcgw-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU4OTQwNX0:1wPvWS:u6puqRJmv7ZXQnB1aXQihrECqrfJS1QjyXKPEc7kwyM" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:5px" width="500"/>
            </a>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="css-1b9cqt1" style="text-align:center;width:100%;padding-bottom:10px;line-height:14px">
            <span class="css-14cus5q" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;text-align:right">
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              Tobias Schwarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
             </span>
            </span>
           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Politics isn’t supposed to influence the glitzy Eurovision Song Contest, but the competition has long been tinged with it. Indeed, some people wanted the relationships between countries to play a bigger role in voting this year.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          This week, after Bulgaria’s surprising win, the director of Moldova’s public broadcaster resigned after backlash to his country’s jury awarding neighboring Romania just three points out of a maximum of 12. And in Poland, two lawmakers complained that their country’s act had not received any points from Ukraine, which they said suggested a lack of gratitude from an ally.
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:700">
          Read more
         </a>
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td height="30">
           </td>
          </tr>
          <td style="padding:0;font-size:0;border-top:14px solid #000">
           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span style="font-weight:700">
             AROUND THE WORLD
            </span>
           </h3>
          </td>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td style="text-align:center">
            <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
             <img alt="A slide show of images of people playing soccer. " class="css-1b7vfn3" height="500" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F05%252F21%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-nyc-soccer-fplk%252F21int-theworld-nyc-soccer-fplk-jumbo.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU5MDQxM30:1wPvWS:HigZL6_LQM1FFfePi-4m82eMpuH17TxmcrBlZP287mc" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:5px" width="500"/>
            </a>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="css-1b9cqt1" style="text-align:center;width:100%;padding-bottom:10px;line-height:14px">
            <span class="css-14cus5q" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;text-align:right">
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              Graham Dickie for The New York Times
             </span>
            </span>
           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <h2 style="color:#000;font:700 24px/31px nyt-cheltenham,georgia,serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          World Cup fever in New York
         </span>
        </h2>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          It’s the summer of football in New York City. With the World Cup set to sweep the region, the city is racing to address a longstanding shortage of places for regular New Yorkers to play.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          There’s a million-dollar rooftop pitch in Brooklyn and four restored fields on Randall’s Island. There’s even a man wondering how he can build a field on a ferry. “Once the World Cup is gone and all the excitement is over, we want to leave a lasting legacy,” said Jennifer O’Sullivan, who works at the New York City Football Club. “You never know where the next Messi or Ronaldo is going to come from until you put a ball at their feet.”
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          See where the next star might come from
         </a>
         <span>
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td height="30">
           </td>
          </tr>
          <td style="padding:0;font-size:0;border-top:14px solid #000">
           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span style="font-weight:700">
             RECOMMENDATIONS
            </span>
           </h3>
          </td>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          Watch:
         </span>
         <span>
          The comedian Martin Short talks about
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          finding joy while surviving tragedy
         </a>
         <span>
          in a new documentary.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          Discover:
         </span>
         <span>
          They call Ava Pickett “the Charli XCX of young playwrights.”
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Here’s why
         </a>
         <span>
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          Listen:
         </span>
         <span>
          This week’s playlist has new songs from a Danish punk band, the former Beastie Boy Mike D
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          and more
         </a>
         <span>
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td height="30">
           </td>
          </tr>
          <td style="padding:0;font-size:0;border-top:14px solid #000">
           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span style="font-weight:700">
             RECIPE
            </span>
           </h3>
          </td>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td style="text-align:center">
            <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
             <img alt="A large gray ceramic dish holds lentil rice with dates, topped with yogurt and herbs. Additional yogurt is nearby." class="css-1b7vfn3" height="333" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2024%252F03%252F06%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-lentil-rice-jlbf%252F06APPErex-lentil-rice-jlbf-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU5MTM4Nn0:1wPvWS:5ATNBXx5nOORZG9oMpjgg4oZ8lemsPSSh86kCXHszng" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:5px" width="500"/>
            </a>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="css-1b9cqt1" style="text-align:center;width:100%;padding-bottom:10px;line-height:14px">
            <span class="css-14cus5q" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;text-align:right">
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              David Malosh for The New York Times
             </span>
            </span>
           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          This take on the
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          classic Persian dish adas polo
         </a>
         <span>
          — lentils and rice scented with warm spices and layered with fried onions — is from the owner of Sofreh in New York City. A dollop of yogurt on top adds a tart and creamy touch.
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td height="30">
           </td>
          </tr>
          <td style="padding:0;font-size:0;border-top:14px solid #000">
           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span style="font-weight:700">
             WHERE IS THIS?
            </span>
           </h3>
          </td>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td style="text-align:center">
            <img alt="A giant, colorful statue of what appears to be the body of a bare-chested person in a garden. " class="css-1b7vfn3" height="333" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F05%252F21%252Fmultimedia%252F21int-theworld-photo-quiz-temple-mtpj%252F21int-theworld-photo-quiz-temple-mtpj-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzkzMzk2NDAuNzU5MjM1MX0:1wPvWS:Bbqkrn_HRYXtsbmdXXUtpG-oXzuuBtGMK-9Q1l_eUrc" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:5px" width="500"/>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="css-1b9cqt1" style="text-align:center;width:100%;padding-bottom:10px;line-height:14px">
            <span class="css-14cus5q" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;text-align:right">
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
              Alessandro Falco for The New York Times
             </span>
            </span>
           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          Where is this temple?
         </span>
        </p>
        <div style="margin:0 auto;max-width:600px;width:100%">
         <table>
          <tbody>
           <tr>
            <td style="padding:0 0 5px">
             <ul class="css-1dtd48z" style="color:#333;font:10px georgia,serif;text-align:left;padding-left:50px">
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                Paramaribo, Suriname
               </a>
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