Curious Minds – The New York Times

Good morning. We’ll get to the news below. But first, we want to answer your questions.

Curious minds

It’s one of the great perks of working at The New York Times: If you have a question, someone in the newsroom probably knows the answer. Readers, unfortunately, can’t just walk up to our colleagues’ desks and ask. That’s where we come in.

Today, we have another collection of questions from Morning readers, with answers from Times journalists. If you have a question for one of our reporters, ask it here. We may feature it in the next edition.

The Treasury announced a new gold coin with President Trump’s face on it. I thought there was a law against pictures of living people on currency. What’s the truth around that?— Howard Stone, Boynton Beach, Florida

Alan Rappeport, who covers economic policy in Washington, answers:

The controversy about the legality of Trump’s face appearing on the gold coin rests on the question of whether or not a coin counts as currency. In 1866, Congress pblocked a law stating that “only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities.” The Trump administration is leaning into the argument that a coin is different from paper currency or a security. And it is not even clear who would have standing to take the administration to court to kill the commemorative coin (which, for the record, contains no actual gold).

When GLP-1s first hit the market, there was speculation that they could be used to effectively treat addiction, but I haven’t heard anything recently. Are there any clinical trials underway?— Lucinda Duzan, Glen Rock, Pennsylvania

Dani Blum, a health reporter who covers weight-loss drugs, answers:

There’s been a lot of momentum around GLP-1s for substance use disorders lately, particularly when it comes to alcohol. The Department of Veterans Affairs just launched a trial testing semaglutide, the active substance in Ozempic and Wegovy, for people with alcohol use disorder — I’ll be closely watching those results. And a few study results have trickled out over the last few years suggesting that GLP-1s could curb cravings for alcohol. Still, scientists urge caution: We’re still in the early stages of studying this.

What is going on with the Department of Education currently?— Kelley Ellis, Denver

Michael C. Bender, who covers the department, answers:

The Education Department still exists, it’s just harder to find. Trump wants to completely eliminate the agency, but that requires an act of Congress, where lawmakers have shown little interest in such a change. His workaround has been to scatter the Education Department’s main functions across six other executive agencies.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon remains in her job, along with her top lieutenants, but she operates now almost like a contractor, hiring the Health and Human Services Department, the Treasury and others to effectively employ Education Department staff members and carry out the department’s statutory duties.

Is there a reason the United States does not have a single Primary Day? It seems to lend a great deal of influence to a handful of states, which in turn seems less democratic.— Jacqueline Kitka, Haverhill, Mblockachusetts

Katie Glueck, a national politics reporter, answers:

You’re right that a handful of states have long played an outsize role in determining presidential nominees. The order of the early-voting states has at times been a source of debate and drama, especially for the Democrats. They have wrestled for years with how to reflect the party’s, and the country’s, diversity in their lineup.

As for why there’s no single national Primary Day? I turned to Elaine Kamarck, who wrote a book on the presidential primary system, “Primary Politics,” and is a member of the committee that has been working on the Democrats’ next primary lineup. In short, she said, it’s a constitutional issue.

“This started out, and still remains constitutionally, in the purview of the states,” she told me. “In order to get all the states to be on one page, you’d have to have an act of Congress, and Congress has been very reluctant to ever interfere in that.”

IN ONE CHART

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly blocked promotions for high-ranking women in the military. This year, a Times blockysis found, the percentage of such nominations for women is the lowest in at least 25 years.

Hegseth has not said why he blocked the promotions, but he has argued that the Pentagon’s past diversity efforts degraded the military. “For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons,” he told military leaders last September. “Based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts.”

Whether Democrats will take the Senate in the midterms depends a lot on Georgia, and particularly its Black voters. Mara Gay interviewed residents to gauge how they’re feeling about the party. Click the video to watch.

Tens of millions of Americans have received antidepressants since 1988. Now a new generation is asking if they were ever needed, Camille Browley writes.

What’s in a name? Forecasters in Asia maintain a list of storm names drawn from national symbols, including foods, animals and local expressions. Coming soon: Typhoon Dim-sum.

Y2K vibe: Expensive retro sweatpants have become the uniform of the Hamptons.

Your pick: The most clicked link The Morning yesterday was about Trump’s changing plans for the jet donated by Qatar.

Social media memoirist: Sydney Towle mixed anguish, optimism and unabashed wanderlust as she challenged TikTok viewers to reconsider how people with serious illnesses should look and live. She died of a rare cancer at 26.

16

— That is how many viable viruses an A.I. was able to create after scientists trained it on DNA libraries. These viruses didn’t pose a threat to humans, but the experiment has raised concerns that, in the future, A.I. could be used to create deadly pathogens.

SPORTS

N.B.A.: The LA Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, under investigation for payments outside the league’s salary cap, also received millions in a second undisclosed sponsorship deal, according to reporting by the crew at the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”

Women’s basketball: The 12 players selected in the U.S. roster for next month’s FIBA World Cup include Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.

M.L.B.: For more than three decades, Lewis Kalb has served as a play-by-play voice for recreational and school-league events around Philadelphia. This week, after winning an auction to join the Philadelphia Phillies’ radio booth, he made it to the big leagues — and crushed it.

This tapenade pasta salad is intensely savory and plush with blitzed olives. The green beans and basil let us know it’s summer. Unlike many pasta salads, which can be greasy or dry, this one is creamy from the addition of pasta water to the dressing. As the noodles cool in the tapenade, they absorb its flavors and some of the pasta water, leaving just enough behind to emulsify the olive oil, so every bow tie stays glossy.

A MONTH AT THE OPERA

The Bayreuth Festival, celebrating the work of Richard Wagner, turns 150 this year. Fans of the composer come from around the globe to take part in the unique music tradition, which has its own complex history. The music is “an addiction,” said one fan. “You can’t live without it anymore. Our drug is Wagner.”

More on culture

• Madonna is once again reigning as queen of the club, Wesley Morris says on this week’s “Cannonball” podcast.

• The Times brought together four artists and a curator to determine the 25 most important sculptures since World War II. See their picks.

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