Gaza Is Starving

Plus: in praise of slow productivity; how Christopher Rufo took on higher education; and the painter who went from mediocrity to magnificence. View in browser | Update your preferences Wednesday, January 3, 2024 In today’s newsletter, an unprecedented crisis, and then: • In praise of slow productivity • How Christopher Rufo took on higher education • The painter who went from mediocrity to magnificence Gaza Is Starving The chief economist of the World Food Program explains how the scarcity of food may tip the territory into famine. Source photograph by Fatima Shbair / AP “The bottom line is that, in Gaza, pretty much everybody is hungry at the moment,” Arif Husain, the chief economist at the United Nations World Food Program, explains to Isaac Chotiner, in an urgent new interview. Husain lays out the conditions as we know them but notes that, with Gaza’s health system in shambles, it is difficult to get a full picture of the suffering on the ground. Still, from his perspective, the situation is unprecedented. “I’ve been doing this for the past two decades, and I’ve been to all kinds of conflicts and all kinds of crises,” he explains. “In my life, I’ve never seen anything like this in terms of severity, in terms of scale, and then in terms of speed.” Read the story Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » Editor’s Pick Office Space It’s Time to Embrace Slow Productivity There seems to be an intrinsic mismatch between American hustle culture and a call to work less. But we need fewer things to do. Starting now. By Cal Newport In the News Illustration by Angie Wang Claudine Gay resigned as the president of Harvard yesterday, amid a series of public challenges to her leadership, including allegations of plagiarism in her written work. Examples from her doctoral dissertation were shared publicly in mid-December by the conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who, as Emma Green has written, rose to “moderate fame with his campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion, having taken pains to brand those efforts as sinister.” In 2021, Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote about how Rufo helped invent a culture-war conflict over a formerly obscure area of scholarship known as critical race theory. The Political Scene: Ronan Farrow on how Elon Musk built a one-man monopoly over American infrastructure and became too powerful for the U.S. government to rein in. Listen and follow » Culture Dept. Books How Camille Pissarro Went from Mediocrity to Magnificence He began as more of a tutor than a talent. But in his final decade he lent a keen eye-in-the-sky view to the Paris streets, rendering miracles of kinetic characterization. By Adam Gopnik Dept. of Diversions Annals of Gastronomy How Owamni Became the Best New Restaurant in the United States In Sean Sherman’s modern Indigenous kitchen, every dish is made without wheat flour, dairy, cane sugar, black pepper, or any other ingredient introduced to the continent after Europeans arrived. By Carolyn Kormann Fun & Games Dept. Daily Cartoon Wednesday, January 3rd By Joe Dator Crossword A Lightly Challenging Puzzle Aegean or Caribbean, e.g.: three letters. By Erik Agard Name Drop: Can you guess the identity of a notable person—contemporary or historical—in six clues? Play a quiz from our archive » P.S. Quenuvalye i lamber Eldareva? Today, on J. R. R. Tolkien’s birthday, learn a little bit of Elvish from Anthony Lane. Today’s newsletter was written by Ian Crouch. Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the daily newsletter from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.