The New York Time-The Morning Newsletter
"E-bike injuries, Pakistan expels Afghans, Deadly floods in Indonesia."
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Russ Roberts (https://trendsingeopolitics.blogspot.com).
 November 30, 2025 |
Good morning. Today, we’re looking at the dangers of e-bikes. Injuries and deaths are rising — but the law hasn’t kept up.
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| Near Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, Calif. Balazs Gardi for The New York Times |
Bearing down
 | I’m the editor of this newsletter. |
Sometimes I bike to work. It’s a 12-mile workout alongside the Potomac River — a lovely route. I pedal hard. But a few times per ride, I get a shock: An e-bike zooms past me like an angry locomotive, doing almost 30 miles per hour. It’s always another commuter, like me, schlepping his laptop and shoes to work in a backpack. I wonder each time: What happens if you crash at that speed?
The Times Magazine answered that question today. E-bikes are heavy and fast — in some ways closer to a motorcycle than a manual two-wheeler — and they’ve proliferated in the last few years. So have the injuries associated with them, rising by a factor of 10. Policymakers haven’t caught up. I spoke to David Darlington, a freelance journalist who wrote about the issue.
It seems like a good thing that a popular new tech is getting us out of our cars and homes more, no?
E-bikes are awesome. They’re fun to ride, they ease the pain of hills and headwinds, and they’re already cutting demand for oil by a million barrels per day — four times as much as all the world’s electric cars.
But people need to be educated, not just about e-bikes but safe cycling practices in general. The author of one study told me that Americans think of bicycles as toys: They aren’t taken seriously as vehicles, so they don’t require licenses or “driver’s manuals.” But many of the new devices — still defined as “low-speed bicycles” under the law — have powerful motors and travel at speeds that are dangerous for inexperienced riders.
How scared should we be?
Some devices are more menacing than others. The scariest are “e-motos,” which look like mini-motorcycles and aren’t legal e-bikes at all. I profiled a high school student, Amelia Stafford, who went for a short ride on a friend’s e-moto and ended up with a traumatic brain injury. Pedestrians have been killed when speeding riders ran into them.
Is that because riders go so much faster? The top allowed speed is 28 miles per hour.
That class of bike is supposed to stay on the road, though enforcement is practically nonexistent. The ones that go 20 m.p.h. are allowed in bike lanes, but even those are faster than “analog” bikes — and the motor can often be “unlocked” to exceed those speeds, hitting 45 m.p.h. and more. Plus, e-bikes usually weigh more than 50 pounds. That’s a lot of inertia, even at a legal speed. So the result is more gruesome when they get out of control. One hospital in Marin County, Calif., studied the crashes there and found that the chance of dying from a conventional bike crash is less than 1 percent, but for e-bikes it was 11 percent.
What are the rules for e-bikes?
There are few federal laws other than limiting the top speed to 28 m.p.h. (In Europe, it’s 15.5 m.p.h.) Aside from that, states and counties and cities come up with their own rules. You might be required to wear a helmet, or stay out of public parks, or refrain from operating an e-bike with a hand throttle (as opposed to getting a boost only when you pedal) in your town. But if you venture into the next town, none of that may apply.
Safety advocates are pressing for tougher rules. Is this the beginning of the sort of crusade that brought us seatbelts? What does the movement look like?
Matt Willis, who was Marin County’s public health officer at the time of Amelia Stafford’s crash there, told me, “The technology has moved forward way faster than our ability to measure its impact or develop sensible regulation.” Monica Stafford, Amelia’s mom, thinks that management of e-bikes is at an embryonic stage of development — like automobiles 100 years ago. (Although electric bikes were invented before cars!)
Read David’s piece and learn what happened to Amelia Stafford.
THE LATEST NEWS |
International
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| An Afghan refugee in Pakistan. Asim Hafeez for The New York Times |
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Benjamin Netanyahu
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War in Ukraine
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Climate Change
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| A jogger near India Gate in New Delhi. Anindito Mukherjee for The New York Times |
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Politics
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Other Big Stories
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FROM OPINION |
If you want to safeguard your thoughts from A.I., keep a physical diary, Lily Koppel suggests.
The search for perfection is stunting our society. Greatness is found through discovery and uncertainty, Jonathan Biss writes.
Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience.
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MORNING READS |
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| In Brooklyn. Jane Kim for The New York Times |
Something white: Wedding attire isn’t cheap. Some women are swapping gowns instead of buying new.
Quarter-zip lifestyle: One of the stodgiest garments in the Western wardrobe has caught on with the Nike Tech crowd. Blame TikTok.
Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked article yesterday was about a Brooklyn family’s search for a new home.
Vows: Senator Cory Booker celebrated his marriage to Alexis Lewis in an intimate ceremony in Washington, D.C.
A playwright: Tom Stoppard, whose work included “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” and “The Coast of Utopia” and explored complex philosophical topics across continents and centuries, has died. He was 88.
SPORTS |
College football: Ohio State ended its four-game losing streak against Michigan with a 27-9 win. Elsewhere in Rivalry Week, Alabama survived a scare against Auburn in the Iron Bowl, and Oklahoma beat L.S.U.
N.F.L.: The Detroit Lions’ former center, Frank Ragnow, will not come out of retirement after a physical revealed a severe hamstring injury. The news dashed hopes that he could help revive the team.
M.L.S.: Tadeo Allende scored a hat trick to lead Inter Miami to a 5-1 rout of New York City F.C. The team, led by Lionel Messi, now heads to the M.L.S. Cup final for the first time, where it will face Vancouver.
BOOK OF THE WEEK |
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“The Correspondent,” by Virginia Evans: The word-of-mouth best seller of 2025 might be this quietly dazzling epistolary novel, which calls to mind Susie Boyt’s “Loved and Missed,” another book that was passed around like a beloved recipe. Meet Sybil Van Antwerp, an exacting septuagenarian who interacts with the world almost exclusively through letters. Peer over her shoulder as she fires off missives to her garden club, her grown children, former colleagues, famous authors — and one recipient whose message raises more questions than it answers. Note by note, Sybil’s world takes shape, raising poignant, timely questions about mercy and how we’re all connected.
More on books
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THE INTERVIEW |
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| Simon Cowell David Vintiner for The New York Times |
This week’s subject for The Interview is Simon Cowell, the famously caustic judge from “American Idol” and “The X Factor.” I visited Cowell this month at his home in southwest London, where we talked about his new Netflix show, “Simon Cowell: The Next Act,” how he’s mellowed with age and how he’s grappled with the death of Liam Payne, whom he discovered on “The X Factor” and cast in the megafamous boy band One Direction.
In your new show, you’re looking for a new boy band to launch, and in the midst of filming, you receive the news of Liam Payne’s death. Can you tell me how you heard and what you did to process the loss? And I know this is painful, so thank you.
Of course we’re going to talk about it. Somebody who works with me very closely came into my room. I was up in the north of England, and I could tell by the look of her face that she was upset. She said, “Sit down,” and she told me. And it was like — wow. It was a bit like I felt when I heard the news when my dad passed away. It’s very difficult to put into words how you feel. It’s just shock. At that point, you’re not really thinking clearly. I just remember saying: “I really need to speak to his mum and dad. Can you get them on the phone as soon as possible please?” Because, God, as a parent, what that must have felt like.
Since that happened, there has been a lot of reporting on One Direction — the drugs, the alcohol. Liam said on the podcast “Diary of a C.E.O.” in 2021 that, and I’m quoting here: “When we were in the band, the best way to secure us because of how big it got was just to lock us in our room. And of course, what’s in the room? Mini bar.” He talked about struggling. Did you know about that at the time?
A little bit. There was stuff I never would have spoken about then, private conversations and advice I tried to give him, which is what comes with fame, etc. But you’re signing a lot of artists, and when you sign an artist, my role is, essentially, get them with the right production team, get the managers and try and make them successful. It is a little bit like they leave the nest. My job is to run the label. And you just hope that they are successful and happy.
But when you signed them, they were kids. It must be a different type of relationship that they have with someone like you, who was also a judge and brought them together. Is it a complicated role you have with someone who is so young?
It’s always complicated. I don’t know whether it’s more complicated when they’re young or when someone who has had success then hasn’t had success and comes back and wants a second chance. I mean, every time it’s different.
Read more of the interview here. Or watch a longer version on YouTube.
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE |
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THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … |
See the best Black Friday deals that are still going on.
Give this affordable J.Crew sweater as a gift.
Read “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in honor of Stoppard. Our review in 1967 called it “very funny, very brilliant, very chilling.”
MEAL PLAN |
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| Madhur Jaffrey’s Goan shrimp curry. David Malosh for The New York Times |
In her Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein recommended meals like Goan curry shrimp, sweet and sour eggplant and one-pot chicken and rice that contrast with all of the food you ate on Thanksgiving.
NOW TIME TO PLAY |
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Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was annihilate.
Can you put eight historical events — including the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Peter the Great’s beard tax and the first recorded jokes — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.
Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times.
Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.
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Welcome to my geopolitics blog site. This is a Hawaii Island news site focusing on geopolitical news, analysis, information, and commentary. I will cite a variety of sources, ranging from all sides of the political spectrum.