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Health|Covid vaccines could begin soon for children 5 and up.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/health/fauci-covid-vaccine-children-cdc.htmlAn advisory panel to the F.D.A. will consider Pfizers application for those ages 5-to-11 on Tuesday.Credit...Shawn Rocco/Duke University/Via ReutersPublished Oct. 24, 2021Updated Oct. 29, 2021Children ages 5 to 11 may be eligible for Covid vaccines by early next month, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease official. He projected a timetable for young Americans to be vaccinated with at least one dose by early November, and to be fully immunized by the holidays.Food and Drug Administration regulators on Friday released their evaluation of data from the Pfizer-BioNTech submission for emergency authorization of a lower-dose vaccine for young children. An advisory panel to the F.D.A. will consider Pfizers application for those ages 5-to-11 on Tuesday. Children 12 and up have been eligible for vaccination since May.Pfizers data look good as to the efficacy and safety, Dr. Fauci said on ABCs news program, This Week.According to Pfizer and BioNTech, the children who were vaccinated as part of the trial, who received doses that were one-third the size of the adult doses, developed robust immune responses after receiving the regimen of two shots three weeks apart. The companies have said the efficacy rate of the vaccine in children reduced the risk of developing a symptomatic infection by 91 percent.The most common side effects in children were fatigue, headache, muscle pain and chills. According to the F.D.A., the data submitted indicated no cases of myocarditis inflammation of the heart muscle, or pericarditis, inflammation of the outer lining of the heart, rare complications that have been reported among young boys and men receiving the vaccine in other trials and in real-world applications.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was also interviewed about the upcoming decisions on child vaccines on two Sunday news shows, and seemed to promise that decisions would not be delayed. We know how many parents are interested in getting their children vaccinated, and we intend to work as quickly as you can, Dr. Walensky said on Fox News Sunday.The last week has produced a lot of regulatory guidance for those who can receive booster or additional doses of Covid vaccines, giving a large segment of the U.S. population access to more protection.Both Dr. Walensky and Dr. Fauci sought to dispel confusion about booster shots and explain the option of mixing and matching initial vaccines and boosters.Boosters of all three vaccines available in the United States have been authorized. Additional shots of Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines have been approved for people aged 65 and older, those with underlying health conditions and all adults whose living or working conditions place them at high risk of exposure to the virus. Anyone over the age of 18 who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at least two months ago is also eligible for a booster shot.People can receive a booster shot that is different from the initial vaccine they first received, experts said.If you were originally vaccinated with one product, could you and would it be appropriate and safe and effective to get boosted in the third shot for the mRNA and the second shot for J.&.J. by another product? Dr. Fauci said. The answer is, its perfectly fine.

Health

Remdesivir was shipped to small hospitals even as besieged medical centers were denied access.Credit...Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe, via Getty ImagesMay 8, 2020When the Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency approval last week for an antiviral drug, remdesivir, to treat hospitalized coronavirus patients, many doctors were overjoyed. The drug is the first shown to be even mildly effective against the virus.But bafflement soon followed as doctors and hospitals tried to obtain the drug. Small community hospitals with few beds received remdesivir, while medical centers besieged with cases were denied.Only four hospitals in Massachusetts, for example, are known to have received remdesivir: three small community hospitals and Massachusetts General, a Harvard University teaching hospital.Officials at Mass General said they had not even asked for the drug. Yet other major hospitals were left out, including Boston Medical Center, which has many vulnerable African-American patients.This is crazy, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Mass General. The hospital is giving its small supply of remdesivir 26 cases containing 40 vials each to the state to distribute more equitably.We have no idea how this landed with us, Dr. Walensky added. There are people who are pretty angry that they didnt get any.ImageCredit...Pool photo by Ulrich PerreyRemdesivirs approval should have been a clear win in the fight against the coronavirus, but its distribution has been tripped up by seemingly capricious decision-making and finger-pointing.Like other drugs used in hospitals, remdesivir is supplied not by the manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, but by a wholesale distributor, in this case a company called AmerisourceBergen.After the F.D.A. granted the emergency approval, Gilead Sciences said it would donate its existing supply of the drug: 1.5 million vials, enough to treat roughly 140,000 hospitalized patients.Hospitals needing the drug were told to call AmerisourceBergen to find out if they were on a list of facilities that qualified. If so, the distributor shipped the drug. If not, the hospital was denied the drug.That list apparently was not drawn up by AmerisourceBergen, which says on its website that hospitals the U.S. government deems most in need will receive priority in the distribution of donated remdesivir, adding that neither Gilead nor AmerisourceBergen are deciding which hospitals will receive remdesivir.But it is not clear how federal officials came up with a list of hospitals most in need, or even what hospitals are on it. Criticism of the list and the rollout has been gathering steam in Washington.The fact that many of the hospitals and areas with high rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths were left out of the initial distribution raises significant questions about FEMA and HHS decision making, Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, said in a letter on Friday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator, Peter Gaynor, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex M. Azar II.The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, said in a press briefing on Friday that Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, henceforth would take a lead role in federal oversight of remdesivir allocations.Dr. Birx is going to be working in consulting as to where this drug should go, Ms. McEnany said.She really has the best grasp as to how that should be distributed, Ms. McEnany added.The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the H.I.V. Medicine Association also have written to Vice President Mike Pence, head of the coronavirus task force, pleading for an explanation of the criteria used to allocate remdesivir. There has been no reply.Neither Mr. Pences office nor AmerisourceBergen responded to requests for information about the distribution of remdesivir.Doctors treating coronavirus patients say they are flummoxed by what seems to be an unpredictable distribution system.Everyone is texting each other and saying, Did you get anything? said Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease specialist at Duke University Medical Center. His hospital did not receive remdesivir.Neither did the University of California, San Francisco, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist there. We understand that not everyone can get it, he said. But who is making the decision, and how are the decisions being made?ImageCredit...Matt Rourke/Associated PressThere is no reason for this to be secretive, said Dr. Daniel Kaul, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Michigan, which also has not received the drug.I would love to see where it is available, Dr. Kaul added. Then he could tell family members where to transfer a patient who might need the drug.Conan MacDougall, professor of clinical pharmacy at U.C.S.F., has sent a survey to hospitals across the country, asking if they received the drug; with their replies, he has put together an unofficial distribution map that also includes data on hospital type, size and whether the hospitals reported being sites for remdesivir clinical trials.He cautioned that the map only includes data from pharmacy departments and infectious disease specialists who responded to a voluntary survey. Still, the map suggests that large swaths of the country have been left out.On the West Coast, remdesivir went to medium-size hospitals in Los Angeles and San Mateo, Calif. In the Southeast, the only hospital to acknowledge getting remdesivir was in Nashville.Most sites that received the drug were in the Northeast. Hard-hit cities like Detroit did not report getting the drug. The amounts sent to each hospital also were highly variable.I think it illustrates that while the drug is now available, most of the country is not currently able to access it, Dr. MacDougall said in an email.Before the clinical trial results were known, Dr. Chin-Hong said, we could look at patients or family members in the eyes and say, We dont know if this works.Now, we are dangling a golden apple in front of them, just beyond reach, he said.Those hospitals lucky enough to receive remdesivir are facing another problem: Which patients should get it?The federal clinical trial that showed remdesivir to be effective included a range of severely ill patients, from those with low oxygen levels to those on respirators. The data have not been published, only announced by administration officials.As a result, there are no clinical guidelines on how best to use the drug. Is it better to give the limited supply of remdesivir to the most seriously ill? Or is it better to start with patients who are less ill?The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sponsor of the trial, has not provided the data because it is still being reviewed, said Jennifer Routh, a spokeswoman.There should be a preliminary report with data in a few weeks, she added.Reporting was contributed by Michael Crowley from Washington.

Health

Business|Sarah Palins Bid for New Libel Trial Against The Times Is Deniedhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/business/sarah-palin-new-york-times-libel.htmlA judge ruled that Ms. Palin failed to introduce even a speck of evidence to prove the newspaper defamed her in a 2017 editorial that mistakenly connected her political rhetoric with a mass shooting.Credit...Stephanie Keith for The New York TimesMay 31, 2022Sarah Palin lost her bid for a new trial in her libel case against The New York Times on Tuesday, with a judge ruling that she had failed to introduce even a speck of evidence necessary to prove the newspaper had defamed her in a 2017 editorial.The written decision by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of U.S. District Court said that while mistakes were made as editors rushed to meet deadlines, a mistake is not enough to win if it was not motivated by actual malice.Actual malice is the legal bar set by the Supreme Court that a public figure like Ms. Palin needs to prove to win a defamation case. That would mean that The Times either knew it was publishing false information or recklessly disregarded evidence despite harboring doubts about the truth of what it published.The striking thing about the trial here was that Palin, for all her earlier assertions, could not in the end introduce even a speck of such evidence, Judge Rakoff wrote. Palins motion is hereby denied in its entirety.Lawyers for Ms. Palin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.We are pleased to see the courts decision, and remain confident that the judge and jury decided the case fairly and correctly, said Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for The Times.The libel suit by Ms. Palin, a former Republican vice-presidential candidate and governor of Alaska, focused on an editorial that falsely linked her campaign rhetoric to a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona. The Times corrected the editorial the morning after it was published.Ms. Palin asserted that the editorial had been damaging to her reputation and career. Lawyers for The Times said that it was an honest mistake and that there was never any intention to harm Ms. Palin.The trial came at a moment when people who believe journalists should be held liable for getting something wrong have been pushing to have the Supreme Court reconsider the issue. The current standard of libel was established by the 1964 case The New York Times Company v. Sullivan.The end of the trial was not without drama. While jury deliberations were underway on Feb. 14, Judge Rakoff announced that he intended to dismiss the lawsuit even if the jury ruled in Ms. Palins favor because she had failed to show that The Times acted out of actual malice. The following day, the jury rejected Ms. Palins lawsuit.It was later revealed that several jurors had learned of Judge Rakoffs decision while they were still deliberating, thanks to push notifications on their cellphones. But in a subsequent order, Judge Rakoff said several jurors had told the courts law clerk that the notifications had not affected them in any way or played any role whatever in their deliberations.Ms. Palins lawyers cited the timing of Judge Rakoffs announcement as one reason that a new trial should be held. Ms. Palin can appeal, but appeals courts tend to be deferential to jury decisions.In April, Ms. Palin announced that she would be running for Congress in Alaska, in a return to national politics. She will join a crowded field of nearly 40 candidates to fill the House seat left vacant by Representative Don Young, who died in March.

Business

Politics|Congressman Steve King Retweets a Nazi Sympathizerhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/us/politics/steve-king-collett-nazi.htmlCredit...J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressJune 13, 2018Representative Steve King of Iowa, a Republican with a history of making inflammatory and racist statements about immigrants and promoting white nationalist views, drew criticism on Tuesday after retweeting a British activist who is a prominent Nazi sympathizer and has described himself as an admirer of Hitler.The activist, Mark Collett, is the former chairman of the Young BNP, the youth arm of the far-right British National Party, and like Mr. King he has often warned that influxes of immigrants pose a danger to Western countries.Mr. Colletts tweet was a screenshot of a Breitbart article titled Vast Majority of Under-35 Italians Now Oppose Mass Migration, and his commentary: 65% of Italians under the age of 35 now oppose mass immigration. Europe is waking up...Mr. Kings retweet included a comment of his own: Europe is waking up...Will America...in time? As of Wednesday afternoon, it had not been taken down.Mr. Collett was the subject of a 2002 documentary on Channel 4 in Britain titled Young, Nazi and Proud. In it, he says that AIDS is a friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it, HuffPost reported.Nick Ryan, a spokesman for an anti-racism advocacy group based in Britain, Hope Not Hate, told HuffPost that no mainstream politician in their right mind should be retweeting Mark Collett.Mr. Kings office declined to comment on the matter.It was not the first time Mr. King, who was elected to Congress in 2002 and has displayed a Confederate battle flag on his desk in Washington, has promoted extreme anti-immigrant or white nationalist views.In 2013, he said that for every child of undocumented immigrants whos a valedictorian, theres another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds and theyve got calves the size of cantaloupes because theyre hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.Speaking on MSNBC in 2016, he questioned the historical contributions of nonwhite subgroups.Last year, he said that we cant restore our civilization with somebody elses babies, setting off widespread anger that included criticism from his congressional colleagues.But his comment drew praise from other figures, like the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Politics

Credit...Erin Schaff for The New York TimesJune 28, 2018WASHINGTON For months, their sparring had been indirect, stern letters exchanged, pointed threats traded through the news media. But on Thursday, the ever-intensifying skirmishes between Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and conservative House Republicans broke into an ugly public fight.On the House floor, Republicans voted in lock step to give the Justice Department seven days to produce sensitive documents related to the Russia inquiry and the F.B.I.s investigation of Hillary Clintons private email use. Though nonbinding, the measure was intended to put Mr. Rosenstein on notice that House lawmakers were willing to take punitive action potentially including impeachment if their demands were not met.In the House Judiciary Committee, conservative Republicans hauled Mr. Rosenstein and the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, before television cameras to accuse them of hiding information from Congress to protect their own interests. In Mr. Rosensteins case, some Republicans charged outright misconduct related to the investigation into Russian election interference.The two leaders, both appointed by President Trump, defended the special counsel investigation and their response to congressional investigators, even as they said they had been deeply troubled by the findings of a Justice Department inspector generals report released this month on the F.B.I.s handling of the Clinton email case.There are mechanisms to resolve this without threatening to hold people in contempt, Mr. Rosenstein said, urging lawmakers to work with him rather than threaten him. We are not in contempt of this Congress. We are not going to be.Democrats accused Republicans of concocting a political distraction to further bloody the reputation of the Justice Department as it investigates President Trump and his campaigns ties to Russia. Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Judiciary Committee Democrat, called the floor vote clearly a pretext for a move against Mr. Rosenstein that the majority already has planned.Representative Luis V. Gutirrez, Democrat of Illinois, drove the point home to Mr. Rosenstein: They want to impeach you; they want to indict you; they want to get rid of you. Mr. Rosenstein, good luck. Were in the minority.In the year since he appointed Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel, Mr. Rosenstein has emerged as one of the chief targets of House Republicans critical of the ongoing investigation. Thursdays resolution passed along party lines, 226 to 183, as he and other department officials were working furiously to meet the requests of the Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.Speaker Paul D. Ryan has expressed confidence that the department is showing a good-faith effort to meet Republican demands, and at least one committee chairman, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of the Judiciary Committee, said Thursdays measure was not really necessary.But Mr. Trumps staunchest defenders demanded that vote.For over eight months, they have had the opportunity to choose transparency. But theyve instead chosen to withhold information and impede any effort of Congress to conduct oversight, said Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a sponsor of Thursdays House resolution who raised the possibility of impeachment this week. If Rod Rosenstein and the Department of Justice have nothing to hide, they certainly havent acted like it.Thursdays hearing had been called to allow the law enforcement officials to field questions about the 500-page report from the departments inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz. He found that the F.B.I. broke with longstanding policy in its handling of the Clinton email case, badly damaged its reputation and opened the door to accusations of political bias. The report criticizes at length two F.B.I. officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who exchanged voluminous texts disparaging Mr. Trump while they were helping to lead the investigation into both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trumps campaign.But in the hearing room, Republicans advanced a wide range of topics, including now-familiar and largely unsubstantiated charges against Mr. Rosenstein and the special counsel investigation that he oversees. One by one, the deputy attorney general sought to dispose of them.Contrary to Mr. Trumps repeated assertions including in a Thursday morning tweet Mr. Rosenstein said he was not aware of any disqualifying conflict of interest involving Mr. Mueller.Representative John Ratcliffe, Republican of Texas, asked if Mr. Mueller had properly addressed the potential taint of political bias brought to the case by Mr. Strzok. Mr. Rosenstein said he was confident Mr. Mueller had taken appropriate steps to do so and would continue to.Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, pressed Mr. Rosenstein about news media reports saying that he had threatened members of the House Intelligence Committee staff with a subpoena during a heated dispute this year. Mr. Rosenstein disputed that, too, daring his accusers to contradict his denial under oath.He also batted back Republican criticism of his role in approving the secret surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide.If the inspector general finds that I did something wrong, then Ill respect that judgment, but I think its highly, highly unlikely, Mr. Rosenstein said.Representative Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican who has been publicly supportive of the Mueller inquiry, told Mr. Rosenstein, If you have evidence of wrongdoing by any member of the Trump campaign, present it to the damn grand jury. If you have evidence that this president acted inappropriately, present it to the American people. Theres an old saying that justice delayed is justice denied.Mr. Rosenstein pushed back, saying that Mr. Mueller was moving as expeditiously as possible to conclude his work and that the investigation had not actually gone on that long, given its mandate.In a tense back-and-forth with Mr. Jordan, Mr. Rosenstein said, Your use of this to attack me personally is deeply wrong.At one point, Mr. Rosenstein assured lawmakers, Im not a Democrat, and Im not angry a reference to Mr. Trumps frequent complaint that the Russia investigation is being led by 13 angry Democrats.Mr. Wray also made clear that he was not pleased to be locked in a fight with Republicans: When I was minding my own business in private practice in Atlanta, I didnt think I was going to be spending the first 10 months of my job staring down the barrel of a contempt citation for conduct that occurred long before I even thought about being F.B.I. director.The Judiciary Committee, which had strayed from the spotlight for the last year or so, has ramped up its own investigation of the F.B.I.s handling of the Clinton case and certain aspects of the Russia investigation in recent weeks. On Wednesday, lawmakers from the Judiciary Committee interviewed Mr. Strzok for nearly 11 hours about his messages with Ms. Page and his role in both cases. Mr. Strzok said the messages had been taken out of context and did not affect his work, and Democrats on Wednesday night called for the interview transcript to be released to the public.As todays transcript will make crystal clear, House Republicans are desperately trying to find something anything to undermine Special Counsel Muellers investigation of the Trump campaign, Mr. Nadler and Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a joint statement Wednesday night. Unfortunately for them, they were entirely unsuccessful.

Politics

Sports Briefing | Auto RacingFeb. 4, 2014Nascar unveiled a revamped penalty system that, for the first time, will define specific offenses with predetermined penalties. The system classifies six levels of penalties, with fines and point deductions increasing as the infractions become more serious. It will be applied only to technical infractions. Nascar will handle behavioral offenses individually.

Sports

Lonzo Ball Announces First Rap Concert ... In Lithuania! 1/26/2018 Lonzo Ball wants to put the "lit" in Lithuania ... announcing he's coming to the Eastern European country to perform his very first rap concert! Lonzo's dad, LaVar Ball, was reportedly presenting the Hip-Hop Act of the Year trophy at the M.A.M.A. Awards (like the Lithuanian Grammys) ... when he introduced Lonzo via a prerecorded video. Lonzo says the plan is to fly in over the summer and perform a show for the locals -- obviously capitalizing on the publicity splash his brothers are making as pro baller on Vytautus. Lonzo raps under the name Zo -- and has already dropped a couple of singles, including "BBB" and "Super Saiyan." Most rappers don't go to Europe to catapult their careers ... but Lonzo ain't most rappers. Good luck!

Entertainment

Credit...Amir Cohen/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 16, 2018JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has so far survived corruption investigations and the threat of bribery charges without much damage to his standing. But his government teetered on the edge of collapse on Friday as Mr. Netanyahus coalition partners pressed for new elections over his handling of Gaza.The call for new elections intensified after Mr. Netanyahu rebuffed on Friday a request by the hawkish leader of the Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, for the defense ministers post, which opened this week with the resignation of the hard-liner Avigdor Lieberman. Mr. Bennetts party had threatened to leave if he was not given the job.Mr. Netanyahu has been working feverishly to shore up his governing coalition in the days since Mr. Lieberman quit his post over the governments acceptance of what he viewed as a humiliating cease-fire to end a fierce bout of fighting in Gaza. Mr. Lieberman pulled his party out of the government, leaving Mr. Netanyahus coalition with a precarious parliamentary majority of one.Mr. Netanyahu is also having to grapple with public fury. Protesters from Sderot, a southern stronghold of his conservative Likud party, and other border communities plagued by rocket fire from Gaza, have been burning tires and blocking main roads, seething over a truce they said resolved nothing and left them as vulnerable as before.Mr. Netanyahu was still holding out on Friday, trying to persuade his remaining coalition partners not to repeat what he called the historic mistake of 92, when right-wing parties toppled a right-wing government and brought the left back to power. But with such a slim majority, most of his partners seemed ready to call it quits, and discussions for an election date were expected to start on Sunday.ImageCredit...Said Khatib/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesWhile he may be forced to schedule new elections, possibly as early as late February or March, Mr. Netanyahu is considered a strong favorite to win a fifth term. Even if Gaza is one of the main issues, despite the current uproar, he is likely to fare well against any other candidate in that debate.He always does well with security, said Mitchell Barak, a Jerusalem-based political consultant and pollster. Hes only ever run on the security ticket.None of Mr. Netanyahus current contenders, from the political right, left or center, are considered anywhere near as experienced in national security. Hes got no competition, Mr. Barak said. Hes running against himself.Still, Mr. Liebermans reproachful resignation and popular anger over the handling of the latest Gaza crisis have been damaging, at least in the short term, to Mr. Netanyahus image as Israels security czar. The government agreed to the cease-fire in order to avoid a wider conflagration after Gaza militant groups fired 460 rockets into southern Israel and Israel responded with airstrikes against 160 targets.Its too early to eulogize him, said Yehuda Ben Meir, an expert in national security and public opinion at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. But the Teflon is wearing off and his aura of invincibility has taken a knock.Yoaz Hendel, the chairman of the Institute for Zionist Strategies, a right-leaning research group, and a former spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, said that when it came to Gaza, Mr. Netanyahus credit is running low.ImageCredit...Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA, via ShutterstockBut when it comes to the question of who might replace him, he said, You get to the Israeli psychological complex: On the one hand there is disappointment with Netanyahu; on the other, there seems to be nobody to replace him, at least for the right.The Israeli opposition was irrelevant in this context, he said. If a centrist or leftist leader had allowed $15 million into Gaza in suitcases to fund Hamas salaries, as Mr. Netanyahu did last week as part of a broader international effort to ease hardship in Gaza and maintain calm, the whole country would have been in an uproar.In the absence of an actual indictment, Mr. Netanyahus legal woes have proved no impediment with his loyal base so far.Many Israelis see three main options for dealing with Gaza: A long-term truce with Hamas amid a major international effort to rehabilitate the territory; another all-out war to subdue Hamas and crush its military capabilities once and for all; or dealing Hamas a heavy military blow that would go some way to achieving the second option and perhaps lead to more fruitful talks for reaching the first.But after five sharp spasms of cross-border fighting and fragile cease-fires in five months, critics say Mr. Netanyahu has decided not to decide. He tried to justify the latest cease-fire by hinting at broader considerations that he cannot elaborate on, for security reasons. Days earlier he had said he was doing everything possible to prevent what he called an unnecessary war.Given the Israelis low tolerance for military funerals, Mr. Netanyahu has positioned himself as the responsible adult. And with his personal handling of relations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his close alignment with President Trump, he has established himself in Israelis eyes as a world player with international clout.ImageCredit...Amir Cohen/ReutersPeople see him as a statesman, even if they are sick of him, said Dahlia Scheindlin, a left-leaning political consultant in Tel Aviv. He has a stature in the country that nobody else seems to have.For now, Mr. Netanyahu is playing for time. He is trying to stall elections for as long as possible to quiet memories of the recent Gaza flare-up, which was set off by a botched Israeli covert operation.He invited top military officials to join his meeting with local council heads from the Gaza periphery and pledged additional financial support for those communities in an effort at damage control.Gideon Rahat, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Mr. Netanyahu was unlikely to initiate any major moves regarding Gaza ahead of elections, and the next steps would largely be up to Hamas.If Gaza is quiet, they could come to an arrangement, he said. Theres also the possibility of a war, but again, it depends what Hamas does.Since Mr. Netanyahu has already paid the political price for the latest cease-fire, Mr. Rahat said, he might as well continue with containment. Coming across as a moderate could actually gain him a few votes.Ultimately, Mr. Rahat said, Israel is a democracy, and one day Netanyahu is likely to fall.It is far from clear, however, when that day will come.

World

TrilobitesCredit...Jama PantelMarch 17, 2017Every year in Texas, millions of bluebonnets bloom after warm weather, just at the cusp of spring. Bumpy blankets of blue spread across pastures, parks and highway shoulders. And because of a series of warm days in February, this years show has already begun. Its expected to peak in the next week or two, so grab your camera and hop in the car its time to get out there and find them.When you see acres and acres or oceans of bluebonnets, it can be stunning, said Andrea DeLong-Amaya, a horticulturalist at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin.And already, professional and amateur photographers are posting their sightings from across the state on Instagram. Its a Texan tradition to get your photo taken with bluebonnets each year.ImageCredit...Jama PantelEven along highways, the solid-colored floral displays are beautiful. Seeds grow well there because highways provide ample, open spaces. And mowing actually helps the flowers compete with other vegetation, Ms. DeLong-Amaya said. For this reason, and because highways reflect so much heat, bluebonnets bloom earlier along roads than they would in a garden.Jama Pantel, an Austin-based photographer who posted her first shots from around Austin on Instagram this week, uses the arrival of highway bluebonnets as a sign to start scouting safer locations for photo shoots.Its just a rite of passage for any Texan, she said.In 1965, Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady, Texan and wildflower lover, championed the Highway Beautification Act, which replaced billboards with natural landscapes and wildflowers on highways across the country.Ms. DeLong-Amaya said the bluebonnets appeal could be that the Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) for the most part grows only in Texas. A blue that blue is also hard to find in nature.According to David Lees book, Natures Palette, The Science of Plant Color, only about 10 percent of flowering plants are blue. Plants dont have any true blue pigments as they do for red. Instead, plants alter their pigments (anthocyanins, which are involved in turning fall foliage red) in various ways to make them appear blue.Ms. DeLong-Amaya expects the floral display this year to be more sporadic than in years past because of the states relatively warm winter. So its best to take advantage when you can: Bluebonnets are annuals, and after they drop seeds, all the living plants will be dead around August.If you want to plant your own, she said, wait for fall. You can speed the germination process by breaking down the seeds tough shells so theyre thin enough for the moisture to seep in. Workers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center sometimes put seeds in the freezer before pouring boiling water on them and letting them soak for a day or two. Then they pick out the plump ones with cracked shells for planting.If youd rather not wait, however, Ms. Pantel suggests heading to parks or out along the highway in almost any direction. For nice displays, try McKinney Falls State Park, Brushy Creek Lake Park or head down Highways 71 or 290 west toward the Hill Country, Willow City Loop near Fredericksburg and Burnet, the Bluebonnet Capital of Texas, which attracts 30,000 people each year to its festival. Chappell Hill also hosts a festival in April.Turn down back roads, side roads and country roads, Ms. Pantel said. You can see beautiful scenes any which way you look.

science

Sports Briefing | SoccerFeb. 4, 2014Chelsea delivered a 1-0 victory over host Manchester City on Monday to provide a new twist in the title race in Englands Premier League. Branislav Ivanovic lashed home a shot in the 31st minute to end Citys 100 percent winning record at home in the league. The result meant Arsenal returned to the top of the standings, with a 2-point lead over City and Chelsea.

Sports

Neil Diamond Diagnosed with Parkinson's ... Retiring from Touring 1/22/2018 Neil Diamond is hanging it up on the big stage because he just revealed he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The iconic pop singer made the announcement Monday, saying he was retiring from concert touring upon receiving his diagnosis. The third leg of his 50th anniversary tour -- originally set to launch in March -- has been cancelled on doctor's orders. Fans are said to be getting refunded in full. Neil said in a statement ... "I plan to remain active in writing, recording and other projects for a long time to come." He added ... "My thanks goes out to my loyal and devoted audiences around the world. You will always have my appreciation for your support and encouragement." Neil finished by saying ... "The ride has been 'so good, so good, so good' thanks to you." He'll be presented with a Lifetime Achievement award at the Grammys this weekend.

Entertainment

Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJune 10, 2018WASHINGTON President Trumps top economic adviser said on Sunday that Mr. Trump had pulled out of a joint statement with allies at the Group of 7 meeting over the weekend because a betrayal by the Canadian prime minister had threatened to make Mr. Trump appear weak before his summit meeting on Tuesday with North Koreas leader.The adviser, Larry Kudlow, said that Mr. Trump had no choice but to take the action after the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said in a news conference that Canada would not be bullied by the United States on trade.Mr. Trump is not going to let a Canadian prime minister push him around, Mr. Kudlow said, adding, He is not going to permit any show of weakness on a trip to negotiate with North Korea.Mr. Trudeau made his remarks, which were largely measured in tone, after the president had agreed to sign the joint statement and had left for his historic meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore. Negotiators had struggled to write a compromise communiqu addressing trade and other issues that the seven nations could agree on, but issued one on Saturday believing that there would be consensus.In his news conference, the prime minister made a vow to protect his countrys interests that was not unlike the promises Mr. Trump himself has made for the United States. But Mr. Kudlow said that the timing of the comments meant that Mr. Trudeau had stabbed us in the back.We joined the communiqu in good faith, Mr. Kudlow said on CNNs State of the Union program. You just dont behave that way, O.K.? Its a betrayal.He added that Mr. Trump had every right every right to push back on this amateurish Trudeau scheme.Peter Navarro, the presidents top trade adviser, echoed Mr. Kudlows criticism of Mr. Trudeau, though in even harsher terms.Theres a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad-faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door, Mr. Navarro said on Fox News Sunday.On Sunday, Democrats expressed alarm at Mr. Trumps decision to back away from the joint G-7 statement.This wasnt just with Trudeau. This is with our best allies, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California said on CNN. Not to sign a statement of solidarity, which stands for everything that we stand for, is a big mistake.Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, offered a message to foreign nations in a tweet.To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values, he wrote on Saturday. Americans stand with you, even if our president doesnt.On Saturday, Mr. Trudeau said Canada would retaliate against United States tariffs on steel and aluminum products. The president apparently heard Mr. Trudeaus comments while flying on Air Force One and quickly lashed out on Twitter.Based on Justins false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market! Mr. Trump wrote.He added that Mr. Trudeau was very dishonest and weak and acted so meek and mild.Mr. Trumps response amounted to a declaration of political war on one of the countrys closest allies, and further isolated the United States after months of protectionist threats that have kept Mr. Trudeau on edge.In a tweet on Sunday, Mr. Trudeau chose to focus on what he said was the substance of the summit meeting.The historic and important agreement we all reached at #G7Charlevoix will help make our economies stronger & people more prosperous, protect our democracies, safeguard our environment and protect women & girls rights around the world, he wrote. Thats what matters.The Canadian foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said on Sunday that Canada does not believe that ad hominem attacks are a particularly appropriate or useful way to conduct our relations with other countries.She added, We particularly refrain from ad hominem attacks when it comes to our allies.Canada was not the only target at the G-7 meeting. During closed-door sessions on Friday, Mr. Trump went around the room, declaring ways that each of the nations had mistreated the United States, according to a European official. Mr. Trump has long maintained that his country has been duped by others into signing disastrous trade agreements.His comments also came just hours after Mr. Trudeau had tried to paint a more civil picture of the summit meeting, which was held in a quiet resort town north of Quebec City.Mr. Trudeau had said he was inspired by the talks between the seven international allies on economic and foreign policy questions. Mr. Trump had posed for pictures with the other world leaders, gripping and grinning amid talks that White House aides insisted were friendly.Mr. Kudlow, a free-trader who joined the administration in March, said on Sunday that the United States had in fact been near a substantive agreement with Canada on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has been the subject of difficult negotiations.We were very close to making a deal with Canada on NAFTA, bilaterally perhaps, he said on CNN, though he did not elaborate.

Politics

Scientists at Columbia University have developed a treatment that blocks the virus in the nose and lungs, is inexpensive and needs no refrigeration.Credit...Peter Kovalev\TASS, via Getty ImagesNov. 5, 2020A nasal spray that blocks the absorption of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has completely protected ferrets it was tested on, according to a small study released on Thursday by an international team of scientists. The study, which was limited to animals and has not yet been peer-reviewed, was assessed by several health experts at the request of The New York Times.If the spray, which the scientists described as nontoxic and stable, is proved to work in humans, it could provide a new way of fighting the pandemic. A daily spritz up the nose would act like a vaccine.Having something new that works against the coronavirus is exciting, said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, the chairman of immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was not involved in the study. I could imagine this being part of the arsenal.The work has been underway for months by scientists from Columbia University Medical Center in New York, Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Columbia University Medical Center.The team would require additional funding to pursue clinical trials in humans. Dr. Anne Moscona, a pediatrician and microbiologist at Columbia and co-author of the study, said they had applied for a patent on the product, and she hoped Columbia University would approach the federal governments Operation Warp Speed or large pharmaceutical companies that are seeking new ways to combat the coronavirus.The spray attacks the virus directly. It contains a lipopeptide, a cholesterol particle linked to a chain of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. This particular lipopeptide exactly matches a stretch of amino acids in the spike protein of the virus, which the pathogen uses to attach to a human airway or lung cell.Before a virus can inject its RNA into a cell, the spike must effectively unzip, exposing two chains of amino acids, in order to fuse to the cell wall. As the spike zips back up to complete the process, the lipopeptide in the spray inserts itself, latching on to one of the spikes amino acid chains and preventing the virus from attaching.It is like you are zipping a zipper but you put another zipper inside, so the two sides cannot meet, said Matteo Porotto, a microbiologist at Columbia University and one of the papers authors.The work was described in a paper posted to the preprint server bioRxiv Thursday morning, and has been submitted to the journal Science for peer review.Dr. Peter J. Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said the therapy looked really promising.What Id like to know now is how easy it is to scale production, he said.In the study, the spray was given to six ferrets, which were then divided into pairs and placed in three cages. Into each cage also went two ferrets that had been given a placebo spray and one ferret that had been deliberately infected with SARS-CoV-2 a day or two earlier.Ferrets are used by scientists studying flu, SARS and other respiratory diseases because they can catch viruses through the nose much as humans do, although they also infect each other by contact with feces or by scratching and biting.After 24 hours together, none of the sprayed ferrets caught the disease; all the placebo-group ferrets did.Virus replication was completely blocked, the authors wrote.The protective spray attaches to cells in the nose and lungs and lasts about 24 hours, Dr. Moscona said. If it works this well in humans, you could sleep in a bed with someone infected or be with your infected kids and still be safe, she said.The amino acids come from a stretch of the spike protein in coronaviruses that rarely mutates. The scientists tested it against four different variants of the virus, including both the well-known Wuhan and Italian strains, and also against the coronaviruses that cause SARS and MERS.In cell cultures, it protected completely against all strains of the pandemic virus, fairly well against SARS and partially against MERS.The lipoprotein can be inexpensively produced as a freeze-dried white powder that does not need refrigeration, Dr. Moscona said. A doctor or pharmacist could mix the powder with sugar and water to produce a nasal spray.Other labs have designed antibodies and mini-proteins that also block the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering cells, but these are chemically more complex and may need to be stored in cold temperatures.Dr. Moscona and Dr. Porotto have been collaborating on similar fusion inhibitor peptides for 15 years, they said in a conference call. They have developed some against measles, Nipah, parainfluenza and other viruses.But those products aroused little commercial interest, Dr. Porotto said, because an effective measles vaccine already exists and because the deadly Nipah virus only turns up occasionally in faraway places like Bangladesh and Malaysia.Monoclonal antibodies to the new coronavirus have been shown to prevent infection as well as treat it, but they are expensive to make, require refrigeration and must be injected. Australian scientists have tested a nasal spray against Covid-19 in ferrets, but it works by enhancing the immune system, not by targeting the virus directly.Because lipopeptides can be shipped as a dry powder, they could be used even in rural areas in poor countries that lack refrigeration, Dr. Moscona said.Dr. Moscona, a pediatrician who usually works on parainfluenza and other viruses that infect children, said she was most interested in getting the product to poor countries that may never have access to the monoclonal antibodies and mRNA vaccines that Americans may soon have. But she has little experience in that arena, she said.

Health

Zlatan Ibrahimovic Thiiiiis Close to Signing with L.A. Galaxy 1/29/2018 One of the best soccer players alive -- Zlatan Ibrahimovic -- is very close to signing a contract that would make him the next member of the L.A. Galaxy, this according to multiple reports. Zlatan currently plays for Manchester United -- and though he's established himself as one of the premiere players on Earth, he's been hampered by injuries over the past few years. Of course, Zlatan is no stranger to Los Angeles -- he's been in Hollywood quite a bit over the years ... and most famously TRASHED the U.S. Men's National Soccer team as a "big joke" back in front of Boa Steakhouse on Sunset Blvd. in 2014. By the way ... this guy is a one man brand -- he's got his own cologne, his own underwear line ... and once dropped a Top 20 single in his native Sweden. Seems pretty Hollywood to us ...

Entertainment

Olympics|Only Speedskater Who Didnt Fall Wins Womens 500https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/sports/olympics/only-speedskater-who-didnt-fall-wins-womens-500.htmlCredit...David Gray/ReutersFeb. 13, 2014SOCHI, Russia Li Jianrou of China won the 500-meter short-track speedskating gold after she was the only woman who did not fall in the wild final race.The victory kept the Olympic title in Chinas hands. Lis injured countrywoman Wang Meng was unable to defend the gold she had won at every Winter Games since 2002.Arianna Fontana of Italy took the silver and Park Seung-hi of South Korea the bronze.Elise Christie of Britain caused a crash in the third turn of the opening lap when she veered into Fontana and sent both skaters spinning into the pads.Park was clipped and lost her balance going into the next turn. She fell into the sideboard but got up and resumed skating.Li was closely trailing in last place when the chaos erupted. She took over the lead and went on to victory.Park came across the line in last place, but Christie was disqualified, allowing Park to claim the bronze. (AP)A FIRST FOR CHINA Zhang Hong pulled off a stunning victory in the womens 1,000 meters, giving China its first gold in traditional (long-track) Olympic speedskating.Her time of 1 minute 14.02 seconds just missed the Olympic record set by Chris Witty in 2002.Ireen Wust took the silver and Margo Boer the bronze, giving the Netherlands a dozen speedskating medals. (AP)

Sports

Many who received the shot may need to consider boosters, the authors said. But federal health officials do not recommend second doses. Credit...Rachel Wisniewski for The New York TimesPublished July 20, 2021Updated Aug. 29, 2021The coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is much less effective against the Delta and Lambda variants than against the original virus, according to a new study posted online on Tuesday. Although troubling, the findings result from experiments conducted with blood samples in a laboratory, and may not reflect the vaccines performance in the real world. But the conclusions add to evidence that the 13 million people inoculated with the J.&J. vaccine may need to receive a second dose ideally of one of the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, the authors said. The conclusions are at odds with those from smaller studies published by Johnson & Johnson earlier this month suggesting that a single dose of the vaccine is effective against the variant even eight months after inoculation. The new study has not yet been peer reviewed nor published in a scientific journal. But it is consistent with observations that a single dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine which has a similar architecture to the J.&J. vaccine shows only about 33 percent efficacy against symptomatic disease caused by the Delta variant.The message that we wanted to give was not that people shouldnt get the J.&J. vaccine, but we hope that in the future, it will be boosted with either another dose of J.&J. or a boost with Pfizer or Moderna, said Nathaniel Landau, a virologist at N.Y.U.s Grossman School of Medicine, who led the study. Other experts said the results are what they would have expected, because all of the vaccines seem to work better when given in two doses. I have always thought, and often said, that the J.&J. vaccine is a two-dose vaccine, said John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. Dr. Moore pointed to several studies in monkeys and people that have shown greater efficacy with two doses of the J.&J. vaccine, compared with one dose. But the data from the new study do not speak to the full nature of immune protection, said Seema Kumar, a spokeswoman for J.&J. Studies sponsored by the company indicate that the vaccine generated strong, persistent activity against the rapidly spreading Delta variant, she said.The Delta variant is the most contagious version yet of the coronavirus. It accounts for 83 percent of infections in the United States, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. The variant may also be mainly responsible for a recent rise in infections: Although they are still low relative to last winter, cases are rising in all 50 states, and hospitalizations are increasing in nearly all of them. In the two weeks ending on Tuesday, the nation averaged 268 deaths per day.ImageCredit...Bryan Anselm for The New York TimesDelta may cause more breakthrough infections than earlier forms of the virus, but more than 99 percent of the hospitalizations and deaths are occurring among unvaccinated people. Rates of immunization in the country have stalled, with just under 60 percent of adults fully protected against the virus. Several studies have suggested that the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna will maintain their efficacy against the coronavirus, including all variants identified so far. One recent study showed, for example, that the vaccines trigger a persistent immune reaction in the body that may protect against the coronavirus for years.But evidence on the J.&J. vaccine has been limited, because it was rolled out later than the mRNA vaccines. Most studies of effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccines were conducted at medical centers and hospitals that relied on samples from staff members who received the mRNA vaccines.The J.&J. vaccine has also been dogged by reports of blood clots and a rare neurological syndrome, as well as problems with contamination at a manufacturing plant in Baltimore.Small studies published by researchers affiliated with J.&J. suggested that the vaccine was only slightly less effective against the Delta variant than against the original virus, and that antibodies stimulated by the vaccine grew in strength over eight months.Dr. Landaus team would probably have seen a similar increase in the vaccines potency if they had looked at the data over time, said Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. The data on the J.&J. vaccines strength against the Delta variant at Day 29 is not much different from those reported in his own study, Dr. Barouch said. Fundamentally I dont see that theres any discordance, he said. The question is that of kinetics, its not just magnitude, because immune responses are not static over time. The new study also did not consider other components of immune defense, he added.Dr. Landau and his colleagues looked at blood samples taken from 17 people who had been immunized with two doses of an mRNA vaccine and 10 people with one dose of the J.&J. vaccine. The J.&J. vaccine started out with a lower efficacy than the mRNA vaccines and showed a bigger drop in efficacy against the Delta and Lambda variants. The lower baseline means that whats left to counter Delta is very weak, Dr. Moore said. That is a substantial concern.Very few vaccines are given as a single dose, because the second dose is needed to amp up antibody levels, noted Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University. People who were inoculated with the J.&J. vaccine are relying on that primary response to maintain high levels of antibodies, which is difficult, especially against the variants, she said.Boosting immunity with a second dose should raise the antibody levels high enough to counter the variants, she said. Turning to an mRNA vaccine for the second shot, rather than another J.&J. shot, may be better: Several studies have shown that combining one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines kicks up the immune response more effectively than two doses of AstraZeneca. The Food and Drug Administration has said Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot at this time, and the agency is unlikely to change its recommendations based on laboratory studies. But the new data should prompt the F.D.A. to revisit its recommendations, Dr. Landau said: I hope that they read our paper and think about it.

Health

William Shatner Cops Called to Home ... Hunt's on for Prowler 1/25/2018 William Shatner had an unwanted visitor outside his home Thursday night, but when the suspicious man was confronted ... he took off at warp speed before cops could catch him. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the 'Star Trek' legend was at his San Fernando Valley home Thursday around 5 PM when an adult male wearing shorts was spotted outside peering into his house. We're told someone by Shatner's residence went to ask the guy what he was up to, at which point he began pacing back and forth ... and then bolted. Our sources say a 911 call was made and cops showed up within 5 minutes to search for the prowler, but he was long gone. Police spoke with the OG Captain Kirk to make sure everything was fine at his place, which it was. We're told cops have upped patrols in the area and are still looking for the guy.

Entertainment

Feb. 13, 2014SAN FRANCISCO Despite a class-action settlement in August that was supposed to ensure that Facebook users clearly consent to their comments, images and likes being used in ads, it has been business as usual on the service.If you are among Facebooks 1.2 billion users, the company says, you are automatically consenting to such social ads. Opting out is impossible for some ads, and for others, the control to stop them is buried deep within the services privacy settings. But on Thursday, the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen will try to step up the pressure on Facebook to change its practices. In a legal brief to be filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the group will contend that the settlement violates the laws of seven states, including California and New York, by failing to require Facebook to receive explicit permission from parents before using the personal information of teenage users in advertising. The default should be that a minors image should not be used for advertising unless the parent opts in. Putting the burden on the parent to opt the child out gets it exactly backward, said Scott Michelman, a lawyer at Public Citizen, which has filed the appeal on behalf of five parents and their children who use Facebook. In a rare reversal, one child advocacy group that initially supported the $20 million settlement, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, has now concluded the deal offers little protection to children and plans to ask the appeals court to reject it.Susan Linn, director of the group, which is based in Boston, said it was supposed to receive about $290,000 under the settlement as part of a distribution of about $4.8 million to nonprofit groups and the law schools of Harvard, Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley. Giving up the money was a difficult decision for us, she said in an interview on Wednesday. Ms. Linn said the expected sum was nearly as much as the annual budget of the group, which made headlines in 2009 for a successful effort to force Disney to stop claiming that its Baby Einstein videos increased the intellect of infants and to offer refunds to buyers. But now that she understands the agreements implications, she wants no part of it. Facebook is collecting and using personal information for minors without parents consent, she said. Thats clearly wrong.A Facebook spokeswoman, Jodi Seth, defended the settlement in an email on Wednesday.The court-approved settlement provides substantial benefits to everyone on Facebook, including teens and their parents, and goes beyond what any other company has done to provide consumers visibility into and control over their information in advertising, she wrote. The same arguments on state law were raised and rejected by the court last year, and a dozen respected groups continue to support the settlement.The settlement has yet to be put into effect as appeals by seven different groups wind their way through court. Under the settlement, Facebook agreed to create a system for users aged 13 to 18 to indicate whether their parents were on Facebook and give the parents control over the use of their childrens likes and comments in advertising. If the parents were not using Facebook, the company promised to opt their children out of social advertising until age 18. (Children under age 13 are officially not allowed to use Facebook.)ImageCredit...Cliff CraineMs. Seth said the company was still developing the system but it was not yet complete.In January, Facebook also announced it would discontinue the specific type of ad that spurred the original lawsuit, although it said it would sell other ads that showcased likes and comments.Ms. Linn said that she would prefer to see Facebook adopt a policy similar to that of Google, which automatically opts out all users under age 18 from social advertising.Public Citizens legal challenge is narrowly focused on Facebook users aged 13 to 18, where the arguments are strongest, but Mr. Michelman said that the whole settlement, approved by a federal judge in August, is problematic for adults, too. It does little to nothing for anyones privacy, he said.Public Citizen says that the settlement violates laws governing children in California, Florida, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. The organizations challenge is supported by two other child-focused groups, the Center for Digital Democracy and the Childrens Advocacy Institute.ImageCredit...Karilyn GowerThe disputed settlement was supposed to end a class-action lawsuit filed by plaintiffs lawyers in March 2011 on behalf of individual Facebook users.After reviewing dozens of objections to the proposed deal from various groups, Judge Richard G. Seeborg of United States District Court rejected arguments that it violated state laws protecting the privacy of children. He approved the settlement in August. Eligible Facebook users in the United States were informed that they could receive $15 in compensation if they filed the appropriate paperwork.Jonathan E. Davis, a lawyer at the Arns Law Firm, which led the class-action case on behalf of users, did not respond to an email on Wednesday seeking comment on the challenge.Margaret Becker, whose 16-year-old daughter is one of the people represented by Public Citizen in its appeal, said that children did not understand the implications of sharing information on Facebook. Theyre turning her into an advertisement for whatever she happens to like, said Ms. Becker, who lives in Brooklyn and is a nonprofit lawyer working on Hurricane Sandy relief. I think there needs to be disclosure as well as explicit consent.

Tech

Issue 4Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York TimesMarch 9, 2017This newsletter is one small attempt to bring you, our audience, into the process of journalism as The New York Times expands in Australia but how else might we listen and learn from readers and subscribers?How about a tool that lets you submit links to improve a story youre reading? Or a form in an article that lets you contact the writer anonymously? Or a Facebook Messenger bot that helps you choose what to read next based on your mood?These are some of the ideas I was asked to judge this week at a two-day hackathon focused on audience engagement, led by the Walkley Foundation and the Global Editors Network. Dozens of journalists, developers and designers from various media outlets, including SBS, The Australian and Storyful, joined together to develop prototypes for deepening connections between journalists and those who support us.As is often the case, I heard a mix of concern about journalisms future and excitement about all the new ways to tell stories and connect people to the issues they care about.Ive been thinking a lot lately about these connections and how they occur, not just for journalists but also for those we cover. Populist leaders in particular have proven adept at audience development.Donald Trumps Twitter feed is a homing beacon for his electorate.Pauline Hansons Facebook videos are both diary and diatribe, and especially in her case as she campaigns for her One Nation political party across Western Australia before Saturdays election there Ive been wondering which messages or themes are most potent for her supporters.This is a question Ill explore in more depth at some point, but I started my reporting with a call to Frank Mols, a political scientist at the University of Queensland who has studied populism for roughly a decade.One Nation really taps into two things, Professor Mols told me. The fear of foreigners and immigration is one, but deep down what they are really tapping into is class envy were hard-working families and our electricity bills are going up and we want to send our kids to good schools and all these people in the cities, they just dont see it.Theres an interplay between these two issues envy and identity politics, he said.This analysis of Mr. Trumps budget by Eduardo Porter, The New York Timess economics columnist, fits into this argument; so does Amanda Taubs recent column on the crisis of white identity.Both are worth reading for global context as you try to make sense of Saturdays election results.Below are a few more stories from The Times that Ive found striking since our last newsletter, including Jacqueline Williams writing about a potential terrorism threat from the small town of Young in rural New South Wales, pictured above.Dont miss our latest set of recommendations either: readers shared their own favorite places in Australia.As always, we hope youll also share this newsletter if you like it, and tell your friends to sign up here.You can also follow me on Twitter (@damiencave) to see who won the hackathon... and to guide me through the triple j Hottest 100.______ImageCredit...Matthew Abbott for The New York TimesThe Terrorist Next Door?Lebanese Muslim families have been welcomed in Young for decades, but after the arrest of Haisem Zahab, a 42-year-old electrician accused of using the internet to try to help the Islamic State develop a guided missile, those bonds of trust have started to fray.That is symptomatic of what exactlys been happening in the last couple of years when the actions of a small number like this Young man discredits the Australian Muslim community at large, said Dr. Jamal Rifi, a Muslim community leader in Sydney. It is a phenomena thats been happening across Australia.______ImageCredit...P.C. Poulsen/Hulton Archive, via Getty ImagesOz Origins, ExplainedHow did Aboriginal Australians get to the island?A genetic study of 111 Aboriginal Australians, published on Wednesday, offers an interesting and, in some ways, unexpected view of their remarkable story.______ImageCredit...Eric Risberg/Associated PressUber DeceptionUber has already disrupted transportation in Sydney, and around the world. But did the company have to deceive regulators to do it?Read The Timess investigation of Ubers Greyball scheme; and check out the impact, with the company backing away from the program.ImageCredit...Lettering by Brulio AmadoLook and ListenIm still listening to the playlist from last years music issue of The New York Times Magazine, and this years might be even better.Plus, the design of this feature, incorporating music, imagery, text! Just brilliant. (Heres the 2016 edition.)...And We RecommendWe asked for your favorite places in Australia...Gordon Howe:Thats easy: Albany (pronounced Al as in Al Gore, not all), Western Australia, down on Great Southern Ocean granite cliffs; rugged headlands interspersed with small, jewel-like beaches; and nothing between you and Antarctica but the wildest seas in the world. Good wine, good food, (recently) good beer, good people, and beautiful countryside.Kerry Molinari:Walking my dog near Mount Painter in Canberra. Views over Canberra to the Brindabella Mountains.Brian Naylor:My favourite spots in Australia are the ones that are most un-Australian: grocery shopping at the Melbourne markets; sipping coffee on a patio at the QVC building in Sydney; amazing authentic Asian food in Sydneys Thai town; the so-Cal feel of Byron Bay.John Collins:If youve never been to Burleigh on Queenslands Gold Coast, you havent been to the beach.Also, heres Watchings latest guide to what to watch on Netflix this month. Ill be tuning into Keanu.

World

Credit...Erin Schaff for The New York TimesJune 15, 2018WASHINGTON A federal judge revoked Paul Manaforts bail and sent him to jail on Friday to await trial, citing new charges that Mr. Manafort had tried to influence the testimony of two government witnesses after he had been granted a temporary release.Mr. Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chairman, had posted a $10 million bond and was under house arrest while awaiting his September trial on a host of charges, including money laundering and making false statements.But Mr. Manafort cannot remain free, even under stricter conditions, in the face of new felony charges that he had engaged in witness tampering while out on bail, said Judge Amy Berman Jackson of United States District Court for the District of Columbia. This is not middle school, she said during a 90-minute court hearing. I cant take away his cellphone.The judges order was the latest in eight months of legal setbacks for Mr. Manafort, as prosecutors have steadily added new charges since he was first indicted in October. Mr. Trump and members of his team lashed out against the judges move, an attack that renewed talk about whether the president might issue pardons to curb a prosecutorial process in the special counsels Russia inquiry that he describes as stacked against him.Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns, Mr. Trump wrote in a Twitter post on Friday in which he appeared to confuse the judges action with a sentence handed down after conviction. Didnt know Manafort was the head of the Mob. What about Comey and Crooked Hillary and all of the others? Very unfair!Rudolph W. Giuliani, who serves as the presidents personal lawyer, said that the judge had gone too far. He also said in an interview that Mr. Trump should not pardon anyone while the special counsel inquiry is still going on, but when the investigation is concluded, hes kind of on his own, right?Judge Jacksons decision that Mr. Manafort could not be trusted to abide by the law unless he was behind bars makes it harder for the White House to dismiss the case against him as the work of overzealous prosecutors. The situation is particularly fraught for Mr. Trump because he is under investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, for one of the same offenses for which prosecutors have accused Mr. Manafort: obstruction of justice.The judge went out of her way to dismiss the suggestion that Mr. Manafort was a victim of anything but his own actions. This hearing is not about politics, she said. It is not about the conduct of the special counsel. It is about the defendants conduct.In a superseding indictment filed last week, the prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller claimed that Mr. Manafort and a close associate had contacted two witnesses this year, hoping to persuade them to testify that Mr. Manafort had never lobbied in the United States for Viktor F. Yanukovych, the pro-Russia president of Ukraine until 2014.The government says that Mr. Manafort violated the law by failing to report his domestic lobbying efforts to the Justice Department and by lying to the federal authorities about his activities.The day after he was indicted in February in connection with those offenses, prosecutors claim, Mr. Manafort began trying to influence the accounts of two members of a public relations team who had worked with him. The prosecutors said that he had reached out to the two by phone, through encrypted messages and through Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a close associate in Russia.Greg D. Andres, a prosecutor on Mr. Muellers team, said Mr. Manaforts efforts were not random outreaches, but part of a sustained campaign over a five-week period aimed at getting the witnesses to back up a false story that he had lobbied only in Europe.VideotranscripttranscriptPaul Manaforts Trail of ScandalsPresident Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has now been accused by the special counsel of violating his plea deal by repeatedly lying to federal prosecutors. But this wasnt Mr. Manaforts first scandal.Paul Manafort was once President Trumps campaign manager. By the fall of 2018, he was expected to face at least a decade in prison for 10 felony counts. Those counts included financial fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Mr. Manafort is disappointed of not getting acquittals all the way through. He is evaluating all of his options at this point. In the hopes of getting a more lenient punishment, Manafort agreed to fully cooperate with the special counsel, Robert Mueller. Now, federal prosecutors are saying he violated his plea deal by repeatedly lying during their investigation. Manaforts lawyer also allegedly passed information to President Trumps legal team. But this isnt Manaforts first scandal. Controversy has trailed the veteran Republican adviser since his earliest work as an international lobbyist and consultant. In the 1980s, Manafort testified before Congress and admitted to using his political influence to win millions of dollars in contracts from federal low-income housing programs. The technical term for what we do and what law firms, associations and professional groups do is lobbying. For purposes of today, I will admit that in a narrow sense some people might term it influence peddling. That same decade, Manafort advised the Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, on improving his image in the U.S. Manafort allegedly received $10 million in cash from a Marcos confidante. It was apparently money intended for Ronald Reagans presidential campaign. But the campaign said it never received that money. Foreign contributions to U.S. presidential elections are illegal. Also in the 1980s, Manafort was linked to the prime minister of the Bahamas at a time when the island nation had alleged ties to drug traffickers. Manaforts company said that the goal of its work was to help the Bahamas obtain more U.S. aid to help curb the drug smuggling. Decades later, Manafort would run Trumps presidential campaign. We want America to understand who Donald Trump the man is. Not just Donald Trump the candidate. The composite of his career. Not just from a business standpoint or a political standpoint, from a human standpoint as well. But he resigned five months into the job in August 2016, in the wake of reports that he received more than $12 million from Viktor Yanukovich, the former Ukrainian president and pro-Russia politician. Yanukovich and his political party relied on advice from Manafort and his firm, which helped them win several elections. The Times uncovered that Manafort and others close to Trump met with the Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer in June 2016. That lawyer claimed to have damaging political information about Hillary Clinton. As for this latest brush with controversy, Manaforts lawyers insist that their client has been truthful. But they acknowledge that Manafort and Muellers team are at an impasse.President Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has now been accused by the special counsel of violating his plea deal by repeatedly lying to federal prosecutors. But this wasnt Mr. Manaforts first scandal.CreditCredit...Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesJudge Jackson said she was particularly disturbed that some of the contacts occurred after Mr. Manafort had been specifically ordered by another federal judge to avoid all contacts with witnesses involved in Mr. Muellers investigation or the prosecution of him. That judge is overseeing a separate case in Northern Virginia, where Mr. Manafort faces additional charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and failure to report foreign bank accounts.I have no appetite for this, Judge Jackson told Mr. Manafort shortly before he was led out of the courtroom to be transported to jail. I have struggled with this decision.But she said that even if she explicitly ordered Mr. Manafort never to contact any of the governments 56 witnesses, she could not be certain he would comply. Will he call the 57th? she asked.She noted that she had previously warned Mr. Manafort about his conduct while on house arrest after prosecutors complained that he had broken the rules against contacts with the news media.Im concerned you seem to treat these proceedings as another marketing exercise, she said. She implied that she was running out of patience with him, saying the case continues to be to this minute extraordinary.Mr. Manaforts lawyers suggested that he had reached out innocently to his former colleagues, not knowing whether they had been contacted by Mr. Muellers team. But Mr. Andres said Mr. Manafort was simply deceiving the court, just as he had deceived law enforcement agencies and tax authorities over the years.Its inconceivable that he did not know they were potential witnesses, he said.Mr. Trump has sought to distance himself from Mr. Manafort, who worked for his campaign for nearly five months, including three months as campaign chairman, before he was ousted in August 2016 amid controversy over his Ukraine work. Mr. Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time, the president said on Friday morning.He worked for me, what, for 49 days or something? he added. I feel badly for some people because they have gone back 12 years to find things an apparent reference to the allegations against Mr. Manafort.Asked if he was considering pardons, Mr. Trump said: I dont want to talk about that. No, I dont want to talk about that. But look, I do want to see people treated fairly.Besides violating laws that require the disclosure of lobbying on behalf of foreign interests, the government alleges, Mr. Manafort laundered more than $30 million in income he received over nine years of lobbying for Mr. Yanukovych and his political parties or allies.As evidence that Mr. Manafort lobbied in the United States, prosecutors submitted a four-page memo that Mr. Manafort wrote to Mr. Yanukovych detailing his campaign to convince members of Congress, the State Department and the Western news media that Mr. Yanukovych was a champion of democratic reforms.The government claims that the offenses are part of a complex financial conspiracy led by Mr. Manafort and aided by Rick Gates, Mr. Trumps deputy campaign chairman, and Mr. Manaforts right-hand man, Mr. Kilimnik, who has been linked to Russian intelligence.Mr. Manaforts first trial, in Northern Virginia, is scheduled for next month.

Politics

She worked with President Bill Clinton to to make the disease a public health priority. But her office never achieved the stature or effectiveness that some had hoped for.Credit...Australian Lutheran College, via Eileen GebbiePublished May 23, 2022Updated May 25, 2022Kristine Gebbie, a health policy expert who served as the nations first AIDS czar in the early 1990s, died on May 17 in Adelaide, Australia. She was 78.The cause was cancer, her daughter Eileen Gebbie said.After serving as the chief health officer for the states of Oregon and Washington and as a member of two national panels, formed by President Ronald Reagan, seeking to cope with the emergent AIDS epidemic, Dr. Gebbie, a nurse, was recruited by President Bill Clinton in June 1993 to fulfill his campaign promise that he would make the disease a public health priority.He named her national AIDS policy coordinator to devise prevention strategies, offer resources to states and communities to establish their own programs, and reconcile the efforts of federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Public Health Service and the National Institutes of Health.Several more prominent candidates had already rejected the job, and Dr. Gebbie accepted it with no illusions. While the appointment made her a member of the presidents Domestic Policy Council, her office never achieved the stature or effectiveness that AIDS activists had hoped for.It leads you into just about every complicated human question that you have to deal with, she told The Los Angeles Times in 1993. What does human sexuality mean? What is the balance point between an individuals rights and responsibilities and a communitys rights and responsibilities? What is our responsibility to people at the end of life? At what point do we accept the reality of death and not fight it with everything we have?She favored supplying clean needles to drug addicts, distributing condoms to sexually active teenagers and incorporating AIDS education into health curriculums, even for young children. Many conservatives opposed those positions, as they had opposed her previous criticisms of the Reagan administrations proposal for routine testing of applicants for marriage licenses, federal prisoners and certain other groups.You dont talk to them about safe sex, Dr. Gebbie said, but you teach them that their body is something to take care of, and that viruses can mess it up.Federal spending on AIDS increased under Dr. Gebbies watch, and her appointment was announced in a Rose Garden ceremony, but she did not work from the White House; her office was in a building across the street that also housed a McDonalds.My guess, she told The New York Times in 1993, is that the choice of me makes clear that this isnt intended to be somebody who spends all their time outside rousing people up, but somebody who is prepared to spend a lot of time inside making it work.Its very clear how many people really did expect miracles, she added. When I give what I know are appropriate answers, I know I sound like a bureaucratic stick-in-the-mud: This lady is not worth two bits to us; she talks about coordination and cooperation. Blah!But part of my mission, Dr. Gebbie continued, is to help people keep their expectations within reality.Several AIDS activist organizations demanded that she be replaced, and she did not last long in the job; she resigned after 13 months, in July 1994.During Dr. Gebbies tenure, President Clinton said in a statement at the time, the federal government had increased funding and other resources for prevention and research, sped the research and approval process for new drugs and required every federal employee to receive comprehensive workplace education. He thanked her for giving this vitally important battle a lift when one was desperately needed and long overdue.Kristine Elizabeth Moore was born on June 26, 1943, in Sioux City, Iowa, to Thomas Moore, a career officer in the Army, and Irene (Stewart) Moore, who worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.She moved from Panama to the Philippines to New Mexico as her father was redeployed in the military; she was also raised for a time by her maternal grandparents in Miles City, Mont. She was inspired by an aunt, Susie Stewart, to enter nursing and worked as a nurses aide in high school.She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from St. Olaf College in Minnesota in 1965, her masters in community mental health from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1968, and her doctorate in public health from the University of Michigan in 1995.She served as the Oregon State health administrator from 1978 to 1989 and the Washington State secretary of health from 1989 to 1993.ImageCredit...via Eileen GebbieAs an epidemiologist and an authority on emergency preparedness, she was a member of the AIDS task force for the American Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and was later enlisted by Reagans White House AIDS Commission, even though she had criticized the Reagan administrations response to the epidemic as inadequate.She was a professor of nursing at the Columbia University School of Nursing and director of Columbias Center for Health Policy from 1994 to 2008. She was dean of the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing from 2008 to 2010.She taught at Flinders Universitys Torrens Resilience Initiative and the University of Adelaide Nursing School in Australia, where she had moved with her husband, Lester Nils Wright, a physician, and where they both retired. Dr. Wright died last month.Her first marriage, to Neil Gebbie, ended in divorce. In addition to her daughter Eileen, she is survived by two other children from her first marriage, Anna and Eric Gebbie; her stepsons, Jason and Nathan Wright; her sister, Sina Ann; 10 grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.

Health

Politics|Heres how the votes will be counted in Georgia.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/us/politics/heres-how-the-votes-will-be-counted-in-georgia.htmlCredit...Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York TimesJan. 5, 2021When Georgias Senate runoff polls close tonight, elections officials will begin reporting three sets of vote totals: 2.1 million cast at in-person early-voting sites, 1 million cast by mail and those cast at Election Day precincts, a figure that officials estimate could be anywhere from 500,000 to 800,000.There will be little consistency to how Georgias 159 counties report their results. Some will post all of their early in-person votes shortly after the polls have closed. But the mail ballots are likely to be slower. Most of these ballots have already been processed but not counted, meaning envelope signatures and addresses have been verified but the ballots have not been run through vote-counting machines.Some counties will be faster than others to report their results. Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and has a reputation for being slow at reporting vote totals, is already far behind the state average in processing mail-in ballots.Statewide, 74 percent of mail ballots have been processed. But Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that is the largest county in the state, has processed just 66 percent of its ballots, according to the United States Election Project. In neighboring Cobb and Gwinnett Counties, suburbs that swung hard to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., officials have processed 82 percent and 76 percent of their mail ballots an indication that they will report results earlier in the night.Other counties expected to be slow in reporting results include Henry County, a suburb south of Atlanta that has processed 57 percent of its mail ballots, along with the Atlanta suburbs of Clayton and Forsythe Counties; Chatham County, which includes Savannah; and Houston County, south of Macon.One big unknown remains the size of Georgias Election Day turnout. The secretary of states office, which said on Tuesday afternoon that the average statewide wait time was one minute, is not reporting any turnout numbers until after the polls close. Officials with the Senate campaigns, political parties and outside groups working in the state had anecdotal data that showed a steady but not overwhelming turnout.

Politics

Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesMarch 8, 2017President Trump and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran have made no secret of their mutual contempt, raising fears of possible armed confrontation and doubts about the nuclear agreement reached under Mr. Trumps predecessor.Equally uncertain are the fates of at least seven people in Iran, five of them American citizens. Four were imprisoned after the nuclear accord took effect and relaxed sanctions against Iran in exchange for its verifiable guarantees of peaceful nuclear work.Relatives of the imprisoned and their advocates have been speaking out, frustrated and wondering how Mr. Trump will deal with the problem. As a candidate, he promised to resolve the prisoner issue but since the inauguration has said little about it.Im trying to reach out to everyone I can to help, said Babak Namazi, whose father, Baquer Namazi, 80, a former Unicef official, and brother, Siamak, 45, a businessman and advocate of stronger Iranian ties with the United States, are among the Americans languishing in prison.Every day that goes by, my concern for my father and Siamak increases, Mr. Namazi said this week in a telephone interview from Dubai, where he lives. He expressed particular anxiety about his father, who has a heart ailment, saying that an Iranian prison cell was no place for an aging old man.Last month, on the anniversary of the elder Mr. Namazis imprisonment, Unicef exhorted the Iranian authorities to release him. After a lifetime of humanitarian service, he has earned a peaceful retirement, a Unicef statement said.Mr. Trump has frequently railed against the nuclear agreement, describing it as a giveaway to Iran. He also vowed as a candidate to bring home Robert Levinson, an American who has been missing in Iran for 10 years.The Iranian authorities, who have claimed ignorance about Mr. Levinsons whereabouts, are holding at least four American citizens of Iranian descent and two permanent residents of the United States. No official talks are known to be underway about releasing them.But Mr. Trump has made clear that he will not pay what he says amounts to ransom, which the Obama administration was accused of doing after the Iranians released five Americans in January 2016, when the nuclear agreement entered into force.President Barack Obamas aides described the payment made to Iran, which totaled roughly $1.7 billion, as the coincidental settling of an old, unresolved debt, an explanation widely regarded by critics and even some administration supporters with cynicism.Their suspicions were reinforced when Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers were later quoted in Irans state press as having bragged about the payment. The boasting suggested that some powerful Iranians believed a precedent had been set to demand more money for further prisoner releases.Whatever Obama administration officials wish to call it, their de facto ransom payment has encouraged Iran to double down on efforts to target U.S. citizens traveling there, Saeed Ghasseminejad, an associate fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based group critical of the Iran nuclear deal, wrote in a recent policy brief. The Americans seized since the deal was completed, he wrote, are testament to that disconcerting trend.In a widely quoted Twitter message in October, after Siamak and Baquer Namazi were sentenced to 10 years in prison on unexplained charges of having aided a hostile foreign power meaning the United States Mr. Trump denounced Iran over what he called its demand for a fortune in prisoner exchanges.This doesnt happen if Im president, he stated.Irans use of American prisoners for negotiation leverage has been a recurrent theme in the four-decade history of its enmity with the United States. The prisoners released after the successful nuclear diplomacy were widely seen as pawns in that effort.It remains unclear precisely why Iran has continued what appears to be an arbitrary pattern of arresting Americans of Iranian descent, with no obvious evidence of wrongdoing. But many hard-line advocates of anti-American views in Iran, including Ayatollah Khamenei, see Iranian-Americans as particularly dangerous spreaders of seditious ideas.Other Americans known to be held in Iran are Karan Vafadari, 55, a Tehran art gallery owner, arrested in July along with his wife, Afarin Niasari, 44, an Iranian citizen with permanent United States residency status; and Robin Shahini, 46, a rights activist and San Diego State University graduate student, arrested in July while visiting his sick mother.What charges, if any, Mr. Vafadari and his wife face have not been disclosed. The couple have been described by friends, including foreign diplomats, as prominent in Irans artistic and cultural communities.Mr. Shahini was sentenced in October to 18 years in prison on charges similar to those in the case of the Namazi father and son, and is believed to be on a hunger strike.Iran also is holding Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen and internet freedom advocate with permanent United States residency status. He was arrested in 2015 and sentenced in September to 10 years in prison for spying. He also is believed to be on a hunger strike.ImageCredit...Ahmad Kiarostami/ReutersMr. Vafadaris sister, Kateh Vafadari, who lives in the Washington area, said nothing of the arrests for a few months. But on Dec. 1, she wrote to Ayatollah Khamenei, imploring him to intervene, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group. The center quoted the letter as saying Mr. Vafadari and his wife had been subjected to extortion, property seizure and national security threats.Babak Namazi, who called on Mr. Trump to help his family in an op-ed column published last Friday by The Washington Post, also visited the capital last week, meeting with representatives of the National Security Council and State Department. He said afterward, I think we heard the right things.Mr. Namazi and Jared Genser, a human rights lawyer representing the Namazis, who accompanied him, declined to specify what assurances, if any, they had received, or identify whom they had met.But Mr. Genser said a senior National Security Council official had indicated that the Trump administration was rapidly developing a broader Iran policy, of which the hostages would be a key part.National Security Council and State Department officials declined to comment on the meetings but reiterated that Americans held unjustly abroad must be released.Part of the challenge is that in Irans view, any American of Iranian descent it incarcerates is an Iranian citizen, not entitled to consular privileges given to foreigners.During the Obama administration, extensive diplomatic contacts were established with Iran, most notably between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. That relationship was important in the 2016 release of the five Americans four of them of Iranian descent.The Trump administration, by contrast, is not known to be cultivating such relations. Mr. Kerrys successor, Rex W. Tillerson, is still preoccupied with filling key posts.The continued inclusion of Iran among the six predominantly Muslim nations in Mr. Trumps revised visa ban has only aggravated matters, according to Iranian-American advocates. Iran, which has described the ban as insulting, has retaliated by prohibiting most American visitors.The problem is that no one has a clue about Trump administration policy, said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran. With the American prisoners in Iran, he said, there is limbo, really.

World

Dec. 7, 2015The advertising giant Interpublic Group of Companies is gaining a stronger foothold in Russia.In a deal that has been brewing for years, Interpublic has acquired three Russian creative agencies from ADV, its longtime partner in the country.Interpublic, which is based in New York, has done business in Russia for two decades through ADV, an advertising group that encompasses more than 40 agencies in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. But with the deal, Interpublic will now directly own advertising agencies in one of the top global markets.We have wanted to own these agencies for years, said Michael I. Roth, the chairman and chief executive of Interpublic. We have a number of global clients that operate in Russia that are very important, and its important for us to have a relationship with our clients in the markets they compete in.Interpublics clients in Russia include LOral and Unilever.The other top holding companies WPP, Omnicom Group and Publicis Groupe also conduct business in Russia.At the moment, relations between the United States and Russia are particularly fraught and the Russian economy is stumbling.Last year, Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, one of the worlds biggest ad holding companies, warned that the economic sanctions imposed on Russia could threaten the advertising companys profits there.Interpublics media agency, Magna Global, expects industrywide ad spending to decrease 12 percent in Russia this year, largely because of economic strain in the country, according to an annual forecast released on Monday. (The company estimates that the Russian market will account for 40 percent of the $19.3 billion in ad sales in central and Eastern Europe.) Ad spending in Russia will stabilize in 2016, Magna Global predicts.Despite the geopolitical and economic strain, Mr. Roth said that owning agencies in Russia made sense. Our clients are still there, and they still advertise and we need to do the work, he said. Frankly, if we werent there, our competitors would be doing the work.Ad holding companies have also been looking elsewhere for longer-term growth opportunities. Omnicom, for instance, announced in November that one of its divisions, DDB Worldwide, had acquired Grupo ABC, an advertising group in Brazil.With the deal, Interpublic gains a majority stake in the Russian affiliates of three of its most well-known global creative agencies McCann, Mullen Lowe and FCB. ADV shareholders will remain minority owners of the agencies. Financial terms were not disclosed, but a person familiar with the deal said it was valued at between $10 million and $20 million; Interpublic sets aside $150 million a year for acquisitions.The deal will give Interpublic control over talent and management decisions at the agencies and allow the company to record revenue from its Russian operations on its own books.ADV and the French advertising company Havas are also partners in Russia; that relationship will remain intact.

Business

StrategiesCredit...Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesDec. 11, 2015The price of gasoline just keeps dropping. A gallon of regular costs $2.01, on average, across the United States, and the motor club AAA says it is likely to plunge below $2 imminently. If you drive a car, as I do, gas that cheap is a thrill. It is an inducement to head out on the road.Yet if you worry about fuel emissions and climate change, as I also do, the downward spiral of gas prices is frightening. It is an incitement to burn fossil fuel when a great deal of evidence suggests that we should be taking strenuous measures to burn much less of it, as many nations of the world concluded at the conference on climate change in Paris this month.It is a conundrum for consumers with a conscience because cheap gas is, in many ways, a beautiful thing. The decline in gasoline prices, which has followed the global plunge in oil and other commodity prices, puts more money in peoples pockets during a stretch when many Americans need all the help they can get. The average household in the United States was on track to save about $700 on gasoline in 2015 compared with the previous year, the federal Energy Information Administration estimated in April. But gas prices have fallen more than anticipated, so the savings may turn out to have been even greater.There is a nastier side to low prices, though: A great deal of evidence suggests that they are bad for the environment. The economics is simple. Low gas prices encourage people to drive more, and to buy more gas-hungry vehicles. Put in a contrary way, high prices are a boon because they discourage driving and limit gasoline consumption.A White House report in June called Explaining the U.S. Petroleum Consumption Surprise said the transportation sector accounted for more than 80 percent of a surprising and beneficial decline in petroleum use in the United States over the last few years. While more rigorous fuel-economy standards have been an important factor, the biggest cause of the surprise has been a decline in driving: Declining vehicle miles traveled (VMT) has had a greater effect on consumption than rising fuel economy to date, the report said.In 2014, though, oil and gasoline prices began to fall sharply, and an all-too-familiar pattern has already begun to emerge.Recent data on new-vehicle purchases is revealing. Fuel economy for new cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles rose fairly steadily from 20.1 miles per gallon in October 2007 to 25.8 m.p.g. in August 2014, said Michael Sivak, research professor at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. Since then, based on Environmental Protection Agency ratings, fuel economy of the new-car fleet has reversed course, dropping to 25 m.p.g. in November, a decline of 0.8 m.p.g.That is a huge decline, Professor Sivak said. It reflects a marginal shift in current buying preferences, away from smaller, efficient cars and toward bigger light trucks and S.U.V.s.Whats more, he has found, while miles driven by the average motorist declined when prices were high and the economy was weak, that trend has also been reversed. In September, the most recent month available, the number of miles driven by the average motorist had climbed above the level of October 2007, when the University of Michigan began a monthly study of the data.While fuel efficiency and emissions for new vehicles are still substantially better than in 2007, both have begun to worsen.Because vehicles are typically used for many years, current purchases have only a gradual effect on the fuel efficiency of the overall vehicle fleet of new and old cars in the United States. But history shows that fuel efficiency responds to gas prices, among other factors. It is striking, for example, that actual on-road fuel efficiency of the average car declined to 13.4 m.p.g. in 1973 from 15.3 m.p.g. in 1936, according to a paper by Professor Sivak and a colleague at the University of Michigan, Brandon Schoettle.Most of the progress in fuel economy occurred after the oil embargo of 1973 and in the 1980s. Fuel economy rose to 21.2 m.p.g. by 1991, propelled partly by soaring prices and by Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which went into effect for the first time in 1978. After that swift progress, however, on-road fuel economy rose only modestly to 23.4 m.p.g. by 2013, the most recent figure available for the overall American car fleet. The data on fuel efficiency for newly purchased cars suggests that the gasoline price declines of recent months may slow down improvements in fuel economy for the overall fleet at the very moment when reducing dependence on fossil fuels may be becoming more urgent.To cut back on gasoline consumption, after all, the Obama administration has been counting on higher fuel economy standards, which are likely to be more palatable when fuel costs are high.One way of increasing the prices paid by consumers at the pump is to tax carbon emissions or, alternatively, to raise the tax on gasoline. These methods dont reward companies that extract and refine fossil fuel. Many economists favor such taxes. But a carbon tax, which the Obama administration has advocated but Congress has opposed, has failed to gain traction in the United States. And this month, Congress decided to hold the federal gasoline tax at 18.4 cents, the level at which it has been stuck since 1993. Still, as I pointed out in a column a year ago, a gasoline tax could be useful not only as an environmental measure but in rebuilding the nations roads and bridges.In a new paper, Stan A. Kaplowitz and Aaron M. McCright, sociologists at Michigan State University, analyzed public views on raising the gasoline tax. That wouldnt be a wildly popular move among voters, Professor Kaplowitz said in an interview, but it would be more acceptable under certain circumstances. Not surprisingly, imposing a smaller increase say, 20 cents a gallon would be more popular than a $1 increase, for example. And when people are told that the money is to be used for a concrete purpose for repairing transportation infrastructure, for example they respond more favorably than when the tax revenues are simply to go into the federal Treasury. A so-called revenue neutral tax, in which people are refunded gas tax money in paychecks or tax returns, would also be more favorably received.We found that a gas tax is salable if you tell people the reasons for doing it, he said. Raising taxes isnt popular, but this is not as hopeless as it might seem.The problem remains, however, that almost no one likes paying higher taxes, and even drivers who care about the environment really like low gasoline prices. I know I do. On a sunny day, when the traffic is light and gas is cheaper than its been in years, I want to get out on the road. Perhaps I should fight the impulse. It might be easier if the true cost of driving were reflected in the price at the pump.

Business

Health|Cardiovascular Deaths Linked to Poor Dietary Choiceshttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/health/number-of-cardiovascular-deaths-each-year-diet.htmlTake a NumberMarch 13, 2017Cardiovascular disease claims 610,000 lives in the United States each year. It is the leading cause of mortality nationwide, accounting for one in every four deaths.A new analysis, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that a substantial portion of these deaths could be prevented by healthier eating.In 2015, more than 400,000 deaths from cardiovascular causes were linked to unhealthy diets, according to the research, presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association last week in Portland, Ore.The biggest factors were a deficit of nuts and seeds, vegetables, whole grains and fruits, and an excess of salt. Diets low in omega-3 fatty acids, found in seafood, and high in trans-fat, processed meat or sugary beverages also played a role.Internationally and nationally, the focus is on the consumption of unhealthy foods, like sugar-sweetened beverages, said Ashkan Afshin, an acting assistant professor at the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and co-author of the study.But when it comes to the burden of disease, he added, some of the leading risk factors are not high intake of unhealthy foods, but low intake of healthy foods.The results suggest that an integrated approach to healthy eating is possible, said Linda Van Horn, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, who was not involved in the study.Typically, the higher the diet is in natural not processed plant-based foods, the lower the sodium intake is, she said. So by eating more of the favored foods, the detrimental intakes of sodium, as well as trans-fat and saturated fat and sugar, are lower.Low-quality diets contributed to the deaths of 222,100 men and 193,400 women, the new study estimated. Mens higher consumption of sodium is one driver of this difference, Dr. Afshin said. Over all, the results of the study were consistent with global patterns.

Health

Delta, as expected, is now the dominant virus variant in the U.S., the C.D.C. estimates.Credit...Elijah Nouvelage/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesPublished July 7, 2021Updated July 14, 2021The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is now the dominant variant in the United States, accounting for 51.7 percent of infections, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.As health officials had expected, the Delta variant has rapidly overtaken Alpha, the variant that spread through the United States this spring. Alpha, first detected in Britain, now makes up just 28.7 percent of infections, according to the C.D.C.Still, overall, the average numbers of new virus cases and deaths across the country, as well as hospitalizations, are significantly down from the devastating peaks during previous national surges.Delta was first detected in India. Research suggests that most vaccines still provide good protection against it and remain highly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.In England, for instance, where the variant now causes almost all infections, case numbers have risen sharply in recent weeks, but hospitalization rates have increased more slowly and remain low. Next week, a final decision will be made about whether to lift most remaining restrictions in England, including mask rules, on July 19.Studies suggest, however, that a single shot of a two-dose regimen provides only weak protection against Delta, and public health experts have been encouraging Americans to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible.As of Wednesday, 67.2 percent of adults in the United States have had at least one vaccine dose, and 58.4 percent are fully vaccinated.Still, vaccination coverage remains highly uneven, both in the United States and globally, and public health experts say Delta poses a serious threat to unvaccinated populations. On Tuesday, President Biden again urged Americans to get their shots, citing concerns about Delta. It sounds corny, but its a patriotic thing to do, he said.Health experts say the Biden administration may need to take more aggressive action to encourage vaccination, including urging employers and schools to adopt vaccine mandates. As of Wednesday, administering about 0.73 million doses per day on average, about a 78 percent decrease from the peak of 3.38 million reported on April 13, according to federal data.As for the virus itself, the country has been averaging fewer than 15,000 new coronavirus cases a day for nearly a month, the lowest levels since testing became widely available and a fraction of what was reported in January, when the nation routinely identified more than 200,000 cases in a day.In recent days, however, the average number of new cases has started to trend slightly upward nationally, driven largely by localized outbreaks in places with low vaccination rates, including parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Nevada.As the Delta variant has spreads across the globe, the World Health Organization recently reiterated its longstanding guidance that everyone, vaccinated or not, should wear masks as a precaution. In the United States, however, the C.D.C. has not changed its advice that those who are fully vaccinated can skip masks in most situations.U.S. health officials have suggested that the W.H.O.s blanket suggestion was informed by its global purview, since many countries have had far less access to vaccines than the United States.In New York City, efforts to monitor the spread of the virus have been scaled back, reflecting a steadily low caseload and a sense held by many that the virus is less of a wide threat. More than 51 percent of residents are fully vaccinated, according to city data, though large parts of the city still have lower rates. Coupled with concerns about Delta, some public health experts and elected officials are worried that the city may be pulling back on its surveillance measures too soon.On Tuesday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that the Biden administration was unlikely to impose new national mitigation measures, even if cases rise.The states are going to have to make evaluations and local communities are going to have to make evaluations about whats in their interests, she said.Mitch Smith and Sharon Otterman contributed reporting.

Health

March 3, 2017In many Canadian cities, winter provides a grim reminder of the civic shame of homelessness. Wherever theres a vent providing even tepid heat, homeless people often gather.Craig Smith looked into a program known as housing first which is addressing the problem in a number of those places. I asked him to share his thoughts on what he found during a recent trip to Medicine Hat, Alberta:ImageCredit...Aaron Vincent Elkaim for The New York TimesWhen I joined the team covering Canada, I knew very little about the country and started asking editors in New York for story ideas. One suggested going to a place with an interesting name Medicine Hat because she had read they had a plan to end homelessness.I was intrigued, particularly when I came across articles saying they had since reached their goal. But I was naturally skeptical. Like many stories that The Times looks into, the reality was more complex than the headlines portrayed. Ending homelessness, in this case, simply meant reaching a goal set in the citys plan connecting with homeless people within 10 days of their being identified, but not necessarily solving their problem. Plenty of homeless people turn up at shelters each night as more than 20 did on my first night in town.What struck me most was the homeless people themselves, or people experiencing homelessness, as social workers prefer to say, reminding us that homelessness is not an identity. All the people I spoke to were warm and funny, intelligent and articulate, despite any addictions or mental illnesses that may have led them to the street. They each had an interesting life story to tell filled with remarkable adventures, cherished memories, loves lost and tragedy endured. They were all very much like you and me.I regret that I didnt have space to tell all of that. Still, reporting the story opened a window on Canadas national homelessness-abatement plan, which experts say is the most comprehensive and coordinated in the world. Tip of the chapeau to Canada.ImageCredit...Kevin Hagen for The New York TimesTrail Barrier When I asked Canada Today readers last week about the ambitious plan of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York to link New York City by trail to two points along the Canadian border, many of you were swift to respond. The idea of cycling to New York clearly has great appeal.What a fantastic idea, Andy Canning wrote from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Cycle touring is seeing a resurgence right now and this trail is just the right thing to get people who may be somewhat nervous about riding the roadways out and exploring.Craig Brown, who lives in Toronto and has a condo in Manhattan, said the proposed Montreal to New York leg would be a trip of great scenic beauty and physical challenge. Even better would be to cycle from Toronto to New York. He added: Thanks for supporting an idea that links our two great nations rather than dividing them.There was, however, a common but in many of the replies from Canadian readers. A high percentage of them praised the idea of the trail, but said the current atmosphere on the border with the United States and the administration in Washington means they now have no interest in crossing it.Like many folks we know, we will NOT set foot in the U.S.A. until Trump is out of office, Julie Muir wrote from Barrie, Ontario. Too many Canadians are harassed at the border whether they look foreign (i.e. brown skinned) or not. People voicing displeasure with this administration when asked have been denied entry.Wayne Turiansky is originally from New York, but now lives in Montreal, where he organizes cycle tours as a volunteer for an outdoor activity group.Some months ago, I announced that this summers trip would be in the Finger Lakes area of New York, Mr. Turiansky wrote. Howls went up. Several of my regular riders told me most notably a close friend, a Moroccan-born Muslim that they would not cross the U.S. border until they felt safe doing so.Model Speaking to Congress this week, President Trump held up Canadas merit-based immigration system as a model for the United States. Catherine Porter looked into the system, however, and found that the common assumption that most newcomers are admitted to Canada because of their skills isnt accurate. She also discovered that the Canadian immigration system is also immensely complex.I teach this stuff and I find it confusing, Prof. Audrey Macklin, the director of the University of Torontos Center for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies told Ms. Porter. Its inherently confusing, plus it keeps changing.Downtime When the website of Canadas immigration department crashed as it was becoming apparent that Mr. Trump would be elected, there was a widespread assumption that it was caused by Americans looking for a new place to live. But that may not have been the case after all.Screen Time Watching, The Times guide to movie and television viewing, has produced another monthly guide for Netflix users in Canada.Fossilized A group of scientists announced in a paper this week they had found some fossilized bacteria on the northeastern edge of Hudson Bay in Quebec which could be more than four billion years old. If thats so, they would be the oldest evidence of life on earth. But Carl Zimmer reported that a number of other scientists are skeptical about the claim and some reject it outright.Identity The Montreal writer Martin Patriquin wrote in Opinion about the climate for Muslims in Quebec. He argues, that it does not serve them well. And in Sports, Mr. Patriquin offered his views on why coaches of the N.H.L.s Montreal Canadiens must speak the language of Molire and Daft Punk.Here are some articles from The Times over the last week, not necessarily related to Canada and perhaps overlooked, that I found interesting: Henry Rousso, a French historian who is one of the leading scholars on the Holocaust, was detained by United States border officials in Houston for more than 10 hours. My dismal performance last month at a local cross-country skiing loppet caused me to consider vying for the title of the worlds worst cross country skier. But it will be impossible to beat Adrian Solano who showed up at the Nordic world ski championships in Lahti, Finland, having never seen snow, let alone skied on it. If cars and trucks are going to drive themselves they will need incredibly detailed, extremely precise three-dimensional maps. Preservationists have been literally nosing around the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.

World

Credit...Jessica Kourkounis for The New York TimesNov. 14, 2016If you spend your days amid ancient clay tablets with one of the earliest forms of written language, the thought might occur to you: Wouldnt it be fun to bake your own tablets out of gingerbread for the office holiday party?It did to Katy Blanchard, 38, who is in charge of the Near Eastern collections at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The museum has one of the worlds largest collections of cuneiform tablets from early Mesopotamia, many of them written by ancient scribes who used a reed stylus to etch pictograms into clay.Ms. Blanchard, whose passions are archaeology and baking, used chopsticks, a fish knife and a gingerbread recipe that came packaged with a Coliseum-shaped cookie-cutter she once bought. Not only did her cuneiform cookies beguile her colleagues at the office party, they also gained some measure of internet renown after a Penn Museum publicist posted an article about how she made them. (Sample comment from the public: Mine will probably taste more like the Dead Sea Scrolls.)From there, cuneiform cookies started to become as the newspaper The Forward put it a thing. Bloggers were enthralled, including one who said she was taking a class in Hittite and opted to practice on shortbread. (The writing took a surprisingly long time, she observed.)The archaeo-culinary trend also exposed an odd subculture of people who are consumed with ancient languages, like the guy who uses the Twitter handle @DumbCuneiform and runs a business that will translate your tweets and texts into cuneiform characters and etch them in a hand-held tablet. (No, you cannot make this stuff up.)ImageCredit...Jessica Kourkounis for The New York TimesIt really struck the world in just the right nerdy place, said Ms. Blanchard, noting that a number of people, including home schooling parents, classroom teachers and scholars of ancient languages, had taken the idea and run with it.People have made some amazing tablets, much more complete and creative than mine, Ms. Blanchard said. Some people made full sentences. Mine just say, God, build, bird and sun.Cuneiform, which is pronounced cune-AY-uh-form and means wedge-shaped writing, was devised by the Sumerians more than 5,000 years ago and survived until about 79 or 80 A.D. It emerged at roughly the same time as early Egyptian writing, and served as the written form of ancient tongues like Akkadian and Sumerian, which thrived in what is now southern Iraq. Because cuneiform was written in clay (rather than, say, on papyrus) and important texts were baked for posterity, a good amount of it survives today.Schoolchildren who visit the Penn Museum get to try their hand. The deepest part of every symbol is the upper left, because thats where you start with your reed, and then you just swirl it around, Ms. Blanchard said.Ancient schoolchildren did the same thing, and some of their efforts are on view at the museum, written on hand-held practice tablets. Theres like a first-day tablet, where you can see someone practice the first wedge over and over and over again, like I practiced an A in school, Ms. Blanchard said.In a Babylonian classroom, she said, there would be a bucket in the middle of the room where students would toss their practice tablets for recycling. Those reusable tablets, she said, were like the original Etch A Sketch.Ms. Blanchards title at the museum is keeper, which involves caring for the artifacts in the Near Eastern collections and helping visiting researchers and scholars find the right items to advance their work. Its a combination of putting small things in boxes and knowing where jars of dirt came from, as she put it once in an interview. The cuneiform tablets are in the Babylonian collection, which is not in her purview, but they inspired her nonetheless.It was a holiday party several years ago that prompted Ms. Blanchard to contemplate the similarities between clay tablets and cookie dough. She has been making cuneiform cookies annually ever since, usually for the same holiday party. Last year, I tried to make a brownie ziggurat, modeled on an ancient temple, but it did not go over as well, she said.Although Ms. Blanchard surmises that shortbread might also be a good medium for cuneiform, it was the gingerbread that went viral, inspiring copycats online.Inspired by Ms. Blanchards cuneiform cookies, Esther Brownsmith, a Ph.D. student in the Bible and Near East program at Brandeis University who has been studying Akkadian for years, went all out: For a New Years party, she baked four tablets of gingerbread, each on a 13-by-18-inch pan, and copied part of the Enuma Elish, a seven-tablet Babylonian creation myth, onto them. A stunning step-by-step description of this feat has drawn thousands of likes on her Tumblr blog.Ms. Brownsmith said a friend emailed her a link to the Penn publicists article about Ms. Blanchards cookies. My first thought upon seeing her how-to was, Oh my God, this is completely brilliant and completely my thing, Ms. Brownsmith said in an email interview.Im a semiprofessional baker in my spare time, and Ive read everything out there about ancient Mesopotamian cooking, she said. I even baked historically accurate flatbread for my Akkadian classmates once.At the time, she was studying the Enuma Elish for an Akkadian exam, so the tablets she baked each of which took her about half an hour to inscribe counted as homework.At the party, nobody wanted to be the first person to break the tablet, Ms. Brownsmith said. Eventually, I had to break them up myself to get people eating.Now that she is teaching freshmen, Ms. Brownsmith has assigned (in English) one of the two best-known texts written in cuneiform: the Epic of Gilgamesh. (The other is the Code of Hammurabi.) Gilgamesh was a mighty king from the Mesopotamian city of Uruk, the name of which is thought to have morphed into Iraq. And Ms. Brownsmith has translated part of the epic into snacks.I like baking for my students, mostly to bribe them in to office hours, Ms. Brownsmith said. So cuneiform cookies seemed like a great way to feed them while also giving a tangible link to the subject of Gilgamesh.

science

Credit...Russell Contreras/Associated PressJune 14, 2018WASHINGTON An immigration bill pitched as a compromise between conservative and moderate Republicans would make sweeping changes to the United States immigration system while establishing a special visa program that would give young undocumented immigrants the chance to become citizens based on factors like employment and education.The draft bill, circulating among lawmakers on Thursday afternoon and up for a vote next week, closely adheres to President Trumps vision for an immigration overhaul. In addition to protecting the young immigrants, it provides billions of dollars for a wall on the southwest border while imposing new limits on legal immigration.The bill would also toughen rules for asylum seekers. And it would address the separation of children from parents under the Trump administrations crackdown on illegal border crossings by mandating that families be kept together while in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, according to a summary of the measure.In effect, the measure would offer Democrats and immigration moderates in the Republican Party a difficult choice: accept hard-line changes to much of the immigration system in exchange for protections for young undocumented immigrants and what appears to be a modification of the wrenching policy of splitting up families at the border.Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, tried Thursday to blame Democrats for the family-separation policy that the Trump administration started because Democrats have refused to accept the broader changes in immigration policy demanded by the president.The separation of illegal alien families is the product of the same legal loopholes that Democrats refuse to close, and these laws are the same that have been on the books for over a decade, she said.The proposed bill, the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018, grew out of weeks of negotiations between Republican conservatives and moderates.Were bringing legislation thats been carefully crafted and negotiated to the floor, Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said Thursday. We wont guarantee passage.And its passage is far from assured. Within hours of the drafts release, Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that it would urge lawmakers to vote against the measure, deriding it as amnesty.Immigration rights groups are almost certain to oppose it, as well. And Democrats, who were cut out of negotiations, will most likely oppose it.It is nothing more than a cruel codification of President Trumps anti-immigrant agenda that abandons our nations heritage as a beacon of hope and opportunity, said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader.In one sense, Mr. Ryan has already succeeded, having quashed a rebellion from moderate lawmakers who were attempting to use a parliamentary maneuver known as a discharge petition to force votes this month on immigration.Had the petition succeeded, the House would have considered and almost certainly passed a bipartisan measure that would pair a path to citizenship for the young undocumented immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, known as Dreamers, with enhanced border security.ImageCredit...Al Drago for The New York TimesBut the petition fell two signatures short of the number it needed and moderates lost much of their leverage.Mr. Ryan called the new immigration measure a very good compromise and said he hoped it would pass. But Democrats and other critics of the speaker said that the bill is destined to fail, and accused Mr. Ryan of putting it on the floor solely to give political cover to the moderates, many of them vulnerable in this falls midterm elections and facing demands from constituents to address the Dreamers fate.Hundreds of thousands Dreamers have been shielded from deportation by an Obama-era initiative known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which Mr. Trump moved last year to end.Under the proposed bill, Dreamers would be able to apply for a six-year renewable legal status, assuming that they meet certain criteria, including having been under 16 when they entered the United States.The new merit-based visa program would give them an avenue to obtain citizenship though the program would be open to others beyond Dreamers, a design that could make it less offensive to conservatives loath to approve any kind of special pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.Through the program, Dreamers would be able to obtain green cards, and, in turn, citizenship. The program would include a point system based on qualifications like education level, military service and employment.The draft bill also includes changes to the legal immigration system. It would eliminate the diversity visa lottery system, which is intended to bring in immigrants from underrepresented countries. It would also curb family-based immigration, eliminating the visa categories for married children of United States citizens and siblings of adult citizens.Such family-based migration is the cornerstone of the existing immigration system, but Mr. Trump has been pressing to move toward a system that favors educated professionals and skilled workers.The bill would beef up border security, providing funds for Mr. Trumps promised wall on the southern border with Mexico, while also including changes intended to strengthen immigration enforcement important provisions to conservatives and to the president.In an apparent effort to discourage lawmakers from rescinding funding for the wall in the future, the bill would tie the border-wall money to the issuance of visas under the merit-based program.Republicans, who said Thursday afternoon that they were digesting the 293-page document, seemed to have mixed views. A major question is whether conservatives, including members of the House Freedom Caucus, will support the legislation.Its going to legalize people who are illegally in America, said Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, who is known for his hard-line views on immigration. He said he would vote against the bill: Thats amnesty.But Representative Tom MacArthur of New Jersey, who considers himself a center-right Republican, said that he was encouraged by the draft and that the negotiations that produced it had been unifying for the Republican conference.Its forced all of the different perspectives to come together and talk about what really matters, Mr. MacArthur said.

Politics

Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFeb. 16, 2014SOCHI, Russia Gold. Silver. Bronze. Paper?Although every Olympic fan is well versed in the pageantry of the medal ceremonies for the athletes who place first, second and third in an event, few are familiar with the manner in which the International Olympic Committee is honoring the competitors who finish fourth through eighth at the Sochi Games.It is not with a hearty handshake and pat on the back. It is not, as some athletes suggested (presumably jokingly), with a swift kick to the rear end. Rather, the near-medalists and a few not-so-near-medalists receive a personally inscribed, autopen-signed, formal Olympic diploma.Its kind of like the one you get for participation, said Mercedes Nicoll, a Canadian snowboarder who finished sixth in the womens halfpipe competition at the Vancouver Games in 2010 and was given such a certificate. Its really nice. I mean, its not the same as medaling, of course. I know some athletes who win medals like to show them around to everyone, but I dont do that. Its a piece of paper. I think that would be kind of dorky.Nicoll, who added that she was surprised and touched when she received her diploma, is seemingly a rarity among athletes in that she knows about the diplomas at all. Most athletes and officials queried said they were aware of the various other certificates the I.O.C. distributes volunteers, committee officials and any athlete who makes a countrys Olympic team receive an embossed acknowledgment of their role in the Games yet admitted ignorance when it came to the diploma.Steven Holcomb, an American bobsledder, said he remembered almost everything about the four-man competition at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Holcomb, who piloted the United States sled to its first gold medal in 62 years, said the memory of the medal ceremony lingered gloriously.But what about his sixth-place finish in the two-man event at Vancouver? Or his sixth in the four-man in 2006? Does he have fond recollections of the diplomas he was awarded for being milliseconds away from earning the title of fifth-best bobsled driver in the world?I honestly dont even remember getting something like that, he said. Maybe they mailed it to me, and my mother has it? Or maybe they had the wrong address?This was a common refrain. Several athletes said that they never received a diploma or, if they did, that they had no idea where it was now. Others said they were handed the diploma by a member of their national organizing committee at some point after their competition was over. A few said they received the diplomas and appreciated the gesture, even if they did not totally understand it.Rachael Flatt, a figure skater who placed seventh for the United States at the 2010 Olympics, said she had no recollection of receiving a diploma and wondered whether the diploma initiative was something new at the Games. I wish they had done something similar for us, she said.In fact, despite the apparent delivery problems, diplomas have been awarded in some form or fashion since 1896, an I.O.C. spokeswoman said. At first, only the winners of each event received them. In 1923, the practice was expanded to include the top three finishers. The group grew in 1949 to include the top six and by 1981 to include the top eight.A lot of the athletes have no clue theyre getting them, said Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian. The I.O.C. sends diplomas to a lot of people. The Olympics has always loved protocol.Preparation of the diplomas is generally handled by a local printer who also works on other Olympic publications, like the newspaper distributed in the Olympic Village. The diplomas for medal winners have a gold-, silver- or bronze-hued background; the ones for fourth through eighth are plainer. All have signatures from the head of the local organizing committee as well as the president of the I.O.C.Some national organizing committees make a more elaborate presentation of the diplomas Nicoll said Canada had conducted small ceremonies in the past while others simply place the diplomas in an envelope with other papers that each athlete takes home.As with college diplomas, the value of earning one of these credentials is debatable. (One such diploma, though, was listed for $140 on eBay.) Shelley Rudman, a member of the British skeleton team, said she believed the diplomas were a generous reward and an incentive for countries that might not have realistic hopes of reaching the medal podium. Its something for them to chase, she said.The American skier Picabo Street, however, said she had mixed feelings about the diplomas. Yes, she said, they are a lovely gesture. But she added: If I finished out of the medals in a race, I didnt need a kind word and a piece of paper. I needed someone to get in my face and say, You skied terribly, so get back on the chairlift and go back up the mountain.Holcomb agreed and, channeling Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrells racecar driver character in Talladega Nights, said: Im here to medal. If youre fourth, you might as well be last.Both Holcomb and Street, who won a silver medal at the 1994 Games and a gold medal in 1998, allowed that their perspectives might be skewed by their success. But even those athletes who surprise with their diploma-winning performances do not necessarily seem to savor it the same way as one might a gold, silver or bronze effort.After all, Nicolls sixth-place snowboard finish at Vancouver was one of her countrys two best finishes in the halfpipe, and it was her best showing at an Olympics. Yet when asked last week where she displayed her diploma, Nicoll shrugged.Im pretty sure its in one of my filing drawers, she said. Do you think I should frame it?

Sports

AdvertisingDec. 13, 2015Like a polite guest at a dinner party, the advertising industry typically avoids bringing up religion. But there are some advertisers including Ram trucks and the smartphone accessories company Mophie that have made God or prayer a part of their campaigns, albeit very carefully.It is a high-risk, high-reward strategy, said John Hegarty, a founder of the Bartle Bogle Hegarty ad agency in London. If done right, it can inspire religious or spiritually minded consumers to act, but if done wrong, it can alienate an audience, he said.McDonalds combined messages like God protect the U.S.A. and God gave us a miracle with those like We remember 9/11 in a 60-second television commercial early this year. During Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, Ram trucks connected religion to pickup trucks in a spot that used the slogan So God made a farmer.With a voice-over by Paul Harvey, the two-minute Ram trucks commercial by the Richards Group, an ad agency based in Dallas, was viewed 18 million times in 10 days.The best part was the outpouring of heartfelt thanks and appreciation from real farmers and their families, said Marissa Hunter, head of Ram advertising at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.To hear people say that we did an honest and pure job of capturing the essence of who they are is a very high compliment, said Ms. Hunter, who named her puppy Farmer after the spot.Currently, the Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota is appearing in ads for Saint Thomas Health, a chain of Catholic hospitals in Tennessee. In one spot, Mr. Mariota taps his heart three times for his mother, father and brother then points to the heavens to give thanks. The tag line, Nothing shall be impossible, is a quotation from the Gospel of Luke.A small number of consumers were offended by the overt Christian symbolism, said Shari Day, chief executive of Bohan Advertising, which created the spot, but they were outnumbered by consumers who praised the faith-based ads. A member of the team working on the campaign came up with the tag line after hearing a sermon in church, Ms. Day said.Some campaigns are much more subtle. Mr. Hegarty and Bartle Bogle Hegarty recently collaborated with the director Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually) on an animated ad for Project Everyone an effort to fight poverty, inequality and climate change that aired in movie theaters around the world.The actor Liam Neeson provides a voice-over in the commercial, and though external communications about the ad refer to Mr. Neeson as the voice of God, there is no reference to that or religion in the spot.He has a lovely tone of voice that carries authority, Mr. Hegarty said of Mr. Neeson. Its a weird thing that some people have. Its godlike in its execution and deliverance.What is a riskier creative strategy? Trying to use God for laughs. Mophie aired its apocalyptic but humorous All-Powerless commercial during NBCs broadcast of Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1.The Mophie spot, by the ad agency Deutsch, shows snowstorms in Africa, burning bushes and dogs walking humans. The reason for the chaos is that Gods smartphone battery has run out of power.Gosh darn it, says the actor who represents God. The tag line: When your phone dies, God knows what can happen.Mike Sheldon, chief executive of Deutsch North America, says the spot works because it is more about how people feel when their phones die, as if the world is ending, than it is about theology.Mophies Super Bowl spot was shared, liked or mentioned 41 million times across social media. The commercial has been viewed more than 5.7 million times on YouTube.Hes the only endorser you can find with 100 percent awareness and no cost for the talent, Mr. Sheldon said of God. Theres no clearance, no network issues. You just have to believe that God, like the rest of us, uses a smartphone to run his life.But commercials perceived as blasphemous can face a fierce reaction.The energy-drink maker Red Bull was forced to stop running an animated commercial in 2012 after heavy criticism. The ad, which aired in South Africa, portrayed Jesus explaining that there was nothing miraculous about him walking on water; he was stepping across hidden stones. But then he trips and gets wet. Oh, Jesus, he says. Authorities in Brazil threatened to ban the ad.We did not set out to offend anyone with it, said Patrice Radden, a Red Bull spokeswoman. However, having heard the response to it, we very quickly accepted that this was the unintended consequence, apologized and immediately replaced it with another advertisement. She added that the commercial never made it to the United States market.According to a study by the Pew Research Center, the number of Americans who identified as atheist or agnostic rose to 23 percent in 2014 from 16 percent in 2007. Still, some marketers like Ms. Day, of Bohan, say they think many people still yearn for some sort of spiritual connection. But whether they want that connection to come from an advertisement is another question entirely.There are moments in time when brands really do need to stand back and be very, very careful about how theyre trying to impose themselves or get in on a conversation, Mr. Hegarty said.

Business

This new group can do all the fancy footwork it wants, but Chinas not going to cooperate, one expert said.Credit...Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesOct. 12, 2021The position is unpaid. The worlds scientists and internet sleuths will scrutinize every move. Completing the first assignment with the available tools, and to everyones satisfaction, will be nearly impossible.Despite those considerable obstacles, more than 700 people have applied for spots on a new committee charged with breathing life into the World Health Organizations stalled inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.The committee, expected to be announced this week, represents an attempt by the embattled global health body to reset its approach to determining how the pandemic began. Nine months after sending a team of international experts to China, only for its findings to become entangled in geopolitics and trailed by concerns over Beijings influence, the W.H.O. is trying to inoculate its latest efforts from the slightest hints of undue deference toward China.Its new advisory team will include specialists in fields like laboratory safety and biosecurity, a step that analysts say may help placate Western governments pressing for consideration of whether the virus emerged from a lab. And, crucially, the committee will have a mandate to weigh in on the emergence of any new pathogens beyond this novel coronavirus, giving it a permanence that could help insulate it from political squabbling and strengthen the W.H.O.s hand for future outbreaks.Maria Van Kerkhove, the W.H.O.s Covid-19 technical lead, said the group comprising some two dozen virologists, geneticists, animal experts and safety and security specialists would help the organization return to its roots amid the rancor and partisanship of the coronavirus origins debate.Especially in light of the politicization of this particular aspect, she said in an interview, we want to take this back to the science, take this back to our mandate as an organization to bring together the worlds best minds to outline what needs to be done.What most needs doing in the hunt for Covids origins, many scientists believe, is something that the new advisory group will be powerless to achieve: persuading China to release evidence about the first infections and to let researchers inspect virology labs, bat caves and wildlife farms within its borders.China has reacted angrily to the idea that the virus may have emerged from a lab, pushing instead for investigations into early cases in other countries, like Italy, or into American research facilities.This new group can do all the fancy footwork it wants, but Chinas not going to cooperate, said David Fidler, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, a research institute. For them, all of this continues to look like an attack on Chinas response to the pandemic, and there its a zero-sum game.ImageCredit...Martial Trezzini/Keystone, via Associated PressSince the beginning of the pandemic, the W.H.O. has been caught in the middle of a tug of war between China and the United States first over Chinas response in the early days of the pandemic, and more recently over the question of how the virus emerged.Even as China has resisted deeper studies of the viruss origins, the Biden administration has pressed the W.H.O. for a renewed investigation. The State Department pointedly questioned the results of a joint study by the W.H.O.-chosen scientists and Chinese researchers from March that said a leak of the coronavirus from a lab, while possible, was extremely unlikely.That W.H.O. team, too, struggled to coax the data it needed from Chinese scientists. Members of the team, which has been disbanded, warned in August that time was running out to recover crucial evidence about the beginning of the pandemic. But it is unclear whether China has taken up the teams recommendations for future studies, including analyzing blood banks for evidence of early coronavirus infections, testing workers on wildlife farms and assessing wild bats and farmed animals for signs of exposure.Some scientists have said that studies of Chinese animal markets, and of bats harboring close relatives of the virus behind Covid-19, have strengthened their belief that the coronavirus spilled naturally from animals into humans.The W.H.O. has said that Chinese researchers were conducting new studies but that it had not been kept abreast of any findings. I dont have any detail on what was done, or is being done, Dr. Van Kerkhove said of the Chinese research.President Xi Jinping said last month that China would support science-based origins tracing, but would oppose political maneuvering in whatever form.ImageCredit...Thomas Peter/ReutersThe new committee, known as the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, will differ in several respects from the team that the W.H.O. sent to China. Because that team visited Wuhan, China had considerable influence over its membership. That is not the case for the new committee, a permanent panel that Dr. Van Kerkhove said would begin with frequent, closed-door meetings on the coronavirus.In soliciting applications, the W.H.O. asked potential committee members for a statement about any conflicts of interest, in addition to a cover letter and rsum. That appeared to be an attempt to head off critics who complained that a member of the previous team, Peter Daszak, an animal disease specialist, was too closely tied to a Wuhan virology institute at the center of lab leak theories to offer a dispassionate assessment. Dr. Daszak has said that his expertise on China and coronaviruses made him well-suited to participate in the earlier trip.Conflicts of interest of members of the last group put a huge cloud over the head of the World Health Organization, said Lawrence Gostin, who directs the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. Of the new advisory group, he added: Its a committee with a proper charge, and a proper global mandate none of that happened before.For the W.H.O., Professor Gostin said, the new committee serves several purposes. In choosing a larger group reflecting a wider range of expertise and geographic regions, the organization can try to amass widespread international support for its work and underscore Chinas intransigence, he said.Crucially, forming the new group could also help shore up the W.H.O.s standing with its key Western backers, none more important than the United States. Despite the agencys attempt to act deferentially toward China during the pandemic, Professor Gostin said, China had repeatedly stonewalled the organization and concealed crucial information.Now, he said, the organization needed to pay heed to the desires of Europe and the United States not least because Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O. director-general, is counting on their support as he seeks re-election in May.ImageCredit...Christopher Black/World Health Organization, via Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesIt was one thing to lose America under Donald Trump, where there was a great deal of sympathy for the W.H.O., Professor Gostin said. Its quite another thing to do it with President Biden, who is an internationalist and who does support the W.H.O.Despite the eventual avalanche of applications, recruiting for the new committee was no simple task. In some cases, scientists rebuffed the W.H.O.s pleas to apply.We did have some people say to us, No, we really dont want to get engaged, because its just too politicized, Dr. Van Kerkhove said.The composition of the committee remains under tight wraps. Members of the W.H.O. team that traveled to Wuhan were allowed to apply. Dr. Van Kerkhove declined to say whether any Chinese scientists would be selected. She said that some countries had nominated participants, but that the internal W.H.O. selection group had not taken countries backing into account.She said the new committee would meet for the first time roughly two weeks after it is named, following a public comment period that is standard for the global health bodys advisory groups.It will be a relief to have the first couple of meetings, Dr. Van Kerkhove said. But, you know, any time I feel like Ive reached some kind of finish line, its really just a start.

Health

Baseball|Hank Aaron Has Hip Surgeryhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/sports/baseball/hank-aaron-has-hip-surgery.htmlAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySports Briefing | BaseballBy The Associated PressFeb. 15, 2014The Hall of Famer Hank Aaron is recovering from a partial left hip replacement. The Atlanta Braves said Aaron, 80, fell on ice Friday and had the procedure later in the day. AdvertisementContinue reading the main story

Sports

Inside the RingsCredit...Josh Haner/The New York TimesFeb. 19, 2014SOCHI, Russia Go right ahead with Olympic business as usual and keep obsessing over the jumps as the women compete in the final figure skating event of these Games.Sure, the jumps are where the risk and reward remain the highest, and also the inevitable focus of the television commentary.This is a jumping sport, the coach David Glynn said. If you dont have the jumps, you are nothing.But as the lutzes, salchows and points pile up, take a moment or more to savor something else in this year in which Yulia Lipnitskaya of Russia has joined the Olympic fray at age 15 and redefined the possibilities of a more subtle and frankly more beautiful skill.I think people who havent seen her will be more impressed with her spins than her jumps, said Tracy Wilson, the former Canadian ice dancer, who is now an analyst. Many who have seen Lipnitskaya feel the same way and it was certainly the case on Wednesday when she fell on a triple flip and ended up fifth in the short program. Even her low-altitude double axel seems more spin than jump, considering the two and a half rotations she has to pack into very little airtime.While jumps look like sport, spins look more like art. While jumps provide the suspense, spins provide the scenery, but there is so much more to the scenery than most viewers have time or means to grasp.A womens short program lasts a maximum of 2 minutes 50 seconds; a long program a maximum of 4:10. If commentators like Wilson and the former Olympic mens champion Scott Hamilton used those limited television windows to break down the intricacies of each spin, there would be too much chatter.People would say, Shut your mouth, we want to watch the skating, Hamilton said. The spins are extremely important, and they can make the difference, but they are hard to really discuss because there is so much going on. If I told an audience, Right there! That change of edge! they are going to go, I dont see a change of edge.I think when people are watching, they are really looking at the overall impression of the performance.ImageCredit...Chester Higgins Jr./The New York TimesYet the spins play a major role in that impression. They can also prove decisive. While it is true that a womens free program usually features seven jumps and just three spins, it is also true that a combination spin of the highest quality can give a skater 5 points roughly equivalent to a clean triple loop, according to NBCs performance analyst Patricia Chafe.Many skaters use spins as breathing points or transitions to bigger things. Lipnitskaya uses them as strategically positioned showpieces, finishing both her programs with her soon-to-be-signature upright split spin in which her raised left leg rests against her cheek as she turns into a blur.They are well aware of what they have, Wilson said of Lipnitskayas team.So is the competition.She is very good, said Frank Carroll, the veteran American coach of Gracie Gold. Very good and very limber.It should come as no surprise then that Lipnitskaya is a former rhythmic gymnast. There have been other elastic skaters in recent years. Sasha Cohen of the United States popularized the I-spin, a slightly less radical version of Lipnitskayas leg-grabbing, attention-grabbing upright spin.But no great skater in recent years has managed to produce the same tightly wrapped package of great rotational speed and stability from such extreme positions.Other contortionist wonders competed farther back on the timeline. Lucinda Ruh, a globe-trotter who grew up in Japan and represented Switzerland, is on nearly every short list of extraordinary spinners. So is the American Ronnie Robertson, who won a silver medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina dAmpezzo, Italy.Hamilton said Robertson, who died in 2000, would spin so fast that he would break blood vessels in his hands. Ruh, a limited jumper, never finished better than 13th at the world championships before she left Olympic-eligible skating in 1999 and focused on exhibitions and tours. But her renown in the skating community still far exceeds her results.Phenomenal spinner, Hamilton said. She and Ronnie would find that part of the blade that had no friction with the ice, and they would spin at the same speed forever. It just seemed like it would never end, and they could change positions and then recrank the spin and make it happen again.Ruh said her uncommon skill became her identity and her refuge. For me it was like a trance, she said in an interview from New York, where she now lives. I would go into it and wouldnt even feel like I was spinning because I was spinning so fast. It was a beautiful experience.But Ruh, now 34, said she paid a heavy price for her virtuosity, claiming that she suffered from chronic dizziness and nausea after her Olympic-eligible career and regularly blacked out during practices or in hotel rooms.She said doctors diagnosed miniconcussions that were probably linked to spinning and the forces generated, for example, when she threw herself into a layback spin.It was very frightening for three or four years, she said. Spinning was a blessing and a curse, like people who win the lottery and then spend it all and end up homeless.ImageCredit...Tom Hauck/Getty ImagesRuh wants to raise awareness but does say that the extraordinary rotational speeds she could sustain and the huge number of hours she logged sustaining them could have contributed to the severity of her problems. She says that she no longer spins or skates professionally and that her symptoms have largely improved, but she has coached the spins, working recently with the Frenchman Brian Joubert.There are a number of prominent spin doctors, coaches who specialize in the craft. Ruh said she believed many of them were ineffective, and she said she saw no true successor among todays skaters, though she does appreciate Lipnitskayas speed and flexibility.That seems the least Ruh can do, but the twist is that as Lipnitskayas spins are bringing that skill back to the forefront, the consensus in the sport is that the spins are in the midst of an identity crisis.The culprit, as usual, is the new international judging system, which is no longer so new. When it was begun in 2004, one of its objectives beyond rebooting the sport after the 2002 Olympic judging scandal was to give greater prominence and value to spins.But some coaches think that the emphasis on technical difficulty, variations and position changes have marred their elegant simplicity. Others feel that Level 4 status is presented too easily and that more tiers would separate the real spinners from the pretenders.The new judging system was the brainchild of the quantitatively inclined former speedskater Ottavio Cinquanta, who was and remains president of skatings international governing body. The system has defined what was once thought ineffable: awarding spins a level of 1 to 4 for difficulty and then grading them for execution.In the I.J.S., the skaters are required to do so many positions to get up to a Level 4, said Glynn, coach of the American Polina Edmunds, a 15-year-old making her own Olympic debut here. Whereas back in the old days you could do a really nice classic layback position and hold it, and sometimes thats prettier than seeing a skater that maybe is trying to do too much. Or even worse, a skater who doesnt have the ability to do all those positions but is trying them anyway.There are indeed too many awkward transitions in combination spins today, as well as a surplus of skaters who struggle to sustain speed on their way to the eight revolutions they are compelled to complete in certain positions.Great spinning is turning on the ice, frictionless, spinning fast and making a blur and being able to rotate like a bat out of hell so you basically become invisible, Carroll said. And thats all lost because people are hiking their leg up behind their head and pushing this and doing that, and the spin quality is slow, and they are doing different positions and strange positions.Carroll, like others, wants revisions, which sounds like the right idea, but he says he is not at all sure he will get them.Youre asking someone who has to live with the I.J.S. system, oh my God, who knows what theyre going to do? he said. They may say theres no more spinning, that spinning isnt hard. You have no idea.Anyone who watches Lipnitskaya will have a pretty good idea, however. And anyone who watches her can never walk away thinking that figure skating is all about the jumps.

Sports

on techA toy company finds that selling goods on Amazon is both key to its success and super fraught.Credit...Jos QuintanarJan. 27, 2021This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.Molson Hart, who runs an educational toy company in Texas, wouldnt be as successful as he is without Amazon bringing the worlds shoppers to his doorstep.But hes also frustrated that the company takes so much in return and that hes so dependent on Amazon with its complex, ever-changing decisions.My recent discussions with Hart offered a glimpse at the often complicated feelings of those who run the companies that fill Amazons Everything Store. It felt as if he were describing a mostly loving but sometimes maddening relationship with a domineering partner.One business isnt representative of the millions of product sellers on Amazon, but Hart echoed frustrations that other merchants have expressed. I found our conversation a useful look at how a business organizes itself around Amazon and obsesses over it.What happens to merchants like Harts Viahart has implications not only for what we buy and how much we pay but also for the health of the American economy.The attraction of AmazonI got in touch with Hart after I read his recent blog post (and a clarification) summarizing 2020 sales for Viahart, which started 10 years ago mostly selling toys in stores. Hart says that Viaharts sales have grown from $2,000 in its first year to $7.4 million in 2020, and most of the recent growth was from Amazon. Viahart also operates its own website and sells toys on Walmart.com, eBay and other places. But 93 percent of Viaharts sales last year were on Amazon, Hart said.You know why. Amazon is by far Americas biggest digital mall. By selling there, Viahart doesnt have to hunt for customers on its own.Viaharts figures also show that people on Amazon are far more likely to buy, not just browse, compared with shoppers on the toy companys own website. Hart said that he assumes Amazon Prime members are conditioned to buy and know they will usually get an order fast with no additional delivery fees.A complicated relationshipBut as much as Amazon has been his lifeblood, Hart has mixed feelings.Its enormously frustrating to be tied to a company that makes decisions sometimes on a whim that may be unfair or we have no control over, Hart told me. But I cant complain. I mean, I do complain, but it is what it is.One of the more eye-opening details to me was how much it costs Viahart to sell on Amazon.According to Harts figures, for every $100 worth of products that Viahart sold last year on Amazon, his company on average kept $48.25. He says that its far more expensive to sell on Amazon than on Walmarts website or eBay. The cut that Viahart pays Amazon has generally increased each year, Hart says, although it declined in 2020.Amazons commission on sales about 15 percent is roughly the same as that of other shopping sites, like Walmart. Hart says that the costs pile on for additional services like paying Amazon to store toys in its warehouses and shipping products from there. Merchants dont have to use Amazons warehouses or shipping, but the company creates major advantages for doing so.Advertising on Amazon is optional, but like many merchants Hart says that he feels compelled to buy ads that increase Viaharts chances of being seen.When merchants like Hart pay Amazon or Walmart more, that often means they have to raise product prices on their customers.An Amazon spokesperson said that the company offers many optional services for merchants, making Amazon less expensive for the value it offers compared to other retail marketplaces.An ever-changing storeHart also said that he operates at the whims of Amazons computer-aided recommendations, for good and bad. Around Halloween last year, Viahart experienced a big sales boost when Amazon recommended one of its stuffed tiger toys to people buying costumes related to the Tiger King Netflix series.But a few days ago, Hart was frustrated that searches for Viaharts Brain Flakes product showed the Amazon Choice label on a similar toy from a competitor that Viahart has sued for trademark infringement. (After he tweeted about it and I asked Amazon for comment, the label disappeared. On Tuesday, there was an Amazons Choice label on the Brain Flakes product.)Hart said people shouldnt feel sorry for his fast-growing toy business, but he wanted to draw attention to some of the downsides of e-commerce. I asked him if he would pay just about anything to sell on Amazon. He answered yes. That is the unfortunate reality of selling toys, he said.If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.Before we go The GARAGE DOOR OPENER is tracking you? My colleague Brian X. Chen wrote a helpful assessment of the new data collection labels for iPhone apps. And, yes, his garage door app is collecting personal information to sell ads.Microsoft made a gazillion dollars. Again. Karen Weise digs into how the companys products, including video games and cloud computing for businesses, were ideally suited to make $$$ during a pandemic.Yes, there are so many streaming video services: Take the Verge quiz: Is Ovid a real streaming service? How about Xumo? Or Acorn?Hugs to thisHappy birthday to a very large 4-year-old. Fiona the hippo celebrated with a tiered cake made with jiggly frozen fruit.We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at [email protected] you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.

Tech

Credit...William Widmer for The New York TimesMarch 9, 2016In the anguishing wait for a new kidney, tens of thousands of patients on waiting lists may never find a match because their immune systems will reject almost any transplanted organ. Now, in a large national study that experts are calling revolutionary, researchers have found a way to get them the desperately needed procedure.In the new study, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, doctors successfully altered patients immune systems to allow them to accept kidneys from incompatible donors. Significantly more of those patients were still alive after eight years than patients who had remained on waiting lists or received a kidney transplanted from a deceased donor.The method, known as desensitization, has the potential to save many lives, said Dr. Jeffery Berns, a kidney specialist at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine and the president of the National Kidney Foundation.It could slash the wait times for thousands of people and for some, like Clint Smith, a 56-year-old lawyer in New Orleans, mean the difference between receiving a transplant and spending the rest of their lives on dialysis.The procedure, Mr. Smith said, changed my life.Researchers estimate about half of the 100,000 people in the United States on waiting lists for a kidney transplant have antibodies that will attack a transplanted organ, and about 20 percent are so sensitive that finding a compatible organ is all but impossible. In addition, said Dr. Dorry Segev, the lead author of the new study and a transplant surgeon at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, an unknown number of people with kidney failure simply give up on the waiting lists after learning that their bodies would reject just about any organ. Instead, they resign themselves to dialysis, a difficult and draining procedure that can pretty much take over a persons life.Desensitization involves first filtering the antibodies out of a patients blood. The patient is then given an infusion of other antibodies to provide some protection while the immune system regenerates its own antibodies. For some reason exactly why is not known the persons regenerated antibodies are less likely to attack the new organ, Dr. Segev said. But if the persons regenerated natural antibodies are still a concern, the patient is treated with drugs that destroy any white blood cells that might make antibodies that would attack the new kidney.The process is expensive, costing $30,000, and uses drugs not approved for this purpose. The transplant costs about $100,000. But kidney specialists argue that desensitization is cheaper in the long run than dialysis, which costs $70,000 a year for life.Although by far the biggest use of desensitization would be for kidney transplants, the process might be suitable for living-donor transplants of livers and lungs, researchers said. The liver is less sensitive to antibodies so there is less need for desensitization, but its certainly possible if there are known incompatibilities, Dr. Segev said. With lungs, he said, desensitization is theoretically possible, although he said he was not aware of anyone doing it yet.In the new study, 1,025 patients at 22 medical centers who had an incompatible donor were compared to an equal number of patients who remained on waiting lists for an organ or who had an organ from a deceased but compatible donor. After eight years, 76.5 percent of those who received an incompatible kidney were still alive, compared with 62.9 percent who remained on the waiting list or received a deceased donor kidney and 43.9 percent who remained on the waiting list but never got a transplant.The desensitization procedure takes time for some patients as long as two weeks and is performed before the transplant operation, so patients must have a living donor. It is not known how many have someone willing to donate a kidney, but doctors say they often see situations in which a relative or even a friend is willing to donate but is incompatible.Often patients are told that their living donor is incompatible, so they are stuck on waiting lists, for a deceased donor, Dr. Segev said.In recent years, an option called a kidney exchange has helped some in this situation. Patients who have incompatible living donors can swap donors with someone whose donor may be compatible with them. Often, there are chains of patient-donor pairs leading to a compatible organ swap.That process can be successful, said Dr. Krista L. Lentine, the medical director of the living donation program at the Saint Louis Center for Transplantation, but patients often still cannot find a compatible organ because they have antibodies that would reject almost every kidney. In those cases, desensitization may be the only realistic option for receiving a transplant, said Dr. Lentine, who was not involved with the study.Dr. Jeffrey Campsen, a transplant surgeon at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center who also was not a study investigator, said his group focused on exchanges and had been fairly successful. But he also comes across patients whose donors do not want to participate. There is a hurdle if the donor and patient have an emotional bond, he said.The new data showing the success of desensitization lets people get behind it, Dr. Campsen said, adding, I do think it is something we would consider.Mr. Smith, the New Orleans patient who went through desensitization, had progressive kidney disease that slowly scarred his kidneys until, in 2004, they stopped functioning. His sister-in-law, Allison Sutton, donated a kidney to him, and he had a transplant, but after six and a half years, it failed. He went on dialysis, spending four days a week hooked up to dialysis machines for hours. It was keeping him alive, he told his friends, but it was not a life.Then a nurse suggested that he ask Johns Hopkins about its desensitization study. I was like, whatever I could do, he said. He discovered that he qualified for the study. But he needed a donor.One day, his wife, Sheryl Smith, was talking on the phone to a college friend, Angela Watkins, who lives in Augusta, Ga., and mentioned that Mr. Smith was praying for a donor. Mrs. Watkinss husband, David Watkins, a judge in state court, had been friends with Mr. Smith in college and the two wives, also college friends, had kept in touch over the years.Mrs. Watkins told her husband about the conversation, and they asked themselves if they should offer to donate.We talked and researched and prayed, Judge Watkins said. Finally, he said, they came to a conclusion. We have a moral obligation to at least see if we would qualify. And he thought that he should be the one to go first. If he did not qualify, his wife could be tested.Mr. Smith warned his old friend that donating was an enormous undertaking. He said, You cant grasp what you are doing. I heard him but it didnt register, Judge Watkins said. I told him, I have something you need, so whats the big deal? Of course, it was a big deal. Although Judge Watkins had prepared by getting himself in top physical shape, it still took about six months to recover from the operation.That was four years ago, and Mr. Smiths new kidney is still functioning and he is back to his active life, forever grateful to his friend.Every night, he says, during my nightly prayers with my wife, I thank God for bringing David and Allison to me and for giving me the gift of life.But for David giving me this gift, I would still be in that dialysis chair.

Health

Credit...Alex Edelman/Getty ImagesJune 14, 2018WASHINGTON It was the first play of the congressional baseball game on Thursday at Nationals Park, and one of their own had been forced out at first. Still, the Democrats were on their feet cheering.In a moment that simply could not be made up, Representative Raul Ruiz, Democrat of California, sent a grounder to the right side of the infield that was tracked down by none other than Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana.The significance of the play was not lost on the elated crowd: Exactly one year ago, a gunman had opened fire on the Republican congressional team during its practice in Alexandria, Va., wounding four people, including Mr. Scalise.Mr. Scalise, who suffered severe bleeding and damage to his organs, walked onto the field on Thursday night with a crutch. He was stepping in for Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas, as the starting second baseman.ImageCredit...Alex Edelman/Getty ImagesHe should feel demoralized that a guy that was literally in the hospital having surgeries about six weeks ago beat him out for the starting gig, Mr. Scalise, whose movement is still limited, said minutes before the game began.As Mr. Scalise recorded the first out, the crowd, which had earlier in the evening paid tribute to him, leapt to its feet and roared with respect. It was a brief but welcome moment of bipartisanship, the kind this tradition is intended to evoke.Were feeling on top of the world, said Representative Barry Loudermilk, Republican of Georgia, who was on the field last year during the shooting.Although the political atmosphere in Washington is increasingly fractious and partisan, the grand stage of Nationals Park allowed for the emergence of across-the-aisle gentility.Case in point: When a fan sitting near the Democrats dugout called out to Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, to ask him to sign his program, Mr. Brooks was happy to oblige.ImageCredit...Cliff Owen/Associated PressThere you go; you can use it as a dart board now, Mr. Brooks joked.In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, some thought, or maybe just hoped, that the trauma could give way to lasting unity and empathy that the experience of living through an event that has become as quintessentially American as the pastime they were reveling in could change the political climate of Washington.Those hopes did not last long.Facing uncertain prospects in this falls midterm elections, congressional Republicans have retired in droves; nearly one in four players on the baseball team will not seek re-election.What did Mr. Scalise think about the exodus of his colleagues?I say we go and recruit some really good conservatives, he said, mentioning the former major-league pitcher Curt Schilling. Strengthen our numbers and have the ability to pass more good bills on the floor.But on Thursday, hometown jerseys and game faces donned, the players showed little interest in talking politics.Representative Ryan A. Costello, Republican of Pennsylvania, said that while the terror and surrealness of last years shooting had largely washed off, the games political relevance was largely overstated.ImageCredit...Cliff Owen/Associated PressWe impute a lot of importance to it because theres pride, and we get to pretend were 15 years old again, Mr. Costello said.But the Democrats won, 21-5.You know you still got to go and compete, right? Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, said when asked how much a win would have meant to Republicans. And hopefully this will translate into the elections for us.Over the clatter of bats, more than 16,000 spectators cheered and jeered as they watched their legislators sprint and tumble across the field in the charity event. It was a typical Washington crowd: The sea of attendees dressed in blue and red was studded with suits and interns straight off Capitol Hill.But for Mr. Brooks who was on the receiving end of Mr. Scalises throw and most likely the rest of the crowd, the image that will stand out this year, and for years to come, is of Mr. Scalise fielding that first ground ball just a few minutes before he retired from the game to a standing ovation.It could not have been scripted by Hollywood, Mr. Brooks said.

Politics

Whatever effect warm weather has on the coronavirus, it wont be enough to safely drop social restrictions.Credit...Sarah Silbiger/Getty ImagesMay 8, 2020Everybody hopes for seasonality when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, Peter Juni of the University of Toronto acknowledged. Maybe, just maybe, the summer will diminish the spread of Covid-19.But a new study, by Dr. Juni, an epidemiologist, and his colleagues in Canada and Switzerland, offers very little encouragement for warm-weather worshipers. In countries around the world, his research found, variations in heat and humidity had little to no effect on the spread of the pandemic. Differences in how the disease spread were instead strongly associated with public health measures like social distancing and school closures.Several other studies have found or projected modest effects of warmer climates or the increase of sunlight in diminishing the spread of the coronavirus, but all have emphasized the need for public health interventions.One reason is that most of the worlds population has no immunity to the virus. This means the virus doesnt need favorable conditions to spread, Dr. Juni said.He and his colleagues did a forward-looking study in which they picked 144 countries or geopolitical areas around the world and established the conditions that prevailed from March 7 to March 13 in terms of temperature, humidity and public health measures.Then they followed those countries and how cases of Covid-19 grew during the subsequent period of March 21 to March 27, after a 14-day incubation period for infections during the earlier period to cause disease.The countries varied from Canada to the tropics, but no effect for temperature was found. Humidity had a very weak connection to diminished spread, they found. But by far the most important in associations with a diminished spread of the disease were school closings, social distancing and restrictions on large gatherings.In our study, the researchers wrote in the study, published Thursday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, only public health interventions were consistently associated with reduced epidemic growth, and the greater the number of co-occurring public health interventions, the larger the reduction in growth.ImageCredit...Michael Heiman/Getty ImagesOther studies have reported mixed results on the effect of the weather and sunlight. One from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that humidity seemed to slow the spread of the virus. Qasim Bukhari, one of the authors of that study, said the new report was interesting, although limited by the short time span it covered. He said he and his colleagues also stressed in our work that public health interventions are very important.Mark C. Urban, an ecologist at the University of Connecticut, found summer weather, including ultraviolet light, had some effect on the virus and its spread, but said social interventions have by far the most important effect.And a short report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded that summer was not likely to slow the virus significantly.All of the studies acknowledge uncertainty and limitations in their findings. And none diminish the primacy of public health measures. Dr. Juni said that given the effectiveness of social restrictions, school-opening strategies should be very carefully planned and tested.We cant have schools closed for more than a year and a half, he said, but it is not yet known how best to reopen schools and what policies should be followed. Mistakes could mean that openings backfire, with devastating consequence for spread of the disease.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]

Health

11 Things Wed Really Like to KnowEvolution did not draw a straight line from early hominins to modern humans. At one point, we shared the planet with a number of near-relatives. Credit...Jens Mortensen for The New York TimesNov. 19, 2018I spoke recently to a scientist who was writing up a summary of what we know about human evolution. He should have had a head start, having written a similar article five years ago. But when he looked at what he had written then, he realized that little of it was relevant. I cant use much of any of it, he told me.As a journalist, I can sympathize. In recent years, scientists have offered a flood of insights into how we became human. Fairly often, the new evidence doesnt square with what we thought we knew.Instead, many of these findings demand that researchers ask new questions about the human past, and envision a more complex prehistory.When Science Times debuted 40 years ago, scientists knew far less about how our ancestors branched off from other apes and evolved into new species, known as hominins. Back then, the oldest known hominin fossil was a diminutive, small-brained female unearthed in Ethiopia named Lucy. Her species, now known as Australopithecus afarensis, existed from about 3.85 million years ago to about 2.95 million years ago. Lucy and her kin still had apelike features, like long arms and curved hands. They could walk on the ground, but inefficiently. Running was out of the question.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]Hominin evolution appeared to have taken a relatively direct path from her to modern humans. The earliest known members of our genus, Homo, were taller and had long legs for walking and running, as well as much larger brains. Eventually, early Homo gave rise to our own exceptional species, Homo sapiens.Now, its clear that Lucys species wasnt the beginning of our evolution; it was a branch that sprouted midway along the trunk of our family tree. Researchers have found fossils of hominins dating back over six million years. Those vestiges a leg bone here, a crushed skull there hint at even more apelike ancestors. But even the earliest known hominins were like us in one important regard. They appear to have been able to walk on the ground, at least for short distances.Paleoanthropologists have uncovered a wealth of new fossils from all points on the spectrum of hominin evolution. Some clearly belonged to known species, such as Australopithecus afarensis. Some were so distinct that they deserved a new designation. But others have fallen somewhere in between. Often they look like mosaics of other species, carrying remarkable combinations of traits. Some of these mosaics may have been the result of interbreeding between species. But it may be, too, that hominins independently evolved many traits many times, along separate lines of evolution. All this mixing and experimentation produced as many as 30 different sorts of hominins that we know of. And one kind did not simply succeed another through history: For millions of years, several sorts of hominins coexisted. Indeed, our own species shared this planet with near-relatives until just recently. In 2017, researchers found the oldest known fossils of our species in Morocco, bones dating back about 300,000 years. At that time, Neanderthals also existed. They continued to live across Europe and Asia until 40,000 years ago.At that time, too, Homo erectus, one of the oldest members of our genus, still clung to existence in what is now Indonesia. The species did not go extinct until at least 143,000 years ago.Homo erectus and Neanderthals are hardly new to paleoanthropologists. Neanderthals came to light in 1851, and Homo erectus fossils were discovered in the 1890s. But still other hominins, recent research has shown, shared the planet with our own species.In 2015, researchers unearthed 250,000-year-old fossils in a South African cave. Known as Homo naledi, this new species had a Lucy-sized brain, but it was also a complex structure in ways that resembled our own. The wrist and other hand bones of Homo naledi were humanlike, while its long, curved fingers seemed more like an apes.While Homo naledi thrived in Africa, another mysterious species could be found on an island now called Flores, in Indonesia. Known as Homo floresiensis, these hominins stood only three feet high and had brains even smaller than that of Homo naledi. The species may have arrived on Flores as early as 700,000 years ago, and these hominins endured until at least 60,000 years ago. Homo floresiensis appears to have made stone tools, perhaps to hunt and butcher the dwarf elephants that once lived on the island.Paleoanthropologists today are no longer limited to just examining the size and shape of fossils. Over the past 20 years, geneticists have learned how to extract DNA from bones dating back tens of thousands of years. In one remarkable discovery in Siberia, researchers examining a nondescript pinkie bone discovered the genome of a separate line of hominins, now known as Denisovans.As it turns out, we have had the planet to ourselves only in the past 40,000 years a small fraction of Homo sapiens existence. Perhaps we outcompeted other species. Maybe they just had bad luck in evolutions lottery. But in one way, we are still living with them. Both Neanderthals and Denisovans interbred with our ancestors some 60,000 years ago, and billions of people today carry their DNA. Still mosaics, after all this time.

science

College Basketball|Ohio States Tops Iowahttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/sports/ncaabasketball/ohio-states-tops-iowa.htmlAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySports Briefing | College BasketballBy The Associated PressFeb. 4, 2014Aaron Craft had 17 points and 6 assists as visiting Ohio State beat 17th-ranked Iowa, 76-69. AdvertisementContinue reading the main story

Sports

April 6, 2016A terrorist hoping to buy an antiaircraft weapon in recent years needed to look no further than Facebook, which has been hosting sprawling online arms bazaars, offering weapons ranging from handguns and grenades to heavy machine guns and guided missiles.The Facebook posts suggest evidence of large-scale efforts to sell military weapons coveted by terrorists and militants. The weapons include many distributed by the United States to security forces and their proxies in the Middle East. These online bazaars, which violate Facebooks recent ban on the private sales of weapons, have been appearing in regions where the Islamic State has its strongest presence.This week, after The New York Times provided Facebook with seven examples of suspicious groups, the company shut down six of them.The findings were based on a study by the private consultancy Armament Research Services about arms trafficking on social media in Libya, along with reporting by The Times on similar trafficking in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.ImageCredit...Armament Research Services1. The Weapons Have Included Heavy Machine Guns and Heat-Seeking MissilesMany sales are arranged after Facebook users post photographs in closed and secret groups; the posts act roughly like digital classified ads on weapons-specific boards. Among the weapons displayed have been heavy machine guns on mounts that are designed for antiaircraft roles and that can be bolted to pickup trucks, and more sophisticated and menacing systems, including guided anti-tank missiles and an early generation of shoulder-fired heat-seeking antiaircraft missiles.The report documented 97 attempts at unregulated transfers of missiles, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, rockets and anti-matriel rifles, used to disable military equipment, through several Libyan Facebook groups since September 2014.Last year ARES said it had documented an offer on Facebook to sell an SA-7 gripstock (pictured above), the reusable centerpiece of a man-portable antiaircraft defense system, or Manpads, a weapon of the Stinger class. Many of these left Libyan state custody in 2011, as depots were raided by rebels and looters. ARES said it documented Libyan sellers claiming to have two complete SA-7s for sale, two additional missiles and three gripstocks. An old system, SA-7s are a greater threat to helicopters and commercial aircraft than to modern military jets.2. Others Are the Standard Arms of Militant and Terrorist GroupsMachine guns and missiles form a small fraction of the apparent arms trafficking on Facebook and other social media apps, according to Nic R. Jenzen-Jones, the director of ARES and an author of the report. Examinations by The Times of Facebook groups in Libya dedicated to arms sales showed that sellers sought customers for a much larger assortment of handguns and infantry weapons. The rifles have predominantly been Kalashnikov assault rifles, which are used by many militants in the region, and many FN FAL rifles, which are common in Libya.All of these solicitations violate Facebooks policies, which since January has forbidden the facilitation of private sales of firearms and other weapons, according to Monika Bickert, a former federal prosecutor who is responsible for developing and enforcing the companys content standards.3. Weapons Sales Greased by Social Media Sites Have Become a Feature of Many ConflictsThe use of social media for arms sales is relatively new to Libya. Until a Western-backed uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011, which ended in his death at the hands of an armed mob, the country had a tightly restricted arms market and limited Internet access. But social media-based weapons markets in Libya are not unique. Similar markets exist in other countries plagued in recent years by conflict, militant groups and terrorism, including arms-sales Facebook groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.On Monday, The Times shared links for seven such groups with Facebook to check whether they violated the rules. By Tuesday, Facebook had taken down six of the groups. Ms. Bickert said that one Facebook group which displayed photographs of weapons but only discussed them and expressly forbade sales had survived the companys scrutiny.4. Facebooks Rules on Arms Sales Are Related to Changes in How Facebook Is Used.Ms. Bickert described the companys policies as evolutionary, reflecting shifts in its social media ecosystem.When Facebook began, there was no way to really engage in commerce on Facebook, she said. But in the past year, she noted, the company has allowed users to process payments through its Messenger service, and has added other features to aid sales. Since we were offering features like that, we thought we wanted to make clear that this is not a site that wants to facilitate the private sales of firearms.It is not clear how extensive arms trafficking on the site has been, but the rate of new posts has been unmistakably brisk, with many groups offering several new weapons a day. Mr. Jenzen-Jones said that ARES documented 250 to 300 posts about arms sales each month on the Libya sites alone, and that sales appeared to be trending up. Over all, using data from arms-sales Facebook groups across the Middle East, he said, Weve got about 6,000 trades documented, but its probably much bigger than that.5. Facebook Relies on Users to Report the Arms Trafficking It BansMs. Bickert said the most important part of Facebooks effort to keep people safe was to make it easy for users to notify the company of suspected violations, which can be done with a click on the Report feature on every Facebook post.In this way so-called Community Operations teams Facebook employees who review the reports in dozens of languages can examine and remove offending content. How effective the policy is, in practice, is unclear. Several groups from which the photographs for this article were downloaded operated on Facebook for two years or more, accumulating thousands of members before Facebook announced its ban on arms sales.This trafficking occurred in countries where the Islamic State is at its most active and where armed militias or other designated terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, have a persistent presence. In all four countries, government forces do not control large areas of territory and civil society is under intense pressure. Christine Chen, a Facebook spokeswoman, said the company relied on the nearly 1.6 billion people who visit the site every month to flag offenders. We urge everyone who sees violations to report them to us, she said.6. In Libya, Widespread Pistol Sales on FacebookARES has documented many types of buyers and sellers. These include private citizens seeking handguns as well as representatives of armed groups buying weapons that require crews to be operated effectively, or appearing to offload weapons that the militias no longer wanted. Different markets have different characteristics. In Libya, fear of crime seemed to drive many people to buy pistols, Mr. Jenzen-Jones said. Handguns are disproportionately represented, he said. They are widely sought after primarily for self-defense and particularly to protect against carjackings with many prospective buyers placing wanted posts. They were also expensive, ranging from about $2,200 to more than $7,000 a sign that demand outstrips supply.7. Weapons Provided to Allies in Iraq Have Filled Facebook Sales PagesIn Iraq, the Facebook arms bazaars can resemble inside looks at the failures of American train-and-equip programs, with sellers displaying a seemingly bottomless assortment of weapons provided to Iraqs government forces by the Pentagon during the long American occupation. Those include M4 carbines, M16 rifles, M249 squad automatic weapons, MP5 submachine guns and Glock semiautomatic pistols. Many of the weapons shown still bear inventory stickers and aftermarket add-ons favored by American forces and troops.Such weapons have long been available on black markets in Iraq, with or without advertising on social media. But Facebook and other social media companies seem to provide new opportunities for sellers and buyers to find one other easily; for sellers to display items to more customers; and for customers to peruse and haggle over a larger assortment of weapons than what is available in smaller, physical markets.8. In Syria, Weapons Identical to Those Distributed to Rebels by the United States Are Offered for SaleSimilarly, weapons identical to those provided by the United States to Syrian rebels have also been traded on Facebook and other social media or messaging apps. In one recent example, a seller in northern Syria who identified himself as a student, photographer and sniper offered a pristine-looking Kalashnikov assault rifle that he said came from the Hazm Movement, which received weapons from the United States before the movement was defeated by the Nusra Front, a Qaeda affiliate. He noted on Facebook that the rifle was new and had never fired a shot, and hinted of either a bonus gift or a discount.In another example, from October, a Facebook arms-trading group offered a new TOW launcher, referring to a wire-guided anti-tank missile system of the same type provided to rebels by the United States and other countries. The post included a phone number for the seller, which linked to WhatsApp, a messaging service. Reached on WhatsApp this week, the seller, whose profile picture shows the face of a corpse, said that he had sold the launcher but added, unconvincingly, that he could not recall the price.9. Social Media Pages Help Armed Groups Find Other Military EquipmentItems offered for sale on Facebook in Libya also included much of the other equipment sought by militias or terrorists for their operations. These included ammunition, bulletproof plates for flak jackets, rifle scopes, hand grenades, two-way tactical radios, fragmenting antipersonnel warheads for rocket-propelled grenade launchers, uniforms (including police uniforms) and forward-looking infrared cameras, used for night imaging.Ms. Bickert said that using Facebook to help sell items not considered weapons, like bulletproof plates, did not violate the companys rules. Since the same groups selling plates were also selling weapons, however, they were removed this week.Online arms trafficking of this magnitude is an eye opener, said Nicolas Florquin, research coordinator for the Small Arms Survey, the Geneva-based international research center that underwrote the ARES study, part of an effort to supplement trafficking investigations by the United Nations Panel of Experts. Without addressing Facebook or any particular social-media company directly, he added, Obviously there has to be more attention to monitoring and controlling it.10. Facebook Groups Also Offer Residents a Means to FleeOne of the arms-trading pages that Facebook took down this week included a stray advertisement, among ones for weapons and crates of 82-millimeter mortar rounds. It was for people looking to escape the miseries and dangers that have settled over some of the territory where such Facebook pages have been a feature of the arms trade. The advertisement offered open-ocean boat rides. Passage to Greece, it said, was guaranteed. The advertisement was of a type. In a region struggling with large-scale violence and overrun by militias, terrorists and the many forces fighting them, Facebook groups dedicated to refugee trafficking promise the chance to escape.

World

Sports of The TimesCredit...Bill Feig/Associated PressFeb. 15, 2014My first reaction to reading Ted Wellss 144-page report on the Miami Dolphins harassment case was that Commissioner Roger Goodell should ensure that Richie Incognito never be allowed to play another down in the N.F.L. Incognito, the Dolphins suspended offensive lineman, was the ringleader and catalyst of a reign of terror directed primarily at his teammate Jonathan Martin for two seasons. If Goodell is the law-and-order sheriff he claims to be, Incognitos career should be over, or at the very least, he should be suspended for a season.Wellss report paints a graphic and vile portrait of an N.F.L. locker room that may shock even those familiar with the often lowbrow culture of mens team sports. Incognito appears to have lived an unrepentant football life; he is a serial offender who has had behavioral issues at nearly every level of football he has played. By the time I finished the report, what also became clear is that Martin could use a season away from football to sort through a range of complex emotional issues that have been aggravated, not eased, by the culture of a brutal sport. The question that repeatedly came to my mind as I read the Wells report is, Why didnt Martin retaliate? Martin wondered why as well. As Wells wrote, Martin came to view his failure to stand up to his teammates as a personal shortcoming.Indeed, his ambivalence is at the root of mental health issues that have not been properly dealt with. According to the report, Martin contemplated suicide at least twice in 2013. In each case, he was pushed to the brink by his lack of response to nonstop verbal attacks on his mother and his sister. Some of the most gripping passages in the report had to do with Martins wrestling with his upper-middle-class background and blaming it for his failure to deal with his tormentors: Incognito and Mike Pouncey and John Jerry, fellow offensive linemen for the Dolphins. At one point, Martin blamed mostly the soft schools he attended in middle and high school. Martin said the private school experience reinforced his self-image as a pushover. In an email to his mother, he said, I suppose its white private school conditioning, turning the other cheek.Martins father, who attended Harvard, acknowledged in a text message that he had punked out many times when confronted by whites who used the N word. We all have our stories about learning to cope with bullies. My mother responded to my complaints about a bully next door by giving me an impromptu boxing lesson in our kitchen. (Her brothers were boxers.) Her advice to me was to punch Billy Boy in his face the next time he got in mine. All of this may be fascinating, but for the time being the issue before Goodell is how to deal with Incognito and Pouncey and Jerry. Incognito should be barred for at least a season and ordered to seek the help he appears to need desperately. Pouncey and Jerry should be suspended. If you want to clean up the workplace, clean it out. The report suggested that Martin be welcomed back: A young football player who has the skills to play at the highest level and who also happens to be quiet and reserved should have the opportunity to pursue a career in the N.F.L. without being subjected to harassment from his teammates. Except that the N.F.L. environment indeed the highly competitive, highly commercialized landscape of team sports in America does not lend itself to nurturing athletes with mental health issues. Quite the contrary. One of the dismal takeaways from the report, and from events over the last few weeks, including the incident involving the college basketball player Marcus Smart and an antagonistic fan, is how sport, far from building character, is becoming a major factor in its erosion. Many young people and their parents may believe that a college scholarship and a career in professional athletics are just a touch away. All you need is the right school, the right coach, the right tutors and presto! You will get a shot. Teams and institutions place so much weight on winning and commercial success that players like Incognito, with glaring behavioral issues, are passed along and passed through because they can block or tackle. Sensitive players like Martin are often drawn into a culture they have difficulty negotiating. As Martin wrote to his mother in a text message, Sometimes I very badly want to quit football, as I feel like it has forced me to act a certain way, to hang out with certain people, & prevented me from fully taking advantage of the social and cerebral advantages of college & experiencing new things and meeting new people. Money notwithstanding, Martin needs a year away from the game maybe more to negotiate the complicated mental maze of his young life. In his report, Wells writes of Martin, His brief experience in the league was derailed by harassment from his teammates, and it would be unfortunate if he did not get the chance to resume playing in an environment that will permit him to reach his full potential as a professional athlete. That environment may not exist. And perhaps never will.

Sports

Two NASA astronauts will now stay for more than a month and not two weeks during their first flight aboard the Crew Dragon capsule.Credit...SpaceXPublished May 1, 2020Updated May 28, 2020What was intended as a two-week test flight of SpaceXs new astronaut-carrying capsule will now be a mission planned to last more than a month to help a short-handed crew aboard the International Space Station.The launch of SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule, carrying two NASA astronauts, Douglas G. Hurley and Robert L. Behnken, is scheduled for May 27 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It would arrive at the space station the following day.This is a high priority mission for the United States of America, Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, said during a news conference on Friday.That will end a drought of nearly nine years since the last time people headed to orbit from American soil. On July 8, 2011, the space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Launchpad 39A; it returned to Earth 11 days later. Since then, NASA has relied on Russia and its Soyuz rockets for transportation to and from the space station.Its probably a dream of every test pilot school student to have the opportunity to fly on a brand-new spaceship, said Mr. Behnken, who flew aboard the space shuttle in 2008 and 2010, and Im lucky enough to get that opportunity.Mr. Bridenstine noted that this would be only the fifth time NASA astronauts have flown on a new spacecraft for the first time. The previous ones were Mercury, Gemini and Apollo during the 1960s and the space shuttle in 1981.We should not lose sight of the fact that this is a test flight, Mr. Bridenstine said. Were doing this to learn things. And its also true were taking it very, very seriously from a safety perspective.Listen to The Daily: Space Travel, PrivatizedHow SpaceX is ushering in a new era in the exploration of the cosmos.transcripttranscriptListen to The Daily: Space Travel, PrivatizedHosted by Michael Barbaro; produced by Alexandra Leigh Young, Michael Simon Johnson and Jessica Cheung; with help from Sydney Harper and Luke Vander Ploeg; and edited by M.J. Davis LinHow SpaceX is ushering in a new era in the exploration of the cosmos.michael barbaroFrom The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.[music] Today: For the first time in history, a private company is sending astronauts into space. Science reporter Kenneth Chang on the dawn of a new era in space travel.Its Thursday, May 28.Ken, how many space launches have you covered in your career?kenneth changIve forgotten. Because I started covering these at the end of the space shuttle era. So it was probably five or six then. And there was a few other scattered ones. And Ive actually made more trips than that. Because especially with the space shuttle, they would postpone the launch at the last second a gazillion times. So I would just fly in in, fly out, fly in, fly out, and not even see a launch.michael barbaroBut if you had to guess, how many fly-ins and fly-outs have you made to try to watch a space launch?kenneth changOh, Id say 20.michael barbaro[LAUGHS] Thats a lot.kenneth changYeah.michael barbaroAnd thats where you are right now, when we say fly in, fly out, you are in at the moment.kenneth changI am in. Im actually currently in a Hampton Inn in Titusville, which is 20 minutes from the Kennedy Space Center.michael barbaroGive me the scene there in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center. I know youre not there, but youre soon to be there. Whats it look like right now?kenneth changSo because of the coronavirus, NASAs basically limiting the number of people there. The visitors center, where the public usually gathers for the launch, is closed. So when I go there, Ill get to watch it. But Ill be outside the whole time and with a mask and at least six feet away from everyone else.michael barbaroSo Ken, at this point, its about 1:20 p.m. Where are we in the countdown for todays launch?kenneth changSo the astronauts have put on their space suits. Theyre about ready to get in a car to drive to the launch pad. And this is part of whats really different about this launch versus whats happened in past years from the Kennedy Space Center. In the past, it was NASA having the space shuttle and such. This time, it is a private company, one called SpaceX that was founded by Elon Musk, the billionaire who also operates Tesla, which is a company that makes electric cars.michael barbaroSo whats happening where you are in Florida on Wednesday is that a private company is putting NASA astronauts into space on a privately owned vessel?kenneth changYes. And this has never been done before. If you think, theres been three countries that have sent people to space: the United States, the former Soviet Union and now Russia, and China. And now you have this small company called SpaceX, which I guess is not so small anymore. But it is now joining these big nations to do something thats really hard.michael barbaroKen, when I think of the space program, I think of it as the pride and joy of the United States. And I think of it first and foremost as a federal government program, NASA. So how did we get to this point where a private company has more or less supplanted NASA in sending astronauts into space?kenneth changSo of course, at the beginning of the space era, you think of Sputnik.archived recording[RADIO SIGNAL BEEPING] Until two days ago, that sound had never been heard on this Earth. Its a report from mans farthest frontier kenneth changThe Soviets sent a satellite up before the great, mighty United States did.archived recording a radio signal transmitted by the Soviet Sputnik, the first manmade satellite as it passed over New York earlier today.kenneth changThis spurred, of course, a lot of fear and worry in the United States.archived recordingIs it possible that it is transmitting a code, not just a beep signal for radio listening? Yes, its quite possible that its transmitting a code.kenneth changSo the United States started a major space program and created NASA to do things that would counter what the Soviet Unions were doing.archived recordingThe space age had begun.kenneth changAnd so the first space missions, you just think of archived recordingShepard himself had been hauled up into the helicopter.kenneth chang you think of Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space.archived recording (john glenn)Roger kenneth changJohn Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.archived recording (john glenn)A little bumpy along about here.kenneth changAnd each of these baby steps that led to Apollo.archived recording (neil armstrong)Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.kenneth changAnd of course, Neil Armstrong walking on the surface of the moon.archived recording (neil armstrong)Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.kenneth changThese were all events tied up in the identity of the United States as a nation.archived recording (richard nixon)This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation. The world is bigger, infinitely. I only hope that all of us in government, all of us in America, we can reach for the stars just as you have reached so far for the stars.kenneth changAnd so that was the mentality that drove the space program through the 60s into the early 70s. And then after that, it was a transition to try to figure out what to do. Once weve gotten to the moon, how do we get to the next step?So NASA basically came up with three options to present to President Nixon. You could go for broke, you could start planning to go to Mars. Or you could build a space station and a space shuttle to go to the space station. Or you could just build a space shuttle. And Nixon chose just to build the space shuttle. That was the cheapest that he was willing to invest in. And so because the space shuttle did not have a space station to go to, it had to serve other purposes. One of them was that the military wanted to use it to launch spy satellites. Other people want to use it to run science experiments in orbit. And so this sort of became this pickup truck that was supposed to do all these different chores for different parts of the federal government. It ended up being a technological marvel that was not great at doing any one particular task.archived recording8, 7, 6, 5.kenneth changI mean, with the space shuttle, if you think about the launch, if you watch one, it was an amazing sight.archived recording2, 1, [INAUDIBLE]. [LAUNCH SOUND]kenneth changYou could hear the rumble as it goes up.But you could never get over just how bright the light from the engines are. It never does justice to see it on a computer screen or a TV.But it didnt capture the imagination of people like going to the moon did for Apollo. Tasks were not the grand dreams that fueled the Space Age.michael barbaroSo what happens to this kind of underwhelming NASA space program that youre describing?kenneth changThe space shuttles were actually designed to be run almost like a commercial enterprise. They were reusable. The thought was that they could land and fly very quickly. And that they would fly often enough that the cost of a mission would be fairly cheap as NASA got better and better at running the shuttles. In fact, at various points, there were actually discussions that NASA would outsource the operation of the shuttles to a private company.michael barbaroHm.kenneth changThose didnt happen.archived recordingWe have main engine start 4, 3, 2, 1, and liftoff, liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission. And it has cleared the tower.kenneth changBecause first, in 1986 archived recording 1The engines throttling up. Three engines and now at 104 percent.archived recording 2Challenger, go with throttle up.kenneth changThere was a Challenger accident where the shuttle disintegrated during launch.archived recordingWe have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded. Flight director confirms that. We are looking at checking with the recovery forces.kenneth changAnd it killed Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who was aboard.archived recordingPresident Reagan has declared a week of mourning for the seven astronauts five men and two women who lost their lives on their way into space this morning.kenneth changAnd this was a huge setback. And NASA had to go back and fix the design. And then they became very careful to make sure that it was safe enough for the astronauts. And of course, once youre very careful about safety, youre safer. But that means that everything costs more, everything is slower. And this piece of the space shuttle program continued. Then in 2003, there was another accident.archived recordingA few minutes ago, it was about eight oclock, the space shuttle Columbia was going over north Texas.kenneth changColumbia, it was actually on a mission conducting some science experiments. And archived recordingYoull notice here it looks like you can see pieces of the shuttle coming off.kenneth chang as it reentered the atmosphere for landing archived recordingSome kind of objects leaving some kind of trail over the skies of North Texas.kenneth chang the structure of the shuttle disintegrated and the seven astronauts aboard died. And this was a turning point, for NASA and the country to decide going to space is dangerous. We are risking our astronauts lives to do something in space. What should we be asking them to risk their lives for?michael barbaroMhm.kenneth changAnd this soul-searching led to the decision that the shuttles were now too old, too complex, too dangerous to continue operating.archived recording (george w. bush)The shuttles chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of the International Space Station.kenneth changSo that there would be a few more flights, and then it will be retired.archived recording (george w. bush)In 2010, the space shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty, will be retired from service.michael barbaroSo after all these years of neglecting the space shuttles and running into safety problems, the decision is not to invest more in them, but essentially, to kind of walk away from the program?kenneth changThats essentially what happened. But still, NASA needed a way to get its astronauts to and from the space station.archived recordingIncluded in the White Houses two billion dollar budget is $850 million to help along commercial space ventures, like SpaceXs Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule.kenneth changSo when the Obama administration came in, they took a look at what NASA was doing and decided that was an opportunity to get more commercial companies into this business of sending people to space.michael barbaroAnd what is NASA thinking at this moment, as it starts to contemplate farming out travel to the space station?kenneth changSo the thinking of the NASA officials were, we really want to go back to the moon. We really want to go to Mars. We want to go send astronauts off on new places where they can go look at things that we have never seen before. And because too much of the budget was tied up with the space shuttle, they wanted to find some way to spend less money on what they thought was routine missions, so that they could do something that was more exciting and could better justify what they were created to do.michael barbaroGot it. So the thinking is: let a private company do the kind of grunt work of space travel. And that would free the federal government, NASA, up to do the grand explorations.kenneth changThat was exactly the reason. And NASA chose two of them that they liked and decided to fund them. One was Boeing and one was SpaceX. And of course, NASA wanted both of these to be operational as soon as possible. It became a sort of friendly competition. Both companies actually ended up three years behind schedule.michael barbaro[LAUGHS]kenneth changAnd at this final time, SpaceX is going to be first. And Boeing is still, perhaps, a year behind.michael barbaroSo SpaceX wins the competition.kenneth changYes.There actually is a flag on the space station. So on the very last space shuttle mission, the astronauts left a flag there. And whoever was going to be on the first vehicle to get to the space station would capture the flag.michael barbaroAnd so that will be SpaceX.kenneth changYes.michael barbaroOK. So Ken, I know you need to go actually watch this rocket launch. So we will let you go kenneth changYes.michael barbaro and talk to you once the launch is done and you are off deadline.kenneth changIf I miss the launch, my editor is going to kill me. This was actually a conversation I had with my editor. [LAUGHS]michael barbaroWell be right back.archived recording 1 we want to make that call. Because shortly after that, we will begin loading liquid oxygen onto the second stage. Standby.archived recording 2We continue violate a couple different weather rules that we now do not expect to clear in time to allow for a launch today. And todays launch attempt, Launch Control would end the launch auto sequence and proceed to the launch abort auto sequence, please.archived recording 3Launch abort has started.archived recording 4And Dragon SpaceX, unfortunately, we are not going to launch today. You are go for 5.100. Launch scrub.archived recording 5Weve heard the call from the crew. They have been informed. Launch director michael barbaroSo Ken, its nearly 7 p.m. And things did not quite go as planned. What actually just happened down there in Florida?kenneth changSo through the whole day, the weather looked really icky. It was raining. It was cloudy. And then, about an hour before liftoff time, the rain sort of cleared up. The clouds start thinning out. And it looked like, for a while, that they were going to actually be able to get the rocket off the launch pad. But then, at the very end, about 15 minutes before the liftoff time, the weather officer said were still red for launch. They called off the launch. And theyre going to try again on Saturday.michael barbaroSo no launch on Wednesday, but perhaps a launch over the weekend?kenneth changYes.michael barbaroSo I want to talk about, Ken, this private company that, I guess, almost just put American astronauts into space SpaceX. I mean, what was it about this company that attracted NASA to it and allowed it to get this coveted contract?kenneth changSo SpaceX was this upstart small company. It was very ambitious. And they found ways to do rockets and such that was less expensive and faster than many of the bigger companies in the past. And I always described them for the longest time as the Southwest of the rocket business, Southwest Airlines.michael barbaro[LAUGHTER]kenneth changThey found efficiencies that other companies did not that has allowed them to find new markets and find ways to do things that werent a business model before, because it was too expensive and too slow in the past.michael barbaroWhat are some examples, Ken, of ways that they inexpensively innovated and seemed to save a lot of money on this kind of a launch?kenneth changSo in the very beginning, their engineering decisions were often driven by how things could be done efficiently. And this could have been as simple as recycling parts of their rockets. So if youve ever watched a rocket launch, the bottom part of the rocket, which is the first stage or booster stage, is the part that lifts up the rocket through the thick bottom part of the atmosphere. And it usually just drops away when its done after a few minutes.michael barbaroRight.kenneth changAnd for the longest time, this piece would just fall back into the ocean and be lost.michael barbaroRight. And that sounds like a pretty expensive thing to just toss off into the ocean.kenneth changIts a very expensive thing. Just each engine would be several million dollars.michael barbaroWow.kenneth changSo one of the things that, from the very beginning, Elon wanted to do was, we should try to use them again. And for a while, when they were trying to land these boosters, they would just crash and abort. And there was these fantastic explosions as the thing almost landed. And then, finally, they succeeded. They actually managed to land this booster back on the ground at Cape Canaveral. And then now, they do this almost routinely. For every SpaceX launch, you watch it go up, you see the booster drop off. And about 10 minutes after launch, you see it land vertically, almost like those rockets in those 1950s science fiction movies.michael barbaroWow.kenneth changIts amazing.This is where SpaceX went from being the Southwest Airlines to a true innovator in this field.michael barbaroSo Ken, how much, in the end, does it feel like SpaceX has saved in terms of cost from what NASA might have paid to put someone into space a decade ago?kenneth changSo the clearest comparison that we have is that before SpaceX came along, NASA had a plan to develop its own rocket and capsule for taking astronauts to the space station. And when that program was canceled, the estimated cost to do this would have been at least $20 billion dollars.michael barbaroWow.kenneth changNow SpaceX has a contract with NASA basically to provide the exact same service, so that all the development costs, plus providing some of the actual launches, for $2.6 billion.michael barbaroWow. So a fraction of that $20 billion dollars?kenneth changYes.michael barbaroSaving that much money would seem like a tremendous boon for NASA, for the federal government, for the American taxpayer. Does anyone at NASA worry that something fundamental is lost when a private company that is ultimately a business thats interested in making profit is running a launch like this?kenneth changI think theyre most excited about what the rocket does as opposed to who builds it and who operates it.michael barbaroHm.kenneth changI always remember the Saturn V rocket from the Apollo missions in the 60s, the most impressive thing thats flown to date. However, it wasnt because it was so big. Its because it went to the moon. Thats why we remember it. It doesnt necessarily matter whose rocket goes to the space station or ultimately takes people to the moon and beyond. Its that these systems, if they work well, they enable NASA and other agencies to go explore the solar system in new ways that we werent able to do before.michael barbaroKen, is this ultimately a positive development that youre describing here, the privatization of space exploration? Which, I guess, at first blush, seems like something people might be worried about. Is it turning out that this is a very natural evolution of a process that began with the government creating a market, taking these serious risks and opening up to a more efficient private company, and that thats a pretty good progression?kenneth changSo if we go back in history, think of an example where this has happened before. And that is the airplane.So in the very earliest days, there was various people building different types of an airplane. But theres no real business for doing it. It is when the government decides to start sending air mail that it created a business where people could start airlines to carry the mail. And thats led to this wonderful air travel system that we have in the United States and around the world today.michael barbaroSo if we follow that logic, eventually private space travel could be a vast network that many companies enter and perhaps many civilians use, just like civilian aircraft?kenneth changSo once its no longer just NASA astronauts going to space, theres all sorts of new possibilities that open up. So if you have a commercial space station that has nothing to do with NASA that could be filled with millionaire space tourists to spend a couple of weeks in space. It could also be a pharmaceutical company that wants to try out new drugs that can only be made in zero gravity. So once there is a market of going to space that doesnt involve the government, then everyone else can start thinking of how can I get up there, too? How can I make money up there?michael barbaroSo when SpaceX does pull off this launch, maybe its in a couple of days, youre saying its not really just putting two astronauts into space on a private aircraft. Its truly launching a new era in the space program. And its, I guess, the private era of space travel.kenneth changYes. And its coming sooner than you realize. Theres a company out there doing it right now called Axiom Space. They have a contract with SpaceX. They have an agreement with NASA to use part of the space station for these tourists. And this could be launching as soon as the second half of next year.michael barbaroHm.So Ken, everything that youre describing is very exciting. But it occurs to me that its also somewhat conditional. I mean, what happens if, now that its delayed on Saturday, on Sunday, whenever this launch occurs, what happens if it fails? What happens if it goes badly? Is everything youre describing then in doubt?kenneth changIts certainly pushed into the future and delayed. Is it such a setback that everyone says this was a bad idea, we give up, we need to go back to the way things were? I dont think so. Space is still a very hard business, no matter whether its SpaceX or NASA or someone else running these programs. There is a risk to whoever is riding on top of that rocket every time it launches. Everyone whos down there watching is nervous. They always go, I hope this is not a bad day. Because they realize it could be a bad day. And I dont think that one bad day means we never go back to space.michael barbaroWell, Ken, good luck. I hope that you do get a launch in the next few days. And well check in with you after that.kenneth changGreat. Thank you very much.michael barbaroWell be right back.Heres what else you need to know today. On Wednesday, just four months after the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed in the U.S., the American death toll reached 100,000, according to The Times, more than any other nation in the world. The virus has now claimed more American lives than the U.S. wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.Most statisticians say that the actual death toll is probably much higher, given how few Americans have ever been tested.So far, the virus has infected more than 1.7 million Americans.Thats it for The Daily. Im Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.Like the last shuttle mission, the launch will occur at 39A, but almost everything else will be different. Instead of designing and operating its own spaceship as it did for the space shuttles and earlier programs like the Apollo moon landings, NASA has turned to two private companies, SpaceX and Boeing.Boeings spacecraft, Starliner, encountered two major software glitches during an uncrewed test flight in December and will now repeat that mission before attempting to fly astronauts.For SpaceX, the May flight is the last step to certify that its spacecraft meets NASAs needs and requirements. As the Crew Dragon approaches the space station, for example, the astronauts will test flying the spacecraft by manual control before letting its automated system perform the docking.The two astronauts will also get to use the bathroom facility in the capsule during the 19 hours from launch to docking at the space station. The toilet? Mr. Hurley said. Well let you know how it works out. They have one. Well try it out, and well let you know when we get back.Currently there are only three astronauts aboard the International Space Station two Russians, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, and one NASA astronaut, Christopher J. Cassidy. The smaller station crew is preoccupied with maintenance tasks, and that limits the amount of scientific research that can be performed.NASA officials decided to extend the stay of Mr. Hurley and Mr. Behnken at the space station so that they can help Mr. Cassidy. The SpaceX capsule is currently certified to remain 119 days in orbit. Over time, oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere react with materials on the capsules solar arrays, reducing the amount of power they generate.The length of the stay also depends on the status of the next Crew Dragon, the first operational mission which is designated Crew-1, which is to take four astronauts to the space station later this year. SpaceX and NASA need the demonstration Crew Dragon to return to Earth to certify that the spacecraft meets NASAs safety requirements and that it is ready to start routine missions.It is a trade off, said Kirk A. Shireman, the program manager for the space station for NASA. What we would like to do, from a space perspective, is keep them on orbit as long as we can until that Crew-1 vehicle is just about ready to go.

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Credit...Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty ImagesNov. 20, 2018ROME Italy has ordered the seizure of the Aquarius, the rescue ship at the center of international criticism over its governments hard line against migration, saying the vessel had illegally disposed of potentially infectious waste.Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania announced on Tuesday that they had accused 24 people of having systematically shared, planned and executed an illegal waste-disposal project of an enormous quantity in southern Italian ports between January 2017 and May 2018. They said the waste included contaminated garments, leftover food, and medical supplies and syringes.Those accused included members of Doctors Without Borders, one of the aid groups operating the Aquarius, and officials of a Sicilian company that manages waste disposal. According to a statement by the prosecutors office, the Aquarius and VOS Prudence, another rescue ship operated by Doctors Without Borders, illegally coordinated with the Sicilian company, which failed to declare the presence of dangerous sanitary waste with an infectious risk.Doctors Without Borders denied the accusation in a statement on Tuesday, writing that it strongly condemns the Italian order to seize the Aquarius. It called the measure a disproportionate reaction designed to criminalize humanitarian and medical missions at sea. The group said it would appeal in Italian court.The ship is already idled, sitting in a French port since September because no country has agreed to register it. The Italian order means that if it were to resume operation, it could not enter Italian waters without risk of being impounded.In Italy, the Aquarius has become the symbol of a confrontation between rescue ships, which have saved tens of thousands of shipwrecked migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, and government officials who have compared the ships to migrant water-taxis and say they are complicit in human smuggling.In June, Matteo Salvini, Italys hard-line interior minister and leader of the anti-immigrant League party, refused to let the Aquarius land at a time when it had more than 629 migrants aboard, including 123 minors, 11 small children and seven pregnant women. The move set off a confrontation with the European Union that only increased Mr. Salvinis popularity at home. (Spain eventually took in the migrants.)On Tuesday, the minister celebrated the order against the Aquarius, and his own actions against nongovernmental organizations that rescue people at sea.I did well to block the N.G.O. ships, I stopped not only the smuggling of illegal immigrants but, from that which emerges, also toxic waste, he wrote on Twitter. He concluded with the hashtag closedports.Mr. Salvini, whose party rose to power this year on promises to crack down on immigration, has tapped into a deep reserve of frustration and anger on the issue, with many Italians feeling their country has been inundated with arrivals, and left to fend for itself by the European Union.His Security Decree, explicitly tying the safety of Italians to reducing migration, is working its way through the Italian Parliament. This month, he tore down a migrant camp near a Roman train station that opened at the height of the migrant crisis in 2015.ImageCredit...Maud Veith/SOS Mediterranee, via Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesHe has kept up his hard line against what he has called an army of fake refugees, even as he sought to soften his image last week by going to a military airport near Rome to welcome a group of 51 migrants, mostly women with children, evacuated from Libya via Niger by the United Nations refugee agency.For women and children in difficulty, the only way to arrive is by plane, not by inflatable dinghy, because the dinghies are operated by criminals who in exchange for trafficking in human beings, buy weapons, Mr. Salvini said.The interior minister has in recent weeks begun to aim most of his rhetorical fire at the European Union, especially as the number of migrant arrivals has plummeted.Mr. Salvini has taken credit for that decline, but his critics have instead attributed it to deals that Marco Minniti, his predecessor in the previous, center-left government, reached with militias in Libya, where many migrants embark on their way to Italy. (Mr. Minniti also worked to restrict the operations of rescue ships, and was also criticized by humanitarian groups.)But Mr. Salvini has given even more authority to the Libyans. Humanitarian groups have decried the larger role for Libya, saying that its treatment of migrants falls far short of acceptable standards.The United Nations refugee agency has noted that while the number of arrivals is way down, people who set out to cross the Mediterranean to Europe have been twice as likely to die in the attempt this year than they were in 2017.The Aquarius had run into several problems since it became the focus of Italys ire, including the revocation of its registration by Panama in September.But the announcement on Tuesday that Italy would seize the Aquarius the next time it entered Italian waters constituted a major escalation. The government also seized some Doctors Without Borders bank accounts, the group said.After two years of judicial investigations, bureaucratic obstacles, disgraceful and never confirmed accusations of collusion with human traffickers, now we have been accused of belonging to a waste trafficking criminal organization, said Karline Kleijer, who is in charge of emergency services for Doctors Without Borders.It is the extreme and troubling attempt to stop, at whatever cost, our search-and-rescue missions at sea.The group said that it had always followed standard procedures and that the relevant authorities had never raised any concerns about its practices since it began its missions in 2015. It said it would cooperate fully with Italian authorities.The only crime we see in the Mediterranean today is the total dismantlement of the search-and-rescue system, said Gabriele Eminente, the general director of Doctors Without Borders in Italy.Today, he said, political pressure had led the Aquarius to be blocked in the port of Marseille.

World

VideotranscripttranscriptTillerson on N. Korea: 20 Years of Failed ApproachSpeaking at a news conference in Tokyo, Rex W. Tillerson, the secretary of state, said on Thursday that the escalating threat from North Koreas nuclear program showed a clear need for a "different approach."TOKYO, JAPAN (MARCH 16, 2017) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, REX TILLERSON, SAYING: I think its important to recognize that the diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bring North Korea to a point of denuclearization have failed. So we have 20 years of failed approach. // In the face of this ever-escalating threat, it is clear that a different approach is required. Part of the purpose of my visit to the region is to exchange views on a new approach.Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, Rex W. Tillerson, the secretary of state, said on Thursday that the escalating threat from North Koreas nuclear program showed a clear need for a "different approach."CreditCredit...Pool photo by Eugene HoshikoMarch 16, 2017TOKYO At a time of multiplying tensions in Asia, Rex W. Tillerson, the American secretary of state, began his first major foreign trip in Japan and said on Thursday that the United States needed a different approach to North Koreas escalating nuclear threat, though he declined to give specifics.Speaking to reporters in Tokyo after talks with Japans foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, Mr. Tillerson said, The diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bring North Korea to a point of denuclearization have failed, noting that during those 20 years, the United States had provided $1.35 billion in assistance to North Korea to encourage it to abandon its nuclear program.Part of the purpose of my visit to the region is to exchange views on a new approach, Mr. Tillerson added, saying he would highlight the issue in Seoul, the South Korean capital, and Beijing, the next stops on his trip.On the eve of President Trumps sending a federal budget to Congress that proposes a 29 percent cut in the State Departments budget, Mr. Tillerson, who took questions only from reporters who had been preselected by one of his press advisers, said he would take on the challenge of the cutbacks willingly.The level of spending that the State Department has been undertaking, particularly in the past year, is simply not sustainable, Mr. Tillerson said, explaining that current spending reflected the level of conflicts that the U.S. has been engaged in around the world as well as disaster assistance.He said the department would undergo a review of programs and would be much more effective, much more efficient, and be able to do a lot with fewer dollars.The most pressing issue for the United States and its allies in Asia is the advancing threat from North Korea, which has launched ballistic missiles twice in three weeks and has said that it is close to testing a missile that could reach the United States.In prepared remarks, Mr. Tillerson said he hoped to deepen cooperation among the United States, Japan and South Korea in the face of North Koreas dangerous and unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile programs.VideoKim Han-sol, the nephew of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un, is young, college-educated, fluent in English and living abroad. And he has called his uncle a dictator. But chances are slim he could ever lead his homeland. Here's why.CreditCredit...Yonhap/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesPolicy makers and American reporters were eager to hear Mr. Tillerson speak, given that in his more than 50 days in office he had not expanded on the Trump administrations foreign policy. Critics have questioned how much influence he has with the president, as he has been absent from meetings with world leaders at the White House.The secretarys trip, which will also include stops in Seoul and Beijing, comes as the region is grappling not only with the North Korean threat, but also with increased tensions between China and South Korea, where the United States is deploying a missile defense system that China vigorously opposes.China is also pushing its territorial claims in the South China Sea and East China Sea, rattling other countries across the region. South Korea is without a president after the removal of Park Geun-hye last week, and Japan and South Korea have yet to repair a diplomatic rift after Tokyo recalled its envoy to Seoul more than two months ago to protest a statue commemorating Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers in World War II.Its pretty clear that theres a perfect storm brewing for mischief in East Asia right now, said Richard Samuels, a Japan specialist and the director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Analysts were hoping to use Mr. Tillersons remarks as guidance on the options that the United States might consider in responding to the nuclear threat from North Korea. American officials are reviewing options that could include a pre-emptive military strike and renewed talks with North Korea.But when asked for details of a new approach, he did not answer.In his prepared remarks, Mr. Tillerson took a markedly different tone than the secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, who said on a visit to Seoul in February that the use of nuclear weapons by North Korea would be met with an overwhelming response.Mr. Tillerson said North Korea and its people need not fear the United States or their neighbors in the region who seek only to live in peace with North Korea. He added, With this in mind the United States calls on North Korea to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile program and refrain from any further provocations.Experts in the region said that while the United States had so far emphasized expanded missile defense with the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or Thaad, they wanted to hear what Mr. Tillerson had to say about diplomatic options, as well as cooperation within the region.It was very important to show the deterrence capability, said Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo. But at the same time we need to create a carrot-and-stick type signal to North Korea.ImageCredit...Erik De Castro/ReutersMr. Watanabe said that in addition to coordination among the United States, Japan and South Korea, we also need coordination with China.In Japan, government officials are eager to build a relationship with Mr. Tillerson, who is relatively inexperienced in matters pertaining to Asia and who currently has a depleted staff at the State Department to advise him on the region.Japan has been somewhat reassured after Mr. Mattis visited Tokyo and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited President Trump in Washington and Mar-a-Lago in Florida, with each American official stating that the United States would support its allies. Mr. Tillerson again reaffirmed the United States commitment to the defense of Japan.Still, given that President Trump suggested during the campaign that he might pull back from American security commitments to allies in Asia, both Japan and South Korea are likely to remain anxious about American resolve.Theres that sense that they are assured for the moment, said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, but Japan and South Korea are like skittish small dogs that need constant reassurance and are constantly nervous.Japan has been especially wary after North Korea launched four missiles simultaneously earlier this month that landed within 125 miles of the western coast of Akita Prefecture. North Korea said at the time that the tests were designed to strike the bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces in Japan in contingency.The Japanese government is currently discussing upgrades to its missile defense, including acquiring its own Thaad system. And some lawmakers have suggested that Japan needs to consider obtaining the ability to make pre-emptive strikes against missile launches. Mr. Kishida said that Japan will assume larger roles and responsibilities, but when asked by Adriana Diaz, Asia correspondent for CBS News, about pre-emptive capabilities, he said he did not understand the question and declined to allow her to clarify.Mr. Tillerson continued the cloistered style of his previous brief foreign trips, to Bonn, Germany, and Mexico City. He did not visit the American Embassy to meet State Department staff, choosing instead to rest and take briefings at his hotel in the morning before his meeting with Mr. Kishida.While Mr. Tillerson is the highest-ranking member of the Trump administration to visit Japan, the Japanese news media on Thursday initially seemed more interested in the interest rate increase by the United States Federal Reserve and the Dutch election results.

World

Kim Kardashian Flashes Killer Bod! EXCLUSIVE 1/23/2018 Kim Kardashian's body always gets ya coming and going ... but this little see-through dress sure kicked things up a notch. Kim was on the beach flashing her nearly flawless figure Monday in Malibu ... a week after she and Kanye West announced their surrogate gave birth to their third child, Chicago. Kim was on the beach for a photo shoot ... all smiles and chatty with the crew. Sure didn't seem to mind being exposed, based on her huge grin. But then again ... Kim's been teasing us for a while now. Share on Facebook TWEET This See also Kim Kardashian Kanye West Kim Kardashian Baby Hot Bodies Photo Galleries Exclusive The Kardashians

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Photo Credit Richard Drew/Associated Press 1. Stay Resolved Photo Credit Andy Haslam for The New York Times 2. Pay Attention to Your Gut These three books dissect how your innards influence your weight gain. Photo Credit M. Spencer Green/Associated Press 3. Adopt a Business Approach Tara Parker-Pope, editor of our Well blog, explains how a business strategy helped her lose 25 pounds. Photo Credit Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times, Barton Silverman/The New York Times 4. Quality, Not Quantity The author of Always Hungry? argues in this Q. and A. that overeating doesnt make you fat. Rather, its an excess of high glycemic foods like sugar and refined grains. Photo Credit John Moore/Getty Images 5. Make Your Diet Fit You Some scientists say the right weight-loss strategy is a personalized diet that takes into account family history, medications and genetic makeup, for instance. Photo Credit Beatrice de Gea for The New York Times 6. Keeping the Muscle For others, the holy grail is a weight-loss program that decreases fat without diminishing muscle tissue. Photo Credit Joe Raedle/Getty Images 7. A Little at a Time Blood pressure, heart rate and other health measurements can improve with just a small amount of weight loss, a study shows. Photo Credit Kevin Moloney for The New York Times 8. Take a Bribe Four out of five large U.S. employers now offer some sort of financial incentive to employees to improve their health. Sometimes, they even work. Photo Credit Jon Boyes/Ocean, via Corbis 9. Just Dont Eat More on NYTimes.com

Health

Sports of The TimesCredit...Suzy Allman for The New York TimesFeb. 12, 2014This retirement is so Derek Jeter. So smooth, so efficient, so convenient for all concerned.Its kind of like a fielder flitting through the tall weeds of disaster and finding a wayward baseball and flipping it homeward, thereby saving his side from a mess of trouble. That would be so Derek Jeter. Just look up Giambi, Jeremy. So is announcing his retirement just before teammates and fans and you guys the old Michael Jordan you guys arrive at his Florida base in Tampa. He beat everybody to the punch, just as he has done since he showed up in the 1995 season.Jeter is confining the tensions No-Drama Derek for this season, making sure he will not be a distraction. His stated position on his health has always been Im fine even when he might have had a broken bone or something. Now he can conduct his own private little batter-pitcher duel with old age itself, try to get his rebelling body back to its old level of performance. And if not, he has given the Yankees, given everybody, a limit.I told you guys. One more year. Smile. No long conversation. The Yankees can plan, he can plan. Some great players, like Ted Williams and Stan Musial, had one more great hitting season left around the age of 40. True, they were not trying to be the highly effective shortstop that Jeter has been. All the details will take care of themselves. This makes it clear. One more time around.Jeter has known how to handle himself since his arrival with the Yankees. He is the beneficiary of a tight family unit Charles Jeter, an addiction counselor; Dorothy Jeter, an accountant; and his sister, Sharlee, five years younger. There is every indication that all three have expected him not to be a jerk, in public or in private. One would wish internal controls like his for many other athletes who enter public life and have no clue how to act. He did not smirk or pout when the Yankees reverted to older shortstops after he had filled in for a few games during the 1995 season. Think the Yankees would have beaten Seattle in that great series if the club had seen what fans and writers saw?Jeter has done something more than help win seven pennants and five World Series. He helped turn the Yankees into a team that Mets fans, Red Sox fans, can respect (at least some of them; there are always hardheads). He and his contemporaries Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte, as well as Joe Torre (whom Jeter calls Mr. T) and Joe Girardi took some of the starch and bluster and gloom and doom out of the old Yankee ways. As the captain, Jeter did it without sacrificing his privacy. Some New York players manage to be surprisingly open, and therefore vulnerable, in the daily locker-room soap opera. Jeter was much more private. Who knows his taste in politics or music or books? When other people got into trouble or said stupid things, you had to read Jeters chosen words the way one reads the Mona Lisas smile. In 2009, while Alex Rodriguez was going through one of his many frolics over performance-enhancing drugs, Jeter gave a measured comment. One thing that irritates me is that this was the steroid era, he said. I dont know how many people tested positive, but everybody wasnt doing it. Ive come to think that was the most candid thing I ever heard him say. Now Jeter begins the orderly process of going out the right way. Just the other day, eager for baseball, I worked up a little essay on Jeter that asked, Is it too much to ask that Derek Jeter be healthy and productive for one more season, clapping his hands at second base and retiring knuckleheads? I was thinking of his double into the corner that started the rally against Pedro Martinez in 2003. This final season could go a lot of different ways for Derek Jeter, but he will conduct it the right way.

Sports

In more than 20 of the most competitive House races of 2018, the share of Democrats voting in primaries notably increased, compared with 2014, the last midterm election cycle. Democrats have appeared to be more enthusiastic than Republicans about the 2018 elections, showing up in massive numbers to protest President Trump and volunteer for campaigns. But to win the midterms, Democrats still have to translate that energy into votes. The still-unfolding season of primary elections has been encouraging to Democrats on that front. Democratic turnout has risen more sharply than Republican turnout in at least 123 congressional districts, including districts where Republican incumbents are most vulnerable, in states like California and New Jersey. That turnout pattern is highly encouraging to Democrats who hope to flood the polls in November and unseat Republicans, even in districts that typically lean to the right. Midterm campaigns often hinge on voter enthusiasm: Without a presidential race to draw casual voters to the polls, the party out of power tends to benefit from disproportionate turnout among Americans who feel angry or aggrieved about politics in Washington. Thats exactly what happened in the first midterm election of Barack Obamas presidency, when Republicans and disaffected independent voters showed up in powerful numbers and pro-Obama voters did not. Democrats lost 63 House seats as a result, handing Republicans control of the House. The turnout pattern in primary season that year looks a lot like 2018 so far, except with Republicans displaying far greater enthusiasm then. In 186 congressional primaries in 2010, the share of Republicans voting was higher than in the prior midterm election. Democrats improved upon their 2006 numbers in just 35 primaries in 2010 a convincing indication, months before the general election, that the presidents party was in a slump. There have been important exceptions to the trend of powerful Democratic enthusiasm this year, and Republicans have been encouraged by robust turnout among Republican voters in a number of statewide primaries, in places like Ohio and Texas. And there is still time for the political environment to change, perhaps even before the end of primary season. Some of the most important states on the map including Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin are still months away from holding primary elections. Michael Podhorzer, the political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., who tracks voting patterns closely, said the primary returns were a positive sign but Democrats should interpret them with caution. It remains uncertain, he said, whether Democrats are activating new and disaffected voters for the midterms, or mostly turning out people who would have voted in November anyway. If it wasnt happening, Id be really worried, Mr. Podhorzer said of the turnout boost. But that it is happening doesnt make me confident. Still, for Republicans seeking to defend a precarious majority in the House, the Democratic turnout increase in closely divided districts has been unsettling. Four of the seats where Democrats improved markedly were in California, including the seats held by Representatives Steve Knight and Dana Rohrabacher, which national Republicans already saw as gravely endangered. And Democrats surged, too, in the districts of Representatives Leonard Lance of New Jersey and Will Hurd of Texas lawmakers from diverse, moderate areas where Mr. Trump is unpopular. Mr. Trump himself has appeared sensitive to the disparity in political energy between the two parties, and he has taken to telling supporters at his campaign rallies that political disengagement could be lethal. At a convention of the National Rifle Association last month, Mr. Trump warned that liberals were fighting like hell ahead of the election. We cannot get complacent, he declared. We have to win the midterms. More on NYTimes.com

Politics

After a judge slammed the F.T.C.s original lawsuit, regulators returned with a more detailed case accusing the platform of being a monopoly.Credit...Laura Morton for The New York TimesPublished Aug. 19, 2021Updated Nov. 4, 2021WASHINGTON The Federal Trade Commission took new aim at Facebook on Thursday, beefing up its accusations that the company was a monopoly that illegally crushed competition, in an attempt to overcome the skepticism of a federal judge who threw out the agencys original case two months ago.The suit submitted Thursday contains the same overall arguments as the original, saying that Facebooks acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were made to create a moat around its monopoly in social networking and arguing that the social network should be broken up. But the updated suit is nearly twice as long and includes more facts and analysis that the agency says better support the governments allegations. Facebook lacked the business acumen and technical talent to survive the transition to mobile, Holly Vedova, the acting director of the bureau of competition at the agency, said in a statement. After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat.Facebook responded: There was no valid claim that Facebook was a monopolist and that has not changed. Our acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were reviewed and cleared many years ago, and our platform policies were lawful.The agency had to refile the case after the judge overseeing it said in June that the government had not provided enough evidence that Facebook was a monopoly in social networking. The judges decision, and a similar one he made in a case against the company brought by more than 40 states, dealt a stunning blow to regulators attempts to rein in Big Tech.His decision presented the first major test for Lina Khan, the F.T.C. chair, who was only days into her role at the time. Ms. Khan represents a wave of new thinking about the industry among administration officials and many lawmakers, arguing that the government needs to take far more aggressive action to stem the power of technology giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. President Biden has appointed multiple regulators with similar aims and lawmakers proposed updates to antitrust laws to target the power of technology companies.The criticisms of the first version of the Facebook case levied by the judge, James E. Boasberg of the District Court of the District of Columbia, showed the steep challenges regulators face. Although the companies dominate the markets they are in social media, in the case of Facebook the courts often look at whether prices are rising as an indication of monopolization. Facebooks most popular services are free.No one who hears the title of the 2010 film The Social Network wonders which company it is about, Judge Boasberg wrote. Yet, whatever it may mean to the public, monopoly power is a term of art under federal law with a precise economic meaning. He instructed the F.T.C. to back up claims that Facebook controlled 60 percent of the market for personal social networking and that it blocked competition.ImageCredit...Pool photo by Graeme JenningsMs. Khan then faced a choice on how to handle Judge Boasbergs decision. One option was to drop the case entirely, while another was to expand it with even broader accusations. Instead, she took more of a middle ground, resubmitting the suit with greater detail and a more sweeping narrative of the company and what the agency says is a pattern of anticompetitive behavior since Mark Zuckerberg co-founded it at Harvard in 2004.The revised suit was approved by the commission in a 3-2 vote, with the three Democrats on the commission voting in favor of it and the two Republican members dissenting.In the new complaint, the F.T.C. provides more details to support the governments claims that Facebook holds a monopoly in social networking. But the public version of the suit had many of the statistics redacted because the numbers are proprietary.The agency said that Facebook the companys biggest service, known inside the company as Facebook Blue and Instagram were the leading social networks in the U.S., far ahead of its next biggest competitor, Snapchat.The agency refuted Facebooks claims that it has many competitors in social networking, instant messaging and entertainment. The agency argued that Facebooks products were for personal social networking, distinguishing them from specialized social networks like the professional network LinkedIn or the neighborhood site NextDoor. The F.T.C. added that Facebooks products also were different from messaging services like Signal and iMessage because users dont typically use those services to send notes to big groups, nor do they use those services to find contacts.And the agency said Facebook differed from Twitter, YouTube and TikTok because content on those sites were typically created for the public and not directed at specific individuals in a social network.Facebook has today, and has maintained since 2011, a dominant share of the relevant market for U.S. personal social networking services, as measured using multiple metrics: time spent, daily active users, and monthly active users, the agency said in its complaint.The F.T.C.s core argument is that Facebook tried to maintain a monopoly over social networking through its acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. Slow to develop its app for mobile phones, the company sought to buy or bury innovators threatening to out-compete Facebook in the new mobile environment, the agency said in its complaint.The lawsuit also says that, beginning in 2010, the company stifled competitors like Circle, a social network, and Vine, a short-video platform, by adding new limits for how outside developers whose products connected to Facebook could work with other social networks.Facebook beat competitors not by improving its own product but instead by imposing anticompetitive restrictions on developers, according to the lawsuit.Facebook has criticized the arguments as revisionist history, noting that the F.T.C. reviewed the mergers with Instagram and WhatsApp and didnt block the deals. The F.T.C.s claims are an effort to rewrite antitrust laws and upend settled expectations of merger review, declaring to the business community that no sale is ever final, Facebook said on Thursday.The company has until Oct. 4 to respond to the new complaint or to file for Mr. Boasberg to dismiss the case. Last month, it filed a petition for Ms. Khan to recuse herself from the agencys case, saying her work on a House investigation into platform monopolies showed a bias against the company. The F.T.C. on Thursday said that it had dismissed that petition, saying that Facebook would receive the appropriate constitutional due process protections because the case would be tried before a federal judge.Bill Kovacic, a former chairman of the F.T.C., said the agency did enough to live to fight another day.The judge said show your work, and it appears they did enough to satisfy that request, he said.But he warned the case would face a long and steep challenge. The F.T.C. has won fewer than 20 of its monopoly cases in the appeals court since the agency started more than 100 years ago, he said.Facebook will fight this ferociously, Mr. Kovacic added.

Tech

Europe|Mount Etna Erupts in Sicily, Injuring at Least 10https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/world/europe/mount-etna-volcano-eruption.htmlCredit...Salvatore Allegra/Associated PressMarch 16, 2017Mount Etna, Europes largest and most active volcano, has been grouchy in recent weeks, sending up plumes of glowing red lava and ash that could be seen for miles from its peaks in Sicily.And early on Thursday, it issued another fearsome blast, injuring at least 10 people who had been on the mountain to take a closer look, according to wire service reports.A BBC science reporter on the scene described what happened in a series of tweets.Many injured some head injuries, burns, cuts and bruises, the BBC reporter, Rebecca Morrelle, wrote in describing a dramatic flight down the mountain amid a huge explosion.Running down a mountain pelted by rocks, dodging burning boulders and boiling steam not an experience I ever want to repeat, Ms. Morrelle wrote.An unnamed volcanologist on the mountain, she said, told her it was the most dangerous incident experience in his 30-year career.Ms. Morrelle said a medical team had logged at least eight injuries, all minor, and that the BBC crew was unharmed. Emergency authorities reported other injuries later.Back at the hotel, Ms. Morrelle shared a photograph of Rachel Price, a camera operator, brandishing a coat with a big hole burned through by a lump of rock.This prompted a reply from Philippa Demonte, a volcanologist apparently sitting safely in Salford, England, who recalled her early days studying lava flows in Hawaii.Rule No. 1 no synthetic clothing, she wrote.Images of the eruption were also captured from space. In this satellite image, posted by the European Space Agency, the snow has been processed in blue, to distinguish it from clouds.Earlier on Thursday, before ascending, Ms. Price, the camera operator, had posted an image of the snow-capped volcano, looking beautiful but not exactly sweet under cloud-streaked blue skies, in a tweet capped off with the hashtag #exciting.Indeed.

World

Credit...Clemens Bilan/EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 18, 2018BERLIN With three weeks until German conservatives vote on a new party leader, a race that has long been a back-room affair has been making headlines across Germany and beyond.As the Christian Democratic Union seeks to replace Angela Merkel, who is stepping down after 18 years, the party, and the country, is keenly aware that whoever succeeds her as party leader could well become the next chancellor of Germany.The three leading contenders started their campaigns in the northern Germany city of Lbeck on Thursday, the first of eight regional party conferences before delegates vote at a party congress on Dec. 7.At the moment, it is just about the party leader, said Ursula Mnch, director of the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing, but that person will potentially be the chancellor candidate, so it is actually about much more.Ms. Merkel has risen to become Europes most powerful leader over her 13 years as chancellor. She surprised Germany when she announced last month that she would step down as party chief in December and would not seek re-election as chancellor in 2021, when her term ends.Among the leading contenders are a traditionalist struggling to distance herself from the chancellor, a former rival of Ms. Merkels seeking to burnish his political credentials after a nine-year hiatus in finance, and a 38-year-old upstart who argues that the party needs to appeal to a new generation.The Christian Democrats bled support to the left and the far right in two state elections last month, and recent polls have shown them with the support of 26 percent of voters, down from nearly 33 percent in last years general election. Winning back disaffected voters and coming to terms with Ms. Merkels decision to allow more than one million migrants into the country in 2015 are among the major issues the partys next leader will have to face.ImageCredit...Wolfgang Kumm/DPA, via Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesPolitical analysts say the race will ultimately come down to two candidates, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Friedrich Merz. They earned the strongest applause at Thursdays meeting in Lbeck.Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, has followed a traditional path among Christian Democrats, rising through the party ranks to win three state election campaigns on the way to a seven-year run as governor of Saarland. This year, she left regional politics for a stint as party general secretary in Berlin, a move Ms. Merkel had encouraged.But Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauers association with the chancellor may prove to be her biggest liability. She has been seeking to distance herself from Ms. Merkel recently, and on Thursday she called for increased domestic security and for a rejuvenation of conservative values.She also emphasized her history of winning difficult races in Saarland, Germanys smallest state, on the border with France. At the end of the day, what matters is whether you can win elections and in all honesty, I have made it through a lot of elections, against a lot of opposition, she told the public broadcaster ZDF last week. You can be rhetorically very gifted, but at the end of the day, you need something to show for it.That remark was clearly a jab aimed at Mr. Merz, 62, a charismatic speaker who is remembered for his approachability during a brief term as conservative floor leader that ended when Ms. Merkel ousted him in 2002.On Thursday, he laid out a five-point plan to attract more voters to the party, including winning back the roughly one million voters lost to the far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, in the 2017 general election.Those are not nationalists or anti-Semites, those are voters who are disappointed with the conservatives, Mr. Merz said in an interview with the newspaper Bild that was published online on Wednesday. In the short term, we wont get rid of the AfD, but we can halve it.Yet in the same interview, he refused to answer a question about the size of the personal fortune he had amassed since leaving politics nine years ago, going on to lead the Germany office of BlackRock, considered the worlds largest private fund manager, and to become senior counsel at an international law firm.ImageCredit...Tobias Schwarz/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesPressed on whether he was a millionaire many Germans are skeptical of extreme wealth, believing that social equality helps to ensure public peace he said only that his net worth was not below that.The third candidate, Jens Spahn, the current minister of public health, is calling for more open debate in the party, and an effort to attract more younger voters, who are increasingly heading to the Greens.I am offering a generational change, Mr. Spahn told party delegates gathered in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Nov. 7. Though he comes from the more conservative wing of the Christian Democratic Union, as an openly gay man who married his partner months after Germany changed the law to allow same-sex marriage, he brings a socially progressive face to the party.Although the candidates appeared largely to agree with one another during the debate on Thursday, that it even took place is part of an unusually democratic process for the Christian Democratic Union.The party was born out of the chaos in the immediate aftermath of World War II, intent on binding together people from disparate social backgrounds under an umbrella of shared Christian values. For decades, party leaders there have been only seven since 1950 were largely decided behind closed doors, rendering congress votes little more than a formality.There is no official crown prince or princess the race is truly open, said Stefan Marschall, a professor of politics at the Heinrich-Heine-University of Dsseldorf. Its as if a window had been thrown open and stirred up discussions and debates, including about the direction of the party, that were previously not taking place.Whoever emerges as the winner after Dec. 7 may determine whether the country faces a snap election. While Ms. Merkel has shown in the past year that she can work with Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer, it would be hard to see her upholding her promise to serve out her term until the end of 2021 if Mr. Merz becomes the next party leader.And the center-left Social Democrats, who make up the other part of Ms. Merkels government, have indicated that they view Mr. Merz as unacceptably right-leaning, making their departure from the governing coalition more likely.

World

Credit...Wang Quanchao/Xinhua, via Associated PressNov. 2, 2018BEIJING In their final moments, the passengers screamed.A woman stood at the front of the bus, slapping the driver with a cellphone. The driver hit back, losing control of the bus and sending it plunging nearly 200 feet into the Yangtze River in southwestern China.Credit...CreditVideo by CGTNThe fight was the talk of China on Friday, as the police released a video, recovered from the wreckage, showing the moments before the crash, which occurred on Sunday in the city of Chongqing and killed at least 13 people.The video was viewed hundreds of millions of times, eliciting shock, scorn and questions about whether there was too much vitriol in society.Maybe theres too much negative energy, Wang Chenshuang, 30, a resident of Chongqing who works in the education industry, said by telephone. Its surprising.Two people who were on the bus are still missing, and no survivors have been found, the police said.The authorities said the woman, surnamed Liu, 48, began hitting the driver, surnamed Ran, 42, after she missed her stop and he refused to let her off.Much of the fury on Friday played out online, where internet users said they were outraged that Ms. Liu and Mr. Ran would allow a petty fight to endanger the lives of so many people. They called on the government to do more to protect bus drivers.In a few seconds, a whole bus of life is lost, wrote one commenter on Weibo, a microblogging site. The price of acting on impulse is too grave.Zheng Chuankai, a lawyer with Anli Partners in Beijing, said the incident underscored the need to maintain strict laws to punish those who endanger public safety.This case is very typical and very vicious, he said.Previously, state media outlets had blamed a female driver for the crash, whose car collided with the bus before it plunged into the river. Those reports unleashed sexist rants against female drivers online.But the police on Friday made it clear that it was the fight that had caused the crash, blaming in a statement the mutual fistfighting behavior of Ms. Liu and Mr. Ran.Fifteen fresh lives have vanished, and the lessons are extremely painful, the statement said. May the dead rest in peace, and the living be warned.After the video emerged on Friday, many women spoke out against those who had initially blamed the female driver for the crash.Every time I see this, it makes me very angry and indignant, Joy Lin, a gender equality advocate in Shanghai, said by telephone. Women are being blamed for mistakes that arent their own.An online commentary by Peoples Daily, the main newspaper of the Chinese government, described the dispute that led to the fatal crash as pointless.We have to ask, why do fistfights between passengers and drivers keep happening? the commentary said. Take to heart the lessons painfully learned, and dont stop at sobbing. And dont stop at anger. There is no redemption without thorough reflection.

World

Business|Applications for Jobless Benefits Fallhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/business/applications-for-jobless-benefits-fall.htmlDec. 17, 2015WASHINGTON The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week fell from a five-month high, suggesting sustained labor market healing.Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 271,000 for the week ended Dec. 12, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The labor market continues to stay tight with demand for workers strong and pockets of actual shortages in many industries, said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York.It was the 41st straight week that claims remained below 300,000, a threshold associated with strong labor market conditions. That is the longest such run since the early 1970s.The four-week moving average of claims, which strips out week-to-week volatility, slipped 250 to 270,500 last week.Despite the labor market momentum, there remains no respite for the manufacturing sector, which has been slammed by a robust dollar, deep spending cuts by energy firms, weak global demand and efforts by businesses to reduce an inventory glut.A separate report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed its gauge of manufacturing activity in the region fell to -5.9 this month from 1.9 in November. It was the third negative reading in the last four months.Dollar strength, which has eroded exports and the profits of multinational corporations, helped to push the current account deficit in the third quarter to its highest level in nearly seven years, another report from the Commerce Department showed.The current account deficit, which measures the flow of goods, services and investments into and out of the country, increased 11.7 percent to $124.1 billion, the largest shortfall since the fourth quarter of 2008.With rates of return in foreign economies likely to remain depressed for the foreseeable future, said Jay Bryson, global economist at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, N.C., we look for the dollar to strengthen further in the coming quarters.

Business

Out ThereA vast wheel of gas in the primordial cosmos is forcing astronomers to rethink how some of the universes largest structures may have formed.Credit...NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. DagnelloPublished May 20, 2020Updated May 25, 2020In the early days of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers, eager to see how far out in space and how far back in time their new instrument could peer, pointed it at an empty tract of sky. What returned was an image of space littered with what the astronomer Alan Dressler of the Carnegie Observatories called train wrecks: irregular, fragmented clouds of stars known as protogalaxies, flecks of starlight scattered like orphan jigsaw puzzle pieces across the primordial heavens.The scene fit nicely with the growing consensus of how the universe had evolved over cosmic time: Small bits of matter gas, dust and starlight slowly assembled themselves into ever larger structures, eventually resulting in majestic spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, 100,000 light-years across and home to hundreds of billions of stars.But a new discovery suggests that this vision of cosmic growth may need revision. On Wednesday, radio astronomers using the mighty Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, radio telescope in Chile announced that they had discovered a cloud of gas located on the distant shores of time. It appears to be an infant galaxy similar in size to its grown-up counterpart, our own Milky Way, and dates to a time when the universe was only 1.5 billion years old, one-tenth its current age.The galaxy, known formally as ALMA J081740.86+135138.2, after its coordinates in the sky, is a giant, rotating wheel of gas, dust and faint starlight a so-called disk galaxy that extends 100,000 light-years across the primordial sky. It is at least as massive as 70 or 80 billion suns, in the same weight class as the Milky Way.To see it is a surprise, said J. Xavier Prochaska of the University of California, Santa Cruz, one of the authors of a paper, published in Nature, describing the discovery.Conventional lore held that such disk galaxies could not grow so big so early. Most galaxies that we find early in the universe look like train wrecks because they underwent consistent and often violent merging, Marcel Neeleman of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and lead author of the paper, said in a statement released by the institute. These hot mergers make it difficult to form well-ordered, cold rotating disks like we observe in our present universe.In an interview, Dr. Prochaska said that train wrecks still make up 90 percent of the action in the very early universe. But the discovery of this galaxy suggests that large rotating disks were also part of the primordial mix, and that astronomers will most likely find more of them, he said. If that is the case, astronomers will need to modify some of their theories of how galaxies came to be.Dr. Dressler, who called the new result a nice piece of work, said that computer models and simulations have never fully reproduced the details of galaxy and star formation without having to be constantly patched to fit new data.Im glad to see state-of-the-art observations again challenging the orthodoxy, he said.ImageCredit...ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), M. Neeleman; NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. DagnelloTo a cosmologist, galaxies are the true citizens of the cosmos. But where they come from and how they grow has always been fraught with controversy. And it is a story told mostly in the dark.That story, researchers agree, began 13.8 billion years ago, when the universe emerged from the Big Bang as a fiery fizz of particles and energy. Sadly for astronomers, who like to see things, the atoms that comprise stars and ourselves are only a small minority constituent of what exists. This visible matter is vastly outweighed by mysterious dark matter, as yet unidentified, that seems to interact with us only through gravity.In what has become the standard view of cosmology, dark matter provides the gravitational scaffolding for galaxies and other large structures. Small irregularities in the distribution of dark matter clump together into dense clouds connected by stringy filaments, according to computer simulations of the process. These spider-web shapes slowly draw ordinary atomic matter, which can eventually light up as stars, into their gravitational grip.This is where things get messy. When gas falls into a galaxy, it heats up and becomes unruly more so as it is banged around by other clouds of gas and dust and causes train wrecks. Before the gas can grow dense enough to form stars, these wrecks must cool down again. The process can take a long, long time billions of years to settle down and form a stately disk as big as the Milky Way.So the standard theory goes. But the history of the field is full of discrepant observations necessitating patching of the theory. There are hints, for example, of a phenomenon called downsizing, in which, as Dr. Dressler described it, the galaxies that grew earliest became the most massive ones visible today.As a result, some astronomers have suspected that there might be another way for gas that was already cool to leak into the galaxy perhaps, for instance, along the dark matter filaments that connected the big clumps of matter. Among those astronomers was Arthur Wolfe of the University of California, San Diego. He made it his mission to find galaxies or protogalaxies that could have formed when the universe was only 1 billion or so years old.Were not saying that the cosmology is wrong, Dr. Wolfe said in a statement from the university in 1997. Were saying the part of the standard lore concerning galaxy formation needs to be changed.Stars from objects so distant would be too hard to spot. Dr. Wolfe concentrated on detecting the gas in the protogalaxy disks by seeing how it affected the light from even more distant quasars.The quasars act like flashlights for us to observe the universe between us and the quasar, Dr. Prochaska said. Gases like hydrogen would take a notch out of the spectrum of quasar light at certain characteristic wavelengths.Using the Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea and a telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, Dr. Wolfe looked for quasars that showed the telltale absorption patterns indicating the possible existence of an intervening galaxy.Dr. Wolfe died in 2014, but his students Dr. Prochaska and Dr. Neeleman have carried on. In 2018 they aimed the giant ALMA radio telescope in Chile at what they considered the best galaxy on a list of candidates Dr. Wolfe had assembled, an object known smartly as DLA0817g. In the course of an hour they recorded the unmistakable signature of a large, stable rotating disk of gas a long sought galaxy.They named it the Wolfe Disk, in honor of their mentor. It may be the first of many such galaxies to be found; the list of candidates now stands at 20, Dr. Prochaska said. Last year, the team reported another an observation in the primordial universe, of what appears to be a pair of merging galaxies. The explanation that these disks are made by massive cold flows at very early times seems quite sensible, Dr. Dressler said.James Peebles, a Princeton physicist who last year won the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing most of the techniques now used in cosmology, recalled that Dr. Wolfes ideas were controversial.Yes, I remember Art Wolfes discomfort with the treatment of his evidence for the presence of large disk galaxies at high redshift, he said in an email; redshift is what cosmologists use to measure distance and time in the universe. The Young Turks declared Arts evidence to be theoretically excluded.He added: And since Prochaska was Arts student, and close to Art, their naming this large spiral a Wolfe Disk is a nice touch.

science

Technology|Google delays its return to office until January.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/technology/google-rto-delta-variant.htmlIt is the latest company to push back plans for a return in light of the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.Credit...Laura Morton for The New York TimesPublished Aug. 31, 2021Updated Sept. 21, 2021Google is pushing back its return-to-office date by three months, to Jan. 10, in a decision that reflects the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Alphabet, Googles parent company, informed employees of the plans in an email on Tuesday. He said that after Jan. 10, offices in different countries and locations will determine for themselves when to return based on local conditions, and that employees will get 30-days notice.Like other companies, Google has repeatedly postponed the date when it expects its employees to return to work at its offices. Last month, Google pushed back its return date from September to October and announced that it would require employees who returned to the companys offices to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.If Google employees return to the office in January, it will be nearly two years since the company asked its staff to work from home in the early days of the pandemic. The extended period of working from home has forced the company to rethink the future of its workplace and what is the best way to balance remote work with in-person collaboration.

Tech

Feb. 16, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia A day after a six-and-a-half-hour operation to repair her spine, which was fractured when she fell during a training run, the Russian ski cross racer Maria Komissarova was transferred to a hospital in Munich, where she will receive additional treatment, the Russian Olympic Committee said Sunday.Doctors who performed the emergency surgery here said Komissarova was in grave but stable condition when she left.A spokesman for the Russian freestyle ski federation, Mikhail Verzhba, said in a statement that Komissarova had sustained a displaced fracture of the 12th dorsal vertebra, in her lower-middle back, and that a metal implant had been inserted in her spine to replace the part that had been destroyed.Verzhba added that Komissarova was conscious but that it was too early to give a prognosis. He said that doctors would know more in a few days and that Komissarova would need a second operation in about two weeks.Komissarovas injury has been big news in her home country and has added a somber note to Russias first Olympics as host since the fall of the Soviet Union.President Vladimir V. Putin visited Komissarova in the hospital Saturday night after attending a hockey game between Russia and the United States. Russian television showed him standing at her bedside in the intensive care ward. He tapped her gently on the head and later rested his hand on her arm.The Kremlin said that Komissarova expressed concern for her father and that Putin called him to assure him that doctors were making every effort on her behalf.ImageCredit...Pool photo by Mikhail KlimentyevOn Sunday, doctors at the clinic where Komissarova had been recovering, Krasnaya Polyana Hospital No. 8, declined to offer any further details about her condition. Her father arrived from their hometown, St. Petersburg, and was seen entering the hospital, but he did not stop to speak to reporters.The accident occurred Saturday while Komissarova was practicing for the womens ski cross race, in which skiers race directly against one another, rather than going down the course separately for timed runs, on a course that combines regular downhill skiing with elaborate jumps and turns.The course here is said to be a bigger course, with more dramatic jumps than some skiers are used to.Although the snow has been soft in the mountain courses here, a spokeswoman for the International Ski Federation said the ski cross course had been inspected by all the athletes and coaches before Saturdays training run and had been found to be in excellent condition.The spokeswoman, Jenny Wiedeke, said the accident occurred as Komissarova exited the third of a series of jumps near the top of the course. It was immediately clear that something had happened, Wiedeke said, when Komissarova didnt come out of the third jump. She was stabilized and removed from the course on a stretcher.Yelena Vorona, the head of the Russian freestyle skiing team, told Russian news organizations that Komissarova had apparently relaxed as she went over the waves and had crashed on a relatively easy part of the run.There have been a number of other injuries at the Winter Games. On Sunday, two competitors wiped out during qualifying heats in womens snowboard cross and had to be taken off the mountain on stretchers. One, Jacqueline Hernandez of the United States, sustained a concussion, officials said, and withdrew from competition. The other, Helene Olafsen of Norway, sustained a knee injury.Also on Sunday, two competitors required medical treatment after sustaining injuries while training for the freestyle skiing halfpipe competition, Reuters reported. One, Christopher Lambert of Switzerland, was thought to have dislocated his right elbow. The other, Rowan Cheshire of Britain, was knocked unconscious as she came off a wall, and a team statement said she had sustained a concussion.

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Inside the RingsCredit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFeb. 6, 2014SOCHI, Russia On Thursday night, the first great Russian star competed at the first Russian Winter Olympics. The eager crowd was disappointingly small at the Iceberg Skating Palace, but Evgeni Plushenko never needed a big audience. He could put on a show in a phone booth.At 31, he possesses the hardware of an enduring figure skating champion three Olympic medals and an untold number of screws in his back from operations. Only one skater has won more medals. Few have endured the same stress on the body for as many years as Plushenko, with his four-revolution jumps and impossible flexibility.Still, there is a final Olympic performance to give in his home country, and Plushenko did not disappoint Thursday, finishing second in the short program of a team event being introduced here before the traditional skating schedule begins.This was a classic Plushenko routine, long on drama, short on niceties beyond his jumping. Performing to tango music, he landed uncertainly on his triple axel, labored on his spins and, as usual, did not overly concern himself with elegant movement and footwork.But he landed a quadruple-toeloop, triple-toeloop combination jump on a night when Patrick Chan, the reigning three-time world champion from Canada and Olympic favorite, could not.And Plushenko never missed a chance to play to an audience that stood on its feet, chanted his name and waved the red, white and blue Russian flag. He blew a kiss during his routine, summoned applause with his hands and later gave the thumbs-up and signaled that he was No. 1.In case anyone doubted his willingness to exhaust his remaining effort at his fourth Olympics, or his devotion to a waning career tempered by a dozen operations, he wore red rhinestones over his heart.It doesnt matter what kind of result will be in the end, Plushenko said. I already win for myself.Ten countries are competing for gold, silver and bronze in the team event, which will conclude Saturday and Sunday and includes mens, womens, pairs and ice dancing competitions.In the mens short program Thursday, Yuzuru Hanyu, a Japanese teenager, finished first. Plushenko was second, while an awkward Chan took third. After the pairs short program, won by the Russian world champions and Olympic favorites, Maxim Trankov and Tatiana Volosozhar, Russia held first place with 19 points awarded on a 10-point sliding scale for each discipline. Canada was second with 17 points and China third with 15.Any chance of a team gold for the United States, tied for fifth, seemed remote after Jeremy Abbott finished seventh in a disastrous mens short program.Before his performance, Plushenko seemed nervous, saying later the home support had left him shocked and somewhat dizzy.Concentrate, he told himself. Concentrate.Many had expected Plushenko to retire after winning a gold medal in 2006 and silvers in 2002 and 2010. But he campaigned to bring the Olympics to Sochi and politicked to gain Russias only mens spot in these Games after finishing second at the Russian championships in December and skipping the European championships in January.Russian officials chose Plushenko over Maxim Kovtun, the 18-year-old national champion who wilted at the Europeans and finished fifth. At a home Olympics, Russia does not want an embarrassing repeat of the 2010 Games in Vancouver, where it failed to win a gold medal in figure skating for the first time since 1960.One needs to have solid experience of top international competitions to aspire to win Olympic medals, Plushenko said last month.His practice routines had been spare but encouraging in recent days. A number of experts expected him to skate convincingly Thursday, or at least with great theater.He takes the stage like almost no one else, said Kurt Browning, a former four-time world champion from Canada, who added that Plushenko might not be one of his favorite skaters, but he sure would not leave to get a sandwich when hes skating.When last seen at the Olympics, in 2010 in Vancouver, Plushenko finished second to Evan Lysacek of the United States and reacted bitterly to Lysaceks lack of a quadruple jump.If the Olympic champion doesnt know how to jump quad, I dont know, Plushenko, who prefers difficult tricks and innovation, said at the time. Now its not figure skating. Now its dancing.To gain late entry into the Sochi Games, Plushenko reportedly had to persuade Russian skating officials of his worthiness with a performance behind closed doors.Last fall, when Plushenkos return was in doubt, Alexei Mishin, his coach, said in an interview: He still has screws in his back; its not so simple to do the jumps, but hes charged very powerful to be a skater. All his life was a struggle for himself. Nobody awarded him any medals for free, just for the hard work.As a boy in Russias Far East, Plushenko was susceptible to colds and pneumonia. He took up figure skating as a curative at age 4. His family moved to Volgograd, and when the Soviet Union collapsed, Plushenkos rink became a showroom for an automobile dealership.At 11, he moved to St. Petersburg to train with Mishin, who said the young Plushenko looked like a cheap chicken: green blue, no fat, very ecological.Two decades later, Plushenko can win a fourth medal if his brittle body holds up in the long program in the team event. He is not a medal favorite in the singles competition, but his place in skating history is secure. Only Gillis Grafstrom of Sweden, who won gold in 1920, 24 and 28, and silver in 1932, has won four Olympic skating medals.Three medals in the Olympics, doesnt that make you a legend? Browning said of Plushenko. And now he could win a fourth.

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ScienceTakeVideotranscripttranscriptCocka-ToolsCockatoos can make simple tools out of a variety of materials, like bamboo and even cardboard.This is Figaro, a goffin cockatoo. Hes making a tool out of larch wood to get a little bit of cashew. These birds are so smart Theyre sometimes compared to human 3 year olds. Figaro discovered how to make tools completely on his own. A few years ago. Then the scientists set it up so that three other cockatoos could learn from him. Then the researchers wondered if the birds could transfer those skills to different kinds of materials. So they offered the birds larch wood, a twig cardboard and beeswax. All four birds could trim a twig. No problem. Three could do larch wood. One seemed to have some kind of larch wood phobia. Two of the birds Figaro and Doolittle, could handle the cardboard.That required some serious Cut-out work. Impressive. But if these birds look like good pets, Think about this. like a three year old. They need tremendous attention and stimulation. But. These are birds. And they stay with that three year old level. For 40 years. Or more.Cockatoos can make simple tools out of a variety of materials, like bamboo and even cardboard.Nov. 21, 2016The Goffins cockatoo is a smart bird, so smart it has been compared to a 3-year-old human.But even for this species, a bird named Figaro stands out for his creativity with tools.Hand-raised at the Veterinary University of Vienna, the male bird was trying to play with a pebble that fell outside his aviary onto a wooden beam about four years ago. First he used a piece of bamboo to try to rake the stone back in.Impressed, scientists in the university Goffins lab, which specializes in testing the thinking abilities of the birds, put a cashew nut where the pebble had been. Figaro extended his beak through the wire mesh to bite a splinter off the wooden beam. He used the splinter to fish the cashew in, a fairly difficult process because he had to work the splinter through the mesh and position it at the right angle.In later trials, Figaro made his tools much more quickly, and also picked a bamboo twig from the bottom of the aviary and trimmed it to make a similar tool.Cockatoos dont do anything like this in nature, as far as anyone knows. They dont use tools. They dont even build nests, so they are not used to manipulating sticks. And they have curved bills, unlike the straight beaks of crows and jays that make manipulating tools a bit easier. Blue jays have been observed creating tools from newspaper to pull food pellets to them.Alice M.I. Auersperg, a researcher at the Veterinary University of Vienna who studies cognition in animals, and her colleagues reported those first accomplishments by Figaro in 2012. Since then, they have continued to test Figaro and other birds in the lab that were able to learn tool use or tool making, sometimes both, by watching Figaro.Most recently, Dr. Auersperg and colleagues report in the journal Biology Letters, the scientists tested four cockatoos to see if they could adapt their skills to different materials. The birds had different skill sets when they started. Figaro had already mastered larch wood and a bamboo twig. Another bird, Pipin, had only mastered tool use.The results made two things clear. First, these birds can transfer a skill to a completely different material. Both Figaro and Dolittle were able to make tools not only out of larch wood and twigs, but out of cardboard, which required a fairly complicated biting procedure to cut out a tool of the right length and width. Think of a toddler trying to master that task with kiddie scissors.But the tests also showed clear variations in the abilities of different birds. Pipin seemed to have something against larch wood, but was able to trim a twig, as were all of the birds.That was the only triumph for Pipin, whereas Kiwi could do twigs and larch wood, but not cardboard.The birds were also offered beeswax, which none of them could turn into the equivalent of a stick.Dr. Auersperg may look into individual differences in future research. For now, she says, the cockatoos have shown that their general level of intelligence, which perhaps evolved because they ate some foods in the wild that had to be extracted from hard shells, can be put to use in making and using tools in ways not seen in nature.She did say that the birds are so intelligent and complex in their behaviors that keeping them as pets is quite demanding. You might even compare it to dealing with a 3-year-old for 40 years or more. Thats how long the cockatoo can live.

science

A choreography of swimming, walking and rolling could help future rovers avoid getting stuck in loose soil on the moon or Mars.VideoA mini-rover escapes from terrain made of poppy seeds. Video by Shrivastava et al., Sci. Robot. 5, eaba3499 (2020)May 13, 2020Driving up a sandy hill on a distant world is a good way to get stuck.A decade ago, NASAs Spirit rover died on Mars after it drove into a sand trap. For months, the mission managers on Earth sent commands for the rover to spin its wheels, but Spirit could never wriggle free. When the Martian winter arrived, Spirit fell silent forever because its solar panels were pointed away from the sun, ending a mission that had spent more than six years aiding discoveries on the red planet.Engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with a more elaborate choreography of motions a combination of swimming, walking and rolling that could help future rovers avoid a similar fate, and even allow them to traverse more challenging terrains instead of driving around them.When you only have wheels, said Daniel I. Goldman, a professor of physics at Georgia Tech, that limits your ability to go anywhere.Dr. Goldman studies the movements of animals and applies that knowledge to building robots, including the one he and his colleagues describe in an article published Wednesday in Science Robotics.The wheels of the miniature Georgia Tech rover do more than just roll. The researchers describe a motion in which the front wheels stirred up granular material poppy seeds, it turns out, work well for this sort of experiment and swept it toward the rear wheels. At the same time, the rear wheels wiggled side to side in a paddling-like motion, pushing the rover up a sandy slope.With the material pushed toward the back, the rover was more level, and that helped it move up an incline.The work builds on a NASA mission called Resource Prospector that was to send a rover to study ice in a polar region of the moon. The ice is expected to be a key resource for a future moon colony. The water molecules would not only give people living there something to drink, but could be broken apart into oxygen and hydrogen.VideoThe RP15 rover wiggles its way out of a jam during testing on Earth. Video by Shrivastava et al., Sci. Robot. 5, eaba3499 (2020)NASA engineers built a prototype called RP15, which included a suspension that allowed the rover to lift a wheel and move it forward, similar to the way you lift your foot as you walk.Although the Trump administrations goal is to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024, NASA canceled Resource Prospector in 2018, saying it did not fit into the current program. RP15 was packed up and put away.Dr. Goldman had already started collaborating with the NASA engineers to study the different ways RP15 might be able to move. Siddharth Shrivastava, then a high school student working in Dr. Goldmans laboratory, led the making of a miniature version of RP15, which they called Mini Rover.The test chamber could be tilted at different angles, and the granular properties of the poppy seeds could be altered by blowing air through them.Mr. Shrivastava, now an undergraduate student at Georgia Tech, experimented with different motions to see what worked best. I kind of just toyed with a lot of different gaits, he said.This was not the first time Dr. Goldman had tackled the problem of climbing sandy alien hills. In years past, he conducted experiments with a six-legged robot that looked somewhat like a rover on stilts and another, built by Carnegie Mellon University scientists, that resembled a sidewinder snake.ImageCredit...Carnegie Mellon UniversityImageCredit...John Toon, Georgia TechBut the key for the earlier robots was to try to not disturb the soil, and to avoid digging a hole to get stuck in. We found the rule seemed to be, Do no harm, Dr. Goldman said. Keep the material as solid as possible as long as possible.The Mini Rover upended this thinking, Dr. Goldman said. You make this giant mess, particularly with this rear motor paddling gait, he said. And that mess, if you make it right, turns into a good fluid that you can kind of swim and crawl through, which we hadnt expected.The lessons could head to the moon in the coming years, with Resource Prospector revived under a different name Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER and a tentative launch date of 2023.The four-wheel design, about the size of a golf cart, is largely based on Resource Prospector, but William Bluethmann, who is leading the rover development of VIPER and an author of the Science Robotics paper, said his team will be exploring some of the newer motion strategies.The thinking is that the novel locomotion would be used only in emergencies where you get stuck in soft soil and you need to get back on firm ground, Dr. Bluethmann said.There are currently no plans to incorporate the locomotion on rovers farther away, such as those exploring Mars. With a moon rover, mission controllers will have near real-time control, with a delay of several seconds between sending a command and seeing what happens.But it still could be used for a Mars mission, if engineers are able to give the rover the smarts to react quickly on its own in the event that it started slipping or sinking into a sandy slope.Still, Dr. Goldman thinks the technology could offer more flexibility to future rovers. This combination of wheels and paddling and lifting, if sequenced properly, is really powerful, he said. No longer just wheels at the end of sticks but they are actually active appendages, and I think thats exciting.

science

Blue Origin launched the Amazon founder to the edge of space in July and has another flight planned in October, but the company has experienced other setbacks this year.Credit...Nick Cote for The New York TimesPublished Sept. 30, 2021Updated Oct. 13, 2021Former and current employees at Blue Origin, the rocket company started by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the richest people in the world, say the company is rife with sexism, intolerant of employees who dare to contradict their bosses and lax on safety.The claims, including charges of sexual harassment by company executives, were put forward in an essay written by 21 employees and former employees and published Thursday on the website Lioness. Only one former employee identified herself. The essay also suggested that there were safety concerns about New Shepard, the vehicle that flew Mr. Bezos and three other passengers to the edge of space in July.In the opinion of an engineer who has signed on to this essay, Blue Origin has been lucky that nothing has happened so far, the essay writers said. Many of this essays authors say they would not fly on a Blue Origin vehicle.The next New Shepard flight is scheduled for Oct. 12, and one of its four paying passengers said his plans had not changed.I am confident in Blue Origins safety program, spacecraft, and track record, and certainly wouldnt be flying with them if I wasnt, Glen de Vries, vice chair of life sciences and health care at the French software company Dassault Systmes, said in a message via Twitter. Ive been to the launch site, met people at every level of the company, and everything Ive seen was indicative of a great team and culture.The other announced passenger, Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of Planet Labs, a satellite operator, did not respond to a request for comment.Alexandra Abrams, the essay writer who spoke publicly, is a former head of employee communications at Blue Origin. She was fired from the company in 2019. She also appeared on CBS Mornings on Thursday.You cannot create a culture of safety and a culture of fear at the same time, Ms. Abrams told CBS. They are incompatible.A statement from a Blue Origin spokesman said Ms. Abrams had been fired for cause in 2019 after repeated warnings for issues involving federal export control regulations. Ms. Abrams said she had never received any warnings, verbal or written.The company also disputed the culture and safety allegations.Blue Origin has no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind, the spokesman said. We provide numerous avenues for employees, including a 24/7 anonymous hotline, and will promptly investigate any new claims of misconduct. We stand by our safety record and believe that New Shepard is the safest space vehicle ever designed or built.Mr. Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000. The company is part of a wave of businesses, along with Elon Musks SpaceX and Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic, that aim to lower the cost of launching rockets and opening space to private enterprise as well as space tourists.ImageCredit...Joe Skipper/ReutersIt had its greatest achievement to date in July: a successful first flight of the New Shepard vehicle with people aboard. That spacecraft is too small to enter orbit around Earth; instead, it reaches more than 60 miles off the ground, offering a few minutes of weightlessness, and then falls back to Earth, slowed by parachutes. In addition to the July flight, it has conducted 16 successful launches without people aboard.But outside of Mr. Bezos launch, Blue Origin has been mired in unflattering news for much of the rest of this year. In the spring, the company failed to win a contract from NASA to build a lander to take astronauts back to the surface of the moon. Blue Origin appealed the decision to the federal Government Accountability Office and lost. It is now suing NASA in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.The website The Verge reported on Wednesday that NASAs lawyers had dismissed Blue Origins complaints.Realizing now that it gambled and lost, Blue Origin seeks to use GAOs procurement oversight function to improperly compel NASA to suffer the consequences of Blue Origins ill-conceived choices, the lawyers wrote in an internal report on May 26.The Lioness essay describes a toxic, sexist culture at Blue Origin. Former and current employees have had experiences they could only describe as dehumanizing, and are terrified of the potential consequences for speaking out against the wealthiest man on the planet, the essay says.The essay also says that company officials are now pushing to launch New Shepard at a breakneck rate of more than 40 flights per year and that certain operations are understaffed, posing safety risks.The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates rocket launches to ensure the safety of the public, released a statement saying that it was reviewing the information in the essay, as it does with all safety allegations.

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Science|NASA Stops Launch Rehearsal for Its Giant Moon Rockethttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/science/nasa-moon-sls-rehearsal.htmlFirst a lightning storm, then problems with launch tower fans led to snags with a countdown and propellant loading intended as practice for the rockets launch.Credit...Joel Kowsky/NASAApril 3, 2022NASA on Sunday morning cut short a practice countdown for its new megarocket, the Space Launch System. It is a key component of upcoming missions to return astronauts to the moon, and the agency said there was a problem with the mobile launch tower.NASA will try again on Monday.The 322-foot-tall rocket and its Orion capsule are crucial components for Artemis, NASAs moon landing program. The system, which can launch astronauts to lunar orbit but will rely on other components to land them on the moons surface, is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.The weekends exercise, which NASA calls a wet dress rehearsal, is the last major test before the rocket is launched on its first uncrewed test flight, which could occur as soon as this summer. By simulating a countdown without the excitement of engines igniting and a rocket rising to space, NASA hoped to work out glitches with equipment and procedures.The rehearsal, which started Friday night, was wet because it was to include pumping more than 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into the massive rockets propellant tanks.On Saturday afternoon, severe thunderstorms passed over the launch site, with four lightning bolts striking protective towers around the rocket and launcher. Preparation work at the launcher had to be paused during the storm, but after reviewing the data NASA said there was no damage and the countdown could continue.On Sunday, the dress rehearsal was more than three hours behind schedule. Then the halt occurred just before the propellants were to begin flowing. NASA said the problem was found in the mobile launcher, or the movable tower with numerous systems used to manage the rocket on the ground before it lifts off. Fans that create positive air pressure in enclosed areas on the mobile launcher were not working. The positive pressure is needed to prevent buildup of hazardous gases including ones that could potentially ignite.The fan has been running since the mobile launcher was moved to the launch site last month and continued to run during the thunderstorm on Saturday, said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the launch director, during a news conference Sunday evening.For the loading of propellants, the fan is switched to a different mode to blow in more air. The fan ran in this mode for several hours before the problem occurred.We dont believe that was related to the lightning, Ms. Blackwell-Thompson said.Then a backup fan also failed, apparently for a different reason, leading to the halt in the countdown.We decided we wanted to really understand that, given it was the first time loading of the vehicle, Ms. Blackwell-Thompson said. And we make the decision to stay down.On Monday, the loading of propellants is to begin at 7 a.m. Eastern time with the exercise wrapping up in the afternoon. If the rehearsal runs into more snags, another attempt might be possible on Tuesday.The first test flight of the Space Launch System, Artemis 1, could occur this summer with the Orion capsule traveling around the moon and back to Earth without astronauts on board. The second Artemis flight, scheduled for 2024, would have astronauts on board for the same trip. Artemis 3 is to be the first lunar landing by astronauts since 1972. NASA has proposed a 2025 date for that crewed trip, but it could face more postponements.

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Credit...Brett Carlsen for The New York TimesFeb. 15, 2014PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. Early in the summer of 2002, Omar Minaya, the general manager of the Montreal Expos, made what he thought was an easy trade. After five consecutive losing seasons, the Expos, behind Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Vidro, were surprise contenders, in need of a boost. This was perhaps their last hurrah. As part of a six-player deal, Minaya sent Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore all top prospects to the Cleveland Indians for Bartolo Colon. That season, Colon was one of the best pitchers in baseball. In 17 starts, he compiled 10 wins, 4 complete games and a 3.31 earned run average, but the Expos fell out of the playoff race, finishing 83-79. Still, Minaya would make the same trade again. Of course, he said in a phone interview, no doubt about it.Colon energized the clubhouse, the whole ballpark, Minaya said. There was a buzz around the city. Years later, the Mets hope Colon will have a similar effect. After five consecutive losing seasons of their own, they signed him to a two-year, $20 million contract this off-season. They would like him to replace Matt Harvey, their young ace, who will very likely miss the season after having Tommy John elbow surgery. They hope that Colon, 40, can locate his fastball and mentor their young pitchers.On Saturday, Colon sat in a dugout in the Mets minor league complex and met with reporters for the first time this spring. His biceps and his belly stretched the blue shirt he was wearing. He looked bigger than his listed weight of 265 pounds. Im happy to be here, Colon said, smiling.When Minaya traded for him, Colon was 29. His fastball could still touch 98 miles per hour. Off the field, too, he came as advertised. Minaya found him to be quiet, funny once you got to know him and a great teammate, who did not complain and wanted to pitch in every big game. There was just no drama, Minaya said. You knew he was going to take the ball.Minaya does not seem surprised Colon is still pitching. He was always big, but he knew how to carry his weight. His delivery was easy and compact, and he relied on his lower half, driving off that tree trunk of a leg. So as long as his legs are working, hes going to be fine, Minaya said.Colons fastball is his signature pitch. Minaya marveled at its late movement. Terry Collins, the Mets manager, noted how Colon can move it inside and out, up and down, seemingly put it wherever he wants. Because his fastball is so dynamic, it does not necessarily matter how hard he throws. With the Oakland Athletics last season, using that fastball, Colon won 18 games and posted a career-best 2.65 E.R.A., both ranking second in the American League.Some were suspicious of the performance. From 2006 to 2009, he had started just 47 games, and then he missed the 2010 season and his career seemed in jeopardy. While he was out, in April 2010, he had a procedure in the Dominican Republic that involved injecting his own fat and bone marrow cells into his elbow and shoulder. The doctor who oversaw the procedure, Joseph Purita, was known to use human growth hormone with other patients. He denied using H.G.H. with Colon. But in August 2012, Colon was suspended for 50 games for having an elevated level of testosterone. He later was named as part of the Biogenesis scandal. Through an interpreter, Colon said he was a little surprised as well by how well he pitched in 2013. He attributed his success to improved control and simply keeping healthy and working hard. Oakland had taken precautions to protect Colon. He rarely threw bullpen sessions between his starts. His pitch count was generally capped at about 100. Collins does not seem as concerned about Colons age or potential fatigue, even though he will turn 41 in May. He called Colon an old pro who knows how to prepare and take care of himself. But Collins acknowledged concern when Colon, with his doughy physique, has to bat, run the bases and maybe even slide. Other than with the Expos, Colon has not played in the National League. The Mets were the only team to offer Colon a two-year deal. He said that he was not concerned about his weight, and that he wanted to lead the pitching staff by example. Collins wants the younger pitchers to watch him work his fastball. Colon was asked, How much longer can he pitch?He said he would go until his body cant take it anymore.

Sports

Middle East|3,300 Egyptian Children Hospitalized After Food Poisoninghttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/world/middleeast/egypt-food-poisoning-3300-children.htmlMarch 15, 2017CAIRO More than 3,300 children were hospitalized in Egypt on Tuesday after an outbreak of food poisoning at several state-run primary schools, state-owned news media said.The mass poisoning, in the impoverished Upper Egypt province of Sohag, north of Luxor, was one of the biggest food-safety cases to hit the country in years.Officials suspect that school lunches may have been contaminated, and they have opened an investigation. Samples from the lunches, consisting of processed cheese cubes, dry sesame paste bars and loaves of bread, were being analyzed, they added.Children, most younger than 12, began vomiting within an hour of eating the lunches, Ahmed Nashaat, a Sohag lawmaker, said in a telephone interview. A total of 3,353 children became ill, and at least 50 ambulances were sent to the schools, state news media said. Since then, all but 17 of the students have recovered and been discharged. No deaths or serious complications were reported.The ordeal revived complaints over the declining quality of Egypts public education and health systems. It is ridiculous how this keeps on happening, Mr. Nashaat said. It is not hard to store biscuits and look at the expiration date.Apparently in an attempt to deflect some of the anger, the governor of Sohag, Ayman Abdel-Moneim, quickly suspended the distribution of government meals and demanded that changes be made to how they were stored and transported to schools.Tuesdays outbreak was one in a long series that have occurred in public schools and universities nationwide recently. Earlier this month, more than 214 students were found to have food poisoning caused by government meals at several schools in the provinces of Minya and Assiut.Outrage over such instances of perceived government neglect was a main cause of the popular uprising in 2011 that toppled the government of President Hosni Mubarak. It was not just the parents who were angry in Sohag, Mr. Nashaat said. Everyone believes that was the result of neglect. This is leading people to conclude that the people in charge dont care about their kids.

World

Nearly everything in your home including air-conditioners, thermostats, lights and garage doors can be connected to the internet and be remotely controlled with a mobile device or smart speaker. But setting up a so-called smart home can be mind-boggling: There is a plethora of different accessories that work only with certain products, and some work better than others. Here's a guide to help you sort through the jumble and become acclimated to your first voice-controlled smart home.First, Choose Your AssistantAmazon's AlexaPros: If you want to quickly get started with a smart home, buying an Echo product is your best bet. Amazons Echo products are easy to set up and plug in anywhere that you need to summon Alexa. At $50, Echo Dot, the smaller speaker, is one of the cheapest smart home controllers in the market. Alexa has more than 10,000 Skills, or third-party capabilities, making it the most broadly supported smart home hub. The smartphone apps for setting up Echo products work with Apple and Android devices. Cons: Amazons Alexa app for iPhones and Android phones, required for setting up some smart home products, can be clunky. Alexa sometimes has difficulty responding to what you are asking it to do. The speakers on Echo products are generally mediocre. You cant trigger Alexa by speaking to a smartphone; you have to talk to the speaker itself. In its privacy policy, Amazon says it takes no responsibility for third-party products that work with Alexa. In other words, the onus is on you to find out what third-party home accessory companies can do with the data they collect from you. Google's AssistantPros: Googles Home speaker and smartphones running newer versions of Android include Assistant. At $130, Google Home costs $50 less than Amazons standard Echo speaker. In terms of artificial intelligence, Assistant is generally smarter than Alexa and Siri because it is powered by the brains of Google search, meaning you can ask a broader array of questions and are more likely get a correct response. Cons: You summon Assistant by saying O.K., Google, which gets annoying. There are far more smart home products supporting Alexa than Googles Assistant. Google Homes audio quality is just mediocre. While Assistant is slightly smarter than other virtual assistants, it is still flawed and has trouble responding to some requests appropriately. Googles privacy policy on the data it collects with Google Home is vague. It says: Google collects data thats meant to make our services faster, smarter, more relevant and more useful to you. Apple's SiriPros: With privacy in mind, Apple worked directly with home accessory makers to ensure that the data transferred between accessories and Apple devices is secure and encrypted. The integration of Apples HomeKit into its mobile devices makes it much easier to set up Siri with home accessories. Cons: Partly because of Apples stringent privacy requirements, it has taken longer for smart home accessories supporting Siri to reach the market, meaning there are fewer available. Siri sometimes has trouble understanding what you are asking it to do. Siri is exclusive to Apple products. Choose Your HardwareAfter you pick your virtual assistant, youll be able to choose a piece of hardware that will become your primary smart home controller. Amazons Alexa: Echo Dot, Echo and Echo Show Googles Assistant: Google Home, Newer Android Smartphones Apples Siri: iPhones, iPads and Apple Watch The related reading below will help to guide your decision, but cost will likely play a factor, along with your need for a solid set of speakers or desire to have an additional device in your home in the first place.Then, the fun begins. With your virtual assistant you can set up your home a number of ways to make it smarter. Heres a rundown of the different assistants and some products that work well with them.More About Personal AssistantsMore About Personal AssistantsPutting Your Assistant to Work: AlexaControlling Your LightsA wide variety of smart lighting is on the market. While some systems require a so-called bridge, a device that connects with a Wi-Fi router and talks to the smart light, there are also smart light bulbs with a built-in Wi-Fi connection. Lifx is one of these that dont require a bridge so its setup is relatively simple. The bulbs are multi-colored and dimmable, but because they rely on Wi-Fi, their reliability will depend on your Wi-Fi router. To use your Alexa to control a Lifx bulb, you will need: An Amazon Echo product A Lifx bulb like the A19 An Apple or Android smartphone for setting up Alexa to talk to the bulb How to control the lights with Alexa using a Lifx smart bulb: Screw the Lifx bulb into the socket and flip on the light switch. On your smartphone, download the Lifx app from the Apple or Android app store. Open the Lifx app. On the screen, tap the + or Add Bulbs button and follow the setup instructions to connect the bulb to your Wi-Fi network. Give the bulb a friendly name like Lamp. Open the Amazon Alexa app. Tap the menu icon and select Skills. Search for the Lifx skill and enable it. Tap the menu icon and select Smart Home. Tap Devices, then tap Discover. The app will scan for devices and discover the smart bulb named Lamp. Test the light. Make sure the light switch is on. With your Echo nearby, say Alexa, turn off the lamp. Then say, Alexa, turn on the lamp. Then try things like Alexa, dim the lamp and Alexa, brighten the lamp. Read more about the best smart lightbulbs on The Wirecutter.Controlling a FanThere are many plug-in appliances, like fans, electric water kettles and coffee makers, that you probably wish were a little bit smarter. By plugging them into a smart plug, you use a personal assistant to do things like set a specific time for the kettle to heat water in the morning or switch the power on or off remotely. These rely on Wi-Fi to work, so their reliability will only be as good as your signal where they are located. For this hypothetical example, we will set up a fan to work with Alexa and a smart plug from TP-Link. You will need: An Amazon Echo product A TP-Link smart plug A plug-in fan with a physical power switch that can stay in the on position An Apple or Android smartphone for setting up Alexa to talk to the smart plug How to control an electric fan with Alexa using a TP-Link smart plug: On your smartphone, download the Kasa app from the Apple or Android app store. Open the Kasa app and register for an account. Once logged in, tap the Smart Plug icon. Plug the Smart Plug into a power outlet. Plug your electric fan into the Smart Plug. The light on the plug will turn amber. In the Kasa app, follow the instructions to connect your smartphone to the plug. In the Kasa app, give the Smart Plug a friendly name like Fan. Turn on the Remote Control option and follow the instructions to connect the plug to your Wi-Fi network. Open the Amazon Alexa app. Tap the menu icon and select Skills. Search for the TP-Link Kasa skill and enable it. In the Amazon Alexa app, tap the menu icon and select Smart Home. Tap Devices, then tap Discover. The Alexa app will scan for devices and discover the smart plug labeled Fan. Now test the fan. Make sure the fans power switch is in the on position. With your Echo nearby, say Alexa, turn on the fan. Then say, Alexa, turn off the fan. Read more about the best smart switches from The Wirecutter.Controlling the HeatSmart thermostats, like Nest, connect to the internet via Wi-Fi so they can be controlled with a smartphone or virtual assistant. The main benefit of a smart thermostat is that it can detect when you arent home and determine when to shut off the heat or air-conditioning to preserve energy. Setting up a smart thermostat with a virtual assistant gives you the extra perk of being able to set the temperature just by speaking a voice command. For this example, we will set up a Nest thermostat to work with Alexa. You will need: An Amazon Echo product, A Nest thermostat, An Apple or Android smartphone for setting up Alexa to talk to the thermostat. How to control a Nest smart thermostat with Alexa: After installing your Nest thermostat, open the Amazon Alexa app on your smartphone. Tap the menu icon and select Skills. Search for the Nest Thermostat skill and enable it. In the Amazon Alexa app, tap the menu icon and tap Smart Home. Tap Devices, then tap Discover. The app will scan for devices and discover the thermostat. Now test the thermostat. If you gave it a friendly name like Nest, try saying Alexa, change the Nest to 70 degrees. Or say Alexa, what temperature is my Nest set to? Learn more about the best smart thermostats from The Wirecutter.More About Amazon's AlexaPutting Your Assistant to Work: Apple's SiriControlling the LightsAdding a set of smart light bulbs is an easy way to get started building a smart-home system. Some of these systems require a so-called bridge, a device that connects with a Wi-Fi router and transmits data to a receiver on the smart light. But the bridge on the Philips Hue bulb can be used to operate up to 50 bulbs in one home, making it an investment that you can use to slowly increase the number of smart bulbs you use. Here are steps for using Siri to control a Philips Hue bulb. You will need: An iPhone or iPad A Philips Hue lighting kit that works with HomeKit How to control a lamp with Siri using a Philips Hue smart bulb: Follow the instructions to connect a Philips Hue bridge with a Philips Hue light bulb. Open the Home app on your iPhone. Tap the + symbol in the upper-right hand corner and then tap Add Accessory. Wait for the accessory to be discovered. If asked to Add Accessory to Network, tap allow. Use the camera to scan the accessory setup code on the bottom of the Philips Hue Bridge. Follow the instructions in the app to finish setting up your light and give it a friendly name like Lamp. Now test the light. With your iPhone nearby, say Hey, Siri, turn on my lamp. Then say Hey, Siri, turn off my lamp. Read more about the best smart lightbulbs on The Wirecutter.Controlling a FanBeyond lights, there are likely many plug-in appliances, like fans, electric water kettles and coffee makers, in your home that you probably wish were a little bit smarter. A smart plug and a virtual assistant can allow you to do things like set a timer to turn on your kettle to heat water or turn on your fan remotely to cool off your dog when you are away from home. For this hypothetical example, we will set up a fan to work with Siri and a smart plug iHome. You will need: An iPhone or iPad An iHome smart plug A plug-in fan How to control an electric fan with Siri using iHomes SmartPlug: Plug the SmartPlug into a power outlet. The green light will blink. On your iPhone, open the Home app. Tap the + symbol in the upper-right hand corner and then tap Add Accessory. Wait for the accessory to be discovered. If asked to Add Accessory to Network, tap allow. Use the camera to scan the accessory setup code on the bottom of the SmartPlug. Give the plug a friendly name like Fan. Now test the fan. Make sure the fans power switch is in the on position. With your iPhone nearby, say Hey, Siri, turn on the fan. Then say, Hey, Siri, turn off the fan. Read more about the best smart switches from The Wirecutter.Controlling the HeatSmart thermostats connect to the internet via Wi-Fi so they can be controlled with a smartphone or virtual assistant. They are beneficial because they can determine when to shut the heat or air-conditioning to save energy. Setting up a smart thermostat with a virtual assistant gives you the extra perk of being able to control the temperature remotely just by speaking a voice command. For this example, we will set up an Emerson Sensi Touch Wi-Fi Thermostat to work with Siri. You will need: An iPhone An Emerson Sensi Touch Wi-Fi thermostat How to set a smart thermostat with Siri: Follow the instructions to install the Emerson thermostat hardware. On the thermostat, press the Menu button, then Wi-Fi and connect the thermostat to your Wi-Fi network. On your iPhone, open the Home app. Tap the + symbol in the upper-right hand corner and then tap Add Accessory. Wait for the accessory to be discovered. If asked to Add Accessory to Network, tap allow. Follow the steps to connect the thermostat with Apples HomeKit. Now test the thermostat. With your iPhone nearby, say Hey, Siri, set my thermostat to 70 degrees. Or say Hey, Siri, what is my homes temperature? Also try, Hey, Siri, lower my thermostat by 2 degrees. Learn more about the best smart thermostats from The Wirecutter.More About Apple's SiriGet the Personal Tech NewsletterEvery week, get the latest gadget news, reviews and videos.Putting Your Assistant to Work: Google's AssistantGoogle's AssistantGoogles Home smart speaker and some Android smartphones include Googles Assistant. To summon it, just say O.K., Google. To find compatible products, look for accessories that are labeled Works with the Google Assistant on the packaging or in the product description.Controlling the LightsSmart lights come in two varieties. Some systems require a so-called bridge, a device that connects with a Wi-Fi router and talks to the smart light. There are also smart light bulbs with a built-in Wi-Fi connection like Lifx, which dont require a bridge a simpler setup. These bulbs are multi-colored and dimmable, however their reliability they are will depend on your service provider. Here are steps for using Google Assistant to control a Lifx bulb. You will need: A Google Home speaker A Lifx bulb like the A19 An Apple or Android smartphone for setting up Google Home to talk to the bulb How to control Lifx lights with Google Home: Screw the Lifx bulb into the lamp socket and flip on the light switch. On your smartphone, download the Lifx app. Open the Lifx app. On the screen, tap the + or Add Bulbs button and follow the setup instructions to connect the bulb to your Wi-Fi network. With Google Home set up, you should have already installed the Google Home app on your smartphone. Open the app and tap the menu icon in the upper-left corner. Then tap Home Control. Tap the + sign to add a device. Tap LiFx and sign in to your Lifx account. Tap the Authorize button to let Google Assistant control the light. Assign the light to a room, such as the living room. This will make referring to the lights easier. Now test the lamp. With Google Home nearby, say O,K., Google, turn on the light in the living room. Then say O.K., Google, turn off the light in the living room. Read more about the best smart lightbulbs on The Wirecutter.Controlling A FanYou can use your assistant to control many free-standing appliances with the help of a smart plug. By plugging your fan or coffee maker into a smart plug, you can do things like set a specific time for the device to go on and control them remotely. For this hypothetical example, we will set up a fan to work with Google Assistant and a smart plug from iHome. You will need: A Google Home An iHome smart plug An Android device or iPhone to set up the Google Home to talk to the smart plug A fan How to control an electric fan with Google Home using iHomes SmartPlug: On your smartphone, download the iHome Control app and open it. Plug the smart plug into a power outlet. Plug the fans power cable into the smart plug. The green light on the SmartPlug will blink. In iHome Control app, tap the Devices tab, tap Add Device and follow the directions to finish the setup. Use the app to scan the accessory setup code on the bottom of the SmartPlug. Give the plug a friendly name like Fan. On your smartphone, open the Google Home app. Tap the menu button in the top-left corner. Tap Home control. In the devices tab, tap Add. Select iHome and log in to your iHome account to authorize Google Assistant to control the smart plug. Now test the fan. Make sure the fans power switch is in the on position. With your iPhone nearby, say O.K., Google, turn on the fan. Then say, O.K., Google, turn off the fan. Read more about the best smart switches from The Wirecutter.Controlling the HeatSmart thermostats like Nest connect to the internet via Wi-Fi so they can be controlled with a smartphone or virtual assistant. The main benefit of a smart thermostat like Nest is that it can detect when you arent home and determine when to shut off the heat or air-conditioning to save energy. Setting up a smart thermostat with a virtual assistant gives you the extra perk of being able to set the temperature just by speaking a voice command. For this example, we will set up a Nest thermostat to work with Google Home. You will need: A Google Home speaker A Nest thermostat An Apple or Android smartphone for setting up Google Home to talk to the thermostat How to set a Nest smart thermostat with Google Home: After installing and setting up your Nest thermostat, open the Google Home app on your smartphone. In the top left corner, tap the menu icon. Tap More settings, then tap Home control. In the Devices tab, tap Add. Select Nest. Follow the steps to authorize Google Home to access Nest. Now test the thermostat. With Google Home nearby, say O.K., Google, set the heat to 71. Or say O.K., Google, whats the temperature inside? Learn more about the best smart thermostats from The Wirecutter.More About Google's Assistant

Tech

A new study finds a weak link between coloring and straightening treatments and breast cancer. But experts caution the results are far from certain. Credit...iStock/Getty ImagesDec. 4, 2019For decades, scientists have debated whether hair dyes frequently used by women might contribute to cancer. The research has been mixed and inconclusive, but now government investigators have turned up a disturbing new possibility.Black women who regularly used permanent dyes to color their hair were 60 percent more likely to develop breast cancer, compared to black women who did not report using dye, according to an analysis published this week in The International Journal of Cancer. White women using hair dye did not see a significantly increased risk. The reasons are unclear: It may be because different products are designed for women of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, or that variations in hair texture alter the amounts of dye that are applied or absorbed through the skin. The study also implicated hair straighteners, finding a 30 percent increase in the risk of breast cancer among women of all races who reported regular use of the products. African-American women were much more likely than white women to use hair straighteners, the researchers noted.The analysis does not prove hair treatments cause breast cancer, several experts said, and the overall risk for African-American women is difficult to know. Fewer than 10 percent of the studys participants were black women, their use of hair products was assessed only once, and they were tracked for just eight years on average. Generally, scientists become concerned when an environmental exposure doubles or triples cancer risk, meaning the relative risk rises by 100 percent or more. The figures reported in the new study fall short of that threshold.You cannot, based on these data, make the statement that hair dyes and straighteners cause breast cancer, said Dr. Larry Norton, medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. These effects were small. Still, some scientists said the findings were concerning because of how popular hair products are. In the study, more than half said they had used hair dye, and nearly three-quarters of black women reported using hair straighteners.Our advice is that if you want to take a cautionary approach, limiting the use of these types of products is warranted, said Robin Dodson, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute in Newton, Mass., who studies environmental risks to womens health.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]She has identified several chemicals that mimic the hormone estrogen in hair straighteners used by black women, including parabens, commonly used as a preservative, and some banned by the European Union. Estrogen can fuel some types of breast cancer.Most products put out there on the market today are not adequately tested for safety, and they arent tested for endocrine-disrupting chemicals, Dr. Dodson said, referring to additives that interfere with hormones in the body. Most people are very surprised to learn that theres nobody really minding the store.The new study, carried out by scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the N.I.H., relied on data from 46,709 women in the so-called Sister Study. Participants were between the ages of 35 and 74 and living in the United States from 2003 to 2009. None had breast cancer at the start of the study, but all had at least one sister who had breast cancer meaning that subjects, too, were at elevated risk.The women were asked about their use of hair treatments when they first enrolled in the study. They were followed over an average of eight years, during which 2,794 breast cancers were diagnosed.The take-home message is that these risks are potentially important, but we know that a lot of different factors contribute to a womans risk of breast cancer, said Alexandra White, head of the environment and cancer epidemiology group at the N.I.E.H.S. and an author of the new report.We want women to have this information and take it into account in their lifestyle decisions, but to keep in mind that the risks associated with these are small, she added.Only 4,087 of the participants in the study were black women, about 9 percent, she noted, and that number may be too small to know whether the risks are real. These findings are definitely more concerning for black women because of the findings on permanent dye and their more frequent use of chemical straighteners, Dr. White said. Many straighteners contain formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. Dr. White suggested that women switch from permanent dyes to semi-permanent dyes, which were not found to be associated with an increase in cancer.

Health

Credit...Bill Waugh/Associated PressDec. 14, 2015After a stint working for his father, a corporate raider who helped break companies apart, Martin E. Franklin has now spent the last 15 years building up sprawling businesses.His crowning moment came on Monday after agreeing to sell Jarden with its 120 brands, from Mr. Coffee to Yankee Candle to Newell Rubbermaid, creating a $16 billion consumer juggernaut.Mr. Franklin, who is 51, will be a director of the combined company and will be among its largest individual shareholders. And he will be able to focus more attention on his two other, acquisition-focused companies.Mr. Franklin initially had no intention of selling Jarden and had not sought out a wide group of potential buyers. But his workload had built up this year. The share prices of the two companies he had created Platform Specialty Products, set up to buy specialty chemical companies, and the frozen-food company Nomad Foods have fallen sharply in the last six months. Both companies are backed by William A. Ackman.At the end of the summer, Mr. Franklin indicated to the advisory firm Centerview Partners that he was now willing to consider a transaction.The firm introduced him to Michael B. Polk, the chief executive of Newell Rubbermaid, who restructured the business over the last four years and was considering making a big move, according to a person briefed on the discussions.In September, the two executives were both attending a conference in Boston. They met over a drink there and shared a vision for what a combined company might look like.ImageCredit...Brendan McDermid/ReutersDue diligence on a potential deal began several weeks ago. Mr. Franklin traveled to Newell Rubbermaids product development facility in Kalamazoo, Mich., and said he was impressed by the operation.Mr. Polk was taken with Jardens direct-to-consumer e-commerce capabilities. The larger scale from combining the two companies could also help them in negotiations with retailers and suppliers.Our businesses fit in a very complementary way, Mr. Franklin said by phone on Monday. But the more we got into the conversations, the more sense it made.The deal was accelerated after news of the talks was reported a week ago. On Monday, the two companies said the transaction could amount to $500 million in annualized cost savings and immediately stoke growth.Shares of Newell tumbled 6.9 percent to $42.15 a share on Monday, while Jardens gained 2.7 percent to $54.09. Before the acquisition, investors had seen Newell Rubbermaid as a safe story, said Jason Gere, an analyst with KeyBanc Capital Markets.Coming in and buying a company of equal size adds more risk to the story, and it takes away some of the safety that people invested in Newell for, Mr. Gere said in a phone interview.Mr. Franklin caught the deal-making bug from his father, Roland Franklin, known for buying and then breaking apart companies in the 1980s as the partner to James Goldsmith, the British corporate raider. Born in Britain, the younger Mr. Franklin moved with his family to Westchester County in New York as a teenager.ImageCredit...Paul Sancya/Associated PressJarden began as a home-canning unit that was spun off from Ball Corporation in 1993 to become what was then known as Alltrista. Mr. Franklin and Ian G.H. Ashken took control of the company in 2001, renaming it Jarden. Since then, Jarden has made more than a dozen significant acquisitions, collecting 120 brands.Mr. Franklin has used a similar strategy in two other industries: specialty chemicals and frozen foods. He set up Platform and Nomad through so-called special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, which raise money through the stock markets with the explicit incentive to buy other businesses.He now owns about 6.7 million shares of Jarden, according to S&P Capital IQ, worth more than $400 million at the deal price of $60 a share. Mr. Franklin said in the conference call that he planned to keep half of his after-tax stake in the combined company.But he said that he had no plans to participate in the day-to-day operations of the combined company, deferring to Mr. Polk, who will be chief executive.Under the terms of the deal, Jarden shareholders will receive $21 in cash and 00.862 a share of Newell Rubbermaid stock for each Jarden share, for a total of about $60 a share, or $13.2 billion, based on Fridays close.Including debt that converts to equity, the deal value becomes $15.4 billion, according to a person briefed on the terms. The combined company would produce $16 billion in annualized sales.Jarden shareholders will own 45 percent of the combined company, known as Newell Brands. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.Goldman Sachs was the lead adviser to Newell Rubbermaid and provided financing, while Centerview Partners advised the board. Barclays and UBS were the financial advisers to Jarden. Jones Day and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett were the legal advisers to Newell Rubbermaid, while Greenberg Traurig and Kane Kessler provided advice to Jarden.

Business

The new ride to orbit built for NASA and its astronauts returned to Earth after problems during its first trip to space on Friday.Credit...Aubrey Gemignani/NASAPublished Dec. 22, 2019Updated March 6, 2020Boeings new spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, safely parachuted to Earth on Sunday, landing atop inflated airbags before dawn at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.It was an absolute bulls-eye, said Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator during a news conference after the landing.The safe and seemingly flawless return of the capsule, which did not have any people aboard, provided an upbeat ending to a mission that started unhappily when a clock problem caused the spacecraft to deplete its propellant. A planned docking at the International Space Station was called off, and the capsule returned after only two days in orbit.Make no mistake, Mr. Bridenstine said. This did not go according to plan in every way we would have hoped. But it is also true that we got a lot of really good information so that we can keep making meaningful progress.The mishap on Friday added to a week of bad news for Boeing, which announced its commercial plane division would temporarily halt production of the 737 Max, its most popular passenger jet, which crashed in 2018 and 2019 and was subsequently grounded.How the shortened flight affects the Starliner schedule and NASAs plans to resume launching of astronauts on American rockets from American soil is not yet known.Diagnosing and fixing the clock problem could add delays to the commercial crew program, NASAs strategy of relying on private companies to build spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from the space station. It is already more than two years behind its original timeline.Jim Chilton, senior vice president of the space and launch division at Boeing, estimated that the mission obtained enough data to fulfill 85 to 90 percent of the test objectives.The vessel looks great, Mr. Chilton said. Theyre telling us theres hardly any charring, perfectly level on her airbags. And that bodes really well for reusability.The Starliner capsule will be transported back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be refurbished. Each capsule is designed to fly up to 10 times, and this one is currently scheduled to head to space again, this time with astronauts, in the second half of 2020.Before then, Boeing is to fly another test flight, but with astronauts aboard.Steve Stich, deputy manager of the commercial crew program for NASA, said teams from the agency and Boeing will spend weeks analyzing the data.To me, theres good data out there that suggests that once we go through it, maybe its acceptable to go, next step, fly the crewed flight test, Mr. Stich said. But we have to go through the data first.Mr. Chilton agreed that it was too early to say whether the next Starliner flight will have astronauts aboard. Were not in position to propose that and we dont propose it until we know the machine is worthy, he said.About half an hour before landing, thrusters fired for 55 seconds to drop the spacecraft out of orbit. That set off an automated choreography jettisoning pieces no longer needed, deploying parachutes, inflating the airbags that appeared to unfold flawlessly. The capsule touched down in the freezing desert before sunrise near a former space shuttle runway.It was just picture perfect, Sunita Williams, the NASA astronaut who is to be the commander of the next flight of this capsule. She was at White Sands as part of the team examining the capsule after landing.At the invitation of Boeing, Ms. Williams said she would like to name the spacecraft Calypso after the ship used by Jacques Cousteau to explore the oceans.The return of the capsule on land was unusual, at least for NASA. All previous landings of its capsules the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs of the 1960s and 1970s were in the ocean. After all, you might be safer diving into water than an expanse of sand.But Russian astronauts have always landed on solid ground, and that approach offers advantages. Salt water corrodes metal, which would complicate plans to reuse Starliner capsules for future missions. Also, a capsule hitting an ocean wave at the wrong angle could sink. (That is what happened during the testing of Apollo capsules, requiring a revamping of the design.)While NASA and Boeing had many reasons to celebrate on Sunday, the mission went awry in a puzzling way on Friday. Quite simply, Starliner got the time wrong.When the spacecraft separated from the Atlas 5 rocket that lifted it to space, an incorrect clock, off by 11 hours, caused it to start firing its thrusters and try to get into the position and orientation where it thought it should be.She thought she was later in the mission, Mr. Chilton said on Saturday, and being autonomous, started to behave that way.Boeing does not know what went wrong.If I knew, it wouldnt have happened, Mr. Chilton said. We were surprised.The spacecrafts software set its clock based on the time it received from the Atlas 5 rocket before launch, and it is still too early to tell how it pulled the incorrect information, said Mr. Chilton. He added that the problem was with the Boeing software, not with the rocket, which was built and operated by another company, the United Launch Alliance.This flight did not have anyone on board, but NASA and Boeing officials insist that if astronauts had been in the capsule, they would have been safe. The astronauts might even have been able to take over manual control and send the spacecraft on the proper path.Flight controllers were eventually able to send Starliner the correct time. They then performed a couple of thruster firings to raise its orbit to a circular one 155 miles above the surface. That was lower than the International Space Station, which is at an altitude of about 250 miles.During its abbreviated time in orbit, the spacecrafts propulsion, navigation and life support systems appeared to work well. Even though the Starliner did not go to the space station, flight controllers were able to test some of the systems needed for the rendezvous. That included establishing a communication link between the spacecraft and station and extending, then retracting a ring that would have attached to the docking port.The two portions of the mission of greatest danger to astronauts launch and return to Earth have been demonstrated.NASA still hopes to carry astronauts to orbit again in the first half of 2020, and has also hired another company, SpaceX, to take crews to the space station.The problem with Boeings Starliner does not directly affect SpaceXs capsule, Crew Dragon, which completed its first trip to and from the space station in March. But SpaceX has encountered its own hurdles and delays, and still has to complete tests of its parachute and conduct an in-flight test of its abort system, before it is ready to carry astronauts. That launch is currently scheduled for Jan. 11.NASA has already talked to Russia about buying additional seats on the Soyuz rockets, which have been the only transportation available to astronauts to and from the International Space Station since 2011.

science

Asia Pacific|U.S. Navy Carrier Suffers Second Aircraft Crash in Weekshttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/world/asia/fa18-hornet-crash-philippines.htmlCredit...Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kaila V. Peters/United States Navy, via Associated PressNov. 12, 2018BEIJING A United States Navy warplane crashed into the sea northeast of the Philippines on Monday, the second crash in less than a month involving aircraft from the carrier the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan.The aircraft, an F/A-18 Super Hornet, had a mechanical problem during routine operations over the Philippine Sea in the Western Pacific, the Navys Seventh Fleet said in a statement. In October, an MH-60 Seahawk helicopter, also assigned to the Ronald Reagan, crashed shortly after takeoff, injuring a dozen sailors.The two aviators in the jet on Monday were plucked from the sea and brought back to the carrier in good condition, the Navy said.The crash was the latest mishap for the Seventh Fleet, the largest American fleet deployed overseas, and a moment of reckoning for the Hornet.According to the Navy, a new F/A-18 Super Hornet costs $57 million.Last year, two of the Seventh Fleets commanders were forced out after two collisions between Navy destroyers and commercial ships resulted in the deaths of 17 sailors.Navy investigators concluded the collisions were avoidable and resulted from a series of crew and basic navigational errors.Many of the decisions made that led to this incident were the result of poor judgment and decision-making of the commanding officer, officials concluded in a report on the June 2017 collision between the destroyer Fitzgerald and a container ship near Japan in which seven Navy sailors died.Two months later, another destroyer, the John S. McCain, collided with an oil tanker near Singapore, leaving 10 sailors dead.After the results of the inquiry were made public, Senator John McCain, then chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said automatic budget cuts to the Pentagon since 2013 were among the reasons for the 17 deaths.The fallout from the collisions was severe. The commander of the Navys Pacific Fleet took early retirement, and the commander of the Seventh Fleet was removed in connection with the accidents.The F/A-18 Super Hornet that crashed Monday is one of the most widely used strike fighters in the Navy, employed for reconnaissance, close air support and precision strikes.The Seahawk that crashed last month is a twin-engine assault helicopter used for submarine warfare, search and rescue and anti-ship warfare. In the accident in October, the helicopter crashed onto the deck of the carrier.

World

Credit...Asapbio.org/Yourekascience.orgMarch 15, 2016On Feb. 29, Carol Greider of Johns Hopkins University became the third Nobel Prize laureate biologist in a month to do something long considered taboo among biomedical researchers: She posted a report of her recent discoveries to a publicly accessible website, bioRxiv, before submitting it to a scholarly journal to review for official publication.It was a small act of information age defiance, and perhaps also a bit of a throwback, somewhat analogous to Stephen Kings 2000 self-publishing an e-book or Radioheads 2007 release of a download-only record without a label. To commemorate it, she tweeted the websites confirmation under the hashtag #ASAPbio, a newly coined rallying cry of a cadre of biologists who say they want to speed science by making a key change in the way it is published.Dear Dr. Greider, We are pleased to inform you that the above manuscript has passed screening and will be online shortly. Cant wait #ASAPbio Carol Greider (@CWGreider) February 29, 2016 Such postings are known as preprints to signify their early-stage status, and the 2,048 deposited on three-year-old bioRxiv over the last year represent a barely detectable fraction of the million or so research papers published annually in traditional biomedical journals.But after several dozen biologists vowed to rally around preprints at an ASAPbio meeting last month, the site has had a small surge, and not just from scientists whose august stature protects them from risk. On Twitter, preprint insurgents are celebrating one anothers postings and jockeying for revolutionary credibility. (These two are from a molecular biologist at the University of California, Berkeley and a Cold Spring Harbor neuroscientist.)For most of the history of organized scientific research, the limitations of technology made print journals the chief means of disseminating scientific results. But some #ASAPbio advocates argue that since the rise of the Internet, biologists have been abdicating their duty to the public which pays for most academic research by not sharing results as quickly and openly as possible. As Harold Varmus, another Nobel Prize recipient and former director of the National Institutes of Health put it in a widely tweeted talk at the conference:Unlike physicists, for whom preprints became a default method of communicating discoveries in the 1990s, biomedical researchers typically wait more than six months to disseminate their work while they submit it on an exclusive basis to the most prestigious journal they think might accept it for publication. If, as is often the case, it is rejected, they try another journal. As a result, it can sometimes take years to publish a paper, which is then typically available for a time only to colleagues at major academic institutions whose libraries pay for subscriptions. And because science is in many ways a relay, with one scientist building on the published work of another, the communication delays almost certainly slow scientific progress.Researchers say they participate in the process in large part because the imprimatur of highly selective journals like Science, Nature and Cell has come to be viewed as a proxy for quality science. Like a degree from certain colleges, a study in an elite journal can be a passport to jobs, funding and promotions.While several influential journals, including Science and Nature, have a stated policy of treating preprints on an equal footing with papers that have not been posted elsewhere, few biologists have chosen an option they fear will handicap already slim prospects of acceptance. Some journals have a policy of not considering preprints. And others, like Cell, say prospective authors who wish to post preprints must ask first.Anne Carpenter, a computational biologist affiliated with the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard said that she thinks that many young scientists prefer sticking with high-profile journals because the alternative just seems to too risky.Beyond career concerns, many scientists say science as a whole benefits from the kind of peer review that has been a fixture of scientific publishing, in which journal editors ask other scientists in a field to flag obvious errors and assess the importance of a work before publication. Yet another Nobel Prize laureate, Randy Schekman, a cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, has argued for its importance even while supporting preprints.But many biologists have begun to chafe at a system that one neuroscientist recently compared to a bug on its back trying to flip itself over while endlessly rotating a piece of what appears to be Styrofoam.The delays prevent scientists from showing off their most recent work to prospective employers or benefactors. They have also, some researchers say, begun to look faintly absurd against the general expectations for speed and openness in the not-so-new digital age. With the rapid spread of the Zika virus, for instance, several journals signed a statement promising that scientists would not be penalized for immediately releasing their findings, given the potential benefit for public health, in turn prompting some scientists to ask, why draw the line at Zika?Then there is the researcher in Kazakhstan who has become a kind of science cult hero by pirating every academic paper for which journals require payment and making them available on a free site called Sci-Hub. Though few think that is a long-term solution, one website has called her the Robin Hood of Science.And many #ASAPbio supporters retweeted John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, who found himself recently at an African university where a paper on African genomes was unavailable because it could not pay the fee for the journal where it was published, and no preprint was available. He expressed his frustration with a profanity.In such contexts, the observation of Richard Sever, who runs the bioRxiv server at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, considered the best known place to post biology preprints, becomes harder to ignore, researchers say.Some journal editors say that preprints would be detrimental to science. Emilie Marcus, the editor of Cell, told scientists at the #ASAPbio conference that in conversations with more than 100 scientists Cell editors had found that the main reason they wanted to use preprints was to scoop competitors, which she suggested would cause the quality of papers to decline as everyone rushed to post first: Is that the direction that we want to go? Others have argued on Twitter that allowing research to reach the public without being reviewed before publication would be irresponsible.Preprint advocates counter that scientists care too much about their reputations to publish shoddy work, and posts to bioRxiv are clearly marked to indicate that they may contain information that has not yet been accepted or endorsed in any way by the scientific or medical community. Others note that plenty of peer-reviewed papers in high-profile journals have proved to be wrong, and some argue that carrying out peer review after a paper is published would provide a more rigorous and fair vetting of papers, anyway.Unlike some writers and artists who have used digital media to escape entirely from middlemen, most biologists tweeting with #ASAPbio want to maintain a relationship with traditional journals. Many have taken pains to reiterate their wish not to disrupt the journal system, only to enhance it. With enough scientists pushing to legitimize preprints, they hope journals will allow the systems to coexist.Its not beer or tacos, as James Fraser, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco put it at last months conference, its beer AND tacos.But others, including the dean of Harvard Medical School, Jeffrey S. Flier, say disrupting journals could be a good thing for science.In any case, some researchers say, a dtente between journals and preprint advocates may be short-lived. If university libraries drop their costly journal subscriptions in favor of free preprints, journals may well withdraw permission to use them, forcing biomedical researchers to make a harder choice. The preprint movement, some #ASAPbio advocates argue, may presage the need for a greater cultural shift than scientists have not yet been willing to make: evaluating one another based on the substance of their papers, not where they are published. But it does, Michael Eisen, a longtime advocate for scientific publishing reform at the University of California, Berkeley, told his colleagues, help move this area of scientific publishing into the 20th century.

science

Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet reported the latest in a string of enormous quarterly profits on Thursday.Credit...Ralph Orlowski/ReutersOct. 29, 2020While the rest of the U.S. economy languished earlier this year, the tech industrys biggest companies seemed immune to the downturn, surging as the country worked, learned and shopped from home.On Thursday, as the economy is showing signs of improvement, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Facebook reported profits that highlighted how a recovery may provide another catalyst to help them generate a level of wealth that hasnt been seen in a single industry in generations.With an entrenched audience of users and the financial resources to press their leads in areas like cloud computing, e-commerce and digital advertising, the companies demonstrated again that economic malaise, upstart competitors and feisty antitrust regulators have had little impact on their bottom line.Combined, the four companies reported a quarterly net profit of $38 billion.Amazon reported record sales, and an almost 200 percent rise in profits, as the pandemic accelerated the transition to online shopping. Despite a boycott of its advertising over the summer, Facebook had another blockbuster quarter. Alphabets record quarterly net profit was up 59 percent, as marketers plowed money into advertisements for Google search and YouTube. And Apples sales rose even though the pandemic forced it to push back the iPhone 12s release to October, in the current quarter.On Tuesday, Microsoft, Amazons closest competitor in cloud computing, also reported its most profitable quarter, growing 30 percent from a year earlier.The scene thats playing out fundamentally is that these tech stalwarts are gaining more market share by the day, said Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities. Its A Tale of Two Cities for this group of tech companies and everyone else.The results were strong despite increasing antitrust scrutiny from regulators. Last week, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit accusing Google of cementing the dominance of its search engine through anticompetitive agreements with device makers and mobile carriers. Facebook faces a possible antitrust case from the Federal Trade Commission.The companies advantages are becoming more pronounced in an economy starting to dig out from the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, the Commerce Department said U.S. economic output grew 7.4 percent last quarter, the fastest pace on record, but remained below where it was in the last pre-pandemic quarter.That slow return to health is also providing momentum to companies that suffered early in the pandemic, like Twitter, which reported on Thursday that revenue rose 14 percent in the third quarter as advertisers started to return. Twitters stock dropped about 14 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday, a reaction that analysts attributed to slow user growth.Big Techs third-quarter boom could look modest when compared with the final quarter of the year. For Apple, its when consumers buy newly released iPhones. And the year-end shopping peak means lots of customers turning to Amazon for gifts, while advertisers rely on Google and Facebook for digital ads during the holidays.AmazonThe pandemic-fueled surge in online shopping pushed Amazon to a record for both sales and profits in the latest quarter.Sales were $96.1 billion, up 37 percent from a year earlier, and profits rose to $6.3 billion.The quarter did not include the usual boost from Prime Day, Amazons yearly deal bonanza, which was delayed to October. And the profit increased during a building boom, with Amazon expanding its fulfillment infrastructure by 50 percent this year. The company added almost 250,000 employees in the quarter, for the first time surpassing more than a million workers.The lucrative Amazon Web Services division grew 29 percent as companies continued their shift to cloud computing.Amazon said sales could reach $121 billion in the fourth quarter because of the confluence of Prime Day, the holiday shopping season and the turn to online spending.AppleThe delay in the iPhone 12s release meant Apple would face a tough comparison with the same quarter last year, which included sales of the iPhone 11. As a result, iPhone sales dropped more than 20 percent in the quarter.ImageCredit...Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesYet Apples overall sales still rose 1 percent to $64.7 billion, showing the increasing strength of other parts of the companys business.Apples services segment, which includes revenues from the App Store and offerings like Apple Music, increased 16 percent to $14.5 billion. Sales rose 46 percent for iPads, 29 percent for Mac computers and 21 percent for wearables.Profits fell 7 percent to $12.7 billion, partly because the company spent more on research and development.There are lots going on here, and everything is going incredibly well, Luca Maestri, Apples finance chief, said in an interview.FacebookFacebooks revenue for the third quarter rose 22 percent from a year earlier, to $21.2 billion, while profits jumped 29 percent to $7.84 billion. The results surpassed analysts estimates of $19.8 billion in revenue and profits of $5.53 billion, according to data provided by FactSet.Facebook had strong results despite a wide-ranging boycott by advertisers this summer over issues of hate and toxic speech on the site. Though the grass-roots campaign, Stop Hate for Profit, rallied many of the top advertisers on Facebook to reduce their spending, the overall effects were brief.The company continued gaining users as well. More than 1.82 billion people used the Facebook app every day, up 12 percent from a year earlier, it said. More than 2.54 billion people now use one or more of Facebooks family of apps Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger or Facebook daily, up 15 percent from a year earlier.AlphabetAfter its first-ever decline in quarterly revenue in the second quarter, Alphabet rebounded with its highest-ever profit. The strength came from across Google, with search advertising revenue growing 6 percent and YouTube ad spending rising 32 percent. Googles cloud computing business grew 45 percent.When advertisers slowed spending with Google this year as Covid-19 started to spread, Alphabets business took a significant hit. But as the economy has improved and businesses found their footing, advertisers have returned.Alphabet posted a net profit of $11.25 billion in the third quarter as revenue rose 14 percent to $46.1 billion. Ruth Porat, Alphabets chief financial officer, said the improved profitability reflected efforts to cut costs during the economic downturn, including a hiring slowdown.

Tech

Credit...Andrew Harnik/Associated PressJan. 6, 2021Governors across the country condemned angry mobs of President Trumps supporters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, and called on the president to publicly denounce their actions.Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio issued a statement reprimanding those who had incited the violence. This is an embarrassment to our country, Mr. DeWine, a Republican, said. This must stop immediately. The President should call for the demonstrators to leave our Capitol Building.He added: Lawlessness is not acceptable. This is an affront to our Constitution and everything we hold dear. Those who breached the Capitol breached the Constitution.Governors both Republicans and Democrats used similarly vehement language, issuing blistering statements denouncing the tumult and calling for a peaceful transition of power. In Michigan, leaders from both parties issued a single statement. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and Rick Snyder, her Republican predecessor, urged the public to come together.While we come from different backgrounds and political parties, Governor Whitmer and I share a deep love for our country, Mr. Snyder said. We must always remember that we are Americans first, and we are not one anothers enemy. Thats why I join with Governor Whitmer in calling on people of goodwill across America to pray for peace, calm, and healing. In the statement, Ms. Whitmer said that now was the time to put this election behind us once and for all. Lets move forward together, as one United States of America, she said. Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, a Republican, said on Twitter that the scene at the Capitol was wrong, and has no place in our form of government. All should denounce, and it should end now, he wrote. In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, called the clashes absolutely unacceptable. Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, also a Republican, described the people invading the Capitol as reprehensible. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said, Violence or rioting of any kind is unacceptable and the perpetrators must face the full weight of the law.Governors of states near the Capitol sent law enforcement to help the local police regain control. At the request of Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia sent state troopers and members of the Virginia National Guard.Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, sent 500 members of the Maryland National Guard and 200 Maryland State Police troopers to help restore order. All Americans should be outraged by this attack on our nations Capitol, Mr. Hogan wrote on Twitter. This is a heinous and violent assault on the heart of our democracy. I will not stand for this, and neither should any American.In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, canceled a news briefing on Covid-19 out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety of his staff as demonstrations took places in several state capitals. What we are witnessing in our nations Capitol building is reprehensible and an outright assault to our democracy and Democratic institutions, Mr. Newsom said. Some governors, including Charlie Baker, a Republican from Massachusetts, pointedly blamed President Trump for the chaotic scene. Mr. Baker said that the situation was a sad but predictable outcome of the presidents attacks on the validity and outcome of the November election. These baseless challenges to President-elect Bidens victory must stop, he wrote on Twitter.Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, a Democrat, said: The president of the United States has stoked this anti-democracy sentiment. He has fanned flames of hatred and violence.

Politics

The former vice president has enlisted two veteran strategists, including Senator Cory Bookers former campaign manager, to help design a nominating convention under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.Credit...Jordan Gale for The New York TimesJune 1, 2020Joseph R. Biden Jr. has chosen two Democratic strategists to lead his preparations for the partys summer nominating convention, a traditionally crucial event for a presidential campaign that is now enveloped in uncertainty because of the coronavirus pandemic.Mr. Bidens campaign is designating Addisu Demissie, a veteran Democratic strategist who managed Senator Cory Bookers presidential campaign, as a senior adviser responsible for coordinating the convention. It is also naming Lindsay Holst, who was Mr. Bidens digital director when he was vice president, to lead special projects for the convention, including its digital side, according to people familiar with the appointments.The selection of two seasoned political aides for the convention-planning jobs underscores the stakes for Mr. Biden in orchestrating a successful event in August despite extraordinary public-health challenges. The event, which is slated to take place in Milwaukee, has already been pushed back to August from July because of the pandemic, and it is not clear what kinds of restrictions on public gatherings may still be in place in late summer.Mr. Biden and other senior Democrats, including Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, have raised the possibility that they may have to hold an entirely virtual convention, or some form of hybrid event that is largely online but has some in-person components.President Trump is also wrestling with the practical difficulties of holding a convention under the circumstances, and he and his political advisers have been engaged in a tense negotiation with Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, a Democrat, over whether the state will consider it safe to hold an August gathering in Charlotte. Mr. Trump has said he may move his partys convention to another state if Mr. Cooper does not provide the assurances his campaign is seeking.The widespread demonstrations against police brutality and the scenes of street violence in many American cities over the last week could present an additional challenge for convention organizers who are weighing how and whether to stage politically sensitive mass gatherings during a viral outbreak.Jennifer OMalley Dillon, Mr. Bidens campaign manager, said in a statement that the two new advisers would help lead this first of its kind convention, which is part of our broader engagement with the American people.It will be an opportunity to have maximum impact with voters across the country and be the most inclusive convention in our history, she said.The addition of Mr. Demissie and Ms. Holst to the Biden campaign indicates that Democratic efforts to design a convention under those trying conditions are advancing to a new stage. Both worked on one or both of the Obama-Biden campaigns in 2008 and 2012.Mr. Demissie led multiple winning statewide campaigns, steering Mr. Bookers election to the Senate in 2013 and serving as campaign manager to Gavin Newsom during his successful run for California governor in 2018, before helming Mr. Bookers presidential effort. A co-founder of the political consulting firm 50+1 Strategies, Mr. Demissie served in 2016 as the director of national voter outreach and mobilization for Hillary Clintons presidential campaign.He is one of a few former senior aides to Mr. Bidens onetime Democratic primary opponents who have joined up with Mr. Biden for the general election; chief among them is Ms. OMalley Dillon, who managed Beto ORourkes primary campaign before becoming Mr. Bidens campaign manager in March.Ms. Holst served in President Barack Obamas White House and at the Democratic National Committee during the administration, starting out on the digital team at the D.N.C. during the 2010 election and then working on the presidents re-election campaign. She became Mr. Bidens digital director during the second term.Her appointment to a senior role in the campaign further confirms that Mr. Bidens team is exploring alternatives to a traditional nominating convention, with the usual scenes of thousands of delegates, activists and political donors cheering on the partys presidential ticket from the floor of an arena somewhere in a swing state.Under normal circumstances, the political conventions are distinctive opportunities for both parties to showcase their presidential nominees, introduce new running mates and deliver emphatic and meticulously staged appeals to general-election voters on prime-time television.Without the benefit of all the usual pageantry, and with the electorate in a decidedly downbeat mood, the conventions could become more muted affairs than in the past.But the severity of the countrys challenges, and the general sense that the nation is confronting a decision of extraordinary weight in November, could also draw unusual attention to conventions that in most years are largely predictable affairs despite the parties best efforts to provide sizzle.

Politics

On BaseballFeb. 16, 2014Credit...Barton Silverman/The New York TimesTAMPA, Fla. Soon after Mark Teixeira became the first high-priced veteran to arrive in training camp and concede that Id be lying if I said there wasnt some anxiety about his surgically repaired right wrist, C. C. Sabathia seconded the motion that uncertainty might be one of the few certainties about the 2014 Yankees.I feel the same way as Mark, Sabathia said Sunday morning by his corner dressing stall in the clubhouse at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Im excited but also a little anxious. Individually and as a team, we have something to prove. We want to get back on top, and its going to take all of us to have good years bounce-back years, really to make that happen.With the $189 million payroll limit abandoned, with all the free-agent millions expended, somehow the Yankees have assembled a team with more training camp questions than answers on the subjects of age, injury and anonymity. A fairly important evaluation period, more than weve had to do in the past, was how Manager Joe Girardi gently described it.If Teixeiras presumed return to first base obviates the need to invoke the classic Abbott and Costello line, would it be terribly unfair to ask who or whats on second, short, third and on the mound, taking it from the top of the starting rotation?Sabathia is never hard to locate in the Yankees clubhouse and seldom one to hide. Not surprisingly, he did not blink when asked if at 33 and coming off what in summary was the worst statistical season of his 13-year career he remains the Yankees unquestioned ace.In my mind, I am, he said, notwithstanding the arrival of Masahiro Tanaka and a recent tepid front-office endorsement of him in the role he has occupied since his 2009 arrival. (General Manager Brian Cashman called Sabathia the Yankees staff leader but not one to be confused with a transcendent presence like Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers).I had a horrible year last year, Sabathia said, acknowledging a steadily diminishing velocity (a fastball averaging out at 91.5 miles per hour on the radar gun) and a rising earned run average (a career-high 4.78, up from 3.00 in 2011).I think I threw so hard for so long that people just assumed that I threw hard without knowing how to pitch. But this is my 14th year I got a pretty good idea of what I have to do to get hitters out.He sighed and added, What was said, I didnt take it personally.Nothing personal, but can the Yankees be certain that Teixeiras wrist which he described as still a bit stiff and sore will withstand the rigors of playing, as he said, for 20 straight days?How sure can they be that Derek Jeters convalesced ankle will be any sturdier for his newly declared farewell season than it was in 2013?ImageCredit...Barton Silverman/The New York TimesDo they know that the often injured Brian Roberts, signed to provide veteran experience at second base in place of Robinson Cano, will even hold up for 50 games?Whos on third? Take your pick among Kelly Johnson, Eduardo Nunez or Scott Sizemore or some combination thereof.The guys that well be running out at second and third, these are guys that have been productive, Girardi said. Maybe not as productive as guys weve had in the past.Some other Girardi observations Sunday spoke to issues that had been camouflaged somewhat by the latest off-season spending spree, which bought indisputable improvements at catcher, with Brian McCann, and in the outfield, with Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran.On the returning Jeter and Teixeira: Theyre back in my mind, but I think you have to get them into games to see where they are.On the lack of an eighth-inning bridge to the new closer, David Robertson: Youd like to have that, a guy you say, Its your job. But what Girardi is counting on beyond Robertson in the bullpen is Matt Thornton as the situational left-hander and, he said, after that, its pretty open.On the back end of the rotation, You dont know who your fifth starter is going to be.Again, and admittedly in making the potential case for a glass-half-empty situation, what if Sabathia has as many believe begun an irreversible decline? And what if the 39-year-old Hiroki Kuroda looks more like the tired pitcher he was in the second half of 2013 than the lights-out savior he was in the first?Is Tanaka ready for the expectation that he will dominate major league hitters? Who, exactly, is Ivan Nova? And if all the bullpen middle-inning and setup questions are answered, is Robertson ready to succeed Mariano Rivera?Questions, Sabathia said, should make for challenges. They should make you take career inventory, work harder. I feel pretty good going into this year, feel strong, he said, mixing in plugs for his trainer, T. J. Lopez, and his chef, Jerome Maxwell, who helped him focus on becoming healthier and stronger, not just slimmer. Just getting rid of the junk food has made it easier, though I still have one day a week where I cheat, he said.Can he cheat time? Can he reverse what may or may not be an unsettling pattern of decline? Is Sabathia still the ace of the Yankees, or the embodiment of the ambiguity that stubbornly defines them, after all that has been said and spent.

Sports

Credit...FineArt/AlamyPast Pandemics Remind Us Covid Will Be an Era, Not a Crisis That FadesThe Triumph of Death, an oil painting by the Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, circa 1562.Credit...FineArt/AlamyPublished Oct. 12, 2021Updated Oct. 14, 2021The skeletons move across a barren landscape toward the few helpless and terrified people still living. The scene, imagined in a mid-16th-century painting, The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, illuminated the psychic impact of the bubonic plague.It was a terror that lingered even as the disease receded, historians say.Covid-19s waves of destruction have inflicted their own kind of despair on humanity in the 21st century, leaving many to wonder when the pandemic will end.We tend to think of pandemics and epidemics as episodic, said Allan Brandt, a historian of science and medicine at Harvard University. But we are living in the Covid-19 era, not the Covid-19 crisis. There will be a lot of changes that are substantial and persistent. We wont look back and say, That was a terrible time, but its over. We will be dealing with many of the ramifications of Covid-19 for decades, for decades.Especially in the months before the Delta variant became dominant, the pandemic seemed like it should be nearly over.When the vaccines first came out, and we started getting shots in our own arms, so many of us felt physically and emotionally transformed, said Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. We had a willful desire to translate that as, The pandemic has ended for me.He added, It was a willful delusion.And that is a lesson from history that is often forgotten, Frank Snowden, a historian of medicine at Yale University, said: how difficult it is to declare that a pandemic has ended.It may not be over even when physical disease, measured in illness and mortality, has greatly subsided. It may continue as the economy recovers and life returns to a semblance of normality. The lingering psychological shock of having lived in prolonged fear of severe illness, isolation and painful death takes long to fade.ImageCredit...Chicago History Museum, via Getty ImagesSome diseases, like the 1918 flu, receded. Others, like the bubonic plague, remained, smoldering. H.I.V. is still with us, but with drugs to prevent and treat it. In each case, the trauma for those affected persisted long after the imminent threat of infection and death had ebbed.If nothing else, the Covid-19 virus has humbled experts who once confidently predicted its course, disregarding the lessons of history.What we are living through now is a new cycle of collective dismay, Dr. Greene said a dismay that has grown out of frustration with the inability to control the virus, fury of the vaccinated at those who refuse to get the shots and a disillusionment that astoundingly effective vaccines havent yet returned life to normal.No matter when or how pandemics dwindle, they change peoples sense of time.A pandemic like Covid-19 is a breach of the progressive narrative, that medicine is advancing and diseases are being conquered, Dr. Greene said.As the pandemic drags on, days merge into each other as time seems to blur and slow down with no forward momentum.ImageCredit...Historical Images Archive/AlamyImageCredit...World History Archive/AlamyIn past pandemics, as today, strong anti-science movements hindered public health and the waning of disease.As soon as Edward Jenner introduced the first smallpox vaccine in 1798, posters appeared in England showing humans who had been vaccinated sprouting horns and hooves, Dr. Snowden said.In 19th-century Britain, the largest single movement was the anti-vaccine movement, he added. And with vaccine resisters holding out, diseases that should have been tamed persisted.But the difference between vaccine skeptics and pandemic misinformation then and now, historians said, is the rise of social media, which amplifies debates and falsehoods in a truly new way.ImageCredit...Allan Tannenbaum/Getty ImagesWith H.I.V., Dr. Brandt said, there were conspiracy theories and a lot of misinformation, but it never had a broadcast system like Covid-19.Other pandemics, like this one, were hobbled by what Dr. Snowden calls overweening hubris, prideful certainties from experts that add to the frustrations of understanding how and when it will dwindle away.With Covid, prominent experts declared at first that masks did not help prevent infection, only to reverse themselves later. Epidemiologists confidently published models of how the pandemic would progress and what it would take to reach herd immunity, only to be proved wrong. Investigators said the virus was transmitted on surfaces, then later said that, no, it was spread through tiny droplets in the air. They said the virus was unlikely to transform in a substantial way, then warned of the Delta variants greater transmissibility.We paid a heavy price for that, Dr. Snowden said. Many people lost trust in officials amid ever-changing directives and strategies that weakened the effort to control the virus.Jonathan Moreno, a historian of science and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said the end of Covid would be analogous to a cancer that has gone into remission still there, but not as deadly.You are never cured, he said. It is always in the background.

Health

Credit...Universal History Archive/Getty ImagesJune 5, 2018WASHINGTON President Trump has tried to undo as many Obama-era policies as possible during his first 500 days in office, but his administration has remained curiously circumspect when it comes to one of his predecessors initiatives: putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.In a letter to Congress that was released on Tuesday, the Treasury Department praised Tubman, a former slave and abolitionist who is a civil rights hero, but made no commitment as to whether she would one day be the new face of the $20.In 2016, former Secretary Jacob J. Lew announced that the currency was being redrawn, adding Tubman to the front and moving President Andrew Jackson to the back. The new designs were expected to be unveiled in 2020.The letter, which was in response to a formal inquiry from Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, said Tubmans courage and persistence were emblematic of Americas ideals and values.But it did not say if she was still part of the redesign.The redesign of the next currency series is still in the early stages, and neither the final designs nor all features have been finalized for the new notes, wrote Drew Maloney, the Treasurys assistant secretary for legislative affairs. For this reason, the department is unable to provide additional information regarding the potential designs at this time.It was also unclear when the redesign would be made public or be ready for circulation. Mr. Maloney said it would likely be more than 10 years before the new $20 note is released.Ms. Shaheen took the response as a bad sign for the plan to put Tubman on the $20 bill.I am severely disappointed by the Trump administrations failure to prioritize the redesign of the $20 bill to honor Harriet Tubman, and other trailblazing women and civil rights leaders, Ms. Shaheen said in a statement. Now that plan has been shelved without notice or reason.She added: Ill continue to press the Treasury Department to expedite the redesign of the $20 bill and keep its promise to the American people.A Treasury spokeswoman had no additional comment.Lydia Washington, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which is overseen by the Treasury Department, said she had received no new guidance beyond that set forth by Mr. Lew. She said that the redesign process remained on schedule, but that the ultimate timeline would be dictated by the agencys ability to design security features needed to prevent counterfeiting, and by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary.The secretary of the Treasury approves all final currency designs, Ms. Washington said. Overall, the currency design process is complex, and significant testing is required for the notes and features to be production ready.Mr. Mnuchin has been cryptic about Tubmans fate. The subject is sensitive, as Mr. Trump has expressed deep admiration for Jackson, a rich populist who appealed to working-class white voters when he was elected in 1828.People have been on the bills for a long period of time, Mr. Mnuchin told CNBC last August. This is something well consider. Right now weve got a lot more important issues to focus on.Speaking at the Economic Club of Washington in January, Mr. Mnuchin said he was still on the fence: We havent made any decisions on whether we will change the bill or wont change the bill.Images of Tubman, which were featured prominently on the Treasury Departments website at the end the Obama administration, were removed when Mr. Trumps Treasury Department overhauled its website last year.The decision by Mr. Lew to add Tubman to the $20 came after months of public debate about putting a prominent woman on a commonly used note. Groups such as Women on the 20s launched grass-roots efforts to make the case that Tubman was the best choice to replace Jackson, a slave owner, and they continue to hope that the Trump administration will not reverse course.Their voices were heard and now they deserve to know whether and when their wishes will be realized, the Women on the 20s group said.

Politics

Credit...Tolga Akmen/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 5, 2018It was among the worst fires in modern British history: The blaze that gutted Grenfell Tower in London last year killed more than 70 people, displaced hundreds more and marred the lives of the mostly low- and middle-income residents who lived there.But to a group celebrating Britains annual Bonfire Night, it was a joke.In a widely shared video that circulated on Monday, a group of people laughed as they burned an effigy of Grenfell Tower, which included paper cutouts of residents in the windows. Help me! Help me! one person mocked as flames overtook the model tower. Jump out the window! another shouted.Brown paper was used to represent at least some of the residents trapped inside the tower, which in real life was home to ethnically diverse families and many Muslims.Politicians quickly condemned the video, and the police said they were investigating whether any crime had been committed. Justice4Grenfell, a community group working for justice for the residents of Grenfell Tower, called the act a hate crime.This was an unnecessarily sickening act of hate against those who, through no fault of their own, have experienced the worst since 14th June 2017, the group said in a statement. This is clearly a hate crime and as a society we should never tolerate these blatant acts of hatred.On Tuesday afternoon, the Metropolitan Police said that six men, ranging in age from 19 to 55, had been taken into custody in connection with an investigation into the video after turning themselves in at a station in South London late Monday night.The crude video emerged as Britain marked its annual Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night, celebration. Every Nov. 5, bonfires are lit, fireworks set off and effigies burned in memory of Guy Fawkes, the Roman Catholic rebel who tried to blow up Parliament in 1605.In the past, revelers have burned effigies of the pope, particularly Pope Paul V, who reigned in Fawkess time, and modern-day figures, including President Trump, Osama bin Laden and even Winnie the Pooh.But this year, the distasteful effigy of Grenfell Tower was met with outrage.On June 14, 2017, flames tore through the 24-story public housing block. Witnesses recalled the haunting screams of residents, the people dangling out of windows trying to escape, the neighbors who would never make it out.We learned of how whole families died huddled together in corridors, a mother found with her 6-month-old baby in the stairwell after having attempted to escape, Mohammed Rasoul, who lived on the fifth floor, recalled earlier this year.The Grenfell blaze came to symbolize inequality in one of Londons wealthiest areas, Kensington and Chelsea, where those of more modest means had long felt treated as second-class citizens. Residents had complained for years that the building invited catastrophe. It lacked fire alarms, sprinklers and a fire escape. It had only a single staircase.The police blamed flammable materials used in the facade for the spread of the flames. Fire safety experts said the blaze could have been avoided, if warnings had been heeded. A public inquiry into what caused the fire continues.The bonfire video was a callous reminder of the wounds from that day, which to many still feel raw. Homeless residents have spent many months living in hotels or other temporary accommodations. Survivors are steeped in trauma and angry at the absence of accountability.I utterly condemn this sickening video, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said on Twitter. The horrific Grenfell Tower fire was one of the most devastating tragedies our city has ever suffered and I urge social media companies to do the right thing and remove this content immediately.Prime Minister Theresa May, who faced criticism for her own response to the fire, also weighed in.To disrespect those who lost their lives at Grenfell Tower, as well as their families and loved ones, she said, is utterly unacceptable.

World

Global ManagerCredit...CitiDec. 20, 2015 Michael Zink is head of Southeast Asia and Singapore country officer for Citigroup, the global financial services company. Q. In the 27 years you have been with Citigroup, youve worked in Ivory Coast, Gabon, Tunisia, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, China and now Singapore. Did you get the traveling bug growing up? A. My family has been in Cincinnati for 200 years, and I lived in the same house in the same room until I left for university. So there was no indication that I was going to spend my life on the road. The first time I went oversees was to Edinburgh during a junior year abroad program while I was studying chemical engineering at university in Cleveland. After I graduated, I first joined a pharmaceutical plant in Indiana for a couple of years and then decided to join the Peace Corps and went to Kenya in 1983, where I met my wife, Betsy, and apart from two years in business school [at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern] and six months in Manhattan with Citi, I havent worked back in the United States ever since. Q. What do you remember of your experience in the Peace Corps? A. Frankly, I felt I was receiving more than I was giving. These people may be poor, but their society is still built around community and families, this notion that its not money that holds society together, but something else. It also gave me a much broader view of the world. Q. What motivated you to go back to business school after that? A. Wed spent two years in Africa, right after the first emerging market crisis [Mexico, 1982] had broken. We were digging water wells and building water tanks, and I realized we could be doing this for another 100 years and this wasnt going to solve the issue. I wanted to understand the money issue. After I graduated I interviewed for a job with Citi. They saw my Africa experience on my C.V., and the guy asked me almost apologetically if I would be interested in taking a job there. Every young graduate wanted to work in London or Paris, so when I told him yes, and I was pretty sure my wife would also be onboard, I got the job. Q. Going to Ivory Coast in 1989 must have sounded like an odd choice. A. Wall Street had just crashed in 1987, but all my business school classmates still wanted to go there. I always knew emerging markets was what I wanted to do. Actually, I was delighted; the first time Id worked in Africa, Id worked for free, and now these guys were going to pay me! We only stayed in Ivory Coast for six months and then moved to Gabon. Citi had had a big fraud issue at their branch there, and they wanted me to go to help sort it out. It was a small branch, with only me and seven Gabonese, and I literally had the key to the front door and the combination of the safe. This was my first experience running a team. Q. What early lessons did you learn? A. The need to adapt. As an American, I needed to slow down. Sometimes you have to let events unfold, you cant control everything. You have to keep things under control, but the pace is different and you have to learn to balance expectations from headquarters. In the different places Ive worked, there have been a lot of differences in the way decisions are made, whether its the pace or the number of people involved. You may force a decision, but it wont stick, so figuring out the right way to operate is very important. For example, in Asia, whats important is what is not said in the room, the unspoken. But while you must adapt how you read the people in each country, there can be no compromising our corporate culture, our controls, how we engage with customers, security of data none of this is any different wherever Citi is. Q. Did you ever worry about security? A. They did have a revolution in Gabon while we were there. My wife was jogging one day, and the French Foreign Legion parachuted in around her. Thats when we thought it was time to get out of the city for a while. She had to evacuate on an oil supply ship with our 14-week-old daughter, while I went on an offshore oil rig with my buddies to sit it out for three days. We have always been smart about our personal security. Q. How was your experience in Russia? A. The Soviet Union had collapsed in December 1991, and Citi got a license to operate in Russia back in October 1993. I got there in January 1994. It was really a start-up crew, and I was the head of corporate banking. We made a very important decision, which turned out to be a brilliant one. We decided to only hire people under 30, because if you had banking experience in the old Soviet Union, it may not be all that relevant. We just wanted young bright people we could train. It was hard, but it was fun. We started from nothing, and multinationals were just pouring in at the time. It was just awesome, probably my favorite job! Q. From Russia you moved to Sydney. That must have felt very sedate. A. It was another set of challenges and a great career development opportunity. I got there just before the Asian financial crisis hit in 1997-98. I was the head of corporate banking for New South Wales, a very sophisticated market, overseeing a small team of very senior bankers. This is the point deep enough in my career where I learned to operate by influence. There is no command and control at that point; you dont tell people what to do, youve got to play your position, understand what they do best and help them succeed. Youve also got to get respect by convincing them you bring something to the party. In that case, it was my connectivity to the people in the region. I couldnt negotiate the deal with their clients, they had the relationship, but I could help them get the deal approved internally. Q. Youve had to ride a few financial crises. What have you learned from those experiences? A. Treat people like adults. You give them the full information, they hear it from you, and there is no inconsistency in your message. And you have to tell them its a storm and thats what were going to do about it. There is always a temptation to draw back to a narrower group of people, but thats a huge mistake. The broader the engagement, the better. Q. What advice would you give to a young person starting their professional life? A. If you want to stand out and you want to rise quickly, go take on a problem that needs to be fixed. Dont seek to enter a team that is already doing great and is highly thought of, because what impact are you going to have there?

Business

Credit...Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJune 17, 2018WASHINGTON The Pentagon has quietly empowered the United States Cyber Command to take a far more aggressive approach to defending the nation against cyberattacks, a shift in strategy that could increase the risk of conflict with the foreign states that sponsor malicious hacking groups.Until now, the Cyber Command has assumed a largely defensive posture, trying to counter attackers as they enter American networks. In the relatively few instances when it has gone on the offensive, particularly in trying to disrupt the online activities of the Islamic State and its recruiters in the past several years, the results have been mixed at best.But in the spring, as the Pentagon elevated the commands status, it opened the door to nearly daily raids on foreign networks, seeking to disable cyberweapons before they can be unleashed, according to strategy documents and military and intelligence officials.The change in approach was not formally debated inside the White House before it was issued, according to current and former administration officials. But it reflects the greater authority given to military commanders by President Trump, as well as a widespread view that the United States has mounted an inadequate defense against the rising number of attacks aimed at America.It is unclear how carefully the administration has weighed the various risks involved if the plan is acted on in classified operations. Adversaries like Russia, China and North Korea, all nuclear-armed states, have been behind major cyberattacks, and the United States has struggled with the question of how to avoid an unforeseen escalation as it wields its growing cyberarsenal.Another complicating factor is that taking action against an adversary often requires surreptitiously operating in the networks of an ally, like Germany a problem that often gave the Obama administration pause.The new strategy envisions constant, disruptive short of war activities in foreign computer networks. It is born, officials said, of more than a decade of counterterrorism operations, where the United States learned that the best way to take on Al Qaeda or the Islamic State was by destroying the militants inside their bases or their living rooms.The objective, according to the new vision statement quietly issued by the command, is to contest dangerous adversary activity before it impairs our national power.Pushing American defenses as close as possible to the origin of adversary activity extends our reach to expose adversaries weaknesses, learn their intentions and capabilities, and counter attacks close to their origins, the document says. Continuous engagement imposes tactical friction and strategic costs on our adversaries, compelling them to shift resources to defense and reduce attacks.Another Pentagon document, dated May 2017, provides a legal basis for attacking nuclear missiles on the launchpad using nonkinetic options meaning a cyberattack or some other means that does not involve bombing a missile on the pad or otherwise blowing it up.The policy was issued two months after The New York Times revealed that the Obama administration had developed an extensive left of launch capability to attack North Koreas missiles using cyber and electronic warfare, though it was unclear how well the strategy was working. The new Pentagon legal strategy was first reported by The Daily Beast.As the Defense Department elevated the Cyber Command to a status equal to the Indo-Pacific Command, the European Command, the Space Command and the Joint Special Operations Command, among others, it declared that most of its 133 cyber mission teams were combat-ready after years of development.But most of those teams protect Defense Department networks. Offensive cyberaction by the United States has been relatively rare, a reflection of the time it takes to mount operations and the fact that only the president can approve any use of a cyberweapon that is likely to have significant effects. Those operations have included disabling another nations nuclear facilities or its missiles, as the United States has attempted in Iran and North Korea, or disrupting the communications of groups like the Islamic State.The presidents sole authority to authorize the use of those weapons is similar to his authority to launch nuclear weapons, a recognition that cyberweapons, even if less powerful than nuclear arms, can have broad, unintended effects.Under the Trump administration, the traditional structure of White House oversight of American offensive and defensive cyberactivities is being dismantled. Days after taking office in April, the new national security adviser, John R. Bolton, forced out the homeland security adviser, Thomas P. Bossert, in part because of his discomfort that Mr. Bossert had direct access to the president.ImageCredit...Alex Wong/Getty ImagesMr. Bolton then eliminated the position of White House cybercoordinator, who had overseen the complex mix of cyberactivities run by the American government.The last person who held the job, Rob Joyce, had previously run the Tailored Access Operations unit of the National Security Agency the covert special forces of Americas cyberoperations, which has mounted attacks on critical foreign targets, from Irans nuclear facilities to North Korean missile testing sites. Mr. Joyce returned to the N.S.A.American intelligence agencies have identified cyberthreats as the No. 1 risk facing the United States it has ranked ahead of terrorism for years now in the annual assessment provided to Congress, even before the Russian intrusion into the election. But the White House declared that it did not need a separate cybercoordinator because the issues are included in many other programs. A young National Security Council staff member, with scant experience in the topic, now oversees offensive cyberissues.The United States Cyber Command was created partly in response to a Russian hacking attack that long predated the 2016 election. In the fall of 2008, Russian intelligence agencies penetrated SIPRNet, the Pentagons secret internal network; that led to a rush to consolidate several cyberprograms into a command. The Chinese, meanwhile, were stealing weapons designs, including blueprints for the F-35, Americas most expensive fighter jet.Cyber Command was placed at Fort Meade, Md., home of the National Security Agency, but it has been criticized for being far too dependent on the N.S.A.s hacking skills.A decade later, it is under new command, led by Gen. Paul Nakasone. He was a junior officer in the commands early days and was deeply involved in one of its first big classified projects, Nitro Zeus: the plan to use cybertools, among other things, to take down Irans air defenses, its communications systems and its power grid if a conflict broke out.To prepare for that day, if it ever happened, the United States tunneled deep inside Irans grids, and even Revolutionary Guards Corps command-and-control systems. It was a huge mission, involving hundreds of troops and civilians.The program was never activated; the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement avoided conflict. But now that Mr. Trump has announced that he is abandoning the accord, many of those plans are being dusted off, according to several officials.General Nakasone, in his confirmation hearings in March, made clear that a more aggressive approach to opponents in cyberspace would be needed, though he gave few details. By conducting operations to frustrate and counter adversary cyberactivities to decrease will, increase cost and deny benefits, he said, the United States could begin to deliver more decisive blows with its attacks.The same month, Gen. John E. Hyten, the head of Strategic Command, said in testimony that if the United States was going to defend itself in cyberspace, it needed clear rules of day-to-day engagement.Cyberspace needs to be looked at as a warfighting domain, he said, and if somebody threatens us in cyberspace, we need to have the authorities to respond. His statement seemed to reflect a view that the current legal authority is too slow.There is little debate inside the governments sprawling community of cyberwarriors and defenders that the United States needs to step up its game: It did not see the Russian hack of the 2016 election coming, or North Koreas WannaCry attack last year, which crippled the National Health Service in Britain and rippled around the world, partly driven by stolen American cyberweapons.But the risks of escalation of United States action in foreign networks leading to retaliatory strikes against American banks, dams, financial markets or communications networks are considerable, according to current and former officials. Mr. Trump has shown only a cursory interest in the subject, former aides say, not surprising for a man who does not use a computer and came of age as a business executive in a predigital era.Efforts to rewrite the main document governing the presidential authorities in the cyberarena Presidential Policy Directive 20, signed by Barack Obama have faltered in the chaos of Mr. Boltons decision to oust the key players.It is essentially a forward defense approach, Jason Healey, who runs the cyber initiative at Columbia University, said recently. Clearly, what we have been doing so far isnt working. But you want to think through the consequences carefully.The chief risk is that the internet becomes a battleground of all-against-all, as nations not only place implants in the networks of their adversaries something the United States, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have done with varying levels of sophistication but also begin to engage in daily attack and counterattack.

Politics

Science|These Hungry Goats Learned to Branch Outhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/science/goats-trees-seeds-morocco.htmlTrilobitesCredit...Dave Watts/Minden PicturesJune 12, 2017No, this is not an illustration from a book by Dr. Seuss.These domestic goats live in southwestern Morocco, where the climate is dry and in some seasons the only available forage is in the trees. So the goats climb up to get it.Goats are good climbers some sure-footed species live happily on mountains, leaping from ledge to ledge. But these domestic goats are not born with an ability to climb trees. They learn the technique as kids.Their keepers help them climb, and they trim the trees to make it easier for the kids. The goats eventually learn to do it themselves. In the autumn, when there is little food on the ground, they spend most of their time grazing the treetops.Now researchers have found that the trees benefit, too. Many animals eat the seeds of plants and then defecate them at another location. But the seeds of the argan trees that these goats graze on are about an inch long and a half-inch across too big for a goat to pass.Fortunately for the trees, goats are ruminants: They chew their cud and regurgitate it to be rechewed before being swallowed for good. The researchers suspect that while the goats ruminate, they spit out the large seeds, often far away from the mother plant, increasing the chance of seed and seedling survival.

science

Credit...Joel Carrett/EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 19, 2018SYDNEY, Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia has proposed imposing stricter limits on immigration to control overcrowding in the countrys major cities, a plan that experts called a politically motivated gambit that could legitimize resentment against immigrants.Population growth has played a major role in the countrys economic success, but people in Australias biggest cities are concerned about an influx of immigrants, Mr. Morrison said in a speech Monday night.They are saying: enough, enough, enough, he told influential figures in Sydneys business, media and urban planning sectors. The roads are clogged, the buses and trains are full. The schools are taking no more enrollments. I hear what you are saying. I hear you loud and clear.On Monday, Peter Dutton, the home affairs minister, said he supported the proposal as one way to confront worsening congestion in Sydney and Melbourne, Australias most populous cities. We want people out of cars and spending more time with their families, more time doing the things they want, he said at a news conference.The move to reduce the current cap on immigration by nearly 30,000 people represents a turnaround for Australia, a country of 25 million that has relied on immigrant labor and skill to fuel its economic and population growth. It was also a stark change in tune for Mr. Morrison, who as the governments treasurer pushed back against cutting the cap in February, six months before he became prime minister.Since 2012, Australia has maintained an annual cap of 190,000 on its permanent migration program. But in the yearlong period starting in July 2017, the number of immigrants dropped to 162,000, a 10 percent decline from the previous years figure and the lowest number in a decade.The cap is likely to be adjusted next year to reflect that decline, Mr. Morrison said, after the government solicited feedback from Australian states and territories.While some cities are looking to grow, others, like Sydney, the countrys largest, are suffering from pressure points in infrastructure, congestion and public services, and these need to be addressed, he added.For the federal government, immigration has become a hotly contested issue, one that will most likely galvanize voters ahead of an election next year. According to the Australia Bureau of Statistics, about half of all Australians were born overseas or have one parent who was born overseas. More than 80 percent of those born overseas live in the countrys capital cities, with the biggest populations in Sydney and Melbourne.But experts said that, given the success of the permanent migration program, any cuts to immigration should be carefully considered in light of the potential economic and social implications.These decisions have very long-term consequences enormous consequences for congestion, for infrastructure, various businesses, said Abul Rizvi, a former senior immigration official.I would strongly encourage him to slow down, Mr. Rizvi said of the prime minister.The permanent migration program has been a central component of the countrys successful economic growth, said Chris F. Wright, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School. The people that come under that program contribute more to the economy through income taxation than it takes via government services.For Mr. Morrison to target that program, even as he expands other temporary visa categories, is baffling, Mr. Wright said.Politically, it could fuel a growing fire of populist sentiment against immigrants, Mr. Wright said. There is a real risk of giving credence and legitimacy to the views of the anti-immigration fringe.According to a poll last month, a majority of Australians support the current intake of permanent migrants, with 52 percent approving of the current cap or wanting more. But 45 percent of respondents said the cap should be cut.Mr. Rizvi said the planned changes would have a disproportionate impact on businesses in Sydney, where federal and state governments have previously encouraged newcomers, particularly international students, to settle.Now youve got a huge success, he said of efforts to draw students and other immigrants to Sydney, and youre complaining that theyre crowding out the roads?Urban planning experts said that while immigration does add to demand for services, poor urban planning has contributed to a sense of congestion and resentment against immigrants in cities.In Sydney, for example, a division between an affluent, largely Anglo population in the citys north and east and a denser immigrant population in the south and west has caused tensions, said Awais Piracha, an associate professor of urban planning at Western Sydney University.A complex problem is being simplified into migrants causing this difficulty, Mr. Piracha said about blaming immigrants for urban congestion. Its not as simple as that.Given that the citys developers are building projects based on population forecasts around the current immigration cap, a change in permanent migration levels may have implications for the housing sector by depressing housing prices.If the immigration is reduced, there would be some impact on house prices, Mr. Piracha said, suggesting that builders might end up with unsold inventory. All kinds of planning will have to adjust.Mr. Morrisons speech is just the latest attempt to address concerns over immigration in Sydney and Melbourne. Last month, the government announced it was considering a plan to require new migrants to settle in different areas of the country for up to five years after their arrival in Australia.The new immigration policy will be discussed with state and territorial leaders at a meeting next month, Mr. Morrison said.

World

Asia Pacific|Lawyer in Blasphemy Case Flees Pakistanhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/world/asia/blasphemy-case-lawyer-pakistan.htmlCredit...B.K. Bangash/Associated PressNov. 3, 2018The lawyer for a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy charges after spending eight years on death row in Pakistan has fled the country, fearing for his safety, her brother said Saturday.James Masih said Asia Bibis lawyer, Saiful Malook, left Pakistan, without providing further details. Mr. Malooks phone was switched off.Pakistans top court acquitted Ms. Bibi on Wednesday and ordered her release in a move that infuriated the countrys hard-line Islamists, who have held nationwide protests demanding her execution.The government reached a deal with the Islamists overnight in which it agreed to impose a travel ban on Ms. Bibi while the case is reviewed. In return, the Islamists halted their protests, which had blocked roads and brought life to a standstill in parts of the country.Mr. Malook told The Associated Press earlier this week that he would have to leave Pakistan because the followers of hard-line cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi had threatened to kill him as well as the judges who acquitted Ms. Bibi.The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that Mr. Malook passed through Rome en route to Amsterdam. It said he would speak at a conference in Amsterdam next week before permanently relocating to London.Blasphemy against Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan, and the mere rumor has caused lynchings in the past.Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province, was shot and killed by one of his guards in 2011 for defending Ms. Bibi and criticizing the misuse of the law. The assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged for the crime, but later was hailed by religious hard-liners as a martyr, with millions visiting a shrine set up for him near Islamabad. Mr. Malook had served as the prosecutor in Mr. Qadris trial.Ms. Bibi was arrested in 2009 on allegations that she insulted the Prophet Muhammad during an altercation with other farmworkers. Her family and lawyers deny she ever insulted Islam.Rights groups have called for Ms. Bibis release and criticized the blasphemy law, saying it has been used to settle scores or abuse religious minorities. The court upheld the blasphemy law, but said there was not enough evidence to convict Ms. Bibi.Pakistans Supreme Court has not been known to reverse its decisions, but court reviews typically take years. Ms. Bibis ordeal looks set to continue until the review is completed.Ms. Bibis family had expected her release by Thursday night. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, returned from Britain with their children in mid-October and was waiting for her release so that they could fly out of Pakistan. Though the family has not disclosed her destination, France and Spain have offered asylum.

World

Olympics|Americans Skeleton Run Goes Awryhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/sports/olympics/americans-skeleton-run-goes-awry.htmlCredit...Natacha Pisarenko/Associated PressFeb. 15, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia John Daly of the United States was in fourth place going into the fourth heat of the mens skeleton final on Saturday when he botched his run just as it was beginning. It is unclear how exactly it happened possibly he was too eager or too aggressive but as he ran alongside and flung himself onto his sled at the top of the track, the sled popped out of the groove meant to guide it through its initial descent.This happens only rarely in high-level competition: Keeping the sled controlled at the start is a tenet of the sport. As the sled careened around the track, Dalys legs were flailing off the back. That cost him his chance at a bronze medal.Daly, 28, ended the race in tears and in 15th place, saying he felt so shattered that he had been unable even to look at his parents in the stands after he crossed the finish line.Alexander Tretiakov, a.k.a. the Russian Rocket, a popular favorite of the boisterous crowd, took the gold and Martin Dukurs of Latvia the silver. The bronze medal went to Dalys teammate Matt Antoine, who competed immediately after Daly.When I was walking up to the line, I heard all the groans, Antoine said. I knew something bad had happened.As for Daly, he said he planned to go home and take a break from the skeleton for a while.I had a mile of ice to think about what just happened, he said, describing his feelings during the race, and now I have four more years to wait.

Sports

Credit...Marine BuffardWith the virus widespread in white-tailed deer, scientists wonder which animals might be next.Credit...Marine BuffardFeb. 22, 2022Barbara Han, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, knew it was a question of when, not if, the coronavirus would spread to animals. As the first reports of infected animals appeared in 2020, she began working on an artificial intelligence model that would predict which creatures might be next.We had a pretty lofty goal of being able to predict exactly which species we should be keeping an eye on, given that we think its going to spill back, Dr. Han said. As her team worked, the trickle of cases in new species became a flood: cats and dogs in homes and mink on farms. The virus infiltrated zoos, infecting the usual suspects (tigers and lions) as well as more surprising species (the coatimundi, which is native to the Americas and resembles a raccoon crossed with a lemur, and the binturong, which is native to Southeast Asia and resembles a raccoon crossed with an elderly man).Dr. Han and her colleagues ultimately identified 540 mammalian species that were most likely to host and spread the coronavirus. She had been especially worried that the red fox, which ranked high on her list of at-risk creatures, and is widespread in Europe and North America, would be susceptible to the virus. Were just waiting for somebody to report it, she said.Just days earlier, in fact, researchers in Colorado had announced that the virus had proved capable of infecting red foxes in the lab. Oh no! Dr. Han exclaimed when informed of the finding. It really sucks to be right in my line of work.Last fall, scientists analyzing tissue samples from dead white-tailed deer in Iowa found that the virus was widespread in that species. The discovery intensified concerns that the virus might establish itself in an animal reservoir, mutate and spread to other species, including back to humans. It also opened a rabbit hole: If deer can silently spread the coronavirus, what else could? And what else will?Experts say there is no need to panic, and emphasize that animals are not to blame. Really, humans are infecting the animals, and now animals are sick and some of them are dying, Dr. Han said.But identifying the species at risk is crucial for protecting both human and animal health. It is also a formidable scientific problem, with a wide array of potentially vulnerable species. Scientists must analyze a constant, chaotic stream of computational predictions, laboratory data and confirmed infections in zoos, homes and the wild.In an ideal world, scientists would monitor every potentially susceptible population. But in the real one, they are trying to strike a delicate balance between identifying the species of highest concern and casting a wide net as the virus mutates and variants emerge. It wouldnt surprise me if you would find an animal species or an animal reservoir that nobody has thought about, Dr. Diego Diel, a virologist at Cornell University, said.The basics of infectionScientists use a variety of tools to identify susceptible species. Each approach has limitations, but together they paint a fuller picture of which animals are at risk.Some research teams are focusing on the ACE2 receptor, a protein found on the surface of the cells of many species. The coronaviruss spiky protrusions allow it to bind to these receptors, like a key in a lock, and enter cells.In 2020, a group of scientists compared the ACE2 receptors of hundreds of vertebrates, mostly mammals, with those of humans to determine which species the virus might infect. (The ACE2 receptors of birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians are not similar enough to ours to raise concern.)The predictions have been very good so far, Harris A. Lewin, a biologist at the University of California, Davis, and an author of the study, said in an email. The scientists predicted, for instance, that white-tailed deer were at high risk for infection.But some predictions proved entirely wrong: The paper identified farmed mink as a species of very low concern and then in April 2020 the virus raged through mink farms.Indeed, ACE2 offers only a snapshot of susceptibility. Viral infection and immunity is much more complex than just a virus binding to a cell, Kaitlin Sawatzki, a virologist at Tufts University, said in an email.And of the worlds nearly 6,000 mammalian species, scientists have sequenced the ACE2 receptors of just a few hundred of them, creating a biased data set. These sequenced species include model organisms used in experiments, species that carry other diseases, and charismatic zoo denizens, not necessarily the animals that people are most likely to encounter.If a pandemic were to have arisen from a squirrel, we would be like, God, whats wrong with us? We didnt even measure the basic biology of a squirrel, Dr. Han said. So scientists have to find creative ways to make predictions for animals whose ACE2 sequences remain unknown. ACE2 sequences play a crucial role in basic biological functions, such as regulating blood pressure. By collecting a species basic life history details such as what it eats and whether it is nocturnal Dr. Hans team trained a machine learning algorithm to identify those that appeared likely to bind to and transmit the virus, allowing them to predict susceptibility across many more mammals.Scientists can test these computational predictions in the lab by trying to infect animal cells or live animals with the virus. Such experiments can differentiate species that may seem similar; one study found that deer mice could be infected with and shed the original version of the virus, while house mice could not.But what happens in a collection of cells does not always occur in real animals, and what happens in a lab, where animals typically receive high doses of the virus, may not reflect real life. For instance, although the original virus can replicate in pig cell lines, actual pigs do not appear to be highly susceptible, researchers found.To learn whether animals have been infected by the virus in the real world, scientists can perform what are known as serology studies, looking for coronavirus antibodies in their blood. Serology helps us to look at the historical exposure, Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi, a veterinary microbiologist at Penn State, said.The discovery of widespread antibodies in white-tailed deer set off scientific alarm bells because it indicated that many of the animals had already been infected by the virus. It prompted researchers to look for active infections in the cervids, which they soon found.But sampling and swabbing free-ranging animals can be difficult and time-consuming. So the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which received $300 million under the American Rescue Plan to conduct disease surveillance in animals, is now asking zoos, aquariums and wildlife facilities to send in blood samples, which will be analyzed for coronavirus antibodies.And researchers at Tufts, including Dr. Sawatzki, have enlisted wildlife rehabilitation specialists to swab an eclectic collection of creatures, including black bears, bobcats and hundreds of bats. (Bat rehabilitators often submit guano samples instead of oral swabs, which can be difficult to obtain from the animals. They have very tiny little mouths, Dr. Sawatzki said.) So far, all have been negative.Bats have been a source of concern because they are reservoirs for other coronaviruses, and many scientists believe that SARS-CoV-2 initially emerged from bats. But bat species are incredibly diverse, and not all of them appear to be susceptible to the virus a reminder that animals of highest concern may not be intuitive, scientists said.Complicating matters, the virus is not static, and animals that resisted infection with past variants might be vulnerable to new ones. For example, lab mice that were not susceptible to the original coronavirus or to the Delta variant were susceptible to Beta and Gamma.Thats the problem with emerging diseases, said Dr. Scott Weese, an infectious diseases veterinarian at the University of Guelph in Ontario. You have to keep resetting your knowledge every time something changes, he added.ImageCredit...Marine BuffardA shortlist of speciesBiological susceptibility is just one piece of the puzzle; whether or not a species becomes a reservoir depends on a constellation of factors. It depends on their social behavior, the immune response thats mounted by the animals, the population size, the kind of connection with different populations of animals, said Dr. Keith Hamilton, head of the preparedness and resilience department at the World Organization for Animal Health.For a virus that is overwhelmingly transmitted by humans, a speciess relationship with us matters tremendously. Although narwhals ACE2 receptors technically place them at high risk for infection, they are not likely to run into us. Still, risk isnt zero for marine mammals, especially captive ones: In 2006, a human likely transmitted MRSA to a bottlenose dolphin in a marine park in North America.And the risk to pets is manifest.Weve heard stories of dogs getting infected from people sharing food and letting them lick off their plates when they were sick, said Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, who directs the One Health Office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which created a national repository for data on coronavirus cases in animals. Or even drinking out of toilets.Pet dogs, cats and hamsters can all be infected by the virus. Hamsters in a Hong Kong pet store most likely infected two people, leading to a contentious hamster cull.But we are far more likely to infect our pets than they are to infect us, and many of these infections will be dead ends, scientists predicted. Infectious pets can also be isolated. Your hamster at home that you may have bought some time ago is not a high risk to you, Dr. Hamilton said.A larger concern, scientists said, are the peridomestic species that live alongside us but roam freely; in North America, these include deer mice, red foxes and feral cats. These animals may act as a bridge between humans and wild populations, spreading the virus to species we may not encounter. And rodents, which are reservoirs for other pathogens, should be definitely on the top of the list, Dr. Kuchipudi said.To monitor this potential threat, officials from the U.S.D.A. and other agencies are looking for signs of the virus in some of these animals including rodents, skunks, foxes and opossums that live in and around zoos, wildlife facilities and mink farms.Globally, certain threatened species are also a top concern. Three snow leopards in a Nebraska zoo died after contracting the coronavirus, and a wild leopard cub in India was found to be infected.And great apes, which frequently encounter tourists and researchers, are vulnerable to other respiratory viruses. Great apes are uniquely susceptible to human pathogens, because were closely genetically related, said Dr. Kirsten Gilardi, a wildlife veterinarian at the University of California, Davis.So far, no coronavirus infections have been reported in wild apes, but researchers are monitoring the animals closely, collecting fecal samples from those with respiratory illnesses.A long gameAnimal surveillance is a long-game question, said Dr. Andrew Bowman, a veterinary epidemiologist at Ohio State University. How do we get ahead of the virus and try to understand what might be coming down the line, potentially years from now?To keep tabs on mutations in animals, and whether they are transmitted across species, federal researchers are conducting genomic surveillance, comparing virus samples from infected animals with those from humans in close contact with them.Some researchers are analyzing potential variants. Dr. Kuchipudi and his colleagues created a computational model that virtually generates novel patterns of mutations and then assesses whether they might make the virus more likely to infect, say, cows. Scientists can then watch for those mutations in databases and observe cattle more closely if the sequences appear. This will give us a way to make sense of the sequencing data and proactively screen, Dr. Kuchipudi said.Scientists also worry about the longer-term threat of viral recombination, in which an animal is simultaneously infected by two coronaviruses that swap genetic material, generating a new virus. Researchers at the University of Liverpool created a model predicting potential hosts in which coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, could recombine.Staying ahead of the virus will require long-term funding and commitment. But scientists say making these investments now could result in better systems for monitoring pathogens in other species and an expanded understanding of how animal health is linked to ours. It may even help experts catch the next looming health threat before it spills over from animals.Theres no harm in understanding better the world around us, Dr. Han said. There can only be harm in not understanding and not investing in that knowledge, which is really obvious now.

Health

Credit...Wiktor Dabkowski/ZUMA Wire, via Alamy Live NewsJune 4, 2018Facebook endured a new wave of criticism from lawmakers and regulators in the United States and Europe on Monday after disclosures that the social media giant had allowed dozens of hardware manufacturers access to its trove of personal user data.Just months after being forced to explain its privacy measures and pledging reforms in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook found itself on the defensive once again, fending off questions about whether company executives had misled elected officials and why it had not fully disclosed the data-sharing agreements during recent testimony in the United States and Europe.The European authorities who last month enacted the worlds strictest data privacy law said Facebooks sharing of personal information with cellphone makers and other manufacturers deserved further investigation. Germanys top privacy regulator, Johannes Caspar, called Facebooks partnerships an unprecedented violation of privacy laws and user trust.And New Yorks attorney general, Barbara Underwood, said her office would expand its investigation of Facebooks data practices to include Facebooks sharing with hardware manufacturers.The broad scope of Facebooks data partnerships with Apple, Samsung, Amazon and other companies that make or sell phones, tablets, televisions and video game consoles was reported by The New York Times on Sunday, showing that Facebook had exempted at least 60 hardware makers from restrictions imposed on other companies in 2015. Those restrictions were intended to prevent games and other apps from gaining access to the Facebook information of their customers friends.Im extremely concerned that we are just now learning that even more personal user data was provided without consent, said Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and one of the lawmakers who questioned Facebooks chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, at a hearing in April.Mr. Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives have repeatedly cited the 2015 restrictions to assure policymakers that no outside company could again harvest swaths of personal information without the explicit consent of users, as a contractor for Cambridge Analytica did in 2014. But Facebook officials said this week that they did not consider hardware partners to be outside companies, under the terms of Facebooks privacy policies and a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission.When Facebook delivers data to a partner device, a Facebook executive said in a statement posted on the companys website Sunday night, the device maker effectively functions as an extension of Facebook. And when Facebook users decide to share photos or phone numbers with their friends, they also consent to having that information flow to any partner devices their friends use.Friends information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends, said the executive, Ime Archibong. We are not aware of any abuse by these companies.But some American lawmakers criticized Facebooks rationale and urged the F.T.C. to review whether the partnerships violated Facebooks promises to the regulator.I think this explanation is completely inadequate and potentially disingenuous, said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and ranking member of the Senate subcommittee charged with consumer protection. I think Mark Zuckerbergs testimony raises very serious and severe questions about Facebooks credibility.David Cicilline of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the House antitrust subcommittee, responded even more harshly.Sure looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have complete control over who sees our data on Facebook, Mr. Cicilline wrote on Twitter.Senior Republicans also said the partnerships merited further review.Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said in a statement that The Timess reporting raises important questions about transparency and potential privacy risks for Facebook users. Mr. Thune said the Senate Commerce Committee, of which he is chairman, would seek more information from Facebook.The F.T.C. is already investigating whether the access to friends data that Facebook allowed until 2015 violated the terms of its earlier consent decree with the regulator. Rohit Chopra, a current F.T.C. commissioner, declined to comment on any specific company or investigation, but said he believed that the commission would act to enforce any agreements it had with companies.Too often, sensitive consumer data gets shared and copied over and over again to a point of no return, Mr. Chopra said. F.T.C. orders are not suggestions. When companies violate them, there can be serious consequences.Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in March, Facebook executives, including Mr. Zuckerberg, have appeared before officials in Washington, London and Brussels. But on Monday, Facebook leaders, including the companys departing security chief, took to another social media platform Twitter to fend off criticism of its privacy policies. The company also addressed American lawmakers from its own Twitter account, saying that no users privacy had been violated by the data partnerships.Other privacy experts also weighed in, including one engineer at Facebooks advertising rival, Google. And executives at Apple which took advantage of Facebooks data-sharing until last year took a swipe at Facebooks privacy settings during a developers conference on Monday.During the events keynote address, Craig Federighi, an Apple senior vice president, unveiled a new feature that will let Apple users more easily control what sort of information is shared with Facebook and other social media companies.Mr. Federighi chose to demonstrate the new feature onstage by showing Apples Safari browser open to a webpage. Above it, a pop-up graphic appeared.Do you want to allow facebook.com to use cookies and website data while browsing blabbermouth.net? the pop-up read.

Tech

Credit...Sean Rayford/Getty ImagesJune 26, 2018COLUMBIA, S.C. President Trump helped lift a pair of incumbent Republicans locked in difficult races to victory Tuesday while the liberal wing of the Democratic Party scored its most significant successes yet in the primary season, with progressive candidates unseating the fourth-ranking House Democrat and claiming the nominations for governor in Maryland and Colorado.Already triumphant after the Supreme Court ruled in his favor in two major cases Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump propelled Gov. Henry McMaster to a decisive victory in a runoff in South Carolina, a day after appearing with him at a rally.And Mr. Trump got another victory in New York, where Staten Island Republicans renominated Representative Dan Donovan, thwarting the comeback bid of Michael Grimm, who was seeking to overcome his conviction on tax fraud and regain his former House seat. Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Donovan, saying the party couldnt afford a Grimm candidacy in a district that could swing to the Democrats.ImageCredit...Caitlin Ochs for The New York TimesIn Colorado, Representative Jared Polis, who would be the nations first elected gay governor if he prevails in November, won the Democratic nomination for governor. Another progressive, the former N.A.A.C.P. president Ben Jealous, claimed the nomination for governor in Maryland.Seven states went to the polls Tuesday, including Utah, where Republicans launched Mitt Romneys political revival in his bid for the Senate seat being vacated by Orrin G. Hatch.ImageCredit...Tim Dominick/The State, via Associated PressIt was here in South Carolina, though, that Mr. Trumps willingness to take a gamble for an ally paid off.Mr. Trump has proved adept at bruising his adversaries but had less success in office propelling allies to victory until Tuesday.With 97 percent of the vote counted, Mr. McMaster had 53 percent and his opponent, John Warren, a businessman and former Marine, had 47 percent. Claiming victory, Mr. McMaster, 71, thanked the president and told supporters that this state had not had a closer relationship with a president in decades.ImageCredit...Ryan David Brown for The New York TimesAs President Trump says, Were gonna keep on winning, winning, winning in South Carolina, he crowed.[Want to know more about the midterm races? Ask The New York Timess politics editor.]Putting his political capital on the line to repay Mr. McMaster, Mr. Trump flew into the state Monday night to appear with the governor and urge Republican voters to back one of the few elected officials who were willing to get behind his candidacy at the outset of 2016. Mr. McMaster ascended to the governorship last year when Mr. Trump appointed Nikki R. Haley as his ambassador to the United Nations.The president acknowledged he was taking a risk in standing with Mr. McMaster, telling voters in a suburb just west of here that the news media would portray a loss as a humiliating defeat for the White House. But his staff had also gotten assurances from the governor last week that he was ahead in the polls.ImageCredit...Alex Goodlett for The New York TimesA political veteran who was battered for representing the status quo at a moment when Republicans are hungry for outsiders, Mr. McMaster was forced into a runoff two weeks ago by Mr. Warren, 39, after failing to garner a majority of the vote in the states primary.But the White House staged something of a rescue mission to ensure the governors renomination, sending Vice President Mike Pence to campaign with Mr. McMaster on Saturday in addition to Mr. Trumps Monday night rally. After Tuesdays results were announced, the president congratulated Mr. McMaster in a tweet.Mr. McMaster will face James Smith, a Democratic state lawmaker who is close to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in the general election. Its a race that could become competitive if Mr. Smith is able to raise the money needed to increase his visibility.ImageCredit...Emma Howells/The New York TimesIn a House Republican runoff for the seat being vacated by Representative Trey Gowdy, South Carolina voters nominated William Timmons, a state senator who defeated a conservative hard-liner with a history of making inflammatory remarks that made many mainstream party officials uneasy.In Utah, where Mr. Hatch is retiring, Mr. Romney easily won the Republican Senate nomination. Returning to politics six years after his presidential defeat, and two years after he emerged as a leading anti-Trump voice in his party, the former Massachusetts governor faced some criticism for running in a state that he has not called home for many years. Utahs heavily conservative Republican convention attendees even backed Mr. Romneys opponent, Mike Kennedy, at the states nonbinding nominating convention in April.But Mr. Romney is a deeply admired figure in Utah. In addition to being among the most prominent Mormons in the world, he helped rescue the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. In fact, his political standing is secure enough in the state that on Sunday he wrote an op-ed informing Republican voters that he would continue to speak out against Mr. Trump as he saw fit.ImageCredit...Bill Green/The Frederick News-Post, via Associated PressIn Colorado, Mr. Polis, a Boulder-based progressive who spent over $11 million of his own money, is competing for the seat being vacated by Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is term-limited. Mr. Poliss victory Tuesday illustrated the partys break from more moderate Democrats such as Mr. Hickenlooper and former Senator Ken Salazar. He defeated Cary Kennedy, a former state treasurer who was hoping to be the states first female governor.Mr. Polis will face the state treasurer, Walker Stapleton, a Bush family relative, who won the Republican nomination.Also in Colorado, veteran Representative Diana DeGette, a Democrat, easily fended off a spirited challenge on her left from Saira Rao, an Indian-American book publisher who has complained that her party has not done enough to support candidates of color. Ms. DeGette, a 22-year incumbent, had to spend over $720,000 to fend off Ms. Rao.In Maryland, Democratic voters turned to a more liberal choice for governor, nominating Mr. Jealous, who was a leading surrogate for Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential race. Mr. Jealous, who enjoyed the support of a group of 2020 White House prospects including Mr. Sanders, defeated Rushern Baker, the Prince Georges County executive, as well as a large group of other candidates.Thanks to an infusion of out-of-state money, Mr. Jealous and his allies out-raised Mr. Baker, who was backed by many establishment-aligned Democrats in the state, such as Senator Chris Van Hollen and former Gov. Martin OMalley. In the general election, Mr. Jealous will face Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who enjoys broad popularity but is running in a deep-blue state filled with voters eager to register their contempt for Mr. Trump.And in a House district that includes parts of the Washington suburbs, David Trone, the co-founder of Total Wine, prevailed after spending more than $11 million of his own money in a race to succeed Representative John Delaney, who is leaving the House to run for president. Two years ago Mr. Trone lost to Jamie B. Raskin in a House race in a different district, despite spending $13.4 million out of his own pocket.Oklahomans also voted Tuesday, deciding on who to nominate in the race to replace Gov. Mary Fallin, who is term-limited. Democrats nominated a former state attorney general, Drew Edmondson, and Republicans were headed toward a runoff between former Mayor Mick Cornett of Oklahoma City and one of several other candidates.

Politics

Among the 185 players who spent more than three-quarters of their career as a shortstop and played at least 500 games in the majors, Derek Jeter not only has one of the highest batting averages, but also has shown extraordinary longevity, logging more than 2,600 games over 19 seasons. 100 1995 13 2005 13 1973 84 1941 56 1978 96 1981 01 .312 career batting average .302 .247 .273 .262 .276 .350 .250 More on NYTimes.com

Sports

RoundupFeb. 15, 2014Bayern Munich continued its title march in Germanys Bundesliga with a comfortable 4-0 win over Freiburg on Saturday, while Hamburg lost, 4-2, to last-place Eintracht Braunschweig.Dante headed Bayern into the lead in the 19th minute and Xherdan Shaqiri scored on deflected shots in the 34th and 42nd minutes. Claudio Pizarro completed the rout in the 88th minute as Munich stretched its league-record unbeaten run to 46 games.Bayern moved to 16 points ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, pending the outcome of a later game against Schalke.Hamburg slumped to its seventh consecutive defeat, putting its Dutch coach, Bert van Marwijk, in danger of losing his job after a week of boardroom upheaval at the club.Also Saturday, third-place Borussia Dortmund defeated Eintracht Frankfurt, 4-0; Werder Bremen drew, 1-1, with Borussia Mnchengladbach; and Hoffenheim beat 10-man Stuttgart, 4-1.Bayern Coach Pep Guardiola opted to rest several players with his eye on the first leg of a Champions League Round of 16 series at Arsenal on Wednesday. Diego Contento, Javi Martnez, Toni Kroos, Pizarro and Shaqiri played instead of David Alaba, Jrme Boateng, Mario Gtze and Thiago Alcntara who were all substitutes and Mario Mandzukic, who was suspended. French wing Franck Ribry was out after undergoing surgery on a burst blood vessel in his buttock.WIGAN AND SUNDERLAND WIN The defending F.A. Cup champion, Wigan, advanced to the quarterfinals by eliminating the Premier League struggler Cardiff City, and Sunderland advanced with a victory over Southampton.Ben Watson, whose goal clinched the cup before Wigan was relegated from the top flight last May, secured a 2-1 win at Cardiff in Wales.Sunderland already has a League Cup final to prepare for, and Craig Gardners long-range shot in the 50th minute gave the Black Cats a 1-0 victory over Southampton in the fifth round of the Football Association Cup.SURPRISE DRUG TESTS FIFA said it would conduct surprise doping tests of all World Cup players at least once, beginning in March.FIFAs chief medical officer, Jiri Dvorak, said that all teams and players should be tested unannounced between March 1 and the World Cup opener in June, using biological passports to determine possible irregularities in blood and urine samples.In a news conference Saturday, Dvorak also said FIFAs medical staff will decide before games whether drinking breaks will be used during the World Cup in Brazil. He said the games world governing body was not overly concerned with the heat during matches in the Amazon city of Manaus, which will host matches by England, Italy and the United States.GREEN TO TRAIN WITH U.S. Julian Green, a wing who made his first-team debut for Bayern Munich last November, will train with the United States national team in Germany early next month ahead of the teams friendly match at Ukraine, U.S. Soccer said.Green, 18, is eligible to play internationally for both Germany and the United States. He was born in Tampa, Fla., to an American father and German mother, but moved with his family to Germany when he was a toddler. He has played for Germany and the United States at the youth international level and would have to petition FIFA for a change of association to play in an official senior international match for the United States.He will work with the team for a couple of days in Frankfurt, Germany, but will not travel to Ukraine for the friendly match on March 5. Under Coach Jurgen Klinsmann, the United States has enlisted a number of German-American players, including Fabian Johnson, Terrence Boyd, Jermaine Jones, Danny Williams and John Anthony Brooks. JACK BELLALGERIA RECEIVES A BOOST Tottenham midfielder Nabil Bentaleb has decided to play for Algeria at the World Cup.Bentaleb, 19, has played at the junior international level for France, but because he holds dual citizenship, he can change his allegiance at the senior level. (REUTERS)

Sports

Roger Stone on Trump He's Burning U.S. w/ Weed Crackdown ... Stomp Your D.O.J. Roach! 1/20/2018 TMZ.com Roger Stone wants Donald Trump to let the American people legally toke, like he promised in the campaign -- and if Jeff Sessions is standing in the way ... smoke him out. We got President Trump's former adviser in NYC, and he had a hot take on pot and Sessions' decision this month to reverse a hands-off approach on legalized marijuana. Can't say we expected this -- but Stone firmly believes Trump must fulfill his pledge and allow the states to handle their weed biz ... sans any pestering from the feds. Like he says ... Trump could lose big on this issue if Sessions keeps "f***ing it up." Stone says Jeff's gotta go.

Entertainment

Politics|Supreme Court Wont Hear North Carolina Partisan Gerrymandering Casehttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/us/politics/supreme-court-gerrymander-voting.htmlCredit...Erin Schaff for The New York TimesJune 25, 2018WASHINGTON The Supreme Court passed up an opportunity on Monday to take another look at whether the Constitution bars extreme partisan gerrymandering, returning a case from North Carolina to a trial court there for a further examination of whether the challengers had suffered the sort of direct injury that would give them standing to sue.The move followed two decisions last week that sidestepped the main issues in partisan gerrymandering cases from Wisconsin and Maryland.The new case was an appeal from a decision in January by a three-judge panel of a Federal District Court in North Carolina. The ruling found that Republican legislators there had violated the Constitution by drawing the districts to hurt the electoral chances of Democratic candidates.The decision was the first from a federal court to strike down a congressional map as a partisan gerrymander.The judges noted that the legislator responsible for drawing the map had not disguised his intentions. I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats, said the legislator, Representative David Lewis, a Republican. So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country.The plan worked. In 2016, the court said, Republican congressional candidates won 53 percent of the statewide vote. But they won in 10 of the 13 congressional districts, or 77 percent of them.The Supreme Court blocked the trial courts ruling in January, and it took no action on an appeal from state officials while it considered the Wisconsin and Maryland cases.After the court issued decisions in those cases on June 18, lawyers for the challengers filed supplemental briefs arguing that the new case, Rucho v. Common Cause, No. 17-1295, was not infected by the technical problems that stood in the way of decisions in the cases from Wisconsin and Washington.The Supreme Court has ruled that racial gerrymandering can violate the Constitution. But it has never struck down a voting map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.

Politics

Politics|David Perdue concedes to Jon Ossoff in Georgia.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/us/politics/david-perdue-concedes-to-jon-ossoff-in-georgia.htmlCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJan. 8, 2021Three days after the runoff elections in Georgia that secured full congressional control for Democrats, Senator David Perdue acknowledged his loss to his Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff.Mr. Perdues concession on Friday, coupled with Senator Kelly Loefflers concession to Senator-elect Raphael Warnock a day earlier, ensures that the results of the Georgia runoffs will not be subject to the prolonged, baseless challenges that President Trump raised to his own loss in the state.Although we won the general election, we came up just short of Georgias 50 percent rule, and now I want to congratulate the Democratic Party and my opponent for this runoff win, Mr. Perdue said in a statement. In the November election, he received 49.7 percent of the vote to Mr. Ossoffs 47.9 percent, but Georgia requires a runoff if no candidate reaches 50 percent ironically, a system that historically benefited conservative candidates by reducing the power of Black voters.With roughly 98 percent of votes counted, Mr. Ossoff is ahead by 45,000 votes, or about a percentage point: more than three times the number of votes that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. won the state by, and double the margin that would have allowed Mr. Perdue to seek a recount.Mr. Ossoff and Mr. Warnock will be sworn in once Georgia election officials certify the results most likely by the time Mr. Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20. That will create a 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris breaking ties, and end six years of Republican control of the chamber.

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Netherlands Dispatch Far from the land of helicopter parenting, getting dropped in the forest is a beloved scouting tradition.July 21, 2019ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesAUSTERLITZ, the Netherlands Shortly after 10 p.m. on a recent night, a car came to a stop at the edge of the woods. The door opened to release three children: towheaded boys of 12 and 15, and a 12-year-old girl with dark pigtails and an emoji-covered backpack. Then the driver threw the car into gear and sped away, gravel crunching under its tires.They were tiny figures at the foot of the forest, miles from the summer camp they were attending, with only a primitive GPS to indicate the right direction. Darkness was falling. And they were alone.They peered into the night: Was this the path?Could be, said Thomas, the 12-year-old team leader.And then, because there was nothing else to do, they plunged into the woods.This is the Dutch scouting tradition known as a dropping, in which groups of children, generally pre-teenagers, are deposited in a forest and expected to find their way back to base. It is meant to be challenging, and they often stagger in at 2 or 3 in the morning.ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesIn some variations of the challenge, loosely based on military exercises, adults trail the teams of children, but refuse to guide them, although they may leave cryptic notes as clues. To make it more difficult, adult organizers may even blindfold the children on their way to the dropping, or drive in loop-de-loops to scramble their sense of direction. Sometimes, they hide in the underbrush and make noises like a wild boar.If this sounds a little crazy to you, it is because you are not Dutch. The Dutch it is fair to say do childhood differently. Children are taught not to depend too much on adults; adults are taught to allow children to solve their own problems. Droppings distill these principles into extreme form, banking on the idea that even for children who are tired, hungry and disoriented, there is a compensatory thrill to being in charge.Certainly, many adults in the Netherlands look back on their droppings fondly. Rik Oudega, a 22-year-old scout leader, recalled being pulled over by police as he drove the wrong way on a one-way road on his way to a dropping. His heart sank, he said, because what I did was against the law. The officers pulled up beside him and asked him to roll down his window. They peered into the back seat of his car, where there were four children in blindfolds, which, Mr. Oudega said, is not really allowed either.Mr. Oudega tried to look wholesome. Im here on a dropping, he told them, hoping for the best. They looked at each other, then they smiled at me and said: Have a good evening. And try to follow the rules.ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesThe children on the dropping in Austerlitz, not far from Utrecht, walked into the woods, and the smell of pine needles rose from the sandy earth. The forest floor was patched with ink-black moss. A half-moon had appeared in the sky. For a few minutes, there was the sound of cars on a road, but then that, too, quieted. The woods closed in, becoming dense.That night was the first dropping for Stijn Jongewaard, an 11-year-old boy with jutting ears, who claimed to have learned English from Minecraft video games and Hawaii Five-O. At home, he spends much of his leisure time planted in front of his PlayStation. This is one reason his parents have sent him to camp. He has never been lost in the woods before.His mother, Tamara, said that the time had come for him to take on greater responsibility, and that the dropping was one step in that direction. Stijn is 11, she said. The time window in which we can teach him is closing. He is going into adolescence, and then he will make decisions for himself.After they had been walking for half an hour, the group turned off the path and into the forest, then paused, stood in conference for a few minutes, and reversed themselves. Ten yards off the path, a huge body leapt, thrusting, behind the leaves, and the children startled. A deer. ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesIf you peruse the Dutch newspapers with sufficient attention, you will find evidence of droppings gone awry. In 2012, German media reported that five Dutch boys on a dropping in Germany called local police to extract them from the narrow space where they had become stuck, between a rock face and a ventilation duct. A perilous adventure, the Germans reported.But Dutch journalists were unimpressed at all the fuss, mocking it as a droppingsdrama and a bit romanticized. The dropping is often the most exciting part of a camping trip, explained one follow-up article.Another report surfaced in 2017, when scout leaders in Belgium dropped 25 children in the woods, then drank a number of beers and fell asleep, leaving the children wandering in the forest after their appointed pickup time. The campers finally rang someones doorbell and got a ride. The parents, the newspaper noted somberly, were not satisfied with the incident.Droppings are such a normal part of Dutch childhood that many there are surprised to be asked about it, assuming it is common to every country. But Pia de Jong, a novelist who has raised her children in New Jersey, said it reflected something particular about the Dutch philosophy of parenting. ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesYou just drop your kids into the world, she said. Of course, you make sure they dont die, but other than that, they have to find their own way.Still, Ms. de Jong, 58, has begun to question whether droppings are really all that fun. Imagine that you are lost and have no idea where to go, she said. It could be 10 hours, it could be the whole night, you just dont know. It is late and long and people are a little frightened.She paused, in thought. I dont think its a nice thing to do to kids, actually, she said.In 2011 and 2014, children on droppings were fatally struck by cars while walking alongside roads. Since then, the practice has become far more regulated. The dropping team does carry a cellphone in case of emergency, and the scouting association requires participants to wear high-visibility vests and distributes a long list of guidelines, mainly geared toward traffic safety. Pushing boundaries is fun, reads one recommendation, but that, too, has boundaries. The scout leaders of the recent dropping, staring into the embers of a campfire, murmured about the proliferating paperwork, the way childhood has softened in recent years. Society is changing, Mr. Oudega said. Its a miracle that we are allowed to have a fire. But the core experience of dropping, he added, has not changed. It really is being on your own, he said. It really does make you feel that you are in charge.ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesBy 1 a.m., Stijn and the other campers were well into their third hour of hiking. They trudged along a paved road in single file, too drained for conversation. Fifteen minutes passed, and another 15, and there was no sign that they were anywhere near their campsite. Stijn was staring straight ahead, like a zombie.My parents are sleeping, he said. My sister is sleeping. My brain is tired. My feet are tired.They were bone-tired, all of them, but also adamant on finishing. One boy had asked to be picked up at the halfway mark, and that seemed to make the rest of them more determined. At that halfway mark, the children were given snacks and water, but in exchange, their GPS was taken away, and they had to follow their instincts. But no one complained, since there was no one to complain to. Im going, Stijn observed. I dont know why Im going, but Im going.It was nearly 2 a.m. when they stumbled into camp. There was a crackling fire, and boiled sausages tucked into soft rolls. Owls were on the hunt, and their shrieks could be heard in the tree canopy high above.The campers wolfed down the food, stared into the fire for a few minutes, and stumbled to their tents. When Stijn emerged the next morning, bleary-eyed, at 11 a.m., he considered himself a veteran.He no longer missed his PlayStation. And he said that someday, when he had children, he wanted them to experience a dropping.It shows you, even in very hard times, to keep walking, to keep going, he said. I have never had to do that before.Claire Moses contributed reporting from London.ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

World

ScienceTakeVideotranscripttranscriptAnt Obstacle CourseScientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder, studied how ants collectively navigated around a variety of Lego blockades.naScientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder, studied how ants collectively navigated around a variety of Lego blockades.Nov. 14, 2016How groups make decisions is a major puzzle. Not just for pollsters. And not just human groups.Helen F. McCreery studies the process in the longhorn crazy ant, which is known for its cooperative behavior in certain tasks. Admittedly, it does not solve geopolitical or economic problems, but groups of these ants can join to take a giant chunk of food, way too much for one ant to move, back to the nest.They do this naturally with a prize like a cricket. But for experimental work, the best bet is a bit of canned tuna. Food preferences vary among ant species and are not easily predictable. These ants, said Ms. McCreery who is a Ph.D. student in biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, dont tend to carry sugary items back. Although other species like fig paste, cheese, gummy bears and cat food, these ants, she said, are kind of persnickety about what they want to carry. They are, however, always really excited about tuna.She and her colleagues tested ants at two locations in Arizona by giving them tuna but blocking their way back to the nest with barriers made of Lego pieces.She wanted to find out what strategies they used to overcome the barriers. They mostly move in the direction of the nest, but when they are blocked, she found that they had different strategies, depending on the barrier.For a simple wall, the ants moved along it until they were able to resume heading toward the nest.For a cul-de-sac, that strategy wouldnt work, however. So, after a time, the ants moved in the opposite direction from the nest. She said scientists didnt know how they communicated and agreed on a change of direction. Time spent pursuing an unproductive strategy seemed to be what prompted the change, although ants just joining the group could have had new information about the barrier.But, she said, something other than the passage of time without success influenced the group actions. When she closed off a cul-de-sac, creating a trap from which escape was impossible, the ants slowed down and quit moving much more quickly than they did in a cul-de-sac that had one opening.In the trap, they start slowing down right away within a minute, she said. In the cul-de-sac, they would work for about 10 minutes, she said.The flexibility in their approach was interesting, she and her colleagues reported in Journal of Experimental Biology, because it allowed the ants to solve a simple problem, like a wall, quickly, but also allowed a second approach to more complicated problems. How they seem to figure out when they are really trapped is still a mystery.They really look like theyre just giving up, Ms. McCreery said.

science

Business BriefingNov. 30, 2015Mattress Firm said on Monday that it had agreed to buy the owner of the mattress retailer Sleepys for about $780 million, in a deal that will combine the top two specialty mattress retailers in the United States. Shares of Mattress Firm were up 10.4 percent at $54.50 after the bell on Monday. The deal will give Mattress Firm more than 1,050 stores in 17 states. With the deal, Mattress Firm will now enter Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island, the company said in a conference call.

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The number of eligible people still weighing whether to get a Covid vaccine has sharply dwindled, leaving an unvaccinated population that is mostly hard-core refusers.Credit...Alisha Jucevic for The New York TimesPublished Oct. 11, 2021Updated Oct. 21, 2021Vaccinated people have been burning up the phone lines at the community health center in rural Franklin, La., clamoring for the newly authorized Covid booster shot.But only a trickle of people have been coming in for their initial doses, even though the rate of full vaccination in the area is still scarcely 39 percent.The dichotomy illustrates one of the most frustrating problems facing public health officials at this stage of the pandemic: The overwhelming majority of eligible adults who remain unvaccinated in the United States are hard-core refusers, and the arrival of boosters is making efforts to coax them as well as those who are still hesitating even more difficult. In the September vaccine monitor survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 71 percent of unvaccinated respondents said the need for boosters indicated that the vaccines were not working.This vaccine has tested me like nothing before and Ive been doing this for 40 years, said Dr. Gary Wiltz, director of the Franklin health center. I cant tell you how many people weve tried to cajole into taking it.In some ways the Covid vaccine landscape reflects great progress: Millions of holdouts have decided to get vaccinated over the past couple months, many prodded at the last minute by mandates or anxiety over the highly transmissible Delta variant. (Three unvaccinated people who showed up for shots in Franklin the other morning came because each knew someone who had recently died from Covid.) The decline of new cases recently in many states is another marker of the success of the vaccine campaigns, public health officials say.But millions of adults are not covered by mandates. Experts in vaccine behavior fear that the country is bumping up against the ceiling of persuadable people, one that is significantly lower than the threshold needed for broad immunity from Delta and, possibly, future variants.One day we just hit a wall, said Dr. Steven Furr, who practices family medicine in rural Jackson, Ala., where he has even made house calls to give patients their Covid shots. We had vaccinated everybody who wanted to be vaccinated and there was nobody left.ImageCredit...Charity Rachelle for The New York TimesAbout 56 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, a level that exceeds some early estimates about what it could take to achieve so-called herd immunity against the coronavirus. That percentage will surely rise once the shots are authorized for children under 12. But Delta is so contagious that experts have revised their optimum coverage estimates to 90 percent or higher.According to the Kaiser Family Foundations vaccine surveys, those who say they will never get the vaccine the definitely nots have held steady for months between 15 and 12 percent of respondents. The rising vaccination rates of late reflect the steady shrinking of a different group those who say they had been waiting to decide and could be convinced. They now total just 7 percent, down from 39 percent in December.(An additional 4 percent of respondents say they would get vaccinated only if their workplace or school mandates it.)But even as boosters are providing added protection for vulnerable populations, they are raising further doubts among people like Christopher Poe, 47, who works in a manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio. He hasnt gotten the shot, despite haranguing and wheedling from worried relatives. He said the need for a booster had deepened his skepticism.It seems like such a short time and people are already having to get boosters, Mr. Poe said. And the fact that they didnt realize that earlier in the rollout shows me that there could be other questions that could be out there, like the long-term effects.And when shots are approved for children ages 5 through 11, as is soon expected, health officials fear that the need for boosters will make parents of those younger children, whom surveys show are very skittish about the vaccines, that much harder to persuade.Faced with these accruing obstacles, doctors and others admit to bouts of outreach fatigue, exasperation and despair.I just dont know what else I can do, Dr. Wiltz said. Some people you just cant convince and you have to accept thats the way its going to be.Some outreach campaigns are turning their focus to getting boosters to the homebound and nursing home patients, hoping that older vaccinated people, among the most in danger from the virus, are readily amenable to an additional shot.Weve got to revisit the places that we prioritized first, which were our senior centers in neighborhoods with folks that maybe had access challenges and who werent going to get that initial vaccination easily, said Dr. Jennifer Avegno, director of the New Orleans health department.In Franklin, La., Dr. Wiltz, who serves a predominantly Black community, said that initial tireless discussions about the vaccine by doctors and ministers with older, reluctant patients were paying off in their enthusiasm for the boosters. They dont have to be convinced, he said. Theyre already there.But while doctors try to encourage eligible vaccinated people to come in for boosters, they struggle to defend the need for the third shot to those who have yet to get their first. Between boosters and the unvaccinated, its now really two different types of campaigns, Dr. Avegno said.Of late, many who are wary of the vaccine say they have become more confused by what they see as mixed messages from federal health agencies and the White House. To get them straightforward information, Yamhill County, Ore., will soon be offering discreet phone appointments. People who want to learn more about the shots will be able to sign up online and get a call from a local physician.People have lots of questions and they want a confidential way to have that conversation, said Lindsey Manfrin, director of the countys health and human services office. Unfortunately, theres stigma here around getting vaccinated and theres stigma around not getting vaccinated.Health officials like Ms. Manfrin are reaching down deep to come up with creative solutions, and redoubling efforts to engage primary care providers and faith and business leaders to help them win over the holdouts, one by one.ImageCredit...Alisha Jucevic for The New York TimesDan Mehan, president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a pro-business group in a state where vaccination rates lag nationally, is providing companies a vaccination encouragement tip sheet and awarding them bronze, silver or gold-level certificates, based on percentage of vaccinated employees. Employers can then flaunt their status to encourage customer traffic. We think vaccination is essential for the recovery from the pandemic, Mr. Mehan said.Grief-stricken relatives of children and unvaccinated adults who succumbed to the Delta variant have even been taking it upon themselves to sponsor vaccine drives. This summer, some held vaccine events at funerals.But with mass vaccine sites largely shuttered, the burden of persuasion has fallen increasingly to primary care providers. Dr. David Priest, an infectious disease specialist with Novant Health, which has many clinics in North Carolina, has had repeated discussions with hesitant patients around the Covid vaccines.You have to overcommunicate to an incredible degree, Dr. Priest said, because we still get questions on things that I think, This was well-known 18 months ago. But thats where people are, so you just have to keep answering that question and answering it and answering it.It is critical, he added, that doctors have vaccines on hand. So when the patient finally says, I think Ill do it, we can seal the deal. Because if you dont have the shots in your clinic right then, people get in their car, get busy with other errands, forget or change their mind.Alison Buttenheim, a behavioral health expert at the University of Pennsylvania, noted that although primary care doctors, as trusted sources for patients, had been playing a crucial role in this phase of vaccine uptake, it definitely raises the question of what happens to people who dont have a usual source of care.But at this point, many doctors and nurses say they are exhausted by putting in so much persuasive effort, for so many months, with relatively little return, even as they are treating very ill patients who had refused to get vaccinated.It is an uphill battle, said Dr. Uzma Syed, an infectious disease specialist in Jericho, N.Y., on Long Island, who for months has been giving vaccine education talks to national and international groups. I cant say that these conversations dont come with tremendous burnout. But you keep going in hopes that you reach even one person to change their mind, because thats a life saved.ImageCredit...Charity Rachelle for The New York Times

Health

Credit...Mohamad Torokman/ReutersMarch 14, 2017JERUSALEM President Trumps new envoy to the Middle East met on Tuesday with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, striving in the administrations first diplomatic undertaking here to maintain a public evenhandedness amid the deep distrust between the Israelis and Palestinians.In a joint statement released by the American Consulate, the envoy, Jason Greenblatt, a real estate lawyer turned diplomat, underscored President Trumps commitment to working with Israelis and Palestinians to achieve a lasting peace through direct negotiations.No breakthroughs or new approaches were reported on Mr. Greenblatts second day in the region after his meeting with Mr. Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian government. Nor were there expected to be. All sides have stressed that Mr. Greenblatt is, for now, taking in the endless complexities of the conflict here. He met for five hours on Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.Mr. Greenblatt has arrived as tensions are pushing in on many sides: Fifty years have passed since Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and leaders and people on all sides are deeply skeptical about the possibility of two states existing side by side here.In the statement, Mr. Abbas, however, reaffirmed the Palestinian strategic choice for a two-state solution. No date was set, but Mr. Trump invited Mr. Abbas to Washington for talks in the near future.The statement did not mention the issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. But that matter appeared to be front and center: News media reports here suggested that Mr. Trump would have to deliver some form of restraint in the building of new settlements to revive peace talks that have made no progress in years.At the same time, Mr. Netanyahu under pressure from his coalitions powerful right wing to begin annexing settlements faces the specific problem of finding new homes for the residents of Amona, a recently dismantled settlement that has become a rallying point for many on the right in Israel.Palestinians have been deeply skeptical of Mr. Trumps attempts at evenhandedness given how Israeli-centric his team is. Mr. Greenblatt is an Orthodox Jew, while Mr. Trumps pick for ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman, has been active in settlement expansion and has disavowed the two-state solution.Still, Mr. Trump told Mr. Netanyahu publicly that settlement construction did not help the peace process, and several Trump officials have reached out to Mr. Abbass government (although the issue of Gaza, ruled by Hamas, a rival Palestinian group, has received little attention so far in the visit).In the statement on Tuesday, Mr. Abbas said he told Mr. Greenblatt that under President Trumps leadership, a historic peace deal is possible.Mr. Greenblatts meetings have taken place in deep secrecy. Officials on both sides are refusing to comment, and leaked reports are sketchy and contradictory.At a news conference on an Israeli high-tech deal, Mr. Netanyahu did offer a vague hint that more specific information might be coming.Regarding my conversations with Jason Greenblatt, I must say that they were good and profound, the prime minister said. I cannot say that we are finished, agreed. We are in a process, but a process of mutual dialogue, genuine, very honest, in the positive sense of the word. Very open and very honest except its not open to the media yet. You will have to wait a bit, not too long, in my opinion.

World

MatterCredit...M. KahruNov. 22, 2016The Arctic Ocean may seem remote and forbidding, but to birds, whales and other animals, its a top-notch dining destination.Its a great place to get food in the summertime, so animals are flying or swimming thousands of miles to get there, said Kevin R. Arrigo, a biological oceanographer at Stanford University.But the menu is changing. Confirming earlier research, scientists reported Wednesday that global warming is altering the ecology of the Arctic Ocean on a huge scale.The annual production of algae, the base of the food web, increased an estimated 47 percent between 1997 and 2015, and the ocean is greening up much earlier each year.These changes are likely to have a profound impact for animals further up the food chain, such as birds, seals, polar bears and whales. But scientists still dont know enough about the biology of the Arctic Ocean to predict what the ecosystem will look like in decades to come.While global warming has affected the whole planet in recent decades, nowhere has been hit harder than the Arctic. This month, temperatures in the high Arctic have been as much as 36 degrees above average, according to records kept by the Danish Meteorological Institute.In October, the extent of sea ice was 28.5 percent below average the lowest for the month since scientists began keeping records in 1979. The area of missing ice is the size of Alaska and Texas put together.Since the mid-2000s, researchers like Dr. Arrigo have been trying to assess the effects of retreating ice on the Arctic ecosystem.The sun returns to the Arctic each spring and melts some of the ice that formed in winter. Algae in the open water quickly spring to life and start growing.These algae are the base of the food chain in the Arctic Ocean, grazed by krill and other invertebrates that in turn support bigger fish, mammals and birds.Dr. Arrigo and his colleagues visited the Arctic in research ships to examine algae in the water and to determine how it affected the waters color. They then reviewed satellite images of the Arctic Ocean, relying on the color of the water to estimate how much algae was growing what scientists call the oceans productivity.The seas productivity was rapidly increasing, Dr. Arrigo found. Last year he and his colleagues published their latest update, estimating that the productivity of the Arctic rose 30 percent between 1998 and 2012.But Mati Kahru, an oceanographer at the University of California, San Diego, was skeptical. As an expert on remote sensing, he knew how hard it is to get a reliable picture of the Arctic Ocean.The ocean is notoriously cloudy, and algae are not the only thing that tinting the water. Rivers deliver tea-colored organic matter into the Arctic Ocean, which can give the impression that theres more algae in the water than is actually there.Dr. Kahru and his colleagues decided to take an independent look, scouring satellite databases for images taken from 1997 to 2015 every image available, he said.The scientists used a mathematical equation to determine how the color in each pixel of each image was determined by algae, runoff, and other factors. Dr. Kahru decided that Dr. Arrigo was right: The Arctic Ocean has become vastly more productive.Marcel Babin, an oceanographer at Universit Laval in Quebec who was not involved in the new study, said that the researchers had done very careful work that confirmed the earlier studies. Its an important finding, he said.Not only is the Arctic Ocean producing more algae, but its doing so sooner each year. These blooms are coming earlier, sometimes two months earlier, Dr. Kahru said.In fact, the bloom may be coming even sooner than satellites can record. On research cruises, Dr. Arrigo and his colleagues have found that open water is no longer a requirement for algae to grow.The ice has gotten so thin that sunlight reaches through it. Now theyre not even waiting for the ice to melt, said Dr. Arrigo said of algal organisms.If we stay on our current course, pouring more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the Arctic will only get warmer, perhaps becoming ice-free in the summer. If algae can find more nitrogen and other nutrients in the ocean, its productivity may continue to rise.Scientists cant yet say what the ecological effects of this transformation will be. It is probable it will have an impact on the whole food web, Dr. Babin said.Dr. Babin and his colleagues have been studying that impact over the past two summers on an expedition called the Green Edge Project, which has studied the ecology in Baffin Bay off the coast of northern Canada. They hope to present the first results of the survey next year.Some species may thrive because they can graze on the extra algae. But if the ecosystem comes to life earlier in the year, many species may be left behind.Fish larvae may not be able to develop fast enough. Migrating whales and birds may show up too late. A lot of the extra algae may drop to the sea floor by then, untouched.Its going to be a different Arctic unless we turn things around, said Dr. Arrigo.

science

matterThree new genetic analyses lend detail, and mystery, to the migration of prehistoric humans throughout the Western Hemisphere.Credit...Andr StraussNov. 8, 2018Nearly 11,000 years ago, a man died in what is now Nevada. Wrapped in a rabbit-skin blanket and reed mats, he was buried in a place called Spirit Cave.Now scientists have recovered and analyzed his DNA, along with that of 70 other ancient people whose remains were discovered throughout the Americas. The findings lend astonishing detail to a story once lost to prehistory: how and when humans spread across the Western Hemisphere.The earliest known arrivals from Asia were already splitting into recognizably distinct groups, the research suggests. Some of these populations thrived, becoming the ancestors of indigenous peoples throughout the hemisphere. But other groups died out entirely, leaving no trace save for what can be discerned in ancient DNA. Indeed, the new genetic research hints at many dramatic chapters in the peopling of the Americas that archaeology has yet to uncover.Now, this is the grist for archaeologists, said Ben Potter of the University of Alaska, who was not involved in the new papers. Holy cow, this is awesome.Earlier studies had indicated that people moved into the Americas at the end of the last ice age, traveling from Siberia to Alaska across a land bridge now under the Bering Sea. They spread southward, eventually reaching the tip of South America. Until recently, geneticists could offer little insight into these vast migrations. Five years ago, just one ancient human genome had been recovered in the Western Hemisphere: that of a 4,000-year-old man discovered in Greenland. The latest batch of analyses, published in three separate studies, marks a turnaround. In the past few years, researchers have recovered the genomes of 229 ancient people from teeth and bones discovered throughout the Americas. The first, described in January by Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen, was an 11,500-year-old girl whose remains were found in eastern Alaska. The second was discovered hundreds of miles away, in western Alaska, and lived 9,000 years ago, Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues reported on Thursday in the journal Science.The Ancient Beringians separated from the ancestors of living indigenous people in the Americas about 20,000 years ago. The new findings suggest they endured for several thousand years. Then they disappeared, leaving no known genetic trace in living people.But another wave of migrants from Siberia did not stop in Alaska. They kept moving, eventually arriving south of the ice age glaciers. Then they split into two branches.One group turned and headed north, following the retreating glaciers into Canada and back to Alaska. The other branch took a remarkable journey south. The genetic data suggest that this group spread swiftly across much of North America and South America about 14,000 years ago. The expansion may have taken only centuries. Its basically an explosion, Dr. Willerslev said. The man from Spirit Cave in Nevada belonged to this so-called southern branch of migrants. He also was closely related to a 12,700-year-old boy found on the other side of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, Dr. Willerslev also found.ImageCredit...Linus Mrk, Magus FilmBut the man from Spirit Cave also turned out to have a close genetic link to 10,400-year-old skeletons found in Brazil, on the other side of the Equator.David Reich of Harvard University and his colleagues found a similar pattern in their own research, published on Thursday in the journal Cell. They uncovered a link between the ancient Montana boy and another group of ancient South Americans, including a 10,900-year-old skeleton in Chile. Like Dr. Willerslevs work, the kinship suggests that migrants moved quickly from North America to South America. We agree that this must be a rapid radiation, said Dr. Reich.Starting about 9,000 years ago, both teams found, additional waves of people moved southward. Dr. Willerslevs research suggests the new arrivals mixed with older South American populations. Dr. Reich, on the other hand, sees evidence for two waves of migrants who completely replaced the people who had lived in South America. [Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]The new research also revealed instances of remarkable continuity, kinships that spanned thousands of years. Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues compared the genome of the man from Spirit Cave to those of four sets of remains found nearby in Nevadas Lovelock Cave, who lived as recently as 600 years ago. All of these people were closely related, his team found, despite being separated by 10,000 years of history.A similar bond was found in the Andes. John Lindo of Emory University and his colleagues analyzed DNA from seven people who lived at high elevations between 6,800 and 1,400 years ago.The researchers estimate that people who lived above 7,500 feet in the mountains were separated from the lowland populations between 9,200 and 8,200 years ago. Today, the mountain people still show a strong genetic link to the ancient remains.This is not something that you see in most other regions of the world, said Dr. Reich.In 2015, Dr. Reich and his colleagues found that some living people in the Amazon carry some DNA thats most similar to that of people who live today in Australia and New Guinea. The researchers speculated that their ancestry included an unknown group, which the scientists called Population Y, who separately made their way into the Americas.In their new study, Dr. Reich and his colleagues found no trace of Population Y but Dr. Willerslevs team succeeded in identifying their DNA in some of the 10,400-year-old skeletons in Brazil.The million-dollar question obviously is, how did this happen? Dr. Willerslev said.Perhaps another group of Asians entered the Americas long before the ancestors of the man from Spirit Cave and other early Native Americans. Maybe they interbred with people in the Amazon before disappearing altogether.Or perhaps a few of the early members of the southern branch happened to have some odd genes that survived through the generations.The new rush of genetic samples reflects an improving relationship between scientists and indigenous peoples. For decades, many tribes rejected requests for DNA from researchers.The man from Spirit Cave, for example, was dug up by archaeologists in 1940 and stored in a museum. The local tribe, the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone, didnt learn of the body till 1996. For years they fought for its repatriation.Its utterly disrespectful, said Rochanne L. Downs, a member of the tribes cultural committee. If someone went into Arlington Cemetery and dug the grave of one of the soldiers and took their medals, there would be outrage.Initially, the tribe was opposed to looking for DNA in the skeleton, because scientists would have to destroy much of it. Dr. Willerslev met with the tribe and explained that he would require only a tooth and a small piece of ear bone. The tribe agreed to give him one shot at finding DNA in the Spirit Cave remains.Dr. Willerslevs results led the Bureau of Land Management to turn over the skeleton to the tribe. They buried the man from Spirit Cave at an undisclosed location last year.Ms. Downs wouldnt rule out similar studies in the future, but said each request would require careful consideration.Its all going to be on a case-by-case basis, she said. The main thing is our respect for the remains.

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