Author: NY TIMES

The process for diagnosing a child with autism heavily relies on a parent’s description of their child’s behavior and a professional’s observations. It leaves plenty of room for human error.Parents’ concerns may skew how they answer questionnaires. Providers may hold biases, leading them to underdiagnose certain groups. Children may show widely varying symptoms, depending on factors like culture and gender.A study published Monday in Nature Microbiology bolsters a growing body of research that suggests an unlikely path to more objective autism diagnoses: the gut microbiome.After analyzing more than 1,600 stool samples from children ages 1 to 13, researchers found several…

Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” has notched its 11th straight week at No. 1, holding off all challengers once again.“Tortured Poets” now ties Swift’s career total for the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Both “Fearless” (2008) and “1989” (2014) reached the peak 11 times. But unlike those, which bobbed in and out of the top slot, the reign of “Tortured Poets” has so far been consecutive and uninterrupted. It started at No. 1 — way back in April — with record-breaking numbers, and has never left that position, beating out releases from Billie…

If the Biden administration had its way, far more electronic chips would be made in factories in, say, Texas or Arizona.They would then be shipped to partner countries, like Costa Rica or Vietnam or Kenya, for final assembly and sent out into the world to run everything from refrigerators to supercomputers.Those places may not be the first that come to mind when people think of semiconductors. But administration officials are trying to transform the world’s chip supply chain and are negotiating intensely to do so.The core elements of the plan include getting foreign companies to invest in chip-making in the…

Top NewsPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew criticism in Israel on Monday after he reiterated his opposition to a permanent cease-fire with Hamas, just as hopes were rising that a truce could be within reach.Critics said his intervention narrowed the chances of a deal in which Hamas, which seeks a permanent truce, would free at least some of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.Negotiations over a deal continued on Monday in Cairo, where Israeli officials gathered for talks mediated by the Egyptian government. After months of failed negotiations, hopes for a deal were revived last week amid reports that Hamas…

Julian Bernard had a fantastic homecoming Friday. During the seventh stage time trial of the Tour de France in Bernard’s home region of Burgundy, the French cyclist captivated the local crowd and gave his wife and son a pricey hug.Bernard was fined 200 Swiss francs ($223) by the International Cycling Union (UCI) for stopping to kiss his family, citing what the governing body considered “disgraceful or inappropriate behavior during the race and damage to the bicycle” Image of an Athlete.” sports. “The kiss drew loud applause from hundreds of local fans, and just like in the movie, Bernard pushed up…

Hair oiling days for the comedian and actress Lilly Singh were always a family affair.The entire Singh clan — including her cousins, aunties and uncles down the street — would gather in the living room, each waiting to have their scalps rigorously massaged by her mother or grandmother.“Yes, it was good for hair,” she said in a recent interview. “But it was also just — for lack of a better word — a vibe.”The good vibes remained until Ms. Singh started high school, where the shiny, oiled look was seen as decidedly uncool by her peers, a perception that she…

Wall Street’s game theoryAs more leading Democrats say privately that President Biden should withdraw from the presidential race, some of the party’s most prominent backers on Wall Street spent the holiday weekend debating what to do next.The group — including Larry Fink of BlackRock; Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary; Jon Gray of Blackstone; Peter Orszag of Lazard; Blair Effron of Centerview Partners; and Robert Wolf, a former UBS executive close to Barack Obama — talked to friends, colleagues and in some cases each other about whether to stick with Biden, people with knowledge of the discussions told DealBook.If they…

Perhaps the most vivid earlier example is Sonic Youth’s 1990 single “Tunic (Song for Karen),” which Kim Gordon wrote from the perspective of Karen Carpenter, who died at 32 of complications from anorexia nervosa. “I feel like I’m disappearing, getting smaller every day,” Gordon sang, with remarkable empathy, putting words to what Carpenter was never able to express in song. “But I look in your eyes, and I’m bigger in every way.”These songs have been exceptions. A broader stigma around discussing disordered eating — and fears of discussing it in imperfect language — has led to a stifling culture of…

“And now, what do we do?” blared the front page headline of Le Parisien, a daily newspaper, as the shock of Sunday’s election results began to sink in.The day after a historic election, France awoke to final results that none of the polls had predicted. The left-wing coalition’s New Popular Front took the most seats in the National Assembly, but nowhere near enough to form a government, followed by President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition, which lost scores of seats. Finally, in third place, was the party that pollsters and pundits alike had expected to lead — the far-right National Rally.Now…

Nickelson Wooster, a fashion consultant and a frequent subject of street style photographers, is known, among other things, for his taste in shorts. He wears them long and short, loose and tight, in leather, wool and twill.“Shorts are like skirts, and I think any woman will tell you there is no one length or shape that fits every single person,” said Mr. Wooster, 63, who goes by Nick.On the surface, it might seem like shorts suffer from a case of nominative determinism — their name tries to tell us what to expect from their appearance. In practice, the length of…