Author: NY TIMES

Many firearm owners in the United States do not securely store their guns, even when the weapon is kept loaded and there are children in the home, according to a report released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The report, which relied on data from 2021 and 2022 from eight states, found that many gun owners kept weapons unlocked and loaded in their homes despite rising rates of suicides involving guns and firearm fatalities among children. Gun storage practices varied across the eight states: Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Oklahoma.Of those surveyed…

Mark James, a genre-defying and Grammy Award-winning songwriter whose hits included “Suspicious Minds,” “Hooked on a Feeling” and “Always on My Mind,” died at his home in Nashville on Saturday. He was 83.His death was confirmed by his daughter, Sammie Zambon. The Houston Chronicle first reported the news of Mr. James’s death.Various stars, including Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson, lent their voices to Mr. James’s catalog of songs over the years.His career of powerhouse hits began in 1968 with “The Eyes of a New York Woman,” cut by the country and pop hitmaker B.J. Thomas. Mr. Thomas, a lifelong friend…

Residents and Palestinian media reported a night of heavy bombardment in the area of Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Thursday as the Israeli military said its forces had continued to operate “in face-to-face encounters” with Hamas militants there.Saeed Lulu, a 37-year-old who is sheltering in the nearby area of Al-Mawasi — parts of which Israel has designated a “humanitarian zone” for people who have fled Rafah — said he heard strikes between midnight and 6 a.m., though he said he was not aware of any casualties. The strikes appeared to target the southwest edge of Al-Mawasi, he said.“We are very…

Polar bears in the Southern Hudson Bay could go extinct as early as the 2030s because the sea ice that helps them hunt for food is thinning, a new study suggests.“We’ve known that the loss of Arctic sea ice would spell disaster for polar bears, so this might be the first subpopulation that disappears,” said Julienne Stroeve, the lead author of the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.Last month, the eastern half of Hudson Bay, home to the world’s most-studied polar bears, went ice free a month earlier than usual.Polar bears are used to…

Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz will represent Spain as a tennis doubles pair at the Paris Olympics, which opens on July 26.Former world No. 3 and current Spanish national team selector David Ferrer announced at a Royal Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET) press conference on Wednesday that the Spanish men’s team will include 22-time Grand Slam champion Nadal, three-time Grand Slam champion Grand Slam champion Alcaraz. Also included is doubles specialist Marcel Granollers, whose partnership with Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos currently ranks No. 1 in the world overall.Ferrer said he believed Nadal and Alcaraz “have the ability to win doubles medals” following…

When Tina and Marvin Pate travel to Cancún or the Dominican Republic, they enjoy the bliss created by the good music, delicious food and the absence of children.So in May, when they opened Bliss Caribbean Restaurant in St. Louis County, Mo., the couple decided to give their customers the same joy — by requiring that all female customers be at least 30 years old, and all men 35.“We decided to come up with a whole restaurant where adults could pretty much go on vacation for a fraction of the cost,” Mr. Pate said.This rule has drawn widespread attention to Bliss…

“Making It Work” is a series is about small-business owners striving to endure hard times.While many people can conjure up romantic visions of a Montana ranch — vast valleys, cold streams, snow-capped mountains — few understand what happens when the cattle leave those pastures. Most of them, it turns out, don’t stay in Montana.Even here, in a state with nearly twice as many cows as people, only around 1 percent of the beef purchased by Montana households is raised and processed locally, according to estimates from Highland Economics, a consulting firm. As is true in the rest of the country,…

The fight over Elon Musk’s pay package and the vote over whether to move Tesla’s headquarters to Texas have been the main focus of attention ahead of the company’s shareholders meeting on Thursday, but not for investors from Nordic countries.Tesla’s major shareholders in Sweden, Denmark and Norway are instead looking to the meeting to bring the issue of labor rights at the automaker to the fore.Behind the campaign is the strike of Tesla’s mechanics in Sweden. Now stretching into its sixth month, the dispute has drawn in unions from across the region that have joined in blockades aimed at bringing…

Diplo, born Thomas Wesley Pentz, fell in love with Jamaica, particularly its Portland parish on the northeast coast, nearly 20 years ago. “I was D.J.ing on a cruise ship, got off in Ocho Rios, and drove through Port Antonio to get to Kingston,” said the multiple-Grammy nominee and winner who has collaborated with Dua Lipa, Sturgill Simpson, Snoop Dogg, Shakira, Bad Bunny and countless other musicians. “Portland is sort of like Costa Rica, all jungly and waterfalls. And Port Antonio is this quaint little town where I’d go on a sort of retreat, “Mr. Pentz added. About eight years ago…

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday that he would continue to press urgently for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip despite a counterproposal from Hamas that he said included unacceptable demands.After more than eight months of war in Gaza, the proposed cease-fire deal follows an outline made public last month by President Biden and has the endorsement of the United Nations Security Council. But Israel and Hamas still appear to be far from reaching a deal.“In the days ahead, we are going to push on an urgent basis,” Mr. Blinken said, “to…