Author: NY TIMES

In the fierce debate over abortion in the United States, the subject of data collection might seem wonky and tangential. But the information that state and city governments collect about abortion patients is becoming another flashpoint in the country’s bitter divide over the issue.Some states with Republican-controlled legislatures have moved to require more information about each abortion, while some states where Democrats dominate are reducing the information they collect, fearing that it may be used to identify patients or to prosecute abortion providers.“In a country that’s very divided, where abortion is legal in some places and illegal in others, giving…

Gordon spent a summer at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, studying Webern scores and playing sax in a funk band. “It became clear to me that I wasn’t going to be a jazz cat,” he said. “I couldn’t replicate Charlie Parker’s solos, so I had to learn to make my own music.”Gordon visited a friend at the University of California, San Diego, and discovered its electronic music program: “It seemed like my destiny.” The school had a futurist mandate as well as early models of the Moog and Buchla synthesizers, which were located in Quonset huts left behind…

The Senate was headed on Tuesday toward a critical vote to clear the way for final consideration of the $95 billion package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, setting the stage for approving the bill and sending it to President Biden for his signature.The measure, passed by the House on Saturday, was expected to draw broad bipartisan support in a test vote scheduled for early afternoon. That would tee up a vote on final passage as early as Tuesday evening. Mr. Biden has urged lawmakers to move quickly on the bill so he can sign it into law.“To our…

The City of Baltimore has said that the owner and manager of the cargo ship that brought down the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month are directly responsible for the accident and should not be allowed to avoid legal liability, according to court documents filed on Monday.The 985-foot-long ship hit the bridge in the early hours of March 26 after leaving the Port of Baltimore and losing power to its engine and navigation equipment. The bridge collapsed moments later, killing six construction workers, forcing the port to close and disrupting the shipping industry up and down the East Coast.A federal…

The problems of Niger, a landlocked desert nation in West Africa, may be little known to most Americans, and Google Translate is no help when it comes to Tamasheq, the Tuareg language that Moctar sings in (along with some French). But it could be time for Moctar to get his message heard widely. “Funeral for Justice,” his seventh LP, is the second one released by Matador Records, an indie-rock powerhouse with a legacy of acts like Pavement, Yo La Tengo and Liz Phair. Last summer, Moctar and his band performed at Central Park SummerStage, and earlier this month they played…

Huw Edwards, one of the BBC’s highest-profile anchors and who was suspended last year over allegations of paying for explicit images, resigned from the broadcaster on Monday.Mr. Edwards, 62, had led the BBC’s coverage of major national events, including the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. He started as a trainee in 1984, and by the end of his career he was the regular anchor of “BBC News at Ten.”He was suspended by the BBC in July after The Sun tabloid newspaper reported that an unnamed anchor from the broadcaster had paid a teenager $45,000 for sexually explicit images,…

When the NFL Draft begins Thursday night, the bright lights and quarterback debate will be as bright as ever. But something is different this year, and that will become even more apparent as the rounds roll around and we head into day three on Saturday.Just 58 underclassmen declared for this week’s draft, down from 130 players in the 2021 class and the smallest number of underclassmen since 2011.”It’s crazy that these guys are making more money in college than they are in the NFL,” Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur said.Players began signing marketing deals after the Supreme Court ruled…

A 50th birthday is a major milestone in any woman’s life — though not everyone has to step into it like Victoria Beckham, who not long ago broke her foot in a gym accident. Still, Mrs. Beckham was determined to celebrate in style in London on Saturday, when, at least for one night, she replaced the medical boot she has been wearing for months with pointed toe stilettos, visible panties and a long sheer sea-foam-green gown from her own label.“As I get ready to step into 50 (in heels, of course!), I feel so incredibly blessed to have reached this…

FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, is close to an agreement with Apple that would give the tech company worldwide television rights for a major new tournament, a monthlong, World Cup-style competition for top teams that will be played for the first time in the United States next summer.The agreement could be announced as soon as this month, according to three people familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to discuss the deal publicly because it has yet to be officially confirmed. It comes after several false starts for a competition championed by FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino. Plans to hold…

In the dizzying race to build generative A.I. systems, the tech industry’s mantra has been bigger is better, no matter the price tag.Now tech companies are starting to embrace smaller A.I. technologies that are not as powerful but cost a lot less. And for many customers, that may be a good trade-off.On Tuesday, Microsoft introduced three smaller A.I. models that are part of a technology family the company has named Phi-3. The company said even the smallest of the three performed almost as well as GPT-3.5, the much larger system that underpinned OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot when it stunned the world…