Author: NY TIMES

The House on Saturday was heading toward passage of a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as Speaker Mike Johnson put his job on the line to advance the long-stalled legislation in defiance against hard-liners from his own party.Lawmakers were expected on Saturday afternoon to vote separately on aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as on another bill that includes a measure that could result in a nationwide ban of TikTok and new sanctions on Iran. The fourth bill was meant to sweeten the deal for conservatives.Mr. Johnson structured the measures, which will be…

The last five years for Shannon Collins, a wedding photographer who identifies as nonbinary, have been filled with survival and self-discoveries, all while Mx. Collins, captured celebrants’ most intimate and revealing moments.In October 2019, Mx. Collins, now 39, had craniotomy surgery to remove a malignant lesion. In 2020, as the world shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mx. Collins realized they were queer. A year later they added nonbinary to their identity. Then in early 2022, they were diagnosed with autism.Mx. Collins, who lives in Abington, Pa., with their spouse, Peter Schuster, a software engineer at the outdoor sporting…

Loren Brey, a poultry grower in Minnesota, walked onto the farm where his egg-laying turkeys nest in November to discover a handful of hens, dead from the highly pathogenic avian flu.Within a week, he lost nearly half of his entire flock.So when Mr. Brey’s turkeys began producing eggs again in the spring, he gave a seemingly unconventional prevention method a go: lasers installed atop his barns, firing beams of green light to fend off wild ducks, owls and other possible carriers of the deadly virus.As migratory birds fly north for the spring, poultry farmers and backyard keepers across the country…

Just last year, Brad Herman, a longtime behind-the-scenes aide to celebrities, drew praise from the family of Cindy Birdsong, an ailing former member of the Supremes. He was credited with helping to rescue her from what they described as a friend’s undue influence over her care and finances.But now, Mr. Herman has been named in a petition brought by Ms. Birdsong’s son, who is accusing him in court papers of financial elder abuse and misappropriation of her money.The son, Charles Hewlett, who has been appointed the conservator of his mother’s affairs, is seeking damages and the return of what his…

Rough seas were a fitting symbol for this week’s meeting of Group of 7 foreign ministers on the Italian island of Capri. Coast Guard ships that ferried V.I.P.s across the Gulf of Naples to the island on Wednesday swayed precariously, leaving the passengers reaching for their motion-sickness medicine — and, in some cases, their sick bags.Though no ministers from this elite international coalition, including Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, were known to have lost their lunch, the global problems they confronted were enough to make even a seasoned diplomat queasy: the risk of war between Iran and Israel, the…

Private members’ bills, particularly those from members of the Bloc Québécois, rarely make their way through the parliamentary process. But after passing the House of Commons with strong support from members of all parties, a bill from Yves Perron, who speaks for the Bloc on farming, handily passed a second vote in the unelected Senate on Tuesday.And perhaps even more surprising, it deals with a contentious issue: Canada’s supply management system, which controls production and sets minimum prices for dairy and poultry products as well as eggs.Many free-market economists and politicians cast supply management as a legalized price cartel that…

A quarterback who transitioned to wide receiver midway through college? Anquan Boulding knows a thing or two about this move.The former San Francisco 49er started out as a quarterback at Florida State, moved to wide receiver, and eventually played both quarterbacks in his college swan song, the 2003 Sugar Bowl, in which He scored a touchdown in the second quarter and then threw a third down.When he finally took a spot, he became such a consistent runner and reliable target that he ranks ninth on the NFL’s all-time receiving list.That’s why Boldin, 43, worked with a young receiver, Rice’s Luke…

It’s not easy to find serenity when memories come flooding in. Source link

Many more people are jumping from one streaming subscription to another, a behavior that could have big implications for the entertainment industry. Source link

When it came to housing, Susan Apel and Keith Irwin thought they had planned adroitly for later life. They bought a four-bedroom house on two acres in Lebanon, N.H., 24 years ago, and “we made sure to pay off the mortgage before we retired,” said Ms. Apel, 71.That way, the home equity they had built up — they estimate their house is now worth about $700,000 — would allow them to sell and downsize into smaller, more manageable quarters when they needed them.That time has arrived. Ms. Apel, a retired law professor, is having trouble climbing stairs. Mr. Irwin, 71,…