Author: NY TIMES

The Kennedy Center’s flagship opera company and symphony orchestra announced Thursday that they plan to present robust and fairly typical programs next season, the first full season since President Trump took over the institution.But one prominent work was missing from the lineup: Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce’s “Fellow Travelers,” an opera set in the 1950s about two men working for the government who become lovers. The work was withdrawn by its creators because of concerns about Mr. Trump’s takeover, according to a letter obtained by The New York Times.Washington National Opera said the 2025-26 season would include classics like Verdi’s…

A submarine carrying Russian tourists sank off Egypt’s Red Sea coast on Thursday, leaving at least four people dead and rescue workers scrambling to pull people out of the water, according to the Russian Embassy in Egypt and local news reports.The vessel was believed to be carrying about 45 people on a tour of the coral reef off the coast near Hurghada, a popular resort city nearly 300 miles southeast of Cairo.The Russian Embassy said in a statement on social media that four Russian tourists had died. Local news outlets reported that at least six people were dead, but the…

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has often criticized prescription stimulants, such as Adderall, that are primarily used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.“We have damaged this entire generation,” he said last year during a podcast, referring to the number of children taking psychiatric medications. “We have poisoned them.”In February, the “Make America Healthy Again” commission, led by Mr. Kennedy, announced plans to evaluate the “threat” posed by drugs like prescription stimulants.But are they a threat? And if so, to whom?Like many medications, prescription stimulants have potential side effects, and there are people who misuse them. Yet these drugs are…

President Trump said in a middle-of-the-night social media post early Thursday that he would come after the European Union and Canada if they banded together to “do economic harm” to America, opening a new front in the unfolding trade war.“If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!” Mr. Trump wrote.Mr. Trump’s post creates a new problem for the European Union, which is…

Miami – After two decades of professional tennis, 99 professional singles champions and 24 Grand Slam wins, Novak Djokovic has become a mystery – to tennis fans and himself. Both sides tried to answer the same questions, from matches, matches and tournaments to matches as his career went toward an unfamiliar ending.Who is the greatest player in the modern era?He was the player who played against Brotic Van de Zandschulp in the opening game of the BNP Paribas Open in India Wells, California two weeks ago? Or is he the top three opponents who have opened in Miami in the…

President Trump on Wednesday raised the possibility that he could relax steep upcoming tariffs on China in exchange for the country’s support on a deal to sell TikTok to a new owner supported by the United States.Acknowledging that Beijing is “going to have to play a role” in any transaction, Mr. Trump signaled to reporters at the White House that he could be open to negotiation. “Maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done,” he said.Under a law enacted before Mr. Trump took office, the Chinese-based parent company of TikTok must either sell…

In September, OpenAI unveiled a new version of ChatGPT designed to reason through tasks involving math, science and computer programming. Unlike previous versions of the chatbot, this new technology could spend time “thinking” through complex problems before settling on an answer.Soon, the company said its new reasoning technology had outperformed the industry’s leading systems on a series of tests that track the progress of artificial intelligence.Now other companies, like Google, Anthropic and China’s DeepSeek, offer similar technologies.But can A.I. actually reason like a human? What does it mean for a computer to think? Are these systems really approaching true intelligence?Here…

The Department of Health and Human Services has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.The cuts are likely to further hamstring state health departments, which are already underfunded and struggling with competing demands from chronic diseases, resurgent infections like syphilis and emerging threats like bird flu.State health departments began receiving notices on Monday evening that the funds, which were allocated during the Covid-19 pandemic, were being terminated, effective immediately.“No additional activities can be conducted, and no additional costs…

What you notice right away on “Sable, Fable,” Bon Iver’s fifth studio album and first since 2019, is its directness, its brightness and, in some places, its lust. Justin Vernon — the band’s frontman and creative engine — is singing more directly than ever before, and the production captures hope, thrills and a kind of unselfconscious exultation.These have not typically been hallmarks of Bon Iver albums, known as elegant but abstract statements of emotional claustrophobia and fantastical catharsis. They have made Vernon, 43, a much-lauded folk mystic, and also an in-demand collaborator for in-the-know superstars — including Kanye West (now…

Palestinians protested in Gaza on Tuesday in a rare show of dissent against Hamas, with some chanting slogans critical of the armed group’s grip on the territory after more than year of devastating war with Israel.Videos verified by The New York Times showed groups of Gazans in the half-ruined streets in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. Some carried more neutral signs that opposed the continuation of the war, while others chanted slogans calling for Hamas to get out.Gazans, at least publicly, tend to blame Israel for much of the death, destruction and hunger the war has brought. But at…