Author: NY TIMES

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used his first trip to Asia to try to reassure allies that the United States was committed to deterring Chinese “threats” to the region, while also again defending his recent actions in disclosing American battle plans in a group chat.Speaking at a news conference in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, on Friday, Mr. Hegseth said that the Trump administration would “truly prioritize and shift to this region of the world in a way that is unprecedented.”“Today, it’s the Philippines. Tomorrow, it’s Japan. It will be Australia and South Korea and other nations in this…

Juju Watkins had piled up a lot from the start – from the moment she stepped onto the USC campus, she was the one who brought the program back to the top of the mountain. This season, she is the player who will carry the power of stardom in women’s college basketball after Caitlin Clark.It’s big on anyone’s shoulders, but she handles it very well. She thrives under this responsibility and blooms in the spotlight.But last weekend, the biggest star in women’s college basketball was taken away after the end of the season ACL was torn apart. Her absence shocked…

Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, met with executives of Saudi Aramco, BMW, Toyota Motor, FedEx and dozens of other foreign companies at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday as China seeks to boost foreign investment amid worsening trade relations between China and the United States.It was the third time that Mr. Xi has met with executives of multinationals in the past 17 months, courting investment as sluggish growth and tightening national security laws have made global companies wary of making big bets in China.Fresh foreign investment in China has dropped substantially over the past several years.…

When CoreWeave, the cloud computing company vying to become the first major artificial intelligence start-up to go public, filed paperwork for a public listing earlier this month, it was a mark of optimism in an otherwise rocky market for I.P.O.s.But now that optimism has faded as the New Jersey-based CoreWeave significantly reduced the size and value of its offering on Thursday. The company is now expected to price its shares at $40 when it begins trading on Friday, according to the company, down from recent estimates in filings that its shares would be priced at $47 to $55 a share.Initially…

Measles cases in Kansas more than doubled in the last week, bringing the tally to 20, while another outbreak in Ohio has sickened 10 people, local public health officials reported on Wednesday.There have been several large outbreaks in the United States this year, including one in West Texas that has spread to more than 320 people and hospitalized 40. Health officials have worried that the Texas outbreak may be seeding others.More than 40 measles cases have been reported in New Mexico, and seven have been identified in Oklahoma. In both states, health officials said the infections were connected to the…

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…