Author: NY TIMES

The NewsIncreasingly, doctor visits by adolescents and young adults involve mental health diagnoses, along with the prescription of psychiatric medications.That was the conclusion of a new study that found that in 2019, 17 percent of outpatient doctor visits for patients ages 13 to 24 in the United States involved a behavioral or mental health condition, including anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, self-harm or other issues. That figure rose sharply from 2006, when just 9 percent of doctor’s visits involved psychiatric illnesses.The study, published Thursday in JAMA Network Open, also found a sharp increase in the proportion of visits involving psychiatric medications.…

The coronavirus pandemic forced the Metropolitan Opera to shut its doors for more than a year and a half. It also upended plans that had been in the works for the Met Orchestra’s first Asian tour.Now, that idea is being revived. The Met announced on Thursday that the orchestra and its music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, would visit South Korea, Japan and Taiwan in June, performing the music of Bartok, Wagner, Debussy and others alongside star soloists.The Met musicians have toured overseas just twice since 2000. Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, said that, beyond showcasing them, the tour was meant…

Iran’s U.N. mission in New York did not immediately comment on the report.The fact-finding team, which was set up at the end of 2022, was refused access to Iran. It said it faced obstacles from government electronic surveillance, harassment and intimidation of some witnesses and victims, deterring many people from giving evidence. But through in-depth interviews with others, along with access to independent reports, medical imaging and official documents, the mission said it was able to collect sufficient evidence to establish facts.It details patterns of the use of lethal and less lethal force by security forces to disperse protests, including…

In 2003, three decades into her career, Dominique Blanc experienced every actor’s worst nightmare: The phone stopped ringing.Approaching 50, she was one of France’s most celebrated performers, fresh off an acclaimed stage run in a classic tragedy, Jean Racine’s “Phèdre.” But the subsequent, yearslong lack of offers “deeply unsettled me,” Blanc said in a recent interview. “I found myself in extreme solitude. I really believed I would never be able to set foot on a stage again.”“La Douleur,” a searing, award-winning one-woman show that will have its American premiere at the FIAF Florence Gould Hall in New York on March…

It’s on.Such was the gist of President Biden’s State of the Union address; such was the message of the women of the Democratic caucus sitting in the House chamber wearing white en masse; such, even, was the statement contained in the Laken Riley pins and T-shirts of some Republicans. Even if Mr. Biden was the only one officially talking, it was impossible not to see — and thus hear — them all.The State of the Union has increasingly become a stage for sartorial statement-making, but rarely have the causes embedded in the clothes been this contested. Nor has the fact…

If the economy is slowing down, nobody told the labor market.Employers added 275,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported Friday, in another month that exceeded expectations even as the unemployment rate rose.It was the third straight month of gains above 200,000, and the 38th consecutive month of growth — fresh evidence that four years after going into pandemic shutdowns, America’s jobs engine still has plenty of steam.“We’ve been expecting a slowdown in the labor market, a more material loosening in conditions, but we’re just not seeing that,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.Previously reported figures for…

Dario Amodei, chief executive of the high-profile A.I. start-up Anthropic, told Congress last year that new A.I. technology could soon help unskilled but malevolent people create large-scale biological attacks, such as the release of viruses or toxic substances that cause widespread disease and death.Senators from both parties were alarmed, while A.I. researchers in industry and academia debated how serious the threat might be.Now, over 90 biologists and other scientists who specialize in A.I. technologies used to design new proteins — the microscopic mechanisms that drive all creations in biology — have signed an agreement that seeks to ensure that their…

More than 230 million women and girls around the world have undergone female genital cutting, according to a new analysis by UNICEF, an increase of 30 million since the organization’s last global estimate in 2016.While the data shows that in some countries a new generation of parents have chosen to forgo the practice, in other countries laws and campaigns against it have had no impact. In Burkina Faso, the share of girls aged 15 to 19 years who have undergone cutting has fallen to 39 percent from 82 percent over the past three decades. But in Somalia, where an estimated…

Igor Levit, a pianist of awe-inspiring insight and redoubtable technique, decided to conduct himself during his solo recital at Carnegie Hall on Thursday.He was playing the Nocturne from Hindemith’s “Suite 1922,” a collection of five genre pieces like marches and rags, and there are a few moments in which the pianist only needs to use one hand. Gesturing with his left one in a downward pressing motion, he seemed to tell himself, “Gentle, gentle,” as he plucked starlight off the page and dispersed it through the air.When Levit is onstage, he seems to be in his own world. He scratches…

Aid groups and international organizations have been sounding the alarm on the catastrophic levels of hunger and near-famine conditions afflicting Gaza’s 2.2 million people five months after Israel launched its war in Gaza. The number of aid convoys entering the territory has remained far below prewar levels and humanitarian organizations say much more aid is needed to meet staggering needs throughout the enclave.Hopes for an imminent agreement to pause the fighting are dim, with negotiators for Hamas leaving talks in Cairo without a breakthrough on Thursday. The same day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with Israel’s ground…