Author: NY TIMES

Biden goes on the offensive President Biden sought to reinvigorate his re-election campaign, delivering an animated and mostly gaffe-free State of the Union address that put the economy and business front and center.In the prime-time slot, he pitched Bidenomics as delivering for Americans, and outlined a policy wish list that may appeal to progressive voters and some in his party but which could also put him at loggerheads with big corporations.Heading into a November rematch with Donald Trump, Biden sought to frame the presidential race in stark terms for the democracy while holding business to account.Among the areas that could…

The White House is so concerned about the security risks of TikTok that federal workers are not allowed to use the app on their government phones. Top Biden administration officials have even helped craft legislation that could ban TikTok in the United States.But those concerns were pushed aside on Thursday, the night of President Biden’s State of the Union address, when dozens of social media influencers — many of them TikTok stars — were invited to the White House for a watch party.The crowd took selfies in the State Dining Room, drank bubbly with the first lady and waved to…

More than two weeks after a cyberattack, financially strapped doctors, hospitals and medical providers on Friday sharply criticized UnitedHealth Group’s latest estimate that it would take weeks longer to fully restore a digital network that funnels hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance payments every day.UnitedHealth said that it would be at least two weeks more to test and establish a steady flow of payments for bills that have mounted since hackers effectively shut down Change Healthcare, the nation’s largest billing and payment clearinghouse, on Feb. 21.But desperate providers that have been borrowing money to cover expenses and employee payrolls…

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube4. Sturgill Simpson: “Life of Sin”Many musicians appear in Martin Scorsese’s grand “Killers of the Flower Moon,” including Jason Isbell, Pete Yorn, Charlie Musselwhite and Jack White. The country singer Sturgill Simpson — who channels Waylon Jennings on this standout from his 2014 album “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music” — also steals a few scenes as a bootlegger named Henry Grammer.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube5. Jarvis Cocker: “You Can’t Wake Up if You Don’t Fall Asleep”Another notable movie snubbed this year was Wes Anderson’s dizzyingly meta “Asteroid City,” for which…

The Biden administration’s floating pier and causeway for humanitarian aid could, when completed, help deliver as many as two million meals a day for residents of Gaza, but the project will take at least a month and maybe two to complete, the Pentagon said on Friday.The details for the pier and causeway plan, President Biden’s latest idea to get around Israel’s blocking of aid deliveries via all but two land crossings, were outlined by the Pentagon press secretary, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, in a news conference on Friday.Aid organizations have welcomed the plan, which was announced on Thursday, days after…

The United Nations human rights chief on Friday condemned Israeli plans to build more than 3,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, warning that settlement expansion amounts to a war crime.The Israeli government has shrugged off criticism from the United States and others to move ahead with its building plans, which come as tensions have soared in the West Bank since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel prompted all-out war in Gaza.“The West Bank is already in crisis,” the U.N.’s rights chief, Volker Türk, said, “yet, settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and…

For about a decade, people in the New York art and fashion scene have relied on Eric Wrenn, an unassuming designer known for his minimalist touch, to help shape the images of their brands.Mr. Wrenn, 38, has worked on ad campaigns, logos, books, websites, stationery, business cards and invitations to runway shows. Through it all he has kept a low profile, but his client list reads like a who’s who of downtown bluechips.“Eric feels like an industry secret,” said Emily Bode Aujla, the designer and founder of the brand Bode.“He has an art-world sensibility, and talking with him about a…

Seizing one of his biggest media moments ahead of the election in November, President Biden delivered a State of the Union address on Thursday that doubled as a campaign kickoff speech, presenting himself to Americans as a still-feisty leader prepared for the rigor of a grueling campaign.Whether his pitch resonates with voters remains to be seen. But plenty tuned in to see what he was offering.The live viewership for Mr. Biden’s speech will probably exceed last year’s television audience of 27.3 million, according to early figures released by Nielsen on Friday. Preliminary numbers show that roughly 28 million people watched…

OpenAI said on Friday that Sam Altman, its high-profile chief executive, would rejoin its board of directors, more than three months after he was briefly pushed out of the company.The move comes ahead of a highly anticipated report by a law firm hired by OpenAI’s board of directors to investigate Mr. Altman and his sudden removal from the company in November. In reinstating Mr. Altman to its board, the nonprofit’s independent board members expressed confidence in him and signaled that the coming report could remove concerns about his leadership style.Mr. Altman returned as chief executive just five days after being…

As a child, Josh Patner became accustomed to stepping over his mom, who used to lie down in the kitchen whenever her mother-in-law would call.“My grandmother would talk her ear off,” Mr. Patner, 61, recalled. To cope, his mother would “lie on the floor and hold the phone away from her head.” Mr. Patner’s father, also a fan of the floor, took a 20-minute nap under the family’s piano each night after work.So it is unsurprising, perhaps, that Mr. Patner enjoys floor time at his home in Brooklyn or even at his friend’s places — in part to stretch and…