Author: NY TIMES

Many Americans prefer to believe the Covid pandemic is a thing of the past. But for the nation’s nursing homes, the effects have yet to fully fade, with staffing shortages and employee burnout still at crisis levels and many facilities struggling to stay afloat, according to a new report published Thursday by federal investigators.The report, by the inspector general’s office at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that the flawed infection-control procedures that contributed to the 170,000 deaths at nursing homes during the pandemic were still inadequate at many facilities. And while the uptake of Covid vaccines…

Puccini’s “Turandot,” a verismo opera set in a fabled version of ancient China, makes for an odd love story. Its unlikable romantic leads go largely unfazed by the death and dismemberment they instigate; when they finally share true love’s kiss, they’re standing atop a figurative pile of corpses.On Wednesday at the Metropolitan Opera, the conductor Oksana Lyniv made a strong debut, emphasizing the murderous, life-or-death stakes instead of the fairy-tale Orientalism that has made it a cultural lightning rod in recent years.“Turandot” has been on the receiving end of calls for revision and more for the stereotypes it perpetuates about…

A shooting at a gas station outside a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday afternoon left two Israeli men dead, according to Israeli officials, who said the gunman was also killed.Avraham Applebaum, a medic for Israel’s emergency medical services, said that when he arrived at the gas station outside the Israeli settlement of Eli, he saw “one injured person with many bullet wounds in a car and another lying” on the ground. “We did what we could,” Mr. Applebaum said, but the wounds were too serious. Shortly thereafter, the two men, aged 20 and 40, were declared dead…

Brian Mulroney, Canada’s 18th prime minister, whose statesmanship on what he called “great causes,” from free trade and acid rain in North America to the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa, gave way to accusations of financial misdoing and influence-peddling after he left office, has died at 84.His daughter Caroline Mulroney announced the death on X, formerly Twitter. She did not say where or when he died or specify the cause of death. “He died peacefully, surrounded by family,” she wrote.Born into a blue-collar family in eastern Quebec, Mr. Mulroney transcended his small-town roots to become a prosperous lawyer and…

Tom Sandoval, a star of “Vanderpump Rules,” has shared a lot in the decade that he has appeared on that reality TV show, the 11th season of which began airing on Bravo in January. But in a recent interview with The New York Times Magazine, Mr. Sandoval, 41, said things that surprised even people who were well familiar with his penchant for shocking behavior.Speaking about the public interest in an affair he had with a co-star while he was dating another co-star, a tryst known as “Scandoval,” Mr. Sandoval said that he was not a historian of pop culture, but…

Oprah Winfrey said that she was stepping down from the board of Weight Watchers, a few months after going public about taking a medication for weight loss.The entertainment mogul has been the most prominent spokeswoman for Weight Watchers since joining its board in 2015, helping it weather competition from other weight loss companies while opening up a broader conversation around obesity and diet.Her endorsement of Weight Watchers — she has said she lost 40 pounds using the company’s point system — convinced many others to sign up, analysts said.The announcement sent Weight Watchers shares into a tailspin, with stock falling…

The study found that deaths linked to alcohol in the United States increased in five years by 40,000. The toll is stark: About 178,000 people died in 2021 from excessive drinking, compared with 138,000 in 2016. During that period, the deaths rose by 27 percent among men and 35 percent among women.Dr. Siegel attributed the surge possibly to people’s high stress levels during the pandemic alongside increased home-delivery services offered by the beverage industry. “Anytime you make something easier to acquire, you see an increase in use in response,” he said.What’s missing: The data are limited.Researchers concluded that their estimates…

The best theatrical songwriting barely requires a theater. Which is a good thing when so many shows close so quickly.Of the 16 musicals that opened on Broadway in 2023, only four are still running. That’s live theater, perpetually dying.Yet not entirely. Like loved ones who leave behind scrapbooks or tchotchkes, many shows leave souvenirs of themselves in the form of cast albums. And sometimes, shorn of annoying context, they’re better than what was once seen onstage.Below, my highly subjective ranking of the nine 2023 musicals that released cast albums. (One more — “Gutenberg! The Musical!” — is expected, this spring.)…

As Iran prepares for a parliamentary election on Friday, calls to boycott the vote are turning it into a test of legitimacy for the ruling clerics amid widespread discontent and anger at the government.A separate election on Friday will also decide the membership of an obscure, 88-member clerical body called the Assembly of Experts, which selects and advises the country’s supreme leader, who has the last word on all key state matters. While it normally operates behind the scenes, the assembly has the all-important task of choosing a successor to the current, 84-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has…

If everything had gone to plan, Britain’s opposition Labour Party, which is riding high in opinion polls, would be confident of sweeping to victory on Thursday in a special election (known as a by-election in Britain) for the parliamentary district of Rochdale, north of Manchester.Instead, the contest has become a source of acute embarrassment to the party, and whoever comes out on top when results are announced early Friday morning won’t represent Labour.Earlier this month the party had to disown its candidate over antisemitic remarks he made, but it was too late to replace him on the ballot. In the…