Author: NY TIMES

Background: Global warming is intensifying both threats.As humans warm the planet, both heat waves and wildfires are becoming more severe and longer-lasting in the American West. That also means they are more likely to overlap. Researchers have estimated that two-thirds of California’s land area experienced broiling heat and heavy wildfire smoke concurrently at some point during the state’s record fire year of 2020.Both hazards are harmful to health on their own: Heat stress increases cardiac strain, and inhaling wildfire smoke can aggravate lung conditions. The new study, led by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of…

Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, said it would revoke the licenses for its vast catalog of songs from TikTok after its current contract expires on Wednesday if the two companies could not reach a new deal addressing Universal’s concerns over artist compensation, artificial intelligence and other issues.In an open letter posted late Tuesday, Universal accused TikTok of responding to its requests with “indifference, and then with intimidation,” creating a public squabble in the remaining hours of the two companies’ existing contract. If the talks fail, TikTok users would be unable to use music by Taylor Swift, Lady…

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by Palestinian Americans who sought to force the White House to withdraw support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, as was widely expected based on constitutional precedent that only the political branches of U.S. government could determine foreign policy.But, unexpectedly, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White indicated that he would have preferred to have issued the injunction were he not limited by the Constitution, and he implored the Biden administration to “examine the results of their unflagging support” of Israel.The determination came five days after a hearing in Oakland, Calif., in which Judge White…

More than 80 bottles of rare wine disappeared from the cellar of La Tour d’Argent, a renowned restaurant in Paris, according to a complaint filed last week that left investigators scrambling to find who was responsible.The stolen wine was worth an estimated 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million), the Paris prosecutor’s spokeswoman said in a statement. The third division of the Paris Judicial Police is overseeing the investigation.A sommelier noticed the theft of the 83 bottles, which could have taken place between 2020 and 2024, during a routine inventory check of the roughly 300,000 bottles of wine in the restaurant’s cellar,…

When Kavi Mannan Packiam first laid eyes on Stephanie Soledad Rodriguez at a birthday party for his childhood friend, Gautham Jothi, Mr. Packiam told Mr. Jothi he thought she was gorgeous.Mr. Jothi told him to forget about it. She was Mr. Jothi’s colleague, and he feared it might make things messy for him at work. However, when Ms. Rodriguez expressed interest in Mr. Packiam, Mr. Jothi gave his blessing.After the November 2019 birthday party at Le Bain, a nightclub in New York, Ms. Rodriguez made plans to go to Pho 87, a restaurant on Chrystie Street, with Mr. Jothi and…

Updated Feb. 2, 2024, 8:32 a.m. ETFeb. 2, 2024, 8:32 a.m. ETThe United States delivered another bigger-than-expected batch of jobs last month, adding further evidence that the economy still has plenty of steam even as its fuel reserves dwindle.Employers added 353,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reported on Friday, and the unemployment rate remained at 3.7 percent.After the loss of 14 percent of the nation’s jobs early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the labor market’s endurance for more than three years has surprised economists, who expected factors including the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases to slow hiring more sharply.“There’s layoffs happening,…

With restrictions on space and weight, what would you bring if you were going to Mars? An ideal option might be a single material that can shift shapes into any object you imagine.In the morning, you could mold that material into utensils for eating. When breakfast is done, you could transform your fork and knife into a spade to tend to your Martian garden. And then when it’s happy hour on the red planet, that spade could become a cup for your Martian beer.What sounds like science fiction is, perhaps, one step closer to reality. Researchers at the University of…

The 66th annual Grammy Awards, taking place on Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, is poised to be a big night for young women.SZA is the top nominee, with nine nods for her album “SOS,” which topped the Billboard 200 for 10 straight weeks. Taylor Swift, who rocked the entertainment world with her record-breaking Eras Tour, and Olivia Rodrigo, the 20-year-old singer-songwriter with a proclivity for rock, are both competing with SZA for the three major all-genre categories: best album, record and song. Joining them are a host of other female artists, including boygenius, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish…

At one of the main checkpoints between the West Bank and Jerusalem, only two of four lanes were open recently and the hours of operation were shortened to 12 hours a day.Haneen Faroukh, 26, said she now had to wait for hours to run simple errands. Israeli soldiers had sown panic among ordinary Palestinians who make the crossing frequently to reach jobs, doctors, relatives or just their homes.“They yell at us all the time,” said Ms. Faroukh. “We’re too scared to say anything.”For many Palestinians, life in the West Bank, already hard under years of Israeli occupation, is now subject…

More than 800 officials in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union released a public letter of dissent on Friday against their governments’ support of Israel in its war in Gaza.The letter is the first instance of officials in allied nations across the Atlantic coming together to openly criticize their governments over the war, say current and former officials who are organizing or supporting the effort.The officials say that it is their duty as civil servants to help improve policy and to work in their nations’ interests, and that they are speaking up because they believe their…