Author: NY TIMES

For decades, the Copyright Office has been a small and sleepy office within the Library of Congress. Each year, the agency’s 450 employees register roughly half a million copyrights, the ownership rights for creative works, based on a two-centuries-old law.In recent months, however, the office has suddenly found itself in the spotlight. Lobbyists for Microsoft, Google, and the music and news industries have asked to meet with Shira Perlmutter, the register of copyrights, and her staff. Thousands of artists, musicians and tech executives have written to the agency, and hundreds have asked to speak at listening sessions hosted by the…

Back Story: The pandemic and rising hesitancy slowed immunizations.A false claim in the 1990s that said the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism led to a drop in immunization rates. Public health campaigns later recouped much of that deficit, but the rates again fell during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in low-income countries.The measles virus is particularly adept at finding pockets of vulnerability, but outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases may follow, said Dr. Saad Omer, the dean of the O’Donnell School of Public Health at U.T. Southwestern in Dallas.“Measles is usually the canary in the coal mine,” Dr. Omer…

When Melanie’s “Brand New Key” debuted in 1971, some people were confused. What did the singer, who died on Tuesday at 76, mean when she sang about having a brand-new pair of roller skates and someone else having a brand-new key?Melanie told interviewers that she wrote the song in 15 minutes, after ending a 27-day fast, and that it was intended to be cute. The folk singer said that it did not have a deeper meaning, though many thought its playful lyrics about biking and roller skating were really about sex (“Don’t go too fast but I go pretty far”).…

In the frantic early hours of Oct. 7, amid wailing sirens and word of gunfights along Israel’s southern border, Achiya Schatz rushed with his toddler and heavily pregnant wife into a bomb shelter near Tel Aviv.He did not stay long.The first reports of the Hamas attack were already fusing with rumors, sweeping into social media feeds and private chat groups in an emotionally charged and largely unverified mass. Mr. Schatz, one of the best-known disinformation researchers and fact checkers in Israel, rushed back home to his computer, knowing he had little time to stop the false claims from metastasizing.In a…

Israel has declassified more than 30 secret orders made by government and military leaders, which it says rebut the charge that it committed genocide in Gaza, and instead show Israeli efforts to diminish deaths among Palestinian civilians.The release of the documents, copies of which were reviewed by The New York Times, follows a petition to the International Court of Justice by South Africa, which has accused Israel of genocide. Much of South Africa’s case hinges on inflammatory public statements made by Israeli leaders that it says are proof of intent to commit genocide.Part of Israel’s defense is to prove that…

It wasn’t only Nikki Haley’s promise after the New Hampshire Republican primary that she would continue to fight that got under Donald J. Trump’s skin, apparently; it was her clothes, too.Or rather her “fancy dress that probably wasn’t so fancy,” as the former president put it. And though he is often prone to exaggeration, in the case of the dress Ms. Haley wore Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump’s description turned out to be pretty much right.The dress was, indeed, fancy-but-not-so-fancy. It looks to be from the brand Teri Jon, a New York-based line that Ms. Haley has long favored. She wore…

The Biden administration is pausing a decision on whether to approve what would be the largest natural gas export terminal in the United States, a delay that could stretch past the November election and spell trouble for that project and 16 other proposed terminals, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.The White House is directing the Energy Department to expand its evaluation of the project to consider its impact on climate change, as well as the economy and national security, said these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss internal…

Tesla’s profit more than doubled during the last three months of 2023 compared with a year earlier after the electric carmaker booked a tax benefit. But profit from car sales slumped after Tesla cut prices to fend off increasingly intense competition, the company said on Wednesday.Profit in the fourth quarter was $7.9 billion, up from $3.7 billion a year earlier, after Tesla booked a $5.9 billion tax benefit. Without that, profit would have slumped. The company made $1.9 billion in the third quarter of 2023.Tesla has slashed prices for the two cars that make up the bulk of its sales…

Naomi Feil was only 8 years old when she moved into what was then known as a home for the aged, where her parents worked. Living there until she left for college, she learned firsthand, by trial and error, how to comfort and communicate with older adults.When she died at 91 on Dec. 24 at her home in Jasper, Ore., she had devoted her entire career to finding ways to comfort disoriented older people and their caregivers.Her daughter Vicki de Klerk-Rubin said she died of cancer.Mrs. Feil was a 24-year-old social worker, convening a group of patients diagnosed as “senile…

The primary sound of “Polaroid Lovers” is rich and glossy, hinting at 1970s Laurel Canyon folk-pop and the commercial peak of Fleetwood Mac, who placed sparkling acoustic instruments in the foreground of driving pop-rock.Jarosz hadn’t strategized the bold sound of the album; it grew out of her collaborations. “Daniel Tashian was actually the first person that I got together to write with when I started reaching out to different writers around town,” she said. “We just hit it off. And I think, naturally through working with him, this growth and blooming into this other sonic territory started to happen. But…