Author: NY TIMES

All live bird markets in New York City and in several nearby counties must close temporarily in hopes of curbing the spread of bird flu, which was detected at some of the markets in the past week, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Friday.The order, which came from the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets, affects the roughly 80 live markets in New York City and in Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Seven cases of bird flu had been detected at markets in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn.Markets with confirmed cases must get rid of their inventory, while those where bird…

Kendrick Lamar performs like someone parceling out a secret. On the 2015 single “King Kunta,” he stage-whispers, “I swore I wouldn’t tell,” and then proceeds to flaunt industry gossip without naming names. Though the Grammy-hoarding, Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper has mastered literary opacity in his music — he’s a generous user of perspective shifts and allusion — in videos and in live performances, Lamar’s expressive stagings strike like visual poetry.Lamar has scaled up those performances, becoming more elaborate as his platforms have grown in the 14 years since his recording debut. Dave Free, his primary creative partner and a collaborator on…

The Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the United States Agency for International Development have endangered the funding for food, tents and medical treatment for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, according to U.S. officials and workers for humanitarian groups funded by the agency.Officials said that the threats to the aid supply chain risked destabilizing the fragile cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel, which is contingent on the weekly entry of 4,200 aid and commercial trucks to the territory.With almost all U.S.A.I.D. staff set to be placed on administrative leave by Friday night, there will be only a handful of…

“This is Steve Tasker, a sideline reporter for Super Bowl 47. If you want to hear about our friend Jim Nantz, it might be his time to work.”When the Super Bowl XLVII audio between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens suddenly cut in early February 3, 2013, millions of viewing CBS broadcasts may suspect something is wrong.It was the first voice anyone heard when Tasker was assigned to the 49ers secondary line, which was confirmed. The radio booths, elevators and escalators had no power when they stopped, and there were no 34 minutes for the game.”Here, half of…

President Trump’s funding freeze has thrown into confusion the future of a Syrian desert camp holding thousands of Islamic State members and their families, the camp’s director and people familiar with it said, describing it as a potential security threat in the region.The camp, Al Hol, which houses some 39,000 people, has been whipsawed by a halt to U.S.-funded programs then short reprieves, and is still struggling to understand its status. Even as some programs critical to securing the camp received temporary extensions, another organization essential to managing the camp said it might have to halt its work there as…

The European Union spent last year drawing up secret plans for what the bloc would do if President Trump made good on his threats of imposing higher tariffs on European goods and services.Now, as those threats go from hypothetical to potentially imminent, its plans are coming into broad focus.Hit specific, politically sensitive sectors — like products made in Republican states — with targeted tariffs meant to inflict maximum pain. Don’t escalate into a tit-for-tat competition if it’s avoidable. Do move quickly and decisively, potentially using new tactics that could hit service providers like big Silicon Valley technology firms.It’s a rough…

C. Richard Kramlich, an early investor in Silicon Valley who co-founded the investment giant New Enterprise Associates, helping to fuel the booming tech industry, died on Saturday at his home in Oakville, Calif., in the Napa Valley. He was 89.His death was announced by New Enterprise Associates.Mr. Kramlich (pronounced CRAM-lick), whose career spanned more than five decades, was among the earliest backers of Apple Computer; the software companies Silicon Graphics and Macromedia; and the computer networking companies Juniper Networks and 3Com, whose founders invented the Ethernet.He co-founded his own firm, New Enterprise Associates, or NEA, building it from an initial…

Asanda Zondi received a startling phone call last Thursday, with orders to make her way to a health clinic in Vulindlela, South Africa, where she was participating in a research study that was testing a new device to prevent pregnancy and H.IV. infection.The trial was shutting down, a nurse told her. The device, a silicone ring inserted into her vagina, needed to be removed right away.When Ms. Zondi, 22, arrived at the clinic, she learned why: The U.S. Agency for International Development, which funded the study, had withdrawn financial support and had issued a stop-work order to all organizations around…

Irv Gotti, a music executive who founded Murder Inc. Records with his brother and built a hip-hop empire that produced some of the biggest rap and R&B albums of the early 21st century, has died at 54.Mr. Gotti’s death was confirmed late Wednesday in a statement by Def Jam Recordings, which was the parent label for Murder Inc. when it was founded in 1998, and where Mr. Gotti had also worked as an executive. The statement did not give a cause of death, or say when or where he had died.Murder Inc., which Mr. Gotti started with his brother Chris,…

President Trump on Thursday defended his proposal for the United States to take charge of postwar Gaza and resettle its Palestinian residents, but stressed that he would not deploy U.S. troops to the enclave, as Israel’s defense minister announced that he had ordered the military to draft a plan to allow people to voluntarily leave.The developments add to a swirl of confusion over the proposal by Mr. Trump to “take over” the Gaza Strip and for the roughly two million Palestinians living there to move elsewhere. The forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international…