Author: NY TIMES

The curves on some Covid graphs are looking quite steep, again.Reported levels of the virus in U.S. wastewater are higher than they have been since the first Omicron wave, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though severe outcomes still remain rarer than in earlier pandemic winters.“We are seeing rates are going up across the country,” said Amy Kirby, program lead for the C.D.C.’s National Wastewater Surveillance System. The program now categorizes every state with available data at “high” or “very high” viral activity.The surge might reach its peak this week or soon after, modelers predict,…

“We’re here, and we’re producing, and we’re producing some exciting stuff,” said Scott Ellis, a longtime Haimes collaborator who is serving as Roundabout’s interim artistic director, and who is expected to stay in that role for at least two years. “It felt important to say that we’re committed to producing as many shows as we used to.”“The Pirates of Penzance,” a comedy about an indentured pirate apprentice who falls in love with a military officer’s daughter, was once a staple of American theater, and it has been staged a whopping 26 times on Broadway, starting in 1879. But the last…

With a vast chasm between how Israelis see the war in Gaza and how much of the world does, Israel’s leaders have taken to adopting different rhetoric when addressing the two audiences about how its military campaign against Hamas will be conducted over the year ahead.Israeli officials have begun to tell the international news media that its forces are shifting to a less intense phase of operations, particularly in northern Gaza, amid international alarm at the scale of destruction and civilian casualties in the territory.But after those comments were published on Monday, Israeli leaders sought to reassure the Israeli public…

Gunmen wearing masks stormed a television station in Ecuador’s largest city on Tuesday, taking anchors and staff hostage and exchanging gunfire with the police as cameras rolled before the intruders were subdued and arrested.The televised violence, captured live, erupted in the city of Guayaquil as the South American country has descended into chaos this week, with a powerful gang leader disappearing from prison, uprisings breaking out in several prisons and inmates kidnapping and threatening guards.One of the attackers who stormed the TV station could be heard on the air asking to be wired up with a microphone, saying he intended…

When Tiger Woods locked in on the final day of the Masters in 2019, it felt like the sporting world had stepped into a time machine. The 43-year-old golfer — 11 years removed from winning his last major tournament — was fighting against a series of devastating injuries and an entirely new generation of competition but with every precision shot he was reminding the world what he once was.Driving the point home, perhaps more than any aspect of his play, was the fact that Mr. Woods looked almost exactly as he had in his other four wins at Augusta, the…

The president of the embattled National Association of Realtors has resigned, just four months into her tenure. Tracy Kasper is the second president to abruptly step down from N.A.R. — an organization that has seen its power and influence wane in recent months in the wake of losing a major antitrust lawsuit and amid allegations that leaders had ignored sexual harassment allegations.N.A.R. announced Ms. Kasper’s surprise exit on Monday in a brief news release that implied that Ms. Kasper had received a blackmail threat. She “recently received a threat to disclose a past personal, nonfinancial matter unless she compromised her…

A London coroner’s office said Tuesday that the Irish singer Sinead O’Connor died from natural causes.Ms. O’Connor, 56, was found dead at a residential property in London in July. Shortly afterward, the local coroner announced they would conduct an autopsy of her body. In a brief statement on Tuesday, the coroner said that “Ms. O’Connor died of natural causes.” The coroner said they had “therefore ceased their involvement in her death.” No further details were given about the cause of death.Best known for her rendition of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” Ms. O’Connor became a global star in the 1990s…

The global economy is at risk of a “wasted” decade and the weakest stretch of growth in 30 years, the World Bank warned on Tuesday, saying a sluggish recovery from the pandemic and crippling wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are expected to weigh heavily on output.In its semiannual Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank projected that the growth in world output will slow further in 2024, declining to 2.4 percent from 2.6 percent. Although the global economy has been surprisingly resilient, the report warned that its forecasts were subject to heightened uncertainty because of the two wars,…

PARIS — In a typically bold bid to revitalize his second term, President Emmanuel Macron named Gabriel Attal, 34, as his new prime minister, replacing Élisabeth Borne, 62, who made no secret of the fact that she was unhappy to be forced out.Mr. Attal, who was previously education minister and has occupied several government positions since Mr. Macron was elected in 2017, becomes France’s youngest and first openly gay prime minister. A recent Ipsos-Le Point opinion poll suggested he is France’s most popular politician, albeit with an approval rating of just 40 percent.Mr. Macron, whose second term has been marked…

As psychedelics move from the underground to mainstream medicine, clinicians aspiring to work in the field are inducing altered states with deep breathing. Source link