Author: NY TIMES

Why It Matters: The virus is a new threat for many wild mammals.The infected polar bear provides further evidence of how widespread this virus, a highly pathogenic form of H5N1, has become and how unprecedented its behavior has been. Since the virus emerged in 2020, it has spread to every continent except for Australia. It has also infected an unusually broad array of wild birds and mammals, including foxes, skunks, mountain lions and sea lions.“The number of mammals reported with infections continues to grow,” Dr. Bob Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian, said.In most cases, the virus has not caused mass die-offs…

Dear listeners,Happy New Year! I’m going to keep things relatively brief today, because I’m kicking off 2024 with the head cold that every other person in New York seems to have right now. But isn’t that always how it goes when we’ve set high expectations and lofty resolutions for the new year? Life promptly steps in to throw some annoyingly timed obstacles our way.That’s kind of what the playlist I’ve created for today is about: Welcoming these next 12 months with optimism, grace and even a little humility.First, though, here’s a story about 2023.Each year, most of the goals I…

Just 24 hours before he took to the podium on Wednesday, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah, was preparing to deliver a speech commemorating another of Israel’s former arch foes, Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian commander killed in a U.S. drone strike four years ago to the day.But in the wake of the suspected Israeli assassination on Tuesday of Saleh al-Arouri, a top Hamas leader killed in the heart of Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut, Mr. Nasrallah revised his comments to commemorate not just one of his closest allies, but two.In a highly anticipated speech on Wednesday…

In a mountainous corner of Indonesia lies a hill, dotted with stone terraces, where people come from around the country to hold Islamic and Hindu rituals. Some say the site has a mystical air, or even that it might hold buried treasure.The partially excavated site, Gunung Padang, is a relaxing place to spend an afternoon. It’s also at the center of a raging debate.Archaeologists say that the hill is a dormant volcano and that ceramics recovered there so far suggest that humans have been using the site for several hundred years or more. But some Indonesians, including an earthquake geologist…

CLEARWATER, Fla. — When Charlie Manuel started talking again, he was speechless. It had been five days since his stroke. He felt better. Over time, he will regain feeling on his right side. But last September, there was no news.”I knew what I wanted to say,” Manuel said months later. “It does move you. You know what to say, but you can’t say it.”Manuel is the ultimate baseball figure, having been involved in the game for over 60 years. Known for his love of hitting, signature mistakes and colorful language, the winningest manager in Phillies history was always most at…

Extra-large bags, silver jewelry and gardening are in. Quiet luxury, podcasts and late bedtimes are out. That’s at least according to Instagram and TikTok, where lists confidently declaring which trends will thrive and which will die in the new year abounded as the clock struck midnight on Sunday.The dead week between Christmas and the new year has always been conducive to introspection, the hours usually spent working or socializing suddenly freed up for stewing in regret, rethinking bad habits or planning a comeback. But instead of making traditional New Year’s resolutions, many TikTok and Instagram users have started publishing “In…

Xerox said on Wednesday that it was cutting 15 percent of its work force as part of a restructuring, the company’s latest effort to shift focus to its business-services offerings and away from its iconic photocopiers.In a news release, the company said it would reduce its global staff, which included roughly 23,000 employees in 2022, and name a new leadership team. The layoffs are expected to take place in the first quarter of 2024.The company’s shares fell more than 12 percent after the layoff news was announced. Its share price had been steadily rising over the past year, in part…

The holidays have come and gone, and once again Americans are riding a tide of respiratory ailments, including Covid. But so far, this winter’s Covid uptick seems less deadly than last year’s, and much less so than in 2022, when the Omicron surge ground the nation to a halt.“We’re not seeing the signs that would make me think that we’re heading into another severe wave,” said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “So far, we’re in relatively good shape.”Still, there are few masks in sight, and just a fraction of the most vulnerable people…

There are some precedents for Valmond’s coverage. In the 2000s, street magazines like F.E.D.S. and Don Diva emerged to document underworld figures, sometimes in their own words. Some YouTube channels trade in old street-life war stories. And in earlier phases of the internet, message boards and blogs touched on these subjects as well.Though Valmond begins with news reports and other published information, some facts are impossible to independently verify. Memories can be hazy, and reputations are sometimes built on bluster. His threads can sometimes land closer to apocrypha than unassailable truth. (There are a handful of other Twitter and Instagram…

When Senator Robert Menendez arrived in Qatar in 2022 to attend the country’s lavish production of the men’s soccer World Cup, he gave an unusual interview to the authoritarian government’s news agency praising the progress that Qatar had made on labor rights.The tiny Gulf state was facing an onslaught of international criticism over its preparations for the world’s biggest sporting event, including over the exploitation of migrant workers who built the tournament’s infrastructure. But Mr. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said he preferred to highlight positive aspects of the games, and the host nation.Traveling to Qatar gave Mr. Menendez “the…