Author: NY TIMES

BackgroundThe law, House Bill 71, specifically bans gender transition surgeries, puberty blockers and hormone therapy for those under 18 with gender dysphoria. It also makes it a felony for medical professionals to provide the care, with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.Idaho’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed the bill, also known as the Vulnerable Child Protective Act, in February, and Gov. Brad Little, also a Republican, signed it into law in April. The ban was set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.Mr. Little said the ban sought to “protect children.” But major medical organizations, including the American Academy…

“Roll me up and smoke me when I die,” Willie Nelson sang from the stage of the Hollywood Bowl during his 90th birthday celebration in April.As usual, Mr. Nelson looked very much at ease. He was wearing a cowboy hat over a red bandanna, and his hair spilled down his back. His trusty guitar, a road-worn classical acoustic model named Trigger, hung from the red, white and blue strap around his neck. At his side was his longtime friend, the equally relaxed Snoop Dogg.The duet with Snoop was one of many high points for Mr. Nelson in 2023, when fans…

The Israeli military crossed into central Gaza between Dec. 24 and 26, new satellite images obtained and analyzed by The New York Times showed, giving a fuller picture of the latest front in Israel’s war to eradicate Hamas from the embattled enclave.By Tuesday, Israeli forces had reached the outskirts of Al Bureij, a densely built-up neighborhood in the center of the Gaza Strip, about one mile from the border with Israel.In a news briefing on Tuesday, the military confirmed the advance, saying that its forces had targeted terrorist infrastructure in the area of Al Bureij and had found a tunnel…

Ukraine scored a major success on Tuesday when it struck a Russian warship at port in Crimea, one of the most significant attacks against Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet in months. But in another setback for their ground campaign, Ukrainian officials acknowledged that they had all but retreated from the eastern city of Marinka after a monthslong battle to defend it.The two developments underscored the diverging fortunes of the two combatants this winter in a war that has largely settled into a deadlock: Ukraine racking up naval successes in the Black Sea and Crimea, where it is putting Russia on the…

The Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers 33-19 on Monday night for their most impressive win of the season. Not only does this win make them look like a Super Bowl contender, it also puts them in a great spot in the AFC. They sit one game ahead of Miami with a 12-3 record and a chance to clinch the top spot next week against the Dolphins.Meanwhile, the 49ers’ loss moved them to an 11-4 record, tied with the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions in the NFC’s top three. The 49ers have tiebreakers in both games, but with two…

One afternoon in August 2020, while staying at her parents’ house in the Hudson Valley, Jean Garnett, an editor at Little, Brown & Company, prepared to meet remotely with the author Chantal V. Johnson, whose novel “Post-traumatic” she wanted to acquire for publication.She had to find a private place to take the call, not because she needed quiet, but because her identical twin sister Callie Garnett — the editorial director at Bloomsbury, a competing imprint — was also staying at the house and would be taking her own call with Ms. Johnson a few hours later.Jean ended up working in…

The Biden administration announced plans to crack down on banks and financial services firms that are helping Russia evade strict sanctions on access to military technology and equipment that are aiding its war against Ukraine.The move, announced on Friday, comes after attempts by the United States to curb Russia’s access to supplies that it needs to build more missiles and other weapons have proved to be unsuccessful.The United States and Europe have imposed strict sanctions on Russia over the past two years. But an illicit network of traders and smugglers, working with the assistance of shadowy financial firms, has been…

The many creative people who died this year built their wisdom over lives generously long or much too short, through times of peace and periods of conflict. Their ideas, perspectives and humanity helped shape our own: in language spoken, written or left unsaid; in notes hit, lines delivered, boundaries pushed. Here is a tribute to just some of them, in their voices.“I never considered giving up on my dreams. You could say I had an invincible optimism.”— Tina Turner, musician, born 1939 (Read the obituary.)“Hang on to your fantasies, whatever they are and however dimly you may hear them, because…

The Biden administration has been holding talks with Israel, Lebanon and intermediaries for Hezbollah aimed at reducing current tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border and restoring calm there longer-term by moving Hezbollah forces away from the frontier, according to Lebanese and Israeli officials, and other participants in the talks.The diplomatic effort is being led by Amos Hochstein, a senior White House adviser who oversaw talks last year that resulted in a historic agreement between Israel and Lebanon that resolved long-running maritime border disputes between the countries. Hezbollah, the most powerful political and military force in Lebanon, backed the agreement after initially…

How many ways are there to leave this universe?Perhaps the best known exit entails the death of a star. In 1939 the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder, of the University of California, Berkeley, predicted that when a sufficiently massive star runs out of thermonuclear fuel, it collapses inward and keeps collapsing forever, shrink-wrapping space, time and light around itself in what today is called a black hole.But it turns out that a dead star might not be needed to make a black hole. Instead, at least in the early universe, giant clouds of primordial gas may…