Author: NY TIMES

High-level cease-fire talks appeared to be gaining momentum on Monday as Arab and American mediators pressed for an agreement to halt the fighting in Gaza and release hostages held by Hamas before President-elect Donald J. Trump assumes office on Jan. 20.It was still unclear whether the parties had reached resolution on central disputes that have proved insurmountable in previous rounds of negotiations, but officials briefed on the talks have expressed cautious optimism in recent days about the possibility of concluding a deal.For months, repeated rounds of talks have seen hopes rise only to be dashed days later, with both Israel…

HOUSTON — Justin Herbert sat motionless in a chair in front of his locker, hands on his knees and a blank stare on his face. It doesn’t look like it, but he’s listening.Defensive lineman Morgan Fox sat on the floor to Herbert’s right. Fox was talking in a low voice to the Los Angeles Chargers quarterback.”I just told him I was proud of him,” Fox said. “I don’t want to start a war with anybody. He’s probably the best quarterback I’ve ever played with. He’s great. He’s extremely talented. Just tell him to keep his head up.About a minute later,…

Italy’s justice minister has requested the revocation of the arrest of an Iranian man sought by the United States for allegedly providing material used in an attack that killed three American soldiers, the Italian government announced on Sunday.Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, 38, was arrested last month in Milan and the U.S. Justice Department had asked for his extradition. He was charged with illegally providing material used in a drone attack by an Iranian-backed militia on an American military base in Jordan.On Sunday evening, IRNA, Iran’s state news agency, reported that Mr. Abedini had reached Tehran. Despite repeated requests for confirmation, Italy…

The Social Security Administration receives billions in free money each year from an unexpected source: undocumented immigrants.This group paid an estimated $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes in 2022, according to a recent analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning tax research group. Since unauthorized workers cannot collect retirement and other Social Security benefits without a change to their immigration status, the billions they pour into the program effectively act as a subsidy for American beneficiaries.President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to carry out the nation’s largest mass deportation program to date, and restrict legal pathways…

The monthslong fight by legislators to ban the social media app TikTok in the United States came to a head on Friday when the Supreme Court heard arguments to decide the app’s fate for its 170 million American users.While the justices across the ideological spectrum asked tough questions of both sides, the overall tone and thrust appeared to suggest greater skepticism toward the arguments by lawyers for TikTok and its users that the First Amendment barred Congress from enacting the law.If TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, does get banned on Jan. 19, here is what users can expect…

To overcome that, one main project funded by HEAL is focused on studying the nervous systems of people with chronic pain more directly, in part by recovering malfunctioning dorsal root ganglia and trigeminal nerves from patients undergoing surgery for chronic pain, as well as from cadaveric donors. Those samples are then cultured and examined using a bevy of new technologies — things like proteomics, spatial transcriptomics and metabolomics — to see how they differ from normal tissue. The goal, Gereau explained, is to identify what changes happen at a cellular level when pain becomes chronic, and to create an atlas…

It’s hard to pinpoint when things began to change around here but you might start with the arrival of Yolanda Hadid in 2017.Ms. Hadid, a onetime regular on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” bought a farm just outside New Hope, Pa., to be closer to her daughters, the models Gigi and Bella Hadid, who were then living in New York City.The 32-acre property, with its stone farmhouse, horse barn and formal garden, became a family retreat, and the Hadids’ social media feeds filled with pastoral images: Gigi in a two-piece bathing suit, posing with a bowl of newly picked…

As the publicity about her anti-gay views died down, she returned to television in 1980 with a two-hour variety show special, “The Anita Bryant Spectacular,” smiling big but with what struck one media critic as a giant chip on her shoulder. “Miss Bryant’s cause is never defined too clearly,” John J. O’Connor wrote in his New York Times review of the show, “but seems directed at anyone who may differ from her particular concepts of godliness and cleanliness.”Mr. O’Connor added that, despite “careful projections of wholesomeness and benevolence,” Ms. Bryant’s message appeared to be “persistently hostile and aggressive.” The special…

Israeli security and policy chiefs were expected to arrive in Qatar on Sunday for high-level talks about a proposed cease-fire deal in Gaza that would see hostages released in the final days of President Biden’s term and before Donald J. Trump takes office.Biden administration officials have been pressing for a deal that would become part of the departing president’s legacy, and Mr. Trump has warned that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the hostages before he is inaugurated on Jan. 20.Lower-level negotiations have been underway in recent weeks after months of deadlock.While…

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Before Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard field goal sent Notre Dame to the national championship game, before Christian Gray’s diving interception, or before Jeremiah Lowe’s Marcus Freeman stands in front of his team before Jeremiyah Love braces his right knee for a mutant performance Wednesday afternoon at the Diplomat Hotel on Hollywood Beach.Notre Dame’s head coach had just returned from his final press conference before kickoff, the kind of one-time media gathering that’s usually forgotten before the final bowl trophy photo is taken. This is not one of those times. That’s not the case for Freeman, the head…