Israel-Hamas War: Live News and Updates
27Dec Avatar photoBy Harrison Jordan LewisNo Comments
World

Israel-Hamas War: Live News and Updates

As Israel wages a war in Gaza aimed at dismantling Hamas’s military capacity, the armed group and its affiliates have continued to fire rockets at Israel nearly every day, aiming deep inside its borders and striking some of the country’s biggest cities.Since Hamas led a terrorist attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas and other armed groups have fired about 12,000 rockets from Gaza into Israel, a quarter of them on Oct. 7, the Israeli government has said. Most rockets fired from Gaza were shot down by Israeli air defenses before they were able to make impact. But the ongoing salvos are an indication of the size of Hamas’s arsenal and its continued ability to strike deep inside Israeli territory.In nearly three months of war, 15 people in Israel have been killed in strikes and about 700...
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Idaho Judge Temporarily Blocks Ban on Gender Transition Care for Minors
27Dec Avatar photoBy Harrison Jordan LewisNo Comments
Health

Idaho Judge Temporarily Blocks Ban on Gender Transition Care for Minors

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 of Pediatrics, have come out in support of gender transition care, saying bans pose serious mental health risks to young people.In May, two Idaho families, along with...
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NFL playoff picture after Week 16: Ravens close in on AFC’s top seed; NFC up for grabs
27Dec Avatar photoBy Harrison Jordan LewisNo Comments
Sports

NFL playoff picture after Week 16: Ravens close in on AFC’s top seed; NFC up for grabs

The Baltimore Ravens scored their most impressive victory of the season Monday night, defeating the San Francisco 49ers 33-19. Along with making them look like worthy Super Bowl contenders, the victory puts them in a fantastic position in the AFC. At 12-3, they’re a game ahead of Miami and have a chance to clinch the top spot next week in a game against those very Dolphins.Meanwhile, the 49ers’ loss sends them to 11-4 and a three-way tie atop the NFC with the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions. The 49ers own the tiebreaker over both, but with two games to go, there’s still time for the Eagles or Lions to make a move.As for the rest of the NFL, Week 16 saw plenty of movement in the playoff picture. Let’s take a look at where things stand as we enter Week 17.Listed odds to make the playof...
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Tesla Strike in Sweden Highlights a Culture Clash
27Dec Avatar photoBy Harrison Jordan LewisNo Comments
Technology

Tesla Strike in Sweden Highlights a Culture Clash

The Tesla technicians who walked off their jobs in Sweden say they still support the mission of the American company and its headline-grabbing chief executive. But they also want Tesla to accept the Swedish way of doing business.They call it the Swedish Model, a way of life that has defined the country’s economy for decades. At its heart is cooperation between employers and employees to ensure that both sides benefit from a company’s profit.Instead, four technicians who walked off their jobs on Oct. 27 said, they have been subjected to what they described as a “typical U.S. model”: six-day workweeks, unavoidable overtime and an unclear evaluation system for promotion.“Just work, work, work,” said Janis Kuzma, one of the technicians on strike.The union representing the Tesla workers, IF Met...
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Holiday Spending Increased, Defying Fears of a Decline
27Dec Avatar photoBy Harrison Jordan LewisNo Comments
Business

Holiday Spending Increased, Defying Fears of a Decline

Despite lingering inflation, Americans increased their spending this holiday season, early data shows. That comes as a big relief for retailers that had spent much of the year fearing the economy would soon weaken and consumer spending would fall.Retail sales from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 increased 3.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data from Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures in-store and online retail sales across all forms of payment. The numbers, released Tuesday, are not adjusted for inflation.Spending increased across many categories, with restaurants experiencing one of the largest jumps, 7.8 percent. Apparel increased 2.4 percent, and groceries also had gains.The holiday sales figures, driven by a healthy labor market and wage gains, suggest that the economy remains stron...
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Monica Bertagnolli, NIH’s New Leader, Wants to Broaden Participation in Medical Research
25Dec Avatar photoBy Harrison Jordan LewisNo Comments
Health

Monica Bertagnolli, NIH’s New Leader, Wants to Broaden Participation in Medical Research

When Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli moved into the director’s suite at the National Institutes of Health, she brought with her a single piece of art, a lithograph created by the granddaughter of a cancer patient she once treated. It depicts an abstract geometric female figure and the organs she lost to cancer. Its title: “We Are Not What You Have Taken: A Response to Cancer.”The image speaks to Dr. Bertagnolli, a cancer surgeon who previously led the National Cancer Institute and is a breast-cancer survivor herself.After being nominated by President Biden in the spring and winning Senate confirmation last month, she became the 17th director of the N.I.H., which has a budget of more than $47 billion and occupies a sprawling campus in Bethesda, Md. She is only the second woman to lead the biomedi...
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Golf with a purpose: How The Park dared to be different
25Dec Avatar photoBy Harrison Jordan LewisNo Comments
Sports

Golf with a purpose: How The Park dared to be different

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It’s lunchtime on a mid-November Saturday afternoon and the word of the day is eclectic. I’ve just finished my morning round at The Park with a three-putt for par on the forgiving 18th hole, and I saddle up at the cabana, the bar/small bites stand strategically located at the front of the property.A foursome that was a few holes ahead of me is heading off to their vehicles — while allowing for their anonymity, let’s just say they can be members anywhere they want to be in the golf-rich West Palm Beach/Jupiter area. Making the turn to the back nine are the bros wanting to chase down their transfusions with High Noons. Though they represent very different ends of the Saturday golfer spectrum, you recognize both groups as what a golfer “looks” like.But the cabana occup...
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This N.Y.U. Student Owns a Million Crypto Mine. His Secret Is Out.
25Dec Avatar photoBy Harrison Jordan LewisNo Comments
Technology

This N.Y.U. Student Owns a $6 Million Crypto Mine. His Secret Is Out.

Jerry Yu has the trappings of what the Chinese call second-generation rich. He boasts a Connecticut prep-school education. He lives in a Manhattan condominium bought for $8 million from Jeffrey R. Immelt, the former General Electric chief executive. And he is the majority owner of a Bitcoin mine in Texas, acquired last year for more than $6 million.Mr. Yu, a 23-year-old student at New York University, has also become — quite unintentionally — a case study in how Chinese nationals can move money from China to the United States without drawing the attention of authorities in either country.The Texas facility, a large computing center, was not purchased with dollars. Instead, it was bought with cryptocurrency, which offers anonymity, with the transaction routed through an offshore exchange, p...
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On QVC, Shawn Killinger Can Help You Sell Yourself
25Dec Avatar photoBy Harrison Jordan LewisNo Comments
Business

On QVC, Shawn Killinger Can Help You Sell Yourself

Killinger is from Grosse Pointe, Mich., a Detroit suburb, but spent a chunk of her childhood in Mexico City, where her father, who worked for Ford Motors, moved the family when she was 11. She was bullied there for looking different and bullied again back in America when she pulled up to Grosse Pointe South High School — preppy Izod city — looking “like a combo platter of Debbie Gibson, big bangs, shellacking hair spray, blow dryer to keep them up, white frost lip gloss.”In 1995, she graduated from Penn State with a marketing degree and later worked in television, including on air in local news in Albany, N.Y., and Orlando, Fla. In 2006, Martha Stewart fired her from “The Apprentice.”A self-proclaimed homebody, she likes to spend her free time with her husband, Joe Carretta, and adopted da...
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