Aurelia Butler

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    After an Earthquake, These Elephants Knew Exactly Who to Follow: Mom

    A video from the San Diego Zoo taken during an earthquake put complex elephant herd dynamics on display.A tremor from a 5.2-magnitude earthquake that struck about 60 miles away prompted a herd of elephants at the San Diego Zoo to form a tight circle to protect the calves.San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, via Associated PressThe 5.2 magnitude earthquake that shook Southern California on Monday may have provoked a collective shrug from humans in the region, but a few elephants in San Diego took the tremor very seriously.A video taken at the San Diego Zoo shows the action unfold: Five African elephants are basking in the morning sun until the camera begins to shake and a tremor sends the animals scrambling toward one another.A few moments later, almost in unison, the elephants form a tight circle, with the older elephants surrounding the younger calves. The herd remains in formation through the end of the video, facing outward with ears extended, as if on high alert for threats.The earthquake, which struck around 10 a.m. on Monday, had its epicenter near Julian, Calif., about 60 miles northeast of San Diego. There were no reports of injuries or damage, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.The response from the elephants was a defensive position known as “bunching,” and is a typical reaction to threats, said Joyce Poole, a conservation biologist with a doctorate in elephant behavior from Cambridge University. “They feel more secure when they are close together,” she said.When bunched, elephants often have their tusks pointed out, ears extended, eyes opened wide and trunks out, trying to smell potential threats. The formation, “like the spokes of a wheel,” Dr. Poole said, gives the group a 360-degree view of their surroundings to pinpoint any danger. The younger members instinctively seek out the most protected position inside the circle, she said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Fedora Returns to the West Village for an Encore. Again.

    After closing in 2020 following a revival by Gabriel Stulman, it’s now backed by the partners of St. Jardim.OpeningFedoraThe Village, West and Greenwich, are neighborhoods that hang onto historic restaurants. They may close, but then someone rides to the rescue. Dante, Waverly Inn, Minetta Tavern, Figaro and, with an encore, Fedora. Gabriel Stulman revived it for 10 years, until 2020. Now the partners from St. Jardim nearby, Andrew Dete and Christa Alexander, with Basile Al Mileik, St. Jardim’s wine director, have stepped in. They’ve refreshed the cozy interior, and are reopening it with a European-inspired menu by Monty Forrest from Le Rock, who’s offering asparagus tempura, pierogi with alliums and peas, tilefish in bourride, and black bass Provençal. The wine list leans French. The original sign still tips its hat to Fedora Dorato, the owner from 1952 until 2010.239 West Fourth Street (West 10th Street), 917-740-5273, fedoranewyork.com. DubuHausSharing the sprawl of 28,000 square feet with Howoo, a Korean barbecue spot, and soon to be joined by Musaek, all by Urimat Hospitality Group, DubuHaus specializes in tofu (dubu in Korean). It’s turned into soft tofu stews, dumplings, bibimbap and braised dishes, some forcefully spiced, though tofu doesn’t figure in every preparation. The setting is minimalist, designed to replicate a hanok, the traditional Korean home. (Opens Thursday)6 East 32nd Street, 917-509-5967, dubuhaus.com. Maison PasserelleHeather Willensky for Printemps New YorkLeafy, as in flooring, upholstery and other decorative elements, describes the new Printemps New York store and its dining options, most of which opened a couple of weeks ago. Now the pièce de résistance, the fine-dining component, is ready. Like the others, it’s the work of Gregory Gourdet, the store’s culinary director, who is including flavors from former French colonies in West and North Africa, the Caribbean and Asia for his menu. Salt cod fritters, grilled white asparagus with Creole cream, roast chicken with Moroccan condiments and, for dessert, coconut chiboust with makrut lime cover the territory, all rendered with French techniques. Even the inevitable New York strip speaks Creole with a Haitian coffee rub. (Thursday)Printemps New York, One Wall Street (Broadway at Exchange Place), 212-217-2291, maisonpasserellenyc.com. Banh Anh EmBanh Vietnamese Shop House on the Upper West Side, with seats still a challenge to score after five years, now has a downtown sibling (anh em means brotherhood or sisterhood). What distinguishes John Nguyen and the chef Nhu Ton’s latest effort is that the bread for the banh mi, a Vietnamese take on a French baguette, is baked in-house. The noodles for pho are also homemade. The space is larger.99 Third Avenue (13th Street), banhanhem.com. Little FinoTaking their cue from Italy, breakfast items like cornetti and a spinach frittata, followed by all-day snacks, small bites and sandwiches like a roasted artichoke, polenta tots, prosciutto and a chicken muffuletta, are served at this cafe and bar. It’s headed by Anthony Ricco, a chef in Andrew Carmellini’s NoHo Hospitality Group, and has been added to the ground floor of the William Vale in Brooklyn.The William Vale hotel, 111 North 12th Street (Wythe Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-581-5900, littlefinonyc.com. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Paige Bueckers and the Importance of Dressing to Impress at the W.N.B.A. Draft

    The W.N.B.A. draft began not just with odds-making, taking bets on what player would go at what pick to what team (well, except for Paige Bueckers, who was a lock as the No. 1 pick for Dallas), but with an announcement.Coach, the New York Fashion Week brand known for its bags and shearlings, was going to be a long-term sponsor of the league, joining Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Ralph Lauren in taking the fashion/sport partnership to a new, more permanent, level.It set the tone for the night.Not just because four of the 15 players invited to attend the draft in person also signed deals with Coach and wore the brand, but because the draft is no longer just about the picks, it’s about the ’fits. And the women involved know it.It’s their opportunity to introduce themselves not only to fans, the watching world and their new teammates, but also to the potential sponsors who can bolster their relatively small salaries. (Ms. Bueckers, who is often referred to as the new face of the W.N.B.A., is reportedly making only $78,831 her first year.) The simplest way to do that is through their look.“These girls sit at the intersection of sport, culture and fashion,” Cathy Engelbert, the W.N.B.A. commissioner, said just before the draft, herself wearing a nipped-in raspberry Sergio Hudson pantsuit. The goal, she went on, is “growing their brands, not just in their team market, but nationally and globally.”Perhaps that’s why the bar set at last year’s draft by Caitlin Clarke in Prada and Cameron Brink in Balmain was raised this time around. The biggest trend of draft night was individuality; after all, as Stuart Vevers, Coach’s creative director, pointed out, both fashion and sports are “grounded in self-expression.” But don’t take it from us. Here’s what the players had to say.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump’s Tariff Threat for Drug imports Poses Big Political Risks

    Levies on Americans’ daily prescriptions and other medicines could raise costs, spur rationing and lead to shortages of critical drugs.President Trump’s decision to move a step closer to imposing tariffs on imported medicines poses considerable political risk, because Americans could face higher prices and more shortages of critical drugs.The Trump administration filed a federal notice on Monday saying that it had begun an investigation into whether imports of medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients threaten America’s national security, an effort to lay the groundwork for possible tariffs on foreign-made drugs.Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he planned to impose such levies, to shift overseas production of medicines back to the United States. Experts said that tariffs were unlikely to achieve that goal: Moving manufacturing would be hugely expensive and would take years.It was not clear how long the investigation would last or when the planned tariffs might go into effect. Mr. Trump started the inquiry under a legal authority known as Section 232 that he has used for other industries like cars and lumber.Mr. Trump said in remarks to reporters on Monday that pharmaceutical tariffs would come in the “not too distant future.”“We don’t make our own drugs anymore,” Mr. Trump said. “The drug companies are in Ireland, and they’re in lots of other places, China.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Onstage and Off, Whitney White Is Everywhere This Spring

    An actor, musician and writer, White is also now an in-demand stage director. “I am looking, I am hungry, I am searching,” she said.This spring, Whitney White directed the ensemble drama “Liberation” Off Broadway, then the two-hander “The Last Five Years” on Broadway. Just days after that musical opened, she stood in an upstairs room at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, rehearsing “Macbeth in Stride,” her adaptation of the Shakespeare tragedy, which begins performances on Tuesday.During the song “Reach for It,” White, who plays a version of Lady Macbeth, took the lead. “Power’s not supposed to look like me,” she sang into a microphone.Maybe it should.A multidisciplinary artist with an unusual number of hyphens, White, 39, is an actor, a musician, a writer for theater and television (the Amazon series “I’m a Virgo”) and an increasingly in-demand, Tony-nominated stage director. Her current projects, White observed during a rehearsal break, are all about ambitious women. “I’m weirdly one of them,” she said.White grew up in Chicago, in a one-bedroom apartment with her working single mother. Her first exposure to theater was at her grandfather’s church, the Apostolic Church of God, which boasted a 50-person choir. A visit to Cirque du Soleil was another formative experience.At Northwestern, White took theater classes, but she found the scene there cliquey, exclusionary, so she majored in political science instead. While interning for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008, she realized that she had to be an artist after all.“There’s nothing else that I can really wholeheartedly do with myself,” she said.With Nygel D. Robinson at the piano, the cast of “Macbeth in Stride” in rehearsal, from left: Charlie Thurston, White, Holli’ Conway, Phoenix Best and Ciara Alyse Harris.Elias Williams for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Sandstorm Turns Iraq’s Skies Orange and Sends Thousands to Hospitals

    Climate experts say such storms are becoming more frequent and severe in the country. This was its worst of the year so far.A severe sandstorm has swept across central and southern Iraq over the last two days, turning the sky a strange orange, reducing visibility in some places to less than a half mile and sending several thousand people to emergency rooms with respiratory problems.Two airports suspended flights because of poor visibility, and the usually crowded highways of Basra, the largest city in the country’s south, were nearly empty as high winds whipped through the palm trees and aboveground electrical lines.The spokesman for Iraq’s meteorology department, Amir al-Jabri, said that the “heavy waves of dust” had blown across the country after originating in eastern Saudi Arabia, a largely desert area, and picking up additional particles in southwestern Iraq, which is similarly arid.Although sandstorms have long been a feature of Iraq’s winter and early spring, climate experts say the storms are becoming more frequent and severe as the country and neighboring Syria experience longer and more frequent droughts and as desertification engulfs larger and larger areas of once-fertile land.The Shatt al-Arab waterway in Basra, Iraq. The city’s normally busy highways were emptied by the sandstorm.Hussein Faleh/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe storm was the worst so far in Iraq in 2025, but a similarly serious storm paralyzed Baghdad in December, and there were several severe sandstorms in 2022.The United Nations counts Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable country to some aspects of climate change, including extreme temperatures and the diminishing availability of water.Although the storm abated on Tuesday and temperatures were a bit lower, southern Iraq was experiencing daily highs of more than 100 degrees before the sandstorm obscured the sun, reducing the temperature.During the most recent storm, many people donned face masks for protection, especially police officers and emergency workers who were working outside, while others wrapped cloths around their mouths.Using a respiratory in an ambulance in Najaf, a central city where hospitals reported hundreds of patients with breathing difficulties.Qassem Al-Kaabi/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe sand and dust were so pervasive that they penetrated almost every house and vehicle, coming through the smallest cracks to coat every surface, making it difficult to work on computers and forcing almost all but emergency workers to stay indoors.Iraq’s health ministry spokesman, Saif al-Badr, said that emergency rooms across the south had received 3,747 cases of Iraqis suffering respiratory problems as a result of the storm. More than 1,000 of those were recorded in Basra, where the storm was especially severe on Monday, and 451 were in Najaf, a far smaller city, he said.Also badly affected were residents of Muthanna Province, which shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, he said, adding that most of the thousands who were treated for respiratory problems had been released.The Basra police department put out a list of storm instructions, including one directed at families: “Since the storm is accompanied by frightening sounds for young children, parents should explain what is happening so that their child can sleep soundly.”Visibility in Basra was severely limited.Hussein Faleh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images More

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    Attackers Target Prisons in France, Burning Vehicles and Firing Shots

    The office of France’s counterterrorism prosecutor said it would begin an investigation into the violence. The justice minister blamed drug traffickers.Attackers targeted a prison near the French port city of Toulon overnight Monday to Tuesday, burning vehicles and firing shots at its walls, French authorities and a union said on Tuesday, adding that this was part of a series of attacks on the country’s prisons.There were no reports of casualties. A union for prison workers, FO Justice, posted photos on X, formerly Twitter, of bullet holes in prison walls, saying that prisons had been attacked in the north, center and south of the country.The office of France’s counterterrorism prosecutor said it would begin an investigation into the violence, which it said started on Sunday. The justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, said he would visit the Toulon-La Farlède prison on Tuesday in support of the officers there.Bullet holes in a wall of the Toulon-La Farlède prison on Tuesday.Miguel Medina/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMr. Darmanin suggested that drug traffickers had organized the attacks. The French newspaper Le Monde said the attacks were coordinated and mentioned other incidents in Villepinte and Nanterre, both suburbs of Paris; Valence, a city in southern France; and the southern port city of Marseille.“Prisons are facing intimidation attempts ranging from the burning of vehicles to automatic gunfire,” Mr. Darmanin said in a post on social media. “The republic is confronted by drug trafficking and will take measures that will massively disrupt these criminal networks.”France’s interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, condemned the attacks, saying the prisons had been targeted by thugs, and ordered the authorities to reinforce security at prisons and protect their workers.France’s official prison watchdog warned in 2023 of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and violence in the country’s prisons. More

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    Review: In ‘John Proctor Is the Villain,’ It’s the Girls vs. the Men

    Kimberly Belflower’s play, on Broadway starring Sadie Sink, gives high school students a chance to prosecute a #MeToo case against “The Crucible.”The first word spoken in “John Proctor Is the Villain,” a vital new play in a thrilling production at the Booth Theater on Broadway, is “sex.”Defining the word is part of a six-week sex education unit at a rural Georgia high school that doesn’t want to teach it. Just 10 minutes a day is all it gets, and those minutes consist mostly of reading a textbook aloud, in imperfect unison that makes it sound like mush.The 16- and 17-year-old girls in the class know all about sex anyway. Even in their conservative, one-stoplight community — one’s father is the preacher at the Baptist church most of the others attend — they’ve “done some stuff,” or at any rate have obsessed over Lorde and practiced Talmud on Taylor Swift.It is in this hormonal, repressive environment, in 2018, just a year since #MeToo acquired its hashtag, that the playwright, Kimberly Belflower, sets the action. But the girls who want to start a feminism club, which the school resists as “a tricky situation,” do not need hashtags to understand sexual predation. Some have already lived it. Raelynn, the preacher’s daughter, has a purity ring but also an ex-boyfriend who, trying to win her back, forces her to have what he later calls a “conversation.”“Do you mean like when you threw a desk on the ground and kiss-raped me?” she asks.Others have experienced worse.But even for those who have thought little about the subject, the world is about to change, as their lit teacher, the golden Mr. Smith, embarks on a unit about “The Crucible.” Excitedly he tells them that the Arthur Miller classic, an allegory of McCarthyite witch hunts set in 17th-century Salem, Mass., is “a great play about a great hero.” Once they start reading it, they beg to differ.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More