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    Republicans Writing Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Face Risks on Medicaid

    Representatives from swing districts face tough votes as soon as next week, when key House panels are scheduled to consider legislation that would cut popular programs to pay for President Trump’s agenda.Gabe Evans, then a Republican state lawmaker in Colorado, defeated a Democratic member of Congress in November by less than 1 percentage point — just 2,449 votes — writing his ticket to Washington.Now Mr. Evans, 39, is helping to write legislation that could cement his own ticket back home.The first-term congressman, whose swing district just north of Denver includes 151,749 Medicaid recipients, sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee. The Republican budget resolution that lays the groundwork for sweeping legislation to enact President Trump’s domestic agenda instructs the panel, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, to slash spending by $880 billion over the next decade to help pay for a large tax cut. That number is impossible to reach without substantially reducing the cost of Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance for lower-income Americans.As Republicans in Congress struggle to coalesce around the core pieces of what Mr. Trump calls his “one big, beautiful bill,” Mr. Evans and other G.O.P. lawmakers from some of the most competitive districts in the country are facing committee votes next week to approve cuts to popular programs that could come back to haunt them politically.And Democrats are gleeful at the prospect of Republican incumbents going on the record supporting the effort.“These members of Congress won with fewer votes than the number of people in their district on Medicaid,” said Jesse Ferguson, a veteran Democratic strategist and a former spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Voting for this is like being the captain of the Titanic and deciding to intentionally hit the iceberg.”The group includes Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Republican of Iowa, who also sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee and is on even shakier ground than Mr. Evans, despite having warded off a challenger multiple times. Last year, Ms. Miller-Meeks, who represents 132,148 Medicaid recipients, won her seat by 0.2 percent, or 799 votes. Her local office in Davenport has been besieged by demonstrators concerned about spending cuts.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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    House Votes to Rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America, Taking a Symbolic Step

    The legislation was all but certain to die in the Senate, but the move put the Republican-led House on the record supporting President Trump’s nomenclature.A divided House on Thursday approved legislation to permanently rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, moving over the taunting objections of Democrats to codify President Trump’s executive order renaming the body of water in line with his “America First” worldview.The 211-to-206 mostly party-line vote to pass the bill amounted to a symbolic show of Republican deference to Mr. Trump, given that Democrats are unlikely to allow the legislation to move forward in the Senate. But it put the G.O.P.-led House on the record backing the president in his effort to rewrite the rules of geography and to dare critics to defy him.Just one Republican, Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, voted no.The White House has barred journalists from The Associated Press from covering events in the Oval Office and flying aboard Air Force One, as punishment for the news organization’s continued use of the name Gulf of Mexico.“The American people deserve pride in their country, and pride in the waters that we own and we protect with our military and our Coast Guard,” said Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who sponsored the bill, calling it “one of the most important things we can do this Congress.”Democrats dismissed the legislation as a pandering and performative waste of time when Republicans were struggling to reach agreement on legislation to fulfill the president’s domestic policy agenda — the “big, beautiful bill” that could include unpopular cuts to Medicaid.Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, called it a “silly, small-minded and sycophantic piece of legislation.” He said the only silver lining of the exercise was that it underscored how Republicans were laboring to enact that domestic policy measure, which he warned would impose the largest Medicaid cut in history.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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    Denmark Outraged by Report of Increased Spying in Greenland

    Officials summoned the American ambassador to express its displeasure after the Trump Administration was said be ratcheting up surveillance.The Danish government has summoned the American ambassador and threatened to shut down a U.S. consulate in Greenland after a report that the Trump administration was escalating its spying on the island.“It’s deeply concerning if the U.S. is indeed trying to gather intelligence in Denmark and Greenland, especially if the aim is to drive wedges between us,” Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the Danish foreign minister, told reporters on Wednesday after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration had ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to step up their surveillance. “We don’t spy on friends.”Greenland is an overseas territory of Denmark and President Trump has talked about acquiring the Arctic island since his first term in office. In a recent interview with NBC News, Mr. Trump reiterated that the United States “needs” Greenland for national security purposes — and refused to rule out the use of military force to obtain it.“I’m not saying I’m going to do it, but I don’t rule out anything,” he said. He promised that Greenland’s 56,000 residents would be “taken care of and cherished.”Greenlanders, however, are not buying it. A recent opinion poll showed that the vast majority did not want to join the United States. A visit in March by Vice President JD Vance and his wife seemed to backfire and turned even more Greenlanders off.Protesters outside of the U.S. embassy in Copenhagen in March. President Trump has spoke of wanting to acquire Greenland since his first term in office. Nils Meilvang/Ritzau Scanpix Foto, via Associated PressWe 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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    Mistrial in Murder Case Against Michigan Officer Who Shot Motorist

    The jury deadlocked in the trial of Christopher Schurr, who testified that he feared for his life when he fatally shot Patrick Lyoya during a traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 2022.A Michigan jury said it was deadlocked on Thursday in a murder case against a police officer who fatally shot a motorist during a traffic stop.Judge Christina Mims of the Kent County Circuit Court declared a mistrial after jurors, who had been deliberating for four days, said they were unable to reach a verdict.The defendant, Christopher Schurr, formerly a police officer in Grand Rapids, Mich., took the stand during the trial and said that he feared for his life when he opened fire at the driver, Patrick Lyoya, after Mr. Lyoya grabbed his stun gun.“I believe if I didn’t do what I did when I did it, I wouldn’t be here today,” Mr. Schurr told the jury, in his first public remarks about the shooting.Mr. Lyoya’s death in 2022 set off protests and heightened racial tensions in Michigan, during a national debate over police misconduct and racism that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.Mr. Schurr, 36, is white. Mr. Lyoya, 26, was Black.Mr. Lyoya’s killing received extensive media coverage, in large part because it was captured on video from several angles, including by Mr. Schurr’s body camera, a bystander’s cellphone and a nearby doorbell security system.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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    Appraisal Trade Group Accused of Covering Up Sexual Harassment and Test Flaws

    The Appraisal Institute faces concerns that one of its leaders has a history of harassing women and that it did not disclose that some certification exams were incorrectly scored. The organization that influences how much houses and commercial buildings are worth in the United States privately paid one woman $412,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim and fielded similar complaints from at least seven other women that have swirled within the group over the last decade, The New York Times has found.All the harassment accusations inside the Appraisal Institute are against one man — Craig Steinley, 64, a former president and the current vice president of the trade group, who denied the allegations.The Appraisal Institute, which produces the certification materials and fills the state boards that regulate the estimated 70,000 real estate appraisers working in all 50 states, did not respond directly to questions about the allegations. A spokesman said the group has policies that prohibit harassment, retaliation and discrimination. But The Times interviewed 12 women who said they have had uncomfortable interactions with Mr. Steinley, a South Dakota-based appraiser described by his colleagues as charismatic with a flirtatious manner. The women, several of whom asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation, said Mr. Steinley’s behavior often turned physical — an unwanted touch on the leg, a hug that lasted too long. Three women said Mr. Steinley groped their buttocks, according to interviews and a review of a letter sent from one woman’s lawyers to the Appraisal Institute.All the accusations inside the Appraisal Institute are against one man — Craig Steinley, 64, a former president and the current vice president of the trade group. He denies the allegations.via Craig SteinleyOne of the accusations was made public on Thursday, when Cindy Chance, the group’s former chief executive, sued the Chicago-based group for wrongful termination in Illinois state court. Ms. Chance, 59, who was fired last year, said Mr. Steinley groped her buttocks without her consent, made lewd comments about her body and referred to her as his “girlfriend,” according to her lawsuit. 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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    Would You Buy Your Diamond Engagement Ring at Walmart?

    The popularity of synthetic stones has sent the market for natural diamonds crashing. With consumers confused about how to tell the difference, how can a market leader like De Beers regain its sparkle?Do you care where a diamond comes from?Historically, consumers didn’t have a choice. Natural diamonds were formed billions of years ago, deep beneath the earth’s surface, and were then thrust hundreds of kilometers to its crust by volcanic eruptions before eventually being extracted from mines in South Africa, Russia and elsewhere. Companies like De Beers convinced the world that a diamond is forever, made the stones synonymous with engagement rings and encouraged people to spend at least three months’ salary on a rock when they wed.But in recent years, the natural diamond industry has been upended by laboratory-grown diamonds, which are virtually identical in chemical composition to their natural counterparts (at least to the naked eye). They can be grown in almost any size or color and cost anywhere from a 20th to a quarter of the price of natural stones. As shoppers look for ever bigger and blingier sparkles, synthetic diamonds have become increasingly popular — especially in the United States, the world’s largest market for diamond jewelry.Last year, according to a survey of U.S. consumers by the online wedding platform the Knot, more than half of respondents said their engagement rings featured a lab-grown diamond as a center stone, up from 46 percent in 2023 and 12 percent in 2019. Walmart, which started stocking lab-grown diamond jewelry in 2022, said sales in that category were up 175 percent last year compared to 2023.“Imagine if Hermès introduced an AI technology that could produce a perfect Birkin bag using the same materials in the same atelier, but in a fraction of the time,” Jessica Sailer Van Lith, founder of the lab-grown line La Pietra, said in a gushing Vogue article called “Shhh… I Sort of Regret Not Buying a Lab-Grown Engagement Ring in February. “Would you want one?”A Rocky QuestionWith a raft of buzzy lab-grown diamond brands like Blue Nile, Grown Brilliance and Dorsey and with establishment names like Jennifer Fisher and Pandora pivoting to stones that are made, not mined, are the likes of De Beers — the world’s biggest diamond miner, whose very existence depends on the popularity of natural stones — facing an existential threat?You wouldn’t think so to look at Al Cook, the jovial chief executive of De Beers, as he sat in the company’s London headquarters last week. After a boom in spending during and immediately after the pandemic, the natural diamond market has had a difficult few years. Alongside the acceptance of lab-grown diamonds, fewer marriages, plunging demand in China, Russian sanctions and a volatile global economy all played a part.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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    In Israel’s Demolition Path, West Bank Residents Pack Up Their Lives

    When Israel informed the Palestinian Authority that it planned to demolish dozens of buildings in crowded parts of a border city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the notification set off a panic.Hundreds of Palestinians in the border city, Tulkarm, learned that they would likely not be returning to their homes at the end of a sweeping Israeli offensive in the northern West Bank.“They’re causing a disaster,” said Nihad al-Shawish, the head of the services committee in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm.Since January, the Israeli military has conducted a large-scale military operation in three camps in the northern West Bank, displacing tens of thousands of people and causing widespread destruction. Israeli officials, who say the purpose of the campaign is to target militants and their weapons, have said the military should be prepared to remain in the camps for a year.The military has said the latest demolition of homes in Tulkarm was meant to make the city’s two camps, Tulkarm and Nur Shams, more accessible to Israeli forces and to prevent militants from regrouping there.Many Palestinians believe Israel is seeking to transform the camps, which have housed refugees and their descendants, into neighborhoods like the rest of Tulkarm.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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    A Paris Restaurant With Live Jazz and Soaring Ceilings

    Plus: a new oceanside hotel in Mexico, murta berries and more recommendations from T Magazine.Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we’re eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides, and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at tmagazine@nytimes.com.Stay HereA New Rosewood Hotel on Mexico’s Pacific CoastThe Premiere Beachfront Studio Suite, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, at Rosewood Mandarina on Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit. Courtesy of Rosewood MandarinaThe expansion of Riviera Nayarit — a roughly 200-mile stretch along Mexico’s Pacific coast, about an hour drive north of Puerto Vallarta — continues this week with the opening of Rosewood Mandarina. The 134-room hotel occupies a verdant, densely forested 53 acres interspersed with farmland, and has views of both the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain Range and the ocean. The environment was central to the interior design, says Caroline Meersseman, a principal at the New York-based studio Bando x Seidel Meersseman. “Ninety-five percent of the rooms face the ocean,” she says. “We used as many windows and mirrors as possible to bring the exterior inside.” Aside from the natural beauty, Meersseman and her team found inspiration in the region’s Indigenous Huichol and Cora cultures. Mexican contemporary artists were commissioned to create the decorative pieces and furniture found in every guest room, such as the sculptural ceramic lights by Salvador Nuñez that resembles the native peyote cactus, each one painted to reference Huichol art and craft; and a series of abstract murals based on traditional Huichol fairy tales by the Guadalajara painter Maryan Vare. The hotel’s primary restaurant, La Cocina, will be another nod to the region, with seafood (ceviche with jackfruit, lobster tacos, spiced prawns) caught from the Pacific, a few steps away. Rosewood Mandarina opens May 8; from $1,000 a night; rosewood.com.In SeasonThe Crunchy Red Berry That’s a Celebration of Autumn in ChileLeft: at Boragó, a restaurant in Santiago, Chile, the chef Rodolfo Guzmán serves an autumnal dessert of fresh murta berries, Patagonian rhubarb and sheep’s milk ice cream. Right: at Crocadon, an organic farm and restaurant in Cornwall, England, rows of 12-year-old murta bushes thrive.Left: courtesy of Boragó. Right: courtesy of Crocadon Autumn in Chile signals the arrival of murta season, when ancient wild berries — known variously as murtilla, Chilean guava or strawberry myrtle — flood the country’s southern landscapes. Fragrant and floral, with a texture somewhere between a crisp blueberry and firm apple, murta has long been treasured across Chile for both its distinct flavor and nutritional value. At Amaia in Maipú, a suburb of Santiago, the chef Iván Zambra, a champion of Indigenous Chilean foodways, favors murta berries for their crunchy texture and natural acidity. From March through May, Zambra showcases fresh red murta in vibrant herb salads and a tartare. To preserve the season’s bounty, he steeps the berries to make syrups and jams, capturing their essence for year-round dishes like murta panna cotta with yogurt semifreddo and lawen, a traditional herbal infusion intended to soothe colds and ease stress. At Boragó in Santiago’s Vitacura neighborhood, the chef Rodolfo Guzmán sources murta — including a rare white variety he serves fresh as a condiment or predessert — through an expansive network of southern foragers. He resists preserving the berries whenever possible. “When you preserve them, you lose the soul,” he says. Though his team occasionally ferment or dehydrate murta to layer flavor into broths, they most often present the fruit at its aromatic peak. This season, Guzmán is debuting a dessert that pairs murta with tangy Patagonian rhubarb and rich sheep’s milk ice cream. “It’s about honoring the momentum of the land,” he says. Murta has found its way into gardens and farms in Italy, New Zealand and parts of Britain (at Crocadon, an organic farm and restaurant in Cornwall, the chef Dan Cox serves strawberry myrtle with sorrel sorbet, anise hyssop oil and fresh sorrel leaves), but Guzmán notes that the Chilean variety retains a unique flavor. “You want to grab that personality and allow it to accent all the other ingredients,” he says. “When it’s fresh, it’s just pure magic.”Gift ThisEmbroidered Bed and Table Linens Created in Collaboration With Laila GoharLeft: a Laila Gohar x Vis-a-Vis place mat and napkin, photographed at Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Conn. Right: a top sheet made using the point de noeud embroidery technique.Pia RiverolaThe New York-based artist Laila Gohar and Véronique Taittinger, the owner and artistic director of the bespoke linen company Vis-a-Vis Paris, are launching their first collaboration, a 13-piece collection of hand-embroidered bed and table linens that draw on traditional techniques. A pleated duvet cover took nearly 500 hours to complete, while the intricate point de noeud style of embroidery on the collection’s top sheet was once used by 15th-century French nuns. Gohar’s penchant for whimsy emerges in the form of a scalloped tablecloth embroidered to look as if a handful of multicolored beans had been scattered onto its Belgian linen surface. For those worried about the practicality of using such delicate pieces on a regular basis, Taittinger says that upkeep is surprisingly simple: “Avoid the dryer, but they can be machine washed. The more you use them, the better they get.” From $55, modaoperandi.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