Aurelia Butler

More stories

  • 138 Shares189 Views

    in Elections

    Trump Tariffs Leave No Country Room for Exemptions, U.S. Tells Canada

    In talks aimed at finding common ground on tariffs, Canadian officials were told April 2 will be a crucial day in setting the Trump tariff doctrine, and any relief could come later.Top U.S. representatives told a Canadian delegation on Thursday that there was no way Canada, or any other country in President Trump’s cross hairs, could avoid a new round of sweeping tariffs on April 2, according to two people with direct knowledge of their conversation.Any negotiations to remove some tariffs or even strike a more comprehensive trade deal would come after that date, American officials told their Canadian counterparts at a meeting in Washington, D.C. Mr. Trump, through an executive order, has ordered an in-depth examination of trade between the United States and several partners, including Canada, and the imposition of “reciprocal” tariffs beginning on April 2, to match surcharges other countries impose on U.S. goods.The United States was represented in the meeting by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Canada was represented by Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman.The Canadian officials left the meeting, which lasted more than an hour, with a clearer — but not necessarily more optimistic — sense of what lies ahead, according to two of them with direct knowledge of what transpired, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press about it.While the Trump officials made clear their pledge on reciprocal tariffs, Mr. Trump has shown a repeated penchant for vowing to press ahead with tariffs only to decide at the last minute to back down or grant a reprieve.The meeting was a an effort to inject a calmer approach to the relationship between the two countries, even as Mr. Trump on Thursday continued to level threats against Canada’s sovereignty.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

  • 138 Shares149 Views

    in Elections

    How Much Should Weight Loss Drugs Like Wegovy and Zepbound Cost?

    A new study found that fair prices for medications like Wegovy and Zepbound would be hundreds less per month than they are now.It’s easy to make a medical case for blockbuster weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, which have been shown to prevent heart attacks and strokes and save lives.But for the employers and government programs being asked to pay for the medications, the financial case for them is less clear. Are the drugs’ benefits worth their enormous cost?The answer right now is no, according to a new study published on Friday in the journal JAMA Health Forum, by researchers at the University of Chicago.To be considered cost effective by a common measure used by health economists, the price of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy would need to be cut by over 80 percent, to $127 per month, the researchers concluded. And Eli Lilly’s Zepbound would be cost effective only if its price fell by nearly a third, to $361 per month. (Zepbound warranted a higher price, the researchers said, because it produced greater benefits in clinical trials.)“There’s no doubt that the drugs are demonstrating tremendous health benefits,” said David Kim, a health economist at the University of Chicago and the senior author of the study, which was funded by government grants. “The problem is the price is too high.”There’s widespread hope that the drugs will effectively pay for themselves in the long run, by making patients healthier and preventing expensive medical bills. It’s not clear yet whether that will turn out to be true.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

  • 150 Shares169 Views

    in Elections

    High School Students Reflect on Covid’s Impact, 5 Years After the Pandemic

    <!–> [–> The Pandemic Ruined High School for Them. They’re Learning to Live Again. By the fall of 2020, many of the seniors at Oakland Technical High School had become nocturnal. Already confined to their homes for half a year and desperate for fun, they stayed up all night. They were making TikToks, watching porn, […] More

  • 100 Shares149 Views

    in Elections

    Hegseth Closes Pentagon Office Focused on Future Wars

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the shuttering of the Office of Net Assessment, a small, often secretive and sometimes opaque office that for more than 50 years has helped the Pentagon’s most senior leaders think about the future of war.The office costs about $10 million to $20 million a year — a fraction of the Pentagon’s $850 billion annual budget — but its work and staff of about a dozen civilians and military officers has often had an outsize impact on how the Pentagon prepares for possible conflicts.In a short note posted on Thursday, the Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell suggested that the office would be restructured and then reopened with a new focus on the country’s most “pressing national security challenges.” He did not explain how the office’s new mission would differ from its previous approach.For most of its history, the Office of Net Assessment was run by Andy Marshall, its founder, who pioneered an innovative and somewhat mysterious approach to comparing the strength of U.S. forces with that of its potential enemies. The office also developed inventive ways of fighting adversaries. Jim Baker, a retired Air Force colonel, succeeded Mr. Marshall in 2015.The office’s influence often depended on the defense secretary’s priorities and personal relationship with its director. In the early 2000s, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld relied heavily on Mr. Marshall to develop ways of fighting that relied on speed, precision munitions and rapidly improving surveillance capabilities to quickly defeat adversaries.More recently, the office focused on developing concepts for a possible war with China. It championed a concept called Air-Sea Battle, which envisioned an initial “blinding campaign” by stealthy U.S. bombers and submarines that would knock out China’s long-range surveillance radar followed by a larger naval assault.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

  • 125 Shares99 Views

    in Elections

    Book Review: ‘When the Going Was Good,’ by Graydon Carter

    The former Vanity Fair editor reflects on an era’s power moves and expense-account adventures in a new memoir.WHEN THE GOING WAS GOOD: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, by Graydon Carter, with James FoxLorne. Graydon. Keith. Three abiding kings of New York City’s cultural life are the subjects of new books. Lorne is Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Live,” who is examined under the stereo microscope that is Susan Morrison’s biography, “Lorne.” Graydon is Graydon Carter, a co-founder of the stinging magazine Spy in the 1980s and the editor of Vanity Fair during its plumpest and happiest decades, whose memoir is our topic today. Keith is Keith McNally, the proprietor of that consummate French bistro Balthazar — which is so well run, so well lit and so well victualed that surely one idea of a good death is to deliquesce in one of its red leather banquettes — who has a memoir out soon.Lorne is 80; Graydon, 75; Keith, 73. Each is still very much in the game. But to have these books in a clump on my coffee table has given me an Auld Lang Syne-ish feeling. An era is approaching its end.Carter’s memoir, “When the Going Was Good,” runs on two overlapping tracks. It’s the story of an underdog — the hockey-playing, Canadian-born son of an air force pilot — who morphs into a crisply dressed and flamboyantly maned overdog. It is, figuratively, the story of a young man who walks into Gotham barefoot and leaves, whistling, owning the keys to one of its castles.A class journey is described as well. The consumption grows conspicuous and conspicuouser. Thorstein Veblen’s eyes would pinwheel. By the second half, Carter can’t seem to get out of a paragraph without mentioning his possession of the perfect apartment, or vintage car, or bespoke suit, or excursion, or hotel suite, or weekend house, or restaurant table, or friend (Fran Lebowitz), or pajamas or fishing camp.D.H. Lawrence held a class animus against the Bloomsbury group; Pauline Kael distrusted the high-living Joan Didion. Paul Theroux called luxury the enemy of observation. This is another way of saying that Carter’s book will make some readers itchy. I quickly and (mostly) happily consumed it anyway. The journalism stories and the character analysis, as Elizabeth Hardwick liked to call gossip, are first-rate.Let us get three drawbacks out of the way. 1) Although Carter wrote “When the Going Was Good” with James Fox, a co-author of Keith Richards’s electric memoir, the prose is basic. Anyone who comes in hoping for a tincture of the old Spy style — ironic, wised-up, dense with intellect and allusion — will be disappointed. 2) Carter is not one for introspection. There are no “Rosebud” moments. 3) He doesn’t talk about his signature, wide-winged, George Washington-esque hair, with its Nike whoosh up the center.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

  • 125 Shares149 Views

    in Elections

    A 150-Mile Commute Complicates 3 New York City Mayoral Campaigns

    Zohran Mamdani, Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos are ping-ponging between New York City and Albany as they divide their time between legislating and campaigning.From left, Zellnor Myrie, Zohran Mamdani and Jessica Ramos, all of whom are running for New York City mayor while juggling their responsibilities in Albany.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesAs a forum for New York City’s mayoral candidates kicked off last month, a seat onstage remained empty.The vacant chair was not a passive-aggressive protest against the incumbent, Mayor Eric Adams, who at the last minute skipped the event, citing his defense lawyer’s advice.It was meant for another candidate, State Senator Jessica Ramos, who was late. A budget hearing in Albany had run long, and the train back to Manhattan was slow. About 45 minutes into the forum, which was sponsored by a powerful union, she sat down beside her fellow candidates. A lingering cold and a desire to see her children only added to her stress.But she had been needed in Albany, too.“When you have budget hearings, and you know how important this budget is to your district, you can’t miss that,” Ms. Ramos, who represents several neighborhoods in Queens, said in an interview.It is rare for state lawmakers to run for New York City mayor. But this year, the crowded field of candidates in the Democratic primary includes three: Ms. Ramos, State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn and State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani of Queens.The roughly 150-mile commute to the State Capitol can be a slog for any downstate member, and complaints about delayed trains, shifting schedules and competing priorities are common. Adding a high-stakes mayoral campaign to that workload compounds the challenge.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

  • 138 Shares119 Views

    in Elections

    Attempted Theft and Poisoning of a Star Reindeer Leaves Anchorage Miffed

    Star VII, the unofficial mascot for the Alaska city, nearly died when a person sprayed it with air freshener, the animal’s owner said.Dressed in dark clothes and hiding behind a mask, a dark figure hopped over a six-foot-tall wooden fence and opened up Star VII’s cage to release perhaps the nation’s most famous reindeer into the dark Anchorage night at 6:30 on Feb. 20.Star was found roaming the city’s streets by a member of the Anchorage Police Department later that evening. But the next night, a disguised figure visited Star’s enclosure and sprayed him with what his owner believed was air freshener.Anchorage’s Star reindeer are the stuff of legend, serving as the unofficial mascots of the city and playing a vital role in parades, school field trips and cultural events — living the life of small-town celebrities. Like the Pope or the Dalai Lama, when one Star dies, another Star is named.In the hours after Star VII was assaulted with air freshener, the reindeer feel deeply ill, and the Anchorage Police Department began its investigation into who might have sought to steal and harm the animal. No arrests have been made, and the police have posted security camera footage of an assailant in an effort to get tips about the case.Albert Whitehead, 84, a retired technology entrepreneur and Star’s caretaker, said he did not know what the attacker who poisoned the reindeer looked like but noted that he had heard the attacker’s voice.“Stop!” Mr. Whitehead screamed at the attacker, whom he caught on his security footage spraying his animal.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

  • 138 Shares199 Views

    in Elections

    Plane Fire at Denver Airport Forces Passengers to Evacuate Onto Wing

    The flight had been diverted to the airport after experiencing “engine vibrations,” the authorities said. Six passengers were taken to a hospital for evaluation.American Airlines, which operated the flight, said the plane had experienced an “engine-related issue.”Branden Williams/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAn American Airlines plane that was diverted to Denver International Airport on Thursday evening after experiencing “engine vibrations” caught fire while taxiing to a gate, prompting the evacuation of dozens of passengers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.Six passengers were taken to a hospital for further evaluation, the airline said. Their conditions were not immediately known.The flight, a Boeing 737-800 with 172 passengers and six crew members, was traveling from Colorado Springs to Dallas but was diverted to the Denver airport, the airline said. Some of the passengers were evacuated from the aircraft using slides, the F.A.A. said.“After landing safely and taxiing to the gate at Denver International Airport, American Airlines Flight 1006 experienced an engine-related issue,” the airline said. Videos posted to social media showed passengers standing on the plane’s wing and climbing down a portable staircase to leave the plane. Light gray smoke filled the air. From other angles, black smoke poured out of the aircraft and orange flames could be seen at the base of the aircraft.A video taken by Mike Insalata, a Denver resident, showed a large fire under the plane’s left engine. The F.AA. is investigating.The episode at Denver International Airport was the latest in a recent string of aviation woes. On Feb. 25, two separate airplanes, one at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport and another at Chicago’s Midway International Airport, had to abort landings to avoid collisions.Earlier last month, a plane at the Toronto Pearson Airport flipped over. And on Feb. 5, the wing of a plane was impaled on the tail of another plane during a collision on the ground at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. More