Aurelia Butler

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    UnitedHealth’s Move to End Cyberattack Loan Lifeline Upsets Medical Providers

    The company lent roughly $9 billion to practices affected by a vast cyberattack on its payment systems last year. Medical practices are now suing the health care colossus, saying it is pressuring them to repay funds.Two independent medical practices in Minnesota once hoped to expand operations but have spent the past year struggling to recover from the cyberattack on a vast UnitedHealth Group payment system.Odom Health & Wellness, a sports medicine and rehabilitation outfit, and the Dillman Clinic & Lab, a family medicine practice, are among the thousands of medical offices that experienced sudden financial turmoil last year. The cyberattack against Change Healthcare, a division of United, paralyzed much of the nation’s health-care payment system for months.Change lent billions of dollars to medical practices that were short on cash but has begun demanding repayments.Dillman and Odom are suing United in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, accusing the corporation of negligence related to the cyberattack and claiming they sustained excessive expenses because of the attack’s fallout.In addition, Odom and Dillman asserted in court filings that the company’s insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, has in turn been denying claims to cover patient care for being submitted late.Lawmakers viewed the chaos caused by the cyberattack as a result of United’s seemingly insatiable desire to buy up companies like Change, alongside doctors’ practices and pharmacy businesses. The widespread disruption was a reminder of how deeply United’s sprawling subsidiaries had become embedded in the nation’s health care 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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    Bessent Pitches Skittish Investors to Bet on Trump’s Economic Plan

    The Treasury secretary urged executives and entrepreneurs to look beyond the Trump administration’s trade agenda.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged skittish global business leaders on Monday to ignore President Trump’s economic naysayers and ramp up investment in the United States, defending an economic agenda that economists warn will slow economic growth and exacerbate inflation.Speaking to executives, entrepreneurs and policymakers, Mr. Bessent argued that the Trump administration’s economic plans go beyond trade policy and will pay off in the long run. He urged them to also focus on Mr. Trump’s plans to cut taxes and regulation, which he said would spur job creation and output.“Tariffs are engineered to encourage companies like yours to invest directly in the United States,” Mr. Bessent said in remarks at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. “You’ll be glad you did — not only because we have the most productive work force in the world. But because we will soon have the most favorable tax and regulatory environment as well.”His comments came just hours after Mr. Trump ordered up new tariffs on foreign film producers, a decision that left many in Hollywood puzzled about how such a tax would work.The Treasury Secretary has been working to ease concerns among investors that Mr. Trump’s trade plans will destabilize the global economy. Mr. Trump last month levied tariffs on countries around the world and escalated a trade fight with China, which sent financial markets plunging.Since then, Mr. Bessent has been racing to negotiate trade deals with dozens of countries. He has also signaled that the China tariffs are not sustainable, offering hope that Mr. Trump would soon begin negotiations to lower them.”Our goal with trade policy is to level the playing field for our great American workers and companies,” Mr. Bessent said.The Trump administration is working closely with congressional Republicans ]on tax legislation that would extend the 2017 tax cuts and offer new tax breaks for overtime pay, tips and Social Security benefits. Mr. Bessent made the case on Monday that investors need to consider the broader agenda when thinking about where to park their money.Describing Mr. Trump’s policies as “mutually reinforcing,” Mr. Bessent said, “acting in concert, they push toward the same goal — to solidify our position as the home of global capital.”Investors have grown increasingly wary of Mr. Trump’s policies in recent months, with stocks, bonds and the dollar all showing signs of weakness as fund managers fret over the uncertainty surrounding Mr. Trump’s policymaking approach.The International Monetary Fund projected last month that global output will slow to 2.8 percent this year from 3.3 percent in 2024 and sharply downgraded its outlook for the U.S. economy.On Monday, Mr. Bessent said that Mr. Trump would prove “critics in establishment circles” wrong.“We have the world’s reserve currency, the deepest and most liquid markets, and the strongest property rights,” Mr. Bessent said. “For these reasons, the United States is the premier destination for international capital.” More

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    Her Final Wish: A Home for the Son She Never Got to Hold

    Chrissie Tully gave birth to a son 76 years ago in an Irish home for single mothers, shrouded in secrecy and shame. She’s still waiting for him.The house is at the end of the road, nestled behind a playground in Loughrea, an ancient town in County Galway. Built of white stone with gray trim, it has lace curtains, a statue of the Virgin Mary and two small bedrooms, one pink, the other blue.In the living room, a small, fragile woman in a plaid skirt sits in an overstuffed orange chair. She is 93 but lives alone, with an overweight mutt named Rex. Day after day, she busies herself with small tasks — praying the rosary, hanging the wash, letting the dog into the yard — while she waits for the return of the son she never got to hold.She has been waiting for 76 years.A Home of Shame and SecretsThe St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in the 1950s.Noel O’DonoghueAs a teenager, Chrissie Tully fell in love with a man in her neighborhood, and in 1949, she became pregnant.What happened next would follow a grim, common script in midcentury Ireland, where the Catholic Church and its rigid doctrine dominated nearly every aspect of daily life. Ms. Tully’s family disowned her; the town, Loughrea, spurned her. A priest took her to St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, a facility for unwed mothers in Tuam, 30 miles north.Such institutions remain one of Ireland’s enduring moral stains. Independent panels have excoriated them, religious institutions have apologized for them, and the Irish government has bumbled through a redress scheme, seeking to financially compensate tens of thousands of Irish mothers and children who were banished to them.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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    Some Teen Wellness Influencers Are Embracing Views in Line With the ‘MAHA’ Movement

    The Instagram clip starts with a warning. “If you believe ‘ignorance is bliss,’” it says, “don’t watch this video.” As an influencer slices fruit on a cutting board, a series of provocative claims descend down the screen — about what she says is actually in peanut butter, vanilla flavoring and the rain, among other things.It’s the kind of post that has become common in the online wellness world, where prominent voices often express skepticism of the establishment and an openness to conspiracy theories.But what makes this influencer unusual is her age. She’s only 17, and a high school junior.Ava Noe, a teenager based in the Boston area, has amassed more than 25,000 Instagram followers while criticizing ultra-processed foods and promoting colostrum supplements, mouth tape and beef tallow. Her posts have suggested that iodized salt is “toxic” and described fluoride as “poison.” And her popularity on the platform — where she goes by @cleanlivingwithava — has earned her a paid partnership with a fluoride-free toothpaste company and affiliate work with other brands, including one that sells “non-toxic” skin care products.Ms. Noe, a self-described “crunchy teen,” is just one of a number of young influencers who appeal to other health-conscious kids their age. At times, their anti-establishment viewpoints fall in line with those of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which has expressed skepticism of the scientific community and large food corporations.The teens’ videos, while at times factually questionable, highlight a desire among some to avoid the chronic illnesses and other conditions that have plagued their elders.Annika Zude, 16, was inspired to start her own health account on TikTok because of how bad ultra-processed foods made her feel, she said. Her father is also an online health influencer.Thalassa Raasch 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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    Rwanda in Talks With Trump Administration to Take in Migrants Deported From U.S.

    Discussions with the Central African country come as the Trump administration looks for more countries willing to accept deportees as part of a sweeping crackdown.Rwanda is in talks with the Trump administration to take in migrants deported from the United States, the central African nation’s foreign minister said late Sunday. It was unclear if a deal would involve migrants who had already been deported or those who will be in the future, but any deal would potentially make Rwanda the first African country to enter into such an agreement with the United States.Rwanda’s foreign minister, Olivier J.P. Nduhungirehe, said on Sunday that his country’s government was in “early stage” talks about receiving third-country deportees from the United States.“It is true that we are in discussions with the United States,” Mr. Nduhungirehe said in an interview with Rwanda TV, the state broadcaster. “These talks are still ongoing, and it would be premature to conclude how they will unfold,” he added.Rwanda’s government did not respond to a request for comment. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Rwanda has long positioned itself as a partner to Western nations seeking to curb migration, offering to provide asylum to migrants or house them as they await resettlement elsewhere, sometimes in return for payment. Mr. Nduhungirehe did not say whether Rwanda would be paid as part of any U.S. agreement.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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    Arizona Restaurant Shooting Leaves at Least 3 Dead and 5 Injured

    Witnesses told local news stations that the shooting took place at a Cinco de Mayo event.At least three people were killed and five people were wounded in a shooting that erupted on Sunday at a restaurant in Arizona where a crowd of people was celebrating Cinco de Mayo, the police and a witness said.The police in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, responded at about 7:45 p.m. to calls saying that shots had been fired at the El Camaron Gigante Mariscos & Steakhouse, a spokesman for the Glendale Police Department, Officer Moroni Mendez, told local news stations in a briefing late on Sunday.Officers found a “chaotic” scene in which multiple people had been shot, he said. Detectives were investigating but they believed there was more than one shooter.It was not immediately clear whether the shooting was an exchange of gunfire or if several people had acted together in firing on the crowd, Officer Mendez said.There were no arrests, although Officer Mendez said that the public was not in danger.Officer Mendez did not identify the victims or provide their ages. The injuries of those wounded were either caused by shrapnel or gunfire, he said.He could not immediately be reached early on Monday, and calls to the restaurant went unanswered.A witness told 12 News that dozens of people, including families with children, were at the restaurant for Cinco de Mayo, an annual celebration that commemorates Mexico’s victory over France in the Battle of Puebla.The witness said there were several rounds of gunfire, and then a pause before a second set of shots was fired. More

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    Try This Mark Twain Literary Quiz

    Welcome to Lit Trivia, the Book Review’s regular quiz about literary culture. This week’s installment tests your knowledge of Mark Twain, one of America’s most popular authors. In the five multiple-choice questions below, tap or click on the answer you think is correct. After the last question, you’ll find links to further reading on the topic. More

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    MrBeast and James Patterson Are Writing a Novel Together

    Jimmy Donaldson, known to his social media fans as MrBeast, is teaming up with the mega-best-selling thriller author.Jimmy Donaldson — better known to his hundreds of millions of online followers as MrBeast — has leveraged his vast social media audience to sell everything from Beast-branded burgers, snack packs and chocolate bars to water bottles, toys, basketballs and $65 hoodies.Now, he’s aiming to sell his followers an unlikely new product: a novel.Donaldson is teaming up with the mega-best-selling author James Patterson on a thriller, which will be published by HarperCollins in 2026, with a simultaneous global release in 15 languages. The plot sounds like an over-the-top version of one of MrBeast’s viral YouTube videos, competitions that often offer enormous sums of cash to contestants who can prevail in absurd challenges (“Survive 100 Days Trapped, Win $500,000”).The novel will center on an extreme global contest, in which 100 players compete to prove their leadership skills by surviving life-threatening tests in dangerous locations around the world. In a battle to win the billion-dollar prize, participants form relationships and betray one another as they struggle to avoid elimination, or death.The fight to land the project also turned into an intense competition among publishers, who were tantalized by the viral marketing possibilities of signing a social media star with 500 million followers. News of the collaboration began circulating in March, with reports of a heated bidding war with offers in the eight-figure range. HarperCollins did not disclose the financial details of the deal, which was negotiated by Robert Barnett and Deneen Howell of Williams & Connolly on behalf of Patterson, and by Byrd Leavell and Albert Lee at United Talent Agency representing MrBeast.It’s unclear whether MrBeast’s massive online audience will translate into book sales. Publishers have tried for decades to harness the marketing power of social media stars, with varying success. But MrBeast is a star of a different magnitude.“He’s such a smart operator in understanding the social media algorithms, what drives engagement, what drives activation,” said Brian Murray, president and chief executive of HarperCollins. “One of the challenges we have in publishing is there’s so much noise out there in the media and entertainment landscape, and trying to break through with books can be difficult.”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