Aurelia Butler

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    House Votes to Block California Plan to Ban New Gas-Powered Cars in 2035

    Republicans, joined by a handful of Democrats, voted to eliminate California’s electric vehicle policy, which had been adopted by 11 other states.The House on Thursday voted to bar California from imposing its landmark ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035, the first step in an effort by the Republican majority to stop a state policy designed to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.The 246-to-164 vote came a day after Republicans, joined by a few Democrats, voted to block California from requiring dealers in the state to sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission, medium and heavy-duty trucks over time. And, lawmakers also voted on Wednesday to stop a state effort to reduce California’s levels of smog.All three policies were implemented under permissions granted to California by the Biden administration. They pose an extraordinary challenge to California’s longstanding authority under the 1970 Clean Air Act to set pollution standards that are more strict than federal limits.And the legality of the congressional action is in dispute. Two authorities, the Senate parliamentarian and the Government Accountability Office, have ruled that Congress cannot revoke the waivers.California leaders condemned the actions and promised a battle.Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, called the move “lawless” and an attack on states’ rights. “Trump Republicans are hellbent on making California smoggy again,” Governor Newsom said in a statement.“Clean air didn’t used to be political,” he said, adding, “The only thing that’s changed is that big polluters and the right-wing propaganda machine have succeeded in buying off the Republican Party.”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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    How Google’s Antitrust Case Could Upend the A.I. Race

    A federal judge issued a landmark ruling last year, saying that Google had become a monopolist in internet search. But in a hearing that began last week to figure out how to fix the problem, the emphasis has frequently landed on a different technology, artificial intelligence.In U.S. District Court in Washington last week, a Justice Department lawyer argued that Google could use its search monopoly to become the dominant player in A.I. Google executives disclosed internal discussions about expanding the reach of Gemini, the company’s A.I. chatbot. And executives at rival A.I. companies said that Google’s power was an obstacle to their success.On Wednesday, the first substantial question posed to Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, after he took the stand was also about A.I. Throughout his 90-minute testimony, the subject came up more than two dozen times.“I think it’s one of the most dynamic moments in the industry,” said Mr. Pichai. “I’ve seen users’ home screens with, like, seven to nine applications of chatbots which they are trying and playing and training with.”An antitrust lawsuit about the past has effectively turned into a fight about the future, as the government and Google face off over proposed changes to the tech giant’s business that could shift the course of the A.I. race.For more than 20 years, Google’s search engine dominated the way people got answers online. Now the federal court is in essence grappling with whether the Silicon Valley giant will dominate the next era of how people get information on the internet, as consumers turn to a new crop of A.I. chatbots to answer questions, find solutions to their problems and learn about the world.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 Tidal Wave of Change Is Headed for the U.S. Economy

    When the Covid pandemic hit, factories in China shut down and global shipping traffic slowed. Within a matter of a few weeks, products began disappearing from U.S. store shelves and American firms that depend on foreign materials were going out of business.A similar trend is beginning to play out, but this time the catalyst is President Trump’s decision to raise tariffs on Chinese imports to a minimum of 145 percent, an amount so steep that much of the trade between the United States and China has ground to a halt. Fewer massive container ships have been plying the ocean between Chinese and American ports, and in the coming weeks, far fewer Chinese goods will arrive on American shores.While high tariffs on Chinese products have been in place since early April, the availability of Chinese products and the price that consumers pay for them has not changed that much. But some companies are now starting to raise their prices. And experts say that the effects will become more and more obvious in the coming weeks, as a tidal wave of change stemming from canceled orders in Chinese factories works its way around the world to the United States.The number of massive container ships carrying metal boxes of toys, furniture and other products departing China for the United States has plummeted by about a third this month.The reason consumers haven’t felt many of the effects yet is because it takes 20 to 40 days for a container ship to travel across the Pacific Ocean. It then takes another one to 10 days for Chinese goods to make their way by train or truck to various cities around the country, economists at Apollo Global Management wrote in a recent report. That means that the higher tariffs on China that went into effect at the beginning of April are just starting to result in a drop in the number of ships arriving at American ports, a trend that should intensify.By late May or early June, consumers could start to see some empty shelves, and layoffs could occur for retailers and logistics industries. The major effects on the U.S. economy of shutting down trade with China will start to become apparent in the summer of 2025, when the United States might slip into a recession, said Torsten Slok, an economist at Apollo.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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    Best Movies and Shows Streaming in May: ‘Poker Face,’ ‘Murderbot’ and More

    “Duster,” “Summer of 69,” “Overcompensating,” “‘Deaf President Now!” and more are arriving, and “Poker Face” returns.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of May’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘Overcompensating’ Season 1Starts streaming: May 15The comedian and social media content creator Benito Skinner both created and stars in this raunchy campus comedy, about freshmen trying desperately to fit in with their peers — while hiding their actual personalities and desires. Skinner plays Benny, a former high school athlete who does not want his family or his classmates (or maybe even himself) to realize he’s gay. On the first day of college, Benny meets Carmen (Wally Baram), who is recovering — poorly — from a bad breakup. The two bond immediately, but while Carmen thinks she just met her next boyfriend, Benny thinks he has found someone who can pretend to be his girlfriend. “Overcompensating” is set in a broadly comic version of university life, where everyone is sex- and status-obsessed. But Skinner also sincerely explores what it’s like for young people to use a new environment to reinvent themselves.‘The Better Sister’Starts streaming: May 29This twisty mini-series stars Jessica Biel as Chloe, a rich and successful New York City media mogul who calls the cops from her family’s summer house after her husband, Adam (Corey Stoll), is found murdered. While the homicide detectives Nancy (Kim Dickens) and Matt (Bobby Naderi) investigate the crime, Chloe seems unusually interested in keeping them from learning about certain aspects of her life — like her strained relationship with her sister Nicky (Elizabeth Banks). Nicky, a reckless free spirit, is also Adam’s ex and the biological mother of Adam and Chloe’s teenage son, Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan). Cocreated by Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado, “The Better Sister” (based on an Alafair Burke novel) is both a mystery with lots of red herrings and the study of a sad sibling rivalry.Also arriving:May 1“Another Simple Favor”May 6“David Spade: Dandelion”May 8“Octopus!”May 20“Motorheads” Season 1May 22“Earnhardt”May 27“The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy” Season 2From left, Tim Rarus, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, Greg Hlibok and Jerry Covell in “Deaf President Now!,” a documentary film directed by Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim.Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Deaf President Now!’Starts streaming: May 16Back in 1988, Gallaudet University’s students drew international headlines when they shut the college down for a week, angrily rejecting the appointment of yet another hearing president — at a time when the institution had never had a deaf one. For the documentary “Deaf President Now!,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) and co-director Nyle DiMarco (a Gallaudet alum) have collected rarely seen student-shot footage of those protests, and combined them with news clips, re-creations and fiery new interviews with the campus leaders. The film delivers a fascinating look back at a pivotal moment in civil rights history that doubles as a gripping political thriller, piecing together the details of the demonstration and how, day by day, these courageous young adults turned the tide of public opinion.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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    Rental Apartments Have Been Getting Smaller Over the Last Decade

    The average size of new rental apartments has been getting smaller since 2015, but there are signs that the trend may have begun to reverse.If the living room in your apartment can’t fit a couch and a dining table, you’re not alone. Over the past decade, the average size of newly constructed rental apartments has shrunk by 22 square feet. The average size of a new rental unit is now a mere 908 square feet, according to a report from RentCafe.Researchers analyzed data on the size of new apartments in the 100 U.S. cities with the largest stock of rental buildings with at least 50 units. Newly built apartments were defined as those completed from 2015 through February 2025. Data was harvested from RentCafe’s parent company, Yardi, which surveys rental properties.A proliferation of studios and one-bedrooms is partly responsible for the downsizing. These units grew from 46 percent of what was built before 2015, to 53 percent in the years since.Driving the need for smaller apartments are an increasing number of young, professional singles and a related drop in marriage rates. With interest rates remaining stubbornly high, more of these singles are opting to rent rather than buy. Developers also have an incentive to build smaller units, which can boosts profits by leaving space for additional ones.Despite the decade-long downward trend in new apartment size, there’s been an uptick recently, with rentals gaining 17 square feet in the past two years. Even cities experiencing some of the worst housing shortages have seen notable gains.San Francisco, for one, had the second largest increase, with its average rental apartment growing by 59 square feet (about the size of a small patio) over the past decade. The New York borough of Queens wasn’t far behind, with the average rental growing by 39 square feet. New York’s most expensive boroughs, Manhattan and Brooklyn, also saw upticks.Still, in most major cities the average size of new rental apartments has fallen over the decade, including in Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Even Sun Belt metropolises such as Orlando and Wilmington, with traditionally large apartments, have seen an average reduction of 49 square feet.Shrinking ApartmentsThe average size of newly built rental apartments in the United States has been shrinking over the last decade, though there has been an uptick since 2023. More

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    May Day Protests Are Expected to Mobilize Outcry Against Trump

    Organizers see a traditional day for labor marches as an opportunity to show growing opposition to the Trump administration’s agenda.Protesters are expected to gather in more than 1,000 cities and towns across the country on Thursday to oppose President Trump’s plans to cut education funding, rollback workers’ rights and carry out mass deportations.The protests, spearheaded by 50501, a loose coalition of grass-roots activist groups, will coincide with traditional May Day demonstrations by labor organizations. Large crowds are anticipated in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, where police have already closed roads.The streets around City Hall in Philadelphia will also be shut down for an event where Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, is slated to speak.Organizers in small towns say they are also expecting dozens, if not hundreds, of participants at protests in front of municipal buildings and public schools, with some wearing red to indicate support for public education. In Norman, Okla., and Sauk City, Wis., demonstrators will stand on bridges and display signs for motorists.The Trump administration has engaged in efforts to quell dissent in corporate America, the civil service, universities and the media. But in recent weeks, demonstrations opposing Mr. Trump’s agenda, governing style and expansion of executive power have increased in size and frequency.Town halls have become unruly and combative, pushing many Republican lawmakers to avoid facing voters altogether. And collective efforts by universities, nonprofit groups, unions and even some law firms have slowly started to build momentum against the administration.Large groups of people have mobilized across the country, including for the “Hands Off!” protests on April 5, which focused on opposition to Elon Musk, a major political donor to Mr. Trump and unelected billionaire working with the administration, gutting large portions of the federal government.Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat who first ran for office in 2018 because of his revulsion to Mr. Trump’s first term, called for a larger outcry during a speech on Sunday in New Hampshire. “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once,” he said. “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now.” More

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    TEFAF New York Keeps Its Focus on the Classics In a Turbulent Time

    With the art market outlook uncertain, the New York fair aims to keep collectors coming, with a wide array of art and (relatively) less expensive prices.When the European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) held its very first New York fair at the historic Park Avenue Armory in 2016, the global art market was in robust health: Art sales had marked a near-record of $64 billion worldwide in the preceding year, and were at a peak in the United States, according to an art market report by the cultural economist Clare McAndrew.As TEFAF New York prepares to welcome visitors again — running from May 9 through 13, and coinciding with the closely watched May auctions — the outlook is downright cloudy. Global art sales tumbled for the second year in a row in 2024, totaling an estimated $57.5 billion, and the U.S. market was down 9 percent from the previous year, according to the recent Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. More recently, stock markets have been jittery since President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on countries around the world on April 2, then said he would back down on tariffs on goods from most countries, except China, for 90 days. Economic turbulence has an immediate impact on the net worth — and the collecting appetite — of those who buy art.“The volatility that you see in the markets writ large is reflected in the art market,” said Alex Logsdail, chief executive of the Lisson Gallery, an international art dealership. He said business had “slowed significantly,” though it was “still happening” and “has not fallen off a cliff” as it did at the time of the 2008 global financial crisis.“This is a funny thing for me to say out loud, but it’s true: Nobody needs any of the things we are selling,” he said. Collecting art is “a question of want and desire and passion and confidence. It is up to us to create those conditions,” regardless of the economic context, he added.Lisson has exhibited at TEFAF New York’s spring fair from its first iteration in 2017, and Logsdail served for a time on its selection committee (which decides which galleries will get booths). He said TEFAF New York was well positioned for the current circumstances, because in unstable economic conditions, the focus turns to quality and value, and to “well-tested” and affordably priced objects. And right now, he said, “people are taking a very active interest in artists whose prices are quite low.”Among the works showing at Lisson’s TEFAF booth this spring are works by Sean Scully, including “Wall Tappan Deep Red” (2025).Sean Scully / Courtesy Lisson GalleryWe 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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    Microsoft Drops Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Law Firm

    The tech giant instead engaged a firm that is fighting the president’s executive orders, Jenner & Block, in a sign that those firms can still attract clients.When big law firms attacked by President Trump decided to make a deal with him rather than fight, many did so because their leaders feared that clients would abandon a firm caught on the administration’s bad side.Now that logic may be getting less compelling. A major company, Microsoft, has dropped a law firm that settled with the administration in favor of one that is fighting it.Large companies like Microsoft often farm out legal work to dozens or even hundreds of firms and may move business depending on circumstances, like pricing, expertise or potential conflicts. Microsoft declined to comment on why it changed law firms in a significant case last week, but the switch suggests that a firm that chose to fight the Trump administration could still attract an important client.On April 22, several attorneys at the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett informed the Delaware Court of Chancery that they would no longer be representing Microsoft in a case related to the company’s 2023 acquisition of the video game giant Activision Blizzard, according to court filings.Simpson Thacher reached a deal with the White House last month in which the firm committed to perform $125 million in free legal work for causes acceptable to the Trump administration. In a joint statement with other firms making similar agreements, Simpson Thacher said the pro bono work would be on behalf of “a wide range of underserved populations.”On the same day that the Simpson Thacher lawyers filed paperwork withdrawing from the Microsoft case, at least three partners at the firm Jenner & Block informed the court that they would be representing Microsoft in the case. Jenner is fighting in court to permanently block a Trump administration executive order targeting its business.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