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      When Taxpayers Fund Shows Like ‘Blue Bloods’ and ‘S.N.L.,’ Does It Pay Off?

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      Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York has proposed an increase in the film tax credit to stay competitive with New Jersey and other states.New Yorkers — and residents of many other states — have paid more for entertainment in recent years than just their Netflix or Hulu subscriptions.Each New York household has also contributed about $16 in taxes, on average, toward producing the drama series “Billions” since 2017. Over that period, each household has also paid roughly $14.50 in production incentives for “Saturday Night Live” and $4.60 for “The Irishman,” among many other shows and movies.Add it all up, and New York has spent more than $5.5 billion in incentives since 2017, the earliest year for which data is readily available. Now, as a new state budget agreement nears, Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she wants to add $100 million in credits for independent productions that would bring total film subsidies to $800 million a year, almost double the amount from 2022.Other states also pay out tens or hundreds of millions each year in a bidding war for Hollywood productions, under the theory that these tax credits spur the economy. One question for voters and lawmakers is whether a state recoups more than its investment in these movies and shows — or gets back only pennies on the dollar.New York has one of the largest tax credit programs and makes most of its data public, so we totaled its spending to see which productions benefited the most. More

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      Federal Report Denounces Gender Treatments for Adolescents

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      The H.H.S. review may set the stage for additional restrictions on gender-affirming care. Critics described it as an ideological statement.Federal health officials published a report on Thursday declaring that the use of hormonal and surgical treatments in young people with gender dysphoria lacked scientific evidence and expressing concern about long-term harms, a stark reversal from previous agency recommendations and the advice of top U.S. medical groups.The report instead prioritized the role of psychotherapy, a divisive intervention to treat gender dysphoria that many advocates and physicians have equated with so-called conversion therapy.Other parts of the review seemed to call into question the very notion that some people have a gender identity that does not align with their sex at birth.In January, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” giving the Department of Health and Human Services 90 days to produce a report on the best practices for treating young people who say their gender does not align with their birth sex.But the order made it clear that the administration had already reached its own conclusion about gender transition treatments for minors, characterizing the “blatant harm done to children” as a “stain on our nation’s history.”The 400-page report took a more sober tone but reached a similar conclusion. In a remarkable departure from the standard for medical evidence reviews, the authors were not identified pending a post-publication review process that would begin in “the coming days.”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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      GM Cuts Profit Forecast by 20% and Says Auto Tariffs Will Cost It Billions

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      General Motors now expects to earn a lot less than it did before President Trump imposed 25% tariffs on imported cars and auto parts.General Motors cut its profit forecast for 2025 on Thursday by more than 20 percent and said that the Trump administration’s tariffs would increase its costs by $4 billion to $5 billion this year.In a conference call with analysts, G.M. executives said the company now expects to make $8.2 billion to $10.1 billion this year, down from a previous forecast of $11.2 billion to $12.5 billion.“G.M.’s business is fundamentally strong as we adapt to the new trade policy environment,” the company’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said.In April, President Trump imposed tariffs of 25 percent on imported vehicles and will begin imposing the same duty on imported auto parts on Saturday. On Tuesday the president modified how the tariffs are applied to give automakers some relief, including partial reimbursement for tariffs on imported parts for two years.Ms. Barra said G.M. hopes to offset about 30 percent of the impact of the tariffs by increasing production in U.S. plants, cutting costs, and working with suppliers to raise their domestic production of parts and components.G.M. had previously said it was increasing pickup truck production at a plant near Fort Wayne, Ind., which will reduce the number of vehicles it imports from Canada and Mexico. Ms. Barra said output at the Fort Wayne factory would increase by about 50,000 trucks this year.She also said G.M. now plans to make more battery modules in its U.S. plants to raise the portion of domestic content in its electric vehicles.About $2 billion in tariff-related cost increases will come from vehicles that are made in Canada, Mexico and South Korea and sold in the United States.Analysts have predicted that the tariffs will add thousands of dollars to the cost of new cars and trucks, and some or all of that would be passed on to consumers. In the call, G.M.’s chief financial officer, Paul Jacobson, said the company now expects new vehicle prices to rise 0.5 percent to 1 percent this year, he added. Previously, the company had forecast that pricing would fall by 1 percent to 1.5 percent.Other automakers are also planning to produce more vehicles in the United States. Mercedes-Benz said Thursday that it would build a new vehicle at an Alabama factory as part of what the German carmaker called a “deepening commitment” to manufacturing in the United States.While the company did not mention tariffs, Mercedes and other carmakers have been at pains in recent weeks to emphasize how many cars they already build in the United States and their plans to make more. Mercedes did not provide details about the car, except to say that it would be a new design tailored to the U.S. market and begin production in 2027.The company’s factory near Tuscaloosa, Ala., primarily assembles luxury sport utility vehicles, including electric models, for sale in the United States and export to other markets.Jack Ewing More

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

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      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

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      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

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      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

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      “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

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      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