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      Gazan Rescue Service Has Stopped Operating in the North

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      Residents had to dig through rubble in search of their neighbors after the main emergency service in Gaza said it had stopped operations in the north because it had come under Israeli attacks.When an Israeli airstrike hit a home in northern Gaza early Thursday, residents said, there were no paramedics or first responders around to help pull out people trapped in the rubble.Instead, Mazen Ahmed, said he and other neighbors in Beit Lahia had to dig through the debris by themselves. They found at least one body.“We went out to try to rescue on our own to the extent of our abilities,” Mr. Ahmed said on Thursday, speaking by voice message from a cemetery where those killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes were being buried. “There were no stretchers, there were no rescuers, there were no emergency responders.”More than two weeks ago, Gaza’s Civil Defense, the main emergency service in the Palestinian territory, said it was forced to cease rescue operations in the north because of attacks by the Israeli military on its members and destruction of its equipment.Israel stepped up a military offensive in northern Gaza over the last month and ordered widespread evacuations of the area, saying it was trying to eliminate a regrouped Hamas presence there. Troops, tanks and armed drones have bombarded the area almost daily, sending tens of thousands of residents fleeing.On Thursday, the Israeli military said it was operating against what it called “terrorist infrastructure” in Beit Lahia, an agricultural and residential area on the Israeli border where the Israeli military has been fighting for the last four weeks.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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      Book Review: ‘Us Fools,’ by Nora Lange

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      “Us Fools,” by Nora Lange, is a tale of two sisters living through the diseased expanse of the country’s recent history.US FOOLS, by Nora LangeJoanne’s voice has always been in Bernadette’s head. The Fareown sisters can’t escape each other, even if they can escape their roots. Growing up on their Illinois farm in the 1980s, Jo and Bernie have learned to fend for themselves, largely by sticking together.Their parents, distracted by the farm crisis that is burying their neighbors and much of rural America with them, spend most of their time “lovingly fondling each other like a set of keys.” The girls are restless and hungry, sick of the bland food their chain-smoking mother serves them. Instead, they devour Nietzsche and Woolf, home-schooling each other in their attic.In “Us Fools,” Nora Lange’s tender, exquisitely funny and supremely strange debut novel about these sisters, nothing much happens. Also, everything happens. The story opens in 1987 with Jo, age 11, taking a leap from the family’s roof, to “experience falling.” She’s the charismatic older sister, prone to violence and performance art, and Bernie, our narrator, is nearly effaced by her sister’s outsize shadow. Bernie dreams of a different life, one in which she can afford vitamins and other modern luxuries, and she tries to fight the designation her sister gives them: “junk kids.” But, like most of Jo’s forceful visions, it proves irresistible.The opening pages inform us that we are looking back at their childhood from 2009, as Bernadette holes up in a Super 8 in Bloomington, Minn., to make sense of her family’s history, “examining the contents of our lives like receipts.” The sisters are grown, and Joanne, still unpredictable as ever, wants a baby.In between these two coordinates, we travel with the Fareowns from the farm to Chicago and then to Deadhorse, Alaska, as Bernie tries to cure herself of “love-loathing” her sister. Bernie goes to college, Jo goes to an institution. But these and other medium-size events — deaths, moves, breakups, jobs, the stuff of most novels — take place between commas. They are the clauses dependent on Bernadette’s enduring interests: grand observations and minute movements. “Back in the Midwest,” she recalls in an early chapter, “the rate of suicide rose, so too did the number of New Coke haters.”In almost every exhilarating sentence, Lange tries to plug the vast, diseased expanse of our country’s history into this particular set of characters it has doomed: “The term ‘nuclear family’ had been installed in America like the questionable electric wiring in our house, which would fail.”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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      Cómo el sur hispano de Texas prefirió a Donald Trump

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      Las victorias más amplias de Donald Trump se produjeron en la frontera de Texas, un bastión demócrata donde la mayoría de los votantes son hispanos. Ganó 12 de los 14 condados de la región.En ningún lugar de Estados Unidos los condados históricamente demócratas han cambiado tanto y tan rápido en dirección al expresidente Donald Trump como en las comunidades de Texas a lo largo del Río Grande, donde los residentes hispanos constituyen una abrumadora mayoría.En las últimas elecciones, la mezcla de centros urbanos en expansión y ranchos rurales de la región, que habían sido bastiones demócratas fiables durante generaciones, empezaron a volverse republicanos.Entonces, el martes, Trump se llevó el sur de Texas y la región fronteriza firmemente hacia su lado, tomando 12 de los 14 condados a lo largo de la frontera con México, y haciendo incursiones significativas incluso en El Paso, la ciudad más grande de la frontera. En 2016, Trump solo ganó en cinco de esos condados.El apoyo a Trump a lo largo de la frontera de Texas fue el ejemplo más claro de lo que ha sido una amplia aceptación nacional del candidato republicano entre los votantes hispanos y de clase trabajadora. Ese cambio se ha producido tanto en comunidades rurales como en grandes ciudades, como Miami, y en partes de Nueva York y Nueva Jersey.Pero Texas destacó. Ocho de los 10 condados demócratas que más se inclinaron hacia Trump el martes estaban en la frontera de Texas o a poca distancia en coche.Una de las mayores oscilaciones se produjo en el condado de Starr, una zona rural de 65.000 habitantes salpicada de pequeños pueblos dondese han levantado tramos de muro fronterizo, los ingresos son bajos y muchos viajan largas distancias para trabajar en los campos petrolíferos del oeste de Texas. El condado se volvió republicano el martes, apoyando a Trump por unos 16 puntos porcentuales. En 2016, perdió el condado frente a Hillary Clinton por 60 puntos.[El mapa muestra el cambio del voto presidencial en Texas en comparación con 2020].Hispanic counties in Texas shifted right, and some flipped for Trump More

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      California Shifts Rightward on Crime in an Election Fueled by Frustration

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      Voters in the Democratic-run state overwhelmingly approved a measure to impose harsher sentences for crimes and were on their way to ousting two progressive district attorneys.California has shown no signs of going Republican anytime soon, but in Tuesday’s elections the reliably liberal state lurched to the right in ways that might surprise other Americans.Fed up with open-air drug use, “smash-and-grab” robberies and shampoo locked away in stores, California voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure, Proposition 36, that will impose harsher penalties for shoplifting and drug possession. Voters in Oakland and Los Angeles were on their way to ousting liberal district attorneys who had campaigned on social justice promises to reduce imprisonment and hold the police accountable. And statewide measures to raise the minimum wage, ban the forced labor of inmates and expand rent control, all backed by progressive groups and labor unions, were heading toward defeat.Amid a conservative shift nationally that included Donald J. Trump’s reclamation of the White House, voters in heavily Democratic California displayed a similar frustration, challenging the state’s identity as a reflexively liberal bastion.And Mr. Trump appears to have gained ground in California compared with four years ago, based on initial election returns, despite facing Vice President Kamala Harris in her home state. (She was still ahead by nearly 18 percentage points after a vote count update on Thursday, but Joseph R. Biden Jr. won in 2020 by 29 points.)The mood this year was “very negative about the direction of the country especially, but also the state,” said Mark Baldassare, who is a political scientist and the statewide survey director for the Public Policy Institute of California. “Lots of concerns about the direction of the economy, and worries about the cost of living and public safety.”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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      Church in Egyptian Desert Reveals Early Christian Burial Practices

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      A basilica from the 4th century held a surprising number of tombs with women and children, researchers found.More than a decade ago, archaeologists began to excavate one of the world’s oldest Christian churches in the middle of a forbidding Egyptian desert. Delayed by war, political unrest and a global pandemic, the dig has turned out to be a revealing and confounding look at how early Christians buried their dead.Built on an oasis sometime in the fourth century, the church held a surprisingly large number of corpses: 11 bodies in two crypts and six in separate tombs. Typically, in that period, leaders like priests and bishops would have been buried in a church, while others would have been relegated to cemeteries. But in this desert outpost, most of the remains belonged to women and children.“The fact that there are so many tombs right inside the church is remarkable,” said David Frankfurter, an Egyptian religion scholar at Boston University who was not involved in the project.Whereas ancient Egyptian funeral practices tended to be lavish and grandiose, early Christian burials favored simplicity. The bodies in the church were wrapped in linens, and only two were inside coffins. Bundles of rosemary, myrtle and palm leaves were left with one body, and one child was buried with a bronze cup. Otherwise, the tombs were sparse.The team — led by David Ratzan, a scholar of ancient civilizations at New York University, and Nicola Aravecchia, an archaeologist at Washington University in St. Louis — began excavations at the church in 2012. But political upheaval, as well as the accidental killing of several tourists by the Egyptian military in a nearby area of the Western Desert, kept the researchers out of Egypt for many years. Only in 2023 was the team allowed to return to Egypt and finish its work, as described in a book published in September.The remains of a female from Tomb 10, Room 3, about 50–65 years old, who lived a comparatively élite lifestyle and ate a refined diet.The NYU Amheida ExcavationsA Bronze vessel found associated with a child’s coffin in Tomb 9 in Room 2, the northern crypt in the church.The NYU Amheida ExcavationsWe 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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      Biden Administration Restricts Development in West to Protect Sage Grouse

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      Limits on building energy projects on at least 34.5 million acres could strongly protect the iconic Western bird. But the incoming Trump administration may reverse the rule.The Biden administration on Friday issued final regulations designed to protect the greater sage grouse, a speckled brown bird with a sprawling habitat across 10 Western states.The move to safeguard the iconic species would limit drilling and mining on federal lands as well as the development of clean energy such as solar and wind power.But the plan could soon be upended: President-elect Donald J. Trump has pledged to increase oil and gas development on public lands, and he sought to weaken sage grouse habitat restrictions in his first term.The conservation effort is part of a long tug of war between environmentalists and the drilling and mining industries over wildlife habitat across the Western states. The habitat of the grouse has shrunk in recent years due to mining and other industrial activity, along with wildfire and drought linked to climate change. Once abundant, the greater sage grouse, a bulbous bird with a fan of tail feathers that nests on the ground, is teetering toward endangered status.The sage grouse population has declined about 80 percent since 1965, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.“For too long, a false choice has been presented for land management that aims to pit development against conservation,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “This administration’s collaborative work has demonstrated that we can do both successfully.”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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      Older Workers to Get ‘Super’ 401(k) Catch-Up Contributions in 2025

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      Workers who are 60 to 63 will be able to put in up to $11,250 in extra contributions, if they can afford it.Will you be age 60 to 63 next year? Lucky you! You have the option to contribute several thousand dollars more to your workplace retirement plan.That’s if you can afford it, and many workers will find it’s a stretch.Federal tax law already allows people 50 and older to make extra contributions, above the annual deferral limit, to a 401(k) or similar employer retirement plan. This year and next, that standard “catch-up” contribution is $7,500.But starting next year, the catch-up contribution limit will be higher for people in their early 60s, as part of the federal Secure 2.0 tax law passed in 2022. They can contribute up to $11,250 next year — an additional $3,750 in catch-up contributions — beyond the general 2025 deferral limit of $23,500, the Internal Revenue Service said. That means they can potentially contribute up to $34,750 in total to a workplace retirement account.This additional contribution — sometimes called an “enhanced” or “super” catch-up option — is available to workers ages 60, 61, 62 and 63. You’re eligible if you reach that age during the calendar year, said Dan Snyder, director of personal financial planning for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. (Once savers turn 64, they’re no longer eligible for the extra savings but can contribute the standard catch-up amount.)The idea is to give people who are nearing retirement age, but are behind in savings, the chance to accumulate more money for their post-work lives. “This is an opportunity to make up for mistakes from the past,” said David John, senior strategic policy adviser at the AARP Public Policy Institute, which focuses on issues relevant to older Americans.Getting Americans to save more for retirement is a concern as the population ages, especially as the number of companies offering pensions dwindles. The typical household headed by people ages 55 to 64 has just $10,000 saved in a retirement account, according to an analysis of federal data by the Economic Policy Institute and the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis.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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      New York’s Wu-Tang Clan Street Signs Sell Out in a Blink

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      The 100 replicas of the “Wu-Tang Clan District” sign on Staten Island, where the group was formed in 1992, were gone in less than two hours.New York celebrated the Wu-Tang Clan by releasing on Thursday 100 replicas of the street sign on Staten Island named for the group. They were all snapped up in less than two hours.The Wu-Tang Clan was formed in Staten Island’s Park Hill neighborhood in 1992, and went on to become one of hip-hop’s most beloved and influential acts. The city named an intersection in Park Hill “Wu-Tang Clan District” and unveiled the sign in 2019.The commissioner of the city’s Transportation Department, Ydanis Rodriguez, called the group “a legendary part of Staten Island’s North Shore,” in a statement replete with puns and references to Wu-Tang’s music.The department began monthly releases of limited-run replicas in June to honor famous New Yorkers and events. The proceeds go to the city’s general fund. The first one marked Pride Month with a sign reading Christopher Street/Stonewall Place, where a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, set off unrest in 1969. That replica sold out in under three hours.The replicas, which the Transportation Department sells for $75, are produced by the shop that makes New York City’s street signs. The department has compared them to limited-edition sneaker drops.The other releases include replicas of the signs honoring the Brooklyn hip-hop superstars the Notorious B.I.G. and the Beastie Boys, and Mariano Rivera, the Yankees legend. All the releases sold out quickly. More