Elections

There have been so many bad polls for President Biden that his playbook for them by now is well worn.First, dismiss the polling industry as inherently broken. Next, argue about the metrics. Finally, remind supporters of how many months remain before Election Day and highlight the structural and financial advantages the Biden campaign has built while former President Donald J. Trump is tied up in court.In the weekend before Monday’s poll from The New York Times, Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer found Mr. Trump leading Mr. Biden in five of the six battleground states surveyed, Mr. Biden traveled to the West Coast. Speaking to donors in San Francisco and the Seattle area, he made the case that they should ignore the polling — especially if it looks bad for him.“People are engaged, no matter what the polling data says,” Mr. Biden said Friday in Seattle. “It’s awful hard to judge the polls these days because they’re so difficult to take.”The Biden campaign on Monday released a statement from Geoff Garin, one of its pollsters, that brushed off the findings of the new poll. “Drawing broad conclusions about the race based on results from one poll is a mistake,” Mr. Garin said. “The reality is that many voters are not paying close attention to the election and have not started making up their minds — a dynamic also reflected in today’s poll. These voters will decide this election and only the Biden campaign is doing the work to win them over.”The president’s comments suggest that his internal polling data mirrors that of The Times and Siena College, which found a sizable gap between registered and likely voters.“We run strongest among likely voters in the polling data,” he told supporters at a campaign fund-raiser on Saturday in Medina, Wash., an upscale suburb of Seattle. “That’s a good sign. And while the national polls basically have us registered voters up by four, likely voters we’re up by more.”And then there’s Mr. Biden’s campaign, which has opened 150 offices with more than 500 staff members across the battleground states. Those employees, along with what is expected to be a $2 billion advertising campaign by the end of this cycle, are aiming to turn the November election into a referendum not on Mr. Biden, but on his predecessor, by reminding voters about Mr. Trump’s record on abortion and democracy.Part of Mr. Biden’s problem, his aides and advisers have said for nearly a year, is that too many voters have forgotten the most alarming parts of the Trump years. Mr. Biden’s campaign aides — and the president himself — have gone to great lengths to try to highlight Mr. Trump’s part in limiting abortion rights and his public statements about democracy and health care.“Trump is trying to make the country forget how dark and unsettling things were when he was president,” Mr. Biden said at the Seattle fund-raiser. “But we’re never going to forget.” More

Dr. Hilary Cass published a landmark report that led to restrictions on youth gender care in Britain. U.S. health groups said it did not change their support of the care.After 30 years as one of England’s top pediatricians, Dr. Hilary Cass was hoping to begin her retirement by learning to play the saxophone.Instead, she took on a project that would throw her into an international fire: reviewing England’s treatment guidelines for the rapidly rising number of children with gender distress, known as dysphoria.At the time, in 2020, England’s sole youth gender clinic was in disarray. The waiting list had swelled, leaving many young patients waiting years for an appointment. Staff members who said they felt pressure to approve children for puberty-blocking drugs had filed whistle-blower complaints that had spilled into public view. And a former patient had sued the clinic, claiming that she had transitioned as a teenager “after a series of superficial conversations with social workers.”The National Health Service asked Dr. Cass, who had never treated children with gender dysphoria but had served as the president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, to independently evaluate how the agency should proceed.Over the next four years, Dr. Cass commissioned systematic reviews of scientific studies on youth gender treatments and international guidelines of care. She also met with young patients and their families, transgender adults, people who had detransitioned, advocacy groups and clinicians.Her final report, published last month, concluded that the evidence supporting the use of puberty-blocking drugs and other hormonal medications in adolescents was “remarkably weak.” On her recommendation, the N.H.S. will no longer prescribe puberty blockers outside of clinical trials. Dr. Cass also recommended that testosterone and estrogen, which allow young people to develop the physical characteristics of the opposite sex, be prescribed with “extreme caution.”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

Millions of patients rely on insulin. But with new drugs, some have been able to lower their doses or stop taking it altogether.For over 20 years, Betsy Chadwell carried her insulin pens everywhere. Day in and day out, she carefully calibrated the doses needed to keep her Type 2 diabetes in check. “Every meal, and every morning and every night — it controls your life,” she said.In late 2021, she started on the diabetes drug Ozempic. Within months, she was able to stop taking the short-acting insulin she typically took before each meal altogether, and she has substantially reduced the dose of long-acting insulin she uses daily. Scaling back on insulin has given her a sense of freedom, she said. She still uses a continuous glucose monitor to track her blood sugar, meticulously watching for slumps and spikes — but even as she took less insulin, she said, Ozempic has helped keep her glucose levels more under control.Millions of Americans rely on some form of insulin, a lifesaving drug that has long been a mainstay of diabetes treatment. But it can also be a burden to patients like Ms. Chadwell, who must juggle different formulations and doses, and often must have insulin on hand at all times. “I really feel for those patients, because you can never stop having it in the back of your mind,” said Dr. Scott Hagan, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington who studies obesity. But in recent years, Ozempic and a similar drug, Mounjaro — both weekly shots that can lower blood sugar, in part by mimicking a hormone that stimulates insulin production — have offered patients an enticing new option to try managing their Type 2 diabetes without relying as heavily on insulin.And drugmakers are examining other ways these drugs might work alongside insulin: Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Ozempic, is studying a new drug called IcoSema, a weekly shot that combines insulin icodec (an ultra long-acting version of insulin) and semaglutide, the compound in Ozempic.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

Shows like “Law & Order: SVU,” “NCIS” and “Grey’s Anatomy” have kept fans hooked for 20 seasons or more. How do they do it?Breanna DePasquale grew up watching “Law & Order: SVU” with her mother, Christina, in Brooklyn. Breanna loved Detective Olivia Benson on the show, while Christina was all in for Detective Elliot Stabler.Few were surprised when Breanna became Detective DePasquale with the New York Police Department. The show, she said, “absolutely” contributed to her pursuing a career in law enforcement.As they have for many fans, the characters and story arcs that seem ripped from the headlines keep Detective DePasquale, 29, coming back. Fans like her helped cement “SVU,” now in its 25th season, as the longest-running prime-time drama in history.“I always call her my own Olivia Benson,” Christina DePasquale said.Prime-time drama super fans like the DePasquales can reference their favorite episodes at the flip of a remote. They can quote lines by the protagonists — some have even turned them into tattoos.Regardless of whether the characters commit a crime, or a friend teases them about their dedication to a television show that has passed the legal drinking age, these fans are along for the ride.Yvonne Macklin, an “SVU” fan from Baltimore, at the show’s fan event in New York City.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesBrandi Burgos, at a recent “SVU” fan event, shows off her tattoo — a line in a letter from Detective Stabler to Captain Benson.Hiroko Masuike/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

Of the 40 combined seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” only eight couples have stayed together. We spoke to former contestants and leads about roadblocks to a happy ending.The season premiere of any installment in “The Bachelor” franchise always starts the same: with the host talking directly to camera about the lead’s almost-certain path to finding lasting love. Unlike other popular reality dating shows, the franchise markets itself as a genuine chance to find love without any other incentives like cash prizes.But it’s actually not all that probable: Of the 40 combined seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” only eight couples have stayed together — not great betting odds.Morale in the franchise was low going into 2023, with no recently minted couples still together, until ABC announced a hopeful new twist. “The Golden Bachelor” pledged to aid then-72 year-old Gerry Turner make the most of a second chance at love following the death of his wife. At season’s end, he proposed to Theresa Nist in a teary finale. In January their wedding was televised on ABC. By April, they’d announced plans to divorce.That breakup felt like the last straw in believing this franchise could foster lasting love, so to look into why “The Bachelor” rarely makes good on its premise, we spoke to the former Bachelorettes Kaitlyn Bristowe and Tayshia Adams, as well as the former contestants Tyler Cameron and Melissa Rycroft about the flaws that doom the reality franchises’ lovebirds.“When you’re in that ‘Bachelor’ bubble, all you do is focus on and be brainwashed toward that person,” said Tyler Cameron, the runner-up on Hannah Brown’s “Bachelorette” season.Mark Bourdillon/ABC, via Getty ImagesThe main prize might not be the catch you thought.Many love-related reality television shows that are on the air today — think “Love Island,” “Are You the One?” or even “Bachelor in Paradise” — allow for participants to intermingle in environments specifically designed to mimic some version of real life.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

This is what a year of Russian missile strikes on Ukraine looks like. Ukrainian air defenses used to intercept most missiles, but in recent months, more and more have made it through. April 2023 InterceptedRussian missile Notintercepted May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. 2024 Feb. March April The data, from a New […] More

Senator J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican, joined Donald J. Trump’s entourage in court on Monday as the prosecution’s star witness, Michael D. Cohen, the former president’s fixer-turned-nemesis, took the stand.Mr. Vance’s presence could signal a new frontier for Mr. Trump’s testing of potential running mates. The former president has been encouraging vice-presidential contenders, including Mr. Vance, to grant interviews to a range of cable networks in order to measure their performance, as well as inviting them to join him on the campaign trail and to attend fund-raisers for his campaign.But Mr. Vance, who had been aggressively critical of Mr. Trump before running for office, has worked to repair that relationship, and is now one of his most vocal defenders in the Senate. Mr. Vance’s seat in court on Monday could also be chalked up simply as well-timed support for the former president.Other Republicans rounding out Mr. Trump’s support group in the courtroom included Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who has a close relationship with the former president; Representative Nicole Malliotakis of New York; and Attorney General Brenna Bird of Iowa.Seated near the Republican politicians were Eric Trump, Mr. Trump’s son, and Alina Habba, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the former president. More

When the hotel reopens later this year, Michael Anthony will serve as culinary consultant and create an as-yet-unnamed American brasserie.When the Waldorf Astoria hotel, which has anchored Park Avenue in Midtown since 1931, reopens later this year, Michael Anthony will be the new culinary consultant in charge. Mr. Anthony, 56, has been at Gramercy Tavern since 2006, and will remain as executive chef and partner there.“I will not reduce my commitment to Gramercy,” he said. “Everyone supported me in this project”With his second toque at the Waldorf, his main responsibility will be to create an as-yet-unnamed American brasserie in the two-story space that was Oscar’s Brasserie. That new restaurant, also to open later this year, will have an entrance on Lexington Avenue and 50th Street as well as access from the hotel lobby. Its focus will be seasonal contemporary American fare that also reflects Mr. Anthony’s time working in France. The space is being designed by AvroKO Design, with a spacious bar on the ground floor and a white tablecloth dining room upstairs, reached by a grand staircase.The Waldorf Astoria, named for two hotels on Fifth Avenue that were demolished in 1929 to make way for the Empire State Building, has been closed for renovations since 2017. It is now owned by Daija Insurance Group, based in Beijing, and is managed by Hilton Worldwide. Its Art Deco exterior and some of the interior public spaces are designated as landmarks. The Peacock Alley restaurant in the hotel lobby will become a high-end cocktail lounge; the Bull and Bear Steakhouse will not return, and the space will not be used as a restaurant. Mr. Anthony said that he had no information about the famous Starlight Roof, and that his responsibilities at the hotel did not include room service or banqueting.Working with the hotel will occupy much of his time until the new restaurant opens and for at least three months after. At Gramercy Tavern, Mr. Anthony said, he will rely on Aretah Ettarh, the chef de cuisine, who has been at the restaurant for seven years. “At the Waldorf I plan to build on my roots and what I’ve established at Gramercy to create something distinctive,” Mr. Anthony said. More