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After Turmoil, Royal Danish Ballet Taps Veteran Dancer as Leader
Amy Watson will helm the storied company as it grapples with the sudden departure of its previous artistic director and accusations of abuse at its school.For months, the Royal Danish Ballet, one of the world’s premier dance troupes, has been in turmoil. Accusations of abuse have shaken its 253-year-old school. Then, last week, the company said its star artistic director, Nikolaj Hübbe, was abruptly resigning after 16 years.Now the Royal Danish Ballet hopes to turn the page on those troubles. The company announced on Thursday that Amy Watson, a California-born dancer who joined the troupe in 2000, would serve as its next artistic director.“This theater gave me a second homeland and a wonderful career that I could have never dreamed of,” said Watson, 43. “I want to serve in the highest capacity for the theater and to give back.”Watson, whose tenure begins on Friday, succeeds Hübbe, 57, a Copenhagen native who has been a fixture at the troupe for years. He started training at its school when he was 10 and was a principal dancer by age 20. He later was an acclaimed principal dancer at New York City Ballet for 16 years.Since 2008, Hübbe has run the company, famous for its rich choreographic legacy rooted in the repertory of the 19th-century Danish master August Bournonville. Hübbe oversaw new productions of classics like “Swan Lake” and “Giselle,” and expanded the company’s range, bringing in works by living choreographers, including Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Yuri Possokhov and Wayne McGregor. He also worked to attract new audiences with more casual and intimate offerings.During his tenure, the company faced difficulties, including budget cuts, union fights and allegations of drug abuse in the company. Last year, the organization began an inquiry into conditions at its school amid reports that children had experienced psychological and physical abuse. Some former students said they had developed eating disorders after being told at a young age that they were too heavy to dance.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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Trump Media’s Soaring Share Price Masks Truth Social’s Internal Strife
Employees have complained to the board about hiring and management practices at the parent company of Truth Social, which serves as the main online megaphone for former President Donald Trump.The parent company of former President Donald J. Trump’s social media platform has soared on the stock market over the past month, despite growing turmoil behind the scenes.In recent weeks, Trump Media & Technology Group has dismissed or pushed out at least three senior managers amid employee complaints about the leadership of Devin Nunes, the former Republican congressman who is chief executive, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.The departures came after several employees anonymously sent a letter, which they described as a whistle-blower complaint, to Trump Media’s board a few weeks ago. The letter accused Mr. Nunes of being over-reliant on foreign contract workers and mismanagement. A copy of the letter was reviewed by The New York Times.It was not clear whether the employees who were pushed out of Trump Media were involved in drafting the letter.In the letter, the employees said that Mr. Nunes’s “directive” to hire foreign contractors was inconsistent with “the ‘America First’ principles we stand for.” Trump Media has looked to outsource some work to Cosmic Development, a technology company based in Canada that has operations in Macedonia and Serbia, said the two people.Mr. Trump, who is the largest shareholder of Trump Media and the main draw for users on Truth Social, has talked on the campaign trail about imposing stiff tariffs on foreign goods and U.S. companies that outsource abroad.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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Vietnam Revives Power-Sharing Arrangement With New President
The move restores a “four pillar” government structure that divides top-level duties to avoid the rise of a single strongman.Vietnam’s National Assembly approved a new president on Monday, restoring a power-sharing arrangement among four high-level leaders that has defined the country’s approach to Communist government for decades.The assembly’s announcement that Luong Cuong, a Vietnamese Army general, would be president calms speculation about the country’s top leader, To Lam, and whether he would try to retain the presidency after rising to become general secretary of the Communist Party in August.Under the country’s “four pillar” structure, established in part to avoid the rise of a single strongman, decision-making roles are split among the general secretary, president, prime minister and head of the National Assembly.Vietnam’s president typically oversees the military and usually comes from within its ranks. But from 2018 to 2021, Nguyen Phu Trong, who was general secretary from 2011 until his death in 2024, also served as president.Mr. Lam had been named president in May and initially held both roles. As minister of public security before that, he helped lead an anti-corruption campaign that pushed out several high-level figures, including two presidents and three deputy prime ministers.It was unclear whether he would seek to keep two positions and consolidate power ahead of the National Party Congress scheduled for 2026, when the country’s next leaders will be chosen.In a speech opening the assembly’s session on Monday, Mr. Lam praised his Communist Party colleagues for reaching an agreement at a moment when “the global and regional situation has had many complex developments, with unprecedented and unpredictable issues, posing many significant challenges to the task of building and defending the nation.”“The passing of comrade general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is a great loss, leaving deep sorrow among the people and soldiers across the country,” he said. “In this context, our party has shown steadfast resolve, maintaining a unified bloc in will and action, quickly consolidating the leadership of the party and state with high consensus.”In his own introductory speech, Mr. Cuong promised to “resolutely and persistently safeguard national independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.”Analysts said a return to Vietnam’s four-pillars arrangement could help minimize political infighting as another generation of leaders seek to fulfill Vietnam’s long-held ambitions of becoming a wealthy nation with high-end manufacturing and a larger role on the world stage.“This could help mitigate factional tensions by ensuring that the military has a prominent role in the nation’s leadership,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a research organization in Singapore.He added, “This will help stabilize the system after a period of significant turbulence.” More
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CVS Ousts Karen Lynch as C.E.O. and Shares Fall
Shares of the health care conglomerate dropped after the sudden departure of Karen Lynch and a downbeat update on the state of the company’s finances.CVS Health abruptly ousted its chief executive, Karen S. Lynch, on Friday as the pharmacy and health care conglomerate struggled with sluggish growth and faced pressure from investors.The company appointed David Joyner, the head of CVS Caremark, its successful unit overseeing prescription drug benefits, as the new chief. The management change was accompanied by a dour financial update, with the company scrapping its previous forecasts because of “elevated medical cost pressures.” Shares of CVS fell sharply in early trading.The company’s earnings have disappointed investors in recent quarters, in part because of rising costs at Aetna, the company’s insurance arm. Activist investors have pushed the company for changes, prompting CVS to explore breaking itself up, potentially by separating its pharmacy business from its insurance unit.CVS employs about 300,000 people. Its sprawling portfolio includes the branded pharmacy chain, with more than 9,000 retail locations; Aetna, which it acquired in 2018, which has nearly 40 million policyholders and other customers; Caremark, the country’s largest pharmacy benefit manager, hired by employers and governments to oversee prescription drug benefits; and Oak Street Health, which runs more than 200 primary care centers for Medicare recipients.Ms. Lynch took over as the group’s chief executive in February 2021, after running Aetna. “I don’t want people to think about CVS Health as just that drugstore,” she told The New York Times in 2022. “I want them to think about it being a health care company.”Roger Farah, the chairman of CVS Health, said in a statement on Friday that “the board believes this is the right time to make a change.” He added that Mr. Joyner’s “deep understanding of our integrated business” would help steer the company through its challenges.During his tenure at Caremark, which he rejoined in 2023 after a few years away from the company, Mr. Joyner faced increased scrutiny of pharmacy benefit managers. He appeared at a Congressional hearing this summer, facing questions from lawmakers about the role of pharmacy benefit managers in rising drug costs for millions of Americans.This month, CVS said it would cut almost 3,000 jobs, mostly corporate employees. Its rival chains are also under pressure to cut costs: This week, Walgreens said it would close about 1,200 stores over the next three years.Shares of CVS, which dropped 7 percent on Friday, have fallen more than 25 percent this year. More
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York Theater Artistic Director Out After ‘Hurtful’ Diversity Comments
James Morgan, who has been with the small New York theater company for 50 years, blamed the effects of a stroke for his behavior.The longtime leader of the York Theater Company, a small New York nonprofit known for its emphasis on musical theater, is acknowledging making “hurtful” comments about diversity that he says prompted his abrupt departure from the organization.James Morgan, who has served as producing artistic director of the York since 1979, and who has been with the company for 50 years, issued a letter on Monday saying that he had suffered a stroke in 2022, and attributed his behavior to that medical incident.“During a recent staff meeting, I responded to a colleague’s concerns about the diversity of our audiences in a way that was inappropriate and hurtful,” Morgan wrote in the letter. “The words came out — at a raised volume that has been one of the side effects of the stroke — differently than I intended them.”The York is a niche company, founded in 1969, that operates out of a church on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. During fiscal 2023, it had an annual budget of $2.2 million, according to a filing with the Internal Revenue Service; Morgan was paid a salary of $95,000.On Friday at 5 p.m., the company issued a news release saying that Morgan had “resigned from his duties, effective immediately.” Jim Kierstead, the board’s president, raised the diversity issue in his statement in the news release, saying, “We will soon be announcing plans for a future filled with diversity, talent, and musical theater in order to continue our long legacy of supporting artists of all backgrounds.”It quickly became clear that Morgan’s departure had been preceded by the resignation of Gerry McIntyre, the theater’s associate artistic director.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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Sheena Wright, Eric Adams’s Deputy Mayor, Resigns
Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor of New York City, became the seventh senior leader to leave the administration in the past few weeks.Sheena Wright, a longtime ally of Mayor Eric Adams, has resigned from her post as first deputy mayor, according to people with knowledge of the matter, making her the seventh senior official to leave the administration during a time of crisis in New York City government.Ms. Wright is expected to be replaced by Maria Torres-Springer, the mayor’s current deputy mayor for housing, economic development and work force, according to those people. One of the people said Ms. Wright planned to serve until the end of the month. Mr. Adams is expected to make the announcement before his regular Tuesday media availability.“We are grateful for First Deputy Mayor Wright’s years of service to the city and all she has done to deliver for children, families, and working-class New Yorkers,” Mr. Adams said in a statement that was expected to be circulated on Tuesday. “She is an exceptional leader who assembled a strong team and constantly demonstrated a bold vision for this city.”News of Ms. Wright’s departure comes two weeks after federal prosecutors unsealed a five-count corruption indictment against the mayor.It also follows the resignation announcements of her brother-in-law, Philip B. Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety, and her husband, David C. Banks, the schools chancellor.On Sept. 4, federal investigators seized the phones of both men, Ms. Wright, and several other senior administration officials. With Ms. Wright’s resignation, all of those people have since stepped down or announced plans to.Tracking Charges and Investigations in Eric Adams’s OrbitFour federal corruption inquiries have reached into the world of Mayor Eric Adams of New York. Here is a closer look at the charges against Mr. Adams and how people with ties to him are related to the inquiries.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
