A Rural Michigan Town Is the Latest Battleground in the U.S.-China Fight
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
Economy

A Rural Michigan Town Is the Latest Battleground in the U.S.-China Fight

Yard signs along the quiet country roads of Green Charter Township, Mich., home to horse farms and a 19th-century fish hatchery, blare a message that an angered community hopes is heard by local leaders, the Biden administration and China: “No Gotion.”The opposition is to a plan by Gotion, a subsidiary of a Chinese company, to build a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery factory on roughly 270 acres of largely uninhabited scrubland. An investment of that magnitude can transform a local economy, but in this case it is unwelcome by many. Residents fear that the company’s presence is a dangerous infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party, and it has led to backlash, death threats and an attempt to unseat the elected officials who backed the project.The debate over the factory has turned a t...
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A New Way to Prevent S.T.I.s: A Pill After Sex
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
Health

A New Way to Prevent S.T.I.s: A Pill After Sex

Why It Matters: Rates of S.T.I.s are skyrocketing.In 2021, there were 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, more than 700,000 cases of gonorrhea and nearly 177,000 cases of syphilis in the United States, together tallying up to $1.1 billion in direct medical costs. (Rates of babies born with syphilis also soared that year, with nearly 3,000 affected.)All three S.T.I.s are caused by bacteria and are easily treated with antibiotics. But the closure of sexual health clinics across the country and a drop in public awareness has contributed to a sharp rise in infections.Gonorrhea cases have increased 118 percent since a historical low in 2009, according to the C.D.C. Syphilis was nearly eliminated in the United States about 20 years ago, but cases have risen 74 percent since 2017.On any given day in ...
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Venice Bus Plunge Kills at Least 21
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
News

Venice Bus Plunge Kills at Least 21

A bus filled with tourists in Venice careened through an overpass guardrail, crashed near train tracks and exploded on Tuesday evening, killing at least 21 people on board and wounding more than a dozen more.“It’s an apocalyptic scene,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro of Venice told reporters. He also declared a day of mourning.The crash occurred in Mestre, the mainland section of Venice, and rescue workers were still trying to recover survivors and bodies from the wreckage late Tuesday night. At least 12 people were injured and sent to a hospital, according to the mayor’s office.Venice officials said the bus was full of tourists, and that two minors were among the dead.The victims included several Ukrainians and other foreigners who were staying at a local camping village, according to Venice offici...
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Campbell Brown, Who Led Facebook News, Leaves Meta
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
Technology

Campbell Brown, Who Led Facebook News, Leaves Meta

When Facebook was being battered in 2017 for distributing false and misleading news, the social network turned to Campbell Brown, a veteran journalist, to smooth over its relationships with the media.Six years later, Ms. Brown is departing the company, now known as Meta, as top executives have become less concerned about what the news media thinks about it.Ms. Brown, 54, a former TV anchor and education advocate who for years was Meta’s most prominent representative to the media industry, said in an internal announcement on Tuesday that she was stepping down later this year to pursue other opportunities. She will remain an adviser to the company, and her team will be folded into other teams focused on media and sports partnerships development.A spokesman for Meta declined to comment. Axios...
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Rory McIlroy and the age-old question of what the Ryder Cup means to golf’s stars
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
Sports

Rory McIlroy and the age-old question of what the Ryder Cup means to golf’s stars

ROME — Rory McIlroy has finished in the top 10 in eight of his last 10 major championship appearances, including two solo runner-ups. Incredibly impressive stuff. And bru•ta•lly fruitless. This is a man who, now 34, openly speaks of being on the back nine of his career, and who, when he lays his head down at night, likely lends one last silent thought to the fact that he hasn’t won a major in a decade. As far as year-in and year-out play goes, he’s arguably the best player in golf over the last 10 years – and the most disappointing.So, yes, he might take things a little personally.McIlroy stood behind the 16th green at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club on Sunday as a product of all his parts. The talented — he scored more points than anyone in the 2023 Ryder Cup, going 4-1. The emotiona...
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Athens Democracy Forum: Rethinking Security When So Many Threats Are Invisible
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
Economy

Athens Democracy Forum: Rethinking Security When So Many Threats Are Invisible

This article is from a special report on the Athens Democracy Forum, which gathered experts last week in the Greek capital to discuss global issues.Moderator: Steven Erlanger, Europe-based diplomatic correspondent for The New York TimesParticipants: Nanna-Louise Wildfang Linde, vice president of European governmental affairs for Microsoft; and Dr. Benedikt Franke, vice chairman and chief executive, Munich Security ConferenceExcerpts from the panel Rethinking Security: When Threats are Invisible have been edited and condensed.STEVEN ERLANGER The topic before us is cybercrime and we’ll get to that, but first I wanted to talk to Nanna-Louise about what’s in the backdrop of almost all our conversations, which is the war in Europe, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and that in that war there’s a ...
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Opinion | Without a College Degree, Life in America Is Staggeringly Shorter
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
News

Opinion | Without a College Degree, Life in America Is Staggeringly Shorter

By many measures, the U.S. economy is thriving: Unemployment stands close to the 50-year low set in April, the fraction of people aged 25 to 54 in work is at a two-decade high, gross domestic product is growing rapidly, inflation is falling, and the S & P 500 is a third higher than it was before the pandemic.While encouraging, economic statistics like these offer an incomplete picture of the state of the country. There is a deep and persistent national malcontent — in one recent NBC News poll, nearly three-quarters of Americans say the country is on the wrong track, while Gallup reports that poor life ratings are at record highs.What the economic statistics obscure in the averages is that there is not one but two Americas — and a clear line demarcating the division is educational attai...
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Reddit Communities Go Dark to Protest New App Policy
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
Technology

Reddit Communities Go Dark to Protest New App Policy

The moderators of hundreds of Reddit forums, known as subreddits, closed off access to their groups on Monday to protest the company’s plan to charge for access to the data that outside developers need to run apps on the site.Many said the new pricing scheme could kill off some of the most popular third-party apps that many users rely on to browse and comment on the site. Others said the charges had sowed uncertainty about the tools that moderators use to manage discussions. An estimated 57 million people a day visit the platform.Reddit announced in April that it would begin to charge some large-scale users for access to its application programming interface, or A.P.I., the method through which outside entities can download and process the social network’s vast selection of memes, gifs, vi...
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2026 World Cup: FIFA Delays Have Cities Worried About Planning
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
Sports

2026 World Cup: FIFA Delays Have Cities Worried About Planning

When FIFA announced several years ago that it would take the preparations for soccer’s 2026 World Cup in-house, it argued the change would streamline the planning for a sprawling championship that would be larger and more complex and require greater expertise than ever before. That the change would also grant FIFA greater control over the $11 billion in revenue it expects from its biggest cash cow was perhaps even more important.But as teams begin their campaigns to qualify for the tournament, cities across the United States are growing frustrated with the tortured pace of FIFA’s preparations and communications and a lack of clarity about their roles in what will be the biggest, and richest, sporting event ever staged on American soil.Cities and stadiums still do not know, for example, how...
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U.A.W. Threatens Strikes at More Plants
3Oct Avatar photoBy Alexander W. FergusonNo Comments
Economy

U.A.W. Threatens Strikes at More Plants

The United Auto Workers said on Tuesday that the union would expand its strike against three U.S. automakers on Friday if it was unable to make substantial progress in contract talks with them.Nearly 13,000 U.A.W. members walked off the assembly lines at three plants last Friday, one each at the three companies — General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, the parent of Chrysler. The union has demanded a 40 percent wage increase over four years, better benefits and other changes. The automakers, which are based in or have a big presence in Michigan, have offered raises of about half as much.In a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday, the union’s new president, Shawn Fain, said workers could walk out of more plants at the end of this week.“If we don’t see serious progress to noon Friday, Sept....
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