When W.E.B. Du Bois visited the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla., in early 1921, he, like so many others, was impressed by what he found. The famed intellectual had been on the road for weeks on a Southern lecture tour. In his travel diary, he wrote of brutal lynchings and brutalization that were as old […]
Read More When W.E.B. Du Bois visited the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla., in early 1921, he, like so many others, was impressed by what he found. The famed intellectual had been on the road for weeks on a Southern lecture tour. In his travel diary, he wrote of brutal lynchings and brutalization that were as old […]
Read More
Life expectancy is one of the oldest and surest indicators we have of both human suffering and human progress. Wars, famines, the 1918 flu, vaccines, pasteurization, rising crop yields — so many events over time are encoded in the line of life expectancy, but its overall astonishing ascent is among the best cases for 20th-century […]
Read More Life expectancy is one of the oldest and surest indicators we have of both human suffering and human progress. Wars, famines, the 1918 flu, vaccines, pasteurization, rising crop yields — so many events over time are encoded in the line of life expectancy, but its overall astonishing ascent is among the best cases for 20th-century […]
Read More
New York City is confronting a longstanding reading crisis after the pandemic worsened outcomes for children in districts across the nation. More than half of city students failed state reading exams last year, and proficiency rates were even lower for Black and Latino children. Now, the city’s schools chancellor, David C. Banks, is making reading […]
Read More
What is Spelling Bee Buddy? Spelling Bee Buddy is a new interactive tool for Spelling Bee players that provides real-time personalized hints and analysis based on your progress throughout the day. Its hints are specific to your play that day. For example, if you’ve found most of the words that begin with “C,” it may […]
Read More
Terry Grassaree was dogged for years by questions about how he did his job as a law enforcement officer in Macon, Miss., a tiny, rural town near the state’s eastern border. There were allegations of rape inside the jail that Mr. Grassaree supervised, and lawsuits claiming that he covered up the episodes. At least five […]
Read More
Cockroaches are changing up their sex lives, and it’s all our fault. Faced with sweet poisoned bait, roaches first ended up with a mutation that made them hate sweets, hindering their mating strategies. Now, more roach mutations are emerging, showing you can’t keep a good pest down. Like many animals, cockroaches have a sweet tooth, […]
Read More
The American pilot felt his aircraft wobble in the sky near the coast of West Sussex, England, where the beach gleamed below him, and the emerald meadow pastures lay ahead on June 22, 1944. He and nine other crew members aboard a B-24 Liberator had just been jolted by a shell from a German antiaircraft […]
Read More
Few spiders in the United States have a more fearsome reputation than black widows. But throughout the South, the bulbous arachnids with red hourglasses on their bellies are engaged in a lethal competition with the brown widow, a relative from abroad — and they’re losing. This isn’t a case of one species outcompeting another for […]
Read More
Headway is an initiative from The New York Times exploring the world’s challenges through the lens of progress. We look for promising solutions, notable experiments and lessons from what’s been tried. Every week, Angela Espinoza Pierson looked at her recycling bin — filled with detergent jugs, shampoo bottles and clamshell containers that once held strawberries […]
Read More
The donkey is a key, if increasingly marginalized, character in human history. Once venerated, the animal has been an object of ridicule for so long that the word “asinine” — derived from the Latin asinus, meaning “like an ass or a donkey” — means “stupid.” Donkeys and donkey work are essential to the livelihoods of […]
Read More
Three years after our lives were upturned by the Covid-19 pandemic, questions remain. What have we learned? What about our leaders and policymakers? What happens next time? Times Opinion will soon start a limited-run weekly newsletter, The Next Pandemic, exploring the most pressing ideas and debates on how to prepare for future threats. This includes […]
Read More
Cities are, by definition, human inventions. But there are all kinds of wild creatures that have adapted themselves to urban life. Depending on the city or town, they’re home to foxes, mountain lions, skunks, monkeys, geese, parakeets, and yes, owls. Maybe you’ve seen them make a nest near your home. Or maybe you’ve had to […]
Read More
In the early days of the pandemic, digital tools transformed the way people connected to friends, loved ones, even the arts. There were Zoom happy hours with old roommates, Houseparty game nights with distant family members, and virtual reinventions of live performances beamed into living rooms from far-flung cities. Three years later, all of that […]
Read More
In Britain, inflation is near a four-decade high, food prices are rising, and, according to some forecasts, the economy is already entering a recession. Still, the country is grappling with an additional, unusual problem: a smaller work force. Britain’s labor market shrank during the pandemic, but unlike most other advanced economies, it hasn’t rebounded. Since early […]
Read More
Did you recently spend a long weekend camping at a state park with your family? Splurge on a fabulous vacation at a luxury beach resort? Take a Caribbean cruise with friends, or backpack around Thailand? Wherever you’ve been, we want to hear about your latest vacation, how you liked it and how much you spent. […]
Read More
For as long as advertising has been accepted on social media, bad ads have polluted the system. But lately, they seem to be everywhere and inescapable. On platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, users are complaining about ads that pitch products they would never want, events that have already happened or services available far from […]
Read More
When you live in a house, some essentials typically come with it: a bed to sleep in, a place to store your belongings, access to a bathroom, an address that can receive mail, a door that locks. Yet more and more Americans are losing these things. After years of steady declines, homelessness is once again […]
Read More
The dance floor is a hallmark of a wedding — it’s where guests can let loose and memories are often made. Of course, not all music at a wedding comes from the party portion. There are also those vibe-setting, lovey-dovey tracks that play throughout the event, and those are just as significant as the dance […]
Read More
It’s a tumultuous time to be a college student. Undergraduate campuses have become hot spots for a host of cultural issues, with politicians and thought leaders debating how best to educate the next generation. Often left out of those discussions are the very students who will be affected. The Times wants to hear from undergraduate […]
Read More
The system that provides electricity to our homes is getting less reliable. Outages are more frequent and last for longer. More severe weather is likely to make the problem worse. As a result, many homeowners are investing in backup power systems. Some have bought large generators. Others have installed batteries to store the energy generated […]
Read More
Growth in sales of electric vehicles has created thousands of jobs in auto manufacturing, batteries and other new fields, but not without turmoil. There is talk of layoffs at some suppliers and automakers even as other companies expand. I cover the auto industry for The New York Times, and I am planning to write about […]
Read More
As the world moves to electrify everything from cars to heating in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, heat pumps have become more popular. I have covered alternative energy for The New York Times for five years, and utilities and energy in general for almost a decade before that. The energy transition presents an […]
Read More