Author: KnowledgeHippo

Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll look at whether Mayor Eric Adams should retain control of the New York public school system.Mayor Eric Adams’ review of the New York City school system will be renewed in June. The state Legislature, which will decide whether or not to extend mayoral primacy to the nation’s largest public school system, appears open to revisiting a model of school governance that was established in New York 20 years ago and has since become entrenched. Whether mayoral control improved the system has been the subject of considerable debate ever since.I asked Troy Closson, who covers…

BP’s new chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, promised a flexible approach to divestment from fossil fuels as the oil giant reported a $3 billion profit in the latest quarter on Tuesday.Mr Auchincloss said in an interview after BP reported earnings that the company was following what he called a “demand strategy”. BP shares rose more than 5 percent in trading in London, where the company is based.BP has a plan to become what Mr. Auchincloss called an integrated energy company. But in the meantime, “we’re seeing increasing demand for energy right now around the world,” he said. “It’s not slowing down.”BP…

Last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, called a nascent effort to detect artificially generated content “the most urgent mission” facing the tech industry today.On Tuesday, Mr Clegg proposed a solution. Meta said it would promote technology standards that companies across the industry could use to identify indicators in photo, video and audio material that would mean the content was created using artificial intelligence.The standards could allow social media companies to quickly identify AI-generated content posted on their platforms and allow them to tag that material. If widely adopted, the…

After enjoying a strong recovery in sales in 2023, the auto industry appears headed for slower growth this year as consumers struggle with rising interest rates and high prices for new cars and light trucks.Edmunds, a market researcher, expects the industry to sell 15.7 million vehicles this year. That would equate to a modest increase from the 15.5 million sold last year, when sales rose 12%.”There’s definitely pent-up demand out there because people have been holding off on purchases for a while,” said Jessica Caldwell, chief information officer at Edmunds. “But given the credit situation, we don’t think the industry…

The United States government has placed immigrant detainees in solitary confinement more than 14,000 times in the past five years, and the average length is nearly twice the 15-day limit that the United Nations has said may constitute torture, according to a new analysis by the federal files from researchers at Harvard and the nonprofit group Physicians for Human Rights;The report, based on government records from 2018 to 2023 and interviews with several dozen former detainees, noted cases of extreme physical, verbal and sexual abuse of immigrants held in solitary confinement. The New York Times reviewed the original records cited…

After two fatal crashes involving its best-selling 737 Max 8 planes five years ago, Boeing spent billions of dollars to make its products safer and repair its reputation. Now, the company is again facing a wave of uncertainty and costs after a painful incident involving a different 737 jet.Just four weeks ago, a hole opened up in a 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff when what appears to have been a poorly connected panel tore. The Alaskan pilots made an emergency landing as terrified passengers feared the worst.The incident prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to…

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken launched a diplomatic push in the Middle East on Monday for a deal that would end the war in the Gaza Strip and free hostages there, even as a drone struck a military base used by U.S. troops and the allied forces in eastern Syria.Mr Blinken, making his fifth trip to the region since the October 7 attack on Israel, met in Riyadh with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the first stop of a trip that will also include meetings in Egypt, Qatar . Israel and the West Bank.Speaking to the crown…

Spelman College, the women’s school in Atlanta, announced Thursday that it has received a $100 million donation, which its officials called the largest gift ever to a historically black college.The gift comes from Ronda E. Stryker, trustee of Spelman, and her husband, William D. Johnston, chairman of the Greenleaf Trust wealth management company. Ms. Stryker serves as a director of Stryker Corporation, a medical device company founded by her grandfather.In a statement, Spelman College said $75 million of the gift was earmarked for scholarships and that the rest of the money would go toward improving student housing and developing an…

A federal official said Monday that members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team were university employees, clearing the way for the team to receive a vote that could make it the nation’s first unionized college sports program.In a statement, the National Labor Relations Board’s Boston regional director, Laura Sacks, said that because Dartmouth had “the right to control the work” of the group and because the group did that work “in exchange for compensation,” as equipment and play. tickets, the players were employees under the National Labor Relations Act.The date for the unionization election has not yet been set, and…

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News anchor who now has a show on the social network X, has been seen in Moscow in recent days, prompting speculation in Russia and the United States that he is about to achieve his long-held goal of interview. President Vladimir V. Putin.If so, Mr. Carlson would be the first American media figure to give an official interview with the Russian leader since he invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago.Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said Mr Putin is refusing Western requests for new exits because their countries have been “stunned” by anti-Russian propaganda. But…