Author: KnowledgeHippo

The United States is poised to add nearly $19 trillion to its national debt over the next decade as the rising costs of an aging population and higher interest rates continue to weigh on the nation’s fiscal outlook, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.But the report did offer some subtle relief: Newly enacted legislation to curb federal spending and a faster-than-expected U.S. economy make the fiscal picture slightly less bleak. Annual deficits over the next decade are 7 percent smaller than the $20.3 trillion the budget office projected last year.This decline reflects several conflicting forces. A deal President Biden…

About 17 years ago, Steve Jobs took the stage at a San Francisco convention center and said he was introducing three products: an iPod, a phone, and an Internet browser.”These are not three separate devices,” he said. “This is a device and we call it the iPhone.”At $500, the first iPhone was relatively expensive, but I was willing to ditch my mediocre Motorola and sell it out. There were flaws — including sluggish cell speeds. But the iPhone kept its promises.In the last week, I had a very different experience with a new first-generation product from Apple: the Vision Pro,…

Tesla sales surged in the final three months of 2023 as the automaker cut prices and customers rushed to take advantage of tax breaks on electric vehicles — provisions that will be harder to come by in 2024.The company said Tuesday it sold 484,500 cars in the fourth quarter, up from 435,000 in the third quarter and 405,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the full year, Tesla sold 1.8 million vehicles. The earnings put Tesla on track to sell more than two million cars by 2024, potentially surpassing established automakers such as Mercedes-Benz and Renault.A rebound in sales…

A patient goes to the hospital for a routine procedure to treat an enlarged prostate. And, unexpectedly, a test done at the hospital—perhaps a blood test or an X-ray or an examination of the urethra and bladder—finds a cancer.Apparently, something like this happened to King Charles III. When the British monarch was treated for an enlarged prostate in January, doctors found a cancer that the palace said was not prostate cancer. Charles started treatment on Monday. The palace did not reveal what had led to the king’s diagnosis.While some prostate specialists like Dr. Peter Albertsen at the University of Connecticut…

Whether you want to stroll along a beach or cuddle up by a campfire, these getaways prove that romantic accommodations come in many forms, from a new luxury resort in Mexico, an estate in the English countryside, to just opening cabins for birdwatching. stars in the Catskills. a California wine country farmhouse and hotels with February sales on the coast of Maine. Wherever you go, you’ll find Valentine’s Day dinner menus and activities for two, like couples’ massages and private yoga sessions — though many rooms at these properties are so luxurious, you might decide to ditch your plans and…

Hamas’s response to a new cease-fire proposal was met with optimism by mediators, but details emerging from its counter-proposal on Wednesday, including a demand for a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, revealed many of the same obstacles that have stymied previous ones. efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war.Under the militant group’s proposal, both sides would observe a three-stage ceasefire for 135 days, each stage lasting 45 days, during which hostages and Palestinian prisoners in Israel would be released. It calls on the Israeli military to leave Gaza permanently – a demand that Israeli officials have so far publicly rejected.Neither…

In the world of American legal scholarship, Seth Barrett Tillman is an outsider in more ways than one. An associate professor at a university in Ireland, he has proposed unusual interpretations of the meaning of the US Constitution that have for years been largely ignored – if not outright dismissed as unusual.But at 60, Professor Tillman enjoys some level of vindication. When the U.S. Supreme Court considers Thursday whether former President Donald J. Trump is shut out of the Colorado primary, a seemingly contradictory theory that Professor Tillman has championed for more than 15 years will take center stage and…

Henry Timms, who guided Lincoln Center through the turmoil of the pandemic and helped complete a $550 million renovation of David Geffen Hall, will step down as leader this summer after five years, he announced Wednesday.Timms will become managing director of the Brunswick Group, a global public relations firm. He said he had always intended to stay at Lincoln Center for five to seven years, and that the Brunswick Group, which advises leading corporations and cultural groups, had approached him about a position there late last year.”I feel proud of what we’ve done,” he said in an interview in his…

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced Tuesday that they will merge and sell access to all the sports they televise through a new streaming service. It will be available this fall, but many other details, such as the price or who would manage the service, are not yet known.The bottom line of the deal — and of most decisions made by media companies — is that the cable bundle is collapsing. A decade ago, about 100 million homes in the United States subscribed to a cable or satellite television package. Today, that number is about 70 million, and falling.Media…

In July, Michael Puglia drove home what seemed like the coolest vehicle he’s ever owned — a Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck.It was big enough to lug around his kids and all their hockey gear. He would never have to throttle it, and the ride was exhilarating. “It’s incredibly fast and responsive,” said Mr. Puglia, a pediatric anesthesiologist in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Technology is amazing.”But as colder weather arrived, the truck’s range — or how far it could travel before needing to be plugged in — was significantly reduced. Once, after Mr. Pullia had driven 35 miles to an ice…