Author: KnowledgeHippo
The Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a battle over whether Southern Methodist University can separate from the United Methodist Church. The university, founded in Dallas by Methodists in the early 20th century, is trying to escape 2019, a time of intense doctrinal turmoil over whether the church should accept clergy or same-sex marriage.At stake is the question of who ultimately controls the university: its own governing board or the church that founded it more than a century ago and wrote its ownership into the school charter. The case will determine whether one of Methodism’s top institutions will…
Germany’s economic growth contracted for a second year in a row in 2024, according to data released on Wednesday. How it will be revived has become a central issue as voters prepare to go to the polls next month to elect a new government.The economy shrank by 0.2% in 2024, after a similarly small contraction the previous year. Car and machinery manufacturing fell sharply as increased competition, especially from China, and flagging demand in Europe led to a 3% drop in output from a year earlier. Construction fared even worse, down 3.8% compared to 2023.The German economy, Europe’s largest, has…
For years, as oil and gas companies increased production, they hired many workers, enriching communities across the United States. This is no longer the case.The country is pumping out more oil than ever before and near-record amounts of natural gas. But the companies that mine, transport and process these fossil fuels employ about 25 percent fewer workers than they did a decade earlier when they were extracting less fuel, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.Now, with some worried about a looming oil oversupply, producers are tightening their belts, with spending across North America expected to fall…
For both men and women, drinking just one alcoholic drink a day increases the risk of cirrhosis of the liver, esophageal cancer, mouth cancer and various injuries, according to a federal analysis released Tuesday.Women face a higher risk of developing liver cancer even at this moderate level of alcohol consumption. Drinking two drinks a day — twice the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommendation for women, but the current amount allowed for men — increases the chances of alcohol-related death for both men and women.The report, prepared by a scientific review team sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, is…
It’s strange enough to find yourself helicoptering from one Caribbean island to another for lunch, even if your destination is Nobu Barbuda, an outpost of the famous restaurant sunk on a semi-deserted beach. It’s weird in a different way to arrive and see 81-year-old actor Robert De Niro dressed in shorts and a tiny hat, waiting for you at a table in the back.But this is his restaurant and soon to be his new resort, Nobu Beach Inn, scheduled to open at the end of the year. Aimed at high-end travelers willing to part with more than $2,500 a night…
President Yoon Suk Yeol became the first sitting South Korean leader to be taken into custody for questioning on criminal charges on Wednesday, reaching a deal with mass law enforcement officials and ending a weeks-long standoff.The security guards of Mr. Yoon successfully prevented investigators from arresting him on January 3 when they made their first attempt to serve a court-issued arrest warrant. Since then, the country has been gripped by fears that a violent conflict could erupt if both sides refuse to back down.But when investigators returned on Wednesday with many more officers, some carrying ladders to the barricades, Mr.…
Hundreds of public school teachers are among Southern Californians who have lost their homes to raging wildfires in the past week. Some are scrambling to find places to live, even as they hope to return to their classrooms soon to restore some normalcy for their students — and themselves.In the Pasadena Unified School District, which includes the communities where the Eaton fire has killed at least 16 people and damaged thousands of structures, about 300 employees lost their homes, said Jonathan Gardner, president of United Teachers of Pasadena, its union. area. The district has about 1,500 teachers and staff members,…
US securities regulators sued Elon Musk in federal court in Washington on Tuesday in an enforcement action stemming from the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, now called X.The lawsuit against Mr. Musk, who has become a close adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump, it is likely to be one of the SEC’s most contentious final acts under Gary Gensler, its outgoing chairman.The SEC claims that by buying Twitter in 2022, Mr. Musk violated securities laws by amassing a large equity position in the social media company without filing proper notice. The complaint said he waited 11 days before filing the…
Meta plans to lay off up to 5 percent of its employees based on performance reviews, according to an internal memo to employees Tuesday seen by The New York Times.”I decided to raise the bar on performance management and weed out low performers faster,” Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, said in the note. “Typically we manage people who don’t meet expectations over the course of a year, but now we’ll be making more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”Mr. Zuckerberg said in the memo that the employees whose roles were cut will be replaced by new hires in 2025.The layoffs come…
“We will make Americans healthy again,” said Robert Kennedy Jr. A political action committee that promoted Mr. Kennedy, President-elect Donald J. Trump for secretary of health and human services, says his movement is “sparking a health revolution in America.”But the word “again” presupposes a time in the country’s past when Americans were in better health. Was there ever a time when America was healthier?For historians of medicine, there is a short answer.”No,” said Nancy Tomes, a historian at Stony Brook University.John Harley Warner, a historian at Yale, said: “It’s hard for me to think of a time when America, with…