Saturday, December 7
Because cleaning this shirt costs  in New York City
Business

Because cleaning this shirt costs $6 in New York City

There's an extravagant level of cleanliness just behind an unmarked door in a corner of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.This is the home of Kingbridge's huge new cleaning facility, which opened in January 2020. This is where a meticulous, labour-intensive process takes place, which Aviles says is necessary for clothes to be cleaned properly.He learned the trade when he was 5, when his mother Victoria, who still helps run the decades-old family business, dressed him in a suit and took him to work on Saturdays. He offered customers hot chocolate in the winter and lemonade in the summer, and soon learned to iron his own shirts.Today, workers pile dirty shirts – undignified with faded collars, chipped buttons and sweat stains – into a huge bin to be manually sorted by color and condition. Then they p...
Has your baby spent time in the NICU?  Tell us about it.
International

Has your baby spent time in the NICU? Tell us about it.

Across the country, neonatal intensive care units provide critical care to critically ill babies.This care can save lives, but it also comes at a price, as some parents report receiving multimillion-dollar bills for their children's hospital stays. Some researchers have questioned whether too many babies are being admitted to the NICU and whether a profit motive is at play.The New York Times is looking to hear from readers who can share their recent experiences with NICU care. Listening to families about their experiences helps us better understand where we should focus our reporting.We will not publish any part of your response to this questionnaire without first speaking to you. We will not share your contact information outside of The Times newsroom and will only use it to contact yo...
The debt problem is huge and the system for solving it is broken
Business

The debt problem is huge and the system for solving it is broken

Martin Guzman was a college freshman at La Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina, in 2001, when a debt crisis led to defaults, riots, and a devastating depression. A dazed middle class has been ruined, as the International Monetary Fund has insisted the government make misery-inducing budget cuts in exchange for a bailout.Watching Argentina unravel inspired Guzman to change majors and study economics. Nearly two decades later, when the government was once again bankrupt, it was Guzman, as finance minister, who negotiated with IMF officials the restructuring of $44 billion in debt, the result of a previous badly-bailed bailout. conceived.Today he is one of many prominent economists and world leaders who argue that the ambitious framework created at the end of World War II to safegua...
New York City Offers Free Online Therapy to Teens: Will It Work?
International

New York City Offers Free Online Therapy to Teens: Will It Work?

Over the past month, New York City has invited teens to participate in one of the country's largest experiments aimed at helping troubled teens: a program that offers free online therapy to all residents ages 13 to 17 years.The city has entered into a three-year, $26 million contract with Talkspace, a major provider of digital mental health services. After a parent or legal guardian signs a consent form, teens can exchange unlimited messages with an assigned therapist and receive a 30-minute virtual therapy session each month.The launch of the program, NYC Teenspace, on November 15 took many in the city's greater mental health community by surprise. In interviews, providers praised the effort made in making mental health care available to adolescents who otherwise would not have been abl...
From unicorns to zombies: tech startups are strapped for time and money
Business

From unicorns to zombies: tech startups are strapped for time and money

WeWork has raised more than $11 billion in funding as a private company. Olive AI, a healthcare startup, raised $852 million. Convoy, a freight startup, raised $900 million. And Veev, a homebuilding start-up, has amassed $647 million.In the last six weeks, they have all declared bankruptcy or closed. They are the latest failures in the collapse of a technology start-up that investors say is just getting started.After avoiding mass bankruptcy by cutting costs over the past two years, many once-promising tech companies are now on the verge of running out of time and money. They are facing a harsh reality: investors are no longer interested in promises. Rather, venture capital firms are deciding which young companies are worth saving and pushing others to close or sell.It fueled an asto...
The pro-China YouTube network used artificial intelligence to defame the United States, a report finds
International

The pro-China YouTube network used artificial intelligence to defame the United States, a report finds

In a somewhat stilted tone and somewhat awkward grammar, the American-accented voice on YouTube last month ridiculed Washington's handling of the war between Israel and Hamas, arguing that the United States was not in capable of "playing its role as a mediator like China" and "now finds itself in a position of significant isolation".The 10-minute post was one of more than 4,500 videos in an unusually large network of YouTube channels spreading pro-China and anti-American narratives, according to a report this week by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a security-focused think tank.Some of the videos used artificially generated avatars or voiceovers, making the campaign the institute's first known influencer operation to pair AI voices with video essays.The goal of the campaign, acc...
Microsoft agrees to remain neutral in union campaigns
Business

Microsoft agrees to remain neutral in union campaigns

Highlighting a year of big gains for organized labor, Microsoft announced that it will remain neutral if any U.S.-based worker groups seek to unionize.About 100,000 workers would be eligible to unionize under this framework, Microsoft President Brad Smith and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said Monday during a forum at the labor federation's headquarters in Washington.The deal effectively expands a neutrality agreement between Microsoft and a large union, the Communications Workers of America, under which hundreds of the company's video game workers unionized earlier this year without a formal election of the National Labor Relations Board. Officially, it provides a framework in which any group of Microsoft workers can negotiate their own neutrality agreements with similar terms.In Monday's...
Sign up for Well’s 6-day energy challenge
International

Sign up for Well’s 6-day energy challenge

Would you like more energy during the day? We bet the answer is yes. Whether you're younger or older, working or retired, raising a family or living alone, most of us could use more vigor in our lives.There are many reasons why we might feel lazy or uninspired. Some factors, such as medical conditions, are beyond our control. “But in most cases, there are very small, simple, achievable lifestyle habits that can boost our energy levels,” said Dr. Sue Varma, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at New York's Grossman School of Medicine University and author of the next study. book “Practical Optimism”.So we created a six-day challenge to set you up for a more energetic year ahead.Starting January 1, 2024, the Well desk will share a week of evidence-based tips and inspiration so yo...