Author: Lance Garrison

Orleatha Smith is the consummate go-getter. This Los Angeles-based dynamo holds a biology teaching credential and a master’s degree in education, and she is a published author who has written books about healthy eating. She’s also a certified holistic lifestyle and wellness coach, with expertise in e-commerce. During the pandemic, she co-founded Sip Herbals, which makes a gluten-free, acid-free, caffeine-free coffee substitute that became an instant bestseller. Orleatha Smith All of that would be impressive under any circumstances, but now consider this: “I was born covered from head to toe with eczema and have dealt with it for the last…

Last week, the Russian military opened a new front in its invasion of Ukraine.Launching an offensive into the Kharkiv region, Russian forces quickly advanced several kilometers, managing to reoccupy several villages that were liberated during Ukraine’s successful offensive in September 2022. They have not yet reached the main line of defenses east of the city, which are held by brigades better equipped and more experienced than those closer to the border. But the situation is serious.By threatening Ukraine’s second most populous city, Russia hopes to pin Ukrainian resources in the region, exposing the front elsewhere. Ukraine’s immediate priority is to…

First they killed the adults.“Then they piled up the children and shot them,” a witness told Human Rights Watch. “They threw their bodies into the river.”That’s a scene from a humanitarian crisis happening now in Sudan that has been overshadowed by Gaza and Ukraine and may be about to get far worse. It’s a conflict, by some accounts a genocide, unfolding particularly in the Darfur region there.You may remember Darfur: It was the site of a genocide two decades ago. Those atrocities galvanized a vast response, led by protesters across the United States. Barack Obama and Joe Biden, then senators,…

At a rally in Wildwood, N.J., on Saturday, Donald Trump said that if he is re-elected, he will “immediately deport” any campus protesters who “come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or antisemitism.”Of course, Trump dwells in linguistic imprecision. What does “try to bring” mean? Are we using his definitions of jihadism, anti-Americanism and antisemitism? How would those sentiments be monitored? Would the deportations be extrajudicial? Would the deportations be only of student visa holders, or would it include green card holders?This campaign pledge — this threat — is not only unworkable; it’s ludicrous. But…

President Biden came out swinging this week when he announced a series of steep tariffs on Chinese imports, including 25 percent on certain steel and aluminum products, 50 percent on semiconductors and solar panels and 100 percent on electric vehicles.The administration’s official reason for the policy is simple: Chinese imports are undercutting American manufacturers in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. And Mr. Biden wants to protect them from competition, as he pours huge amounts of government money into building up the manufacturing of electric vehicles and solar panels that can eventually compete with China’s inexpensive offerings. But the…

May 15, 2024 – Despite encouraging drops in overall colorectal cancer rates in the past 2 decades, one group stands out as an exception: Americans younger than 45. Colorectal cancer cases increased a whopping 333% among 15- to 19-year-olds and 185% among 20- to 24-year-olds from 1999 to 2020, according to new research being presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2024, a major medical conference in Washington, DC. As high as those percentages appear, the number of people affected at these ages remains small compared to rates in Americans 45 and older, said Loren Laine, MD, professor of medicine (digestive diseases) at Yale…

To the Editor:I write this as I mark Israeli Independence Day in the changed landscape of my neighborhood.Across the street: the home of a soldier killed in Gaza. Up the block: those of three more fallen soldiers. The park next to the grocery store: dedicated to the memory of another fallen soldier. Inside, an amputee carries yogurt with his elbow because his lower arm is gone. Around the corner: the home of a young man murdered at the Tribe of Nova music festival on Oct. 7.Nearby: the home of my former student who defended Kfar Aza kibbutz until Hamas terrorists…

It’s a little hard to believe that just over a year ago, a group of leading researchers asked for a six-month pause in the development of larger systems of artificial intelligence, fearing that the systems would become too powerful. “Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?” they asked.There was no pause. But now, a year later, the question isn’t really whether A.I. is too smart and will take over the world. It’s whether A.I. is too stupid and unreliable to be useful. Consider this week’s announcement from OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, who promised he would unveil “new…

Further, there are tons of reasons any parent might opt to stay home that don’t require buying into tradwife values: Work isn’t always satisfying or well-paid, some people want to spend the majority of their time with their kids and child care is so expensive that it can push a lower-earning parent out of the labor market, to name a few. And as an avowed lover of #cleantok, I have no problem with content about household tasks — but that’s separate from what the tradwives are often cynically pushing. When people criticize the way tradwives troll, they’re very likely to…

The editorial board and our colleagues in Times Opinion met on Monday with Dr. Mandy Cohen, who became the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year. Dr. Cohen was the top public health official in North Carolina during the Covid pandemic, winning praise for working with Gov. Roy Cooper to steer the state’s response without allowing it to become politicized.She wants the C.D.C. to be prepared for the next big public health challenge “in a disease-agnostic way,” rather than focusing on a specific threat, like avian flu, dengue or an as yet unknown pathogen. We also…