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In the spring of 585 BC in the eastern Mediterranean, the moon came out of nowhere to hide the face of the sun, turning day into night.Back then, solar eclipses were shrouded in frightening uncertainty. But a Greek philosopher is said to have predicted the disappearance of the sun. His name was Thales. He lived on the Anatolian coast - now in Turkey but then the cradle of the first Greek civilization - and was said to have acquired his unusual power by abandoning the gods.The eclipse had an immediate worldly impact. The kingdoms of the Medes and Lydians had fought a brutal war for years. But the eclipse was interpreted as a very bad omen and the armies quickly laid down their weapons. The terms of the peace included the marriage of the daughter of the king of Lydia to the son of the ...

The Maryland Legislature this weekend passed two sweeping privacy bills that aim to limit how powerful tech platforms can collect and use the personal data of consumers and young people, despite strong objections from industry trade groups they represent giants like Amazon, Google and Meta.One bill, the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, would impose far-reaching restrictions on how companies can collect and use consumers' personal data in the state. The other, the Maryland Kids Code, would prohibit some social media, video game and other online platforms from tracking children under 18 and using manipulative techniques – such as autoplaying videos or bombarding children with notifications – to keep young people glued online.“We are making a statement to the tech industry and to Maryla...

The Israeli army said it withdrew a division of ground troops from southern Gaza on Sunday, raising questions about its plans as the war reached six months.In recent months, Israel has significantly reduced the number of its troops on the ground in Gaza. Only a fraction of the soldiers who deployed to the territory at the start of the war remain.The army said the 98th Division had left Khan Younis in southern Gaza to "recover and prepare for future operations". Israeli media reported that the 98th's withdrawal meant there were no Israeli troops actively maneuvering in southern Gaza.It is unclear what the latest withdrawal of forces means for the timing of an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, where more than a million people have sought refuge.Israeli De...

Patti Sietz-Honig, a video editor at Fox 5 in New York, filed a complaint in 2022. The cost of seeing a specialist for chronic back pain had skyrocketed, and she faced about $60,000 in bills.Ms. Sietz-Honig pressed for updates on her complaint and submitted articles critical of MultiPlan from Capitol Forum, a site focused on antitrust and regulatory news. Last March, the agency sent her an email informing her that her employer and her insurer, Aetna, had agreed to a “temporary exception” and made additional payments.“Unfortunately,” the agency writes, the law “does not prohibit the use of third-party vendors” to calculate payments.Meanwhile, her longtime pain specialist began requiring advance payment. To save money, Ms. Sietz-Honig spaced out her appointments.“I've been in a lot of ...

Margaret Tynes, an American soprano acclaimed in Europe but overlooked in the United States at a time when black singers were just breaking into the world of opera, died March 7 in Silver Spring, Maryland, at age 104.Her nephew Richard Roberts said she died in a nursing home.In the 1960s and 1970s Ms. Tynes's incendiary, full voice was heard in roles such as Aida and Salomé in the opera houses of Vienna, Prague and Budapest, earning her high praise on the continent - "an exceptional, intense voice in every colour, vibrant and dramatic,” wrote Milan's Corriere della Sera, although American critics were colder. Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote of her performance in Benjamin Britten's “The War Requiem” that “what Britten expected from a woman's voice can only be achieved...

Insurance companies have long accused privately owned hospitals and medical associations of exorbitant billing that drives up healthcare costs. But a private equity-backed tool is helping insurers make billions of dollars and shift costs to patients.The tool, Data iSight, is the flagship offering of a cost-containment company called MultiPlan that has attracted continued private equity investment since it positioned itself as a central player in the lucrative field of medical payments. Today Hellman & Friedman, the California-based private equity giant, and the Saudi Arabian government's sovereign wealth fund are among the company's largest investors.The evolution of Data iSight, which recommends the amount to pay for each medical bill, is an untold chapter in the story of privat...

Ha frequentato l'elite Holton-Arms School for girls nei sobborghi fuori Washington. Nei fine settimana passeggiava con gli amici durante lo shopping nel centro commerciale Tysons Corner Center nella Virginia del Nord. Tre segretari di stato americani - Colin L. Powell, James A. Baker e Madeleine Albright - erano ospiti abituali a casa dei suoi genitori.In questi giorni, la principessa Reema Bandar al-Saud, 48 anni, figlia del principe Bandar bin Sultan, uno dei diplomatici più potenti di Washington quando era ambasciatore dell'Arabia Saudita negli Stati Uniti per più di due decenni, occupa il vecchio lavoro di suo padre.Non è stato facile.È arrivata a Washington come prima donna a ricoprire l’incarico nel luglio 2019, meno di un anno dopo che Jamal Khashoggi, editorialista del Wa...

Large health insurers are partnering with a little-known data company to boost their profits, often at the expense of patients and doctors, according to a New York Times investigation. A private equity-backed company called MultiPlan has helped reduce payments to health care providers and increase patient bills, earning billions of dollars in commissions for itself and insurers.To investigate this largely hidden aspect of the healthcare industry, the Times interviewed more than 100 patients, doctors, billing specialists, health plan consultants and former MultiPlan employees and reviewed more than 50,000 pages of documents, including confidential documents made public by two federal agencies. judges after the Times petitions.Here are five takeaways.The lower the compensation for doctors,...

Voters in Slovakia strengthened the grip of pro-Russian political forces in Central Europe on Saturday, handing victory in the presidential election to a candidate who opposes providing military and financial aid to Ukraine.With 99% of votes counted, the official tally showed Peter Pellegrini, an ally of populist Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the winner with 53% of the vote in the presidential runoff. Despite the limited powers of the presidency in Slovakia, the elections were widely seen as a test of strength between political camps with sharply different views on Russia.The defeated candidate, former Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok, is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and critical of Fico, a combative veteran politician who aligned himself with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in o...

The race to lead artificial intelligence has become a desperate hunt for the digital data needed to advance the technology. To obtain such data, tech companies including OpenAI, Google and Meta cut corners, ignored company policies and debated how to change the law, according to a New York Times analysis.According to recordings of internal meetings obtained by the Times, last year managers, lawyers and engineers at Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, discussed buying the Simon & Schuster publishing house to procure long-form works. They also agreed to collect copyrighted data from across the Internet, even if it meant facing legal action. Negotiating licenses with publishers, artists, musicians and the news industry would take too long, they said.Like OpenAI, Google transcribed Y...