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  • Best Crystal Hair Eraser: Buying Guide

    Best Crystal Hair Eraser: Buying Guide

    Can’t decide which crystal hair eraser is best? Stop looking! Our top three choices will help you get rid of those annoying hairs quickly.

    Do you hate summer because you know you’ll have to hide your arms and legs more? Or maybe you haven’t worn that new bikini because you know it will show off a lot of hair.

    There are many ways to get rid of hair these days, but each one has its pros and cons. For example, blades can do a good job for one or two days, but then you have to deal with ingrown hairs for a week. It hurts to get waxed, and it costs a lot of money. And getting rid of hair with a laser may not hurt you physically, but it will hurt your wallet for sure.

    These days, everyone wants a crystal hair eraser. The product uses cutting-edge technology to remove hair from any body part quickly and without pain. Crystal hair remover is better than razors, waxing, and lasers because it keeps your skin smooth and hair-free for weeks, not just days. It’s also gentle enough to use around the bikini line and other sensitive areas.

    And because the Crystal Hair Remover only gets rid of hair on the surface of your skin, you don’t have to worry about ingrown hairs or other annoying side effects.

    Crystal hair eraser vs traditional hair removal methods

    A crystal hair eraser is a tool used to remove hair from the root. It is an alternative to traditional hair removal methods such as waxing, shaving, or plucking. Some reasons why people may choose to buy a crystal hair eraser include:

    Pain-free: Crystal hair erasers are considered to be less painful than traditional hair removal methods.

    Long-lasting results: Hair removed using a crystal hair eraser may take longer to grow back compared to other methods.

    Gentle on skin: Crystal hair erasers are typically gentle on the skin and can be used on sensitive areas.

    Convenient: Crystal hair erasers are portable and can be used at home, making them a convenient option for those who prefer to do their own hair removal.

    Cost-effective: Over time, using a crystal hair eraser may be more cost-effective compared to regularly paying for professional hair removal treatments.

    When choosing a crystal hair eraser, here are some factors to consider:

    1. Skin sensitivity: Consider the type of skin you have and choose a crystal hair eraser that is designed for use on sensitive skin.
    2. Area of use: Consider the areas of your body you want to remove hair from and choose a crystal hair eraser that is designed for use on those areas.
    3. Design: Consider the design of the crystal hair eraser and choose one that is easy to use and store, with a convenient size and shape.
    4. Safety features: Consider the safety features of the crystal hair eraser, like skin tone sensors and automatic shut-off, to ensure that it is safe and gentle to use.
    5. Price: Consider the price of the crystal hair eraser and choose one that fits within your budget while also delivering the features and results you want.

    Overall, when choosing a crystal hair eraser, it is important to consider your skin sensitivity, area of use, design, safety features, and price to find the best one for you.

    However, all three of these options are reasonably priced and should be considered when making your decision.

    1. Bleame Crystal Hair Eraser

    Bleame Hair Eraser

    This handy tool is great for people who want to get rid of unwanted hair without hurting themselves.

    Use it on your knuckles, arms, legs, chest, back, or bikini line to get rid of hair, and watch it go away.

    What’s the best? You don’t have to worry about Bleame making your skin darker because it gets rid of dead skin cells, which makes your skin look better.

    The Bleame Crystal Hair Eraser 4.3 x 2.8 inch is a good choice if you want a large surface area to cover more skin quickly.

    It’s gentle enough for all skin types, even those with sensitive skin. The Bleame Crystal Hair Eraser is also great for people who have strawberry skin or razor bumps because it makes these areas look better. After each use, brush the Bleame Crystal Hair Eraser off under running water.

    How to Use

    After you take a bath, you should use it on damp hair. Once you have rubbed it onto your skin in a circular motion, you will be able to see the hair disappear. After using this process, you will have baby-smooth skin that is pain-free and exfoliates.

    2. Crystal Hair Eraser from GUSSLM Store

    Crystal Hair Eraser from GUSSLM StoreCrystal Hair Eraser from GUSSLM Store

    The best review on amazon was for the Crystal Hair Eraser from GUSSLM Store.

    This tool uses natural crystals to quickly and painlessly remove hair from your arms, legs, chest, and back.

    Plus, it’s gentle enough to use on your knuckles and other sensitive spots.

    With regular use, this crystal hair eraser will make your skin look fresh and healthy.

    The GUSSLM Store 4.1 x 2.6-inch crystal hair eraser is a great choice if you want something that can be used more than once and saves you money in the long run.

    How to Use

    Soften your hair by soaking it in warm water, then drying it. Then rub the hair eraser over the desired area in a circular motion.

    3. ViYay Crystal Hair Eraser

    ViYay Crystal Hair EraserViYay Crystal Hair Eraser

    On Amazon, people have said good things about the ViYay Crystal Hair Eraser.

    This painless epilator is made of high-quality glass and ABS. It quickly and easily gets rid of unwanted hair without hurting your skin.

    Nanotechnology helps get rid of dead skin and evens out skin tone, while the smooth surface makes sure the product works well and safely.

    If you rub the eraser in a circular motion on your skin, it will feel as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

    It works well on all skin types and is less expensive than other ways to get rid of hair.

    The ViYay brand 3.68 x 2.36-inch eraser is a good choice for people who want a medium-sized option.

    How to use

    Use a hair eraser to rub gently on the skin in a circular motion after you have washed your leg or arm with warm water.

    The hair should be removed completely, and then body lotion should be applied afterward.

    How to choose the best crystal hair eraser 

    A crystal hair eraser is a tool used to remove hair from the root. It is an alternative to traditional hair removal methods such as waxing, shaving, or plucking. Some reasons why people may choose to buy a crystal hair eraser include:

    1. Pain-free: Crystal hair erasers are considered to be less painful than traditional hair removal methods.
    2. Long-lasting results: Hair removed using a crystal hair eraser may take longer to grow back compared to other methods.
    3. Gentle on skin: Crystal hair erasers are typically gentle on the skin and can be used on sensitive areas.
    4. Convenient: Crystal hair erasers are portable and can be used at home, making them a convenient option for those who prefer to do their own hair removal.
    5. Cost-effective: Over time, using a crystal hair eraser may be more cost-effective compared to regularly paying for professional hair removal treatments.

    How does a Crystal Hair Eraser work?

    Crystal Hair Eraser utilizes advanced crystal technology to safely and effectively remove unwanted hairs. The device emits a light that reflects off of the hair follicle, breaking it down quickly and painlessly. The process does not involve any heat or chemical reactions, making it safe and gentle on your skin.

    The adjustable settings allow you to control the intensity levels so that you can customize your experience according to your personal needs and preferences. After applying the device over the desired area, users can expect immediate results with no mess or fuss.

    Crystal Hair Eraser is suitable for all skin types, making it an excellent option for anyone who wants fast and reliable hair removal without having to go through the hassle of waxing or shaving. Additionally, because the device is lightweight and portable, you can take it with you anywhere you go!

    Are there any side effects of Crystal Hair Eraser?

    Crystal Hair Eraser is a safe and effective hair removal device that causes minimal to no side effects. However, as with most devices, it’s important to use the device correctly in order to avoid any potential issues.

    When using Crystal Hair Eraser, you should always follow directions carefully and never exceed recommended intensity settings. Doing so could lead to skin irritation or discomfort. Also, if you have sensitive skin, be sure to test the device on a small area before applying it over larger areas of your body.

    In addition, it’s essential to clean the device after each use in order to maintain its proper functioning and hygiene. Be sure to follow the instructions carefully for best results and maximum safety.

    How to Prevent Ingrown Hairs After Shaving?

    Ingrown hairIngrown hair

    Ingrown hairs can be uncomfortable and unsightly. Here are some tips to help prevent ingrown hairs after shaving:

    1. Exfoliate regularly: Use a gentle exfoliating scrub to remove dead skin cells and unclog hair follicles, which can help prevent ingrown hairs.
    2. Use a sharp razor: Dull razors can cause skin irritation and increase the risk of ingrown hairs. Use a sharp razor to ensure a clean, close shave.
    3. Shave in the right direction: Shave in the direction of hair growth, not against it. This helps prevent the hair from becoming ingrown.
    4. Moisturize after shaving: Moisturizing after shaving can help prevent skin irritation and reduce the risk of ingrown hairs.
    5. Avoid tight clothing: Tight clothing can rub against freshly shaved skin, causing irritation and increasing the risk of ingrown hairs.
    6. Treat existing ingrown hairs: If you already have ingrown hairs, use a warm compress and gently exfoliate the area to help loosen the hair. If the ingrown hair is painful or infected, seek medical attention.

    By following these tips, you can help prevent ingrown hairs and maintain smooth, healthy skin.

    Conclusion

    The best crystal hair eraser is a great solution for anyone looking for an easy, pain-free way to remove hair. These tools use the power of crystal technology to gently remove hair, making them a gentler alternative to traditional hair removal methods like waxing or plucking. When shopping for a crystal hair eraser, look for one with a comfortable grip, a smooth surface, and a strong handle for easy use.

    By choosing a high-quality crystal hair eraser, you can enjoy smoother skin and reduce the risk of ingrown hairs, making it a worthwhile investment for anyone who wants to keep their skin looking and feeling its best.

    Chiara Bock

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  • 6 Ways To Elevate The Taste Of Your Food

    6 Ways To Elevate The Taste Of Your Food

    I’m a foodie. I like food. I like good food. I would consider myself a pretty decent cook. And there are some things I do to make my food taste great. I use most of the ideas listed below- look no further than my recent batter fried fish and bananas recipe for my experimentation or how many spices I have on my spice rack. If you want to make your food taste even better, here are some things you might want to try.

    If you’re looking to take your cooking skills up a notch and make your meals more exciting, then this blog post is for you. Whether you’re a novice or an experienced cook, there are some simple tips and tricks that can take the taste of your food to the next level. From understanding flavor profiles to selecting fresh ingredients, here are some ways to help you enhance your dishes’ flavor.

    #1 Spice It Up

    Spices can add wonderful depth and complexity to any dish, so don’t be afraid to experiment with them. But it’s essential to understand how different spices pair together so that they bring out the best in each other. For instance, combining oregano and basil can create an intense herby flavor, while adding cumin to chili can give it a smoky kick. The key is finding a balance between all the flavors for them to shine through.

    #2 Experiment With Ingredients


    Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to ingredients. Try using different types of vegetables or fruits, as well as grains and proteins, to create unique flavor combinations. Additionally, consider roasting garlic in the oven or adding olives to pasta dishes for an added twist. Also, be sure to select the freshest ingredients for maximum flavor. By mixing things up, you can discover some truly delicious recipes.

    #3 Choose Quality Proteins


    Quality proteins such as grass-fed beef and wild-caught salmon can make all the difference when it comes to elevating the taste of your dishes. Not only do these proteins have superior flavor, but they are also healthier as they contain more essential vitamins and minerals than conventional meats do.

    #4 Pick Natural Sweeteners


    Suppose you want to add some sweetness without compromising on health benefits. In that case, natural sweeteners like maple syrup and honey are great options compared to processed sugars like white sugar or corn syrup, which lack nutritional value. You can also try using flavorful fruits such as bananas or applesauce instead of processed sugars, adding a subtle sweetness without overpowering the dish itself.

    #5 Don’t Over-Season


    While spices may be able to elevate the taste of certain recipes, too much seasoning can actually ruin them by overwhelming their natural flavors. So it’s important not to overdo it when adding spices or herbs; if necessary, start small and adjust as needed until you find that perfect balance between sweetness and spice!

    #6 Cook With Love


    Above all else, cooking with love is perhaps the most essential way to enhance the flavor of your dishes. Cooking isn’t just a task; it’s an opportunity to create something special that can be shared and enjoyed with friends and family. So take the time to savor every moment in the kitchen and cook up something truly special!

    There are many ways to enhance the flavor of your dishes. From experimenting with spices and ingredients to selecting quality proteins and natural sweeteners, these tips will help you improve your cooking skills. But above all else, don’t over-season, and remember to cook with love!

    Penniless Parenting

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  • Mass shootings are just one part of the US’s gun problem

    Mass shootings are just one part of the US’s gun problem

    Mass shootings were once again top news last week in the United States. Monterey Park, Half Moon Bay, Oakland, Beverly Crest – one after the other, communities across California experienced mass shootings, joining what survivors of these tragedies often refer to as the club that no one wants to belong to.

    In their coverage of California’s recent tragedies, media organisations were quick to draw attention to the increasing prevalence of mass shootings in the country. Using data from the Gun Violence Archive, they reported that the US has already experienced nearly 50 mass shootings in the first month of the year. However, these reports, alarming as they have been, fail to capture the full extent of gun violence in the country.

    Some – though not all – mass shootings garner considerable media attention, making many people believe they are the most prominent and the deadliest symptom of America’s gun violence problem. However, mass shootings, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as an incident in which at least four people are hit by gunfire, are actually rare. In fact, mass shootings are one of the rarest forms of gun violence and crime in general in the country. Homicides make up less than one percent of all crimes known to law enforcement, and mass shootings account for less than one percent of all homicides and all firearm-related fatalities.

    The loss of even one life to gun violence is one too many, and every mass shooting is undoubtedly a tragedy. But if we are to truly understand and address America’s gun problem, we need to be able to look beyond mass shootings that make headlines and recognise the many more lives that are being lost to gun violence in contexts outside of these tragedies.

    According to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, firearm-related deaths in the US are increasing at alarming rates. In 2020, the most recent year data has been compiled, there were 45,222 firearm-related deaths in the US. This was an increase of nearly 14 percent over 2019. Perhaps even more alarming was that firearm-related deaths among children and adolescents (defined as individuals aged one to 19) increased nearly 30 percent from 2019 to 2020, becoming the leading cause of death for the age group, ahead of car accidents.

    In 2020, firearm homicides accounted for 79 percent of all homicides in the US. This meant 19,384 people fell victim to a firearm homicide in the country in the span of a single year. Yet most deaths by firearms were not homicides – they were suicides. In 2020, more than half the nearly 46,000 people who died by suicide in the US used a firearm. In fact, firearm suicide was more common than suicide by suffocation, poisoning or any other means combined.

    Beyond the disproportionate emphasis on deadly mass shootings, the media’s coverage of gun violence in America also fails to communicate to the public who actually suffers the most from this problem. Despite what media reports underlining the prevalence of mass shootings and gun deaths may make you believe, firearm violence does not impact all Americans equally.

    Like most societal ills, gun violence impacts America’s marginalised and underprivileged communities the most. While the mass shootings in middle or working class neighbourhoods that are expected to be “safe” grab the most media attention, in many of America’s lowest income communities, firearm violence is an almost daily occurrence. Compared to counties with the lowest poverty levels, high-poverty counties have firearm homicide and suicide rates that are 4.5 and 1.3 times as high, respectively.

    Communities of colour, which suffer from systemic discrimination and racism as well as higher poverty rates, also experience more harm from guns – in all its forms – than the general population. In 2020, the number of Black males aged 10 to 24 who fell victim to firearm homicides was 21 times higher than that of their white counterparts. That same year, American Indian and Alaska Native people accounted for the largest proportion of firearm suicides.

    When it comes to gun violence, the US is an outlier among high-income nations. Its firearm homicide rate has long been the highest among its developed peers. In 2019, it was 22 times greater than that of the European Union. It also has the second highest firearm suicide rate in the world after Greenland.

    The tragic events that unfolded this month in California underlined yet again the urgency of addressing gun violence in America. As argued in countless think pieces since last week, it is indeed time that we work to understand what paves the way for so many mass shootings in the country. It is time we figure out what exactly causes so many perpetrators to pick up firearms and take the lives of others in large numbers, and it is time to take meaningful action to prevent such tragedies in the future.

    As we mourn those we have lost and chart a path forward, however, we should not lose sight of the forest for the trees. Mass shootings are just one aspect of pervasive gun violence in our country. If we are to stop American lives being needlessly lost to gun violence, we should try to understand all the nuances and context of this complex issue and take action to prevent all harms from guns, not just those that grab news headlines.

    The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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  • Workers who remain after job cuts feel

    Workers who remain after job cuts feel

    Mass layoffs like those roiling the tech industry affect more than the people who lose their jobs.

    Laid-off workers face practical challenges, such as staying financially afloat and securing new employment, as well as tough emotions, like feeling rejected. Meanwhile, those who remain after their colleagues are dismissed suffer from “survivor layoff guilt,” according to workplace psychologists and layoff survivors themselves.

    Susan Tyson, a marketing professional at a Texas-based software company, experienced this firsthand when her employer cut 25 of her roughly 7,000 colleagues last month. She was initially relieved that she wasn’t among those who lost their jobs. Then the regret started to sink in.

    “My first thought was, ‘Yippee, it’s not me!’ And my second thought was feeling very guilty that others lost their jobs and I didn’t,” Tyson told CBS MoneyWatch. “Many of the people that I worked with were let go and you just feel bad whenever that happens.”


    Google slashes 12,000 jobs, as tech sector layoffs continue

    02:49

    When fear kicks in

    Generally, survivor guilt sets in when some people, often arbitrarily, survive a traumatic event like combat, a natural disaster or job layoffs, while others are not as lucky. 

    In the workplace it can trigger anger, fear and anxiety among surviving employees, according to David Noer, a career consultant and author of “Healing The Wounds: Overcoming the Trauma of Layoffs and Revitalizing Downsized Organizations.”

    In his experience, “people who survive layoffs tend to be less productive, more suspicious, more fearful and get less work done than was anticipated.”

    “I feel like I am on a short list”

    Some workers, like Tyson, wonder why they were spared and fear that they could lose their own jobs in a future round of cuts. 

    “I will be honest, I feel like I am on a short list and there are more cuts coming,” she said. “I don’t know what the logic of the layoffs was. I don’t understand it.” 

    Indeed, when employers aren’t transparent about why some workers were laid off and others weren’t, it can trigger deep feelings of insecurity. 

    “Employees who stay at a company after layoffs often feel anxiety around the future of the company,” said Kathryn Minshew, founder and CEO of The Muse, a career development platform. “It can be hard because most employers can’t or won’t comment on why certain people were chosen for layoffs and others weren’t.”

    “It may be related to budgets and company priorities, or performance. Or it could be somewhat random, and that ambiguity and lack of concrete information can be scary to people,” she added. 

    And in the era of remote work, employees sometimes don’t even know which of their colleagues were cut.

    “Sometimes you don’t even know who was let go until you send them an email and get an autoresponder back,” career transition coach Catherine Morgan told CBS MoneyWatch. 

    Psychological “tsunami effects”

    Wrestling with these complex emotions can erode layoff survivors’ trust in a company and, in turn, affect their productivity and performance on the job. 

    “It creates a lot of paranoia and because of that, you get a lot of distrust within an organization with these large-scale layoffs,” said workplace mental health expert Sally Spencer-Thomas. “Workers will question if the organization has their well-being at heart or if they are only looking at profit-making. So there are a lot of psychological tsunami effects that happen after a mass layoff.”

    Companies that proactively prepare their workforce for layoffs generally have better outcomes. Steps that can reassure staffers include communicating the reason for the layoffs and providing information about the company’s future. Leaders who “deal in feelings and emotions” and host “grieving and venting sessions” can keep workers’ confidence in a company intact, according to Noer.

    “That’s what gets divested in a transition like that. So taking action, steps to rebuild that trust, is essential,” Spencer-Thomas said. 


    “Career cushioning” a growing trend among workers as layoffs continue across U.S.

    03:56

    For layoff survivors, reaching out to former colleagues can go a long way toward making both parties feel better. “It’s important to keep in touch with people who have left. They need support as much as the people left behind. It feels good to know colleagues cared about you and want to stay friends with outgo, because that feeling of being booted out is so painful,” she added. 

    It can help mitigate feelings of guilt for having been spared one’s job, too, Minshew said. 

    “One of the most powerful things someone can do to cope with layoff survivor guilt is to actively reach out to and connect with and help those people at your company who were affected,” she said. “You can be a powerful asset to their job search by introducing them to other contacts and companies, offering to serve as a positive reference or be helpful in reviewing their resume or LinkedIn profile.”

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  • Ask Amy: Friend wants to bring her boyfriend on girls trips

    Ask Amy: Friend wants to bring her boyfriend on girls trips

    Dear Amy: I have begun the arduous task of compiling a guest list for my upcoming wedding.

    While discussing this with my parents, I made it very clear that I was not going to invite my first cousin, “Anna.”

    For background, my aunt (Anna’s mom) died of cancer in 2019. It was devastating for the family. It was especially hard for me as I took care of her as she got sick (something Anna did not do).

    My uncle remarried 18 months later.

    Anna is very angry at her father, and also blames our family for “choosing his side,” even though it’s not like we could stop him from remarrying.

    For this reason, she has gone “no contact” with us. This was also devastating, as Anna is the only relative who lives anywhere near me, and we used to be close.

    A few months ago, I attended the wedding of Anna’s sister. Anna was the maid of honor. She refused to acknowledge my presence or even say a word to ANY of the family.

    My parents want me to invite Anna to keep alive the possibility of reconciliation.

    They also just feel it’s the right thing to do, as we’re inviting the entire rest of the family, including her siblings.

    Additionally, the family believes that she is struggling with bipolar disorder (her mother also suffered from this).

    My parents are paying for the wedding, so I feel I should defer to their wishes, but this is an issue that has caused me so much emotional grief over the last few years, and I feel so personally hurt over her silence.

    Should I invite her?

    – Conflicted Bride

    Dear Bride: Leaving “Anna” off of your guest list could place her other immediate family members in a very tough spot. Her siblings, for instance, might also feel compelled to stay home. Excluding her would send a message to her that you are absolutely done.

    I used to believe that wedding invites are meant to acknowledge those relationships that have remained healthy and close over the years.

    Over time I’ve come to understand that invitations can also serve as an optimistic signal for what might be. Weddings, after all, are aspirational family events.

    I’d ask you to imagine yourself 10 years from now. Imagine that Anna continues to struggle and continues to adhere to her “no contact” choice.

    Given this worst-case scenario, would you look back and say to yourself, “Wow – I’m so glad she is the only family member I excluded from my wedding!”

    Or would you say to yourself, “In the name of family harmony, I tried to be inclusive and to reconcile. I wish it had worked.”

    To some extent, this is a test of your own character and of your capacity to rise above a very challenging family situation.

    If you invite Anna, there is some likelihood that she will decline to attend, but at least you would have opened the door.

    Dear Amy: My friend “Sarah” has recently entered into a serious relationship with “Bradley.” Before this relationship, we often planned and took “girl trips,” along with other women friends.

    Boyfriends and husbands have never accompanied us on these vacations.

    Now, Sarah wants to include Bradley when we go on these vacations.

    This is causing a divide within the group.

    I know that she is excited by this new man in her life and the whole group is happy for her.

    Is it unreasonable to ask her to leave Bradley out of our travel plans?

    – Wandering Women

    Dear Wandering: I receive enough questions about “girls’ and guys’ trips” that I found myself wondering if they are a recent phenomenon, but I believe these gendered experiences have actually been around in various forms for a long time (when I was young, my mother and her sisters went on trips – with kids – but without husbands).

    I believe it is legitimate and reasonable to continue to plan an experience which has a specific character and purpose.

    In my opinion, your group should convey: “We understand that you want to bring ‘Bradley,’ but – it is important to us that we keep these trips women-only.”

    Dear Amy: Recently you ran a letter from “Tempting Trainer,” a total jerk of a man who was bragging about his conquests with his female clients.

    I can’t figure out why you waste space on garbage like this.

    – Upset

    Dear Upset: Jerks sometimes inspire some of my most memorable flights of outrage. I’m here for it.

    (You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook.)

    Amy Dickinson

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  • Eurozone inflation fell more than expected in January, to the lowest rate since May 2022

    Eurozone inflation fell more than expected in January, to the lowest rate since May 2022

    Eurozone inflation eased more than expected in January, reaching an eight-month low, but price pressures persisted beyond energy as the European Central Bank gets ready for further interest-rate increases.

    Consumer prices rose 8.5% in January compared with the same month a year earlier, down from a 9.2% increase in December, according to preliminary data from the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat released Wednesday.

    This marks the lowest inflation rate since May, after three consecutive declines following a record high of 10.6% in October.

    Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected inflation to fall to 9.1%.

    The decline in inflation was driven by moderating energy prices, which increased by 17.2% compared with a 25.5% rise in December. However, food, alcohol and tobacco prices climbed 14.1% on year, accelerating from the 13.8% increase recorded the previous month.

    The core inflation rate–which strips out the more volatile categories of food and energy–stood at 5.2% in January, unchanged from December.

    The European Central Bank raised interest rates at an unprecedented pace in 2022 in order to tame high inflation. The bank is widely expected to raise interest rates by 50 basis points on Thursday, which would bring the deposit rate to 2.50%, and further increases are expected as the eurozone’s economy is proving more resilient than anticipated and inflation remains high.

    Eurozone inflation data for January includes an estimate for Germany as the official release has been postponed to next week due to technical problems.

    Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com

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  • The best sales to shop today: Nike, Starface, Nintendo Switch Lite and more | CNN Underscored

    The best sales to shop today: Nike, Starface, Nintendo Switch Lite and more | CNN Underscored

    Today, you’ll find a deal on an Arlo indoor security camera, a discounted Thermapen One and savings on a refurbished Nintendo Switch Lite. All that and more below.

    $100 $70 at Amazon

    Arlo

    You can keep a close eye on your home with an Arlo indoor camera, which earned our top pick after testing nearly a dozen competitors. Arlo’s Essential Indoor Camera is built with privacy in mind, easy to set up and inexpensive, with a monthly storage plan. The video quality is top-notch, motion alerts are prompt and audio sounds great. Now 30% off, it’s matching the lowest price we’ve seen.

    $15 $11 at Soko Glam

    Starface Hydro-Stars

    Starface

    A useful addition to an acne-targeting skin care regimen, hydrocolloid pimple patches accelerate healing and reduce scarring. Get a pack of 32 Starface patches for under $11 to add a little whimsy to your skin — they even come packaged in a mirrored refillable compact.

    $200 $160 at Best Buy

    Nintendo Switch Lite

    Amazon

    With unmatched versatility and an impressive game library, the Nintendo Switch is a favorite at Underscored. What’s more, compared to other consoles like the PS5, Xbox Series X or even the standard Switch, the Switch Lite is cheaper and simpler without sacrificing fun. Nintendo Switch consoles are still fairly in demand, and even more difficult to find a discount on — but right now you can score the Switch Lite for $40 off in turquoise in refurbished condition. 

    $30 From $15 at Woot!

    Nike Dri-Fit Swoosh Women’s Medium-Support Padded Zip-Front Sports Bra

    Nike

    Whether you’re shopping for a new pair of kicks, some comfy loungewear or activewear that perfectly suits your workout routine, this sale has you covered. Right now, Woot! is offering up to 70% off a bunch of apparel.

    $99 $69 at ThermoWorks

    Thermapen One

    ThermoWorks

    Our top pick for the best instant-read meat thermometer is on sale right now. The Thermapen One was the fastest and most accurate thermometer we tested, and had the easiest-to-read display. ThermoWorks is offering a significant discount on open box thermometers — which work like new and come with a full warranty — so snag one now before they all run out.

    • A bunch of Ugg styles are nicely discounted at Zulily right now.

    • Protect your skin with this gentle-yet-effective Cocokind SPF, half off at Soko Glam.

    • During the Winter Your Way sale at Apt2B, you’ll get 18% off all furniture and decor — but hurry, the sale ends today.

    • Shop discounted Valentine’s Day picture books for the kiddos.

    • After testing this Hurom juicer for ourselves, we determined that it’s worth the money and the counter space. Get it 15% off right now.

    • Shop discounted Korean skincare thanks to this Beauty of Joseon sale at Amazon.

    • Target is offering an Apple Watch 7 for as low as $380, a nice discount on a smart watch upgrade we like.

    • Get 20% off pet portraits and other special accessories sitewide at West & Willow using code VDAY20 through Jan. 31. westandwillow.com

    • Outfit your home with smart lighting with these Philips Hue lightstrips, on sale now at Woot!

    • Save on Sperry footwear from duck boots to boat shoes right now.

    Winter Savings Event

    Star Wars Cat Bowl

    Chewy

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    Compact and breezy with performance that rivals the iPad Pro, the latest-generation iPad Air is a fantastic tablet choice for school, work or play. Pair the Air with the Apple Magic Keyboard for a classic laptop interface or a second-generation Apple Pencil for sketching and notes. Regularly $600 for 64GB of internal storage, you’re getting a pretty complete package at a $100 discount. Whether you’re a student, a remote worker or someone looking to upgrade from an entry-level tablet, the latest iPad Air deserves a look.

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    It’s no secret that Dyson makes some seriously stylish (and powerful) appliances, whether we’re talking dust-busting vacuums, air-cleaning purifiers or salon-quality hair tools. If you’ve already jumped on the Dyson train — and, perhaps, are looking for a reason to justify treating yourself to another item from the brand — you’re in luck. Right now Dyson is hosting its annual Owner Rewards Savings Event, meaning those who already own a Dyson machine can get 20% off another of their choice.

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  • Addressable Raises $7.5M to Enable Web3 Companies to Acquire Users at Scale

    Addressable Raises $7.5M to Enable Web3 Companies to Acquire Users at Scale

    [PRESS RELEASE – Tel Aviv, Israel, 31st January 2023]

    Addressable, an innovative end-to-end solution for Web3 marketing, announced today that it secured $7.5 million in a seed funding round, led by Viola Ventures and Fabric Ventures, with participation from Mensch Capital Partners and North Island Ventures. The funding will be used to accelerate adoption and expansion of Addressable’s best-in-class solution, including support for additional blockchains and social media integrations.

    “Marketing is all about knowing your audience, but since crypto wallets are anonymized by design, Web3 marketers rarely know their audience’s age, country or purchasing history,” says Dr. Asaf Nadler, co-founder and chief scientist at Addressable. “In the face of anonymity, our solution allows Web3 marketers to associate anonymous blockchain audiences with social media activity, ultimately addressing the most significant barrier to Web3 growth today.”

    Addressable’s SaaS solution provides Web3 marketing teams with a powerful platform to launch campaigns and more effectively target new audiences by matching blockchain activity with social profiles. This precise targeting reduces cost-of-acquisition dramatically compared to the broad targeting of existing web2 tools. Leading Web3 companies like Polygon, Bancor, Immutable, and Kryptomon are already using Addressable’s technology to acquire new users in an era when traditional Web2 marketing campaigns are no longer effective.

    “In the Web3 era, the key barrier to growth is the inability of marketers to deliver their messages to their targeted audiences, simply because they don’t know much about them”, says Leon Stern, director of growth at Polygon – an Addressable customer. “Most users aren’t attentive on Discord – they’re on social media, and you need to effectively get their attention there. This is where the value of Addressable lies.”

    Addressable was founded by Tomer Sharoni, Tomer Shlomo and Dr. Asaf Nadler, data analytics veterans with more than 20 publications on blockchain, machine learning and big data.

    “We are witnessing an increasing number of Web3 companies investing in meaningful and sustainable user growth through social media, where almost all users spend their time,” says Tomer Sharoni, Addressable’s CEO.

    “Our unique ability to pinpoint Web3 audiences on social media is the missing piece for mass adoption of Web3. In today’s blockchain ecosystem, we’re the only Web3 marketing SaaS platform addressing user acquisition at scale.”

    “Effective user acquisition became the major concern for Web3 businesses over the turbulent past year”, said Richard Muirhead, Chairman and Managing Partner at Fabric Ventures. “Addressable’s Web3 marketing platform combines a compelling go-to-market opportunity for any web3 business with a user-centric approach for which this sector craves. We are excited to take part in Addressable’s journey and to welcome them into the Fabric family.”

    “Addressable is solving a huge problem for web2 and Web3 companies that want to understand their Web3 audiences”, says Omry Ben David, General Partner at Viola Ventures. “Its platform enables marketers to connect the dots between on-chain blockchain data with off-chain social media accounts and use precision targeting for a crisper value proposition and thus superior ROI and conversion. Coupled with an A-class founding team, we believe Addressable is best positioned to lead the marketing stack category in web3.”

    About Addressable

    Addressable is an innovative end-to-end Web3 marketing solution. The company’s best-in-class SaaS platform provides Web3 marketing teams with a powerful platform to effectively target new audiences by matching blockchain activity with social profiles. Addressable is a trusted partner of leading Web3 companies including Polygon, Bancor, Immutable, and Kryptomon. Founded by data analytics veterans Tomer Sharoni, Tomer Shlomo and Dr. Asaf Nadler, Addressable has raised $7.5 million in a seed funding round led by Viola Ventures and Fabric Ventures.

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  • Biden to meet McCarthy amid debt limit fight: ‘Show me your budget’

    Biden to meet McCarthy amid debt limit fight: ‘Show me your budget’

    When President Joe Biden sits down with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the Oval Office Wednesday, he says he’ll tell the GOP leader: “Show me your budget; I’ll show you mine.”

    The highly anticipated meeting, the first the two men will hold since McCarthy narrowly won the speakership last month, comes amid an ongoing standoff over the national debt limit.

    The president told reporters Monday that would be his message for McCarthy, who has insisted on budget cuts in exchange for Republican support to lift the debt ceiling — and avoid a catastrophic default.

    Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy during a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan at the US Capitol in Washington, Jan. 31, 2023.

    Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

    The White House has repeatedly said it would not negotiate with Republicans — that the stakes for the U.S. economy were too high, and that the limit had been raised 74 times before, including with Republican support under then-President Donald Trump.

    But on Tuesday, the president suggested he was open to talking. Asked if he would negotiate with the speaker during Wednesday’s meeting, which is scheduled to take place at 3:15 p.m., Biden responded simply, “Show me his budget.”

    The president has long cast himself as a dealmaker, eager to sit down with Republicans to reach bipartisan agreements. At a fundraiser in New York on Tuesday, Biden referred to McCarthy as “a decent man.”

    But he has also lambasted congressional Republicans as “extreme” and said McCarthy had given in to that faction to take control.

    “Look at what he had to do,” the president said Tuesday. “He had to make commitments that were just absolutely off the wall for a speaker of the House to make in terms of being able to become a leader.”

    Responding to Biden’s comments at the fundraiser, McCarthy said, “apparently he doesn’t understand.”

    “I’m looking forward to sitting down with the president negotiating for the American public — the people of America — on how we can find savings,” McCarthy said.

    When asked if he planned to make Biden a specific offer, McCarthy said, “I think we’re gonna sit down and negotiate.”

    That public posturing was only the latest salvo launched between the two men.

    Earlier Tuesday, McCarthy told reporters that he was “willing to sit down” with Biden “and finally get this done long before the debt limit hits its point that we have to get something done.”

    “Because why would you put the economics of America in jeopardy?” he said. “Why would you play political games?”

    McCarthy has noted he and Biden had “met many times prior to him being president,” although “not as often as being president.”

    He said Tuesday the White House should “say they’re willing to negotiate, because the only irresponsible way is to play a political game and say, we’re not going to talk about it. It sounds pretty childish to me.”

    PHOTO: President Joe Biden meets with Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell at the White House, Nov. 29, 2022.

    President Joe Biden meets with Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell at the White House, Nov. 29, 2022.

    Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images

    Earlier in the day, top White House officials wrote in a memo that Biden planned to pose two questions to McCarthy during the meeting.

    The president is expected to ask McCarthy if he will “commit to the bedrock principle that the United States will never default on its financial obligations” and whether he agrees with “former presidents, including Presidents Trump and Reagan, that it is critical to avoid debt limit brinksmanship,” according to the memo, which was first obtained by ABC News.

    The authors of the memo — the president’s top economic adviser, Brian Deese, and the director of the White House budget office, Shalanda Young – noted Biden planned to release a budget on March 9. They challenged McCarthy to do the same.

    “It is essential,” they wrote, “that Speaker McCarthy likewise commit to releasing a budget, so that the American people can see how House Republicans plan to reduce the deficit – whether through Social Security cuts; cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act (ACA) health coverage; and/or cuts to research, education, and public safety – as well as how much their Budget will add to the deficit with tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations, as in their first bill this year.”

    In response, McCarthy wrote in a statement Tuesday: “Mr. President: I received your staff’s memo. I’m not interested in political games. I’m coming to negotiate for the American people.”

    Republicans in the House have insisted on deep spending cuts in exchange for their cooperation on raising the debt ceiling.

    The Republican Study Committee, which represents the largest group of Republicans in the House, previously called for revisions to Social Security and Medicare, including raising the age for Medicare to 67 and Social Security to the age of 70 for younger workers.

    But McCarthy recently said any cuts to Social Security and Medicare would be “off the table.”

    McCarthy pointed to the “Commitment to America” plan presented by Republicans before the midterms, which he said “strengthens” Medicare and Social Security. The White House has accused McCarthy of being “evasive” on his plan for government spending.

    Pressed on what he meant by “strengthen” and whether he would seek to raise the retirement age — McCarthy said: “No, no, no. What I’m talking about Social Security, Medicare, you keep that to the side.”

    PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks at the construction site of the Hudson Tunnel Project, Jan. 31, 2023, in New York City.

    President Joe Biden speaks at the construction site of the Hudson Tunnel Project, Jan. 31, 2023, in New York City.

    John Minchillo/AP

    “I want to find a reasonable and a responsible way that we can lift the debt ceiling but take control of this runaway spending,” McCarthy said.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has expressed support for McCarthy. “We’re all behind Kevin,” he said Tuesday. “Wishing him well in the negotiations.”

    Meanwhile, the White House has repeatedly said Biden will not negotiate or compromise by tying a debt limit increase to spending cuts, with the administration pointing to the bipartisan history of the ceiling being increased by both parties over the years.

    “Attempts to exploit the debt ceiling as leverage will not work,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last month. “There will be no hostage taking.”

    Earlier this month, McCarthy made it clear he was holding firm.

    “For the president to say he wouldn’t even negotiate — that’s irresponsible. We’re going to be responsible. We’re going to be sensible, and we’re going to get this done together. So the longer he waits, the more he puts the fiscal jeopardy of America up for grabs,” McCarthy told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott last month. “We should sit down and get this done and stop playing politics,” he added.

    The debt limit doesn’t allow government spending on new programs — instead it allows the U.S. to borrow any money it needs to pay for the nation’s existing bills.

    The federal government hit the current debt ceiling, about $31.4 trillion earlier this month prompting the Treasury Department to step in with “extraordinary measures” which will allow the nation to avert a catastrophic default until June.

    “President Biden will ask Speaker McCarthy to publicly assure the American people and the rest of the world that the United States will, as always, honor all of its financial obligations,” the memo stated.

    ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

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  • Living In … Bridgeport, Conn.

    Living In … Bridgeport, Conn.

    This Fairfield County city is working to shed its ‘rundown’ image, although progress is happening slowly: “The city’s turning itself around.”

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  • Paulina Porizkova Poses Unretouched for Vogue Scandinavia

    Paulina Porizkova Poses Unretouched for Vogue Scandinavia



    Paulina Porizkova Vogue Scandinavia 2023 Cover Unretouched

    Rogue

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  • Native Americans left out of ‘deaths of despair’ research

    Native Americans left out of ‘deaths of despair’ research

    A sign calling attention to drug overdoses is posted in a gas station on the White Earth reservation in Ogema, Minn.. A new study shows that early deaths due to addiction and suicide have impacted American Indian and Alaska Native communities far more than white communities.

    David Goldman/AP


    hide caption

    toggle caption

    David Goldman/AP

    A sign calling attention to drug overdoses is posted in a gas station on the White Earth reservation in Ogema, Minn.. A new study shows that early deaths due to addiction and suicide have impacted American Indian and Alaska Native communities far more than white communities.

    David Goldman/AP

    If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 9-8-8, or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

    For more than a decade, Americans have been dying younger than people in other developed countries. Researchers attribute much of this rise in mid-life deaths to what are called “deaths of despair” — that is suicides, drug overdoses and deaths from alcoholic liver disease — among middle-aged white Americans.

    But a study published last week in The Lancet shows that these premature deaths have affected American Indian and Alaska Native communities far more than white communities.

    “The whole sort of premise of the ‘death of despair’ idea that this is unique to white communities really didn’t stand up when we took a close look at the data,” says Dr. Joseph Friedman, a physician and researcher at the University of California Los Angeles.

    “The Lancet article underscores a number of things that we’ve known for a substantial period of time, but have never articulated it in such a sharp fashion,” says Spero Manson, director of the University of Colorado’s Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health who wasn’t involved in the new study.

    The idea that the rise in deaths of despair was the highest in middle aged white Americans was put forward by two Princeton economists in a study published in 2015. They had looked at death rates for 45-54 year-olds from 1999-2013, and compared the numbers by race and ethnicity.

    “Ideally no one should die in that age group, certainly not of overdose, suicide and alcoholic liver disease,” says Friedman.

    When he and his colleagues analyzed the mortality data more closely, they found that American Indians and Alaska Native people had been completely left out of the analysis in the original study. And the midlife mortality rates for these groups were far higher than among whites.

    “In the same period that deaths among white Americans did go up by about 9%, deaths among Native Americans went up by 30%,” says Friedman.

    Poll: 69% of Native Americans say inflation is severely affecting their lives

    “The entire narrative about deaths of despair among white Americans depended on the invisibility, or, we might say, the erasure of indigenous presence, invisibility in those datasets,” says psychologist-anthropologist Joseph Gone of Harvard University, a member of the Aaniiih Gros Ventre tribal nation of Montana and a co-author of the Lancet study. “And that’s a problem from our vantage point.”

    Data on Native communities are often missing from public health research, he adds, because “our numbers are small and we often get folded into a category like ‘Other’ instead of being reported distinctively for indigenous peoples.”

    While the recent rise in deaths among white Americans is, of course, alarming, Gone says, that the factors driving these deaths have affected Native communities for much longer.

    “Indian country problems rise and fall with the economy like everyone else’s,” he says, “but we’re just used to a lack of resources and opportunities for a whole bunch of reasons that go way back.”

    Reach out and listen: How to help someone at risk of suicide

    He adds that “colonial subjugation” by European settlers and historical attacks on the ways of life and livelihoods of indigenous communities have shaped the health and lifespans of Native communities since the early days of this country.

    “Part of what I think we’re seeing in these [rising rates of] deaths of despair are attacks on livelihoods,” he says, “and decline in the ability to have good livelihoods.”

    “If you look at matters of poverty, education, decreased employment opportunities, restricted access to other kinds of resources that are typically associated with these kinds of health disparities,” says Manson, “they’re very powerful and widely present in American and Alaska Native communities.”

    The new study also found that the disparities in midlife mortality have only worsened since 2013, especially exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. In 2020, the death rates among middle-aged Native people due to despair-related causes was twice that among white people.

    “This is a sort of astronomical inequality, you know, that should be unthinkable in our society,” says Friedman.

    But Manson believes that addressing these longstanding disparities in health and mortality will take more than just focusing on deaths of despair.

    “The problem is if we only focus on deaths of despair, we ignore and do not have adequate attention paid to the sources that promote health and well-being in Native people,” he says.

    For example, he says, Native people have one of the highest rates of COVID vaccination compared to other racial and ethnic groups. According to the CDC, as of Jan. 25, 2023, nearly 78% of American Indiana and Alaska Native people have received at least one dose of the vaccine — the highest rate compared to all other racial and ethnic groups. And 64% of this group had completed the primary series of vaccination, second only to Asian Americans.

    As NPR reported before, this was in large part because of Native people wanting to protect their elders and being more willing to get vaccinated.

    Manson has been studying COVID testing and vaccination in six large urban Indian health organizations and found their efforts to be very successful.

    “It has been their coming together across their programs, working not only with their urban partners that are non-native, but also working with reservation-based communities adjacent to their catchment areas,” he says.

    Reducing deaths of despair, Manson says, will require harnessing the strength and resilience of Native communities and supporting them with resources.

    “There are possible solutions,” he adds. “Those solutions are often local. They have to do with self-determination and the ability to have access to the necessary resources to mobilize those solutions.”

    Rhitu Chatterjee

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  • Vaccine Makers Kept $1.4 Billion in Prepayments for Canceled Covid Shots for the World’s Poor

    Vaccine Makers Kept $1.4 Billion in Prepayments for Canceled Covid Shots for the World’s Poor

    As global demand for Covid-19 vaccines dries up, the program responsible for vaccinating the world’s poor has been urgently negotiating to try to get out of its deals with pharmaceutical companies for shots it no longer needs.

    Drug companies have so far declined to refund $1.4 billion in advance payments for now-canceled doses, according to confidential documents obtained by The New York Times.

    Gavi, the international immunization organization that bought the shots on behalf of the global Covid vaccination program, Covax, has said little publicly about the costs of canceling the orders. But Gavi financial documents show the organization has been trying to stanch the financial damage. If it cannot strike a more favorable agreement with another company, Johnson & Johnson, it could have to pay still more.

    Gavi is a Geneva-based nongovernmental organization that uses funds from donors including the U.S. government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to provide childhood immunizations to lower-income nations. Early in the pandemic, it was charged with buying Covid vaccinations for the developing world — armed with one of the largest-ever mobilizations of humanitarian funding — and began negotiations with the vaccine makers.

    Those negotiations went badly at the outset. The companies initially shut the organization out of the market, prioritizing high-income countries that were able to pay more to lock up the first doses. Gavi eventually reached deals with nine manufacturers.

    But the shots did not begin to reach developing countries in significant numbers until mid-2022. By the time Gavi had a steady flow of supply, demand had begun to decline: countries with frail health systems struggled to deliver the shots, and the dominance of the milder Omicron variant sapped people’s motivation to be vaccinated. Now, Covax is winding down far short of its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the population of each country.

    The vaccine makers have brought in more than $13 billion from the shots that have been distributed through Covax. Under the contracts, the companies are not obligated to return the prepayments Gavi gave them to reserve vaccines that were ultimately canceled.

    But in light of how many vaccine doses Gavi has had to cancel, some public health experts criticized the companies’ actions.

    Covid vaccine manufacturers “have a special responsibility” because their products are a societal good and most were developed with public funding, said Thomas Frieden, the chief executive of the global health nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives and a former director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “That’s a lot of money that could do a lot of good,” he said.

    He added that other large global health programs have budgets roughly equal to the amount the vaccine makers are holding on to. “The entire polio eradication effort costs about $1 billion a year, and that’s a huge infrastructure,” he said.

    Gavi has reached settlements with Moderna, the Serum Institute of India and several Chinese manufacturers to cancel unneeded doses, surrendering $700 million in prepayments, the documents show.

    Another drug company, Novavax, is refusing to refund another $700 million in advance payments for shots it never delivered.

    Gavi and Johnson & Johnson are locked in a bitter dispute over payment for shots that Gavi told the company months ago it would not need, but which the company produced anyway. Johnson & Johnson is now demanding that Gavi pay an additional, undisclosed amount for them.

    Gavi had an indirect supply relationship with Pfizer; the Biden administration purchased a billion shots from it to donate through Covax. The United States last year revised its deal with the company, converting an order for 400 million doses into future options. The company said it did not charge any fees to change the order.

    The terms of Gavi’s deals were kept secret because they were with private companies. There has been no public accounting of how much drug companies have earned from canceled vaccines.

    The documents say that the manufacturers collectively made $13.8 billion in revenue on the vaccines that were distributed through Covax. Almost 1.9 billion doses have now been shipped, to 146 countries. More than half were purchased directly by Gavi and the rest were donated by high-income countries.

    Gavi’s settlements with Moderna and Serum took into account that the manufacturers had already incurred costs such as those for raw ingredients, according to the documents.

    In a deal to cancel more than 200 million doses reached late last year, Gavi agreed to allow Moderna to keep an advance payment it had made. In exchange, Gavi was released from having to make any additional payments for the doses, meaning they were canceled at a cost “substantially lower” than expected, according to the documents. Moderna also issued Gavi a credit for $58 million for future products, which is good until 2030.

    Gavi also made concessions to exit its deal with the Serum Institute of India. Gavi canceled 145 million doses by allowing the company to keep money Gavi had paid in advance, in order to cover the cost of materials that had already been procured. Serum also gave Gavi a credit note of an undisclosed amount that the organization can use to procure the many routine immunizations it buys from Serum each year.

    Moderna and Serum declined to comment on the terms.

    Gavi and Johnson & Johnson are at odds over 150 million Covid vaccine doses that Gavi ordered but has been trying to cancel for months.

    Gavi had been expecting a significant share of those doses to be distributed by the end of 2021, but Johnson & Johnson had delivered fewer than 4 million doses by then. (Gavi’s contract with the company did not require it to finish deliveries by that deadline.) When the company was finally ready to ramp up its deliveries last year, demand had plummeted.

    Gavi’s administrators alerted the company by mid-2022 that they would not need those doses and requested that it stop making new shots for Covax, according to the documents.

    Johnson & Johnson nevertheless continued to make the shots and sought to deliver them by late 2022, according to the documents. Now, as stipulated in the contract, the company wants Gavi to make additional payment and accept the vaccines.

    Gavi has proposed that the dispute go to mediation, but the company has “until now refused to engage in meaningful negotiations,” the documents say. Some of the disputed vaccines have expiration dates as early as mid-2023.

    Jake Sargent, a spokesman for Johnson & Johnson, said the company had made the ordered doses available to Covax and kept Gavi informed about production details.

    In negotiations with Novavax, Gavi is seeking a refund for $700 million it spent on advance payments for shots.

    Gavi had been expecting Novavax deliveries to begin as soon as summer 2021, but the company bungled its vaccine production. As a consequence, Gavi did not proceed with placing the orders for the vaccines it had originally reserved. Novavax said this was a breach of contract and canceled the deal, keeping the $700 million.

    The dispute is unresolved. The company is hoping to negotiate a new deal to supply its vaccine to Gavi, said a Novavax spokeswoman, Alison Chartan.

    Some of the vaccine contracts that Gavi entered into were completely fulfilled. In one case, AstraZeneca issued Gavi a refund when final production costs were lower than expected.

    Had some vaccine manufacturers not been willing to renegotiate their contracts with Gavi, the costs to the organization could have been much higher. Gavi would have been on the hook for $2.3 billion for the doses it wanted to cancel, the documents show, but it saved $1.6 billion by exiting those contracts.

    A spokesman for Gavi, Olly Cann, said the organization had made no new payments related to canceled doses. He said the surrendered advance payments represented a fraction of what Gavi would have paid for finished doses.

    Dr. Seth Berkley, Gavi’s chief executive, declined to comment for this article. But in an interview in December about the future of the global Covid vaccination program, he said Gavi was paying less per dose than what it had initially planned for vaccine purchases and substantially less than high-income countries paid for their shots.

    Donations for Covid shots substantially inflated Gavi’s budget, and the lost prepayments for canceled Covid vaccines do not threaten its regular childhood-vaccination work.

    The contracts that Gavi has been trying to downsize were negotiated in the uncertain early months of the pandemic, in some cases before the vaccines had been shown to work.

    “In a pandemic, I would want to err on the side of buying too many doses, rather than err on the side of not having enough doses, particularly given the fact that countries felt that there weren’t enough doses at the beginning,” Dr. Berkley said.

    Wealthy countries, who ordered many more doses than they needed, have tried to offload their own surpluses onto Covax, which has struggled to absorb them.

    Covax began deliveries to developing countries in 2021, but the early pace was glacial. When the program finally had vaccines, the shots presented challenges that weak health systems were ill-equipped to manage.

    Frustrated by the erratic supply, some public health agencies did little to create demand for the vaccines, while a tide of misinformation discouraged people from seeking them out. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the world’s least-vaccinated region, but reported Covid death rates in the region have been comparatively low, which has further eroded interest in the shots.

    “We have so many offers of donations but we don’t take them, because we don’t want to have them expire here,” said Dr. Andrew Mulwa, who oversees the Covid response at Kenya’s health ministry. “We wonder, do we need to continue to spend money administering Covid-19 vaccines when we have other glaring disparities?”

    Gavi is sitting on a stockpile of vaccines and expects millions more in donations from high-income countries that are seeking to shed their own oversupply. The organization anticipates a maximum demand of 450 million doses this year — half of what Covax shipped in 2022.

    Stephanie Nolen and Rebecca Robbins

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  • Oscar Isaac, Rachel Brosnahan and the Draw of a Neglected Hansberry Play

    Oscar Isaac, Rachel Brosnahan and the Draw of a Neglected Hansberry Play

    The play is nearly 60 years old. What has surprised you about it?

    ISAAC The way she talks about identity, that feels eerily prophetic. What’s surprising to me is that this queer Black young woman, in the ’60s, wrote this play that has so much freedom. Every character has moments of extreme selfishness, ignorance and ugliness. Then, within a sentence, they say something that breaks your heart. You don’t see that kind of bravery these days.

    BROSNAHAN She gives each and every character the grace to be exactly who they are. She’s extraordinary. And so much of her extraordinary self is in this play. She could hold so many prophetic ideas in her head at once. We are revisiting a huge conversation right now about white apathy and the consequences of that in our political system and world. She explores that with such nuance in this play.

    Oscar, you mention identity. Sidney is Jewish as written and you were not raised Jewish. Does that make you feel any particular responsibility?

    ISAAC We could play that game: How Jewish are you? It is part of my family, part of my life. I feel the responsibility to not feel like a phony. That’s the responsibility, to feel like I can say these things, do these things and feel like I’m doing it honestly and truthfully.

    Has the play made you reflect about your own commitments, your own beliefs?

    BROSNAHAN I’ve been very inspired by the play’s criticism of inaction. As someone who can be an absolutist, very all or nothing, it feels like a very hopeful and healthy reminder that you can do something, even something small, even something local. If that’s all you can do, that is enough. If we all do a little bit, we have the ability to make great change. Lorraine believed deeply in people’s ability to make change.

    ANNE KAUFFMAN Doing this play and having people come watch it and making sure that it’s accessible, that’s my mission. People need to hear her voice and they need to see this play.

    BROSNAHAN We need her in this moment.

    KAUFFMAN In every moment. We haven’t even caught up to her. The way that she thinks.

    Alexis Soloski

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  • Women Have Been Misled About Menopause

    Women Have Been Misled About Menopause

    The W.H.I. trial measured the most severe, life-threatening outcomes: breast cancer, heart disease, stroke and clots, among others. But for a woman who is steadily losing hair, who has joint pain, who suddenly realizes her very smell has changed (and not for the better) or who is depressed or exhausted — for many of those women, the net benefits of taking hormones, of experiencing an improved quality of life day to day, may be worth facing down whatever incremental risks hormone therapy entails, even after age 60. Even for women like me, whose symptoms are not as drastic but whose risks are low, hormones can make sense. “I’m not saying every woman needs hormones,” Rubin says, “but I’m a big believer in your body, your choice.”

    Conversations about menopause lack, among so many other things, the language to help us make these choices. Some women sail blissfully into motherhood, but there is a term for the extreme anxiety and depression that other women endure following delivery: postpartum depression. Some women menstruate every month without major upheaval; others experience mood changes that disrupt their daily functioning, suffering what we call premenstrual syndrome (PMS), or in more serious cases, premenstrual dysphoric disorder. A significant portion of women suffer no symptoms whatsoever as they sail into menopause. Others suffer near-systemic breakdowns, with brain fog, recurring hot flashes and exhaustion. Others feel different enough to know they don’t like what they feel, but they are hardly incapacitated. Menopause — that baggy term — is too big, too overdetermined, generating a confusion that makes it especially hard to talk about.

    No symptom is more closely associated with menopause than the hot flash, a phenomenon that’s often reduced to a comedic trope — the middle-aged woman furiously waving a fan at her face and throwing ice cubes down her shirt. Seventy to 80 percent of women have hot flashes, yet they are nearly as mysterious to researchers as they are to the women experiencing them — a reflection of just how much we still have to learn about the biology of menopause. Scientists are now trying to figure out whether hot flashes are merely a symptom or whether they trigger other changes in the body.

    Strangely, the searing heat a woman feels roaring within is not reflected in any significant rise in her core body temperature. Hot flashes originate in the hypothalamus, an area of the brain rich in estrogen receptors that is both crucial in the reproductive cycle and also functions as a thermostat. Deprived of estrogen, its thermostat now wonky, the hypothalamus is more likely to misread small increases in core body temperature as too hot, triggering a rush of sweat and widespread dilation of the blood vessels in an attempt to cool the body. This also drives up the temperature on the skin. Some women experience these misfirings once a day, others 10 or more, with each one lasting anywhere from seconds to five minutes. On average, women experience them for seven to 10 years.

    What hot flashes might mean for a woman’s health is one of the main questions that Rebecca Thurston, the director of the Women’s Biobehavioral Health Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, has been trying to answer. Thurston helped lead a study that followed a diverse cohort of 3,000 women over 22 years and found that about 25 percent of them were what she called superflashers: Their hot flashes started long before their periods became irregular, and the women continued to experience them for as many as 14 years, upending the idea that, for most women, hot flashes are an irritating but short-lived inconvenience. Of the five racial and ethnic groups Thurston studied, Black women were found to experience the most hot flashes, to experience them as the most bothersome and to endure them the longest. In addition to race, low socioeconomic status was associated with the duration of women’s hot flashes, suggesting that the conditions of life, even years later, can affect a body’s management of menopause. Women who experienced childhood abuse were 70 percent more likely to report night sweats and hot flashes.

    Might those symptoms also signal harm beyond the impact on a woman’s quality of life? In 2016, Thurston published a study in the journal Stroke showing that women who had more hot flashes — at least four a day — tended to have more signs of cardiovascular disease. The link was even stronger than the association between cardiovascular risk and obesity, or cardiovascular risk and high blood pressure. “We don’t know if it’s causal,” Thurston cautions, “or in which direction. We need more research.” There might even be some women for whom the hot flashes do accelerate physical harm and others not, Thurston told me. At a minimum, she says, reports of severe and frequent hot flashes should cue doctors to look more closely at a woman’s cardiac health.

    As Thurston was trying to determine the effects of hot flashes on vascular health, Pauline Maki, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was establishing associations between hot flashes and mild cognitive changes during menopause. Maki had already found a clear correlation between the number of a woman’s hot flashes and her memory performance. Maki and Thurston wondered if they would be able to detect some physical representation of that association in the brain. They embarked on research, published last October, that found a strong correlation between the number of hot flashes a woman has during sleep and signs of damage to the tiny vessels of the brain. At a lab in Pittsburgh, which has one the most powerful M.R.I. machines in the world, Thurston showed me an image of a brain with tiny lesions represented as white dots, ghostlike absences on the scan. Both their number and placement, she said, were different in women with high numbers of hot flashes. But whether the hot flashes were causing the damage or the changes in the cerebral vessels were causing the hot flashes, she could not say.

    Susan Dominus

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  • What to Know About Menopause and Hormone Therapy

    What to Know About Menopause and Hormone Therapy

    “Menopause has the worst P.R. campaign in the history of the universe, because it’s not just hot flashes and night sweats,” says Rachel Rubin, a sexual-health expert and assistant clinical professor in urology at Georgetown University. Menopausal symptoms are more varied, and can be more debilitating, than many people know. During the transition to menopause, women may also experience sleeplessness, mood changes, depression, weight gain, joint pain, vaginal dryness and pain during sex, among other symptoms. Bone loss accelerates. In women who have a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease, the first plaques are thought to form in the brain around this time.

    There has long been an effective, F.D.A.-approved treatment for several of these symptoms, known as menopausal hormone therapy, but because of fear and misinformation, too few women have a clear picture of its risks and benefits. The New York Times Magazine’s cover story this week examines hormone therapy and menopause, unpacking what the research really tells us.

    Hormone therapy has been shown to ease hot flashes and sleep disruption, and there is some evidence that it helps with depression and aching joints. It also helps prevent and treat menopausal genitourinary syndrome, a collection of symptoms, including urinary-tract infections and pain during sex, that affect nearly half of postmenopausal women. It decreases the risk of diabetes and protects against osteoporosis. Because of the health risks associated with hormone therapy, it is recommended for women who have “bothersome” hot flashes and certain other menopausal symptoms, not for preventive care.

    The age at which a woman begins hormone therapy is important for assessing her increased risk of heart disease, stroke and dementia.

    For women who go through early menopause, before age 45, hormone therapy is recommended because they’re at greater risk for osteoporosis if they don’t receive hormones up to the typical age of menopause. For healthy women in their 50s, the increased risks from hormone therapy are considered low. There are greater risks for women who start hormone therapy after age 60. No definitive research has yet followed women who start in their 50s and stay on continuously into their 60s.

    Women of all ages have an increased risk of breast cancer after about five years of taking hormones.

    At highest risk from hormone use are women who have had a heart attack, breast cancer or a stroke or clot, or women with a cluster of significant health problems.

    “For everyone else,” says Stephanie Faubion, the director of the Center for Women’s Health at the Mayo Clinic, “the decision has to do with the severity of symptoms as well as personal preferences and level of risk tolerance.”

    Hormone therapy was once the most commonly prescribed treatment in the United States, but in 2002, a major study raised serious concerns about its health risks, causing many doctors and patients to abandon it. New analyses of the data from that study, known as the Women’s Health Initiative, along with many others, have since provided reassurance that the risks of hormone therapy are low for healthy women under 60. But the treatment’s reputation has still not recovered.

    If many doctors aren’t discussing hormone therapy with their patients, it may be because of gaps in their own knowledge. A 2017 survey sent to medical residents across the country found that 20 percent of them had not heard a single lecture on the subject of menopause. Rebecca Thurston, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh who studies menopause, believes that, in general, menopausal women have been underserved — an oversight that she considers one of the great blind spots of medicine. “It suggests that we have a high cultural tolerance for women’s suffering,” Thurston says. “It’s not regarded as important.”

    For high-risk women, other sources of relief exist: The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (S.S.R.I.) paroxetine is approved for the relief of hot flashes, although it is not as effective as hormone therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy has also been shown to help women manage how much hot flashes bother them. Doctors who treat menopause are waiting for the F.D.A.’s review of a drug up for approval this month: a nonhormonal drug that would target the complex of neurons thought to be involved in triggering hot flashes.

    Women should talk to their doctors about their symptoms and treatment options. The North American Menopause Society, an association of menopause specialists, offers a resource that allows users to search by ZIP code for health care professionals who have received a NAMS certification in menopause care.

    The New York Times

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  • Five Minutes That Will Make You Love 21st-Century Jazz

    Five Minutes That Will Make You Love 21st-Century Jazz

    Over the past few months, The New York Times has asked jazz musicians, critics and scholars to answer the question, What would you play a friend to make them fall in love with Duke Ellington? Or Alice Coltrane? We’ve also covered bebop, vocal jazz and the catalogs of Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra.

    That’s a lot of listening back. So this month, we decided to explore what’s happening now. Where is jazz today? It’s a good time to be asking. Just a dozen years ago, the music seemed to be having a crisis of self-worth. Where was its center? Could anything guarantee its relevance?

    But over the past five or 10 years, you could say that jazz has gone through a kind of ego death, and then a rebirth: Today there’s no particular sound or style that young players all want to preserve, but jazz as a general practice — a commitment to taking on musical adventures together, live and in real time; to treating musical instruments as the writing utensils for a narrative — hasn’t been this alive in decades. As a result, all across the jazz spectrum, artists are in comfortable contact with hip-hop, contemporary poetry, the Black Lives Matter movement and visual art.

    Below, we asked writers and jazz musicians of various generations to recommend their favorite recordings from the new millennium. Enjoy reading their commentary and listening to the excerpts, and find a playlist at the bottom of the article with full tracks. As always, be sure to leave your own favorites in the comments.

    During the swing era, jazz was a leader in the trends of pop culture and even perceived as dance music, but then there was a seismic shift toward sitting down and listening. I’m encouraged by the emergence of artists today who have pursued “groove” in their jazz without compromising creativity, reminding us that this can be music that makes you want to move. Kassa Overall is such an artist. I love his song “Who’s on the Playlist” because it invites the question, “Is this jazz or is this hip-hop?” Kassa is a pre-eminent style bender and blender, successfully juxtaposing genres through his production expertise and use of melodic and harmonic forms that deftly integrate the new with the old. This track is authentic and unpretentious, blending acoustic instruments with electronic sounds, catchy hooks with improvisation and diverse musical sections, and jazz chords with polyrhythmic raps that express personal stories in hip-hop vernacular. It powerfully exhibits the consistent innovation in the continuum of Black music and encourages us not to draw lines in the sand.

    J.D. Allen’s got a nice, full sound: It really fills up the room when he’s playing. When I was living in Chicago many, many years ago, there used to be a player called Alec Johnson. Alec had one of these strong sounds that would really captivate you: “Wow, listen to that — to the music, to the volume!” So when I hear J.D., he reminds me of Alec in that way. He’s got a nice, big, fat sound, and he’s got a lot of ideas. He doesn’t sound like he’s ever wanting to find something to play. So I really am struck by that, and I really liked him when I heard him perform live. There’s so much music out here today, I’m glad that he’s keeping the flame.

    I’ve long admired Luke Stewart’s artistic versatility: You can see him plucking the upright bass as a member of the free jazz quintet Irreversible Entanglements, playing the electric as one-half of the psych-rock-leaning Blacks’ Myths, or engaging in traditional and free-form hybrids at the helm of his Silt Trio. While it’s tough to single out one Stewart song as my favorite, I always find myself coming back to “Awakening the Masters,” the propulsive opener of his 2020 “Exposure Quintet” album. The bass loop captivates, enticing the reedists Ken Vandermark and Edward Wilkerson Jr., the pianist Jim Baker and the drummer Avreeayl Ra to build upon it with ascendant saxophone wails, escalating cymbals and billowing piano chords suspended gently in the mix. Even as the harmony develops and mutates, Stewart saunters along, his bass keeping the song in a steady rhythmic pocket. I think that’s why I like it so much: It’s a microcosm of Stewart’s centered presence across the spectrum of experimental music. No matter the subgenre, he’s an immovable force guiding the music forward.

    I was thinking about what would honestly bring people to this music, and it’s hearing something young. Because young people have always been the pioneers of this music. People become great masters as they age, but it’s something that they did when they were young that everybody caught onto and connected with. With Domi & JD Beck, they don’t sound jaded by jazz school; they sound like they’re doing their thing. They respect everything else that’s come before and they’re pushing forward with their own thing. It has a lot of integrity, but it’s also playful; it’s very technical, but it’s also fun. And with this track, they gave us a gem: another Herbie Hancock vocoder song! There were always those two classics — “I Thought It Was You” and “Come Running to Me” — but now we’ve got another.

    Immanuel Wilkins is clearly spending a lot of time on the instrument, just like John Coltrane did. He’s obviously putting the horn in his mouth a lot. There are some other guys that have talent but their desire is to be popular. But Immanuel Wilkins’s music has really got some depth, and it’s going to influence the future, at least the way I see it. That first album of his, “Omega,” really broke some ground. It’s substantial. And it has to do with the tradition.

    When you really tune into a piece of music, what are you usually paying attention to? The words? The beat? A line you can go off humming? Nicole Mitchell’s music with the Black Earth Ensemble rewards listening of about any kind, but it’s best received with a sense of surrender. Limit your expectations of what might be coming next. Put your body under the influence. On “Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds,” a 2017 LP influenced by Octavia Butler’s writings, the poet and vocalist Avery R. Young lends Pentecostal flair to lines of earnest recognition — “I want to pick up my blade/But then again there’s gotta be another way,” he hollers — while Mitchell’s flute whips and shivers around him, a well-contained force of nature. Playing a mix of Asian, European and Afro-diasporic instruments, the eight-piece ensemble raises the high-water mark gradually, in splashes, until you’re swept up. Mitchell is calling up the spirit-memories of this music, which are so often grounded in a particular place: Ornette Coleman at Prince Street, Fred Anderson on the South Side, Alice Coltrane in California, Archie Shepp in Algeria. But she’s also reaching toward somewhere unimaginably better — what Saidiya Hartman calls “the nowhere of utopia,” if you like.

    I remember graduating La Guardia High School, hearing this song and feeling liberated and excited about the possibilities of how my generation could interact with improvised music. Renée Neufville’s voice fits perfectly with Roy Hargrove’s playing and singing. Compositionally, the tune appears to be very simple. However, if you try to sing along, you find it may require a bit more out of you. And that’s the fun of it. The song evokes feelings of house parties and underground shows, and you feel like you are in the studio with the band. It’s a very honest and no-frills, in-and-out track that you can’t help but want to play on repeat.

    Translated as “Tribute to the Old Guard,” this cut is a slinky reimagining of Idris Muhammad’s 1974 jazz-funk classic “Loran’s Dance,” a record that was part of my own initiation as a jazz fan. The combo of Karriem Riggins and Madlib is behind this unit, two multihyphenate producers who’ve unwaveringly bridged the narrow trench between jazz and hip-hop in increasingly electrifying ways. With just the right mix of distortion and dusty synths, crisp boom-bap drum licks and sunshine, the record feels like what Raphael Saadiq classifies as “instant vintage,” and yet fresh as sun on bare shoulders on the first warm day of spring.

    Five minutes, five hours, five days — once this album-length composition by Natural Information Society sucks you in, it feels like it could flow forever. Joshua Abrams, the group’s leader, was in an early version of the Roots before he moved to Chicago and became part of that city’s indie and jazz scene; he now plays the guimbri, a three-stringed African bass lute that is the most constant element anchoring the ever-shifting “descension (Out of Our Constrictions).” The guimbri’s interplay with Lisa Alvarado’s (vibrating, psychedelic) harmonium, Jason Stein’s bass clarinet and Mikel Patrick Avery’s drumming creates a bed of sound, like a woven pattern, that leaves space for the free-blowing saxophone of Evan Parker, a 20th-century improv veteran still going strong in the 21st, to soar over the top. When Natural Information (minus Parker) performed this piece live at the Woodsist Festival in upstate New York in 2021, slotted between sets by Angel Bat Dawid and Kurt Vile, it felt even more like a loose game of Minimalist musical Ping-Pong — a round robin with no winners, just each player hitting the right spot and falling back as the next stepped up to join the entrancing cascade.

    Out of an infinite sea of compelling options, stretching all across jazz’s stylistic map, I ended up selecting a track that some might call “straight ahead” (even though I’m not particularly fond of that term), just to try to help make the case that this particular mode of communal expression is still flourishing and forward-moving. It is no small thing to take a chestnut such as “Body and Soul” — one of the most-played standards in the history of recorded music — and make it feel fresh, relevant, interesting and beautiful. The pianist Gerald Clayton, the bassist Joe Sanders and the drummer Marcus Gilmore are, without question, three of the greats of their generation and some of the most active and emulated musicians on the scene today. They have thoroughly absorbed and internalized the evolved vocabularies and common practices of their art and made them wholly and unmistakably their own. Their connectedness — with each other, with their audience, and with this shared musical language — is nuanced, empathic, generous and unforced. They are not trying to prove anything. They are in it for the ride, and what a ride it is: dance music.

    If you ever have a chance to see Craig Taborn play solo, go without delay, and you will be transfixed. On this track, “Gift Horse/Over the Water,” you can hear influences of electronic music, Minimalism, contemporary classical music and jazz, specifically from the pianists Geri Allen and Keith Jarrett. Craig has made significant contributions to jazz and solo piano in the 21st century through his unique touch on the piano and seamless synthesis of disparate influences. You can hear his influence among many improvising pianists over the last 20 years, including Vijay Iyer, Marta Sanchez, Matt Mitchell, Micah Thomas and myself.

    I’ve always been under the impression that discovery is the best value of humankind, and when one is fortunate enough to discover something it’s never lost, because it becomes part of them. Whenever I’ve played onstage with Sylvie Courvoisier, I’ve never felt handicapped or abandoned or like I had to look for a way to continue. It’s always been a journey that has been mutual and creative. She’s got courage, and you can see it when she’s at the piano: When she is inspired to go toward something, she doesn’t just go near it, she advances as if she’s going there to save creation. That’s the kind of courage that she has. And she finds every way to express music with that attitude. This is the music of our times that is hidden, like a crown jewel — and only the ones that are really curious and have great fantasies and imagination will find it. Because in darkness everything is dark except the ones that’s got light.

    This whole record, “Like-Coping,” from 2003, is beautiful: from the opening notes of “Miriam” to the last track. This is Parker’s first solo release on Delmark, a label based in our shared hometown, Chicago, with Chad Taylor on drums and Chris Lopes on bass. I can’t believe it is 20 years old this year! It still sounds so fresh. Each member contributes extremely well-crafted earworms that will get stuck in your head, in the best way. Even the way the record is sequenced is brilliant. “Pinecone,” written by Lopes, is the composition that most makes me want to dance.

    Giovanni Russonello

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  • Memphis to Gather in Grief at Tyre Nichols’s Funeral

    Memphis to Gather in Grief at Tyre Nichols’s Funeral

    Mr. Sharpton has delivered remarks at the funerals of Mr. Floyd, whose 2020 death after an officer in Minneapolis kept his knee on the prone man’s neck for more than eight minutes sparked national protests; Daunte Wright, who was shot by a police officer who mistook her gun for her Taser during a traffic stop outside Minneapolis in 2021; Alton Sterling, who was shot by the police in Baton Rouge, La., in 2016; and others dating back decades, including the 1997 death of William J. Whitfield, an unarmed man fatally shot on Christmas Day in Brooklyn.

    Mr. Nichols died on Jan. 10, three days after a traffic stop that turned into a brutal beating at the hands of Memphis police officers who were part of a specialized unit formed to help halt a surge of violence in the city.

    In response to his death, police officials announced on Saturday that the unit had been disbanded. Jim Strickland, the mayor of Memphis, has also called for an extensive review of the Police Department. Two other police officers who were on the scene have been suspended pending the results of an investigation into their actions, as have two deputies from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department. Two medics and a lieutenant from the Memphis Fire Department who responded to the scene have also been fired, officials said.

    Video from the officers’ body cameras and a stationary surveillance camera that was released last week showed the assault and Mr. Nichols begging for his life. The encounter began as officers approached his vehicle — they claimed he had been driving erratically, although the city’s police chief has said no evidence of that has emerged — with guns drawn and pulled him from his car. The officers shouted often contradictory orders before using pepper spray on Mr. Nichols, who ran off.

    But officers soon caught up with Mr. Nichols and severely beat him, with one officer delivering a series of blows to Mr. Nichols’s head while two other officers held his hands behind his back.

    Mr. Nichols called out for his mother during the assault, which took place not far from her home.

    Before the stop, his mother said, he had been on his way home from Shelby Farms, a sprawling public park just outside Memphis. He went there often to photograph the sunset. His photographs will be shown during the funeral.

    “We get so zeroed in on how he died, we don’t get a chance to recognize that he lived before that moment,” Pastor Turner said.

    Rick Rojas

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  • The Unlikely New TikTok Influencers: Old-School Watch Dealers

    The Unlikely New TikTok Influencers: Old-School Watch Dealers

    This general variety of business has often been viewed as déclassé, the province of fast-talking hustlers. (Something similar could be said of the watches Buckley deals in, with their somewhat retro strains of masculinity.) But it stands in sharp contrast to modern American business as a whole, which is increasingly corporatized, internationalized, technologized and financialized — all far too remote for an uncredentialed striver to imagine finding openings where hustle and interpersonal savvy, the right eye and the right instincts, can be rewarded with wealth. Certain types of young people, especially young men, are clearly in search of such openings. One result, lately, is the number drawn into seedy ventures like cryptocurrencies, gambling, multilevel marketing or drop-shipping schemes. Another result is that it’s bound to seem thrilling and enticing, for many younger people, to watch transactions in which prices are bluffed out by independent agents in rapid-fire banter, rather than dictated by corporate offices or set in algorithmic trading. This is a way to imagine actively participating in a market rather than just being subject to it.

    On TikTok, Buckley appears amid content from many a “rise and grind” hustler, figures spouting tips on getting ahead in life. But those influencers tend to fixate on the surface of things: on lifestyle, status symbols and the spectacle of making moves. Buckley ends up complicating those urges in the same way “Uncut Gems” does. He knows the appeal of luxury goods, and how to use them to entice both buyers and viewers. But he retains a distance from them. He and his peers sling around expensive watches with impersonal matter-of-factness; these are assets to sell, a job to do, not a source of identity.

    You can watch this play out on another account, “Buying Time,” which features Buckley and his young protégé, Tyler Mikorski, working customers for whom the watches clearly cast more of a spell. These include customers identified as a “socialite,” an “entrepreneur” and a “fashion designer” named Simon, who appraises Buckley and Mikorski’s clothes disapprovingly: “I can’t believe you guys are selling me a watch in hoodies. This is ridiculous — where’s the suits?” Later, when Simon tries to sweeten his offer for a Rolex Day-Date by implying he’ll pay in full on the spot, Buckley responds by pulling a thick wad of bills from his pants: “Does it really look like I need cash in my pocket?” he asks.

    Viewers have long enjoyed watching people like Buckley, on shows like “Antiques Roadshow” or “Pawn Stars,” bring their expertise to bear, rapidly spitting out vintages and values. But in this case, the bigger part of the appeal may be watching Buckley work a buyer using bravado and street smarts. It’s not at all hard to imagine young people, their imagination captured, dreaming of doing their own sharp-eyed haggling.

    The path taken by Mikorski may be instructive. A college dropout, Mikorski fell in love with the game after Buckley gave him his first watch, worth $1,800, and told him to come back with a hundred dollars more. Mikorski parlayed that deal into more and more money — and then, eventually, into more than a million TikTok followers for his “Vookum” account. During a recent interview with a vintage-watch website, he said fans reached out every day with questions on how to become a dealer. He warns them, he said, that the business is hard and “sketchy.” Asked later to lay out his plans for the future, Mikorski looked far beyond the work: “I just want to retire by 30 on the beach,” he said.

    Jasper Craven

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  • What to Watch at the Fed’s First Meeting of 2023

    What to Watch at the Fed’s First Meeting of 2023

    Federal Reserve officials are expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point on Wednesday, the latest step in their battle against rapid inflation. But what they signal about their next moves will be even more important than their actual decision this week.

    The Fed will release its January policy statement at 2 p.m. in Washington, after which Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, will hold a news conference.

    Although the central bank is not releasing fresh economic forecasts at this meeting, Mr. Powell’s remarks should give investors and economists a chance to assess whether officials have changed their thinking since they last met in December. In that meeting, Fed officials projected that they would lift interest rates — which are currently set in a range 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent — to just above 5 percent this year and leave them elevated throughout 2023.

    Since that gathering, inflation has shown further signs of slowing, technology companies have announced substantial layoffs and consumer spending has slowed markedly. But for all of those signals of a slowdown, there has also been evidence of sustained economic strength — unemployment remains at a half-century low and wage growth, while moderating, remains unusually rapid.

    Here’s what to watch for in the Fed’s statement and news conference.

    The Fed is likely to raise rates by a quarter point to a range of 4.5 to 4.75 percent at this meeting. That rate increase would be the tiniest move the central bank has made since March; Fed officials lifted borrowing costs by half a point in December, and before that they nudged them up by three-quarters of a percentage point at four straight meetings.

    The slowdown is meant to give Fed officials time to see how the economy is doing after a year of aggressive rate increases. Is the economy slowing down as much as expected? Is the job market cooling off? Such factors will determine how high interest rates ultimately need to rise.

    Fed officials projected in their December economic estimates that they would probably raise interest rates to a range of 5 to 5.25 percent in 2023, implying two more quarter-point rate moves after the expected move on Wednesday.

    If officials have only a few more adjustments left, they might call into question a key word in their statement: “ongoing.”

    Officials have been predicting that they will make “ongoing increases” in their policy interest rate to slow the economy. But that wording would make less sense if the Fed were to stop raising rates in either March or May, as investors expect. That is why some economists think officials could drop or tweak the phrase this week.

    Pulling out the thesaurus is tricky business for the Fed, though: There’s a risk that Wall Street would interpret any shift in the wording to mean that central bankers think they have basically done enough to temper the economy. If investors breathe a sigh of relief, it could make money cheaper and easier to borrow and help the economy to re-accelerate, working at odds to the Fed’s goals.

    Markets will be on the lookout for any hint at whether the Fed is likely to stick with its expectations and raise rates a few more times before it hits pause. Inflation has been a little bit softer recently: The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge ran at 4.4 percent over the past year, after stripping out volatile food and fuel prices. That is still way faster than the roughly 2 percent that is normal and is the central bank’s goal, but it’s a notable slowdown from 5.4 percent early last summer.

    Does the Fed still think that it needs to raise rates a few more times, given that moderation, or will the cooler backdrop make it easier for them to stop lifting borrowing costs sooner? The Fed chair is sure to face questions about it.

    Keep an ear on Mr. Powell’s news conference for any discussion of wage gains — they could end up being a critical driver of policy this year. The Fed chair has previously made clear that he believes it would be hard to wrangle inflation fully with wages growing so quickly.

    He explained late last year that “demand for workers far exceeds the supply of available workers, and nominal wages have been growing at a pace well above what would be consistent with 2 percent inflation over time.”

    But some of his colleagues have been taking a more benign view of the job and wage situation in recent weeks.

    “There are tentative signs that wage growth is moderating,” Lael Brainard, the Fed’s vice chair, said during recent remarks, adding that she sees no sign that prices and wages are driving each other steadily higher.

    Others have welcomed a recent slowdown but suggested that they need to see a further slowdown.

    “I need to see more evidence of wage moderation to sustainable levels,” Christopher J. Waller, a Fed governor, said in a recent speech.

    A new crowd of decision makers will have a say about what happens next with Fed policy.

    Because this is the first meeting of 2023, the Fed will get new voting members. Four of the central bank’s 12 regional presidents rotate in and out of voting seats each year, while New York’s president and the Fed’s seven governors in Washington hold a constant vote. This year’s newest voting members are Lorie Logan from Dallas, Austan Goolsbee from Chicago, Neel Kashkari from Minneapolis and Patrick Harker from Philadelphia.

    Ms. Logan has already suggested that the Fed may be able to stop rate increases and restart them, which could be a theme to watch this year.

    Mr. Kashkari has underlined the importance of getting inflation fully under control and suggested he would favor raising rates well above 5 percent, while Mr. Harker has said he expects the Fed to raise rates “a few more times” this year. This is Mr. Goolsbee’s first meeting as a Fed official, so he has yet to make clear his views on monetary policy.

    Jeanna Smialek

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