Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards can’t run from stardom anymore
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Sports

Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards can’t run from stardom anymore

PHOENIX — Fresh off, arguably, the most important performance of his young career, Anthony Edwards sat in front of the world with a white tank top and an all-black Atlanta Braves fitted cap that sat loose, hovering just above his crisp hairline — making him look more like an extra in Outkast’s “Player’s Ball” video than the future face of the NBA.Edwards is who he is. Silly. Lovable. Intelligent. Country. He wears it all, loudly and proudly. He’s also a competitor. A trash-talker. He wears all of those things just as loud, just as proud.You add all of that up and you have a star. You add all of those things up plus a 40-point performance in a playoff-sweeping 122-116 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night, and you start to enter superstardom.Yet, Edwards, for one reason or another, ...
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Tesla Fires Charger Team Amid Hundreds of Layoffs
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Technology

Tesla Fires Charger Team Amid Hundreds of Layoffs

Elon Musk has gutted the part of Tesla responsible for building electric vehicle charging stations, sowing uncertainty about the future of the largest and most reliable U.S. charging network.The layoffs of about 500 Tesla employees, which many of them posted about on social media on Tuesday, raised questions about deals that Mr. Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, struck with the leaders of General Motors, Ford Motor and other automakers last year allowing cars made by other companies to use Tesla Supercharger stations.Tesla’s agreements with other makers of electric cars assured buyers that they would be able to find fast chargers on road trips, addressing one of the main reasons that many people are hesitant to buy such cars. It was also seen as a coup for Mr. Musk, validating Tesla’s technol...
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China’s Electric Cars Keep Improving, a Worry for Rivals Elsewhere
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Economy

China’s Electric Cars Keep Improving, a Worry for Rivals Elsewhere

Automakers in China are building a new generation of bigger, more technologically advanced and competitive electric cars, threatening to leap further ahead of their global rivals as they step up exports around the world.The dozens of car companies operating in China plan to put 71 new battery electric models on sale this year. Many new models have taller hoods for a bolder appearance and more storage space. The cars have bigger tires that improve braking. The seats are thicker and more comfortable. The batteries are ever smaller, more powerful and quicker to recharge.The changes are aimed at making the cars even more appealing for customers in China and more competitive abroad. Along with plug-in hybrid cars, battery electric cars are taking sales away from gasoline-powered cars and their ...
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Europe’s Economic Laggards Have Become Its Leaders
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News

Europe’s Economic Laggards Have Become Its Leaders

Something extraordinary is happening to the European economy: Southern nations that nearly broke up the euro currency bloc during the financial crisis in 2012 are growing faster than Germany and other big countries that have long served as the region’s growth engines.The dynamic is bolstering the economic health of the region and keeping the eurozone from slipping too far. In a reversal of fortunes, the laggards have become leaders. Greece, Spain and Portugal grew in 2023 more than twice as fast as the eurozone average. Italy was not far behind.Just over a decade ago, Southern Europe was the center of a eurozone debt crisis that threatened to pull apart the bloc of countries that use the euro. It has taken years to recover from deep national recessions and multibillion-dollar international...
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Barbra Streisand’s Ozempic Comment to Melissa McCarthy Prompts a Conversation
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Health

Barbra Streisand’s Ozempic Comment to Melissa McCarthy Prompts a Conversation

On Monday, the actress Melissa McCarthy posted a photo to Instagram in which she was wearing a tiered, sea-foam-green gown at a gala she had attended alongside the director Adam Shankman. Though the photo itself didn’t cause much of a stir, one comment — which happened to be from the entertainer Barbra Streisand — did. It read, in part, “Did you take Ozempic?”Screenshots of the comment began circulating soon after, with many viewers criticizing Ms. Streisand for inquiring publicly whether another celebrity was taking a weight-loss medication. (Others wondered if Ms. Streisand realized the comment had been posted where others could see it.) The comment has since been deleted.On Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Streisand addressed the pushback. She had gone on Instagram to see photos of flowers she ha...
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Watching Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City as the Premier League title race heats up
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Sports

Watching Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City as the Premier League title race heats up

One of the closest, most enthralling Premier League title races in many years is careering towards a climax.Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City played out crucial games on consecutive nights this week — and The Athletic went to all three to survey and convey the emotions of three very different clubs and fanbases.An Arsenal fan briefly comes up for air between substantial munches of a doner kebab: “The internet is gonna be a f****** joke tonight.”Welcome to The Emirates. They are a different breed here; still rabid football fans all the way to their inner core, but perhaps with slightly different priorities on a matchday.The number of selfies being taken in front of the giant Arsenal lettering opposite the Hornsey Road roundabout, for example, is well above average for your typical foot...
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Friends From the Old Neighborhood Turn Rivals in Big Tech’s A.I. Race
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Technology

Friends From the Old Neighborhood Turn Rivals in Big Tech’s A.I. Race

Mustafa Suleyman grew up in subsidized housing in one of London’s roughest areas. His father, a Syrian immigrant, drove a taxi. His mother was a nurse with the National Health Service. When the prestigious Queen Elizabeth’s School accepted him at the age of 11, the family moved into a safer, leafier neighborhood a few miles north.There, he met 20-year-old Demis Hassabis, after becoming friends with his younger brother. Demis was a chess prodigy and video game designer whose parents — one a Greek Cypriot, the other a Singaporean — ran a London toy store.Today, they are two of the most powerful executives in the tech industry’s race to build artificial intelligence. Dr. Hassabis, 47, is the chief executive of Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s central research lab for artificial intelligence....
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How High Wall Street Thinks the Fed Will Keep Interest Rates
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Economy

How High Wall Street Thinks the Fed Will Keep Interest Rates

At the start of 2024, investors expected the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates substantially this year as inflation cooled. But price increases have been surprisingly stubborn, and that is forcing a rethink on Wall Street.Investors and economists are questioning when and how much Fed policymakers will manage to cut rates — and some are increasingly dubious that Fed officials will manage to lower them at all this year.Inflation was coming down steadily in 2023, but that progress has stalled out in 2024. The Fed’s preferred inflation index climbed 2.8 percent in March from a year earlier, after stripping out volatile food and fuel costs, data on Friday showed. While that is down substantially from a 2022 peak, it is still well above the central bank’s 2 percent goal.Inflation’s stickines...
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How Capitalists in Communist Cuba Are an Economic Lifeline
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News

How Capitalists in Communist Cuba Are an Economic Lifeline

A modern grocery store whose shelves are packed with everything from pasta to wine fills a spot in central Havana once occupied by a drab state-owned flower shop, its ceilings and walls repaired and repainted.A former state glass company in a Havana suburb now houses a showroom for a private business selling Cuban-made furniture.And at the Cuban capital’s port, forklifts carefully unload American eggs from a refrigerated container. The eggs are bound for an online private supermarket that, much like Amazon Fresh, provides home delivery.These ventures are part of an explosion of thousands of private businesses that have opened in recent years across Cuba, a remarkable shift in a country where such enterprises have not been permitted and where Fidel Castro rose to power leading a communist r...
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How Supplement Stores Are Trying to Tap Into the Ozempic Boom
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Health

How Supplement Stores Are Trying to Tap Into the Ozempic Boom

As diabetes and weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy took off in the last few years, many people turned away from established diet and nutrition products.Now, two retailers that specialize in nutritional supplements — GNC and the Vitamin Shoppe — are trying new approaches to win over people who are taking those drugs or who are interested in them.GNC is dedicating a wall of supplements in its more than 2,300 stores to products that it believes will appeal to people on Ozempic, which contains the compound semaglutide, and other drugs that are known as GLP-1 medicines. The chain is also training workers to help customers assess which substances could help them manage common side effects of those prescription drugs.Michael Costello, chief executive of GNC, said his company saw a “big ope...
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