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☆ Performance by Maestro With Russian Ties Is Canceled in Vienna
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Javier C. Hernández | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When the Wiener Festwochen, a prestigious festival that brings leading international artists to Vienna, announced this spring’s lineup, the backlash was swift and fierce. The festival had planned to make the Russian invasion of Ukraine a focus of its programming, juxtaposing an appearance by the Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv with a concert by the maestro Teodor Currentzis, who has faced scrutiny over his connections to Russia. Critics, including Lyniv, had argued that the pairing was insensitive and ignored the suffering of Ukrainians. Now, after weeks of pressure, the festival has abandoned its plan, saying that it would cancel the appearance by Currentzis while moving forward with the one by Lyniv. “The decision was clear and there was no alternative,” Milo Rau, the festival’s artistic director, said in an interview on Tuesday.

Persons: Wiener, Oksana Lyniv, Teodor Currentzis, Currentzis, Milo Rau Locations: Vienna, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Russia

☆ Big Profits in Caring for the Elderly
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( David Leonhardt | More About David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The main reason is that almost every form of care in the U.S. costs more: doctor’s visits, hospital stays, drug prescriptions, surgeries and more. The American health care system maximizes the profits of health care companies at the expense of families’ budgets. Dying brokeYou can find a poignant example in a series that The Times and KFF Health News (a nonprofit) have been publishing in recent weeks. It’s called Dying Broke, and it examines the long-term care industry. “That is far higher than the money made in most other health sectors.”

Persons: — Gerard Anderson, Uwe Reinhardt, Peter Hussey, Varduhi, —, It’s, ” Jordan Rau Organizations: KFF Health Locations: U.S

Joan Soranno and John Cook clicked from the start. They met when they were working as architects on a Frank Gehry-designed project in 1991 in Minneapolis and spent the ensuing decades as partners, first in work and then in marriage. Together, they have designed many award-winning cultural landmarks, from the Marlboro Music Reich Hall Rehearsal Building & Music Library in Vermont to the Bigelow Chapel at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.

Persons: Joan Soranno, John Cook, Frank Gehry, Bigelow Organizations: Marlboro Music, Music Library, United Theological Seminary, the Twin Locations: Minneapolis, Vermont, the Twin Cities

☆ Why Long-Term Care Insurance Falls Short for So Many
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Jordan Rau | Jonel Aleccia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“They tightened their belts,” said Alan Kassan, a senior partner with the California law firm Kantor & Kantor, which represents clients challenging denials. “Then they tightened their claim administration and started denying claims more and more.”In 2022, the proportion of traditional long-term care claim denials varied, from 4.5 percent in Rhode Island to 9.6 percent in Alaska, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. By 2017, she was hobbled by osteoporosis and was struggling to manage her multiple medications, according to her daughter, Ann Kempski. But when the family tried to file a claim, they discovered that Penn Treaty was insolvent and the policy had been taken over by the Pennsylvania state insurance guaranty fund. Her doctor told Penn that she had “mild dementia” and osteoporosis and should be in an assisted-living facility.

Persons: ”, Alan Kassan, Kantor, Kantor & Kantor, Alice Kempski, Ann Kempski, Penn, Kempski Organizations: Kantor &, National Association of Insurance, Penn Treaty, American Network Locations: California, Rhode Island, Alaska, Wilmington, Del, Penn, Pennsylvania

☆ A Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Jordan Rau | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

You can find contacts for your state’s insurance department through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ directory. But insurance may be worth it if the value of all your savings and possessions excluding your primary home is at least $75,000, according to a consumers’ guide from the insurance commissioners’ association. Many insurers are selling hybrid policies that combine life insurance and long-term care insurance. Those are popular because if you don’t use the long-term care benefit, the policy pays out to a beneficiary after you die. But compared with long-term care policies, hybrid policies “are even more expensive, and the coverage is not great,” said Howard Bedlin, government relations and advocacy principal at the National Council on Aging.

Persons: you’ll, ”, Howard Bedlin Organizations: American Association for, Care Insurance, National Association of Insurance, Social Security, Medicaid, National Council, Aging

☆ Extra Fees Drive Assisted-Living Profits
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Jordan Rau | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Assisted-living centers have become an appealing retirement option for hundreds of thousands of boomers who can no longer live independently, promising a cheerful alternative to the institutional feel of a nursing home. But their cost is so crushingly high that most Americans can’t afford them. These highly profitable facilities often charge $5,000 a month or more and then layer on extra fees at every step. The facilities charge extra to help residents get to the shower, bathroom or dining room; to deliver meals to their rooms; to have staff check-ins for daily “reassurance” or simply to remind residents when it’s time to eat or take their medication. Some even charge for routine billing to a resident’s insurance for care.

Persons: ’ ”, Lori Smetanka Organizations: National Consumer Voice

☆ What to Know About Assisted Living
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Jordan Rau | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It’s worth checking a few months after moving in to see if the care plan is more than the resident needs. Is it better to go with a facility that charges a set monthly amount or one that bills for each service? That’s also true if you need assistance with many things. Some facilities have an independent living wing or a program with à la carte pricing, which may be best for those who need only sporadic assistance. Be honest with yourself, and the facility, about what you can afford when the bill rises, because it’s going to.

Persons: they’re, That’s, “ You’ve, ”, Karen Van Dyke Locations: San Diego

☆ Companies Tried to Spend Less on Cloud. Then AI Showed Up.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Belle Lin | Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A manufacturing facility for commercial data servers used in cloud computing. Photo: Donna Carson/ReutersBusiness technology leaders are expecting their cloud spending to grow in 2024, an increase linked in part to the growth of new generative artificial intelligence services. “Our cloud usage is up, for example, driven by our use of generative AI in drug discovery,” said Diogo Rau , executive vice president, chief information and digital officer of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly . “The cloud is important for generative AI because it makes it possible to set up projects quickly and enables large, parallel computations to increase speed.”

Persons: Donna Carson, ”, Diogo Rau, Eli Lilly Organizations: Reuters Business

☆ What Long-Term Care Looks Like Around the World
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Jordan Rau | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Provinces and territories fund long-term care services through general tax revenue. Notably, Canada’s long-term care system is separate from its national health care system, which pays for hospitals and doctors with no out-of-pocket costs to patients. on long-term care, 80 percent more than the United States spent. Britain has also taken steps to shield people from losing all of their wealth to pay for long-term care. Singapore recently instituted a system of mandatory long-term care insurance for those born in 1980 or later.

Persons: D.P., 🇸 🇬, ove, —, Kath l Organizations: Uni, pla, Citi, emi Locations: D. data, nis

It was costing us $8,000 out of pocket to have people come into my mom’s house to help her, and that was only eight hours a day. She was in rehab for the maximum number of days that Medicare will cover and couldn’t return home. Because she owned a house, had two rentals, savings and two cars, she had to pay long-term care costs out of her pocket. The state says we still owe close to $20,000 for the year Medicaid paid for her nursing home. It was awful — personally all the time and energy and money to do this for her — and it was great.

Persons: I’m, —, that’s, Bryan Ness Organizations: Medicaid

Margaret Newcomb, 69, a retired French teacher, is desperately trying to protect her retirement savings by caring for her 82-year-old husband, who has severe dementia, at home in Seattle. She used to fear his disease-induced paranoia, but now he’s so frail and confused that he wanders away with no idea of how to find his way home. He gets lost so often that she attaches a tag to his shoelace with her phone number. They ran up $15,000 in medical and credit card debt while she took on the role of caretaker. “I had to do it.”Millions of families are facing such daunting life choices — and potential financial ruin — as the escalating costs of in-home care, assisted-living facilities and nursing homes devour the savings and incomes of older Americans and their relatives.

Persons: Margaret Newcomb, Feylyn Lewis, Sheila Littleton, ”, “ Locations: French, Seattle, England, Nashville, Houston

☆ World reacts to surprise attack by Hamas on Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The UK will always support Israel’s right to defend itself," Foreign Minister James Cleverly said in a social media post. URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION"I unequivocally condemn the attack carried out by Hamas terrorists against Israel. DUTCH PRIME MINISTER MARK RUTTE"Just spoke with Prime Minister @netanyahu about the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel. POLISH FOREIGN MINISTER ZBIGNIEW RAU"I strongly condemn Hamas' ongoing attacks on Israel. AUSTRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ALEXANDER SCHALLENBERGSchallenberg strongly condemned what he called a "cowardly and underhand" attack on Israel by Hamas.

Persons: Mahmoud Issa, OLAF SCHOLZ, Scholz, EMMANUEL MACRON Macron, Macron, JAMES, James, URSULA VON DER LEYEN, JOSEP BORRELL, Borrell, TAYYIP ERDOGAN, Erdogan, MARK RUTTE, @netanyahu, Rutte, MIKHAIL BOGDANOV, Mikhail Bogdanov, Israel, Israel's, ZBIGNIEW RAU, Rau, PETR PAVEL, Pavel, Benjamin Netanyahu, ALEXANDER SCHALLENBERG Schallenberg, HADJA LAHBIB, Ros Russell, Jan Harvey Organizations: REUTERS, Hamas, Twitter, SAUDI ARABIA'S, OF, AK Party, DUTCH, Hezbollah, Gaza, MINISTRY, Israel, State, SWISS DEPARTMENT OF, BELGIAN, Thomson Locations: Gaza, Israel, Palestinian, Germany, SAUDI, Egypt, TURKISH, Ankara, Netherlands, RUSSIAN, MIKHAIL BOGDANOV Russia, Iran, Lebanese, Ukraine, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, CZECH, Czech Republic, Czech, AUSTRIAN, Belgium, Greece

☆ ADB approves $300 million loan to fund greening of Chinese coal city
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Saturday it had approved a $300 million loan to an industrial city in a major Chinese coal-producing province to help "catalyse green" transformation of the city of 3 million people. The loan for Changzhi in the northern province of Shanxi will help fund a $665 million project, partly financed by the Chinese government, to reduce poverty, cut carbon emissions and improve urban liveability in a city that has long depended on coal, the ADB said. "Knowledge gained from the project will serve as a model for replication in other heavy-industry regions," ADB Principal Urban Development Specialist Stefan Rau said in a statement. As part of the project, Changzhi will build treated wastewater reuse facilities, put electric buses on roads and create bicycle-paths made from construction waste. Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Stefan Rau, Ryan Woo, William Mallard Organizations: Asian Development Bank, Changzhi, ADB, Urban, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, Shanxi, Manila

☆ As Covid Infections Rise, Nursing Homes Are Still Waiting for Vaccines
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Jordan Rau | Tony Leys | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Covid is not pretty in a nursing home,” said Deb Wityk, a 70-year-old retired massage therapist who lives in one called Spurgeon Manor, in rural Iowa. She has contracted the disease twice, and is eager to get the newly approved vaccine because she has chronic leukemia, which weakens her immune system. But many nursing homes will not begin inoculations until well into October or even November, though infections among this vulnerable population are rising, to nearly 1 percent, or 9.7 per 1,000 residents of mid-September from a low of 2.2 per 1,000 residents in mid-June. “The distribution of the new Covid-19 vaccine is not going well,” said Chad Worz, the chief executive of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. That has added new complications for operators of nursing homes, who have encountered resistance throughout the pandemic in persuading people, especially employees, to receive yet another round of shots.

Persons: ”, Deb Wityk, Spurgeon, Chad Worz Organizations: Disease Control, American Society of, Pharmacists Locations: Iowa

☆ Germany's Scholz Asks Poland to Clarify Cash-For-Visas Affair
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-23 | by ( Sept. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday called on the Polish government to clarify allegations about a cash-for-visas deal for migrants that has roiled Polish politics, as a debate about immigration heats up in Germany. Arrivals to Poland could easily cross into other European Union countries given that borders are open. "The visa scandal that is taking place in Poland needs to be clarified," Scholz said on Saturday at an event. Scholz hinted that Germany could take steps to control the border with Poland. In recent years, Germany has already coped with floods of migrants and asylum seekers from Syria and Ukraine.

Persons: Olaf Scholz, Scholz, Nancy Faeser, Zbigniew Rau, Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, Andreas Rinke, Tom Sims, Clelia Oziel Organizations: BERLIN, Union, Polish, Home Affairs, EU Locations: Polish, Germany, Poland, Syria, Ukraine

☆ Germany's Scholz asks Poland to clarify cash-for-visas affair
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses a ministerial level meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the crisis in Ukraine at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 20, 2023. Arrivals to Poland could easily cross into other European Union countries given that borders are open. "The visa scandal that is taking place in Poland needs to be clarified," Scholz said on Saturday at an event. Scholz hinted that Germany could take steps to control the border with Poland. In recent years, Germany has already coped with floods of migrants and asylum seekers from Syria and Ukraine.

Persons: Germany's, Olaf Scholz, Brendan McDermid, Scholz, Nancy Faeser, Zbigniew Rau, Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, Andreas Rinke, Tom Sims, Clelia Organizations: United Nations Security Council, REUTERS, Rights, Union, Polish, Home Affairs, EU, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, U.N, New York, Polish, Germany, Poland, Syria

☆ Polish PM tells Ukraine's Zelenskiy 'never to insult Poles again'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Alan Charlish | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Polish President Andrzej Duda commemorate victims of World War II at the Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Lutsk, Ukraine July 9, 2023. REUTERS/Alina Smutko/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsWARSAW, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Poland's prime minister told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday not to "insult" Poles, maintaining harsh rhetoric towards Kyiv after the Polish president had sought to defuse a simmering row over grain imports. "I... want to tell President Zelenskiy never to insult Poles again, as he did recently during his speech at the U.N.," Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told an election rally. Slovakia, Poland and Hungary imposed national restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports after the European Union executive decided not to extend its ban on imports into those countries and fellow EU members Bulgaria and Romania. "In defence of the Polish farmer I will never hesitate to take such a decision."

Persons: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Andrzej Duda, Saint Peter, Paul Cathedral, Alina Smutko, Zelenskiy, Mateusz Morawiecki, PiS, Duda, Zbigniew Rau, Rau, Morawiecki, Alan Charlish, Pawel, Alex Richardson, Jonathan Oatis, Gareth Jones Organizations: Saint, REUTERS, Rights, United Nations General Assembly, Kyiv, Law and Justice, Analysts, Politico, NATO, European Union, EU, Warsaw, European Commission, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Lutsk, Poland, Russia, New York, Moscow, Kyiv, Polish, Ukrainian, UKRAINE, Warsaw, EU, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania

☆ Seven Charged in Polish Visa Irregularity Probe - Prosecutor
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Sept. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +3 min

WARSAW (Reuters) - Seven people have been charged over alleged irregularities in the granting of Polish work visas, a prosecutor said on Wednesday, amid a deepening scandal on the hot-button subject of migration ahead of Oct. 15 elections. On Wednesday opposition lawmakers said knowledge about the irregularities was widespread in government, stretching as far as Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau. The opposition has said the irregularities could concern hundreds of thousands of visa applications, but prosecutors have said that their investigation concerns several hundred. Deputy coordinator of special services Stanislaw Zaryn said that none of the visa applicants concerned by the investigation posed a security threat to Poland. According to Eurostat data cited by Rzeczpospolita daily on Wednesday, Poland issued almost 2 million work visas over the past three years, including 600,000 in 2020, more than a quarter of the EU total that year.

Persons: Daniel Lerman, Piotr Wawrzyk, Wawrzyk, Lerman, Zbigniew Rau, PiS, Rafal Bochenek, Stanislaw Zaryn, Alan Charlish, William Maclean Organizations: Law and Justice, Department for, National Prosecutor's, Corruption Bureau, Union, Rzeczpospolita, EU Locations: WARSAW, Poland

☆ Federal Officials Propose New Nursing Home Standards to Increase Staffing
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Jordan Rau | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The nation’s most thinly staffed nursing homes would be required to hire more workers under new rules proposed on Friday by the Biden administration, the greatest change to federal nursing home regulations in three decades. The proposed standard was prompted by the industry’s troubled performance earlier in the coronavirus pandemic, when 200,000 nursing home residents died. But the proposal falls far short of what both the industry and patient advocates believe is needed to improve care for most of the 1.2 million Americans in nursing homes. estimated that three-quarters of the nation’s 15,000 homes would need to add staff members. But the increases at many of those facilities would be minor, as the average nursing home already employs nurses and aides at, or very close to, the proposed levels.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Centers, Medicare, Services, C.M.S

☆ Reaction to Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in plane crash with no survivors
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Yulia Morozova/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsAug 23 (Reuters) - Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private jet that crashed on Wednesday evening north of Moscow with no survivors, the Russian authorities said. The following is reaction:*U.S. President Joe Biden to reporters in Lake Tahoe:“I don't know for a fact what happened. Reports Russian Air Defence shot down the plane suggests Putin is sending a very loud message." It so happens that political opponents whom Vladimir Putin considers a threat to his power do not die naturally." In the end, if Vladimir Putin is so powerful, why didn’t he arrest Prigozhin?”Editing by Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Maxim Fomin, Vladlen Tatarsky, Yulia Morozova, Joe Biden, I'm, Putin, Mykhailo Podolyak, Vladimir, Alicia Kearns, Zbigniew Rau, Vladimir Putin, Daniel Hoffman, Prigozhin, ”, That’s, Pavel Luzin, thinktank, Cynthia Osterman Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, CNN, Foreign Affairs, Govt, Russian Air Defence, CIA, Center for, Thomson Locations: St Petersburg, Moscow, Russia, Lake Tahoe, Estonia, U.S

"It's hard to think of an area that this couldn't help," said Diogo Rau, Eli Lilly chief information and digital officer. He said Lilly already is using generative AI to write patient safety reports and clinical narratives, and ultimately, it will play a role in drug discovery. One of the most anticipated uses for generative AI is in customer relationship management, and that is happening at more companies. Others noted their firms are in the early days of rolling out code generation tools using gen AI, as well as AI "co-pilots" across many roles, and using generative AI to help make investment decisions. Generative AI could enable a more customized and pro-security posture for organizations," he said.

Persons: OpenAI, Diogo Rau, Eli Lilly, Lilly, Rau, Eddie Fox, It's, Fox, Nicole Coughlin, Cybersecurity, ransomware, Jim Richberg, Richberg, Joe Levy, Sophos, it's, Levy Organizations: CNBC, Nvidia, Google, Microsoft, TEC, CNBC Technology, Epic, AIs Locations: Cary , North Carolina, Fortinet

☆ In ‘Horse Barbie,’ Geena Rocero Recounts a Modeling Life Like No Other
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Shane O Neill | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the back seat of a car en route to the West Village, she reflected on her shift from model to advocate. “And then I felt like I entered a new trap, which is respectability politics.”Ms. Rocero said she never felt fully comfortable in the role of trans role model. At first she was excited to assume what she called an Angelina Jolie persona — a beautiful, world-trotting champion of social issues. “Ines was the first one,” Ms. Rocero said, referring to the French model Ines Rau. In the West Village, Ms. Rocero once again jaywalked while approaching Rosecrans, a combination florist and coffee shop.

☆ ‘Antigone in the Amazon’ Review: The Drama Is Brazil’s Land War
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Laura Cappelle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Arriving after so much political action, the play feels like an afterthought. In “Antigone in the Amazon,” two Flemish actors from NTGent, Sara De Bosschere and Arne De Tremerie, address the audience at regular intervals, explaining the tricky process of making the show and the ethical issues it raised. At one point, they are shown onscreen performing a scene from “Antigone” for the residents of a remote Amazonian village, who sit in a circle around them. I occasionally wondered the same thing about “Antigone in the Amazon.” Still, it is a more balanced, effective production than “Orestes.” Two Brazilian performers, Frederico Araujo and Pablo Casella, join the Flemish cast onstage. A third, the Indigenous activist Kay Sara, was supposed to join them and play Antigone, but we are told early in the show that she had “decided to go back home, with her people.”

☆ In the Whirl of ChatGPT, Startups See an Opening for Their AI Chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Generative AI and large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT require massive amounts of computing power to run, and typically rely on chips like Nvidia’s graphics-processing units, or GPUs, that are specialized for these types of calculations. Graphcore sells primarily to AI startups looking to build and train models at lower cost, he said, and the company is benefiting from the proliferation of those startups. Shane Rau, who leads International Data Corp.’s semiconductor research, said chip startups are increasingly pivoting to focus their products on supporting large language models. Still, he added, “you’re going to see a combination of real adaptation and marketing.”“There will be the pressure to say: ‘Hey, we’re already relevant, our AI chip technology’s already relevant to generative AI’,” said Mr. Rau. Some chip makers say they expect yet another surge in demand once businesses more widely adopt generative AI.

Pliant is a Berlin fintech that provides businesses with corporate credit cards. The startup just raised a $28 million Series A, which was led by SBI Investment. Pliant is a Berlin fintech that offers small and midsize businesses corporate credit cards. The company now has a five-figure number of credit cards in circulation across more than 1,500 small and midsize businesses, Rau added. It recently raised a $28 million Series A financing round, which was led by the Japanese venture-capital firm SBI Investment.

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