Syrian Attacks 4 in French Playground

On Sunday at Roland Garros, Djokovic defeated Casper Ruud, 7-6 (1), 6-3, 7-5, to capture a record 23rd Grand Slam singles title, continuing a stunning turnaround from a year and a half ago, when he was deported from Australia before the first Grand Slam tournament of 2022, a dire harbinger of the year to come. After Ruud’s final forehand sailed off the court, Djokovic dropped his racket and collapsed onto his back on the red clay.

Moments later, after a congratulatory hug from Ruud, Djokovic knelt in prayer in the middle of the court, then headed for the stands to embrace his family and his coaches. When he came back onto the court moments later, he was wearing a

Djokovic surpassed Federer last summer, just a few months before Federer’s retirement, winning his 21st Grand Slam title at Wimbledon’s Centre Court on the grass that Federer had ruled for so long. In January at the Australian Open, Djokovic won again. That 22nd title tied Nadal, the Spanish champion who missed this year’s French Open with an injury.

With a cast of stars on hand for the occasion, he made his history on the red clay of the Philippe Chatrier court at the French Open, which Nadal has won an astonishing 14 times.

And with his win Sunday, Djokovic regained the world’s top ranking for a record 388th week. In addition to the record for Grand Slam tournament titles, he also holds the record for Masters 1000 titles. In case any Nadal or Federer

Last Thursday, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee stabbed children and adults in a playground in Annecy, France. Four children, two of whom were tourists, were critically injured and had to undergo surgery on Friday. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that all four victims are “under constant medical surveillance” and that “their situation is stable.” Olivier Veran, a government spokesman and medical doctor, added that two of the young victims are still in critical condition.

The children’s ages range from 22 months to 3 years old. Three were taken to a hospital in the southeastern French City, Grenoble, while the fourth was taken to Geneva, Switzerland.

Amidst the violent attacks, a 24-yearold man named Henri was videoed in pursuit of the attacker, using his bulky backpack as a shield against the man’s stabs, while also going on the offensive, throwing the knapsack at the assailant in an attempt to stop further stabbing.

Henri was hailed a hero by many, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who personally thanked the good Samaritan. “You are experiencing very hard moments, traumatizing. I am very proud of you.”

“[I] tried to act as all French people should act, or would act,” insisted Henri. “I am far from alone in having reacted. Many other people around started, like me, to run after him to try to scare him, push him away. And other people immediately went over to the children to take care of the injured.”

Henri’s father, François, said that his son told him “that the Syrian [terrorist] was incoherent, saying lots of strange things in different languages, invoking his father, his mother, all the gods.”

The attacker was reportedly denied refuge in France due to his refugee status in Sweden and is currently in custody, actively undergoing psychiatric evaluation.

According to Line Bonnet-Mathis, the lead prosecutor in this case, what drove the man to commit such horrific crimes is unknown; he had no criminal record.

One of the wounded adults is a Portuguese citizen, who, according to Portugal’s Foreign Ministry, was injured while “trying to stop the attacker from fleeing the police.” The ministry said that “for this act of courage and bravery, we thank him profoundly.”

Iran Helping Russia Build Drone Factory

so that Russia can create a drone manufacturing plant in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

Furthermore, the U.S. government claims that Iran supplied Russia with hundreds of armed drones for use against Ukraine.

According to White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, the drones are “shipped across the Caspian Sea, from Amirabad, Iran to Makhachkala, Russia, and then used operationally by Russian forces against Ukraine.” Kirby added that hundreds of one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been transported from Iran to Russia, as of May. In exchange for these drones, Kirby says, Russia has been “offering Iran unprecedented defense cooperation, including on missiles, electronics, and air defense.”

Iran, while denying that it sent drones for use against Ukraine, has stated that it does in fact plan on doing business with Russia. The Middle Eastern country’s plans include purchasing Russian Su-35 fighter jets, with Iran also declaring its interest in Russian helicopters, radars, and even more equipment.

“In total, Iran is seeking billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment from Russia,” said Kirby, warning that a “full- scale defense partnership” of this sort would be “harmful to Ukraine, to Iran’s neighbors, and to the international community.”

The United States has been restricting exports and issuing sanctions on those who are suspected to be involved in these transactions. Additionally, on Friday, the U.S. government planned to give recommendations and warnings in order to “help governments and businesses put in place measures to ensure they are not inadvertently contributing to Iran’s UAV program.”

Blinken Visits Saudi Arabia

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, June 6. His visit to the Kingdom, which was made in order to ease

U.S.-Saudi relations, lasted three days.

The day after his arrival, Blinken spoke in front of the Qatar Prime Minister and several Arab Gulf officials at a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. During the meeting, he pledged the United States’s continued loyalty to its Gulf Partners and announced that the U.S. is striving to engage other nations to join the Abraham Accords. “We are collaborating with countries in the region to widen and deepen the normalization of relations with Israel,” said Blinken in the beginning of the GCC meeting.

Blinken, in talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a day earlier, mentioned the potential for improved relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. However, the Biden administration made it clear that an Israeli-Saudi peace deal is not anticipated in the very near future.

Barbara Leaf, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, noted that while such an agreement is “no question an end goal,” current reports of such a deal are “misreporting and a lot of hyperventilation in the press, a lot of excitable rumination in the press, especially in the Israeli press.”

This visit marks the first time the U.S. Secretary of State has visited Saudi Arabia since the Kingdom renewed its relationship with Iran, who happened to reinstate its Riyadh embassy on the day that

Blinken arrived in Jeddah. The Iranian embassy in Saudi Arabia had been closed for the past seven years, prior to Tuesday.

Iran isn’t the only controversial country Saudi Arabia has recently involved itself with. Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, also happened to be meeting with the Saudi Prince on the day of Blinken’s arrival. Additionally, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was invited to the Arab League summit in Jeddah a month ago, after not being invited since 2011 when the Syrian Civil War started. The United States was disappointed with Assad’s presence at the summit.

On the topic of Syria, Blinken declared that “we are determined to find a political solution in Syria that maintains its unity and sovereignty and meets the aspirations of its people,” promising the same for Yemen as well.

IDF and Lebanese Clash

On Friday, conflict broke out between the IDF and Lebanese rioters.

According to the Israeli army, the confrontation started when multiple Lebanese citizens tried demolishing an Israeli-built barbed wire fence that is meant to serve as a border barrier between Israel and Lebanon near Kfar Shouba. The rioters then started throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, and the attacked forces responded with tear gas.

The clash took place in Sheeba Farms, an area which belonged to Syria until 1967, when the land was captured by Israel. The location, which is on the Israel-Lebanese border, remains disputed territory, with Israel, Lebanon, and Syria all claiming the area as their own. No clear border has been established between Israel and Lebanon, with only an unofficial border known as the “Blue Line” existing.

One of the rioters was hurt by the tear gas, according to the Lebanese state National News Agency, and soldiers from the Lebanese army were sent to the scene with the goal of “facing the Israeli enemy.” However, further conflict was quelled by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

UNIFIL told Arabic-language media that it was trying to end the conflict and encouraged the two involved nations “to use coordination mechanisms to prevent misunderstandings and maintain stability in the region.”

A Hezbollah parliament representative, Ali Fayyad, said that “the resistance is closely following the issue in the Kfar Shuba hills, moment by moment, and is preparing for any escalation possibilities, and will not allow the Israeli enemy to persist in its transgressions.”

In response to these events, the IDF insisted that it “will not allow any attempt to violate the sovereignty of the State of Israel.”

4 Hurt in Drive-By Shooting

Four Israeli soldiers and a civilian were wounded in a drive-by shooting at- tack in the northern West Bank on Tuesday afternoon.

A wounded Israeli motorist, 33, reported coming under fire from a passing car at the Efes intersection located between the settlements of Mevo Dotan and Hermesh, west of the Palestinian city of Jenin. The Israel Defense Forces said the same gunmen apparently then continued on their way and opened fire at a military vehicle in the area. Four soldiers were wounded.

The civilian had suffered gunshot wounds to his upper body.

The attack came exactly two weeks after an Israeli man, 32-year-old Meir Tamari, was shot dead by Palestinian terrorists outside Hermesh.

Palestinian gunmen have repeatedly targeted troops, military posts, Israeli settlements and civilians on roads in the West Bank.

Smoking on the Rise

Israelis like to smoke. In fact, the smoking rate among the Israeli adult population is 20 percent – higher than the OECD average. A quarter of men and stated that after a significant drop-off in youth smoking between 1998 and 2019, the trend is reversing. Now 20% of youth (more boys than girls) smoke, with half of them smoking tobacco and half using e-cigarettes. Whereas in the past teens were initially introduced to smoking through cigarettes and hookahs, by 2019, they were reporting more use of vapes, some as early as age 12.

15% of women smoke, with rates higher among Arabs than Jews. And the pandemic made it worse, with one-quarter of smokers adding 13 more cigarettes to their daily routine.

“Eight thousand people die from tobacco use every year in Israel. Eight hundred of them from passive smoke,” said public health professor Laura Rosen of Tel Aviv University, who has studied the effects of tobacco smoke on children for the last 15 years.

It’s not just traditional cigarettes that Israelis are consuming.

According to a report by the Taub Center for Social Policy, “one-quarter of all youths smoked an electronic cigarette, possibly under the false belief that it was less risky than a traditional cigarette.”

People are getting hooked on cigarettes earlier in life. A report on smoking issued by the Health Ministry in 2021

Israel Cancer Association (ICA) health promotion specialist Dana Frost told The Times of Israel that kids have become hooked on electronic cigarettes — especially disposable ones — which they like for their bright colors and appealing sweet and fruity flavors.

According to Frost, in 2022, 13.7% of kids aged 12-14 started smoking as compared to 3.4% in 2020-21.

“It’s illegal in Israel to sell smoking products to minors. Yet, kids in middle school are getting ahold of them,” she noted.

Not enough long-term research has been done on vaping. However, international peer-reviewed research presented in an ICA position paper indicates that the materials in vapes are known to expose users to heavy metals and carcinogenic chemicals.

There is also evidence that vaping causes damage to the lungs and airways and the heart and blood vessels. In some cases, it affects the gums and teeth and can even lead to tumors in the mouth. One study indicated that vaping increased anxiety. Even those who are not smoking themselves can be affected by the nicotine emitted in the vapor.

“We are really worried about how children and youth are becoming addicted to nicotine from vaping. Addiction happens much quicker at younger ages, when brain development is more dynamic and incomplete. The brain is in a constant state of learning until age 25, and addiction is a type of learning. As a result, addiction at a younger age is not only quicker, but also stronger,” Frost noted.

Some countries have banned vaping. But others see vaping as a tool to help cigarette users cease their traditional smoking habits.

The Knesset Finance Committee confirmed earlier this year a 145% tax on electronic cigarettes and associated products. Additionally, regulations passed in 2019 limit the advertisement and sale of vaping products, and also forbid smoking e-cigarettes in indoor public spaces.

There’s also the issue of secondhand and even third-hand smoke in Israel. Parents smoke near their children, and their kids imbibe the noxious fumes. Third-hand smoke, when the smoke is on smokers’ clothes and hair and is breathed in by others, is also a major problem for children.

Who is to Blame for Attack at Egyptian Border?

an easily opened small emergency gate on the border barrier was unknown to troops stationed in the area; an over-prioritization of drug smuggling incidents; and excessively lengthy guard shifts.

Staff Sgt. Ori Yitzhak Iluz, 20, Staff Sgt. Ohad Dahan, 20, and Sgt. Lia Ben Nun, 19, troops of the Bardelas and Caracal battalions, were killed in the attack on June 3.

The IDF said that the commander of the 80th Division, Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, will be formally reprimanded for his “overall responsibility for the event, including the lack of control over the implementation of the procedures.”

Col. Ido Sa’ad, the commander of the Paran Brigade, will be dismissed from his role and moved to another position in the IDF, for his “overall responsibility for the event and the manner by which operations are carried out in his area.” and 2012. In one multi-stage attack in August 2011, six Israeli civilians, an IDF soldier and a counter-terrorism police officer were killed, as well as five Egyptian soldiers.

Highway Collapses in Philly

After an Egyptian police officer crossed the border and slaughtered three Israeli soldiers on June 3, an army investigation concluded certain factors contributed to the attack. As such, a senior officer will be removed from his position and several others will be formally censured.

The IDF said that it had found a number of contributing factors to the attack:

The IDF noted that Sa’ad did act correctly when it came to engaging with and killing the Egyptian attacker.

Lt. Col. Ivan Kon, the commander of the Bardelas Battalion, will be formally reprimanded for his “responsibility for the implementation of the operating concept in his forces.” He will additionally be denied a promotion for five years, the IDF said.

According to the IDF’s investigation, the Egyptian policeman, Mohamed Salah Ibrahim, 22, infiltrated the border through an emergency gate early on June 3. The small gate, held shut with only zip ties, is used by the IDF to cross the border when necessary, in coordination with the Egyptian army.

Salah walked three miles from Egypt and climbed a cliff to reach the gate. He then walked to Israel’s guard post, where Iluz and Ben Nun were situated, seemingly taking them by surprise around 7 a.m. Iluz and Ben Nun had been involved in taking care of a smuggling incident during the night.

When the two soldiers’ shift was up around 9 a.m., officers discovered the pair had been killed. Other soldiers searched the area for the attacker. Around 11 a.m., a drone identified the terrorist. He began to fire upon a group of soldiers and killed Dahan. Another group of soldiers ultimately killed Salah.

The Israel-Egypt border has been largely peaceful since the two countries signed a peace agreement in 1979, Israel’s first with an Arab state. In the past decade, Israel built a large barrier along the border, largely aimed at keeping out African migrants and Islamic terrorists who operate in Egypt’s Sinai.

Sinai-based terrorists carried out multiple attacks against Israel in 2011

Early Sunday morning, a tanker driver took an off-ramp on the Interstate 95 in Philadelphia and crashed into a wall while trying to navigate a curve. A fire broke out at the scene. Subsequently, a stretch of the northbound I-95 collapsed and fell onto the truck.

On Monday afternoon, state police said that a body had been recovered from the wreckage.

The truck was carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline, Pennsylvania State Police said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued a disaster declaration on Monday, which allows the state to dip into federal funds and cut red tape to expedite repairs.

The roadway is one of the busiest interstates in the region, typically carrying about 160,000 vehicles through Philadelphia daily.

Crews are first working to demolish the collapsed part of the roadway, which should take around four to five days. But officials say that the damage to part of the East Coast’s primary highway could take months to repair. Northbound lanes had collapsed in the incident, and southbound lanes had been damaged in the inferno.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said his agency is prepared to help local officials swiftly address the extensive disruption caused by the collapse. “To be clear, swiftly is not going to be overnight,” Buttigieg told reporters Monday at an event hosted by the American Council of Engineering Companies. “We’re talking about major structural work.”

“I found myself thanking the L-rd that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died,” Gov. Shapiro said.

NYPD Commissioner Resigns

to lead the public safety agency where he was an officer for 22 years, giving her the power to rethink policing after bitter protests against police brutality and racism.

The mayor said in a statement on Monday that Sewell had worked tirelessly and that “New Yorkers owe her a debt of gratitude.” But Sewell, in an email to the department announcing her resignation, did not mention the mayor at all.

She did not say when she would be leaving, and the mayor did not say when a replacement would be chosen.

spirator in a corruption investigation that produced several convictions, including that of a police department chief who had served as his top aide.

Several senior current and former police officials said that Sewell had been undermined since early in her tenure by the mayor and some of his senior aides, including Banks and Timothy Pearson, a senior adviser to the mayor.

Hopefully, some of these borrowers are now in the workforce and have a few dollars to spend towards their debts.

Inflation does not help with people who are struggling to make ends meet. And with the collapse of major banks and layoffs at Disney and Amazon, some people are concerned about paying their bills.

Keechant Sewell, commissioner of the New York Police Department, said Monday she would resign after less than 18 months, giving no reason for the abrupt end to a tenure during which she won over many in the rank and file even as she jockeyed for position against other appointees and top officers.

Sewell, who was appointed to her position by Mayor Eric Adams and started in 2022, was the first woman to head the nation’s largest police force. Adams had promised as a candidate to name a woman

Sewell was an enigmatic figure, hardly straying from her script at news conferences and revealing little of her personality, in contrast to her voluble predecessors. When asked in an interview what book she was currently reading, she replied, “stats.” This year, Philip Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety, began giving widely publicized weekly, livestreamed public briefings — a role that would typically belong to the police commissioner.

Banks’ appointment had been surrounded by questions over whether his 2014 resignation from the department while the subject of a federal corruption investigation would hamper his credibility and ability to perform the job. He had been named as an unindicted co-con-

On Monday, Sewell wrote in her email to the department: “I will never step away from my advocacy and support for the N.Y.P.D., and I will always be a champion for the people of New York City.” (© The New York Times)

Time to Pay Up

Meanwhile, all eyes are on the Supreme Court as borrowers wait to see if the Biden administration will be allowed to move forward with its student loan forgiveness program. A decision is expected in late June or early July.

Under the proposal, individual borrowers who made less than $125,000 in either 2020 or 2021 and married couples or heads of households who made less than $250,000 a year could see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven.

If a qualifying borrower also received a federal Pell grant while enrolled in college, the individual is eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness.

But several lawsuits argue that the Biden administration is abusing its power and using the pandemic as a pretext for fulfilling the president’s campaign pledge to cancel student debt.

For tens of millions of borrowers, March 2020 was the last time they had to pay their monthly federal student loan bills. But come October, the government will be waiting for them to pay up.

The pandemic-related pause on both payments and interest accumulation had been set to end later this summer, though the exact date payments would be due was a little fuzzy. On Monday, the Department of Education clarified the date.

A law passed in early June to address the debt ceiling officially prevented the pandemic-related pause from being extended again. The repayment date had been extended a total of eight times under both the Biden and Trump administrations.

“Student loan interest will resume starting on September 1, 2023, and payments will be due starting in October. We will notify borrowers well before payments restart,” the Department of Education said in a statement on Monday.

It won’t be easy for many borrowers to start coughing up these monthly payments. A report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau notes that about 1 in 5 student loan borrowers have risk factors that suggest they could struggle when scheduled payments resume, like being delinquent on student loan payments before the pandemic or having multiple student loan servicers.

Still, there are many more people working now than before the pandemic.

Unabomber Dies in Prison

Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, the Harvard-trained math professor who unleashed a deadly bombing campaign from a shack in rural Montana and became known as the “Unabomber,” died in prison at the age of 81 on Saturday morning. It is believed that he took his own life. Kaczynski had been serving eight life sentences after he pleaded guilty in 1998 for sending mail bombs that killed three people and wounded 23 others from 1978 to 1995.

The FBI spent nearly two decades trying to track him down, contending with a killer who was making untraceable bombs and delivering them to random targets – the first sent to a Chicago university in 1978.

An FBI-led task force – which eventually grew to more than 150 full-time

34 investigators – was formed in 1979 to investigate the “UNABOM” case, an acronym made up of the words university, airline, and bombing.

Kaczynski was arrested in 1996 at a small, remote cabin in western Montana.

Portrayed by prosecutors as a vengeful loner, Kaczynski published a 30,000word treatise that became known as the Unabomber Manifesto.

In the document, Kaczynski claimed a moral high ground for his deadly campaign, justifying the attacks in the name of preserving humanity and nature from the onslaught of technology and exploitation.

“I believe in nothing,” Kaczynski wrote. “I don’t even believe in the cult of nature-worshipers or wilderness-worshipers. (I am perfectly ready to litter in parts of the woods that are of no use to me – I often throw cans in logged-over areas.)”

A sentencing memorandum quoted extensively from Kaczynski’s journals, in which he wrote of a deep hatred of people.

A tip from his brother led to his arrest in April 1996. The family claimed that his writing reflected a mentally ill man and not a cold-blooded killer. A federal prison psychiatrist agreed, diagnosing him as a paranoid schizophrenic, and opening the way for prosecutors to drop their demand for the death sentence and allow a plea bargain.

At the sentencing hearing, Susan Mosser, who lost her husband in a Unabomber attack, urged the judge to “make the sentence bullet-proof, or bomb-proof, lock him so far down that when he does die, he’ll be closer to…. That’s where the devil belongs.”

Her husband, Thomas, a New Jersey advertising executive, was killed by a package bomb in 1994.

Kaczynski’s other victims were computer rental store owner Hugh Scrutton and timber industry lobbyist Gilbert Murray. Geneticist Charles Epstein and computer expert David Gelernter were maimed in bombings.

In 1998, Epstein called Kaczynski “the personification of evil.” He had lost three fingers on his right hand and suffered severe abdominal injuries, a broken arm and permanent hearing loss in the attack.

“Every time I look at my hand, it’s still there. Every time I have to have somebody speak up, it’s still there,” he said.

Kaczynski had quit a tenure-track position at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1969 to build a shack near Lincoln, Montana. He lived there without running water or electricity for more than 20 years. He waged his 17-year “anti-technology” bombing campaign from the 13-by-13-foot shack.

Along with the deaths and injuries he inflicted, Kaczynski threatened to blow up airplanes. He placed a bomb on one flight in 1979, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing when a fire broke out in the cargo hold.

At one point, Kaczynski was able to force newspapers to print his 35,000word manifesto, threatening to blow up a plane out of Los Angeles and saying he would stop the bombings if The New York Times and Washington Post published it.

Higher Grocery Bills

From April to May, adjusted for seasonal swings, grocery prices got 0.1% more expensive, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation. Menu items got 0.5% in that time.

Overall, grocery prices were 5.8% more expensive in May than they were a year ago. Going out to eat? Menu prices have risen 8.3% over the past year. Together, food prices jumped 6.7% throughout the year, once again outpacing overall annual inflation, which came in at 4%.

Certain food items got quite a bit more expensive over the course of the year.

Margarine spiked 22.5%, flour jumped 17.1%, bread spiked 12.5%, and sugar rose 11.1%. Meanwhile, juice and other nonalcoholic drinks popped 9.9%, lettuce went up 9.4%, and ice cream increased 8%.

Cheese, chicken, and fresh fruits and vegetables also increased in price, but at much smaller degrees.

A variety of factors have caused food prices to rise. Extreme weather, the war in Ukraine, avian flu and higher costs along the supply chain have all led to higher prices.

Wonder why you spent so much at the grocery this week? Blame it on inflation.

Some foods have decreased in price over the past year. Citrus fruits became 5.3% cheaper; fresh whole milk dropped 3.45; and fish fell 1.1%.

Eggs, a product whose price soared last year, has made a comeback, dropping 13.8% last month – the largest single-month price decline since January 1951.

A Ban on Book Bans

the bans were the result of newly enacted state laws, according to the report, which found bans were most prevalent in five states: Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina.

Pritzker and nine other governors sent a letter last month to textbook publishers urging them to consider the negative impacts of book banning.

Big Apple Loses Big Jobs

On Monday, Illinois became the first state in the nation to prohibit book bans.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law to prohibit public schools and libraries from banning books, noting that it’s the only one of its kind in the country.

“Book bans are about censorship, marginalizing people, marginalizing ideas and facts. Regimes banned books, not democracies,” Pritzker, a Democrat, said at a bill signing ceremony at a Chicago library. “We refuse to let a vitriolic strain of white nationalism coursing through our country determine whose histories are told, not in Illinois.”

The measure, which takes effect January 1, says public libraries must adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights or their own statement prohibiting book banning to be eligible for state money.

The association’s Library Bill of Rights states that reading materials “should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval” or “excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.”

The signing comes amid record book challenges, laws and policies to limit books available in public schools and libraries.

In March, the library association said there were 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, marking the highest number of attempted book bans since the association began compiling the data more than 20 years ago.

“A record 2,571 unique titles were targeted for censorship,” the association said.

An April report from free speech organization PEN America found book bans rose during the first half of the 2022-2023 school year. Almost a third of

The retail industry in New York City has shed thousands of jobs since the pandemic, even as the rest of the job market has almost fully recovered, according to a new report released last Thursday from the Center for an Urban Future, a public policy think tank.

The study found that in the three years since February 2020, New York City lost 37,800 retail jobs, an 11.1% decline, while the overall private employment sector has regained all but 0.8% of jobs.

The city’s job losses in retail were also far worse than in the rest of the country; nationally, retail jobs were up an average 0.7%. Retail jobs are a critical part of the city’s job market, particularly for young people of color.

The retail industry — which includes clothing, sporting goods and grocery stores, among others — has been shrinking for years, but the pandemic sped up the growth of online shopping, especially in big cities like New York, where the commercial ecosystem relies on tourism and still-half-empty office buildings, said Jonathan Bowles, the center’s director.

“New York is on the verge of a crisis, when it comes to jobs that are accessible to New Yorkers without a college degree,” Bowles said, and the decline is contributing to widening racial disparities.

More than 70% of the city’s 301,700 retail jobs are held by Black, Hispanic and Asian workers, a disproportionate share of whom did not finish college. Over onefifth of that workforce is younger than 25.

In the first quarter of the year, the unemployment rate for Black New Yorkers was 12.2%, compared to 1.3% for white New Yorkers — the biggest gap this century.

The industries in New York that are growing — tech, finance, health, legal and accounting services — are not accessible to the workforce that has been laid off, Bowles said.

To counter the losses in retail, Bowles said, the city should invest in job training programs that can help retail workers transition to other fields. The report also recommended offering tax incentives to encourage in-person shopping and, most crucially, expanding new affordable housing in the five boroughs to increase foot traffic and shore up demand. (© The New York Times)