Even by the nightmarish standards of the empire she oversees, Susan Wojcicki, the chief executive officer of YouTube, has had a dreadful start to 2019. During a single week in February, BuzzFeed reported that her company was running advertisements alongside anti-vaccine content; there was a nationwide panic over the platform abetting child suicide; and a viral video showed how pedophiles were flourishing on the site.And then there was the bestiality.Thumbnail images implying human-animal sex were discovered next to children’s videos, and after an uproar, Ms. Wojcicki was obliged to call a...…Even by the nightmarish standards of the empire she oversees, Susan Wojcicki, the chief executive officer of YouTube, has had a dreadful start to 2019. During a single week in February, BuzzFeed reported that her company was running advertisements alongside anti-vaccine content; there was a nationwide panic over the platform abetting child suicide; and a viral video showed how pedophiles were flourishing on the site.And then there was the bestiality.Thumbnail images implying human-animal sex were discovered next to children’s videos, and after an uproar, Ms. Wojcicki was obliged to call a...WW…

Daniela Jampel and Matthew Schneid met in college at Cornell, and both later earned law degrees. They both got jobs at big law firms, the kind that reward people who make partner with seven-figure pay packages. One marriage and 10 years later, she works 21 hours a week as a lawyer for New York City, a job that enables her to spend two days a week at home with their children, ages 5 and 1, and to shuffle her hours if something urgent comes up. He’s a partner at a midsize law firm and works 60-hour weeks — up to 80 if he’s closing a big deal — and is on call nights and weekends. He earns four...…Daniela Jampel and Matthew Schneid met in college at Cornell, and both later earned law degrees. They both got jobs at big law firms, the kind that reward people who make partner with seven-figure pay packages. One marriage and 10 years later, she works 21 hours a week as a lawyer for New York City, a job that enables her to spend two days a week at home with their children, ages 5 and 1, and to shuffle her hours if something urgent comes up. He’s a partner at a midsize law firm and works 60-hour weeks — up to 80 if he’s closing a big deal — and is on call nights and weekends. He earns four...WW…

AdvertisementSAN FRANCISCO — Bill Langlois has a new best friend. She is a cat named Sox. She lives on a tablet, and she makes him so happy that when he talks about her arrival in his life, he begins to cry.All day long, Sox and Mr. Langlois, who is 68 and lives in a low-income senior housing complex in Lowell, Mass., chat. Mr. Langlois worked in machine operations, but now he is retired. With his wife out of the house most of the time, he has grown lonely.Sox talks to him about his favorite team, the Red Sox, after which she is named. She plays his favorite songs and shows him pictures...…AdvertisementSAN FRANCISCO — Bill Langlois has a new best friend. She is a cat named Sox. She lives on a tablet, and she makes him so happy that when he talks about her arrival in his life, he begins to cry.All day long, Sox and Mr. Langlois, who is 68 and lives in a low-income senior housing complex in Lowell, Mass., chat. Mr. Langlois worked in machine operations, but now he is retired. With his wife out of the house most of the time, he has grown lonely.Sox talks to him about his favorite team, the Red Sox, after which she is named. She plays his favorite songs and shows him pictures...WW…

AdvertisementWASHINGTON — In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms of interference in the .President Trump’s chief of staff told her not to bring it up in front of the president.Ms. Nielsen left the early this month after a tumultuous 16-month tenure and tensions with the White House. Officials said she had become increasingly concerned about Russia’s continued activity in the United States during and after the 2018 midterm elections — ranging...…AdvertisementWASHINGTON — In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms of interference in the .President Trump’s chief of staff told her not to bring it up in front of the president.Ms. Nielsen left the early this month after a tumultuous 16-month tenure and tensions with the White House. Officials said she had become increasingly concerned about Russia’s continued activity in the United States during and after the 2018 midterm elections — ranging...WW…

AdvertisementGAZIANTEP, Turkey — security officers hung Muhannad Ghabbash from his wrists for hours, beat him bloody, shocked him with electricity and stuck a gun in his mouth.Mr. Ghabbash, a law student from Aleppo, repeatedly confessed his actual offense: organizing peaceful antigovernment protests. But the continued for 12 days, until he wrote a fictional confession to planning a bombing.That, he said, was just the beginning.He was flown to a crammed prison at Mezze air base in Damascus, the Syrian capital, where he said guards hung him and other detainees from a fence naked, spraying...…AdvertisementGAZIANTEP, Turkey — security officers hung Muhannad Ghabbash from his wrists for hours, beat him bloody, shocked him with electricity and stuck a gun in his mouth.Mr. Ghabbash, a law student from Aleppo, repeatedly confessed his actual offense: organizing peaceful antigovernment protests. But the continued for 12 days, until he wrote a fictional confession to planning a bombing.That, he said, was just the beginning.He was flown to a crammed prison at Mezze air base in Damascus, the Syrian capital, where he said guards hung him and other detainees from a fence naked, spraying...WW…

Alex Welsh for The New York TimesWhen detectives in a Phoenix suburb arrested a warehouse worker in a murder investigation last December, they credited a new technique with breaking open the case after other leads went cold.The police told the suspect, Jorge Molina, they had data tracking his phone to the site where a man was shot nine months earlier. They had made the discovery after obtaining a search warrant that required Google to provide information on all devices it recorded near the killing, potentially capturing the whereabouts of anyone in the area.Investigators also had other...…Alex Welsh for The New York TimesWhen detectives in a Phoenix suburb arrested a warehouse worker in a murder investigation last December, they credited a new technique with breaking open the case after other leads went cold.The police told the suspect, Jorge Molina, they had data tracking his phone to the site where a man was shot nine months earlier. They had made the discovery after obtaining a search warrant that required Google to provide information on all devices it recorded near the killing, potentially capturing the whereabouts of anyone in the area.Investigators also had other...WW…

Supported by and NEWARK — In the year after receiving test results showing alarming levels of lead in this city’s drinking water, Mayor Ras Baraka of made a number of unexpected decisions. He mailed a brochure to all city residents assuring them that “the quality of water meets all federal and state standards.” He declared the water safe and then condemned, in capital letters on the city’s website, “outrageously false statements” to the contrary. And he elevated an official to run the city’s water department who had served four years in prison for conspiring to sell five kilograms of...…Supported by and NEWARK — In the year after receiving test results showing alarming levels of lead in this city’s drinking water, Mayor Ras Baraka of made a number of unexpected decisions. He mailed a brochure to all city residents assuring them that “the quality of water meets all federal and state standards.” He declared the water safe and then condemned, in capital letters on the city’s website, “outrageously false statements” to the contrary. And he elevated an official to run the city’s water department who had served four years in prison for conspiring to sell five kilograms of...WW…

Supported by and The man in charge of Saudi Arabia’s to stifle dissent went searching for ways to spy on people he saw as threats to the kingdom. He knew where to go: a secretive Israeli company offering technology developed by former intelligence operatives.It was late 2017 and Saud al-Qahtani — then a top adviser to Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince — was tracking Saudi dissidents around the world, part of his extensive surveillance efforts that ultimately led to the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In messages exchanged with employees from the company, , Mr. al-Qahtani spoke...…Supported by and The man in charge of Saudi Arabia’s to stifle dissent went searching for ways to spy on people he saw as threats to the kingdom. He knew where to go: a secretive Israeli company offering technology developed by former intelligence operatives.It was late 2017 and Saud al-Qahtani — then a top adviser to Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince — was tracking Saudi dissidents around the world, part of his extensive surveillance efforts that ultimately led to the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In messages exchanged with employees from the company, , Mr. al-Qahtani spoke...WW…

AdvertisementFor the past two years, Andy Techmanski ran a tiny family utility-contracting company out of his home in the ski town of , getting relatively modest jobs out West. They helped rebuild a fire-ravaged power line in mountainous Washington State and are in the process of supplying a transformer to a Montana electric cooperative.But now, , are drawing widespread attention and congressional scrutiny for an outsized deal half a world away: a $300 million contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to rebuild 100 miles of power transmission lines across .“We just answered...…AdvertisementFor the past two years, Andy Techmanski ran a tiny family utility-contracting company out of his home in the ski town of , getting relatively modest jobs out West. They helped rebuild a fire-ravaged power line in mountainous Washington State and are in the process of supplying a transformer to a Montana electric cooperative.But now, , are drawing widespread attention and congressional scrutiny for an outsized deal half a world away: a $300 million contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to rebuild 100 miles of power transmission lines across .“We just answered...WW…

AdvertisementWASHINGTON — Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, is encouraging Ukraine to wade further into sensitive political issues in the United States, seeking to push the incoming government in Kiev to press ahead with investigations that he hopes will benefit Mr. Trump.Mr. Giuliani said he plans to travel to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in the coming days and wants to meet with the nation’s president-elect to urge him to pursue inquiries that allies of the White House contend could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump.One is the...…AdvertisementWASHINGTON — Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, is encouraging Ukraine to wade further into sensitive political issues in the United States, seeking to push the incoming government in Kiev to press ahead with investigations that he hopes will benefit Mr. Trump.Mr. Giuliani said he plans to travel to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in the coming days and wants to meet with the nation’s president-elect to urge him to pursue inquiries that allies of the White House contend could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump.One is the...WW…