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The Kelsey Ayer Station is the almost two-year-old first site for the Kelsey, a national nonprofit that builds and advocates for affordable and accessible housing for people with disabilities.

Currently, there is a waiting list to get an apartment there. At the nonprofit’s newest building in San Francisco, which celebrated its grand opening last fall, more than 7,000 people applied for 112 apartments. Next year, the Kelsey will open a new building in Birmingham, Ala., with other sites slated for the future.

The needs of disabled people are not often prioritized in conversations around solving the country’s affordable housing crisis. According to nonpartisan group, the National League of Cities, 26 percent of people have a disability, yet it’s estimated that less than 6 percent of the national housing supply is made to be accessible.

The Kelsey aims to demonstrate that even in one of the nation’s most expensive markets, it’s possible to build affordable housing with support services. And it can be replicated.

“Our approach from the beginning was addressing what we define as the overlooked and unmet housing needs of people with disabilities,” said Micaela Connery, the Kelsey’s chief executive. She founded the company alongside her cousin, Kelsey Flynn O’Connor, who lived with multiple disabilities and struggled to find accessible housing in adulthood. (Ms. O’Connor died in 2018.)

Exhibiting the charm of a midsize boutique hotel, the Kelsey Ayer Station is situated in San Jose’s First Street Urban Village corridor, next to the light rail line and close to major bus routes, shops, and cultural hubs like the city’s art museum and the popular San Pedro Square food market.

“There’s not an ounce of it feeling institutional or sterile, which is sometimes both the reality and the perception of things that anchor on access,” explained Ms. Connery.

Indoors, the airy entrance melds into common areas designed for working and gathering. Colorful artworks by disabled artists adorn the walls. Everywhere, color-coded symbols promote wayfinding around the building.

Apartments feature wide doorways, open floor plans, low-to-the-ground storage, and dimmable lighting. Several units offer bathrooms with roll-in showers.

Darcy McCann, 46, is a full-time graduate student finishing a post-bachelor’s program in clinical psychology. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age 2, she became a resident of the Kelsey in the summer of 2024 after applying through the open lottery system.

Before that, she was living in accessible housing that lacked community. But now, meeting up with others to play board games or to paint quells feelings of isolation. “Living here provides a great opportunity to meet and talk with others in a supportive space,” she said.

Ms. McCann recalls how past living arrangements prevented simple tasks like washing her hands at the kitchen sink because counters couldn’t accommodate the size of her powered wheelchair. Here, access is expected.

Another resident, Barry Gee, 40, said the Kelsey community provides a sense of security that he didn’t have in past housing, noting he feels safe “because I know and trust my neighbors.” The ability to walk to nearby grocery stores and the community center are ancillary benefits, along with proximity to the light rail for the occasional trips Mr. Gee makes to the Great America amusement park in nearby Santa Clara.

One quarter of the Kelsey’s apartments are reserved for people with disabilities, and units are available to residents with and without disabilities across all income levels. Apartment rents range from $578 to $2,899, and some residents with vouchers may pay even less. Leases are written in clear, plain language without the typical legalese.

The project came together through philanthropic, private, and public partners, including support from the city of San Jose. The $75 million development budget allowed a cost of about $650,000 per unit. “Our project is consistent with and in some cases below typical affordable housing costs in the Bay Area,” said Ms. Connery, noting that developers often equate accessibility with high building costs.

The Kelsey’s ethos is steered by a compendium of “inclusive design standards” which were created by people with and without disabilities, and with members of the Inclusive Design Council and Mikiten Architecture. It features more than 300 elements meant to serve people across access needs, and it covers housing design and operations strategies along with leasing and resident services. Among the standards: ample common spaces with flexible seating, play areas for service and companion pets, and the on-site inclusion concierge.

“Real inclusion only works when everyone understands the ‘why,’ not just the requirements,” said Ms. Connery.

Representative Sam Liccardo says the city of San Jose is changed by the achievements of the Kelsey Ayer Station. “Hundreds of our San Jose neighbors gained a home, and our nation gained a model for inclusive housing.”

For Mr. Micetich, the inclusion concierge, no two days are the same. In the morning, he might introduce a resident to resources for job training or financial planning. By the afternoon, he could be finalizing details for a pizza and art night to bring residents together. “It’s not like we’re just providing the housing. We’re trying to truly make a community.”

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Jason Henry for The New York Times

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will review a messenger RNA (mRNA) flu vaccine for approval, according to its maker, Moderna. The decision is a dramatic U-turn for the agency, which, only about a week ago, had publicly rejected Moderna’s application to get the shot reviewed.

When it initially rejected the application, the FDA had said Moderna’s clinical trials were lacking. On Wednesday, Moderna said it had made modifications to its application. While the reversal has been welcomed by the vaccine maker and public health experts alike, the incident has been the latest instance of the Trump administration undermining vaccine science. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose department has jurisdiction over the FDA, is a noted vaccine skeptic who has repeatedly criticized mRNA COVID vaccines.

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement that the FDA had held discussions with the company, leading to “a revised regulatory approach and an amended application, which FDA accepted.”

“FDA will maintain its high standards during review and potential licensure stages as it does with all products,” Nixon said.

William Schaffner, an infectious disease physician and a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says the FDA’s decision to backtrack is “good news.”

“It is important to give all candidate new vaccines a fair, equitable assessment. This is especially true for new mRNA-based vaccines as this technology currently is being applied to create vaccines against a variety of illnesses, including cancers,” he says.

Modern’s mRNA flu shot is based on the same technology as its COVID vaccine. The mRNA COVID shots have been credited with saving millions of lives. “With these mRNA vaccines, the benefits outweigh the risk,” says Angie Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan.

In these kinds of shots, mRNA—essentially the instruction manual for genes to make proteins—is injected into the body, where it teaches cells to recognize and attack viral proteins. Vaccines that use mRNA are attractive prospects for protecting against flu and a host of other diseases, including cancer. They are easy to manufacture quickly and highly flexible, meaning new vaccines can be made rapidly to respond to emerging viral variants.

Having such a vaccine available for flu would “potentially be a major step forward in efforts to protect the health of individuals from severe influenza,” says Robert Hopkins, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

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It’s not a particularly edifying sight. Andrew is slumped in the back seat of a car after his release, fingers steepled, whether in prayer or protection.

His collar is up. For that matter, his collar has been felt. Was Andrew’s expression of shock how he looked when he had a mugshot photo taken in police custody?

It’ll become the counterpart of that other famous Andrew picture, taken almost 25 years ago, of a smiling, confident prince, beside a 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre in a London townhouse, when the capital was his playground.

Earlier, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had become the first senior member of the Royal Family in modern history to have been arrested. It was another catch-your-breath moment.

It was followed by an unprecedented statement from his brother, King Charles. “Let me state clearly: the law must take its course,” read the unambiguous statement from the King, offering no hiding place or royal get-out clause.

The arrest, on suspicion of misconduct in public office, relates to Andrew’s time as the UK’s trade representative between 2001 and 2011. It follows a series of allegations, prompted by the release of the Epstein files, that Andrew shared official documents.

That included sharing reports from trade visits and a confidential briefing on investment in Afghanistan with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and passing a Treasury briefing to a personal business contact.

Being a member of the Royal Family will make no legal difference to how his case is assessed.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing in his associations with Epstein.

The no-nonsense police statement on Thursday morning was a bluntly worded news earthquake: “The man remains in police custody at this time.”

Whoever thought we’d read that sentence when the man in question is still in the line of succession to the throne, and in theory, if not in practice, remains a counsellor of state?

Andrew’s explanation of his behaviour won’t be in a TV interview. The public will not have forgotten the BBC’s Newsnight interview, which remains the last time Andrew spoke publicly about his relationship with Epstein.

This time, it will have been in the presence of a lawyer and the investigating officers, rather than under the TV lights, and the consequences of any untruths will be much more serious.

The action by the police on a winter’s morning in Norfolk was remarkable, breaking news, and also appeared to have taken the King by surprise as much as anyone else.

But the story of Andrew’s links to Epstein has been decades in the making – and so has Andrew’s downfall, first chipping away at his reputation before turning into an avalanche of disgrace.

The association with Epstein meant Andrew lost his trade envoy role in 2011, and after that disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019 he was removed as a working royal.

His retreat from public life became even more complete after his 2022 settlement with his accuser, Virginia Giuffre.

And in October last year, as emails revealed that Andrew hadn’t ended his links with Epstein when he had claimed, he was stripped of his prince and duke titles, and eventually shuffled out of his Royal Lodge home at Windsor.

They were tough sanctions, removing any vestige of royal status.

The Palace has had some nervous moments in recent times, with questions shouted by hecklers suggesting they might be protecting Andrew.

The statement from the King will have sought to draw a line under this and separate the Royal Family from whatever might happen to Andrew.

Another important factor in all of this is the public mood. The Epstein files, and what they have revealed regarding a network of those apparently high in connections but low on morals, have left people feeling angry at such unaccountable power and wealth.

It has felt abusive to the public, that the rich and influential appear to have been immune from the consequences of their behaviour, be it in terms of either sex or money. It has seemed to the public that corruption paid.

Making the arrest even more resonant is that it happened on Andrew’s 66th birthday. Any candles would have to wait.

There are references to Andrew’s previous birthdays in the Epstein files, such as a glitzy bash for his 50th at St James’s Palace.

One person who had to turn down the invite for that night of “mysterious mischief” was Jeffrey Epstein, who was still under house arrest as part of a sentence for procuring a minor for prostitution.

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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, after his release from custody after his arrest

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After Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States and much of the West all but severed economic ties to Moscow.

But since President Trump took office more than a year ago, he has described a “tremendous opportunity” for deals with Russia if the war ends, and the Kremlin has dangled possible investments in front of the famously transactional leader.

Now, a Texas investor with ties to the Trump family is testing the possibility of making deals with Russian companies, even as the fighting in Ukraine rages on. The investor, Gentry Beach, said that he quietly signed an agreement with one of Russia’s biggest energy companies last fall to develop natural gas in Alaska.

Mr. Beach’s deal, which he insisted was motivated by business interests and not politics, shows how Mr. Trump is starting to bring Russia back into the Western economic fold, even as few signs point to President Vladimir V. Putin being ready to stop his assault on Ukraine, and U.S. sanctions against Russia remain in place.

It also shows how the Kremlin’s messaging about what it says are immense business opportunities in Russia — an aide to Mr. Putin this week put their value at an improbable $14 trillion — is starting to resonate in the United States.

“Trump is a transactional president,” Mr. Beach said in an interview. “I don’t think people would have felt as comfortable working with Russian companies during the Biden administration as they do during the Trump administration.”

The project is in its early stages and faces steep hurdles, and Mr. Beach declined to disclose the financial details. The Russian company, Novatek, said it was “indeed having negotiations on the potential use” of its technology to liquefy natural gas in remote northern Alaska. But it did not confirm that it was working with Mr. Beach.

Mr. Beach’s deal could represent the first known instance of an American investor formalizing a new business venture with a major Russian company since the Kremlin started promoting deal-making opportunities to the Trump administration a year ago. Overall, U.S. companies have remained deeply skeptical of doing business with Russia, and the Trump administration imposed significant new sanctions on Russia’s oil industry last fall.

But Mr. Trump, despite voicing occasional frustration with Mr. Putin, has often echoed the Kremlin’s talking points, both on Russia’s economic promise and on the idea that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is standing in the way of peace. He said last week that Russia “wants to make a deal” to end the war, and that “Zelensky is going to have to get moving.”

Mr. Beach said he negotiated his deal in meetings in Dubai and Europe last year with Novatek’s billionaire chief executive, Leonid Mikhelson, who is under sanctions in the U.K. and Canada but not in the United States or the European Union.

“It’s time for all of us to work together,” Mr. Beach said, describing himself as a “bringer of peace.”

Mr. Beach, a hedge fund and private equity investor, is a college friend of Donald Trump Jr.’s, the president’s eldest son, and served as a finance vice chairman for Mr. Trump’s 2017 inauguration. His pursuit of deals around the world since Mr. Trump’s re-election has sowed confusion about his ties to the administration and frustrated Donald Trump Jr., The Wall Street Journal reported last fall.

Speaking to The New York Times last week, Mr. Beach said the relationship with Donald Trump Jr. played no role in the Novatek deal, and said he did not “do any business with the Trumps on any level.” He said that his effort was not part of the U.S.-Russia talks led by Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s peace envoy.

But Mr. Beach also said that “this project is known about at the highest levels” in Moscow and Washington. He said he would soon announce the names of executives who would lead the project.

Last August, days after meeting Mr. Trump in Alaska, Mr. Putin said that “we are discussing with our American partners” the possibility of using Novatek technology to produce liquefied natural gas in Alaska. Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, said in October that foreign investors were interested in exporting the gas directly from Alaska’s North Slope.

Mr. Mikhelson, one of Russia’s richest men, has kept a low profile since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but met regularly with Mr. Putin before then, according to the Kremlin’s website.

Novatek, which has close ties to the Kremlin but is not state-controlled, is under partial U.S. sanctions, and some of its subsidiaries face more severe restrictions. Mr. Beach said he had been able to legally pursue his deal because the United States did not fully sanction the Novatek parent company itself.

Kirill Dmitriev, Mr. Putin’s economic envoy, has pitched a multitude of potential deals to Mr. Witkoff and other interlocutors, including jointly selling gas to Europe and building an undersea tunnel from Russia to Alaska.

Many U.S. companies scrambled to pull out of their business dealings with Russia after Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, facing intensifying Western sanctions and political pressure.

Under Mr. Trump, that pressure has eased. Last spring, Mr. Trump described Russia’s economic potential as a “tremendous opportunity.” But while the Kremlin was eager to re-establish business ties, Mr. Trump said that major deal-making would only be possible after Russia stopped its war in Ukraine.

That is why Mr. Beach’s deal could mark a milestone, especially as the U.S.-mediated Ukraine peace talks drag on. Mr. Beach said he was not waiting to jump into deal-making with Russia, because “the guy that’s early to the opportunity is usually the one I’ve found that makes the money.”

Most of the American corporate world, which once saw Russia as a hot emerging market with a growing middle class, remains skeptical about returning to the country because of the political uncertainty and the limited potential gains.

Ivan Grek, the director of George Washington University’s Russia program, said that Mr. Beach’s project could be an early test of whether new U.S.-Russia deals are realistic. He said he also saw interest in doing more business with Russia from medical technology, pharmaceutical and consumer goods companies.

“Gentry is a pioneer in this case, if not the only pioneer,” said Mr. Grek, who has been convening discussions among officials, businesspeople and academics on economic policy toward Russia.

Mr. Beach’s project would tackle an enduring conundrum for the U.S. energy industry: how to sell the huge amount of natural gas produced in the slice of tundra near Alaska’s Arctic Ocean coastline known as the North Slope. But it still faces major obstacles, including securing the participation of larger energy companies that would supply gas to the project.

It could also compete with Trump-backed plans for an 800-mile pipeline to send North Slope gas to southern Alaska, where it could be liquefied and exported. Mr. Beach argued that his project would be complementary to the pipeline.

The project would echo the approach Novatek has developed for shipping gas from the remote Russian Arctic: turning it into liquefied natural gas in a prefabricated plant and transporting it out by icebreaker. Novatek said in its statement that the climate in the Alaskan Arctic was similar.

“Experts have discussed this opportunity for many years,” Novatek’s statement went on. “Having said that, all the arrangements can only be implemented subject to support from the Russian and U.S. authorities.”

Mr. Beach described Mr. Mikhelson, the billionaire head of Novatek, as “very pro-American,” and said his agreement envisioned using a movable liquefied natural gas plant already under construction at Novatek’s factory in Russia’s Murmansk region. He also said he would seek to use ice-breaking liquefied natural gas carriers built in South Korea to transport the gas to Asian markets.

Mr. Beach said he was pursuing the Novatek project from a “purely business” perspective. But people with experience doing business in Russia said that Mr. Beach’s reputation as a Trump associate was likely to serve him well there.

Paul Ostling, a former Ernst & Young executive who served on Russian corporate boards until the Ukraine invasion in 2022, said the risks in Russia now were so steep that only people with strong political connections stood a chance of success in entering the market.

“That’s a huge difference from saying the door is open for normal business,” he said.

The Latest on the Trump Administration

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• Three Conflicts to Solve: Iran, Ukraine and Gaza are in play as Trump envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, conduct talks on all of them. But progress in each conflict is scant.

• C.D.C. Leadership Shake-Up: The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, will take on the additional role of acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two administration officials said.

• Targeting Noncitizen Voting: Homeland security officials, at the direction of the White House, are intensifying efforts to investigate voting by noncitizens in pursuit of Trump’s baseless claims that illegal voting by undocumented immigrants is a rampant and insidious threat.

• Airport Name Trademark: Trump’s family business recently filed trademark applications for potential airport names, records show, an effort to preserve control over the use of his brand.

• OSHA Workplace Inspections Dropped: New data about the federal agency responsible for workplace safety suggests a substantial drop in inspections in the months after Trump returned to office last year.

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President Trump with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia during a meeting in Alaska last year. Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

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On Wednesday, prominent medical and environmental groups challenged the Trump administration’s decision to scrap a 2009 finding that climate change threatens human health.

The suit was filed on February 18 by the American Public Health Association (APHA), the American Lung Association, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and several other medical and environmental advocacy groups.

The Environmental Protection Agency “has a duty to consider the well-being and safety of all, and the science is clear; climate change and air pollution threaten everyone’s health,” said Georges Benjamin, chief executive officer of the APHA, in a statement.

The challenge comes days after EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the agency would scrap the 2009 “endangerment finding,” breaking with the long-standing scientific consensus that global warming poses a risk to human health. The finding played a critical role in regulating greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles such as cars and trucks, which accounted for 28 percent of all U.S. emissions in 2022.

The new lawsuit could once more elevate the fight over whether climate change harms health to the Supreme Court. In 2007 the Court decided in the case Massachusetts v. EPA that greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, qualified as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. This formed the basis of the endangerment finding, which held that six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide from combustion engines, did “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.”

Rescinding the endangerment finding removes mileage requirements from automakers and could undermine future regulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

When contacted by Scientific American on Wednesday, the EPA declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing a long-standing practice of not commenting on current or pending litigation.

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We’re conditioned to build from the ground up with men our own age. But Karrueche Tran and Deion Sanders show us there’s no shame in joining a man who is already harvested and ready to love.

Age gap relationships aren’t as taboo as they used to be, yet they still spark debate within conversations about dating. So what’s an acceptable age gap, especially when it comes to women dating older men? And to get granular, women over 30?

Viola Davis and Julius Tennon have a 13-year age gap. Beyoncé and Jay-Z have a 12-year age gap. Most recently, Karrueche Tran and Deion Sanders, who recently revealed they’re an item, have a 21-year age gap, and people still have mixed opinions about how socially acceptable it is. Arguments against it focus on “sugar daddy” tropes or tentative unequal power dynamics, especially when you combine an age gap with wealth and fame.

But does the argument around age gaps and unequal power dynamics hold when the younger person is in their 30s? Your prefrontal cortex is fully developed by your mid-20s, meaning you should be capable of higher-level cognitive functioning and decision-making.

Tran, who is currently 37, has dated famous men within her age group, including Chris Brown, former NFL player Victor Cruz, and (maybe) former Migos member Quavo. The actress has had her fair share of public relationships with men her age and an equal share of embarrassment. If you recall, Brown had a baby on her, which was revealed in 2015, while she stood by him amid legal troubles that included a jail stint in 2014. And while I don’t think heartbreak should be the only reason to date older, sometimes it is the catalyst.

Dating older can be a transformative experience if you’re in a relatively good place mentally and do it with an equally emotionally healthy person. I was in a 10-plus-year age-gap relationship in my mid-thirties after spending most of my life saying I wouldn’t date older. The desire to try something different took me down that path, and it’s one paved with lessons I’ll carry for life. Because I dated older during a time when I was self-assured, self-autonomous, and developing strong boundaries, the power dynamic due to our age difference wasn’t a thing. What was a thing was cultural differences because we grew up in different generations and were in different life stages. Our relationship was devoid of cultural banter, music-induced nostalgia, and common pain points. It also didn’t feel like we were building together since he had already established himself in areas I was still navigating. That said, we had more in common than I thought we would, because good conversation, shared interests, and laughter don’t have age limits.

The gift in our age gap was that being with someone who had more life experiences under their belt meant he had abundant wisdom to share. During our time together, I upleveled my career, finances, parenting, communication skills, and vulnerability. He also brought a level of maturity and emotional intelligence to our relationship that I’d never experienced before. Maybe most importantly, I learned how to let someone take care of me. I’m not saying I couldn’t have had these experiences with younger men, but I strongly believe the age gap made it more likely in my situation. Judging by the limited interactions we’ve seen between Tran and Sanders, she seems to be having a similar experience. She appears to be in her soft era and ushering Sanders into his, too. The 58-year-old coach recently had surgery to remove his bladder after doctors found a cancerous tumor there, and Tran was by his side through that. In a recent video he posted on Instagram, the Colorado coach talks about the importance of enjoying the fruits of his labor, with Tran sitting next to him.

“Last year with the cancer, it triggered something in me, and it said negro, start living,” he said while acknowledging that his kids and Karrueche encouraged him to do so in the past. That’s when Tran interjected, “That’s why He brought me into your life. To help you live life and experience new things, because that’s what I love too. I love to travel and do different things, so you know, we meet halfway.”

The former Claws star noted that God brought them together because “He knew that we needed each other.” Despite their 21-year age gap, they seemingly bring out the best parts of one another.

Every relationship you’re in brings out a different side of you, be it loving, toxic, or somewhere in between. Sometimes, being with someone older and well-versed in this thing called life brings you peace you’ve never experienced with partners your own age and younger. I think that’s more likely to be the case when you find a mate who has done the inner work, built a stable life, and has a solid sense of who they are.

As long as there’s no foul play—like predatory behavior, abuse, manipulation, and control—I don’t think there’s much to say about two consenting adults engaging in a romantic relationship. I also think that if there were less judgment around it, more women would be open to trying age-gap relationships. And they might be better off for it, especially if they haven’t found luck with younger men.

We’re conditioned to build from the ground up with men our own age. But as Tran and Sanders show us, there’s no shame in joining a man who is already harvested and ready to live.

I’m sure there are women out there with horror stories from dating older men, so I’m not saying it’s always a recipe for success. In my case, being with an older man wasn’t my final destination. However, it helped me set the standard for the type of love I deserve.

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BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 04: Karrueche Tran attends the EBONY Power 100 Gala at The Beverly Hilton on November 04, 2025, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for EBONY Media Group)

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Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as federal prosecutors, spent more than a year looking into whether C.B.P. officers in St. Thomas allowed Mr. Epstein and his guests to avoid scrutiny as they entered the country.

The outcome of the investigation, which focused on at least four C.B.P. officers, including a supervisor, is unclear. There is no record of the officers’ having been charged with crimes in connection to Mr. Epstein. Spokesmen for the F.B.I. and C.B.P. had no immediate comment.

The emails and other records show how Mr. Epstein — a master networker who traded favors with presidents, billionaires, superlawyers, and Hollywood celebrities — also set out to woo usually anonymous customs officials in the Caribbean. The charm offensive took place from at least 2008 to 2016, a period during which authorities in the U.S. Virgin Islands have said he was sexually abusing girls and young women on his island. (The criminal charges filed against Mr. Epstein in 2019 covered an earlier time period and conduct in New York and Florida, not the Caribbean.)

It appeared to be part of a broader effort to build alliances across the U.S. territory, which granted his business lucrative tax breaks. He donated generously to local politicians. He employed a governor’s wife.

The C.B.P. agents in St. Thomas had the power to interfere with the luxurious, under-the-radar life that Mr. Epstein had built for himself in the U.S. Virgin Islands — including his importation of young women from foreign countries.

After Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008 and became a registered sex offender, C.B.P. officers elsewhere sometimes pulled him aside for questioning at airports. They sometimes took note of his female companions. In 2013, for example, a C.B.P. officer at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida described intercepting Mr. Epstein, who was returning from St. Thomas. He “was traveling with several young women but of age,” the officer wrote in a report, which was previously described by Bloomberg News.

Mr. Epstein and his associates also appeared jittery about what C.B.P. officers might find if they showed up unannounced at Little St. James. In 2016, an employee alerted Mr. Epstein that C.B.P. officers were circling the island, according to an email released by the Justice Department. The employee instructed a colleague, “to hide everything until further notice.” It wasn’t clear what she was referring to.

By the time of his 2008 incarceration, Mr. Epstein had a friendly relationship with at least one C.B.P. officer, the emails show.

The officer, Carol Montgomery, repeatedly sought Mr. Epstein’s advice and financial assistance, including a $200,000 loan after she transferred to a C.B.P. office on the mainland. It is unclear from the emails whether Mr. Epstein provided her with money or if she was part of the federal investigation.

“Welcome home, Jeff,” Ms. Montgomery wrote on the day he was released from jail in 2009. At another point, when she worked for the C.B.P. in Washington State, she invited Mr. Epstein to visit her and noted that she had read “a bunch of foolishness” about him in the media. “Keep your chin up and know that I care a lot for you,” she wrote.

In June 2010, as his period of house arrest was coming to an end, Mr. Epstein emailed Cecile de Jongh, who was his office manager in the U.S. Virgin Islands and was the territory’s first lady. He asked who was in charge of customs, noting that an official at the St. Thomas airport “has been difficult lately.” Ms. de Jongh said she would look into the matter. It is unclear what came of the conversation.

Two years later, in November 2012, Mr. Epstein planned to give a Thanksgiving turkey to each of the 78 C.B.P. employees stationed in St. Thomas. But an agency supervisor nixed the idea, citing a ban on personal gifts. “They can only accept gifts that will benefit the entire community overall,” one of Mr. Epstein’s employees relayed to him. On another occasion, Mr. Epstein said he wanted to buy the agents new computers.

He took agents on whale-watching excursions aboard his helicopter. He invited them to visit his island for lunch. (One officer later told investigators that the lunch, which took place in a gazebo, consisted of sandwiches and wine.)

Mr. Epstein hired another C.B.P. officer to play the steel drums for guests on his island. The officer waived his fee because “he considers you a friend,” an employee told Mr. Epstein, though “if you wish to give him something, he is appreciative.” The officer performed at least twice and offered to provide lessons to one of Mr. Epstein’s guests, emails show.

Mr. Epstein appears to have struck up an especially close relationship with a customs officer named Timothy Routch, who worked on St. Thomas as an agricultural specialist from 2009 through 2014. Mr. Routch later described Mr. Epstein to F.B.I. agents as “a wonderful person,” even as he noted his criminal conviction and the procession of Eastern European women who were arriving on St. Thomas, apparently on their way to Little St. James, according to the F.B.I.’s summary of the interview. Mr. Routch said he turned to Mr. Epstein for financial advice and thought “Epstein would be a good person to know” if Mr. Routch “ever decided to run for public office there.”

Mr. Routch told the F.B.I. that he would check with Mr. Epstein “to make sure he was being treated with fairness and respect” by other C.B.P. agents and “would empathize with Epstein if Epstein encountered a rude U.S. C.B.P. official.”

Mr. Routch, who retired from the C.B.P. in 2021, said in an interview with The New York Times that his relationship with Mr. Epstein had been strictly professional and that he’d had no knowledge of his sex-trafficking operation. Mr. Routch previously spoke to The Post and Courier in South Carolina.

Mr. Epstein collected the personal contact information for other C.B.P. officers, including James Heil, who was a supervisor in St. Thomas, according to a federal prosecutor’s summary of a conversation with a lawyer for Mr. Epstein’s pilot. While “some inspectors would delay J.E. for a while,” Mr. Heil and another friendly officer “wouldn’t give him a hard time,” the pilot’s lawyer said.

Mr. Heil was in regular communication with Mr. Epstein and his aides, including when they encountered inconveniences with C.B.P. officers at other airports, emails show.

Mr. Heil, who is retired, told The Times that he’d interacted with Mr. Epstein in his capacity as a “professionalism service manager” at the agency, whose responsibilities included helping travelers understand C.B.P. procedures and regulations.

By the time Mr. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, Mr. Routch had transferred to the border protection agency’s offices in South Carolina — and feared that his relationship with Mr. Epstein could come back to haunt him.

On Aug. 30, 2019, Mr. Routch walked into his supervisor’s office and shut the door, appearing shaken, according to a memo that the supervisor wrote afterward.

He told the supervisor that a female acquaintance had filed complaints with the Justice Department alleging that while working in St. Thomas, Mr. Routch had assisted Mr. Epstein in “conducting human trafficking of underage females.” When the supervisor asked how the woman would know about his relationship with Mr. Epstein, Mr. Routch responded that “everyone knew I was friends with Jeffrey Epstein,” according to the memo.

After the meeting, the supervisor alerted his superiors in South Carolina that “Mr. Routch pal’d around with Mr. Epstein, clearing his aircraft; and spending personal time with the convict after befriending him, entering into that friendship through carrying out C.B.P. official duty.”

By October 2019, the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General had opened investigations into the matter, emails show.

The precise contours of the investigations aren’t clear. But in May 2020, a federal grand jury issued subpoenas to a number of credit-reporting companies for financial information about Mr. Routch. The subpoena was “in connection with an official criminal investigation of a suspected felony,” according to a letter that Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York at the time, wrote to TransUnion, one of the companies that got a subpoena.

A few months later, a similar subpoena was issued for financial information about Mr. Heil and two other C.B.P. officers who had been stationed in St. Thomas. Google also responded to a grand jury subpoena for information about Mr. Routch.

In November 2020, F.B.I. agents and a federal prosecutor interviewed Mr. Epstein’s pilot, Larry Visoski, who recalled how a couple of C.B.P. officers had been friendly with Mr. Epstein, according to a summary of the videoconference interview. He said he had sometimes flown officers on Mr. Epstein’s helicopters and occasionally requested that the C.B.P. office on St. Thomas remain open after hours to accommodate Mr. Epstein’s plane.

Mr. Visoski told the investigators that he “had no knowledge of any C.B.P. officer assisting Epstein in trafficking underage passengers.”

About five months later, in April 2021, F.B.I. and Homeland Security agents interviewed Mr. Routch. The Times did not find any subsequent records related to the investigation.

In the interview, according to the F.B.I.’s summary, Mr. Routch said he “was aware of Epstein’s conviction involving the abuse of minors but supported Epstein because he was a good guy” to Mr. Routch. He added that he “thought it was a good idea to maintain contact with Epstein because of his status, wealth, and influence.”

Mr. Routch said he often boasted about his connection to Mr. Epstein, including after his death. “It was an ego boost,” the summary noted. “Not everyone can say they know a billionaire.”

More on the Epstein Files

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• Leon Botstein: The president of Bard College raised millions to save his school from closure. As he sought donations, he talked with Jeffrey Epstein about music, watches, and young female musicians.

• G.O.P. Donor:  Leslie Wexner, the former chief executive of Victoria’s Secret and a prolific donor to Republican candidates, repeatedly denied having any personal relationship with Epstein and said he had been “conned” by the sex offender, but had done nothing wrong.

• Howard Lutnick: Despite calls for the U.S. commerce secretary’s resignation after he acknowledged encounters with Epstein years after he said he had cut ties with the sex offender, the White House dismissed concerns about Lutnick’s credibility.

• Tom Pritzker: A member of a prominent and wealthy family, Pritzker stepped down as the executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels after released files revealed he was in regular contact with Epstein.

• Columbia University: The school punished two people affiliated with its dental college after documents revealed that they had bypassed the normal process to help one of Epstein’s girlfriends gain admission.

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Little St. James, a private island owned by Jeffrey Epstein in the Caribbean. Credit…Gabriella N. Baez for The New York Times

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There is perhaps one thing that the Internet, your mom, and scientists agree on: eating lots of fruits and vegetables is good for you. But according to a new study, following any one of five diets that are rich in these foods and some others could also boost your lifespan.

By following more than 100,000 people in the U.K. for years, researchers found that people whose food choices scored high in any one of five diet categories tended to live longer than people who scored the lowest. Specifically, the team found that even after adjusting for confounding factors—such as whether people smoked, how much exercise they took, and what their education and ethnicity was—study participants who tended to eat according to any one of the five diets were 18 to 24 percent less likely to die of any cause.

For women, that roughly translated into an extra 1.5 to 2.3 years of life. And for men, it added about 1.9 to three years. The findings were published on Friday in the journal Science Advances.

The five diets that were singled out by the researchers centered on fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and whole grains, with minimal processed foods. Fiber intake, in particular, showed a strong association with longevity, while consuming lots of sugary beverages was linked to higher all-cause mortality.

Marion Nestle, a nutrition and food studies professor emerita at New York University, says the results are not a surprise but that they add to the evidence for healthy eating.

“It’s always amazing to me that it takes research of this depth, complexity, and size to conclude that eating heathy diets is good for health and longevity,” she says.

“The study also confirms that there are lots of ways of eating healthfully, and they all work,” she adds.

“The secret to a longevity diet is not about finding the one magical formula,” says Liangkai Chen, an associate professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and senior author of the study. Instead, the findings suggest there are several health patterns for a longer life, the researchers wrote.

The diets in the study were more academic measures than a set of eating rules like those used in popular diets such as the “keto” or “Paleo” diets. They included the following categories:

Alternate Healthy Eating Index: A system that encourages foods known to combat chronic disease.

Alternate Mediterranean Diet: A system that is similar to the Mediterranean diet but tweaked to incorporate foods eaten by people who live outside of the region.

Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index: A diet-scoring mechanism that rewards plant-based eating and encourages people to consume fewer animal products.

Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension: An eating plan that focuses on heart-healthy foods that may help lower blood pressure.

Diabetes Risk Reduction Diet: A system that cuts back on high-glycemic foods—or foods known to rapidly raise blood sugar levels.

The researchers also considered the participants’ genetic predisposition to longevity. Interestingly, participants with higher odds of living longer tended to see less of a benefit from a healthy diet than people who were dealt a worse hand of genetic cards, notes Sofiya Milman, director of Human Longevity Studies at the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

She notes that following a healthy diet is generally a good idea regardless, however.

“This is a well-conducted association study,” says Sai Das, a professor of nutrition science at Tufts University, who was also not involved in the research. The study wasn’t a controlled experiment in which participants strictly adhered to the five diets, so it isn’t possible to say that their diets caused them to live longer. But the large sample size does add strength to the findings, she says.

“We’ve always known that diet is an important determinant of chronic disease,” Das says, adding that the diet categories in the study were “very well grounded in the science.”

There are several other limitations to the work. The study authors noted in the paper that they were not able to rule out potential confounding factors such as people’s access to health care or general “health consciousness.” And because the study was done in the U.K., it’s unclear if the findings would apply to people living in other countries.

Das recommends not sweating the specifics about how much diet adds to your lifespan. “It’s not about betting on 1.5 versus 1.7” years, she says. Instead, by adding in more healthy foods to your diet, “the point is that you are going to live longer.”

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As Mark Zuckerberg was ushered into the Los Angeles Superior Court early on Wednesday morning, one accessory in his entourage stood out: Meta Ray-Ban glasses.

Zuckerberg, wearing a navy blue suit and tie, arrived without any glasses. Flanking either side of him as he walked up to the courthouse were longtime executive assistant Andrea Besmehn and an unidentified man donning Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses.

Meta declined to comment about the accessory choice.

AI-powered smart glasses weren’t just a hot accessory in the California sun. They were a hot topic inside the courtroom.

The judge presiding over the trial announced that anyone using glasses to record inside the courtroom would be “held in contempt of the court,” according to CNBC.

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Mark Zuckerberg and his entourage arrive Los Angeles Superior Court.  Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images; Business Insider

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The rapid buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East has progressed to the point that President Trump has the option to take military action against Iran as soon as this weekend, administration and Pentagon officials said, leaving the White House with high-stakes choices about pursuing diplomacy or war.

Mr. Trump has given no indication that he has made a decision about how to proceed. But the drive to assemble a military force capable of striking Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missiles, and accompanying launch sites has continued this week despite indirect talks between the two nations on Tuesday, with Iran seeking two weeks to come back with fleshed-out proposals for a diplomatic resolution.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly demanded that Iran give up its nuclear program, including agreeing not to enrich any more uranium. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, whose country would potentially take part in an attack, has been pushing for action to weaken Iran’s ability to launch missiles at Israel.

Israeli forces, which have been on heightened alert for weeks, have been making more preparations for a possible war, and a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet was moved to Sunday from Thursday, according to two Israeli defense officials.

Many administration officials have expressed skepticism about the prospects of reaching a diplomatic deal with Tehran. The indirect talks on Tuesday in Geneva ended with what Iran’s foreign minister said was agreement on a “set of guiding principles.” U.S. officials said the two sides made progress but added that big gaps remain.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened that Iran must meet his terms or face severe consequences. But another attack, eight months after a 12-day war in which Israel and the United States assaulted military and nuclear sites across Iran, would potentially carry substantial risks, including that Iran would respond with a ferocious barrage of missile strikes on Israel and on U.S. forces in the region.

For a president who ran for office promising to keep the United States out of wars, Mr. Trump is now considering what would be at least the seventh American military attack in another country in the past year, and his second on Iran. Last June, after striking three Iranian nuclear sites, Mr. Trump declared that Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated.” But now he is considering sending U.S. military back to continue the job.

But unlike the U.S.-Israeli assault last June, Mr. Trump’s objectives now are less clear.

The U.S. military buildup includes dozens of refueling tankers, rushed to the region by United States Central Command, more than 50 additional fighter jets, and two aircraft carrier strike groups, complete with their accompanying destroyers, cruisers, and submarines, U.S. officials said.

The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, fresh from the Caribbean, where it was part of the naval fleet pressuring the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro, was approaching Gibraltar on Wednesday as it made its way to join the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in the region.

“The president has always been very clear, though, with respect to Iran or any country around the world, diplomacy is always his first option, and Iran would be very wise to make a deal with President Trump and with this administration,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Wednesday.

“He’s always thinking about what’s in the best interest of the United States of America, of our military, of the American people, and that’s how he makes decisions with respect to military action,” she added.

In Israel, the two defense officials said that significant preparations were underway for the possibility of a joint strike with the United States, even though no decision has been made about whether to carry out such an attack. They said the planning envisions delivering a severe blow over a number of days with the goal of forcing Iran into concessions at the negotiating table that it has so far been unwilling to make.

The U.S. buildup suggests an array of possible Iranian targets, including short and medium-range missiles, missile storage depots, nuclear sites, and other military targets, such as headquarters of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Co

The ultimate decision on scope of targets is largely up to Mr. Trump, U.S. officials said.

Administration and military officials said the United States has bolstered its defensive assets since the president initially threatened to strike Iran in January.

At the time, Mr. Trump had requested options to respond to the Iranian government’s bloody crackdown on protests. But more recently, he has threatened to attack if Iran failed to reach a deal to limit its nuclear program and said that a “massive Armada” was heading toward the country.

Despite Mr. Trump’s tough stance, the Pentagon last month was in a poor position to back him up. The 30,000 to 40,000 U.S. troops scattered around the Middle East, including at eight permanent bases, were low on air defenses to protect them from expected retaliation.

The additional fighter jets necessary to conduct the kind of operation Mr. Trump spoke of were idling at American bases in Europe, and as far away as the United States. Much of the military hardware in the Middle East, accumulated over 20 years of war had since departed the region.

But over the past month, the U.S. military has moved the necessary air defenses — including Patriot missile defense and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems — into the region. Both systems can intercept Iranian ballistic missiles.

One military official said the U.S. military could now defend its troops, allies, and assets from any Iranian retaliation for American strikes on its nuclear and military targets, at least for a short campaign. But, the official said, the question remained as to whether the American military is ready to sustain a longer and wider war.

The American buildup also includes dozens of additional F-35, F-22, and F-16 fighter jets that have been flowing from the United States to Europe and onward to the Middle East in recent days, according to flight tracking data and U.S. officials.

Dozens of refueling planes, vital for a prolonged air campaign, have also been moved forward, those officials say.

The second aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford, and its three destroyer escorts could be in the Mediterranean by the weekend or early next week, military officials said. The Ford is likely to be deployed initially near the coast of Israel to defend Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities and towns, officials said.

A military official said on Wednesday that the carriers have their own defense systems, including accompanying destroyers that can shoot down missiles aimed at them. It is difficult to hit an aircraft carrier with a ballistic missile, he said, if the carrier is moving rapidly.

American B-2 bombers, which were used last year when Mr. Trump struck Iran, and other U.S.-based long-range bombers are on a higher alert status, officials said.

Senior national security officials have told the president that any operation that aims to change the Iranian leadership is not guaranteed to be a success, the officials said.

Mr. Trump’s decision to put off his threatened Iran strikes last month — which two administration officials said came about after military officials cautioned him that the Pentagon wasn’t ready — may have allowed Iran to better prepare for an attack.

“Diplomacy may give the U.S. more time to get its military ready, but it also gives Iran more time to plan its retaliation,” said Vali Nasr, an Iran expert at Johns Hopkins University. “Ultimately,” he added, “the president has to weigh the cost of attacking Iran. Ironically, his approach has made those costs more likely.”

More on Iran

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• Outrage Over Protester’s Death: Rights groups are investigating the death of Ali Rahbar in January as a potential extrajudicial killing. His family believes he was executed, but Iran denies executions have taken place.

• Rallying for Regime Change: People protesting the Iranian government gathered near the security conference in Munich, as well as in other cities.

• Aircraft Carrier to Middle East: The U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford and its escort ships are joining the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group as part of President Trump’s resurgent pressure campaign against Iran’s leaders.

• Iran Commemorates Revolution: The authoritarian clerical regime in Tehran came to power in 1979. Today, it presides over a country that is deeply polarized and under threat of an American attack.

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The U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, seen here in the North Sea last year, is making its way toward the Middle East. Credit…Jonathan Klein/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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