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Riders on public transit are no longer required to wear masks in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday, bringing the state in line with other transportation systems nationwide that relaxed their rules in April when a federal judge in Florida overturned a nationwide mandate. State officials are also getting rid of mask requirements in homeless shelters, but they will remain in health care facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes, she added. Covid-19 infection rates in New York have been steadily dropping since July, when a sixth wave spread through the virus-weary city. During Wednesday’s live-streamed public announcement, Hochul urged New Yorkers to get a new booster shot targeting the Omicron variant and rolled up her sleeve to get one herself. The Food and Drug Administration authorized the new shots last month and they are now available at pharmacies and health centers. Read the latest on the coronavirus pandemic at the link in our bio.

Some ranchers have been waging war with beavers for decades. Now, many are reaping the benefits of allowing beavers to coexist on their land. Agee Smith, a fourth-generation rancher in Nevada whose father used to blow up beaver dams with dynamite, has reached a truce with these aquatic rodents. In fact, he says welcoming the beavers to work on his land is one of the best things he’s done. When his ranch suffered one of the worst droughts he can remember last year, the beaver pools kept his cattle with enough water. When rains came strangely hard and fast, the vast network of dams slowed a torrent of water raging down the mountain, protecting his hay crop. And his creeks have widened into wetlands that clean water, increase biodiversity and create a buffer against wildfires. It turns out, beavers can be highly skilled environmental engineers that can help fight the effects of climate change. As global warming worsens droughts, floods and wildfires, a growing number of ranchers, scientists and other “beaver believers” see the creatures as helpers. “We need to get beavers back to work,” Wade Crowfoot, California’s secretary of natural resources, said in a webinar this year. “Full employment for beavers.” Tap the link in our bio to learn more about this environmental partnership between humans and beavers. Photos by @_nikichan

After a nearly decade-long break, Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back with “Cool It Down,” an expansive album that dares to imagine a bold, fresh future. Over the course of four studio albums — the last and highest-charting, “Mosquito,” was released in 2013 — Yeah Yeah Yeahs came to define the resurgent New York rock scene of the early 2000s. The group evolved from its lo-fi roots, bringing in acoustic strumming, club beats and electro-pop weirdness, and earned Grammy nominations along the way. But when its major-label deal with Interscope ended after “Mosquito,” its members scattered to mature artistically and personally. Melena Ryzik, a New York Times culture reporter, caught up with Yeah Yeah Yeahs — the frontwoman Karen O, the guitarist Nick Zinner and the drummer Brian Chase — before they performed at the Osheaga festival in Montreal in July. Onstage, Melena writes, Karen O is still mesmerizing, geysering liquids and power-posing on monitors, but she has slightly tamed her style. Speaking as someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about her role as a frontwoman, Karen O noted that “disarming is another specialty of what I try to do with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.” “I’m being absolutely ridiculous, quite overtly sexual, totally heart-on-my-sleeve,” she said. “I’m going to steamroll you, and you’re going to like it.” Read the full profile of @yeahyeahyeahs at the link in our bio. Photo by @sandycandykim

4 Dead in California Wildfires as Heat Wave Peaks After a scorching Labor Day weekend that fueled deadly wildfires in Northern California and freakish desert downpours, temperatures are expected to peak on Tuesday and reach 115 degrees in Sacramento. The wildfires were responsible for at least four deaths. Meteorologists predicted that the blistering heat would remain across much of the region for the rest of the week. Read more about the extreme weather at the link in our bio.

Juul Labs has tentatively agreed to pay $438.5 million to settle an investigation by nearly three dozen states that focused on the company’s sales and marketing practices that they claim fueled the teenage vaping crisis. The investigation found that the company appealed to young people by hiring young models, using social media to court teenagers and giving out free samples. William Tong, Connecticut’s attorney general, said in a news conference that the investigation found that the company had a “porous” age verification system for its products and that 45% of its Twitter followers were ages 13 to 17. Juul said on Tuesday that the settlement “is a significant part of our ongoing commitment to resolve issues from the past.” It continued, “The terms of the agreement are aligned with our current business practices which we started to implement after our companywide reset in the fall of 2019.” But the company said it was not acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement. The tentative settlement prohibits the company from marketing to youth, from funding education in schools and from misrepresenting the level of nicotine in its products. Before the settlement, Juul had already discontinued several marketing practices and withdrawn many of its flavored pods that appealed to teenagers, under public pressure from lawmakers, parents and health experts a few years ago when the vaping crisis was at a peak. Read the full report at the link in our bio.

Despite Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, very little about day-to-day life seems to have changed in Moscow. People in the capital have the financial resources to weather significant price increases, unlike much of the rest of the country. “Nothing has really changed,” said Nataliya Nikonova, 44, who recently attended a Russian military celebration in Moscow. “Sure, the prices went up, but we can endure that.” Detachment from war is exactly what President Vladimir Putin is counting on as he seeks to shield Russians from the hardships of war — no draft, no mass funerals, no feelings of loss. The luxury mall next to Red Square is full of shoppers, and restaurants and theaters are thriving. People gather to dance at night in Gorky Park and Moscow’s roads still teem with luxury cars. A military festival last month drew thousands to Red Square and thousands more gathered at the Alabino army training ground southwest of Moscow over two weeks to watch the Army International Games. While maintaining a sense of normalcy, Putin is also working to further militarize Russian society. Along Moscow’s artery roads are billboards of soldiers listing their rank and title with a QR code to scan for more information. And there is no shortage of events celebrating Russia’s military might. Tap the link in our bio to read more about how Russians are living through two very different realities. Photos by @nannaheitmann

South Korea was hit by heavy rain and strong winds on Tuesday, but avoided the extensive destruction that many had feared as Typhoon Hinnamnor made its way out to sea faster than forecasters had expected. By Tuesday evening, three deaths had been reported and eight people were missing, the authorities said. The damage nationwide appeared to be limited. There was isolated flooding, trees that fell down and broken street lamps. About 66,000 homes lost power, mostly in the south. Forty inches of rain were recorded on Jeju Island, and 11 in cities near the southern coastal region. Areas along the southern coast, like Pohang, a city of about 500,000 north of Busan, were among the hardest hit, with collapsed bridges and submerged homes, roads and cars. The nation’s largest steel plant, Posco, based in Pohang, suspended operations because of the flooding. Typhoon Hinnamnor was the second major storm to batter the country in recent weeks, after the heaviest downpour in decades led to deaths and widespread destruction in August. Tap the link in our bio to read more about the typhoon and see more from the aftermath. Photos by @nytchangster

Liz Truss became Britain’s prime minister on Tuesday, when Queen Elizabeth II invited her to form a government, a day after Truss was confirmed as the new leader of the Conservative Party. The transfer of power from the outgoing prime minister, Boris Johnson, was accomplished in time-honored fashion, in a pair of back-to-back meetings with the monarch, though the setting was unusual: Balmoral Castle, a sprawling estate in the Scottish countryside where the queen spends much of the summer. Johnson arrived at the castle door at 11:15 a.m. with his wife, Carrie, and submitted his resignation to the queen in the drawing room shortly afterward. Truss arrived about an hour later, accompanied by her husband, Hugh O’Leary, to become the 15th prime minister to meet with the monarch (her first was Winston Churchill). The meetings were held at Balmoral, rather than at Buckingham Palace, as is the usual custom, because the 96-year-old queen is suffering problems with her mobility and was advised by her doctors not to travel to London. In a photo released by the palace, a smiling queen greeted Truss, holding a walking stick. After the meeting, Truss flew back to London, where she is scheduled to address the nation from Downing Street in the late afternoon. Read more about Britain’s next prime minister at the link in our bio. Pool photo by Jane Barlow

For decades, Brooklyn bid farewell to summer with J’Ouvert, a predawn reverie with roots in the emancipation of enslaved people in the Caribbean, followed by the West Indian American Day Parade, where throngs of costumed paraders dance into the dusk. These Labor Day traditions represent New York City’s nearly 600,000 residents of non-Hispanic Caribbean descent, and typically attract more than two million people to a daylong party that, at its roots, seeks to reaffirm the diasporic bonds of the West Indies. While the Covid-19 pandemic forced the celebrations to be scaled down for the past two years into a series of virtual events and smaller gatherings, J’Ouvert and the day parade returned in their original incarnations in 2022. The theme this year is “life,” said Anne-Rhea Smith, a board member of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association, which organizes the parade. It is a reference to all that was lost during the pandemic — the lives, livelihoods and sharing of customs — as well as to a celebration of the West Indian way of life. Tap the link in our bio to see all the color and joy of the parade’s comeback. Photos by @steffikeith, @jordy.png, @malikmeetslik and @stephaniemeiling

Edward Enninful, the star fashion editor, reinvented British Vogue when he became the first male editor in chief of British Vogue in its 106-year history. He has now written a memoir, "A Visible Man," out Sept. 6, which he describes as the simple tale of “a boy from Ghana making his way in a racist, classist industry.” Enninful is also the first Black editor to be at the helm of Vogue in Britain or America, touted as someone who could someday succeed Anna Wintour. The 50-year-old said he did not have the customary privileged pedigree but did have “a calling”: to drag fashion magazines into the future. “Even though people knew me as a fashion insider, the newspapers saw me as an outsider because I was Black, because I was gay, because I was working class, because I didn’t go to the schools” they considered right, he said in an interview with @nytimesdowd. Tap the link in our bio to read the full profile of @edward_enninful in @nytstyle. Photo by @_serenabrown

Even seasoned watchers of the U.S. Open, may be surprised to know that there is no limit on how many times a tennis player may toss the ball when initiating their serve. Yet, players swing at nearly every toss they make, the good and the mediocre, even though it is such a critical element in determining who wins each point. The toss is that graceful lift of the ball into the hitting zone. It is the always crucial, sometimes overlooked, barely decipherable ingredient in the game’s most important shot. Frances Tiafoe, 24, a rising American who’s ranked 24th on the men’s tour, allowed The Times to examine his toss at a park in the Wimbledon section of London. See more from @bigfoe1998 and read what we learned about this component of elite serving at the link in our bio. Video by @noahswthroop and @ekrhyne

For most New Yorkers, the end of summer means no more sand between their toes or saying goodbye to that faint taste of salt and that sting of chlorine. But beneath a handful of townhouses and skyscrapers lies a hidden realm most will never know: subterranean swimming halls carved into basement floors and exquisitely maintained so residents can swim year round. Private pools “become a vehicle for escape from the city,” said William Georgis, the New York architect. He installed a refrigerated plunge pool in a private spa complex below a limestone townhouse on the Upper East Side. “Somebody beats you with birch branches, and God knows what else goes on down there,” he said. Tap the link in our bio to visit a subterranean aquatic world few New Yorkers ever experience. Photos by @ashoksinhaphoto

Demand for Italian beef is booming — thanks to “The Bear.” The anxiety-inducing series from FX, which follows a struggling Chicago beef sandwich shop, has spurred instant demand for the delectably sloppy Italian beef sandwiches at the center of the plot’s chaos. According to Chicagoans, a true Italian beef relies on a consistent, harmonious formula of thinly sliced roast beef and hot, tangy giardiniera, all atop — this is important — a Turano Baking Company French roll. The sandwich is then dunked in beef juices, and roasted peppers can be added for a touch of sweetness. Making giardiniera — pickled vegetables like carrots, peppers, celery and cauliflower — is a tradition in many Italian American households, but it does not require the work you might expect of a longstanding custom. Get @cathybarrow’s recipe for @nytcooking by tapping the link in our bio. Photo by @anrizzy

Kylie Minogue’s early experiences of alcohol were not especially glamorous — canned drinks with teenage friends, boxed wine at family barbecues. But Minogue, 54, the only female artist to have topped music charts in five consecutive decades, has refined her relationship to liquor since. Now, she has a new endeavor: a signature wine collection. Minogue, whom the BBC once called “pop’s most underestimated icon” and whom Rufus Wainwright, an occasional collaborator, has designated “the gay shorthand for joy,” first introduced her wines in Britain in 2020, where they have sold briskly. On a recent Wednesday morning, @nytstyle caught up with Minogue behind Bemelmans Bar in the Carlyle Hotel in New York, a cocktail shaker in hand. A few nights earlier she was behind the bar’s grand piano, performing for a crowd who had gathered to celebrate her new collection; on this day, though, she was testing her mixology chops with the help of the resident barman. Minogue, who is recording a 16th studio album, has rarely let obstacles deter her. She worked at her music. She improved. When her stilettos got caught in the bar floor mats, she swapped them for sturdier platforms. “I learn on the job,” she admitted. Tap the link in our bio to join @kylieminogue for happy hour. Photo by @gabbyjones.jpeg

A list of documents removed from former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, includes materials marked as top secret and meant to be viewed only in secure government facilities, according to a copy of the warrant obtained by The New York Times. Federal agents who executed the warrant did so to investigate potential crimes associated with violations of the Espionage Act, which outlaws the unauthorized retention of national security information that could harm the U.S. or aid a foreign adversary; a federal law that makes it a crime to destroy or conceal a document to obstruct a government investigation; and another statute associated with unlawful removal of government materials. Sections of the warrant and an accompanying inventory were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal on Friday. The search on Monday seized 11 sets of documents in all, including some marked as “classified/TS/SCI” documents — shorthand for “top secret/sensitive compartmented information,” according to the report. In total, agents collected four sets of top-secret documents, three sets of secret documents and three sets of confidential documents. Included in the manifest were also files pertaining to the pardon of Roger Stone Jr., a longtime associate of Trump, and material about President Emmanuel Macron of France. Follow updates to this developing story at the link in our bio.