Author: NY TIMES

Since his cancer diagnosis last year, Kent Manuel has regularly seen an oncologist near his home in Indianapolis. It’s been a tough time: After spinal surgery for paralysis caused by his cancer, he is regaining the use of his legs with physical therapy but still uses a wheelchair.Now, Mr. Manuel said, “I’m dealing with pain.” His oncologist recommended palliative care, a medical specialty that helps people with serious illnesses cope with discomfort and distress and maintain quality of life.So in November, Mr. Manuel, 72, a semiretired accountant, started seeing Dr. Julia Frydman, a palliative care doctor. “We talk through what…

On Saturday, the United States of America’s clothier in chief met its commander in chief, as Ralph Lauren became the first fashion designer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.Dressed in a tweed blazer, a knit necktie and squishy dark sneakers, Mr. Lauren, 85, was described in an introduction as “classic yet creative, timeless yet innovative.” He was praised for reminding “us of our distinct style as a nation of dreamers and doers.”Established by John F. Kennedy, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor. It has been bestowed upon a host of cultural, corporate and political…

Tom Johnson, a composer and critic whose Village Voice columns documented the renaissance of avant-garde music in downtown New York during the 1970s, and whose own compositions embraced minimalism and mathematical clarity, died on Tuesday at his home in Paris. He was 85.His wife and only immediate survivor, the performance artist Esther Ferrer, said the cause was a stroke following long-term emphysema.Mr. Johnson was a young New York composer in need of income in 1971 when he noticed that the exciting performances he heard downtown were not being covered by local news outlets. He offered to write about the contemporary…

Dozens of Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip over the weekend as Israeli and Hamas officials continued indirect cease-fire talks through mediators in Qatar.Israel’s military said on Sunday that it had hit more than 100 targets across the enclave over the weekend, including sites from which militants had fired at least four projectiles toward Israeli territory on Friday and Saturday. It said that the strikes had killed Hamas militants and that the military had taken measures to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. The claims could not be independently verified.The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday that…

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy has gone to to visit President-elect Donald J. Trump at his Florida golf club for an informal meeting held on Saturday.The trip, to Mar-a-Lago, comes just a few days before Ms. Meloni is set to welcome President Biden in Rome for an official visit to Italy and the Vatican on Jan. 9 to 12.On Saturday, she appeared in the grand ballroom. Mr. Trump, according to pool reports, said he was having dinner with Ms. Meloni, whom he called “a fantastic woman,” adding, “She’s really taken Europe by storm, and everyone else.”They, along with some…

At the end of the second set of the World Darts Championship, one of the world’s biggest indoor sports, Luke Littler calmly walked off the stage, gave his family a wry, knowing smile and rubbed his hands together. It was as if he had foresight of the beating he was about to receive.The man, no, the boy who was watched by 3,000 people at London’s Alexandra Palace, and millions more watching at home, in pubs across the UK and around the world, not only distinguished himself with cool ease , or do it with flamboyant style but with disdainful relish.The…

When Jeju Air’s status as South Korea’s biggest low-cost carrier seemed under threat from the merger of the country’s two biggest airlines last year, the company’s chief executive assured employees that it would “actively respond,” possibly by acquiring smaller rivals.Now, a week after a crash that killed 179 people on Dec. 29, Jeju Air’s future is clouded by even deeper questions.South Korean officials on Thursday raided the company’s offices and imposed a travel ban on Kim E-bae, the chief executive, as part of the investigation into the country’s worst air disaster in almost three decades. Passengers are canceling bookings, adding…

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a Beijing-based cybersecurity company on Friday, blaming it for helping Chinese hackers infiltrate U.S. communications systems and conduct surveillance across four continents.In an announcement, the department said the company, Integrity Technology Group, had supported a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as Flax Typhoon in a campaign to break into foreign networks between the summer of 2022 and 2023, saying it found the group had “routinely sent and received information from Integrity Tech infrastructure.”The action came after the Treasury Department revealed in a letter to lawmakers this week that a Chinese intelligence agency had breached…

The day was sweltering. The 61-year-old woman urged her donkey into a trot. She loved riding around the ring on the beautiful white beast — at a walk, then a trot, then a canter. Suddenly she noticed a tingling in her hands and feet spreading toward her torso. She recognized the sensation but willed herself to ignore it. It didn’t work. Her strength seemed to melt away, and before she could say or do anything, she felt herself slumping forward. As the world turned gray, the donkey stopped. Her arms, and then her body, slid down the animal’s sweaty neck…

What do these pieces mean to you?These are very emotional to me. I’m struggling to explain what it means to be trans, and then to be welcomed home. It’s just a welcoming. I feel warm, I feel welcomed by the women in my family. I transitioned after my mother passed. Neither one of my grandmothers, they had a different idea of maybe what I was or something, but they knew me, they knew Harper Steele, and I got to spend a lot of time around with ‘em. And I’m just happy to connect with my sister, especially. I love my…