Author: NY TIMES

The nervous energy was palpable as hundreds of bike riders, shrink-wrapped in colorful Lycra outfits, waited for the start of the 50-mile Half-Century ride from the Santa Fe Railyard, a center for art galleries, restaurants and a weekly farmers’ market in Santa Fe, N.M. Then, at last, we were winding through town as eight police officers on motorcycles leapfrogged ahead to guard the intersections.We rode past the Roundhouse, where the New Mexico Legislature meets. We passed Museum Hill, where four museums explore the Native American Southwest, the Spanish colonial past and more. Then, finally, after a dozen or so miles,…

The European Space Agency has waited about a decade for the first launch of Ariane 6, a powerful new rocket. But the brand-new vehicle is at last ready to fly — and if all goes well, European nations will once again have independent access to the final frontier, a crucial step for the space exploration and economic goals of the continent’s countries and companies.Here’s what to know about the inaugural flight of the Ariane 6 heavy-lift launcher.When will Ariane 6 launch, and how can I watch it?Ariane 6 is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, July 9, from Europe’s Spaceport in…

In a lofty office in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Shani Lechan gives her clients the hair of their dreams. It usually takes only a couple of weeks.In one room she offers initial consultations, taking their measurements and learning about their preferences. A few months later, they’ll visit a second room, where Ms. Lechan will makes sure everything is the perfect fit.The Shani Wigs office is painted cream with a concretelike finish, the molding is elegant, the windows are floor-to-ceiling and there is a marble fireplace in the waiting room. Not far away, a tufted pink space cloud of a…

For close to a century, putting your savings into a federally insured bank has been a sure thing: If the institution fails, up to $250,000 of your money will be protected.What if it isn’t anymore?The promise of bank insurance — a tenet of U.S. consumer protection since the Great Depression — is now being tested by a crisis swirling around online-only lenders with hundreds of millions of dollars of deposits between them. Customer accounts have been frozen, preventing people from cashing out their life savings. Most depositors have little clue where their money has gone, and whether they will get…

In 1994, when Sumner M. Redstone bought Paramount Pictures for about $10 billion, the equivalent of about $22 billion today, he did more than just take over a company. He ascended a cultural throne.Studios like Paramount — founded in the 1910s, operating soundstage complexes and controlling vast film libraries — were valuable businesses on the verge of hitting a mother lode: the DVD. Perhaps more important, however, they gave their owners a precious identity as certified members of the cultural elite.Movies still towered above everything. Top ticket sellers in 1994 included touchstones like “The Lion King,” “Schindler’s List,” “Interview With…

The flight to Cleveland was quick. Her father picked her up at the airport and drove directly to the Cleveland Clinic Children’s hospital. Her regular doctor, Ellen Rome, the head of the Center for Adolescent Medicine there, wasn’t in the office that holiday week but arranged for the young woman to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. She immediately admitted her to the hospital. The doctor who admitted her that night considered the possible causes of this kind of unremitting vomiting. The patient was taking medications for anxiety, so maybe the doctors in Atlanta were right — maybe this was psychogenic vomiting,…

Lappin marveled at Jenkins’s willingness to reimagine every track, and in early October he arrived in New York to cut a few songs. They sat at her apartment piano and rearranged “Clams Casino,” a bittersweet tune about her grandmother, loneliness and the exhausting search for silver linings. It suddenly sounded like Tom Petty, perched on a cumulus cloud.When they recorded it the next day, Jenkins finally recognized a route into her album, out of her Valley of Despair. After 18 months of false starts (and a month after another missed deadline), they remade the record in a two-week rush. “I…

As the Arabian Peninsula’s fastest camels galloped around a track in the Saudi desert, Kasseem Dean, a Grammy Award-winning hip-hop producer from the Bronx, watched nervously from an air-conditioned V.I.P. viewing hall.Waiters in black vests plied the crowd with lemonade and red velvet cupcakes. Women in sundresses milled around off-white sofas, sipping fizzy mocktails.Though the camels sprinting past were the main event, Mr. Dean, better known as Swizz Beatz, felt as if all eyes in the room were on him — one of the newest competitors in Saudi Arabia’s deep-pocketed camel racing scene. Four years since he entered and won…

When he takes over as secretary general in October, Mark Rutte will face strains over Russia, Ukraine and the potential return of Donald J. Trump. Source link

It was a carefully staged display of big-power theatrics — or more precisely, of middle-power-meets-big-power theatrics.“You are now connected to Air Force One,” said a White House operator, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain hunched over a speakerphone, in a short video released on Saturday by 10 Downing Street.“Mr. Prime Minister, congratulations,” said President Biden, who was flying to Wisconsin for a campaign rally. “What a hell of a victory!”The two leaders spoke warmly about the importance of the “special relationship” between Britain and the United States, their shared commitment to defending Ukraine and an upcoming rendezvous: Mr. Starmer…