Author: NY TIMES

Between abandoned coal mines and an engine plant scheduled for closure, a gleaming new factory hovers like a phoenix over Billy-Berclau, a small industrial town in northern France. Inside, 700 newly hired workers are making next-generation electric vehicle batteries for the Automotive Cells Company — part of a grand project to revive the wider region’s flailing fortunes.A “Battery Valley” is rising here from the remains of industries that shuttered during a wave of globalization. Three more giant electric car battery plants are expected to open by 2026, a testament to a re-industrialization strategy that President Emmanuel Macron’s government has trumpeted…

Listen to and follow ‘Hard Fork’Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTubeWe’re off for the Fourth of July, but what’s a better tribute to America than a conversation about the technology that enables us to endlessly stream TV from the couch? This week, we’re bringing you an episode we enjoyed from the recently debuted New York Times podcast The Interview. Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviews Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive of Netflix, about his early days working in a video store, shows to fold your laundry to and the future of the entertainment industry.Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton…

Don’t call her a scream queen.Mia Goth may have amassed a filmography dominated by horror films like “A Cure for Wellness,” “Suspiria” and “Infinity Pool,” but she prefers not to limit herself.“I don’t want to be boxed in,” the 30-year-old actress from London said in a video interview. “I want to do everything.” Still, her work involves a fair bit of screaming, and she is quite good at it.The “X” trilogy is no exception. Directed by Ti West, the films follow the lives and crimes of Pearl and Maxine, both played by Goth. As we meet them in the first…

In the United States, a new president usually has a two-month window to prepare to move into the White House. Freshly elected British prime ministers move into Downing Street swiftly, often within hours of elections.Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party won a commanding majority in the House of Commons, was formally appointed prime minister on Friday by King Charles III. Just hours after his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, made his exit, the new prime minister is about to make a speech to supporters outside the front door of 10 Downing Street.He will be ushered inside the building by staff members and receive…

Jamauri Amir Bogan got Kaylah Kasmir Howard’s attention the only way he knew how in fifth grade.“I teased her,” said Mr. Bogan, who had a crush on Ms. Howard in 2008 at Central Five Jefferson in Union, N.J., and tried to stay cool in front of his friends when he saw her at lunch or recess. They are now 28.In sixth grade, at Burnet Middle School, he was a bit more courageous, and asked her to be his girlfriend.“She became No. 1 on my Myspace top friends,” he said.Otherwise, they were clueless.“I was very, very nervous,” she said, “and shy.”After…

The monthly employment report on Friday is projected to show that employers added 190,000 jobs in June, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. That would be a downshift from the 272,000 jobs added in May.The economy remains solid overall, with unemployment still low, the stock market hovering at new highs and wage growth outpacing inflation.But many economists say the labor market is in a sensitive place. Layoffs are near record lows, but a key measure known as the hiring rate — which tracks the number of hires during a month as a percentage of overall employment — has slowed…

Japan scrapped every regulation requiring the use of floppy disks for administrative purposes this week, catching up with the times 13 years after the country’s producers manufactured their last units.The floppy disk, invented in the 1970s, was once a ubiquitous part of computing. Other forms of memory like flash drives and internet cloud storage have since taken over. In the 1990s, along with the cassette tape, it was thrown into the dustbin of outdated tech.But not in Japan. While renowned for its consumer electronics giants, robots and some of the world’s fastest broadband networks, the country has also been wedded…

Now that 2024 is half over, I’ve started collecting candidates for my list of the year’s best films — and that, of course, includes documentaries. I’ve written about many great nonfiction films already this year (including some favorites like “Songs of Earth,” “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus” and “Art Talent Show”). Yet plenty fly under the radar, so I wanted to highlight three documentaries I haven’t written about that are worth your time.The first is “Spermworld” (Hulu), directed by Lance Oppenheim (who also made the recent, amazing HBO documentary series “Ren Faire”). Oppenheim’s singular style is dreamlike, heightening reality so it becomes…

Allies of Donald J. Trump are proposing that the United States restart the testing of nuclear weapons in underground detonations should the former president be re-elected in November. A number of nuclear experts reject such a resumption as unnecessary and say it would threaten to end a testing moratorium that the world’s major atomic powers have honored for decades.In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, Robert C. O’Brien, a former national security adviser to Mr. Trump, urges him to conduct nuclear tests if he wins a new term. Washington, he wrote, “must test new nuclear weapons for reliability and…

What’s the easiest way to make any room look better? A vase of fresh flowers.It’s also one of the least expensive ways — if you have access to a garden, a yard or a container garden on a balcony.Assembling flower arrangements like the ones you see in magazines or on social media doesn’t have to mean spending a small fortune at an upscale flower shop, where they do the arranging for you. A simple grouping of flowers, branches, leaves and even vegetables can look equally appealing.“You don’t have to grow, like, 5,000 peonies,” said Christopher Spitzmiller, 52, who designs lamps…