Author: NY TIMES

The travel industry is in the midst of another hot summer as Americans hit the road and make for the airport to take advantage of slightly cheaper flights and gas. But the 2024 vacation outlook isn’t all sunny: Like the rest of the American consumer experience this year, it is sharply divided.Many richer consumers — always the lifeblood of the travel industry — are feeling good this year as a strong stock market and rising home values boost their wealth. While they have felt the bite of rapid inflation over the last few years, they are likely to have more…

It reminds me of what it was like to hang out with him and talk to him. One minute he’d be talking about quantum physics, the next he’d be talking about pop culture. I miss talking to Wayne, and playing this particular composition makes me feel like I’m continuing my conversations with him.Listen on YouTube◆ ◆ ◆Giovanni Russonello, jazz critic“House of Jade”Fittingly, the music on “Juju,” Wayne Shorter’s second album for Blue Note, has a dark-arts energy about it. These six tracks can send you spiraling into yourself, sounding out unnamed feelings, lost — but then they’re always somehow liable…

When Tim Bushe decided to trim some hedges one recent evening, he attracted more attention than usual for a routine garden chore.Walkers slowed to take photos and ask questions. Neighbors stepped over piles of leaf clippings to thank him. A driver honked and gave a thumbs up.Mr. Bushe is used to attention. It happens every time he gives his two gigantic, furry elephants a haircut. They are just one set of a collection of hedges on residential streets that Mr. Bushe has transformed from overgrown plants into whimsical creations. His hedge menagerie includes two cats, a squirrel, a hippo and…

The hit FX series “The Bear” is about many things: complicated family dynamics, grief, toxic workplace environments, Chicago, vocational obsession and, of course, food. But for some people, it’s really just a show about clothes set in and around a Chicago restaurant.The show’s third season has already given plenty of fodder for style-obsessed viewers. In the first episode, Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, played by Jeremy Allen White, wears a weathered Barbour Ogston jacket in olive during a flashback; later in the season, he wears a cotton deck jacket from the work-wear-inspired Ralph Lauren sublabel RRL. J. Crew released a capsule collection…

In the hours after last week’s presidential debate, a video clip began circulating that featured Jill Biden gingerly helping her husband step down from the event’s stage.The snippet spread quickly on conservative media, along with an emerging narrative about President Biden’s weak performance: That the debate was a sweeping validation of the alarm bells they’d been ringing for years about his age.Since well before he took office, pundits on the right have argued repeatedly that Mr. Biden, now 81, was too feeble for the job, playing up videos of him falling off a bike, tripping onstage or stumbling over words…

The Netherlands swore in its first far-right government on Tuesday, more than seven months after an election sent shock waves through the Dutch political system.The new government has pledged to govern the Netherlands differently after nearly 14 years under Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The coalition was formed out of months of negotiations spurred by the success of right-wing leader Geert Wilders’ party in November elections.“This is an experiment for the Netherlands,” said Armen Hakhverdian, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam.Long seen as a bastion of liberalism, the Netherlands is one of several European countries that have experienced electoral…

Liberal and conservative media outlets alike on Monday gave top billing to the news that the Supreme Court granted former President Donald J. Trump significant immunity from prosecution.But the similarities stopped there.Liberal outlets criticized the ruling as a biased move from a conservative Supreme Court. They said it only heightened the stakes for November’s general election, since the decision complicates the criminal case that accuses Mr. Trump of trying to overturn the last election.Many conservative outlets offered a relatively straightforward assessment of the decision, which left to lower courts to decide which aspects of Mr. Trump’s conduct were protected from…

Mr. Mitchell said that many people on Grenada’s main island had lost their homes, but that the destruction was far worse on Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Officials were still trying to assess the extent of the damage on the two islands, particularly to the power grid and water supply.Grenada, like other Caribbean nations, gets most of its drinking water from rainwater harvesting, involving drains on roofs that lead to storage vessels. Terrence Smith, the head of the country’s water agency, said the storm damage was not expected to immediately cause a life-threatening shortage on Carriacou and Petite Martinique.“We believe that…

[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Disfrazarse de Elsa, la reina rubia con poderes mágicos de la película de animación de Disney Frozen: Una aventura congelada, no necesariamente era la idea de algo divertido para Jeff Hemmig.“Estaba bastante alejado de mi zona de confort”, afirmó Hemmig, de 43 años.Pero sabía que haría feliz a su hijo Jace. Así que Hemmig, que vive en Killingly, Connecticut, se metió por los hombros un vestido que le hizo su madre, a juego con un disfraz de Elsa que había confeccionado para el nieto. A continuación, Hemmig interpretó una versión de “Libre soy” con…

With Russia mired in a long war in Ukraine and increasingly dependent on China for supplies, Beijing is moving quickly to expand its sway in Central Asia, a region that was once in the Kremlin’s sphere of influence. Russia, for its part, is pushing back hard.As the leaders of Central Asian countries meet with the presidents of China and Russia this week in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, China’s rising presence is visible in the region. New rail lines and other infrastructure are being built, while trade and investment are rising.Flag-waving Kazakh children who sang in Chinese greeted Xi Jinping,…