Author: NY TIMES

The Palestinian Authority has drifted from crisis to crisis for years, struggling to pay its arrears amid dwindling international aid. Israel has often withheld taxes it collects on the authority’s behalf in an attempt to penalize its leadership. At other times, Israel has sent tens of millions of dollars to keep it afloat.But many called the West Bank’s current economic predicament the most difficult yet.After the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, tens of thousands of Palestinians who had worked in Israel were no longer allowed to enter, creating mass unemployment overnight. Israeli military raids, road closures and stricter checkpoints have…

This month, President Biden, flanked by President Emmanuel Macron of France, stood on the Normandy bluffs to commemorate the young men who clambered ashore 80 years ago into a hail of Nazi gunfire because “they knew beyond any doubt there are things worth fighting and dying for.”Among those things, Mr. Biden said, were freedom, democracy, America and the world, “then, now and always.” It was a moving moment as Mr. Macron spoke of the “bond of blood” between France and America, but just a few weeks later, the ability of either leader to hold the line in defense of their…

Hoffman encouraged his contacts to consider how Trump’s supporters reacted when he was convicted of 34 felonies:“They ruthlessly and immediately closed ranks, because they understand that at this stage of the race, they must spend every minute and dime either boosting their old man, or tearing down ours. If we’re musing on Biden’s flaws, we’re not organizing around Trump’s flaws. That’s bad for us and good for them.”He also argued that Biden had the right team; the right “values, instincts, patriotism and courage”; and still a chance at winning the race:“The fundamentals matter vastly more than a single debate. Perhaps…

In the new movie “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” Taylour Paige plays Jane Foley, Eddie Murphy’s daughter. But the 33-year-old actress grew up idolizing a different Murphy-helmed film franchise.“‘The Nutty Professor’ — I probably watched that movie like 200 times on VHS as a kid,” she said.“I recited every line to him almost every day I shot with him,” added Paige, who previously starred in the 2021 movie “Zola” as the title character. “I had a lot of questions, like, ‘How do you play six to eight people believably?’”Paige, who lives in Miami, was calling from Toronto, where she was…

When someone first recommended I try this, I thought it sounded very self-involved, maybe a little pathetic — was my self-esteem so impoverished that I needed to ply myself with compliments? (It turns out that some days, in fact, I do.) But over time I realized that what at first seemed facile was actually sort of revolutionary.I’d tried practicing gratitude before and found it quite effective. You take a few minutes to write down things you’re thankful for — the kindness of a stranger, the way your child looks at you while you’re reading a bedtime story, the smell of…

Still, under those circumstances, if there’s a Trump victory: Expect more and higher tariffs, which could disrupt trade and be inflationary, and hurt “the consumer discretionary, industrials, and information technology sectors,” in the view of UBS, the financial services company. Mr. Trump would probably manage to lower taxes and increase the budget deficit, stimulating the economy but, again, goosing inflation — which could lead to higher interest rates. There is likely to be less regulation, with sectors like fossil-fuel energy and financial services benefiting.If Mr. Biden is re-elected but Democrats don’t control Congress, the status quo continues. Expect greater regulation…

Spring Fertility, a clinic in Midtown Manhattan, looks like the place where the main characters on “Broad City” would have wound up if the millennial sitcom had done an episode about egg freezing. The waiting room has books by America’s youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman and its Instagram poet laureate Rupi Kaur. The kitchen is stocked with Spindrift. A conference room also serves as a venue for “shots nights,” less raucous than they sound, where patients inject themselves with fertility drugs communally, with encouragement from staff.Spring’s medical director in New York, Catha Fischer, dressed in a loose blouse and a…

Gimel Hooper, 49, who is Black, didn’t want to show “Frozen” to his daughter for similar reasons. But after she received an Elsa doll for her 4th birthday from a friend’s mother, it became his daughter’s favorite toy. “We couldn’t turn left or right without seeing ‘Frozen’ something,” said Mr. Hooper, whose daughter is now 10. “That song was constantly playing,” he added of “Let It Go.” “Every kid knew it.”While Elsa sings in the dress, she appears to gain a sense of invincibility, and some parents described Elsa costumes as having a similar effect on their children.Mr. Hemmig said…

As negotiations to end the long legal brawl between Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, and the United States reached a critical point this spring, prosecutors presented his lawyers with a choice so madcap that a person involved thought it sounded like a line from a Monty Python movie.“Guam or Saipan?”It was no joke. His path to freedom, he was told, would pass through one of the two American-held islands in the blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean.Mr. Assange, who feared being imprisoned for the rest of his life in the United States, had long insisted on one condition for any…

Chloe Hurst dons a black veil to keep the bugs out of her eyes while planting flowers that would be at home in a Tim Burton film: black hero tulips, New York Night hellebores and black mamba petunias.She sees her garden as a reflection of herself. “I’m a Scorpio, so I’ve always been spooky,” said Ms. Hurst, a 29-year-old graphic designer. She said she began reconnecting with her earlier emo days through landscaping after purchasing her home in Ottawa, Canada, six years ago.Many of her plants are dark red or purple. Ms. Hurst also has a potted vegetable garden with…