Author: NY TIMES

When Erin Tobiasz, a children’s librarian in Pittsburgh, was planning her September 2022 wedding with Matt Oas, a lawyer, she thought about the goldenrod growing in the fields outside the library where she led story time in the fall.“It just looks like Pennsylvania,” said Ms. Tobiasz, 37, a youth services manager at C.C. Mellor Memorial Library. She decided to include the yellow flowering plant in her bridal bouquet, along with Jewels of Opar, foraged rose hips, zinnias and Chabaud La France carnations. All were sourced from local flower farmers.“I had roots in Pennsylvania but my family did not, so it…

The N.F.L. must pay almost $5 billion in damages for artificially inflating the price of Sunday Ticket, a subscription service offered by DirecTV that showed out-of-market games, a federal jury in Los Angeles decided on Thursday.The verdict, which capped a monthlong class-action trial and almost a decade of legal wrangling, includes about $96 million in damages for the bars and restaurants that subscribed to the service, and more than $4.6 billion for roughly 2.4 million residential subscribers. Damages in antitrust cases like this are tripled by law, which means the league may have to pay more than $14 billion.The jury’s…

Joey King is a bit of a unicorn: a genuine movie star brought into being by Netflix. As far as movies are concerned, the streamer does make a lot of them, but often seems at a loss to promote them or the actors. But in 2018, King starred in the Netflix-produced “The Kissing Booth” and made enough of an impression to power two sequels.“A Family Affair,” King’s newest film on the streaming service, may appear to be a kind of lab experiment — how does the buoyant actress react when thrown into a pool with Hollywood luminaries? King is not…

Early in the war against Hamas, as Israeli forces made their way from the north of the Gaza Strip toward the south, a neighborhood in Gaza City called Shajaiye loomed large in the battle. In December, nine soldiers were killed there on what Israel’s military said was one of the deadliest days of the war for its forces.Later, with Shajaiye ravaged and the Gaza City appearing pacified, the soldiers moved on, eventually taking the fight to Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, described as Hamas’s last major stronghold. In turn, Palestinian civilians who had fled the fighting in Gaza City began making…

European Union leaders on Thursday picked three senior politicians to head up the bloc’s institutions for the next five years, signaling commitment to Ukraine and a need for stability amid electoral upsets in Europe and, potentially, the United States.At a summit in Brussels, the heads of the 27 E.U. member governments agreed to put forward Ursula von der Leyen, a German conservative, for a second term at the helm of the powerful European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch.António Costa, a Socialist and until recently the prime minister of Portugal, was selected as the president of the European Council, which includes…

In a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Paris Hilton recounted the physical and psychological abuse she said she suffered at group care facilities as a teenager.Ms. Hilton, who was sent to a series of youth residential treatment facilities starting at age 16, calmly testified to being violently restrained, stripped naked and thrown into solitary confinement during her stays.“These programs promised healing, growth and support, but instead did not allow me to speak, move freely or even look out a window for two years,” she said. “I was force-fed medications and sexually abused by the staff.”Ms. Hilton, 43, the reality TV star…

Jamie Kellner, a media executive who helped build Fox Broadcasting into a thriving television network with shows such as “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “The Simpsons” — and who went on to create the WB network, known for the angsty “Dawson’s Creek” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” — died on June 21 at his home in Montecito, Calif., near Santa Barbara. He was 77.The cause was cancer, said Brad Turell, a family spokesman.Mr. Kellner was one of the most successful television executives of his generation, whose knack for capturing young viewers — first men at Fox, then women at WB —…

All Americans ages 6 months and older should receive one of the new Covid-19 vaccines when they become available this fall, scientific advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.The recommendation comes as the nation faces a summer wave of Covid, with the number of infections rising in at least 39 states and territories.Most Americans have acquired layers of immunity against the coronavirus from repeat infections or vaccine doses, or both. The vaccines now offer an incremental boost, remaining effective for only a few months as immunity wanes and the virus continues to evolve.Still, across every…

Written by Costner and Jon Baird, “Chapter 1” features uneven lines of action that jump across the map, from the southwest to the Territory of Wyoming. In one section, bad men with good cheekbones, their dusters trimmed with animals skins à la Gladiatorial Rome, chase after a righteously violent woman (Jena Malone in a lively, credible turn). In time, they end up in one of those frontier towns with muddy streets and desperate characters, a sinkhole where Hayes rides in with some gold and exits with Marigold (Abbey Lee), a lady of the evening (and afternoon). In another section, Luke…

Israeli news media on Wednesday reported that more troops were being sent to the northern border region. On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said in a television interview that the war in Gaza was entering a new, less intense phase, allowing the military to turn more attention to Lebanon. “We will be able to move part of our forces to the north,” he said.On Wednesday, Herzl Halevi, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, also visited the northern border with Lebanon and held a “situational assessment” with local commanders, according to a statement from the Israeli military.Israeli troops in the north on Wednesday…