Author: NY TIMES

The campaign billboards adorning the streets of Iran for the coming presidential election make grand promises: economic prosperity, an end to corruption, a free press, the reversal of a brain drain and a pledge from one candidate to “save the citizens” from all the woes afflicting the country.In their efforts to attract votes, all six candidates — five conservatives and one reformist, all selected by a committee of clerics — are unleashing blistering attacks on the status quo. In speeches, televised debates and round-table discussions, they have criticized the government’s economic, domestic and foreign policies, as well as the violent…

Among the most valuable art treasures once held at Friedenstein Castle, a vast baroque palace in eastern Germany, was a series of five oil sketches depicting saints by Peter Paul Rubens that disappeared at the end of World War II.The castle had long been the home of the dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a duchy that lost its powers, titles and much of its land after the 1918 revolution in Germany. The palace complex then became a public museum, filled with the art once owned by the ducal family and operated by an independent foundation.But representatives of the ducal family…

Major League Baseball and San Francisco Giants legend Willie Mays died on Tuesday at the age of 93.The “Say Hey Kid” displayed a showman’s talents, making catches in center field, making daring runs on the basepaths, winning four home run crowns, collecting 12 Gold Glove Awards and laughing with a joyous high-pitched voice.Mays spent 21 of his 23 major league seasons with the Giants in New York and San Francisco. He batted .301 with 660 home runs, 339 stolen bases and 3,293 hits, and won two National League MVP awards.Mays left an indelible mark on baseball, prompting many members of…

What does Pharrell Williams smell like? Something like sunshine in a bottle — or so he would have you believe.Light is the concept behind LV Lovers, Mr. Williams’s new fragrance for Louis Vuitton, which hired him as its men’s wear creative director last year. “The idea,” Mr. Williams said in an email, “is photosynthesis.”While that gauzy notion may puzzle even the most passionate fragrance fans, it ought to resonate with Mr. Williams’s more ardent followers, who are likely to welcome the new scent as an olfactory distillation of his exceedingly sunny hit single “Happy.”Since joining Louis Vuitton, Mr. Williams has…

A Swiss court is expected to issue a ruling on Friday on whether members of Britain’s wealthiest family are guilty of human trafficking over allegations they exploited domestic workers at a luxury villa in Geneva.Prosecutors charged four members of the Hinduja family — Prakash Hinduja, Kamal Hinduja, Ajay Hinduja and Namrata Hinduja — and accused them of trafficking several workers from India, confiscating their passports and forcing them to work 16-hour days without overtime pay in the villa. Lawyers representing the Hindujas have denied the allegations.The Hinduja family helms a multinational conglomerate with large holdings in automotive manufacturing, banking, oil…

Listen to and follow ‘Hard Fork’Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTubeThe Surgeon General is calling for warning labels on social media platforms: Should Congress give his proposal a like? Then, former Stanford researcher Renée DiResta joins us to talk about her new book on modern propaganda and whether we are losing the war against disinformation. And finally, the Times reporter David Yaffe-Bellany stops by to tell us how crypto could reshape the 2024 elections.Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Davis Land and Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Jen Poyant. Engineering…

Pharmacy benefit managers are driving up drug costs for millions of people, employers and the government. New York Times pharmaceutical reporter, Rebecca Robbins, explains how. Source link

In a 2014 interview in GQ, the actor Donald Sutherland recalled that a movie producer told him he wasn’t getting a role he’d auditioned for because “we’ve always thought of this as a guy-next-door sort of character, and we don’t think you look like you’ve ever lived next door to anybody.”It’s true: In film and TV roles that stretched over 60 years, Sutherland, who died Thursday at 88, never radiated the sense that he was some random guy you might cross paths with at the grocery store. If you did, you’d remember him, maybe a little uneasily. With a long…

Two weeks before an election that is expected to catapult him into 10 Downing Street, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Keir Starmer, is tiptoeing on the campaign trail, the latest practitioner of the “Ming vase strategy.”The phrase, which refers to a politician gingerly avoiding slips to protect a lead in the polls, is credited to Roy Jenkins, a more freewheeling British politician, who likened a previous Labour candidate, Tony Blair, on the eve of his 1997 landslide, to a man “carrying a priceless Ming vase across a highly polished floor.”In truth, Mr. Starmer has been carrying the vase for…

This is the first act of the 2024 European Cup, helping Albania against Italy (the fastest goal in the history of the competition), and it is also a tactic often used by the top two teams in the Premier League, Manchester City and Arsenal.It came back with a vengeance when it kicked off with an old-fashioned hoof to the park.In today’s football, aimless punting seems to be a relic of a bygone era, mostly a cycle battle between one team pressing high and the other trying to find space to attack, but this more basic approach It became popular again.…