Author: NY TIMES

In the predawn darkness, a procession of druid priests in white robes carry banners by the monoliths of Stonehenge, the ancient British archaeological site. There is an aroma of burning sage; a bagpipe calls in the distance. As dawn approaches, fever-pitched drumming mounts. If you hadn’t already felt the power in the stones at this summer solstice celebration, there is no denying the physical vibration as the sun rises in alignment with the stone circle.Most of the time, visiting Stonehenge — which is owned by the British crown and managed by English Heritage, a nonprofit that oversees more than 400…

Seven weeks after firing Davon Ham, the Los Angeles Lakers found their next head coach on Thursday: JJ Redick, a 15-year NBA veteran turned podcaster and broadcaster who knows the league firsthand sources revealed Competitor. Redick will sign a four-year contract with the Lakers worth about $8 million per season, according to sources with knowledge of the deal.For the past four weeks, the Lakers have been focused behind the scenes on the 39-year-old Redick, enamored with his potential to be a current and future coach over the next few seasons of LeBron James’ storied career.Redick first interviewed for the Lakers…

“I tried to make things people would cherish,” Dries Van Noten said on Saturday evening, during a cocktail party and dinner preceding his final runway show. Mr. Van Noten held his first show in Paris back in 1991; now, at 66, he is stepping away from his namesake brand. His retirement was a shock to many in a business in which careers tend to be abnormally truncated or else to exceed their expiration date.The decision to retire was not taken lightly, Mr. Van Noten said. Whose is? And it was destined to be a disappointment to fans of this gentle…

Niclas Füllkrug arrived early at the Adidas campus just outside Herzogenaurach, a picture-postcard town in Bavaria that was to host the German national team before this summer’s European soccer championships. The staff had been told that players would start arriving on a Monday morning, a few days before their opening game. But Füllkrug, one of the team’s forwards, turned up on Sunday night.He had decided to make the 300-mile journey from his home in Hanover by high-speed train on Germany’s national railway carrier, Deutsche Bahn. The company was not just one of the tournament’s sponsors; it was also supposed to…

Apple, Microsoft and Google are heralding a new era of what they describe as artificially intelligent smartphones and computers. The devices, they say, will automate tasks like editing photos and wishing a friend a happy birthday.But to make that work, these companies need something from you: more data.In this new paradigm, your Windows computer will take a screenshot of everything you do every few seconds. An iPhone will stitch together information across many apps you use. And an Android phone can listen to a call in real time to alert you to a scam.Is this information you are willing to…

Heather Massey brought Ladybird to the veterinarian when the 9-year-old mutt began having seizures. A scan from an M.R.I. machine revealed bad news: brain cancer.With the prognosis grim, Ms. Massey decided against further treatment at the animal hospital near her home in Athens, Ga., and Ladybird died four months later. The M.R.I. scan and related care had cost nearly $2,000, which Ms. Massey put on a specialty credit card she had learned about at a previous vet visit.That was in 2018. She is still paying off the debt, with more than 30 percent interest.“Could I afford to do that? Not…

To a lot of people these days, “ambivalent pop music” is an oxymoron. Catchy hooks tend to streamline complex emotions into universal, legible sentiments, temporarily dividing the world into teams: the heartbreakers vs. the victims, the happy vs. the sad, the boys vs. the girls. Infectious as they are, many of the songs on Charli XCX’s incisive sixth album, “Brat,” refuse to take sides, making them difficult to discuss in the explainer-generating, SEO-baiting grammar of modern pop standom. How refreshing.Charli never mentioned Lorde by name on the album’s knotty ninth track, “Girl, So Confusing,” but all signs pointed to her…

What’s driving ominous declines in insects?While a growing body of research shows decreases in many insect populations, it has been hard for scientists to disentangle the possible causes. Are insects suffering from habitat loss as natural areas are plowed and paved? Is climate change doing them in? What about pesticides?The latest insight comes from a study on butterflies in the Midwest, published on Thursday in the journal PLOS ONE. Its results don’t discount the serious effects of climate change and habitat loss on butterflies and other insects, but they indicate that agricultural insecticides exerted the biggest impact on the size…

[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]El martes por la tarde en Sag Harbor, Janice Yu de WABC-TV estaba sentada en el asiento del copiloto de una camioneta de noticias Nissan, comiendo palomitas Smart Food. Era lo más cerca que iba a estar de una noticia.“Ni siquiera sabemos con quién estaba”, dijo, refiriéndose al cantante y actor Justin Timberlake, que había sido detenido por un agente de policía de Sag Harbor poco después de la medianoche del martes y acusado de conducir en estado de embriaguez.Yu, reportera de ABC7 Eyewitness News en Nueva York, era una de los muchos periodistas…

Britain’s highest court has ruled that local councils and planning groups must consider the full environmental impact of new fossil fuel projects when deciding whether to approve them, a decision that could have far-reaching consequences and that climate activists hailed as a major victory.In particular, the ruling will make it harder for Britain to move ahead with plans to develop large offshore oil fields in North Sea, including Rosebank, one of the country’s largest undeveloped oil fields. Situated off the coast of Scotland, Rosebank contains an estimated 300 million barrels of recoverable oil.“This is hugely significant, not just in the…