Author: NY TIMES

Lesa Walton suffered for years with rheumatoid arthritis. “It was awful,” said Ms. Walton, 57, who lives in Wenatchee, Wash. “I kept getting sicker and sicker.”She also had high blood pressure, and she was obese. Doctors told her to diet and exercise, which she did, to no avail.Then she found a doctor who prescribed Wegovy, one of the new obesity drugs. Not only did she lose more than 50 pounds, she said; her arthritis cleared up, and she no longer needed pills to lower her blood pressure.Her new doctor, Dr. Stefie Deeds, an internist and obesity medicine specialist in private…

The punk rock pioneers chose freedom — and chaos — over major labels. Pulling the plug while things are still working is one final act of rebellion.By James H. MartinPhotographs by Max SloboddaJune 18, 2024“It’s like going to your own wake.”Mike Burkett, known exclusively in the punk rock world as Fat Mike, was talking about the farewell tour for his band, NOFX, during which the group is traveling to 40 cities, with 40 songs per concert, celebrating their 40 years as a band.The tour started a year ago in Barcelona and will end where it all began for them, in…

Thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Jerusalem on Monday to call for elections and the immediate return of hostages held in Gaza in a demonstration that followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent decision to dissolve his war cabinet.The protest outside the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, highlighted the competing pressures the Israeli prime minister is under from conflicting elements of Israeli society.Last week, two relatively moderate members resigned from the emergency war cabinet Mr. Netanyahu formed in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault on Israel, citing differences over the conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza. Far-right…

A Ukrainian reporter who revealed that a state news agency tried to bar interviews with opposition politicians said he received a draft notification the next day.Ukraine’s domestic spy agency spied on staff members of an investigative news outlet through peepholes in their hotel rooms.The public broadcaster has decried what it says is political pressure on its reporting.Journalists and groups monitoring press freedoms are raising alarms over what they say are increasing restrictions and pressures on the media in Ukraine under the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky that go well beyond the country’s wartime needs.“It’s really disturbing,” said Oksana Romanyuk, director…

INDIANAPOLIS — Even if one or both sides don’t officially acknowledge the existence of a new rivalry, there are always signs and noises.For example, Indiana Fever fans booed loudly every time Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese stepped to the free throw line. Or those fans cheering really loudly when Reese (and Camila Cardoso) fouled out.When Reese picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, the only thing louder than the roar of the crowd was the sound of the T-shirt cannon.This is what emerging competition should sound like. They’re characterized by good-natured, old-fashioned hatred; you’ll…

If you are scrolling through TikTok and see an ad, it is likely that the person trying to sell you something in that ad is a real human being. In the near future, that might not be the case.On Monday, TikTok announced a new set of tools that will allow brands to create ads using avatars generated by artificial intelligence that look like real people. There will be two types of avatars, TikTok said in a release. Brands can choose from an array of stock avatars “created from video footage of real paid actors that are licensed for commercial use,”…

Last fall, Jina Kim and two of her friends splurged on a two-night stay at the Ananti at Busan Cove, a luxury resort in Busan, South Korea.The resort, where rooms start at $369 a night, features infinity pools, spas, eight restaurants, a private coastal walk and beach area, and a 4,600-meter “Water House” — an indoor pool and sauna fed by natural hot-spring water.“We just spent the whole day in the resort hotel, swimming, eating and drinking,” said Ms. Kim, a 32-year-old former teacher who is now a stay-at-home mother.Ms. Kim and her friends weren’t worried about how they would…

When she first broke through in the early 1960s, the bewitching French pop star Françoise Hardy, who died on Tuesday at 80, was initially lumped in with the yé-yés, the commercially minded rocking and twisting French singers of the era.She later came to see many of her early recordings, including her first hit, “Tous les Garçons et les Filles,” as sappy and lightweight. Hardy went on to forge her own path, becoming one of the rare singer-songwriters of her generation (and even rarer women in that category) — an immediately identifiable performer who unleashed emotion by, counterintuitively, refusing to over-emote.Her…

The United States imposed new sanctions on Monday aimed at cutting off weapons, supplies and funding to the Iranian-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen and have been striking commercial ships in the Red Sea to show support for Palestinians in Gaza.“The United States remains resolved to use the full range of our tools to halt the flow of military-grade materials and funds from commodities sales that enable these destabilizing terrorist activities,” Brian E. Nelson, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. The sanctions were placed on two individuals and five entities that…

The Israeli military said on Monday that it had paused operations during daylight hours in parts of the southern Gaza Strip, as a new policy announced a day earlier appeared to take hold, along with cautious hopes that it would allow more food and other goods to reach desperate civilians.Aid workers said they hoped that the daily pause in the Israeli offensive would make it less dangerous to deliver vital supplies to areas in central and southern Gaza from Kerem Shalom, a key border crossing between Israel and Gaza, removing one of many obstacles to their beleaguered operations.But aid agencies…