Author: NY TIMES

A growing realization that President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to hold snap elections in France may backfire sent the French stock market tumbling on Friday to its lowest level in two years, and prompted warnings from the French finance minister that the economy risks stumbling into a financial crisis.Amid growing signs that Marine Le Pen’s far-right party may be ushered to the brink of power, France’s benchmark stock index, the CAC 40, slumped 2.7 percent. The losses capped a weeklong losing streak that sent shares down more than 6 percent, wiping out all the bourse’s gains since the start of the…

During a recent Q&A session, Bobby Valentine answered a question discussing his antics during his time as manager of the New York Mets. Valentin recalled a time when he was caught wearing a fake beard and sunglasses in a break room. That happened 25 years ago.The person who asked the question? A 9 year old fan.”His parents may not have met yet, but he wants to know,” Valentine joked. “I’m amazed at how well that minute and a half of my life turned out.”There is a group of baseball fans who were not alive on June 9, 1999, but are…

This bustling Yemeni cafe is known among Muslims to be a hot spot to scope out potential mates and has become a popular subject to joke about on TikTok.On a typical weekend night at Qahwah House, which serves coffee and tea doused in spices like cardamom, cinnamon and cloves until as late as 2 a.m. during Ramadan, the line creeps out the door. Myesha Choudhury, a 22-year-old student, has been visiting the Williamsburg location since it opened in November 2020. (There are also locations in the West Village and Astoria.)“As young Muslims, we don’t have that many spaces for us,”…

The dragons are back. And not a moment too soon.On Sunday, “House of the Dragon,” the “Game of Thrones” prequel series, will return to HBO for its second season. The show became a bona fide hit in its first season, in 2022, and helped kick off a torrid winning streak for the network that included the beloved sophomore season of “The White Lotus”; the premiere of a new hit, “The Last of Us”; and the decorated final season of “Succession.”But over the past year, HBO has encountered a fallow stretch — unusual for America’s pre-eminent premium television network.There have been…

Tesla shareholders have reaffirmed a pay award of more than $45 billion for Elon Musk, the chief executive, after it was thrown out in a legal challenge.The vote result, announced at Tesla’s annual meeting at its headquarters in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, is a strong sign that shareholders still believe in Mr. Musk, and it could persuade the judge who voided the award to reinstate it.Support for the pay award, made up of stock options, will come as a relief to Mr. Musk’s admirers, who feared that rejection would prompt him to spend less time managing Tesla or even quit.…

At the end of “Inside Out,” the 2015 Pixar movie about the emotional life of a girl named Riley, a new button appears on the console used to control Riley’s mood. It’s emblazoned with one word: Puberty.Joy, one of the main characters who embodies Riley’s emotions, shrugs it off.“Things couldn’t be better!” Joy says. “After all, Riley’s 12 now. What could happen?”The answer has finally arrived, nearly a decade later, in the sequel “Inside Out 2.” Riley is now a teenager attending a three-day hockey camp as new, more complex feelings take root in her mind.There’s Embarrassment, a lumbering fellow…

The title of “I Am Not Okay” — a song Jelly Roll unveiled last month on “The Voice” — only tells half the story. It’s the kind of bruised, long-suffering, self-doubting, painfully open and high-drama testimonial that has turned Jelly Roll into a country star. He sings about sleepless nights and “voices in my head,” with production that rises from acoustic picking into stolid Southern rock behind his grainy voice. But soon Jelly Roll invokes a community — “I know I can’t be the only one who’s holding on for dear life” — and the promise of salvation: “The pain’ll…

Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a Palestinian professor at a prominent Israeli university, first waded into the debate over the Gaza war by joining academics worldwide in signing a letter that called for a cease-fire. It branded Israel’s assault on the territory a “genocide” and the leaders of her university responded by urging her to resign.That was soon after the war began on Oct. 7. Months later, the professor drew even more scrutiny for saying it was time to “abolish Zionism” and accusing Israel of politicizing rape. She was briefly suspended in March by Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she has taught law…

“There will also be more equipment and other necessary supplies for the front,” Mr. Zelensky said in his evening address on Thursday, striking an unusually upbeat tone. Unlike his most recent speeches, which focused on the difficult situation at the front line, those remarks read like a list of successful agreements reached with Kyiv’s allies.Ukraine also signed a security pact with Japan on Thursday and, at an international conference in Berlin this week, secured more than $15 billion in promised aid from Western partners to help rebuild the country.The various commitments came too late to help Ukraine avoid losing ground…

Sheer white tank tops. Skinny cigarettes (not vapes). Questionable 3 a.m. decisions.These may be some of the trappings of a “brat,” otherwise known as a fan of the new Charli XCX album by the same name. Its arrival last week ushered in not only a slate of potential songs of the summer, but also an intense identification with the term — and a shift in mind-set.“I think there’s a bravado to Charli’s persona, and that’s often what people see in her and what they’d like to see in themselves,” said Biz Sherbert, a host of “Nymphet Alumni,” a culture podcast.…