Author: NY TIMES

President Trump said he would impose a 100 percent tariff on movies “produced” outside the United States, proclaiming in a social media post on Sunday that the issue posed a national security threat. Mr. Trump said he had authorized Jamieson Greer, the United States Trade Representative, to begin the process of taxing “any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.” Mr. Trump added, “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat.”The Motion Picture Association, which represents the biggest Hollywood studios in Washington, declined to comment. The association’s latest…

With its horse-trodden roads, endless fields of almond blossoms and cowboy heritage, the 20,000 person town of Oakdale, Calif., fits the American West of imagination. And for decades, its media diet was classically all-American, too.Nightly news broadcasts played on living room televisions. Copies of local newspapers lined doorsteps on Sunday mornings. The town even had two media outlets dedicated to rodeo and horse roping news.But that version of Oakdale is a thing of the past.First the nearby newspapers shrank, and hundreds of local reporters in the region became handfuls. Then came the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020, and the…

In a Boston V.A. hospital, six social workers are conducting phone and telehealth visits with veterans from a single, crowded room, clinicians say. In Kansas City, providers are planning patient care while facing each other across narrow, cafeteria-style tables in a large, open space, according to staff members.And in South Florida, psychiatric nurses have been treating veterans with mental health conditions in a hallway near a bathroom, sitting down with them in a makeshift medical bay jury-rigged out of filing cabinets and a translucent screen.“People walking by can hear everything that’s going on,” said Bill Frogameni, an acute care psychiatric…

Joel Krosnick, the admired longtime cellist of the Juilliard String Quartet, who helped shape its championing of new American music as much as its commitment to the classics, died on April 15 at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. He was 84.His death, from pancreatic cancer, was announced by the Juilliard School in New York City, where Mr. Krosnick was head of the cello department and had taught for 50 years.Mr. Krosnick’s playing combined the two hallmarks of the Juilliard String Quartet’s renowned style: intensity and precision. He was ideally suited to inherit the mantle of his two cellist predecessors in…

A ballistic missile launched from Yemen struck near the main terminal of Israel’s international airport close to Tel Aviv on Sunday, after the military failed to intercept the projectile seemingly aimed at one of the country’s most sensitive locations.The strike, carried out by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, resulted in a temporary suspension of flights. There were no immediate reports of fatalities.Israel’s military said that several efforts were made to intercept the missile and that an impact was identified in the area of Ben Gurion Airport. The military added that the episode was under review.The Magen David Adom emergency ambulance service…

As part of “Believing,” The New York Times asked several writers to explore a significant moment in their religious or spiritual lives.Sign up to receive the latest installments of “Believing” in your inbox.It was a listless day, one without any signs of doom. Then, as evening approached, I got a call.On a beach here in Lagos, Nigeria, a huge wave had swept my friend, Fola Francis, away. She hadn’t been found. As I got in a cab, I did with intention something I would usually do absent-mindedly, sometimes without much focus: I prayed.I prayed as I made frantic calls to…

Only about half a million people live in Malta, the tiny set of islands in the Mediterranean that make up one of Europe’s smallest countries.Yet a Maltese citizen could soon be elected pope.Cardinal Mario Grech, 68, the former bishop of a Maltese island, Gozo, has emerged as a candidate for pope because of his role as secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body mandated by canon law to consider “questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world.”Pope Francis upended the synod’s role by promoting a Synod on Synodality, a multiyear meeting for church leaders…

The pay stubs tell the story. Hefty deductions to help cover the cost of Kenya’s new funds for affordable housing and health insurance. More money subtracted for jacked-up contributions to the National Social Security Fund and an increase in the tax rate.In a matter of months, Kenyans with a 45,000-shilling-a-month salary — roughly $350 — saw their take-home pay shrink 9 percent, to $262.Pay stubs for an employee at Shining Hope for Communities, a nonprofit in Kenya:JUNE 2024“People who are salaried are crying,” said Kennedy Odede, the founder of a self-help association in Nairobi’s Kibera slum.The increased payroll taxes are…

Members of a South Texas community that has served as the hub of Elon Musk’s rocket launch company, SpaceX, voted on Saturday to formally establish a new city called Starbase, fulfilling one of Mr. Musk’s long-held dreams.All but six of the 218 people who voted supported incorporating the city of Starbase, according to Cameron County, which administered the vote.There were 283 eligible voters, said Remi Garza, the elections administrator for the county.The community, known to locals as Boca Chica, covers about 1.5 square miles on a spit of land that brushes up against the Mexican border.SpaceX broke ground in the…

A prime example of elderspeak: Cindy Smith was visiting with her father in his assisted living apartment in Roseville, Calif. An aide who was trying to induce him to do something — Ms. Smith no longer remembers exactly what — said, “Let me help you, sweetheart.”“He just gave her The Look — under his bushy eyebrows — and said, ‘What, are we getting married?’” recalled Ms. Smith, who had a good laugh, she said. Her father was then 92, a retired county planner and a World War II veteran; macular degeneration had reduced the quality of his vision and he…