Author: NY TIMES

For about 15 years, Paula Span has dedicated much of her journalism career to covering one subject: aging, and the challenges that come with it.Ms. Span writes The New Old Age, a twice-monthly column for the Health section at The New York Times about issues affecting older Americans. Among the topics she has recently explored are the costs of growing older, the rise of robotic pets as companions and the hazards of misinformation on social media.Ms. Span took over the column in 2009, when it was just a blog. Before The Times, she wrote for The Washington Post’s Style desk…

A day after the Israeli military rescued four hostages held by Hamas militants in Nuseirat, Gazans described an intense bombardment during the raid, followed by chaos in the streets from an operation that killed and wounded scores of Palestinians.Bayan Abu Amr, 32, was carrying her 18-month-old son Mohammad on the edge of Nuseirat’s main marketplace on Saturday when she was surrounded by the heavy booms of strikes from aircraft, which Israel’s military said targeted militants in an effort to ensure the safe extraction of the hostages and special forces.“People were rushing like the day of judgment; I did not know…

The right-wing Alternative for Germany party won a record number of votes in European Parliament elections on Sunday, in a sharp rebuke to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing three-party coalition in Germany and a sign of the rightward political shift across the continent.The party, known as AfD, captured 16 percent of the vote, placing second behind Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats, which won 30 percent. AfD performed nearly five percentage points better than it did in the 2019 elections and drew more voters than each of Germany’s three coalition parties. It was AfD’s strongest showing in a nationwide election, and it came…

BOSTON — Jrue Holiday scored 26 points and 11 as the Celtics defeated the Celtics 105-98 in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night. Rebounds, does this mean Jrue Holiday becomes Boston’s best player?Or if Derrick White meets P.J. Washington at the rim and blocks a stunning shot with 50.5 seconds left to prevent the Mavericks from cutting the deficit to three. Will White become Boston’s best player?After all, we live in the NBA playoffs, where recency bias has become the norm. A thing. To that end, keep an eye on Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, who is playing…

More than a decade ago, executives at Boeing made a pivotal decision: To keep up with the company’s main rival, Airbus, they gave up on the idea of developing a new airplane and raced to update the 737, the company’s most popular jet.That effort culminated in the 737 Max, which had two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 and attracted more scrutiny this year when a panel blew out of one of the planes during a flight in January. The jet’s troubles have left Boeing behind Airbus in the global market for single-aisle planes, which it once dominated.Now, Boeing, which…

Five years on the Phoenix streets battered Vance Blair’s body. His vision dimmed, his speech slowed, and his hands began to twitch. A bulging pelvis revealed the need for hernia surgery, and the vacant lot where he slept was no place to keep dressings clean.Mr. Blair often lingered by a shaded building, and several women who worked there grew fond of the diffident man who asked permission to escape the sun. They brought him food and discovered his dilemma: Medicaid would cover his operation, but hospitals discharge patients quickly and surgeons would not proceed unless he had a place to…

The Israeli politician Benny Gantz, a key member of the country’s war cabinet, quit the government on Sunday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza.The resignation dealt a blow to the appearance of unity that Mr. Netanyahu was able to marshal at the start of the conflict and exposed the divisions at the top of the Israeli leadership over the future of the war and its aftermath.Mr. Gantz, a centrist figure who last month threatened to resign unless Mr. Netanyahu addressed his concerns about how the war would end and what would follow it, said his…

Five years ago, when her party won 6 percent of the vote in elections for the European Parliament, Giorgia Meloni tried to pop a bottle of sparkling wine, but the cork awkwardly flopped among some supporters.This week Ms. Meloni, now Italy’s prime minister, emerged as a big winner in the elections, and she and dozens of members of her Brothers of Italy party celebrated at a five-star hotel in Rome where waiters carried the wine bottles in silver basins filled with ice. The hard-right party took nearly 29 percent of the vote. The victory was all the more significant because…

It’s the backpacker’s call to India, the sunseeker’s attraction to Mexico, and the digital nomad’s drive to get to Thailand: Go where the dollar buys more.The evergreen budget travel strategy is getting a boost this summer: The dollar has surged against a number of foreign currencies, including the Japanese yen, thanks to high interest rates offered by the Federal Reserve — attracting foreign investment, which bolsters the dollar.“A destination’s weaker currency spells greater value for U.S. tourists,” said Erina Pindar, the chief operating officer and managing partner at SmartFlyer, a global travel agency based in New York City.“This economic advantage…

On a typical day, Ali Mullen races from her job at the county health department in Helena, Mont., to pick up dinner for her three children, heads home to feed them and then goes back out for a violin lesson or a school play, crisscrossing the small city in her aging S.U.V., with a rainbow bumper sticker that reads “You Are Loved.”A big pack of gummy bears keeps her going, stashed in her handbag next to a different sort of lifesaver: a gun lock that she carries almost everywhere she goes.In a sparsely populated state where many people own firearms,…