Author: NY TIMES

Early on in Nathan Silver’s “Between the Temples,” Ben Gottlieb, a 40-ish widower played by Jason Schwartzman, walks into a bar in his tallit and skullcap with the intention of getting plastered.Ben, a synagogue cantor in upstate New York who has lost the ability to praise the Lord through song since his wife died a year earlier, gets sloshed on mudslides, punched in the face and attracts the notice of another patron, Carla Kessler, a feisty septuagenarian played by Carol Kane. It is, as they say, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Before long, Ben is giving Carla adult bat…

From the outskirts of his town in the West Bank, the mayor surveyed the rocky hills stretching toward the Dead Sea where Palestinians had long farmed and herded, and pointed out the new features of the landscape.New guard posts manned by Israeli soldiers. New roads patrolled by Israeli settlers. And, most tellingly, a new metal gate blocking the town’s sole road to those areas, installed and locked by the Israeli army to keep Palestinians out.“Anyone who goes to the gate, they either arrest him or kill him,” said the mayor, Moussa al-Shaer, of the town of Tuqu.On the other side…

South Africans reject the A.N.C.The African National Congress has lost its political monopoly on South Africa. Election results on Saturday showed that the party had fallen short of winning an absolute majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.The A.N.C. received about 40 percent of the vote, which was the largest share but a dramatic drop from the nearly 58 percent it received in the last election, in 2019. It has cost the A.N.C. — which rose to international acclaim on the shoulders of Nelson Mandela — its majority in Parliament, which elects the president, and…

Southern California appeared to be under siege from a blockade.More than 50 enormous vessels bobbed in the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean, marooned off the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif. As days stretched into weeks, they waited their turn to pull up to the docks and disgorge their cargo. Rubberneckers flocked to the water’s edge with binoculars, trying to count the ships that stretched to the inky horizon.This was no act of war. This was what it looked like when the global economy came shuddering to a halt.It was October 2021, and the planet had…

Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of June’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘The Boys’ Season 4Starts streaming: June 13After a two-year break, this over-the-top action series returns for a fourth season of gleefully vulgar, wickedly satirical riffs on the superhero genre. Based on a comic book franchise created by the writer Garth Ennis and the artist Darick Robertson, “The Boys” is ostensibly…

David Levy, a Moroccan-born Israeli who rose from ditch digger to Israel’s political heights, often embodying the resentments of Jews of North African and Middle Eastern origin who felt ill-treated by Europe-rooted elites, died on Sunday at a hospital in Jerusalem. He was 86.The cause was not disclosed, but he had recently been treated for heart and kidney ailments. His death was announced by the Israeli government.Mr. Levy was Israel’s foreign minister three times in the 1990s and its deputy prime minister even more often across two decades.As prestigious as those positions were, neither afforded him an opportunity to fully…

Щонайменше семеро дітей з Херсонського Будинку Дитини повернулися до України за сприяння української влади та посередників з Катару. Серед них – Анастасія та Микола Володіни, чия мати у лютому цього року їздила за ними до Москви.Пізніше Анастасія померла в українській лікарні, лише через кілька тижнів після того, як їй виповнилося шість років. Лікар назвав причиною її смерті епілептичний напад. Микола перебуває під опікою української держави, поки його батьки чекають рішення суду стосовно своїх батьківських прав.Решта херсонських дітей все ще залишаються під владою Росії.ЯК МИ ПРАЦЮВАЛИ НАД ЦІЄЮ ІСТОРІЄЮПротягом більш ніж року журналісти The New York Times провели понад 110 інтерв’ю…

Rupert Murdoch, who retired from the boards of Fox and News Corporation last year, walked down an outdoor aisle under blue skies to exchange vows on Saturday with Elena Zhukova, his fifth bride, at Moraga, his Tuscan-style vineyard estate in the hills of the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.Ms. Zhukova, 67, carried a bouquet of white flowers and wore an ankle-length, off-the-shoulder white dress with a square neckline, reportedly designed by the London-based designer Emilia Wickstead; Mr. Murdoch, 93, wore a dark suit with sneakers. Notable guests caught by paparazzi on the way into the ceremony included Robert K.…

To an outsider, Billiejo Mullett is someone who has her head firmly screwed on. She’s smart and educated — a registered nurse who works for a medical insurance provider — and balances her career with a busy family life.In many ways, Ms. Mullett, who lives in Minoa, N.Y., seems to have things figured out, which is why she is still reeling from a life-coaching experience she describes as a “pyramid scheme” that took tens of thousands of dollars from her.“I’m an intelligent human being,” Ms. Mullett, 46, said. “We all think that it’ll never happen to us. That’s the really…

David Marchese talks to the acclaimed director about his new film, “Hit Man,” and life’s big questions. Source link