Author: NY TIMES

In Tayarisha Poe’s “The Young Wife,” a wedding party plays out like a psychedelic fever dream. The camera keens and swoops, birdlike, around the guests — who are decked out in neon eye shadow and bright pastel-colored outfits — and a synth-heavy score lends the whole affair a hint of the uncanny.But beneath these quirks, Poe’s dramedy tells a tale as old as time (or at least as old as “Runaway Bride”): of a woman who has cold feet before marriage.Celestina (Kiersey Clemons) is a burned-out corporate lackey who has quit her job in a fit of rage days before…

It was only midmorning, and Eike Schmidt was already way off schedule.As he strolled to an appointment at a market in Florence, Italy, well-wishers repeatedly stopped him to shake his hand, take a selfie or share a gripe, further upsetting his timetable.“All of Florence is my natural habitat and has been for years,” said Schmidt, who, after being the first foreigner to run the city’s storied Uffizi Galleries, is now trying to pull off another coup and become the first foreigner to govern Florence itself. Born in Germany, Schmidt became an Italian citizen last November, which made him eligible to…

The International Monetary Fund made sizable increases on Wednesday in its forecasts for China’s economic growth, while questioning the scale of the Chinese government’s assistance to export-focused industries.The fund estimates that China will grow 5 percent this year and 4.5 percent in 2025. That is 0.4 percentage points more for each year than the fund predicted just six weeks ago.China’s gross domestic output expanded 5.2 percent last year, as the economy rebounded after nearly three years of stringent pandemic policies that stifled growth. Many economists, including at the I.M.F., had anticipated that China would be held back this year by…

For someone unfamiliar with “Haikyu!!,” the anime adaptation of a slice-of-life manga about a high school volleyball team, the premise may seem a bit niche. And yet the series, which continues in the form of the film “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” has always excelled at making its wholesome sports drama accessible to every kind of audience — especially those who may not know anything about volleyball.The series focuses on Shoyo Hinata, a short teenager who dreams of becoming a volleyball champion like his idol, a small-statured ace called the Little Giant. He enrolls at the Little Giant’s former high school,…

Three European nations formally recognized an independent Palestinian state on Tuesday, drawing the ire of Israel as it continued to press its military offensive in Gaza.The previously announced moves by Spain, Norway and Ireland are largely symbolic, but serve as a rebuke to Israel in the face of mounting international frustration over the country’s military offensive in Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories over the years.They also come amid global outrage over an Israeli airstrike on Sunday that killed dozens of people at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, despite international calls for the military to curb its…

A recently discovered guitar that John Lennon used to record multiple Beatles songs in the 1960s before it went missing for 50 years has sold at auction for $2.9 million, becoming one of the most valuable pieces of memorabilia from the band.The 12-string acoustic guitar, called the Hootenanny, was believed to be lost after Mr. Lennon and his bandmate George Harrison used it to record the 1965 Beatles albums “Rubber Soul” and “Help!” and the soundtrack to the band’s film of the same name, said Julien’s Auctions, the Los Angeles-based auction house that handled the sale on Wednesday.Later that year,…

Prison limits self-expression. Inmates are usually forced to identify as a number and, for the most part, can only wear a standard-issue uniform.After living that way for decades, how do you rekindle a sense of personal style?Six exonerees involved with the Innocence Project, which works to overturn wrongful convictions using scientific methods like DNA, recently tried to answer that question with help from employees at Bindle & Keep, a suit maker in Brooklyn.On a windy day in mid-May, four men and two women whose convictions were overturned in the last year made their way to Bindle & Keep’s studio near…

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has a line about the state of small-scale agriculture in America these days.It’s drawn from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, which shows that as the average size of farms has risen, the nation had lost 544,000 of them since 1981. “That’s every farm today that exists in North Dakota and South Dakota, added to those in Wisconsin and Minnesota, added to those in Nebraska and Colorado, added to those in Oklahoma and Missouri,” Mr. Vilsack told a conference in Washington this spring. “Are we as a country OK with it?”Even though the United States continues to…

At a sprawling complex in Warren, Mich., General Motors’ hopes for its driverless car future play out in a virtual reality headset offered to visitors.In a video, the electric and autonomous car drives itself. Wirelessly connected to traffic lights and the surrounding streets, the car avoids collisions and reduces congestion, part of what G.M. calls its “0-0-0” vision — “zero crashes, zero emission, zero congestion.”At least, that’s the plan. G.M.’s driverless future looks a lot further away today than it did a year ago, when Cruise, G.M.’s driverless car subsidiary, was deep into an aggressive expansion of its robot taxi…

During the day’s second rehearsal, however, she tempered her enthusiasm with tacit worry about her voice. She told her tour manager that Taja would soon be backstage, probably with a prednisone prescription. “Mom, I’m already here,” the 16-year-old screamed, 20 rows back in an otherwise empty arena. “I have your medicine! Do you want it?”McLachlan couldn’t hear her. She nodded to her band and started a song called “Fallen,” humming to herself.DURING SUMMER BREAK between sixth and seventh grades, McLachlan’s friends in Nova Scotia labeled her a lesbian. She had indeed kissed another girl, practicing for a boy. She instantly…