Author: NY TIMES

I had two thoughts on Friday as I listened to the chief judge of the International Court of Justice tell Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, the city in southern Gaza to which more than a million displaced people fled earlier in the conflict.The first was that the court’s ruling was unusually forceful: the judge said Israel “must halt” its military offensive in Rafah “immediately.” Many observers had not expected the court to issue such a direct order because it has no jurisdiction to impose similar requirements on Hamas, Israel’s opponent in the war.My second thought was that…

For years, Elena Colombo loved the live-work studio she shared with her partner, Mark Lavelle, in an industrial section of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. She had a workshop and office where she could tinker, and was near the artisans and vendors that her company, FireFeatures, needed to make large-scale fire bowls and sculptures.As her business grew, though, more of her production moved to a facility in Factoryville, Pa. She and Mr. Lavelle, both 61, saw that as an opportunity to move back to Manhattan, where they’d previously lived.Their location in Brooklyn “felt kind of far removed,” Ms. Colombo said, adding that…

Another mega oil deal Bullish predictions for $100 crude oil may not have come to fruition, but that hasn’t stopped the deal frenzy in the fossil fuel sector.The latest: The Houston-based company ConocoPhillips has agreed to acquire its smaller rival, Marathon Oil, in an all-stock deal that values the company at $22.5 billion, including debt.The news comes a day after Hess shareholders approved Chevron’s $53 billion takeover in a contentious vote.The oil majors have pulled off some of the biggest deals in the past year despite tough regulatory scrutiny from the Biden administration and volatility in the oil market. Still,…

After a swing through the Deep South, they turned north, heading to Monroe’s Brown County Jamboree in Bean Blossom, Ind. Reintroducing themselves to the bandleader, Garcia just couldn’t pull the trigger and ask for an audition, later saying he’d been “too chicken.” Instead, they continued east, and a parking-lot jam with the New York mandolinist David Grisman in Pennsylvania proved to be the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Five years later, Grisman’s mandolin would animate one of the Grateful Dead’s best-known recordings, “Friend of the Devil,” and they would continue to collaborate from time to time for the rest of…

When Hamas released video last month of Keith Siegel, an American-Israeli hostage held in Gaza, it was the first sign in months that he was still alive. His wife, Aviva Siegel, couldn’t bring herself to watch it.“It would be too difficult for me to see the sadness in Keith’s eyes,” Ms. Siegel said in an interview in New York last week, where she was meeting with António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations.Ms. Siegel, 63, was held captive with her husband until late November, when she was one of 105 hostages released as part of a cease-fire deal.…

The South Korean marines were sent in after monsoon rains flooded a rural section of the country’s heartland last July. They were looking for missing residents in waist-high floodwaters, but they were not wearing life jackets. Nor did they have buoys or safety tubes. When the ground gave way, five of them were swept away in the churning brown water and one, Lance Cpl. Chae Su-geun, disappeared downstream, yelling for help, and was later found dead.Nearly a year later, the death of the 20-year-old marine has become an impeachment threat for South Korea’s leader, President Yoon Suk Yeol. And it…

Even though Bill Walton was one of the most unique men who ever lived, they were all the same. Walton was a 6-foot-11, red-haired, inquisitive Grateful Dead fan and television analyst who happened to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time.But when he died on Monday, the tributes were the same because the thread through Walton’s life was his tie-dye passion for people. At times, he may seem like he lives on another planet, but he wants you and others to join him because this is a place where love and dreams come true.That’s why the tributes…

The Cannes Festival jury led by Greta Gerwig announced its winners this weekend, including the Palme d’Or for “Anora,” a comedy from the American filmmaker Sean Baker about a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch. The ceremony concluded 10 full days filled with movies and long ovations, news conferences peppered with politics, a filmmaker’s return, women-led films that caused a stir, a president’s origin story and, of course, canine stars. But the Côte d’Azur’s red carpet proved also to be a bonanza, where stars upped the ante on style, wearing bright swaths of color, statement hats…

The severe turbulence that killed one passenger and injured dozens on a recent Singapore Airlines flight led to to sudden changes in altitude and airspeed, Singapore’s Transport Ministry said on Wednesday.Flight SQ321 encountered turbulence about 10 hours into a 13-hour trip to Singapore from London last week, officials said. Many of the 211 passengers had just finished breakfast.The turbulence hit as the plane was traveling over southern Myanmar at an altitude of 37,000 feet, the Transport Ministry said in a preliminary report on Wednesday.When the plane rose unexpectedly by 362 feet, probably because of an updraft, its autopilot pitched it…

In a rehearsal last week at the Mecklenburg State Theater in Schwerin, northeastern Germany, Fleshpiece, a shirtless performer with tattoos and purple hair, strode to the front of the main stage and delivered an impassioned monologue.“This opera house, this is our church,” Fleshpiece intoned. “We continue to nail you to the present, just as Jesus was nailed to the cross.”Supervising the scene was the experimental choreographer Florentina Holzinger, wearing a black baseball cap and a T-shirt printed with a picture of two nuns engaged in B.D.S.M. play.Her previous works, including “Ophelia’s Got Talent” at the Volksbühne in Berlin and “A…