Author: NY TIMES

Ghada Redwan, a 48-year-old pharmacist in Houston, has been trying to get her parents out of Gaza for months. Their bags, packed and ready to go, have been sitting by their door in Rafah, the city where Israel is now conducting a military offensive.But Ms. Redwan has hit roadblocks at every turn. And like other Palestinian Americans desperate to get their relatives to safety, she has described a confounding bureaucratic maze involving the State Department, the governments of Israel and Egypt, politicians, advocacy groups, lawyers and more.The closure this month of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt — the only…

The Netherlands will be getting a new prime minister, with the four right-wing parties that are forming a government finally naming their pick, more than six months after the elections.The parties selected a top justice official, Dick Schoof, 67, on Tuesday. They will now continue work on forming a cabinet, naming ministers and state secretaries, with the aim of finalizing a government in about four weeks.The choice of Mr. Schoof — the highest-ranking official at the Ministry of Justice and Security and a former counterterrorism chief, who has no political experience or party affiliation — reflects an attempt to govern…

Indianapolis — this timeThe Boston Celtics’ trip to the Eastern Conference Finals is over without any public or press conference clamor that the coach must go, and oh, by the way, let’s throw a wrecking ball at the roster.this timeThe Celtics defeated the Indiana Pacers 105-102 on Monday night at Gambridge Arena to complete a sweep of the Indiana Pacers. Some quick play-by-play is in order here, starting with the Celtics’ 10-2 run after trailing all night. Jayson Tatum’s breakaway dunk made it 100-100, and then, ahem, Series MVP Jaylen Brown’s 8-foot jumper tied the score at 102-102 again. Brown…

Blazing a PathTrading poodle skirts and blouses for trucker hats and flannels, decades before the term “gender nonconforming” entered the mainstream, Aunt Barbara stopped trying to fit into her Missouri farm town. I innocently called her “Uncle Barbara” as a toddler. She always laughed. For all of her standing out, for the acceptance that she demanded and received, Barb’s inner life is unknowable. Long gone from cancer, she left me two important gifts: a record of her courageous clothing preferences — deeply provocative in her time — captured in family photos, and a blazed path for her family to accept…

Holly Meyer Lucas estimates that as many as 30 of the 100 houses her real estate team sold in and around Jupiter, Fla., last year were put on the market because their owners could no longer keep up with skyrocketing home insurance.“It is the housing crisis that nobody is talking about,” Ms. Meyer Lucas said. The houses sold easily, but often to well-off cash buyers who could drop the insurance altogether because they did not have a mortgage that required them to carry it.Jumping insurance rates are acute in coastal Florida, with its exposure to big risks like hurricanes and…

Taylor Swift holds the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s latest album chart for a fifth consecutive week, after an intense contest with Billie Eilish in which both stars released a blizzard of “versions” of their LPs to lure fans.Eilish fought for “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” her third album, with release-week arena listening events in New York and Los Angeles. In an era of supersized track lists as a strategy to maximize streaming yield, the LP had just 10 songs. But fans were given a long menu of options to buy it, including nine colored vinyl editions. There were also…

Seeking to harness the outrage over an Israeli strike on Sunday that set fire to an encampment and killed at least 45 displaced Palestinians, including children, many diplomats at the United Nations Security Council are backing a new resolution this week that would demand an immediate cease-fire and a halt to Israel’s military operations in the city of Rafah.But they will have to overcome the objections of the United States, which has veto power on the Council and has signaled it will not support the resolution in its current form.Algeria, the only Arab representative in the current makeup of the…

A Hong Kong court will begin issuing verdicts on Thursday in the city’s largest national security trial, as the authorities use sweeping powers imposed by Beijing to quash political dissent in the Chinese territory.The 47 pro-democracy activists and opposition leaders in the trial — including Benny Tai, a former law professor, and Joshua Wong, a protest leader and founder of a student group — face prison sentences, in some cases for perhaps as long as life. Their offense: holding a primary election to improve their chances in citywide polls.Most of the defendants have spent at least the last three years…

For the first time in many years, a teacher was correcting my handwriting.“Go more slowly,” Laura Edralin, a calligraphy teacher in London, told me, as she walked around a table of beginners on a recent Wednesday night, explaining how to achieve even, flowing strokes.As a breaking news reporter for The New York Times, I am not used to being told to slow down, nor am I accustomed to writing by hand. But both those new to the medium and seasoned calligraphers say the deliberate, steady nature of the practice is a huge part of its appeal — one that is…

Nearly two months after losing an epic corporate battle to get on the board of the Walt Disney Company, Nelson Peltz is no longer an investor in the entertainment company.Mr. Peltz, the billionaire head of the hedge fund Trian Fund Management, controlled about $3.5 billion in Disney stock, a vast majority of it owned by Ike Perlmutter, a former chairman of Marvel Entertainment. Mr. Peltz has now sold his portion of those shares, a person familiar with the investment said, requesting anonymity to discuss confidential matters.A spokesman for Disney did not immediately return a request for comment.By selling his shares,…