Author: NY TIMES

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. This week’s issue is written by Damien Cave, the Australia bureau chief.Earlier this week, as I stood in line at the Sydney Opera House for an event in the concert hall with Amy Poehler tied to the new movie “Inside Out 2,” I looked around at the large crowd.There were young and old, men and women of various races and fashion styles. The place was packed, and large animated art danced across the famous sails, courtesy of the Vivid Sydney festival.I thought back to all the events I’ve gone…

Despite his best efforts, Timothy Raymond Murray could not get Michael Alexander Hoy Bullard to give him the time of day — that is, until a mutual friend intervened.The two met in November 2014. Mr. Bullard was a bartender at Bareburger in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Mr. Murray would often sit at the bar and write.Mr. Bullard paid him no attention at first. But when a mutual friend, Melanie Brook, formally introduced them there one night, “the flirting began,” Mr. Murray said.The two connected on social media, and, for the next two years, Mr. Murray would casually reach…

When officials from many of the world’s biggest oil-producing countries meet on Sunday, their menu of options for managing the market may be limited.Over the past two years, the group known as OPEC Plus has agreed to a succession of cuts to oil output. The oil producers’ assumption has been that these trims would be temporary, but they have begun to take on an air of permanence as prices have been relatively subdued. Any relaxation of cuts would risk sinking prices in what looks like a soft market, analysts say.It is a frustrating situation for oil producers like Iraq and…

The nonbinary director, D.W. Waterson, wanted to make the kind of film they wished they had seen growing up in a hockey-obsessed household in Canada. Which may explain why an earnest teen spirit seems to be alive and somersaulting in “Backspot,” a cheer squad tale offering plenty of life lessons.A queer protagonist with pom-poms is not a cinematic first. (Remember the comedy “But I’m a Cheerleader”?) The double full twist with “Backspot” is that the writer, Joanne Sarazen, and Waterson (who edited and scored the film), don’t center the coming-of-age drama in coming-out trauma.From the get-go, Riley (Devery Jacobs of…

In recent days, Ukraine has conducted a series of drone attacks inside Russia, including one of the longest-range strikes of the war, that target radar stations used, at least partly, as early nuclear warning systems by Moscow.On Monday, Ukraine struck a radar station near the border with Kazakhstan that was more than 1,100 miles away, a Ukrainian intelligence official said. Ukrainian experts said the facility was used to detect missile threats from Asia.On Tuesday morning, the governor of the Krasnodar region of Russia reported that a Ukrainian drone was downed in the sky over the town of Armavir, which is…

More than a million borrowers who were defrauded by for-profit schools have had billions of dollars in federal student loans eliminated through a government aid program. But people with private loans have generally been excluded from any relief — until recently.Navient, a large owner of private student loan debt, has created, but not publicized, a program that allows borrowers to apply to have their loans forgiven. Some who succeeded have jubilantly shared their stories in chat groups and other forums.“I cried, a lot,” said Danielle Maynard, who recently received notice from Navient that nearly $40,000 in private loans she owed…

The documentary “Jim Henson Idea Man,” from Ron Howard, explains how the puppeteer was inspired by felt, feathers and the lifelong pursuit of creativity. Source link

South Africans were on edge Thursday as votes trickled in from a tight national election, with early returns showing poor results for the African National Congress, the party that has governed the country for three decades.While official results are not expected before the weekend, projections show that the party, known as the A.N.C., is likely to draw under 50 percent of the vote, down from 57.5 percent in the last election five years ago.That would mean the A.N.C. — for the first time — would need to form a coalition with one or more rival parties in order to stay…

At 5:06 p.m. on Thursday, shortly after NBC News broke in with a special report, Savannah Guthrie and Lester Holt told viewers that a verdict in the first criminal trial against an American president was imminent. After weeks of dramatic testimony that, with no cameras in the courtroom, made little impact on TV, the tension spilled onto the airwaves all at once.“Oh, here we go,” Ms. Guthrie said abruptly, as the off-camera voice of Laura Jarrett, NBC’s senior legal correspondent, could be heard in the background. “Guys! We need to go,” Ms. Jarrett said. “We need to go.”“Go,” Ms. Guthrie…

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.When you walk into the “Popcast (Deluxe)” recording studio on the second floor of the New York Times office in Manhattan, the first thing you notice is two colorful chairs in the center of the room with black microphones perched on the seat backs.“We were thinking ‘elevated basement,’” said Jon Caramanica, a pop music critic for The New York Times and a host of the show, a weekly culture review on YouTube. “It’s a little ‘Wayne’s World.’”Mr. Caramanica and his co-host,…