Author: NY TIMES

For a relatively small country of 11.5 million in northern Europe, Belgium punches above its weight in political relevance and drama, all of which is set to play out on June 9 when Belgians head to the polls.Brussels, the capital, is the home of the European Union institutions and NATO. The country’s complex identity has long made it a subject of fascination and puzzlement. It is a federation split to a great degree between two communities, the Dutch-speaking Flemish population and the Francophone Walloons, as well as a very small German-speaking minority.In its historical efforts to accommodate divisions between those…

When Noah Charney and his wife were house-shopping near Philadelphia, one real estate agent after another claimed to have the ideal home for them, and couldn’t wait to offer a virtual tour of its features: the renovated kitchen, the ample closet space.But the listings never included the image that Dr. Charney, a conservation biologist, most needed to see: the satellite view from Google Earth.“You want to see what?” was the typical response when he suggested opening an extra browser tab so he could explore the properties in an entirely different way before deciding which ones to see in person.The decision,…

At Harvard, a graduating senior, who passed on a full scholarship to another school, told me that he felt immense pressure to show his parents that their $400,000 investment in his Harvard education would allow him to get the sort of job where he could make a million dollars a year. Upon graduation, he will join the private equity firm Blackstone, where, he believes, he will learn and achieve more in six years than 30 years in a public-service-oriented organization.Another student, from Uruguay, who spent his second summer in a row practicing case studies in preparation for management consulting internship…

‘How to Have Sex’ (2024)Stream it on Mubi.The title is provocative, but this is no how-to manual; instead, the writer and director Molly Manning Walker tells a contemporary coming-of-age story that will reverberate with viewers of all ages and sexes. Her focus is on Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), a 16-year-old British girl on a post-exams holiday in Crete with her friends. They plan to party, drink and hook up, and the latter is of particular import to Tara, who is keen to lose her virginity — less out of desire or romanticism than to simply get it over with. Manning is…

Israel will not transfer much-needed funds to the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the decision by three European countries to recognize a Palestinian state, the country’s finance minister said on Wednesday, as its foreign minister denounced the European moves as giving “a gold medal to Hamas terrorists.”The decision by the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader who opposes Palestinian sovereignty, threatened to push the Palestinian government into a deeper fiscal crisis. He said in a statement that he had informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would no longer send tax revenues to the authority, which administers parts…

Spain, Norway and Ireland said on Wednesday that they would recognize an independent Palestinian state, a rebuke to Israel over its war in Gaza and its decades of occupation of Palestinian territories.Although scores of countries have recognized Palestinian statehood, the closely coordinated announcements by the three nations carried added weight amid the growing toll of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, and because most Western European countries have resisted recognizing it.The moves will likely have little immediate impact on conditions for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank or in Gaza, where health authorities say that more than 35,000 people have been…

At Yale College, a Jewish junior said she was discouraged from joining a secret society she had been admitted to when members began to suspect she was a Zionist after she mentioned attending an event at the Slifka Center, Yale’s main hub for Jewish life. The student, who asked to remain anonymous because she feared social ramifications on campus, said she was not a Zionist, and thought that members of the society, Ceres Athena, had come to the conclusion that she was by misconstruing old social media posts related to Israel — though none reached out to ask her directly.…

All eyes on Nvidia Despite concerns about stubbornly high inflation, elevated interest rates and ballooning U.S. debt, the S&P 500 is trading at a record on Wednesday, having soared 27 percent over the past year.Among the factors driving the rally, few are bigger than the boom in stocks tied to artificial intelligence — and the biggest of all of those is Nvidia.Investors have high hopes for Nvidia’s earnings on Wednesday. Expect a torrent of trading when the chip maker reports results for its fiscal first quarter after market close. A year ago, Nvidia’s stock jumped more than 24 percent after…

Ms. Shanahan, a lawyer who was married to Sergey Brin, a Google founder, led a rarefied and sometimes turbulent life in Silicon Valley, according to a Times examination. Source link

But YouTube denied the appeal. So, like eagles over Mordor, the Ringers, as the fans are known, swooped in. They wrote articles and posted heated comments on Reddit and other sites, calling the removal “deplorable” and “despicable.” Bouchard noted his disappointment on X.Bouchard quickly received a follow-up email from YouTube: The movie had been reinstated. In an email, Warner Bros. said it had no official comment. YouTube did not reply to requests for comment.Bouchard’s film is not your run-of-the-mill fan project. While it had a low budget — it cost just 3,000 pounds — he used advanced visual effects technology…