Author: NY TIMES

Amy’s tour, as it happens, is on pause; her opening act bailed, and she needs to find a new one. Sensing talent as well as a spark, she enlists Lila and her band, the Lonely Few — which also includes Paul (Thomas Silcott), on drums, and JJ (Helen J Shen), on keyboard — to join her for the rest of the tour.On the road, romance ensues, and so do family complications: Lila’s fretful guilt as Adam spirals without her, still grieving their mother’s death; Amy’s enduring anger that when Paul — the drummer who was her stepdad long ago —…

For decades, Iran’s leaders could point to high voter turnouts in their elections as proof of the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic’s political system. But as voter turnout has plummeted in recent years, the election they will be now obliged to hold after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi will force the political establishment into a decision it does not want to make.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, has two options, each carrying risks.He could ensure that the presidential elections, which the Constitution mandates must happen within 50 days after Mr. Raisi’s death, are open to all, from hard-liners…

On the morning the Cannes Film Festival opened, Messi, the canine hero of last year’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anatomy of a Fall,” was practicing climbing the stairs of the Grand Lumière Theater. The majestic entry is typically reserved for stars dressed in their finery, but the official red carpet had not yet been rolled out. Messi’s owner and trainer, Laura Martin Contini, coached him to bound up to the first landing and pose. He wasn’t quite hitting his mark, stopping just one step below, but he eventually got the hang of it. Contini rewarded him with coos of “Oui, jolie” and…

The symmetry is almost perfect.In the history of the NHL’s foray into the realm of replay review, two moments stood out as important milestones that pointed to our ultimate direction. The most recent occurred in 2013, when Colorado center Matt Duchene scored while about a mile offside.To this day, the show remains widely misunderstood. The linesman did not ignore the fact that Duchenne was offside; instead, he believed the Nashville Predators had directed the puck back into their own zone, which would negate the offside call. But the optics are terrible. Everything about this game looked wrong, including Duchenne’s muted…

On Saturday afternoon, the multi-hyphenate creatives of Los Angeles found a new reason to line up on Sunset Boulevard. Instead of sipping natural wine outside El Prado or waiting hours for a seat at Pijja Palace, they showed up for the designer Gustaf Westman’s pop-up shop.“I love Gustaf in general,” said Billie Black, 27, a digital creator who snagged the first spot in line. “I have my eye on the chunky mug. I also want the spiral magazine rack.”Mr. Westman, 30, started selling furniture and objects online in 2020 and quickly built a following on TikTok and Instagram. His curvy…

Ivan F. Boesky, the brash financier who came to symbolize Wall Street greed as a central figure of the 1980s insider trading scandals, and who went to prison for his misdeeds, died on Monday at his home in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. He was 87.His daughter Marianne Boesky said he died in his sleep.An inspiration for the character Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s movie “Wall Street” and its sequel, Mr. Boesky made a fortune betting on stock tips, often passed to him illegally in exchange for suitcases of cash. His guilty plea to insider trading in November…

Days before OpenAI demonstrated its new, flirty voice assistant last week, the actress Scarlett Johansson said, Sam Altman, the company’s chief executive, called her agent and asked that she consider licensing her voice for a virtual assistant.It was his second request to the actress in the past year, Ms. Johannson said in a statement on Monday, adding that the reply both times was no.Despite those refusals, Ms. Johansson said, OpenAI used a voice that sounded “eerily similar to mine.” She has hired a lawyer and asked OpenAI to stop using a voice it called “Sky.”OpenAI suspended its release of “Sky”…

At the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, a patient described a restraint that haunts him, more than eight years later. Source link

A federal judge has dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit against the former head of the Grammy Awards, after the plaintiff fell out with her lawyers and said in court papers that she feared for her safety and well-being if her real name were revealed during the case.The suit was dismissed on Friday “without prejudice” by Judge Analisa Torres of Federal District Court in Manhattan, meaning it could be refiled again in the future.The plaintiff filed her suit anonymously in New York State Supreme Court in November, saying that Neil Portnow, the former chief executive of the Recording Academy, had drugged…

One of former President Donald J. Trump’s closest foreign policy advisers, Robert O’Brien, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday as part of a delegation of former Trump officials that visited a number of Israeli leaders.Mr. O’Brien, who served as national security adviser to Mr. Trump and is expected to play a significant role in any second Trump administration, was joined in the meetings by two other former Trump officials — the former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, John Rakolta, and the former ambassador to Switzerland, Ed McMullen. The members of the delegation were described by…