Author: NY TIMES

It must say something about the anxious state of the movie world that two of the hottest tickets at this year’s Cannes Film Festival draw inspiration from ancient Rome. In George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” Chris Hemsworth zips around a wasteland like a heavy-metal charioteer, while in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” Adam Driver plays a guy named Cesar. That each movie offers a vision of a culture in decline seems too on the nose for this festival, where attendees celebrate the art amid nervous chatter about the state of the industry.This year’s festival opened Tuesday under gray skies,…

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After a generation running colleges in Iowa, Caitlin Clark starts her career this week in Indiana, where college graduates earn a median annual income of $100, according to the U.S. Census American Consumer Survey $52,267.But Clark is no ordinary young professional.When she entered the WNBA, she was one of the biggest stars in the country, with high profile and commercial appeal. She’s sold out arenas, signed a $28 million Nike endorsement deal and sent TV ratings soaring — while her career potential has sparked widespread debate about the economics of women’s basketball.In her first season with the Indiana Fever, she…

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A 7-year-old girl hawks cat-themed souvenirs in Flemish outside her parents’ shop. Two women in matching cat print dresses wander down a crowded street looking for a place to buy stuffed plush kitties. In every store and restaurant window, a cat figurine or statue signals allegiance to the feline persuasion.This is Kattenstoet, Belgium’s cat-themed parade and festival.Tucked among rolling farmland in the West Flanders region near the border with France, Iepers, Belgium, has not always had such an adoring relationship with cats. In the Middle Ages, when the city’s main industry was cloth making, they used cats to keep wool…

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After suffering a setback at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama on Friday, the United Automobile Workers union’s efforts to organize other auto factories in the South is likely to slow and could struggle to make headway.About 56 percent of the Mercedes workers who voted rejected the U.A.W. in an election after the union chalked up two major wins this year. In April, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted to join the union, the first large nonunion auto plant in the South to do so. Weeks later, the union negotiated a new contract bringing significant pay and benefit improvements…

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After that, why did you leave Manhattan?I decided, OK, it’s time to move to Brooklyn. The critical mass of artists and people interested in this work are in Brooklyn now. And when I walked into that space, it was like when I walked into this space. It was: “This is an incredible space. This is wonderful. It feels great, if we can afford this and make it work.”You’re still a performing artist and composer. How much of your own work were you able to do while operating Roulette?A lot, up through Greene Street. But when we moved into the new…

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On tables and desks from schools turned shelters, wartime vendors lined a street, selling used clothes, baby formula, canned food and the rare batch of homemade cookies.In some cases, entire aid parcels — still emblazoned with the flags of their donating countries and meant to be distributed for free — were stacked on sidewalks and sold for prices few could afford.Issam Hamouda, 51, stood next to his paltry commercial offering: an array of canned vegetables and beans from an aid carton his family had received.“Most of the goods found in the markets are labeled, ‘Not for sale,’” he said.Before the…

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Days after returning from a trip to Europe where he was lectured about the need to rein in Russia, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, used a summit with President Vladimir V. Putin to convey an uncomfortable reality to the West: His support for Mr. Putin remains steadfast.Mr. Xi’s talks with Mr. Putin this week were a show of solidarity between two autocrats battling Western pressure. The two leaders put out a lengthy statement that denounced what they saw as American interference and bullying and laid out their alignment on China’s claim to self-ruled Taiwan and Russia’s “legitimate security interests” in Ukraine.They…

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We are nearly halfway to the end of the NFL’s 2023 season and the start of next season.Now, teams and their fans can finally properly prepare for the upcoming games. While teams have known their opponents for a long time, they can now make logistical preparations for the 2024 season.Of course, not all schedules are created equal. (No, this has nothing to do with the formula for identifying opponents with unbalanced schedules. The process is simply awesome.)deeper2024 NFL complete schedule released: Texans riseA glance at each team’s schedule would reveal a few complaints and even some friendly backlash. That’s where…

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Along the teeming narrow streets of this centuries-old trading port, and among the modern-day merchants of the old souk who have immigrated from across the Middle East, South Asia and beyond, an urban project is paying homage to 5,000 years of pearling history in Bahrain.The newest part of the project is the Pearling Path, which opened in February. The urban trail can be followed as a free, self-guided tour that rolls its way through 3.5-kilometers, or just over two miles, of commercial and residential neighborhoods in Muharraq, a centuries-old city across the water from the modern capital, Manama.The trail is…

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