Author: NY TIMES

The research firm Morningstar evaluated 10 H.S.A. plans in October using criteria like fees, interest on savings and investment choices. (The firm looked only at accounts available directly to individuals, rather than those offered through employers, so details may vary.) Fidelity Investments was the only provider rated “high” overall for both spending and investing. Its H.S.A. offered an interest rate on savings well above 2 percent, while its competitors paid less than 1 percent.“That’s a big shortcoming,” said Greg Carlson, senior manager research analyst at Morningstar.Here are some questions and answers about health accounts:How can I best avoid having money…

As a reporter who covers sex and intimacy, I spend a lot of time listening to experts extol the virtues of open, honest communication. To have good sex — and to keep having good sex over time — couples must be willing to talk about it, they say.But some people would rather leave their relationships than have those conversations, said Jeffrey Chernin, a marriage and family therapist and the author of “Achieving Intimacy: How to Have a Loving Relationship That Lasts” — especially if things in the bedroom aren’t going particularly well.“One of the things I often say to couples…

Eilish’s 2019 debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” mapped gothic nightmares, adolescent obsessions and lingering traumas along with an occasional giggle. Her second, “Happier Than Ever” in 2021, reacted directly to the attention, shock, exploitation, stalking, exhaustion and newfound power that success brought her.“Skinny” is a hushed update on Eilish’s superstardom. “Am I acting my age now?/Am I already on the way out?,” she sings, along with thoughts on her body shape, finding nontoxic love, her sense of isolation and a resigned reaction to social media: “The internet is hungry for the meanest kind of…

Israel said on Thursday that it would send more troops to Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, which has become the focal point in the war between Israel and Hamas.The announcement signaled that Israel intends to press deeper into Rafah despite international concerns about the threat to civilians from a full-scale invasion of the city, where more than a million displaced people had been sheltering.“Hundreds of targets have already been attacked,” Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said after meeting with commanders in the Rafah area. “This operation will continue.”For the past week Israel has described its offensive as a limited…

But it is certainly a popular tool today. A Human Rights Watch report published last February documented 75 cases of transnational repression reportedly committed by more than 20 countries, including Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.Iranian journalists in London have experienced death threats, online abuse, targeted burglaries, surveillance and even a stabbing. Chinese students have described living in a “climate of fear” while studying abroad in Europe or North America because of threats, stalking, surveillance and other harassment that they believe…

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was arrested by Louisville police on Friday and charged with second-degree assault after driving into Valhalla Golf Club. Assaulted police, was released three hours later, and arrived at the course at 9 a.m.: 12 a.m., less than an hour before he played in the second round of the PGA Championship at 10:08 a.m.Traffic at the stadium was thrown into chaos after a crash resulted in the death of a pedestrian. ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, who witnessed Scheffler’s arrest, reported that Scheffler was trying to get around traffic when an officer told him to…

The “CBS Mornings” anchor Gayle King had just started a live interview with two cover stars of the 2024 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue on Tuesday when she received a bombshell on air: The new swimsuit issue, which marks the publication’s 60th anniversary, has a cover with Ms. King posing in a bathing suit, too.“It’s not a dummy cover? This is going to be on the newsstands? Oh my God! Oh my God!” a beaming Ms. King cried after the model Kate Upton, her fellow cover star, handed her a copy of the magazine showing Ms. King posing in a colorful…

I can’t watch a basketball game on TV without seeing ads urging me to place a bet on one app or another.I can’t walk down the street in New York City without seeing ads about the latest lottery jackpot.And when I sit at my desk in the office, I spend hours studying another type of betting — trading in financial markets, where you can place wagers on companies, bonds, commodities and derivatives of all descriptions.Yet the most consequential betting of all — wagers on elections in the United States — may soon be shut down by regulators.The Commodity Futures Trading…

Goodbye, online conspiracy theory. Welcome back, Avril Lavigne.Lavigne — the Canadian singer whose hits like “Sk8er Boi” and “Complicated” made her a mainstay of the early 2000s — appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast this week to promote a greatest hits album out next month, a new tour and a performance at Glastonbury, Britain’s biggest music festival.She also used the appearance to tell fans that she is alive and herself.And that she was most definitely not replaced by a body double named Melissa Vandella after dying more than 20 years ago.The power of the internetThe bizarre conspiracy theory has…

FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, on Friday postponed a decision to temporarily suspend Israel over its actions during the conflict in Gaza, and in the West Bank, saying it needed to solicit legal advice before taking up a motion submitted by the Palestinian Football Association.The motion calling for Israel’s suspension referred to “international law violations committed by the Israeli occupation in Palestine, particularly in Gaza,” and cited violations of FIFA’s human rights and discrimination statutes. Responding to emotionally charged addresses at FIFA’s annual congress by the head of the Palestinian soccer body, Jibril Rajoub, FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, said the…