Author: NY TIMES

Ever since Congress passed a bill that would force the Chinese company ByteDance to sell or shut down TikTok, one of the biggest questions has been: Who could buy it, given technological, political and financial considerations?The billionaire Frank McCourt has put up his hand.Mr. McCourt said Wednesday that he was working to put together a group of bidders to buy the social media app. His goal in doing so is to rethink how TikTok, and the internet overall, use data and consider privacy. He is already in discussions about the app with academics and those who study the impact of…

The puzzle game Lorelei and the Laser Eyes opens with the protagonist — a well-dressed woman with the solemnity of a catwalk model — inside a forest where boreal owls roam. Ahead looms a secluded hotel whose secrets include art exhibits, mathematical puzzles and a pettable Labrador.That mysterious estate, which has its roots in horror games like Resident Evil, is a place shaped as much by its own architecture as by character psychology and surrealism.In addition to reflections about the medium itself, Lorelei contains traces of postmodern novels and the cinema of the French New Wave. The video game is…

Russian troops punched across Ukraine’s northern border with such speed and force last week that Ukraine’s meager fortifications offered almost no obstacle. Some Ukrainian soldiers, caught totally by surprise, fell back from their positions, and villages that had been liberated nearly two years earlier suddenly came under relentless shelling, forcing hundreds to flee in scenes reminiscent of the early days of the war.“They are erasing streets,” said Tetiana Novikova, 55, a retired factory worker who said she barely escaped with her life on Friday when her village of Vovchansk came under withering fire from Russian forces. As she fled the…

On a recent trip to Sephora, 11-year-old Lincoln Rivera asked his mom for a $125 atomizer of Yves Saint Laurent eau de parfum.He also covets scents from Jean Paul Gaultier, which he learned about from the animated movie “Megamind,” and Paco Rabanne (some of its cologne bottles are shaped like robots).“I feel fine about how I smell,” said Lincoln, a fifth grader in Westchester County, N.Y., whose olfactory experimentation has so far been limited to deodorant. “But I could smell even better.”Abby Rivera, Lincoln’s mother, first thought the designer scents sounded like overkill for her son to wear to elementary…

Growing up in Mexico, Marco Flores fantasized about the lowrider cars he saw in magazines, studying their colorful bodies and gleaming engine compartments. He adored his father’s Chevrolet Chevelle, too. In a tribute, Mr. Flores eventually restored a Chevelle in electric blue — the same muscle car his father had owned — with the help of his children.Now his custom-made creations, which he designs and fabricates after work in his garage in Port Chester, N.Y., are featured in those same lowrider magazines.His blue Chevelle “represents my entire childhood and the passion I have for cars,” said Mr. Flores, 55, who…

Something about “Taking Venice,” Amei Wallach’s new documentary about the 1964 Venice Biennale (in theaters), feels almost like science fiction, or maybe fantasy. Imagine the U.S. government taking such a keen interest in the fine arts that there may or may not have been an attempt to rig a major international prize for an American artist. A painter, no less!History buffs already know that during the Cold War, American intelligence agencies were heavily involved in literature, music and the fine arts, seeing them as a way to export soft power around the world and prove U.S. dominance over the Soviet…

The street performers first appeared a few years ago along busy intersections of Islamabad. Coated head to toe in eye-catching gold paint, they stood perfectly still, leaning on glimmering canes and tipping their top hats open. Some cracked a smile or offered a slow nod when they earned tips from passers-by.Perhaps in a different place, the emergence of mimes on the street looking to earn a few dollars might go unnoticed. But this is Pakistan, where things under the security state often are not as simple as they seem. So as the number of golden performers grew, so, too, did…

The black-dappled white panther, sometimes curling around the wrist as a bracelet, sometimes crouched low as a brooch or glaring from a choker, is Cartier’s most emblematic animal.But it is not the only one.Tigers striped with black spinels and emerald-studded crocodiles gripping dials in their teeth were among the many animal-inspired timepieces Cartier put on display at the recent Watches & Wonders fair in Geneva, serving as a prelude to the brand’s Nature Sauvage high jewelry collection to be introduced later this month.In an email, Pierre Rainero, Cartier’s image, style and heritage director, highlighted what he called the “visual richness”…

One of NPR’s most prominent hosts asked the company’s top editor on Thursday to disclose the identity of an anonymous funder who is helping pay for a new layer of editing several weeks after the radio network faced a prominent accusation of having a liberal bias in its coverage.Michel Martin, a host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” pressed Edith Chapin, NPR’s chief content officer, to identify the source of the funding in an editorial meeting at the network’s Washington headquarters, according to four people with knowledge of the exchange.Ms. Chapin declined to elaborate on the source of the money but said…

‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’The latest installment in George Miller’s apocalypse thriller series premiered at Cannes this week. It tells the origin story of the Imperator Furiosa, the breakout character from the 2015 “Fury Road,” played then by Charlize Theron and now by Anya Taylor-Joy.From our review:Furiosa’s reticence is strategic, as well as a trait she shares with Mad Max himself, the model for her taciturn avenger. While Furiosa is hiding in plain sight in the Citadel, her circumspection protects her, but it also accentuates her existential plight. She’s alone, spiritually and in every other respect, at least before meeting…