Author: NY TIMES

As part of “Believing,” The New York Times asked several writers to explore a significant moment in their religious or spiritual lives.Sign up to receive the latest installments of “Believing” in your inbox.It was a listless day, one without any signs of doom. Then, as evening approached, I got a call.On a beach here in Lagos, Nigeria, a huge wave had swept my friend, Fola Francis, away. She hadn’t been found. As I got in a cab, I did with intention something I would usually do absent-mindedly, sometimes without much focus: I prayed.I prayed as I made frantic calls to…

Only about half a million people live in Malta, the tiny set of islands in the Mediterranean that make up one of Europe’s smallest countries.Yet a Maltese citizen could soon be elected pope.Cardinal Mario Grech, 68, the former bishop of a Maltese island, Gozo, has emerged as a candidate for pope because of his role as secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body mandated by canon law to consider “questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world.”Pope Francis upended the synod’s role by promoting a Synod on Synodality, a multiyear meeting for church leaders…

The pay stubs tell the story. Hefty deductions to help cover the cost of Kenya’s new funds for affordable housing and health insurance. More money subtracted for jacked-up contributions to the National Social Security Fund and an increase in the tax rate.In a matter of months, Kenyans with a 45,000-shilling-a-month salary — roughly $350 — saw their take-home pay shrink 9 percent, to $262.Pay stubs for an employee at Shining Hope for Communities, a nonprofit in Kenya:JUNE 2024“People who are salaried are crying,” said Kennedy Odede, the founder of a self-help association in Nairobi’s Kibera slum.The increased payroll taxes are…

Members of a South Texas community that has served as the hub of Elon Musk’s rocket launch company, SpaceX, voted on Saturday to formally establish a new city called Starbase, fulfilling one of Mr. Musk’s long-held dreams.All but six of the 218 people who voted supported incorporating the city of Starbase, according to Cameron County, which administered the vote.There were 283 eligible voters, said Remi Garza, the elections administrator for the county.The community, known to locals as Boca Chica, covers about 1.5 square miles on a spit of land that brushes up against the Mexican border.SpaceX broke ground in the…

A prime example of elderspeak: Cindy Smith was visiting with her father in his assisted living apartment in Roseville, Calif. An aide who was trying to induce him to do something — Ms. Smith no longer remembers exactly what — said, “Let me help you, sweetheart.”“He just gave her The Look — under his bushy eyebrows — and said, ‘What, are we getting married?’” recalled Ms. Smith, who had a good laugh, she said. Her father was then 92, a retired county planner and a World War II veteran; macular degeneration had reduced the quality of his vision and he…

There were at least two versions of the email from the arts endowment. Some said that “the tentative funding recommendation for the following application” had been withdrawn. Those emails went to groups that had already received offer letters and been recommended for grants, but had not yet gotten their official awards. Others were sent to groups whose grants had been approved, and said, “This is to inform you that the above referenced National Endowment for the Arts award has been terminated, effective May 31, 2025.” The N.E.A. did not respond to requests for comment.The future of the arts endowment has…

Sirens blaring, a truckful of armed men trailing in its wake, the black sport utility vehicle that sliced sharklike through the Syrian town of Ashrafieh Sahnaya on Friday morning was impossible to miss.Government forces had retaken control from the armed groups that turned the town into a sectarian battlefield for two days this week, killing dozens and exposing for all to see the new Syrian leaders’ shaky grip on security. Now, government representatives had arrived to pledge peace to a skeptical town.In an airy, echoing religious meeting hall, two officials in suits sat shoulder to shoulder with white-bearded leaders of…

“It’s definitely that vibe,” Ms. Ehrenkranz said. “The whole point of Laid Off is to show that it’s not a personal failure.”Anu Lingala, 33, spoke to Ms. Ehrenkranz about losing her job at Nordstrom in a feature published in March. “Her interviews are so humanizing,” said Ms. Lingala, who lives in Brooklyn and now works in marketing at a jewelry company. “They unpack the shame around being laid off.”The newsletter has a confessional-like quality that Lindsey Stanberry, a former editor of the Money Diaries column on the website Refinery29, appreciates. “There’s a voyeuristic element to it,” said Ms. Stanberry, 44,…

After more than three years of war, President Trump proposed a peace plan for Russia and Ukraine in late April that would have the United States recognize Moscow’s 2014 takeover of the Crimean peninsula. Michael D. Shear, a former White House correspondent for The New York Times in London, explains how the proposal, which Ukraine has rejected, is a reversal from Mr. Trump’s first term as president.

The expansion of the loophole for tariff-free shipments of goods nearly a decade ago gave rise to Temu, Shein and other low-cost online retailers offering items straight from Chinese factories at unfathomable discounts.It also unleashed something else — a cascade of billions of dollars of digital advertising that provided a windfall for Meta, Alphabet and other technology industry giants. Temu and Shein, jockeying for the attention of American shoppers, blanketed seemingly every inch of the internet with their ads. In the last two years, only Amazon spent more on online advertising in the United States than Shein or Temu.Now, the…