Author: NY TIMES

To understand what is happening now in the Middle East, it may be helpful to remember the dead cat.That was a favorite metaphor for Secretary of State James A. Baker III as he shuttled around the region in 1991 trying to negotiate a complicated deal. With each recalcitrant player, Mr. Baker would threaten to “leave the dead cat” at their door — in other words, to make sure they were the ones blamed if the whole thing fell apart.The question three decades later is whether today’s players are at that stage of the U.S.-brokered effort to negotiate a cease-fire in…

An American vessel carrying aid intended for Gaza has departed from Cyprus, the Pentagon said on Thursday, but the temporary floating pier constructed by the U.S. military is not in place to unload the food and supplies meant for the enclave.Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said in a news briefing on Thursday afternoon that while the construction of the floating pier and the causeway has been completed, weather conditions have made it unsafe to actually place them off the coast of Gaza.General Ryder said that the aid on the vessel, called Sagamore, eventually would be loaded onto…

El lunes por la mañana ya se conocía la respuesta a una de las grandes interrogantes que se cernían sobre la gala del Met en el Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York.¿Los miembros del sindicato que representa a los empleados de Vogue y otras publicaciones de Condé Nast seguirían adelante con las amenazas de interrupción de la gala orquestadas por la editora de Vogue Anna Wintour? No: Condé Nast y los líderes sindicales llegaron a un acuerdo provisional horas antes del evento.Pero había otras preguntas: ¿qué famosos asistirían?, ¿cómo interpretarían los invitados el código de vestimenta del “Jardín del…

Investors do not expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again, and officials have made it clear that they see further increases as unlikely. But one important takeaway from recent Fed commentary is that unlikely and inconceivable are not the same thing.After the central bank held rates steady at 5.3 percent last week, the Fed’s chair, Jerome H. Powell, delivered a news conference where what he didn’t say mattered.Asked whether officials might raise interest rates again, he said he thought they probably would not — but he also avoided fully ruling out the possibility. And when asked, twice, whether…

Apple doesn’t make mistakes often and seldom apologizes, but on Thursday, its head of advertising said the company had erred in making a new iPad commercial that showed an industrial compressor flattening tools for art, music and creativity.“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” said Tor Myhren, the company’s vice president of marketing communications, in a statement provided to the publication AdAge. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We…

What’s the best book you’ve ever received as a gift?That’s an impossible question. The best in 89 years? How do I know? I remember being given A.P. Wavell’s “Other Men’s Flowers” as a birthday present when I was young. It’s a collection of poetry, which opened my eyes to the power of verse. But then I also adored “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” by Patricia Highsmith. My husband, Michael [Williams], bought it for me as a holiday read. I devoured it and didn’t want it to end. I had to ration myself to a couple of pages a day.What’s the last…

The Japanese American Citizens League, one of the oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organizations, called on Thursday for a negotiated cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, following months of pressure from younger members who believed the group had a duty to advocate for Palestinians.The organization’s leaders and some older members were reluctant to take a position on the war, in part because of the league’s longstanding ties with prominent Jewish civil rights groups in the United States. In the 1970s, the American Jewish Committee was the first national organization to endorse the push by Japanese Americans for reparations for…

Bernard Pivot, a French television host who made and unmade writers with a weekly book chat program that drew millions of viewers, died on Monday in Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside Paris. He was 89.His death, in a hospital after being diagnosed with cancer, was confirmed by his daughter Cécile Pivot.From 1975 to 1990, France watched Mr. Pivot on Friday evenings to decide what to read next. The country watched him cajole, needle and flatter novelists, memoirists, politicians and actors, and the next day went out to bookstores for tables marked “Apostrophes,” the name of Mr. Pivot’s show.In a French universe where serious…

Thirty minutes later, Mr. Zahedi’s Roman gray wall was decorated with a row of wonky, half-smudged fleur-de-lis. As the crew refined their technique, each successive fleur-de-lis less wonky and smudged, Scarlett, alarmed by the powerful fumes coming from cans of gold spray paint, piled on KN95 masks.“I have so many mixed feelings,” Mr. Zahedi said. “Remorse. Regret. Joy. Gratitude.”At last, the job was complete: seven rows of gold spray-painted fleur-de-lis, and a single, lightly smeared emblem on the front door. Mr. Zahedi described the look as “I imagine, like, a villa in Venice.”For the camera, Ms. Giaever asked Mr. Zahedi…

Contract negotiations between Boeing and a union representing firefighters at some of the company’s commercial plane factories broke down last week. On Thursday, President Biden called on both sides to return to the negotiating table.The company locked out about 125 workers represented by a chapter of the International Association of Firefighters union on Saturday after failing to reach an agreement on a new contract, said Casey Yeager, the president of the union chapter, I-66. The previous contract expired on March 1, but the firefighters, who work at Boeing’s plants in the Seattle area, continued to work under its provisions.The talks,…