Author: NY TIMES

Home prices were already high when Ellen Harper, a software architect living in Atlanta, started searching for a house in 2021. But she couldn’t have anticipated the quick surge in interest rates the following year and, even with a large down payment, the new math made her uneasy.Earlier this year, however, she stumbled upon what felt like a portal to the not-so-distant past: listings of thousands of homes that come with a low-rate mortgage, which can be transferred from the existing homeowner to a new home buyer, known as an assumable mortgage.Ms. Harper, who is in her 50s, managed to…

By Kevin RooseTechnology columnist and co-host of the Times podcast “Hard Fork”Artificial intelligence, we are told, is a transformative economic force; it will change workers’ jobs, boost corporate profits and reshape industries. But for the last month, I’ve been investigating its social side — by making more than a dozen A.I. “friends.”I created these friends on apps like Nomi, Kindroid and Replika, all of which use technology similar to that found in apps like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. They allow users to build their own personalized A.I. companions and chat with them by talking or texting back and forth. (Basic versions of…

The Philharmonic had never performed the symphony before Wednesday, and under Glover’s baton it flowed with the same nimble, unaffected naturalness as the rest of the program: four pieces, including three Mozart symphonies, from the final three decades of the 18th century. Glover’s tempos throughout the concert were sensible and unexaggerated, with ample room to breathe but no dragging, and the playing was lovely — though the violins sometimes took on a slightly thin, wiry edge, highlighted by the cool clarity of Geffen Hall’s acoustics.In the work not by Mozart — Beethoven’s “Ah! perfido,” a concert scene from five years…

The Biden administration has been racing this spring to finalize a slew of major environmental regulations, including rules to combat climate change, a first-ever ban on asbestos and new limits on toxic chemicals in tap water.Many of the rules had been in the works since President Biden’s first day in office, when he ordered federal agencies to reinstate or strengthen more than 100 environmental regulations that President Donald J. Trump had weakened or removed. The president has pledged to cut the emissions that are driving climate change roughly in half by 2030. That’s something that scientists say all industrialized nations…

Before Beyoncé dropped her highly anticipated “Cowboy Carter” album, or Tanner Adell, a country music singer-songwriter who also appears on Beyoncé’s album, proudly proclaimed herself a “buckle bunny,” the disco-cowboy-and-glam-western aesthetics were already making their way to bridal fashion.Pinterest predicted that western influences would be one of the biggest trends for weddings in 2024, and searches on the platform for “cowgirl wedding dress with boots” doubled in March over March 2023.Cowboy boots have become a favored accessory. Brides are pairing them with relaxed-silhouetted gowns and dresses “that align with the effortless elegance of western fashion,” Maisie-Kate Keane, a bridal stylist…

Shareholders of Norfolk Southern, the beleaguered freight railroad, on Thursday voted down an attempt by an activist investment firm to remove the company’s chief executive and take control of its board.But the activist, Ancora, a Cleveland firm, managed to secure a foothold at the company, after shareholders voted to place three of its directors onto Norfolk Southern’s 13-member board. Ancora had hoped to take control of the company’s leadership to cut costs aimed at increasing Norfolk Southern’s profits and stock price.The result is a partial victory for Norfolk Southern’s executives, who had to defend themselves against criticisms of the company’s…

It’s not immediately apparent how courtly intrigue figures in “A Prince,” Pierre Creton’s spellbinding French pastoral drama, though sex, death and domination hang palpably in the film’s crisp, Normandy air.Creton, a veteran director working at the margins of France’s film industry, looks to the divine powers and chivalric codes that fuel swords-and-shields epics like “Game of Thrones,” but whittles these elements down to a mysterious essence. A subtly medieval score — distinguished by the thrum of a mandolin and composed by Jozef van Wissem — draws out a surreal dimension. Eventually, the film shifts into explicitly sexual and mythological terrain…

When Israel ordered Al Jazeera on Sunday to shut down operations there, the network had a reporter covering a government meeting in West Jerusalem, another in an East Jerusalem hotel room, a third in northern Israel to cover clashes on the border with Lebanon and a fourth in Tel Aviv.But the cameras stopped rolling when Walid al-Omari, the network’s bureau chief in Ramallah, in the West Bank, ordered all of them to go home. Israeli authorities descended on a room used by Al Jazeera in the Ambassador Hotel in East Jerusalem, confiscating broadcast equipment. Israeli television and internet providers cut…

The ballistic missiles rolled through Red Square, the fighter jets zipped overhead and rows of foreign dignitaries impassively looked on. Russia’s annual commemoration of the end of World War II presented a traditional ceremony on Thursday cherished by millions of Russians, a reflection of President Vladimir V. Putin’s broader attempts to project normalcy while resigning the population to a prolonged, distant war.At last year’s Victory Day celebration, as Russia struggled on the battlefield, Mr. Putin said the country was engaged in a “real war” for survival, and accused Western elites of seeking the “disintegration and annihilation of Russia.” On Thursday…

“What’s the right thing to do as a gardener?” he asked. “Fertilize and irrigate? Well, that’s actually helping the weeds more than the meadow, and it’s counterproductive. There are a lot of things you do in traditional garden design, and particularly in turf culture, that in this realm is counterproductive.” (Overwatering is a prime example.)By necessity, landscaping approaches tend to shift as one gets into the drier regions. Still, the mention of native, low-water landscaping, or xeriscaping, conjures images of dusty plots with a few cactuses and scraggly shrubs interspersed with rocks.According to Christine Ten Eyck, a landscape architect in…