Author: NY TIMES

There was an almost dystopian feel to Barcelona’s La Liga match against Valencia last Monday.Defending champions Barca knew from the start that they needed a win to keep their slim hopes of retaining the title alive, or at least delay as long as possible the possibility of Real Madrid snatching the title away.Valencia’s visit to Montjuïc is also Barca’s first game since it was confirmed Xavi will stay on as head coach next season, having said in January that he would resign in the summer – which would theoretically be a surprise to their fans It’s a positive thing.Still, attendance…

It’s one of the costliest actions we take in managing our landscapes — in terms of dollars and environmental damage — and yet we keep cutting down and carting away the remains of trees. Even those that pose no danger to people or property.Basil Camu, a founder of the Leaf & Limb tree-care company in Raleigh, N.C., wants us to rein in that obsessively tidy, controlling mind-set and let the safe ones stand. He believes so strongly in the role of trees — not just the healthy ones, but also snags, or wildlife trees, the dead and dying powerhouses of…

A Hong Kong court on Wednesday granted a government request to ban a popular pro-democracy anthem, raising further concerns about free speech in the city.The decision, which overturned an initial ruling, could give the government power to force Google and other tech companies to restrict online access to the song in Hong Kong. The decision threatens to deepen anxiety about the city’s status as an international gateway to China, away from its censorship controls.At issue in the case is “Glory to Hong Kong,” which emerged in 2019 as an unofficial anthem for democracy protests and a flashpoint for the authorities,…

President Biden will travel to Wisconsin on Wednesday to announce the creation of an artificial intelligence data center, highlighting one of his administration’s biggest economic accomplishments in a crucial battleground state — and pointing up a significant failure by his immediate predecessor and 2024 challenger.At a technical college in Racine, Mr. Biden will announce that Microsoft will invest $3.3 billion to build the center, which the tech giant estimates will create 2,300 union construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs, according to the White House. The project is part of Mr. Biden’s “Investing in America” agenda, which has focused on bringing…

In 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was experiencing memory loss and mental fogginess so severe that a friend grew concerned he might have a brain tumor. Mr. Kennedy said he consulted several of the country’s top neurologists, many of whom had either treated or spoken to his uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, before his death the previous year of brain cancer.Several doctors noticed a dark spot on the younger Mr. Kennedy’s brain scans and concluded that he had a tumor, he said in a 2012 deposition reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Kennedy was immediately scheduled for a procedure…

The most Sisyphean thing about my life, on the other hand, is the awards season; this movie was originally slated to open the Venice Film Festival last fall, which probably means it would have been trapped in Oscar discourse pretty fast. Flung out into the spring movie calendar, the whole thing takes on a different tenor, I think.MORRIS I’m with you. Here we have a movie based on an original script opening in April that isn’t out sniffing around for Oscars. It’s got a starry-ish cast and is a cultural and box office hit. The thing about stakes I should’ve…

President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel last week to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in a long-threatened assault on the city of Rafah, administration officials said on Tuesday night, a sign of the growing rift between the United States and Israel over the conduct of the war.The president withheld 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs that he feared could be dropped on Rafah, where more than one million Gazans have taken refuge, the officials said. The administration is reviewing whether to hold back future transfers, including guidance kits that convert so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided…

What the Israeli military is calling a “limited operation” in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, has already had devastating consequences over the past two days for medical workers and patients across the enclave, doctors and humanitarian aid groups say.The Israeli military’s orders telling roughly 110,000 people to leave eastern Rafah on Monday spread fear throughout Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, which is within the area where Israel said it would act with “extreme force,” Dr. Marwan al-Hams, the hospital’s director, said in a phone interview on Tuesday.Fearing a raid by Israeli forces, like those that have been carried out at…

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A life-changing event that takes two minutes to complete: Every move, every decision, even every inaction matters. But it’s not just the actions, decisions and indecisions in those two minutes that matter; It was a lifetime of divisive decision-making choices that combined to create life and, on a sweltering Saturday night, history.Telling the story of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan’s historic run down the railroad tracks that enshrined the record books requires more than rewinding around Churchill Downs. These include deciding not to give up during a dinner date more than thirty years ago and searching for…

The Man With DimplesI was 41, single and no longer looking. Rushing back to work from lunch, I was climbing the Metro stairs when a briefcase brushed against my leg. A tall man in a Barbour jacket excused himself — a rarity in Paris — and smiled, revealing his dimples. We entered the same Metro car, and five stops later, both exited. “Madame, if you do not stop following me, I will call the police,” he said, as we waited to cross the street. His dimples reappeared, and soon after, I was no longer single. — Rebecca Gaghen VeronLoving a…