Author: NY TIMES

Kimberly Jolasun, a 32-year-old entrepreneur in Atlanta, has never voted for the Republican candidate for the presidency. That may be about to change.Her company, Villie, is an online platform that lets new parents share photos and updates about their babies with friends and relatives and register for gifts like strollers and playpens. Not yet profitable, her company needs financing to grow. But venture capitalists struggle with her untraditional profile, she said. Technology is dominated by white men in places like Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas. She is a Black woman in Georgia.Banks want to charge her interest as high as…

Eun Sung injured her right thumb in a fall in March and needed surgery to fix a torn ligament. But scheduling one has been difficult even though she lives in one of the most developed nations in the world, South Korea.“It was so hard to get an appointment, and I was told the earliest available operation would be next January,” said Ms. Sung, an office worker in Seoul, the capital. The one consolation, she said, was that she did not need surgery urgently.For more than two months, South Korea’s health care system has been in disarray because thousands of doctors…

In central Chile, not far from where the Andes Mountains meet the Pacific Ocean, a vast swath of pristine wilderness is changing hands under the most unusual circumstances.Roberto Hagemann, a Chilean businessman who owns the 325,000-acre property, has agreed to sell the land to his longtime adversaries, a band of upstart environmentalists who spent years thwarting his efforts to develop the property.The price: $63 million.It is a landmark transaction that will preserve some of the most ecologically significant territory in South America. Known as Hacienda Pucheguin, the property is surrounded by national parks and is cut by wild rivers, forests…

“Let’s not make a tennis film.”That was the director Luca Guadagnino’s unconventional approach to “Challengers,” the hit movie starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor as rival tennis aces, locked in a high-stakes love triangle.Guadagnino, the Italian director known for his deft eroticism (“Call Me By Your Name”), didn’t want it to look like tennis usually does, with a static camera positioned behind the player who is serving, or a wide shot of the court. “That kind of televisual stillness — there’s objectivity,” he said, “which is exactly the opposite of what I was going after.”Instead, he wanted the action…

Ben Houchen, a regional mayor in the north of England, faces a close re-election race, partly thanks to the broader troubles of Britain’s Conservative Party. Source link

Something extraordinary is happening to the European economy: Southern nations that nearly broke up the euro currency bloc during the financial crisis in 2012 are growing faster than Germany and other big countries that have long served as the region’s growth engines.The dynamic is bolstering the economic health of the region and keeping the eurozone from slipping too far. In a reversal of fortunes, the laggards have become leaders. Greece, Spain and Portugal grew in 2023 more than twice as fast as the eurozone average. Italy was not far behind.Just over a decade ago, Southern Europe was the center of…

All of this makes Shout! TV one of the very best streaming values since it doesn’t cost you a single cent — just the time you’ll spend watching ads. Here are a few recommendations:Mystery Science Theater 3000: “The Skydivers”: Shout has been in business for quite some time with the various iterations of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” the uproariously funny cult TV show where an average Joe, marooned in space, watches bad movies with his robot companions while cracking wise. In addition to the original episodes, Shout also streams their “riffed” short films and episodes from “MST” alumni shows “Cinematic…

The recent drought in the Panama Canal was driven not by global warming but by below-normal rainfall linked to the natural climate cycle El Niño, an international team of scientists has concluded.Low reservoir levels have slowed cargo traffic in the canal for most of the past year. Without enough water to raise and lower ships, officials last summer had to slash the number of vessels they allowed through, creating expensive headaches for shipping companies worldwide. Only in recent months have crossings started to pick up again.The area’s water worries could still deepen in the coming decades, the researchers said in…

Automakers in China are building a new generation of bigger, more technologically advanced and competitive electric cars, threatening to leap further ahead of their global rivals as they step up exports around the world.The dozens of car companies operating in China plan to put 71 new battery electric models on sale this year. Many new models have taller hoods for a bolder appearance and more storage space. The cars have bigger tires that improve braking. The seats are thicker and more comfortable. The batteries are ever smaller, more powerful and quicker to recharge.The changes are aimed at making the cars…

‘Boyz N The Hood’ (May 31)Stream it here.John Singleton became the first African American to be nominated for the best director Oscar (and the youngest, beating even Orson Welles by two years) for this, his debut feature. He made it fresh out of USC film school, based on his experiences, and those of his friends, growing up in Los Angeles surrounded by poverty, crime and police brutality. “Boyz” wasn’t just Singleton’s introduction; it was also the breakthrough film for Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube and Morris Chestnut, who starred as the three young friends on very different paths after high…