Author: NY TIMES

One of Amit P. Mehta’s first cases after becoming a federal judge in late 2014 proved to be a crash course in antitrust.Sysco, the nation’s largest distributor of food to restaurants and cafeterias, was trying to buy the rival US Foods, and the Federal Trade Commission had sued to block the $3.5 billion deal, arguing that it would stifle competition.Judge Mehta told lawyers on both sides that he would need help educating himself. Over the next few months, he was a tireless and bright student, according to lawyers for the government and Sysco, absorbing the details of antitrust law and…

Robert B. Oxnam, an eminent China scholar who learned through psychotherapy that his years of erratic behavior could be explained by the torment of having multiple personalities, died on April 18 at his home in Greenport, N.Y., on the North Fork of Long Island. He was 81.His wife, Vishakha Desai, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.In the 1ate 1980s, Dr. Oxnam was president of the Asia Society, a television commentator and an accomplished sailor. But his psyche was exceedingly frail. He had myriad problems, including intermittent rages, bulimia, memory blackouts and depression, but it was for excessive drinking…

The conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen tends to get noticed for his ambitious, even outlandish projects.Perfume cannons puffing out scent alongside the music. A rare performance of one of the piano’s most gargantuan concertos. Contemporary opera in the concert hall. A roboticist being included among his artistic collaborators. Ample helpings of his own works. (Salonen is the rare maestro who is also a successful composer.)But once all the perfume has dissipated, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Salonen, who led the New York Philharmonic on Wednesday at David Geffen Hall, is, at core, simply an excellent conductor.The Philharmonic program was unusual for him…

Rebuilding all the homes destroyed by Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip could take until the next century if the pace of reconstruction were to match what it was after wars there in 2014 and 2021, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday.Citing data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the U.N. report said that as of April 15, some 370,000 homes in Gaza had been damaged, 79,000 of which have been destroyed. If those destroyed homes were rebuilt at the same pace as they were after the two previous wars — an average of 992…

Security forces clashed with protesters in Georgia’s capital on Wednesday night after the Eastern European nation’s Parliament advanced controversial new legislation that has ignited weeks of demonstrations.Since the governing party, Georgian Dream, pushed a bill through Parliament early last month that the pro-Western opposition believes could be used to crack down on dissent and hamper the country’s efforts to join the European Union, protesters have taken to the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, night after night.Their numbers swelled on Wednesday after Parliament approved the bill in the second of three required votes.The draft law would require nongovernmental groups and media…

They waltzed down the steps of Central Park’s Vanderbilt Gate on Fifth Avenue on Wednesday morning like Marilyn Monroe in her bejeweled performance of the song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”But here, there were many more women, each of them escorted by a waiter in a white coat, seemingly floating down the staircase and into the Conservatory Garden. And instead of diamonds, they wore hats or fascinators or headbands made of feathers, Legos and artificial flowers. One was even fashioned as a swan.The procession that entered the 42nd annual Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon at the Conservatory Garden —…

As I exited Harry Reid International Airport on a bright March afternoon, my hand flew up to protect my eyes, which had grown accustomed to the dull light of a long, gray Tennessee winter. I’d headed west for the sun, but even more so for the night sky, so I was hoping for clear weather ahead. I climbed aboard a shuttle bus that would take me two hours east to Utah, where I planned to spend a starry night at Under Canvas Lake Powell-Grand Staircase.The glamping resort, one of 12 Under Canvas sites, is anchored on a canyon rim plateau…

Difficulties have been piling up for Apple. In recent months, it has been sued by the Justice Department, fined by European regulators and challenged by the resurgence of a Chinese smartphone competitor.On Thursday, the company added to its list of problems, reporting that its business was in a slump.Apple said sales fell 4 percent to $90.8 billion for the three months that ended in March. Revenue from iPhones, iPads and wearables like the Apple Watch declined from the same quarter last year, while sales of software and services rose. Profit fell 2 percent to $23.64 billion, Apple’s first quarterly decline…

Prairie voles are stocky rodents and Olympian tunnellers that surface in grassy areas to feast on grass, roots and seeds with their chisel-shaped teeth, sprouting migraines in farmers and gardeners.But to Larry Young, they were the secret to understanding romance and love.Professor Young, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta, used prairie voles in a series of experiments that revealed the chemical process for the pirouette of heart-fluttering emotions that poets have tried to put into words for centuries.He died on March 21 in Tsukuba, Japan, where he was helping to organize a scientific conference. He was 56. The cause…

Frank Wakefield, an innovative bluegrass mandolinist whose sweeping musicality led to collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and Jerry Garcia, and whose unique voicings and technique expanded the parameters of his instrument, died on Friday at his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He was 89.Marsha Sprintz, his companion of 47 years, said the cause was complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.In a career that spanned seven decades, Mr. Wakefield played with a host of bluegrass luminaries, including Jimmy Martin and the Stanley Brothers.He first made his mark in the early 1950s after joining a band led by the singer and…