Author: NY TIMES

Has there ever been an artist who owned fashion — and owned as much fashion — as Beyoncé Knowles Carter? Though chances are slim that she will attend the Met Gala on Monday (she hasn’t graced the party since 2016), she is practically a Met Gala unto herself.She wore about 148 looks on her Renaissance world tour alone. More than 60 in her film “Black Is King.” More than a dozen in the under-two-minutes teaser video for “I’m That Girl.” It has been both dazzling and groundbreaking to see her bend fashion to her will, bestowing the glowing crumbs of…

Across Milwaukee, residents can see evidence of federal money from laws passed under the Biden administration, if they know where to look.It shows up in a growing array of solar panels near the airport. Ramshackle houses rehabilitated and sold to first-time buyers. The removal of lead paint and pipes. The demolition of a derelict mall. A crime lab and emergency management center. A clinic and food pantry for people with H.I.V. Funding to help dozens of nonprofits provide services like violence prevention efforts and after-school programs.But of the more than $1 billion for Milwaukee County in the American Rescue Plan…

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Wednesday, his latest stop on a Middle East tour as President Biden tries to stop Israel from invading Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where Palestinians have sought shelter during the war.Mr. Blinken and other top Biden administration aides are also calling for Hamas to agree to a deal to free some hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attacks in exchange for a six-week cease-fire and the release of some Palestinian prisoners. U.S. officials say they hope a temporary cease-fire would lead to a permanent…

My husband meets his two sisters once a month for dinner. I think it’s great they can spend time together. Recently, I mentioned it would be nice if spouses were invited occasionally. Tonight, when my husband came home from a sibling dinner that doubled as a birthday celebration for his sister, he told me that his brother-in-law was there. I was extremely hurt not to be included! (It didn’t help that they met at an expensive restaurant and my husband probably paid.) My husband said I was being ridiculous. He claims he had no idea his brother-in-law would be there.…

A flicker of hope for the weed businessFor years, the dreams of the cannabis industry looked like they might go up in smoke, with the U.S. government classifying marijuana as a drug as dangerous as heroin. But the multibillion-dollar industry now has some hope that could change.Shares in cannabis-related companies are soaring, as the Biden administration weighs easing federal restrictions on marijuana, though not completely decriminalizing it. The bet is that this will give the industry a new lease on life — though it shouldn’t expect big changes immediately.What’s happening: The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had recommended…

For the past month, the Georgian capital of Tbilisi has been engulfed in turmoil. Protesters have taken to the streets of the city night after night. A fistfight broke out between legislators in the country’s Parliament. And over the weekend, there were clashes between police and protesters at a large demonstration in the center of the city.The trigger for the unrest was a decision early this month by the governing party, Georgian Dream, to push a bill through Parliament that the pro-Western opposition believes could be used to crack down on dissent and hamper the country’s efforts to join the…

One recent morning in Phoenix, Juan Soto, a star outfielder for the New York Yankees, was watching TV in the visiting clubhouse when an attendant approached him to ask a favor.In the attendant’s hand were a ballpoint pen and an unblemished baseball, protectively placed in a plastic bag — the telltale ingredients of an autograph request.The attendant wasn’t asking for himself, however. “It’s for Zac Gallen,” he told Mr. Soto, referring to the star pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Mr. Soto barely looked away from the screen as he accepted the ball and pen. By the end of the day,…

Federal Reserve officials will conclude their two-day policy meeting on Wednesday afternoon, and while central bankers are widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, there is an unusual degree of uncertainty about what exactly they will signal about the future.On the one hand, officials could stick with their recent script: Their next policy move is likely to be an interest rate reduction, but incoming inflation and growth data will determine how soon reductions can begin and how extensive they will be.But some economists are wondering if the central bank could pivot away from that message, opening the door to the…

Early in “Civil War,” the writer-director Alex Garland’s dystopian blockbuster, a plucky young journalist named Jessie recalls an event called the Antifa Massacre. You can picture the eeriness that Garland must have assumed that phrase would conjure: familiar words, filtered through his apocalyptic vision, projecting today’s ideological rancor into the future. His film is an invitation to imagine what might emerge from America’s political divisions if we don’t back away from the fractious disaffection that has characterized most of the 21st century. But it is also vague about what the Antifa Massacre, or any of the war, actually is. Who…

A camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt on Sunday.Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel once again pledged on Tuesday to launch a ground invasion into the southern Gazan city of Rafah, a move that could undermine efforts to negotiate a cease-fire agreement after seven months of war in the Palestinian enclave.The United States, Qatar and several countries have been pushing to get a cease-fire deal, with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visiting the region and expectations rising that Hamas and Israel might be edging closer to an agreement.But…