Author: NY TIMES

Fortunes ToldMy wife died in 1991. Her best friend and I grew close in mourning. That blossomed into love. But was it a good match? And so soon, just months later? After a Chinese dinner, we opened our fortune cookies. Hers: “He likes to flirt, but toward you his intentions are honorable.” Mine: “You or a close friend will be married within a year.” Married 32 years now, she struggles with cognition, and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. On a trip before that diagnosis, I stopped alone at a Thai diner. My fortune: “Embrace the change that is coming.” Love…

The battle lines of the next big tax fight were laid out on Tuesday as Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen sparred with Republicans over the Biden administration’s plans to raise taxes on businesses and wealthy Americans.In recent weeks, Republicans have been amplifying their attacks on President Biden’s tax proposals, which have become central to the president’s re-election message. Many provisions in the $1.7 trillion tax cut that Republican lawmakers and former President Donald J. Trump enacted in 2017 are set to expire in 2025, including lower tax rates for individuals as well as many tax breaks for corporations.Lawmakers are girding…

Facing intense legal scrutiny, Mr. Zhao, 47, who goes by the initials CZ, was often dismissive. He described the concerns about Binance as “FUD,” or fear, uncertainty and doubt — shorthand in the crypto world for false rumors intended to hurt a business.In November 2022, Mr. Zhao’s industry power increased after he helped bring down Mr. Bankman-Fried with a series of social media posts that prompted a run on FTX’s accounts. When FTX didn’t have the money to repay its customers, Mr. Zhao briefly agreed to buy the exchange, before pulling out of the deal. Soon Mr. Bankman-Fried was arrested…

The Justice Department plans to forward a recommendation for easing restrictions on marijuana to the White House in what could amount to a major change in federal policy, according to three people familiar with the matter.Even though the move, which if approved would kick off a lengthy rule-making process, does not end the criminalization of the drug, it would be a significant shift in how the government views the safety and use of marijuana for medical purposes.It could also lead to the softening of other laws and regulations that account for the use or possession of cannabis, including sentencing guidelines,…

Dear listeners,A few weeks ago in our Friday feature the Playlist, I recommended a bubbly new single by the pop artist Sabrina Carpenter and made a bold prediction: “Get ready to hear this one everywhere.” Even more quickly than I imagined, the prophecy has come true. Last week, “Espresso” debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Carpenter’s highest charting hit yet. More important, it has taken over the nation’s psyche. You can hardly go anywhere these days without hearing someone quoting the song’s infectious hook “That’s that me espresso” or wondering aloud, “what is a ‘me…

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited a warehouse in Jordan on Tuesday where workers were loading trucks for the first attempt to send medical and food aid overland from Jordan to the Israel-Gaza border crossing of Erez. He praised the start of the new aid corridor and also said a pier being built by the U.S. military to bring aid by sea to coastal Gaza would be operational in about one week.“This is real and important progress, but more still needs to be done,” he said told reporters traveling with him across the Middle East this week. “And in…

A teenager was killed and four others, including two police officers, were hospitalized after a man with a sword went on a stabbing rampage in northeast London early Tuesday morning, the authorities said.A 14-year-old boy died after being taken to a hospital, Stuart Bell, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police, said at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon. (The police initially said the child was 13 before later correcting his age.)Four others were injured, Mr. Bell said, including two police officers. All four remain hospitalized, he said, and some sustained significant injuries.Just before 7 a.m., the police received reports of…

Candace Parker never wanted to cheat in a game.One would expect the same from a player shaped by the legacy of Pat Summitt and the Lady Vols. After 10 surgeries. After her rookie season, she became pregnant and gave birth to her first child, Leila. The offseason was spent playing in Russia, China and Turkey before spending time behind a desk at TNT, NBATV and CBS. Parker’s career spanned 16 seasons, three cities in the WNBA, four years at Tennessee and two Olympics, and it’s safe to say: Parker never cheated in the game. Instead, she almost felt like the…

As a 2023 New Yorker article detailing the carnivore craze pointed out, however, studies of Neanderthals have turned up evidence that their diets included dates, tubers and other leafy foods in addition to meat. According to Herman Pontzer, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University quoted in the article, humans are “opportunistic omnivores” who will “eat whatever’s available, which is almost always a mix of plants and animals (and honey).”The New Yorker also noted a study by the biologists David Raubenheimer and Stephen J. Simpson, who found that protein-loaded diets had a detrimental effect on animals’ life spans. “Our sexy, lean…

More than two years after the Federal Reserve started lifting interest rates to restrain growth and weigh on inflation, businesses continue to hire, consumers continue to spend and policymakers are questioning why their increases haven’t had a more aggressive bite.The answer probably lies in part in a simple reality: High interest rates are not really pinching Americans who own assets like houses and stocks as much as many economists might have expected.Some people clearly are feeling the squeeze of Fed policy. Credit card rates have skyrocketed, and rising delinquencies on auto loans suggest that people with lower incomes are struggling…