Author: NY TIMES

The swift passage this week of legislation to force the sale or ban of TikTok was the first time a federal tech law has been approved in years.And after a logjam of dozens of bills to rein in the business practices and power of tech giants, it appeared some momentum was building for further regulation.In February, the Senate revived and passed an online child safety bill. This month, lawmakers introduced a sweeping privacy bill with the most bipartisan support yet. Leading lawmakers promise broad legislation to protect users of artificial intelligence.But experts on tech legislation say that the unique speed…

Alicia Keys was only 20 years old when her 2001 single “Fallin’” became an international sensation, topping the Billboard charts, winning multiple Grammys and helping propel her to stardom. Now, more than two decades later, the song appears in the new Broadway musical “Hell’s Kitchen.”The show — which draws from Keys’s life story and her discography — presents ”Fallin’” in a totally new way: as a song of seduction sung by a middle-aged man. Keys joins our theater reporter, Michael Paulson, to discuss the history of “Fallin’” and what she has learned from adapting the song for the stage.Additional readingThe…

A stone pulpit in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., is no place the chef José Andrés expected to be when he created the food charity World Central Kitchen nearly 15 years ago. But on Thursday he stood there, eulogizing seven of the organization’s workers who were killed in the Gaza Strip while trying to carry out a singular mission: bringing food into a region of 2.2 million people facing a growing humanitarian crisis.“They risked everything to feed people they did not know and will never meet,” Mr. Andrés said. “They were the best of humanity.” The seven workers were…

Pulling into the Santa Lucia train station in Venice on Thursday morning, passengers were told via an overhead announcement that they might have to pay a five-euro fee to access the city’s historic center. Failure to pay could result in a fine from “50 to 300 euro,” the announcement said.Outside the station, police officers in riot gear lingered, while a flock of assistants in colorful safety vests stopped arriving travelers to ensure that they had a QR code indicating that they had registered to visit on a city website. Those who hadn’t were directed to a booth where they could.…

The Unstoppables is a series about people whose ambition is undimmed by time. Below, the writer Maxine Hong Kingston explains, in her own words, what continues to motivate her.In a way, I don’t believe in old age. I hear people say, “this hurts” or “that hurts,” and they attribute that pain to old age. It’s not age. Age is just time going by, and that’s very mysterious.I don’t think about vanity much. I look in the mirror, and if I think, “I look young,” that’s good enough.” Instead of wearing lipstick or rouge, I darken my eyebrows. I can express…

For five years, the owner of The National Enquirer has been trying to find a buyer to take it off its hands. But repeated attempts at a sale have turned into a tabloid-worthy saga of its own.The publication is back in the spotlight because of the hush-money trial of former President Donald J. Trump, which centers on the “catch and kill” practices The Enquirer deployed in an attempt to bolster Mr. Trump’s chances in the 2016 election.Mr. Trump, the first former U.S. president to face a criminal prosecution, is on trial in New York, charged with falsifying business records to…

In China, there is no TikTok. There is only Douyin.After President Biden signed a bill on Wednesday forcing Chinese company ByteDance to sell its ownership of TikTok, the United States moved one step closer to an internet without the short video app. The legislation opened the door to a possible ban of the social media platform if TikTok fails to find a U.S. government-approved buyer within a year.Douyin is also owned by ByteDance. It is a staple of the Chinese internet the way TikTok is in the rest of the world. But because it has no presence outside China, Douyin,…

Michael Cuscuna, who brought an artist’s level of devotion and a scientist’s attention to detail to the work of exhuming and producing archival jazz recordings — work that vastly expanded access to the buried treasures of American music’s past — died on Saturday at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 75.The singer and songwriter Billy Vera, a friend of more than 60 years, said the cause was complications of esophageal cancer.Mr. Cuscuna may have been the most prolific archival record producer in history. Starting in an era when midcentury jazz experienced a resurgence of interest, his name showed up…

Sheppie Abramowitz, a consummate political insider who became a powerful ally for refugees around the world, died on April 7 in Washington. She was 88.Her death was confirmed by her son, Michael Abramowitz, who said his mother died at Sibley Memorial Hospital, from an infection and an aortic aneurysm.For more than five decades, Ms. Abramowitz was active in movements to solve refugee crises — in Vietnam, Thailand, Turkey and Kosovo. With a firm, cajoling and unusually effective hand, she used her deep knowledge of government officials, logistics and the struggles of those fleeing war and oppressive governments, to secure real…

Not surprisingly, businesses lined up along the arena railings like fans to get Kaitlyn Clark’s autograph. The former Iowa State star is a transcendent talent who has proven she can not only break ratings records but also draw huge crowds home and away, even pulling in 17,000 viewers at an open practice on Final Four weekend . After she was drafted first overall by the Indiana Fever, her WNBA jerseys sold out within hours and multiple teams have moved upcoming games to larger venues to accommodate the Indiana Fever “Unprecedented demand” for team games.So it makes perfect sense to hire…