Author: NY TIMES

Deborah Jennifer Yarchun was shocked when her friend swiped left on Benjamin Ernest Parr.“Why would you do that?” she asked of her friend’s rejection of Mr. Parr on the League, a dating app for ambitious people.She had been drawn to his photo. “He just looked so happy and kind,” Ms. Yarchun said.A few weeks later, Ms. Yarchun came across Mr. Parr on the same app. She quickly swiped right.On Feb. 3, 2018, Ms. Yarchun wore a red turtleneck sweater to their first date, at Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels, a wine bar in SoHo. When she admitted she had been inspired…

Somehow, thousands of pages of sealed court documents relating to the birth of TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, were mistakenly released by a Pennsylvania court. Before they were made secret again, I read them.The documents — emails, chat transcripts and memos — are a fascinating window into ByteDance’s origins. They show that Susquehanna International Group, the trading firm of the Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, played a bigger role in the company than previously known.They also tell a new version of the ByteDance origin story, one with fits and starts on the way to becoming one of the world’s most highly valued start-ups.ByteDance…

Apple said it pulled the Meta-owned apps WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China on Friday on government orders, potentially escalating the war over technology between the United States and China.The House of Representatives was preparing to vote on a bill as soon as this weekend that would force the Chinese internet company ByteDance to sell its popular video app TikTok or have it be banned in the United States. U.S. lawmakers have said TikTok poses a security threat because of its ties to China.Apple said that China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration, ordered the removal of WhatsApp…

Principle II: Make It RepetitiveThis also is a principle in the list of what makes a good streaming movie. It’s hard to avoid distractions: dogs, doorbells, kitchen snacks, Instagram. Plane distractions are different: disruptive neighbors, captains’ rhapsodies regarding altitude, drink carts, general loudness. An obvious and repetitive screenplay is necessary, one that follows the time-honored principles honed by teachers and preachers: Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.This happens a great deal in “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” which was adapted by four screenwriters from the nonfiction book “The…

The president of the European Council announced early Thursday that new European sanctions would be imposed on Iran’s drone and missile programs as punishment for last weekend’s attack on Israel.“It’s a clear signal that we want to send,” the president, Charles Michel, said, emerging after midnight from a meeting of leaders of the European Union’s member states in Brussels. “We need to isolate Iran.”He said more details about the new sanctions would be announced in the coming days. But it was far from clear how new restrictions would curb Iran, which has spent decades finding ways to skirt Western sanctions,…

The world’s biggest election beginsVoting begins today in a multistage election in India in which hundreds of millions of people will cast ballots. The election will determine whether their country’s powerful prime minister, Narendra Modi, will stay in office for a third term.The vote is seen as a referendum on Modi’s economic record and his increasingly centralized and Hindu-first vision of India. The elections run through June 1, and results are expected on June 4.For insight, I spoke to my colleague Mujib Mashal, the South Asia bureau chief.How likely is a victory for Modi?Modi and his coalition, led by the…

El jueves, en el perfil de Instagram de Kim Kardashian, no hubo ninguna mención a O. J. Simpson.A primera hora de la mañana de ese día, ella publicó un video promocionando una sudadera con capucha y unos pantalones cortos de ciclista de Skims, la empresa de ropa que cofundó. Más tarde, después de que la familia Simpson anunciara que O. J. había fallecido de cáncer a los 76 años, Kardashian guardó silencio en las redes sociales.A lo largo de décadas, su familia se había distanciado del hombre que desempeñó un papel importante en apuntalar el apellido Kardashian.El padre de Kim,…

President Biden’s trillion-dollar effort to invigorate American manufacturing and speed a transition to cleaner energy sources is colliding with a surge of cheap exports from China, threatening to wipe out the investment and jobs that are central to Mr. Biden’s economic agenda.Mr. Biden is weighing new measures to protect nascent industries like electric-vehicle production and solar-panel manufacturing from Chinese competition. On Wednesday in Pittsburgh, the president called for higher tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum products and announced a new trade investigation into China’s heavily subsidized shipbuilding industry.“I’m not looking for a fight with China,” Mr. Biden said. “I’m looking…

A cheerfully obvious splatterthon, the new horror movie “Abigail” follows a simple, time-tested recipe that calls for a minimal amount of ingredients. Total time: 109 minutes. Take a mysterious child, one suave fixer and six logic-challenged criminals. Place them in an extra-large pot with a few rats, creaking floorboards and ominous shadows. Stir. Simmer and continue stirring, letting the stew come to a near-boil. After an hour, crank the heat until some of the meat falls off the bone and the whole mix turns deep red. Enjoy!That more or less sums up this movie, a horror flick that’s serviceable enough…

“One miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake could lead to the unthinkable: a full-scale regional conflict that would be devastating for all involved and the rest of the world,” Mr. Guterres told the U.N. Security Council. “The moment of maximum peril must be a time for maximum restraint.”But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will not bow to external pressure. He declared on Wednesday, after meeting with the British and German foreign ministers, that Israel will “do everything necessary to defend itself” and that “we will make our own decisions.”Iranian leaders have vowed in recent days to strike back…