Author: NY TIMES

There was no shortage of celebrities onstage last weekend at the first installment of this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Southern California, where Doja Cat, Billie Eilish and even Will Smith performed.Ms. Eilish surprised spectators by joining Lana del Rey for the folk-rock singer’s first Coachella set since 2014. Mr. Smith, who started his career as a rapper, also shocked many in the audience by performing a rendition of his song “Men in Black” with dancers dressed as aliens during the reggaeton singer J Balvin’s set.But some of the highest-profile performers at the festival weren’t there to…

Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down traffic Monday morning in cities across the country, part of a global effort to disrupt economies and pressure world leaders to push for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.In California, protesters chained themselves to barrels and blocked lanes on northbound I-880 in Oakland, while another group of demonstrators carrying banners disrupted southbound traffic. On the Golden Gate Bridge, protesters obstructed traffic in both directions, with some carrying a banner that read “Stop the world for Gaza.”The disruptions did not just impact drivers. In Chicago, protesters on I-190 blocked traffic coming into O’Hare International Airport, and passengers…

A government-appointed commission in Germany recommended on Monday that lawmakers legalize abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy, a move that could push the country into a long-avoided debate on an issue that for decades remained in a legal gray zone.Outside of exceptions for medical reasons or because of rape, abortions in Germany are technically illegal. But, in practice, they are broadly permitted in the first 12 weeks if a woman has received mandatory counseling and then waits at least three days to terminate the pregnancy.Abortion rights activists say Germany has grown increasingly out of sync with the rest of…

For those of us who grew up in the shadow of war, ambition was something natural, a vital drive. It was not so much a desire for fame and notoriety but rather an urge for personal fulfillment, a way to assert oneself outside the hardship and to overcome it. My mother and father taught me the value of commitment and hard work to get things done. It is a lesson that has never left me.It took me some time to find my way. First, I studied medicine, then came La Rinascente [an Italian department store, where Armani worked in display]…

Shares of former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company plunged on Monday after the company filed to register the potential sale of tens of millions of additional shares.Trump Media & Technology’s stock fell 18 percent, erasing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company’s market value — and putting a dent in Mr. Trump’s majority stake, worth more than $3 billion. Since a surge in its first days of trading as Trump Media, which lifted the value of the company to about $8 billion at one point last month, the company’s shares have dropped by more than 50 percent.Trump…

Being an influencer can be a lot of work. Instagram thinks A.I. can lend a big hand.Instagram is pitching popular influencers on a program that relies on artificial intelligence to interact with fans, the latest example of how Meta, Instagram’s parent company, is trying to expand the technology across its products.The program, which is in its early stages of testing and known as “Creator A.I.,” would allow influencers to chat with fans through direct messages on the social network and potentially through Instagram comments in the future, according to five people briefed on the company’s plans. The program will essentially…

Dr. David Egilman, a physician and expert witness who, over a 35-year span, gave testimony in some 600 trials involving corporate malfeasance, resulting in billions of dollars in awards for victims and their survivors, died on April 2 at his home in Foxborough, Mass. He was 71.The cause was cardiac arrest, his son Alex said.Many medical experts make a side business in court, offering their informed opinions on the witness stand and helping to validate or undermine plaintiffs’ claims. But few make it a career-long passion in the way Dr. Egilman did. He taught at Brown University and ran a…

En Vogue, “Don’t Let Go (Love)” (1996)Wade told Complex the biggest song of En Vogue’s career was originally meant for Mick Jagger and was turned into a smash for the girl group by the record executive Sylvia Rhone. Ray Murray later said this majestic, lush, tympani-pounding track was a pure Wade invention: Murray was originally writing the beat as a rap song for Cool Breeze to rhyme over, but Wade had the foresight to give it to the R&B trio, resulting in a Grammy-nominated No. 2 hit.Witchdoctor featuring André 3000, “Dez Only 1” (1997)After its huge pop successes, Organized Noize…

“Israel has the apparent legitimacy to attack Iran,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former major general and national security adviser in Israel who is now at the conservative-leaning Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.“The other option is to say, we achieved what we wanted by eliminating the Al Quds Force commanders in Damascus, the Iranian attack failed, so let’s do what we need to do,” he said — which means finishing the campaign against Hamas in Gaza and investing in preparations to take on Hezbollah in Lebanon.“Both are good options,” he said. “Each has pros and cons. It’s a matter of…

The enormous salvo of Iranian weapons fired at Israel this weekend turned the countries’ long-running shadow war into a direct confrontation, raising fears that the countries’ old paradigm of trading carefully measured blows had been replaced by something more overt, violent and risky.But by Monday, Israel had yet to respond to the Iranian assault. Rather than preparing the public for a showdown with its archrival, the government signaled a return to relative normalcy, lifting restrictions on large gatherings and allowing schools to reopen.Some right-wing Israeli politicians, dismayed by the lack of an immediate response, have argued that Israel needs to…