Author: NY TIMES

This article is part of our Design special report previewing Milan Design Week.Three things Phil America and Jenny D. Pham never imagined they’d be doing as recently as five years ago: running a design company together, living together and living in Milan.In the prepandemic days of 2019, the (aptly) American-born Mr. America, now 41, and the German-born but (mostly) American-raised Ms. Pham, 43, were flitting between Europe, Asia and the United States, he pursuing a career as an artist and she as a communications director for international fashion brands.“We were friends for years,” said Mr. America — though they saw…

This article is part of our Design special report previewing Milan Design Week.Designers are by definition manipulators — of materials, senses and expectations. There is nothing they like better than making the beholders of their creations stop in their tracks. At the Salone del Mobile, in a show devoted to emerging designers that runs through Sunday, visitors may be arrested by a cushion that resembles a big colorful, softball and sits like an egg in a nest of polished wood sticks. What is it? An ottoman, naturally. A few other eye catchers and head scratchers are presented below.Another Approach to…

An uneasy calm Investors are breathing a sigh of relief on Monday. Global stocks are in the green and oil prices have retreated from last week’s gains after Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel was mostly neutralized in the skies. But the calm could be short lived, as world leaders and markets focus on Israel’s response.Military clashes don’t always sink the markets, as was the case when Hamas attacked Israel in October and Israel retaliated. But many on Wall Street fear the economic impact from hostilities in the Middle East and in Ukraine. “We may be entering one…

The 75-foot-long brontosaurus at the newly reopened Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, Conn., is the same dinosaur that the natural history museum has had on display since 1931. Yet it looks different. A fresh pose. New front ribs. The head is repositioned at a more inquisitive angle. The museum’s four-year renovation not only refreshed the nearly 100-year-old building, but also included an overhaul of the fossil mounts that research has proved to be inaccurate.The Peabody’s update — 15,000 square feet were added, creating more spacious galleries and dynamic displays — was a long time coming. Like other Yale museums,…

Israel’s allies on Monday were strongly urging it not to retaliate against Iran for the missile and drone attack over the weekend, calling instead for a de-escalation of the tensions that have gripped the Middle East.The Iranian aerial assault — itself a retaliation for a strike that killed Iranian commanders in Syria — was the first time that Tehran had launched open attacks against Israel from its own soil. As some far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government called for a strong response, the United States, the Group of 7 nations, the European Union and the U.N. secretary general…

Within moments of Israel and its allies shooting down a fusillade of Iranian missiles and drones this weekend, many began wondering what the latest exchange between Israel and Iran would mean for the war in the Gaza Strip.The Iranian attack was retaliation for what was widely believed to be an Israeli strike this month on an embassy building in Damascus that killed seven Iranian officials, including three top commanders in Iran’s armed forces. But it occurred against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, where Israel is battling Hamas, a militant group funded and armed by Iran.Israeli military analysts were…

This article is part of our Design special report previewing Milan Design Week.Milan Design Week, which runs through Sunday, allows companies, collectives or designers to express a unified point of view that transcends the attractions of any single product. All the hand-carved furnishings shown by Zanat, a company in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, reflect a dedication to craft that the owners inherited from generations of woodworking family members, though different international designers contributed to the group. This is just one of many examples found through the festival of collections augmenting the messages of their parts.A Global Get-TogetherZanat, a Bosnian…

Oil markets shrugged off the growing tensions in the Middle East, after Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones against Israel over the weekend. On Monday morning, prices for Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, fell by about 1 percent to $89.49 a barrel.So far, there has been relief that the much-anticipated attack did little damage and had no effect on supplies. Oil prices had already increased substantially in the days before the assault, rising above the symbolic $90 a barrel level last week.There is a sense in the market that prices are higher than would be justified based…

A Chinese company targeted by members of Congress over potential ties to the Chinese government makes blockbuster drugs for the American market that have been hailed as advances in the treatment of cancers, obesity and debilitating illnesses like cystic fibrosis.WuXi AppTec is one of several companies that lawmakers have identified as potential threats to the security of individual Americans’ genetic information and U.S. intellectual property. A Senate committee approved a bill in March that aides say is intended to push U.S. companies away from doing business with them.But lawmakers discussing the bill in the Senate and the House have said…

For Pelt, that camaraderie was key. At the outset of the “Griot” project, he said, it was clear “what was needed to really do something like that was a significant level of trust from musician to musician,” something he had built up across his 20 years on the scene, working with esteemed veterans such as Cedar Walton, Louis Hayes and James Moody, and consistently leading his own bands. (His latest album, “Tomorrow’s Another Day,” came out in March.)When Pelt selects his subjects, he makes a point of reserving space for “older Black musicians that had not had a lot of…