Author: NY TIMES

This article is part of our Design special report previewing Milan Design Week.In this city of 1.35 million, a particular ritual happens in the weeks leading up to the Salone del Mobile. Ads start popping up on Facebook and Instagram offering private rooms and entire apartments for a few hundred euros a night. Then, just before the doors open at the Fiera Milano — the exhibition center on the outskirts of Milan — residents pack up and move out of their homes, making way for the more than 300,000 fairgoers who descend on the city each April.“We were fascinated by…

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Until last year, the Watches and Wonders Geneva watch fair was closed to the public.Brands, retailers, media and some V.V.I.P. s were granted entry, but regular watch buyers? Would-be watch enthusiasts? It seemed like Switzerland’s reputation for behind-closed-doors dealings was dictating watch show policy, too.But that all changed last year when a new organizing committee decided to sell tickets to the public for the event’s weekend days, an arrangement that was extended to three days this year.Today is the last of those — and the show’s final day — but it may not be the quietest. Even at 70 Swiss…

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The European Central Bank gave its clearest signal yet on Thursday that it might lower interest rates at its next policy meeting, in June.The indication that European policymakers would push ahead with rate cuts in the next few months as inflation slows and the region’s economy languishes opens up a divergence with the United States, where price pressures are still relatively hot.The E.C.B., which sets interest rates for the 20 countries that use the euro, held rates steady, keeping the deposit rate at 4 percent, the highest in its history. It was the fifth consecutive decision to leave rates untouched.…

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Ned Benson, who wrote and directed “The Greatest Hits,” has explored this territory before. His previous work, “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” was a trilogy, made up of two films that explored a couple’s grief-stricken, tumultuous relationship from each of their individual perspectives, and a third that combined them. (As the title suggests, music was part of the story, too.) That film felt personal, and so does this one. It earnestly evokes the way grief mires us in memory, making us feel as if our personal timelines are slip-sliding and looping, eternally arrested in the past. Moving forward seems impossible.But…

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Iran’s unprecedented strikes on Israel this weekend have shaken Israel’s assumptions about its foe, undermining its long-held calculation that Iran would be best deterred by greater Israeli aggression.For years, Israeli officials have argued, both in public and in private, that the harder Iran is hit, the warier it will be about fighting back. Iran’s barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles on Saturday — the first direct attack by Iran on Israel — has overturned that logic.The attack was a response to Israel’s strike earlier this month in Syria that killed seven Iranian military officials there. Analysts said it…

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On a perfect mid-autumn day, the scene at an upscale suburban mall in Sydney, Australia, was as humdrum as it was idyllic: mothers pushing strollers, gaggles of teenagers being young, families whiling away the weekend afternoon.But in a matter of minutes on Saturday, the sprawling, multistory mall instead became a site of panic, chaos and terror. Only a mile from the famous Bondi Beach in eastern Sydney, a knife-wielding attacker stabbed nearly 20 people, including a 9-month-old girl. Six of the victims, including the girl’s mother, died, and about a dozen others were being treated at hospitals. The attacker —…

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Mr. Duckworth joined the family business full time in 1976 at age 21. He later worked with Heuer, then TAG Heuer, in various capacities for a couple of decades. After LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquired TAG Heuer in 1999, he oversaw the parent company’s British watch and jewelry operations until 2001. After a couple of decades working as a consultant to brands including Ulysse Nardin and Hermès, he introduced Duckworth Prestex in 2021.“I eventually thought, ‘I’ve really got to launch my own brand,’” he said. “I’ve always wanted to do that. It was going to be Duckworth. I was…

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Planning an accessible road trip is getting a little easier for people with disabilities. There are more resources created by and for the disability community, and the tourism industry is starting to recognize the value of accessible travel. As a disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent person, I take road trips every year and have learned some tips and tricks along the way.Renting a vehicleMost major car companies offer adaptive driving devices for their vehicles at no additional cost. Enterprise, for example, offers hand controls, left foot accelerators, pedal extenders and spinner knobs to facilitate steering. Budget can provide hand controls, spinner…

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Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday after Iran’s overnight attack on Israel that the House would vote in the coming days on aid for Israel, and he suggested that aid for Ukraine could be included in the legislation.“House Republicans and the Republican Party understand the necessity of standing with Israel,” Mr. Johnson said on Fox News, noting that he had previously advanced two aid bills to help the U.S. ally. “We’re going to try again this week, and the details of that package are being put together. Right now, we’re looking at the options and all these supplemental issues.”U.S. funding…

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