Author: NY TIMES

Gaetano Pesce, who for more than 60 years created eccentrically shaped, brightly colored furniture, art objects and, occasionally, buildings, remaining the enfant terrible of the design world even as he became its grand old man, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 84.The death, at a hospital, was caused by a stroke, his daughter Milena Pesce said.Mr. Pesce, who was born in Italy but spent much of his life in New York City, may be best known for his translucent, brilliantly colored objects, including bowls, vases and trays, which he made by pouring resin into molds, then adding dyes that…

In a TV commercial, Sister Monica Clare, a nun in northern New Jersey, walks through a church that’s bathed in sunlight and sits in a pew, crossing herself. Her message: TikTok is a force for good.“Because of TikTok, I’ve created a community where people can feel safe asking questions about spirituality,” she says in the advertisement.Sister Monica Clare is one of several fans of TikTok — along with drawling ranchers, a Navy veteran known as Patriotic Kenny and entrepreneurs — whom the company is highlighting in commercials as it faces intense scrutiny in Washington.“TikTok definitely has a branding issue in…

Ford Motor on Thursday delayed the production of at least two new electric cars and said it would pivot to making more hybrids. Its decision was the latest sign that large automakers have been forced to rethink their strategy for electric vehicles because sales for those models are slowing.The shift by Ford and other companies like General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, which have also pushed back their electric car plans, has been prompted largely by the difficulty these companies have had in making and selling enough electric cars and doing so profitably.Sales of such vehicles are still growing but the pace…

The federal government is required to “expeditiously” house migrant children who cross into the United States unlawfully, rather than allow them to remain in unsafe open-air sites along the border, a Federal District Court judge ruled Wednesday night.The decision, handed down by Judge Dolly M. Gee of the United States District Court of Central California, sided mostly with the lawyers representing the children in a class-action lawsuit. It established that minors at the sites were in legal custody of the Department of Homeland Security and thus were entitled to certain rights and protections, such as a safe and sanitary environment,…

“My name is Rudy Mancuso. I’m the director, composer, and co-writer of ‘Música.’” [PIANO MUSIC PLAYING] “This sequence that I call the theatrical montage is almost a five-minute oner. So the whole thing is shot in one take. I guess it was always my unorthodox approach to your typical second or third act montage. As you see here, it all starts in Rudy’s bedroom. And Rudy, who’s played by me, based on me with this condition called synesthesia, where he has a unique relationship to sound. And music and sounds turn into rhythm. And the reveal is that we’re on…

The British government is coming under escalating pressure to suspend arms sales to Israel after the strike on a convoy in Gaza that killed seven aid workers, including three Britons. More than 600 lawyers and retired judges sent a letter to the government, arguing that the sales violated international law.Citing the risk of famine among Palestinians, a potential Israeli military assault on the city of Rafah and a finding of the U.N.’s top court that there was a “plausible risk” of genocide in Gaza, the lawyers urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to “suspend the provision of weapons and weapons systems”…

On Thursday, astronomers who are conducting what they describe as the biggest and most precise survey yet of the history of the universe announced that they might have discovered a major flaw in their understanding of dark energy, the mysterious force that is speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.Dark energy was assumed to be a constant force in the universe, both currently and throughout cosmic history. But the new data suggest that it may be more changeable, growing stronger or weaker over time, reversing or even fading away.“As Biden would say, it’s a B.F.D.,” said Adam Riess, an astronomer…

AUSTIN, Texas — On a recent Wednesday, world champion sprinter and Olympic medalist Gabrielle Thomas was busy fielding emails about a meeting she had to attend at a volunteer health clinic while preparing for a Ad voiceover with blue font. chip sponsor and figuring out the logistics of an upcoming weight training session, when she had an epiphany.”I really didn’t realize what my life was like now,” she said, looking up from her phone while sipping coffee at a cafe.She wasn’t kidding.Almost all of Thomas’ achievements in track and field, including two medals at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, a silver…

The future looked bright despite the rain on Tuesday evening at the Museum of Modern Art, where guests — including Elon Musk and Seth Meyers — gathered for a screening of a new PBS documentary series, “A Brief History of the Future.”Mr. Musk, flanked by security, came with a preschooler in tow, his 3-year-old son, X Æ A-12, who is better known simply as X. (Same as Mr. Musk’s social media platform.)X’s mother, the musician Grimes, is featured in the documentary series, which follows innovators who are trying to tackle some the world’s most pressing problems, like climate change and…

When it came to wildfires, 2021 was an increasingly common kind of year in Montana: Flames consumed 747,000 acres, an area nearly the size of Long Island.About 2,700 of those acres were on Don Harland’s Sheep Creek Ranch, where ever-drier summers have turned lodgepole pines into matchsticks ready to ignite. After the smoke cleared, Mr. Harland found creeks running black with soot and the ground hardening more with every day that passed.A former timber industry executive, Mr. Harland knew the forest wouldn’t grow back on its own. The land is high and dry, the ground rocky and inhospitable — not…