Author: NY TIMES

Digging For TourmalinesPerhaps it is not surprising, but gem- and jewelry-themed travel is a trend especially relevant to the tastes and inclinations of high-net worth individuals — people with at least $1 million in liquid assets — according to Milton Pedraza, the founder and chief executive of the Luxury Institute, a consultancy specializing in luxury consumer research with offices in New York and Florida.Mr. Pedraza said the sophisticated traveler has “seen it, done it.” So, he said, when someone has the opportunity to access an exclusive experience in a far-flung part of the world, “it makes your life more unique,”…

Narendra Modi has big money behind him as he appears set to win a third term as India’s prime minister. His party has collected more political cash than the others combined, and the country’s richest business leaders support him.The campaign is fueled partly by a winning story Mr. Modi tells about India’s economy, some of which can be traced to changes made during his decade in office. He has also benefited from geopolitical currents that have made India more attractive to global financiers. Here are five factors that are essential to understanding India’s economy. Elections will start on April 19…

Tesla, which has been accustomed to brisk growth, reported a drop in car sales during the first three months of the year as models from other automakers appeared to gain ground.The company led by Elon Musk said it delivered 387,000 cars worldwide in the first quarter, down 8.5 percent from 423,000 vehicles in the same period last year. The sales figure was significantly below expectations.The reduced sales are the latest sign that Tesla’s dominance of the market for electric cars is slipping. The company’s shares have fallen 30 percent this year because investors are concerned that the company is not…

In the 1960s, he also performed as a folk singer in Greenwich Village coffee houses. He and Richie Havens co-wrote the antiwar song “Handsome Johnny,” which Mr. Havens recorded in 1966 and later sang at Woodstock.His dozens of feature films included “The Landlord” (1970), in which he played a man on the brink of insanity; “Travels With My Aunt” (1972); and “The Deep” (1977), as a Bahamian drug dealer. His later films included “Diggstown” (1992), in which he played a boxer, and the movie version of Sam Shepard’s “Curse of the Starving Class” (1994), in which he played a bar…

Seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen were killed when their convoy came under fire overnight between Monday and Tuesday, according to the aid organization and Palestinian health officials in Gaza.The disaster relief organization, founded by the Spanish chef José Andrés, said members of its staff were hit in an Israeli strike, the Israeli army said the episode was being investigated, without taking responsibility for the strike. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel acknowledged on Tuesday a “tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people”Here’s what we know.The convoy of three vehicles had just left a food warehouse.The World…

Gazing out from his 265-acre farm to the silhouetted Jura mountains in the distance, Jean-Michel Sibelle expounded on the intricate secrets of soil, climate and breeding that have made his chickens — blue feet, white feathers, red combs in the colors of France — the royalty of poultry.The “poulet de Bresse” is no ordinary chicken. It was recognized in 1957 with a designation of origin, similar to that accorded a great Bordeaux. Moving from a diet of meadow bugs and worms to a mash of corn flour and milk in its final sedentary weeks, this revered Gallic bird acquires a…

On Friday morning, at 11:40 on the dot, hundreds of Mets fans flooded into the new team store at Citi Field in Queens. It was the opening day of baseball season, and they were the first ones into the new space, located in the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, the grand entryway to the ballpark.Susan Wiedeman, 65, from Riverdale, N.J., who has attended Mets opening day with her husband for the last 40 years, was giddy with the experience. “We were just about the first ones in,” she said. “That was really cool.”At 10,000 square feet, the store is twice the size…

Microsoft unbundles, again Microsoft is separating Teams, its popular video and chat app, from its Office software suite in markets around the world, broadening a split that began in the European Union last fall.It appears to be the latest effort by the software giant to head off investigations by global antitrust enforcers as regulators examine the power of Big Tech.Rivals have complained about the Teams-Office bundle for years. Microsoft first added the video and document collaboration program to its business software suite in 2017, and saw Teams’s popularity soar after the coronavirus pandemic unleashed a boom in hybrid and remote…

In recent years, podcasts and radio shows devoted to hip-hop culture have risen in prominence, particularly those which lean into interviews and commentary. Black-led shows have carved out a lucrative industry for their fun, informal insider tone and perspective unavailable on other mass-audience platforms.“You have this space that opens up where all of the journalism is just rampant fandom,” said A.D. Carson, an associate professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia. “Fan service can exist where people who were formerly artists or who have that kind of access might still leverage that access to be able to have something…

Aid groups in Gaza said on Tuesday that they were more concerned than ever about the safety of their staff members there after seven World Central Kitchen workers were killed in an airstrike, saying that the deaths underscored the growing challenges of meeting Palestinians’ basic needs.Humanitarian workers have been killed throughout the war in Gaza. Since the war started, 176 workers for UNRWA, the United Nations body that provides aid to Palestinians, have been killed, including in the line of duty, said Juliette Touma, the agency’s director of communications. Several other aid groups say their staff members have been killed…