Author: NY TIMES

When President Biden said he was “outraged and heartbroken” about the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza, his forceful language raised a natural question: Would this strike, even if a tragic error, lead him to put conditions on the weapons he sends to Israel?So far, the White House has been silent on whether Mr. Biden’s anger is leading to a breaking point with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom every interaction has been tense. The two are scheduled to speak on Thursday, according to a senior Biden administration official. But in public, at least, Mr. Biden…

Muhammad said he had found a better life in Russia. After emigrating from Tajikistan last fall, he began driving delivery vans in Siberia, enrolled his children in a local school, applied for a Russian passport and started planning to buy an apartment with the savings from his much higher salary.The arrest of a group of Tajik citizens accused of carrying out the attack that killed 145 people at a Moscow concert hall last month has upended those plans, filling Muhammad with fear of being swept up in the ensuing crackdown on the Central Asian migrants who prop up Russia’s economy.The…

Sometimes fashion just seems like “Groundhog Day” with better outfits. Designers vanish only to reappear suddenly (looking at you, Alessandro Michele.) Trends sputter out and abruptly are back. Skinny jeans were cool until everyone was wearing oversize drop-crotch khakis — everyone, that is, except that cadre of teen style-setters intent on bringing back 2000s-era jeggings so bad they’re good.Consider, in this vein, the boat shoe, echt signifier of all things preppy. All but defunct as an element of a stylish wardrobe, it has now become a hot item. This is “the year of the boat shoe,’’ says Vogue, which is…

It wasn’t until after college that Kendra Baker began to consider becoming a nun. She had been raised a Roman Catholic, and after her father fell from the roof of their home, suffering life-threatening injuries, her family called a priest to come and pray with them. A few hours later, her father opened his eyes.“He’s relearned to walk, talk, drive — he can eat normally,” Ms. Baker, 25, said. “And doctors had told us to prepare for a funeral.”That wasn’t the only experience that nudged Ms. Baker, who, after graduating from Western Washington University in 2021, moved to Seattle and…

NASA will be renting some cool wheels to drive around the moon.Space agency officials announced on Wednesday that they have hired three companies to come up with preliminary designs for vehicles to take NASA astronauts around the lunar south polar region in the coming years. After the astronauts return to Earth, these vehicles would be able to self-drive around as robotic explorers, similar to NASA’s rovers on Mars.The self-driving capability would also allow the vehicle to meet the next astronaut mission at a different location.“Where it will go, there are no roads,” Jacob Bleacher, the chief exploration scientist at NASA,…

In 1817, James Parkinson expressed a hope about the disease that is named after him. He thought that at some point there would be a discovery and “the progress of the disease may be stopped.”Now, nearly 200 years since Parkinson expressed his hope, and after four decades of unsuccessful clinical trials, a group of French researchers reports the first glimmer of success — a modest slowing of the disease in a one-year study.And the drug they used? A so-called GLP-1 receptor agonist, similar to the wildly popular drugs Ozempic, for diabetes, and Wegovy, for obesity.As many as half a million…

This week’s episode of Popcast (Deluxe), the weekly culture roundup show on YouTube hosted by Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, includes segments on:Beyoncé’s new album, “Cowboy Carter,” and how it faces the genre battle head-on by playing with decades of country and rock signifiers, plus how the conversation about its specifics can obscure the conversation about its qualityThe new album by Future & Metro Boomin, “We Don’t Trust You,” which marks a return to form for Future and includes a verse from Kendrick Lamar (and some lyrics from the host) seemingly aimed at Drake, potentially reigniting a hip-hop cold warSongs…

Democrats in Congress, increasingly concerned about how Israel is waging war in Gaza, are weighing whether to use their leverage over weapons sales to register objections to the civilian death toll and ratchet up pressure on President Biden to place conditions on American backing for the military offensive.While the top Republicans on the congressional foreign affairs committees have signed off on a State Department plan to sell $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel, according to several people familiar with the consultation, the deal remains in limbo. That strongly suggests that the top two Democrats on the Senate…

Leaning for centuries at a worrisome tilt, the Garisenda Tower in Bologna has endured insults and trauma. Dickens called it “sufficiently unsightly,” if extraordinary, while Goethe said it was “a spectacle that disgusts.” And then there were the earthquakes, the Allied bombing raids of the city during World War II and urbanization that doomed other towers.The Garisenda has stood through it all, a beloved symbol of this medieval city, a reminder of a past when important families or communities would erect towers to remind others of their status, and for defense.But now, the Garisenda is in trouble.After sensors attached to…

NBA players are always well-received by fans, whether at home or on the road. It comes with the job.But this season, the sky is getting darker and darker.The recent surge in legalized gambling in every professional league and across college sports has impacted American sports in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. But amid the potential benefits of hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue for the NBA and other leagues, there’s also something new and ominous: the invective directed at players and coaches simply because of fans’ bets.deeperTrotter: Will society be the biggest loser as…