Author: NY TIMES

When Barak Herscowitz joined TikTok two years ago in the company’s Tel Aviv office, his role was to recruit Israeli government agencies and other public-sector groups to join the video service and take advantage of its popularity. His pitch: TikTok was a powerful communication tool and getting more influential in the country by the day.But Mr. Herscowitz, 38, an Israeli who had worked for the country’s conservative former prime minister, Naftali Bennett, and has at times criticized Palestinians on the social network X, grew disenchanted with the company after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.His frustrations stemmed from…

That its plot makes no sense is not really the problem with “Tommy.” When it first appeared as a concept album, in 1969, it was, after all, billed as a rock opera. And let’s face it, if you’ve ever paid attention to its story unstoned, you’re going to have some questions, just as you might with “The Magic Flute.”Nor can you complain about the rock part of the billing; there’s some pretty magic guitaring going on, and some righteously harmonized vocals.Translations to film and the stage have offered additional pleasures. The 1975 movie gave us Tina Turner in top form…

Israeli troops and Hamas fighters waged deadly battles in and around two of the Gaza Strip’s major hospitals on Thursday as the Israeli government came under growing pressure at home and abroad to moderate its approach to a war that has devastated the enclave.Fighting raged for the 11th day at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in an area Israeli forces first seized in November. The clashes illustrated the difficulty the Israelis are having in keeping control of places they had already taken as Palestinian militants melt away and then return.In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, increasingly unpopular and facing criticism…

An 8-year-old girl was the sole survivor after a bus carrying 46 people on their way to an Easter weekend pilgrimage in South Africa on Thursday plunged 165 feet from a bridge into a ravine and burst into flames, according to a local department of transportation.The bus was traveling from Botswana to Moria, a religious pilgrimage site in South Africa’s northeast, when it careered off a bridge winding through the Mmamatlakala mountain pass after the driver “lost control,” the department said in a statement.Forty-five people, including the driver, were killed.The girl was receiving medical attention at a nearby hospital, the…

Karl Lagerfeld was a mega-collector. Of high-collared white shirts (1,000). Of books (300,000). Of period décor (Art Deco, Memphis Group, 18th-century European). And of homes — at least 20, in Europe and in New York.“He loved buying, redesigning and decorating houses,” said Sébastien Jondeau, the longtime assistant and bodyguard of the fashion designer, who died in 2019 at the age of 85. “It was a true passion.”One of those homes, the Bond-villain-like lair on the Quai Voltaire in Paris that was Mr. Lagerfeld’s last residence — sold at auction at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris on Tuesday…

Concerns about the impact of the Baltimore bridge collapse on auto imports and exports are beginning to ease as car companies turn to other ports along the East Coast.On Thursday, Cox Automotive, a market researcher, said it expected the situation in Baltimore to have no material impact on vehicle sales in the United States.“While Baltimore is the top port for auto shipments, this is not likely to cause or create a sudden new problem in vehicle supply that will materially impact the market,” Jonathan Smoke, Cox’s chief economist, said in a conference call. “The port is heavy for exports and…

In her latest dreamy movie, the Italian director Alice Rohrwacher follows a tomb raider, played by Josh O’Connor, who’s pining for a lost love. Source link

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has warned that if F-16 fighter jets supplied to Ukraine by its Western allies operated from airfields in other countries, the bases would be “legitimate targets” for attack.In a speech to Russian Air Force pilots late Wednesday, however, Mr. Putin rejected suggestions from some Western leaders that Russia is planning to invade NATO countries as “complete nonsense.”The threat that Russia might move against other countries has become one of the main arguments used by the Ukrainian government and its supporters to try to persuade the U.S. to dispatch more military aid to the country.The…

It was never a given that Jenna Lyons would return for a second season of “Real Housewives of New York City.”After the first season aired, Ms. Lyons said on “The Tonight Show” that she “genuinely” didn’t know if she would come back. And though she had earned favor among fans — some had taken to inserting a swear word between her first and last name, like a rallying cry — she declined to appear at the popular fan event BravoCon, citing a conflict.From the start, she wasn’t quite Bravo’s type: a discerning former fashion executive dropped into a fishbowl of…

Linda Bean, an heir to the Maine outdoor retailer L.L. Bean who created a company of her own to market other famous Maine products, chiefly lobster rolls and seaside rentals, and who was an outspoken conservative in a state with a tradition of favoring political independents, died on Saturday. She was 82.An obituary, which did not cite a cause or say where she died, was posted by the funeral home handling her burial.Ms. Bean was a granddaughter of Leon Leonwood Bean, the purveyor of rubber-soled duck boots and plaid flannel shirts that crossed over from hunters to preppies, fueling the…