Author: NY TIMES

It started with a western-style Grammys outfit, complete with a cream-colored cowboy hat, studded string tie and matching Louis Vuitton jacket and skirt.After a year and a half of Beyoncé’s “Renaissance,” the lauded dance music spectacular that included a world tour and a concert film, the awards show outfit signaled to fans that a new era was beginning. From the start, Beyoncé had described “Renaissance” as the first part of a three-act project, and fans wondered if the second act was on its way.One week later, the pop star made herself abundantly clear, this time in a Verizon ad that…

The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk, blamed Israel on Tuesday for what he said was the entirely preventable catastrophe of starvation and famine unfolding in Gaza, urging international pressure on the country to allow for the unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid.International alarm has been growing over the hunger crisis in Gaza, with food experts predicting an imminent famine in the north of the enclave and foreign leaders and diplomats becoming increasingly blunt in pointing the finger at Israel.“The situation of hunger, starvation and famine is a result of Israel’s extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian…

For many civilians in Gaza, fleeing from Israeli attacks has become a grim cycle. Israeli evacuation orders have prompted more than a million people to move from one destination to another since October, each time packing belongings and seeking transport — by vehicle, cart or foot — to escape airstrikes and ground fighting between Israel and Hamas.The latest example is Rafah in southern Gaza, a city swollen to more than 1.4 million people by forced displacement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Tuesday that his military would invade the city to root out Hamas but that it would…

‘Another Attempt to Make Life Better’I lifted tiers of tulle off the dressing room carpet and sighed heavily. “Every layer must be hemmed,” I said. “Can you fix it by prom, Mom?” she pleaded softly. I winced. For 20 months, I’d watched our three children shoulder disappointments since toxic mold invaded our home and we were forced to move into trailers in our backyard. Another deep breath. Another attempt to make life better. We bought the dress. I grabbed shears, then trimmed an even strip. Finding forgiveness in her smile, I hoped this memory would eclipse the others. — Carol…

Are investors buying Nvidia’s latest A.I. vision? Nvidia’s stock has soared more than fivefold since ChatGPT debuted in November 2022, a rally that has vaulted the chipmaker into the trillion-dollar market cap club on the back of investor fervor for artificial intelligence — and the high-end processors that power these models.But shares in Nvidia are down in premarket trading on Tuesday after investors gave the first day of the company’s annual developer conference (known as “A.I. Woodstock”) a tough grade. That’s even after the semiconductor company introduced its latest chip, which is capable of running increasingly complex computing models.Big money…

Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab, is leaving the start-up he was running to lead Microsoft’s consumer A.I. business, in another sign of Microsoft’s aggressive plans for the technology.Mr. Suleyman will report directly to Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, the company said on Tuesday.Mr. Suleyman, whose start-up, Inflection AI, raised $1.5 billion in funding, will be responsible for expanding a consumer A.I. business, including Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot, Bing search engine and Edge internet browser.One of his Inflection AI co-founders, Karén Simonyan, a leading researcher who came from DeepMind as well, will also join Microsoft, as will…

“The encounter with Weill’s music, which I had never heard before because it was not allowed to be played in the Third Reich, was absolutely overwhelming for me because it opened up a tonal but completely new sound world,” he said in a 2018 interview for his former secondary school’s annual publication.At 10, he also began composing short works for piano. Shortly after, he accompanied his mother’s vocal students at concerts.In 1955, after graduating high school, he worked at the newly founded opera studio of the Städtische Oper Berlin, now the Deutsche Oper, while taking composition and piano classes at…

The Al Jazeera news network said that one of its journalists had been detained for 12 hours. It said the journalist, Ismail al-Ghoul, had been severely beaten. Israel’s military has not responded to the allegations, which drew outrage from the Committee to Protect Journalists.The Gazan Health Ministry condemned the raid as a “crime against health institutions,” and humanitarian organizations expressed alarm over the situation at the complex. The hospital, along with the surrounding area, had been sheltering 30,000 patients, medical workers and displaced civilians.“Hospitals should never be battlegrounds,” the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said…

On a cold January afternoon in Roscrea, a market town of around 5,500 people in rural Ireland, news began to spread that the town’s only remaining hotel would close temporarily — to provide housing for 160 asylum seekers.Almost immediately, speculation and anger began to swirl online.Posts to a local Facebook group blamed the closure on the government and on “non-nationals” moving in. Someone called for people to gather outside the hotel, Racket Hall, to demand answers.That night, dozens of people showed up for an improvised protest that has divided the town and become a monthslong symbol of growing anti-immigration sentiment…

At the recent fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris, the many wet waves, curly mullets and braids of all sizes in the crowds seemed to be styled with a shared philosophy: Keep it tight at the top.Hair, no matter the length or the flow, was for the most part arranged to avoid obscuring faces. Curls and longer cuts were often pulled behind ears, and some people slicked back their hair or styled their bangs to keep them from hiding eyes. Lots of those bangs were sharp and angular — especially among devotees of Japanese fashion — while…