Author: NY TIMES

Alexa Valavicius is 28, single and off dating apps since 2021. How come?She quit Hinge and Bumble, the only two platforms she was on, when she realized that getting a good read on people was difficult based on their profiles.“I’m someone who is very attracted to someone’s energy, and it’s very hard to gauge that in an app,” Ms. Valavicius, a seventh-grade teacher who lives in Chicago, said in an interview.Although she has never been in a relationship, she doesn’t believe she’s going to meet the love of her life via a screen: “I feel like my ideal partner is…

The European Union’s upcoming ban on imports linked to deforestation has been hailed as a “gold standard” in climate policy: a meaningful step to protect the world’s forests, which help remove planet-killing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.The law requires traders to trace the origins of a head-spinning variety of products — beef to books, chocolate and charcoal, lipstick and leather. To the European Union, the mandate, set to take effect next year, is a testament to the bloc’s role as a global leader on climate change.The policy, though, has gotten caught in fierce crosscurrents about how to navigate the economic…

What happens next with TikTok?The video social media app isn’t disappearing from smartphones any time soon. The legislative process is still in its early stages after the House’s passage of a bill mandating a sale by the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, or be banned. Next, the bill is heading to a skeptical Senate, after which President Biden would need to sign it into law. Even after that, it might not happen.Here’s what to expect.What happens next in the legislative process?The bill needs to be approved by the Senate, which could also make changes to the text of the legislation.Several senators…

After he was paralyzed by polio at age 6, Paul Alexander was confined for much of his life to a yellow iron lung that kept him alive. He was not expected to survive after that diagnosis, and even when he beat those odds, his life was mostly constrained by a machine in which he could not move.But the toll of living in an iron lung with polio did not stop Mr. Alexander from going to college, getting a law degree and practicing law for more than 30 years. As a boy, he taught himself to breathe for minutes and later…

The year 2026 will mark James Conlon’s 20th anniversary as music director of the Los Angeles Opera. That seemed to him like it would be the right time to step down.“I’ve had 20 years — that’s a good round number,” Conlon, 73, said in a telephone interview. “I want to stop when I’m at my full capacity and I want to be able to go on loving the company the way I do.”His final season, the 2025-26 season, will coincide with the company’s 40th anniversary, and Conlon said that he “wanted to be there to celebrate that with them.”“It will…

Iranians have looked for opportunities in recent months to display defiance against the rules of the clerical government. In Tuesday night’s annual fire festival, many found a chance.Across Iran, thousands of men and women packed the streets as they danced wildly to music and jumped joyfully over large bonfires, according to videos on social media and interviews with Iranians. The police said the crowds were so large in Tehran and other cities that traffic came to a standstill for many hours and commuters had difficulty reaching public transportation, according to Iranian news reports.Dancing, especially for men and women together, is…

President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority intends to appoint Muhammad Mustafa, a close economic adviser, as prime minister in the coming days, according to two Palestinian officials, a European Union diplomat and a fourth person with knowledge of the matter.If Mr. Abbas officially appoints Mr. Mustafa, it would amount to a rejection of international efforts to encourage the octogenarian Palestinian leader to empower an independent prime minister who can revitalize the sclerotic authority, officials and analysts said.While Mr. Abbas was set on appointing Mr. Mustafa, a longtime insider within the authority’s top ranks, he was still holding final consultations…

Three of the biggest names in the quarterback market were taken off the board in the first 24 hours of free agency, with Kirk Cousins, Baker Mayfield and Russell Wilson assessing their market and took their chance.Everyone has different priorities at a unique stage in their career. The veteran trio also helped shape the quarterback market for the remainder of the offseason as they quickly secured their next contracts.Mayfield set off a chain reaction Sunday afternoon when he agreed to a three-year, $100 million contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On Sunday night, Wilson agreed to a one-year deal with…

Outdoor Voices, an athletic apparel company, is closing all its stores on Sunday, according to four employees at four different stores who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the news.In an internal Slack message reviewed by The New York Times, some employees were notified on Wednesday that “Outdoor Voices is embarking on a new chapter as we transition to an exclusively online business.” Products in stores are going to be discounted 50 percent, according to the Slack message.The news came as a surprise, two of the employees said, adding that they were not offered severance.Outdoor Voices,…

The House on Wednesday passed a bill with broad bipartisan support that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner to either sell the hugely popular video app or have it be banned in the United States.The move escalates a showdown between Beijing and Washington over the control of a wide range technologies that could affect national security, free speech and the social media industry.Republican leaders fast-tracked the bill through the House with limited debate, and it passed on a lopsided vote of 352 to 65, reflecting widespread backing for legislation that would take direct aim at China in an election year.The action…