Author: NY TIMES

The federal government is likely to win in its lawsuit against Strategic Financial Solutions, a debt negotiation company covered in a Times investigation last month, according to a magistrate judge’s preliminary injunction granted this week that keeps it from operating.For years, Strategic Financial Solutions collected fees from thousands of low-income clients who enrolled with the company to negotiate down their debts. In January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — along with the attorneys general of New York, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wisconsin — sued Strategic and its operators, including its chief executive, Ryan Sasson, on civil fraud…

The Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov used his acceptance speech for “20 Days in Mariupol,” which won the Oscar for best documentary feature on Sunday, to give an emotional denunciation of the continued invasion of his country by Russian forces.“I’ll be the first director on this stage who will say, ‘I wish I never made this film,’” Chernov said.The harrowing first-person account from Chernov, a video journalist for The Associated Press, captures the first days of the Russian invasion and the devastation and destruction the port city of Mariupol faced. “20 Days in Mariupol” is the first Ukrainian film to win…

Just months ago, Geert Wilders was an anathema to most Dutch political parties.A disruptive and divisive force on the far right for two decades, Mr. Wilders has said he wants to end immigration from Muslim countries, tax head scarves and ban the Quran. He has called Moroccan immigrants “scum.” His Party for Freedom has supported leaving the European Union.But then Mr. Wilders won national elections convincingly in November. Nearly a quarter of Dutch voters chose his party, which won 37 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives, a huge margin by the standards of a fractious party system that…

On a stormy afternoon in Bentonville, Ark., a Walmart regional manager recounted a story about a moment when his humanity came up short.He was 24-year-old store manager anxiously trying to get his workers to set up Halloween merchandise displays. Instead, the workers were gathered around the televisions in the electronics department. It was the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.“Why are we over here not setting up Halloween? Why is it not done yet?” he recalled saying. He didn’t fully understand what was happening until a worker tearfully laid into him, explaining that she had relatives in New York City.“I didn’t…

The 96th Academy Awards bowed on Sunday with a return to tradition: The red carpet was, well, red. A year after Hollywood’s stars made their way across a champagne-colored rug, and several months after work stoppages led by actors’ and writers’ unions came to an end, they were greeted once again by the familiar décor.And judging by the bright smiles captured by our photographer, Sinna Nasseri, who was on hand at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, those in attendance were in the mood to celebrate. The starry arrivals included cast and crew of the year’s most-talked-about films, from “Barbie”…

About 50 people were treated by emergency medical workers on Monday after a Latam Airlines flight bound for Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, experienced what the airline called “strong movement” caused by a “technical problem.”Twelve people, one of whom was in serious condition, were taken to three hospitals, Auckland’s ambulance service said. Latam, a Chilean airline, provided no specifics about the technical problem that it said had caused the disturbance.The plane made a “violent drop” for just a second or two, said Brian Jokat, who was on board Latam Airlines Flight 800. Aircraft tracking information from Flight Aware showed a…

At age 58, Mike Tyson will be getting back in the boxing ring.Mr. Tyson, the former world heavyweight champion, whose career was marred by issues in and out of the ring, will take on the social media influencer turned boxer Jake Paul on July 20 in a match that will be streamed live on Netflix, the company announced on Thursday.The bout, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will be the first fight for Mr. Tyson since 2020, when he and Roy Jones Jr., also a former world boxing champion, fought to a draw in an exhibition match.The event will be…

In one of the most anticipated and surely one of the most exuberant moments of Oscar night, Ryan Gosling took the stage to perform “I’m Just Ken,” the nominated song from “Barbie” by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt.Wearing a sparkling pink suit and a cowboy hat, Gosling started out in the audience serenading his “Barbie” co-star Margot Robbie, who couldn’t contain her giggles. He then took the stage surrounded by an army of besuited Ken dancers, including fellow movie Kens Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa and Scott Evans. Mark Ronson joined him onstage but Slash of Guns N’ Roses…

The jets are ready, and the flight instructors are waiting, at a new training center in Romania that was created to teach Ukraine’s pilots to fly the F-16 warplane. But there’s a catch: The Ukrainian pilots have yet to arrive, despite declarations last summer that the center would play a crucial role in getting them into the air to defend their country from increasingly deadly Russian strikes.It’s still unclear when Ukrainian pilots will begin training at the center, at the Fetesti air base in southeast Romania, which NATO allies also are using to get schooled on the fighter jets. But…

“It’s Never Too Late” is a series that tells the stories of people who decide to pursue their dreams on their own terms.Live music was no more. Patrick Milando could draw no other conclusion. But maybe he could pivot.It was a summer day in 2020, a peak of the coronavirus pandemic, and Mr. Milando, a French horn player, had been driving through a locked-down, emptied-out Times Square. Then 67, he had spent nearly a half-century as a professional musician, from the Metropolitan Opera to over a dozen years with “The Lion King.” Now that musical, along with so much else,…