Author: NY TIMES

As the United States grapples with the upheaval unleashed by the Trump administration, many Chinese people are finding they can relate to what many Americans are going through.They are saying it feels something like the Cultural Revolution, the period known as “the decade of turmoil.” The young aides Elon Musk has sent to dismantle the U.S. government reminded some Chinese of the Red Guards whom Mao Zedong enlisted to destroy the bureaucracy at the peak of the Cultural Revolution. Upon hearing President Trump’s musing about serving a third term, they joked that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, must be saying, “I…

Discord, the social chat app popular with the video game community, has met with investment bankers in recent weeks to discuss preparations for an initial public offering as soon as this year, two people familiar with the talks said.An I.P.O. of a well-known technology company could provide a much-needed jolt for private companies weighing public listings. Market volatility caused by an uncertain economy, along with strong valuations for privately held companies, has led to a slow start for the I.P.O. market this year.Discord was last valued by private investors in 2021 at roughly $15 billion.The people, who requested anonymity because…

Perhaps no vote was as agonizing for Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican and medical doctor, than his vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump’s health secretary. Mr. Cassidy wondered aloud for days how Mr. Kennedy, the nation’s most vocal and powerful critic of vaccinations, might handle an infectious disease crisis.Now, as a measles outbreak rages in West Texas, Mr. Cassidy has found out. It all comes down, he said, to “the gestalt.”On Monday, days after the Texas outbreak killed an unvaccinated child, Mr. Cassidy, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, was clipping down a Capitol…

“What I’m all about,” he said, “is saving the world from bad sound.”Introduced in 1948, vinyl LPs seemed destined for extinction by the early 2000s, if not before, as the music industry went digital. But over the last decade or so, the format has been reborn, embraced by fans as a physical totem in an age of digital ephemera, and by increasing ranks of analog loyalists who swear by its sound. Today, the symbol of the vinyl craze may be a rainbow of collectible LPs by pop stars like Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish, which young fans snap up by…

In the Syrian capital, Damascus, the country’s new leader has hosted a national unity conference and welcomed foreign dignitaries as crowds gather at cafes, speaking out freely for the first time in decades.But 400 miles away in northeastern Syria, a region beyond the control of the Damascus government, battles that have been going on for years are still raging. Drones buzz overhead day and night while airstrikes and artillery fire have forced thousands to flee their homes.The fight there pits two opposing militias against each other — the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the United States, and a predominantly…

When Samaiya Mushtaq was growing up, she imagined marrying a kind Muslim man, and at 21, she did. But while studying to become a psychiatrist in medical school, she realized her husband couldn’t meet her emotional needs — something she deeply craved. Despite the shame she felt, she got a divorce.In this episode, Mushtaq shares the twists and turns of her unexpected second chance at love, where service is at the center. From working in health care during the pandemic to building a family to undertaking harrowing service trips to Gaza, she found what she truly needed in a marriage…

Sabrina Ionescu’s last 12 months are like a movie.Last February, her one-on-one three-point shootout with role model and Golden State Warriors friend Steph Curry ignited the NBA All-Star stage. In June, Sabrina 2 dropped the second edition of her iconic Nike shoes – a hug for men and women. In August, she won the gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. In October, she won the WNBA championship with the New York Liberal Party, a game that included an epic three-pointer in Game 3.Now, she is the team owner. Ionescu is the latest investor in Bay FC, a…

We are not Ukraine.That is the overarching message from officials in the Philippines, who say that they are certain they have the full backing of the United States despite President Trump’s dramatic shifts in foreign policy, including his stunning blowup with Ukraine’s leader. Their confidence, they say, comes from the fact that both Washington and Manila have a common adversary: China.Mr. Trump is embroiled in a trade war with China, while the Philippines has been involved in increasingly tense standoffs with China in the South China Sea over Beijing’s expansive territorial claims. Manila’s biggest deterrent against China is a mutual…

Stocks tumbled on Tuesday as President Trump’s broad tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China reverberated through global markets, intensifying investors’ concerns over the health of the economy.The S&P 500 fell as much as 2 percent, before losses moderated in the afternoon and the day ended down 1.2 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index briefly dropped into what is known as a correction — a drop of 10 percent or more from its recent peak — before investors appeared to “buy the dip,” prompting a modest recovery in afternoon trading.The selling on Tuesday was broad based, with roughly 80 percent of…

In November, Elon Musk asked a federal court to block OpenAI’s plan to transform itself from a nonprofit into a purely for-profit company.On Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco denied Mr. Musk’s request, calling it “extraordinary.” But the court allowed Mr. Musk to proceed with other aspects of a lawsuit he filed last year against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman.Mr. Musk helped create OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015, along with Mr. Altman and others. In 2018, Mr. Musk left the organization after a battle for control of the company. Mr. Altman then attached OpenAI to a…