Author: NY TIMES

This article is part of our Design special section about innovative surfaces in architecture, interiors and products.The stackable, three-legged Stool 60 is one of the Finnish brand Artek’s most recognizable pieces. But in September, the company released a twist on the classic Alvar Aalto design: stools with knotholes, insect trails and more visible wood grain — elements that are usually considered imperfections. Artek calls them “features.”Considering that uniform pieces of light-blonde birch are one of the brand’s signatures, the “wild birch” editions, which in 2023 accounted for 2 percent of Stool 60 sales, seem like an unexpected shift. But according…

A new management team at New York Community Bank is working to reassure investors after the struggling lender announced a $1 billion cash infusion led by the former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. On Thursday, the bank’s beaten-down shares jumped after executives gave investors new information about the state of the company and details about its rescue plan announced the day before.The company’s leaders, including Joseph Otting, the longtime banking executive and close ally of Mr. Mnuchin who this week took over as chief executive, said that the bank’s deposits had fallen over the past month by more than $4 billion,…

“The really striking thing about Musk is the disjuncture between his outsized public persona, and his very, very minimal philanthropic presence,” said Benjamin Soskis, who studies philanthropy at the Urban Institute. Where other billionaires have aimed for a broad impact on society, Mr. Soskis said Mr. Musk’s foundation lacks “any direction or any real focus, outside his business ventures.”Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.A school for his childrenMr. Musk and his younger brother, Kimbal, started the Musk Foundation in 2001, a year before the sale of PayPal, the online payments company he co-founded, to eBay for $1.5…

“There are tales of chivalry, where the heroic knight saves the damsel in distress,” a young woman’s voice intones as “Damsel” begins. “This is not one of them.”Oh, well, thank goodness, I thought, sarcastically and, perhaps, a bit uncharitably. Somewhere in my head I heard Miranda Priestly: Strong female lead? Groundbreaking.I like a scrappy heroine as much as anyone, but leading with that foot — we’re not like the other girls, we’re the cool girls — is starting to feel stale. “Damsel” isn’t bad, but it feels a bit gnawed upon. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (“28 Weeks Later”) from…

On the front line just outside Bakhmut, Ukraine, a 32-year-old commander of a Ukrainian artillery platoon rocked to and fro in the passenger seat of a beat-up Lada, as another soldier navigated the car through a thick forest, sometimes mowing down young trees. When they reached their destination, a small village less than two miles from Russian lines, all that was left were destroyed houses, their shattered roofs visible in the moonlight.The commander, a female soldier who uses the call sign Witch, is a former lawyer who, along with two of her brothers and her mother, joined the military the…

The cardboard cup of mashed potatoes Gustavo Chagas Lopes handed Luke John Robinson III on Oct. 11, 2021, was not meant to be an aphrodisiac. But for Mr. Robinson, something in the way Mr. Lopes, then the manager of the Brooklyn restaurant Sally Roots, had passed them off was spellbinding.“Gustavo is just so striking,” Mr. Robinson said. “He’s such a beautiful, beautiful man that when he reached across the bar to give me my order, I struggled to say, ‘My name is Luke and I’m here for a pickup.’”That struggle was compounded by the reason he had ordered the grown-up…

The European Central Bank on Thursday held interest rates steady for a fourth consecutive meeting, even as policymakers noted the progress that has been made in their battle against high inflation.The deposit rate remained at 4 percent, the highest in the central bank’s two-and-a-half decade history. Officials are weighing how soon they can bring interest rates down but said they needed to see more proof of slowing price growth. For now, strong wage growth was keeping domestic price pressures high, the bank said.Because of the improvement so far in slowing headline inflation, “we are more confident,” Christine Lagarde, the president…

Past and present trauma fuse in Jeff Wadlow’s “Imaginary,” the latest in the Blumhouse catalog of reliably creepy horror movies whose fans typically expect well-executed jump scares, fun plot twists and the occasional rubbery monster. What they probably don’t expect is the sophisticated allegory that “Imaginary” appears to be flirting with — and comes close to pulling off — before losing its nerve.Or maybe it’s my imagination gone supernova alongside that of little Alice (a delightful Pyper Braun) and her stepmother, Jessica (DeWanda Wise), a writer and illustrator of children’s books. After Jessica’s father is settled in a care facility,…

Even with growth faltering in China, Xi Jinping appears imperiously assured that he possesses the right road map to surpass Western rivals.China’s economy has lurched into a slower gear. Its population is shrinking and aging. Its rival, the United States, has built up a lead in artificial intelligence. Mr. Xi’s pronouncement several years ago that the “East is rising and West is declining” — that his country was on the way up while American power shrank — now seems premature, if not outright hubristic.The problems have brought growing talk abroad that China could peak before it fully arrives as a…

Por supuesto, hay amigos, aún vivos, a los que puedo dar más. Pero muchos de ellos están lejos. Además, sé que en parte soy culpable de mi situación. Los últimos años me han vuelto precavido, y quizá incluso un poco frío. Paso demasiado tiempo solo. Me he aislado del mundo. Asustado, he rechazado nuevas oportunidades de amor. Como muchos, durante la pandemia aprendí una peligrosa lección sobre cómo sobrevivir aislado. Puede que nuestros corazones, al intentar protegerse, se hayan hecho más pequeños. Sé que esto es cierto en mi caso. Y sé que me está matando.Al instructor de meditación le…