Author: NY TIMES

A United Nations report released on Monday found signs that sexual violence was committed in multiple locations during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel and said that some hostages being held in the Gaza Strip had also been subjected to rape and sexual torture.From late January to early February, the United Nations deployed a team of experts to Israel and the West Bank led by Pramila Patten, the secretary-general’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict.In their report, the experts said they had found “reasonable grounds” to believe that sexual violence occurred during the Hamas-led incursion into Israel, including…

What’s a nice Jewish viscountess to do when she has a title but no money, a party invitation but no clothes and a pair of scissors but no sewing skills?Invent the poodle skirt, of course.That, quite by accident, is what Juli Lynne Charlot did in late 1947, in the process creating a totem of midcentury material culture as evocative as the saddle shoe, the Hula-Hoop and the pink plastic lawn flamingo.Ms. Charlot, a New York native who died at her home in Tepoztlán, Mexico, on Sunday at 101, had been a Hollywood singer before her marriage in the mid-1940s to…

In a top-floor atrium in downtown San Francisco on Thursday evening, tech workers from Google, Slack, X and Mozilla mingled next to a pair of cardboard cutouts of Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya.Dustin Moskovitz, a Facebook founder, chatted as others sipped from cannily named cocktails like the Fremen Mirage (gin, coconut Campari, sweet vermouth) and the Arrakis Palms (vanilla pear purée, gin, Fever-Tree tonic). Tim O’Reilly, a tech industry veteran, dropped by. Alex Stamos, the former head of security at Facebook, was also spotted.“Do you think they’ll let me take home one of the freaky sandworm popcorn buckets?” someone in the…

Four former Twitter executives sued Elon Musk on Monday, accusing the billionaire of withholding severance payments worth $128 million after he fired them from the company during his 2022 takeover.When Mr. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, he fired Parag Agrawal, its chief executive; Ned Segal, its chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, its head of legal and policy; and Sean Edgett, its general counsel. Mr. Musk later renamed the company X.The executives had clauses in their contracts stipulating that they could receive severance if Twitter was no longer a public company — so when Mr. Musk took the company private…

Why It MattersThe medication, called Opill, which was approved for over-the-counter sale by the Food and Drug Administration last year, will be the most effective birth control method available without a prescription, research shows — more effective than condoms, spermicides and other nonprescription methods.Reproductive health experts said that its availability could be especially useful for teenagers, young women, and others who have difficulty dealing with the time, costs or logistical hurdles involved in visiting a doctor to obtain a prescription.Some experts said they thought it might be a particularly good option for teenagers, who might otherwise rely on condoms.Lupe M.…

The nine-woman K-pop group Twice leads the Billboard album chart for the first time this week with its latest mini-LP, thanks to collectible CD and vinyl sales, while Morgan Wallen marks a full year of blockbuster streaming numbers.Twice’s “With You-th,” a six-song EP, opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with the equivalent of 95,000 sales in the United States. The vast majority of its consumption — 90,000 copies — was through purchases of physical copies, which included 14 collectible variations on CD and three vinyl LP versions, according to the tracking service Luminate.“With You-th” also garnered 6.3…

Only a trickle of aid managed on Monday to reach the desperately hungry people of the northern Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face a growing threat of famine after nearly five months of fighting and blockade.Fifteen trucks were dispatched overnight to northern Gaza as part of a relief effort involving Palestinian businessmen, according to COGAT, the Israeli military body that regulates aid to the Palestinians. But at least five of those were looted along the way, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to comment publicly, and so spoke…

As a driver on the glamorous, jet-setting Formula One circuit, naturally the Austrian Gerhard Berger drove some serious iron, even away from the track: a red Ferrari 512M Testarossa.So it was very likely with some dismay that he watched his car unexpectedly drive away with someone else behind the wheel.The theft took place at the 1995 San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy. Berger jumped in the path of the car, according to reports at the time, but had to leap out of the way as it zoomed off.He then gamely gave chase in a friend’s Volkswagen Golf, which went…

Stay up to date with all the breaking Formula 1 news. Register here Get the Prime Tire newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday and Friday.A rift within Red Bull appears to be intensifying after Max Verstappen’s father Jos warned that the team is “in danger of splitting apart” if Christian Horner remains in charge amid the ongoing controversy surrounding team principal.Horner remains in the spotlight to start the new Formula One season after a tumultuous few days in Bahrain. Despite Verstappen’s stellar performance to claim his eighth consecutive grand prix win, beating teammate Sergio Perez by more than 20 seconds,…

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.The past month has been a whirlwind for luxury brands, models and fashion fans as designers have promoted their visions at Fashion Weeks in New York, London, Milan and now Paris. The hundreds of shows have been no less of a marathon for Vanessa Friedman, the chief fashion critic for The New York Times. (She says chocolate, comfortable shoes and her colleagues on The New York Times’s Styles desk help.)It’s a marathon, sure, but a whole lot of fun too. “Going…