Author: NY TIMES

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was heading from Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, to Beijing, when it deviated from its scheduled path, turning west across the Malay Peninsula.The plane, a Boeing 777 carrying 239 people from 15 countries, is believed to have veered off course and flown south for several hours after radar contact was lost. Some officials believe it may have crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean after running out of fuel, but expansive search efforts over years have returned no answers, no victims, and no plane.The reason the plane went off course and its…

The start was typical: Oper Frankfurt in Germany asked John Cage to write an opera.But the premiere, in 1987, was unlike anything in opera up to that point. Cage, an American maverick whose philosophical, socially conscious works at the time were based on chance, mapped out an elaborate scheme for a show that would bring the entirety of European opera onto the same stage — at the same time.It was called “Europeras 1 & 2,” an enormous undertaking of controlled chaos, engineered with an eye toward history and populist reclamation, hence the title that implies both “Euro operas” and “your…

Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, declined a White House invitation to attend President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday, her office said, citing a scheduling conflict.“Due to scheduled events, including a visit of children from an orphanage to Kyiv, which was planned in advance, the first lady will unfortunately not be able to attend the event,” Tetiana Haiduchenko, Ms. Zelenska’s press secretary, said on Wednesday.Yulia Navalnaya — the widow of the Russian opposition leader Alexei A. Navalny, who died in a Russian prison last month — was also invited to the address but is unable to attend, the…

As Jason Kelce strode to a dais on Monday to announce his retirement from the N.F.L. after 13 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, he appeared to be playing the role of traditional masculinity to perfection.His face framed by his familiar Bunyan-esque beard, Mr. Kelce wore a cutoff T-shirt, sandals and a gold Rolex. Taking a seat behind a microphone, he thanked everyone for coming. And then he began to cry.“Oh, man,” he said through tears. “This is going to be long.”Sure enough, over the next 40 minutes, Mr. Kelce labored with his emotions as he choked out lines from his…

Amid lackluster prospects for economic growth, the British government announced it would cut taxes for workers ahead of a general election this year.Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s top financial official, told lawmakers on Wednesday that he would cut National Insurance, a payroll tax paid by workers and employers that funds state pensions and some benefits, by two percentage points. It would take the rate for about 27 million employees down to 8 percent, and follows a two percentage point cut announced less than four months ago. Together, the cuts would save the average employee about 900 pounds ($1,145) a year, Mr. Hunt…

The specter of lawsuits like that one, which successfully halted distribution of the film, have helped fuel the now common practice in Hollywood of acquiring “life rights,” said Jorge L. Contreras, a transactional law scholar and one of the article’s authors. With such deals, Contreras said, there is no actual legal guarantee of exclusive access to someone’s story, but the agreements do serve to prevent defamation lawsuits over fictionalized accounts and stave off competition from other filmmakers.For “Maestro,” the biopic about Leonard Bernstein’s career and marriage that received seven Oscar nominations, there was something tangible at stake when the movie’s…

President Biden said Tuesday that talks on a possible six-week cease-fire in Gaza are “in the hands of Hamas right now.” He spoke just before a Hamas leader in Lebanon appeared to reject a proposed deal the United States is backing, insisting that Israeli hostages would be released only after a cease-fire was in place and Israeli forces have withdrawn.Mr. Biden said that the Israelis had “been cooperating” in the indirect negotiations, which are being mediated by Qatar and Egypt, and that “a rational offer” had been made.“We will know in a couple of days what’s going to happen,” Mr.…

Venezuelan officials announced on Tuesday that national elections that many had hoped would forge a path toward democracy will be held on July 28.But the decision on a date comes a month after the country’s highest court barred the leading opposition candidate from the ballot, leading many to question how free and fair the summer election would be.Still, the announcement from the government of President Nicolás Maduro is at least a partial fulfillment of a commitment to the United States to hold elections this year in exchange for a lifting of crippling economic sanctions.In October, Mr. Maduro signed an accord…

Before Celeste Ng became a best-selling author, she had a side hustle selling miniatures on eBay — dollhouse-size recreations of food were her specialty. Even after the publication of “Little Fires Everywhere,” “Everything I Never Told You,” and, most recently, “Our Missing Hearts,” Celeste still makes tiny things — now, as a hobby. She’s come to realize the parallels between making small things and writing: Both give her a chance to look closely at the world.Today, Celeste kicks off our special podcast series, which celebrates 20 years of the Modern Love column, by reading Betsey MacWhinney’s essay “Bringing a Daughter…

Millions of Americans could soon see lower credit card bills after a federal rule that caps late fees at $8 a month was finalized on Tuesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which estimates that the change will save households $10 billion a year.Late fees have become a major profit source for credit card issuers, generating more than $14 billion in 2022, according to bureau data. A 2010 rule imposed by the Federal Reserve aimed to cap the charges, but allowed adjustments for inflation — a provision card issues have used to raise their fees far beyond the actual costs…