Author: NY TIMES

In Noora Niasari’s deeply felt drama “Shayda,” an Iranian mother finds sanctuary in culture and community while seeking liberation from an abusive marriage. The film unfolds during Nowruz, a regenerative Persian holiday set on the spring equinox. But in Australia, where Shayda (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) and her young daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia) are temporarily residing in a women’s shelter, Nowruz falls in autumn. Like a deciduous tree, Shayda can only access renewal by shedding the life she once knew.In her first narrative feature, Niasari, who based the story in part on her own experiences, demonstrates an astounding control of pacing…

The death toll in Gaza passed a somber milestone on Thursday as the local health ministry reported that more than 30,000 people had been killed in the war since Oct. 7.The number of deaths since Israel launched its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza had already surpassed the tolls of any previous Arab conflict with Israel when it rose above 20,000 in December. Many experts say the official toll is very likely an undercount, given the difficulty of accurately tallying deaths amid unrelenting fighting, communications disruptions, a collapsing medical system and people still believed to be under rubble.Still, the reported…

VideoLittle aid has been able to reach northern Gaza due to security risks and Israeli restrictions.CreditCredit…Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAt least a quarter of Gaza’s population is “one step away from famine,” a U.N. humanitarian aid official has warned, as aid groups say that people are so hungry they are resorting to eating leaves, donkey feed and food scraps.One in six children under 2 years old in northern Gaza, where the United Nations says it has not been able to deliver any aid since early this month because of security risks and Israeli restrictions, is suffering from acute malnutrition, the…

Video dinner parties, spa days, stuffed animals, favorite hoodies and cozy, colorful fleece blankets. Cole Brauer’s Instagram feed hardly feels like the work of someone racing a 40-foot sailboat around the world in the Global Solo Challenge. But Ms. Brauer, 29, is not an average ocean racer.In 2022, Ms. Brauer had tried out for another competition, the Ocean Race, which is considered the pinnacle of professional ocean racing. Sailors in that race are highly trained, wear matching foul weather gear and have corporate sponsors. And most of them are men. Ms. Brauer, who had sailed thousands of miles on high…

The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it was proposing new regulations for how airlines must treat passengers in wheelchairs, an effort aimed at improving air travel for people with disabilities.Under the proposed rule, damaging or delaying the return of a wheelchair would be an automatic violation of an existing federal law that bars airlines from discriminating against people with disabilities. The Transportation Department said that change would make it easier for the agency to penalize airlines for mishandling wheelchairs.The proposed regulations would also require more robust training for workers who physically assist disabled passengers or handle their wheelchairs.“There are…

What is the meaning of a cat’s meow that grows louder and louder? Or your pet’s sudden flip from softly purring as you stroke its back to biting your hand?It turns out these misunderstood moments with your cat may be more common than not. A new study by French researchers, published last month in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, found that people were significantly worse at reading the cues of an unhappy cat (nearly one third got it wrong) than those of a contented cat (closer to 10 percent).The study also suggested that a cat’s meows and other vocalizations…

Sadpony was visiting Raisen over Christmas when they created the foundation of what would become the new album’s corrosively arresting lead single, “Bye Bye.” The pair had just been making beats intended for Playboi Carti, an iconoclastic rapper known for his music’s rough edges and in-your-face attitude. When they finished this beat — which begins with a loop that sounds like a car’s seatbelt alarm and eventually ignites into a conflagration of synthesized chaos — Raisen said he told his brother, “I think this might be a little too wild for Playboi. But it could be cool for Kim.”It was.…

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said the West faced the prospect of nuclear conflict if it intervened more directly in the war in Ukraine, using an annual speech to the nation on Thursday to escalate his threats against Europe and the United States.Mr. Putin said Western countries that are helping Ukraine strike Russian territory, and have discussed the possibility of sending troops from NATO countries to Ukraine, “must, in the end, understand” that “all this truly threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization.”“We also have weapons that can strike targets on…

“As always, she wakes up just before the alarm goes off.”“As always, she gets up in the dark and walks into the bathroom.”“As always, she quickly looks into the mirror. Yes, That’s her. Forty years old, mother of one, single, working.”So went the voice-over at the Undercover show: a prose poem written and read by the film director Wim Wenders. You could practically see the audience sit up in response: Wait. Is he talking about me? Or maybe not me, but my cousin/neighbor/aunt/friend?Certainly, a woman I know.Guess how often that happens during a fashion show? Usually never. Conventional wisdom has…

After watching “Navalny,” the documentary about the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, a Chinese businesswoman messaged me, “Ren Zhiqiang is China’s Navalny.” She was talking about the retired real estate tycoon who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for criticizing China’s leader, Xi Jinping.After Mr. Navalny’s tragic death this month, a young dissident living in Berlin posted on X, “Teacher Li is closest to the Chinese version of Navalny.” He was referring to the rebel influencer known as Teacher Li, who used social media to share information about protests in China and who now fears for his life.There…