Author: NY TIMES

Last week, Mr. Clarke, who is now 71 and splits his time between the Dordogne region of France and Frankfurt, spoke via video chat from his Frankfurt art studio, about the never-ending allure of the red couch and how he felt about the latest homage to his project. He was wearing a red V-neck sweater.This conversation has been lightly edited.What’s the origin story of “The Red Couch”?I’d been living in Europe, and in 1979 I came back to the States, and I was staying with my friend Russell Maltz, a painter living in a loft in SoHo. He had this…

Kroger, Albertsons and the politics of inflation A paradox at the heart of the U.S. economy is that consumers are feeling squeezed even as growth indicators look strong — and are taking it out on President Biden’s approval ratings.So the White House probably cheered a move by the F.T.C. and several states on Monday to block Kroger’s $25 billion bid to buy Albertsons, arguing that the biggest supermarket merger in U.S. history would raise prices and hit union workers’ bargaining power.The Biden administration has little influence over inflation, but it’s still getting heat. Consumers are spending the highest proportion of…

The director Denis Villeneuve and the actor Timothée Chalamet bound into the room talking at, and over, each other in rapid French. Villeneuve is from Quebec; Chalamet was born in New York City but has dual American and French citizenship. Together, they’re a dynamic tag team dressed near-identically in head-to-toe black, although Chalamet’s shiny leather layers have more swagger. The topic of the day is galactic genocide and dubious messiahs, central themes in “Dune: Part Two,” the second installment of their cerebral space epic based on the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert. Yet, the pair are prone to giggle fits.“We…

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said on Tuesday that she had personally urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to increase commercial engagement with the West Bank, contending that doing so was important for the economic welfare of both Israelis and Palestinians.Ms. Yellen’s plea was outlined in a letter that she sent to Mr. Netanyahu on Sunday. It represented her most explicit public expression of concern about the economic consequences of the war between Israel and Hamas. In the letter, Ms. Yellen said, she warned about the consequences of the erosion of basic services in the West Bank and called…

In a major shift, Israeli negotiators have signaled that Israel could release a group of high-profile Palestinian prisoners serving lengthy jail terms in exchange for the freedom of some of the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, officials say.The change in Israeli negotiating strategy, which has not been announced publicly, is significant because it could help persuade Hamas to release Israeli soldiers captured in October and agree to a deal that would temporarily pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip.International efforts to reach a truce had stalled over Israel’s refusal to release Palestinians convicted of murder and to commit…

On a cold winter day, there’s nothing better than a cozy room that invites you to sink into a comfortable chair and curl up with a fuzzy throw.“No matter what type of home I’m working on, whether it skews more contemporary or more traditional, my goal is always to create something that’s cozy, warm and inviting,” said Shawn Henderson, an interior designer based in New York. “Most people seek that sense of comfort and security.”David Jimenez, an American designer based in Paris, has different words for that feeling. “You can call it coziness,” he said, “but you can also call…

Macy’s said on Tuesday that it would vastly reshape its strategy and retail footprint, closing about 150 Macy’s stores over the next three years while expanding its upscale Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury chains.The moves put the stamp of the company’s new chief executive, Tony Spring, on an effort to keep the largest department store operator in the United States profitable and stave off a pending takeover bid.It is the second major downsizing of the Macy’s chain since 2020 and will leave the company with 350 stores, slightly more than half the number it had before the pandemic.The overhaul is intended to…

Doctors across the United States are seeing a rise in Kawasaki disease, a mysterious condition that primarily affects children under 5. The illness is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children worldwide but it is often unrecognized or misdiagnosed.Kawasaki disease is rare, but cases are climbing in the United States. Here are the important things to know about Kawasaki disease.What causes it?No one knows. Kawasaki disease, also known as K.D., is one of the leading pediatric mysteries. Some scientists believe it results from an environmental exposure or that it occurs after a bacterial or viral infection. Certain…

Pankaj Udhas, a singer from India whose soulful renditions of ghazals, or lyric love songs, were a cornerstone of many Bollywood films over his decades-long career, died in Mumbai on Monday. He was 72.His death was announced on social media by his daughter Nayaab Udhas. She did not specify the cause, saying only that he had died after a prolonged illness.Mr. Udhas moved generations of people in India and the Indian diaspora by singing ghazals, the lyric poems that have been written for centuries in Persian, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish and other languages. He also worked as a playback singer, the…

Jordan and France airdropped food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza on Monday, bringing a modicum of desperately needed assistance to Palestinians facing looming famine as aid groups warned of growing restrictions on their ability to distribute supplies on the ground.Three planes from the Jordanian Air Force and one from its French counterpart dropped aid, including ready-made meals, over several sites on the coast of Gaza, the Jordanian Army said in a statement. The French plane dropped more than two tons of food and hygiene supplies, all packed in containers rigged with parachutes, the French foreign ministry said.Humanitarian groups generally…