Author: NY TIMES

When my brother got engaged, he gave his fiancée — with my blessing — a ring that is a family heirloom. It belonged to our grandmother, who died before we were born. It didn’t occur to me that the ring was possibly leaving our family, which is what happened when they later divorced. My brother asked his ex-wife if she would return the ring, but she refused. I’ve tried to let this go: It’s just an object and not worth a lot of money, but I still harbor hard feelings. I was fond of my former sister-in-law; she was sweet…

Once you wrote to the scammers, they had your email address and used it — sending you an email dressed up to look like an official Booking.com message and from an @confirmations-booking.com address, which might seem like a legitimate address, though the company says all its emails end in @booking.com.Reading copies of the emails you forwarded to me, the imperfect English is also suspicious (“Your booking to Two bedroom apartment with view needs to be paid in full”), as were some of the account details at the Spanish bank BBVA. “Nyholm Peik,” has no online presence I could find, and…

Nearly a quarter of menthol cigarette smokers quit in the year or two after a ban on menthol went into effect, according to a study published on Wednesday.Researchers found that about half of the menthol smokers switched to other cigarettes and another quarter managed to keep smoking menthols. The rate of menthol smokers who quit was higher in nations that imposed bans, in contrast with cities or states, since it was harder for people to drive a few miles to keep buying menthol cigarettes, according to the study.The Food and Drug Administration has been urging the Biden administration to impose…

The album is packed with collaborators including the rappers Busta Rhymes, Big Daddy Kane and Vico C (a Puerto Rican reggaeton pioneer) and the singers Rauw Alejandro and Christian Nodal, among many others. It dips into rock, old-school hip-hop, flamenco, Cuban son, Palestinian music, electro and — with tongue in cheek — pop. (“Quiero Ser Baladista” — “I Want to Be a Ballad Singer” — suddenly switches from a belligerent rap over electric-guitar chords to an ardent love-song chorus from none other than Ricky Martin.)The set reclaims Residente singles like the fiercely percussive “This Is Not America” from 2022, which…

President Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday took a short flight on a supersonic bomber, part of his pre-election effort to project confidence and power inside Russia, and a conspicuous reminder to the West of his country’s nuclear capabilities.The flight took only 30 minutes, the Kremlin said in a statement, but the range of the wide-wing Tu-160M, also known as a White Swan in Russia, allows it to reach the United States with two dozen nuclear weapons aboard.Russian state television showed Mr. Putin, 71, climbing up the stairs under the giant warplane, one of the largest and heaviest in the world,…

Not long ago, nearly every initial conversation with a potential romantic partner was in person or over the phone. Now, they’re increasingly digital — taking place on dating apps, over text or in direct messages on social media. What were some of the first online words you exchanged with the person you’re with? Do you still have a record of that conversation on your phone or laptop?If so, we want to see it for potential publication in a special collaboration between Modern Love and The New York Times Magazine. Send us screenshots of your first flirty and fateful words, and…

In 2002, after the dot-com bubble burst and Sun Microsystems swooned, the company’s co-founder Scott McNealy highlighted the folly of Wall Street analysts who favored one particular financial metric to gauge a stock’s worth: its price relative to the company’s sales.Mr. McNealy was musing about the “price to sales” ratio — an important measure of a company’s value relative to how much cash it generates. A high ratio can be justified if investors think a company has room to grow; a low ratio typically signals that investors think the company is accurately valued.Using that metric, analysts had gambled that Sun’s…

You would be hard pressed to find a New Yorker unfamiliar with the name Veselka. The pierogi and borscht eatery, established in 1954 by a Ukrainian émigré, is a staple of the East Village, where its genial diner atmosphere — overseen by Jason Birchard, the founder’s grandson — draws everyone from university students to seasoned old-timers.“Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World” pays tribute to the cultural landmark by taking viewers inside the restaurant during an uneasy period: Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Directed by Michael Fiore, the documentary establishes Veselka’s Ukrainian roots and then…

Germany’s soccer fans had thrown everything they could at the problem, often in a quite literal sense: At various points over the last few weeks, they protested the specter of a private equity giant’s taking a stake in the country’s domestic league by raining tennis balls, chocolate coins and even marbles onto fields across the country.The demonstrations forced games to be delayed, embarrassed the authorities and may have helped to persuade one of the world’s largest financial firms not to pursue a deal. But it was thanks to an escalation in technology that ultimate victory was secured: Once the remote-controlled…

At Michelle Bonnice and Colton Flores’s wedding in Austin, Texas, in September, guests were given custom menus with a thank-you note from the couple; drank espresso martinis from an ice luge with the letters “M” and “C” carved into its side; and left with party favors of koozies featuring an illustration of their dog.It was all part of Ms. Bonnice and Mr. Flores’s vision for their nuptials. “I wanted guests to feel like they were being invited to our event, for me and my husband, with our brand showing who we are,” said Ms. Bonnice, a 30-year-old engineer at Salesforce.Like…