Author: NY TIMES

The British director Sam Mendes has signed on to direct not one but four biopics about the Beatles, each telling the story of the Fab Four from a different member’s point of view.Apple Corps, the guardian of the Beatles’ musical interests, and Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life story and music rights for the scripted films — a first — which will be financed and released by Sony Pictures Entertainment. The films are planned for release in 2027.“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band…

Israel’s military ordered two neighborhoods of Gaza City to evacuate on Tuesday amid signs of hunger and mounting desperation in the northern part of the enclave at a time when the focus of Israel’s offensive has shifted south.The evacuations came as the World Food Program halted deliveries in the north on Tuesday, describing scenes of chaos as its teams faced looting, hungry crowds and gunfire in recent days.The fiercest fighting and most intense bombing has in recent weeks shifted south to areas around Khan Younis and Rafah. But the evacuation order from Israel’s military on Tuesday for the Zaytoun and…

Prince William, the heir to the British throne, called on Tuesday for an end to the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible in a rare, if measured, public statement on the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas.“I remain deeply concerned about the terrible human cost of the conflict in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attack” on Oct. 7, the prince said in comments issued by his office. “Too many have been killed.”He added: “I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible. There is a desperate need for increased…

Two weeks ago, an accessories designer named Brett Heyman sold weed, legally, for the first time in New York City.Ms. Heyman is the creative director of Edie Parker, a handbag line she founded in 2010. She added home accessories in 2016, then smoking accessories in 2019, followed by actual things to smoke.The brand is colorful and cheeky and inspired by midcentury design. The smoking collection includes tabletop lighters that resemble decorative gelatin cakes ($195 to $275), rolling papers covered in illustrations of fried eggs ($8) and color-blocked grinders that can pass as mod paperweights ($30 to $70).Ms. Heyman’s seasoned pitch…

Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods was founded in 1978, but it wasn’t until several years later that the company hit upon the thing that made its oats, groats and other natural food products so immediately recognizable on supermarket shelves. That was when the likeness of Bob Moore, the company’s eponymous founder, began appearing on the packaging.With his white beard, wire-rim eyeglasses, newsie cap and bolo tie, Mr. Moore, who died last week at age 94, was an unlikely style icon whose folksiness seemed to personify the wholesome artisanal grains produced by his company at an old mill in Milwaukie, Ore.Mr.…

Damo Suzuki, a Japanese vocalist best known for his role with the revered and influential German experimental rock group Can during its most crucial period, died on Feb. 9 at his home in Cologne, Germany. He was 74.His death was announced by Can’s label, Spoon Records. No cause was given, but Mr. Suzuki had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2014. Initially given a 10 percent chance of recovery, he endured more than 40 surgeries in the ensuing decade.Mr. Suzuki was a free spirit who left Japan as a teenager for a nomadic life in Europe. His music ignored genre…

Relatives of an Israeli mother and child who appeared to be shown in captivity in Gaza in newly released videos from the day of the Hamas-led attack said Tuesday they hoped the footage would call attention to the urgency of freeing the hostages. The Israeli military distributed videos Monday evening that it said showed members of the Bibas family in the area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Oct. 7. The New York Times could not immediately verify the footage, which showed a figure being covered in a blanket while appearing to hold a redheaded child.In a tearful news…

As the war continued to rage in Ukraine’s east, much of its Western border was blocked on Tuesday by another fight, this one with Polish farmers.The farmers have for months been protesting an influx of Ukrainian products that they say is crowding the Polish market and undercutting their livelihood. On Tuesday, they obstructed check points for commercial transportation, halted the passage of about 3,000 Ukrainian trucks and opened some train cars containing Ukrainian grain, spilling it onto the rails.“It’s either us or them,” a Polish farmer said on Tuesday on the Polish TV channel Polsat News. “Someone must be interested…

In a video call from her atelier in London, Ms. Stark, 29, was fresh-faced in a pair of frothy bloomers cut to emphasize a protruding stomach. Her bosom spilled from a whimsical brassiere. This is not your average working-from-home outfit. Aptly, she describes her design ethos as freeing.Ms. Stark’s custom pieces, which she started making in 2018, have a forbidden quality. A candy-pink silk asymmetrical corset, the cut of which creates an uneven décolletage, sells for £3,495, or about $4,382. She started documenting her body experiments while ensnared in her creations and gained an Instagram following that, she said, was…

In the fall of 2022, two top Biden administration officials met in New York with a key European diplomat. Over dinner outdoors, they strategized about how best to throttle Russia’s oil revenues in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine.Near the end of what had been a collegial meal, the European official, Bjoern Seibert, dropped a bombshell on his hosts, Mike Pyle of the National Security Council and Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary. Europe, Mr. Seibert said, had big problems with President Biden’s sweeping new climate law.Mr. Seibert, the head of cabinet for the president of the European Commission, said…