Author: NY TIMES

Already struggling to contain intractable crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, the United States is also grappling with an impasse in the Balkans over a gas pipeline into Bosnia, an issue that is freighted with big geopolitical stakes.The project, backed by both the United States and the European Union but blocked by the ethnic feuds that have long hobbled Bosnia, aims to break Moscow’s stranglehold on gas supplies to a fragile nation tugged between East and West.The proposed pipeline, which would bring in natural gas from neighboring Croatia, a member of NATO and of the European Union, would be…

One of the more well-known leap year traditions, she said, is that it is a time for women to do the proposing. She said modern folklore dates the tradition back to the fifth century in Ireland when St. Bridget urged St. Patrick to allow women the right to propose. A compromise ensued, and the latter agreed to allow it once every four years, during a leap year.Another story dates the practice to 1228 when Queen Margaret of Scotland passed a law ordering a man to accept a woman’s marriage proposal during a leap year. If he declined, he had to…

What has changed in Japan’s economy to spark the stock surge?Stocks in Japan have looked cheap because of a weak yen, which has been a boon to exporters that make their profits overseas. Important changes to the corporate sector have also given shareholders more rights, allowing them to push for changes that favor their stock holdings.And in a contrast with other parts of the world, rising inflation in Japan recently has been seen as a sign that things are headed in the right direction, after decades of falling prices and sluggish economic growth discouraged people and companies from spending.Japan’s stocks…

Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicTracy Chapman’s ascent to the pop stratosphere in 1988 was not in any way guaranteed. She was making folk music in a time of stadium rock and hip-hop. She was orienting her songs around social concerns. And yet, after a few fortuitous turns in the summer of that year, Chapman’s “Fast Car” became a global anthem. And its success landed her on the cover of Rolling Stone.For a young Black woman on her first album, it was a startling achievement. The magazine was relatively cloistered in its coverage, but Chapman proved a…

After the Houthi militia started attacking container ships in the Red Sea last year, the cost of shipping goods from Asia soared by over 300 percent, prompting fears that supply chain disruptions might once again roil the global economy.The Houthis, who are backed by Iran and control northern Yemen, continue to threaten ships, forcing many to take a much longer route around Africa’s southern tip. But there are signs that the world will probably avoid a drawn-out shipping crisis.One reason for the optimism is that a huge number of container ships, ordered two to three years ago, are entering service.…

Part of a bridge in the southern Chinese manufacturing hub of Guangzhou collapsed after a container ship crashed into it, killing at least two people as vehicles plummeted, the local authorities said on Thursday.Three people were missing, according to the authorities, who said an empty container ship had hit one of the supporting columns of the two-lane Lixinsha Bridge, fracturing the surface.The crash occurred at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday in the Nansha district, and its cause was under investigation, the district said in a statement. Photos published by Chinese state media showed a large chunk missing from the bridge, which…

Charles Stendig, who introduced contemporary and avant-garde European furniture to adventurous Americans in his New York City showroom, died on Feb. 11 at his home in Manhattan. He was 99.His death was announced by R & Company, a furniture gallery in TriBeCa to which Mr. Stendig donated his design library and corporate archives.There was a period, beginning in the 1960s, when the American living room went cheerfully haywire, becoming a showcase for space age and Pop Art design. The future had arrived, and it was plastic and fantastic and brimming with optimism, mirroring the mod revolution in fashion. Mr. Stendig…

A rust-colored dome looms over the muddy farmland of Hinkley Point, a headland overlooking the Bristol Channel in southwest England.When a giant yellow crane hoisted the 150-foot-wide concrete-and-steel saucer into place this winter, it signified a milestone for what will be the first commercial nuclear power station built in Britain since the mid-1990s and a flagship in an effort to revive the industry.Yet the capping of the first of twin cylindrical buildings for reactors was also a reminder of the prodigious, lengthy and increasingly costly effort to build what is known as Hinkley Point C.Work has been underway on the…

In November, a year after ChatGPT’s release, a relatively unknown Chinese start-up leaped to the top of a leaderboard that judged the abilities of open-source artificial intelligence systems.The Chinese firm, 01.AI, was only eight months old but had deep-pocketed backers and a $1 billion valuation and was founded by a well-known investor and technologist, Kai-Fu Lee. In interviews, Mr. Lee presented his A.I. system as an alternative to options like Meta’s generative A.I. model, called LLaMA.There was just one twist: Some of the technology in 01.AI’s system came from LLaMA. Mr. Lee’s start-up then built on Meta’s technology, training its…

People have told stories of strange underwater sounds for thousands of years, but it took until the mid-20th century for scientists to pinpoint one of the causes: whales, singing and whistling and squeaking in the blue.The means by which some whales make these sounds has remained a mystery. A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature puts forth a new explanation, discovered thanks to a contraption that forced air through the voice boxes of three dead whales.The voice box, or larynx, is an ancient organ. “It evolved when fish crawled out of the sea and animals needed a way to…