Author: NY TIMES

An Israeli organization that supports survivors of sexual abuse released a report on Wednesday concluding that acts of sexual violence against Israelis during and after the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 were “systematic and widespread.”“The report finds that the Hamas attack included brutal acts of violent rape, often involving threats with weapons, specifically directed towards injured women,” said the group, The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, an umbrella organization of nine such organizations in Israel. The report added that many incidents involved gang rape.“Often, the rape was perpetrated in front of an audience — partners, family or friends…

What makes a house a home?On Tuesday night, that question floated in the delicately candle-scented air of a three-story penthouse apartment on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan where the interior designer Jeremiah Brent lives with his husband and fellow designer, Nate Berkus, and their two children.An intimate gathering of about 30 guests had assembled to celebrate the publication of Mr. Brent’s first book, “The Space That Keeps You,” a collection of photos and stories of interesting people and their enviable houses.For Mr. Brent, who along with Mr. Berkus is a mainstay on HGTV with shows like “The Nate & Jeremiah…

“No society can be fully understood apart from the residences of its members.”I have that quote (from “Crabgrass Frontier,” the seminal history of America’s suburbs) taped to a wall behind my desk. It summarizes why I love covering housing for The New York Times and seem never to run out of things to write about. Housing is everything. It’s where we live and raise our families. It is most people’s largest store of wealth. Whether you own, you rent, or you sleep outside, where you hang your head defines much of your existence.Over the past few decades, and especially since…

Why It Matters: A factory that has divided a town.Tesla’s decision to settle in Grünheide, which is in the state of Brandenburg, and the speed with which the factory was built — 861 days — has been a point of pride for local politicians in a country known for its onerous permitting processes.The factory, which opened two years ago, has also become an important driver of growth in the state, long one of the most economically challenged in Germany. Brandenburg recorded economic growth of 6 percent in the first half of 2023, largely driven by the 11,000 jobs at the…

Duke University has decided to close its herbarium, a collection of 825,000 specimens of plants, fungi and algae that was established more than a century ago. The collection, one of the largest and most diverse in the country, has helped scientists map the diversity of plant life and chronicle the impact of humans on the environment.The university’s decision has left researchers reeling. “This is such a devastating blow for biodiversity science,” said Erika Edwards, the curator of the Yale Herbarium. “The entire community is simultaneously shocked and outraged.”Scientific societies have also protested the move. “Duke’s decision to forgo responsibility of…

In 1960, Mr. Van Eaton left Sun to join Mr. Riley and the guitarist Roland Janes, both of whom were disenchanted with how Mr. Riley was being promoted, as the staff drummer at the newly formed Rita Records. Their biggest success came with the singer Harold Dorman’s 1960 Top 40 hit, “Mountain of Love.”Mr. Van Eaton also released a single under his own name for Rita, an atmospheric, surf-style recording called “Beat-Nik,” also from 1960. By the middle of the decade, however, he had all but retired from the music business. He worked for his father-in-law’s vending machine company before…

An escalation of the war in Gaza could lead to the deaths of 85,000 Palestinians from injuries and disease over the next six months, in the worst of three scenarios that prominent epidemiologists have modeled in an effort to understand the potential future death toll of the conflict.These fatalities would be in addition to the more than 29,000 deaths in Gaza that local authorities have attributed to the conflict since it began in October. The estimate represents “excess deaths,” above what would have been expected had there been no war.In a second scenario, assuming no change in the current level…

American intelligence agencies have told their closest European allies that if Russia is going to launch a nuclear weapon into orbit, it will probably do so this year — but that it might instead launch a harmless “dummy” warhead into orbit to leave the West guessing about its capabilities.The assessment came as American intelligence officials conducted a series of rushed, classified briefings for their NATO and Asian allies, as details of the American assessment of Russia’s intentions began to leak out.The American intelligence agencies are sharply divided in their opinion about what President Vladimir V. Putin is planning, and on…

—Reporting by Andrew Marchand, Nicole Auerbach, Stewart Mandel and Chris VanniniThe future of college football may get some needed clarity this week. At least, that’s the hope of many involved in planning the sport’s much-anticipated expanded postseason.ESPN has reached an agreement with representatives of the College Football Playoff to extend the game’s television broadcasts by six years and $7.8 billion through 2031-32. But the commissioners and president responsible for the CFP have yet to agree on anything beyond a 12-team format for the next two seasons, so several days of key meetings have been scheduled.The agreement on terms negotiated by…

As the company struggled, she leveraged the Hamptons estate. The limited liability company associated with the main house, 376 Gin Lane, received a $15 million loan from Morgan Stanley in 2011, according to public records. At around the same time, the second house, 366 Gin Lane, got an $8.5 million infusion from Wells Fargo.In 2016, Ms. Blouin put La Dune on the market. Asking price: $140 million. When there were no takers, she arranged to receive another $26 million in loans from a lender, JGB Management.Over the next few years, because of heavy interest, the amount she owed JGB grew…