Author: NY TIMES

Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the eastern frontline city of Avdiivka, Ukraine’s top general, Oleksandr Syrsky, said on Saturday, allowing Moscow to score its biggest battlefield victory in months and dealing a blow to Ukraine’s stretched and outgunned forces as the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches.General Syrsky said he had ordered the retreat “in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen.” Avdiivka — once a city of 30,000 people before being reduced to ruins — sat in a pocket surrounded by Russian troops to the north, east and south. In recent months, they…

It is a miserable year to be applying for financial aid.Millions of families probably won’t get a final price tag for college until at least April, because of a series of Education Department delays in rolling out the new FAFSA financial aid form. Students with parents who do not have a Social Security number still can’t complete the online form.But if you’re applying for aid and have grandparents who want to help, you may be in luck.Under the old rules, the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, asked about “untaxed income” and “money received, or paid on your…

From a U.S. military installation in the Sulu Sea — where, a title card tells the viewer, “We are in a war … we just don’t know it” — soldiers board a chopper to execute a “sterilized op” (contemporary lingo for “secret mission”). The soldiers are played by a couple of Hemsworth brothers; a onetime Face of Reebok, Ricky Whittle; and a pumped-up Milo Ventimiglia. Their backup is a couple of drone pilots half a world away, providing lethal firepower from the comfort of Las Vegas.“Land of Bad,” directed by William Eubank from a script he wrote with David Frigerio,…

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called on world leaders not to abandon his country, citing the recent death of a Russian dissident as a reminder that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would continue to test the international order, and pushing back against the idea of a negotiated resolution to the war.Mr. Zelensky, speaking on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, said that if Ukraine lost the war to Russia, it would be “catastrophic” not only for Kyiv, but for other nations as well.“Please do not ask Ukraine when the war will end,” he said. “Ask yourself why is Putin…

Given the outsize effect that Taylor Swift suddenly seems to have on everything from the Super Bowl to the U.S. presidential campaign, it was no surprise that her Grammy appearance in a choker featuring a vintage Concord watch had media proclaiming the start of a trend.But recently a growing number of celebrities, from Emma Chamberlain to Julia Fox, have been displaying their own unconventional approaches to telling time.Rihanna, for example, had a white gold watch, blinged out with more than 70 carats of round and emerald-cut diamonds, clasped around her ankle when she appeared at the Formula 1 Grand Prix…

Big deals are waiting on the tarmac as Wall Street and the business world anticipate how the presidential election will change antitrust enforcement.President Biden has taken an aggressive approach to policing deals that some have called overreaching and others have lauded as a necessary return to scrutiny on the power wielded by big business. Dealmakers say they are holding some deals back in hope of a more lenient approach in the next administration.Doha Mekki is on the ground executing the strategy. She’s worked at the Justice Department under three administrations: as a trial attorney during the Obama presidency, in the…

This year’s Oscar-nominated animated shorts — sobering tales of war, assault, trauma, identity and regret — ask the question, what tools can filmmakers use to tell a poignant, but not exploitative or gratuitous, story about trauma?The novel technique the directors Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess use in “Ninety-Five Senses” is the story structure: An inmate (voiced by Tim Blake Nelson) eating his last meal anecdotally reflects on each of his senses, telling tidbits of the life he had (and the life that could have been). Each sense is illustrated by different artists, in a different style, creating a kind of…

Aleksei A. Navalny, the outspoken activist who died in prison on Friday, was born on June 4, 1976, according to his website, and grew up outside Moscow to liberal parents who opposed Soviet rule.Starting his political career as an anticorruption blogger who organized street protests, Mr. Navalny mobilized a generation of young Russians through social media and rose to prominence for investigations into Russia’s elite.Here’s a look at Mr. Navalny’s career:2000Mr. Navalny, who had studied law and finance and worked as a real estate lawyer, joined the liberal Yabloko party the same year that Vladimir V. Putin was first elected…

As a father of two, Gerard Gousman enjoyed his career as a tour manager, working for artists like DMX, Salt-N-Pepa and Cat Power.But the job required him to travel about six months out of the year. So when his wife, Quaneisha Gousman, became pregnant in 2018, he crunched some numbers. Mr. Gousman, now 45, quit his job to stay home to care for the children while Dr. Gousman, who has a doctorate in industrial and systems engineering, continued working in user experience research in Seattle, where the family lives. Becoming a stay-at-home father, he said, “was an easy decision once…

Not Ready to Make NiceWhat do I do when my boss wants more than professionalism? My boss is terrible at his job and wastes the time and energy of the 100 people below him. When he is unclear, as one of the leaders just under him I ask clarifying questions. He gets flustered and defensive. As a woman, I feel it is important I not put on a demure and flirty attitude just to make him comfortable, but recently I was pulled into his office to work on my negativity. What is the best way forward? To reiterate, I am…