Author: NY TIMES

Long before Alexis Wright was a towering figure in Australian letters, she took notes during community meetings in remote outback towns. Put to task by Aboriginal elders, her job was to take down their every word in longhand.The work was laborious, and it soothed her youthful fervor for the change that seemed all too slow to arrive.“It was good training, in a way,” she said in a recent interview at a public library close to the University of Melbourne, where until 2022 she held the role of Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature. “They were teaching you to listen, and they…

The closest thing to a bat signal for stoners is the blue lettering of the Cookies logo. When a new storefront comes to a strip mall or a downtown shopping district, fans flock to grand-opening parties, drawn by a love of the brand — one based on more than its reputation for selling extremely potent weed. Until recently, the company was largely a West Coast phenomenon, but as marijuana legalization spread east, so did Cookies. A little over a year after recreational sales became legal in New Jersey, the chain opened a new location in a bland outdoor mall in…

Over the next week, the National Football League’s players, coaches, fans and executives will gather for an event that was virtually unthinkable just 10 years ago: the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the United States.Since the Supreme Court struck down, in 2018, a federal law that effectively banned sports betting outside Nevada — a prohibition once backed by the N.F.L.’s commissioner, Roger Goodell — the N.F.L. has embraced the gambling industry. It has forged partnerships reportedly worth nearly $1 billion over five years with sports betting companies, and permitted a sports book to operate inside one…

Like Lubimov, Jacob Greenberg first dived into other keyboard instruments while at conservatory. He now plays modern piano, electric piano, celesta, harpsichord, harmonium, shrutibox, toy piano and pipe organ.Last September, Greenberg traveled from his home in Berlin to Rostock, Germany, to build his own clavichord: a small rectangular keyboard instrument that was most popular from the late Middle Ages to the early Classical period. The clavichord’s sound is so soft, it is mainly used for private practice or as a composition aid.For eight days, 11 hours a day, Greenberg, 48, worked on his clavichord in a woodshop belonging to the…

By Declan Walsh and Samar Abu EloufPhotographs by Samar Abu EloufSamar Abu Elouf, a photojournalist, spent weeks documenting five Palestinians in Gaza whose lives had been shattered by the war. Declan Walsh is an international correspondent for The New York Times.Feb. 4, 2024A toddler, a teenager, a mother, a photojournalist.Their lives were ripped apart in one of the deadliest and most destructive wars of the 21st century.Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, now in its fourth month, is often conveyed in stark numbers and historical comparisons: Some 27,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry. Nearly two million…

Iran projects its military power through dozens of armed groups across the Middle East, but how much does it control their actions?That question has taken on new urgency as the United States considers its next steps after an attack by an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia on an American base in northwest Jordan. The attack on Sunday killed three soldiers and injured dozens of others.Iranian-backed groups have varying histories and relationships with Tehran, but all share Iran’s desire for the U.S. military to leave the region, and for Israel’s power to be reduced. Iranian rhetoric, echoed by its allied groups, often goes…

As the ultimate expressions of French savoir-faire and creativity, couture and high jewelry go hand in hand.More than a decade ago, high jewelry even helped save Couture Week. The fashion industry had been wondering whether couture could survive, given how few houses were staging runway shows. Then, in 2010, many of the most prominent jewelry houses agreed to a day of presentations, shoring up the week’s anemic calendar.Fast-forward to today, and the wheel has turned: Couture is faring better than ever, with 29 houses on the official calendar in Paris last week. In contrast, jewelry houses including Van Cleef &…

It was just after 4 p.m. on a recent weekday, and Oscar Goodman, the mob lawyer turned Las Vegas mayor turned civic cheerleader, was sipping perhaps his first Hizzoner of the day.The drink — made with Bombay Sapphire gin, more Bombay Sapphire gin and a slice of jalapeño pepper, served in a large martini glass — is not just Mr. Goodman’s favorite social lubricant. It’s a homage to a faded version of Las Vegas that he has spent decades celebrating and trying to keep alive.After a sip of the fuzzy elixir, Mr. Goodman settled into a booth at Oscar’s Steakhouse,…

As artistic inspiration goes, public toilets don’t usually stir the spirit.Then again, most toilets aren’t like the public bathrooms in Tokyo.So when Wim Wenders, the German film director of art-house favorites like “Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire,” first toured more than a dozen public toilet buildings around the Japanese capital city in the spring of 2022, he was enchanted by what he described as “little jewels” designed by Pritzker Prize winners including Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban and Kengo Kuma. Those stylish commodes provided the creative sparks for his latest movie, “Perfect Days,” which has been nominated in the international…

The United States has led a major wave of retaliatory strikes in the Middle East, hitting scores of targets belonging to Iranian-backed armed groups since Friday. The strikes are a sharp escalation of hostilities in the region, one that President Biden had sought to avoid since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began in October.Here is how the latest strikes have unfolded.Jan. 28: Three U.S. service members were killed and dozens of others were injured in a drone attack on their remote military outpost in Jordan, the Pentagon said. They were the first known American military fatalities from…