Author: NY TIMES

It all underscores a fundamental TikTok issue that remains unsolved: There hasn’t yet been an evolution in optimal content form. The narrative styles that will work best in this format haven’t been honed yet, at least not by professionals. For an app that claims a lot of attention, it doesn’t demand much brainpower. That leaves TikTok vulnerable to the moments when viewers, to put it simply, snap out of it.My breaking point has been approaching for months, and TikTok appears to sense my looming reluctance. It’s been trying to lure me in with multipart videos about abandoned pets (dark); footage…

The United States issued financial sanctions on Thursday against four Israelis accused of escalating violence against civilians, intimidating civilians or destroying property in the West Bank.“The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank and the prospects of peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.Here’s what we know about the four, all men ranging in age from 21 to 32.David Chai Chasdai, 29Mr. Chasdai initiated and led a riot on the Palestinian town of Huwara, the State Department said in a statement, which resulted in the…

China and the United States are back at the negotiating table. Whether they can agree on much is another matter.In Bangkok, China’s top diplomat last week discussed North Korea and Iran with President Biden’s national security adviser. Days later, in Beijing, officials restarted long-stalled talks on curbing the flow of fentanyl to the United States. And the White House says Mr. Biden plans to speak by phone with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in the spring.The developments point to a tentative détente struck by Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi at a summit near San Francisco in November — and both the…

After washing down their pizza with drinks at Axelrad, a beer garden, they went to her apartment, where he met Pumpkin, her calico cat. That’s when he asked if she would join him in New Zealand for his residency. He then broke it to her that his mother’s name was also Andrea (she laughed it off).Although Dr. Allen told him that evening that she wanted to take things slow because she had ended a serious relationship a few months earlier, they soon began seeing each other daily. The first dish he cooked for her was a cauliflower adobo, as she…

India is quietly grabbing from China more manufacturing of Apple’s iPhones and other electronics gear.It is happening in South Indian industrial areas on muddy plots that were once farmland.In Sriperumbudur, people call Apple “the customer,” not daring to say the name of a company that prizes its secrets.But some things are too big to hide. Two gigantic dormitory complexes are springing up from the earth. Once finished, each will be a tight block of 13 buildings with 24 rooms per floor around an L-shaped hallway. Every one of those pink-painted rooms will have beds for six workers, all women. The…

Meta on Thursday reported a 25 percent increase in quarterly revenue while profit more than tripled, a rise fueled by its ads business after a shaky 18 months of layoffs and a rocky digital advertising market.The Silicon Valley company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, also said it would issue its first dividend, of 50 cents a share. Dividends are typically associated with mature and slower-growth companies. Meta made the announcement as it spends heavily on capital investments, such as data centers and other infrastructure. The company also authorized an additional $50 billion in share buybacks.The results pushed Meta’s shares…

Even if Swift loses album of the year, she could still walk away with important victories: Her single “Anti-Hero” is up for both record and song of the year, two categories that Swift — despite oodles of nominations over the years — has never won.Clash of the (Female) TitansWomen dominate the major Grammy nominations so thoroughly this year that in the ceremony’s three most prestigious categories — album, record and song of the year — the winners are, mathematically, almost certain to be female.Swift, Rodrigo and SZA, three of the most popular and influential pop artists working today, will face…

After days of sharply criticizing the U.N. agency charged with assisting Palestinian civilians, donor countries signaled on Wednesday that they would continue to support the organization under the right conditions and stressed its essential role in delivering lifesaving aid as widespread starvation and disease loom in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.At least 12 countries, including the United States and Germany, the two biggest donors, have temporarily suspended funding after the Israeli government circulated allegations that employees of the group, known as UNRWA, participated in the Oct. 7 attacks.Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, stressed on Wednesday that the…

Jack Jennings, a British prisoner of war during World War II who worked as a slave laborer on the Burma Railway, the roughly 250-mile Japanese military construction project that inspired a novel and the Oscar-winning film “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” died this month in St. Marychurch, England. He was 104.His daughters Carol Barrett and Hazel Heath told the BBC on Jan. 22 that he had died in a nursing facility, though the exact date of death was unclear.They said they believed their father was the last survivor of the estimated 85,000 British, Australian and Indian solders who were…

The napkin of the first Barcelona deal that Messi unofficially signed will be sold at auction.Bonhams, a London-based private international auction house, will conduct the auction on behalf of Argentine player agent Horacio Gaggioli from March 18 to 27, with a starting bid of £300,000 ($381,000).The deal was agreed on December 14, 2000, with Barcelona director Carles Rexach desperate for the club to sign the then 13-year-old Messi.Messi impressed during a two-week trial with Barcelona in September 2000, but the club was initially reluctant to sign such a young, non-European player.Rexach fears the Catalan club will miss out on signing…