Author: NY TIMES

Britain’s economy faces a bracing fact: The number of companies that folded last year was the highest in three decades.More than 25,000 companies registered as insolvent in 2023, the most since 1993, according to government data published this week. As pandemic-related support measures for businesses ended, the wreckage from years of high debt and interest rates, soaring prices and a cost-of-living crisis becomes clearer. Insolvencies have spread from small to larger businesses, analysts said.Businesses still dealing with relatively high costs, demands for higher wages, supply chain uncertainties and wavering consumer confidence are hoping for brighter economic times. Slower inflation, stronger…

A lawmaker in the Australian state of Victoria sat down to watch the nightly news on Monday, expecting to see herself featured as a prominent opponent of duck hunting.But the member of Victoria’s Parliament, Georgie Purcell, noticed that in one photo used on 9News, the tattoos on her midriff were missing.“I saw the image come up on the screen and I thought, ‘That’s really odd,’ because my stomach is heavily tattooed,” Ms. Purcell said on Wednesday.She compared the image with the original photo, which was taken last year by a local newspaper and realized that not only had her tattoos…

Joy and despair, vitality and darkness course through Bruce Springsteen’s songs. The joy, he told the world, came from his mother, Adele Springsteen, who died on Wednesday at 98.When he accepted the Ellis Island Family Heritage award in 2010, Springsteen brought his mother onstage with her sisters, Dora and Eda, and declared, “They put the rock ’n’ roll in me.”Adele, born Adele Zerilli in 1925, was constantly listening to Top 40 radio when Springsteen was growing up, getting her son on his feet to dance with her. She scrimped to buy him his first electric guitar and she encouraged him…

Among Israeli and Palestinian leaders, reactions to Biden administration sanctions against West Bank settlers fell predictably along ethnic and ideological lines, from far-right Jewish nationalists who denounced the penalties as unjust to Arabs who said they did not go far enough.The sanctions announced on Thursday came in response to violence by Jewish settler extremists, which has increased sharply in recent months.“4 settlers?! Pathetic,” Ahmad Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, wrote on X. “What about the Government who adopt them?”At the other end of the spectrum, settler leaders as well as ultranationalist lawmakers, including Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar…

Opposition from Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary had been the primary obstacle to a deal to create a 50-billion-euro fund to support Ukraine in its protracted war against Russia. But that all changed on Thursday when Mr. Orban, the closest ally in the European Union of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, reversed his position.Until Mr. Orban changed his mind, talks had stalled and other European leaders were becoming increasingly frustrated.It was not immediately clear what, if anything, Mr. Orban received in exchange for agreeing to the fund.What was decided?The fund is worth €50 billion, about $54 billion, and…

Most of the photos are slightly faded. The hairlines fuller. Some feature braces. Old friends. Sorority squats and college sweethearts. Caps and gowns. Laments about skinny jeans and other long lost trends.This week, Instagram stories the world over have been awash with nostalgic snapshots of youthful idealism — there have been at least 3.6 million shares, according a representative for Meta — as people post photos of themselves based on the prompt: “Everyone tap in. Let’s see you at 21.”The first post came from Damian Ruff, a 43-year-old Whole Foods employee based out of Mesa, Ariz. On Jan. 23, Mr.…

Jeffrey Epstein in 2017. His accountant for 14 years, Richard Kahn, said in a confidential deposition that he had learned about the worst of Mr. Epstein’s activities only after his death.Credit…New York State Sex Offender Registry, via Associated PressOne of Jeffrey Epstein’s closest business associates testified in May that he was unaware during his employment of allegations that the financier had sexually abused scores of teenage girls and young women, two people briefed on the matter said.Richard Kahn, who was Mr. Epstein’s accountant for 14 years, said in a confidential deposition that he had learned about the worst of Mr.…

Last May, Fabuwood, a kitchen cabinet manufacturer in Newark, instituted a new company policy: No phones allowed during meetings.To enforce it, the company installed “device shelves” outside each of its six glass-walled conference rooms. On a recent Wednesday morning, there were animated meetings in three of the conference rooms, and the shelves outside were full of smartphones, tablets and ’90s-style flip phones. The 1,200-person company pays the cost of a flip phone for employees who give up their smartphone, and 80 people have acted on the offer.Surprisingly, employees say they like it. Rena Stoff, a project manager, said that while…

Adele Springsteen, who nurtured the budding musical talent of her son, the pioneering rock star Bruce Springsteen, died on Wednesday. She was 98.Mr. Springsteen announced his mother’s death in an Instagram post on Thursday. No cause was given, but Ms. Springsteen had struggled for more than a decade with Alzheimer’s disease.Her son has been outspoken about his relationship with his mother and her influence on him.Ms. Springsteen rented him his first guitar when he was 7, he said in 2021 during his Broadway show, “Bruce on Broadway,” which ran for more than two months as the city began to emerge…

But since the attacks by Hamas and Israel’s response in Gaza, polls show the president losing support among Arab Americans. One poll late last year showed Mr. Biden’s support in that population plummeting from 59 percent to 17 percent, a more than 40 percentage point decrease since the last election.Mr. Biden has been dogged by people protesting his support for Israel at almost every campaign event in recent weeks. At a third stop on Thursday, at the Simple Palate restaurant, he was met by a number of protesters waving Palestinian flags and using a megaphone to chant, “Genocide Joe” and…