Author: NY TIMES

As Taylor Swift’s N.F.L. adventure began in earnest at a Kansas City Chiefs game against the Chicago Bears on Sept. 24, the reaction of the Fox broadcast crew — and much of the N.F.L. world in general — was summed up by Erin Andrews, a veteran sideline reporter.“We all need to calm down,” Ms. Andrews said, shortly after Travis Kelce scored a second-half touchdown.Ms. Andrews was making a nod to one of Ms. Swift’s songs, but she was also acknowledging how star-struck she and her colleagues were to have the world’s biggest pop star at Arrowhead Stadium to see her…

Israel on Sunday stepped up efforts to prevent Israeli protesters from blocking the flow of aid into Gaza, two days after the United Nations’ highest court said it must allow more supplies to get into the enclave.The Israeli military has declared the area around a border crossing into Gaza a closed military zone in a bid to stop the protests that have for several days impeded the movement of aid through the only open crossing between Israel and Gaza. The decision was made Saturday night but announced publicly only Sunday afternoon.Dozens of protesters had been blocking the Kerem Shalom crossing…

Finland’s presidential election is headed for a runoff after no candidate secured a majority in Sunday’s closely watched vote, which comes as NATO’s newest member faces the threat of an antagonistic Russia.Alexander Stubb and Pekka Haavisto — both familiar faces with strong foreign policy credentials — were the top two finishers on Sunday, when voters braved bitter temperatures and icy sidewalks to cast their ballots. With 99 percent of the ballots counted, Mr. Stubb had garnered 27.1 percent of the vote and Mr. Haavisto 25.7 percent, setting the two men up to face off in a second round on Feb…

Jim Harbaugh is the new head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers , and to understand what that means and why this is happening, you have to understand the current state of the organization.On January 11, 2017, team owner Dean Spanos announced the move from San Diego to Los Angeles in an open letter to fans. In the seven years and 14 days since, the Chargers have faced an uphill battle to find their place among one of the most competitive teams. Sports markets around the world. A fight of their own making, but a fight nonetheless.Organizations know it takes…

There’s a keening sound coming from America’s co-working spaces, third-wave coffee shops, and mommy-and-me yoga classes.Perhaps you’ve heard it, as if 72.2 million complaints rang out in unison: grumblings of sore joints from high-intensity interval training, of parties held in distant neighborhoods on weeknights; grievances about the resurgence of Y2K style, the onset of hair loss, the strength of contemporary marijuana.Millennials have grown up. We’ve hit middle age, started to show signs of aging — even of aging out of the internet and into something called “millenopause.” We now have to work harder than ever to stay culturally relevant, as…

Mr. McMahon, 78, is the most influential figure in the history of professional wrestling. He is not just the co-founder, with his wife, Linda, of the company that would become W.W.E., or a mere corporate officer. He is the person most responsible for transforming wrestling from a sleepy regional entertainment product into a globally televised spectacle.He also appeared in the ring for decades, and is as well known as wrestlers like “The Rock” and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. In the 1990s, he adopted a swaggering, dictatorial in-ring alter ego who screamed at wrestlers, and he was the headliner at pay-per-view…

The National Security Agency buys certain logs related to Americans’ domestic internet activities from commercial data brokers, according to an unclassified letter by the agency.The letter, addressed to a Democratic senator and obtained by The New York Times, offered few details about the nature of the data other than to stress that it did not include the content of internet communications.Still, the revelation is the latest disclosure to bring to the fore a legal gray zone: Intelligence and law enforcement agencies sometimes purchase potentially sensitive and revealing domestic data from brokers that would require a court order to acquire directly.It…

The tenure of Chad Smith, the innovative arts leader who last year left the Los Angeles Philharmonic to run the comparatively old-fashioned Boston Symphony Orchestra, is beginning to take shape.In an announcement on Thursday, the Boston Symphony said that Andris Nelsons, its music director, would move to a rolling, evergreen contract rather than one with a fixed expiration date, and that he would take on a new, educational role as the head of conducting at Tanglewood.Additionally, the orchestra appointed Carlos Simon to a newly created post of composer chair; and announced that it would establish the Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities…

Several countries said over the weekend that they would suspend funding for the United Nations agency that provides food, water and other essential services for Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.The announcements came after Israel accused a dozen employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, of participating in the Oct. 7 attacks led by Hamas. The United Nations said on Friday that it had fired the accused workers and was investigating.Here are the countries that have said their funding of the agency would be affected in some way, ranked according to the amount they have pledged.The…

Israel’s accusations against 12 employees of the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, the main aid operation in Gaza, are the latest episode of a decades-long friction between Israel and the group.The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, is one of the oldest U.N. agencies, founded in 1949 to care for Palestinian Arabs who had fled or been forced from their homes during the wars surrounding the creation of the state of Israel in the late 1940s. When a separate U.N. agency was later founded for refugees of other conflicts, UNRWA remained independent.To Palestinians and their supporters,…