Author: NY TIMES

Israel was trying to demolish part of a Palestinian neighborhood as it pursued a plan to create a buffer zone between Gaza and Israel when around 20 Israeli soldiers were killed Monday in an explosion, according to three Israeli officials and an Israeli officer involved in the demolitions.The explosion on Monday occurred after Gazan militants fired toward a tank guarding an Israeli unit that had been setting explosives inside Palestinian buildings on the border in central Gaza with the intention of demolishing them, according to a news briefing given by the Israeli military on Tuesday. In the firefight, the explosives…

If you wanted to explain the way a certain kind of very online tastemaking works in 2024 to an alien, or a 45-year-old, you could do a lot worse than showing them Perfectly Imperfect.Since starting early in the pandemic, the Substack newsletter, along with its popular Instagram account, has become a kind of Debrett’s for a clout-chasing universe of Lower Manhattan influencers, podcasters, “it” girls, artists, scribblers, memesters, scenesters and a ubiquitous young man named Zack Bia. (There is also the occasional bona fide celebrity.) Each entry consists of a guest recommending stuff: books, films, records and clothes, but also…

As stock markets soared in 2023, so did the fortunes of many of the world’s biggest hedge funds.The 20 best-performing hedge funds made $67 billion in gains last year, triple what they reported in 2022, according to data released by LCH Investments, a so-called fund of funds that ranks the top 20 firms on lifetime gains, after fees.The strong performance by elite financiers follows the rally that stock markets have enjoyed over the past year. The S&P 500, Wall Street’s most widely followed benchmark, hit a record last week. That has benefited hedge funds, especially those that make focused bets…

Now that she’s released the deluxe edition — in honor of her 78th birthday, on Friday! — Dolly Parton’s already sprawling double album “Rockstar” runs nearly three hours long and clocks in at an indefatigably rockin’ 39 tracks. This makes finding the album’s buried treasures that much more exhausting, but luckily one sparkles out from the heap of newly released bonus tracks: her ornately arranged and deeply felt cover of Billy Joel’s 1974 single “The Entertainer.” Joel’s version was full of a young upstart’s gimlet-eyed cynicism — “If you’re gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they…

Supporters and relatives of hostages captured in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks burst into a meeting at Israel’s Parliament on Monday to demand that lawmakers take greater action to secure the captives’ release from Gaza.The protest reflected the growing frustration of hostage families who have become increasingly concerned about the fate of their family members as the war, already well into its fourth month, continues.“You will not sit here while they are dying there,” read signs held up by some of the demonstrators, who interrupted a meeting of the Finance Committee.“Shame on you!” one of the protesters yelled.Over the past…

A large Russian military transport plane crashed on Wednesday in the Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, state news agencies said, citing a statement by the Russian Defense Ministry.The ministry said that the plane carried 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were being transferred to the region to be exchanged for Russian service personnel. The claim could not be independently verified. The plane also carried six crew members and three other individuals, the ministry said, according to Tass, a Russian state news agency.The Defense Ministry did not say whether there were any survivors.The Ukrainian military intelligence agency said that…

The fact that the big Oscar nominations reveal fell right in the middle of the Paris couture shows was a coincidence, but a fortuitous one. After all, ever since the end of the actors’ strike, the red carpet has been a veritable explosion of pent-up fashion fantasy. What better place to shop for that than at the couture?Little wonder then that the celebrities (and their stylists) are back in town, swanning onto the front rows of the brands where they have relationships or want to have relationships or that are trying to lure them into relationships.Here was Zendaya, scoping out…

Maybe it was the wordless image of the United States Olympic hockey team celebrating the “Miracle on Ice.” Perhaps it was the perfect frame of Dwight Clark making “The Catch” to send the San Francisco 49ers to the 1982 Super Bowl. Or it could have been the declaration that a 17-year-old LeBron James was “The Chosen One,” 20 months before he played in his first N.B.A. game.For sports fans of a certain age, the memory of running to the mailbox to see what was on the cover of the latest weekly issue of Sports Illustrated is indelible. For decades, the…

Nicki Minaj gave birth in 2020 amid a five-year break between albums and kept mostly out of the spotlight during her son’s infancy. Though she has shared photos of her son, affectionately known as Papa Bear, on her social media accounts and in a recent Vogue cover shoot, she has kept plenty private, including his real name. Ahead of her return to music and the release of “Pink Friday 2,” which debuted at No. 1 in December, she told Vogue she had anticipated feeling pangs of missing out no matter how much or little she worked. “Well, if I’m going…

For years, the scrappy Iran-backed Yemeni rebels known as the Houthis did such a good job of bedeviling American partners in the Middle East that Pentagon war planners started copying some of their tactics.Noting that the Houthis had managed to weaponize commercial radar systems that are commonly available in boating stores and make them more portable, a senior U.S. commander challenged his Marines to figure out something similar. By September 2022, Marines in the Baltic Sea were adapting Houthi-inspired mobile radar systems.So senior Pentagon officials knew as soon as the Houthis started attacking ships in the Red Sea that they…