Author: NY TIMES

She was a figure out of fiction, right down to her Jane Austen name. The daughter of a baroness and a British major (a spy during World War II), Marianne Faithfull — who died this week at 78 — was discovered by the Rolling Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, at a record release party in the 1960s while still in her teens. “My first move was to get a Rolling Stone as a boyfriend,” she was often quoted as having said. “I slept with three and decided the lead singer was the best bet.”The bet paid off for both parties.…

Syria’s newly appointed interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, arrived in Saudi Arabia on Sunday for his first foreign trip since his rebel coalition ousted the longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad.Mr. al-Shara landed at the airport in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, early Sunday afternoon. The new flag of Syria flew alongside the Saudi flag at the airport. Mr. al-Shara later met with the oil-rich kingdom’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, according to Syrian and Saudi state news media. The two leaders were expected to discuss strengthening relations and how to garner support for the lifting of international sanctions imposed on Syria, according to…

The Federal Aviation Administration was using a backup system to send real-time safety alerts to pilots late Saturday because its primary one was “experiencing a temporary outage,” the Transportation Department said.“The primary NOTAM system is experiencing a temporary outage, but there is currently no impact to the National Airspace System because a backup system is in place,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on social media.Mr. Duffy was referring to “Notice to Air Missions,” the alerts that the F.A.A. uses to share information about hazards in the air or on the ground, such as closed runways, airspace restrictions and navigational signal…

China is the world’s factory floor. From high-end digital devices to inexpensive tchotchkes, many of the products that are bought and sold in the United States are made in China.President Trump has imposed additional tariffs on Chinese-made goods imported to the United States. Trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies are already high.We are a team of reporters who write about business and economic issues for The New York Times with a special focus on China and how geopolitical issues affect companies, businesses and people. We have written about how Chinese electric vehicles are flooding into Thailand and how…

In the past week, OpenAI’s Operator has done the following things for me:Ordered me a new ice cream scoop on Amazon.Bought me a new domain name and configured its settings.Booked a Valentine’s Day date for me and my wife.Scheduled a haircut.It did these tasks mostly autonomously, although I did have to nudge it along from time to time and occasionally rescue it from a loop of failed attempts.If you’re just catching up — or if you’ve been distracted by the DeepSeek news this week, which has overshadowed all other A.I. news — Operator is a new so-called A.I. agent released…

Lifesaving health initiatives and medical research projects have shut down around the world in response to the Trump administration’s 90-day pause on foreign aid and stop-work orders.In Uganda, the National Malaria Control Program has suspended spraying insecticide into village homes and ceased shipments of bed nets for distribution to pregnant women and young children, said Dr. Jimmy Opigo, the program’s director.Medical supplies, including drugs to stop hemorrhages in pregnant women and rehydration salts that treat life-threatening diarrhea in toddlers, cannot reach villages in Zambia because the trucking companies transporting them were paid through a suspended supply project of the United…

The protracted delay mirrors the many obstacles the musicians faced as migrants to the U.K. decades ago. While the pair now live in Anguilla, for the interview, conducted by video, Scipio spoke from his children’s home in Kent, England, while Patterson, 75, spoke from his kids’ place in London, three miles from where the two grew up, in Balham. With joy, they recalled their early days in Guyana, which has strong cultural connections to the Caribbean.“At the time Guyana was still a colony and most of the high-profile jobs were taken by English people,” Scipio said. “But we were kids,…

Soon after Islamist rebels overthrew the authoritarian president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, a hashtag gathered steam on Egyptian social media: “It’s your turn, dictator.”The message for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt was unmistakable. But he hardly needed the warning.Since the ouster of Syria’s longtime dictator on Dec. 8, Egyptian leaders have watched events in the Syrian capital, Damascus, with grim-faced vigilance, knowing well that revolutionary fire has a tendency to spread.Both countries have had a turbulent history since the Arab Spring uprisings that started in late 2010 and spread across the Middle East.The Syrian revolt culminated almost 14 years…

The authorities in Norway have seized a Russian-crewed ship that is suspected of damaging an undersea cable in an act of sabotage in the Baltic Sea, the Norwegian police said on Friday.They were acting on a request from the Latvian authorities and on an order issued in Norwegian courts, the police said in a statement, after an undersea cable that runs between Sweden and Latvia was damaged this week.It is the latest in a growing number of acts of damage or sabotage to undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, including to cables used for communication and for the distribution of…

More than 90 percent of the country’s 313 air traffic control facilities operate below the Federal Aviation Administration’s recommended staffing levels, according to an analysis of staffing data from the union representing controllers obtained by The New York Times.As of earlier this month, 285 facilities — which include traffic control towers and other locations — were below staffing thresholds set by the F.A.A. and the union. At 73 of those facilities, staffing is so low that at least a quarter of the work force is missing.The U.S. air travel system remains among the safest in the world. But persistent staff…