Author: NY TIMES

It is hard to believe that it has only been about a year since travelers started dabbling in ChatGPT-created itineraries. This year will bring even more experimentation and innovation. “A.I. is like a teenage intern,” said Chad Burt, co-owner of the travel adviser network Outside Agents, “better, smarter, faster than you, but you need to lead them.”The expanding use of A.I. could influence how we book online, what happens when flights are canceled or delayed, and even how much we pay for tickets.“In 2024, we will see a new breed of intelligent travel agents built on top of chatbots,” said…

Joseph C. Zadroga, whose lobbying helped deliver health benefits to thousands of emergency workers whose health was impaired by inhaling dust and debris at ground zero after the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center — although his efforts came too late for his own son, a New York City detective — died on Saturday after being hit by a car in Pomona, N.J. He was 76.His death was confirmed by his son Joseph F. Zadroga.Early Saturday afternoon, the elder Mr. Zadroga was visiting his wife at the Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation. According to the Galloway Township police, he…

A judge in New York on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit that the English actress Sophie Turner filed last year against her husband, Joe Jonas, in which she requested that their two young children be returned to England from the United States.The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was dismissed with both parties’ consent, according to a court filing.Turner, a star on the television show “Game of Thrones,” sued Jonas, an American musician who plays in a boy band with his brothers, in September, weeks after the couple said publicly that they planned to…

A near-total communications blackout across the Gaza Strip extended for a seventh consecutive day on Thursday, leaving besieged civilians unable to call for help and aid workers struggling to reach them, as Israeli airstrikes continue to rain down on the south.Paltel, the strip’s largest telecommunications company, said the blackout was the longest of several that Gaza has experienced since the start of the war, and said it was the result of damaged infrastructure in the southern city of Khan Younis.Airstrikes and fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants in the city have been so intense that repair crews have had…

For two and a half hours on Wednesday, German border officers were up against an unlikely foe: the Terminator.Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie-star-turned-former-California-governor, found himself on the wrong side of customs at Munich International Airport when a routine inspection unearthed a luxury watch that the action star had failed to declare.Mr. Schwarzenegger was reportedly en route to his native Austria from Los Angeles when customs officers at Munich discovered the watch, which the actor told customs officials was to be sold for charity, according to local news reports and a spokesman for the Munich airport’s customs division.A dinner event and auction…

It would be impossible to tell the story of college basketball over the past four decades without Tara Vanderveer. The Stanford icon, USA Basketball coach and overall standard-bearer for West Coast basketball has been an integral figure in the development of women’s basketball since Title IX. With two more wins, VanDerveer would surpass former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski as the winningest coach on either men’s or women’s college campuses.deeperA lonely summer supports a coaching iconIt’s expected she may break the record this weekend, and we’ll be publishing stories about her esteemed career this week. Here’s a look back at some…

A Virginia woman who has spent more than a year digging a tunnel under her home and documenting the project on TikTok was recently stopped by officials in her town after the popularity of her account brought their attention to her project.Spending hours heaving dirt and rocks from the ground might seem like an unusual pastime, but it has a history: hobby tunnelists of yore include the Fifth Duke of Portland, who in the 19th century built an underground ballroom on his property, and, more recently, the so-called mole man of London, who spent 40 years making tunnels before he…

Why It Matters: Rishi Sunak met his inflation pledge.About a year ago, with inflation above 10 percent, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made several pledges to the British public on the economy, migration and the health service. Wednesday’s data confirms that he met one of those — to cut Britain’s inflation rate in half. It’s a much-needed win for the government as it begins an election year with Mr. Sunak’s political party trailing in the polls.But even as households may be relieved that prices aren’t rising as quickly, the cumulative impact of high inflation is still being felt. For example, food…

Apple said on Wednesday that it would begin selling its flagship smartwatches without the ability to detect people’s blood-oxygen levels.The tech giant will drop the feature starting Thursday after losing a patent case over its blood-oxygen measurement technology two months ago. The court ordered Apple to stop selling its Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 devices. Rather than discontinue sales, the company sought permission to continue selling the devices after removing the infringing technology.People who buy a new watch in the United States will still see Apple’s Blood Oxygen app on the devices, the company said. But if…

King Charles III will have a procedure to address an enlarged prostate at a hospital next week. The 75-year-old British monarch’s diagnosis is common among men his age, and experts say that typical treatments are not dangerous.An enlarged prostate, known also as benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH, is a noncancerous condition that occurs frequently among older men. By age 60, more than half of men have at least mild BPH symptoms, which include difficulty urinating and a sense of urgency to urinate. But often the symptoms are not severe enough to require treatment.The condition is analogous to menopause in women,…