Author: NY TIMES

Dear listeners,The music video for “Yes, And?,” Ariana Grande’s first new solo single in more than three years, opens with a tight shot of a ruby-red business card bearing the phrase “ag7.” In modern pop parlance, this is a way of hinting that her seventh album is coming soon.I’ve long felt that the seventh album — if an artist is lucky enough to get that far — is a pivotal moment. Sometimes it’s the perfect time for a sonic and aesthetic reinvention, à la U2’s glammy 1991 album (and my favorite in its discography) “Achtung Baby.” It can also be…

The Houthis have long built their legitimacy on hostility toward the United States and Israel, and support for the Palestinian cause. Part of the group’s slogan is “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews.” Before the strikes on Friday, the group’s leaders had welcomed the prospect of war with the United States.Strikes are therefore “extremely unlikely” to stop the group’s Red Sea attacks, Ms. Porter said.“The Houthis are very comfortable operating in a wartime environment,” she said. “They are more successful as a military group than they are as a government.”The strikes could also help the…

The heirs of a woman who was forced to surrender a painting to the Nazis were dealt a blow on Tuesday in a decades-long legal feud between them and the Spanish museum that now owns the work, when a Federal Court in California ruled that the museum should retain ownership.The ruling, in one of the longest-running Nazi restitution cases, involves a Camille Pissarro painting titled “Rue Saint-Honoré Après-midi, Effet de Pluie” (“Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain”) that is estimated to be worth millions of dollars. The painting was surrendered by a Jewish woman, Lilly Cassirer, to get…

And she’s not exactly following the rules. Source link

Note that the average fund substantially lagged the broad stock market averages. Most funds are actively managed, by professionals trying to beat the market. By contrast, broad low-cost index funds, which merely seek to mirror the markets, generally did their job well.For example, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund returned 12.3 percent for the quarter and 26.1 percent for the year, beating the average fund as well as the S&P 500. That, in a nutshell, is why I believe it’s better for most people to use low-cost index funds.Most global markets also did well in 2023 — and, as…

Many modern cars are internet-connected and have apps that allow an owner to see a car’s location, turn it on remotely, honk its horn and even adjust the temperature. These apps for car control and tracking are designed for convenience, but a New York Times article last month detailed how they have been weaponized in abusive relationships, allowing for unwanted stalking and harassment.Domestic violence survivors and experts said car companies had not been responsive when asked to cut off abusers’ digital access to cars. Customer service agents at the car companies were unable to help when the abuser was the…

The Quaker Oats Company added more products this week to a recall that started last month over possible salmonella contamination, raising the total number of products to more than 60.Quaker Oats, which is owned by PepsiCo, initially recalled 43 products, including granola bars, cereals and various snack foods. On Thursday, the company added 24 products to the list.The newly recalled items include Quaker Chewy Granola Bars, Gatorade protein bars, Cap’n Crunch bars, Quaker Simply Granola Cereals, Gamesa Marias Cereal and other cereals.“To date, Quaker has received no confirmed reports of illness related to the products covered by this recall,” the…

Leon Wildes, a New York immigration lawyer who successfully fought the United States government’s attempt to deport John Lennon, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 90.His death, at Lenox Hill Hospital, was confirmed by his son Michael.For more than three years, from early 1972 to the fall of 1975, Mr. Wildes (pronounced WY-ulds) doggedly battled the targeting by the Nixon administration and immigration officials of Mr. Lennon, the former Beatle, and his wife, Yoko Ono, marshaling a series of legal arguments that exposed both political chicanery and a hidden U.S. immigration policy.Uncovering secret records through the Freedom of Information…

Two members of the Navy SEALs remained missing on Saturday after a mishap two days ago while they were attempting to board a ship off the coast of Somalia, two current and two former Pentagon officials said.The incident comes as the United States is stepping up actions against Iranian-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen, intent on curbing their attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. As part of those missions, the U.S. Navy and allies have been responding to distress calls.Over the past two days, the U.S. and allies have struck Houthi-linked targets in Yemen, trying to damage the militia’s…

As a boy, Blas Omar Jaime spent many afternoons learning about his ancestors. Over yerba mate and torta fritas, his mother, Ederlinda Miguelina Yelón, passed along the knowledge she had stored in Chaná, a throaty language spoken by barely moving the lips or tongue.The Chaná are an Indigenous people in Argentina and Uruguay whose lives were intertwined with the mighty Paraná River, the second longest in South America. They revered silence, considered birds their guardians and sang their babies lullabies: Utalá tapey-’é, uá utalá dioi — sleep little one, the sun has gone to sleep.Ms. Miguelina Yelón urged her son…