Author: NY TIMES

Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday announced a mutual release of hundreds of prisoners of war, the biggest exchange between the two countries since the start of the conflict nearly two years ago and the first one in months.Both Russian and Ukrainian authorities said the deal had been made possible through mediation by the United Arab Emirates, which has tried to cast itself as a neutral intermediary between the two countries. The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that 234 of its soldiers had returned from Ukrainian captivity, while President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on social media that 224…

When you’re renovating a kitchen, it’s easy to get swept up in choosing cabinets, counters and appliances. But there’s another element that matters just as much: lighting.“The importance of lighting in a kitchen is twofold,” said Rush Jenkins, the chief executive of WRJ Design in Jackson, Wyo. “One is having sufficient light on surfaces to see what you’re doing. The other is decorative lighting, which can enhance a home in the same way that gorgeous jewelry enhances a beautiful outfit.”And now that food preparation spaces double as gathering places, using lighting to set the mood is more important than ever,…

Federal Reserve officials wanted to use their final policy statement of 2023 to signal that interest rates might be at their peak even as they left the door open to future rate increases, minutes from their December meeting showed.The notes, released on Wednesday, explained why officials tweaked a key sentence in that statement — adding “any” to the phrase pledging that officials would work to gauge “the extent of any additional policy firming that may be appropriate.” The point was to relay the judgment that policy “was likely now at or near its peak” as inflation moderated and higher interest…

Federal labor officials accused the rocket company SpaceX on Wednesday of illegally firing eight employees for circulating a letter critical of the company’s founder and chief executive, Elon Musk.According to a complaint issued by a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board, the company fired the employees in 2022 for calling on SpaceX to distance itself from social media comments by Mr. Musk, including one in which he mocked sexual harassment accusations against him.The letter circulated by the employees also called on SpaceX, which has more than 13,000 employees, to clarify its harassment policies and enforce them consistently.The labor…

Sidney M. Wolfe, a physician and consumer advocate who for more than 40 years hounded the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration over high prices, dangerous side effects and overlooked health hazards, bringing a new level of transparency and accountability to the world of medical care, died on Monday at his home in Washington. He was 86.His wife, Suzanne Goldberg, said the cause was a brain tumor.Along with the consumer advocate Ralph Nader, Dr. Wolfe founded the Health Research Group in 1971, and over the next four decades used it as a base for his relentless campaigns on…

The Atlanta rapper T.I., born Clifford Harris, was sued on Tuesday, along with his wife, Tameka Harris, known as Tiny, by a woman who accused the couple of drugging and raping her after she met them at a Los Angeles nightclub around 2005.In the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, which extended the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims, the woman is identified only as Jane Doe, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, who was 22 or 23 years old at the time. She previously gave her account of…

A pair of explosions on Wednesday at a commemoration for Iran’s former top general, Qassim Suleimani, killed at least 103 people and wounded another 171, according to Iranian officials, sowing fear and grief in Iran, which has been on edge for more than a year over widening divisions between the hard-line government and many of its people.Coming almost three months into Israel’s war in Gaza and a day after an explosion killed several Hamas officials in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, the blasts also ratcheted up fears of a widening regional conflict.Iranian officials told state media that a pair of…

Many Israelis welcomed the assassination of a top Hamas official in Beirut as a necessary, even inevitable, step in the campaign to destroy Hamas that Israel has been waging since the terror group’s brutal Oct. 7 attacks.But some analysts said the killing of the official, Saleh al-Arouri, on Tuesday carries risks for Israel, and the benefits are unclear. The assassination appeared likely to put on ice any talks between Israel and Hamas over freeing more hostages taken on Oct. 7, dealing yet another setback to families waiting desperately for their loved ones to come home.While the death of Mr. al-Arouri,…

If you are on the dating scene in 2024, you have likely accumulated a certain amount of clutter. Maybe it’s an outdated online profile that you can’t bring yourself to overhaul, or a match you keep messaging despite not seeing a future together. Perhaps you’re still haunted by someone who ghosted you.These forms of romantic hoarding are symptomatic of an app-driven dating culture in which people are conditioned to constantly swipe and seek new prospects, even though “that’s not necessarily the best thing for your mental health,” said Nick Fager, a licensed mental health counselor who sees clients in New…

A weekly newspaper in Oregon abruptly stopped publishing and laid off all of its workers after an employee embezzled tens of thousands of dollars and left months of bills unpaid, its editor said.The newspaper, The Eugene Weekly, announced on Thursday that it would stop printing after it discovered financial problems, including money not being paid into employee retirement accounts and $70,000 of unpaid bills to the newspaper’s printer, Camilla Mortensen, the newspaper’s editor, said on Sunday.The entire 10-person newspaper staff was laid off three days before Christmas, though some workers, including Ms. Mortensen, were still volunteering to publish articles online.The…