Author: NY TIMES

In a mountainous corner of Indonesia lies a hill, dotted with stone terraces, where people come from around the country to hold Islamic and Hindu rituals. Some say the site has a mystical air, or even that it might hold buried treasure.The partially excavated site, Gunung Padang, is a relaxing place to spend an afternoon. It’s also at the center of a raging debate.Archaeologists say that the hill is a dormant volcano and that ceramics recovered there so far suggest that humans have been using the site for several hundred years or more. But some Indonesians, including an earthquake geologist…

CLEARWATER, Fla. — When Charlie Manuel started talking again, he was speechless. It had been five days since his stroke. He felt better. Over time, he will regain feeling on his right side. But last September, there was no news.”I knew what I wanted to say,” Manuel said months later. “It does move you. You know what to say, but you can’t say it.”Manuel is the ultimate baseball figure, having been involved in the game for over 60 years. Known for his love of hitting, signature mistakes and colorful language, the winningest manager in Phillies history was always most at…

Extra-large bags, silver jewelry and gardening are in. Quiet luxury, podcasts and late bedtimes are out. That’s at least according to Instagram and TikTok, where lists confidently declaring which trends will thrive and which will die in the new year abounded as the clock struck midnight on Sunday.The dead week between Christmas and the new year has always been conducive to introspection, the hours usually spent working or socializing suddenly freed up for stewing in regret, rethinking bad habits or planning a comeback. But instead of making traditional New Year’s resolutions, many TikTok and Instagram users have started publishing “In…

Xerox said on Wednesday that it was cutting 15 percent of its work force as part of a restructuring, the company’s latest effort to shift focus to its business-services offerings and away from its iconic photocopiers.In a news release, the company said it would reduce its global staff, which included roughly 23,000 employees in 2022, and name a new leadership team. The layoffs are expected to take place in the first quarter of 2024.The company’s shares fell more than 12 percent after the layoff news was announced. Its share price had been steadily rising over the past year, in part…

The holidays have come and gone, and once again Americans are riding a tide of respiratory ailments, including Covid. But so far, this winter’s Covid uptick seems less deadly than last year’s, and much less so than in 2022, when the Omicron surge ground the nation to a halt.“We’re not seeing the signs that would make me think that we’re heading into another severe wave,” said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “So far, we’re in relatively good shape.”Still, there are few masks in sight, and just a fraction of the most vulnerable people…

There are some precedents for Valmond’s coverage. In the 2000s, street magazines like F.E.D.S. and Don Diva emerged to document underworld figures, sometimes in their own words. Some YouTube channels trade in old street-life war stories. And in earlier phases of the internet, message boards and blogs touched on these subjects as well.Though Valmond begins with news reports and other published information, some facts are impossible to independently verify. Memories can be hazy, and reputations are sometimes built on bluster. His threads can sometimes land closer to apocrypha than unassailable truth. (There are a handful of other Twitter and Instagram…

When Senator Robert Menendez arrived in Qatar in 2022 to attend the country’s lavish production of the men’s soccer World Cup, he gave an unusual interview to the authoritarian government’s news agency praising the progress that Qatar had made on labor rights.The tiny Gulf state was facing an onslaught of international criticism over its preparations for the world’s biggest sporting event, including over the exploitation of migrant workers who built the tournament’s infrastructure. But Mr. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said he preferred to highlight positive aspects of the games, and the host nation.Traveling to Qatar gave Mr. Menendez “the…

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…