Author: NY TIMES

It is easy for Alex Behr to gush about her son, Eli, whom she describes as a generous and thoughtful college junior who had a serious skateboarding phase.It is much harder for her to talk about his politics. Ms. Behr, 59, is a Democrat in Portland, Ore., who voted enthusiastically for Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election. She and her ex-husband were appalled that Eli, 20, decided to cast his first vote in a presidential election this fall for Donald J. Trump.When Eli brought a “Make America Great Again” hat home from college this summer, Ms. Behr threw…

One man was known as a killer, sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for killing a 16-year-old London student in a gruesome confrontation at a bakery.The other man was a balaclava-wearing rapper from South London, known as TEN, whose music in the drill genre about prison life, crime and bloodshed had gained him a small but emerging profile.The two once disconnected identities became embroiled in Britain, after a tabloid investigation this week claimed that Jake Fahri, who had been conditionally released from prison in the bakery killing, and the artist TEN, were the same person.That conclusion, in turn, cast…

Three hostages have been freed in the first phase of the cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel. The hostages, all women, were released into Red Cross custody in Gaza on Sunday and were being transferred to Israeli forces, the Israeli military said.About 100 hostages, living and dead, are thought still to be held captive in Gaza, most of them taken in the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Thirty-three of them will be released during an initial six-week phase of the cease-fire, including female soldiers and civilians, children, men over 50 and sick and wounded people, according…

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – It’s a cold December afternoon in the lobby of a hotel near Central Park in downtown Manhattan.A 23-year-old woman looked up from a club chair near the elevator. She’s wearing a baseball cap and playing with her phone.”Hey,” she said.Take another look. Oh, by the way, that’s Emma Navarro: U.S. Open semifinalist, top-10 female player after just one full season at the top level. After a night of photo shoots, media fests and appearances on the New York Knicks with a few other tennis players you’ve probably heard of – Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton and Jessica Pegula…

Putting aside that argument, there are certainly some diplomatic opportunities Mr. Trump can seize, though history and ominous recent warnings suggest that he may soften up his adversaries and his allies with threats of military action if he doesn’t get what he wants. (See: Iran, Greenland, Panama.)Here is a scorecard to keep handy in the first few months.In the fog of war, a potential Ukraine dealThere is very little evidence that Mr. Putin is eager for a deal that would extract him from a war that has already cost Russia nearly 200,000 dead and more than half a million wounded.…

Privacy can be hard to come by in India. Life is a communal swirl of relatives, neighbors and friends. Cities are crowded, and prying eyes are everywhere.Enter Oyo, a popular hotel-booking platform. The company, backed by big names in venture capital, built a hip reputation as a gateway to “love hotels” for unmarried couples. Inside its budget rooms, young lovers who might otherwise be left to steal furtive kisses in the nooks and crannies of public parks or shopping malls could exert their passions behind closed doors.Now, Oyo is stepping back from its image as a refuge for hookups. This…

“Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” the message read.Hours before a federal law banning TikTok from the United States was set to take effect on Sunday, the Chinese-owned social media app went dark, and U.S. users could no longer access videos on the platform. Instead, the app greeted them with a message that said “a law banning TikTok has been enacted.”“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution,” the message said. “Please stay tuned!”TikTok also appeared to have been removed from Apple and Google’s U.S. app stores, some users said. In…

Though Mr. Kennedy’s embrace of recovery farms may be novel, the concept stretches back almost a century. In 1935, the government opened the United States Narcotic Farm in Lexington, Ky., to research and treat addiction. Over the years, residents included Chet Baker and William S. Burroughs (who portrayed the institution in his novel, “Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict”). The program had high relapse rates and was tainted by drug experiments on human subjects. By 1975, as local treatment centers began to proliferate around the country, the program closed.In America, therapeutic communities for addiction treatment became popular in the…

“Let’s figure out what our letter of the day is!”Ms. Rachel, the children’s YouTube star, cooed that sentence in an Instagram video posted this week as she dug into a sensory bin of purple rice, with the kind of texture toddlers tend to ogle.Set against a blank yellow screen, like many of her videos, she smiled as her ponytail bobbed onto her signature pink T-shirt and blue overalls.She gasped as the camera panned to a bright red “N” in the rice.Holding the letter, she cheerfully told viewers in her singsong voice that her videos would soon be available on Netflix.The…

Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicThe Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” focuses on just a few crucial years at the beginning of the songwriter’s career, from 1961, when he relocated to New York from Minnesota, up through his plugged-in heresy at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. In that short window of time, he revolutionized the folk movement and became something of a pop phenomenon.Playing him, appropriately, is a modern-day pop phenomenon: Timothée Chalamet. And the attention he brings thanks to his outsize celebrity seems designed to expose Dylan to a whole new audience. Dylan is as…