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☆ Costuming a Small Army of Virgins for the Met Opera’s ‘El Niño’
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Louis Lucero Ii | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of “El Niño,” which reimagines the story of Jesus’ birth and early childhood, there are singing and dancing Virgin Marys, Marys of the land and sea; there’s an Indigenous Mary, a Tropical Mary, a Golden Mary. In the director Lileana Blain-Cruz’s vision, the action takes place across multiple “planes.” It could be a lot to take in. Thankfully for Mr. Levi Blanco, 39, he has developed something of a shorthand while working with Ms. Blain-Cruz, whom he has known since he was an M.F.A. The pair have collaborated several times, including on “The Skin of Our Teeth,” for which Mr. Levi Blanco won a Tony Award in 2022. In the case of “El Niño,” painterly scenery by the set designer Adam Rigg evokes the natural environment.

Persons: El, Jesus ’, Virgin Marys, Marys, Montana Levi Blanco, John Adams, Peter Sellars’s, Lileana Blain, Levi Blanco, . Blain, Cruz, Adam Rigg Organizations: Metropolitan, Yale School of Drama Locations: Mary

☆ What to see at the Venice Biennale 2024
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Nicole Mowbray | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —This week sees the opening of the Venice Biennale, an 8-month-long festival of art and culture staged every other year. For 2024 — the show’s 60th iteration — Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa has chosen the topic of “Foreigners Everywhere,” and announced an intention to spotlight artists from diverse and historically marginalized backgrounds. With the main event running from April 20 to November 24 2024, here’s our pick of what to see if you’re headed to Venice. “Willem de Kooning e l’Italia” — Willem de KooningThe show at Gallerie dell’Accademia will include 75 Willem de Kooning works, including "Screams of Children Come from Seagulls (Untitled XX)," 1975. Yoo Youngkuk Art FoundationThe first exhibition in Europe of one of Korea’s most influential artists, including many works never exhibited before outside Korea.

Persons: Adriano Pedrosa, ”, Pedrosa, —, you’re, “ Willem de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Kooning, Gallerie, Nick, Berlinde De, Abbazia, Ewa Juszkiewicz Juszkiewicz, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Palazzo, Palazzo Cavanis, Ai, Peter Hujar, della, Carolina, Marcel Duchamp, Franchetti, Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Lucas, Irving Penn, Palazzo Franchetti, Marco “, Zoe Saldana, Marco Perego, Corita, Maurizio Cattelan, Pope Francis, Inuuteq Storch, Louise Wolthers, “, John Akomfrah, John Akmofrah, Yoo, Yoo Youngkuk, Stampalia, M.F, Husain, Picasso, Viktoria Bavykina, Max Gorbatskyi, Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei, Ela Bialkowska, Ai Weiwei, Palazzo Smith, Koo Jeong, Koo, Rick Lowe, Lowe's, Lowe Organizations: CNN, Venice Biennale, Palazzo, Sun, Danish, British, Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation Locations: Venice, Italy, “, Refuge, ” City, San Giorgio Maggiore, San, New York, Santa, San Marco, Marco, Giudecca, Corita Kent, American, Greenland, Europe, Korea, India, Sale, Ukraine, Continua, Bangkok, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore, Houston

☆ I.M.F. Sees Steady Growth but Warns of Rising Protectionism
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Alan Rappeport | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The global economy is approaching a soft landing after several years of geopolitical and economic turmoil, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. But it warned that risks remain, including stubborn inflation, the threat of escalating global conflicts and rising protectionism. In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the I.M.F. projected global output to hold steady at 3.2 percent in 2024, unchanged from 2023. The forecasts came as policymakers from around the world began arriving in Washington for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Organizations: International Monetary Fund, World Bank Locations: Ukraine, Washington

☆ Opinion | What Janet Yellen Needs to Tell China’s Leaders
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It would be great if Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had a copy of “The Portable Karl Marx” with her on her trip to China this week. China was “among the most unequal countries in the world” in 2018, another I.M.F. working paper released that year said. While Xi Jinping name-checks Marx, it’s clear from his behavior that what he really pursues is national greatness under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. That’s more in line with Lenin, who believed that a “vanguard” party would lead the proletariat, than with Marx or Engels.

Persons: Janet Yellen, Karl Marx ”, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, ” Marx, Xi, Marx, it’s, Lenin, Engels Organizations: International Monetary Fund, Chinese Communist Party Locations: China, Brazil

☆ They moved into floating homes and houseboats — and discovered a world of adventure and hidden expenses
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Amanda Goh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Read previewMoving into their 360-square-foot floating home a year ago was a dream come true for Sarah Spiro and Brandon Jones. In 2023, there were 70 floating home sales reported on the Regional Multiple Listing Service, or RMLS, which covers the Portland area and a significant part of northwest Oregon, Portland Floating Homes real-estate broker John McPherson told BI. Lily and Dylan Rose moved onto their houseboat on Lake Union in Seattle in June 2019. AdvertisementHome insurance for a floating house tends to be about double what it is for a regular house on land, McPherson said. Additionally, the float — the part of the floating house that's equivalent to a foundation — deteriorates over time, McPherson said.

Persons: —, Sarah Spiro, Brandon Jones, Spiro, keepingafloatwiththejoneses Spiro, Jones, keepingafloatwiththejoneses, Adam Lind, @adam.floatinghome, It's, John McPherson, Lily, Dylan Rose, Elizabeth Earle, BI's Jordan Pandy, Earle, Elizabeth Earle Earle's, McPherson, Daryl Fairweather, Redfin's, Realtor.com, Hannah Jones, it's, Laura Woodley, Woodley, isn't, Kate Fincham, Fincham, Lily Rose, Dylan, Rose, she's Organizations: Service, Business, Portland Floating Homes, Realtor.com, Union, Trust, England & Wales, Lake Union Locations: Fontana Lake, North Carolina, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Sausalito , California, Johns Island , South Carolina, England, Bluffers Park, Toronto, Lake, Boston

☆ I.M.F. Agrees to Much Larger Rescue Package for Egypt
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Nada Rashwan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The International Monetary Fund has agreed to more than double a bailout package for Egypt, which is going through its worst economic crisis in decades, exacerbated by war in the neighboring Gaza Strip and in Ukraine. The fund now plans to provide Egypt $8 billion, up from an initial $3 billion announced in October 2022. The I.M.F.’s mission chief to Egypt, Ivanna Vladkova Hollar, noted at a news conference that the already-struggling Egyptian economy had been further hurt by the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has cut into the country’s vital tourism trade. At the same time, revenue from the Suez Canal dropped by half after Houthi militants, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, began attacking cargo ships using Red Sea shipping routes.

Persons: Ivanna Vladkova Hollar Organizations: Monetary Fund Locations: Egypt, Gaza, Ukraine, Israel, Suez

The world is starting 2024 on an optimistic economic note, as inflation fades globally and growth remains more resilient than many forecasters had expected. Yet one country stands out for its surprising strength: the United States. The question is why America has pulled out ahead of other developed economies in the pack. said this week that it expected the United States to grow 2.1 percent, a sharp upgrade from the previous estimate of 1.5 percent. The euro area is expected to notch out 0.9 percent growth, as is Japan, and the United Kingdom is forecast to expand by 0.6 percent.

Organizations: Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund Locations: United States, Ukraine, U.S, United Kingdom, Germany, America, Japan

It was hard to miss Mark Aaron Polger, Alexi Pappas and Masashi Kondo at the New York City Marathon on Sunday. With energy gels and bodega coffees in hand, the crowd made its way to Fort Wadsworth, where thousands of runners congregate each year before running the New York City Marathon. Speed demons wearing Nike Vaporflys and short-shorts mingled with casual runners wearing “Monsters, Inc.” onesies. That’s the record I’m going for. Running is therapeutic, even though I’m going to be running really, really slowly.

Persons: Mark Aaron Polger, Alexi Pappas, Masashi Kondo, ”, “, Adam Tjolle, Simon Waterhouse, Malina Roberts, we’ll, they’re, they’ve, Stephen Zachensky, Marlinda Francisco, Mika Shaw, Maansi Srivastava, It’s, I’ve Organizations: New York City Marathon, Nike, Inc, New York Times, York Locations: Fort Wadsworth, Edinburgh, Scotland, Newmarket, England, Brooklyn, York City, Tokyo, Berlin, New York, Westchester, N.Y, How’d, New York Times Tucson, Ariz, Ogden , Utah, Japan, Los Angeles, Manhattan

☆ Ukrainian ‘Artifacts’ Seized in Spain May Not Be Treasures, Experts Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Eduardo Medina | More About Eduardo Medina | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the police in Spain, the artifacts possessed an ancient and golden allure. The five individuals were arrested and charged with money laundering, and the national police released images and video of the stolen items, saying that their value was around 60 million euros, or $64 million. But two experts in Greco-Scythian artifacts said in interviews that the items seized are most likely modern imitations of those crafted by ancient Greeks for Scythian nomads who, in the 4th century B.C., traversed what is now Ukraine and southern Russia. Leonid Babenko, an archaeologist at the M.F. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum in Kharkiv, Ukraine, said in an email that the items were “clumsy fakes” and had most likely been created for private collectors.

Persons: Leonid Babenko Organizations: Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum Locations: Spain, Ukraine, Madrid, Russia, Sumtsov Kharkiv, Kharkiv

☆ Prospect of Prolonged Israel-Gaza War Adds Economic Havoc to Human Toll
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Liz Alderman | More About Liz Alderman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That has concentrated the pool of recruits around people who make up the bulk of Israel’s entrepreneurial economic activity. Two credit ratings agencies this week warned that Israel’s debt could be downgraded. The Bank of Israel has about $200 billion in foreign exchange reserves — close to 40 percent of the country’s gross domestic product — which its governor, Amir Yaron, told I.M.F. and World Bank officials in a video call on Sunday provided ample capacity to support the economy. Since the conflict, the central bank has earmarked $30 billion in foreign exchange to support the shekel, which has fallen to an eight-year low.

Persons: ”, Ben, David, Moody’s, Fitch, Israel’s, Israel, Goldman Sachs, Amir Yaron, I.M.F Organizations: Bank of Israel, World Bank

☆ Reframing the American Landscape
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Hilarie M. Sheets | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

As a painter of the natural world for more than five decades, Kay WalkingStick says it is impossible not to be influenced by the 19th-century Hudson River School’s majestic depictions of the American landscape. “They were selling the American landscape as empty and of course it was not empty; it was populated,” said Ms. WalkingStick, who in her bold, pared-down painting style revisits similar vistas on which she overlays geometric patterns used by the Native tribe connected to that specific land. “I think of it as a reminder that we’re all living on Indian Territory.”The exhibition “Kay WalkingStick/Hudson River School” opens Friday at the New-York Historical Society. It is the 88-year-old Cherokee artist’s largest museum show so far in New York City, where she received her M.F.A. “I wanted to see our Hudson River School collection through Kay’s eyes and how her work helps us to reinterpret the history of landscape painting in North America,” said Wendy Nalani E. Ikemoto, the museum’s senior curator of American art and a Native Hawaiian.

Persons: Kay WalkingStick, Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Asher B, Durand, “, ”, WalkingStick, “ Kay WalkingStick, WalkingStick’s, Cole, Bierstadt, Frederick A, John Frederick Kensett, Jesse Talbot, Wendy Nalani E Organizations: Fine Arts, Hudson River, York Historical Society, Cherokee, Pratt Institute Locations: Indian Territory, Hudson, New York City, North America

Shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai closed lower again, but, unlike on Monday, the damage didn’t spread across Asia. China’s economy, the world’s second biggest, is in a prolonged slump. That poses a challenge for global growth. has previously forecast that China would account for 35 percent of global growth this year, but that’s looking less likely. The slowdown is hitting everything from commodities to construction, and some big U.S. companies that operate in China don’t expect a rapid turnaround.

Locations: China, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Asia

☆ In the Art of Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Vietnam’s Nightmares Live On
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Roberta Smith | More About Roberta Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One of the wisest, most beautiful and unsettling exhibitions in New York this summer is “Tuan Andrew Nguyen: Radiant Remembrance” at the New Museum, a show about coming to terms with the intergenerational trauma of war. Nguyen works in video and also makes art objects pertaining to them. Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1976, and came to the United States with his family three years later. The artist’s first major exhibition in an American museum, “Radiant Remembrance,” has been organized by Vivian Crockett, a curator at the museum, and Ian Wallace, a curatorial assistant. Its video installations focus on people who live in the shadow of the two long wars for Vietnamese independence.

Persons: “ Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Nguyen, ”, Vivian Crockett, Ian Wallace Organizations: New Museum Locations: New York, Saigon, Vietnam, United States, Oklahoma , Texas, Southern California, Ho Chi Minh City

Dentons, the largest Western law firm in China in terms of staff, said yesterday it would separate from Dacheng, its unit there. The two firms merged in 2015, and Dentons even added Chinese characters to its logo to signal its commitment to the country. That made it impossible to follow legal industry standards and best practice, a person familiar with Dentons’ decision-making told DealBook. “Standards are diverging between China and Western economies,” Eswar Prasad, a trade policy professor at Cornell and a former head of the I.M.F.’s China division, told DealBook. Employees at financial firms operating in China have reportedly been forced to attend lessons in the ideology of President Xi Jinping.

Persons: Dentons, DealBook, Eswar Prasad, “, Xi Jinping Organizations: Cornell Locations: China, Western, ’, Sequoia

☆ After a Long and Painful Absence, Writing Her Way Home Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Leah Greenblatt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By her early 30s she had earned a law degree from Harvard, an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a PEN/Hemingway Award for her lauded debut novel, “The Grass Dancer.” Then Mona Susan Power’s world went dark. But depression, anxiety, and what she would later learn to identify as complex P.T.S.D. led her to withdraw almost completely from a life she felt increasingly ill-equipped to handle in the wake of “The Grass Dancer’s” success. If you’re not prepared for it, if you don’t really believe that you deserve it … the whole impostor syndrome thing, it just got worse.

Persons: Martin Luther King Jr, tugged, Hemingway, ”, Mona Susan Power’s, Nellie, Bear Gates, Susan Kelly Power Organizations: Academy, Harvard, Iowa, ’, PEN, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minn, “, of Dolls Locations: Chicago, St, Paul, “

☆ The Kidnapped Child Who Became a Poet
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Wyatt Mason | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

McCrae dropped out of high school and got an equivalency diploma. By 19, he was on his own, married, father of a daughter, but without a clear path forward, only a clear ambition to write poetry. I felt he had been beaten down by some great force — some injustice beyond the injustice of being Black in America. But these are just themes; every poet has them, and they say nothing about what might make verse notable, durable. It is McCrae’s own deep knowledge, and use, of the history of poetic form that has marked his work and made it, identifiably, his own.

Persons: McCrae, McCrae didn’t, Jorie Graham, “, ” Graham, ‘, ’, identifiably Organizations: Linfield, Iowa, ’, Harvard Law School Locations: America

Fed officials will release their July interest rate decision on Wednesday, followed by a news conference with Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair. Policymakers had previously forecast that they might raise rates one more time in 2023 beyond the expected move this week. It expects consumption, which has remained strong, to begin to wane in the coming months as Americans draw down their savings and interest rates increase further. On Thursday, the European Central Bank is expected to raise interest rates for the 20 countries that use the euro currency to the highest level since 2000. But the economic outlook is still relatively weak, and some analysts expect that the European Central Bank is close to halting interest rate increases amid signs that its restrictive policy stance is weighing on economic growth.

Persons: Jerome H, Powell Organizations: European Central Bank Locations: United States, Germany

☆ Ann Beattie’s Stories Confront Charlottesville, a City Remade
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Dwight Garner | More About Dwight Garner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

ONLOOKERS: Stories, by Ann BeattieThe Covid lockdown period already seems, as a subject, like a flattened corpse over which the whole of American culture and commentary has trampled. A case in point is “Onlookers,” Ann Beattie’s new collection of stories, her best in more than two decades. It takes as its subject Charlottesville, Va., a city remade by quarantine, population growth, new money and the fresh forces shaping American life. program at the University of Virginia, to personages such as Peter Taylor, Alison Lurie, Sam Shepard and Beattie herself. It’s where James Alan McPherson and John Casey discovered Breece D’J Pancake, and where Pancake took his own life.

Persons: Ann Beattie, ” Ann Beattie’s, ”, Peter Taylor, Alison Lurie, Sam Shepard, Beattie, It’s, James Alan McPherson, John Casey, Breece, Pancake, John Grisham Organizations: University of Virginia Locations: Charlottesville, Va

☆ Eurozone Inflation Slows, but Underlying Price Pressures Persist
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Patricia Cohen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Growth is expected to pick up, but further increases in interest rates could act as a brake on the economy. France’s annual inflation rate fell to 5.3 percent in June, from 6 percent in May. Germany, the largest economy in Europe, saw a rise in its annual inflation rate to 6.8 percent, up from 6.3 percent in May. Inflation rates in Germany are expected to resume their fall in September. After adjusting for inflation, profits were above their prepandemic level while workers’ compensation was 2 percent below the trend in the first quarter of this year.

Persons: Gita Gopinath, Christine Lagarde, ’, Giorgia, “, Lucrezia Reichlin, Riccardo Marcelli Fabiani, Price, Lagarde Organizations: International Monetary Fund, London Business School, Oxford Economics, Ukraine — Locations: Sintra , Portugal, France, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Europe

☆ The U.S.-China Rivalry Is Complicating the World’s Debt Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Peter S. Goodman | Adriana Loureiro Fernandez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

and its most influential participant, the United States, also wanted something else: They were adamant that Chinese creditors restructure $545 million in debt — loans Suriname had used to build roads and housing. As scores of middle- and lower-income countries grapple with an intensifying debt crisis, assistance is often held up by conflict between traditionally dominant Western institutions and a significant rising player: China. Its financial institutions dispense loans accompanied by few demands, providing an alternative to the austerity prescribed by the I.M.F. and the Biden administration have balked at providing relief until Chinese financial institutions participate. Otherwise, they assert, Chinese lenders are free-riding on debt forgiveness extended by others.

Persons: —, Biden Organizations: International Monetary Fund, International Monetary Locations: Washington, Suriname, United States, China, Asia, Africa, Latin America

☆ Opinion | The Woman in Charge of Saving Turkey’s Economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When all hope is lost, hire a woman to take over (and take blame). Studies of the so-called glass cliff have found that companies are more likely to bring women on as chief executives or directors when business is bad. Now there’s Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former Wall Street banker who has been named the new central bank governor of Turkey. It “has consistently supported Ukraine politically and militarily without alienating Russia economically,” Yevgeniya Gaber, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Turkey, wrote recently. Turkey also has the world’s 19th-largest economy, with a gross domestic product of nearly $1 trillion a year, according to the World Bank.

Persons: Linda Yaccarino, Hafize Gaye Erkan, Brad Setser, ”, “, Yevgeniya Organizations: Wall Street, Council, Foreign Relations, Central Bank of, NATO, Atlantic Council, World Bank, International Monetary Fund Locations: Turkey, Republic of Turkey, Ukraine, Russia

☆ Opinion | My Father Taught Me the Benefits of Delusion
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Beth Raymer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

As Dad got older and the impact of his choices grew more dire, he kept his Floridian mind-set alive. When he blew through his 401(k), he got right to work on his new retirement plan: the Florida Lottery. I was there to help him pack and was reminded of the first house we rented in Florida, in 1984. It, too, had a furry green pool. And now, all these years later, Dad didn’t either.

Persons: Dad, “, that’s, bedsheets, Shania Twain, sunbathed, Dad didn’t Organizations: Florida, Plattner Automotive, Columbia Locations: Paradise, Florida, Manhattan

☆ Opinion | The Impossible Math of the Debt Deal’s Detractors
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Even the cuts in the debt ceiling deal would be a mild retardant for economic growth. in 2021, compared with 115 percent for the United States, and Japan seems to be doing OK. (Those numbers are somewhat exaggerated because they include debt held by other parts of the government, not just debt held by the public.) At that point, an uncomfortably large portion of federal spending has to be devoted to paying interest on the debt. That brings up the second thing that’s wrong with the right wing’s condemnation of the debt ceiling deal. The drama around the debt ceiling deal, which is far from over, is intense because negotiators are trying to achieve something that is impossible.

☆ What Your Therapist Doesn't Tell You
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Amy X. Wang | Illustrations Liana Finck | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

What Your Therapist Doesn’t Tell You A dozen counselors on what it’s really like to sit in the other armchair. “ ‘I need to pee so bad.’ Clients don’t realize that we have five minutes between sessions and sometimes making it to the bathroom is not possible.” — Jessa White, L.M.H.C.A. You can’t do psychotherapy if a person doesn’t feel safe — there’s no way that’s going to happen. But it’s frustrating too, because as a therapist, you feel you can’t really offer what you signed up for.” — Gabriela Sehinkman, Ph.D., L.I.S.W.-S. To me, therapy is very much like dating, except, you know, obviously you don’t really want to date the person.” — Thien Pham, L.M.F.T.

☆ Opinion | China’s Lending Practices Are Not a Good Look
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This is undoubtedly a factor in China’s diminished standing in the world. Playing ball really would promote “peace and development for all humanity” while winning China some badly needed friends in the world. The explanation for China’s tough stance is discouraging for the short term but possibly encouraging for the long term. But there are signs that China’s leaders will eventually come around to seeing the value of working with the I.M.F. “In more and more countries, Suriname and elsewhere, we’re starting to see more coordination between the People’s Bank of China, the I.M.F.

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