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    U.S. Oil Companies Are ‘Battening Down the Hatches’

    The industry is bracing for the OPEC Plus oil cartel’s meeting on Saturday, which is widely expected to further increase oil production despite weak demand.U.S. oil companies are pulling back as lower commodity prices take a toll.After two months of crude oil prices hovering around $60 a barrel, companies are shutting down drilling rigs and laying off workers as they pare spending. It now appears very likely that U.S. oil production will not grow much this year, if at all.There are two main reasons for low oil prices. President Trump’s trade war is likely to slow the global economy, hurting demand for fuel. And OPEC Plus, an oil cartel led by Saudi Arabia, is increasing production of oil as demand is softening.On Saturday, eight members of the cartel are widely expected to announce plans to bring even more oil to market this summer, which could send prices lower still.American oil companies are not waiting to find out.While the oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron are maintaining their spending plans, smaller companies are pulling back. Those focused on drilling for oil now plan to spend around 3.5 percent less this year than previously planned, according to a BloombergNEF analysis of a dozen publicly traded companies. All things equal, more drilling tends to drive oil prices down and less drilling generally props them up.“We can’t run our program on hope,” Tom Jorden, chief executive of the oil and gas producer Coterra Energy, told analysts during an earnings call this month. “So we are battening down the hatches, expecting this to last for a while.”The Houston-based company said it would drill less in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the top U.S. oil field, and more in the Northeast, which is rich in natural gas. Prices for that fuel, used in power plants and for heating, have been much more resilient.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Book Club: Read ‘Mrs. Dalloway,’ by Virginia Woolf, with the Book Review

    In June, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “Mrs. Dalloway,” Virginia Woolf’s classic novel about one day in the life of an London woman in 1923.Welcome to the Book Review Book Club! Every month, we select a book to discuss with our readers. Last month, we read “The Safekeep,” by Yael van der Wouden. (You can also go back and listen to our episodes on “Playworld,” “We Do Not Part” and “Orbital.”)It’s a beloved opening line from a beloved book: “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” So begins Virginia Woolf’s classic 1925 novel, “Mrs. Dalloway.”The book tracks one day in the life of an English woman, Clarissa Dalloway, living in post-World War I London, as she prepares for, and then hosts, a party. That’s pretty much it, as far as the plot goes. But within that single day, whole worlds unfold, as Woolf captures the expansiveness of human experience through Clarissa’s roving thoughts. Over the course of just a few hours, we see her grapple with social pressures, love, family, the trauma of war and more. The result is a groundbreaking portrayal of consciousness and a poetic look at what it means to be alive.This year, the novel turns 100 years old.To celebrate the book’s centennial, in June, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “Mrs. Dalloway,” by Virginia Woolf. We’ll be chatting about the book on the Book Review podcast that airs on June 27, and we’d love for you to join the conversation. Share your thoughts about the novel in the comments section of this article by June 19, and we may mention your observations in the episode.Here’s some related reading to get you started.Our original 1925 review of “Mrs. Dalloway”: “Mrs. Woolf is eminently among those who ‘kindle and illuminate.’ Mrs. Woolf has set free a new clarity of thought and rendered possible a more precise and more evocative agglutination of complicated ideas in simplicity of expression.” Read the full review here.This essay by the author Michael Cunningham (whose book “The Hours” is a riff on “Mrs. Dalloway”) about Virginia Woolf’s literary revolution: “Woolf was among the first writers to understand that there are no insignificant lives, only inadequate ways of looking at them. In ‘Mrs. Dalloway,’ Woolf insists that a single, outwardly ordinary day in the life of a woman named Clarissa Dalloway, an outwardly rather ordinary person, contains just about everything one needs to know about human life, in more or less the way nearly every cell contains the entirety of an organism’s DNA.” Read the full essay here.The writer Ben Libman’s essay, “Was 1925 Literary Modernism’s Most Important Year?”, in which he discusses Virginia Woolf and a host of other modernist writers: “She is an inhabitant of minds. And the mind, in ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ and later, in a more extreme sense, in ‘The Waves’ (1931), is a kind of nebulous antenna tuning in and out of life’s frequencies, ever enveloped in its luminous halo.” Read the full essay here.We can’t wait to discuss the book with you. In the meantime, happy reading! More

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    5 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week

    Whether you’re a casual moviegoer or an avid buff, our reviewers think these films are worth knowing about.A visual feast that’s too overstuffed.Mia Threapleton and Benicio Del Toro in “The Phoenician Scheme.”TPS Productions/Focus Features‘The Phoenician Scheme’In the latest from Wes Anderson, a shady business tycoon enlists his religious daughter to pull off a convoluted plan.From our review:It’s overstuffed, and thus skims and skitters across the surface of everything it touches, only glancing here and there before it’s taking off to the next story beat, the next exquisitely detailed composition. A breath or two or 10 might have been in order, a moment to contemplate what the movie’s getting at. You sometimes get the feeling it’s afraid to look too hard at itself.In theaters. Read the full review.Doesn’t earn its black belt.Jackie Chan, left, and Ben Wang in “Karate Kid: Legends.”Jonathan Wenk/Sony Pictures‘Karate Kid: Legends’Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan return as karate masters in this franchise reboot directed by Jonathan Entwistle.From our review:There is at once a roughshod, zippy energy coupled with a sedateness here that results from the simple fact that the film never quite knows how to square the pure awkwardness of two teachers — two stars from different eras of a franchise — instructing a karate kid at once. Their fan service pairing, then, leaves us with the distinct feeling of two wink-wink cameos shoehorned into a commercial.In theaters. Read the full review.Critic’s PickHaunting horror with spirited performances.Jonah Wren Phillips, left, and Sally Hawkins in “Bring Her Back.”Ingvar Kenne/A24‘Bring Her Back’We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Landslide at Quarry in Indonesia Kills at Least 10

    Officials halted rescue operations on Friday evening after poor lighting and the possibility of more landslides put rescue workers at risk.At least 10 people have been killed in a landslide at a quarry mine in West Java, Indonesia, according to the country’s national disaster management agency.The landslide occurred around 10 a.m. on Friday near the city of Cirebon, which is about 135 miles east of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. All of those killed were quarry workers, according to the agency. Six others were injured and being treated at local hospitals.A news network, Kompas TV, broadcast images of the aftermath, showing excavators digging through the rubble as officials searched for survivors at the base of a steep hill.The search for additional victims was halted around 5 p.m. because of darkness and the risk of more landslides, Mukhammad Yusron, the commander of the region’s military district, told the Antara news agency. He said search efforts would resume on Saturday.Bambang Tirto Mulyono, the head of the West Java department of energy and mineral resources, told Detik Jabar, a local news site, that the landslide was caused by improper mining methods — mining from the bottom of the hill up, instead of from the top down.“We have repeatedly warned the mining operator, even in strong terms,” he said, adding that the Cirebon city police had cordoned off the site since February “because the mining method used did not meet safety standards.”Indonesia is prone to landslides during seasonal rains that typically occur from October to April.Last month, 10 people were killed after a landslide hit vehicles on Java, the country’s main island, and 25 people were killed in another landslide there in January.Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,500 islands with a population of more than 280 million people, was once covered by vast rainforests. But many of those forests have been cut down in the last 50 years to make way for palm plantations and farmland.Deforestation and illegal small-scale gold mining operations have also contributed to unstable soil conditions in the country. In November, 24 people died at an unauthorized gold mining area on Sulawesi island after a landslide. More

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    Bernard Kerik, New York’s Police Commissioner on 9/11, Dies at 69

    Before his career imploded, he rose meteorically to become New York City’s chief law enforcement officer under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.Bernard B. Kerik, the New York City police commissioner who was hailed as a hero for overseeing the department’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, only to fall from grace after he pleaded guilty to federal corruption and tax crimes, died on Thursday. He was 69.Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I., announced Mr. Kerik’s death in a post on X. He said the former commissioner died “after a private battle with illness.”A cocksure high school dropout with a black belt in karate, shaved head and bulging biceps, Mr. Kerik vaulted to senior public posts as a disciple of Rudolph W. Giuliani after serving as Mr. Giuliani’s bodyguard during his successful 1993 mayoral campaign.In 1997, after Mr. Kerik rose through the ranks of the Police Department from a street cop in Times Square and narcotics investigator, Mr. Giuliani promoted him to correction commissioner, where he curbed sick time abuse by guards and reduced violence by inmates.Mr. Kerik’s appointment as police commissioner in August 2000 was not well received, in part because of his rapid promotions despite his lack of a college degree, which uniformed police officers ordinarily needed for promotion to captain and above. His highest rank before becoming commissioner was detective third grade. He later went on to earn a degree in 2002.During his tenure as police commissioner, for 16 months through 2001 when Mr. Giuliani’s mayoral term ended, crime continued the decline that was accomplished most by two of his predecessors, Raymond W. Kelly and William J. Bratton. Morale among officers improved. So did relations between the department and Black and Hispanic New Yorkers who had been alienated by incidents of police abuse.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Faizan Zaki, Last Year’s Runner-Up, Won This Year’s Spelling Bee

    The 13-year-old from Plano, Texas, was the only 2024 finalist who advanced to the 2025 finals.For the past year, Faizan Zaki, 13, had a schedule that would rival that of professional athletes. He trained five to six hours a day on weekdays and seven to eight hours on weekends.His reps were words. Lots and lots of words.That work paid off.He won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in cinematic fashion late Thursday, spelling the winning word “éclaircissement” without asking any questions, then fell to the ground as confetti poured over him.“I was just ready to get it over with,” he said, surrounded by his family and friends, “I wasn’t expecting this though.”After coming in second at the 2024 final, he decided to take a bit of a different approach in preparing this year, to increase his speed and improve his vocabulary. Once he got home from school, he would open the dictionary and look for words he hadn’t seen before. He’d keep track of them in a document, focusing on the definition and spelling of each word.This year, Faizan also studied specifically for the spell-off, the final tiebreaking round that cost him a win last year. In the spell-off, finalists have 90 seconds to spell as many words from a shared list of 30 as possible. Bruhat Soma defeated Faizan last year, spelling 29 words correctly to Faizan’s 20 words.The spell-off was required to end the contest last year, but not this year.This was the first year he felt any external pressure, his mother, Arshia Quadri said, adding that she was relieved the pressure wasn’t overwhelming. (Ms. Quadri said she felt like she was holding her breath until the finals on Thursday night.)He appeared relaxed on Thursday, often strolling to the microphone with his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt. Faizan has always loved learning. He started to read at 2, Ms. Quadri said, which she thought was simultaneously remarkable and not entirely significant. Then, at 3, he learned all of the countries of the world and their capitals, “which I have never known in my life,” she said, laughing.By the time he was 4, people started telling Ms. Quadri and her husband, Zaki Anwar, about schools for gifted children.Faizan first appeared at the Scripps National Spelling Bee when he was 7. (This year, the youngest competing speller is 8-year-old Zachary Teoh.)Through the years, Faizan has formed friendships on the road with fellow elite spellers. He credits those friends for keeping him calm ahead of big events.If he feels nervous, he tells himself: “I think you know this word. You can do it.”“That gets me pumped,” he said. More

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    San Francisco Leader Faces Recall After Drivers Lost Their Great Highway

    Joel Engardio, an elected city supervisor, angered thousands of voters by helping to convert a major thoroughfare into a coastal park.An elected leader in San Francisco will face a recall for helping to turn a major thoroughfare into a beachside park, a move that some voters consider a grievous mistake.The city’s Department of Elections announced on Thursday that an attempt to oust Supervisor Joel Engardio from office had qualified for the ballot, and that a special election would be held on Sept. 16.Forget party politics. Mr. Engardio fell victim to park politics in a city that remains fiercely divided over the shutting down of the Great Highway and its conversion into a coastal playground known as Sunset Dunes this year.The park won rave reviews from visitors who run along the Pacific Ocean and lounge in hammocks there. But it angered residents who relied on the roadway to shave time, and others who said that neighborhood streets were now clogged with would-be Great Highway drivers.Those detractors now want to remove Mr. Engardio because he led the park conversion effort.It marks San Francisco’s third recall election in less than four years, the latest sign of a restless electorate that remains dissatisfied with its city leaders over quality-of-life issues. Mr. Engardio is one of 11 members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which is akin to a city council.The park won rave reviews from visitors who run along the Pacific Ocean and lounge in hammocks there. But it angered residents who relied on the roadway to shave time.Loren Elliott for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    NYT Crossword Answers for May 30, 2025

    Just kidding — Rafael Musa gives us the good words.Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — This is Rafael Musa’s 19th crossword in The New York Times, and it’s a fun one. The stacks in the corners are strong, and the clues are lively yet gentle enough to give a fair experience to those who are just starting to solve themeless puzzles.One of the things I like about Mr. Musa is that he shares his time generously with aspiring constructors. He has collaborated with others on 13 of his Times crosswords.If you are considering making your own puzzle, he has provided his email address at the end of his notes. You couldn’t be in better hands.Tricky Clues7A. I love this clue. It’s the language version of a trick of the light. [Something that’s filled with bad words] sounds as if the bad words are actually filling something, but read the clue again (and again, if necessary — I had to). “With” is doing double duty here. The clue needs to be read as “Something that’s filled by using bad words.” The answer is SWEAR JAR.16A. If you had “BBQ sauce” as an answer to [Bottleful at a barbecue], remember that a word in the clue cannot also be in the entry. The answer is HOT SAUCE.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More