Elections

Over several hours, the man drove a car into four men whose clothes identified them as Orthodox Jews, and stabbed one of them, federal prosecutors said.A New Jersey man pleaded guilty Thursday to federal hate crime charges for a rampage in 2022 in which he used a stolen vehicle and another car to try to kill four Jewish men in and around Lakewood, N.J., home to one of the most populous communities of Orthodox Jews in the United States.The man, Dion Marsh, 29, pleaded guilty to five federal hate crime charges and one charge of carjacking. Last week, Mr. Marsh pleaded guilty in Ocean County Superior Court in New Jersey to a single state charge of terrorism.Mr. Marsh began his spree on the afternoon of April 8, 2022, when he attempted to carjack a vehicle driven by a man who was wearing traditional clothes that made him visibly identifiable as Jewish, according to a statement by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey. That driver locked his doors and drove away, but not before Mr. Marsh managed to reach his hand inside an open window. The car traveled a block before Mr. Marsh let go, according to the prosecutor’s office.Minutes later, Mr. Marsh pulled a Jewish man from another car and physically assaulted him before driving away in his car, according to a news release from the office of Philip R. Sellinger, the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.For the next seven hours, prosecutors said, Mr. Marsh used the stolen car and another vehicle to terrorize Lakewood and the nearby community of Jackson Township, striking four men who were all wearing clothes that identified them as Orthodox Jews.After ramming one man with the stolen car, Mr. Marsh got out and stabbed him in the chest with a knife, prosecutors said. Other victims had broken bones and internal injuries from the attacks. All the victims survived.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

The generation that rose with smartphones and social media had a chance to look back this week.Most of the photos are slightly faded. The hairlines fuller. Some feature braces. Old friends. Sorority squats and college sweethearts. Caps and gowns. Laments about skinny jeans and other long lost trends.This week, Instagram stories the world over have been awash with nostalgic snapshots of youthful idealism — there have been at least 3.6 million shares, according a representative for Meta — as people post photos of themselves based on the prompt: “Everyone tap in. Let’s see you at 21.”The first post came from Damian Ruff, a 43-year-old Whole Foods employee based out of Mesa, Ariz. On Jan. 23, Mr. Ruff shared an image from a family trip to Mexico, wearing a tiny sombrero and drinking a Dos Equis. His mother sent him the photo, Mr. Ruff said in an interview. It was the first time they shared a beer together after he turned 21.“Not much has changed other than my gray hair. I see that person and go, ‘Ugh, you are such a child and have no idea,’” he said.Mr. Ruff created the shareable story template with the picture — a feature that Instagram introduced in 2021 but expanded in December — and watched it take off.“The amount of people that have been messaging me and adding me on Instagram out of nowhere, like people from around the world, has been crazy,” Mr. Ruff said.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

On Wednesday night, more than 400 people flowed in and out of Sandy Liang’s Lunar New Year party held at Boom, the venue at the top of the Standard High Line Hotel.Some guests wore bright red, to symbolize good luck, but many were in looks adorned with bows and ballet flats, emblems associated with Ms. Liang’s playfully nostalgic namesake fashion brand.The evening was an early celebration of the Lunar New Year, which starts on Feb. 10; Ms. Liang grew up observing the holiday with her family in Queens. This is her second year hosting the event with the chef Danny Bowien, and she hopes her friends will embrace the holiday.“Maybe they’ll start their own traditions,” she said.Guests at Sandy Liang’s Lunar New Year party accessorized with red details and little bows.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesDraped over Ms. Liang’s shoulder was a piece she was “test-driving” for her upcoming collection: a large baby-pink bow that served as a handle for a bag.“It just looks like a big bow, and then you pick it up and it’s actually a bag,” she said, while wearing an orchid hair bow and earrings from her new Lunar New Year collection.As Sandy Liang’s popular black and red Palermo bows floated around the room, guests crowded each corner of the dimly lit space, which was decorated with paper lanterns and flowers on each table.References to the Year of the Dragon abounded. Near the dance floor, there was a large floral arrangement shaped like a dragon egg. And guests were handed temporary tattoos that Ms. Liang said were inspired by a tattoo Angelina Jolie once had: These featured Ms. Liang’s name hovering above a dragon, instead of “Billy Bob,” the name of Ms. Jolie’s ex-husband.Ella EmhoffJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesDanny BowienJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesAliyah BahJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesYoung EmperorsJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesDelia CaiJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesAntoni BumbaJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesParker RadcliffeJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesIvan LamJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesAshleyJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesIzzi AllainJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesIsze CohenJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesPierce AbernathyJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesAlia Ssemakula, left, and Faith KimJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesElla Emhoff, a model and artist (and the stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris), slinked through groups elbow to elbow by the bar. Mr. Bowien, unintentionally matching Ms. Liang’s coat, lounged next to one of two fireplaces.Nearby, the fashion duo Young Emperors danced to classic hits by Kelis, Peaches and the Black Eyed Peas and modern singles by PinkPantheress and Aliyah’s Interlude, whose given name is Aliyah Bah. Ms. Bah was in attendance, mingling with the crowd wearing her signature “Aliyahcore” earmuffs and Y2K-era clothing.“I think my favorite thing about Sandy Liang, the person and the brand, is how unapologetically girly they are,” Ms. Bah said, while showing off her pink Hello Kitty bow and Lisa Frank-inspired nails.A dragon-egg-shaped floral arrangement for the Year of the Dragon.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesGirls often become alienated from girlhood, Ms. Bah said, but the Sandy Liang brand supports her in embracing it. “At the end of the day,” she added, “I’m literally just a girl.” More

Alan Winston Filion, 17, of Lancaster, Calif., was charged last month in connection with a false report of a mass shooting at the mosque. He is believed to have made dozens of other such calls across the country.A California teenager believed to be behind dozens of so-called swatting calls across the country was extradited to Florida on Wednesday after being charged last month in connection with a false report of a mass shooting at a mosque last year, the authorities said.The teenager, Alan Winston Filion, 17, of Lancaster, Calif., was arrested on Jan. 18 in California and charged as an adult on four felony charges, including falsely reporting an act of terrorism with a bomb or weapon of mass destruction, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said in a statement on Wednesday. Mr. Filion arrived in Seminole County, Fla., on Wednesday and was being held without bond at the John E. Polk Correctional Facility, the sheriff’s office said.Mr. Filion is to be arraigned on March 19, according to court records.The F.B.I. considers swatting, which involves a false report of an emergency, a form of harassment. The agency has said that there had been an increase in swatting calls in the past few years at public places like airports and schools, as well as at the homes of well-known figures.An investigation into Mr. Filion began last year after he called the Sanford Police Department in Florida on May 12, 2023, and said that he was heading into the Al Hayy mosque with a fully automatic rifle to carry out a mass shooting, according to an arrest affidavit.While on the phone with the police, Mr. Filion then played audio of gunfire in the background, which prompted more than 30 law enforcement officers to respond to the mosque, according to the affidavit. Once there, the officers saw that there was no gunman and that everyone at the mosque was safe, the sheriff’s office said.F.B.I. agents served a search warrant at Mr. Filion’s home in California on July 15, 2023, and obtained a number of “devices.” Social media activity and other information gathered from those devices, which agents didn’t specifically identify, led the authorities to believe that Mr. Filion could have been behind dozens of swatting calls across the country that targeted a government building, a Jewish children’s hospital, several schools, several historically Black colleges and universities, and his own home, according to the arrest affidavit.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

“Let’s be honest, this is a good economy.”So declared Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, in his news conference on Wednesday after the Fed’s latest policy meeting. He’s right, even if the public isn’t fully convinced (although the gap between economic perceptions and reality seems to be narrowing). In fact, Powell is clearly wrestling with a dilemma many countries wish they had: What’s the right monetary policy when the news is good on just about all fronts?Contrary to what you may have heard, this is not a “Goldilocks economy” — get your children’s stories right, folks! Goldilocks found a bowl of porridge that was neither too hot nor too cold. We have an economy that is both piping hot (in terms of growth and job creation) and refreshingly cool (in terms of inflation).Hence the Fed’s dilemma. It increased interest rates in an attempt to reduce inflation, even though this risked causing a recession. Now that inflation has plunged, should it quickly reverse those rate hikes, or should rates remain high because we have not, in fact, had a recession (yet)?I believe that the risk of an economic slowdown is much higher than that of resurgent inflation and that rate cuts should come sooner rather than later. But that’s not the kind of argument that’s going to be settled on the opinion pages. What I want to talk about, instead, is what the good economic news says about policy and politics.Before I get there, a quick summary of the good news that has come in just in the past few weeks.First, inflation. For both historical and technical reasons, the Fed aims for 2 percent inflation; over the past six months, its preferred price measure has risen at an annual rate of … 2 percent. “Core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, has been running slightly below target.The Fed also looks at wage growth, not because workers have caused inflation, but because wages are usually the stickiest part of inflation and therefore an indicator of whether disinflation is sustainable. Well, on Wednesday, the Employment Cost Index came in below expectations and is now more or less consistent with the Fed’s target. On Thursday we learned that productivity has been rising rapidly, so unit labor costs are easily consistent with low inflation.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

The US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched against an Iran-backed militia. Austin added that while it signalled a dangerous moment in the Middle East, the United States would work to avoid a wider conflict. The strikes are expected to take place in Syria and possibly Iraq after three US soldiers were killed at a base in Jordan More

To end the war in Gaza and free the remaining Israeli hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have to cut deals that analysts say could end his government — and potentially his career.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is fighting two parallel battles, one in Gaza and another at home — and neither is going according to plan.In Gaza, Mr. Netanyahu is leading a military campaign to defeat Hamas and free the remaining Israeli hostages captured during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. At home, he is fighting to secure both his short-term political survival and his long-term legacy.On both fronts, he is struggling.In Gaza, more than 100 hostages remain captive despite months of war and protracted negotiations for their release. Hamas is battered but undefeated, and generals have privately said that the war, despite devastating Gaza and killing more than 26,000 people, according to officials there, is approaching a deadlock. In Israel, polls show the prime minister would easily lose an election if one were held tomorrow. And after Mr. Netanyahu presided over the defense failures on Oct. 7, the deadliest day in Israel’s history, his legacy has been ruined.His efforts to resolve these crises are at odds with each other, analysts said.To burnish his legacy, he is pushing for a landmark peace deal with Saudi Arabia, a long-term strategic goal for Israel. Saudi Arabia, however, will not normalize ties without an Israeli commitment to a two-state solution. And without greater cooperation from Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies, it will become harder for Israel to wind down its war in Gaza and plan for the territory’s future.But to retain power and preserve his right-wing coalition, he must reject the premise of a Palestinian state.An Israeli soldier, photographed during an escorted tour by the Israeli military for international journalists, taking up a position in the central Gaza Strip.Avishag Shaar-Yashuv 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?  More

A new musical from Jason Robert Brown, Daisy Prince and Jonathan Marc Sherman explores the diverging trajectories of two young writers in the late 1990s.The director Daisy Prince had a flash of inspiration for a new show nearly 20 years ago: She wanted to explore the fallout from a string of partially or entirely fabricated news articles (by writers like Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair). The show would be set at a New York City magazine with a storied history — a publication much like The New Yorker. Also, it would be a musical.“I had become somewhat fixated on all these falsified news stories — these larger questions about fact, truth and story,” said Prince, who directed Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years” and “Songs for a New World.”She jotted the thought down in her great big notebook of ideas. But by the time she finally returned to it, around 2010, she was certain she had missed out.“I thought by the time we were going to be able to tell this story, it would no longer be relevant,” she said.But then the Trump presidency arrived, along with his strategy of labeling unfavorable coverage as fake news — and the premise only became more timely. Now the show, titled “The Connector,” conceived and directed by Prince with music and lyrics by Brown and a book by Jonathan Marc Sherman, is premiering Off Broadway at MCC Theater, where it is set to open Feb. 6.Ben Levi Ross, left, as Ethan Dobson and Hannah Cruz as Robin Martinez in the musical.Sara Krulwich/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?  More