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NEW YORK - It was a one-two punch. On Wednesday, Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, testified that the Fed could foresee the day it would stop buying up U.S. bonds to goose the economy. The next day saw reports that Chinese banks had become reluctant to lend to one another, causing interest rates in the interbank market to spike to punishingly high levels.
As global markets tumbled and the Dow Jones Industrial Average headed for what could be its biggest percentage decline of the year, Rendezvous editor, Marcus Mabry, sat down with Nelson Schwartz and Nathaniel Popper, New York Times business reporters, to find out why.
BEIJING - China's three astronauts rose Thursday at 7 a.m. in their Tiangong-1 orbiter about 340 kilometers above earth, People's Television, a channel of the Communist Party flagship People's Daily group, reported. It was the day to teach science, in Chinese, from space â€" a first.
Six years ago, the American teacher and astronaut Barbara R. Morgan became the first person to teach from space aboard the International Space Station. Now it was China's turn.
Calling her a “pretty space teacher,†People's Television showed Wang Yaping, the female member of the three-person crew, holding up a sign that read: “Good morning lovable earth; Good morning beautiful fatherland; Good morning hard-working scientific researchers!â€
At 10:11 a.m. it was time to teach, the Chengdu Evening News wrote. Class was beamed interactively to a large group of over 300 elementary and high school students gathered in a room at the People's University Affiliated High School (the university is closely associated with the Communist Party, which founded it); and broadcast live to millions of students around the country, according to media reports. (Xinhua, the state-run news agency, said it was watched by 60 million students.) Class lasted 40 minutes, about twice as long as the class given by Ms. Morgan.
Just as six years ago, when 11-year-old Zakkary Schirmeister from McCall, Idaho (Ms. Morgan's home state) asked what stars looked like from space, a Chinese child asked Ms. Wang if the stars twinkled from where she was. And like Ms. Morgan, Ms. Wang said no, outside the earth's atmosphere they don't twinkle.
Another question: Could she se e any U.F.O.'s? Again, no. But they could see 16 sunrises and sunsets each day, she said, since they orbited the earth so often.
The experiments were simple, including lessons in gravity, on how pendulums and gyroscopes move in space, and how water behaves. Her colleague, Nie Haisheng, struck a floating, cross-legged pose, a meditation and martial arts feat hardly possible on earth but easy in the weightless conditions of space.
China Daily reported the venture was very well-received.
“When I learned about those laws of physics and weightless condition at classes before, I needed to imagine what would happen. But, at today's class, I am able to see what really happens. It is thrilling,†said Luo Jiangyuan, a high school student. He said he planned to study science in college.
Class ended at 10:51, China Daily reported.
Shortly afterward, Ms. Wang s ent an e-mail to Ms. Morgan, the Chinese news media said. Ms. Morgan had already e-mailed to congratulate the Chinese astronaut, edu.ifeng.com reported.
“My colleagues and I were very happy to receive your mail in distant space,†Ms. Wang wrote. Saying they had “smoothly†completed their space lessons, Ms. Wang said the lessons were intended to show people the “mystery and splendor of space†and transmit “knowledge and happiness.â€
“I hope you and all teachers in the world, and students, will enjoy it,†she wrote.
Speaking separately, her colleague, Mr. Nie, said that it was all part of the “Chinese Dream,†which the president, Xi Jinping, mentioned 10 days earlier when the astronauts blasted off from earth.
NEWS Tumbling stock, bond and commodity prices around the world are demonstrating just how reliant the global economy has become on the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. Nathaniel Popper reports.
The mass protests thundering across Brazil have swept up an impassioned array of grievances - costly stadiums, corrupt politicians, high taxes and shoddy schools - and spread to more than 100 cities on Thursday night, the most yet, with increasing ferocity. Simon Romero and William Neuman report from São Paulo.
Over the past year, images of rampaging Burmese Buddhists carrying swords and the vit uperative sermons of monks like Ashin Wirathu have underlined the rise of extreme Buddhism in Myanmar - and revealed a darker side of the country's greater freedoms after decades of military rule. Buddhist lynch mobs have killed more than 200 Muslims and forced more than 150,000 people, mostly Muslims, from their homes. Thomas Fuller reports from Taunggyi, Myanmar.
As the one-year anniversary of Mohamed Morsi's inauguration as Egypt's first freely elected president approaches, he faces widespread discontent from a swath of society and stinging grass-roots campaigns that have undermined his ability to wield power and address the country's most pressing problems. Ben Hubbard and Mayy El Sheikh report from Cairo.
In the latest release of documents supplied by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor believed to be hiding in Hong Kong, The Guardian published two documents setting out the detailed rules governing the agency's intercepts. Dated 2009 and signed by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., they advise N.S.A. eavesdroppers on how to judge whether a target is a foreigner overseas, and therefore fair game, and what to do when they pick up Americans at home or abroad. Scott Shane reports from Washington.
The newly appointed prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Rami Hamdallah, submitted his resignation on Thursday after only two we eks in office, a signal of continuing internal political disarray amid the already complicated American efforts to restart the peace process with Israel. Isabel Kershner reports from Jerusalem.
Foreign investors in Russia, wary of endemic corruption and an expanding government role in the economy, are hanging back, depriving the country's economy of essential capital. David M. Herszenhorn and Andrew E. Kramer report from St. Petersburg.
ARTS In a spectacular market turnaround, Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and modern art on W ednesday evening was as smoothly successful as Christie's session a day earlier was tough. Souren Melikian reports from London.
SPORTS The Czech hockey great Jaromir Jagr, playing for the Boston Bruins, is pursuing his third Stanley Cup title and first in more than 20 years - and Czechs are staying up late to watch. Brian Pinelli reports from Prague.
LeBron James of the Miami Heat scored 37 points and added a second straight N.B.A. title to his two Olympic gold medals while denying the Spurs' Tim Duncan his fifth title. Howard Beck reports from Miami.
LONDON - Britain's front-line defense against alien invasion from outer space has fallen victim to spending cuts, according to documents released on Friday.
Papers published by the National Archives showed the country's defense ministry closed its specialist U.F.O.-monitoring unit because it could no longer justify a project that was consuming increasing resources.
It emerges that the ministry quietly shut down its U.F.O. unit in 2009 after concluding “no UFO sighting reported has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the U.K.â€
The decision meant the closure of a U.F.O. hot line and a dedicated e-mail address to which members of the public could report sightings of unidentified flying objects.
The ministry's assurances are unlikely to satisfy ufologists, some of whom insist the authorities continue to cover up the truth about close encounters with aliens.
According to the outgoing U.F.O. desk officer, “Frankly, whatever we say, they will choose to believe whatever they believe and we will never convince them otherwise.â€
The ministry's memos were part of the latest and final release of documents related to U.F.O. sightings.
Friday's batch of more than 4,000 pages included reported sightings of U.F.O.s hovering above the Houses of Parliament in 2008 and above Stonehenge in the following year.
A man in the northern town of Carlisle rang the hot line to report that he was living with an alien, and a man from Cardiff, Wales, complained a U.F.O. had snatched his dog, his car and his tent while he was camping with friends in 2007.
The ministry also received a request from the United States for information about the notorious Rendlesham Forest incident of 1980.
In what became known as Britain's Roswell, American servicemen stationed in eastern England followed mysterious lights that some took to be those of an alien spacecraft.
The ministry replied to the inquiry by saying it had little interest in the matter at the time and even less interest now.
The decision to shut the U.F.O. unit was taken after a tripling of reported sightings between 2007 and 2009 to more than 600.
The upsurge was blamed on a craze for Chinese lanterns, which had even fooled a squad of military fire-watchers and the national newspaper that printed their photographs under the headline “Alien Army.â€
There was an earlier surge in sightings in 1996, when the popularity of the television series “X-Files†was at its peak.
British officials have not always been so sanguine about strange and unexplained objec ts in the sky.
In World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was so concerned about one reported close encounter that he ordered it be kept secret for at least 50 years to prevent “mass panicâ€.
In the 1950s, the government took the potential U.F.O. peril so seriously that it established a Flying Saucer Working Party and commissioned weekly reports on sightings from intelligence experts.
The government began releasing its files in recent years in part to show it had nothing to hide.
David Clarke, a U.F.O. historian who campaigned for the documents to be made public, acknowledged it had put a strain on resources. “It became a huge public relations headache†for the defense ministry, he told the BBC.
Dr. Clarke, who has approached the U.F.O. phenomen on from a sociological perspective, noted that many U.F.O. sightings came from the Scottish city of Glasgow between 10 p.m. and midnight - around the time the pubs are closing.
If you want to delve into Britain's X-Files, here's the link.
What do you think about Britain's decision to stop responding to reports of U.F.O. sightings? Share your thoughts.
Suzy Menkes, the IHT's fashion editor, talks to Jonathan (“J.W. Andersonâ€) Anderson at London Fashion Week about unisex styling, working with Donnatella Versace and the “addictive†rush of the industry today.
Yes, I've voiced this complaint before. But our love of “famously†appears undiminished.
The word is often superfluous and sometimes slightly annoying. If the situation in question is truly famous, it's usually unnecessary to say so; a reader will already know. And if the situation isn't widely known - if I've never heard the story before - insisting that it's famous just makes me feel clueless.
Nonetheless, we recently managed to use “famously†six times - in a single day (June 9). Help!
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Then as now, it was a cash transaction. Among its many criteria for allowing transfers of ownership, the famously selective co-op board at 778 Park accepts only cash. Turndowns of even all-cash suitors are not unheard-of; Brooke Astor's much-photographed 16th-floor apartment, originally on the market for $46 million and ultimately bought by a hedge fund manager for $21 million in 2011, was at the mercy of the board through three years of price reductions and repeated offers from affluent buyers nonetheless deemed ineligible.
Surely you were aware of how selective that particular co-op board is. No? Why, it's famous!
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Bruce and Kris Jenner, married since 1991, are the subject of tabloid divorce rumors in part fueled by a story line on the show. On last week's season premiere, Ms. Jenner appeared briefly to discuss the state of her parents' marriage.
In the suite, in a rare unrehearsed moment, she said of the divorce rumor, “It's just stupid; that's not true.â€
(Her mother, who famously manages her children's careers, was not in the room.)
If you follow the Kardashians, you probably know this; if you don't, you don't. Either way, “famously†is superfluous.
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But Ms. Power is no John R. Bolton, George W. Bush's United Nations envoy, who once famously remarked that nobody would notice if someone lopped the top 10 floors off the United Nations Secretariat building.
I have no recollection of this “famous†remark. Should I feel dumb? (Perhaps we meant something like, “who once created a stir by remarking …†If so, let's say that.)
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Larger publishing houses use the expo to promote titles they want everyone talking about come fall. This year, that includes Elizabeth Gilbert's first book of fiction in more than 12 years, “The Signature of All Thingsâ€; Jonathan Lethem's novel “Dissident Gardensâ€; and “Blowback,†the first thriller in a planned series written by Sarah Lovett and Valerie Plame, the former C.I.A. operative whose cover was famously blown by Robert Novak's column in 2003.
If we want to remind people of the circumstances surrounding this case, we have to say more than this. If we think everyone remembers, there 's no need to say “famously.â€
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It was a folksy and apt metaphor for an unproductive political convention grinding to an exhausted halt. But then he [Earl L. Butz, President Gerald R. Ford's secretary of agriculture] went on to tell the famously nasty racist joke that got him fired.
Ditto.
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Having moved only weeks before from Philadelphia, where Santa Claus himself was famously booed during an Eagles game, I half expected the guy to slug me. Instead, looking taken aback, he said, “I hadn't thought of it like that. I'm sorry.†I was stunned into silence.
I doubt many people outside Philadelphia recall this “famous†incident. I don't.
Â
And Another One
A colleague notes a recent rash of “foes.†The Times's stylebook warns that the word, which means “enemy,†is frequently hyperbolic in political and other contexts. It's seldom used in ordinary conversation and has a flavor of journalese. Let's be judicious.
A couple of recent questionable uses:
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He nominated Gina McCarthy to lead the E.P.A. even though he knew she would stir opposition among foes of environmental regulation.
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Against Rufin [at the French Open tennis tournament], he was facing a foe 12 years younger but far less accomplished.
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The Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan, where the service was held, was filled with a tableau of political friends and foes ranging from local New Jersey lawmakers to Washington fixtures.
Besides the hyperbole of calling a political rival a “foe,†this “friend/foe†formulation is a tired cliché.
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Mr. Dingell has earned himself foes and friends and watched his cherished Congress change from the days when committee chairmen held sway to a body overrun with partisan disc ord and strife.
Ditto.
Â
In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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But Hezbollah's large-scale entry into the fight in recent weeks and the Assad government's firepower has tilted the battlefield in favor of the Syrian government.
Subject-verb agreement; Hezbollah's entry into the fight and the Assad government's firepower have tilted the battlefield, not has tilted.
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Selecting jurors may prove to be the most longest part of the trial of Mr. Zimmerman, 29, the neighborhood watch volunteer who claimed self-defense in shooting and killing an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in a gated community here more than 16 months ago.
Our ragged edges were left to show in our haste to post this online update.
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[Caption] Sarah Murnaghan, left, with her adopted sister, Ella, in her hospital bed.
We should refer to adoptive status only when it's relevant and the relevance is clear, which was not the case here.
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ISPARTA, Turkey - After retaking Taksim Square in Istanbul after hours of ugly street battles with police officers firing tear gas this month, many of the haggard protesters cracked bottles of Efes beer and raised them in a mock toast to their prime minister, who had recently pushed through a law to curb drinking.
Two “afters†make the phrase awkward and the timeline overly complex.
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At that point, neither knew his name yet.
Redundant; we could have omitted “yet.â€
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In many ways, the Sunday morning talk shows are like ID lanyards and BlackBerries. While much of the nation has lost interest in them, they hold a big - some would say disproportionate - sway in Washington.
For the proper name, the plural is BlackBerrys.
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Despite not having a high school degree, he was later hired by the C.I.A. to work on information technology security, serving in Geneva.
Generally use “diploma†for high school, not “degree.â€
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Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a veteran Republican member of one of the Senate's most testosterone-driven panels, was now flanked by them on both sides, including by two Republican colleagues, Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska.
Perhaps we meant “male-dominated� We might want to leave endocrinology to the experts and be sparing with this increasingly common trope.
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When his blog was picked up by Salon, said Kerry Lauerman, the magazine's departing editor in chief, Salon agreed that Mr. Greenwald would have direct access to their computer syst em so that he could publish his blog posts himself without an editor seeing them first if he so chose.
Agreement. Make that “its computer system†or “the site's computer system.â€
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Last year's meeting in the Bronx drew 21 speakers (of which 12 were tenants) compared with 55 in Manhattan, he said.
Make it “of whom.â€
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Mr. Zimmerman talked to police repeatedly and willingly, making statements that lay the groundwork for his self-defense case.
We use the article: “the police.â€
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Johnny Johnston in “This Time for Keeps†(1947), John Carroll in “Fiesta†(1947) and Peter Lawford in “On an Island With You†(1948) were male ingénues whom the studio was hoping might turn into stars.
Who, not whom; it's the subject of “might turn.â€
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Throughout the recent upheaval, Mr. Erdogan's behavior has given new fuel to alrea dy-simmering questions about his aims and methods - whether he has turned more autocrat then democrat, or at the least whether a deft politician has fallen into overconfidence.
“Than,†not “then,†of course. A distressingly common typo.
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More important, Weebly continuously adds themes and removes old and outdated ones.
“Continuously†means uninterrupted in time or space. We meant “continually,†which means periodically, or on a regular basis.
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Under the new system, 20 percent to 25 percent of a teacher's rating score would be determined by state-approved measures of students growth.
We needed an apostrophe: “students' growth.â€
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The singer Ashlee Simpson has a young son named Bronx, and a hard-core punk band from Los Angeles also chose that name before ever stepping foot in the Bronx proper (the members have visited since).
Make it either “setting foot†or “stepping.â€
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ALBANY - At 74, Justice Sidney F. Strauss loves his job and has no desire to stop working. But at the end of 2014, he may be forced into his golden years by a mandatory retirement rule.
“Fifty years ago, when the life expectancy was 61, if you said, ‘You want to work to 76?' They'd say, ‘You should live so long,' †said Justice Strauss, a State Supreme Court judge in Queens. “But as long as I am physically and mentally capable of doing this, I want to keep doing this.â€
The highlighted phrase is not a quote with a quote, so it should not have single quotation marks or be set off with a comma.
Suzy Menkes, the IHT’s fashion editor, talks to Jonathan (“J.W. Andersonâ€) Anderson at London Fashion Week about unisex styling, working with Donnatella Versace and the “addictive†rush of the industry today.