Irina Alazova, the CEO of Mercury Group Limited, a Latvian real estate company, said that starting in 2015, it became “almost impossible to get mortgages,” after the government tightened lending restrictions. Around the same time, the country’s residential permit program, which allowed foreign buyers to apply for permanent residence, increased its minimum required purchase, causing…
Have you ever missed capturing the perfect photo or video opportunity because you got hung up getting to your smartphone’s camera app in time? Your phone likely has a number of shortcuts built into its software and settings, although some may be less obvious than others. Here’s a quick guide to getting the speed you…
“It was what she felt like wearing that morning,” he added. “That’s so much of her magic: the way she moves through situations and places.” Her first design job was in fashion jewelry (a.k.a. costume jewelry), where she and Pharrell Williams introduced a highly successful collaboration. In 2009, she moved on to Dior under John…
According to a Tiffany spokeswoman, this was not a joke — and indeed, some seem to have taken it as a challenge: to the integrity of art, and the artist. Basquiat died in 1988 at 27, but in the last few days all sorts of people with various relationships to both him and his work…
But is spring really the best time for planting, to foster success either horticulturally or ecologically? Spring planting “gets in the way of our work, instead of complementing it,” Ms. McMackin said. And in the past four years, her crew has gradually phased it out. Next year, there will be no spring planting at Brooklyn…
DRESDEN, Germany — In a display case at the German Hygiene Museum here is a pretty, blue glass bottle whose daintiness belies its purpose. Manufactured in 1904, it is a flask for tuberculosis patients to wear at the hip, so they could spit up infectious phlegm with relative discretion. (In Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel “The…
It’s almost Labor Day, which means that our time together is coming to an end. We laughed, we cried, we snacked, we island hopped, we … assessed infection risks. After a long summer of mixed vibes, my newsletter partner Michael Gold and I decided to (virtually) sit down and reflect on all of the strangeness…
I am traveling. Are lounges crowded? As states lifted indoor capacity restrictions, lounges followed suit and customers are streaming back in. Passenger volumes at Alaska, Delta and United clubs are close or equal to pre-Covid numbers, according to those airlines. This is leading in some cases to the return of a prepandemic lounge problem: overcrowding.…
Shortly before we were to wriggle our way around the horse and find our places at the table, Madame took me into the kitchen, opened the oven door, pointed to the chicken and exclaimed, “Qu’il est beau!” She didn’t exaggerate — it was beautiful in every way. There were the simultaneous pleasures of hearing the…
At least 180 coronavirus infections in three states have been traced to an Illinois church camp for teenagers and an affiliated men’s conference that did not require attendees to be vaccinated or tested for the virus, according to an investigation published on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been no…