Author: kenzie Lauren

After some rain overnight softened up the course, the scoring conditions were ideal for Friday’s second round at the Masters. And many of the world’s best golfers were ready to take advantage. Following a masterful opening round at Augusta National, round one leader Justin Rose came back to earth on Friday, allowing much of the field to move within striking distance heading to the weekend. Rose shot a very respectable round of 71, but had too many bogeys mixed in with his handful of birdies. However, the 44-year-old Englishman has many on his tail including Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy.…

The ancient game of chess is one steeped in tradition, with a history dating back centuries. It was once a game purely of endurance, a test of patience with titanic battles often taking days to find a winner. Much of that is true today, with the classical form of chess still prominent on the global stage. However, it’s no longer alone and perhaps in danger of taking a back seat. That’s because of the explosion of shorter forms of chess, which compile all those existing traditions into bitesize matches taking just a matter of minutes from start to finish. And, thanks to…

Rick Levine, an award-winning television commercial director who brought a big-screen sensibility to the small screen with widely celebrated spots, including a Diet Pepsi Super Bowl ad from the 1980s featuring Michael J. Fox risking life and limb for love, died on March 11 at his home in Marina del Rey, Calif. He was 94. The death was confirmed by his daughter Abby LaRocca. Mr. Levine was a product of what is often called the golden age of advertising. He rose in the business through the “Mad Men” era of the 1960s and founded his own company, Rick Levine Productions,…

The fashion industry is mourning the death of 27-year-old Croatian Australian model Lucy Markovic, who died Friday following complications of a brain arteriovenous malformation. A serious condition where abnormal blood vessels in the brain become tangled, AVM can potentially cause bleeding or brain damage. Last month — in a since deleted, but widely reported Instagram post — Markovic told her social media audience that she required surgery on April 2 for an AVM “the size of a golf ball.” Markovic had a brief career, first rising to prominence in Australia in 2015 as a 17-year-old from Queensland’s Gold Coast who placed runner-up…

The tech giant Meta Platforms Inc. continues to refresh its board of directors, naming Dina Powell McCormick and Patrick Collison as board members, effective April 15. Collison is the co-founder and CEO of the payments platform Stripe, while Powell McCormick is vice chair, president and head of global client services at the merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners. Powell McCormick also has strong connections in Republican politics, serving as deputy National Security Advisor to President Trump, and as an assistant Secretary of State for Condoleezza Rice. She is also married to Republican Senator Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania. The additions of Collison and…

The United States and China have sharply raised tariffs on each other’s imports over the last week, raising the prospect of a long and painful trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Even as investors rallied to his decision to pause “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from dozens of countries Wednesday, President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 percent — an increase of nearly 50 percent in a day, and his fourth tariff action against Beijing since January. President Xi Jinping has not backed down, either, retaliating by raising China’s tariffs on U.S.-made goods to 84 percent and imposing new curbs…

Radhika Jones, the editor of Vanity Fair since 2017, said on Thursday that she would step down, a surprise decision that opens up one of the most highly visible jobs in American journalism. Ms. Jones, 52, said in an email to Vanity Fair’s staff that she was leaving to take on new challenges, adding that she didn’t want to experience the “horror of staying too long at the party.” “I began to feel, more powerfully, the pull of new goals in my life, around family and friends and writing and other ways to make an impact,” Ms. Jones wrote. She…

James “Jim” Simons, a renowned mathematician who built a fortune on Wall Street and then became one of the nation’s biggest philanthropists, died May 10 at his home in Manhattan. He was 86. The charitable foundation that Dr. Simons co-founded with his wife, Marilyn, announced the death but gave no specific cause. Dr. Simons’s first career was in mathematics, making advances in the studies of particle physics such as quantum field theory and string theory. He led classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University before taking a job at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Princeton, N.J.,…

Academy Award-winning actor and environmental philanthropist Leonardo DiCaprio has once again expanded his already sprawling Los Angeles compound — this time by acquiring his next-door neighbor’s home for $10.5 million in a discreet, off-market deal finalized earlier this month. The newly acquired residence is located in the prestigious Bird Streets of the Hollywood Hills, an enclave famous for its panoramic city views, celebrity residents, and exclusive multi-million-dollar estates. According to property records and aerial photos, the salmon-colored home spans over 3,500 square feet, offering four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a long driveway, and a private swimming pool — all tucked behind…

Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexico’s most notorious drug trafficker, best known as El Chapo, was arrested Monday and charged with helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire and plotting to break him out of prison after he was captured in 2014. Ms. Coronel, a former beauty queen, had been under investigation for at least two years by U.S. federal authorities for being an accomplice to her husband, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who was convicted in 2019 at a trial in Brooklyn of masterminding a huge drug conspiracy and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. Court documents filed in Ms.…