Prizmabet

Automatic Refunds for Significant Flight Disruptions: New Airline Rule Goes Into Effect

The Transportation Department’s new rule also sets the definition for what constitutes a “significant” delay in air travel.

The Transportation Department’s new rule requiring airlines to provide prompt, automatic refunds to passengers enduring significant flight disruptions is now in effect.

The rule is intended to hold airlines to clear and consistent standards when they cancel, delay or substantially change flights, and require automatic refunds to be issued in cash, or the original form of payment, within 20 days or less, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement in April, when the agency issued the new rule.

“Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them — without headaches or haggling,” Mr. Buttigieg said.

Here’s what you need to know about the D.O.T.’s new rule, which went into effect on Oct. 28.

There’s now one definition for a “significant” delay.

Until now, airlines have been allowed to set their own definition for what constitutes a “significant” delay and passenger compensation has varied by carrier. Now, according to the D.O.T., there will be one standard: when departure or arrival is delayed by three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international flights.

Passengers will get prompt refunds for cancellations or significant changes for flights, for any reason.

When things go wrong, getting compensation from an airline has often required establishing a cumbersome paper trail or spending untold hours on the phone. Under the new rules, refunds are to be automatic, without passengers having to request them. Refunds will be made in full, excepting the value of any transportation already used. Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in the original form of payment, whether by cash, credit card or airline miles. Refunds are due within seven days for credit card purchases and within 20 days for other payments.

Passengers facing other itinerary changes, such as being downgraded to a lower service class, are also entitled to refunds.

The list of significant changes for which passengers can get their money back also includes: departure or arrival from an airport different from the one booked; connections at different airports or flights on planes that are less accessible to a person with a disability; an increase in the number of scheduled connections. Also, passengers who pay for services like Wi-Fi or seat selection that are then unavailable will be refunded any fees.

Passengers with significantly delayed bags will get checked bag fees refunded.

Checked fees for luggage missing for more than 12 hours for a domestic flight, or 15 hours after an international flight, will be automatically refunded, but passengers must first file a mishandled baggage report.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024.

Teen Accused in U.K. Dance Class Stabbing Charged With Terror Offenses

The police said that they found Ricin and an Al Qaeda training manual in the suspect’s home. The attack on little girls at a Taylor Swift-themed event stoked anti-immigrant sentiment.

The teenager accused of fatally stabbing three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England has been charged with additional offenses linked to terrorism, the police said on Tuesday.

The teenager, Axel Rudakubana, was already charged with murder in the deaths of the girls, who the police say he attacked at a dance class in July in Southport, a seaside town in northern England. He was also charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a knife.

Prosecutors have now charged Mr. Rudakubana with offenses linked to terrorism after a monthslong investigation by area police and the counterterrorism policing unit, Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of the Merseyside Police said.

After searching the family’s home, in a quiet corner of the village of Bank, just outside Southport, the police found ricin, a lethal poison, leading to charge of production of a biological toxin. He was also charged with possession of an Al Qaeda training manual, “of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism,” Ms. Kennedy said in a statement.

While Mr. Rudakabuna is charged under Britain’s terrorism laws, the police’s counterterrorism unit did not declare the July 29 stabbing a terrorist incident, the constable said.

“For a matter to be declared a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established,” she said.

“You may have seen speculation online that the police are deciding to keep things from the public. This is certainly not the case,” Ms. Kennedy said.

Within hours of the July 29 stabbing of three girls, ages 6, 7 and 9, far-right accounts on social media began spreading false claims that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker who had illegally arrived in the country by boat. Anti-immigrant protests were met by counterprotesters, leading to violent clashes and dozens of arrests around the country.

The violence became an early test for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was elected in early July and described the protests as “coordinated” and “deliberate.” He encouraged the police “to take action against extremists on our streets.”

In August, a judge lifted Britain’s usually strict legal restrictions, allowing the news media to name the suspect, who was a minor at the time but has since turned 18. The decision was aimed at quelling rabid online speculation. Mr. Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, the Welsh capital, the police said, though social media posts had erroneously described him as an undocumented immigrant.

The teenager, who remains in custody, will appear at a London magistrate’s court via video link on Wednesday, the police said.

“My plea is to be patient, don’t engage in rumor and speculation and don’t believe everything you read on social media,” Ms. Kennedy said.

Regional Indian Flavors in the Flatiron District

The great New York outdoors inspires a new Brooklyn restaurant, New England seafood at Smithereens and more restaurant news.

Opening

Passerine

At some of the newest Indian restaurants, regional fare is the focus. The same is true at Passerine. The chef Chetan Shetty is from Pune, near Mumbai, and he relies on spice blends his mother concocts and sends over. Chile-fueled kolhapuri ignites lamb tartare, ajwain masala adds pungency to baked oysters, and malwani spices dancing with vadouvan season fish. Greenmarket maitake mushrooms, sweet potatoes, collards, broccoli rabe and cabbage figure as well. There are surprising touches, too, like Comté and Hollandaise. The restaurant’s lounge, called the Drawing Room, has its own brief menu and leads to the well-upholstered dining room. The space was formerly occupied by Sona, which closed earlier this year. (Opens Friday)

36 East 20th Street, 212-680-4945, passerinenyc.com.

Field Guide

Timothy Meyers, who worked at Eleven Madison Park, Mas (farmhouse) and Blanca, is going solo at this 60-seat Brooklyn restaurant he said is inspired by the outdoors of his childhood in a village in Central New York and also the tranquil scenes painted by Andrew Wyeth. Food is listed under the rubric “plates,” 16 of them priced from $14 to $45. Most adhere to a seasonal approach with fig leaf-wrapped pork terrine, butternut squash rillettes with clams, and beef fillet with sunflower crumble and chanterelles. Summer lingers in a squash blossom risotto and a blackberry-shiso condiment garnishing pork loin prime rib. (Friday)

235 Kent Avenue (North First Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 917-757-2713, bkfieldguide.com.

Smithereens

Seafood shines in the hands of Nicholas Tamburo, who was the chef de cuisine at Claud. His approach reflects his Massachusetts roots, with items like hake and clams, tautog (blackfish, now in season) with kohlrabi, colonial Anadama bread with smoked bluefish, and apple cider doughnuts. His partner in this garden-level venture is the much-lauded beverage director, Nikita Malhotra. Cocktail creations, like the Cape Codder cranberry and a briny martini, fit the food. (Friday)

414 E 9th Street (First Avenue), smithereensnyc.com.

Tikal Mayan Food

A trip to Guatemala awaits in this new spot, though items like tacos and meat tamales, to say nothing of the ancient Mayan civilization, have few boundaries in the region. The menu even dips its toe into El Salvador with its pupusas. Grilled skirt steak, chicken in sour cream sauce and assorted stews bolstered with chiles define the food served in a simple room adorned with a portrait of one of Tikal’s astonishing temples.

1393 Second Avenue (72nd Street), 212-837-1911, tikalmayanfood.com.

Padang Dining at Ma-Dé

Padang Dining SpreadCredit…Noah Fecks

Cedric and Ochi Vongerichten have turned their second restaurant, just steps from their flagship Wayan, into a showcase for a communal Indonesian feast. Centered on fried chicken and slow-cooked butterfish, the spread includes a bountiful array of side dishes, including baby squid, sweetbreads and crispy smelts to name a few. Expect to eat with your hands: $58 per person. (Monday)

Ma-dé, 22 Spring Street (Elizabeth Street), 212-388-3988, ma-de-nyc.com.

What Are the Implications of Israel Banning UNRWA?

Many humanitarian agencies have expressed fears that two measures enacted in Israel on Monday that ban UNRWA, the U.N. agency aiding Palestinians, from operating in the country could cripple its aid deliveries. The aid has never been more urgently …

The aid has never been more urgently needed. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have been displaced over more than a year of war, and face acute and sometimes catastrophic malnutrition.

The laws are to go into full effect in 90 days, and will almost certainly create new hurdles for the agency, formally the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. The agency also works with Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria.

Legal scholars, diplomats and aid workers were assessing the new laws’ implications on Tuesday. What was clear was that they could create new diplomatic challenges for Israel, with several European governments condemning their passage and the United States — a top UNRWA funder — being on record against the measures.

Here’s a look at the laws and what might happen next.

What do the laws say?

The 120-seat Knesset passed two bills with overwhelming majorities late on Monday, the first day of its winter session.

The first effectively revokes UNRWA’s invitation, first extended in 1967, to operate within Israel. The legislation says that the foreign minister, Israel Katz, will notify the United Nations of this no more than one week after the bill’s passage. It says that “no Israeli government agencies or representatives may have any contact” with the agency.

5 Takeaways From Vance’s Interview With The New York Times

Pressed to say if he thought the 2020 election was stolen, JD Vance repeatedly sidestepped. And he defended the sentiment behind his “childless cat ladies” comment, even as he regretted his word choice.

JD Vance keeps showing up.

The Republican vice-presidential nominee and first-term senator from Ohio is talking to reporters at campaign rallies. He is scheduling network and cable interviews. And he is sitting down with The New York Times.

Something has shifted in American politics when it is noteworthy that a candidate willingly faces one unscripted question after another. But here we are.

In his latest appearance with the news media, Mr. Vance sat down with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, co-host of “The Interview,” a New York Times podcast that features an hourlong conversation with a single guest every Saturday.

Here are five takeaways from Mr. Vance’s interview:

His critics call him spineless. He says he is complex.

Donald J. Trump seems unlikely to describe himself as reflective. Mr. Vance cannot stop.

The interview opens with Ms. Garcia-Navarro telling Mr. Vance that, as she prepared for their meeting, a persistent question emerged from people: “Which JD is going to show up?”

It is not the most flattering question for a politician, but Mr. Vance does not flinch. Instead, he embraces it, saying that holding conflicting opinions and emotional complexities is “sort of the nature of being an American in 2024.”

“Isn’t that how most people are?” he said. “Sometimes they’re frustrated with what’s going on in the country. Sometimes they are a little bit more optimistic. Sometimes it’s both, right?”

City Hall Is in Crisis. Who’s Running New York?

Mayor Eric Adams is relying on a group of respected civil servants to run the city and a trio of advisers to salvage his political career. Some say it’s too late.

For Mayor Eric Adams, the challenge of leading New York City has taken on an almost absurd quality, with his administration peppered in recent weeks by a half-dozen significant resignations, four federal investigations and two federal indictments, including one against the mayor.

Two of his deputy mayors and his police commissioner have resigned. His schools chancellor was just replaced. And he withdrew his pick for the city’s top lawyer when it became clear that the City Council would reject him.

With the flood of departures and chaos leaving a considerable vacuum at the top of City Hall, Mr. Adams must now rely on a flurry of new appointees and promotions to keep a complex bureaucracy running.

Earlier this week, Mr. Adams elevated Maria Torres-Springer, a veteran civil servant, to become his new first deputy mayor. She and three other highly respected women in the administration — Camille Joseph Varlack, the mayor’s chief of staff; Meera Joshi, the deputy mayor for operations; and Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor for health and human services — are expected to largely oversee City Hall’s key administrative responsibilities.

Of them, Ms. Torres-Springer will play the most critical role in the coming months, handling daily operations across a vast bureaucracy of roughly 300,000 city workers with a $100 billion annual budget.

Her promotion seemed to signal a shift from the cronyism that had typified many of Mr. Adams’s significant hires, and was celebrated by a range of civic leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton; Kathryn Wylde, the leader of a business group; and progressive officials including Chi Ossé, a City Council member who has urged Mr. Adams to resign.

How Eric Adams Could Leave Office, and Who Hopes to Succeed Him

Mr. Adams’s political future is in doubt after federal prosecutors indicted him on corruption charges in one of several inquiries ensnaring City Hall.

Tracking Charges and Investigations in Eric Adams’s Orbit

Five corruption inquiries have reached into the world of Mayor Eric Adams of New York. Here is a closer look at the charges against Mr. Adams and how people with ties to him are related to the inquiries.

How Taryn Delanie Smith, TikTok’s Heaven Receptionist, Spends Sundays

Taryn Delanie Smith, a former Miss New York, takes a long stroll with her husband and Great Dane and cues up her Sunday playlist with an Ina Garten-inspired dinner.

Before Taryn Delanie Smith was crowned Miss New York in 2022, she worked at a call center. At one point, she said, she was only pretending to take calls.

“I was actually making these little videos at my desk or on my way to work,” she said.

Ms. Smith, 28, is best known for her TikToks as Denise, a receptionist in heaven with a New York accent. Dressed in a robe and a towel head wrap, she welcomes newcomers and fields calls from heaven hopefuls through her headset microphone (a pink razor). In one video, Denise is drinking holy water at the Saints Lounge with Princess Diana and Whitney Houston. In another, she responds to viewers who want her to welcome their loved ones who have died.

She is a self-described “reigning chaos goblin” whose videos err on the side of comedy. Now with more than 1.4 million followers on TikTok, she creates videos full time and is a co-host of “Influenced,” a talk show on Amazon.

“I’ve never felt safer and more protected than by New Yorkers,” said Ms. Smith, who is from Seattle. “And so that is sort of what Denise embodies to me.”

Sundays, Ms. Smith said, are an anchor for her and her husband, Alec Castillo, whom she describes as a “big tatted-up dude who loves to cook.” They live with their “city cow,” a Great Dane named Bruce, in a two-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Ms. Smith with her 2-year-old Great Dane, Bruce.Credit…Mimi d’Autremont for The New York Times

For Trump and Harris, the Media Future Is Now

In 2015, Barack Obama submitted to interviews with three YouTube stars, one of whom was notable for eating cereal out of a bathtub. It was a moment that opened a window into the media landscape of the future, after the mainstream media as we have …

A year later Donald Trump won the White House, and there was a rush to find the sources of his victory in the darker reaches of the internet, in misinformation factories and troll farms. It was another window into the media future — but this time the future seemed dystopian, a realm of propaganda and manipulation.

In 2024, the media future doesn’t need to be seen through a glass darkly: For the younger generation of news consumers, it has basically arrived. But it isn’t embodied by cereal-eating YouTubers, Russian-funded disinformation operations or even the Silicon Valley-enforced progressive censorship that many conservatives feared four years ago.

Instead it’s embodied by the sex-and-relationships podcaster and the bro comedians who scored important interviews with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump this month — with the host of “Call Her Daddy,” Alex Cooper, tossing Harris questions about abortion and student loans, while the comics Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh chatted with Trump about his nicknaming strategy on their show, “Flagrant.”

As a conservative with an interest in moral decline, I was familiar with “Call Her Daddy,” but I confess I had never heard of “Flagrant” before clips from the Trump interview started populating my social media feed. Which is par for the course for this campaign: The nominees and their running mates have consistently submitted to interviews with shows and personalities who were barely on my radar screen.

There’s an impulse to interpret these media arrivistes as reinventions of the prior media dispensation — to cast a big podcaster like Joe Rogan as a muscled Walter Cronkite for the online age, or to frame appearances on “Call Her Daddy” and “Flagrant” as base mobilization operations, akin to appearing on “The Rachel Maddow Show” or “Hannity.”

Secret Documents Show Hamas Tried to Persuade Iran to Join Its Oct. 7 Attack

The Times reviewed the minutes of 10 meetings among Hamas’s top leaders. The records show the militant group avoided several escalations since 2021 to falsely imply it had been deterred — while seeking Iranian support for a major attack.

For more than two years, Yahya Sinwar huddled with his top Hamas commanders and plotted what they hoped would be the most devastating and destabilizing attack on Israel in the militant group’s four-decade history.

Minutes of Hamas’s secret meetings, seized by the Israeli military and obtained by The New York Times, provide a detailed record of the planning for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, as well as Mr. Sinwar’s determination to persuade Hamas’s allies, Iran and Hezbollah, to join the assault or at least commit to a broader fight with Israel if Hamas staged a surprise cross-border raid.

The documents, which represent a breakthrough in understanding Hamas, also show extensive efforts to deceive Israel about its intentions as the group laid the groundwork for a bold assault and a regional conflagration that Mr. Sinwar hoped would cause Israel to “collapse.”

The documents consist of minutes from 10 secret planning meetings of a small group of Hamas political and military leaders in the run-up to the attack, on Oct. 7, 2023. The minutes include 30 pages of previously undisclosed details about the way Hamas’s leadership works and the preparations that went into its attack.

The documents, which were verified by The Times, lay out the main strategies and assessments of the leadership group:

Hamas initially planned to carry out the attack, which it code-named “the big project,” in the fall of 2022. But the group delayed executing the plan as it tried to persuade Iran and Hezbollah to participate.
As they prepared arguments aimed at Hezbollah, the Hamas leaders said that Israel’s “internal situation” — an apparent reference to turmoil over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious plans to overhaul the judiciary — was among the reasons they were “compelled to move toward a strategic battle.”
In July 2023, Hamas dispatched a top official to Lebanon, where he met with a senior Iranian commander and requested help with striking sensitive sites at the start of the assault.
The senior Iranian commander told Hamas that Iran and Hezbollah were supportive in principle, but needed more time to prepare; the minutes do not say how detailed a plan was presented by Hamas to its allies.
The documents also say that Hamas planned to discuss the attack in more detail at a subsequent meeting with Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader at the time, but do not clarify whether the discussion happened.
Hamas felt assured of its allies’ general support, but concluded it might need to go ahead without their full involvement — in part to stop Israel from deploying an advanced new air-defense system before the assault took place.
The decision to attack was also influenced by Hamas’s desire to disrupt efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the entrenchment of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Israeli efforts to exert greater control over the Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, sacred in both Islam and Judaism and known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
Hamas deliberately avoided major confrontations with Israel for two years from 2021, in order to maximize the surprise of the Oct. 7 attack. As the leaders saw it, they “must keep the enemy convinced that Hamas in Gaza wants calm.”
Hamas leaders in Gaza said they briefed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s Qatar-based political leader, on “the big project.” It was not previously known whether Mr. Haniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel in July, had been briefed on the attack before it happened.

Prelude to War

The documents provide greater context to one of the most pivotal moments in modern Middle Eastern history, showing it was both the culmination of a yearslong plan, as well as a move partly shaped by specific events after Mr. Netanyahu returned to power in Israel in late 2022.

Yahya Sinwar in April 2023 in Gaza City. Documents show that he and other Hamas leaders wanted time to lull Israeli leaders into a false sense of security before attacking Israel. Credit…Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

A Conversation With JD Vance

From the moment JD Vance came onto the national stage, he was inextricably linked to Donald Trump. As the author of the best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance was initially the Trump whisperer, explaining the Trump phenomenon and 2016 win to shocked liberals. Back then, Vance didn’t like Trump. He called him an “idiot,” condemned what he saw as Trump’s dangerous rhetoric and wondered in a private message whether Trump could become “America’s Hitler.”

Then Vance went through a political conversion, transforming from skeptical Trump explainer to full-throated Trump supporter. In 2021, he began his campaign for Senate in Ohio. He courted, and received, Trump’s endorsement and won that race. Two years later, here we are: Vance is not only Trump’s vice-presidential running mate but also considered by many to be the heir apparent to MAGA because of his deft defense of Trumpism.

Listen to the Conversation With JD Vance

The Republican vice-presidential candidate rejects the idea that he’s changed, defends his rhetoric and still won’t say if Trump lost in 2020.

Vance has always been comfortable in the public eye, starting with his job dealing with the media as a public-affairs officer in the Marines. As an author, commentator and candidate, he has left a long record — in blog posts, opinion columns and podcast appearances — of his evolving views, not just on Trump but also on issues like immigration and his vision for the country. In a 2021 podcast, for example, he said that Trump, if elected again, should “seize the institutions of the left,” “fire every single midlevel bureaucrat” in the U.S. government, “replace them with our people” and defy the Supreme Court if it tried to stop him.

That is what Vance sounds like when he’s talking to his base. But a very different Vance appeared recently on the debate stage, where, when speaking to a national audience, he was much less divisive and much more willing to engage in a civil discussion with a political opponent — in this case, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democratic nominee for vice president.

With the election a few weeks away, and the race so tight, Vance may very well be the next vice president of the United States, and the second in command to someone who could be the oldest-ever commander in chief. So, which Vance can Americans expect if he’s elected? I asked him.