New York
How Marina Khidekel, the Hugimals Founder, Spends Her Sundays

For 20 years, Marina Khidekel worked at magazines like Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health, and as chief content officer for Thrive Global. While her work centered on helping readers manage their mental wellness, she faced her own struggles, too. “I had a lot of nighttime anxiety,” she said. “So I tried a weighted blanket, but it was too smothering for me.”
Seeking something more cuddly, Ms. Khidekel designed a weighted stuffed animal. In 2022, she left her journalism career and founded Hugimals World.
Ms. Khidekel, who is in her mid-40s, worked with occupational therapists and psychologists to design stuffed animals with sweet expressions in soft colors. The brand has expanded beyond its original lineup of four five-pound stuffed animals to include weighted pillows and plush balls.
They’ve proven to be a hit, and videos of people — including many adults — hugging the stuffed animals have spread widely on TikTok. “We’ve had customers thank us for normalizing weighted plushies for adults,” she said.
Ms. Khidekel’s family moved to Ohio from Russia when she was 2 years old. She attended Ohio University and moved to New York in the early 2000s to work for magazines. Today, she shares a brightly decorated one-bedroom apartment in the West Village with her partner, Mike Joyce, 52, a graphic designer and founder of Stereotype Design. “People walk in and they say it looks like a museum or something, but it just feels like home because we’ve been here so long,” Ms. Khidekel said.
SLEEP IN I usually sleep until 9 a.m. most weekends, and it’s about an hour before Mike gets up. I use that quiet time to collect thoughts that bubble up to the surface when I sleep, which happens a lot. Then I watch something quiet like “House Hunters” because I need to turn my mind off, too.
BUONGIORNO, BREAKFAST I pop down to Bonsignour and get a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin. I always see a few neighborhood regulars in the Village. Some of them have been here since the ’60s or ’70s and they have the best stories. I love talking with them, and I love supporting the mom-and-pop businesses that still exist because there aren’t many of them anymore.
HARD COPIES While I’m out, I go into Casa Magazines. Growing up in an immigrant family in Ohio, I took comfort in magazines because they helped me navigate and make sense of the world and my anxiety when I couldn’t ask my parents for advice navigating middle school politics in Ohio. I buy newsmagazines like Inc. — I have a column in it — and mainstays like Elle Decor, as well as niche magazines.
BRUNCH BONDING I’ve met so many interesting people since I launched Hugimals World, and I’ve cultivated a community of mostly women founders at different stages of their companies, and I connect with them pretty regularly. Today, a group of us have brunch at Left Bank to celebrate our wins from the year, talk through the challenges and just connect at a festive time of year.
DESIGNING WOMEN Afterwards, I head uptown to the garment district to meet with designer Olga Kapustina, who I brought on to finalize a more modern weighted sweatshirt. I love visiting this old-school factory, and being here feels like seeing a little piece of New York City history.
MEDITATIVE MEANDERING The factory’s on West 35th Street, and I walk back to the West Village after. I love walking the city. I love the rhythms of the different neighborhoods. I also need a lot of alone time to recharge my batteries. On my way, I pop into Poster House, a poster museum. I get a lot of product design inspiration there.
KOALA-TY TIME It’s not always fun to work on a Sunday, but when you own 100 percent of your company, you need to sometimes. I put my koala Hugimal on my lap and set myself up for the week ahead. I’ll check my calendar, schedule emails.
Mike and I order dinner in from Shuka. I get the Arctic char kebab, and he gets the chicken shawarma. I’m newly obsessed with labneh and it’s so delicious there. Then we watch TV. I can’t watch anything loud or with violence before bed, so we’re watching “Hacks.”
NIGHT OWL I use a red light mask for three minutes each night and I’m in bed by 12:30 a.m. I’m definitely the night owl prototype. I feel strongly that I’ll never be part of the “5 a.m. club,” and the founder bro culture is kind of toxic. You need to do what works for you, and whatever sustains you while you’re in the stress and roller coaster of running a company.

New York
N.Y.C.’s Mayoral Candidates Spent Millions on TV Ads. What Are They Saying?

Estimated spending on
broadcast ads that have aired
$1.1 million
$4.3 million
The Democrats running for mayor in New York City and a super PAC supporting Andrew M. Cuomo are spending millions to reach potential voters, with much of the spending going toward commercials on broadcast television. A New York Times analysis of the broadcast ads that have aired so far, using data from AdImpact, explored the major themes highlighted by the candidates: crime and safety, President Trump, affordable housing and corruption.
Among the ads aired,
seven mention crime and safety
3 ads
Mr. Cuomo, the former governor, has been framing himself as a law-and-order candidate who will crack down on crime and improve public safety. Ads run by Fix the City, the super PAC backing Mr. Cuomo, have depicted New York as a city in chaos. One of its ads opens with images of police sirens, caution tape and subway riders fleeing a smoke-filled train.
“Crime is rampant,” says a voiceover in another pro-Cuomo ad, also paid for by Fix the City. That ad also references Mr. Cuomo’s “five-borough crime and affordability plan,” which would add “5,000 more cops” to the streets.
Other candidates took a subtler approach. Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller, said in his only broadcast ad to air so far that he would “put a cop on every train” and “hire more mental health workers.” An ad for Brad Lander, the current city comptroller, tied the idea of safety to Mr. Lander’s plan to “end street homelessness for the mentally ill.” An ad for Zohran Mamdani, the state assemblyman, simply said he would make New York a “safer city.”
Among the ads aired,
five mention President Trump
2 ads
Taking jabs at Mr. Trump and his administration could almost be considered a requirement for candidates running in a Democratic primary in a city where former Vice President Kamala Harris won about 70 percent of votes in the 2024 presidential election. Still, some of the ads that mention the president are more direct than others.
An ad for Mr. Stringer was among the most explicit: “We deserve a mayor who can get our city back on track and keep this schmuck out of our business,” Mr. Stringer says over a clip of Mr. Trump dancing at a rally, adding that he will “tell Trump where to stick it.”
Mr. Lander drives a large forklift around a junkyard in his broadcast ad and places cars into a crushing machine. One of the cars has the words “Trump & Musk” in large black letters across the side.
Other candidates made only passing swipes at the president. Some of the ads supporting Mr. Cuomo mentioned that he took on Mr. Trump as governor and will again as mayor, and an ad for Mr. Mamdani said he would stand up to Mr. Trump. Mr. Myrie’s broadcast ad did not mention Mr. Trump.
All ads mention affordable housing
3 ads
Every broadcast ad reviewed in the analysis mentioned housing at least once. In one ad, Mr. Mamdani likened Mr. Cuomo to the current mayor, Eric Adams, whose housing policies have been similar to the former governor’s, and whose popularity declined after he was indicted on fraud and corruption charges in 2024. The Trump administration later dropped the charges.
“Cuomo is running for Adams’s second term,” Mr. Mamdani said in the ad, adding that he will “take on bad landlords and greedy corporations.”
Mr. Adams and Mr. Cuomo are both moderates who have many of the same donors, including powerful real estate leaders, and both have supported housing policies that are in stark contrast to Mr. Mamdani’s. The mayor and former governor both oppose freezing increases for rent-stabilized apartments, for example, while one of Mr. Mamdani’s ads is devoted solely to his plan to freeze rent prices.
In ads for other candidates, housing is mentioned only briefly. An ad by Fix the City for Mr. Cuomo said he will “cut red tape for affordable housing and build 500,000 new units.” In Mr. Stringer’s ad, he said he will “turn vacant lots into affordable apartments.” Mr. Myrie’s ad says he has “the boldest plan to build affordable housing.”
Among the ads aired,
three mention corruption
0 ads
Several of the candidates mentioned corruption in their ads. In Mr. Lander’s ad, a second car is brought out to be crushed, this one symbolizing “corruption,” specifically as it relates to Mr. Cuomo.
“Andrew Cuomo spent $60 million of your money to defend himself in court. That’s corrupt,” a voiceover says as the car is brought to the crushing machine. “But Brad Lander fights corruption.”
In the ad in which Mr. Mamdani compares Mr. Cuomo to Mr. Adams, the candidate paints the former governor and mayor as the corrupt establishment, responsible for making the city unaffordable.
“Working people are being pushed out of the city they built, and it’s because corrupt politicians like Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo have sold us out to billionaires and corporations, rigging the economy against us,” Mr. Mamdani says over a series of images that combine Mr. Cuomo’s face and quotes about the former governor from news articles.
Mr. Stringer defines corruption less precisely, mentioning that he “fought corruption” as comptroller. The three pro-Cuomo broadcast ads by Fix the City did not mention corruption, nor did the ad for Mr. Myrie.
Total spending on advertising,
including future broadcast spots
Total spent | Broadcast share | |
---|---|---|
Fix the City (pro-Cuomo super PAC) |
$8.1 million | 91% |
![]() Mamdani |
$3.0 million | 41% |
![]() Lander |
$2.3 million | 72% |
![]() Stringer |
$1.9 million | 83% |
![]() Myrie |
$1.7 million | 27% |
Spending on ads that have already aired on broadcast television, which this analysis focused on, is one slice of candidates’ overall ad spending. They have also purchased broadcast spots to air more ads in the future, as well as ads on other platforms like streaming television, satellite and internet. Broadcast was, however, a major focus for the candidates.
Fix the City, the pro-Cuomo super PAC, has spent the most on advertising by far, with 91 percent of its spending devoted to commercials on broadcast networks. (Mr. Cuomo’s campaign has not yet aired any of its own ads on broadcast television, according to AdImpact.)
By contrast, the campaign for Mr. Mamdani, which has become known for its savvy approach to social media, has spent just 41 percent of its advertising budget on broadcast, according to the AdImpact data. (Mr. Mamdani’s campaign has, however, spent more on broadcast than any other individual platform.)
One of the leading Democrats in the mayor’s race, Adrienne Adams, the speaker of the New York City Council, has not yet aired an ad on broadcast television. The candidate struggled to raise funds early in her campaign, but recently got an infusion of $2 million from the city’s fund-matching program, which the campaign said it would use for an aggressive ad blitz in the coming weeks before the June 24 primary.
New York
Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Over the course of one week, some of the richest people in the world descended on New York’s auction houses to purchase over $1 billion of art. It might have played out a little differently than you would have expected.
Can you guess which of these works sold for more?
Note: Listed sale prices include auction fees.
Image credits: “Untitled,” via Phillips; “Baby Boom,” via Christie’s Images LTD; “Hazy Sun,” With permission of the Renate, Hans & Maria Hofmann Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Petit Matin,” via Christie’s Images LTD; “Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio,” Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome; via Sotheby’s; “Baroque Egg with Bow (Orange/Magenta),” via Sotheby’s; “The Last Supper,” The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Campbell’s Soup I,” The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Miss January,” via Christie’s Images LTD; “Fingermalerei – Akt,” via Sotheby’s; “Grande tête mince (Grande tête de Diego),” Succession Alberto Giacometti/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY; via Sotheby’s; “Tête au long cou,” Succession Alberto Giacometti/ARS, NY/Photos: ADAGP Images/Paris 2025; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Revelacion,” Remedios Varo, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP, Madrid; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Le jardin nocturne,” Foundation Paul Delvaux, Sint-Idesbald – ARS/SABAM Belgium; via Christie’s Images LTD.
Produced by Daniel Simmons-Ritchie.
New York
Video: How a Mexican Navy Ship Crashed Into the Brooklyn Bridge

On Saturday, a Mexican Navy ship on a good will tour left a New York City pier bound for Iceland. Four minutes later, it crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. [Spanish] “It’s falling!” [English] “No way!” Here’s what happened. The Cuauhtémoc had been docked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for four days, open to visitors looking for a cultural experience. As the ship prepared to leave on Saturday night, a tugboat arrived to escort it out of its pier at 8:20 p.m. The ship’s bow, the front of the vessel, faced Manhattan, meaning it would need to back out of its berth into the East River. As the Cuauhtémoc pulled away from shore, the tugboat appeared to push the side of the ship, helping to pivot the bow south toward its intended route. The river was flowing northeast toward the Brooklyn Bridge and the wind was blowing in roughly the same direction, potentially pushing the ship toward a collision. Photos and videos suggest the tugboat was not tied to the ship, limiting its ability to pull the ship away from the bridge. The Cuauhtémoc began to drift north, back first, up the river. Dr. Salvatore Mercogliano, who’s an adjunct professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, told The Times that the ship appeared to be giving off a wake. This suggests its propellers may have been running in reverse, pushing it faster toward the bridge. The tugboat sped alongside the ship as it headed north, possibly trying to get in front of it and help the ship maneuver the other way. But it was unable to cut the ship off or reverse its course. All three masts crashed into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge at approximately 8:24 p.m., four minutes after the ship had left the pier, causing the top sails to collapse. Crew members standing on the masts during the collision were thrown off entirely. Others remained hanging from their harnesses. A New York City patrol boat arrived about eight minutes after the collision, followed quickly by a fire department boat. Additional law enforcement and emergency medical services removed the wounded for treatment. According to the Mexican Navy, two of the 227 people aboard the ship were killed and 22 others were injured.
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