In On the Rocks, Bill Murray Is the Suit-Wearing King of New York

“Everyone in SoHo dresses like this now,” the joke goes. The phrase is usually tweeted alongside a photo of some long-forgotten cultural figure whose style seems to overlap almost perfectly with the prevailing advanced-fashion looks of the day. “To make the joke is to announce a deep exhaustion with much of menswear’s fixations, alongside a deep familiarity with them,” Max Lakin wrote for this website in January: a sense that, as hilariously as the young men outside Aimé Leon Dore or wherever might be dressing, someone else had worn their weird pants first.

I thought of the phrase while watching …

Arts Bailout in U.K. Buys Time, but No Peace of Mind

LIVERPOOL, England — One recent afternoon, Liam Naughton was standing in the main room of the Invisible Wind Factory, a vast music venue and arts space he runs in a formerly industrial area of Liverpool, which has been largely shuttered since March.

“We could put a roller rink in here,” he said, excitedly. “The idea is people will be skating around while hot bands are playing.” Marshals could enforce social distancing, he added.

Mr. Naughton’s head was full of such wild ideas because of a sudden change in fortune. At the start of October, he assumed he would have to

As China Clamps Down, Activists Flee Hong Kong for Refuge in the West

HONG KONG — In Western democracies, they have been welcomed as refugees escaping Beijing’s tightening grip over Hong Kong.

In China, they have been denounced as violent criminals escaping punishment for their seditious activities.

A group of Hong Kong activists who have been granted asylum in the United States, Canada and Germany in recent weeks are the latest catalyst for deteriorating relations between China and the West. Western leaders have asserted that they will stand up for human rights in Hong Kong, while Chinese officials have rebuked the countries for what they called interference in Beijing’s affairs.

The protesters’ newly