Author: NY TIMES

Thursday’s general election is a pivotal moment for Britain after 14 years of Conservative Party government. Polls suggest that the center-left Labour Party is set to return to power in what would be a fundamental realignment of British politics.Millions of voters in 650 constituencies are voting for candidates to represent them as members of Parliament. The political party that wins the most seats usually forms Britain’s next government, and that party’s leader also becomes prime minister.To win an overall majority, a party must secure 326 seats. If the top party falls short of that, it can try to form a…

The Russian authorities have arrested a top military colonel and charged him with large-scale fraud, the state news agency TASS reported on Thursday. The colonel was previously the commander of troops responsible for a 2022 massacre in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.The authorities arrested the colonel, Artyom Gorodilov, on July 3 and charged him with committing fraud amounting to at least a million rubles ($11,236), TASS reported. A military court ordered that he be held in pretrial detention until Aug. 19, and he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, TASS reported. He has denied any wrongdoing.Colonel Gorodilov…

Germany’s first African-born member of Parliament said this week that he would not seek office again in next year’s general elections. Although he played down racism as a factor, he made the announcement in the wake of a slew of hate mail, death threats he said he has received, as well as multiple violent attacks on his office.The lawmaker, Karamba Diaby, a 62-year-old Senegal native first elected in 2013, said in a letter written to his colleagues that he wanted to make way for a new generation of politicians, spend more time with family and that racism was “not the…

Sitting near a window inside Boston’s Four Seasons Hotel, overlooking a duck pond in the city’s Public Garden, Ray Kurzweil held up a sheet of paper showing the steady growth in the amount of raw computer power that a dollar could buy over the last 85 years.A neon-green line rose steadily across the page, climbing like fireworks in the night sky.That diagonal line, he said, showed why humanity was just 20 years away from the Singularity, a long hypothesized moment when people will merge with artificial intelligence and augment themselves with millions of times more computational power than their biological…

A psychosexual thriller imagined in blood red and cocaine white, “MaXXXine,” the third installment in Ti West’s nostalgia-soaked slasher saga, is part grungy homage to 1980s Hollywood and part sleazy feminist manifesto. Darker, moodier and altogether nastier than its predecessors — “X” (2022) and, later that same year, “Pearl” — this hyperconfident feature is also funny, occasionally wistful and deeply empathetic toward its damaged, driven heroine.That would be Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), the sole survivor of the dirty-movie cast massacred in “X.” Now a successful porn star, Maxine, eager to break into mainstream movies, has relocated to a Hollywood of…

In yet another dire warning about the coming Atlantic hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday predicted that this year could see between 17 to 25 named tropical cyclones, the most it has ever forecast in May for the Atlantic Ocean.The NOAA forecast joins more than a dozen other recent projections from experts at universities, private companies and other government agencies that have predicted a likelihood of 14 or more named storms this season; many were calling for well over 20.Rick Spinrad, the NOAA administrator, said at a news conference on Thursday morning that the agency’s forecasters…

[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]La portada de agosto de Vogue, protagonizada por Jill Biden, se publicó en internet el lunes —cuatro días después del gran debate— y trajo consigo una nueva ronda de escrutinio sobre su papel como ferviente defensora de su marido, quien está inmerso en una preocupante campaña para la reelección.Durante gran parte del mandato del presidente Joe Biden, la primera dama fue una figura poco controvertida. La situación empezó a cambiar cuando la campaña se calentó. Laura Ingraham, de Fox News, afirmó que Jill Biden encubría la incapacidad del presidente por su propio deseo de…

The trainer, Jo Vaughan, had about 12 weeks to prep the cats. A significant portion was spent familiarizing them with being carried and walking on leashes. “If there’s two things cats don’t like,” Vaughan said, “one is being on a harness and lead, and two is being carried.”The cats weren’t the only ones who had to adapt to something they didn’t like: When filming began, Nyong’o, who won an Oscar in 2014 for her role in “12 Years a Slave,” was afraid of the creatures. Sarnoski said she spent about an hour before shooting each day doing “cat time” to…

As the rest of the world zigs toward a four-day workweek, Greece is opting to zag.On Monday, a law came into effect that allows some companies to enforce a six-day workweek, a shift that is intended to prop up the country’s aging work force, compensate strapped workers and hold firm to the Greek way of life.The law applies to private sector workers in certain industrial and manufacturing sectors, or to those who work in a business that operates continuous shifts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with some exceptions. And it would be allowed only “in exceptional circumstances,”…

A Fuse Meant to LightI left the book on the couch. Mom sparked a conversation. “I see it’s about a gay man. Do you think you might be?” “Doesn’t everyone wonder at some point?” “Perhaps. Uncle Mike is gay; you know we love him.” The book ignited my innermost thoughts but I wasn’t ready. I quietly stored her words like dry fuses. Three years later, on July 4, Uncle Mike’s birthday, with my brother alongside, I declared my independence. “I always knew,” Mom said. “Love you,” Dad replied. Surrounded by family and fireworks, I finally lit the fuse that illuminated…