Author: NY TIMES

As Macron rolls the dice, France holds its breathEmmanuel Macron, the president of France, shocked his nation when he dissolved Parliament and called for a snap election after his party was trounced by the far right during European elections. On Sunday, voters head to the polls for the first round of voting as French politics reels.For insight, my colleague Daniel Slotnik spoke with Roger Cohen, The Times’s Paris bureau chief.What’s at stake?Roger: Well, President Macron has taken a huge gamble. The immediate possibility is that the far-right National Rally could win a majority, or even an absolute majority, in the…

The internet celebrities Kouvr Annon and Alex Warren married over the weekend on a bright, sunny day in California. Their guest list was laden with content creators, including Charli D’Amelio, which wasn’t surprising given their history. The pair, who began dating in 2018 and got engaged on New Year’s Eve in 2022, were once members of the social media collective Hype House and have more than 30 million TikTok followers collectively.One of the creators in attendance, Lilah Gibney, has since received blowback after posting several videos taken during the wedding on June 22 at the Ethereal Gardens, a wedding venue…

Hollywood executives love to characterize themselves as fearless. The truth is that they spend most of their time trying to minimize risk.It’s why theaters are clogged with vacuous sequels. It’s why so many Hollywood power players hide behind P.R. people. And it’s why all of the big movie studios and streaming services — and, in fact, most indie film companies — declined to distribute “The Apprentice,” a dramatized origin story about Donald J. Trump that the former president has called “malicious defamation” and showered with cease-and-desist letters.But the movie business still has at least one wildcatter: Tom Ortenberg.Mr. Ortenberg, 63,…

The Supreme Court said on Thursday that it would dismiss a case about emergency abortions in Idaho, temporarily clearing the way for women in the state to receive an abortion when their health is at risk.The one-sentence, unsigned decision declared that the case had been “improvidently granted,” meaning a majority of the justices had changed their minds about the need to take up the case now. It reinstates a lower-court ruling that had halted Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion and permitted emergency abortions at hospitals if needed to protect the health of the mother while the case makes its way…

James Elmore Cason was born on Nov. 27, 1939, in Nashville, the younger of two children of James and Rosa (Jordan) Cason. His father, who was known as Roy, was a carpenter. His mother, who sang in church, taught young Buzz to sing harmonies. (He earned his nickname early on, he said in the 2014 interview, “I think because I made so much noise.”) By the time he was in high school he and his classmates were listening to R&B on the Nashville radio station WLAC.Mr. Cason’s introduction to performing came when he and his friends were invited to lip-sync…

Israel and Egypt agreed to allow at least 19 sick children, most of them cancer patients, to leave Gaza for medical treatment on Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian officials said, in the first major evacuation of critically ill Gazans since the Rafah border crossing shut down in early May.The Israeli military said the operation had been carried out in coordination with the United States, Egypt and the international community. In total, 68 people — sick and injured patients and their escorts — were allowed to leave, the military said.Over 10,000 sick and wounded people in Gaza require urgent care that is…

A decommissioned Russian satellite fractured in space on Wednesday, creating a cloud of debris in low Earth orbit that prompted astronauts aboard the International Space Station to take protective measures.The satellite, which was orbiting about 220 miles above the ground, broke apart into more than 100 shards, according to an announcement on Thursday by U.S. Space Command, a Defense Department agency that executes military operations in space. Space Command added in its statement that there were “no immediate threats,” and that assessments of the situation were ongoing.Known as Resurs P1, the satellite was launched in 2013 by Russia to observe…

A go-to resource for keeping tabs on exes and crushes online has disabled a very important feature. The yearners, piners and lurkers online who can’t help themselves were none too pleased.This month, X announced that it was “making Likes private for everyone to better protect your privacy.” In practice, the change meant that although users would still be able to see posts they had liked, their list of liked posts would be hidden from other users. And by extension, neither could they see others’ likes.It may be the biggest development in casual cybersleuthing since the so-called Following tab disappeared from…

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected one of the primary ways the Securities and Exchange Commission enforces laws against securities fraud.The agency, like other regulators, brings some enforcement actions in internal tribunals rather than in federal courts. The S.E.C.’s practice, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for a six-justice majority in a decision divided along ideological lines, violated the right to a jury trial.“A defendant facing a fraud suit has the right to be tried by a jury of his peers before a neutral adjudicator,” the chief justice wrote.The case is one of several challenges this term to the…

Many travelers from the United States lost a crucial tool to check maps, make reservations, use ride-hailing apps and more because of a cellular data outage that began affecting users of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon on Wednesday.The affected travelers, mostly in Europe, posted on social media, seeking answers about what caused the outage and how long it would last. Some reported being unable to make phone calls, send texts or use online services without Wi-Fi for as long as 24 hours. It is unclear what caused the outage, which appeared to extend from Britain to Turkey.An AT&T spokeswoman said that…