Author: NY TIMES

The announcement came seemingly out of the blue on Sunday when it was first publicized via the Israeli military’s English and Arabic-language channels: The military would “pause” its fighting during daytime hours along an important humanitarian aid corridor in southern Gaza until further notice.Amid some immediate confusion over the scope of the pause, a clarification swiftly followed, this time in Hebrew and seemingly for domestic consumption. The change did not mean a cessation of fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, that statement said, adding that the campaign in the southernmost city of Rafah was continuing. Military officials said the daily…

Jerry West won’t be in attendance when his Los Angeles Lakers finally return to the NBA’s pinnacle night.”Oh, I’m not going there,” he told me over the phone, referring to what was then known as Staples Center.Wait, what?The 1999-2000 Lakers, a team built for this purpose at the expense of West’s nerves and health, won Los Angeles’ first basketball championship in more than a decade, one step away from defeating Indiana in the Finals. The Pacers have one game left. They will be crowned on their home turf. This will be the team’s first championship since 1988. Bryant was included…

On Saturday morning Catherine, Princess of Wales, tiptoed back onto the public stage for the first time since announcing her cancer diagnosis this year in her signature color-coordinated way, joining the rest of the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the traditional finale flyover of King Charles’ birthday parade. She wore a white knee-length Jenny Packham dress with a black-and-white striped belt and a jaunty bow at the neck, topped off with a Philip Treacy hat, angled just so.The nautical theme was reflected in the navy dress with a sailor collar and white trim worn by Princess…

The United States Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, announced on Monday that he would push for a warning label on social media platforms advising parents that using the platforms might damage adolescents’ mental health.Warning labels — like those that appear on tobacco and alcohol products — are one of the most powerful tools available to the nation’s top health official, but Dr. Murthy cannot unilaterally require them; the action requires approval by Congress. No such legislation has yet been introduced in either chamber.A warning label would send a powerful message to parents “that social media has not been proved safe,”…

By Stuart A. ThompsonStuart Thompson collected and analyzed data on thousands of Facebook posts for this article.On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Christopher Blair’s fake news empire was humming along.Mr. Blair had been earning as much as $15,000 in some months by posting false stories to Facebook about Democrats and the election, reaching millions of people each month.But after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, his growing enterprise came to an abrupt halt. Facebook seemed to recognize its own role in fomenting an insurrection and tweaked its algorithm to limit the spread of political content, fake…

The bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle has so far spilled over to just three farmworkers in the United States, as far as public health authorities know. All of them have had mostly mild symptoms.But that does not guarantee that the virus, called H5N1, will remain benign if it begins to spread among people. Accumulating evidence from the animal world and data from other parts of the globe, in fact, suggest the opposite.Some dairy cows never recovered from H5N1, and died or were slaughtered because of it. Infected terns seemed disoriented and unable to fly. Elephant seal pups had trouble…

Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren are planning to star in a production of “The Last Five Years” on Broadway next spring.Jonas appeared in several Broadway shows as a child; his one starring role was in 2012, when he stepped into a production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” and his most recent appearance on Broadway was for a Jonas Brothers concert stand last year.Warren is a Tony Award winner for playing the title role in “Tina.” She also had roles in Broadway productions of “Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All…

On Saturday, Iran and Sweden exchanged prisoners. The swap had the appearance of any two countries engaged in diplomatic negotiations to free their citizens. Families were elated; governments were relieved.But the exchange was only the latest chapter in Iran’s long history of what is known in world affairs as hostage diplomacy.For more than four decades, since the 1979 revolution that installed a conservative theocracy, the country has made the detention of foreign and dual citizens central to its foreign policy. For Iran, the approach has paid off. For the world, it has been a troubling trend.Iran’s demands have evolved along…

A court in Russia said on Monday that the espionage trial of the imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich would start next week and that the proceedings would be held behind closed doors.The first hearing, set for June 26, will come almost 15 months after Mr. Gershkovich, 32, was detained by security agents in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, about 900 miles east of Moscow. After spending more than a year in a high-security prison in Moscow, Mr. Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, is likely to be transferred back to Yekaterinburg to stand trial.Mr. Gershkovich, who had worked…

PINEHURST, N.C. — It was still early when Justin Thomas woke the ghost.Just after 8 a.m., he was walking along the pinegrass to the right of the third hole at Pinewood No. 2. After bogeying the second hole, he was already feeling the heat. Now, an errant tee shot on the third hole resulted in an awkward angle into the green.After saying that, Thomas took back his club and hit a shot that can only be described as… touching. Something between a dead pull and a violent hook. Maybe the culprit is a clump of wire grass near the lie.…