Author: NY TIMES

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken plans to visit Israel and three Arab states next week, as the U.S. presses for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza.Mr. Blinken is scheduled to travel to Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan from Monday through Wednesday, Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement on Friday. The trip, which will be his eighth visit to the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks that set off the war, comes at a particularly tense moment.The Biden administration is trying hard to stop the fighting in Gaza…

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark was attacked in a busy square in Copenhagen on Friday evening in an assault that left her “shaken,” her office said, though she was able to walk away. Police said they had made an arrest.“We have a suspect in custody, and we are now investigating the matter,” the Copenhagen Police said, without commenting further. The motive for the attack is unclear.The prime minister’s office released a statement saying she had been “beaten,” several media outlets reported, but it was unclear what injuries she had sustained.Several Danish politicians expressed their concern over the incident.“Mette is…

Latin America’s best starting pitcher in baseball was signed from Venezuela for just $25,000. He was never a top-100 prospect, never an All-Star, and like many of his peers, turned to pitching out of sheer utility.”The problem is, there are too many position players in Latin America,” Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Suarez said. “So, I went across there. A pitcher. It helped me stand out.Suarez, 28, leads the league with a 1.70 ERA. After 13 seasons in professional baseball, he’s slowly but surely embarked on an increasingly rare path: from Latin America to the top of the MLB rotation.About 25 percent…

The society wedding of the year — as it was called by British tabloids — went off without a hitch on Friday at noon. Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster and one of the richest people in the United Kingdom, married Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral, a centuries-old Gothic church in England.Despite the rapid winds, hundreds of observers and even a few protesters gathered outside to catch a glimpse of the duke, 33, the new duchess, 31, and William, Prince of Wales, a close friend of the groom and an usher at the wedding. (He attended without Catherine, Princess…

After a tumultuous week at The Washington Post, including the unexpected announcement of a new editor and reports that its chief executive objected to coverage of a news story involving him, leaders at the news organization spent Friday trying to reassure the staff.In a conciliatory memo to employees Friday evening, Will Lewis, the chief executive, acknowledged that “trust has been lost” because of “scars from the past and the back-and-forth from this week.” He urged Post employees to “leave those behind and start presuming the best of intent.”“So, time for some humility from me,” Mr. Lewis wrote. “I need to…

No one is more entitled to cover Led Zeppelin than its singer, Robert Plant. His close-harmony duo with the singer and fiddler Alison Krauss excels at making songs sound far older than they are, and even in 1971, “When the Levee Breaks” harked back to a vintage blues by Memphis Minnie. This live recording is stark, resonant and rumbling, with a fiddle solo by Stuart Duncan that looks toward both Ireland and Morocco and a cranked-up guitar stomp that builds toward — alas! — a frustrating fade-out. JON PARELESThe spoiler is in the title of “Truck on Fire,” a swinging…

A day after Israeli forces bombed a U.N. school complex in central Gaza that had become a shelter for displaced Palestinians, some of the facts remain unclear or under contention.Israel said it struck three classrooms used by 20 to 30 Palestinian militants, including some who participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and that it was unaware of civilian casualties. Gazan health authorities said that among the dozens of people killed, many were children and women. Here is what we know and do not know.What was bombed?The multistory building was one of several that made up the UNRWA…

With President Biden in France rallying support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia, ammunition and weaponry from an aid package approved by Congress this spring is arriving at the front in quantities sufficient to help stabilize defenses, soldiers and commanders said in interviews.Russia, though, still holds an artillery advantage, which has been key in the war in Ukraine.Lt. Denys Yaroslavsky, a commander in northeastern Ukraine, where Russian forces attacked across the border last month and threatened to advance toward Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, said on Thursday that Ukrainian artillery crews could now fire more frequently at Russian forces.The Russian advance has…

Yannick Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have been the future of men’s tennis for some time.They met for the first time in October 2021 at the Paris Masters, giving a glimpse of the exciting tennis the two played on the same court.The following year there was a very exciting match in the last 16 at Wimbledon that captured the attention of the casual tennis audience, followed by an entertaining final in Umag, Croatia, and then a late night/early morning The US Open has announced their tennis brand as the next great thing at the top of the sport. Next up is…

[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]El año pasado, Ben Affleck saltó a los titulares por dar la impresión de que estaba de mal humor. Después de abrir la puerta de un coche a su esposa, Jennifer Lopez, la cerró con lo que los espectadores consideraron más fuerza de la estrictamente necesaria.Muchos dijeron que también parecía enfadado mientras estaba sentado junto a su esposa en los premios Grammy 2023. (Después, Affleck explicó que su expresión tuvo más que ver con un acto improvisado del presentador del evento, Trevor Noah).A principios de mayo, Affleck apareció sin compañía en el homenaje de…