Author: NY TIMES

After Chuck E. Cheese’s plans to retire most of its animatronic bands sparked an outcry from wistful fans, the pizzeria-arcade chain said it would keep a few more of the bands.The company will increase to five the number of animatronic bands that will stay, a company spokeswoman said to The New York Times in a statement on Thursday.The move comes after The Times detailed the chain’s plan to phase out the animatronic bands at all but two of the more than 400 Chuck E. Cheese locations in the United States by the end of the year. The company said it…

Milk contaminated with H5N1, the bird-flu virus that has turned up in dairy herds in nine states, has been found to rapidly make mice sick, affecting multiple organs, according to a study published on Friday.The findings are not entirely surprising: At least a half-dozen cats have died after consuming raw milk containing the virus. But the new data add to evidence that virus-laden raw milk may be unsafe for other mammals, including humans.“Don’t drink raw milk — that’s the message,” said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study.Most commercial milk in the United…

One truism of the Cannes Film Festival is that no matter how alarming the news about the American movie world, Hollywood — however you understand that word — retains a powerful grip on this event. Cannes is a thoroughly French affair, but its love for le cinéma américain is evident everywhere from the faded images of Hollywood stars that are scattered about to the honorary awards that the event bestows. On Saturday, it will present an honorary Palme d’Or to George Lucas, the 11th American to get an award that it’s given out just 22 times.Given the United States’ long…

Israel’s military battled deeper into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, expanding its offensive into the city and driving more people out of it, while Israel faced growing international pressure and isolation over its war against Hamas.As the fighting raged, the International Court of Justice in The Hague said it would respond on Friday to a South African petition to order an immediate halt to the ground assault in Rafah. The court, an arm of the United Nations, has no means of enforcing its orders, but a demand to rein in the invasion would add to the string…

A massive landslide devastated a remote village in Papua New Guinea early Friday, killing at least three people and leaving many more missing, as at least 100 homes were damaged and water, power and a major highway were cut off, United Nations officials said.The authorities in Papua New Guinea, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, had not released a death toll as of Friday evening. Witnesses said that the landslide struck Yambali, a village of about 3,900 people at the foot of a mountain in Enga Province, while people were asleep and that rocks had buried several homes in…

There are few moments of political theater as grand as a state dinner, essentially a pantomime of diplomacy and national pride from the set to the staging to the scripts — and the costumes. In that drama, the first lady is cast as both hostess and symbol, her dress a part of the decorative storytelling of the night.Through the five state dinners of the Biden administration, Jill Biden has seemed comfortable with the hosting part of her (nonofficial) job, but she has never seemed all that excited about the fashion part. In those moments of high public attention and posing,…

A game-changing proposal The other shoe has dropped for the N.C.A.A.: That college sports association just agreed to a $2.8 billion class-action settlement that, if approved by a judge in California, would pay student athletes after a century of deeming them amateurs.It would be the latest step in the N.C.A.A. and its member institutions allowing athletes to make money from sports programs that have made millions for their schools. But experts worry that this latest shift will still create losers — especially schools that don’t have big football or basketball programs.The proposed settlement has several components:Athletes would be entitled to…

Last month, Elon Musk posted on X that President Biden “obviously barely knows what’s going on.”“He is just a tragic front for a far left political machine,” Mr. Musk wrote. It was the 29th time this year that he had posted about the president on X, formerly known as Twitter, which Mr. Musk bought in 2022.Mr. Musk has steadily ramped up his criticism of Mr. Biden as the campaign season heats up before the November presidential election. Mr. Musk has posted about Mr. Biden on X at least seven times a month since January, attacking the president for everything from…

‘Hit Man’Gary (played by Glen Powell) is a reserved philosophy professor who finds himself posing as a hit man for a sting operation in this Richard Linklater comedy. While in disguise, he falls for one of his clients (Adria Arjona).From our review:If I see a movie more delightful than “Hit Man” this year, I’ll be surprised. It’s the kind of romp people are talking about when they say that “they don’t make them like they used to”: It’s romantic, sexy, hilarious, satisfying and a genuine star-clinching turn for Glen Powell, who’s been having a moment for about two years now.…

Eyal Ben-Ari tugged at the heavy assault rifle hanging over his shoulder as he tiptoed out of his pink house at sunrise, hoping not to wake his wife or six children.Walking to synagogue in Safed, a hill town above the Sea of Galilee known for centuries as a center of kabbalah, or ancient Jewish mysticism, he said he still didn’t feel great about the gun.Sleeping with the rifle under his pillow, he worried about it being stolen. After his 13-year-old son came home with a toy replica, Mr. Ben-Ari considered returning the real thing, doubting his decision to join the…