Author: NY TIMES

Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet, presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an ultimatum on Saturday, saying he would leave the government if it did not soon develop a plan for the future of the war in Gaza.While Mr. Gantz’s departure would not topple the country’s emergency wartime government, the move would further strain a fragile coalition that has provided Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right government with a boost of international legitimacy, and it would make the prime minister even more reliant on his hard-line partners.“If you choose the path of zealots, dragging the country into the abyss, we…

President Salome Zourabichvili of Georgia said on Saturday that she had vetoed a bill on foreign influence that has sparked protests and plunged the nation into a political crisis, threatening to derail its pro-European aspirations in favor of closer ties with Russia.Georgia’s Parliament, which passed the draft law in three readings, is widely expected to override the veto. The ruling Georgian Dream party, which introduced the proposed legislation, can turn it into law as early as May 28, when the Parliament will be in session again.Mrs. Zourabichvili called her veto “symbolic,” but it still represented another step in the political…

RALEIGH, N.C. — In his own unique, playful way, Evgeny Kuznetsov promised the New York Rangers if they had to return to North Carolina for an increasingly unspeakable first game. Game 6 of the second-round series, they will go to hell.Oh, but it’s not hell. Even the night’s theme was “Causing Hell.” Not even when AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” sounded before the puck hit the floor. Even as Carolina’s notoriously rowdy fans reached new heights, the Hurricanes took a two-goal lead heading into the third period at PNC Arena. this is nothing.No, a potential Game 7 is going to be hell…

Mera Caulfield was watching television a couple of months ago when the screen suddenly erupted with characters doing their best evil laughs. Ms. Caulfield turned to her two roommates, Alixandra Matos and Megan Mandrachio.“I was like, ‘That’s literally us,’ ” Ms. Caulfield said.Their apartment in Queens was soon filled with a cacophony of evil laughs. By her own admission, Ms. Caulfield, 25, who subsidizes her nascent career in comedy by waitressing and being a nanny, was disappointed in her performance. (“I don’t have a good one,” she said, sounding distraught.) But she also knew what she needed to do.“We need…

No matter who wins the White House and control of Congress this autumn, one aspect of trade policy is likely to endure: Washington’s tough-on-China protectionist stance. But several trade experts predict that the America-first model of slapping tariffs on adversaries — as President Biden did this week — will backfire.Critics of tariffs and export restrictions say they not only will potentially exacerbate inflation and drag down economic growth, but are also likely to fail for a simpler reason: Chinese companies may see their businesses slowed down by the restrictions, but have found ways to beat them.As Alex Durante, an economist…

Phil Wiggins, a harmonica player of such range that he could make his instrument sound like a clarinet one minute, an accordion the next and then an entire percussion section — all in the service of the complex melodies and steady rhythms of the style known as the Piedmont blues — died on May 7 at his home in Takoma Park, Md. He was 69.His daughter Martha Wiggins said the cause was cancer.For much of his career, Mr. Wiggins was best known as half of the duo Cephas and Wiggins, in which he performed and recorded with the guitarist and…

They were peering over their balconies, huddled at the top of lookouts or drinking coffee, eyes turned to the sky for a hint of color — any color.As night fell, chasers of the aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere on Friday were out again. The vivid hues, which are most often seen closer to the North Pole, lit up skies in an unusual showing in the lower latitudes of Europe and North America last week.Those who missed the lights, or who were eager to see another showing, set their alarms and monitored aurora watch apps, hopeful for another opportunity. Some…

Emma Hayes awkwardly had to explain to Mauricio Pochettino that someone more important was calling her during a chat with her male Chelsea team-mates.Sir Alex Ferguson has heard of her decision to leave Chelsea and become the new head coach of the US Women’s National Team. Pochettino understood his place in the team and Hayes took his place.”He calls me all the time, so I’m not surprised,” explained Hayes, whose first games coaching the U.S. women’s soccer team will be June 1 and June 4 in friendlies against South Korea. “I’ll take whatever he says to me.” So proud. He’s…

Fathers don’t fare well in my fiction. They are white supremacist killers and domestic abusers. They trick their wives into becoming pregnant. They have affairs. They abandon their families.My biological father, Albert Coleman Bryan Jr., was 22 when I was born. He was a dashing air force pilot who flew off into the wide blue yonder, leaving my mother and me grounded.He had red curly hair and freckles and a charming grin. It’s a face I don’t remember, if indeed I ever saw it. My parents split up around the time I was born.I grew up tasting the bitterness of…

Research shows that more adult children may find themselves unexpectedly inheriting wealth over the next two decades. The silent generation, or people born roughly between 1928 and 1945, and its successors, the baby boomers, are expected to transfer significant wealth to members of Generation X and millennials over the next 20 years, according to the Wealth Report, a publication from Knight Frank, a London global property consultant.Federal Reserve figures show that half of all inheritances are less than $50,000, but with boomers reaching 80 and beyond, members of their family may begin to inherit more wealth. More than half of…