Author: NY TIMES

A gunman shot Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, who is known for defying his fellow leaders in the European Union, multiple times at close range on Wednesday, in the most serious attack on a European leader in decades.Mr. Fico was shot after emerging from the House of Culture in Handlova, a town in central Slovakia, as he greeted a small crowd in Banikov Square. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, then airlifted to another hospital for emergency surgery.Hours later, the deputy prime minister, Tomas Taraba, told the BBC that Mr. Fico’s situation was no longer life-threatening, and he…

After starting the second round with a three-game losing streak, the Carolina Hurricanes pulled off thrilling back-to-back wins in Games 4 and 5 to officially reach the series. This was more akin to what many were expecting before this series began – a close, hard-fought battle between the two titans of the Metropolitan Division. While on the ice, the opening three possessions of the game were all one-goal, the scoring in the series clearly told a different story.The Hurricanes have a very real chance to turn that around in Game 6 on Thursday night, as they’ll be the relative favorite…

Nearly every spring for over two decades now, a tender ritual has taken place in a leafy plaza in the Turtle Bay area of Midtown Manhattan.It is the Katharine Hepburn Garden Party, a posthumous birthday celebration for the four-time Academy Award-winning actress, who was a beloved member of the neighborhood until she died in 2003. The gathering is held at the garden named after Hepburn that is nestled within Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, and last weekend, dozens of loyal elderly local residents came out to toast her 117th year.A sign bearing a portrait of Hepburn that welcomed guests to the party…

All of a sudden on Wednesday morning, the TV booking of the year was up for grabs.Since 1987, presidential debates have been simulcast on every major channel in the country. But President Biden’s shock announcement that he would skip this fall’s preplanned matchups in favor of debates sponsored by individual news outlets sent network executives into a scramble.Such debates typically take months to plan. Instead, in three hours, CNN and ABC News outmaneuvered their rivals to land a pair of prime-time face-offs between Mr. Biden and former President Donald J. Trump that promise enormous ratings and prestige.Given the circumstances, some…

When it comes to choosing a commencement speaker, colleges and universities take different approaches. Some go local, selecting well-known figures in the area. Others take a stately route, opting for a former or current politician. Actors or comedians are often asked to speak.But in a world where artificial intelligence is everywhere, one university in New York opted for a robot using artificial intelligence to speak to graduates over the weekend.For its spring commencement on Saturday, D’Youville University, a private institution in Buffalo, N.Y., had an A.I. robot named Sophia address a crowd of more than 2,000 students, faculty members and…

The Biden administration, under acute pressure from House lawmakers, moved on Wednesday to ban funding for a prominent virus-hunting nonprofit group whose work with Chinese scientists had put it at the heart of theories that Covid leaked from a lab.The decision, announced in a letter from the Department of Health and Human Services, came on the heels of a scorching congressional hearing this month at which lawmakers barraged the group’s president with suggestions that he had misrepresented work with virologists in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic began. Republicans went further, demanding that Peter Daszak, the president of the nonprofit, EcoHealth…

In a new study, researchers found universal features of songs across many cultures, suggesting that music evolved in our distant ancestors. Source link

Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, quickly pushed back, saying that the crossing was still closed because of Israel’s control over it, and because its military operations were putting truck drivers and aid workers in danger. In a statement from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Mr. Shoukry rejected what he described as “the policy of twisting facts.”Israeli officials rarely make public criticisms of Egypt, with which Israel maintains a decades-old peace treaty and sensitive security cooperation.Defying international pressure, Israel launched a limited invasion of Rafah on May 6, taking over areas in the east. Even if trucks were allowed to pass through…

If France is a country of illusions — a beautiful and seductive land offering many of life’s greatest pleasures that sits atop and conceals a crime-ridden, drug-plagued world of violence — then the past week offered a rude awakening to this dual reality.The Olympic flame arrived on French soil last week in the ancient port city of Marseille as a joyous crowd thronged the beautiful harbor. The chatter was of peace ahead of the Games, which begin in July. But the flame also arrived in a city whose northern districts are the epicenter of the French drug trade, where 49…

In January, the travel and fashion influencer Devin Halbal decided to take a trip to Kurashiki, a city in the Okayama Prefecture of Japan. Ms. Halbal, a Queens-born 26-year-old who goes by the username “Hal Baddie” on TikTok, had spent four years traveling around Europe with an extra-long selfie stick and a dream, sharing videos with hundreds of thousands of followers.Ms. Halbal had become known for coining inspirational phrases, like “doll check-in” as a proud calling card to her fellow trans girls, and “Met Gala behavior,” for when you’re feeling and acting confident about what you’re wearing. Her fame seemed…