Author: NY TIMES

Days after an Israeli military incursion into Rafah, in southern Gaza, South Africa once again asked the United Nations’ top court to issue constraints on Israel, saying “the very survival” of Palestinians in Gaza was under threat.In filings disclosed by the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Friday, South Africa asked the court to order Israel to immediately withdraw from Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city where more than a million Palestinians displaced by the war have sought shelter, and to “cease its military offensive” and allow “unimpeded access” to international officials, investigators and journalists.South Africa’s latest move is part…

Palestinian flags fluttered in the breeze above two neat rows of orange and green tents at Cambridge University on Thursday, where students read, talked and played chess at a small encampment to protest the Gaza war.There were no police officers in sight and not a lot for them to do if they did turn up, unless they felt like joining a wellness circle or a workshop on kite-making.Pro-Palestinian encampments have spread to 15 universities across Britain in recent days, but there were few signs yet of the violent confrontations that have shaken American campuses.That is partly because college authorities here…

CHICAGO — If you want to know how quickly things can change in the WNBA, look no further than Angel Reese’s week.On Monday, her 22nd birthday, the Chicago Sky rookie took an unusual trip after practice in suburban Deerfield.Typically, when people leave Saks Center, a Park District fitness club in a strip mall, they might grab some ramen at Jimmy Thai or grab a cup of coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts. If they really wanted to ruin their workout, they’d go to Portillo’s across the street.Reese, rookie or not, is a little different than the average player, and he attended the…

When the reigning Miss USA, Noelia Voigt, announced this week she would be resigning from her position, she cited her mental health and wrote about her gratitude for the opportunity.“As individuals, we grow through experiencing different things in life that lead us to learning more about ourselves,” she wrote on Instagram on Monday.But an internal resignation letter by Ms. Voigt to Miss USA leadership and the Miss Universe Organization, obtained on Friday by The New York Times, presented a much darker picture.In the eight-page letter, Ms. Voigt, who represented the state of Utah and was crowned in September, described “a…

In March, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that a new federal rule would cap fees on late credit card payments at $8 a month, estimating that the change would save American households $10 billion a year.On Friday, a federal judge in Fort Worth temporarily blocked the rule, siding with bank and credit card company lobbyists who contend in a lawsuit that it is unconstitutional.The rule was scheduled to take effect on Tuesday. Now, the lobbyists can continue their legal fight in U.S. District Court before Judge Mark T. Pittman, who granted the preliminary injunction.The consumer bureau’s new rule would…

Apple’s top software executives decided early last year that Siri, the company’s virtual assistant, needed a brain transplant.The decision came after the executives Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea spent weeks testing OpenAI’s new chatbot, ChatGPT. The product’s use of generative artificial intelligence, which can write poetry, create computer code and answer complex questions, made Siri look antiquated, said two people familiar with the company’s work, who didn’t have permission to speak publicly.Introduced in 2011 as the original virtual assistant in every iPhone, Siri had been limited for years to individual requests and had never been able to follow a conversation.…

Nancy Neveloff Dubler, a medical ethicist who pioneered using mediation at hospital bedsides to navigate the complex dynamics among headstrong doctors, anguished family members and patients in their last days, died on April 14 at her home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She was 82.The cause was heart and lung disease, her family said.A Harvard-educated lawyer who won her college student presidency by campaigning to dissolve the student government, Ms. Dubler was a revolutionary figure in health care who sought, in her words, to “level the playing field” and “amplify nonmedical voices” in knotty medical situations, especially when…

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube4. Tinariwen: “Matadjem Yinmixan”The Mali-based collective Tinariwen is part of the fabric of modern Tuareg history; its founder, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, fled the country as a child after his rebel father was killed by government forces in an uprising. For decades now, Tinariwen has set the standard for Tuareg bands with tightly coordinated rhythms led by Ag Alhabib, whose electric guitar sometimes seems to humbly pray. “Matadjem Yinmixan,” about Tuareg unity, has a groove so locked-in it could practically be a dance hit — when I saw the band at Coachella 15 years…

Talks involving Israeli and Hamas negotiators on a cease-fire and hostage release deal remain snagged over whether a truce would be permanent or temporary, and how many hostages would be freed in the first phase of an agreement, officials briefed on the matter said.Israel and Hamas representatives left Egypt on Thursday after the latest round of indirect talks — they do not communicate with each other directly — without any deal in sight, the officials said. But U.S., Egyptian, and Qatari teams were still holding further discussions in Egypt.Hamas is still demanding that Israel abide by a permanent cease-fire and…

Keep an eye on the skies starting Friday night for what could be a dazzling display of nature — or not, depending on your location and weather conditions.An unusual amount of solar flare activity means that the aurora borealis (also known as the northern and southern lights, depending on your hemisphere) could appear in the sky as an arc of green light.If you’re in a place with a lot of bright lights — like a city — it’s going to be hard to see anything. And then there are other complications, like the weather.The Northeast is likely to be blanketed…