Author: NY TIMES

Ahmed Best recalls the painful backlash to the “Phantom Menace” character that was considered a racial stereotype at the time, but is now embraced by fans. Source link

Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas, and his wife were charged with participating in a yearslong $600,000 bribery scheme involving Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Houston on Friday.Mr. Cuellar, 68, and his wife Imelda, 67, are accused of bribery and money laundering in connection with their efforts on behalf of a bank based in Mexico City and an energy company owned by Azerbaijan, according to the 54-page complaint.Mr. Cuellar is also accused of acting as an agent of a foreign entity while serving as a U.S. government official.Payments made from 2014 to 2021…

There’s no way of knowing what Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham said as he approached Harry Kane as the Bayern Munich striker prepared to take a penalty in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday night.Whatever the precise wording, it was unlikely that Bellingham wished his international team-mates good luck and referee Clement Turpin had to step in to tell the midfielder to get out of the way.Kane isn’t overly worried. In his first post-match interview with British match broadcaster TNT Sport, the England captain said he did not hear what Bellingham said. Bellingham didn’t reveal anything until…

Later, at home, I saw a photo on my phone from Dec. 12, 2022, exactly a year earlier, of Kiki flopped on the couch in sweats, hair in a ponytail, smiling up at me. A cardboard box of ornaments on the floor beside her, our tablecloth with the elves and candy canes draped over the armrest by her head. We had been laughing about how Christmas is hard work, all that decorating, and how we needed to eat and rest and make pecan squares and watch some old “Wife Swap” episodes.Eric was away. She had come up for the night…

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.It was in northeastern Pennsylvania that Min Matheson earned her reputation for fearlessness. Over her 20 years as director of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union there, she repeatedly faced down mobsters in her fight for fair wages and safe conditions for women workers.In one incident, she confronted several menacing “tough guys,” as she called them, in Pittston, Pa., where she was marching on a picket line alongside other women.She told them, “You rotten hoodlums! What are you…

The bird flu virus sweeping across dairy farms in multiple states has acquired dozens of new mutations, including some that may make it more adept at spreading between species and less susceptible to antiviral drugs, according to a new study.None of the mutations is a cause for alarm on its own. But they underscore the possibility that as the outbreak continues, the virus may evolve in ways that would allow it to spread easily between people, experts said.“Flu mutates all the time — it’s what, sort of, flu does,” said Richard Webby, an influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research…

Han shot first.On this most hallowed of holidays — May the Fourth, also known as “Star Wars Day” because, you know, “may the Force be with you” — let us all agree that a long time ago, in a galaxy that now feels very far away indeed, Han shot Greedo first. No amount of special editions or George Lucas declarations will change that, even if, uh, Lucas actually did change that scene. If you seek the originals, these aren’t the films you’re looking for.A rebellion began in 1997, when Lucasfilm first released altered “special editions” of the first trilogy, adding…

A Palestinian doctor from the Gaza Strip, detained by Israeli forces and held for four months, has died in detention, Palestinian officials and detainee rights groups say.Dr. Adnan Ahmad Albursh, 50, the head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip’s biggest medical center, was detained along with other doctors in December by Israeli forces when they raided a hospital, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which advocate for the rights of Palestinian detainees held by Israel.Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Times of Israel cited the…

In those few minutes after Niclas Füllkrug had scored, as the Yellow Wall swayed and roared, Borussia Dortmund must have felt the stirring of some distant memory. Waves of attacks pounded down on Paris St.-Germain, now dizzied and wearied. The world shimmered with possibility. A place in the Champions League final felt, for a moment, close enough to touch.This is how it used to be, or at least some approximation of it, back in the days when Dortmund made Europe shake. Gregor Kobel, the team’s goalkeeper, was pulling off daring turns in his own penalty area. Mats Hummels, a fixture…

She showed him her favorite spots around Paris, and they spent days walking around, getting lost, people-watching and drinking wine. They went to Le Champo, an art house theater, to see “An American in Paris.”“That was the most radiantly happy I’d ever been in my whole life,” Mr. Bramesco said.In October 2022, Mr. Bramesco took Ms. Whittle to dinner at Mominette, a French restaurant in Bushwick. After dinner, they returned to the bar where they’d had their first date. When they got home, he took her up to the roof of their apartment building. Through tears, overlooking the city skyline,…