Author: NY TIMES

Hungary’s Parliament voted on Monday to accept Sweden as a new member of NATO, sealing a major shift in the balance of power between the West and Russia set off by war in Ukraine.The vote allowed Sweden, which has long been nonaligned, to clear the final hurdle that had blocked its membership in NATO and held up the expansion of the military alliance.Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, whose Fidesz party has a large majority in Parliament, has maintained cordial relations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia despite the war in Ukraine and had stalled for 19 months on…

Companies that produce the most advanced semiconductors have requested more than $70 billion in federal subsidies, roughly twice the amount of funding that is available, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Monday.In an effort to revitalize domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, the federal government is distributing $39 billion in subsidies as an incentive for companies to produce more of the tiny chips that power everything from smartphones to cars and fighter jets. The funding is meant to strengthen the U.S. supply chain and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign sources of chips. Currently, just 12 percent of chips are made in…

The New Mexico attorney general, who last year sued Meta alleging that it did not protect children from sexual predators and had made false claims about its platforms’ safety, announced Monday that his office would examine how the company’s paid-subscription services attract predators.Attorney General Raúl Torrez said he had formally requested documentation from the social media company about subscriptions on Facebook and Instagram, which are frequently available on children’s accounts run by parents.Instagram does not allow users under 13, but accounts that focus entirely on children are permitted as long as they are managed by an adult. The New York…

Roni Stoneman, a virtuoso banjo player, mainstay of the country music television show “Hee Haw” and one of the last surviving members of the Stoneman Family, a renowned Appalachian string band, died on Thursday at her home in Murfreesboro, Tenn. She was 85.Her death was confirmed by Julie Harris, a family friend. No further details were available; a cause was not given.Ms. Stoneman made her mark in 1957 with her driving instrumental version of “Lonesome Road Blues,” which made her the first woman to play modern bluegrass banjo on a phonograph record. Also known as “Going Down the Road Feeling…

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh of the Palestinian Authority, the body that administers part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, tendered the resignation of his cabinet on Monday, according to the authority’s official news agency.The decision follows diplomatic efforts involving the United States and Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, to persuade the authority to overhaul itself in a way that would enable it to take over the administration of Gaza after the war there ends.But it was unclear whether Mr. Shtayyeh’s resignation would be enough to revamp the authority or persuade Israel to let it govern Gaza. President Mahmoud Abbas, the most…

President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday said “nothing should be ruled out” after he was asked about the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine in support of the embattled nation’s war against Russia.Mr. Macron, speaking after a meeting of European leaders in Paris to bolster support for Ukraine, stressed that the talks had not resulted in any consensus on putting troops on the ground “in an official, approved and endorsed way.”But he insisted that “anything is possible if it is useful to reach our goal,” which he said was to ensure that “Russia cannot win this war.” Neither…

HAMPTON, Ga. — The move was hair-raising. Shocking. Austin Cindric fought hard and was four wide heading into turn one on the tri-oval. This is sure to end in disaster.But on Sunday night, in the second race of the 2024 NASCAR season, to everyone’s surprise, the cheeky move actually gave Cindric the unsurprising lead.”That’s cool, isn’t it?” Cindric said. “… It’s not easy to do, but I guess that’s why they call us the best in the world.”At this moment, the much-criticized Atlanta Motor Speedway has become the new favorite track among NASCAR fans. Cindric’s passing is not of the…

Una mañana cualquiera, Susan Glass puede sentarse en el patio de su complejo de apartamentos en Saratoga, California, e identificar de oído hasta 15 especies distintas de aves: un arrendajo de Steller, un pájaro carpintero, un herrerillo unicolor.Para ella, la observación de aves es más que un pasatiempo. “Las aves son mi vista”, afirmó Glass, poeta y profesora de inglés en el West Valley Community College quien es ciega de nacimiento. “Cuando me hospedo en un hotel de Pittsburgh, puede que me acuerde más de la paloma bravía y el pinzón casero del estacionamiento que de la arquitectura”.Glass, de 67…

Sean Bailey, the longtime president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, resigned Monday amid a leadership shuffling at Disney’s film division, which has been under attack by some investors for disappointing results at the box office.“The time is right for a new chapter,” Mr. Bailey said in a statement.Disney named David Greenbaum, a co-president of Disney’s art film division, Searchlight Pictures, as Mr. Bailey’s successor. Mr. Greenbaum, however, was given a bigger job, overseeing both Mr. Bailey’s slate of live-action remakes of animated classics and 20th Century Studios, a Disney film division that manages the “Avatar” and “Planet of…

A cyberattack on a unit affiliated with UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest insurer, has disrupted drug prescription orders at thousands of pharmacies for nearly a week.The assault on the unit, Change Healthcare, a division of United’s Optum, was discovered last Wednesday. The attack appeared to be by a foreign country, according to two senior federal law enforcement officials, who expressed alarm at the extent of the disruption on Monday.UnitedHealth Group, the conglomerate, said in a federal filing that it had been forced to disconnect some of Change Healthcare’s vast digital network from its clients, and as of Monday, had not been…