Author: NY TIMES

The United States on Friday unleashed its most extensive package of sanctions on Russia since the invasion of Ukraine two years ago, targeting Russia’s financial sector and military-industrial complex in a broad effort to degrade the Kremlin’s war machine.The sweeping sanctions come as the war enters its third year, and exactly one week after the death of the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, for which the Biden administration blames President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. With Congress struggling to reach an agreement on providing more aid to Ukraine, the United States has become increasingly reliant on financial tools to slow…

Listen and follow ‘Hard Fork’Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTubeThis week’s episode is a conversation with Demis Hassabis, the head of Google’s artificial intelligence division. We talk about Google’s latest A.I. models, Gemini and Gemma; the existential risks of artificial intelligence; his timelines for artificial general intelligence; and what he thinks the world will look like post-A.G.I.Additional listening and reading:Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Davis Land and Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Jen Poyant. Engineering by Chris Wood and original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano and Pat McCusker.…

On the film side, Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) and Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”) will square off for best actor, while Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”), Margot Robbie (“Barbie”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) will duke it out for best actress.On the TV side, it looks to be a big night for “Succession,” which earned five nominations. The audience favorites “Ted Lasso,” “The Bear” and “The Last of Us” aren’t far behind, though, picking up four nods apiece.What award is Barbra Streisand receiving?Streisand, the…

An Israeli delegation arrived in Paris on Friday for talks with senior officials from Egypt, Qatar and the United States, the latest attempt to advance a deal for a cease-fire with Hamas and the release of hostages held in Gaza, an Israeli official said on Friday.The Mossad chief, David Barnea; the C.I.A. director, William Burns; the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani; and Abbas Kamel, the head of Egyptian intelligence, are expected to attend the talks, according to a second Israeli official and a person briefed on the talks. All the officials spoke on the condition of…

A day after a fire roared through a high-rise residential complex in the Spanish city of Valencia, killing at least four people and leaving at least 14 missing, there were fears on Friday that those numbers could rise, because high temperatures inside the charred structure initially prevented emergency workers from searching inside.Firefighters and police officers rushed to the scene shortly after 5.30 p.m. on Thursday as the fire engulfed the entire pair of buildings, one of which was 14 stories tall, within half an hour.The complex, made up of two tower blocks with a total of 138 apartments, was built…

It has become a common scene. Your phone dings, but instead of a text, it’s a forewarning that someone has orated just for you a private podcast of any imaginable length, the subject unknown until you press play. It could be a juicy morsel of gossip, a yarn replete with twists and turns, or a totally mundane account from someone who simply didn’t have their hands free to type it out.It’s a voice note — somehow one of the most divisive forms of modern communication. More intimate than a text and less urgent than a call, the audio messages don’t…

France is entering an era of belt-tightening, as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, economic slowdowns in Germany and China and record-high interest rates take a bigger-than-expected toll on growth.The French will find themselves faced with cuts of 10 billion euros ($10.8 billion) in government spending, on items including environmental subsidies and education, the government announced Thursday, on top of €16 billion in cuts announced a few months ago. The finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, on Monday revised the forecast for economic growth this year to 1 percent, down from 1.4 percent at the end of last year.“Lower growth means…

Instagram does not allow children under 13 to have accounts, but parents are allowed to run them — and many do so for daughters who aspire to be social media influencers.What often starts as a parent’s effort to jump-start a child’s modeling career, or win favors from clothing brands, can quickly descend into a dark underworld dominated by adult men, many of whom openly admit on other platforms to being sexually attracted to children, an investigation by The New York Times found.Thousands of so-called mom-run accounts examined by The Times offer disturbing insights into how social media is reshaping childhood,…

The tagline of Tyler Perry’s new movie is “everyone’s guilty of something,” but the responsibility for this willfully steamy, decidedly silly thriller is all his. Source link

Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, is traveling to Ukraine on Friday for a visit meant to show American solidarity with a democratic ally under attack by Russia and increase the pressure on Republicans to drop their opposition to additional U.S. aid.The trip, Mr. Schumer’s first official one to Ukraine, comes at a critical time, as a foreign assistance package that includes more than $60 billion in military aid for Kyiv is stalled on Capitol Hill amid Republican resistance.It amounts to something of a victory lap for Mr. Schumer, the New York Democrat who managed to maneuver the aid bill…