Author: NY TIMES

South Africa said Tuesday that Israel’s policies toward Palestinians were “a more extreme form of apartheid,” invoking its charged history of racial discrimination to add to global pressure on Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.The court, the United Nations’ highest judicial body, is hearing six days of arguments over Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation” of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The U.N. General Assembly asked the court to review the legality of Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories more than a year ago, before Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.In the proceedings,…

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Within weeks of President Biden imposing financial sanctions on Israelis accused of violent assaults in the occupied West Bank, crowdfunding campaigns on behalf of two of the men had collected the equivalent of more than $170,000.Far-right Israelis pledged the funds in a show of support for the settlers, whose efforts to exert Israeli control over lands in the West Bank have often involved maintaining illegal outposts and assaulting and intimidating Palestinians. But the donations have become the focus of a legal battle after an Israeli credit card company balked at transferring the funds.Cal, the credit card company processing the donations…

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It was the Sunday of London Fashion Week and the last model had just stepped off the runway at the JW Anderson show. A heaving scrum soon descended on the designer, a sea of phones held aloft like antennas. Jonathan Anderson’s collection had been a nostalgic British jumble of chunky knits and trench coats, school uniform staples, retro thermal underwear sets and hats like Grandma’s gray pin-curl wigs, all chucked into a subversive tumble dryer for a warped take on what once felt familiar. Why?“I was looking at ideas of ‘odd type’ characters in Britain, the nosy neighbor next door,…

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Nestled in the dense, residential Los Angeles neighborhood of Victor Heights, a tightly packed plot of Craftsman and Victorian homes has stood the test of time, serving as single-family residences in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.Yet these bungalows will soon serve a new purpose — micro restaurants offering Taiwanese pineapple cake and freshly ground hamburgers in a compound called Alpine Courtyard, morphing the pleasures of dining out with the nostalgic comforts of home.This adaptive reuse is part of a growing national trend: From Los Angeles to Nashville, developers are transforming clusters of old homes into walkable culinary hubs for…

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Last May, Anthropic, one of the world’s hottest artificial intelligence start-ups, raised $450 million from investors including Google and Salesforce. It was the beginning of an astonishing funding spree.By August, Anthropic had landed $100 million from two Asian telecoms. Then Amazon committed $4 billion to it, followed by $2 billion more from Google.This month, the venture capital firm Menlo Ventures closed a deal to invest $750 million in Anthropic.All told, the A.I. start-up hauled in $7.3 billion in a year. Its five funding deals stood out not just for their speed and size, but for their unusual structures.In one of…

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The New York Philharmonic’s spring gala is not usually of much musical interest. It tends toward mild fare — just enough to keep the donors happy before dinner and dancing.But this year, the playing will draw closer attention. The gala, on April 24, features the only appearance this season by Gustavo Dudamel, the Philharmonic’s next music director. He will take part in the celebration of the orchestra’s education programs, including its signature Young People’s Concerts, which are turning 100.The Philharmonic has been careful not to have its Dudamel-led future step too much on its less starry present. This season also…

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Interpol is the world’s largest police organization. It serves as a powerful bulletin board that governments and law enforcement agencies use to team up to pursue fugitives across the globe. At its best, it helps track down killers and terrorists.But it is also a novel weapon for strongmen and autocrats in the hunt for political enemies, giving them the power to reach across borders and grab their targets — even in democracies.Here are some of the ways countries can exploit Interpol:Red NoticesInterpol’s red notice, the closest thing to an international arrest warrant, has long been dogged by controversy. An award-winning…

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Shuen Chun-wa, 81, and her husband hurried toward a green bus with two dozen other Hong Kong residents, dragging empty suitcases. They had purple tour stickers on their jackets and were headed to shop in Shenzhen, a bustling Chinese city that sits on the northern side of the border with Hong Kong.It was Ms. Shuen’s second trip to Shenzhen to find bargains in a year. Last time, she got dental implants. “You can count how much I need to pay,” she said. She paid $9,000 in Shenzhen for a procedure that would have cost $25,000 in Hong Kong. “I don’t…

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