Author: NY TIMES

By all appearances, the movie adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s cult favorite novel “The Master and Margarita,” in Russian theaters this winter, shouldn’t be thriving in President Vladimir Putin’s wartime Russia.The director is American. One of the stars is German. The celebrated Stalin-era satire, unpublished in its time, is partly a subversive sendup of state tyranny and censorship — forces bedeviling Russia once again today.But the film was on its way to the box office long before Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and imposed a level of repression on Russia unseen since Soviet times. The state had invested millions…

Early Friday, the Hamas-run health ministry said on its Facebook page that the hospital’s power supply had cut out, endangering the lives of six adult patients and three infants in intensive care dependent on oxygen. About 40 minutes later, it said in another post that three of the patients had died.The Israeli military’s evacuation orders before the raid on the Nasser complex, which had been the largest functioning hospital left in Gaza and had thousands of civilians sheltering on its grounds, sparked alarm from international observers.“Nasser is the backbone of the health system in southern Gaza,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the…

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain could find himself in a familiar predicament after his Conservative Party went down to defeat in parliamentary elections in two districts on Thursday: isolated, embattled and the subject of whispered plotting by restive Tories bent on pushing him out for a new leader.The crushing loss of two seats in once-reliable Conservative areas capped another dismal week for Mr. Sunak. Economic data confirmed on Thursday that Britain had fallen into recession at the end of last year, undermining one of the prime minister’s five core pledges — that he would recharge the country’s growth. Yet…

In October 2020, Melissa Cuc was visiting friends in South Florida. They were excited about attending a party that weekend. She was not.“I said I’d rather die than go out for Halloween in Miami,” Ms. Cuc, 27, said.She relented and wound up at the party, wearing a leopard-print skirt. Early into the event, Ms. Cuc was separated from her friends. As she scanned the crowded venue for them, she locked eyes with Alexander Witkoff. He wore a cowboy hat and boots — and an inviting smile.[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]The two struck up a conversation and…

In the latest sign of a growing backlash within corporate America to the 88-year-old federal agency that enforces labor rights, Amazon argued in a legal filing on Thursday that the National Labor Relations Board was unconstitutional.The move followed a similar argument by SpaceX, the rocket company founded and run by Elon Musk, in a legal complaint in January, and by Trader Joe’s during a labor board hearing a few weeks later.The labor board consists of a prosecutorial arm, which issues complaints against employers or unions deemed to have violated federally protected labor rights; administrative judges, who hear complaints; and a…

A Chinese influence campaign that has tried for years to boost Beijing’s interests is now using artificial intelligence and a network of social media accounts to amplify American discontent and division ahead of the U.S. presidential election, according to a new report.The campaign, known as Spamouflage, hopes to breed disenchantment among voters by maligning the United States as rife with urban decay, homelessness, fentanyl abuse, gun violence and crumbling infrastructure, according to the report, which was published on Thursday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit research organization in London.An added aim, the report said, is to convince international…

The national body that certifies lactation consultants is investigating whether a consultant in Boise, Idaho, has been inappropriately pushing an unproven procedure on new mothers struggling to breastfeed, according to a letter reviewed by The New York Times.The lactation consultant, Melanie Henstrom, was featured in an investigation by The Times that examined the explosion in “tongue-tie” procedures, which have become increasingly popular even though there is little evidence that the surgeries help babies breastfeed.Ms. Henstrom is part of a booming industry of lactation consultants and dentists that aggressively markets the procedures, even for babies that have no signs of tongue-tie…

Ye, the rapper, producer and provocateur formerly known as Kanye West, has what will likely be the No. 1 album on next week’s Billboard chart, with “Vultures 1.” But on Thursday, the LP briefly disappeared from Apple Music, one of the world’s top streaming platforms.Apple gave no explanation for the removal. But since its release, the album has been dogged by accusations of unauthorized samples, and earlier on Thursday an independent distribution outlet complained that its system had been used to release the music in violation of its service terms.“Vultures 1,” a joint release with the R&B singer Ty Dolla…

The Israeli military on Thursday raided the largest hospital still functioning in the Gaza Strip, in what it called a search for Hamas fighters and the bodies of hostages. Many people who had sought shelter there were forced to flee from combat once again. Explosions and gunfire rocked the hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the Nasser Medical Complex, before the predawn raid, killing and wounding several people including at least one doctor and a patient, according to a doctor there, as well as the charity Doctors Without Borders, which had staff members at the hospital, and Gaza health…

Britain’s governing Conservative Party has lost the first of two parliamentary elections in a new blow to its embattled leader, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose future has been questioned by critics within his fractious political party.The Conservatives were defeated in Kingswood, near Bristol, by 8,675 to 11,176 votes, losing a seat that the party had previously held. Votes were cast Thursday to replace two Conservative lawmakers who had quit Parliament, with the first set of results announced early Friday morning.With a general election expected later this year, the result is likely to compound Mr. Sunak’s difficulties at a time when…