Author: NY TIMES

“There is simply no provision in the Geneva Conventions for what Israel is doing along the border, which is kind of a pre-emptive clearing of property,” said Professor Rajagopal, an expert in law and development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.“On a particular property-by-property basis, Israel can take action, but not on a widespread basis across the entire border,” Professor Rajagopal said. “Israel, as the occupying power, has an obligation not to engage in what’s called wanton destruction of property.”The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the claims.The United States on Tuesday reiterated its opposition…

A fire in Abkhazia, a Russian-backed breakaway region of Georgia, destroyed thousands of paintings early Sunday morning, devastating a collection that locals had cherished as a national treasure — albeit of a country only recognized as such by Russia and some of its allies, including Syria and Venezuela.Almost 4,000 paintings belonging the National Gallery of Abkhazia were destroyed when a fire swept through an exhibition hall in central Sukhumi, the region’s capital, Abkhazia’s acting culture minister said in a statement.The minister, Dinara Smyr, said that those included 300 works by Aleksandr Chachba-Sharvashidze, a celebrated Abkhazian artist and stage designer, who…

It wouldn’t be the Monday morning of Paris couture week unless Schiaparelli used its runway show to produce a viral internet moment.Last year, Kylie Jenner took her place in the front row wearing a giant hyper-realistic lion head attached to her chest. People went nuts because they thought it was real taxidermy and promoted trophy hunting. It wasn’t, obviously. It was made from sculpted foam, wool and faux fur.This year, the spotlight didn’t belong to a celebrity, even though Zendaya did turn up with blunt bangs (gasp) and Jennifer Lopez, gearing up to promote her new film “This Is Me:…

A pastor in Denver who said that God told him to sell cryptocurrency that could not be cashed is facing civil charges, along with his wife, for marketing a digital coin that prosecutors said was “practically worthless” and using the proceeds to support a “lavish lifestyle.”The pastor, Eligio Regalado, and his wife, Kaitlyn Regalado, were charged on Thursday in a civil complaint filed in Denver District Court by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, the Colorado Division of Securities said in a statement. The agency said that the couple created, marketed and sold a cryptocurrency that they called INDXcoin through a…

“It’s from the first gay club in Nashville,” Howard said. “I’m just borrowing it because the person who owns it doesn’t have tall enough ceilings.”Howard bought the home from the singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton and her husband, John McCauley, of the band Deer Tick. Behind the house, between an old fishing boat Howard rebuilt and an archery target shaped like a deer head — “I have strange hobbies,” she noted, walking through the backyard — was a garage that had been converted into a home studio. Howard finished recording the “What Now” demos in this comfortably disheveled space with guitars adorning…

The United States and Britain carried out large-scale military strikes on Monday against eight sites in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants, according to the two countries. The strikes signaled that the Biden administration intends to wage a sustained and, at least for now, open-ended campaign against the Iran-backed group that has disrupted traffic in vital international sea lanes.The strikes — the eighth in nearly two weeks — hit multiple targets at each site, and were bigger and broader than a recent series of more limited attacks against individual Houthi missiles that the Americans said popped up on short notice. Those…

Israeli soldiers were killed in efforts to create a buffer zoneIsrael was trying to demolish part of a Palestinian neighborhood as it pursued a plan to create a buffer zone between Gaza and Israel when around 20 Israeli soldiers were killed on Monday in an explosion, according to Israeli officials.Here’s the latest.The explosion occurred after Gazan militants fired toward a tank guarding an Israeli unit. The unit had been setting explosives inside Palestinian buildings on the border in central Gaza with the intention of demolishing them, according to a news briefing from Israel’s military. In the firefight, the explosives went…

Those pressures have been neatly packaged by the beauty and cosmetics industries, which are eyeing ever-younger customers — and shifting expectations of what a person looks like at 30, 40, 50 and beyond in the process.Some dermatologists promote “baby Botox” or “prejuvenation” procedures, which have ballooned in popularity among customers in their 20s and 30s. Skin care companies are targeting even younger demographics: According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Bubble Skincare, a company that sells hydrating moisturizers and eye-brightening cream, works with about 2,000 13- and 14-year-old youth ambassadors.Though Gen Z may be uniquely ambushed with this…

He was born Charles Osgood Wood III in Manhattan on Jan. 8, 1933. His father, Charles Osgood II, was a textile salesman who moved the family to Baltimore when young Charles was 6 and took a second job, as an expediter for a copper company, during World War II. His mother, Mary (Wilson) Wood, was known as Violet.Mr. Osgood went to Fordham University, where, he later said, he spent more time at the campus radio station than in class. His first job after he graduated in 1954, with a degree in economics, was as a radio announcer at a classical-music…

The Food and Drug Administration is requiring companies that make specialized cancer therapies known as CAR-T to add a boxed warning that the treatments themselves may cause cancers.The agency noted that the benefits still outweighed the risks of the therapy, which involves removing a type of white blood cells — T cells — and then genetically engineering them to create proteins called chimeric antigen receptors (CAR). Infused back into a patient’s blood, the engineered cells allow the T cells to attach to cancer cells and kill them.But the therapies, which mostly treat blood cancers, including multiple myeloma, had already carried…