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    Israel Carries Out ‘Extensive Strikes’ in Gaza, Imperiling Cease-Fire

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had ordered the attack early Tuesday, saying Israel would “act against Hamas with increasing military strength.”A camera in Israel captured explosions over Gaza early Tuesday.Associated PressIsraeli forces launched a large-scale attack across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, in the first major strikes on the territory since Israel’s cease-fire with Hamas began roughly two months ago. Dozens of Palestinians were killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry.The Israeli military said on Telegram just before 2:30 a.m. local time that it was “conducting extensive strikes on terror targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.” The attack was ordered by Israel’s political leadership, it said.Shortly afterward, Hamas said in a statement that the Israeli government had “resumed their aggression” in the Gaza Strip. Gaza residents reported intense strikes across the territory.Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Israel had consulted the White House before launching the strikes.“As President Trump has made clear, Hamas, the Houthis, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay,” Ms. Leavitt said on Fox News on Monday night. “All hell will break loose.”It was unclear whether the attack effectively ended the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that took effect in mid-January. Hamas, in its statement, accused Israel of deciding to “overturn the cease-fire agreement, exposing the prisoners in Gaza to an unknown fate,” referring to the remaining hostages seized in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.The office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement that he and the defense minister, Israel Katz, had instructed the military to act, citing “repeated refusal” by Hamas “to release our hostages” and saying the militants had rejected all proposals from Steve Witkoff, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, and other mediators.“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the statement said.At least 44 Palestinians, including five children, were killed in the wave of Israeli strikes and more than 50 others were wounded, according to the Gazan Ministry of Health.Gaza’s Civil Defense, the main emergency service in the Palestinian territory, said on Telegram that its teams were facing significant operating difficulties because of “multiple targets being struck at the same time.”Mediators, including the United States, Qatar and Egypt, have been involved in negotiating the next steps in the cease-fire agreement, which would involve a permanent end to the war. But they have made little headway, given the entrenched disagreements between the two sides. Israel began attacking Gaza shortly after the October 2023 attack.Since the cease-fire took effect, Israel has conducted a string of smaller strikes on Gaza, which Hamas says have killed more than 150 people, at least some of them civilians. It has accused Israel of repeatedly violating the truce agreement by continuing military operations.Raja Abdulrahim More

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    ‘Purpose’ Review: Dinner With the Black Political Elite

    A family not unlike Jesse Jackson’s gets barbecued on Broadway by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.You may have trouble catching your breath from laughing so hard during the first act of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s sophomore Broadway outing, “Purpose,” which opened Monday at the Helen Hayes Theater. Deeply imagined and grave beneath its yucks, it unspools like a brilliant sitcom.Then, also like a sitcom, it jumps the shark.Ah well, mixed emotions go with the territory. If “Purpose” is primarily a merciless dissection of hypocrisy in an important religious-political Black American family — the Jesse Jackson dynasty comes to mind — it is also a grudging love letter to them in all their God-praising, backroom-dealing, self-promotional glory. The problem is that in the constant switchback of perspectives, the play, directed by Phylicia Rashad, grows too hectic and attenuated to maintain a line of conviction.The same could be said of the family, the Jaspers. Chicago-based like the Jacksons — the play originated at the Steppenwolf Theater Company in that city — they, too, are headed by an oratorical pastor who, in his youth, worked closely with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Also familiar are several possible unauthorized offspring, hushed up but not quite silent. Jacobs-Jenkins cannot help noting that among that generation of Bible-quoting civil rights worthies are enough sins of the father to burden a host of sons.Indeed, approaching 80 and withdrawn from the front lines, Solomon Jasper (Harry Lennix) now reserves most of his thunder for his family. His formidable wife, Claudine, a honeyed matriarch with a law degree, is tough enough to shape it to her own ends as needed. But on their disappointing sons falls the brunt of Solomon’s biblical disapproval.The older son, named for his father, is the more obviously wayward. Raised to uphold Solomon’s political legacy, Junior (Glenn Davis) instead tarnished it when, as a state senator, he was convicted of embezzling campaign funds. These he spent, according to his embittered wife, Morgan, on “cashmere drawers and betting on racing pigeons.”From left, Jackson, Hill, Young and Alana Arenas.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Elon Musk’s Starlink Expands Across White House Complex

    Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is now accessible across the White House campus. It is the latest installation of the Wi-Fi network across the government since Mr. Musk joined the Trump administration as an unpaid adviser.It was not immediately clear when the White House complex was fitted with Starlink after President Trump took office for a second term.Starlink terminals, rectangular panels that receive internet signals beamed from SpaceX satellites in low-Earth orbit, can be placed on physical structures. But instead of being physically placed at the White House, the Starlink system is now said to be routed through a White House data center, with existing fiber cables, miles from the complex.White House officials said the installation was an effort to increase internet availability at the complex. They said that some areas of the property could not get cell service and that the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure was overtaxed.Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the effort was “to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the complex.”But the circumstances are different from any previous situation to resolve internet services. Mr. Musk, who is now an unpaid adviser working as a “special government employee” at the White House, controls Starlink and other companies that have regulatory matters before or contracts with the federal government. Questions about his business interests conflicting with his status as a presidential adviser and major Trump donor have persisted for weeks.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Appoints Michael Flynn, Walt Nauta and Other Allies to Oversee U.S. Military Academies

    President Trump moved on Monday to stack the boards overseeing U.S. military service academies with conservative activists and political allies, including Michael T. Flynn and Walt Nauta, who were charged in connection to earlier investigations of Mr. Trump and his presidential campaign.Mr. Nauta, a military aide working as a White House valet while Mr. Trump was president, was appointed to the board overseeing the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Mr. Nauta was charged with aiding Mr. Trump in obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve a trove of highly sensitive documents that Mr. Trump kept after he left office — one of four criminal cases against Mr. Trump that shadowed him during his presidential campaign last year.Mr. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general and a national security adviser to Mr. Trump during his first term, was named to the oversight board of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, in New York. Mr. Flynn twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with a Russian diplomat during a wider investigation into contacts between the first Trump presidential campaign and Russian officials. Mr. Trump later pardoned Mr. Flynn.Other allies of the president appointed to the oversight boards included Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist whose organization aided Mr. Trump in the 2024 election; Dina Powell, a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Trump; Sean Spicer, Mr. Trump’s first White House press secretary; and Maureen Bannon, the daughter of Steve Bannon who helps run his podcast. Mr. Trump also appointed Republican members of Congress and other military veterans to oversee the academies.Mr. Kirk, who was appointed to the board overseeing the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, had joined other conservatives in assailing the U.S. military leadership before Mr. Trump took office in January, arguing that the armed forces had gone soft under the Biden administration. Soon after the election, he gleefully predicted that Pete Hegseth, now the defense secretary, would “end the wokeification of the U.S. military.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research Arm

    The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.The strategy is part of large-scale layoffs, known as a “reduction in force,” being planned by the Trump administration, which is intent on shrinking the federal work force. Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the E.P.A., has said he wants to eliminate 65 percent of the agency’s budget. That would be a drastic reduction — one that experts said could hamper clean water and wastewater improvements, air quality monitoring, the cleanup of toxic industrial sites, and other parts of the agency’s mission.The E.P.A.’s plan, which was presented to White House officials on Friday for review, calls for dissolving the agency’s largest department, the Office of Research and Development, and purging up to 75 percent of the people who work there.The remaining staff members would be placed elsewhere within the E.P.A. “to provide increased oversight and align with administration priorities,” according to the language shared with The New York Times by staff members who work for Democrats on the House science committee.Molly Vaseliou, a spokeswoman for the E.P.A., said in a statement that the agency “is taking exciting steps as we enter the next phase of organizational improvements” and stressed that changes had not been finalized.“We are committed to enhancing our ability to deliver clean air, water and land for all Americans,” she said, adding, “While no decisions have been made yet, we are actively listening to employees at all levels to gather ideas on how to increase efficiency and ensure the E.P.A. is as up to date and effective as ever.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    NYT Crossword Answers for March 18, 2025

    Larry Snyder and Jonathan Kaufman make their collaboration debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — There’s wordplay inherent in the French expression “faux pas,” which came to mind as I cracked the theme of today’s crossword puzzle. Indulge me in a brief digression: Faux pas translates to “false step,” and usually refers to behavior that violates social etiquette — as in, it’s something you shouldn’t do. I often think about how it would have the same figurative meaning if it were spelled “faut pas,” which translates to “should not (do).” Don’t you think that’s neat? I do. And I can’t think of an idiom in English that does this kind of homophonic double duty. (If you have one to share, I’d love to hear it in the comments section!)You’ll find nothing gauche about today’s puzzle, which was constructed by Larry Snyder and Jonathan Kaufman in their collaboration debut. It’s a fun and flawless solve — and for a Tuesday, I’d say it really fits the bill.Today’s ThemeSo, technically, [Knocking over someone’s drink, e.g.] would be referred to as a PARTY FOUL. But it’s party fowl you’ll find flapping around today’s grid at 17-, 27-, 39- and 54-Across. There’s a DISCO DUCK (17A), clued as [1976 #1 novelty song by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots]. Not far away, you can nab a SILLY GOOSE (27A) — [“You goofball!”] — and just below that, spy the [Dance fad of the 1970s]: FUNKY CHICKEN (39A).Can’t “quack” the last clue on your own? Click to reveal it below.54A. [Bourbon brand whose name originated from a hunting expedition]WILD TURKEYTricky Clues34A. “Perhaps” is a loaded word in crossword clues. It’s not an indication of wordplay, but it tells us not to trust our first instincts. So [First-year college student’s assignment, perhaps] is not, as it may seem at first, a homework assignment but a DORM.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Administration Questions Law Firms Over DEI Employment Practices

    President Trump’s acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday sent letters to 20 law firms requesting information about their diversity, equity and inclusion-related employment practices, the latest Trump administration assault on private law firms.In letters to prominent firms, including Perkins Coie, Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin, the commission, a federal agency responsible for protecting employees from discrimination, said it was concerned that some of the firms’ employment practices might violate civil rights laws. The agency suggested in the letters that the firms, in trying to recruit more people of color, could have discriminated against white candidates.“The E.E.O.C. is prepared to root out discrimination anywhere it may rear its head, including in our nation’s elite law firms,” Andrea R. Lucas, the acting chair, said in a statement on Monday. “No one is above the law — and certainly not the private bar.”The letters come amid Mr. Trump’s recent retribution campaign against several prominent law firms, which the president has accused of carrying out “harmful activity.” This month, Mr. Trump issued an executive order aimed at crippling Perkins Coie, a firm that worked with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. He also revoked security clearances held by any lawyers at Covington & Burling who were helping provide legal advice to Jack Smith, the special counsel who led investigations into him.Last week, the president also restricted the business activities of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, specifically calling out one of its former lawyers, Mark F. Pomerantz, who had attempted to build a criminal case against Mr. Trump while working at the Manhattan district attorney’s office several years ago.Mr. Trump has taken aggressive measures to eliminate D.E.I. efforts — which he has called “illegal and immoral discrimination” programs — outside the legal profession, too. E.E.O.C. leaders have signaled recently that they would prioritize rooting out “DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination” to comply with Mr. Trump’s orders.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More