Aurelia Butler

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    Syria Rebels Take Aleppo Airport and Attack Hama, Officials and a Monitor Say

    Forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad have captured the Aleppo airport and are attacking the western city of Hama, according to local officials and a Britain-based war monitor.Rebel forces advanced in Syria on Sunday amid fierce fighting, capturing the airport of the major city of Aleppo and attacking the outskirts of the western city of Hama, according to local officials and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Government troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were trying to repel them, they said.The rebels had captured much of Aleppo a day earlier in a surprise offensive. They now control a broad swath of land across the provinces of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, in the west and northwest of Syria, according to information from local officials and the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.The New York Times also observed rebels in control of parts of Hama Province as well as neighborhoods in the east of the city of Aleppo and parts of the countryside beyond it that government forces had held only days earlier.Government troops were battling to defend the city of Hama from being overrun, according to the Observatory. Syrian government warplanes were also bombing territory that was now held by the rebels, causing civilian casualties, the monitor said.It said that government forces were receiving support from Russian fighter jets, which were striking targets across the countryside near Hama and Idlib province.Russia, which is allied with Mr. Assad, has repeatedly come to his aid since early in the civil war that broke out in 2011, after protests over Mr. Assad’s autocratic rule drew a swift and bloody military crackdown. Mr. al-Assad has also counted on military and political support from Iran. More

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    Former Defense Minister Accuses Israel of Committing War Crimes in Gaza

    The comments by Moshe Yaalon were swiftly denied and condemned by allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who said that they would hurt the country and help its enemies.A former Israeli defense minister has accused Israel of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, a rare critique from a member of the security establishment at a time of war.The comments by Moshe Yaalon came amid mounting criticism of the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza. They were swiftly denied and condemned by allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, saying that they would hurt the country and help its enemies.Mr. Yaalon served as the Israeli military’s chief of staff during the second intifada and as Mr. Netanyahu’s defense minister during the 2014 war in Gaza, the longest conflict between Israel and Hamas before the current war. But he broke with Mr. Netanyahu in 2016 and has since become a critic of the Israeli leader.At an event on Saturday, Mr. Yaalon denounced Mr. Netanyahu’s government for its actions in Gaza.“The path they’re dragging us down is to occupy, annex, and ethnically cleanse — look at the northern strip,” he said. He also said Israel was being pulled in the direction of building settlements in Gaza, a notion that is supported by far-right politicians in Mr. Netanyahu’s government.When the interviewer at the event asked Mr. Yaalon to clarify whether he thought Israel was on the way to carrying out ethnic cleansing, he responded: “Why on the way? What’s happening there? What’s happening there?”“There’s no Beit Lahia. There’s no Beit Hanoun. They’re now operating in Jabaliya. They’re basically cleaning the territory of Arabs,” he said, referring to towns and cities in northern Gaza where a renewed Israeli offensive against the militant group Hamas has caused extensive damage in recent months. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began in response to the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023.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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    Wisconsin Democratic Chair Says He Is the One to Revive a Distressed Party

    Ben Wikler, who has led the Wisconsin Democratic Party since 2019, announced a bid to be national party chair with a platform to “unite, fight, win.”Ben Wikler, the Wisconsin Democratic chairman and a prolific party fund-raiser with deep connections in Washington, announced on Sunday that he was entering the race to lead the Democratic National Committee.Mr. Wikler, 43, has led Wisconsin Democrats since 2019, and he has served as a top official at MoveOn, the progressive advocacy group. He said in an interview that he aimed to do for the national party what he did in Wisconsin, where he presided over the rebuilding of a party weakened by years of full Republican control of the state’s government.Mr. Wikler, whose start in politics came in part as a research assistant for Al Franken, joins a field of party-chair hopefuls that includes Ken Martin, the Minnesota Democratic chairman; Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor; and James Skoufis, a little-known New York state senator. While Mr. Martin has said he has endorsements from 83 of the 448 voting members of the D.N.C. (and Mr. O’Malley has said he has endorsements from three, and Mr. Skoufis does not have any), Mr. Wikler would not say his level of support when asked.That was not the only question Mr. Wikler declined to answer in an interview this weekend. He would also not say which state he thinks should vote first in the 2028 presidential primary or whether President Biden should have sought re-election.“My platform in this race is unite, fight, win,” Mr. Wikler said. “Uniting starts not with recriminations but with reckoning and with curiosity and data. And then you use all that to inform the way that you fight the next battle.”Jaime Harrison, the departing party chairman, is not seeking re-election. Others considering entering the race include former Representative Max Rose of New York; Chuck Rocha, a strategist who worked on Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign in 2020; and Mallory McMorrow, a Michigan state legislator. Mr. Harrison has scheduled the meeting for the vote to replace him for Feb. 1 in Oxon Hill, Md.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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    How the NYT Super Mega Crossword in Puzzle Mania Is Made

    The centerpiece of the annual Puzzle Mania print section requires a big helping of teamwork, with a side order of patience.Any puzzle maker will tell you that building a crossword is no easy task. (If you need proof, we’ve previously followed a group of New York Times crossword constructors as they make one.)Crossword construction requires, among other skills, an eye for wordplay, a keen sense for what makes an answer entertaining and, above all, patience. That last trait enables a constructor to hang in there when trying to fill in the blank grid of a stubborn daily (typically 15×15 squares) or Sunday crossword (usually 21×21). The answers don’t just cross themselves, and puzzle makers often run into sections of their grids that they can’t fill unless they make substantial changes.Now imagine that you are a constructor and the blank puzzle grid in front of you is 50×50 squares, far larger than any puzzle The New York Times offers. Your job is to make an entertaining crossword that stands on its own but also contains clues and entries that connect to a contest. The finished grid is larger than most crossword software can handle on one screen, so you have to make the puzzle in sections and find a way to put it together. Oh, and you are not allowed to have duplicate entries, a rule that can be dicey when you’re trying to fill a big space one section at a time.No pressure, right? It’s only the centerpiece of Puzzle Mania, the 12-page print section that The New York Times Magazine has published annually since 2016. The section was the creation of Jake Silverstein, the editor of The New York Times Magazine; Caitlin Roper, then the special sections editor; and Will Shortz, the lead puzzle editor.Ms. Roper had been brought on to create the look and feel of this new project, and she was intrigued: The Times offered a variety of special digital features, she said recently, so why not do something equally delightful in print?The Super Mega would be the centerfold, enabling the constructor and puzzle editors to build the largest crossword that could fit across the giant sheet of paper. The approximately 700 clues would be packed onto a separate page in the Puzzle Mania section.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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    Protesters in Tbilisi Clash With Georgian Police

    Protesters clashed with the police in the Republic of Georgia’s capital late Saturday during the third consecutive night of demonstrations over the government’s suspension of its bid to join the European Union.Thousands of people have rallied in the capital, Tbilisi, since Thursday night after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the country was putting the process of E.U. accession on hold until 2028 and would decline all grants from the bloc. The police have responded with water cannons, tear gas and stun grenades.Georgia’s Interior Ministry said on Sunday morning that protests overnight had “evolved into violence.” It claimed that protesters “threw pyrotechnics” and “ignited objects” toward police officers and at Parliament, causing a fire to break out. Windows were smashed by “stones and various objects,” the ministry added in a statement, saying that protesters also had damaged protective iron barriers around the building.More than 100 people had been arrested as of Saturday night, according to the ministry, which also said that several police officers were wounded and that 42 of its employees had been injured since the protests began.The Associated Press reported that its journalists had seen police officers chasing and beating protesters; it was not immediately clear how many protesters suffered injuries.Georgia has been gripped by political crisis since the disputed victory of the Georgian Dream party in October’s parliamentary elections. The governing party has been pivoting Georgia more toward Russia and China. Georgia’s opposition, which says the election was rigged and has boycotted the new sitting of Parliament, seeks closer ties with the West.Georgia’s Constitution stipulates that the government “shall take all measures” to “ensure the full integration” into the European Union and NATO. The official powers of the country’s president are nominal, since the prime minister runs the government, but President Salome Zourabichvili has become a vocal supporter of the opposition and has accused the government of committing a “constitutional coup.”“Another violent night in Tbilisi,” Mr. Zourabichvili wrote late Saturday on X. “The illegitimate government resorts to illegal means to silence Georgians standing firm for their constitutional, European choice.”Ivane Gorgishvili/Associated PressAn aerial view of the protest in Tbilisi on Saturday.Giorgi Arjevanidze/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDemonstrators held up a sign at the protest on Saturday night.David Mdzinarishvili/EPA, via ShutterstockAntigovernment protesters burned an effigy of the prime minister in front of the Parliament building.Giorgi Arjevanidze/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRiot police officers were on the streets, and the police used a water cannon.Giorgi Arjevanidze/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesProtesters ducked behind a makeshift barricade.Irakli Gedenidze/ReutersDemonstrators set off fireworks from behind a makeshift barricade.Irakli Gedenidze/ReutersPolice officers detained a protester.Giorgi Arjevanidze/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesClashes continued into the early morning.Giorgi Arjevanidze/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA masked protester gestured in front of a makeshift barricade.Giorgi Arjevanidze/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe flags of Ukraine, Georgia and the European Union were displayed at the protest. More

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    A Unique Night at the Opera

    At the Metropolitan Opera with Angelina Jolie. Even if you’re not a fan of classical music, you’ve probably heard the voice of Maria Callas. As opera’s defining diva and one of the greatest performers of the 20th century, she is omnipresent in our culture, nearly 50 years after she died.Now Callas is the subject of “Maria,” a film starring Angelina Jolie, which opened this week in select theaters and goes to Netflix on Dec. 11.“You’ve been hearing Maria your whole life,” Jolie told me. “You just didn’t know it was her.”As The Times’s classical music reporter, I wanted to understand how a Hollywood A-lister prepared to play an opera star. So I invited Jolie to the Metropolitan Opera in New York one recent night for a performance of Puccini’s “Tosca,” a signature opera for Callas. You can read my story about the experience here.Jolie’s every move is tracked by the tabloids, especially since her 2016 divorce from Brad Pitt, which is still playing out in court. She at times seemed uncomfortable with my questions. But she spoke candidly about living in the spotlight; the loneliness she sometimes feels; and why she took seven months of voice lessons for “Maria,” which is directed by Pablo Larraín.In today’s newsletter, I’ll tell you more about Callas and examine the parallels between Callas and Jolie.La DivinaCallas was born in New York to Greek immigrants in 1923, and became renowned for her silky voice and her ability to give her characters the nuances of real people. Known as La Divina to her admirers, she inspired cultish devotion, and fans would sometimes wait in line for days to get tickets for her performances.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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    Barstool Conservatism, Revisited

    Despite Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election, his political coalition was already expanding in consequential ways. Not only did he make notable gains among Hispanic and African-American voters — gains that only increased this year — but he also attracted the support of a loose grouping of mostly young, male voters whom I described around that time as “Barstool conservatives.” This year, as I had predicted, they appeared to swing hard for Mr. Trump.“Barstool conservatism” was a reference to the media company Barstool Sports and its founder, Dave Portnoy, who became a folk hero of sorts in 2020 after raising millions of dollars on behalf of bars and restaurants whose existence had been threatened by Covid lockdowns. Apart from Mr. Portnoy, Barstool conservatism’s most representative figures today are the podcast host Joe Rogan, the retired N.F.L. punter turned ESPN personality Pat McAfee and various mixed martial arts fighters.Barstool conservatism is libertarian in the sense that it values autonomy and ambition but not doctrinaire about it in a way that would be recognizable to, say, the editors of Reason magazine. It is a world of fantasy football podcasts, betting apps, diet trends (keto, paleo, carnivore) and more nebulous “lifestyle” questions about the nuances of alcohol and cannabis use. The outlook is culturally rather than socially conservative, skeptical of racial and gender politics for reasons that have more to do with the stridency of their proponents than with any deep-seated convictions about the issues themselves.As a social conservative with an antipathy to libertarianism in all its forms, I viewed the rise of Barstool conservatism in 2020 with foreboding. And rightly so. This year Mr. Trump ran what was, in effect, a pro-choice campaign. He signaled support for legalized cannabis but not for a traditional conception of marriage. He may have selected JD Vance as his running mate, but otherwise he took social conservatives for granted. Barstool conservatives had the upper hand throughout the campaign, as underscored by the emphasis Mr. Trump’s team placed on Mr. Rogan’s endorsement.I have long been inclined to make certain hard and fast distinctions between Barstool conservatism and Trumpism of the sort that Mr. Vance represents, which I associate with opposition to abortion, pornography and cannabis, and support for traditional families, shoring up the power of organized labor and protecting religious freedom. In theory these two conservative tendencies are diametrically opposed. Until recently I would have suggested that only Mr. Trump could possibly unite them, by sheer force of personality.But since this year’s election I have been on an informal listening tour of young men in the part of rural Michigan where I live, which is a nice way of saying that I have spent a lot of time talking to people in bars. What I heard from mechanics, waiters, high school teachers and others often surprised me. The future of American conservatism now strikes me as more complex and less ideologically predictable — and less dependent on Mr. Trump — than I had thought.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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    Today’s Wordle Answer for Dec. 2, 2024

    Scroll down for hints and conversation about the puzzle for Monday, Dec. 2, 2024.Welcome to The Wordle Review. Be warned: This page contains spoilers for today’s puzzle. Solve Wordle first, or scroll at your own risk.Wordle is released at midnight in your time zone. In order to accommodate all time zones, there will be two Wordle Reviews live every day, dated based on Eastern Standard Time. If you find yourself on the wrong review, check the number of your puzzle, and go to this page to find the corresponding review.Need a hint?Give me a consonantLGive me a vowelEOpen the comments section for more hints, scores, and conversation from the Wordle community.Today’s DifficultyThe difficulty of each puzzle is determined by averaging the number of guesses provided by a small panel of testers who are paid to solve each puzzle in advance to help us catch any issues and inconsistencies.Today’s average difficulty is 4.5 guesses out of 6, or moderately challenging.For more in-depth analysis, visit our friend, WordleBot.Today’s WordClick to revealToday’s word is GUILE, a noun. According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, it means “slyness and cunning in dealing with others.”Our Featured ArtistChristina Chung is a queer Taiwanese Hong Konger American illustrator, raised in Seattle and Singapore and currently based in Brooklyn. Her work focuses on intricacies, color and symbolism, drawing inspiration from the natural world and powerful storytelling.Further ReadingSee the archive for past and future posts.If you solved for a word different from what was featured today, please refresh your page.Join the conversation on social media! Use the hashtag #wordlereview to chat with other solvers.Leave any thoughts you have in the comments! Please follow community guidelines:Be kind. Comments are moderated for civility.Having a technical issue? Use the help button in the settings menu of the Games app.See the Wordle Glossary for information on how to talk about Wordle.Want to talk about Spelling Bee? Check out our Spelling Bee Forum.Want to talk about Connections? Check out our Connections Companion.Trying to go back to the puzzle? More