Aurelia Butler

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    Zelensky Is Expected in Berlin as Merz Steps Forward as Key Backer of Ukraine

    A likely focus of talks between the two leaders will be military aid and whether Germany will provide Ukraine with the Taurus cruise missile.President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is expected to travel to Berlin on Wednesday in his first visit to Germany since Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office earlier this month.The visit comes at a crucial moment in the German-Ukrainian relationship.With doubts looming about the future of America’s commitment to Kyiv, Mr. Merz has stepped forward as a leading figure in the European alliance supporting Ukraine. That has meant eschewing the cautious stance of his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, even as he faces opposition from within his governing coalition on expanding German military support.After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it took over a year for Mr. Scholz to invite Mr. Zelensky to Berlin. Though the Ukrainian leader has not been to Berlin since October, the one-day visit will be his third meeting with Mr. Merz since the chancellor took office on May 6.What are the leaders likely to discuss?A major topic of conversation will likely be military aid in general and, specifically, the Taurus cruise missile, a system jointly developed by Germany and Sweden.The large size, advanced navigation system and 310-mile range of the Taurus means it can accurately deliver bigger strikes deeper into Russian territory than other missiles in Ukraine’s arsenal.The Taurus has long been at the top of Mr. Zelensky’s wish list. Though Britain and France already provide Ukraine with their jointly developed SCALP/Storm Shadow cruise missile, the Taurus would be able to strike as far as bridges connecting the Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia.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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    Congo’s Former President Returns Home, Accused of Treason

    Joseph Kabila was accused of supporting the Rwanda-backed militia M23. Days later he arrived in Goma, a city held by the militia, so he remains out of prosecutors’ reach.A former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo has returned to the Central African country after years in self-imposed exile, according to one of his advisers, days after the country’s Senate accused him of treason.The Senate said the former president, Joseph Kabila, had supported a militia that has captured swaths of Congolese territory this year — an allegation that could lead to his prosecution.Yet he remains beyond the government’s reach, even after returning to his country. The senate voted to prosecute Mr. Kabila, who led Congo for 18 years, in Kinshasa, the capital. For his re-entry into Congo, Mr. Kabila chose Goma, a city 1,000 miles to the east, where the government is powerless.Goma was captured in January by M23, a militia backed by Rwanda, Congo’s neighbor. M23 is the militia Mr. Kabila is accused of supporting.Mr. Kabila’s return to Congo, which leaders of M23 also confirmed, comes as the United States is trying to broker a peace agreement between Rwanda and Congo, and simultaneous minerals deals with both countries. The presence in the country of Mr. Kabila, who still wields considerable influence, could complicate these efforts.In a video address posted on his social media last week, Mr. Kabila accused his successor, President Felix Tshisekedi, of being a dictator.In Congo’s 2018 presidential election, Mr. Kabila’s chosen candidate to replace him decisively lost, and it appeared as if a prominent critic of the president and opposition politician, Martin Fayulu, had won. But amid allegations of widespread fraud, another opposition candidate was declared the winner — Mr. Tshisekedi, who proceeded to enter into a power-sharing agreement with Mr. Kabila’s party.That alliance came to an abrupt halt a year later when Mr. Tshisekedi said sharing power was blocking his agenda for reform.Since then, Mr. Kabila has mostly maintained silence — until this year, when he began signaling his desire to re-enter Congolese politics. His motivation for returning to Congo at this moment is not known, and a spokesman traveling with him did not respond to a request for comment.On his arrival in Goma, Mr. Kabila was given an effusive welcome by M23’s political leader, Corneille Nangaa. Mr. Nangaa, a politician turned rebel who lately dresses in military fatigues and regularly excoriates Mr. Tshisekedi, is the same man who, in a previous political life, was president of Congo’s Independent National Electoral Commission when it first declared Mr. Tshisekedi president. More

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    Venice Biennale 2026 Will Realize Koyo Kouoh’s Vision After Her Death

    Koyo Kouoh had spent nearly seven months preparing the art event’s main exhibition before she died this month. Her team will complete the work and open the show in May 2026.The organizers of the Venice Biennale announced on Tuesday that next year’s edition would go ahead as planned, despite the sudden death this month of Koyo Kouoh, the curator who was overseeing its main exhibition.Kouoh died of cancer on May 10, just days before she was scheduled to reveal the title and theme of the event.Cristiana Costanzo, a Biennale spokeswoman, told reporters at a news conference in Venice that next year’s edition would run from May 9 through Nov. 22, and that a team of curators, art historians and editors who had been working with Kouoh would deliver her exhibition “as she conceived and defined it.”Kouoh had been preparing the exhibition for almost seven months, Costanzo said: Working with a five-member team, she had selected some of the participating artists and artworks, and given it a title, “In Minor Keys.”During Tuesday’s news conference, members of the team used Kouoh’s words to present her plan.Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, an art historian from the team, said that Kouoh had wanted her Biennale to be “neither a litany of commentary on world events, nor an inattention or escape from compounding and continuously intersecting crises.” Instead, Beckhurst Feijoo said, Kouoh had wanted to present “a radical reconnection with art’s natural habitat and role in society — that is the emotional, the visual, the sensory, the affective, the subjective.”The central pavilion of the Venice Biennale, which usually hosts part of the main exhibition.Matteo de Mayda for 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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    How the Liverpool Parade Car Crash Unfolded

    After a car plowed into crowds celebrating their team’s Premier League title, camaraderie and jubilation dissolved into dread.The mood in Liverpool had been jubilant. Paul O’Brien and his family had flown in from Ireland to celebrate their soccer team’s Premier League title. “Everyone’s singing all day, everyone having a good time, everyone talking to one another,” Mr. O’Brien recalled.“And then…”Standing along Water Street in the heart of Liverpool on Monday, Mr. O’Brien, his son and his parents suddenly found themselves being shoved, hard, by a surging crowd. Out of nowhere, a dark-color car was barreling down a street jammed with pedestrians. Had it not been for the people pushing them out of the way, Mr. O’Brien said on Tuesday, they might have been in the car’s path.“We didn’t realize until we were pushed,” Mr. O’Brien said. “And then we actually realized, ‘Oh, something went on here.’ There were people lying on the ground. But the people of Liverpool were amazing. Those people were very brave to push kids and people out of the way.”The parade for the Liverpool soccer team before the disaster.Owen Humphreys/Press Association, via Associated PressIn an instant, the joyful day had turned dark. At around 6 p.m. on Monday, police said, a 53-year-old British man plowed his vehicle into the crowd, injuring more than 50 people, including 27 who were sent to one of several hospitals in the area. Two people, including a child, were seriously injured. A fire department spokesman said that four people had to be pulled from underneath the car.The impact of the vehicle slamming into the sea of pedestrians quickly rippled through this proudly working class city on England’s northwestern coast. More

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    Can You Match These Canadian Novels to Their Locations?

    A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz highlights novels with settings in Canada. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. Links to the books will be listed at the end of the quiz if you’d like to do further reading. More

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    Conflicting Claims Over Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire Talks Sow Confusion

    Israel, Hamas and the Trump administration have issued different messages about where efforts to reach a truce stand.Israel, the United States and Hamas have sent conflicting messages in recent days about progress in cease-fire talks that would free hostages still held in Gaza, amid mounting pressure from President Trump to end the war.As they press a renewed offensive, Israeli forces have continued to launch strikes across the enclave. More than 70 people were killed on Monday, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.The deadly strikes came amid a series of contradictory comments about negotiations.On Monday, the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television channel said that the group had accepted a cease-fire proposal from Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy.Mr. Witkoff, however, quickly rejected that claim. “What I have seen from Hamas is disappointing and completely unacceptable,” he told the Axios news site.Later that evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he was hoping to announce progress in the talks “if not today, then tomorrow.” But he later suggested that he had been speaking figuratively, and blamed Hamas for the impasse.On Tuesday, Basem Naim, a Hamas official, doubled down on the group’s claim. “Yes, the movement has accepted Mr. Witkoff’s proposal,” he wrote on social media, adding that Hamas was awaiting Israel’s response.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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    In a Medieval Greek Fortress, Residents Feud Over ‘Pharaonic’ Cable Car Plan

    The authorities in Monemvasia, founded in the sixth century, say people with limited mobility need access to the town’s peak. But critics say the project would destroy the identity of the site.Carved into a massive rock, the medieval fortress town of Monemvasia rises from the Myrtoan Sea in southern Greece, its Byzantine churches and crumbling palaces a draw for the thousands of visitors who walk its cobbled pathways every year.But there is trouble in this tranquil retreat. A plan to build a cable car to the peak above the town, where a beautifully preserved 12th-century church sits in relative isolation amid stunning views of the coast, has divided the community.The top of Monemvasia is currently accessible only via a winding, 240-yard stone path — a dizzying and exhausting climb.The authorities say the cable car, to be financed with around $7 million from the European Union, will make the site reachable for visitors with limited mobility.But the plan has been met with consternation, and legal challenges, from cultural groups and residents who say it will undermine the rock’s protected status.Standing over Monemvasia is a 12th-century church with stunning views of the Myrtoan Sea.Niki Kitsantonis for 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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    How a Generation’s Struggle Led to a Record Surge in Homelessness

    When his mother moved to a nursing home in 2009, Anthony Forrest was a struggle-laden man of willed cheer with rising health problems, declining job prospects, and no place to go. She paid the rent on the Washington, D.C., apartment they shared. He slept on the couch.Only a niece’s warning that she was turning in the keys forced him hurriedly to pack. He stuffed his clothes into two trash bags, caught a ride to the gentrifying neighborhood of his youth, and slept in a parking lot.Mr. Forrest’s displacement in late middle age began a homelessness spell that has lasted more than 15 years, and it epitomizes an overlooked force that has helped push homelessness among elderly Americans to a record high: the loss of parental aid. Without it, “I hit the skids,” said Mr. Forrest, now 70. “That’s when I became homeless.”Throughout their lives, late baby boomers like Mr. Forrest — people born from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s — have suffered homelessness at uniquely high rates, for reasons many and varied. Their sheer numbers ensured they came of age facing fierce competition for housing and jobs. They entered the work force amid bruising recessions and a shift to a postindustrial economy that pummeled low-skilled workers.Rents soared. Housing aid faltered. Crack, especially in poor neighborhoods, left many in their prime grappling with addiction and criminal records.Now the death of parents in their 80s or beyond is extending the tale of generational woe, leaving thousands of people newly homeless as they reach old age themselves. In four years, the number of unhoused people 65 or older has grown by half to more than 70,000.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