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      Notre-Dame Holds First Public Mass in Years: ‘Fire Has Not Conquered Stone’

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      Sunday was the first opportunity for worshipers to return to the cathedral, beloved by the faithful and secular alike, since the 2019 fire that devastated it.Many Parisians can tell you exactly what they were doing when they heard that Notre-Dame was burning five years ago.Many of them instinctively rushed toward the building, and lined the Seine River to watch in horror as flames devoured the ancient lead roof, sending the 19th-century wooden spire tumbling down, punching holes through the vaults and burning the pews below.Some dropped to their knees and prayed, but the cathedral is not just a sanctuary for the faithful. Nor — its millions of visitors a year notwithstanding — is it just a tourist attraction. Notre-Dame, as the crowds of stricken Parisians testified to on that April 2019 day, is the heart of their city, part of the essential fabric of its identity, and a part of them.Notre-Dame is, however, first and foremost a church, and on Sunday evening, worshipers returned there as its first regular Mass was celebrated below the soaring stone arches — the old ones indistinguishable from the new.Seats for the Mass were in great demand.Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times“Five years after its destruction, here it stands again, ready to welcome the prayers of the faithful, to welcome the heart, the cry of the heart of all those who come here from all over the world,” Msgr.Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, rector of the cathedral, declared in his opening remarks. “Fire has not conquered stone, despair has not conquered life.”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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      Steve Mensch, President of Tyler Perry Studios, Dies at 62

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      Mr. Mensch, a longtime supporter of the film industry in Georgia, died in a plane crash on Friday in Florida, according to officials.Steve Mensch, a film executive in Georgia who pushed for state policies to support the industry and who was the president of Tyler Perry Studios, died in a plane crash in Florida on Friday. He was 62.Mr. Mensch was the sole occupant of a small-engine fixed-wing aircraft that crashed on Highway 19 in Homosassa, Fla., just after 8 p.m. on Friday, according to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.Mr. Mensch worked at Tyler Perry Studios for more than eight years, managing the 330-acre studio in Atlanta that was once home to Fort McPherson, a U.S. military base that closed in 2011, according to the company.Mr. Perry, the actor and entertainment mogul whose movies and television shows often depict the lives of Black Americans, bought the decommissioned base for $30 million in 2015.The lot has been a host to many of Mr. Perry’s projects, like “Boo! A Medea Halloween,” featuring Mr. Perry in his comedic role. Since his breakout role as Madea, Mr. Perry has appeared in nearly 50 shows and movies, including “Don’t Look Up” and “Gone Girl” and has over 70 producer credits, according to IMDb.Other shows and films have been shot at his studio, including “Pitch Perfect 3,” “The Walking Dead” and “Black Panther.”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 Dec. 9, 2024

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      Elliot Caroll makes her New York Times Crossword debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — The cardinal advice we give to those who have never solved the New York Times Crossword before is to start with Mondays. Puzzles get harder as the week goes on; sticking to Mondays for a while is a wonderful way to build your confidence. It will also, most likely, make you realize that you’re actually pretty good at this whole crossword thing.Elliot Caroll’s puzzle almost makes me jealous of newer solvers, because it’s the kind I wish I’d started with: simple, clever and clean. Shall we go through it together?Today’s ThemeIf you’ve ever wanted to take up the invitation of the [1986 hit song for Paul Simon] YOU CAN CALL ME AL (55A), then do I have the crossword for you. The beginnings of the entries at 20-, 34- and 41-Across suggest that you “CALL ME AL,” because each of them begins with the letters A-L.A [Cocktail made with Southern Comfort, sloe gin, amaretto and orange juice] is an ALABAMA SLAMMER (20A). Certain [Crinkly kitchen wrap] is ALUMINUM FOIL (34A). And the [Writer, director and co-star of “Defending Your Life,” 1991] is ALBERT BROOKS (41A).Tricky Clues29A. Entries must match their clues’ parts of speech — a noun clue solves to a noun entry, and so on — but on occasion you’ll be presented with multiple options. [Relax, or a place to relax] refers to the noun and verb forms of LOUNGE.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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      As Syrian Government Loses Control, the Skies Above Go Quiet

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      For more than a decade of civil war, Syrians in rebel-held areas craned their necks to look at the sky — listening and fearing the sounds of an airplane engine or the whirring blades of a helicopter.Those sounds meant imminent danger.People scrambled in every direction. Mothers futilely tried to shield their children. After the strikes, rescue workers and ordinary Syrians rushed to tend to the wounded and bury the dead.The planes and helicopters — which dropped terrifyingly destructive barrel bombs filled with TNT and shrapnel — instilled terror. Only when the government captured an area did the airstrikes stop. But in the northwest, which remained a rebel stronghold, they continued until days ago.On Sunday morning, for the first time in years, people who lived in fear of those bombs woke to silence in the skies.“Always, that was our life during all those years,” said Hamid Qutaneh, a member of the White Helmets rescue group. He and the other members of the rescue team spent more than a decade responding to the aftermath of airstrikes by Syrian and Russian warplanes that were key to keeping President Bashar al-Assad in power.Mr. Qutaneh, 30, a father of two, grew up in the northwest city of Khan Sheikhoun, which was hit by chemical weapons in 2017.Warnings of airstrikes came in brief phrases or in one word: “The warplane has taken off.” “The warplane is flying overhead.” “Airstrike.”Mr. Qutaneh’s own home in Khan Sheikhoun was destroyed in one of those strikes.“You can’t imagine the joy today,” he said, adding that people for the first time were gathered in the streets in large crowds, no longer fearful that they could be targeted from the skies. “What happened is the beginning of the road to justice.”More than 100,000 Syrians have been killed from airstrikes alone, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a watchdog group.“We are living a happiness that can’t be described,” Ramez Abu Farhan, 41, from the central city of Homs said after he returned home from celebrating in the city’s main square. “There is safety, there isn’t shelling; there aren’t airstrikes; there are no planes, and we are hopeful for the future.”The city had not been hit with airstrikes for years after the Assad regime regained control of it. But for years, he said, “we saw the shelling and the destruction.”Even when planes weren’t carrying out airstrikes on his neighborhood, he said, he could hear them flying overhead, headed to drop their bombs in the countryside. More

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      Cai Guo-Qiang: A.I. Will Revolutionize How We See the World

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      Artificial intelligence, though shrouded in risk, promises a revolution in how we see the world.This personal reflection is part of a series called Turning Points, in which writers explore what critical moments from this year might mean for the year ahead. You can read more by visiting the Turning Points series page.The following is an artist’s interpretation of the year — how it was or how it might be, through the lens of art.An Eiffel Tower hangs upside-down in a mirrored sky, like salvation from heaven — a convergence of sadness and joy. This gunpowder painting on glass and mirror, and another similar one on canvas, draws inspiration from a scene in a proposal I developed in collaboration with the Pompidou Center for the 2024 Paris Olympics.Lasting for about six minutes, and accompanied by the final movement of Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 2 in C minor,” the sky painting “Resurrection” would have used around 3,000 drones equipped with small colored firework nozzles to paint the sky alongside daytime fireworks from the Eiffel Tower. The magnificent scene would have created growing flowers, the cosmic sky, white wings and a white flag beneath the Olympic rings.Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957, Quanzhou, China), “Resurrection: Proposal for the 2024 Paris Olympics,” 2024. Gunpowder on canvas, 183 cm x 152.5 cm.Photo by Mengjia Zhao, courtesy Cai StudioWhen I conceived the project in 2022, the world was slowly emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, gradually finding its footing after two years of disorder. It was also the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. The project’s tone took in both of those realities. It was one of regeneration and rebirth, echoing the peaceful, antiwar and unified spirit of the Olympics.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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      John Dramani Mahama Is Set to Return as Ghana’s President

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      John Dramani Mahama, who served as president from 2012 to 2017, is set to return to office after his main opponent, Mahamudu Bawumia, conceded defeat.John Dramani Mahama, a former president of Ghana who was voted out of office eight years ago, staged a dramatic political comeback on Sunday after his main opponent conceded defeat in the West African country’s presidential election.While official results from the vote that took place on Saturday have yet to be released, the candidate of the governing party, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, said he had called Mr. Mahama to congratulate him on his victory.Mr. Bawumia said in a statement that data collected by his team showed that Mr. Mahama had “won the presidential election decisively.”Ghana, the largest gold producer in Africa and a key U.S. security ally in a region beset by coups and jihadist insurgencies, has been struggling with one of its worst economic crises in decades.After the government defaulted in 2022 to its international lenders, last year it contracted a $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.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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      Hunter Biden and Matt Gaetz Are Church Lady’s Guests on ‘S.N.L’

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      Playing his old familiar character, Dana Carvey talks about Jesus, tweaks celebrities for their sins and skewers Satan.A quick primer for the younger readers of this recap: The late 1980s were a creatively fruitful time for “Saturday Night Live” where for some reason every third sketch was a fake talk show. Among the most popular of these recurring bits was a segment called “Church Chat,” in which a piously persnickety host known simply as the Church Lady (played by Dana Carvey) would roast celebrities of the day and accuse pretty much everyone of working in the service of Satan.After a yearslong hiatus, “S.N.L.” brought back “Church Chat” to open this weekend’s broadcast, which was hosted by Paul Mescal and featured the musical guest Shaboozey. Carvey, once again clad in the prim attire of the Church Lady and seated in front of a stained-glass window, said he was back to “ring out the end of 2024, the most satanic year in history.”“Everywhere you look, you’ve got 11-year-olds dressing up like that vixen Sabrina Carpenter,” Carvey proclaimed. “You know who’s the best carpenter? Jesus.”Church Lady then introduced the first “Church Chat” guest, Matt Gaetz (Sarah Sherman), the former Representative from Florida, who last month withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald J. Trump’s attorney general.“Are you OK, Matt?” Carvey asked Sherman. “You look a little surprised to be here.”“No, this is just how my face is,” Sherman answered.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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      South Korea Unsure Who Is Running the Government

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      President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ill-fated bid to impose martial law has created a power vacuum in his governing camp, pushing the country deeper into what analysts call a constitutional crisis.South Korea’s government was paralyzed Sunday, mired in a new constitutional crisis after President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea clung to his office, but his own party’s leader suggested that he had already been ousted from power.Mr. Yoon has barely been seen in public since his ill-fated decision last week to declare martial law. Meanwhile, Han Dong-hoon, the chairman of Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party, or P.P.P., has presented himself as the government’s decision maker and said the president is no longer running the country.The trouble is that South Korea’s Constitution doesn’t allow for anyone to replace the president unless he resigns or is impeached.Mr. Yoon’s office did not comment on Mr. Han’s statement. But Mr. Yoon “has not and by law, cannot, cede power to anyone” except through resignation, impeachment or election, said a senior government source familiar with the discussions inside Mr. Yoon’s office. Mr. Yoon exercised his role as president on Sunday by accepting the resignation of his home minister, Lee Sang-min.Opposition groups immediately complained that Mr. Han was overreaching: trying to use the power vacuum created by Mr. Yoon’s ill-fated imposition of martial law and the ensuing turmoil to establish himself as the top leader in the governing camp.“We have a situation where the president cannot make decisions, he cannot give guidelines, he cannot give orders,” said Kang Won-taek, a professor of political science at Seoul National University. “Although we have a president, we are in a state of anarchy.”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