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      Activists Sent to Prison for Pouring Powder Over Case Holding U.S. Constitution

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      One climate activist was sentenced to 18 months in prison, the other to two years. They said that they had meant to draw attention to climate change.Two climate activists who dumped red powder over the display case that holds the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives Museum in February were each sentenced this week to more than a year in prison.Judge Amy Berman Jackson of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday sentenced one activist, Jackson Green, 27, of Utah, to 18 months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release.On Friday, Judge Jackson sentenced the other activist, Donald Zepeda, 35, of Maryland, to two years in prison with two years of supervised release.They must pay $58,607.59 in restitution to the National Archives, according to court records.In an episode that was captured on video, Mr. Green and Mr. Zepeda poured powder over the display case in the rotunda of the National Archives Museum on Feb. 14 in what prosecutors described as a “stunt” that was meant to draw attention to climate change.The two men also poured powder over themselves and stood in the rotunda, calling for solutions to climate change.The Constitution was not damaged, according to the National Archives Museum, which said that the powder was made of pigment and cornstarch.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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      A Whole New Ballgame

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      What soccer, a recent foray into coaching and years of writing this newsletter taught our columnist about the game, and himself.A few weeks ago, the soccer team that occupies rather more of my thoughts than is healthy had a problem. Well, strictly speaking, it had several. One was that all of the players, including my son, were under the age of 7, which it turns out is something of a tactical limitation. Another was that I had been roped into being one of the coaches.More urgently, though, we kept conceding goals. Avoidable goals. Silly goals. Goals wrapped up in gift paper and presented to the opposition, accompanied by a heartfelt card.Technically, when children start playing formal soccer in England — at the age of 6 — the games are not competitive. There is no league table. The results are not even recorded. That arrangement is not quite the same, though, as nobody knowing what the results are. And it was apparent, to anyone who could count, that our results were not good.It was at this point that I hatched a plan to limit the damage. It seemed to me quite a good plan. We had spent two years encouraging the children to play soccer the way it is meant to be played. They pass out from the back. They take a touch. They rely on their technique to avert danger. They express themselves.But it had become very clear, very quickly, that this approach had not really survived first contact with reality. We were conceding goals in great bucket-loads because we kept creating problems for ourselves: dribbling across our own box, passing aimlessly into the middle of a congested field, turning not into space but into trouble. We kept losing games. And while winning or losing was not supposed to matter, we worried that, sooner or later, the children would start losing enthusiasm.What we needed, I thought, was just a dash of the ancient wisdom that had been passed down to me, when I was taking my first tentative steps in soccer. Geoff — my first and only youth coach, whose son took all the free kicks and corners — had given us two instructions, and only two: Play the way you are facing and, if in doubt, boot it out.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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      ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Plays and Movies

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      While “Hamlet” is the Shakespeare play with the most Broadway productions, “Romeo and Juliet,” whose 36th revival is currently on Broadway, has had a more pervasive influence over popular culture. Its enduring, ever-adaptable theme of lovers from warring families pops up repeatedly in films, songs, cartoons and skit shows. See if you spot the references. More

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      Gaza War Strains Europe’s Efforts at Social Cohesion

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      Institutions meant to promote civility, from soccer to song, have come under severe stress from rising antisemitism and anti-immigrant politics.The various institutions of postwar Europe were intended to keep the peace, bring warring peoples together and build a sense of continental attachment and even loyalty. From the growth of the European Union itself to other, softer organizations, dealing with culture or sports, the hope has always been to keep national passions within safe, larger limits.But growing antisemitism, increased migration and more extremist, anti-immigrant parties have led to backlash and divisions rather than comity. The long war in Gaza has only exacerbated these conflicts and their intensity, especially among young Muslims and others who feel outraged by Israeli bombings and by the tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza, a large proportion of them women and children.Those tensions were on full display in the recent violence surrounding a soccer match between an Israeli and a Dutch team in Amsterdam, where the authorities are investigating what they call antisemitic attacks on Israeli fans, as well as incendiary actions by both sides. Amsterdam is far from the only example of the divisions in Europe over the Gaza war and of the challenges they present to European governments.The normally amusing Eurovision Song Contest, which was held this year in Malmo, Sweden, a city with a significant Muslim population, was marred by pro-Palestinian protests against Eden Golan, a contestant from Israel, which participates as a full member.The original lyrics to her song, “October Rain,” in commemoration of the 1,200 Israelis who died from the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel’s response in Gaza, were rejected by organizers for their political nature, so were altered to be less specific. Her performance was met with booing and jeering from some in the audience, but she did receive a wave of votes from online spectators, pushing her to fifth place.It was hardly the demonstration of togetherness in art and silliness that organizers have always intended.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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      Leonids Meteor Shower: When and How to Watch Its Peak

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      The event produces some of the year’s fastest meteors, although the nearly full moon may make them challenging to spot.Our universe might be chock-full of cosmic wonder, but you can observe only a fraction of astronomical phenomena with your naked eye. Meteor showers, natural fireworks that streak brightly across the night sky, are one of them.The latest observable meteor shower will be the Leonids, which have been active since at least Nov. 6 and are forecast to continue through Nov. 30. They reach their peak Nov. 16 to 17, or Saturday night into Sunday morning.Meteors from the Leonids can be spotted in the constellation Leo, and they will be visible from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The Leonids produce some of the fastest meteors each year, at 44 miles per second, with bright, long tails. But this year, spotting them may be difficult during the peak because of the nearly full moon.To get a hint at when to watch, you can use a meter that relies on data from the Global Meteor Network showing when real-time fireball activity levels increase in the coming days.Where meteor showers come fromThere is a chance you might see a meteor on any given night, but you are most likely to catch one during a shower. Meteor showers are caused by Earth passing through the rubble trailing a comet or asteroid as it swings around the sun. This debris, which can be as small as a grain of sand, leaves behind a glowing stream of light as it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.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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      A $190 Soap Dispenser Has Become the Hit Product at Gem Home

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      The ceramic vessel made by a former fashion designer has become the hit product at a new shop in Downtown Manhattan.The soap dispenser could have looked like anything.Most important to Flynn McGarry was to have a stylish vessel in keeping with the aesthetic of Gem Home, his new store and cafe in Manhattan. Its customers can nibble on lentils and slabs of parsnip cake at communal farm tables lit by tapered candles or browse shelves bearing a tight selection of comestibles and products like antique cutlery, cloth napkins and glass tumblers imported from Britain.“My biggest thing was not just selling glass bottles of soap,” said Mr. McGarry, 25, a chef since his teenage years whom Vogue has called the Justin Bieber of food.He went with a ceramic dispenser produced by hand in small batches and made in saturated colors and abstract shapes. Each is filled with a quince-scented soap from Ffern, a luxury fragrance company in Britain, and comes with a refill. A 10-ounce dispenser costs $190, and a 12-ounce version costs $210.Since Gem Home opened in NoLIta three weeks ago, it has sold 24 dispensers, an average of one a day. (The product is currently sold out; new stock is expected this weekend.)“I didn’t know I wasn’t going to be able to keep them on the shelves for more than 25 minutes,” Mr. McGarry said. “They’re not cheap,” he added. But the dispensers have seemed to resonate with people willing to pay a premium for objects aimed at “elevating the most mundane elements of life,” as he put it.Created by Shane Gabier, a fashion designer turned ceramic artist, the dispensers are an offshoot of a version he made for the bathroom at Gem Home, which is attached to a wall to prevent people from stealing it. Mr. Gabier is also making a wall soap dispenser for the bathroom at Gem Wine, Mr. McGarry’s wine bar on the Lower East Side.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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      A Tiny Gladiator Tells of the Reach of Roman Empire Celebrity

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      A 2,000-year-old copper knife handle depicting a gladiator will go on display at Hadrian’s Wall, in the north of England, next year.The tiny copper gladiator stands ready for battle, decked out in a helmet and armor, an elaborate shield held in front as if bracing for his opponent’s blows.The figure, just three inches tall, is some 2,000 years old, and was once perched on the handle of a knife. It was found almost three decades ago by a diver in the river Tyne, near Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England, which was for hundreds of years the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.The knife handle remained in the diver’s private collection until it was recently offered on loan to English Heritage, a charity that manages many of the country’s historic monuments.It will go on display in the museum at Corbridge Roman Town at Hadrian’s Wall next year, the charity said on Friday in a well-timed announcement that coincided with the release in Britain of Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” film, starring Paul Mescal.Experts say the copper figure is evidence of how the celebrity status of gladiators reached into every corner of the once sprawling Roman Empire, including the far-flung outposts of Britain.The figure stands only 3 inches tall. English Heritage noted that because it appears to be left-handed, which would have been considered unlucky at the time, it may depict a specific person.English HeritageWe 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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      Book Review: ‘Lazarus Man,’ by Richard Price

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      “Lazarus Man” follows several characters in Harlem in the wake of a building collapse.LAZARUS MAN, by Richard PriceWe first meet Anthony Carter in a barroom, and the first thing he does is tell a lie. “I went there too,” he says to a woman he’s vaguely interested in picking up, referring to her Fordham Rams sweatshirt.The gambit goes nowhere — the woman borrowed the shirt from her cousin — and anyway Anthony never went to Fordham but to Columbia, where he was kicked out after a few months for dealing drugs. The expulsion was a waste, since he didn’t need the money. But it is the first of a long string of disappointments that have brought Anthony, now in his 40s, unemployed and separated from his wife and stepdaughter, to this bar on Lenox and 123rd in Manhattan because “it was one of those nights,” as the book’s first line has it.After tying one on at the bar, Anthony stops at a second-floor church where he is entranced and repulsed by a charismatic female preacher: “HE CAME IN BECAUSE HE HEARD THE NOISE, GOD.” He goes home and to bed, with a job interview for a retail position the next day.Anthony is one of four central characters Richard Price follows in his 10th novel, “Lazarus Man,” a book difficult to categorize because its tone and action are neither comic nor tragic. Unlike previous Price novels, it’s not a police procedural, though there is a detective looking for a missing person. A specific place and a broad sociological interest in its residents tie the book together, as do the Lower East Side in Price’s “Lush Life” (2008) and the fictionalized Jersey City (called Dempsey) in “Clockers” (1992) and other novels.In the Harlem of “Lazarus Man” it is the spring of 2008, a temporal interzone before the catastrophe of the financial crisis, the political ascent of Barack Obama (mentioned only once, near the end) and the advent of the smartphone. You might say, “It was one of those years.”The novel’s unifying event is the collapse of a tenement building that kills six residents and draws its protagonists to the smoldering rubble. Detective Mary Roe is among the police officers who report to the scene to account for the dead, the survivors and the missing. Felix Pearl hears the early-morning noise from around the corner and shows up with his camera. He’s a young man with an obsessive vocation as a photographer but only hazy notions of how to make a living at it, and how and why to become an artist: He at least knows he should be looking for the action. Royal Davis, a funeral director, is looking for clients because business has hit a rough patch, so he sends his young son Marquise to the collapse site to hand out business cards to the possibly bereaved.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