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    Sarah Milgrim, Victim of D.C. Shooting, Is Mourned by Kansas City Jewish Community

    At the funeral for Sarah Milgrim, who was killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington last week, the Israeli embassy aide was mourned as someone who wanted to help everyone.At college, at temple and at the embassy where she worked, Sarah Milgrim was known for bringing people together.“Sarah was a link, a powerful, radiant link,” Rabbi Stephanie Kramer told a synagogue overflowing with mourners on Tuesday in Overland Park, Kan., just days after Ms. Milgrim was one of two Israeli Embassy workers killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington.Standing near the casket draped with an Israeli flag, as hundreds watched online, the rabbi added that Ms. Milgrim had the ability to make her family and friends feel “more deeply connected to Israel, to Jewish life, and to each other.”Speakers at the funeral on Tuesday, held at Congregation Beth Torah, also recalled moments from her childhood. She loved horseback riding and caring for animals, once using oven mitts to save a baby bunny.A rabbi who had known her since she was a young girl growing up in nearby Prairie Village recalled her as a steadfast member of the Jewish community through high school and then at the University of Kansas. And her supervisor at the Israeli embassy praised her for serving as a liaison to progressive groups “with a natural brilliance and boldness.”A gunman killed Ms. Milgrim, 26, and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, last week as they left an event focused on improving the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Middle East. The suspect claimed that he “did it for Gaza,” according to an F.B.I. affidavit filed in federal court.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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    Another Suspect Is Arrested in Bitcoin Kidnapping and Torture Case

    The man, William Duplessie, surrendered to the police Tuesday morning. Authorities have said the victim was an Italian man who was tormented in a luxury Manhattan townhouse for weeks.A third person accused of kidnapping a man and torturing him for nearly three weeks to steal his Bitcoin fortune surrendered to the police on Tuesday morning, said Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch.The police identified the man, who has connections to Switzerland and Miami, as William Duplessie. He had spent days negotiating his surrender with the Police Department after the arrest on Friday of two others, John Woeltz, a cryptocurrency investor, and Beatrice Folchi, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter. Ms. Folchi was quickly released and her prosecution was deferred, one of the officials said.“We know he is going to be charged, with Mr. Woeltz, with kidnapping and false imprisonment of an associate,” Commissioner Tisch said in an interview on Fox 5 of Mr. Duplessie, shortly after he turned himself in.The episode burst into public view on Friday morning when the victim, an Italian man, escaped from the lavish, 17-room townhouse in the NoLIta neighborhood of Manhattan where he had been held captive and flagged down a traffic agent.The victim, Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, and Mr. Woeltz had ties to a crypto hedge fund in New York, according to an internal police report relayed by a third law enforcement official.But Mr. Carturan and Mr. Woeltz fell out over money and Mr. Carturan flew to Italy, according to the report. Soon after, Mr. Woeltz persuaded him to return to New York.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 Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner

    Paul Walczak’s pardon application cited his mother’s support for the president, including raising millions of dollars and a connection to a plot to publicize a Biden family diary.As Paul Walczak awaited sentencing early this year, his best hope for avoiding prison time rested with the newly inaugurated president.Mr. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Trump around Inauguration Day. The application focused not solely on Mr. Walczak’s offenses but also on the political activity of his mother, Elizabeth Fago.Ms. Fago had raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s campaigns and those of other Republicans, the application said. It also highlighted her connections to an effort to sabotage Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 campaign by publicizing the addiction diary of his daughter Ashley Biden — an episode that drew law enforcement scrutiny.Mr. Walczak’s pardon application argued that his criminal prosecution was motivated more by his mother’s efforts for Mr. Trump than by his admitted use of money earmarked for employees’ taxes to fund an extravagant lifestyle.Still, weeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming, even as Mr. Trump issued clemency grants to hundreds of other allies.Then, Ms. Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.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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    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