Elections

His comments came as the world body’s weather agency said it expected Earth to soon surpass the record high temperatures experienced in 2023.With the planet in the grips of its highest temperatures in more than 100,000 years, scientists with the United Nations weather agency have crunched the numbers and come to a stark conclusion: More record-hot years are all but inevitable.In the next five years, there’s a nearly 90 percent chance Earth will set yet another record for its warmest year, surpassing the scorching highs experienced in 2023, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report Wednesday.The chances are almost as great that, in at least one of these five calendar years, the average global temperature will be 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than it was at the dawn of the industrial age. That’s the level of warming that countries set out to avoid under the 2015 Paris Agreement.“The target of limiting long-term global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is hanging by a thread,” the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said in a speech in New York City on Wednesday. He called for urgent action in a number of areas, including slashing carbon dioxide emissions and adopting renewable energy, helping poor countries finance their climate plans, and clamping down on the fossil fuel industry.On the last subject, Mr. Guterres reiterated past exhortations to end taxpayer subsidies for oil and gas. But he also turned his attention to a new target: He urged governments to ban advertising by fossil-fuel companies, comparing oil and coal producers to the tobacco industry, which faces advertising restrictions worldwide. And he urged the news media and tech companies to stop displaying their ads.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

President Biden raised hopes last week when he endorsed a plan that he said could lead to a “cessation of hostilities permanently.” He said Israel had put forward the plan, but neither Israel nor Hamas has said definitively that they would accept or reject the proposal, and they appear to still be locked in disagreement over fundamental issues.Here’s a look at what is known about the cease-fire deal, which key points still must be negotiated, and the hurdles still ahead:What’s in the plan?Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire in November that lasted for a week. But the proposal now on the table — as laid out by Mr. Biden, a senior U.S. administration official and Israeli officials — is more ambitious. Major issues remain unresolved, including whether Hamas would remain in control of the Gaza Strip.The proposal would unfold in three phases.In phase one, among other things, Israel would withdraw from population centers in Gaza during a six-week cease-fire, and dozens of women and elderly hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and its allies would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.During that time, talks over a permanent cease-fire would continue, and if successful, the deal would enter phase two, with the full withdrawal of Israel’s military from the enclave. All hostages and more Palestinian prisoners would be freed. Under phase three, Hamas would return the bodies of hostages who had died, and a three- to five-year reconstruction period, backed by the United States, European countries and international institutions, would begin.Near a rally on Wednesday in Tel Aviv for hostages who were kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack.Marko Djurica/ReutersWhat are Israel’s concerns?One of the key gaps between Hamas and Israel over the plan is the length of the cease-fire and the future role of Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Monday that he was open to a six-week cease-fire, according to a person who attended a closed-door meeting he held with Israeli lawmakers. But publicly he has said that Israel will fight until Hamas’s governing and military capabilities are destroyed.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

Saleka and Ishana Night Shyamalan are collaborating with their father, M. Night Shyamalan, on the thrillers “The Watchers” and “Trap.” The release dates are a happy coincidence.The Shyamalan family is very close. How close? During a video interview with the sisters Saleka, 27, and Ishana Night Shyamalan, 24, their dad, the “Sixth Sense” director M. Night Shyamalan, called Ishana on the phone. The sound interrupted Ishana speaking about the differences between her and her father’s filmmaking process.“I’m like, you know we’re on this call right now,” she said with a laugh, ignoring the ring.Given this familial bond, it makes sense that the Shyamalan siblings are both on the cusp of major career moments this summer made in collaboration with their father. Ishana’s feature directing debut “The Watchers,” with Night as one of the producers, releases June 7, while Saleka, a musician, portrays a pop star in and wrote original songs for Night’s latest, “Trap,” due Aug. 9. The fact that both projects are emerging around the same time is coincidental, Ishana and Saleka said, but they are happy to share in the celebration.“I feel like in some ways we’ve always done that, since we were growing up, experience things together,” Saleka said. “So it feels right even though it was unplanned.”Dakota Fanning, who stars in “The Watchers,” with Ishana on set.Jonathan Hession/Warner Bros.In an era where discourse over nepotism in Hollywood runs hot, the Shyamalans wear their name proudly. (Their mom, Bhavna Shyamalan, is the owner of a fitness studio and the vice president of the M. Night Shyamalan Foundation.) Fans noticed that there was a poster for “The Watchers” in the “Trap” trailer. The sisters did acknowledge the advantages that come with their lineage, but they have tried to make up for that with discipline. “It’s really about meeting that privilege and honoring that with as hard a work ethic as we can, by being as kind people as we can and holding ourselves to the highest standard possible,” Ishana said.But no matter what they chose as professions, Saleka said, their dad was probably going to be nearby. “He’s just a super involved parent,” she said.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

The tolling program aims to diminish traffic while raising money for mass transit.For decades, New York lawmakers, transit officials and environmental activists have been pushing to implement a plan to toll drivers who enter Manhattan’s core business district — a concept known as congestion pricing.The tolling program intends to rein in traffic and pollution while improving travel speeds in some of the world’s most traffic-clogged streets. The money raised from drivers would generate $1 billion annually for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to use to pay for critical upgrades to New York City’s transit network, which is the largest and busiest in North America.Under the congestion pricing plan, which would be the first of its kind in the United States, most drivers would pay $15 to enter some of the city’s most famous destinations and neighborhoods, including the theater district, Times Square, Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea and SoHo.The tolling zone would run from 60th Street to the Battery, but would omit the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive and the West Side Highway along the borough’s edges. Drivers of cars, buses, motorcycles and trucks would pay a rate that varies based on vehicle size and time of day.The program has been delayed by many challenges over the years, and may yet stumble just weeks from its planned start date of June 30. Concerned that the policy might hinder the city’s post-pandemic recovery, Gov. Kathy Hochul is quietly working to delay the program, according to two people familiar with her efforts. And opponents of congestion pricing have moved to block it in court.Here are answers to some of the most common questions about the program:When would the tolling begin?The tolling is scheduled to start June 30. But the plan is highly contentious, and before that planned rollout, legal and political clashes could still block it.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

The festival favors abundance, which can make it easy for cinema fans (and critics) to miss the loveliest trees for the sheer breadth of forest.Early in the animated film “Boys Go to Jupiter,” premiering at this year’s Tribeca Festival, an indie electronic beat kicks in. Like a music video rendered on Kid Pix, the sequence that follows finds the mulleted Rozebud (voiced by the singer Miya Folick) tending to neon citrus trees while crooning a melody as catchy as it is ethereal. The film, from the artist Julian Glander, belongs to a subset of Tribeca movies that use music in startling and adventurous ways. Their soundscapes conjure vision and feeling, as well as that ineffable thing sometimes called vibe.Running from Wednesday through June 16, the Tribeca Festival — it dropped “film” from its name in 2021 — is big on vibe, for better and for worse. This is an event that embraces virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive installations, that pairs its screenings with concerts and its concerts with visuals, that touts buzzword-friendly panels about brands, innovation or brand innovation. Spilling across downtown Manhattan and a little into Williamsburg, Tribeca favors multimedia abundance, which can make it easy for cinema fans (and critics) to miss the loveliest trees for the sheer breadth of forest.My favorite Tribeca selection also ranks in my top films of the year so far: Nathan Silver’s fidgety and finely tuned “Between the Temples,” a sensational Jewish love comedy about a dispirited cantor (Jason Schwartzman) and his adult bat mitzvah student (Carol Kane). I caught it at Sundance, and feel a sacred duty to spread the word. But I primarily dedicate my Tribeca time to sampling world premieres — movies that haven’t played at other festivals and need a nudge to break out.A scene from “Boys Go to Jupiter,” directed by Julian Glander.Julian GlanderIn my hunt for gems, I often have luck in the Viewpoints section, designed to house films that push the boundaries of form and perspective. It was there that I made contact with the otherworldly “Boys Go to Jupiter,” a memorable standout, and not only because of Rozebud’s earworm. Following a cast of slackers and crackpots in suburban Florida, the video game-like musical comedy marries gummy 3-D graphics and stoned-guy humor with sly commentary on hustle culture and the gig economy. The ensemble of avatars is voiced by a corps d’elite of quirky comedians like Cole Escola and Julio Torres.Glander’s film would pair nicely with “Eternal Playground,” a Parisian drama that follows Gaspard (Andranic Manet), a middle school music teacher. Shot in sumptuous 16 mm, this labor of love from the filmmakers Pablo Cotten and Joseph Rozé opens just before the bell rings for summer break, although Gaspard won’t be leaving the premises: He and five childhood pals have resolved to secretly camp out in the vacant school while classes are out for summer. A French New Wave-inflected love letter to the schoolyard, “Eternal Playground” accompanies the crew as they sing, romp, reminisce and memorialize a late friend.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

The National Academies said the condition could involve up to 200 symptoms, make it difficult for people to work and last for months or years.One of the nation’s premier medical advisory organizations has weighed in on long Covid with a 265-page report that recognizes the seriousness and persistence of the condition for millions of Americans.More than four years since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, long Covid continues to damage many people’s ability to function, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, a nongovernmental institution that advises federal agencies on science and medicine.“Long Covid can impact people across the life span, from children to older adults, as well as across sex, gender, racial, ethnic and other demographic groups,” it said, concluding that “long Covid is associated with a wide range of new or worsening health conditions and encompasses more than 200 symptoms involving nearly every organ system.”Here are some of the National Academies’ findings, drafted by a committee of 14 doctors and researchers:How many people have long Covid?The report cited data from 2022 suggesting that nearly 18 million adults and nearly a million children in the United States have had long Covid at some point. At the time of that survey, about 8.9 million adults and 362,000 children had the condition.Surveys showed that the prevalence of long Covid decreased in 2023 but, for unclear reasons, has risen this year. As of January, data showed nearly 7 percent of adults in the United States had long Covid.Diagnosis and consequencesThere is still no standardized way to diagnose the condition and no definitive treatments to cure it. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to rehabilitation, and each individual will need a program tailored to their complex needs,” the National Academies said, advising that doctors should not require patients to have a positive coronavirus test to be diagnosed with long Covid.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

The Indian leader used his singular persona to lift his party to new heights. Then the opposition found a way to use his cult of personality against him.When everything became about Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, his party and its century-old Hindu-nationalist network were propelled to unimagined heights.On the back of his singular charisma and political skill, a onetime-fringe religious ideology was pulled to the center of Indian life. Landslide election victories remade India’s politics, once dominated by diverse coalitions representing a nation that had shaped its independence on secular principles.But there were always risks in wrapping a party’s fortunes so completely in the image of one man, in inundating a country of many religions, castes and cultures with that leader’s name, face and voice. Voters could start to think that everything was about him, not them. They could even revolt.On Tuesday, Mr. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., fell back to earth. After having promised their biggest election romp yet, they lost more than 60 seats. Mr. Modi will remain in office for a third term, but only with the help of a contentious coalition of parties, some of which are opposed to his core beliefs and want power of their own.With the result, India’s strained democracy appeared to roar back to life, its beaten-down political opposition reinvigorated. And after a decade in which Mr. Modi’s success in entrenching Hindu supremacy had often felt like the new common sense, India is seeing its leader and itself in a new light, and trying to understand this unexpected turn.Most fundamentally, the opposition, newly coalesced for what it called a do-or-die moment as Mr. Modi increasingly tilted the playing field, found a way to use the cult of personality around him to its advantage.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

Back in January, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India looked all but unstoppable, he visited the small city of Ayodhya for the unofficial start of his campaign to win a third term. The location was freighted with symbolism. For decades, Hindu nationalists had sought to build a temple in Ayodhya, at a spot they believe to be the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram. The only problem was that there was already a house of worship on the spot, a mosque built by a Mughal emperor in 1528. A Hindu mob had dismantled the mosque in 1992, setting off riots that killed 2,000 people, most of them Muslims. The ruins were a flashpoint of religious tensions in India for decades.Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party promised to build the temple, and the lavish event at which Modi officially opened it was a showcase for that achievement. At the time it seemed like strong election-year messaging for a politician who built his career on the twin planks of Hindu nationalism and building a muscular new India. Unlike other politicians, the event implied, Modi made promises and kept them.“It is the beginning of a new era,” he declared.Feeling supremely confident, Modi had boldly asked the Indian electorate for something akin to a blank check to remake the country — control of 400 seats in Parliament in elections that began in April and concluded on June 1. And why shouldn’t he have been confident? India’s economy was the fastest-growing in the world. India had overtaken China as the world’s most-populous country. World leaders sought Modi’s support on issues ranging from the war in Ukraine to the climate crisis, cementing India’s ascent in global affairs.But the ever unpredictable electorate of the world’s largest democracy responded to Modi’s demand for still more power resolutely: No thanks.In a stunning rebuke, election results released on Tuesday showed that India’s voters have reduced the parliamentary share of Modi’s party by more than 60 seats, not enough for an outright majority, never mind the supermajority he had sought.It struck me as particularly apt that despite all the fanfare about the glorious new temple in Ayodhya, Modi’s party lost the city’s parliamentary seat to a political opposition that had been all but left for dead.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