Elections

After a decade of humorously reviewing games, the man known as Dunkey began a publishing company to support indie projects, starting with the mazelike Animal Well.Freewheeling assessments of the gaming industry have attracted millions of fans to the YouTube reviews of the personality nicknamed Dunkey, whose self-deprecating humor sweetens his critiques of popular video games.“Kirby is a lot like me,” he said while reviewing the pink puffball’s latest adventure. “He is a big fat guy that sucks up all the food.”“I’m just a referee on this one so you cannot get mad,” he explained in a middling review of Spider-Man 2, aware of the game’s rabid fan base.“This is an evil game made by an evil man,” he proclaimed about Elden Ring’s difficulty. “And whoever’s job it was to balance the damage-scaling on enemies did not show up for work.”Now Dunkey, whose real name is Jason Gastrow, is hoping to parlay his 14-year rise as an entertaining critic into a serious business publishing indie games, something few influencers have attempted.On Thursday, his publishing company, Bigmode, released its first game, Animal Well, in which a mysterious blob explores a complex labyrinth while encountering animals that might help or hinder its journey. Billy Basso spent seven years making the game, which relies on well-designed puzzles and hidden secrets to motivate players and has generated extra attention because of Dunkey.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

No Supreme Court term in recent memory has featured so many cases with the potential to transform American society. The consequential cases, with decisions arriving by late June or early July, include three affecting former President Donald J. Trump, two on abortion, two on guns, three on the First Amendment rights of social media companies […] More

Democrats saved the speaker but want to oust him at the ballot box in November, while his standing in his own party remains in serious question.The notion that the speaker serves the whole House is often tossed around, but rarely the case.While the position is established in the Constitution and under longstanding House rules entails presiding over the entire institution, the speaker has historically played a highly political role, installed by the majority party to ruthlessly execute its will and legislative agenda. But circumstances have changed.Representative Mike Johnson can now, for better or worse, truly lay claim to being speaker of the whole House, after Democrats saved him from a Republican-led coup on Wednesday in another remarkable moment in a chaotic Congress filled with them. Had Democrats not come to his rescue, the votes existed in his own party to potentially oust him.It was the logical outcome of a session in which House Democrats, despite being in the minority, have repeatedly supplied the votes and even the procedural backing to do most of the heavy legislative lifting to stave off default, fund the government and aid U.S. allies, forming an uneasy coalition government with more mainstream Republicans.The result left Mr. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican still new to the job, indebted to Democrats even as he immediately sought to distance himself from them by emphasizing his deep conservative credentials. Democrats said their support for him underscored their bona fides as the grown-up party willing to go so far as to back a conservative Republican speaker to prevent the House from again going off the rails.Now the two parties will have to navigate this previously unexplored terrain as they head into an election season that will determine who is speaker next year.The reality is that after passing the foreign aid package including funding for Ukraine that prompted the push by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, to depose Mr. Johnson, little polarizing legislative work remains to be done this Congress while the fight for House control is about to get into full swing. That fact led Mr. Johnson to walk off the House floor to high-fives from his Republican supporters and quickly try to remind his colleagues and America that, despite the decisive Democratic assist, he is still a die-hard right winger.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

An activist investment firm failed to replace the railroad’s top executive and all its directors, but did win three seats on its board.Shareholders of Norfolk Southern, the beleaguered freight railroad, on Thursday voted down an attempt by an activist investment firm to remove the company’s chief executive and take control of its board.But the activist, Ancora, a Cleveland firm, managed to secure a foothold at the company, after shareholders voted to place three of its directors onto Norfolk Southern’s 13-member board. Ancora had hoped to take control of the company’s leadership with an aim to cut costs and increase Norfolk Southern’s profits and stock price.The result is a partial victory for Norfolk Southern’s executives, who had to defend themselves against criticisms of the company’s safety record and its lackluster financial performance. A company train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed last year in East Palestine, Ohio, forcing residents to evacuate.The results of the shareholder vote, which are preliminary, were announced Thursday morning at a virtual company annual meeting.During the meeting, Alan Shaw, Norfolk Southern’s chief executive, said he looked forward to working with the new directors.“Norfolk Southern persevered through several challenges over the last year,” he said, “We have met every challenge and never lost sight of where we are taking our powerful franchise.”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

A stage production of the beloved Studio Ghibli movie is big on spectacle, but rarely grabs the heart.There’s big, and then there’s “Spirited Away,” a show on a scale that few theater productions attempt.Adapted from the venerated Studio Ghibli film by Hayao Miyazaki, the British director John Caird’s stage iteration was first seen in Miyazaki’s native Japan in 2022 and has now traveled to the London Coliseum — the West End’s largest theater — where it runs through Aug. 24.Performed in Japanese, with many of the original cast members along for its British premiere, the production has size, sweep and opulence to spare. Length, too: At just over three hours, the stage version runs nearly an hour longer than the film. I can’t remember a foreign-language production given such a long run on a London stage — which itself speaks to the international cachet of this title.What’s missing, though, is human connection. The story of “Spirited Away” gets lost amid the spectacle, and, exciting though it is to watch, the show rarely grabs the heart.The show arrived in London after a run in Japan in 2022.Johan PerssonBoth the stage and screen versions introduce so many characters that you sometimes need a road map to keep track. Aficionados of the material will note the brilliance with which characters are brought to three-dimensional life by the genius puppet designer, Toby Olié, and his hard-working team.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

Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general, announced felony charges Tuesday against Stefanie Lambert, an election-denying attorney, and Stephanie Scott, a former small-town election clerk , over an alleged 2020 voter data breach.Nessel’s office alleges Lambert and Scott allowed an “unauthorized computer examiner” to access private voter data from the 2020 general US election and that Scott illegally withheld voting equipment amid an order from the Michigan secretary of state to submit it for regular maintenance. According to a statement from Nessel’s office, Lambert transmitted voter data at Scott’s direction.“When elected officials and their proxies use their positions to promote baseless conspiracies, show blatant disregard for voter privacy, and break the law in the process, it undermines the very essence of the democratic process,” Nessel said in a statement. “Those who engage in such reckless conduct must be held accountable for their actions.”Lambert did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Lambert faces separate felony charges in Oakland county, Michigan for her role in allegedly tampering with election equipment. In March, Lambert was arrested for failing to comply with court orders in that case, including refusing to submit fingerprints.In the wake of the 2020 election, Lambert took on numerous cases challenging the election results and worked with the attorney Sidney Powell on a lawsuit seeking to overturn the election in Michigan. Since then, Lambert has used her platform to promote baseless conspiracy theories about elections, fundraising hundreds of thousands of dollars to support her work. She is currently representing former Overstock CEO and prominent election denier Patrick Byrne in his defense against a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems.Last month, Lambert faced a hearing for possible sanctions after she handed over Dominion documents apparently obtained in discovery to the rightwing sheriff Dar Leaf of Barry county, Michigan.Meanwhile Scott, who faces five felony charges in connection with the alleged voter data breach, was recalled in May 2023 from her position overseeing elections in the rural Michigan community of Adams Township. But she has stayed active in local politics since then – even filing paperwork last month to run for the office of Hillsdale county clerk.“When I saw [the charges] I think my jaw dropped,” said Abe Dane, who is the current elections director for Hillsdale county and is running against Scott. “I’m pleased that they’re looking into it further, because I’ve wanted them to for a very long time.”Lambert’s attorney, Daniel Hartman, said in a statement that his client did not violate the law and that she “remains steadfast in her efforts to bring transparency to the people’s election data, processes and procedures”Joe Biden won Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes over Donald Trump, a result confirmed by a Republican-led state Senate investigation in 2021. More

After years in which his privacy has been fiercely guarded and he has been kept out of the political arena, former President Donald J. Trump’s youngest son, Barron, was chosen to be one of Florida’s delegates to the Republican National Convention.Barron, who turned 18 earlier this year and will graduate high school this month, will be one of 41 at-large delegates at the party’s national meeting in July, when the G.O.P. is expected to officially nominate his father as the Republican presidential candidate. His selection was reported earlier by NBC News.The youngest Trump will be joined in the delegation by his two more politically active brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., both of whom have appeared on the campaign trail or done interviews to support their father’s candidacy.Mr. Trump’s younger daughter, Tiffany, will also be a Florida delegate. Ivanka Trump, his eldest child, was not on the list.Though politicians’ children often hit the trail to stump alongside their parents, Barron Trump has largely been absent from his father’s campaign this year. It remains to be seen whether he will give a speech at the Republican convention, as his siblings did in 2016 and 2020.For the past several years, Barron has been attending a private high school near Florida. His graduation, on May 17, became a point of contention in Mr. Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan because it overlaps with the court schedule.The judge in the case initially delayed a decision on whether court would be in session that day, prompting complaints from Mr. Trump, but he eventually agreed to allow the day off from court.The Florida party’s list of delegates further demonstrates the extent to which the Trump family and Mr. Trump’s supporters have moved to the center of Republican politics. His daughter-in-law, Lara, who is married to Eric Trump, was made co-chair of the Republican National Committee earlier this year.The Florida delegation list also includes Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancée of Donald Trump Jr., and Michael Boulos, Tiffany Trump’s husband. Other longtime Trump allies were also chosen, including Isaac Perlmutter, the former Marvel Entertainment chief executive who is a major donor, and the real-estate investor Steve Witkoff, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump.Michael C. Bender More

Plus: a new hotel in Oxford, England, door knobs with personality and more recommendations.Step by StepFrom Sunscreen to Lip Balm, Scarlett Johansson’s Favorite Skin Care and Makeup ProductsLeft: Scarlett Johansson, actress, co-founder of the skincare brand the Outset and Prada ambassador. Right: clockwise from top left: Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade, $21, anastasiabeverlyhills.com; Lancôme Bi-Facil Double Action Makeup Remover, $39, lancome-usa.com; Goop Beauty Himalayan Salt Scalp Scrub Shampoo, $55, goop.com; Prada Beauty Monochrome Hyper Matte Lipstick in B05 Fauve, $50, Sephora.com; The Outset Gentle Micellar Antioxidant Cleanser, $32, theoutset.com; Dior Backstage Flash Perfector Concealer, $32, Dior.com; The Outset Restorative Niacinamide Night Cream, $54, theoutset.com. Left: courtesy of The Outset. Right: courtesy of the brandsIn the morning I wash my face with The Outset’s Gentle Micellar Antioxidant Cleanser and then I use the Firming Vegan Collagen Prep Serum and Nourishing Squalane Daily Moisturizer. My last step is our sunscreen coming out this month. It’s super hydrating so you get the protection and skin care benefits. At night I use the cleanser and Restorative Niacinamide Night Cream. I wish I knew about dermaplaning sooner. I do it with a Tweezerman Facial Razor and my skin feels so soft after.I like Molton Brown body washes — my husband and I share the Coastal Cypress & Sea Fennel one. I like the Goop Microderm Instant Glow Body Polish, too. Sometimes I use their Himalayan Salt Scalp Scrub Shampoo. I just switched over to using Olaplex No. 3 Hair Perfector because my hair has had a lot of breakage from getting it colored.I usually use Dior Backstage Flash Perfector Concealer, Diorshow Maximizer 4D Lash Primer and Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara. I sometimes mix a few drops of the Dior concealer with our serum as a sheer cover. I’ll do my brows with an Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade. I don’t usually wear lipstick in the daytime but sometimes at night I’ll use Charlotte Tilbury’s lipstick in Very Victoria or Pillow Talk. When I went to the Prada show in Milan they handed out their new makeup and it’s gorgeous. The Monochrome Hyper Matte lipsticks are stunning. I loved the first Prada makeup back in the day, so I was pretty excited that they relaunched. I’ve been using Lancôme Bi-Facil Double Action Makeup Remover forever. I have very sensitive skin and that’s one product that doesn’t burn and removes all of my makeup after filming.My husband just bought me a great Gabriela Hearst perfume she made with the niche fragrance house Fueguia 1833 called Paysandú. The Outset Botanical Barrier Rescue Balm started out as a lip balm but I was using it on my cuticles and flyaways, so we made it enormous. In the summer, I use it as a moisturizer, lip balm, everything.I don’t really know how to do my hair that well. I don’t blow dry it or anything like that. I just started seeing Dana Ionato at Sally Hershberger for my color and I’ve liked working with her because the color grows out well.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