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      Bangladesh Dragnet Sweeps Up Thousands in Protest Crackdown

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      Charges include vandalism, arson, theft, trespassing and damage to state property. A rights group called it a witch hunt, following an initial sweep during which more than 200 people were killed.The authorities in Bangladesh have opened investigations against tens of thousands of people in recent weeks as security forces combed through neighborhoods as part of their deadly crackdown on a student protest that had spiraled into violence.The widening legal net, confirmed in interviews with police officials and a review of records, comes as arrests surpassed 10,000 since the crackdown on protesters began two weeks ago. Charges range from vandalism and arson to theft, trespassing and damage of state property. In many of the cases, sections of the law that allow long-term detention were invoked.“This is a witch hunt,” said Smriti Singh, the regional director for South Asia at Amnesty International.The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has blamed opposition parties, mainly the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, for the deadly turn in a previously peaceful protest against a quota-based system for distributing sought-after government jobs. Conservative estimates put the death toll at more than 200, mostly students and youths.Activists, analysts and diplomats say the movement escalated into chaos after the ruling party, having dismissed the students’ demands, unleashed its violent youth wing and a wide array of security forces.The new detentions and the sweep for more arrests are meant to prevent any regrouping. Many of the student leaders have been detained, some repeatedly. But the crackdown also follows a well-established tactic under Ms. Hasina’s 15-year rule: using every opportunity to crush her political opponents by rounding up their leaders and dismantling their mobilization.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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      Elecciones en Venezuela: mandatarios del mundo exigen más transparencia a Maduro

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      Los manifestantes salieron a las calles de Caracas cuando Nicolás Maduro se proclamó vencedor, mientras que la oposición señaló que el recuento de votos mostraba que su candidato había ganado.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Las protestas estallaron el lunes en Caracas, la capital de Venezuela. Cientos de jóvenes marcharon por las calles indignados por los resultados de unas elecciones presidenciales en las que el presidente en funciones, Nicolás Maduro, se declaró ganador a pesar de las acusaciones generalizadas de fraude y proclamó de manera oficial que las elecciones estaban decididas sin hacer público el recuento completo de votos.Estados Unidos y países de todo el mundo denunciaron los resultados oficiales de la votación del domingo, que no parecían coincidir con las proyecciones estadísticas sustentados en recuentos parciales y otros datos que mostraban que el presidente perdía por un margen amplio.El lunes por la tarde, el gobierno venezolano anunció que había expulsado a las misiones diplomáticas de siete países latinoamericanos que habían condenado los resultados electorales oficiales.La líder de la oposición, María Corina Machado, anunció el lunes por la noche que su movimiento había recibido las actas del 73 por ciento de las mesas electorales del país y refutó las afirmaciones del gobierno. Estos resultados apuntaban a que el oponente de Maduro, Edmundo González, había recibido 3,5 millones de votos más que el presidente.González calificó el margen de “matemáticamente irreversible”.La decisión de la autoridad electoral de declarar la victoria pero no hacer públicos los resultados detallados de la votación, como había hecho habitualmente en elecciones anteriores, intensificó la sensación entre muchos venezolanos y observadores internacionales de que las elecciones habían sido, en efecto, robadas.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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      Fencing Feud Highlights Ukrainian-Russian Animosity at Olympics

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      The war has torn apart old alliances and heightened the acrimony. A Ukrainian fencer is competing after her refusal to shake hands with a Russian rival got her barred from the world championships.Olha Kharlan of Ukraine shouted in celebration under the vaulted glass dome of the Grand Palais on Monday, after an early round victory in her pursuit of a fifth career Olympic medal in saber fencing.She had reached the semifinals by late afternoon. But just her mere presence confirmed that this niche sport, perhaps more than any other, illustrates the acrimony and caustic feuding that have resulted from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Kharlan, 33, was disqualified from the world fencing championships last summer for refusing to shake hands with her Russian opponent. But Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee and himself a 1976 Olympic fencing champion, gave Kharlan an exemption to participate in the Paris Games, citing her “unique situation.”There she was on Monday, competing in the Olympics, while Russia was absent from the biggest international event in fencing, a sport in which it has long been a power athletically and administratively.Ohla Kharlan, right, competing against Shihomi Fukushima of Japan in the Grand Palais on Monday.Andrew Medichini/Associated PressWith Russia banned from these Games because of its invasion, only 15 of its athletes are competing in Paris, all designated as neutral, without the accompaniment of the country’s flag or national anthem. There are none in fencing, a huge blow to the country’s Olympic prestige given that Russia and the former Soviet Union rank behind only Italy, France and Hungary in fencing’s overall medal count.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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      Olympics Opening Ceremony Singer Redefines What It Means to Be French

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      Aya Nakamura, the French Malian singer, did more than open the Games. She redefined what it means to be French.A new France was consecrated Friday evening during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. When Aya Nakamura, a French Malian singer, came sashaying in a short fringed golden dress out of the august Académie Française, she redefined Frenchness.Adieu the stern edicts of the Académie, whose role has been to protect the French language from what one of its members once called “brainless Globish.” Bonjour to a France whose language is increasingly infused with expressions from its former African colonies that form the lyrical texture of Ms. Nakamura’s many blockbuster hits.France’s most popular singer at home and abroad gyrated as she strode forth over the Pont des Arts in her laced golden gladiator sandals. A Republican Guard band accompanied her slang-spiced lyrics. Her confidence bordered on insolence, as if to say, “This, too, is France.”Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, had said that Ms. Nakamura sings in “who knows what” language. But her denunciation of the performance on the grounds that it would “humiliate” the French people failed to stop it.The backdrop to the ceremony was a political and cultural crisis in France broadly pitting tradition against modernity and an open view of society against a closed one. The country is politically deadlocked and culturally fractured, unable to form a new government or agree on what precisely Frenchness should be.In this context, the thrust of the ceremony, as conceived by its artistic director, Thomas Jolly, was to push the boundaries of what it means to be French in an attempt to bolster a more inclusive France and a less divided world. It was a political act wrapped in a pulsating show.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 Tells Christians ‘You Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ If He’s Elected

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      In the closing minutes of his speech to a gathering of religious conservatives on Friday night, former President Donald J. Trump told Christians that if they voted him into office in November, they would never need to vote again.“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,” he said at The Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by the conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Fla. “You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”Mr. Trump, who never made a particular display of religious observance before entering politics, continued: “I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you, you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”Mr. Trump’s comments came at the end of a nearly hourlong speech in which he appealed to religious conservatives by promising to defend them from perceived threats from the left. Earlier in his remarks, he lamented that conservative Christians do not vote in large numbers, a complaint he had made repeatedly on the trail.“They don’t vote like they should,” Mr. Trump said of Christians. “They’re not big voters.”Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Christians would not have to vote again if he is elected quickly spread across social media. Some argued that it was a threat that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last if he were to win and claimed it was further evidence of an authoritarian, anti-democratic bent he has displayed throughout his political candidacy.The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment to clarify Mr. Trump’s intent.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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      Doused by Rain, Paris Opens Its Games With a Boat Party on the Seine

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      In a blaze of French style blending history and artistic audacity, the Paris Olympic Games opened beneath plumes of blue, white and red smoke, as thousands of athletes defied a downpour to sail through the city’s heart, down the Seine toward the Eiffel Tower.Steady rain and rising security concerns could not deter the athletes from more than 200 delegations. They laughed, they danced and they waved national flags, some from the decks of converted sightseeing boats, in a ceremony dedicated to the theme of togetherness to heal a divided France and a fractured world.Lady Gaga, emerging from behind pink puffballs in a black bustier, performed in French. Cabaret artists can-canned on the riverbanks. Aya Nakamura, a French-Malian singer whose presence was contested by the nationalist right, emerged from the august Académie Française, bastion of the French language, to offer her slang-spiced lyrics as she gyrated and stroked herself to the music of an impassive Republican Guard marching band.A new and diverse France confronted an old and traditional France. At a moment of sharp political confrontation that has left the country deadlocked, the ceremony was an invitation to think again about the meaning of the nation and the possibility of understanding. The Republican Guard relented at the last and tried some modest dance moves in their military uniforms to Ms. Nakamura’s massive hit “Djadja.”Team France during the opening ceremony.Jeremy White/The New York TimesThough a steady rain chased away many spectators before the ceremony was over, thousands stayed. Daniel Berehulak/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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      Israel Retrieves Bodies of 5 Hostages From Tunnel in Gaza

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      The military said that intelligence, including information from detained Palestinian militants, had led to the bodies in the Khan Younis area.Israeli forces retrieved the bodies of five hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said on Thursday, amid growing international and domestic pressure for a cease-fire deal that would lead to the release of the remaining captives.The bodies were found on Wednesday in a zone around the city of Khan Younis that Israel previously designated as a humanitarian area where Gazan civilians could go to avoid the fighting and to receive aid, the military said. The tunnel shaft was nearly 220 yards long and more than 20 yards underground, with several rooms, the military said.Israel has said that Hamas — which led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that prompted the war in Gaza — has exploited the designated humanitarian zone to launch rockets at Israel, as well as to use it for other military purposes. Aid groups have lamented that Israel has struck the area despite telling Gazans they would be safer there. Hamas had no immediate response.The five hostages — Maya Goren, 56; Ravid Katz, 51; Oren Goldin, 33; Tomer Ahimas, 20; and Kiril Brodski, 19 — had already been presumed dead by Israeli officials.From left: Ravid Katz, Kiril Brodski, Tomer Ahimas, Oren Goldin and Maya Goren in photos provided by the Hostages Families Forum.Agence France-Presse, via The Hostages Families ForumMr. Brodski and Mr. Ahimas were soldiers who were killed during the Hamas-led attack in October, while the other three were civilians whose bodies were taken to Gaza as bargaining chips, Israeli officials 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

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      The Kamala Harris Vibe Shift

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      For many Democrats, a race that felt like a dispiriting slog suddenly feels light. Even hopeful.Dianne Schwartz, an 80-year-old Chicagoan who listens to political podcasts while she exercises, felt something today. Something she hadn’t felt in a while.“I realized today, while I was listening to my podcasts, that I spent the last few days without worrying and being depressed,” Schwartz told me. “That’s amazing.” It wasn’t so long ago that Schwartz had resigned herself to the idea that former President Donald Trump would win in November — and that he could be the last president of her lifetime. But since President Biden bowed out of his tepid re-election campaign on Sunday, and his party instantaneously coalesced behind Vice President Kamala Harris, Schwartz has found herself feeling strangely, impossibly good about politics.“I haven’t been this excited about an election,” Schwartz said, “since Kennedy.”Call it the Kamala Harris vibe shift. A presidential race that felt to many Democrats like a dispiriting slog toward an all-but-certain defeat by Trump suddenly feels lighter. Hopeful. People are even feeling … is that joy?“It was just going to be this horrible, slow slog between two old men that nobody liked,” said Lisa Burns, an art teacher from New Haven, Conn. Now, she said, “everyone I know is happy.”“It’s gone from the dread election to the hope election, overnight,” said Amanda Litman, who runs a group that recruits progressives to run for office. 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