Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.
Trump backs off plans for $1.8 billion fund after backlashPresident Trump is backing away from his plan to establish a $1.8 billion fund to pay people who say they have been politically persecuted, according to people familiar with the president’s thinking. A sign of Trump’s retreat came today when the Justice Department announced that it would abide by a judge’s order not to move toward activating the fund until at least June 12, when a hearing on it is scheduled. Privately, some administration officials expressed relief that the judge’s ruling offered a way out of the situation. Trump could change his mind. But he has been leaning for days toward scrapping the fund, which has prompted widespread backlash from both Republicans and Democrats. Critics characterized the fund as a scheme to reward the president’s political allies with taxpayer money. In other Trump administration news:
Trump says Israel and Hezbollah will stop fightingEarly today, the war in the Middle East seemed likely to worsen. The U.S. said it had intercepted Iranian attacks against its forces. Israel’s prime minister called for new strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Tehran threatened retaliation if Israel did attack. And Iran’s semiofficial news agency said the country would stop its negotiations with American officials and seek to close the Strait of Hormuz. Then, this afternoon, Trump declared that there would be a halt in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. He said he had spoken with both sides and that they would not attack each other. Lebanon’s government said it had “received confirmation that Hezbollah has agreed to the U.S. proposal for a mutual cessation of attacks.” But Netanyahu issued a statement leaving it unclear whether he had agreed to a truce or not. We’re following the diplomatic exchanges here. In related news: Global oil prices jumped today. In the U.S., elevated gas prices have led some Trump voters to question whether the war in Iran is worth the cost.
An A.I. giant joins the I.P.O. partyAnthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the chatbot Claude, filed paperwork today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, setting it on track to go public as soon as this fall. The company’s private valuation has ballooned to $900 billion largely because it makes A.I. tools that can automatically write computer code. Two other private tech giants — SpaceX and OpenAI — are also making plans to go public, setting the stage for a record-breaking I.P.O. season and a tsunami of investment and employee wealth. For more on A.I.:
Take a look inside the epicenter of an Ebola breakoutThe Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which aid groups warn could become the deadliest in history, is believed to have begun in Mongbwalu, a remote gold mining town with few of the resources needed to fight the spreading virus. My colleague Declan Walsh went there to see the front lines of the outbreak and found the health system to be completely overwhelmed. Testing is rare and delayed. The hospital is lacking supplies, so families bring food, risking infection. Doctors there are furious: “This is the best we can do?” one asked. More top news
Young audiences turn ‘Backrooms’ into a box-office hitA few years ago, when the filmmaker Kane Parsons was 17, the movie studio A24 asked him to turn his YouTube series about a man trapped in an unnerving realm of mazelike hallways into a feature-length movie. That film, the $10 million “Backrooms,” sold an astounding $82 million worth of tickets at North American theaters this past weekend. Read our review. Parsons’s movie was the latest box-office hit from a popular online creator, like “Iron Lung” and “Obsession” earlier this year. It also helped resolve a long-running question in Hollywood over whether young people will go back to the theaters: roughly 86 percent of the “Backrooms” audience was under 35.
At 44, Serena Williams is making a comebackNearly four years after announcing that she was “evolving away” from tennis, Serena Williams is returning to the court to compete in doubles at next week’s Queen’s tournament, the prestigious grass-court warm-up for Wimbledon. It’s a huge moment for the sport because Williams, perhaps the greatest women’s player ever, transcends the game. Now, we might get to see her in action against the sport’s new cadre of top talent.
Dinner table topics
Cook: This creamy lemon asparagus gnocchi recipe makes for a light and bright dinner. Read “My Name Was Gerry Sass,” or one of these three other riveting crime novels. Wear socks with sandals. Our critic explains how. Spend 10 minutes with this painting and see where it leads you. Take the latest Flashback history quiz. Play: Here are today’s Connections, Wordle and Mini Crossword. Find all our games here. |
