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| Nikki Haley after announcing on Wednesday that she was suspending her campaign. Donald Trump had rolled to wins on Super Tuesday. Ruth Fremson/The New York Times |
Haley dropped out, ushering in a Trump vs. Biden rematch
Nikki Haley announced yesterday that she was ending her presidential campaign, clearing the way for another general election contest between President Biden and former President Donald Trump, an outcome many Americans had hoped to avoid. She had come to represent the last, best chance for Republicans hoping to turn the page on Trump’s divisive brand of politics.
Haley, Trump’s first ambassador to the U.N. and a former governor of South Carolina, had tried to paint her former boss as an aging, mentally unsound agent of chaos. But she was unable to loosen Trump’s grip on the Republican Party, and lost in all but one state in Super Tuesday’s elections.
Haley pointedly declined to endorse Trump when she announced she was leaving the race, challenging him to win over her moderate supporters. In his own statement posted to social media before Haley’s speech, Trump said she had been “trounced.”
More U.S. politics:
| Trump’s crushing victories on Tuesday masked quiet weaknesses.Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a powerful figure in Republican politics who once denounced Trump, endorsed the former president.Americans are coming to terms with the reality of a second Biden-Trump race.Biden’s most significant Democratic challenger, Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, also dropped out of the race. |
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| Family members of Israeli hostages held by Hamas protested this week at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, in Jerusalem. Abir Sultan/EPA, via Shutterstock |
Gaza cease-fire talks stalled
Cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas have stalled, according to several people briefed on the conversations, dimming hopes that a deal will be reached before the start of Ramadan.
Negotiators had been discussing an initial six-week cease-fire during which Hamas would release about 40 hostages for a substantial number of Palestinian prisoners. But in recent days, Hamas has backed away from the proposal and made demands that Israel refused to meet, according to officials briefed on the talks who declined to be identified because of the fragile nature of the negotiations.
One official in the region said the main point of discord was that Hamas wants Israel to commit now to a permanent cease-fire during or after three phases of hostage releases. Israel wants to focus on an agreement for the terms of the first phase only, a position the U.S. supports.
In Jerusalem: The Israeli government has decided against putting new restrictions on access to the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during Ramadan, which is expected to start this Sunday.
Off the coast of Yemen: Houthi militants claimed responsibility for an attack on a commercial vessel that killed several people.
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| On Sunday, people crowded outside the closed gates at Borisovsky Cemetery in Moscow, where Aleksei Navalny is buried, to throw flowers toward his nearby grave. Reuters |
Russians flocked to Navalny’s grave
After thousands of Russians last week came to the funeral for Aleksei Navalny, the main Russian opposition figure who died recently in a remote penal colony, it was widely expected that mourners would stop coming.
But people have continued to visit Navalny’s grave in droves. The heap of flowers at the site in Moscow is so high that it is impossible to see the wooden cross at its head, even though reports have emerged of people who appeared in footage of his funeral being detained by law enforcement.
Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, released a video thanking those who went to his gravesite. “Looking at you, I am convinced that everything is not in vain,” she said.
Separately, Russian missiles struck Odesa, Ukraine, while Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, was visiting the city with the prime minister of Greece. Neither was hurt.Continue reading the main story
| THE LATEST NEWS |
Around the World
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| Odelyn Joseph/Associated Press |
| An alliance of armed gangs pressed Haiti’s prime minister to resign, and the U.S. urged him to transfer power.Britain’s government announced it would cut taxes for workers ahead of a general election this year.China ended its premier’s annual news conference, removing a rare occasion for members of the public to size up the country’s No. 2 official.A man in Germany who received 217 doses of coronavirus vaccine exhibited no sign of side effects and had a robust immune response, doctors said. |
U.S.
| National Guard soldiers and State Police officers will patrol the New York City subway amid concerns about crime, the state’s governor said.The House passed a $460 billion spending bill to fund about half of the federal government through the fall, potentially averting a partial government shutdown.An armorer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for putting a live round into a gun that went off and killed a cinematographer as Alec Baldwin used it on the set of the film “Rust.” |
Style
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| Matt Rourke/Associated Press |
| Strong men cry. Just ask the Kelce brothers of the National Football League.This year the Oscars’ red carpet will be … red, a return to tradition after last year’s champagne. |
A Morning Read
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| Clockwise from top left: Netflix; Eddie Adams/Associated Press; Jason McDonald/Netflix; Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times; Liz Parkinson/Netflix; Associated Press |
Several of the films nominated for awards at the Oscars this weekend focus on historical figures, like Bayard Rustin, Leonard Bernstein, Diana Nyad and, of course, J. Robert Oppenheimer.
But adapting real stories presents filmmakers with a delicate choice: How much should they involve their subjects — or their subjects’ families — in the productions?
| SPORTS NEWS |
Derby day in Prague: Sparta vs Slavia.
The green light to compete: Simona Halep, the tennis star, got unexpected relief from a doping ban.
Track breakdown: Looking ahead to the Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
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| Alejandra Vega/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
The Gabriel García Márquez novel that almost wasn’t published
Toward the end of his life, when his memory was in pieces, Gabriel García Márquez struggled to finish a novel about the secret sex life of a married middle-age woman. He tried at least five versions before he gave up, issuing a devastating order.
“He told me directly that the novel had to be destroyed,” said Gonzalo García Barcha, the author’s younger son.
But several versions of the text survived after García Márquez’s death in 2014, and his two sons came to believe it should be released. The book, titled “Until August,” will be published this month, adding an unexpected coda to the life and work of a literary giant.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
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| Ryan Liebe for The New York Times |
Cook: Eleven Madison Park granola is classic alpine fare, and a foolproof recipe for anyone with a rimmed baking sheet and an oven.
