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☆ Hey Dad, Can You Help Me Return the Picasso I Stole?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Dan Barry | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was a pain in our butt.”Fortunately, Rummel knew a guy. The Case of the Missing Picasso, revealed here for the first time, goes back. Back before the much more notorious theft of 13 works of art from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. Back, in a sense, to a time before Picasso had even painted the piece in question. Back to the 1950s of Waterville, Maine, where the Rummel boys — Bill and his younger brother, Whit — were testing their hometown’s Yankee forbearance.

Persons: ”, Rummel, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner, Picasso, Bill, Whit — Organizations: Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Yankee Locations: Waterville , Maine, Woolworth’s

Velyka Novosilka, Ukraine CNN —Under clear and sunny skies, a Ukrainian soldier speeds down a long, straight road toward forward positions close to the front line. Combat medic "Winnie" says he and his fellow physicians try to provide first aid to advancing Ukrainian forces as soon as possible and reduce the amount of casualties. Vasco Cotovio/CNNUkrainian forces have been working to stabilize some of the liberated villages but when CNN visited Velyka Novosilka, the situation remained very fluid. But I think we will win.”The frontline town of Velyka Novosilka bears the scars of a year and a half of shelling. That superiority was on full display during the CNN team’s visit when the Ukrainian forces came under repeated attack by Russian Su-25 ground attack fighter jets.

Persons: Velyka Novosilka, swerves, ”, Vasco Cotovio, “, Winnie, “ There’s, ” Velyka, Jaeger, Mara, ” Skrypal, Novosilka, Jaeger Brigade’s, Vasyl Matyiev, ” Matyiev, Ukraine's, Russian Su, Velyka, “ I’ve, Tatiana, – Organizations: Ukraine CNN, CNN, CNN Ukrainian, Vasco, intel, 68th Jaeger, Ukrainian, “ Volunteers Locations: Ukraine, Ukrainian, Velyka, Neskuchne, Russia, Western, Moscow, Russian, Bakhmut, Velyka Novosilka

☆ 'What is there to be afraid of?' Ukrainians in frontline town hopeful about counteroffensive
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Vasco Cotovio Frederik Pleitgen William Bonnett Darya Tarasova | Vasco Cotovio | Frederik Pleitgen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The town in the Zaporizhzhia region sits just five kilometers away from a frontline where Ukrainian forces have been making a recent push. “The town is shelled every 24 hours.”And with the Zaporizhzhia frontline becoming more active because of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, aid deliveries may become more rare. CNN has been able to geolocate the videos to the Zaporizhzhia region but is unable to verify when they were shot. And nothing happens around town without them being well aware of it, even if that is a top-secret Ukrainian counteroffensive. She straps the food box to the back of her bike and – just before she cycles away – Ukrainian forces somewhere outside of town are heard firing a shell towards Russian positions.

Persons: “, Olga Shumska, unfazed, I’m, ” Shumska, Vasco Cotovio, CNN “, Nina Sokol, we’ll, they’re, Vitaliy Kubushka, you’d, ” Sokol, ” Organizations: Southern, Southern Ukraine CNN, CNN, Sokol, Global Empowerment, Howard Buffet Foundation, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Journalists, Ministry of Defense Locations: Southern Ukraine, Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia, Zapoprizhzhia, Ukrainian, Moscow, Kyiv, Shumska, Ukraine

CNN —Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday he was “wrong” about former President Donald Trump, whom he twice supported and advised ahead of the 2020 election. Christie told Tapper that 2024 is a different atmosphere from 2016, when Christie first ran against Trump and Trump cruised to the nomination by splitting a crowded field. This time, Christie argued, Trump has a political record to run against. Reacting to a Trump video mocking his weight, Christie said, “It just renewed in my own mind what a child he is.

Persons: Chris Christie, Donald Trump, “, ” Christie, CNN’s Jake Tapper, –, Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, South Carolina Sen, Tim Scott, Mike Pence, Doug Burgum, Tapper, Trump, ”, we’ve, George Washington, CNN’s Anderson Cooper Organizations: CNN, Former New Jersey Gov, GOP, White, Florida Gov, South Carolina Gov, Arkansas Gov, North Dakota Gov, Trump, Ukraine, Democratic, New, Republican Locations: Trump, Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina, China, Russia, New Jersey, New York

CNN —Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie filed to run for president on Tuesday ahead of announcing his second bid for the White House and kicking off another clash with former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner and a former Christie ally. Both would eventually drop out – Christie after he finished sixth in the New Hampshire primary – and endorse Trump. “We keep losing and losing and losing,” Christie said at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference late last year. “No way.”Christie was first elected New Jersey governor in 2009, unseating Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine.

Persons: Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Christie, Chris Sununu, Mike Pence, Republicans –, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, South Carolina Sen, Tim Scott, Pence, Doug Burgum, Joe Biden, ”, Barack Obama, demurred, Florida Sen, Marco Rubio, – Christie, Trump, Covid, “, ” Christie, Jon Corzine, Trump’s, Jared Kushner, George Washington Organizations: CNN, Former New Jersey Gov, White, GOP, Republicans, Trump, Florida Gov, South Carolina Gov, Arkansas Gov, North Dakota Gov, PAC, Republican Jewish, Capitol, New, Democratic, FEC Locations: New Hampshire, Arkansas, South Carolina, Florida, New Jersey

☆ Croatia's little-visited coastline above Dubrovnik
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Mary Novakovich | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

There’s even Kornati National Park, one of Croatia’s most compelling natural spaces, spread over 89 islands. Meanwhile, Trogir – whose old town occupies its own little island – is a magical place protected by UNESCO World Heritage status. In just one square within the walled old town you’ll be immersed in centuries of history. Primošten’s old town is on its own little island connected to the newer town by a causeway. Look out for a little promontory just to the north of the old town, where you’ll see pebbly beaches backed by pine trees.

Persons: Trogir, Anastasia, Danny Lehman, –, you’ll, Trg, Mary’s, Boonchet, Nikola Bašić, you’ve, Nin, Veli, it’s, Anton Petrus, there’s, Jakov, Ivan Coric, You’ll, George, Andrey Omelyanchuk, Mary Novakovich, “ Organizations: CNN, Dalmatia, UNESCO World, Kolovare, Getty, Yugoslav, UNESCO Locations: Split, Dubrovnik, Croatian, Croatia’s, Zadar, Trogir, You’ll, Šibenik, Zadar's, Donat’s, St, Mary’s, you’re, Kolovare, Bibinje, Nin, –, Sakarun, Dugi, Murter, Sibenik's, Lawrence’s, Krka, Skradin, Primošten, Čiovo, Riva

☆ ‘Everything Changed’: The War Arrives on Russians’ Doorstep
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Valerie Hopkins | Anatoly Kurmanaev | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To some in the region, the assaults on Shebekino, the most sustained attack on a Russian town since the start of the war, made clear Moscow’s lack of concern for their fate. In social media posts, they used the hashtag #ShebekinoIsRussia, a cry for attention from the wider public across the country, which has largely carried on with daily life. In interviews, some in Shebekino expressed anger at how state television anchors struggled to pronounce the town’s name, even as they lauded the evacuation efforts. “It seems that in Moscow they don’t understand what we have going on here,” said Ruslan, the English teacher. Levada’s director, Denis Volkov, said it was too early to say whether the escalation of border attacks would rally Russians around the flag.

Persons: Shebekino, ”, Ruslan, Denis Volkov, “ Organizations: Levada Locations: Moscow, Kremlin, Shebekino

☆ The Venice Architecture Biennale puts Africa center stage
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Marianna Cerini | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Venice, Italy CNN —Until recently, the Venice Architecture Biennale — arguably the world’s largest architecture exhibition — has drawn crowds for its (mainly Western) star appeal. In a May 20 Facebook post titled “Venice Biennale Blues,” Zaha Hadid Architects’ principal, Patrik Schumacher, wrote that “the ‘Architecture’ Biennale is mislabeled and should stop laying claim to the title of architecture. The German pavilion, which is displaying construction waste produced by 2022’s Venice Art Biennale is a case in point. The German Pavilion at the 18th Architecture Biennale is displaying and repurposing constuction waste from the city's Art Biennale last year. The British Pavilion curators Meneesha Kellay, Joseph Henry, Jayden Ali and Sumitra Upham, with commissioner Sevra Davis, photographed in London.

☆ A Small Town’s Tragedy, Distorted by Trump’s Megaphone
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Charles Homans | Ken Bensinger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In phone calls, Mr. Brandt and Mr. Ellingson both made a reference to some sort of political dispute. In his 911 call after he hit Mr. Ellingson, Mr. Brandt said the teenager had said “something about some Republican extremist group,” but he did not claim Mr. Ellingson was a member. Mr. Brandt told the dispatcher he believed the teen was “calling other guys to come get me.” There’s no evidence Mr. Ellingson did so. In the 911 call, Mr. Brandt described trying to leave in a panic only to be blocked by Mr. Ellingson. At one point he said he knew his running over Mr. Ellingson had been “more than” an accident.

☆ In Provincetown, Mass., a Matchmaker Helps the Desperate Find Housing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Jenna Russell | Sophie Park | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In this coastal New England town, a booming summer economy has local renters fearful of being priced out. May 28, 2023As soon as he saw the post on Facebook, from a young woman seeking summer housing for her boyfriend, Dan McKeon knew what was going to happen. Mr. McKeon is an unofficial “housing matchmaker” in Provincetown, at the far edge of Cape Cod, where a mix of extreme conditions — limited stock, enormous summertime demand, heavy reliance on an influx of seasonal workers — creates one of the most harrowing housing markets in New England. In his much-consulted Facebook group, people seeking housing post smiling selfies and plaintive appeals for help; far less frequently, Mr. McKeon and others share available rentals. Both online and as a fixture on the local social circuit, Mr. McKeon urges the town’s homeowners to open unused rooms to desperate newcomers, shares insider search tips and strives to ensure that every rental-seeker, year-round or not, feels welcome.

☆ At least 3 people killed and 5 people wounded in shooting at motorcycle rally in Red River, New Mexico, mayor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Liz Enochs | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Multiple people were shot and at least three people were killed at a motorcycle rally in Red River, New Mexico, on Saturday, Red River Mayor Linda Calhoun told CNN. One of those injured was airlifted to a hospital in Denver, New Mexico State Police said. New Mexico State Police had earlier tweeted that two people were killed and six people were injured. The fatal shooting occurred during the Red River Memorial Day Motorcycle Rally, said NMPD. “Please be safe, and send your prayers to Red River,” said Maestas in a Facebook post.

She had also survived a smaller earthquake in the southeastern province of Elazig in 2020, she said, and expected Mr. Erdogan to help now as he had helped then. “Otherwise, the people wouldn’t have voted for him.”Interviews with quake survivors indicated many reasons that the disaster had not changed their political outlook. Some whose homes were destroyed said they had more faith in Mr. Erdogan to rebuild the affected areas than they had in his challenger, the opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. There are empty lots where buildings that collapsed once stood and blue and white tents sheltering quake survivors are scattered around town. Instead of voting based on the government’s quake response, residents said they focused on other issues.

☆ Luton Town’s Wild Ride to the Premier League
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Joshua Robinson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For a soccer team that has nearly gone bankrupt at least twice this century, Luton Town isn’t too worried that the greatest day in club history came with a bill for $12 million. When you complete an English soccer miracle, that’s just the cost of doing business.

☆ They Knew Little About Oysters. Now They Have a Farm With 2 Million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Heather Senison | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They’re installing an oyster automat outside the warehouse to sell boxes of Little Rams and shucking gear, and plan to bottle their homemade oyster sauce. It’s not every day that a couple shows up from Brooklyn and elbows their way in with folks who grew up clamming. They joined the Long Island Oyster Growers Association, where Ms. Bassett helps with public relations and marketing. Phil Mastrangelo, 57, part owner of the Oysterponds Shellfish Company in Orient, one of the biggest farms on Long Island with 10 million oysters, said the wife-and-wife team’s marketing has benefited others. 1 oyster in the world and it’s good for them to be promoting the region again,” he said.

☆ Ayvalık and Cunda: Turkey's prettiest Aegean coast resorts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Feride Yalav-Heckeroth | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Alongside classic beach towns like Bodrum and Alaçatı, two of the coast’s loveliest spots are the little-known seaside town of Ayvalık and the nearby island of Cunda. Near the Taksiyarhis Memorial Museum, in a beautifully renovated historic house with large arched windows, is Moyy Atölye. For a truly Aegean dining experience inside an olive grove, Karina Ayvalık is worth the 10-minute drive south to the village of Küçükköy. “I can breathe in the Aegean air and feel history as I walk through the old streets with their historic houses. Getting lost on Cunda leads to discoveries – like the Cunda Taksiyarhis Rahmi M. Koç Museum inside a renovated Greek Orthodox church with a collection of antique cars, motorcycles and toys.

☆ The mourning dress codes of ‘Succession’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Jacquelyn Palumbo | Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“Succession” has treated us to both a wedding and a funeral as fate of the Roy siblings spin out towards its finale (which is produced by Warner Bros. Discovery, parent company of CNN), and its penultimate episode gave us mourning dress codes in a grand Catholic setting. “I can do anything — my dad just died,” Shiv responds when asked for a favor at the mass. By episode nine, with the company in a shaky post-Logan transition, the optics of how the Roy siblings perform at the funeral hold a lot of weight. Emotions must be stamped down, they maintain a fragile façade, and getting too close to the truth of Logan Roy is met with a wall of cognitive dissonance.

☆ Can the Zibo barbecue frenzy save China from economic crises?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Zhu Zheng/Xinhua/Getty ImagesSo many tourists flocked into Zibo, now dubbed China’s outdoor barbecue capital, that even the local tourism authorities urged visitors to go elsewhere. A few may, but most won’t.”A shop owner shows off grilled meat during a barbecue festival on April 29, 2023 in Zibo, eastern China. The city Zibo became a tourism hot spot after videos of its barbecue went viral online. China’s economy is navigating a growing array of challenges. The informal trade might reduce unemployment temporarily, and give people feeling poorer a boost, but it “won’t save China’s economy,” Tsang said.

☆ Three New Story Collections Make Place a Protagonist
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Justin Taylor | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Turkish president Recep Erdogan looms large in Kenan Orhan’s I AM MY COUNTRY: And Other Stories (Random House, 227 pp., $27), a powerful and provocative debut collection with a vivid sense of place. A garbagewoman hoards discarded items she finds in the course of her collections: musical scores, musical instruments, eventually musicians. This smart, heartfelt saga is dragged down by talking birds who pithily argue ethics with their would-be keeper. In “The Smuggler,” set during the Syrian civil war, a Syrian man must get a pregnant 15-year-old Kurdish girl across the border into Turkey by pretending to be her husband. This is Orhan at his best: finding comedy lurking on the outskirts of tragedy, reveling in the inherent absurdism of the all-too-real.

☆ Meet the Roving Veterinarians Caring for Mexico’s Rural Horses
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Emiliano Rodríguez Mega | Victor J. Blue | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

LAS PALMITAS, Mexico — Pedro Parra stood by his horse’s side as the animal dropped to the ground under the weight of anesthesia. Its four hooves flailed for a moment, then ceased, and a team of volunteer veterinarians rushed in. One placed a pillow under the patient’s neck; another tied a rope around a back foot and lifted it. Their task was to castrate the stallion — a necessary surgery to keep the animal from becoming uncontrollable and a danger to its owner and to other animals. “He wasn’t at ease anymore.” Within the hour, seven more horses lay on the plot of land behind the town’s church, slowly waking from their surgeries.

☆ Russian forces lash out indiscriminately as Ukraine increases military pressure on frontline towns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Nick Paton Walsh Natalie Gallón Kosta Gak Peter Rudden | Nick Paton Walsh | Natalie Gallón | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Local residents stand next to a building that was damaged in the night, following Russian shelling in Komyshevakha, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine on Monday, May 8. Polohy is one of over a dozen frontline settlements that occupying forces announced Friday would be emptied of civilians. It is as yet unclear what impact these evacuations – which on Sunday Russian occupation officials said amounted to 1,600 people – will have on Moscow’s ability to hold frontline towns. He evaded their tight scrutiny of his whereabouts when a local occupation official failed to turn up to work one day, and he drove a minibus of civilians out. The regular effective targeting of Russian positions by Ukrainian firepower sparked a manhunt in the town for an informant.

CNN —A driver plowed into a group outside a shelter that had been housing migrants in a Texas border town on Sunday, leaving seven people dead and several others injured, authorities say. The crash left seven dead and between four to six others injured, Martin Sandoval, a Brownsville police spokesperson, told CNN. Police have not released the name of the driver, but say it was a Hispanic man, Sandoval told CNN. He said witnesses described seeing the car “lose control.”The shelter has been housing immigrants while they wait for permanent housing, he said. Brownsville, Texas is located on the southern tip of Texas, just across the Rio Grande River.

☆ When the Circus Came to a Ghost Town
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

No HurryGypsy Wood, an Australian burlesque dancer who performs in OPM, arrived at the February dinner party in her red convertible with her dog Marcello. Like many of Spiegelworld’s artists, circus life was handed down to her by her parents, who were traveling performers in her hometown Adelaide, Australia. Gypsy is her given name — “I wouldn’t have chosen this as my stage name. “Circus life is like being on a bus trip that you can’t get off. But you can’t leave, and there are like three coffee shops so you see everyone all the time.

☆ Lordstown Motors stock plunges after dispute with investor Foxconn
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

With that arrangement apparently unraveling, Lordstown could face bankruptcy, according to the truck maker. In 2021, it purchased an Ohio factory that Lordstown Motors had, itself, bought from General Motors in 2019. According to papers Lordstown Motors filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Foxconn has claimed that Lordstown has not met the agreed- upon requirements and, so, Foxconn is refusing to follow through with agreed-upon future investments. In April, Lordstown Motors received a letter from Nasdaq notifying the company that, because of its low stock price, the company was in danger of being delisted from the exchange. Because of that letter, according to Lordstown, Foxconn claimed the company had not met the investment agreements.

CNN —Growing up, Sindile Mavundla would cycle to school every day on a red BMX bicycle – then a rarity in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, South Africa. In Africa, in addition to Mavundla, there is a bicycle mayor in Botswana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, and two in Nigeria. As bicycle mayor of Cape Town, Mavundla is on a mission to create a more diverse and accessible cycling culture in South Africa. He has also worked with mobility non-profit Qhubeka to donate 1,220 bikes to Thembelihle High School, in Cape Town. “If you look at the poorer people in South Africa, a lot of their money goes in public transport.

☆ A Symbol of Loss in Almost Every Ukrainian Kitchen
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russian occupation of lands used to produce wheat, corn and sunflower oil — normally Ukraine’s top exports — has devastated the agricultural sector. The wreckage of Azovstal, the Mariupol plant where Ukrainian soldiers held out for months, is a testament to Russia’s decimation of the nation’s steel industry. “Everything has been completely destroyed; there is almost no life left,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in early January. “The whole land near Soledar is covered with corpses of occupiers and scars from strikes. His full name is being withheld for security reasons since he is still on active duty.

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