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Europe's longest-serving leader, Belarusian President Alexander G. Lukashenko, scored his seventh consecutive election victory on Sunday in a contest that his exiled opponents dismissed as a farce, the sole purpose of which was to consolidate his autocratic hold on the former Soviet Union. republic, Russia's closest ally.“Don't use the word election to describe this farce,” said Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, an opposition leader who fled Belarus after the country's previous presidential vote in 2020 and a brutal crackdown on nationwide protests over election fraud. “It's a setup by Lukashenko to cling to power at any cost.”A survey of voters leaving polling stations, published by state media on Sunday evening, showed Lukashenko won 87.6% of the vote, more than the 81% he said he won in 2020. Ex...

At first glance, the statement seems unlikely: in addition to being the richest man in the world, CEO of numerous companies and key councilor of President Trump, Elon Musk says he is also a world -class video game player.It is a statement that Mr. Musk has repeated over the years. He has an account on X, his social media platform, dedicated to the publication of the highlights of his gameplay. He streamed with some of the best competitive video game players in the world on platforms such as Twitch. He even engraved his name in the global rankings of some games.But last week, the community of players who had been trying to impress for some time turned against him. It all started with a live streaming by Mr. Musk playing Path of Exile 2, a popular action role -playing game known for his diff...

An email obtained by the Times shows that a leader of the committee, Rep. Sharon Wylie, an industry advocate, shared a draft of the bill with a cannabis lobbyist. “Thank you for being open to the compromise approach,” he wrote.In an interview, Ms. Wylie said “the jury is still out” on the potential harms of cannabis and that regulated businesses bring in revenue for the state.Mrs. Davis doesn't give up. He plans to introduce legislation to another committee this month that would ban all concentrates above 35 percent THC, with exemptions for medical use.“The industry needs limits,” he said.METHODOLOGYThe New York Times examined sales data from two cannabis industry data companies, BDSA and Aurico brands in total.Journalists then located each brand's page on Weedmaps, where available. Four w...

On Saturday Hamas released four Israeli soldiers held hostage in the Gaza Strip, in a choreographed ceremony that was the last sign of the group's effort to project power despite the 470 -day military campaign of Israel to remove them.It was the second exit of hostages as part of an agreement of ceased the fire that entered into force almost a week earlier. According to the agreement, Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday who had been held in Israeli prisons.A row of white buses transporting prisoners left to prison in the West Bank occupied by Israel. The prisoners were also issued by another structure near Beersheba in the south of Israel, said the Israeli prison service.Many of the 200 prisoners released on Saturday were serving convictions for the involvement in attacks...

Derek Humphry, a British-born journalist whose experience helping his terminally ill wife end her life led him to become a pioneer crusader in the right-to-die movement and publish "Exit Final," a best-selling guide to suicide , died Jan. 2 in Eugene, Ore. He was 94 years old.His death, in a hospice facility, was announced by his family.With a populist touch and a knack for speaking more forcefully about death, Mr. Humphry nearly galvanized a national conversation about physician-assisted suicide in the early 1980s, at a time when the idea had been little more than a Esoteric theory beaten by medical ethicists.“He was the one who really put this cause on the map in America,” said Ian Dowbiggin, a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island and author of “A Concise History of Euthan...

Mark Zuckerberg spent all of 2024 telling investors that artificial intelligence would be key to the future of his company, Meta. In 2025, he plans to put his money where his mouth is.On Friday, Zuckerberg said the company expects its capital expenditures in 2025 to be about $60 billion to $65 billion, a big increase from the roughly $38 billion to $40 billion Meta spent in 2024.Much of that amount will go toward building and expanding data centers, the warehouse-sized buildings that provide the computing power that powers Meta's products and artificial intelligence algorithms in its apps, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.“This is a massive effort that will propel our core products and businesses, unlock historic innovations, and extend America's technology leadership over the ne...

President Trump on Friday reinstated a long-standing Republican anti-abortion policy known as the "Mexico City Rule," which bars federal funding from going to any nongovernmental organization abroad that performs or promotes abortions.The move came after he addressed thousands of abortion opponents in Washington on Friday to mark the 52nd anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, who created a national right to abortion and which the Court overturned in 2022.Federal law already prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars to support abortion services abroad. But in 1984, President Ronald Reagan went a step further, blocking foreign aid to nongovernmental organizations that discuss abortion as part of family planning services or support abortion rights, even if those groups do...

Hamas said on Friday that he will release four women soldiers held hostage for over a year in Gaza, as part of an exchange of hostages with prisoners who will take place on Saturday, while Israelis and Palestinians look forward to the next steps towards the cessation of employment. Agreement on the fire.In a statement, Hamas identified the four women like Karina Ariev, 20 years old; Daniella Gilboa, 20 years old; Naama Levy, 20 years old; And Liri Albag, 19 years old. All four were kidnapped by the military base near Gaza where they served during the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which started the war.Israel said that the mediators between the two sides transmitted a list of hostage names scheduled for release on Saturday, without confirming their identity. It was not clear if th...

Ukraine launched a large barrage of explosive drones at Russia on Friday, according to Ukrainian officials and the Russian military, in a barrage that set fire to an oil refinery and a pumping station and briefly closed several airports, including several serving Moscow.The attack was the latest and one of the largest in Ukraine's campaign to disrupt Russian military logistics and put pressure on the country's economy by targeting the oil industry that is Moscow's main source of revenue.Ukraine's fleet of drones, which resemble small airplanes and have a range of about 1,600 miles, have attacked Russian refineries and factories at least 17 times this year and dozens of times in 2024. Ukraine has increased drone production in last year and now regularly fires large bursts.Posts on Russian s...