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For months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to offer a timeline for ending the war against Hamas in Gaza, a reticence that his critics see as a political tactic. But it was put in a bind this weekend by President Biden's announcement outlining a proposed truce.Netanyahu, a conservative, has long juggled competing personal, political and national interests. Now he appears to face a difficult choice between the survival of his tough, uncompromising government and the return home of the hostages held in Gaza, as he sets himself and Israel on a new course away from growing international isolation.The prime minister's critics have painted him as indecisive and say there are two Netanyahus: one who functions pragmatically in the small war cabinet he has formed wit...

In Georgia, protesters waving European Union flags rallied against what they see as their pro-Russian leaders. Moldova's government is pushing to join the bloc, infuriating citizens hoping for closer relations with Moscow. Armenia has also reached out to Europe, angered that longtime ally Moscow is courting its enemy Azerbaijan.Fueled in part by the war in Ukraine, tensions have risen in some of the former Soviet Union's territories, pitting those who favor closer relations with Russia against those who are more European-oriented.Many of these tensions predate the war, rooted in long-standing internal struggles over power, money and other issues, but have been amplified by geopolitics, with both Russia and the West pushing countries to choose sides to stay.In the former Soviet Un...

Listen and follow 'Hard Fork'Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YoutubeThis week, Google found itself in more turmoil, this time over its new AI Overview feature and a series of leaked internal documents. Then Josh Batson, a researcher at AI startup Anthropic, joins us to explain how an experiment that made chatbot Claude obsess over the Golden Gate Bridge represents a major breakthrough in understanding how large language models work. Finally, we take a look at recent developments in AI security, after Casey's early access to OpenAI's new souped-up voice assistant was revoked for security reasons.Guests:Additional reading:Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose AND Casey Newton and produced by Whitney Jones AND Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Poyant only. Engineering...

For months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to offer a timeline for ending the war against Hamas in Gaza, a position his critics see as a political tactic. But he was put in difficulty by President Biden's announcement outlining a proposed truce.Netanyahu, a conservative, has long juggled competing personal, political and national interests. Now he appears to face a difficult choice between the survival of his tough, uncompromising government and the return home of the hostages held in Gaza, as he sets himself and Israel on a new course away from growing international isolation.The prime minister's critics have painted him as indecisive and say there are two Netanyahus. One, they say, functions pragmatically in the small war cabinet he has formed with some ...

“Navigator,” the man who had ordered the children to be removed from the church, repeatedly visited the foster home. He would later be identified as Igor Kastyukevich, a member of the Russian parliament from Putin's political party, United Russia.Anna Kuznetsova, deputy speaker of the Russian parliament and Ms. Lvova-Belova's predecessor as commissioner for children's rights, traveled from Moscow to deliver baby products on behalf of the party. “#WeDon'tAbandonOurOwn,” she wrote on Telegram, using a pro-war hashtag to suggest the children belonged to Russia.In interviews with the Times, Russian officials echoed this view, saying the Kherson children were Russian.In May, Putin fulfilled his promise to Ms. Lvova-Belova by issuing a presidential decree easing citizenship req...

Several major networks broke away from former President Donald J. Trump on Friday during an appearance that was promoted as a news conference at Trump Tower that was turned into a rambling and misleading speech.It was the latest example of television journalists having to weigh the journalistic value of a major political moment — in this case, the criminal conviction of a former president — against the challenge of reporting on a candidate who regularly tells falsehoods.Trump's unfiltered remarks were broadcast live by cable news channels and by NBC, which interrupted its usual daytime programming to cover his appearance. In the minutes before he began speaking, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News aired advance camera footage of an empty lectern.Mr. Trump began by speaking in his usual discursive...

David Levy, a Moroccan-born Israeli who rose from ditch-digger to Israel's political heights, often embodying the resentment of Jews of North African and Middle Eastern descent who felt mistreated by European-rooted elites, died Sunday in a Jerusalem hospital . . He was 86 years old.The cause was not disclosed, but he had recently been treated for heart and kidney problems. His death was announced by the Israeli government.Levy served as Israel's foreign minister three times in the 1990s and deputy prime minister even more often over the course of two decades.As prestigious as those positions were, neither offered him the opportunity to shine fully. The position of deputy was largely ceremonial. And on vital foreign policy issues, such as negotiations with the Palestinians and...

The chairs of two Senate committees that oversee health policy, concerned that companies are “increasing their profits” at the expense of patients, are examining the practices of a data analytics firm that partners with large insurers to cut payments to providers of health services.The company, MultiPlan, recommends fair payments for medical care, but the company and insurers can collect higher fees when payments are lower. This business model could “give rise to an improper conflict of interest,” the chairmen of the two committees, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, wrote in a letter to the company's CEO published Tuesday.The senators invited MultiPlan to meet with committee staff to discuss a New York Times investigation last month that found the company's pricin...

Competing strains on U.S. global power emerged at a security conference Sunday, where China accused the United States of stoking tensions around Taiwan and in the South China Sea, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought greater support for his country in difficulty.These scenes played out at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security forum in Singapore that has long been a barometer of the highs and lows of U.S.-China relations.This year, US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Chinese Defense Minister Admiral Dong Jun held talks, something the two countries' top defense officials have not always done in this meeting. But Admiral Dong made clear that China remains antagonistic to U.S. influence and alliance-building across Asia, particularly American support for Taiwan...

When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last year that his company would release an artificial intelligence system, Jeffrey Emanuel had reservations.Mr. Emanuel, a part-time hacker and full-time AI enthusiast, had tinkered with "closed" AI models, including those from OpenAI, meaning the systems' underlying code was not accessible or editable. When Zuckerberg introduced Meta's artificial intelligence system by invitation to only a handful of academics, Emanuel was worried that the technology would remain limited to only a small circle of people.But in a release last summer of an updated AI system, Zuckerberg made the code “open source” so it could be freely copied, modified and reused by anyone.Mr. Emanuel, the founder of blockchain start-up Pastel Network, has been sold. He said...