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Throughout the Iranian presidential campaign, in debates, demonstrations and speeches, a singular presence hovered: Donald J. Trump.To hear the six candidates tell it, the former president's victory in the race for the White House in 2024 is a foregone conclusion. The pressing question facing Iranian voters as they go to the polls on Friday, they say, is who is best suited to deal with him.They almost never mention President Biden and they never mention the numerous polls that suggest the US election will be extremely close. Instead, Trump's name is invoked again and again.“Wait and see what will happen when Trump comes,” one candidate, the cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi, said during a recent televised debate. “We need to prepare for negotiations.” Another candidate, Alireza Zaka...

The Supreme Court appears poised to temporarily allow emergency abortions in Idaho when a woman's health is at risk, according to a copy of what appeared to be the opinion that appeared briefly Wednesday on the court's website.The unsigned opinion dismissed the case on procedural grounds, saying the court would not, for now, address the merits of the dispute, according to the 22-page document, published by Bloomberg News. Such a decision would reinstate a lower federal court ruling that had suspended Idaho's near-total abortion ban and said the state's hospitals could perform emergency abortions if necessary to protect the mother's health.The case centers on whether a federal law requiring emergency care for any patient trumps Idaho's strict abortion ban, which bar...

When Emperor Naruhito of Japan visits Kew Gardens on Thursday as part of a state visit to Britain, the ties between its island nation and the famous London landmark will be on full display.Scattered throughout the botanical garden's 330 acres are constant reminders of that long-standing relationship. In a large greenhouse, bronze sculptures of bonsai trees, some nearly as tall as the room, pay homage to the Japanese horticultural art form. Just a few steps away is the Japanese Gateway, an intricately carved cypress replica of a Kyoto temple. Nearby, neatly raked gravel in waves and swirls surrounded by Japanese plant species evokes a traditional tea garden.Dignitaries and heads of state from many countries regularly stop at Kew Gardens on official tours, joining the crowds that num...

The Supreme Court handed the Biden administration a major practical victory Wednesday, rejecting a Republican challenge that sought to block the government from reaching out to social media platforms to combat what it said was misinformation.The court ruled that the states and users who had challenged those interactions had not suffered the kind of direct harm that gave them the right to sue.The decision, by a vote of 6 to 3, left for another day fundamental questions about what limits the First Amendment places on the government's power to influence technology companies that are the primary gatekeepers of information in the Internet age .The case arose from a flurry of communications from administration officials urging the platforms to remove posts on topics such as the coronavirus v...

Tuesday's ruling by Israel's Supreme Court ending a decades-long exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews from the country's military service could herald a seismic shift in the country's trajectory, with social, political and security implications.The ruling will likely further test Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fragile governing coalition, which depends on the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties that support the exemption, even as Israel is at war in Gaza.The issue of the ultra-Orthodox exemption has long polarized a country where most Jewish 18-year-olds, both men and women, are conscripted for years of compulsory service. Mainstream Israelis have long chafed at the lack of equality.More recently, the months-long war in Gaza and looming conflicts on other fronts ha...

Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Health Committee, called on a government watchdog to investigate why insurance companies continue to charge women for birth control, a move that brought access to contraceptives back into the spotlight.In a letter to the Government Accountability Office, the senator noted that insurance companies are charging Americans for contraceptives that, under federal law, should be free — and that they are also denying appeals from consumers seeking to have their contraceptives covered. Some experts estimate that such practices could affect access to birth control for millions of women.Since 2012, the Affordable Care Act has required that private insurance plans cover the “full range” of Food and Drug Administration-approved contr...

In his nearly 15 months in Moscow's infamous Lefortovo prison, Evan Gershkovich explored Russian literary classics like "War and Peace" and played chess slowly by mail with his father in the United States. He tries to stay fit during the hour of exercise he is allowed each day.Friends who correspond with him describe Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, as positive, strong and rarely discouraged, despite facing the official wrath of President Vladimir V. Putin's Russia. “He may have ups and downs like everyone else, but he remains confident in himself, in his rightness,” said Maria Borzunova, a Russian journalist and friend of Mr. Gershkovich. Mr. Gershkovich went on trial Wednesday, facing up to 20 years in prison on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. St...

The task was clear: test how well the AI ​​could plan a trip to Norway, a place I had never been. So I didn't do any of my usual obsessive online research and instead asked three AI planners to create a four-day itinerary. None of them, alas, mentioned saunas or salmon.Two assistants, however, were eager to learn more about me to adapt their initially generic recommendations, which they had given out in a matter of seconds. Vacay, a personalized travel planning tool, presented me with a list of questions, while Mindtrip, a new AI-powered travel assistant, invited me to take a quiz. (ChatGPT, the third assistant, didn't ask anything.)The questions from Vacay and Mindtrip were similar: Are you traveling alone? What is your budget? Do you prefer hotels or Airbnb? Would you rath...

The election of Iran's next president will take place a year early, on June 28, following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month. The vote will lead the Islamic republic to new leadership amid internal discontent, voter apathy and regional turbulence.While the country's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has the final say on all state matters, the Iranian president sets domestic policy and has some influence on foreign policy.Why are these elections important?The elections offer Iran's leadership a chance to demonstrate that it can handle a disaster such as the unexpected death of a president without destabilizing the country, even as it grapples with domestic protests and tensions with the United States and Israel.The elections also allow the leaders...