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As the largest and deadliest war in Europe since the end of World War II enters its third year, the scale of the devastation caused by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues to grow.The front line is a place of appalling violence where hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded, by more conservative Western estimates. The list of Ukrainian cities and towns largely razed by Russian bombs and artillery grows with each passing month.Russian forces advanced in small increments, suffering staggering casualties to capture cities like Avdiivka, which Moscow captured in February. Away from the front lines, millions of Ukrainians have spent hours in bomb shelters as Russia continues to fire missiles and drones at both military units and civil...

Meta reported a 27% increase in revenue and profit on Wednesday, more than doubling in the first quarter, as the company said it plans to spend billions of dollars more than expected on infrastructure to support its artificial intelligence efforts.Revenue at the company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, was $36.5 billion in the first quarter, up from $28.6 billion a year ago and slightly above estimates. Wall Street by $36.1 billion, according to data compiled by FactSet. Profit was $12.4 billion, up from $5.7 billion a year earlier.“It's been a good start to the year,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, referring to the company's efforts in artificial intelligence and the "healthy growth of our apps."But Meta's AI efforts, which require s...

When Maryam Arafat, her husband and their three young children fled their home in Gaza City under Israeli bombardment, it was the dead of winter. Forced to take shelter in a ramshackle tent in Deir al Balah, the family shivered during the bitterly cold nights, as there was no fuel to heat them and not enough clothes to stay warm.Since then, the climate has become hot and humid on the coast of the Gaza Strip, and that tent itself has become unbearable and suffocating.“The tent looks like it's on fire,” said Ms. Arafat, 23. “It's so hot you can't stand it, especially with little kids.” On her lap, one-year-old Yahya screamed in discomfort.Nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza were forced to flee their homes under Israeli shelling and military evacuation orders when the weath...

School meals will soon contain less salt and sugar, but can still include chocolate milk, according to new nutritional guidelines released by the Biden administration.The Agriculture Department on Wednesday finalized the regulation it first proposed in February 2023, having weakened several provisions after feedback from food companies, school nutrition professionals and more than 136,000 public comments.“All of this is designed to ensure that students receive quality meals and that we meet parents' expectations that their children receive healthy, nutritious meals at school,” Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, said in a call to reporters Tuesday .The new guidelines, which seek to better align school meals with federal dietary standards, build on a 2010 law that aimed to make cafet...

The sky above Athens turned orange on Tuesday as clouds of dust from the Sahara blew north, casting an eerie glow over the Greek capital's monuments.The phenomenon is not new: sandstorms from North Africa have enveloped Britain, Greece and Spain in the past, but the event has led to extraordinary scenes around the Acropolis and other parts of Athens.That's because the dust cloud was more concentrated than those that hit Greece in previous episodes, according to Kostas Lagouvardos, research director at the National Observatory in Athens.“It's the worst case in years,” he said.On Wednesday, as the dust had cleared, Greece's Health Ministry urged people to avoid exercising outdoors and to keep doors and windows closed.Here are the photos of Athens on Tuesday.

Two years ago, Nina Jankowicz briefly led an agency at the Department of Homeland Security created to combat disinformation, the establishment of which prompted a political and legal battle over the government's role in policing lies and other harmful content online that continues to reverberate.Now she has re-entered the fray with a new nonprofit intended to combat what she and others have described as a coordinated campaign by conservatives and others to undermine researchers, like her, who study the sources of misinformation.Already a lightning rod for critics of her work on the topic, Jankowicz launched the organization with a letter accusing three Republican committee chairs in the House of Representatives of abusing their subpoena powers to silence think tanks and universities th...

The United Nations human rights office on Tuesday called for an independent investigation into two mass graves found after Israeli forces withdrew from hospitals in Gaza, including one discovery days ago about which Israeli and Palestinian authorities have offered differing accounts.The Palestinian Civil Defense said over the weekend that it had found a mass grave containing 283 bodies on the grounds of Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis, two weeks after a similar mass grave was found at Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital City.Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency services organization, said some of the bodies found in Khan Younis were handcuffed, shot in the head or wearing detainee uniforms. He accused Israeli forces of killing and burying t...

Federal regulators said Tuesday that pasteurized milk samples from across the country tested positive for inactive residues of the avian influenza virus that has infected dairy cows.The viral fragments pose no threat to consumers, officials said. “To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial supply of milk is safe,” the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.Over the past month, the avian influenza virus known as H5N1 has been detected on more than 30 dairy farms in eight states. The virus is also known to have infected a farmer, whose only symptom was pink eye.Scientists have been critical of the federal response, saying the Agriculture Department has been too slow to share important data and has not adequately pursued testing cattle for t...

A Russian deputy defense minister has been arrested on charges of accepting a “large-scale” bribe, the country's top law enforcement investigators announced Tuesday.The investigative committee's brief announcement revealed few details about what led to the detention of Timur Ivanov, the deputy minister. But the legal statute he is accused of violating involves accepting bribes “on a particularly large scale,” more than a million rubles, or more than $10,000.The Ministry of Defense did not comment on the investigation.Ivanov, deputy defense minister since 2016, has long been responsible for military construction projects, including most recently the huge contracts awarded to rebuild the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, which was devastated by Russian attacks so...

The Senate headed toward a critical vote Tuesday to clear the way for final consideration of the $95.3 billion aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, setting the stage for the bill's passage and sending to President Biden for his signature.The measure, which passed the House on Saturday, is expected to gain broad bipartisan support in a test vote scheduled for early afternoon. That would trigger a vote on final approval as early as Tuesday evening. Biden urged lawmakers to move quickly on the bill so he can sign it into law.“The Senate is coming together at a time that is nearly six months in the making,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader. “A few days ago, the House of Representatives finally approved critical national security funding for Ukra...