Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.
Rescuers search Himalayan valleys for survivorsMore than two dozen helicopter crews spent all day today scouring a remote river valley that runs through Tibet and Nepal, looking for signs of life. More than 1,400 people were still missing this afternoon, after a devastating deluge of rock, mud, ice and water swept through the area yesterday. Hundreds were killed, perhaps many more. A Times reporter and photographer traveled to the region today with rescuers. They found miles of devastation, and distraught residents unsure if their loved ones would ever be found. In one village, a man described what sounded like a thunderclap before a wave of muddy water crashed into his home, carrying away his wife and two daughters. “They all died and I lived,” he said, though he hoped he was wrong. The flood caught many people by surprise, since it hadn’t been raining. Scientists said it was probably caused by a massive landslide that coincided with the collapse of a glacier high in the mountains. It appeared that the speeding wall of water had overwhelmed Nepal’s warning system. The 40-mile-long trail of destruction included highways, bridges, schools and power plants. The scale of the catastrophe can be seen from overhead images. Scars on hillsides showed that in some places the river had risen as high as 650 feet during the flood.
C.I.A. chief urges Russia to cut a deal to end the warOn his secret trip to Moscow this week, John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, shared a bleak assessment of the state of the Russian war against Ukraine with the head of the F.S.B. intelligence service. Ratcliffe told the Russians he believed it was time for serious negotiations to end the war, before their military and economic situation gets worse. Officials hoped that Vladimir Putin would regard the message as more urgent and credible as delivered through Ratcliffe. C.I.A. analysts have long questioned whether the Russian leader has been given honest assessments of the conflict. In other Trump administration news: President Trump signed an executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.
U.S. plans to ramp up deportations to HaitiThe Trump administration is planning to soon begin sending planes of deportees to Haiti every week, according to documents obtained by The Times. The move could allow the U.S. to quickly expel thousands of Haitians whose legal status expired this summer, after the Supreme Court allowed the administration to end Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status. Trump officials concluded that Haiti is safe enough to be removed from the protected list, despite widespread lawlessness and gang activity in the country. In other immigration news:
Ratko Mladic, the ‘Butcher of Bosnia,’ dies at 83Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general, has died in custody in The Hague. He was convicted in 2017 on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for the killing of some 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica, Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II. Mladic spent almost 16 years as a fugitive, where he was believed to be protected by allies in the Serbian military and intelligence services, before he was captured in 2011. Read more about his life here. More top news
Some researchers consistently get experiments to succeed; scientists describe them as having “magic hands.” An A.I. model is watching them at work (and talking to itself) in an effort to figure out their “tacit knowledge.” Watch them in action.
A visionary and a rebelYayoi Kusama, who died this month at 97, was one of the art world’s most instantly recognizable icons: The bob haircut. The polka-dot-covered artworks. The mirror rooms. For many years, she was shunned by Japan’s cultural elite for her provocative style. (“By continually reproducing the forms of things that terrify me,” she once wrote, “I am able to suppress the fear.”) But as news of her death spread, Japanese artists, scholars, politicians and art lovers celebrated her legacy. See images of some of her most memorable work.
A general store almost as old as AmericaStanding at a crossroads in South Dartmouth, Mass., is Davoll’s General Store, which has been open for business since 1793 — during George Washington’s second presidential term. The shop, once a source of provisions for local farmers, now sells everything from garden hoes to local honey. It also has a cafe in the back. The store’s current owners are brothers from South Dartmouth: Will Shattuck, who works in the coffee business, and Ben Shattuck, a writer who now lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the actress and comedian Jenny Slate. He yearns for a world before chain stores and online shopping. Take a look inside Davoll’s.
Dinner table topics
Cook this tender and tangy shrimp peperonata. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
