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Fishing in Serbia’s troubled waters after a contested general election, Russia on Monday accused the West of orchestrating anti-government street protests in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, that flared into violence on Sunday evening.Claims of a Western plot by Russia’s ambassador to Serbia, Alexander Botsan-Harchenko, were the latest efforts by Moscow to thwart a so far mostly fruitless diplomatic campaign by the United States and Europe to lure Serbia out of Russia’s orbit and break traditionally strong ties between the two Slavic and Orthodox Christian nations.Previously peaceful street protests in Belgrade over what the opposition says was a rigged general election on Dec. 17 turned ugly on Sunday after protesters tried to storm the capital’s City Council building and were met by volley...

Brandon Outlaw sat on a witness stand for two days this week and described what it was like to play football at the University of Southern California.His fingerprints were scanned when he arrived for meals at the athletes’ dining hall to make sure he was there. He received text messages from anonymous class checkers, who on occasion asked him to send photos to verify he was indeed in class. He regularly urinated into a cup before practice and handed it to a member of the training staff, who would inform him if he was properly hydrated.After Outlaw conducted an interview with a student journalist, a coach reminded him that he had violated team policy by not clearing the interview with a school official.Outlaw, who graduated in December 2022 with a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and inn...

The Israeli military on Friday instructed residents in the central Gaza Strip to move farther south immediately, as its troops continued their slow advance through the enclave and expectations of an imminent victory over Hamas appeared dim.The call to evacuate in Al Bureij — an area in central Gaza where Israel has not previously focused its offensive — comes as the military has been operating in the northern Gaza Strip and engaging in intense fighting in recent weeks in and around the southern city of Khan Younis. Previous evacuation zone boundary New evacuation zone boundary New evacuation zone boundary Previous evacuation zone boundary ...

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.I’m Sophia Rosenfeld. I teach history at the University of Pennsylvania. You’ve probably been hearing that campuses are up in arms surrounding the discussion of the war in Palestine and Israel. That there’s panic and chaos in every direction.In fact, what you’ve been reading isn’t the full story. And I do think that rather than condemn universities as places where the kids can’t get it right and the teachers can’t either, universities actually offer something of a model for how to talk about difficult and fraught issues.[MUSIC PLAYING]Th...

Shooting missiles toward Israel and attacking ships sailing through the Red Sea, Yemen’s Houthi militia has been gaining popularity across the Middle East and building regional clout that could help expand its power at home, analysts say.Across the Middle East, where the war in Gaza has left citizens seething with anger at Israel and the United States — and in some cases, at their own American-backed governments — people have hailed the Houthis as one of the only regional forces willing to challenge Israel with more than harsh words.“What they did has given us dignity, because they did this in a time when everyone was watching idly,” said Khalid Nujaim, who works at a medical supply company in Sana, the Yemeni capital, which is controlled by the Houthis.A once-scrappy tribal group, the Hou...

Michigan State University has reached a $15 million settlement with the families of three students who were killed in a shooting on campus in February.Dan Kelly, a university trustee, announced the settlement on Friday during a public board meeting, according to Emily Gerkin Guerrant, a spokeswoman.“While no amount of compensation can ever replace the loss of a life, we do hope this brings some closure, support and relief to these impacted families,” Mr. Kelly said in a statement.“The university gives its deepest condolences to each of the three families,” he said, adding that it remained committed to ensuring that the memories of their children would not be forgotten in the school community. Mr. Kelly also said that the “university remains committed to enhancing safety on campus and provi...

There was a faint tremor in the marine’s voice as he recounted the murderous fighting on the east bank of the Dnipro River, where he was wounded recently.“We were sitting in the water at night and we were shelled by everything,” the marine, Maksym, said. “My comrades were dying in front of my eyes.”For two months, Ukraine’s Marine Corps has been spearheading an assault across the Dnipro River in the southern region of Kherson to recapture territory from Russian troops. The operation is Ukraine’s latest attempt in its flagging counteroffensive to breach Russian defenses in the south and turn the tide of the war.Soldiers and marines who have taken part in the river crossings described the offensive as brutalizing and futile, as waves of Ukrainian troops have been struck down on the river ban...

The toppling of the University of Pennsylvania’s president, Elizabeth Magill — four days after her testimony before Congress on whether to punish students if they called for genocide — was a victory for those who believe that pro-Palestinian protesters have gone too far in their speech.To many Jews, protest slogans like “intifada revolution” and “from the river to the sea” are antisemitic and threatening — and proof of a double standard. Universities, they say, have ignored their fears and pleas for security, while creating a battalion of administrators who are devoted to diversity and equity programs and are quick to protect their students.“Their moral blindness when it comes to antisemitism is especially concerning when it appears to conflict so dramatically with their approach to bias a...

Infectious diseases are ravaging the population of Gaza, health officials and aid organizations said on Monday, citing cold, wet weather; overcrowding in shelters; scarce food; dirty water; and little medicine.Adding to the crisis in the enclave after more than two months of war, those who become ill have extremely limited treatment options, as hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients injured in airstrikes.“We are all sick,” said Samah al-Farra, a 46-year-old mother of 10 struggling to care for her family in a camp housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in southern Gaza. “All of my kids have a high fever and a stomach virus.”While the collapse of Gaza’s health system has made it challenging to track exact numbers, the World Health Organization has reported at least 369,000 cases of ...

The dissident trustees of the University of Pennsylvania’s board of trustees had decided to meet in secret over the weekend.They had spent months watching support for Penn’s president erode as pro-Palestinian students demonstrated on campus, donors threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars, and the advisory board of Penn’s influential business school demanded that the university change its leadership.Through it all, the president, M. Elizabeth Magill, had kept the support of Scott L. Bok, the chairman of Penn’s board. But by Saturday, four days after her disastrous appearance on Capitol Hill, about two dozen trustees, more than half of the 48 voting members, came to a consensus: Ms. Magill had to go.They did not know that Ms. Magill had reached the same conclusion. She had been wo...