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Trump Family’s Business Ties to Saudi Arabia Raise Ethics Concerns

President Trump will host Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, who oversees a major construction project that is in talks with the Trump family business.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Trump, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Jerry Inzerillo at a model of the proposed Diriyah development during a state dinner in Saudi Arabia in May.
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Zelensky Will Try to Revive Peace Talks With Russia During Turkey Visit

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine says he has new proposals to kick-start negotiations with Russia that have been stalled for months.

© Pierre-Philippe Marcou/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Madrid on Tuesday. Efforts to end the war with Russia have reached a stalemate since the summer.
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The Growing Cost of Keeping Close Ties with Jeffrey Epstein

Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary, is stepping back from public commitments. It’s the latest fallout for an associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

© David Degner for The New York Times

Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary, has decided to step back from public life in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
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How Joan Didion Did Thanksgiving

The author’s newly unveiled papers reveal the meticulous planning and devotion to cooking that went into her big holiday meals.

© Henry Clarke/Condé Nast via Getty Images

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New Slovenian law treats entire Romany minority ‘as a security threat’

Parliament approves law giving police powers to raid and surveil homes in what are demarcated as security risk areas

Slovenia’s government has been accused of turning Roma neighbourhoods into “security zones” after the passing of a law giving police powers to raid and surveil homes in so-called “high-risk” areas.

At midnight on Monday, the country’s parliament backed the “Šutar law”, named after Aleš Šutar, who was killed in an altercation with a 21-year-old Romany man after rushing to a nightclub after a distress call from his son.

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© Photograph: Borut Živulovič/Reuters

© Photograph: Borut Živulovič/Reuters

© Photograph: Borut Živulovič/Reuters

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North by Northwest: Hitchcock’s funniest, most ambitious film

Every scene in Cary Grant’s mistaken identity caper is pure absurdity – including that famous cornfield chase. You can’t look away

Imagine: you’re a handsome and relatively successful ad man in idyllic 50s New York. You’re having a delicious mid-afternoon snack in the lobby of the Plaza hotel, which presumably cost all of $2.50, when suddenly you are abducted in broad daylight at gunpoint by two polite and well-dressed men. You don’t put up a fight. You merely walk with them to their car, trying to object in the only way you know how: asking nicely for them to stop. The kidnappers are gleeful; they’ve finally captured you, George Kaplan. That’s not your name, you exclaim, you’re Roger Thornhill! They must have the wrong man!

Thus begins Hitchcock’s funniest, most ridiculous and visually ambitious film, North by Northwest. All the hallmarks of a Hitchcock classic are here: Cary Grant as the leading man, a completely inexplicable MacGuffin (who is George Kaplan anyway? And more importantly, does anyone even care?), a director cameo, a mysterious and beautiful blonde (the darling and charming Eva Marie Saint), and a 20-minute opening so overstuffed with dialogue that you kind of tune out but it’s fine because once the inciting incident happens, you can’t look away. It’s so Hitchcockian that it borders on parody.

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© Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy

© Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy

© Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy

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John C Reilly wants to win hearts in Mister Romantic, a show that’s truly lovable

From Chicago to Stan & Ollie, the Oscar-nominated actor has sung on screen for years. Now he arrives on stage – inside a trunk – to serenade the audience

In one of Hollywood’s nicer ironies, character actor John C Reilly finally made it big with a song about being invisible. His Oscar-nominated performance as the duped and devoted schmuck Amos Hart in Kander and Ebb’s Chicago was defined by his solo, Mister Cellophane. Director Rob Marshall had him sing it in an empty theatre so Amos doesn’t even get an audience for his big number.

More than 20 years later, Reilly has dusted off a not dissimilar tailcoat and rouged his cheeks once more under a new moniker, Mister Romantic, and this time there’s a full house. Backed by a four-piece band he is here to win our hearts with 90 minutes of jazz standards and popular songs, plus the odd chanson and comic verse. After a dozen or so dates in the US, the show has a short run this week in London at Soho Theatre Walthamstow, whose beautifully restored interior and history as a music hall fits Mister Romantic like a glove.

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© Photograph: Bobbi Rich

© Photograph: Bobbi Rich

© Photograph: Bobbi Rich

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