ARTMUSEM

The by a Serbian paramilitary unit on Albanian police officers in is the latest example in a chain of violent acts aimed at destabilizing Europe’s newest state. Belgrade’s denials of prior knowledge or involvement were made no less dubious by the massive armored troop deployments it subsequently sent to Kosovo’s borders, prompting even with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Hopefully, this incident has made the last advocates of appeasement policy rethink their position. The popular fairy tale until recently was that the autocratic Serbian regime was the anchor of stability in the Western Balkans. But this has now been completely discredited, despite Vucic continuing to play games through his governors in Kosovo and and Herzegovina. Still, Washington had made seeing Vucic as a “guarantor of stability” the guiding principle of its Balkan realpolitik a year ago in order to free Serbia from Russia’s grip and integrate it into the Ukraine alliance. But this “fantasy diplomacy” has ...

Elon Musk and Grimes filed dueling parental rights lawsuits last month in Texas and California respectively — and depending on who prevails, the dispute could shape up to be one of the biggest child support cases of all time. Musk filed his lawsuit against Grimes in Texas in early September, seeking to “establish the parent-child relationship” with the three kids he shares with the musician. A few weeks later, Grimes filed her own suit in California, seeking primary physical custody and joint legal custody. It’s unclear what either party’s ultimate goal is, whether it is related to physical custody, legal custody, child support, or some other issue. But the first fight is going to be over jurisdiction, attorneys with expertise in family law told Insider. The case should go forward in whichever state the children actually live, so Musk and Grimes could potentially spend the next year just trying to prove to the court that the children live in the state they each filed in, the l...

In scenes that feel plucked from a children’s book, a young girl and her brother dress up to go see a rehearsal of the ballet Le Corsaire at the Lincoln Center. Once the performance ends, she’s asked whether she’d like to come back. “Yes!” she proclaims, as if it should be obvious. In her white floaty dress and silver short-heel shoes, she dances home: pliés on the train, arabesques and grand leaps over crosswalks, energetic twirls along the asphalt. At one point her brother goads her into making a jump from a closed grocery stand to the ground below. She does. She lands with all the grace adolescence affords.  Yolanssie Cardona, 12 at the time this Lincoln Center outing was filmed, is among a cohort of students at LIFT , the New York Theatre Ballet’s outreach program founded in 1989 by Diana Byer that offers mentorship, after-school assistance, and scholarships to students from low-income households attending the NYTB’s dance academy.  It is the story of this program ...

Billions of dollars in U.S. military and economic aid have enabled Ukraine to fend off Russia’s invasion, but the future of that support is now in serious doubt. Congress approved a stopgap deal last month to keep the federal government open, but it excluded a request from President Biden to give Ukraine another round of funding. As the House of Representatives decides who will be its next speaker , some Republicans are digging in against sending more money to Kyiv. Mr. Biden has said for months that the United States will support Ukraine’s fight against Russia “for as long as it takes.” But he cannot make that guarantee because congressional approval is required for future infusions of aid. Administration officials warn that the aid is critical to Ukraine’s survival, and they say they are studying options should Congress halt or reduce U.S. support for the country. How much has the United States given to Ukraine so far? Congress has approved about $113 billion in response to ...

“Watcha Say” singer Jason Derulo is speaking out about a lawsuit filed against him by one of his former artists alleging sexual harassment and retaliation. “I wouldn’t normally comment but these claims are completely false and hurtful,” Derulo asserted in an Instagram post Friday. “I stand against all forms of harassment and I remain supportive of anybody following their dreams. I’ve always strived to live my life in a positively impactful way, and that’s why I sit here before you deeply offended, by these defamatory claims. God bless.” See his post below. In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Emaza Gibson alleges quid pro quo sexual harassment against Derulo who signed her under his Atlantic Records imprint Future History in August 2021. She claims he later went “radio silent” about her requests to schedule recording sessions after she rejected his sexual advances and his repeated invitations for dinners and drinks. He then dropped her deal in Septembe...

A coalition of major news organizations and broadcasters are calling on the judge overseeing the trial into former President Donald Trump ‘s alleged criminal attempt to overturn the 2020 election results to allow cameras to film the proceedings. In court filings shared with Deadline, several media outlets such as C-Span, the Associated Press, CNN , ABC News and The New York Times are urging Judge Tanya Chutkan to take the unprecedented step of allowing cameras into a federal criminal trial. In their argument, the news organizations suggest that cameras should be allowed to record the proceedings as “we have never, in the history of our nation” had a federal criminal trial that warrants audio and visual access more thanTrump’s alleged attempt to ‘subvert the will of the people.’” “The central purpose of the constitutional right of access—the law that governs here—is to ensure fair trials and to promote confidence in the justice system,” lawyers representing the news organizatio...

An American tourist arrested in Israel after smashing two ancient Roman statues on Thursday was suffering from a little-known mental disorder dubbed the “Jerusalem syndrome,” his lawyer claimed, in which foreign pilgrims visiting the city start believing they are people from the Bible . The alleged vandalism took place at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem , which described the incident as a “troubling and unusual event.” A pair of second-century Roman statues were damaged, with photos from the museum showing that a marble head of the goddess Athena had been thrown off its pedestal onto the floor, and a sculpture of a pagan deity had been broken into pieces. Local authorities identified the suspect as a 40-year-old Jewish American tourist and said that answers he’d given to initial questioning indicated he was motivated to smash the statues because he believed they were “idolatrous and contrary to the Torah.” In a bizarre twist, the unidentified suspect’s lawyer, Nick Kaufman, claim...