Letter 77: The Times Talks Over Dinner

Russian state-affiliated accounts have boosted their use of TikTok and are getting more engagement on the short-form video platform ahead of the U. S. presidential election, according to a study published Thursday by the nonprofit Brookings Institution. The report states that Russia is increasingly leveraging TikTok to disseminate Kremlin messages in both English and Spanish, with state-linked accounts posting far more frequently on the platform than they did two years ago. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Such accounts are also active on other social media platforms and have a larger presence on Telegram and X than on TikTok.

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U. S. on immigration. The remarks, at a campaign fundraising event Wednesday evening, came just three weeks after the White House hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a lavish official visit, during which the two leaders celebrated what Biden called an “unbreakable alliance,” particularly on global security matters. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The White House welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi for a state visit last summer. Japan is a critical U.

(WASHINGTON) — An orangutan appeared to treat a wound with medicine from a tropical plant— the latest example of how some animals attempt to soothe their own ills with remedies found in the wild, scientists reported Thursday. Scientists observed Rakus pluck and chew up leaves of a medicinal plant used by people throughout Southeast Asia to treat pain and inflammation.

When Kabul fell to the Taliban, returning the country to the fundamentalist group’s control after two transformative decades, scores of Afghan women were compelled to flee. Those who remained faced a reality in which they could no longer be who they are: journalists deleted evidence of their work, artists destroyed their creations, and graduates set fire to their degrees. While the Taliban forced many Afghan women to abandon their workplaces and universities, some chose to fight back.

BEIJING — The death toll from a collapsed highway in southeastern China climbed to 48 on Thursday as searchers dug for a second day through a treacherous and mountainous area. One side of the four-lane highway in the city of Meizhou gave way about 2 a.m. on Wednesday after a month of heavy rains in Guangdong province.

The British royal family is celebrating Princess Charlotte’s 9th birthday with a new portrait taken by her mother, Kate Middleton. The image—shared to the official Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts of the Prince and Princess of Wales on Thursday morning—shows Charlotte in a garden, smiling beside a pink flower bush.