Monday briefing

Putin won a rubber stamp election

President Vladimir Putin yesterday extended his rule over Russia until 2030, using heavily staged elections without real opposition to claim overwhelming public support for his domestic dominance and his invasion of Ukraine.

Western governments condemned the election, and some Russians tried to turn the vote into a protest by forming long lines at polling stations in the afternoon. Ukraine tried to cast its own vote by firing a volley of exploding drones at Moscow and other targets.

But the Kremlin brushed aside these challenges and published results claiming that Putin had won 87 percent of the vote, an even higher number than in the four previous elections in which he participated.

At a press conference after the vote, Putin commented for the first time on the death of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, calling it an “unfortunate incident.” (Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, waited in line for hours to vote in Berlin.)

The extent of actual public support for Putin was difficult to assess because opposition candidates were excluded from running – the three other candidates on the ballot did not criticize Mr Putin – and the work of independent pollsters was reduced to the lowest level since the elections. days of the Soviet Union.

Putin will use his new six-year term to further consolidate his control over Russian politics and continue the war in Ukraine. If he completes his term, he will become the longest-serving Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.

“That is something that Israel, the Israeli public, does on its own,” Netanyahu said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We are not a banana republic.”

The comments from Schumer, the Senate majority leader, were part of a scathing speech he delivered last week in which the New York Democrat also accused Netanyahu of putting his political survival above the well-being of his country. The speech was indicative of the growing rift between Israel and the US over the war in Gaza. President Biden praised the speech but did not endorse Schumer’s call for new elections.

Netanyahu promised in remarks to his government that the Israeli army would invade Rafah, where more than a million Gazans have taken refuge. The displaced people there are terrified by the prospect of a ground invasion.

Humanitarian crisis: New approaches to getting aid in Gaza have failed to curb hunger and malnutrition there, experts say.

Trump’s allies are winning a war over disinformation

After the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, officials and social media companies tried to rein in the lies that led to the attack. Donald Trump and his allies have embarked on their own coordinated effort to block what they called dangerous censorship of conservatives, with financial support from conservative donors who have backed groups pushing lies about 2020 voting.

The effort, little noticed by most Americans, has weakened controls on disinformation online, potentially strengthening Trump’s bid to retake the presidency.

American elections: Trump again described immigrants as “poisoning” America. President Biden’s reelection campaign said it raised $53 million in February, which is expected to boost Democrats’ cash advantage over Republicans.

The designer Phoebe Philo, who transformed the French fashion brands Chloé and Celine, has been called the Chanel of her generation. But Philo left the industry almost seven years ago and became a myth almost overnight.

In her first interview in a decade, Philo spoke to Vanessa Friedman, our chief fashion critic, about reversing the traditional path of a fashion designer by starting her own label after working for major brands.

Life lived: Steve Harley was a British rock star who topped the British charts with the single ‘Make Me Smile’. He died at the age of 73.

Conversation starters

SPORTS NEWS

From Bayern to Gladbach: How Saarbrücken became the haunted house of cup horrors.

Same for now: Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner do the future of tennis.

The search for an ‘offensive’ silent film

The 1927 silent comedy “The Callahans and the Murphys” depicted stereotypes of Irish Americans that were so damaging that they were withdrawn from circulation and are now considered lost. That didn’t stop my colleague Dan Barry, who heard about the film while impulsively researching actor Marie Dressler, from eventually tracking down a short clip from the film, which one critic and historian described as “legendary.”

“There have actually only been a handful of films that, instead of just being edited, were removed altogether because they were considered offensive,” the historian said.

You can see that clip, which Barry found in a massive warehouse at the Library of Congress, and another discovered in the Irish Film Institute’s collection, in his article.

That’s it for today’s briefing. Thank you for spending part of your morning with us, and see you tomorrow. – Than

PS Steven Erlanger, The Times’ chief diplomatic correspondent, compares the leader of HBO’s “The Regime” to autocrats he defeated.

You can reach Dan and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.