Fashion house Valentino announced Friday that creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli would leave after more than decades with the brand and just weeks after unveiling a critically acclaimed womenswear collection at Paris Fashion Week.

Mr. Piccioli was instrumental in redefining Valentino for the era following the retirement of the brand’s founder, Valentino Garavani. A favorite designer of celebrities like Frances McDormand and Florence Pugh, his work combined ease and elegance in an unspeakably modern way.

“I have been working in this company for 25 years, and for 25 years I have existed and lived with the people who have woven the fabric of this beautiful story that is mine and ours,” Mr. Piccioli, 56, said in a declaration.

The news of his departure caused reverberations in the fashion industry. “I’m between stunned and astounded,” Linda Fargo, Bergdorf Goodman’s fashion director, wrote in an email.

Mr. Piccioli had been Valentino’s sole creative director since July 2016, when Maria Grazia Chiuri left to become creative director at Dior. The duo have led the design side of the house since 2008, a decade after joining the Rome-based company in 1999.

Although observers had often assumed that the romance of their clothes came from Ms. Chiuri and the edge from Mr. Piccioli, when the couple broke up it became clear that he was in fact the dreamier of the two.

His shows often seemed like an immersion into a picturesque underworld of unexpected palettes and beautiful lines, complete with ostrich feather hats that trembled like sea anemones in the wind. He held couture extravaganzas at the Spanish Steps in Rome and at the Château de Chantilly near Paris.

In 2022 he dedicated almost an entire ready-to-wear collection a new bright pink – called “Pink PP” after his initials – that proved a hit with celebrities and an effective viral marketing tool. However, his most recent ready-to-wear collection was all black, a reflection of the dark times we live in, he said before the show.

“When you are aware of the darkness, you can look at the light,” Mr. Piccioli said. “But we have to face that and not escape it.”

Beloved in the atelier – he often took the entire team onto the catwalk to take a bow after his couture shows – and an anomaly in a fashion world where founders often resent the designers who later lead their brands, Mr. Piccioli has a close relationship with both Mr. Garavani and his co-founder, Giancarlo Giammetti, both of whom often applauded from the front row of Mr. Piccioli’s shows.

“Thank you, PP, for these twenty years together and may your path continue with your head held high and with the success you deserve,” Mr Giammetti wrote on Instagram.

In recent years, however, Mr. Piccioli had begun to push back against the fashion system, which he said prioritized merchandising and buzz over humanity and often paid lip service to inclusivity without actually following through.

“The money won,” he told The New York Times before his couture show in January. “Producers are stronger than musicians,” he said. “Galleries are stronger than painters. And large groups are stronger than designers.”

News of Mr. Piccioli’s departure led to speculation about a series of shakeups at the parent group. Valentino was acquired in 2012 for around $700 million by Mayhoola, an investment fund backed by the Emir of Qatar and also owner of French fashion house Balmain, where both its CEO and Chief Marketing Officer have left in the past two weeks.

Last year, Mayhoola sold a 30 percent stake in Valentino for $1.87 billion to luxury goods conglomerate Kering, owner of brands such as Gucci and Saint Laurent. Kering retained an option to buy the remaining shares by 2028, and Mayhoola said there could be more deals that would strengthen the alliance.

“A new creative organization for the Maison will be announced soon,” Valentino said in a statement.

“We express our deepest gratitude to Pierpaolo for writing an important chapter in the history of the Maison Valentino,” said Rachid Mohamed Rachid, CEO of Mayhoola and chairman of Valentino, on Friday after the news was published in Women’s clothing everyday.

Robert Burke, the founder of an eponymous luxury consultancy, said he expected Kering to acquire the rest of Valentino sooner than 2028. “They probably want something that can compete with Dior,” he said. “Pierpaolo has done a great job, but to really take it to the next level, they are probably looking at several changes.”

Mr. Piccioli’s departure was the second major departure of a top designer in the fashion world this week. On Tuesday, Belgian designer Dries Van Noten said his June menswear show would be his last after more than 40 years in the business. Like Mr. Piccioli, Mr. Van Noten was known for the generosity of his approach to design and business and his embrace of beauty.

As a result, Bergdorf Goodman’s Ms. Fargo wrote, “one cannot help but be concerned about the talent pool of the greats.”

No information was given about what Mr. Piccioli might do next, but “his aesthetic is a very affordable take on fashion,” Mr. Burke said.

A massive Russian missile and drone attack damaged power plants and caused power outages for more than a million Ukrainians Friday morning, in what Ukrainian officials said was one of the war’s biggest attacks on energy infrastructure.

Police said the attack killed at least three people and injured 15 others office of the Ukrainian Attorney General.

The attacks came as the Kremlin escalated its rhetoric on the conflict, saying Russia was “in a state of war” in Ukraine – going beyond the euphemism “special military operation” – due to the West’s heavy involvement on the Ukrainian side.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, traffic lights were not working and water supplies were disrupted. A fire raged in the country’s largest hydroelectric dam, in the southeastern city of Zaporizhia. A few dozen kilometers to the southwest, an electricity line supplying a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant was temporarily knocked out.

“The enemy is now launching the largest attack on Ukraine’s energy sector in recent times,” said Herman Halushchenko, Ukraine’s Energy Minister. said on Facebook. “The aim is not only to cause damage, but also to try again, as last year, to cause a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system.”

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had launched 63 Iranian-made “Shahed” attack drones and 88 missiles during the attack, including hypersonic weapons that fly several times the speed of sound. The air force said it had shot down most of the drones but fewer than half of the missiles, a low interception rate compared with previous attacks that may reflect Ukraine’s dwindling air defense supplies.

“Russian missiles have no delays, unlike aid packages for Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said said on social mediaa clear reference to the $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine that the Republicans in the US Congress have lasted for months.

“Shahed drones have no indecisiveness, unlike some politicians,” Mr. Zelensky added.

Nevertheless, Russia complained on Friday about the United States’ assistance to Ukraine during the two years of war.

Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, the Kremlin has insisted it was carrying out a “special military operation.” The country’s communications watchdog ordered Russian news media not to describe the hostilities as an “invasion” or a “declaration of war.”

But Russian officials, including President Vladimir V. Putin, have occasionally used the word war in reference to the conflict, usually to point out that Russia has been fighting a Western coalition. And in an interview published Friday in an aggressively pro-Kremlin tabloid, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. Peskov tried to explain the change.

“Yes, it started as a special military operation, but as soon as this grouping was formed, when the collective West became a participant in this operation on the side of Ukraine, it became a war for us,” he said. “I am convinced of that,” he added. “And everyone should understand that for their internal mobilization.”

Friday’s attack was reminiscent of Russia’s air campaign against the Ukrainian energy network during the first winter of the war, which plunged Kiev into cold and darkness. Ukrainian authorities had warned that Russia was likely to repeat the campaign this winter, but instead, airstrikes in Moscow so far have mainly targeted industrial and military facilities.

Friday’s attack was Russia’s second large-scale airstrike in two days. a rocket attack on Kiev Thursday injuring at least 13 people and damaging several buildings.

The latest attack began shortly after midnight, when Russian forces launched dozens of attack drones against several Ukrainian regions, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Then, around 3 a.m., Russian fighter jets fired cruise missiles, followed by ballistic missiles and then hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, one of the most advanced weapons in Russia’s arsenal.

The complex barrage appeared intended to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses a strategy used in previous Russian air raids. The Ukrainian air force said it had failed to shoot down the Kinzhal missiles.

Rocket attacks on power stations caused power outages in seven Ukrainian regions. according to Ukrenergothe national electricity company, which provided the country with urgent energy support from Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukrenergo, said the attack was larger than those that focused on energy infrastructure during the first winter of the war. Oleksi Kulebathe deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office said hundreds of thousands of homes had temporarily lost power, affecting about 1.2 million residents.

Mr Kuleba said “blackout schemes” have been introduced in several regions to “preserve the energy system” during repairs.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the eastern city of Kharkiv was particularly affected, where about fifteen explosions were heard. A pumping station was hit, hampering the city’s water supply, and electric trams and buses did not function.

‘The city is almost completely without electricity’ Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the regional military administration said in the early morning. He said 700,000 residents of the region had no electricity as of 9am

In the southern city of Zaporizhia, the Dnipro hydroelectric power station suffered damage to its structure, including a large dam. Photos and videos posted online showed fire and smoke coming from the plant, and local authorities said the road over the dam was closed. Ihor SyrotaThe head of Ukrhydronenergo, the state-owned company that owns Ukraine’s hydroelectric power stations, said there was no risk of a breach but that an electricity generating unit was in critical condition.

Attacks on electricity installations were also reported in the western regions of Vinnytsia, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. Air raids on these areas have been rare during the war.

After the first winter of the war, Ukraine invested in protecting its energy infrastructure by building multi-layered fortifications including sandbags, concrete walls and cages filled with stones. But The country’s energy system continues to falter.

Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting from Kiev.

Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey announced Thursday that he will not run for re-election as a Democrat this year after yielding to intense political pressure and federal allegations that put him at the center of an international bribery scheme.

But in a nine minute video On social media, the 70-year-old Menendez reiterated that he would not resign and left the door open to running as a political independent if he is acquitted at a trial scheduled for May.

“I am hopeful that my exoneration will occur this summer and that I will be able to continue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election,” he said.

Yet Mr. Menendez’s decision to abandon the fight for his party’s nomination amounted to a painful concession after months of near-total defiance that left his political career teetering on the edge.

It was almost certain that he would lose the June primary for his own seat. Nearly every Democratic ally has abandoned him in recent months, and two prominent Democrats — Rep. Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy, wife of Gov. Philip D. Murphy — defeated him in the primaries.

“Unfortunately, the current charges I face – of which I am innocent and will prove – will not allow me to have such political dialogue and debate with political opponents who have already made it a cornerstone of their campaign,” said he. in Thursday’s video.

Campaigning as an independent against his own party’s political organization is unlikely to be any easier, even if he were to win in court. It could also jeopardize Democrats’ already tenuous hold on the Senate if he were to siphon votes from the Democratic nominee in a close race.

Mr. Menendez has until early June to decide whether to formally run an independent campaign. But former allies speculated that his motivation for retaining that option could have as much to do with his legal battles as politics: By remaining a potential candidate, he can continue to raise money to pay the lawyers representing him and his wife , Nadine Menendez, representing.

The senator had already spent $2.3 million from his campaign account on legal fees from October through December, federal documents show. He spent at least $295,000 more on a separate one legal defense fund. These charges are likely to increase in the coming weeks as his trial approaches.

Mr. Menendez’s legal troubles have been an ongoing distraction since September, when he and Ms. Menendez were indicted in an elaborate bribery scheme. Hours before Mr. Menendez’s announcement, his wife appeared in federal court in Manhattan for a hearing on whether her lawyers should be barred from representing her at trial because of a potential conflict of interest.

Mr. Menendez’s daughter, Alicia Menendez, a news anchor on MSNBC, was on the air, stepping in as host of “Deadline: White House,” when details of her father’s announcement began to spread.

It was the latest twist in the slow-motion collapse of a man who just six months ago was seen as one of the most powerful political figures in New Jersey and a leading national voice on foreign policy and immigration issues.

Mr. Menendez essentially broke the law for decades as he rose from mayor of his hometown of Union City to one of the country’s first Cuban-American congressmen. He avoided charges in a federal criminal investigation. After being indicted on separate bribery charges in 2015, he avoided conviction two years later when the trial ended in a hung jury and the government dropped the case after the judge dismissed the most serious charges.

Still, the case cost a lot of money. Mr. Menendez has spent more than $5 million to lawyers, and a little-known challenger received nearly 40 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary the following year. Party leaders rallied behind Mr. Menendez in the general election, and he defeated his well-funded Republican opponent, Bob Hugin, by 11 percentage points.

Mr. Menendez emphasized that history could repeat itself when federal prosecutors in Manhattan initiated the latest round of charges in September. But old allies who had stood by him during his previous trials concluded that this case was different and severed their ties with him.

In July, before the charges were announced, John FX Graham, a New Jersey insurance executive and member of the Democratic National Committee, donated $10,000 to Mr. Menendez’s defense fund.

But Mr. Graham said in an interview this week that he felt “betrayed and disappointed” after the details of the government’s case against Mr. Menendez emerged.

He said he told Mr. Menendez’s fundraising consultant that he would never contribute again. In response, he said he received a handwritten note from the senator assuring him that he would “beat this thing.”

“Bob Menendez’s career is over,” said Mr. Graham, who believes Mr. Menendez should resign. “It’s so simple and he hasn’t admitted it to himself yet.”

An initial indictment last fall alleged that Mr. Menendez and his wife conspired with others to accept gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz convertible and other lavish bribes in exchange for using his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to help foreign power. Egypt, and two criminal investigations in New Jersey.

The charging papers included photos of the gold, wads of cash and the Mercedes, all of which were found during a search of the senator’s home.

In the months since, prosecutors have added more than a dozen charges, accusing Mr. Menendez and his wife of conspiring to have him act as a foreign agent, taking steps to aid another foreign country, Qatar, and obstruct the course of justice.

The couple and two other defendants have pleaded not guilty on all counts. But a fifth defendant, a former insurance broker from New Jersey, pleaded guilty this month to trying to bribe the couple with the Mercedes. In a setback for the senator’s defense, former real estate agent Jose Uribe has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Mr. Menendez, an experienced and combative political fighter, has accused these prosecutors of being overzealous and trying to smear him by taking his case directly to fellow senators and voters. His lawyers argue the indictment criminalizes normal legislative activity and ignores the constitutional protections afforded to members of Congress.

These arguments may prevail in court, but they have had little effect on voters, Democratic officials and even some members of his own staff who would have helped shape his political fate.

Nearly 75 percent of New Jersey voters disapprove of Mr. Menendez’s performance in the Senate, a recent Monmouth University Survey found – about the same percentage who find him guilty.

In Washington, Mr. Menendez has been urged to resign by more than half of Senate Democrats. His longtime political adviser and several key members of the congressional staff resigned.

At home, if he remains on the ballot in November, he will most likely face Mr. Kim or Ms. Murphy, who are locked in a highly competitive race for the Democratic nomination.

There are several Republican candidates in the primary, including a mayor and a former television reporter, both of whom have endorsed former President Donald J. Trump as the party’s standard-bearer this year, and a Jersey Shore hotel developer who has been critical of Mr. Trump .

Ms. Murphy did not immediately comment.

Kim, 41, warned that Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate was “at stake” and said he would be the stronger candidate in November if Menendez entered the race and drew votes from the Democratic nominee.