Your Monday Briefing – The New York Times

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Rising tensions between rival factions of the Sudanese armed forces have erupted into all-out war. Fighter jets fired rockets into Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, yesterday, and at the city’s airport, civilian planes were bombed and terrified passengers lay on the terminal floor. Fighting has also spread to the Darfur region.

More than 83 people have been killed and more than 1,126 injured, and it is unclear who is in control. Look at the battle map.

Just four years ago, the most hated president who had ruled for three decades, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was overthrown by a popular uprising. But hopes for democracy faltered 18 months ago when two of the most powerful generals – the army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan – jointly staged a coup. Now they are fighting.

Neighbor Sudan sought to launch diplomatic efforts, with the African Union and a separate regional bloc holding an emergency meeting yesterday, and Egypt and South Sudan offering to mediate between the rival factions. But neither side has shown willingness to enter into discussions.

Darfur: The region, where al-Bashir’s government has overseen a campaign of genocidal violence since 2003, is home to several armed rebel groups that analysts fear could be drawn into the war.

The EU criticized the ban by Poland and Hungary on imports of Ukrainian wheat and other food over the weekend. In general, the trade policies of EU countries can only be legally enforced by the bloc. “Unilateral action is unacceptable,” said a spokesperson for the European Commission.

The bloc lifted tariffs last year on Ukrainian wheat to help transport it to other countries amid Russia’s invasion, but those exports have hurt many of the products in Europe. Today’s agreement is crucial to reducing global food shortages and limiting price rises – but farmers in Poland, Hungary and other countries have seen their incomes drop.

Poland reached an agreement with Kyiv on Friday to limit and stop, for some time, Ukrainian grain deliveries to Poland. The deal was expected to affect wheat, barley, corn and some other crops, but on Saturday, Poland expanded the ban to include dozens of other types of food.

In other news from the war:

Social conservatives in the US have long used same-sex marriage to galvanize rank-and-file supporters and big donors. The campaign to limit transgender rights has since turned the topic into an animated issue, revitalizing networks of conservative groups, increasing fundraising and setting agendas in school boards and state legislatures.

The campaign, both organic and deliberate, has accelerated since Donald Trump, an ideological ally, left the White House. Since then, at least 20 Republican-controlled states have passed laws that have gone beyond the initial debate on bathroom access, investigating medical care, participation in sports and even policies on discussing gender in schools.

“It’s a sense of urgency,” said Matt Sharp, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization that provides strategic and legal advice to state lawmakers as they push for legislation that attacks transgender rights. The problem, he said, is “what can be done to protect the children?”

Numerical: About 1.3 million adults and 300,000 children in the United States identify as transgender. That effort has put him, at a moment of increased visibility and vulnerability, at the center of the country’s latest battle over cultural issues.

Step into the most beautiful calendar in the world, as Jason Farago, critic for The Times, guides you through an invaluable book of the 15th century, in which science, religion and art coalesce.

“I’ve been in love with the paradox for a long time,” Jason wrote about the calendar. “Piousness and luxury. Mathematical precision and spiritual excess.

Relegation battle: Alan Shearer spoke to the three managers who have battled to keep his side out of the Premier League.

Football players who don’t watch football: Arsenal defender Ben White has said more than once that he did not watch the game. No problem right?

From The Times: Eliud Kipchoge will run his first Boston Marathon today. See what happens when humans just try to keep track.

Since the public release of ChatGPT last fall, AI models have entered the daily life of many people, helping them save time at work, code without knowing how to code, make their daily life easier or just for fun. Read the full list 35 different ways real people use AI Here are the choices:

Get feedback on fiction: Paul Gamlowski, author of microfiction, uploads his work with a score of 98 percent, prompting ChatGPT to summarize, analyze the text or speculate on the moral of the story. If ChatGPT misses the point, “that tells me as the author probably many readers will miss it too,” he said.

Images like Sol LeWitt: Amy Goodchild, a generative artist, handed over these prescriptive instructions from a famous American artist: “On the surface of the wall, a continuous wall, using a hard pencil, place 50 points randomly. The points must be distributed evenly over the area of ​​the wall. All points must be connected in a straight line.” Consider the relatively successful ChatGPT in Wall Drawing #118 above.

Choose a song: Jonathan Soma, a professor of journalism at Columbia University, uses prompts like “Give me an acoustic but energetic song” or “Play the Cars but no boring slow songs” to get the desired playlist.

For more: Can you identify the image that was created by AI?

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