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NEW YORK — The parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue has signed a deal to buy upscale rival Neiman Marcus Group, which owns Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores, for $2.65 billion, with online behemoth Amazon holding a minority stake. The new entity would be called Saks Global, which will comprise the Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks OFF 5TH brands, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, as well as the real estate assets of Neiman Marcus Group and HBC, a holding company that purchased Saks in 2013. HBC has secured $1.15 billion in financing from investment funds and accounts managed by affiliates of Apollo, and a $2 billion fully committed revolving asset-based loan facility from Bank of America, which is the lead underwriter, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo. The deal comes after months of rumors that the department store chains had been negotiating a deal. But the twist is Amazon's minority stake, which adds "a bit of spice" to an otherwise anticipated pact, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, a research firm. The pact was announced Thursday after months of rumors that the department store chains had been negotiating a deal. "For years, many in the industry have anticipated this transaction and the benefits it would drive for customers, partners and employees," said Richard Baker, HBC executive chairman and CEO in a statement. "This is an exciting time in luxury retail, with technological advancements creating new opportunities to redefine the customer experience, and we look forward to unlocking significant value for our customers, brand partners and employees." Saks and Neiman Marcus have struggled as shoppers have been pulling back on buying high-end goods and shifting their spending toward experiences such as travel and upscale restaurants. The two iconic luxury purveyors have also faced stiffer competition from luxury brands, which are increasingly opening their own stores. The deal should help reduce operating costs and create more negotiating power with vendors. Saks Fifth Avenue currently operates 39 stores in the United States, including its Manhattan flagship. In early 2021, Saks spun off its website into a separate company, with the hopes of expanding that business at a time when more people were shopping online. Current Saks.com CEO Marc Metrick will become CEO of Saks Global, leading Saks Global's retail and consumer businesses and driving the strategy to improve the luxury shopping experience. Neiman Marcus filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2020 during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic but emerged in September of that year. Like many of its peers, the privately held department store chain was forced to temporarily close its stores for several months. Meanwhile, other department stores are under pressure to keep increasing sales. Lord & Taylor announced in late August 2020 it was closing all its stores after filing for bankruptcy earlier that month. It's operating online. Macy's announced in February of this year that it will close 150 unproductive namesake stores over the next three years, including 50 by year’s end. Consumers have proven resilient and willing to shop even after a bout of inflation, although behaviors have shifted, with some Americans trading down to lower-priced goods.

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A look ahead to the NATO summit in Washington as Ukraine’s membership is on the agenda. Hezbollah launches 200 missiles at Israel and a look at the destruction of Ukraine’s cultural sites. Turkey balances wanting to join BRICS with maintaining Western alliances and a look at elections in England and Iran.

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paris — A 76-year-old American swimmer took a dip in the River Seine on Thursday, braving the murky waters in central Paris to celebrate the Fourth of July and highlight the French government’s efforts to clean up the river for the Olympic Games. He had good timing: Hours later, regional authorities released data showing water quality in the river improved over the past week, raising hopes it can host Olympic swimming events after all. Joel Stratte McClure, who last swam in the Seine in 1976 for a magazine cover shoot, said he was impressed with the progress made in cleaning up the river, but still had concerns about its safety. “I may regret having swum,” McClure said before entering the water. “But if I come back alive, it will prove that the French have done a good job cleaning up the river.” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo initially planned to swim in the Seine last month to prove its cleanliness — prompting an online campaign by her many critics threatening to defecate in the river on the day of her dip. But she postponed the swim after President Emmanuel Macron announced snap legislative elections that have plunged France into political tensions and eclipsed pre-Olympic excitement for many. Heavy rainfall in recent months has also translated into faster-than-usual currents for this time of year, and Hidalgo says she will swim in the river in mid-July instead. “I think the president organized new elections to avoid swimming in the Seine,’’ McClure joked. After a brief swim, he declared the water “fantastic” and expressed hope that others would follow his lead and take advantage of the cleaner river. Marathon swimming and triathlon are scheduled to take place in the river near the Alexandre III bridge during the Olympics, which run from July 26-Aug. 11, and the Paralympics, which run from Aug. 28-Sept. 8. Unsafe levels of E. coli were found in the river last week for the third consecutive week. But on Thursday, regional authorities released new results showing an improvement. The test results by monitoring group Eau de Paris show that for all but one day from June 26 to July 2, contamination levels were below the safe limit of 900 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters determined by the World Triathlon Federation for competitions. French officials remain optimistic and insist there is no Plan B for Olympic open-water swimming events.

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Addis Ababa — Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday he was expecting about $10.5 billion in financial aid in the coming years once the country wraps up negotiations with international lending institutions.   Africa's second most populous nation, battered in recent years by several armed conflicts, the COVID pandemic, and climate shocks, has been engaged in drawn-out talks seeking to secure a support program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).   There has been speculation that Ethiopia may have to devalue its currency, the birr, as a condition of IMF aid.   "We have been negotiating with the IMF and World Bank on a wide range of issues," Abiy said in an address to parliament, adding that both Ethiopia and the IMF "are stubborn."    "Several of our proposals were finally accepted," he said.    "When this process comes to a successful conclusion, and the reform is approved, we will receive $10.5 billion in the coming years."   The IMF had no immediate response to AFP's request for comment on Abiy's remarks.   According to a source close to the matter, the program currently being negotiated with the IMF concerns around $3.5 billion in financial assistance, and any agreement could result in the release of an equivalent amount from the World Bank.    Ethiopia has about $28 billion of external debt and is also grappling with sky-high inflation and a shortage of foreign currency reserves.   The landlocked country's credit rating was downgraded to a partial default in December by international agency Fitch after it missed a $33 million coupon payment on a Eurobond.    The two-year conflict in the northern Tigray region which ended in November 2022 led to the suspension of numerous development aid programs and budget assistance.   When he took office in 2018, Abiy pledged to embark on reforms of Ethiopia's closed and state-dominated economy, but little has changed since then.

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Port Sudan, Sudan — Pro-democracy activists in Sudan on Thursday said around 25 people drowned in the Nile River while trying to flee fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces in the southeast. "Around 25 citizens, most of them women and children, have died in a boat sinking" while crossing the Blue Nile River in the southeastern state of Sennar, a local resistance committee said in a statement. The committee is one of hundreds across Sudan that used to organize pro-democracy protests and have coordinated frontline aid since the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, began last year. "Entire families perished" in the accident, they said, while fleeing the RSF's recent advance through Sennar. On Saturday, the RSF announced they had captured a military base in Sinja, the capital of Sennar state, where over half a million people had sought shelter from the war. Witnesses also reported the RSF sweeping through neighboring villages, pushing residents to flee in small wooden boats across the Nile. At least 55,000 people fled Sinja within a three-day period, the United Nations said Monday. Local authorities in neighboring Gedaref state estimated on Thursday that some 120,000 displaced people had arrived this week. The state's health minister Ahmed al-Amin Adam said 90,000 had been officially registered. Over 10 million people are currently displaced across Sudan, in what the U.N. calls the world's worst displacement crisis. Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The conflict in the country of 48 million has killed tens of thousands, with some estimates putting the death toll as high as 150,000, according to the United States envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello. It has also torn the country apart into competing zones of control. The RSF holds much of the capital and the agricultural heartland to its south, nearly all of Darfur and swathes of the southern Kordofan states. In El-Fasher in North Darfur — the only state capital in the Darfur region that the RSF has not captured — a paramilitary attack on a market on Wednesday "killed 15 civilians and injured 29 others," Health Ministry official Ibrahim Khater told AFP Thursday. Since fighting in the city began in early May, at least 278 people have been killed, according to French charity Doctors without Borders, or MSF. But the real toll is likely much higher, with most of those wounded unable to reach health facilities amid an ongoing siege and heavy street battles. The hospitals in El-Fasher — nearly all of which have shut down — have themselves been attacked at least nine times since May, according to MSF. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilian infrastructure and indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

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GENEVA — The United Nations’ chief human rights official warns that Venezuela’s upcoming presidential elections are unlikely to be free and fair because widespread repression in the country prevents dissident voices from being heard. In his latest update on the human rights situation in Venezuela, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk presents a starkly critical assessment of an autocratic government that stifles dissent by the arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance of its perceived opponents. “My office continues to receive reports of detentions as election day approaches, including of supporters and members of the opposition. This does not augur well, and I urge a change to such practices,” said the U.N. human rights chief, who engaged in an interactive dialogue at the U.N. Human Rights Council Wednesday and Thursday. He said his office has documented “with concern” an increase in threats, harassment and assaults against civil society actors, journalists, unionists and other voices considered critical, “including through arrests and prosecutions, and 38 cases of arbitrary detention.” In January, the government rid itself of President Nicolas Maduro’s main opponent for the top job by barring opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from running in an election for 15 years. In April, Venezuela’s main opposition coalition agreed to unite behind one candidate, former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez, to challenge Maduro, a decision that many observers believe could be a winning hand. Türk called on Venezuelan authorities to lift restrictions on civic space and “to ensure fully transparent, inclusive and participatory electoral processes, in line with international standards.” Venezuelan objections Alexander Gabriel Yanez Deleuze, Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, lashed back at the high commissioner’s disparagement of his government. He blamed “foreign and domestic” players of aggressive behavior aimed at undermining the sovereignty and peace in his country “that has been won thanks to the leadership of President Nicolas Maduro.” “The high commissioner, the Venezuelan opposition, however, are calling out a fraud and are calling for violence because they do not accept the Bolivarian revolution,” he said. He accused the United States and its acolytes of “having published communiques that are already written today” and that are aimed at subverting the election. He said this ploy will not work. “The 28th of July will see the ballot tables closed and the electoral council counting all the votes. There will be 17 different auditors before, during and after the election, and we will be announcing the result, which is part of the people's resistance,” he said. Opposition detentions Türk was not persuaded by this argument and reiterated his appeal for the government to refrain “from adopting legislation that would further restrict the right to participate in public affairs, and the freedoms of association and expression.” He also reiterated his call for the release of all people who have been arbitrarily detained in Venezuela, including those remaining in pretrial detention beyond the limits set out in national law. According to the report, between April 2023 and February 2024, U.N. human rights monitors conducted nine visits to detention centers in five states across the country and interviewed 146 people deprived of their liberty, “with a view to improving detention conditions, including access to health and food.” Among the findings, the high commissioner said he was particularly worried about reports of intimidation and ill-treatment of inmates who had been transferred to the Rodeo maximum security prison, “as well as of their relatives and lawyers.” “I remain concerned that people continue to be charged with terrorism-related offenses that do not comply with international human rights standards … and where there are also issues with the right to a fair trial,” he said. In the past year, the high commissioner’s office has documented 29 cases of individuals prosecuted for terrorism-related offenses and 28 cases of detained individuals, “some perceived as dissident voices, whose whereabouts have been concealed from their relatives and lawyers.” Türk said: “This occurred for periods ranging from two to 41 days, thus amounting to enforced disappearance. All allegations of enforced disappearances must be investigated and prosecuted, and the practice must end.”

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PARIS — Some 30,000 police will be deployed across France late Sunday following the high-stakes runoff of a parliamentary election to ensure there is no trouble, a minister said, as three candidates said they had been victims of attacks on the campaign trail. Sunday's second round will determine whether Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally, or RN, secures a parliamentary majority for the first time and forms the next government in France, the euro zone's second-largest economy. The campaign has been marred by political tensions but also growing violence. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said he would be "very careful" about security on Sunday evening, when the election's results will be announced. Some 5,000 of the 30,000 police deployed that evening will be in Paris and its surroundings, and they will "ensure that the radical right and radical left do not take advantage of the situation to cause mayhem," he told France 2 TV. Darmanin said four people had been arrested over an attack that occurred on Wednesday evening on government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot and her team when they were out putting up campaign posters. While Thevenot herself was not harmed, her deputy and a party activist were injured by an unidentified group of about 10 youths who were defacing campaign posters, Thevenot told Le Parisien newspaper. An RN candidate in Savoie, Marie Dauchy, also said she had been attacked by a shopkeeper at a market on Wednesday. Separately, the 77-year-old deputy mayor of a small town near Grenoble, in southeastern France, was punched in the face on Thursday morning when putting up a poster for Olivier Veran, a former spokesperson for President Emmanuel Macron. Veran denounced a "completely unprecedented context of violence in this campaign." Meanwhile, a poll on Wednesday suggested efforts by mainstream parties to block the far right from reaching an absolute majority might work. The Harris Interactive poll for Challenges magazine showed the anti-immigration RN and its allies would get 190 to 220 seats in the 577-strong assembly, while the center-right Republicans, or LR, would win 30 to 50 seats. This could rule out the possibility of a far-right minority government supported by part of the LR parliamentary group. The poll was published after more than 200 candidates across the political spectrum withdrew their candidacies to clear the path for whoever was best placed to defeat the RN candidate in their district, in a process known as the "republican front." However, much uncertainty remains, including whether voters will go along with these efforts to block the RN.

July 20 marks the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. An interactive exhibit at Manhattan's Intrepid Museum reminds viewers of the enormity of that undertaking and what went into the first moon landing. Evgeny Maslov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Vladimir Badikov.