A second load of aid from the World Central Kitchen left Cyprus for Gaza on Saturday, an even bigger batch of badly needed food for Palestinians at imminent risk of famine.

A vessel, called the Jennifer, and other barges were carrying almost 400 tons of shelf-stable and ready-to-eat items like rice, pasta, flour, canned vegetables and proteins — double the amount delivered in the World Central Kitchen’s first shipment to Gaza in mid-March, the charity said in a statement. The United Arab Emirates also contributed a shipment of dates, which are often eaten to break one’s fast during Ramadan, the holiest month of the Muslim calendar. There is a little more than a week until Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic festival that celebrates the end of the holiday. This year it is expected to fall on or near April 9.

It was not clear when the second shipment would arrive, but the first vessel, called the Open Arms, took about four days to reach Gaza after leaving Cyprus. The Jennifer was also carrying two forklifts and a crane to offload cargo.

Delivering aid by sea is one of the latest international initiatives to stave off the threat of starvation in Gaza, where aid has been limited to tightly controlled border crossings.

When the first vessel arrived in Gaza, José Andrés, the Spanish American chef who founded the World Central Kitchen, said distribution efforts would start in northern Gaza, where violence and lawlessness has hindered food distribution efforts. Arriving at a newly built jetty on the coast, south of Gaza City, it was the first vessel authorized to deliver aid to Gaza in decades.

The United States has also announced a plan to build its own temporary floating pier to bring aid into Gaza, but it could take weeks to build.

A recent report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification global initiative, the global authority on famine and nutrition, found that the food shortages driven by the war were so severe that northern Gaza might reach a famine anytime in the coming months.

A famine is defined when an area meets three criteria: At least 20 percent of households have an extreme lack of food; at least 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition; and at least two adults, or four children, for every 10,000 people die daily from starvation or from disease linked to malnutrition.

The process of getting aid into Gaza by land is long and convoluted, with trucks facing delays and difficulties at every stage of the distribution process. Roads ruined by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza make it difficult for trucks to traverse northern Gaza; aid agencies such as the World Food Program have suspended their deliveries there, citing security concerns.

The U.N. agency for Palestinians, known as UNRWA, says that Israel has prevented aid from entering at the necessary pace with its slow inspections. COGAT, the Israeli unit that supervises deliveries into Gaza, points the blame at the aid groups for not distributing aid fast enough.

The police and prosecutors in Peru carried out a surprise raid at the home of President Dina Boluarte and the presidential palace early Saturday as part of an “unlawful enrichment” investigation into news reports that she had been seen wearing Rolex watches since taking office.

The raid, which came as Peruvians were celebrating the Holy Week holiday, shocked many people, even in a country that has grown accustomed over the past two decades to politicians investigated for alleged corruption.

Before midnight on Good Friday, the police used a battering ram to force their way into Ms. Boluarte’s home in Lima, according to live coverage on Latina Noticias. Prosecutors and the police then searched Ms. Boluarte’s office and residence in the presidential palace.

The president had failed to appear this week for a scheduled appointment with prosecutors to show them three Rolex watches she has worn and to explain how she obtained them. She also refused to allow them into her house to execute a search warrant, according to Attorney General Juan Villena, who told lawmakers that her refusal was “a clear indicator of rebellion.”

The investigation into Ms. Boluarte began on March 18, after the online news program La Encerrona revealed that she had started wearing increasingly expensive watches, including at least one Rolex, since taking office in December 2022. Prosecutors suspect her of violating the country’s laws against unlawful enrichment and failing to declare assets. In Peru, the elected authorities must report to the government any assets worth more than 10,300 soles, or about $2,774, and disclose any gifts received from third parties.

Local news outlets have since reported that Ms. Boluarte has worn three other Rolex watches, as well as a $50,000 Cartier bracelet, and that banking authorities have detected about $300,000 in deposits of unknown origin made to her personal accounts before she took office.

The model of Rolex watches she has reportedly worn costs at least $14,000, according to La Encerrona.

Ms. Boluarte has denied wrongdoing, but she has also declined to explain the origin of the Rolexes publicly, saying only that the first Rolex watch that drew attention was an item “from long ago.” “It’s in my DNA to not be corrupt,” she told journalists on March 15. “What I have is the fruit of my efforts and my work.”

In a televised address on Saturday, Ms. Boluarte, flanked by ministers in her cabinet, blamed news outlets for creating “smoke screens” that fuel “chaos and uncertainty,” She called on Peruvians to march to defend democracy.

“I’m an honest woman. I entered the presidential palace with clean hands, and that’s how I’ll leave in 2026,” she said. “Let’s march today for truth and idealism and hug one another with a single heart.”

Ms. Boluarte’s surrogates have suggested other explanations. Hania Pérez de Cuéllar, her housing minister and the former head of the agency that protects intellectual property, suggested that the Rolex might be fake and admitted to buying a counterfeit luxury watch herself on a trip to China. A lawyer for Ms. Boluarte said early Saturday that she might have received the watches from a “fan” who wanted to remain anonymous.

Justice Minister Eduardo Arana called the raids “unconstitutional” and “disproportionate” and appealed to lawmakers for “unity” in the face of what he described as an attempt to destabilize the government.

“Justice is being politicized,” he said in a news conference with other ministers. “The purpose is to rupture the government, democracy and institutionality.” He declined to answer questions from journalists.

It was unclear whether the Rolex controversy would cost Ms. Boluarte key support.

The interior ministry, which controls the national police, expressed support for her, saying in a post on X that it rejected “acts that affect the development of the country, cloaked in questionable judicial provisions.”

“We reaffirm our commitment to continue working for the country’s internal order,” the ministry wrote.

Some of Ms. Boluarte’s allies on the right blamed her for letting the situation escalate. And once-friendly news outlets have adopted a more critical stance, a sign that patience may be wearing thin among her supporters.

The controversy over the Rolex watches comes as the economy is flagging and hunger is growing in Peru, a country that won international praise for consolidating its democracy and riding a mining-fueled commodities boom to pull millions of its citizens from poverty.

Some political observers predicted that the scandal was the beginning of the end for Ms. Boluarte’s government and that it was likely to open the door to a new round of political turmoil in a country that has had six presidents in the past six years.

“Dina’s government is over,” the Peruvian political scientist Juan de la Puente said on X. “The spectacle is pitiful, as it was with Castillo. Both devaluated the highest office.”

The investigative news program Cuarto Poder reported that Ms. Boluarte wore one Rolex model worth more than $18,000 during an event in February to address poverty in vulnerable populations.

According to a poll in January, Ms. Boluarte is the least popular president in Latin America, with an approval rating of just nine percent.

A former civil servant turned politician for a Marxist party, she served as President Pedro Castillo’s vice president. She succeeded him after he was impeached in 2022 and arrested for announcing that he was taking over Congress and the justice system.

Ms. Boluarte’s decision to replace Mr. Castillo instead of resigning — as she once promised she would do to make way for new elections — set off violent protests against her government in late 2022 and early 2023, with 49 civilians killed in police and military crackdowns. She is currently under investigation by national human rights prosecutors.

Ms. Boluarte is also the co-author of a book on human rights law that is under investigation for plagiarism.

Before taking office, Ms. Boluarte earned $1,100 per month as a bureaucrat with the state agency that produces identity documents. As minister, she earned about $8,000 per month, and as president makes a little over $4,000 per month.

As the authorities retrieved boxes from Ms. Boluarte’s residences, a lawmaker announced that her former leftist party had secured sufficient support for a motion for an impeachment vote in Congress, where Ms. Boluarte has relied on a coalition of right-wing and centrist parties to survive.

Although only 26 votes are required for a motion to impeach, 87 votes — or two-thirds of the legislators — are needed for passage.

Since 2016, when back-to-back corruption scandals started fueling high-stakes political battles in Peru, two presidents, Mr. Castillo and Martín Vizcarra, have been impeached. One, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, resigned to avoid an impeachment vote. All living former Peruvian presidents except one, Francisco Sagasti, who governed from late 2020 to mid-2021, have come under investigation for corruption or human rights abuses. In 2019, the former president Alan García killed himself to avoid arrest.

Congressman Alejandro Muñante, of the far-right Renovación Popular party, said on X that Ms. Boluarte had done herself no favors with her silence in recent weeks.

“Staying quiet has cost the president a lot and will continue to do so if she keeps opting for this terrible defense strategy,” Mr. Muñante said. “Boluarte still has time to clear this up. If she doesn’t, a new succession wouldn’t be at all crazy”

Spring arrives, and with it, a semi-annoying, semi-invigorating mandate to spring clean — to clear out spaces both physical and psychological. Because I am constantly looking for reasons to get rid of old things, old ways of thinking and being that have outstayed their usefulness, I’m drawn to spring cleaning as an annual rite.

But because I am also constantly reckoning with a pesky sense of dread regarding obligations of any size, I also find the concept of spring cleaning over-ambitious and intimidating. On days when routine chores like going to the post office or separating the laundry feel like punishments, the project of vacuum-sealing sweaters in mothproof storage bags seems unfeasible.

A friend was telling me about readying for a twice-a-year neighborhood yard sale, how she had begun decluttering in anticipation of the event. I felt a mix of excitement (it’s that time of year again!) and panic (it’s that time of year and, once again, I have waited too long to call the accountant!). Then she mentioned how accomplished she felt after sewing a button on a shirt to ready it for the sale.

I started thinking about those tiny things we put off, the little tasks that aren’t necessarily arduous, but for whatever reason — they’re not part of our regular routines, we don’t have to do them to function — we procrastinate getting done. When we actually do them, the sense of relief we experience is almost transcendent.

Take sewing a button on a shirt. Yes, the shirt has been out of commission for four years, but it’s OK, you rationalized, you have other shirts and always more pressing things to do. But when you actually sit down and sew the stupid button, you feel an outsize sense of achievement that’s totally disproportionate to the effort and time expended. Look at your handiwork! And now you have another shirt!

I started making a list of these tasks, the endlessly put-off, tiny things that occupy space at the bottom of the mind’s running to-do list. Shining shoes. Repotting plants. Sharpening knives. Getting the car washed. I made chicken stock recently from scraps that had been sitting in the freezer for months. I felt a sense of accomplishment that I can only compare to what someone might experience after lifting a car off a trapped child.

It can be a sort of game, thinking of these little annoying tasks and then addressing them, seeing how much asymmetrical relief you can rack up from relatively minor exertion. You might find yourself so energized that you’re up to contemplate some version of spring cleaning. Maybe not a total closet overhaul, but, say, one quick “does this spark joy” pass over your winter wardrobe. Who knows what you’ll be capable of with the confidence accrued from checking off these items. You might even make an appointment with the tax accountant. (Or just gather your paperwork and throw it in a folder — take it slow, no need to do anything crazy.)

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THE WEEK IN CULTURE

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• The Biden administration announced pollution rules meant to increase sales of electric or other zero-emission heavy vehicles, like school buses, ambulances and R.V.s.

• With inflation still running slightly above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target, Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, said he was in no hurry to cut interest rates.

• Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier and sees supporting it as a way to atone for the Holocaust. But as deaths mount in Gaza, German officials have begun to change their tone.

• A federal judge ordered New Jersey to redesign its primary election ballot. Andy Kim, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, had challenged the old design, which gave preferential placement to local leaders’ preferred candidates.

• The F.D.A. warned that Impella heart pumps, which are used as temporary implants, have been linked to 49 deaths and dozens of injuries.

CULTURE CALENDAR

🎥 Monkey Man (Friday): For many, Dev Patel’s breakout role was as Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning movie “Slumdog Millionaire.” I was first introduced to him — as many other British kids were — in “Skins,” a teen drama that was big on sex and drugs. (It was kind of a progenitor of HBO’s “Euphoria.”)

Now, Patel has turned action star in “Monkey Man,” which he also wrote and directed. He plays Kid, a boxer who competes in an underworld street fighting club set in a fictional Indian city.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Easter Egg Nest Cake

Easter is on Sunday, and if you’re looking for a dessert to bolster the Easter Bunny’s sugary offerings, you can’t do better than Nigella Lawson’s playful Easter egg nest cake. This beloved recipe from the New York Times Cooking archives consists of a deeply fudgy, flourless cake with a top that puffs dramatically in the oven — only to sink as it cools. But that’s a good thing: The resulting crater makes a perfect nest to be filled with chocolate whipped cream and colorful candy Easter eggs. It’s easy to make, too, and keeps well if you want to bake it today to serve tomorrow. Just don’t top with the candy eggs until just before serving — or, you know, after the Easter Bunny drops them off.

REAL ESTATE

The hunt: After seven years in a one-bedroom apartment in Washington Heights, a couple decided to move to the Upper West Side with a budget of $1.5 million. Which home did they choose? Play our game.

What you get for $750,000: A converted schoolhouse in Phoenixville, Pa.; a one-bedroom condo in Portland, Maine; or a two-story house in New Orleans.

Diamond in the rough: “Divorce rings,” which signal a new beginning after a marriage ends, are having a moment.

A bursting bubble? The future of luxury e-commerce looks uncertain after the implosions of Farfetch and MatchesFashion.

Members club mania: Private clubs are proliferating in New York. Some city residents belong to more than one.

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

The case for always checking a suitcase

It’s a source of pride among some travelers to never check a bag. But a carry-on bag crammed with an entire trip’s worth of stuff can weigh us down as we meander around the terminal and make competitors of our fellow passengers for overhead space. As Wirecutter’s travel expert, allow me to suggest a better way: Check every bag, eagerly and with joy. I’ve floated through airports with nothing but a phone, headphones and a passport, and it feels, every time, transcendent. Start by investing in a great suitcase — like the sleek and durable one we recommend in our guide to the best luggage for checking. If you’re facing lost-bag anxiety, consider keeping tabs with a luggage tracker. Then: Be free. — Kit Dillon

Connecticut vs. Illinois, N.C.A.A. tournament: The two best offenses in men’s basketball collide in the Elite Eight. UConn, last year’s champion, tore through the first three rounds of the tournament, beating opponents by almost 30 points a game. They have looked like the best team in the field. But they haven’t yet faced an offensive threat like Illinois’s Terrence Shannon Jr., a 6-foot-6 guard who has scored at least 25 points in his last seven games. 6 p.m. Eastern today on TBS

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