business

With a staccato burst, a horn sounded in the control room of the H.M.S. Vanguard, sending the crew of the nuclear-armed Royal Navy submarine to battle stations. The voice of the commanding officer crackled over the intercom. “Set condition 1SQ,” he said, ordering its battery of ballistic missiles to be readied for launch. It was … Read more

President Trump’s overture to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to end the war in Ukraine has rattled leaders across Europe. Few have been more transformed than Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, who was elected last summer on a standard-issue promise to revive his country’s economy and public services. Now, Mr. Starmer finds himself … Read more

Pope Francis’s condition has improved enough that he will be discharged from a hospital in Rome on Sunday and sent to recover in the Vatican, his doctors said on Saturday evening. They added that the case of pneumonia in both lungs was so severe that it had twice put his life in grave danger. The … Read more

Throngs of passengers anxious to get on their way surged into Heathrow Airport in London on Saturday, a day after a power blackout closed the airport and forced thousands to delay their trips. As information boards flickered back to life, an army of extra airport staff members, dressed in purple, sprang into action to help … Read more

Since President Trump began his second term in January, no high-level officials from the United States have met with their counterparts in China, even as the world’s two largest economies have taken turns imposing steep tariffs on each other. In the absence of official meetings, Senator Steve Daines of Montana has cast himself as a … Read more

Israel launched airstrikes on Saturday at sites in southern Lebanon that it said were linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, hours after rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel for the first time in months. The attacks were the latest example of how the renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza is rippling across the Middle … Read more

One afternoon last week, I convinced a friend to accompany me to a restaurant in Brooklyn to learn how to play Hong Kong-style mahjong. I’d always been intrigued by mahjong’s colorful bakelite tiles, the satisfying clacking sound they make as they’re shuffled. My mother plays the American version twice a week with the same groups … Read more

It’s been another long week in Canadian politics — and it looks as if it’s going to end with a snap-election call. Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to call an election on Sunday, and April 28 is the likeliest date, our sources tell us. I spent 48 hours traveling with Mr. Carney to Paris, … Read more

The rugged borderlands of northwestern Pakistan have long had a reputation for lawlessness and militancy, labeled by President Barack Obama as “the most dangerous place in the world.” The Pakistani government, facing global scrutiny over the presence of groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, moved in 2018 to overhaul the semiautonomous region’s outdated … Read more

After 142 years in the business of milling and packaging rice and rice flour, Dainty Foods was on a roll. A surge in demand for precooked and flavored rice made for microwaving had suddenly lifted the fortunes of Canada’s only rice mill. The company was already modernizing its factory in Windsor, Ontario, and had plans … Read more