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American and Russian officials are expected to meet in Moscow on Thursday as President Vladimir V. Putin weighs a 30-day cease-fire proposal from the United States and Ukraine. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters at about midday Moscow time on Thursday that American officials were en route. “Negotiators are indeed flying in, and … Read more
Lubna Labaad walked among a flattened wasteland that was once her neighbors’ homes. The only building left standing was a mosque, a years-old message scrawled on its outer wall from when rebels surrendered control of the area to the Syrian regime during the country’s brutal civil war: “Forgive us, oh martyrs.” Now, many former residents … Read more
In the weeks after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election last summer that resulted in a deeply divided French Parliament, if his name came up it was often to call for his resignation. The unpopular president, long derided by critics as aloof, all-controlling and arrogant, looked certain to ride out the final three years … Read more
The results of a rare, closely watched auction in Japan that ended this week are about to be released. But there were no paintings or antique cars on the auction block. The government is selling 165,000 tons of rice — equivalent to roughly two billion bowls — from its emergency stockpile to make up for … Read more
Niantic, the company behind the runaway hit Pokémon Go, said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its video game business for $3.5 billion to Scopely, a company owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Pokémon Go, an augmented reality mobile game, became a cultural sensation when it was released in 2016. Tens of millions … Read more
Bit by bit, the traces of Shanghai’s coronavirus lockdown in 2022 have disappeared from around Fu Aiying’s stir-fry restaurant. The smell of rotten eggs, from when officials carted her off to quarantine without letting her refrigerate her groceries, is long gone. The testing booths manned by workers in hazmat suits have been dismantled. Even her … Read more
For more than a year, pro-Western marchers in Georgia, a former Soviet republic that borders Russia, have been accusing their government of allowing Moscow to increasingly reassert its sway over their country. But driving around this nation of 3.6 million people in the heart of the mountainous Caucasus region, the influence of another ambitious power … Read more
President Trump is no fan of the European Union. He has repeatedly claimed that the bloc was created to “screw” America, has pledged to slap big tariffs on its cars, and this week enacted global steel and aluminum levies that are expected to hit some $28 billion in exports from the bloc. But for months, … Read more
E.U. and Canada retaliated after Trump’s latest tariffs The trade fight widened yesterday as the E.U. and Canada announced billions of dollars in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports, hours after President Trump’s levies on steel and aluminum imports took effect. Europe The E.U. said that tariffs would take effect on April 1, a response to … Read more
Why the Philippines’ Ex-President Duterte Was Arrested Now