Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition enacted legislation on Thursday morning that handed politicians more control over picking judges, part of a contentious effort to overhaul the Israeli judiciary that roiled the country before the war with Hamas. Israel’s 120-seat Parliament, known as the Knesset, passed two laws after an hourslong overnight debate in a vote … Read more
Ukraine thought it had a deal in place to suspend the fighting in the Black Sea immediately. Russia said economic sanctions would need to be lifted first. And the United States didn’t address the question of timing at all, merely repeating President Trump’s broad demand that the killing stop. The conflicting statements released this week … Read more
South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar has been arrested, according to his party, amid escalating tensions in the world’s youngest country that the United Nations warned could blow up a fragile peace deal and has pushed the country back to the brink of civil war.. Mr. Machar was detained late on Wednesday by the National … Read more
For at least a few days most weeks, Mei Kawajiri makes hotel calls to celebrities like Cardi B, Heidi Klum, Ariana Grande and Bad Bunny to whip up viral creations, often shared with her more than 343,000 Instagram followers. Her medium might be even more impressive: extravagant nail art — minutely detailed 3-D pastries, hand-drawn … Read more
Hunted by drones, stalked by snipers and surrounded by minefields, soldiers fighting in Ukraine can’t risk even a small lapse in concentration. That is why Col. Dmytro Palisa, commander of Ukraine’s 33rd Mechanized Brigade, instructs his soldiers to ignore speculation about a possible cease-fire. “They start relaxing, they start overthinking, putting on rose-colored glasses, thinking … Read more
The bombshell publication of a group chat involving Trump administration officials discussing U.S. battle plans revealed in unusually stark fashion what the Trump administration hopes to achieve with airstrikes this month against the Houthi militia in Yemen. The attacks, some of the chat’s participants said, were meant to deter the Houthis from attacking commercial ships … Read more
Archaeologists have unearthed the huge tomb of an unknown pharaoh at an Egyptian necropolis, a team of researchers said on Thursday, in what they are calling the second discovery of a king’s tomb this year. The team of Egyptian and American archaeologists found the tomb, which the researchers estimate is 3,600 years old, nearly 23 … Read more
President Trump said in a middle-of-the-night social media post early Thursday that he would come after the European Union and Canada if they banded together to “do economic harm” to America, opening a new front in the unfolding trade war. “If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the … Read more
President Trump’s unexpected plan to impose a 25 percent tariff on cars and car parts being imported into the United States will not only disrupt supply chains. It will also fuel anger, alienation — and pressure to retaliate — among American allies across the globe. Many of the countries most affected by the new levies, … Read more
