Russian troops appear close to driving Ukraine from all the territory it seized in the Kursk region of Russia last year, a battlefield success that would deny President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine a significant bargaining chip in any negotiations. The Russian push in Kursk appeared to accelerate after President Trump froze military aid and intelligence … Read more
On a ship that caught tuna for American consumers, fishermen said they were fed so little that they resorted to eating the bait. On another, a worker said he was beaten repeatedly by the captain, sometimes with a metal hook. On a third, a man who experienced severe burns in a kitchen accident said he … Read more
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that the military had regained full control of the town of Sudzha, the main population center in the part of the Kursk region of Russia that Ukrainian troops had captured last summer. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed a retreat from the town, where the previous night Kyiv’s military had reported … Read more
For more than a year, Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked merchant vessels and warships in the Red Sea with missiles, drones and speedboats loaded with explosives, disrupting global trade through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Claiming solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the Houthis have hit vessels as far as 100 miles off the … Read more
The Israel-Hamas negotiations to extend the cease-fire in Gaza were in limbo on Thursday as the Trump administration turned its attention to talks with Russian officials in Moscow over the Ukraine war. Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy, was expected to leave the latest round of Gaza talks in the Gulf emirate of Qatar … Read more
Europeans reacted with relief to the announcement on Tuesday that Ukraine had agreed with the United States on a 30-day cease-fire in its war with Russia and anxiously awaited Moscow’s response. They were relieved because Washington announced simultaneously that it would immediately restore military and intelligence support for Ukraine. And there was expectation that Russia … Read more
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