WORLD NEWS

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Revenge and Unease Shadow Effort to Restore Order


The Gold Rush at the Heart of a Civil War

Sudanese soldiers drove through a destroyed market in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, in April. The military captured the area after weeks of fierce fighting with Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries.


A Search in Syria for the Disappeared


Tangled and Troubling Legacy Pushes Romanians Further to the Right

A woman holding a flag of the antisemitic Legionary Movement during a commemoration for its founder last month in a forest near Bucharest, Romania.


South Korean Police Raid President Yoon’s Office in Martial Law Inquiry

Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, in his office in Seoul in 2022.


Syria After al-Assad’s Overthrow: What’s Happening and What Comes Next

A fighter from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on Tuesday near an entrance to Bashar al-Assad’s abandoned presidential palace in Damascus.


What Prince William’s Chat With Trump May Reveal About UK Diplomacy

President-elect Donald J. Trump and Prince William met in Paris after a Notre-Dame reopening ceremony on Saturday. Mr. Trump said, “I had a great talk with the prince,” whom he described as “really, very handsome.”


U.K. Bans Puberty Blockers for Teens Indefinitely

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said he had received advice from medical experts that there was an unacceptable risk in prescribing puberty blockers without further research into their impact.


Scholz Calls for Confidence Vote, in Step Toward German Elections

Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany with his cabinet on Wednesday.


How ‘Her Story,’ a Feminist Comedy, Came to Rule China’s Box Office

Shao Yihui, right, the director of “Her Story,” a feminist-themed comedy that has become a box office hit in China, along with members of the cast at a premiere in Beijing.


North Korea Breaks Silence on South Korea’s Martial Law Declaration

Protesters outside the National Assembly in Seoul on Saturday, hours before a bid to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol failed.


Explosion in Afghanistan Kills Minister in Highest-Profile Blast Since Taliban’s Return

Khalil Haqqani delivering remarks after Friday Prayer in Kabul in 2021. He was a leading figure in the Taliban’s rise to power in 2021.


Netanyahu Finally Takes the Stand in His Corruption Trial

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to testify in his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.


In Aleppo, Rebels Give a Sense of What Is to Come for Syria

A damaged poster of former President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, Syria, last week.


Syria’s New Leaders Balance Huge Struggles Amid Disorder

A former detainee of the notorious Sednaya prison being treated at a hospital after being freed by rebels.


In Aleppo, Jubilant Syrians Return to a Ravaged City and Toppled Monuments

Young men, some of them rebel fighters, climbing on a giant statue that previously depicted Basel al-Assad, the former president Bashar al-Assad’s late brother, riding a horse on Wednesday in Aleppo, Syria.


Thursday Briefing: The Struggle to Create Order in Syria

A defaced portrait of President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.


U.S. Strategy on Syria Risks ISIS Resurgence, Kurdish General Warns

Destroyed trucks loaded with weapons for a Kurdish-led force after a Turkish airstrike near Qamishli, northeastern Syria, on Wednesday.


Biden’s Top Aides Race to Middle East as Militias Wield Power in Syria

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken left for the Middle East on Wednesday, where the main topic of his meetings will be the future governance of Syria.


Russian Navy Ships Have Left Key Syrian Port


Could Cats Become a Vector for Bird Flu?

Scientists worry that if a cat were simultaneously infected with H5N1 and a seasonal flu virus, the H5N1 virus could acquire mutations to spread efficiently among people.


Who Is Mohammed al-Bashir, Syria’s New Prime Minister?

Mohammed al-Bashir during a news conference in the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib in November.


Who Set the Stage for al-Assad’s Ouster? There Are Different Answers in the U.S. and Israel.

A defaced portrait of Bashar al-Assad at the Presidential Palace in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday.


How Many People Have Died in Syria’s Civil War?

Relatives look for bodies of loved ones who were taken or disappeared at the Sednaya Prison on Tuesday.


Biden Administration Looks to Reinforce U.S.-China Ties Ahead of Trump’s Return

Top Treasury officials will travel to China this week to try and convince their Beijing peers to keep lines of communication open after President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office next month.


Wednesday Briefing

Syrian naval ships destroyed in an Israeli attack on the port city of Latakia.


Houthi Attacks Continue to Disrupt Shipping Industry As Israel-Hamas War Rages On

Capt. Tobias Kammann on his freighter, the Hanoi Express, docked in Hamburg, Germany. Ships’ access to the Suez Canal has been cut off for the last year by attackers in Yemen.


Trump Offers Confusing Clues on Syria

Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday, two days after President Bashar al-Assad fled the country and rebel forces took control of the capital.


A Northern Gaza Hospital Lacks Food and Water for Patients, Officials Say

The Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip after Israeli troops raided it in November 2023.


Syrian Rebels Vow Punishment for Atrocities Under Bashar al-Assad

A defaced portrait of the ousted Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, beside a highway in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday.


French Court Finds Author Charles Onana Guilty of Denying Rwandan Genocide

Family photographs of some of those who died in the Rwandan genocide on display in the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2014.


Uncertainty and Hope on the Road to and from Damascus


Wednesday Briefing: A Wave of Post-Assad Attacks

An Israeli military vehicle entering the buffer zone with Syria.


A Tour of Assad’s Monumental Palace, With a Scruffy Rebel as a Guide

Abu Oweis, a rebel fighter, in the office of a longtime senior adviser to Bashar al-Assad at the abandoned presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday.


Arrests Made in 2021 Crash That Killed Over 50 Migrants

Josefa Quino Canil De Zavala after being detained on Monday in a joint operation between Guatemalan and U.S. authorities for alleged involvement in a deadly 2021 truck accident that killed more than 50 migrants in southern Mexico.


Cyclist Rohan Dennis Pleads Guilty in Death of Wife Melissa Hoskins, Fellow Olympian

Rohan Dennis pleaded guilty to creating a risk of harm. He faces seven years in prison.


Monarch Butterflies Are Recommended for Protected Status in U.S.


FIFA Bends Own Rules to Give Saudi Arabia 2034 World Cup

Argentina players celebrating with the trophy after winning the World Cup in December 2022, in Qatar.


Sednaya Prison in Syria: What to Know

A man praying inside a liberated cell in Sednaya prison, in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria, on Monday.


Trump Mocks Trudeau and Canada in Post on Tariffs and Trade

President-elect Donald Trump listening during a meeting in 2019 with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.


Arctic Tundra Has Long Helped Cool Earth. Now, It’s Fueling Warming.

A hill with an ice core, known as a pingo, in the Mackenzie River Delta, Northwest Territories.


Police Arrest 3 After Deadly Explosion in the Netherlands

An explosion and fire killed at least six people and destroyed part of an apartment building in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Saturday.


Protests in Kenya Demand Action Over a Spate of Brutal Murders of Women

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday to demand that the government take action to stop the killings of women and girls.


Israel Strikes Military Assets Across Syria to Keep Them From Rebels

The aftermath on Tuesday of an overnight strike on the Barzah scientific research center, which had been linked to the Syrian government’s chemical weapons program.


South Korea Martial Law Fallout: What to Know on Yoon’s Future

Police officers near the National Assembly in Seoul last week after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law.


On the Ground in Damascus as Syrians Chart a New Path


South Korea’s Opposition Leader Determined to Oust President Yoon After Martial Law

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the opposition party, at his Democratic Party’s meeting room in the National Assembly in Seoul on Monday.


Prince William and Jacob Elordi Grow Beards That Spark Strong Feelings

Prince William has had a beard at multiple public appearances in recent weeks.


In Georgia Protests, Echoes of Ukraine’s Past Revolutions

Fireworks set off by protesters exploded around riot police during a demonstration in Tbilisi, Georgia, last week.


Here’s How Much Cleaner Energy Could Save America, in Lives and Money


Lula, Brazil’s President, Is in ICU After Emergency Brain Surgery

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil is recovering from an “uneventful” emergency surgery, according to the hospital that treated him.


Taiwan Says China Has Deployed Largest Fleet of Ships in Decades

A Taiwanese fighter jet landing in Hsinchu on Tuesday.


Australia Signs Security and Economic Treaty With Nauru

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and President David Adeang of Nauru meeting in Canberra, Australia, on Monday.


Volcanic Eruption in the Philippines Forces Mass Evacuation


How the Rebels in Syria Captured Damascus


How to Understand the Armed Factions Operating in Syria

Celebrations at Umayyad Square in Damascus on Monday.


What to Know About the Countries Still Fighting in Syria After al-Assad’s Ouster

A poster of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria hanging on the side of a shopping mall decimated by bombs in the war-ravaged city of Homs, Syria, in June.


In France, Marine Le Pen Takes Aim at the Top

The far-right leader Marine Le Pen with President Emmanuel Macron after talks at the Élysée Palace in Paris in 2022.


The Netanyahu Corruption Trial, Explained

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel addressing lawmakers in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem, in November.


Tuesday Briefing

Syrians celebrated in Umayyad Square in Damascus yesterday.


Syrians, in Shock and With Some Unease, Celebrate the Fall of al-Assad

Thousands of Syrians celebrated in the streets of Umayyad Square in the center of Damascus, Syria, on Monday.


Syrian Military Officials Charged With War Crimes as Government Falls

The Mezzeh air base in Damascus, Syria, where two officials were accused of committing war crimes and running a notorious prison facility.