By AARON BOXERMAN, ISMAEEL NAAR and SANAM MAHOOZI Violence flared anew in and around the Persian Gulf on Monday, as the United Arab Emirates said Iran had fired missiles and drones at its territory and the U.S. military said it sunk several Iranian military boats, straining the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East. UAE authorities blamed Iran for attacks on a major oil port and an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, injuring three people in the first such attacks in the UAE s

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the 2027 budget request for the Department of the Treasury on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 22, 2026. The United States on Monday, May 4, 2006, urged China to push Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and said that its purchases of Iranian oil amounted to funding global terrorism, delivering a stern rebuke ahead of President Trump’s meeting in Beijing this month with the Chinese

Street vendors sell worn-out products on a sidewalk in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, on March 3, 2026. U.S. officials say they will “unleash prosperity” by commandeering the oil industry. Many people in Caracas say it will take far more than that. (Adriana Loureiro Fernández/The New York Times) By MAX BEARAK Venezuela can seem to be a place of dissonant extremes. Since the United States swooped in and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro, in January, the country’s politicall

President Donald Trump walks to board Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla., May 2, 2026. President Trump’s predictions of a relatively short-term conflict with minimal economic consequences appear to be crumbling. (Tom Brenner/The New York Times) By ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS Two months into the war in Iran, President Donald Trump is confronting the complicated reality of a conflict that has proved costly, deeply unpopular and lacks a clear endga

By ANUPREETA DA and HARI KUMAR The heinous rape and murder, in August 2024, of a young doctor who was resting in a hospital seminar room between shifts unleashed a storm of rage, leading to a criminal inquiry that expanded into broader investigations into potential systemic corruption. More than a year-and-a-half later, the doctor’s mother, Ratna Debnath, has stepped into the political realm as a candidate for West Bengal’s state legislature, aiming to seek justice for her da

A rendering provided by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts of plans for a 250-foot triumphal arch in Washington. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which President Donald Trump vows to top in Washington, offers a lesson in the complicated history of monuments. (U.S. Commission of Fine Arts via The New York Times) By MARK LANDLER For someone who regularly disparages France in matters of war and commerce, President Donald Trump is not above appropriating its culture. Last year, Trump

Iranians hold photos of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, at a government-organized march in Tehran on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. Khamenei issued a rare statementt.me on Thursday saying that the United States had no place in the future of the Persian Gulf region and making clear that his country planned to manage the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway going forward. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By LEO SANDS Iran’s supreme leader issued a rare

In an image provided by the U.S. military, a sensor operator takes part in a simulated MQ-9 Reaper drone strike mission in 2024. In the past few weeks, the military has without public notice increased the number of secret fixed-wing attack aircraft and armed MQ-9 Reaper drones operating from bases in El Salvador and Puerto Rico, ramping up attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, according to a U.S. military official and a person briefed on the st

Taiwan’s ambassador José Chih-Cheng Han in Asunción, Paraguay, Nov. 17, 2025. Paraguay today is the only South American country to maintain relations with Taiwan and has emerged as one of the most anti-China nations in Latin America. (María Magdalena Arrellaga/The New York Times) By LAURENCE BLAIR There are odd couples. Then there’s Taiwan and Paraguay. The high-tech island nation and its rural, landlocked South American ally sit on opposite sides of the Earth. United in 1957

A book about Cuban property owners at Nicolás Gutiérrez’s home in Miami, April 20, 2026. With Cuba in dire economic crisis, people whose properties were seized by its Communist government say it’s time to resolve thorny compensation claims. (Scott McIntyre/The New York Times) By FRANCES ROBLES Teo A. Babún, Jr., has fond memories of the large blue and white corner house in Santiago de Cuba where his grandmother, a wealthy matriarch in prerevolutionary Cuba, hosted family gath