By SIMON ROMERO For decades, Cuba has been held up as an ideological lodestar by leftists across Latin America. Fidel Castro and his longhaired guerrillas fueled inspiration by slashing illiteracy, expanding public health care and raising life expectancy. Even among opponents, Cuba often earned grudging respect as an unyielding bastion of resistance against generations of American presidents. But now Cuba is running out of oil, and its economy is nearing collapse. A new wave

An emergency worker walks through the aftermath of a rocket strike in Holon, Israel, March 15, 2026. (Amit Elkayam/The New York Times) By EDWARD WONG & MICHAEL CROWLEY Fears about the global economic fallout from the war in Iran grew Sunday as U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright acknowledged in a televised interview that there were “no guarantees” that oil prices would fall in the coming weeks. A day after President Donald Trump called on other countries to send warships to th

By MOTOKO RICH During a visit to the White House last year, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy bonded with President Donald Trump over their shared opposition to “woke” ideologies and migration. After the meeting, Meloni, the only sitting European leader to attend Trump’s second presidential inauguration, said she was proud of their “privileged relationship.” Now, as an American war with Iran causes economic pain throughout Europe, Meloni’s once vaunted friendship with Tr

Vitali Klitschko, center, the mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine, during a visit to a retirement home in the city, Jan. 13, 2026. In January, residents of the capital spent half of every day without power on average. (Oksana Parafeniuk/The New York Times) By CONSTANT MÉHEUT Shortly after Russia attacked a critical substation supplying power to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Oleksiy Brecht rushed to the scene on an urgent mission. Brecht, then the head of operations at Ukrenergo, the nation

By IVAN NECHEPURENKO A Moscow court Thursday handed down life sentences to 15 men in connection with a 2024 massacre that killed at least 149 people at a concert hall, the deadliest terror attack in Russia in two decades. The attack on the Crocus City Hall building, a popular entertainment venue outside Moscow, took place just before a rock concert was scheduled to start. It began as a shooting spree and ended with the four gunmen setting fire to the building with incendiary

People look on as smoke rises from a an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times) By EUAN WARD, ADAM RASGON, YEGANEH TORBATI, REBECCA F. ELLIOT and AURELIEN BREEDEN The Israeli military launched a new wave of strikes on central Beirut on Thursday evening, saying it was targeting infrastructure belonging to the militant group Hezbollah. The strikes came hours after Iran’s new supreme leader struck a defiant tone

For 12 of the past 13 days, no Chinese military flights were recorded near Taiwan. By CHRIS BUCKLEY Taiwan has grown accustomed to a near daily drumbeat of Chinese military planes flying close by, part of Beijing’s campaign to pressure the island it claims as its own. But lately, Taiwan has been facing an unexpected puzzle: Where have the planes gone? For 12 of the past 13 days, no Chinese military flights were recorded near Taiwan. The sole exception was Sunday when two plan

By STEPHEN CASTLE and LIZZIE DEARDEN Britain’s home secretary invoked rarely used powers to ban a pro-Palestinian march that was seen by police and other critics as a demonstration supportive of Iran. But organizers vowed to go ahead with a protest. The right of pro-Palestinian groups to protest in London and other British cities has been a sensitive issue since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip, with Jewish groups accusing some demonstrators of stoking antisemitism.

A woman walks among tents at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, which is occupied by displaced people, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday, March 11, 2026. The Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil, is all but closed as war in the Middle East expands. A British agency said three ships were hit by unidentified projectiles in or near the strait. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times) By REBECCA ELLIOT, ABDI LATIF DAHIR and ERIC SCHMITT Oil prices rose W

A crowd, holding images of the two, gathers to celebrate Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the recently killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as his father’s successor at Enghelab Square in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, March 9, 2026. Mojtaba Khamenei often played a key role behind the scenes as his father turned the Bayt-e Rahbari — traditionally a religious affairs office — into a shadowy national security juggernaut. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By NEIL MACFARQUHAR I