A surgery room at the Hospital William Soler in Havana on March 22, 2026. Amid a U.S. oil blockade causing daily blackouts across Cuba, life support machines have become particularly vulnerable parts of the medical system, as they can be knocked offline for several minutes until backup generators kick in. (Jorge Luis Baños/The New York Times) By EMILIANO RODRÍGUEZ MEGA and ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS The Trump administration sent a senior delegation to Cuba this month to discuss a dea

By MOTOKO RICH In a brief but sharp denunciation of how news outlets have covered his Africa trip, Pope Leo XIV told reporters on Saturday that he had no interest in continuing a debate with President Donald Trump and that some of his remarks had been misinterpreted as criticism of the president. On Monday, at the start of his 11-day trip to four African countries, the pope said he had “no fear” of Trump, responding to an extraordinary presidential broadside against him on so

People walk near the debris of buildings destroyed by airstrikes in the Hay El Sellom neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, following the announcement of a ceasefire, on Sunday, April 19, 2026. (Diego Ibarra Sánchez/The New York Times) By TYLER PAGER, SHIRIN HAKIM and SANAM MAHOOZI Just days before a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was set to expire, President Donald Trump and Iranian officials disagreed Sunday over whether top officials would meet this week in Pakist

Sugey Amaya, who has devoted years of her life to El Salvador’s prisoners, in San Salvador on June 6, 2025. Amaya’s brother was detained in El Salvador’s mass arrest campaign four years ago. She has devoted her life to helping prisoners like him. (Fred Ramos/The New York Times) By ANNIE CORREAL Sugey Amaya spends most of her nights outside a converted movie theater that is now a holding station for people passing in or out of El Salvador’s crowded prison system. While her mot

By MOTOKO RICH Pope Leo XIV is not backing down. Amid a growing dispute with the Trump administration over the legitimacy of U.S. attacks in Iran, Leo used a speech Thursday in Cameroon to express “woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he said, adding, “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is

A Lebanese woman watches as workers and relatives searched for missing victims in the ruins of a residential building hit six days prior by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, on April 14, 2026. A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon went into effect as Friday began in the Middle East, a truce that could lift a major obstacle to the United States’ peace effort with Iran and pause a devastating wave of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. (David Guttenfelder/The New York

Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada speaks during the Liberal Party’s convention in Montreal, April 11, 2026. The results of three special elections on April 13 have given Carney a majority in the Canadian Parliament; he will now be able to more easily pass budgets and other measures to advance his ultimate goal of making Canada more independent from the United States. (Ian Austen/The New York Times) By MATINA STEVIS-GRIDNEFF It’s Mark Carney’s Canada now. One year, almost t

By SIMON ROMERO The top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela announced Wednesday that she was leaving her post just months after arriving, a shake-up that comes as the Trump administration presses ahead with efforts to wield control over Venezuela’s government. Laura Dogu, who arrived in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, in late January and reopened the U.S. Embassy, said in a statement that she would be replaced by John Barrett, the current top U.S. diplomat in Guatemala. This leadership

A man crosses Enghelab Street near a bus stop in Tehran, April 5, 2026. Iran on Wednesday, April 15, threatened further retaliation over an American naval blockade of its ports in the critical Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. military said that it had “completely halted” trade in and out of Iran by sea. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By ALI WATKINS, PETER EAVIS, AARON BOXERMAN, ERIKA SOLOMON and TYLER PAGER Senior Pakistani mediators, including the army chief, Syed Asim Mun

The opposition leader Peter Magyar campaigns in Keszthely, Hungary, on March 29, 2026. Magyar’s Tisza party scored a crushing victory in Hungary’s general election on Sunday, April 12, 2026. (Akos Stiller/The New York Times) By AMELIA NIERENBERG and LILI RUTAI Some Hungarians had feared that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party would try to block the results of Hungary’s national elections Sunday if returns did not favor him. But when news came that Orban had lost — decisively