Rescue workers search the site of an Israeli airstrike in the Tallet el Khayat area of Beirut, Thursday, April 9, 2026. Israel says the truce with Iran does not cover Lebanon. Tehran says it does and has threatened retaliation unless the bombing stops. (Diego Ibarra Sánchez/The New York Times) By LYNSEY CHUTEL Lebanon said Thursday, a day after an intense wave of Israeli airstrikes, that more than 300 people had been killed in the bombardment. The attacks, targeting the Iran-

By EPHRAT LIVNI Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, issued a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying it was “truly unacceptable” to threaten to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization.” He did not mention the president by name, but it was clear whom he was referring to. “Today, as we all know, there has also been this threat against the entire people of Iran. And this is truly unacceptable,” the pope told reporters Tuesday evening in Italy, hours before an

People in Tehran, on April 8, 2026, walk by a mural depicting Iranian missiles attacking a U.S. aircraft carrier after an announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the war with the United States and Israel. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By ADAM RASGON, RAVI MATTU and YEGANEH TORBATI A tenuous two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran was being tested Wednesday — less than a day after it began — by uncertainty over the status of the economically vital Strait o

From left, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, during a briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, April 8, 2026. Hegseth on Wednesday declared that the Iranians had been “humiliated and demoralized.” (Salwan Georges/The New York Times) By JIM TANKERSLEY World leaders expressed relief Wednesday that the United States, Israel and Iran had agreed to a temporary ceasefire, with President Donald Trump backing o

A Roma family walks back home from school in Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 25, 2026. Drastic changes to Hungary’s education system have widened the divide between Roma and other students in Hungary. (Tamas Paczai/The New York Times) By LARA JAKES and MATE HALMOS The party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary is facing parliamentary elections on Sunday that are expected to be exceptionally close. And the marginalized Roma ethnic minority may prove to be an unexpected swing vote

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR In the face of threats by President Donald Trump to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages,” the British government on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Keir Starmer remained opposed to American use of British bases for anything other than defensive purposes. During a media briefing with journalists, the prime minister’s spokesperson declined to say whether British officials had explicitly told the United States not to launch attacks from their territory on civi

Textbooks and papers amid the rubble of a building at Sharif University in Tehran, Iran after it was targeted by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By TYLER PAGER, FARNAZ FASSIHI, JULIAN E. BARNES, RONEN BERGMAN and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to wipe out a “whole civilization” and the United States hit military targets on Iran’s main oil export hub, as he ramped up pressure on Iran to f

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers updates on Iran at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Hegseth asked the American people to pray for a military victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ.” In recent weeks, Pope Leo has been more outspoken about the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. (Eric Lee/The New York Times) By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO With war in the Middle East casting a shadow over the celebrations of the most important date on the Christian

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House in Washington, on Monday, April 6, 2026. President Trump presented new details of the rescue of an American airman over the weekend in cinematic terms at a news conference on Monday. (Tom Brenner/The New York Times) By ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, ERIKA SOLOMON and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA President Donald Trump on Monday escalated his threats to devastate Iran if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even as he ag

People walk in front of a billboard depicting captured U.S. aircraft in a net in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 5, 2026. After Iran shot down a U.S. plane and U.S. forces pulled off a risky ground operation to extricate a stranded airman, both sides claimed victory. That confidence could fuel further escalation. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By ERIKA SOLOMON Iran’s downing of an American fighter plane and the dramatic U.S. mission that followed to rescue a stranded airman