By FRANCES ROBLES Diana Sainz and her husband, Andrea Gallina, invested big a decade ago when Cuba made a push toward allowing private entrepreneurship. The couple own two boutique hotels with restaurants in Havana, three small markets and a production center to sell frozen prepared meals. But with fuel running out and long electrical outages a daily occurrence, 90% of this year’s reservations have been canceled. They said they had to lay off dozens of employees. Under intens

A woman peers out from a damaged building in Tehran, Iran, March 15, 2026. Iran’s military retaliation, along with the political defiance of its new leaders, evokes a decades-old pattern of unrealized goals for American interventions in the region. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By NEIL MacFARQUHAR After the United States and Israel went to war against Iran on Feb. 28, the U.S. military began issuing a bulletin every few days listing the number of targets hit. By Wednes

Cuban locals and international tourists walk through the Callejón de Hamel, an alley featuring Afro-Caribbean-inspired art, in Havana July 18, 2015. “Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it,” President Donald Trump said on Monday, March 16, 2026. “They’re a very weakened nation right now.” (Meridith Kohut/The New York Times) By JACK NICAS “I do believe I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba,” President Donald Trump told repor

By SAFIULLAH PADSHAH and ELIAN PELTIER A Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation center killed dozens of people in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, on Monday night, in the deadliest single attack of an escalating conflict between the two neighbors. There were at least 75 bodies in body bags or coffins in the backs of ambulances that shuttled back and forth throughout the night and Tuesday morning. An initial assessment by a United Nations agency at the site said that the de

A yoga session in an underground parking garage that serves as a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. The Israeli military on Tuesday again urged residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate north of the Zahrani River, saying it was attacking Hezbollah militants in that region. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv/The New York Times) By AARON BOXERMAN, RONEN BERGMAN, FARNAZ FASSIHI and DAVID E. SANGER Israel said it had dealt double blows to the upper echelons of Iran’s leaders

Garment workers inside a factory in Bangladesh on April 15, 2025. Bangladesh is taking steps to conserve electricity, which its factories need to keep stitching together the world’s clothing. (Fabeha Monir/The New York Times) By SAIF HASNAT and ALEX TRAVELLI The final Ramadan holidays started early for university students in Bangladesh, on March 9, but for all the wrong reasons. The country’s main schools announced that classes were canceled, effective immediately, until late

A man carries donated bedding for his family at a parking lot where people displaced by the fighting have erected their tents in Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday, March 16, 2026. Israel said on Monday that it is expanding its ground offensive in southern Lebanon against Iran-backed Hezbollah, as President Donald Trump’s demand for countries to send warships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid Iranian attacks drew a muted response. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times) By ANTON TR

People watch “The Sundays” at the Verdi cinema, one of the oldest in the city of Barcelona, Spain, on March 7, 2026. Spanish cinema has entered a new and more diverse era, film experts say. Oliver Laxe, the director of Oscar-nominated “Sirat,” embodies the shift. (Samuel Aranda/The New York Times) By JASON HOROWITZ Late one September night in a karaoke bar in northern Spain, two giants of Spanish cinema got into a tiff. Oliver Laxe, whose work was nominated for best foreign f

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