President Donald Trump has not authorized military action in Iran, but the U.S. has built up its presence in the region in recent days. By CHRISTOPH KOETTL, ERIC SCHMITT, ASHLEY CAI, RILEY MELLEN and DANIEL WOOD In recent weeks, the U.S. military has built up forces close to Iran, in what President Donald Trump has referred to as an “armada.” Trump is now deciding whether to take military action against Iran as soon as this weekend, officials said. But unlike last June, when

By MEGAN SPECIA and MICHAEL D. SHEAR British police on Thursday evening released Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, after taking him into custody for several hours, intensifying a long-running crisis for the monarchy over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Authorities had arrested the former prince on suspicions of misconduct in public office after accusations that he shared confidential information with Epstein while serving as a Br

Ukraine’s 148th Artillery Brigade fires toward Russian targets in the Zaporizhzhia region of eastern Ukraine, Oct. 14, 2025. Ukrainian and Russian officials met this week, in Switzerland for a new round of U.S.-brokered peace talks, but hopes of a breakthrough to end the war were low. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times) By ANDREW E. KRAMER and ANTON TROIANOVSKI The latest round of talks to end the war in Ukraine concluded Wednesday without any sign of meaningful progress. But be

Tourists dressed in Red Army uniforms next to a statue of Mao at Yan’an Revolutionary Memorial Hall in Yan’an, China, June 18, 2021. By reaching back to Maoist tactics of “rectification,” the Chinese leader is signaling that control over the gun requires a state of perpetual cleansing. (Gilles Sabrié/The New York Times) By LILY KUO When Xi Jinping rang in the new year from Beijing, he called on China to remember the legacy of Yan’an, the rural stronghold where Mao Zedong tran

A woman at the door of a mosque that was burned during protests, in Tehran, Iran. Jan. 21, 2026. Families across Iran began to commemorate the end of the traditional Iranian Islamic 40-day mourning period this week for loved ones killed at the peak of a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests demanding an end to authoritarian clerical rule. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By ERIKA SOLOMON, LEILY NIKOUNAZAR and SANJANA VARGHESE With patriotic anthems and chants against th

People stand on a sidewalk in Leipzig, Germany, Nov. 6, 2025. Leipzig and other German cities have large immigrant populations. (Laetitia Vancon/The New York Times) By STEVEN ERLANGER and DAVID E. SANGER In the space of just a year, European leaders have heard three descriptions of how the Trump administration is reimagining the American relationship with its allies. Each strikes a bit of a different tone, but all are intended to push them into a new era in which Washington’s

A view of Maracaibo, Venezuela, in July 2024. About a quarter of the residents of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city, left the country in the past few years, before Nicolás Maduro’s capture. (Marian Carrasquero/The New York Times) By GENEVIEVE GLATSKY, MARÍA RAMÍREZ and NAYROBIS RODRÍGUEZ Buying property in his home country was once “unthinkable” for Carlos Peñalver, a Venezuelan electrician who left for the United States four years ago as the economy of Venezuela fal

The city of Yaoundé, Cameroon, Dec. 4, 2025. In a secret deportation arrangement, the Trump administration flew nine people, nearly all of whom had been granted U.S. court protections from being sent back to their home countries, to the African nation of Cameroon in January. (Arlette Bashizi/The New York Times) By PRANAY BASKAR and HAMED ALEAZIZ In a secret deportation arrangement, the Trump administration flew nine people, nearly all of whom had been granted U.S. court prote