Farming equipment and buildings heavily damaged by Russian strikes and previous occupation in Ukraine’s southern region of Mykolvaiv, on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. Strikes by both Moscow and Kyiv on shipping in the Black Sea leave farmers facing ruin and could cause another worldwide food shock. (Jedrzej Nowicki/The New York Times) By CARLOTTA GALL and KAMILA HRABCHUK It was a bumper harvest this year and barns in southern Ukraine are filled with great golden mounds of grain. Ye

A swollen river near flood-damaged buildings in Devighat, Nepal, after floods caused by a glacier breaking in the Himalayas, Aug. 28, 2026. Putting the cost of recovery at $5 billion, a senior Nepali official said his country had requested urgent financial help from the United Nations’ special fund for climate-disaster recovery. (Atul Loke/The New York Times) By CHICO HARLAN Putting the cost of recovery at $5 billion, a senior Nepali official said his country had requested ur

President Donald Trump, left, attends a state banquet with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times) By DAVID PIERSON Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Central Asia this week with a message for a world increasingly unsettled by President Donald Trump: China has friends and influence, and is prepared to help shape what comes next. The scene unfolded at a security summit in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, where Xi gather

Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist assemblywomen, close ally of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a candidate for the U.S. House in the 13th Congressional District, during a break at the Panamerican Congress, an annual meeting of leftist political leaders from across the Americas, in Montevideo, Uruguay, Aug. 22, 2026. The success of progressive candidates in the United States is inspiring leftists abroad struggling under pressure from the Trump administration and its alli

By AARON BOXERMAN The United States and Iran exchanged attacks for the first time in a month overnight Monday, underscoring how a war that President Donald Trump had promised would be over quickly has repeatedly frustrated his attempts to end it. The U.S. military said Sunday that its forces had bombarded Iranian troops on Larak Island that were preparing to launch rockets armed with mines into the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping corridor for oil and gas that Iran has bl

Houses damaged and partially submerged in thick mud and debris from the flood, in Devighat, Nepal, on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. A massive landslide and glacial collapse may have caused catastrophic flooding even without heavy rainfall. More than 4,200 people remained missing on Monday. (Atul Loke/The New York Times) By ZANE IRWIN and LYNSEY CHUTEL The tally of people missing after catastrophic Himalayan floods jumped Monday as disaster authorities said more than 4,200 people wer

Delcy Rodriguez, the interim president of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela on April 30, 2026. Venezuela nationalized its oil resources in the 1970s. Rodríguez’s decision to turn over much of that oil to the U.S. government represents an astounding about-face, one that few Venezuelans could have imagined before the January attack. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) By JULIE TURKEWITZ Many Venezuelans suspected that there was going to be a price to pay for President Donald Trump’

Steel plates marked with identification numbers at a mass burial site in the Devghat forest area of Bharatpur, Nepal, on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. Five days after an angry deluge tore through the mountain passes of Nepal, family members arriving after long journeys looked for something — anything — that could identify their loved ones amid the hundreds of mangled bodies. (Atul Loke/The New York Times) By SAJAL PRADHAN and MUJIB MASHAL Five days after an angry deluge tore through

Olga Mabel Campo, a Mapuche community leader whose son was injured while working in the oil industry, in Añelo, Argentina, on June 19, 2026. Members of the Mapuche Indigenous community have been among the most vocal critics of the oil and gas industry’s development. (Sarah Pabst/The New York Times) By EMMA BUBOLA Much of the sun-bleached desert in northwest Patagonia looks like it did 100 million years ago: a vast, prehistoric expanse where the world’s biggest dinosaurs once

Children are carried to a rescue helicopter by military personnel in the disaster-stricken Rasuwa district near Nepal’s border with Tibet, on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. Emergency workers and helicopters scoured steep Himalayan valleys on Thursday in a desperate search for survivors after a torrent of water, mud and ice killed hundreds — and perhaps many more — as it swept through a river valley that runs through Tibet and Nepal. More than 1,400 people are still missing. (Atul L