By PAMODI WARAVITA and MUJIB MASHAL Sri Lanka’s recent history has been riddled with serious setbacks. But President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared that the cyclone that hit the country last week is the “largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history.” In 2004, as the island nation of 22 million was trying to wind down a decades-long civil war, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed tens of thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage. In recent years, Sri

By AARON BOXERMAN and RAWAN SHEIKH AHMAD Israeli forces killed two children in the Gaza Strip in a strike Saturday, according to the family and a Palestinian health official, amid persistent violence in the territory despite an ongoing ceasefire. Ahmed al-Farra, an official at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which received their bodies, said the two children had been killed in Bani Suheila, an eastern neighborhood of the city that is close to the so-called yellow line to whic

Pope Leo XIV is flanked by President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon and his wife, Nehmat Aoun, upon his arrival at the airport in Beirut on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. The pontiff met political leaders upon his arrival on Sunday and is scheduled to later celebrate Mass at a Beirut port destroyed by an explosion five years ago. Diego Ibarra Sánchez/The New York Times By MOTOKO RICH Shortly after takeoff from Istanbul after completing the first leg of his inaugural international trip, Pope

A holiday parade in Kranggan, a village in the Malang region of Indonesia, on Aug. 24, 2025, which featured 20 sound horegs, complete with colorful lights. A towering wall of speakers on wheels, shaking everything in sight: In many Javanese villages, there’s no big celebration without one. (Ulet Ifansasti/The New York Times) By HASYA NINDITA The red truck was decked out in blue, yellow and neon lights. It was hauling speakers racked 12 feet high and almost 15 feet wide. It tr

People cast their vote at Gentofte Town Hall, north of Copenhagen, Denmark, Nov. 18, 2025. Local issues like parking and housing costs were at play, as was migration policy. (Charlotte de la Fuente/The New York Times) By JEANNA SMIALEK and AMELIA NIERENBERG Britain’s government is joining the rest of Europe in taking a stricter stance on asylum, turning to the country that has become something of a migration role model: Denmark. Right-wing parties across Europe have sought fo

Former President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil at his party’s headquarters in Brasília, Jan. 14, 2025. Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025, ordered Bolsonaro to start serving a 27-year sentence for overseeing a failed plot to hold onto power after losing the country’s last election. (Victor Moriyama/The New York Times) By ANA IONOVA Brazil’s Supreme Court earlier this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to start serving a 27-year sentence for overseeing a fai

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at a campaign rally in Guanare, Venezuela, on July 17, 2024, days before the presidential election. As President Donald Trump raises pressure on President Nicolás Maduro, Machado is also moving to align herself closely with Trump. (Adriana Loureiro Fernández/The New York Times) By SIMON ROMERO As the Trump administration weighs using force to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, former diplomats and even some promi

President Donald Trump with Xi Jinping, China’s leader, in Busan, South Korea, Oct. 30, 2025. President Trump said he had accepted an invitation from China’s leader to visit Beijing in April. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times) By ANA SWANSON, ALAN RAPPEPORT and EDWARD WONG President Donald Trump said earlier this week that he had accepted an invitation from Xi Jinping, China’s leader, to visit Beijing in April. That occurred while the two leaders discussed several major issues