The hand of President Donald Trump, during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30, 2025. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times) By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN As a real estate developer, Donald Trump is deeply familiar with the three keys to success in that industry: location, location and location. Geopolitics, it turns out, also has three keys to success: leverage, leverage and leverage. But it’s not the kind of leverage (i.e., debt) that Trump love

Adelita Grijalva, the Democratic representative-elect from Arizona, in Tucson on Oct. 24, 2025. (Jesse Rieser/The New York Times) By MICHELLE COTTLE Starting a new job can be hard. And stressful. You want to hit the ground running. You want to make a good first impression. You want to reassure the people who hired you that they made the right decision. At this point, Adelita Grijalva, the Democratic representative-elect from Arizona, is just grateful to have a key to her offi

People wait in line at Grace Place Soup Kitchen in Monroe, La., on Oct. 29 2025. The president said a lapse in SNAP funding would “largely” hurt Democrats. But interruptions to the program will also affect Republicans. (Rory Doyle/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD President Donald Trump has played fast and loose with federal law during the current government shutdown to fund the things he considers important. He has found ways to pay military service members and FBI

President Donald Trump, left, meets with Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, in Busan, South Korea, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times) By NICHOLAS KRISTOF After the U.S.-China summit planned for Thursday, President Donald Trump may crow about his deal-making skill. Aides may suggest that he deserves a Nobel Prize for negotiation — but I invite you to roll your eyes. The most important bilateral relationship in the world today is between the United State

Jayuya Mayor Jorge “Georgie” González Otero is the president of the Puerto Rico Mayors Association. By JORGE “GEORGIE” GONZÁLEZ OTERO The current freeze on the inventory tax and its eventual elimination in 2028 is a mechanism that will ultimately be paid for by the citizens of all municipalities in Puerto Rico. Certainly, there are still citizens who are unaware of the reality of what House Bill 420 means, which is designed to benefit already multimillion-dollar commercial in

A man is taken into custody by federal agents in lower Manhattan on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. “In President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration blitz, federal agents have repeatedly violated civil liberties and humiliated people,” The New York Times editorial board writes. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has become a campaign of discrimination against Latinos. Federal agents are rounding up peopl

“The proposed reparative action for Spanish citizenship is discriminatory because until 1898 it was only granted to Spaniards, but not to people of color and Taino people in Puerto Rico,” columnist Gregorio Igartúa writes. (discoverpuertorico.com) By GREGORIO IGARTÚA Special to The STAR A group of American citizens, mainly supporters of independence for Puerto Rico, are promoting that Spain grant so-called reparative Spanish citizenship to U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico with

Claude Ruzindana shows a photo of his late wife, Ndavura Musabimana, in a family album at his home in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement, Kamwenge District, Uganda, Aug. 20, 2025. Orphaned in a massacre in Congo, a onetime elementary school dropout is now an American and can teach us something about resilience. (Stuart Tibaweswa/The New York Times) By NICHOLAS KRISTOF I worry that my reporting recently from Africa about President Donald Trump’s aid cuts may leave a misimpression th