WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is calling for the creation of a joint tribunal in which Ukraine and international allies would try Russian leaders for crimes of aggression, but some human rights lawyers worry the plan has a fatal flaw: It might shield President Vladimir V. Putin from prosecution. Beth Van Schaack, the State Department’s […]
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After walking down a path where enslaved people once marched in chains to waiting ships, Vice President Kamala Harris entered a dungeon in Cape Coast, Ghana, where captive women had sung songs praying for death. If nothing else, her tour guide said on Tuesday, they believed death would bring freedom. Ms. Harris, wiping her face […]
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WASHINGTON — A political crisis in Israel and setbacks to democracy in several other major countries closely allied with the United States are testing the Biden administration’s defense of democracy against a global trend toward the authoritarianism of nations like Russia and China. President Biden will deliver remarks on Wednesday at the second White House-led […]
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In a sign of easing tensions in Israel after the suspension of a contentious judicial overhaul, the United States ambassador to Israel said on Tuesday that President Biden would host the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington in the coming months. The announcement of such a meeting, long coveted by Mr. Netanyahu, came after […]
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Thank goodness that Israel’s civil society has forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause, for now, his attempt to impose his control over Israel’s independent judiciary and gain a free hand to rule as he wishes. But this whole affair has exposed a new and troubling reality for the United States: For the first time, […]
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WASHINGTON — The United States and Japan have reached an agreement over supplies of the critical minerals used to make car batteries, a deal that will likely put to rest a contentious issue in the relationship with Japan and could be a model for resolving similar disputes with other trading partners. The agreement provides a […]
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WASHINGTON — In the 48 hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reluctantly delayed his effort to overhaul the Israeli judiciary, his government was bombarded by warnings from the Biden administration that he was imperiling Israel’s reputation as the true democracy at the heart of the Middle East. In a statement on Sunday night, soon after […]
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JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he was delaying his government’s campaign to exert greater control over the judiciary, backing off in the face of furious public protest that has plunged Israel into one of the deepest crises of its history. In recent weeks, Mr. Netanyahu had been unyielding in his […]
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WASHINGTON — A few days after an American civilian contractor in Iraq died in a rocket attack by Iran-backed militias in December 2019, President Donald J. Trump retaliated by ordering a drone strike that killed a top Iranian general. After a U.S. civilian contractor was killed and six other Americans were injured on Thursday in […]
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Vice President Kamala Harris has begun a weeklong tour of Ghana and two other African nations as the Biden administration hopes to set a new path for U.S.-Africa ties that focuses on collaboration rather than crises, a trip seen as a significant step toward revitalizing a relationship with Africa that was widely thought to be […]
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TAIPEI, Taiwan — Honduras has severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of recognizing China, dealing a blow to Taipei’s international standing and Washington’s diplomatic efforts in Central America. The diplomatic win for China further reduced the small number of countries that have ties with Taiwan, the island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory. […]
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At precisely midnight, two officers pulled a black tarp and plastic sheet off a newly erected sign at what has been the most famous unofficial border crossing in Canada, Roxham Road. “STOP. DO NOT CROSS,” it told asylum seekers in French and English, warning that if they did come into Canada, they might be sent […]
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OTTAWA — President Biden used his first official trip to Canada since taking the Oval Office to underscore what he called an “inseparable” relationship between the United States and its northern neighbor, which had become badly frayed during the presidency of Donald J. Trump. In place of Mr. Trump’s belittling comments about Prime Minister Justin […]
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WASHINGTON — In February 2021, when President Biden sat down at the Resolute Desk for a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, he was in the mood to reminisce about their decades-long relationship: Who would have thought, the new president mused from his Oval Office perch, that they would both end up […]
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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine traveled to the southern region of Kherson on Thursday in his second trip near the front line in two straight days, visiting areas ravaged by Russia’s campaign to destroy energy infrastructure. Mr. Zelensky’s visit, which he chronicled on the Telegram messaging app, came a day after his trip to the contested eastern city […]
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So I guess we’re in a new cold war. Leaders of both parties have become China hawks. There are rumblings of war over Taiwan. Xi Jinping vows to dominate the century. I can’t help wondering: What will this cold war look like? Will this one transform American society the way the last one did? The […]
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One issue that would be raised in this context, Ms. Blais said, is that of the critical minerals that power electric vehicle batteries, like lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt. China dominates the global processing of these important materials, and U.S. officials have begun holding talks with allies about new sourcing arrangements. Canada has large reserves […]
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In late 1978, China’s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping set in motion two major policy shifts that would change China and the world order in the decades to come. At a Communist Party meeting in December of that year, the leadership declared that China would turn its focus from political struggle to economic development. Within days, […]
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SOGAKOPE, Ghana — Troops clad in black jumped out of motorboats near a riverside resort and made their way along a wood-slat fence to their objective: a building where terrorists had seized a high-level government official. Shots rang out and the troops returned fire. They soon emerged from the one-story structure with the freed hostage, […]
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OTTAWA — Nearly every day at Roxham Road, people cross over from the United States into the arms of the Canadian police and ask for asylum. When President Biden arrives in Canada’s capital on Thursday for his first visit to the country since taking the Oval Office, the influx of migrants at that road, an […]
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When Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida made headlines recently by undercutting U.S. support for Ukraine, Republican hawks, many of whom cling to him as their only hope to defeat former President Donald J. Trump, wondered if they had misread him as an ideological ally. Mr. DeSantis ditched his previous backing for Ukraine to align himself […]
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They are the last survivors of an international crisis that hobbled Jimmy Carter’s presidency and may have cost him re-election. Many are now in their 80s. With the former president gravely ill in hospice care, some of the 52 Americans who were held hostage in Iran for 444 days are looking back on Mr. Carter’s […]
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China’s leader, Xi Jinping, flew into Moscow this week cast by Beijing as its emissary for peace in Ukraine. His summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, however, demonstrated that his priority remains shoring up ties with Moscow to gird against what he sees as a long campaign by the United States to hobble […]
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There was a time when all roads to peace went through Washington. From the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt brokered by President Jimmy Carter to the 1993 Oslo Accords signed on the White House lawn to Senator George Mitchell’s Good Friday Agreement that ended the fighting in Northern Ireland in 1998, America […]
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WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick B. Garland makes a point of refusing to discuss active investigations, but during a recent trip to Ukraine he broke form, revealing that U.S. prosecutors had identified “several specific” Russians suspected of war crimes against one or more Americans. Despite Mr. Garland’s assessment, the possibility of identifying Russians who targeted […]
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Standing side by side in a show of partnership unshaken by Russia’s yearlong war in Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, began talks in Moscow on Monday with boasts of their close ties and only understated mention of the conflict itself. Though the war and the schisms it has exposed […]
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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Monday said that the visit to Moscow by China’s president days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, amounts to Beijing providing “diplomatic cover for Russia to continue to commit” war crimes. President Xi Jinping’s visit “suggests that China feels […]
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Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. I guess we have to talk about Donald Trump’s potential indictment and arrest, right? But before we go there: You know how I told you that I’d vote for Ron DeSantis over Joe Biden? Well, never mind. Gail Collins: Bret! You’re gonna vote for our big-spending president? Student-loan forgiver? Tax-the-richer? Bret: […]
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Lithium, the common ingredient in almost all electric-car batteries, has become so precious that it is often called white gold. But something surprising has happened recently: The metal’s price has fallen, helping to make electric vehicles more affordable. Since January, the price of lithium has dropped by nearly 20 percent, according to Benchmark Minerals, even […]
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Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is scheduled to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Moscow this week in the most high-profile visit by any world leader to Russia since before the pandemic. Coming more than a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the meeting will be watched closely by Western officials […]
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Fueled by guns, gold and social media, the rivalry between Russia and the West in Africa is rapidly escalating. The latest flashpoint is Chad, a sprawling desert nation at the crossroads of the continent, now a plum target for Russia’s expanding effort. The United States recently warned Chad’s president that Russian mercenaries […]
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