These nuns in Brazil went viral for beatboxing. Now, they’re using their newfound fame to draw attention to the Catholic church and to their congregation’s mission. Jack Nicas, the Brazil bureau chief for The New York Times, goes behind the scenes as the nuns record their first music video.

Christina Goldbaum, a New York Times reporter, and Katrin Bennhold, a senior writer on the international desk, discuss how the power dynamics in the Middle East could change as Iran has become more isolated.

After one of the most brutal wars of this century, a new flag flies across Syria: the emblem of the rebels who toppled the dictator Bashar al-Assad. Ben Hubbard, The New York Times’s Istanbul bureau chief, describes what our journalists learned as they drove across Syria, meeting people in towns and cities along the way as they strove to rise from the wreckage and build new lives.