Vue lecture

What Lobsters and Chickens Reveal About Europe’s Trade Strategy

The European Union struck a trade deal that protected political priorities, like chicken and beef standards, while allowing headline-grabbing concessions. Consider lobsters.

© Tristan Spinski for The New York Times

Freshly caught lobsters last year in Stonington, Maine.
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Is Kim Jong-un Preparing a Successor?

Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, might be preparing his young daughter, Kim Ju-ae, to become his successor. Choe Sang-Hun, the ​Seoul bureau chief for The New York Times, analyzed North Korean state propaganda to find out.
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What Putin Hopes to Gain From a Summit With Trump

The American leader has agreed to a meeting with the Russian president in Alaska next Friday to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

© Erin Schaff/The New York Times

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Trump at a bilateral meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in 2019.
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Netanyahu’s Plan for Gaza City Has Skeptics in Israeli Military

The military leadership has said it prefers a new cease-fire instead of renewed fighting, and the military’s chief of staff previously raised concerns about troop exhaustion.

© Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

Al-Sabra neighborhood in central Gaza City last month. In a statement on Friday morning, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stopped short of saying Israel would conquer the entire territory.
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What’s Behind the Thailand-Cambodia Conflict

A series of border skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia escalated into a military conflict in July that killed dozens of people and rattled the region. As negotiations take place, Sui-Lee Wee, The New York Times’s Southeast Asia bureau chief, talks to Katrin Bennhold, a senior writer on the International desk, about the context behind the evolving dispute.
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Leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan Sign Peace Pledge at White House

Armenia said it would give the U.S. exclusive development rights to a transit corridor through its territory, which will be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.

© Pool photo by Sergei Ilnitsky

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia, left, and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan at a meeting in Moscow last October. The two leaders’ declaration comes after months of shuttle diplomacy between the countries.
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Vance and Lammy Mix Fishing and Foreign Policy at UK Estate

JD Vance and his family are spending two nights at the country residence of the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, with whom he has a somewhat unlikely friendship.

© Pool photo by Suzanne Plunkett

Britain’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, left, and Vice President JD Vance on Friday at Chevening House. Mr. Lammy and Mr. Vance have cultivated a personal relationship that predated their current jobs.
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War of Words Erupts Between Colombia and Peru Over Island in Amazon

Both nations claim Santa Rosa de Yavarí, a tiny island of just 3,000 people that sits in the Amazon River, more than a thousand miles from their capitals.

© Santiago Ruiz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The island of Santa Rosa de Yavarí, foreground, sits at a border shared by Colombia, Peru and Brazil in the Amazon rainforest.
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What to Know About the Israeli Hostages Still Held in Gaza

A group representing many of the hostages’ families has said the Israeli security cabinet’s plan to take control of Gaza City could further endanger their loved ones.

© Ohad Zwigenberg/Associated Press

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip attend a rally in Jerusalem on Thursday demanding their release and calling for an end to the war in Gaza.
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Putin Briefs Leaders of China and India on Talks With U.S. on Ukraine

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia may be seeking to build support among countries that have backed Moscow or remained neutral in the conflict.

© Pool photo by Kristina Kormilitsyna

President Vladimir Putin of Russia meeting with Ajit Doval, India’s national security adviser, in Moscow on Friday, in a photo released by Russian state media.
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Mexico’s President Says U.S. Forces Are Unwelcome in Her Country

The Mexican government thought it had turned a corner in cooperating with the Trump administration on combating the cartels, having launched an aggressive crackdown of its own.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

President Trump directed the Pentagon to target drug cartels on Friday. If the Pentagon plans to deploy troops to Mexico, it could strain ties to their worst point in decades.
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Canada’s Girl Guides Suspend U.S. Trips Amid Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

The organization, Canada’s equivalent of the Girl Scouts, said it was pausing the trips out of safety concerns for its members.

© Chris Helgren/Reuters

The Peace Arch monument at the U.S.-Canada border in Surrey, British Columbia.
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‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in the Florida Everglades Is Testing Environmental Law

Officials building a Florida detention center appear to be skipping environmental reviews made mandatory decades ago after a fight over an airport at the very same spot.

© National Archives

A planned airport in the Everglades would have been the world’s biggest, but only one runway was built and it was rarely used.
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India’s Modi Left Soul-Searching After Failed Courtships of Xi and Trump

The collapse of the prime minister’s high-stakes efforts to transform ties with the world’s two superpowers has exposed the limits of India’s leverage.

© Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeing relations with President Trump break down over issues including trade with Russia.
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‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in the Florida Everglades Is Testing Environmental Law

Officials building a Florida detention center appear to be skipping environmental reviews made mandatory decades ago after a fight over an airport at the very same spot.

© National Archives

A planned airport in the Everglades would have been the world’s biggest, but only one runway was built and it was rarely used.
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New Tariff on ‘Transshipped’ Goods Mystifies Importers

The Trump administration levied a hefty tariff on goods that are moved through other countries, but it has not yet fully explained its plans.

© Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times

In addition to an extra 40 percent tariff on goods that pass through more than one country, the White House is designing rules to apply higher charges on components that go through a similar transshipment before assembly.
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Trump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartels

The president has ordered the Pentagon to use the armed forces to carry out what in the past was considered law enforcement.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

President Trump ordered the State Department to label drug cartels as terrorist organizations after taking office in January.
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Germany Says It Will Suspend Military Exports to Israel for Use in Gaza

The move followed weeks of debate over reports of hunger in Gaza, but it was precipitated by Israel’s decision to expand military operations there.

© John MacDougall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany last month. He said the country would stop exporting weapons to Israel to be used in the Gaza Strip.
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Netanyahu Broadly Criticized at Home and Abroad After New Gaza Plan

International allies and families of hostages condemned Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take control of Gaza City, with the British prime minister calling it “wrong.”

© Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem last month. His office said that the Israeli military “will prepare for taking control of Gaza City” while distributing aid to civilians “outside the combat zones.”
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Trump to Host Leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for ‘Peace Signing’

President Trump appeared eager to project confidence that an agreement could be reached in a long-intractable conflict.

© Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times

A border crossing in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2023. It has been at the center of decades of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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Russian Strikes Kill 3 in Ukraine, Which May Be Left Out of Peace Talks

“Here on the ground, we don’t feel any real changes from all these high-level meetings and statements,” a soldier said.

© Gleb Garanich/Reuters

An explosion from a Russian drone strike lit up the sky over Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday.
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As Gaza Hunger Crisis Worsens, Israel Lets in Little Aid

An increasing number of Palestinians are dying from hunger-related causes. Others are weak from months of extreme deprivation and vulnerable to illnesses in a territory short on crucial medical supplies, fuel and clean water, aid workers say.

© Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

Gazans waited to receive meals at a charity kitchen this month. Nearly one in three people in the territory is not eating for days at a time, the United Nations said.
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Can Russia’s Economy Withstand Trump’s Threats to Impose Sanctions?

The Russian economy was slowing even before President Trump’s latest threats. But the Kremlin has enough money to keep fighting in Ukraine.

© Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times

An open-air museum in Red Square commemorating the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. Amid budgetary strains, the Kremlin has protected military spending as the war in Ukraine goes on.
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The U.S. Says Britain Is Chilling Free Speech. Many Britons Point the Finger Back.

To some in the U.K., the criticisms from the American right over arrests of people for hate speech seem hypocritical, given President Trump’s attacks on those who disagree with him.

© Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Police officers at a protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in London last week. Immigration has become a lightning rod in the debate over free speech in the U.K.
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A Starfish Has Captivated Argentina. It Didn’t Ask to Be Political.

A livestream of an undersea project has captivated Argentina as President Javier Milei wields a chain saw on the budget for science.

© Schmidt Ocean Institute, via Associated Press

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Congo’s Teens Brave Bombs, Rebels and Abduction to Play Hoops

A basketball academy that offers young people a lifeline and a chance to dream is hanging on in the Congolese city of Goma, despite years of war and the chaos and violence that have followed a rebel takeover.

Hundreds of teens still venture out in the Congolese city of Goma, recently taken over by rebels, to train at a youth basketball academy.
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With Gaza City Plan, Netanyahu Risks Ending Up in Familiar Deadlock

Time and again, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has pledged to defeat Hamas by force. The decision to capture Gaza City repeats a strategy that has failed in the past.

© Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

A camp on the Gaza coast for displaced Palestinians. Many civilians in the enclave have been trapped in a dystopian nightmare by the Israeli military campaign.
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Trump Wasn’t the First to Deport These Men, and He Won’t Be the Last

Dozens of Bhutanese men ejected from the United States are now in refugee camps in Nepal, which doesn’t want them but has nowhere to send them.

© Prakash Mathema/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Bhutanese people, members of the harassed Lhotshampas ethnic minority, have lived in refugee camps in Nepal since the 1990s.
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Should Soccer Star Son Heung-min Have Held an Umbrella for a Female Reporter?

A photo of Son Heung-min set off a heated debate online that laid bare the intense emotions surrounding South Korea’s gender divide.

© Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Son Heung-min, center, before an exhibition match between Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United in Seoul on Sunday.
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South Africa’s Equity Laws, Reviled by Trump, May Complicate Tariff Talks

Slapped with a steep tariff, South African officials hope for a deal, but some worry the U.S. may insist that it roll back measures that redress the damage of apartheid.

© Eric Lee/The New York Times

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and President Trump at the White House in May.
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How a Carbon Tax Plan in Europe Survived (Mostly)

Austria tried a combination of taxes and rebates to reduce emissions.

© Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The goal of the climate tax was to prod Austrians to change their habits, like deciding to walk or take a bus rather than driving.
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Egypt Ends Rent Control System Than Aided Poor for Decades

Officials say a new law will rebalance a housing market long distorted by rigid rent controls, but many residents could be pushed out.

© Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

Even in some expensive areas of Cairo, rent control measures in place for decades have enabled some renters to pay very low prices.
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Spanish Officials Condemn City’s Ban on Religious Events as ‘Racist’

A leader in the conservative party says a measure does not “single anyone out for their beliefs,” but a branch of the far-right Vox party praised it for “banning Islamic celebrations.”

© Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters

Protests against migrants last month in Torre-Pacheco, in southeastern Spain.
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As Trump Administration Plans to Burn Contraceptives, Europeans Are Alarmed

The U.S. government intends to incinerate $9.7 million in already-purchased birth control in Belgium after U.S.A.I.D shut down. Destruction may have already started.

© Hilary Swift for The New York Times

The warehouse in Geel, Belgium, where millions of contraceptives bought by U.S.A.I.D. were stored when the U.S. government defunded the agency.
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U Myint Swe, Acting President of Myanmar Installed by Military, Dies at 74

A figurehead leader, he had little real power but did endorse measures that allowed the country’s generals to extend their rule after a 2021 coup.

© Agence France-Presse, via Myanmar Military

In a photo released by the Myanmar military, U Myint Swe attends a defense and security council meeting in Naypyidaw in 2023.
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For Putin, Trump Summit Is Key to Securing Ukraine Goals

The Russian leader sees direct talks with Trump as essential to achieving his ultimate aims in Ukraine.

© Pool photo by Mikhail Metzel

In a photo released by state media, President Vladimir V. Putin attends a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on Tuesday.
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Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Military Takeover of Gaza

The announcement appeared to stop short of saying explicitly that Israel would take full control of the Gaza Strip, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was his intention earlier.

© Ohad Zwigenberg/Associated Press

The Israeli military says it controls about 75 percent of Gaza. The coastal strip stretching from Gaza City in the north of the enclave to Khan Younis in the south is the main area that is outside Israeli control.
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She Survived a 9-Story Fall After a Russian Missile Hit Her Building

Veronika Osintseva’s story has captivated a war-weary Ukraine.

© Oksana Parafeniuk for The New York Times

Veronika Osintseva, 23, with friends at a hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. “I don’t know how I flew, but I somehow stayed alive,” she said in an interview.
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Trump and Putin to Meet in ‘Coming Days,’ Kremlin Aide Confirms

A summit between President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin would come as the United States has urged Russia to agree to a cease-fire in Ukraine or face new sanctions.

© Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia meeting in 2018 in Helsinki, Finland.
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Measles Spreads Quickly in Rural Alberta Areas That Resisted Vaccines

The virus is spreading in insular Mennonite communities. But the broader population is vulnerable as vaccine rates have fallen across the Canadian province since the Covid-19 pandemic.

© Nasuna Stuart-Ulin for The New York Times

Bow Island, Alberta is home to a large Menonite Community.
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Wind and Solar Projects Stall as Trump Cracks Down on Renewables

Federal agencies have recently issued a barrage of restrictions that could halt construction of solar and wind farms on public and private lands.

© Randi Baird for The New York Times

The Vineyard Wind project off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. The Interior Department has ordered its lawyers to review some projects that have already been approved.
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How a Pro-Palestinian Group Got Banned in Britain

Palestine Action, a pro-Palestinian group known for its direct action, was banned as a terrorism group under British law. The decision followed a break-in by the group at Britain’s largest air base, causing a political scandal. Lizzie Dearden, a security reporter, explains how this has large stakes for the legacy of direct action in protest movements in Britain.
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