Talks of a cease-fire in Ukraine have centered on the Donbas, a valued region for both sides and where most of the fighting is taking place. Michael Schwirtz, a global intelligence correspondent, and Anatoly Kurmanaev, a foreign correspondent covering Russia, break down who the Donbas is important to and why.

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.

The closure of a factory in the small southern African nation of Lesotho is an early effect of the global disruption caused by President Trump’s tariffs. John Eligon, the Johannesburg bureau chief for The New York Times, talks with Katrin Bennhold, a senior writer, about what he has seen there.