For almost a week, after word leaked that the French cabinet minister Marlène Schiappa would appear on the cover of French Playboy, the country’s talking heads have debated whether it is appropriate for a self-described feminist to appear in a magazine known for its nude centerfolds. The prime minister rebuked the minister’s timing amid monthslong […]
Month: April 2023
Indian Textbooks Purged of Material Modi’s Party Finds Objectionable
When Indian children began the school year this week, students in thousands of classrooms were issued new textbooks on history and politics that either watered down or purged key details from India’s past that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party finds inconvenient to its Hindu nationalist vision for the country. The changes took aim at […]
Saudi and Iranian Foreign Ministers Meet in China After Thaw
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran held talks in Beijing on Thursday in the highest-level meeting between the regional rivals since they cut ties seven years ago, discussing the resumption of flights and the reopening of diplomatic missions. In a joint statement, the two governments said that given their natural resources and economic […]
Your Thursday Briefing
The reaction to criminal charges against Donald Trump.
McCarthy Meets With Tsai, Backing Taiwan Amid Rising Tensions With China
SIMI VALLEY, Calif.— Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday hosted a carefully choreographed series of meetings with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, underscoring the juggling act facing the United States as it tries to confront an increasingly aggressive China without precipitating a military crisis around the island. The gathering at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which unfolded […]
Biden’s Ambassador to Israel, at the Center of the Storm
WASHINGTON — Thomas R. Nides, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, was speaking in typically colorful fashion on the subject of the Israeli government’s divisive plan to reduce the power of the judiciary. U.S. officials had addressed the subject with cautious diplomatic language, using phrases like shared values and consensus building, in hopes of avoiding a […]
Russia-Ukraine War Updates: Zelensky Arrives in Poland
Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, after a visit to the State Department in Washington last month.Credit…Patrick Semansky/Associated Press WASHINGTON — A top State Department official has summoned the Russian ambassador in Washington to a meeting at the agency’s headquarters to criticize Russia’s detention of a Wall Street Journal reporter, according to a […]
Can China Make Peace in Ukraine? Macron Isn’t Saying No.
President Emmanuel Macron of France arrives in Beijing on Wednesday determined to carve out a distinct role for Europe that avoids America’s confrontation with an assertive China, and convinced that there is a place for China in ending the war in Ukraine. Battered at home by protests over his decision to raise the French retirement […]
Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights seeks to portray war crimes accusations as false.
Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who has been accused by the International Criminal Court of the war crime of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children from areas of the country occupied by Russian forces, on Tuesday rejected that characterization of her actions as “a farce” and instead sought to portray her work as a humanitarian project. Since […]
Avalanche in Indian Himalayas Kills at Least 7 Tourists, Officials Say
An avalanche in the Indian Himalayas killed at least seven tourists, the Indian Army announced on Tuesday, adding that more than 370 people were rescued from the area in the remote northeastern state of Sikkim. The avalanche, reported around noon local time, struck near Nathu La, a scenic mountain pass connecting Tibet to Gangtok, the […]