In late 2023, Israel was aiming to assassinate Ibrahim Biari, a top Hamas commander in the northern Gaza Strip who had helped plan the Oct. 7 massacres. But Israeli intelligence could not find Mr. Biari, who they believed was hidden in the network of tunnels underneath Gaza. So Israeli officers turned to a new military…
Magicians never reveal their secrets. But sometimes, they admit they were wrong. On Thursday night in London, members of a top British magic society came together to right a three-decade-old blunder: The rejection of what they now consider one of the greatest deception acts their members ever fell for. “It was an amazing ruse —…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel offered condolences Thursday on the passing of Pope Francis, more than three days after the death of the Roman Catholic world’s leader. The delay in issuing a statement highlighted apparent tensions in the relationship between Israeli officials and the pope, who pointedly criticized Israel’s conduct in the war in…
The doors opened to St. Peter’s Basilica at 5:40 a.m. on Friday, and people immediately began to trickle in to pay their last respects to Pope Francis, whose body lay in a simple wood coffin beneath the vast dome designed by Michelangelo. A couple of hours later, the trickle was a river, as thousands moved…
In the early days of the war, Sofia Tsarenko, 22, would drink with friends in Ukraine to relax. She soon found that without a bottle of wine, her anxiety would become so unbearable that she could not fall asleep. But as the war dragged on, Ms. Tsarenko said, her anxiety got worse and she became…
Israel’s military admitted on Thursday that its forces had attacked a United Nations guesthouse in Gaza with tank fire last month, killing a staff member. The attack in the Deir al Balah area on March 19 killed one U.N. staff member, a Bulgarian, and wounded six others. It prompted Secretary General António Guterres to withdraw…
A deadly blast on Sunday near a UNESCO world heritage site in Yemen’s capital was caused by a Houthi missile, not a U.S. airstrike, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command said on Thursday. The health ministry of the Houthi-led government said earlier this week that an American airstrike had hit a densely populated neighborhood of…
Trump to Putin: ‘Vladimir, STOP!’ Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv killed at least 12 people and injured 90 others yesterday. The attack prompted President Trump to express rare disapproval of Moscow. “Vladimir, STOP!” Trump posted on social media, addressing Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV….
In its heyday in the 1950s and ’60s, the Lung Wah Hotel, a converted, Spanish revival villa, offered a leafy refuge from the bustle of city life, near a cove and surrounded by parks in Hong Kong’s northern New Territories. Winding stairs, flanked by red lanterns, led to a sprawling Chinese-style garden. On summer weekends,…
President Trump made an unusually sharp appeal to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday, calling on him to stop his bombing campaign in Ukraine and agree to a peace deal after the deadliest attack on Kyiv in nearly a year. “Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are…
