It has been a chaotic few weeks in geopolitics. At the beginning of the month, President Trump announced tariffs that threw the global economy into turmoil. Investors panicked, stock markets plunged, and analysts predicted an imminent recession. Mr. Trump insisted that he would not change course, even as trillions of dollars in market value vaporized….
The Trump administration could cut nearly 50 percent of the State Department’s funding next fiscal year, according to an internal memo laying out a downsizing plan being given serious consideration by department leaders, said two U.S. officials. The plan was drawn up as the White House pressures agencies to make significant budget cuts. The memo,…
President Trump has said Russia’s deadly missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy was “a mistake,” calling it a “horrible thing” even as members of his administration went further with condemnation that served as a rare critique of Moscow while the White House is pushing for a cease-fire. Two ballistic missiles killed at least…
As Canada barrels through one of the stormiest periods in its history toward an April 28 federal election, there’s a name that’s not on the ballot but is on people’s minds: Danielle Smith. Ms. Smith, the premier of Alberta, the Western province often called the Texas of Canada because of its oil, ranches and conservative…
El Salvador refused to return a U.S. deportee At a White House meeting with President Trump, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said yesterday that he would not return a man who was wrongly deported from the U.S. and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador. “Of course I’m not going to do it,” Bukele…
Pope Francis on Monday placed Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan modernist once called “God’s architect” for his work on the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s world-famous basilica, on the path to sainthood. Francis recognized his “heroic virtues” and authorized a decree declaring him “venerable,” a move toward sainthood, the Vatican said in a statement. For the next step,…
Mehul Choksi, a wealthy diamond dealer whom India has sought in connection with a fraud case involving one of India’s largest state-run banks, has been arrested in Belgium, his lawyer said on Monday. Mr. Choksi, 65, is wanted on charges relating to an attempt to defraud the publicly owned Punjab National Bank of nearly $1.8…
Emboldened by President Trump, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary on Monday escalated his culture war against what he calls “gender madness,” after his governing party voted to amend the Constitution to mandate that all Hungarians are either male or female. The amendment proposed by the government was endorsed by Parliament, where the prime minister’s…
It may not have been the tax-evasion trial of the century — the second century, that is — but it was of such gravity that the defendants faced charges of forgery, fiscal fraud and the sham sale of slaves. Tax dodging is as old as taxation itself, but these particular offenses were considered so serious…
Pete Marocco, who worked with Elon Musk’s team to oversee the gutting of foreign aid and the dismantling of the main U.S. aid agency, has left the State Department, administration officials said on Monday. The abrupt departure comes in the middle of the department’s efforts to merge the remnants of that aid group, the U.S….
