Newsletter The Morning With tensions rising in Taiwan, we look at the shared interests of China, Russia and Iran. Vladimir Putin, left, and Xi Jinping in Beijing in February.Credit...Pool photo by Alexei Druzhinin Aug. 2, 2022Updated 5:23 p.m. ET Vladimir Putin has traveled outside the boundaries of the former Soviet Union only twice this year. Once was to visit China in February, and once was to visit Iran last month, my colleague David Sanger points out. Those two countries obviously have...

Zeke, a white and gray short-haired cat with a penchant for taking down rats, is known in his Boston neighborhood as a fearless prowler. Once, a neighbor called his owner, Tricia Brennan, sounding slightly panicked. “‘Zeke is in the back and seems to be antagonizing a raccoon,’” the neighbor said, according to Ms. Brennan, a Unitarian Universalist minister. “‘What do I do?’” The showdown ended when the neighbor scared off both creatures with a broom, but the story only cemented the...

LIVENancy Pelosi Taiwan Visit Aug. 2, 2022Updated 6:05 p.m. ET Shortly after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane touched down in Taiwan, China’s military said it would conduct drills that appeared to infringe on Taiwan’s territorial waters, setting the stage for a potential showdown over the self-governed island between China and the United States. Beijing announced plans for six zones encircling Taiwan where it said it would carry out live-fire military drills from Thursday to Sunday, according to a statement released by Xinhua,...

Video Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the highest-level U.S. official to visit Taiwan in 25 years, raising tensions with China, which bristles at any perceived challenge to its claims on the self-ruled island.CreditCredit...Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Aug. 2, 2022Updated 6:51 p.m. ET TAIPEI, Taiwan — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday, casting aside private warnings from the Biden administration about the risk that her high-profile diplomatic visit could stoke a new crisis in Asia and immediately drawing a...

Al Qaeda Drone Strike Afghanistan Aug. 1, 2022, 6:33 p.m. ET Aug. 1, 2022, 6:33 p.m. ETOsama bin Laden with Ayman al-Zawahri in 2001.Credit...Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn, via Reuters Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian-born surgeon-turned-jihadist who assumed the leadership of Al Qaeda after the killing of Osama bin Laden and who died at 71 in a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, over the weekend, according to U.S. officials, led a life steeped in secrecy, betrayal, conspiracy and violence, most murderously in...

The U.S. has announced $550 million in additional arms for Ukraine as it gears up to defend its eastern regions, which Ukrainian officials have asked civilians to flee before winter. Ukrainian residents of the frontline town of Bakhmut waited with their bags to be evacuated on Tuesday.Credit...David Guttenfelder for The New York Times Aug. 2, 2022, 7:00 p.m. ET At least 140,000 residential buildings in Ukraine destroyed or damaged. More than 3.5 million people left homeless. More than 12 million displaced....

The terrorist network has lost eight of its top leaders in recent years. But it has more total fighters than it did on Sept. 11, 2001. Ayman al-Zawahri in 1998. His death will most likely have little impact on the day-to-day operations of Qaeda franchises, counterterrorism specialists said.Credit...AP Photo/Mazhar Ali Khan Aug. 2, 2022, 7:57 p.m. ET WASHINGTON — No terrorist group, not even the Islamic State, has had the notoriety and immediate name recognition of Al Qaeda. But the killing of...

News Analysis From her first days in Congress, the future speaker was willing to confront China’s leaders. As she looked toward her legacy, the California Democrat was not about to back down this time. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was in keeping with her deep-seated position that China must be held to account for its posture toward Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as its treatment of ethnic minorities and political activists.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times Aug. 2, 2022Updated 7:58...

news analysis President Biden now confronts the question of what, if anything, he will do in response to the revelation that the Taliban were again sheltering a leader of Al Qaeda. The Biden administration has not outlined consequences for the Taliban’s sheltering of Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s leader, who was killed in a drone strike.Credit...Pool photo by Jim Watson Aug. 2, 2022Updated 8:02 p.m. ET WASHINGTON — The sunrise missile strike that shredded the leader of Al Qaeda on the balcony...

Russian Invasion of UkraineA Pride parade in Kyiv, Ukraine, last year. The war has spurred efforts to secure equal rights for L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians, including the right to marry.Credit...Efrem Lukatsky/Associated PressAug. 2, 2022Updated 8:53 p.m. ET President Volodymyr Zelensky, responding on Tuesday to a citizen petition that called for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Ukraine, raised the prospect of “civil partnerships,” but said the Constitution’s definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman could not be changed...