Three military-ruled countries have officially withdrawn from the West African regional alliance known as ECOWAS, the bloc said on Wednesday, defying pressure from the group to return the countries to civilian democratic rule. The alliance, the Economic Community of West African States, offers its members visa-free travel, favorable trade tariffs and access to a $702 […]

Rachel Reeves, Britain’s top finance official, on Wednesday laid out plans to revive the country’s flagging economy, including supporting the addition of a third runway at Heathrow Airport, after her first budget rocked business confidence. An additional runway is “badly needed” to increase trade and investment, Ms. Reeves said in a speech to business executives. […]

A watchdog group on Wednesday accused the Catholic Church in the Philippines of a culture of impunity, saying it had found scores of priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children and that many remain in active ministry. The group, Bishop Accountability, said it had identified 82 priests and brothers with links to the […]

Building on their momentum in eastern Ukraine, Russian forces have seized control of yet another small town, military experts say, taking another step in their grinding push to conquer the entire Donetsk region. Battlefield maps from independent groups analyzing satellite images and combat footage show that the town, Velyka Novosilka, is now under Russian control, […]

Jordan Jacobs, an investor at the venture capital firm Radical Ventures, has spent the last few days fielding half a dozen calls from his firm’s investors. All of them wanted to know about DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence app that topped the app stores over the weekend. DeepSeek had created a powerful A.I. model with […]

After more than a year of Israeli bombardment in Gaza, there were few blessings left for Talal and Samar al-Najjar to count by the time a cease-fire deal was agreed to this month. Their home was in ruins, they and their children were displaced, and they were staving off hunger. Yet they counted themselves lucky: […]

For two summers during high school, instead of joining her classmates at the beach, Noura Ghazoui had an internship at the town hall of her hometown, Borghetto Santo Spirito, on the Ligurian coast. But when she tried to apply for a job there at age 19, she found herself ineligible because, like hundreds of thousands […]

The Vatican called for constant oversight of artificial intelligence on Tuesday, warning about the potential for “the shadow of evil” in the technology, which it said offered “a source of tremendous opportunities but also profound risks.” In a new document meant to advise the Catholic faithful, the church warned that the technology should be used […]

Many people were feared to have been killed early Wednesday after millions of Hindu pilgrims at the Maha Kumbh Mela, a huge festival in the Indian city of Prayagraj, rushed to bathe in holy river waters on what is considered one of the most auspicious dates in the Hindu calendar. As pilgrims rushed to the […]

Chaos and uncertainty after Trump freezes spending A federal judge yesterday temporarily blocked an order by President Trump to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans. Separately, Democratic attorneys general in 22 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the order, saying Trump had gone far beyond his legal powers. […]