World News

The Biden administration announced an additional $9 billion in student debt relief for tens of thousands of borrowers Wednesday, days after federal student loan payments resumed after a three-year pause during the pandemic.The move gives relief through fixes to income-driven repayment plans and public service loan forgiveness, and by canceling debt for borrowers with total and permanent disabilities, the White House said in a statement.Here’s what you need to know.What does it mean? The measure will forgive some $9 billion in federal student loans to about 125,000 borrowers. The latest round of relief is part of the Biden administration’s changes to federal programs to address bureaucratic obstacles and widespread breakdowns that prevented some borrowers from having debt waived; those and...

LONDON —  For many under-18s in Britain, it’s a rite of passage: loitering outside the corner store, mustering the pluck to try to buy a package of cigarettes without their underage status being detected.But under a proposal this week by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, those now 14 or younger would never be allowed to smoke legally. In an echo of a law enacted in New Zealand in December, England would increase the legal smoking age, currently 18, by one year, every year, beginning in 2027.The announcement of one of the most stringent policies on tobacco globally was made to great fanfare by Sunak, who used his speech at the Conservative Party Conference — arguably the most important prime ministerial vehicle on the British political calendar — to unveil his plans. Although Brits have broadly e...

FIFA, global soccer’s governing body and arguably the most powerful sports organization in the world, announced this week it was lifting a ban that kept Russian teams from participating in international competitions, clearing the way for the country’s men’s and women’s teams to take part in their respective U-17 World Cups.FIFA’s decision came a week after the executive committee of UEFA, European soccer’s governing body and one whose influence in the sport is eclipsed only by FIFA, moved to lift its own boycott of Russian teams, imposed after the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russia celebrated the announcements Thursday by sending a missile into a cafe and grocery store in a tiny village in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine, killing at least 51 civilians.The fact that the missil...

Leaders of SAG-AFTRA and the major Hollywood studios are wrapping up their first week of negotiations since the 160,000-member performers union went on strike in mid-July, but the sides aren’t yet close to a deal, sources familiar with the talks said Friday.The two groups met three days this week at SAG-AFTRA’s headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, and have agreed to resume talks on Monday. The sessions have been productive, these sources said, providing an opportunity for ranking company executives to hear directly from union leaders, including SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, who has been sharply critical of industry leaders.Friday marked the 85th day of SAG-AFTRA’s strike against the major entertainment companies.“This is the fight for our lives — and for our art,” actor ...

The press should borrow a lyric from “The Sound of Music” and ask itself: “How do you solve a problem like Donald?” Or, put another way, how should journalists cover Trump’s unprecedented campaign for president while under indictment for trying to overturn an election and more?The question concerns not just Trump but also politics and campaigns more broadly in an age of fragmented media and polarized politics. The answer requires recognizing journalists’ altered role and fulfilling it with more care, preparation and diligence.Many confronting the challenge of covering Trump conclude that, as a recent column in the Arizona Republic put it, “It’s time to stop giving Trump airtime.” The larger point is that the media shouldn’t give exposure to people they know are going to make provably false...

WASHINGTON —  The Palestinian militant offensive against Israel on Saturday — possibly the deadliest and largest ever — will dramatically alter diplomatic and political calculations in the Middle East and deprive Washington of whatever leverage it has in influencing Israel, diplomats and analysts say. Vowing “mighty vengeance,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched massive airstrikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to the militant attacks that left hundreds dead and many abducted. Netanyahu declared his country at war and a full-scale but perilous ground incursion, 18 years after Israel withdrew from Gaza, is not out of the question, experts say.The looming and urgent question then will be whether fighting extends farther into the volatile region, involving Lebanon o...

Local leaders in Southern California swiftly denounced Hamas militants and increased security around Jewish institutions Saturday hours after a deadly attack killed at least 700 Israelis in the Middle East, with more than 400 in Gaza killed in counterattacks.“I join voices across the nation condemning this horrific attack on Israel,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Saturday in a statement. “The Los Angeles region has the second largest Jewish population outside of Israel, and many families are anxiously awaiting developments as they unfold. My thoughts are with those families this morning. Angelenos stand with those under siege mourning loss. May their memories be a blessing.”Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Saturday that the department added extra patrols to areas of the city...

Who would have thought, back when the women’s media landscape was dominated by Ladies’ Home Journal and Good Housekeeping, that a magazine born of the second great American feminist wave would be around 50 years later?Certainly not the late Harry Reasoner, who, as the anchor for ABC Evening News, personified the white male media establishment. Opinion Columnist Robin Abcarian “After you’ve done marriage contracts, role-changing, female identity crisis, what do you do next? Organize foods for Christmas dinner, I expect,” proclaimed Reasoner after paging through the first issue of Ms. magazine in 1972.Five years later, his portrait appeared in a full-page New York Times ad celebrating Ms.’ fifth anniversary. You couldn’t see the egg on his face, but it was ther...

MEXICO CITY —  The Biden administration has been dedicating a significant amount of time to its prickly ally and neighbor to the south, Mexico.High-level meetings have taken place in both countries over the last two weeks, with the two sides speaking of their determination to cooperate on vexing issues including migration and cross-border smuggling of fentanyl and weapons.But even as America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, extolled what he judged to be the countries’ “closest cooperation” in decades, Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was excoriating the U.S. for its foreign policy.Late last month, as Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena met with Blinken in Washington ahead of his arrival in Mexico City last week for more talks, López Obrador con...

It’s often said that Donald Trump has a cultlike following. But that’s far too benign.“Star Wars” has a cultlike following. Taylor Swift has her cult of “Swifties.” A political organization that has no platform other than loyalty to the leader is not a cult, it’s an autocratic movement.The tragicomic chaos in the House in the last week is the natural result of a political party that has lived under Trump’s thumb. It should end any pretense that the current Republican Party is a serious governing party.As Hannah Arendt wrote in “The Origins of Totalitarianism”: “Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise. The totalitarian movements, each in its own way, have done their utmost to get rid of the party prog...