World

Ever since a shipwreck washed ashore in the remote Canadian coastal area of Cape Ray on the island of Newfoundland in late January, it’s been causing a stir in the small community of about 250 people.Residents have posed for pictures with parts of the wooden ship, which a local hunter spotted and which is believed to be from the 19th century. They’ve encouraged the authorities to secure the structure. And they’ve speculated on social media about its mysterious origins.The posts, on a community page on Facebook, caught the attention of a local photographer, Corey Purchase, who lives 15 minutes from the area. He used a drone to take aerial photos showing the scale of the vessel, which he estimated to be about 90 feet long.“The drone put it into perspective for sure,” he said. “It was a prett...

As Israel awaited a signal from Egyptian and Qatari mediators about whether Hamas’s military leaders were prepared to advance talks on a possible cease-fire and hostage release, differences among the families of the more than 100 captives remaining in Gaza were emerging.Some are pushing for a deal at all costs, while others are urging the government to fight on against Hamas until victory. For months, the families of the hostages have been a key — and largely united — voice in putting pressure on the Israeli government to prioritize efforts to secure their release. Now some are backing calls for a tougher stance toward Hamas, including blocking all aid to Gaza, even as the government is under international pressure to increase humanitarian assistance.Those differences have added to politic...

On President Biden’s first day in office, he paused nearly all deportations. He vowed to end the harsh practices of the Trump administration, show compassion toward those wishing to come to the United States and secure the southern border.For Mr. Biden, it was a matter of principle. He wanted to show the world that the United States was a humane nation, while also demonstrating to his fellow citizens that government could work again.But those early promises have largely been set aside as chaos engulfs the border and imperils Mr. Biden’s re-election hopes. The number of people crossing into the United States has reached record levels, more than double than in the Trump years. The asylum system is still all but broken.On Friday, in a dramatic turnaround from those early days, the president i...

One is accused of kidnapping a woman. Another is said to have handed out ammunition. A third was described as taking part in the massacre at a kibbutz where 97 people died. And all were said to be employees of the United Nations aid agency that schools, shelters and feeds hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.The accusations are contained in a dossier provided to the United States government that details Israel’s claims against a dozen employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency who, it says, played a role in the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7 or in their aftermath.The U.N. said on Friday that it had fired several employees after being briefed on the allegations. But little was known about the accusations until the dossier was reviewed on Sunday by The...

Venezuela’s highest court ruled on Friday that a top opposition leader cannot run for president, dealing a crippling blow to prospects for credible elections that the government had agreed to hold this year in exchange for the lifting of crippling U.S. economic sanctions.The court’s decision bars the opposition figure, María Corina Machado, from taking part in an election for 15 years, upholding the Venezuelan government’s decision to exclude Ms. Machado over what it claimed were financial irregularities that occurred when she was a national legislator.The move comes after Ms. Machado overwhelmingly won an opposition primary election for president that was held in October without official government support and in which more than 2.4 million Venezuelans voted. Analysts say Ms. Machado pose...

Ukrainian officials pressed their efforts on Thursday to uncover the details of a deadly plane crash over the border in Russia, asking for patience from citizens while they investigated Moscow’s claims that Ukraine had shot down a Russian military aircraft carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war.President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called for his country’s intelligence agency to determine what had happened and for an international investigation into the crash, while also accusing Russia of engaging in wartime propaganda over the episode.The crash, and Russia’s claims that Ukraine had downed a plane with its own soldiers aboard, poses a vexing challenge for a government in Kyiv trying to brace its citizens for a third year of war. Ukraine is on the defensive on the battlefield and contemplat...

A Canadian court found that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the country’s Emergencies Act to end a truck convoy protest that had paralyzed the capital, Ottawa, two years ago was an unjustified infringement of civil rights, including the protection against unreasonable search and seizure, and, in some instances, the freedom of expression as well.The Federal Court of Canada decision also found that the freezing of bank accounts of people linked to the protest was similarly unjustified, but it dismissed arguments that the government had violated a variety of other rights, including those linked to peaceful assembly.The decision, which will be appealed, was the first instance of a court delivering a rebuke to Mr. Trudeau over his handling of the protest, which began on Jan. 28, 2022, an...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel doubled down on his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state this weekend, again rebuffing pressure from President Biden to agree to that path after the war in Gaza is over.“My insistence is what has prevented — over the years — the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement in Hebrew on Sunday. “As long as I am prime minister, I will continue to strongly insist on this.”The statement reiterated comments he made on social media the previous day, when he said in Hebrew that he “will not compromise on full Israeli security control of the entire area west of the Jordan River — and that is irreconcilable with a Palestinian state.”Mr. Netanyahu’s comment...

This week, the provincial government in Ontario announced that it was expanding the number of private clinics providing medical services.Right now, Ontario has about 900 such clinics, and they mostly offer medical imaging and cataract surgeries. Sylvia Jones, the province’s health minister, said this week that the government was expanding its program to include hip and knee replacements.The province is being careful not to violate the Canada Health Act by requiring people to pay for medically necessary procedures. That would jeopardize the 20 billion Canadian dollars the province will receive this year from the federal government for health care. While the clinics will be privately operated, their procedures will be covered under the provincial health care plan as if they had been performe...

A member of Israel’s war cabinet exposed deep rifts in the group, criticizing the prime minister in a television interview broadcast on Thursday, and dismissing the possibility that the Israeli military might rescue more hostages while saying bluntly that Israel had yet to fully realize its objectives in Gaza.The cabinet member, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, told Uvda, an Israeli news program: “We didn’t topple Hamas.”“Today,” he added, “the situation in Gaza is such that the war aims have yet to be achieved.” General Eisenkot, a retired military chief of staff, is a nonvoting member of Israel’s five-person war cabinet, which has been making many of the most important decisions related to the fight in Gaza. He joined Israel’s emergency wartime government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...