The rapper-turned-flutist improvised in the middle of The Times’ office following a wide-ranging conversation on Popcast.

© Andre D. Wagner for The New York Times

Israeli fighter jets have launched hundreds of airstrikes, while soldiers have seized a buffer zone and captured military posts in territory formerly under Syrian control.

The Israeli prime minister remains in power.

© Pool photo by Menahem Kahana

The Israeli prime minister remains in power.

“This is what his nightmares are all about,” said a lawyer for a now-confessed war criminal who spent years at Guantánamo Bay.

Over the next four years, the toxic and seemingly unending psychodrama between the United States and Iran may very well see its final act.

Protecting land and appointing judges could go a long way toward bolstering Biden’s legacy.

Foreign leaders have rushed to ingratiate themselves with Donald J. Trump in recent days, nervously recalling the clashes, insults and feuds of his first presidency.

Shanghai straddles the past and the future, a dizzying prism of many histories and cultures. The poet Sally Wen Mao shares books that illuminate this cosmopolitan city.

Xi Jinping’s top adviser, Wang Huning, is credited with shaping the authoritarianism that steered China’s rise. But can he influence Taiwan?