 |
| Demonstrators rallied in Tehran yesterday, showing support for Iran’s military. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times |
Iran and Israel both claimed victory as their truce took hold
A cease-fire between Israel and Iran seemed to be holding as of this morning, as Israel’s military lifted wartime restrictions and Iran’s president hailed “the end of a 12-day war that was imposed on the Iranian people.” Earlier, President Trump had lashed out at both nations for attacking each other after he’d announced the truce. Here’s the latest.
Iran and Israel, both of which claim to have prevailed in the conflict, gave competing explanations yesterday for their strikes after the cease-fire was announced. But their comments throughout the day suggested that both sides wanted the cease-fire to last.
In a post on social media, Trump claimed that U.S. strikes on Sunday had destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But a preliminary Pentagon report suggested that the bombing had set back Iran’s nuclear program by just a few months, and Israeli defense officials said they had evidence that the underground facilities at one site were not destroyed. A White House spokeswoman called the Pentagon report “flat-out wrong.”
Next steps: Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has expressed a willingness to return to nuclear talks with the U.S.
Quotable: “Iran is the weakest it’s been in decades,” my colleague Christina Goldbaum said. “A large part of that is that, right now, Iran is incredibly isolated.” Hear more from Christina.
 |
| President Trump at a Dutch royal palace in The Hague yesterday. Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times |
A NATO summit focused on keeping Trump happy
NATO leaders will convene today in The Hague for a meeting focused on increases in military spending, which President Trump has demanded.
Any doubts about the wisdom of the war in Iran or the American intervention in it are likely to be suppressed. The elephant in the room will be Russia, and Trump’s ambivalent relationship with it. Trump has shown intermittent frustration with the Kremlin for resisting a cease-fire in Ukraine, yet he declined to impose sanctions and even pushed for Russia to return to what was once the Group of 8.
Go deeper: Trump wants NATO countries to spend 5 percent of G.D.P. on their militaries, up from the current pledge of 2 percent. Not all members of the alliance have committed to the higher figure.
Related: Germany plans to raise its military spending to 3.5 percent of its economic output by 2026, and to spend more to improve its crumbling infrastructure.
 |
| Syria is rebuilding after one of the century’s most brutal wars. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times |
A journey across the new Syria
A new Syria is rising from the disastrous legacy of the toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad. The people are free, but the toll is grim — more than half a million killed in long years of war, and millions more displaced.
Times journalists traveled for weeks over hundreds of kilometers of pockmarked highways and dirt roads, speaking with masked gunmen, jubilant children and scores of other Syrians as they rebuilt their lives. Here’s what my colleagues saw, from Damascus, the capital, to a village where Assad’s plunderers “stole all the roofs.”
| MORE TOP NEWS |
 |
| A.J. Mast for The New York Times |
| Tech: On 1,200 acres of cornfield in Indiana, Amazon is building one of the largest computers ever, supersized for A.I. New York City: Zohran Mamdani, a little-known state lawmaker with a progressive platform, surged into the lead in the Democratic mayoral primary. China: The country has installed large steel structures in the sea near South Korea. China says they’re fish farms, but South Korea fears that they’ll have other uses. Royals: A memorial for Queen Elizabeth II is planned for London Park, with two statues and a tiara-inspired bridge. U.S.: As America dismantles its global information infrastructure, rivals like China and Russia are cheering — and rushing to fill the vacuum. Crime: The police in London have asked for help in tracking down a 285-year-old violin that was stolen from a pub. Animals: Mish and Lucy, a pair of 5-year-old sibling bears in southwest England, broke out of their enclosure. Then, they helped themselves to a trove of honey. |
Climate
| Canada: Extreme heat has settled over Toronto and parts of eastern Canada for the third day in a row, pushing many Canadians indoors to seek air-conditioned relief. |
| U.S.: States from Florida to Massachusetts are experiencing their hottest temperatures of the year so far. California: The wildfires in January destroyed thousands of homes. Some that survived look fine on the outside, but inside they’re laced with toxic chemicals. |
| SPORTS NEWS |
 |
| H.F. Davis/Topical Press Agency — Getty Images |
| Soccer: How did “football” become “soccer” in America? Tennis: Why tennis defaults and disqualifications for racket smashes need a change of perspective. Cricket: Jasprit Bumrah is a rare talent at the peak of his powers. He has a case to be the best fast bowler ever. |
| MORNING READ |
 |
| Matthew Abbott for The New York Times |
Niall and Michelle Gibson are the latest in a long line of “Flying Padres” — the chaplains who fly across Australia’s vast, sparsely populated Northern Territory.
Making their stops in a rickety, 20-year-old Cessna-182, the married ministers handle the usual services, like baptisms, weddings and funerals, as well as lending an ear to people for whom isolation is a daily reality.
| CONVERSATION STARTERS |
 |
| Julien’s Auctions; Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images |
| A princess’ possessions: A trove of Princess Diana’s belongings, including her Lady Dior handbag, is up for auction this week. ‘The ick’: How to handle the sudden pang of aversion that can torpedo a relationship. A weighty heist: How did thieves steal two sculptures that together weighed 6,000 pounds? Optimize your pack: Packing problems can confound mathematicians as much as travelers. See some of their solutions. |
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
 |
| Illustration by Christoph Niemann |
Does art need artists?
Generative A.I. can turn a few prompts into something that looks like it came from an artist’s studio. But can art made by machines be as meaningful as that made by humans?
Christoph Niemann, an illustrator, considered many of the conundrums and opportunities that A.I. creates for artists in this lavishly drawn piece for The New York Times Magazine. “My survival as an artist,” he writes, “will depend on whether I’ll be able to offer something that A.I. can’t: drawings that are as powerful as a birthday doodle from a child.”
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
 |
| Nico Schinco for The New York Times |
Cook: All the heroes of a vegetarian bean chili appear in this salad.
