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| President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and President Trump in the Oval Office yesterday. Eric Lee/The New York Times |
Trump lectured South Africa’s president
During a fraught White House meeting with a stunned President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, President Trump showed a video and waved around printouts of what he said was evidence of racial persecution of white South Africans, including killings.
Trump flipped through his printouts, saying, “Death, death, death,” and he largely dismissed Ramaphosa’s attempt to describe the situation in his own country. While watching the video, Ramaphosa questioned the locations being shown, which he said he didn’t recognize as being in South Africa.
The meeting “was a stark example of a foreign leader essentially trying to give a reality check to Trump, who instead amplified fringe theories,” said Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House reporter for The New York Times. There have been killings of white South Africans, but police statistics do not show that they are more vulnerable to violent crime than other people. Here’s what else to know.
On Politics: Trump accused South Africa’s government of seizing land from white farmers, but during his first term, he pushed to take farmers’ land for his border wall.
Background: The U.S. is welcoming white South Africans while suspending refugee programs for everyone else. Several factors have fueled the administration’s hostile approach to South Africa’s government.
Immigration: A judge said the Trump administration had violated a court order by quickly deporting migrants to South Sudan. Here is a breakdown of how the administration is targeting new groups for deportation.
Gazans are still waiting for food
Three days after Israel said it had eased its blockade of Gaza to let aid trucks in, very little — if any — of the urgently needed food, fuel and medicine appeared to have reached Palestinians.
Dozens of trucks ferrying supplies have entered Gaza at the Israeli-controlled border crossing of Kerem Shalom, according to Israel. But the U.N. has so far been unable to move any trucks from the crossing to warehouses inside the enclave, U.N. officials said.
Humanitarian crisis: A panel of U.N.-backed experts warned this month that Gazans were at “critical risk of famine,” with tens of thousands of children facing acute malnutrition. Israel dismissed the report.
Related:
| During his first general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the newly anointed pope, Leo XIV, called for aid to be allowed into Gaza. He described the situation as “increasingly worrying and painful.”Israeli soldiers fired warning shots to disperse a group of senior Western diplomats, Palestinian officials and journalists as they toured the city of Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.A judge ordered the Trump administration to let Mahmoud Khalil, a detained Columbia University graduate who led pro-Palestinian protests, meet with his wife and infant son before his immigration hearing. At a commencement ceremony, the university’s acting president was met with boos. |
Inside Russia’s spy factory in Brazil
Russia used Brazil for years as an assembly line for creating its most elite intelligence officers, known as illegals, a Times investigation found. The spies shed their Russian pasts, started businesses, made friends and had love affairs; over many years, these building blocks became entirely new identities.
Once they were cloaked in credible back stories, they would set off for the U.S., Europe or the Middle East and begin working under deep cover. Read how the operation fell apart.
| MORE TOP NEWS |
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| Jonathan Ernst/Reuters |
| U.S.: Two Israeli Embassy aides were shot and killed outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last night, officials said. A suspect was detained by security officers. Spain: Gunmen killed a senior aide to the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych outside a school in a Madrid suburb. |
| Pakistan: The bombing of a school bus in Balochistan Province killed four schoolchildren, their bus driver and a helper. India: The security forces killed at least 27 people in an operation that targeted Maoist militants. Hong Kong: Journalists at several news outlets have been subjected to tax-related investigations, adding to the pressures on press freedom. Russia: President Vladimir Putin visited the Kursk region for the first time since Moscow’s troops drove Ukrainian forces out of most of the territory. Japan: Taku Eto, the agriculture minister, resigned amid an uproar over his remark that he had never bought a bag of rice, which is in short supply. Iran: A man convicted of murder for an attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran in 2023 was executed. Qatar: The Pentagon formally accepted a luxury jet from Qatar, a gift with an estimated value of $200 million that has raised serious ethics concerns. |
| Yemen: Military strikes and sanctions targeting the Houthi militia have compounded a humanitarian crisis in Yemen, officials say. |
| U.K.: The retailer Marks & Spencer said that a major cyberattack would cost the company about 300 million pounds ($400 million) in lost profits. |
Business & Tech
| A.I.: OpenAI plans to buy IO, a start-up created by the iPhone designer Jony Ive to make A.I. devices, in a deal worth $6.5 billion. Chips: Nvidia’s chief executive said the U.S. effort to cut off the flow of advanced A.I. chips to China had spurred companies there to “accelerate their development.” Malaysia: A crucial cog in the global semiconductor industry, the country aims to build high-end chips. Trump’s tariffs will hamper its plans. |
Arts & Culture
| Music: Chris Brown, the R&B singer, has been freed from custody in London as he awaits a court case over accusations of an assault in a nightclub. |
| Theater: Tom Hanks wrote a play about love, longing and time travel. He plans to star in it this fall. History: The discovery of a 17th-century playing field could mean soccer originated in Scotland, not England. |
| SPORTS NEWS |
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| Mohamed Salah of Liverpool celebrating. Phil Noble/Reuters |
| Soccer: What is it like to defend against Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah? “I was just hoping he didn’t play,” one goalkeeper said. F1: The reigning champion, Max Verstappen, may not have the fastest car this year, but he’s showing that he can still win races. Chess: Magnus Carlsen has broken a world record by taking on 146,000 people in a match dubbed “Magnus vs. the World.” |
| MORNING READ |
The Chinese city of Chengdu used to be dismissed as a haven for slackers, lacking the hardworking culture of hubs like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Young people tended to leave the city to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
Not any more. Over the past five years, Chengdu’s population has surged 30 percent and its real estate is booming. Its appeal reflects young people’s disillusionment with the economy. Then, of course, there are the pandas.
| CONVERSATION STARTERS |
| Your best sausage roll: We asked creative Londoners to share their favorites. Too much information: Wearable technology that lets us collect data about our own bodies might be making us more anxious. Cash cow: Step aside, Moana, Elsa and Simba. Stitch has quietly become one of Disney’s most popular — and most merchandised — characters. Remnants of empire: At the chain’s height, there were more than 50 Lucille Roberts fitness outlets in the New York area. Just one remains. |
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
The secrets of a manga horror master
The Japanese artist Junji Ito, creator of popular manga series like “Tomie” and “Uzumaki,” is one of the genre’s biggest stars. One reason is his mastery of crescendo, especially in his short stories.
Ito carefully builds suspense across pages of half-glimpsed monstrosities — which are always inventive and weird — until finally revealing some terrifying, indelible image. The big payoff lands with such force because of the careful way Ito nurtures his readers’ discomfort.
My colleagues from the Book Review walk you through some of Ito’s most unsettling panels.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
Cook: This stir-fried lettuce with crispy garlic and fried eggs is a simple meal with comforting flavors and textures.
