The Palestinian leader’s message on Gaza to the United Nations.
Also:
| A grand jury indicted James Comey, the former F.B.I. director.A Paris court sentenced Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison. |
Plus, art and math in Barcelona.
‘Palestine is ours,’ Abbas told the U.N.
In a remote address to the U.N. General Assembly yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, described Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as “genocide” and rejected any notion that Palestinians would abandon their land.
Abbas delivered his speech by video from Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, after the U.S. denied him and his delegation visas to attend the meeting in New York City.
He said that no matter how much suffering the Palestinians endured, they would remain in Gaza and rebuild their land. “It will not break our will to survive,” he said. “Palestine is ours.”
Abbas said that the Palestinian Authority was willing to take responsibility for Gaza after the war and that Hamas would have no role in a future government in the enclave.
His address came days after France, Britain, Canada, Australia and Belgium joined 150 other nations in recognizing Palestinian statehood. Israeli officials have suggested in recent weeks that their government could annex at least part of the West Bank in retaliation for the recognition.
President Trump assured leaders of Arab and Muslim-majority nations this week that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, according to three people familiar with the matter. As my colleagues have reported, Trump often strikes a conflict-averse tone in private that doesn’t always align with his public remarks.
Yemen: Israel’s military bombed several sites in Sana, the capital, yesterday, a day after Yemen’s Houthi militia launched a drone attack against Israel.
Sarkozy was sentenced to five years for conspiracy
The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of a criminal conspiracy to seek funding for his 2007 campaign from the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined about $117,000.
Sarkozy, 70, called the verdict a “scandal” and vowed to challenge it, but the court said his incarceration would be enforced in the coming weeks regardless of an appeal. No former president has ever spent time behind bars in France.
| ASK A CORRESPONDENT |
This week, Ana Swanson, who writes about trade and international economics from Washington, is answering your questions about tariffs. Thank you to all the readers who wrote in.
After 25 years in France, I am moving back to California. If I bring my 1,000 bottles of French wine, will I have to pay tariffs, even if they’re only for my personal use? — John Schweizer
Ana: First of all, I’m envious of your wine collection, John. Second, I had to consult the lawyers on this one. I called Miller & Chevalier in Washington and they had bad news. You can enter up to one liter of alcohol duty-free. You’ll need to pay duties for the remaining wine in your collection, even if it’s for personal use. President Trump has imposed tariffs on imported wine from several countries, including a 15 percent tax on European wines that took effect in August.
You might want to have a party before you leave.
For more: Trump announced a slew of tariffs on pharmaceuticals, semi trucks and household furnishings that would go into effect next month.
| MORE TOP NEWS |
| A grand jury in the U.S. indicted the former F.B.I. director James Comey, a culmination of Trump’s demand for retribution after the bureau investigated his 2016 presidential campaign over possible Russia ties.Trump signed an executive order that would help clear the way for a coalition of investors to run an American version of TikTok.The authorities in Denmark briefly closed several airports after drone sightings. Europe is on alert after Russian incursions into NATO airspace. |
| Trump said he wanted Turkey to stop buying oil from Russia as he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House.Hurricane Gabrielle was moving toward the Azores, the Portuguese islands west of mainland Europe. We have live updates.The U.N. opened an investigation after Trump complained of “sinister” malfunctions of an escalator and teleprompter when he spoke to the General Assembly. |
| South Korea’s Parliament passed a bill to legalize tattoo artists, overturning a decades-old law.Elon Musk’s company, xAI, struck a deal to let U.S. federal agencies use its Grok chatbot. |
| SPORTS NEWS |
| Football: The Trump administration is working to keep Israel from being banned from the 2026 World Cup.Tennis: Carlos Alcaraz suffered an ankle injury but won his first-round match at the Japan Open. |
| MORNING READ |
Visitors can now take a tour of Barcelona and brush up on geometry at the same time. A young Spanish mathematician has created self-guided walking tours to explore landmarks, one math problem at a time. At La Sagrada Família, visitors use the Pythagorean theorem to estimate the height of the arch.
If you can’t go to Spain for a tour, The Times created a virtual one. Take a look.
| CONVERSATION STARTERS |
| Bots at work: There are more factory robots working in China than in the rest of the world combined.1.50 euros: Bolzano, in northern Italy, may tax tourists’ dogs.Change tact: Tired of dating apps? Try simply sitting at the bar. |
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
The Dutch Masters were women, too
Mention Dutch and Flemish old masters and people think of Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer. These artists often overshadow talented female painters of the same period like Judith Leyster, whose works were misattributed for many years to a male artist.
A new exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in the U.S. is dedicated to female painters who contributed to the visual culture of the Low Countries — present-day Belgium and the Netherlands — in the 17th and 18th centuries. See some paintings here.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
Bake: With its honey syrup, this recipe for baklava leans into the Greek version.
