After months of grueling combat and heavy casualties, the front line in Ukraine remains largely unchanged, and a breakthrough looks more difficult than ever.
After months of grueling combat and heavy casualties, the front line in Ukraine remains largely unchanged, and a breakthrough looks more difficult than ever.
Ukraine has made minimal gains in its counteroffensive. Dense Russian minefields and fortifications have made every attack extremely costly. In total, less than 500 square miles of territory has changed hands since the start of the year. A prolonged stalemate could weaken Western support for Ukraine.
Ukraine has made minimal gains in its counteroffensive. Dense Russian minefields and fortifications have made every attack extremely costly. In total, less than 500 square miles of territory has changed hands since the start of the year. A prolonged stalemate could weaken Western support for Ukraine.
Both sides started the year with lofty ambitions: Russia wanted to capture the Donbas region in the east, while Ukraine aimed to split Russian forces with an attack in the south. Neither offensive has gone as planned.
Both sides started the year with lofty ambitions: Russia wanted to capture the Donbas region in the east, while Ukraine aimed to split Russian forces with an attack in the south. Neither offensive has gone as planned.
Russia’s plan: Senior Russian officials said that an anticipated 69 percent leap in the country’s military spending for 2024 was meant to assure that it would win the war against Ukraine, with arms spending expected to outpace the cost of government social services.
Russia’s plan: Senior Russian officials said that an anticipated 69 percent leap in the country’s military spending for 2024 was meant to assure that it would win the war against Ukraine, with arms spending expected to outpace the cost of government social services.
Related: The chief of NATO and the defense ministers of Britain and France paid surprise visits to Kyiv in a show of continued solidarity, even as they emphasized the goal of pumping up weapon production within Ukraine.
Related: The chief of NATO and the defense ministers of Britain and France paid surprise visits to Kyiv in a show of continued solidarity, even as they emphasized the goal of pumping up weapon production within Ukraine.
A woman, her teenage daughter and a male teacher were killed after a gunman opened fire at a house and a prominent medical school in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, an unusual outburst of gun violence in the city and an event that the police chief called a “black day.”
The Rotterdam police arrested a 32-year-old Erasmus University student. He was carrying a weapon and wearing a bulletproof vest and is believed to have acted alone, the authorities said. Much remained unclear, including a motive and the relationship between the victims and the suspect, who reportedly lived on the same street as the woman and her daughter.
Gun violence is unusual in the Netherlands, but in 2019 the country was shaken by a shooting on a tram in the city of Utrecht that left three people dead and seven others wounded.
Details: The police said they had received an initial report of gunfire at 2:25 p.m. local time yesterday. The gunman started a fire at the home and then went to the medical school, where he shot the teacher in class, the police said. The gunman then made his way through other parts of the hospital and started a fire there, the police said.
The breakaway government of Nagorno-Karabakh said that it would cease to exist by the end of the year, formally ending more than 30 years of separatist rule. The announcement came after Azerbaijan regained control of the breakaway enclave in a swift attack a week ago.
Ethnic Armenian residents of the territory have been told that they should make their own decisions about whether to live under Azerbaijani rule or leave. The government of Armenia said that 76,000 people, roughly half of the region’s entire population, had left Nagorno-Karabakh to seek safety in Armenia.
A 16-year-old boy was arrested after one of Britain’s most famous trees, a sycamore that stood in a dip in Hadrian’s Wall, was cut down overnight.
The property giant Evergrande suspended its stock and said its billionaire chairman was under investigation, fueling fears of a wider crisis.
A confrontation in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, is part of a wider battle over the character of Israel as the government tries to weaken the judiciary.
Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa exporter, has opened a factory to capture a bigger share of the profits from the global chocolate industry.
The first hearing in House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden did not feature any new information about his conduct.
The U.S. is nearing a government shutdown as Republican lawmakers have shown no signs of progress in negotiations on a funding measure.
The widening income gap between the rich and the poor in Manhattan is driving a lopsided recovery from the pandemic in New York City.
Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial could begin next week, after a New York appeals court rejected his attempt to delay the case.
A group of former applicants sued the Peace Corps, accusing it of discriminating against them because of their mental health histories.
The artist Kehinde Wiley, famous for his portrait of Barack Obama, is now showing paintings of 11 current and former African heads of state in an exhibition in Paris.
The American football player Travis Kelce was already a star. His brush with Taylor Swift has pulled him into another orbit.
Britain’s broadcasting regulator opened an investigation into misogynistic remarks by Laurence Fox, a right-wing commentator, about a female journalist.
Bruce Springsteen has postponed the remaining dates of his tour while he continues to recover from peptic ulcer disease.
The French actor Gérard Depardieu’s art collection sold at auction in Paris for $4.2 million.
Yuki Tsunoda, 23, has had an up-and-down year as a Formula 1 driver. Yet his impish persona, foul mouth and devil-may-care attitude have inspired a cult following of the like seldom seem in the sport.
Michael Gambon, the Irish-born actor who drew acclaim for his stage and screen work, and who won even wider renown as Albus Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” films, died at 82.
Ryder Cup fashion: The golfing event’s weird and wonderful history of its uniforms.
Daley Blind: The Dutch soccer player discusses Ten Hag, his cardiac arrest and life at Girona.
Premier League presses: How each team operates, and what this data means.
Beyoncé’s first tour in nearly seven years kicked off in Stockholm in May, with 56 shows scheduled worldwide. Anything Beyoncé does becomes a cultural event, my colleague Jenna Wortham writes, but the Renaissance World Tour has become a cultural movement, inspiring globe-traversing travel and an extravaganza of silvery, rhinestone-studded looks.
In Las Vegas, “a city where there are dozens of large-scale events occurring simultaneously, the Beyoncé effect rolled through like an earthquake,” Jenna writes. “Or maybe an eclipse.”
Throw together a loaf of no-knead bread.
Watch “Flora and Son,” a musical comedy about an Irish mother.
Start running with short distances.
Spend 36 hours in Chicago.
Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today’s Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here.
That’s it for today’s briefing. Thanks for joining me. — Natasha
P.S. Meet The Times’s new San Francisco bureau chief.
You can reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
