Trends

  x The older he gets, the more Bill Gates is surprised by what the world dishes up. Take billionaires. There are many now from the tech industry, quite a few with politics that skew forcefully right. “I always thought of Silicon Valley as being left of center,” Mr. Gates said. “The fact that now […]

  x Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, has made headlines for years with her criticism of what she describes as “regime change” wars and abuses by the nation’s intelligence agencies. On Thursday she will be defending those comments. At her confirmation hearing, senators are likely to zero in on her

  x A court in Scotland blocked the production of oil and gas on Thursday at two large project sites being developed in British waters until their impact on climate change can be assessed. The decision was a blow for the sites’ developers, Shell and the Norwegian company Equinor, which have already spent or committed

  x Hamas released eight hostages, including three Israelis and five Thais, on Thursday as part of a hostage-for-prisoner exchange, more than a year after they were taken captive during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Agam Berger, an Israeli army soldier, was released first in a highly choreographed ceremony in

  x The pre-dawn stampede at the massive Hindu festival in northern India created havoc. But order was restored swiftly in the next few hours. On Wednesday morning, ambulances cut through a swarm of millions of people who had gathered in the city of Prayagraj. They ferried dozens of people to hospitals, some who had

  x President Trump signed several executive orders on Wednesday aimed at reshaping American schools, including restricting how racism is taught in classrooms, curbing antisemitism and allowing taxpayer dollars to fund private schools. The orders are designed to advance the Trump administration’s goal of shaking up the nation’s education system, which Mr. Trump has long

  x Emergency workers are struggling to rescue a truck driver who was swallowed by a sinkhole more than two days ago in a city just north of Tokyo. The 74-year-old man had stopped near an intersection in Saitama Prefecture when the sinkhole suddenly opened beneath the road, swallowing him with the truck, according to

  x Universities have set up task forces, tightened discipline policies and used surveillance cameras to track protesters’ movements. They have hired private investigators to examine cases of anti-Israel speech and activism. These are just a few of the measures administrators have taken to curb criticisms that they have allowed antisemitism to fester as pro-Palestinian

  x Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant who set off enormous protests when he burned a Quran in Stockholm in 2023, has been killed, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said Thursday morning. The police said that they had arrested five people and that a murder investigation had been launched. Mr. Momika had been set to appear

  x Israeli legislation taking effect on Thursday will threaten the operations of a major United Nations agency that provides critical humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip after more than a year of war has left the territory in ruins. The laws ban the agency, UNRWA, from any activities in Israel, effectively cutting off its