Robert Francis Prevost was elected on Thursday to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, making him the first pope from the United States. He chose the name Leo XIV.

Speaking from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope delivered his first public remarks since taking over as leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He urged the world to seek peace and remember those who suffer.

Here’s what to know about the new pope, how he was chosen from the many contenders, and the issues he will face as the successor to Pope Francis, who died last month at 88.

Who is the new pope?

Robert Francis Prevost, 69, was born in Chicago and served for two decades in Peru, where he became a bishop and a naturalized citizen, then rose to lead his international religious order. Leading up to the death of his predecessor, Cardinal Prevost held one of the most influential Vatican posts, running the office that selects and manages bishops globally.

A member of the Order of St. Augustine, he resembles Francis in his commitment to the poor and migrants, and to meeting people where they are. He told the Vatican’s official news website last year that “the bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom.”

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For Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, the news of a trade agreement with the United States is a much-needed political victory, as well as vindication of his strategy of assiduously cultivating President Trump.

The details of the agreement were not yet clear and could prove contentious with farmers and other interest groups in Britain. Mr. Trump’s announcement on social media seemed to catch even some senior British officials off guard, after weeks of negotiations characterized by two-steps-forward, one-step-back progress.

But that Britain is the first country in the world to conclude a deal with the United States after Mr. Trump imposed an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent on dozens of American trading partners seemed to affirm the “special relationship” often invoked by British and American diplomats.

In a post on Thursday morning, Mr. Trump said the agreement was a “full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.”

Britain, even under a center-left Labour government, has escaped the harsh criticism that Mr. Trump has trained on the European Union and China, both of which he accuses of “ripping off” the United States in their trade relationships.

That partly reflects economics: Britain and the United States have reasonably balanced trade flows. Britain runs either an $89 billion trade surplus or a $14.5 billion deficit with the United States, depending on whether one cites British or American statistics.

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India and Pakistan appeared to be dangerously escalating their armed confrontation on Thursday, as both countries said that their military sites had come under attack, and heavy shelling and strikes were reported overnight on each side of their border.

The military face-off began on Wednesday, when India struck several sites in Pakistani territory — its deepest strikes inside Pakistan in decades — in retaliation for a deadly terrorist attack two weeks before.

In a sign of the international alarm that the conflict could spin out of control, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with leaders from both countries on Thursday and emphasized the need for “immediate de-escalation,” according to State Department accounts of the calls.

India and Pakistan both continued to claim that they were not seeking an escalation in their military clash. But the reality on the ground indicated that the two nuclear-armed countries were not yet ready to take the offramps from their boiling tensions that had appeared to take shape a day before.

The Indian government said on Thursday that it had thwarted Pakistani attempts to unleash drones and missiles at Indian military targets in more than a dozen cities and towns, many of them home to air force bases.

India said it had responded by striking Pakistan’s air defense systems and radars close to the city of Lahore — the kind of blow that often causes a military conflict to intensify, analysts said.

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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping, the leader of China, issued a joint rebuke to Washington on Thursday, a day before celebrations in Moscow to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The leaders held talks at the Kremlin, part of a state visit that Moscow organized for Mr. Xi before his attendance alongside other foreign leaders on Friday at a military parade in Red Square.

In a joint statement issued after their talks, Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi rejected what they described as Washington’s attempt to contain them. They vowed to “increase interaction and strengthen cooperation” to counter such U.S. efforts.

Both Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi are grappling with the unpredictability of President Trump — the Russian president in talks over Ukraine, and the Chinese leader in a bruising trade war. Each has sought to present their countries as alternative world powers looking to bring about what they call a more equal, multipolar world in the face of U.S. hegemony.

Part of their message Thursday seemed to be that they would stand together, even as Mr. Trump embraces Mr. Putin but pressures Mr. Xi.

After the talks, Mr. Xi spoke pointedly of the importance of the two leaders remaining trusting friends.

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It is disquieting to recall the moving ceremony on the beaches of Normandy that marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day 11 months ago, a celebration of the ironclad alliance between the United States and Europe, and their shared resolve to meet “the test of ages” and defend Ukraine.

That phrase from former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., standing shoulder to shoulder with President Emmanuel Macron of France, was part of an address in which he proclaimed NATO “more united than ever” and vowed that “we will not walk away, because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated and it will not end there.”

I stood in the Normandy sunlight, musing on the young men from Kansas City and St. Paul and elsewhere who clambered ashore on June 6, 1944, into a hail of Nazi gunfire from the Normandy bluffs, and listening to words that drew a direct line between their singular courage in the defense of freedom and the struggle to defeat another “tyrant bent on domination.”

That “tyrant,” for Mr. Biden, was President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, since absolved of responsibility for the war he started in Ukraine by President Trump, the America-first leader who has been a perennial coddler of autocrats, denigrator of NATO, and opponent of a European Union formed, in his words, to “screw the United States.”

Never did I imagine, less than a year ago, that so much so dear to so many could unravel so fast; nor that the 80th anniversary on Thursday of V-E Day, or Victory in Europe, would come with so many Europeans no longer sure whether to regard Mr. Trump’s America as ally or adversary.

The streets looked like Gaza. Homes reduced to rubble, walls pockmarked by bullet holes, roads ripped apart by bulldozers. Neighborhood after neighborhood was deserted.

But this was not Gaza, a territory devastated by the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas, where tens of thousands have been killed and hunger stalks the population. It was the occupied West Bank, another Palestinian territory where the Israeli military has been tightening control in the most sweeping crackdown on militancy there in a generation.

The contours of the new offensive were unfolding during a recent visit by New York Times reporters to the city of Jenin, among the once densely populated neighborhoods that have been cleared out since an operation began in January. In one of those areas, more than 10,000 people lived until recently. Now, it is empty — its roads blocked by mounds of dirt and flanked by piles of rubble.

This week, the Israeli military said it would be demolishing homes in Tulkarm, a city near Jenin, to make crowded neighborhoods and streets more accessible to Israeli forces and to prevent the re-emergence of militants.

“They’re taking away my future,” Muath Amarne, a 23-year-old university student, said on Wednesday, the day he learned that his home in Tulkarm would be destroyed.

Israel conducted frequent military operations in this area in recent years, but its forces almost always left within hours or days. Since January, however, its military has maintained its longest-running presence in the heart of West Bank cities in decades.

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