The New York Times 2025-05-10 10:13:38


India and Pakistan Edge Toward Full War as Attacks on Bases Are Reported

India and Pakistan moved closer to all-out war early Saturday as the Pakistani military accused India of attacking at least three of its air bases, and then reported that it had retaliated by targeting Indian air bases and a missile storage site.

The reported exchange of strikes was a sharp escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors four days into an armed confrontation that began on Wednesday.

Pakistan said India had targeted its bases with air-to-surface missiles. Among the bases that came under attack, Pakistan said, was a key installation near the capital, Islamabad. Witnesses in Rawalpindi, a nearby garrison city, reported hearing at least three loud explosions near the Noor Khan air base, with one describing a “large fireball” visible from miles away.

“Now, you just wait for our response,” Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the Pakistani military’s chief spokesman, said in a televised statement. He accused India of pushing the region toward a “dangerous war.”

Shortly after the reported Indian strikes, Pakistani officials said they had launched a retaliatory action targeting several locations in India that included the Udhampur and Pathankot air bases and a missile storage facility.

“An eye for an eye,” the Pakistani military said in a statement. It said it was calling its campaign against India “Operation Bunyan al-Marsus,” which means a firm and compact structure.

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Pope Leo XIV Echoes Francis in His First Mass, Aligning Himself With ‘Ordinary People’

Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States, presided over his first Mass as leader of 1.4 billion Roman Catholics on Friday, pledging to align himself with “ordinary people” and not with the rich and powerful. He also called for missionary outreach to help heal the “wounds that afflict our society.”

The election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a native of Chicago, as pope represents a singular moment in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. But some of the cardinals who selected him said his life of service to the poor in Peru and his senior roles at the Vatican mattered far more in the conclave than his nationality.

At a news conference in Rome on Friday, some cardinals said discussion of Cardinal Prevost’s American background was, in the words of Cardinal Robert McElroy, the new archbishop of Washington, D.C., “almost negligible.”

The conclave was not a “continuation of the American election,” said Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C. He added, “It was a desire to strengthen the Christian faith among God’s people.”

In Leo’s persistent advocacy for the poor, migrants and a “synodal” church that seeks input from parishioners rather than simply directing them, many people saw a continuation of his predecessor, Pope Francis, though Leo is seen as quieter and less charismatic.

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Trump Says U.S. Will Impose More Sanctions on Russia if It Does Not Agree to an Extended Truce

President Trump said the United States would impose sanctions on Russia if it did not accept an extended cease-fire in its war with Ukraine, writing on social media after a phone call late Thursday with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

The remark was another swivel by the administration closer to Ukraine’s positions in cease-fire talks, after two months of concessions to Russia including broadening diplomatic relations and voting against a U.N. resolution condemning Moscow for the war.

During talks in Saudi Arabia in March, the Trump administration had proposed a 30-day truce to allow for peace negotiations. Ukraine accepted the idea but Russia has pushed instead for negotiating terms for a settlement before accepting a cease-fire.

After a meeting in Vatican City with Mr. Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral last month. Mr. Trump threatened Russia with sanctions if it drew out of the negotiations. But his social media post after his call with Mr. Zelensky was his clearest statement yet that he was linking additional U.S. sanctions on Russia to its acceptance of a 30-day truce for negotiations.

“If the ceasefire is not respected, the U.S. and its partners will impose further sanctions,” Mr. Trump wrote in the post, made on Truth Social, his social networking site.

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The United States, Mr. Trump wrote, “calls for, ideally, a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.”

Mr. Zelensky’s office published a readout of the call with Mr. Trump saying the two leaders had congratulated one another on the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. It also said that on the call, “President Trump confirmed that he wants to see this war ended and is ready to help.”

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Amid Blockade, Trump and Israel Mull Divisive Aid Plan For Gaza

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The Trump administration is working with the Israeli government on a plan to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and end Israel’s two-month blockade on food and fuel deliveries, according to the State Department. Aid workers have raised serious doubts about the approach.

The mechanism has yet to be finalized, but the general idea is to establish a handful of distribution zones that would each serve food to several hundred thousand Palestinians, according to two Israeli officials and a U.N. diplomat. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the proposal, and The New York Times also reviewed briefing papers that detail the proposal and confirmed their authenticity with diplomats and officials.

The Israeli military would be stationed beyond the sites’ perimeters, allowing aid workers to distribute the food without the direct involvement of the soldiers, the officials and the briefing papers said.

The plan marks the first time that the Trump administration has been drawn into such detailed discussions about aid delivery in the Gaza Strip. Mr. Trump is considering announcing the plan in the coming days, before a trip to the Middle East, an Israeli and a U.S. official said.

Israel and the United States say a new system is needed to prevent Hamas from stealing food supplies and profiting from them. By severing Hamas’s influence over aid, they hope to undermine the group’s wider influence over the Palestinian population, perhaps weakening its grip on power.

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Britain’s Roller-Coaster Ride to a Trade Deal With Trump

For Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, the road to a first-in-the-world trade deal with the United States began on a late winter afternoon when he arrived in the Oval Office, bearing a letter for President Trump. It was from King Charles III, inviting Mr. Trump for a rare second state visit to Britain.

It ended on Thursday afternoon when Mr. Starmer was patched into the Oval Office for a theatrical, televised phone call with Mr. Trump, in which the president announced a deal that will roll back tariffs on some British exports, including autos and steel, while leaving other tariffs in place.

The deal, Mr. Trump declared, will be “so good for both countries.” Mr. Starmer, who conceded that the president’s timing had caught him off guard, said the agreement testified to the value of not being provoked by Mr. Trump’s sometimes aggressive tactics — not “slamming the door,” as he put it.

In truth, the nine weeks between Mr. Starmer’s visit in February and his phone call Thursday with Mr. Trump were a roller-coaster ride for the prime minister and his negotiators. They had to work out an agreement with an administration that seemed at times bifurcated between conventional trade negotiators and a president on whose whims and impulses the signing of any deal depended.

“As of now, this looks like quite a good result for Keir Starmer,” said Kim Darroch, who served as Britain’s ambassador to Washington during Mr. Trump’s first term. Still, he added, critics could argue that Mr. Trump had not lifted all the tariffs and might yet reverse course on elements of the agreement.

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‘Enough Is Enough’: Report of a Child’s Rape Enrages South Africans

The protesters were furious. They tugged on the gate of the school where the mother said her 7-year-old daughter had been raped. They demanded that the school be closed, and threatened to burn it down.

Demonstrators in the small town of Matatiele, South Africa — known for its pristine, litter-free streets — have been furious ever since videos of the mother, Thandekile Mtshizana, were posted online a couple of months ago describing her daughter’s account of being assaulted at Bergview College.

The clips drew millions of views and have turned the case of the girl, known online by the pseudonym Cwecwe, into the latest flashpoint in South Africa’s long battle against sexual violence, challenging a culture of shame and silence. In rural communities like Matatiele, the case of Cwecwe has touched a nerve.

“This time we say it cannot be business as usual,” said Thapelo Monareng, a retail worker who took time off work to attend the protest in Matatiele. “We are here to say enough is enough.”

The police have said the investigation is ongoing and extremely sensitive. Tests did not find foreign DNA on the girl’s body or clothes, according to a presentation the police made to Parliament in April. The results of a doctor’s original examination were inconclusive, the police said, adding that they have no suspects.

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Indian Defense Firm Says It Did Not Resell U.K. Technology to Russia

An Indian defense company says that it did not resell sensitive technology to Russia that was supplied by one of the biggest corporate donors to the populist Reform U.K. party.

The New York Times reported in March that, according to 2023 and 2024 shipping records, the British aerospace manufacturer H.R. Smith Group exported equipment to India that had been flagged as critical to Russian weapon systems. That included transmitters, cockpit equipment and antennas.

The Indian company, Hindustan Aeronautics, is the biggest trading partner of the Russian arms agency Rosoboronexport.

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After the Blast

In One Image After the Blast By Saher Alghorra

It was late afternoon, but this restaurant in Gaza City was still bustling when an Israeli airstrike tore through it.

Customers sat at the tables under its tarp, eating pizza or crepes and using the Wi-Fi. Young people liked it here.

In one moment of noise and blood and terror, everything changed. This was a prayer rug. Now it’s a makeshift bandage.

The shock and fear is written on the faces.

Stunned and grieving, people turned to helping the wounded around them.

The scars of past attacks are still visible in this neighborhood.

So are remnants of peace. The restaurant put up these lights during the cease-fire, a few weeks and a lifetime ago.

Before the war, this restaurant in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City served Thai food — back when one could still find the ingredients for it in northern Gaza.

On Wednesday, a bloody day in the Gaza Strip, with multiple strikes, the restaurant was the site of the deadliest.

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