How Oil, Drugs and Immigration Fueled Trump’s Venezuela Campaign

New details of deliberations show how aides with overlapping agendas drove the United States toward a militarized confrontation with Venezuela.Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, right, have been key players, alongside the presidential adviser Stephen Miller, in

E Edward Wong, Tyler Pager, Charlie Savage, Julian E. Barnes and Maria Abi-Habib

A Dancing Dictator and Bankers in Chains: The Other Venezuela Blockade

A crisis more than a century ago involved U.S. aims to assert military supremacy, a hard-partying dictator and frictions among the great powers.Cipriano Castro, who ruled Venezuela from 1899 to 1908. Known as the “Lion of the Andes,” he defied the great powers of the era.

S Simon Romero

Trump Pursues His Legacy One Name at a Time

In attaching his name to buildings and programs while still president, Donald Trump is walking a path paved by conquerors and autocrats.President Trump announcing the Navy’s new “Trump Class” battleships.

M Matthew Purdy

Russia Pummels Kyiv Before Trump-Zelensky Meeting

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that the assault with hundreds of drones and missiles, lasting nearly 10 hours, showed that Moscow was not serious about peace.Firefighters at the site of a Russian strike on an apartment building on Saturday in Kyiv, Ukraine.

C Cassandra Vinograd

How One Father Created an Organ Empire

The National Kidney Registry has matched thousands of kidney donors with recipients. It has also paid millions of dollars to a company owned by its founder.The organization, which began as a nonprofit, charges hospitals for access to its donor registry.

D Danielle Ivory, Grace Ashford and Robert Gebeloff

As Some Boycott Myanmar’s Flawed Election, Others Hope for Change

The voting for Parliament is almost sure to favor the ruling military junta, which is stage-managing the polls. Still, some see them as the most pragmatic way to try to improve conditions.Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the Myanmar army’s commander in chief, voting at a polling station in Naypyitaw,

S Sui-Lee Wee

What to Know About the Vote in Myanmar

Amid a ruinous civil war, the military government is holding elections that are widely seen as a sham, as the main opposition remains barred or jailed.Myanmar Plaza on Christmas Day in Yangon, the nation’s largest city.

R Richard C. Paddock

Park Chan-wook and the Funny Thing About Stomach-Churning Horror

When American studios wouldn’t back his film about a laid-off manager committing gruesome murders, the director returned to Korea. Now he has a hit on his hands.When Park adds humor to his films, “it sometimes skips a couple of steps, so it can go over people’s heads,” Lee said.

R Robert Ito

The Year in Lists

As the year drew to a close, we reached out to Opinion columnists and contributors for personal lists.

Families Demand Answers a Year After Deadliest Plane Crash in South Korea

Many details of the Jeju Air disaster that killed 179 people remain unclear despite multiple investigations by officials and protests by the victims’ families.The wreckage of Jeju Air Flight 2216 late last year at the Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea.

J Jin Yu Young and John Yoon

More Student Loan Borrowers Are Shedding Debts in Bankruptcy

A new study suggests that distressed borrowers using a simpler bankruptcy process are succeeding — and that more people like them should try.Amy Howdyshell, 43, used a bankruptcy filing to get more than $78,000 in federal student debt dismissed.

T Tara Siegel Bernard

Gary Graffman, Piano Virtuoso and Renowned Teacher, Dies at 97

Mr. Graffman was a onetime child prodigy whose career was curtailed by a neurological condition that restricted him to his left hand.Gary Graffman in 2018, when he turned 90. He was an acclaimed concert pianist before developing focal dystonia, the neurological disorder that restricted him to his le

V Vivien Schweitzer