Trump met with Syria’s ex-jihadist president
For the first time in 25 years, the leaders of Syria and the U.S. met. Just before a summit of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia, President Ahmed al-Shara and President Trump spoke for about half an hour, and Trump told al-Shara that the Syrian president had “a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country,” according to a summary of the meeting.
The encounter was a stunning turnaround for al-Shara, an ex-militant who led the rebel alliance that ousted Bashar al-Assad, and who once was at the helm of a Qaeda branch before moderating his image. Aboard Air Force One on his way to Qatar, Trump described al-Shara as a “young, attractive guy.”
“Tough guy,” he said. “Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”
On the second day of his four-day visit to the Gulf region, Trump also met with the emir of Qatar in Doha, the country’s capital. There, he announced that Qatar Airways had agreed to buy 210 Boeing jets. The countries also signed a statement of defense cooperation that included a $1 billion agreement with Raytheon for Qatar to acquire counter-drone capabilities, and a nearly $2 billion agreement with General Atomics for a remotely piloted aircraft system.
Republicans pushed forward with tax and Medicaid cuts
House Republicans today slogged through marathon drafting sessions on their expansive domestic policy bill, haggling over Medicaid and tax cuts as they tried to advance what Trump has labeled the “one big beautiful bill” carrying his agenda.
Republicans are seeking to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cut and temporarily enact his campaign pledges not to tax tips or overtime pay, partly offsetting their roughly $3.8 trillion cost with cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and clean-energy subsidies. Here’s what the tax cuts would do.
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Israel tried to kill Yahya Sinwar’s brother
Muhammad Sinwar, the younger brother of an architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, Yahya Sinwar, is considered one of Hamas’s top military commanders in Gaza. He is also believed to be among the Hamas officials most opposed to relinquishing the group’s arsenal and one of the biggest obstacles to a new cease-fire in Gaza. Yesterday, Israel tried to kill him in an airstrike. His fate is unknown.
Israeli strikes killed dozens of Palestinians in northern Gaza, Palestinian health officials said. The bodies of more than 50 people killed overnight had arrived at the Indonesian Hospital in the town of Beit Lahia by noon today, according to its director.
Professors are using ChatGPT. Some students aren’t happy.
Ella Stapleton, a senior at Northeastern University, found telltale signs of A.I. in her class materials: egregious misspellings, distorted text and photos of people with extraneous body parts. She filed a complaint and requested a tuition refund of $8,000.
Experiences like hers prompted The Times to ask academics how they are using the technology. Some have created custom chatbots for their students to ask questions to. Others acknowledged using ChatGPT to help grade students’ work, and said the chatbots served as automated teaching assistants.
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TIME TO UNWIND
The author of ‘American Dirt’ returns
By most measures, Jeanine Cummins’s 2020 novel “American Dirt” was a colossal success, an Oprah’s Book Club pick that sold more than four million copies. But critics condemned it for what they saw as a clichéd depiction of Mexican migrants. Cummins thought her career might be over.
She felt unable to write for a year after the controversy, but she started thinking about her own identity and traced her roots in Puerto Rico, which fed into her new novel, “Speak to Me of Home.” Cummins is now restarting her public life as an author and preparing for an eight-city book tour.
Opera’s most lurid dance
On Saturday, the Metropolitan Opera will broadcast Strauss’s “Salome” live to movie theaters, where you can see one of the art form’s greatest challenges: the nine-minute Dance of the Seven Veils.
Cook: Doubles, easily the most beloved dish from Trinidad and Tobago, combine Indian flavors with ingredients from the Caribbean.
A new angle on Barbie
There’s a scene in the movie “Barbie” in which arched feet step out of high heels onto the ground and stay arched, which took the actress Margot Robbie eight takes to pull off. For a group of podiatrists in Melbourne, Australia, it inspired curiosity about Barbie dolls and how their feet were linked to empowerment.
For a study, they examined the feet of 2,750 dolls produced from 1959 to 2024. In the early decades of Barbie’s life, 100 percent of the dolls had arched feet. In the last four years, only 40 percent did. “Employed” dolls were far more likely to have flat feet. In a statement, Mattel confirmed that foot design was a deliberate part of Barbie’s evolution.
Have a liberated evening.
Thanks for reading. Matthew will be back tomorrow. — Whet
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