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Ukraine’s government said on Sunday it was confident that the United States would continue to support it in its war with Russia, even after the House passed a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown that did not include any additional money for Kyiv.The White House and leaders of both parties in the Senate had pushed for more Ukraine funding to be included in the bill, which passed late Saturday. Members of both parties said they were confident that further financial commitments would be agreed to, but the failure to do so on Saturday highlighted the decreasing willingness of some Republicans to fund Kyiv’s war effort. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had made the case for continued U.S. support during a visit to Washington last month, and his office suggested on Sunday...

There had been accusations for at least 15 years that Andrea Smith, a prominent ethnic studies professor, had falsely claimed to be Native American. Her scholarship was partly built on what she said was her Cherokee identity, but she never publicly — and scholars and former friends say, privately — offered a detailed explanation for her Cherokee claims.Now, after a recent complaint by 13 faculty members, Professor Smith has agreed to retire from the University of California, Riverside, next year in an unusual separation agreement.Signed in January, the agreement avoids an investigation into the faculty complaint, which accused her of false claims of Native identity that violated academic integrity. And it allows the university to sidestep legal battles that often come from firing tenured p...

The sounds of mourning have coursed through the small Christian town of Qaraqosh in northern Iraq since late Tuesday, when a fire destroyed a wedding hall in the middle of a reception, touching not only this village, but Iraq’s entire Christian community.As of Friday night, at least 119 people were dead and an unknown number of others were still missing of the roughly 1,000 guests in attendance. About 80 people remained in hospitals, including more than a dozen who were flown to burn centers in neighboring countries.The sense of loss here is mixed with anger and disbelief as a report from the initial investigation into the fire’s cause found what many witnesses had already said: The wedding hall violated basic safety requirements and lacked emergency exits and a sprinkler system. The build...

Earlier this year, the Republican presidential primary looked as though it would be driven by conservative cultural battles, especially fights over education that had animated the party’s base since the pandemic.Gov. Ron DeSantis seemed poised to lead the charge, thanks to an “anti-woke” agenda he put into effect in Florida, restricting how schools teach America’s racial history, banning lessons about gender identity and empowering parents to have books removed from libraries and classrooms.Even Donald J. Trump seemed to be trying to outflank Mr. DeSantis on education policies, promising to root out “Marxists” in the Education Department.But anti-wokeness has not played as large a role as expected in the Republican race so far. On the campaign trail, Mr. DeSantis has refocused his stump sp...

Voters in Slovakia headed to the polls on Saturday for an election that represents more than just a vote in a small Central European nation with less than six million people. It could also alter the contours of what has been a mostly united front in Europe against Russia’s war in Ukraine.Slovakia, which shares its eastern border with Ukraine, has been one of the strongest backers of its neighbor since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and was the first to send it air-defense missiles and fighter jets earlier this year.But candidates that oppose supporting Ukraine and the West are expected to make a strong showing in the election, and that could have far-reaching repercussions.Here is what to know:Who is expected to win?For the past few years, Slovakia, which is part of the Europea...

Washington braced for a government shutdown over the weekend as Congress remained mired in dysfunction on Friday. Federal agencies planned to send home hundreds of thousand workers, who would not be paid until the shutdown ended. Hundreds of thousands of others deemed essential, like air traffic controllers, would be ordered to work. They, too, would not be paid until Congress reached a deal.The nation’s capital always feels the effects of shutdowns most acutely, but Americans beyond Washington also face consequences. Here is where they would notice them most immediately.Food and medical helpThe Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children would run out of funding within days, jeopardizing food and medical assistance for nearly seven million mothers and children. ...

Most mornings, around 6:30, Tharshan Selvarajah arrives at the Élysée Palace, seat of the French presidency, and unloads around 30 baguettes into the security scanner.The bread that is synonymous with France is sacred, but not to the point that it can pass unverified into President Emmanuel Macron’s mouth.Nor is the baguette, in its highest expression, the exclusive domain of French bakers. Mr. Selvarajah is a Sri Lankan immigrant who has lived in France for 17 years but not yet applied for French citizenship, even as his bread has reached the summit of Gallic gustatory acclaim.This year France marked the 30th anniversary of the “Grand Prize of the Traditional French Baguette,” organized by the Paris City Hall. Mr. Selvarajah, 37, an intense bearded man with a fierce work ethic, won, with ...