New York Times - Top Stories

Eric Lipton

Damascus, Syria

The Trump family has financial ties to Middle Eastern business executives who stood to benefit after President Trump signed a law repealing sanctions against Syria.

Eric Lipton

Jared Kushner is a business partner with the Syrian-born, Qatar-based family that has secured $12 billion in Syrian reconstruction deals — projects that needed the sanctions to be repealed.

Eric Lipton

An idea for a Trump International Golf Course in Syria has also been proposed, pushed in part by a Republican member of Congress looking to build support for sanctions repeal, though the Trump Organization said no such project is being considered.

Eric Lipton

The Khayyat family, which is behind the $12 billion in Syria reconstruction projects, says their financial partnership with Kushner is unrelated to the sanctions repeal effort.

Eric Lipton

But overall, this mixing of Trump family business ventures with the debate over foreign government sanctions illustrates the unprecedented blurring of lines between business and family affairs in Trump’s second term.

Zachary Small

The Venice Biennale is a competition among the world’s leading artists, and most countries rely on the expertise of top museum directors and curators. Not so for the United States this year.

Zachary Small

The commissioner, who recently owned a pet food store, has no museum experience. The curator left the art world after an exhibit that was criticized for being racially insensitive. The artist? He’s actually based in Mexico.

Zachary Small

Some experts have worried that America’s credibility is being undermined after the State Department dropped its independent selection process and allowed a Trump official to help her friend become commissioner.

Zachary Small

Experts said it was the most blatant example of government interference in the U.S. Pavilion since intelligence officers helped engineer Robert Rauschenberg’s win in 1964, which put American art on the map.