It was well after 2 a.m., but an aide to Vice President JD Vance was trying to roust a senior Ukrainian official out of his bed in a Munich hotel. He wanted a face-to-face meeting to close a deal letting the United States extract valuable minerals in …

Big deals to sell chips to the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia have divided the U.S. government over whether they could be remembered for shipping cutting-edge A.I. overseas.

Employees say they are concerned by the Trump administration’s efforts to “dismantle mission-essential departments and reshape our arts programming.”

The meeting came days after President Trump announced he would end sanctions against Syria and met with the country’s president, a former jihadist.

During the first major foreign trip of his second term, President Trump has told audiences in the Middle East that he’s willing to set the past aside in the interests of peace and profit.

You’re reading the Frank Bruni newsletter, for Times subscribers only. Reflections on the mess (and magic) of politics and life. Get it with a Times subscription.Laura Loomer is unhappy. She’s unhappy with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — in part, it seems …