Conflict over Kashmir deepens. India carried out what it called a “precision strike” on nine “terrorist camps” on the Pakistan side of Kashmir early Wednesday morning. The action came two weeks after 26 tourists were killed in a terrorist attack on the side administered by India. Pakistan responded with heavy shelling across the “line of control” dividing the disputed territory. The exchange marks the worst military escalation between the South Asian neighbors in decades, although security analysts say the reciprocal strikes appear to be gauged to avert outright war. – Staff

 US and China talk trade. After weeks of posturing, Washington and Beijing agreed to discuss de-escalating the trade war over tariffs. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Switzerland May 9 to 12. Mr. Bessent called current tariffs unsustainable and said Washington seeks fair trade with China, not decoupling. Beijing stressed Washington should “meet China halfway,” the Ministry of Commerce said. The talks come as bilateral trade grinds to a halt. – Staff

Ukrainian drones strike Russia days ahead of ceasefire. All four international airports around Moscow temporarily suspended flights as Russia said its forces intercepted more than 100 Ukrainian drones. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that almost a dozen Russian regions were targeted. The overnight assault threatened a planned unilateral 72-hour ceasefire announced by President Vladimir Putin to coincide with celebrations in Moscow marking Victory Day in World War II. Ukraine has demanded a longer ceasefire. – AP

Israel disables Yemen’s airport. Israeli airstrikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen shut down the country’s international airport in the capital, Sanaa, on Tuesday. The strikes, the second round in two days, came after Israel launched airstrikes in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike on Israel’s international airport, the first since the start of the war in Gaza. The Houthis have targeted Israel throughout the war in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel has repeatedly struck against the rebels in Yemen. – AP

Britain and India clinch free trade pact. They made the deal Tuesday after tariff turmoil sparked by President Donald Trump forced the two sides to hasten efforts to increase their trade. The pact, between the world’s fifth- and sixth-largest economies, concluded after three years of stop-start negotiations and aims to increase bilateral trade by a further £25.5 billion ($34 billion) by 2040. The deal includes lower tariffs on goods such as advanced manufacturing parts and food products, and it agrees to quotas on both sides for auto imports. – Reuters
Related Monitor story: India, the world’s most populous nation, has virtually eliminated extreme poverty. One reason behind the change: empowering individuals to shape and seize their own opportunities.

REAL ID requirement launches. The United States will require enhanced identification for many air travelers starting Wednesday. The program has been delayed multiple times. About 81% of people flying recently have shown ID that would work once the new requirements kick in, according to Homeland Security. Airline travelers who don’t have a REAL ID by the deadline will need to show a passport or another Transportation Security Administration-approved form of identification before they board domestic flights. The head of Homeland Security says travelers who aren’t REAL ID-compliant this week will still be able to fly, but should be prepared for extra scrutiny. – AP

Moments before Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived at the White House Tuesday for a high-stakes visit, President Donald Trump poked at his guest. “We don’t need ANYTHING they have, other than their friendship,” he said on Truth Social. “They, on the other hand, need EVERYTHING from us!” Yet Canada does have cards to play, including commodities it exports southward, such as heavy oil and electricity. “This is the beginning of a conversation, not necessarily ‘deal day,’” says Christopher Sands, director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Canadian Studies.

A new German government was to be sworn in Tuesday, but in a historic first in postwar Germany, the chancellor-in-waiting failed to be elected on the first ballot. Friedrich Merz did sail through on a quickly called second ballot. But the setback matters. This government faces enormous challenges, from a struggling economy to an unpopular immigration process. Support for Ukraine is sputtering, and the United States is throwing decades-old alliances into doubt. The episode doesn't suggest Mr. Merz is doomed, but rather that he might need greater political savvy going forward to effectively lead a fractious coalition.

Geopolitics are not the only thing testing the Panama Canal. Recent droughts have focused attention on the need for new freshwater resources to keep canal traffic afloat. In 2023, severe drought caused traffic to fall by roughly 30% due to low water levels. Enter the Río Indio Dam project, approved in March as a way to save the canal. But it could cause significant social disruption by flooding adjacent communities. And amid growing extreme weather events, what might be viewed as a solution for water shortages today may not deliver in the future.

When Jeremie Lumoo returned home to the Congolese village of Kimoka, it was not by choice. In 2024, Mr. Lumoo and his family fled to Goma amid fighting with the rebel group M23. Just a year later, M23 occupied that city and evicted tens of thousands of displaced people, contravening international law. Some 1,900 people have returned to Kimoka since February, and many are trying to repair houses, even as they know another exodus is possible. The Lumoos have strung a tent in the ruins of their home and are doing their best to farm again. A local nurse says an ethos of helping one another runs strong. “People love and support each other,” he says.

For half a century, crossing guard Eugenia Phillips has been warmly greeting schoolchildren as she ushers them safely across Chicago’s busy streets at the start and end of the school day, amid good weather and bad. One of the city’s 714 crossing guards, she says those who walk and bicycle need more protection than ever – a view reinforced by law enforcement officials who continue to sound the alarm about distracted and unpredictable drivers.

Our progress roundup this week underscores the power of close monitoring. Jorge Rickards, director general of World Wildlife Fund Mexico, says safeguarding critical habitats along the Eastern monarch butterfly’s North American migratory route is key to building a doubling of the population in Mexico over the previous year. Meanwhile, the oystercatcher, a shorebird, has been recovering over a 15-year period because of focused efforts to engage humans in behavior that supports their avian friends.

Societies the world over have long sought to define and measure what constitutes a good life, a life of meaning as well as of means.

Just-published data from an expansive Global Flourishing Study (GFS) is contributing new insights into this topic. The first-round surveys in this five-year project covered more than 200,000 participants. One finding drawing widespread concern is that young people are reporting lower levels of well-being and “not doing as well as they used to,” the report said.

Yet perhaps the biggest finding, across age cohorts in 22 countries, shows that poorer nations outrank far wealthier ones in “flourishing.”

Sweden and the United States hovered near the middle of the index; the United Kingdom and Turkey were at the lower end; Japan was at the very bottom.

Meanwhile, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, Egypt, Kenya, Brazil, and Nigeria scored in the top 10. None of these countries boast high per capita incomes or substantive social safety nets. But they do share one characteristic – regular attendance at religious services, and “feeling loved or cared for by God or a spiritual force.”

“With economic development and secularization, have we sometimes been neglecting, or even suppressing, powerful spiritual pathways to flourishing?” the study’s report asked, noting that richer countries demonstrated an inverse or negative relationship between meaningful living and gross domestic product. Although the study did not ascribe a causal link between religious worship and individual well-being, the association between them is consistent with previous research.

Spearheaded by Harvard and Baylor universities, in partnership with Gallup, the GFS delved into six dimensions – happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and financial and material stability. Those who attend religious services weekly scored higher in all areas – especially happiness, meaning, and relationships. This finding held true even in very secular countries, study collaborators said. Envisioning flourishing as a “process of growth” rather than as a static condition, GFS researchers said, will require considering “spiritual dynamics” in addition to parameters such as age and economics. 

For Baylor religion professor Paul Marshall, it goes almost without saying that “Money is not making people flourish more.” Instead, purpose, community, relationships, and religion “count more than wealth and success,” he said.

A growing recognition of this may have prompted the GFS authors’ suggestion that “We” – humanity – “may need a reconsideration of spiritual pathways to well-being.”