Katie Hale is originally from Houston and now lives in London. Her crosswords have been appearing in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times since 2021. Her puzzle today includes five clues with foreign words which are to be taken literally. Hale wrote on Twitter that "this idea sat in my drafts folder for well over a year before I managed to find a way to make it work."

Bise, literally: FRENCHKISS
Cangkir, literally: CUPOFJAVA
Zevk, literally: TURKISHDELIGHT
Quando, literally: WHENINROME
La lluvia, literally: THERAININSPAIN

Bise is the French word for "kiss." Cangkir is the Javanese word for "cup." Zevk is the Turkish word for "pleasure" or "delight." Quando is the Italian word for "When." Lluvia is the Spanish word for "rain."

Dutch settlers planted coffee trees in Bali, Cebu, Sumatra, Java and other Southeast Asian islands in the 17th century. It is unclear why "java" has become a generic term for coffee. Java, by the way, has a population of 152,000,000 and is the world's most populous island.

Turkish delights are confections that originated in Turkey in the late 1800s. Known as lokum in Turkey, they typically are small cubes of flavored gel containing chopped dates, hazelnuts, walnuts or pistachios. Here is a recipe:

https://www.aspicyperspective.com/the-tastiest-turkish-delight-recipe-lokum/

The expression "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" means that if we are visiting a foreign country, we should follow the customs of the people who live there. Variations of the saying first appeared in the 16th century but the most common version appeared in 1777 in Interesting Letters of Pope Clement XIV, a book published three years after the Pope's death: “The siesta or afternoon’s nap of Italy, my most dear and reverend Father, would not have alarmed you so much if you had recollected that when were at Rome, we should do as the Romans do."

"The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain" is a line from George Bernard Shaw''s 1913 play Pygmailion. The 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady was adapted from the play. Julie Andrews starred in a movie version in 1964. Hoping to rid her of her thick Cockney accent, Professor Henry Higgins has Eliza Doolittle practice saying the "rain in spain" line. Here is Julie Andrews as Eliza. By Jove, I think she's got it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVmU3iANbgk papa's games

As for the meaning of "French kiss".....well.....I'd be too embarrassed to share it here. You can look it up.

I never made it through the last mission. But then I looked up how to do it on YouTube. Thanks for the info.

Excellent to know. I appreciate your assistance, which I have already used. Had another thought that would result in a somewhat small collection of theme terms.  After doing enough research, I discovered that the NYT had already done it in 2003. That at least proves that my idea was reasonable, if not unique.  retro bowl
To Will's credit, I believe he suggested returning the problem to the constructor, but the latter chose to hold off and declined.  I believe that Shortz weighed in to defend himself when this was discussed on Rex Parker's site.

Oh, and one other thing: the strength of your word list matters just as much to success as the program. This website offers a helpful wordlist (ALL), but there are many accessible, most notably on xwordinfo.com. You can also add new words to your word list and remove useless ones as you go along. 
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I would like to add that WIZ and WHIZ are basically distinct derivatives of WIZARD, as shown. Undoubtedly a fool, then. I agree that it's not a good idea to have WHIZ combined with WIZ, however WHIZZED by suddenly is not linked as a verb. There is no connection between QUIZ and WHIZ, therefore it might be used as a crosser without any issues.
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About today's (July 08, 2021) WSJ Crossword

This an ingenious theme and good play on words by Matthew Sewell, and a very insightful puzzle choice by editor Mike Shenk.

Why? Here’s what my “research” findings show, so far: 

1. Whereas a house mouse is same in colour as other such ones, a field mouse usually has a greyish-white belly and reddish-brown fur on its back and a yellow line of "fuzz" along its chest. Its ears are also less rounded than those of the house mouse. The main distinction between the house mouse and the field mouse is in their behaviour.

2. The idea of the 'Mad March Hare' comes from the hare behaviour you're likely to witness in the month of March. The sort of behaviour you might see includes madcap chases and furious boxing matches. This is not 'mad' behaviour; it’s courting behaviour of mating hares.

3. Although box turtles are superficially similar to tortoises in terrestrial habits and overall appearance, they are actually members of the American pond turtle family

4. A draft horse (US), draught horse (UK) or dray horse (from the Old English dragan meaning "to draw or haul"; compared to Dutch dragen and German tragen)
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Kumar (Kem) Balani

I am going to find this to be of great aid! You should continue to produce work of a high quality.