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November 24, 2025
 

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Matt Spetalnick
U.S. President Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's crown prince, during the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Nov 20, 2025
Behind Trump defense of Saudi crown prince, a deeper U.S. shift on human rights
Trump's remarks threw into stark relief just how far his administration has shifted away from the traditional U.S. support for human rights globally.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on May 13. In his upcoming visit to the White House, the crown prince is seeking security guarantees and wants access to artificial intelligence technology and progress toward a deal on a civilian nuclear program.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 18, 2025
Saudi crown prince to visit U.S. with defense, AI and nuclear energy on agenda
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seeking security guarantees from the U.S. and wants access to AI technology and progress toward a deal on a civilian nuclear program.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 17, 2025
Trump reverses on Epstein files, urging Republicans to vote to release them
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the release of the files should help put to rest allegations that Trump had any connection to Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of underage girls.
Venezuelam President Nicolas Maduro waves his country's flag during a demonstration in Caracas on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 17, 2025
Trump says U.S. may open talks with Venezuela's Maduro
The U.S. has accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of ties to the illegal drug trade, which the leader has denied.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 10, 2025
Trump exerted leverage for Gaza deal but tough questions remain
Despite its potentially historic nature, the rushed deal leaves a host of unresolved issues that could still trip up implementation.
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 24, 2025
U.S. allies embracing Palestinian statehood tests Trump's Israel policy
Some analysts see Trump's unwillingness to apply Washington's leverage with Israel as a realization that the conflict is much more complex and intractable than he has acknowledged.
Ukrainan Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga (right) and his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski (center) look at drones as they visit an exhibition showcasing Ukrainian unmanned vehicles in Kyiv on Sept. 12.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 17, 2025
Trump's public shrug over drone incursion in Poland fuels unease in Europe
Many NATO members already question U.S. President Donald Trump's commitment to their defense in the event of an actual Russian attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint news conference at the White House in Washington in February. Israel has shown it is not afraid to act against U.S. interests.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 12, 2025
Qatar bombing tests the limits of the Trump-Netanyahu alliance
Israel's surprise attack against Hamas leaders in Doha showed the cold calculus beneath U.S. President Trump's relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 4, 2025
As Trump chills U.S.-India ties, Modi warms to China and Russia
Relations souring with India comes even as U.S. adversaries China, Russia and North Korea have tightened their ties, despite Washington's desire to reset relations with them.
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the entrance of the White House in Washington on April 7.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 2, 2025
Trump urges Hamas to accept 'final proposal' for 60-day Gaza ceasefire
In a social media post, U.S. President Donald Trump said his representatives had a "long and productive" meeting with Israeli officials about the war in Gaza.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a meeting in the Situation Room at the White House in Washington on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 22, 2025
Strikes on Iran mark Trump's biggest, and riskiest, foreign policy gamble
U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to deliver military strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites is fraught with risks and unknowns.
A woman walks with a sign depicting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as people gather for a protest against Israel's wave of strikes on Iran in central Tehran on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 14, 2025
Israel's attacks on Iran hint at a bigger goal: regime change
The moves appear aimed at diminishing Iran's credibility both at home and among its allies in the region — factors that could destabilize the Iranian leadership, experts said.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bill signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 13, 2025
Trump's 'peacemaker' pledge takes big hit as Israel strikes Iran
U.S. ally Israel struck dozens of Iranian targets in a dramatic attack that analysts say threatens to spiral into an all-out regional war.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a letter from Britain's King Charles as he meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House in Washington on Feb. 27.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2025
Trump's first 100 days: 'America First' president is overturning world order
Trump's second-term agenda has alienated friends and emboldened adversaries while raising questions about how far he is prepared to go.
An anti-U.S. mural on a building in Tehran earlier this month
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 18, 2025
With his promises of peace unmet in Gaza and Ukraine, Trump may find Iran just as tough
Adding to regional tensions is Trump's repeated threat to bomb Iran's nuclear sites if a deal cannot be reached.
An Israeli hostage who was released from captivity in Gaza arrives at a medical center in Tel Aviv on Feb. 22.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2025
Trump warns Hamas as U.S. holds unprecedented talks for Gaza hostages
The move broke with a decades-old policy against negotiating with groups that the U.S. brands as terrorist organizations.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz during the talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Tuesday
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 19, 2025
Major risks loom as Trump upends U.S. policy on Russia
Trump's rush to impose an end to the war has stoked fears of a peace deal with Putin that could undermine Kyiv and Europe's security.
A Palestinian sits among the rubble of buildings destroyed during an Israeli offensive in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2025
Trump aides defend Gaza takeover proposal but walk back some elements
Trump shattered decades of U.S. policy with a vaguely worded announcement saying he envisioned transforming Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has already indicated that the State Department will be instrumental in helping U.S. President Donald Trump achieve his policy to "curb mass migration."
WORLD / Politics
Jan 31, 2025
Rubio to take up Panama canal and migration in Latam visit
The new U.S. secretary of state will find a region reeling from the Trump administration's shock-and-awe approach to diplomacy.
Steps against diversity form part of U.S. President Donald Trump's broader campaign targeting the federal bureaucracy, which he has sometimes disparaged as the "deep state" secretly working against his agenda.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 24, 2025
Trump accelerates campaign to remake federal bureaucracy
The U.S. president says his orders ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs would make America a "merit-based country" once again.
Two men suspected of smuggling 1 ton of gold into Japan from South Korea
U.K. gold bullion bars and coins are displayed at Baird & Co. in Hatton Garden in London.
Americans with four-year degrees now comprise a record 25% of unemployed workers
A job fair in Fletcher, North Carolina. The unemployment rate for bachelor’s degree-holders in the U.S. rose to 2.8% in September, up a half-percentage point from a year earlier.
War refugee Aonishiki becomes first Ukrainian to win sumo tournament
Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki receives the Prime Minister's Cup from Takahiro Inoue, an adviser to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, on Sunday in Fukuoka after becoming the first from his nation to win a tournament in the traditional Japanese sport.
Japan plans higher visa fees for foreign residents
Along with planned higher fees for foreign residents to stay, Japan is looking to raise the ¥3,000 single-entry visa fee for inbound tourists to Western standards in the next fiscal year.
Top Chinese diplomat weighs in on Takaichi’s ‘shocking’ Taiwan remarks
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivers delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the Lanting Forum in Beijing on Oct. 27.
TV icon Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's memoir paints a life of both war and glamour
“Totto” in “Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel” was the nickname young Tetsuko Kuroyanagi gave herself as a child, mispronouncing her first name.
The secret to 'Last Samurai Standing'? Treating live action like anime.
“Last Samurai Standing” centers on a mysterious fighting event in which participants must hack and slash their opponents apart to collect enough wooden tags to win a big-money prize.
‘Tampopo’ lives on in bowls of ramen around the world
Juzo Itami's 1985 movie "Tampopo" has inspired many restaurateurs around the world to open their own ramen shop with the same name, such as this establishment in Auckland, New Zealand.
All systems Go for upstart Machida Zelvia after landmark Emperor’s Cup triumph
Machida manager Go Kuroda lifts the trophy as the club celebrates its victory over Vissel Kobe in the Emperor’s Cup final at National Stadium on Saturday.
Japan plans higher visa fees for foreign residents
Along with planned higher fees for foreign residents to stay, Japan is looking to raise the ¥3,000 single-entry visa fee for inbound tourists to Western standards in the next fiscal year.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” was released Nov. 23, 1985, and though it wasn’t a hit at the time, it has gained a cult following in the years since.
Eat, slurp, love: 'Tampopo' turns 40
By Weiwen Lin

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