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People walk past the communist-era Palace of Culture and Science in the center of Warsaw on April 2.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 7, 2025

Sex toys and exploding cosmetics: anatomy of a 'hybrid war' on the West

European security chiefs described the parcel fires as part of a "hybrid war" being waged by Russia to destabilize countries that support Ukraine.
Social engineering scams thrive on poorly monitored social media platforms, and while the UK is pushing tougher laws to hold tech companies accountable, the U.S. resists stricter rules, believing individuals should bear responsibility for avoiding fraud.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2025

The U.K. is trying to fight social scams. The U.S. not so much.

Social engineering is one of the hardest parts of the trillion-dollar online scam industry to block or disrupt.
A man holds a Hezbollah flag in southern Lebanon. The militant group emerged severely weakened from the 2024 conflict with Israel.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 9, 2025

Hezbollah ready to discuss weapons if Israel withdraws, senior official says

U.S.-backed Lebanese President Joseph Aoun intends to open talks with Hezbollah over its arsenal soon, three Lebanese political sources said.
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday in Washington.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 10, 2025

Tokyo cheers Trump’s tariff U-turn with second-biggest market gain ever

The news of Trump’s 90-day pause on “reciprocal tariffs”was welcomed by Japan and its markets, with the 225-issue Nikkei stock average up more than 9% on Thursday.
First responders near the landing skids of a helicopter after it crashed into the Hudson River, in Newport, New Jersey, on Thursday.
WORLD
Apr 11, 2025

Helicopter crashes into New York's Hudson River, with all six aboard killed

The victims, the pilot and five passengers, were believed to include a family from Spain.
Tokyo stocks tracked Wall Street lower as the United States and China hiked tariffs on imports from each other.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 11, 2025

Nikkei sinks as tariff-fueled selling resumes

An increase in U.S. levies on China to 145% has reignited concerns about the global economy and corporate profits.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks outside the White House in Washington on Wednesday. Bessent appears to have taken a larger role in articulating U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies to financial markets.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 11, 2025

Amid turmoil over tariffs, Bessent rises in Trump trade world

Multiple sources close to the White House said the former hedge fund manager was giving the U.S. president the best counsel among a team of advisers on trade.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba gives instructions to Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa (third from left) and others at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 11, 2025

Japan braces for talks on yen and BOJ in trade negotiations with U.S.

Ryosei Akazawa, who is heading the task force, is reportedly set to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent next week.
Sony and Nintendo might have to raise the prices of their game consoles, which are assembled mainly in China and are shipped to the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2025

Nintendo Switch 2 and Sony PS5 likely to get price hikes due to tariffs

Pricing could come close to $590 for the soon-to-be-released Nintendo Switch 2 or Sony’s PS5 Astro Bot bundle.
Having had two meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is slowly building a personal relationship with him, which matters greatly to the U.S. president and in resolving bilateral issues.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 11, 2025

Can anyone deal with Trump better than Ishiba?

Trump’s shift on Japan tariffs offers relief, but Ishiba’s grip remains shaky amid internal discontent and challenging U.S. demands.
British Defense Secretary John Healey (right) holds a news conference with Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov following a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 12, 2025

Europe to present Trump with Ukraine force plan within weeks

European leader hope the plan for a postwar "reassurance force” in Ukraine will persuade the U.S. president to commit to security guarantees for Kyiv.
Muslim protestors pray outside the main campus of Columbia University during a demonstration to denounce the immigration arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist who helped lead protests against Israel at the university, in New York on March 14.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 12, 2025

U.S. judge rules Palestinian Columbia student can be deported

The judge's decision came after a combative 90-minute hearing held in a court located inside a jail complex for immigrants.
The Bundeswehr booth at the Hannover Messe 2025 trade fair in Hannover, Germany, on March 31.
WORLD / FOCUS
Apr 12, 2025

Germany wants to be a military powerhouse. Can it pull it off?

Achieving this may be easier said than done. Germany’s defense and national security apparatus is fragmented and encumbered by bureaucracy.
Shoppers outside an Apple store in New York on April 7
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 13, 2025

U.S. exempts tech imports in tariff backpedal

President Donald Trump's move offers relief to U.S. tech firms and partially dials down a trade war with China.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (left) meets with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi in Muscat, Oman, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 13, 2025

U.S. and Iran hold 'positive' talks in Oman, with more to come this week

The talks were indirect, though Iran's foreign minister said his delegation had a brief encounter with its U.S. counterpart after they exited the talks.
U.S. President Donald Trump leaves after speaking to the media on board Air Force One on the way to Miami on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 13, 2025

On Ukraine talks, Trump says there is a time 'to put up or shut up'

The U.S. president made the comments a day after he showed frustration with Russia and told it to "get moving" on reaching a deal.
People walk through an Apple Store in Hong Kong on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2025

Apple was on brink of crisis before tariff concession from Trump

Donald Trump’s 125% tariffs on goods produced in China threatened to upend its supply chain as seriously as the COVID-19 snarls did five years ago.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping waves as he arrives for a two-day state visit at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 14, 2025

Xi seeks to win with Southeast Asia trip as Trump pauses some tariffs

Xi arrived in Vietnam on Monday and was due to visit Malaysia and Cambodia later this week, just days after Trump raised tariffs on China but gave everyone else a 90-day pause.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2025

Trump calls for deporting some citizens to El Salvador, testing U.S. law

The comments are the clearest signal yet that the president is serious about deporting naturalized and U.S.-born citizens, a proposal many legal scholars say is unconstitutional.
Iranian missiles are displayed at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force Museum in Tehran on Nov. 15, 2024
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2025

Would military strikes kill Iran's nuclear program? Probably not

Rather than destroying the nuclear program, an attack could prompt Iran to kick out United Nations nuclear inspectors and drive their program fully underground.
Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Hanoi on Tuesday. Xi is also visiting Malaysia and Cambodia as part of a charm offensive related to recent U.S. tariffs.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

Cambodia seeking China's financial support as Xi visits amid U.S. tariffs

Phnom Penh is a close partner of China, which has invested billions of dollars in projects including roads and airports and is the country's largest creditor.
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.
As the global trade war intensifies, the debt, the main investment for Japan’s life insurers, has seen wild swings along with its U.S. counterparts.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 18, 2025

Major Japan life insurer to pile into domestic superlong bonds

Investment decisions by Japan’s life insurers can move global markets, and Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance will be the first among its major peers to report such plans.
People walk past a banner picturing Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sevastopol, Crimea, on March 22. The banner reads: "The West doesn't need Russia, we need Russia!"
WORLD / Politics
Apr 19, 2025

U.S. open to recognizing Crimea as Russian in Ukraine deal

The signal comes as the Trump administration said it is prepared to move on from its peace-brokering efforts unless progress is made quickly.
A screenshot image from the Whitehouse.gov website that promotes the "lab leak" theory of COVID-19’s origins. The Trump administration has replaced the government’s main portal for information about COVID-19 with a website arguing that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab, throwing its weight behind a theory of the virus’ origins that is so far not backed by direct evidence.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 19, 2025

New White House website blames China for COVID-19 'lab leak'

The website, previously focused on promoting vaccine and testing information, now includes a large image of President Donald Trump and criticizes the Biden-era pandemic policies.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a U.S. Democrat from Massachusetts, speaks on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Warren says a series of rash actions by the U.S. president are seeding uncertainty across the economy.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 21, 2025

Wall Street ‘cops are gone’ after Trump overhaul, Democratic senator warns

The moves to purge federal regulatory agencies would leave consumers and markets vulnerable to fraud and corruption, Sen. Elizabeth Warren says.
Hyundai vehicles drive into a cargo ship at a port near the company's Ulsan plant in March.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 21, 2025

Shrinking South Korea exports send global warning on Trump tariffs

The data will be closely watched for clues on how Trump’s new levies are playing out in the real world.
Global trade, energy and financial networks are increasingly being leveraged as strategic tools by nations, with supply chains, shipping routes and financial systems becoming potential points of conflict.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2025

How much 'weaponization' can the global economy take?

Global trade, energy and financial networks are increasingly being leveraged as strategic tools by nations.
Hiroshima is full of memorials to the 1945 atomic bombing. Among them, the peace museum promotes an ambiguous message: One against nuclear weapons without acknowledging the role of nuclear deterrence in preserving the postwar peace.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 21, 2025

The ambiguity of Japan’s message on nuclear weapons

It is common in Japan to be both anti-atomic weapons and anti-war. But are these positions not contradictory if nuclear deterrence actually works to preserve the peace?
The entrance to Harvard Law School in 2023. Harvard sued U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Monday in a sharp escalation of the fight between the prestigious university and the Republican, who has threatened its funding and sought to impose outside political supervision.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 22, 2025

Harvard University sues to block Trump from cutting billions in research funding

Since his January inauguration, Trump has cracked down on top U.S. universities, saying they mishandled last year's pro-Palestinian protests.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight