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New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (left) speak with relatives of hostages taken by Hamas during the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in Washington on Jan. 17. Gillibrand was one of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's guests at discussions that took place in earlier this month.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 31, 2024

Saudis resume U.S. defense talks after pause from Gaza war

Crown prince met U.S. senators for the revival of talks of a pact that would have included a tie-up with Israel.
A Ukrainian serviceman prepares shells to fire a L119 howitzer toward Russian troops from a position near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Jan. 25.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2024

EU grapples with future of military aid for Ukraine

Most EU countries are ready to inject €5 billion into the military aid fund to help Kyiv but Germany wants changes to the fund first.
A decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to withdraw from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) could yet take time to implement, but if carried through, is set to disrupt the region's trade and services flows, worth nearly $150 billion a year.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2024

West Africa's 'Brexit' moment spells trouble for the region

The latest crisis highlights the growing rift between the Western-allied governments and military-run countries increasingly relying on Russia and China.
Tractors block the A6 highway during a protest by French farmers in the Chilly-Mazarin district of Paris on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2024

Farmers angry with green policy rebel against EU ahead of vote

Blockades and pickets by farmers are exposing a clash between the EU's drive to cut carbon dioxide emissions and its aim of becoming more self-sufficient.
U.S. President Joe Biden has come under intense pressure from Republicans to take strong action, up to attacks directly on Iranian assets or territory.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 2, 2024

The world waits as Biden telegraphs attack on Iran-backed groups

The U.S. has accused Iran of funding groups that have attacked American bases and personnel in the region.
A fundraising event for the LGBTQ+ community in New Delhi in 2022. Sexual minorities say it is hard enough being openly gay or transgender in India, and the pressure only mounts in the online world.
WORLD / Society
Feb 2, 2024

Gay, teenaged and online: LGBTQ+ Indians fight for safe space

Sexual minorities say it is hard enough being openly gay or transgender in India, with the pressure only increasing in the online world.
A Royal Air Force Typhoon FRG4 undergoes preparations to conduct further strikes against Houthi targets on Saturday.
WORLD
Feb 4, 2024

U.S. and U.K. hit dozens of Houthi sites in bid to end ship attacks

Targeting Houthi sites at 13 locations in Yemen, the allies escalated their effort to destroy the militant group’s ability to attack Red Sea shipping.
The chief of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, accompanies cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko as he gets ready to board the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft at the Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, in September.
WORLD
Feb 4, 2024

Russian cosmonaut sets record for most time in space — more than 878 days

The 59-year-old took the top spot from compatriot Gennady Padalka, who accumulated a total of 878 days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits a frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 5, 2024

Zelenskyy hints at major shake-up of Ukraine’s government

The Ukrainian president said that a broad overhaul of Ukraine’s military and civilian leadership was needed to reboot the country’s war effort.
Britain's King Charles leaves the London Clinic with Britain's Queen Camilla after receiving treatment for an enlarged prostate, in London on Jan. 29.
WORLD
Feb 6, 2024

King Charles diagnosed with cancer just 18 months into his reign

Buckingham Palace said that the king would postpone public-facing duties while he undergoes treatment.
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan during an interview at his residence in Lahore on May 18, 2023. His name may not be on the ballot, but Khan will be on the country's mind as Pakistan votes in an election on Feb. 8 that observers say is deeply flawed without his participation. The former international cricket star has been given three lengthy prison sentences in under a week and banned from politics for 10 years — officially excluding him from an election it never looked like he would allowed to contest.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

Days before Pakistan vote, former leader Imran Khan campaigns from jail

Khan's campaign involves use of generative AI technology to create audio footage of him reading speeches conveyed to lawyers from his prison cell.
A Palestinian woman walks with a child at Mar Elias refugee camp in Beirut on Jan. 29.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

UNRWA funding cuts put Lebanon's Palestinian refugees on alert

"It's difficult to imagine that Gazans will survive this crisis without UNRWA"
Taylor Swift (right) cheers on her boyfriend Travis Kelce's team, the Kansas City Chiefs, in the AFC divisional round playoff game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York, on Jan. 21. The Chiefs will play the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 6, 2024

Taylor Swift rocks the world and drives the far right crazy

The “Swift effect” has become a force in both U.S. domestic politics and international relations.
Cars and homes destroyed by a Russian missile that fell between a residential building and a public preschool in Kyiv on Dec. 13, 2023. In January, the White House said it had evidence that North Korea had provided ballistic missiles used by Russia.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

A Russian bank account may offer clues to North Korean arms deal

Russia has allowed the release of $9 million in frozen North Korean assets from a Russian financial institution, according to intelligence officials.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Feb 7, 2024

In the world of sumo, a mock draft reflects the sport's generational shift

Here's a look at who might go No. 1 overall if sumo's stables conducted a North American-style draft.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) fist bumps U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 15, 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 8, 2024

Saudi Arabia pushes for U.S. defense pact ahead of presidential election

Such a major regional deal would face numerous political and diplomatic obstacles, not least the uncertainty over how the Gaza conflict will unfold.
England's Jess Carter in action with Spain's Salma Paralluelo during the Women's World Cup final in Sydney in August 2023
SPORTS
Feb 8, 2024

Women's sports draw record viewership in U.K. in 2023, research shows

The FIFA Women's World Cup final, which England lost 1-0 to Spain, was 2023's most-watched women's sports event on TV with 38.4 million viewing hours.
A lenticular cloud is seen over a mountain at sunset in a clear sky, due to an anticyclone during a prolonged drought with warming temperatures and lack of rain in winter, in Ronda, Spain, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 9, 2024

Climate change drives world to first 12-month spell over 1.5 C

Human-caused climate change and El Nino pushed temperatures higher.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes a video in front of a road sign with the words "Avdiivka this is Ukraine" as he visits in the front-line town of Avdiivka Donets region, Ukraine, on Dec. 29.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 9, 2024

Zelenskyy’s ugly fight with top general exposes split in Ukraine

The Ukrainian president's public fallout with commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi has come at the worst possible time.
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD
Feb 10, 2024

Israel prepares assault on Rafah as it seeks to allay fears of 'bloodbath'

Aid agencies warned that a military offensive in such a densely populated area could end up killing large numbers of innocent people.
A firefighter extinguishes a burning car hit by an Israeli strike in Rafah on Saturday.
WORLD
Feb 11, 2024

Terrified Palestinians await an advance in the city where they fled

Israeli officials have declared that the next phase in their effort to destroy Hamas will be in Rafah.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally on Saturday. Many were alarmed by Trump’s comments that he would "encourage” Russia to attack U.S. allies that didn’t pay into NATO, but European leaders were already pondering the prospect of an alliance without the U.S.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 13, 2024

Once-bitten Europe is better prepared for Trump’s NATO tirades

The EU is quietly preparing an impact assessment of the November U.S. election — particularly the scenario in which Trump wins.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to his supporters as he arrives at a rally in Guwahati, India, on Feb. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2024

Modi flexes global muscle with Abu Dhabi visit and temple opening

While Islam is the UAE’s state religion, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has long had a strained relationship with India’s Muslim population.
Human rights activists hold placards during a demonstration outside the Russian Embassy in Kathmandu on Feb. 5. Nepali mercenaries are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, lured to kill far from their Himalayan homeland by promises of a passport and cash, but wounded returnees warn anyone tempted to join the war: "Do not come."
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2024

'There to die': Nepali mercenaries fight for Russia in Ukraine

While Nepali soldiers-for-hire can earn nearly double what they make at home, conditions are brutal and many are killed or wounded.
Copies of the Apple Daily newspaper, published by Next Digital Ltd., at the company's printing facility in Hong Kong on Nov. 5, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2024

In Trump-Biden rematch, the only sure loser is China

Trump’s rhetoric may pressure Biden to take harsher measures in the run-up to election day — bad news for China’s economy and slumping stock market.
Yemeni security forces stand guard upon the arrival of the United Nations' special envoy for Yemen ahead of a meeting with local officials in the city of Taez on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 13, 2024

Red Sea crisis puts Yemen peace process on hold

As recently as December, painstaking negotiations were gaining ground.
Japan’s latest growth figures are set to confirm it slipped to become the world's fourth-largest economy last year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 13, 2024

Japan GDP set to confirm slip to world’s fourth-largest economy

Figures for the calendar year are almost certain to show the value of output falling behind Germany’s in dollar terms.
Ukrainian soldiers in a trench in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in January
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Short on soldiers, Ukraine debates how to recruit new troops

A potential expansion of the nation’s military draft to replenish the exhausted, battered army has become an emotional, politically charged issue.
Smoke rises during an Israeli ground operation in Khan Younis as seen from a tent camp sheltering displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Gaza truce talks end inconclusively as Rafah braces for assault

The city teems with people living in makeshift shelters who fled there from Israeli bombardments in areas of Gaza farther north.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and other Baltic politicians placed on Russia's wanted list risk arrest if they cross the Russian border, but otherwise declaring them as "wanted" is unlikely to have any practical consequence.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Moscow puts Estonia PM on wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Baltic governments demolished the monuments they considered their former imperial overlords' propaganda tools.

Longform

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