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A worker rides a tractor while spraying organic pesticide on crops at a farm in Hudson, New York, in 2020.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2025

EU plans stricter food import restrictions over pesticide use

EU farmers have been protesting across Europe over the past year about the increasing burdens of the bloc’s climate and environmental rules.
One-third of elementary school students in Japan do not like learning English, according to a 2021 poll, an 8% rise since 2013. The pressure of taking proficiency tests is eroding children's  engagement with studying English and its benefits.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 17, 2025

Japan’s English-language education doesn’t pass the test

An excessive focus on testing students' English ability is turning language learning into a chore, depriving children of the joy and opportunities of intercultural communication.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (C) arrives in Saudi Arabia on Monday prior to a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco. Top U.S. and Russian diplomats will meet in Riyadh on Tuesday for talks on resetting the countries' fractured relations and making a tentative start on trying to end the conflict in Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Top Russia and U.S. officials to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday

Meanwhile, European leaders were gathering for emergency talks on how to respond to the radical pivot by the new U.S. administration.
A Delta Air Lines plane sits upside down at Toronto Pearson Airport in Toronto, Ontario, on Monday.
WORLD
Feb 18, 2025

Delta plane flips upside down in Toronto crash, injuring 18

Three people on flight DL4819 from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport suffered critical injuries, among them a child.
Geraint Thomas puts on the overall leader's yellow jersey on the podium after the 19th stage of the 105th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, between Lourdes and Laruns, France, in July 2018.
MORE SPORTS / Cycling
Feb 18, 2025

British Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas to retire at end of season

Thomas won the Tour de France in 2018, after securing gold for Britain in the team pursuit in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
A giant screen shows news footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng during a symposium on private enterprises, at a shopping complex in Beijing on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 18, 2025

China's tech rally rests on 'hot money'

Hong Kong tech shares have surged 31% since the middle of January to hit three-year highs on Monday while President Xi Jinping sat down with top tech leaders in Beijing.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) meets with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Rubio discusses Gaza deal with Saudi crown prince

Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations have strongly opposed the U.S. plan for Gaza.
Atsuko Sato holds her shiba inu, Neiro, alongside the bronze statue of her shiba inu Kabosu, in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, in December.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2025

Shiba inu Kabosu continues to be loved after death

Atsuko Sato received many letters from Kabosu fans across Japan on the dog's birthday last November, six months after her death.
Rear Adm. Jacques Mallard (right), commander of the Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier strike group, speaks during a ceremony aboard the carrier at a naval base in Toulon, France, last September.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 18, 2025

French carrier group chief draws lessons from first Pacific deployment in 60 years

The deployment helped deepen the French Navy's operational understanding of the region, and learn from and boost interoperability with partner nations, a top commander says.
An Israeli military excavator drives past destroyed houses in the Lebanese village of Dhayra near the border with northern Israel, on Monday.
WORLD
Feb 18, 2025

Deadline for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon expires

Israeli troops had started withdrawing from some border villages, but they seemed poised to stay in key areas.
Kodai Furutani, the assistant chief priest at Ryugasan Unmon Temple in Annaka, Gunma Prefecture, is working to become an interfaith chaplain.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2025

Monk in chaplain training urges people to face death and live life

There is a deep-seated idea in Japan that a monk being seen at a hospital is a bad omen, as their presence reminds patients and medical staff of death.
A tourist gazes out over the sea from the top of a dune near Chabahar in Iran's southern Sistan-Baluchistan province in 2018. Faced with myriad problems including gridlocked traffic and a sinking earth surface in its current capital, Iran is considering a drastic solution: moving it to an altogether different location in Makran on the Gulf of Oman.
WORLD
Feb 18, 2025

Iran mulls moving capital to 'lost paradise' on southern coast

Tehran is experiencing traffic snarls, water shortages, resource mismanagement, extreme air pollution and subsidence.
A Delta airlines plane sits on its roof after crashing upon landing at Toronto Pearson Airport in Toronto, Ontario, on Monday.
WORLD
Feb 18, 2025

String of air crashes in 2025 has rattled travelers

The series of plane crashes this year has prompted sharp criticism of American aviation regulators.
While DeepSeek's low-cost AI has attracted businesses, security experts warn that patching these vulnerabilities can be expensive and still less secure than Silicon Valley's more expensive models.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2025

The DeepSeek AI revolution has a security problem

The AI model that shocked Silicon Valley by doing more with less might be doing too little on safety. That could hurt its business prospects.
The new French ambassador to Singapore said France and Europe do not want their Asian partners to have to choose between the United States and China.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Asia should not have to pick U.S. or China, France's envoy to Singapore says

France sees increasing pressure, "maybe more on the U.S. side," that partners in Asia make a choice, its envoy to Singapore said.
The government has made a shift toward nuclear amid predictions of higher electricity demand stemming from semiconductor production and data centers for AI in the decades to come.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Japan backs nuclear power in climate plan criticized as insufficient

The government is targeting emissions cuts of 60% by fiscal 2035, but environmental groups and businesses have called for more ambition.
Netflix reality series “Offline Love” follows five men and five women as they spend 10 days in Nice, France, finding romance.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Feb 18, 2025

‘Offline Love’ ditches digital dating and puts old-school romance to the test

Netflix Japan's new reality series whisks its participants to a picturesque seaside city in France and leans into nostalgia for a simpler time.
Chinese President Xi Jinping
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Xi’s embrace of China tech CEOs spurs hope of big economic shift

Developing national tech champions is core to Beijing’s plan for boosting the economy as it deflates a bubble in the property market.
A person holds candles of Pope Francis on Tuesday near a statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital in Rome where Pope Francis is hospitalized.
WORLD
Feb 19, 2025

Pope Francis has double pneumonia, complicating his treatment, Vatican says

Pope Francis has had a respiratory infection for more than a week and was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14.
A Ukrainian serviceman in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Nov. 29
WORLD / Politics
Feb 19, 2025

European forces would struggle to guarantee Ukraine peace without U.S.

Deterrence in the form of U.S. medium-range missiles and ultimately nuclear weapons will remain crucial, experts say.
Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki (left) meets Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito (right) in Kitahiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, in December.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2025

Japan not to attend meeting on nuclear ban treaty for third time

The decision may draw criticism from many members of the public and Komeito, with both calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Tents belonging to Palestinians are seen amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 19, 2025

Talks on next phase of Gaza ceasefire to begin this week: Israeli minister

Negotiations over the second stage are expected to be tough because they include issues such as the administration of post-war Gaza.
Toyota agreed to transfer an existing order with LG Energy Solution to LG's battery plant in Michigan, sources said, after General Motors backed out of the project amid a slowdown in the growth of electric vehicle sales.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 19, 2025

Toyota is backing LG battery plant with $1.5 billion order

GM said in December it would sell its $1 billion stake in the Lansing, Michigan, plant, leaving LG scrambling to find new customers.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (center) arrives at the Federal Senate in Brasilia on Tuesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 19, 2025

Brazil's ex-President Bolsonaro charged over alleged coup plot

The charge further complicates the far-right firebrand's already narrow hopes of pulling off a political comeback.
Serbian demonstrators block the main boulevard in the central Serbian city of Kragujevac on Saturday, continuing months long calls for government accountability and reforms.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2025

The new face of global protests

Young Serbs understand that neither justice nor democracy is possible until the tables have been cleared.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged troops for a Ukraine peacekeeping force, but Britain and its military lack the resources to deliver.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2025

Starmer offers Ukraine a defense check it can't cash

Under Starmer’s leadership, there has been no sign that the U.K. is ready to expand its armed forces to the numbers that could sustain such a campaign.
Ilias Roussos, 54, looks on at a summer camp where he lives with his family in Agios Andreas, about 30 kilometers northeast of Athens, on Tuesday, after having fled recurring earthquakes on the island of Santorini.
WORLD
Feb 19, 2025

Islanders keen to return to Santorini even as quakes continue

One of Greece's top travel destinations, Santorini and its neighboring islands of Amorgos, Anafi and Ios have since January been rocked by thousands of tremors.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gives a news conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 20, 2025

Trump turns on Zelenskyy, leaving Ukraine few options amid war

Any remaining hopes seemed to fade when Trump, embracing the Kremlin’s narrative, denounced Zelenskyy as a "dictator."
“Hypnosismic — Division Rap Battle — Movie” centers on groups of male rappers from neighborhoods around Tokyo and Japan at large.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2025

‘Hypnosismic — Division Rap Battle — Movie' lets viewers remix the narrative

Armed with LED-lined gloves and their smartphones, audiences take control of the action for Japan’s first interactive movie.
An explosion of a drone and tracers are seen in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 20, 2025

Dismay and defiance in Kyiv as Trump takes 'enemy's side'

Ukrainians decry the U.S. President's accusation against their leader of starting the war with Russia, saying they had no other choice than to fight.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan