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Canada faces a tough decision on how to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's economic threats, particularly regarding energy exports, with options ranging from strategic energy cuts to export taxes.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2025

Weaponizing Canadian oil would rattle Trump

Reducing crude output has the potential to inflict real pain on U.S. refiners and consumers.
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.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (front right), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (second left) and other officials and advisers attend talks in Riyadh on Tuesday where they met to discuss ways on ending the Ukraine war.
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2025

America's allies get a rude awakening

U.S. allies are understandably confused and dismayed by the Trump administration’s statements and behavior.
U.S. Marines during training in Okinawa last month.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 22, 2025

U.S. Marines start to leave Japan, decades behind schedule

The U.S. base on Okinawa has relocated 105 Marines. But an agreement to move 9,000 in total is colliding with the perceived threat from a rising China.
Amid rising global defense spending, U.S. President Donald Trump's push for 5% of GDP on military budgets poses a challenge for American allies, including Japan, which is already struggling to meet its 2% target.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 25, 2025

U.S. defense spending demands could transform global security

The level of spending the U.S. is demanding could spark an arms race as adversaries try to match NATO and America's Asian allies.
U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 27, 2025

Trump declines to say if U.S. would protect Taiwan from Chinese invasion

Trump's refusal to comment stood in stark contrast to his predecessor, Joe Biden, who repeatedly hinted that Washington would come to Taipei’s aid.
Disaster was the word European officials used as Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s long-sought meeting with Donald Trump descended into a livestream of raised voices and angry bickering.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 1, 2025

Zelenskyy-Trump blowup leaves U.S. allies facing disaster

Kyiv’s European allies, who’ve spent weeks trying to talk Trump out of rushing into a quick deal to end the war on Putin’s terms, were aghast.
Ukrainian servicemen play with dogs at their position on a front line in the nation's Zaporizhzhia region on Feb. 21.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 2, 2025

Europe's nightmare is here: They have to fight Putin without the U.S.

The European Union is aiming to follow up with an emergency package of €20 billion ($21 billion) in military aid for Ukraine at an emergency summit in Brussels.
Japan and South Korea are in their most fragile political states in decades just as their ally, the United States, enters the second administration of President Donald Trump.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 5, 2025

Japan and South Korea in the age of ‘America first’

Japan and South Korea are at their most fragile political states in decades just as their ally, the United States, has begun the second administration of Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump delivers an address to a joint session of Congress in Washington on Tuesday. Some critics are questioning if the U.S. is shifting away from global leadership under his stewardship.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 6, 2025

Trump's speech was more campaign rhetoric than leadership

Trump's speech to Congress, like the one eight years ago, was little more than domestic political propaganda.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and national security adviser Mike Waltz speak with the media following meetings with a Ukrainian delegation on Ukraine-Russia peace talks, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 12, 2025

Ukraine-U.S. ceasefire proposal puts onus on Putin

The Russian president may attach his own set of conditions for ending the war with Ukraine that would be difficult for Kyiv and its European allies to accept.
Smoke rises from the MV Solong cargo ship on Tuesday, the day after it collided with the MV Stena Immaculate tanker in the North Sea, off the coast of Withernsea, east of England.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 12, 2025

U.K. arrests cargo ship captain for manslaughter over North Sea crash

The 59-year-old captain was arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the collision involving a tanker chartered by the U.S. military.
Travelers make their way through the departures terminal of Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, in 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2025

Canadians, stung by Trump's tariffs and rhetoric, balk at U.S. travel

Even a 10% drop in Canadian travelers could cost the United States $2.1 billion in lost spending, the U.S. Travel Association estimated.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly speaks alongside U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in La Malbaie, Quebec, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 15, 2025

At G7 meeting, U.S. allies’ top diplomats wonder where Rubio stands

The top U.S. diplomat has had to walk a fine line between delivering Trump's "America First” message and looking to cultivate allies.
The Voice of America building in Washington on Sunday, a day after more than 1,300 of the employees of the media broadcaster, which operates in almost 50 languages, were placed on leave
WORLD / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

China and Russia eager to fill void as Trump axes U.S.-funded media

Trumps moves come after years of efforts by Beijing and Moscow to promote their own worldview on the global media landscape.
U.S. President Donald Trump reviews troops aboard the USS Wasp in Yokosuka, Japan, in May 2019. The shifting global security landscape has sparked discussions in many countries, including Japan, about developing nuclear weapons in response to changing U.S. commitments.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 18, 2025

Changing U.S. commitments spark nuclear armament debates, including in Japan

Given Japan's unique history in 1945, it will take more than fear or harsh rhetoric to push the country into considering the development of nuclear weapons.
An example of a Russian disinformation poster that was spread via Telegram. Some analysts said that reducing work to counter Moscow's hybrid war tactics would prove dangerous for the U.S.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 20, 2025

U.S. suspends some efforts to counter Russian sabotage

Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, much of the work on monitoring and countering Russia's hybrid warfare campaign has come to a standstill.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 21, 2025

Pentagon eyeing plan to halt U.S. Forces Japan upgrade, reports say

The move could create “political risk” for Washington with Tokyo and reduce the scope of command and control in the Indo-Pacific region as the U.S.-China rivalry heats up.
Tugboats pull the Greek tanker Sounion across Egypt's Suez Canal waterway. The tanker — set ablaze by Yemeni rebels with more than a million barrels of oil aboard — has been safely towed through the Suez Canal, the waterway's authority said on March 10. The Sounion was attacked in the Red Sea last August by Yemen's Houthi rebels, catching fire and losing power before its 25-member crew were rescued by a French frigate.
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2025

Houthi attacks forcing 75% of U.S.-flagged ships to take longer route, U.S. says

The Houthis in Yemen say they have targeted ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians since the start of Israel's Gaza war.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One before arriving at Palm Beach International Airport in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 29, 2025

Trump prompts U.S. allies to reopen nuclear weapons debate

Donald Trump's attacks on NATO and the established world order are undermining the confidence of its allies under the U.S. security umbrella.
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 1, 2025

As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products

A dramatic reshuffling of Canada's retail shelves illustrates the impact of patriotic consumerism in the country.
Rescue teams from China and Belarus coordinate at the site of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 3, 2025

With U.S. absent, China steps in for earthquake-hit Myanmar

The American absence shows how U.S. President Donald Trump's moves to slash the size of the government has hobbled its ability to act during disasters.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks and signs tariffs in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 3, 2025

With Trump’s tariffs, the chasm between allies and the U.S. widens

Trump’s plan, which he unveiled on Wednesday and is calling "reciprocal,” would impose a wave of tariffs on dozens of countries.
A Nissan manufacturing complex in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Nissan says it will not take new orders from the United States for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs following new auto tariffs levied by the U.S.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 4, 2025

Nissan says it will not take new U.S. orders for Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs

It says it will maintain two shifts of production of its Rogue SUV at its Smyrna, Tennessee, plant following the announcement of new U.S. tariffs on automobiles.
Protesters hold up signs during a demonstration against U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday. Scores of protests were held across the country the same day.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 6, 2025

Tens of thousands in U.S. turn out to protest against Trump policies

Some 1,200 demonstrations nationwide formed one of the largest single days of protest against President Donald Trump since he was sworn in.
Protesters, mainly Houthi supporters, rally to mark the annual al-Quds Day on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 28.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Apr 6, 2025

U.S. progress against resilient Houthi militants remains murky

Trump's administration has offered limited evidence of weapons deployed and targets hit to back up his assertion.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Japan does not intend to seek direct confrontation with the U.S. over the newly levied tariffs, during a parliamentary committee session in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 7, 2025

Japan to avoid direct confrontation with the U.S. over Trump tariffs

The Japanese prime minister is calling for a more diplomatic and fact-based approach, in part by examining U.S. allegations about trade barriers.
A China Shipping cargo container at a port in Long Beach, California, on Thursday
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2025

China slaps 125% tariffs on U.S. goods but will 'ignore' further hikes

The move further deepens a trade war between the world's two largest economies.
U.S. President Donald Trump and his “madman theory” won’t get Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei to scrap his nuclear program.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2025

Why should Iran believe anything the U.S. threatens or promises?

The Iranians — like the Russians — are notoriously shifty negotiators. But so are the Americans, now that they’re led by Trump.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday in Washington.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 16, 2025

Trump calls the U.S.-Japan alliance ‘one-sided.’ Tokyo says otherwise.

Some observers believe the U.S. president’s worldview is stuck in the 1980s, a time when trade deficits with Japan captured the attention of U.S. policymakers.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami