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A poster depicting a hostage Omer Wenkert, at the site of the Nova festival where party goers were killed and kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, in Reim, southern Israel, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Feb 22, 2025

Israel prepares to receive six more Gaza hostages as Bibas body identified

The fragile truce between Israel and Hamas militants had been threatened with derailment by the misidentification of a body released on Thursday.
Eliya Cohen, who was seized from a roadside emergency shelter on Oct. 7, 2023, waves during a public hostage handover ceremony staged by Hamas in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
WORLD
Feb 23, 2025

Israel will postpone the release of Palestinian prisoners

Benjamin Netanyahu's office has stated it will delay the exchange partly due to 'humiliating ceremonies' by Hamas.
A campaign poster for Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democratic Union candidate for chancellor, in Potsdam, Germany, on Saturday
WORLD / Politics
Feb 23, 2025

Gloomy Germans vote in election which conservatives are set to win

The election campaign has been dominated by fierce exchanges over the perception that irregular immigration is out of control.
Ancient trees and animals play crucial roles in ecosystems, carbon storage and even human health, yet their populations are dwindling due to deforestation, fishing and climate change.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2025

Who will speak for the trees?

A slew of scientific discoveries shows why we should protect not just 1,000-year-old trees but also 200-year-old whales, 400-year-old fish and 10,000-year-old sea sponges.
Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, speaks at a party convention in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 25, 2025

CDP to accelerate election preparations after party convention

The CDP adopted a program of activities for fiscal 2025 that positions a change of government as its top goal.
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the hearing of his impeachment trial over his short-lived imposition of martial law, at the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 25, 2025

What happens next in South Korea as Yoon's impeachment trial wraps up?

Ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial is set to wrap up Tuesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron look at each other during a press conference at the White House in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 25, 2025

Macron and Trump rekindle Le Bromance with a touch of tension

Strains over Trump's sudden pivot to Russia over the Ukraine war bubbled up to the surface, even if Macron softened the blow with yet another physical gesture.
Germany’s new leader, Friedrich Merz, aims to revive the economy with tax cuts and pro-business reforms, but an aging population, labor shortages and rising social costs may limit growth and strain public finances.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2025

Germany needs an economic miracle. Merz's odds don’t look good.

Merz faces an aging population that’s set to hold back growth and exacerbate strains on the federal budget and social security system.
U.S. President Donald Trump throws a pen after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2025

U.S. and Ukraine agree to terms of critical minerals deal

The latest version of the deal still doesn’t spell out specific security guarantees, though Ukraine sees it as a starting point toward that possibility.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement on defense spending on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2025

Trump’s threats push U.K.'s Starmer into a more global, military agenda

U.S. President Donald Trump's apparent refusal for the U.S. to be the final guarantor of security in Europe has prompted the prime minister to act.
The co-leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Alice Weidel (left) and Tino Chrupalla (right), deliver a statement after the first parliamentary group meeting of their party on Tuesday, two days after Germany's general elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2025

Far right lurks in the shadow of Germany's coalition dilemma

As victor Friedrich Merz tries to build a coalition, Germany could find itself in a vicious cycle where the compromises required to govern deepen the divisions that plague it.
Taishi Fuwa (left), the general manager at World Woman Pro-wrestling Diana, and his lawyer Kazuhito Ozawa at a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2025

Settlement reached in female pro-wrestler sexual harassment case

The lawsuit was filed "to raise awareness and prevent similar incidents from happening," said the general manager of the pro-wrestling agency involved.
The peloton rides from Florence to Rimini, Italy, during the first stage of the 2024 Tour de France.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 28, 2025

For Tour de France, foreign starts make financial sense

The Barcelona start will be the 27th non-French starting location since the Tour first went on the road internationally in Amsterdam in 1954.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 1, 2025

Trump kicks Zelenskyy out of White House after Oval Office meltdown

The ugly clash in the Oval Office saw Trump and Vice President JD Vance berate the Ukraine leader for not being "thankful" for U.S. help in the three-year war against Russia.
Hidetaka Ishii, an official at the Chiba Municipal Government, says close coordination with private-sector operators is key for regional decarbonization efforts.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Mar 2, 2025

Japan’s climate heroes show potential and limits of local initiatives

Chiba and others show the potential for local areas to accelerate the energy transition, as well as the challenges of building locally driven, carbon-free energy models.
The rapid collapse of the plan to take Seven & I private reflects how personal egos and domestic competitiveness ultimately outweighed the nationalistic desire to fend off Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, whose pursuit of the Japanese retailer emerged last August.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 2, 2025

Seven & I and Nissan deal fallout leaves Japan companies vulnerable

The collapse of the deals means the companies are potentially even more vulnerable to foreign takeovers.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy either "needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that."
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025

Trump allies pressure Zelenskyy to change course or resign

Democrats, meanwhile, have expressed disgust over the tenor of U.S. President Donald Trump's meeting with the Ukrainian leader.
A Russian military vehicle heads toward Hmeimim air base in Latakia, Syria, on Dec. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025

Russia gambles to keep military bases in post-Assad Syria

Syria's interim president wants to renegotiate the 49-year lease for one base and an indefinite lease for the other to secure better terms.
The Canadian unit of Japan Tobacco plans to record nearly ¥400 billion in loss allowances as sales expenses for the settlement.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 3, 2025

Canadian units of Japan Tobacco and others agree to settle litigation

For the settlement, the Canadian unit of Japan Tobacco plans to record nearly ¥400 billion in loss allowances as sales expenses.
The Lower House Budget Committee votes for the fiscal 2025 budget in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 4, 2025

Budget clears Lower House in key win for Ishiba

The budget’s approval in the Lower House has long been seen as an indispensable requirement for the survival of the Ishiba administration.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a statement on plans to strengthen the European defense industry and the EU's military capabilities in Brussels on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2025

EU proposes €150 billion defense loan plan as Trump pulls back

Any push for new EU borrowing is going to have to win the backing of the 27 member states, a significant hurdle.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during an emergency Arab summit in Cairo on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 5, 2025

Arab states adopt Egyptian alternative to Trump's 'Gaza Riviera'

While hurdles remain, Egypt's $53 billion reconstruction plan would avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave.
U.S. President Donald Trump is applauded by Vice President JD Vance (center) and House Speaker Mike Johnson, as Trump arrives to deliver his address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 5, 2025

In speech, Trump warns of tariff ‘disturbance’ as he touts trade plans

Data shows new strains on the economy as factory activity stagnates, inflation simmers, consumer confidence ebbs and stocks lag behind equity markets in other countries.
Antonio Costa, president of the European Council (left), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, arrive for a special European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 7, 2025

EU leaders agree on defense surge and support Zelenskyy after U.S. aid freeze

The European Union's defense summit in Brussels took place amid fears that Russia, emboldened by its war in Ukraine, may attack an EU country next.
Nippon Ishin no Kai co-leader Seiji Maehara (left) greets Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after the budget was passed at the Lower House — with the support of the opposition party — on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 7, 2025

Is Nippon Ishin the ruling LDP-Komeito coalition's friend or foe?

The party is juggling between supporting the ruling coalition in return for some of its policies being realized, and opposing them to win votes.
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he walks to board Marine One, while departing the White House en route to Florida, in Washington, on Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2025

Majority in Japan expect stronger economic ties under Trump

Also in the survey, 81.5% said they strongly or somewhat agree that the security environment in East Asia is becoming more severe.
Artificial intelligence is set to disrupt white-collar jobs, making it crucial for knowledge workers to embrace AI, develop backup plans and adapt to an evolving job market.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2025

How to hedge against AI stealing your job

"Knowledge workers" need a back-up plan as artificial intelligence keeps getting better.
Members of a Liberal Democratic Party panel discuss proposals about allowing spouses to retain their respective surnames, in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 10, 2025

Eternal debate over surname law comes to fore again

Since last October’s general election, momentum has picked up for a legislative change to allow married couples to retain different surnames.
A heron flies over the bustling Ver-o-Peso market, in Belem, Para state, Brazil, near the site of the COP30 Summit, which will be held in November.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 10, 2025

BRICS' climate leadership aims hang on healing deep divides

Diverging national interests among BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — may also prove sticking points.
A youth pushes a bicycle loaded with filled water containers outside the Southern Gaza Desalination plant, which stopped working after Israeli after cut off electricity supply to the Gaza Strip, in Deir el-Balah in the center of the Palestinian territory on Monday.
WORLD
Mar 11, 2025

Israeli move to cut power to Gaza affects some water supplies but little else

At night the territory is plunged into almost total darkness, after more than 15 months of intense Israeli bombardment and fighting that had already destroyed the grid.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji