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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.
MAGA hats adorn a row of monitors on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 5, 2025

Day one of Trump’s trade war delivers wild ride for Wall Street

The S&P 500 index tumbled 2% shortly after the open Tuesday, wiping out its $3.4 trillion advance since Election Day on Nov. 5.
An M777 howitzer crew firing at Russian targets near the front lines of the Dnipro region, Ukraine, on Feb. 12
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2025

U.S. cuts intelligence for Ukraine, adding pressure for peace deal

The move underscores Trump's willingness to play hardball with an ally as he pivots to a more conciliatory approach to Moscow.
Kaoru Hasuike, who was abducted by North Korea before returning to Japan, speaks on Wednesday in Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2025

Former abductee urges Japan to work with U.S. to press North Korea

Kaoru Hasuike said that the abduction issue "has not been resolved."
A dry rice field in Subang, West Java, Indonesia, on July 29, 2023
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 6, 2025

Europe’s defense budget rips through its climate-crisis buffer

Spending cuts here and now mean future climate costs may rise, said the head of a climate nonprofit.
A monarch butterfly is seen at an enclosure at Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in August 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 7, 2025

Butterfly populations plummet by 22% in U.S. since turn of century

Studies in some other countries have documented declines at roughly the same rate as in the U.S. data.
Shizuko Nishio — who will turn 86 on March 10, when Japan will commemorate 80 years after the bombing of Tokyo — gives an explanation in February in front of a map showing the areas that were burned in the air raids.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2025

'Eerie' sky, charred bodies: 80 years since Tokyo's World War II firestorm

Because of the atomic bombings and Japan's surrender a month later, the firebombing of Tokyo is often overlooked in history.
Nintendo shares sank as much as 9.8% in Tokyo Friday, as U.S. President Donald Trump doubling levies on China means game consoles, mostly made in China, could have higher selling prices in the United States due to heftier import costs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025

Nintendo shares plunge on tariff fears as foreign investors retreat

Nintendo sank 9.2% in Tokyo, its biggest intraday drop since the stock market rout on Aug. 5.
As the U.S. under Donald Trump reassesses its commitment to Ukraine, countries worldwide, particularly in Europe and Asia, are reconsidering their defense policies and alliances with America. 
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2025

Europe braces for a post-American world. Is Japan ready?

A diplomatic posture that makes demands only of Ukraine and not Russia suggests, however, that Washington has taken sides.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Friday. Trump said tariffs could be imposed on Canadian dairy and lumber products within days, in a growing trade war with the United States' northern neighbor.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Mar 8, 2025

Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff strategy sows confusion

Hasty announcements have injected chaos into the economy and financial markets, casting doubts about the White House’s trade strategy.
A demonstrator holds a sign with a picture of death row inmate Brad Sigmon outside the South Carolina Department of Corrections following his execution by firing squad, at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 8, 2025

South Carolina carries out first firing squad execution in U.S. in 15 years

The convicted murderer said he feared the alternatives of the electric chair or lethal injection would risk a slower and more torturous death.
Former Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Japan must fix "any misunderstanding" held by U.S. President Donald Trump that its central bank was intentionally weakening the yen with monetary policy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2025

Japan must fix 'misunderstanding' it is manipulating yen, says ex-BOJ chief Kuroda

Trump said he had told Japan and China they could not continue to reduce the value of their currencies, as doing so would be unfair to the United States.
When Ukraine gets bulldozed into accepting a ceasefire on the capitulatory terms President Vladimir Putin might accept, Trump’s America will dismiss complaints from Kyiv as warmongering.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2025

Kyiv and Moscow are divided by a valley of lies

When Ukraine gets bulldozed into accepting a ceasefire on the capitulatory terms Putin might accept, Trump’s America will dismiss complaints from Kyiv as warmongering.
France's President Emmanuel Macron (second from left) shakes hands with Ukraine's Colonel General Ruslan Khomchak, First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, at the Musee de la Marine, in Paris on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 12, 2025

In rare meeting without U.S., Western army chiefs meet to show Ukraine unity

The talks aimed, in part, to assess options and capabilities to guarantee Ukraine's security in the event of a ceasefire.
Noor Abdalla, 28, wife of Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement looks at an ultrasound photograph in New York on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2025

Wife of student arrested in U.S. says she was naive to think he would be secure

Two days before U.S. agents came, her husband asked her if she knew what to do if immigration agents were at their door.
Alcohol is shaping up to be a key friction point in the brewing trade war.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 14, 2025

Trump threatens tariffs on European wine and spirits in escalating trade war

The threat came in response to a European Union plan to impose tariffs on American whiskey and other products next month.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he arrives to attend a summit held at Lancaster House in central London on March 2.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 15, 2025

As Trump thaws ties, Russia has a new public enemy No. 1: Britain

For most of the war, Russia lambasted Washington for its role in supplying aid to Kyiv. With Donald Trump in office, that has changed.
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.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer leaves a luncheon on Thursday in Washington.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 16, 2025

U.S. Democrats fume as some in party cave to Trump on spending bill

Congressional passage of the controversial spending bill was being seen as a setback for Democratic backbenchers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a press briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 16, 2025

Zelenskyy accuses Russia of trying to trap Ukraine’s forces amid ceasefire talks

Fighting is raging in and around the part of the Kursk region that Ukraine seized in a surprise offensive into Russian territory last summer.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month establishing the 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.'
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Mar 16, 2025

Trump's bitcoin reserve to be a 'digital Fort Knox'

The reserve is funded by about 200,000 bitcoins — worth nearly $17 billion — that have been seized in the U.S. as a result of civil and criminal cases.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to members of the media, as images are displayed of U.S. President Donald Trump receiving information on military strikes launched against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, in the briefing room at the White House on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

Trump ramps up pressure on Iran with fresh Houthi threats

The U.S. president has raised the possibility of retaliatory strikes against Tehran if the militant group in Yemen doesn’t stop its attacks.
Shipping containers at a port in Long Beach, California. Higher tariffs will raise the cost of doing business in the U.S., raising the bar for Japanese companies to invest in America.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 18, 2025

Trump tariffs to raise bar to invest in the U.S., JETRO says

Higher tariffs will raise the cost of doing business in the U.S. with more expensive materials and products, said JETRO’s chair, Norihiko Ishiguro.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni talks with Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti in the upper house of Parliament in Rome on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 19, 2025

Meloni cautions EU on U.S. trade war and says Italy won't send troops to Ukraine

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is close to U.S. President Donald Trump, said established ties between Europe and the United States had to be preserved.
A man rides past a graffiti that reads "Patino FARC EP" on a road near El Plateado, Cauca department, Colombia, on March 9. The Micay Canyon mountains have been transformed into a micro-state, ruled by guerrillas fighting each other and the army.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 19, 2025

USAID suspension shutters Colombia programs, endangering FARC peace deal

In recent years, Colombia had received as much as $440 million annually in USAID assistance for more than 80 programs.
Elon Musk and President Donald Trump's assertion that U.S. aid cuts to programs including PEPFAR and USAID in Africa aren't causing harm is not true. Children and others are already dying as a result.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2025

Musk says aid cuts haven’t killed anyone. That's not true.

In South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, the efforts by Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump are already leading children to die.
The evolving national security landscape demands a shift in focus from traditional military power to economic resilience, technological leadership and the growing risks posed by both adversaries and allies.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2025

Trump's actions and the ‘new national security economy’

Soft power is poorly understood and it is no substitute for situations when brute force is required, but it has genuine influence in subtle ways.
A 7-Eleven convenience store, operated by Seven & I Holdings, at the company's headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 19, 2025

Seven & I signs confidentiality pact with Canada’s Couche-Tard

The nondisclosure agreement (NDA) will pave the way for discussions around antitrust issues in the United States, Seven & I said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 20, 2025

Putin advances strategic aims while ceding little to Trump

The agreement to a narrow ceasefire in which Russia and Ukraine would stop attacking each other's energy facilities gives Moscow an edge against Kyiv.
U.S. President Donald Trump (left), who had stormy exchanges earlier with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described their call on Wednesday as "fantastic.”
WORLD / Politics
Mar 20, 2025

Trump and Zelenskyy pledge in phone call to work for end to war in Ukraine

Describing the move as a step toward fully ending Ukraine's war with Russia, the Ukrainian president said his country is "ready to implement it."

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