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August 24, 2025
 

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MIDDLE EAST

An Israeli hostage who was released from captivity in Gaza arrives at a medical center in Tel Aviv on Feb. 22.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2025
Trump warns Hamas as U.S. holds unprecedented talks for Gaza hostages
The move broke with a decades-old policy against negotiating with groups that the U.S. brands as terrorist organizations.
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.
A S-300 missile system is seen during the National Army Day parade in Tehran on April 17, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2025
Russian missile experts flew to Iran amid clashes with Israel
It could not be determined what the seven specialists were doing in Iran.
Houses and buildings lie in ruins in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Jan. 19 following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2025
Egypt's alternative to Trump's 'Gaza Riviera' aims to sideline Hamas
Cairo's plan does not tackle issues such as who will foot the bill for Gaza's reconstruction or outline any specific details around how the strip would be governed.
Mourners react during the funeral of two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD
Mar 4, 2025
Israeli fire kills two Palestinians in Gaza amid impasse over ceasefire
A first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas ended over the weekend with no agreement on what will happen next.
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.
People gather by the rubble of destroyed buildings for a mass gathering for a communal iftar fast-breaking meal on the second day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the area of al-Dahduh in Gaza City's Tal al-Hawa district on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025
Israel blocks aid to devastated Gaza as truce's first phase ends
The decision came as talks on a truce extension appeared to hit an impasse, after the ceasefire's 42-day first phase drew to a close.
Palestinians break their fast by eating the Iftar meals during the holy month of Ramadan, near the rubble of buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 2, 2025
Israel agrees on U.S. plan for temporary ceasefire in Gaza, PM's office says
The U.S. proposal came after a realization that more time is needed for talks on a permanent ceasefire.
Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, addresses the Human Rights Council at the U.N. in Geneva on Feb. 29, 2024.
WORLD
Feb 27, 2025
Israel disregards human rights and Hamas broke international law, U.N. says
The U.N. Human Rights Chief called for all violations to be investigated independently, a move which the European Union supported.
Thousands of mourners, carrying flags and orange balloons, joined a funeral procession on Wednesday for Shiri Bibas and her two sons, who were among the hostages taken by Palestinian militants in Gaza in October 2023 and who died during their captivity.
WORLD
Feb 27, 2025
Hamas releases bodies of hostages; Israel frees Palestinian prisoners
After days of impasse, Egyptian mediators secured the handover of the bodies of the four hostages.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers take positions in the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees, in the occupied West Bank, on Sunday.
WORLD
Feb 25, 2025
West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style tactics as Israel clears Jenin camp
Israel says the move is to take on militants implanted in refugee camps but Palestinians accuse troops of permanently displacing the population.
Efrat Machikawa (center) and others protest in white near the Knesset in Jerusalem on Feb. 14, advocating for the safe return of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 24, 2025
The terror, the protests and the reunion: Efrat Machikawa's life since the Israel-Hamas war
The family of Machikawa's uncle, 80-year-old Gadi Moses, taken hostage from southern Israel by Hamas in their October 2023 attack, waited nearly 500 days for him to return home.
Mourners walk during the funeral procession with the vehicle carrying the coffins of Hezbollah's slain leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine toward their burial place on the outskirts of Beirut on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 24, 2025
Hezbollah chief vows 'resistance' as masses mourn Nasrallah
Naim Qassem, the successor of the slain Hezbollah chief, promised to keep following his "path," and rejected any control by the "tyrant America" over Lebanon.
Israeli tanks operate during an Israeli operation in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Sunday.
WORLD
Feb 24, 2025
Israel sends tanks into West Bank, telling troops to ready for 'extended' stay
The move came as a fragile ceasefire in Gaza hit new hurdles, with a pause in the release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees due to be freed.
People gather during the public funeral ceremony for Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, who were killed during Israeli airstrikes last year, on the outskirts of Beirut on Sunday.
WORLD
Feb 23, 2025
Tens of thousands mourn Hezbollah's slain leader Nasrallah in mass funeral
The mass funeral is aimed at showing strength after Hezbollah emerged battered from last year's war with Israel.
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 marketplace amid the rubble in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, on Feb. 13.
WORLD
Feb 21, 2025
Arab leaders scramble to counter Trump’s Gaza plans
The meeting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, is in preparation for a broader Arab League summit in Egypt on March 4.
Donald Trump, the then-Republican presidential nominee and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet at Trump Tower in New York City in September. REUTERS
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2025
What is Trump’s foreign policy strategy, if there is one?
The rapid succession of policy changes and the speed at which implementation has taken place in the second Donald Trump administration has left many pundits in Tokyo dumbfounded.
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.
U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza proposal is a reckless plan that would forcibly displace Palestinians, destabilize neighboring countries, empower Iran and and hinder any long-term peace efforts.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2025
Trump’s Gaza plan is a crazy answer to a valid question
It is a propsal that will love Israel to death, revive Iran to life and destabilize every American friend.
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
Women-only communities flourish in China
Chen Yani (right), nicknamed "Keke," eats lunch with friends and guests in a female co-living space she founded called "Keke's Imaginative Space" in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on July 14.
JR East cancels luxury train run over crew's boozing
East Japan Railway said Thursday that it will cancel one trip of a luxury overnight sleeper service, which was originally scheduled to depart from Ueno Station in Tokyo on Aug. 30, after crew members were found to have been drinking alcohol on duty.
Man arrested over deadly stabbing of woman in Kobe
Masashi Tanimoto, 35, the suspect in the deadly stabbing a 24-year-old woman, is taken into custody in Kobe on Friday night.
Japanese city proposes two-hour daily limit for smartphone use
The Toyoake Municipal Government in Aichi Prefecture is planning to enact an ordinance to urge all smartphone users in the city to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.
Is the LDP’s catch-all approach to politics still effective?
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. Political commentator Toru Hashimoto has suggested that Takaichi ought to lead a group of like-minded hawkish politicians out of the Liberal Democratic Party and form their own party.
Fingers sore from too much phone time? You might have ‘sumaho yubi.’
A catch-all term for tendonitis and arthritis caused by excessive smartphone use, 'sumaho yubi' may be difficult to treat for gadget-crazy Japan.
As farm minister, Koizumi is held ‘hostage’ by Ishiba
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi (center) attends a Lower House session on Aug. 1. Locking Koizumi into the Cabinet is Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s way of turning a potential rival into a team player, according to one expert.
Big burgers and bigger ambitions for Japan's Burger King
Kazuhiro Nomura, president of BK Japan Holdings, which operates Burger King in Japan

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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