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February 22, 2025
 

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Matt Spetalnick
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz during the talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Tuesday
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 19, 2025
Major risks loom as Trump upends U.S. policy on Russia
Trump's rush to impose an end to the war has stoked fears of a peace deal with Putin that could undermine Kyiv and Europe's security.
A Palestinian sits among the rubble of buildings destroyed during an Israeli offensive in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2025
Trump aides defend Gaza takeover proposal but walk back some elements
Trump shattered decades of U.S. policy with a vaguely worded announcement saying he envisioned transforming Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has already indicated that the State Department will be instrumental in helping U.S. President Donald Trump achieve his policy to "curb mass migration."
WORLD / Politics
Jan 31, 2025
Rubio to take up Panama canal and migration in Latam visit
The new U.S. secretary of state will find a region reeling from the Trump administration's shock-and-awe approach to diplomacy.
Steps against diversity form part of U.S. President Donald Trump's broader campaign targeting the federal bureaucracy, which he has sometimes disparaged as the "deep state" secretly working against his agenda.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 24, 2025
Trump accelerates campaign to remake federal bureaucracy
The U.S. president says his orders ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs would make America a "merit-based country" once again.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump at the White House in Washington in November last year.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 16, 2025
Biden to hand unfinished agenda to Trump for a chaotic Middle East
Joe Biden's Middle East record is likely to be remembered not so much for how conflicts ended on his watch, but mainly for how they unfolded.
Displaced Palestinians arrive in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 5, 2024
Trump's Mideast envoy in push to reach Gaza ceasefire before inauguration
Steve Witkoff met the prime ministers of Israel and Qatar separately in late November.
Tulsi Gabbard's nomination has raised alarm among the ranks of intelligence officers.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 15, 2024
Trump's choice of Gabbard as U.S. intelligence chief vexes spy world
Donald Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard is among several high-level picks that suggest he may be prioritizing personal allegiance over competence.
A congratulatory billboard for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in Jerusalem on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 8, 2024
Biden plans final Mideast peace push but will leaders ignore him?
Officials in the region will likely be reluctant to take big steps, preferring instead to wait for Trump's inauguration in January.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington on July 25.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 18, 2024
After Sinwar death, Biden faces big obstacles to Gaza peace
U.S. President Joe Biden's hope for a cease-fire in Gaza is far from certain as he faces a cascade of interlocking Middle East crises.
Children at the site of an Israeli strike on a tent camp sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 16, 2024
U.S. tells Israel to improve situation in Gaza or risk military aid
It is Washington's strongest warning since Israel's war with Hamas began a year ago.
Men run for cover after an Israeli strike on the Mreijeh neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Oct 5, 2024
Countdown to Middle East war? How the region can step back from the brink
Brakes remain to halt a regional fall into a wider conflagration that would lock Israel and Tehran into escalating conflict and suck in other nations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024
Netanyahu sketches vague outline for postwar Gaza
Israeli leader also accused anti-Israel protesters as standing with Hamas, charging without evidence that they were backed by Iran
Palestinians, who fled the eastern part of Khan Younis after they were ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate their neighborhoods, ride on a vehicle loaded with belongings in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2024
Israel's next headache: Who will run postwar Gaza?
Fearing Hamas, powerful local families in Gaza are refusing to talk to Israel about any postwar plans.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 20.
WORLD / Politics
May 3, 2024
U.S. and Saudi Arabia finalizing details of security pact, sources say
For now, negotiators have prioritized a bilateral security accord that would then be part of a wider package presented to Israel.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Oval Office in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 5, 2024
Biden ultimatum to Netanyahu: protect Gaza civilians, or else
Analysts said the implicit threat was to slow U.S. arms transfers to Israel or to temper U.S. support at the U.N.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem on Feb. 18.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 28, 2024
Israel asks U.S. to reschedule scrapped meeting on Rafah military plans
Rafah is the last relatively safe haven for Palestinian civilians amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv in October 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024
Netanyahu halts envoys' U.S. trip amid rift with Biden over Gaza U.N. vote
Famine looms in the Gaza Strip and there is growing global pressure for a truce in the war health authorities say has killed some 32,000 Palestinians.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) fist bumps U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 15, 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 8, 2024
Saudi Arabia pushes for U.S. defense pact ahead of presidential election
Such a major regional deal would face numerous political and diplomatic obstacles, not least the uncertainty over how the Gaza conflict will unfold.
Smoke rises from damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip on Friday. Washington has appealed to Jordan, Egypt and Gulf states to persuade Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to pursue institutional reforms with urgency to prepare for post-war Gaza.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 18, 2023
U.S. wants overhauled Palestinian Authority to run Gaza after Hamas
Washington considers the Mahmoud Abbas-led administration as the the only realistic post-war solution despite its unpopularity.
Smoke rises from Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 18, 2023
Forever war? Israel risks a long, bloody insurgency in Gaza
None of the ideas floated so far by Israel, the United States and Arab nations for the postwar administration of Gaza have managed to gain traction.
Yen advances past ¥150 per dollar as BOJ rate-hike bets ramp up
The Japanese currency climbed as much as 1% to ¥149.95 against the dollar on Thursday, a level it hasn’t touched since Dec. 9.
Japan release of Shiori Ito's documentary in limbo
Shiori Ito, who won a civil suit over a rape case against a TV reporter, in 2018. Her former lawyers claim her documentary includes footage used without the consent of sources.
Record percentage of Japanese firms plan wage hikes, survey shows
Some 61.9% of over 11,000 surveyed companies intend to pledge pay increases as part of annual wage negotiations culminating in March, according to a survey by Teikoku Databank.
Japan’s inflation speeds up, keeping BOJ on rate hike path
A customer visits a store along the Togoshi Ginza shopping street in Tokyo on Jan. 23. Rising fresh food prices contributed to the acceleration in overall inflation in January, as vegetable prices, including cabbage, soared.
Victor Wembanyama expected to miss remainder of regular season with blood clot
Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (right) is expected to miss the rest of the NBA season, the team announced on Thursday.
Japan release of Shiori Ito's documentary in limbo
Shiori Ito, who won a civil suit over a rape case against a TV reporter, in 2018. Her former lawyers claim her documentary includes footage used without the consent of sources.
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown ready to sprint past Paris disappointment
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (center) runs during a 100-meter heat at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 3, 2024.
What is the ceiling for sumo’s newest yokozuna?
Newly promoted grand champion Hoshoryu (center) performs a dedication ceremony at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on Jan. 31.
‘Yasuko, Songs of Days Past’ puts overlooked star in the spotlight
“Yasuko, Songs of Days Past” centers on a real-life love triangle between poet Chuya Nakahara (Taisei Kido, left), actor Yasuko Hasegawa (Suzu Hirose, center) and literary critic Hideo Kobayashi (Masaki Okada).
Japan’s English-language education doesn’t pass the test
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.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
The race to save 20th-century history
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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