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November 21, 2024
 

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Laila Bassam
Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, as seen from Hadath, Lebanon, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Oct 16, 2024
Israel strikes Beirut as U.S. says it opposes scope of air assault
Israel issued an evacuation order before the strike that mentioned only one building.
People inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday.
WORLD
Oct 12, 2024
After heavy Israeli blows, Hezbollah forges new command for crucial ground war
Friends and foes alike are now watching how effectively the Iran-backed group resists Israeli troops that have crossed into Lebanon.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs late on Sunday.
WORLD
Oct 7, 2024
Israel bombs Lebanon and Gaza ahead of marking one year since attacks
Israel's defense minister also declared all options were being looked at for retaliation against arch-enemy Iran.
Students hold posters of Hassan Nasrallah, the assassinated chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah, during a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Oct 3, 2024
Iran's Khamenei warned Nasrallah of Israeli plot to kill him, sources say
Iran is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said.
Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 30, 2024
Three Palestinian leaders killed in Israel strike in Beirut
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another group fighting Israel, said its three leaders were killed in a strike that targeted Beirut's Kola district.
A cloud of smoke erupts during Israeli airstrikes on a village south of Tyre in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
WORLD
Sep 26, 2024
Hezbollah's tunnels and flexible command weather Israel's deadly blows
Hezbollah is the most powerful faction in Tehran's "Axis of Resistance" of allied irregular forces across the Middle East.
An Israeli fighter jet takes off at an unidentified location to conduct strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, in this photo released on Thursday.
WORLD
Sep 20, 2024
Israel unleashes strikes on Lebanon as U.S. and U.K. urge restraint
The U.S. said a diplomatic solution was achievable and urgent, and Britain called for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
One of the coffins is carried during the funeral of Mohammed Bilal Kanj, Mohamed Hassan Nour al-Din, Abbas Fadel Yassin and Mohammad Mahdi Ammar, son of Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, Ali Ammar, who were killed amid the detonation of pagers across Lebanon, in Beirut on Wednesday.
WORLD
Sep 19, 2024
Hezbollah devices explode again in Lebanon, raising fears of wider Israel conflict
Lebanon's health ministry said 20 people were killed on Wednesday, while Tuesday's explosions killed 12 and injured 3,000.
Ambulances and a crowd of people gather at the entrance of the American University of Beirut Medical Center on Tuesday after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon.
WORLD
Sep 18, 2024
Israel planted explosives in 5,000 Hezbollah's pagers, sources say
The operation was an unprecedented Hezbollah security breach that saw thousands of pagers detonate across Lebanon, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others.
People walk past a banner with a picture of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a street in Tehran on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2024
Only Gaza cease-fire can delay Iran's Israel response, Iranian officials say
Iran, along with allies such as Hezbollah, could launch a direct attack if the Gaza talks fail or it perceives Israel is dragging out negotiations.
Rescue workers at the scene of an Israeli airstrike at a residential building in the southern suburbs of Beirut, early on Wednesday.
WORLD
Jul 31, 2024
Israel says Hezbollah senior commander killed in Beirut strike
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the strike killed Fuad Shukr, who was seen as the most important aide to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
Mourners carry coffins, during the funeral of children who were killed at a soccer pitch by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on Monday.
WORLD
Jul 30, 2024
Don't bomb Beirut: U.S. leads push to rein in Israel's response
Washington is racing to avert a full-blown war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
Interceptions of rockets launched from Lebanon to Israel over the border on June 27
WORLD
Jul 10, 2024
Pagers and drones: How Hezbollah aims to counter Israel's surveillance
Stepped-up attacks on Lebanon's southern border in recent weeks have intensified concerns it could spiral into a full-scale war.
Protesters and militia fighters carry the logo of the U.S. Embassy during a protest to condemn airstrikes on bases belonging to Hashd al-Shaabi (paramilitary forces), in Baghdad on Dec. 31, 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 4, 2024
Iran's allies in Iraq are firing at Israel. What if they draw blood?
Though experts do not see the attacks as posing the same level of threat to Israel as Hamas and Hezbollah strikes, they have increased in number and sophistication.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meets with the family of one of the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital Damascus, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 5, 2024
Iran embassy strike shows Israel's growing reach and disregard for norms
"In my view, it's without precedent," one analyst said, adding that he could not recall any state targeting another's diplomatic presence in this way.
An Israeli soldier stands by as a mobile artillery unit fires, near the Israel-Lebanon border on Jan. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 13, 2024
France poses Hezbollah withdrawal for Israel-Lebanon truce
The plan aims to end fighting between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel at the border.
People gather at the site of an explosion in what security sources say is an Israeli drone strike in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 3, 2024
Gaza war spreads to Beirut with killing of Hamas deputy leader
Lebanese and Palestinian security sources said Israel was behind the drone strike that killed Saleh al-Arouri.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Hamas' top leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in June. Both men met again in early November during which the former told the latter that Iran would not intervene directly following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 16, 2023
Iran's 'Axis of Resistance' against Israel faces trial by fire
Iran has built a military alliance over four decades to oppose Israeli and American power in the Middle East.
Palestinian Hamas militants take part in a rally marking the 31st anniversary of Hamas' founding, in Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, in December 2018.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 4, 2023
How Hamas aims to trap Israel in Gaza quagmire
The militant group has prepared for a drawn-out war and believes it can hold up Israel's advance to force its archenemy to agree to a cease-fire.
The remains of a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel lies on a road where it fell in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Oct 11, 2023
Who is the secretive Hamas commander behind the attack on Israel?
Mohammed Deif has topped Israel's most wanted list for decades, held responsible for deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

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

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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