U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to reporters following the passage of spending legislation to avert a government shutdown, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 21, 2024
U.S. Congress passes bill to avert shutdown
After weeks of tense negotiations that went down to the wire, U.S. lawmakers passed a bill to fund federal agencies through mid-March.
U.S. President Joe Biden departs from St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church, on the day of the anniversary of the death of the president's first wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972, in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 21, 2024
Fade out: Biden disappears into background
Despite still occupying the world's most powerful pulpit, Biden has remained virtually absent from the public debate about his noisy successor.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Shamthat led the lightning offensive to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, attends a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 21, 2024
U.S. drops bounty for Syria's new leader after Damascus meeting
The move follows "positive messages" from a first meeting with American diplomats that included a promise to fight terrorism.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a Cabinet swearing-in ceremony on Friday in Ottawa
WORLD / Politics
Dec 21, 2024
Trudeau does major Cabinet reshuffle amid party pressure and Trump taunts
The reshuffle came at the end of a chaotic week in Ottawa spurred by the surprise resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Igor, a Ukrainian military member of the 114th brigade, stands on a destroyed railway bridge over the Oskil River.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2024
Ambushes and nostalgia on banks of front-line Ukraine river
Nearly three years into Russia's invasion, Kremlin forces have brought panic and destruction to the banks of the Oskil River in a war of attrition.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual end-of-year news conference and phone-in, in Moscow, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2024
Putin offers Trump talks while defending his invasion of Ukraine
The order to invade Ukraine "should have been made earlier," and Russia should have prepared better, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks to members of the news media along with U.S. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2024
Trump-backed spending deal fails in U.S. House as shutdown approaches
Government funding is due to expire at midnight on Friday.

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Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition