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A low pressure storm system known as a "bomb cyclone" moves off the coast of the U.S. Pacific Northwest and western Canada in a composite satellite image on Nov. 20.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 7, 2024

Google introduces AI agent that aces 15-day weather forecasts

They report that their new model can, among other things, outperform the world’s best forecasts meant to track deadly storms and save lives.
One of the representatives of 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo, Terumi Tanaka, speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony in Oslo City Hall on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024

Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo calls for a world without nukes

The atomic bomb survivors urged countries to abolish the weapons resurging as a threat 80 years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks in Pyongyang on Nov. 21. North Korea is believed to have been engaging in nuclear development since the era of the late Kim Il Sung, the country's founder and the current leader's grandfather.
WORLD
Dec 11, 2024

Unstable global environment reduces NPT to mere shell

Some countries are moving to acquire nuclear weapons in an attempt to either maintain their dictatorial regimes or to strengthen deterrence.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-U.S. President Donald Trump attend a welcoming ceremony in Beijing in November 2017.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 13, 2024

Trump inviting China's Xi to inauguration is 'diplomatic theater'

China experts said it was highly unlikely that Chinese President Xi Jinping would come to Washington for the inauguration.
Numbered evidence markers indicate where bullet casings were located at the crime scene outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot, Dec. 4.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2024

Suspect in UnitedHealthcare shooting visited Japan, then vanished

New details are emerging about Luigi Mangione’s growing impatience with "a capitalist society” and his search for refuge in the mountains of Japan.
Corn crops affected by a long drought, near Buenos Aires in January 2022
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Dec 15, 2024

World falls short of drought deal at Saudi-hosted talks

The Riyadh talks came after a lack of progress on in other international summits regarding biodiversity, plastics pollution and climate finance in recent months.
People holding K-pop idol sticks attend a rally to protest South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul on Dec. 8.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 15, 2024

'Into the New World': the K-pop song that became South Korea's protest anthem

The Girls' Generation track has a history of being used to give young South Koreans a voice in politics.
Workers stage a warning strike at the Volkswagen factory in Zwickau, Germany, on Dec. 2.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2024

Germany is unraveling just when Europe needs it most

Germany’s economy is now 5% smaller than it would have been if the pre-pandemic growth trend had been maintained.
The Dubai skyline on Dec. 15, 2023. For years, Dubai has been an ideal rear base for trafficking and money laundering, with little risk of being extradited for lack of satisfactory judicial cooperation, according to European investigators and magistrates.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 19, 2024

End of the Dubai dream for Europe's drug lords?

The Gulf emirate has been a haven for some of Europe's biggest drug traffickers, but the tide may be turning.
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.
The French Navy's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier makes a port call in Singapore in May 2019. European governments were once reluctant to show their flags in ways that suggested a challenge to China, but recent joint exercises in the Indo-Pacific highlight support for the regional status quo.
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2024

Europe’s militaries make their presence known in the Indo-Pacific

This new European presence reflects the understanding that Europe and Asia, once thought to be distant theaters, are in fact connected.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at the federal Liberal caucus holiday party, the day after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unexpectedly resigned, in Ottawa on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 22, 2024

From liberal icon to MAGA joke: The waning fortunes of Justin Trudeau

Canada’s prime minister gained global renown 10 years ago for his unabashedly progressive politics. But at home, voters turned sour on him long ago.
People walk through Vilnius, Lithuania, on Dec. 17. Lithuania’s national opera house had stopped showing Tchaikovsky’s 1892 masterpiece in solidarity with Ukraine over the war with Russia.
WORLD / Society
Dec 22, 2024

A cultural casualty of the war in Ukraine: ‘The Nutcracker’

Many in the art world oppose banning works on the basis of their nationality, believing that culture has the power to unite and should not be contaminated by politics.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives to speak during Turning Point's annual AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 23, 2024

Trump upending global politics a month before taking office

While it’s not unusual for political leaders at home and abroad to jockey for the ear of an incoming president, the scale of Trump’s pre-inauguration influence is vast.
A volunteer at a Sudanese mobile kitchen prepares food at one of the displacement centers in New Halfa, Sudan, on Nov. 2.
WORLD
Dec 24, 2024

Sudan drops out of hunger-monitor system on eve of famine report

The move is likely to undercut efforts to address one of the world’s largest hunger crises.
Former U.S. President Jimmy in 1996. Carter, who rose from Georgia farmland to become the 39th president of the United States on a promise of national healing after the wounds of Watergate and Vietnam, then lost the White House in a cauldron of economic turmoil at home and crisis in Iran, died on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024

Jimmy Carter, president known as a peacemaker, is dead at 100

While Carter's presidency was remembered more for its failures than for its successes, his post-presidency was seen by many as a model for future chief executives.
Midori Kato has been voice acting the character Sazae Fuguta in the TV animation series "Sazae-san" since it started in 1969.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 30, 2024

Still sounding young at 85, Midori Kato is the voice of old Japan

The voice actor is the last original member of the cast of “Sazae-san,” a cartoon series that premiered in 1969 and never quite joined the modern world.
A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27. Last year, incumbents in every major country that held a national election lost that vote, the first time that has happened in almost 120 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2024

The world is ever more angry. That is not good.

Hostility toward existing leadership stems from the belief that lives aren't improving and future generations will have fewer opportunities than previous ones.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako pose for a photo at the Imperial Palace Small Hall in Tokyo on November.
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2025

Emperor prays for world peace in New Year's message

Emperor Naruhito stressed the "importance of people recognizing their differences and working hand in hand to realize a peaceful world."
Agnes Keleti performs a split in front of young gymnasts at a training center in Budapest on Jan. 16, 2016. Keleti, a 10-time Olympic medalist, died on Jan. 2 at the age of 103.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Jan 3, 2025

World's oldest Olympic champion Agnes Keleti dies at 103

Keleti's life story, including surviving the Holocaust and Olympic glory, reads like a gripping Hollywood film script.
An underground passage in a small town in the Moscow region in November.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 4, 2025

Are Russian sanctions working? Debate takes new urgency with Trump.

The president-elect has said he will use sanctions sparingly while vowing to end the war in Ukraine, renewing questions over their efficacy.
DOPS Director Dr. Jim Tucker (back row, from left), David Acunzo, Marina Weiler, Philip Cozzolino (front row, from left) Marieta Pehlivanova and Elliot Gish, pose for a photo on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 15. Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the "beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
WORLD / Society
Jan 4, 2025

Do you believe in life after death? These scientists study it.

Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the “beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
Tomiko Itooka died of old age in a nursing home for the elderly in the city of Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 5, 2025

Tomiko Itooka, the world's oldest person, dies at 116

Itooka was born on May 23, 1908, in the commercial hub of Osaka — four months before the Ford Model T automobile was launched in the United States.
Hillary Rodham Clinton receives the Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Joe Biden during a ceremony at the White House in Washington on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 5, 2025

Biden awards Hillary Clinton, George Soros and others Medal of Freedom

First awarded by President John F. Kennedy, the medal is considered the highest civilian honor a president can bestow.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives at King Khalid International airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Dec. 9.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 6, 2025

Starmer’s travels outstrip past U.K. leaders, posing ratings risk

The premier has spent 31 days on working trips since he took office following his Labour Party’s landslide win in the July 4 general election.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2025

Meloni’s closeness to Musk and Trump is a win-win — and a big risk

By pivoting away from China toward the administration of the incoming U.S. president, the Italian prime minister creates a different kind of dependency.
Jean-Marie Le Pen gives a speech on Feb. 3, 1973
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2025

French far-right figurehead Jean-Marie Le Pen dies

The far-right bogeyman of French politics, infamous for his dismissal of the Holocaust and anti-immigrant rhetoric, has died at age 96.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks during a meeting in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 11, 2025

IMF chief sees steady world growth in 2025, continuing disinflation

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the U.S. economy was doing "quite a bit better" than expected, although there was uncertainty around Donald Trump's trade policies.
Lindsey Vonn poses for selfies with fans after the women's Super-G in Sankt Anton am Arlberg, Austria, on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Alpine skiing
Jan 13, 2025

Impressive Vonn fourth as Macuga takes first World Cup win

Vonn said she wasn't "100%" but her form suggests she may be building well for next month's World Championships in Saalbach, Austria.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's provocative rhetoric targeting Panama, Greenland and Canada underscores his preference for bold power plays over traditional rules-based diplomacy.
COMMENTARY
Jan 13, 2025

Trump’s trash talk revives the worst of world politics

Trump's provocative rhetoric targeting Panama, Greenland and Canada underscores his preference for bold power plays over traditional rules-based diplomacy.

Longform

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick