Miss District of Columbia won the Miss USA crown on Sunday. She is celebrating her win atop the Empire State Building. She’s letting fans get some photos and she is also offering clarification about earlier comments that caused discussion on social media. “For me, yes, I do feel privileged. It’s an honor. I’m grateful for […]

Ford Motor is cutting its workforce by 10 percent. The cuts will affect salaried employees in Asia and the United States. Ford is making the cuts due to a sliding stock price. The automaker hopes to boost profits. The cuts will not affect hourly employees. The cuts will also not affect production. Ford will incentivize […]

The new ambassador to Israel was welcomed by Netanyahu amid recent controversy. The new ambassador visited the Western Wall first upon his arrival in Israel, soothing over recent doubts. In a preparation visit, a Trump aid supposedly caused controversy by disputing Israel’s claim to the Western Wall. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was enthusiastic, “Welcome, […]

A SpaceX rocket launched a six-ton satellite into space. The satellite is owned by U.K. space company Inmarsat. The load is the largest to ever get launched by a Falcon 9 rocket. The launch took place at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The satellite is part of the Global Xpress initiative, meant to provide […]

South Sudan is suffering. Many parts of the country lack food. The UN wants to help, but isn’t receiving funding. UN agencies seek at least $1.4 billion. An earlier plea for $1.2 billion was only 14 percent fulfilled. Other countries on the brink of starvation include Yemen, Somalia, and northeast Nigeria. Twenty million people in […]

A new exhibit shows what Tibet looked like in 1904. The photos are on display at a museum in Dharamsala, India. Dr. Emma Martin, senior curator, lecturer of the University of Manchester And National Museums Liverpool, talked about the significance of the exhibit, “For the first time it brings these photographs into the Tibetan community. […]

North Korea could be preparing another nuclear test. Its government could be ready to launch more missiles. So what issues are South Koreans’ most pressing concerns? How best to celebrate romantic holidays. “White Day,” their Valentine’s Day, just passed. Friday, April 14, is “Black Day,” a similar holiday for singles. Where to hide from missiles […]

An explosion near a library in St. Petersburg, Russia on April 13 injured one person. Police said an unidentified object blew up in a young man’s hands at 18:40 local time. “A man was on the ground, he looked 17 or 18 years old, around that age. It has become known now that he is […]

The Nasothek display in Denmark’s Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum is filled with partial faces sculpted to repair damaged classical Roman statues. Noses were one of the first features to break off of ancient statues as they were moved, lost, buried, and dug up  later. Ancient art dealers found that complete sculptures sold better, so they […]

Queen Elizabeth handed out purses with coins in them on April 13 at the Royal Maundy Service at Leicester Cathedral. Maundy Thursday has been a tradition since the 13th century, it marks the start of the three-day Easter celebration. The queen attended the service with her husband, Prince Philip. She handed out two purses of […]

Thailand is celebrating a scaled-down Water Festival this year. The country is still mourning the death of the king, and security forces are staying alert to terrorism. But the popular festival will still go on. Vallop Suwandee, chairman of advisers to governor of Bangkok talked about how the government is dealing with this and all […]

Rochelle Hamm’s husband died in the sinking of El Faro amid Hurricane Joaquin in 2015. This strong woman is turning her grief into power. “My husband was a family man, he was a fun guy,” Rochelle said. “Everyone loved him. And still to this day, he’s all everybody talk about.” Each day, she is reminded […]

The EU is threatening action against the Hungarian prime minister’s policy. The EU sees action by Prime Minister Viktor Orban as out of line with EU understandings on rights and democracy. The controversy centers on Orban wanting to close a university founded by philanthropist George Soros. The EU has a greater dissatisfaction with Hungarian policy. […]

A U.N rights investigator met with Cuban justice minister on Tuesday, April 11, to discuss human trafficking situation in the region, for the first time in a decade. Cuban Justice Minister Maria Esther Reus, reported to the special rapporteur on human trafficking that Cuba has the “political will” to “confront this phenomenon with permanency and […]

People in Vietnam are outraged by a video of an elderly Asian man being manhandled off United Airlines flight. Dr. David Dao, who grew up in Vietnam, was dragged off the flight despite having paid for a ticket. The carrier wanted to make room for four airline employees it needed on another flight elsewhere. When […]

The impact of New York’s free college announcement is still being felt. More than 940,000 families with college-age children stand to benefit. Samiyah Ali, a student at City College of New York shared her view, “I think it’s good. College was a worry for me, like how you’re going to afford it, how you’re going […]

Chaos erupted at a migrant camp in France. A fight, a car attack, and a fire left the camp empty of people. The camp is now rubble. The camp held 1,500 migrants. Many in the camp were Kurds. A recent surge of arrivals came from Afghanistan. The camp had been home to one of the […]

Officials from Canada, the United States, and Mexico got together for a joint proposal on the 2026 World Cup. The three countries want to have 60 games in the United States, 10 games in Mexico, and 10 games in Canada. They will submit their proposal to FIFA for approval. “We have the full support of […]

Venezuelan opposition supporters were chanting against President Nicolás Maduro on Monday (April 10). People went into the streets to protest an economic crisis that resulted in shortages of basic goods and soaring inflations. Sustained protests follow Friday’s news that opposition leader Henrique Capriles has been banned from politics for 15 years on accusations of mismanaging […]

The bodies of five hikers were found near Vancouver, B.C. Canadian police recovered four bodies on the morning of Sunday, April 9, a day after the hikers vanished. A fifth body was recovered later that afternoon. The hikers went missing on Saturday at a popular trail on Mount Harvey in the Lion’s Bay area, about […]

Alaska Airlines received top honors in an airline quality survey. It ranked top in not losing baggage and sticking to schedules, among other criteria. The survey also looked at which airlines received the fewest complaints. Delta Airlines came in second despite its recent problems. In the last few days Delta canceled over 3,000 flights. The […]

Speaking at a ceremony commemorating a World War II massacre perpetrated by German soldiers on Italians, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson vowed that the United States would be the defender of innocents around the world. “We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the […]

The wife of Li Ming-che, a Taiwanese national currently detained in China, was stopped from entering the mainland on April 10. Li Ching-yu, wife of a pro-democracy activist and former DPP staff, was seeking to visit her husband. Li Ming-che disappeared on March 19—more than three weeks now. Airline staff told her that Beijing authorities […]

A French auction house sold a rare Belgian cartoon for $635,000 (€600,000) Saturday, April 8. The piece was drawn in 1937 by Georges Prosper Remi, known as “Hergé.” It is in India ink with a separate color overlay—exceedingly rare. “It’s not just a sheet of paper—it’s a work of art. It’s a drawing on paper, […]

A U.S. Navy strike group is moving across the Pacific from Singapore toward the Korean peninsula. A U.S. official announced Saturday, April 8, that the strike force includes the carrier USS Carl Vinson. Many nations are concerned about North Korea’s advancing weapons programs. North Korea has launched several missiles into the Sea of Japan recently. […]

Oslo police were summoned to deal with a suspicious package, Saturday night, April 8. “What has happened is that a police patrol came across a guy in the Gronland area who acted in a suspicious manner,” said Police Commander Svein Arild Jorundland. “In relation to this individual the police found an object which we need […]

The driver of a hijacked truck who killed four people in Stockholm, Sweden had extremist sympathies. “We know that he (the truck attack suspect) showed sympathies for extremist organizations, among them ISIS. We have no further comment on that,” said Sweden’s National Strategic Commander Jonas Hysing. The 39-year-old Uzbek man hijacked a beer truck and […]

French President Francois Hollande joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Place des Heros in Arras, France, Sunday April 9, to open ceremonies celebrating the centenary of the World War One Battle of Vimy Ridge. The pair added their messages to a giant poppy, its petals made up of red paper notes of gratitude from […]

The Basque separatist group ETA has decided to disarm. The group sent out a letter declaring that it had handed over all of its arms and explosives. The group sought independence for the Basque mountainous territory that includes portions of Spain and France. The disarmament comes after a ceasefire was declared in 2011. In recent […]

Fishing season opened for a highly regulated and sought after southern French delicacy. Fish larvae have fishermen scrambling to France’s Cote d’Azur to maximize the three-month fishing period. Many EU regulations are in place to control sardine larvae fishing, including only allowing a limited stretch of coastline to be fished, a three-month time period, a […]

Protesters in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, clashed with police on Friday, April 7. Protesters threw stones and gasoline bombs while police used tear gas and water cannons to drive the demonstrators off the streets. The demonstrators are outraged by the Supreme Court taking over Congress. The demonstrators, who support Congress, say it is the first step […]

The European Commission said on Thursday, April 6, it had set higher anti-dumping duties on hot-rolled flat steel products from China. The commission, which represents 27 EU member states, said it had set final duties of between 18.1 and 35.9 percent for Chinese steel producers. This includes Bengang Steel Plates Co., Handan Iron & Steel […]

The International Criminal Court will hold a hearing to determine why South Africa’s government let Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir leave the country despite arrest warrants for war crimes and genocide from his activity in the Darfur region. Bashir was in South Africa for an African Union summit in 2015. The ICC issued warrants in […]

European Council President Donald Tusk and British Prime Minister Theresa May met on Thursday, April 6, at the prime minister’s residence at Number 10 Downing Street in London. May and Tusk are on opposite sides of the ongoing Brexit negotiations. Neither are directly negotiating; both are providing guidance to the opposite sides. Britain wants parallel […]

The hit Japanese animated film “Your Name” is opening in the United States on Friday. The movie animator is being compared to Hayao Miyazaki. The film deals with distant love, relocation, the difference between country and city life, and out of body experiences. It took the top box office spot in Japan for 2016. The […]

Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis sat down to speak about their new movie “Colossal.” Hathaway mentioned how much the role fits her. “Gloria is the most like me of any character I’ve ever played. We’ve all had those moments where—maybe not everybody—but I certainly have had those moments where you wake up and you are […]

The German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen made it clear that the German military can take offensive measures in response to cyberattacks. She made the comment at the opening of a new cyber command center in Bonn. Germany’s military stressed that any actions taken in response to cyber attacks need parliamentary approval.

A Syrian doctor treating victims of the Idlib gas attack said the chemical agent was not chlorine gas. Dr. Abdulhai Tennari, a pulmonary specialist, said he was quite familiar with the effects of chlorine gas, as he had seen the regime use it many times before. Whatever the Syrian jets dropped this time, it was […]

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told Britain that Brexit terms must be resolved before trade could be considered. EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier insisted, in a speech to the European Parliament on April 5, that the U.K. must first work out its exit from the EU; before it can consider negotiating its trade status. “To […]

The German Cabinet agreed on Wednesday, April 5, to fine social network sites like Facebook for allowing hate speech. The new rule would give social networking sites like Facebook 24 hours to remove obviously offensive posts after a complaint and a week to deal with borderline cases. The sites would be required to respond to […]

The Russian investigative committee said on Wednesday (April 5) that they searched the apartment of suspected St. Petersburg subway bomber, Akbarzhon Jalilov.   The committee identified Jalilov’s genetic traces from a bag containing an explosive device. The committee also had surveillance footage showing Jalilov leaving his apartment with a backpack hours before the blast. Surveillance […]

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gave a speech on Tuesday (April 4) highlighting the positive role Scottish independence will have in the world while warning of the negative consequences of Brexit. Sturgeon, who is the head of the Scottish National Party (SNP), has demanded a second Scottish independence referendum. The first referendum in September 2014 […]

The Eiffel Tower turned out its lights on Tuesday, April 4, to honor the victims of the suicide bombing attack on the St. Petersburg subway. The famous Paris monument went dark two hours before midnight in honor of the 14 who were killed and the dozens who were injured. In the past the Eiffel Tower […]

German illustrator and picture book author Wolf Erlbruch won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children’s literature. It’s the world’s largest award for children’s books. The contest originates in Sweden. The winner each year gets $555,271 (5 million Swedish krona). Erlbruch has written 10 children’s books, and has illustrated almost 50. His most popular is […]

Residents of Mocoa are struggling to gather up their belongings and find shelter. A deadly landslide hit Mocoa, killing over 250 and leaving many with no place to find shelter. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has been on the ground supervising recovery efforts. He remained hopeful about progress. “Here we will continue follow everything that […]

Israel stood in solidarity with Russia after 11 died in a subway explosion in St. Petersburg on April 3. Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality lit up its building with the colors of both the Russian and the Israeli flags in commemoration of lives lost. Audi Shoshan – Resident Of Tel Aviv “I think it is a very […]

A court in Düsselfdorf, Germany, sentenced a terrorist to life in prison for attempted murder on Monday, April 3. The German-born convert to Islam planted a homemade bomb in the Bonn, Germany, train station in December 2012. The bomb was discovered and defused before it exploded. He was arrested with three accomplices in March 2103, […]

EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg on April 3 to discuss the future of Syria. Their meeting comes two days before a conference in Brussels also dedicated discussing the future of the country. The conference will be co-chaired by the European Union, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, Qatar, and the United Nations. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appears […]

EU leaders want to limit the impact of Brexit. Leaders from Germany, Slovakia, and Czech Republic are discussing how to limit Britain’s control over the terms of Brexit. They do not want Brexit to have a negative impact on the 27 member states of the EU. German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked about Brexit’s impact. “The […]

The number of Somali children at risk of starvation and diseases is rising rapidly, said UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac. Boulierac said on March 31 that in the first two months of 2017, malnutrition in Somalia was up 58 percent from the same period last year.   “More than 35,400 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition […]

A British zoo welcomed lowland streaked tenrecs. Lowland streaked tenrecs come from Madagascar, and the British zoo is the only major zoo to have them. They eat worms, have stripes like bees, and are spiny like hedgehogs. Chester Zoo staff see great opportunity in hosting these animals. Zoo Team Manager Dave White spoke about its […]

Snowfall in warm spring temperatures has brought some potential relief to California’s water conservation concerns. Scientists found higher than average snow at measuring stations in Sacramento. This snow can feed the ecosystems that provides water to California residents. California had a state of emergency declared due to drought issues, and enforced strict water conservation measures. […]

John Legend showed up at a London railway station for a surprise performance. Commuters surrounded him as he belted out some of his most popular songs. He could be seen singing “Surefire” and “All of Me.” He didn’t bring equipment, but used the station’s own concourse piano. Earlier, he announced his upcoming U.K. tour, Darkness […]

Astronauts at the International Space Station were on a spacewalk when a large debris shield got away. The debris shield was meant to be affixed to the station as part of its total armor against impact from space debris. The astronauts don’t know how the 5-foot, 18-pound shield drifted off. It caused a bit of […]

Mobileye founder Amnon Shashua is looking to take his second startup public by the end of the year. He had just agreed to sell his autonomous vehicle technology firm to Intel for US$15 billion. Shashua co-founded OrCam about 10 years after Mobileye, which produced camera sensors that will help develop self-driving cars. OrCam uses a […]

NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson are doing some home improvements—in outer space. The pair embarked on a 6.5-hour spacewalk to maintain and upgrade the International Space Station on Thursday, March 30. The biggest task will be constructing a new docking port for commercial crew ferries being built by Boeing and Space X. While […]

Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday (March 30) that despite Brexit, Germany “must stay friends” with Britain—except on the football pitch (soccer field). Gabriel addressed a Brexit debate in the lower house of the German Parliament, saying that the upcoming EU Brexit negotiations should not be allowed to jeopardize friendly relations between Brits and […]

Environmental group Friends of the Earth staged a protest outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on March 30. The protesters are against the merging plans of German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer and U.S. seeds company Monsanto. The activists called the merger a ‘marriage made in hell,’ with two people dressed up as […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her main aim in Brexit negotiations is easing the transition for EU citizens living in the U.K. Merkel addressed members of two conservative parties, her own Christian Democrats and the Christian Social Union, at a session of Parliament on Wednesday, March 29. The EU and U.K. should remain close partners, […]

EU antitrust regulators vetoed the proposed merger of Deutsche Boerse and the London Stock Exchange on March 29. The $31.3 billion (29 billion euro) merger would have created Europe’s biggest stock exchange. It is the companies’ fifth attempt—three public and two informal—to merge. The European Commission said the merge would have created a de facto […]

South African anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, a contemporary and compatriot of Nelson Mandela, was laid to rest in Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, March 29. He was 87 years old. Kathrada, who was sentenced to life in prison for trying to overturn minority white rule in South Africa, remained politically involved after his […]

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron said that he appreciates the endorsement of former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, but might not offer Valls a role in his government should he win. “I think it shows what I said a few months ago, that the primaries were not able to unite the whole of the left, and […]

Germany’s financial center Frankfurt is attracting interest as London banks consider operations in the EU in anticipation of Brexit. Spokesman for Frankfurt Main Finance, Ralf Witzler, said he has already noticed a significant leap in enquiries from people higher up the decision making chain. He expects some concrete indications from banks around the end of […]

Asparagus season kicked off early this year in Germany. Farmers benefited from intense sunshine that helped fill fields with mature asparagus. German farmer Peter Lipp talked about his hopes for the season. “On March 13 we found the first asparagus but it was only one so it wasn’t really worth it. But now, thanks to […]

German Interior Minister, Thomas De Maizière denounced Turkey for its spying activities on German soil. Turkey’s secret service was spying on German supporters of Fethullah Gülen, an exiled Turkish cleric currently residing in the United States. De Mazière minced no words in his denunciation: “Spying activities on German soil are criminal and will not be […]

With the Brazilian meat and poultry industry making steps to recover from a bribery scandal, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, visited the country on March 27 in efforts to help restore consumer and its trade partners’ trust. The scandal involved the sale of rotten and salmonella-tainted meat and poultry products by […]

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a press conference with EU Foreign Affairs Representative Federica Mogherini on Monday, March 27. He said he was ready for EU and U.S. assistance in negotiating future peace agreements with Israel. Abbas also met with European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and European Parliament President Antonio […]

A 4-year-old migrant girl from North Africa rescued from a rickety boat on the Mediterranean five months ago was finally reunited with mother on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Monday, March 27. Zanabou, from Ivory Coast, had fled to Tunisia with her 4-year-old daughter Oumah to save her from genital mutilation, a traditional practice […]

Starting in January cosmetologists in Illinois have had to take an hourlong class on domestic violence as part of their licensing requirements, thanks to a groundbreaking new program, which capitalizes on the close relationships most women have with their hairstylists. The program, a cooperative effort between Illinois lawmakers and domestic abuse and sexual assault outreach […]

Moscow commuters are enjoying more musical performances at metro stations. The metro’s expanded music program began today. The transportation agency brought hundreds of local musicians to 15 stations to perform. The performances are reaching the tens of thousands of commuters who used the stations every day. Moscow’s metro held auditions to bring in singers, solo […]

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) won 41% of votes in the West German state of Saarland on March 26. This may be an early indication of Merkel’s prospects of winning a fourth term in September’s national election. Saarland is the first of three regions to vote ahead of the Sept 24 federal vote. Saarland […]

The United Nation’s Human Rights Council will investigate widespread allegations of killings, rape, and torture by Rakhine State security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Burma (also known as Myanmar). It will send an independent fact-finding mission to conduct the probe. Burmese Ambassador Htin Lynn said the move is “not acceptable.” He said Burma’s national commission […]

Two astronauts went for a walk in space outside the International Space Station (ISS). One was NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and the other was a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet. They are preparing the space station for future commercial crew missions and performing maintenance. The spacewalk will go on for six hours, and […]

The German town of Haltern held a memorial service for 16 students and two teachers killed two years ago in a plane crash. The teachers and students were on a Germanwings plane headed to Dusseldorf when the plane descended into a mountain. The 27-year-old co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, is believed to have intentionally brought the plane […]

Hundreds of people gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square on Thursday evening, March 23, in a vigil to remember the victims of the terror attack near parliament in which four people died and some 40 were injured. With traffic diverted, the landmark square was eerily quiet as dusk fell and volunteers handed out candles. The mourners, […]

Hundreds of people gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square on Thursday evening, March 23, in a vigil to remember the victims of the terror attack near parliament in which four people died and some 40 were injured. With traffic diverted, the landmark square was eerily quiet as dusk fell and volunteers handed out candles. The mourners, […]

A rented car and a kitchen knife is all that was needed to execute the deadly attack in London Wednesday (March 23). Authorities have long known societies are vulnerable to such low-tech methods but they’re hard to catch, cheap, and frighteningly easy to organize. Using vehicles is becoming increasingly common—we saw it with trucks in […]

Opponents Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron are tied in the polls ahead of France’s presidential elections in April and May. Macron, an independent centrist, gained a slight edge on Thursday, March 23, when two members of the powerful Socialist Party pledged him their support. Still French voters seem undecided whether to support the standard […]

The Swedish Royal Palace announced on Thursday (March 23) that Prince Carl Philip and his wife Princess Sofia are expecting their second child in September. Their son Alexander, who is fifth in line to the throne after Crown Princess Victoria, her children Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar, and his father, was born in April last […]

One in three Afghan children will not attend school this year. That is 3.5 million children who will not show up when the new term starts on Thursday, March 23. Some children have to go out to work instead of going to school. “I come early in the morning and collect paper to recycle until […]

French President Francois Hollande expressed solidarity with the British people on Wednesday, March 22, after at least a forty people were injured and five reported dead in a London attack. “My intention is primarily to make sure that we fully understand that terrorism concerns us all,” said Hollande, adding that the French, who have themselves […]

U.S. Navy commanders accused Iran of jeopardizing international navigation by the actions of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and said future incidents could result in miscalculation and lead to an armed clash. They spoke after the U.S. aircraft carrier George HW Bush confronted what one of the commanding officers described as two sets […]

These wooden blocks might not look especially high-tech, but they’re smarter than they look. The game is called ‘imagno’ and it’s the first product by German startup Metoi. The blocks are connected to a smartphone that displays different games, stories, or sounds depending on the shape the blocks are arranged in. Matoi CEO Kerstin Rudat […]

British Transport Secretary Chris Grayling will be contacting insurers to make sure they will cover electronic devices placed in airplanes’ cargo holds due to the in-cabin electronics ban on certain flights. The U.K. joined the United States in banning passengers on certain flights from bringing any electronic device larger than a cellphone into an airplane […]

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in Rome on March 21 that he wants to send a strong message in favor of free trade when U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders meet in Italy for the G-7 meeting in May. Italy is hosting the annual meeting of seven of the world’s biggest industrialized […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives widened their lead over their Social Democrat Party (SPD) rivals in a poll six months before what should be a very tight German election, the chief executive of the polling institute Forsa, Manfred Guellner, told Reuters on Tuesday (March 21). However, the Forsa poll showed 59 percent of those asked […]

Belgium has learned lessons about keeping violent Islamists in check but cannot rule out more attacks, Prime Minister Charles Michel said March 21, a year after Islamic State suicide bombers killed 32 people in Brussels. In an interview with Reuters on the eve of the anniversary of the March 22 bloodshed at the airport and […]

Greek police, on alert after two parcel bombs were sent to Germany and France, intercepted eight suspicious packages at a postal sorting center in Athens on Monday, March 20. A security source said they were “addressed to officials at economic institutions and companies” in various EU countries. Last week two parcel bombs were sent from […]

The Japanese government announced on Tuesday (March 21) that this year’s first cherry blossoms had bloomed, kicking off the official start of the cherry blossom season. Every year, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issues an official announcement after five to six cherry blossoms are spotted by staff on their official tree at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine. […]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he hoped Europe’s “strong cohesion” will be preserved as he met French President Francois Hollande in Paris on March 20. The two countries signed a declaration of intent of cooperation in civilian nuclear energy during Abe’s working visit. President Hollande used the opportunity to call out North Korea’s recent […]

The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, so named because all its rooms have views only of the West Bank security barrier, is now open for business. The brainchild of British street artist Banksy, the three-story, ten-room hotel is only a few feet from the barrier separating Israel’s occupied West Bank from supposedly hostile territory. Every […]

Norway displaced Denmark as the world’s happiest country in a new report released on Monday (March 20) that called on nations to build social trust and equality to improve the well-being of their citizens. The Nordic nations are the most content, according to the World Happiness Report 2017 produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network […]

U.S. officials began taking fingerprints of asylum seekers in an Australian-run camp on the Pacific island of Nauru on Monday (March 20), signalling that vetting of applicants for resettlement in what U.S. President Donald Trump called a “dumb deal” has restarted. Interviews with more than half a dozen detainees on Nauru confirmed the U.S. Homeland […]

Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the formal notification of the United Kingdom’s intention to leave the European Union, on March 29, a spokesman for the British leader said on Monday (March 20). The United Kingdom has informed European Council President Donald Tusk’s office of May’s intention, May’s spokesman […]

Firefighters are so far successfully battling a 62-acre wildfire just west of Boulder, Colorado on Monday, March 20. About 250 firefighters and 50 pieces of apparatus have been employed to contain the blaze, including aircraft. So far the firefighters’ efforts have kept the blaze from expanding. However, the firefighting team doesn’t think the fire can […]

The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday (March 15) said a U.N. agency report published the same day accusing Israel of imposing an apartheid regime of racial discrimination on the Palestinian people “does not reflect the views of the secretary-general.” The report commissioned by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia […]

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Somalia on Wednesday (March 15) and met new President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Johnson said the two men discussed the severe drought, which is affecting the war-torn country and which aid agencies said has left millions of people in crisis without enough food to eat. Britain’s […]

The man at the center of a viral BBC interview who was unceremoniously interrupted by his children live on air said on Wednesday (March 15) he was flattered by the many “gentle sentiments” his family had received after millions watched the video online. Robert Kelly, an American associate professor at Pusan National University in South […]

Syria’s six-year war has taken a terrible toll on the country’s children, especially those who have been separated from their families, a senior UNICEF official told Reuters on Wednesday (March 15). Furthermore, as well as the large number of direct casualties from warfare, many more children have died or suffered from indirect consequences of the […]

Syria needs a “proxy peace” instead of the proxy war that has raged in the country for six years and killed some 320,000 people, the top European Union diplomat, Federica Mogherini, said on Tuesday (March 14). The Syrian war, which has also displaced millions, continues unabated, largely due to the international community’s failure to agree […]