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Magdalena Del Valle

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands during a press conference after meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, last December.

WORLD / Politics

Jun 3, 2026

Trump’s Netanyahu problem is latest key hurdle to Iran deal

U.S. President Donald Trump is projecting confidence on making a deal with Iran. Israel’s own objectives underscore how tenuous control over the crisis really is.

U.S. President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Wednesday

WORLD / Politics

May 28, 2026

Trump’s Iran bind deepens with Hormuz shut and hawks pushing war

Adding to the challenge are his own comments lambasting his predecessors for deals similar to the one that has the best chance of success.

Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks to the media at the U.N. headquarters in New York on April 21. An Argentine diplomat, Grossi is one of four declared candidates to replace U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres whose term ends on Dec. 31.

WORLD / Politics

Apr 23, 2026

Race for next U.N. chief heats up with first round of interviews

Top among the hours of questions: can the U.N. be made effective again?

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested in an interview on CNBC Tuesday that the U.S. caught a boat with a “gift” from China, after talking about the U.S. restocking its munitions.

WORLD / Politics

Apr 22, 2026

Trump says China testing U.S. red line with ‘gift’ for Iran

The U.S. president hinted — without explicitly saying — that the present was some form of lethal aid for Tehran.

Members of the United Nations Security Council vote during at a United Nations Security Council meeting on a Hormuz resolution at U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

WORLD / Politics

Apr 8, 2026

China and Russia veto security council resolution on Hormuz

The vote followed days of negotiations and pressure from a number of Gulf countries to restore free passage in the strait.

An Emirates aircraft prepares for landing as a smoke plume rises from a fire near Dubai International Airport in Dubai on March 16.

BUSINESS / Economy

Apr 1, 2026

Arab nations may lose $200 billion from Iran war, U.N. says

Middle Eastern countries stand to lose between $120 billion and $194 billion from gross domestic product as a result of disruptions from the war, according to an analysis.

The United Nations headquarters in New York. The U.S. recently paid the U.N. a small fraction of the roughly $2 billion it owed to the world body.

WORLD

Feb 20, 2026

U.S. pays fraction of funds owed to U.N. amid broader funding crisis

The recent U.S. payment is only about 7% of what the White House owed before making the payment.

The United Nations headquarters in New York. U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered his government to withdraw from 31 U.N. entities.

WORLD / Politics

Jan 8, 2026

Trump withdraws U.S. from 31 bodies in U.N., already in fiscal peril

The U.S. leader also directed the government to cease participating in 35 non-U.N. organizations because they “no longer serve American interests.”

Palestinians stand near a burning car reportedly set alight by Israeli settlers attempting to disrupt them harvesting olives near the occupied West Bank village of Turmos Ayya near Ramallah on Sunday.

WORLD

Oct 22, 2025

Israeli settler violence skyrockets in West Bank amid olive harvest, U.N. says

While the nearby Gaza Strip has been engulfed by war over the last two years, the West Bank has seen a steady rise in violence.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, "It won’t stop with just this strike,” after the U.S. targeted a boat in the Caribbean Sea allegedly full of drugs from Venezuela.

WORLD / Politics

Sep 4, 2025

U.S. threatens more strikes on purported drug boats after attack in Caribbean

The move marked a major escalation in U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on narcotics traffickers following deployment of U.S. Navy vessels off the Venezuelan coast.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks via a video message during the opening of the Helsinki 50 Conference, marking the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act in Helsinki on Thursday.

WORLD / Politics

Aug 4, 2025

U.N. lays out survival plan as Trump threatens to slash funding

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is slashing more than $700 million in spending and laying plans to overhaul the United Nations as the U.S. pulls back support.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.

What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival

By Alex K.T. Martin

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