World

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met in Nara, Takaichi's hometown, on Tuesday and agreed to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation at a time of rising geopolitical uncertainty around the world.     "I believe cooperation between Korea and Japan is now more important than ever and anything else, as we have to continue moving forward to a new, better future amid this complex, unstable international order," Lee said at the outset of the summit. Takaichi said she wanted to further improve Japan's relations with South Korea "as I believe the two countries should cooperate and contribute for the stability in the region." Both sides agreed on "shuttle diplomacy" three years ago, with regular meetings at the highest level. Lee's national securi...

In a recent joint interview with Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot media, Johannes Hahn, the European Union's Special Envoy for Cyprus, made reference to the Turkish Cypriot community and its complex relationship with the EU.  Hahn emphasized the EU's financial commitment to the community and pointed out that the bloc has provided it with €760 million ($888 million) in support over the past 20 years.  He also said that the EU remains ready to cooperate with the Turkish Cypriot side for the implementation in the northern part of the island of the EU acquis, the body of legislation, rights and obligations in place in all EU member states. An extremely complex relationship  Hahn's remarks hint at the extremely complex relationship between the EU and the approximately 200,000 members of th...

Iran's key strategic location at one of the world's most important bottlenecks for energy trade — the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf — along with its enormous oil and gas reserves, its political ambitions and its nuclear program, make it an important player in the Middle East. For more than two weeks, the Shiite-majority country of 93 million people has seen mass nationwide protests that were initially sparked by economic grievances but have since developed into an uprising against the regime in Tehran. Officially, the authoritarian regime of the Islamic Republic blames the protests on its external enemies, namely the United States and Israel. However, right now it appears easier for the leadership in Tehran to negotiate with the US than to engage in dialogue with its own populati...

It's been called everything from a "neo-colonialist sham" to "an affront to international law." Yet despite all that, some European leaders still say they want a seat on Gaza's new Board of Peace (BoP), an administrative body that will play an integral part in the next phase of the peace plan meant to resolve the long-running conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. According to the 20-point Gaza peace plan, proposed by US President Donald Trump last year, the Board of Peace will oversee aid and reconstruction and supervise a technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza. Trump has said he will chair the BoP, which will have 15 members. The peace plan, including the BoP, was formalized by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 in mid-November last year. On Sunday, Don...

Multiple Americans who were detained in Venezuela have been released, the Trump Administration said late on Tuesday, hailing the move by the nation's interim leader. "We welcome the release of detained Americans in Venezuela. This is an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities," the State Department said. It was not immediately clear how many American detainees were released. The Associated Press news agency reported that four Americans were released as a group on Tuesday and one was quietly released on Monday, citing an unnamed source. What prompted the release? The move comes after US forces kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a nighttime raid and brought him to the US to face trial. Jorge Rodriguez, the head of Venezuela's national assembly and...

The International Court of Justice in The Hague began hearings on Monday in a landmark case accusing Myanmar of genocide against the country's ethnic minority Rohingya, more than six years after the case was filed.   The Gambia filed the case with the United Nations court in November 2019, accusing the Southeast Asian nation of breaking the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Myanmar is accused of launching a sweeping campaign of arson, rape and murder against the Rohingya in 2017, driving some 700,000 of them into neighboring Bangladesh. The following year, a UN-backed fact-finding mission concluded that at least 10,000 people likely died. The case is one of many filed against Myanmar and its military in courts around the world, but the first to begin hearings. "For victims and survivors of ...

Heng Guan, a Chinese national who documented a network of detention facilities in China's northwestern Xinjiang province, has spent months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody as the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted to deport him.  Guan's second court hearing is set for Monday after a DHS prosecutor asked a court in December to deport him to Uganda under a third-country migrant deal.  That request was later withdrawn amid concerns raised in Washington, D.C., but ICE continued to push for Guan's deportation to China, according to his attorney, Chuangchuang Chen. Heng Guan has been held at an ICE detention facility in Broome County, New York Image: Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST)  "I would jump off the plane if deported,...

Heng Guan, a Chinese national who documented a network of detention facilities in China's northwestern Xinjiang province, has spent months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody as the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted to deport him.  Guan's second court hearing is set for Monday after a DHS prosecutor asked a court in December to deport him to Uganda under a third-country migrant deal.  That request was later withdrawn amid concerns raised in Washington, D.C., but ICE continued to push for Guan's deportation to China, according to his attorney, Chuangchuang Chen. Heng Guan has been held at an ICE detention facility in Broome County, New York Image: Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST)  "I would jump off the plane if deported,...

NATO chief Mark Rutte on Monday said the defense alliance was working on "next steps" to protect Arctic security, as the Trump administration claims that the United States needs to seize Greenland from Denmark to ward off threats from Russia and China. "All allies agree on the importance of the Arctic and Arctic security, because we know that with sea lanes opening up there is a risk that the Russians and the Chinese will be more active," Rutte said. "Currently we are discussing the next step to that, how to make sure that we give practical follow up on those discussions," he said. NATO diplomats said there were no concrete proposals on the table, but some members have floated ideas, including launching a new mission in the region, the AFP news agency reported. US President Donald Trum...

NATO chief Mark Rutte on Monday said the defense alliance was working on "next steps" to protect Arctic security, as the Trump administration claims that the United States needs to seize Greenland from Denmark to ward off threats from Russia and China. "All allies agree on the importance of the Arctic and Arctic security, because we know that with sea lanes opening up there is a risk that the Russians and the Chinese will be more active," Rutte said. "Currently we are discussing the next step to that, how to make sure that we give practical follow up on those discussions," he said. NATO diplomats said there were no concrete proposals on the table, but some members have floated ideas, including launching a new mission in the region, the AFP news agency reported. US President Donald Trum...