WORLD

COMMENT | ANA PALACIO | Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the first official foreign visit of the commission in her second term would be to India. On the same day, Marco Rubio held his first bilateral meeting as US Secretary of State with India’s minister of external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. …

BEIJING, CHINA | Xinhua | U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on all trading partners has drawn wide concerns that it could trigger a trade war and dim the global economic outlook. Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum directing his administration to determine “the equivalent of a …

  COMMENT | RICHARD K. SHERWIN |   US Vice President J.D. Vance recently declared that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” This shot, fired across the bow of the federal judiciary, threatens to disrupt a long-settled understanding that the courts should have the last word on what …

PARIS | Xinhua | France strongly condemns on Saturday the offensive of the March 23 Movement (M23) supported by Rwanda in South Kivu, as it advances to Bukavu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The M23 must immediately cease its offensive and withdraw from the …

MOSCOW | Xinhua | Russia has begun preparing a negotiating team for upcoming talks with the United States, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. The Kremlin spokesman confirmed that efforts were underway to form a delegation for upcoming negotiations with the United States, including on the situation in Ukraine. …

TEL AVIV, RUSSIA | TASS | Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that if Hamas doesn’t release the hostages that are scheduled to return home on February 15, it will mean a resumption of war. He made the statement at a meeting with EU ambassadors to Israel. “Hamas’ decision not …

WASHINGTON, the United States | TASS | US President Donald Trump has said that the United States is not going to buy the Gaza Strip. “We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it (the Gaza Strip – TASS). We’re going to keep it, and we’re going to …

CAIRO, EGYPT | TASS | Hamas has placed the responsibility for any problems with the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement on Israel. “It is Israel that has failed to fulfil its commitments, so, responsibility for any problems and delays in the implementation of the deal rests with it,” it …

HARBIN | Xinhua | In Harbin, the capital city of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang Province, there is a mesmerizing winter wonderland. Here, towering ice structures mimicking landmarks from across Asia, cheers from super-long ice slides, and the breathtaking view from a giant Ferris wheel attracted over 610,000 visitors during this year’s …

COMMENT | IAN BURUMA |  Compared to other Western democracies, the United States is still a profoundly religious country. Around 24% of Americans identify as evangelical Christians. Five US Supreme Court justices are conservative Catholics (the only other conservative on the bench, Neil Gorsuch, was raised and educated as a Catholic but is …