World

ABC News (TOKYO) — Long after other countries relaxed masking requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan remained diligent and the country’s residents continued to wear masks. The Japanese government downgraded the COVID threat earlier this year and finally told everyone it’s safe to unmask. Suddenly with bare faces, some people are realizing that when it […]

Contributor/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — As Russia continues its nearly 16-month-long invasion of neighboring Ukraine, political turmoil has erupted in Moscow while Kyiv tries to take back territory. A feud between Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, and Russia’s top military brass escalated as Prigozhin’s forces left the front line in […]

ABC News (NEW YORK) — The boom of artillery fire is a constant refrain in the town of Chasiv Yar, just 10 miles from the city of Bakhmut and some of the fiercest fighting since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What is different now is that the vast majority of those booms are outgoing — […]

ABC News (NEW YORK) — Elizabeth Tsurkov, a doctoral student in political science at Princeton University, was abducted in March from a café in Iraq, where she had been doing research. The Israeli Middle East expert was doing field studies in Karrada, Iraq, when she was kidnapped. Tsurkov’s sister, Emma Tsurkov, spoke to ABC News Live’s […]

KeithBinns/Getty Images (HAVANA) — The Cuban Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called the stop by a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay a “provocative escalation.” The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Pasadena, stopped at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay earlier this month, the Cuban Foreign Ministry said. A U.S. Navy spokesperson […]

Contributor/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — As Russia continues its nearly 16-month-long invasion of neighboring Ukraine, political turmoil has erupted in Moscow while Kyiv tries to take back territory. A feud between Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, and Russia’s top military brass escalated as Prigozhin’s forces left the front line in […]

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images (VILNIUS, Lithuania) — President Joe Biden will make a major speech Wednesday following a two-day, high-stakes NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Biden will speak on the strength of the alliance and the importance of continued support for Ukraine against Russian invaders, as well as other major global challenges, according to […]

omersukrugoksu/Getty Images (SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that flew about 621 miles before falling in the East Sea, neighboring Japan and South Korea said Wednesday. The launch amounted to a “serious provocation that undermines the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula as well as the international community,” South […]

ABC News (NEW YORK) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that NATO is “stronger,” “bigger” and “more united than it’s ever been” with Sweden now close to becoming the alliance’s 32nd member following the addition of Finland. “That sends a very strong message to Vladimir Putin that he’s not going to outlast […]

Murat Kula/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images (VILNIUS, Lithuania) — President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Tuesday amid questions about how much the potential sale of U.S. F-16 fighter jets factored into Turkey’s decision to back Sweden’s entry to NATO. Biden thanked Erdogan for his “diplomacy and courage to take that on” […]