Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Africa

Hard Numbers: Hiroshima’s delicacies, Italy’s first world problems, Durham's report, Russia’s military spending, Rudy's alleged pardons grift

Japanese chef Mitsuo Ise prepares a "Germany" version of okonomiyaki ahead of the G-7 summit in Hiroshima.

Japanese chef Mitsuo Ise prepares a "Germany" version of okonomiyaki ahead of the G-7 summit in Hiroshima.

REUTERS

800: Ahead of the G-7 summit later this week in Hiroshima, Japan, some 800 restaurants specializing in a local comfort food known as okonomiyaki are hoping to make a global splash. Okonomiyaki, which means “cooked as you like it,” is a savory pancake-shaped delicacy usually made with cabbage, noodles, batter, and meat. But locals are cooking up special editions for foreign dignitaries, including a sauerkraut one for the Germans, a carbonara one for the Italians, and a burger stuffed one for the Americans. Not all locals approve.


306: The FBI rushed its investigation of ties between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 campaign to win the White House, according to Special Counsel Robert Durham. In a 306-page report, Durham says that the Feds pursued leads based on uncorroborated evidence and showed bias in their probe — although they did not commit the "crime of the century" that Trump often cites.

200 billion: Who among us has not struggled to spend 200 billion Euros? Just two years after receiving that amount in EU COVID relief funds, Italy can’t figure out how to make good use of it all by the 2026 deadline. About a third of it is earmarked for infrastructure and public health investment, but the rest is flowing to local governments that are trying to spend it on, say, artificial ski slopes, horseracing tracks, or — cheers to this last one — a grappa museum. Senior government officials now say they’ll overhaul how the money is allocated and spent.

282: Russia’s military spending soared 282% in just the first two months of 2023 to $26 billion. That’s about 40% of the Kremlin’s planned military spending for all of 2023. Meanwhile, Russia is already suffering a budget deficit of about $40 billion for this year, as Moscow continues to finance its invasion of Ukraine amid falling energy revenues.

2 million: A female ex-employee of Rudy Giuliani is suing the former New York City mayor and lawyer to Donald Trump for sexual assault and workplace harassment. According to the lawsuit, Giuliani once told the plaintiff that he was selling federal pardons for $2 million a pop, which he and Trump would split.

More For You

PA via Reuters Ukraine's Vladyslav Heraskevych, with his helmet, which features pictures of people killed in the war with Russia. Heraskevych was ruled out of the Men's Skeleton event by the International Olympic Committee just over an hour before competition began, pictured at the Cortina Sliding Centre, on day six of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy. Picture date: Thursday February 12, 2026.

PA via Reuters Ukraine's Vladyslav Heraskevych, with his helmet, which features pictures of people killed in the war with Russia. Heraskevych was ruled out of the Men's Skeleton event by the International Olympic Committee just over an hour before competition began, pictured at the Cortina Sliding Centre, on day six of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy. Picture date: Thursday February 12, 2026.

20: The number of fallen Ukrainian athletes and coaches depicted on a Ukrainian skeleton racer’s helmet at the Winter Olympics, which prompted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to disqualify him on Thursday. The IOC said the helmet violated Olympic rules, which prohibit political messaging during games. Critics of the disqualification said [...]
​A person reads a newspaper at a roadside newspaper stand in Ikoyi Lagos, Nigeria, November 27, 2025.

A person reads a newspaper at a roadside newspaper stand in Ikoyi Lagos, Nigeria, November 27, 2025.

REUTERS/Sodiq Adelakun
Violence is once again scorching Nigeria. On Sunday, gunmen killed three people and took several hostages, including a Catholic priest, during an early morning attack in the northern state of Kaduna. The attack came days after jihadist fighters killed over 150 people in two majority-Muslim villages in the western part of the country, allegedly for [...]
​A woman and two children walk past a mural in Monrovia November 10, 2011.

A woman and two children walk past a mural in Monrovia November 10, 2011.

REUTERS/Luc Gnago
In 1930, an American sociologist arrived in the capital of Liberia, a small country in West Africa, on an unusual assignment. Charles S. Johnson, trained at the University of Chicago, had never conducted research outside the United States before. Yet President Herbert Hoover chose him to represent the US on a League of Nations mission to study [...]
​Workers repair a pipe at a compound of Darnytsia Thermal Power Plant which was heavily damaged by recent Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 4, 2026.

Workers repair a pipe at a compound of Darnytsia Thermal Power Plant which was heavily damaged by recent Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 4, 2026.

REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
The leader of South Africa’s second-largest party to stand downDemocratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen announced Wednesday that he will not run for a third term as leader of the liberal, pro-business party, after months of internal pressure over a host of controversies – including allegations, since cleared, that he used the party credit card [...]