business 
The top foreign policy official for the European Union had a blunt assessment on Friday of the Trump administration’s apparent willingness to give Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, much of what he wants in Ukraine, even before negotiations to end the three-year war begin. “It’s appeasement,” the official, Kaja Kallas, declared at the Munich Security … Read more
Barbie Hsu, a Taiwanese actress, television host and pop star who catapulted to Pan-Asian popularity in 2001 as the star of the Cinderella-style teenage drama “Meteor Garden,” died on Feb. 2 in Tokyo. She was 48. Her death was announced to TVBS News in Taiwan by her sister Dee Hsu, who said the cause was … Read more
Fewer than 6,000 people live in Trevethin and Penygarn, a gritty, deindustrialized district amid the hills and valleys of South Wales, and not many expected drama when a vote was called to elect a member of the local municipality, one of the lowest tiers of British government. But as one candidate, Stuart Keyte, a member … Read more
Rafter Says Video Shows Him Being ‘Swallowed’ by Whale
A Texas county is taking steps to declare a state of emergency and seek federal assistance over farmland contaminated with harmful “forever chemicals,” as concerns grow over the safety of fertilizer made from sewage. Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, has been roiled since county investigators found high levels of chemicals called PFAS, or per- … Read more
Women are being turned away at clinics that provided maternity and reproductive care and cancer and H.I.V. treatment. Doctors and nurses have been placed on leave and told to go home. Across the globe, aid agencies say, decades of female-focused health care work has been “decimated overnight.” Three weeks into President Trump’s suspension of all … Read more
Vice President JD Vance told European leaders on Friday that their biggest security threat was not military aggression from Russia or China, but their own suppression of free speech — including efforts to block hard-right parties from joining governments. An audience that was largely expecting Mr. Vance to lay out the Trump administration’s priorities for … Read more
As the Trump administration continues to withhold billions of dollars for climate and clean energy spending — despite two federal judges ordering the money released — concerns are growing that the United States government could skip out on its legal commitments. Typically, when the federal government spends money through a grant or a loan program … Read more
Pope Francis was hospitalized on Friday for diagnostic tests and to treat an ongoing case of bronchitis, the Vatican said, reviving concerns about the 88-year old pontiff’s health. In a brief statement, the Vatican said that Francis had held his audiences as usual on Friday morning and was then taken to the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli, … Read more
At the tail end of her 30s, Elizabeth Day found herself divorced and single after a string of long-term relationships. Ms. Day, a British writer and podcaster, entered a world of dating she had never encountered, not having been single since the advent of dating apps. “It was such a jungle out there,” Ms. Day, … Read more