Harry and Meghan meet Syrian refugees, Palestinian children in Jordan

AMMAN, Jordan (AFP) -- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrived on Wednesday in Jordan, where they met with Syrian refugees at the Zaatari camp and Palestinian children evacuated from the Gaza Strip. King Charles III's younger son and his wife "met young refugees ... and joined children in football, art and music," the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said in a post on X. Jordan opened the Zaatari camp located north of Amman in 2012, a year into the war in neighboring Syria, to host people flee

Feb. 26, 2026

On this day in Korea - Feb. 26: Kim Yu-na skates to Olympic gold

Figure skater Kim Yu-na captured South Korea’s first Olympic figure skating gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games, setting a world record with 228.56 points. A two-time world champion, she went on to win silver at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, before retiring later that year. Her success made her a national icon, inspiring a new generation of skaters and elevating the sport’s popularity nationwide.

Feb. 26, 2026

[Howard Davies] The global green financial divide is growing

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump’s administration drew a flurry of condemnations for its decision to repeal the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding”: a formal, evidence-based acknowledgement that greenhouse-gas emissions pose a threat to public health. Although the change may seem minor, it is anything but. Since 2009, the endangerment finding has underpinned much of the climate-related policymaking at the EPA and other agencies. For the financial world, the impl

Feb. 26, 2026

[Wang Son-taek] Upgrading the liberal international order

The recent US Supreme Court ruling that invalidated President Donald Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs” marks a significant turning point. The policy debate surrounding these tariffs has highlighted the growing tension between domestic economic priorities and the institutional foundations of the multilateral trading system that has underpinned global economic stability since the end of the Cold War. The controversy reflects sharp disagreements over the economic consequences of globalization

Feb. 26, 2026

[Editorial] Unchecked party

Ruling party lawmakers gathered Monday to form a group pushing for the dismissal of charges against President Lee Jae Myung. A total of 105 Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers joined the group, with roughly 60 attending its launch ceremony at the National Assembly. It is the largest group of lawmakers not just within the party, but also in the National Assembly as a whole, with its size nearly matching the 107 seats held by the main opposition People Power Party. They claim that prosecutors fabr

Feb. 26, 2026

[Editorial] Reversal of tech tide

For years, South Korea drew comfort from a familiar belief. China might scale faster, but Korea would stay ahead in the technologies that mattered most: semiconductors, precision manufacturing and secondary batteries. That assumption no longer holds. The latest government assessment points not to a temporary slip, but to a change in direction. China has moved ahead in areas that Korea once treated as defensible ground, and the gap is widening. A 2024 evaluation reported by the Ministry of Scienc

Feb. 25, 2026

[Ajaypal Banga] Creating jobs for 1.2 billion youth

The world moves on different wavelengths. Some are high-frequency shocks -- wars, emerging technologies, market panics -- that spike quickly and dominate our attention. Others are low-frequency forces that move slowly but relentlessly: demographics, globalization, water and food scarcity. The high-frequency waves feel urgent. The low-frequency waves reshape the system. We cannot become casualties of the slow burn simply because the immediate crisis burns hotter or dominates more headlines. Ignor

Feb. 25, 2026

[Kim Seong-kon] Mutual respect when we take sides

Recently, some American parents have complained on social media about dimly lit classrooms at public schools and the effects they may have on their children. According to them, teachers do not turn on any lights in their classrooms all day — no overhead lights, no side lamps. These days, it is also a trend among younger teachers to turn off the bright fluorescent lighting and install dim lighting instead. Thus, children must read and write under the faint light from windows even on cloudy days.

Feb. 25, 2026

'Flour war' erupts in Greek seaside town as revelers celebrate the start of Lent

GALAXIDI, Greece (AP) -- The Greek seaside town of Galaxidi exploded into a messy and colorful "flour war" on Monday for its annual end of carnival season festivities that mark the start of the Lent season. Galaxidi's main coastal road became a flour-strewn mess as revelers pelted each other with bags of dyed flour. Most of the town's residents, and many visitors, merrily took part, while the more prudent ones enjoyed the show from the safety of their balconies. Within a couple of hours, the cel

Feb. 24, 2026

[Editorial] Tariff turmoil

The US Supreme Court on Friday struck down the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as unlawful. The decision effectively dismantles the legal basis for the "reciprocal" tariffs the US has been imposing on countries worldwide since last April. However, this is far from a development to be celebrated. Uncertainty is deepening over US tariffs and the trade agreements the United States secured in exchange for tariff reductions. Trump prompt

Feb. 24, 2026

[Lee Jae-min] Consular assistance a point of contention again

In 2025, a total of 20 million Koreans traveled overseas, the annual figure on record. When a flight touches down at a foreign airport, travelers from Seoul hurriedly turn on their mobile phones. The first text messages they receive are from the Korean Foreign Ministry. A series of messages convey travel advisories, disease and contraband information, and emergency contact numbers. This system was established more than 20 years ago — in 2005 — and connects overseas travelers to the authorities i

Feb. 24, 2026

[Lim Woong] A citizen’s plea to the judiciary

The recent verdict in the insurrection trial of former President Yoon Suk Yeol was life imprisonment. What has lingered in the days since is not only the sentence itself, but the emotional dissonance it has produced. Many citizens listened to the prosecution’s closing argument, heard “death,” and expected the bench to move in that direction. When the judgment instead returned a life sentence, people felt the court heard the same facts they did, yet responded from a different moral universe. In t

Feb. 24, 2026

[Lee Kyong-hee] Yi Sun-sin: The human behind the legend

"I fear, but I will not stand back. So long as I live, I will protect Joseon." So he did — faithfully and admirably. By the time Adm. Yi Sun-sin fell to a stray bullet while commanding his final battle in the southern seas, the vicious seven-year war launched by Japan's warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi was nearing its end. The invaders soon retreated, leaving the peninsula devastated. Joseon remained safe, and Japan's ambitions of conquering the Far East were checked for the next three centuries. "The

Feb. 23, 2026

[Daniel DePetris] Europe debates the bomb

Last weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference, where he delivered a speech that was both reassuring to the European dignitaries in the audience and nerve-wracking because of its references to the kind of MAGA culture-inspired war themes that Europe generally shivers at. After the remarks, European leaders were left obsessing about the same question they came in with: Is the United States still committed to Europe’s defense? Ordinarily,

Feb. 23, 2026

[Robert J. Fouser] Japan’s conservative landslide

The recent general election in Japan resulted in a historic landslide victory for the Liberal Democratic Party. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the snap election in a bid to strengthen her majority in the House of Representatives, the powerful lower house of the Diet. The landslide gave the LDP 316 out of 465 seats, giving the LDP a two-thirds supermajority in its own right for the first time in history. This allows the party to override an upper-house veto of a bill. The Japan Innovation P

Feb. 20, 2026