By AFP, AP, EPA and Reuters Published On 17 Feb 202617 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share People are celebrating the Lunar New Year with prayers, fireworks and street festivals to welcome the Year of the Fire Horse. Crowds thronged temples and festivals across Asia and beyond on Monday night, … Read more
Hundreds of residents gathered at a beach in Yokosuka city’s Kurihama area, south of Tokyo, over the weekend to pray for marine safety in a summer festival that fuses sacred ritual and seaside spectacle. As a portable shrine called mikoshi, decorated with Shinto ornaments, was lifted onto bearers’ shoulders, the audience cheered. The mikoshi had … Read more
In May 2021, for instance, a 22-year-old Associated Press staffer, Emily Wilder, was fired after right-wing media resurfaced pro-Palestinian statements she made while in college. More recently, in March, the administration of President Donald Trump detained Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student studying at Tufts University, and stripped her of her visa. Her supporters say … Read more
President Donald Trump orders 100 percent tariffs on imported films and those made outside the US. In recent years, California – home to America’s film industry – has slipped to become the sixth most preferred location to shoot and produce movies. Hollywood producers are moving to cities in Canada, the United Kingdom, Central Europe and … Read more
Japan’s Coming of Age Day is a sure sign of winter, arriving after New Year celebrations and before the cherry blossom parties of early spring. The national holiday is held on the second Monday of January. People turn out to admire the elaborate outfits young people don to celebrate the transition from childhood to adulthood. … Read more
Decades after the fall of apartheid, the echoes of South Africa’s cultural resistance still ring out, inspiring new generations. During the struggle, artists like Sipho Mabuse used their craft as both a weapon and a lifeline, giving voice to a vision of freedom and dignity. In this edition of Talk to Al Jazeera, we delve … Read more
Many African, Latin American and Asian nations are demanding that their former occupiers return historical objects and artworks. It’s given rise to a global debate: Can developing nations, short of funds, preserve the centuries-old artefacts they are reclaiming? Presenter: James Bays Guests: Karen Byera Ijumba – Senior Researcher, Open Restitution Africa Jos Van Beurden – … Read more
101 East enters the high-stakes world of Indian chess and meets players reshaping the game on the global stage. India is in the middle of a chess obsession. The world’s most populous nation is emerging as a superpower in the sport that is believed to have originated there in the sixth century. With 85 grandmasters, … Read more
Kochi, India – A chance encounter when he was selling postcards to tourists in Jew Town as a 13-year-old in the early 1980s would change the course of Thaha Ibrahim’s life. Growing up in Mattancherry, a bustling hub of the spice trade in the southern Indian city of Cochin (now Kochi), Thaha Ibrahim had always … Read more
As the sun sets on the narrow streets of Africa’s largest informal settlement, children hurry to change from daily clothes into pointe shoes and other ballet gear. Fifteen-year-old Brenda Branice is among the dancers and can’t hide her joy. It’s time for the Christmas performance in Kibera, one of the busiest neighbourhoods of Kenya’s capital, … Read more