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Tropical Storm Hits Japan’s Okinawa Islands Again, Unleashing Torrential Rain

A main street is deserted as Typhoon Khanun approaches Naha city, Okinawa prefecture, southern Japan, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023. (AP)
A main street is deserted as Typhoon Khanun approaches Naha city, Okinawa prefecture, southern Japan, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023. (AP)
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Tropical Storm Hits Japan’s Okinawa Islands Again, Unleashing Torrential Rain

A main street is deserted as Typhoon Khanun approaches Naha city, Okinawa prefecture, southern Japan, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023. (AP)
A main street is deserted as Typhoon Khanun approaches Naha city, Okinawa prefecture, southern Japan, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023. (AP)

A meandering storm was headed again toward southwestern Japan on Sunday, prompting fresh warnings about dangerously heavy rainfall after the same area was hit several days ago.

Tropical Storm Khanun, which means jackfruit in Thai, was returning to the southernmost group of islands of Okinawa moving slowly northward, packing winds of up to 30 meters per second (67 miles per hour) and hovering over Okinawa through Monday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki warned residents to brace for torrential rains and mudslides.

“This could mean that the dangers about to hit the area where you are living are unusual and on a scale you have never experienced,” he said of the storm.

He asked people to prepare escape routes to safety in advance.

“Do not let your guard down,” he said.

Large parts of Okinawa, including the main city of Naha, were being slammed by extremely heavy rainfall, according to weather reports.

The storm hit the same area last week, killing two people, injuring dozens of others and squelching power temporarily to tens of thousands of homes, according to the Okinawa government.

Weather experts said the storm’s wandering path was unusual and that it was moving slowly, affecting a wide area with strong winds and heavy rainfall. It also appeared to be getting stronger, experts said.

The storm was expected to continue moving northward, possibly making landfall on Japan’s southern major island of Kyushu by Wednesday or Thursday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

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World

Suspected Militants Kill 2, Including a Police Officer Guarding Polio Team in Northwestern Pakistan

A health worker marks a child’s finger after administering a polio vaccination in Hyderabad, Pakistan, 15 December 2025. EPA/NADEEM KHAWAR
A health worker marks a child’s finger after administering a polio vaccination in Hyderabad, Pakistan, 15 December 2025. EPA/NADEEM KHAWAR
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Suspected Militants Kill 2, Including a Police Officer Guarding Polio Team in Northwestern Pakistan

A health worker marks a child’s finger after administering a polio vaccination in Hyderabad, Pakistan, 15 December 2025. EPA/NADEEM KHAWAR
A health worker marks a child’s finger after administering a polio vaccination in Hyderabad, Pakistan, 15 December 2025. EPA/NADEEM KHAWAR

Suspected militants opened fire on a police officer guarding a team of polio workers in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing the officer and a passerby before fleeing, police said.
No polio worker was harmed in the attack that occurred in Bajaur, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, according to local police chief Samad Khan, The Associated Press said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups blamed by the government for similar attacks in the region and elsewhere in the country.
The shooting came a day after Pakistan launched a weeklong nationwide vaccination campaign aimed at immunizing 45 million children. According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries where polio has not been eradicated.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack in a statement and vowed strong action against those responsible.
Pakistan has reported 30 polio cases since January, down from 74 during the same period last year, according to a statement from the government-run Polio Eradication Initiative.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
More than 200 polio workers and police assigned to protect them have been killed in Pakistan since the 1990s, according to health and security officials.

World

Kremlin Says Christmas Ceasefire Proposed by Ukraine Depends on Reaching Peace Deal

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russia's President with Iranian President in Ashgabat on December 12, 2025. (Photo by Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russia's President with Iranian President in Ashgabat on December 12, 2025. (Photo by Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP)
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Kremlin Says Christmas Ceasefire Proposed by Ukraine Depends on Reaching Peace Deal

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russia's President with Iranian President in Ashgabat on December 12, 2025. (Photo by Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russia's President with Iranian President in Ashgabat on December 12, 2025. (Photo by Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP)

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a Christmas truce that Ukraine has proposed would depend on whether a peace deal is reached or not.

Russia does not want a ceasefire that would allow Kyiv to prepare for further fighting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He added that Moscow had not yet seen details of proposals on NATO-style security guarantees for Ukraine that US and European officials said Washington has offered to provide, according to Reuters.

World

Zelenskyy Says Peace Proposals to End War in Ukraine Could Be Presented to Russia within Days 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP)
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Zelenskyy Says Peace Proposals to End War in Ukraine Could Be Presented to Russia within Days 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says proposals negotiated with US officials on a peace deal to end his country’s nearly four-year war with Russia could be finalized within days, after which American envoys will present them to the Kremlin before further possible meetings in the United States next weekend.

Zelenskyy told reporters late Monday that a draft peace plan discussed with the US during talks in Berlin earlier in the day is “very workable.” He cautioned, however, that some key issues — notably what happens to Ukrainian territory occupied by invading Russian forces — remain unresolved.

US-led peace efforts appear to be picking up momentum. But Russian President Vladimir Putin may balk at some of the proposals thrashed out by officials from Washington, Kyiv and Western Europe, including postwar security guarantees for Ukraine.

American officials on Monday said there's consensus from Ukraine and Europe on about 90% of the US-authored peace plan. US President Donald Trump said: “I think we’re closer now than we have been, ever” to a peace settlement.

Plenty of potential pitfalls remain, however.

Zelenskyy reiterated that Kyiv rules out recognizing Moscow’s control over any part of the Donbas, an economically important region in eastern Ukraine made up of Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia's army doesn’t fully control either.

“The Americans are trying to find a compromise,” Zelenskyy said, before visiting the Netherlands on Tuesday. “They are proposing a ‘free economic zone’ (in the Donbas). And I want to stress once again: a ‘free economic zone’ does not mean under the control of the Russian Federation.”

The land issue remains one of the most difficult obstacles to a comprehensive agreement.

Putin wants all the areas in four key regions that his forces have seized, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory.

Zelenskyy warned that if Putin rejects diplomatic efforts, Ukraine expects increased Western pressure on Moscow, including tougher sanctions and additional military support for defense. Kyiv would seek enhanced air defense systems and long-range weapons if diplomacy collapses, he said.

Ukraine and the US are preparing up to five documents related to the peace framework, several of them focused on security, Zelenskyy said.

He was upbeat about the progress in the Berlin talks.

“Overall, there was a demonstration of unity,” Zelenskyy said. “It was truly positive in the sense that it reflected the unity of the US, Europe, and Ukraine.”