Some 135 Chinese vessels were spotted near Whitsun Reef off the coast of the western Philippine island province of Palawan this weekend. Although it remains unclear exactly what the vessels are doing there, experts tell TIME that it’s likely the latest Chinese display of maritime power in the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “The whole idea is to project presence,” says Collin Koh, an expert in naval affairs at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “That, ‘I’m there and there’s nothing you can do to chase me away.’” Her ..read more

Editors are gearing up for the announcement of TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year—TIME’s annual selection of the individual, group, or concept that has had the most influence on the world throughout the previous 12 months.  In a tradition that dates back to 1927, TIME’s Person of the Year is the annual designation for the person, group or concept that most shaped the headlines, for good or ill. Previous selections include U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Martin Luther King Jr., German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Pope Francis, and activist Greta Thunberg. [time-bright ..read more

The Battle of Fallujah, fought almost exactly nineteen years ago in Iraq, is a central part of Marine Corps lore. But what everyone is actually remembering is the Second Battle of Fallujah. The First Battle of Fallujah ended in embarrassment: Marines occupied a quarter of the city only to call it off after five days because of rising civilian casualties. It was a remarkable moment of contrition and self-criticism for the Marine Corps. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Yet that pause made possible a new strategy that brought victory the second time around. Last week’s truce offered Israel a si ..read more

When the United Arab Emirates first signed the Abraham Accords in 2020—normalizing relations with Israel—its rulers hailed the agreement as a means to encourage and cajole Israel to take positive steps toward ending its occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory. Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco followed suit. But the real premise of the Accords was proving that the Palestinian issue was no longer an obstacle for Israel’s relationships in the region, as Arab states dropped their demand for a Palestinian state as a condition to normalizing ties with Israel. The pact promised regional secu ..read more

A dozen hikers are still missing after a volcano in West Sumatra, Indonesia, erupted Sunday, killing 11 people and injuring others. Video footage showed plumes of ash spluttering 9,800 ft. into the air around Mount Marapi—one of the nation’s 127 active volcanoes—over the weekend. Seventy-five hikers were in the vicinity when the 9,485 ft. volcano erupted.  [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] While 49 people were safely evacuated to shelter, rescuers carried three people to safety and found 11 dead bodies close to the crater on Monday. “Some suffered from burns because it was very hot, and ..read more

PADANG, Indonesia — The bodies of 11 climbers were recovered Monday a day after a furious eruption of the Mount Marapi volcano as Indonesian rescuers searched for 12 apparently still missing. Marapi has stayed at the third highest of four alert levels since 2011, a level indicating above normal volcanic activity and prohibiting climbers or villagers within 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of the peak, said Hendra Gunawan, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “This means that there should be no climbing to the peak,” Gunawan said ..read more

Today, the images and videos circulating, especially across social media, are offering a very poor representation of the truth of what happened on Oct. 7 in Israel. This is partly due to the Israeli government’s understandable efforts to protect the privacy and dignity of the victims, and abstaining from publishing evidence of the atrocities committed to the public. At the same time, the content that is flooding social platforms now reveals that something is fundamentally broken in how millions of people around the world are consuming information about the events of the Hamas Massacre and th ..read more

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine president blamed “foreign terrorists” for a bomb blast that killed four people Sunday, wounded dozens of other Catholic worshippers in the south and sparked a security alarm, including in the capital, Manila, where state forces were put on alert. The suspected bomb, which the police said was made from a mortar round, went off and hit students and teachers who attended a Mass in a gymnasium at Mindanao State University in southern Marawi city, Taha Mandangan, the security chief of the state-run campus, told The Associated Press by telephone. [time-brightco ..read more

Russian security forces raided gay clubs and bars across Moscow Friday night, less than 48 hours after the country’s top court banned what it called the “global LGBTQ+ movement” as an extremist organization. Police searched venues across the Russian capital, including a nightclub, a male sauna, and a bar that hosted LGBTQ+ parties, under the pretext of a drug raid, local media reported. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Eyewitnesses told journalists that clubgoers’ documents were checked and photographed by the security services. They also said that managers had been able to warn pa ..read more

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] On the fourth Thursday of every November, something unusual happens in the United States. But in Israel, if you were to look into most Jewish homes on an ordinary Friday night, you would see something similar to that American Thanksgiving scene. Friday is the time for Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, for which Israeli families gather as if it were a major holiday. (Shabbat, like all Jewish holidays, begins at sundown the previous day.) In some homes, Shabbat is “brought in” with singing, blessings for children, prayers over wine and bread, and a set table. But ev ..read more