Sanae Takaichi became Japan’s first female prime minister. In her third attempt to lead the country, Ms. Takaichi won a parliamentary vote today, breaking a historic glass ceiling in Japan, where women still lag behind men in gender equality. Yet the conservative politician is not known as a strong promoter of women’s rights or diversity. She is expected to prioritize Japan’s defense buildup and fighting inflation.

Negotiators are aiming to shore up a shaky Gaza ceasefire and move the 12-day-old peace deal onto its even trickier subsequent phases. Both Israel and Hamas recommitted to the ceasefire after weekend violence threatened to derail it. Underscoring his commitment to the deal, President Donald Trump dispatched envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to the region. The two met yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Vice President JD Vance is also headed to Israel.

China is mapping out its next five-year plan, with Communist Party leaders meeting in Beijing to set strategic economic priorities for 2026-2030. Faced with growing “external shocks” – a reference to the U.S.-China trade war – they plan to stress modern manufacturing and innovation, state-run media reported today. Despite U.S. tariffs, China’s gross domestic product is expected to grow by about 5% this year, buoyed by strong industrial output and exports.

New York City counted a record 154,000 homeless students last year – more than the entire school populations of Denver or Baltimore. That includes children sleeping in shelters or crowded apartments, where families double up to make rent. More than half of those student are chronically absent from class. While some schools had no homeless children, roughly 30 had more unhoused students than housed ones.

AI-powered textbooks have crashed in South Korea. Former President Yoon Suk Yeol championed the experiment – and hefty investment – as a way to personalize learning and reduce teacher workload, reports Rest of World. But after one semester and complaints ranging from privacy concerns to factual inaccuracies, the government reclassified the textbooks as “supplementary material,” meaning schools can choose whether to use them. Many have not.

Buying a home in Britain has become easier, thanks to reforms meant to boost growth. Mortgage lending has picked up after regulators eased stress tests and income restrictions, The Financial Times reports. At Lloyds Bank, 11,000 more people have qualified for mortgages who previously wouldn’t have. While more lending brings risks, mortgage defaults fell last quarter for the first time in three years, suggesting the market can absorb the new loans.

American pianist Eric Lu won the 19th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, which honors Poland’s beloved composer Fryderyk Chopin. Inspired by the Olympic Games when it was founded in 1927, the competition is held once every five years and is among the world’s most prestigious – and one of the few devoted entirely to a single composer’s music. This year’s event drew 84 pianists from 19 countries, all under 30.

– From our staff writers around the world

Democrats and Republicans are at odds nationally, as the continued government shutdown shows. But in Three Rivers, Michigan, local leaders are setting aside differences for the common goal of real problem-solving.

Ukraine is facing a third winter at war, and Russia is targeting energy infrastructure like never before – an apparent bid to weaken morale. But war has taught the Ukrainians how to keep the lights on under almost any circumstance.

Market changes and a shifting world order in the last 20 years have chipped away at the dollar’s credibility. That’s seen as one reason gold is gaining new ground. But a weaker dollar has other consequences as well.

The docuseries “Mr. Scorsese” probes the innermost thoughts of the Oscar-winning filmmaker and his efforts to use art to grapple with life’s toughest challenges and questions.

The perception of wetlands as insignificant persists among India’s policymakers and developers. This scientist is turning marshes around.

It’s been a challenging year for the residents of Los Angeles. Destructive wildfires and political turmoil over the federal detention of unauthorized migrants have tested Angelenos.

But then there was Shohei Ohtani.

His exceptional performance for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season has helped the city rediscover joy and community. Perhaps most of all, people see the values of modesty and hard work in this Japanese athlete’s extraordinary talent in a quintessentially American sport.

Last Friday, Mr. Ohtani – who is both a top pitcher and batter, like Babe Ruth – struck out 10 Milwaukee Brewers players over six scoreless innings and hit three soaring home runs. That feat earned him the National League Championship MVP award and put baseball’s reigning champions into the World Series for the second consecutive year.

Baseball does not have salary caps, and Mr. Ohtani is one of the best-paid players on one of the sport’s best-resourced teams. Nevertheless, his athletic exploits and self-effacing demeanor send a message that goes beyond eye-popping dollar figures.

Over millennia, great athletes have helped “raise ... humanity out of itself, ... by doing something that teaches us again of how free from mortal constraints we can be,” former baseball commissioner and Yale University President A. Bartlett Giamatti said in 1988. Such an individual, he said, “deserves all the awe he or she can get.”

Awe has not been in short supply. In a headline, the normally sedate Wall Street Journal described Mr. Ohtani’s performance as “What May Be the Greatest Game of All Time.”

“That’s the single best performance in the history of baseball,” his teammate Max Muncy told Fox News, without equivocation.

Mr. Ohtani himself viewed it as a joint effort. “We won it as a team,” he said, adding, “This time around it was my turn to be able to perform.”

For the Dodgers star, it’s a privilege rather than a personal achievement to deliver in demanding situations. After a game-winning home run earlier this year, he noted through his interpreter, “It’s actually an honor to feel the pressure because that means there’s a lot of expectations,” which he transforms into a positive impetus.

For Los Angeles, Mr. Ohtani’s “brilliance ... feels like a reset button” and a “reason to believe in the purity of sports as a uniter,” wrote commentator Erick Galindo in the local media platform L.A. Taco. “I hope this beautiful, messy team of Americans – Black, Brown and White, kids from the Midwest, South, the Caribe, Latin America’s finest, Japanese phenoms ... can do what it did last year: bring everyone together, at least for a few days.”