The head of the 189-nation International Monetary Fund said Thursday the world is facing a time of high uncertainty with 70% of the global economy caught in a growth slowdown that could be worsened by self-inflicted wounds such as unnecessary trade battles.

U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korea's Moon Jae-in agreed Thursday on the importance of nuclear talks with North Korea, but the two leaders aren't completely aligned on whether sanctions will pressure Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons or drive him away from the negotiating table.

It has now been 11 days since Japan's next era name "Reiwa" was unveiled, and the ensuing hubbub has come down a notch.

Australia's prime minister on Thursday said the nation will go to the polls to elect a new government on May 18.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to deal a "serious blow" to hostile actors imposing sanctions on Pyongyang, state-run media reported Thursday, more than a month after the collapse of the nation's second denuclearization summit with the United States.

European Union leaders were wrangling Wednesday over whether to save Britain from a precipitous and potentially calamitous Brexit, or to give the foot-dragging departing nation a shove over the edge.

Japanese police will launch an investigation into a major phone scam from Thailand in which hundreds of people across Japan are believed to have been swindled out of more than 200 million yen ($1.8 million) this year, investigative sources said Wednesday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday she doesn't trust Attorney General William Barr and suggested his statement that he believes President Donald Trump's campaign was spied on undermines Barr's independence as the nation's top law enforcement officer.

Forty percent of Japanese are supportive of an approach Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has proposed to revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, a Kyodo News poll showed Wednesday.

Benjamin Netanyahu appears headed toward a historic fifth term as Israel's prime minister, with close-to-complete unofficial election results giving his right-wing Likud and other nationalist and religious parties a solid majority in parliament.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday mocked U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Kremlin interference in the 2016 presidential election, saying "a mountain gave birth to a mouse."

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he's in love with Kim Jong Un, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday agreed that the North Korean leader is a "tyrant."