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Michael S. Schmidt
World Anti-Doping Agency Director-General Olivier Niggli speaks during the agency's symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland, in March.
OLYMPICS
Dec 4, 2024
Anti-doping agency froze out investigators who warned about China
The decision by WADA’s leaders to keep its own investigators in the dark raises new questions about WADA's response to possible doping by Chinese athletes.
Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, in Philadelphia last year. World Anti-Doping Agency officials, furious at U.S. investigations into the handling of positive tests, have sought to exclude Gupta from its board meetings.
OLYMPICS
Sep 11, 2024
White House is drawn into dispute over Chinese doping
WADA has informed the White House that its officials were seeking to bar its representative from any deliberations about positive tests by Chinese athletes.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in April 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 3, 2024
Alongside the Trump-Russia inquiry, a lesser-known look at Egyptian influence
The Justice Department investigated whether a Trump adviser was part of an Egyptian plan, never proven, to funnel $10 million to the 2016 Trump campaign.
World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka holds a news conference in Paris on July 25. WADA and the entire global anti-doping system have been under intensifying scrutiny in recent months.
OLYMPICS
Jul 31, 2024
Anti-doping agency acknowledges concern over use of tainted food as excuse
The global anti-doping regulator disclosed Tuesday that it is investigating why athletes in China and other countries who are testing positive for banned drugs are escaping discipline through claims that they have unwittingly ingested the performance-enhancing substances through food.
U.S. President Joe Biden disembarks Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 18, 2024
Biden called ‘more receptive’ to hearing pleas to step aside
Biden has not given any indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race, but has been willing to listen to rundowns of new and worrying polling data.
Wang Shun of China races to gold in the final of the men's 200-meter individual medley at the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Jun 15, 2024
Doping regulator knew of previous positive tests by Chinese swimmers
Three Chinese swimmers who failed drug tests before the 2021 Olympics had tested positive for a powerful steroid several years earlier.
Zhang Yufei was among the 23 Chinese swimmer who tested positive for a banned substance months before the Tokyo Olympics.
OLYMPICS
May 16, 2024
World Anti-Doping Agency combating trust issues ahead of Paris Olympics
WADA is facing a allegations it helped cover up the positive tests of elite Chinese swimmers before the Tokyo Olympics.
Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei poses with her gold medal after winning the women's 200-meter butterfly during the Tokyo Games.
OLYMPICS
Apr 22, 2024
Chinese doping case sends swimming world into uproar and exposes bitter rifts
The disclosure of an incident that had been a secret for more than three years has drawn strong reactions from athletes, coaches and others.
China's Olympic gold-medal winning 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay team celebrates on the podium at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 29, 2021.  Zhang Yufei (third from left) is among 23 top Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in the lead up to the Games.
OLYMPICS
Apr 20, 2024
Top Chinese swimmers tested positive for banned drug, then won Olympic gold
The episode sharply divided the anti-doping world, where China’s record has long been a flashpoint.
Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani during a spring training game on March 12.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 15, 2024
Ohtani’s dizzying three weeks end in exoneration by authorities
At times, baseball’s biggest star seemed in danger of being tainted by a gambling scandal, before his longtime interpreter was charged with fraud.
Shohei Ohtani with then-interpreter Ippei Mizuhara during a news conference in Los Angeles in December
BASEBALL
Apr 12, 2024
Prosecutors say Ohtani’s interpreter stole $16 million from star
The account provided by authorities largely confirms what Ohtani told the public in late March.
Ippei Mizuhara (left) allegedly stole millions of dollars from Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani in order to cover gambling debts.
BASEBALL
Apr 11, 2024
Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, said to be negotiating guilty plea
By quickly pleading guilty, Mizuhara would increase his chances of receiving a more lenient sentence.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 18, 2022
The House Jan. 6 panel has set a high bar: Showing criminality
It is not clear whether the committee will follow through and take the largely symbolic step of issuing a criminal referral for former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 9, 2022
How Trump deflected demands for documents, enmeshing aides
The former president exhibited a pattern of dissembling about the material he took from the White House, creating legal risk not just for himself but also some of his lawyers.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 19, 2022
Despite growing evidence, a prosecution of Trump would face challenges
As House hearings highlighted testimony that could create more pressure to pursue a criminal case, former president tried out a defense that strained credulity.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 5, 2021
$5,800 whiskey bottle, a gift from Japan to Pompeo, is missing, U.S. says
The State Department is investigating the whereabouts the bottle, according to two people briefed on the inquiry and a document made public this week.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 3, 2020
As U.S. voting ends, battle intensifies over which ballots will count
Fight comes amid open efforts by President Donald Trump and the Republicans to disqualify votes on technicalities and baseless charges of fraud.

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition