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Rina Gonoi, a former Self-Defense Forces member who accused colleagues of sexually assaulting her during her time in the military, speaks during an interview in Yokohama last December.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 2, 2024

Japanese ex-soldier wins U.S. award for fight against sexual harassment

The U.S. will honor former Self-Defense Forces soldier Rina Gonoi with the International Women of Courage Award.
Remember, Vladimir Putin ridiculed the idea that he would invade Ukraine, right up until he ordered close to 200,000 troops over the border.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2024

Would Putin stop if he wins in Ukraine? Let’s not find out.

Just because the Russian leader is a serial liar doesn’t prove he is being untruthful now.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 8, 2024

Biden takes on Trump and Republicans in State of the Union speech

The 68-minute speech gave Biden, who is suffering from low approval ratings, a chance to speak directly to millions of Americans about his vision.
U.S. President Joe Biden makes a campaign stop at Strath Haven Middle School in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 9, 2024

Providing both bombs and food, Biden puts himself in the middle of Gaza’s war

Biden's decision to send aid by air and sea represents a shift prompted by the growing humanitarian crisis. But it also raised uncomfortable questions.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv in October
WORLD / Politics
Mar 10, 2024

Netanyahu approach to Gaza war 'hurting Israel more than helping,' Biden says

The comments highlighted the U.S. leader's growing impatience with his Israeli counterpart over his approach to the war in Gaza.
Barrels stored at the Energy Fuels White Mesa Mill uranium production facility in Utah
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 11, 2024

Uranium firms revive forgotten mines as price of nuclear fuel soars

Mines were idled in the aftermath of Fukushima, when uranium prices crashed and countries like Germany and Japan initiated plans to phase out reactors.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2024

China needs a foreign policy reset but Xi’s got bigger problems

At China’s National People’s Congress in Beijing, no change of the guard was announced. Wang Yi will continue as foreign minister, a sign of stability.
A Boeing 737 Max aircraft at an airshow in Farnborough, England, in 2022. In early January, the door plug on an Alaska Air 737 Max 9 blew off shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, prompting an explosive decompression.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 14, 2024

Boeing 737 Max probe still in dark over who caused door fail

The planemaker has said it’s unable to find the relevant records, and factory security footage that may have helped have been overwritten.
Modern advances in the production of missiles and drones such as those used by the Houthis have democratized extremely powerful weapons that until recently were available only to the richest states.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2024

The Houthis school the world in asymmetric warfare

Advances in missile and drone production have democratized extremely powerful weapons that until recently were available only to the richest states
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2024

U.S. Senate leader Chuck Schumer calls for new election in Israel

The rebuke came amid increased pressure from U.S. President Joe Biden over the mounting death toll in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Customers make a toast at an eatery in Tokyo. Many view Japan’s economy as being on the rise, and that of regional powerhouse China as declining. But how accurate is this narrative?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 18, 2024

Japan is back, China is over. The trouble with narratives.

The idea that Japan and China's roles have flipped, with the former on the rise and the latter in decline, obfuscates important facts and trends.
The National Ignition Facility’s preamplifier module increases laser energy at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory federal research facility in Livermore, California.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 21, 2024

Nuclear fusion backers meet in U.S. as competition with China looms

Scientists, governments and companies are racing to harness fusion to provide carbon-free electricity.
A protester in New Delhi holds a banner depicting Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who has said he was the target of an assassination plot disclosed by U.S. prosecutors in November 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 21, 2024

India’s probe links former intelligence official to U.S. murder plot

At least one person involved in the alleged attempted assassination had worked for India’s main spy agency and is still employed by the government.
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani and his then-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, attend a news conference at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on March 16, ahead of the 2024 MLB Seoul Series baseball game between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 23, 2024

MLB launches investigation into scandal involving Ohtani and ex-interpreter

MLB is expected to request interviews with all parties, including Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara, the slugger's longtime interpreter and close friend.
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv in October 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

Netanyahu halts envoys' U.S. trip amid rift with Biden over Gaza U.N. vote

Famine looms in the Gaza Strip and there is growing global pressure for a truce in the war health authorities say has killed some 32,000 Palestinians.
Jim Rauh, founder of Families Against Fentanyl, holds a photograph of his son Thomas in Akron, Ohio, on March 4. How Trump and Biden address a lethal chapter of the U.S. drug-overdose epidemic will be pivotal in swing states that are likely to decide the election.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 27, 2024

270,000 overdose deaths thrust fentanyl into heart of U.S. presidential race

More than 4 in 10 Americans personally know someone who has died from a drug overdose.
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem on Feb. 18.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 28, 2024

Israel asks U.S. to reschedule scrapped meeting on Rafah military plans

Rafah is the last relatively safe haven for Palestinian civilians amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
A ban on propositional betting in collegiate sports isn’t expected to have a material impact on DraftKings’ financial performance.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 28, 2024

DraftKings shares slump after NCAA proposes college prop bet ban

The NCAA says it is "drawing the line on sports betting to protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game.”
California’s share of U.S. wine production, around 90% in the 1990s and 2000s, dropped below 80% for the first time on record in 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2024

Who will save the U.S. wine industry? Not California boomers.

California’s share of U.S. wine production, around 90% in the 1990s and 2000s, dropped below 80% for the first time on record in 2022.
Tugboats guide the Maersk Atlanta container ship at the Port of Newark in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday. The bridge collapse Tuesday that shut the Port of Baltimore and closed a major highway will cause weeks or months of transportation disruptions in the Mid-Atlantic region.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2024

Baltimore ship accident has east coast ports scrambling to absorb cargo

The bridge collapse will accelerate a shift of cargo to the U.S. West Coast in order to avoid potential bottlenecks at trade gateways from Boston to Miami.
The moon rises behind the State Historical Museum, the Kremlin's towers and St. Basil's Cathedral in central Moscow on March 21. Russia has dismissed new allegations about its role in Havana syndrome as "groundless."
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

'Havana Syndrome' linked to Russian intelligence unit, report says

The U.S. State Department has said it stands by its assessment that no foreign actor is responsible.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (left), South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin (center) and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi prior to the trilateral foreign ministers' meeting in Busan, South Korea, in November
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 5, 2024

China, Japan and South Korea looking to hold summit in May, reports say

The three-way talks could follow a summit set for next week in Washington where Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is due to meet U.S. President Joe Biden.
Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in Victorville, California, in 2019
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 8, 2024

Loss of engine cover on Southwest Boeing 737-800 prompts FAA investigation

No one was injured and Southwest Flight 3695 returned safely to Denver International Airport.
NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg (left) and the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a news conference in Washington on Jan. 29
WORLD / Politics
Apr 9, 2024

World rush to rearm could cost G7 countries $10 trillion over next decade

Security challenges include an aggressive Russia, a volatile Middle East, and the Chinese military tugging U.S. attention toward the Pacific.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in Tehran on Wednesday. He said that Israel "must be punished, and it shall be."
WORLD / Politics
Apr 12, 2024

Iran will not be hasty in response to Israel attack, sources say

Iran is seen as going with a measured response to Israel's April 1 attack on its Syrian embassy.
Construction on the Techo Funan Canal, which will span some 180 kilometers from Phnom Penh to the Cambodian coastal province of Kep, is slated to begin later this year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 15, 2024

U.S. urges transparency over China-backed canal in Cambodia

The waterway will span some 180 kilometers from Phnom Penh to the coastal province of Kep.
Max Lange, 19, a plant mechatronics engineering trainee from Oederan, stands next to a solar panel rolling off the assembly line as part of the last production of solar modules at the Meyer Burger Technology AG plant, due to an announced closure of the plant, in Freiberg, Germany, on March 12.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 16, 2024

Lacking support in battle with China, European solar firms head to U.S.

This week the European Commission has launched a voluntary charter for governments and companies to sign in support of solar manufacturing plants.
A direct military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities by the U.S. and its allies would likely only delay its program while risking regional war and increasing the likelihood of Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons in the long run.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2024

Iran hawks want to strike now. They're wrong.

One thing Iran hawks get right, starting with the contention that by attacking Israel directly on Saturday night, Iran changed rules of engagement.
Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange protest on the day he appeals in a British court against his extradition to the United States, in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 20.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 17, 2024

Assange extradition approaches as U.S. provides U.K. with assurances

The U.S. says that a sentence of death will neither be sought nor imposed.
Iranians at an anti-Israeli rally after Friday prayers in Tehran. An Israeli airstrike on Iran on Friday damaged an air defense system, according to Western and Iranian officials, in an attack calculated to deliver a message that Israel could bypass Iran's defensive systems undetected and paralyze them.
WORLD
Apr 21, 2024

Israel’s strike on Iran highlights its ability to evade Tehran’s air defenses

The strike Friday was the latest salvo between the two countries this month that have heightened fears of a broader regional conflict.

Longform

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly