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Trevor Hunnicutt

The highly anticipated call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping came in the middle of a dispute over "rare earths" minerals that threatened to tear up a fragile truce in the trade war.

WORLD

Jun 6, 2025

Trump and Xi pledge more talks as trade disputes brew

In a rare call, Trump and Xi pledged to resume trade talks, but tensions over rare earth minerals and Taiwan remained unresolved.

U.S President Donald Trump meets with Japan's Ryosei Akazawa, who is in charge of trade negotiations with Washington, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on April 16.

BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS

Apr 26, 2025

Japan is a test case for Trump's tariff deals. But talks may be tortuous.

While some expect an agreement at the June G7 summit in Canada in June, others say it will be risky for Tokyo to cede ground before Upper House elections expected in July.

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Thursday.

WORLD / Politics

Feb 28, 2025

Trump dodges plea from Britain's Starmer for Ukraine security guarantee

Britain's prime minister had argued that there could be no long-term peace in Ukraine without firm U.S. security guarantees.

Elon Musk shows off his t-shirt reading "Tech Support" while speaking at the first cabinet meeting hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.

WORLD / Politics

Feb 27, 2025

Trump orders more layoffs as Musk touts cuts at cabinet meeting

The U.S. president let downsizing czar Elon Musk take a star role at his first cabinet meeting and discuss his ambitious budget-cutting targets.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gives a news conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.

WORLD / Politics

Feb 27, 2025

Trump confirms Zelenskyy visit to sign Ukraine minerals deal

The Ukrainian leader said the success of the deal would hinge on talks in Washington on Friday and continued U.S. aid.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Thursday.

WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS

Feb 21, 2025

Trump tightens grip on independent agencies, testing limits of presidential power

The agencies have for years taken pride in their independence overseeing such matters as elections, stock markets and labor unrest.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands at the conclusion of a joint news conference in the White House in Washington on Thursday.

WORLD / Politics

Feb 14, 2025

India's Modi and Trump agree to trade talks to lower tensions

The agreements came hours after Trump unveiled a roadmap for reciprocal tariffs on every country that puts duties on U.S. imports, including India.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (left) speaks during an executive order signing ceremony with U.S. President Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald and U.S. commerce secretary nominee, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.

BUSINESS

Feb 4, 2025

Trump orders creation of U.S. sovereign wealth fund and says it could buy TikTok

The text of the executive order was sparse on details, and simply directed the Treasury and Commerce Departments to submit a plan for such a fund within 90 days.

U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Friday.

JAPAN / Politics

Feb 1, 2025

Trump says Ishiba will visit him next week

"They’re coming in to speak to me and I’m looking forward to it," the U.S. president told reporters in the Oval Office.

Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, depart the First Street U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles on Sept. 5.

WORLD / Politics

Dec 3, 2024

Biden's surprise pardon of son sparked by fears of new persecution

The president's move was panned by his Republican political opposition, but also by Democrats who say it threatens to undermine public trust in the rule of law.

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, in June 2019.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Nov 27, 2024

Trump team weighs direct talks with North Korea's Kim

Several in Trump's team now see a direct approach from him, to build on a relationship that already exists, as most likely to break the ice with Kim Jong Un.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te is planning a stopover in Hawaii as part of an overseas trip starting in the coming weeks, sources said.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Nov 15, 2024

Taiwan president plans Hawaii visit on sensitive trip to Pacific, sources say

Six sources briefed on the visit said that the president is planning a stopover in Hawaii as part of an overseas trip starting in the coming weeks.

U.S. President Joe Biden waves as he walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Woodside, California, in November 2023.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Oct 29, 2024

China pressing U.S. to alter language on Taiwan after request from Xi to Biden

Xi's aides have repeatedly followed up and made the requests in the months since, U.S. officials have said.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a 56-year-old dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, speaks during an interview in New York on Oct. 18. The U.S. Justice Department alleges that an Indian intelligence official had directed plans to assassinate Pannun, a Sikh separatist, last year.

WORLD / Politics

Oct 23, 2024

U.S. pressures India for accountability over Sikh separatist murder plot

Washington wants a speedy resolution of the matter, which has led to a U.S. indictment of a former Indian intelligence official over the foiled plot.

Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday.

WORLD / Politics

Sep 27, 2024

Biden announces $8 billion in military aid for Ukraine

The funds will provide Ukraine with additional air defense, unmanned aerial systems and air-to-ground munitions.

U.S. President Joe Biden holds the arm of Elizabeth Whelan, sister of Paul Whelan, as he delivers remarks on a prisoner swap that included the release of Paul Whelan from Russia, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, on Thursday.

WORLD

Aug 2, 2024

The Russia prisoner swap was years in the making for the U.S.

Talks that led to the prisoner exchange started more than two years ago and almost didn't happen.

Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris boards Air Force Two as she departs from Ellington Airport in Houston, Texas, on Thursday.

WORLD / Politics

Jul 26, 2024

Harris pushes ahead with campaign blitz, gaining ground on Trump

A series of polls conducted recently show Harris and Trump beginning their head-to-head contest on roughly equal footing.

U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Wednesday, where he spoke about his decision to drop his Democratic presidential reelection bid.

WORLD / Politics

Jul 25, 2024

Biden says he's 'passing the torch' in speech from Oval office

He is the first incumbent president not to seek reelection since Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday.

WORLD / Politics

Jul 23, 2024

Taking on Trump, Kamala Harris vows to draw on prosecutorial experience

The U.S. vice president has also promised to drive forward laws to protect abortion rights and ban assault rifles, and focus on rebuilding the middle class.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff arrive at Kamala's Presidential Campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday.

WORLD / Politics

Jul 23, 2024

Buttigieg to Beshear: Kamala Harris' possible vice president

Potential vice presidential candidates for Kamala Harris include Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Mark Kelly.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.

How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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