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The Voice of America building in Washington on Sunday, a day after more than 1,300 of the employees of the media broadcaster, which operates in almost 50 languages, were placed on leave
WORLD / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

China and Russia eager to fill void as Trump axes U.S.-funded media

Trumps moves come after years of efforts by Beijing and Moscow to promote their own worldview on the global media landscape.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet in Pyongyang in June 2024. Moscow has ditched its historic hostility to North Korea's nuclear program, a clear sign of Russia's scramble for allies amid its international isolation.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2025

It’s time to flip Russia’s script on North Korean nukes

Countries who want deterrence and stability must stop Russia from influencing perceptions of North Korea's nuclear program — one that, in an about-face, Moscow now supports.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent walks to a television interview outside the White House in Washington on Friday. Bessent had indicated a possible delay in the activation of new reciprocal tariff rates on the United States' trading partners.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 19, 2025

Trump still intends for reciprocal tariffs to kick in on April 2

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had indicated a possible delay but the White House says trading partners would need to negotiate deals in advance to avoid new tariffs.
Gonzalo Gallegos, director of communications for the U.S. Institute of Peace, carries a box out of the building in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 19, 2025

Elon Musk’s team evicts officials at the U.S. Institute of Peace

Officials say that as the institute is a congressionally chartered nonprofit, not part of the executive branch, Trump and Musk do not have authority to gut its operations.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas presents the white paper on the future of European defense, in Brussels on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 20, 2025

EU proposes joint defense push amid Russia fears and U.S. worries

EU countries have already begun boosting their own defenses in response to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Hino Motors pleaded guilty on Wednesday over a multiyear emissions fraud scheme in the United States and must pay $1.6 billion in penalties.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2025

Toyota's Hino pleads guilty to U.S. emissions fraud and is fined $1.6 billion

Hino admitted that between 2010 and 2019, it used "illicit short-cuts" and submitted false applications for engine certification approvals.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 20, 2025

Powell downplays growing risks, sees tariff impact as transitory

His use of the word "transitory” was surprising because the Fed employed the same word when inflation exploded following the onset of COVID-19.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order to shut down the Department of Education.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 21, 2025

Trump signs order aimed at dismantling U.S. Department of Education

With a new executive order, Trump weakens federal oversight of education, taking the first step toward shutting down the department.
Baseball legend Jackie Robinson speaks at an Urban League dinner at the Tammy Brook Country Club in Cresskill, New Jersey, on May 21, 1969.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 21, 2025

Jackie Robinson’s legacy vanishes, then reappears on Pentagon site

The brief biography describes Robinson’s childhood in California, his time in a segregated Army unit during World War II and his role in breaking baseball’s color barrier.
The Pentagon's disbandment of the Office of Net Assessment ends a key institution that provided long-term strategic analysis, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to future geopolitical challenges.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 20, 2025

A sad day for U.S. strategic analysis as the Office of Net Assessment is disbanded

While most focused on the military, ONA was the only group to conclude that winning the Cold War relied on economic means, not troop numbers.
Demonstrators hold signs near the White House as they protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2017.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 22, 2025

What the $660 million Greenpeace verdict means for U.S. activism

Legal experts warn the decision could significantly deter other environmental groups from protesting oil and gas companies around the U.S.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney gestures as he boards an aircraft, after calling for an election, in Ottawa on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 24, 2025

Carney calls snap election, saying Trump wants to break Canada

In calling the election now, Carney is hoping to capitalize on a remarkable recovery by his Liberal Party in the polls since January.
United States coach Mauricio Pochettino speaks to the media in Inglewood, California, on March 20.
SOCCER
Mar 24, 2025

Mauricio Pochettino says U.S. has time to get on track before World Cup

Pochettino, who was appointed last year after the ill-fated second reign of Gregg Berhalter, is confident that his side will be in much better shape by the 2026 World Cup.
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines meets with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 24, 2025

Xi must stop fentanyl flow before tariff talks, Trump ally says

Steve Daines laid out the condition in meetings with Chinese officials in Beijing over the weekend.
A U.S. flag flies in front of the consulate of the United States in Nuuk, Greenland, on Monday. A U.S. delegation led by Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance, is visiting Greenland this week.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 25, 2025

Trump doubles down on U.S. claims to Greenland

Outgoing Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede dubs plans by a U.S. delegation to visit an American military base and attend a dog sled race in the territory a "provocation."
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addresses American service members assigned to Kane'ohe Bay, Hawaii, on Tuesday. Hegseth’s itinerary during his first visit to Asia in his new role will include visits to the Philippines and Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2025

Hegseth’s Asia tour won’t fix U.S. credibility crisis

The timing of Hegseth’s first Asian tour couldn’t be more awkward. U.S. President Donald Trump’s "America First” mantra is raising eyebrows.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on Friday.
JAPAN / History
Mar 28, 2025

Ishiba to visit Iwo Jima to honor soldiers who died in fierce WWII battle

He will be the first sitting prime minister to visit the island since April 2013, when then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a stopover.
Oil pipelines in Alaska. U.S. President Donald Trump wants Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to join a $44 billion natural gas export project.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2025

Alaska governor to brief Trump on Asia gas push as tariffs bite

Gov. Mike Dunleavy is winding up a trip through Asia where he has been seeking investors and long-term buyers.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani pose for a photo on Ioto, the far-flung Japanese island known widely as Iwo Jima, on Saturday for an event honoring those who died in bloody fighting there 80 years ago during World War II.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 29, 2025

Pentagon chief joins war memorial ceremony on first visit to Japan

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the alliance with Japan key to peace in the region, a view he said “will continue.”
U.S. President Donald Trump walks toward Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 31, 2025

U.S. orders French companies to comply with Trump's DEI ban

The order will spark concerns in European boardrooms that the Trump administration is widening its fight against DEI policies overseas.
Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera said on Tuesday that tariffs announced by the U.S. could result in a big economic crisis for Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 1, 2025

Trump tariffs may spell economic crisis for Japan, Onodera says

Auto tariffs in particular would have a huge impact given the breadth of the sector's supply chain in the country, the Liberal Democratic Party's policy chief says.
U.S tariffs on Vietnam would force Nike, one of several sportswear brands heavily reliant on the Southeast Asian nation as a production site, to absorb higher costs or hike its prices at a time when it is already discounting some items to clear inventory.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 2, 2025

U.S. tariffs on Vietnam would be a blow to Nike and other sportswear brands

Vietnam is a hub for high-tech running shoes, sportswear and outdoor apparel, with brands seeking to reduce exposure to China.
An anti-Trump sign is pictured during a rally against gender-based and sexual violence against women, in Paris in 2018.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2025

Anti-American sentiment rises in Europe as Trump fuels anger

There’s currently no country in Europe where more than half of the population has a positive attitude toward the U.S.
DOGE, the U.S. government reform project, embodies America's brash, fast-paced approach to change, while Japan’s cultural norms emphasize slower, more deliberate decision-making rooted in consensus.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025

The DOGE solution? 'No thanks,' says Japan, with reason

I can’t imagine a DOGE-like beast in Japan. No one can. It is utterly alien to every tradition, precedent or cultural inclination in this country.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with journalists onboard Air Force One en route to Miami on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2025

Trump open to tariff cuts in return for ‘phenomenal’ offers

"The tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” Trump said, adding that "every country has called us.”
Talks between the U.S. and China’s armed forces are a key indicator of the guardrails in place, even as the Trump administration and Beijing clash over a slew of issues.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 4, 2025

China and U.S. make first known military contact since Trump inauguration

Talks between the U.S. and China’s armed forces are a key indicator of the guardrails in place, even as the Trump administration and Beijing clash over a slew of issues.
U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war has spurred the biggest market losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 5, 2025

Stocks slump again after China fires back in trade war with tariffs on U.S. goods

The trade war has spurred the biggest market losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. F-16 fighter jets fly in formation during the opening ceremony of Cope Thunder, an annual bilateral exercise between the U.S. Pacific Air Forces and the Philippine Air Force, at Clark Air Base near Angeles City, Philippines, on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 7, 2025

Philippines, U.S. launch joint drills aimed at 'deterrence'

The drills follow months of confrontations between Beijing and Manila over disputed areas of the South China Sea.
Nippon Steel’s proposal to buy U.S. Steel is being given a second national security review by U.S. President Donald Trump.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 8, 2025

Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel to get new national security review

The order for a second review came after a call between Trump and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba over the tariffs.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner speaks as others look on during a news conference to unveil legislation that would allow the White House to "ban or prohibit" foreign technology products such as the Chinese-owned video app TikTok during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington in March 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 8, 2025

Top Democratic senator says new Trump TikTok extension may violate law

Sen. Mark Warner also said the reported deal under consideration would not meet legal requirements for eliminating ByteDance’s influence over TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.