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Critics — including a number of reporters in the Pentagon press corps — slammed the decision not to release information that U.S. Secretary of State Lloyd Austin was ill until Friday, five days after he was hospitalized.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 6, 2024

Pentagon keeps defense chief's hospitalization under wraps for days

The news — which was released five days after Lloyd Austin was hospitalized — emerged as Washington faces a growing crisis in the Middle East.
NRA chief Wayne LaPierre speaks at the National Rifle Association annual convention in Indianapolis last April.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 6, 2024

Powerful NRA chief Wayne LaPierre resigns ahead of graft trial

LaPierre, 74, chief executive since 1991, steps down just as New York state Attorney General Letitia James brings a corruption trial against the NRA.
A Ukrainian tank crew member looks out from a tank as he holds his position near the town of Bakhmut, in the country's Donetsk region, on Dec. 13.
WORLD / FOCUS
Jan 6, 2024

As losses mount, Ukrainians fiercely debate future of draft

The debate comes following heavy casualties and almost two years of grinding trench warfare and as the army struggles to fill its ranks.
A supporter of Donald Trump prior to a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last month. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signaled that voters in the United Kingdom will go to the polls in the fall, around the time that the United States will be in the midst of its own pivotal vote.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Trumpian bravado poses risk for Sunak amid dueling U.K. and U.S. votes

Polls show U.K. voters are becoming more wary of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as an election looms.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center) sits next to Bhutan's King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (second from left) and others, while watching a cultural performance at the Tashichhodzong monastery in Thimpu, Bhutan, in August 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

India and China eye strategic areas bordering 'last barrier' Bhutan

New Delhi is determined not to let Beijing extend its influence further across what India sees as its natural sphere of influence
A victim of an explosion at a nickel smelter furnace owned by Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel lies inside an ambulance at a hospital in Morowali, Indonesia, on Dec. 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Indonesia blast puts battery ambitions in spotlight ahead of vote

Just weeks ahead of a presidential election, the deadly explosion triggered angry protests and demands for action in Jakarta and Beijing.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a press briefing by President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington in January last year.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Biden left in dark on defense secretary’s hospital stay for days

Several U.S. senators privately expressed concern that they weren’t informed sooner about defense chief Lloyd Austin's hospitalization.
Humanitarian and medical aid boxes are loaded into a plane to be airdropped by the French and Jordanian air forces for a field hospital set up in Gaza's second city, Khan Younis, at Zarqa airport in Jordan on Friday.
WORLD
Jan 7, 2024

For civilians or Hamas? 'Dual use' issue complicates aid efforts

The issue of which items do or don't get through has become more urgent and contested as the war has unfolded.
Ryoyu Kobayashi on Saturday in Bischofshofen, Austria, added the 2024 Four Hills title to triumphs in 2019 and 2022.
MORE SPORTS / Ski jumping
Jan 7, 2024

Japan's Kobayashi clinches third Four Hills ski jump crown

Kobayashi added the 2024 title to triumphs in 2019 and 2022 after finishing in second place in the last of the four events at Bischofshofen in Austria.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Newton, Iowa, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Trump, in Iowa, skirts Jan. 6 talk on attack's anniversary

The lack of mention reflects the degree to which Republican voters have absolved him of responsibility for that day's events.
Egypt's Hamdi Fathi chases after Senegal's Sadio Mane during the Africa Cup of Nations final in Cameroon in February 2022.
SOCCER
Jan 7, 2024

Stars of African soccer descend on Ivory Coast for Cup of Nations

Sadio Mane's Senegal team is aiming to retain their title and Mohamed Salah is chasing a first trophy with Egypt at this year's Africa Cup of Nations.
U.S. Steel’s agreement to sell itself to the Japanese steel-maker has turned into a political football, with key politicians and opponents of the deal seizing on the union’s claims that U.S. Steel didn’t comply with the labor agreement.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2024

U.S. Steel denies breach of labor agreements in Nippon deal

The Pittsburgh-based manufacturer said it repeatedly reached out to the United Steelworkers during the company’s strategic review before the sale.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears during a campaign event in Durham, New Hampshire on Dec. 16.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

How Trump has used fear and favor to win Republican endorsements

The former president keeps careful watch over his endorsements from elected Republicans, aided by a disciplined and methodical behind-the-scenes operation.
Ukrainian officials inspect a Russian cruise missile shot down near Kyiv in January 2023.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2024

U.S. preeminence is threatened by a real 'missile gap'

The U.S. isn’t just being tested politically. Its military dominance also is in question, partly due to overextension.
New study questions the trend of scientific breakthroughs and examines the changing landscape of innovation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2024

Have scientific breakthroughs declined?

From curing disease to reducing global warming, there’s no shortage of hard scientific problems crying out for solutions.
Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster as seen from the Millennium Wheel in London
WORLD / Politics
Jan 8, 2024

China's top spy agency says it has exposed a British espionage case

The case highlights the ongoing heated exchanges the countries have traded over accusations of perceived spying.
An Israeli soldier looks on as smoke rises from Gaza on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2024

South Korea confirms Hamas used North Korean weapons in Gaza war

Seoul's spy agency has released a photo of a North Korean rocket part to show that Hamas fighters were using an F-7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher made by Pyongyang.
A spokesman for the Israeli military said that Hamas militants used a cluster of weapons factories and tunnels in the Gaza Strip to manufacture rockets.
WORLD
Jan 9, 2024

Israeli army shows underground 'weapons factory' in Gaza

Sites resembling cement factories and other industrial facilities in the territory's central region were in fact used by Hamas to make missiles and shells.
(From left) The Democratic Progressive Party's Lai Ching-te, who is also Taiwan's vice president, faces off against the main opposition Kuomintang's Hou Yu-ih and the Taiwan People's Party's Ko Wen-je on Saturday's presidential election.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 9, 2024

Close race emerges as Taiwan election enters final stretch

Expectations that front-runner Lai Ching-te would simply stroll to victory on Saturday have been dashed, with his polling lead having narrowed significantly.
Sony plans to file the termination notice before a Jan. 20 extended deadline for closing the deal with Zee.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 9, 2024

Sony plans to call off $10 billion merger with India’s Zee

The plan to cancel the deal is due to a standoff over whether Zee CEO Punit Goenka would lead the merged entity amid a regulatory probe.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 10, 2024

Japanese lefty Shota Imanaga signing with Cubs

Imanaga, 30, was among the most sought-after international free agents after Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is being treated for prostate cancer, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jan 10, 2024

Biden unaware of Pentagon chief's prostate cancer until Jan. 9

Lloyd Austin, who is 70, has been hospitalized since Jan. 1 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Friday's mid-air panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight left a gaping hole on the 737 Max 9 plane.
WORLD
Jan 10, 2024

Boeing CEO admits mistakes, says mid-air blowout 'can never happen again'

Dave Calhoun tells employees that the probe on loose parts and broader checks of systems and processes will be done with 'complete transparency every step of the way."
NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba speaks at an event during which the crew of the Artemis II space mission to the moon is announced in Houston last April.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 10, 2024

Bad day in space: Moon mission fails and NASA program delayed

The twin developments represent blows to U.S. ambitions to stimulate a commercial space economy.
Newly appointed French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal speaks with Mayor of Clairmarais Damien Morel during a visit to Clairmarais, in northern France, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 10, 2024

Gabriel Attal becomes France's youngest PM as Macron seeks reset

The appointment of Attal, 34, a popular and media-savvy rising star of French politics, signals a desire by Macron to move beyond divisive reforms.
A China Railway employee works at the construction site for the Xiongan station of a new railway connecting Beijing to the area in Hebei province, China, in March 2019. In his annual new year speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping trumpeted the city’s progress saying it was "growing fast” and helping to revitalize northeastern China.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jan 10, 2024

Xi Jinping’s empty dream city shows limits of his power, even in China

The meticulously planned metropolis' slow start underscores the flaws in the Chinese president's plan to tempt people from the capital.
Tourists fill Kiyomizuzaka street near Kiyomizu Temple in the city of Kyoto in November.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2024

Kyoto becoming more proactive in tackling overtourism

Threatening social and cultural conflicts, issues arising from overtourism include public transportation congestion.
Wakatakakage competes at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament in November. In sumo, early-arriving fans get to see some of the drama unfold in the lower tiers of the sport.
SUMO / Inside Sumo
Jan 10, 2024

For sumo fans, the drama doesn’t end with the top tier of wrestlers

Starting Sunday in Tokyo, myriad storylines are set to play out in sumo's lower ranks.
The New York Times website lists the city of Yamaguchi among its "52 places to go in 2024."
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2024

Yamaguchi among New York Times '52 Places to Go' list for 2024

Noting its moniker as 'the Kyoto of the West,' NYT praised Yamaguchi's traditional charms and smaller crowds
A Ukrainian sapper from the 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade prepares an anti-tank mine during a military training exercise in Ukraine's Donetsk region on Nov. 28, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sappers are often the first to get to the front line, clearing territory before assault troops, but work also to allow civilians to return to their homes.
WORLD
Jan 10, 2024

'Definitely a trap': Ukraine's sappers face new dangers

Getting rid of the mines is essential to Ukraine's war effort, as they clear the way for offensive operations and allow civilians to return to their homes.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years