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U.S. coach Emma Hayes celebrates with American players after the U.S. defeated Brazil in the gold-medal match of the Olympic women's soccer competition on Saturday in Paris.
OLYMPICS / Soccer
Aug 11, 2024

Emma Hayes 'repays' U.S. by bringing back joy — and Olympic soccer gold

It is a fifth gold for the U.S. but one that many had doubted they were capable of winning after their early exit from last year's women's World Cup.
France President Emmanuel Macron and International Olympic Committee         President Thomas Bach before the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics on Sunday.
OLYMPICS
Aug 13, 2024

Paris Olympics average 30.6 million U.S. viewers, a 82% bump from Tokyo

The BBC said the Games were streamed 218 million times on its platforms, more than doubling Tokyo's figures.
U.S. President Joe Biden enters the stage after an introduction by his daughter, Ashley Biden, on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2024

Joe Biden begins a long and necessary goodbye

It took grace, maturity and generosity for Biden to bow out. A measure of resentment has also accompanied his exit.
Novak Djokovic celebrates on the podium after winning the gold medal in men's tennis at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 4.
TENNIS
Aug 22, 2024

Novak Djokovic can distance himself from rivals at U.S. Open

Djokovic has nothing left to prove and can put more daylight between himself and his two historic rivals by winning another Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open.
Coco Gauff of the United States hits to Varvara Gracheva of France on Day 1 of the 2024 U.S. Open in New York on Monday.
TENNIS
Aug 27, 2024

Defending champions Djokovic and Gauff off to blazing starts at U.S. Open

Gauff cruised past France's Varvara Gracheva 6-2 6-0.
Naomi Osaka hits a return against Karolina Muchova during the second round of the U.S. Open in New York on Thursday.
TENNIS
Aug 30, 2024

Naomi Osaka reflects after losing to Karolina Muchova in second round of U.S. Open

Osaka, who won the title in 2018 and 2020, missed last year's edition after the birth of her daughter.
With so many voters suffering financially and showing an eagerness to throw politicians out of office, delivering higher living standards appears to be a necessary condition for restoring political stability to the world’s democracies.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2024

Political and economic chaos through 'the looking glass'

America is not alone in experiencing an unanticipated upheaval. Five years ago, it seemed inconceivable that a major ground war would occur on the European continent.
Jessica Pegula hits a return during her U.S. Open women’s final against Aryna Sabalenka, at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens on Saturday.
TENNIS
Sep 8, 2024

Sabalenka downs Pegula to win U.S. Open thriller

The 26-year-old from Belarus clubbed 40 winners to become the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to capture both hardcourt majors in the same season.
Jannik Sinner celebrates after defeating Taylor Fritz in the U.S. Open final in New York on Sunday.
TENNIS
Sep 9, 2024

Jannik Sinner rolls past Taylor Fritz in U.S. Open final

For 23-year-old Sinner, it was his 55th match win of the season and sixth title.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris shakes hands with former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 11, 2024

Harris rattles Trump in combative U.S. presidential debate

The Democratic vice president put her Republican rival on the defensive with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes.
Hokkaido's cuisine and the culture that underpins it get top billing in Tim Anderson's newest cookbook.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 15, 2024

‘MasterChef U.K.’ winner’s new cookbook puts Hokkaido cuisine on vivid display

Tim Anderson's cookbook covers a lot, but its strength is in presenting Japan’s largest prefecture as a detailed tapestry via straightforward recipes.
Campaign spending in the U.S. has surged, with dark money and Super PACs dominating elections.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 13, 2024

Dark money is a cancer on U.S. lawmakers — but it’s curable

Nearly three-fourths of Americans voters say lobbyists and special interests wield too much influence compared to constituents.
OpenAI announced a new reasoning model on Thursday that it said was capable of surpassing human experts in a number of technical benchmarks for the first time. The new model received the company's first "medium" rating on bioweapon risk.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2024

Battle rages over U.S.' first binding AI safety bill in California

The legislation has exposed a deep divide across the tech industry and the political establishment, upending the usual coalitions.
A U.S. Marine aircraft at Futenma Air Station in Okinawa
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 21, 2024

U.S. marine in Okinawa indicted for alleged sexual assault

The suspect has denied part of the charges, claiming that he had consent, investigative sources said.
Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Sep 23, 2024

'Convergence' growing on global plastics treaty: U.N. environment chief

At negotiations in November in South Korea's Busan, countries are hoping to seal a potentially groundbreaking deal to tackle the problem of plastic pollution.
Eric Adams, mayor of New York, exits a weekly news conference at City Hall in New York in 2023.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 27, 2024

NYC mayor was corrupt for years, U.S. claims in scathing case

The indictment calls into question the political future of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is in charge of running the biggest U.S. city.
Supporters of Donald Trump display a Trump flag at The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, where Polish President Andrzej Duda attended mass and spoke at the monument dedication in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 22.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 30, 2024

Harris courts Polish-American voters in crucial U.S. states

In an election likely to be decided by a razor-thin margin in a handful of key states, Kamala Harris is seeking to appeal to the Polish-American community.
The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington on June 1
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 3, 2024

Guns and transgender rights cases loom as U.S. Supreme Court returns

The justices return from their summer recess under intense scrutiny by many politicians and the public.
Efforts to protect neurological data have proliferated in recent years, as electronic devices available directly to consumers become capable of capturing medical-grade brain data similar to what neurologists would use to diagnose patients.
WORLD
Oct 11, 2024

A new frontier of data privacy in the U.S. — your brain

California's new law defines neurological data as "sensitive personal information," a class of data that includes DNA, precise geolocation and other protected data.
Disinformation researchers analyzed over 300 groups on Facebook that masquerade as pro-Harris pages while misleading the Democratic contender's supporters with abusive, hateful posts or capitalize on her popularity to promote merchandise.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 1, 2024

Deceptive 'bait-and-switch' Facebook groups snare U.S. voters

The tactic seems to target actors across the political spectrum, including Trump, but researchers have noticed an "explosion" of groups focused on Harris.
Chinese police have cracked down on an internet craze that saw thousands of cyclists throng a highway under cover of night to gorge on dumplings in a nearby city.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 12, 2024

China makes a U-turn on night biking, opting to crack down on it

Thousands of cyclists flooded a six-lane highway in China for the chance to "go crazy once.”
U.S. pitcher Spencer Patton throws during the sixth inning of Team USA's loss to Samurai Japan on Thursday at Tokyo Dome.
BASEBALL
Nov 22, 2024

U.S. pitcher Spencer Patton gets warm reception as he returns to Japan for Premier12

Patton pitched pitched for the Yokohama BayStars from 2017 to 2020, making 219 appearances for the club overall. Now he's back in Japan and competing for Team USA.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump approaches to embrace Donald Trump Jr. at his campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 25, 2024

Trump's son helping him pick most controversial Cabinet of modern times

Donald Trump Jr. is helping contenders sink or rise to the fore, according to a half dozen sources with knowledge of his role.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. greet each other at a campaign event in Duluth, Georgia, in October. Kennedy, Trump’s choice for health and human services secretary, wants to purge the agency of corporate influence.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 4, 2024

Trump taps team geared toward retribution and remaking of U.S. government

Trump's pick of Kash Patel to lead the FBI brought into sharper focus the president-elect's seriousness about striking back at those he believes have wronged him.
U.S. think tanks from across the political spectrum have compiled a report to address the nation's social and fiscal issues in an effort to show that compromise is still possible.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 5, 2024

U.S. think tanks' policy 'grand bargain' comes amid deep partisanship

The authors of the outline have no illusions about how their plan will be greeted by the incoming administration of Donald Trump, though.
A visitor holds a ¥1,000 banknote to offer a prayer on the first business day of the year at the Kanda Myojin shrine in Tokyo on Monday. The yen has declined against the dollar for four straight years amid a wide gap between interest rates in Japan and the United States.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 10, 2025

Yen intervention risk creeps higher as U.S. jobs report approaches

The yen is within reach of ¥160 per dollar, a breach of which would increase concern about the weak currency’s impact on business and consumers.
Houses destroyed in the Palisades Fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on Thursday
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2025

California fires expose a $1 trillion hole in U.S. home insurance

Santa Ana winds and wildfires are natural to California, but climate change and human development have made them far more destructive.
A beachfront property destroyed by the Palisades Fire is seen in Malibu, California on Sunday.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Jan 13, 2025

Olympic chiefs vow to replace U.S. swim star medals lost in LA fires

Hall said he fled taking only his dog, the insulin he uses to treat his diabetes, a painting of his grandfather and a religious artifact.
The Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak, Maryland
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 24, 2025

Trump alarms scientists by muzzling U.S. health agencies

The move could delay essential information and slow funding for potentially life-saving initiatives.
Mayor Masanori Yamamoto of Kibichuo, Okayama Prefecture, announces the results of PFAS blood concentration tests on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2025

PFAS blood test results in Okayama Prefecture town exceed U.S. standards

The Kibichuo town government announced the results of its first blood tests after PFAS were detected at a water purification plant in the town.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami