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An AR-15 on display at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston, Texas, in May 2022
WORLD / Society
Jul 16, 2024

The AR-15: One of America's most popular and deadliest guns

The rifle has been a common denominator in some of the country's worst mass shootings.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance applaud on the second day of the Republican National Convention, at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

Trump's running mate J.D. Vance set to take spotlight in convention speech

The Republican campaign was dramatically altered four days ago when Trump narrowly survived an attempt on his life at a political rally in Pennsylvania.
U.S. President Joe Biden disembarks Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

Biden called ‘more receptive’ to hearing pleas to step aside

Biden has not given any indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race, but has been willing to listen to rundowns of new and worrying polling data.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the Cook Islands' Prime Minister Mark Brown shake hands during 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting on Thursday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 18, 2024

With eye on China, Japan deepens ties with Pacific islands at Tokyo summit

Collaborations have been agreed in seven fields, including technology and connectivity, climate change, people-centered development and security.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, gestures during the last day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 19, 2024

Republicans confident of Trump win regardless of Democratic ticket

U.S. President Joe Biden can choose to stay or go — to Republicans, it really doesn't matter who the Democratic candidate is.
The West in developing its response to the new Russia-North Korea alliance should leverage the strategic incongruence between China and its junior allies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2024

What to make of Russia and North Korea's new relationship

Russia and North Korea's military alliance has unnerved China as much as it has the U.S. and its Asian allies owing to its potential to destabilize the region.
U.S. President Joe Biden takes part in a conversation with former U.S. President Barack Obama and late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel during a star-studded campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 15.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 20, 2024

Biden fundraisers on hold as July donations plummet, sources say

The move comes even as the Democratic Party planned to accelerate his nomination and he vowed to continue in the 2024 race.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Iran is capable of producing fissile material for use in a nuclear weapon within "one or two weeks."
WORLD / Politics
Jul 20, 2024

Iran capable of producing fissile material in 'one or two weeks,' Blinken says

News of Iran's capabilities follows the recent election of President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has said his goal is to "get Iran out of its isolation."
Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, participates in a panel discussion at the 2023 Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, in March 2023.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2024

U.S. prepares jamming devices targeting Russian and Chinese satellites

The Pentagon’s space service branch tested the system for the first time earlier this year at two locations, with control of the system at a third.
Self-Defense Forces soldiers walk past a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile unit in Tokyo in October 2017.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2024

U.S.-Japan Patriot missile production plan hits Boeing component snag

The plan to boost production by the U.S. ally is being delayed by a shortage of a critical component manufactured by Boeing.
As childish as Ryokan may have been, human suffering wrung his heart. A portrait of the monk and calligraphy by him are shown here. (Ink on paper; early 19th century; replica before 1970)
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jul 21, 2024

Ryokan and us: 'How wide! How boundless!'

The Edo Period monk could see the world through a child's eyes, maybe even those of a child from our modern era.
Data has shown that Western pension funds may inadvertently be helping Russian President Vladimir Putin as Moscow looks to ramp up liquefied natural gas exports to replenish Kremlin coffers and fund its war in Ukraine.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 21, 2024

How U.S. pension funds help Putin’s gas gambit

The case spotlights the opacity of the global finance and how hard it remains to sever Moscow from a key revenue source even two years after the Ukraine invasion.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, gives his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2024

Emerging narratives: Trump is 'a lion’ or he’s 'a lyin’

Is Donald Trump a "man of destiny," as some conservatives are now claiming or a "con man of destiny"? ("Napoleon in a golf cart,” The Free Press called him.)
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House in Washington on July 4.
WORLD
Jul 22, 2024

Biden drops out of presidential race, endorsing Kamala Harris

The stunning announcement — just 3½ months before the Nov. 5 election — came as concerns mounted that Biden could not defeat Republican rival Donald Trump.
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he visits Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv on Oct. 18, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 22, 2024

A confident Netanyahu takes his message to a weakened Biden

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House is seen by many as a sign of U.S. President Joe Biden’s declining ability to impose his will on the world.
Foreign exchange rates are shown in a shop window in Tehran. Iran's newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, faces the tough challenge of reviving Iran's beleaguered, sanctions-hit economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2024

Iran’s economy needs a new deal with the West, badly

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran's new president, inherits high inflation and deteriorating public services. His only way out is cutting a deal with the West to lift sanctions.
U.S. President Joe Biden will get the first test of how much sway he still retains when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington for a previously planned visit this week.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 23, 2024

Biden looks to project strength abroad despite lame-duck status

Having no electoral pressure may give U.S. President Joe Biden the ability to act more boldly in foreign affairs.
Entrepreneurs who participated in the Beyond Japan Zero to X program last year share their experiences in the United States during a meeting in May in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 23, 2024

Japanese startups advised to internationalize to get some global mojo

Occupying the No. 1 spot in the Japanese market affords many comforts, but global dominance is unlikely to be one of them.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 23.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024

Democrats in overdrive to burnish Harris foreign policy record

The moves seek to boost Harris’s image before she gets her biggest diplomatic test yet, when she’s set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The World Anti-Doping Agency has been under fire from U.S. officials over the handling of a case involving Chinese swimmers in the months before the Tokyo Games.
OLYMPICS
Jul 25, 2024

WADA to put U.S. anti-doping agency under compliance review

WADA is taking the step as a result of a dispute with the USADA over its handling of a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers.
Nissan's operating profit for the April-June period totaled ¥995 million, compared with ¥128.6 billion in the same period a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 25, 2024

Nissan shares hammered as Q1 profit wiped out by U.S. discounts

The automaker has cut its operating profit forecast for the financial year by 17% to ¥500 billion from ¥600 billion.
Ismael "El Mayo"  Zambada (left), cofounder of the Sinaloa Cartel and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of the cartel's other co-founder, were arrested in Texas this week in a dramatic achievement for U.S. law enforcement that could usher in a seismic shift to Mexico's criminal landscape.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 27, 2024

Captured alleged Mexican drug kingpin pleads not guilty to U.S. charges

The arrests were seen as a dramatic achievement for U.S. law enforcement that could usher in a seismic shift to Mexico's criminal landscape.
American Simone Biles competes in the floor exercise during gymnastics qualifiers on Sunday at the Paris Olympics.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Jul 29, 2024

Biles dazzles in Paris Olympics debut despite injury scare

The American, aiming to add to the four gold medals she won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, tweaked her left calf during warm-ups but still managed to shine.
Mourners carry coffins, during the funeral of children who were killed at a soccer pitch by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on Monday.
WORLD
Jul 30, 2024

Don't bomb Beirut: U.S. leads push to rein in Israel's response

Washington is racing to avert a full-blown war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
A view of new Bering Sea ice just formed off of Nome, Alaska, in 2018
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2024

China and Russia challenge legality of new U.S. claims to seabed floor

The U.S. has filed claims to extend its continental shelf by about 1 million square kilometers in the Bering Sea, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
A firefighter monitors a controlled burn set along Highway 32 near Chico, California, on Tuesday. A controlled burn helps reduce fuel for the Park Fire.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 31, 2024

Raging California wildfire grows bigger than city of Los Angeles

Hot and extremely dry weather is expected to prevail in the U.S. areas around the wildfire, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend a ceremony to decorate India's leader with the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 9.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 31, 2024

India emerges as player in bid to mediate end to Ukraine war

India has become more vocal in its calls for a negotiated solution, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly considering a visit to Kyiv in August.
Fuka Nagano (left) and Hinata Miyazawa after Japan was eliminated from the Olympic soccer tournament by the U.S. on Saturday in Paris.
OLYMPICS
Aug 4, 2024

For Nadeshiko Japan, the quarterfinals prove to be a stumbling block — again

The team fell 1-0 to the U.S. after also losing in the last eight at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and at the Women’s World Cup in 2023.
Noah Lyles celebrates after winning gold in the men's 100-meter final at the Paris Olympics on Sunday.
OLYMPICS / Athletics
Aug 5, 2024

Showman Noah Lyles wins 100-meter gold by five thousandths of a second

Lyles had believed he had left it too late to catch the powerful Kishane Thompson, but he was soon confirmed as the winner in a personal best of 9.79 seconds.
The United States' 64-year unbeaten run in the men's 4x100-meter medley ended on Sunday as China swept to a seismic win.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Aug 5, 2024

U.S. swimming on top again, but alarm bells sounding with LA looming

From Michael Phelps to Johnny Weissmuller, the U.S. has rolled out Olympic champions like a gold medal assembly line. But that production slowed at the Paris Games.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji