Russia to the rescue? Washington and Moscow spar over aid deliveries
An odd new front in the U.S.-Russian rivalry has emerged as a Russian military cargo plane bearing a load of urgently needed medical supplies landed this week at New York’s JFK airport. Russia cast it as a magnanimous aid contribution to a struggling country in ...
Japan-Russia visa-free program to be put off amid coronavirus scare
The start of this year's visa-free exchange program between Japan and Russia is set to be postponed amid the coronavirus crisis, Japanese government sources said Thursday. The Russian side is concerned that the new coronavirus could be brought to Russian-held northwestern Pacific islands covered by ...
Trump’s push for huge deal to cut oil supply draws disbelief
With just one tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump conjured up the prospect of a global oil alliance to rescue the industry from the worst shock in history. The question is whether it evaporates just as quickly. After the president’s social-media intervention on Thursday, oil traders ...
Abe considers calling off Russia visit in May due to coronavirus
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering giving up a plan to visit Russia to attend a ceremony on May 9 to mark the 75th anniversary of the former Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Jiji Press learned Wednesday. Abe may skip ...
U.S. spies unclear on COVID-19 spread in China, North Korea and Russia
As U.S. spy agencies seek to assemble a precise picture of the world's coronavirus outbreaks, they are finding serious gaps in their ability to assess the situation in China, Russia and North Korea, according to five U.S. government sources familiar with the intelligence reporting. The ...
Russia's capital on Monday became the latest world city to impose a coronavirus lockdown as declared cases globally topped 700,000 and the planet braced for a drawn-out battle against the disease. Worried governments are imposing fresh confinement measures in the face of a spiraling COVID-19 ...
Fossil fuel-rich Russia has for the first time set out a greener economic path for the coming three decades, in a long-term, low-carbon development plan released this week. It pledges to cut planet-warming emissions by a third by 2030 from 1990 levels, when the heavily ...
Most remains found in Siberia unlikely from Japanese WWII detainees
A team of third-party experts has confirmed through a re-examination that about 70 percent of remains brought from Siberia to Japan are highly unlikely to be those of Japanese detainees, the welfare ministry said Wednesday. Last year, suspicions arose over the remains of 597 people ...
U.S. authorities put out tsunami warnings on Wednesday after an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck off Russia's Kuril Islands, but Japan's Meteorological Agency issued no alerts, although they said there might be slight tidal changes. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said a tsunami ...
How a Russian plan to restore Gadhafi's regime in Libya backfired
One day in April last year, as war raged around Tripoli, two Russian operatives set out from the Libyan capital to meet the man they hoped to install as leader. Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son and heir apparent of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi, had been ...
Pentagon successfully tests nuclear-capable hypersonic missile
The United States announced Friday it had successfully tested an unarmed prototype of a hypersonic missile, a nuclear-capable weapon that could accelerate the arms race among three superpowers. The Pentagon said a test glide vehicle flew at hypersonic speeds — more than five times the ...
Moscow starts building road over radioactive dump despite protests
Moscow authorities on Wednesday began work on building a highway over a Soviet-era dump of radioactive materials, despite months of public protests and warnings from environmental campaigners. Greenpeace and other activists have long campaigned against the project to build an eight-lane highway over the top ...
