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The U.S. State Department's 2024 Human Rights Report was delayed for months as appointees of President Donald Trump altered an earlier draft dramatically to bring it in line with "America First" values, according to government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2025
U.S. State Department softens criticism of some countries in human rights report
The 2024 Human Rights Report's section on Israel was much shorter than last year's edition and made no mention of the severe humanitarian crisis or death toll in the Gaza Strip.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (center left) talks to U.S. President Donald Trump and Sen. Tim Scott as they tour the Federal Reserve’s renovation project in Washington on July 24.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2025
Trump may allow lawsuit against Powell over Fed renovation amid rate tension
The renovation work has become a flash point in Trump’s pressure campaign against Powell and the central bank for not lowering borrowing costs.
Myanmar's national flag flutters at half-mast outside the City Hall in Yangon on July 19.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 13, 2025
Myanmar region sees 'dramatic' hunger rise after aid cutbacks
The situation was exacerbated in April when the World Food Program was forced to cut aid to 1 million people nationwide.
 A woman walks past a heavily damaged residential building following a Russian strike in the town of Bilozerske, Donetsk region on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2025
Ukraine, sidelined in Trump-Putin summit, fights Russian grab for more territory
Zelenskyy and most of his European counterparts have said a lasting peace cannot be secured without Ukraine at the negotiating table.
A cargo ship in the Panama Canal in July 2024. Waterway authorities are seeking to expand operations with shipping terminals on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2025
Panama Canal to enter ports business as Trump-China feud simmers
The new shipping terminals are part of an $8.5 billion spending plan and would compete with Colombia's Cartagena port.
Former International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld has expressed concern that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has taken policy measures, including high tariffs and tax laws, that expand the federal debt and unpredictability, thereby undermining confidence in the dollar.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 12, 2025
Former IMF economist advises Japan to strengthen non-U.S. ties
Maurice Obstfeld expressed concern that policies, including high tariffs and tax laws, that expand the federal debt and unpredictability, may undermine confidence in the dollar.
Flags from the Pacific Islands countries wave on the breeze in Yaren, Nauru, on the last day of the 2018 Pacific Islands Forum.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 12, 2025
China, U.S. pledge funds for Pacific Islands ahead of meet they are barred from
The Solomon Islands, which hosts an annual leaders meeting for the region blocked 21 donor countries from attending after pressure from Beijing to exclude Taiwan.
Stocks in Tokyo rallied on Tuesday despite months of uncertainty and general economic concerns.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 12, 2025
Japan's Nikkei 225 hits record high on tariff and rate optimism
Shares rise after some good news on the trade front and a long weekend.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is trying to build solidarity across the BRICS club of major emerging nations, of which Brazil is a founding member along with Russia, China and India.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 12, 2025
Lula speaks with Xi after Modi and Putin amid standoff with Trump
Brazil's president is trying to build solidarity across the BRICS club of major emerging nations, of which Brazil is a founding member along with Russia, China and India.
Advertisements for factory rentals at Datang village in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 12, 2025
China factories cut shifts and workers' pay as U.S. tariffs bite
The increasingly common practice has become a hidden deflationary force in the world's second-largest economy.
Ralph Edwards (far left), Capt. Robert Lewis (rear left), Bertha Starkey (rear center), Marvin Green (rear right), Kiyoshi (seated, left) and Chisa Tanimoto (seated, right), Koko Kondo (front left) and her three younger siblings, on the show “This Is Your Life,” on May 11, 1955
JAPAN / History / FOCUS
Aug 12, 2025
How an A-bomb survivor found forgiveness for Hiroshima bombers
Koko Kondo’s anger was extinguished when she saw the co-pilot of the Enola Gay bomber recall with regret what he and his crew had done on Aug. 6, 1945.
Ambulances are seen outside U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works following explosions at the plant in Clairton, Pennsylvania, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 12, 2025
Two dead, 10 hospitalized after Pennsylvania steel plant explosions
The incident at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works happened at around 11 a.m. on Monday.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade delegation, comprising Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, meets with Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Li Chenggang and Vice Premier He Lifeng in Geneva on May 10 to discuss tariffs and trade issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2025
Trump’s transactional approach shapes U.S.-China rivalry
There are intense debates about how the U.S. can prevail in that struggle but there are no signs that a single strategy guides the administration.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (right) speaks alongside U.S. President Donald Trump about investing in America, at the White House in Washington on April 30.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 12, 2025
Trump opens door to sales of version of Nvidia's next-gen AI chips in China
The chip will be a less-powerful version of the Blackwell.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press about deploying federal law enforcement agents in Washington to bolster the local police presence, as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 12, 2025
Trump takes over D.C. police and deploys national guard in Washington
The move bypassed the city's elected leaders and was emblematic of a second-term that has seen him wield executive authority in ways with little precedent in modern U.S. history.
A sapper in the Ukrainian Armed Forces blows up an explosive device during a training session in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Saturday
WORLD / Politics
Aug 12, 2025
Europe races to try to influence U.S. position ahead of Trump-Putin talks
Kyiv and its EU allies fear that Trump, keen to claim credit for peace and lucrative deals with Moscow, could cut a one-sided deal with Putin.
A terrace of a shopping mall overlooking the central business district of Beijing on Monday. An extension of a trade truce between Washington and Beijing buys crucial time for the autumn surge of imports for the Christmas season, including electronics, apparel and toys, at lower tariff rates.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 12, 2025
U.S. and China extend tariff truce by 90 days, staving off surge in duties
The timing of the extension buys crucial time for the seasonal autumn surge of imports for the Christmas season at lower tariff rates.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint news conference in Helsinki in 2018. For Putin, the upcoming summit with Trump is an opportunity not just to end the Ukraine war on his terms, but to split apart the Western security alliance.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 11, 2025
In a Trump-Putin summit, Ukraine fears losing say over its future
Kyiv's worry for the past six months has been that U.S. President Donald Trump’s image of a "peace accord” is a deal struck directly between him and Russia.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's government, which took office in June, has sought to show as much flexibility as possible when it comes to the U.S.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 11, 2025
South Korea’s winning strategy for Trump faces moment of truth
So far, South Korea has largely flown under the diplomatic radar, working mostly behind the scenes with the U.S. without some of the grand gestures seen from other leaders.
Dalton Henry Stout, a member of the white nationalist group Aryan Freedom Network, conceals his identity during a portrait session in southern Oklahoma on May 5.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 11, 2025
American Nazis: The Aryan Freedom Network is riding high in Trump era
American neo-Nazis point to Trump’s rhetoric as driving a surge in interest and recruitment.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’