President Joe Biden marked the historic summit with Japan and South Korea at Camp David on Friday by saying that “our countries are stronger and the world is safer … as we stand together.” He described the meeting as the first standalone summit among leaders of the three countries. Addressing South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida , Biden said, “I want to thank you both for your political courage that brought you here.” He ad

Foreign Affairs Aug. 19, 2023

North Korea appears to have cracked open its borders in the first significant way since they were shut at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, with the impoverished nation sending a large group of taekwondo athletes and officials through Beijing to an international competition. The group of around 80 men and women wearing white track suits with the North Korean flag on the front were in the departure hall of Beijing’s international airport. They reportedly arrived Wednesday or

North Korea Aug. 18, 2023

China is renewing its criticism of this weekend’s summit among the leaders of the US, Japan and South Korea, saying no country should “seek its own security at the expense of the security interests of others and of regional peace and stability.” “The international community has its own judgment as to who is creating contradictions and increasing tensions,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters at a daily briefing Friday. “Attempts to form va

Foreign Affairs Aug. 18, 2023

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Survivors of deadly wildfires on Maui contended with intermittent power and unreliable cell service as they sought help rebuilding their lives. Teams of people, meanwhile, labored to find the dead and identify them. With the death toll already at 106 , a mobile morgue unit with additional coroners arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday to help with the grim task of sorting through remains. The governor warned that a new storm could complicate the search and recovery. A week after

World Business Aug. 16, 2023

Russia thwarted an attack by 20 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow-annexed Crimea overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday. Fourteen drones were shot down by Russian air defenses and a further six were jammed electronically, the ministry said in a Telegram post. No casualties or damage were reported. Kyiv officials neither confirmed nor denied Ukraine’s involvement in the attacks. As videos circulated on Russian social media Saturday appearing to show smoke rising above a bridg

World News Aug. 13, 2023

MILAN -- During Europe's heat wave last month, Floriana Peroni’s vintage clothing store had to close for a week. A truck of rented generators blocked her door as they fed power to the central Roman neighborhood hit by a blackout as temperatures surged. The main culprit: air conditioning. The period -- in which temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius -- coincided with peak electricity use that came close to Italy’s all-time high, hitting a peak load of more than 59 gigawatts on Jul

World News Aug. 2, 2023

North Korea hurled misogynistic insults Wednesday at a newly confirmed United States special envoy to monitor the country’s human rights issues and warned of unspecified security consequences if Washington continues to criticize its human rights conditions. The statement published by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency described Julie Turner as a “wicked woman” who was picked by the Biden administration as a “political housemaid” to launch grou

North Korea Aug. 2, 2023

Nearly two years after 10 people were crushed to death during the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival, no charges have been filed — even though some people, including event workers, expressed safety concerns. Pinpointing “who exactly caused those deaths is not an easy question to answer,” said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a criminal law professor at the University of Houston Law Center. “It’s a very difficult thing to say, unless you have some kind of clear evidence that som

Performance July 30, 2023

The European Central Bank raised interest rates for the ninth straight time in its yearlong campaign to stamp out painfully high inflation, even as worries about recession fuel speculation that Thursday’s hike could be its last. ECB President Christine Lagarde had all but promised the quarter-percentage point increase. That puts the focus at her post-meeting news conference on whether the bank will raise rates again at its September meeting or hold off after a record series of rate hikes

Economy July 27, 2023

Russia and China are sending government delegations to North Korea this week for events marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. The visits suggest North Korea is further opening up after years of pandemic isolation and is eager to showcase its partnerships with authoritarian neighbors in the face of deepening nuclear tensions with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo. North Korea’s state media said Wednesday that a Russian delegation led by Defe

North Korea July 26, 2023

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Britain on Sunday officially joined an Asia-Pacific trade group that includes Japan and 10 other nations during a meeting in New Zealand. The trade bloc covers more than 500 million people and 15% of the world’s economy. For Britain, it represents the largest trade deal it has struck since leaving the European Union more than three years ago. Britain first announced in March it had reached an agreement to join the bloc, which was created in 2018, after

World Business July 16, 2023

A dangerous heat wave threatened a wide swath of the Southwest with potentially deadly temperatures in the triple digits on Saturday as some cooling centers extended their hours and emergency rooms prepared to treat more people with heat-related illnesses. “Near record temperatures are expected this weekend!" the National Weather Service in Phoenix warned in a tweet, advising people to follow its safety tips such as drinking plenty of water and checking on relatives and neighbors. &ld

World News July 16, 2023

Pope Francis on Sunday announced he has chosen 21 new cardinals, including prelates from Jerusalem and Hong Kong — places where Catholics are a small minority — as he continues to leave his mark on the body of churchmen who will select his successor. The pope announced his picks during his customary weekly appearance to the public in St. Peter’s Square, saying the ceremony to formally install the churchmen as cardinals will be held on Sept. 30. Among those tapped are several

World News July 9, 2023

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues with no end in sight, NATO's much-celebrated unity faces fresh strains when leaders gather for their annual summit this week in Vilnius, Lithuania. The world’s biggest security alliance is struggling to reach an agreement on admitting Sweden as its 32nd member. Military spending by member nations lags behind long-standing goals. An inability to compromise over who should serve as NATO’s next leader forced an extension of the current s

World News July 9, 2023

BALTIMORE -- Gunfire erupted at a block party in Baltimore on Sunday -- killing two people, wounding 28 and leaving an extensive crime scene that marred the US holiday weekend, police said. Three of the wounded were in critical condition. Baltimore Police Department Acting Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters there were a total of 30 victims during a press conference at the scene. The shooting took place just after 12:30 a.m. at a block party in the Brooklyn Homes area in the southern part

World News July 2, 2023