Author: Reporter

This tiny island on Japan’s western frontier has no chain convenience stores. Nature lovers can dive with hammerhead sharks and watch miniature horses graze on a hill. But the wooded mountain ranges now carry radar sites. A southern cattle ranch has been replaced with the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force’s Camp Yonaguni. Japan and its ally, the United States, hold joint military exercises here. Plans are underway to add a new missile unit and expand a small airport and port. All of the buildup has cemented the island as a front line in a potential clash over Taiwan, the self-governing...

Crews have begun work to remove the large yellow “Black Lives Matter” painted on the street one block from the White House. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the change in March in response to partisan pressure from MAGA extremists and right-wing Republicans in Congress. The work is expected to take about six weeks and the words will be replaced by an unspecified set of city-sponsored murals. The painting of those words was an act of government-sponsored defiance during President Donald Trump’s first term. The removal amounts to a public acknowledgment of just how vulnerable the District of Columbia is...

As movie theaters worked to entice Americans back into seats after COVID-19 lockdowns and labor strikes, the industry marketed blockbuster films like “Wicked” and the dueling releases of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” as no less than cultural events. But when certain movies become “events” unto themselves, sometimes different behavior accompanies them. During the theatrical run of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” last fall, fans danced and belted lyrics in the theaters, sharing their glee on social media. Last year, fans at early screenings of “Wicked” did the same, to the chagrin of other moviegoers. One video of a woman dressed...

Russell Hedrick, a North Carolina farmer, flies drones to spray fertilizers on his corn, soybean, and wheat fields at a fraction of what it would cost him to use a conventional ground spreader. As a volunteer rescuer, Hedrick uses thermal drones to search for people trapped by mudslides and cargo drones to send water and baby formula to those who are stranded — something he did after Hurricane Helene. Now he is fretting that one day he will have to ground his drone fleet. Most commercial drones sold in the United States, including those used by Hedrick, are made...