TOKYO — In this land of wonders, a bastion of liberal democracy in a continent dominated by imperial powers, contradictions abound. The Japanese sit silently in metro cars and stroll noiselessly to work on bustling streets, but cheer raucously at baseball games. Bullet trains whisk by at 200 miles per hour, and impossibly sophisticated toilets […]

Once upon a time, sequels were avoided, dreaded, or looked upon with skepticism for the fear that they might spoil a great movie. There was reason to doubt the wisdom of making sequels to iconic stand-alone films such as, say, Dirty Harry (1971) or The Godfather (1972) — although, in the case of those two franchises, most of the […]

The White House has warned about the rise of fentanyl offshoots up to 100 times more potent than the lethal drug, and it has already claimed the lives of thousands of Americans. The Office of National Drug Control Policy released a drug threat notice on Tuesday alerting the public to fentanyl alterations, known as analogues, […]

European countries are growing concerned that Russia may decide to strike beyond the borders of Ukraine, leading governments across the continent to warn that any attempt by Moscow to destabilize the region will backfire. Earlier this week, Denmark accused a Russian warship of firing two emergency flares at a Danish military helicopter over the Baltic […]