PYONGYANG, North Korea — Dancers in hot pants. Factories pumping out Air Jordan lookalikes. TV dramas that are actually fun to watch. North Korean pop culture, long dismissed by critics as a kitschy throwback to the dark days of Stalinism, is getting a major upgrade under leader Kim […]
BANGKOK — The Thai political party that took the unprecedented and ultimately unsuccessful step of nominating a member of the royal family as its candidate for prime minister was fighting for its political life Wednesday, while the princess herself appeared to criticize the fallout. The country’s Election Commission […]
MADRID — Spain’s prime minister could be forced to call an early general election if Catalan separatists reject, as expected, the minority socialist government’s 2019 budget in a crucial parliamentary vote. Barring a last minute deal that touches on the sensitive issue of Catalan self-determination, the separatist lawmakers […]
BEIJING — U.S. and Chinese negotiators are meeting this week for their final trade talks before President Donald Trump decides whether to escalate a dispute over technology with a March 2 tariff hike on $200 billion of imports from China. The two days of talks starting Thursday allow […]
MARACAY, Venezuela — It was show time for the most-watched program on Venezuela’s normally sleep-inducing state TV: Episode No. 240 of “Hitting it With a Sledgehammer,” the talk show hosted by one of the ruling socialist party’s most-revered — and reviled — leaders. A military salsa band playing […]
MEXICO CITY : — Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel marches on despite the arrest, extradition and now conviction in New York of its notorious leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and the proof of this lies is in huge, multi-drug shipments detected on the border in recent weeks. Those heaping bags of […]
NEW YORK : — In the world of corrections, there are inmates who pose security risks, and then there’s “El Chapo.” Drug lord Joaquin Guzman has an unparalleled record of jailbreaks, having escaped two high-security Mexican prisons before his ultimate capture and extradition to the United States. So […]
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Video game maker Activision Blizzard is laying off nearly 800 workers as the company braces for a steep downturn in revenue following the best year in its history. The cutbacks announced Tuesday illustrate the boom-and-bust cycles in an industry whose fortunes are tied to […]
WASHINGTON — With their $26.5 billion merger hanging in the balance, top executives of T-Mobile and Sprint are taking their case to Congress, arguing that joining their companies won’t hurt competition or jack up consumer prices for wireless service. But they’re likely to face a skeptical audience at […]
BEIJING — U.S. and Chinese negotiators are meeting this week for their final trade talks before President Donald Trump decides whether to escalate a dispute over technology with a March 2 tariff hike on $200 billion of imports from China. The two days of talks starting Thursday allow […]
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