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Would the US intervene to defend Taiwan? Ask Japan.

Even if Japan says yes and lets the US use its bases, it is no guarantee of an unchanged world. Some of that may depend on exactly what type of affirmative answer Japan gives. It could just grant access to the bases and attempt to remain out of the battle — though that may be as much China’s decision as Japan’s. In addition to granting that access, Japan could choose to provide logistical or operational support to the US from the start. That’s an outcome that some wargames, including one publish...

Poland’s democracy is on the brink. Can these elections save it?

WARSAW, Poland — “We have been talking that these are the most important elections since 1989, which was the first partly free elections since the fall of communism,” Jakub Kocjan, a rule of law campaigner for Akcja Demokracja, a Polish pro-democracy organization, told me from his apartment in Warsaw, less than a week before parliamentary elections that may determine the democratic future of Poland.

Diving for Dollars

He stands alone at the edge of the Old Bridge, at its center, where the stone arches up like the spine of cat. He is one smooth, straight, skinny line. Then he raises his arms. It is the wingspan of a man whose job isn’t to fly, but to fall.He jumps. It looks more like a pull forward, as if tugged off his perch by an invisible hand. His birdlike shadow slips past the arch of the bridge. Gravity takes over and he hurtles down. About halfway into his descent — a second, if that — he comes back to...

CHICAGO SHUTDOWNS: WHAT'S LOST - Latino USA

Despite strong protests, the city of Chicago announced it would close 50 neighborhood public schools at the end of this school year. Students from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University reported on several of the schools listed for closure. One was home to an innovative program for children with special needs, the other ran health care and food programs for the neighborhood at large. Bryan Lowry, Jennifer Kirby report. Carrie Eidson contributed to this report.

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