WASHINGTON, D.C. — Stronger alliances being formed in a tumultuous world … and an election year: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden wave from the Blue Room Balcony with Japanese Prime                Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife Yuko Kishida during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Washington. Biden and Kishida are expected to hold a crucial Oval Office meeting, reinforcing commitment to bolstering vital partnerships in the Indo-Pacific as China expands its economy and military.

Alliances between the United States and the two major Eastern Asian powers have shifted over the past eight decades since World War II. Japan is now a key ally, but China has also been a trade partner with the U.S. since Nixon’s 1972 visit.

NEW YORK — Muslim holiday prayer at the end of Ramadan: Muslims hang out during an Eid al-Fitr prayer, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan at Washington Square Park on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in New York. Eid normally lasts three days and is the shorter of two festivals with that name: Eid al-Adha, which celebrates the sacrifice of Ishmael, observed on June 17.

The Brooklyn Children’s Museum will be holding an Eid celebration this Sunday.

BUCHAREST — While the adults pray, Muslim babies get to fly: A Muslim man playfully throws a baby in the air at the end of Eid al-Fitr prayers in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. Members of the Romanian Muslim community joined prayers at the Dinamo stadium in the Romanian capital for the largest Muslim public gathering of the year. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Eid is a celebratory time during which fasting is prohibited.  

SAN DIEGO — The grand slam bat flip: Chicago Cubs’ Christopher Morel flips his bat after hitting a grand slam during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in San Diego. The Cubs beat San Diego 5-1 and were scheduled to face each other in the third game of the set on Wednesday.

The Cubs have scored 71 runs in their first 11 games. That ties for the fourth most they have tallied through 11 games at the start of a season in the Modern Era.

PONTIAC — Hearing the voices of grief: James Crumbley listens to a victim impact statement during his sentencing, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Pontiac, Mich. Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of a Michigan school shooter, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison Tuesday for failing to take steps that could have prevented the killing of four students on Nov. 30, 2021, during a mass shooting that occurred at Oxford High School in the Detroit exurb of Oxford Township. Their son, Ethan Robert Crumbley, age 15, armed with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, murdered four students and injured seven people, including a teacher. Though he is now only 17, he pleaded guilty as an adult.

Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews presided at the April 9 sentencing, at which time the parents appeared together for the first time since their separate trials last fall.

PARIS — ‘I will never again buy a ticket to take that elevator’: Anouk Garnier ascends by rope under the Eiffel Tower during an attempt to beat a record for climbing up a rope, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Paris. Anouk Garnier successfully climbed up the 110 meters (361 feet) from the ground to the second story of the tower.

The French athlete is also a fitness coach and champion obstacle course runner. 

CAPE CANAVERAL — ‘It’s a bird … it’s a plane … it’s a Musk rocket … no, it’s NASA’: A United Launch Alliance Delta IV heavy rocket carrying classified spy satellite cargo for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office lifts off from Space Launch Complex 37B at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. This is the final flight of a Delta IV heavy rocket as it marks the end of the six-decade Delta era.

The reconnaissance space program will initiate the future of heavy lift on ULA’s next-generation Vulcan rocket.

KYIV — Highly charged military exercises: Members of the Siberian Battalion, formed mostly of volunteer Russian citizens of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ International Legion, practice during military exercises amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine at an undisclosed location in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. Meanwhile, NATO marked its 75 birthday last week as Russian forces are trying to wear down Ukrainian resolve.

However, civilians still suffer. Earlier on Wednesday, April 10, a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle dropped a bomb on a civilian car in Russia’s southwest Kursk Region, killing two children and an adult in that vehicle, according to a notice that Governor Roman Starovoit posted on his Telegram channel.