WASHINGTON — Arnong Mungoei has farmed rice in Thailand’s Khon Kaen province for half a century.   Working land some 500 kilometers northeast of Bangkok never made her rich, but it provided a dependable livelihood.   But since February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, global geopolitical tensions and weather conditions elsewhere have upended the rice markets and by 2023, worldwide rice prices had exploded.   Yet Arnong said she made less than she has in years.  “The mills [that buy rice] don’t increase the price. What can I do? I bring rice there to sell. Whatever they offer us, …

Tokyo, Japan — Japan’s SLIM space probe entered the moon’s orbit Monday in a major step toward the country’s first successful lunar landing, expected next month. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is nicknamed the “Moon Sniper” because it is designed to land within 100 meters (328 feet) of a specific target on the lunar surface. If successful, the touchdown would make Japan only the fifth country to have successfully landed a probe on the moon, after the United States, Russia, China and India.   On Monday, SLIM “successfully entered …