During U.S. President Donald Trump’s four-day visit to Japan, he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasized increase military cooperation between the two nations in the face of a rising China.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On May 28, 1998, comedian Phil Hartman is gunned down in his home by his wife who then turned the gun on herself. Phil Hartman was 49. Hartman was most well known for his eight years as a cast member of Saturday Night Live where he did numerous impersonations of celebrities and politicians, including President Bill Clinton. Hartman also voice several characters on the popular animated series, The Simpsons , including washed up actor Troy McClure and incompetent lawyer Lionel Hutz. The Hartmans were survived by two children.

VIDEO: San Francisco, California, recently became the first U.S. city to ban police and other city agencies from using facial recognition technology. More people are growing wary of the powerful technology, but there are also others are embracing it.

VIDEO: It’s been 150 years since the U.S. transcontinental railroad connected America’s East and West. To celebrate the anniversary, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is highlighting an event that quite literally united the nation. VOA visited the exhibition and talked to the ancestors of those who helped build it.

VIDEO: In the United States, you can summon emergency help from police, firefighters or an ambulance by dialing 911. The first such call was made in 1968 in Haleyville, Alabama. In 1999 Congress directed officials to make 911 the universal emergency number for the United States. Since then, emergency operators have answered more than 240 million calls a year. VOA spent a day with 911 dispatchers to learn about the job’s rewards and stresses.

Rumors have been swirling for days in Moscow that the Russian leader’s reputed 36-year-old girlfriend, former Olympic gold medal-winning rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, now a media executive, gave birth to twin boys earlier this month in the Russian capital.