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Russia's immigration issues would be familiar to Americans. Millions of impoverished migrants have come and found low-wage jobs. Some are in Russia illegally and are exploited by their employers. Many are Muslims from the former Soviet republics, and a growing number of Russians fear this influx is changing the face of the country.

At 3:30 on a recent morning, the train from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, pulls into Moscow after a four-day journey. The passengers hauling their bags out onto the damp, ill-lit platform are mostly men. Russian police eye the new arrivals with suspicion.

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It's being called a destroyer, or perhaps a helicopter carrier. But by any name, Japan's new warship, unveiled Tuesday, is the largest it has built since World War II. The ship was shown to the public on the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and at a time of escalating tensions with China.

"Though the ship—dubbed 'Izumo'— has been in the works since 2009, its unveiling comes as Japan and China are locked in a dispute over several small islands located between southern Japan and Taiwan," The Asahi Shimbun reports. "For months, ships from both countries have been conducting patrols around the isles, called the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyutai in China."

With a flat flight deck — but reportedly lacking catapults or other means of launching fixed-wing aircraft — the Izumo could be used against submarines, or to deliver large loads of supplies and people to disaster areas, officials say.

The ship measures 248 meters (814 feet) in length; in comparison, the largest U.S. aircraft carriers are between 1,000 and 1,100 feet long.

"We express our concern at Japan's constant expansion of its military equipment. This trend is worthy of high vigilance by Japan's Asian neighbours and the international community," China's defense ministry tells Agence France-Presse. "Japan should learn from history, adhere to its policy of self-defense and abide by its promise of taking the road of peaceful development."

Japan's military is collectively known as the Self-Defense Forces, a name that reflects its pacifist constitution. But in recent years, the country's leaders have shown a shift in how they view that document, which dates from the end of World War II.

Over the weekend, a Japanese official who heads an advisory panel said it will urge a reinterpretation of Japan's constitution later this year, a move that would allow the country to engage in "collective self-defense," such as attacking a nation that attacks an ally, The Japan Times reports.

Also from The Japan Times comes news of a joint poll of citizens in China and Japan which found that, "Over 90 percent of Japanese and Chinese have an unfavorable impression of each other." The number is the highest in eight years, according to the newspaper.

President Obama has canceled a one-on-one September summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House says.

It's the most dramatic effect so far on U.S.-Russian relations in the wake of Russia's decision to grant "NSA leaker" Edward Snowden temporary asylum while he tries to get safe haven in some third country.

Word of the decision not to meet with Putin was first reported by The Associated Press earlier Wednesday morning. The White House then confirmed the news in statements sent to NPR and other news outlets.

Obama is still set to attend the G20 summit of world leaders in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 5 and 6 — which Putin will host. The meeting that's being canceled was to have been between Obama and Putin in Moscow while the president is in Russia.

As NPR's Michele Kelemen and others have reported, and as the president said Tuesday on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the U.S. is disappointed in Russia's decision to give Snowden temporary asylum. Snowden, a former contractor for companies that do business with the National Security Agency, earlier this summer shared secrets about NSA surveillance programs with The Guardian and The Washington Post.

Update at 9:35 a.m. ET. White House Says Decision Came After "Careful Review."

This statement was just emailed to reporters from the White House press office:

"Following a careful review begun in July, we have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit in early September. We value the achievements made with Russia in the president's first term, including the New START Treaty, and cooperation on Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea.

"However, given our lack of progress on issues such as missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last twelve months, we have informed the Russian government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda.

"Russia's disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship.

"Our cooperation on these issues remains a priority for the United States, so on Friday, Aug. 9, Secretaries Hagel and Kerry will meet with their Russian counterparts in a 2+2 format in Washington to discuss how we can best make progress moving forward on the full range of issues in our bilateral relationship.

"The president still looks forward to traveling to St. Petersburg on September 5-6 to attend the G-20 Summit."

"It's not really fair to say, 'Look at this guy who died 400 years before I was born. He certainly had different opinions than me about the value of women.'" North says. "There's stuff that doesn't age as well, and what you do is you either adapt it so it works better now, or you ignore it."

For the purists, the original storyline remains in To Be Or Not To Be. A Yorick skull, one of the most iconic elements of the play, appears next to each choice that takes the reader through the original plot — the choices that Shakespeare made (as North jokes, "when he plagiarized my book").

"I honestly thought there'd be people saying, 'Oh my God, who are you to rewrite Shakespeare?' and that hasn't really happened." North explains. "I think people realize that the original story is still there."

The best-known monologues appear in Shakespeare's original language too — if you so choose. You can instead have characters rap their famous speeches. "I surprised myself with some raps that I wrote." North says.

Of course, seeing the characters make different choices is all part of the fun, and also makes for a unique new way to understand Hamlet.

"If Ryan's version gets us to ask why the characters in Hamlet make certain choices — and maybe don't even see that they are making choices, but think that they have no choice — that can help us rethink things that Hamlet (the play) takes for granted." William N. West, Northwestern University Professor of English, Classics, and Comparative Literary Studies, wrote to us. "It might also help us see what we take for granted."

And what better way to study these choices in one of the most studied stories written in the English language than with a Choose Your Own Adventure book?

"The story, I think, is timeless in that not many of us are plotting to kill our stepdad, but a lot of us face choices we don't really want to have to deal with," North says. "The idea of taking command of your life and doing something that you're not sure if you can do and you're not really sure if you should do it, I think is pretty timeless. We all face those doubts often, if not constantly."

Ryan North's To Be Or Not To Be is available from the publisher's website, where some of the proceeds will go towards the Canadian Cancer Society.