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U.S. President Donald Trump reviews troops during his inauguration ceremony at the Capitol in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 21, 2025

'America first' returns as Trump ditches focus on allies and rules-based order

The U.S. under his new administration will be a dominating force that will take whatever steps necessary to advance American interests, the newly inaugurated president said.
Shipping containers at an industrial port in the Keihin Industrial Zone in Kawasaki. Japanese businesses see a larger role for Japan if global trade breaks down and multilateral trade institutions become less effective without U.S. participation.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2025

Japan contemplates global free-trade leadership as U.S. goes protectionist

Tokyo could find opportunity in the turmoil while avoiding direct confrontation with Washington.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda had sounded dovish after the central bank's December policy meeting, which led some analysts to say that rate hikes might only emerge in March.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 24, 2025

BOJ takes rates to 0.5% amid calm markets after Trump inauguration

The 25-basis-point move marks the first rate increase since July and takes rates to their highest level since the 2008 global financial crisis.
A pipe for transporting carbon dioxide to removal equipment at a carbon capture and storage (CCS) test site in Tomakomai, Hokkaido.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jan 26, 2025

How Japan is looking deep underground to solve its carbon problem

Japan is investing billions of yen to get carbon capture and storage off the ground, but the technology is dogged by high costs and uncertainty.
An Egyptian doctor tests a patient for hepatitis C in Cairo in 2018.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 27, 2025

Egypt’s malpractice law could speed up doctor exodus, medical professionals warn

Medical professionals say the real issue is underfunding and inefficiency in Egypt's health care system and that the malpractice law could harm an already strained system.
A worker drives past residential buildings under construction by Chinese real estate developer Vanke in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. The indebted Chinese property developer warned on Monday that it incurred major losses in 2024, a filing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2025

Rare China support shows Vanke may be too big to fail

The unusual support shows that Vanke holds a special place within China’s moribund property sector.
The Tiffany & Co. store on Fifth Avenue in New York in 2023
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2025

Tiffany workers mock forced 'joy' that exacerbated staff exits

When Tiffany & Co. executives were looking for ways to boost staff morale, they rolled out an internal social app called "Tiffany Joy.” It didn’t take long to turn into a chore.
Marcus Rashford joined Manchester United at the age of 7 and emerged from the youth academy as a teenage prodigy in 2016, but recent years have been marked by controversy.
SOCCER
Feb 4, 2025

Once Manchester United's golden boy, Marcus Rashford's run ends in divorce

Rashford appeared to have the world at his feet when he signed a new five-year contract with United in July 2023, but the relationship recently soured.
A Japan Airlines jet involved in a collision is towed after the FAA said its right wing struck the tail of a Delta Air Lines plane on the ground at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2025

Japan Airlines jet wing strikes Delta plane on ground in Seattle

The Delta plane with 142 passengers was bound for Puerto Vallarta and was waiting for deicing when it was struck by the Japan Airlines jet after it had landed from Tokyo .
Elon Musk has in two weeks created a new center of power in Washington as he executes U.S. President Donald Trump's cost-cutting initiative to reduce the size of the U.S. government.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2025

Musk creates new power base in Washington with takeover of U.S. agencies

Elon Musk has in two weeks created a new center of power in Washington as he executes Donald Trump's cost-cutting initiative to reduce the size of the U.S. government.
Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally surged in French legislative elections last year. Despite social media being a key megaphone for political campaigning, issues like voter dissatisfaction still play a determinant role in electoral outcomes.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 5, 2025

Social media alone didn’t decide last year’s elections

Last year's record number of elections around the world hold some important lessons. One is that social media wasn't the key determinant of outcomes that many made it out to be.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands as they hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 10, 2025

Trump says U.S. making progress on talks with Russia to end war

Trump says he will meet Putin "at an appropriate time" to discuss ending the war, but no date has been set.
China frequently shifts between warming and freezing relations with Japan, driven by its domestic issues, often using softer rhetoric while masking aggressive actions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 14, 2025

Are China-Japan relations truly 'warming,' or is this just fool’s gold again?

As the trade war between the U.S. and China heats up, Beijing is turning to its familiar playbook, using softer language to court American allies and partners while offering things like greater cooperation and more dialogue — part of its ongoing divide-and-conquer strategy.
Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Feb 17, 2025

The race to save 20th-century history

Analog recordings are at risk of disappearing as old tech breaks down and spare parts run out.
The Thai Royal Police held a meeting on Monday in Bangkok with representatives from 18 countries, including Japan, as well as international organizations like the United Nations regarding the transnational scam operation.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 18, 2025

Japanese nationals thought to be held captive at Myanmar-Thailand border

Foreign nationals from several countries have been held at the border and forced to participate in a variety of scams.
An undated handout photograph released on Jan. 11 from the from the Telegram account of V_Zelenskiy_official shows an alleged soldier presented as North Korean detained by Ukrainian authorities at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, following his capture by Ukrainian authorities.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 19, 2025

South Korea willing to take North Korean POWs from Ukraine

South Korea’s comments came after a captured soldier said in an interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper that he wants to seek asylum in South Korea.
A partially illuminated Santiago, Chile, during a blackout on Tuesday. The unusual and massive blackout due to an alleged failure of the power system forced the evacuation of the Santiago subway and plunged the population into confusion.
WORLD / Society
Feb 26, 2025

Chile power outage plunges capital into darkness, hits major copper mines

The widespread blackout was caused by a transmission line failure in the country's north, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said.
A sample of a wafer is seen at the Semicon Taiwan 2022 exhibition in Taipei in 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 26, 2025

China says Taiwan seeking to give away chip industry to U.S.

U.S. media has said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has been in talks for a stake in Intel.
Soldiers participate in a demonstration during the training of the Korean People's Army's combat units in this picture released on March 16, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 28, 2025

North Korea has deployed more troops to Russia: Seoul

South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said that more than 10,000 soldiers from the reclusive state were sent to Russia last year.
Xiaobaodang Coal Mine, in Shaanxi province, China, in 2023. China, which mines and burns half the world’s coal, is facing swelling inventories of the fuel.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 3, 2025

Coal’s four-year lows hide a coming global supply squeeze

Demand for the fuel continues to rise in India and China, outpacing breakneck rates of expansion in solar and wind.
Japan is grappling with a budget shortfall, and while raising the tax-free threshold has sparked political debate, the country's booming tourism industry presents an untapped revenue source.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2025

Japan has a revenue hole. Plug it with tourists

More than 35 years after sales tax was first introduced, it remains incredibly unpopular and reducing it is a regular promise of opposition parties.
Then-U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol attend an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework event at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 15, 2025

U.S. designated South Korea a 'sensitive' country amid talk of nuclear weapons

The move after the South Korean president briefly imposed martial law and amid talk of Seoul potentially developing nuclear weapons.
Delta Airlines mechanic George Glezmann (center) poses for a picture with U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler (second from left), former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad (second from right) and Qatari diplomats in Kabul on Thursday, ahead of their departure to Doha.
WORLD
Mar 21, 2025

Taliban releases American airline mechanic from detention

Delta Airlines mechanic George Glezmann was freed after more than two years in captivity in Afghanistan, in a deal brokered by Qatar.
The head of the Self-Defense Forces' new Joint Operations Command, Gen. Kenichiro Nagumo, inspects an honor guard Monday morning at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2025

Japan launches new Joint Operations Command to unify SDF branches

The new command will allow for the smoother integration of operations across domains to prepare for and respond to possible emergencies.
Max Lesser, a senior analyst on emerging threats at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has uncovered a network of companies operated by a secretive Chinese tech firm that has been trying to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government workers.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 26, 2025

Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired federal workers in U.S.

Max Lesser, a researcher who uncovered the network, said the campaign follows "well-established" techniques used by previous Chinese intelligence operations.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addresses American service members assigned to Kane'ohe Bay, Hawaii, on Tuesday. Hegseth’s itinerary during his first visit to Asia in his new role will include visits to the Philippines and Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2025

Hegseth’s Asia tour won’t fix U.S. credibility crisis

The timing of Hegseth’s first Asian tour couldn’t be more awkward. U.S. President Donald Trump’s "America First” mantra is raising eyebrows.
A resident looks on next to a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Friday, after an earthquake rocked the country's central region.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 29, 2025

Myanmar quake toll passes 1,000 as rescuers dig for survivors

At least 1,007 people were killed and nearly 2,400 injured in Myanmar, with 30 more missing, the junta said in a statement.
A tank containing liquid hydrogen in Kobe, where a special shipping terminal has been built in order to import liquid hydrogen from Australia.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2025

Japan-Australia flagship hydrogen project stumbles

The blockbuster project is hanging in the balance over questions about its climate credentials.
People queue for food and relief supplies after a strong earthquake in Amarapura, Myanmar, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 2, 2025

U.N. urges aid to Myanmar quake survivors before monsoons hit as death toll nears 3,000

A civil war in Myanmar had already displaced more than 3 million people long before the quake struck.
Men stand at the scene of an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday.
WORLD
Apr 2, 2025

Hezbollah official among four dead in Israeli strike on Beirut

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called the attack a "clear breach" of the Nov. 27 ceasefire.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji