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Sakana AI, prospected to become the fastest-ever Japanese company to achieve unicorn status, aims to create energy-efficient AI models that tackle long-term national-level issues.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 24, 2024

What a Japanese AI unicorn can teach Silicon Valley

Sakana AI, prospected to become the fastest-ever Japanese company to achieve unicorn status, is taking a long-term approach to the development of AI for good.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris greets her audience before discussing reproductive rights on the second anniversary of Roe v. Wade being overturned, in Phoenix on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 25, 2024

Harris and the Democrats aim at Trump on abortion ruling anniversary

Since the 2022 ruling, more than 20 Republican-led states in the U.S. have imposed abortion restrictions.
A billboard with a picture of the presidential candidates is displayed on a street in Tehran on June 17.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 25, 2024

Iran’s presidential election dominated by Khamenei loyalists

The next president will likely be closely involved in the eventual process of choosing a successor to Iran's supreme leader.
A volunteer hoping to join the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces attends basic training at an undisclosed location in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, on Jan. 9.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 26, 2024

Trump reviews peace talks ultimatum plan for Ukraine and Russia

The proposal would mark a big shift in the U.S. position on the war and would face opposition from European allies.
Shareholders queue to enter a venue for SoftBank Group's annual general meeting in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 26, 2024

Activist investing booms in Japan amid corporate governance reforms

International hedge funds and home-grown investors have turned the country into the world’s second-largest market for activists.
An image of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released on social media on Tuesday. Assange pleaded guilty to a single charge of disseminating classified documents in a plea bargain that leaves him a free man.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2024

Julian Assange’s saga will forever exist in a legal gray area

WikiLeaks founder Assange’s case lies on the boundary between espionage and protected speech. Its outcome has done nothing to shed light on this gray zone.
Civil servants listen to the national anthem before the polls open as they wait for voters at a polling station for the Mongolian parliamentary elections in Sergelen sum in Tuv province, Mongolia, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 28, 2024

Mongolians vote as anger grows over corruption and economy

Analysts expect the ruling Mongolian People's Party to retain its majority.
Fancl employees offer makeup lessons to those with blindness or low vision.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jul 8, 2024

Cosmetics makers hold makeup lessons for those with visual impairments

Each company has established its own methods for applying makeup without the need to look in a mirror.
China's then-defense chief Li Shangfu delivers a speech during the Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore on June 4, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 28, 2024

China ousts two ex-defense ministers from party over graft

The 24-man Politburo made the decision to oust Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe, who are said to have taken bribes.
Ryosuke Kunisawa hopes his "concept brewpub" serves as a focal point to an image change for the salaryman epicenter that is the Shimbashi neighborhood.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2024

Craft beer, craftsmanship and a family of reinvention

On the first two floors of his family’s slender eight-story building, Kunisawa launched the Kunisawa Brewing Company, Shimbashi's first beer brewery, in May 2022.
Then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an EU-Japan trade summit in Brussels in 2019. Abe was an early believer in the need for Japan to strengthen relations with Europe based on shared values and interests.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 1, 2024

Strong Europe-Japan relations are a legacy of Shinzo Abe

Late former Prime Minister Abe was an early believer in the need for Japan to strengthen its relationship with Europe based on shared values and mutual interests.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te attends a graduation ceremony of military academies in Taipei on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 1, 2024

China to step up detentions to squeeze Lai, Taiwan officials say

Beijing has also pressured Taipei by peeling off one of its last diplomatic allies, Nauru, and holding expansive military drills just days after Lai took office in May.
Comedian Daisuke Muramoto has been shunned by the Japanese media for taking his act into political territory. Filmmaker Fumiari Hyuga traces his post-pandemic search for a place in show business in "I Am a Comedian."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 3, 2024

‘I Am a Comedian’: A documentary following Daisuke Muramoto’s rocky comedy journey

Documentarian Fumiari Hyuga captures the story of an uncouth Japanese comedian’s efforts to say what can’t be said.
Polls suggest Labour leader Keir Starmer will emerge victorious from Thursday’s U.K. general election despite often being perceived as stiff and acting holier-than-thou.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2024

Keir Starmer's character remains as elusive as his policies

Despite his rags-to-ruling-class backstory, Labour leader Keir Starmer isn't that popular or well understood. But he'll win Thursday's election in the U.K. anyway.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with China's President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states leaders' summit in Astana on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 4, 2024

How China and Russia compete, and cooperate, in Central Asia

Even as China has expanded its economic influence across Central Asia, it still faces challenges to its diplomacy from Russia.
Lufthansa planes in Frankfurt on March 7
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2024

EU's airline deal demands fuel doubts over further attempts

While the deal expands Lufthansa's footprint in southern Europe, the combined group will have to cede some routes and slots to rivals for it to proceed.
Despite her consistently low approval ratings, a recent poll showed Vice President Kamala Harris to be as formidable an opponent to Donald Trump as U.S. President Joe Biden. In a hypothetical matchup, Trump led Harris by a single percentage point, 43% to 42%.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 5, 2024

Trump allies intensify attacks on Kamala Harris as Biden replacement talk builds

They have little to lose by attacking the vice president now, so that if Harris does emerge as the nominee, she might do so in a weakened state.
Tens of thousands of young people have fled Myanmar since the military junta introduced conscription, rights groups say, to shore up its depleted ranks.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 5, 2024

'No safe place': Women flee conscription risk and hardship in Myanmar

Following the military junta's conscription, some have risked their lives to trek through jungles and ford rivers to escape.
An unarmed AGM-86B air-launched cruise missile is released from a B-52 bomber over the Utah Test and Training Range during a Nuclear Weapons System Evaluation Program sortie in September 2014.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 6, 2024

Trump advisers call for U.S. nuclear weapons testing if he is elected

A number of nuclear experts reject a resumption as unnecessary and say it would threaten to end a testing moratorium that has been honored for decades.
Yu Darvish, 37, a five-time All-Star, last pitched in a game on May 29.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 7, 2024

Padres put Yu Darvish on restricted list over 'personal matter'

A five-time All-Star, Darvish is 4-3 with a 3.20 ERA in 11 starts this season.
A sprawling, secretive influence operation is attempting to vilify Qatar, the Gulf state mediating between Israel and Hamas.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 8, 2024

Shadow campaign: Global influence op targets Qatar in wartime

The campaign against Qatar shows the ease with which a person or an entire country can be tarnished in the age of disinformation while masking the ultimate perpetrators.
Lee Yi-yang, former vice president of Taiwan's Examination Yuan, is expected to be named as the next de facto ambassador to Japan.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2024

Taiwan to name Lee as de facto ambassador to Japan

Lee worked as a news reporter and Taipei City Council member before becoming a DPP secretary-general and interior minister under Chen's administration.
How policymakers have responded to past economic crises, such as the 2008-09 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, will shape their preparedness in dealing with future recessions. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2024

Policy lessons from recent economic crises

Eventually, the world will face another recession. How will policymakers use the lessons learned from the 2008-09 financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic to respond?
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at a recent meeting at the Blue House in Seoul on May 27
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 8, 2024

South Korea's Yoon to discuss Pyongyang's 'distinct threat' to Europe at NATO meet

Yoon, who became the first South Korean leader to attend a NATO summit in 2022, was to take part in his third such meeting later this week.
Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko in action during her fourth round match against Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva at Wimbledon in England on Monday
TENNIS
Jul 9, 2024

Ostapenko races to win over giant-killer Putintseva at Wimbledon

Jelena Ostapenko, who won in Paris in 2017, raced through her 6-2 6-3 win over giant-killer Yulia Putintseva.
A Maritime Self-Defense Force's SH-60K helicopter. On April 20, two such helicopters collided during nighttime training off a remote island near Tokyo, killing all aboard.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2024

Lack of coordination and improper lookout caused MSDF copter crash

Both SH-60K helicopters were aware of the other’s presence but had not performed evasive maneuvers up until the collision, possibly misjudging their distance, panel says.
Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who served as the chief of staff to Trump's National Security Council, said he has met several European officials in recent days, including foreign ministers.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 10, 2024

Trump foreign policy adviser meets European officials attending NATO summit

Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who served as the chief of staff to Trump's National Security Council, said he had met several European officials.
Europe's Ariane 6 rocket takes off in Kourou, French Guiana, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 10, 2024

Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket goes retro in challenge to SpaceX

Reusable rockets and frequent launches "were once aspirational but are now minimal requirements" to compete commercially, said the Rocket Lab CEO and founder.
In addition to standup comedy, Anthony Jeselnik co-hosts the podcast “The Jeselnik and Rosenthal Vanity Project” with NFL analyst Gregg Rosenthal.
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 11, 2024

Standup comic Anthony Jeselnik, known for fierce roasts, to play first Japan show

The comedian will hit Tokyo as part of the Asia stretch of his worldwide “Bones and All” tour.
The Clippers' Kawhi Leonard will skip the Paris Olympics to focus on his preparations for the upcoming NBA season.
OLYMPICS / Basketball
Jul 11, 2024

Kawhi Leonard withdraws from Olympics; Derrick White added to Team USA roster

Celtics guard Derrick White will play for Team USA in place of the Clippers star.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.