Search - 2017

 
 
Roger Federer watches the U.S. Open in New York earlier this month.
TENNIS
Sep 19, 2024

Retirement can make you feel 'like an alien,' Federer says ahead of Laver Cup

Federer, who helped create the tournament, retired at the Laver Cup in London two years ago and has since stayed involved with the competition as an ambassador.
Marina Tsukada got the idea for her anthology “Mitsuki, Sekai” from her acquaintance with the two young lead actors, whom she first met at a video workshop she conducted in Nagano Prefecture.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2024

Marina Tsukada lets local lives shape her work

The director’s latest, “Mitsuki, Sekai,” is part of an ongoing project that traces the lives of Nagano Prefecture-based children for a decade until they reach adulthood.
Colombo International Container Terminals, seen from the Galle Face promenade, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Monday
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 20, 2024

A deepening U.S.-China rivalry hangs over Sri Lanka’s election

The three countries are all jockeying for influence with lawmakers and investors.
Before Shohei Ohtani created the 50-50 club on Thursday, just two players in MLB history had hit 50 homers and stolen 50 bases in a season, but not in the same one.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 21, 2024

Others who had 50 steals or 50 homers admire Ohtani's feat

Before Shohei Ohtani created the 50-50 club on Thursday, just two players in MLB history had hit 50 homers and stolen 50 bases in a season, but not in the same one.
Gwangju Biennale’s artistic director Nicolas Bourriaud developed the theme “Pansori: A Soundscape of the 21st Century” to make the event “an opera you can walk into.”
CULTURE / Art
Sep 21, 2024

Japan’s art world seeks connection at Gwangju Biennale

At the longest-running contemporary art festival in East Asia, the Japan Pavilion's display nods to historical tensions between Japan and Korea.
A train on JR East's Chuo Line in Tokyo
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2024

JR East failed to disclose data tampering for seven years

The misconduct occurred in a rail yard of JR East in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward and was detected in March 2017.
A woman passes an "akichi" (vacant lot) in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. The capital is littered with such small lots in part because of Japan's aging and shrinking population.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Sep 21, 2024

Dealing with rising land vacancies as Japan shrinks

"Akichi," or vacant plots of land, are nothing new to the urban landscape. As the population decreases, however, the challenge is how to handle their steady increase.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump walks under a U.S. flag as he holds a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 23, 2024

Trump says he will not run again if he loses in November, 'that will be it'

Trump faces a tight race against Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, with polls showing the two neck-and-neck in key battleground states.
A climbing wall at a kindergarten in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture. The sport has been on the rise in Japan, mainly due to the popularity it gained from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and new climbing walls are popping all over the place.
MORE SPORTS / Sport climbing
Sep 24, 2024

People of all ages and sizes scale new heights amid climbing boom in Japan

The sport gained a boost from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and new climbing walls are popping up all over the place.
Brett Favre before a game between the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 2018.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Sep 25, 2024

Brett Favre reveals he has Parkinson’s disease

The revelation was a startling admission from a high-profile football player whose more than two-decade career included induction into the Hall of Fame.
Choi Min-kyong (right), a North Korean defector who said she was deported by China four times before making it to South Korea in 2012, and Shin Ju-ye (left), who fled North Korea in the 1990s and settled in China before defecting to South Korea last year, speak during an interview in Seoul on July 19.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 25, 2024

China cracks down on North Korean defectors with biometric surveillance

Facial-recognition cameras now monitor China's border with North Korea, documents show, while police have collected biometric data of North Koreans in the country.
The Nintendo Museum opens to the public on Oct. 2, but unlike the company's all-ages games, the new attraction may be geared more toward older rather than younger gamers.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 25, 2024

A first look inside the new Nintendo Museum

Set to open on Oct. 2, the gaming giant's newest foray into real-world experiences shows flashes of the same creativity that made the company what it is today.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Sazanami arrives in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean during a scheduled port visit in July. The Sazanami became the first Japanese warship to sail through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 26, 2024

Japan MSDF warship sails through Taiwan Strait for first time

The transit on Wednesday, which follows a spate of Chinese military moves near Japan, drew a strongly worded warning from Beijing.
Eric Adams, mayor of New York, exits a weekly news conference at City Hall in New York in 2023.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 27, 2024

NYC mayor was corrupt for years, U.S. claims in scathing case

The indictment calls into question the political future of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is in charge of running the biggest U.S. city.
A 13-year-old junior high school student receives a vaccine for the human papillomavirus at a hospital in Tokyo in 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 27, 2024

Deadline approaches for free HPV vaccine 'catch-up' campaign

The government's free vaccination program requires the first dose to be administered by the end of September to complete the three-dose series before the campaign ends.
A Japanese Self-Defense Force jet was forced to fire flares recently as a warning to Russian aircraft that violated the country's airspace, highlighting how both China and Russia tried to test Japan’s leadership during a period of political transition.
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2024

China tests Japan. Are its new leaders ready?

Most of China's moves require considerable planning. That means that the signals they sent were anticipated and approved by political decision-makers.
Dame Maggie Smith, a star of the stage, film and television, died Sept. 27 in London. She was 89. The actor is pictured here in 2015.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 27, 2024

'National treasure' U.K. actor Maggie Smith dies aged 89

Over the course of her long career, Dame Maggie Smith won a Tony, two Oscars, three Golden Globes and five Bafta Awards.
A screen displays Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, as he delivers an address in Baalbek, Lebanon, in May 2018. In 32 years in charge of Hezbollah, Nasrallah, 64, has built the Iranian-backed militia into an influential force in Lebanon and a potent adversary of Israel.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Sep 28, 2024

Hezbollah reckons with future amid Beirut strikes

Killing or incapacitating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah would deal a significant blow to the group he has led for 32 years, analysts say.
Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns drives to the basket against Mavericks center Daniel Gafford during a playoff game in May.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Sep 29, 2024

Knicks acquire Karl-Anthony Towns from Wolves

In a major offseason blockbuster, the New York Knicks have acquired All-Star forward Karl-Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves, multiple media outlets reported.
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal reacts after a strikeout in the sixth inning of Detroit's Game 1 wild-card round win over the Astros on Tuesday in Houston.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 2, 2024

Tigers, Royals, Mets and Padres win MLB playoff openers

The visiting Tigers took a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three American League wild-card series on the back of ace Tarik Skubal.
A police officer from the Narcotics Control Board stands guard in front of boxes of confiscated drugs during the 50th Destruction of Confiscated Narcotics ceremony in Ayutthaya province, Thailand, on June 26, 2020.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 2, 2024

Myanmar's civil war is driving the drug trade, Thailand official says

The political unrest in Myanmar has led to an expansion of synthetic drugs production and trafficking.
A Russian submarine arrives at the port of Dagang, in Qingdao, Shandong province, China, in April 2019 for a joint Chinese-Russian naval exercise.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2024

The China-Russia relationship once derided, now looks to endure

Both China and Russia are concerned about U.S. alliances in the Indo-Pacific and are acting to counterbalance them.
Shoppers on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2024

CIA boosts its China recruiting efforts to exploit discontent with Xi

The CIA's online push comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping has consolidated power over a fifth of humanity to a degree unseen in decades.
Men run for cover after an Israeli strike on the Mreijeh neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Oct 5, 2024

Countdown to Middle East war? How the region can step back from the brink

Brakes remain to halt a regional fall into a wider conflagration that would lock Israel and Tehran into escalating conflict and suck in other nations.
People search for survivors and the bodies of victims after an Israeli bombardment in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 26, 2023.
WORLD
Oct 5, 2024

Emails show early U.S. concerns over Gaza offensive and risk of Israeli war crimes

The emails show the Biden administration’s struggle to balance internal concerns over rising deaths in Gaza with its public support for Jerusalem.
A damaged road in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 6, after a major earthquake struck the area on New Year's Day
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Oct 6, 2024

Important tool or alarmism? Japan experts split on megaquake advisories.

Supporters say the advisories are about reducing risk, but critics see a system that isn’t based on science and one in which the cons outweigh the pros.
A girl charges her phone at the Delpan Evacuation Center after Typhoon Kammuri hit Manila in December 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 7, 2024

Crowd-sourcing data could help Philippines tackle deadly floods

The Philippines is hit by around 20 large storms every year and, due to climate change, that is expected to only get worse.
Padres starter Yu Darvish pitches against the Dodgers during Game 2 of the NLDS in Los Angeles on Sunday.
BASEBALL
Oct 7, 2024

Yu Darvish shuts down Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani as Padres even series

Darvish retired Ohtani three times during his gem at Dodger Stadium.
An electric vehicle (EV) at an Electrify America charging station in Atlanta
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 7, 2024

The future of EV charging looks a lot like an airport lounge

The convenience of nicer charger stations could entice would-be electric vehicle drivers to take the plunge and buy one,
Pope Francis addresses the crowd from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square during the Angelus prayer in the Vatican on Sunday. The pontiff announced the appointment of 21 new cardinals on Sunday.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 7, 2024

Japanese archbishop named cardinal

Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, the archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Tokyo, will also be eligible to vote in a papal conclave.

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.