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Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui hits a solo home run off Pedro Martinez of the Phillies in Game 2 of the World Series on Oct. 29, 2009.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 25, 2024

From Shinjo to 'Godzilla': The Japanese players who have made their mark on the Fall Classic

Tsuyoshi Shinjo got the ball rolling for Japanese stars in MLB’s Fall Classic in 2002, and stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are set to join the growing club.
A demonstration calling for the return of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Lucerne, Switzerland, in June. Securing detainees' fair treatment and release isn't important only for resolving the Russia-Ukraine war, but to uphold human rights writ large.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Oct 25, 2024

Human rights are key to resolving the war in Ukraine

The war against Russia can't be won without clear political objectives. This also means not losing sight of the need to uphold human rights in Ukraine, and beyond.
Baku Olympic Stadium, the venue of the COP29 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 26, 2024

Future of U.N. climate dialogue threatened by budget shortfall

An analysis found a budget hole of at least €57 million — or nearly half of the funding needed for the U.N. climate secretariat to run annual climate negotiations.
A Nvidia chip during the Taipei Computex expo in Taipei on May 29, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 28, 2024

How a Mumbai drugmaker is helping Putin get Nvidia AI chips

An inconspicuous pharmaceutical company exported 1,111 units of Dell Technologies' most-advanced servers to Russia in April-August of this year.
The ruins of the Ukrainian town of Vovchansk, in the Kharkiv region, approximately 5 kilometers from the border with Russia, on Sept. 25
WORLD
Oct 28, 2024

'Wiped off the face of the Earth': How Russia erased a Ukrainian city

"It barely exists anymore," said the mayor of Vovchansk, an industrial town razed by a Russian onslaught shocking even for the killing fields of eastern Ukraine.
Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley leaves after attending a press conference hosted by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to release its first annual report, at the Vatican on Tuesday.
WORLD / Society
Oct 30, 2024

Church must act faster against abusive priests, papal commission says

The detailed global report from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was the first since the body was set up by Pope Francis in 2014.
Nguyen Thanh Bien gets a massage with medicated oil from his father to help with injuries from being beaten by the Chinese authorities while fishing in the South China Sea, in Quang Ngai, Vietnam, on Oct. 18.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 30, 2024

Bullied by China at sea, with the broken bones to prove it

China’s aggressive policing of disputed territory has produced the latest clash in a long, complex relationship.
Images of semiconductor wafers at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Museum of Innovation in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on April 18, 2023. Taiwan's stock market emerged as the hottest major bourse in Asia over the past year, led by TSMC and Hon Hai Precision Industry.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 31, 2024

AI’s $1.3 trillion future increasingly hinges on Taiwan

Thousands of businesses, executives and entrepreneurs rely on the island's unparalleled combination of talent, cost and speed.
Rene Redzepi unveils his future for Noma as well as the MAD Symposium, an event 'to create a lasting generational foundation and structure that ensures that we stay creative and impactful for a lifetime.'
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 1, 2024

After Kyoto residency, Rene Redzepi says 'Noma will exist as a pop-up'

"You go there to feel something but then you can’t feel it again — it’s gone," Redzepi says. "I’m excited for the restaurant to operate like that.”
A North Korean prison policewoman stands guard at a jail on the banks of Yalu River near the Chongsong county of North Korea, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, in May 2011.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 31, 2024

Dozens of North Koreans held for defecting 'vanish', says rights group

Of 113 people whose cases were examined in a study, more than 81% disappeared after being detained by the North's secret police.
In recent years, anglophone publishers have perked up to the potential of “healing fiction,” driven by a healthy appetite for East Asian literature. Japan figures prominently in this literary landscape, and a fondness for felines in the "iyashikei" (healing type) genre has proven commercially viable abroad.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 2024

Cat companions and the 'healing fiction' boom

Japan's "iyashikei" (healing type) cultural products are gaining audiences, and non-Japanese readers are craving cozy feline literature in translation.
Suzumi Suzuki’s “Gifted,” translated by Allison Markin Powell, centers on a hostess working in Kabukicho. Rather than focusing on the protagonist’s occupation, the story plunges the reader into her strained relationship with her dying mother.  
CULTURE / Books
Nov 3, 2024

A nuanced glimpse into the cloistered world of Kabukicho

Drawing on her own experience working in adult entertainment, Suzumi Suzuki crafts a fresh, visceral work for her debut novel, "Gifted"
The Indonesian Navy's KRI Karel Satsuitubun-356 frigate. Jakarta and Moscow have different maritime goals, with Indonesia facing threats of smuggling and piracy while Russia is looking for willing allies.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 3, 2024

Joint Russia sea drills signal start of Indonesian foreign policy shift

Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or U.S.-China rivalry
An exhibition of captured military hardware from NATO countries in Moscow in May.  Whatever the results of the U.S. presidential election, the prospect of improved U.S.-Russia relations seems even more distant.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 6, 2024

Whether Trump or Harris, pessimism reigns in Russia over U.S. election winner

The sentiment is prevalent in a Russia that feels scorned and underestimated by Democrat administrations and betrayed by Trump.
The National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo's Chuo Ward. A study by researchers at the hospital aims to determine whether restoring a healthy intestinal environment can enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy drugs used in cancer treatment.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 6, 2024

Japan explores intestinal flora transplants for cancer treatment

A study aims to determine whether restoring a healthy intestinal environment can make drugs used in the treatment of esophageal and stomach cancers more effective.
Sanwa Koutsu's Kuroko Taxi service has drivers dressed in traditional stagehand garb communicate with passengers only through gestures and written messages.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 9, 2024

The sound of silence: Japan's no-conversation services

“Constant social interaction can feel like torture for us introverts,” one customer says. "I think it’s a pretty smart business move."
Daihachi Yoshida receives the Tokyo Grand Prix award for his film, “Teki Cometh,” at the closing ceremony of the Tokyo International Film Festival on Nov. 6.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 8, 2024

Festival glory for a dark Japanese comedy

With sold-out screenings, international stars and an increase in guests, this year's Tokyo International Film Festival revived its rep as a global cinematic gathering.
Nojima will purchase about 93% of Vaio's outstanding shares from investment fund Japan Industrial Partners.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 12, 2024

Nojima to acquire PC company Vaio for ¥11.2 billion

Sony will continue to hold a 4.7% stake in Vaio.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura speaks to reporters in Osaka on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 12, 2024

Osaka governor announces candidacy for Nippon Ishin leadership

Hirofumi Yoshimura said he has decided to run due to a sense that the party is now in crisis.
Rory McIlroy deemed 2024 as a success despite missing out on winning his fifth major.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 14, 2024

Rory McIlroy motivated to keep up with Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele

McIlroy said will be more selective about the events he plays in the United States next year.
Lindsey Vonn poses with her World Cup trophies after the season finale in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in March 2010.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 15, 2024

Lindsey Vonn coming out of retirement to rejoin U.S. Ski Team at age 40

Vonn, a three-time Olympic medalist and four-time overall World Cup champion, retired in 2019 after a bruising 18-year career during which she suffered several injuries.
Yoko Ono gestures as she unveils the "John Lennon: The New York City Years" exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex in New York in May 2009.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 16, 2024

Yoko Ono is rightful owner of John Lennon's stolen watch, says Swiss court

The Patek Philippe watch was a birthday gift to the former Beatle from Japanese artist Ono in 1980, just two months before his assassination in New York.
A woman holds a bouquet of flowers on Wednesday as she heads toward a sports center where a deadly car attack took place in Zhuhai, China. On Saturday, one man was arrested after eight people were killed and 17 others wounded in a knife attack at a vocational school in the eastern city of Yixing, in Jiangsu province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 17, 2024

At least eight dead and 17 hurt in China school knife attack

The suspect — a 21-year-old former student at the vocational school in the city of Yixing — was arrested, police said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a news conference at the European Political Community summit in Budapest on Nov. 7.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 18, 2024

Ukraine’s allies are leaning on Zelenskyy for a way to end the war

There is increasing recognition that Kyiv will have to compromise with Moscow because it has become clear that neither side can secure a decisive victory.
Komeito chief Tetsuo Saito says the party needs to "return to where it started so as to regain power" during a news conference in Hiroshima on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 19, 2024

Komeito's clean, pacifist image fades after 60 years

Komeito has faced a conundrum in choosing between upholding its founding philosophy and staying in the coalition government.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture, the world's biggest nuclear plant, on Aug. 5. Like many others in Japan, the plant is seeking clearance to restart, as the country grapples with how to shape its nuclear future.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 19, 2024

Japan’s nuclear future: Caught between climate goals and reality

Japan is well short of hitting its nuclear power goals by 2030, with the challenging nature of reactor restarts likely impacting its emissions reduction targets.
The Philippines is countering Chinese aggression with a strategy of exposing coercive actions through media, embedding journalists with its military and leveraging visual evidence to gain domestic and international support.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2024

Philippines uses the media spotlight to fight back against China

Manila is promoting “assertive transparency” to shape the media landscape, putting Beijing on the defensive.
Family members hug each other in front of the bus to Minsk, Belarus, at the Warsaw West bus station on Oct. 30.
WORLD / Society
Nov 20, 2024

Ukrainians brave arduous journeys to Russian-occupied homeland

For a year now, Russia has only been letting Ukrainian citizens travel to occupied zones through a special checkpoint set up in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
Scientists worry that if H5N1 spreads through commercial pig farms, it could evolve into a form capable of causing a human pandemic.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2024

Bird flu in pigs is one step closer to endangering humans

Flu viruses have historically been transmitted from pigs to people and from people to pigs — either on farms or at agricultural fairs.
Jimmy Lai, publisher of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper, at his office in Hong Kong on Aug. 22, 2019. Accused of masterminding anti-government protests that swept across Hong Kong in 2019, Lai testified for the first time on Wednesday at his landmark national security trial.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 21, 2024

Apple Daily: The Hong Kong tabloid that dared to challenge China

Hong Kong's Apple Daily was once the city's most popular tabloid by punching up against the Chinese Communist Party. But Beijing had the last laugh.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped