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Next Generation Technology Group acquires companies in need of future leadership with competitive technologies and high margins, said Eiichi Arai, the Tokyo-based firm’s CEO.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 5, 2025

Tokyo’s first listing of the year soars in trading debut

The shares climbed as much as 58% to ¥3,165 in early trading in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Simona Halep waves to the crowd at the end of her final match during the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, Romania on Tuesday.
TENNIS
Feb 5, 2025

Former world No. 1 Simona Halep announces retirement

Halep lost in three Grand Slam finals before finally clinching her first major at the French Open in 2018 and went on to win Wimbledon the following year.
Google's vow to not use AI for weapons or surveillance have been removed from its guidelines.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 5, 2025

Google pledge against using AI for weapons vanishes

The revised principles were posted just weeks after Google chief executive Sundar Pichai attended the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Founded in Hangzhou only 20 months ago, DeepSeek’s technology made waves in January with a new mobile app featuring its reasoning AI chatbot.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 5, 2025

Australia bans DeepSeek from government tech, citing security

A threat assessment by the country’s intelligence agencies found the technology posed an unacceptable risk.
U.S. President Donald Trump's imposed and since paused tariffs on Canada and Mexico, coupled with his broad levies on China — and possibly others soon — pose risks of economic retaliation, supply chain disruptions and long-term damage to U.S. influence.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025

The tariff man is making a risky bet

The optimal tariff argument ignores the substantial risks that Trump is taking. A generalized trade war will make everyone worse off.
Homes destroyed by wildfire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles earlier this month. Insured losses caused by this and other fires raging in the area in recent weeks have been valued at over $30 billion.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025

Fossil fuel insurance is still way too cheap

Despite mounting losses from climate-induced disasters, insurers continue underwriting fossil fuels. Raising the cost of such policies would help cut emissions and benefit many.
Talks between Nissan and Honda have been complicated by growing differences, sources have said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 6, 2025

Nissan looking for new partner as Honda deal looks set to collapse

The two carmakers plan to issue a formal announcement on the fate of their business integration talks in mid-February.
A 45-year-old widow (Takako Matsu) repeatedly travels back in time to meet her future — and late — husband (Hokuto Matsumura) in “First Kiss.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2025

‘First Kiss’: Time-traveling romantic drama isn’t afraid of a few wrinkles

Ayuko Tsukahara’s high-concept love story has wit and wisdom to spare with an endearing screen couple at its center.
Japan's Kaori Sakamoto celebrates after finishing in third place at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Grenoble, France on Dec. 7, 2024.
OLYMPICS / Winter Sports
Feb 6, 2025

Olympics on horizon as China hosts Asian Winter Games

The Games crucially come just a year ahead of the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett takes a selfie with children at an event in Yokohama on Nov. 28, 2017.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Feb 6, 2025

Beauden Barrett wants Japan back in expanded Super Rugby

"I'd love to see the Japanese become part of the competition," Barrett said. "I feel like we need to grow the competition and in that respect, that would be great."
A cargo ship full of shipping containers at the port of Oakland in Oakland, California, as trade tensions escalate over U.S. tariffs on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 6, 2025

Economists brace for Trump's new trade war to rekindle inflation worldwide

Stubborn growth in consumer prices was bothering much of the world even before U.S. President Donald Trump entered the White House.
Kuaishou Technology has attracted tens of millions of younger viewers who habitually scroll screens for new stories and trending videos.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 6, 2025

Mini dramas have supplanted movies in China. Is the U.S. next?

Professionally produced series for the web, mini dramas have clear storylines and big cliffhangers, with episodes running just 60 to 90 seconds each.
A video clip shows former lawyer Yamato Eguchi remaining silent during an interrogation by prosecutors.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 6, 2025

Tokyo High Court upholds compensation order over interrogation abuse

The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court's ruling that the state must pay compensation to a former lawyer over the verbal abuse he suffered while he was interrogated.
China, under President Xi Jinping, is resisting Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, but may need to respond with major fiscal stimulus, currency devaluation or allowing TikTok’s sale to navigate economic challenges.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025

China’s Mr. Big Won’t Cave in to Trump for Nothing

Does Xi Jinping have a trade war game plan? He’ll need to make hard choices.
Singapore is positioning itself as a key player in the effort to diversify supply chains away from China, leveraging its proximity to Malaysia’s Johor state.
COMMENTARY
Feb 7, 2025

Singapore finds its seat at the China+1 table

Singapore is positioning itself as a key player in the effort to diversify supply chains away from China.
After gaining a record number of Oscar nominations for a foreign-language movie, "Emilia Perez" has become embroiled in scandal linked to past social media posts by star Karla Sofia Gascon.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 7, 2025

Oscars frontrunner 'Emilia Perez' suffers awards season crash

Actor Karla Sofia Gascon has seen her path to glory seriously compromised by her past social media posts about Islam, U.S. anti-racism protests and even the Oscars themselves.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shows a gift from U.S. President Donald Trump, as they hold a joint news conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 8, 2025

Foreign leaders embrace the art of flattery in wooing Trump

Ishiba became the latest figure to offer ample compliments to a president known for his transactional approach to foreign policy.
Latvia's Minister for Climate and Energy Kaspars Melnis (left) and Rolands Irklis, CEO of electricity transmission state system operator AST, pose with a severed cable after technicians worked on the disconnection of the major power line between Latvia and Russia in Vilaka, Latvia, near the Russian border on Saturday.
WORLD
Feb 9, 2025

Baltic nations disconnect from Russian power grid ahead of linking with EU

The Baltic states have disconnected from Russia's power grid and will synchronize with the EU's system, marking a major step toward energy independence and security.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and U.S. President Donald Trump. Microsoft and Nvidia are quietly engaging with the Trump administration on policies affecting AI, chip exports and data centers
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2025

Tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia taking a quieter approach to Trump

Under Biden, the United States curbed the sale of Nvidia chips to China and capped the sales of its AI chips to more than 100 other countries
Drug rehab patients walk in formation to have lunch at the Mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, north of Manila, in 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 10, 2025

Abuse and coercion rife in Philippines drugs rehab, rights groups say

Rights groups say some facilities fail standards and have called for more health and social support.
A worker walks in front of rolls of steel at a steel company in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 12, 2025

Canada, Mexico and EU slam 'unjustified' Trump steel tariffs

The European Union and Canada vowed to firmly retaliate against the tariffs.
Sam Altman (left) and Elon Musk were among the 11-person team that founded OpenAI in 2015.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 12, 2025

AI feud: How Musk and Altman's partnership turned toxic

Facing a barrage of hostility, Altman has increasingly suggested that Musk's actions stem from regret over leaving OpenAI in 2018.
A Good me tea store, operated by Guming Holdings Ltd., in Chongqing, China, on Saturday. The tea chain's shares began trading in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 12, 2025

Hong Kong’s latest bubble tea IPO mints another billionaire

Guming Holdings' IPO has made founder Yun’an Wang a billionaire as China’s bubble tea market continues its rapid expansion.
Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone (left) tries to get a shot away in front of Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid during the second period at Rogers Place, Edmonton, Canada on Dec. 14, 2024.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
Feb 12, 2025

Canada and Sweden ready to drop puck on anticipated 4 Nations Face-Off

Not since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey have the NHL's brightest stars lined up against each other to compete for their countries.
The city of Toyama. Under a new plan, the government of Toyama Prefecture, which lies on the Sea of Japan coast, will send officials to Shizuoka Prefecture in the event of a Nankai Trough megaquake.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2025

Partner prefecture plan eyed for Nankai Trough quake

The ministry will formally adopt the new plan by the end of fiscal 2024 for implementation in April.
Yokohama F. Marinos' Yan Matheus (center) is congratulated after scoring against Shanghai Shenhua in Yokohama on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Feb 12, 2025

Holland wins first game in charge of Marinos

Steve Holland is in his first job since stepping down following England's defeat to Spain in the final of last year's European Championship.
Cargo ships full of shipping containers are seen at the port of Oakland, California, on Feb. 3 as trade tensions escalate over U.S. tariffs
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 13, 2025

Trump says he will sign reciprocal tariffs order soon, as trade war fears mount

Trump's latest round of market-rattling tariffs comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to visit the White House on Thursday.
North Koreans on a bus hold the hands of their South Korean relatives as they bid farewell at the end of a three-day family reunion event at North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort in August 2018.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 13, 2025

North Korea demolishing family reunion center, Seoul says

The meetings had been subject to the vagaries of inter-Korea politics and often used as a negotiating tool by Pyongyang.
The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani warms up during spring training in Glendale, Arizona, Tuesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 13, 2025

Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani expected to throw first bullpen session this weekend

Ohtani underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2023 while still with the Los Angeles Angels. He was unable to pitch in 2024.
Visitors look at information promoting Saudi Arabia's Neom megaproject at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22.
WORLD
Feb 13, 2025

Why are TikTok 'momfluencers' lauding Saudi Arabia's desert megacity?

One Thai "momfluencer" shared a video of her "typical afternoon in Neom." The video has been viewed around 800,000 times. The city it shows is almost deserted.

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