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Chinese President Xi Jinping made the call for the PBOC to gradually increase the buying and selling of government bonds in October but his remarks were publicized recently in a new book and newspaper article, hinting at a policy pivot for a central bank that hasn’t made a significant bond purchase since 2007.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

Xi’s cryptic bond comments hint at PBOC becoming more like Fed

PBOC could pivot toward strategies used by other central banks in heeding the call to "gradually increase the buying and selling of government bonds.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects the first test-fire of the Hwasong-16B, a new-type intermediate-range, solid-fueled ballistic missile outside Pyongyang in this image released Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 3, 2024

North Korea aims to adopt solid-fuel missiles for faster launches

Analysts say solid-fuel missiles can be faster to deploy than liquid-fuel variants, but it's unclear if the North can or will adopt these exclusively.
A Ukrainian soldier loads ammunition into an M2 Browning machine gun.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 3, 2024

Moscow is outpacing Ukraine’s allies in the race for ammunition

The flow of military aid has dropped dramatically, and some Ukrainian guns are firing just a single round a day in order to save their dwindling stocks.
Citigroup is betting that Japan’s bond market revival will gather steam after the Bank of Japan's rate hike.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 4, 2024

Citigroup sees ‘exciting market’ for Japan bonds after BOJ move

"Normalization has started, so we foresee a lot of activity going forward”
The Bank of Japan's steady policy normalization process will probably start next year, with potentially a 25-basis-point rate increase every six months, a former policy board member says.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 4, 2024

BOJ will wait until October before hiking rates again, says ex-board member

Makoto Sakurai believes a steady policy normalization process may start next year, with potentially a 25-basis-point rate increase every six months.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Oval Office in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 5, 2024

Biden ultimatum to Netanyahu: protect Gaza civilians, or else

Analysts said the implicit threat was to slow U.S. arms transfers to Israel or to temper U.S. support at the U.N.
Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome (STSS) is caused by bacteria called group A streptococcus, the same type that causes a strep throat infection, which affects mostly children. A strep A throat infection is not the same as STSS, however.
JAPAN / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Apr 5, 2024

Japan's tissue-damaging bacterial disease: What you need to know

Misconceptions are fueling jitters at home and abroad, with travelers considering putting off their plans to visit the country.
Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin,” once the victim of high waves that dragged it into the sea, sits at the end of a pier on the south side of Naoshima.
CULTURE / Art / Longform
Apr 6, 2024

Why is the most exciting art in Japan so hard to get to?

Japan has a unique movement of public art projects and festivals that are a slog to get to — by design. A writer examines the country's “inconvenient art."
Dogs are long-lived enough to serve as better models for human aging than mice, but short-lived enough that aging treatments can be tested in just a few years.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2024

Your dog will have an anti-aging drug before you do

Dogs are long-lived enough to serve as better models for human aging than mice, but short-lived enough that aging treatments can be tested in a few years.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war, on Oct. 18. Despite growing pressure from Biden, the Israeli prime minister appears in no rush to end the war in Gaza. Some think he is dragging out the war to prevent the collapse of his fragile right-wing coalition and extend his time in office.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 6, 2024

After six months of war, some Israelis ask: Is Netanyahu dragging it out?

Despite growing pressure from U.S. President Joe Biden, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu appears in no rush to end the war in Gaza.
A Tesla Model 3 vehicle drives using FSD (Full Self-Driving) in Encinitas, California, in October.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Apr 6, 2024

Tesla's bet on robotaxis is a long way from paying off

A greater emphasis on robotaxis comes with more risk for Tesla due to the complexity of the technology involved, analysts said.
China’s greenhouse footprint can be boiled down to three factors: its economic growth, the energy intensity of that growth and the carbon intensity of that energy.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2024

China’s growth ambitions will erase the world’s climate gains

Global greenhouse pollution hit a record and increased 1.1% last year, the International Energy Agency reported. That was almost entirely a China story.
U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British leader Rishi Sunak deliver remarks on the AUKUS partnership, after a trilateral meeting, at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego in March last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 7, 2024

AUKUS weighs expanding security pact to deter China, report says

Rahm Emanuel, the outspoken U.S. ambassador in Tokyo, wrote in a recent commentary that Japan was "about to become the first additional Pillar II partner."
A boat carrying Philippine Coast Guard personnel moves past a China Coast Guard ship during a resupply mission in the disputed South China Sea on Nov. 10, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 8, 2024

China’s huge sea buildup dwarfs Philippine push on tiny island

China's military presence in the South China Sea outshines Manila's plans to invest in a small, underdeveloped island there.
Gen. Charles Flynn at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, south of Seoul, on Saturday
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 8, 2024

North Korea’s ballistic missiles are getting valuable battlefield testing in Ukraine

Pyongyang is gaining valuable information in technical matters, procedures and the munitions themselves, a top U.S. general has said.
Pakistan finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb in Islamabad on March 22
WORLD / Politics
Apr 9, 2024

Pakistan’s finance minister leaves behind banker's life and pay to fix economy

The country has Asia’s fastest inflation, anemic growth and one of the lowest tax-collection rates in the world.
Haruko Obokata speaks to reporters in the city of Osaka in 2014. Ten years after the STAP scandal, structural problems that led to the scandal persist, leaving ample room for researchers to tamper with research data, experts say.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Apr 9, 2024

Little change in Japan’s research sector 10 years after stem cell fraud

A decade after the STAP scandal, there is still a lot of leeway for researchers to tamper with data.
A recent near-hacking incident underscores the critical role of open-source software in the digital economy and the vulnerabilities inherent in its decentralized development process.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2024

The world narrowly escapes a supply chain doomsday scenario

A software engineer last month stumbled on what some say would have been the most widespread and effective backdoor ever planted in any software product.
Electricity pylons next to the Sizewell B nuclear power station, in Sizewell, U.K.
BUSINESS
Apr 9, 2024

European nuclear plants put out of work by green power surge

The drive to promote renewable energy is turning the screws on Europe’s nuclear industry.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Akasaka Palace state guest house in Tokyo in May 2022.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2024

Biden and Kishida likely to discuss Texas bullet train project, sources say

The leaders may publicly voice support for the multi-billion-dollar Texas project after Wednesday's talks.
Given Pakistan's internal security challenges and changing geopolitical dynamics, India may opt for a policy of minimal engagement with its neighbor.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2024

Does Pakistan still matter to India?

New Delhi's approach toward Islamabad is likely to remain unchanged in the foreseeable future.
Masato Kanda, vice finance minister for international affairs, says all options are on table after the yen fell past ¥153 to the dollar.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 11, 2024

Tokyo and Washington may be in sync, but the dollar-yen currency gap is growing

The yen slipped to its lowest level since 1990 — ¥153 against the dollar — while officials said they were examining their options.
People walk under flags of China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Queen’s Road in Hong Kong in June 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 11, 2024

Hong Kong court jails first dual national under Beijing's security law

Joseph John, a 41-year-old Portuguese citizen, has been denied bail for over 16 months since he was arrested and charged in November 2022.
Smoke rising above buildings after an aerial bombardment in Khartoum North, Sudan, in May 2023
WORLD / Politics
Apr 11, 2024

Iranian-made drones may be turning tide to army's favor in Sudan civil war

Residents say newer drones appear to monitor RSF movements, target their positions and pinpoint artillery strikes in a city that forms part of the capital.
O.J. Simpson appears in district court during his trial at the Clark County Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas in September 2008.
SPORTS
Apr 12, 2024

O.J. Simpson, football star who faced trial for ex-wife's murder, dies at 76

One of the most popular U.S. athletes of the 1970s, Simpson was later found responsible for his former wife's death then imprisoned for other crimes.
Ippei Mizuhara and Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani attend a news conference ahead of MLB's season-opening series in Seoul on March 16.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 12, 2024

Texts between Ippei Mizuhara and bookie show the walls closing in

Federal prosecutors say Ippei Mizuhara stole $16 million from Shohei Ohtani from November 2021 to January 2024.
Ippei Mizuhara, the 39-year-old former interpreter for Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani, was ordered released on $25,000 bond after his first court appearance to face a bank fraud charge accusing him of stealing $16 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers star to cover illegal gambling expenses.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 13, 2024

Ohtani's ex-interpreter issues apology after release on $25,000 bond

Ippei Mizuhara was released on bond after appearing in court on a bank fraud charge accusing him of stealing $16 million to cover illegal gambling debts.
The departure hall at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Now with inflation at its strongest in decades, Japanese are starting to realize that years of static wages leave many of them budgeting each month before their next pay check.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

Japan’s young workers head abroad as huge wage gap persists

The outflow is also a sign that many Japanese aren’t buying into the nation’s economic optimism as it exits from decades of deflation.
U.S. President Joe Biden during a joint news conference with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (not pictured) in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

It's inflation, stupid: Biden faces renewed election threat

The cost of living is rising more quickly again, just when he thought he had put the issue behind him to get a clear run at November's vote.
Ukrainian soldiers take cover during fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2022.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

Kharkiv's civilians under fire as Ukraine faces 'catastrophic' air defense shortage

The city is so near the border that Russian missiles can reach their target in less than a minute.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes