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Indian Ambassador Sibi George says one of his main tasks in his post is to boost Japanese public and private investments the South Asian powerhouse.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

India’s envoy in Japan calls for boosted supply chain and defense cooperation

The ambassador’s remarks come after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to continue prioritizing ties with Japan.
France's Sarah Leonie Cysique battles Uzbekistan's Shukurjon Aminova at the Paris Grand Slam at Accor Arena on Feb. 2.
OLYMPICS / Judo
Jul 18, 2024

How France embraced judo and became a martial arts powerhouse

The country has embraced the Japanese martial art to the point where it may be more popular in France than in Japan.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the Cook Islands' Prime Minister Mark Brown shake hands during 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting on Thursday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 18, 2024

With eye on China, Japan deepens ties with Pacific islands at Tokyo summit

Collaborations have been agreed in seven fields, including technology and connectivity, climate change, people-centered development and security.
Cadets at the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kure Recruit Training Center row in unison during a cutter boat drill in Kure Bay, Hiroshima Prefecture, in June.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Jul 29, 2024

MSDF’s Kure base faces recruitment challenges as youngsters shy away

The stressful nature of service and an increasing likelihood of actual combat are causing many to opt for other careers.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris supports President Joe Biden as he speaks from the White House on Sunday about the shooting of his Republican challenger, Donald Trump.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2024

It’s no big deal that a woman may be the president. What a beautiful thing.

Despite some lingering biases, evidence suggests that female leaders often outperform male leaders, particularly in areas like public health.
U.S. President Joe Biden leaves after delivering remarks during an event at the College of Southern Nevada North Las Vegas Campus, in Las Vegas, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 19, 2024

Biden faces mounting speculation amid pressure to drop his bid

Conjecture over if, when, or how U.S. President Joe Biden might step aside has dominated the political conversation.
Palestinians shelter in a tent camp that was recently attacked in Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 19, 2024

Poliovirus found in Gaza as flies and mosquitoes feast on piling waste

Polio is a highly infectious disease that can cause deformities and paralysis.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs after the third night of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 19, 2024

Fearful or cheerful? World leaders mull Trump's potential foreign policy

With Donald Trump polling ahead of Joe Biden to be reelected president in the U.S., some governments are taking concrete steps to prepare for his possible return.
Two Air Self-Defense Force F-15s (right) escort two German Air Force Eurofighter jets and an A330MRTT aerial tanker on their arrival in Japan Friday. The ASDF is conducting training exercises with the German, French and Spanish air forces this weekend.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2024

German, French and Spanish fighter aircraft arrive in Japan for joint drills

The stopover in Japan is part of a two-month, trinational Pacific Skies deployment that will also take the three countries’ air forces to Australia, India and Hawaii.
During a demonstration to demand a ceasefire and an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in Tokyo on June 24, Sophia University student Jumana Kasemu participates in “Tears for Palestine,” a global event that started in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 19, 2024

If the Gaza protests seem one-sided, it’s because the current violence is

Empathy for Israeli suffering doesn't prevent college students in Japan and beyond from manifesting their anger at indiscriminate violence leveled against Palestinians.
The general secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, in February 2021. Trong died on Friday at age 80, state media said.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 19, 2024

Vietnam's most powerful Communist Party leader dies

For months, Trong had appeared frail at public events or missed them outright and on Thursday his duties as party chief were taken over by President To Lam.
Ukrainian military Leopard 2A4 tanks during a training exercise in Spain.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2024

How a Berlin Cold War outpost offers a window on challenges today

With the West again aligned against Moscow as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine grinds on, it now seems strangely current.
Fuji Rock Festival's smaller stages such as the Field of Heaven offer a number of younger acts that demonstrate the thrilling new directions Japanese music is taking in the 2020s.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 21, 2024

Domestic acts at Fuji Rock's smaller stages are not to be missed

From Summer Eye to Nene, this year’s gathering offers one of the strongest collections of Japanese music present at a large-scale festival in recent times.
Secret Service officers surround U.S. former President Donald Trump, the Republican  presidential candidate, as he attends the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2024

Secret Service says it denied earlier Trump requests for more federal resources

The denied requests for additional resources were not specifically for the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president survived an assassination attempt.
Smoke rises from a fire following an Israeli airstrike in Hodeidah, Yemen, in this photo released Saturday.
WORLD
Jul 21, 2024

Israeli jets strike Houthi targets in Yemen after Tel Aviv attack

A port that was one of the main targets had been used to receive weapons shipments from Iran, according to Israel.
Passengers wait at the international airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 
Friday after airlines grounded flights due to a worldwide tech outage caused by an update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor software, which crashed Microsoft Windows systems. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2024

CrowdStrike’s global outage doesn’t have to be a recurring nightmare

This time the scale is unprecedented. That should spur Microsoft and other IT firms to do more than simply administer a band-aid.
The 2024 presidential race throws another curveball at the markets with U.S. President Joe Biden dropping out of the race.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 22, 2024

How investors are reacting to Biden dropping reelection bid

Many investors are waiting to see who the new Democratic nominee will be, with some uncomfortable about the uncertainty.
While chip stocks have been on a tear this year, some strategists see signs of overheating within the sector.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 22, 2024

Top Taiwan tech fund says there’s still more juice in AI rally

Fund manager sees more opportunities in Taiwanese and Japanese stocks amid tensions between the U.S. and China.
U.S. President Joe Biden walks to board Marine One at Hagerstown Regional Airport, in Hagerstown, Maryland, on June 20.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 22, 2024

Inside the weekend when Biden decided to withdraw

U.S. President Joe Biden did not tell most of his staff until a minute before making his announcement to the world on social media on Sunday.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presents on the chipmaker's Blackwell platform at an event ahead of the Computex forum, in Taipei on June 2. The flagship Blackwell series was unveiled in March.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 22, 2024

Nvidia preparing version of new flagship AI chip for Chinese market, sources say

The Chinese version of the chip will be made compatible with current U.S. export controls.
Scientists drive their snowmobiles cross the arctic during dawn near Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Norway, on April 10, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 23, 2024

Pentagon to bolster response to China and Russia in Arctic

Measures are needed "to ensure the Arctic does not become a strategic blind spot,” the Defense Department said in its 2024 Arctic Strategy released Monday.
A full-scale model of the new design of a next-generation fighter that Japan, Italy and Britain plan to develop together is showcased Monday by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Leonardo and BAE Systems — the projects’ lead system integrators — at the Farnborough International Airshow near London on Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2024

Japan and partners unveil design for cutting-edge new joint fighter

While unlikely to be the final design, the refined concept features major changes in the wing and aft fuselage areas ostensibly meant to improve its aerodynamics.
A woman watches as soldiers practice laying mines and nets to stymie the landing of enemy forces at the mouth of a major river leading to the city in Taipei on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 24, 2024

China squeezes Taiwan by targeting islands and fishing sites

Mostly using its Coast Guard, Beijing appears to be asserting itself in new ways around Taiwan’s offshore outposts.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle enters a House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing on the security lapses that allowed an attempted assassination of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 24, 2024

Secret Service director resigns following Trump shooting

Kimberly Cheatle is stepping down after taking responsibility for security failures at a campaign rally where the former president was shot.
Members of the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament, attend a plenary session in Moscow on July 10.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 24, 2024

Russian MPs vote to broaden 'undesirable organizations' law

One of the bill's authors said that British, German and Japanese organizations could fall under the new legislation.
A computer-generated image shows the new refined design of a next-generation fighter aircraft being co-developed by Japan, Britain and Italy.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 24, 2024

Japan has ‘no concerns’ over rumored hitch in joint fighter jet plans

While experts agree there are currently no indications that the U.K. might drop out of the program, the multilateral project still faces a number of challenges.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024

Netanyahu sketches vague outline for postwar Gaza

Israeli leader also accused anti-Israel protesters as standing with Hamas, charging without evidence that they were backed by Iran
A German army Eurocopter Tiger helicopter flies during the Quadriga 2024 military exercises in Pabrade, Lithuania, on May 29.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024

NATO planners count cost of hardening Europe against Russian threat

A recent analysis shows shortages in air defenses and long-range missiles, troop numbers, ammunition and secure digital communications on the battlefield.
A German Air Force Eurofighter jet takes off from Chitose Airbase in Hokkaido during Germany and Japan's first-ever bilateral fighter exercise, which ran from Monday to Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2024

Japan and Germany elevate ties with first joint fighter exercise

Named Nippon Skies, the aerial maneuvers took place in the airspace around the Air Self-Defense Force’s Chitose Air Base in Hokkaido.
La Defense Arena in Nanterre, France, which will host the Olympic swimming competition starting Saturday.
OLYMPICS
Jul 26, 2024

China doping row set to raise tension at Paris pool

Some of the world's best in the sport have criticized anti-doping authorities and raised concerns about the competition's integrity.

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