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Tokyo Healthcare University professor Takayuki Mifune explains how he is trying to re-create bonito broth from 1,300 years ago.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Dec 4, 2023

The quest to re-create what the Japanese ate 1,300 years ago

Professor Takayuki Mifune and his team are hoping to understand, in minute detail, the culinary habits of our Japanese ancestors.
A worker at the Ford F-150 Lightning plant in Dearborn, Michigan in April last year. New government rules will try to shift more production of electric vehicle batteries and the materials that power them to the United States.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2023

U.S. sets limits on Chinese content to receive EV tax credits

The guidelines establish a 25% ownership threshold for a company or group to be classified as a foreign entity of concern.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks at a high-level segment at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2023

U.S. lays out plan at COP28 to slash methane emissions from oil and gas

The rules, two years in the making, were announced by U.S. officials at the United Nations COP28 climate change conference in Dubai.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 5, 2023

Japan defense chief says concerns linger after U.S. Osprey crew remains found

Dive teams have found the remains of five more crew members from a CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft that crashed off southwestern Japan last week.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 6, 2023

Biden ‘heartbroken’ as U.S. confirms eight dead in Osprey crash

The crash — the first fatal accident involving an Osprey in Japan and deadliest ever since it became operational — has rekindled concern over its safety.
Demonstrators call for action on climate change and environmental justice during a march in Washington in July 2018.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2023

There can be no climate justice if rich countries don’t pay

Rich countries are responsible for the climate crisis and it's only fair that they bear the burgeoning costs that poorer nations are having to pay.
Ground Self-Defense Force personnel take part in a military drill involving a V-22 Osprey aircraft in June 2022.
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2023

The Osprey crash has lessons for the U.S.-Japan alliance

The U.S. and Japan bungled the initial response to the crash of an Osprey aircraft in Japan. Both must learn to improve communication in the future.
U.S. President Joe Biden greets his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15 during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 19, 2023

Thaw in U.S.-China ties driven by domestic issues

There were no breakthroughs in Biden-Xi summit. But since then, there has been a lowering of tension and a rare sense of stability in the relationship.
Sareee holds Konami by the limbs during a Sukeban event in Miami on Dec. 6. A unique form of Japanese wrestling that mixes fashion and theatrics has arrived in the United States.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 14, 2023

Can Sukeban make Japan-style female wrestling fashionable with Americans?

In Japanese women’s wrestling, athletes perform theatrical, hard-hitting punches and clever defenses while telling a story with their moves and costumes.
Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for a third meeting and gave its clearest signal yet that its aggressive hiking campaign is finished, forecasting a series of cuts next year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 14, 2023

Fed prepares to shift to rate cuts in 2024 as inflation eases

Updated quarterly forecasts showed Fed officials expect to lower rates by 75 basis points next year, a sharper pace of cuts than indicated in September.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pays his respects at the graves of Ukrainian soldiers in Lviv on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2023

Zelenskyy returns to Ukraine with little aid and a raft of needs

Political infighting in Washington and the European Union has blocked further aid to Ukraine.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani leaves a U.S. courthhouse in Washington on Friday
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 16, 2023

Rudy Giuliani ordered to pay $148 million in defamation trial

The jury in federal court in Washington found that Giuliani, a former Trump lawyer, owes the workers after he made false accusations of election-rigging.
In Hayao Miyazaki's films, characters often experience life-changing revelations in midair, such as Haku and Chihiro in "Spirited Away."
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2023

How Hayao Miyazaki’s films continue to take us to the skies

When characters take flight in the films of the master animator, there is always a deeper meaning.
Donald Trump vowed to seek Supreme Court review after Colorado’s top court on Tuesday barred him from the 2024 presidential ballot there.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 21, 2023

Trump’s fate rests with the U.S. Supreme Court he shaped

The court will play a pivotal role in determining whether Trump will land in prison — or return to the White House.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks after a U.N. Security Council meeting in New York on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 23, 2023

A world leader on Ukraine, the U.S. is now isolated over Gaza

With the year drawing to a close, the United States finds itself diplomatically isolated and in a defensive crouch over the Israel-Hamas war.
Palestinians wait to collect food at a donation point in a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 25, 2023

U.S. sees new isolation from Israel support

Gaza suffering raises ire against Washington, which is juggling backing for ally with behind-the-scenes pressure to better protect civilians.
The Colorado Supreme Court in Denver, Colorado, on Dec. 20. The court ruled on Dec. 19 that Trump is ineligible for the White House under a provision of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment prohibiting officials who engage in "insurrection or rebellion" against the U.S. government from holding elected office.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 27, 2023

Police probe threats against Colorado justices after Trump ruling

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last week that Trump is ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment .
U.S. President Joe Biden with IBM’s System One quantum computer during a tour of a facility in Poughkeepsie, New York in 2022. Chinese spies are challenging the C.I.A. by deploying artificial intelligence and other advanced technology as the two nations try to pilfer each other’s trade secrets.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

Chinese spy agency rising to challenge the CIA

In recent years, China's Ministry of State Security has sharpened itself through better training, a bigger budget and the use of advanced technologies.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 29, 2023

After breakthrough talks, China's military slams U.S. for 'meddling'

U.S. officials had hoped last week's talks between U.S. Gen. Charles Brown and China's Gen. Liu Zhenli could herald a restoration in military ties.
Critics — including a number of reporters in the Pentagon press corps — slammed the decision not to release information that U.S. Secretary of State Lloyd Austin was ill until Friday, five days after he was hospitalized.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 6, 2024

Pentagon keeps defense chief's hospitalization under wraps for days

The news — which was released five days after Lloyd Austin was hospitalized — emerged as Washington faces a growing crisis in the Middle East.
Kim Yung-ho
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 6, 2024

South Korean official says U.S. troops likely to stay even if Trump is re-elected

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said this was the case because the U.S. Congress had already decided the matter in a defense bill it recently passed.
A supporter of Donald Trump prior to a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last month. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signaled that voters in the United Kingdom will go to the polls in the fall, around the time that the United States will be in the midst of its own pivotal vote.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Trumpian bravado poses risk for Sunak amid dueling U.K. and U.S. votes

Polls show U.K. voters are becoming more wary of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as an election looms.
Ukrainian officials inspect a Russian cruise missile shot down near Kyiv in January 2023.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2024

U.S. preeminence is threatened by a real 'missile gap'

The U.S. isn’t just being tested politically. Its military dominance also is in question, partly due to overextension.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken gestures as he arrives in Tel Aviv on Monday as part of his weeklong trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East.
WORLD / Society
Jan 9, 2024

Blinken arrives in Israel as it says Gaza war to continue through 2024

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to meet Israeli leaders on Tuesday in his quest to prevent the Gaza Strip conflict from growing into a regional conflagration as the Israeli military said its fight against Hamas will rage all year.
In Washington on Monday and Tuesday, Pentagon and Chinese military officials held their first in-person defense policy talks since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 10, 2024

China's military vows no compromise on Taiwan after rare talks with U.S.

The meeting came as China warned Tokyo over remarks by former Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso that Japan would join the fight in a war over the democratic island.
U.S. President Joe Biden gives a thumbs-up as he walks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Filoli estate on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15. Their meeting attempted to calm the waters and tried to convey a sense that the U.S. and China could effectively manage their differences.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 11, 2024

In 2024, U.S.-China ties likely to get worse before they get better

The trajectory of Washington and Beijing's relationship this year will have profound effects on Japan's own policies going forward.
A container ship crosses the Gulf of Suez toward the Red Sea before entering the Suez Canal east of Cairo. Vessels have been pausing or diverting from the Red Sea amid the escalating conflict in the region.
WORLD
Jan 16, 2024

Yemen's Houthis threaten to hit U.S. ships as more tankers steer clear

The Iran-allied militant group said British and American vessels had become "legitimate targets" following last week's strikes on its sites by both countries.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 16, 2024

U.S. military to join relief effort in earthquake-hit Noto area

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said that the U.S. military and the SDF would be working “side by side” in the operations.
The caucus system is increasingly out of step with how modern America lives and picks its presidential candidates and how modern campaigns roll.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2024

It’s time to scrap the Iowa caucus

The concept behind the Iowa Caucus was both noble and novel when it debuted in 1972. Now many people think it has no place in modern politics.
Casey DeSantis introduces her husband, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as he makes a campaign visit ahead of the South Carolina presidential primary in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 22, 2024

Ron DeSantis ends campaign, endorses Trump as New Hampshire vote looms

The move leaves former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley as Donald Trump's last remaining challenger for the GOP nomination.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell