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Key Square Group founder Scott Bessent speaks at a campaign event for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Asheville, North Carolina, in August.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 9, 2024

Scott Bessent, top candidate for Treasury Secretary, meets with Trump

The Treasury Secretary job is a key Cabinet position, with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.
A damaged vehicle lies amid the debris in front of building damaged by overnight Israeli airstrikes in the southern Lebanese village of Ain Baal in the Tyre district on Sunday.
WORLD
Nov 11, 2024

Deadly strikes on Gaza and Lebanon as Israel faces aid deadline

Washington set a deadline of this coming week for Israel to get more aid in to Gaza or face possible cuts to military assistance.
This year is expected to be the hottest year on record, and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service predicts it will also be the first year ever to breach 1.5 C of warming.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 12, 2024

Global warming is already on the cusp of 1.5 C, new research finds

While there is nothing symbolic about the number 1.5 in particular, every extra increment of heat risks worsening climate impacts like powerful storms and drought.
Susie Wiles, Republican Donald Trump's campaign manager, attends a rally in Kinston, North Carolina, on Nov. 3.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 12, 2024

In Susie Wiles, Trump picks quiet competence for chief of staff

The longtime Florida-based Republican strategist's shrewd strategies, low profile, and work ethic are credited with helping Trump stage a stunning political comeback.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump greets Sen. Marco Rubio during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Nov. 4. Trump is expected to name Rubio, a loyalist who Trump passed over as his vice presidential running mate, as secretary of state.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 12, 2024

Trump diplomacy and security picks likely to anger China but reassure Japan

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to select Sen. Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state and Rep. Mike Waltz to be national security adviser.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with senior adviser Susie Wiles as he speaks, following early results from the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Palm Beach County Convention Center, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 6.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 12, 2024

As Donald Trump staffs up for second term, only MAGA loyalists need apply

As advisers and allies of Republican President-elect Donald Trump search for personnel to staff his coming administration, one quality is absolutely paramount: unquestioning loyalty.
SoftBank returned to the black in the three months to September, as it benefited from higher share prices of listed companies in its Vision Fund investment vehicles.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 12, 2024

SoftBank back to quarterly profit with ¥1.18 trillion gain

The tech giant benefited from higher share prices of listed companies in its Vision Fund investment vehicles.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping after a signing ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in April 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 14, 2024

Lula’s embrace of Xi sets up a clash over Trump’s China policy

Brazil’s geography and colonial history meant that it has traditionally looked to the Atlantic for commerce. Now it’s deepening ties with the Asia Pacific.
Anduril Industries' Ghost-X unmanned aircraft is one of the systems included in the next tranche of the Pentagon's Replicator program that it plans to field from August next year.
WORLD
Nov 14, 2024

Pentagon unveils more Replicator drones to counter China

This is just the second time the U.S. has provided specifics on what it’s buying in its move to field thousands of cheap, smart and autonomous attack drones.
Then-Chinese Vice Premier Liu He presents a letter from his boss, Xi Jinping, to then-U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House following trade negotiations in October 2019.
COMMENTARY
Nov 14, 2024

Trump’s tariffs and inflation fatigue are a toxic brew

Key to Trump's logic is the idea that the U.S. has all the leverage, and that just isn’t true in the current macroeconomic environment.
Democratic Party for the People chief Yuichiro Tamaki wants to the tax-free annual income ceiling raised to ¥1.78 million ($11,410).
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 14, 2024

Japan’s key political issue rests on an enduring economic myth

Economists cast doubts on the Democratic Party for the People's push for raising the tax-free income threshold — its key demand to the ruling coalition for its support.
The streets of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, in October show that the city is still struggling from the aftermath of the Jan. 1 earthquake and heavy rain in September.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Nov 15, 2024

Japan faces urgent need to boost state finances for emergencies

If a major earthquake were to strike directly beneath Tokyo, the projected damage would total around ¥107.5 trillion.
There is a broad shift in Japan’s business environment, where long-standing relationships are being challenged by foreign and activist investors looking for merger and acquisition deals.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 15, 2024

Japan's newfound love of M&A makes for strange bedfellows

There is a broad shift in Japan’s business environment, where long-standing relationships are being challenged by foreign and activist investors.
A newly elected Donald Trump will encounter a changed Middle East where he will be forced to challenge Iran's influence and curb its nuclear ambitions — a path that is fraught with complications.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2024

Iran is much weaker than the last time it faced Trump

Today, Israel has crippled Hamas in Gaza, and in Lebanon, Hezbollah can still fire rockets, but Israel has decimated its leadership.
Marco Rubio debates Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary race. The president-elect has named the senator from Florida as his prospective secretary of state.
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2024

Trump’s Cabinet picks make clear his priorities. Allies get ready.

Trump claims a mandate — winning the popular vote and both Houses of Congress — but his margin of victory is smaller than he will admit.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping reviews an honor guard upon his arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Callao, Peru, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 16, 2024

Xi seizes role as global defender of free trade against Trump

China’s leader warned on Friday that the global economy was fracturing as protectionism spreads, leading to "severe challenges.”
A large screen shows news footage of China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe collecting a sample from the far side of the moon, in Beijing in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 16, 2024

China tests building moon base with lunar soil bricks

A cargo rocket carrying brick samples blasted off late Friday for the Tiangong space station, part of Beijing's mission to put humans on the moon by 2030.
Kenyan climate scientist Joyce Kimutai during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku on Friday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 16, 2024

World not listening to us, laments Kenyan climate scientist at COP29

"If the world was listening to science, maybe we wouldn't be doing these COPs," the 36-year-old Kenyan climate scientist said.
U.S. gymnastics team coach Bela Karolyi watches over a training session in Sydney in September 2000.
OLYMPICS
Nov 17, 2024

Famed gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi dies at 82

Known as a strict disciplinarian, Karolyi was a controversial figure at times.
Rice fields in the town of Ozu, Kumamoto Prefecture. The water-filled paddies glistening under the sun is a symbol of a long-running effort to preserve the prefecture’s groundwater.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Nov 17, 2024

Japan's chipmaking rush pressures Kumamoto's special water supply

TSMC and others hope that support for existing projects and proper wastewater management can avoid undermining water development efforts lauded by the U.N.
Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Vladimir Putin in 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 18, 2024

North Korea may end up sending Putin 100,000 troops for war

North Korea sending troops to join Russia’s fight against Ukraine has alarmed Kyiv’s allies, who say it risks exacerbating Europe’s largest conflict since World War II.
Masahide Endo, chief consultant at Daiwa Institute of Research noted that Alimentation Couche-Tard's bid for Seven & I Holdings had spawned a sense of crisis in other industries over sudden takeover proposals.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 18, 2024

Japanese companies increasingly targeted in foreign M&A bids

The total value of inbound acquisitions from overseas is up about 3.7 times year on year.
Ichiro Suzuki became one of the best hitters in baseball history during his 19-year career in MLB.
BASEBALL
Nov 19, 2024

Ichiro makes debut on Hall of Fame ballot

The superstar outfielder is considered by many to be a lock to gain induction during his first year on the ballot.
Donald Trump, the then-Republican presidential candidate and now the president-elect, visits the U.S.-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, in February. His appointments to key positions in his new administration show he is moving aggressively on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2024

Trump's mass deportation plan has its leaders in place

Even before Trump’s victory, Tom Homan, the former acting director for ICE, promised to "run the biggest deportation operation this country's ever seen.”
A member of the U.S. National Guard patrols on top of shipping containers along the Rio Grande, in Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, on March 19.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 19, 2024

Surveillance technology could supercharge Trump's plans, rights groups say

Trump could use surveillance systems and artificial intelligence as part of his plans to carry out mass deportations and more.
People look at weapons kept on display at the Vietnam International Defense Expo 2022 in Hanoi.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 19, 2024

Iran and Israel among rivals to showcase their arms at Vietnam defense expo

At the defense expo to be held in the capital Hanoi on Dec. 19-22, nearly 200 companies from 27 countries have already reserved booths.
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives for a bilateral meeting Peruvian President Dina Boluarte at the Government Palace in Lima on Nov. 14.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 20, 2024

Xi’s push for stable world of low tariffs undone by Trump and Putin

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to put 60% tariffs on Chinese goods while China walks a tightrope regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
People walk near the entrance of the venue of the United Nations climate change conference COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 20, 2024

Development banks seek private money for climate change fight

Development banks committed to increasing their lending to poorer countries to $120 billion a year by 2030.
Members of the Ground Self-Defense Force take part in a joint military drill involving Japan, the United States, Britain and Australia at Narashino exercise field in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, in January 2023.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2024

Japan hosts Five Eyes group meeting for first time

The move highlights the growing cooperation between Tokyo and its allies amid shared concerns about a rapidly deteriorating security environment.
A post-election analysis by the polling company Blueprint discovered that the top reason why American swing voters eventually supported Donald Trump over Kamal Harris was culture (+28) followed by inflation (+23).
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2024

It’s too soon to say wokeism is dead

The Republicans ran the most unwoke man in America for the presidency, Donald Trump, and were amply rewarded for it.

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