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Photographer Robert Beck took the famous photo of Brandi Chastain celebrating the United States' victory in the Women's World Cup final in 1999 that appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
SPORTS
Jan 25, 2024

The Sports Illustrated cover, a faded canvas that once defined sports

Sports Illustrated's power to define sports discourse been steadily eroding, but it is hard to overstate the power it once had.
One way to cut the steel industry’s emissions is to recycle more iron and steel products than the world currently does.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024

What steel decarbonization needs

One way to cut the industry's emissions is by recycling more iron and steel products than we currently do.
Unfortunately for Japan, the demographic cliff is approaching and the government will need more than minor course adjustments to fix its Self-Defense Forces' recruitment woes.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 26, 2024

Cosmetic changes won’t fix the SDF’s recruitment problem

Facing demographic decline, Japan explores innovative solutions to boost recruitment in the Self-Defense Forces.
The precision landing made by the SLIM project is essential to establishing a manned base on the moon, which will depend on targeted supply missions.
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2024

Successful moon landing prepares Japan for the future

Japan is now the fifth country to successfully land a probe on the moon, following the U.S., Russia, China and India.
As a small open economy, Hong Kong is vulnerable to financial contagion and capital flights to and from China.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2024

Hong Kong is facing a repeat of 1998 Asia financial crisis

As the Hang Seng Index selloff deepens, bankers and traders are preparing for the worst.
Women walk past an army-related billboard at the All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow on Jan. 24.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2024

New anti-Ukraine disinformation campaign targets Western media

Examples of disinformation include thefts from the Paris catacombs by a Ukrainian and military aid misappropriated by Ukraine.
Environmental costs are estimated at $3 trillion from current agricultural land use and food production methods, which scientists say account for a third of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jan 30, 2024

Fixing food could produce trillions in annual benefits

On the current trajectory, food systems alone will push global warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius, potentially soaring to 2.7 degrees by 2100.
Philippine's Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (left) and Vietnam's President Vo Van Thuong at a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on Tuesday
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 30, 2024

Amid China concerns, Manila and Hanoi agree to better manage maritime disputes

The Philippines is turning to neighboring South China Sea claimant states to boost security ties and potentially forge a united front against Beijing.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2024

What the future holds for the Japanese Communist Party

After a decade of steadily declining seat counts in the Diet, the Japanese Communist Party has turned to its first-ever female leader.
Shigeru Ishiba, a heavyweight in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, says the Bank of Japan should immediately end its negative interest rate policy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 30, 2024

Dark-horse prime minister candidate calls for ending BOJ's negative rate policy

An outspoken Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, Shigeru Ishiba consistently ranks among favorites to become the next prime minister in opinion polls.
The Tokyo Kiki Lounge is a queer pageant, dance competition and party, known in the ball culture as a “kiki ball.”
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 1, 2024

You're free to be yourself at the Tokyo Kiki Lounge

The pageant, dance competition and party is a thriving safe space for Japan's queer community.
Emperors sought eternal life for centuries, but scientists believe our physical bodies have limits. That's where technologists come in.
BUSINESS / Tech / Longform
Feb 3, 2024

The digital beyond: Is an eternal existence within grasp?

Immortality has been a dream for centuries, but scientists doubt its possibility. Can technologists and coders find a virtual path instead?
Asia's pandemic-era policies must now be unwound against a backdrop of slower GDP growth, higher inflation and increased debt.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2024

A new economic policy agenda for Asia

Asia's pandemic-era policies must now be unwound against a backdrop of slower GDP growth, higher inflation and increased debt.
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift arrives for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Feb 5, 2024

Taylor Swift makes Grammys history as women rule music's top honors

Winning for her album "Midnights," Taylor Swift has won the best album prize a total of four times, eclipsing Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.
Prabowo Subianto, presidential candidate and Indonesia's defense minister, speaks during the final presidential debate in Jakarta on Sunday. More than 204 million Indonesians will vote on Feb. 14 to elect new leaders who will shape Southeast Asia's largest economy for the next five years.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

Ex-general becomes cat-loving grandpa in bid to run Indonesia

Prabowo Subianto has been accused of human rights abuses, but now he is reaping the rewards of an extensive image makeover.
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan during an interview at his residence in Lahore on May 18, 2023. His name may not be on the ballot, but Khan will be on the country's mind as Pakistan votes in an election on Feb. 8 that observers say is deeply flawed without his participation. The former international cricket star has been given three lengthy prison sentences in under a week and banned from politics for 10 years — officially excluding him from an election it never looked like he would allowed to contest.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

Days before Pakistan vote, former leader Imran Khan campaigns from jail

Khan's campaign involves use of generative AI technology to create audio footage of him reading speeches conveyed to lawyers from his prison cell.
Like for other generative AI services, the algorithm behind Rufus is a closely held secret and Amazon declined to discuss how it operates.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 6, 2024

Who benefits when shoppers use Amazon's new AI tool?

The tool raises several questions, as Amazon has a history of steering customers toward products that most benefit the company.
Naomi Osaka hits a return against Danielle Collins during her first round loss at the Abu Dhabi Open on Tuesday.
TENNIS
Feb 7, 2024

Osaka trying not to 'feel like a failure' after early Abu Dhabi exit

Despite a close opening set that witnessed supreme serving from both players, Osaka struggled in her service games in the second set.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen holds a welcome ceremony in September 2022 for then-Tuvaluan Prime Minister Kausea Natano in Taipei.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 7, 2024

Tuvalu could recognize China, but how much would it affect Taiwan?

Taipei might benefit from shifting its energy and resources away from competing with Beijing over formal recognition.
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi takes part in a training session in Chiba on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Feb 7, 2024

Anger over Messi’s behavior grows in China before Japan game

Many commentators in China have drawn comparisons between Messi’s behavior in Hong Kong and his demeanor in Japan.
Taiwanese soldiers train at a base in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Tuesday. The island has decided to extend compulsory military service for young males from four months to one year amid increasing threats from China.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 7, 2024

Taiwan extends military conscription, a system Japan might want to consider

As Japan struggles to fill its military ranks, compulsory national service might be its only solution.
Straight-to-video films, locally called “V-Cinema,” were popular in the 1990s and into the 2000s, becoming a training ground and launchpad for Japanese directors and actors.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2024

Threatened with extinction, V-Cinema hopes for new saviors

Physical deterioration and copyright issues mar the influential film genre that once served as a launchpad for directors and actors in Japan.
Japan is the only country with a law requiring married couples to adopt the same surname. In 95% of cases, it is women who take their husband's name.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 7, 2024

The land where single surnames are the only option

The business lobby recently joined calls for Japan to accept separate surnames after marriage. What, then, is standing in the way of change? Politics.
Displaced Palestinians react near their tents following an Israeli strike on a car in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 8, 2024

Gaza cease-fire hopes alive with more talks planned

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sees room for negotiation in Hamas' counteroffer despite Israel's rejection of it.
While online influence campaigns are increasingly common as powerful people and governments around the world seek to manipulate public opinion, experts tracking such operations say China is one of the biggest sources of such drives alongside Russia and Iran.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 8, 2024

Chinese firm behind ‘news’ sites pushes pro-Beijing content globally, report says

Spread over websites in 30 countries, the propaganda material is interspersed with news aggregated from local news outlets and Chinese state media.
At the new teamLab Borderless museum, the crowd-favorite room of lamps from Borderless 1.0 has evolved into a room of light bubbles, which interact with each other and the bodies passing by.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 8, 2024

Have we reached teamLab saturation?

The art collective re-opens its Borderless museum in Azabudai Hills. But the experience is starting to feel stale.
A lenticular cloud is seen over a mountain at sunset in a clear sky, due to an anticyclone during a prolonged drought with warming temperatures and lack of rain in winter, in Ronda, Spain, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 9, 2024

Climate change drives world to first 12-month spell over 1.5 C

Human-caused climate change and El Nino pushed temperatures higher.
The Japanese government forecast that number of digital workers in 2026 will fall short of projected needs by 2.3 million.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2024

Japan struggles with digital transformation

Japan's general tendency toward risk aversion reduces the readiness to adopt new policies, procedures and technologies.
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi fires toward the Vissel Kobe goal during a friendly at National Stadium in Tokyo on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Feb 11, 2024

Amid row over Messi's no-show, China nixes Argentina matches

The upcoming friendly with the Argentine squad has been canceled due to "well-known reasons,” the sports authority in the eastern city of Hangzhou said.
The market in 2023 and 2024 has been marked by breathless enthusiasm for the potential of artificial intelligence as well as wildly disparate guesses about how the technology will translate into future cash flows.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2024

Is the S&P 500's surge signaling a bubble or a bull market?

Are we reliving 1995 — when, coincidentally, a previous "soft landing” economy pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 5,000?

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight