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Preliminary results from new research offer hope in the fight against glioblastoma, the terrible form of cancer that took the lives of Arizona Sen. John McCain and U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Beau.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2024

This brain cancer breakthrough should excite you

Recent research shows progress in using the immune system to combat glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer.
Dried cocoa beans at the Somos Cacao farm and production in Ragonvalia, department of Norte de Santader, Colombia, on March 22, 2024. Cocoa is the best-selling commodity in the world so far in 2024, and futures have doubled in less than three months as poor harvests in West Africa, where most of the world's cocoa is grown, have led buyers to look elsewhere for supplies.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 29, 2024

Cocoa market 'broken' as crop failure drives third year of shortages

here’s a risk poor harvests in West Africa could be long-lasting, with climate change and crop disease ravaging trees.
On the Diving Deep podcast hosted by Olympic athlete Sam Fricker, Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison dismissed the idea that China is unable to become a multiparty democracy, saying there is no "anti-democratic” instinct in the Chinese people.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 29, 2024

Former Australia PM Scott Morrison says China can be a democracy

The former Australian PM said Canberra’s relationship with China will always be transactional and never "values-based” like Australia’s ties with the U.S.
Blue pipelines to transport seawater, part of the facility for releasing treated radioactive water to sea from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, are seen during a treated water dilution and discharge facility tour for media, in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, last August.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 31, 2024

Experts from Japan and China discuss Fukushima water release

The two Asian powerhouses have spared over the issue since Japan began releasing the water into the Pacific Ocean last August.
Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen visits army bases ahead of the Lunar New Year in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Feb. 6. Over 400 stories portraying Taiwan's military exercises as rehearsals for its leadership to desert in the event of war have been uncovered by an NGO based on the island.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 1, 2024

Chinese state media stoked allegation Taiwan's president would flee war

They are among the many unsupported tales that have been fed into the island by Chinese state media outlets, according to an analysis by Taiwan-based NGO.
French swimmer Caroline Jouisse (left) has had her training sessions analyzed daily, with the data then examined in relation to her menstrual cycles.
OLYMPICS
Apr 1, 2024

How period tracking could boost performance of female Olympians

France's National Institute of Sport launched a program in 2020 to track and learn from the menstrual cycles of athletes.
Daiya Seto in action during the men's 400m medley final at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha on Feb. 18.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Apr 2, 2024

Japanese swimming veteran ready to make waves at Paris Olympics

Daiya Seto wants to be a voice for meaningful change in the domestic sport.
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad (left) walks near a damaged site after what the Iranian media said was an Israeli strike on a building close to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

Israel bombs Iran embassy in Syria, killing military commanders

Monday's attack marks a major escalation in Israel's war with its regional adversaries.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Passengers wait at Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport after Lebanon closed its airspace to all flights on Sunday following an attack by Iran on Israel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024

Airlines confront new Iran-Israel risks as disruption grows

Several Middle Eastern countries temporarily closed their airspace as Iran launched drones and missiles.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an unpopular leader at home, whom many hold responsible for failures that led to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2024

Iran attack tests Netanyahu’s political staying power

For almost three decades, Netanyahu has warned that a nuclear Iran would be catastrophic.

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