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The Panama Canal is Panama’s biggest source of revenue, bringing in nearly $5 billion last year.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2024

Panama Canal eases limits that caused global shipping bottleneck

Last year’s El Nino caused a significant drop in rainfall and forced the canal to implement daily transit restrictions.
The Chinese government has dismissed U.S. accusations, saying the hacking attacks attributed to Volt Typhoon are the work of cyber criminals.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 28, 2024

Chinese hackers breach U.S. internet firms via startup

The revelation will add to concerns over the susceptibility of U.S. critical infrastructure to cyberattacks.
Thailand's former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, arrives at Ratchada Criminal Court in Bangkok on Aug. 19. The former leader's views at a dinner event last week have been closely dissected by analysts and media for days after.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2024

Thaksin’s dinner talk signals his clout in new Thai government

His comments have been interpreted as a blueprint that’s likely to be adopted by his daughter and her Cabinet when they take office in the next couple of weeks.
Japan is facing a pilot shortage, but hiring foreign pilots is not easy due to opposition from unions. Japanese carriers also typically pay less than airlines elsewhere.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 28, 2024

Pilot shortage threatens Japan’s goal for 60 million tourists

Falling short may mean missing out on lucrative tourism money as carriers simply can’t find the crew to fly the necessary number of planes.
He Xiaopeng, co-founder and chief executive officer of XPeng, speaks at a launch event for the company's Mona M03 electric vehicle in Beijing on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 28, 2024

China’s Xpeng aims to expand with mass-market cars and Europe production

The company also plans to set up a large-scale data center in Europe as efficient software collection becomes paramount for cars’ intelligent driving features.
OpenAI, whose ChatGPT is credited with accelerating the frenzy over artificial intelligence since its broad release in late 2022, has said AI should be regulated by the federal government but that the California bill creates an uncertain legal environment, and could cause entrepreneurs and engineers to leave the state.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 28, 2024

Big Tech wants AI to be regulated. Why do they oppose a California AI bill?

Many tech giants say the bill threatens to make the state unfavorable to AI development and deployment and puts open-source models at risk.
Founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov delivers a keynote speech during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, in 2016.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 29, 2024

Telegram founder Durov charged and banned from leaving France

Pavel Durov was charged on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on Telegram, a popular messaging app.
A member of the Self-Defense Forces wipes away sweat as he conducts a search and rescue operation at a landslide site caused by heavy rain in Kumano, Hiroshima Prefecture, on July 11, 2018.
ENVIRONMENT / Boiling Point
Aug 29, 2024

Can Japan handle a heat wave and natural disaster at the same time?

Recent typhoons and the Nankai Trough megaquake alert have put the spotlight on how the country would deal with a dual disaster.
The government made it mandatory for companies to disclose their gender pay gap in 2022, but disclosure alone isn’t enough to improve the situation, data suggests.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 29, 2024

Disclosure rules fail to narrow Japan’s yawning gender pay gap

There has been little progress toward equality, with the highest-paying firms showing some of the biggest disparities.
A train carrying steel slabs leaves the U.S. Steel Edgar Thomson Works steel mill in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 29, 2024

Nippon Steel woos U.S. union with extra $1.3 billion investment

The United Steelworkers union has so far opposed a corporate tie-up with U.S. Steel.
A U.S. cybersecurity firm has reported that a hacking group in Iran operated fake HR companies to target individuals in the Middle East who were willing to sell secrets to Israel and other Western governments.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 29, 2024

Iran used fake HR firms to root out unfriendly spies, researchers say

Hackers lured security officials across Iran, Syria and Lebanon who were willing to sell state secrets to Israel and the West into a cyber espionage trap.
Traders work in the S&P options pit at the Cboe Global Markets exchange in Chicago, Illinois, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 29, 2024

Nvidia fails to impress growth-hungry investors as shares fall

Nvidia shares fell 6% in after-hours trading, weighing on shares of other chipmakers.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2024

Japan raises view of economy for first time in 15 months

The Cabinet Office said in its August report that the economy is recovering at a moderate pace, and only parts of it are pausing.
Toyota Motor's global sales — including subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors — rose 0.7% to 924,918 units in July.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2024

Toyota sales overcome U.S. woes for first growth in six months

Toyota Motor’s sales eked out growth for the first time in six months on strong demand in Europe and Japan.
Shohei Ohtani walks through the dugout with his dog Decoy before the Dodgers' game against the Orioles at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 29, 2024

Shohei Ohtani signs exclusive trading card deal with Topps

Ohtani has had a nonexclusive relationship with Topps since 2018.
The icon for the Telegram messenger app. Toncoin, a digital asset from a blockchain project linked to Telegram Messenger LLP, has lost about $2.7 billion in market value, reflecting the uncertainty sparked by the detention of the messaging app's co-founder.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 29, 2024

Telegram ‘black swan event’ exposes risk in popular crypto deals

The detention of Telegram founder Pavel Durov is reverberating through the crypto venture capital sector.
People sunbathe on a rock in Beirut's Ain al-Mreisseh seaside promenade on Aug. 2.
WORLD
Aug 30, 2024

The threat of war with Israel redefines ‘normal’ life in Beirut

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire along the border, exchanges that could spiral into a bigger, broader conflict involving global and regional powers.
Core consumer prices in Japan's capital rose 2.4% in August from a year earlier, accelerating for the fourth straight month and keeping alive market expectations of further interest rate hikes in coming months.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 30, 2024

Inflation accelerates beyond forecasts in Tokyo, boosting case for rate hike

Analysts say the data shows that the real economy and its fundamentals are continuing to recover but at a slow pace.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's public search facility in Alexandria, Virginia
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 30, 2024

U.S. funded over 1,000 patents for China-based researchers, data shows

The U.S. patent data could amplify calls to cancel or renegotiate the landmark U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement.
Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 30, 2024

Nippon Steel, peers urge Tokyo to curb steel imports from China

China's steel exports rose 24% to 53.4 million tons in the first half of 2024, on track for 100 million tons for the year.
A protestor hold what they called a Stand up to Racism rally in Liverpool, England, on Aug 3. Savvy anti-populists should concentrate their rhetorical fire on populist leaders, rather than on their supporters.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2024

The counteroffensive against populism

One lesson from the past few months might sound like a truism: All parties that value democracy must unite to face down anti-democratic threats.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito (center) attends a session before a prefectural assembly investigative panel on Friday in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 30, 2024

Hyogo governor sidesteps accusations of workplace bullying

In the wake of the deaths of two prefectural officials, Gov. Motohiko Saito told an investigative panel that he may have been a "strict boss."
Big Blue head coach Mike Phair (front, right) participates in the X League 2024 Season Kickoff news conference.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Aug 30, 2024

Japan ties guide veteran NFL coach Mike Phair to Big Blue in X League

The Arizona native had long been thinking about rekindling his involvement with Japanese football.
An electric stock board displays the rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in early August.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 31, 2024

Yen’s rapid advance pressures earnings once thought easy to beat

With stronger signals coming from the Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve, the yen has gained 3.5% against the dollar since the end of July.
X owner Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles in May.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 31, 2024

Brazil judge bans X as Elon Musk challenges top court’s orders

The platform's ban caps a monthslong feud between Musk and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is spearheading efforts to combat fake news.
A 7-Eleven convenience store, operated by Seven & i Holdings Co., at the company's headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 31, 2024

Couche-Tard seeks pension fund backing for Seven & I bid

The retailer is reaching out to some of Canada’s largest pension funds to gauge their interest in providing equity, sources said.
Pedestrians walk past the Financial Services Agency headquarters in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2024

Over 2.5 million sets of info leaked from four Japan nonlife insurers

Of the total, employees on loan were found to have been involved in about 240,000 cases, including for contracts for corporate customers.
Tetsuro Higashi, the chairman of Rapidus, at the company's headquarters in Tokyo in February 2023
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2024

Japanese government considering investment in Rapidus

The government apparently hopes the move will help spur private-sector investments in and loans to Rapidus by increasing the company's credibility.
A construction worker in Tokyo's Akasaka district on Aug. 21. With 886 cases, 54 of them fatal, during the period from 2019 to 2023, the construction industry leads Japan’s tally for occupational heatstroke.
BUSINESS / Boiling Point
Sep 1, 2024

Clocking off: Japan’s hotter summers put limit on outdoor work

Climate change is forcing businesses to sacrifice productivity in the name of safety in industries ranging from construction to transportation.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, during an event in November last year. Brazil blocked the social network after Musk refused to comply with a Brazilian judge's orders to suspend certain accounts.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2024

Musk’s X goes dark in Brazil after supreme court’s ruling

While the U.S. tends toward strong free-speech protections, many countries are taking aggressive steps to make companies more accountable for their online content.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’