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Dodgers announcers Stephen Nelson and Jessica Mendoza pose with Ichiro Suzuki before a game against the Mariners in Seattle in 2023.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 27, 2024

Dodgers voice Stephen Nelson paves way for Japanese Americans in media

Nelson strongly believes representation matters in media and is aware that he might be helping inspire the next generation of Asian Americans in sports media.
Nick Kyrgios serves during a training session ahead of the Brisbane International on Saturday.
TENNIS
Dec 28, 2024

Kyrgios says tennis' integrity 'awful' in wake of Sinner and Swiatek doping cases

"The tennis integrity right now, and everyone knows it, but no one wants to speak about it, is awful. It's not okay," the Australian player said.
Rohingya refugees Shamshida (left), who had to flee one of the last refuges in Myanmar for the Rohingya Muslim minority, and her sister Manwara in their tent in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Nov. 5
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 29, 2024

For the Rohingya, tormentors change but not the torment

This violence was not at the hands of the military, though. Instead, it was from a pro-democracy rebel group that was raised to fight the army.
The start of the 2024 Hakone Ekiden in Tokyo's Otemachi district. Every year on Jan. 2 and 3, Hakone Ekiden brings millions of fans across Japan to a standstill.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 31, 2024

A newcomer’s guide to the Hakone Ekiden experience

Every year on Jan. 2 and 3, Hakone Ekiden brings millions of fans across Japan to a standstill, even people who normally don’t care about running.
Former President Jimmy Carter, furthest right, in a group photo with his successors at the White House in 2009. From his re-election defeat in 1980 until his death on Sunday, he was the odd man out, distant from the Republicans and Democrats who followed him.
WORLD
Dec 30, 2024

In the presidents’ club, Carter was the odd man out

Jimmy Carter’s relationship with his successors in the Oval Office, both Republicans and fellow Democrats, was generally tense because of his outspokenness.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol gives a public address from his official residence in Seoul on Dec. 14.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 31, 2024

South Korean court issues arrest warrant for impeached President Yoon

The warrant makes Yoon the first sitting South Korean president to face arrest, following his short-lived bid to impose martial law in the country.
A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27. Last year, incumbents in every major country that held a national election lost that vote, the first time that has happened in almost 120 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2024

The world is ever more angry. That is not good.

Hostility toward existing leadership stems from the belief that lives aren't improving and future generations will have fewer opportunities than previous ones.
Japan's 2024 Word of the Year, "futehodo," is a phrase tied to a Netflix show and highlights the broader decline in the cultural significance of such awards, with recent selections often seen as superficial or promotional.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 31, 2024

Japan’s 2024 word of the year has no rizz

Some critics wondered why the word of the year award was, essentially, functioning as advertising for a TV show that is still available on streaming.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to members of the press shortly after he was sacked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who cited a lack of trust, at the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, Israel, of Nov. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2025

Israel's ex-defense chief Gallant says he’s leaving parliament

His replacement would be more likely to support the ruling coalition, which has struggled at times to muster the votes it needs in parliament.
Incorporating modern technologies into your Japanese classes might be a way to connect with younger students.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 3, 2025

Start the new year with a fresh approach to teaching Japanese

It’s important for language instructors to update their methods to best appeal to their younger students.
Donald Trump, then the U.S. Republican presidential nominee, awaits the start of proceedings in his criminal trial at the New York State Supreme Court in New York on May 2. The New York judge who oversaw Trump’s hush-money trial scheduled his sentencing for Jan. 10. Trump is expected to appeal his conviction.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 4, 2025

Judge upholds Trump’s conviction but signals no jail time

The New York judge who oversaw President-elect Donald Trump’s hush-money trial scheduled his sentencing for Jan. 10. Trump is expected to appeal his conviction.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a conference organized by the European Jewish Association in Krakow, Poland, in January 2024.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 4, 2025

Musk projects his hard-right influence in Europe

The multibillionaire has demanded new elections in Britain, promoted Germany's far-right, blasted the European Commission — and that's just the start.
Recovering Ukrainian soldiers pray at the Holy Cell of Saints Archangels Falakrou in Mount Athos, Greece
WORLD
Jan 4, 2025

Wounded Ukrainian soldiers find solace in Greek monasteries

They arrived with marks of war — one with a head scar, another with both legs amputated above the knee, and some with invisible mental wounds.
A supporter of impeached South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol holds a sign during a rally near Yoon's residence in Seoul on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 6, 2025

South Korean authorities seek extended arrest deadline for Yoon

Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol has refused questioning three times while an earlier arrest attempt failed, leaving the embattled leader holed up in his residence.
TDK CEO Noboru Saito said the Tokyo-based company plans to start mass production of its third-generation silicon-anode cells from late summer.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 6, 2025

iPhone supplier TDK rolls out new batteries to keep pace with AI

From late summer, the Tokyo-based company plans to start mass production of its silicon-anode cells, which carry more energy than conventional ones.
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda speaks during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2025

Toyota invests in Japanese rocket startup as SpaceX races ahead

The investment is the latest sign of progress in the Japanese government’s push to nurture the country’s private space sector.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada announces his resignation in Ottawa on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 8, 2025

The race begins to replace Canada's Trudeau as prime minister

Canada's new leader is likely to face elections within weeks of taking over from Justin Trudeau in March.
The sun sets over the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park, near Furnace Creek, during a heat wave impacting Southern California in July.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 10, 2025

Record heat pushed 2024 above global warming threshold of 1.5 C

A clear acceleration in rising temperatures has puzzled scientists, even as the evidence of the fast-warming atmosphere became impossible to miss.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appears remotely for a sentencing hearing in front of New York State Judge Juan Merchan in the criminal case in which he was convicted in 2024 on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star, at New York Criminal Court in Manhattan on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 11, 2025

A sentence with no penalty assures Trump will take office as a felon

Justice Juan Merchan gave Donald Trump a symbolic punishment. The judge said that leniency was due the office of the president, not the man who will soon hold the title.
Mark Zuckerberg, then chief executive of Facebook, appears at a joint U.S. Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington in April 2018.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 11, 2025

Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s sprint to remake Meta for the Trump era

The highly unusual overhaul of the firm's speech policies came after the Meta CEO visited U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in November.
Palm trees burned by the Palisades Fire along the shore in Malibu, California, at sunrise on Friday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 11, 2025

‘We’re in a new era’: How climate change is supercharging disasters

Extreme weather events — deadly heat waves, floods, fires and hurricanes — are the consequences of a warming planet, scientists say.
Fire retardant is dropped as the Palisades Fire grows near Encino Hills, California, on Saturday.
WORLD
Jan 12, 2025

Aerial assault aims to stem Los Angeles fire's eastward spread

Fire officials say that while 11% of the Palisades Fire was now contained, it has so far burned over 22,000 acres (8,900 hectares).
A former cattle ranch is being reforested in Brazil's Amazon region on Dec. 11. Mombak, a young carbon credit company — with valuable contracts with the giants Google and Microsoft, and supported by the U.S. government — aims to repeat this move millions of times over.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 13, 2025

In Brazil, an Amazon reforestation project seeks to redeem carbon markets

By planting native species, Brazilian company Mombak hopes to restore credibility to a scandal-ridden carbon market at a crucial time for the warming planet.
An ice core sample from a glacier in the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Jan. 15, 2021
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 13, 2025

The 'climate archive': How scientists study the ancient past

The U.N. says the world is on track for nearly 3 degrees Celsius of warming compared to the 19th century.
Smoke plumes rise from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 14, 2025

Final draft of Gaza truce deal shown to sides after 'breakthrough'

Both sides are "closer than we've ever been" to a deal, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
A mirror reflects a collapsed house in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Dec. 10, nearly one year after a major earthquake struck nearby on New Year's Day in 2024.
JAPAN / Explainer
Jan 14, 2025

Miyazaki quake falls short of triggering Nankai Trough megaquake advisory

Though Monday's temblor struck a similar area to one in August that sparked the first advisory, no such alert was issued.
Special Counsel Jack Smith holds a press conference announcing the indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Washington on Aug. 1, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 14, 2025

Special counsel report says Trump would have been convicted in election case

The report amounts to an extraordinary rebuke of the incoming president.
Ichiro Suzuki had 1,278 hits and a .353 batting average in nine seasons with the BlueWave in NPB.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 16, 2025

Ichiro voted into Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame

Former players Hitoki Iwase and Masayuki Kakefu and former Central League umpire Hiroya Tomizawa were also voted into the Hall.
Firefighters walk next to the remains of beachfront houses that burnt down in the Palisades Fire, in Malibu, California, on Thursday.
WORLD
Jan 17, 2025

Los Angeles evacuees told not to go home for at least another week

Emergency responders are removing toxic waste from incinerated neighborhoods and cutting off electricity and gas lines that pose a hazard amid the ruins.
Firefighters spray the rubble of homes that were demolished by the Eaton Fire on Wednesday.AFP-JIJI
OLYMPICS
Jan 17, 2025

Critics question Los Angeles' ability to host Olympics after wildfires

Governor Gavin Newsom has already moved to assure that Los Angeles will be ready to host the Games.

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