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Akihisa Nagashima, national security adviser to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 13, 2024

Japan must brace and prepare for Trump tariffs, top adviser says

"Japan must be prepared for Trump following through on his plans,” says Prime Minister Ishiba's national security adviser Akihisa Nagashima.
New North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick holds up the sweatshirt his father wore as an assistant coach at the school.
SPORTS / Football
Dec 13, 2024

Why Is Bill Belichick heading to North Carolina? It's all about control.

NFL teams seemed hesitant to give Belichick the omnipotent football power that he sought.
Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Dec 16, 2024

The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition

A year after disaster devastated the region, brewers have turned to nationwide partnerships and new technologies to sustain their culture.
Crystal Smith, the elected chief of the Haisla people, stands on the shoreline of the Douglas Channel in Kitamaat, British Columbia, Canada, on Oct. 1.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 15, 2024

Indigenous people in Canada weigh costs of a gas windfall

The promise of billions of dollars of gas investment has renewed a generations-old debate over Indigenous identity and environmental stewardship.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of South Korea's Democratic Party, speaks to members of the media on the steps inside the National Assembly after an impeachment vote against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul on Dec. 7.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2024

Yoon’s fall gives nemesis surprise path back to lead South Korea

The impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is giving his biggest political rival, Lee Jae-myung, a chance to finally win the country's top job.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump embraces SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 17, 2024

SoftBank pledges $100 billion U.S. investment at Trump event

SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son’s announcement this time marks the highest-profile commitment by a company to expand investment in the U.S. since Trump’s election win.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer
WORLD / Politics
Dec 17, 2024

Starmer’s China reset plans get undercut by royal access scandal

It has emerged in court documents that a Chinese man who acted as a business adviser to the Duke of York was banned from Britain on national security grounds in 2023.
Canadian Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Nov. 30, 2020
WORLD / Politics
Dec 17, 2024

Trudeau teeters in Canada after deputy’s scathing resignation

Even before the deputy shocked the country with her letter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s grasp on power already appeared to be slipping.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda holds a news conference after a BOJ policy meeting in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 19, 2024

Bank of Japan opts for caution as Trump factor and wage concerns weigh

Ueda said that it might take quite a while to fully assess Japan’s wage-growth trend and the impact of the economic policies of the Trump administration.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte (right) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands at the official residence of the NATO secretary-general in Brussels on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 19, 2024

Europe's conundrum: How to fund defense spending

All potential options come with their own challenges, such as fiscal pressures, political resistance or funding costs.
The Dubai skyline on Dec. 15, 2023. For years, Dubai has been an ideal rear base for trafficking and money laundering, with little risk of being extradited for lack of satisfactory judicial cooperation, according to European investigators and magistrates.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 19, 2024

End of the Dubai dream for Europe's drug lords?

The Gulf emirate has been a haven for some of Europe's biggest drug traffickers, but the tide may be turning.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a news conference at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 19, 2024

India's Modi faces test of resilience in 2025 after year of setbacks

Having secured a third term, the prime minister faces a slowing economy with his political standing decidedly weakened.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual end-of-year news conference and phone-in, in Moscow, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2024

Putin offers Trump talks while defending his invasion of Ukraine

The order to invade Ukraine "should have been made earlier," and Russia should have prepared better, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Fire trucks gather around a building in Sapporo’s Susukino entertainment district on Nov. 26.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 20, 2024

Sapporo arson suspect dies in hospital

Police still intend to submit the arson case to prosecutors and are committed to piecing together the events that led to the blaze.
National team great Michael Leitch participates in the Japan Rugby League One season-opening news conference on Dec. 9.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Dec 20, 2024

Japan Rugby League One plays leading role through tough days in Japanese rugby

At the JRLO’s official 2024-25 season kickoff press conference in Tokyo on Dec. 9, the mood could only be described as festive and upbeat.
Igor, a Ukrainian military member of the 114th brigade, stands on a destroyed railway bridge over the Oskil River.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2024

Ambushes and nostalgia on banks of front-line Ukraine river

Nearly three years into Russia's invasion, Kremlin forces have brought panic and destruction to the banks of the Oskil River in a war of attrition.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at the federal Liberal caucus holiday party, the day after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unexpectedly resigned, in Ottawa on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 22, 2024

From liberal icon to MAGA joke: The waning fortunes of Justin Trudeau

Canada’s prime minister gained global renown 10 years ago for his unabashedly progressive politics. But at home, voters turned sour on him long ago.
A container ship transits the expanded canal through Cocoli Locks at the Panama Canal, on the outskirts of Panama City last August.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2024

Trump demands Panama lower transit fees or return canal

The U.S. completed the 82-kilometer canal through the Central American isthmus in 1914, but ceded it back to Panama in 1999.
Steam rises from a geothermal plan in Yuzawa, Akita Prefecture. Despite its long history and potential, geothermal provided just 0.3% of Japan's overall energy mix in the fiscal year from April 2023
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Dec 22, 2024

Is Japan finally ready to tap its abundant geothermal energy potential?

Japan boasts the world’s third-largest potential supply of geothermal energy, but this renewable energy resource has mostly been untapped.
The container ship MSC Marie can be seen transiting through the Panama Canal in this handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on Aug. 30.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024

Trump threatens that U.S. could retake control of Panama Canal

Donald Trump's comments were an exceedingly rare example of a U.S. leader saying he could push a sovereign country to hand over territory.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a swearing-in ceremony in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024

Liberal push to oust Trudeau gains momentum in Ontario

About a third of the Liberal caucus, which has 153 seats in Canada’s House of Commons, has reportedly decided Trudeau must step down as prime minister.
A Wizzair Airbus A320-200 plane lands in Riga International Airport, Latvia, in 2019.
WORLD
Dec 24, 2024

European airline pilots and crews voice concerns about Middle East routes

The safety debate about flying over the Middle East is playing out in Europe largely because pilots there are protected by unions, unlike other parts of the world.
Doubts about the strength of the conclusions drawn from China’s research add to the mounting questions about how the positive tests were investigated and adjudicated by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
OLYMPICS
Dec 25, 2024

Questions emerge about data used by China to defend against doping allegations

The finding raises more questions about explanations from China and WADA as to why elite Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned substance.
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida and Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe during a news conference in Tokyo on Monday
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Dec 25, 2024

Will Honda-Nissan tie-up deliver synergies in time to counter China?

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe has said the companies need to build up capabilities by 2030 or face being "beaten," but analysts question whether they have that much time.
The wreckage of a Japan Airlines plane after a collision with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft, at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Jan. 5, three days after the crash.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2024

Human error caused JAL jet collision at Haneda Airport: safety board

The pilot and co-pilot of the Japan Coast Guard plane mistakenly believed they got cleared to enter the runway just before the Jan. 2 incident.
Google new quantum computing chip Willow. Though the technology isn’t yet ready for widespread use, the competition to build error-free quantum computers is heating up, promising significant breakthroughs in the near future.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2024

Google is pushing quantum computing closer to reality

The Willow chip should focus investor attention on an industry that has been quietly making great strides toward developing quantum machines with practical uses.
The danger of overreaction and misinformation in the digital age is real, and authorities must provide clear explanations to prevent tragedies while also addressing legitimate concerns about drones.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2024

How to make America's drone panic so very much worse

The weak and ineffective response of government authorities should serve as a lesson in exactly how not to handle such incidents in the digital age.
Hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts' uptempo “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” quickly became a TikTok favorite after its release days into 2024, which helped turn the song into a Billboard Japan Hot 100 topper for 19 weeks before rising up viral streaming charts around the world.
CULTURE / Music / 2024 in Review
Dec 27, 2024

Bling-Bang, baby: The J-pop soundtrack of 2024

Japanese music made waves globally, fueled by Coachella debuts, TikTok virality and unexpected hits like Creepy Nuts' "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born."
Black American women, who still heavily vote for the Democratic Party, are taking a much-needed break from political engagement after the last election, with the idea that rest and renewal will prepare them for future activism.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2024

Temporarily disconnected from politics? Feel no guilt about it.

Opposition movements are a recurring feature of American politics and predicts a robust, reenergized response when the time comes.
Cabinet ministers at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 27, 2024

Japan's Cabinet approves ¥115.5 trillion budget

The proposal exceeded ¥110 trillion for the third consecutive year in order to increase spending on defense and social welfare costs.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years