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Japan faces tough choices amid the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. The issue now is how Tokyo will navigate the conflict.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 12, 2023

Hamas tests the limits of Japan's Israel-Palestine policy

Japan is the lone outlier in the Group of Seven, condemning the Hamas attacks but also expressing concern over potential casualties in the Gaza Strip.
The classic Japanese ghost story often features a vengeful female ghost.
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 12, 2023

[Rebroadcast] Japan’s got ghosts

This week we discuss a few horror movies before “Uncanny Japan” podcast host Thersa Matsuura tells a classic Japanese ghost story.
IOC President Thomas Bach says the organization is keen to embrace esports as well as the use of artificial intelligence at future Olympic Games.
OLYMPICS
Oct 15, 2023

IOC to explore Olympic Esports Games

Estimates suggest over 500 million of those are interested specifically in esports, which include virtual sports and sport simulations.
Israeli soldiers organize armored personnel  near the border with Lebanon on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 16, 2023

After Iran warning, Washington pushes to avert wider Israel war

The ramped-up moves come amid concerns that an invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces could prompt Iran to enter the conflict.
Enza Guzzo holds the letter of dismissal in Arese, Italy, on Oct. 11. Guzzo's former employer fired her in 2011 after she had a second daughter. She later won a lawsuit against them.
WORLD / Society
Oct 16, 2023

Job or baby? Italian women's struggle to have both holds back growth.

Over half of Italian women said they found it impossible to combine work and childcare.
A Japanese research team has identified three genetically distinct populations of the Japanese honeybee.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 16, 2023

Three genetically distinct groups found for Japanese honeybee

Temperature rises caused by global warming could lead to a decline in the species.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent searches for migrants trying to enter the United States from the Mexico border, in a desert area in Sunland Park, New Mexico.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 19, 2023

Republicans use Israeli-Hamas war to push hard line on immigration

U.S. presidential hopefuls are attempting to link a foreign conflict to the domestic debate over immigration.
The planet Mars as captured by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope in 2016
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 19, 2023

Scientists surprised by source of largest quake detected on Mars

They first suspected a meteorite impact had caused the marsquake. But a search for an impact crater came up empty.
Ashleigh Surma (second from right) assists Elva Case (left), Linda Lupe (second from left) and Joycelene Johnson in recording indigenous languages during the ICILDER 2023 Conference in Bloomington, Indiana
WORLD / Society
Oct 20, 2023

Tech breathes new life into endangered Native American languages

Of the more than 6,000 Indigenous languages recognized globally, nearly half of them are at risk of disappearing.
In almost 30 years of fighting wildfire, Art Gonzales has seen blazes grow progressively bigger and stranger.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 20, 2023

‘It’s all-consuming.’ Wildfire whispering is now a year-round job

What was once limited to certain months now encompasses an entire ‘fire year'
Palestinians hold a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin during a protest in support of the people of Gaza, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 21, 2023

Putin plays for time in Ukraine with U.S. and EU focused on Mideast

The Kremlin is convinced developments are moving in Putin’s favor and that he’ll be able to hold on to territories in southern and eastern Ukraine.
A Ukrainian defensive fortification on the west bank of a lake along the Dnieper River, in the Kherson region, on Jan. 23. Ukrainian forces have in October stepped up assaults across the Dnieper near the city of Kherson, prompting speculation that Kyiv might be planning a more ambitious effort to open a new front in the push to retake territory from Russia.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 21, 2023

With raids across Dnieper River, Ukraine may be seeking new front in war

Military experts are reporting extensive strikes on Russian-held territory in the south, potentially with the goal of establishing a bridgehead.
AI software is being used to detect cognitive decline in older Japanese drivers in order to help prevent accidents.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 22, 2023

AI startup helps insurers spot cognitive decline in elderly drivers

Once reliant on a driver's age and model of car, some insurers now rely on AI to expedite settlements and craft more precise risk assessments.
JERA's coal-fired power plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, is under construction in 2021.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Oct 22, 2023

Japan sticks with climate solution that critics say is far from clean

The government hopes to use ammonia on a massive scale to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants, but environmentalists remain skeptical.
As G7 leaders pledge to combat economic coercion with an eye on China, this could be counterproductive and end up hurting global trade.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2023

The G7's anti-coercion campaign against China could backfire

When G7 trade representatives convene in Osaka starting Saturday, Chinese “economic coercion” is expected to be high on the agenda.
Construction works at the site of the proposed Amazon regional headquarters development beyond the Liesbeek River in Cape Town, South Africa
WORLD / Society
Oct 23, 2023

How one river highlights South Africa's land inequality

The river has become emblematic of the myriad of sometimes conflicting land disputes in a country struggling to right the wrongs of the past.
Climate activists demand that the World Bank stop fossil fuel financing on the first day of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Marrakech, Morocco, on Oct. 9.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2023

Telling countries not to be poor is bad climate advice

As developing nations bear the brunt of the costs of climate change; the world's richer states need to pay up.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2023

Amid scrutiny, Kishida emphasizes tax cuts to pull out from deflation

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has heavily criticized the government for its belated response to rising inflation.
A health care worker administers the COVID-19 vaccine to a child in Rio de Janeiro in January 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2023

How we got COVID’s risk right but the response wrong

It was not the initial consensus on the fatality rate that drove the response but rather the way the risks of COVID-19 were balanced with the costs.
An Albanian communist hangs a banner with Enver Hoxha's image in a public cemetery in Tirana in April 2012 to mark the anniversary of the hard-line Stalinist dictator's death.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2023

When freedom does not bring about justice

From communism to capitalism, Lea Ypi's book,"Free: Coming of Age at the End of History" reflects on Albania's transition to freedom.
Kwok Wai-shing (center) canvasses for votes to compete for a seat in the Sham Shui Po East constituency in Hong Kong's coming district council poll. Candidates from Hong Kong's main pro-democracy party were shut out of upcoming local elections after the nomination period ended on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 31, 2023

Hong Kong election reforms exclude pro-democracy candidates

Directly elected seats in the district council were slashed from 452 to 88 after pro-democracy parties won a landslide victory in 2019.
Saudi women exercise in a mall in Riyadh on Oct. 15. Long popular in the United States, another car-centric country with an obesity problem, mall-walking is increasingly becoming a Saudi sport.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 31, 2023

Saudis tackle obesity while beating heat with mall-walking

Roughly one in five Saudi adults is obese, according to an in-depth study published by the World Bank last year.
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers went on strike from Oct. 4 to 7 across the U.S.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 1, 2023

Unions in the U.S. are winning big for the first time in decades

Recent victories mark a potential turning point for the country’s labor movement, which has seen union ranks and power dwindle for decades.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers a speech on AI in London on on Oct. 26.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 1, 2023

Rishi Sunak embraces Musk to boost AI summit

The U.K. prime minister organized the event to reassert Britain’s influence in the wake of Brexit.
A former pop idol (Mai Fukagawa) finds herself in a slump with little money, no partner and precarious mental health as she nears her 30s in “Tsundol.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2023

‘Tsundol’: Pop idol on the brink gets mental health uplift

While it is a predictable drama about a former singer getting her life together, the film addresses her mental well-being in a refreshing manner.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chats with Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki (left) in a parliamentary session in October.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Nov 2, 2023

Kishida distances himself from panel report backing tax overhaul

The advisory panel's medium-term reform proposal could mean higher taxes for salaried workers.
People wearing sun protection gear amid a heat wave walk on a street in Beijing in July.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 3, 2023

Climate's 'Catch-22': Cutting pollution heats up the planet

The removal of air pollution may have had a greater effect on temperatures in some Chinese cities than the warming from greenhouse gases.
Yukimasa Ida’s first major museum exhibition showcases a young artist in full command of his craft but still looking for something deeper to say.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 4, 2023

‘Panta Rhei’: Yukimasa Ida is still searching for his own voice

Kyocera Museum of Art's major exhibition finds a young artist sampling great works of the past but looking for something deeper to say.
The Hong Kong skyline. The city's sedition law — one of the legacies of British rule — had remained dormant for over half a century but saw a resurgence in use following the 2019 protests and subsequent unrest.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 3, 2023

H.K. student gets two-month sentence for 'seditious' posts from Japan

The court said she had violated a colonial-era sedition law by expressing support for Hong Kong independence in posts mostly made while studying in Japan.
Steam rises from the cooling towers of the coal power plant of RWE, one of Europe's biggest electricity and gas companies, in Niederaussem, Germany.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 6, 2023

Just 4% of top firms meet U.N. climate target guidelines, study says

The pace of change among governments and corporations is set to form a central part of the COP28 climate talks starting later this month.

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