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Kotoba Slam Japan runs regional competitions to select a representative for the annual World Poetry Slam Championship, which will take place in Mexico at the end of the month.
CULTURE / Stage
May 9, 2025

Japan’s slam poetry scene is all about raw vulnerability

Slam poetry is a rarity in Japan, but the scene is full of energy and potential that the poets have been bringing to the world slam poetry stage for 10 years now.
A nuclear reactor in New Taipei City
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 14, 2025

Taiwan opens door to restart atomic power plants in reversal

Under the new law, plants that could previously only operate for 40 years will be allowed to renew or extend their licenses for up to 20 years at a time.
The motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump is parked next to a 12-year old Qatari-owned Boeing 747-8 that Trump was touring in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 15.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

Trump’s freebie Qatar jet is the stuff of nightmares in spyworld

"If we had built the plane, knowing it was going to a foreign government, we would probably have bugged it,” said Thad Troy, a former station chief with the CIA.
Kyoto's gaming landscape is dominated by Nintendo's headquarters, but a contingent of foreign-born indie developers is also working in the gaming giant's shadow.
LIFE / Digital
May 17, 2025

In Nintendo’s backyard, foreign indie game devs are thriving

“Of course, we’re all in the shadow of Nintendo, but we’re also here because of Nintendo,” says one British indie game developer.
Tesla's story about keeping used cars for "robotaxis" fits a long pattern of unfulfilled promises to deploy self-driving vehicles — most recently announced for June in Austin, Texas.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2025

Tesla took back leased cars for use as 'robotaxis,' but sold them instead

Despite repeated promises, the robotaxis never came and Tesla flipped many of the off-lease cars to new buyers.
Institutional Shareholder Services backed the reappointment of Chairman Akio Toyoda to Toyota’s board, reversing its position from a year ago.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 23, 2025

ISS reverses stance and backs Toyota chief's reappointment

"There are no particular concerns about the nominee,” Institutional Shareholder Services said of Akio Toyoda in a report Thursday.
A Boeing 747 from Qatar at Palm Beach International Airport, following President Donald Trump’s tour of the plane, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 15. The president and his family have profited from the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations.
WORLD / Politics
May 26, 2025

As Trump family monetizes presidency, profits outstrip protests

The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking.
A young woman holds placards depicting Ukrainian prisoners of war during a rally calling to speed up their exchange, at Independence Square in Kyiv on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 8, 2025

Ukraine denies postponing prisoner swaps as Russian strike on Kharkiv kills four

Kharkiv, one of Ukraine's largest cities, sits close to the Russian border and has been under frequent Russian shelling for more than three years.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk attend a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5. Trump said this week that his relationship with Musk was likely beyond repair after the two sparred publicly on social media.
WORLD
Jun 8, 2025

Trump says Musk relationship over and warns of 'consequences' if he funds Democrats

Asked if he thought his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was over, Trump said, "I would assume so, yeah."
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting where Trump announced nuclear talks with Iran, in Washington on April 7.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 12, 2025

Israel appears ready to attack Iran, officials in U.S. and Europe say

The step could further inflame the Middle East and derail or delay U.S. efforts to broker a deal to cut off Iran’s path to building a nuclear bomb.
The executive order U.S. President Donald Trump signed imposing a “gold standard” in science appears to champion research integrity but is seen by experts as a political move to control which evidence is accepted.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2025

This isn’t how you ‘restore gold standard’ science

There’s widespread concern the executive order could allow government officials to flag almost anything as not up to their definition of "gold standard.”
The Fordow uranium enrichment facility, south of the Iranian capital of Tehran, is seen in a satellite image from February. Iranian authorities have said that the nuclear sites at Fordow and Isfahan have not been hit in Israel strikes, according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
WORLD / FOCUS
Jun 14, 2025

Damage to Iranian nuclear sites so far appears limited, experts say

Satellite imagery seen Friday did not yet show significant damage to nuclear infrastructure, several experts said.
The classic red brick arches of Tokyo’s first “gādo-shita,” built in 1910, are what most Japanese people think of when they think about commercial spaces under elevated railways.
LIFE / Style & Design / Longform
Jun 16, 2025

Revitalizing the space under Tokyo’s train tracks

Rail underpasses in big cities are being transformed into vibrant spaces for artisans, foodies and travelers — without erasing their past.
Donald Trump Jr. attends a media event at Trump Tower in New York on Monday.
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2025

Trump family launches branded mobile phone service in U.S.

The new venture stands to escalate concerns over how the president’s expanding business enterprises conflict with his government responsibilities.
With people growing increasingly wary of unknown callers and not answering their doors, more and more agencies and pollsters tasked with collecting data are using online surveys, though that comes with its own set of challenges.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jun 17, 2025

Faced with dwindling response rates, pollsters turn to online surveys for data

Problems with the new wave of online surveys include fresh biases in the data, confusion over questions that a computer cannot address and gaining trust.
The anti-interventionist part of the Republican Party is watching with alarm as U.S. President Donald Trump has gone from seeking a peaceful diplomatic settlement with Iran to possibly having the United States support Israel's military campaign.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 19, 2025

Trump faces uproar from MAGA base over possible Iran strike

Some of Trump's biggest Republican allies are in the unusual position of being at odds with a president who largely shares their isolationist tendencies.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s support for Israel’s attack on Iran has sparked outrage among MAGA loyalists who see it as a betrayal of his anti-war promises.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2025

Trump's MAGA coalition won't survive a bunker-buster in Iran

As the U.S. president weighs whether to join Israel’s war against Iran, a rift cleaves his own base, not to mention the world.
Protesters, predominantly Houthi supporters, burn Israeli and U.S. flags as they demonstrate in solidarity with Palestinians and Iran, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 23, 2025

How a cornered Iran could wreak havoc on global oil trade

Iran has over the years threatened multiple times to shut the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow stretch of water through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply flows each day.
Cooper Flagg speaks to reporters during the NBA draft combine in Chicago on May 14.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Jun 25, 2025

Cooper Flagg poised to be second-youngest No. 1 pick at NBA draft

The Mavericks are expected to take Flagg, an 18-year-old American who played last season for Duke University before opting into the draft.
Many recent video games, including Breath of the Wild and Planet of Lana, have borrowed from the pastoral aesthetic of Studio Ghibli films like “Princess Mononoke.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2025

Studio Ghibli’s majestic sensibility is drawing imitators

Forty years after the Japanese animation studio was founded, game creators are embracing its legacy of moral integrity.
A clip of fans getting rowdy to see J-pop outfit Fruits Zipper prompted criticism about the idol fandom’s dark side.
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Jun 26, 2025

Why are idol fans throwing hands at the racetrack?

A recent Fruits Zipper fan frenzy stirred online criticism, raising questions about the line between passion and obsession in J-pop idol culture.
Fever guard Caitlin Clark is seen during the second have of a game against the Aces in Las Vegas on Sunday.
BASKETBALL
Jun 26, 2025

WNBA players push for better pay as league soars to new heights

The league's recent $2.2 billion media rights deal, spanning 11 years, pales in comparison to the NBA's $76 billion package.
Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, in Washington on June 24. The question of how to handle the fallout from White House decisions may loom large as Powell is set to speak on a panel with peers from the euro zone, Japan, South Korea and the U.K.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 30, 2025

Powell and Lagarde count cost of Trump’s turbulence

At the halfway point of 2025, global policy is almost paralyzed by the need to navigate risks posed both to inflation and growth in the wake of Trump’s actions.
“Fani Mani” marks Kom_I’s return to music, after leaving the genre-bending J-pop outfit Suiyoubi no Campanella in 2021.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 4, 2025

‘Try first, figure it out later’: Kom_I and Foodman’s beautiful mess

Part philosophy and part performance, the musicians' “Fani Mani” is all party.
Private companies are rushing into risky, profit-driven geoengineering projects to fight climate change without clear regulations, raising fears of dangerous unintended consequences.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2025

Geoengineering’s risks need to be studied more

With for-profit organizations already releasing chemicals into the oceans, it’s important for scientists with no financial stake in this industry to collect data.
Meta hired Ruoming Pang, who ran Apple’s AI models team, with a pay package in the hundreds of millions over a several-year period, according to sources.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 10, 2025

Meta poached Apple’s Pang with pay package of over $200 million

Apple didn’t try to match Meta's offer to engineer Ruoming Pang as it far exceeded pay at the company for leaders other than CEO Tim Cook.
Co-leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla sit at the plenary hall as the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, in Berlin, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 12, 2025

Isolated and fearing a ban, Germany's far-right tones down the rhetoric

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is hoping to go more mainstream and translate popularity into power.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan