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A screenshot of eBay shows war relics including swords and gas masks being put on sale.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2025

Large number of Japanese war relics still offered on auction sites

Items such as swords that belonged to soldiers of the Imperial Japanese military and protective hoods used during air raids can be found on eBay.
Microsoft is among a group of tech giants that are pouring money into artificial intelligence in order to get ahead of the competition.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2025

The AI race has Big Tech spending $344 billion this year

Microsoft, Amazon.com, Meta and Alphabet are pouring money into artificial intelligence in order to get a leg up on the competition.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (left) and Economic Revitalization Minister and chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa attend a budget committee session on the U.S. tariff issue in the Lower House in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 4, 2025

Opposition parties fume over U.S. trade deal not being put in writing

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said issuing a joint document with the U.S. will not serve the nation’s interests and may instead jeopardize the agreement.
People cool off under water jets in Madrid on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 5, 2025

'Silent killer': the science of tracing climate deaths in heat waves

Heat can claim tens of thousands of lives during European summers but it usually takes months to count the cost. Scientists are aiming to change that with faster studies.
A cargo ship at the port of Oakland, California, on Aug. 4
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 6, 2025

U.S. trade deficit narrowed 16% in June as high tariffs cast shadow on services

Days after reporting that the goods trade deficit fell to its lowest since September 2023, the U.S. said the full deficit including services was also its narrowest since then.
A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 6, 2025

80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped

As a 7-year-old boy in Hiroshima, Howard Kakita was hoping to catch the vapor trail of a B-29 bomber. A sudden blast knocked him out.
A Polish security officer stands guard in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 6, 2025

Poland’s next political battle starts as president takes office

Instead of securing a long-awaited ally, Poland's government is now preparing for an opponent in the presidential palace again.
Otake <i>oyakata</i> and his wrestlers at Otake stable in April 2018
SUMO / Inside Sumo
Aug 6, 2025

Fresh start for stable founded by legendary yokozuna Taiho

In a historically significant move, the Otake sumo stable will be taken over by someone without a direct connection to its founder.
The Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is on display at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Virginia after restoration in August 2003.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 6, 2025

Were the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings necessary?

Was it necessary to drop the bombs on civilian population centers to demonstrate the power of the weapons?
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he and Apple CEO Tim Cook (not pictured) present the tech company's announcement of a $100 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 7, 2025

Trump eyes 100% chips tariff, but zero percent for U.S. investors like Apple

The U.S. president has said he could unveil separate levies on all products containing semiconductor chips as soon as next week.
Yuji Sakoda, superintendent-general at the Metropolitan Police Department, bows to apologize for the misconduct in the Ohkawara Kakohki case during a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 7, 2025

Tokyo police admit 'serious mistake' in investigation of spray dryer firm

The probe was led by "dysfunctional" leadership, resulting in false accusations being leveled at company executives, a report released Thursday showed.
A Chinese warship takes part in a military drill off the Chinese coast near Fuzhou, Fujian Province, across from the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands, China, in April 2023.  Recent Chinese military drills have seen its vessels encircle Taiwan.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 8, 2025

Simulated Chinese blockade of Taiwan reveals Singapore as lifeline

Singapore's discreet and decades-old security presence inside Taiwan gives it an edge among Southeast Asian nations, which have close to a million of their nationals on the island.
Russian President Vladimir Putin views Tu-160M strategic bombers at the Kazan Aviation Factory in Kazan, Russia, in February 2024.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2025

Stagflation is hitting Russia’s war economy

Putin apparently does not think his popularity could withstand devoting much more of the budget to the war effort.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs at the White House on April 2. Power over principle is shifting global trade dynamics under the Trump administration.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2025

No, Trump is not the ‘transactional’ president he feigns

Reliable dealmaking depends on two essential conditions: good faith and a stable set of rules, backed by reliable enforcement mechanisms.
Wind turbines beyond an array of solar panels on the hillside in the Canical district of Madeira, Portugal, on Feb. 9, 2023. Renewables are now among the cheapest forms of electricity, especially after an energy crunch and the Ukraine war bolstered gas, oil and coal.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Aug 11, 2025

Hedge funds flip on green energy and start betting against oil

The outlook for solar and wind stocks is starting to improve.
Visitors have their photo taken by a portrait of President Xi Jinping at the Military Museum in Beijing on Oct. 20, 2023. The Chinese leader’s crackdown on military corruption reveals how deep his concerns run, not only about battlefield readiness, but about political survival, as well.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 11, 2025

Xi looks to tighten grip after scandals shake China’s military elite

Outwardly, China’s military has never been stronger. Its naval ships venture farther across the oceans. Its nuclear force grows by about 100 warheads every year. Its military flights around Taiwan are increasingly frequent and intimidating. Every few months, China unveils new weapons, like a prototype...
Senior diplomat Liu Jianchao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department widely seen as China's next foreign minister, has been detained for unclear reasons, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 12, 2025

Xi’s ‘probe’ of senior diplomat puts China foreign policy team in doubt

Liu Jianchao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, has been detained for unclear reasons.
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
JAPAN / History
Aug 13, 2025

The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731

For 95-year-old Hideo Shimizu, the 4½ months he spent with the biological and chemical warfare unit of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army were just like yesterday.
Among the middle school students who admitted to abusing over-the-counter medication, the majority — around 64% — said they got them from pharmacies while a third said they had access to them in their own households.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 13, 2025

1 in 55 Japanese middle schoolers abuse over-the-counter drugs, survey shows

Most of them got the drugs from pharmacies and their own households.
The government is considering requiring handheld fans to be recycled, in the wake of a host of fires caused by rechargeable electric devices during disposal work.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2025

Japan may make recycling handheld fans mandatory

The consideration comes in the wake of a host of fires caused by rechargeable electric devices during disposal work.
Filmmakers interview the general manager of a Bald Men's club for an upcoming Flix Oven documentary that will be available via the streaming platform Samansa.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Aug 14, 2025

Samansa bets on commuter cinema

As attention spans get shorter, a Japanese startup is banking on short films as easily digestible entertainment.
Aid workers move bags of yellow lentils at an aid operation in Mekele, Ethiopia.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 14, 2025

U.S. court lets Trump block billions of dollars in foreign aid

The ruling is a big win for Trump’s efforts to dissolve USAID and withhold funding from programs that have fallen out of favor with his administration.
Humanitarian aid waits to be delivered to Gaza, at a logistics site run by the Egyptian Red Crescent outside Arish, Egypt, on Monday.
WORLD
Aug 14, 2025

Turned back from Gaza, aid shipments languish in warehouses and on roadsides

Shipments are rejected for a host of reasons, ranging from minor paperwork issues to concerns over possible dual military use for some of the goods.
Setsuko Kawai, who lost her mother and two younger brothers in the March 1945 bombing, has fought for recognition of the victims.
JAPAN / History / FOCUS
Aug 14, 2025

Civilian air raid survivors fight for recognition 80 years after war's end

After drafting a bill to provide concrete relief to survivors this spring, a bipartisan group of lawmakers failed to submit it to parliament days before the session’s closure.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing. Nvidia, along with Advanced Micro Devices, has agreed to pay 15% of revenues from Chinese artificial intelligence chip sales to the U.S. government.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 14, 2025

Trump’s deal with Nvidia offers path forward in global trade war

The deal provides U.S. firms a path to enter the Chinese market despite various trade barriers.
Visitors rest inside the Osaka Expo venue early Thursday morning
JAPAN / Society
Aug 14, 2025

Tens of thousands left stranded at Osaka Expo by train service interruption

A power outage caused services on Osaka Metro’s Chuo Line to be suspended for about eight hours from 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 15, 2025

Which Donald Trump will negotiate with Putin in Alaska?

A tough negotiator or a conciliatory one — the world is waiting to see which version of Trump shows up in Anchorage on Friday.
U.S. President Donald Trump makes an announcement regarding the Golden Dome missile defense shield in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in May.
WORLD
Aug 15, 2025

Trump’s Golden Dome still shrouded in mystery, even for its builders

Government officials told defense contractors last week they weren’t even allowed to mention the project by name.
Dried cannabis confiscated by police shown to media in Tokyo on Wednesday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 15, 2025

Japan makes its biggest drug bust ever

Authorities have seized roughly a metric ton of dried cannabis smuggled by ship from Vietnam worth around ¥5.2 billion ($35.2 million).
Mitsuko Arakaki talks about life on Tinian Island and the situation after the U.S. military landing, on July 12 in the village of Nakagusuku, Okinawa Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 15, 2025

'Why do humans wage war?': Woman recalls escaping death on Tinian island in WWII

When U.S. air raids began in 1944, life changed overnight for the around 13,000 Japanese civilians living on Tinian.

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