Search - 2023

 
 
Spanish Red Cross members hold children after a boat with 57 migrants onboard arrived at La Restinga port on the Canary island of El Hierro, on Sept. 14.
WORLD / Society
Dec 27, 2024

Record number of migrants lost at sea were bound for Spain in 2024: NGO

An average of 30 people died per day while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2024, up from around 18 in 2023.
Guatemalan migrants walk after arriving at La Aurora Air Force Base on a deportation flight from the U.S., in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on Nov. 8.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 27, 2024

Guatemala open to accepting Trump's Central American deportees: sources

Guatemala has been particularly proactive in preparing for a second Donald Trump term relative to neighbors El Salvador and Honduras.
Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 27, 2024

Israel hits Houthis in Yemen in response to slow escalation

Among targets hit Thursday included military infrastructure at the Sanaa International Airport and in the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations.
The competition rate of employment examinations for public school teachers in Japan hit the lowest levels for all of elementary, junior high and high schools since data began being compiled in fiscal 1979.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2024

Japan sees record low competition rate for becoming school teachers

The decline reflected the mass departure of teachers who reached retirement age, which led to increased demand for new recruits, as well as a decrease in the number of applicants.
Liverpool's Cody Gakpo (right) and Leicester City's Boubakary Soumare vie for the ball during their match in Liverpool, England, on Thursday.
SOCCER
Dec 27, 2024

Liverpool powers to seven-point lead in Premier League

Liverpool's comeback lifted it well clear of second-placed Chelsea, which was defeated 2-1 by Fulham earlier in the day.
Children play mahjong during a class held at Satsukigaoka community center in the city of Hiroshima.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Chugoku
Jan 14, 2025

Mahjong enjoys new wave of players that spans generations

Once associated with gambling, mahjong is becoming a popular pursuit for all ages, boosted by pro leagues, apps and "healthy mahjong" for cognitive and social benefits.
Some of the slush funds pooled by Kawasaki Heavy Industries were used to wine and dine Maritime Self-Defense Force personnel, the Defense Ministry said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 27, 2024

Kawasaki Heavy found to have pooled ¥1.7 billion in slush funds

Some of the funds were used by the defense contractor to wine and dine Maritime Self-Defense Force personnel, the Defense Ministry said.
People cover themselves with umbrellas during a hot summer day in Tokyo's Ginza district in August. Temperatures shot up in early July, even before the official end of the rainy season, and the high temperatures persisted well into the fall.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Dec 29, 2024

Japan’s weather in 2024: Record temperatures hurt people’s health and wallets

Average temperatures across the nation and surrounding seas exceeded last year’s record-breaking levels "by a significant margin," affecting everything from well-being to farming.
Former U.S. President Jimmy in 1996. Carter, who rose from Georgia farmland to become the 39th president of the United States on a promise of national healing after the wounds of Watergate and Vietnam, then lost the White House in a cauldron of economic turmoil at home and crisis in Iran, died on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024

Jimmy Carter, president known as a peacemaker, is dead at 100

While Carter's presidency was remembered more for its failures than for its successes, his post-presidency was seen by many as a model for future chief executives.
According to the National Police Agency, a total of 3,326 romance scam were reported in the first 11 months of this year, more than double that in the same period of last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 30, 2024

'For our future together': The rising threat of romance scams in Japan

The prevalence of such scams, which prey on the lonely, has led authorities to step up measures to crack down on scammers who are often not even in the country.
A drone view shows smoke above Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, as seen from near Kibbutz Nir Am in southern Israel on Dec. 12.
WORLD
Dec 30, 2024

Israeli forces order evacuation of northern Gaza town, residents say

Palestinian and United Nations officials say no place is safe in Gaza and that evacuations worsen the humanitarian conditions of the population.
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.
A monitor in Tokyo shows the Nikkei stock average closing at its best year-end level ever, topping the previous high marked in 1989.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 30, 2024

Japan's Nikkei ends 2024 with nearly 20% rise

At 39,894.54, the benchmark index finished at its best year-end level ever, topping the previous high from the end of 1989 at the height of the country's bubble economy.
Yasushi Dozen, chief investment officer at Kepple
BUSINESS
Jan 2, 2025

Japan's ¥10 trillion startup investment target more improbable than ever

Investors and startup supporters say Japan is still in the seed-planting phase of startup development and must address some structural issues.
​SSPP Forum #03
ESG CONSORTIUM
Dec 31, 2024

NTT’s SSPP Forum shares ideas on forming communities of future

NTT’s Sustainable Smart City Partner Program (SSPP) supports the development of communities of the future that maximize residents’ well-being. The SSPP Forum was launched in 2022 to provide an opportunity for sharing SSPP case studies on community formation, and its third session was held recently....
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (left) dribbles against Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins in San Francisco on Wednesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Dec 31, 2024

LeBron, 40, says he wants to finish his career with the Lakers

The player said his exit would come before he felt he could no longer compete "at a high level."
The tail of Jeju Air Flight 2216 is seen at Muan International Airport in Muan County, South Korea, on Sunday after the aircraft careered down the runway with no landing gear deployed and smashed into a concrete wall, killing all but two of the 181 people on board.
WORLD
Dec 31, 2024

Two plane crashes lead to deadliest year in skies since 2018

The Jeju Air disaster in South Korea and last week’s downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane took the number of fatalities aboard passenger aircraft in 2024 to 318.
Britain's Emma Raducanu celebrates after defeating Canada's Rebecca Marino in Malaga, Spain, on Nov. 17.
TENNIS
Dec 31, 2024

Raducanu pulls out of Australian Open warmup with back injury

Raducanu, who was seeded sixth in Auckland, will fly to Melbourne to begin rehabilitation.
The city of Kumamoto has seen a surge in the number of students from Taiwan, following the arrival of chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and related businesses in Kumamoto Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 31, 2024

Kumamoto public schools respond to influx of Taiwanese students

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s arrival in Kumamoto has heightened the need to adapt to the needs of Taiwanese families.
A stack of ¥10,000 bills equivalent to the year-end balance of banknotes in circulation would be 1,240 kilometers high, or about 328 times higher than the 3,776-meter Mount Fuji.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2024

Japan's year-end banknote balance down for second straight year

The drop resulted from people increasingly opting for cashless payments.
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.
An Air Self-Defense Force airman sets up a drone during a bilateral live fire exercise at Draughon Range, near Misawa Air Base, in Aomori Prefecture in July 2023.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 5, 2025

Taking a page from Ukraine war, SDF carves out growing role for drones

Whether for use in the air, on land or at sea, the SDF is gradually integrating these increasingly capable and often autonomous systems into their units.
Opium is harvested from poppies in Bang Laem Village, Shan State, Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 31, 2024

Drugs, scams and sin: Myanmar’s war has made it the global crime capital

Growing opium poppies is illegal in Myanmar, but small-scale farmers see it is a relatively low-risk cash crop.
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.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands for the national anthem during an award ceremony in Kyiv on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 1, 2025

Zelenskyy vows Ukraine will do everything in 2025 to stop Russia

The Ukrainian leader's address caps a difficult year for the war-battered country, which has been fending off a better-resourced Russian army.
Arsenal's Gabriel Jesus (left) scores against Brentford during their Premier League match in London on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Jan 2, 2025

Gabriel Jesus plays starring role as Arsenal closes gap on Liverpool

Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli netted in quick succession soon after halftime to ensure Arsenal moved into second place above Nottingham Forest.
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers attempts a pass against the Rams during the second half of their game in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Dec. 22.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 2, 2025

Jets quarterback Rodgers ponders NFL future ahead of season finale

The 41-year-old Rodgers, a four-time NFL MVP, said he would make a decision about whether he'll play in 2025 before free agency in March.
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.
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces keep watch during a security operation in Jenin in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Dec. 16.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2025

Anticipating Trump, Palestinian Authority eager to crush militants

Analysts say that the PA is trying to prove it can control the violence and demonstrate that it could bring stability to Gaza once the war is over.
BYD electric vehicles outside one of the company's dealerships in Beijing
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 2, 2025

BYD chalks up new record as it narrows EV sales gap with Tesla

China’s BYD enjoyed a year-end surge to push total sales to 4.25 million passenger cars last year, as the two seek to be the top-selling electric-vehicle maker of 2024.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami