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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (center) stands beside Vice President Sara Duterte (left) in a traditional dress after he delivered his first State of the Nation address at the House of Representatives in Quezon City,  Manila, on July 25, 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 26, 2024

Philippines' Marcos vows to fight back after estranged VP's death threat

The threat by Sara Duterte, daughter of firebrand former President Rodrigo Duterte, is the latest twist in a dramatic spat between the powerful families.
Eriko Nakamura (left) and Ryo Narita play star-crossed lovers in Shinzo Katayama’s hallucinatory romp through past and present, dreams and reality.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2024

The mind-bending melancholy of ‘Lust in the Rain’

Shinzo Katayama’s hallucinatory film boldly explores both the absurdities of wartime violence and the erotic psyche.
An Iranian woman, in her house in Tehran while the electricity is cut off due to energy savings in 2021
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2024

Iran's businesses bear brunt of daily power blackouts

Iran, despite holding some of the world's largest natural gas and oil reserves, has grappled with massive energy shortages in recent months.
A satellite image appears to show an overview of Thitu Island in the South China Sea on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 29, 2024

Chinese ships near island disputed with Philippines, satellites show

Thitu is a strategically important island from which Manila monitors Chinese vessels and aircraft in the busy waterway.
Kylian Mbappe had a penalty saved during Real Madrid's loss against Liverpool during the Champions League.
SOCCER
Nov 29, 2024

European giants struggle in new Champions League format

Heavyweights such as Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are currently at risk of an early exit.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus during a game on Nov. 10. Eberflus was fired on Friday, a day after Chicago lost its sixth straight game.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Nov 30, 2024

Bears fire head coach Matt Eberflus

The news came less than 24 hours after Eberflus experienced a sixth straight defeat and third consecutive loss decided on the final play.
Member of French far-right party Rassemblement National (RN) Marine Le Pen (center) talks to the media next to party member Louis Aliot after a hearing in her trial on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds, in Paris on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has never been so powerful in France

Marine Le Pen is now the ultimate power broker in Paris.
The logo of the Adani Group on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on Nov. 21
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 2, 2024

Bangladesh wants to renegotiate Adani power deal unless court cancels

Adani Group founder Gautam Adani is already facing allegations by U.S. authorities that he was part of a $265 million bribery scheme in India.
Armored vehicles from the Self-Defense Forces parade in formation at the Ground Self-Defense Force's Camp Asaka on Nov. 9.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2024

Top Japan defense industry firms saw sales boom in 2023

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Fujitsu, NEC and Mitsubishi Electric saw their combined revenues from arms rise by 35% to $10 billion.
Workers walk through a thermal power plant damaged by Russian missile strikes in an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Nov. 28.
WORLD
Dec 3, 2024

Energy workers battle to keep the lights on in Ukraine

The workers see themselves as on the front line of a crucial battle in the war with Russia — to supply millions of people with power despite Moscow's attacks.
Kentaro Okuda, CEO of Nomura Holdings, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Nomura CEO takes pay cut after former employee charged with attempted murder

The CEO and four other executives will take a 30% pay cut for three months, while five members of the board will take a 20% pay cut for the same period.
“A Big Home” offers a sincere portrait of the vulnerable youth who live in more than 600 group homes across Japan.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2024

Vulnerable youth look for sense of belonging in ‘A Big Home’

Ryo Takebayashi’s documentary profiles the residents of a group home, but shies away from making emphatic statements about the circumstances that brought them there.
Sake bottles are displayed at the 19th World Cultural Heritage Conference, as sake was added to UNESCO'S Intangible Cultural Heritage list, in Asuncion, Paraguay on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 5, 2024

Japanese sake brewing added to UNESCO intangible heritage list

Traditional sake brewing marks the 23rd Japanese entry on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list, joining other culturally significant arts such as washoku and kabuki.
Japan's Roki Sasaki delivers a pitch against Mexico at LoanDepot Park in Miami in March 2023.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 6, 2024

Darvish could help lure prized free agent to San Diego

Darvish is said to badly want young right-hander Roki Sasaki as his teammate.
Doctor Mehdi Davut, who heads an association helping Syrians in Istanbul, speaks at his office, where he also runs a health clinic, in Istanbul on Wednesday.
WORLD
Dec 6, 2024

Rebels' capture of Aleppo stirs Syrian homecoming hopes in Turkey

Millions of people have fled abroad from Syria since the war began, including across the frontier to Turkey.
A man wearing a mask depicting South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol dances on a street as people gather for a protest calling for the ouster of Yoon outside the National Assembly in Seoul on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 7, 2024

K-pop, carols and guillotines at South Korea impeachment protests

Protesters massed outside the National Assembly, many wearing the elaborate outfits, carrying home-made flags or blasting the K-pop tunes.
A Syrian rebel fighter kisses a child as they gather in Homs after Syria's army command notified officers on Sunday that President Bashar Assad's 24-year authoritarian rule had ended on Sunday.
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 9, 2024

How Syrian rebels' stars aligned for Assad's ouster

Opposition militias sensed an opportunity to loosen the president grip on power when, about six months ago, they received Turkey's tacit blessing for a major offensive.
The suffering of people with disabilities has been compounded by steep shortages in devices to aid them, including wheelchairs and hearing aids, and in damage to roads, sidewalks and homes with accessible features.
WORLD / Society
Dec 9, 2024

Gaza's disabled people face ‘impossible times’ of chaos and war

The war has forced most of Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents from their homes and has been particularly punishing for people with disabilities and their families.
One of the representatives of 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo, Terumi Tanaka, speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony in Oslo City Hall on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024

Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo calls for a world without nukes

The atomic bomb survivors urged countries to abolish the weapons resurging as a threat 80 years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
Fans of K-pop boy band NCT sing one of their songs while holding light sticks, as they attend a protest rally calling for the impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 10, 2024

K-pop light sticks fire up impeachment protests in South Korea

Playlists of popular K-pop protest songs are also being shared on X, with one lawmaker in the opposition party also jumping on the trend.
Mao Geping, chairman of Mao Geping Cosmetics Co., gestures during the company's listing ceremony at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 11, 2024

China makeup mogul is a billionaire after hot Hong Kong debut

Mao Geping's namesake skincare and cosmetics firm, which listed Tuesday, raised HK$2.3 billion ($300 million) in its initial public offering.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visit a defense exhibition in July last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 11, 2024

Russia tie-up sparks fears of modernized North Korean defense industry

Experts say the real issue is how deepened North Korean-Russian ties could help revitalize and modernize Pyongyang’s defense industrial base.
Akihiro Kaneko, president of the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Unions, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 3.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2024

Japan union head calls for government to work more on raising pay

The call comes as Japan prepares for annual wage negotiations that culminate in the spring.
Actor Sadao Abe accepts the 2024 U-Can New Word and Popular Phrase Award for ふてほど (futehodo), the abbreviated title for his series, “Futekisetsu nimo Hodo ga Aru!” (“Extremely Inappropriate!”).
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 12, 2024

How often do Japan's buzzwords make it into the vernacular?

We crown a new one every year, but trendy terms tend to disappear from public consciousness if they're related to pop culture.
In a year of anime hits, Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s “Look Back” stood out from the bunch.
CULTURE / Film / 2024 in Review
Dec 13, 2024

Big franchises and bold voices dominated anime in 2024

In a year of major box-office hits such as “Conan” and “Haikyu!!,” smaller animators used nontraditional tools to stand out from the rest.
Children stand next to the sea at the Kara Tepe camp for refugees and migrants on the island of Lesbos, Greece, in October 2020.
WORLD / Society
Dec 13, 2024

'Invisible' refugee children caught in Europe's migration red tape

In the first nine months of 2024, arrivals of unaccompanied children to the main entry points to the European Union were 8% higher, despite overall arrivals slowing.
A rebel fighter inspects writings on a jail cell wall at the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) Branch 251, also known as Al-Khatib branch, in the capital Damascus on Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2024

'Torture after torture': Turkish inmate recalls time in Syria's jails

The man said he paid the price for the hatred Syria's authorities bore for Turkey's president, who early in the war urged the Syrian president to leave.
A thermal power plant at an undisclosed location in Ukraine that was damaged during a missile attack amid Russia's invasion
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 27, 2024

When Russia fights the wrong enemy

The longer the war in Ukraine continues, the weaker Russia will become, leading many to wonder when it will decide to staunch its losses.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov attend an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry Board at the National Defense Control Center in Moscow on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 17, 2024

Russia must be ready to fight NATO in Europe in next decade, minister says

Russian defense chief cited a NATO summit in July and military doctrines in NATO members as evidence that Moscow had to prepare.
Looking for LGBTQ+ events this holiday season? Tokyo is chockful of a variety of ways to spread cheer in the way that suits you best.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 20, 2024

Make the Yuletide gay: Tokyo’s LGBTQ+ Christmas events

Drag shows and lip-sync karaoke may not be traditional holiday get-togethers, but they deck the halls just the same.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji