Search - community

 
 
People walk past the Taipei Liaison Office — Taiwan's representative office in South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria — in October last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 6, 2025

Chinese pressure shreds Taiwan’s relationship with South Africa

The dispute is a stark example of the precarious moment facing Taiwan in a world order upended by the U.S. under President Donald Trump.
Remittance inflows to low-income countries have boosted welfare, reduced poverty and strengthened economic resilience, but the Trump administration’s 1% tax on the transactions threatens to undermine these critical benefits.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2025

Trump’s beggar-the-poor remittance tax

America is now the world’s top remittance-sending country, with at least 134 recipient countries in 2021, the most recent year with reliable bilateral data.
Rice that was about to be illegally imported, seized at the container inspection center of the Osaka Customs Nanko Branch Office on Aug. 8 in Osaka Prefecture
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 7, 2025

Osaka couple arrested for attempting to import rice illegally

The suspects are alleged to have tried to import some 45 tons of rice from Vietnam, claiming it as mung beans.
Thales is 10 years old, but has the vigor and good cheer of a much younger dog.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Oct 7, 2025

Chipper Yorkie-Maltese mix still young at heart

Ten-year-old Thales, named after a Greek philosopher, is decidedly unserious and will make an energetic companion for the right household.
Buddhist devotees light earthern lamps at Botahtaung Pagoda to mark the full moon day of the Thadingyut festival in Yangon on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 8, 2025

Myanmar junta strike kills dozens at festival protest, residents say

Hundreds of people were gathered in central Myanmar's Chaung U township for the Thadingyut full moon festival when the military reportedly dropped bombs on the crowd.
A worker removes a promotional banner from a building for an NBA preseason game in Shanghai in October 2019. The NBA returns to the lucrative Chinese market this week after a six-year absence.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Oct 8, 2025

NBA back in China after six-year absence sparked by democracy tweet

The Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns will play sold-out games on Friday and Sunday in Macao, a special administrative region of China.
U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed climate change as "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world" and his administration has reportedly moved to quash debate on the issue.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 8, 2025

Trump calls climate change a con; science braces for more

The Department of Energy is reportedly telling staff to avoid using language that runs counter to the president's views on climate science.
The "Text With Jesus" chatbot app displayed on an iPhone on Oct. 2.
WORLD / Society
Oct 8, 2025

Virtual Jesus? People of faith divided as AI enters religion

Religious chatbots and other faith-based digital tools are growing in number, offering counsel, comfort and spiritual guidance.
A monitor shows AI-generated images found on the computer of a man who has been arrested on charges he intentionally ignited the Pacific Palisades Fire, during a press conference with Acting United States Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli and Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the Los Angeles Field Division Kenny Cooper, in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 9, 2025

Man charged with ‘maliciously’ starting massive LA fire

The Palisades Fire burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,800 structures before it was fully contained on Jan. 31.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (center) gestures as he meets Indian traditional dancers during a ceremony for the upcoming Diwali festival in Mumbai on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 9, 2025

Starmer looks to India for example on U.K. plan for digital ID

Starmer said his proposed smartphone-based ID was needed to "address the fact that too many people can come to this country to work illegally.”
Haitian children walk past piles of garbage at the School Argentine Bellegarde, converted into a shelter for displaced people, in downtown Port-au-Prince on Oct. 3. More than 16,000 people have been killed in armed violence in Haiti since the start of 2022, the United Nations said on October 3, warning that "the worst may be yet to come."
WORLD / Society
Oct 9, 2025

'Daily struggle for survival' for Haiti children, U.N. report says

An estimated 680,000 children have been displaced by gang violence in crisis-wracked Haiti, nearly double the number from a year ago.
At Cofunia, an inn themed after Japan's "kofun," the often keyhole-shaped burial mounds form the inspiration for design of much of the property.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 11, 2025

Nara inn offers room, board and an ancient burial mound

More than 160,000 "kofun" burial mounds dot the Japanese archipelago, but Cofunia allows guests to lay their heads directly adjacent to one.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 10, 2025

Red Sox legend Mike Greenwell dies at 62

Greenwell, a two-time All-Star, revealed he was battling medullary thyroid cancer in August. His wife, Tracy, said he died in Boston.
A federal agent chases a man in a shopping center parking lot in Chicago on Saturday, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered increased federal law enforcement presence to assist in crime prevention.
WORLD
Oct 12, 2025

U.S. appeals court says national guard sent to Illinois can stay, but not deploy

The decision largely upholds a lower court's halt on the mobilization by U.S. President Donald Trump as part of his mass deportation campaign.
Actress Diane Keaton speaks during the handprints and footprints ceremony to celebrate "Mack & Rita" at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California, in August 2022. Keaton, known for her Oscar-winning performance in 1977's "Annie Hall" and her role in "The Godfather" films, has died at age 79.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 12, 2025

Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton dead at 79

Keaton was a frequent collaborator of director Woody Allen, portraying the titular character in "Annie Hall," the charming girlfriend of Allen's comic Alvy Singer.
After a run-up marked by apathy, organizers soon found they had the opposite problem as crowd control became a concern.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 12, 2025

As the Osaka Expo comes to a close, what will its legacy be?

The mega-event was a resounding success, taking in some 25 million visitors over 184 days. But how its legacy will look in the decades to come remains a question mark.
Amid the election of Sanae Takaichi as Liberal Democratic Party president, and possibly the next prime minister, Japan's economy shows signs of recovery, but weak wages, a conservative corporate culture and currency issues raise doubts about a true economic thaw.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 13, 2025

Hypothermia in the land of the rising Sanae

Of late, the country has suddenly given every impression of heat. There are good reasons to believe hypothermia is over.
A worker at one of the Blast Furnaces at British Steel's steelworks site on April 15
WORLD / Politics
Oct 14, 2025

Brexit, decay and politics collide on U.K.’s industrial east coast

The common thread is fading industrial competitiveness because of things like high energy costs compared to rivals like China, that politicians have struggled to address.
A recent survey by the Sports Agency found that women in their 30s and 40s were less physically fit in 2024 compared to 1998 levels as more women are busy working and/or raising children.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 14, 2025

Fitness levels fall for women in their 30s and 40s compared to 1998, survey finds

The survey from the Sports Agency suggested women are too busy working and/or raising children to do physical exercise, resulting in the decline.
A barrel of annealed neodymium iron boron magnets prior to being crushed into powder in Tianjin, China, on June 11, 2010.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 15, 2025

China flexes superpower status using rare earths in global supply chain grab

The true impact is yet unknown but the move already has companies and policymakers considering countermeasures and alternative suppliers.
People flee, cough, and cover their faces as the neighborhood fills with tear gas deployed by federal agents on the southeast side of Chicago on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 15, 2025

Military tactics by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Chicago fuel backlash

Agents trained to spot illegal border crossings, who normally police the frontier, are being sent into densely populated neighborhoods deep inside the country.
Crowds attend a Sanseito rally in the city of Saitama during the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 16, 2025

Doctrine forms the core of Sanseito’s strategy, with some caveats

Its adherence to doctrine makes it resemble older parties with strong organizational structures and voting blocs rather than smaller populist ones.
Lawson is looking to upgrade 100 stores nationwide to turn them into key community hubs in the event of a disaster.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 17, 2025

Lawson looks to create network of 'disaster relief convenience stores'

It hopes to upgrade 100 stores nationwide so that they are able to serve as key community hubs in the event of a calamity.
Suspect Qian Ling (center), who is believed to be the group's leader, following his re-arrest, in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 17, 2025

Tokyo police arrest phone scam group leader

The Metropolitan Police Department suspects that the group was behind at least some 500 phone scam cases committed in half a year through January.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) at the G20 summit in Brazil in 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 19, 2025

Starmer’s China woes mean an ‘unwieldy mess’ just got messier

The collapse of a high-profile espionage trial has thrust U.K.-China relations firmly into the spotlight.
Global birth rates are declining, raising concerns about the impact on society, particularly women, as it exacerbates isolation while creating a need for structural and cultural changes to support motherhood.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2025

Can the world handle having fewer moms?

Fewer women are having children. Those who do are having smaller families than previous generations. This trend transcends the norms of any one culture or place.
Mari Sako at New College, the University of Oxford, in Oxford, England
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Oct 26, 2025

Flying academia's flag for Japan, with a nod to the U.K.

Mari Sako has adopted the idea of being a "global citizen" through her work in academia.
Scammers are using AI-generated content of baseball stars like Shohei Ohtani to pull in users.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 20, 2025

Scammers drawing in fans with fake AI content of MLB stars during playoffs

Experts warn that this strategy of pulling in users can be used to grow accounts that are later sold or rented to more nefarious disinformation campaigns.
The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
COMMUNITY / Issues / Longform
Oct 22, 2025

Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.

From the desperate and defeated to the blissful and breezy, readers share their experiences of getting a driver’s license in Japan.
Jimena’s name means “listener,” and since coming to ARK she remains ever cautious and attentive in her surroundings.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Oct 22, 2025

Lovely listener Jimena just needs time and care

After a life on the streets, Jimena is learning to adapt to her new environment and appreciates having a feline friend to help her through.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years