Search - special

 
 
Al-Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo scores against Al-Khaleej in Riyadh on Wednesday
SOCCER
May 27, 2025

Ronaldo says Al-Nassr chapter is 'over'

The 40-year-old Portuguese forward's contract with the Saudi club ends this summer.
Seol Nan-young, the wife of South Korea's main conservative party candidate, during an event in Seoul on May 21.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 27, 2025

Candidate spouses take center stage in South Korea's heated presidential race

The wife of South Korea's main conservative party candidate is campaigning on her own to tarnish the image of the liberal front-runner and his spouse.
A total 37 million people in Southeast Asia suffered from cardiovascular disease in 2021 and 1.7 million died from it, according to new research.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
May 28, 2025

Southeast Asia sees near 150% rise in heart disease, study shows

A total 37 million people in the region suffered from cardiovascular disease in 2021 and 1.7 million died from it.
US Coco Gauff reacts after a point during her women's singles match against Australia's Olivia Gadecki on day 3 of the French Open tennis tournament in Paris on Tuesday.
TENNIS
May 28, 2025

Gauff finds groove after forgetting rackets as Medvedev exits

Gauff forgot to take her rackets to the court but reminded her rivals of her French Open title ambitions with a commanding first-round win.
AI hallucinations — when generative models fabricate information — are becoming more frequent, harder to detect and increasingly dangerous as we embed the technology deeper into society.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2025

AI hallucinations? What could go wrong?

The notion that we can’t ensure that AI will produce accurate information is, uh, “disturbing” if we intend to integrate that product so deeply into our daily lives.
German and U.S. soldiers participate in Allied Spirit 24, a multinational training exercise, in Hohenfels, Germany, in March 2024. Reforger, NATO’s massive Cold War-era exercise to rush U.S. troops to Europe, was shelved after the Soviet collapse. But with Vladimir Putin attacking neighbors, maybe it’s time to revive it.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 28, 2025

How can Europe deter Putin? Revive the ‘Reforger.’

The massive Cold War military exercise put a stop to Soviet aggression then, and it could do the same with Russia now.
Displaced Palestinians carry bags of food aid after storming a World Food Program warehouse in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD
May 29, 2025

Deadly break-in at U.N. warehouse as aid trickles into Gaza

The World Food Program appealed for an immediate scale-up of food aid "to reassure people that they will not starve."
The cover-up is believed to have started in 2004 or even earlier, according to the government's Tohoku Local Finance Bureau and the Financial Services Agency.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 29, 2025

Japan lender receives business improvement order following cover-up

Former executives of the cooperative concealed fraudulent corporate loans, including through the accounts of depositors opened without their consent.
Stockpiled rice arrives Thursday at a rice-milling factory operated by an Iris Ohyama subsidiary in the town of Watari, Miyagi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
May 29, 2025

Stockpiled rice shipped within three days and set to hit shelves next week

The rapid shipment is in sharp contrast with previous arrangements using auctions, under which it took months to sell and ship 310,000 metric tons of rice in phases.
Five high school classmates bond and grow over the course of their sophomore to senior years in “I Have a S/e/c/r/e/t.”
CULTURE / Film
May 29, 2025

‘I Have a S/e/c/r/e/t’ gives teen angst a whimsical twist

Shun Nakagawa’s emotionally resonant ensemble drama reveals deep truths about the inner lives of adolescents.
Located in Nagano Prefecture, Samurai Gakuen tries to help young and old individuals who have withdrawn from society rediscover their places out in the world.
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 31, 2025

How ‘hikikomori’ shut-ins ‘start to have dreams for the future’

As many as 1.5 million “hikikomori” shut-ins withdraw from social life in Japan, but one school in Nagano is finding success is coaxing them back into the world.
Software engineer and former Department of Government Efficiency staff member Sahil Lavingia
WORLD
May 30, 2025

DOGE likely to fizzle out without Musk, says ex-staffer

Software engineer Sahil Lavingia, who spent almost two months working for the group of pro-Musk technologists, said he expects DOGE to quickly "die a whimper.”
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring for Al Nassr during a Saudi Pro League match against Al-Qadsiah in Riyadh on Nov. 22, 2024.
SOCCER
May 30, 2025

Saudi officials working to keep Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Pro League

Ronaldo posted "This chapter is over" on social media hours after the Saudi Pro League wrapped up this week.
The Trump administration's escalating campaign against Harvard — cutting billions in funding, blocking foreign students, and threatening its independence — marks an unprecedented attack on U.S. higher education.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2025

U.S. soft power is a casualty in Trump’s war on Harvard

The fight against Harvard will do extensive and potentially irreparable injury. It is an extraordinary act of self-harm.
Artists offer their own interpretations of Japan's most famous monster at "Godzilla The Art Exhibition."
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2025

'Godzilla The Art Exhibition' reimagines film icon as monstrous muse for modern art

The Mori Arts Center Gallery exhibition takes Japan's most famous monster beyond the world of filmmaking and asks nine artists to interpret the beast from their own point of view.
Elon Musk boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland in March. As Musk became one of Donald Trump's closest allies last year, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities.
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2025

On the Trump campaign trail, Elon Musk juggled drugs and family drama

Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use and also came as he dealt with personal drama related to his growing number of children.
Vehicles of delegations leave the Omani Embassy after a fifth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, in Rome on May 23.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2025

Damning IAEA report spells out past secret nuclear activities in Iran

The findings pave the way for a push to declare Tehran in violation of its non-proliferation obligations.
U.S. President Donald Trump smiles before speaking in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jun 1, 2025

Trump tariffs face threat at top court — over rulings that blocked Biden

The court’s conservative majority ruled that federal agencies can’t decide sweeping political and economic matters without clear congressional authorization.
The sun sets over the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2025

Hamas seeks changes in Gaza proposal as U.S. calls response 'unacceptable'

Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
Jared Isaacman, U.S. President Donald Trump's then-nominee to be NASA administrator, testifies during a Senate panel confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 9.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2025

Trump pulls Musk ally's NASA nomination and will announce replacement

Isaacman's removal comes just days after Musk's official departure from the White House.
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House in Washington in February.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 2, 2025

Ishiba eyes trade meeting around Trump's birthday before G7 meet, report says

Some government officials have said a deal announced on June 14 — the U.S. president's birthday — might have special symbolic significance for him.
The small village of Blatten in the Swiss Alps was destroyed by a landslide after part of a glacier collapsed last week.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Jun 2, 2025

How Switzerland's Birch glacier collapsed

There are strong theories on the causes, and to what degree it is linked to climate change — but these are yet to be confirmed by scientific analysis.
Toshiba's Richie Mo'unga runs with the ball at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium on May 24.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Jun 2, 2025

Mo'unga shrugs off broken hand to win Japanese title

The fly-half has finished every season in top-level domestic rugby since 2017 with a winner's medal, and he picked up another with Toshiba.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers his report to delegates at the World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 19.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2025

Trump’s WHO withdrawal could cost the U.S. dearly

Despite progress since COVID-19, the U.S. remains vulnerable to pandemics like H5N1, and withdrawing from the WHO would weaken its ability to respond to global health threats.
An Iranian newspaper, with a cover photo featuring the flags of Iran, Oman and the U.S., is seen in Tehran on May 11. Tehran is poised to reject a U.S. proposal for a new nuclear deal presented to it on Saturday by Oman's foreign minister, an Iranian diplomat says.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 3, 2025

Iran poised to dismiss U.S. nuclear proposal, Iranian diplomat says

The proposal fails to address Tehran's interests or soften Washington's stance on uranium enrichment, the diplomat says.
Since moving to Tokyo from New York City in 2014, Hiraku Morilla has been promoting Keith Haring’s legacy in his professional life and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jun 6, 2025

Hiraku Morilla: ‘Pride means respect for those who walked so we could run’

The New York-raised director of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection reflects on his queer, multiracial identity and LGBTQ+ rights in Japan.
A Japanese team has started a final-stage clinical trial to administer to patients with familial Alzheimer's disease a drug discovered using iPS cells.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 4, 2025

Japanese team starts final-stage trial for iPS drug to treat Alzheimer's

Through the trial, which began in May, the team aims to confirm the safety and efficacy of the treatment, with hopes of obtaining regulatory approval.
Elon Musk looks on during a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Saturday. Musk has dubbed Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill as a "disgusting abomination."
WORLD / Politics
Jun 4, 2025

Trump's 'big, beautiful bill?' Musk calls it a 'disgusting abomination.'

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO says the U.S. president's sweeping tax and spending bill will increase the federal deficit.
Afghan refugees queue outside a distribution and donation center in New Jersey in December 2021. U.S. President Donald Trump's second-term travel ban covers 12 countries, including Afghanistan.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 5, 2025

Trump signs travel ban for 12 countries including Afghanistan

The move is the latest step in what has been a sweeping immigration agenda aimed at cracking down on undocumented migration.
Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph speaks during a rally held by U.S. President Donald Trump (right) at U.S. Steel Corporation-Irvin Works in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, on May 30.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jun 5, 2025

Steelers respond to fans after QB Mason Rudolph attends Trump rally

The team reminded fans that the opinions of individual players "do not necessarily represent the view of the entire Pittsburgh Steelers organization."

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan