Search - reference

 
 
Palestinians collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 8, 2025

Proposal outlines large-scale 'Humanitarian Transit Areas' for Palestinians in Gaza

One source said the plan, which calls the camps "large-scale" and "voluntary" places for the Gazan population, was recently discussed in the White House.
A picture shows a promotional poster bearing the portrait of Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, next to a defaced portrait of U.S. President Donald Trump in Damascus on Wednesday.
WORLD
Jul 12, 2025

U.N. report sees no active Syrian state links to al-Qaida

The finding could strengthen an expected U.S. push for removing U.N. sanctions on Syria.
Sega's first brick-and-mortar store in Japan is an example of how the country's video game industry is thinking of its digital products as tangible experiences.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 18, 2025

Sega’s first Japan store signals ‘immersive entertainment’ push

Opened on July 18 in the Shibuya Parco building, the video game company’s brick-and-mortar venture hints at a broader trend in Japan’s gaming landscape.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on June 27.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 19, 2025

Trump sues Wall Street Journal over Epstein report, seeking $10 billion

The newspaper said that Trump in 2003 sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday greeting that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.
South African Deputy Minister of Finance David Masondo (left), Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana (center) and South African Reserve Bank Gov. Lesetja Kganyago address a closing news conference on the last day of a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Durban, South Africa on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 19, 2025

G20 communique delivers rare show of unity amid Trump trade war

U.S. tariffs have strained the G20’s multilateral foundations and complicated South Africa’s efforts — as this year’s rotating president — to keep the group’s agenda on course.
Tadej Pogacar celebrates on the podium after winning the 13th stage of the Tour de France in the the Pyrenees mountains on Friday.
MORE SPORTS / Cycling
Jul 19, 2025

Dominant Pogacar not in a giving mood as Tour lead swells

After storming to his fourth stage victory, the three-time Tour de France winner dismissed the idea that he should back off to spare his competitors.
Polymetallic nodules — bulbous lumps of rock that are rich in battery metals such as cobalt and nickel which carpet huge tracts of Pacific Ocean seabed — in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands on June 12.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 22, 2025

Trump’s critical minerals obsession reignites deep-sea mining

President Donald Trump has issued an executive order expediting U.S. licensing of seabed mining, departing from international law.
A protester holds a sign outside the White House demanding the release to all files related to Jeffrey Epstein in Washington on July 18.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 23, 2025

Trump claims Obama 'coup' as Epstein questions mount

The coup accusation centers on claims that fly in the face of multiple high-level official probes by the U.S. government but resonate with President Donald Trump's far-right base.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba looks on after meeting with the Liberal Democratic Party executives at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2025

Ishiba denies reports he will resign next month, leaving his fate unclear

Some media outlets had reported that the prime minister was poised to step down in the coming weeks.
Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks during an news conference announcing charges against Ghislaine Maxwell for her role in the sexual exploitation and abuse of minor girls by Jeffrey Epstein.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 25, 2025

Amid Epstein furor, Ghislaine Maxwell seeks relief from U.S. Supreme Court

The justices, now on their summer recess, are expected in late September to consider whether to take up an appeal by the jailed British socialite.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 29, 2025

North Korea says Trump must drop denuclearization policy if he wants to meet Kim

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, called personal ties between Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump "not bad.”
A man walks on a beach in Nice, France, amid a heavy rain storm. European governments are ramping up their own data collection systems to monitor climate change and weather extremes.
WORLD
Aug 2, 2025

Europe is breaking its reliance on American science

Amid Trump's cuts, European governments are ramping up their own data collection systems to monitor climate change and weather extremes.
Experts warn the world is drifting dangerously close to disaster as North Korea, Russia and China expand their nuclear arsenals and old arms-control frameworks crumble.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2025

Even nuclear experts are at a loss right now

Who would have thought strategists would be almost nostalgic for the Cold War?
Amid rising prices for food and other items, a government panel has proposed a record hike in the average minimum wage.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 5, 2025

Amid inflation, Japanese government panel proposes record ¥63 minimum wage hike

The recommendation by the panel, which advises the labor minister, would raise the average minimum wage to ¥1,118 per hour.
A chicken stands in a garbage dump filled with plastic in Rodriguez, Rizal province, the Philippines, on Nov. 28, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 7, 2025

Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps

The U.S. stance broadly aligns with the positions laid out by the global petrochemicals industry.
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah prior to a friendly on Aug. 4.
SOCCER
Aug 10, 2025

'Tell us how he died': Salah criticizes UEFA tribute to 'Palestinian Pele'

The Palestine Football Association said that al-Obeid, 41, was killed by an Israeli strike targeting civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
A project to send cram school lecturers to public schools as substitute teachers is under consideration by the education ministry.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2025

Cram school lecturers may teach at public schools in Japan

The ministry plans to include related expenses in its budget request for the fiscal year starting next April.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (right) speaks alongside U.S. President Donald Trump about investing in America, at the White House in Washington on April 30.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 12, 2025

Trump opens door to sales of version of Nvidia's next-gen AI chips in China

The chip will be a less-powerful version of the Blackwell.
The U.S. State Department's 2024 Human Rights Report was delayed for months as appointees of President Donald Trump altered an earlier draft dramatically to bring it in line with "America First" values, according to government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2025

U.S. State Department softens criticism of some countries in human rights report

The 2024 Human Rights Report's section on Israel was much shorter than last year's edition and made no mention of the severe humanitarian crisis or death toll in the Gaza Strip.
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.
People walk past a time board at Hakata Station in Fukuoka. Luckily for those trying to catch a train, reading a clock is universal.
LIFE / Bilingual
Aug 15, 2025

Reading the Japanese clock: Are times a-changin'?

Learn how the Japanese tell time — from zero o’clock to 27 o’clock, and why 10 minutes "before" isn’t always clear.
Jose Takei, an 82-year-old man of Japanese descent in the Philippines, speaks during an interview on Aug. 8 at the Foreign Ministry.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2025

Stateless man of Japanese descent in Philippines eager for Japan citizenship

The son of a Japanese man and Filipino woman, Jose Takei never met his father, who left before he was born to join the Japanese military during World War II.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin shake hands as they meet at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 16, 2025

‘Dear neighbor’: A red carpet for Putin, no ceasefire for Trump

There was a lot the two presidents left unsaid at the end of an inconclusive summit, with details of a tantalizing agreement the pair had mentioned kept under wraps.
Rintaro Sasaki hits a home run during a game against Duke at Stanford's Sunken Diamond on March 16.
BASEBALL
Aug 17, 2025

Top MLB prospect Rintaro Sasaki is committed to doing it 'the hard way'

The Stanford slugger could have taken an easier path with a quicker payday. Instead he's determined to blaze his own unique trail to the top of the sport.
U.K. Prime Miniter Keir Starmer speaks at the Jaguar Land Rover automobile manufacturing plant in Solihull, U.K. Starmer declared in May that his trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump included a cut in U.S. tariffs on British steel to zero.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 18, 2025

Trade partners grow restless waiting for Trump’s tariff breaks

While deals have been cut, the lower tariff rates agreed have yet to kick in.
An Israeli tank maneuvers on the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD
Aug 19, 2025

Hamas agrees to Gaza truce deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar

The proposal would see Hamas release half of the hostages it still holds in return for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops.
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 23, 2025

Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu

The monster dolls may be driving fans wild elsewhere, but Japan has long had plenty of its own domestically produced characters that know exactly what consumers want.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during a news conference following their meeting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, last week.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 22, 2025

Doubts grow on Ukraine security plan as Russia demands role

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow should have a say in security arrangements for Ukraine, which could also involve Beijing.
A London-based design pair has turned handhold straps on the Den-en-toshi Line into stylish table lamps.
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 25, 2025

Retired Tokyo trains live on as upcycled table lamps

Former railcars on the Den-en-toshi Line have been refashioned into table lamps available for purchase from Aug. 25.
The Port of Los Angeles. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said European carmakers could see relief from the current U.S. tariffs within "hopefully weeks."
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 22, 2025

EU pushes for reduced U.S. auto tariffs to apply retroactively from Aug. 1

The statement came as the partners set out details of a framework trade deal struck in July.

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