Search - 2021

 
 
Resistance soldiers ride in the back of a pickup truck in southern Karenni State, Myanmar, on Jan. 28. Three years after a military coup, the Southeast Asian nation is teetering on the brink of failed statehood.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 3, 2024

What’s happening in Myanmar’s civil war?

The military is still the country’s most influential institution, and a militarized culture pervades many areas that ethnic minorities control.
Over the past two years, 2.4 million people arrived in Canada, more than the population of the U.S. state of New Mexico. Yet Canada barely added enough housing that would cater to just the residents of the New Mexico capital of Albuquerque.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 6, 2024

Global housing shortages are crushing immigration-fueled growth

In developed economies such as Canada, Australia and the U.K., life is getting tougher for both locals and immigrants alike.
Workers on the production line at a cotton textile factory in Korla, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, on April 1, 2021
BUSINESS
May 8, 2024

Banned Chinese cotton found in 19% of U.S. and global retailers' merchandise, study shows

The U.S. enacted a law in 2021 to safeguard its market from products potentially tainted by human rights abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer.
Medical workers take care of a COVID-19 patient on a mechanical ventilator, in a negative pressure room in an intensive care unit at St. Marianna University School of Medicine Yokohama City Seibu Hospital in Yokohama in August 2021.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 8, 2024

Many still face COVID aftereffects a year after assessment downgrade

As there is no cure yet for long-lasting symptoms, doctors are calling on people to continue taking infection preventative measures.
Russian officers march during the main military parade rehearsals in Moscow's Red Square on May 5.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 8, 2024

Russia’s war economy starves crucial oil industry of manpower

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, its oil and gas sector has faced increasingly strict international sanctions aimed at limiting petrodollar revenue.
Singapore Prime Minister-designate Lawrence Wong at the Group of 20 finance ministers' meeting in Indonesia in 2022
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 14, 2024

Singapore PM-designate Lawrence Wong keeps old guard in reshuffle

Wong picked Trade Minister Gan Kim Yong as his deputy, keeping the Cabinet of outgoing leader Lee Hsien Loong largely intact.
Shipping containers at Pier J at the Port of Long Beach wait for processing in Long Beach, California, in 2018.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 16, 2024

U.S. efforts to reshape global supply chains gathers pace in Asia

Investment flows are shifting along with trade, with global firms investing in Southeast Asia to avoid U.S. tariffs on China.
Wind turbines stand next to solar panels at a solar plant in Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture. Japan's energy plan under a review is expected to call for raising the renewable energy sources in the power mix.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
May 16, 2024

Japan begins review of basic energy plan amid spread of AI

Power demand could expand further if growth in the amount of information processed by advanced AI accelerates.
Italian chef and restaurateur Massimo Bottura is increasingly focusing on passing on his knowledge to chefs such as Antonio Iacoviello.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 18, 2024

Massimo Bottura: 'The Japanese let ingredients express themselves'

The renowned chef and restaurateur talks about passing on his legacy and the "transfer of emotions" involved in cooking a successful dish.
Toshiba announced on Thursday that it would cut up to 4,000 jobs as part of a restructuring plan.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 17, 2024

Toshiba takes advantage of private status to chart new course

The company has announced that it will cut up to 4,000 jobs as part of a restructuring.
Representatives of the ruling bloc and opposition parties meet in Tokyo on Friday to start discussions on possible relaxations of the imperial family's strict succession rules.
JAPAN
May 17, 2024

Lawmakers begin talks on Japan's dwindling imperial line

Japan currently has only one heir: Emperor Naruhito's 17-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, visit the Capitol Rotunda as the Reverend Billy Graham lay in honor there in February 2018.
WORLD / Politics
May 18, 2024

Display at Alito’s home renews questions of U.S. Supreme Court’s impartiality

News of a popular “Stop the Steal” symbol on the justice’s front lawn led jurists and politicians to express concerns about coming court decisions.
Iran's Mehr news agency has confirmed the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, reporting that "all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred"
WORLD / Politics
May 20, 2024

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi killed in helicopter crash

Iran's Mehr news agency confirmed the death, reporting that "all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred."
Mourners gather in Tehran's Valiasr Square on Monday to honor President Ebrahim Raisi and others who died in a helicopter crash a day earlier.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2024

Iranian President Raisi's failed experiment in ideological purity

Yet totalitarian regimes such as Iran don’t need their populations to be content, so long as they have security forces willing to kill to suppress dissent.
Lee Dong-hyun and her son, 19-month-old Choi Hee-woo, pose at a playground on May 17, ahead of the final public hearing at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday of a climate lawsuit against the South Korean government, for which Hee-woo is the youngest plaintiff.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 22, 2024

Embryo activist: Baby's lawsuit takes on South Korea climate inaction

South Korea is the G20's second-highest carbon emitter per capita.
Shigeru Omi, then-Japan's top COVID-19 advisor, speaks to reporters at the Prime Minister's Office in April 2022. A study published this month has shown that many experts who spoke to the media about COVID-19 in Japan were harassed by the public.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 22, 2024

Many COVID experts in Japan harassed after speaking to media, survey shows

The research conducted by a professor at Waseda University is Japan’s first comprehensive survey on threats targeting COVID-19 experts.
A worker shovels soil next to irrigation channels and recently planted shoots of Xinjiang poplar at the Yangguan state-backed forest farm, on the edge of the Gobi desert on the outskirts of Dunhuang, China's Gansu province, in 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 23, 2024

China's food security dream faces land, soil and water woes

With limited land and water, China will have to sharply increase farming productivity.
Forever Young (center), ridden by Ryusei Sakai, finished third in this year’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 4.
MORE SPORTS / Horse Racing
May 24, 2024

Solid Kentucky Derby showing offers hope

“The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” refers to the Kentucky Derby, a 2,000-meter dirt track race for 3-year-old thoroughbreds run at Churchill Downs Racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky. The Kentucky Derby is the first race of the Triple Crown, the second and third being the Preakness and the Belmont...
The Japanese government updated its English education guidelines in 2017 to emphasize communication over grammar and memorization. Public school teachers are incredibly busy, however, which means schools haven’t been able to implement changes uniformly. Private and alternative schools are attempting to remedy this.
LIFE / Language / Longform
May 27, 2024

The language of opportunity: Bilingual education is on the rise in Japan

Stuck with a reputation for poor English, Japan is pushing its next generation to be bilingual. Privately run schools are seeing the benefits.
Makoto Nishimoto, who goes by the name "Super Crazy-kun," at a news conference in the city of Miyazaki in November 2022
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 24, 2024

Ex-Miyazaki city assembly member gets 4½ years over sexual assault

Makoto Nishimoto, who goes by the name "Super Crazy-kun," was sentenced for sexually assaulting a female acquaintance in September 2023.
A woman looks on during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in front of a U.S. consulate in Barcelona, Spain, on June 1, 2020.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 27, 2024

Four years after George Floyd killing, police reform slow to follow

Despite the initial surge of calls for change, federal attempts at wide-ranging reform have been mostly unsuccessful.
Simon Cheng, a pro-democracy activist from Hong Kong now living in Britain, at the offices of an organization he founded to aid new Hong Kong arrivals, in London on May 20. Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers have resettled in the United Kingdom since 2021, including prominent pro-democracy activists — and China has not forgotten them.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 27, 2024

Spying arrests send chill through Britain’s thriving Hong Kong community

The arrests have cast a spotlight on activists’ concerns about China's surveillance of its critics abroad.
"The era of the monopoly is now definitively over," said A22 CEO Bernd Reichart, seen on Dec. 21, after a ruling in Madrid on Monday regarding opposition to a proposed soccer European Super League.
SOCCER
May 28, 2024

Spanish court orders FIFA and UEFA to halt opposition to Super League

A judge ruled that the governing bodies had violated European Union law.
The African National Congress’ manifesto launch at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Feb. 24
WORLD / Politics
May 28, 2024

Where South Africa’s crunch election will be won and lost

As the country heads into its tightest election since apartheid ended in 1994, the ANC is facing competition like never before.
Wanxiang America’s Neapco manufacturing plant in Belleville, Michigan
BUSINESS / Companies
May 29, 2024

Once embraced, Chinese companies now shunned in U.S. on security fears

It doesn’t matter if it’s mining or health care, even Chinese furniture could one day be seen as a national security issue, a lawyer who represents Chinese clients said.
Aphelele Vavi (right), 22, who is studying sound engineering, at lunch with fellow students at SAE Creative Media Institute in Rosebank, South Africa, on March 19
WORLD / Politics
May 29, 2024

South Africa’s young democracy leaves its young voters disillusioned

The nation is heading into a pivotal election, in which voters will determine who will pick the president, but voter turnout has been dropping in recent years.
Kanoa Igarashi, who earned a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is excited to get another shot at gold at this year’s Summer Games.
MORE SPORTS / Surfing
May 31, 2024

Kanoa Igarashi ready to challenge Teahupo'o in search of gold at Paris Olympics

Igarashi earned the silver medal in the inaugural Olympic surfing competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In addition to the supply shortages, the yen's depreciation is also blamed for the recent surge in orange juice prices in Japan, which relies almost entirely on imported orange juice.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 2, 2024

Orange juice crisis hits consumers in Japan

Supply shortages have forced many Japanese makers to suspend sales of orange juice products.
Yuka Saso hits a tee shot on the first hole during the final round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jun 3, 2024

Yuka Saso wins second U.S. Women's Open golf crown

At 22, Saso is the youngest player to win the U.S. Women's Open twice
A woman cycles past the Beijing Stock Exchange building on Feb. 8.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 3, 2024

Red tape clogs China's offshore IPO pipeline even as markets recover

China company executives and their investors said they expect the offshore IPO drought to continue this year, weighing on firms' ability to raise capital in a slowing economy.

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