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A restaurant owner waits for customers at her empty restaurant in Seoul on Oct. 31.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 11, 2024

South Korea's fading nightlife signals shift in hard-drinking culture

The change has been driven by corporate Korea's slowdown on after-work drinking sessions, younger female workers' refusal to partake and inflation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Peruvian counterpart, Dina Boluarte, meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima on Nov. 14.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2024

U.S. wakes up to China’s growing presence in its ‘backyard’

China has long eyed Latin America’s food and mineral resources, using them to build business connections for over two decades.
FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a meeting in Washington in September.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 12, 2024

FBI chief Christopher Wray to resign before Trump takes office

Donald Trump has announced the nomination of staunch loyalist Kash Patel to head the top U.S. law enforcement agency.
Fans in Saudi Arabia celebrate after the nation was confirmed as host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 12, 2024

Saudi Arabia awarded 2034 FIFA World Cup despite human rights concerns

FIFA also confirmed that Morocco, Spain and Portugal will be joint hosts of the 2030 World Cup, in which three games will also be played in South America.
A liquefied natural gas plant operated by Sakhalin Energy in Sakhalin, Russia. Japan, the world's second biggest LNG buyer, depends on Russia for 9% of its LNG.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Dec 12, 2024

Rival supplies and depleting fields give Japan an exit from Russian gas

Japan, the world's second-biggest liquefied natural gas buyer, depends on Russia for 9% of its LNG.
The leader of Syria's rebel group, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, addresses a crowd in Damascus on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 12, 2024

Militant leader's endgame is big unknown in post-Assad Syria

Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to project a moderate image so far, but there is distrust in the air.
Passersby hold umbrellas as they walk under strong sunlight as the Japanese government issued heat stroke alerts in 39 of the country's 47 prefectures in Tokyo on July 22.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 12, 2024

Climate change forged a new reality in 2024: 'This is life now'

As the year draws to a close, the environmental conclusion is both blatant and bleak: 2024 was the hottest year since records began.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes passes against the Buccaneers in Kansas City, Missouri, on Nov. 4.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Dec 12, 2024

NFL trio brace for physical toll of playing three games over short period

"It's a unique situation," said Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who shared that he told the team to take one day at a time through the unprecedented stretch.
A protester wears a mask depicting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during a rally calling for his impeachment, in Seoul, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / ANALYSIS
Dec 12, 2024

South Korea's soft power gains at risk from extended political crisis

How the country — a top global destination for medical and plastic surgery tourism — gets through the period of uncertainty will impact foreign visitor numbers.
The head priest of Kiyomizu Temple writes the kanji "kin," which was chosen by the public as the character that best represents 2024, on Thursday in Kyoto.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2024

'Kin' selected as the kanji of 2024 after strong year for Japanese athletes

The choice also reflected the Liberal Democratic Party’s slush-fund scandal and the spate of robberies involving shady part-time jobs.
On Dec. 11, Universal Studios Japan officially unveiled its new Donkey Kong Country area, putting the iconic character in the spotlight for the first time in a while.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 12, 2024

USJ’s new Donkey Kong Country is a barrel of fun

Mine Cart Madness is the area’s only ride, but there are shops and snacking options as well as chances to meet costumed characters from the iconic series.
Nobuhiro Torii, executive vice president of Suntory Holdings, who will be promoted to president, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 13, 2024

Suntory Holdings names executive vice president as next boss

Nobuhiro Torii, 58, will be the first president from the firm's founding family since Nobutada Saji, 79, who served in the post from 2001 to 2014.
The Lower House Budget Committee clears the 2024 supplementary budget on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 12, 2024

Lower House passes ¥13.9 trillion supplementary budget

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s minority government made concessions to the opposition to secure support for the budget, which includes an economic stimulus package.
U.S. President Joe Biden during an event at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2024

Biden pardons 39 people and commutes sentences of 1,500 others

The moves come over a week after the president signed an unconditional pardon for his son Hunter.
Mitsubishi Electric CEO Kei Uruma
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 13, 2024

Mitsubishi Electric explores forming power chip alliances in Japan

A sense of urgency is growing in the power chip industry as Japanese companies fall further behind German market leader Infineon Technologies.
Nobuhiro Ito, who runs casting-maker Ito Tekko, which employs about 100 people, in front of his company's factory in the city of Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 13, 2024

BOJ's rate hike plans clouded by small firms' wage woes

Next year's wage prospects are crucial for sustaining a consumption-led recovery — a prerequisite for further rate hikes by the Bank of Japan.
Yoichi Miyazawa (right), chair of the Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel, said Friday that both the LDP and Komeito have agreed to decide on the start date for higher income taxes at a later date.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 13, 2024

LDP-Komeito bloc defers decision on income tax hike to boost defense budget

The bloc originally aimed to raise income tax rates in January 2027, but reconsidered following discussions with the opposition Democratic Party for the People.
The key to cooking these on the stovetop is to keep everything at a very low temperature so that the ingredients slowly steam before setting into a dense, fudge-like texture.
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Dec 15, 2024

A Christmas miracle? No, just brownies ‘baked’ sans oven.

With a bit of ingenuity, it’s possible to “bake” your own brownies on a regular stovetop.
A Taiwanese coast guard ship (left) monitors a Chinese coast guard ship a few nautical miles from Taiwan's northeastern coast on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Dec 13, 2024

China's 'drills that dare not speak their name' put Taiwan on alert

Analysts say that Beijing's activities, conducted in near silence and followed by an opaque statement, are meant to create confusion.
Containers at the Yangshan deepwater port in Shanghai earlier this year. A new trade war with the U.S. would still hurt China more as Washington can levy ever-larger import duties on its goods and further rip the Asian giant from its supply chains, analysts say.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 13, 2024

China eyes negotiations as Trump threatens new tariffs

Beijing is seeking to amass bargaining chips to kick off talks with a new U.S. administration on contentious aspects of its ties with Washington.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024

Opening ethics panel hearings to media could allay public suspicions, Ishiba says

Of the 27 scandal-hit Upper House lawmakers willing to face ethics panel hearings, 23 have sought for the sessions to be held behind closed doors.
People watch a TV screen, broadcasting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivering an address to the nation, at a railway station in Seoul, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 14, 2024

Yoon Suk Yeol: from rising star to impeachment

He rose from public prosecutor to South Korea's highest office in just a few years, but as president, Yoon staggered from scandal to scandal.
"Agent" technology goes further than chatbots, not just performing parlor tricks and spitting out plausible responses to queries but actually doing the kinds of repetitive tasks that today are handled by millions of humans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 14, 2024

Big Tech's new AI obsession: 'Agents' that do your work for you

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls agents "the next giant breakthrough," while Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the shift "is really the rise of digital labor.”
France's newly appointed Prime Minister Francois Bayrou at the Hotel Matignon in Paris on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 14, 2024

Macron hands new French PM the tough job of managing Le Pen

Bayrou, 73, replaces conservative heavyweight Michel Barnier, who was ousted last week after far-right leader Marine Le Pen joined the left in a censure motion.
Han Duck-soo, South Korea's prime minister (center), arrives at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 14, 2024

Who is Han Duck-soo, South Korea's acting president after Yoon impeachment?

In a country sharply divided by partisan rhetoric, Han has been a rare official whose varied career transcended party lines.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks with students from Okayama University about the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens decades ago, in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 14, 2024

Japan ready to team up with Trump over North Korea abduction issue

In a symposium on the issue held by the Japanese government in Tokyo, Hayashi condemned North Korea, saying, "In essence, it is an infringement of national sovereignty."
A damaged poster of Syria's ousted leader, Bashar Assad, in Aleppo on Nov. 30
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 15, 2024

Assad's final hours in Syria: Deception, despair and flight

Hours before he fled to Moscow, Assad assured army and security chiefs that Russian support was on its way and urged ground forces to hold out.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, speaks during a rally in Seoul on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2024

South Korean opposition urges swift removal of impeached President Yoon

Yoon Suk Yeol has been suspended while South Korea's Constitutional Court deliberates, with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo serving as interim leader.
Then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in August 2021. From Syria to Ukraine, Merkel and former U.S. President Barack Obama’s missteps still haunt the West.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2024

Putin’s loss in Syria exposes Western failures

The West's indecision and failed liberal internationalist policies allowed Putin to bolster Assad’s regime and secure strategic advantages in Syria.
A Hight Logistics electric BYD truck is loaded with a container at a seaport in Long Beach, California, in April 2023.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2024

Chinese firms take on EV truck challenges

Fleets of electric heavy goods vehicles from China have been growing internationally, even as Western countries target the country's EV cars with heavy sanctions.

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A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami