Search - 2022

 
 
Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi holds a news conference at the Diet on July 2.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 17, 2024

Speculation rising over possible end to Yamaguchi's Komeito reign

Natsuo Yamaguchi, 72, is currently serving his eighth term as Komeito chief.
Naoki Prize winner Michi Ichiho (left), and Akutagawa Prize winners Sanzo K. Matsunaga (center) and Aki Asahina pose with their award-winning books at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 17, 2024

Three novelists named for Akutagawa and Naoki awards

Authors Sanzo K. Matsunaga and Aki Asahina won the Akutagawa Prize for literary writers, while the Naoki Prize for genre fiction went to Michi Ichiho.
This undated handout picture from NASA released on Wednesday shows the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover assembled inside a cleanroom at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
WORLD
Jul 18, 2024

NASA cancels lunar rover after spending $450 million building it

NASA's scrapped rover was intended to explore the moon's south pole in search of ice and other resources.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) speaks to the press next to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

Germany says it will halve its military aid for Ukraine

German aid to Ukraine will be cut to €4 billion ($4.35 billion) in 2025 from around €8 billion in 2024.
The S&P 500 drops from all-time highs amid a selloff in chipmakers.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 18, 2024

High-flying chipmakers see worst plunge since 2020

Concern about tighter U.S. restrictions on chip sales to China spurred a selloff in the industry that has led the bull market in stocks.
Ukrainians walk past the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee to protest the organization's plan to have Russian athletes compete in Paris under a neutral flag.
OLYMPICS
Jul 18, 2024

Russian athletes headed to Paris break IOC’s rules, NGO says

A total of 33 out of 59 athletes were in violation of the IOC’s guidelines on participation, a report from The Hague-based Global Rights Compliance concluded.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

U.K.'s Starmer to use forum to advocate EU reset and Ukraine support

A one-day meeting of more than 40 nations provides British Prime Minister Keir Starmer with an opportunity to push for closer defense cooperation.
Indian Ambassador Sibi George says one of his main tasks in his post is to boost Japanese public and private investments the South Asian powerhouse.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

India’s envoy in Japan calls for boosted supply chain and defense cooperation

The ambassador’s remarks come after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to continue prioritizing ties with Japan.
A pumped energy storage facility and a wind turbine at Kibbutz Maale Gilboa, Israel, on July 9
WORLD
Jul 18, 2024

How 'energy islands' could help Israel build resilience for wartime

Israel's microgrid pilot, which will be complete sometime in the next year or two, will run in parallel to large stockpiles of diesel, coal and generators.
U.S. pressure to slow Beijing’s advances in making semiconductors led the Netherlands to ban exports to China of ASML’s second-most advanced category of machinery at the start of the year. But ASML continues to service machines that were bought before the restrictions were in place.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 18, 2024

ASML falls as outlook clouded by risk of U.S. export curbs

ASML shares plunged 11% in Amsterdam on Wednesday to €870.90 ($952), wiping out €42.7 billion of market value — its biggest decline since March 2020.
Namibia is emerging as an oil exploration hub with major finds by different oil giants, which could significantly boost the country's economy.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 18, 2024

African outpost Namibia gets ready to become new oil hotspot

Massive oil finds 180 miles off Namibia’s coast have seen an 80% success rate since 2022 — an almost unprecedented achievement.
Japan's tradition of offering investors gifts is nice. But with the stock market at record highs, such perks are no longer needed.
COMMENTARY
Jul 18, 2024

It’s time Japan's shareholders buy their own wine

The practice by Japanese companies of giving gifts once served as a good way to encourage trading novices to dabble in the stock market.
The police reported two sexual crime cases to the U.S. military, but the prefectural government was not aware of the incidents.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2024

U.S. forces-linked sex crimes in Kanagawa went unreported to prefectural government

The police reported both cases to the U.S. military, but the prefectural government was not aware of the incidents.
A Ukrainian serviceman prepares a shell for a self-propelled howitzer at a position on a front line in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in June.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 19, 2024

Ukraine withdraws from strategic position in southern region

The retreat from the village of Krynky on the left bank of the Dnieper upends Kyiv’s aims to press ahead against Russian forces.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs after the third night of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 19, 2024

Fearful or cheerful? World leaders mull Trump's potential foreign policy

With Donald Trump polling ahead of Joe Biden to be reelected president in the U.S., some governments are taking concrete steps to prepare for his possible return.
A passerby holding a parasol wipes her face as she walks on the street amid a heatstroke alert in Tokyo and other prefectures, in Tokyo on July 9.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Boiling Point
Jul 19, 2024

How to prevent and respond to heatstroke in Japan this summer

Staying hydrated and controlling the rise in one's body temperature are the fundamental ways for preventing and alleviating heat-related illnesses.
The Aichi Prefectural Police headquarters in Nagoya. Aichi Prefectural Police have arrested a 33-year-old woman and her common-law husband on suspicion of assaulting and causing the death of her 7-year-old daughter.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 19, 2024

Mother and partner arrested over 7-year-old girl’s death

The girl, who died in May from septic shock, had been temporarily taken into protective custody twice between 2022 and 2023.
Two Air Self-Defense Force F-15s (right) escort two German Air Force Eurofighter jets and an A330MRTT aerial tanker on their arrival in Japan Friday. The ASDF is conducting training exercises with the German, French and Spanish air forces this weekend.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2024

German, French and Spanish fighter aircraft arrive in Japan for joint drills

The stopover in Japan is part of a two-month, trinational Pacific Skies deployment that will also take the three countries’ air forces to Australia, India and Hawaii.
Shoko Miyata had been set to lead the Japanese women's gymnastics team at the Paris Games.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Jul 19, 2024

Japanese gymnast Shoko Miyata leaves Olympic team over drinking and smoking

The decision to have Miyata leave the team appeared to strike some observers as being overly harsh.
The Nishiki market in Kyoto. June’s inflation report shows extraordinary jumps in the prices of some items favored by households, including cabbage (27.6%), potatoes (28.5%) and tomatoes (15.6%).
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 19, 2024

Households struggle as Japan’s inflation rises near U.S. levels

Consumer prices in Japan rose 2.8% on the year in June, close to the 3.0% in the United States.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group CEO Hironori Kamezawa (center) and other executives bow during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 19, 2024

MUFG heads to take pay cut after information firewall breach

21 MUFG officials, including some retired executives, will give up part of their pay after the bank was penalized for the unauthorized sharing of client information.
The general secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, in February 2021. Trong died on Friday at age 80, state media said.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 19, 2024

Vietnam's most powerful Communist Party leader dies

For months, Trong had appeared frail at public events or missed them outright and on Thursday his duties as party chief were taken over by President To Lam.
“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” incorporates six Murakami short stories from three books into a single intertwined narrative that centers on a trio of lonely Tokyoites.
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Jul 20, 2024

'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman' is an immersive journey into Murakami's world

Pierre Foldes' beautiful adaptation of six Haruki Murakami stories features one of the author's most memorable characters, who injects the film with self-aware humor.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy greets then-U.S. President Donald Trump during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 20, 2024

Trump says he spoke with Zelenskyy and pledges to 'end the war'

Zelenskyy said earlier this week that he and Trump would "work together" if the Republican won the White House.
A large screen in the Dubai Metro is out of service on Friday amid a massive global IT outage.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2024

From ATMs to flights, epic IT crash leaves trail of destruction

In what will go down as the most spectacular IT failure the world has ever seen, a botched software update from a cybersecurity firm caused a global systems outage.
U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage, stands inside a glass defendants' cage during the verdict announcement at the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 20, 2024

Russian court jails U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich for 16 years in spy case

Gershkovich went on trial in the city of Yekaterinburg last month after being accused of trying to gather sensitive information about a tank factory.
China's official app for digital yuan is seen on a mobile phone next to 100-yuan banknotes
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 20, 2024

Trump’s disdain for digital dollar risks ‘Cold War era’ in money

His vow to never allow the dollar to be digitized may turn money into a new front in Trump's trade war with China.
U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama attend a campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 15.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 20, 2024

Secluded at beach house, Biden stews at allies’ pressure to drop out

He considers former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the main instigator but is irritated at ex-President Barack Obama, seeing him as a puppet master behind the scenes.
Self-Defense Forces soldiers walk past a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile unit in Tokyo in October 2017.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2024

U.S.-Japan Patriot missile production plan hits Boeing component snag

The plan to boost production by the U.S. ally is being delayed by a shortage of a critical component manufactured by Boeing.
An aerial view on Monday of the Butler Farm Show grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally on July 13.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jul 20, 2024

From honor student to the gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump

Thomas Crooks was a brainy and quiet young man who built computers and won honors at school, impressing his teachers. Then he became a would-be assassin.

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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