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New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks in New York on Oct. 1.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2025

Letitia James, New York's attorney general and Trump foe, indicted over mortgage fraud

The Trump administration has sought to use government power against those who have pursued investigations into Trump or resisted his agenda.
Despite heightened geopolitical tensions and escalating trade wars, the U.S. dollar’s global dominance is unlikely to fade in the near term, leaving Asian economies vulnerable to dollar shocks.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2025

How Asia can reduce its dollar dependence

While geopolitical tensions and the risk of sanctions have fueled diversification efforts, the greenback’s international dominance is unlikely to diminish in the near term.
A federal agent chases a man in a shopping center parking lot in Chicago on Saturday, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered increased federal law enforcement presence to assist in crime prevention.
WORLD
Oct 12, 2025

U.S. appeals court says national guard sent to Illinois can stay, but not deploy

The decision largely upholds a lower court's halt on the mobilization by U.S. President Donald Trump as part of his mass deportation campaign.
The Gas Pavilion had welcomed around 500,000 visitors by the end of August, making it one of the most popular exhibits at the Osaka Expo.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Oct 12, 2025

At Osaka Expo, gas giants promote a greener future. But is it a lot of hot air?

While major Japanese gas companies have lauded e-methane as key in fighting climate change, experts paint a different picture.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington on Friday. The current government shutdown is the most acute symptom of a general lack of goodwill in Washington, where bipartisan deal-making has increasingly gone out of vogue.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 12, 2025

Trump layoffs and broken trust harden Democrats’ shutdown stand

Democrats have expressed doubts that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver a health care fix unless forced to do so.
After a run-up marked by apathy, organizers soon found they had the opposite problem as crowd control became a concern.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 12, 2025

As the Osaka Expo comes to a close, what will its legacy be?

The mega-event was a resounding success, taking in some 25 million visitors over 184 days. But how its legacy will look in the decades to come remains a question mark.
Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday after leaving the ruling coalition earlier in the day.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 12, 2025

After ruling bloc collapses, LDP and opposition scramble to find needed votes for PM

New LDP President Sanae Takaichi faces a higher hurdle in finding the votes needed to become Japan’s next leader as opposition forces discuss a unified candidate.
A screen outside a Tokyo securities firm shows the Nikkei 225 Stock Average on Oct. 6. As Japan's financial markets reacted to Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party presidential win, much of the media's focus was on the falling yen, downplaying the surge in equities to record highs.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 12, 2025

Sanae Takaichi gets 'the Abe treatment'

Given that she is frequently labeled a "Shinzo Abe protege," the media coverage of her so far reminds me of how they reported on Abe himself throughout his second term.
People holding up portraits of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza wait for their release at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv early on Monday.
WORLD
Oct 13, 2025

The 20 living hostages due for release from captivity in Gaza

The hostages expected to be released range from a lover of Japanese culture who dreamed of visiting one day to a young pianist who had been about to start music studies.
Palestinian militants on the day that hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, are handed over in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Monday.
WORLD
Oct 14, 2025

Hamas carries out wave of Gaza killings, citing crime and security concerns

U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking on his way to the Middle East, suggested Hamas had been given a temporary green light to police Gaza.
Alleged victims of Myanmar's scam centers in the process of repatriation on Feb. 12. Fraud factories in Myanmar blamed for scamming Chinese and American victims out of billions of dollars are still in business and bigger than ever.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 14, 2025

Myanmar scam cities booming despite crackdown — using Musk's Starlink

China, Thailand and Myanmar had pressured militias into vowing to "eradicate" the compounds in February, releasing around 7,000 people from a brutal call center-like system.
U.S. President Donald Trump  gestures next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion International Airport as Trump leaves Israel en route to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to attend a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a U.S.-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal, in Lod, Israel, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 14, 2025

Trump convinced Netanyahu to take a deal. Can he keep him on board?

With Israel and Hamas divided over many aspects of Trump's plan, Netanyahu's approach may shift as he attempts to keep his right-wing coalition together for next year's elections.
Newly-elected leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party Sanae Takaichi (right) celebrates with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after winning the LDP leadership election in Tokyo on October 4.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 14, 2025

Number of scenarios now on the table for who might be Japan’s next prime minister

With Komeito’s exit from the ruling coalition, there is now no guarantee LDP chief Sanae Takaichi will be voted prime minister when parliament convenes.
LDP head Sanae Takaichi attends an LDP meeting in Tokyo on Oct. 4.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 14, 2025

A frustrated LDP weighs its options now that Komeito is out

Having Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stay on at the helm and delaying the prime ministerial vote entirely were floated as ideas to buy time.
European allies are nearing an agreement to provide loans that would help the Ukraine purchase weapons, including from the U.S.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 15, 2025

U.K. and Canada to join EU plan to tap Russian assets for Ukraine

U.K. sanctions have frozen more than £25 billion of Russian assets, according to the latest Foreign Office data from March, while the EU holds around €200 billion.
Tottori Gov. Shinji Hirai (right) exchanges bottles containing sand with Shifa Zghoul Haddad, the Acting Commissioner General and government Representative for the Jordan Pavilion at the Osaka Expo, in Osaka on April 23.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2025

Local governments bank on Osaka Expo's success to draw in tourists

During the 184-day expo, prefectural governments engaged in promotional activities to attract tourists and publicize local culture through pavilions and events.
The Saitama Prefectural Police headquarters in the city of Saitama. Police have apprehended a former employee of a care facility in Saitama Prefecture following the deaths of two residents who were discovered bleeding and unconscious on their beds early Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 15, 2025

Former employee of Saitama care home held after deaths of two residents

A staffer at the facility in Tsurugashima called the police after a nurse found the two women in their 80s and 90s bleeding and unconscious on their beds.
Takuya Matsui, head of a library run by the town of Shari in Hokkaido, stands in July in front of the library's bulletin board filled with answers to students' questions, holding a book made by compiling the answers.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 15, 2025

Book offering life tips from Hokkaido library's bulletin board becomes nationwide hit

The library's director said a question box was set up in 2023 to expose teens to diverse ways of thinking "in today’s social media-centric world."
Firefighters work at the site of a Russian drone strike on the outskirts of Odessa, Ukraine, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 15, 2025

Ukraine raises alarm over foreign components in Russian drones

Kyiv estimates that more than 500 drones and missiles launched by Russia in one of its major barrages on Oct. 5 contained more than 100,000 foreign components.
Japan's political center is in turmoil, with the ruling party losing its long-held dominance and a series of complex negotiations ahead. The country’s leadership future is now uncertain.
COMMENTARY
Oct 15, 2025

A negotiator’s nightmare in Nagatacho

The LDP has since pushed back the date to vote for the next prime minister to Oct. 21.
Protesters rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta on the second anniversary of the Gaza war on Oct. 7.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2025

The U.S. is losing hearts and minds in Southeast Asia over Gaza

For the first time, more respondents among the 10 ASEAN nations said they would align with China (50.5%) over the U.S. (49.5%) if forced to choose.
The market for ed tech, or educational technology, will grow some 1.4 times from fiscal 2021 to ¥362.5 billion in fiscal 2027, Nomura Research Institute estimates.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2025

Japan taps education technology to help ease burden on teachers

The market for "ed tech" will grow some 1.4 times from fiscal 2021 to ¥362.5 billion in fiscal 2027, Nomura Research Institute estimates.
Developers work inside the office of AI startup LimeChat in Bengaluru on Aug. 19.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 16, 2025

India's IT sector faces seismic shift as AI displaces call-center workers

The outcome of India's gamble carries weight far beyond its borders — a test case for whether embracing AI-driven disruption can elevate an economy or render it a cautionary tale.
Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15, before she was elected the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2025

Over 40% back Takaichi visiting Yasukuni Shrine, poll shows

Sanae Takaichi, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has repeatedly visited the shrine, which enshrines Class-A war criminals from World War II among the war dead.
A bear was shot dead in the city of Sendai under a revised law allowing city authorities to kill bears in urban areas.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2025

Bear shot in city of Sendai under revised law

The bear appeared near a residential area in Kagitori, Taihaku Ward, in the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture,
Screen captures from a video posted on the White House's X account on Sept. 15 depict what U.S. President Donald Trump said was a military strike on a Venezuelan drug cartel vessel that had been on its way to the United States.
WORLD
Oct 17, 2025

In a first, U.S. strike in Caribbean leaves survivors, U.S. official says

Tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela have escalated amid U.S. strikes on alleged drug vessels off the South American country's coast.
Komeito chief representative Tetsuo Saito speaks during a debate with leaders of other political parties at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo in July. His party exited the ruling coalition with the ruling-LDP after 26 years, citing concerns over political donations and transparency.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 17, 2025

Is Komeito’s split with the LDP really about political funding?

Was Komeito negotiating in good faith or looking to undermine the Takaichi administration before it even commenced?
Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi (third from right) and LDP executives hold talks with Nippon Ishin no Kai co-leader Fumitake Fujita (third from left) and Nippon Ishin executives at the Diet building on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 17, 2025

Nippon Ishin edges closer toward forming coalition with LDP

The Osaka-based party has decided to no longer take part in policy talks with its opposition peers on forming an alliance against the ruling party.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia Today editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan attend an event at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow on Friday.
WORLD
Oct 18, 2025

Putin's Budapest visit makes awkward spectacle for EU and NATO

The planned meeting is a symbolic blow to the EU and NATO, as they have sought to isolate the Russian leader as a war criminal.
Hamas senior official Mohammed Nazzal speaks during an interview in Doha on Wednesday
WORLD
Oct 18, 2025

Hamas aims to keep grip on Gaza security and can't commit to disarm, senior official says

These views are not new, but the timing of Mohammed Nazzal's comments reflect the difficulties of finding a path to end the war in Gaza.

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.