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Australian-born Connor O'Leary will represent Japan in the surfing competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
OLYMPICS / Surfing
Jun 11, 2024

At Paris Games, Connor O’Leary aims to win and inspire

The waves in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, may bode well for the goofy-footed surfer.
Pilgrims circle Kaaba as they perform Tawaf at the Grand Mosque, ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on June 11.
WORLD / Society
Jun 12, 2024

Gaza war hangs over Hajj as pilgrims flock to Mecca

Saudi Arabia's minister in charge of religious pilgrimages warned last week that "no political activity" will be tolerated.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington on June 22, 2023. As the United States prioritizes teamwork with its partners in the Asia-Pacific region, many believe they are witnessing a lasting change in American power.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 13, 2024

In China’s backyard, the U.S. has become a humbler superpower

The United States no longer presents itself as the confident guarantor of security but as an eager teammate for military modernization and tech development.
A health worker puts on an adhesive bandage after inoculating a man with a booster shot of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Manila in January 2022.
WORLD
Jun 14, 2024

U.S. ran secret anti-vaccine campaign to undermine China during pandemic

The clandestine operation aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China.
By April 2024, dengue fever cases in the Americas passed the total for the previous year.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 15, 2024

What's behind the post-COVID surge in communicable diseases?

Many regions have reported at least one infectious disease resurgence that’s at least ten times worse than the prepandemic baseline.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, in November 2022. The plant was shuttered in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, and has sat idle since.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2024

World’s largest nuclear plant sits idle while energy needs soar

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has the potential capacity to power more than 13 million households.
A vehicle transports a RS-24 Yars strategic nuclear missile during the main rehearsals of a military parade in Moscow on May 5.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 17, 2024

Nuclear arms more prominent amid geopolitical tensions: researchers

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in his address to the nation in February there was a "real" risk of nuclear war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin inspects a military exercise, which tests the country's ability to deliver a massive retaliatory nuclear strike by land, sea and air, via a video link from Moscow on Oct. 25, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 24, 2024

Russia could reduce decision time for use of nuclear weapons, lawmaker says

Putin said again last week that the nuclear doctrine might have to be changed because Russia's adversaries were developing ultralow-yield nuclear devices.
Muslim pilgrims use umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun as they arrive at the base of Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma or Mount of Mercy, during the annual hajj pilgrimage, on June 15.
WORLD
Jun 28, 2024

Climate change boosted deadly Saudi Hajj heat by 2.5 degrees, scientists say

The heat would have been approximately 2.5 degrees Celsius cooler without the influence of human-caused climate change, according to a team of European scientists.
High blood pressure is the world’s single biggest indicator of death risk, yet it receives little attention and even less funding.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2024

The world’s biggest killer that you never considered

One of the most dangerous health conditions, high blood pressure, could be tackled easily and cheaply across the globe. But it's getting less attention than other issues.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 6, 2024

Crisis? What crisis? Biden rejects Democratic pessimism.

After last week’s devastating debate performance, the president’s prime-time interview with ABC News was an exercise in not just damage control but reality control.
Newly appointed British Foreign Secretary David Lammy leaves No. 10 Downing St. following the results of the election, in London, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 6, 2024

David Lammy: Friend of Obama now U.K. foreign minister

The 51-year-old's ancestors were enslaved in Guyana, South America — a family history that Lammy says will inform his approach to foreign policy.
An unarmed AGM-86B air-launched cruise missile is released from a B-52 bomber over the Utah Test and Training Range during a Nuclear Weapons System Evaluation Program sortie in September 2014.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 6, 2024

Trump advisers call for U.S. nuclear weapons testing if he is elected

A number of nuclear experts reject a resumption as unnecessary and say it would threaten to end a testing moratorium that has been honored for decades.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer
WORLD / Politics
Jul 7, 2024

Untested Starmer is suddenly the West’s last man standing tall

Keir Starmer — who’s spent the last six weeks campaigning under the one-word banner of ‘change’ — is about to discover how in politics, it can come at you fast.
U.S. soccer player Lindsey Horan speaks during a U.S. Olympic women's and men's team news conference in New York on Monday.
OLYMPICS
Jul 9, 2024

U.S. regrouped and ready to go after dismal World Cup, says Horan

Just eight members of the Tokyo Games team are traveling to Paris on the 18-player Olympic roster
Renderings of Saudi Arabia's Neom project in the window of a pop-up store
WORLD / Politics
Jul 12, 2024

Saudi prince’s trillion-dollar makeover faces funding cutbacks

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, is close to completing a sweeping review of megaprojects.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others at a position of Ukrainian servicemen in the town of Kupiansk last November.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 13, 2024

Being Volodymyr Zelenskyy: How war has changed Ukraine's leader

His ambition when he was elected in 2019 had been to help Ukraine become a modern democracy, before that was shattered by Russia's invasion in 2022.
Paris La Defense Arena will host swimming events during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Jul 16, 2024

World Aquatics to strengthen testing of Chinese swimmers at Games

The first aquatics events of the Paris Games are set to take place on July 27.
Former U.S. President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to his vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance, during the second day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 17, 2024

Trump's VP pick signals stronger focus on China

J.D. Vance represents a hardening of Trump’s “America First” stance, but could also help push a tougher line on China and support for democratic Taiwan.
The Sado Gold Mine, so heavily tapped that the mountain bearing it has been cleaved in two, is up for consideration for UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 20, 2024

Land of punishment, land of gold

The Sado Gold Mine may soon become Japan’s newest UNESCO World Heritage site, but the island’s history is much more complicated than a single tourist destination.
Mai Yamamoto drives to the basket during an Olympic tune-up game against New Zealand in Tokyo on July 4.
OLYMPICS / Basketball
Jul 22, 2024

Akatsuki Japan believes it can 'surprise the world' in Paris

Women's basketball team will be looking to replicate its inspiring Olympic run in Tokyo and make waves in Paris.
U.S. President Joe Biden will get the first test of how much sway he still retains when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington for a previously planned visit this week.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 23, 2024

Biden looks to project strength abroad despite lame-duck status

Having no electoral pressure may give U.S. President Joe Biden the ability to act more boldly in foreign affairs.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 23.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024

Democrats in overdrive to burnish Harris foreign policy record

The moves seek to boost Harris’s image before she gets her biggest diplomatic test yet, when she’s set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Sado Gold Mine, so heavily tapped that the mountain bearing it has been cleaved in two, is up for consideration for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site status.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2024

Japan should display full history of Sado mine, South Korean archaeologist says

He will not advise the South Korean UNESCO delegation against accepting the designation of the mine if Japan explains its history properly.
Ryugo Watanabe (second from right), mayor of Sado, Niigata Prefecture, celebrates Saturday in New Delhi after the UNESCO World Heritage Committee unanimously decided in a meeting in the Indian capital to register the Sado Island Gold Mines as a World Cultural Heritage site.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 28, 2024

Tokyo-Seoul negotiations lead to Sado Gold Mines' UNESCO listing

South Korea argued that the mines used forced labor from the Korean Peninsula during WWII, and that Japan should reflect the whole history of the site.
A man with a whip tries to control a crowd of Sudanese refugees waiting to receive food at an impromptu aid distribution on the outskirts of a refugee camp in Adre, Chad, on July 8. As starvation spreads in Sudan, its military is blocking the United Nations from bringing food into the country via the most straightforward route.
WORLD
Jul 29, 2024

As starvation spreads in Sudan, military blocks aid trucks at border

Distrust and the loss of border control is hindering delivery of food by the United Nations via the most straightforward route.
A public safety officer wipes away sweat in Times Square during high temperatures in New York on June 20.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 31, 2024

This is how we know when the world has its hottest day

These conclusions rely on a near real-time picture of the Earth’s climate for roughly every 30-square-kilometer chunk of the planet’s surface.
China's Pan Zhanle reacts after winning gold in the men's 100-meter freestyle event at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Aug 1, 2024

China's Pan unaffected by doping storm after 'perfect' world record

The 19-year-old's incredible swim of 46.40 seconds at La Defense Arena sliced 0.40 seconds off his previous world record.
The entrance gate of the SEG electronics market in Shenzhen, China, on June 27.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 5, 2024

With smugglers and front companies, China is skirting U.S. AI bans

The U.S. worries advanced semiconductors could help China develop superior weaponry, launch cyberattacks and make faster decisions on the battlefield.
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Aug 11, 2024

Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom

For over half a century, Japan has been a sizable buyer of LNG, and its government, banks and energy companies have played a key role in continued investment.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building