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U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Washington on Dec. 10.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2024

Biden launches new Chinese chip trade probe, which will be handed off to Trump

The effort could offer Trump a ready avenue to begin imposing some of the hefty 60% tariffs he has threatened on Chinese imports.
Small businesses in Ino, a town in Kochi Prefecture known for its paper industry, show how a labor shortage is a growing threat to smaller companies that provide seven out of every 10 jobs in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 24, 2024

Small businesses with low wages struggle to tackle labor shortages

A worker shortage is threatening firms that are otherwise robust, including those that have invested in automation and creative hiring.
Nippon Steel's $15 billion bid for U.S. Steel has been referred to U.S. President Joe Biden after a U.S. panel on foreign investments was unable to reach a consensus.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024

Nippon Steel's bid for U.S. Steel referred to Biden for final decision

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States referred the bid to the U.S. president after failing to reach a consensus.
Then U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz runs up the East Capitol stairs as the deadline to avert a partial government shutdown approaches on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 30, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2024

Matt Gaetz found to have paid for sex and drugs, and obstructed U.S. Congress

Matt Gaetz was found to have paid $90,000 to 12 women, a substantial portion of which the panel found was likely for either sexual activity or drug use.
Toyota is negotiating with local authorities and other parties involved to set up a wholly owned production plant in Shanghai in the wake of the Chinese government's foreign investment deregulation.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024

Toyota eyes solo Lexus EV plant in Shanghai

The automaker, which currently ships Lexus models from Japan to China, intends to put the plant into production as early as around 2027.
Masahiro Kihara, the CEO of Mizuho, Japan’s third-largest lender, is expecting U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to make regulations more business friendly.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024

Mizuho CEO sees global boom in M&A after Trump takes office

Masahiro Kihara, the CEO of Mizuho, Japan’s third-largest lender, is expecting U.S. President-elect Trump to make regulations more business friendly.
Japan aims to accelerate offshore wind development as part of its decarbonization strategy.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024

Japan selects two groups for third offshore wind power round

The country aims to accelerate offshore wind development as part of its decarbonization strategy.
Christians attend a Christmas mass at the Lady of Damascus church, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar Assad, in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024

Syrian Christians attend Christmas mass for first time since Assad's fall

De facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has told Christians and other groups that they will be safe in a Syria run by his group.
David Nemecek
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2024

The star dealmakers remaking the rules of corporate debt

The world of liability management is a small, aggressive and, thus far, male-dominated corner of corporate finance.
Workers retrieves tsunami buoy Thai 23461 in the Andaman Sea on Nov. 28.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 25, 2024

The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand

They form part of a warning system intended to ensure no disaster is as deadly as a huge December 2004 tsunami caused by an earthquake under the Indian Ocean.
Volunteers place eelgrass seeds on slabs of agar gel with tweezers during an event in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, on Nov. 9.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2024

Seagrass bed restoration work spreads in Miyagi Prefecture

Seagrass and seaweed beds are capturing global attention as they absorb carbon dioxide.
A man eats a croissant dough mince pie at Pophams bakery in London.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 25, 2024

'Don't mess with our mince pies,' some Brits plead

A mixture of different dried fruits, chopped apples and spices soaked in spirits such as brandy and rum, the snack is a favorite around the holidays.
Africa’s growing resource nationalism is prompting governments to renegotiate mining deals, aiming for a larger share of profits from mineral resources and reducing the revenues for multinational companies.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2024

Africans demand a bigger share of their natural resources wealth

Multinational companies should hurry to find sustainable ways in which they can share risk and revenue with governments, as they do elsewhere.
Google new quantum computing chip Willow. Though the technology isn’t yet ready for widespread use, the competition to build error-free quantum computers is heating up, promising significant breakthroughs in the near future.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2024

Google is pushing quantum computing closer to reality

The Willow chip should focus investor attention on an industry that has been quietly making great strides toward developing quantum machines with practical uses.
People take shelter at a metro station in Kyiv during an air raid alert amid Russia's attack on Ukraine on Wednesday.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024

Ukraine reports massive Christmas Day attack by Russia

Russian missiles killed at least one person and damaged energy infrastructure across the country, officials said.
Despite impressive visuals that hark back to Peter Jackson’s live-action trilogy from the early 2000s, Kenji Kamiyama’s “The War of the Rohirrim” falls flat in its storytelling as a standalone film.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2024

‘The War of the Rohirrim’: Striking visuals, insipid storytelling

Kenji Kamiyama's anime addition to J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" universe has impressive qualities, but lacks the magic of Peter Jackson's film adaptations.
Riot police march in front of the main building of Ssangyong Motor in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Aug. 6, 2009.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 25, 2024

The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'

A struggling car giant in South Korea announcing in 2009 it was laying off more than 2,600 people resulted in an occupation of its factory.
In this handout picture released by Kazakhstan's emergency situations ministry, emergency specialists work at the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet near the western Kazakh city of Aktau on Dec. 25.
WORLD
Dec 26, 2024

Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan, killing 38

A jet crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people.
A rescuer of the State Emergency Service works to put out a fire in a private house after a drone strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Dec 26, 2024

Russia launches 'inhuman' Christmas Day attacks, Ukraine says

Half a million people in the Kharkiv region were left without heating, in temperatures just a few degrees Celsius above zero.
The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major during a monitoring operation conducted by the Portuguese Navy along the Continental Exclusive Economic Zone off the coast of Portugal. Two crew members are missing after the ship sank in international waters in the Mediterranean after an explosion on board, Russia's foreign ministry said on Telegram on Tuesday.
WORLD
Dec 26, 2024

Russian state owner calls cargo ship blast a 'terrorist attack'

The cargo ship sank in international waters off Spain in the early hours of Tuesday.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shakes hands with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Nov. 15 during their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 26, 2024

Japan and China to continue delicate diplomatic dance in 2025

While Tokyo and Beijing have touted the importance of thawing ties, experts say a number of issues are likely to mean continued hedging by both sides.
The silhouettes of a military vehicle and a soldier are seen near the Gaza border on Dec. 16.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 26, 2024

Hamas and Israel blame each other for Gaza cease-fire delay

Hamas said Israel laid down further conditions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on understandings already reached.
Comedian-turned-investor Toshiya Imura (left) and former Goldman Sachs analyst Keizo Takeiri pose prior to an interview in Tokyo on Dec. 3.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2024

Japanese comedian-turned-investor launches fund with 'stock geek'

The one-time entertainer, Toshiya Imura, has teamed up with Keizo Takeiri, a former Goldman Sachs analyst, to launch Japan's newest stock fund.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at the meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Thursday at the Prime Minister's Office.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2024

Japan wage growth projected to outpace inflation in fiscal 2025

In fiscal 2025, nominal wages are projected to increase 2.8% from the previous year, while the overall consumer price index is forecast to rise 2.0%.
Hindu pilgrims take a dip along the banks of Sangam, ahead of the <i>maha</i> Kumbh Mela festival in the city of Prayagraj on Sunday. Beside India's holy rivers, a makeshift city is being built for a Hindu religious festival expected to be so vast it will be seen from space.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 26, 2024

India readies for 400 million pilgrims at mammoth festival

The Kumbh Mela, a millennia-old festival, is held once every 12 years at the site where the holy Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet.
People walk past Jemaa el-Fnaa square, in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Oct. 22.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 26, 2024

Morocco presents new women's rights legislation

The proposals include raising the legal marriage age and expanding women's custody rights.
Then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa (left) and then-U.S. President Bill Clinton meet for talks at the White House on April 16, 1993.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 26, 2024

Ex-PM Miyazawa aired doubts about China's democratization to Clinton in '93

In a summit with the then-U.S. president, then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said he was skeptical about democracy taking root in China as living standards improve.
Emergency specialists work at the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Dec 27, 2024

Russian air defenses downed Azerbaijan Airlines flight, sources say

Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of southern Russia.
The Finnish Border Guard's ship Turva and oil tanker Eagle S sail on the sea outside the Porkkalanniemi, Finland on Thursday
WORLD
Dec 27, 2024

Finland boards vessel possibly behind power cable and internet outages

"From our side, we are investigating grave sabotage," said the director of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.
Spanish Red Cross members hold children after a boat with 57 migrants onboard arrived at La Restinga port on the Canary island of El Hierro, on Sept. 14.
WORLD / Society
Dec 27, 2024

Record number of migrants lost at sea were bound for Spain in 2024: NGO

An average of 30 people died per day while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2024, up from around 18 in 2023.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan