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The Justice Department said two Chinese scientists conspired to smuggle a fungus into the United States that causes "head blight," a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 4, 2025

Chinese researchers charged with smuggling toxic fungus into U.S.

The fungus is classified in scientific literature as a "potential agroterrorism weapon," the Justice Department said.
The Switch 2 is Nintendo's first new gaming console in eight years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2025

Nintendo’s Switch 2 console is finally here

The long-awaited gaming console hits shelves Thursday, with booming orders and tariffs making for a complicated debut.
Palestinians move humanitarian aid collected from a distribution center in the Netzarim Corridor, central Gaza Strip, on May 29.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 4, 2025

Israel’s Gaza push spurs Europe leaders to turn on Netanyahu

The condemnation is symbolic of the shift in Europe and of Israel’s increasing isolation.
Self-propelled guns are refurbished at a Rheinmetall plant in Unterluess, Germany, in June 2023.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2025

The Europeans are facing an existential choice

U.S. officials are openly stating that they do not intend to devote most of their time or resources to dealing with what they deem European issues such as the war in Ukraine.
America's reluctance to provide air defenses sought by its European partners highlights how the western allies are at odds over how to deal with Russian aggression in Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 5, 2025

U.S. said to deny air cover to Europe force in postwar Ukraine

The U.S. reluctance to provide the backup sought by its European partners highlights how the allies are at odds over the way to deal with Russia.
Smoke rises from a fire aboard the cargo vessel Morning Midas as seen from a U.S. Coast Guard C-130J Super Hercules, approximately 480 kilometers south of Adak, Alaska, on Tuesday. The ship's cargo consists of around 3,000 cars, including 800 electric vehicles.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 5, 2025

Ship carrying EVs abandoned in Pacific after catching fire

The Morning Midas' cargo consists of about 3,000 cars, including 800 electric vehicles.
Intermediary support is crucial for drug availability in Japan, where more than 50 therapies have been identified as needed but unavailable to patients.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 5, 2025

Itochu working to support overseas pharma firms to fill Japan's drug gaps

Two units of the trading house will assist with everything from early-stage consulting, regulatory advice and clinical testing support to post-launch distribution.
A tax-free shop in Kyoto in April 2024. Last week, members of a Liberal Democratic Party study group drafted a proposal seeking to scrap the country's tax-free shopping system altogether.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 5, 2025

Japan eyes tougher rules for foreign residents and tax hike for tourists

Ideas range from stricter driver's license tests for foreign nationals to increasing taxes on foreign visitors.
Harvey Weinstein, accused of three sex crimes, appears for his retrial at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan on May 9.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 5, 2025

'No means no,' prosecutor tells jurors as Harvey Weinstein trial wraps

The cinema magnate's retrial follows the overturning of his 2020 convictions on rape and sexual assault charges by an appeals court.
Malware used by Chinese state-backed hacking groups was on the systems of a U.S. telecommunications firm for seven months starting in the summer of 2023, investigators claim.
WORLD
Jun 5, 2025

Chinese hacked U.S. telecom a year before known wireless breaches

The hack raises questions about when Chinese intruders established a foothold in the American communications industry.
Cristiano Ronald celebrates with Nuno Mendes during Portugal's Nations League win over Germany in Munich on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Jun 5, 2025

Portugal heaps praise on Cristiano Ronaldo after Nations League win

Ronaldo came into the tournament amid swirling doubts about his future at the club level, with the veteran's contract at Saudi side Al-Nassr set to expire at the end of June.
United Nations Security Council members vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, at U.N. headquarters in New York on June Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 5, 2025

Anger as U.S. blocks Gaza ceasefire resolution at U.N. Security Council

It was the 15-member body's first vote on the situation since November, when the United States also blocked a text calling for an end to fighting.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivers a speech in Berlin on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 5, 2025

After courting and criticizing Trump from afar, Merz now set to meet U.S. leader

Past meetings between the two countries’ leaders have often been formalities to reinforce their unshakable postwar partnership. This time is different.
Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet, presented a vision of AI that was at once optimistic about the technology’s possibilities and sober-minded about some of its present limitations, at an event at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 5, 2025

Alphabet CEO expects to keep hiring engineers while AI advances

Alphabet's CEO presented a vision of AI that was at once optimistic about the technology’s possibilities and sober-minded about some of its present limitations.
The measures to sanction judges follow a January vote at the U.S. House of Representatives to punish the International Criminal Court in protest over its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 6, 2025

Trump administration imposes sanctions on four ICC judges in unprecedented move

The ICC slammed the move, saying it was an attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution.
Lee Sang-il’s “Kokuho,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year, follows the life of an "onnagata," a male kabuki actor who plays female roles, from his childhood as the son of a yakuza boss in 1960s Nagasaki to his official designation as a living national treasure.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2025

'Kokuho' illuminates the high price of becoming a national treasure

Director Lee Sang-il turns a long-held vision into reality with his sumptuously shot film that reveals the dedication, sacrifice — and loneliness — behind kabuki greatness.
A sign announcing maintenance works stands at the Osaka Expo venue in the city of Osaka on Thursday after chironomid midges were found swarming there in huge numbers.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2025

Swarms of midges plague Osaka Expo site

While the chironomid midges, which closely resemble mosquitoes, are not directly harmful to humans, they are annoying visitors.
A survivor of the Tokyo air raids in 1945 points to a map showing burned areas of central Tokyo in red after the bombing, during an interview in the city in March 2015.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 6, 2025

LDP to put off WWII air raid relief bill

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is believed to be concerned that it could lead to other compensation-related issues.
Locals clean up after a Russian drone struck an apartment building in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday.
WORLD
Jun 6, 2025

Intense Russian air attack on Ukraine's capital kills four

The Russian attack followed a warning from the Kremlin that it would hit back after Ukrainian drones destroyed several of its bomber aircraft.
Lee Jae-myung’s election as South Korea’s president marks a dramatic political turn after Yoon Suk Yeol’s ouster, putting a seasoned progressive in charge as the country faces economic strain, tense U.S. ties and the challenge of improving relations with Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2025

A return to normalcy in South Korea, but hard work lies ahead

Lee's victory in a ballot to replace Yoon Suk Yeol, impeached after trying to launch a coup, caps an extraordinary life that took him from the slums to the nation’s highest office.
A Homeland Security vehicle is parked in front of the Fred D. Thompson Federal Building, housing the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, where Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, faces criminal charges, in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 7, 2025

Wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant arrested on return to U.S.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was brought back to the United States from El Salvador and charged with trafficking undocumented migrants, Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top negotiator in tariff talks with the U.S. speaks to reporters at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 7, 2025

Japan won’t wait for G7 summit for possible U.S. trade deal

Trade discussions between Japan and the U.S. have "progressed” but have not yet reached a consensus on a deal to revisit sweeping U.S. tariffs, Tokyo's top negotiator said.
Palestinian children gather at a hot meal distribution point in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 7, 2025

U.S. mulls giving millions to controversial Gaza aid foundation

The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to Gaza, according to people familiar with the matter.
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the press aboard Air Force One on the way to Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 7, 2025

Trump can bar AP from some White House events for now, U.S. appeals court says

The Associated Press in a statement said it was disappointed by the decision and weighing its options.
Police detain a protester blocking the garage entrance of the Los Angeles Federal Building following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in downtown Los Angeles on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jun 7, 2025

Rifles, stun grenades and armored trucks in ICE raids spur tensions

The Trump administration is intensifying efforts to round up migrants. It’s also doing so with increasingly aggressive tactics.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a forum in Tokyo on May 29.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 7, 2025

Ishiba and Lee might have first meeting at G7 summit

New South Korean leader Lee Jae-myung will attend the G7 summit in Canada for three days starting June 15, and could meet Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
A car burns on Atlantic Boulevard during a standoff by protesters and law enforcement, following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the Los Angeles County city of Paramount, California, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 8, 2025

Protesters rally against immigration agents for second day in Los Angeles

The protests pit LA and its large Hispanic and foreign-born population against Trump, who has made an immigration crackdown on a top priority.
An Israeli armored personnel carrier near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel on Saturday
WORLD
Jun 8, 2025

Israeli airstrikes kill 55; body of Thai hostage retrieved from Gaza

Thai agricultural worker Nattapong Pinta was abducted from a small Israeli community near the Gaza border during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
A young woman holds placards depicting Ukrainian prisoners of war during a rally calling to speed up their exchange, at Independence Square in Kyiv on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 8, 2025

Ukraine denies postponing prisoner swaps as Russian strike on Kharkiv kills four

Kharkiv, one of Ukraine's largest cities, sits close to the Russian border and has been under frequent Russian shelling for more than three years.
A worker at a rare earth metals mine in Jiangxi province, China, in 2012
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 8, 2025

China says it may speed up rare earths application approvals from EU

Beijing's recent suspension of rare earths-related exports upended the supply chains central to numerous industries around the world.

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