Search - 2022

 
 
Signage at the Tencent headquarters in Shenzhen, China
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 11, 2024

Scrappy studio boss feeds Tencent’s lofty global game ambitions

"Arena Breakout: Infinite" is Tencent’s newest "Call of Duty"-style PC shooter, targeting a genre that typically tops spending charts.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks in Pyongyang on Nov. 21. North Korea is believed to have been engaging in nuclear development since the era of the late Kim Il Sung, the country's founder and the current leader's grandfather.
WORLD
Dec 11, 2024

Unstable global environment reduces NPT to mere shell

Some countries are moving to acquire nuclear weapons in an attempt to either maintain their dictatorial regimes or to strengthen deterrence.
A restaurant owner waits for customers at her empty restaurant in Seoul on Oct. 31.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 11, 2024

South Korea's fading nightlife signals shift in hard-drinking culture

The change has been driven by corporate Korea's slowdown on after-work drinking sessions, younger female workers' refusal to partake and inflation.
Akihiro Kaneko, president of the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Unions, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 3.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2024

Japan union head calls for government to work more on raising pay

The call comes as Japan prepares for annual wage negotiations that culminate in the spring.
Japan ranked second in both literacy and numeracy, and tied with Finland for first place in problem-solving in an international OECD survey of adult skills.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 11, 2024

Japan retains strong results in OECD’s adult skills survey

Overall, Japan’s scores exceeded the OECD average across all age groups though they tended to decline with age.
FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a meeting in Washington in September.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 12, 2024

FBI chief Christopher Wray to resign before Trump takes office

Donald Trump has announced the nomination of staunch loyalist Kash Patel to head the top U.S. law enforcement agency.
Fans in Saudi Arabia celebrate after the nation was confirmed as host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 12, 2024

Saudi Arabia awarded 2034 FIFA World Cup despite human rights concerns

FIFA also confirmed that Morocco, Spain and Portugal will be joint hosts of the 2030 World Cup, in which three games will also be played in South America.
A liquefied natural gas plant operated by Sakhalin Energy in Sakhalin, Russia. Japan, the world's second biggest LNG buyer, depends on Russia for 9% of its LNG.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Dec 12, 2024

Rival supplies and depleting fields give Japan an exit from Russian gas

Japan, the world's second-biggest liquefied natural gas buyer, depends on Russia for 9% of its LNG.
The village of Szolosgyorok, in Hungary
WORLD / Society
Dec 12, 2024

Some German retirees find low-cost refuge in Orban's anti-migrant Hungary

Expats may be drawn to Hungary by right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban's hard-line anti-immigration rhetoric.
Outfielder Juan Soto officially joined the Mets on Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 12, 2024

Juan Soto signs record 15-year, $765 million contract with Mets

"This is a seminal moment in franchise history," Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen said in a statement.
The head priest of Kiyomizu Temple writes the kanji "kin," which was chosen by the public as the character that best represents 2024, on Thursday in Kyoto.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2024

'Kin' selected as the kanji of 2024 after strong year for Japanese athletes

The choice also reflected the Liberal Democratic Party’s slush-fund scandal and the spate of robberies involving shady part-time jobs.
Brooks Koepka watches his shot from the 10th tee during a Liv Golf event in Carrolton, Texas, on Sept. 20.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Dec 12, 2024

Brooks Koepka envisions Liv and PGA staging Ryder Cup-style event

Koepka said a competitive match next week "could transcend golf."
U.S. first lady Melania Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie Abe, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in May 2019
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 12, 2024

Widow of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hopes to meet with Trump

Akie Abe's late husband was once dubbed the “Trump Whisperer” for his close ties with the former U.S. president.
A projection mapping display illuminates the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building during a tourism promotion event in April.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 13, 2024

20 LDP Tokyo assembly members underreported fundraising party sales

A similar scandal involving slush funds from unreported fundraising party revenues has plagued LDP parliament members.
Business sentiment among large manufacturers in Japan improved for the first time in two quarters, the Bank of Japan's tankan survey for December showed Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 13, 2024

Japan business mood improves slightly, but global risks cloud outlook

The Bank of Japan tankan survey results come ahead of a two-day policy meeting next week, when its board will debate whether to lift rates from the current 0.25%.
A man checks a tunnel found under a mosque in Tadamon district, which is littered with bones, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2024

At site of suspected mass killings, Syrians recall horrors and seek answers

After Bashar Assad's ouster, residents hope the site in Damascus' Tadamon district can be cordoned off for those responsible to be held accountable.
Former China coach Li Tie, seen during a World Cup qualifier in September 2021, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on corruption charges on Friday.
SOCCER
Dec 13, 2024

Former China men's soccer coach Li Tie sentenced to 20 years in jail for corruption

Anti-graft authorities in China took aim at the sports industry in 2022 and announced a string of convictions for former soccer administrators this week.
Boxer Kevin Johnson displays a shirt with an image of Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Nov. 24.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Dec 13, 2024

Aging U.S. heavyweight Kevin Johnson fights on to honor Vladimir Putin in Russia

Putin granted Johnson nationality with a decree under an express procedure used for others including U.S. actor Steven Seagal.
Numbered evidence markers indicate where bullet casings were located at the crime scene outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot, Dec. 4.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2024

Suspect in UnitedHealthcare shooting visited Japan, then vanished

New details are emerging about Luigi Mangione’s growing impatience with "a capitalist society” and his search for refuge in the mountains of Japan.
Nobuhiro Ito, who runs casting-maker Ito Tekko, which employs about 100 people, in front of his company's factory in the city of Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 13, 2024

BOJ's rate hike plans clouded by small firms' wage woes

Next year's wage prospects are crucial for sustaining a consumption-led recovery — a prerequisite for further rate hikes by the Bank of Japan.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with his Japanese counterpart, Gen Nakatani,  at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 13, 2024

The global spy alliance should let Japan join

Tokyo’s inclusion in the club is long overdue, especially as the region combats China’s growing assertiveness and the unpredictability of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
President-elect Donald Trump plans to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change and increase domestic fossil fuel production, putting international efforts to cut global carbon emissions in peril.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2024

Trump's election sets stage for new climate leaders to emerge

As Trump plans to put "America first," including before the planet, other countries must seize the opportunity to keep alive efforts to limit global temperature rise.
A satellite image shows an An-124 heavy transport aircraft with its nose cone lifted, at Russia's Khmeimim airbase, near Latakia, Syria, on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 14, 2024

Russian military appears to be packing up equipment in Syria, satellite imagery shows

The moves could be a prelude to Moscow’s military withdrawal from the country in the wake of President Bashar Assad’s fall.
"Agent" technology goes further than chatbots, not just performing parlor tricks and spitting out plausible responses to queries but actually doing the kinds of repetitive tasks that today are handled by millions of humans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 14, 2024

Big Tech's new AI obsession: 'Agents' that do your work for you

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls agents "the next giant breakthrough," while Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the shift "is really the rise of digital labor.”
The Stratos direct air capture facility, a joint venture between Occidental Petroleum and asset manager BlackRock, in Ector County, Texas
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / ANALYSIS
Dec 14, 2024

Earthquakes and blowouts undermine case for carbon storage in Texas

Texas has seen surging interest from companies hoping to bury carbon dioxide in its oilfields.
Girls hold banners urging passersby to stop and pay their respects during a minute of silence honoring the victims of Russia's invasion at 9 a.m. in front of Golden Gates metro station in central Kyiv.
WORLD / Society
Dec 14, 2024

Observing a minute of silence for Ukraine's fallen soldiers

As fewer people stop to pay their respects during a 9:00 am ritual for victims of the war, a small activist group is pushing for a change.
France's newly appointed Prime Minister Francois Bayrou at the Hotel Matignon in Paris on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 14, 2024

Macron hands new French PM the tough job of managing Le Pen

Bayrou, 73, replaces conservative heavyweight Michel Barnier, who was ousted last week after far-right leader Marine Le Pen joined the left in a censure motion.
U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, in 2021
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2024

U.S. Marines begin to relocate from Okinawa to Guam

The movement of troops comes 19 years after an initial agreement for the relocation by the governments of Japan and the U.S.
185 content moderators sued Meta last year, saying they had lost their jobs for trying to organize a union.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 16, 2024

Meta contractor dismissed threats to moderators by Ethiopia rebels: court documents

Court documents say that Meta allegedly ignored advice from experts it hired to tackle hate speech in Ethiopia.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of South Korea's Democratic Party, speaks to members of the media on the steps inside the National Assembly after an impeachment vote against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul on Dec. 7.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2024

Yoon’s fall gives nemesis surprise path back to lead South Korea

The impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is giving his biggest political rival, Lee Jae-myung, a chance to finally win the country's top job.

Longform

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