Search - people

 
 
People buy food at stalls promoting China's digital yuan, or e-CNY, during the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing in September 2022.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 10, 2023

With blockchain 'bridge', China challenges U.S. dollar dominance

A Beijing-backed digital prototype for sending money around the world without relying on U.S. banks is advancing quickly.
Cypriot researcher and urbex enthusiast Christos Zoumides climbs a fence into an abandoned amusement park in Nicosia, Cyprus.
WORLD
Aug 9, 2023

Divided capital of Cyprus popular among ‘urban explorers'

Alarmed by the trend, U.N. peacekeeping forces labelled any excursions that come even close to military areas as "completely irresponsible."
Kiminoi Shuzo's brewery (pictured in 1904) has been a fixture of the community in Arai, Niigata Prefecture, since its 1894 founding.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 13, 2023

Struggling Niigata sake sees ‘a future in Japan’s past’

New challenges are forcing Niigata’s brewers to adapt their ancient craft to changing times, a balancing act that is often easier said than done.
From hidden street art to this two-story-tall Pikachu balloon, Yokohama will be blanketed in Pokemon paraphernalia
through Aug. 14.
LIFE / Digital
Aug 10, 2023

Pokemon comes home for the 2023 world championships in Yokohama

For the first time in the Pokemon franchise’s history, its world championships get underway in Japan.
Policemen stand guard outside the hospital where presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was taken after being shot at a rally in Quito on Wednesday. Mr. Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist, was one of eight candidates in the Aug. 20 presidential election.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 10, 2023

Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio assassinated

A suspect in the crime later died of injuries sustained in a shoot-out. The violence injured nine others, including a candidate for the legislature.
PODCAST / deep dive
Aug 10, 2023

Why is modernizing Japan so darn tough?

Reporter Gabriele Ninivaggi joins us to break down how Japan’s digitalization hiccups risk exposing how backward things are.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Aug. 4.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2023

Kishida Cabinet approval drops to 26.6%: Jiji poll

The rate of disapproval grew 8.1 points to 47.4%, the highest since Kishida became prime minister in October 2021.
A view of Lahaina after wildfires driven by high winds burned across most of the town several days ago, in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, on Thursday
WORLD
Aug 11, 2023

Hawaii recovery to take years as Maui wildfire death toll rises

The fast-moving inferno spread from the brush outside of town and ravaged the historic city of Lahaina that was once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Workers at a WeWork coworking office in London
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 11, 2023

Flexible work will survive despite gloomy corporate signals

A growing body of research, trend data and surveys show that flexibility matters, and that work is now a thing we do, not a place we go.
Travellers walk through Beijing Daxing International Airport on April 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 11, 2023

China reopened its doors, but tourists are staying away

A rebound in domestic tourism hasn't been mirrored by inbound tourists, with several barriers harming the country's appeal.
The wife of an author turns into a forest after a fight with her husband and growing tired of serving as the idealized and sexualized subject of his novels in Maru Ayase's "The Forest Brims Over."
CULTURE / Books
Aug 12, 2023

Maru Ayase takes a hard look at Japanese misogyny in 'The Forest Brims Over'

Translated by Haydn Trowell, author Maru Ayase takes the reader into a surreal world to deal with a problematic issue.
Whether it is a hot summer or a cold winter, humans spend 90% of their time inside and there is little evidence that seasonal changes affect COVID-19 transmission significantly. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2023

COVID-19’s summer resurgence resists easy answers

Be wary of anyone with a pat explanation for why COVID-19 waves rise and fall.
Technical trainees from Vietnam work at a knitwear factory in the city of Mitsuke, Niigata Prefecture, in February 2019.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 6, 2023

Japan is bringing in more foreign nationals than you think

Japan isn’t an outlier when it comes to low fertility rates, merely a front-runner.
U.S. President Joe Biden recent comments about China are some of his most direct criticisms yet about the U.S.’s top geopolitical and economic rival.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 12, 2023

Biden fears Chinese economy is ‘ticking time bomb’

Biden's comments included several major inaccuracies about the world’s second-largest economy.
A Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000 jet fighter landing at Hsinchu Air Base in Hsinchu, Taiwan, in April.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 12, 2023

China’s military, ‘chasing the dream,’ probes Taiwan’s defenses

Day by day, the People’s Liberation Army is turning up the pressure, deploying an ever-wider array of planes and ships.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 12, 2023

Three injured after car plows into festival venue in Shizuoka

All of the injured people are conscious, according to Shizuoka Prefectural Police, who arrested a suspect at the scene.
An office of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in San Francisco. The firm recently assured corporate partners that their data would not be used to train the chatbot further.
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2023

ChatGPT fever spreads to U.S. workplace, sounding alarm for some

Some 28% of respondents to an online poll on artificial intelligence said they regularly use ChatGPT at work.
As of Saturday, at least 89 death have been recorded as a result of the wildfire that engulfed the Maui town of Lahaina, Hawaii. That toll is likely to rise as the search for victims continues.
WORLD
Aug 13, 2023

Maui fire death toll, at 89, is highest in U.S. in a century

Maui death toll is likely to rise in the coming days as only 3% of areas burned Tuesday had been searched by canine teams.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump campaigns at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 14, 2023

Trump heading for Republican 'coronation' as 2024 rivals struggle

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the rest of the field have so far been at a loss over how to narrow the gap.
Aoi Suzuki’s son runs past a home in Taketomi on Iriomote Island (not to be confused with Taketomi Island, which lies to the east of Iriomote). The Suzukis run the Takemori Inn, one of the few hotels on Iriomote.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Aug 14, 2023

My annual pilgrimage to Okinawa

Navigating between different ferries can open up whole new worlds in Japan's southernmost islands.
Liudmila Sezonova, a honey merchant, with her son Albert, in their home in Kupiansk, Ukraine
WORLD
Aug 14, 2023

They endured one Russian occupation. Now, they fear a second.

The Ukrainian city of Kupiansk was liberated last year. With fighting at their doorstep, residents fear what a second Russian occupation would mean.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2023

Typhoon Lan brings damage and power outages to western Kansai

In the wake of the storm, the city of Tottori released water from the Saji River Dam late afternoon Tuesday due to fears that the dam would overflow.
M-Sys President Masao Takikawa stands in front of a Yakiton Daikoku izakaya pub that opened in Sendai's Kokubuncho entertainment district.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Aug 15, 2023

Sendai pub chain boosts performance with better work conditions

Sendai-based M-Sys has implemented a policy of offering monthly pay of ¥300,000 to new hires.
Ksenia Sobchak, one of the best-known media figures still based in Russia
WORLD / Politics
Aug 15, 2023

Ksenia Sobchak's advice to anti-war Russians: Find ways to cope

At once Putin insider and critic, Russia-based media figure Ksenia Sobchak opposes the war. But she wants those like her to accept it, rather than resist.
What remains of a home destroyed by wildfire on Maui island, Hawaii
WORLD
Aug 15, 2023

Maui teams search through ashes as many await news of loved ones

Destruction and ongoing hazards left by wildfires stymie search operations as hundreds of people in Lahaina, on Maui island, remain unaccounted for.
Researchers have developed a new method to analyze climate history and their findings align with current climate models.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2023

Science offers closer look at the Medieval Warming Period

Medieval Warming Period saw a population boom in Europe and the collapse of civilizations in the Americas
A man scoops up millet from a sack for a photograph at a wholesale market in India.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 15, 2023

'Superfood' millet may be arid regions' answer to climate change

The forgotten crop is making a global comeback riding on its high nutritional value and ability to grow on arid land.
A Chadian army officer reacts as cart owners transport the belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 16, 2023

Sudan 'spiraling out of control' as 1 million flee country: U.N.

Efforts to mediate a cease-fire have stalled, and those remaining in the country have faced rampant looting and long power cuts.
Lahaina resident Annelise Cochran poses for a portrait on Monday, after speaking about her harrowing escape from the flames of the fires in Maui.
WORLD
Aug 16, 2023

'The ocean saved my life': How one Hawaii survivor escaped the flames

Surrounded by flames on Hawaii's scenic Lahaina boardwalk, jumping into the sea was her only choice.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2023

Scores injured as Typhoon Lan passes through Japan

At least 64 people in eight prefectures in central to western Japan were reported to have sustained injuries, and 34 houses were damaged by the storm.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji