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Opium is harvested from poppies in Bang Laem Village, Shan State, Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 31, 2024

Drugs, scams and sin: Myanmar’s war has made it the global crime capital

Growing opium poppies is illegal in Myanmar, but small-scale farmers see it is a relatively low-risk cash crop.
Carlos Sainz sits inside his car after a practice session ahead of the Dakar Rally in Bisha, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 1.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Jan 2, 2025

'El Matador' Carlos Sainz ready to defend Dakar Rally crown

Sainz's fourth title came when he was 61 — making him the oldest winner of the race — and was the first Dakar victory for German outfit Audi.
After a dramatic 2024, where Japan saw political upheaval, a record stock market, a major quake and a plane crash and dramatic escape, 2025, with events like major anime sequels, the Osaka World Expo, rising foreign acquisitions, we should expect a transformative year.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 2, 2025

Anime, M&A and the expo: What to watch for in Japan’s 2025

No doubt 2025 has more surprises in store for Japan after an unusually intense 12 months.
Scheduled to welcome its first guests in early 2025, the Waldorf Astoria Osaka is just one of many luxury hotel openings Japan has seen in recent months.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 4, 2025

Japan’s ‘quiet revolution’ of luxury travel nears fruition

“The Japanese luxury travel scene has undergone quite the metamorphosis over the past decade,” says one industry insider.
Hogwarts Castle at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California. There are influential American works of fantasy like “The Wizard of Oz” and “American Gods,” but they lack the cohesive, enduring impact of European counterparts such as the “Harry Potter” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” series.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2025

America needs a 'Great American Fantasy'

There is a lack of a distinctly "Great American Fantasy" in literature and popular culture.
Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, speaks during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 8, 2025

Nvidia slides after unveiling leaves investors wanting more

Though Nvidia’s latest announcements gave an upbeat view of the company’s long-range prospects, there wasn’t as much near-term upside as some investors had sought.
Tencent, China’s most valuable company, is seen as a pioneer in China’s internet and private sector, creating a so-called everything app that Elon Musk has held up as a model for X.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 8, 2025

U.S. blacklist of China’s tech giants risks even faster decoupling

The move, which experts say could backfire on Washington, comes amid an intensifying tech rivalry between the two countries.
Jannik Sinner hits a return during an exhibition in Melbourne on Tuesday.
TENNIS
Jan 8, 2025

Sinner turns focus to Australian Open defense after 'amazing' year

The Italian is coming off a breakthrough year in which he backed up his maiden Grand Slam title at Melbourne Park by winning the U.S. Open and ATP Finals.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 9, 2025

Biden to further limit AI chip exports in final push

The regulations would create three tiers of chip trade restrictions, granting full access to allies, limited access to most of the world and virtually no access to adversaries.
Aryna Sabalenka celebrates after winning the Brisbane International final on Sunday.
TENNIS
Jan 9, 2025

Aryna Sabalenka set to take center stage again at Australian Open

Sabalenka has reached at least the semifinals in nine of her last 12 Grand Slams.
U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart testifies before U.S. Congress during an anti-doping hearing on June 24, 2024.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 9, 2025

U.S. withholds payment to WADA amid dispute over Chinese doping tests

The move to hold back 2024 WADA dues comes in the wake of WADA's controversial handling of positive doping tests by 23 Chinese swimmers who were later allowed to compete.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter and then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan greet each other before their U.S. presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, in October 1980.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2025

What if Reagan's vision had been more like Carter's?

Yes, Carter had his share of missteps, but he was way, way, way ahead of his time on clean energy.
“The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic” centers on three teenage protagonists who are transported into a fantasy world where they must grapple with a foreign culture.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 11, 2025

Isekai anime offers a key to understanding globalization

The fantastical genre wherein characters are dropped into unlikely worlds — and sometimes bodies — can be read as an allegory for the structure of the contemporary anime industry.
Palm trees burned by the Palisades Fire along the shore in Malibu, California, at sunrise on Friday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 11, 2025

‘We’re in a new era’: How climate change is supercharging disasters

Extreme weather events — deadly heat waves, floods, fires and hurricanes — are the consequences of a warming planet, scientists say.
American Lindsey Vonn celebrates after finishing sixth in the women's downhill World Cup race on Saturday in St. Anton, Austria.
MORE SPORTS / Alpine skiing
Jan 12, 2025

Lindsey Vonn sixth in downhill return as veteran Federica Brignone wins

Vonn, 0.58 seconds behind after starting 32nd of the 51 starters, raised her arms as if she had won after her exhilarating effort.
Rescue workers search a flooded area during the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, which caused severe floods at the Chikuma River, in the city of Nagano in October 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Jan 12, 2025

Disaster-hardened Japan faces enormous costs from climate change

The total cost in climate damages for the country through 2050 could amount to ¥952 trillion if more ambitious action isn't taken.
A worker inspects the outdoor gas pipes at the underground gas storage facility operated by Gas Storage in Haje, Czech Republic, on Jan. 3.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jan 13, 2025

Europe threatens to trigger a global scramble for natural gas

For the first time since the energy crisis was turbocharged by Russia’s war in Ukraine, Europe risks failing to meet its storage targets for next winter.
Tyson Fury during a heavyweight world title fight against Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh on Dec. 22
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Jan 14, 2025

Is retirement really the end of the road for Tyson Fury?

Fury has previously announced his exit on a number of occasions, most recently in April 2022.
International Gymnastics Federation chief Morinari Watanabe in Tokyo on Thursday
OLYMPICS
Jan 14, 2025

IOC long shot Watanabe hopes 'crazy' Olympic idea sparks debate

Morinari Watanabe is proposing to host the Games simultaneously in five cities across five continents.
Firefighters spray the rubble of homes that were demolished by the Eaton Fire on Wednesday.AFP-JIJI
OLYMPICS
Jan 17, 2025

Critics question Los Angeles' ability to host Olympics after wildfires

Governor Gavin Newsom has already moved to assure that Los Angeles will be ready to host the Games.
Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
BUSINESS / Companies / Longform
Jan 17, 2025

Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go

The CEO and president of Rapidus says the chip venture in Hokkaido is key to Japan's fortunes.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba poses for a photo with Dimitri Kerkentzes (second left), visiting secretary-general of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions, at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2025

Ishiba vows to make Osaka Expo a success

"We will do our best to communicate (the attractions of) not only Osaka but also Japan as a whole to the world," Ishiba also said.
Preparations for the 2025 Osaka Expo are underway on Yumeshima island in the city of Osaka ahead of the April 13 opening.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2025

Ishiba visits Osaka to inspect expo venue

Ishiba exchanged opinions with Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura and others about the progress of preparations for the international event.
Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hakkaku (right) alongside David Rothschild, the promoter of an upcoming tournament in Paris, on Sunday in Tokyo
SUMO
Jan 19, 2025

Top sumo pros to enter the ring in Paris in June 2026

It will be the third such event in the French capital and the first since 1995.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 21, 2025

Trump withdraws from Paris climate agreement — again

The newly minted president removed the world's biggest historic emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the second time in a decade.
International law and norms are eroding, especially due to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, as multilateral security systems break down and powerful nations prioritize their own interests over global stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2025

To avoid collective ruin requires renewed global cooperation

Alarmingly, geopolitical tensions are deepening just as humanity faces existential threats demanding urgent international cooperation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a video conference meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 22, 2025

Xi and Putin discuss relations with Trump, Ukraine and Taiwan

In a video call, Xi and Putin proposed a further deepening of the strategic partnership between their countries that worries the West.
In 2024, child mortality for children before the age of 5 reached a record low of 3.6%, down from over 25% in 1950. For most of history, about half of all newborns died as children.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2025

Even this year is the best time ever to be alive

Another way of looking at it: Every day over the past couple of years, roughly 30,000 people moved out of extreme poverty worldwide.
“The Elephant Man” and “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch became a favorite among Japanese moviegoers who flocked to new arthouse cinemas (known as “mini theaters”) popping up around the country in the 1980s and ’90s.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 23, 2025

How 'Twin Peaks' turned David Lynch into Japan's favorite weirdo

The director’s work thrived in the early days of arthouse “mini theaters,” and cherry pies and canned coffee fueled the nation's "Twin Peaks" mania.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, sentenced to 14 years for corruption, reflects the country's recurring cycle of leaders rising with military backing and then falling out of favor.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2025

Jailing Imran Khan won’t fix Pakistan’s problems

Pakistan’s economic recovery hinges on reforms, stability and military backing.

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