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The “dogeza” position is used for the sincerest of apologies and it was deployed by the man who mistakenly ruined an attempt at a Guinness world record on live television.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 9, 2024

The year so far has been marked by some good and bad apologies

A social norm seems to persist in Japan that one should apologize first and explain later. That goes for companies as well.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 8, 2024

Cyber and phone fraud cases in Japan surge, marking 15-year high

National Police Agency officials say that it is premature to conclude that public safety in Japan has deteriorated.
U.S. and U.K. military aircraft have carried out over a hundred bombing missions on Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen, as well as against Tehran's proxies in Iraq and Syria, since last month.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2024

2024 looks to be a very bloody year

Preventing a conflagration and wider wars depends first on preventing regional crises from escalating, which demands a strong deterrent posture.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking a broad ruling that would end the push around the country to kick him off state ballots.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 9, 2024

Supreme Court casts doubt on efforts to bar Trump from ballot

The high court is handling the case on an expedited basis, meaning a ruling could come in weeks.
The “myahk,” a community currency implemented on Okinawa Prefecture’s Miyako Island in 2018, is intimately tied to local efforts for environmental preservation.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Feb 10, 2024

Japanese communities are creating currencies to educate and empower citizens

The yen will do when paying for things throughout the country. In some places, though, you may try paying with a coin that also helps reduce plastic waste.
Elon Musk has gone as far as to say that with technological advances, “there will come a point where no job is needed.” Musk revealed his own artificial intelligence chatbot, dubbed Grok, last year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 9, 2024

Firms pausing hiring and axing staff quietly as AI craze persists

While some industry leaders have been outspoken about AI’s potential to transform work, there is caution over citing the new tech as a reason for cuts.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 9, 2024

Japanese firms boosting pay for young workers is good news for Bank of Japan

If wage gain momentum carries over into this year, the BOJ is expected to end the world’s last negative interest rate regime by April.
A Banei Keiba horse race takes place at the Obihiro racecourse in Hokkaido on Dec. 9. The unpredictable stop-and-start drama of the world's slowest horse race has drawn new fans.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2024

'Suspense' of slowest horse race wins new fans in Japan

At the Banei Keiba races in Hokkaido, spectators cheer on workhorses moving at the pace of a brisk human walk.
Israeli history teacher Meir Baruchin
WORLD / Society
Feb 9, 2024

Pressure piled on Israelis who speak up for Palestinians

Israeli schoolteacher Meir Baruchin has paid a high price for denouncing the war in Gaza: being let go from his teaching job and even being detained.
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD
Feb 10, 2024

Israel prepares assault on Rafah as it seeks to allay fears of 'bloodbath'

Aid agencies warned that a military offensive in such a densely populated area could end up killing large numbers of innocent people.
A firefighter extinguishes a burning car hit by an Israeli strike in Rafah on Saturday.
WORLD
Feb 11, 2024

Terrified Palestinians await an advance in the city where they fled

Israeli officials have declared that the next phase in their effort to destroy Hamas will be in Rafah.
Naomi Osaka speaks during a news conference at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Jan. 12.
TENNIS
Feb 11, 2024

Naomi Osaka explains why she’s investing in women’s sports

Osaka, one of the world's most marketable athletes, plans to stay involved in the world of sports even after her tennis career ends.
A tsugumi (dusky thrush). Bird-watching increasingly plays a critical role in mapping bird behaviors and paving the way for policy and conservation initiatives.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Feb 11, 2024

How a new flock of bird-watchers is contributing to science

The hobby increasingly plays a critical role in mapping bird behaviors and paving the way for policy and conservation initiatives.
Supporters of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party block the Peshawar to Islambad highway on Sunday in protest against the alleged skewing of election results in Pakistan's national election.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 11, 2024

Pakistan police threaten crackdown after Khan party calls protests

PTI leaders claim they would have won even more seats if not for vote rigging.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to his supporters as he arrives at a rally in Guwahati, India, on Feb. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2024

Modi flexes global muscle with Abu Dhabi visit and temple opening

While Islam is the UAE’s state religion, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has long had a strained relationship with India’s Muslim population.
Human rights activists hold placards during a demonstration outside the Russian Embassy in Kathmandu on Feb. 5. Nepali mercenaries are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, lured to kill far from their Himalayan homeland by promises of a passport and cash, but wounded returnees warn anyone tempted to join the war: "Do not come."
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2024

'There to die': Nepali mercenaries fight for Russia in Ukraine

While Nepali soldiers-for-hire can earn nearly double what they make at home, conditions are brutal and many are killed or wounded.
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, who is currently imprisoned, speaks with foreign journalists at his residence in Islamabad on April 9, 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2024

The rise, and fall, and rise again of Imran Khan

When Pakistan’s government censored the media, former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party posted campaign videos on TikTok. When the police barred his supporters from holding rallies, they hosted virtual gatherings online.
Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto votes at a polling station during the general election in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Prabowo on track to win Indonesia’s presidential election

This is Prabowo’s third time to run for the country’s top job, after losing in 2014 and 2019 to incumbent Joko "Jokowo" Widodo.
Canned ready-to-drink cocktails, including Asahi Breweries' 9% Clear Cooler Strong chūhai produced in conjunction with Seven & I Holdings, at a 7-Eleven store in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Tuesday
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2024

Asahi calls time on new strong chūhai amid low-alcohol shift in Japan

New versions of the canned fizzy cocktails with alcohol content of 8% or higher will not be launched in order to “reduce inappropriate drinking.”
Smoke rises during an Israeli ground operation in Khan Younis as seen from a tent camp sheltering displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Gaza truce talks end inconclusively as Rafah braces for assault

The city teems with people living in makeshift shelters who fled there from Israeli bombardments in areas of Gaza farther north.
A Sudanese man looks out his balcony in Cairo as he waits for his displaced family to arrive from war-ridden Khartoum, in April.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Unable to survive in Egypt, refugees return to war-torn Sudan

Since the fighting began in April between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces, over 450,000 people have crossed the border into Egypt.
Bart Andre, who joined Apple in 1992, told colleagues this month that he is retiring. He helped create the aesthetic for Apple products released over the past three decades.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 14, 2024

Apple’s longest-serving designer to depart, adding to exodus

Bart Andre, who joined Apple in 1992 alongside Jony Ive, told colleagues this month that he is retiring.
U.S. President Joe Biden has presided over a growing economy and some foreign leaders have said after meeting him that he is sharp and focused in private meetings, but his age is still an issue that is posing a drag on his poll numbers.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Democrats bungle Joe Biden age concerns, some critics say

Their strategy so far has not quelled criticism or concerns about the U.S. president's fitness for the Oval Office.
Military personnel conduct raid operations in the area surrounding Guayaquil, Ecuador on Jan. 27. President Daniel Noboa’s new war on gangs has received widespread support in a nation overwhelmed by violence, but experts warn it could endanger civil liberties.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 14, 2024

Terrorized by gangs, Ecuador embraces the hard-line ‘Noboa way’

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa's war on gangs is popular among citizens in spite of activists warning of human rights violations.
Ayelet Khon and Shar Shnurman walk through Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel following the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, and after they returned to live there, on Jan. 13.
WORLD / Society
Feb 14, 2024

Israeli family returns to Kfar Azza kibbutz after Oct. 7 attack

Eight hundred people used to live on the kibbutz. The unspoken question on everyone’s mind is whether they will ever feel it is safe enough to return.
Police officers guard the site of a crowd crush in Seoul, on Oct. 30, 2022. Two police officers were sentenced on Wednesday for destroying evidence linked to the disaster on Oct. 29, 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 14, 2024

Two Seoul police officers convicted over deadly Halloween crush

The pair "deleted or arbitrarily destroyed internal reports written prior to the accident and destroyed evidence," a court said.
Police respond after shots were fired at the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory celebration in Kansas City, Missouri, on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 15, 2024

Shooting at Chiefs' Super Bowl parade leaves one dead and 21 injured

Police said an investigation into the motive of the shooting was underway and that three people have been detained.
Israeli officials evacuate a person who was injured by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Safed, northern Israel, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Feb 15, 2024

Israel-Hezbollah tensions rise with strikes from Lebanon

The assault, presumed to be carried out by Hezbollah, prompted Israeli fighter jets to launch extensive strikes.
Smoke billows over Khan Younis in the distance as seen from Rafah following Israeli bombardment on the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 15, 2024

Israel vows to press ahead with 'powerful' Rafah operation

Despite growing pressure to hold back, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists Hamas' battalions must be eliminated in the overcrowded city.
Shanghai's financial district under heavy rain. China's economy has slowed down, with some pointing to a possible balance sheet recession.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2024

Mr. Xi, only change will help China weather the storm

How does Xi Jinping plan to address China's growing economic woes? Only openness to change will allow the global power to survive these turbulent times.

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