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Jared Isaacman (left), U.S. President Trump’s nominee to head NASA, testifies during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Bloomberg
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2025

NASA nominee should resist Musk’s pull toward Mars

During a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Jared Isaacman, the nominee for NASA administrator, was — in a twist on the Will Smith ’90s tune — gettin’ squishy wit it.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin meets with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, in St. Petersburg on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2025

The U.S. and Russia are negotiating in bad faith

For now, Trump says he is “pissed off” at Putin for not being more amenable to his administration’s ceasefire proposals and he is threatening to impose yet more sanctions.
Fire damage at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in Harrisburg on Sunday. Pennsylvania state authorities have arrested a 38-year-old Harrisburg man and said he set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, forcing Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family to evacuate early Sunday before the blaze severely damaged part of the building.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 14, 2025

Suspect held over arson attack on Pennsylvania governor’s mansion

Shapiro, who is Jewish, said the suspect’s motives weren’t known but he evoked the Passover meal he hosted at the governor’s residence hours before the fire was set.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping waves as he arrives for a two-day state visit at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 14, 2025

Xi seeks to win with Southeast Asia trip as Trump pauses some tariffs

Xi arrived in Vietnam on Monday and was due to visit Malaysia and Cambodia later this week, just days after Trump raised tariffs on China but gave everyone else a 90-day pause.
A man reads a newspaper on a park bench in Tehran on Saturday. The first meeting between the U.S. and Iran over its expanding nuclear program displayed a seriousness of purpose, but hardliners in both countries — and Israel — are expected to balk at any deal.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 14, 2025

Iran says U.S. talks to focus solely on nuclear issue and sanctions

Analysts had said the U.S. would push for discussions over Iran's ballistic missile program along with Tehran's support for the anti-Israel "axis of resistance."
The Grand Ring walkway is crowded with visitors amid rain on the opening day of the Osaka Expo on Sunday.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 14, 2025

Crowds, long lines and confusion: Osaka Expo makes turbulent start

India, Nepal and three other countries were unable to open their pavilions on the first day of the Expo, due to construction delays.
A Ukrainian rescuer walks by a burned car in front of damaged building at the site of a missile attack in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine, on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 14, 2025

Bangladesh families seek sons feared fighting for Russia

Around a dozen families have contacted Dhaka's embassy in Moscow to seek help bringing back their sons they allege were duped into joining the Russian army.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura speaks during the opening ceremony of the 2025 Osaka Expo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 14, 2025

As Osaka Expo kicks off, Nippon Ishin continues to hold its breath

The Kansai-centered opposition party has a lot to lose if the six-month event being held in its stronghold turns out to be a flop.
Ousted former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol gestures from a vehicle, as he returns to his private residence in Seoul on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 14, 2025

South Korea begins criminal insurrection trial of ousted leader

Yoon Suk Yeol, who the Constitutional Court removed from the presidency this month, argued that his martial law declaration in December was "not a coup d’etat."
Students raise their hands in class in front of fans at an elementary school in Manila on March 21. Last year, heat waves forced millions of children in the Philippines out of school. It was the first time that soaring temperatures had caused widespread class suspensions, prompting a series of changes.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 14, 2025

Early holiday, more fans: Philippines' schools adapt to climate change

Heat waves forced millions of children in the Philippines out of school in 2024, the first time that soaring temperatures had caused widespread class suspensions.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2025

Trump calls for deporting some citizens to El Salvador, testing U.S. law

The comments are the clearest signal yet that the president is serious about deporting naturalized and U.S.-born citizens, a proposal many legal scholars say is unconstitutional.
A flag bearing a portrait of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah displayed on Feb. 28 in the southern Lebanese border town of Aitaroun.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2025

Disarming Lebanon's Hezbollah possible under U.S. pressure, analysts say

Hezbollah was left badly weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel, and Lebanon has since elected a president and formed a government.
Police seal off an area around a condominium in the city of Saitama where a 15-year-old girl was stabbed to death on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 15, 2025

Man arrested after fatal stabbing of teenage girl in Saitama

The 15-year-old high school girl was attacked as she was returning home Monday evening by a man who was standing near the entrance of a building.
A Bank of Kyoto branch in the city of Kyoto. Kyoto Financial Group has been a symbol of Japan’s old guard holding out against selling the stakes, given its historic ties to exporters based in the city including Nintendo, Nidec and Kyocera.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 16, 2025

Kyoto bank shifts stance on mergers and cuts to cross-shareholdings

Kyoto Financial has been a symbol of Japan’s old guard holding out against selling the stakes, given its historic ties to exporters based in the city.
Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects an honour guard during an official welcoming ceremony at the national palace in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 16, 2025

China's Xi meets Malaysian leaders in diplomatic charm offensive

Xi was welcomed by Malaysia's king, Sultan Ibrahim, in a colorful ceremony at the golden-domed Istana palace.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has sent a delegation to Washington for high-stakes tariff talks, as other nations watch to see if Tokyo can secure favorable terms from the Trump administration.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 16, 2025

If Japan can’t get a good trade deal, can anyone?

The Asian nation is the canary in the tariff coal mine. If it can’t secure a good deal, there’s little hope for others.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday in Washington.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 16, 2025

Trump calls the U.S.-Japan alliance ‘one-sided.’ Tokyo says otherwise.

Some observers believe the U.S. president’s worldview is stuck in the 1980s, a time when trade deficits with Japan captured the attention of U.S. policymakers.
Men painted like skeletons pose in Lagos to warn on the deadly disease prior to the World Malaria Day on April 25, 2015. The sudden dismantling of USAID, the country's main foreign development arm, is unraveling health care systems across Africa.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 16, 2025

USAID cuts rip through African health care systems

The sudden dismantling of USAID is unraveling health care systems across Africa that were built from a complicated web of national health ministries, companies and nonprofits.
When a bomber holds a high-speed train to ransom, it’s left to conductor Kazuya Takaichi (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) and his colleagues to save the day in “Bullet Train Explosion.”
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2025

'Bullet Train Explosion’: High-speed disaster movie doesn’t get the pulse racing

Netflix’s most lavish Japanese movie to date whizzes by without doing much damage to the image of the high-speed rail it’s promoting.
Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli celebrates after scoring against Real Madrid during the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal in Madrid on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Apr 17, 2025

Arsenal dethrones Real Madrid to reach Champions League semifinals

Inter Milan advanced from the night's other quarterfinal, earning a 4-3 aggregate win over Bayern Munich after an enthralling 2-2 draw in the second leg.
A handout artist's impression released on Thursday by N. Madhusudhan/University of Cambridge shows the K2-18b super-Earth, a hycean world, in which astronomers say they have found the strongest yet “hints” of life outside our solar system.
WORLD
Apr 17, 2025

Scientists find strongest evidence yet of life on an alien planet

The scientists stressed they are not announcing the discovery of actual living organisms and that the findings should be viewed cautiously.
Students practice dance during a project activity at Hotei Junior High School in Konan, Aichi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 28, 2025

'Voluntary' school clubs face reform amid excessive burdens

Club activities have long been a standard part of junior high and high school life in Japan, but some schools now struggle to form teams.
Michael McMahon, a retired New York City police sergeant working as a private investigator, arrives for the start of his trial at the Brooklyn federal court in New York on May 31, 2023. McMahon was sentenced to 1½ years in prison on Wednesday for acting as an illegal Chinese agent.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 17, 2025

Ex-New York cop sentenced to 1½ years' jail for acting as Chinese agent

A jury found Michael McMahon guilty of interstate stalking and of acting as an agent of China without notifying the U.S. attorney general.
Heat guard Tyler Herro dunks against the Bulls during their play-in game in Chicago on Wednesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Apr 17, 2025

Heat scorch Bulls in play-in contest; Mavericks rout Kings

Herro led from the front in a wire-to-wire victory that eliminated Chicago from postseason contention.
Economists fail to understand that Donald Trump's tariff policy is part of a broader strategy to prepare the U.S. for long-term competition with China, driven by national security concerns rather than traditional economic or trade policy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 17, 2025

What economists 'don’t get' about Trump tariffs

My view is that the U.S. has started to prepare seriously for a long-term competition with China for global dominance.
ASEAN should use the 90-day pause on Donald Trump’s punishingly high tariffs to develop a unified position and broaden its membership by admitting East Timor and opening accession talks with Sri Lanka.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 16, 2025

ASEAN should expand to counter Trump’s tariffs

It came as no surprise that China would be the hardest hit, but the punishing duties imposed on most Asian countries were a profound shock.
Former CDP executive Kenji Eda discusses a possible reduction of the consumption tax rate, in Tokyo on April 10.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

CDP divisions over proposed tax cut pose headache for Yoshihiko Noda

The nation’s largest opposition party is preparing for the Upper House poll in July, in which it hopes to win enough seats to make a CDP-led coalition government possible.
The U.S. Justice Department and a group of states sued Google in 2023, arguing the company illegally monopolized three separate markets related to the technology used for online display advertising: ad servers, exchanges and networks.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 18, 2025

Google loses key antitrust case over ad tech practices

Google has lost a key antitrust case over its ad tech dominance, as a judge found it used exclusionary tactics that hurt rivals, publishers, and consumers.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 3.2% from a year ago in March, accelerating from a 3% increase in the previous month, according to the internal affairs ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 18, 2025

Japan’s inflation quickens as rice prices gain the most in over 50 years

The price of the nation’s staple grain rose 92.1% in March from a year earlier, the fastest pace in data going back to 1971.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on April 5
WORLD / Politics
Apr 18, 2025

Zelenskyy accuses China of supplying Russia with weapons

Kyiv-Beijing ties were already strained after Zelenskyy made public this month its capture of two Chinese nationals fighting for Russia.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
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