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Masafumi Kurisaka shows off a box of luxury Sakura Momo Ichigo strawberries, which can fetch a hefty price at auction.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 15, 2024

Masafumi Kurisaka: 'The fewer the flowers, the bigger the strawberry'

Masafumi Kurisaka turned his back on a corporate job to go into the family business: luxury strawberries that fetch a hefty price.
People pray in Port-au-Prince last month.
WORLD / Society
Apr 12, 2024

Waiting for change, Haitians endure hell on earth

Conditions remain horrific one month after Haiti's prime minister said he would step down.
By 2050, 10.8 million elderly people will be living alone, making up 20.6% of all households, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research said in a projection that it issues every five years.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 13, 2024

Elderly living alone to make up a fifth of Japanese households by 2025, study finds

The projection came as young Japanese people delay marriage or choose not to have children partly because they cannot afford to do so.
Ukrainian soldiers take cover during fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2022.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

Kharkiv's civilians under fire as Ukraine faces 'catastrophic' air defense shortage

The city is so near the border that Russian missiles can reach their target in less than a minute.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, attends an event in Seoul on Thursday. He is one of the most polarizing political figures in South Korea with a fervent base of supporters on the left and a large block of opponents in the conservative camp.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 13, 2024

Indicted opposition leader is South Korea’s top contender for president in 2027

The victory of his party in Wednesday's parliamentary elections was quite a turnaround for Lee Jae-myung.
A protester demands the United Kingdom make reparations for slavery, outside the British High Commission, in Kingston, Jamaica, in March 2022.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

Slavery tribunal? Africa and Caribbean unite on reparations

A tribunal was proposed last year, and it has now gained traction within a broader slavery reparations movement.
A family leaves the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall in Sydney after a stabbing incident on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 13, 2024

Sydney knife attacker shot dead after killing six in Bondi mall

The assailant was shot by a police officer after he engaged with nine people in a busy shopping mall.
Flowers outside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall in Sydney on Sunday, the day after a 40-year-old man with mental illness roamed the packed shopping center killing six people and seriously wounding a dozen others
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 14, 2024

Police identify Sydney mall attacker; no terrorism link found

Australian police have identified a 40-year-old man who suffered from mental illness as the perpetrator of a Sydney shopping center stabbing rampage.
A mob of supporters of President Donald Trump outside the Capitol building in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. Former President Donald Trump has recently taken to publicly celebrating the riot and those who took part in it, putting a revisionist history of the attack at the heart of his campaign.
WORLD
Apr 14, 2024

Inside Donald Trump’s embrace of the Jan. 6 rioters

The former president initially disavowed the attack on the Capitol, but he is now making it a centerpiece of his general election campaign.
A memorial ceremony was held for the victims of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake on Sunday in the city of Kumamoto.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2024

Kumamoto quake victims remembered eight years on

At the Kumamoto earthquake-remembrance ceremony, participants observed a minute of silence and some laid flowers for the victims.
Paolo Pasco, winner of the 2024 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
LIFE
Apr 14, 2024

How Gen Zers made the crossword their own

A younger generation of constructors is using an old form to reflect their identities, language and world.
Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Apr 15, 2024

For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on

After a five-year absence, kabuki has returned to Kotohira. Can it be the draw that this tourism-hungry town desires?
Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani during a spring training game on March 12.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 15, 2024

Ohtani’s dizzying three weeks end in exoneration by authorities

At times, baseball’s biggest star seemed in danger of being tainted by a gambling scandal, before his longtime interpreter was charged with fraud.
Military personnel stand guard as hundreds of refugees crossed over the river frontier between Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, following the fall of a strategic border town to rebels fighting Myanmar's military junta, in Mae Sot, Tak province, Thailand, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 15, 2024

Myanmar rebels say they have repelled junta push to take back border town

A resistance group fighting Myanmar's military rule said its fighters had repelled an attempt by junta troops to advance on the key town of Myawaddy.
Rapidus' semiconductor foundry construction site in Hokkaido
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024

Chip plant wizard weathers Hokkaido’s bitter cold in latest test

Construction firm Kajima is plowing through a series of challenges to get a chipmaking factory built on time in snowy Hokkaido.
A woman in the Tokai region posts her meals on social media and gives advice to young people suffering from eating disorders.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 22, 2024

Woman with eating disorder looks to help young sufferers via social media

The woman is letting people know that a person’s value is not determined by their body shape.
The National Security Education Day opening ceremony in Hong Kong on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 15, 2024

China says Hong Kong must 'tightly hold' national security line to safeguard development

Some countries have criticized Hong Kong's new national security laws as a tool for authorities to clamp down on dissent.
Signage for MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking in Tokyo. A coalition of climate groups filed shareholder proposals with the three banks calling for stricter board oversight of climate-related risks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024

Climate investors target board oversight of top Japan banks: sources

The proposal marks the first time climate groups have targeted bank boards as a way to pressure the lenders on climate change.
Construction on the Techo Funan Canal, which will span some 180 kilometers from Phnom Penh to the Cambodian coastal province of Kep, is slated to begin later this year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 15, 2024

U.S. urges transparency over China-backed canal in Cambodia

The waterway will span some 180 kilometers from Phnom Penh to the coastal province of Kep.
Leaders of intelligence agencies testify before a congressional committee about worldwide threats in Washington on March 11.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2024

Campaign puts Trump and the spy agencies on a collision course

Some former officials fear that Trump, if elected again, would try to weaken intelligence agencies or undermine their independence.
Residents of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, collect supplies in the aftermath of the Jan. 1 earthquake. When it comes to preparing for and responding to disasters in Japan, the specific needs of women are still not being sufficiently met. One way to fix this would be to increase the number of women involved in the area of disaster prevention.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 15, 2024

Women’s needs in disasters are still not accounted for

In Japan, women's needs in disaster situations are not being sufficiently met, as the Ishikawa earthquake shows, partly due to poor female representation.
Armed French soldiers patrol Trocadero square near the Eiffel Tower Stadium, Champ de Mars Arena and Grand Palais Ephemere venues under construction for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in Paris on April 1.
WORLD / Society
Apr 16, 2024

Is fractious France ready for an Olympics party?

The buildup has been marred by rows that go to the heart of a bitter national debate about identity and race.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak inside 10 Downing Street in central London on Sunday
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2024

British PM Sunak's Rwanda deportation plan set to pass Parliament

Britain's prime minister says he is "highly confident" his plans to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda will work.
Lee Hsien Loong might not stray far from politics, having said previously that he will remain at the "new PM’s disposal” after the handover.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 16, 2024

Singapore charts new path after half-century of Lee family rule

Lee Hsien Loong announced that he will step aside next month after 20 years as prime minister and hand the reins over to Lawrence Wong.
A nationwide survey by Japan Press Research Institute released in October found that 74.6% of respondents see or hear news a few times a week on the internet. Meanwhile, 87.6% receive news through private broadcasters.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 21, 2024

How to deal with influence operations in the era of generative AI

A significant number of people in Japan don't care about where online news is sourced from, one poll found.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at a fairgrounds in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2024

Inside Donald Trump’s embrace of the Jan. 6 rioters

Former President Donald Trump's words and actions regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters suggest he is trying to normalize violence in politics.
Kioxia Holdings plans to go public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as early as October.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2024

Kioxia plans to list as early as October as merger talks stall

Kioxia faces a June deadline to refinance as much as ¥900 billion worth of loans, and a public listing will help its negotiations with banks.
The salvaged Sewol ferry (back) on display at a port in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province on Tuesday, as South Korea marks the 10th anniversary of the country's worst-ever maritime disaster.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 16, 2024

South Korea marks 10th anniversary of Sewol ferry disaster

Families called out the names of the deceased and threw flowers into the water, followed by a moment of silence.
A woman grieves for Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 17, 2024

Israeli forces return again to northern Gaza and strike Rafah

Israel is still imposing "unlawful" restrictions on humanitarian relief for the Gaza Strip, the U.N. human rights office has said.
Police officers issue a warning to a person riding a modified bicycle during a traffic crackdown conducted in Tokyo's Nakano Ward in December.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 17, 2024

Police report surge in moped and powered bicycle violations

When questioned, many riders claim to be unaware of the requirement for a license to operate such vehicles.

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