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While climate demonstrations around the world often draw thousands of participants, in Japan such demonstrations rarely break the 100-person barrier.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 16, 2025

Japan’s youth climate activists still searching for a breakthrough

With Japan endorsing climate targets criticized as unambitious, activists are looking to education and more tailored strategies to make an impact.
Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 17, 2025

The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo

Thirty years after Aum Shinrikyo attacked Tokyo’s subways, the nation continues to prepare for the unthinkable.
A ship fires missiles toward an undisclosed location, after U.S. President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released on Saturday.
WORLD
Mar 17, 2025

U.S. vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop

The Houthi-run health ministry said U.S. airstrikes on Saturday killed at least 53 people.
Smoke rises while members of the Syrian forces ride on a vehicle as they battle against an insurgency by fighters from ousted leader Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, in Latakia, Syria, on March 7.
WORLD
Mar 17, 2025

'Pray for us. They've arrived': How Syria descended into revenge bloodshed

Just three months after Bashar Assad's ouster, parts of western Syria descended into vengeful bloodletting.
Chelsea Shubert stops traffic for pedestrians to cross the road during her shift as a school crossing patrol outside a school in Chatham, Britain, on Thursday.
WORLD / Society
Mar 17, 2025

U.K. faces hard choices over soaring disability costs

Annual spending on incapacity and disability benefits already exceeds the country's defense budget.
Instead of spending billions to resurrect woolly mammoths, we could focus on preserving endangered species, saving ecosystems, and securing biodiversity for the future.
COMMENTARY
Mar 17, 2025

Got $10 billion? Don’t blow it cloning a woolly mammoth.

Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotechnology and genetic engineering startup valued at $10 billion, has raised $435 million to "de-extinct” the woolly mammoth.
There seems to be a preference for similarly educated and similarly earning spouses in modern marriages, reflecting a trend that prioritizes parity over "marrying up."
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2025

What really changed the marriage market

The internet connects us with so many potential mates that our puny human brains can’t handle it.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Tokyo police have arrested a number of suspects this month in connection with home improvement scams.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 17, 2025

Police issue warning over home improvement scams

Such scams use similar tactics to those employed by fraudsters who impersonate relatives or public agency officials over the phone to defraud victims of their money.
People wait to receive bags of rice distributed by the World Food Program on the outskirts of Yangon in 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

Myanmar faces 'untold' suffering due to U.S. aid 'betrayal': U.N. expert

A former U.S. congressman has torn into the cuts, saying they were politically motivated, based on distortions and being carried out in the worst possible manner.
A man rides past a graffiti that reads "Patino FARC EP" on a road near El Plateado, Cauca department, Colombia, on March 9. The Micay Canyon mountains have been transformed into a micro-state, ruled by guerrillas fighting each other and the army.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 19, 2025

USAID suspension shutters Colombia programs, endangering FARC peace deal

In recent years, Colombia had received as much as $440 million annually in USAID assistance for more than 80 programs.
Supporters of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu gather near the city's police headquarters on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 20, 2025

Turkey's opposition dubs Istanbul mayor's detention a 'coup'

Popular two-term Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the main rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is being held on charges of corruption and aiding a terrorist group.
Shizue Takahashi offers flowers and pays tribute to the victims of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult during a memorial service at Kasumigaseki Station on Thursday. Her husband, Kazumasa, who was working as an assistant stationmaster at Kasumigaseki Station, was killed in the attack.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2025

Tokyo subway sarin gas attack remembered 30 years on

Many survivors of the attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult still suffer from physical aftereffects and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Elsie, a 45 year-old aid worker, who uses a pseudonym to protect her anonymity, used to spend her days wandering the narrow streets of Msogwaba township, near the South African city of Mbombela, to visit hundreds of children living with HIV.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 20, 2025

U.S. aid cuts threaten South Africa's young HIV patients

Around 13% of South Africa's population live with HIV, and about 640,000 children were orphaned by the virus in 2023.
As the founder of Z Rakugo, Edanoshin Katsura is introducing the traditional storytelling form to younger audiences by blending it with club visuals and electronic music.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 22, 2025

Edanoshin Katsura: ‘Rakugo and techno are both about rhythm and groove’

A 23-year-old entertainer is redefining the Japanese comedic storytelling tradition for Gen Z by introducing elements of techno and underground youth culture.
Ice is seen on the Pastoruri glacier in the Peruvian Andes, Peru, in May 2024.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 21, 2025

World's glaciers are losing record ice as global temperatures climb, U.N. says

Glaciers are disappearing faster than ever, with the last three-year period seeing the largest glacial mass loss on record.
Megumi Koiwai (left) found refuge in writing and storytelling that allowed her to reconcile with her heritage and upbringing.
COMMUNITY / Voices
Mar 24, 2025

A community of stories: Making space for reflection and dialogue in Tokyo and beyond

Through conversations with an international writing workshop, a writer of mixed heritage finds steadier footing and a sense of self.
Israeli soldiers work by military vehicles, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, near the border with Gaza, in Israel, on Feb. 15.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 21, 2025

In Israel, reservist burnout and little public appetite for more war in Gaza

A full-scale ground war against Hamas could prove more complicated amid waning public support, exhausted military reservists and political challenges.
Toyota's new research and development center in India will begin operations with a team of about 200 people in Bengaluru.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 21, 2025

Toyota’s new R&D unit signals its sharper India focus

The research facility comes after Toyota last year reorganized India to be the hub of its operations across the Middle East, East Asia and Oceania region.
An altar at the Aleph facility in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward featuring a photo of Shoko Asahara, the founder of Aum Shinrikyo and the alleged mastermind of the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2025

Thirty years later, Aum Shinrikyo’s horrors are ever-present

Subsequent revelations about the cult proved even more alarming than the 1995 assault. It became clear that the authorities had been worried about the group for some time.
The altar inside the Aum Shinrikyo  successor group Aleph's facility located in Tokyo's Adachi Ward, with a photo of former Aum Shinrikyo leader Chizuo Matsumoto displayed, in January
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2025

Aum Shinrikyo successors continue to gain new young members

Successor group Aleph's recruitment tactics are characterized by the concealment of its name and the use of conspiracy theories.
Firefighters douse the flames of a fire that broke out at a substation supplying power to Heathrow Airport in Hayes, England, on Friday.
WORLD
Mar 21, 2025

Heathrow closed after huge fire at power station, disrupting global flights

Travel experts say the disruption would extend far beyond Heathrow, the world's fifth-busiest airport.
Hamas gunmen stand guard at a funeral for a deputy military commander in the central Gaza Strip in February.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 22, 2025

Hamas studies U.S. 'bridge' proposal for truce as Israel escalates return to war

Israel has intensified a military onslaught to press the Palestinian militant group to free the remaining Israeli hostages.
San Francisco-based OpenAI sees the new studies as a way to get a better sense of how people interact with, and are affected by, its popular chatbot.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 22, 2025

OpenAI study finds links between ChatGPT use and loneliness

Those who spent more time typing or speaking with ChatGPT each day tended to report higher levels of emotional dependence on the chatbot.
Protesters outside a Tesla showroom in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on March 20.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 22, 2025

Tesla vandalism sparked by fury against Musk draws GOP ire

Caught in the middle are millions of customers whose electric vehicles increasingly are viewed as political symbols.
Kochi and Tottori prefectures, in collaboration with major airline ANA Holdings, will begin offering airfare discounts through the introduction of a flat-rate system as early as October for individuals based in multiple locations.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 23, 2025

Japan picks model projects to promote 'dual habitation'

The land ministry has selected 26 model projects to promote a lifestyle in which people divide their time between rural and urban areas.
Children play with trading cards featuring "local heroes" created by a local community council in the Saidosho district of Kawara, Fukuoka Prefecture, in January.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Apr 7, 2025

'Local hero' trading cards nudge children toward community activities

The cards, which feature real people, are helping to break the ice between children and adults in Kawara, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Federal officers carrying out U.S. immigration enforcement near Rockville, Maryland, prepare a Filipino man for transport to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office for processing on Feb. 6.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 24, 2025

Thousands of agents diverted to Trump immigration crackdown

U.S. federal agents who usually hunt down child abusers, money launderers, drug traffickers and tax evaders are now pursuing immigrants who live in the U.S. illegally.
Beniko, a former sex worker-turned professional photographer, browses though her new photo book in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 10. The 52-year-old has set out to visually document Japan's pleasure districts.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 30, 2025

Former sex worker records Tokyo's red-light history

"I can't make up for lost time, but I want to document the sex industry as part of history," says Beniko.
Students in South Korea sit the annual College Scholastic Ability Test. There is huge pressure on this exam, which determines young people's university choices and, in turn, their job and even marital prospects, leading to a heavy mental health burden.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2025

Entrance exam wars: A pressure cooker for South Korean youth

South Korea comes to a standstill on the day of the national university entrance exam. But so does students' possibility to determine their future paths beyond a mere test score.
Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip protest against Hamas and call for an end to the war with Israel on Wednesday.
WORLD
Mar 27, 2025

Hundreds stage Gaza protest against Hamas after conflict resumes

"It was a spontaneous rally against the war because people are tired and they have no place to go," said one witness.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years