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A female member of the Mandalay People's Defense Forces repairs and cleans a weapon at their base camp in the forest near Namhsan Township in Myanmar's northern Shan State. In the hills of northern Myanmar young women fly combat drones, treat wounded comrades and patrol the front lines — new roles in the battle to overthrow the military junta.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 27, 2023

'Mandalay girls' upending gender norms on Myanmar's front lines

Hundreds of women in pro-democracy fighting units, some still teenagers, are operating drones, joining patrols and working as medics.
Public scrutiny is key to defending internet privacy amid growing calls by governments for more surveillance.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2023

Time to curb government internet surveillance

Democracies are often leading the internet surveillance charge, inadvertently paving the way for the world’s autocrats.
Xi Jinping
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 27, 2023

Xi touts alternative to Western capitalism in speech on Mao

Xi described "Chinese modernization” as "a cause passed down from veteran revolutionaries including Mao Zedong.”
Erin Lim, CEO of baby products company Konny, in front of her company's new office in Seoul. Early starts and late finishes to workdays are routine in South Korea, a country notorious for its hard-driving corporate culture, but Erin Lim knew she wanted to do things differently at her business.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 28, 2023

South Korean mother's office-free firm sparks hope amid birthrate woes

South Korea has some of the world's lowest birth rates, and despite government incentives many women choose not to become mothers.
Masimo's headquarters in Irvine, California. The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled earlier this year that the Apple Watch violates two Masimo patents related to blood-oxygen sensing and imposed an import ban on the Ultra 2 and Series 9 models.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 28, 2023

The email to Tim Cook that set the Apple watch saga in motion

Masimo, based in Irvine, California, is the rare company to wound Apple in a patent dispute.
As Japan’s borders opened back up and tourists eager to document their long-awaited trips to the country streamed back in, 2023 saw a handful of prominent content creators stir up trouble with local residents to grab attention online.
LIFE / Digital / 2023 in Review
Dec 29, 2023

Social media binged on bad behavior in 2023

Mischief makers like Johnny Somali and "sushi terrorism" instigators gained attention online amid a deluge of Japan-related content this year.
U.S. President Joe Biden with IBM’s System One quantum computer during a tour of a facility in Poughkeepsie, New York in 2022. Chinese spies are challenging the C.I.A. by deploying artificial intelligence and other advanced technology as the two nations try to pilfer each other’s trade secrets.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

Chinese spy agency rising to challenge the CIA

In recent years, China's Ministry of State Security has sharpened itself through better training, a bigger budget and the use of advanced technologies.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2023

Japan's Princess Kako turns 29

The princess attended more events in the past year than before, reflecting the removal of COVID-19 pandemic-linked restrictions.
People line up to enter the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the city of Hiroshima on Aug. 14.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2023

Hiroshima museum eyes online ticketing to ease congestion

The surge in visitors to the museum is apparently attributable chiefly to the effects of the Group of Seven summit held in the city in May.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 29, 2023

After breakthrough talks, China's military slams U.S. for 'meddling'

U.S. officials had hoped last week's talks between U.S. Gen. Charles Brown and China's Gen. Liu Zhenli could herald a restoration in military ties.
Vishnu Dabad, a Gau Rakshak, or cow protector, and a politician with the regional political party Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), in Chamdhera village, Haryana, India.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 29, 2023

India's far-right cow vigilantes mobilize before high-stakes elections

Some say cow vigilantism has become a way for young men to use popularity built through taking on alleged cattle smugglers to catapult into politics.
The first rule of the International Chess Federation's dress code is "dress to impress." The dress code is supposed to promote a "good and positive image of chess” and "shall be strictly enforced,” according to the federation's website.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 29, 2023

Chess federation fines player over her ‘sports shoes’

Critics on the internet were quick to condemn the strict dress code, with some people arguing that the chess organization has the wrong priorities.
Palestinian's mourn relatives killed in an Israeli strike at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 29, 2023

Devastating Israel-Hamas war looks set to continue into 2024

The war has more U.S. military forces to the region and fears of spillover are high, with little hope of reviving peace moves as Washington had hoped.
Police officers examine a scene where South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun was found dead at a park in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 29, 2023

In South Korea, an unrelenting stance on drugs batters suspected users

Treatment experts say that authorities focus too much on punishment rather than rehabilitation.
As Japan's productivity declines due to the shrinking working-age population, policies that allow for everyone’s full participation in the labor force, especially women, are needed more than ever.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 29, 2023

A look back at Japan’s gender laws and fairness in 2023

Gender equality needs to improve to boost Japan’s prospects. What hits and missed opportunities will we remember from 2023?
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son speaks at the SoftBank World 2023 corporate conference in Tokyo on Oct. 4.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 31, 2023

Will generative AI speed up Japan's digital transformation?

An initially cautious attitude has given way to wider acceptance in the public and private sectors, providing a boost to digitalization efforts.
The entrance lobby of Accor's Mercure Tokyo Hibiya, which recently opened in the capital
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 2, 2024

Backed by tourism potential, hotels keen to cultivate Japanese market

Because Japan was slow to reopen its borders, there appears to be robust, pent-up demand to visit the country.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump campaigns in Waterloo, Iowa, on Dec. 19.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 30, 2023

Trump ballot fights put pressure on Supreme Court to act soon

The case would be unprecedented and brings Trump’s conduct after losing the 2020 election back to the forefront of his likely 2024 rematch with Biden.
New recruits for the People's Liberation Army attend a ceremony at a railway station in Ganzhou, in China's Jiangxi province, in March.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 30, 2023

China’s legislature ousts nine military cadres as turmoil widens

The removals are a sign Chinese President Xi Jinping’s nearly decadelong drive to clean up the People’s Liberation Army is still incomplete.
A Khudi Bari tiny home in Char Shildaha, Bangladesh
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 30, 2023

Bangladesh's tiny houses tackle giant flood challenge

The Khudi Bari — resilient tiny homes made on bamboo stilts rising out of the floodwaters that are also easy to move to safer locations when needed — offers hope to millions.
Junya Hiramoto and Shimon Ishimaru, members of Johnny's Sexual Assault Victims Association who claim to have been sexually abused by the late founder of Johnny & Associates, hold a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo in September
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 30, 2023

More men seek sex abuse consultations after Johnny's scandal

According to Tokyo police, consultation requests from male victims surged in September after the agency admitted its founder had abused entertainers.
A wafer is pictured at Semicon Taiwan in Taipei
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 30, 2023

This startup shows it won't be easy to contain China's chip industry

The story of Seida illustrates the challenges the West faces in thwarting Chinese development of advanced microchip technology.
The Alumy website, which offers a service for companies that want to connect with individuals who have quit their jobs
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 31, 2023

More Japanese companies move to rehire former employees

Previously, it had been widely believed that quitting a job means completely severing the relationship with the employer.
Visitors strike a giant bell to mark the new year as a Buddhist monk looks on, at Zojoji temple in Tokyo on Jan. 1, 2023.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 31, 2023

Ring in the new year on your phone: Apps offer alternate to Japan temple tradition

Smartphone apps are aiming to offer alternative ways to enjoy a noisy New Year's tradition.
A person looks at the first sunrise of the year on the beach in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Monday.
WORLD
Jan 1, 2024

World rings in 2024 after war, bots and 'Barbie'

Jubilant crowds bid farewell on Sunday to the hottest year on record, closing a turbulent 12 months marked by clever chatbots, climate crises and devastating wars.
Chinese officials, led by leader Xi Jinping, attend a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing on Dec. 20.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 1, 2024

Xi says willing to work with U.S. for stable relationship

Xi said he was willing to work with the United States to promote stable bilateral ties following his meeting with Biden in San Francisco in November.
U.S. President Joe Biden is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrives in the country amid the Israel-Hamas war, on Oct. 18. No other episode in the past half-century has tested the relationship between the United States and Israel in such an intense and consequential way as the Israel-Hamas war of 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 1, 2024

The U.S. and Israel: An embrace shows signs of strain after Oct. 7

No other episode in the past half-century has tested the relationship in such an intense and consequential way as the Israel-Hamas war of 2023.
The ASML headquarters and factory in Veldhoven, Netherlands
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

U.S. pushed Dutch tech company to block Chinese sales

ASML had licenses to ship three top-of-the-line deep ultraviolet lithography machines to Chinese firms until January, when new Dutch restrictions took full effect.
Aleksandra Popova, an activist whose husband was a co-defendant in Yegor Shtovba's trial, outside Butyrka prison in Moscow on Dec. 21. Shtovba, who has spent the past 15 months in pretrial detention, married Nadezhda Shtovba last month in a short ceremony in a prison in downtown Moscow.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

Young love meets Russian repression. They said ‘I do’ in a Moscow prison.

Nadezhda Shtovba did not wear a white dress to her wedding. She and her husband did not exchange wedding bands either — rings are banned in Butyrka prison.
A man dozes while leaning on a crutch as he sits outside a tent where displaced Palestinians are camped in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

Israel army warns Gaza war will continue throughout 2024

Its 300,000 reserve soldiers will be gradually deployed in the battle against Hamas.

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